130 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



cheese which may be produced from it,* and is a much greater 

 gain in the richness of the product. 



Good milkers are not confined to any one breed ; yet some 

 breeds furnish a much greater proportion of good milking cows 

 than others. The excellencies and the defects of our common, or 

 mis-called, "native" stock are too well known to require much 

 remark. This stock includes some, and not a very few, excellent 

 milking cows, as good as can be had of any other sort ; and it in- 

 cludes a great many more, which never from their days of calf hood 

 up have paid for their keeping, and have eaten the food and re- 

 ceived the attention, which, if bestowed on better ones, would have 

 paid a handsome profit. The only serious trouble with the good 

 ones is, that they are not sure to transmit their better qualities, 

 but are ever and anon " breeding back," and their calves often ex- 

 hibit the traits of inferior ancestors. If such bulls be used as sires, 

 we can anticipate nothing in regard to their progeny but uncer- 

 tainty and disappointment. Now in such a case what should be 

 done ? I answer without any hesitation : let every such bull be ut- 

 terly discarded at once ; let every unprofitable cow go to the butcher or 

 drover as soon as may be, and let the good ones be bred to a male 

 of some fixed breed, possessing so firmly the desired properties, 

 forms and characteristics that he is sure to transmit them to his 

 progeny. A very simple rule this, and easy to put in practice. 

 Its universal adoption in our State would, before many years, re- 

 sult in a gain to be counted by millions of dollars. Well bred 

 bulls, of the different breeds most desirable for the various uses for 

 which cattle are kept, are now within the reach of almost every 

 farmer, at least within the means of every neighborhood which 

 would club together to get one. 



The Jersey race excel all others in the richness of their milk ; 

 and although the yield is not usually abundant they deserve very 

 favorable consideration for the butter dairy. A few Jersey cows 

 in a herd, or a strain of this blood infused through it, leave their 

 mark very distinctly in the richer color and more delicate flavor of 



* To make this plainer, let us suppose milk to contain three per cent, of butter 

 and Ajur per cent, of casein. This would be seven pounds of solid matter to one 

 hundred pounds of milk. This with the water, 4-c., held with it, would make about 

 ten or eleven pounds of clieese, and an addition of one per cent, to the solid matter 

 contained in the milk would add a tenth or from a tenth up to a seventh more to the 

 amount of cheese. 



