216 



THE GARDEN AND FIELD. 



October, 1913 



XKe Farm 



Breeding Cows for Quantity 

 Plus Quality of Milk. 



By Professor J. Prince Sheldon, in 

 Live Stock Journal. 



One of the most pro:ninent and 

 characteristic anomalies to be 

 met with within the broad and 

 spacious limits which enclose the 

 domain of dairy-farming in this 

 countr}", as it appears to me, is 

 this, \iz., the common careliassness 

 with which the milk-yield of cows 

 is regarded. The apparently 

 supine and happy-go-lucky listless- 

 ness on this subject, which former- 

 ly prevailed to a large extent, 

 and does in some measure still pre- 

 vail, amongst dairy farmers — 

 cheese makers, chielly — as to the 

 c^uantity of milk each cow pro- 

 duces, and still more as to the 

 quality of it, would be incredible 

 to outsiders who were not practic- 

 ally acquainted with the subject. 

 This trait of character — not alto- 

 gether what one w-ould like to see, 

 in respect to things generally, in 

 a community anvwlV-re— is in som-e 

 of its aspects really admirable ; in 

 this, for instance, it serves as an 

 indication, by way of inference, of 

 the staying-power possessed by 

 those who, day after day and year 

 after year, drink in the healtli- 

 insjjiring odour of Mother Earth, 

 and of the leaves and grasses 

 which adorn whilst they cover with 

 a verdant mantle and carpet. It 

 is the varied charms of country 

 life, the close ass'ociation with Na- 

 ture, the inhalation of purest air, 

 and with it of many mingled plant 

 odours which are liberated in the 

 great and glorious laboratory in 

 which l)irth and growth and re- 

 arrangement are consummated, 

 that continually serves to recon- 

 cile these tenacious people to work- 

 ing for intangilile profits and, lead- 

 ing lives of detachment and isola- 

 tion. 



— Taking it Coolly. — 

 Herein is found, in fact, an ex- 

 planation of the general run of 

 contented accej)tance of the ' un- 

 avoidable, so to speak, as to mat- 

 ters whose 'real im])f)rtance would 

 rouse a townsman into fevigrish but 

 commendable energy. Most far- 

 mers take things more coolly— 

 ])hiloso])hically, idly, if vou like and 

 will— than is the case with towns- 

 men. A good thing for them, in 



some respects, that they, can do 

 this and do it. Dependent on the 

 caprices of a fiickle climate, and 

 wholh' powerless to regulate the 

 weather, they feel themselves and 

 their avocations to be sfibordinat- 

 ed to the resistless current of the 

 cosmical tendencies, and hence it 

 follows that they seldom " cry 

 over spilled milk " — a misfortune, 

 in one sense or another, that they 

 are more than tolerably familiar 

 with. Hence, too, the careless 

 unconcern with which, apparently, 

 not a few dairy-fariiners regarded 

 the relative merits of different cows 

 at the milking-pail in days gone 

 by, when each man's milk was 

 made into cheese at home, and the 

 cheese-tub hid a multitude of 

 shortcomings. This pa'rticular type 

 of philosophic mind is, however, 

 irjichi less commonly met with 

 now than formerly amongst far- 

 mers. But although a cow in- 

 ferior as a milker is noticed now 

 a good deal , soomer than was for- 

 merly the case, steps to get rid of 

 her— to feed her off for beef— are 

 not taken as soon, perhaps, as 

 they might be with advantage. 

 There is still too much— shall _ I 

 call it ?— broad-minded toleration 

 extended to such a cow, too much 

 inclination to be content with 

 average perforinances th'roughout 

 the herd, too common a tendency 

 to excuse individual dilinquencies 

 l)y the stoical rcllection that 

 " there's always a something " ! 



— Quantity and Quality. — 

 The one is obvious, plain to the 

 naked eye ; the other is a point 

 whose "accurate elucidation in- 

 volves a process of scientific ex- 

 amination of an analytical nature 

 A certain widely-known man, 

 whos'e farming is presumably to 

 some, extent a hobby, though with- 

 al a practical hobb}-, had a great 

 fancy for pedigree cattle, and 

 bought a dozen or so. He likes 

 to S'ee his ruby quadrupeds graz- 

 ing amongst the hedgrows and the 

 isolated trees. They are as fat as 

 mud, but as milkers are dismal 

 failures. About a quart each per 

 " meal " is said to be the c^uantity 

 of milk those aristocrats of bovine 

 society will condescend to give, 

 though feeding on good land, 

 amidst abundant grass. A quart 

 per " meal," instead of six oi 

 eight, or even, ten or twelve, seems 

 to be a reductio ad absurdum in 

 dairynfarming. As a lacteal per- 



formance, it is a travesty on the 

 bovine race, and all self-respecting 

 cows, jealous of their breed's re- 

 putation for milkiness, should bel- 

 low out their detestation of such 

 frauds. 



And yet, for all that, it is 

 man's fault rather than cows' that 

 such failures at the milking-pail 

 are i)ossible ; their milkiness has 

 been deliberately and purposely 

 bred away, out of them. This has 

 been done for generations — not 

 otily of cattle but of men — and the 

 resulting milklessness may be 

 charged with, having done its 

 share, and that no small one, in 

 bringing about the disastrous col- 

 lapse in pedigree Shorthorn values, 

 which chiefly occurred in the, penul- 

 timate decade of the nineteenth 

 century. , 



- Well, it is clear enough, or ought 

 to be, that a cow's ordinary but 

 most honourable destiny is to 

 yield a maximum quantity of milk 

 whose qualit}^ is decidedly above 

 the average. The breeding of a 

 calf is a subsidiary incident in her 

 career, though not in itself unim- 

 portant. Dairy farmers who are 

 alive to their own interests will 

 not be content with cows that 

 give less than eight quarters of 

 milk each " meal " for months in 

 the Hush of the season — milk that 

 may he depended on to pass any 

 milk standard recognized by the 

 law, and to analyze up to 12 per 

 cent, of solids, of which about 3/i 

 per cent, represents the butter fat. 

 This ought to be — but isn't — what 

 ever}' cow should aim at, and 

 some cows accomplish ; just, in- 

 deed, what they would accomplish 

 if onh- they were as carefully 

 bred as they ought to be for 

 (ir.ialit\' as well as quantity of milk. 



— The Milking Capacity. — 

 As the question is now tmder- 

 stood, the giving of rich milk and 

 a fair lot of it, or of doing badly 

 in one or both, is, for the most 



COOPER'S 



STOUT. 



Full-bodied and Nourishing, is 

 taking the place of Imported Stout 

 Recommended by Doctors. 



Write to— 



Thos. COOPER & SONS 

 Upper Kensingtoa. 



