Vol. LXXI. No. 4141. 
NEW YORK, MARCH 9, 1912. 
WEEKLY, $1.00 PER YEAR 
THE COLUMBIAN BREED OF CATTLE. 
What is Claimed for Them. 
It is strange that in this country wherein have 
originated distinct breeds in horses, swine, sheep and 
poultry—especially poultry—there should not have de¬ 
veloped a distinct breed of cattle until recently—unless 
the Texas Longhorn be 
classed as such. I say 
“until recently/' for the 
American breed called 
Columbian is of very re¬ 
cent appearance before 
the general farming pub¬ 
lic, though the strain they 
developed from is really 
almost as old as the 
American nation itself. 
The Columbians are the 
selected descendants and 
present-day representa¬ 
tives of a strain of com- 
m o n stock generally 
known as Linebacks in 
our ancestors’ days. As 
a recognized strain of 
the common stock the 
Columbians’ lineage is 
known for over a hun¬ 
dred years back. The 
mere fact that the strain 
of Linebacks that were 
the Columbians’ anteced¬ 
ents survived the great 
blooded-stock “wave” of 
the 60’s and the continu¬ 
ous agitation for thor¬ 
oughbreds since, is, I 
think, the strongest kind 
of testimony to the real 
worth of the breed. But 
the strain not only sur¬ 
vived all this, but steadily 
grew in popularity an d 
favor among the farmer- 
dairymen of the region 
of its origin—practical 
dairymen who had every 
chance really to know its 
traits and to watch the 
breed, one animal with 
another, one year with 
another, under one condi¬ 
tion with another. 
It is only during the 
last half-dozen years 
that the Columbians have 
been before the general 
agricultural public in the 
full dignity of a bona-fide 
and recognized breed. 
Though the breed’s gen¬ 
eral appearance (shape THE 
and markings) are more 
or less well known to the farmers and dairymen 
throughout the East, its particular utility characteristics 
are not so well known. These traits can hardly be 
better enumerated and described than they were by 
Mr. Frank L. Gregory, one of the foremost Colum¬ 
bian breeders, in answer to the query, put during a 
recent interview: “Why do you keep Columbians and 
prefer them over other better known breeds?” Mr. 
Gi egory s reply to the query was, in substance, re¬ 
ferring to their special qualities as dairy animals: 
“I practice dairy farming, with butter production 
as the commercial end. I’ve tried out other lines of 
farming some, and other ends in dairy-farming in par¬ 
ticular, and I am fairly convinced that not only is 
dairy-farming the best line of farming for me to 
follow, but also that butter production is the line of 
dairying that yields the most satisfactory all-round 
A TYPICAL COLUMBIAN COW. Fig. 111. 
COLUMBIAN, AN AMERICAN BREED. Fig. 
returns, as well as the largest net return. And I am 
quite as convinced, also, that the Columbians are the 
best breed for butter production. Why? Well, they 
possess three essentials that are of paramount im¬ 
portance in a butter-producing cow, in a greater and 
more balanced degree than does any other breed. 
These essentials, i. e., economic milk production, a 
large yield of milk rich in butter fat, and hardiness 
and adaptedness to the climatic and other natural 
conditions of the section one is located in, I find 
highly developed in the Columbian. These special 
qualities are the natural result of their ancestry, when 
we consider the hereditary influence from their past. 
“The animals of this breed are possessed of vigorous 
constitutions, and especially vigorous digestive and 
milk-making ‘machinery.’. These traits were implanted 
in the old ‘Linebacks,’ in the pioneer days, probably 
when a cow must need 
be vigorous to survive 
the conditions of exist¬ 
ence—care and feeding— 
of that time and yet 
niake a sufficiently good 
showing at the pail and 
churn to escape sentence 
to the block. Years of 
breeding under such con¬ 
ditions naturally elimi¬ 
nated any weakling tend¬ 
encies, thus establishing 
vigor as a trait of their 
descendents. This vigor, 
constitutional and organ¬ 
ic combined, somewhat 
accounts for the cows’ 
ability to convert fodder 
into milk rich in butter 
fat in considerable quan¬ 
tity, and also, when fed 
on more concentrated 
feed, to return a large 
percentage of it to the 
pail and a very small 
percentage to waste in 
the voidings. The other 
breeds, like the Holsteins, 
that gives a larger milk 
yield or like the Jersey 
that gives richer milk 
in butter fat, do not pro¬ 
duce as economically, i. 
e., return so large a per¬ 
centage of their feed to 
the pail and so small a 
percentage to the trenches 
—thus the percentage of 
net return is larger with 
the Columbian than with 
the other breeds. 
“A number of years 
ago, in one of my ex¬ 
periments away from 
butter-producing dairy¬ 
farming, I acquired a 
herd of grade Holsteins; 
they were very good in¬ 
dividuals, too; heavy 
milkers, and proceeded 
to sell milk to the Bor¬ 
den Company. In that 
try-out I found that 
though my herd was do- 
112. ing well on the face of 
the figures—as well as 
any of my neighboring Borden patrons’ herds were— 
the actual returns, month by month, were below what 
they had been with my herd of Columbians devoted 
to butter production. The returns per cow were only 
about two-thirds what my father was obtaining from 
his Columbians on nearly the same feed. In the two 
or three years’ try-out that I gave this Holstein milk¬ 
selling line of dairying, the gist of the answer was the 
same. Then I quit it and returned to the Columbians 
and butter production—while I was yet able. 
