102 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



to-daj', as far as we can find out, are not one bit more pro- 

 ductive than was the herd owned by the same man twenty 

 years ago. Absolutely no progress has been made and never 

 will be made until the owner raises his own dairy cows. This 

 will involve, of course, giving closer attention to the matter of 

 breeding. It will not pay to raise a dairy heifer unless the 

 chances are good for her to be a profitable cow when mature, 

 that is to say, she must be given the right inheritance as far as 

 possible in order that the number of cows that will have to be 

 rejected by selection will be reduced to the minimum. After 

 the cow is raised and in milk, the only salvation of the dairy- 

 man is to keep records of her production. This may be done to 

 good advantage through the cow-testing association or by the 

 owner himself. 



It is not necessary to milk a heifer long to find out if she is 

 a good one or not. Last year I compiled the records of our 

 herd, which are complete for twenty-two years, and I found 

 that in only one case would we have been far wrong had we 

 culled out the inferior cows on their first year's record. It is a 

 mistake to keep a young cow year after year thinking next time 

 she will be a good one. Our rule is that unless there is some 

 good excuse apparent for her poor performance, we condemn a 

 heifer that shows up poorly the first year. 



Another question that I might discuss in detail, if I had the 

 time, in this connection, is that of heifer raising and to what 

 extent the manner of raising affects the dairy qualities of 

 animals when mature. In other words, is the inferior or 

 superior cow, from a milking standpoint, born that way, or is 

 she made what she is by the manner of feeding and treatment 

 when young? We have been carrying on investigations along 

 this line for a number of years. Our conclusions so far are, 

 that the dairy qualities of an animal are mostly dependent 

 upon heredity, and that you cannot to any great extent, at 

 least, affect the dairy qualities of the animal by the way she is 

 fed or managed when young. We would, of course, not go so 

 far as to say it is not possible under very abnormal conditions 

 to injure the milk-giving functions by the way she is raised, but 

 it would be necessary to go beyond ordinary practices to get 

 any such effect. 



