Year: 1870

/


grasses.


Grass is and must continue to bC


your main reliance rs food for the pro


duction of milk, of the quality requir'


ed for rich and clean favored cheese
or butter.


Not all the grasses which are readi'


ly grown upon your lands, are equally


well adopted to your wants. But few


of these possess those peculiar quail


ties which result in the abundant flow
of the rich and wholesome milk which


gives the high toned flavor and quail


ty peculiar to your best article.


The most Inexperienced daiCymen en-


tertain conflicting opinions as to just
which variety is best adapted to this


purpose, but nearly all agree that the
! finer varieties, such as incline to a


short but thick and matty growth, are
sweeter and more tender than those OF


coarser structure.


This is undoubtedly the reason why


old pastures are better than newly
! seeded ones, and why those sections


of the country where grasses take such
| firm hold of the soil as TO maintain a


prosperous existence for an indefinite
ly number of years are decidedly the


better dairy regions.


Without assuming therefore TO set


tie the question for you as to what va
rieties you should grow, it may not be


too much to ask you to keep these
hints in mind.


The raising of stock especially for


the dairy is a matter upon which you
cannot be disinterested, since it has so


much to do with the profits you are to
realize from your business. No dairy
man can afford to keep even an ordi-
nary COW upon the high priced lands
of the better dairy sections.


1t costs but little more to keep and
no more to care for a COW that will re-
turn 500 per season to her owner than
one returning but S25 to $50.


Reports of factories made for the
year 1868 show the average return of
some dairies to have been $50 per COW
for the cheese season, while other
dairies return an average of but little
more than $50 per COW. This involves
either heavy loss in the latter case.
or a heavy profit in the former
Whichever be true, the comparison is
of great moment to keepers Of cows.


a statement of the average returns
of the COWS of the entire country
would be found so low as to surprise
you upon its first appearance. In JEFF
fersOn county, one of the fair dairy
counties of New York, three or four
years ago the average throughout the
county was found TO be less than $50
per COW. / am not able to say that
that season was or was not a paTticu-
larly unfavOrable one for dairy men
in point of yield of milk or price of
cheese.


1t is not necessary to assume that
these low averages and great differen-
ceS were wholly the result of milking
qualities in the herds. Care and feed
probably had something to do with
them, yet we may find demonstration
of the fact that the milking qualities
of our dairy stock are miserably low,
and that dairymen should assiduously
apply themselves to the improvement
of their stock by carefully breeding to
the special qualities of milk produc-
ing.


1t can be done as successfully as
breeding for speed in horses, quality
or weight Of fleece in sheep and early
fattening tendencies in swine can be
done.


1t has been done in the old coun-
tries with great success and under
circumstances no more favorable than
your own.


The Ayrshire is thought to be the
best result of this special breeding for
the dairy yet attained.


This breed, springing from a cross
of the native stock Of Ayr in Scotland
with tke-Al1ierneys, has been the OBJ
ject of such special care for several
generations as to have the great char
acteristics so controllingly and firmly
rooted, as to make its transmission to
posterity almost a matter of certainty
at home, and but little less so when
carried to other countries. This is a
matter of no small importance to you.
1t was said to me by one of the most
successful dairy men of Herkimer
county, New York, one who bred his
stock to supply the wants of his herd,
that not more than two in five of his
cows proved sufficiently valuable for
the dairy to warrant their retention.


My own experience with Durham
grades, they have been great favorites
with New York dairy men, has been
more fortunate than his, in
heavy loss that should be
obviated if possible.


My want of success attribute to the
influences of the flesh
making tendencies for which the Dur
hams are noted.


Their breeding has been to the spe-
cial object of beef, and the most mark
ed results have been attained, and the
of flesh forming proeliv-
tiles TO their progeny has become a !
matter of great certainty.


To engraft upon such a stock other |
and make them con-
trolling, must prove an up hill work /.
indeed. The Durham is estimated by 4
many dairymen because of the readi- /
ness with which the animal can be |
turned for beef when her usefulness
rs q milker is gone, unmindful of the
heavy loss they must sustain in carry
ing a second class milker through a 4
series OF seasons amounting in the /
aggregate to vastly more than the en-
lire value of the carcase well fattened /
for the shambles.


Now if it be true as is thought, that
m the breeding of Ayrsbires, from
1eifers out of fen will prove profita-
Die milkers, we have herein ample
for our care. Even
we're the milking qualities no greater
and the milk no better, this consider
alton must commend the breed to
your favor.


The wonderful success attained in
his instance of breeding to q special
point is probably the result to a con-
iderable extent of the peculiar quali-
les of the grasses natural to the
Ocality where the breed was reared,
hey being of nature to stimulate
he secretion of milk TO the utmost
'ather than build up the flesh and
zone of the animal, as do the grasses
If other sections of the empire. This
5 an advantage that we are not with
tut. Many portions of our own coun-
ry are equally well adapted to this
department. of dairy Improvement
md there this subject should receive
he attention its importance claims.


Instead of looking to Canada or the
lrairies of the west for cows to fill up {
heir dairies, they should supply
themselves and may furnish other
ections less fortunately provided.


Instead of seeking regions where
,rasses are more flesh than milk pro-
lucing for cows and breeders, we ,
hould develop the better qualities of
ur own stock or that imported from
ountries like our own.


Some will say l am not quite right
n the partiality feel for the Agra
ire stock as breeders and mixers.
nd claim that the Aldernevs arc hot