THE GARDEN AND FIELD. October, I9i3 



or, rather, too proud to tacitly, 

 and virtiiallv confess by asking 

 for advice that certain other men 

 are in a position to give it, these 

 laggards in the path of progress 

 pav the inevitable penalty which 

 attaches to lack of knowledge in 

 business affairs, and to that 

 " pride which goeth before a fall." 

 The man who succeeds in anything 

 of this sort— in cattle-breeding, as 

 much as in anything else — is he 

 who is ever in quest of informa- 

 tion, and is not too proud to ask 

 for it, if he does not find it on his 

 own account. It has long seemed 

 to me that larmiers might derive 

 no end of benefit, in various ways, 

 if they would meet tagether now 

 and then for mutual improvement 

 in the concerns they are interested 

 in., 



But while there are many who 

 are well up in breeding for beef 

 and beauty, which are so pbvious 

 to the eye, there are comparative- 

 ly few who seem to know much 

 about breeding for quantity, and 

 fewer still about breeding for 

 quality of milk. It isi next to im- 

 possible to absolutely make sure, 

 long beforehand, by the so-called 

 " escutcheon," or by any other 

 external indication, whether a 

 heifer will or will not be a good 

 milker, giving plenty of milk of 

 more than average quality. The 

 signs may turn out to indicate 

 correctly as to milk, but again, 

 they may not. They arte a guide, 

 but not an infallible guide. Gener- 

 ally, indeed, a mUky cow has a 

 relincd and feminine countenance, a 

 long and narrow, finely-cut^ sort of 

 face, which is an antithesis of that 

 of a bull. Some cows, indeed, 

 have broad and massive /faces, mas- 

 culine rather than ieminine in cast; 

 and cows owning this kind of face 

 are but seldom good at the pail, 

 and are correspondingly inferior at 

 the churn when butter is made. 

 — Dilliculty in Diagnosing Milk. — 



liut it is impossible to give such 

 instructions on paper as will teach 

 anyone about milk characteristics 

 so effectively as viva voce illustra- 

 tions, with a herd of dairy cows 

 as object lessons. Do what we 

 will, however, the best of judges is 

 not always correct in his diag- 

 nosis of an untried heifer's capacit}' 

 for fdling up the ])ail. Not long 

 ago I l>ought an in-calf, four-year- 

 old cow, whose milk indications 

 were not bv an\- means strikingly 

 ])romising. She was a polled 

 black cow, prol)ably crossbred, but 

 showing nothing but (lalloway 

 characteristics. Iler milk wa^ ■quite 

 uncommonly rich, and, for so 



small a cow, she gave a large 

 quantity of it. Vet again, subse- 

 quently, I bought another polled 

 cow, of the same age or there- 

 abouts, whose milk is, 1 believe, 

 richer than that of au} cow I 

 have ever Ijefore possessed. She, 

 too, is a small cow, and, but for 

 the absence of horns, might readily 

 be mistaken for an undersized 

 Shorthorn crossbred, which prob- 

 ably she is. Xeither of these cows 

 struck me, at the time 1 bought 

 them, as possessing any "features 

 specially distinguishing for milk. 

 They seemed likely, and that was 

 all. Being crossbreds will suffici- 

 ently account for the unexpected in 

 regard to milk. There can, I 

 think, be little or no doubt that, 

 as regards milkiness, crossbreds 

 are much more difficult to diag- 

 nose beforehand than are the pure 

 breeds from which they spring. 

 As to' milkiness in cows, nearly 

 half a century's expi^rience amongst 

 them has merely gone to confirm 

 my original idea, which then was 

 purely a theory or even a' conjec- 

 ture, that appearances are not al- 

 ways correct indications, and that 

 " the only proof of the pudding is 

 in the eating," so to speak. 



— Is Milkiness \\'orth the 

 Lrouble ? 



Those who are engaged in the 

 nidk trade are more alive than 

 most other folk as to the value of 

 breeding for quantity of milk, and 

 those who make butter for quality 

 of milk. The two properties do 

 not always necessaril}',, or even 

 probably, correlate or synchronize 

 in any cow or breed of cows, un- 

 less the animals have, like the 

 Jerseys, fixed characteristics of se- 

 vera, centuries' standing. And even 

 a pure-bred .Jersey, I am assured 

 — I haven't had much to do with 

 them myself— will sometimes bring 

 discredit on her- race by milking 

 poorly, both as to quantity 'and 

 (quality. But for all that, it is true 

 that careful breeding for milk will 

 establish a stream of tendency, 

 amongst cows, that; may, with 

 rare exceptions, be relied on, and 

 the establishment grows firmer as 

 times goes on. 



It is worth while, thereTore, to 

 all intents and i)urposes, to breed 

 cows for copious milking, though 

 the milk standard established in 

 this country does little or nothing 

 tf) encourage breeding i(,<r quality 

 as well as quantity of milk. I find 

 an o]nnion i)rcvailing that it is 

 hardlv worth while to breed' for 

 anything but quantity^ since low- 



quality milks — not lowest — may 

 creep through the meshes of the 

 standard. This is an opinion to 

 be regretted because the time is 

 coming — is* already within predict- 

 able distance of time — wnen milk 

 will be sold on a basis of . quality 

 to wholesale as well as to retail 

 customers. Then will arise a de- 

 mand such as we have not yet 

 known for cows whose milk: will 

 be conlidently held to contain a 

 reliable four per cent, oi Dutter- 

 fat. Then, too, wiU cattle — herds 

 of dairy cows — yielding low-quality 

 milk be looked at askance in the 

 trade, as, indeed, tfiey are already 

 to some appreciable extent ; espe- 

 ciall}- are they so regaraied at the 

 creameries, and only a little less 

 .so at the cheeseries. High-quality 

 milk finds preference already -in the 

 trade. 



It is an open secret, indeed, that 

 dealers readily show a casli prefer- 

 ence for " dairies " of superior 

 average quality of milk, which is 

 wanted for customers who can dis- 

 criminate and appreciate, .and to 

 whom price is a consideration 

 quite subordinate to quality. Ivet 

 us hope that such discrimination 

 wdl become general, and that) all 

 farmers wiU receive prices corres- 

 ponding with the quality of the 

 milk tney put on tue market. No 

 inducement can surpass this : the 

 inducement which increased pay- 

 ment for recognized merit can 

 suijpl}' ! We have recently had 

 what was called a milk famine in 

 London, that was mostly owing 

 to shortage in supply during the 

 tropical weather. The short- 

 age was, however, o"vving to in- 

 creased demand as well as to the 

 lessened yield of milk that was 

 caused by the want of rain 

 throughout the southern half of the 

 country. 



It seems to me that improved 

 quality of milk all round will cer- 

 tainl}' bring about an increased 

 consumption, and that this will 

 go some waj' toward establishing 

 a chronic shortage of supply. But 

 this will not take place until far- 

 mers generally aim to breed for 

 quality as well as quantity of milk 

 — two conditions which are not in- 

 compati1)le — and until the public 

 awake up into the knowledge — ^ele- 

 mentary though it really be— that 

 quality is the only true basis of 

 value in milk. 



# 



Your mistake in life is that you 

 do not look forward far enough. — 

 Dickens. 



