388 
WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
he has a three year old heifer which gave on an average thirty 
pounds of milk a day through the best part of the season, and an 
Ayrshire cow which gave in one season 8,500 pounds of milk, and 
that it was a fact in his experience that a good cow would yield 
as much in value in one year as an average bullock would produce 
in beef in four years. 
Now the practical man who has an eye for profit would not think 
of breeding the Jerseys for beef, nor for cheese dairying, and cer¬ 
tainly it would be the height of folly to keep a herd of Jersey 
cows if he was supplying milk for the towns. But if he wants a 
nice little machine for converting grass into the best butter, then 
get the quiet Jersey. 
A little incident showing practical science, or rather a lack of 
this practical common sense, once came under my own observation. 
A man who had plenty of means, while visiting one of our state 
fairs, saw a fine Durham cow, fat and sleek, which just filled his eye 
as the one for a family cow, while visions of oceans of milk and 
crocks of butter were floating through his brain; a bargain was 
struck at a high price and Miss Durham changed owners, and one 
of the largest sized milk pails was ordered from the tin shop to 
hold the lacteal fluid. I jokingly remarked that a smaller one 
would answer, and so, after a few days, as the small mess of milk 
seemed so lonesome in so much space, it was exchanged for a 
smaller and more convenient pail. That man’s scientific knowledge 
of the requirements in a family cow was rather poor, and the ill- 
looking Ayrshire did not fill the bill for him. It has been shown as 
a fact that peculiar traits can be preserved and transmitted in a re¬ 
markable degree; and in no breed of cattle perhaps is this so pecu¬ 
liar as in the Durhams, while in some localities the finest milkers 
are produced, others as in some portions of Indiana and Southern 
Illinois, where beef is only produced; it is sometimes said that it 
takes two cows to raise one calf. And it would be sheer nonsense 
to import from that locality thoroughbreds thinking to improve our 
dairy herds thereby: For the dairy cow must be one which has the 
peculiar quality of converting food into an abundance of good 
milk without laying on an excess of fat. I have cited some special 
cases to show what breed and feed can do, for in my opinion the 
mainspring of success to the dairy farmer may be summed up in 
these two words; and it may be proper to give some of the average 
