DAIRY MEETIXG. 135 



ance than five points, but fortunately the score card is not the 

 creation of one man. It is not my ideal of the score card for 

 jersey cows, but it is the judgment of all men who are engaged 

 in the breeding of Jersey cows. I would be glad to place the 

 color and mellowness of the hide at more than five points, but I 

 should be one man in ten thousand, and the judgment of the 

 other 999 ought to be worth more than mine. The judge puts 

 his fingers on the hide, but he does not pinch it, he feels of it 

 delicately, rubs it between his fingers and finds the softness, plia- 

 bility and thickness of it. We know that the softness of the 

 hide fairly reflects the digestive and assimilative powers of the 

 animal. I know of no external markings that indicate more of 

 the true functions of the cow than does the texture of the skin. 

 It should be a soft, pliable skin, not a papery one. Another 

 point in connection with the hide is its color. Look at the folds 

 under the udder, the rear of the udder, or the inside of the ears, 

 — every exposed place, and see if she has a yellow skin. If so, 

 and the texture is right, we can credit the creature with five 

 points. If she should be cut, how much ? How much too thick 

 and too hard is her skin, and how much lacking in color? Must 

 it not be an expert who shall answer? Could a man who had 

 been breeding Shorthorns all his life and had just commenced to 

 breed Jerseys ans\\"er these questions ? We have a neighbor 

 who is a breeder of Brahma hens. He has been a breeder of 

 Brahmas for thirty years, and he goes everywhere in New Eng- 

 land to judge the Brahma class, but he cannot be prevailed upon 

 to judge in any other class because he says he is not skilled in 

 other classes. And yet we employ judges to judge our dairy 

 and beef breeds, butter and swine, and cheese and fruit, simply 

 because the man comes without much expense. 



Xow we come to the udder. The ideal Jersey udder is a full, 

 level udder, very much like the Ayrshire udder. That is what 

 the score card calls for. The cow we have here on the chart has 

 a pot-shaped udder. This is quite typical of many Jerseys, but 

 it is not regarded as a thing of beauty. There is no reason why 

 we may expect more milk from an udder of that shape, and if 

 it is not a better working udder why should we not substitute 

 one that is beautiful. This is a very good udder. Taking the 

 center of the udder and reaching forward to its attachment to 



