SIXTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART V. 369 



roots and farm products, but they draw very largely upon our Ameri- 

 can stores for our oil meals and other grain products to supplement the 

 products which they grow in feeding to their dairy cows. 



Then again, if you go back across the English Channel to the British 

 Islands away up on the Eastern shore of England, you come to the dis- 

 trict in which the Short Horn breed develops, in the eastern part of 

 England. There we find a locality quite different. It is more similar 

 to the conditions of our own country. The land does not lie so low; it 

 is not so immediately contiguous to sea breezes and sea influence, but is 

 a rich, fertile valley, and before the Shorthorn breed was established 

 there were in this valley great heavy, fleshy cattle that were also good 

 milkers, and from time immemorial the Shorthorn cow has been the dairy 

 cow of England, pre-eminently the dairy cow. They have paid more at- 

 tention to the quality of the Shorthorn in England than we have in this 

 country and consequently they have been better maintained. 



Then if we pass on up into Scotland, farther on the West coast, we 

 find the home of the Ayrshire cow in a thick, rather open climate in 

 which the vegetation is scant and not of the best quality. We find in 

 that locality a cow that is well adapted to making the best possible 

 milk under those conditions. The Ayrshire is hardly known in this 

 state, but in the Eastern sections of the United States and in Canada 

 she is a popular cow. The Ayrshire cow is given the same careful, 

 generous treatment notwithstanding the rigid and rather poor conditions 

 under which this breed is developed. 



In the central part of England, in Norfolkshire, we find the Red 

 Poll developed under similar conditions as the Shorthorn but less pro- 

 ductive and the products are less nutritious than the Shorthorn, but 

 there you will find the same generous treatment. 



I have not mentioned the other breeds; I have not mentioned the 

 Guernsey because the Guernsey was developed under conditions similar 

 to the Jersey. Recently we have commenced to hear about the Alder- 

 ney, but it is now considered the same as the Jersey. So that wherever 

 we go you may take it with you in every country there is developed 

 a high class of dairy cows, you will find the best possible care, the 

 most intelligent methods and finest treatment they can give bestowed 

 on that cow. The consequence of this is when you bring these breeds 

 to this country, no matter what breed we may prefer or expect to use 

 on our dairy farms, that we cannot expect good results unless we give 

 due attention to the surroundings, to the environment, to the conditions 

 that have made these breeds. We cannot expect to maintain their 

 original excellence unless we surround them with conditions that are 

 equally as favorable as those under which they have developed. So it 

 is important that we give attention to that phase of the dairy stock. I 

 believe that is where we often make mistake in this country of thinking 

 that if we get a herd of a certain breed or certain type or certain strains 

 of blood that our efforts practically end there, that certain breeds or 

 certain strains of blood must produce well because their ancestors have 

 been good producers. There is no more serious mistake that can be made 

 in the care and handling of live stock of any kind and especially the 



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