192 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



traordinary development of whicli is unnatural and artificial, 

 but whicli development may be essential to our interests. 

 The tendency to secrete milk is a natural one, found in all 

 animals that suckle their young ; but the extraordinary de- 

 velopment of milking powers is artificial. In the wild state 

 the cow yields milk for only a short time, and that only in 

 sufficient quantities, probably, to nourish her young. As we 

 recede from this wild condition by domestication, and subject 

 the animal to a variety of circumstances which modify her 

 form and system, we do it at the expense of certain qualities, 

 for the sake of gaining other qualities better calculated to 

 promote our immediate interest. The reproductive powers 

 become weaker, the vitality and vigor of constitution lessened ; 

 but the formation of fat, or the tendency to produce meat, 

 and the profitable production of milk, may be largely in- 

 creased. That high breeding has this tendency to diminish 

 the vital force and strength of constitution, is apparent 

 enough when we consider how utterly absurd it would be to 

 attempt to pit an improved short-horn bull against a rough 

 and ill-bred bull in a Spanish arena. He would have the 

 improvement knocked out of him before he had time to 

 turn round. 



Good dairy qualities, therefore, being artificial to a great 

 extent, there will always be a natural tendency to revert to 

 the natural state ; and hence the necessity of constant and 

 unremitting care to preserve and improve by the methods 

 already intimated what we have already gained ; that is, by 

 the most careful selection of the animals from which we 

 propose to raise dairy stock, especially to have the male 

 from a family remarkable for milk. 



It is a fact well known among farmers, that in all classes 

 of stock, as cows, ewes, sows, &c., a strong disposition to 

 accumulate fat in the system is commonly attended by a 

 marked deficiency in the secretion of milk; and there can 

 be no doubt that the general structure of the animal exercises 

 an important control over the quantity and richness of the 

 product in milk. 



This must be evident from the fact that the first process 

 which the food taken into the system is made to undergo 

 after digestion is the separation and preparation of the fatty 

 and nutritive parts, so as to introduce them into the circula- 



