POSSIBILITIES OF THE FUTURE 89 



in which the standard of living is high requires milk, beef, 

 cheese, butter and veal from its horned stock. Having general 

 farming in view, it is certainly economical and convenient to 

 obtain all these products from the same animals. The truth of 

 this is not impaired by the fact that there are always likely to 

 be special types of farms on which an animal is required as 

 being particularly useful for one or other of these purposes 

 only; such cases will probably always be in the minority and, 

 further, as they are more easily investigated, it is easier to set 

 up a standard for them. To fix the standard for the dual- 

 purpose beast, on the other hand, will require our highest efforts 

 and so we will tackle it here. The problem before us is how best 

 to search for the most economical producer of all these com- 

 modities among the cattle we now have, how best to eliminate 

 those that are less good than the others, and, while doing so, 

 to disturb as little as possible the smooth running of the agri- 

 cultural machine. 



The yields from the milking stock of this country, as shown 

 by the published records already collected, vary to a much 

 greater extent than is compatible with high production. Milk- 

 recording has "caught on" to a considerable extent, and there 

 seems good ground to hope that, with an increase of State 

 guidance and encouragement in the movement, the farmers 

 will eliminate those cows from their breeding stock which do 

 not yield profitable quantities. The keeping of the records of 

 the cows in pedigree herds is most valuable in creating a supply 

 of bulls from which the owners of commercial cows may find 

 sires to mate with the best milkers in their commercial herds 

 and so make the breeding of good milkers more certain. It 

 would be well to ensure that the influence of deep-milking 

 females should not be lost and that bulls subsidized by any co- 

 operative body should be bred from mothers and grandmothers 

 of proved deep-milking capacity. There are now a few bulls re- 

 ceiving a subsidy, from funds supplied by the Agricultural De- 

 velopment Commissioners, but not only are their numbers small, 

 but also they are not by any means regularly selected with a 

 view to their breeding good milking stock. This is so sometimes 

 even when the members of the association receiving a grant 



