WHAT IS IT?

Bruce Herald, Volume L, Issue 57, 27 July 1914, Page 5

WHAT IS IT?

Two cows stand side by side in the stable. To both cows the same ration is fed, yet one will extract from that food as much again butter-fat as the other. The butter product of the food is 100 per cent, greater with one cow than the other. Tliis fact is seen in too great frequency in all herds of cows. What is tnat inner quality whereby one cow can produce so much more thau the other from the same foodtf It is hard to lind the right name for it, but it may be called "dairy quality." Now, certain breeds of cattle are distinguished for this quality. They have the power to accomplish this work in greater proportion and perfection by reason of having been bred to that purpose from long lines of ancestors of like quality. One would think that there would not be a dairy farmer in the Jand who would not be keenly alive to the necessity and economy of using such cattle for dairy purposes. As soon would we think he would cut hay with a reaper and call it the best way.'

But the so-cajled general purpose notion has destroyed in not a few men tiie power to look into this question in an economical way. They seem to be unable to take the same advantage in their choice of cow machinery that they do in choosing their mechanical machinery. They cannot be fooled into taking a plough for a cultivator, yet thousands of farmers will spend their lives in trying to make cows of beef breeding do dairy work. If they were closo students of '*cause and effect" they would not be beguiled this way. Why should not the farmer bo a close student of cause and effect»—Hoard's Dairyman,