SIGNS OF MILKING QUALITIES. 203 



bull calf ; but the reverse will happen if the inferiority is on 

 the side of the bull. 



Thus, at the Agricultural College at Giignon, which I 

 visited a few years ago, forty-six parturitions of young heifers 

 with their first and second calves brought twentv-nine bulls 

 and seventeen heifers ; while twent3'-eight parturitions of 

 older cows, in their full vigor of maturity, brought eighteen 

 females and ten males. So, at the Agricultural Institute at 

 Hohenheim, which I also visited, a hundred and forty par- 

 turitions of young cows brought eighty roales and sixty 

 females ; while older cows have always brought more females 

 than males. 



And so, if you put a cow that has recently calved, while 

 still rather feeble, to a vigorous bull, the product will almost 

 invariably be a male. A good dairy cow, with her strength 

 of constitution constantly taxed, will bring more males than 

 females, unless special pains are taken to increase her consti- 

 tutional vigor by extra care and feed. 



I need not stop to discuss, in this connection, the numer- 

 ous points or signs which long experience has fixed upon as 

 indications of more than ordinary dairy qualities, — such as 

 the fine, clean head ; the slender neck ; the straight back ; the 

 loose or open and relaxed jointure of the spinal processes; 

 the supple sldn, with its rich and creamy color; the large 

 development of the mammary glands, with loose, free folds 

 when empty ; the fine, clean legs ; small bony structure ; 

 and freedom of offal, or waste and useless parts. Many of 

 these sicrns have been known and observed for a lonp^ time. 



A few years ago a Frenchman near Bordeaux, long famil- 

 iar with dairy cows, and accustomed to observe and study 

 them carefully, discovered what was thought to be a new and 

 invaluable means of judging the quantity and the quality of 

 milk which a cow "would give, and the length of time in which 

 she would hold out in milk. 



Guenon's theory was, that the folds or convolutions of the 

 mucous lining of the mammary glands exercise an important 

 control over the arterial system, as manifested in the down- 

 ward-growing hair of the perinceum, or the back part of the 

 udder, extending from the udder, between the thighs, up to 

 the vulva ; and that there was a direct and constant relation 

 existing between the direction of the hair in this place and 



