30 THE dairyman's MANUAL. 



raised only from deep milkers, and it is quite as important 

 that the sire should be of a deep milking family as the 

 dam. 



The choice of stock is so large that there is danger of 

 the dairyman being bewildered in the great variety, and 

 of finding difficulty in making a selection of any one pure 

 breed for the improvement of his herd. 



The Native Cow — so called — is necessarily the basis 

 upon which the dairyman must form his herd, and for- 

 tunately this stock is good enough, not only for the 

 purpose of being crossed by pure bred bulls of different 

 breeds for special uses, but for careful selection and im- 

 provement within itself. It has, since the first settle- 

 ment of America, been reared from imported cows, which, 

 there is reason to believe, were the best of their kind, 

 and the progeny of these have been crossed again and 

 again with bulls of every kind, until the native cow has a 

 mixed blood the origin of which is impossible to distin- 

 guish. The preponderance of blood is clearly the Short- 

 horn, or, as it was formerly called, the Durham, which was 

 imported systematically seventy years ago, and has been 

 largely intermixed with the native stock in many localities, 

 chiefly in New York, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and Ohio. 

 In New England the preponderance of blood is Devon 

 and Ayrshire, these lighter cattle being better fitted for 

 the rougher and less luxuriant pastures of the East. 

 These three breeds seem to be chiefly mingled in the 

 native stock, and if a most careful selection had been 

 made, with a set purpose to get useful cows, no better 

 choice could have been made. Occasionally may be seen 

 the white face and brick-red color of the Hereford, and 

 more recently the Jersey and the North Holland (or, as 

 it is now called, Holstein-Friesian) breeds have become 

 largely intermixed with the native stock. But it is wrong 

 to suppose that a mixture of many excellent breeds will 

 produce a race of cattle combining all the good qualities 



