No. 4.J DAIRY CATTLE. 85 



wiped out; I think they will have to be, in the interest of 

 success among breeders. 



Mr. Geo. H. Ellis (of West Newton). I came here to 

 learn, and want to get the benefit of the experience of others ; 

 but taking the address in the main, it is a mighty good thing 

 for us to take home and follow. Now, this question of per- 

 centages, as I understand Professor Shaw, he has simply 

 adopted these figures as something indicating what you might 

 expect. They are not in any sense arbitrary, but the direction 

 in which they lead is unquestionably correct. I should not 

 agree, to begin with, with his proposition, if I were talking 

 with some one here who wanted to begin grading up his herd, 

 that it would be as well for him to take a scrub cow with all 

 the mixed breeding that he could possibly find. I should 

 think that, if he wanted to breed for larger production, and 

 were to take the Holstein sire, he could pretty nearly elimi- 

 nate one generation, because he should then look for his dams 

 too, because they have been bred something along that line. 

 He would then eliminate this one year. When he comes to 

 his second generation, — as I understand Professor Shaw, 

 he does not advocate inbreeding to the extent of breeding sire 

 to dam except under rare circumstances; he then has got 

 to take a second sire for his second generation ; and if he 

 were to begin to-day to breed, let him begin, if he can, with 

 dams that have already taken that one year, and save one 

 generation. Take cows that are themselves good producers. 

 But if he is going to breed Holstein, take a cow that is 50 

 per cent Holstein, and it is comparatively easy for him to 

 do that, and not take the simple grade scrub cow that seems 

 to have no breeding whatever. I think he would gain some- 

 thing in time, and time to that man who is undertaking to 

 breed his herd up is money. 



Another point, that of exercise, I am a thorough believer 

 in. While temporarily a farmer and producer will secure 

 a larger amount of milk from his herd if he keeps them 

 in close quarters, keeps them very warm, and gives them 

 warm water to drink, and doesn't turn them out to exer- 

 cise, I have little doubt that he can secure for a season a 

 larger amount of milk, and for the dairyman who is sim- 



