78 WE FARM FOR A HOBBY 



mal birth to a calf she is said to ''drop" it; when 

 she aborts she is said to have "slunk" and the re- 

 sult is called a "slink," or "slunk.") It is a fairly 

 prevalent and highly infectious disease. It is trans- 

 mitted to humans through dirty milk as Malta or 

 undulant fever. It is not, I understand, fatal to 

 humans. But it is a long-drawn-out illness. And 

 having seen some cases of it I decided my family 

 could get along without it. 



There was no question about whether to get 

 pure-bred or grade cows. An unwritten article of 

 the American Credo says a yellow mongrel cur is 

 the equal or superior of a pedigreed dog. Fiddle- 

 dee-dee. Don't you believe it. No mongrel or even 

 grade animal is as good as the thoroughbred 

 ever. Amazing improvements have been made in 

 milk production in this country in the last twenty 

 years. Between 1917 and 1926 the average yield 

 was upped from 3716 to 5208 pounds of milk per 

 cow per year. And how? In small part by better 

 feeding and management. Mostly by breeding up, 

 improving the whole nation of cows by the dis- 

 semination of pedigreed blood, and by culling in 

 accordance with known records of performance. 



As far as cows are concerned the best are the 

 cheapest and most efficient. Records compiled in 

 Hunterdon County, New Jersey, show that cows 

 with production of five hundred pounds of butter- 



