INSTITUTE PAPERS. 89 



worth. We want a cow that is well developed about the heart 

 and lungs. That cow is doing a great deal of work, and must 

 have plenty of blood, and plenty of lung-power to purify that 

 blood. Then we want the long slim neck, the wide face, the 

 "bright eye, the rather slim horns, the pointed horns and the wide 

 barrel, just the reverse of the beef cow, because she has got to 

 "have a reservoir to take care of her food. 



"What about this dairy cow that we have today? She is an 

 artificial animal ; she has been brought about by artificial means. 

 In the early days when the cow roamed about among the wild 

 animals she had to fight for her living, and she wanted the heavy 

 and the long, wide horns, the heavy neck, the heavy shoulders, 

 so that she could fight for her life, and she wanted a body of the 

 shape that she could run easily through the underbrush and es- 

 cape, where one of the present dairy type would be at a disad- 

 vantage. And that wild cow had to have her body protected 

 from the wild beasts, so she needed a coat of mail around her, 

 and she had her ribs very close together, and zoologists tell us 

 that the ribs extended from the shoulder way back to the hip. 



Today the cow has to do none of those things. If she is to 

 do her best, she has to have her food provided in abundance 

 and without much efifort on her part. She has to make no fight 

 for her existence, so the horns are not needed. That short bull 

 neck we do not want, nor those close ribs, for all the ribs have 

 to do today is to assist in breathing: so in the process of time 

 we have eliminated the ribs, and I ask you if it is not a fact that 

 the space between the hip-bone and the first, or floating rib, in 

 your best cows is very great. What does that mean ? It means 

 that wc have been raising the cow for a different purpose 

 from that for which she v/as originally intended. We have 

 eliminated the extra ribs. The ribs are wide apart and fewer in 

 number, because there is a tendency in nature to do away with 

 the unnecessary. If you will note in some of your best cows, 

 you will not only find that space very wide, but you will find that 

 floating rib very short, and in some cases it is gone. 



Take a good cow of the dairy type that I am describing, and 

 breed her to a bull of superior dairy excellence, and nine times 

 out of ten that short floating rib is gone. 



We want a big chest, the reverse from the steer, and the mel- 

 low skin and the long tail, that is an elongation of the spinal 



