THE JERSEY, ALDERNEY AND GUERNSEY COW. 35 



sarlly practised by so dense a population. The extreme 

 delicacy of limb, the slight development of muscle, and 

 the unusually small lungs of these animals may be 

 taken as a natural result of the almost entire absence 

 of exercise that we know to have lonof been one of the 

 leading conditions of their lives. The perfect docility 

 of disposition, the evident fondness of even the youngest 

 calves for the presence of man, and the slight dispo- 

 sition to roam (especially observable in imported ani- 

 mals), have unquestionably grown from the door-yard 

 and household-pet character of their treatment through 

 long generations. The unusual secretion of fat In the 

 milk may be reasonably attributed to the slight waste 

 of the fat- forming portions of the food that moderate 

 respiration and limited exercise make possible, and to 

 the fact that fat In this form, rather than In flesh, has 

 long been the prime object of the farmer's attention. 

 The beauty of appearance, the delicate coloring, the 

 mellow, kindly eyes, the fine horns, and the softness of 

 the skin, may be in part due to original characteristics 

 of the breed, or of its several ancestors, and in great 

 part to the demand that taste and fashion have caused. 



" It would be interesting to know, were It possible to 

 discover, how far purely natural causes (climatic and 

 geological) and how far the Influence of man's needs 

 have operated in determining the peculiarities of the 

 breed as now known. 



" Reasoning from analogy, and remembering the 

 achievements of the breeders of Short-horned cattle. 



