THE OX AND THE DAIRY. 33 



" To a person commencing improvement, the best advice is to 

 get as good a bull as he can, and if he be a good one of his 

 kind, to use him indiscriminately with all his cows ; and when 

 by this proceeding, which ought to be persisted in, his stock 

 has, with an occasional change of bull, become sufficiently 

 stamped with desirable excellences, his selection of males 

 should then be made to eradicate defects which he thinks 

 desirable to be got rid of. 



** He will not fail to keep in view the necessity of good blood 

 in the bulls resorted to, for that will give the only assurance 

 that they will transmit their own valuable properties to their 

 offspring ; but he must not trust to this alone, or he will soon 

 run the risk of degeneracy. In animals evincing an extraor- 

 dinary degree of perfection, where the constitution is decidedly 

 good, and there is no prominent defect, a little close breeding 

 may be allowed : but this must not be injudiciously adopted, 

 or carried too far ; for, although it may increase and confirm 

 valuable properties, it will also increase and confirm defects ; 

 and no breeder need be long in discovering that, in an im- 

 proved state, animals have a greater tendency to defect than 

 to perfection. Close breeding from affinities impairs the 

 constitution and affects the procreative powers, and therefore 

 a strong cross is occasionally necessary." 



The dairy-farmer, however, is less concerned in this high 

 breeding than the grazier ; yet he is not by any means indif- 

 ferent in the matter ; for his aim ought to be, to obtain a 

 breed no less valuable as milkers than for their disposition to 

 fatten when the milk is dried. These two qualifications are 

 not to be attained very easily ; yet they may be, and, indeed, 

 have been attained, and especially among the improved short- 

 horn breeds, as those of Durham and Yorkshire, or the cross- 

 breeds between the old Shropshire arid the Holderness. The 

 breeds most valued in the great dairies around the metropolis 

 are mixed between the Yorkshire, Holderness, and Durham. 

 For quality and quantity of milk they are eminent; they 

 yield, on the average, each cow, a gallon of milk per day, and 

 often nine quarts ; and when dry, they are in general readily 

 fattened for the butcher. 



observance of which good might be generally produced, and as little evil as 

 possible effected ? UTILITY. The truly good form is that which secures 

 constitution, health, and vigour ; a disposition to lay on flesh with the greatest 

 possible reduction of offal. Having obtained this, other things are of minor, 

 though perhaps of considerable importance." Prize Essay, by the Rev. H. Berry. 



D 



