MILKING COWS. 
277 
As a test of the feeding faculty of the animal 
itself, such over-feeding is useless. An accurate 
account kept with the beast from the pasture to 
its final preparation for market, and the condi¬ 
tion of its carcass when slaughtered, is the only 
true test of that faculty. It may be said truly, 
that the conditions of judgment at the cattle 
shows on fat beasts is, that an accurate account 
of the cost and manner of feeding be submitted 
by the owner. But every one who has witnes¬ 
sed these things knows that no true and un¬ 
prejudicial account is ever rendered to the com¬ 
mittees, and their judgment is consequently 
given in the dark, and in a majority of cases to 
the most expensive and unprofitable creature 
exhibited. 
To such an extreme has this system been car¬ 
ried at the Smithfield shows, in England, that 
there is expressed a general feeling of disgust 
on the subject by the admirers of really good 
beef and mutton. The rivalry is only among 
the rich, who can afford to throw away 50 or 
100 pounds sterling on an animal, while the 
profitable, matter-of-fact feeder, either shows 
nothing, or is driven off the field by such 'prac¬ 
tical farmers as Prince Albert, the Duke of 
Richmond, Lords Leicester, Ducie, Spencer, or 
the score of Right Honorables who follow in 
their train, and who, with their huge, overgrown, 
and over-fed beasts, win all the prizes. No, 
the whole system is wrong; and while we have 
the power to regulate this thing as it should be 
in America, the mischief should be prevented 
by those having charge of our annual shows. 
--- 
MILKING- COWS. 
As you have manifested some interest in my 
efforts in rearing up a herd of cows which 
should prove good and certain milkers, I give you 
a short history of my labors and results in this 
particular. 
You know that I have been a breeder of both 
shorthorn and Devon cattle for the last 16 years, 
each in their purity, as derived from abroad. 
Like most of those who commence breeding fine 
stock, I had it all to learn, and have paid tho¬ 
roughly for what little knowledge and experi¬ 
ence I have got on the subject. As at that day, 
when I commenced breeding—early in the in¬ 
troduction of fine foreign cattle into the United 
States only—I had to obtain such as I could get, 
which were indeed among the best; but from the 
limited area of selection, not exactly such, in all 
their qualities, as I would now require for the 
objects I then had in view. I wanted a herd of 
good milking cows, as I had from observation 
ascertained that no selections from the common 
herds of our native cattle could be relied on for 
permanently maintaining a high milking quality 
among themselves. 
During the first few years <Jf my breeding, I 
had some imported animals, both good and in¬ 
ferior milkers; and from them I bred, like an¬ 
imals, uncertain in their qualities. The like re¬ 
sults followed in the crosses of shorthorn and 
Devon bulls upon our native cows, although I 
found the heifers of these crosses generally su¬ 
perior to the usual run of native cows. I soon, 
however, adopted the plan of using none but bulls 
descended from the best milking cows, satis¬ 
fied that it was quite as important that the sire 
should possess the milking qualtity as transmit- 
ed through his dam and sire, as the dam herself 
should have to transmit, with certainty, that qual¬ 
ity to her descendants. In retaining none but 
good heifers of the best cross, and breeding them 
to bulls bred only from high milking cows, I 
found that I was succeeding in what I desired 
to accomplish. Some years since, I introduced 
the high milking shorthorn blood of the late Mr. 
Bates, of Kirkleavington, into my herd, by ob¬ 
taining the use of Mr. Vail’s imported bulls Wel¬ 
lington and Symmetry, got by Wellington, out 
of his cow Duchess, whose heifers, almost with¬ 
out an exception, both through bred and grade, 
proved excellent milkers, and so continue. My 
bulls, up to the last season, have been of that 
stock. In 1843,1 received from Mr. George Pat¬ 
terson, of Maryland, a yearling bull and two 
heifers of his fine Devon stock. His, from per¬ 
sonal inspection, I knew to possess in a high de¬ 
gree the milking quality, which he had for 
many years cultivated in his herd. I had sev¬ 
eral fine Devons at the time, derived from anoth¬ 
er herd of an early importation; but their milk¬ 
ing properties were uncertain. This bull, I 
used to my former Devon cows, and their 
descendants rapidly improved in their milking, 
while the young heifers from the Patterson 
cows, as well as the cows themselves, proved, 
every one, most capital milkers. Twenty quarts 
a-day, and even 24 have been drawn for weeks 
together from cows of that stock, and that quan¬ 
tity is good for any breed of cows whatever. 
As a matter of course, my indifferent milkers 
were sold off' or otherwise disposed of, as the 
heifers matured. Although my herd has ave¬ 
raged upwards of 50 cows for some years past, 
it now, owing to less demand on my dairy, com¬ 
prises only about 40, and there are but two or 
three in the entire lot but what are fine milkers. 
During the past spring, I have had 16 young 
