384 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



will be able to get a better class of cows by breeding, avoid 

 uncertainties, and pass inferior animals on to the butcher. 



The cow is not a "machine," with regularly listed speed 

 and capacity, but is vastly more susceptible to external con- 

 ditions than most machinery. Her capacity depends not 

 only on her own inherent power of work, but also on a hun- 

 dred other things, — food, water, regularity of attendance, 

 heat, flies, bed, exposure, worry, etc. This is not all. The 

 same cows, with as nearly the same treatment as possible, 

 on the same farm, will vary greatly from one year to an- 

 other. One cow is biennial, like an apple tree, — giving a 

 large product every other year, alternating with a year of 

 rest and recuperation, in which she does not pay her keep ; 

 another falls oft' without any apparent reason. There are 

 also the exigencies of retained afterbirth, milk fever, garget 

 or accident, which put the very best cows temporarily or 

 permanently on the list of boarders. Perhaps it is not too 

 much to say that a cow rarely does particularly well after a 

 year in which she has made a phenomenal product. 



Breeding for Improvement. 



In grading up a herd, one must first decide upon the kind 

 of cattle that most nearly meet his requirements. No discus- 

 sion of breeds is here intended. Jerseys, Holstein-Friesians, 

 Guernseys, Ayrshires, Shorthorns, Dutch Belted, Devons, 

 Red Polls, Brown-Swiss, etc., all have their strong points, 

 and each is adapted to its own peculiar place better than any 

 of the others. Do not try to keep Shorthorns Avhere Ayr- 

 shires are more appropriate, nor Holstein-Friesians where 

 Devons would do better. Selection must be made with 

 reference to the qualities wanted and should be permanent. 

 I have no patience with the continual change from one breed 

 to another, which so often results in a heterogeneous collec- 

 tion of misfits of indefinite characters. Choose the breed 

 best adapted to your requirements, and then select with 

 equal care the individuals that go to make up your herd. 

 The individual within a breed is of greater importance than 

 the breed itself. There are many scrub pure-breds, no 

 better than common scrubs, but more dangerous because of 



