19 April, 191S.] ^^ew Zealand Dairy Cows. 255 



no doubt, it will be quite a common tiling to demand the milk and butter- 

 fat ancestry of dairy cattle offered for sale. We are glad to meet such 

 an unequivocal statement as the following : — '^ In equal environment, an 

 increase in the productive capacities of daughters over their dams can 

 only be attained through having them sired by a bull who carries trans- 

 missible hereditary factors which represent a dairy strain that is superior 

 to that of the cows with which he is mated. Breeders have evidence of 

 the keenness of dairymen to purchase bulls from C.O.R. cows. Some 

 breeders who have extensively patronized the C.O.R. testing have 

 disposed of all their bull calves before the summer was over. This is 

 quite a contrast to earlier conditions, when sales were frequently difficult 

 to make. Such a healthy state of affairs is tangible proof that more 

 dairymen are appreciating the importance of a good bull, and are recog- 

 nising that his dam's record, and the records of his sisters or daughters, 

 are the best indices to his ability to transmit the necessary factors of im- 

 proved butter-fat production. Many herds in our dairying districts average 

 more than 200 lbs. of butter-fat per cow, a lesser number average over 

 300 lbs., and in a fcAV cases the average cow of the herd produces 400 lbs. 

 butter-fat or more. Those herds averaging 300 lbs. fat and more, cannot 

 be maintained on a constructive basis unless by wise selection of sires. 

 If sires of exceptional merit are necessary in these good herds, the owner 

 of a herd of average cows producing 160 lbs, butter-fat may expect to 

 see a greater percentage of improvement by the use of such a sire, pro- 

 vided the daughters have conditions which will permit of their doing 

 themselves justice as producers. The work which the Dairy Division 

 has been doing along the line of assisting the owners of dairy herds, 

 through C.O.R. testing and cow-testing association effort, is surely more 

 than justified by the betterment which is evidenced. The margin 

 between the production of our average cow and that of the better herds 

 is evidence of the great work yet to be accomplished. Economy in food- 

 stuffs is general and necessary. Since the beginning of the war the 

 world's live-stock statistics show a decrease of over 33,000,000 head in 

 cattle, sheep, and pigs. This decrease has doubtless become greater, 

 and indicates an increasing shortness of all food materials supplied by 

 live-stock. It would, therefore, be a patriotic as well as a profitable 

 effort for our dair^anen to do all that is possible in assisting to make 

 good the deficit." And we would add, there are no better means than 

 on the lines suggested. 



—Otago ^Yitness, 3rd April, 1918. 



RE|VII[JDERS FOR MAY. 



LIVE STOCK* 



Horses. — Those stabled can be fed liberally. Those doing fast or heavy work 

 should be clipped; if not wholly, then trace high. Those not rugged on coming 

 into the stable at night should be wiped down and in half-an-hour's time rugged 

 or covered with bags until the coat is dry. Old horses and weaned foals should 

 be given crushed oats. Grass-fed working horses should be given hay or straw, 

 if there is no old grass, to counteract the purging effects of the j-oung growth. 

 Attend to teeth and feet of horses to he turned out for the winter. 



