CHAP. v. DAIRY COWS. 113 



The breeding of cows for dairy purposes requires to be carried out 

 with the greatest care, all the more where high-bred or pure pedigree 

 cows are used ; for it seems to be admitted by many that high breed- 

 ing in cows is inimical to their ready breeding and milking qualities. 1 

 Not that there is anything to prevent the combination of good fatten- 

 ing, breeding, and milking qualities in one and the same cow ; but in 

 highly-bred animals the milk-glands are comparatively torpid and 

 weak, so that much of the food material which would go to the forma- 

 tion of milk is devoted to that of fat. On this point the following 

 extract is taken from a " Lecture on Milk," by the late Dr. Voelcker. 



" In the month of September, in 1860, I selected three cows 

 from the common dairy stock and three pedigree Shorthorns. 

 They were kept in the neighbourhood of Bristol, and fed upon 

 good pasture land. I carefully ascertained the quantity of milk, and 

 also the quality. After they had been kept for some time on pasture, 

 the milk was collected. Each cow then received 1 Ib. of excellent 

 linseed-cake, arid in a week's time the quantity was increased to 2 Ib. 

 per cow. I carefully analysed the milk of the common and of the 

 pedigree cows ; and, on looking over the results, I find no perceptible 

 difference between the quality of the milk of the common stock and of 

 that of the thoroughbred Shorthorns. Thus the common cows yielded 

 milk which gave nearly four per cent, of butter, and the thoroughbred 

 Shorthorns gave a milk of the same quality within one-fifth per cent. 

 The total amount of solid matter in both cases was the same. When 

 1 Ib. of linseed-cake was given, the quality of the milk was not materi- 

 ally bettered ; in both cases milk of the same quality was produced ; 

 and the same general remark may be made with respect to the 2 Ib. of 

 linseed-cake which was given to each cow. In all these cases the 

 quality of the milk was not improved, whether it were the common 

 cows or the pedigree cows. The quantity of milk produced by the 

 three pedigree cows, kept on grass alone, amounted to 28 pints in the 

 morning and 21 in the evening, making together 49 pints. The 

 common dair}^ stock produced rather more than 31 pints in the morn- 

 ing and 21 in the evening, making together 52 pints. When they 

 received 1 Ib. of cake per cow, the three pedigree cows gave in the 

 morning 26 pints, and in the evening 22, making together 48^ pints, 

 which was very nearly the same quantity as that produced before. 

 The three common dairy cows produced in the morning 28 pints, and 

 in the evening 18, making together 46| pints. When 2 Ib. of cake 

 were given to each cow, the three pedigree cows produced 26| pints in 

 the morning and 21 in the evening, making together 47| pints; whereas 



1 Regarding high-bred animals being bad milkers it may be noted, however, that at 

 Warlaby, where the cattle are not only high-bred but closely in-bred, as every bull there 

 used during the last 30 years has been of Warlably blood, a goodly number of the cows 

 regularly rear three calves during the season, and bring them up as well. They first suckle 

 two calves 'and then suckle a third after the first two are finished off. In reference to this 

 matter, too, it is worth while to notice that a pure-bred Shorthorn cow Mr. Deane Willis's 

 Cleopatra 5th was victor in the two years, 1888 and 1889, at the London Dairy Show ; and 

 in the previous year, 1887, the winner was another pure-bred shorthorn, Mr. Edwards's 

 May Duchess 18th. Many of the bluest-blooded Shorthorn and other stock in the country 

 are splendid milkers, although some breeders, it is true, have sacrificed milk to flesh. 



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