Vol. LXI. No. 2758 
NEW YORK, DECEMBER 6, 1902. 
ai PER YEAR. 
SHORT TALK ON BREEDING CATTLE. 
What to Breed For. 
Dairymen who are not breeders of purebred cattle 
often boast that their dairies produce as much (or 
more) milk or butter as the herds of purebred cattle 
owned by the breeder. If they would only give the 
matter a little thought it would seem very clear why 
cattle not so well bred should be greater producers 
for a short time. In the first place one should not 
imagine that a breeder is simply a feeder. High feed¬ 
ing is the rock that has shattered the bark of many 
a would-be breeder. The modern dairyman, as I know 
him, generally buys his cows at from four to six years 
old. He feeds them a ration to produce as much milk 
as possible, and at the age of eight or nine they fail 
and are replaced by others. Now this course will not 
do for the breeder. His foundation cows cost too 
much to be sacrificed in this manner. Besides, I claim 
that a cow should not be overworked if she produces 
the best offspring of which she is capable. It is true 
that many breeders follow the high- 
feeding plan and make money at it, 
but we should not lose sight of the 
fact that the object of the true breed¬ 
er is to improve the breed of cattle 
he fancies, and not simply to get rich 
and then slip out from under the 
landslide of condemnation heaped 
upon the cattle by the misguided 
people who bought his weaklings, 
bred from great producing but over¬ 
taxed parents. 
On the other hand, I do not advo¬ 
cate scrimping cattle and thus pro¬ 
ducing the meanest of all cows, the 
purebred scrub. Speaking of scrimp¬ 
ing calls to mind the case of a young 
village man who commenced farm¬ 
ing. He bought some purebred pigs 
and learned from his farm paper that 
brood sows should be moderately fed. 
The result was that after his sows 
farrowed he nearly starved them to 
death, pigs and all. He lacked ex¬ 
perience, and didn’t know the differ¬ 
ence between moder -ation and starv¬ 
ation. The well-bred dairy cow will 
surely eat a lot of food without in¬ 
jury, but she cannot eat everything, 
and the man who knows the type of 
cow that produces, and then comes 
the nearest to knowing how much she 
can stand feeding, is the man who 
improves his herd. We occasionally find a cow that 
seems to run all to milk, and we are elated. But we 
find to our sorrow that she has reserved but little for 
her offspring, and they are even below the average of 
the herd. We ought to have known before they came 
to maturity that they would never be good cows be¬ 
cause they lacked the dairy type. They were not 
beefy, but they were too delicate; they lacked luster 
of the eye, breadth of muzzle and size of nostril. 
Their heart girth was too small and their dinner bas¬ 
ket too small also. They had the general open-made 
dairy conformation and their tails were of regulation 
length. They had good udder indication as heifers, 
but they lacked that great essential—constitution. I 
believe that the only safe rule to follow in breeding 
dairy cattle is to breed to a fixed dairy type. If a 
great producing cow does not drop calves of the right 
type she is not desirable as a breeder, and on the 
other hand if a cow of but moderate milk producing 
capacity drops calves that come up to the desired 
standard of dairy conformation and constitution, she 
may safely be depended on to work genuine improve¬ 
ment in the herd, rather than to weaken it, as is 
sometimes the case with cows that are great perform¬ 
ers at the milk pail, but lacking in constitution or 
lasting qualities. The accompanying picture of a bull 
calf, Fig. 329, shows about the type I am after. 
J. GRANT MORSE. 
H. E. COOK'S DAIRY NOTES. 
Prospects for a Heifer. 
How much milk should a heifer give with her first calf 
to develop into a profitable cow if two years old when 
fresh, of good size for a grade Jersey or Guernsey, on 
good pasture or fed a good grain ration? What propor¬ 
tion of heifers raised from a common cow that has made 
two pounds of butter a day, and bred to good Jersey 
stock, should be equal to their mother? o. d. t. 
Town Hill, Pa. 
