Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1912-12-12

For the farmer who milks cows for
profit there is probably no question
which comes closer to his pocket-book
and interests him proportionately than
that of the pure bred sire. There are.
however, still a lamentably large num-
Der of farmers who have not, yet dis
covered that they can not possibly af-
ford to use any other than a good, pure
bred sire where they are raising heifer
calves to take place In the herd or
for selling, and all this in spite of the
large amount of agitation in favor of
such sires
The farmer with a herd of common
cows realizes what it costs to pur-
chase good cows to replenish the herd,
when he has to pay upwards Of 500
piece for cows without any guaranty
that the cow purchased will be good
one until tried at the pail. There is at
present and probably will be for some
time to come keen demand for good
dairy cows, and the time when such
cows can be purchased for $35 or $40
is past. All this means that we will
have to raise more heifer calves In the
future, and, when we remember that
It costs exactly as much to raise poor
heifer as to raise good one, we real
lie just how important 1t is that we at
least attempt to raise only the heifers
from our best COWS, and that we pay
more attention to the sfres that we
use.
There are three kinds of sires which
the dairy man can keep in his herd,
scrub, a grade, or pure bred, but
there is only one kind which he will
keep If he does not want "just calves"
and means business, and that is a pure
bred sire. It costs about as much to
feed one as it does to feed another and
the advantages to be derived from
keeping a good, pure bred sire are SO
great that it is nothing less than ca
lamity to keep anything else where
heifers are to be raised. As farmers
We must realize that scrub bull Is
good only for sausage and that we
simply can not afford to keep him.
It is an old saying that "the sire is
half the herd" or in other words, he
gives half of his blood to, every off
spring in the herd. The first cross of a
pure bred sire with common COWS will
give heifers with half of the same
blood as the sire. The second cross
gives heifers with three-fourths, the
third cross heifers with seven-eights,
the fourth cross heifers with fifteen
sixteenths of the same blood as the
sire and so on until the scrub" blood
of the original dams is almost entirely
eliminated in the sixth generation. If
we assume that these original common
cows give 5000 pounds of milk per
year, the first cross heifers should give
at least 5000 pounds, provided the sire
used was a good one This increase
alone at 81 per hundred, is worth SO
and assuming 20 cows and half Of their
offspring heifers, each year the 10
heifers would give an increase Of 500,
the first year in MIX over what their
dams produced, and these heifers will
be good for i've or six years and alone
would give a total increase over their
dams Of about $500. To this we must
add the increased value of all the
heller calves which this pure bred sire
would produce, and it is an easy mat
ter to see where in few years pure
bred bull will be money maker, worth
many times his cost, A good sire of
any one of the dairy breed can be pur-
chased for 800 and It is a. very short
sighted policy to use a scrub sire sim
ply because he costs $50 or $50 less.
We must remember that the scrub sire
in the dairy herd is too dear at any
price.
We may ask why it is that the pure
bred sire gives so much better results
than the scrub or grade. This is not
q new theory by any means, It is the
law of heredity that like begets like
and that to improve by breeding we
must always breed from the best.
After deciding ON the breed you
want calf out OF well-bred COW
with good milk and butter fat rec
ord. Sometimes it is possible to Sc