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TREATISE

Mion COWS,

WHEREBY

THE QUALITY AND QUANTITY OF MILK

WHICH ANY COW WiLL GIVE MAY BE ACCURATELY DETERMINED RY OBSERVING NATURS3
MARKS GR EXTERNAL INDICATIONS ALONE; THE LENGTH OF TIME
SHE WILL CONTINUE TO GIVE MILK, &e.

By M. FRANCIS GUENON,
OF LIBOURNE, FRANCE.

TRANSLATED FOR THE FARMERS’ LIBRARY, FROM THE FRENCR
By N. P. TRIST, ESQ.
LATE UNITED STATES CONSUL AT HAVANA.

WITH INTRODUCTORY
REMARKS AND OBSERVATIONS,

ON THE;

COW AND THE DAIRY.

BY: JOHN’ &. SISINNiclt.

-

Sixty-third Thousand.

Nei Ww YY ORE
eo. ie SS Ak POM, PU Bi Ss Hee,
No. 25 Park Row.

1862.

en ee =

——— ete Ls ee

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1256.
BY C. M.BAXTON & CO

m the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United Staues, ia and fer
the Southern District of New York.

FOURTEENTH EDITION.

NATIONAL TRIBUTE OF THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT

TO
M. GUENON,

FOR HIS VALUABLE DISCOVERY WITH REGARD TO

MeO Le CO W's.
PENSION OF THREE THOUSAND FRANCS A YEAR TO THE AUTHOR,

Tur National Assembly’s Committee on Agriculture have unanimously voted to confer
on M. Guenon a pension of three thoucand francs a year, in consideration of his discovery
of an infallible method for determining the capacities of milch cows. This method is the
same as has become so generally known and appreciated throughout the United States,
through the medium of that excellent little work published by you containing a translation of
M. Guenon’s treatise on the subject.

The committee, in the report (which will soon be presented to the Assembly, and no doubt
adopted with unanimity), say that the methcd has been subjected to the most thorough tests,
and that no doubt can exist as to its infallibility ; by following the directions of M. Guenon, as
laid down in the treatise, any one can tell with certainty whether a cow is a good milker, or
whether a young heifer will become one, so that there need be no doubt as to the profit of rais-
ing an animal, and no chance of being taken in in the purchase of one. By this means the
farmer may select among his young calves those that will give abundance of milk when they
are raised, and dispose of the rest at once for the shambles. No breeder of cattle need be
told of the immense advantages which such a guide confers.

The committee say that a discovery of this nature, which adds so largely to the actual
worth of the éountry, is pre-eminently deserving of a national acknowledgment, and they ac-
cordingly propose that the Republic confer upon M. Guenoy the pension of three thousand
francs as a testimony of the estimation in which it holds his services as a public benefactor.

Against such an appropriation of the public money there can be no objection. How much
more rational it is that pensions and honors should be bestowed upon those who, by valuable
scientific discoveries, by improvements in agriculture and manufactures, render themselves
permanently useful to the world, than upon cheating politicians and successful soldiers.

Yours respectfully, C. A. D.

SN ES OO OS Oe

REPORT TO THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY.

,

Tur congress had just expressed a wish that “ Guenon’s Theory of the Milk-giving Prop-

erties of Cows,” published some years since, should be thoroughly examined and reported on

when M. Guenon himself arrived in Paris. Called here on business of a private nature, he

) readily set aside everything to place himself at the disposal of your honorable body.

3 After many disappointments, he came to ask of you a public expression of your approba-
tion, and of the country, an exhibition of national gratitude for a discovery surrendered
without reserve to the common good, when he might have kept his secret to himself, with
its certain emoluments.

A just love of celebrity, perhaps even the vague hope of a recompense proportioned to the
service he had rendered the country, brought him to your bar, and placed him under your
patronage.

It was immediately decided that a committee should accompany him to some dairy, and
there apply aud demonstrate the principles he has promulgated. If a decisive test confirmed
all that you were led to expect, it became you, gentlemen, to give from this spot — the great
centre of knowledge —a striking consecration, too long desired, of Mr. Guenon’s singular
discovery.

The farmer exercises an art essentially practical, and will not reject an obviously useful
processs because he may not appear to understand it. His science is that of facts, which
he studies with a view to their application.

In obedience to your call, forty or fifty members of the congress assembled on the 30th of
March, to enter upon the investigation that you had ordered. At the head of your com-
mittee were two of your presidents— M. Fouquier d’Herroul, known for his eminent services
as chairman of the committee on cattle, and M. Dupin, who is always te be found at his post
where the national interest is concerned. Other distinguished agriculturists were upon the
committee, and the intelligent and ingenious man on whose account this meeting was held,
and for whom the investigation was to be decisive, accompanied it, with a calm confidence
derived from the hope of an impartial decision and a deep conviction of his rights.

Arrived at the dairy, thirteen cows were offered for inspection :—

2 Cotentines,* thorough-bred.
1 Cotentine, half-blood.

6 Normans, more or less crossed.

1 Swiss. 5

3 of Flemish and Durham blood.

Before proceeding to the proof, Mr. Gucnon called our attention to the fact that the excep-
tional manner in which the Parisian cows were fed, might produce some abnormal results.
This was considered a sufficient reason to allow a latitude of one or two pints to his estimate,
instead of anticipating the exact results which he claims under ordinary circumstances.

As soon as a cow was brought out, the amount of milk which she gave for two or three
weeks after calving, was privately made known to the committee, and immediately put down
in writing. Mr. Guenon was then called upon to examine the revealing signs, and without
being allowed to touch the cow, gave his estimate, which was likewise set down. The amount
of milk furnished by the cows submitted for examination, varied from fourteen to twenty-four
pints.

In eleven of the cases, the estimate of Guenon proved to be correct, and there was some
uncertainty about another cow recently purchased, that had been sick since she was bought.

* So called from Cotentin, a district of country from lower Normandy.

BALAI Owners eee seeE=«=S EE ieee eee ee eee ee ce EEE

REPORT. 5

Finally, upon the Anglo-Flemish cow there appeared a notable difference between the rather
precipitate estimate of Mr. Guenon, who calculated her yield at fifteen pints, and her known
yield, which was twenty-two pints; but this mistake had been corrected beforehand, by one
of our most intelligent colleagues — M. Collot — who has been applying Mr. Guenon’s theory
for several years past, and who had at first sight estimated the yield of the Anglo-Flemish
cow at twenty pints, a near approximation to the truth. So that we may say in this case,
that Mr. Guenon, and not his method, was at fault.

On most of the animals inspected, Mr. Guenon pointed out to the audience the revealing
signs upon which his system is founded, and referring to the printed treatise before us, showed
the relation of the principle to the results. He took care only (in view of the excess of feed
given to cows in the Paris dairy) to add a certain amount to the normal valuation given in his
book ; for the treatise of Mr. Guenon supposes the cows placed in ordinary circumstances on
proper pasture.

As to the length of time that cows continue to give milk after going to the bull, M. Gue-
non’s replies were, with a single exception, in conformity with the facts and his estimates of
the butyraceous qualities of the milk were equally correct.

The results were altogether conclusive: they confirmed those already obtained in the
presence of several agricultural societies, and particularly that were published after 248 trials,
twenty months ago, by the Central Agricultural Society of the Lower Seine, whose president
— M. Demoy — has a seat in this congress, and made one of your committee.

Several of your colleagues, and the reporter among them, has studied with more or less
care the printed treatise, and acknowledged its general correctness; and one of them—M.
Deflez (of Nerac) — who, under more favorable circumstances, and with the guidance of the
author himself, had been enabled to study the theory practically, with stables and cattle fairs
of the south, gave his estimate of the cows presented for trial, and these estimates, invariably
in accordance with those of Mr. Guenon, proved the almost mathematical exactness of the
principles upon which this singular and valuable system is based.

It is known that it is founded on the arrangement or disposition of the hair, in a space com-
mencing at the upper extremity of the vulva, and descending to the roots of the teats, wind-
ing as it descends, covering the inner and hind parts of the thighs. It is from the arrangement
of the hair in this space that the deductions are drawn as to the quantity, duration, and
quality of the milk.

What are the mysterious relations existing between these external characters and the milk-
producing organs? The author endeavors to explain, but his explanations only serve to jus-
tify the appeals that you have made on this body to the investigations of science.

The result would seem to be, from what precedes, that the application of Guenon’s sys-
tem can be made everywhere with the greatest facility, after reading his book; but it is due
to truth to say that this is not the fact; that considerable difficulties are in the way of those
who wish to turn it to account, and that some sagacity and perseverance are neccessary to
master it completely.

An honorable member who has your entire confidence, assures us that in his department
where the system is generally applied, the number of bad milkers is diminishing in a striking
manner, and that at the expense of surrounding departments, where their owners are compelled
to seek less enlightened purchasers; and our president himself—the duke of Decazes— has
stated that Guenon’s method was being adopted with signal benefit in the southwest.

Admitted by our most learned veterinaries of the Royal College of Alfort and elsewhere,
encouraged by the government, confirmed by a thousand proofs, and sanctioned by your ap-
proval, the discovery of Mr. Guenon may now be considered as having reached the dignity of
ascience. It applies alike to males and females—to calves and full-grown animals; and

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6 REPORT.

from this last fact we make this fruitful deduction : Hereafter the farmer need rear none but ?
such calves as will make good milkers, handing over to the butcher those that will not.

Thus in a short time the daily production of milk in France may be increased by several
millions of pints daily. Nor is this all. The abundance and quality of milk in the dams
must contribute largely to the improvement of the progeny.

Mr. Guenon should receive a national remuneration, and be engaged to deliver lectures in
the different Veterinary, Agricultural, and Normal schools of the kingdom, and in the pres-
ence of such societies as may call for him. These would be the speediest and best means of
spreading the knowledge of this discovery, and it will no doubt be admitted that we can not
be in too great haste to repair the time lost in ridicule, doubt, or indifference—the inevitable
preface to all undertakings beneficial to humanity.

E. Bansizr,
Chairman of the Committee.

(= This edition has also been improved by the addition of an
interesting essay on Spuying Milch Cows, with the mode of operation.

PREFACE

BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR.

ALTHOUGH that portion of the matter, here offered to American farmers, which was translated
for and originally published in the FARMERS’ Liprary, might well be considered as worth the
price of this volume, the Publishers have desired to render the work more acceptable and useful,
by the addition of brief Introductory Sketches, descriptive of various Races of Cattle, as well as
of Dairy Management, and of some of the Diseases to which Cows and Calves are particularly
liable.

Most of these additions have been derived from CHAMBERS’s INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE;
selected for the reason that, while they are deemed by the American Editor to be, generally, judi-
cious and profound, the style is so plain and practical that “he who runs may read” and under-
stand them. Remarks have been added by the Editor of the Farmers’ Liprary, where it was
supposed they might be needed to adapt the work more perfectly to the use of American
readers.

It has been truly observed that the most remarkable of all the changes and meliorations effected
in cattle by the potent influence of domestication, the most marked improvement has been in the
capacity of the Cow for giving milk. How much may not that capacity be enhanced now, by
close attention to the milk-bearing signs or “ escutcheons” so minutely described by M. GuENon ?

By selecting for breeding stock, from generation to generation, such only as display these infal-
lible indications, and condemning to the knife all that are devoid of them—snpposing the system
to be unerring as it has been pronounced by successive Committees appointed to investigate it—
what is to prevent the establishment of a race as uniform and remarkable for excellence at the
pail as the Devon Ox is for the yoke, or the courser of high-bred eastern extraction for the turf?
and that, too, without recurrence to importation—seeing that, among our “ country cows,” individ-
uals have been found equal, in yield of milk and butter, to any to be traced in the Herd-Book 7—
Instance the Cream-pot Breed, built up by Col. Jacques, of Charlestown, Mass. whose calves are
bespoken at $100; the celebrated middle-sized Oak’s Cow, of Danvers, that gave, on evidence sat-
isfactory to the Mass. Ag. Society, 484 pounds of butter from the 5th of April to the 25th of Sep-
tember, and, more recently, the wonderful Prize Cow, KaaTSKILL, property of Mr. Donatson,
of Blithewood, New-York, which received the prize of the New-York State Agricultural Society,
at Poughkeepsie, in 1844, on satisfactory evidence that she “ yielded, when kept on grass only,
38 quarts of milk per day, and that, from the milk given by her in two days, 6} pounds of butter
were made—being at the rate of 22} pounds per week.”

When such cases turn up by chance, why, we repeat, may not a Breed of deep milkers be es-
tablished and relied upon as confidently as it is known that “like produces like’? After all,

OPP OO ON

PPD LI i net ne a fill Nl El

8 PREFACE BY THE EDITOR.

now that this discovery has been made, and proclaimed, on the ground of repeated trials and testi-
mony, to all appearance conclusive, what is there in the theory that lactiferous secretions should
produce and show themselves in external marks and cutaneous exudations, any more wonderful
or out of the way, than that other secretions and faculties are known to produce not only markea
differences in form and color, but even perceptible, and, for the most part, offensive efluvia?

Observe the effect, in these respects, not only in the external differences of color and shape,
which mark the different sexes, but the no less striking effects produced by early emasculation of
the horse, the bull, the hog, and the goat! Hence, it isonly “if I were hungry,” says the Psalm-
ist. “I will eat the flesh of bud/s, and drink the blood of goats.”

The famous Tuscany Oz, so celebrated for strength, activity, and endurance, and which Com-
modore JONES, in one of his letters addressed from the Mediterranean to Mr. SKINNER, says will
travel 22 miles a day, with heavy loads of ship timber, is, all over, of uniform light grey color; but
leave him unabridged of his full sexual proportions, and the effect is sure to be exhibited im the
black color and great enlargement of the neck, and curly forehead. Is it, then, we repeat, extra-
ordinary or incredible that the milky secretions of the Cow should produce, in the region where
that process is carried on, and where her characteristic excellence lies, effects not more visible or
striking than are produced on the size, color and growth of the hair, on the shoulders, neck and
head of the bull? Are the external signs—the difference in the growth and curl of the hair, con-
stituting the “ escutcheons,” and the scurf or dandruf thrown out on the skin, as described in this
book—any more remarkable or strange in tne one case than the other? But—‘all things are
strange” —unitil they are found out |

REMARKS

OBSERVATIONS ON THE COW

AND

DAE DALEY: :

INTRODUCTORY TO GUENON’S TREATISE

ON: MPECGH-€O WS.

THE COW AND THE DAIRY.

Next to the horse, the COW is justly valued as the most useful animal whicls
man has been able to domesticate and retain permanently in his service. The
Ox tribe, of which it is the female, belongs to the order Ruminantia, in the class
Mammaiia ; these terms implying that the animals runimate or chew their food
a second time, and have mamme or teats with which they suckle their young.—
In the Ox tribe there are different genera and species, all more or less differing
from each other.

The Wild Breed, from being untamable, can only be kept within walls or good
fences; consequently, very few of them are now to be met with, except in the
ep of some English gentlemen, who keep them for ornament and asa curiosity.

heir color is invariably of a creamy white; muzzle black ; the whole of the in-
side of the ear, and about one-third of the outside from the tip downward, red ;
horn white, with black tips very fine, and bent upward ; some of the Bulls have
a thin upright mane, about four or five inches long. The weight of the Oxen is
from 450 to 550 lbs. and the Cows from 280 to 450 lbs. The beef is finely mar-
bied and of excellent flavor.

Of the Domesticated Ox, the varieties from the effect of cultivation are now
very numerous. The Ox, in one or other of its genera, and for the sake of its la-
bor as a beast of draught, its flesh, or the milk of its female, has been domesti-
eated and carefully reared from the earliest times—in some countries having been
raised to the rank of a divinity, or, at least, held as an object of extreme venera-
tion.

The domesticated species of Oxen is, in all its varieties, materially altered
from its wild parentage. Influenced by climate, peculiar feeding, and training in
a state of subjection, its bony structure is diminished in bulk and power, its fero-
city tamed, and its tractability greatly improved. Our observations will refer
chiefly to the Cow, on which very great changes have been effected by domesti-
cation: the most remarkable of these alterations has been in the capacity for giv-
ing milk. Ina wild state, the udder is small, and shrinks into an insignificant com-
pass when the duty of suckling is over; but when domesticated for the sake ot
its milk, and that liquid is drawn copiousiy from it by artificial means, the lacte-
al or milk-secreting vessels enlarge, and the udder expands, so as to become a
prominent feature in the animal. In this manner, by constant exercise, the econ-

10 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS:

omy of the cultivated species of Cows has been permanently altered, and render-
ed suitable to the demands which are constantly made on it. Yet it is important
to remark that those milk-yielding powers are not equal in the different varieties
or breeds of Cows. Some breeds, from the influence of circumstances, give a
large quantity of milk, but of a thin or poor quality, while others yield less milk,
but of a good or rich quality. Whether, then, the cow-keeper wish quantity or
quality, is the question for him to solve in making a selection of stock. In gen-
eral, near large towns, where the demand for milk is considerable, the object of
dairymen is to keep Cows which will give a large quantity of milk, no matter of
what sort. Private families in the country are usually more regardful of the
quality of the article ; they wish a little milk which is good, some fine cream,
and perhaps, also, some sweet butter and cheese; and on that account are more
careful in the choice of their Cows. For those who go for mere quantity, and
yet have some honest scruples left about resorting to the pump, the old fashioned,
large framed, big boned Holderness would do best; while for ‘cream only, for
family use, no breed can compare, in color and richness of milk, with the ewe-
necked, deer-looking, ragged-boned Alderney. This breed may be seen at Ros-
well House, residence of Mr. Colt, Paterson, New-Jersey. The following is a
list of breeds which may aid the selection of Cows in these different respects :

BREEDS OF CATTLE.

The breeds of cattle vary in different districts, from the small hardy varieties
of the north Highlands, to the bulky and handsome breeds of the southern parts
of England. It has been customary to classify the whole according to the com-
parative length of the horns—as the Long-Homed, Short-Horned, Middle-Horned,
Crumpled-Horned, and Hornless or Polled breeds. Besides these, there are many
intermixed breeds. The Middle-Horned Cows, which are found in the north of
Devon, the east of Sussex, Herefordshire, and Gloucestershire, in England, are
among the most valuable and beautiful varieties of the animal.

Whatever be the breed, there are certain conformations which are indispensa-
ble to the thriving, valuable Ox or Cow. If there is one part of the frame, the
form of which, more than of any other, renders the animal valuable, it is the
chest. There must be room enough for the heart to beat and the lungs to play,
or sufficient blood for the purposes of nutriment and strength will not be cireu-
lated ; nor will it thoroughly undergo that vital change which is essential to the
proper discharge of every function. We look, therefore, first of all, to the wide
and deep girth about the heart and lungs. We must have both: the proportion
in which the one or the other may preponderate will depend on the service we
require from the animal ; we can excuse a slight degree of flatness of the sides,
for he will be lighter im the forehand, and more active; but the grazier must
have width as well as depth. And not only about the heart and lungs, but over
the whole of the ribs, must we have both length and roundness; the hooped as
well as the deep barrel is essential; there must be room for the capacious
paunch—room for the materials from which the blood is to be provided. The
beast should also be ribbed home; there should be little space between the ribs
and the hips. This seems to be indispensable in the Ox, as it regards a good
healthy constitution and a propensity to fatten ; but a largeness and drooping of
the belly, notwithstanding that the symmetry of the animal is not improved, are
considered advantageous in the Cow, because room is thus left for the udder ; and
if these qualities are accompanied by swelling milk veins, her value in the dairy
is generally increased. This roundness and depth of the barrel, however, are
most advantageous in proportion as found behind the pomt of the elbow, more
than between the shoulders and legs ; or low down between the legs, rather than
upward toward the withers ; for the heaviness before, and the comparative bulk
of the coarser parts of the animal, are thus diminished, which 1s always a very
great consideration. The loins should be wide. Of this there can be no doubt,
for they are the prime parts; they should seem to extend far along the back ; and
although the belly should not hang down, the flanks should be round and deep.
Of the hips, it is superfluous to say that, without being ragged, they should be
large; 10und rather than wide, and presenting, when handled, plenty of muscle
and fat. The thighs should be full and long, close together when viewed from
behind, and the farther down they continue close the better. The legs may oc-

THE COW AND THE DAIRY, ll

casionally vary in length according to the destination of the animal ; but short-
ness is a good general rule, for there is an almost inseparable conneetion between
length of leg and lightness of carcass, and shortness of leg and propensity to fat-
ten. The bones of the legs (and they are taken as a sample of the bony structure
of the frame generally) should be small, but not too small—small enough for the
well-known accompaniment, a propensity to fatten—small enough to please the
consumer ; but not so small as to indicate delicacy of constitution and liability to
disease. Lastly, the hide—the most important thing of all—should be thin, but
not so thin as to indicate that the animal can endure no hardship; movable, mel-
low, but not too loose, and particularly well covered with fine and soft hair.

Of the various breeds and cross-breeds of Cows now in use, there are a few
which enjoy the best reputation. We may name, for example, the Old Yorkshire
Stock, a cross between the Teeswater and Holderness breed ; the Long-Horned
or Lancashire breed ; the Short-Horned or Dutch breed ; the Middle-Horned
breeds of Devonshire, Sussex, and Hereford ; the Ayrshire breed ; the Alderney
breed, &c. Some of these merit particular attention. We should first point to
the

DrvonsuirE Cow.—The Devonshire is a handsome breed of cattle, well set up-
on their legs, straight along the back, small muzzle, generally red in color, and,
both as Oxen and Cows, they feed well at an early age... The Cow is much
smaller than the Bull, but roomy for breeding, and is distinguished for her clear,
round eye, and general loveliness and neatness of features. Fed on the fine pas-
tures of North Devon, the Cow yields a rich quality of milk, and in reasonable

oe
: SRN
RR

Devonshire Cow.

abundance. The North Devon breed prevails in some parts of Somersetshire,
and has been introduced into other quarters of the country, but is not considered
suitable in situations greatly differing from its native county as respects climate
and herbage.

Incomparably the best herd of Devons in this, if not in any country, is the
large one of Grorse Patterson, Esq. near Sykesville, Md. Its excellence has
been established and maintained by frequent importations of the best Bulls to be
had in England, without limit as to cost, and by invariably good keep: The
signs of genuineness and of excellence in the Devon are the absence, as near as
possible, of white in any part, and a yellow, not dark skin showing itself around
the eye and muzzle. The winner of successive prizes for best cheeses at the
American Institute lately observed that he considered the Devon decidedly the
best breed of cattle for the general purposes of New-England ; while for his pur-
pose exclusively, milk and cheese, he preferred a large infusion of Short-Horn
blood.

HererorDsH1rE Cow.—The Hereford breed of cattle is larger than that of
North Devon. It is broad across the hind quarters, narrow at the sirloin; neck
and head well proportioned ; horns of a medium size, turned up at the points;
color deep red, but with face and some other parts generally white ; and counte-
nance cheerful and sagacious. This Cow is reckoned among the best in England
as respects the production of milk, and, when too old for that purpose, it fattens
to a greater weight than the North Devons. The Herefords have maintained a
long and animated contest for superiority with the Short-Horns in England, and
the Editor thinks (but mind, he can’t be made to enter into a contest about it) it

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS:

Hereford Cow.

is rather gaining ground on its great rival. Has the latter any links yet to let
out ¢

The Gatnoway breed of cattle is well known for various valuable qualities,
and easily distmguished by the want of horns. It is broad across the back, with
a very slight curve between the head and quarters, broad at the loins, the whole
body having a fine roundappearance. ‘The head is of a moderate size, with large
rough ears, “chest deep, legs short, and clean im the neck. The prevailing color
is black, those of this color being ‘thought the most hardy, although this varies.
This breed is highly esteemed, as there is no other kind which arrives at maturi-
ty so soon, and their flesh is 6 file finest quality. The milk is very fine, but is
not obtained in very large quantities. Great numbers of this breed are sent an-
nually to Smithfield market; and it is remarkable that they are generally in as
good condition after the journey as before. The Suffolk Dun, also a hornless
breed, is supposed to be a variety of the Galloway, from their general resem-
blance.

The Ayrsuire breed, which is considered the most valuable in Scotland, is of
the small sized and middle horned race; its origin is unknown, as it has been
long settled in the county frcm which it derives its name. In modern times, the

Ayrshire Bull.

preed has been improved by judicious selection, coupling, and general treatment.
‘The common characteristics of this excellent variety of Cows are thus described
by Mr. Aiton in his “‘ Survey of Ayrshire :”—“ Head small, rather long and nar-
row at the muzzle; eye small, smart, and lively ; horns small, crooked, and set
at considerable distances from each other; neck long, rather slender, tapering
toward the head, with no loose skin below ; shoulders thin ; fore quarters light;
hiad quarters large ; back straight, broad behind, the joints rather loose and open ;
carcass deep; legs small, short, with firm joints ; udder capacious, stretching for-
ward ; the milk veins large and prominent; teats short, all pointing outward.”
‘The Ayrshire Cow is very docile, feeds well, is easily managed, and, as a dairy
Cow, is equal to any other. It is inferior, however, for feeding, to the Devon,
Sussex, and Hereford breeds. There have been several imiportations of Ayrshires
—-one some dozen years ago by A. J. Davis, of N. C. These we saw in Balti-
more, as We have several other specimens there, and elsewhere. ‘These were se-
tected by Mr. D. m Scotland, and from their appearance, were, as we have
thought, among the best specimens that have been brought to ihis country.—

en Ridgely, Esq. of Hampton got this lot, and may, perhaps, have some of the‘r

BOBO LOL BL EECCMOwyawwywvewween eee ee ee eee

THE COW AND THE DAIRY. 13

descendants now. Dr. Hoffman more recently made an importation of choice in-
dividuals of this breed to Baltimore. Mr. Randall, of New-Bedford, Mass., hes,
perhaps, the largest herd of Ayrshires in this country. Several were imported
into Massachusetts some years since, and our impression had been that they fail-
ed to establish themselves in the estimation of Yankee Farmers, yet the Massa-
chusetts Agricultural Society lately invested a large portion of their funds in an {
importation of Ayrshires and North Devons, of which an account may be seen in
the Farmers’ Liprary anDJourna or Acricutture, November No. page 257 of §
the Journal. The specimens we have seen of Ayrshires appeared to be on the
model, and with a good deal of the coat of the Short-Horn ; the hair perhaps short-
er, and in that, enabling them the better to bear wet weather. But they have the
neat form of the Short-Horn only on a miniature scale when compared to them.
Mr. Stevenson, our late Minister to London, who passed all his leisure time
among the noblemen and gentlemen Farmers in the best agricultural districts of f
England and Scotland, has some superior specimens of Ayrshires.

EGER 2

Vig

Many of the Ayrshire Dairy Cows, when properly fed, will yiedd from six to
eight gallons per day during a part of the summer. ‘The quantity varies much

Ayrshire Cow. |
during the year, from one anda half to six gallons or more; and the highest av-

i
;
;
§
\

‘
erage of the milk yielded by this breed is one thousand gallons per annum. It is
only some of the finest Cows that will yield such a quantity as this, and from five
hundred to seven hundred and fifty gallons may be calculated as the most gene-
ral yearly produce. Every twoand one-third gallons of milk will afford one pound
of butter, of sixteen ounces to the pound, or eight gallons will give three pounds.
About twenty-six gallons of milk will give a stone of cheese, fourteen pounds to
the stone, anda good milch Cow will thus yield thirty-six stones annually, which,
at 10s. per’stone, is £18 per annum for this article alone.

The Suort-Hornep or Dutch breed is considered of great value, both for milk-
ing and feeding. There are many varieties of it, known by the names of the
counties where they have been raised. The best of these varieties are large in
the carcass, well proportioned, broad across the loins, chine full, legs short, head
small but handsome, neck deep, but in keeping with the size of the body, color
generally red and white mixed, or what is called flecked, hide thin. The flesh
of this breed is thick, close-grained, retaining the juices well ; and from this cir-
cumstance is in request for victualing ships going on' long voyages.

_ Regarding the milking qualities of this breed, Mr. Dickson, an eminent cattle-
dealer, who has had the most extensive experience throughout the whole coun- ;
try, says—“ It has been frequently asserted that the Short-Horned Cows are bad
milkers ; indeed, that no sort of cattle are so deficient in milk. But this deficien-
cy of milk does not proceed from the circumstance of the Cows being of the Short-
Herned kind. Had the flesh been neglected as much as the milk by the eminent
breeders, and the property of giving milk as much cherished as the development
of flesh, the Short-Horned Cows would have been deep milkers. Indeed, it is not
to be doubted that, where the general secreting powers of the animal system have
been increased, the power of secreting milk will be increased with the power of
secreting fat; all that seems requisite is to encourage the power of that secretion
which is most wanted for the time. It would be to desire an impossibility to de-
sire the full development of flesh, fat, and milk, at the same time; but there is
no absurdity in desiring a large secretion of flesh and fat at one time, and a large

i ie

14 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS:

secretion of milk at another, from the same Cow. Accordingly, this is the very
character which has been acquired by Short-Horned Cows. They will yield from
six to sixteen quarts a day throughout the season ; and they are such constant
milkers, that they seldom remain dry above six weeks or two months before the
the time of calving. 1 know a Scotch breeder who had a Short-Horned Cow which
gave fifteen quarts a day during the flush of the grass in summer, and never went
dry for two seasons. A cross between a Galloway Cow and a Short-Hormed Bull
in Berwickshire yielded twenty pints [twenty ‘‘pints” here probably mean
Scotch pints, equai to English quarts] a day during the best of the season, and she
had to be milked five times a day to keep her easy.” We have thus considered
it our duty to give the opinion of Mr. Dickson regarding the value of the Short-
Horned breed of Cows as a dairy stock, seeing that the demand for Short-Hormed
Bulls has of late years been great in many of the counties of both England and
Scotland. It seems, however, a well-confirmed opinion that the breed which of
all others appears to be gaining ground, throughout the United Kingdom, for
abundant produce on ordinary pasture, is the Ayrshire kyloe, which is described
as without a parallel under a similar soil, climate, and relative circumstances,
either for the dairy, or feeding for the shambles. But the ever. variable circum-
stances in climate, soil, shelter, and the quality and quantity of the pasturage, as
well as the winter feeding and general treatment, wiil always have an effect up-
on the stock.

