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The Precise Form, which took into account the seven-tenths (milk) and four-tenths (butterfat) inheritance leanings toward the higher parent, was as follows: If the daughter's average exceeds the dam's average, add three-sevenths of the difference to the daughter's average to get the bull's index; if the daughter's average be less than the dam's, subtract seven-thirds of the difference from the daughter's average to get the bull's index.
On the basis of his own results Mr. Prentice feels that the Commercial Index is good enough, if generally used, to double, triple, or quadruple the production of U.S. herds at no increase in cost.
Results. Mr. Prentice made his start with low-producing cows selected only for reasons of health. By using only tested bulls of high index, he has bred a new strain which he calls American Dairy Cattle and which average about 21,000 lb. of milk per year as against the New England average of 4,500 Ib. The Mount Hope Index has been adopted by the Royal Guernsey Society, the Suffolk Milk Recording Society, the Holstein-Friesian Association of America, the Connecticut Proved Sire Program, the Wisconsin Dairymen's Association. It is advocated by Massachusetts State College, and by the Massachusetts State Department of Agriculture which awarded Mr. Prentice a gold medal. He has been decorated by the Italian Government. A German observer sent back a report to his Government that sounded like an advertisement for Mount Hope, described it as the only private research institution of its kind in the world. Mount Hope has been visited by commissions from Poland. Turkey, Greece, South Africa, Bulgaria and elsewhere. Some of their learned members, Mr. Prentice was delighted to find, could converse with him in Latin.
* Houghton Mifflin, $2.5.0.