1899 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
4i 
THE "BIG FOUR " JERSEYS. 
The picture shown at Fig. 17 is taken 
from a recent issue of the Jersey Bulle¬ 
tin. It represents four Jerseys, all daugh¬ 
ters of Holyoke 8147, a bull owned by 
C. A. Sweet, of East Aurora, N. Y. These 
cows well show the points desired in 
milking Jerseys. The milk veins are 
large and crooked, with large, well¬ 
shaped udders, while the “bread-basket’’ 
or stomach is long and deep, indicating 
great capacity for holding and assimilat¬ 
ing food. The cow at the right, Ina 
of Riverside, has given G7 pounds 14 
ounces of milk in one day, or 469 pounds 
15% ounces in seven days, and 1,193 
pounds 15% ounces in 31 days. In seven 
days, she made 26 pounds 1% ounce of 
butter. The next cow, Massie Polo, gave, 
in -seven days, 354 pounds 12 ounces 
of milk, which made 30 pounds 6% 
ounces of butter. The next cow, Hol¬ 
yoke’s Leda, lost one-fourth of her udder, 
yet, in this crippled condition, when 10 
years old. she gave, in seven days, 265 
pounds 12 ounces of milk, and made 18 
whenever possible by all men whose 
business is dairying. 
2. I believe in a straight beef cow im¬ 
proved to the highest possible extent 
consistent with the retention of good 
breeding qualities. The place for this 
cow is on the range and on the very 
large farm where the pastures are so ex¬ 
tensive as practically to preclude the 
possibility of milking the cows. 
3. I believe in a dual-purpose cow, 
that is to say, a cow that will give a 
large amount of milk when in milk, and 
will make a large amount of good meat 
when fattened, and when rightly bred 
will produce calves like herself. She 
will not give so much milk as the straight 
dairy cow, neither will she produce so 
perfect a quality of meat as the straight 
beef cow, but she will perform well in 
both respects. This cow should be kept 
by all farmers who want to grow beef 
on the arable farm, and who at the 
same time are desirous of making all 
they can out of the cream. They will 
make the latter into butter at home 
DAIRY FORM; DAIRY PERFORMANCE. 
“ THE SC AXE OF POINTS.” 
Typical Dairy Form. —As a statement 
of general principles, I think that the 
breeding associations are right in the 
ideal cow which they have set up. Any 
one who has had even a little experience 
in observing the milch cow, will instinct¬ 
ively feel that the picture of a typical 
Jersey or Holstein represents a better 
dairy cow than does the picture of a 
typical Short-horn or Hereford. There 
are a number of self-evident characters 
which the breeders’ “scale of points” 
and common experience are fully agreed 
upon as indicative of the profitable 
dairy cow. Among these, are the long, 
tortuous milk veins, the soft, elastic 
udder, the incurved thigh, the prom¬ 
inent spinous processes of the vertebra, 
forming the so-called “double chine”, 
and a generally pronounced skeletonal 
development which is diametrically op¬ 
posite to what is expected in the ideal 
beef animal. 
Mere Fads. —Of course, there are 
other points which have been emphasized 
by the various breediug associations, 
which are purely and simply fads, and 
the pursuit of even a harmless fad must 
lead to the neglect of other and more 
important characters. Probably there 
is no breed which has not, at some period 
“THE 
pounds 11% ouuces of butter. The cow 
at the left, Matina of Riverside, gave 
426 pounds 7 ounces of milk in seven 
days, with a butter record for that period 
of 27 pounds 13 ounces. These figures 
show what Jersey cows of the best breed¬ 
ing can be made to do. The cows are 
much alike in appearance, and are cer¬ 
tainly all good at performance. They 
are all daughters of the same bull, and 
these facts go to show the importance 
and value of selecting a first-class sire, 
and breeding from him to the best cows 
of a definite type. 
THE DUAL-PURPOSE COW. 
PROF. THOS. SHAW STATES HIS CASE. 
