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56 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



be found. The hips should be wide apart and level with the back, 

 the rump long, high and wide and many authorities favor an arching 

 pelvis. The pin bones or thurls should be high and wide apart. In 

 many of the best dairy cows, we find the pin bones so high that the 

 line from hips to the setting on of the tail rises somewhat toward 

 the tail. This is undoubtedly a good characteristic. The thighs 

 should be thin, in-curving but well muscled. It may again be said 

 on this point that all the characteristics here mentioned are of sec- 

 ondary importance when compared with the development of the 

 udder and milking veins of the producing cow. The udder should 

 be large, extending well forward, full but not fleshy, the quarters 

 even. The attachment to the body should be as' large as possible, 

 extending well forward and extending up behind. The udder should 

 milk out thoroughly so that when it is empty it will be considerably 

 smaller and very flexible. The milk veins, which may be observed 

 just in front of the udder, should be large, elastic, as crooked as pos- 

 sible and branching. The main milk vein enters the chest through 

 an opening known as the milk well and this milk well should be 

 large. The milk well seldom changes much in size. The milk vein 

 IS very much larger while the animal is in full milk than when the 

 animal is dry ; therefore the milk well may sometimes be regarded 

 as a surer index in a dry cow than the milk veins themselves. 



We have attempted in the above to give a somewhat detailed 

 account of the characteristics that are found in the best dairy cows 

 and that are considered important in selecting the highest producing 

 animals. The relative importance to be placed upon each of the points 

 indicated is subject to some difference of opinion, but in general we 

 are all agreed that certain of these characteristics are much more im- 

 portant than others and we have attempted to indicate by the score 

 card published below the relative value to be placed upon these re- 

 gions and points of the cow : 



