show in their pedigree much close breeding among their ancestors, and they are better than any of their ancestors.

Third.-Having smaller bodies than any of the other leading breeds, they require less food to build up and develop these bodies while they are growing, and they require less food for the repairs of their bodies when they have reached their full size.

Fourth.-They come into profit at least a year earlier than other breeds, and thus make a saving to their owners of a year's food, handling and housing. This is no small item considering the labor, the expense and the risk attending the younger years of valuable stock.

Fifth. They have shown a power unequalled by any other breed of adapting themselves to the various climates and to the varieties of foods of all parts of the United States.

Sixth.-No cattle in this country are more quiet, gentle, hardy, prolific, or long-lived. Seventh. They are the most persistent milkers of any breed. They seldom go dry for more than six weeks; many instances are on record of cows giving half a dozen calves in as many years without ever ceasing to give a good yield of milk.

Eighth. They make more butter from a given amount of feed than the cows of any other breed. Two pounds and a quarter of butter a day is not an uncommon yield for a cow in the Winter receiving a dozen pounds of dry hay and two pounds of corn-meal mixed with two pounds of wheat shorts.

Ninth. They will make more butter in twelve running months than will the cows of any other breed. Several cows in this country made in 1880 over seven hundred pounds of butter, two of them nearly eight hundred pounds, and none of these cows are believed to have yet reached the full limit of their powers. Records for herds of 300, 350 and 400 lbs. are to be found in many States.

Tenth. Their butter has a higher color in Winter, as well as in Summer, than that of any other breed except the Guernsey.

Eleventh.-The milk, the cream, and the butter of the Jersey has a richer taste, and a more lively and agreeable flavor at all times of the year than that of any other breed. Twelfth.-The butter of this breed, in texture and grain, has no equal. Its firmness, its freedom from salvy character in the heats of Summer, is particularly noticeable.

Thirteenth.-There is no breed which has been crossed upon the common stock of the United States with more immediate or more satisfactory results. It is an important fact in cross-breeding that the most favorable results are obtained where the bull belongs to a race whose bodies are smaller than are those of the race to which the cow is allied, and the same is true where the male represents a race older and better established than that to which the female belongs; both of these favorable conditions exist in the case of the Jerseys and our common stock.

Fourteenth.-The Jersey breed is surpassed by no other in respect to the opportunities it offers for the efforts of the practical or the experimental breeder.

RICHARD GOODMAN, JUN.

DAIRY CATTLE.

BY

CORNELIUS BALDWIN,

NELSON, OHIO.

It may be safely asserted that no other domestic animals are of such importance to mankind and civilization as those of the bovine race. None others supply so large a number of wants in both luxuries and necessities. It is also true that those cattle are most valuable which produce milk in large quantity, and of good quality, particularly if they also have a fair degree of fitness for the shambles, in form and size. In all breeds or kinds a certain number are superior for the dairy, while the remainder represent every grade and shade of mediocrity and inferiority.

That some of the breeds or kinds are superior to others for dairy purposes is certainly a fact, but it is believed that the difference between them is not so great as has been generally supposed. It is true that those cattle which are practically. superior for the dairy, no matter of what kind, nearly always possess what is called "milk shape" or "milk form," while those which are of the "beef form" or "beef shape" in great perfection are, with rare exceptions, undesirable for the dairy. It is unfortunate that this natural difference exists, but it seems unavoidable.

Within all the breeds there is to be found both the "milk shape" and "beef shape" in greater or less numbers, notwithstanding the persistent efforts of the breeders to make all conform to one shape or the other.

Phenomenal cases in the production of milk and yield of butter can be shown in individual animals and “family strains" of any breed. In fact, size and weight being considered, and taking those large yields as the rule by which to compare breeds for dairy use, they will be found about equal. But this is certainly not true. Careful examination of large numbers of cattle will disclose the fact that large yields of milk or butter belong to those animals having the "milk shape," but it will also appear that a large minority of cattle having good "milk shape" will range from medium to worthless for the dairy.

Farmers and cattle breeders generally have for a long time given particular attention to the "milk shape " in breeding dairy cattle, and have succeeded as far perhaps as is possible in using that as their almost only guide. As a result of this method we find several breeds possessing the “milk shape,” but which do not, upon actual test of a really average lot, prove as satisfactory as might be desired or expected by the

amateur.

