Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1878-02-20

That love IL folly, friendship but a snare9
Priti COW, this Is no time for lazlnessi
The cad thou chewest is not what 1t seemsi
Oct up and moo Tear round and quit thy dreams.
Our Vermont Breed OF Dairy Cows.
An intelligent correspondent, " A. S. p"
of South Royalton, writes us a letter which,
we regret to say, is so long that our limited
space in this paper will not admit of the
whole of it, with the answers to the hard
questions he puts out to us. 1t is sort of
criticism on some remarks of ours about i'm
proving our native stock of cows. He OBJ
iects to our expressed belief that "proper
feeding, proper care and proper breeding,
If they could be made general, would,
in twenty-five years, make the common
cows of Vermont better breed for our
own use than anything that ever has been
or ever can be imported" He says, This
belief, if founded on proper evidence, would
be right, and had you stopped here and told
us how the matter of better doing could be
made general, you might have reared castle
large enough for us ALL" He seems to think
our succeeding remark, in which we said
that, "when we came to the matter of bet
ter breeding, it would often be judcious to
use males from some of the European breeds
that have been already improved" -he seems
to regard this observation, we say, as incon-
sistent with the former. Subsequently he
says, "If you are going to accomplish so
grand result in twenty-five years, result
which has taken almost centuries to accom-
plsh, and under circumstances peculiarly
favorable for the object, whilst we are under
circumstances peculiarly unfavorable for its
accomplishment, there must be some way
which we do not know, and hope you will
inform u.s."
If we have read the histories of the i'm
proved breeds of cattle Alright, our cores
pondent is greatly in error III his belief that
it took "alniost centuries to bring them
up to high standard of excellence. The
Ayrshires, according to Alton, an Ayrshire
writer who gives their history, were brought
up from very inferior lot of dairy cattle
much below the average of Vermont dairy
cows-to degree of excellence that gave
them repute as the best mixers in Great
Britain within the memory of men then
living" And it is asserted, on good evil
dence, that in the process of the work, crosses
were taken from both Shorthorns and
Jerseys.
From the time when we first hear of the
Shorthorns as a distinct breed, to the day
when Bates produced the families of that
breed which have since made his name IA
nous, was not fifty years; and it is admit
ted that there are no Shorthorns to-day to
surpass those in Bates own herd. We are
here speaking of "breeds" as distinct from
"races." The Ayrshires are breed from
the common race of cattle in Southwestern
Scotland. The Shorthorns are breed from
the race of Yorkshire and Durham cattle.
The Jerseys are breed from the Norman
race of cattle, from which also the common
Lower Canada cattle are supposed to have
sprung.
Now the common cattle of New England
are also race, though somewhat more
mixed than those of old settled European
regions. Those of Vermont average far
better, if we may believe the statements of
Alton, than did the Ayrshire cattle of the |
latter part of the last century. Why then,
with the use of the same means by which
the modern Ayrshire breed was ennobled |
from race of scrub cows, may not we in
Vermont also produce dairy breed And |
why may we not make that breed more ex- |
actly what we want than any foreign couu.
try can furnish us ? 1t is already acclimated |
and adapted to our feed, and only needs Sc
lection, and better care and better feeding,
to make as great and rapid advance as did |
the Ayrshires under the hand of growing
intelligence and skill among the dairymen
either, why we may not take crosses from
Jersey, Ayrshire, Devon or Shorthorn, if |
that will hasten the improvement in the di-
rection we mean to go. But of course it
must be done with intelligence and iudg.
ment, and only breeders possessing such
qualities will succeed. The Ayrshire breed
was not made on every farm in Ayrshire.
The improvement began with few, Just as
the improvement of the Merino sheep in
Vermont began, and from those improved
herds both the cattle and the methods OF
improvement spread. Even now there are
only few breeders in Ayrshire from whose
herds any foreign purchaser would be likely
to make large selections. 1t takes the same
care TO keep up breed that it does to pro.
duce it. Men who are after Vermont Nleri-
noes do not go to Essex county after them.
1t is the Addison county and Windsor
county flocks they seek for and even there
a few farmers monopolize most of the bust
ness. 1t is Bates Shorthorns and Booth
Shorthorns that we hear of as being i'm.
ported to this country. And even with
breed so pent up as are the Jerseys in that
little island, certain breeders have great
pre-eminence over the more ordinary dairy
men there in the estimate put upon their
stock.
As to making the "better doing" general,
in the matter of improving our dairy stock,
it must come by the contagion of example.
Already there are hundreds of dairymen
in Vermont who begin to feel the spirit of
improvement 1t has not yet worked long
enough for the results to become prominent
in any one case; but we look for that to
occur soon. We have had our Hammond in
sheep breeding as England so long ago had
her Bakewell Sheep are brought to high
development of merit sooner than cattle, but
not more surely, nor on different principles.
We shall have our eminent cattle breeders
like England, whose dairy stock will be in
equal request. England started first, but
she has no monopoly of the intelligence, or
of the means by which such results are at.
tanned. We are at loss TO conceive WHY
we labor under disadvantage in the work.
We have as good land, as good grass and
grain, as good climate, as England. Our
farmers have just as much ambition and
just as good brains as those of any nation.
And we have the great advantage of pos
sessng at the start a complete acquaintance
with what has been done, and how it has
been done, by our predecessors. They had
20 al Al