The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-03-18
acter if it could be done. We need it
for just what it is.
THE DUAL PURPOSE COW.

THE DUAL PURPOSE COW.
We listened with a good deal of inter
est to the paper read by Prof. Thomas
Shaw at the meeting of the National Live
stock Association in Chicago last De-
cember in regard to the dual purpose
cow and her management. Prof. Shaw
admits that dual purpose COW is not so
good for milk as the pure dairy type, and
does not make as fine a beef as the pure
beef type. This whole question seems
to lis to resolve itself into what a mans
interest is in. The dual purpose cow may
nave some qualities that commend her
to the general farmer who is not selling
milk or butter, and wants an animal that
VIII make fairly good calves for the butch
er, though he is not a beef man: For
such, there may be some advantages in
having a cow of good size, which is
neither one thing nor another But the
man whose greatest interest is in dairy
products does not want anything of the
sort. He wants the cow that will give
him the greatest amount of milk or butter
for the food consumed and he does not
want to keep an animal on which he
loses annually, for the sake of being able
to make a beef out OF her at the end
of her USE Ten dollars added to her
value at the end of her life would be
lost time and again during the time she
was in the dairy. On the other hand,
the man whose interest is In beef wants
the animal which will lay on flesh and
fat in the best portions of her carcass
and is not at all concerned in the guam
tity of milk she may make so that she
is able to raise a good calf. Between
these two classes there is, IL is true,
great class of farmers who are directly
interested in neither beef nor milk
as market product, and for these to
whom the keeping of live stock is more
Of an incident to their grain farming the
dual purpose COW may be OF some i'm
portance. We can heartily endorse what
Prof. Shaw said in regard to the import
ance to the stock farmer, whether he is
dairyman, beef man or general purpose
man, Of growing more OF the protein
foods for cattle. He said. while clover
stands prince among these legumeS, 1t
alone will not suffice. 1t will not. for in
Stance, furnish the farmer with all he
needs of protein for his swine, nor even
for his mich cows. Alfalfa is going to be
grown in ten times ten thousand places
in the West and Northwest where now
the common idea prevails that it can
not be successfully grown. .. The
growth of peas in the Northwest is yet
in it's infancy. Two great families may
be chosen from, the Canada, pea and the
cow pea Happily the latter will grow
where the heat is too much for the form
err, and vice versa, so that one or the
other of these protein plants may be
grown in all parts Of the Northwest,
Soy beans. too, have their place, and
their growth in the future will be null
tiplied. o.. But with the exception
OF the clover plant We are little children
in our knowledge as to the best methods
of growing these legume plants and the
best methods of preparing them for live
stock and feeding the same If more OF
our Experiment Station workers would
come down from their Journey through
the clouds and work out these problems,
the results would be fraught, with bless
ines to the world" To whichtwe heartily
say amen" We may have hereafter to
refer again to this admirable address.