A great degree of uniform excellence for the dairy has not yet been attained in any of the breeds except that the Jerseys show uniform excellence for making a choice article of butter. Notwithstanding the foregoing may seem like serious charges against the several thoroughbred races of cattle, the writer wishes it distinctly understood that all of the different breeds are of great advantage and value, in that the cattle of the future will be largely the descendants of the best animals in the different breeds of the present, and the great improvement which is yet likely to take place will be an outgrowth from the thoroughbred races of the present. The

question arises, can the present breeds of dairy cattle be greatly improved upon by any additional methods in selecting animals to breed from, and can uniform excellence be attained in nearly all of the individual animals that shall constitute the future herds of the thoroughbred races of dairy cattle? It cannot be otherwise if those most powerful to bring about such results will improve upon the opportunities and knowledge extant upon this subject. A careful “weeding out” should occur all along the line, and the saying that "An ill-bred thoroughbred is worse than a mongrel" should be rigidly put in practice. Thoroughbred cattle should only be bred by those having skill and knowledge in the business, and purchasers should be careful to buy of such. Careful attention must be given to certain physiological peculiarities and developments. Among these are the escutcheon or milk mirror, with its many differences of form and value; the lacteal veins, of which there are as many as eight distinct variations in kind and value, as well as other veins in the vicinity of the udder; the absence or prevalence of a deposit of calcelous structure upon the ends of some of the bones, which may be detected by feeling with fingers" ends; the hair, eyes, horns, color, size, shape and quality of flesh.

It is much easier to succeed in breeding superior cattle for the dairy than superior excellence for the shambles. Great possibilities are within the easy grasp of the prominent cattle breeders of the world. Like begets like, it is said. This is not strictly true; but like begets a strong similarity. No two things in the world are alike so far as man has discovered. These variations may run in the direction of degeneracy even in the most perfectly bred animals, and the careful eye of the professional cattle breeder is necessary that too great distance is not made in the wrong direction. The foregoing opinions, which the reader may think to be rather positive or pretentious, are held by the writer after years of careful observation with thoroughly practical tests in this branch, or twig, of science, and are given with a slight hope that they may be of some practical importance and interest to farmers and professional cattle breeders, and thereby to mankind generally.

CORNELIUS BALDWIN.

HOLSTEIN CATTLE.

BY

CHARLES HOUGHTON,

BOSTON, MASS.

The race of large improved black and white cattle, known in America as "Holstein Cattle," are animals, or the descendants of animals, imported from North Holland or the neighboring provinces, having been selected there with the greatest care in reference to purity of blood and the fine qualities of each individual animal.

Previous to and for some time after 1871, Mr. Winthrop W. Chenery of Belmont, Mass., was the principal if not the only importer of Holstein Cattle for purposes of improvement.

In March; 1871, about ten persons, to whom Mr. Chenery had previously supplied one or more Holstein animals each, at his suggestion united with him in an association called The Association of Breeders of Thoroughbred Holstein Cattle, with a constitution and by-laws and a register of all the pure-blooded animals of that race owned by them. The principal object of this association was and is to keep and preserve a register of animals known to be of pure blood, and of their progeny, including future importations.

At that time the persons uniting in the association knew of no name by which this race of cattle were generally known in Holland and the neighboring provinces. They had been usually called "Dutch" or "Holstein " by Mr. Chenery and his associates.

In 1864, Mr. Chenery was requested by the Department of Agriculture, at Washington, to contribute an article upon the cattle in question for publication in the Commissioner's Report. The paper was prepared and forwarded to the Department with the title of "Dutch Cattle." In due time the article appeared in the Commissioner's Report with the title changed from "Dutch" to "Holstein Cattle." This circumstance, together with the fact that no other name more appropriate could be suggested, decided the question of name, and Holstein was adopted.

Since then the association has increased its membership to include about fifty persons. It has published four volumes of the "Holstein Herdbook" in which, and the manuscript for the fifth volume, is a list of about six hundred and thirty bulls and about eleven hundred and twenty-five cows, distributed among five hundred owners residing in nearly all the States of the United States, the larger herds being in Massachusetts, New York and Illinois.

Large additions to the number of Holstein cattle in the United States are being made by frequent importations, as well as by the natural increase.

They are easily acclimated and grow as large as in their native country. The descendants of animals imported by Mr. Chenery fifteen years ago are equally as fine as the best selections made in Holland this year.

The bulls are gentle and docile, and excellent workers in the yoke, and the cows are large milkers, far excelling in that respect all other breeds.

They are easily fattened, and males often attain a weight of two to three thousand pounds, females ranging from twelve to twenty hundred pounds. /

There is considerable demand for both males and females for breeding purposes, enough to take up all the importations, amounting to more than four hundred in 1879, and the natural increase at prices affording a reasonable profit both to importers and breeders. It is a notable fact that half-breed heifers sired by Holstein bulls bring twice, and often three times, as much as the grades of any other breed will sell for, and this fact is perhaps the most reliable indication of the estimation in which Holstein cattle are held by American farmers who have had experience with them.

CHARLES HOUGHTON.