The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1888-02-09
THE PERFECT COW.

THE PERFECT COW.
| Amount Of solids In Mia ths Ho4sYs
Criterion u an Animals Value.
The dairy cows mission will be to
produce butter and cheese. and hence
she will not be a large animal as
measured by the beef standard. The
giving Of milk makes the dairy COW
creature Of bcnefcence. returning to
her owner, in milk and cheese and
manure. with nothin, held back but
actual bodily support, all the food
consumed; while the beef cow. with
habits fixed by breeding. i "a miser,"
storing away as largely as possible the
better elements Of her food for fat,
flesh and bone forming. and only
yielding it up OH the block, SO that
milk and beef qualities must contend
for mastery if bound up in one animal.
and the result must be disappointing.
That the beef element ia antagonistic
to the milking habit is a noticeable
popularity. The truly beef COW is 4
small and brief mixer. often falling to
give support for her calf. and the ulti-
matum is reached when the beef type
actually undermines the function Of
motherhood. and promises the obliter-
alton of becfy family; while mother
hood, in its broadcast and most COM
plete sense, ID the predominant trait Of
the dairy cow. So l think milk and
beef will never be combined with
favorable results.
Whether the ''persect cow will be
recognized as a butter cow or an an
imal for milk. think admits Of no dis
tinction. Milk is valuable only for the
solids it contains in fats, cheese and
sugar, and the cow that produces but
ter has no power (nor can it be bred
into her) to furnish milk in which the
fats largely predominant over the
cheese element or vice versa. No an
alyses covering any considerable Pc
RODS of time or the milk of any dairy
breed fed upon the rations generally
furnished dairy cattle at large, have
ever shown that the ratio Of butter
value by weight was in excess Of the
normal proportion of caseine by weight;
and in the case of any herd the normal
milk will be as valuable for cheese as
for butter. the price Of either or the
feeding value Of the milk not being
considered. and the richness Of milk is
due to the absence. to a greater or less
degree. of the usual Lightweight per
cent. of water that makes the bulk of
milk.
Neither is the bulk or weight Of milk
any criterion of its value, and the value
attached to tho size of a COW in the
future will be regulated by the amount
IT solids in her milk. 1. e., the small
cow that puts AS mich solids in her
twenty-five pounds Of milk per day
will be held as having superior value
over large cow whose fifty pounds Of
milk contain only an equal amount of
solids. Unless the large COW can show
better performance in actual butter,
and cheese on proportional rations,
the smaller COW must win. as her
smaller body calls for correspond
ingly less consumption of food for bod
lily support.
As it is money that the farmer wants
to realize from the consumption Of 50
much food by his dairy. fashion or sem
timent must give way in the end TO
performance, and we must find out
whether or not there is any extra cost
in maintaining large cow as COM
pared with smaller one. to obtain only
the same results in fats and cheese. and
we must also learn whether the excess
Of water in the milk of ninety-pound
COWS costs food, aud, lastly. can the
milk Of these cows of great milk per-
Torrance, by any line Of breeding and
feeding the animals. be made to exhib-
it the due proportionate amount Of
solids Until the large cow with CO.
pious flow Of milk can show, on pro-
portionate rations. = greater yield OF
butter and cheese, it is folly for the
dairyman to delude himself with the
idea that quantity of milk is profitable
dairying. unless he, perchance. is a
city milk vender. and when the law
shall compel him. as it will in the very
near future, to furnish milk with
three and one-quarter per cent. OF fats,
his ideas will change, and he will de-
mand COW that can furnish quality Of
milk as we'll as quantity. and the
medium sized cow with perfect diges-
ton and with great powers Of assimila-
ton of food will be in demand. Unless
the large COW can make her milk rs
valuable in solids the farmer will be
compelled, ! think. largely to breed
the cows for his dairy, for by this plan
alone can he fix type, and it can be
accomplished only by the powers vi
heredity. Not alone must thu
mothers side. but the sire's also be 9
prepotcnt milk type. and thus doublt
impress the qualities desired. This
blood once made conspicuous, mus,
not be diluted by the undesirable quail.
tiles Of scrub or the antagonistie
cross Of a beef family. BY selecting
some OF the most noted of the milking
families of native stock. and crossing
them with some well-known dairy
breed that has a quality of milk to
give it value. and then perpetuatine
the cross by careful selection, based
Oh performance. and ''holding fast t.
the good" there is no reason why an
intelligent, observing farmer, who
reasons from cause to effect, and ii
guided by paying results, may not OBJ
tain Mt small cost valuable dairy
stock. John Gould, tn Rural Neu
1 Yorker.
4
CURE FOR GARGET.