514 HANDY-BOOK OF HUSBANDRY. 



of recuperation so certain, that the question whether to sell milk 

 or to manufacture it on the farm should be decided mainly in the 

 light of the question of profit and loss. 



For a milk dairy, pure and simple, such cows should be selected 

 as are known to give an excessively large yield of milk. For sale 

 in the market the question of quality is of little consequence, as, 

 especially when sold to wholesale dealers, there would be no dif- 

 ference in price resulting from superior richness. Quantity is the 

 only point to be looked to, and to gain this we should not only 

 select large milkers, but should feed them on such food as, while 

 it would properly sustain all of the functions of their bodies, would 

 stimulate the production of the greatest possible flow of milk. 



For the manufacture of butter and cheese, however, we should 

 be influenced by far different considerations. Not only should we 

 select such cows as are known to produce milk rich in the con- 

 stituents that our butter or cheese requires, but we should feed 

 them on such food as will increase the production of these richer 

 constituents to the greatest extent that is possible without injury 

 to the animals' health. 



BREEDS OF DAIRY CATTLE. 



The short-horns^ while they are the largest of all the bovine 

 races, are sometimes the greatest milkers. Certain families, 

 that have long been grown for beef purposes only, produce so 

 little milk that it is sometimes difficult to give calves a fair head- 

 way by feeding them on the milk of their dams alone. Other 

 families again, which are known as great milkers, give larger yields 

 than almost any other breed with which we are familiar, and they 

 have the great advantage that, when their usefulness for milking is 

 ended, they may be rapidly fattened to a great size and sold to the 

 butcher at high prices. 



Dutch cattle^ which are supposed to have entered largely 

 into the formation of the short-horn breed, are very large 

 milkers, and probably the milking qualities of the short-horns are 

 inherited from this side of their ancestry. The pure race (many 

 of which have been recently imported into this country, although 



