American Agriculturist 
THE FARM PAPER THAT PRINTS THE FARM NEWS 
“Agriculture is the Most Healthful, Most Useful and Most Noble Employment of Man ”—Washington 
Reg. U. S. Pat. Off. Established 1842 
Volume 111 For the Week Ending June 9, 1923 Number 23 
Holsteins—Why They Lead 
For the Average Farmer They Are Well Adapted to Fluid Milk Production 
I WAS born and brought up on a small 
farm in Vermont where my father kept 
Jerseys for a number of years and made 
butter for retail trade. I shall never 
forget the decided breed prejudice which a 
neighbor of ours had and I remember dis¬ 
tinctly hearing him say a great many times 
that if he knew where the last Jersey in the 
world was, that he would walk ten miles bare¬ 
footed to kill her in order to know that the 
breed was extinct. It just happened that 
this man was a Holstein breeder of the 
poorest sort, keeping many of his cows for 
nurse cows to raise veal 
and doing very little milk¬ 
ing. 
After I came to Madi¬ 
son County, New York, I 
found myself surrounded 
by many Holstein herds 
and learned to acquire a 
decidedly wholesome re¬ 
spect for the breed. Breed 
prejudice is a great detri¬ 
ment to anyone 'and es¬ 
pecially to the breeder 
himself. Any man who is 
prejudiced is almost sure 
to overlook his own weak¬ 
nesses and faults, and con¬ 
sequently will be handi¬ 
capped in progress. How¬ 
ever, the question occurred 
to me—why was it that so 
many Holsteins were kept 
in Madison County, the 
other breeds being hardly 
represented. I have come 
to the conclusion in spite 
of the fact that the Guern¬ 
sey cow has a particular 
adaptability to retail milk trade that the 
Holstein cow is the best adapted to milk pro¬ 
duction for the average farmer. Most of the 
milk is shipped to cities, is standardized so 
that it is of nearly uniform percentage of fat 
and individual breed milk loses its identity. 
Therefore, I concluded that the reason the 
farmers in Madison County kept Holsteins 
was because the greatest source of income to 
these men was from the sale of fluid milk, 
most of which went on to a, New York market. 
Some Phenomenal Records 
The Holstein cow gives milk in great quan¬ 
tities. One of our leading cows averaged 
for a week 143 lbs, or 62 quarts a day. 
Another averaged for the year over 100 lbs. 
or 47 quarts a day. These of course are 
phenomenal records, but the average cow in 
the average farmer’s herd of the Holstein 
breed will give more than similar animals 
of the other breeds, and pounds of milk is 
still the deciding factor with these men. 
The Holstein cow originated in Holland 
and adjacent territory in Germany. She is 
black and white in color and the largest of 
the four dairy breeds. She has been ac¬ 
customed in the old country to graze on the 
level lowlands of the Dutch people and be 
cared for by the little Dutch maid with her 
By M. C. BOND 
wooden shoes. Importation to America be¬ 
gan at an early date and New York State 
received a goodly proportion of these ani¬ 
mals. Of late years importation has not 
been of consequence since American bred 
animals have answered our breeding neces¬ 
sities. The capacity of the Holstein cow to 
consume food and produce milk is the big 
factor which the progressive farmer is in¬ 
terested in. 
The breed is well organized. The National 
Judging County Holstein Exhibits at the New York State Fair. Come to the Dairy Show 
next October and you will see the greatest exhibit of dairy Cattle ever 
• assembled in the East 
Association, which is located ai Brattleboro, 
Vt., attends to the registration and transfer 
of the animals and membership of the organ¬ 
ization, the membership fee being $25 and 
female registration $1 and transfer of owner¬ 
ship $1.50. There are nearly 20,000 mem¬ 
bers in the Holstein-Friesian Association in 
the United States, New York having 4,394 in 
June, 1922. In addition to this National As¬ 
sociation there are a great many county and 
local breed clubs and several State Holstein 
associations. All of these organizations at¬ 
tempt to coordinate and work for the promo¬ 
tion of the breed. The Extension Service 
has been developed with the aim of its edu¬ 
cational aid to the breeders, and we have 
learned that a great many men have changed 
from grades to pure breds through the efforts 
of this and other institutions. 
Pure Breds Earn 47.8 per cent More than Grades 
I have just received the report from the 
United States Department of Agriculture, 
showing from some of their investigations, 
that pure-bred dairy cattle have an earning 
pgwer 47.8 per cent greater than • scrub 
stock. These figures are for production at 
the pail only and no account is made for the 
surplus stock which of course wjll sell at a 
considerable profit over the surplus grade 
stock. The grade approximates the pure 
bred in efficiency of production and it is only 
a matter of time when the farmer who is de¬ 
veloping a herd from scrub stock will work 
up through the grade to the pure bred, the 
big advantage being that the offspring from 
pure breds can be relied upon much more 
safely to be consistent and good producers 
than can the calves from grade cattle. Just 
a short time ago a farmer was telling me of 
a remarkably good grade that he had and he 
said the four heifers from her were of prac¬ 
tically no value. This is one of the discourag¬ 
ing factors of breeding 
grade cattle. 
Every organization 
needs to clean house oc¬ 
casionally. At this time 
of the year our American 
women are thinking of 
cleaning house the length 
and breadth of this coun¬ 
try. Breed limitations 
may be somewhat elimi¬ 
nated through the process 
of cleaning house by selec¬ 
tion, followed by careful 
breeding. The high prices 
paid for Holsteins during 
the war and just previous 
were quite largely the 
cause of so many poor 
pure breds being raised 
and sold and consequently 
we have now quite a num¬ 
ber of these scrub pure 
breds, animals of poor 
conformation and low pro¬ 
duction, bulls which con¬ 
stantly produce offspring 
with sloping rump, and 
weak constitution. These animals should 
quickly and unqualifidely be disposed of to 
allow animals which are the true type to do 
their work. It is only by seeing mistakes 
and recognizing poor animals, then selecting 
and disposing of these—not to any other 
breeder but to the butcher—that any breeder 
can progress and it is to the interest of the 
breed as a whole that they advocate the 
elimination of these undesirable animals, 
even though they be pure breds. 
The Future is Bright 
The future is bright. The sy.stem of Ad¬ 
vanced Registry records shows that the Hol¬ 
stein cow holds practically all the world’s 
records for milk and butter production. 
There are over sixty cows which have pro¬ 
duced 1,000 lbs. butter in a year in the Hol¬ 
stein breed and very few in other breeds. 
The Holstein is prolific. There are several 
century sires, or sires having over 100 pro¬ 
ducing daughters. The cows are good 
breeders over a long period of years and both 
cows and bulls are prepotent, carrying on 
to their progeny their good qualities of pro¬ 
duction and individuality. 
This insurance of good production is sup¬ 
plemented by the food value of Holstein 
(Continued on page 491) 
