No. 4.] BREEDS AND VARIETIES. 167 



she has the dairy instinct, as soon as she begins to produce 

 milk, and this first year of the dairy calf-cow is the most 

 critical one of all her life. Immature, because not more 

 than half srown, she has had to give life and sustenance to 

 her calf, she is now called on to give milk for her owner, 

 and within a few months she will as-ain have to furnish life 

 and sustenance for her second calf; so here is a constant 

 threefold demand upon her energies, and unless the utmost 

 skill and pains is taken, the usefulness of the coming cow 

 can he almost ruined by careless and ignorant methods. 

 This young heifer should not only receive a great abundance 

 of food, but that which is succulent and easily digested. 

 The greatest care should be taken to make her develop the 

 mammary glands ; that is, her food should be so regulated 

 that it would not only sustain her and produce material for 

 the growth of herself and the embryo calf, but also a large 

 surplus, because the milk and liutter product is merely the 

 surplus, or what is left after the other w^ants have l)een sup- 

 plied. If scarcely more food is given than is required for 

 the life and growth of the animal, then of necessity little 

 surplus product will be secured, and what is produced is 

 often secured at the expense of the young cow and her pro- 

 spective calf. I wish I knew how to emphasize the need of a 

 more scientific and practical treatment of our two-year-old 

 heifers. If all of them could be fed right for one or two 

 generations, the average product per cow of our dairies 

 could easily be raised twenty per cent. 



Now, I should like to give some little time to the effect of 

 food on the dairy, etc. I have left purposely the far-reach- 

 ing, effects of feeding, on the product of the animal par- 

 ticularly, for general discussion, rather than to try to 

 cover the whole subject. I only want to say, before I take 

 my seat, that I believe that you, like I, will enjoy your- 

 selves wonderfully in breeding a variety of cattle. We 

 have two varieties of cattle. Summing up our results, we 

 find that we have succeeded in more than doubling, nearly 

 trebling, the average income per cow of our stables. We 

 are trying to teach a lesson to our students. We are not 

 doing it with thoroughbred cattle entirely, we are doing it 

 almost entirely with grades, saying to the student, as he 



