This is one of the choicest and most reliable of the dairy breeds.
They are uniformly red, of fair size, have a sprightly appearance, and
reproduce their like more certainly than any other breed that we know.
As has been said, they are so prepotent, uniform, and distinct from
the other breeds that they may be called a _race_ of cattle. Their
history runs back hundreds of years, until it is lost in tradition and
uncertainty. But origin and history are of little consequence, since it
is the living fact--the cattle themselves--that we have to deal with.
The cows give a good sized mess of milk--large milkers have appeared
among them as among other breeds--and their milk is very rich. It is
not as rich as the Jersey's and the Guernsey's milk, but there is more
of it, and it approximates the richness of the milk of these breeds
more closely than that of any other. Hence, they are excellent butter
cows, and justly favorites among those who are the most familiar with
them and know how to breed them. Healthy, hardy, and easy to keep,
they are adapted to almost any circumstances, and are excellent as
butter or family cows, while the males, owing to their activity and
endurance, make splendid oxen--both useful and fine looking. They make
fine beef and a fair amount of it. They would be useful animals for
crossing on the common stock and grades of the Northwest, where the
climate is rigorous and both butter and beef are objects of importance.
As workers, they would be very useful there. They will stand as much
hardship as any breed we have, and as much as any breed ought to, but
will do better under favorable than under unfavorable circumstances.
Like all other breeds, they respond readily to kind and generous
treatment, it being a universal law that want and abuse are sources of
loss in the keeping of stock, the best results always following the
best treatment. They will do well on level, hilly or rough pastures,
because of their nimbleness and endurance: while the certainty of their
breeding makes it perhaps less difficult to perpetuate their good
qualities than is the case with any of the other breeds. In short,
they are the most prepotent and uniform of all, give a good-sized
mess of very rich milk, are easy to keep, hardy and active, and fill
a sphere which it would be difficult to fill without them. We do not
know how their milk appears under the microscope, but we judge from the
characteristics of these animals that the butter globules are above
the average size and very uniform. Hence the cream rises readily, is
easily churned, and makes a rich-colored, fine-flavored butter. It is a
little remarkable that the breeders of these cattle have not succeeded
in getting up a "boom;" but the probability is that no strenuous and
persistent effort has been made in this direction. Their superior
merits are unquestioned and unquestionable.