Circumstances Altering the Valuations. 9 



quality of hay and fodder in augmenting or diminishing the nutritive juices 

 of the food. 



Cows which are fed in good pastures surpass the product which I have 

 assigned to their class and their order, while those which are in poor and 

 wet pastures have necessarily inferior produce, unless the latter have in 

 the stable nourishing food, more abundant and more succulent than they 

 are able to get for themselves out of doors. 



If, for example, the well-fed cows, or those grazing on rich pasture 

 lands, should give as much as twenty to twenty-five quarts of milk per 

 day ; these same cows, taken and fed on poor pasture, will give only about 

 ten or twelve quarts. 



If, on the contrary, one takes the cows raised on a poor soil, transfers 

 them to rich pastures, the milk produce of these same cows will be superior 

 to that they gave in their original lands. 



My readers should well understand that in the valuations of my classi- 

 fications that I have not pretended to assign a rigorous and absolute amount. 

 I have been only able to give an approximate figure to each class and to 

 each order, adoj^ting the medium limit of the ordinary amount of the dif- 

 ferent breeds of various localities. 



The atmosphere, the care, and the different foods of each country, all 

 these different things exercise upon the animal, an influence favorable or 

 unfavorable, according to the nature of the soil. 



There are many other circumstances which should be considered, and 

 which would disturb the harmony of the figures of my valuation and the 

 normal quantity. Such are, for example, the case of sickness, accidents, 

 &c. That is the reason I have adopted, in determining the quantity of 

 cows of each order, a medium figure, such as is shown in the classification. 



I will also observe, relative to those animals to which I assign approxi- 

 mate weight in the course of this work, that, following the customs of com- 

 merce, of sale, and of butchers, this weight is dead weight, the animal be- 

 ing deprived of the skin, intestines, head, feet, &c. 



If, contrary to custom, I had acted otherwise, and had made the calcu- 

 lation for the animal on the hoof, the figures given by me would present a 

 great difference, which would increase according to the amount of fat, some- 

 times to double the weight. 



The discovery which I have made of the value of the escutcheon is desig- 

 nated by the contrary direction of the hair, and which had escaped the at- 

 tention of every one, even those most interested in gaining the knowledge 

 of it. It is necessary also to avow the effect produced by the change of 

 direction of the hair is not glaring on the animal. It is merely a difference 

 of luster, and the gloss on the surface of the escutcheon and the part of 

 the skin surrounding it. The hair of the escutcheon is finer, shorter, more 

 furry, and more silky. Its appearance, at the first glance, makes one think 

 this part of the animal has been shaved. Compared with the ordinary 

 hair, the skin of the udder appears to be more designed to be quicker seen 

 on the part where appears the escutcheon. 



