352 



MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT, 



GENERAL APPEARANCE OF THR DAIRY COW. 



The general appearance of a typical dairy cow, giving milk in 

 abundance, is angular, thin, somewhat loose-jointed and with promi- 

 nent bones. In general it may be said that animals that remain in 

 a fleshy condition while at the same time giving milk are in most 

 cases not profitable dairy animals. Beef animals possess the ability 

 of consuming the raw products of the farm and producing therefrom 

 beef and depositing this between the muscular fibres and in the con- 

 nective tissue of the body. Dairy animals, on the other hand, possess 



Fig. 1. Imp. Coinassie 11874. 



Test, 16 lbs. 11 oz. Butter in 7 Days. Champion Cow Island of Jersey for Five Years. 



Ancestor of Many of the Most Noted Animals in the Jersey Breed. 



the ability of making fat from the feed, but this fat, instead of being 

 stored or deposited between the muscular fibres, is deposited in the 

 udder and ultimately appears in the milk as butter fat. Now any 

 animal that possesses the ability to produce butter fat and deposit it 

 in the udder in large quantities cannot at the same time deposit the 

 same fat between the muscular fibres ; therefore, fat looking cows are 

 not, as a rule, to be selected for dairy purposes. 



FORM OR CONFORMATION. 



Some animals possess in a remarkable degree the ability of con- 

 suming large quantities of feed and producing therefrom large quan- 



