168 How THE FARM PAYS. 



best of blood at the bottom, and I believe the common native cows 

 are susceptible of very great improvement if the same care should be 

 given to them as has been given to what we call the pure breeds. 

 During twenty years, or more, past, there has been a considerable 

 mixture of Jersey and Ayrshire blood among the native stock, and 

 traces of it are seen in almost every part of the country, more or less. 

 So that the native cattle, as they are called, have a foundation upon 

 which, by careful breeding, an excellent herd may be built up. And, 

 in reply to your question, I should say, first, that a well selected herd 

 of native cattle, showing a large trace of Ayrshire or Short Horn 

 blood, would make the best cows for an ordinary working milk dairy. 

 Next to these I would place cattle showing traces of Devon blood. 

 And third, for the common butter dairy, I would select a herd of 

 natives, having Jersey blood in them, of the best kind I could find, 

 and then procure a good Jersey bull to improve them with. No 

 farmer need complain or feel envious because he has not the means 

 to purchase a herd of pure bred registered Jerseys. He can very 

 easily procure a bull of first rate family record for butter production 

 to improve his native stock with, and in a few years would possess a 

 herd in all respects as good for yield of butter as a herd of pure bred 

 cows. 



The cost would be very soon repaid. If a farmer even borrowed 

 $1,000 for the purchase of a two-year-old bull of good pedigree, he 

 would get the money back again very quickly from a herd of twenty- 

 five cows only. This is easily seen. The first year he would have 

 twelve heifer calves and twelve the second year; the third year there 

 would be eighteen heifer calves and twelve young half-bred cows. 

 These young cows, with this breeding, would alone be worth all the 

 bull cost, which would be only about $80 each. The fourth year 

 there would be thirty young cows, easily worth $2,500, because no one 

 who had them would sell them for that price. At the end of the 

 fifth year the increase of the herd would number 100 cows, and if 

 each one was worth only $10 more than a common cow, the bull 

 would have been paid for. But after the third cross some of the 

 cows, perhaps half of them, would produce butter enough to pay a 

 good interest on $200 each. I think this answers your question as to 

 the best cow for the dairy for the working farmer who is unable to 

 procure the costly pure bred Jersey cows. 



Several cases have come to my knowledge in which farmers have 

 bought a well bred Jersey bull for $500 or more and crossed it upon 

 their native cows, with the result, that in less than five years the 

 extra product of butter, at thirty cents a pound, from the half and 

 three-quarter bred cows, has alone, every year, repaid the whole cost 



