THE EASIEST KEEPING CATTLE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1821, 23 October 1884, Page 2

THE EASIEST KEEPING CATTLE.

This is precisely what most men who want catle at all are mostly in quest of. But it is true of cattle as it is of meadow grass, that by the law, of Nature we cannot got something for nothing. If anyone attempts to keep two cows of any sort ordinarily kept for beef-making upon a surface of pasture where only one bad been kept before, lie must select two animals possessing the qualities which enable them to digest and assimilate as nearly as is possible all the food taken. The easiest keeping cow may be compared, with profit, to the best heating furnace. The mere name given to the furnace may be but a slight index to its capacity for economical heating, especially if there are different grades of the same brand, as there are different grades of capaoity for feeding up in any named breed of cattle,

Each forage crop has its peculiarities in the matter of taking up sustenance from the soil, as each breed of fattening cattle has its peculiarities in converting food into flesh and fat. Yet there are individual plants in a given species, as there are individual cows of a breed, that excel, while there are others that fall materially below the average, To illustrate more fully that the fattening tendency is not confined to any one breed, we cite the fact that by breeding together two animals taken from two different so-called distinct breeds, neither of which individual animals possesses in a high degree the fattening tendencies of the breed from which it is taken, progeny may come that will take the highest rank when put up to feed. This is not owing to any superlative tendency in either parent breed, but rather to a quality which tells us the plain fact—that all breeds are made, and that we secure any particular tendency through

HBb ' Hcombining forces. Two combnstiblol f& Y when combined and ignited, may make a hotter fire than either can possibly make separate. So the digestive and assimilative power of the progeny from a cross between two distinct.breeds, may be increased much beyond.tbat of either progenitor. It should not be lost sight'of, that there is a wide difference, in itlie value of two animals, one being an easy keeper, while at the same time it is a. slow grower, and' the "other a rapid grower, keeping fat while growing. To be an easy keeper because of. being small eater, presupposes slow.growth, hence a non paying piece of property. The value of the laboring.ox lies in the work of his muscles. Tlio value of the • beef-roakins; animal, regardless of breed or family, lies in -.the- working capacity of its,digestive'and assimilative systems, ..presupposing,, of j-course, that there is a favorable anatomical . structure to build upon. . If breyje/X could, figuratively speaking, cattle forms with as much uniformity and accuracy as the honey bee moulds hercellbonoyreceptacle, then supposing they all had views alike back of their breeding movements, they would have preceisely what they like-best; but they are quite a remove from that consummation yet, and must watch and work.