144 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



breeders of thoroughbred stock have been owners of Scotland's 

 choice at some period of their lives. Why is it that this cow with 

 her grand inheritance of constitution, as rugged as the Scotch 

 mountains, and as enduring as the rocks of her early new England 

 home, has not asserted her influence with as much emphasis of late 

 years? The answer is simple. Fashions in animals, as in coats 

 and bonnets, change. The old Ayrshire men have not been as 

 aggressive as some of their rivals, and so the public interest has 

 been allowed to flag a little. The present day breeder is a man of 

 greater possibilities than formerly. To maintain his position in 

 the ranks he must satisfy the market demand for a cow of greater 

 capacity for dair}' work, and a larger net profit on the working life 

 of the animal. Tiiis is a large order. How can we face it and 

 promise to fill it with an}' degree of certainty? The steam engine, 

 the dynamo, the cotton mill, and the railroad train have within a 

 generation of lives doubled their capacity. The acre has in many 

 cases more than doubled its capacity, but how can we expect the 

 same rate of increase when we come to deal with animal life? All 

 experience has its limitations. The number of farm animals living 

 a merely commercial life, which have doubled their earning power 

 within the last decade, is always on the increase. We c nnot 

 enlarge the power of the dairy cow without still further specializing, 

 and intensifying her mode of living, and indeed her nervous 

 organization. On the turf the greatest performers are animals 

 having most nerve power. What is the charaeter of a horse's life? 

 To be well bred, to have come from a line of ancestry of spotless 

 fame is really only half way towards suceess. Every breeder and 

 trainer knows this, and is quick to appreciate the fact by careful, 

 patient and unremitting attention in the stable and on the track. 



How can we expect the modern cow to give us her bounty year 

 in and out if we continue to treat her as we do. With her increased 

 activity as a milk maker, she has in too large a number of cases 

 become less robust. Intensity of the milk secreting function has in 

 many instances been accompanied by a supersensitiveness to 

 climatic changes. Some stockmen are too apt to coddle their cattle, 

 closely confine them in ill ventilated stables, or expose them to 

 draughty barns having openings in the walls, floors, and roof in all 

 sorts of irregular places. The modern notion of keeping cows 

 penned up in their stalls the entire winter, feeding water warmed to 

 temperatures of 60 to 80 degrees — is enervating in its effect, and 



