no AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



and cents standpoint, and I am discussing this question simply 

 from that standpoint. How are you going to improve the herd 

 you already have ? You may know that I am an Ayrshire man. 

 The Ayrshire is a happy medium between the Holstein and 

 the Jersey, a cow with a wonderful constitution, a cow bred for 

 work; no better than the Jerseys, no better than the Holsteins 

 or some of the other breeds, but a good cow. Time and time 

 again men have gone into our stables to buy a bull. There 

 would be ten or a dozen bulls for sale at different prices, $50, 

 $75, $100. Now these men think that a bull is a bull, and the 

 rank and file of them will buy the lowest priced animal. What 

 is the result? Here is a bull for $50 from a cow that will give 

 4;000 pounds of milk testing about 3.3 per cent; and you can 

 buy a bull for $100 from a cow that will make 6,000 pounds of 

 m.ilk at 4 per cent, and so on up. Is it not a fair supposition 

 that the man who invests $50 or $100 more in a bull from a 

 cow that will give twice as much milk and has a record back of 

 her for generations will improve his herd faster and better than 

 he can to buy a low-priced bull from a cow with a small pro- 

 duction? I have said that I hope to see the time come when 

 we shall have a national law that on no farms in this country 

 can there be any other sires used than thoroughbreds. Canada 

 is setting us an example. We are breeding from any scrub stock 

 we happen to have. In our state at many of the fairs premiums 

 are offered on grade sires. This is wrong. No man should 

 breed from a grade sire. 



Now, then, if your herd is deficient in flow, breed from a sire 

 that will make up that quality. If it is deficient in quality, breed 

 from a sire whose tendency will be to build up in that line. 

 Breed from a sire that has a good constitution, that is rugged, 

 that is prepotent. That will give you the standard for which 

 you are striving. There are a great many men who say, "I do 

 not take very much stock in that, because I can handle a bull 

 and feed him and care for him, and in a generation I can change 

 the character of the animal." Did you ever hear a man talk 

 like that? He is wrong, friends. Back of it all you must have 

 the blood, the type, the prepotency, if you are to win, and 

 that does not come by environment or feed or care. It is an 

 inherent quality in the animal that no man can put there arti- 



