Vol. LXIV. No. 2915. 
NEW YORK, DECEMBER 9, 1905. 
WEEKLY, 81.00 PER YEAR. 
BREEDING SUCCESSFUL DAIRY COWS. 
THE TWO HALVES OF THE HERD. 
How and When to Select Them. 
BUYING AND RAISING.—He has been buying cows 
for years, and has made up his mind that in order to 
keep liis dairy good and to have the kind of cows he 
wants he will raise his own stock. He didn’t average 
to get more than one in three good ones when he 
bought and thinks he could not at least fare any worse 
in breeding his own stock. He is going into a very 
uncertain business, in which very few suc¬ 
ceed, and will need all the information 
that he can get. He may read book after 
book on breeding, and know pedigrees by 
the yard, and yet breed nothing but 
scrubs. In almost every dairy paper and 
at almost every farmers’ institute we read 
and hear about the large number of cow 
‘‘boarders” that are being kept at a loss, 
and knocking off from the profits of the 
better cows. This is certainly true, but 
all these cows were bred by some one 
who wanted either to make good the herd 
or raise stock to sell. Either the knowl¬ 
edge of breeding was faulty or the meth¬ 
ods poor that so large a number of the 
calves annually raised either never make 
a cent of profit for their owner or, as one 
man expressed it, “are kept solely for the 
pleasure of their company; there ain’t a 
cent in ’em.” A good many of these are 
raised by the man who raises a certain 
number every year regardless of sire and 
dam, or the calves that are born in Fall 
or Spring; when it is handy to start them 
they arc chosen without much regard to 
fitness. It is an old adage that “the bull 
is half the herd,” but that has been im¬ 
proved by the one that “a poor bull is the 
whole of the herd,” because he imparts 
his poor qualities to all his offspring, and 
the herd degenerates. The farm papers 
and the institute talkers tell us “select a 
purebred sire, etc.” to build up the herd. 
Well and good, but because an animal’s 
name is in the herd book and his pedigree 
can be traced many generations doesn’t 
make him the right animal. There are a 
lot of scrubs registered and eligible to reg¬ 
istry, and the beginner often gets “salted” 
with one of these, and the mistake found 
out too late. 
S 1 AR I TNG RIGHT.—The first thing 
to do is to know what we want and then 
to get it, and never stop till we do, though 
the road he rough, crooked and 10 times 
as long as we expected. Before selecting 
any animal for breeding we ought to have 
in our mind an ideal animal, and work 
towards that end always. 
We want animals for dairy purposes 
that will produce a large flow of milk with least ex¬ 
pense for food, and in all breeds there are animals of 
certain types that go much farther than others in 
doing this. We want a bull as head of the herd that 
will impart to his offspring a sound constitution and 
a form capable of doing the prescribed work. Our 
ideal of a good bull is one that from his shoulders back 
is similar to the type of a good dairy cow, while should¬ 
ers, neck ar.d head show his sex very strongly. Fig. 
<»95 shows a sire of fairly good type, but with a little 
too sleepy a iook. Head should be well set on a strong, 
arched neck and rather heavy shoulders; deep between 
shoulders, with plenty of room for a large lung develop¬ 
ment; a large barrel with ribs well sprung and wide 
apart, so that you can lay two fingers in between them; 
wide at the hips, and quite a space from hip to first rib; 
long slim tail; rudimentary teats large and well placed; 
no surplus flesh or fat. Not a tame pet, but an animal 
full of vigor and vim; a dairy type animal capable of 
consuming a large amount of coarse material. We saw 
at the head of a large herd recently a sire that might 
have been kept for speed as far as build went; a straight 
upper and under line on long legs, and built for a run¬ 
ner, hut not to head a dairy of milch cows. “Like pro¬ 
duces like” still holds good, and this must always be 
borne in mind in breeding. Fig. 398 illustrates this; 
the dam with one exception is a fine dairy type, but is 
too narrow behind, and her nine-months-old son is still 
more so, and will never make a good sire because of 
this. Both these animals are all right with this ex¬ 
ception. 
