DAIRY MEETING. 1 33 



While we have been benefited much by the breeds kept in 

 purity, by far the greater good has been secured from them in 

 the part they performed in elevating our native stock, until many 

 of our best animals are the peers of the best representative of the 

 pure breeds. 



The condition of our native stock was most favorable because 

 of its great hardihood and lack of prepotency. It was the host, 

 into which the new blood came and took possession and throve, 

 as it did not in its purity. The law that all animals and plants 

 must, after a time, have new soil, new climate, or new blood, in 

 order to maintain and develop themselves, was most forcibly 

 illustrated in this work. 



The pure breeds had but little difficulty in stamping their off- 

 spring with their peculiar markings and characteristics, which, 

 after a few generations, became so fixed, that the high-grade 

 Ayrshire, Holstein, Jersey and Guernsey transmitted their quality 

 with almost as much certainty as the pure bloods themselves did. 

 Close breeding of the pure breeds had made them prepotent, and 

 when coupled with the natives, whose ancestors were generally 

 aliens, the pure blood took control because it was the stronger 

 current. 



This work has gone on, until today it is difficult finding an 

 animal among our cattle that has not some of the improved blood 

 in its veins. Our old native stock furnished a practicable and 

 cheap method of breeding and they also furnished the most 

 important factor in the make-up of all animals used for pro- 

 ductive purposes, for they furnished constitution, and they made 

 the good grade, better than the pure blood, for performance at 

 the pail, and endurance. 



Do I hear you asking : "If this is so why have we so many poor 

 and unprofitable cows ? Why are they not all good ?" It is char- 

 acteristic of our people to all want to do the same thing at the 

 same time, and our experiences in dairy farming show no excep- 

 tion to this truism. The demand for cows has been so great that 

 nearly all of the heifer calves have been raised for cows. Very 

 few indeed of the pure bloods have been rejected — if they were 

 not malformed — because they were not good enough to raise. 

 A calf might be peaked, narrow loined, and weak, yet it was 

 raised by somebody and consequently we have a lot of cows that 

 are yielding but 4.000 or 5,000 pounds of milk and 200 pounds 