Mr. Georcet Law, of Baltimore, has an imported Irish Short-Horn Cow, Sophy,
sent to this country by Mr. Murpocn, (now of N. C. near Asheville, a gentleman
farmer of superior judgment and various intelligence.) which gave last surnmer,
when well fed and in full milk, 38 quarts, or one bushel of milk, a day. Her “ es-
cutcheons” or signs correspond with those laid down in the work of M. GueEnon,
here in hand transferred from the Farmers’ Liprary.

In proof of our suggestion, that with the aid and close observance of the direc-
tions given in that work, a mié/k-race of the greatest exceilence may be establish-
ed on the basis of our country stock, we need only mention first the success of
Col. Jacques in the formation of his ‘“‘ eream-pot” breed. His calves of that
blood are bespoken at $100—also the case of the Cow called ‘“ the Oaks Cow,”
which was of what is called the Country breed, and rather under size. It is not
to be doubted, that if this great discovery in kine-ology had been made, she would
have been found to display the “ escutcheons,” in full relief, and lastly to show,
that for mz/king purposes, we need not go abroad, unless, as we go for foreign
voters, for increase of numbers. We may refer to Mr. Donaxpson’s famous Cow,
Kaatskill, of which a fine portrait is given in the Cultivator, with the followmg
account :—* ¢ Kaatskill’ received the first prize of the New-York State Agricul-
tural Society as the best Dairy Cow exhibited at Poughkeepsie, in 1844. We
are unable to refer to the original statement furnished the Society by Mr. Don-
ALDSON in regard to the produce of this Cow, but can say that satisfactory evi-
dence was given that she had yielded, when iept on grass only, thirty-eight and
a half quarts of milk per day, and that from the milk given by her in two days,
six and a half pounds of butter were made, being at the rate of twenty-two and
three-fourths pounds per week. Her appearance fully corresponds with the ac-
count of her produce. It is proper to state, that while her milk was measured
for the purpose of accurately ascertaining the quantity, she was milked four times
every twenty-four hours.” Kaatskill is represented as a “native,” which we sup-
pose means what is commonly called ‘‘ country breed.” :

‘The Improvep Kerry is an Irish breed, of rather diminutive size, hardy, and
which can subsist on scanty pasture. This renders them exceedingly well adapt-
ed for hilly pastures, and for cottagers who may not have the best food to offer
their stock. Their milk and butter are rich in quality, and for their size they are
good milkers. They are quiet enough when let alone ; but, if the least irritatéd,
no fence can contain them. ‘The Irish Cows have improved very much of late
years, in consequence of crossing; and they are now, in many respects, thought
equal to the breeds of either England or Scotland.

The Lone-HWornep or Lancashire is distinguished by the length of its horns,
the thickness of its hide, and the large size of its hoofs. It is far from being a
handsome animal, nor is it held in very general estimation either for milking or
ieeding. :

THE COW AND THE DAIRY. La

HicHianp Breeps.—The cattle of the Highlands of Scotland are of small bulk
and very hardy. The most esteemed are those belonging to the Western High-
lands and Isles, called the Argyleshire breed, and frequently kyloes. It :s thought
that this breed might be much improved by judicious crossing, as was seen in the
case of the Ayrshire kyloe, formerly mentioned. This breed is rather handsome
in appearance ; the horns are long and upright, head large, neck short and deep,
legs of a good length, and the beef is in general estimation. ‘The cattle of the
Highlands and Isles are bred on an extensive scale of farming for the purpose of
sending to the southern markets. Small in size at first, they increase in bulk as
they are transferred to a more genial climate and richer pasturage as they pro-
ceed southward, till, by annual stages, they reach the neighborhood of London,
when they are large and heavy. ‘lhe breeds may, therefore, be considered more
an object of culture for the shambles than the dary.

The Atperney breed of cattle is awkwardly shaped, with short, bent horns,
and light red, dun, or fawn-colored skins. ‘lhe appetite of the Cow is voracious,
and it yields little milk, but that is of an exceedingly rich quaiity, and the ani-
7 is on that account preferred by families who do not regard the expense of

eep.

We once knew an honest dairy-woman maintain that the milk of one Alder-
ney Cow would color the butter from the milk of seven common Cows, mixed
with hers. ‘he Alderney Bull is vicious and intractable, but nothing can equal
the beautiful color and richness of the milk and cream from the Alderney Cow.
Noblemen in England, some of them rich enough to give a guinea for a tea-spoon-
ful of cream for their coffee, keep an Alderney in their magnificent parks, espe-
cially for the means of improving that delicious beverage—especially when made
of old Mocha—such as was offered, and by her own fair hands administered to
her friends by a lady of this City on New-Year’s day, in lieu of hebetating egg-
nog, and other inebriating liquors or liqueurs.

In adverting briefly to the properties of cattle, it will be advisable to de-
scribe the points by which they are characterized:

1. The nose or muzzle——In the Devon, Hereford, and Sussex, the muzzle is preferred when of
a clear golden color. When brown or dark, it is an indication that this breed has been
crossed with some of the Welsh or other breeds.

2. The forehead should neither be narrow nor very broad—the eye prominent. The nostril be-
tween the eye and muzzle should be thin, which is particularly the case in the best breeds
of the Devon cattle.

3. The horns should be thin, projecting horizontally from the head, and turning up at the tips, as
in the breeds of the Devon, Sussex, and Hereford.

4. The neck should be neither long nor short, full at the sides and not too deep in the throat, com-
ing out from the shoulders nearly level with the chine, with a thin dewlap.

5. The lop of the plate bones should not be too wide, but rising upon a level with the chine, and
well thrown back, so that there may be no hollowness behind ; this point gives facility to
the walk. From the point of the shoulder to the top of the plate bones should be rather fuil
outside, to admit the ribs to bow.

6. The shoulder point should lay flat with the ribs without any projection. When the shoulder
point projects outward, the beast seldom fattens well about the shoulder vein.

7. The breast should be wide and open, projecting forward.

8. The chine should lie straight, and well covered with flesh.

ARB Ow

16 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS:

9. The loin should be flat and wide—the side lying parallel, and nearly as high as the chine—
almost as wide at the fore as at the hinder part; being an indication of tls :ibs bowing out,
which is desirable.

16. The hip or huckle bones should be wide apart, coming upon a level with the cline, to the
first touch or setting on of the tail.

ll. The first touch or tip of the rump should be tolerably wide, so that the tail drop in a level
between the two points. The tail should come out broad, as an indication of a flat chine.

12. The thigh should not be too full outside nor behind, which is always an indication of bully
flesh, but the inside or twist should be full.

13. The hock or hough should be flat and rather thin, not coarse and gummy, which indicates
coarseness in the animal.

14. The hind leg should be flat and thin. The legs of a medium length, and the hock or hough
rather turning out.

15. The feet or claws not too broad.

16. The jlank should be full and heavy when the animal is fat, indicative of being fat inside.

17. The belly should not drop below the breast, but in a horizontal line with it.

18. Zhe brisket.

19. Zhe shoulder should be rather flat, not projecting.

20. The foreleg should be also flat and upright, but not fleshy.

21. The round or pot-bone should not project, but lie flat with the outside of the thigh.

22. The under jaw.—The jaws should be rather wide, particularly for beasts intended for work-
ing. as it affords them greater liberty to breathe.

23. The chap should be fine, indicating a disposition to feed.

24. Zhe ribs should spring nearly horizontally from the chine, the sides round forming a circle;
in which case the animal will never drop in the belly, and will lay its meat on the prime
parts. The great objection to the Sussex breed of cattle is that they are too sharp in the
chine, and the ribs tco flat. When this is the case, the animal will always drop in the
belly, and seldom lay its meat on the prime joints.

Remarks on Breeds.

We have thus briefly treated of some of the many breeds of cattle considered val-
uable as dairy stock in Britain ; but we pretend not to give any decided opinion as
to wnich1s best. The merits of each kind have been vigorously contested by tneir
respective advocates, and it would be extremely difficult to decide between them.
Upon the form and qualifications of a perfect Cow, it ought to be observed, that
whatever breed is selected, there is a wide difference between the form of ene
meant for fattening and that intended for the dairy. The first should resemble
the Ox as nearly as possible; while the latter should be long and thin on the
head, with a brisk, quiet eye, lank in the neck, narrow across the shoulders, but
broad at the haunches ; and there should be no tendency to become fat. ‘lhe ud-
der should be large and full looking, but not protruding too far behind ; the teats
all pointing out and downward, equal in size and rather long and tapering ; all
corresponding with the signs or escutcheons as given in this book. A Cow with
a high back-bone, large head, small udder, and showing an inclination to become
fat, will be found tobe a bad milker. This description applies to all breeds ; and
of course the difference between a Cow for fattening and one for yielding milk
will be comparative.

Mr. Aiton mentions the following as the most important qualities of the Dairy
Cow :—‘‘ Tameness and docility of temper greatly enhance its value. One that
is quiet and contented feeds at ease, does not break over fences, or hurt herself
or other cattle, will always yield more milk than than those who are of a turtu-
lent disposition. ‘To render them docile, they ought to be gently treated, fre-
quently handled when young, and never struck or frightened. Some degree of
hardiness, however, a sound constitution, and a moderate degree of life and spir-
its, are qualities to be wished for in a milch Cow, and what those of Ayrshire
generally possess. Some have thought that a Cow living on a sma! quantity of
food was a valuable quality, but that will depend upon the quantity of milk giv-
en by the Cow that eats little compared with those that eat much. Ifthe Cow
that eats little gives as much milk as the one that cats mere, it certainly is a val-
uable quality; but of this I entertain doubts, which forty years’ experience and
observation have served to confirm. Speculative writers affirm that some Cows
will fatten as well, and yield as much milk, when fed on coarse as others will do
on rich food. Cows that have been reared and fed on coarse pasture will yield
some milk of a good quality, and from which the best butter may be extracted 5
while a Cow that has been reared and fed on much better pasture, would, if turn-
ed on that which is bad, give scarcely any milk. With persons living in towns

q and villages, and keeping but a single Cow, with opportunity of grazing on the

| ee

:
:

THE COW AND THE DAIRY. V7

commons, and depending mainly on them for food,a good rule is to get their Cow,
not over the middle size ; and from a poorer district of country. If she comes
irom rich, fertile pastures, she will fall off in her milk, below the quantity which
he was assured she had been accustomed to give, and thus disappoint him. If
from a poorer district, with the addition of the “ slop” from the house and kitch-
en, and the external signs here laid down, she will be sure toimprove. But if a
Cow that has been accustomed to feed on bad pasture, be put on that which is
better, she will greatly increase in milk, and fatten much faster. If two Cows
of the same age and condition, and which have been reared and fed on food of
equal quality, are put, the one on bad food, and the other on that which is good;
the latter will yield four times the milk, and fatten four times faster than the for-
mer. A Cow need not always be fed on green clover, cabbages, and cauliflower ;
but she will neither fatten nor yield milk if she gets no better fare than rushes,
bent, and sage grass.”

A writer in the «¢‘ Farmer’s Magazine,” a few years ago, presented the follow-
ing doggrel lines, as combining what are popularly considered the good points of
a Cow, such as is common among the Short-Horned breed of Yorkshire :—

*‘She’s long in her face, she’s fine in her horn,
She’ll quickly get fat without cake or corn ;
She’s clean in her jaws, and full in her chine,
She's heavy in flank, and wide in her loin.

She’s broad in her ribs, and long in her rump,

A straight and flat back, without e’er a bump ;
She ’s wide in her hips, and calm in her eyes,
She’s fine in her shoulders, and thin in her thighs.

She’s light in her neck, and small in her tail,
She’s wide in her breast, and good at the pail,
She’s fine in her bone, and silky of skin—

She’s:a grazier’s without, and a butcher’s within.”

To ensure the perpetuation of valuable qualities in Cows, it is necessary to
breed from good Bulls of a similar variety to the Cows. The heifer or young
Cow, if properly pastured, should begin to breed at two years, or not beyond two
and a half years old. The Cow is at her prime at from four to six years, and de-
clines into old age at ten or eleven years, when it is customary to fatten her for
market. Dairymen, in selecting Cows, prefer those which have had their third
or fourth calf when they have attained their fifth or sixth year. The Bull is in
his prime at three years, and should not be used after eight or nine years old.

GENERAL MANAGEMENT OF COWS.
Calving.

The Cow goes with young nine calendar months, or 270 days but this length
of time is liable to variation, from the efféct of circumstances. <A calf is most
likely to survive and be healthy which has gone exactly the nine months. Cows
come into season at different periods of the year, in which state they remain for
a few days, after which the affection ceases, but it afterward returns in three or
four weeks. The farmer watches these periods, and permits the company of the
Buli at such a time as will produce the young ata time of the year when grass

-is plentiful for the nourishment of the mother. This should be an advanced pe-
tiod of Spring, for the Cow will require nourishing diet some time before she
drops her calf as well as afterward.

A Cow may be kept in milk up to the time of her calving, by daily taking a
quantity from her ; but this is most injurious to the fetus, [that depends on the
external signs—see the Cow Book !] and the excitement of the new upon the old
milk is apt to produce local infammation. In towns, where dairymen care no-
thing for the calf, and must have milk at all risks, Cows are often maltreated by
being milked to the last; but no one who conducts a dairy on proper principles
will be guilty of this mhumanity. The best plan is to allow the Cow to go grad-
ually dry, and not milk her at all for six or eight weeks before calving. This
will keep her in a reasonably good condition, and save extra food, which it is not
advantageous to give on a luxuriant scale, because high feeding at this period
may induce inflammation and fever at calving.

No animal is so liable to abortion as the Cow; it takes place at uncertain pe-

9

~

18 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS:

ricds during the pregnancy ; sometimes it occurs from fright, teazing by other
cattle in the field, or over-high ecndition ; but also not unfrequently from some
bad habit acquired by the animal. It has been found that the habit is infectious ;
and when once it has got among a parcel of Cows, it can be banished only with
the greatest difficulty. In all cases the aborted foetus should be buried deep and
far from the Cow pasture; the Cow physiced, and its parts washed with chlo-
ride of lime; the Cow-house thoroughly lime-washed and otherwise ;urified ;
and lastly, the Cow fattened and sent to market.

If in a state of health, no difficulty will occur at the partucition; but should
the case be otherwise, we prefer leaving the Cow-keeper to ask assistance from
a person of practical skill, or veterinary surgeon, than to offer any speculative ad-
vices on the subject. With respect to the treatment after calving, we beg to
quote the following directions from the volume on Cattle, “ Library of Useful
Knowledge :”—“ Parturition having been accomplished, the Cow should be left
quietly with the calf; the licking and cleaning of which, and the eating of the
placenta, if it is soon discharged, will employ and amuse her. It isa cruel thing
toseparate the mother from the young so soon; the Cow will pine, and will be
deprived of that medicine which Nature designed for her in the moisture which
hangs about the calf, and even in the placenta itself; and the calf will lose that
gentle friction and motion which help to give it the immediate use of all its
limbs, and which, in the language of Mr. Berry, ‘increases the languid circula-
tion of the blood, and produces a genial warmth in the half-exhausted and chil-
led little animal.’ A warm mash should be put before her, and warm gruel, or
water from which some of the coldness has been taken off. ‘l'wo or three hours
afterward, it will be prudent to give an aperient drink, consisting of a pound of
Epsom salts and two drachms of ginger. This may tend to prevent milk fever
and garget in the udder. Attention should likewise be paid to the state of the
udder. If the teats are sore, and the bag generally hard and tender, she should
be gently but carefully milked three or four times every day. The natural and
the effectual preventive of this, however, is to let the calf suck her at least three
times in the day, if it is tied up in the Cow-house, or to run with her in the pas-
ture, and take the teat whenit pleases. The tendency to inflammation of the ud-
der is much diminished by the calf frequently sucking ; or should the Cow be fe-
verish, nothing soothes or quiets her so much as the presence of the little one.”

The Calf.

The Calf, when first dropped, is generally cleansed by the tongue of its dam
from the slimy matter which always adheres to the skin of the animal. Some-
times it happens that the Cow will not at first recognize her offspring ; but upon
a small quantity of salt being strown over it, to which all neat cattle are particu-
‘larly partial, she commences the motherly duties by licking the skin. The first
milk appears to be calculated to nourish the Calf, which it should be allowed to
suck plentifully before the Cow is milked. It is the practice with some, as soon
as the Calf has sucked as much as it pleases, to milk the remainder so as to
cleanly drain the udder, and give it to the Cow as nourishment.

The treatment of Calves in rearing varies materially in different counties, and
even in districts. In Sussex, England, the Calf is by many not allowed to take
all the milk ef the Cow, but is shut up from her in the morning and evening, and
a small quantity of bran or ground oats given in a trough, and not suffered to suck
tll the maid comes to milking, when she milks two speens, while the Calf sucks
the other two; after which, when the girl has got all the milk she can, the Calf
is left with the Cow a short time, to draw the udder as clean as possible ; and if
there be any lumps occasioned by the pores being stopped, through which the
milk flows to the speens, the Calf, by sucking, will disperse them better than by
any other means. Cows are frequently injured in their milk by not having their
udders thoroughly cleansed for the first fortnight or three weeks after calving.—
When the Calf is about a month old, it is suffered to run with the Cow in the
day, and kept from her in the night. A portion of the milk is taken from the
Cow, and the remainder is left for the Calf, which is again permitted to remain
with her during the day* this practice is followed by some till the Calf is weaned.
Some let the Calves gu with the Cows when three or four weeks old, at which
time the Cow has not a greater supply than sufficient for the Calf alone; after

RARE alee P= Re OS Mt Co oie te Ty ee Heme men eA Pb al

THE COW AND THE DAIRY. 19

which it is allowed to run with the Cow till about twelve weeks, when it is
weaned, and put ina confined place out of sight and hearing, to prevent the Cow
being made uneasy from hearing her Calf. The Calf is then fed on cut grass,
clover, or other green food, with hay and bran, till such time as it forgets its
dam. It should then be turned out upon good pasture ; for, unless the Calf be
well fed at an early age, it will become stinted in its growth, and, when arrived
at maturity, will not fatten so readily as if proper attention had been paid to it
while young.

In many dairy, districts, it has been found desirable to deprive the Calf of the
greater portion f milk; which has been accomplished by its being taught to
rink skimmed, milk in a lukewarm state, by the following means :—When the
animal has fasted <wo or three hours, the first and second fingers of the right hand
are presented to its mouth; of these it readily takes hold, sucking very eagerly ;
in the mean time, a vessel of lukewarm milk is placed and supported by the left
hand under the Calf’s mouth ; and, while it is sucking, the right hand is gradu-
ally sunk a little way into the milk, so that it may draw in a sufficient quantity
Without stopping the nostrils. Should, however, either from accident or from too
sudden precipitation of the hand into the milk, the Calf let go its hold, the at-
tempt must be repeatedly renewed till crowned with success. For the space of
three or four weeks, they are usually fed with lukewarm milk and water. A
small quantity of hay, ground oats or bran, and sometimes oil-cake, is then placed
within their reach, which induces them to eat. Toward the end of May they
are turned out to grass, being taken in fora few nights, when they have tepid
milk and water given them; which is usually continued, though gradually, in
smaller proportions during the, last month, till they are able to feed themselves,
when they totally disregard it. 1t is then advisable to turn them into pastures
where the grass is short and sweet.

Many attempts have been made to rear Calves by artificial means, which by
some is said to have answered very well, where the animal has been confined
and shut up in the dark ; this practice has been proved to be injurious, and espe-
cially if the Calves are intended for stock. We certainly have no practice which
can answer so well as that where the laws of Nature are strictly attended to,
and the Calf is supplied with nourishment such as Nature dictates.

The greatest attention in fattening Calves should be paid to cleanliness, with-
out which neither will the Calf fatten quickly, nor when fat be of good color ;
much risk will also follow in losing the Calf from fever, or from scouring. Chalk
should be always before them to lick, to counteract the acidity always found in
great abundance in the stomach of the Calf when feeding on milk.

It is advisable in fattening Calves to keep them quiet, and to allow them to
suck the Cow night and morning, taking the last of the milk, which is considered
to be the most rich and nourishing. By this treatment the Calf will gradually
become sufficiently fat in seven or eight weeks ; and, when so, it is no advantage
to keep it a day longer—as small veal, if fat, is preferable to large.

lt is by some a practice to bleed Calves weekly, after they are four or five
weeks old, and always a short time before they are killed—by which course the
veal is rendered whiter.

As castrating Calves is an operation which ought not to be performed but by
skillful practitioners, we shall refrain from giving any directions—recommending
the operation to be performed at the age of eight or ten weeks, as at that'age the
danger is considerably lessened. The animals should be kept quiet and warm
after the operation; and if, on the following day, the scrotum should be much
swollen and inflamed, the wound may be opened, and the coagulated blood re-
moved. :

Whether calves are kept for veal or for stock, they are begun to be fed in the
same manner, by sucking milk from a dish. As they naturally seek for the teat
when their nose is put to the dish, the fingers of the attendant may be put into
their mouth when in the milk, and this will set them going in the art of artifi-
cial sucking. ‘The milk ” (says the author of “ Clerical Economics,”) « should
be given to them sparingly at first, to render their appetite more keen, and pre-
vent them from loathing at their food. For the first two weeks they should be
fed on the milk first drawn from the Cow, locally termed the forebroads, which
abounds with serum ; and as they grow up, the quantity of milk is gradually in-

20 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS:

creased to as much as the calves can be made to drink. After the first two or
three weeks, by all means give them plenty of milk, warm from their mother ;
and let it be that which is last drawn from the Cow, locally termed afterings,
which are much richer. Keep abundance of dry litter under them. Have them
in a place that is well aired, and of a uniform temperature, neither too hot nor too
cold; let the apartment be quite dark, excepting when the door is opened to give
them food. If they enjoy the light, they become too sportive, and will not fatten.
Take care that they are fastened to the wall, in such a way, by “‘ swivels,” that
they cannot hang themselves. Never let them make their escape at the door, or,
by their running and jumping, they will do more injury to themselves in three
minutes than a week’s feeding will make up. Don’t keep them till they become
too old, because, when they begin to grow to the bone, they require more milk
than the manse can generally produce ; and whenever they cease to advance in
the fattening process, they begin to recede, and the milk for a week or two is lost.
They should be kept from four to seven weeks, according as milk may be abund-
ant and rich. If a calf be kept long, during the last two or three weeks, it will
require the richest part of the milk of at least two or three Cows to bring it to
the highest pitch of fatness. When the milk begins to fall short of the calf’s ap-
petite, som@mix eggs and others peas-meal into their food; others try infusions
of hay, oil-cake, and linseed ; but none of these additions are approved of by those
who feed calves to the greatest perfection. Meal is understood to darken the
flesh, web, and lights of the animal; but sago has of late years been almost, from
the first two or three weeks, boiled and mixed in its liquid state withythe milk,
and to great advantage. Begin with a saucerful of it or so, and gradually in-
aa the quantity. Calves are very fond of chalk, and they also feel the want
of salt.

Cow-House—Cleaning.

The Cow-house should be airy, and well ventilated ; of moderate temperature,
and kept very clean. The stalls for the Cows should be paved with smooth
stones, slope gently toward the foot, where there should be a clear run of a gut-
ter to carry off the urine to a pit outside. The stalls must be daily scraped and
swept, and all refuse carried out to the dung-heap. In general, far too little litter
is allowed. The Cow should have plenty of straw bedding, kept in a cleanly con-
dition ; and this, when soiled, is to be mixed with the dung for manure. The
only fastening for the Cow should be a chain to go round the neck, with the oth-
er end round an upright post, but easily movable up and down, und allowing
room for the animal shifting its position. ‘The feeding manger or stone trough is
on the ground, and ought to be kept free of all impurities; for though the Cow
is not so niceas the horse, it has a disinclination for food not fresh and cleanly.

Except in dairies of a high order, it is customary to keep Cows in a shamefully
unclean condition. ‘The floor of their habitation is filthy, the walls ragged and
full of vermin, and the hides of the animals dusty or barkened with dirt. Per-
sons who keep Cows are not aware of the loss they incur from allowing them to
live in this uncleanly state. Some people seem to think that they do quite
enough for their Cows if they give them food and shelter ; but besides this, they
require to be kept very cleanly, though seldom indulged in that luxury. The Cow
should be curried daily like the Horse ; its hide should be freed from all impuri-
ties, and relieved from every thing that causes uneasiness. When you see a Cow
rubbing itself against a post, you may depend on it that the animal is ill kept,
and requires a good sgrubbing. Irritation of the skin from impurities also causes
them to lick themselves, a habit which is injurious, for the hairs taken into the
stomach form a compact round mass, which may destroy the animal. If well
curried, any danger from this catastrophe is avoided, the health is generally im-
proved, and this improves the quality of the milk, besides increasing the quan-
tity. A cottager might easily make two or three shillings more of his Cow
weekly by attention to this point ; and if he at the same time took pains to pre-
serve all the liquid refuse of the cow-house, he might double that amount. How
strange to reflect that many decent and well-meaning, but ignorant and rather
lazily-disposed people, are suffering a loss of four or five shillmgs weekly from
no other cause than this! It is long, however, before old habits are eradicated,
nnd new and better ones introduced.

THE COW AND THE DAIRY. 21

Feeding.

The Cow requires to be supplied with an abundance of food, not to make her
fat, which is not desirable, but to keep up a regular secretion of milk in the sys-
tem. The feeding must be regular, from early morning tonight, and pure water
must also be offered at proper intervals, if the Cow has not the liberty of going
to the water herself.

Regarding the nature of the food of Cows, although soiling, or artificial feed-
ing in the house, is at all times economical, there can be no doubt that the best
milk and butter are produced by Cows fed on natural pasture ; and, although the
quantity of milk is not so great, yet the butter has a sweet taste, never to be dis-
covered in the produce of soiled Cows. It was formerly the case in Scotland,
and the practice is still continued in some parts, to put the Cows out to grass in
spring in such an emaciated state that a considerable part of the best season was
gone before they yielded the quantity of milk they would otherwise have done.
On well-enclosed farms, it is the custom of many to keep their Cows out both
night and day, from May till the end of October, so long as a full bite can be ob-
tained ; and some bring them into the house twice a day to be milked. Soiling,
or feeding entirely in the house or court-yard, is but seldom practiced, except by
some farrhers in arable districts. Although complete soiling is only occasionally
resorted to, yet a considerable quantity of rich green food is served out to the
dairy stock in their stalls at night, and in the heat of the day, by such farmers as
bring their Cows into the house at these times. This mode of feeding is more
especially followed when the pasture begins to fail; the second crops of clover
and tares, cabbages, coleworts, and other garden produce, are all given to the
Cows in the house at this period. It is upon this system that the whole perfec-
tion of the Flemish husbandry is founded ; and it could be put in practice, with
the most beneficial results, in many other cogntries. In Holland, the Cows, when
fed in the house, have their drink of water invariably mixed with oil-cake, rye,
or oat-meal. Dairy Cows are allowed to be much injured by being denied a due
supply of salt, which is said to improve the quality and increase the quantity of
the milk. In the best managed dairies in Scotland, when the Cows are taken in
for the winter, they are never put out to the fields until spring, when the grass
has risen so much as to afford a full bite. In the moorish districts, however,
they are put out to the fields for some hours every day when the weather will
permit. In these districts, the winter food is turnips with marsh meadow hay—
occasionally straw and boiled chaff.

In the richer districts, turnips and straw are given, and occasionally some clo-
ver hay in spring, or when the Cows have calved. Upon this subject nothing
need be added, but that the quantity and quality of the milk will be in proportion
to the nourishment in the food. White turnips afford a good quantity of milk,
but they impart a very disagreeable taste, which may be removed, however, by
steaming or boiling the tumips, or by putting a small quantity of dissolved salt-
petre into the milk when new drawn. ‘The quality of the milk depends a great
deal on the Cow ; influenced, however, by the food she eats. Linseed, peas and
oat-meal produce rich milk ; and a mixture of bran and grains has been recom-
mended as food in winter. Brewers’ grains are said to produce a large quantity
of milk, but very thin—the quality being somewhat similar to that sold in large
towns, yielding neither good cream nor butter. It has been found of some
importance to feed Cows frequently—three or four times a day in summer,
and five or six in winter—and to give them no more at a time than they can eat
cleanly. : me

What has been stated regarding the feeding of Cows applies principally to
those kept on dairy farms. In establishments for the supplying of large towns
with milk, the method of feeding is somewhat different ; there the practice is to
feed them chiefly on distillers’ wash, brewers’ grains, and every sort of liquid
stuff that will produce a large quantity of milk, without reference to its quality.
The Edinburgh cow-keepers begin to feed with grain, dreg, and bran, mixed to-
gether, at five o’clock in the morning ; feed again at one o’clock in the afternoon,
and a third time at seven or eight o’clock in the evening ; grass in summer, and
turnips and potatoes in winter, being given in the two intervals. The grass is
laid upon the straw, in order to impart to it a certain flavor, and make it palata-

a

22 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS:
ble: it is eaten after the grass; and, in winter, straw or hay is given after the
turnips. Part of the turnips and potatoes are boiled, particularly when there is a
scarcity of grains. .

The following is mentioned in the ‘‘ Farmer’s Magazine,” as an improved
mode of feeding milch Cows, near Farnham, in Surrey :—‘‘ Go to the cow-stall
at six o’clock in the morning, winter and summer; give each Cow half a bushel
of the mangel-wurzel, carrots, turnips, or potatoes, cut; at seven o’clock, the
hour the dairy-maid comes to milk them, give each some hay, and let them feed
till they are al? milked. If any Cow refuses hay, give her something she will
eat—such as grains, carrots, &c.—during the time she is milking, as it is abso-
lutely necessary the Cow should feed while milking. As soon as the woman has
finished milking in the morning, turn the Cows into the airing ground, and let
there be plenty of fresh water in the troughs; at nine o’clock, give each Cow
three gallons of the mixture (as under—to eight gallons of grains, add four gal-
lons of bran or pollard) ; when they have eaten that, put some hay into the eribs ;
at twelve o’clock, give each three gallons of the mixture as before. If any Cow
looks for more, give her another gallon. . On the contrary, if she will not eat
what you give her, take it out of the manger ; for never at one time let a Cow
have more than she will eat up clean. Mind and keep your mangers clean, that
they do not get sour. At two o’clock, give each Cow half a bushel of carrots,
mangel-wurzel, or turnips ; look the turnips, &c. over well, before you give them
to the Cows—as one rotten turnip, &c. will give a bad taste to the milk, and
most likely spoil a whole dairy of butter. At four o’clock, put the Cows into the
stall to be milked; feed them on hay as you did at milking-time in the morning,
keeping in mind that the Cow, while miiking, must feed on something. At six
o’clock, give each Cow three gallons of the mixture as before. Rack them up at
eight o’clock. Twice in a week, put into each Cow’s feed at noon a quart of
malt-dust.”

