THE GENERAL PURPOSE COW

New Zealand Mail, 5 February 1902, Page 53

THE GENERAL PURPOSE COW

The general purpose animal of any sort is at the best but a makeshift. The general purpose man is usually known as "Jack-of-all-Trades,” and the proverb declares “be is good for none.” So it is with the general purpose horses, sheep or cow. No animal of any breed is good for every purpose, and the one that is just as good for one purpose as another is very likely to be not very good for any purpose. The “.Tack-of-all-Trades” cow is of necessity one that gives a larger quantity of milk than the average cow, and of course must be better fitted for beef than the average. Unless she fulfils one or both of these conditions she is either a butter cow, a beef cow, or a no-purpose cow. The most perfect exponent of the general purpose cow was the old "penny-royal” cow. That ancient and now happily almost obsolete type was exactly as good for beef as she ■was for butter or milk. She answered the general purpose in those days, but inthesemore progressive times she would he set down as a no-purpose cow of the highest type of uselessness. The man rio raises cattle for beef does not care for butter or milk. He prefers a cow that will give just enough milk to get her calf well started, and give him no' bother about a loner continued flow. He cannot stop to milk cows, deliver to creameries, or churn butter. All these things are work of a very monotonous land, and require a deal of skill and knowledge of a scientific and exact kind. The breeding of beef is a rather primitae business. Some general knowledge 01 breeding is necessary if the greatest success is desired, but a very large majority oi the beef breeders of the country bare about the same knowledge of breeding that was possessed by Jacob of Old, who used his knowledge of breeding »produce “ring-streaked and striped” fA 6 m A he herds of his fatlier-in-law, i-, 1 ?' Since that time the science cf eeding for beef has not advanced vmv r, and the beef cow, of whatever breed e may be, is rather a primitive type “ a 7 ways. Breeding beef is an 111W * s fitted for wide fields, much horseback riding, with but little of jou-r,-!ke^ Ce U * n a lar S e and irregular way. fin n H l6 res trieted fields of civilisabeef cattle is a matter of civir,A7 Catt e irom one field to another, aHo„?;!r e ma^ er of salt and water some in™ ~ n ’, a ?, d making the proper mathv nJ V ° rk a man can do as well oniu his °) vn efforts. Dairying is tbs 7A l^f rent thing. It requires that tW iU' s sbould he bred so finely that of miii C ° n !r e » 11 l ac ' lines tor the production * m ieir f , eet1 ’ - their belter, the are nil “hkmg, breeding, and grooming l T P °rtaufc things, and all these promntl 01 W i nust he attended to makiL y nf an^ii at A ke pr ? Per time. The more tLi mi k 1S a . ? c i ence requiring than ov U avera Se ability to attain more exact Ain 18 " saceess - It is one of the end the enw C g S ’ fe< r? being the chemicals they are In tbe laboratory in which cr tde materkds‘Puiated that going in as the necessfuA, they come out as one cf ter cow « - ° f m -° dei ’ U life> The but - Bult of a minn'ir 6 i° f the rederfully persistelf US ] aWvled K° and wo!i--fire'eders patience on the part of borand a bm? ereilCO between a beef as the differeiip7i C< r' V 1S a h° ut the same an d a lady’s watch 6 Th? a fan f waggcm covr is ncmVl ;, ' t lle general purpose is neither-"n7 l ° f and often she * ' Dairy and Creamery.”