INSTITITTK PAT'KRS. 83 



tile pastures of Holland, where she can get all she wants of 

 food with the least possible exertion. Her food has been of 

 a bulky nature, and it has developed an animal just the coun- 

 terpart of the Channel Island cattle. If our environment is 

 of that nature, and we want that kind of a product, then I 

 believe that is the kind of a cow to which we should turn our 

 attention. 



If our pasture land is more abundant and rougher, and the 

 cattle must spend more time and more effort in gaining the 

 food, if we want the milk that is very well balanced in fats 

 and solids, then I think the farmer would do better to take up 

 a cow of the Ayrshire type. 



All these high attainments have come through line breeding, 

 not through cross-breeding ; the Holstein cow having been bred 

 with her kind for all these years, and the Channel Island cattle 

 having been bred with their kinrl. just as these elegant beef cattle 

 have been bred with their kind. One of the greatest fallacies 

 of today is this notion of cross-breeding. I am asked this 

 question more than any other : "What do you think of this 

 cross?" or "\Miat do you think of that cross?" or "What animal 

 shall I put with my cows to bring me better results?" For 

 instance, a man comes to me and he says, "What shall I use 

 to cross on my Jersey cow to give me more milk," or "to cross 

 on my Holstein to give me more butter?" 



It is a very common thing to think that we can take a Hol- 

 stein that is so pre-eminently a milk-producer, and a Jersey 

 which is so pre-eminently a butter-producer, and can combine 

 those two strong bloods, and then will get an animal that has 

 some of the good qualities of the Jersey and some of the good 

 qualities of the Holstein, and is about medium as between the 

 two in size. How does it work out in practice? Once in a 

 while we will get a superior animal from a cross of this kind, 

 and nineteen out of twenty times we get an animal that is 

 neither Holstein nor Jersey, nor much of anything else. 



I have made a statement of this kind, and I have had men 

 say, "I have made a cross of this kind and I had a splendid 

 cow." I do not doubt that, but those are the rare exceptions, 

 and I leave it to your good judgment; if you will carefully go 

 over in your mind the crosses of that kind that have been made 

 in all the history of breeding, and if you can show me where 

 there has been any great attainment, I would like to see it. The 



