CHAPTER III. 



THE SELECTION OF MILCH COWS. 



We have now reviewed the prominent races of cattle 

 found in American dairy herds, and devoted some space 

 to an examination of the principles to be followed in 

 the breeding of dairy stock ; and this has involved, to 

 some extent, the choice of breeds, and the selection of 

 individual animals, with special reference, however, to 

 transmitting and improving their milking properties. 

 But the selection of cows for the dairy is of such im- 

 portance as to demand the most careful consideration. 



The objects of a dairy are three-fold: the production of 

 milk for sale, mainly confined to milk-dairies, and to small- 

 er farms in the vicinity of large towns, where a mixed 

 husbandry is followed ; the production of butter, chiefly 

 confined to farms at a distance from cities and large 

 towns, which furnish a ready market for milk ; and the 

 fabrication of cheese, carried on under circumstances 

 somewhat similar to the manufacture of butter, and some- 

 times united with it as an object of pursuit, on the farm. 



These different objects should, therefore, be kept in 

 view, in the selection of cows ; for animals which would 

 be most profitable for the milk-dairy might be very 

 unprofitable in the butter-dairy — a fact of almost daily 

 experience. The productiveness of the cow does not 

 depend on her breed so much as upon her food and 

 management, her temperament and health, and the activ- 

 ity and energy of the organs of digestion and secretion. 



