412 AGRICULTUEAL REPORT. 



co\v3, by a continuous scloction of the best-formod and deepest milkers among 

 them to breed from, in order that dairy properties might become fixed so surely 

 as to be transmitted with regularity and certainty. From what observation and 

 experience I have had, the opinion is substantiated that in most cheese-dairy 

 sections the Ayrshire would prove more desirable than any other ; but it Avould 

 not pay to introduce pure bred cows simply for their milk, nor is it necessary. 

 Successful crosses and high grades are often fully equal to pure bloods for all 

 purposes except for breeding. The males of crosses should never be kept for 

 bulls, unless merely in place of worse stock; for, though not to be depended 

 upon to transmit their virtues, they do so sometimes, and so are preferable to 

 scrubs. There is, however, no real economy iu employing anything short of 

 pure bred males for propagation. 



For a milk or cheese dairy I would prefer Ayrshires to any other ; but for 

 a butter dairy I would be loth to dispense wholly with the Jerseys. 



MANAGEMENT OF COWS. 



"Without attempting to describe the details of feeding and treating dairy 

 stock, I will notice briefly some of the points to be kept iu view. No matter 

 how good cows are, stingy feeding and shiftless management will soon run 

 down the stock aud dissipate all hopes of profit. " What is worth doing, is 

 worth doing well" ; and what is worth having, is worth taking care of. There 

 is no worse economy than neglect of and indifi'ercnce to the comfort and health 

 of animals from which we expect profitable produce. Care and attention may 

 secure all we desire, while neglect will surely nullify all advantages the best 

 facilities can give. Let us suppose the dairyman provided with a stock of good 

 cows ; the next point is to bestow proper treatment, and to feed them Avell. No 

 dairyman can afiord to do otherwise. Look at it. A cow is wanted to give 

 milk, and good milk. She cannot make it out of nothing. The more milk we 

 want, the more material must be supplied to make it of. The reasoning adopted 

 by Mr. Arnold, before quoted, with a slight modification, will meet this case. 

 Be your cows ever so good, they must be supported ; their own system must be 

 maintained, waste must be repaired, respiration sustained, and, iu a word, the 

 machine kept in working order ; and it is only what the cow can be induced to 

 eat and to digest, over aud above what is required for the maintenance of the 

 animal, Avhich goes to make milk. 



Milk is a secretion — that is, it is secreted or separated by the action of a 

 gland, and mainly or wholly from the blood which passes to it. We know 

 very little of the nature of secretion or of the forces at play in it ; but we 

 know the fact that certain gland* have the power of appropriating parts of the 

 organism or of the food, in order to produce certain fluitls. As these secretions 

 come from the blood, this fluid must be supplied with the necessary materials ; 

 for the mammary gland of a cow can no more make or separate something 

 from nothing than any other apparatus or machine can do it. Milk is variable 

 in composition, depending partly on the peculiarities of the cow, or of her 

 glandular system, but largely also on the quantity and quality of food sup- 

 plied. If the food contain much fatty and starchy matter, the milk will be 

 richer and better than if these qualities be lacking or scanty. If the food be 

 rich in vegetable albumen, or other nitrogenous substances, the milk will be 

 richer iu casein. This last rule, however, holds only up to a certain point — 

 say about five per cent. — beyond which albuminous as well as oily foods only 

 increase the proportion of butter in the milk. 



"^lilk is liable to other changes than those produced by food or by any out- 

 side agencies subsequently to being di-awn. In women we find that anything 

 which tends to irritate or annoy her, or to produce an exhibition of auger, pro- 

 duces at the same time serious changes iu or partial destruction of her milk 



