Robert Jennings

“ No feed is complete that does not contain a sufficient amount of nutritive elements; hay, for example, being more nutritive than straw, and grains than roots. The food, too, must possess a bulk sufficient to fill up to a certain degree the organs of digestion of the stomach; and, to receive the full benefit of its food, the animal must be wholly satisfied—since, if the stomach is not sufficiently distended, the food cannot be properly digested, and of course many of the nutritive principles which it contains cannot be perfectly assimilated. ”

“ The object with many seems to be, to see with how little food they can keep the cow alive. From a correct point of view, the milch cow should be regarded as an instrument of transformation. The question should be—with so much hay, so much grain, so many roots, how can the most milk, or butter, or cheese, be made? The conduct of a manufacturer who owned good machinery, and an abundance of raw material, and had the labor at hand, would be considered very senseless, if he hesitated to supply the material, and keep the machinery at work, at least so long as he could run it with profit. ”

“ Where there is the most fat, there is the best lean; where there is the greatest amount of muscle, without its share of fat, that part is accounted inferior, and is used for a different purpose; in fact, so far from fat's being a disease, it is a condition of muscle, necessary to its utility as food,—a source of luxury to the rich, and of comfort to the poor, furnishing a nourishing and healthy diet for their families. ”

“ The cow has the same points in the main, but her head is finer, longer, and more tapering; neck thinner and lighter, and shoulders more narrow across the chine.
The astonishing precocity of the short horns, their remarkable aptitude to fatten, the perfection of their forms, and the fineness of their bony structure, give them an advantage over most other races when the object of breeding is for the shambles. No animal of any other breed can so rapidly transform the stock of any section around him as the improved short horn bull. ”

“ In Scotland it is a rare thing to see a cow milked by any other person than a woman, though men are very commonly employed at it in this country and in England. One never sees a man milking a cow without being impressed with the idea that he is usurping an office which does not become him; and the same thought seems to be conveyed in the terms usually applied to the person connected with cows—a dairy-maid implying one who milks cows, as well as performs the other duties connected with the dairy—a dairy-man meaning one who owns a dairy. ”

“ Keep the cows constantly in good condition, ought, therefore, to be the motto of every dairy farmer, posted up over the barn, and on and over the stalls, and over the milk-room, and repeated to the boys whenever there is danger of forgetting it. It is the great secret of success; and the difference [101] between success and failure turns upon it. Cows in milk require more food in proportion to their size and weight than either oxen or young cattle. ”

“ The term "native" is applied to a vast majority of our American cattle, which, though born on the soil, and thus in one sense natives, do not constitute a breed, race, or family, as correctly understood by breeders. They do not possess characteristics peculiar to them all, which they transmit with any certainty to their offspring, either of form, size, color, milking or working properties.
But, though an animal may be made up of a mixture of blood almost to impurity, it does not follow that, for specific purposes, it may not, as an individual animal, be one of the best of the species. ”

“ As a general and almost invariable rule, animals possessing either defects or a tendency to disease, should not be employed for breeding. If, however, for special reasons it seems desirable to breed from one which has some slight defect of symmetry, or a faint tendency to disease—although for the latter it is doubtful whether the possession of any good qualities can fully compensate—it should be mated with one which excels in every respect in which it is itself deficient, and on no account with one which is near of kin to it. ”

“ If an argument for the larger number on poorer feed is urged on the ground of the additional manure—which is the only basis upon which it can be put—it is enough to say that it is a very expensive way of making manure. It is not too strong an assertion, that a proper regard to profit and economy would require many an American farmer to sell off nearly half of his cows, and to feed the whole of his hay and roots hitherto used into the remainder. ”

“ We want cattle for distinct purposes, as for milk, beef, or labor. In a large majority of cases—especially in the dairy districts, at least, comprising the Eastern and Middle States—the farmer cares more for the milking qualities of his cows, especially for the quantity they give, than for their fitness for grazing, or aptness to fatten. These latter points become more important in the Western and some of the Southern States, where much greater attention is paid to breeding and to feeding, and where comparatively slight attention is given to the productions of the dairy. ”

“ The cow is somewhat off her feed—rumination ceases—she is listless and dull—the milk diminishes or dries up—the motions of the fœtus become more feeble, and at length cease altogether—there is a slight degree of enlargement of the belly—there is a little staggering in her walk—when she is down she lies longer than usual, and when she gets up she stands for a longer time motionless. ”

“ But there are some—even among intelligent farmers—who make a practice of turning their calves out to pasture at the tender age of two or three weeks—and that, too, when they have sucked the cow up to that time—and allow them nothing in the shape of milk and tender care. This, certainly, is the poorest possible economy, to say nothing of the manifest cruelty of such treatment. The growth of the calf is checked, and the system receives a shock from so sudden a change, from which it cannot soon recover. ”

