SELECTION OF MILK COWS. 385 



general vigor, and activity of the mammary system, and place 

 the progeny under favorable circumstances, the qualities will 

 rarely prove defective." 



The foregoing remarks of the French author, Mr. Magne, are 

 both sensible and ingenious, as the results of experience in one 

 long observant of rules, both in breeding cows, and their economi- 

 cal uses. 



For farther instruction, although at the hazard of partially 

 repeating Mr. Magne, we give the observation of Mr. Haxton, 

 on the same subject, from a somewhat different stand point: 



POINTS INDICATIVE OF A GOOD MILK COW. 



" Among practical dairymen, there has long existed a number 

 of rules, by which the milking properties of a milk cow are 

 judged of; and as these rules are the results of long experience, 

 transmitted from one generation to another, they contain, when 

 collected together, the sum of all that information which is 

 known by the name of practical knowledge. That this knowl- 

 edge is correct, in a general way, cannot be questioned, because 

 it is the result of actual experiments repeated, and confirmed not 

 only for a long period of time, but in a great variety of ways, 

 and under circumstances so different, that any errors must long 

 ere now have been detected. Notwithstanding the existence of 

 these established rules, of judging, by external signs, of the quali- 

 ties of an animal suitable for the dairy, there are very great dif- 

 ferences in the modes and results of applying them practically. 

 Some men have a natural turn, or peculiar adroitness, for minuto 

 and careful observation, which others are devoid of; and conse- 

 quently the former are far more successful in rearing, selecting, 

 or buying dairy stock, than the latter; and hence, too, we find 

 that to these instinctive judges of stock, a glance or a touch will 

 reveal a greater amount of information, than the closest inspec- 

 tion of others. While it is necessary, however, that there should 

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