Milking.

Cows are milked twice or thrice a day, according to crrcumstances. If twice,
morning and night ; if thrice, morning, noon, and night. They should not go too
long unmilked, for, independently of the uneasiness to the poor animal, it is se-
verely injurious.

The act of milking is one which requires great caution ; for, if not carefully |
and properly done, the quantity of the milk will be diminished, and the quality
inferior, the milk which comes last out of the udder being always the richest.—
It should, therefore, be thoroughly drawn from the Cows until not a drop more
can be obtained, both to ensure a continuance of the usual supply of milk, and al-
so to get the richest which the Cows afford. Cows should be soothed by mild
usage, especially when young; for to a person whom they dislike, they never
give their milk freely. The teats should always be clean washed before milk-
ing, and when tender, they ought to be fomented with warm water. The milk-
ing and management of the Cow should, in these circumstances, be only entrust-
ed to servants of character, on whom the utmost reliance can be placed. In some
places, it is a common practice to employ men to milk the Cows, an operation
which seems better fitted for females, who are likely to do the work ina more
gentle and cleanly manner, which is of essential importance.

The writer in the “ Farmer’s Magazine,” above quoted, gives the followmg ex-
plicit directions to the dairy-maid in regard to milking :—*‘ Go to the Cow-stall
at seven o’clock ; take with you cold water and « sponge, and wash each Cow’s
udder clean before milking ; dowse the udder well with cold water, winter and
summer, as it braces and repels heats. Keep your hands and arms clean. Milk
each Cow as dry as you can, morning and evening, and when you have milked
each Cow as you suppose dry, begin again with the Cow you first milked, and
drip them each; for the principal reason of Cows failing in their milk is, from
negligence in not milking the Cow dry, particularly at the time the calf is taken
from the Cow. Suffer no one to milk a Cow but yourself, and have no gossiping
in the stall. Every Saturday night give in an exact account of the quantity of
milk each Cow has given in the week.”

THE COW AND THE DAIRY. 23

THE DAIRY.

The dairy should be cool, airy, dry, and free from vermin of all kinds. To pre-
vent the intrusion of flies, the windows or ventilators ought to be covered with a
fine wire gauze. The floor should be laid with smooth glazed tiles, and also the
lower part of the walls; the benches on which the milk pans are to be placed are
best when made of stone or slate, and about thirty inches broad. The ceiling
should be at least eight feet from the floor, and finished in every respect like that
of an ordinary dwelling-house. A slate roof is preferable to one of tile, as it tends
to keep the temperature more equable. Cleanliness is of the most essential con-
sequence in dairy management, and, if not strictly looked after, may cause con-
siderable loss. It is this which has raised the produce of the dairies of Holland
so much in public estimation. Every article in which milk is placed, more es-
pecially when made of wood, ought to be washed in boiling water, with a little
soda or lime dissolved in it. If milk should happen to sour in any dish, the acid
thus generated will injure any which may be afterward put into it; but if washed
in water in which an alkali has been dissolved, the acid will be destroyed.

The utensils of a dairy are very numerous. The principal are milk-pails, shal-
low coolers for holding the milk, sieves for straining it through after it is taken
fromm the Cow, dishes for skimming the cream, churns for making the butter,
scales, weights, &c. For making cheese, there are likewise ladders, vats, tubs,
curd-breakers, and presses ; and various other articles will be required, which it
is almost impossible to enumerate. ‘The majority of them are made of wood;
but in some of the best dairies in England and Scotland, it is now the practice to
have the coolers made of cast-iron, wood lined with tin in the inside, or glazed
earthenware. Maple is the wood generally used in England for the manufacture
of these dishes ; both from its lightness, and being easily cut, it can be finished
in a neater style. In Holland, the milk-dishes are very commonly made of brass ;
and certainly brass or iron is to be preferred to wood, because the dishes made
from either of these materials are more durable, and can be easier cleaned. It
has been objected to earthenware vessels, that, being glazed with lead, the acid
of the milk acting upon the glaze forms a very noxious poison. ‘This, however,
is scarcely correct ; it would require a much stronger acid than that of milk to
decompose the glaze. Zine pans are now coming into use, and they can be safely
recommended for their cool and cleanly qualities, besides being economical. We
have seen it stated that cream rises best in zinc pans.

Churning 1s now, in all large dairy establishments, performed by machinery,
worked either by horse or water power. Churns vary in size from ten to fifty,
and even one hundred gallons, according to the size of the establishment. Great
care should be taken to wash churns thoroughly with boiling water both imme-
diately after they have been used, and before they are again to be put in opera-
tion; and those churns which admit of being easily cleaned are always to be re-
commended, even although they should not be so elegant in construction.

DAIRY PRODUCE.

Milk.

Milk consists of three materials blended together—called, in Science, the but-
teraceous, lactic, and serous kinds of matter—which can be separated by artificial
means, so as to form butter, the milk called buttermilk, and serum or whey.—
The whey is little else than water, slightly saline, and is generally the chief in-
gredient in the milk. When taken from the Cow, milk should be removed to
the dairy or milk-house, and, after being sieved, placed in shallow pans, to throw
up the butteraceous matter termed cream, which, being lightest, foats on the
top.

The following observations on milk and its management, made by Dr. Ander-
son, are worthy of the consideration of cow-keepers: '

“Of the milk drawn from any Cow at one time, that part which comes off at
the first is always thinner, and of a much worse quality for making butter, than
that afterward obtained ; and this richness continues to increase progressively to
the very last drop that can be obtained from the udder.

‘«Tf milk be put into a dish, and allowed to stand till it throws up cream, the
portion of cream rising first to the surface is richer in quality and greater in quan-

24 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS:

——

tity than that which rises in a second equal space of time; and the cream which
rises in the second interval of time is greater in quantity and richer in quality
than that which rises in a third equal space of time; that of the third is greater
than that of the fourth, and so of the rest; the cream that rises ccntinuing pro-
gressively to decrease in quantity, and to decline in quality, so long as any rises
t) the surface.

“Thick milk always throws up a much smaller proportion of the cream which
it actually contains than milk that is thinner ; but the cream is of a richer qual-
ity ; and, if water be added to that thick milk, it will afford a considerably great-
er quantity of cream, and consequently more butter, than it would have done if
allowed to remain pure; but its quality is, at the same time, greatly debased.

«« Milk which is put into a bucket or other proper vessel, and carited in it tea
considerable distance, so as to be much agitated, and in part ccoled, before it be
put into the milk-pans to settle for cream, never throws up so natch or so rich
cream as if the same milk had been put into the milk-pans dircedly after it was
milked.

“From these fundamental facts, the reflecting dairyist wiii derive many im-
portant practical rules. Some of these we shall enumerate, and leave the rest to
be discovered. Cows should be milked as near the dairy as possible, m order to
prevent the necessity of carrying and cooling the milk before it is put into the
creaming dishes. Every Cow’s milk should be kept separate till the peculiar
properties of each are so well known as to admit of their being classed, when
those that are most nearly allied may be mixed together. When it is intended
to make butter of a very fine quality, reject entirely the milk of all those Cows
which yield cream of a bad quality, and also keep the milk that is first drawn
from the Cow at each milking entirely separate from that which is last obtained,
as the quality of the butter must otherwise be greatly debased, without materi-
ally augmenting its quantity. For the same purpose, take only the cream that
is frst separated from the first drawn milk. Butter of the very best quality can
only be economically made in those dairies where cheese is also made; because
in them the best part of each Cow’s milk can be set apart for throwing up cream
—the best part of this cream can be taken in order to be made into butter—and
the remainder or all the rest of the milk and cream of the dairy can be turned in-
to cheese. The spontaneous separation of cream, and the production of butter,
are never effected but in consequence of the production of acid in the milk.—
Hence it is that, where the whole milk is set apart for the separation of cream,
and the whole of the cream is separated, the milk must necessarily have turned
sour before it is made into cheese; and no very excellent cheese can be made from
milk which has once attained that state.”

We now pass on to a consideration of the most valuable ingredient in the dairy
produce—

Butter.

Butter is made of cream, freed from its milky and serous properties. This is
effected by churning. Some imagine that no butter can be good except such as
is made from fresh cream ; but this is a mistake, as cream requires to have a lit-
tle acidity before the butter will form. The length of time which the eream
should stand before churning has never been clearly ascertained ; from three to
seven days, however, may be considered as the proper period. A more import-
ant matter than the length of time which cream requires to stand, is the degree
of temperature at which the cream will turn into butter. This has been asces-
tained from experiment to be from 45 to 75° of Fahrenheit. In Holland, when
the cream is too cold, hot water is put into the churn to raise the temperature to
70 or 75°. The best quality of butter is obtained at a temperature of 51° accord-
ing to experiments performed by Mr. Pooler ; and the greatest quantity at a tem-
perature of 56°. During the process of churning, the agitation will increase the
heat to about five degrees more than it was when the cream was put into the
churn. Mr. Pooler is of opinion, that the greater quantity of butter is obtained
by the increased heat causing more milk to remain among the butter; and this,
of course, must decrease its quality.

In some of the dairies in the neighborhood of Edinburgh, and in all those near
Glasgow, the butter is made by churning the cream and the milk together. This

ee ee oe

THE COW AND THE DAIRY. 25

is done in order to obtain the buttermilk, the demand for which is always great
in large cities. When the milk and cream are to be churned together, the milk
is kept in the coolers for from twelve to twenty-four hours, and then poured into
a milk-tub. It remains here until required for churning; and will, during this
time, have coagulated. Ifa certain quantity of milk is put into the milk-tub, and
has coagulated before any more has creamed, the coagulated milk must in no
way be disturbed, or, if the two quantities are mixed together, too much ferment-
ation may be the consequence. ‘The milk is not churaed till it has become acid;
and when once coagulation has taken place, it should be churned as early as con-
venient. Ifthe milk has not fermented before churning, the buttermilk will keep
for a much longer time, will have an agreeable taste, and will bear to be mixed
with a little water. When the milk has fermented before being churned, the
buttermilk will never be so good, nor will it keep for such a length of time as
the former.

The operation of churning, whether it be of cream alone, or cream and milk, is
performed in the same manner. The milk requires more time than cream to
complete the process, from two to three hours being considered necessary,
while cream alone may be effectually churned in an hour and a half. It is ne-
cessary that the operation should be slow in warm weather ; for if done too has-
tily, the butter will be soft and white. If the cream is at too high a tempera-
ture, the churn should be cooled with cold spring water, to reduce it to the proper
degree of heat. In winter, again, the operation of churning should be done as
quickly as possible, the action being regular; and the churn should be warmed,
to raise the temperature of the milk or cream. ‘he air which is generated in
the churn should be allowed to escape, or it will impede the process by the froth
which it creates.

After the churning is performed, the butter should be washed in cold spring
water, with a little salt in it, two or three times, to extract all the milk which
may be lodging about the mass. It is said by some that the butter retains its
sweetness much longer when no water is used; and others affirm that the wash-
ing improves the flavor. The extraction of the milk from butter will reduce
its weight ; but it appears from the experiments of Mr. Pooler upon thetempera-
ture of the cream, that the less milk which is in the butter its quality is propor-
tionably improved. Kneading and beating the butter too much render it tough
and gluey. After the milk has been carefully extracted, if the butter is to be
salted, it should be mixed with the finest salt, in the proportion of ten ounces to
fourteen pounds, more or less, according to the time the butter is to be preserved.
The butter and salt should be well mixed together with the hand; and in I[re-
land it is customary to add a little saltpetre. A compound of one part of sugar,
one part nitre and two parts of the best Spanish salt, finely powdered together,
has been highly recommended for preserving butter. It is used in the proportion
of one ounce to the pound ; and it is said to give a flavor to the butter which no
other kind ever acquires.

For making butter casks or kegs the wood of trees containing no acid is recom-
mended. When wood contains acid it acts powerfully upon the salt in the but-
ter, converting it into brine. Any wood will answer if boiled for a few hours, for
by this process the pyrolignous acid will be entirely taken out.

In salting, the butter should never be put into the firkins in layers; but the
surface should be left every day rough and broken, so as to unite better with that
of the succeeding churning. The quality may likewise be better preserved by
covering it over with a clean linen cloth dipped in pickle, and placing it in a cool
situation.

Buttermilk.

This is the liquid which remains in the churn after removing the butter. If
skimmed milk has been employed for churning, the buttermilk is thin, poor, and
easily sours; but if from the churning of the entire milk, the buttermilk is more
thick and rich, and is considered by many a delicious beverage. Good buttermi:k
is at all events exceedingly wholesome and nutritious. In Ireland it is largely
used at meals with potatoes; in Scotland it is more frequently emplcyed as a

| relish with oat-meal porridge; and for this purpose large quantities are brought

to Edinburgh, Glasgow and other towns, from the adjoining rural districts. In

SOLON SO

~

PPB LBBB L LLL AOL Peal LO cll le

26 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS:

England, the buttermilk of farmers is usually employed in feeding pigs. In New-
York it is atways found for sale at the markets at from two to three cents per
quart.

Devonshire Ciouted Cream.

This is a preparation of the rich milk of Devonshire, and may be said to be a
kind of half-formed butter, such is the solidness of its consistency. In Van-
couver’s “Survey of Devonshire,” the following is described as the mode of pre-
paring this delicious article :—“ The milk is put into tin or earthen pans, holding
about ten or twelve quarts each. The evening’s meal is placed the following
morning, and the morning’s milk is placed in the afternoon, upon a broad iron plate
heated by a small furnace, or otherwise over stoves, where exposed to a gentle
fire, they remain until after the whole body of cream is supposed to have formed
upon the surface; which being gently removed by the edge of a spoon or ladle,
small air-bubbles will begin to rise, that denote the approach of a boiling heat,
when the pans must be removed from off the heated plate or stoves. The cream
remains upon the milk in this state until quite cold, when it may be removed into
a churn, or, as is more frequently the case, into an open vessel, and then moved
by the hand with a stick about a foot long, at the end of which is fixed a sort of
peel from four to six inches in diameter, and with which about twelve pounds
of butter may be separated from the buttermilk at a time—the butter in both
cases being found to separate much more freely, and sooner to coagulate into a
mass, than in the ordinary way, when churmed from raw cream that may have
been several days in gathering ; and at the same time will answer a more valua-
ble purpose in preserving, which should be first salted in the usual way, then
placed in convenient-sized egg-shaped earthen crocks, and always kept covered
with a pickle, made strong enough to float and buoy up about half out of the brine
a new-laid egg. This cream, before churning, is the celebrated clouted cream of
Devon.”

Cheese.

Cheese may be made from cream alone, or from the whole milk ; the object
in either case being in the first place to separate the serum from the other mate-
rials. This is effected by curding the cream or milk, by the infusion of an acid,
the refuse being tho serum or whey, which is of scarcely any value. [For a very
valuable Treatise on the best mode of manufacturing Cheese, see Farmers’ Li-
BRARY AND Montuiy Journat or AGRIcULTURE, Vol. 1. pp. 137—150.]

LONDON DAIRY MANAGEMENT,

The quantity of fresh milk annually consumed in the British metropolis was
lately calculated to be 39,420,000 quarts, costing £985,500, and being the pro-
duce of 12,000 Cows, kept principally in large dairy establishments in all parts
of the environs. The milk is generally of the best kind-when drawn from the
animals; but, between the dairv and the consumer, it passes through several
hands, each of whom takes a profit upon it, and increases the quantity of salable
liquid by large infusions of water, chalk, &c. In the condition it usually reaches
the public, it is shamefully adulterated. The charge of deteriorating the quality
of the article is seldom made upon the cow-keepers, whose establishments are,
for the most part, models of good management. As it may be interesting to our
readers to have some account of these large dairies, we present the following patr-
ticulars :

The two largest dairy establishments are those of Mr. Flight (known as Lay-
cock’s dairy) and of Messrs. Rhodes. Flight’s is one of the curiosities of Lon-
don ; it covers fourteen acres of ground, surrounded by a-high wall, and including
buildings for the different purposes required. In the cow-house there are up-
ward of 400 Cows, the whole of which are fed in stalls. The food is very prop-
erly varied; at one time they have mangel-wurzel ; then they have turnips, car-
rots, cabbages, and clover; and, when fattening for market, they are fed on oil-
cake and other articles. All are curried daily. Adjoiing the cow-house is a
hospital for unwell Cows, or Cows which are calving. The milk-house is kept
beautifully clean, being scoured daily with hot water.

With respect to Rhodes’s dairy, which is situated at Islington, Mr. Loudon, in

THE COW AND THE DAIRY. 27

>
his “Encyclopedia of Agriculture,” has condensed the following description of
its extent and mode of management from various publications :

«« The number of Cows kept by the present Messrs. Rhodes exceeds, on an ave-
rage of the year, four hundred: at one time these individuals are said to nave
had upward of a thousand Cows in their different establishments. The surface
on which the buildings are placed is a slope of two or three acres, facing the
east ; and its inclination is about one inch in six feet. The sheds run in the di-
rection of the slope—as well for the natural drainage of the gutters, and the more
easily scraping, sweeping, and wheeling out of the manure, as for supplying wa-
ter for drinking to small cast-iron troughs, which are fixed in the walls, at the
heads of the cattle, in such a manner as that the one trough may be supplied
from the other throughout the whole length of theshed. The sheds are twenty-
four feet wide ; the side walls about eight feet high; the roof of tiles, with rising
shutters for ventilation, and with panes of glass, glazed into cast-iron skeleton
tiles, for light. The floor is nearly flat, with a gutter along the center; and a
row of stalls, each seven feet and a half wide, and adapted for two Cows, runs
along the sides. ‘The Cows are fastened by chains and rings, which rings run on
upright iron rods, in the corners of the stalls—the common mode being departed
from only in having iron rods instead of wooden posts. <A trough or manger,
formed of stone, slate, or cement, of the ordinary size of those used for horses,
and with its upper surface about eighteen inches from the ground, is fixed at the
head of each stall. Four sheds are placed parallel and close to each other, and
in the party walls are openings, about a foot in breadth and four feet high, oppo-
site each Cow. ‘The bottom of these openings is about nine inches higher than
the upper surface of the troughs, and is formed by the upper surface of the one-
foot-square cast-iron cisterns, which contain the water for drinking. Each cis-
tern serves two Cows, which, of course, are in different sheds, but adjoining and
opposite each other. All these troughs are supplied from one large cistern by
pipes, ina manner which can be so readily conceived that we shall not stop to
offer a description. Each of these troughs has a wooden cover, which is put on
during the time the Cows are eating their grains, to prevent their drinking at the
same time, and dropping grains in the water. At the upper end, and at one cor-
ner of this quadruple range of sheds, is the dairy, which consists of three rooms
of about twelve feet square: the outer or measuring room; the middle or scald-
ing room, with a fire place and a boiler; and the inner or milk and butter-room,
separated by a passage from the last. At the lower end of the range is a square
yard, surrounded by sheds—one for fattening the Cows when they have ceased
to give milk, and the others for store and breeding pigs. The pigs are kept for
the purpose of consuming the casual stock of skim milk which occasionally re-
mains on hand, owing to the fluctuations in the demand. ‘This milk is kept ina
well, walled with brick laid in cement, about six feet in diameter and twelve feet
deep. The milk becomes sour there in a very short time, and, as is well known,
is found most nourishing to the pigs when given in that state. Breeding swine
are found most profitable, the sucking pigs being sold for roasting. Beyond this
yard is a deep and wide pit or pond, into which the dung is emptied from a plat-
form of boards projecting into it. The only remaining building wanted to com-
plete the dairy establishment is a house or pit for containing the exhausted malt
- (grains), on which the Cows are chiefly fed. Messrs. Rhodes have a building or
pit of this description at some distance, where they have a smaller establishment.
There are a stack-yard, sheds, and pits for roots, straw, and hay, a place for cut-
ting hay into chaff, cart-sheds, stables, a counting-house, and other buildings and
places common to all such establishments, which it is not necessary to describe.

«<The Cows in Rhodes’s dairy are purchased newly calved in the cow-market
held in Islington every Monday. They are kept as long as they continue to give
not less than two gallons of milk a day, and are then fattened on oil-cake, grains,
and cut clover hay, for the butcher. The Short-Horned breed is preferred, partly
for the usual reason of being more abundant milkers than the Long-Horns, partly
because the shortness of their horns allows them to be placed closer together,
and partly because this breed is more frequently brought to market than any
other. The Ayrshire breed has been tried to the number of 150 at a time, and
highly approved of, as affording a very rich cream, as fattening in a very short
time when they have left off giving milk, and as producing a beef which sold

28 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS:
a

much higher than that of the Short-Horms. The difficulty, however, in procur-
ing this breed was found so great that Mr. Rhodes was obliged to leave it off.—
The length of time during which a Cow, treated as in this establishment, contin-
wes to give milk, varies from six months to the almost incredible period of two
years. We were assured of there being at this moment several Cows among the
390 which we saw, that had stood in their places even more than two years, and
continued to give upward of one gallon of milk daily.

“The treatment of the Cows in Rhodes’s dairy differs from that in most other
establishments. The Cows are never untied during the whole period that they
remain in the house. In most other establishments, if not in all, stall-fed Cows
or cattle are let out at least once a day to drink; but these animals have clear
water continually before them. They are kept very clean, and the sheds are so
remarkably well ventilated, by means of the openings in the roofs, that the air
seemed to us purer than that of any cow-house we had ever before examined ;
probably from its direct perpendicular entrance through the roof—this, in moder-
ate weather, being certainly far preferable to its horizontal entrance through the
side walls.

«The principal food of the Cows in Rhodes’s dairy, as in all the other Lendon
establishments, consists of grains—that is, malt after it has been used by the
brewer or the distiller. As the brewing seasons are chiefly autumn and spring,
a stock of grains is laid in at these seasons sufficient for the rest of the year.—
The grains are generally laid in pits, bottomed and lined with brickwork set in
cement, from ten to twenty feet deep, about twelve or sixteen feet wide, and of
any convenient length. The grains are firmly trodden down by men—the heaps
being finished like hayricks, or ridges in which potatoes are laid up for the win-
ter, and covered with from six to nine inches of moist earth or mud, to keep out
the rain and frost in winter and the heat insummer. As a Cow consumes about
a bushel of grains a day, it is easy to calculate the quantity required to be laid in.
The grains are warm, smoking, and in a state of fermentation, when put in, and
they continue fit for use for several years—becoming somewhat sour, but they are,
it is said, as much relished by the Cows as when fresh, It is common to keep
grains two or three years; but in this establishment they have been kept nine
years, and found perfectly good. The exclusion of the air almost prevents the
increase of the fermentation and consequent decomposition. What is called dis-
tillers’ wash—which is the remainder, after distillation, of a decoction of ground
malt and meal—is also given to Cows, but more frequently to such as are fatten-
ing than to thoseinmilk. The present price of brewers’ grains is fourpence half-
penny per bushel; of distillers’ grains, on account of the meal which they con-
tain, nnepence a bushel; of wash, thirty-six gallons for sixpence.

“Salt is given to the Cows in Rhodes’s dairy at the rate of two cunces each
Cowaday. Itis mixed with the grains, which are supplied before milking,
about three o’clock in the morning ; and in the afternoon, about two o’clock, just
before milking. Of green food or roots, portions are supplied alternately with
the grains ; and in winter, when tares or green grass cannot be procured, after
the turnips, potatoes, or mangel-wurzel have been eaten, a portion of dry hay is
given.

«“ The produce of this dairy is almost entirely milk and cream for private fami-
lies and for public hospitals and other institutions. A number of the public es-
tablishments are supplied directly from the dairy by contract ; but private fami-
lies are principally supplied by milk-dealers: these have what are called milk-
walks—that is, a certain number of customers, whom they call upon with sup-
plies twice a day; and they are thus enabled to ascertain the average of what
their customers consume, and to contract with Messrs. Rhodes for this average.
The latter calculate the number of Cows sufficient to give the dealer the supply
wanted, and this number the dealer undertakes to milk twice a day—namely, at
three o’clock in the morning, and at three in the afternoon. The milk is meas-
ured to the dealer, and should he have milked more than his quantity, it remains
with the dairyman ; but should the Cows have been deficient in the quantity, it
is made good from the milk of other Cows, milked on account of the contracts of
the establishment. As the supply of the Cows and the demand of the dealers
are continually varying, it often happens that considerable quantities of milk re-
main on the dairyman’s hands—frequently, we are told, as much as sixty or sev-

se EE Ne ee ER ee OP Ie ee ee eS en ee

'

a

THE COW AND THE DAIRY. 29

enty gallons a day. This quantity is placed in shallow earthen vessels, to throw
up the cream in the usual manner ; this cream is churned, and the butter sold.”
The skimmed milk, it is added, as well as the buttermilk, are, as is usual in
English dairies, given to the pigs.

NEW-YORK DAIRY MANAGEMENT.

In contrast to the above, we here insert some remarks more immediately ap-
plicable to the management of the New-York Dairies, from Harrity’s Essay on
Mixx, published in New-York in the year 1842:

«The manner of producing milk to supply the inhabitants of cities and other

opulous places is so contrary to our knowledge of the laws which govern the an-
imal economy, that froma bare statement of the facts, any intelligent mind might
confidently anticipate the evils which actually result from it. The natural and
healthy condition of the Cows appears, for the most part, to be utterly disregard-
ed. They are literally crowded together in large numbers in filthy pens, which
at once deprives them of adequate exercise and pure air, both of which are indis-
pensably essential to their health. Instead of being supplied with food suited to
the masticatory and digestive organs of herbivorous and ruminant animals, they
are most generally treated as if omnivorous ; and their stomachs are gorged with
any description of aliment, however unhealthy, which can be most easily and
cheaply procured, and will produce the greatest quantity of milk. Thus, in the
Vicinities of the cities of New-York and Brooklyn, in America, and indeed
wherever grain distilleries abound, either in this country or in Europe, distillery-
slop is extensively used.* In London and other places where brewers’ grains can
- be obtained, they are in great requisition for milk-dairies; while in grape-grow-
ing countries, the refuse of the grape is used for the same purpose, and with ef-
fects as pernicious as those produced by the dregs of the distillery. Besides these
unhealthy aliments, in other cases decayed vegetables, and the sour and putrid
offals and remnants of kitchens, are in populous places carefully gathered up as
food for milech Cows. As might be expected, the cattle, under this most unnatural
management, become diseased, and the lactescent secretions not only partake of the
same nature, but are impure, unhealthy, and innutritious. Yet this milk is the
chief aliment of children in all places where the population is condensed in great
numbers ; it is the nourishment chosen and relied upon to develop the physical
powers and impart vigor to the constitution during the most feeble and critical
period of human life, when the best possible nourishment is especially necessary
in order to counteract the injurious effects of the infected air and detficient exer-
cise, which are often inseparable from the conditions of a city life.

“So few are the exceptions to these modes of producing and using milk under
the circumstances named, that they may be said to be nearly universal, both in
this and in most other countries. And when it is recollected that in the United
States about one-third of the population live in masses, and in Europe a vastly
greater proportion, some adequate idea may be formed of the extent to which the
evils consequent upon the use of an essential but an unhealthy article of food,
prevail.” : ; ; ;

“ But slop alone, as food for fattening cattle, is of little value. On such unnat-
ural aliment they become diseased and emaciated. Cows plentifully supplied
With it, may yield abundance of milk; but. it is notorious that the article thus
produced is so defective in the properties essential to good milk, that it cannot be
converted into butter or cheese, of course is good for nothing—except to sell. But
in country places milk cannot be tumed to account in this way for there are no
buyers, and as slop is not in request for stock or dairies, if the distiller would find
the most advantageous market for it, he must conduct his operations in the vi-
cinity of populous places. This, we repeat, is one among oiher reasons why
such localities are desired. He finds it less profitable to fatten swine upon slop,
on account of the risk of kiiling them to his own detriment, than to have it fed to
human beings through the agency of the dairyman.” ; : ; 5

«It has been estimated, after careful inquiry, that about ten thousand Cows in
the city of New-York and neighborhood, are most inhumanly condemned to sub-
gist on the residuum or slush of this grain, after it has undergone a chemical

* Distillery-slop is the refuse of grain diffused through water after it has undergone a chemical change, the
alcohol and farina being extracted by the processes of fermentation and distillation.

30 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS:

change, and reeking hot from the distilleries. This slush, moreover, after the
ceremony of straining through the organs of sickly Cows, as before stated, and
duly colored and diluted and medicated, is sold to the citizens at an annual ex-
pense of more than a million dollars. The amount of disease and death conse-
quent upon the sale and use of this milk, is doubtless recorded in the books of fi-
nal judgment, and will hereafter be revealed. But the fact which chiefly con-
cerns the public is, that this milk has been, and, it is believed, is now, extensive-
ly injurious and fatal to health and life.” . ; : ;

«The Cow is an herbivorous and a ruminating animal; pasturage, of course,
or gramineous matter, is its natural and appropriate aliment.

“ Reasoning a priori from the physical formation of the Cow, as it is a rumina-
ting animal, it were easy to demonstrate that its digestive organs are peculiarly
adapted, and were designed by Nature, for solid food ; and, consequently, that dis-
tillery slop and food of that description is the most unnatural aliment which it
can receive into its stomach.

