MILCH COWS. 201 



offered that the latter is no better than any or all of its ances- 

 tors for many generations back on both sides, or than its kin- 

 dred ; that it is of a pure and distinct breed ; that it possesses 

 certain well-known hereditary qualities ; that it is suited for a 

 definite purpose ; it may be a Shorthorn, justly noted for large 

 size and early maturity ; it may be a Devon, of fine color and 

 symmetry, active and hardy ; it may be an Ayrshire, esteemed 

 for dairy qualities, or of some other definite breed, whose uses, 

 excellences and deficiencies are all well known. The other is of 

 no breed whatever. The man who bred it had rather confused 

 ideas, so far as he had any, about breeding, and thought to 

 combine all sorts of good qualities in one animal, and so he 

 worked in a little grade Durham, or Hereford, to get size, and 

 a little Ayrshire for milk, and a little Devon for color, and so 

 on, incorporating also a good share of the ' native ' element 

 in his stock, because ' it was tough, and some folks tliought 

 natives were the best after all.' Among its ancestors and 

 kindred were some good and some not good, some large and 

 some small, some well-favored and fat, some ill-favored and 

 lean, some profitable and some profitless. The animal now 

 offered is a great deal better than the average of them. It 

 looks, for aught they can see, about as well as the one for which 

 five times his price is asked. Perhaps he served forty cows last 

 year, and brought his owner as many quarters, while the other 

 only served five. The question arises, Which is the better 

 bargain ? 



" After pondering the matter, one buys the low-priced and 

 the other the high-priced one, both being well satisfied in their 

 own minds. What did results show ? The low-priced one 

 served that season perhaps a hundred cows ; more than ought 

 to have done so, came a second time. Having been overtasked 

 as a yearling, he lacked somewhat of vigor. The calves came 

 of all sorts — some good, some poor, a few like the sire, more 

 like the dams — all mongrels, and showing mongrel origin more 

 than he did. . There seemed in many of them a tendency to 

 combine the defects of the grades from which he sprang rather 

 than their good points. In some, the quietness of the Short- 

 horn seemed to have degenerated into stupidity, and in others 

 the activity of the Devon into nervous viciousness. Take them 

 together, they perhaps paid for rearing, or nearly so. After 



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