112 BOARD OF AGRICULTUKE. [Pub. Doc. 



herds. Their pedigrees in each case showed mau}'^ tine lines 

 of breeding ; and yet, as used on the registered and grade 

 Jerseys at tlie station farm, — animals wliich juade on the 

 average for a dozen years 324 pounds of butter, — tlie pro- 

 portion of heifer calves which on raising have proven satis- 

 factory as judged by our standards has been far less than 50 

 per cent. The selection of the sire, which is to be half of 

 the coming herd, and the breeding of superior heifers are no 

 easy tasks. And yet naught better can be suggested than 

 to make such choice of the head of the herd as seems wisest ; 

 and to that end I deem it practicable that those who seek 

 such an animal, as well as those who wish better to know a 

 good cow when they see her, study thoroughly the matter 

 of relationship of type to performance ; that they should 

 learn to judge cattle, and to appreciate the meaning of the 

 "points" of the score card; that they should familiarize 

 themselves with such admirabl^^ adequate yet simple direc- 

 tions, touching the correlation of form and function, as are 

 furnished free to the dairy world in Director Soule's treatise 

 on the conformation of beef and dairy cattle ; ^ and that they 

 should make use of their apprehension of these assembled 

 concrete expressions of experience in the selection, the pur- 

 chase and the breeding of cows. He who is thus fortified 

 is apt to make fewer mistakes than does he who has not 

 this special knowledge. To be sure, successful animal hus- 

 bandrymen are apt to be born rather than made ; yet their 

 judgments may be thus matiu'ed and standardized. 



Yet Avhen all is said, "Handsome is that handsome 

 does ; " and actual })erforniancc at the milk pail is of more 

 avail than are ideal contours, tortuous milk veins or a prom- 

 inent pelvic arch. A few observations made at the Vermont 

 station have pertinence here, as illustrative of this point. 

 Our cows are under constant observation. We have rec- 

 ords extending over ten years of lactation in several cases. 

 These cows w^ere carefully "judged" according to the "scale 

 of points " of the Jersey Cattle Club by a party who was 

 fairly well skilled in judging, and who did not know how 

 good or how poor dairy animals they were. He similarly 



' United States Department of Agriculture, Farmers' Bulletin No. 14.'5. 



