\ PRODUCTION OF MILK. J 33 



does not depend so much upon the actual merits of that animal, as 

 it does upon his power of transmitting his good qualities to his 

 progeny. It is true, his bad qualities are also transmissible, but 

 an animal that belongs to one of these thoroughbred classes has 

 greater power, although he may be a failure in some respects, of 

 transmitting the good qualities of that breed in a high degree to 

 his progeny, than even a superior animal that may have some 

 taint of inferior blood in his ancestry. Hence, in building up a 

 herd of animals, it is now announced as an established fact in 

 breeding, one that you cannot gainsay, nor get around, that if you 

 wish to improve your herds in any particular, you must obtain a 

 thoroughbred bull of that class of animals that possesses those 

 qualities which you desire in the highest degree, and continue 

 to breed from that stock. That rule is laid down without any 

 fear of contradiction. Now, if you want to build up a breed 

 for butter-making, you will introduce the Jersej^s. If you want 

 milk for cheese or for sending to market, you cannot do better 

 than to take the Ayrshires. If you want to breed oxen for farm 

 use, and cows that will produce an excellent quality of milk for 

 all purposes, you cannot do better than to take the Devons. And 

 if beef is your object, early maturity, fine growth, a class of ani- 

 mals that will make the most pounds of flesh on what they con- 

 sume, the habit of the Shorthorn is such that you cannot do better 

 than to take the Shorthorn, if you have plenty of feed for them. 



There is one other consideration in regard to the Shorthorn 

 as a dairy animal, that I would call to your notice. The grade 

 calves from Shorthorns are almost universally large. If fow want 

 to make veal, that is an object. For early sale to the butcher it 

 is very important that calves when they are dropped should weigh 

 something like 100 pounds. It is a good start to get an animal of 

 that size, and they will grow right along. But if your object is 

 merely milk and you purpose to dispose of most of your calves as 

 they do in most dairy districts by the process called " deaconing ,J 

 you want to rear a calf that will make the least drain upon the 

 system of the cow, that is, require the least draught to support it ; 

 and with the Ayrshires, the Jerseys or the Devons, you will secure 

 such an animal. Not only are the thoroughbred calves of these 

 breeds small, but they are so small that your farm help will often 

 tell you that they are not worth raising. I have been met a great 

 many times with such a statement as this: "That little Devon 

 calf you have got there will never amount to any thing, it is of no 



