Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1888-07-20
farm Copies.
MAKING FARMING PAY.

HON. r. D. DOUGLAS SEVENTH ARTICLE.
The selection and breeding of farm stock
and the adaptation of different classes
to the specific purposes for which they
are kept are matters which have a very
important bearing upon financial results
There is not that attention paid to indi-
vidual characteristics and merit which
the Importance of the subject demands.
The profits derived from stock farming
may usually be credited to the better half
of the stock kept; the poorer half seldom
pay the cost of keeping, and often cause
losses which more than counter-balance
the profts,derived from the opposite class.
If Western cyclone, Dakota blizzard, or
some like dispensation of Providence,
would annihiate the poorer half of the
stock kept on majority of farms, and
if these could be replaced by others bred
from the choicest animals only, the ulti-
mate result would be decided I'M
provement in farm profits. This has
been often illustrated in individual ex-
perience. in seasons of drouth and fam
inc, when our farmers have been COM
PEELED to dispose of large portions of their
stock at prices which at the time seemed
to be ruinous. Such apparent sacrifices
have usually proved to be blessings in
disguise. This was illustrated in the
early history of Merino sheep breeding in
Addison county. A succession of crop
failures, caused by drouth and grasshop-
pers, compelled the farmers of this Sec
ton to dispose of large portions of their
focks, Every recurrence of such sea-
sons resulted in permanent Improvement.
Comparatively worthless grade stock was
disposed of, and only the choicest blood
ed stock was retained. By this culling
process, our breeders were prepared to
reap the golden harvests of later years.
The same principle holds true in all de-
partments of stock-raising, only perhaps
less in the degree of its influence. Worth
less scrub mares and sires are a curse,
not only to their owners, but to all Of the
locality where kept. The question of
profit and loss in stock breeding depends
largely upon the general reputation of
the stock in the breeders neighborhood.
The introduction of the Black Hawk
branch of the Morgan family is conspic-
uous example of this. The improvements
resulting from the patronage of our best
stock horses have added thousands of
dollars to the profits of farming in this
section. a superior reputation attracts
purchasers from long distances, and thus
a broader market and higher prices are
secured.
The question of the adaptation of stock
to the demands of the market, and to the
purpose for which each variety is kept,
is one of equal importance. We should
breed for a specific object. If we are
breeding cows for the dairy we should
make speciality of some one branch OF
dairy practice, and select and breed witt
reference to it. There is just as wide {
difference in the characteristics of mill
and its adaptation to the different depart
ments of dairy practice as there is in
woods, and their adaptation to the differ
ent varieties of wooden fabrics. If the
manufacturer of wooden goods should
purchase Unfortunately all grades OF
wool, from the fine short Saxony to the
long coarse combing varieties, and at
tempt to use both in any one branch OF
wooden manufacture, to use SaXony
woods for carpeting, and combing wool;
for broadclOth, we should say that he
used but!little. Intelligence inIhisIbusiness
and could not reasonably expect tC
succeed; yet the dairyman, who uses al
sorts of milk in any one branch of the
dairy business, is practicing nearly a;
great an absurbity.
BY the use of very simple device, the
extremes in the comparison of milk vii
be just as apparent to the eye as the con
trasts in the fibres of wool. Practica
tests in my own dairy have repeatedly
of different members of the herd, rang
ing from 80 per cent of cream down to
per cent, showing as marked a contras
as that between different samples O.
wool.
Milk which is adapted to butter max
ing has very large proportion of TIN
buttery element, and corresponding!
small proportion of casene, the mail
constituent of cheese. Its cream rise
rapidly, through the more watery elemen
in which it floats, made so by the alb
sence of caseine. 1t natures quickly
and decays quickly. Its butter globule
are very large and uniform, and it
cream churns quickly, the butter separ
ates perfectly, and consequently ha
superior keeping qualities. Milk will
these characteristics bears much the sam
relation to butter manufacture that fin
Merino and Saxony woods do to the man
ufacture of broadcloths.
Milk which is best adapted to cheese
; making, and the milk trade, is of yer.
, different structure from that which