TREATISE. 



ON 



MILCH cows: 



WHEREBY 



THE QUALITY AND QUANTITY OF MILK WHICH ANY COW WILL GIVE 

 MAY BE ACCURATELY DETERMINED, 



BY 

 OBSERVING NATURAL MARKS, OR EXTERNAL INDICATIONS ALONE ; 



THE LENGTH OF TIME SHE WILL CONTINUE TO GIVE MILK, 



&c. &c. 



Er M. FRANCIS GUENON, FRANCE. 



Translated from the French of the Author, for the Farmers Library, 



By N. P. TR1ST, late U. S. Consul at Havana. 



THE TRANSLATOR TO THE READER. 



Nonsense ! Who can believe any such thing ? What ! by merely looking at a 

 cow, to be able to tell how much milk she is capable of being made to yield ; 

 and, also, how long she can continue to give milk after being got with calf! 

 to be able thus to ascertain, not only what are the qualities of a full grown cow, 

 but what are to be the qualities of any heifer-calf, by looking at her while yet 

 but two or three months old ! Surely, if ever there was a humbug, this is one. 



Softly, Mr. Reader ! You are very incredulous, no doubt, but I defy you to be 

 more so than I was when in your present position. What is more, I defy you 

 to cling to your skepticism over an hour or so. However strong and firm it may 

 be at this moment, it will, in a 1/nle while, have vanished into nothing; and its 

 place will be filled by another solid proof in addition to the many you must al 

 ready have stored up, that 



&quot; There are more things in hcavi n and earth . 



Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.&quot; 



When this discovery was first mentioned to me, as one which had recently- 

 been published in France, I smiled at the credulity of some people. My informant, 

 perceiving what effect the announcement had upon me, said, &quot; It is so, however ;&quot; 

 and then, nothing but politeness toward a stranger, for the first time under my 

 roof, prevented my replying, &quot; You do not really believe this to be possible.&quot; 



He offered to send me the book ; and, though I had not the least idea of 

 throwing away my time in reading it, civility would not allow me to decline. 

 It came, and I opened it with the intention merely of looking into it sufficiently 

 to say that I had done sc. When, however, in turning the pages over, I saw 

 that this piece of quackery, as I felt very sure the pretended discovery must be, 

 had engaged the attention of distinguished Agricultural Societies in France, and 



