Sacramento daily record-union., 1882-04-29
AGRICULTURAL.
WAITER PREPARED SPECIALLY FOR
TIE "REcoRD UNION"
.soth Beef and Milk-Trap the Worms
Msrino Sheep for Muston-skfmmed
MILK for Calves-Etc.

There is no question that many Of the most
,,onular strains Of short horn cattle have been
hred with the single idea Of making tne
show for beef at the expense of the milking
nroperties of the stock. Breeders with the
taste and means for breeding fine stock have
had an eve to fancy qualities demanded by
speculatiye notions, rather than to the gen.
arsl demand of farmers for the real useful
qualities Of stock for the farm. The en-
deavor has been to force the animal by
extra care and feed, and force the
urice of the animal By high claims OF pedi-
gree and fashionable form and color. In this
high.pressure breeding the general wants of
the country, for a class of animals that would
bring the greatest profits, in the dairy and on
the butchers block, have not been thought
of. Stock have been bred for the show-ring
for the competition at the fairs rather than
for the milk-pail and the butchers stalls.
Calves from show-cows have been provided
with wet nurses and the mothers dried up
and put in condition to be ready for the fair
season, and whole herds have been bred and
kept with an eye single to the highest state
of obesity for the sales and the fairs, till
very naturally the impression has become
quite general that short-horn COWS are of but
little value as mixers. And certainly this
impression is zoo correct as to cows that have
for generations been bred for fashionable
beef points, entirely neglecting the milking
points. The truth is that not one farmer in
one hundred cares but little about whether
his herd of dairy cows have a strain of the
pure Bates, the Bell-Bstes or any other
fashionable strain in them, or whether they
have the blood of any high sounding pedi-
gree stock in them, so long as they give
large quantity of good quality of milk
for ten months in the year, and make good,
heavy beef animals when from any cause
they are no longer profitable in the dairy.
The idea of making pedigree more important
than excellence in the individual animal has
done great injury to the best stock interests
of the country. When fancy breeding for
fancy prices shall be done away with, and
real substantial usefulness shall be the aim,
not only will the herds Of thoroughbreds be
much improved. but the breeding of good
crosses will become more general. The sys.
TEN of breeding short-horns, that has become
fashionable in England and many parts OF
this country, has tended greatly to confne
the stock in narrow limits, and at the same
time to give them bad name and circum.
scribe their usefulness generally. Farmers
have not only come to suspect their natural
milk-giving qualities, but they have come to
believe them as wanting in that hardness
that renders an animal capable of shifting
for itself when necessary. There is very
common opinion among practical farmers
that what they call scrubs are more profit,
able animals for the general farmer, unless he
is prepared to give his stock extra care and
attention and this opinion is the natural
outgrewth of the system of breeding adhered
to by most of the short horn advocates and
breeders themselves. If the same pains had
been taken during the last three-quarters of g
century to bring the short.horn COW up to the
highest perfection ss dairy cow that has
been taken to establish for the breed high
reputation for beef, we believe that great
deal more valuable results would have been
arrived at, and that to-day the short-horn:
would have been without successful rivals as
dairy stock. Or If, while breeding for fancy
points and color, the same care had been de
voted to the qualities that make the good
dairy cow, that then still more valuable re-
suits would have been attained, and instead
of being 10 the hands of few amateur stock
men, as now, the short-horns would have
been at this time the common stock OF the
country. We have frequently heard short
horn breeders assert that rather than sell
their bulls of medium excellence for medium
prices they weuld prefer to make steers OF
them and turn them into beef. This we
think has been the practice to some extent,
and to that extent has operated against the
true interests of stock improvement in the
country. The idea was that to sell these
medium-a appearing animals as breeders would
tend to break down prices for fancy animals,
and thus destroy the particular line of breed
ing they chose to follow. The general
farmer wants very little of the fancy busi-
ness in stock breeding or in any other de-
partment of rural industries I; the substantial
is what he is looking for, and the substantial
is what he must have to make farming a
success. The general farmer wants q COW
that will not only be profitable at the pail,
but that will each year bring him valuable
calf-if a heifer, valuable to 60 into the
dairy, or if bull, valuable to turn off as a
fat steer at the proper age. To become a
desirable animal on the general farm, all the
good points must be developed. and not one
at the expense of the others. We want both
beef and milk