182 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. 



made of it be to form the fat or butter in milk or the fat and 

 tallow of the body. In other words, the economical preparation 

 of the raw material of the food, that is digestion, and separation 

 of the elements of nutrition, is equally important for the fat in 

 the blood, whatever may be the ultimate form into which the 

 animal system is to convert it. Bat the internal structure which 

 accomplishes this process differs widely in different individuals. 

 One animal will effect this elimination completely, with the least 

 possible loss or waste of food, while another will fail to extract 

 the fatty or nutritive elements of the food and allow them to 

 pass off unused. It follows that animals whose structure is best 

 formed for fattening are also best formed to fulfil the first con- 

 ditions essential for the production of rich milk. 



There are organs for the deposition of fat as well as for the 

 secretion of milk. The former are called the adipose tissue, the 

 latter the mammary glands. The object in breeding stock for 

 the dairy is to stimulate the mammary glands to the greatest 

 possible activity ; that is, to increase their energy as compared 

 with the other organs of secretion, and to prolong their period 

 of activity; and they are, to such an extent, subject to hereditary 

 influence, that great progress has already been made in increas- 

 ing their power to perform their natural functions, as we see in 

 the establishment of breeds remarkable for the production of 

 milk, while a neglect of this point has, in some instances, so 

 reduced the energy and activity of these glands that whole 

 classes of animals have ceased to yield milk in quantities to be 

 profitable upon the dairy farm. 



With respect to those breeds where the tendency to produce 

 meat has been developed, and the milking qualities overlooked 

 or sacrificed to early maturity, no doubt we could by judicious 

 management bring back the condition of the mammary system 

 to a high standard of efficiency, but we should be likely, in doing 

 it, to reduce the tendency to the economical supply of meat, or, 

 in other words, we should impair the value of certain very im- 

 portant qualities which have been highly developed for specific 

 purposes, and get only what we find already highly developed 

 in other breeds, for, whether the two qualities are irreconcilable 

 or incompatible in the same animal or not, they have not, as 

 yet, been combined with any great degree of success. It is 

 better policy, on the whole, to aim to breed for specific purposes 



