26 SCIENTIFIC REPORTS OF THE AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH 



breeding. All the best milkers in the Mont- 

 gomery herd are included in these groups. 

 (b) For crossing with the Ayrshire bulls. The cows 

 here are not sufficiently good for inclusion under 

 (a) and are used for putting to the Ayrshire 

 bulls for the cross-bred herd. 



The policy of strict selection for milk yield is being con- 

 tinued throughout the Montgomery milch herd and the best 

 records among the cows in it this season were as follows : — 



lb. • 

 Imani ......... 5,654 



Salieji ........ 5,111 



Anjani ........ 4,953 



Ladli 4,852 



All Montgomery cows calving down for the first time 

 are now being treated in English fashion, their calves being 

 removed at birth and put on the pail. No difficulty what- 

 ever has been experienced in milking these cows without 

 their calves, and I think this has given a pretty heavy blow 

 to the idea that the indigenous cow will not give milk with- 

 out a calf. Once she has acquired bad habits she is 

 undoubtedly troublesome, but if her calf is removed at birth 

 from her first calving she is as easy to deal with as an 

 English cow, and if this practice is adopted by all who have 

 heifers calving clow/i they will save themselves much 

 trouble. In two of the above cases calves have died, being 

 weakly at birth. The advantage of having the cows con- 

 tinue giving milk instead of immediately going dry, as is 

 the rule in such cases ordinarily, is too obvious to need 

 emphasizing. I am also of opinion that possibly the ten- 

 dency in Montgomery and indigenous cattle to stand off the 

 bull throughout the milch period may be attributable to 

 having the calf at heel, and it will be possible to collect 

 some data on this point from the above experiments. They 

 will also be of the greatest use in enabling us to start a set 

 of absolutely reliable milk records. Our present method 

 of averaging the teat the calf is allowed to suck is by no 