«<The digestive organs of the ruminant class. such as the Cow and sheep, are
more complicated than those of any other animals. In the first place, they have
cutting or incisor teeth which are admirably adapted for cropping grass or pastur-
age. The upper external portion of these teeth is convex, rising straight from
the gum ; while inward they have a concave surface, gradually diminishing in
thickness, and terminating in a sharp edge which is covered with enamel, so as
to produce and retain the sharpness necessary for separating herbaceous sub-
stances. ‘They have also large molares, or grinding teeth, fitted for comminuting
grassy fibres, or food which requires long and difficult mastication, in order that
the nourishment may be extracted from it; and for this purpose we find the
enamel, or harder portions of the teeth, distributed over and throughout their
texture. Besides this, they have large salivary glands, for the purpose of moist-
ening and lubricating the food preparatory to swallowing, and to aid in the sec-
ond process of mastication, during which the food is reduced toa pultaceous state ;
while, in carnivorous animals, these glands are either wanting, or of a much
smaller size.” 5 : : :

«One of the most notorious of the overgrown metropolitan milk-establish-
ments, or rather the largest collection of slop-dairies—for there are many propri-
etors—is situated in the western suburbs of the city, near the termination, and
between Fifteenth and Sixteenth streets, in New-York. The area occupied by
the concern includes the greater part of two squares, extending from below the
Ninth Avenue to the Hudson River, probably a distance of one thousand feet.—
During the winter season, about two thousand Cows are said to be kept on the
premises, but in summer the number is considerably reduced. The food of the
Cows, of course, is slop, which being drawn off into large tanks, elevated some
ten or fifteen feet, is thence conducted in close, square wooden gutters, and dis-
tributed to the different cow-pens, where it is received into triangular troughs,
rudely constructed by the junction of two boards. The range of the pens being
interrupted by the intersection of the Tenth-avenue, the slop is conveyed by
means of a gutter underground to the opposite side of the road, where it is re-
ceived into a capacious reservoir, and thence conducted to the pens, which extend
to the margin of the river. In the vicinity of Brooklyn there is a similar estab-
lishment, which contains about seven hundred Cows; and in the neighborhood of
that city and of New-York there are numerous smaller concerns, where the cat-
tle are fed in like manner, by receiving the slop smoking hot directly from. the
distilleries. In the far greater number of cases, however, the dairies are too far
from the distilleries to be supplied in this way. The slop is therefore carted in
vast quantities from the distilleries, in hogsheads, to the smaller milk establ.sh-
ments, which are numerously scattered in the suburbs and neighborhoods of the
cities to the distance of several miles.*

* Since the above was written, the author revisited some of the slop-milk manufactories in New-York,
Brooklyn, Williamsburgh, Bushwick, the Wallabout, and vicinities, for the purpose of information. He
learned that, at some of the establishments in these places, an unusual mortality had recently occurred
among the milch Cows. ‘The fact itself was indisputable; but owing to the unwillingness, not to say inci-
vility, of the persons who supposed it was their interest to conceal the truth, nothing very definite m rela-
tion to the nature and extent of the disease was obtained. Some of the distilleries, we observed, had been
enlarged, and others were undergoing repairs, which, occasioning a teraporary failure of slop, the dairymen
were carting it across the Fast River fi »m New-York, for the supply of their cattle. The slop concerns and
distilleries, though somewhat improved in appearance since public attention had been directed to them,

a

PBPBABP PLO LOI I

THE COW AND THE DAIRY. 31

«“ The daily average quantity of slop for a Cow is about a barrel of thirty-two
allons. At first we were incredulous as to the amount they learn to consume;
ut after many careful inquiries at many dairies, the fact is rendered certain.-—

Now it is evident that no Cow in health would eat such an enormous quantity of
slop. By feeding on this unnatural and stimulating food, they are thrown into a
state of disease, and for a short time will feed monstrously, and yield large quan-
tities of bad milk.” ; : : :

«The cow-pens are rude, unsightly wooden buildings, varying from fifty to
two hundred feet in length, and about thirty feet in breadth. They are very
irregularly arranged, so as to cover the entire ground, excepting narrow avenues
between; and appear to have been temporarily constructed, as the arrival of new
dairies required enlargements for their accommodation. It is said they will con-
tain about two thousand head of cattle; but this estimate, we would judge, is an
exaggeration. The stalls are rented by the proprietor of the distilleries to the
different cow owners, at from four to five dollars a year per each head of cattle,
while the slop is furnished at nine cents a barrel.* Slop constituting both food
and drink, water and hay or other solid or gramineous fodder, supply no part of
the wants of these abused animals. The fluid element, indeed, appears not to
be in request for purifying purposes. Fountains of pure water, extensive hay-
ricks, capacious out-houses, and similar conveniences, which are ordinarily
deemed so important for the feeding and watering so large a stock, are here dis-
pensed with as unnecessary appendages to a city dairy.

«« The interior of the pens corresponds with the general bad arrangement and
repulsive appearance of the exterior. Most of the cattle stand in rows of from
seven to ten across the building, head to head and tail to tail alternately. There
is a passage in the rear for cleaning, and another in front which gives access to
the heads of the cattle. The floor is gently inclined, but no litter is allowed.—
The stalls are three feet wide, with a partition between each, and a ceiling about
seven feet high overhead. But the chief and most inexcusable defects are the
want of ventilation and cleanliness ; though in the latter respect, since public at-
tention has been called to their vile condition, they are somewhat improved.—
There appears, however, no contrivance for washing the pens, or by which a
circulation of air can be produced. To scent the effluvia, as it is diluted and dif-
fused in the surrounding atmosphere, is sufficiently offensive, and the visitor will
instinctively retire in dread of closer proximity. But to survey the premises round
about, and merely to look into the pens, will but inadequately convey an idea of
the disgusting reality. . . . The astonishment is that animal life, with all
its wonderful recuperative energies, and power of accommodation to circum-
stances, can exist in so fetid an atmosphere.” : , ‘ :

‘«Such, then, as described, is the barbarous and unnatural treatment of this do-
cile, inoffensive and unfortunate animal, that is destined to supply us with nutri-
ment, both when living and dead, and which is one of the most valuable gifts of
Providence to ungrateful men.” : : - ;

« Slop-milk is naturally very thin, and of a pale bluish color. In order to dis-

were still spoken of by the inhabitants in the neighborhoods as nuisances of so offensive a character as to
prevent the improvement of property in their vicinity; while their present vile condition too truly indicated
the nature of the evils they were continuing to inflict on more distant portions of the community. The
most careful inquiries, however, failed to elicit any new information-of mterest; but we everywhere re-
ceived the fullest confirmation of the facts and principles which are spread throughout this work.

In the course of the tour, we visited a large rum-distillery located in the immediate neighborhood
of the South Ferry, Brooklyn. We were not disappoiated in failing of admittance into the concern, for
it is common to all these establishments, which are battening on the spoils of an injured community, to
conceal, as far as possible, their operations from the public eye. It was, however, of little consequence, for
there were other means of information at hand, and much that was open to observation. We were informed
that from seven humdred to one thousand bushels of grain are daily converted into whisky at this distillery,
the refuse of which would suftice to slop two thousand Cows; and that about jiffy head of cattle, and from
five to seven hunéred swine, were fattening on the premises. No milch Cows are there kept; but we count-
ed eighty-seven carts and wagons, containing an aggregate of one hundred and twenty-nine hogsheads, appa-
rently waiting for slush. exclusive of numerous others which were going and returning from the premises.
The hour of our visit (3 o’clock P.M.) was inopportune to witness the daily delivery of the slop. The great-
est activity in the business is from 4 to 8 u’clock morning and evening, during which time an incessant
stream of carts is seen issuing from the distillery, laden with slop for the supply of the neighboring dairies,

The quantity of milk required for the daily supply of the cities of New-York and Brooklyn, as near as can
be ascertained, is about fifteen thousand gallons. This, at the average price of six cents per quart, amounts
to three thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars per day, or, in round numbers, to fifteen hundred thousand
dollars a year.

‘f * The price of slop is not uniform, but is varied by the value of grain. It has been as low as 6} cents per
arrel,

POLLO POPOL OL I It

OO al OL ll lle

OOO ll Pm +

32 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS:

guise its bad qualities and render it salable, it is necessary to give it color and
consistence. That it is often adulterated is proved by analysis, and the confes-
sions of those who from principle have relinquished the practice. Starch, sugar,
flour, plaster of Paris, chalk, eggs, annatto, ete. are used for this purpose ; such
substances being preferred, of course, which have the strongest affinity for the
fluid, and will not readily precipitate.* These adulterations enable the vender
to give the milk a proper consistence and a beautiful white color, so as to dilute
the wretched slush with about an equal quantity of water, without detection.”

GENERAL MANAGEMENT OF CATTLE

Fattening Cattle for Market.

The stall-feeding or soiling of cattle is considered to possess several advantages
over feeding in the fields. In field-feeding, the animals waste a certain quantity
of pasture by treading and lying upon it, and by dropping their dung—the grass
which grows on the dung spots being ever after rejected ; the animals also spend
time in seeking for the herbage which suits their fancy, and much is allowed to
go to seed untouched. In stall-feeding, the whole time is devoted to eating and
ruminating, while no food is lost, and the animals are brought to a higher condi-
tion. Another important advantage of soiling is that it uses up the waste straw
of a farm as litter, and thus furnishes a plentiful supply of that indispensable ar-
ticle, manure, for the fields. Some feeders tie up their cattle to the stall while
preparing for market; but others permit them to roam about on a thick bed of
straw in an enclosure in the farm-yard, with a shed to retire to for shelter—the
feeding in this case being from racks. Unless for a period during the final pro-
cess of fattening, the straw-yard method is reckoned the best for keeping the cat-
tle in a healthy state, and consequently for producing beef of the finest kind.—
The practice of feeding cattle for a considerable length of time, in darkened
stalls, on oil-cake, carrots, mangel-wurzel, &c. produces, as is well known, a
great deposition of fat, and swells the animals toa monstrous size. The beef,
however, of such over-fed cattle is never fine. The fat with which it is loaded
easily escapes in cooking, and leaves lean of an inferior quality. The best sign
of good meat is its being marbled, or the fat and lean well mixed, when brought
to the table ; and this is not to be expected from beef fed in an unnatural con-
dition.

The age at which cattle are fattened depends upon the manner in which they
have been reared—upon the properties of the breed in regard to a propensity to
fatten earlier or later in life—and on the circumstances of their being employed
in breeding, in labor, for the dairy, or reared solely for the butcher. In the latter
case, the most improved breeds are fit for the shambles when about three years
old, and very few of any large breed are kept more than a year longer. As to
Cows and working Oxen, the age of fattening must necessarily be more indefin-
ite’; in most instances, the latter are put up to feed after working three years, or
in the seventh or eighth year of their age.

Rules for Selecting Cattle.

In selecting cattle for feeding, their qualities may be in some measure known
by examining the hide, horns, &c. ‘It is well known that the grazier and the
butcher judge of the aptitude that any animal has to fatten from the touch of
the skin. When the hide feels soft and silky, it strongly indicates a tendency in
the animal to take on meat; and it is evident that a fine and soft skin must be
more pliable, and more easily stretched out to receive any extraordinary quantity

_ of flesh, than a thick or tough one. At the same time thick hides are of great

importance in various manufactures. Indeed, they are necessary in cold coun-
tries, where cattle are much exposed to the inclemency of the seasons ; and, in
the best breeds of Highland cattle, the skin is thick in proportion to their size,
without being so tough as to be prejudicial to their capacity of fattening. It ap-
pears, from Columella’s description of the best kind of Ox, that the advantage of

* The presence of flour, starch, etc. in milk may be detected by adding to the miik a solution of iodine in
alcol.ol or by adding alittle nitric acid to the milk, and then a few drops of a solution of iodine of potassium.
Either of these tests communicates a blue color to milk or cream which contains arrow-root, rice-powder,
flour, or any other substance of which starch is the constituent. [Domestic Chemist, p. 148.

THE COW AND THE DAIRY. 33

a soft skin is not a new discovery, but was perfectly well known to the husband-
men of ancient Italy.” ‘These are the observations of Sir John Sinclair, who adds
the following as a summary of good points to be attended toin choosing cattle:
“« They should be—1. Of a moderate size, unless where the food is of a nature pe-
enliarly forcing ; 2. Of a shape the most likely to yield profit to the farmer; 3.
Of a docile disposition, without being deficient in spirit; 4. Hardy, and not liable
to disease; 5. Easily maintained, and on food not of a costly nature; 6. Arriving
soon at maturity ; 7. Producing considerable quantities of milk ; 8. Having flesh
of an excellent quality ; 9. Having a tendency to take on fat; 10. Having a valu-
able hide ; and, lastly, Calculated (should it be judged necessary) for working.”
It is thought best to begin to break-in Oxen at three years old, and to give them
full work at four.

With respect to judging of cattle by their horns and teeth, we offer the follow-
ing observations by Mr. Hickey:

“The ordinary guide for ascertaining the precise age of catile is the horn,
which is also indicative of the breed ; at three years old (this is laid down as a
rule) the horns are perfectly smooth, after this a ring appears near the root, and
annually afterward a new circle, so that, by adding two years to the first ring,
the age is calculated ; but it has been clearly shown that this is a very uncertam
mode of judging ; ‘ that the rings are only distinct in the Cow ;’ and that ‘ifa
Heifer goes to the Bull when she is two years old, or a little before or after that
time, there is an immediate change in the horn, and the first ring appears; so
that a real three-year old would carry the mark of a four-year old.’ ‘In the Bull
they are either not seen until five, or they cannot be traced at all;’ nor in the Ox
do they ‘appear until he is five years old, and they are often confused ;’ besides,
‘ there is also an instrument called a rasp, which has been said to make many an
arm ache a little before a large fair.’ Without any delusive intentions, however,
an ugly set in the horns of young cattle is often remedied by filing a little off the
ee of the tips opposite to the direction which it is desired that the horns should
take.

««Some men have an antipathy to horns altogether, and would even carry their
dislike so far as to extirpate them from the brows of all their cattle ; they can in-
dulge their taste by paring off the tops of the horns when they first break through
the skin. Perhaps it is not generally known that the larger the horn the thinner
the skull.

«The age is indicated with unerring certainty by the teeth, to those who have
judgment and experience, until the animal reaches the age of six or seven: until
two years old, no teeth are cast; at that age, two new teeth are cut; at three,
two more are cut; and, in the two succeeding years, two in each year; at five
the mouth is said to be full, though not completely so until six, because until that
period the two corner teeth (the last in renewal) are not perfectly up. The front
or incisor teeth are those considered, for a full-grown beast has altogether thirty-
two teeth.”

Method of Ascertaining the Weight of Cattle while Living.

«This is of the utmost utility for all those who are not experienced judges by
the eye ; and, by’the following directions, the weight can be ascertained within
a mere trifle:—Take a string, put it round the beast, standing square, just behind
the shoulder-blade ; measure on a foot-rule the feet and inches the animal is in
circumference—this is called the girth; then, with the string, measure from the
bone of the tail which plumbs the line with the hinder part of the buttock ; direct
the line along the back to the fore part of the shoulder-blade; take the dimen-
sions on the foot-rule as before, which is the length, and work the figures in the
following manner :—Girth of the bullock, 6 feet 4 inches ; length, 5 feet 3 inches;
which, multiplied together, make 31 square superficial feet; that again multi-
plied by 23 (the number of pounds allowed to each superficial foot of cattle meas-
uring less than 7 and more than 5 in girth), makes 713 pounds; and, allowing
14 pounds to the stone, is 50 stone 13 pounds. Where the animal measures less
than 9 and more than 7 feet in girth, 31 is the number of pounds to each super-
ficial foot. Again, suppose a pig or any small beast should measure 2 feet in
girth, and 2 feet along the back, which, multiplied together, make 4 square feet ;
that, multiplied by 11, the number of pounds allowed for each square foot of cat-

3

34 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS:

tle measuring less than 3 feet m girth, makes 44 pounds ; which, divided by 14,
to bring it to stones, is 3 stone 2 pounds. Again, suppose a calf, a sheep, &c.
should measure 4 feet 6 inches in girth, and 3 feet 9 inches in length, which,
multiplied together, make 16% square feet ; that multiplied by 16, the number of
pounds allowed to all cattle measuring less than 5 feet, and more than 3 in girth,
‘makes 264 pounds ; which, divided by 14, to bring it mto stones, is 18 stone 12
pounds. The dimensions of the girth and length of black cattle, sheep, calves,
or hogs, may be as exactly taken this way as is at all necessary for any computa-
tion or valuation of stock, and will answer exactly to the four quarters, sinking
the offal; and which every man, wko can get even a bit of chalk, can easily per-
form. A deduction must be made for a half-fatted beast, of 1 stone in 20, from
that of a fat one; and, for a Cow that has had calves, 1 stone must be allowed,
and another for not being properly fat.

Diseases and their Treatment.

Cattle are subject to various diseases, the result of improper treatment or of
causes connected with elimate which it is difficult to avert. By attention to feed-
ing, housing, and cleaning, much may be done to prevent some of the more fatal
distempers. Cattle that have passed their lives, both day and night, in the open
air, are generally so hardy that they are not injured by a wetting of the skin,
and are liable to few of the complaints of dairy or stall-fed animals. Cows he-
ing compelled to Jead an artificial mode of life, are the most delicate in every re-
spect, and require the most careful treatment. They should not be left out all
night; and, when they return from the field wet, it is always a safe and humane
plan to dry them with a wisp of straw. ‘The diseases to which they are most
liable are of an inflammatory kind, and for these the veterinary surgeon prescribes
bleeding, and perhaps some medicines to be taken internally.

Though it is by no means our design to offer, in this work on Milch Cows, any
thing like a general work on cattle, it is deemed well enough, besides the gen-
¢ eral description of the breeds most in use, to give a few recipes for the most
5 common diseases of Cows and Calves.

Of Calves, the maladies which most frequently occur are diarrhea, and its op-
posite, costiveness. ‘The common diarrhea, or scouring, in Calves, arises gener-
ally from irregular feeding, or other bad management.

Nothing is more apt to disorder the bowels of the young Calf than the too
common practice of attempting to substitute other diet for that of milk, or milk
diet at an unnatural temperature. The young ruminant (says that high authori-
ty, C. W. Johnson), subsisting on the milk of its mother, does not require that
complicated system of stomachs which afterward becomes necessary for the prop-
er comminution of its food. Accordingly we find that the aperture of the first
and second stomach is, in the Calf, entirely closed, and the folds of the third ad-
here together so as to form a narrow tube. The milk passes at once into the
fourth stomach, which is the seat of true digestion. This arrangement of itself
mdicates that the food of the young animal ought to be liquid, even when it is
deprived of the milk of its parent. It is for this reason that the weaning of the

Ԥ Calf must take place very gradually.

For SCOURING, the same author recommends the following as an excellent
remedy : Prepared chalk, 4 ounces; Laudanum, 1 ounce ;
Powdered canella bark, 1 ounce; W ater, 1 pint.
Mix these together, and give two or three table-spoonsful, according to the size of the Calf, twice
or three times a day
COSTIVENESS IN CALVES.—For this complaint dissolve from two to four
ounces, according to age, of Epsom salts in two quarts of water, and inject into the stomach by
means of the stomach pump, and, in need, repeat in half doses every four hours.
CATARRH (common), or HOOSE (common cold).—This is a common com-
plaint, much too often neglected till it degenerates into worse disorders.
For Catile—In slight cases house them, give them mashes, or a dose of physic. In more se-
vere oases bleed, and after bleeding give—
Epsom salts, } pound, Powdered aniseed, 2 ounces;
Ginger, 2 drachms; Gruel, 3 pints.
For epidemic catarrh or influenza, bleed from three to five or six quarts, and give the following
purging drench: ‘
Epsom salts, 1 pound ; Powdered coriender seeds, 1 ounce.
Dissolve in 3 pints of warm gruel.

THE COW AND THE DAIRY. 30

Should the fever continue after the purging drench, the following fever drench must be given
night and morning:
Tartar emetic, 1 drachm; Nitre, 4 drachms.
Mix and give in a quart of warm gruel. :
CLEANSING.—The after-dirth or placenta should be discharged soon after
the period of calving ; in case this is delayed, a dose of physic may be administered, composed of
one pound of Epsom salts, and two drachms of ginger in some warm water or warm gruel.
Leave the Calf with the Cow for some time after it is born.
The following cleansing drink may be given with advantage:
Cummin seed powder, 2 ounces; Sulphur, 2 ounces;
Bay berries powdered, 1 ounce ; Turmeric. 1 ounce.
Boil these together for ten minutes, and give the drink when cool in some gruel.
CLYSTERS.—Clysters are medicines introduced (commonly by a syringe) into
the rectum of animals. The composition of the most common isas follows:

Clyster for Cows.

Epsom salts, 1 pound; Linseed oil, 8 ounces; Water, 3 or 4 quarts.
Very useful to assist the eperation of physic drenches.

CUD, LOSS OF—Is not a disease of itself, but is usually a symptom of vari-
ous disorders. The following drink may be given in cases of loss of cud, when no indication of
any particular disorder is apparent :

Epsom salts, } pound; Carraway seeds, powdered, 1 ounce;
Gentian, powdered, 3 ounce ; Ginger, powdered, 2 drachms.
Mix, and give in warm gruel.

Rumination is requisite in order to keep an ox in health. A little straw or hay is accordingly
necessary to enable it te chew the cud! We know a case in which barley-meal and boileu pota-
toes were given to Cows without hay or straw. Constipation resulted, and the cattle nearly per-
ished from the ignorance of the feeder.

DIARRHEA —Is the excessive discharge of fecal matter. It arises from va-
rious causes, as from too much opening physic, poisonous plants, bad treatment, foul water, or
from some peculiar state of the atmosphere. This may be treated as follows:—First give an ape-
rieat—either one pint of linseed oil, or, in a quart of water—

Epsom salts, 4 pound; Powderea ginger, 2 drachms. Mix for a dose.

Afterward give the following astringent: PS

Prepared chalk, 1 ounce; Powdered opium, } drachm ;
Powdered catechu, 3 drachms ; Powdered ginger, 2 drachms.
Mix. and give in a quart of warm gruel.

FLOODING—Is a discharge of blood from the uterus of the Cow, after calv-
ing. The only remedy is to apply cold to the loins: if in warm weather, a pound of saltpetre dis-
solved in a gallon of water will produce a very cold solution. If ice can be procured, equal parts
of snow and ice, say equal parts of each, will produce a very intense cold. If the flooding still
continues, raise the Cow’s hind parts, give two drachms of opium every hour, keep the patient
quiet, take away her Calf.

GARGET—Arises from the inflamed and hardened state of the internal sub-
stance of the udder of Cows. This is a complaint which is very apt to arise in young Cows. In
the early stages of it, the best remedy is to allow her Calf to suckle, and rub about her udder. If
this does net effect a cure, then it is generally necessary to take away a little blood, and after-
ward to give the following drench:

Epsom salts, 1 pound; Aniseed powdered, 1 ounce; Warm water, 3 pints.

The udder to be bathed with hot water three times a day, and after each bathing to be well -
rubbed with the following ointment:

Yellow basilicon, 4 ounces; Camphor, 1 ounce, rubbed down with a little spirits of wine ;
Strong mercurial ointment, 2 ounces; Soft soap, 16 ounces. Rub these well together.

In very obstinate cases I have found the following successful :

Hydriodate of potash, 1 drachm, rubbed into very fine powder and mixed with 1 ounce of
spermaceti ointment.

After bathing with hot water, a piece of the size of a small nutmeg should be well rubbed in,
night and morning. ‘

KICKS, AND OTHER BRUISES.—Foment the parts copiously and frequent-
ly for some time with hot water ; if the skin is broken, apply the following tincture :

Friar’s balsam, 2 ounces; Tincture of aloes and myrrh, 2 ounces. Mix for use.

MISCARRIAGE.—The usual period of gestation in a Cow is two hundred
and seventy days, or nine calendar months; but there is mach variation in the time of the Cow
being with calf. According to M. Tessier, in eleven hundred and thirty-one Cows upon which his
observations were made, the shortest period was two hundred and forty, and the longest three
hundred and twenty-one—being a variation of eighty-one days ; or. reckoning from nine months,
fifty-one days over, and thirty-one days under. Of five hundred and seventy-five Cows, he found
twenty-one calved between the two hundred and fortieth and two hindred and seventieth day ;
five hundred and forty-four between the two hundred and seventieth and two hundred and ninety-
ninth, and ten between the two hundred and ninety-ninth and three hundred and twenty-first
day. It has been remarked that the Cow goes longer with a bull calf than with a cow calf. Of
seven hundred and sixty-four Cows, noted by Lord Spencer (Jour. Royal Agri. Soc., vol. i., p.
165), two hundred and twenty days was the shortest period wh€n a live calf was produced, and
two hundred and forty-two days the shortest period when the calf was reared ; three hundred
and thirteen days was the Jongest period he remarked a Cow to be in caif; three hundred and

LLL LPL LOLI

36 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS:

fourteen Cows calved before the two hundred and eighty-fourth day, and three hundred and ten
after the two hundred and eighty-eighth day.

Miscarriage occurs oftener in the Cow than in all other domestic animals put together. Per-
haps it is one of the greatest annoyances the proprietor of Cows has to encounter; and unfor-
tunately, for aught we see to the contrary, it is likely so to continue; for, in spite of the improved
state of veterinary medicine, and the researches of skillful veterinary surgeons, both at home and
abroad, miscarriage still continues as frequent and annoying as ever. The causes are frequently
involved in obscurity ; but it may be mentioned that an extremely hot and foul cow-house, a severe
blow, violent exertion, starvation, plethora, an overloaded stomach, internal inflammations, con-
stipated bowels, bad food or water, improper exposure and the like. will now and then produce
miscarriage. Anything whatever, indeed, that seriously affects the health of the animal in general,
or the state of the reproductive organs in particular, may do so. But miscarriage occurs again and
again when no such causes as those enumerated can betraced. The disease, if such it may be called
—as I think it may—is even said to be infectious. No sooner does it show itself in one animal than
it is seen in another, and another, till it has spread over the most part of the cow-house. Some say
this is to be attributed to the odor arising from the substances evacuated. Possibly it may be so;
there is nothing unreasonable in the supposition; for although we cannot perceive the smell, nor
account for its peculiar influence, it is still quite within possibility that such an odor does exist,
having the power attributed to it. There can be no great harm, bowever, in acting as if we were
assured that the mischief has its origin in the source so commonly supposed, provided we do not
shut our eyes to any other which accident or investigation may reveal. In the meantime, the num-
ber of miscarriages may be diminished by carefully avoiding all those causes which are known to
be capable of producing it. Let the Cows be regularly fed ; let their food be good and in proper
quantities; let them have water as often as they will take it; avoid sudden exposure to cold or
heat; and, above all, let the cow-house be well ventilated. Prohibit all manner of rough usage
on the part of those who look after the Cows, whether they be pregnant or not. If any of them
accumulate flesh too rapidly, gradually reduce their allowance; and, on the other hand, if any be-
come emaciated, discover the cause, and remedy it, always by slow degrees. Sudden changes in
the matter or mode of feeding should also be avoided. The same sort of diet does not agree
equally well with all the Cows; and this, in general, is indicated by undue relaxation or constipe-
tion of the bowels: this should be watched, and removed at once. Attention to these and many
other minor circumstances will amply repay the proprietor for the little additional trouble.

“When the farmer perceives symptoms of miscarriage, he should,” says Professor Youatt, in
his excellent work on Cattle, “remove the Cow from the pasture to a comfortable cow-
house or shed. If the discharge is glaring, but not offensive, he may hope that the calf is not
dead—he will be assured of this by the motion of the foetus, and then it is impossible that the mis-
carriage may yet be avoided. He should hasten to bleed her, and that copiously, in proportion to
her age, size, condition, and the state of excitement in which he may find her; and he should give
a dose of physic immediately after the bleeding (this may be 1 lb. of Epsom salts in a quart of
warm water). The physic beginning to operate, he should administer half a drachm of opium,
and half an ounce of sweet spirits of nitre; unless she is in a state of great debility, he should
avoid, above all things, the comfortable drink which some persons recommend ; he should allow
nothing but gruel, and keep his patient as quiet as he can. By these means he may occasionally
allay the general or local irritation that precedes or causes the miscarriage, and the Cow may yet
go her full time.”

WOMB INFLAMMATION.—This affection of the womb occurs after calving
or bulling. The symptoms are, great irritation and pain. Bleed and give the following drench:
Epsom salts, 1 pound; Powdered carraway seeds, 2 ounces; Warm gruel, 3 pints.

Bathe the womb with Goulard water, or vinegar and water in equal parts.

CALVING TABLE.

Day bulled. Will calve.|Day builed. Will calve.|Day bulled. Will calve.|Day bulled. Will calve.
Vey We ssacegods Oct. 8) April I<-..-... Mame Gi Ulva lene = April 7/Oct. Toss ees July 9
“a 7 Ee a“ 14 ae 7 Fy Re ehh “ aly) “ee uf Os Seed ke a 13 “ 7 Bre ee and a 15
Ca es ore a HOD EOE ie Lee ee A Oe S| ee ee £0" VQO I Se ra ere arta stot Op
RODD a rstale/a sta wile OO] OF a Se CRAG | UNM’ Genera scieners rae >| Weir) LE a sie = Un)
COB sian ase biares Nov./4)) ne28 eos ere Logo 2 ENP aR aco May 4), 9o oP aeo ceca Aug. 5
SO pO eettate mielelato TH rfl ae UA cert 4A AH BL oe Seite eS, SS ere eer a8
el saute etelalelel= ‘t 18|(May) Je -seccee. 2) 7S) Aug. 1 occ c25, Pe SNOW dl seme et,
CEM itergate nie etarere OT FLAN REGS Ba arate fae eles dies Ea I Ta Li ey (ce 66 S| ea Indore atta 5S
2 a er ares UOT | ae Ae ate eet ae te TCLS) ie ae Aaa eroleiere 60 SD Lee AC Ss cea ee
Seatac ters ate OB ent Lote aiale 4-15). © QV ee eee e nt ON US i oretere eee
SOB anteraipie te ahaa Dee, (5) Rater eee Mat 4). 4" (2B eae Jane’. 5} . 28...¢. 7. -Septie
UAT dae ciecislscle so! | (61/0 ie monlaereeretne a Ty 8 Ble ckeee SRB 0S ae
Sein waehia's state 4) 12 | Tone el eaters tele Bi Septs Lesa «)*OlDec. Le tekeesien meee
“ Te are tea ae “ 19 af br dp sae “a 14 ““ Tes oats. e “ 15 “ y ee eee “ 21
“ 21 ate aN vate “ 26 pI ee “ Q1 “ 142-005. “ 22 “ Loeykvoes “ 31
SOUS ee as nivice se A. er | eI etate AO Oly) @ Ligteeavetetets ier! ees Corse cpg A) OLS)
NG LE aataeie nts ota #5) 4, BAUME Ae See TN) Sat 4 UT I eAedaly. 6)" M4 ORs Oct. 5

Maciek

THE SPAYING OF COWS.

TRANSLATED FOR THE WORKING FARMER,

FROM “LA NORMANDIE AGRICOLE JOURNAL D’AGRICULTURE PRATIQUE,” &c., &c.

STATEMENT OF M. P. A. MORIN, VETERINARY SURGEON AT THE ROYAL DEPOT AT LANGONNET.

