382 AMERICAN CATTLE. 



quantities of butter contained in their milk, but science still 

 requires to make new observations on this subject. 



SELECTION OF STOCK FOR THE PURPOSE OF BREEDING GOOD 

 MILK COWS. 



"It is more difficult to select stock for breeding good milk cows, 

 than to select good milkers; for the breeders must, like good 

 cows, possess well-developed properties, and must, moreover, 

 have the faculty of transmitting these properties to their descen- 

 dants. Now, this latter condition is not indicated by any known 

 mark; we can only have probable ground for believing that 

 animals possess it first, by employing animals on trial; and 

 next, by a special application of the marks which have now been 

 considered. 



"The fixed characteristics of breed the characteristics which 

 have existed in races for several generations, are those which are 

 transmitted with most certainty. Hence, as we have said, in 

 speaking of breed and parentage follows the necessity of choos- 

 ing milk cows in good breeds and good families ; and this, as we 

 have also said, applies particularly to breeding stock. The ana- 

 tomical arrangements which cause much milk to be given by 

 cows, combining all the properties of good milkers large hind- 

 quarters, wide rump, highly-developed milk arteries and nerves, 

 and large udder veins are more surely hereditary than the excep- 

 tional properties observed in some individuals, which milk well, 

 though they have not the marks which usually distinguish good 

 milk cows. 



" A cow, then, which has none of the marks of a good milker, 

 however excellent she may be, ought not to be employed, with- 

 out extreme caution, in raising stock; for it is to be feared that 

 her progeny, male and female, will not inherit the exceptional 

 properties which she possesses. Even should they resemble 

 their mother, they will always be difficult of sale, and unprofit- 



