426 AMERICAN" CATTLE. 



up and partly fed in the house; yet there are manv instances in 

 which favorite bulls have been kept until they were more than 

 twenty years old; and we know a cow of the same age who 

 pastures with the rest of the dairy, and gives a fair quantity of 

 milk. 



"Some writers have asserted, that a good cow will usually 

 continue good until that age; but the dairyman would discover 

 his error, both in the quantity and quality of his milk, if he 

 received it as a general rule, that a good cow will continue to 

 breed and give milk until twenty years old. Mr. Watkinson, 

 however, had a cow that for seventeen years gave him from ten 

 to twenty quarts of milk every day; was in moderate condition 

 when taken up; six months in fattening; and, being then twenty 

 years old, was sold for more than 18 ($90). Mr. John Holt, 

 of Walton, in Lancashire, had a healthy cow-calf presented to 

 him, whose dam was in her thirty-second year, and could not be 

 said to have been properly out of milk for the preceding fifteen 

 years. 



"This method, then, of judging of the age of cattle by the 

 teeth, is more satisfactory than by the horns, and little of the 

 imposition can be practiced to which the buyer is sometimes 

 exposed, whether the animal is young or old. It is true, that 

 from six to nine we can only guess at the age ; but we can form 

 a shrewd guess, and can scarcely be out more than a few months. 



"With regard to the horns, we are subject to imposition at all 

 times; we are obliged to ask questions as to the first calf; and, 

 when the animal gets old, the supposed rings often present a 

 mass of confusion, of which the best judges can make nothing. 



"The grinders will rarely be examined to ascertain the age of 

 a beast. They are too difficult to be got at; and the same 

 dependence cannot be placed upon them. The calf is generally 

 born with two molar teeth, and sometimes with three in each 

 jaw, above and below. The fourth appears about the expira- 



