122 PROFITABLE STOCK KAISING 



and at the same time are heavy milkers. Rose, a 

 Shorthorn cow owned by N. G. Simpson of New 

 Hampshire, has a record of ii,ooo pounds of milk 

 produced in one year. Another has a record of 

 9,550 pounds of milk, from which were made 448 

 pounds of butter. Still another produced 60 

 pounds of milk, making 2 pounds 12^ ounces of 

 butter, in 24 hours. While these records are by no 

 means equal to the production of famous cows of 

 the dairy breeds, still they show that profitable 

 dairying is possible with the best type of dual pur- 

 pose stock under conditions which seem suited to 

 this type of dairying. 



The farmer should use his best judgment in de- 

 termining whether his surroundings justify an ex- 

 clusive dairy industry, or whether his conditions 

 will demand a more mixed type of farming, and 

 then direct his entire energy toward securing and 

 breeding the very best animals of the particular 

 type upon which he decides. If he is just starting 

 in the business, he had better begin with a few good 

 cows and gradually work up until the carrying 

 capacity of his farm is reached, rather than start too 

 heavily and later have to decrease his numbers on 

 account of having too little feed. The crying need 

 of dairying inAmerica today is not for more dairy 

 cows but for better ones. The feed which it re- 

 quires to support our 21,000,000 dairy cows ought 

 to produce at least twice the amount of dairy prod- 

 ucts that it does. There is a smaller degree of 

 efficiency in cows used in milk production in the 

 United States than in any other class of live stock. 



CONSIDERATIONS OF EFFICIENCY 



What are some of the means by which the pro- 

 ducing capacity of the dairy herds can be increased? 



