Cultivation of Grafs Land. Cow -keeping Cows proper for. 



teats long and large. A tame and gentle difpofition isalfo, as has been mown, a. 

 circumftance of importance. The beauty of form is therefore never to be attended 

 to in providing covvs for the fupply of the milk-dealer. It is chiefly the quantity 

 of milk that is to be regarded ; of courfe, all fuch cows as do not afford a. full fup 

 ply fhould be difpofcd of as foon as poflible, as being very unprofitable in this 

 fort of management. 



Cows moftly come into milk about the third year of their age, and are in full 

 milk at the fifth, and they may be continued to the eighth or tenth, according to 

 circumftances. But in the practice of cow-keeping, from the high manner in which 

 the animals are kept, it is neceflary to change them much more frequently. With 

 refpect to the exad: length of time that they may be continued as milkers with the 

 mod advantage, it does not feern to be well afcertained by experiment; but it is 

 probable that it cannot be more than two, three, or four years at the mofl, though 

 much muft undoubtedly depend upon the conftitution of the animal. It is the bed, 

 however, not to keep them too long, as the vigour of fecretion is much lefs in old 

 than young animals j and befides, they become more liable to fwellings and indu 

 rations in the udders, as well as other difeafes.* 



The age of cows is readily known by their medding the tips of their horns 

 at three years old, and the firft rings commencing at the bottoms of them at 

 four.t 



The cow- keepers in the county of Middlefex almoft wholly employ the large 

 HoldernefTe breed, which are brought from a diftricl: thus denominated in York- 

 (hire, as well as others in the fame neighbourhood, where the moft perfect of this 

 kind of cows are met with.J It is obferved that the dealers in this fort of cattle 

 buy them of the breeders when they are three or four years old, and in calf, expofing 

 them to fale afterwards at the fairs and markets in the country, particularly near 

 the metropolis, where there is a frefh fupply from the country weekly, by means of 

 which the cow-keepers are enabled to keep up their feveral flocks. Great num 

 bers of cows are likewife bought in the above places in lots often or twenty, by 

 private commiiHon, and forwarded to the refpective cow-keepers in the above 

 neighbourhood. The prices were formerly from ten to fifteen guineas, but for the 

 laft two or three years have increafed to fixteenor eighteen, and are now advanced 



* Annals of Agriculture, vol. XVI. f Ibid. vol. XXXII. 



J Corre^ed Report of Middlefex, 



