14 DAIRY CATTLE AND MILK PRODUCTION 



On the Market. Cows of a distinct dairy breed usually, 

 and rightly, sell for more than the same number of cows of 

 mixed or unimproved breeding, even if the latter are known 

 to be equally good as dairy cows. The cows of a distinct 

 dairy breed are worth more to the buyer, because he can 

 reasonably expect these animals to show the typical charac- 

 ter of the breed to which they belong in production of milk, 

 in disposition, and in other breed characters. Further, he 

 can reasonably expect that these cows, when mated with 

 a male of the same line of breeding, will produce offspring 

 having the same typical breed characters. A cow of mixed 

 breeding, even if a good dairy cow, or an unusually good 

 milker in a breed where milking qualities are not generally 

 found, cannot be counted upon to reproduce herself in her 

 offspring. It is a well-known fact in animal breeding that the 

 longer a certain character has existed in a breed, the more cer- 

 tain it is to be transmitted. 



Pure breeds have been bred generation after generation 

 with certain objects in view, and in course of time these charac- 

 ters become fixed as breed characters, and are transmitted. It 

 is easy to understand why the chances are good for getting a 

 good dairy cow if the ancestors are Holstein, known to have 

 been bred about 2000 years in one locality and noted for hun- 

 dreds of years as great dairy animals, or if the parents are 

 Jerseys bred for 500 years, or longer, along one line. 



Classification of Cattle. No system of classification has 

 yet been devised that can be applied in more than a general 

 way to the individuals that make up the great mass of cattle. 

 If we undertake to arrange them by breeds, we find, in addition 

 to the numerous pure breeds, animals with all possible mix- 

 tures of the blood of two or more breeds, or with more or less 



