174 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



switch off from breecUnsf grades onto breedino; thorouo-hbreds 

 so easy, but it is an awful thing to switch from breeding 

 thoroughbreds to breeding grades. It is a wrong kind of a 

 switch ; it is a switch back." 



Professor Cheesman. Before we close this subject of 

 breeding, I want to ask further, so that we may all under- 

 stand it distinctly, whether these cows that the gentleman 

 speaks of sometimes as Jersey grades, at other times as 

 varieties, have been crossed with Holstein 1)ulls ; and the 

 same with reference to the Holstein grades ? Have you bred 

 up with a thoroughbred Jersey bull, or with a thoroughbred 

 Holstein bull right through ? 



Professor Roberts. We take a native cow. By a native 

 cow I mean a cow that has been bred to no purpose. 

 Sometimes we found a native cow that had some Shorthorn 

 blood. Sometimes by the twist of the horn you could see 

 evidence of a little Ayrshire blood, sometimes a little trace 

 of the Devon blood apparently, in what we would call a 

 scrub cow. We tried to get good ones. We could not 

 always get the best cows ; our condition was such that we 

 could not avail ourselves of the best ; but, as I say, Ave tried 

 to get good ones. Now, when we started in with a Jersey 

 and got a half-blood, we kept on and got a three-quarters, a 

 seven-eighths, a fifteen-sixteenths, a thirty-one thirty-sec- 

 onds, and so on. 



Professor Cheesman. How much increase in size have 

 you got since you commenced breeding grade Jerseys ? 



Professor Roberts. I should say we are breeding Jer- 

 seys that are fifteen per cent larger than your New England 

 Jerseys, but not much larger than the Miller & Smith Jer- 

 seys of Franklin, Pennsylvania. You know they are breed- 

 ing large Jerseys, and I like that. Then we have taken 

 pains to breed the Holstein down. That gives you an ink- 

 ling as to my ideal of a dairy cow, does it not? 



Professor Ciieesmax. What do those cows weigh that 

 have passed the ten thousand pounds limit this year ? 



Professor Roberts. Those cows will average at least 

 twelve hundred pounds. They are in good dairy flesh. 



Professor Cheesman. How nmch do the six thousand 

 pounds Jerseys weigh? 



