MICHIGAN LIVE STOCK IN 1900. 371 



it is safer to rely upon them than upon breeds whose milking qualities 

 have never been developed, or allowed to decline through neglect. The 

 leading breeds are the Jerseys and Holsteins, with some Guernseys and 

 a few Ayrshires. The Red Polls are also being utilized in the dairj 

 to some extent. The average farmer who is making butter generally 

 prefers the Jersey, while the farmer who is selling milk, or furnishing 

 it to a cheese factory or condensary, prefers the deeper-milking Hoi- 

 stein and its grades. The Guernsey is in many respects very similar 

 in its characteristics to the Jersey, and its butter product is also of a 

 high character, while it is believed to slightly excel it in quantity of 

 milk. In quality of milk the Ayrshire is rather ahead of the Holstein, 

 but behind it in yield. In fact the Holstein may be accepted as the 

 deepest milker among the dairy breeds. 



The observations on the qualities of the different breeds are not ex- 

 pected to cover individual animals, but to refer to the average of the 

 breeds. There is, in any of the breeds referred to, a wide difference 

 between the yields of the best and the poorest, which shows that there 

 is still much room for improvement, and that it is not safe to rely upon 

 an animal's i)edigree alone as settling its value. Good ancestry is a 

 grand thing in any animal, but the best ancestry will never make a 

 worthless one valuable. The farmer must look at results, and to be 

 certain of them continued tests, close observation and accurate records 

 of his animals are essential. 



There is one point in this connection on which many have been mis- 

 taken, and that is the use of bulls of the different breeds in building 

 up a dairy herd. They believed it possible to secure the butter-making 

 quality of the Jersey with the large yields of milk of the Holstein. Under 

 this impression many have ex])erimented on their herds until they are 

 practically mongrelized, and their progeny is likely to be anything but 

 what is expected. We believe it safest to select the breed found best 

 suited to the environment and requirement of the farmer, and then use 

 bulls of that breed until the herd is practically pure bred, eliminating 

 unprofitable animals, and selecting the best bulls to continue the im- 

 provement. With such a herd the farmer is safe in relying upon the 

 calves proving the equal, if not the superior, of the cows from which they 

 are bred. Such a. herd would be a money-maker under all circum- 

 stances, and the surplus females would command, as they should, double 

 the price of the common cow. But such a herd can never be built up by 

 the use of bulls of different breeds, whose characteristics are so widelv 

 at variance that crossing them is sure to injure the reputation of both. 

 No one breed has a monopoly of all the good points, but it assuredly has 

 more of them than any mongrel can possess. 



The dairy herds of the State have been built up at heavy cost, and it 

 would be very foolish to sacrifice them because beef cattle are so 

 rcniuncnitive at ])rescnt. Michigan is sure to become more and 

 more of a dairy State, for w-hich her soil and climate are well 

 adapted, and if beef-making is also developed, as it should be, it means 

 lessened c()nii)etiti()n for the dairyman. There is no doubt but that one 

 help in sustaining the butler market the present season is the fact that 

 beef-making is decreasing comj)etition, and thus adding to the value 

 of the product by lessening the suj)j)ly. If those butter-makers who 

 have been turning out a product that sells one-third below good butter, 



