198 . BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



animal — a cow, for instance — that yields a liberal supply 

 of milk will nourish the foetus in utero more completely, and 

 bring larger calves, her offspring will be fatter, finer, and in 

 far better condition at birth, than that of a poor milker. 

 A cow that has a strong predisposition to form fat, and 

 secretes little milk, will almost invariably bring a puny calf, 

 and one out of all proportion to the size and condition of its 

 dam. The cows of the breeds most noted for the production 

 of beef — pure and high-bred Short-horns, for instance — are 

 far from being the best for raising calves designed especially 

 for the most economical production of veal. A well-formed 

 grade or common cow (if in sound health, and capable of 

 nourishing her 3'oung) put to a carefully-bred Short-horn 

 bull whose ancestry through some generations had possessed 

 a strong disposition towards the production of fat and meat, 

 will bring forth a larger calf than a high-bred Short-horn. 

 The bull from such a parentage will possess hereditary pow- 

 ers so stronof as to transmit all his essential characteristics to 

 his offspring with as great certainty as if that offspring came 

 from a too finely bred cow. This, of course, supposes her to 

 be large and roomy, and well proportioned in size to the bull. 

 But the bull must have the advantage of a good pedigree 

 or careful breeding. 



But it would be a fatal mistake to adopt the opposite 

 course, and to put a high-bred pure Short-horn cow to a low- 

 bred or scrub male ; for, though the cow would succeed in 

 stamping her character upon the calf, she could not nourish 

 it so well, she would be less hardy in constitution, and not so 

 certain as a breeder. It is far better to impart through the 

 male in breeding the qualities we want for the production of 

 meat ; and, in the economical conversion of vegetable into ani- 

 mal ntatter, purity of blood is not essential in the offspring. 



For the breeding of stock for the most economical produc- 

 tion of beef, take, therefore, good fair dairy cows of good 

 size, and put them to a bull of first-rate pedigree, — either 

 Short-horn, Devon, or Hereford. 



With respect to breeding for purity of blood, the third 

 object we have in the systematic breeding of stock, I need 

 not stop to say much in this connection. Here the object is 

 to create and preserve a fixity of type, and we must select 

 animals possessing the same characteristics in order that 



