THE DAIRY. 183 



the escutcheon, Guenon reduced the result of his practice and experiments into a system, 

 and finally published a work upon the subject, which met with much favor, receiving premi 

 ums in the form of gold medals and other rewards from agricultural societies, and by the 

 government with a pension for life of three thousand francs. 



This work was translated in this country, and had an extensive sale. After several 

 years of practice with it, he rearranged the system, enlarging the number of classes and 

 decreasing the number of orders, thus making it more simple and easily understood, also 

 adding important information respecting bulls, thus revising his former work. Guenon s 

 system included not only the size and form of the milk mirror or escutcheon, but the char 

 acter of the hair growing upon it, the color of the skin under it, and also the quality of the 

 skin. Thus, to be first-class, the escutcheon must not only be of proper size and form, but 

 the hair upon it must be short, soft, and furry, and the skin under it soft, like a fine kid 

 glove, oleaginous to the touch from the presence of fine dandruff, while the nearer the color 

 approaches to a copper or nankeen hue the better, the hue of the skin denoting the quality 

 of the yield. Guenon therefore claimed for his system that it determined the quantity of 

 milk which a cow would yield; the period which she would continue in milk, and the quality 

 of her milk; these rules being alike applicable to calves and bulls, for by them may be deter 

 mined whether it will pay to raise a calf, or to dispose of it to the butcher, and whether a 

 bull would be likely to transmit good milking qualities to his progeny. Guenon s system, as 

 simplified, is still a complicated one, and while it is of immense value to agriculture, is 

 thought by some to be an attempt to prove too much. 



However this may be, it arranges the escutcheon into ten classes, and each of these 

 classes into six orders, which makes sixty divisions or different shapes of which to acquire a 

 knowledge. Besides these there are also ten exceptions or faulty escutcheons that he calls 

 &quot;bastard &quot; escutcheons, which, although bearing so close a resemblance to the others that the 

 practiced eye may be easily deceived, yet differ from them in their yield. Of these Guenon 



&quot; I have adopted the word bastard to denote those cows which give milk only so long 

 as they have not been got with calf anew, and which, upon this happening, go dry all of a sudden, 

 or in the course of a few days. Cows of this kind are found in each of the classes, and in 

 every order of the class. Some of them are great milkers, but so soon as they have got 

 with calf their milk is gone. Others present the most promising appearance, but their yield 

 is very insignificant.&quot; 



The system may be greatly simplified by paying little or no attention to any cows bearing 

 escutcheons below the third order of any of the classes, as it would not be a paying invest 

 ment to purchase or raise a cow with an escutcheon of a low order, it being the opinion of 

 good judges in the practice of this system, that when a cow does not bear an escutcheon of 

 the third order of any class, she is not a profitable milk -producer. 



Previous to Guenon s discovery, the milk points recognized in France, Germany, Bel 

 gium, Switzerland, and England, were as follows, although in no one of the above-mentioned 

 countries were all of these marks known and recognized: 



Favorable Milk Marks. A broad, large mouth; yellow, short, thin horns; delicate, soft, 

 short, and close hair; broad, well-spread ribs; broad chest; thin, long tail; straight hind legs; 

 regularly arched udder, covered with a short, close, silky down; four teats of equal length 

 and thickness; thick, projecting lacteal veins, which run along under the belly from the 

 udder towards the fore-legs, forming a fork at the end, and finally losing themselves in a 

 round cavity; the milk- wart in the middle of the lower jaw, at the broadest part, nearer to 

 the mouth than the throat. 



Unfavorable Milk Marks, before Guenon s discovery, were recognized as follows: long 

 thick horns; long, narrow, pointed head; buU-like, puffy neck; indented, pointed spine; 



