68 GuENON ON MiLcii Cows. 



for many years, they would add that their recent extended and careful ex- 

 aminations and contact with a number of owners of all grades of stock, 

 has tended to confirm them more thoroughly in their belief. As an ad- 

 junct to previous knowledge to assist purchasers or breeders of cattle in 

 getting or raising the best, and weeding out the poorest, they think it is 

 worthy of being acquired by every farmer. And they would recommend 

 their fellow farmers not to be dismayed at the apparent difficulties to be 

 surmoimted in obtaining a knowledge of the system, as it is only abso- 

 lutely necessary to acquire a knowledge of the first four orders of each 

 class, and a few other points, to practically apply it, as all animals below 

 those grades are not worthy of being kept. Any intelligent man can 

 readily master the system, and soon become proficient in it by practice. 

 This knowledge, applied with the tests heretofore usually used, will ena- 

 ble any one to become a good judge of cattle. 



The manner of making up their account of each animal is to examine 

 the escutcheon and the udder, from which they place her in the class and 

 order nearest to those delineated by Guenon, and then estimate the quantity, 

 quality, and time that she will milk. These estimates must be, of course, 

 only approximate^ as they are based upon the indications of the escutch- 

 eon, the size of the cow, and her probable condition. As it is readily seen 

 that where estimates are based upon what the cow should do within three 

 months of her being fresh^ it would be impossible to always grade the 

 exact value of all the cows in a herd, each of which is at a ditferent period 

 of gestation, or in a diflferent condition or state of health, and where also 

 the cow is affected by the way in which she is fed and cared for, by the 

 season, by the state of the temperature, and other circumstances. The 

 estimates are based upon what the commission thinks the cow would do 

 when all the conditions are favorable to her development, and where she 

 is properly fed and cared for. A record is made by the commission on 

 the spot. An account of the qualities of each head is drawn up by the 

 owner. Each is made at separate times, and without the knowledge of the 

 other party. Then the two accounts are copied off into parallel columns 

 for comparison. If the accounts agree in seventy-five per cent, out of one 

 hundred, it certainly must be presumed the system has sufficient value to 

 make it worthy of adoption by all farmers and breeders. As every farmer 

 knows the yield is much influenced by the feed, the care, the exposure, 

 and the treatment of the cows ; therefore, a certain amount of allowance 

 must be made, for these various things will so alter matters, that no one 

 can tell to a quart, or a pound of butter, or to the week in time of milking. 

 In fact, every farmer knows neither the owner himself, nor his man, can 

 tell to a quart how much his cow or cows actually give, unless a daily 

 record is kept every day of every year. For even if he does keep such a 

 record, he will find the various circumstances named above aflecting the 

 quantities in his record. Therefore the earnest seeker after truth, com- 

 paring the statements made in the two columns, must not expect the two 

 to tally without some variations. The true spirit with which he must ex- 

 amine these statements, will suggest itself in the question : Is this a sys- 

 tem by which I can judge of the value and quantities of a cow correctly ? 

 Is this a system that will tell me the points of a cow, good or bad, more 

 correctly than by any other method ? Let the candid inquirer weigh these 

 statements, and think if he knows of any method by which he can go into 

 a herd and surely pick out the best cows, and leave the poor ones to those 

 who judge not by this system. Every farmer has his own mode of judg- 

 ing, but take the shrewdest and most practiced, can he avoid often the 

 bastards? What the commission find they can do, is that in a large 



