90 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



column and for that reason an advantage. We want a large, 

 tortuous milk vein, with a large orifice at the end. and then we 

 want a good udder. 



I admire the udder on a dairy cow, but an udder alone with- 

 out these other points, is of very little worth. I speak of this 

 because it so readily fills our eye when we come to purchase the 

 dairy cow that we overlook her other points. 



Take the best that we have in our herd, if they are bred along 

 one line so much the better; if not, let us select the best that 

 conform to that type, then let us breed them to the dairy sire, 

 always the pure-bred. I hope that if you gentlemen have any- 

 thing to do with making out the premium lists of any exhibi- 

 tion you will cut off premiums for grade males, however excel- 

 lent they may be. You never know whether they will perpet- 

 uate their good qualities or not. How shall we select that sire ? 

 We have a breed now in mind, whatever it may be, and we will 

 purchase a sire of that breed, and there is the time and the one 

 time that we have got to go into our pockets. And the poorer 

 we are the better animal we need to have : we can not afford to 

 fool away any time. 



I want to speak strongly of this because we are so apt when 

 we are selecting a male, to say I want a pure-bred animal, and 

 we buy the first one that is available : or worse yet, we buy the 

 one that we can get for the least money. He may have a pedi- 

 gree behind him, but I would not buy one to breed from unless 

 he had in his pedigree cows of superior excellence ; and his sire 

 came from a family of the same kind, animals that are of su- 

 perior excellence as producers. 



You cannot buy a gold dollar for fifty cents, and you cannot 

 buy a bull of superior excellence, both as to breeding and pro- 

 duction, for a small sum. I v>'Ould rather buy one a little ma- 

 ture, a bull that has passed six months, than to buy a calf, be- 

 cause you cannot tell how he is going to develop. I have come 

 to the point, I am sorry to say, that I would not buy a bull to 

 head jny herd unless I went into the dairy and picked him out 

 myself, or had some one in whom I had equal confidence do so. 

 1 do not mean to say that breeders are dishonest, but I do say 

 that they want to make money, and want to sell stock and there 

 are very few breeders who are willing to sacrifice an animal that 

 is registered. I would not buy him unless he had the points of 

 e> cellence. You may not agree with mc. T do not suppose you 



