No. 4.] BREEDS AND VARIETIES. 177 



we could not o-et much cream from the Holsteins, but must 

 go to the Jerseys and Guernseys ; and so we are now put- 

 ting in stock of that kind, and also buying some of the 

 chance Jersey stock that you referred to that are no better 

 than they should be. Somebody else wanted to dispose of 

 them, and we unfortunately were induced to buy some pure- 

 bred Jerseys of that quality. We are now raising from ten 

 to twenty heifer calves a year, and putting them into our 

 dairy. We have not kept a record of the yield, l)ut we 

 have this impression very clearly in our minds, that the 

 half-bloods that we got the first two years after we intro- 

 duced a pure-bred sire were better animals than the stock 

 that we graded higher, whether Shorthorn, Devon, Ayrshire 

 or Holstein. We have not carried it far enough to see what 

 the result will be with the Guernsey. 



]VIr. Ware. Which blood, on the whole, satisfies you 

 best? 



Secretary Gold. That is a question which I am not pre- 

 pared to answer. 



Mr. Lynde. I would like to ask Mr. Gold if he would 

 recommend to the young farmers here the promiscuous breed- 

 ing that he has o-one into ? 



Secretary Gold. I do not recommend it at all. I am 

 speaking of it as one of the wild vagaries that I have fol- 

 lowed through my life, and if anybody can draw from my 

 experience any rules to guide them, I would like to have 

 them do so. I am all at sea about it. 



Professor Roberts. I am glad to hear Mr. Gold's experi- 

 ence, because it justifies me, I think, in the advice I give my 

 students. It is something like this : " Try to find out, 

 before you enter the business of raising cattle, what class of 

 cattle will best suit your conditions and your tastes, for a 

 man has no business to breed Holsteins if he likes Jerseys, 

 or vice versa. Having done that and got started, then if it 

 is not the best breed make it the best." That is my notion. 



Now, you have struck another principle that we observe 

 in plants particularly, and which may hold true with ani- 

 mals, that the first cross sometimes gives vigor, so that the 

 wise corn-planter often takes a few kernels of one variety 

 of corn and mixes them with some other variety, so that the 



