34 GUIDE TO DAIRYING IN SOUTH AFRICA 



to success is to buy a young bull calf of some pure 

 breed which he may fancy, but it should be bought 

 from a man of repute one who keeps milk records 

 and who can give you the particulars of the animal's 

 dam and her performance at the pail or churn. If 

 the farmer raises his own bull calf he learns to know 

 his master and is more easily handled than a full- 

 grown animal brought to a strange place. And 

 what is of more importance is that, having limited 

 cash to spend, a farmer will have more chance of 

 securing the desired " blood " at a price suited to 

 his purse while the animal is a calf, and then by 

 exercising care and patience possess an animal far 

 beyond what he could afford had he bought the same 

 animal when it was full grown. 



When selecting a bull for your dairy herd, where 

 you cannot have the record of his dam placed before 

 you or where you cannot see the dam herself, be sure 

 that he is pure bred, and if he is fully matured and 

 has been used at stud, try to see the type of heifers 

 he produces. 



In closing this discussion about the good dairy 

 sire we cannot do better than quote Professor 

 Curtiss, Director of the Iowa Experimental Station, 

 U.S.A. He says : 



" First, among the characteristics sought in a 

 good sire, I would look to the head. I presume 

 many will take exception to this and place constitu- 

 tion first, but the head reveals constitution almost as 



