PEDIGREE BREEDING 



79 



Unfortunately for the tenant-farmers of Great Britain and 

 Ireland in particular and for the whole agriculture of the country 

 in general, a change came over the objects which the pedigree 

 breeders had in view during the last quarter of the past century. 

 This change was coincident with very bad farming days in 

 England, when miserable prices for all produce made it difficult 

 for farmers to find money to spare for the purchase of specially 

 good breeding stock; it was also coincident with the rise of a 

 great trade with foreign buyers of pedigree stock who came to 

 our shores with full purses and objects of their own. These 

 objects require very careful study, for they materially affect 

 the whole situation. First, they aimed at supplying our own 

 markets with beef from cattle directly descended from our 

 own exported pedigree stock. Secondly, they wanted an animal 

 well fitted to take care of itself. They had practically unlimited 

 land in a suitable climate, the cost being so trifling that any 

 labour expended upon the care of their cattle was practically 

 their only annual expenditure, the interest and capital outlay 

 upon breeding stock not being included in the cost of rearing. 

 Consequently, so far from demanding, they even objected to 

 deep-milking cattle. So long as a cow could give her calf a good 

 start it suited their purpose that their breeding stock should not 

 transmit high milking-yield qualities. The udders of deep- 

 milking cows are always much more liable to mishap than those 

 of animals giving little. More especially is this the case with 

 cows that are suckling, for in the early days the very young calf 

 cannot consume all the contents of the gland, though as it grows 

 older it will consume more than it can properly digest. These 

 facts may lead to dire consequences both to mother and offspring, 

 and both, therefore, need constant supervision and restraint: 

 the cow may require hand-milking for a time and the calf may 

 have to be separated. This requires expenditure both on labour 

 and on the construction of enclosures and so working expenses 

 are increased without giving any additional return whatever 

 under the conditions of estancia cattle-keeping. 



Spurred by these demands, our breeders made efforts, and 

 very successful efforts, to produce Shorthorns and other cattle 

 showing the finest qualities of beef-production and possessing 



