524 HANDY-BOOK OF HUSBANDRY. / 



" ing, and tipped with black ; ears small and thin, deep orange- 

 " color inside ; eyes full and placid ; neck straight and fine ; chest 

 *' broad and deep ; barrel hooped, broad and deep, well ribbed 

 " up ; back straight from the withers to the hip, and from the 

 " top of the hip to the setting on of the tail ; tail fine, at right 

 " angles with the back, and hanging down to the hocks j skin 

 '' thin, light color, and mellow, covered with fine soft hair ; fore 

 " legs short, straight, and fine below the knee, arm swelling and 

 " full above ; hind-quarters long and well filled ; hind legs short 

 " and straight below the hocks, with bones rather fine, squarely 

 " placed, and not too close together ; hoofs small ; udder full in 

 " size, in line with the belly, extending well up behind ; teats of 

 " medium size, squarely placed and wide apart, and milk-veins 

 "very prominent." 



Much attention has been paid during a few years past to what 

 is known as the Milk Mirror or Escutcheon. The relation 

 between this and the capacity for milk was discovered by 

 Mr. Guenon, a native of the south of France, whose early life 

 was passed in the care of a herd of cows. Being a close observer 

 of nature, an excellent judge of cattle, and a man of great, natural 

 sagacity, he established, after many years of investigation, a sys- 

 tem by which he claimed to be able to determine the quantity of 

 the yield, its duration, and the quality of the milk for the manu- 

 facture of butter, by what he called the " Escutcheon." He 

 received a gold medal from the Agricultural Society of Bordeaux, 

 in 1837, as a recognition of the value of his discovery; and 

 although many of the details of the intricate system established 

 by him have failed of general adoption, the general principle on 

 which his system is based is of so much value that it is often 

 taken as an important criterion in the selection of dairy animals. 



The Milk Mirror is the upward-growing hair on the back part 

 of the udder and the inside of the hind legs. An examination of 

 any cow will show that the line where this hair meets the down- 

 ward-growing hair of the immediately adjacent parts of the body, is 

 well defined by what is called a "quirl," and the hair included with- 

 in the quirl and covered by the upward-growing hair is the Milk 