Back.-Talk. —In The R. N.-Y. of De¬ 
cember 24, Mr. J. Grant Morse takes it 
upon himself to show the absurdities of 
my creed with reference to the dual- 
purpose cow. I wish to state my views 
exactly on this question of the dual-pur¬ 
pose cow, that your readers may know 
exactly where I stand. Many dairy 
writers seem to take a peculiar delight 
in misrepresenting them. 
Three Types of Cows. —The follow¬ 
ing is a synopsis of my creed on this 
whole question: 
1. I believe in a straight dairy cow 
improved to the highest possible extent 
consistent with the retention of good 
stamina. This cow should be kept 
BIG FOUR” JERSEY COWS. F 
or at the creamery, and will rear the 
calves on skim-milk and adjuncts. 
4. I believe that the dual-purpose cow 
can be bred with as much certainty as 
either of the other classes of cows by 
men who understand the principles that 
govern animal breeding. 
Who Does Better? —If any of the 
readers of The R. N.-Y. will show m> 
wherein there is anything in this creed 
that does violence to reason, sound sense 
or the laws of breeding, I will thank 
him for so doing, as I cannot afford, 
under any conditions whatsoever, to 
promulgate doctrines or views in any 
way antagonistic to the agricultural in¬ 
terests of this country. 
I would particularly ask the readers of 
The R. N.-Y. to note that I give the 
dairyman his dairy cow. I do not mo¬ 
lest her in any way when kept on her 
own ground. I go a step further ; I say 
that no man in the United States re¬ 
joices more than I in the improvement 
of the dairy cow in everything that re¬ 
lates to milk giving. Properly speaking, 
it is around the dual-purpose cow that 
the smoke of battle rolls. Many dairy¬ 
men say that she is not; I say that she 
is. Many dairymen say that she cannot 
be ; I say that she can be. Many dairy¬ 
men say that she never will be ; I say 
that she will never cease to be. Many 
dairymen assert that she can't be bred ; 
I claim that she can be bred. 
University of Minn. thos. shaw. 
16 . 17 . 
of its history, suffered more or less from 
a “ color craze ”. Even now among the 
Jerseys, “solid color” continues to be 
regarded as of the greatest importance, 
but the cow Ida Marigold, which was 
one of the winners at the Columbian 
Exposition, was of a color to suggest a 
grade Holstein. A few days ago, I was 
told by one of the most prominent 
Guernsey breeders that a calf which 
should be worth $100 would be offered 
for $35, if it was so unfortunate as to be 
born with a smutty muzzle. 
For Practical Work. —A man who is 
raising purebreds to sell cannot ignore 
these non-essential “points”, but to the 
man who is buying a bull to grade up a 
herd of natives, they are not of the 
slightest importance. From a utilitarian 
standpoint, all this is as useless as the 
breeding of fowls for feathers instead of 
eggs. Some of the association rules call 
for a cow with the line of the back 
“ level from the shoulders to the setting 
on of the tail”. This is correct for the 
beef cow, and it does certainly make the 
most symmetrical appearing animal. In 
the beef cow, we want the loins filled 
in and padded with as much of the high- 
priced meat as possible, but the ideal 
milch cow should run up over the hips 
so as to form the massive framework of 
the pelvis which must support and give 
room to swing the great udder. Where 
the level back is called for, the rules are 
definitely wrong and should be changed. 
