No. 7. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. C2S 



could have told them the same. For years the farmers of Iowa 

 have been advised the same thing. All the forces of agricultural 

 education were put in requisition to hold them to the "dual pur- 

 pose" idea. But the cows resulting from such breeding are not, 

 as a rule, economic dairv animals. 



The Iowa farmers, those of them who are looking into the thing, 

 are finding that with such cows, they are losing more at the pail 

 than they are making in beef. And so they are getting around. 

 Hoard's Dairyman has for years preached this doctrine: If you 

 want milk you must breed for it, and breed for it specifically. 



Mistakes in breeding are a long time in making themselves felt. 

 Hence the importance to every farmer that he should have correct 

 ideas as to the principles of breeding. No wonder that he is con- 

 fused when well-known teachers and breeders juggle with these 

 principles. It is as though one said, "Twice two is either three or 

 five just as you want it." Yes, there is a great deal in breed. We 

 once heard a story of a "dual purpose" man who went to hire out 

 as a teacher of a country district school. The clerk asked him a 

 few questions among which v.-as this: "Is the earth round or flat?" 

 "Well," said the man, "teach'em both ways, just as they want." 



A great man}- farmers have wanted "dual purpose" cows if they 

 could get them. They called for that kind of teaching and they 

 got it. But it was wrong, and they are finding it out in the last 

 analysis of real practical results, at the pail. The farmers who 

 stand by the dairy bred cow are winning by it. Yes, there is a 

 good deal in breed. 



I spoke of the effect of breed on feed. Here is a great mystery 

 that no man has solved. Here stands a bale of hay. On one side 

 is a cow; on the other side a sheep, on the other side a horse. In 

 one case the result is milk, in the other wool, in the other speed 

 or draft, and the same mystery appears in the family of animals. 

 Twelve quarts of oats fed to J. I. C. resulted in a mile in 2:10. That 

 was the speed product of 12 quarts of oats, provided they were 

 fed to J. I. C Two cows stand side by side in my barn. They 

 are of the same breed, and both are fed the same ration. One cow 

 takes that food and turns out two pounds of butter fat a day, 

 the other one pound. Wliat is the secret through which comes 

 such a wide disparity of results? So far as we can see it is individ- 

 uality. 



Kow men have seized upon these individual traits in animals. 

 They are functional in character. By steadfast, patient work mat- 

 ing agreeing individualities or functions together, after a long 

 lime they have established these traits as breed characteristics 

 and we have the speed or draft function in horses, the milk and 

 butter trait, of the meat producing trait in cattle, the fine wool or 

 mutton function in sheep, and so on. A great variety of ruling 

 traits have been established. But it is very slow work. Nature 

 yields but reluctantly to any and all modifications of structure 

 and specific purpose. 



The modern dairy cow, as has been well said, is an artificial pro- 

 duct. She is greatly needed in the sharp, close economy of our farm- 

 ing work because of the greatly increasing demand for her product. 



40—7—1908. 