A LAND owner in the United States, Mr. Winn, seems to have had the first practice in spaying
cows. The object of the operation was to maintain in the cow, without interruption, a supply of
the same quantity of milk that she gave at the time of spaying. Notwithstanding the favorable
results that Mr. W inn claimed to have obtained, the operation remained almost unknown i in France
until a veterinary surgeon of Lausanne (a Swiss), M. Levrat made known the experiments prac-
tised by him, and theit effects. The T'reatise of M. Levrat ends with the following conclusions :—

“The effect of spaying seems to me to cause a more abundant and constant secretion of milk,
which possesses also superior qualities, whence the following advantages result to the proprietor:

“1. An increase of one third in the quantity of milk.

“2. The certainty of having almost constantly the same quantity of milk.

“3. Exemption from accidents which may happen during the period of heat, when the cows
mount each other, or are covered by too large bulls.

Mi: 4. Exemption from the risk of accidents which sometimes accompany or follow gestation and
calving.

“5, Base in fatting cows, when their milk begins to dry up.

“6. In fine, spaying is the only means of preventing onerous expenses, occasioned by cows be-
coming ‘ ¢awrelieres,’ which is so frequently the case in some countries, that it is rare to see cows
kept more than two or three years without getting in this state: as for example, in the environs
of Lausanne and Lavaux, wher e they” are obliged for this reason to change all their cows every two
or three years, which is quite ruinous.’ ;

M. Levrat confirmed, after a year's observations, this fact, that the quantity of milk was con-
stantly kept the same after the time of spaying.

M. Reégére, veterinary surgeon at Borieaux inserted in the Recuel de Médecine Vétérinaire, a
series of facts upon the spaying of cows. that had been acted upon by various proprietors.

It appears from these facts, which he recounts with many details, and whose authenticity is fixed,
that the spayed cows have given without interruption after the operation, a quantity of milk at
least double the average of what they gave during the preceding years. “After the researches
that I have made since I commenced all these experiments, to the present time,” says M. Régére,
“this calculation is very exact, and if the cows continue to give milk during their whole life, in
like manner, the operation of spaying will furnish incontestable advantages, | particularly i in large
cities, and their vicinity, where fodder is very dear, and where milk always sells well.”

A remark made by MM. Levret and Régére, is that some cows, although they have been spayed,
have had their heat, notwithstanding the removal of their ovarium, and the incapacity for their re-
production. These animals present, ‘at the time of their heat, this difference from what we remark
during the same period incows not spayed, that their milk does not undergo any alteration in either
quantity or quality,

We may add, that the school of Alfort has, recently, practised this oper: ation upon different cows,
and that all the results obtained have reached the point we have above stated.

Leaving this, we arrive at the facts determined by M. Morin.

Young cows ought to receive that nourishment which favors the secretion of milk, and which -
in consequence renders active their lactiferous vessels. The cow is not usually in full production
until after the third or fourth calf; she continues to give the same return up to the seventh or
eighth; from this time lactation diminishes after each new calving. On the other hand, from the
moment that the cow has received the bull, and gradually as gestation advances, the quantity of
milk progressively diminishes in most breeds, until three or four months before healthy parturition,

) the secretion of milk is almost nothing. It is to guard against this loss, and other inconveniences,
) that we lay down what we have obtained after some years’ experience in spaying the cow, and
| the happy results that we meet with daily.

OF THE SPAYING OF THE COW AND THE ADVANTAGES OF THIS OPERATION.

“The operation of spaying in the cow is productive of great advantages.

“1, The cow spayed a short time after calving, that is to say, thirty or forty days afterward, and
SLOOP IPP OP aeae5—eerrr r_ ee _ Leow ™*

LOL ll el

« 38 THE SPAYING OF COWS.

? at the time when she gives the largest quantity of milk, continues to give the like quantity, if not

PPP Hr

during her whole lifetime, at least during many years, and at the time when the milk begins to dry
up the animal fattens. We are able to add, moreover, at this day, certain facts, the result of many
years’ experiment, that the milk of the spayed cow, although as abundant, and sometimes more so,
than before the operation, is of a superior quality to that from a cow not spayed ; that it is uniform
in its character, that it is richer, consequently more buttery, and that the butter is always of a
golden color.

“We believe that we ought to remark in passing, that if we feed the spayed cow too abundantly,
lactation diminishes, and that the beast promptly fattens. It is therefore important that the feed-
ing should not be more than sufficient to enable us to obtain the desired result.

“2. The spayed cow fattens more easily ; its flesh, age considered, is better than that of the ox;
it is more tender and more juicy.

“ Indeed, no one is ignorant of the fact that all domestic animals, females as well as males, de-
prived of their procreative organs, fatten more quickly than those which retain them; that the
flesh of the spayed females is more tender and more delicate tha. that of males. The same
phenomena take place among spayed cows that occur among other females that have submitted to
this operation ; so, besides the advantage of furnishing a long-continued supply, before commencing
a course of fattening, of abundant milk, and butter of a superior quality, the cow fattens easily and
completely, and a certain benefit follows this course.

“ 3. In spaying decrepit cows, that is to say, of the age of from six to seven years, puny, small
ones; those which, though fine in appearance bear badly ; those which are subject to miscarriage;
those which frequently experience difficult calving, or delivery ; those difficult to keep ; and finally,
all those that are tawre/ieres, that is to say, constantly in heat—we have in addition to an abun-
dant production of milk and butter, and a facility of fattening, the advantage of preventing a de-
generation of the species, and moreover of avoiding a crowd of accidents or maladies which fre-
quently take place during or after gestation, and of diminishing those which happen during the period
of heat, such as that of heavy cows mounting others, or being jumped upon by too heavy bulls.

“ Except under peculiar circumstances, we should take care in spaying the cow, that its teats
have acquired their complete development, and that the milk has the proper qualities. The most
suitable time is after the third or fourth calving.

“ Many societies of agriculture, impressed with the important results that this operation effects,
fix yearly at their agricultural meetings, premiums for the encouragement of the spaying of old
cows. We doubt not that other societies who have not yet adopted this plan—not being convinced
of its importance—when they are, will imitate their example. By this means they bestow upon
the country a new source of products.

“We have been engaged for four years in researches upon this valuable discovery, we believe
that it is incumbent upon us to state the results that we have obtained up to the present time. In
the number of twenty-seven cows, aged from six to fifteen years, that we have actually spayed,
we have had the following results: 1. Increase of milk in cows of six years; 2. Constant produc-
tion in those that have passed that age; 3. Milk richer than that of the cow not spayed, conse-
quently more buttery, and the butter both of a uniformly golden color, and having an aroma and
taste far superior to that of a cow that has not undergone this operation.

“ Early in July, 1842, we obtained as a subject of experiment, a cow from Brittany, of the small
kind, twelve years old, calved about two months before, and which gave when we obtained her,
about six quarts of milk daily. The next day after we performed the operation of spaying, indeed
the first eight days after that, the secretion of milk sensibly diminished, in consequence ef the light
diet on which she had been put; but, on the ninth day, the time at which the cure was complete
and the cow put on her ordinary food, the milk promptly returned as to its former quantity, and she
at the same time assumed a plumpness that she had not had previously. Customarily bringing
together, the yield of three days for butter-making being eighteen quarts, it produced constantly
two kilograms of butter of the best quality. From the month of December to the following March,
the quantity of milk diminished about one third, and the butter proportionally, the cow during that
time having been put on dry fodder. But so soon as we were able to tarn her into pastare—about
the beginning of April—the milk, after eight days of this new food, resumed its former course, and
the animal continued daily to furnish the same relative amounts of milk and butter as before.

“Three cows, two of which were fourteen years old, and the other fifteen, have dried up two
years after the operation, and at the same time promptly fattened, without increase or change of food.

“ One cow eight years old, plentifully supplied with trefoil and cabbage, gave, a short time after
the operation, a quantity of milk nearly double that which she gave before, although she was kept
on the same kind of food. She has during a year continued to furnish the same amount, and has
in addition fattened so rapidly, that the owner has been obliged, seeing her fatness, to sell her to the
butcher, although she was still very good for milk.

“ Another fact, no less worthy of remark, we must not pass over in silence; and which goes to
prove the superior and unchanging quality of the milk of a spayed cow. It is, that a proprietor
having spayed a cow five years old, recently calved, with the special intention of feeding with her
milk a newly-born infant, the infant arriving at the age of six months, of a robust constitution, re-
fused its pap since it had been accidentally prepared with milk different from that of the spayed cow.

“The other cows which had been spayed continued to give entire satisfaction to their owners,
as well in respect to the quantity and quality of the milk, as also by their good condition.

“ Six cows manifested, shortly after the operation, and on divers occasions, the desire for copu-
lation; but we have not remarked this peculiarity except among the younger ones. In other
respects, as my colleagues, MM. Levrat and Régére, have statea, we milk has not indicated the
least alteration in quantity or quality.

“ Indeed, the happy results that are daily attained from this important discovery, are so conclusive,
and so well known at this time in our part of the country, that as we write, many proprietors bring

“ww

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THE SPAYING OF COWS. 39

us constantly good milch cows, since we have called upon them to do so, for us to practice the
operation of spaying upon them. Every owner of cattle is aware, that from the time that the cow
has received a bull, and in proportion as gestation advances, the milk changes and diminishes pro-
gressively, until at last, two or three months before a healthy parturition, the animal gives very little
or no milk, whence ensues considerable loss; while at the same time, after the cows are subjected
to the bull, the milk and butter are—for fifty days, at least—of a bad quality, and improper to be
exposed for sale; but in addition to this, breeding cows are generally subjected to such loss in
winter, and their keepers find themselves during a great part of the year, entirely deprived of mak
and butter. and at a time, too, when they most need them.

“By causing the cows to undergo this operation, as we have mentioned in the preceding chapter,
the owner will never fail of having milk and butter of excellent quality; will fatten his animals
easily when they dry up, and also will improve the race, an anxiety for which is perceived in many
provinces of France.

“Tn general, the means employed by farmers to obtain the best possible price for old cows, be-
yond being useful, or to use a commercial term, not merchantable, as to bring them to the bull, in-
tending that gestation shall give them more suitable plumpness, so that they may be sold on more
advantageous terms to the butcher; but does this state of fictitious embonpoint or fatness, render
the flesh of these beasts better? Assuredly not. It is merely bloated, flabby flesh, livid, and
which easily taints. Broth made from it is not rich, is without flavor, and without an agreeable
smell; the lean and fat are in a measure infiltrated with water. and are consequently of bad
quality and difficult sale. These causes ought then to determine farmers to adopt the advice we
give; they, as well as the butcher and the consumer, will derive very great advantage from it.

“ As our method of operating may be slightly different from that pointed out by our colleague,
M. Levrat, we will describe that which we practice.

“ Having covered the eyes of the cow to be operated upon. we place her against a wall, provided
with five rings firmly fastened, and placed as follows: the first corresponds to the top of the withers;
the second to the lower anterior part of the breast; the third is placed a little distance from the
angle of the shoulder; the fourth is opposite to the anterior and superior part of the lower region,
and the fifth, which is behind, answers to the under part of the buttocks. We place a strong as-
sistant between the wall and the head of the animal, who firmly holds the left horn in his left hand,
and with his right, the muzzle, which he elevates a little. This done, we pass through and fasten
the end of along and strong plaited cord in the ring, which corresponds to the lower part of the
breast ; we bring the free end of the cord along the left flank and pass it through the ring which is
below and in front of the withers. We bring it down along the breast behind the shoulders and
the angle of the fore leg to pass it through the third ring; from there, we pass it through the ring,
which is at the top of the back; then it must be passed around against the outer angle of the left
hip, and we fasten it, after having drawn it tightly to the posterior ring by a simple bow-knot.

« The cow being firmly fixed to the wall, we placed a cord, fastened by a slip-noose around its
hocks to keep them together in such manner that the animal can not kick the operator, the free end
of the cord and the tail are held by an assistant. The cow, thus secured, can not, during the
operation, move forward. nor lie down, and the veterinary surgeon has all the ease desirable, and
is protected from accident.

* M. Levrat advises that an assistant should hold a plank or bar of wood obliquely under the
teats aud before its limbs to ward off the kicks; but this method is not always without danger,
both to the operator and the animal, because, at the commencement, that is, when the surgeon makes
the incision through the hide and the muscles, the cow makes such sudden movements and tries so
frequently to strike with its left hind foot, that it may happen that upon every movement, the plank
or the bar may be struck against the operator's legs. On the other hand, although the defense
may be firmly held by the assistant. yet it may happen, that in spite of his exertions, he sometimes
may be thrown against the operator by the movements she may attempt, and there may be an
uncontrollable displacement of the plank or bar; and then it may happen that she becomes
wounded, and at the same time prevents the operation, while, by the mode we point out, there is
no fear of accident, either to the operator or the beast. Incase of the want of a wall provided
with rings, we may use a strong palisade, a solid fence, or two trees a suitable distance apart,
across which we fix two strong bars of wood, separated from each other, according to the size of
the cow.

“There is another means of confining them that we have employed for some time past, where
the cows were very strong and irritable, more simple than the preceding, less fatiguing for the ani-
mal, less troublesome to the operator, and which answers perfectly. It consists: Furst. In leaving
the cow almost free, covering her eyes, holding her head by two strong assistants, one of whom
seizes the nose with his hand and strongly pinches the nostrils, whenever the animal makes any
violent movements during the operation. Second. To cause another assistant to hold the two hind
legs, kept together by meansof a cord passed above and beneath the hocks; this assistant also holds
the tail and pulls it, whenever the animal seeks to change its place.

“The cow being conveniently disposed, and the instruments and appliances, such as curved
Scissors upon a table, a convex edged bistoury, a straight one, and one buttoned at the point, suture
needle filled with double thread of desired length, pledgets of lint of appropriate size and length,
a mass of tow (in pledgets) being collected in a shallow basket, held by an intelligent assistant,
we place ourselves opposite to the left flank, our back turned a little toward the head of the animal ;
we cut off the hair which covers the hide in the middle of the flanks, at an equal distance between
the back and the hip, for the space of thirteen or fourteen centimetres in circumference; this done,
we take the convex bistoury, and place it opened between our teeth, the edge out, the joint to the
left; then, with both hands, we seize the hide in the middle of the flank and form of it a wrinkle
of the requisite elevation, and running lengthwise of the body. We then direct an assistant to
seize with his right hand the right side of this wrinkle; we then take the bistoury that we held

40 THE SPAYING OF COWS.

in our teeth, and we cut the wrinkle at one stroke through the middle; the wrinkle having been
suffered to go down, a separation of the hide is presented of sufficient length to enable us to irtro-
duce the hand ; thereupon we separate the edges of the hide with the thumb and forefinger of the
left hand, and in like manner, we cut through the abdominal muscles, the ¢/iaz (slightly obliquely)
and the /wmbar (across) for the distance of a centimetre from the lower extremity of the incision
made in the hide ; this done, armed with the straight bistoury, we make a puncture of the perito-
neum at the upper extremity of the wound ; we then introduce the buttoned bistoury, and move it
obliquely from above to the lower part, up to the termination of the incision made in the abdominal
muscles. The flank being opened, we introduce the right hand into the abdomen and direct it along
the right side of the cavity of the pelvis, behind the ewl de saurumen (paunch) and underneath the
rectum, where we find the cornes de (uterus (matrix); after we have ascertained the position of
these viscera, we search for the ovazres (organs of reproduction), which are at the extremity of the
cornes, and when we have found them, we seize them between the thumb and forefinger, detach
them completely from the ligaments that keep them in their place, pull lightly, separating the cord,
and the vessels (uterine or fallopian tube) at their place of union with the ovarium, by means of the
nail of the thumb and forefinger, which presents itself at the point of touch ; in fact we break the
cord and bring away the ovarium. We then introduce again the hand in the abdominal cavity,
and we proceed in the same manner to extract the other ovaria. This operation terminated, we,
by the assistance of the needle, place a suture of three or four double threads waxed at an equal
distance, and at two centimetres, or a little less from the lips of the wound, passing it through the
divided tissues, we move from the left hand with the piece of thread ; having reached that point,
we fasten with a double knot, we place the seam in the intervals of the thread from the right, and
as we approach the lips of the wound, we fasten by a simple knot, with a bow, being careful not
to close too tightly the lower part of the seam, so that the suppuration which may be established in
the wound, may be able to escape. This operation effected, we cover up the wound with a pledget
of lint kept in its place by three or four threads passed through the stitches, and all is completed,
and the cow is then led back to the stable.

“Tt happens, sometimes, that in cutting the muscles, of which we have before spoken, we cut
one or two of the arteries which bleed so much, that there is necessity fora ligature before open-
ing the peritoneal sac, because, if this precaution be omitted, blood will escape into the abdomen,
and may occasion the most serious consequences.

CARE AFTER THE OPERATION.

The regimen that we prescribe during the first eight days following the operation, is a light
diet, and a soothing lukewarm draught; if the weather should be cold, we cover the cow with a
woollen covering. We must prevent the animal from licking the wound and from rubbing it
against other bodies. The third day after the operation, we bathe morning and evening about the
wound, with water of mallows lukewarm, and in default of this, we anoint it with a salve of hog’s
lard, and we administer an emollient glyster during three or four days.

“ Hight days after the operation we take away the bandage, the lint, the fastenings and the
threads; the wound is at that time completely cicatrized, as we have observed that a reunion takes
place almost always by the first intention, as we have only observed suppuration in three cows,
and then it was very slight. In this case we must use a slight pressure above the part where the
suppuration is established, so as to cause the pus to leave it, and if it continues more than five or
six days, we must supply emollients by alcolized water, or chloridized, especially if it be in sum-
mer. We then bring the cow gradually back-to her ordinary nourishment.

““We have remarked in some cows a swelling of the body a short time after being spayed, a state
that we have attributed to the introduction of cold air into the abdomen during the operation; but
this derangement has generally ceased within twenty-four hours. Ifthe contrary should occur, we
administer one or two sudorific draughts; such as wine, warm cider, or a half glass of brandy,
in a quart of warm water; treatment which suffices in a short time to re-establish a healthy state
of the belly, the animal at the same time being protected by two coverings of wool.

“The operation which we have been describing, ought to be performed as we have said before,
thirty to forty days after calving, upon a cow which has had her third or fourth calf, so that we may
have a greater abundance of milk. The only precaution to be observed before the operation, is,
that on the preceding evening we should not give so copious a meal as usual, and to operate in the
morning before the animal has fed, so that the operator shall not find any obstacle from the primary
digestive organs, especially the paunch, which, during its state of ordinary fullness, might prevent
operating with facility.

CONCLUSION.

of milk, increase of quantity, and improvement of quality; richer, more buttery, superior color,
finer taste and flavor. 2. The most suitable age is six years, and after the third or fourth calf.
3. The spayed cow fattens more easily, and furnishes beef of a better quality. 4. Cows that are

“From what has preceded, it is fixed and irrefutable,—1. That spaying induces permanency
bad breeders may be kept as good milkers, and the quality of good cattle kept up.” :
|

a i ea

ON

By ee 4>'G OW Se
WHEREBY
THE QUALITY AND QUANTITY OF MILK WHICH ANY COW WILL GIVE
MAY BE ACCURATELY DETERMINED,

BY

TREATISE.

OBSERVING NATURAL MARKS, OR EXTERNAL INDICATIONS ALONE;

THE LENGTH OF TIME SHE WILL CONTINUE TO GIVE MILK,
&e. &e:

By M. FRANCIS GUENON, France.

Translated from the French of the Author, for the Farmers’ Library,

By N. P. TRIST, late U. S. Consul at Havana.

THE TRANSLATOR TO THE READER.

\
|
!

Nonsense! Who can believe any such thing 2? What! by merely looking at a
cow, to be able to tell how much milk she is capable of being made to yield ;
and, also, how long she can continue to give milk after being got with calf!—
to be able thus to ascertain, not only what are the qualities of a full grown cow,

¢ but what are to be the qualities of any heifer-calf, by looking at her while yet
but two or three months old! Surely, if ever there was a humbug, this is one.

Sofily, Mr. Reader! You are very incredulous, no doubt, but I defy you to be
more so than I was when in your present position. What is more, I defy you
to cling to your skepticism over an hour or so. However strong and firm it may
be at this moment, it will, in a little while, have vanished into nothing ; and its
place will be filled by another solid proof in addition to the many you must al-
ready have stored up, that

,

“There are more things in heaven and earth ;
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”

When this discovery was first mentioned to me, as one which had recently
been published in France, I smiled at the credulity of some people. My informant,
perceiving what effect the announcement had upon me, said, “It is so, however ae
and then, nothing but politeness toward a stranger, for the first time under my
roof, prevented my replying, “‘ You do not really believe this to be possible.”

He offered to send me the book; and, though I had not the least idea of
throwing away my time in reading it, civility would not allow me to decline.
It came, and I opened it with the intention merely of looking into it sufficiently
to say that I had done so. When, however, in turning the pages over, I saw
that this piece of quackery, as I felt very sure the pretended discovery must be,
had engaged the attention of distinguished Agricultural Societies in France, and

42 TREATISE ON MILCH COWS.

had earned “‘ Gold Medals” for its author, in a country where they are not prone
to be lavish of such substantial marks of approbation, my curiosity was awakened,
and I had soon read enough to bring home to me once more, for the thousandth
time, that homely old truth, “ We live to learn.”

Since then, many things have occurred to strengthen my confidence in the re-
ality of this discovery, and in its high practical value to all interested in the pre-
servation and improvement of milk stock—and who is it that is not interested in
its productiveness ? ‘The most recent of these incidents is as follows:

A friend to whom I had lent the translation accompanied with the plates which

are requisite to make it intelligible, showed it to a man from the country whose

calling had rendered him quite conversant with the subject of cattle. This per-
son’s curiosity was so far awakened, that, beside attending to the explanations

made to him, he took a sketch of some of the escutcheons. After an absence of

some weeks, he returned to the city where this had happened, and came to see

my friend. ‘That thing (said he) is as true as a book. There is no mistake

about the matter. Since I was here, I have looked at more cows than ever you

saw, and I am perfectly satisfied that the thing is just as the Frenchman says.

I have become convinced, too, of another thing: that our breeds of cattle are by

no means the great things they are cracked up to be.” N. P. T.
Washington City, January, 1846.

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TREATISE ON MILCH COWS.

CHAPTER I.
ACCOUNT OF THE DISCOVERY.

To give the history of my discovery, I must speak of myself. My narrative
shall be succinct and short, although my labors have been protracted. But this
is a condition attached to discoveries generally ; we must meditate long upon
what an instant has sufficed to reveal or suggest tous. It will be seen that, in
my case, difficulties were always renewing.

I am the son of a gardener, and I followed for a long time this trade of my
forefathers. Nature had given me an observing turn of mind; I was fond of
bringing things together—of instituting comparisons between them—of deducing
consequences. At an early period I became possessed by the idea that I was
destined to make some important discovery in the branch of industry which I fol-
lowed. Was this the suggestion of mere vanity? Be it as it may, the thought
took root in my mind, and became for me a fixed idea. With a view to arriving
at this wished-for discovery, [ studied the works of the best writers on Botany
and Agriculture ; I learned Geometry and the art of Drawing, so far as it seemed
necessary tome. I followed up all the ramifications of the vegetable kingdom,
and applied myself to the study of the external signs by which plants and vege-
tables of different sorts might be distinguished, and their qualities and product-
iveness might be known beforehand. :

To do this was to accomplish a good deal, no doubt; but my mind, still pos-
sessed by the idea of the great future discovery, was never at rest. I was, like
Ahasuerus, under the hand of the angel; a voice within was constantly crying
out, “ Go on!” and I felt myself impelled forward ; but I had no glimpse of the
goal to which I was tending.

Chance led to the discovery of the famous Tyrian purple; to chance also is
due an observation which was the germ of my discovery, and constitutes the ba-
sis of my method. When fourteen years of age, I used, according to country cus-

A EL OOO AIAG AI eg a,

44 TREATISE ON MILCH COWS.

—

tom, to drive our only Cow to the grazing ground. I was very fond of her, and
could have identified her among ever so many. One day, as I was whiling away
the time in cleaning and scratching my poor old companion, I noticed that a sort
of bran or dandruf detached itself in considerable quantities from certain spots on
her hind parts, formed by the meeting of the hair, as it grew in opposite direc-
tions ; which spots I have since called ears, from the resemblance they often bear
to the bearded ears or heads of wheat orrye.* This fact attracted my attention,
and J recollected having heard one of my grandfathers say that it was probable
there were external marks on Cows, whereby their good qualities or their defects
might be known—just as we judge of the vital force of a plant and its qualities
by means of its leaves and the lines on its skin. My own thoughts now took
this turn. Reflecting on the subject, I arrived at the conclusion that if, in the
vegetable kingdom, there exist external signs, whereby the good and the bad
qualities of a plant can be positively known, there ought to exist in the animal
kingdom, also, marks whereby we may judge, by inspecting an animal, of its
qualities, good and bad; and I thought that I had discovered one of these signs.

All this, however, was as yet but mere speculation—a brilliant theory, which
experience might belie: it was necessary to interrogate Nature. The Cow which
I tended was a good milker. I have already said that I knew her perfectly. I
examined other Cows within my reach, to see if I should find the same signs in
them. I sought for the bearded ears (quirls), and scratched those spots in quest
of dandruf; the abundance or the scarcity of this being what first engaged my
attention. Every new Cow was compared with my own as a standard, and her

uperiority, equality or inferiority determined in my own mind.

From this moment [ spared nothing to follow up my observations ; no fatigue
was too great for me; I have often traveled several leagues in order to examine
a single Cow. What was my exultation when, after I had formed my judgment
of a Cow, the questions with which I belabored her owner brought forth answers
that corroborated its accuracy! How often has it happened that people were
convinced that the animal whose qualities I was pronouncing upon must have
been previously known to me! My secret was the cause of astonishment to ma-
ny ; I took good care to keep it to myself.

In the course of the comparisons thus instituted by me, with reference to the
dandruf alone, which was at first the only thing that governed me, I had occasion
to remark that great diversities existed among Cows, in respect to the shape of
the bearded ears (quirls) which produced the dandruf. This suggested a new
train of reflections and observations, which resulted in my becoming con
vinced that these shapes were the signs by which to distinguish Cows, and te
know the good and bad qualities of every individual among them. From that
moment my discovery was made ; but it was necessary to digest it into a syste
—above all, to establish its aecuracy in all its parts, by proofs which should car-
ry my own conviction into the minds of others. It was here that all my courage
and perseverance was put in requisition.

It did not suflice to have discovered signs that were characteristic of different
sorts of Cows; it was necessary to make sure that the same mark might always
be relied upon as a positive and certain sign of the same perfection or defect.—

* These marks are, in some parts of our country, called guir/s. Their occurrence in horses (particularly
on the neck, under the mane) is well known to be a sign of blaod. This is a remarkable coincidence; and
it seems far from improbable that the discovery made by the author m regard to neat cattle will lead to sim.
ilar discoveries respecting other domestic animals. [American T'ranslator.

Ri SSM ll

Nh Oa NO a OO Ny

TREATISE ON MILCH COWS. 45

This could not be effected except by studying a vast number of individuals—by
comparing them together—taking into consideration the countries from which
they came—their stature—their yield. This was not all: they had to be classed.
Conceive what toil this task involved for me, a plain child of Nature, who had
no idea of such a classification, and found myself under the necessity of establish-
ing one. The endeavor was one to absorb me entirely; I gave up my calling ;
I traveled about, visiting cattle markets, fairs, cow-stables; I questioned and
eross-questioned all who might be expected to know most on the subject—hus-
bandmen, dealers in cattle, men of the veterinary profession ; I became convinced
that my discovery had not been anticipated by any one. ‘he marks for distin-
guishing a good Cow from a bad one varied according to the notions of each indi-
vidual. Some looked to the shape of the horns—others upon that of the udder;
some judged by the shape of the animal, or the color of her hair—others were
determined in their choice by something else. But, in these various modes of
judging, all was vague and uncertain. I became confirmed in the belief that I
had made the important discovery of signs that were positive and certain; and,
in order the better to satisfy myself of the solidity of the ground upon which my
method was to rest, I took the precaution to return to the same localities at dif-
ferent times and seasons, that I might trace and ascertain the effects which might
attend these variations of Nature. All my observations were accurately noted
down ; and I could at length flatter myself with having acquired a mass of facts
which gave solidity and consistence to my system, and imparted the character of
positive certainty to that which at first had been but a probable conjecture.

In 1822, I began to deal in cattle on my own account. ‘This trade brought un-
der my eyes a great number and variety of Cows from all quarters—from Switz-
erland, Holland, Brittany, Poitou, &c. &c.; and I had better opportunities than
before for thoroughly examining the marks of these different races. My obser-
vations were multiplied, and | became convinced anew that all individuals pos-
sessing the same marks belonged to the same family, whatever might be the
country of their birth; that these marks were an infallible indication of the same
degree of superiority or inferiority ; ina word, that Nature, always consistent
with herself, acted, at all times and places, in the same way, and was always
governed by the same laws.

For between seven and eight years, I had been incessantly engaged in estab-
lishing order among my observations, and arranging the results into one consist-
ent whole. I established a classification, founded upon the shape or outline of
the different marks: Cows were first divided into classes or families; then, in
each of these classes, there was a threefold division, according to size—the tall
or high, the medium, and the Jow ; finally, each class was subdivided into orders,
according to the diminution and the deformity of the distinctive mark of the class,
as found in the different individuals belonging to it. This task was an immense
one for me, and cost me a degree of trouble and an expenditure of time, of which
a conception may be formed by considering how many comparisons and combina-
tions Were necessary to a person so unversed in scientific methods, before my ma-
terials could be reduced to order, and I could form a distinct and precise idea of
my own discovery.

These difficulties, which might have disheartened any other person, did not
discourage me. A system was to be created, and I created it. In 1828, I ad-
dressed to the Academy of Bordeaux a request, having for its object that my
method should be examined and reported upon. I was not yet willing to disclose

46 TREATISE ON MILCH COWS.

my secret entirely ; my object was to get the reality of my discovery and its re-
sults attested to. The Academy, without adopting my conclusions, did neverthe-
less make honorable mention of me, at its sitting of the 3d of June following, in
these terms:

“M. Francis Guénon, of Libourne, possessor of a method which he deems infallible for judg-
ing, by mere visual examination, of the goodness of Milch Cows, and the quantity of milk which
each can yield, has solicited the Academy to cause the efficaciousness of this method to be tested
by repeated experiments. The case presented by this request was one of a secret method of
judging, which the possessor was not willing to reveal. On the other hand, it seemed difficult to
admit that the external signs, whatever they might be, by which M. Guénon judges, could al-
ways bear a proportional relation to the quantity of milk yielded by a Cow. Nevertheless, the
Academy deemed it proper to appoint a Committee charged with making the examination.

