Agricultural and Pastoral.

Otago Witness, Issue 586, 21 February 1863, Page 6

Agricultural and Pastoral.

CROSS-BREED I XQ.— CATTLE.

FRO2I THK LOKDOtf ECONOMIST. The great success which sometimes attends ; the first cross between a mll-bull and a cow i of inferior race haa led many farmers to s-up- I pose that the breeding of/'aws-brul cr.ttle j maybe adipted systematically and cor.ti:u;oualy. That is a mistake. "We lulleve no mm i can keep up a lier.l of cvo*s-b 0'!=!. be i'ie ! crosses what they nicy. With re -pet to j sheep a certain amount of annl>i n m;stion In - tween different breeds has been fTectetl, m.cv , ag the crosg of Cotsvolds mid South Downs, I which are called Oxfordshire Downs, the <»b- j jt-ct Im ing to obtain t l ie back ov gr> y tiise, j with Jong wool. This moderate sueoe-^ in j . forming a mixed bieed which has been at- j taincd is more apparent th«n rea 1 , and wj!i probably end in a yarn ty of Down sheep with somewhat more M'ool ;.n'l ?r.b,tance t!rm } the South Downs. We sec s .meilrn;^ oi'iliis j sort in the liampshire aid Shropshire Down-.. ' With cattle, ho*eier, even sucli pa i-tia; iuoccss has not been a' tain- d, and bc^oml br-oi-in-,'Bome good butcher's be. sts, an-1 pef lmps . occ;wionally some txce lent miich cows, the cross-breedmg of cattle has done nothing. This subject is treat* d in <i very practical manner by Mr. S. Colema'i. who is ihe manager of the Duke of Bedford's home farms a"Woburn, in the late number of the v 11.-.yal Agricultural Society's Journal.'' The writer has evidently a greater esteem for cro-.—breed-ing than cattle br. eders — of any race — «onM ■ admit the practice to deserve* and we think the limit oi utility he Lv s down for cro-s-3>reedinjr may be accvpt'.d as the extreme twhich it can go. To iivmers, however, who breed cattle only for the hutc er, or to dairy ' farmers who look almost txclirive'y to the . milking properties of their cattle, Mr. Colc'.nian's paper affords some useful suggestions. After saying that hi* experience hud led him * t&xjbserve what wo. Id Ixst pay the breeder ffiflW'tle most B">ught for by the purchaser who 1 _ intend* to'fatttn, he adds, •' without discussing the why or the wherefore, I have always found the preference given to anything tha' id cro«s- ■ bred. 1 ' lie recognises the lact th it the majority of the crofs-breds sent to our fairs and markets come from the North, nndaiv the produce of a cow of small breed and a shorthorn bul, and notices the falling of! of store cattle from Scotland, which twenty or t'.irty years ago used to supply the grazier.of the Eastern counties of England, arisimr from the modern p- act'ee of the Scotch faring s who fed their sto.k at home and send th m ■ fat to the London and ether mirke's. Crosses betweeji the Welsh and Hereford brec 'supply,s '-upplv, he s&ye, some '' )are good fleshy btasr-, much e-ught after by the butJier when fat bein^ liked better than the pure white-faced Hereford, particularly lvhm they happen to have a mottled or smok}' face ; the more .color in their faces the better the butcher likeb them.** But "it is to the dairyman of Rucks. Derbyshire. Salop, and the West of England that we are indebted for many of the cross- bred animals now met with, for they 10->k out for the cow that gives most milk or butter, or promises to make the great st quantity of .chee-e, quite re. ardle-s of lev origin ; nor in inanv cases are they much more eaiuul as to the pedL-ree of the bulls' in conc-fiqm m.c nf their fellintr the calf when a few days old. Jiut I find that there is now v grouit g ce^iie among them to use a v.ell-hred hull, where!) v ! they will improve the pro luce to their owli ! bemfit as we I as to that of the purchaser, j Where the heifer c-ihvs are reaied to keep up the stock, a bidl from a good milking family will soon alter the appearance of the In rd. ' Xow, most of the cross-breed* here referred to partake largjy of the shorthorn, character, end the more nearly they approximate to «hort!)orns the better prices do tbey usual y obtaui for fattening btasts. '1 hrou^h'mt those dairy districts indicated, the best farmers sire coming year by year to prefer shorthorn cous because of their size and tin ir being more readily saleable to thj cowkeapers of London and other populous paces. What b really wantt-d in fcbe-e districts is that .-horthorn bulls, of good pedigree and fr. m good milkin ; f unilies should be attainable. The majority of hreeders of pure shorthorns have looked rather for beef producing qualities than for milking properties in their herds, but there is no doubt that by selecting shorthorn cows of hij>h pedigree and good milking pi operti' s. and careiully drafting every cow not a good milker, a herd of shorthorns may soon become as valuable for breeding bulls adapted for dairy as for feeding herds. The pr. se..t prize s\ stera, however, tends exclusively tofosLrbcfproducing shorthorns, «nd p rhaps it may not not be to easy to adjudge prizes for dairycattle as for feeding stock. '1 here is no reason that some attempt to promote the production of good dairy cattle should not be made by the Royal Agricultural and other large societies. A dairyman's shorthorn herd book •would be a record of great value to farmers and cattle breeders, ag well as to the public. Mr. Coleman only does justice to the short- " horn, when he says, "The majority of th-cross-bred cattle we meet witn now-a-daye partakes more of the character of the shorthorn than anything else, so that to this breed belongs the credit of having done most towards suppling food for the million. No matter of what sort or ama'gamation of sorts the cow may he. a cross, with a shorthorn bull ve;y rarely fails to make an impro\ement in >ize, qualny, and fattening properties, if not always in the milking powers of the produce." We have no doubt that with a moderate degree of att nton on the part of shorthorn br< eders the pure shorthorn imy be made as conspicuous an improve of dairy herds as he may of feeding stock. Nor, according to Mr. Coleman, im>y ground for the apprehension some people entertain that cros3-b-ecding is likely to be carried so far as nearly to destroy the'individuality of our d ffercnt breeds, ' l for the persons who chiefly i esort to crossing are those who have up to the present tan-; kent but a •very inferior descaptiou of stock, which they generally fattened at as c .rly an age as possible; so that the only changj which has 'a 1 - en place, so far a«s th< y are concerned, is that, from using a pure bull, they breed an anima' that attains a gr< ater weight at an ear.ier a^e, Such breeders, who are mostly the ocvuvieiv of dairy farms, will find that a few poiridsi laid out on a good bull will be an act of strict economy." Mr. Coleman then refers to hi* experience at Woburn Abbey, wherj a herd of from thirty | to forty pure Hereford's is kept, and where a lar^e supply of milk and batter i* also required. He found he cou'd not improve the lJereford herd in milking and flesh-producing qualities at the same time; he '■ had oiten to sacrifice a very fine cow b cause she gave no milk, or others that were good milkers hut unfit to breed a show ox. lie therefore * v found it de-irab'e to keep two herds ; one lor breeding purposes (the dam- on'y rearing tVir own calves), and th,> oth-rfor dai.y purposes" He theiefore p ocured twenty cows of the polled Norfolk bree 1 to whL-h h; pnte a Hereford bull, and fattens all the produce. | Pnc-e half-breeds are l.rger than the pure ! 1-lereionk, and, thounrh not of quite po uood quality a* the Hereford, make quite as much j money when fat. He finds that at the Wo- I burn Christmas sales of f,it beasts, a crossed ! ox always fetched £2 to £3 more than a pure ' Hereford, and he hns had cross-bred steers I from an Ayrshire cow by a pure Hereford hull ' which sold fat a three yea-s old from «-€3O to | £40 each. But he would not carry the ero-,s I between two distinct bneds any further than I ihe first cross, having «'• always found the pro- , duce of the cross-bred cow to be very interior ' to herself, even if she had been put to a pure ! , fcull. - They ntither fatten so well, nor do they ... iM npm tm w w ep^ m w tU?

