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BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



converted into milk, is much more diflBcult to comprehend or 

 control. True, there is a certain physical conformation indicative 

 of a large capacity for secreting' milk ; but when we remember that 

 this capacity violates all law, and is as erratic as genius, we can 

 comprehend how many diiSculties they labored under, who, in 

 Scotland, endeavored to establish a breed of milkers. They 

 might secure tho bony structure, the quality of skin, the shape of 

 the muscle, the general outline, the form of udder most approved, 

 and after all this, there might be some deep defect in the powers 

 of assimilating the food, in the glandular system, in the nervous 

 organization, which entirely destroyed the utility of the animal. 

 This accounts for the wide differences which exist in individuals 

 belonging to every well known and long established breed of 

 milkers, as the Ayrshires and Jerseys. Thousands of animals are 

 driven from Shorthorn and Devon regions, so nearly alike in weight 

 and size and shape, that the law of their reproduction seems to be 

 as fixed as that which gives to the casting the shape of the mould, 

 be it repeated times innumerable. But no one can find a race of 

 milkers, all brought up to a high standard, and all capable of 

 transmitting that standard. Wo approach it, but are often vexed 

 at the unexpected failures. 



Now it would seem that the great rule to be observed in the 

 rearing of dairy stock, is not to interfere with this delicate 

 organization, by the food furnished in early life. Why cannot the 

 system of a heifer be injured by food, so as to disorganize her 

 glandular functions, as well as the system of a cow, which can be 

 forced into diseased action, with the greatest ease ; which, in fact, 

 requires constant care lest in her business of manufacturing milk, 

 she may take on disease ? Why may we not, for instance, lay the 

 foundation for garget, long before the udder contains a drop of 

 milk ? We do not feed a milch cow as we do a fatting cow, 

 unless we are willing to run the risk of ruining her. For the 

 wholesale statement so often made, that what produces milk, will 

 also produce fat, and vice versa, is shown to be wholly unfounded 

 by a comparison of the efiect of rowen hay, brewers grains, shorts, 

 and green food, with corn meal, and oil cake. 



A cow, moreover, never reaches perfection in her line, until she 

 has arrived at maturity ; and she must reach this period of life, 

 with all her faculties unimpaired, if we expect her to be as good a 

 cow as nature intended her to be. She differs in this respect from 

 the best beef-growing animals, which are mature, as it wore, from 



