MEW YOKE. AUGUST 14, 1886 
Emered .cc.MIng to Ac. of Co.g.oa, In It. MM, 6y U.8 SunU Sew-To.k.r In th, oBm of th. Llbrnrl.n of Cong,*,. „t Wuninjinn. 
iug, and I supposed the Short-horns were an 
illustration of breeding for a purpose, and that 
for beef; but it seems when we would breed 
for milk and butter—for a family cow—we 
must breed for beef—for carcass. I always 
found that when 1 made a good veal of a calf 
or a good beef of a heifer, it made a beefy cow. 
And I supposed that breeding on this line for 
generations would fix beef types and charac¬ 
teristics for taking on flesh, not filling milk 
pads and butter tubs. There used to be old- 
fashioned ‘•Durhams,” which were good milch 
cows, but this was before the beef idea had 
taken bold of breeders with such intensity that 
they began to breed the milk-producing capa¬ 
city out of the cows, and the result is that the 
modern ‘‘Durham —the Short-horn of to-day 
as a general rule does not give milk enough to 
raise her own calf well. There is no disgrace 
in this. And why not own it, and concede the 
butter kingdom to others. It is really the 
result of science, and something to be proud 
of, as the counterbalance is to be found in 
thickened loins, broader hips, and fuller mus¬ 
cles, with a nature for growth, and to fill out 
just in the right places. 
A Jersey or any genuine milking breed 
doesn't do this. When fed for fattening, they 
fill up inside, and never fill out and expand as 
do the beef breeds. To do so is not in their 
nature. They are not adapted to it, and have 
not been bred for this sort of development and 
growth. A modem Short-horn in milk has the 
capacity to increase her milk flow but little 
more, however well fed, and her food goes 
where her nature and breeding design it should 
to fat and flesh. The Jerseys make nice beef, 
and fatten in their way with little food; but 
attempts to convert them into beef cattle would 
be just as absurd as to make out the Short¬ 
horns to be good family cows. 
THE HORN QUESTION. 
story told by the pictures 
shown at Figs. 318 and 319 
needs but little explanation. It 
can be understood at a glance. 
Jt may be claimed that both 
. pictures are exaggerated, and 
yet we believe that there is 
much food for thought in this 
drama so graphically placed before us by 
our artist. Whenever we stop to consider the 
matter, the utter uselessness of horns upon do¬ 
mestic cattle becomes more and more appar¬ 
ent. Why should cattle carry these deadly 
weapons about with them? No uiau has yet 
been able to give any satisfactory answer, and 
it is probable that there is hardly a prominent 
cattleman or breeder in the country who would 
uot gladly let the horns go, if by t heir loss his 
cattle would not, for a time, lose value from 
being different, from other specimens of the 
breed. We fully believe that the public could 
iu time be brought to look upon polled cattle 
of every breed with satisfaction. One mistake 
is made by flic advocates of ] tolled cattle in 
ascribing too much gentleness to their favor¬ 
ites. The picture of the little girl loading the 
great bull by the ear is purely an ideal one. 
Polled cattle are, as a rule, more gentle than 
than their honied companions, hut they are 
by no means lambs. They can strike a terri- 
CALIFORNIA NOTES FROM PROF 
A. HENRY. 
California rains; El Cajon Fen 
ority of grapes grown without 
growing raisin grapes, 
lions for summer drought; picking 
grapes; making r 
eg; superi- 
irrigation; 
winter prepara- 
J raisin 
aisins; rapid increase of 
vineyard; planting the vines; profits from 
raisins; grape gield per acre. 
I SEXD the Rural by to-day’s mail a sma ll 
package of raisins, which I hope will reach 
you safely. They were grown in the vine¬ 
yard of Mr. Geo. A. Cowles, of El Cajon, this 
county, and are a sample of several thousand 
boxes made by him last season. [They are of 
fine quality, meaty, sweet, tender. The stems 
are notably small.— Eds] Through the kind¬ 
ness of Mr. J. M, Merrill, Secretary of the 
El Cajou \ alley Land Company, I was shown 
the wonders of this mountain-locked val¬ 
ley, and will try to give your readers some 
COW FAIRNESS AND COW SENSE. 
COL. F. D. CURTIS. 
There is a great reaching out for a family 
cow, or as some writers put it, “a general- 
purpose cow.” “A jack-of-all-trades" never 
succeeded yet in the human family, aud I 
doubt if such a nondescript in the cow kind 
would be the thing. The idea, to my mind, 
seems ridiculous. We don’t want any such 
cow r with divided interests; but, on the con- 
tiary, what we want is a cow all the intensity 
of whose blood is applied to one thing or an - 
other. We have it, if folks would only be 
satisfied; aud we have it in a thoroughbred 
form, and this ought to satisfy every' practical 
mind, but the impractical want two sets of 
maebiuery aud two results from the same in 
one body—butter aud beef. The admirers of 
some breeds of cattle are too greedy. They 
want everything. I am satisfied to call the 
Jersey simply a butter cow, and rest, there. 
Let other breeds produce the beef, and others 
ugain give us the cheese. 1 am willing to be 
liberal and to accord to some breeds, such 
HORNS 
Kvral hew-Yorker 
NO HORNS 
