38 GuENON ON MiLcn Cows. 



Now, having laid out this programme, he does not say what was to be 

 done with it. The inference was to b3 drawn, we suppose, that the many- 

 escutcheons were to be engraved, and the public were to draw their con- 

 clusions from them and the reports given by the owners and milkers, and 

 see how Guenon would stand the test. And what were tlie believing or 

 non-believing commissioners to do ? Surpervise the taking down of all 

 this ? How, at once, this shows Mr. Hardin to know little or nothing of 

 the system I Like Mr. Reeder, he did not know that Guenon assigns many 

 other things to be thought of to form a correct opinion ! Was it more 

 proof to be told by the owner all that any one could know about the cow, 

 and then say that corresponds with the escutcheon ? Or did it put the 

 system to a severer test, to say to the owner, don't tell me a word, and 

 then proceed to tell him all about a cow you never saw, simply from ex- 

 amining her escutcheon ? In one case, you are assisted to define the escutch- 

 eon by the knowledge given you. In the other case, you define the cow's 

 character by only the knowledge you can get from the escutcheon. No 

 better proof can be given of Mr. Hardin's lack of practical knowledge 

 of the system. 



Another objection he makes, and repeats several times, as being a very 

 strong one with him, is, why did not Guenon, and why do not the commis- 

 sioners, go to work and buy up all the best cows and sell them at a profit, 

 and thus get very rich. His cry is, why don't they make plenty of money 

 out of it, if it is so valuable ? Simply, because neither of them are in that 

 business, or care to be. But Mr. Harvey, a manager of the Delaware 

 county almshouse, in one year from taking this position, changed the 

 cows there, and increased the yield twofold from the same number of cows, 

 and has bought and sold all the steers and cows on his large farm for many 

 years solely by this sj^stem, and has grown wealthy. 



He says in another article " feeling the modesty that naturally attaches 

 itself to benighted ignorance," he " started out in the city in search of some 

 one who was learned on these subjects." He found "a professor in our 

 medical institute," " one of our most learned physicians," and they pro- 

 ceed together to canvass Professors Magne and Arnold's theories and facts 

 about the formation of the escutcheon. The result of two such wise heads 

 (or of " benighted ignorance ') coming together, was that neither of them 

 ever heard of Professor Magne, and that his dictum was "opposed to all 

 the teachings of physiology. ' The learned professor knowing as much 

 about a cow as he did of physiology. And it is such stuff as this which 

 forms the arguments of Mr. Hardin. Professor Salmon in his essay on 

 Contested Dairy Questions effectually settles these " learned " men. 



We have devoted enough space to a writer, who finds it so easy to tear 

 down, but is never able to build up, a doubting Thomas, whose only mode 

 of judging a cow, he says is a crumple horn, a lai'ge udder, and to test 

 the milk every Monday for one year. What an amount of money the 

 farmers of America would lose annually if they followed his rules, and 

 what an amount .they would save by following Guenon's rules ! 



