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TREATISE ON MILCH COWS. 



In general, these Bastard Cows conceive with ^eat facility the first time they 

 come in heat, if they be then put to the bull. But they do not continue to give 

 milk in any quantity ; they cannot furnish enough even for the calf. Conse- 

 quently if a Cow of this kind be put to the bull, it becomes necessary to wean her 

 calf, and it falls away so as to be unfit for the butcher. 



Among the Bastard Cows, some yield an oily and creamy milk ; others but a 

 serous milk : some give a great deal ; others but little. In them, as in the gen- 

 uine Cow of the same classes, the yield varies with the size ; and the color of 

 the dandruf is the same. 



Generally speaking, the flow of milk is at its maximum during the first eight 

 days after calving ; but the milk is of a bad quality. After this period it under- 

 goes a slight diminution ; but its flow being once regularly established, the 

 quantity remains constant until the Cow has conceived anew. At this period, it 

 undergoes another diminution, in allthe Classes and Orders ; but more or less ac- 

 cording to the Class and Order. We are now to enter into a more particular ex- 

 planation of this. 



CLASS I. 



2:i)e Sianbcrs <Eom. 



The reader is already apprised that, in the denominations which have suggest- 

 ed themselves to me, he is not to expect etymological or scientific combinations. 

 The names which I have given to my classes are altogether arbitrary, and have 

 reference to my own notions solely. I have adopted the above appellation for the 

 Cov/s of my first class, which are the best in our country, because Cows of the 

 Flemish breed, extensively known for their valuable qualities, possess, generally 

 speaking, the escutcheon which is characteristic ofthis first class. These Cows, 

 which 1 call the Flanders Cows, are the best milkers ; they are also, among us, 

 the most scarce. In this class, as in all the others, each order is distinaruished 

 by a particular modification of the general mark or escutcheon of the class ; and 

 there is a corresponding difference in the yield of milk, in the proportions which 

 I am about to specify. 



With respect to stze, I cal! a Cow high when she weighs from five to six hun- 

 dred pounds ; of medium hight, when she weighs from three to four hundred 

 pounds ; loic, when she weighs from one to two hundred pounds.* 



HIGH COW .... First Order. 



Cows of the First Order of this class and this size yield, whilst at the hight of 

 their flow, (that is to say, from the time of calving until they are got with calf 

 again) twenty litres^ of milk a day. After they have conceived anew, the quan- 

 tity of milk diminishes little by little ; but they continue to give milk until tlily 

 are eight months gone with calf: indeed Cows of this order never go dry, if we 

 choose to milk them all the time. 



Cows of this Class and Order are known by their having a delicate udder, cover- 

 ed with a fine, downy hair growing upward from between the four teats. This 

 downy growth extends upward, over the hinder part of the udder and the re- 

 gion above it, blending itself with a similar growth (of hair pointing upward^ 

 which, begimiing on the legs, a little above the hock joint, covers the inner sur- 



* This is French weight. To reduce it to English avoirdupois, add 8 pounds to every 100. 

 t The Utrt is one of the modem French measures, cootainine about 2J English wine pinu 

 (79.-,) 



