20 GuENON ON Milch Cows. 



The Bordeaux committee added : " To the proprietors and to the lookers- 

 on, all this was very surprising for the examinations were as quickly made 

 as the results were certain. As to ourselves to whom the method was no 

 longer a secret, it was with renewed interest and astonishment that we 

 viewed the accuracy of the results. This system we do not fear to say is 

 infallible. We only regretted the whole society was not present." 



The committee further reported that Mr. Guenon had, after more than 

 twenty years observations and researches, discovered certain natural and 

 positive signs that were proof against all error, while the writers and pro- 

 fessors who have particularly occupied themselves with the bovine race, 

 can only indicate some vague signs for judging of the fitness of cows for 

 secreting milk. That this method is valuable, whether it tells the 3'ield of 

 milk only, or indicates the improvement of breeds, which are liable to de- 

 terioration from mismanagement in crossing, and that it is applicable not 

 to full-grown animals alone, but also to calves at as early an age as three 

 months. Thus it affords a sure means of forming a judgment of full-grown 

 animals, about which we might be misled on account of their form and 

 their parentage, and secures the improvement of herds by enabling us to 

 dispose of those calves which will not repay the cost of rearing them. We 

 shall thus no longer rear calves at great expense for two or three years 

 that should have been consigned to the butcher, nor sell calves that would 

 pay best to rear. If this system is pursued, only cows and bulls of best qual- 

 ity will be kept, and in very few years how great will be the improvement 

 of our herds, and largely incraased the cheapest and best of all foods, 

 milk, and the production of butter and cheese. 



The committee of the Agricultural Society of Bordeaux, therefore, de- 

 creed Mr. Guenon a gold medal, made him a member of the society, 

 ordered fifty copies of his work, and distributed one thousand copies of 

 their full report among all the agricultural societies of France. 



The next public test Mr. Guenon submitted his system to, was that by the 

 Agricultural Society of Aurillac, and that society reported that Mr. Gue- 

 non examined the herd of their president, of one hundred cows, from which 

 ■were selected designedly, the best, the moderately good, and the most in- 

 different of the establishment. Upon each, Mr. Guenon pronounced with 

 precision, and his decisions corresponded almost invariably with the state- 

 ments of the persons in charge. The only variations were very slight 

 ones, in regard to the quantity given. But this herd was fed unusually 

 high, and Guenon was totally unaccustomed to the usages of the country 

 in feeding cattle, and this caused him to pronounce the yield a little loss 

 than it really was. A proof of his system, for he declares the yield will 

 vary according to the feed and management, which all observant farmers 

 know to b2 the case. Mr. Guenon examined some of the cows a second 

 time, and also the calves, and those calves he assigned to the first oi'ders 

 the cowherds said were from their best cows, that gave a great deal of 

 milk. 