A grade Jersey should give 20 pounds of four-per- 
cent milk to become a profitable cow. This would 
give us eight-tenths of a pound of butter fat or about 
nine-tenths of a pound of butter daily supposing that 
the cream separation is nearly perfect. One might 
A BOLL CALF OF FINE DAIRY TYPE. Fig. 329. 
reasonably expect such a heifer to develop into a cow 
giving 250 to 300 pounds of butter annually, which is 
not phenomenal by any means, but certainly a pro¬ 
fitable cow. Much will depend, however, upon the 
development which the owner obtains through food 
and care. No amount of selection and breeding can 
offset the loss of slack feed and neglect. It serves to 
a cow the same purpose that environment does for a 
boy or girl. The pressure upward and onward must 
be slow and sure, never so fast that we endanger the 
udder tissue or digestive tract. A well-balanced man 
grows strong under work; a well-cared-for cow also 
becomes more valuable and effective. To determine 
what proportion of heifers should equal their moth¬ 
ers is altogether a lottery. This common cow may be 
a sport and have no power to reproduce herself, or 
she may have been the product of selection, and have 
force and prepotency. In the first case her offspring 
will depend entirely upon the sire; in the latter she 
will exercise a controlling factor. In the first case I 
should expect fully 50 per cent to equal the perform¬ 
ance of the dam. In the latter case no one can tell; 
perhaps 25 per cent, maybe 50 per cent, and the bull 
might exercise such tremendous force that 75 per 
cent would equal the dam. What may have taken 
years to complete through feed, selection and care, 
one may by a single error in breeding destroy and set 
back. I never fully appreciated the force of this 
statement until I foolishly made a few cross-bred ex¬ 
periments and saw a result unlike in form, vigor and 
producing power either sire or dam. Experience is 
a forceful teacher, but if one can stand the cost it 
often seems the most effectual. 
Problems in Stable Ventilation. 
The question of ventilation appears to be of in¬ 
creasing interest to dairy farmers. While the prin¬ 
ciples relating to air currents, which have been pre¬ 
viously published in The R. N.-Y., still remain and 
must be recognized in flue and stable construction, 
there is one point which has been brought out in my 
recent experience over which one has no control after 
the stable is completed. Everyone knows that the 
damp places in the barn are first 
found at points of lowest tempera¬ 
ture. If a warm, closely-built stable 
has one end or corner in which ani¬ 
mals are not kept, or where the num- 
,ber of animals is small, here we find 
•condensation. I had at one time sup¬ 
posed an outlet flue would obviate 
this disadvantage through giving an 
opportunity for this moisture to es¬ 
cape. This idea seems now to have 
been wrong. In fact, an outlet at 
these points may be a doubtful ad¬ 
vantage, which the reader will read¬ 
ily comprehend when he stops for a 
moment to consider the principle. 
iWe note the quick condensation of 
moisture upon a pitcher or cold sur¬ 
face on a warm day, so we have this 
same effect when one corner or por¬ 
tion of the stable is of a lower tem¬ 
perature through lack of animal oc¬ 
cupancy. The suggestion is there¬ 
fore to distribute animal space and 
to intersperse such places as box 
stalls, storage room, etc., if all such 
extras are to be built in the stable, 
in such a way that the room will 
will have a uniform temperature 
throughout. I am of the opinion 
that a recognition of this fact will 
result in minimizing the space in 
stable arrangements not at once to 
be used for stock accommodation; that is for stables 
that are built exceedingly warm for the dairy cow, 
an animal that refuses to thrive and make thrift for 
her owner if not provided with warmth and pure air 
combined. 
The Wholesale Butter Business. 
Can you suggest a practical way of starting the whole¬ 
sale butter and egg business? Where do such dealers 
procure their supplies; that is, that part not sent on 
commission? Can they buy as they like, or do they have 
to contract to take certain amounts? Can a wholesale 
dealer buy from anyone in New York City to sell again? 
READER. 
I would suggest to our friend that he at once hire 
himself to one of the old-established wholesale firms 
to gain experience, no matter what his financial or 
social position may be. Stocks of butter, eggs, cheese, 
etc., are both purchased and received on commission. 
It depends quite largely upon the make-up of the man 
or the firm. Some prefer to buy at a fixed price and 
then control the product, and are in my experience 
the most satisfactory people to do business with. 
Either system requires effort. The commission man 
