THE JOURNAL 



OF THE 



BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Vol. XVII. No. 6. 



SEPTEMBER, 1910. 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE DAIRY 

 SHORTHORN. 



A. T. Matthews. 



Milk is a necessary article of diet, and it is therefore a 

 matter of vital consequence to the people at large, not only 

 that the supply should be pure and of good quality, but also 

 sufficiently abundant to prevent its price from rising beyond 

 a reasonable level. There are two ways in which the home 

 supplies can be increased. First, the number of cows kept 

 for dairy purposes may be increased, and, second, the milk- 

 yielding capacity of herds now in existence may be enlarged 

 by breeding and selection. Statistics show that the number 

 of cows and heifers in Great Britain, in milk or in calf, has, 

 in fact, steadily increased during the last eight years, what- 

 ever may have been the fluctuations of other cattle, and it is 

 probable that this process will continue. At the same time, 

 the enlargement of the milk supply by improving the yield 

 of cows individually is obviously the more economical of 

 the two methods. 



In dealing with this subject, it is not desired to enlarge on 

 the claims of the Shorthorn to any superiority as a breed 

 over any other in a general sense, but there is no escaping 

 the fact that an overwhelming majority of the dairy cattle of 

 this country are of the Shorthorn type, though varying 



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