MILCH COWS. 197 



us, and so much intelligence and capital are devoted to it, that 

 whenever necessary, importations will be made by the extensive 

 breeders, and the farmer of moderate means can reap the benefit. 

 A distinguished writer says the best beast for the farmer is that 

 which suits his farm best ; and with a view to that, he studies, 

 or ought to study, the points and qualities of his own cattle and 

 those of others. The dairyman will regard the quantity of milk, 

 the quality, its value for the production of butter and cheese? 

 and the time that the cow continues to milk, the character of 

 the breed for quietness, the natural tendency to turn everything • 

 to nutriment, the ease with which she is fattened when given 

 up as a milker, and the proportion of food requisite to keep her 

 in full milk, or to fatten her when dry. He will endeavor to 

 select from his own stock those that excel in the most valuable 

 points. He will seek some change in his stock every second or 

 third year, and tliat change is most conveniently effected by 

 introducing a new bull, which should be of the same breed and 

 pure, conaing from similar pasturage and climate, but possessing 

 110 relationship. But without bountiful feeding, good care and 

 regular attendance, blood will be of no avail. 



The milch cow should be treated with kindness. Blows 

 and harshness only make her vicious and withhold her milk. 

 The chairman of your committee would beg leave to quote from 

 a report made by him to a kindred society, in 1862, in regard 

 to bulls : " It is important that the teats of the bull should be 

 set well forward and wide apart. This is a new point in the 

 male, which has been tried in this county for the last eleven 

 years, and found to be the true test. The teats should not only 

 be wide apart, but the further they are set forward of the scro- 

 tum, and the more fully they are developed, the more certain 

 is the bull to produce good dairy stock." The day is not far 

 distant when the illimitable and infinitely varied pasture grounds 

 of the United States will be covered with high-bred cattle, and 

 scrubs will have disappeared ; when the commonest meat stall 

 will furnish its customers with beef as good as the celebrated 

 black cattle beef from the Highlands of Scotland, eaten by the 

 aristocracy of the West End of London ; when our butter dairies 

 and cheese dairies will rival the finest of Holland in the neat- 

 ness and excellence of their products. 



Peter Lawson, Chairman. 