“ The beast must be a system of mathematical lines. To the advocate of symmetry, the setting-on of a tail will be a condemning fault; indeed the ridge of the back, like a straight line, with the outline of the belly exactly parallel, viewed from the side, and a depth and squareness when viewed from behind,—which remind us of a geometrical cube, rather than a vital economy,—may be said to be the indications of excellence in a fat ox. ”

“ The skin is so intimately connected with the internal organs, in all animals, that it is questionable whether even our schools of medicine might not make more use of it in a diagnosis of disease. Of physiological tendencies in cattle, however, it is of the last and most vital importance. It must neither be thick, nor hard, nor adhere firmly to the muscles. If it is so, the animal is a hard grazer, a difficult and obstinate feeder—no skillful man will purchase it—such a creature must go to a novice, and even to him at a price so low as to tempt him to become a purchaser. ”

“ The variations in the yield of milch cows are caused more by the variations in the nutritive elements of their food than by a change of the form in which it is given. A cow, kept through the winter on mere straw, will cease to give milk; and, when fed in spring on green forage, will give a fair quantity of milk. But she owes the cessation and restoration of the secretion, respectively, to the diminution and increase of her nourishment, and not at all to the change of form, or of outward substance in which the nutriment is administered. ”

“ In selecting any breed, regard should be had to the circumstances of the individual farmer and the object to be pursued. The cow most profitable for the milk dairy, may be very unprofitable in the butter and cheese dairy, as well as for the production of beef; while, for either of the latter objects, the cow which gave the largest quantity of milk might be very undesirable. A union and harmony of all good qualities must be secured, so far as possible. The farmer wants a cow that will milk well for some years; and then, when dry, fatten readily and sell to the butcher for the highest price. ”

“ It is surprising how a hide improves in thickness after the cold weather has set in. The sort of food does not seem to affect the quality of the hide; but the better it is, and the better cattle have been fed, and the longer they have been well fed, even from a calf, the better the hide. From what has been said of the effect of weather upon the hide, it seems a natural conclusion that a hide is better from an ox that has been fed in the open air, than from one that has been kept in the barn. ”

“ An animal regularly fed eats till it is satisfied, and no more than is requisite. A part of the nutritive elements in hay and other forage plants is needed to keep an animal on its feet—that is, to keep up its condition—and if the nutrition of its food is insufficient for this, the weight decreases, and if it is more than sufficient the weight increases, or else this excess is consumed in the production of milk or in labor. About one sixtieth of their live weight in hay, or its equivalent, will keep horned cattle on their feet ”

“ In the dairy districts of Scotland, the dairymaid puts one of her fingers into the mouth of the calf when it is fed, which serves the purpose of a teat, and will have nearly the same effect as the natural teat in inducing the secretion of saliva. If that, or an artificial teat of leather, be used, and the milk be given slowly before it is cold, the secretion of saliva may be promoted to all the extent that can be necessary; besides, secretion is not confined to the mere period of eating, but, as in the human body, the saliva is formed and part of it swallowed at all times. ”

“ It is better always to avoid breeding from near relatives whenever stock-getters of the same breed and of equal merit can be obtained which are not related. Yet, where this is not possible, or where there is some desirable and clearly defined purpose in view—as the fixing and perpetuating of some valuable quality in a particular animal not common to the breed—and the breeder possesses the knowledge and skill needful to accomplish his purpose, and the animals are perfect in health and development, close breeding may be practised with advantage. ”

“ It is very common in New England and all over the Middle States, coming into old worn-out fields and moist pastures spontaneously, and along every roadside. It derives its name from its sweetness of odor when partially wilted or crushed in the hand, and it is this chiefly which gives the delicious fragrance to all new-mown bay. It is almost the only grass that possesses a strongly-marked aromatic odor, which is imparted to other grasses with which it is cured. ”

“ Hence, a well-fatted animal always commands a better price per pound than one imperfectly fed, and the parts selected as the primest beef are precisely the parts which contain the largest deposits of fat. The rump, the crop, and the sirloin, the very favorite cuts,—which always command from twenty to twenty-five per cent. more than any other part of the ox,—are just those parts on which the largest quantities of fat are found ”

“ A cow that is of a quiet and contented disposition feeds at ease, is milked with ease, and yields more than one of an opposite temperament; while, after she is past her usefulness as a milker, she will easily take on fat, and make fine beef and a good quantity of tallow, because she feeds freely, and when dry the food which went to make milk is converted into fat and flesh. But there is no breed of cows with which gentle gentleness of treatment is so indispensable as with the Ayrshire, on account of her naturally nervous temperament. ”

“ Practically, the knowledge obtained dictates in a most emphatic manner that every stock-grower use his utmost endeavor to obtain the services of the best sires; that is, the best for the ends and purposes in view—that he depend chiefly on the sire for outward form and symmetry—and that he select dams best calculated to develop the good qualities of the male, depending chiefly upon these for freedom, from internal disease, for hardihood and constitution, and, generally, for all qualities dependent upon the vital or nutritive system. ”