103 
This holds good even with bulls of recognised pure milking breeds. I may be 
ermitted a digression here to remark on the caution necessary to be exercised 
in the selection of bulls that have made their mark in the sbow-ring. Iam 
fully sensible of the fact that agricultural shows haye done much to encourage 
improvement in live stock, and I have shown my appreciation of their useful- 
ness by assisting in the establishment and working of several agricultural 
societies ; but, like everything else, they have their abuses, and in no section of 
our agricultural shows has this been more clearly demonstrated than in the 
manner of adjudicating and making awards in the case of dairy stock. The 
mode of judging dairy stock, particularly pedigree cattle, almost universally 
adopted at agricultural shows, is by a system of exterior features or points ; 
and, although that system answers exceedingly well with beef-producing cattle, 
it has been found inapplicable to dairy stock, and in many instances is so mis- 
leading, that a heifer that has been decorated with the highest show-yard 
honours has been found not equal at the pail to some animals procurable at 
less than one-tenth the cost, and which would have been deemed the veriest 
scrubbers in competition with the more aristocratic animals. This is no mere 
assertion ; I have had personal experience of such instances. It may be taken . 
as a maxim that a good milk cow usually shows good exterior points, but the 
converse does not always hold good. Many animals showing bad external 
points are superior milkers. The true test of a dairy cow is her performance 
at the pail. The truth of this was so borne in on Mr, Robertson, 
of Canada, the owner and manager of, perhaps, the most extensive dairy 
establishment in the world, that on his last visit to his native county—Ayr— _ 
to select fresh stock, he found amongst the celebrated prize-takers so many 
inferior milkers that he made his selections from among herds actually in use 
in dairies in that county and Dumfries, and which had not figured in any show 
rings. If a superior dairy herd is to be built up, no test other than that of 
the pail must be relied upon. ‘Lo establish a dairy herd the best milking cows, 
regardless of breed, should be selected, and in making such a selection the 
following cardinal points should be kept in view:—Sizu: Anywhere between 
600 to 2,000 Ib. live weight, other things being equal. Conrormarron: Large 
barrel and great capacity, as shown by deep middle, and ribs well sprung. 
Neck, shoulders, and thigh thin, wide over hips and loins, thin in flesh and 
lacking beef form when well fed; showing good health by having good heart 
and girth and smooth hair. As a general rule, a good milking cow should, 
when in full milk, yield at least her own weight in milk every month. No bull 
should be used whose dam does not come up to the above standard. After 
having secured the nucleus of a herd, all cows that do not come up to the 
minimum standard of daily yield should be weeded out, and this should be done 
by carefully weighing and recording on a slate hung up in the milking-shed 
the daily yield of each cow. At first the standard of excellence need not be 
fixed too high—say, twelve or fourteen quarts daily ; but by careful selection 
in breeding, the yield will increase with each successive generation. 
One great means of improving our dairy stock would be the recording of 
dairy cattle in district herd-books, adopting the principle which has done so 
much to improve the American trotting horse, regarding none as eligible for 
registration that did not come up to a certain minimum standard, and no bulls 
whose dams are not eligible for registration, Some such principle has been in 
operation among breeders of dairy stock in the south coast of New South 
Wales, and, no doubt, has been the means of rendering those cattle so justly 
celebrated for their milking properties. 
There is an old aphorism that “much of the breeding goes in at the 
mouth.” There is much truth in this, and although it may be more applicable 
to beef than to dairy breeds of cattle, still one of the greatest elements of 
success in the improvement of all classes of domestic animals has been a 
constant supply—without pampering—of healthful food; and therefore one of 
the first cares of breeders of dairy stock and dairymen ought to be the storage 
of food for winter supplies and for seasons of drought, 