“Trials have been made, with the care and under the precautions necessary for precluding all
collusion. The Cows used for the purpose belonged to three different herds, and amounted to
thirty in number, and the result has been to establish, to the satisfaction of the Committee, that
M. Guénon really possesses great sagacity in this line. So long, however, as his method shall be
kept secret, it cannot be judged of nor rewarded by the Academy.

“Governed by these considerations, the Academy, having ascertained from M. Guénon that he
is willing to submit to every test that may be proposed, and to disclose his secret upon receivmg
a just indemnity, has referred him to the Prefect, and has engaged to recommend him to the fa-
vorable notice of that magistrate, who is ever disposed to promote all that tends to improvement.”

Here the matter rested at that time. I did not then make up my mind to give
my secret to the public; but I persevered in my observations and experiments,
in orcer to percect sny discovery. In 1837, the Agvicuiiura: Society of Lordeaux
deiermined to ascertain for itself what reality there might be in my system.—
The result surpassed its expectation ; the experiments made, in presence of the

Committee appointed for the purpose, left no doubt as to the certainty of my
method. Here are the terms in which the Committee expressed themselves in
their report:

AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF BORDEAUX.
GUENON DISCOVERY....MILCH COWS.

Report to the Agricultural Society of Bordeaux,

Gentlemen: The Committee appointed by you to examine into the discoverie#of M. Francis
Guénon. of Libourne, have the honor to submit to you the result of their investigations.

M. Guénon has established a natural method, by means of which it is easy to recognize and
class the different kinds of Milch Cows, according to

lst. The quantity of milk which they can yield daily.
2d. The period during which they will continue to give milk.
3d. The quality of their milk.

Down to the present day, Gentlemen, the writers and professors who have the most particu-
larly occupied themselves with the bovine race have been unable to do anything more than indi-
cate some vague signs for judging of the fitness of Cows for secreting milk.

After more than twenty years of observations and researches, M. Guénon has succeeded at
length in discovering certain natural and positive signs, which constitute the basis of his method ;
a method henceforward proof against all error.

Sensible of the necessity that your Committee should be fully convinced, and that they could
not but look with some degree of distrust upon any results of the proposed trials of his method,
unless they should know that those results rested upon tangible facts, and were nowise depend-
ent upon guess work, M. Guénon began by imparting his secret to your Committee, and making
them fully acquainted with the positive signs upon which he has founded his method. By means
of these signs, which are all external and apparent, he has established eight classes or families,
which embrace all the varieties of the Cow that are to be met with in the different parts of this
kingdom. Tach of these classes or families is subdivided into eight orders. It is divided, also,
into three sections, so that each of the sections comprehends the eight orders; this last division

TREATISE ON MILCH COWS. 47

having reference merely to the size of the Cows, and serving to distinguish animals which,
being the same in respect to the characteristic signs that serve to fix the class and the order to
which they belong, differ in hight alone, and in their yield so far only as this is dependent upon
size.

By means of this classification, which is no less clear and distinct than simple, we are enabled,

1st. To distinguish with ease, in any herd of Cows, each individual comprised in it, according to
the quantity of milk which she is capable of yielding—from twenty-six quarts a day down to next
to nothing, and all intermediate quantities.

2d. To know the qualities of the milk which each will give, as being creamy or serous.

3d. To determine during what time, after being got with calf, the Cow will continue to give
milk.

This method—so precious, from the application of which it is susceptible, whether we be con-
cerned in the yield of milk only, or whether we avail ourselves of it for the improvement of breeds,
which are constantly liable to deterioration from mismanagement in crossing—acquires a new in-
terest when we consider that it is applicable, not to full grown animals alone, but also to calves at
so early an age as three months. Thus, on the one hand, it affords the means of forming a sure
judgment of full grown animals, in regard to which we are often misled, by their form and their
parentage, to entertain great expectations which are never realized; and, on the other hand, it se-
cures the improvement of herds, by enabling us to dispose at once of those calves which can nev-
er repay the trouble and cost of rearing them.

This important end, hitherto so vainly aimed at, had it at length been attained? To ascertain
this point is the duty with which your Committee were charged. The method of M. Guénon
having been revealed to them, it remained to ascertain how far the essential signs upon which it
rests might be susceptible of rigorous application.

With this view they passed several days in visiting a number of pasture fields, situated in lecal-
ities that differed from each other, in order that the experiments might be made upon animals of
different breeds, and under varying circumstances. They deem it proper to enter here into some
details respecting their mode of proceeding, persuaded that you will thereby be the better enabled
to understand and appreciate the merits of this method, and to form a correct judgment of the ex-
tent to which your protection is due to a discovery, which is submitted to you by the author with
the greater confidence, because it bears directly upon the prosperity of the agriculturist.

Every Cow subjected to examination was separated from the rest. What M:? Guénon had to
say,in regard to her was taken down in writing by one of the Committee ; and immediately after
the proprietor, who had kept at a distance, was interrogated, and such questions put to him as
would tend to confirm or disprove the judgment pronounced by M. Guénon. In this way we
have examined, in the most careful manner—note being taken of every fact and every observation
made by any one present—upward of sixty Cows and Heifers; and we are bound to declare
that every statement made by M. Guénon with respect to each of them, whether it regarded the
quantity of milk, or the time during which the Cow continued to give milk after being got with
calf, or, finally, the quality of the milk as being more or less creamy or serous, was confirmed, and
its accuracy fully established. The only discrepancies which occurred were some slight differ-
ences in regard to the quantity of milk; but these, as we afterward fully satisfied ourselves,
were caused entirely by the food of the animal being more or less abundant.

The results of this first test seemed conclusive; but they acquired new force from those of a see-
ond trial, in which the method was subjected to another test, through M. Guénon and his brother.
Your Committee, availing themselves of the presence of the latter. caused the same Cows to be
examined by the two brothers, but separately; so that, after a Cow had been inspected, and her
qualities, as indicated by the signs in question, had been pronounced upon by one of the brothers,
he was made to withdraw ; then the other brother, who had kept aloof, was called up, and desired
to state the qualities of the same animal. This mode of proceeding could not fail to give rise to
differences—to contradictions, even—between the judgments of the two brothers, unless their
method was a positive and sure one. Well! Gentlemen, we must say it—this last test was abso-
lutely decisive: not only did the various judgments of the two brothers accord perfectly together,
but they were in perfect accordance, also, with all that was said by the proprietors in regard to
the qualities, good and bad, of every animal subjected to this examination. j

To the proprietors and to the bystanders, all this was the more surprising, from tne fact that the
examination was no less prompt than its results were certain. It was, however, easy to perceive
that they, ignorant as they were of the nature of the discovery, had but little confidence in it; and
that they ascribed the cunning of M. Guénon simply to a great practical familiarity with Cows.

48 TREATISE ON MILCH COWS.

As to ourselyes—for whoni, as we have already informed you, Gentlemen, the method was no long-
er a secret—it was with constantly renewing feelings of interest and astonishment that we fol-
lowed up these examinations and contemplated the accuracy of their results. Two members
particularly of the Committee, whom their special pursuits and their physiological knowledge of
domestic animals entitle to great confidence, had, from: the very first examination, been struck
with the truth and strength of the system, the successful applications of which were multiplying
under our eyes. This system, Gentlemen, we do not fear to say it, is infallible. The signs upon
which it is founded, ever constant, invariable in the place which they occupy, are strongly impress-
ed upon the animal by the hand of Nature. To appreciate them becomes an easy task ; all that
is requisite being, after having examined the animal and ascertained what marks she bears, to ex-
amine the drawings and fix upon the one in which those same marks appear. Then, by means
of a brief but precise explanation which refers to that drawing, the qualities of the animal under
examination become known, and the class and order to which she naturally belongs are indicated.
It is by proceeding thus—by examining, first, the marks upon the animal, and then seeking among
the drawings for the one in which those marks were reproduced—that the members of your Com-
mittee, afler witnessing the first experiment, have been able themselves to apply the system, and
to form judgments which were afterward corroborated in the same way that those of M. Guénon
were.

In the hight of our admiration, Gentlemen, it was a subject of lively regret that the whole Soci-
ety were not present; but we have the consolation of hoping that each of you will soon experi-
ence the pleasure which we have enjoyed, and have it in,his power to apply this discovery to his
own use and benefit. M. Guénon is not disposed to keep it secret; he proposes, so soon as a list
of three thousand subscribers shall have been filled, to publish a work, in which his system, com-
pletely developed, shall be placed in the strongest light. The distinctive signs of each class and
each order will be exactly described, and accurately represented by engraved or lithographic
drawings; and the quantity ef milk which each description of Cow is capable of yielding will be
stated. :

By means of this faithful guide, which is within the capacity of every understanding, errors
will be dispelled, and the ability to form correct judgments of Cows will become common to all
classeso husbandmen. Before long, none but Cows and Bulls of the first order will be used to
breed from; this race of animals, which has become degenerate through bad crosses, will be ele-
vated; and, as in other species of domestic animals, individuals of pure blood will be readily ob-
tainable. Then, guided by sure and positive knowledge respecting the future qualities of young
Cattle, we shall no longer rear, at great expense for three or four years, a Calf whose secretion of
milk can never be otherwise than small in quantity and poor in quality ; while, on the other hand,
we shall no longer blindly consign to the butcher, young animals that would repay all the care
that could be bestowed upon them.

These considerations will, we feel persuaded, Gentlemen, determine you to encourage M. Gué-
non to the publication and dissemination of a method which promises to be so useful to the agri-
culturist. How many poor families, in the neighborhood of large cities, where there is always a
great consumption of milk, find ina small number of Cows the means of their subsistence! How
extensive a branch of trade is supported by the production of butter and cheese in many of our
Provinces—Brittany, Normandy, the Pyrenees, and others! Holland and Switzerland, those coun-
tries of fine pastures, are they not indebted to this branch of husbandry for a prosperity which is
ever reproducing itself, and never wearing out—a prosperity less rapid, less brilliant, perhaps,
than that which results from adventurous traffic, but safer at least for those who depend upon it;
whieh is never deceptive; which, more than any other, attaches man to his country, and favors
morality, and seems sheltered from those political tempests which, in other lands, so often prostrate
the tallest fortunes.

[Signed] GUICHENET, Veterinary Professor of the Department.
LECONTE,
F, PELISSIER.

After the reading of this Report, the Society decreed as follows:

Ist. That a gold medal be awarded to M. Francis Guénon.

2d. That he be proclaimed a Member of this Society.

3d. That fifty copies of his work on Milch Cows be subscribed for.

4th. That a thousand copies of the Report be printed for distribution among the Agricultural
Societies of France.

TREATISE ON MILCH COWS. 49
a EE eS ee
The foregoing proceedings took place at the General Meeting of the Society, at the House of
the Prefecture, on the 4th of July.
A true extract. :
{Signed] RICHIER, Secretary General of the Society.

—_—

AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF AURILLAC.

At its General Meeting of the 26th May, the following Report was pre-
sented and read on the subject of the experiments which I had been called upon
to make:

Report.

Gentlemen: M. Francis Guénon, a husbandman of Libourne, has established a method, deem-
ed by him infallible, by means of which, upon a mere inspection of any Milch Cow, she may be
judged of, and we may know the quality of her milk, the quantity of it which she is capable of
yielding, and also the time during which she can give milk.

A Committee appointed by the Agricultural Society of Bordeaux, and composed of several well
informed agriculturists, and of a very distinguished Professor of the Veterinary art of the Depart-
ment of Gironde, had already borne testimony, after putting it to numerous tests, to the eflicacious-
ness of the system of M. Guénon; and the result of its observations had been published in a very
remarkable Report, addressed to all the Agricultural Societies of France.

Your Society, considering that this discovery might be of high importance to our country, which
derives its income chiefly from the product of Milch Cows, entered into correspondence with its
author, and gladly accepted his obliging offer to come to Auvergne and subject his method to the
test of experiment.

Yesterday, the 25th of May, M. Guénon arrived at Aurillac, and immediately proceeded with
the members of your Committee to the Veyrac farm, belonging to the President of the Society —
He examined with the utmost care the fine cow stable of that domain, which embraces one hun-
dred Cows, of the best varieties that we possess. He then began his experiments upon a number
of Cows which were presented to him, and which had designedly heen selected from among the
best, the moderately good, and the most indifferent of the establishment. Upon each of these sep-
arately, M. Guénon pronounced with precision, both in regard to her daily yield of milk, and to
the time during which she continued to give milk after being got with calf. We must acknow-
ledge, Gentlemen, that his decisions corresponded almost invariably with the statements obtained
from the persons in whose charge the Cows are. The only variances we had to notice were some
very slight ones in regard to the quantity of milk. On this point, we must call your attention to
the fact that the Cows of that establishment are always fed high, upon clover or other artificial
grasses which considerably augment the quantity of milk; and that this may have caused the mis-
take of M. Guénon, which consisted in his pronouncing the yield to be a little less than it really is.
It is to be remarked that he was totally unacquainted with the usages of the country in regard to
the feeding of Cattle.

In order thoroughly to convince your Committee of the reality of the discovery, M. Guénon.
made us acquainted with the different signs upon which his method rests. With reference to
these signs, which are external and apparent, and stamped by the hand of Nature upon each ani-
mal, he has established eight classes or families, that comprehend all the varieties of the Cow found
in the various Provinces of France. Each class is divided into eight orders; and each of these
orders into three sections, according to size, as being high, of medium hight, aad low.

According to the numerous observations of the author, all Cows belong to some one of these
classes or families, and take their place under some one of the eight orders of the class. Each
class possesses marks differing in shape and size from those of the other classes; and these marks
are easy to distinguish, on merely looking atthem. In each class, the Cows of the first orders are
the best of the class, and the yield of milk is in proportion to the order; so that the two higher or-
ders are the most productive, the third and fourth orders tolerably good, and the others falling off
more and more, according to their grade.

M. Guénon applied his system, in our presence, to a number of Cows which were presented to.
him a second time; he made us remark their various signs, which differed in size and shape, and
were larger or smaller according as the Cow was a good ora bad milker. He informed us that
his system is equally applicable to young animals, and that their future qualities in regard to the

4

a TREATISE ON MILCH COWS.

production of milk can be judged of with equal certainty. In corroboration of this, he caused us”
to notice the same signs upon Calves three or four months old, and also upon Bulls destined for

the next covering season. The cowherds stated that the Calves which had been assigned by hin

to the first orders were from Cows that gave a great deal of milk. Upon two splendid Bulls, of
the fine breed of SALERS, which were of the same age, and exactly alike in hairand size, M. Gue-

non passed very different judgments: the one he pronounced good, and assigned to the first order
of his Flanders class; the other he pronounced bad, and assigned to the fifth order of his Hori-

zontal class.* He justified these judgments by very precise comparisons, and made us remark
the difference that existed in the signs of the two animals.

This day, the 26th of May, M. Guénon has made new experiments at the Cattle Fair of the town
of Aurillac, in presence of several members of the Central Agricultural Society and of the Sub-
Societies, and of a great number of land-owners and agriculturists of Cantal and the neighbormg
Departments. The following is the manner in which your Committee have thought proper to
proceed. Each Cow was examined separately by M. Guénon, who wrote his notes upon her,
and delivered the paper, closed, to one of us. Immediately after, another member of the Commit-
tee questioned the owner of the Cow, or the person in charge of her, in regard to her daily yield
of milk, its quality, and the time during which she continued to give milk after being got with
calf. The answers were taken down in writing, and then compared with the notes written by
M. Guenon. They were generally found to accord, and proved, to the satisfaction of your Com-
mittee and of every one present—all of whom attended with lively interest to these proceedings—
that M. Guénon possesses great sagacity in judging of Cattle, and that his method rests upon a
sure foundation.

An incident occurred to confirm us in this opinion. A farmer played the trick of bringing up
for examination a Cow that had already been examined and pronounced upon. The notes writ-
ten by M. Guénon on this occasion arcorded exactly, in every respect, with those he had written
on the former.

The method of M. Guénon has not the merit of being a brilliant theory. It rests upon facts and
long experience. It is only after repeated trials, and twenty-five years of toilsome researches,
that its author hag accomplished the task of establishing it. }

We are of opinion, Gentlemen, that M. Guénen ought to be encouraged by you in the publica-
tion of a system which appears to us destined to exercise a happy influence on the advancement
of one of the most important branches of rural economy. What immense advantages may there
not result, particularly in Auvergne, where the raising of Cattle and the manufacture of cheese
constitute the chief branch of industry, from a methed which should enable us to distinguish, in a
sure way, between good and bad Cows? By applying this system to Calves and to Bulls, our
stock would rapidly be raised to a high point of excellence, and we should soon have in our
mountains none but Cows of the best kind.

In view of all these considerations, your Committee have the honor to propose—

Ist. That there be awarded to M. Guénon a gold medal, with the effigy of OLIVIER de SERRES.

2d. That he be proclaimed a Corresponding member of the Society.

3d. T'o subscribe for twenty-five copies of his work, for distribution among the Sub-Societies
of the department.

4th. To cause this Report to be inserted in the AGRICULTURAL PROPAGATUR, and to transmit
a copy to all the Prefects and Agricultural Societies of France.

[Signed] COUNT SAIGNES,
G. DE LALAUBIE,
GENERAL BARON HUGONET,
V. DE PRUINES, Reporter of the Committee.

Note.—At the same sitting, the recommendations of the Committee were adupted by the Central Society
of Agriculture of Cantal.

With this highly flattering testimony in hand, I now come forward to publish
the result of my silent meditations and toilsome studies. Every one will be able,
with the aid of the lithographic drawings attached to the work, readily to recog-
nize the distinctive marks of the animal examined by him. ‘These marks are
visible upon the posterior part of every Cow, in the space embraced between the-

* See the names of the several classes, in the chapter On the different kinds ef Cows.

TREATISE ON MILCH COWS. 51

udder and the vulva. They consist of a kind of escutcheons of various shapes
and sizes, formed by the hair growing in different directions, and bounded by
lines where these different growths of hair meet. The varieties of these escutch-
eons mark the different classes and orders of Cows.

It is upon these signs that every one may rest his judgment, by attending to the
remarks contained in the body of the work upon the different kinds of Cows.—
They are what every body has seen, or been able to see; but what no one has
attended to. For myseif, I have persevered through all obstacles: neither fruit-
less expenses, which were enormous for one of my means; nor the malice of the
malevolent; nor the cold reception of the indifferent ; nor the smile of increduli-
ty ; nothing has been able to damp my zeal. Strong in my conviction, I have
been sustained by it through all my trials ; and it has always raised me up when
all conspired to depress me.

CHAPTER TE
ON THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF COWS.
§ 1, Genuine Cows,

- [ nave, as I said, established a classification of Cows; and the reader will have
become aware how much time it must have cost me to arrive at this classifica-
tion. Neither the language of Science nor its method is to be expected in my
work: I have had no other instructor than myself, and Nature has been my only
book. I am not pretending to write a treatise of Natural History; I am only giv-
ing to the public the result of my experience and observation. The suggestions
of my own mind at the different stages of my discovery have been my only guides.
In following up my observations, it was requisite that order should be establish-
ed among the facts noticed by me and the thoughts to which they gave rise. To
designate the various figures of the escutcheons of the several classes, new names
were necessary. This order and this nomenclature are of my own inveation.—
For the purpose of coining French names, I have not ransacked Greek or Latin
vocabularies ; I have adopted those which suggested themselves as naturally ex-
pressive. If they be not formed after the rules of etymology, they are at least
such as every one can seize the meaning of; and my book being destined chiefly
for that class of men who are for the most part strangers to belles-lettres, it will
possess in their eyes the merit of not disguising things under the words used to
dignify them.

I divide Cows into Ezght Crasses or families; and these classes each into eight
Orvers. In each class, I distinguish three different Sizes; the High, the Low
and the Medium. ‘This classification embraces all kinds of Cows known tome;
every individual being assignable to some one of these eight ciasses, and tosome
one of the orders comprised init. According to the Class, the Order, and the Size
of an animal, is her yield of milk: this being always found to correspond with
the escutcheon characteristic of each class; some one of which escutcheons, is
recognized in every Cow, more or less perfectly defined and free from blemish,
according to the degree in which she approaches to the perfection of her class.
This mark consists, as I have said, of the figure, on the posterior parts of the an-
imal, formed by the meeting of the hair that grows or points in different direc-

52 TREATISE ON MILCH COWS.

tions ; the line of junction of these different growths of hair constituting the out-
line of the figure or escutcheon. Here are the names of the eight classes:

Ist Class.... THE FLANDERS COW. Sth Class.... THE DEMIJOHN COW.

24 “ .... “ SELVAGE COW. 6th “ .... “ SQUARE SCUTCHEON COW.
3d * 2... * CURVELINE COW. 7th “ .... “ LIMOUSINE COW.

4th). -2 * / BICORN COW. 8th “ .... “ HORIZONTAL CUT COW.

By means of the following description of the several Classes and Orders, aided
by the engraved prints attached to the work, every person can assign any Cow
examined by him to her appropriate place in the classification, and consequently
form an accurate judgment in regard to the maximum quantity of milk which
she can yield daily, and also to the time during which this yield wili remain at
its maximum. It results from the numerous and oft-repeated tests to which this
method of judging has been subjected, that the yield may sometimes vary from
what I have adopted as the standard point; because, as I have stated, the cli-
mate, the food and the season do exercise an influence upon it. But there is one
thing which never varies, which always holds good, at all times and in all pla-
ces: in every one of the eight classes, the Cows of the higher orders are always
the best, and those of the lower orders always the least good ; that is to say, the
two highest orders are always the most productive, the third and fourth orders
are tolerably good, and the four others go on diminishing to the last, which may
be looked upon as nullities so far as regards milk.

§ 2, Bastard Cows,

Before entering upon a detailed description of the classes severally, it is im-
portant that the reader be reminded that each class has its Bastards ; that is to
say, Cows which, although bearing a perfect resemblance to the others, do never-
theless differ from them in their yield. This resemblance deceives the most prac-
ticed eye, and is the source of many mistakes and of serious losses. In order,
therefore, that the reader may be enabled to avail himself of my method, I must
make him acquainted with the marks by which the bastards of each class are
distinguished.

I have adopted the word Bastard to denote those Cows which give milk only so
long as they have not been got with calf anew; and which, upon this happen-
ing, go dry, all of a sudden or in the course of a few days. Cows of this kind are
found in each of the classes, and in every order of the class. Some of them are
great milkers ; but so soon as they have got with calf, their milk is gone. Oth-
ers present the most promising appearance, but their yield is very insignificant.
Cases of this kind occur every day ; the most skillful judges find themselves mis-
taken.

W hen it happens that a Cow that was giving a plenty of milk loses it, all of a
sudden, upon being got with calf, people do not know how to account for this loss
of her milk ; various causes are assigned for it, not one of which is the true one.
It does not depend, as some suppose, upon the will of the animal about lettmg
down her milk ; it so happens simply because she is born so, because she is so
formed and constituted.

Now there are characteristic signs, also, whereby the Bastard Cows in each of
the classes and orders may be known. They are distinguished by the lines of as-
cending and descending hair in their escutcheon. These escutcheons are put
before the reader’s eyes in the Ninth plate, the drawings of which are, like the
others, from nature.

ee

TREATISE ON MILCH COWS. 53

In general, these Bastard Cows conceive with great facility the first time they
come in heat, if they be then put to the bull. But they do not continue to give
milk in any quantity ; they cannot furnish enough even for the calf. Conse-
quently if a Cow of this kind be put to the bull, it becomes necessary to wean her
calf, and it falls away so as to be unfit for the butcher.

Among the Bastard Cows, some yield an oily and creamy milk ; others but a
serous milk: some give a great deal; others but little. In them, as in the gen-
uine Cow of the same classes, the yield varies with the size; and the color of
the dandruf is the same.

Generally speaking, the flow of milk is at its maximum during the first eight
days after calving ; but the milk is of a bad quality. After this period it under-
goes a slight diminution ; but its flow being once regularly established, the
quantity remains constant until the Cow has conceived anew. At this period, it
undergoes another diminution, in all the Classes and Orders; but more or less ae-
cording to the Class and Order. We are now to enter into a more particular ex-
planation of this.

CLASS I.
The Flanders Cow.

The reader is alfeady apprised that, in the denominations which have suggest-
ed themselves to me, he is not to expect etymological or scientific combinations.
The names which I have given to my classes are altogether arbitrary, and have
reference to my own notions solely. I have adopted the above appellation for the
Cows of my first class, which are the best in our country, because Cows of the
Flemish breed, extensively known for their valuable qualities, possess, generally
speaking, the escutcheon which is characteristic of this first class). These Cows,
which I call the Flanders Cows, are the best milkers ; they are also, among us,
the most scarce. In this class, as in all the others, each order is distinguished
by a particular modification of the general mark or escutcheon of the class; and
there is a corresponding difference in the yield of milk, in the proportions which
I am about to specify.

With respect to size, I cal! a Cow high when she weighs from five to six hun-
dred pounds ; of medium hight, when she weighg from three to four hundred
pounds ; ow, when she weighs from one to two hundred pounds.*

HIGH COW.... First Order.

Cows of the First Order of this class and this size yield, whilst at the hight of
their flow, (that is to say, from the time of calving until they are got with calf
again) twenty litrest of milk a day. After they have conceived anew, the quan-
tity of milk diminishes little by little ; but they continue to give milk until they
are eight months gone with calf: indeed Cows of this order never go dry, if we
choose to milk them all the time.

Cows of this Class and Order are known by their having a delicate udder, cover-
ed with a fine, downy hair growing upward from between the four teats. This
downy growth extends upward, over the hinder part of the udder and the re-
gion above it, blending itself with a similar growth (of hair pointing upward)
which, beginning on the legs, a little above the hock joint, covers the inner sur-

* This is French weight. To reduce it to English avoirdupois, add 8 pounds to every 100.
+ The litre is one of the modern French measures, containing about 2} English wine pints

BRA LOLOL LPO LOL LLPLD LPI LAL ALA Cel AL A AI OD tl OE Meal cP ON At ll all

TREATISE ON MILCH COWS.

54

@able F.....Class 1

THE FLANDERS COW.

Order 2d,

Order Ist.

i
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if
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A VOT

Order 6th,

Order 5th.

en
ox

TREATISE ON MILCH COWS.

pm mn a

Gable 3.....dlass 1.
THE FLANDERS COW.

Order 3d. Order 4th.

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56 TREATISE ON MILCH COWS.

face o1 the thighs, encroaching upon the outer surface to the points A A, (Plate
1, Order I,) and then contracting as it extends upward io the points B B, on each
side of the vulva, and about four inches* distant from it. They generally have,
above the hind teats, two small oval marks, formed by hair growing downward,
each of which is about two inches wide by three inches long. These mar'ts are
distinguishable also by their color, which is paler than that of the surrounding
upward-growing hair.

In the First Order of this Class, the skin of the inner surface of the thighs and
adjacent parts, up to the vulva, is of a yellowish color, with here and therea
black spot. A sort of bran or dandruf detaches from it.

All Cows whose escutcheon corresponds, in its general shape or outline, with
the one here described and seen in the plate, modified as it is m the various Or-
ders, belong to this Class, whatever may be their color or their breed.

Seconp Orper.—Cows of this Order yield, while at the hight of their flow,
eighteen litres a day ; and they continue to give milk until they are eight months
gone with calf.

The marks of this Order are exactly like those of the First Order, (they are
designated in the Plate by the same letters,) except that to the right of the vulva
and near it there is a streak of hair growing downward (F). This mark is about
four-tenths of an inch wide by two and a half inches long; the hair within it is
very short. It indicates that the daily yield of the Cow diminishes by about one-
sixth, upon her being got with calf.

Tuirp Orper.—Cows of this Order yield, while at the hight of their flow, sza-
teen litres a day, and continue to give milk until they are seven months gone
with calf.

Their escutcheon resembles in shape that of the preceding Orders. It differs
therefrom in having within it a semi-circle (C) of downward-growing hair, em-
bracing the vulva and extending about one and a half inches below it, while it is
about two and a half inches in width. The hair within this semi-circle is more
shining and of a lighter color than the ascending hair around. In this Order there
is but one oval (E) above the teats, to the left.

Fourtu Orper.—Cows of this Order yield, while at the hight of their flow,
fourteen litres, and continue to give milk until six months gone with calf.

The escutcheon differs from those above described in being more contracted—
the upward-growing hair occupying less surface. The points A A are not so far
apart, and consequently nearer to the inside of the thighs. The points B B are
nearer to the vulva—distant from it only about four-tenths of an inch. From
these points there is a growth of downward-growing hair, which encloses the
vulva, forming with it the two triangles seen in the Plate, one side of which is
BC. These triangles also are distinguishable by the hair being more lustrous
and of a lighter color.

Firta Orper.—Cows of this Order yield, while at the hight of their flow,
twelve litres a day, and continue to give milk until they are five months gone
with calf.

The escutcheon of this Order, as compared with that of the preceding, is some-
what narrower at the points A A and BB. Below the vulva, there is a streak
of descending hair (C) about six inches long by a little over one inch wide. This

* The French measures, which are given in the fractions of the metre, have been reduced to English
inches. ‘The reduction is not, in every instance, absolutely exact; but it is sufficiently so for practical pur-
poses. cS

a Ann nnn nn nn

TREATISE ON MILCH COWS. 57

escutcheon is distinguished also by a growth of descending hair (G) on the right
thigh, which, begining at A, encroaches upon the ascending hair, running into
the inner surface of the thigh, to the distance of about six inches.

Srxto Orper.—Cows of this Order yield, during the hight of their flow, nine
litres a day, and continue to give milk until four months gone with calf.

The escutcheon of this Order has the same figure as that of the Fifth, only it
is more contracted at the points A A. On both thighs there is a growth of de-
scending hair (G G), which runs into the inner surface of the thigh, forming a
triangle, the sides of which are about four inches and two inches in length.—
Below the vulva is the same mark (C) as in the preceding Order.

SEveNTH Orper.—Cows of this Order yield, while at the hight of their flow,
sia litres a day, and continue to give milk until three months gone with calf.

