CHAPTER III, 



THE BREEDING AND TREATMENT OF DAIRY CATTLE. 



Improving Breeds. Purity of Breed. A Good Bull. Pedigree Bulls. 

 Crossing. Purchasing Cows. Feeding. Housing. General 

 Treatment. 



THE success and enjoyment of a dairy farmer the latter 

 depending on the former are in no small degree the result of 

 his skill and judgment in selecting, to begin with, and in mating 

 together for breeding purposes the animals of which his dairy 

 herd is composed : first buying some, and then breeding all he 

 needs breeding them up to a model framed in his own mind. 

 In some men this skill is an intuition, which is generally im- 

 proved by thought and experience. Others work it out for 

 themselves, without having been born with any great natural 

 talent in that direction. Yet others there are who do not 

 acquire it, and do not even try, and in these cases no progress 

 is made and no success attained. And so it is that, so far as 

 quality is concerned, we may find in many districts a great diffe- 

 rence in the cattle that are bred. 



In a preceding chapter I mentioned Bakewell, of Dishley, 

 whose reputation stands to the effect that he had a marvellous 

 natural and cultivated talent for mating animals together in 

 such a way that faults of dam or sire were reproduced in 

 a diminished degree, or not reproduced at all, in the offspring; 

 while at the same time the good points of either or both 

 were not only preserved but also developed. It was a 

 natural gift in this man, and he worked it out with wonderful 

 success in a period when, the art of breeding was not popular 



