Vol. LXII. No. 2784. NEW YORK, JUNE 6, 1903. fi per ykar. 
A TALK ABOUT BREEDING. 
Whaf Type of a Sire? 
We read a great deal about the dairy cow, but very 
little about the other half of the herd—the dairy bull. 
It is evident that the dairy herd can be improved 
more quickly and cheaply through the sire than any 
other way, provided we get the right kind of a sire. 
Then the great question is, how shall we be able to 
select the sire? Some say get a bull from the best 
cow that you can find, and also from one with a good 
pedigree on the sire’s side. But we find that all cows 
that give a lot of milk do not always produce the 
best of calves. When I was a little boy my uncle gave 
me two mammoth potatoes of a new kind. I saved 
them and planted them with great care and much 
manure. How 1 hoed them, and how they grew! The 
vines grew higher than my head, and such a lot of 
them! 1 bragged a great deal about those potatoes 
before I dug them, but when I did dig them there was 
not one in the lot as big as a hen’s egg. In after life 
1 have often thought of those potatoes. Of course 
the trouble was that 1 raised those potatoes for 
vines, just as some cows are fed for milk, and their 
milk is like unto my potato vines, and their calves 
are like unto my potatoes. 
Another class of people say that we 
should select a dairy sire that looks like 
a dairy cow; that is, he should have 
a small feminine head and a thin neck, 
be rather small and fine and of the gen¬ 
eral dairy form. But I should be afraid 
to use that kind of a sire. In the hu¬ 
man family do we look for a lot of 
strong healthy well-proportioned chil¬ 
dren in the home of the effeminate 
man? Does not this type show a de¬ 
generacy of the family? By all means 
it does, and we never can improve our 
herds by breeding from a degenerate 
type of sire. The dairy bull may have 
all the characteristics of masculinity 
and vigorous health without having any 
beef characteristics. My ideal of a dairy 
bull is one of a true dairy type, but 
thoroughly masculine in character. He 
should be bred from the best cattle we 
can get, that in turn are strong and 
vigorous. The more milk his ances¬ 
tors have produced the better, always 
provided that the milk was produced at a profit and 
that the cows were not over-taxed in producing it. 
Some time ago I saw a score card used by F. S. 
Peer, one of America’s greatest judges of Jersey 
cattle, giving proposed scale of points for Jersey bull 
as follows: 
Counts. 
1. Head broad, of medium length; face dished, nar¬ 
row between the horns; entire head denoting 
a thoroughly masculine bull. 5 
2. Eyes full and bold, denoting masculinity; horns 
medium size and incurving. 3 
3. Neck full and thick, with prominent crest, de¬ 
noting masculinity; throat clean and free from 
loose hanging skin at throat. 12 
t. Lung capacity as indicated by depth through 
body just back of fore shoulders; shoulders full 
and strong; forequarters well developed, denot¬ 
ing health, strength and masculine vigor. 15 
5. Back level to setting of tail. 6 
6. Strong loin, hips rounded and of medium width- 
compared with the female. 9 
7. Barrel with strong, well sprung ribs. 10 
8. Rump of good length and proportion to size of 
body . 7 
9. Forelegs short, well apart when standing; hind 
legs upright, and not to weave or cross when 
walking . 5 
10. Size of mature bulls, 1,200 to 1,500 pounds. 5 
11. Tail long, slim and not coarse at setting on. 3 
12. General appearance: Thoroughly masculine in 
character, with a harmonious blending of the 
parts to each other. Thoroughly robust, and 
such an animal as In a herd of wild cattle would 
likely become the master of the herd by the 
law of natural selection, or the law of the sur¬ 
vival of the Attest. 20 
Perfection . 190 
I think the above may be used here fully to set 
forth the dairy bull, and to show that I practice what 
I preach, I show in Fig. 149 my buil Queen’s Czar 
No. 55573, sire Czar Coomassie 41036 (the great prize 
winning bull of J. E. Robbins, Greensburg, Ind.); dam 
Queen Jeffra 97394, a large cow with a large perfectly- 
formed udder, and a rich heavy milker. Queen’s Czar 
is now five years old and weighs about 1,500 pounds. 
He has won first prize twice at New York State Fair 
and once sweepstakes over all ages. He has also won 
20 other first prizes, although not shown since in his 
three-year-old form. .t. grant morse. 
APPLE CULTURE IN WESTERN NEW YORK 
Part I. 
In a recent article (page 345) I gave some general 
observations as to the western New York apple belt; 
now I wish to speak in detail of some of the methods 
employed by the best and most successful growers. 
