30 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



setts agriculture to-day is profitless cows, and the cause for 

 these rests upon this neglect of appreciation of the impor- 

 ance of structure and definite purpose. Breed has been the 

 one thought with the farmer, pedigree the chief standard of 

 merit with the specialist, and fancy points, arbitrarily fixed 

 by those whose chief conception has been beauty lines, have 

 influenced, and do influence, more than this question of utility. 

 We have sworn by the book rather than the cow. We have 

 stood by color of switch and tongue, until udders have been 

 lost ; width of stripe and size of spot have outranked evi- 

 dences of utility or constitution. Type must now be made 

 paramount to l)reed. Structure made the chief essential. 



There will be found wider variations between animals of 

 the same breed than between those of any given type though 

 of difierent breeds. Blood there must be, for improvement, 

 but it must be based on individuality, and this rests on 

 structure. Never was there such a demand for the aggres- 

 sive, progressive specialist as to-day ; but arbitrary points, 

 not in harmony with the practical needs of the hour, based 

 on actual performance, must give way for the essentials by 

 which the door to profit is to be gained. The breeder of au}^ 

 family or breed who has reached six thousand pounds of 

 milk or three hundred pounds of butter from each and every 

 mature animal, under business methods of feeding, has not 

 neglected his study or appreciation of blood, though his 

 cows show looseness of structure, angularity of frame and 

 lack of symmetrical contour. 



My cows are Jerseys, Ayrshires, Holsteins or Guernseys, 

 say the farmers, as though that of itself solved the problem 

 of profitable production, whereas it simply indicates certain 

 characteristics. If for the dairyman one or more of these 

 breeds outrank others as dairy animals, the question is not 

 solved by selection of breed, for no man has been able to 

 eliminate all oflf conditions and able to control structure and 

 temperament in every animal. The high degree of excellence 

 and great uniformity seen in these essentials simply indicate 

 possibilities when efforts are concentrated along the one line of 

 utility. 



For profitable dairying there must be an infusion of blood 

 of one of the breeds named, but with it there must also go a 



