National, so far as practicable, for the purposes of assisting in their work and gaining information of use in the work of the division. Dairy literature is indexed and classified and information is disseminated by means of publications and correspondence.

It is the policy of the Dairy Division to encourage State officials to carry on work for the benefit of the dairy interests in their respective States. The division does not wish to continue indefinitely work which the States can and should do for themselves. While it is sometimes desirable, as in the case of the southern dairy work, for the division to begin work of an educational character and to make a study of conditions and needs, the policy is to induce the State authorities to take up and continue the work and allow the Department gradually to withdraw.

DAIRY FARMING INVESTIGATIONS.

The work of this section is in charge of Mr. B. H. Rawl.

SOUTHERN DAIRYING.

Ten men have been employed during the past year in the work for the development of dairying in the South. While it is intended that the field men should give all assistance possible to the dairymen with whom they come in contact, provided the dairymen are in a position to be assisted, still it is realized that it is best not to attempt to get a farmer to adopt too many new things at one time; hence one or two things that are most essential are taken up first, and when results have been obtained with these and the farmer's confidence won, other things are recommended. Since two of the greatest drawbacks of southern dairymen are the lack of a sufficient number of good cows and the lack of suitable buildings (barns, silos, dairy houses, etc.) for handling in the best and most economical manner the cows and their products, the greater part of the attention of the field men has been devoted to herd testing and buildings. This work has been the means of making many unprofitable dairies profitable.

Herd testing. During the year this work was begun with 116 herds, containing 3,921 cows. Of these herds 43, containing 1,428 cows, were discarded before the work had been in progress very long because of the indifference of the owners, and with 84 herds, containing 2,493 cows, the work has been successfully conducted. As soon as good results are obtained the owner usually purchases a purebred bull for his herd unless he already has one; therefore practically all of the 84 herds mentioned are headed by purebred bulls.

As an example of what is being accomplished, the following table has been compiled, showing the results of twelve months' records kept of 719 cows in small herds located in various parts of the South.

Summary of records of different classes of cows based on butterfat production for one year.

a Profit as here used means simply gross returns less the cost of feed; other elements of cost are not considered.

The valuation of butterfat in the foregoing table (28 cents a pound) is based on the average price quoted in the New York market for butter for the past twelve months. Much of the product of these herds sold for a higher price, but in order to put all the cows on a comparable basis, and also that these results may be comparable with similar results from other sections of the country, this valuation is used and is considered fair.

The cost of feed consumed by the best cows was in all cases too high, showing that sufficient attention is not given to home-grown feed.

While the cost of producing a pound of butterfat is higher than it should be if the most economical methods of feeding were used, still it is only 13.4 cents a pound with the highest producing cow, while it is 37.1 cents a pound with the one that produces the least. This suggests a question that should be considered by the dairyman: How can he afford to keep cows that produce butterfat at a cost of 37.1 cents a pound which must sell at from 28 to 30 cents a pound?

Furthermore, these facts show that the idea so prevalent among southern farmers that cattle do not produce well in that section is incorrect, and that profit in that section, as elsewhere, depends on the quality of the cattle and the methods of handling them.

Another important consideration in connection with the facts above given is that the work of herd testing is done not primarily to secure this information, but in order that the owner of the cattle may be taught the enormous difference in the producing qualities of cattle, and hence improve his herd by getting rid of the inferior ones. Within two months after the testing is begun with a herd the owner usually begins to cull out the poorest cows. As the figures given in the table show only the results from animals of which a year's record

was obtained, it is evident that many of the most inferior cows in the herd tested are not included in these records.

Numerous letters attesting the practical value and results of this work of herd testing have been received. A Louisiana dairyman writes:

As a result of the facts obtained in carrying out this idea I reduced my herd 30 per cent, and yet increased the production 15 per cent. The saving of feed and labor with the lesser but more profitable herd was large, reversing the business from a questionable financial venture to a decidedly profitable one.

A Georgia farmer says:

It took nearly a year to convince us that some of our favorite cows were losing us money, but as soon as this was found out they were disposed of. The first winter we milked 20 cows most of the time and shipped an average of 100 pounds of butter per week. The second winter we milked 12 to 14 cows and shipped an average of 99 pounds per week. The difference was due to the silo, scales, and Babcock test. I thought all our cows were about the same until the record was kept and tests made.

Dairy buildings. During the fiscal year 45 silos were built by farmers and dairymen under the supervision of the Dairy Division, and after plans furnished by it, and 112 more were proposed and in process of construction in the summer of 1908. There were also completed during the fiscal year 24 barns, and 28 were proposed for construction during the summer and fall. Five dairy houses were built and a large number remodeled.

