THE BREEDING OF CATTLE. 653 



est 313 days. He was able to rear no calf produced at an earlier period 

 than 240 days. According to Tessier, a cow may carry a calf 321 days 

 and produce it sound ; and from the fact that Tessier and Earl Spencer 

 agree almost exactly as to the mean time of gestation, 285 days or nine 

 and a half months may oe taken as the average time of gestation of 

 cows, slight variations being allowed from this for different breeds. 



\ USHIKE COWS. 



This is emphatically the ^Mutcti dairy breed. No other breed of cattle in Scotland 

 will produce an equal amount of milk, butter and cheese. Six hundred gallons of 

 milk per year is considered an average yield for the cows on a well-kept farm. Their 

 color is generally of red and white in spots; sometimes white and black, or red or 

 brown. The horns are fine and twisted upward, and the face long, with a lively yet 

 docile expression. 



It is quite safe to conclude, from the results of experiments with vari- 

 ous races of animals, that the period of gestation has no influence whatever 

 upon the sex of the offspring, nor is it probable that the sex of the foetus 

 has any influence upon the period of gestation. There is a strong prob- 

 ability, however, that heredity in sires and dams, early maturity, ages of 

 the dam and sire, and other causes, may result in longer or shorter periods 

 of gestation 



