Year: 1876




lull, breeders commence to hear upon
every side the voices of general farmers,
explaining what they want and need IN
shorthorn cattle to render them availa-
bic for the practical, everyday uses of
the farm. They have little to say about
pedigree; if the animals are purely
bred their requirements in this direc-
tion seem satisfied; they appear never
to have heard Of Bates or Booth or
Knightley they care not whether the
thing is called "rose," or only
hollyhock." In short, they are dis
posed TO ignore altogether these nice dis
ordinations and these fanciful distinc-
tions with which fashionable breeders
have disturbed themselves and their
neiehbors 20 much. II Is only with the
practical, useful qualities Of cattle that
these men are concerned.


1t is partially observable, that upon
every side, the demand comes for cows
that can profitably he maintained as milk
ers. And here we see the damage that
has been done TO the Southdown inter-
est by the last few years Of speculation.
To provide the calf with nurse, and
to bring the whole herds into the high
est state of obesity for the sales and
fairs, has given the public an impression
that shorthornswill not give milk-many
people have even acquired the notion
that not one shorthorn. cow in ten can
raise her own calf. Such notions as
these are, Of course, erroneous This
demand for milk is so universal, that a
farmer writes to the Western Farm
Journal, that the general farmer desires
very much to improve the capacity of
the COW to give milk but beyond this
there is so improvement possible worthy
of his attention.


Undoubtedly there are some people
who hold to this opinion; and the fact
that il is an extreme one, only goes to
show that the great mass of farmers who
occupy middle ground, place high es-
timatc upon the possession or frst-class
milking qualities by COW. Our con-
temporary urges, as we have often done,
that farmer needs COW in which high
milking qualities are combined with first
class merit as beefproducing animal
The COW must give milk, large in guam
tity and good in quality, and this not
only when at her "flush," but through
most of the year. Then she should
have form suitable to the laying on of
flesh, and an aptitude to fatten; not
simply when her days of usefulness are
passed as mixer, she will make a good
carcass of beef, but that she can give this
form to her male offspring, for whom the
farmer, in many cases, will have no other
use than as steer" to be grazed and
fattened for beef. The COW must be a
superior mixer, because, aside from
raising a calf, she can be made source
of profit on the farm. She should be
herself of high class merit--judged from
purely beef-producing stand point-thal
her calves; of which, in her period Of
usefulness, she should produce many, can
he reared with profit. A COW that will
pay in the dairy profit on her keep
each year, and raise calf besides of such
high character that it can be fed with
additional profit after being removed
from the dam, is the COW that the prac-
tical farmer needs. A COW that simply
pays in the dairy, her calf being with.
out value, or that simply brings good
calf, and pays nothing at the pail, in not
desired by the practical farmer assonly
bringing onc-half the profit which he has
right to expect, and by securing the
right combination can very readily make
certain.


1t is quite clear that this is the kind
of cattle the general farmers of the coun-
try demand, and it is quite clear that the
general farmers are to be in the future
the class from which the professional
breeder will draw his best customers. TC
produce cattle of the kind required
to blend in proper harmony the charac
tiers which these customers demand, vii
tax the attention, patience and skill o
the professional breeder. He will affair
his success by the proper selection anC
union of elements abounding on ever,
side, and by the exercise of a traineC
judgment in selection Of crosses to ac
complish his purpose. His profession
will give larger room for display of geniu
and call for the employment of create
skill and experience than when cattl
are bred to mere pedigree standard. An,
when the breeder sees the animals ripen
ing and developing under his eye thei
forms moulded and modified by his skill
to the definite purpose in view, and thei
practical useful qualities expanding a
the touch of his hand, we are certain ht
will feel more pleasure and pride in hi
profession than he could possibly feel il
adding one or two more cline crosses
to a pedigree, the general character o
which depends upon what some othe
person is supposed to have accomplished
! = National Tt,,s SyocE .Ioyrn1l