In this Order, as is seen in the Drawing, the upper part of the escutcheon 1s
entirely wanting on theright side. On the left side it is well defined, though on
a very contracted scale, between the points A and B. On the right side, the
lower portion of the escutcheon terminates at a point in the line where the two
thighs join; that is to say, in a line with the vulva. ‘To the right of this line,
the only trace of the wanting half of the escutcheon, above the point just men-
tioned, consists in a few hairs bristling up against each other.

In this Order the udder is generally covered with a thin growth of coarse
hair.

E1rgHtH OrpeR.—Cows of this Order yield, while at the hight of their flow,
four litres a day, and continue to give milk until two months gone with calf.

The escutcheon is the same as that just described, only yet more contracted
and imperfect. Here and there, on each side, a few scattering hairs bristle up
within the space occupied by the escutcheon in the more perfect Orders.

What has been said of the distinctive marks of the several Orders of this Class
holds good, whatever may be the size of the Cow, except that the dimensions
above given, having reference to tall Cows, are to be proportionally reduced in
regard to those of the other two sizes. Respecting the latter, therefore, it is re-
quisite to state only their yield and the time during which they continue to give
milk.

COW OF MEDIUM HIGHT,

First Orper.—Cows of the First Order of this Size yield, durmg the hight of
their flow, sixteen litres a day ; and, like those of the High Size, they continue to
give milk until they are eight months gone with calf—the yield gradually di-
minishing from the time they conceive anew.

SeconD Orper.—These Cows yield fourteen litres a day, and continue to give
milk until seven months gone with calf.

Tuirp Orver.—These Cows yield twelve litres a day, and continue to give
milk until six months gone with calf.

FourtH Orper.—These Cows yield ten litres a day, and continue to give milk
until five months gone with calf.

FirtH Orper.—These Cows yield eight litres a day, and continue to give
milk until four months gone with calf.

Sixtu Orper.—These Cows yield five litres a a and continue to give milk
until three months gone with calf.

Seventu Orper.-—These Cows yield three litres a day, and continue to give
milk until two months gone with calf.

08 TREATISE ON MILCH COWS.

Ercutu Orper.—These Cows yield two /itres a day, and they continue to give
milk only until they have conceived anew.

LOW COW.

First Orper.—Cows of the First Order of this Size yield, while at the hight
of their flow, twelve litres a day ; and they continue to give milk until they are
eight months gone with calf—the yield gradually diminishing from the time
they conceive anew.

Seconp OrpEer.— These Cows yield ten litres a day, and continue to give milk
until seven months gone with calf.

Turrp Orver.—These Cows yield eight litres a day, and continue to give
milk until six months gone with calf.

Fourtn Orper.—These Cows yield six litres a day, and continue to give milk
until five months gone with calf.

FirtH Orper.—These Cows yield four litres a day, and continue to give
milk until four months gone with calf.

Sixto Orpver.—These Cows yield three litres a day, and continue to give
milk until two months gone with calf.

SevenTH OrpER.—These Cows yield two litres a day, and continue to give
milk until one month gone with calf.

E1cHtH OrpEer.—These Cows yield one dztre a day, and continue to give milk
only until they have conceived anew.

BASTARD OF THE FLANDERS COW.

Upon entering on the description of these Bastards, I will observe that I shall
confine myself to Cows of the High Size; because, to apply the description to
those of the smaller sizes, all that will be requisite is to reduce the dimensions
of the marks in proportion to the smallness of the Cow.

The Flanders Cow has two varieties of Bastards, (Plate IX, Fig. 1 and 2.)—
The first has, within the escutcheon of ascending hair, an oval (J) of downward-
growing hair, just below the vulva, and in a line with it, distant therefrom about
eight inches. This oval is about four inches long, by about two and a half iaches
wide; and the hair within it is invariably of a lighter color than that around.—
The larger the oval is, the more rapidly will the Cow lose her milk and go dry
upon being got with calf. The smaller it is, the less rapid will be the loss of
milk ; but it will not the less certainly take place, in a notable degree, in every
Cow that bears this mark. It will be perceived that the Drawing represents the
Cow of the First Order only—this being sufficient to make the reader well enough
acquainted with the mark to recognize it when it occurs in Cows of the inferior
Orders.

The Bastard No. 2 may be known by the circumstance that the upward-grow-
ing hair which forms the escutcheon, instead of lying smooth and pointing
straight upward, bristles up like the beards of an ear of wheat, and projects
crosswise over the outline of the escutcheon at the points A A. The more ex-
tensive the surface of the escutcheon is, and the finer and smoother the hair
growing within it, the more abundant is the yield of milk. When this hair is
coarse, long and scanty, it indicates a thin, serous milk.

In the Bastards, the skin on the interior of the thighs, up to the vulva, is gen-
erally of a reddish color ; it is smooth to the touch, and yields no dandruf.

—

TREATISE ON MILCH COWS.

CLASS II.
Che Selvage Cow.

The shape of the escutcheon of this Class is very different from that of thz
First. The upper part of this escutcheon consists, as is seen in the Drawing,
(Plate II.) of a growth of ascending hair, rising vertically, and without any inter-
ruption from descending hair, to the vulva. Its resemblance to the list or selvage
of a piece of cloth is what suggested the name that I have given to this Class.

HIGH COW.

First Orper.—Cows of this Order yield, during the hight of their flow, eighteen
litres a day, and continue to give milk until they are eight months gone with
ealf. Like those of the First Order of the First Class, they never go dry, if we
choose to milk them all the time.

The udder is delicate and covered with a fine, downy hair, growing upward.—
The escutcheon consists of a growth of ascending hair, commencing between the
fore teats, and also on the inner surface of the thighs just above the hock joint.
It expands as it extends upward, till it reaches the points A A. Here it is bound-
ed by a right line, which runs across the inner side of the thigh, from A A to
the points D D, which are about four inches distant from each other. From these
points right lines rise vertically to the vulva, where they terminate, about an inch
and a half apart.

Above the two hind teats, and nearly in a vertical line with them, are two oval
marks (E E), formed by a growth of descending hair, distinguishable by its lus-
tre, the size of which is about the same as in the Flanders Cow.

In these Cows, also, the skin of the inner surface of the thighs is of a yellowish
color.

Seconp Orper.—These Cows yield, while at the hight of their flow, sixteen
litres a day, and continue to give milk until seven and a half months gone with
calf.

The escutcheon is the same as that of the First Order, only the points A A are
not so high up, and the entire figure is on a rather smaller scale. To the left of
the vulva, outside of the escutcheon, is a Small streak of ascending hair (E), about
two and three-fourths inches long by less than half an inch wide. There is but
one oval above the hind teats, on the left side. The entire escutcheon is distin-
guishable by the hair within being more glossy than that around it.

Turrp Orper.—These Cows yield, while at the hight of their flow, fourteen
litres a day, and they continue to give milk until they are six months gone with
calf.

The escutcheon differs from the preceding in the following particulars: it is on
a smaller scale; the points A A are nearer to the points D D, and the lines which
rise from the latter points meet at the vulva, so as.to form an acute angle. On
each side of the vulva is a streak of ascending hair (F F,) of the same size as the
one in the preceding order; that on the right being, however, sensibly shorter
than the one on the left. There is, also, but one of the oval marks (E) above the
teats, to the left.

' Fourtsa Orper.—These Cows yield, while at the hight of their flow, twelve
litres a day, and continue to give milk until they are four and a half months
; gone with calf.

¢

TREATISE CN MILCH COWS.

60

@able 33.....Class 2.
THE SELVAGE COW.

Order 2d,

Order Ist,

—<-———

Ope Till

Order 6th,

Order 5th,

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Vs

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TREATISE ON MILCH COWS. 61

ee

@Wable 33.....Class 9.
THE SELVAGE COW.

Order 4th.

) aaa SSS YG
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My 2

62 TREATISE ON MILCH COWS.

The escutcheon is like that of the preceding order, with the difference that the
pomts A A are considerably lower down than the pomts D D. The two streaks
of ascending hair, on the right and left of the vulva, are longer by nearly an inch,
and also wider than in the Third Order; and there is no oval mark above the
teats.

Firta Orper.—These Cows yield, during the hight of their flow, ten litres
a day, and continue to give milk until they are three months gone with calf.

The escutcheon is on a smaller scale than in the Fourth Order ; the points D
D are much nearer together—the distance between them being less than one
inch ; the list or selvage, as it rises toward the vulva, takes a turn to the left—
its width contracting very much—and runs up, past the lower extremity of the
vulva, tothe point F. There is but one streak of ascending hair (F) on the right
of the vulva, six inches long by an inch and a half wide.

Sixta Grper.—These Cows yield, while at the hight of their flow, eight litres
a dar, and continue to give milk until they are two months gone with calf.

The escutcheon is yet more contracted than the one last described ; the selvage
is very narrow, and terminates in a point, about four inches from its base. There
are two streaks of ascending hair, to the right and left of the vulva, of about the
same size as the one in the fifth order ; that is to say, six inches long by one and
a half in width.

Seventy Ogper.—-These Cows yield, during the hight of their flow, siz litres
a day, and continue to give milk until they are one month gone with calf.

The escutcheon is still smaller than the last; the selvage being now nothing
more than a small angular projection of upward growing hair, in the direction of
the vulva. There are two streaks of ascending hair (F F) on the right and left
of the vulva. The one on the left is nearly eight inches long by an inch and a
half wide; and consists of coarse hair, which, in growing upward, deflects cross-
wise toward the outer part of the thigh. The one on the right is of the same
width, but only half as long as the other ; it consists of hair growing in the same
way.

ErcutH Orper.—These Cows yield, during the hight of their flow, four litres

’ a day, and cease to give milk upon being got with calf.

The escutcheon is exceedingly small; the selvage is buta mere projecting
point ; there is but one streak at the side of the vulva, on the left ; which is form-
ed of a scanty growth of coarse hairs, bristling up and deflecting crosswise.

The remark made above, in regard to the First Class, I will here repeat with
respect to the present and to the remaining six: all that is said of the different
orders of the high size, so far as regards their characteristic marks, holds good
of the same Orders in the other sizes, except as to the dimensions of the marks,
which are to be proportionally reduced. On the subject of the two lower sizes,
I shall therefore confine myself to the yield of milk, and the time during which
the Cow continues to give milk after conceiving anew.

COW OF MEDIUM HIGHT.

First Orper.—These Cows yield, during the hight of their flow, fo crieen
litres a day, and continue to give milk until eight months gone with calf.

Seconp Orpier.—These Cows yield thirteen litres a day, and continue to give
milk until six and a half months gone with calf.

Tuirp Orper.—These Cows yield eleven litres a day, and continue to give
milk until five months gone with calf.

Rell lll alll Ott Nl lll All lA lt ll lala ly l

IIIA AL AL AL AAA

TREATISE ON MILCH COWS. 63

Fourtu Orper.—These Cows yield ten litres a day, and continue to give milk
until four months gone with calf.

TirtH Orper.—These Cows yield ezght litres a day, and continue to give
milk until three months gone with calf.

Srxta Orper.—These Cows yield str litres a day, and continue to give milk
until two months gone with calf.

Seventu Orper.—These Cows yield four litres a day, and continue to give
milk until they have conceived anew.

ErgutH Orper.—These Cows yield three litres a day, and go dry upon being
impregnated anew.

LOW COW,

First Orper.—These Cows yield, during the hight of their flow, ten litres
a day ; and continue to give milk until they are eight months gone with calf.

Seconp Orper.—These Cows yield eight litres a day, and continue to give
milk until they are six and a half months gone with calf.

Turd OrpER.—These Cows yield siz litres a day, and continue to give milk
until five months gone with calf.

Fourta Ogper.—These Cows yield four litres a day, and continue to give milk
until four months gone with calf.

Firta Orper.—These Cows yield three litres a day, and continue to give
inilk until three montns gone with calf.

SrxtH Orper.—These Cows yield two litres a day, and continue to give milk
until two months gone with calf.

Seventnu Orper.—These Cows also yield two litres a day, but they go dry
upon conceiving anew.

E1eHtH Orper.—These Cows yield but one litre a day, and cease to give milk
upon conceiving anew.

BASTARD OF THE SELVAGE COW

The Bastards of this Class, (see Plate [X. Fig. 3) whatever may be their size
and the Order to which they belong, are to be known by two patches of ascend-
ing hair, (F F) on the right and left of the vulva, distant from it an inch and a
quarter to an inch and a half. They are from four to five inches long by about
an inch and a half wide. The smaller they are, and the finer the hair within
them, the less rapid is the loss of milk which they always indicate. When they
eonsist of coarse hair, and terminate in a point at each end, they indicate that the
milk is poor and serous.

CLASS III.
The Curveline Cow.

I have given this name to the Cows of my Third Class, because ‘ueir escutch-
eon, which is lozenge-shaped, is bounded above by two curved lines; which,
commencing to the right and left on the thighs, run up toward the vulva, and
meet at a point below it. (See Plate III.)

This Class is a very numerous one; and, in regard to the yield of milk, approx-
imates to the First Class. Cows belonging to it, and to every one of its Orders,

TREATISE ON MILCH COWS.

ps 3 $s —=e

Gable FF7T.....Class 3S.
THE CURVELINE-€6O

Order Ist, Order 2d,

5 FPR OA ARNARAAAAS

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TREATISE ON MILCH COWS.

Cable 333.....Class 8.
THE CURVELINE Cow.

Order 3d,

LESS
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66 TREATISE ON MILCH COWS.

are found in all breeds. The yield varies accordimg to the Order and the size,
just as in the First and Second Classes.

HIGH COW,

First Orper.—Cows of this Size and Order yield, during the hight of their flow,
eighteen litres a day, and continue to give milk until they are eight months
gone with calf.

They exhibit the same delicacy of texture, and the same yellowish color of the
skin within the escutcheon, as those of the higher Orders of the foregoing Classes.
The escutcheon, in its upper part, is broader than that of the Second Class. It
commences between the four teats, and on the inner surface of the thighs above
the hock joint. Rising thence, and encroaching upon the outer surface cf the
thighs to two points, (A A) about midway up, its upper part is bounded by the
lines above mentioned ; which, beginning at the points A A, curve outward, and
are united, just below the vulva, about an inch or less from it, by another short
curved line. (B) The lower part of the escutcheon is bounded by lines on the
thighs, eurving inward.

Above the hind teats, and nearly in a vertical line with them, are two ovals,
(E E) formed by hair growing downward, the same as in the higher Orders of the
two preceding Classes.

Seconp Orper.—These Cows yield, during the hight of their flow, sixteen
litres a day, and continue to give milk until they are seven months gone with calf.

The escutcheon is the same as that just described, only somewhat contracted
in all its parts. There is but one oval (E) above the teats, on the Ieft side. On
the left of the vulva, is a streak of ascending hair, (F) about an inch and a half
Jong by less than half an inch in width.

Turp Orper.—These Cows yield, while at the hight of their flow, fourteen
litres a day, and continue to give milk until six months gone with calf.

The escutcheon is of the same shape as in the preceding Order; contracted,
however, in all its parts. The point B is still lower down. To the right and left
of the vulva are two streaks of ascending hair, (F F) about four inches long by
less thanan inchin width. Above the teats, on the left, is one oval (E).

Fourtu Orper.—These Cows, while at the hight of their flow, yield twelve
litres a day, and continue to give milk until they are four months gone with calf.

The escutcheon is still the same in shape, but on a yet smaller scale through-
out ; its upper extremity at a greater distance, therefore, below the vulva. The
base of its upper part rests on the udder. The streaks of ascending hair, (F F)
on the right and left of the vulva, are longer and wider than those in the third
Order ; and the hairs within them bristle up, projecting on each side. On the
right there is a failure of the ascending hair below the point A, and its place (F)
ts occupied by hair growing downward.

Firtu Orper.—These Cows, while at the hight of their flow, vield ten litres
a day, and continue to give milk until they are three months gone with calf.

The escutcheon is smaller still, lower down, and confined to the inner surface
of the thighs. On the left, there is a patch of bristling hair growing upward,
nearly eight inches long by an inch and a half, or more, in width. To the right
and left, beginning at the points A A, are two spaces (F F) covered with hair
growing downward instead of the ascending hair. They are about four inches in
width, and six inches long, running inward toward the crease formed by the
meeting of the thighs.

TREATISE ON MILCH COWS. 67

_— o.

Srxru Orper.—These Cows, while at the hight of their flow, yield seven
stres a day, and continue to give milk until they are two months gone with calf.

The escutcheon is still of the same shape; but the point B is now so far down
below the vulva that it must be looked for where the thighs meet. At the point
E, under the vulva, is a small patch of ascending hair, about an inch and two-
thirds long, by four-fifths of an inch in width.

SEVENTH Orper.—These Cows, during the hight of their flow, yield five litres
a day, and continue to give milk until they are impregnated anew.

The escutcheon is yet more reduced in size, and is now hid away between the
thighs. To the right and left of the vuiva, are two patches of ascending hair,
(F F) which bristles up and projects on each side. They are about six inches
long by two and a half wide.

Eicutn Orprr.—These Cows yield, while at the hight of their flow, three
litres a day, and go dry upon being got with calf.

In this Order, the escutcheon is still perceptible, but it is of a very diminutive
size.

COW OF MEDIUM HIGHT,

First Orper.—These Cows yield, while at the hight of their flow, fifteen
litres a day, and continue to give milk until they are eight months gone with calf.

Srconp Orper.—These Cows yield thirteen litres a day, and continue to give
milk until they are seven months gone with calf.

Tump Orper.—These Cows yield eleven litres a day, and continue to give milk
until six months gone with calf.

Fourtn Orper.—These Cows yield nine litres a day, and continue to give milk
until five months gone with calf.

Firtu Orper.—These Cows yield seven litres a day, and continue to give milk
until four months gone with calf.

Srxtu Orper.—These Cows yield five and a half litres a day, and continue to
give milk until three months gone with calf.

SeventH Orper.—These Cows yield three and a half litres a day, and continue
to give milk until two months gone with calf.

Ercutn Orper.—These Cows yield two litres a day, and go dry upon being got
with calf.

LOW cow.

First Orprer.—Cows of this Order and Size yield, while at the hight of their
flow, twelve litres a day, and continue to give milk until they are eight months
gone with calf.

SrconpD Orper.—These Cows yield ten ditres a day, and continue to give milk
until seven montns gone with calf.

Turrp Orper.—These Cows yield eight litres a day, and continue to give milk
until six months gone with calf.

Fourtu Orprer.—These Cows yield siz litres a day, and continue to give milk
until five months gone with calf.

Firtu Orper.—These Cows yield five litres a day, and continue to give milk
until four months gone with calf.

SrxtH Orper.-—These Cows yield four litres a day, and continue to give milk
until three months gone with calf.

Srventa Orper.—These Cows yield three litres a day, and go dry upon being
impregnated anew.

Pt Re NA a PE i Ll EL

68 TREATISE ON MILCH COWS

Ergntu Orper.—These Cows yield two litres a day, and go dry upon being
impregnated anew.

BASTARD OF THE CURVELINE COW.

In the Curveline Cow, the growths of ascending hair, (F F) to the right and
left of the vulva, require special attention, in regard to their dimensions, to see
that they are of the size indicated in the several descriptions of the different Or-
ders. When they are of small size, they do not indicate a very rapid loss of rnilk ;
but when they are from four to five inches long, by an inch and a half in width,
(in which case they are generally pointed at both ends, and cousist of coarse hair,)
they may then be considered as the size of a bastard Cow, that will go dry so
soon as she is got with calf. Asa general rule with regard to these marks, the
larger they are, the worse will the Cow be in this respect. (See Plate 1X. Fig. 4.)

CLASS IV.
Ghe Bicorn Cow.

This name is given to my Fourth Class, because the upper part of its escutch-
eon represents tvvo horns. Cows of this classare good milkers. They are found
in all the breeds which we possess in France. In this, as in the other Classes,
the general mark of the Class presents itself under modifications indicative of the
Order to which the Cow betongs.

HIGH COW.

First Orper.—-Cows of this Order and Size yield, while at the hight of their
flow, sixteen litres a day, and continue to give milk until they are eight months
gone with calf.

Like those of the same Order in the foregoing Classes, they are distinguished
by the delicacy of their udder. The dandruf which detaches from the skin
throughout the escutcheon is of a yellowish or copperish color. This escutcheon,
as I have said above, has at top two horns, formed in the way that is seen in the
drawing. (Plate [V.Order1.) It begins, as in the foregoing Orders, in the space
between the four teats, and on the inner surface of the thighs, just above the hock
joint ; whence it rises toward the tail, spreading over the inner surface, and par-
tially over the outer surface, of the thighs, tothe points A A. From these points,
its outline consists of curved lines to the points B B, which are distant about four
inches from the vulva. Thence the outline descends again on each side in near-
ly straight lines, which meet at the point C, immediately beneath the vulva, and
at the distance of about eight inches from it. Onthe right and left of the vulva,
are two streaks of ascending hair, (F F) about two inches long by two-fifths ofan
inch in width.

As in the higher Orders of the Classes already described, so in the present we
find, above the two hind teats, two small oval marks, (D D) formed by hair grows
ing downward in the field of ascending hair.

Seconp Orper.—These Cows, while at the hight of their flow, yield fourteen
litres a day, and continue to give milk until they are seven months gone with
ealf.

TREATISE ON MILCH COWS. 69

The escutcheon is the same as in the First Order; excepi that it is on a small-
e- scaie, and does not reach so high up. The color of the skin within it is the
same. Of the two streaks of ascending hair, (F F) on the right and left of the
vulva, the one on the left is of the same size as in the First Order, whilst the
other is but half as long. Of the two horns, (B B) the one on the right is up-
ward of an inch shorter than the other. There is but one oval mark (D) above
the teats, on the left. ‘

Turd Orper.—These Cows, while at the hight of their flow, yield dwelve
litres a day, and continue to give milk until six montis gone with calf.

The escutcheon is of the same shape as in the preceding Order; smaller, and
consequently spreading less upon the outer surface of the thighs; the right hand
horn shorter, by about two inches, than the one on the left. There is but one of
the marks (F) along side of the vulva, on the left.

Fourtu Orpder.—These Cows, while at the hight of their flow, yield ¢en litres
a day, and continue to give milk until five months gone with calf.

The escutcheon is smaller than in the Third Order; but the same in shape,
except on the right of its lower part, when the following irregularity occurs: be-
low the point A, the ascending hair is encroached upon by a growth of descend-
ing hair, that runs into the escutcheon, forming an angle, the point of which is
at II. Measured across from the point A, this angle of descending hair pene-
trates the escutcheon to the distance of about four inches ; whilst the break which
it makes in the outline of the escutcheon is from six to seven and a half inches
long.

Besides this irregularity in the shape of the escutcheon, this Order is distin-
guished by a streak of ascending hair (E) under the vulva, nearly three inches
long by two-fifths of an inch in width.

Whenever the blemish or irregularity in the escutcheon here described is
found, it indicates a more rapid decrease in the daily yield of milk than would be
exhibited by a Cow possessing the same escutcheon free from blemish; and the
rate of decrease will be proportionate to the size of the blemish; that is to say, to
the extent of surface covered by the descending hair where it encroaches upon
the field of upward growing hair.

Firty Orper.—These Cows, while at the hight of their flow, yield eghi litres
a day, and continue to give milk until they are four months gone with calf.

The escutcheon the same in shape as the preceding, but on a smaller scale.
Near the vulva, to the left, is a streak of bristling hair, growing upward, (F)
about six inches long by two wide. At the points AA, on the right and left, are
two spaces where the ascending hair fails and is replac.d by downward growing
hair ; which spaces penetrate the inner surface of the thighs to the points I I.

SrxtH Orper.—These Cows yield, during the hight of their flow, s¢x litres a
day, and continue to give milk until three months gone with calf.

The escutcheon the same as in the Fifth Order; but smaller, and hid away be-
tween the thighs. Above it, to the right and left of the vulva, are two streaks
(F F) of ascending hair, bristling up and projecting sideways. They are of the
same size as the one jn the preceding Order, just described.

SEVENTH Orper.—These Cows yield, whilst at the hight of their flow, four Jz-
tres a day, and continue to give milk until they are two months gone with calf.

The same escutcheon, but still more hid away between the thighs. The
marks on the right and left of the vulva, consisting each of a growth of bristling

MILCH COWS.

TREATISE ON

Class 4.

Gable 3D.....
THE BICORWN COW

Order 2d,

Order Ist.

QD PBB OG lL ll tr aly, ROO ON APP

Order 6th.

Order 5th,

fen
Ja ty

i

\ ‘

EE Gyr —
x _ —2 ST fy SS
ae © 2s PC), NN
\ 3 Snes 7 Fes] { \ | } | s i
clo mi! >\ A 4 t
C> ee Pl cm fi p \ <i el
LLM Ys >= 7 As
\ a WL = aS feet \
\ == = aes
. Veet \

Q
3

es

TREATISE ON MILCH COWS. 71
OS EE A RA TRE YS AGREE EE

@able IV.....Class 4.
THE BiCORN Cow.
Order 8d, Order 4th.

Ky rere

N ee

W117
( 1
|

Ne a MO Nl
4,

ON a al at I a to NAS at”

MODDED Nel DA ND NE A

ie TREATISE ON MILCH COWS.

hair*pointing upward, are longer and wider than those in the preceding Order
the one on the right not so long as the other.

Ercutn Orper.—These Cows, while at the hight of their flow, yiela three
litres a day, and continue to give milk until they have conceived anew.

The escutcheon is stil] defined, but ona very small scale. If the marks of up-
ward growing hair (F F) at the sides of the vulva exist at all, they consist of a
few bristling hairs, projecting crosswise.

COW OF MEDIUM HIGHT.

First Orper.—Cows of this Order, while at the hight of their flow, yield
fourteen litres a day, and continue to give milk until they are eight months gone
with calf.

SeconpD OrpEer.—These Cows yield twelve litres a day, and continue to give
milk until they are seven months gone with calf.

Tuirp Orper.—These Cows yield ten /itres a day, and continue to give milk
until six months gone with calf.

Fourtu Orper.—These Cows yield eight litres a day, and continue to give
milk until five months gone with calf.

FirtH Orprer.—These Cows yield siz litres a day, and continue to give milk
milk until they are four months gone with calf.

SixtH Orper.—These Cows yield four litres a day, and continue to give milk
until three months gone with calf.

Seventu Orper.—These Cows yield three litres a day, and cease to give milk
upon being got with calf.

Ercutu Orper.—These Cows yield still less, and go dry upon conceiving anew.

LOW Cow.

First Orper.—These Cows yield, while at the hight of their flow, eleven
litres a day ; and continue to give milk until they are eight months gone with
calf.

Seconp OrpEer.—These Cows yield nine litres a day, and continue to give
milk until seven months gone with calf.

Turrp Orper.—These Cows yield seven litres a day, and continue to give
milk until six months gone with calf.

Fourtu Orprer.—These Cows yield five litres a day, and continue to give milk
until five months gone with calf.

Firty Orper.—These Cows yield four litres a day, and continue to give
milk until four months gone with calf.

Srxta Orper.—These Cows yield three litres a day, and continue to give milk
until two and a half months gone with calf.

Seventu Orper.—These Cows yield two J:tres a day, and their yield goes on
diminishing until they conceive anew ; at which time they go dry.

E1rcHtH Orper.—These Cows yield still less, and go dry at the same period.

BASTARD OF THE BICORN COW.

The marks F F possess the same properties for indicating the Bastards of this
Fourth Class, as in regard to those of the Third. (See Plate IX. Fig. 5.)

TREATISE ON MILCH COWS. te

CLASS V.
' Che Demijohn Cow.

Tkis name indicates the shape of the escutcheon of this class. It may strike
the reader as queer ; but it is significant, and serves to recall the figure of the
eharacteristic mark of the Class, which very much resembles the outline of a dem
ijohn. If my discovery is a useful one, habit will soon accustom people to this
name, as well as to the others of my Eight Classes; and to those who may feel
disposed to find fault with them, | will say, what matters it to you? the name is
as nothing, the importance is altogether in the thing.

o~

HIGH COW,

(

4

First OrpEer.—Cows of this Order and Size, while at the hight of their flow,
yield sixteen litres a day, and continue to give milk until they are eight months
gone with calf.

The skin within the escutcheon has the same yellowish color as in the higher
Orders of the preceding Classes. The udder is delicate, and covered with fine,
downy hair. The escutcheon, consisting of a growth of ascending hair, begins
between the four teats, and on the inner side of the legs, above the hock joint,
as it extends upward it spreads upon the outer surface of the thighs to the points
AA. (Plate V. Fig. 1.) From these points, the figure is bounded by right lines,
to the points J J, which are distant from each other from five to six inches. From
these points, the upward growing hair rises to the line N, where it is from two
and a half to three and a quarter inches in width. This line is directly below
the vulva, and distant from it about four inches. The wider the figure is at this
place, and the nearer it approaches to the vulva, the better the Cow.

Above the hind teats are two ovals (E E), formed by descending hair, about
four inches long, by nearly three inches in width. On the right and left of the
vulva are two streaks of ascending hair (O O), nearly two and a half inches long,
by less than half an inch in widih. The hair within these streaks is fine and
short, and very distinct from the dascending hair that surrounds them.

SrconD Orper.—These Cows yield, while at the hight of their flow, four-
teen litres a day, and continue to give milk until they are seven months gone with
calf.

The escutcheon differs from that of the First Order in being on a smaller scale.
Above the teats there is but one oval (E), to the right, formed by descending
hair. Of the two streaks of ascending hair (O O) alongside of the vulva, the
one to the left is of the same dimensions as in the First Order; but the one to
the right, although of the same width, is of but half the length.

Tuirp Orper.—These Cows, while at the hight of their flow, yield twelve
litres a day, and continue to give milk until they are six months gone with calf.

The escutcheon, preserving its general shape, is yet more contracted. At the
points A A, it is more rounded off, and no longer spreads on the outer surface of
the thighs. Above the points J J, it is narrower; and it stops short at N consid-
erably lower down beneath the vulva. There is but one of the streaxs (O) of
ascending hair, which is to the left of the vulva, and about an inch ana a half
long, by two-fifths of an inch in width.

—

——

Order 2d,
Order 6th.

ee

a 5
Sey } {
rN ae
= /

wa
SS
rs

; y ht a
a / | [' j

am OTE FI eo
VBS Zayas

= SS

.~CLASS 5.

Che Demijohn Cow.