City milk supplies.-Systematic work has been conducted in nine southern cities with the object of assisting the cities to establish such systems of inspection and control of their milk supplies as will safeguard the public against danger, but will not work a hardship on the honest dairymen who are producing a safe product. Some of the cities with which this work has been done have adopted the Dairy Division score-card system and have made material advancement.

Creameries. Assistance has also been given in organizing a few creameries. Two new creameries have been built in Texas with the advisory assistance of the Dairy Division, and some work has been done with creameries that are in operation in Tennessee and Kentucky. As a rule the dairy industry is not sufficiently developed in the South to warrant the establishment of creameries, and the Dairy Division endeavors to discourage the building and selling of creameries by promoters in communities where sufficient milk is not being produced to justify their operation.

Organization, cooperation, etc.-When the field work was begun by the Dairy Division in the Southern States there was practically no organization of the dairy interests. Recognizing the great importance of organization which would not only support the work but furnish a means of utilizing its results to the best advantage, considerable attention has been given to this subject. Some of the State

organizations that were in existence prior to this work have been revived and made active. One State and several county associations have been organized, and others have been planned. The field men in every State take very active part in the work of all dairy organizations. With the development of the dairy industry it is expected that such organizations will bring about the creation of State dairy departments and will be the means of obtaining support for the continuance and development of the very work that the Dairy Division has begun.

It is most gratifying to report that the cooperation with State institutions has, on the whole, been very satisfactory. The cooperating institutions have appreciated the value of the work, have encouraged it, and assisted in every way that their facilities would permit. They have had but little money available for such work, but they have foreseen that this field work will most assuredly establish a dairy industry in that section, and that as results increase the farmers will become interested and will provide facilities for continuing it. Because of the interest which has been created purely by the work of the Dairy Division, the North Carolina department of agriculture and the Mississippi Agricultural College have recently supplied, at their expense, assistants for this work, and it is quite probable these States will increase their support as further results are produced and will eventually take over the entire work. Louisiana also provided an assistant for that State during the past year, and his time was largely taken up with experimental work, which is hereinafter reported. The Georgia Experiment Station has provided $600 for dairy field work in that State during 1909. Other States will doubtless follow the examples of those above mentioned. The fact that men are being appointed by State institutions to give their entire time to the work of visiting the dairymen and teaching them is a strong indication of the great and far-reaching effect of the work that the National Department of Agriculture has been conducting in that section for the past three years.

men.

In Mississippi and Georgia publications have been issued by the experiment stations giving the results of the work done by the field The North Carolina department of agriculture also has one in course of preparation. These local institutions are encouraged to issue publications from time to time, so that the people of the States in which the work is in progress will get the use of its results. More than 80 agricultural meetings have been attended by the field workers during the past fiscal year. Assistance is given in conducting the short courses in dairying at the agricultural colleges in all States where such assistance is needed. In a number of States considerable work has been done in connection with State fairs, and some of the fairs are now making their dairy departments quite prominent.

Feeding experiments.-An experiment in feeding calves with blackstrap molasses, conducted in cooperation with the Louisiana Experiment Station, has been completed, and the results have been published in Bulletin 104 of that station. Since the results were entirely negative, they were considered of little value to persons outside of the section where blackstrap is produced; hence no publication on the subject was issued by the Dairy Division.

In view of the possibility of the cold-pressing process for extracting cotton-seed oil coming into use, an experiment to determine the feeding value of the cake resulting from this process as compared with the meal and hulls from the ordinary process has been conducted in cooperation with the Louisiana Experiment Station. The cold process differs from the ordinary process in that the hulls are not removed and the "meats" are not heated, the resulting cake containing both the meal and the hulls of the seed. The only reason to suppose that the cold-pressed products would differ in feed value from an equal amount of meal and hulls was that the heating in the ordinary process might affect the digestibility of the meal. The results of the experiment show that if there is any advantage in favor of the cold process it is so small as not to be worthy of consideration in ordinary operation.

HERD RECORD WORK.

Two principal lines of work now under way to promote the keeping of records of dairy herds are the establishment of an advanced register of merit for recording the performances of all purebred dairy cows on the basis of yearly records as authenticated by the officers of experiment stations, and the organization of cow-testing associations or organizations intended to encourage the farmer to keep accurate records of his dairy operations.

For the purpose of working out systems of herd testing that are best suited to various conditions, one man was appointed May 1, 1908. These systems will be applied under the supervision of the Dairy Division until they are thoroughly tested, and those that prove satisfactory will be made available to communities where testing associations are being organized. Assistance will be given in organizing herd-testing associations only in cooperation with some State institution, the object being to assist the State institution so that it may eventually continue the work independently.

DAIRY BUILDING INVESTIGATIONS.

Silo experiments. Since the silo investigations were begun in connection with the southern dairy work it has been realized that the available data on the pressure of silage were insufficient, if not un