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BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. 



jointed ; pelvis wide over the hips, long and supplied with strong 

 muscles ; hind quarters broad, strong on the outside, and well cut 

 out on the inside, with strong hock and a long, tapering hind 

 foot ; tail long and slender, strong at the roots, and set on in a 

 line with the back, not too high nor too low ; udder evenly divided 

 into four quarters, extending well forward, filling the cavity 

 between the thighs behind, not hung low, and with a large, long, 

 and crooked milk-vein ; teats set far apart, and of medium size and 

 length ; hide loose and elastic, but not too thin ; hair soft and 

 silky, and of lively appearance and abundant in quantity ; ribs 

 broad and flat-surfaced, with thin edges, and especially the two 

 last widely separated. Picture to yourselves a cow possessing all 

 these points, and you have an animal which any dairy farmer 

 might desire, either for butter or cheese, or the supply of milk 

 to the market. The general appearance of such a cow impresses 

 you at once as that of an animal possessing strength, firmness and 

 vigor without being too compact, and one capable of producing 

 milk in a large quantity during many months of the year, without 

 exhausting her own system, or impoverishing her master. A cow 

 of any breed, or of any grade, whether Alderney or Shorthorn or 

 Devon, or all combined, possessing these points, is very sure to be 

 a good one. And you will find such cows in every section, where 

 breeding and feeding for the dairy has been long followed ; and 

 you find them of every variety of color. I have seen grade Devons 

 which answered the description well — and were good milkers. I 

 have seen grade Shorthorns, which had in a long series of years 

 become reduced in size by the feeding which they had had for 

 generations, brought well up to this mark. I have seen some 

 Alderneys, and more grade Alderneys, which would bear this test. 

 And in all this they have come up to the standard of an Ayrshire 

 cow — a farmer's cow— a cow which can give an abundance of 

 milk, make an ample supply of cheese, furnish a reasonable amount 

 5f butter, and whose milk is of nutritious quality, well supplied 

 with casoine and not overloaded with fatty matter. "Every cow 

 should fatten one pig" — is an old rule and a good one. That is, 

 the daily product of a good cow should be in buttermilk or whey 

 enough to fed one pig, after the cream and cheese are extracted. 

 With regard to the size best suited to dairy purposes — I think on 

 our ordinary New England pastures, a cow that will dress in good 

 condition, six hundred pounds, is the most desirable. 



