Vol. LV. No. 2434. 
$1.00 PER YEAR. 
NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 19, 1896. 
choosing- of animals, approaching-, as nearly as may 
" THE BEST DAIRY COW.’’ 
WHERE DOES SHE COME FROM ? 
How Can We Pick Her Out? 
“ The best dairy cow ” is the cow which will produce 
the greatest quantity of butter fat from a given 
quantity of food. Broadly taken, this is all; but 
strictly speaking, the amount of food she will con¬ 
sume, hence the time taken for performing a given 
work, must enter into the question. The difficulty 
comes in deciding what cow most nearly conforms to 
this definition. It is certain that an approach to this 
ideal cow can be found in every breed, and among the 
“ natives ”, although the old style “ native ” has almost 
disappeared during the last 10 years, on account of so 
much pure blood being scattered through the country; 
it is now rarely that one meets an animal which can¬ 
not plainly be seen to show a predominance of some 
distinct breed. Here in this cow-keeping section of 
New York 
State, at least, 
the real nonde¬ 
script “ scrub ” 
cow is passing 
away, just as 
is the North 
American In¬ 
dian ; and it 
would be well 
if some one will 
preserve for us 
by photographs 
and descrip¬ 
tions, some 
knowledge of 
what, perhaps, 
centuries later, 
we shall refer 
to as the 
“primitive 
cow.” I have 
in mind now, 
an old white 
cow with 
brown ears, 
which, certain¬ 
ly, looks inno¬ 
cent of any im¬ 
proved blood. 
The interesting 
fact about this 
cow is that 
white with 
brown ears is 
the most usual 
color of the 
wild cow of 
Europe, from 
which all our 
American cattle have sprung. Is it possible that we 
have here an example of reversion to the original 
type of 1.0C0 years ago ? It would not be more re¬ 
markable than the manner in which the “ Galloway 
alloy ” in certain strains of Short-horns, after so many 
years, still crops out occasionally in a calf with a 
black muzzle, instead of the regulation flesh-colored 
one. 
Much of our so-called “native stock” really traces 
back to the early Short-horn importations of 100 years 
ago, and among the mongrel descendants of these 
same Short-horns, which at that time, were not yet 
bred away from the milking type, we find, now and 
then, a big, rough-boned, red or spotted cow which is 
the wonder and the pride of the farmer who is fortu¬ 
nate enough to own her. Undoubtedly, the black and 
white cow of Holland came to the Hudson River Val¬ 
ley before the palmy days of the Dutch' governors, 
and we can never calculate the influence that they 
may have had upon the dairy cow of this State. Then, 
in the days when transportation was more limited 
than now, local strains were developed, and among 
old Dutch farmers only a few years ago and perhaps 
yet, were what might fairly be called “one man 
breeds”. Let us remember, then, that “thorough¬ 
bred ” is only a relative term—that a breed is not 
originated by some mysterious interposition of Provi¬ 
dence ; but that, whenever, either by circumstances 
or design, any animals are coupled with uncertain 
lines of blood until they reproduce themselves as to 
color, form, or any general characteristic, with toler¬ 
able uniformity, just to the extent to which this is 
true, they become “thoroughbred.” 
The Short-horn is the oldest exactly preserved herd 
record ; yet a little more than 100 years ago, their 
pedigrees begin in John Brown’s bull, and Hubback 
and Favorite, and a few other animals of Darlington. 
It was the circumstance of being situated upon an 
j 
island in the sea, which, for hundreds of years, has 
kept the Channel Island breeds free from inter¬ 
mixture of foreign blood, and made a race of great 
distinctness and prepotency. Design has, in the life¬ 
time of one man, produced the American Holderness, 
which, however, have not been bred long enough to 
acquire great uniformity or prepotency. We have 
developed and pretty firmly fixed the characteristics 
of several American breeds of hogs in 30 years, and 
poultry fanciers produce a so-called breed in hardly 
more than half a dozen generations. How does this 
enable us to answer the inquiry as to the ideal cow 
after which we are striving ? Simply this, that we 
should see for what purposes and under what condi¬ 
tions the various breeds have been developed, and 
then find how our own requirements and conditions 
agree with those. 
In all breeding, there are three chief factors—selec¬ 
tion, heredity and environment. Selection means the 
be, to the type we wish to produce. Heredity is the 
tendency which all organic things have to resemble 
ancestors. Broadly considered, it includes reversion 
or striking back to remote ancestors, atavism or 
going back to more recent ancestors, and prepotency 
or the ability to transmit any characteristics to off- 
spring. This last is especially the power of some in¬ 
dividual and is, probably, greatly strengthened by in- 
breeding and by long breeding within certain lines. 
The great foundation Short horn bull, Favorite, is 
said to have possessed this power to a remarkable 
degree. 
Men have long recognized the influence of selection 
and heredity ; but it is more especially since Darwin 
pointed out the power which animals and plants have 
of adapting themselves to the conditions which sur¬ 
round them, that we have come to realize the part 
that environment plays. Environment says that a 
calf is not made 
when it is born, 
but that its 
future career 
depends very 
much upon the 
treatment i t 
receives for the 
first two years 
of its life, and 
that, perhaps, 
in fully as great 
measure, the 
environment of 
a calf or cow 
determines the 
ca pa bilities 
which will be 
born into its 
offspring. En- 
vironment 
means sur- 
roundings.kind 
and quantity of 
food, climate, 
and m fact, the 
daily life of 
that cow. After 
all, in Nature’s 
breeding, en¬ 
vironment has 
done almost 
everything. 
The primitive 
horse went 
down into the 
low, marshy 
country of the 
lower Rhine, 
and because he 
never lacked for food, because in this respect, at 
least, there was no “struggle for existence”, after 
many centuries, he became the immense, big-footed, 
open-boned Flanders horse. The primitive horse went 
down into Western Asia, where the climate was dry, 
where food was not too plentiful, and where every¬ 
thing demanded a different type of animal, and, lo ! 
the little, lithe, small-hoofed, running, hot-blooded 
Arabian horse was the result of another environment. 
The Holland cow, since the time of Ceasar’s con¬ 
quest, at least, has dwelt in the Friesland marshes, in 
the most luxuriant pastures of the world. She has 
been developed where water was always close at hand, 
where to get her food, she need hardly move a rod, 
where when she took a bite of grass, she got a whole 
mouthful, and so she fitted herself to her environ¬ 
ment. Food was abundant, so she grew big, with a 
great stomach to work over the lush, watery grass ; 
she grew light of bone because she had no hills to 
A TYPICAL ENGLISH DEVON COW. A FIRST PRIZE WINNER. Fig. 193 . 
