FAIR  PLAY  FOR  COWS
BY  WM.  A.  ANDERSON

o you believe in fair play? Then are you being fair to your cows? Possibly your best cow earned over two hundred dollars for you last year; possibly, too, even your poorest cow proved to be well worth keeping, for your records of each individual may have re-assured you.
       But, if no records are kept; if the total income from all the milk was just credited up to the whole herd, showing simply the average income from each, have your cows been treated fairly?
       On studying individual records, it has often been found that some cows earn three and four times as much as others. So, if one cow brought in only forty dollars, but another brought in one hundred and sixty, is it fair to say the average income was one hundred dollars? Evidently, it is not; yet that is precisely what happens every time that only the average is known.
       Aim to increase the efficiency of your herd by weeding out the unprofitable cows and replacing them by better. The only way to find out the true worth of a cow is to weigh the milking each time and set it down on record, for yield of butterfat, keep samples and test with the Babcock test at intervals.
       Give the cows fair play; they may have the best of feed and care, but go a step further and see that your best cow, the most vital food-producing machine, is getting full credit for her magnificent work.
       Then, by retaining the best cows, as shown by their respective records, the whole herd can soon be made to give a far better return at no greater outlay.