Ch. XXXVI.j ON MILCH COWS. 397 



marshlands of Somerset and Gloucester, — as well as tlie Glamorgans, — are 

 also considered good milkers in the neighbouring counties ; but the breed 

 which of all others appears to be gaining ground throughout the United 

 Kingdom for abundant produce upon ordinary pasture, is the Ayrshire 

 kyloe, which Mr. Alton describes as " having no parallel under similar soil, 

 climate, and relative circumstances, either for the dairy or in feeding for the 

 shambles*." The Highland cow, however, yields finer milk ; and it will 

 be seen, in our account of the Dunlop cheese, that the milk of a cross be- 

 tween the Gloucester and the Alderney, with a Durham bull — thus pro- 

 ducing a stock half Durham, one-fourth Gloucester, and one-fourth Alder- 

 ney, — produces with an equal quantity a greater amount of cheese. 



The small Alderneys, indeed, are known to give a richer cream than any 

 other, and to be contented with grass upon which a Yorkshire cow would 

 starve ; but their yield of milk is only scanty, and their price being high, 

 they are almost exclusively appropriated to the paddocks of gentlemen f. 



The Kerry cows — a diminutive race, bred in the county from which they 

 take their name in Ireland — also produce very rich butter, and would, if 

 introduced into this country, rival those of Alderney ; but injudicious crosses, 

 with a view to improve the breed, have now rendered them scarce. The 

 larger cows of each respective breed will, however, be generally found to 

 have the advantage over the small ones. 



Upon the form and qualifications of a perfect cow we again refer to Mr. 

 Youatt; merely observing that, whatever breed may be selected, there is a 

 wide difference between the form of one meant for fatting and that intended 

 for the dairy. Thus, while the former should have as nearly as possible all 

 the best points of the ox, the milch cow should on the contrary have a long 

 thin head with a brisk but placid eye, be thin and hollow in the neck, nar- 

 row in the breast and point of the shoulder, and altogether light in the fore- 

 quarter, but wide in the loins, with little dewlap, and neither too full-fleshed 

 along the chine, nor showing in any part an indication to put on much fat. 

 The udder should especially be large, round, and full, with the milk veins pro- 

 truding, yet thin-skinned, but not hanging loose or tending very far behind. 

 The teats should also stand square, all pointing out at equal distances, and of 

 the same size ; and although neither very large nor thick towards the udder, 

 yet long and tapering to a point. A cow with a large head, a high back- 

 bone, a small udder and teats, and drawn up in the belly, will, beyond all 

 doubt, be found a bad milker J. 



* Survey of Ayrshire, p. 421. 



f Mr. Malcolm mentions, in his " Compendium of IModera Husbandry," that he kept 

 an Alderney and a Suffolk cow — the latter the best of the kind he ever saw ; while the 

 Alderney, which had dropped her first calf, was purchased out of a drove in a miserable 

 condition. During seven years, — the milk and butter being always kept separate, — it 

 was found, year after year, that the value of the Alderney exceeded that of the Suffolk, 

 though the latter gave more than double the quantity of milk at each meal." He adds, 

 " That he at that time had a dairy of twelve cows: two Devons, one Derby, one Lincoln, 

 two Sussex, two Wiltshire long-horned, two Holderness, cue Suffolk, and one Alderney; 

 and she bore the palm clear away.'' — Vol. i. p. 350. 



Yet an instance is mentioned in the Suffolk Report of a polled cow, of a very small 

 size, which, in the height of the season, gave the extraordinary quantity of four gallons 

 of milk at each meal, twice a-day ; and three quarts of it being compared with an equal 

 quantity of milk drawn from a long-horned cow, originally of Bakewell's breed, gave 

 2j oz. more cream than the horned one : being, however, again skimmed, after twelve 

 hours, that of the horned cow yii-lded 4 oz. m jre than that of the polled. — 3rd edit, p. 20 j . 



I See Youatt's "Cattle," p. 244 ; Wedge's "Cheshire," p. 251; Lambert's "Rural 

 Affairs of Ireland,"' p. 69 ; Alton's " Treatise on Dairy Husbandry," p. 2G ; and " The 

 Complete Grazier," sixth tdition, pp, 43 and 114. 



