Agricultural. BREEDING FOR THE DAIRY.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2197, 7 August 1886, Page 2 (Supplement)

Agricultural. BREEDING FOR THE DAIRY.

(By Mr D. Gemmill, late of Claudelands.) The production of milk in quantity is essentially a habit, the result of long persistent cultivation. Undomesticatod cows produce but little, and that but for quite limited periods. But the very best dairy stock of the present day had its origin away back somewhere in the past, in just such an unworthy source. Systematic breeding for milk seems to have been greatly neglected in all time,"at least such is a natural and inevitable inference from all the available records of the art of breeding. That there has been a constant effort in that direction cannot for a moment be doubted, but that it has been reduced to a system like the breeding for symmetry of form and the production of meat, or like the development of speed in horses, or the production of wool in sheep, there is no j ovidonce. The history of the older breeds, as the Shorthorns or the Devons, or the Herefords show a well directed effort for development in other direction?, but none in this. The prevailing idea among the better class of breeders is that the breeding qualities of a cow aro lesHoned, and even her form deteriorated by her being inclined to give a large quantity of milk, and they have been largely influenced by this conviction in all their best efforts. Everything has been subordinated to the development of form and the production of meat, and the tendency to milk production has been suppressed or bred out. The history of all of the distinctively milking breed*? is obscure, and traditions are contradictory, and afford the inquirer very little satisfaction. But the same general laws in regard to breeding apply in the one case as in the others, and to these he who would succeed as a breeder of dairy stock must conform. Tho excellency of the dairy cow is chiefly estimated by the quantity and* the quality of the milk she producos, and tne period of time she continues in milk ; also the value of the calf for other *-han dairy purpose* proper, and the value of the cow when she is no longer useful in the dairy. The practical dairyman wh» expects to make his profit from the dairy, aud who cannot afford to go in for pure-bred cowh of any dairy breed, will have to content himself with selecting the best common cows he can find, and buying the best pure-bred bull he can get of such breed aa he finds best adapted to his requirements. If his cows are already grades, he will breed them to a bull of the same blood a* that already in their veins. While he will very properly disregard the fancy points in the choice of a bull, he may with much propriety pay something extra for a, good milking pedigree, good escutchons, and all the old farmer signs, though the be^t of these some times fail and there are of ten good reasons why they do, which do not in the least impair their general validity. The bull is half the breeding herd, and leaves the impie.ss of his character on all tho calves, and ho should be selected with this fact in full view. If he is a good one as ha ought to be his influence will be permanent. It is better to pay a good price for a good bull, and keep him at tne head of tho herd five or ten years, than take a- common one of the Kiuie breed as a gift each ye >r. Some men have a holy horror of in-breed-ing, but all experience proves that jiulicion-. in-breeding is tho only means of hecurincj the best ends. There is no other known method <if procuring so high type of excellence. Of course, the in-breeding of defective animals intensifies the bad qualities as well as the in-bi-oeding of more perfect Animals intensifies the good qualities. But not all tho qualities of any animal are inherited. Mauy are the results of feeding, training, and other influences which tend to establish habits and characteristic's. No animal can transmit qualities which it has not fir.st acquired, and the process of changing the qualities and characteristics of animals i<* slow, requiring to be carried forward through irany genet ations before they become established and recognised. A resolute purpose is the first requirement in a breeder, and a dogged determination never to swerve from that purpose, but intelligently to pursue it, will end in success. To double the average product of the all dairy cows of this country lis a reasonable possibility, to quadruple the product of many herds is not impossible. Of course it cannot be d»ne in one or five years, possibly not in ten ; but it can bo done, and it will pay.