The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1913-09-25
MORE OF WORK
Is Importing a Herd of Dual=Purpose
Cows From the British Isles
at a Great Expense.
he Aims to Get a Breed of Good
rlilkers That Will Also Take
First.Class Beef Cattle.

farmers in Minnesota and the North
west. While he maintains a large
bureau to demonstrate how the land
can be made to produce larger
yields, he is not neglecting the live
stock feature, really the most i'm
portanJ branch of farming. The
subjoined article from the St. Paul
Dispatch of the 18th inst. tells of his
latest move in securing a breed of
cattle that will make good mixers
and good beef-the ideal d6al-pur-
pose cow
One of the most interesting dem
onstrations in beef and milk produce
tion ever conducted in America is
to be staged at the North Oaks farm
of James J. Hill, near St. Paul.
Those in charge of the experiment
assert it will revolutionize the beef
and milk industry in this country,
and prove to the farmers and stock
men that beef raising and milk pro-
ductiOn can become one of their
most profitable ventures.
This demonstration is to be car
ried on with herd of twenty nine
dual-purpose cattle, which have been
purchased in Great Britain by Prof.
Thomas Shaw, formerly associated
with the Minnesota Agricultural
college, and one of the foremost
cattle specialists in the United
States. 1t is said to be the first i'm
pOrtatiOn OF milking ShOrthorn
cattle ever made by this country.
In this herd are twenty-six COWS and
three bulls. The average price of
the animals was more than $3.50
each. The herd bull, which cost
more than $1,000, was prize winner
at several great English shows. The
animals are said to have arrived at
Quebec this week, and will be
shipped to Minnesota as soon as they
are released from quarantine, in
thirty days.
With this herd of cattle Professor
Shaw and J. J. Hill hope to prove to
breeders in this country that more
money can be made on the average
farm with breed of cattle that will
produce large amount of milk and
beef, than with a special beef breed
that produces little milk or special
dairy breed that produces little beef.
For years Professor Shaw has been
an ardent advocate of dual-purpose
cattle. although little attention has
been given to his creed. But now
that milk has become high and beef
has scared to heights heretofore I'M
known, Professor Shaw believes the
time has come when his contention
can be proved and the high cost of
living materially reduced.
"Nil1ing Shorthorns are two-pur-
pose cattle, or cattle that will fur
nlsh large quantity of milk and a
large amount of beef.'' Professor
Shaw says. ''Shorthorns in America
have been grown almost entirely for
beef, the COWS being permitted to
suckle their own calves. The dual
purpose cattle, however, produce an
amount of milk SO much larger that
it is creained and sold for butter or
cheese. The skinned milk is then
used for calves or swine.
For the LAST quarter of a century
nearly all of the professors in the
agricultural colleges from the Missis-
sippi river eastward have been pro-
pagating the heresy that there is no
such animal as the dual-purpose
COW. This is true of our own agri-
cultural college. The unfortunate
thing about these experiments is
that the investigation was conducted
with scrub cattle, that were thought
to be dual-purpose cattle, whereas
those in charge had never seen a
dual-purpose animal.
''In the meantime England has
been developing and using four dual
breeds of cattle with success. These
four breeds were the milking Short
horns, Red Polls, South Devons, and
Lincolnshire Red Shorthorns. The
dual-purpose Shorthorns there are
producing as much as 5000 to 5000
pounds of milk annually in many in
stances Some are producing more
than 10000 pounds each year. The
average cow in Minnesota produces
from 5000 to 1900 pounds Of milk, a
figure useful as comparison.
1.-The greatest need of agriculture
today is the dual-purpose COW.
Every American farm should be
stocked with them. How else is a
beef famine to be ayerted? Beef
must come largely from the arabic
farms of America, and it must come