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Show Whnt Breed of Cowsf A Mar) land subscriber of The Fanner writes me a personal letter nnd nsks my opinion ns to what breed of cows he shall choose for his dairy when the Income In-come In tn be from butter. He Intends to stnrt hlB herd hj bujlng Rood cows without much regard to their bleeding nnd wants to know of vvhlih breed ho shall buy a male to us- on these mis-cellaneoun mis-cellaneoun cowa so he mjy raise tho lulfcr talvcs for tho Improvement and Increase of his herd. The burden of my answer will be that he slull choose from one of the dlstlnitlvo speclillzed butter breeds. Hut my coiiespondent should huve told luo whit kind uf a man lie Is. If he Is 11 man who will want to turn off ut every tross-roads, who wants butter this jear, milk next eur, milk und butter und blc veals and beef the next jeur, and who will piob-ably piob-ably Bell out thn next jear nnd put on sliers, the kind of a rite he uses un his cows cuts no llgure ut all. Hut If he Is a man who Is going Into the business busi-ness for ' keepn," to that ho can and Will give the Work hn hns chnspn the time and study and skill It requires, then he needs a slro whose Inlluento for Rood will How thiough tho udders of his offspring for many generations. It Is frtqutntly easier to choose a hull for the herd by mall than it Ib lo chouse 11 man for It. These ate dajs of spctlal purpose pur-pose men as well ns of animals and machines. ma-chines. The combined movvir und rtip-er rtip-er wus a great Invention In its daj, but Hb sun huH set. Men In the trades und professions become specialists. Cresccus was not fho result of incidental bretd-Ing. bretd-Ing. Ho dots simply the one thine bitter bit-ter than any horse ever did It before, and ho dors not do It so much hetaitso he waB tl alno.1 to do It as because he was bred to It. I have no desire to discount dis-count the vuluo of training, for before It only tomes breeding, and bleeding Is the cumulative result of wise und ture-ful ture-ful training, not of u group of functions toward ic 1 nneeecenoe . line ,r n .In.i- function, with collateral supports, of coutsp, toward n llxed tjpe, eapuhla under ptoper management of Indcllnltc repioduttlon. Urtedlng good cowa and Improving Ihem tuvvurd such 11 typo ns tan be eul-ciliated eul-ciliated upon with icusonahlo tcrtulnty Is not tho wotk of a jear or ten, but of men'B lives. Now, the so-called general gen-eral purpose tow or tho dunl-purpose tow Is 11 cieutuie of dreams. That there havo betn remarkable spcilmens that imsscsscd dual or general nttilbuica no well. Informed Btockman will dtny, but that theio ale prepotent families or tribes of them, so that their repro. ductloii la In any measure assured In their Issue I do not think can be proven. The beef nnlmnl Is ns muth the result of Intelligent bleeding und direction toward a spctlal perfarmanie ns Is tho Intensive dairy tow. A sklllrul bleeder and feeder may take the beef animal und after manj jears develop a strong dalrj characteristic, but ha does It at the vitiation of the beer tiend. Lo, he may take the exclusive dairy cow and In tho fullness nf time cvolv'o somewhat of a biefmnker from her, but he has lost tho butter-mnkei. And In which ill-icctlon ill-icctlon the ofisnrlng In cither ruse may Incline cm only -ho a matter of veiy vaguo conjecture. We havo to take the markets as wo flhd them: our protllii must come from our tost of production. If milk regardless regard-less of Iik fat tontent bo tho end sought, a breed tint has been bred and managed for jcaiBfor heavy milk flow would nat-urdlly nat-urdlly be chosen. Hut as In this Instance In-stance the nbjttt Is In materialized butter, but-ter, the wisdom of the thnlco must llo In ndoptlng that t 0 br ed thnt has been most extensively, Intensely nnd generousl) bred and cared for toward tho ability to produce the larger amount of butter on tho least amount of f ed, I have never seen It stated nor heaid It claimed that loo pounds of sklm-mllk of 3 per tent butter fat before nepiira-tlon nepiira-tlon hnd any less pioteln iniitent thun tho same iiuuntlty of sklm-mllk from a 6 per cent butler-fat wholo milk. This being true, no elaboration of argument nor nrraj of llgure h Is nee essnry to show that tho 6 per cent butter fat was more, ihcaply prodiited. And when It Is further fur-ther noted that tho breeds of great milkers, producing the enormous jlelds of sklm-mllk, are of much larger ph)s. ml construction than the butter-makers. It tun bo readily seen that excessive bodily maintenance beconi"s an Impoit-nnt Impoit-nnt consideration. If our friend will tonslder these ratts and such others that will grow out of an Intelligent unaljslB of them and study I he histories histo-ries of the different breeds, without bias of later day claims, and shall regard the Influences of heredity and environment, environ-ment, he will narrow his conclusions to two breeds and between them his selec-tlon selec-tlon may safely hi 11 matter nf love He ms.) not love the one nny more worthily than the other, but he can love about SOO per cent moro of them W. F. Sic-Sparran Sic-Sparran In Ohio Parmer. |