174 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



GUENON'S SYSTEM OF SELECTING COWS BY THE 



ESCUTCHEON. 



BY WILLIS P. HAZARD, SECRETARY OF THE PENNSYLVANIA GUENON 

 COMMISSION, WEST CHESTER, PENN. 



The time is not long since, when it was said " Cotton is 

 king." But statistics prove that it has been dethroned, and 

 that the dairy, with its products, has assumed the sceptre. 

 When we consider that there are in value one million dol- 

 lars a day, for every day in the year, sold of dairy products, 

 and the total yearly products are seven hundred and fifty 

 million, and there are from thirteen to fifteen million cows 

 in the United States, we need hardly call your attention to 

 the importance of the subject. But we desire to hold your 

 thoughts to one branch of this subject, — the cow; for it is 

 through her all these treasures are produced, and my aim 

 will be to show how all these treasures may be increased. It 

 will be done through explaining the points of Monsieur Fran- 

 cois Guenon' s system of selecting cows by the escutcheon. 

 For if, by this system, you can not only increase the quantity 

 of milk produced, but also improve the quality, you must 

 admit that increased receipts of money will follow. 



You can readily see, if the average yield of a herd is six 

 pounds of butter per head each week, and that yield can be 

 increased to nine pounds, without any more cost, that the 

 last three pounds' increase will be all profit ; or, to put it in 

 another way, if at present your milk is pretty good, and 

 gives you a pound of butter to every twelve quarts of milk, 

 how much your profits would be increased, if, with the same 

 labor, it took only nine quarts to make a pound of butter. 



Now, this can be done. And the surest way to do it is to 

 raise the tone of your herd. No farmer should hesitate a 

 moment to accomplish this purpose ; and it makes but little 

 difference how it is done, — whether it be through careful 

 breeding, judicious purchases, or intelligent feeding. Adopt- 

 ing either of these, or even all of them, the keynote is 



« 



PROPER SELECTION. • 



Every one has his own views about this. One will choose 

 by the crumpled horn, the large, thin-skinned udder, the 

 large milk-veins, and their entrance into the belly, the color 