The Individual Cow.—There is some¬ 
thing beyond and above all matters of 
pedigree and conformation, and that is 
the indefinable something which we call 
vigor or constitution, or vitality. The 
cow which elaborates from her food and 
puts into the pail (as many good milkers 
do) total solids equal to the weight of 
her own body, in a single year, is per¬ 
forming what is, in the light of animal 
nutrition, a very wonderful task, and 
she must not falter at it. A cow may be 
built for this work like a beautiful and 
delicate mechanism, but if this all-im¬ 
portant quality of vitality is lacking, 
then refusal of feed, caked udder and 
similar weaknesses are exhibited when¬ 
ever an effort is made to run the machine 
at full capacity. So while the fact re¬ 
mains that, in the main, the herd-book 
rules are all right, yet here and there 
will be found a cow, blocky, “ square at 
both ends”, altogether more suggestive 
of beef-steak than of butter, which will, 
nevertheless, prove a heavy and persist¬ 
ent milker, and quite upset our ideas of 
the milk form. On the other hand, we 
will sometimes find a cowin which there 
is everything to please the eye of the 
dairyman, yet for some unknown reason, 
she cannot deliver the goods. But a few 
exceptions do not make or break a rule 
of dairy conformation. After all, there 
is no system of judging a cow quite so 
satisfactory as to weigh her milk for a 
week, and test it by the Babcock method. 
.TARKD VAN WAGENKN JR. 
HIGH-SCORING COWS. 
ARE THEY USUALLY BEST PRODUCERS ? 
I have made quite a little search after 
light upon this question, have asked all 
of the owners of the cows that have made 
authentic butter records in the competi¬ 
tive prize list as given by the Holstein- 
Friesian Association that I have met the 
last three years, have examined all of 
the large-prcducing cows, and I can say 
that I have seen at least three-fourths of 
them. This is what I am led to believe : 
If you will take the Holstein-Friesian 
description of their milk and beef form, 
it will come the nearest to cohering each 
prize winner with the exception of Da 
Kols Second ; she, I think, would come 
under the head of milk form. 
We classify the cows in four forms — 
milk, milk and beef, beef and milk, beef. 
I know of only one Holstein-Friesian 
cow that shows largely the points that 
go to form a perfectly scored animal, but 
is a choice cow. I am the happy pos¬ 
sessor of that individual, and I enjoy 
myself by examining her, then inter¬ 
viewing a convenient kicking post for 
one of my many mistakes in purchasing 
cows. The old saying that some ani¬ 
mals eat and make beef, some milk and 
some manure, is well illustrated here ; 
yet her daughter, as a four-year-old, 
gave a little over 12,000 pounds of milk 
in a year, and made 13 pounds 2% ounces 
of butter in seven days. The past year, 
as a five-year-old, she gave 11,283 pounds, 
and made 14 pounds 4 ounces of butter 
in seven days. 
I am quite positive that any Holstein- 
Friesian cow that has a large, strong, 
open backbone, a large breadbasket, 
large milk veins, with one large opening 
or two medium-sized ones, a kindly pleas¬ 
ant head, rather leaning to fineness, will 
come near to making a good working ma¬ 
chine for our farmers. 
Michigan. w. s. carpenter. 
Breeders’ Directory. 
This column is reserved for small cards of live 
stock. Including poultry, breeders. No cuts. Rates 
on application. 
/^HENANGO VALLEY STOCK FARMS, Greene, N. 
^ Y.—Dutch Belted and Jersey Cattle; Dorset and 
Kambouillet Sheep; Poland-China, Jersey Red and 
Suffolk Pigs; White and Bronze Turkeys, Peafowls, 
and Blooded Chickens. J.D. VAN VALKENBURGH. 
UUkllllwIa I w heifer calves, from f to 8 mot 
l bull 5 weeks, and 1 bull 12 mos., and 1 bull 10 me 
A. J. SNYDER, Plumsteadville, Pa. 
Cheshire 
Pigs. Quality right; prices right. All stock 
registered. Silas Dean, Oak Hill, N. Y. 
Another Good Offer LE t s 0 p L“ r g 0 s rin 
March, at $15. Just the kind you are looking for. Also 
Fall Pigs. F. H. Gates & Sons. Chittenango, N. Y. 
IMPROVED CHESTER WHITES 
of the best breeding and all ages for sale at reason 
able prices. Pamphlets and prices free. 
CHA8. K. RECORD, Peterboro, N. Y 
