SECRETARY'S REPORT. 



129 



vert herbage into the greatest amount and best quality of milk ; 

 and pet steers have often monopolized more than their due share of 

 the good food and attention. 



In working oxen, we desire suflScient size and weight, muscular 

 strength and nervous power, combined with docility. 



In beef-makers, we seek chiefly ability to lay on flesh and fat 

 rapidly, and early maturity. 



In dairy stock, what is wanted, is the ability to convert the 

 largest amount of herbage into as much good milk as it is capable 

 of making, and at the least possible expenditure of food for mere 

 subsistence, while this manufacture of milk is going on. 



The ability to convert food into milk is usually connected with 

 readiness to lay on fat and flesh when dry ; but flesh-making and 

 fat-making qualities are not so uniformly connected with great 

 production of milk. As early maturity is connected with early 

 decay, it is not so desirable for milch cows as for meat-making 

 cattle. 



We need, in our stock, ability to subsist on and to make the 

 most of scant pastures. Hence we cannot use to advantage so 

 large cattle as if our lands were richer, because they require more 

 for subsistence than our pastures can supply, and at the same time 

 afford a sufficient overplus to be converted into a profitable amount 

 of meat or milk. Our climate is such, that hardiness, or ability to 

 endure severe winters, is indispensable. We want also a vigorous 

 constitution and a good appetite. 



The object of the butter dairy is best subserved by cows which 

 giv^ rich milk. The difference in this regard is very great. Some 

 which give only a moderate mess will produce more butter than 

 some others giving twice as much. The object of the cheese dairy 

 is best attained by cows yielding plentifully milk of fair quality. 

 The proportion of butter in milk varies all the way from two to 

 eight per cent., and in extreme cases possibly more; the average 

 being between three and four per cent. The proportion of casein 

 in milk is much more uniform, being only from three to five per 

 cent. Consequently, as a general rule, the more milk a cow gives 

 the greater the product of cheese ; and if it contain three per cent, 

 of butter, cheese of very good quality can be made from it, pro- 

 vided no loss is incurred in the manufacture. Yet it must be 

 remembered that every one per cent., additional of butter which 

 the milk contains adds ten per cent., more or less, to the amount of 



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