202 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



us, milk. Milcli cows may be indefinitely improved by proper 

 care and feeding, whatever their breed. Let the Middlesex 

 farmer, like his brother farmer of the dairy shire of Ayr, breed 

 cattle exclusively for dairy purposes, and in time, by judicious 

 selections, he will have a native breed that will yield him all the 

 return he can ask. It is said that an Ayrshire cow has been 

 known to produce over ten imperial gallons of good milk per 

 day, and one cow yielded her owner, in seven months, milk 

 that sold for -1257. 



It is well known that the great utility of blood stock consists 

 in the fact that they transmit their good qualities, without fail, 

 while all is accidental and uncertain with native or scrub stock ; 

 each individual stands on its own merits ; a good milker may 

 give birth to a bad one ; even a good grade bull is not to be 

 depended upon. To be certain of the result, resort must be 

 had to a male of pure blood ; where both male and female are 

 of good blood, and of a good milking breed, the offspring is 

 sure to be excellent as a milker. It is perfectly easy for the 

 practiced eye to tell a good dairy animal ; her external marks 

 are unmistakable. We copy some of her characteristics from 

 Flint's excellent work, to which allusion has already been 

 made : — 



" A good dairy cow must have a vigorous constitution and 

 great activity of digestion and secretion ; she must be of a 

 docile and kindly disposition ; should be roomy and deep in the 

 ribs ; her carcass light and thin in the shoulder and fore- 

 quarters and swelling out toward the hind-quarters ; her udder 

 should be large and regularly formed, and covered with short, 

 close, silky hair; her four teats of equal size and length, and 

 set wide apart ; and she must have large, projecting lacteal 

 veins." 



Such are some of the external marks of a good milker. No 

 matter what her breed or qualities may be, without liberal food 

 and good treatment she will not thrive or yield milk well. A 

 German proverb says, " the cow milks through her mouth ; " 

 meaning, very little milk comes out of the bag that is not put 

 into the mouth in the shape of bountiful food. A certain 

 quantity of food is required to keep the cow alive ; it is the 

 excess given over this that is secreted in milk or fat. The 

 more nutritious the food, the greater the quantity of milk 



