CATTLE. 99 



milker. The rationale of this is, that this gravnre is but a continuation 

 of, and corresponds with the lactiferous vessels under the belly of the 

 animal. These " epis," he states, correspond with the reservoir of milk, 

 and are tufts of hair ixrowino; the Avrono; way on the rio-ht or left of the 

 bearing. The largest epis indicates the most rapid loss of milk. The 

 contrepoil, or hair growing the wrong way on the gravure amidst that 

 which grows upward, shows a default in the production of milk, even 

 if the gravure be large. We give afac-simile of his class 1. Flandrines 

 So far IS a very general description of a system which he invests with 

 minutiae of no ordinary kind, and it is so precise and prolix that it re- 

 quires a series of some score of plates to show the variations of family^ 

 class, and order. 



Without definitively pronouncing that there is no merit in his obser- 

 vations, it seems perfectly clear that many of his indications are of a 

 character generally indicative of quality, but are pushed far beyond 

 their legitimate objects; for while a wide capacity of upper udder — a 

 fine hair — a yellow scurf, are somewhat too indefinite to classify very 

 precisely, they are just the points which may indicate the fineness of 

 quality, and a large lactiferous capacity which may add to the physio- 

 logical signs by which a milking-cow is judged by the practical grazier. 



Beauty of form is about the last qualification in a good dairy cow. Sym-t 

 metry to a breeder is no criterion of milking qualities. The parallelo- 

 gram is the beau ideal of a fattened ox in section, and a cylinder is that 

 of his superficies — thus exhibiting an essence of roundness, whereas the 

 very converse is the perfection of a milker, i.e. "flatness." The follow- 

 inof are the best-settled marks or characteristics of a milkinof cow. Head 

 small and fine, eye bright and lull, but with a quiet and placid expres- 

 sion, neck thin and deep, which gives it an appearance of hollowness ; 

 shoulder and breast narrow, but projecting; ribs flat; rumps broad, and 

 tapering down to the knee-joint, owing to the thighs being thin ; tail 

 small; udder large and round, with teats well formed, tapering to the 

 end, and at a moderate distance from each other; thin in its skin, and 

 with plenty of skin above; its fore-teats round and full, and with a 

 large subcutaneous or milk vein. 



The Ayrshire Cow. — In Ayrshire and the adjacent portion of the Low- 

 lands there is an admirable breed of milch cattle, independently of those 

 that are grazed there for the butcher, which, from whatever source they 

 originated, owe much to the care and selection of judicious breeders. 

 At some period or other there has evidently been a cross of the Dur- 

 ham or Holderness, and perhaps also of the Alderney. This breed, 

 which became established from the middle to the close of the eighteenth 

 century, has found its way not only into England, but also into Ireland 

 and Wales, recommended by the excellency of the cows as milkers, 

 although they are under the middle size. It has been estimated that a 

 good Ayrshire cow will yield, for two or three months after calving, five 

 gallons of milk daily; for the next three months three gallons daily, and 

 a gallon and a half for the following three months. This milk is calcu- 

 lated to return about two hundred and fifty pounds of butter annually, 

 or five hundred pounds of cheese. The foregoing estimate is, however, 

 somewhat exaggerated ; and perhaps during the best of the season four 



