a 
1 Srpr., 1902.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 177 
Acriculture. 
FIRST STEPS IN AGRICULT ORE. 
10rn Lesson. 
THIRD STAGE. 
By A. J. B. 
Now that you are fairly started on your farm, the fencing and stockyards 
completed, and your first crops in the ground, you must think of getting a few 
head of DAIRY STOCK, PIGS, AND FOWLS. 
Let us see how you are to set about the first very important matter. 
Unless you start properly, you will be sorry afterwards for your mistakes. 
Many farmers keep cows, but the cows do not keep them, for the simple reason 
that they are of a bad breed; but, notwithstanding all the object lessons they 
have before them, they still cling to the idea that anything with_-horns and a 
hide in the way of cattle is a bull or a cow, and they would rather give £1 10s. 
for a beast which eats voraciously and yields two quarts of milk a day than 
pay £10 or £12 for a really first-class well-bred Ayrshire, Jersey, or Shorthorn 
which will yield from 3 to 4 gallons per day. I suppose such farmers would 
never be made to believe that at an exhibition—the Great Pan-American 
Exhibition at Buffalo—there was a winning Jersey cow, Olga LV., which for 
one day gave 65% lb. of milk, for seven days 447 lb. 2 oz., in thirty-one days she 
gave 1,941 Ib. 14 oz., and in 113 days a total of 6,359 lb. Previous to her last 
calf her return was 12,000 lb. of milk in eleven months, or something like £100 
in value for the eleven months, supposing the milk to have been sold retail. 
How much is such a cow worth? Certainly worth half-a-dozen poor ones. 
The question you will naturally ask first is: What breed is the best to 
start with ? 
This is hard to answer. There are several good breeds, but dairy farmers 
all have their particular fancy, and nothing will induce them to look with a 
favourable eye upon any but the particular breed which has given them satis- 
faction. 
The breeds most used in Queensland are Ayrshires, Jerseys, Durhams, 
Devons, Holsteins and their crosses, and South Coast (Illawarra) cattle. We 
will consider the merits of each of these by and by. Meanwhile I want to say 
a word about a cow which is the dream of many a farmer. She is called 
the ‘general purpose cow’’—that is, a cow which will be a good butcher’s beast 
and yet equally as good a milker as the Ayrshire or Jersey. Many believe that 
such a cow exists. Others declare that it is a visionary idea, and that such an 
animal will never be found by the man who wants a large calf for the butcher every 
year, 20 lb. of butter a week, and 800 Ib. of good fat beef when the cow is twelve 
years old. I once owned a magnificent cow—a Shorthorn. She was said to be a 
general purpose cow. Her general purpose was to give as little milk as possible, 
never to produce a calf after her first, but to provide something like 700 Ib. of 
good beef when I put her to the only purpose she was fit for—a beef-producer. 
Now, think of what a general purpose cow will cost you. You must keep up 
the animal’s condition as long as it lives, and to do this large quantities of food 
must be provided during its whole life—food which does not increase the milk- 
yield nor enrich it, and has small effect on the development of the calf, which 
you may or may not get every year. If you reckon up what you have spent in 
twelve years for food, you will find that you have expended over and over again 
the money you get from the butcher for the beef. So my advice is—do not go 
in for the general purpose cow, but select such as will bring you in regular 
supplies of milk, cream, butter, or cheese. The nearest approach to this 
imaginary animal is the Durham or Shorthorn. 
