DO NOT CHANGE THE BREED. 259 



AVe say, do not change the breed, when it is once settled that 

 your breed is the proper one for your purposes. Some men have 

 an irresistible penchant for crossing different breeds on each 

 other, in grade stock as a Devon bull on grade Ayrshires; then 

 a Short-horn, afterward on Alderney, and so on. Nothing but 

 utter disorder, uncertainty and disappointment, can be the result 

 of such repeated bastardy. No truth in blood can descend from 

 such mixtures, and no economical benefit can arise from them. 

 Neither flesh nor milk can be promoted, for what is gained by 

 one cross may be lost in the next. 



Any one proposing, or expecting to breed good cattle at all, 

 must have a definite object in view at the commencement, with 

 whatever breed he uses, and it will be only by a persistent course 

 of breeding up in the blood, that he can expect to succeed. For 

 the dairy, select a good dairy breed, and persist in it. For beef, 

 take the breed of a kind fitted for the soil and climate, and so 

 keep on. A purchaser will always pay more for a uniform lot 

 of steers or bullocks, than for a mixed one of all sorts of char- 

 acter, even if equally good in the individual animals themselves. 

 And so with the purchasing dairyman. He wants his cows 

 alike, if good. The upshot is, that with a parcel of mixed 

 crosses of no definite character, they range but little above 

 common stock, and always to the disadvantage of the breeder. 

 Therefore, we again say, keep your stock as uniform in blood 

 and appearance as possible. 



AGE AT WHICH HEIFEBS, FOR THE DAIRY, SHOULD BE BRED. 



This will depend much on the manner in which they have 

 been fed from calf hood, and the condition of flesh that they may 

 be in. If they have been fed on good muscle-making food, 

 with growth unstinted, they may safely be coupled with the bull 

 at fifteen, to eighteen months of age ; and if possible, to a small, 

 rather than to a large bull, thus, in probability, producing a 



