164 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 



breed. Increase in size, or an increased disposition to fatten, 

 will be gained only at the expense of a loss in cream and butter. 

 "An analysis of numerous specimens of milk made in 1858 by 

 Dr. S. R. Percy, under the direction of the New York Acade 

 my of Medicine, resulted as follows, viz. : The milk from six 

 of my Alderneys, taken indiscriminately, exhibited butter com 

 pared with the best other milk, as seventy-two to forty-seven, 

 and compared with mixed country milk, as seventy-two to 

 forty. 



" I am yours, very respectfully, 



"JOHN T. NORTON." 



Mr. CLAY commenced his second lecture on Cattle Breed 

 ing by pointing out, on the large sketch of a cow, the several 

 good and bad points of the improved Shorthorn. There should 

 be no surplus meat about the head, for it is all waste, or nearly 

 so, and it consumes a quantity of food in being created which 

 might be more profitably employed. A large dewlap, being 

 poor for meat, and the skin inferior for leather, and a useless 

 deformity, should be avoided. A straight spine indicates a state 

 of health, as well as fine beef. Whenever an animal is too closely 

 bred, or suffers in health, the spine droops, and the animal is call 

 ed "sway-backed." The girth should be as large as possible, for 

 just under and behind the shoulders are located the vital parts 

 the heart, lungs, &c., and ample space should be given to 

 them for full development. Without this there can never be 

 the perfection of vigorous growth and hardiness of constitu 

 tion. The ribs should be joined to the spine at, or near, a 

 right angle, should spring well outward, and drop well down 

 toward the belly, that there may be capaciousness of carcass 

 to hold the viscera and food. The rump should be long to 

 hold fine meat, and a long stretch from hip-bone to hock is nec 

 essary to give powerful leverage to working-oxen. A large 

 brisket, projecting forward, and dropping below the line of the 

 belly, he does not like, but rather aims at getting one of medi- 



