24 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 
The Short-Horns, the Devons, and the Herefords, excel in qualities peculiar 
to them; but as milkers, either for the cheese or butter dairy, do not rank 
above the common stock, and all these, in qualities which are essential for 
dairy purposes proper, fall far below the Jeisey oi Ayrshire. 
If these remarks are true, the improvement of the dairy proper is to be 
never directly and certainly secured by propagating the leading dairy breeds 
of cattle, viz: the Jersey and the Ayrshire. 
I omit to mention some other kinds of cattle, such as the Holstein, t le 
Kerry, the Cream Pot, &c., of which I know nothing, of which little com¬ 
paratively has been written, and of which the specimens in this country are 
so few as practically to leave them out of the account. 
Second, How practically and profitably to apply the above conclusions f 
In any event the pure bred Jersey and Ayrshire must for a long time to 
come, stand in the same relation to the dairy interest that the pure bred 
Short-IIorn does to the beef producing interest. The increase will be val¬ 
uable, primarily, for breeding purposes; secondarily, for the dairy product. 
Herds approximating to full blood, will multiply precisely as herds approxi¬ 
mating to the full blood Short-Horn have multiplied, and with the same 
degrees of advantage. Choice selections from the common stock or from 
other thoroughbred cattle, bred to a full blood Jersey or Ayrshire, I belie\ e 
will give excellent results. According to the laws of stock breeding, con¬ 
sidered already established, the male full blood will, with great certainty, 
o-ive to his immediate progeny the peculiar qualities of his race. A male 
animal, himself a cross, can not be relied upon with the same degree of cer¬ 
tainty,’no matter what his individual excellencies may be. Full blood 
Jersey or Ayrshire males are not difficult to obtain, nor are they out of the 
reach of the ordinary dairymen as to expense. 
These remarks imply that the dairymen will make good the wasting of Ins 
herd from heifers of his own raising. A dairyman will not of course sell a 
choice cow. If a farmer with five or ten cows sells his best cow, it is at a 
high figure. With a dairy of forty or more cows, calves, by a Jersey or 
Ayrshire bull from choice cows, can be raised which will be certain to make 
better cows than any that can be bought. 
The conclusion then to which I come, summarily expressed, is—that the 
improvement of the dairy, under the circumstances which at present sur¬ 
round the business of dairying, will be most certainly and satisfactorily 
secured by breeding cows of good milking qualities to full blood Jersey or 
Ayrshire bulls. 
I. Boise, of Marengo, thought a man could buy better cows than he could 
raise and at a less cost too. He fed his cows every day, and got a return 
every night and morning. Some of his cows give as much as 80 pounds of 
milk per day. Oats is the best mixture for feed, as it makes the buttei firm 
and hard. lie would take 150 acres and place 50 cows upon the land and 
make the cows pay $100 per head. The net profit would be not far from $60 
apiece. 
