Vol. LV. No. 2418. 
NEW YORK, MAY 30, 1896. 
*1.00 PER YEAR. 
THE SIMMENTHAL COIV. 
WHAT SHE DOES FOR THE GERMAN FARMER. 
Almost Everything But Talk. 
Quite recently, a number of American agricultural 
and dairy papers, have made comments on this breed, 
its merits or defects and, as is likely to be the case 
where personal interests are at stake, the truth will 
be found somewhere in the middle between the ex¬ 
tremes of recommendation and condemnation. The 
Simmenthals possess undoubted and undisputed 
merits for countries where, like Germany, special 
conditions favor their use. They are of rapid growth, 
early development, very hardy, their Alpine pasturing 
producing heavy bone and a deep chest, giving great 
freedom from tuberculosis. At the same time, they 
are excellent milch cows, attaining 10,000 pounds of 
milk with up to 5.2 per cent of fat. Large dairies 
with well-bal¬ 
anced generous 
rations, aver¬ 
age 10 quarts 
per day the 
year ’round. 
The cows 
readily put on 
flesh when their 
utility at the 
pail ceases, yet 
we have many 
good cows 15 
years old and 
over in use. A 
great merit of 
theSimmenthal 
is its adaptabil¬ 
ity to work. 
The village in 
which I live, 
has, outside of 
my own farm, 
29 farmers that 
do their work 
exclusively 
with cows; I 
am the only 
farmer to keep 
horses. None of 
these 29 farm¬ 
ers cultivates 
over 25 acres. 
It is true that 
they have no 
milk to sell, but 
they live on 
their co ws, 
bring up their 
families, and 
some young stock too. The oxen of this breed are 
famous for their working powers, docility, endur¬ 
ance and rapid gait. At 18 months old, the steers are 
broken to work ; at two years old, they are capable 
of continued hard labor ; at three years old, they are 
sold to be taken to the eastern provinces, where 
hundreds of thousands of them are employed in the 
cultivation of the sugar beet, afterwards to be fat¬ 
tened on the beet bagasse. The price of a yoke of 
three-year-olds to weigh 3,500 pounds, is to-day, $225. 
The government takes pride in maintaining the re¬ 
nown of these oxen, and institutes yearly public trials 
with premiums for the highest power of draft, several 
yoke appearing at every tfial, that will draw off on a 
macadamized road, 500 centals (50,000 pounds) of pig- 
iron, distributed on three wagons chained to each 
other, the driver not being allowed to use the whip. 
Will this breed find friends in the United States ? 
This is a question to be decided by the development 
of economic conditions. There can be no doubt that 
any breed willydo 4 the 4 greatesUgood, when bred and 
improved exclusively on that line of utility to which 
it is preeminently adapted. Neither does Nature her¬ 
self favor any of our exertions to blend several such 
utilities in the same animal, and those that deny the 
usefulness of the general-purpose cow, would, un¬ 
doubtedly, be in the right if our economic conditions 
were such that the factors of production—land, labor 
and capital—existed in that relation to each other, 
which is the only one to insure a constant prosperity 
to all members of our human society. That this is 
not the fact, nobody will contest. Here in southern 
Germany, these conditions have, in the course of time, 
become so far deranged that the bulk of farmers can¬ 
not think of breeding any other cow but one that will 
nourish the family, plow the field, produce a heavy 
calf, and later on, sell to the butcher at a good price. 
Are you on the road towards these deranged con¬ 
ditions ? Why, 'certainly, you are. and at a faster 
A TYPICAL SIMMENTHAL HEIFER. THE GENERAL-PURPOSE GERMAN COW. Fig. 115. 
rate than any other people before you ! The importa¬ 
tion of the Simmenthal will, however, not very speed¬ 
ily take large dimensions, owing to the heavy home 
demand which is greatly in excess of the supply at 
very high prices. The advisability of crossing this 
breed with the Jersey, is questionable, at least not 
one of us Simmenthal breeders would be willing to 
imitate Mr. Havemeyer’s experiment. The favorite 
color is fawn or white, with reddish yellow, large 
blotches ; head, feet and tail white, horns and hoofs 
yellow. Any black spot on the flesh of the nose, or 
any black hair on any part of the body, throws the 
animal out of the breed. The best opportunities to 
buy this breed are the animal markets in September 
at Thun in Switzerland, and Radolfyell in the adjoin¬ 
ing Baden, both exclusively for Simmenthal cattle. 
Information on prices, etc., may be obtained through 
the government inspector of cattle breeding, Mr. 
Heitzmann, of Messkirch, Baden. Fig. 115 is taken 
from a photograph of a heifer two years old. 
Hessenhof, Germany. f. sarg. 
PUREBRED STOCK FOR FARMERS. 
can he sell young stock at hreeders’ prices. 
What Is the Best Breed? 
On page 67, of The R. N.-Y. of February 1, a reader 
in Tioga County, N. Y., made an interesting state¬ 
ment. He said that he had a dairy of 12 cows, and 
was selling milk at a factory. He wished to get some 
registered, thoroughbred cattle—of some herd not 
common to the country, so that he could sell cows 
and calves at a good price. He wanted a breed that 
would insure a good flow of milk, and fatten easily, 
and had about decided to try the Devon breed. His 
main question was, “ Can a farmer of limited means 
make a success of breeding purebreds—that is, make 
more at it, or can only those who have plenty of 
money afford it ? ” The following replies have been 
sent by some of our readers, and we would like to 
have a further 
discussion : 
It Is a Risky 
Experiment! 
Why? 
If T. O. have 
means enough 
to justify him 
in taking the 
chances of los¬ 
ing a few hun¬ 
dred dollars, he 
might try the 
experiment he 
purposes ; but 
even then, I 
would not ad¬ 
vise him to do 
so. From pri¬ 
vate informa¬ 
tion in my pos¬ 
session, Igather 
that, at least, 
some of the 
well - establish- 
ed dealers, 
spending thou¬ 
sands of dollars 
in advertising 
their business, 
are decidedly 
more than over¬ 
stocked. I in¬ 
fer that his 
neighbors al¬ 
ready have one 
or more kinds 
of purebred 
dairy stock,and 
his innovation would have to be a decided improve¬ 
ment over them, or his neighbors would not make a 
change, even though he were to sell his stock at a 
much reduced price. Prejudice in such matters is not 
easily conquered. How many culls would he have ? 
With limited stock to begin with, it would take him 
many years to get back the extra money this will 
cost. Owing to the perverseness of human nature, 
farmers are not given to patronizing their neighbors 
unless they can get a bargain. T. O. might succeed 
in establishing the superiority of his breed, and then 
one or more would straightway send their money to a 
distant dealer. Last year, a man and his wife came 
here on a visit They admired my poultry, said noth¬ 
ing about wanting to buy, but several weeks later, 
received a setting of eggs for which they had sent to 
a dealer several hundreds of miles distant. Imagine 
their chagrin, when they learned that the dealer got 
his supplies from me. They paid a fancy price for 
the eggs, the expressage was not small, but the 
hatch was—two or three cockerels and not a pullet. 
