118 



THE GARDEN AND FIELD. 



August, I9l3 



Breeding Good Dairy Cattle 



Breeding good dairy animals is 

 not yet an exact science. It is an 

 evolutionary work in which the 

 painstaking, patient, intelligent 

 breeder is cooperating with nature 

 for the production of the improved 

 animals. And nature will not be 

 hurried, so the work of a 

 breeder is not, says a writer in 

 " Hoard's Dairyman," the work of 

 a few tentative matings of animals 

 showing wonderful results in few 

 years. It is more nearly a life 

 work for a man, and one man's 

 life is often lamentably short 

 for the length of the work. 



For the encouragement of the 

 new hand, I can unhesitatingly 

 assure him that if he will, "by the 

 exercise of a good degree of intelli- 

 gence," mate cows of proven worth 

 with suitable males, having 

 good pedigrees in all that the 

 word means, feed and care for 

 intelligently and follow up a 

 systematic and scientific course of 

 breeding to definite lines, keeping 

 a cow that, being bred -right, 

 should be right, and, of course, 

 cacr\dng no visible objectionable 

 ])hvsical deformity till she is a 

 fully matured animal, and then un- 

 conpromisingly rejecting all that 

 do not measure up to the stan- 

 dard ; remembering always that 

 continued, uninterrupted good feed- 

 ing is the hand maiden of good 

 Ijreeding, almost marvellous re- 

 sults towards the end of getting 

 good cows can be accomplished in 

 • a few years. 



— A Qualification. — 

 Let it be remembered that as 

 qualification of my going on record 

 as thus absolutely promising these 

 good results, the use of pure bred 

 animals is a pre-supposed condition 

 for by such mating of pure blood 

 only can we have any assurance of 

 the definite character of results. If 

 we cross breeds or use grades on 

 grades we are working entirely at 

 random and doing uselessly over 

 again the primary work the first 

 improvers did generation upon 

 generation ago. 



Having got good cows we need 

 to keep them good, and as far as 

 possible make them better. It is 

 possible for a cow to grow in 

 grace. We rail at and cry out 

 against the robber cows, the ones 

 that are making the disgraceful 

 averages of the statistics makers, 

 but it is my deliberate opinion 

 "that the cows of this land are 

 much m.ore sinned against than 

 sinning, and before we say withi 

 condemnation to a cow, " Thou 

 has been weighed in the balance 

 and found wanting," let us by all 

 means see to it, that our steward- 

 ship of her, our weighing of her, 

 has been marked by a good degree 

 of intelligence. 



— Cows are not Machines. — 



There are many so called dairy- 

 men who keep their cows just as 

 we work with a gasoline engine. 

 They think as the cow is a ma- 

 chine she needs have the current 

 on only when she is working. 

 When the cow is fresh she is at 

 her best, and they save feed 



Obtainable from all Storekeepers or 

 th« Makers. 



Makeri also of Sheep, Cattle and Pig 

 Troughing:, Tanks, Field Gates, Wheel 

 and Wat«r Barrows, srU. 



on her, as at that tim« sh.e will 

 do well any way. When this period 

 of natural activity begins to wane 

 and the flow of milk reduces itself 

 to the level of its course, there 

 isn't much use of feeding heavily 

 then, for a cow that doesn't pay 

 for generous ■ feeding should not 

 have it, and in consequence of such 

 mechanical dairying, when milk is 

 high, the cow is kept by sufferance 

 and on mighty cheap feed against 

 the coming of pasture. Then the 

 cows will empty full udders into 

 waiting pails, and the price of 

 milk In- the inflexible law of supply 

 and demand. 



It appears strange that the ob- 

 serving farmer, unless he, like 

 the potato, has eyes and cannot 

 see will not learn from his cows 

 in full pasture the lesson that na- 

 ture is trying to teach him, that 

 the cow is an organism of wonder- 

 ful construction, capable of taking 

 from him the crude products of 

 his land that he hands her as sil- 

 ver, and in a short time through, 

 the dairy, handing it back to him 

 again as gold — sixteen to one a fair 

 proposition. 



— The Effect of Comfort. — 



Why does this cow fill her udder 

 and the milker's paH when the 

 sun shines and the breeze is , soft, 

 and the clear waters run and the 

 grass is green and plentiful in the 

 pasture ? Simply becaiise the cow 

 is comfortable, has sun jand air to 

 make her good red blood, has all 

 the rich nutritious grass she can 

 eat. Her nutrition is both bal- 

 anced and abundant, and her en- 

 vironment such that the wonderful 

 functions of her organism are in 

 perfect normal operation. 



There should be nothing spas- 

 modic about the keeping of a cow. 

 At pasture— at full pasture — aU her 

 needs are supplied, and when the 

 pasture fails, either in quality or 

 quantity and the earth is parched, 

 "and the trrasshopper is a burdeUj" 

 and when the nights and then the 

 days turn cold, the needs of the 

 cow for ifuU nutritious feeds re- 

 mains the same as when she did 

 so well in the. first flush pasture. 



If we would not forget that the 

 cow makes milk from her feed, 

 and come into the clear understand- 

 ing of the organic fact that milk 

 making is a normal operation of 

 the properly nourished functions of 

 the cow, we would have more good 

 cows well kept. 



To me the reading of the law is 

 plain. If my cows are to carry on 



A.. SIMPSON & SON'S 



CreaiD Transport Cans 



3 gallons, 14/6 ; 6 gallons, 17/6 ; 10 

 gallons, 22/6 each. 



(User's name put on without extra 

 charge) . 



The STRONGEST and CHEAPEST 

 Pattern on the Market. 



A. SIMPSON & SON 



LIMITED. 

 Gawler Place, Adelaide. 



