Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1888-02-23
The PERFECT COW.
Amo0at Of Solids In MIX the EuturO
Criterion OF an Animal's Value.

4
] produce butter and cheese. and hence
she will not be a large animal IS
| measured BY the beef standard The
giving of milk makes the dairy cow
creature of beneficence. returning to
her owner, in milk and cheese and
manure. with nothing held back but
actual bodily support all the food
consumed; while the beef cow. with
habits fixed by breeding. Is ''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 on 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 is autagonistic
to the milking habit is o noticeable
popularity. The truly beef cow is
small and brief mixer. often failing to
give support for her calf. and tho ulti-
matum is reached when the beef type
actually undcrmines the function Of
motherhood. and promises tho obliter-
alton of a beefy family; while mother
hood. in its broades: and most COM
plete sense. is the predominant trait of
the dairy cow. So l think milk and
beef will never be combined with
favorable results.
Whether the perfect cow" viii be
recognized rs 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 rs
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 q greater or less
degree. Of the usual lightweight per
cent. of water that makes tho bulk of
milk.
Neither is the bulk or weight of milk
any criterion of its value. and the value
attached to the size of u COW in the
future will be regulated by the amount
Of solids in her milk. 4 e.. the small
COW that puts rs much 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
a better performance in actual butter,
and cheese on proportional rations.
the smaller cow must win. ~ 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 SD
much food by his dairy. fashion or sem
timent must give way in the end to
whether or not there is any extra cost
in maintaining largo COW as COM
pared with n 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. and. lastly. can the
milk of these cows of great III TX per-
by any line of breeding and
feeding the animals. be made to cxhib-
it the due proportionate amount of
solids Until the large COW with CO.
pious flow of milk can show. on pro-
portionate raiiOns. a greater yield Of
butter and cheese. it is folly for the
iairyman to delude himself with the
idea that quantity of milk is profitable
iairying. unless he. perchance. is
rity 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 n cow that can furnish quality Of
milk as we'll as quantity. and the
cow with perfect diges-
ion and with great powers of assimila-
ion of food will be in demand. Unless
he large COW can make her milk as
in solids the farmer will be
l think. largely to breed
he cows for his dairy. for by this plan
,lonc can he fix type. and it can be
only by the powers of
leredity. Not alone must the
side. but the sire's also be Of
milk type. and thus doubly
impress the qualities desired. This
'lOod once made conspicuous. must
Tot be diluted by the undesirable quail
ties Of scrub" or the antagonistic
ross of a beef family. By selecting
ONE of the most noted of tho milking
antilles of native stock. and crossing
hem with some well-known dairy