The Regional Problem 95 



advance on ^20, even allowing for the increase in 

 money values ; and this is due mainly to the 

 facilities afforded by the Department of Agricul- 

 ture. The cow, as a cow, apart from monetary 

 variations, is more than twice as valuable. It 

 results solely from the pedigree sires, the better 

 treatment and the improvement I have made in 

 the land to accommodate the better breeding. 



As it appears to me, the most valuable fact in 

 the dual development is the marked superiority 

 of the line which has the red poll blood in it, as 

 compared with the direct blend of native stock and 

 pure shorthorn, which is necessarily the basis of 

 the Department's scheme. The opportunities in 

 both lines have been exactly the same, but no judge 

 could hesitate for a moment about preferring the 

 red poll family on pure form, not to mention their 

 still greater superiority from the economic point 

 of view. How long, under the shorthorn sires, can 

 the plumpness and the stronger constitution of the 

 red poll persist ? These qualities are apparently 

 undiminished in the fourth generation, and it is 

 fair to expect that they must persist in many more 

 generations, if not permanently ; but in addition to 

 this there is the great advantage that, by starting 

 from the red poll blend, as compared with the 

 native stock alone, the time of generations is saved 

 in the production of a first class cow. 



I might have described these experiments years 

 ago, but for the fact that my smaller scope re- 

 inqred a longer time to justify generalisation. 

 Instead of operating on fifty dams together, I had 



