The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1904-05-06
BREEDING DAIRY COWS.
Feature of American Farming
That Has Been Neglected.


That Has Been Neglected.
The American dailyman has been
taught feeding COWS, stabling them
With the best environments of comfort
and sanitation, caring for the products
of the dairy with regard to the most
hygienic demands of their being used
as human food until if he has had any
desire for dairy enlightenment he can
measure his accomplishment by his
own intelligence and studiousness. But
what about his knowledge of breeding?
He knows the most approved methods
Of feeding cows and disposing of their
product, as l have said, but he is not so
well posted on the matter Of producing
those COWS.
knowledge of the fundamental bust
ness of breeding toward the production
Or strengthening of type is not so
common and is not so easily acquired.
Breeding for a special line of work is a
matter of SKILL knowledge and care and
cannot be taught except by past mas
ter in the craft The individuality of
the male and female, the prepotent in
f1uence of one meeting some intensified
characteristic of the other, are subjects
that cannot be we'll treated Of in books
or from the platform except theoretic-
ally, but belong more particularly to
4l,o no I'd o4o
strations of a theory may be worked
out. 1t may even be suspected that
much of the book and class room in
struction in general agricultural science
is largely too general and theoretic to
meet the specific needs of the everyday
operations on the farm.
have in mind the case of a young
friend who had spent three years at
leading agricultural college, making q
complete failure of his first experience
in growing soiling crops for his cows,
and of another having taken similar
course writing to me for full instruc-
tons as to feeding calf.
Men go much as they are led and
hunt the easy paths. The general pur-
pose cow that grazes through the by
ways and highways of agricultural lit
erature is an easy thing to produce, for
she is merely the result of the meeting
of male and female. If that off
spring is good for nothing It Is called a
scrub; if it shows superior perform
ance it is listed as the general purpose
animal, the friend of the average farm
er, who has not the desire to excel in
his chosen work.
Now, in all sincerity / submit the
suggestion that it is much better to try
haphazard cows that there is some
thing better he may do in the breeding
line of producing such COWS than to
encourage him in his average perform
ances by substantially telling him that
his cows are good enough "suit his
environment" are "as good as he u.s."
which latter may be literally true, but
is no argument against our trying to
make him better and encouraging him
to develop his herd up to his advanced
position.
There are many things in the phys
ical and physiological construction of
the cow more important than certain
colors or shades or spots or the curve
Of her horn Or the color of her tongue
and just as capable of being fixed into
type and reproduced by succession
as are any of the external shapes or
markings. These are some of the finer
points for the careful observation and
study of the student of the dairy. AS
have suggested, it is a comparatively
new field for study and is not bounded
by any narrow limitations.-W. j. Nc
Spartan in Chicago Record Herald