THE MILKMAKFR.—For the cow we want a ma¬ 
chine capable of handling and digesting a large amount 
of coarse and concentrated food, using only enough of 
this to repair the wastes of the body, and turning the 
remainder into milk. There are outward signs and 
indications of such an animal, and these we should 
know and constantly study. If the cow does what we 
have just asked of her, it is hard work, and like most 
human hard workers she will not carry much surplus 
flesh or fat. Rather she will be a frame of bone and 
muscle covered with a soft flexible skin. In the first 
place, she must have strong vitality to supply the blood 
and nerve force to do this work, and a large digestive 
system to handle the food. Fig. 397 shows anything but 
a profitable cow. She is as smooth and round as a ball. 
You can hardly feel her ribs. Her back is flat as a 
pancake, not a ridge on it; smooth and square behind 
with a nearly straight under line; a good fat ham that 
would cut a steak any time. This is r.ot the type we 
want. She puts all the feed possible on her back, and 
if there is a little to spare it goes into the milk pail, 
but she is always looking out for No. 1. 
Don’t give her standing room in the barn. 
THE TYPE REQUIRED.—Figs. 394 
and 396 are of a different type of cow. 
They look rather bony, carrying no sur¬ 
plus flesh; their food goes to milk. No¬ 
tice the milk vein in Fig. 396, large and 
running well ahead; this signifies that the 
heart furnishes the udder (and all parts 
of the system) plenty of blood to do its 
work. Notice that the under line of each 
of these cows is curved; and although 
small cows they have a large barrel, with 
good well-sprung ribs wide apart; a high 
arching flank, wide at the hips and hip 
bones rather prominent. Quite a space be¬ 
tween tail and legs, showing an incurved 
thigh with no meat scarcely on the hams. 
The backbone is prominent and behind the 
shoulders is sharp. No one would want 
to ride bare-back on these cows. Run 
your hand along the backbone and you find 
it full of ridges, showing that the ribs are 
wide apart, and with the long slim tail, 
that there is a good spinal cord, meaning 
a good nerve development. The eyes are 
bright, and stick out from a wide fore¬ 
head, denoting intelligence. The udders, 
the last thing looked at, are well placed, 
the teats of good size and shape. The 
cow at the left in Fig. 394, weighing about 
800 pounds, has given over 9,500 pounds' 
of milk in the last nine months, besides 
carrying a calf due in three months. Fig. 
397 has given less than 4,000, though the 
difference in cost of feed has been less 
than $10. big. 397 goes out, while Fig. 
394 stays in. Select for breeding only the 
cows that come nearest to the type you 
want to perpetuate. r \ he udders of many 
cows are defective. Use only cows with 
square well-shaped udders running well 
ahead and far up behind; the kind that 
have plenty of space and tissue that with 
other things being right must give milk. 
We want continually to breed better and 
improve the good qualities rather than 
emphasize and perpetuate the weak and 
bad. Many a well-bred calf is spoiled be¬ 
fore reaching maturity, but that is another 
story. The dairy calf needs as much 
consideration as the dairy cow. h. g. Manchester. 
TILE DRAINAGE. 
ECONOMY IN THE WORK.—For nearlv 25 vears 
I have given this matter a good deal of attention, aim¬ 
ing, if possible, to reach the most practical and cheapest 
plan to do the work properly. If the farmer does the 
work himself, with the labor employed on the farm, and 
has much of it to do, other farm work for the time be¬ 
ing must be put aside. Few farmers find it possible to 
drain their farms at one time; that is, do it all in a sin¬ 
gle season. On most- farms the work may be thought to 
be completed, but as time goes on, more is found neces¬ 
sary. As the farm help is constantly changing, if the 
farmer cannot do the particular part himself, he must 
BREED THIS TYPE ALONG IN YOUR HERD. Fig. 394. 
DAIRY SIRE BUILT FOR BUSINESS. Fig. 395. 
