BRKEDINO HEIFERS FOR THE DAIRY. 261 



The only drawback to this early breeding may be, and it prob- 

 ably is the fact, that the first calf may not be so good for rearing 

 as when the dam is at a maturer age ; but the second calf will 

 be equally as good as at any later age. The first calf of a dairy 

 cow, may thus be profitably sacrificed, if it prove a weak one, to 

 the increased profit of the cow herself Yet, the first calf may 

 not always be thus weakly or inferior. The calf before men- 

 tioned, of the sixteen months heifer — begotten accidentally, by a 

 scrub highway bull breaking into the pasture, where she was 

 running with her dam — being a female, was bred at two years 

 old, and proved one of the best in quite a herd of dairy cows, 

 which we for several years kept. In view, therefore, of all 

 circumstances — the condition of good keep, and thrifty growth 

 being attached — we recommend, decidedly, to let heifers bring 

 their first calves at two years old. 



Nor have we, in our practice, given extra food to these heifers. 

 They were reared either by hand, as we have recommended in 

 feeding stock calves, or with a part of the mother's milk only, 

 until four months old, with the addition of plenty of good grass 

 and hay in their proper seasons, and never fed with a morsel of 

 grain, or meal, or roots, although they might possibly have been 

 the better for it. But they had enough of what they did eat, and 

 good care always, with warm shelter in the inclement seasons. 



We admit that heifers thus early bred, do not attain their full 

 growth so soon as if left to three years, before they bring their first 

 calf. But good keep will carry them to it in a year or two, and 

 at four or five years, little, if any, difference in size will be found 

 between them. 



Let us be distinctly understood. "We only commend- such early 

 breeding to good, painstaking farmers and dairymen. Those 

 who neglect, starve, and bang about their cattle, exposing them 

 to all kinds of hardship, should never breed their heifers until 

 three, possibly four years of age, and thus incur the penalty. 



