SECRETARY'S REPORT. 37 



of roweii hay, brewers' grains, shorts, and green food, with 

 corn meal and oil cake. 



A cow, moreover, never reaches perfection in her line until 

 she has arrived at maturity ; and she must reacli this period 

 of life with all her faculties unimpaired, if we expect her to 

 be as good a cow as nature intended her to be. Slie differs in 

 this respect from the best beef-growing animals, which are 

 mature, as it were, from the start ; and whose organizations, 

 instead of being impaired for their business by generations 

 of high early feeding, are, rather, more and more adapted to it. 



We all know that the oldest and best families of Short-horns 

 are not remarkable for constitutional elasticity and vigor. 

 They have not great muscular strength, are not nervous and 

 powerful in their action, and are deficient in the procreative 

 faculties. Like the thorough-bred horse, which has also been 

 forced to early maturity and early decay for Inany generations, 

 they have become enervated and constitutionally delicate. 

 High feeding has done this, in both instances ; and as " a short 

 life and a merry one," in the animal, is most profitable to the 

 breeders of beef, and horses fit only for the turf, high feeding 

 has accomplished what was desired — the gain being greater 

 than the sacrifice. 



Not so, however, with the cow. Her powers mature slowly, 

 and depend very much upon the strength of her constitution. 

 When this is impaired, either by breeding or by feeding, her 

 value is diminished. For in the work of bearing young, and 

 giving milk, in which her whole life is passed, the tax upon her 

 vital forces is such that none but the most robust can endure 

 it. In establishing a dairy breed, therefore, early maturity, 

 with its accompanying evils, is not desirable. On the contrary, 

 it should be avoided, and that mode of feeding should be 

 adopted which will be conducive to health in the individual 

 and in the breed, and which will in no way exhaust the powers 

 or shorten the life of the race. 



In addition to this, great regard should be had in raising 

 dairy stock, to the effect whicli different kinds of food produce 

 upon the animal economy. Whatever enlarges the bony struc- 

 ture of the female calf, beyond what is necessary for her 

 strength, is worse than useless. A coarse-boned cow rarely 

 reaches that standard of excellence, both in the quantity 



