The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1910-08-12

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.sss ppw. afters on has tarted the
dairy herd he should bear IN mind
that the. great -pfoblem which presents
itselfssis the onssof building up and
bettef1ng the herd at an times IN
stead%of producing animals that are
less profitable Or poorer ii their con-
formation than their mothers. There
is only one way to- bring: about i'm
provement and that is by the careful
selection Of sires and by properly
raising the offspring by feeding and
caring for them with the best possible
methods. It Is rever advisable to use
a grade or a scrub sire no matter
whether the cows be pure in their
breeding or only grades: :. True It is
that many grade bulls are as good in
divfdually or look to one as being as
good as any pure bred SIRE. and in
many instances it is true that many
grade bulls can be found that, speak
ing from the standpoint OF individual.
ity, are superior to the large ma
jority Of the pure bred bulls obtain
able. However, one is always uncer-
tain as to the outcome of his breed
ing operations when using a sire
whose pedigree is not known. It is
not enough to know the character Of
the sire and dam of the bull at the
head of the herd. It may be and often
times is the case that a grade bull
may have a most excellent mother
and be we'll sired and still the results
Of his use be the greatest of disap-
pointment due to the law of atavism
or reversion, which means simply
that the offspring may trace back
through the sire and dam, grand sires
and grand dams, often back several
generations, to some animal that was
the most veritable scrub, and. conse-
quently, the offspring would be much
poorer than any of the other ances-
tors. An illustration of this is that
Aberdeen Angus cows, pure in their
breeding, sometimes have red calves.
This is due undoubtedly to the fact
that the Aberdeen Angus breed Of cat
tie originated scores of years ago
from foundation of red animals and,
although at the present time the
largest percentage Of the offspring
are jet black, with scarcely a white
spot on them, some of the calves are
born red
In addition to the pedigree that in
dictates large production in all the ma
ternal ancestry, the individuality of
the bull must be of the type desired
in the offspring. He must give indi.
cations of prepotency and masculinity,
have a strong constitution. capacity,
circulatory system, nervous tempera-
ment or disposition, and the indica.
tions of milking ability described for
the selection Of cows. Too much at
tention can never be given to the Sc
lecting of the head of the herd and
the fact that so much carelessness has
in the past been used on the dairy
farm in this particular regard is the
reason why dairy herds at the present
time do not produce more largely or
the average and more prodtably than
they do. This is we'll illustrated by
the fact that in the neighborhood Of
the very best breeders of bred dairy
cattle we find the best farm dairy
herds in the world due to the fact
that these breeders have sold or
loaned to their neighbors bulls with
the prepotency and highly developed
dairy breeding behind them that rem
dered them useful in building up the
herds to their present standard. AS
a result of this usage of good sires for
several years past these dairymen are
selling their COWS and heifers for ex-
tremely high prices, in many in
stances for grade cows and heifers
from SIS up to $3.50 a head. AS
matter of fact, there is only one way
of securing good profitable dairy COWS
at the present time without paying
extremely large prices for them, ow-
ing to the great demand for good
COWS, and that is by the use of good
sires. AS a rule most farmers have
cows that they milk and many among
them are profitable. BY sorting these
out, by using the Babcock test and
scales and keeping them as founda-
ton herd, using only the very best of
dairy sires, retaining the calves and
growing them we'll, it is surprising
how quickly the production Of the
farm herd may be doubled and then
In the future doubled again and so
on, depending entirely upon the char
acter of the sire used and the meth
DDS employed in raising the offspring.
1t is possible at this time to buy good.
high-grade cows capable of producing
from three to six hundred pounds of
butter IN a year, but these kind of
COWS are very expensive and unless
one is careful In selecting them he is
liable to bring upon his farm different
diseases, such as abortion, tubercu.
losls and many of the other diseases
to which cows are subject
WHY Men Hate to Buv lirohrall.e