Objections to the System. 35 



quantity of milk, I believe it to be one of the best indications of milk, that 

 nature has provided ; but in the use of this system, we must consider : — 



1. The breed. 



2. The age. 



3. The feed. 



4. The treatment (present and past.) 



5. The health. 



"A goDd, not to sa}"- a thorough, understanding of the Guenon system, 

 cannot be obtained by casual observation, but only by the most painstak- 

 ing examination of many animals, extending over a long period of time." 



Objections to the System and to the Report of the Commission. 



M. Guenon in his Treatise on Milk Cows, does not give any positive 

 reasons why the escutcheon is indicative of the jdeld. He rested content 

 with the fact, that he had proved it so before many learned men, and risked 

 his reputation upon publishing the facts. The system as far as we have 

 been able to trace it, has always been verified by those who have thoroughly 

 studied it, and tested it by extended practice according to the rules of Gue- 

 non. The principal cavilers against it, either admit they have not con- 

 stantly pursued it, or show by their writings their lack of sufficient knowl- 

 edge of it. The report of the Pennsylvania commission has incited several 

 to write against the system. The principal paper produced was one read 

 before a meeting of the State Board of Agriculture, by Eastburn Reeder, 

 and which he had reprinted in several papers. Of this essay, it is suffi- 

 cient to say, he showed he had not studied nor practiced the system thor- 

 oughly, and because he could not understand it and got befogged, he 

 quoted a large mass of scientific matter to show the system could not be 

 true. These attempts at argument are so quietly, but completely, set aside 

 in the essay of Prof. D. E. Salmon, D. Y. M., on Contested Dairy Ques- 

 tions, quoted below, that we shall not discuss them further. For we can- 

 not any more tell absolutely and positively why the escutcheon reveals 

 what it does, than we can tell why a black cow eating green grass, converts 

 red blood into white milk, than we can tell why the green grass grows. In 

 both questions at issue, we have certain facts and theories to guide our 

 reason and judgment about them, but we know nothing positive., and because 

 it is so, Mr. Reeder and Mr. Hardin won't believe it is so or can be so. 



In addition to what Mons. Magne, the eminent French veterinarian, 

 one of the most celebrated medical professors in France has written. Pro- 

 fessor Arnold, of Rochester says, when indorsing what Magne writes : 



" The size of the escutcheon is regarded as the measure of the quantity 

 of blood supplied to the milk-producing vessels, and are evidence of their 

 capability of elaborating milk. In the same way, the veins take up the 

 blood, and carry it back in the milk veins which pass through the bag and 

 along the belly, and enter the body through one or more holes, on their 

 way to the heart. The size of these milk veins, and the holes where they 

 enter the body, vary with the escutcheon, and like it, give evidence of the 

 quantity of venous blood passing away, from and through the udder, and 

 they have the same significance with reference to quantity, as the supply 

 of arterial blood and the size of the escutcheon." 



