9~ AGRICUI^TURIv OF MAINE. 



In a pure-bred herd it ought to mean more, if the original stock 

 is well preserved and well selected. 



After the animals are six months or more old, select them, 

 and we had better sell those not up to the standard for what we 

 can get, even for their hides, than to keep them in the dairy, 

 eating expensive food, and then have disappointment all along 

 the line. I have a couple of such heifers. They are from ex- 

 cellent cows and they were excellent themselves, and yet we 

 found before six months that they were not good feeders, but I 

 kept them for what their parents had done, and it has been a 

 loss to me. 



The first requisite is constitution, the next is the general type 

 that we must have in the cow. If the sire shows power to re- 

 produce, I would use him again on his daughters. Then I 

 would have half the blood of the sire in the first, and three-quar- 

 ters in the second generation. Don't you see, we have fixed 

 the strain there ? I would use that sire as long as he was capable 

 of reproducing. I do not care if he is six or ten years old, keep 

 him. When you purchase another don't follow some fashion- 

 able fad that comes in, but stick right to the same breed, and, 

 as far as possible, to that same strain, and then you have per- 

 petuated in your herd those qualities you are aiming for : and in 

 ten years' time, I believe, it is possible to have a herd of animals 

 of beauty, of uniformity, of power of production that is as val- 

 uable, or more valuable, than most pure-bred herds as we find 

 them today. 



There must be a great culling out among the pure-bred of 

 those that do not come up to the standard, those that are bred 

 along the fancy lines, if we are going to improve the dairy cattle. 



I do not think it is practical for the farmer to raise his own 

 calves and sell all his milk. I do not believe that there is any- 

 thing made by using any kind of patent calf food. I do not 

 think it will make the calf grow as it should. There is nothing 

 equal to the mother's milk, or the mother's milk with the fat 

 taken out. It has been said that we are breeding men in this 

 country faster than cows, and I find when we buy our cows it 

 is a very expensive matter, and a very difficult matter to find 

 those that are worth keeping. Where is this going to end? I 

 do not know. It is going to be worse and worse. I believe that 

 the raising of cows to sell is going to be a very profitable indus- 



