Vermont Dairymen's Association. 157 



When we cross over to Holland, we find the home of the 

 noted Holstein cattle. These differ from the Jerseys and Guern- 

 seys in many ways. They have undoubtedly been bred for the 

 production of butter and cheese, consequently they give a large 

 flow of milk. This is possibly the purest breed of cattle we have 

 on record. We find on looking up the history of the famous 

 Ayrshire cow that she was improved by the introduction of 

 Holstein blood. We find also that Holstein blood was used in 

 building up the Shorthorn breed. The Holstein is a big, rangy 

 cow, partaking largely of the conditions of her country, as there 

 is an abundance of luxuriant grass and herbage, the soil being 

 exceedingly rich and well watered. She is adapted for consum- 

 ing a large amount of coarse fodder, and the succulence of the 

 vegetation has resulted in a very full milk flow, but the milk is 

 low in fat content. 



Originally the Ayrshire cattle, natives of Ayr, Scotland, were 

 mostly black in color with white stripes. They were rather small 

 and ill shaped and gave a small flow of milk. By infusion of 

 other blood, the Ayrshire has become one of the leading breeds 

 of dairy cattle. Of late it would seem that some of the breeders 

 of Ayrshire have been devoting too much attention to show 

 cattle. The result is a flat udder with a very short teat. 



A great deal of time, in some parts of the country, has been 

 spent during the past 15 or 20 years in trying to improve dairy 

 cattle by crossing with beef animals. The result is that we have 

 a lot of cows throughout the country that are neither good beef 

 nor dairy types, but simply "Scrubs." It is true we have some 

 excellent milkers among some of the beef types, but it has not 

 been demonstrated that such cattle can be successfully bred. 



About 30 years ago, Goldsmith Maid trotted a mile in 2.27 

 and it was heralded throughout the press as a great wonder. 

 Today we find horses trotting in 2.10 and 2.15 at some of our 

 country fairs. What has brought about this wonderful change ? It 

 is due to specializing in breeding. Do you suppose for a moment 

 that by crossing Percheron, Clydes and Shires, we could have 

 produced our Dan Patch, Lou Dillon, Nancy Hanks, and many 

 others? It is said that Dan Patch eats four quarts of oats three 

 times a day in connection with our other foods and paces a mile 

 in 1.55^. You might feed most any of your horses four bushels 

 of oats per day and they could not pace a mile in two minutes, as 

 they have not been bred along these lines. The United States 

 leads the world in the number of fast trotting horses and there is 

 no reason why we should not do the same with dairy stock, if the 

 same care is exercised in selecting and breeding. 



A Guernsey cow in Wisconsin has produced over 1000 

 pounds of butter during the past year. This shows what can be 