CULTIVATION.—As was stated, one of the first 
steps toward improvement was cultivation. Orchards 
that had been standing in a sod meadow or in which 
the owner had been trying to grow other crops in 
addition to apples were plowed four or five inches 
deep, and the surface cultivated all through the early 
part of the season and later sowed with a variety of 
cover crops. There is a so-called cultivation by plow¬ 
ing some time in the Spring when it is convenient, 
with possibly one cultivation, and then dry soil, a 
fine crop of weeds or a poor one of corn. This prac¬ 
tice marks the poor orchardist, and the uncertain 
bearing orchard. Crimson clover has had a pretty 
thorough trial, and some years has yielded an abun¬ 
dant growth and lived through the Winter, but it is 
very uncertain, and the concensus of opinion seems 
to be that it is better to sow the large variety of our 
common Red clover when the land is in a good state 
of fertility (as it must be to grow a good crop of 
fruit). There is no trouble to get a stand, and it is 
very certain to live through Winter. This in connec¬ 
tion with the Cow-horn turnips or rape, I should say, 
was an ideal cover crop. Cow peas, vetches and Soy 
beans have been used with fairly good success, and 
doubtless their use will increase as their habits are 
better understood, and they become acclimated; still 
they have to be sown almost too early, which stops 
cultivation sooner than many care to. Some are 
making use of chickweed as a cover crop, and with 
very good results, but I agree with Mr. Taber that It 
has no place in the strawberry bed. 
COVER CROPS.—I am of the opinion that if vege¬ 
table matter in the soil as well as fertility is the thing 
sought (and it certainly is of prime importance), it 
is much better to turn under the crop late in the Fall. 
Certainly any crop that does not live through the 
Winter will afford but little humus when Spring 
comes; as it seems to have been scattered to the four 
winds. Except on land that washes or blows I believe 
the loss from being bare has been greatly overesti¬ 
mated in sections where the ground is frozen from 
December to March. Even with those plants like 
clover, that live over Winter, if they are left to grow 
until they afford much vegetable matter the orchard 
cannot be plowed before the last of May, when there 
is likely to be damage done by cutting off the fibrous 
roots that start very early, also much water is evap¬ 
orated by the rapidly growing plants. In a season 
like this that would be most disastrous. While I 
want to be distinctly understood as believing in the 
above, 1 have been satisfied that many were going 
cultivation crazy. They have induced a rapid soft 
growth of wood more susceptible to adverse conditions, 
cold and wet. Large fruit to be sure, but lacking color 
and keeping qualities. One of the questions most 
often heard last Winter was: “What can be done to 
obtain better colored fruit?’’ Another very noticeable 
thing was that this past year the apples 
in the cultivated orchards (other things 
being equal) were much more affected 
by scab than those in the sod. Evident¬ 
ly a more dense growth of foliage pre¬ 
vented the trees drying out, in the year 
of excessive moisture; consequeirtly a 
lack of sunshine and more fungus. One 
can, as is often the case, have too much 
of even a good thing. I find that some 
of our best cultivators are proposing 
this year, particularly on those orchards 
that bore heavily a year ago, to stop cul¬ 
tivation for a season, letting the orchard 
stand covered with clover or the like, 
and clipping it at intervals during the 
Summer months. 
'THE SOD ORCHARD.—There are 
those who have followed the practice 
(and the writer is one), when the trees 
have come into full bearing, of stopping 
cultivation, seeding down to a variety 
of pasture grasses, then fill the orchard 
with stock; sheep, swine or calves, 
feeding the stock some supplementary 
food in addition to what they get from the orchard. 
Th^'.v will keep down the grass, destroy worm-infested 
apples, and fertilize the trees at the same time. The 
trees will not make so rank a growth, but it will be 
solid wood, and there will be a greater tendency to 
produce fruit buds. The difference in the expense of 
caring for the orchard as compared with the above is 
reduced very materially; no small item in this day of 
scarce and high-priced labor. I have followed this 
plan with two orchards for 25 years, and with a third 
for 10, and have had large annual crops of fine apples, 
in some cases when cultivated orchards did not pro¬ 
duce. I could also name not a few others who have 
been equally successful by following this method. I 
do not say that this will work in every case and on 
all soils, for I do not believe there is any one only and 
best method, neither do I believe in the orchard being 
turned into a meadow from which annual crops of 
hay are removed. I am glad to record that the time 
has come when the man who follows this plan dares 
lift his voice in public and take his place in the same 
society as the excessive cultivator. It is results we 
are after. edward van at.styne. 
R. N.-Y.—What Mr. Van Alstyne says about cover 
crops and cultivation may be heartily endorsed. We 
must remember that varying conditions demand vary¬ 
ing treatment. 
JERSEY BULL QUEEN’S OZAR No. .55.573. Fig. 149. 
