The polled or hornless cattle are great favorites with some of the Western people, and an effort is made to get up a boom on them. But they not only lack in numbers, but in the essential quality of a large flow of milk, or of a very rich one. The best information we can get does not indicate usefulness for the dairy. Neither do they excel several of the other breeds for beef. Their chief recommend appears to be their destitution of horns, which in our eye is far from a mark of beauty. It gives them a sort of bald, unfinished look that is anything but pleasing. We prefer, for looks, short, well-turned horns. But of course, without horns there is no hooking, but pushing is by no means avoided. Besides, in some cases we have known a lack of horns to make it difficult to fasten the animals in stanchions or with ropes. This may not be true of the cows; but we were cognizant of an instance on the New York State Fair grounds where a polled bull was constantly getting loose. His neck was so thick that he could slip his head through any place not tight enough to choke him. As to disposition, we presume the lack of horns would not make the bulls any more amiable. However, we have nothing to say against this kind of stock, and would advise all who like them to keep them. If horns are objectionable, it is easy to prevent them from growing on any stock by removing the first appearance of them on the calf. This can be done without much pain to the calf and without much trouble to one who knows how to do it. It, as we understand, requires no great skill, and can hardly be said to come under the head of cruelty to animals. It is nothing like as painful as castration.
HEREFORDS.
The Herefords are having quite a boom in the West, but it is not as dairy stock, but as superior for beef. We have seen no strong claims put in for them for dairy purposes. The few we have seen did not seem to indicate any great dairy qualities, nor have any of the numerous portraits we have seen published borne the marks of dairy stock. But the claim of beef qualities we believe is well founded. Their great rivals in this line are the Shorthorns.
COMMON STOCK.
We have not mentioned the so-called "Native" stock as a dairy breed, because it is not a breed, but a mixture of breeds—crazy-quilt stock. We would not be understood as considering it of no value for dairy purposes, for when carefully selected, a dairy herd of common stock may be very valuable. Great milkers and great butter makers are not uncommon among them; but there is such a mixture of blood in their veins that there is no guarantee of their producing their like. They originally sprang from the best animals that the early emigrants could select to bring over with them from Europe. But they were subsequently cross-bred so promiscuously that no trace of the original blood can be discovered with any certainty. They were also subjected to great exposure and hardship, with scanty food, which had a greatly deteriorating tendency. But, perhaps worst of all, there was no careful selection of males for breeding purposes, nor any attempt at judicious coupling for improvement, or for even the maintenance of the existing status. In short, the entire treatment and all the surroundings had a deteriorating influence and a tendency to the production of scrubs. If we were to take all the existing pure-blood stock and breed it together promiscuously, while at the same time subjecting it to harsh treatment and neglect, it would not require a very long period to reduce it to the same mongrel and scrub condition in which we now find the common stock of the country. Yet some of our common stock make excellent crosses, when pure-blood males are used. But no improvement or valuable results could come from using common stock bulls on pure-blood or other cows. The male has the controlling influence, and to the constant use of pure-blood males must we look for the improvement of the common stock of the country and for the maintenance of the existing status of the pure-bloods; and not only must we use pure-blood males, but keep up a constant and careful selection of the best. Neither should we trust to cross-bred or grade bulls for breeding purposes; for the progeny will inherit the traits of ancestors on one side or the other, and hence will lack in uniformity, both in appearance and in quality. When we use a grade bull, the result is just the opposite of what it is when we use a pure blood. With the latter, we get half-bloods, then quarter, then eighths, sixteenths, thirty-seconds, and so on, toward pure blood; but with a half-blood grade bull, the first offspring from common stock has only one-fourth pure blood, the next cross has only one-eighth, the third one-sixteenth pure blood, and so on—reducing the purity in the same ratio as the use of pure blood improves it—if we continue to breed from the grade male offspring. If we always use a half-blood male, there may be a slight improvement in the blood. But the improvement is too slow and the benefit too uncertain to make the use of a grade bull advisable when a pure blood can be had.
BREEDING DAIRY STOCK.