2)
=
(o)
2)
en
[=]
pas]
_
=
Zz
ro.)
<3)
na
—
i=
=<
4
(=
a

TABLE V.........

Order 1st,
Order 5th.

—_—

___—_—
—

MILCH COWS.
CLASS 5.

The Demijohn Cow.

Willi trtne

TAIL Vi s.ocsas

a
°
29)
wn
—
al
=
&
[o
Be

Order 7th.

76 TREATISE ON MILCH COWS.

Fourtu OrpEer.—These Cows, while at the hight of their flow, yield ten
litres a day, and continue to give milk until they are five months gone with calf.

The escutcheon is yet more reduced in size. The points A A lower down and
nearer together. The lines are more curved at the points J J, and the distance
from these points to N is much less. Below A, on the right side, there is a fail-
ure of the upward growing hair, marked P.

Firta Orper.—These Cows, while at the hight of their flow, vield eight litres
a day, and continue to give milk until they are four months gone with calf.

The escutcheon goes on contracting in size. The points A A, being now on
the inner surface of the thighs, are no longer so apparent. The upper extremity
- N is much farther below the vulva. At both points A A there is a failure of the
ascending hair (P P), where its place is occupied by descending hair, running in-
to the escutcheon. These marks are about five inches deep, by four in width.

Below the vulva there isa small streak of ascending hair (E), about an inch
and a quarter long, by less than half an inch wide.

SixtH OrDER.—These Cows, while at the hight of their flow, yield six litres
a day, and continue to give milk until they are three months gone with calf.

The escutcheon is on a still more contracted scale than in the preceding Order.
Near the vulva, to the left, there is a streak of ascending hair (F), which bristles
up. It is nearly five inches long, by about one and a half in width.

SEVENTH OrpER.—These Cows, while at the hight of their flow, yield four
litres a day, and continue to give milk until they are two months gone with calf.

The escutcheon is smaller and lower down than in the preceding Order. On
the right and left of the vulva are two streaks of ascending hair, which bristles
up. The one on the left (F) is somewhat longer than that found in the Sixth Or-
der ; the one on the right (C) is about four inches long, by an inch and a half in
width. Below the point A, on the right hand, there is a failure of the ascending
hair (P).

EregHTH Orper.—These Cows, while at the hight of their flow, yield two
litres a day, and continue to give milk until they have conceived anew.

The escutcheon is hid away between the thighs; the points A A scarcely per-_
ceptible. The streaks of bristling hair (C C) on the right and left of the vulva
are of the kind indicative of the degeneracy and bad quality of the Cow.

COW OF MEDIUM HIGHT,

First Orper.—These Cows, while at the hight of their flow, yield fourteen
litres a day, and continue to give milk until they are eight months gone with calf.

SeconD OrperR.—These Cows yield twelve litres a day, and continue to give
milk until they are seven months gone with calf.

TuirD Orper.—These Cows yield ten litres a day, and continue to give milk
until six months gone with calf.

Fourta Orper.—These Cows yield eight litres a day, and continue to give milk
until five months gone with calf.

FirtH Orper.—These Cows yield six litres a day, and continue to give milk
until four months gone with calf.

Sixta Orper.—These Cows yield five litres a day, and continue to give milk
until three months gone with calf.

SrvenTH Orper.—These Cows yield three litres a day, and continue to give
milk until two months gone with calf.

Ercutu Orper.—These Cows yield still less, and go dry upon being got with calf.

“—

TREATISE ON MILCH COWS. V4
a a ee see een oe eg
LOW cow,

'

First Orprr.—These Cows, while at the hight of their flow, yield ten Jilres
a day, and continue to give milk until they are eight months gone with calf.

Second Orver.—These Cows yield eight litres a day, and continue to give
milk until seven months gone with calf.

Tuirp Orper.—These Cows yield six and a half litres a day, and continue to
give milk until six months gone with calf.

Fourtu Orper.—These Cows yield five litres a day, and continue to give milk
until five months gone with calf.

Firtu Orper.—These Cows yield four litres a day, and continue to give milk
until four months gone with calf.

SrxtH Orper.—These Cows yield three litres a day, and continue to give milk
until three months gone with calf.

Seventa Orper.—These Cows yield ¢wo /itres a day, and continue to give milk
until two months gone with calf.

Eiegu1tx Orper.—These Cows yield one /itre of milk a day, and go dry upon
conceiving anew.

ll, ef

BASTARD OF THE DEMIJOHN COW.

When the streaks marked F F are found in the Cow of this Class, of the di-
mensions specified in the description of the Bastard of the Curveline Cow, they
serve here also to detect the Bastard Cow ; and |:er badness in regard to the rapid
loss of her milk will be in proportion to the size of these streaks. ‘The smaller
they are, the less defective will she be in this respect. (See Plate IX. Fig. 6.)

CLASS VI.
Che Square-Seuteheon Cow.

The name indicates the appearance of the escutcheon, the upper part of which
is shaped like a carpenter’s or mason’s square.

HIGH COW.

First Orper.—Cows of this Order and Size yield, while at the hight of their
flow, sixteen litres a day, and they continue to give milk until they are eight
months gone with calf.

The skin within the escutcheon is of the same yeilowish color as in the supe-
rior Orders of the preceding Classes. The udder delicate, covered with short,
fine hair. The escutcheon begins as in the foregoing Classes ; and, rising from
just above the hock joint, on the inner surface of the thighs, spreads outward to
the points A A. (See Plate VI. Order 1.) Above those points it represents a
square. A right line runs across to the points J J, distant from each other from j
five to six inches. Thence the figure is bounded by two right lines, which meet
in an acute angle at the point E, distant about two inches from the vulva. Above
that, to the left, the figure of a square is formed by two streaks of hair, E B ard
B C (the point C being at the orifice of the vagina) ; the former of which is about
four inches long, by an inch and a quarter wide, and the latter from five to six

ee long, by somewhat less than the same width.

78

Above the hindmost teats are two small oval marks (G G), formed. by down-
ward growing hair im the field of ascending hair. They are about five or six
inches long, by two and a half wide. The hair within them is of a lighter color
than that without.

The nearer the escutcheon approaches to the vulva, the better the Cow.

Seconp OrpER.—These Cows yield, while at the hight of their flow, fourteen
litres a day, and continue to give milk until they are seven months gone with
calf.

The escutcheon is the same as in the First Order, only somewhat reduced, in
size. The square figure near the vulva commences lower down, and is longer
than the one just described. There is but one oval above the teats, to the left
(G), of the same size as those in the First Order.

THirD Ornrr.—These Cows, while at the hight of their flow, yield twelve
litres a day, and continue to give milk until they are six months gone with calf.

The escutcheon is the same in its general shape, but it is more contracted in
all its parts, and does not extend so high up. The points A A are nearer to the
inner surface of the thighs; and the escutcheon is narrower at the points J J,
where the outline has acquired a curved character.

The angular space between J J and E is narrower than the streak E B, and
shorter than B C. The latter is wider and longer than in the preceding Order.

FourtH Orner.—These Cows yield, while at the hight of their flow, ten litres
a day, aud continue to give milk untii they are five mouths gone wih calf.

The escutcheon is still more reduced in size. To the right of the vulva there
is a streak of bristling hair, growing upward (F), about four inches long, by one
anda half wide. Below the point A, to the right, there is a space (U) where
the upward growing hair fails, and is replaced by descending hair.

FirtH OrpER.—These Cows, while at the hight of their flow, yield eight litres
a day, and continue to give milk until they are four months gone with calf.

The unfavorable marks are the same as in the preceding Order, only more con-
spicuous and on a larger scale.

Srxta Orper.—These Cows, while at the hight of their fiow, yield six litres a
day, and continue to give milk until they are three months gone with calf.

The escuteheon is yet more contracted, confined to the inner surface of the
thighs, and more distant from the vulva. To the right and left of this orifice are
streaks or lines of ascending hair, coarse and bristling.

SEVENTH OrpEeR.—These Cows, while at the hight of their flow, yield four
litres a day, and continue to give milk until they are two months gone with calf.

The escutcheon is smaller still. The streak of ascending hair (F) on the right
is wider, and the hair more bristling.

E1cuHtH Orper.—These Cows yield, while at the hight of their flow, two litres
a day, and go dry upon being got with calf.

The shape of the escutcheon is still perceptible; but it is very small, and hid
away between the thighs.

TREATISE ON MILCH COWS.

a

COW OF MEDIUM HIGHT.

First Orper.—These Cows, while at the hight of their flow, yield from twelve
to thirteen litres a day, and they continue to give milk until they are eight
months gone with calf.

Srconp Orper.—These Cows yield ten litres a day, and continue to give milk
until seven months gone with calf.

i

TREATISE ON MILCH COWS. 79

Tuirp Orpre —These Cows yield eight litres a day, and continue to give milk
until six months gone with calf.

FourtH Orper.—These Cows yield six litres a day, and continue to give milk
until five months gone with calf.

Firty Orper.—These Cows yield four and a half litres a day, and continue
to give milk until four months gone with calf.

SrxtH Orper.—These Cows yield three and a half litres a day, and continue
to give milk until three months gone with calf.

Seventu Orper.—These Cows yield two litres a day, and continue to give
milk until one month and a half advanced in gestation.

Ercutu Orper.—These Cows yield still less, and go dry upon being got with
calf.

DABLE. iV I.. sia CLASS 6.

Che Square-Gentcheon Cow.

Order Ist, Order 2d. Order 3d. Order 4th,

Order 7th. Order 8th,

ei Gy
<i

LOW cow.

First Orper.—Cows of this Order and Size yield, while at the hight of their
flow, nine litres a day; and they continue to give milk until they are eight
months gone with calf.

Seconp Orper.—These Cows yield eight litres a day, and continue to give
fa |< until! seven months gone with calf.

Tuirp Orper.—These Cows yield siz litres a day, and continue to give milk
until six months gone with calf.

FourtH Orper.—These Cows yield four and a half litres a day, and continee
to give milk until five months gone with calf.

PBB LBL LOLOL ODO LL LOLI

80 TREATISE ON MILCH COWS.

Firtu Orper. —These Cows yield three and a half litres a day, and continue {
to give milk until four months gone with calf.

Srxta Orper.—These Cows yield two and a half litres a day, and continue te
give milk until taree months gone with calf.

Sevento Orper.—These Cows yield one litre a day, and continue to give milk
until a month and a half advanced in gestation.

Ercuta Orper.—These Cows yield still less, and go dry upon being got with
calf.

BASTARD OF THE SQUARE-SCUTCHEON COW.

When the streak (O) of ascending hair on the right of the vulva consists of
coarse, bristling hair, this indicates a Bastard. She will lose her milk the more
promptly in proportion to the size of this growth of bristling hair, to the coarse-
ness of the hair, and to the degree in which it bristles up and projects over ; but,
wherever this sign exists, the Cow will lose her milk, more or less gradually, a

. suort time after being impregnated. The indication of this will be the more pos-
tave if the streaks above described as forming the square, to the left of the vulva,
a.so consist of coarse, bristling hair.

CLASS VII.

Che Limousine Cow.

Tne first Cow of this Class which came under my notice was from the Proviice
whose name I have adopted as that of the Class. It is not to be inferred, how-
ever, that none but the Cows of Limousin belong to the Class. Its characteristic
mark is to be found in all the different breeds. The name isa purely arbitrary
one; and, in adopting it, 1 acted in the same spirit that influenced me in calling
my First Class the Flanders Cow.

HIGH COW,

First Orper.—Cows of this Order and Size, while at the hight of their flow,
yield fourteen litres a day, and continue to give milk until they are eight months
gone with calf.

The skin, within the escutcheon formed by the growth of ascending hair, is of
the same yellowish color as in the nigher Orders of the preceding Classes. The
udder is delicate, and covered with short, fine, and silky hair. The growth of

. ascending hair begins between the teats, and on the inner side of the legs, above
the hoc k joint, spreading outwardly, as it rises, to the points A A (see Plate VII.
Order 1), on the outer surface of the thighs. From these points the escutcheon
is bounded by two right lines, which run slanting downward io the points J J,
which are about four inches apart. From these points two right lines rise to the
pomt U, somewhat less than three inches below the vulva, where they meet in
an acute angle.

To the right and left of the vulva are two small streaks of ascending hair (C
C), about three inches or less in length, by two-fifths of an inch in width. Above
the hind teats are two ovals of descending hair (GG), about four inches long,

RAR OOOO een eee ooreeeeeeuonVvceeeaee_ee e_ce ee ee eeeeeuwcoarwree<Ssene eee

TREATISE ON MILCH COWS. 81

ed

by two and a half inches in width. ‘hey are very distinguishable, by means of
the whitish color of the hair within them.

These streaks, to the right and left of the vulva, do not always occur in Cows
of the First Order ; and they are not, therefore, to be considered as an indispensa-
ble part of the characteristic marks of this Order. The escutcheon itself, even,
is sometimes imperfectly defined, and yet the Cow proves herself to be of the
First Order. . '

Seconp Orper.—These Cows, while at the hight of their flow, yield twelve
litres a day, and continue to give milk until they are seven months gone with calf.

The characteristic marks are the same as in the First Order; the escutcheon,
however, being on a smaller scale. The streaks (C C) to the right and left of
the vulva are shorter and wider.

Tuirp OrveR.—These Cows, while at the hight of their flow, yield ten litres
a day, and continue to give milk until they are six months gone with calf.

The escutcheon is the same in shape, but more contracted. The streak (C)
the vulva, to the left, is nearly five inches long, by upward of an inch in width.
On the right of the vulva isa small patch of ascending hair (E), nearly three
inches long, by upward of an inch in width. The point O is about six inches dis-
tant from the vulva.

Fourta Orper.—These Cows, while at the hight of their flow, yield eight
litres a day, and continue to give milk until five months gone with calf.

The escutcheon is on a still smaller scale. There is but one streak (C) of as-
cending hair by the vulva, on the left, which is eight inches long, by something
over an inch in width.

FirtH Orper.—These Cows, while at the hight of their flow, yield siz and a
half litres a day, and continue to give milk until they are four months gone with
calf.

The escutcheon is smaller, lower down, and confined to the interior surface of
the thighs. If any streaks of ascending hair occur, on the right and left of the
vulva, they consist of bristling hair, and are longer and wider than in the preced-
ing Order.

Sixtu Orper.—These Cows, during the hight of their flow, yield five litres
a day, and continue to give milk until they are three months gone with calf.

The escutcheon preserves its shape, but is still more contracted in its dimen-
sions. The point O is lower down. On the left of the vulva is,a streak of brist-
ling hair, growirg upward (F).

SeventH Orper.—These Cows, while at the hight cf their flow, yield four
litres a day, and continue to give milk until they are one month gone with calf.

The escutcheon is smaller still. The streaks of ascending hair (F F) on the
right and left of the vulva are wider, by about an inch, than those above de-
scribed, and the hair is coarse and bristling.

Ereuta Orver.—These Cows, while at the hight of their flow, yield two
litres a day, and go dry upon being got with calf.

The escutelieon is so small, and hid away between the thighs, as to be barely
perceptible. The streaks of ascending hair (F F) are still longer and wider than.
in the Seventh Urder.

COW OF MEDIUM HIGHT.

First Onver.—The Cows of this Order and Size, while at the hight of their
( flow. vielA ereven litres a day, and continue to give milk until they are eight

months gone win cakt. |
6

82 TREATISE ON MILCH COWS.

Sreconp Orper.—These Cows yield nine litres a day, auu cuttinue ‘> give
milk until seven months gone with calf.

Turrp Orper.—These Cows yield seven and a half litres a day, and continue
to give milk until six months gone with calf.

Fourts Orper.—These Cows yield five and a half litres a day, and contmue
to give milk until five months gone with calf.

Firto Orper.—These Cows yield four litres a day, and continue to give milk
until four months gone with calf.

Sixt Orper.—These Cows yield three litres a day, and continue to give milk
until three months gone with calf.

SEvENTH OrpEer.—These Cows yield two litres a day, and continue to give
milk until two months gone with calf.

E1cutu Orper.—These Cows also yield two litres a day, and go dry upon being
got with calf.

TABLE VII.......CLASS 7.

The Limonsine Cow.

Order 2d. Order 3d. Order 4th,

LOW cow.

First Orper.—The Cows of this Order and Size yield, while at the hight of
their flow, eight litres a day, and continue to give milk until eight months gone
with calf.

Seconp Orper.—These Cows yield seven litres a day, and continue to give
milk until seven months gone with calf.

TREATISE ON MILCH COWS. 83

TurrD Orper.—These Cows yield six litres a day, and continue to give milk
until six months gone with calf.

Fourtu Orper.—These Cows yield five litres a day, and continue to give milk
until five months gone with calf.

FirtH Orver.—These Cows yield four litres a day, and continue to give milk
until four months gone with calf.

SixtH Orper.—These Cows yield three litres a day, and continue to give milk
until three months gone with calf.

SEVENTH Orper.—These Cows yield two litres a day, and continue to give milk
until one month gone with calf.

EigutuH Orper.—These Cows yield one litre a day, and go dry upon being got

with calf.
BASTARD OF THE LIMOUSINE COW.

In this Class also, as in the Curveline and Bicorn Classes, the Bastard is indi-
cated by the streaks of ascending hair (F F) to the right and left of the vulva;
which streaks are of the same dimensions and of the same character generally
as in those Classes. (See Plate 1X. Fig. 8.)

—_——

CLASS VIII.
Che Horizontal Cut Cow.

I have given this name to those Cows whose escutcheon is bounded at top by
a horizontal line, which cuts the ascending hair square off just when it has spread
to its greatest width, ‘The figure (Plate VIII.) will be seen to be very different
from that of the other Classes.

2

HIGH COW,

First Orper.—The Cows of this Order and Size, during the hight of their
flow, yield twelve litres a day, and they continue to give milk until they are
eight months gone with calf.

The skin within the escutcheon, and the dandruf from it, are of a reddish yel-
low. ‘The ascending hair is short and fine ; the skin beneath it quite silky; the
four teats far apart. As in the other Classes, the ascending hair which forms
the escutcheon begins between the four teats, and on the inner surface of the
thighs, a little above the hock joint—spreading out, as it rises, to the points E E,
on the outer surface of the thighs. Here it is cut short off, by a transversal or
horizontal line, running across from one thigh to the other.

Although the escutcheon does not rise, as in the other Classes, to or near the
vulva, we nevertheless find, on the right and left of that orifice, the two streaks
of ascending hair (C C), which are so valuable, as an indication of the character
of the Cow, in regard to the period during which she will continue te give milk
afier becoming pregnant: this point being determined by the size of these marks
and the nature of the hair within them. In the present Order they consist of
fine hair, and are from three and a quarter to four inches in length, by less than
half an inch broad.

Above the hind teats are two little oval marks (B B), consisting v1 downward
grewing hair, distinguishable by its whitish color as wel! as mv ine auection in
shich it points.

84 TREATISE ON MILCH COWS.

SeconD Orper.—These Cows, while at the hight of their flow, yield ten litres
a day, and ccatirve to give milk until they are seven months gone with calf.

The escutcheon is the same in shape as that of the First Order, but contracted
in its dimensions. Thestreaks (C C) on the right and left of the vulva are une-
qual in size—the one on the left being of the same length as in the First Order,
while the one on the right is considerably shorter.

In several of the Orders there is, immediately under the vulva, and touching
it, a small streak of ascending hair (N), about two inches in length, by less than
half an inch in breadth.

Tuirp Orper.—These Cows, while at the hight of their flow, yield ezght
litres a day, and continue to give milk until they are six months gone with calf.

The escutcheon is the same in shape, but more contracted still; the points E
E are lower down and nearer together. Alongside of the vulva there is but one
streak of ascending hair (G), which bristles up and projects over. This mark is
from five to six inches long, by from four-fifths to six-fifths of an ch m width.

On the inner surface of the right thigh, beginning at the point A, there isa
failure of the upward growing hair, which is replaced by descending hair. This
downward growth of hair is wedge-shaped, pointing toward the udder; it is
about eight inches long, by four inches in width. The hair is very distinguish-
able by its whitish color.

Although I have taken this place to make it known, this mark does not always
occur in Cows of this Order, nor is it peculiar to those of the present Class.—
Whenever it is found, let the Cow be of whatever Class or Order she may, it in-
dicates that her daily yield of milk will fall about one-third short of the quantity
set down as proper to a Cow of that Class and Order.

FourtH Orper.—These Cows, while at the hight of their flow, yield six litres
a day, and continue to give milk until they are four and a half months gone with
calf.

The escutcheon is smaller and lower down than in the Third Order. There is
but one streak (N) of upward growing hair, whieh is betwixt the thighs, in a
line with the vulva, and about two or two and a half inches from it. It is about
four inches long, by four-fifths of an inch in breadth. Within the escutcheon
there are two failures (A A) of the upward growing hair, like the one above de-
scribed—that on the right being larger than the other.

Firrtn Orper.—These Cows, while at the hight of their flow, yield five litres
a day, and continue to give milk until they are three and a half months gone
with calf.

The escutcheon is smaller still, and lower down. On the left of the vulva
there is a streak (F) of upward growing hair, coarse and bristling. ‘This mark is
about six inches long, by an inch anda half in width.

It is to be observed, in regard to the streaks alongside of the vulva, that when
they occur in a Cow of an inferior Order, such as they are described to be in the
Cow of the First Order ; in this case, whatever may be the inferiority of the Cow
as to the quantity of her daily yield, she will continue to give her milk just as a
Cow of the First Order would. That is to say, she will be just as long in going
dry, after being got with calf, as a Cow of the First Order.

Srxta Orper.—These Cows, while at the hight of their flow, yield four litres
a day, and continue to give milk until they are two months gone with calf.

The escutcheon is smaller, lower down, and confined to the inner surface of
the thighs. The longer and broader the streaks of ascending hair (F F) on the

TREATISE ON MILCH COWS. °5

“

right and left of the vulva, and the coarser and more bristlug ae oair, tue worse
the Cow will prove in regard to the time she will continue to give milk after he-
ing got with calf.

SrventH Orper.—These Cows, while at the hight of ther now, yield three
litres a day, and continue to give milk until one month gone with calf.

The escutcheon is still smaller than the last. The signs (F) of early drying
up are the same as in the foregoing Order.

Ereutu Orpder.—These Cows yield, during the hight of their flow, two litres
a day, and go dry upon being got with calf.

The escutcheon is so hid away between the thighs as to be barely perceptible.
Some coarse bristling hairs (F), which grow awry, are seen pointing toward the
vulva.

TABLE Viti... CLASS 8.
Che Horizontal Cnt Cow.

Order ist, Order 2d. Order 3d. Order 4th,

AY
|
|
\

4
a OB
i

Order 5th. Order 6th. Order 7th. Order 8th,

“f

(et a A Ee en Sid

ZN
Mb
SASS
a

SQSa

ih
<teee

:bRK

€0W OF MEDIUM HIGHT.

First Orper.—These Cows yield, while at the hight of their flow, nine litres
a day, and continue to give milk until they are eight months gone with ca‘2
Srconp Orper.—These Cows yield ezght litres a day, and continue to give
milk until seven months gone with calf.
_ Tuirp Orper.—These Cows yield seven Jttres a day, and continue to give milk
uniil five months gone with calf.

86 TREATISE ON MILCH COWS.

Fourtn ( per.—These Cows yield six litres a day, and continue to give milk
until four months gone with calf.

Firta Orper.—These Cows yield five litres a day, and continue to give milk
until three months gone with calf.

Sixtu Orprr.—These Cows yield four litres a day, and continue to give milk
until two months gone with calf.

SevenTH Orper.—These Cows yield three litres a day, and continue to give
milk until one month gone with calf.

Ercutn Orper.-—These Cows yield two litres a day, and cease to give milk
upon being got with calf.

LOW COW,

First Orper.—The Cows of this Order and Size, while at the hight of their
flow, yield six litres a day, and continue to give milk until they are eight months
gone with caif.

Seconp Orper.—These Cows yield five litres a day, and continue to give
milk until seven months gone with calf.

Tuirp Orper.—These Cows yield four litres a day, and continue to give
milk until five months gone with calf.

FourtH Orper.—These Cows yield three litres a day, and continue to give
milk until four months gone with calf.

Firtu Orper.—These Cows yield two litres a day, and continue to give milk
until three months gone with calf.

SixtH Ornper.—These Cows vield one litre a day, and continue to give milk
until two months gone with calf.

SeventH AND Ericute Orvers.—These Cows yield still less, and go dry upon
being got with calf.

BASTARD OF THE HORIZONTAL CUT COW.

The Bastards of this Class have no escutcheon whatever. The entire space
from the vulva to the udder, and on the inner surface of the thighs, is covered
with hair growing downward ; no growth of ascending hair is to be found upon
the parts where the escutcheon occurs in the other Ciasses, and in the Genuine
Cow of this Class.

Some of these Bastards are excellent milkers, so long as they are not impreg-
nated; but so soon as they are got with calf, or a very short time afterward, they
go dry. Those in whom the hair on the inner surface of the thighs is thick and
very fine, will be found to give good rich milk. The reverse holds in regard to
the quality of the milk yielded by those in whom these parts are covered with a
scanty growth of coarse hair.

BASTARD BULLS.

Having attached to the portion of the work appropriated to eacn Ciass a de-
scription of the Bastard Cow belonging to it, I must indicate here the signs by
which a Bastard Bull is to be known.

Bulls have escutcheons of the same shapes as those of the Cows, ous. ast
have already said, on a smaller scale. The growth of ascending nair whict
forms the escutcheon extends from the testicles upward, spreading on the inner

OO all lal OO OL fall el ll ell ad

TREATISE ON MILCH COWS.

of ascending hair, giving rise to lines of bristling hairs, this is to be lookeu upun
as an indication of imperfection or bastardy; and the indication will be certain, in
proportion to the size and extent of these blemishes in the escutcheon. Those
Bulls in which they do not occur, and whose escutcheons, at the same time that
they are free from these streaks, ascend high up, and are well developed and de-
fined ; every such Bull is to be deemed genuine, and may be relied upon for the
reproduction of animals of the highest order.

TABLE IX.

side of the thighs. Now, whenever streaks of descending hair occur in tnis neld
Che Bastard Cow of the several Classes.

Ist Class. Ist Class. 2d Class. 3d Class.
Bastard Flanders Cow. Bastard Flanders’Cow, Bastard Selvage Cow. Bastard Curveline Cow,

4th Ciass. 5th Class. 6th Claas. 7th Class.
Bastard Bicorn Cow, Bastard Pemijohn Cow. Bast’d Sq. Scutch. Cow. Bast, Limousine Cow,

id

88 TREATISE ON MILCH COWS.
TABLE
SHOWING THE YIELD OF THE SEVERAL ORDERS OF EACH CLASS.
Class. Ss , . | Class. a
1. FLANDERS Cow. & 2 3 |5. Desonn Cow. eggs
Order I. IL. UL IV. V. VI. VILVIIL @s Order I. I. I. 1V. V. VI. VIL WIL @ 3

High....20 18 16 14°12 9 6 4..20'21 2 High....16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2..10105

Medium.16 14 12 10 8 5 3 2.. Medium:14"..12') 10) 8) 46).45: 3) Re

LOw atte O Wy Seo Aa oye cc de Ont Lowe. 210") 8) 6k. Or! 45.30 12) se One ae
2, SELVAGE Cow. 6. SquarE-ScuTCHEON Cow.

High..-.18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4..16170 High, )....16, 14. 12°10" 8: (fj) 4es25. Sees

Medium.14 13 11 10 8 6 4 3.2. Medium.12 10 8 6 4% 34 2 1k.

OWsea Oy oe) 63414802) 2) POSES hon ae: Low.--. 9° 8 G6 4% 34k 2 1 4.7 73H
3. CURVELINE Cow. 7. LimousInE Cow.

Hiehee Se, es ole) 0! 7 os Vee Ay, High..-.14 12 10 8 '64 5) “47922 eiGrs

Medium-18 13 11 9 7% ‘Ot 3k 2.- Medium-11 °9 . 7% S} 4 13 2) 22

Mowaeeste a0 Sverre | 4B 2estort3 On Low..-. 8. 7 G 5 4. 3092) saan
4. Brcorn Cow. 8. HorizonTaL Cur Cow.

Highs. -16 04 12) 10 18) 6432-02) 12/6 Hich.-..12 10'° 86). 3) "4)) 3) 2a eae

Medium.14 12 10 8 6 4 3. 2k. Medium. 9. 8 7 6 ‘6: Ay) (See

Bowls Sly 9) Vi Wo Fae ven) ee a Se Low....6 5 4 3 2 Ilessthanl.3 3 14

SKELETON OF THE OX.
49 48 474645 44 43 42 41 40 39 38
: stein tt es : : 3 H ! '

=

Ls

. The frontal bone, or bone of the forehead. 27. The patella, or bone of the knee.

28. The small bones of the hock.

29, The metatarsals, or larger bones of the hind leg.
30. The pasterns and feet.

31. The small bones of the hock.

82. The point of the hock.

33. The tibia, or proper leg-bone,

34, The thigh-bone.

85. The bones of the tail.

37. The haunch and pelvis.

38, The sacrum.

39. The bones of the loins.

4). The bones of the back.

41. The ligament of the neck and its attachments.

42. The scapula, or shoulder-blade.

43, The bones of the back.

44, The ligament of the neck.

45. The dentata.

46. The atlas.

4T. The occipital bone, deeply depressed below the
crest, or ridge of the head.

2
1. The temporal bone. 26. The false ribs, with their cartilages.
°
3. The orbit of the eye.
4. The lachrymal bone.
5. The malar, or cheek bone.
6. The upper jaw-bone.
7. The nasal bone, or bone of the nose.
8. The nippers, found on the lower jaw alone.
9. The eight true ribs.
10. The humerus, or lower bone of the shoulder.
11. The sternum.
12. The ulna, its upper part forming the elbow.
13. The ulna.
14. The radius, or principal bone of the arm.
15. The small bones of the knee.
16. The large metacarpal, or shank bone.
17. The bifurcation at the pasterns, and the two
larger pasterns to each foot,
18. The sessamoid bones.
19. The bifurcation of the pasterns.
20. The lower jaw and the grinders,
21, The vertebrie, or bones of the neck.
R
23

. The navicular bones.

r f : 48. The parietal bone, low in the temporal fossa.
94. ane PAE Sl catameaapig ae 49. The horns, being processes or continuations of
25. The smaller or splint-bone. the frontal bone.

mK <F
6 0p

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