DAIRY CATTLE AND MILK PEODUCTION 



CHAPTER I 

 INTRODUCTION 



IMPORTANCE OF DAIRY FARMING ADVANTAGES ITS PLACE 

 IN A SYSTEM OF PERMANENT AGRICULTURE 



MILK, with its products, serves as one of the most important 

 sources of food for all highly civilized nations. A large 

 proportion of the best agricultural lands of the world are 

 utilized for its production. Although milk and products 

 of milk have been used to some extent for food as far back as 

 history records, the general use of milk as food has come about 

 only with the development of highly civilized nations. 

 Martiny l points out that the native races of America, 

 Africa, and Australia, which have never developed past the 

 stage of barbarism, do not use milk as food. The primitive 

 races of Western Asia and of Europe made use of milk, as 

 have their descendants, and according to this author, to this 

 fact is due in no small degree the great intellectual develop- 

 ment of Europe and America. 



To what extent this is true may be a question, but it is 

 a well-known fact that the most prosperous agricultural 

 nations and communities to-day are those in which the dairy 

 cow is the foundation of agriculture. We have only to com- 



1 Benno Martiny, Kirne und Girbe. 

 B 1 



