Vol. LV. No. 2404. 
NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 22, 1896. 
$1.00 PER YEAR. 
BREEDING FOR THE DAIRY. 
THREE METHODS OF IMPROVING STOCK. 
Great Importance of Proved Ancestry. 
There are three methods by which dairy cows can 
"be improved, some one of which is usually practiced 
by every intelligent dairyman, with more or less suc¬ 
cess, according to the intelligence that directs and 
controls his work, while all three methods combined— 
all necessary to insure the best results—are practiced 
by the very few who make a careful study of the 
business. These methods are, first, better care, more 
and better food; second, selection; third, scientific 
breeding. 
In the first place, we must recognize the fact that 
the dairy cow, as such, is a machine most delicate, 
complex and intricate, used for the purpose of con¬ 
verting the products of the soil into milk, butter and 
c h e e s e— the 
most desirable 
and useful food 
for man. The 
first method 
put into prac¬ 
tice for the im¬ 
provement o f 
this machine 
was better care , 
better and more 
food , more 
favorable envi¬ 
ronments. I n 
the early days 
of civilization, 
as this noble 
and useful ani¬ 
mal was gradu- 
ally trans¬ 
formed from 
the wild to the 
domestic state, 
the « herdsman 
discovered that 
more and better 
food meant 
more milk. 
When dairy¬ 
ing u developed 
into a business, 
a means of 
gaining a liveli¬ 
hood, the art of 
feeding for 
larger produc¬ 
tion, for larger 
returns, began 
to attract the 
attention of the 
more intelligent and observing dairymen, and thus 
through the ages, this method of improving the bovine 
race has gone on, slowly but surely, and the question 
of feeding has become a science, not yet fully appre¬ 
ciated or comprehended by the average dairyman. 
This method has done much to improve the machine, 
the dairy cow, but we still have the same old machine 
with its defects, better care, better conditions and 
better food, merely enabling it to do more and better 
work, giving a larger return. 
The second method, that of selection, was gradually 
put into practice, as observation and thought con¬ 
vinced our early ancestors in the dairy business that 
some cows, by nature, were better than others, that 
certain machines would convert more food into the 
products desired than others. Greater intelligence 
finally discovered the fact that certain machines not 
only converted a larger amount of food, but also 
gave a larger return from a given quantity, a fact 
that many dairymen, even in this intelligent age, 
hardly seem to comprehend fully. This great ad¬ 
vancement in dairy knowledge developed a system of 
selection of immense value, and which, coupled with 
the former system, better care, has resulted in devel- 
oping great national industries and building up valu¬ 
able and popular breeds of cattle. 
But even this method of development is slow. The 
better machines are thus, according to the dairyman’s 
best judgment, selected, the poorer discarded, and 
thus the average is higher. By this method the in¬ 
telligence and judgment of the dairyman are used 
only in selecting the machine, generally without trial, 
as they are placed before him, completed and ready 
for use, without a knowledge of construction, or the 
material used in its creation, which is indispensable, 
if we would judge accurately of its capacity, durabil¬ 
ity or value. For instance, you examine my watch. 
It looks well to the eye, but you cannot judge of its 
value as a time-piece, without either a trial, or know¬ 
ing what other watches, of like material and con¬ 
struction, have done. 
Progress, thus far, was slow and uncertain, and 
finally by study, by observation, the principle now 
recognized by all intelligent breeders, that “ like be¬ 
gets like or the likeness of some ancestor,” became 
established and recognized as the foundation of 
scientific breeding. Breeding developed into a science, 
well understood, and the intelligent breeder was thus 
enabled to construct and build up a machine of proper 
construction, possessing the qualities he desired. By 
this process, great improvement and rapid progress 
have been made within the past generation. By 
scientific, intelligent breeding, we are enabled to in¬ 
crease production, improve quality, add quantity to 
quality, secure larger returns for the food consumed, 
and add symmetry and beauty to utility, and thus, by 
uniting these three methods—better care, better 
selection, and scientific breeding—can produce the 
most valuable machine on the farm, the improved 
dairy cow. 
Let us carefully follow this last method, and observe 
how natural are its results. We have a cow of superior 
excellence, which will produce, say, 5,000 pounds of 
milk in a year, and whose qualities we wish to per¬ 
petuate. The thoughtless breeder uses a sire whose 
ancestors would average only 3,000 pounds in a year. 
We have a right to expect from their descendant only 
the average of the ancestors on both sides, viz., 4,000 
pounds. We have thus, by this one unfortunate cross, 
bred backwards 20 per cent, taking the dam which we 
wish to reproduce as our standard. This experience 
is a lesson to the breeder who puts brains into his 
business, and as the sire is half the herd, he at once 
secures one of high breeding, coupled with great 
vigor, and the 
other qualities 
which he de¬ 
sires in his fu¬ 
ture herd, and 
whose female 
ancestors, for 
several genera- 
ti ons, have 
made well au¬ 
thenticated rec- 
ords which 
average, we 
will say, 11,000 
pounds per year 
With the same 
5,000-pound 
cow, he makes 
another cross. 
He still has the 
same reason¬ 
able expecta¬ 
tion that this 
descendant will 
represent the 
average of the 
ancestors, or, 
8,000 pounds, 
just 100 per cent 
more than the 
production 
which could 
naturally b e 
expected of the 
former cross, 
yet the only 
difference is in 
the selection of 
the sire. 
The higlie s 
results can be obtained only through the selection of 
the best class of animals, on both sides, descendants 
of animals and families of the largest possible produc¬ 
tion. I could refer to many instances where actual 
results have proved the accuracy of this theory. A 
very few instances which are especially significant, 
are worthy of mention. I know of a cow which gave 
26,000 pounds of milk in a year, mated with a sire 
whose dam produced about 16,000 pounds, and the re¬ 
sult was a daughter which produced over 23.000 
pounds in a year. This same cow made 28 pounds 
2 !4 ounces of butter in a week. She was crossed with 
a sire whose dam made 21 pounds 3 ounces of butter 
in a week, and the result was a daughter which made 
23 pounds 10 % ounces of butter in a week, at three 
years of age. 
The same rule will apply to the breeding of whole 
herds. As an illustration, I know a sire, whose 13 
nearest female ancestors, without a blank, had made 
LOG STABLE AND SHED IN THE VIRGINIA MOUNTAINS. Fig. 40. 
Compare with last week’s picture. 
