TIME FOR REST. 199 



while lie defines ten classes in cows, gives only three grades 

 or classes to bulls, — good reproducers, bad, and indifferent. 

 The indifferent he thinks are not worth raising. 



Question. My point is, What is the appearance and size 

 of the perfect escutcheon on the male animal ? 



Mr. Hazard. I should suppose, if you could find an 

 escutcheon of about one-third the size of those on the dia- 

 grams of the cows, you would have a pretty good bull. You 

 can discover the escutcheon on the calf, strange to say, as a 

 foetus seven months old, better than you can three months 

 after it is born ; but we do not often have an opportunity 

 to examine it in that condition, and do not want to. I have 

 heard -it said that some can see the escutcheon on a calf 

 when it is born. I have never been able to do it, although 

 I have tried to do it often. I have seen certain indications 

 on a calf six weeks old, that that calf had better be kept, 

 instead of selling it to the butcher. I would not undertake 

 to judge of any escutcheon under three months ; but it 

 would pay any man to keep a calf three months before de- 

 termining whether to send it to the shambles or not. 



Mr. Everett. I believe you stated the time that a cow 

 should go dry. How long should a cow have rest? 



Mr. Hazard. I think every cow ought to have a rest of 

 from four to six weeks. 



Mr. Everett. Any cow, no matter what her weight is, 

 or what her qualities are, ought to go dry as long as that ? 



Mr. Hazard. I think so. A cow is a machine. We put 

 the food into it, and it converts that food into milk and flesh. 

 But we must not keep the machine running all the time : we 

 must oil it, you know. 



Question. Is the skin under the escutcheon more soft 

 and oily than any other part? 



Mr. Hazard. Very much more so. 



Question. Do you find an indication as to the length of 

 tune a cow will give milk in the vertical escutcheon ? 



Mr. Hazard. In the vertical escutcheon, mostly. That 

 is shown by the way in which they rapidly fall off from the 

 first order to the fourth, fifth, and sixth. 



Question. But sometimes, in the Flanders, don't you 

 find a very good vertical escutcheon, and one not so good on 

 the thighs? 



