112 THE COW 



place. This plan involves a certain loss as between 

 the cost and selling price of every cow handled but, 

 on the other hand, it does away with the charge 

 involved in feeding and caring for calves and heifer 

 and dry cows. 



But after all, for most of us, the true pleasure 

 and satisfaction of dairying comes through the 

 plan of maintaining the herd by calves bom and 

 reared on the farm. The dairyman who, like the 

 writer, sells cream or who makes butter or ice- 

 cream and hence has available an abundance of 

 skim-milk, should by all means expect to raise all 

 the promising heifer calves. This will of course 

 give him more cows than he requires to replenish 

 his herd, but there are two marked and distinct 

 advantages. There is always an eager market at 

 increasing prices for well-bred and well reared 

 grade young stock and these, while in a way a sort 

 of by-product of the business, may constitute a very 

 important addition to the farm revenue. There is 

 also the further advantage that, having a large 

 number of young cows to select from, he may cull 

 his herd more closely, retaining only the most de- 

 sirable individuals and thus raising the general 

 average of production. It ought to be written in 

 capital letters that the most important single fac- 

 tor in profitable dairying is not breed, feed, meth- 

 ods or stable care, but efficient cows. This, to bor- 

 row a phrase from Thomas Carlyle, is the "one 

 thing altogether indispensable." Even the most 



