No. 4.] PROFITS OF DAIRYING. 407 



they very keenly realize the difference between good and poor dairy 

 animals, and are eager to secure the best, even at prices two or three 

 times greater than common stuff brings. It is unfortunate that 

 breeders do not realize this as fully as they should, and we are in- 

 clined to blame them for rearing so large a percentage of low-grade 

 stock ; but the fault is not theirs alone. " City dairymen do not buy 

 direct of the breeders, thus informing them of their needs ; they depend 

 rather upon middlemen and dealers. The dealers have pursued a 

 short-sighted policy, keeping breeders in ignorance of the market value 

 of the best cows. Often they take three or four common ones to secure 

 one that is choice, paying a level price for the lot, or rating them at a 

 nominal difference. The breeder, therefore, does not know what the 

 best cows will sell for to the city milkman, and does not think how 

 much more profitable it would be to breed and rear that kind. 



Again, realizing or not realizing the difference in value, he does not 

 employ methods calculated to produce the best results in breeding. 

 Upon one farm heifer calves are nearly all reared, good, bad and in- 

 different alike; upon another they are all destroyed, without regard 

 to dairy promise. If some sort of an exchange could be arranged, 

 whereby the farmer with the taste and facilities for rearing heifers 

 could secure the best of his neighbors or the city dairyman in place of 

 the weedy ones born on his own farm, how much better results could 

 be obtained. This is an idea that has already taken root, and is gain- 

 ing favor among many engaged in the business. 



More than this exchange is necessary, however, to satisfy the needs 

 of the trade, — a system of selection needs to be observed. The laws 

 of heredity control the dairy function as fully as they do other char- 

 acters. Beef habits do not jiredispose offspring to produce milk. To 

 secure superlative dairy heifers, one must lay the foundations in an- 

 cestry excelling in the desired direction. The best success, therefore, 

 involves the careful study of the dairy qualities of the dams and 

 grand-dams of the heifer calves we propose to rear. Superior excellence 

 of ancestry in the qualities sought is the best guarantee of the same 

 qualities in the progeny. In this connection, while I regard the actual 

 production of a cow as the best evidence of her own ability to produce 

 and transmit to her offspring, I do not disregard conformation, general 

 appearance and type. There have been cows with great records which 

 did not transmit the ability to come anywhere near these records in 

 their progeny. There have been cows, on the other hand, not great 

 milkers themselves, whose offspring have yielded large amounts. I 

 regard the type and conformation of a cow of equal value with her 

 actual performance in determining the value of her heifer calves for 

 the dairy. I would not reject the progeny of a well-bretl, typical cow 

 even though her own product was somewhat unsatisfactory ; nor would 

 I certainly accept that of a large milker whose shape was so faulty as 

 to render transmission doubtful. The cow is of less consequence in 



