DAtay CATTLE. In no line of improvement of live stock have more remarkable results been attained than in the ease of the dairy cow. This improvement has taken place in the earliness of maturity, the length of the milking period. the quantity and richness of the milk produced, and the general economy of production. In the mod ern dairy cow the tendency to lay on flesh, so highly developed in beef animals, has been large ly eliminated, and in its place the ability to convert economically the fund eaten into milk has been cultivated in a high degree. Continued breeding to a special purpose has changed the former short milking period, limited almost to the pasture season, to a comparatively eVen flow of milk during ten or eleven months of every year. A cow that does not average six or seven quarts of milk a day for :300 days in the year, aggregating, 4000 pounds, is not considered very profitable. There are many herds having an average yearly production of 5000 pounds per cow, and single animals are numerous which give ten or twelve times their own weight in milk during a year. Quality has been so improved that the milk of many a cow will make as much butter in a week as did that of three or four average cows of the middle of the last century.
The points observed in judging dairy cows are shown in the accompanying illustration, taken from a publication of the United States Depart ment of Agriculture.
Different scales of points have been adopted by the various breeders' associations.
The breeds of dairy cattle most common in the United States and England at the present time are Ayrshire, Guernsey, Jersey, Red Poll, and Shorthorns. The ...I yrshires, named for the comity of that name in the southwest of Scotland. are inediuni-sized cows, short-legged, tine-bon ed. and very active. The general form is the wedge shape. regarded as typical of cows of dairy excellence, and good specimens are thin when in milk. The prevailing, color is red and Ni bite. in spots variously proportioned, but not mixed. The cows are large and persistent milkers. but the milk is not particularly rich, and the fat-globules are small. which causes the cream to rise slowly. An average yield of 5500 pounds of milk a year per cow for a work ing herd is often realized. One noted herd has an average for nineteen years of over 0100 pounds per cow, and individuals produce 10.000 and even 12,000 pounds a year. Mutter records are not numerous, but herds average nno to 400 pounds a year. and there are individual records of as high as 600 pounds.
'Flee Jersey and Guernsey breeds were both originated in the Channel Islands, but in the development of the latter more of the char acteristics of the parent stock of Normandy have been retained. They were both formerly called Alderneys. The Guernseys are rather larger than the Jerseys, stronger boned, and arc claimed to be hardier. They are light in color, with darker shades approaching brown, and have a yellow skin. The milk of both breeds is unusu ally rich in fat, the fat-globules being large and separating readily in creaming. The Guernseys
are liberal milkers. At home the average cow is expected to produce 5000 pounds of milk and 300 pounds of butter a year without high feeding. In the United States they are usually fed higher, and respond accordingly. There are records of several herds which have averaged over 6000 pounds of milk and 350 pounds of butter a year. Individual cows have produced 10,000, and nearly 13,000 pounds,' of milk, and 500 to 700 pounds of butter a year. The Jerscys are the smallest of the better dairy breeds, though in the United States they have been considerably increased in size. The color varies from cream to various shades of fawn, tan, and mouse-color, dark brown and even black. They have beautiful heads, with intelligent faces, and rather small, close horns. The body is well rounded, with capacity for food and breeding, and the udder is of good size, with highly developed milk-veins. They are irregular in outline and thin in flesh. Like the Guernseys, they are not large, but persistent milkers, and their milk is the richest of any breed. For many years they have been hared especially for butter production, although American breeders have striven with considerable success to increase the milk-yield without diminishing the quality. Good herds produce from !3500 to 1500 pounds of milk a year, and several herd records show averages of 1,000 and 7000 pounds per cow. Single cows pro duce 1000. 1200 pounds of butter, and even more. There are numerous records of 25 to 30 pounds of butter a week, and individual records run all the way from 600 to S00, and even 1600 pounds of butter in a year. Jerseys are heavy feeders, and as a rule will bear high feeding and forcing for long periods unusually well. Brown liessie, the famous champion butter cow of the Chicago World's Fair dairy test, averaged over 40 pounds of milk a day for live months, and made 3 pounds of butter a day several times. The Ho/steins, 'Jr Holstcin-Fricsians, of north llollanil and Friesland, are black and white, irregularly marked, hut not mixed, large in frame, strong, and usually in good flesh. Their legs are long and rather small, and the udder is often of ex traordinary size, in conformity with the reputa tion of the breed for enormous milk-production. It is not unusual for a cow to give more than her own weight in milk every month for ten or twelve consecutive months, and there are numer ous instances of yields of 100 pounds or more a day, and 20,000 to 30,000 pounds a year, al though 40 to 60 pounds a day, or 7500 to 8000 pounds a year, is considered an average. But the milk is usually relatively poor in fat as com pared with that of other breeds, and does not always come up to the State or municipal standards in this respect. The fat-globules are quite small and the cream does not rise readily on setting. There are some families of Holsteins, however. which give milk of fully average rich ness and are profitable butter-producers.