THE SELECTION OF A SIRE. 223 



of gum arabic are often useful, and if the anus is red and excoriated, one-half 

 dram coperas may be added to each pint of the gummy solution. All milk 

 given must be boiled, and if that does not agree, eggs made into an emulsion 

 with barley water may be substituted. Small doses (tablespoonful) of port 

 wine are often useful from the first, and as the feces lose their watery char- 

 acter and become more consistent, tincture of gentian in doses of two teaspoon- 

 fuls may be given three or four times a day. Counter-irritants, such as mus- 

 tard, ammonia or oil of turpentine may be rubbed on the abdomen when that 

 becomes tender to the touch." 



CHAPTER XXV. 



THE SELECTION OF A SIRE. 



The amount of experimenting which the average farmer or breeder is able 

 to do in this direction is necessarily limited. In the natural course of events 

 he acquires more experience in calf raising in two or three years than he is 

 able to obtain in the selection of the successive heads of his herd in a lifetime. 

 This fact renders the comparison of ideas and of experiences all the more 

 important in order that we may supplement our own meagre experiences with 

 those of others. The first necessity in the selection of a sire to head a herd is 

 that the breeder shall have in his own mind a clear and distinct idea of what 

 he wants and expects that herd to become. He must have a well defined pict- 

 ure before him of the type of cow which he desires to prevail in his herd. 

 Further than this he must have a decided opinion as to the relative importance 

 of the different elements which go to make up that type of cow. With these 

 ideas firmly fixed, the breeder will then select that animal, from amongst those 

 accessible to him, which he believes will, coupled with the present members of 

 his herd, produce offspring which approach to his ideal as nearly as possible. 



Now, what is the ideal which the breeder of Holstein-Friesian cattle should 

 have in mind ? First and foremost we believe it should be the economical pro- 

 duction of milk solids, and of these solids he should not ignore that fact that at 

 present the fat is by far the more valuable and serves approximately as a meas- 

 ure of the value of the whole. And, under present conditions, we believe the 

 aim of the breeder should be to increase the percentage of solids rather than 

 to increase the total production of milk. In saying this we do not intend to 

 indorse or to countenance those who would condemn all cows that do not come 

 to an abitrary standard in butter fats. The cow giving milk testing three per 

 cent is entitled to be judged simply on the standard of profit or loss, and a cow 

 testing five per cent should be judged in the same way. We have no patience 

 with the sweeping generality of one of our experiment station workers who 

 has undertaken to say that rich milking cows are more profitable than those 

 giving a milk less rich in fat. There is no evidence sufficient to support any 

 such generalizations. But it is true, of course, that of two cows giving the 

 same amount of milk and eating the same food, the one giving the richer milk 

 is the more profitable. All of us are aiming to improve our herds and the 

 breed as a whole, and we believe the possibilities of improvement lie rather in 

 the direction of quality than of quantity. For one thing the amount of milk 

 which a cow can carry in her udder is not unlimited and there are serious 

 doubts whether the practical dairyman will ever care to add to the number of 

 his daily milkings. This does not mean that quantity is to be ignored. No 

 deterioration should be permitted in any direction. We believe our cattle 

 should be bred to the dairy type rather than to the beef type, and here let it be 

 said that there is no connection between dairy type and lack of constitution. 

 The type is too familiar to need description. The scale of points for the 

 Advanced Registry may be referred to. The animal which would score high 

 under that scale must be of the dairy type, though there is room of course for 

 difference of opinion as to some of the individual points, or perhaps better, as 

 to their relative importance. There can be but little doubt but that the prin- 

 cipal points are udder capacity, digestive capacity and wedge shape. It is one 

 of the valuable characteristics of our breed that in it this type also possesses 

 the capacity to take on flesh economically and rapidly when not milking. 



