MILCH COWS. 309 



WORCESTER. 



Report of the Committee. 



The complaint annually repeated by committees on tliis class 

 of stock, may justly be reiterated, on this occasion. While 

 the premiums for excellence, offered by the society, are most 

 liberal, amounting to nearly one-half the value of a good 

 animal, and are so multiplied, in gradation, as to offer a reward 

 in the competition, for all but an inferior one, the number of 

 entries has always been very limited, and a compliance with 

 the rules, most usually, quite imperfect. When it is considered 

 how unsatisfactory must be the judgment of the properties 

 and value of a milking cow, from mere inspection of her ap- 

 pearance in a public skow, the reasonableness of the require- 

 ment of the trustees, for an account of her product, during a 

 part, at least, of the season, must be apparent, and should 

 readily be acquiesced in by those who desire that the test of 

 an examination here, skould be suck as to evince just discrimi- 

 nation between the different races, and secure a preference for 

 such as possess tke most desirable qualities. 



Tkere is no description of stock in wkich there are so great 

 variances as the cow. It is quite true, that there are certain 

 prominent points, which may generally be seen in a good 

 animal, but the eye has often been sadly deceived in the selec- 

 tion, and an animal of promising outward appearance, has 

 proved, not unfrequently, but a poor acquisition to a too confi- 

 dent purchaser. On the other hand, an animal, the least pre- 

 possessing in form, may possess tke most valuable properties. 

 For instance, Mr. Parkinson, a distinguished herdsman of Eng- 

 land, in his account of the Alderney cow, says : " Their size is 

 small, and they are as bad a form as can possibly be described; 

 the bellies of many of them are four-fifths of tlieir weight ; 

 their neck is very tkin and kollow ; the shoulder stands up, and 

 is the highest part ; they are hollow and narrow behind the 

 shoulders ; the chine is nearly without flesh, the hocks are nar- 

 row and sharp at the ends, the rump is short, and they are 

 narrow and light in the brisket." Yet, Youatt, another writer, 

 who in the main concurs with Parkinson in this description, 



