472 Value of Records of Milk Yield of Cows, [sept., 



This principle is well recognised in this country in the case 

 of pedigree dairy cattle, but it is capable of a much wider ap- 

 plication. By its aid it would be possible to build up a 

 milking strain, the milk records of which would be equally 

 as valuable as a pedigree. This point is mentioned in the 

 Board's Handbook on British Breeds of Live Stock in con- 

 nection with the non-pedigree Shorthorn, it being pointed 

 out that : — - 



"Although one of the most serviceable and meritorious of 

 all the numerous breeds of cattle in this country, this dairy 

 breed remains under a cloud, especially with foreign buyers, 

 because it has not got a paper pedigree. What it wants to 

 make it of an inestimable value in the United States of 

 America and the more temperate of our distant possessions 

 is a pedigree of performance. The breed has been for a long 

 time subjected to searching selection on the score of merit, 

 and although no written record has been made of it, the record 

 is there nevertheless in its capacity to produce heavy-milking 

 progeny. It would consequently only require the recorded 

 results of a few generations to provide evidence of merit in 

 milking that would generally be transmissible." 



It is from this point of view that the Milk Control Associa- 

 tions of Denmark have proved of the greatest service, and as 

 many of them have now been in operation for upwards of 

 fifteen years, a reliable and authentic life-history is available I 

 for several generations of the cows belonging to the herds 

 tested. The owner of the herd can produce for the informa- 

 tion of a purchaser a complete record, not only of the produc- 

 tion of any particular cow, but of its dam as well, as 

 evidence of the milking qualities which were likely to be 

 transmitted through its sire. He is in possession, in short, 

 of a " pedigree of performance" in regard to his particular j 

 strain of milking cows.f 



There is little doubt that this .system is worthy of imitation 

 in this country, and could be fostered by breeding societies 

 and local agricultural societies by means of small grants 

 as in the case of the Highland and Agricultural Society. 



* An account of the effect of these Societies on Cattle Breeding in Denmark 

 appeared in this Journal, Vol. xvi, March, 19 10, p. 1002. 



