The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1874-04-21
OPPORTUNITIES AND REWARDS
For he Application of Brain Work to
Dairy Farming.
ny non. '. u. DOUGLAS, OF WHITING.
(Concluded.)

the subjects for investigation and study
connected with the dairy business. The
intelligent inquirer will find numberless
questions in every step Of his progress,
which his interest or curiosity will tempt
him to solve. Considerations of the most
vital Importance apply to every detail Of
the business, yet how many OF us intelli.
gently scru;inize the execution of these in
our practice, and comprehend the causes
of our success or failure?
BY proper attention to the first named
of these details, the great mass Of our
dairymen might easily add largely to
their profits. The almost utter neglect
on the part Of farmers. to adapt their
stock to the object for which it is the
most insidous. and unobserved. Of all
evils. yet most fruitful source Of loss.
Select, for example, two equally good
cows. one well adapted to the production
Of butter and the other as well adapted
to that Of cheese. Suppose the first when
we'll cared for will produce two hundred
and Atty pounds of butter annually, the
other with the same foed and care. but
one hundred and fifty pounds. The first
will produce me ono hundred pounds
more butter per annum than the second,
will give me thirty or forty dollars per
annum more profit then the second, solely
because of her better adaptation to the
purpose for which she is kept. This in
the ordinary lifetime of COW, will make
her worth three or four hundred dollars
more than the second. yet the latter
may give many pounds more milk, and
for cheese making purposes be much the
most valuable. What butter makers
among us, would refuse to sell cows like
the first named. and retain those like the
last, II they could get thirty or forty
dollars more per head for them Or
would not refuse to pay that amount
more for them if desiring to purchase
Or how many know Of this difference in
the comparative merits Of their cows,
where it does exist?
We may adopt this as fixed fact in
our practice, that if we neglect to prop
erly select our cows, and Gull out the
comparatively worthless animals, and
those not adapted to the purpose for
which they are kept, that neglect will be
very sure to be attended with n greater
or less waste of food. The powers of di.
Res,ion and assimilation are much better
in some COWS than in others. Some will
thrive where others will lose flesh. The
digestive organs of some will extract the
valuable constituents Of their food for a
given purpose, much more perfectly than
others, and if this be true, then it follows
that those constituents not thus extracted
will be lost for that purpose, and in either
case there is waste which must tell upon
our profits. If l keep three COWS to pro.
duce FIVE hundred pounds Of butter, when
might accomplish the same result with
two, l lose the keeping and care of one
of them, if the food consumed per head
is the same. In attending to the second
detail named above, We find field for
thought and observation worthy of an
Agassiz, or a Culver. In tho breeding
of domestic animals, man seems to possess
almost creative power. lie can con.
ceive an ideal model, which in many par.
ticulars may be the opposite of those ami
mails which he has in charge. and yet
owing to the plastic nature of the animal
kingdom, he may reproduce the ideal
model, in the descendants Of those ami.
mails.
1t is thus that those great improve.
ments in our domestic animals have been
made, and those types Of symmetrical
beauty and perfection Of their kind been
established, which we find in the thor.
oughbred horse, the Shorthorn OK, the
Berkshire and Suffolk hog and those
numberless other varieties which give ev.
idence of that moulding power in man
which can develop in the domestic animal
within certain limits. those peculiar char.
scteristics which his fancy or uecessitie,
may dictate.
Peculiar exceilencies in domestic ami
mails are the result of peculiar develop
ment, and if wc cap perfectly understand
the nature of that development, and the
peculiar conformation Of those organs
upon which those excelencies depend il
any particular case, VIC may form per
feet ideal model, by which we may b.
guided in our selections and breedings.
In the selection and breeding of hor
ses, if | desire feet roadster, the idea
of perfection by which | should be guidet
would be quite the opposite from that b,
which | should select draft horse, be
cause the qualities desired are quite op
poste, and the organism of the ANNA
will surely determine his merits for
given purpose,
Aud so in the selection Of cows. If
desire an animal to bring me stock 70
beef growing purposes. my ideal of per
lection should be very different from tina
by which | should select for butter max
ing
In the first case, my ideal should rep
resent an animal Of such physiologica
construction, that its powers of digen.io
and assimilation should be directed t
the formation Of bone, muscle, and tallow
In the latter case, these powers should b
in great measure directed to the elabc
ration Of milk rich in cream, and fc
cheese making purposes, to that of mil
rich in caseine, with much smaller pre-
portion of cream.
Now all Of these qualities rest upo
some peculiar conformation of organism
which the educated eye can trace, an
which it is the province Of mind to III
derstand, and Of intelligent skill to d.
velop.
The great want of Vermont buttt
makers to-day is this intelligent skill, an
its application to the development Of
race Of cows Of fixed type, better adap
ed to our wants than any race which v
now have among US. A race which sha
combine the good qualities of the be
milking stock Of Durhams with those
the Ayrshires and Jerseys. This CONT
nation is within the reach of Vernon
dairymen, if they will but apply then