324 DAIRYING COWS AND THEIR MANAGEMENT 



next calving, but without a rest they are liable not to produce 

 so abundantly the following year although by continuous 

 milking the danger of milk-fever is reduced. 



M. Gudnon's " Escutcheon" or " Milk-Mirror" theory 1 

 holds that the extent of surface of the udder and the thighs 



o 



that is covered with hairs turning up and out, in place of 

 down like the rest of the body, is an indication of the 

 amount of milk the cow will give. If the surface covered by 

 the reversed hair is large and broad above the udder, 

 extending far on to the thighs, the cow should be a good 

 milker ; and, if it be broad and smooth near to the setting on 

 of the tail, the flow should last well out at the end of the 

 season. Great attention is paid by a few enthusiasts to the 

 escutcheon theory in America and in France, but it is little 

 regarded in England. The explanation seems a very 

 doubtful one, viz., that the arteries supplying the udder 

 terminate in the skin, in the region covered by the escutcheon, 

 and turn up the hairs. If there be a large area thus marked, 

 it is supposed to indicate that there are many terminations, 

 and consequently large arteries, devoted to the supply of 

 milk-producing blood to the udder. The size of the milk- 

 veins, carrying away the residue of the blood which passes 

 through the udder in the process of milk-secretion, is a much 

 more reliable indication of the " depth " of a cow's milking 

 capacity. 



1 The system was instituted by Mons. FranQois Guenon, of Lisbourne, 

 the son of a poor gardener, and a great student of Nature as represented 

 in the vegetable and animal kingdoms. As far back as 1814, while 

 tending the household cows, he believed he could trace a relationship 

 between the yield of milk and the form of the "gravure" or escutcheon. 

 After making further inquiries, which tended to strengthen his belief, he 

 began business as a cattle-dealer in 1822, and dealt in cows of different 

 nationalities. The result of his long and careful observations led him to 

 classify animals in three groups according to size large, middle, and 

 small : the signs he divided into eight classes, and each of these classes 

 into eight orders. From an intimate knowledge of their variations, he 

 claimed to be able to indicate the quantity and quality of milk a cow 

 would give daily, and the length of time she would continue to give a 

 good yield. In 1837 he stated his results before the Bordeaux Agri- 

 cultural Committee, and in 1838 to the Agricultural Society of Aurillac. 

 His views were accepted after test trials of the system, and by a few who 

 have undertaken the great labour of mastering the details it is pro- 

 nounced to be an excellent guide in the selection of cows possessed of 

 good dairying qualities. 



