HANDLING A DAIRY HERD FOR PROFIT 51 



and cruel handling. The man who keeps his stock 

 in such a manner does not deserve to get any in- 

 crease from them ; but the keen farmer knows in- 

 stinctively that he is dealing with a highly organised 

 creature, and therefore he would never subject his 

 patient animals to lack of feed, exposure, and 

 neglect. The success of a dairy cow depends on 

 four things (i) Feed, (2) Comfort, (3) Selection, 

 and (4) Breeding. 



Presuming the animal is of the correct dairy 

 type, " Breeding " is the least important of these, for, 

 however carefully bred and however excellent the 

 sire or dam, the whole length of pedigree is useless 

 without Feed backed up by Comfort. The dairy 

 farmer's motto will be " hard work for the owner, 

 and comfort for the cows," and then the owner will 

 also find comfort for himself. A cow with an empty 

 belly as they are often empty during a South 

 African winter never made any man's bank 

 account grow, for it is not written that a man shall 

 prosper at the expense of his beast. 



It is not altogether necessary that a cow should 

 be pure bred to get profit from her, for a poor 

 specimen of any pure breed is worthless. But as 

 long as she is a good cow the breeding does not 

 really matter. It is, however, very nice to have 

 pure breeds, and certainly more good cows are 

 found among the purely bred than amongst mongrels 

 or scrubs ; but unless the farmer is well off he 



