HEREFORDS AS DAIRY CATTLE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9563, 9 August 1909, Page 7

HEREFORDS AS DAIRY CATTLE.

To no other individual is the old proverb.ot "Give a dog a bad namearid hang him" more applicable than to the Hereford as a dairy cow. For numbers of years the Hereford breed has been looked upon as one suitable for beef production, an few breeders have tried to fester its dairy and milking properties. There are, of course, one or two herds wellknown to the agricultural world which make milk a speciality, but the majority of Hereford cows are expected only to rear their own calf, and so lone as they give sufficient milk for this purpose it is all that is expected of them. The milk is so rich that it is very easily to be deceived a3 to the small quantity they do give, because the calves, as a rule, do so exceedingly veil that until the cows are given a trial it might readily be supposed the quantity produced is much greater than it really is. But because Herefords in the past have been scouted for the dary, there is no reason why this should always be the case, and I believe, says a writer in the "Live

. Stock Journal," there is a great future before them if breeders care to take advantage of the present trend -of public opinion and thought. My attention was forcibly called to the possibilities of an extended market by some remarks made during an interesting and practical address given by Sir James Crichton Brown, at Shrewsbury, to a very largelyattended meeting, called to discuss the best means for combating phthisis and human tuberculosis in Shropshire. In discussing the milk supply and the possibility of the spread of tuberculosis by its consumption bv human beings, he incidentally remarked that some breeds of cattle, as were also some human families, are more predisposed to tuberculosis than other; and, without wishing to disparage those breeds which he enumerated, by mentioning them here, I will content myself with saying that the Hereford breed was asserted to be more .free from tuberculosis than other breeds.

The reason why theiHereford should be so much before its fellows in this respect is not far to seek. Fur years the breed has been kept as a beefproducing one, and for generations as led the open-air life, exposed to nil the varying temperatures and climate of the West of England. Seldom housed, cxcejir in cold, openair sheds, and turned out all day long, they have acquired constitutions able to resist, and which do resist, any attempted attack of the tubercule bacillus. Breeds which have been kept for tha,production of milk have not these advantages.' A large and continued How of milk can only be obtained by close attention to the creature's comforts; such as high feeding and good and careful housing. Very often, until quite recently, when more scientific methods have been adoted with regard to construction of cow-houses, dairy cattle have had to endure the misplactd kindly treatment of badlyventilated, hot, and insanitary cow-houses and surroundings. With such treatment, can it be wondered at that the cattle's constitutions have suffered? Now that sanitary authorities are beginning to awake to their duties, and will demand better accommodation for cattle kept for dairy purposes, every year will see a marked improvement in the general health of all cattle, and a smaller tendency to the development of tuberclosis and its attendant ev ; ls. In the meantime, however, if breeders are quick to seize their opportiritty, the Herefords should steal a inarch on the other breeds. They will practically start "with a clean slate" a:.d level, so to speak, with tha newer and more sanitary buildings, and if--as, uf course, it would be to a certain extent—necessary to house ihem so as to stimulate their milking. Qualities in the winter months ihey would have the advantage to start with modern requirements a.nd sanitary dwellings.