of pounds by ten and adding the totals for the year. Occasionally the milk may be subjected to the Babcock Test to ascertain its richness; three or four times during the period of lactation is sufficient.
Where farmers do not have time to do the testing themselves they often combine and hire a young man or woman, trained in an agricultural college, to go around from farm to farm and do the work. These experts not only test the yield and the percentage of fat but also weigh and compute the feed so as to help the farmer make up his rations and calculate whether each cow pays for her feed or not. The members of these associations meet and compare notes and a friendly rivalry is stimulated which may do much toward increasing production. As a matter of fact, where Cow Test Associations have been introduced, both yield and quality of the milk have been largely increased.
Healthy Cows alone can be depended upon to produce sanitary milk. In many herds of milk-cows tuberculosis is prevalent, and constant vigilance is necessary to prevent its spread. The Tuberculin Test discovered by Koch is invaluable for the purpose of ascertaining the presence of tuberculosis. It is not necessary, however, to kill every infected animal. Only where the lungs or the udder is affected and a physical examination shows an advanced stage of the disease such radical means are advisable. When the tuberculin test was first introduced many valuable herds were wantonly and foolishly killed off because some of the highly developed dairy cows showed reaction to the test while worthless scrubs were allowed to live and spread the disease. For only the intelligent and public-spirited
