70 



DAIRY FARMING 



one cow who will have at most only a few daughters. This 

 is the basis of the old but true saying, " the bull is half the 

 herd." 



The main opportunity for improvement in a native or 

 mediocre herd is by using a good sire. For example, one 



FIG. 26. An excellent three-quarters-bred cow, showing what a pure- 

 bred sire can do in two generations. The grandmother of this cow was 

 a rather poor milker. She herself produced in nine years, beginning 

 when she was two years old, 96,800 pounds of milk and 3814 pounds of 

 butter. 1 



bull might be the sire of 20 daughters in a herd in one year. 

 If the dams be capable of producing only 200 pounds of fat 

 yearly, and if the sire represents a breed or strain the cows 

 of which are capable of producing 350 pounds of fat per year, 

 it is evident that, if the daughters averaged only half way 

 between, there would be an increase of 75 pounds per cow 



1 The Cornell Reading-courses, Vol. Ill, No. 54, p. 53. 



