THE HERD.
Of course, a thorough knowledge of the business must be had or be acquired. The proper selection or rearing of dairy stock is essential to success. The cow should not only be a good milker, but give milk suited to the line of dairying pursued. If cheese making is the object, there must be a large flow of milk rich in caseine. In butter making, a large flow of milk is not essential, but there must be a large percentage of fat in it. And the breeding must be such as to keep up the status of the herd. Some depend on purchasing cows, and exercise great care and judgment in so doing. In exceptional cases, a herd may be kept up in this way. But somebody must breed and rear good cows, or soon none can be had at any price. As a rule, it may be said to be the duty of every dairyman to breed from the best blood obtainable, and to rear the heifer calves from his best cows. Unless this condition is fulfilled, the dairy as a whole must run down. It is only by constant care and breeding from the best that the present status can be maintained, and possibly a little progress made. It should be the ambition of every dairyman to constantly improve the value of his herd, and to make progress in every department of his dairy, while improving the quality of his product.
[DAIRY STOCK.]
There is no more important subject connected with the dairy than that of the selection and rearing of stock. The herd is the fountain head. If there is failure here there is failure everywhere. Many a dairyman has remained poor all his days because he spent his time and energies on an unprofitable herd. This is the first thing to be looked after. The selection of a herd is a matter of both knowledge and judgment—knowledge of the characteristics of breeds and of the requisites of a good dairy cow, and judgment as to whether the individual cow in question possesses these characteristics and requisites. We will give some of the generally acknowledged characteristics of the different breeds, first indicating, as far as we can in words, some of the points of a good dairy cow.
POINTS OF A MILKER.
The dairy cow should be deep and broad through the flank—deeper and broader than through the shoulders—but must have a comparatively large chest, giving capacity of lungs and stomach, for she must have good digestive powers and inhale plenty of fresh air. Her hips should be broad, setting her thighs well apart, and her thighs should be rather thin. This gives space for a large udder, which is indispensable, for it is unreasonable to expect a large flow of milk from an udder of small capacity. The udder should be soft and fleshless when empty, and extend high up in the rear. It should also extend well forward, and from it should extend further forward large, protruding milk-veins. If they are double and are crooked and knotty, all the better. These veins carry off the blood after it has passed through the udder and performed its part in elaborating milk, and their size indicates the amount of blood employed, and by inference the amount of milk secreted. So the escutcheon, which should extend out on the thighs and run with even edges and unbroken surface up to or near the vulva, is supposed to be some indication of the extent of the arterial system that contributes blood for the elaboration of milk. The neck should be slender, taper and thin, the horns small and slender, the face dishing or flat, the eyes wide apart and mild and intelligent in expression, the muzzle broad when viewed from the front but thin when viewed from the side, and the lips thick and strong. A long, slender tail is indicative of good breeding. A yellow skin, or one which secretes an oily yellow scurf—especially seen in the ears, along the back and at the end of the tail—is considered a sign of milk rich in fat. The skin should be soft and pliable, the hair fine, and the coat glossy. We prefer rather light to very dark colors. Our observation is that a black cow never gives as rich milk as one in which the white predominates. In other colors we have not noted such a difference. Viewed from the front, the general shape of the cow should be a little wedging—thinner in front and thicker in the rear. Viewed from the side, the cow should taper from rear to front, with the upper and lower lines generally straight, with little or no, slope from the rump to the tail.