Vol. LXXI. No. 4183. 
NEW YORK, DECEMBER 28, 1912. 
WEEKLY. $1.00 PER YEAR 
VALUE OF IMPROVED STOCK. 
Daughters Will Be Like “Father’s Folks.” 
Does anyone question the value of such a bull as is 
pictured on this page to any dairy district in the 
country ? This Guernsey gentleman would make a 
very successful professor of dairying to teach the 
practical or money side of the business by means of 
object lessons. Those who read “The Child” will 
remember what Captain Storms said about the bull 
which a group of farmers bought: “No matter 
where they came from, or who their mothers were, 
his daughters had to look and act like father’s folks.” 
There you have in a few words the theory of what 
we mean by pedigree or “classified inheritance.” In 
this case “father’s folks” represent a long line of 
fate are back of him in the character of his ancestors. 
These daughters would represent a bunch of gentle, 
good-sized fawn and white heifers, with golden skins 
and all the signs that a dairyman knows so well. A 
bull, good or bad, is more than half the herd; some¬ 
times he is three-quarters, for a poor bull may ruin 
a good herd just as a good one will improve a poor 
herd. It all comes down to the fact that the bull’s 
daughters are bound to “look like father’s folks,” so 
that in buying the bull you want to know who these 
folks are. 
Successful dairymen will agree with us when we 
say that it is impossible to build up and establish a 
high-class herd of cows without making use of im¬ 
proved blood; that is, going back to established pedi¬ 
gree. There is no longer any question about the great 
human food, and this wonderful result has been pro- * 
duced by a systematic breeding first of all, and then 
high-class feeding and management. 
And, again, a Guernsey bull of good breeding is 
well suited for use to the average dairy herd. In 
some cases the Holstein will be found too large, not 
making a good cross with the cows found in that 
neighborhood. At the same time, the Jersey might be 
considered too fine for just the dairy cow required. 
The cow contest just mentioned seems to prove that 
a cow of medium size with large capacity for food, 
while a heavier eater than smaller cows, is, on the 
whole, most profitable. In such cases the Guernsey 
comes as a fair compromise in size between the two 
extremes of breeding. This cross gives a strong, 
rugged animal, remarkably gentle, and yielding a good 
“A GUERNSEY GENTLEMAN,” IMPORTED MASPIER’S GALORE. Fig. 533. 
dairy cows, each one had the form and the digestive 
power and temperament to turn food into rich and 
high-colored milk. Thus a well-bred bull becomes the 
sure agent for passing these things along; in fact, that 
being his mission in the world, lie cannot help doing 
it. A grade bull, or one with a poorer inheritance of 
dairy ancestry, might excel in color or shape or size, 
but these good qualities would prove accidental, and 
are not part of a fixed and definite law, for that is 
what pedigree really amounts to, and the more thor¬ 
ough the pedigree is the more fixed is the law of 
inheritance. The strong and vigorous animal pictured 
is no accident, but the sure result of long years of 
careful selection and mating. Take him into a neigh¬ 
borhood where the cows are of mixed breeding, with 
all colors and shapes represented, and most of this 
diversity of type would disappear in the first cross. 
This bull’s daughters would be obliged to look like 
“father’s folks,” for influences almost as certain as 
difference in capacity between a well-bred dairy cow 
properly handled and fed and an ordinary animal 
given the same care. In the thorough study of dairy 
production carried on in the Wisconsin Dairy Cow 
Competition, it was found that while one cow gave 
nearly 22,000 pounds of milk in one year, other cows 
gave less than 5,000. One cow made a net return, 
after the value of her feed was taken out, of $154.44, 
while another gave a loss of over $6. One cow 
during the year produced in her milk 2,800.7 pounds 
of total solids. Think for a moment what that means 
—practically more than twice the body weight of the 
cow in solids during one year. This great amount 
of human food is more than is contained in the com¬ 
plete carcasses of four steers, three years old or more, 
weighing 1,250 pounds each, and the solids in the 
milk are wholly digestible, while those in the meat 
from the steer are only partly edible. This will give 
an idea of the value of the dairy cow as a producer of 
mess of rich and high-colored milk. The Guernsey, 
too, is remarkably prepotent; that is, well-bred speci¬ 
mens will produce calves quite alike in shape, color 
and quality, and as an economical producer of milk 
solids the Guernsey takes high rank. In this Wiscon¬ 
sin contest the Holsteins led both the Guernseys and 
the Jerseys in the total amount of production, but in 
net returns—that is, the production of a pound of 
solids, considering the cost of feed—the Guernseys 
were ahead. In years past the Guernsey breeders have 
been quite modest, if not backward, in pushing their 
cattle into the lime-light. Now the churn and the 
milk-pail are performing that service and doing it 
well. Without disparaging other breeds, we may let 
Guernsey breeders tell why they believe in the yellow 
girls and boys. 
Another pleasing thing we note :—In the Spring, when 
the cows are turned out on grass, the Guernsey will not 
fall down in her per cent, so materially as cows of a 
well-known Holland breed will do. To illustrate: Last 
