TESTED DAIRY ANIMALS MARYLAND. 257 



MARYLAND. 



AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION AT COLLEGE PARK. 



REPORT BY H. J. PATTERSON, DIRECTOR. 



There is no doubt but that good care and feeding of cows, system- 

 atically carried out from year to year, will change their individuality and 

 cause many cows to take a place among good and even extraordinary ani- 

 mals that are now occupying places of indifference and obscurity simply 

 because they do not have a proper chance. The force of this is illustrated 

 by the following records given of cows Nos. 7 and 15. Further details 

 of similar results with many other cows have been published in bulletin No. 

 69 of the Maryland Station. 



Cow No. 7 was purchased by the Maryland Experiment Station from a 

 herd of average cows for the state, and, as far as could be judged, she was 

 no better than the average of the herd. Her ability at that time is shown 

 by her first year's record at the station, as she produced but 258 pounds of 

 butter, which is likely better than she had been doing before as she was much 

 better fed. She was at this time in what might usually be called the prime 

 of her life for dairy purposes. In the five years she has been owned by the 

 station her yearly butter yield has constantly increased, to 268 pounds the 

 second year; 357 pounds the third year; 362 pounds the fourth year; and 

 442 pounds the fifth year. She is a high-grade Jersey and, as can be seen 

 by the illustration, decidedly not of the beef type. She is a very dainty and 

 comparatively light feeder, which is her serious fault, and, while she does not 

 produce a large quantity of mjlk, it is very rich in fat. 



No. 15 was purchased by the Maryland Experiment Station from a 

 Baltimore consignment of western cattle. When she was purchased she 

 was of a decidedly beefy tendency, and the record of her first year's butter 

 yield at the station shows her to have been a very poor cow from the dairy 

 standpoint at that time. The first year she was owned by the station she 

 produced 183 pounds of butter; the second year, 286 pounds; the third 

 year, 359 pounds; the fourth year, 338 pounds; and the fifth year, 386 

 pounds. The illustration shows her to have Hereford blood, which is very 

 likely the predominant strain, as when she is bred to the most prepotent 

 Jersey or Guernsey bulls, her calves invariably are colored like the Hereford 

 breed without any markings whatever from the sire. Since purchasing 

 by the station, No. 15 has lost all of her tendencies to lay on flesh. 



The sketches sent by the station are of cows which were selected as 

 being average animals for this state, and it is doubtful if they had remained 

 under the same conditions as that from which they were taken, whether 

 their best yearly yield would have been any better than their records for 

 the first year they were owned by the station. It simply shows what can 

 be made from a great many average cows found on dairy farms if they are 

 given the proper treatment. 