iic^t cro-^; and therefore my pan is to pur- i chase my cows and feed off their produce, both strove and heifers. l>y thia pan I aui now enabled to g<.t more milk from twenty cows, I sheeted for their milking qna'iiies oh't, til an cou'd formerly be dern ed fi om ! doub'eiiie number of llerefords : so, that a considerable »am is realised, as my Hereford calves, b ing allowed to "nick their da.us for three or four n.onths.are ready for the butcher much sooner ilisn if Ivor Jit up by hand." He won d r.comm.ncl cros-s-br. edmg where the i'rrma' is not in a po.-it'on to keen hi^li-pike.l Moe'e, ci her from w.vn of mean* or ox proper } r-hcl"cv for theiu, sir.co it is of no iwj for a f.ir/iier to try ami improve his stock, if tixy j liiUO lo be Kfi out in the fiehis all the winter. But, he adds, "I do not at :.!l . c e3 \\v I er.el'n ofcios^ing together the iiup'o^cd breeds, si.eh a-3 the Hereford or Devon and the Shorthorn, as c.cii i ace hr.s its own specialties and uses that would be entirely destrojed by cressing." With tlie or lin uy stock of f.ir.ner-* to -teU a Wfll-bied bull would be most be.ieficial, lor '■ no one who rides through the count! y c.n htlp ob-erving that vcrv n-any of the eit'.le kept cannot be v.:d to belong to any puro breed: and to the owners of such as those I would say, \on cannot do better than cro-a them with a bull of pure breed, and will nit have much trouble in finding one that wou'd very much improve your stock at a very reasonable price."

Although Mr. Coleman found it impossible with a Hereford herd to unite the qualities of f'uteni'ig- and milking, the difficulty does not exist, in anything like the same degree, when dealing with the .shorthorn, for by selection a herd of milking shorthorns would be little, il at all, inferior in feeding qualities to the ordinary herds of puic-brcd shorthorns.