370 FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 



competitiou existing among breeders ; that I could not sell my surplus stock 

 after I had bred it; that those so much better to do financially than myself 

 would do the selling and I would be obliged to occupy the rear ranks, over- 

 stocked. I have had the pleasure of criticising their judgment, as I have 

 never been overstocked and sincerely believe in the maxim " What man hath 

 devised man can comprehend." Men in search of good cattle will buy them 

 wherever they find them, whether it is in some lane, of a day laboring man or 

 from some millionaire or cattle king. 



BREEDING DAIRY COWS. 



A PAPER BY MR. E. A. POWELL, OF SYRACUSE, READ AT THE FARMERS' INSTITUTK, 



IN ITHACA, N. Y., FEBRUARY 18, 1887. 



[The following valuable article I have been requested to insert as of especial interest to Michigan 



Farmers.— H. G. R.] 



• 



No important national agricultural industry is more susceptible to the in- 

 fluence of judicious management and inceiligent enterprise than the produc- 

 tion of milk, and yet no other industry of equal importance to our whole 

 country has received so little scientific, intelligent study from those who 

 depend upon it for a subsistence or follow it for a profession, or so little en- 

 couragement from the State or nation. 



The cow is the most sensitive, complex and intricate piece of machinery in 

 use in any branch of agricultural industry, sensitive to every change, every 

 touch, ruined by neglect, improved by care, easily doubled in capacity by 

 judicious management and enterprise on the part of the owner, and yet how 

 few make any attempt at improvement, fully four-fifths of the dairymen of 

 the country still using the old machine, which only produces 3,000 to 4,000 

 pounds of milk per year, while the best, from the same raw material, will 

 produce fully double that amount. With intelligence in breeding, good care 

 and good judgment in feeding on the part of all concerned, the yearly pro- 

 duct of the dairy cows of the United States could be doubled in one decade. 



There are four methods by which this important machine can be improved, 

 viz. : By increasing the feed, by better care, by selection, and, above all, by 

 breeding. All these methods are essential — all should be applied — but the 

 last is indispensable in attaining the best results. 



By higher feeding you merely increase the power that is applied to the 

 same old structure, by special care you put it in working condition, but 

 remove none of its natural defects ; by care in selecting you secure the best 

 of its kind, but by judicious breeding you can add all the improvements, all 

 the new methods, can make the best combiuations,.and by this last method 

 only can you attain the highest degree of perfection. 



You have in one family the machine which will make the largest amount 

 of milk, in another that which will produce the most butter, and by combining 

 the two you have in the union that which will give the largest return of both 

 milk and butter. To this you can add all necessary attachments, can "embel- 

 lish and beautify the structure as taste and judgment dictate, adding beauty 

 to utility, and thus, by the practical use of science, good judgment and com- 



