BREEDING AND BEARING DAIRY COWS. 51 



because while two such cows have to be fed for the same 

 equivalent of product, and the cost of the butter is thus 

 doubled, there is twice as much labor spent in gather- 

 ing this pound from the two cows. All this is clear to 

 the commonest understanding, but it is necessary to em- 

 phasize the trite statement to show the great importance 

 of the home breeding and rearing of the cows kept in a 

 working dairy. It is not possible to purchase the best 

 cows; the owners know their value and will not sell them 

 except at high prices which the dairyman cannot afford 

 to pay. He must, therefore, rear his own herd, and make 

 it so valuable that it will repay all the care and cost ex- 

 pended upon it. 



The art of breeding is governed by a few rules, which 

 are simple and easy to understand. 



The first and most important of these is, that *'like 

 produces like," by which is meant that animals of certain 

 peculiarities of form, color, disj)osition, habit, and cpial- 

 ity, when bred together, reproduce their own characteris- 

 tics in their progeny. This rule has been so uniformly 

 and constantly proved by practice, and is so reasonable 

 and natural, that it may be taken as a safe guide in the 

 rearing of dairy cows. Every person may see it proved 

 by practice every day of his life. There is more or less 

 .of family likeness in persons as well as .in the lower ani- 

 mals. The progeny of a Jersey cow is always a Jersey, 

 and the same is true of all other breeds. A good rich 

 milker produces calves that are good milkers, and that 

 bear a close resemblance to herself in all valuable points. 

 It is the fashion to assert that only pure breeds have this 

 physiological power of propagating their own characteris- 

 tics. This is nothing more than a claim made without 

 sufficient reason by the breeders of these cattle, for the 

 purpose of raising the market value of their stock ; a 

 legitimate way, perhaps, of doing business as it is now 

 done. All animals possess this power to some degree^ 



