21 



kept in the same way in every respect, getting no hand food what- 

 ever/' And Mr. Allen adds, "At seventeen years of age, having 

 done l)reeding, she was fed off and made an excellent carcass of beef. 

 She was a great milker." 



This record is not very wonderful alongside of Bomba, 21 lbs. and 

 11| oz., Mary Ann of St. Lamberts, 36 lbs. and 12 oz., and Princess 

 2d, 46 lbs. and 12^ oz., but these cows were confessedly fed all they 

 would eat of the most concentrated food ; and two out of the three 

 havedied in their prime, presumably because their milking capacity was 

 developed and stimulated beyond the limit of their constitutional 

 strength. It has also been suggested by skeptical people that the 

 owners gift of embellishing may. have grown iu at least an equal 

 ratio with the butter making capacity of the cows. But, be this as 

 it may, I have recalled the history of Duchess to show that the 

 butter producing faculty is not only incompatible with good size and 

 admirable symmetry, but that it is found in a high degree and is 

 most permanenth' and practically useful when combined with the 

 most perfect development of form and physical constitution. I also 

 wish to call attention to the fact that the particular excellence of 

 Duchess l)y Daisy bull, as well as the general superiority of the 

 tribe and the breed, had been achieved by close study and care in 

 breeding animals for practical value as profitable producers of milk 

 and butter and beef ; and that while due importance was attached to 

 pedigree, each breeder used his own judgment as to the value of an 

 animal or a family for his purpose. There were then no herd books, 

 and farmers were not tempted to use an inferior animal because he 

 was recorded, or to reject a superior one because he was not. 



Few have more respect than I have for the different herd books as 

 books of reference ; like other agricultural text books thev are liable 

 to mislead but the neophyte who rushes confidently into paths which 

 the more experienced tread with caution and misgiving. Mr. Bates 

 ably remarks. " The value of pedigree depends not upon the length 

 of such pedigree, but on the length of time there has been a succes- 

 sion of the best blood, without any infei'ior blood intervening in 

 such succession." "This can only be known by those who have 

 known all the various crosses there ai-e iu any animal, and the blood 

 or breeding of such from their own knowledge of the tribes from 

 which they came, and how that produce bred again." Mr. Bates was 

 an intelligent, careful, experienced and eminently successful breeder. 

 I^t us see how his teachings and practice bear on the question of 

 breeding at the present day. 



