18 SCIENTIFIC REPORTS OF THE AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH 



The Montgomery- Ayrshire cross-bred herd now stands 

 at 61 head. 



Two 2J year old bulls, by Lessnessock Wildfire off Mont- 

 gomery cows, have been taken up for stud purposes. 



Six of the heifers got by Mossgeil Titanic in 1915, have 

 calved down and are now milking- They have grown into 

 good type cows, in the majority of cases taking more after 

 their sire than their dam. The photograph (Plate I, fig. 2) 

 of one of them, Alibi, is given with this report and it should 

 be compared with the photograph (Plate II) of Akli, one of 

 the best type Montgomery cows in the herd, which is also 

 given. They have got good, well set on bags, flat and car- 

 ried well forward, in Ayrshire style — a distinct contrast 

 to the Montgomery type. After calving they all came back 

 to bull in one to three months and are all due to calve again 

 in December, thus showing no sign of the Montgomery ten- 

 dency to stand oft" for several months which forces us to 

 maintain continually for long periods a large number of 

 empty dry cows, and which is another obstacle to successful 

 dairy farming with the indigenous cow. 



In all six cases their calves were weaned at birth, and 

 this has had absolutely no effect on their mothers' milk yield, 

 which is one of the great improvements this cross effects. 

 These calves which are by Carston Royal Scotch are all f- 

 bred English, but appear at present similar in all respects to 

 half-breds. Two out of the six unfortunately died but the 

 remainder are doing well. It is proposed to start this year 

 putting half-bred bulls across half-bred heifers, and it will 

 be interesting to see whether the result of this cross will 

 continue to allow of its calves being weaned at birth. It 

 is absolutely essential that this character should be main- 

 tained, as with milk at 6 — 4 seers per rupee — which is a 

 very low price for big towns — when the calf sucks continu- 

 ously the result is that you rear a calf in the most expensive 

 fashion possible, keeping it on milk during the whole lacta- 

 tion period of the cow and materially reducing your profit 



