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animals of superior quality rather than with a large number of 

 small or even average worth. This is the third and most risky 

 method. 



Of the three methods, experience and observation lead the writer 

 to most strongly recommend the second to the young farmer and also 

 to the man long engaged in the milk-producing business unless 

 exceptional conditions point clearly to the probability of the third 

 method proving a success from the start. 



THE DAIRY BULL. 



In any case, the upbuilding of a good dairy herd without the 

 use of a good dairy bull is impracticable. The maintenance of the 

 herd in the highest state of productivity for any considerable length 

 of time without having such an animal at the head thereof may be 

 said to be impossible. 



CHOOSING THE BULL. 



The selection of a sire fit to head the herd is difficult. So- 

 called dairy conformation, that is, conformation supposed to entitle 

 the bull to honours in the show-ring, is not an unfailing indication 

 of good stock-getting qualities. The best way to select the dairy 

 bull is to judge him by the milk records on both sides of his family. 

 In addition, attention must, of coutrse, be paid to the bull himself. 

 No animal strikingly weak, or of very faulty conformation should 

 be used even when coming from heavy milking stock. Such indi- 

 viduals are more likely to perpetuate their own faulty conformation 

 than to transmit the heavy milk-producing peculiarities of their 

 ancestry. 



No breeder of pure bred dairy stock who considers himself 

 worthy the name, should keep a cow whose records he does not care 

 to know, or attempt to sell a bull for the high milk-producing 

 qualities of whose ancestry he is not ready to vouch. Such records, 

 while becoming more and more common, have not yet risen to the 

 high place they are ultimately bound to occupy in the estimation 

 of the average dairy farmer. The dairyman willing to buy a bull 

 without taking the trouble to learn something of the milk-producing 

 qualities of his ancestry, and the breeder unable or unwilling to give 

 such information are equally guilty of failing in their duty to them- 

 selves and to the dairying interests of their country. 



27889 2J 



