FARM AND STATION.

Otago Witness, Issue 2455, 3 April 1901, Page 4

FARM AND STATION.

IMPROVEMENT OF CITTLE. The tables given in another column showing the results of the competitions at the Birmingham and Smithfield fat stock shows in December last are fruitful of many unmistakable suggestions and lessons for cattle-breeders in this colony ; to whom must be left the appropriation of these useful guiding Lints and their application in practice. The figures confirm the wellestablished fact — but unfortunately a fact that does not receive such general recognition as it deserves among breeders in the colony — that there is a distinct relationship between the age and profitable feeding capacity of cattle, sheep, and swine. It may be laid down as a lule, to which there is no exception, that the animal fully fed from birth gives not only a more rapid and more remunerative return for the food consumed than the sparsely-fed one, which must reach a mature .age before it can be conditioned for the butcher, whatever its breeding may be. With regard to the influence of the breed of the animal, probably no items in the tables referred to are so likely to give rise to mistaken ideas in the minds of colonial cattle men as the figures showing that the exhibits termed "crossbred" surpassed all the purebreds, the Herefords excepted, an the important factor "daily gain." This is only one of many seasons in which crossbreds have occupied a similar prominent, if not the premier position, and the reason why may be explained with advantage to cattle-owners generally. In the Home country, "cross-breedmg, in the true sense of the term, means putting a purebred male of one biecd to a purebred female of another breed — the offspring produced in this way being a crossbred animal. It is this system of bieedmg. backed up by special feeding of the animals from calf hood, which, in recent years, has secured for cros'-breds such celebnty at exhibitions as seemed to justify the cry heard on all s-ides that the be^t animals are got by crossing. The question arise? — Is it tiue that crosses are the best animals? Those who say they are refer us to s,uch results as those of Smithfield and Birmingham, and on the first glance there r-eems no argument against them. But it ■would certainly be very extraoidmary to cross thousands of pairs of animals and expect to find the piogeny m an average, or even m a smaller number of cases, better animate than cither oj their parcnK Yc+ tint is wli.it the advocates of crossing world have u.s believe. But so far as the icsii!t« at Simthfield or anyvvheie else go. the comparison between the cros-breds and the purebreds is- by no i.ieans trustworthy. For msuince, a lar^e number of the purebred ;uiii.ial«. f r.d thtio i!c b: ;. r.re picferved f< r Liecdmcr. and so do io. c' c. i'lio coinpctit.on : v.l'ilc only an OvC"cdm,'!y iin .11 pov n of tLe cro-s-brcd males &13 t>o ltiamed, and all the

others ai\j cl'^ible for competition. It i*> also llie same to some extent with the females ; a larger pioporhon of the cio^ses come to competition than of the purebreds And it must not be supposed that the bc^t of the cro^sbieds, those tint dre actually quoted as the examples which show tLe inferiority of the pjrebreds are bred from inferior parent?, because this is by no means the case. Anyone going to any of tLe crossbred headquarters w ill find o the agricultural journals Kay — as good ':itud cattle a- at any of the purebred headquarters. Manifestly, therefoie, at the fat stock shows the purebreds aie handicapped, yet it is se'dom the cros^breds are ahead of them By means of crossing, followed by a. Pluet and judicious system of weeding or selection, and liberal feeding, several vaneties, particularly among sheep, have been created in comparatively recent times which are now recognised a« distinct breecK Amongst these may be instanced the Hampshire Down, the Oxford Down, the Shropshire Down, the improved Lincoln, etc. Those breeds, however, were not created in every instance by the simple plan of crossing with two animals of two distinct breeds ; and in some of them, at least, several crosses weie introduced before the breed, as it is called, attained its present position. Thus, the foundation of tLe Hampshire Down was a cross of the Southdown on the old Hampshire breed, which was a large-sized •short-woolled breed, with large heads. Roman noses, and large, curly liomp. Under successive crosses of the Southdown, the latter disappeared, and the animals became more compact and more easily fed, yielding also a better class of mutton. It must be evident that to establish new varieties, such as the above, by crossing requires the possession of great skill and judgment, but in the mote simple system of putting a male of a distinct but improved breed to a fern lie of another breed which is inferior to that of the male, when the object is merely to produce a first cross for the grazier or butcher, the mode of procedure is less intricate. The common classes of cattle in this colony possess, for the most part, some estimable qualities. When fully fattened, their meat is of good quality, 'bufc their progress is very slow, and it requires a considerable time to bring them to maturity. Other breeds, however, ■become ripe at an early age, but precocity is accompanied with a certain degree of inferiority in the quality of the meat, there being generally too much fat in pioportion to the lean, and the fat and lean are not mixed in the most economical or pleasant manner for the use of customers. Hence the union of these properties — that is, the amalgamation in one animal of the quality and early maturity possessed by two other animals — is evidently a matter of great importance. This introduces the subject of the breeding of " grade " cattle, us they are termed. Last year, Mr W." S. Ferguson, a well-known breeder of Absrdeen-Angus and feeder of crossbred cattle, delivered a lecture at a meeting of the Glasgow and West of Scotland Agricultural Discussion Society which has been termed by the agricultural journals, "One of the most able, practical, and suggestive lectures ever delivered before that flourishing debating society." Sticking closely to his own extensive and exceptional experience, the method recommended ana pursued by Mr Ferguson is simple and not greedy on capital. "The one great essential factor in the production of a profitable class of store cattle is a purebred bull of high individual merit." In saying this, in effect, if not in so many words, Mr Feiguson is not theorising, he is simply telling what his own personal experience has demonstrated to him. While giving a fair amount of latitude in regard to the cows, he is inflexible in regard to the purity and excellence of the bull. According to his ascertained results, the stock of cows owned by any competent dairy farmer may be advantageously utilised for the production of grazing or store cattle, piovided the pioper class of bull is procured. There is therefore, nothing in respect to the cows to prevent the ordinary dairy farmer from obtaining a good marketable class of calves from the lean deep-milking cows which occupy their cowsheds, if only they will spend a judicious amount in the purchase of a suitable sire to mate with. The selection of the bull is the crucial point. Mr Ferguson's remarks as to the kind of bull of the best of the improved breeds used in the production of stores are correct and to the point. The familiar ringside comment, "a. great, big, finß, strong-boned bull, fine for" crossing" he sets down as expressing an altogether mistaken idea. According to the best recognised principles of stock-breeding, if the cows are rough 111 tvne and irregularly bred, to procure satisfactory results the bull must' be of a line, light-boned description, with sufficient 2»ed--gree to endow him with the necessary piepotency to import his own characteristics in face of the counteracting influence of the dam, to the progeny. Mr Ferguson's remarks anent the class of bull to be used may be quoted. He says : "No bull, how - ever good-looking lie roav bo. is good enough for any purpose of breeding, unle^ he is purebred. It is purity of blood, and that only, which gives the prepotency to produce the fine bullock out of the ordinary roadside sciub cow. At the same time it is to be remembered that the purebred wepd is as much to be discarded as the loughboned mongrel. One should not use a bull, however well bred he may be. unless he nlso cairies the appearance of being a good beast. The first and main and combined consideration, therefore, when buying a Mie is puiity of blood and wealth of fles.li. so that he may. as he will do get stock like himself"' These aie words to wei^h. ponder, and piofit by.