160 AMERICAN CATTLE. 



have a prejudice against the purely white coating of a short- 

 horn, as indicative of a less hardy constitution in the animal 

 possessing it; but we see no good reason, other things being 

 equal, why a white color as it truly belongs to the breed, and 

 descended, perhaps, from red or roan parents should be a defect 

 in the useful quality of the animal having it. It is simply 

 yielding to a popular prejudice outside of short-horn circles. 



The cow differs from the bull only in the feminine qualities of 

 her sex, as our illustrations have shown. 



AS A DAIRY COW, 



Popular opinion, among those not particularly acquainted with 

 their history or breeding, is widely at variance. They are the 

 greatest milkers, in quantity, of any breed whatever with the 

 exception of the Dutch as innumerable facts have shown; or 

 they may be comparatively inferior, as education, keeping, or 

 purpose may govern, as we have just related. These matters 

 will be explained in a subsequent chapter, on breeding. "We 

 have numerous well authenticated instances of their giving six, 

 seven, eight, and even nine gallons a day, on grass alone, in the 

 heighth of their season, and yielding fourteen to eighteen pounds 

 of butter per week, and of holding out in their milk, in propor- 

 tionate quantity, as well as other breeds of cows, through the 

 year. Cows so much larger in size than of other breeds, should 

 be expected to give more than smaller ones, that consume less 

 food; and without asserting that they do give more, in propor- 

 tion to their size, it is claimed that when educated and used for 

 the dairy chiefly, they give quite as much as any others. That 

 the inherent quality of abundant milking exists in the short- 

 horns, no intelligent breeder of them need doubt. Our own 

 observation, in more than thirty years' experience with hundreds 

 of them, first and last, under our own eyes, is to ourself, evidence 

 of the fact, both in thorough breds and grades. 



