ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION 107 



of the cows of Illinois do not pay for their board, and that 

 another fourth ought to be replaced with better cows as rapidly 

 as possible. 



I am not surprised that this is so, because for many years 

 it has been a favorite practice among dairymen to buy the best 

 cows they could pick out — milk them one season and send them 

 to the butcher. From the breeding standpoint, this has the same 

 effect as if every dairyman carried a gun, and when he saw 

 a good cow^ should shoot her on the spot. There has been so much 

 of this, that the wonder is, that any good cow^s are left. It takes 

 four years to raise a good cow^ and only one to close her out by 

 this method. It would need an enormous territory devoted to 

 breeding cows to keep up with this slaughter and such a territory 

 does not exist. It is no wonder, therefore, that good cows have 

 been getting more and more scarce and higher in price. 



This having come about, many dairymen, it is true, now 

 keep the really good cows more than one year, not w^ith a view 

 of securing progeny, but of prolonging the service of the cow as 

 long as possible. They breed them, therefore, not to a good sire, 

 but to a scrub — '^^nything to make the milk come, as the phrase 

 goes." Ihis does prolong the life of the cow, but the effect, so 

 far as the progeny is concerned, is no different than if she had 

 been shot as soon as her excellence had been discovered. In 

 either case — as soon as she gets into the hands of a commercial 

 dairyman of this kind her chances of leaving good progeny 

 are over. 



Now^ this is breeding backwards. What would have been the 

 speed record today if trotting horses had been bred in such a 

 way that the best performeres left little or no progeny? Fortun- 

 ately many dairymen are beginning to see the point and to keep 

 good sires. Their number should increase. What I have said 

 about '"grading up' applies to these progressive individuals, 

 and to them I want to enter a word of protest against the un- 

 necessary slaughter of young bulls. The common practice is 

 to buy a young bull and after keeping him .a year or two, sell 

 him to the butcher. The excuse is, that he "got ugly"or that we 

 "must avoid inbreeding." I want to protest at these points when 

 discussing practical breeding for dairymen. 



