A STORY OF TWO COWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2883, 23 June 1909, Page 21

A STORY OF TWO COWS.

At the Illinois Agricultural, Experimental Station are two cows, the story of whose work is well worth telling (says the Live Stock World). 'Z'ney were brought up aJiko on a farm near Elgin, 111., and obtained their early education in the same herd of 100 cows. Here at the university, with thiSi very same surroundings and equal opportunities, they have drifted far apart in character, and their progi^ess has been in opposite directions. It is not a diffe-l-ertea of hodef or horns, or temper ; it is not that one is wild and the, other a pot. It is not a. difference of beauty or intelligence, but solely a difCrtrence in the way the"y have worked, a difference in , the mohey they have earned for the owner. All the milk of these cows lias b=ei weighed and tested for yi;<a.r6., A record has' bean kept of every pound of" feed consumed by' each animal botlh summer and winter. Each yeai Geld produces on an average 11,3901b of anilk, containing 4051b of butter fat; but during the same time Gilt averaged only 38301b of milk, with 1381b of butter fat. These- cows were both cared for in tba same way; they were given the same kind of feed, and allowed to eat all they wanted. Goid ate one-half more than Gilt, bufc produced nearly three tinwss as much milk.

Equal amounts of feed made in the one case 1881b of butter fat, and in the other lOOJb. The one cow produced nearly twice as much as tho other from exactly the same feed in kind and amount. Counting the butter fat at 23c ■ ncr lb, amd taking Jut the exact cost of feed in each cx>w, the one cow brought in a' profit of . £6 18s, while the other lacked £1 2s of paying her- board at maorket prices of feed each year. This comparison, exact an>d complete for three years, and including the record of both milk ajnd feed, msa.ns a great deal more., than a single year's conjpar.'son or ons in .-which it ie necessary to introduce

an estimate. * . It would be very gratifying indeed- if it could be truthfully said that theee two records are extreme and exceptional, and therefore do not stand for any general condition of the dairying industry. But the very opraosite is true. These two cows re-pi-feent "a large part of the dairy cattle of the' American State to which they belong, and ailso of many oiher countries.