Live Stock and Dairy 193 



bring it out in the progeny. The cows have excellent milking qualities 

 and give very rich milk. They also have a big frame and fine con- 

 stitution. About the finest cows in Humboldt county were of this 

 cross although Jersey bulls have been used so long that the Shorthorn 

 blood is almost eliminated. The first "improved" cattle in California 

 and the first cross made for dairy purposes was Jersey bulls upon 

 grade Shorthorn cows. Later the Holstein Friesians became popular 

 and they and their grades are now most abundant. 



A Free Martin. 



/ have a Jersey cow who has just had twin calves, a heifer and a 

 bull. The heifer was born about five minutes before the bull and seems 

 to be the stronger. My neighbors tell me to fatten both for the butcher, 

 for they say the heifer zvill be barren. The mother is a young cow, as 

 this is her second calf. Kindly inform if this is one of nature's laivs 

 or if there is a possibility of the heifer turning out all right? 



The probability is that it will be better to veal the heifer than 

 to raise her, as most heifer calves twinned with a bull are free martins, 

 or animals of mixed sex and no good for breeding purposes or for 

 profitable milk production. If the bull is a good animal, he probably 

 will be all right, as this twinning does not seem to affect a bull calf, 

 though it does the heifer. It does not always happen that the heifer 

 is worthless for breeding, but the probability is so great that you 

 had better have her killed and be done with it. 



What Is a "Grade"? 



Does the term "grade" mean an animal whose sire is a thorough- 

 bred and whose dam is a scrub, or just one who is selected from others 

 because of her good points or those of her mother? 



Roughly speaking, a grade animal is one having more or less 

 pure-bred blood, but not enough, or otherwise too irregular, for regis- 

 try under the rules of the association of the breed to which it has 

 affiliation. It does not refer to selection without use of a pure-blood 

 sire at some point in the ancestry, but this is not a distinction of 

 much moment, for it is hard to find animals which have not borrowed 

 something from some cross with pure blood, though remote. The 

 terms high and low grade are sometimes used to signify amount of 

 pure blood recognizable by form and other characters or remembered 

 by owners or their neighbors. Generally speaking, a grade is any- 

 thing not entitled to registry, though ordinarily it refers to the off- 

 spring of a pure-bred sire and a cow of another or of no breed. 

 The offspring of a pure-bred cow and a scrub bull would also be 

 a grade. 



Breeding a Young Mare, 



/ have a beautiful colt 22 months old that will weigh 1200 or 1300 

 pounds: very compactly built, and has extra health, life and vigor. I 

 zvant this colt for a brood-mare. Would you advise breeding at two or 

 three years old? 



