Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1859-10-08
0Qloreester 4aiIp gpp.

BREEDING FOR MILK, AND BREEDING FOR
BEEF.-It was allowed, we believe, by all who
visited the State Show and Far last week, that
there were never brought together in Maine a
better collection OF cattle. they were, taken
as whole, large and in good order. This is
all very well. The progress made by our farm
ers Ill breeding stately oxen and heavy beef is
commendable But there was another thing
observable, and that was the comparatively
small number of mich cows entered, and the
still smaller number OF real good mixers pre-
scented for examination. This should not be.
There can be no denial of the fact, that in the
desire and in the efforts of raising cattle super
iOr for work and beef, the farmers of Maine
are going astern i'll rearing superior animals
for the pail. Our dairy stock is not being inn
proved. The question very naturally occurs,
Why is this The earlier Durhams introduce
ed into Maine were good mixers They are
not so now. The earlier Devons were good
milkers-they are not now. What is the
reason! There are undoubtedly two good
reasons for this. The first is, the selection of
animals that have a natural tendency to tatten
than give large quantities of milk, to breed
from. The second is, the mode of rearing the
young, or feeding, is such as to stimulate the
fat gathering or adipose vessels of the system
instead of the milk gathering or lactiferous
vessels.
assertion, butwe will endeavor to give our rea-
sons for it as plainly as we can. There is in
the human system, and indeed in all the mann
malta or milk giving animals, two sets Of yes
sells. The office of one set is to secrete and
gather fat. The office of the otheris to secrete
and gather milk. Now the action OF each of
these organs is entirely and essentially oppo.
site to the other. They may act together in
moderate degree-thus, an animal, a COW for
ha foIx 4nf Al
same time give a moderate quantity of milk
but if you push the action of one set of vessels
to the extreme, you diminish proportionally
the action of the other. You cannot get your
COW extremely fat and at the same time have
her great mixer On the other hand, you
cannot have her a great mixer and at the
same time have her excessively fat. Hum
dreds of examples may be cited where great
mixers, when made excessively fat, have been
ruined as mixers. The famous Cakes cow is
a case in point. After becoming celebrated as
a dairy COW, she passed into new hands, where
she was fed literally with meal She became
fat, and was nothing extra after that for the
dairy.
Our farmers are now wide awake for large,
fat animals. 1t seems as if they had imbbed
the belief, that to grow and accumulate great
pile of coarse beef in one hide was the "chief
end of man." This was manifested by the
array of large stately calves at the show.
How these calves were brought up to the point
of fat and stature was also abundantly evident.
Scarcely one OF them came upon the ground
without having a net nurse by its side in the
form of a meek old cow-not its mother, but
some one that would give a good supply of
milk to the young giant at the expense OF her
own thrifty appearance.
Now, according to our theory, these calves
can never become good milking stock. Why
Because from their very birth the fat gather
ing Or adipose organs have been set into active
operation at the expense of the milk or lactif-
erous system, and they will always keep the
ascendancy. But, say you, how can we slim
ulate the milk gathering organs oil calf? We
answer, by not Oyertaxing the fat gathering
organs. The eaner or poorer you can keep
calf, and at the same time keep it in thrifty,
growing state the better mixer will it become.
Understand us fairly in this position. We
do not contend that poor keeping of calves will
inevitably make great mixers of them but it
will have tendency to make better mixers
than if kept excessively fat. For instance:
you may take two heiter calves-twins, if you
pease--put one of them into liberal feed,
and keep it fat all the time until it is mature.
Put the other into moderate feed, where it
shall grow moderately well until mature, but
not fat, and this last will make much better
mixer than the first. We could cite innumer-
able instances to prove this. We could tell
some experiments of our own in proof of this.
The complaint that the DurhamS and the De.
vons have lost their former good milking prop
critics arises from the overlooking of their pro-
geny. Select from each breed those that have
good milking points, and breed them on the
moderate pressure principle, and you will
again get good mixers from them.-1ndine
Farmer.