CHAP. v. SELECTION OF DAIRY COWS. 115 



" The great and chief ohject is to obtain a cow thac is a heavy 

 milker, but you must obtain this without sacrificing form, size, or 

 quality. This, I firmly believe, can be and is now extensively done, and 

 reduced almost to a certainty, by careful selection and using fresh 

 strains of blood. If the Shorthorn breeders, by losing sight almost 

 altogether of milk (as, I think, it must be allowed many of our leading 

 men did), and looking only to colour, hair, and form, produced the 

 grandest beef-making animals perhaps the world ever saw, but as a 

 rule very deficient in milking properties, it stands to reason that, by 

 giving our attention solely to milk, the opposite result will necessarily 

 be obtained. To push either of these systems to the extreme is bad, 

 we want the two so blended together as thereby to produce milk, form, 

 and constitution. The fact that many of our most prominent breeders 

 do now carry out this practice is evidenced by the great demand for 

 their young bulls ; purchasers knowing that in their management and 

 selection these objects are kept steadily in view. 



" In starting a herd, no matter of what breed, it is necessary, after 

 selecting the cows as carefully as circumstances will admit, to use only 

 bulls from dams of known good heavy milking properties. Having 

 done this, then carefully note the quantity and quality of the milk 

 given by each animal ; this can be done by weighing .the produce given 

 by them respectively, say one day in each week. Then weed out from 

 time to time for disposal as beef, or otherwise, all failing to reach such 

 a standard as is considered profitable and satisfactory. Care and some 

 patience are necessary in the case of heifers, as, although bred from 

 known milking strains, they will sometimes, from various causes, do 

 badly with their first calf, but when rightly descended they generally 

 repay you with the second calf. 



" Should it be found that the herd is leaning too much to milk, and 

 losing flesh, form, or constitution, or vice versa, then make such an 

 alteration in the selection of the next bull used as is calculated to 

 remedy the defect. I do not for a moment lose sight of the fact that 

 with the greatest care mistakes may be made in the sire used that will 

 take some time afterwards to rectify, but this, I think, is only the 

 exception to the rule, and that by following the plan I have stated 

 success in the main will result. 



" Having secured a gbod cow, the next thing is to take care of her, 

 and this will never fail to be well done by any man who has given the 

 thought and attention required, as before stated, to get her. It must 

 follow as a matter of course. The herd should be liberally and regu- 

 larly fed with nutritious milk-forming food, and thoroughty milked out 

 twice daily at stated times, and above all, supplied with pure water and 

 kept clean. The plan of allowing the calf to run with the dam is bad 

 for milking results, the better system being to rear the calf by hand at 

 a week old. 



"The cow-calves will be reared, excepting those of bad form or colour 

 and from unsatisfactory dams, and passed in due time into the herd 

 with their first calves when about two-and-a-half years old ; the bull- 

 calves in ordinary herds being sold at a week old, or steered for 



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