CATTLE. 353 



gj'ade with our common stock, or with any of the well marked 

 breeds. The butter will command the highest price in the 

 market, while, from the small size and gentle dispositicm, the 

 animal will be sought as a family pet. 



The Milk Dairy. In the milk dairj^, or where cows are 

 kept for the production of milk to be sold in its natural condi- 

 tion, the object is usually to obtain the largest quantity with 

 less reference to the quality. And here not only the class of 

 stock, but the whole system of feeding and management should 

 be quite different from that adopted in the butter dair}-. We 

 want an animal that yields largely in proportion to the food 

 consumed, and that holds out ^\ell. In regions of great fertility 

 where the pastures are naturally luxuriant, a few families of the 

 Shorthorns and Shorthorn grades or crosses of the improved 

 Shorthorn male, with well selected common cows of the coun- 

 try, meet this essential featuie to a very high degree. 



The improved Shorthorns, as a breed, originated towards the 



close of the last century, the basis of it being a class of cows at 



that time to be found in the counties in the North of Eng-land, 



especially in Darham, Yorkshire, and Lincolnshire. They 



were noted as milkers, and remarkable for large size, which 



was due to the striking fertility of the region. So susceptible 



were these animals, in the hands of ".he skilful breeder, that 



they rapidly gained a high reputation, and to this day they 



have maintained their position, though, as a breed, they nave 



lost, to some extent, the strongly developed milking qualities 



of the old stock. This was, perhaps, the fault of the oreeder 



rather than of the breed. The abundance of nutritious food 



furnished to the young animal induced an early maturity, which 



led to the general practice of breeding for beef, rather tnan for 



milk, and to the consequent neglect of the dairy qualities. 



Some fimilies of improved Shorthorns have retained the 

 22 



