UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION 
 
 COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE benj. Ide Wheeler, President 
 
 BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA Thomas Forsyth Hunt. Dean and Director 
 
 CIRCULAR No. 88. 
 
 ADVANTAGES TO THE BREEDER IN TESTING HIS PURE- 
 BRED COWS FOR THE REGISTER OF MERIT. 
 
 By Cora J. Hill. 
 
 1. It shows him beyond a doubt the amount of milk and butter 
 his cows will produce ; giving him records that will not be ques- 
 tioned, and officially stamps the good producers with vastly greater 
 values. 
 
 2. It furnishes him with an intelligent and reliable breeding guide 
 for greater improvement in conformity of production. It enables 
 him, by means of the official records, to select his best producers. 
 What a cow will produce at freshening time is no indication of 
 what her milk and butter yield will be for the year. We have the 
 statement, of one breeder of pure-bred cattle in California, that 
 "the real value of some of his world famous cows would never 
 have been known had it not been for the official test." Every pos- 
 sible means should be used by the breeder of dairy cattle to increase 
 the average yearly production of his cows. 
 
 3. Sires of Advanced Registry daughters are thereby rendered 
 vastly more valuable. 
 
 4. It at once places good values on all the calves and young stock 
 from cows with Advanced Registry records, transferring them from 
 the butcher's block, with a profit of but a few dollars, to the breeder 
 or dairyman's herd at prices many times beyond the original figures. 
 
 5. It is the means of creating an interest, in the owner and hired 
 help, in the individual merits of the herd and leads to more intelli- 
 gent, careful handling and feeding; rendering possible additional 
 and better records, with correspondingly better returns. 
 
 6. It is one of the best possible means of advertising. Advanced 
 Registry records are published by the cattle clubs and widely distrib- 
 uted. This attracts buyers from abroad as well as at home. Breeders 
 who are doing the most official testing admit that there is a grow- 
 ing demand for officially tested stock and their offspring, and they 
 urge all breeders to take up the test in order to supply this demand 
 and establish a reputation for California as a breeding center. 
 
 7. The Agricultural Experiment Station, University of California, 
 Berkeley, supervises the work of testing cows for the Advanced 
 Register and the Register of Merit. No dairyman with a pure-bred 
 
 (1) 
 
— 2 — 
 
 herd can afford to neglect the opportunity of securing official tests 
 of his cows, which the Experiment Station is offering him. Inquiries 
 regarding the particulars of tests are solicited. 
 
 Note. — The Advanced Register and the Register of Merit are systems of books, 
 published by the various dairy cattle clubs and associations, in which are recorded 
 the names and official records of production of registered pure-bred dairy cattle. 
 Animals eligible for entry in such Registers must conform to certain rules of the 
 breed associations and clubs and produce, within a given time, a certain amount 
 of milk and butter, varying according to the age of the cows under test.