516 BOARD OF AGEICULTUKE. 



kind of soil on wbich tbey are raised is always recorded in connection 

 with their measurements. In ordinary milliing condition, at full age, they 

 range in weight from 3,000 to 1,500 pounds. Some of the more noted 

 cows imported to this country weighed as follows: Princess of Wayne, at 

 seven years, 1,370 pounds; Mutual Friend, at three years, 1,120 paunds; 

 Aggie, at eleven years, 1,375 pounds; Clothilde, at seven years," 1.571 

 pounds; De Kol II., at four years, 1.240 pounds; Pauline Paul, at eight 

 years, 1,460 pounds; Jewel, at eleven years, 1,290 pounds. 



The average weight of full aged cows (five years old and over) that 

 were received for registration in the Fourtla Volume of the Advanced Reg- 

 ister was 1,262 pounds; the average measurement of these cows was as 

 follows : 



Perpendicular height at shoulder, .51.8 inches; hips to center of chine, 

 53 inches; length of body in a straight line, diagonally drawn from extreme 

 point of shoulder to extreme point of rump, 64.9 inches; length of rump, 

 from front of hock bone to extreme point of rump, 21.4 inches; width of 

 hips, 21.9 inches; girth at smalle.st circumference of chest, 75.6 Inches. 

 The most important of these measurements are circumference of chest 

 and the two measurements directly over the udder enclosing the pelvic 

 region— width of hips aud length of rump. These are all especially large. 

 The first is indicative of great vigor; the other of large offspring and millv- 

 givmg capacity. 



It will be seen from the above weights and measurements that these 

 'COWS are among the largest dairy cows known. No doubt that size has an 

 important bearing upon the economical production of milk and butter. 

 We quote from a work upon feeding animals, by the late E. W. Stewart: 

 "It may be stated as a general law that the food of support decreases 

 proportionately with the increase of size in the animal. The truth is that 

 animals never consume in proportion to live weight, age, conformation, 

 inherited constitution and many other things liaving great bearing as 

 to the amount of food that is required for support." 



We must conclude that size, all things being equal, is favorable to the 

 economical yielding of millc; that it actually takes less feed to produce 

 100 pounds of milk with a cow of equal merit weighing 1,000 pounds than 

 with one weighing 800 pounds. This statement is based on data furnished 

 by several prominent investigators in Europe, who conducted many search- 

 ing trials for determining the effect of size on food of support, and the 

 relation of food to the quantity of milk produced by dairy cows of differ- 

 ent weights. 



Last year Wisconsin Experimental Station picked up a dairy herd of 

 which the nine best were of pronounced dairy type. It kept an account 

 of all food consumed for a period of a year, and of the milk and butter 

 returned by the cows. The value of the food was calculated at farmers' 

 prices, the butter at twenty cents per pound, the skim milk at fifteen cents 

 per 100 pounds. Of these nine cows, four weighed over 1,000 pounds each, 



