Grade Cattle

GRADE CATTLE. Grade cattle may be defined as the descendents of any pure breed crossed upon the native or mixed breeds of a country. In the mixed farming of the older settled States the three purposes of beef, milk, and working cattle are desired. Hence the grades are made up of Short-horn or Hereford bloodfor, beef, of Devon or Hereford for working cattle, and of D.utch, Ayrshire, or Jersey, bred with the native cattle of the region, according as beef, labor, or milk is desired. In the vicinity of large cities, where large quantities of fresh milk is consumed, the Ayrshire and Holstein (Dutch) cattle are much used, while, when quality and not quantity of milk is espec ially desired, the Jerseys are the favorites. The adaptation of grades to the wants of the com munity, therefore, determines the breed to be used. In New England, New Y011K, Pennsyl vania, and northern Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa, and other dairying sections the milk breeds predominate, the old style Short-horns forming the hasis of the stock worked upon. In

all the more settled grazing regions of the coun try the Short-horns predominate, though of late years, from their fine constitutions, early matur ity, and superior beef, the Herefords have successfully competed, and, since 1876, large numbers of Short-horn and Hereford bulls have been shipped to the immense grazing grounds east of the Rocky Mountains and the great valleys interlaced within the Rocky -Mountains, for the purpose of breeding grades for the eastern and European markets. Grade Short-horns and Herefords have been fed to a weight of 3,500 pounds, live weight, and at the stock yards at Chicago it is not unusual to find many that will average from 1,800 to 2,000 pounds.