1839] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



349 



liave a long and rather small head ; a large- 

 headed cow'' will! seldom iatten or yield mtich 

 milk. The eye should be bright, yet with a pecu- 

 liar placidness and quietness of expression ; the 

 chaps thin, and the horns,, small. The neck 

 should not be so thin as that which cDmmon opi- 

 nion has given to the milch cow. It may be ihin 

 towards the head ; but it must soon begin to 

 thicken, and especially when it approaches the 

 shoulder. The dewlaps should be small ; the 

 breast, if not so wide as in some that have an un- 

 usual disposition to fatten, yet very far from being 

 narrow, and it should project belbre the legs ; the 

 chine, to a certain degree fleshy, and even incli- 

 ning to fulness; ihe girth behind the shoulder 

 should be deeper than it is usually (bund in the 

 short-horn ; the ribs should spread out wide, so as 

 to give as globular a fbrm as possible to the car- 

 cass, and each should project ;arther than the pre- 

 ceding one to the very loins, giving, if after all the 

 milch cow must be a little wider below than above, 

 yet as much breadth as can possibly be afforded to 

 the more valuable parts. She should be well 

 formed across the hips and on the rump, and with 

 greater length there than the milker generally 

 possesses ; or if a little too short, not heavy. If 

 she stands a little long on the legs, it must not be 

 too long. The thighs somewhat thin, wi;h a 

 slight tendency to crookedness, or being sickle- 

 hammed behind : the tail thick at the upper part, 

 but tapering below ; and she should have a mel- 

 low hide, and little coarse hair. Common con- 

 sent has given to her large milk-\eins; and al- 

 thoush the sub-cutaneous or milk- vein has nothing 

 to do with the udder, but conveys the blood from 

 the fore part of the chest and sides to the inguinal 

 vein, yet a large milk-vein certainly indicates a 

 strongly developed vascular system — one favor- 

 able to secretion generally, and to that of nnik 

 among the rest. 



The last essential in a milch cow that wc shall 

 mention is the udder, rather inclining to be large 

 in proportion to the size of the animal, but not too 

 large. It must be sufticiently capacious to contain 

 the proper quantity of milk, but not too bulky, lest 

 it siiould thicken and become loaded with fat. 

 The skin of the udder should be thin, and free 

 Irom lumps in every part of it. The teats should 

 be of moderate size ; at equal distance from each 

 other every way ; and of equal size from the udder 

 to nearly the end, where they should run to a kind of 

 point. When they are too large near the udder, 

 they permit the milk to flow down too freely from 

 the bag, and lodge in them ; and when they are 

 too broad at the extremity,the orifice is of: m ^o large 

 that the cow cannot retain her milk alicr ilie bag 

 begins to be full and heavy. The udder shouUl 

 be of nearly equal size before and behind, or, i( 

 there is any difference, it should be broader and 

 fuller before than behind. 



The quantity of milk given by some of these 

 cows is very great. It is by no means uncomtnon 

 for them, in the beginning of the summer, to yield 

 30 quarts a day ; there are rare instances of their 

 having given 36 quarts ; but the average measure 

 may be estimated at 22 or 24 quarts. It is said 

 that this milk does not yield a proportionate quan- 

 tity of butter ; and that although these cows may 

 be valuable where the sale of milk is the prime 

 object, they will not answer for the dairy. 



That their milk does not contain the same pro- 



portionate quantity of butter as that fi-om the long- 

 horns, the Scotch cattle, or the Devons, is proba- 

 bly true ; but we have reason to believe that the 

 difference has been much exaggerated, and is 

 more than compensated by the additional quan- 

 titv of milk. At the first introduction of the impro- 

 ved breed, the prejudice against them on this 

 account was very great, and certain experiment 

 were made, by the result of which it was made to 

 appear that the milk of the Kyloe cow yielded 

 double the (luantity of butter that could be produ- 

 ced fi-om that of the improved short-horn. Two 

 ounces were obtained from the milk of the Kyloe, 

 and one from that of the short-horn. 



This aroused the advocates of liie new breed, 

 and they instituted their experiments, the result 

 of which v/as much less to the disadvantage of the 

 short-horns. Mr. Bailly gives an account of an 

 experiment made by Mr. VValton, of Middleton. 

 He took from his dairy six cows promiscuously, 

 and obtained the following quantity of butter fiom 

 a quart of the milk of each of them. 



oz. dwts. 

 No. 1 - - - 3 6 



2 - - - 1 6 



3 - - - 1 12 



4 - - - 1 10 



5 - - - 1 14 



6 - - - 1 6 



10 8, which divi- 

 ded by 6, leaves nearly 1 oz. 14| dwts., or about 

 seven-eighths of the "weight of butter ii-om the 

 samequantity of milk. Then, the increased quan- 

 tity of milk yielded by the short-horn gave her 

 decidedly the preftirence, so far as the simple pro- 

 duce was concerned. 



This experiment brought to light another good 

 quality in the improved short-horn, which, if not 

 altogether unsus|)ected, was not sufFiciently acted 

 upon — that she improved as a dairy cow as she 

 got older. The cow, a quart of whose milk 

 produced more than 3 oz. of butler, was six years 

 old ; the other five were only two years old ; at all 

 events, the experiment proved that her milk waa 

 richer at six years old, than it had been at two. 

 This is a subject which deserves investigation. 



Another circumstance is somewhat connected 

 with such an inquiry. The Kyloe and the long- 

 horn cattle seem to care little about change of sit- 

 uation and pasture; but the short-horn is not so 

 easily reconciled to a change; and her milk is not 

 at first either so abundant or so good as it after- 

 wards becomes. 



A prejudice likewise existed, and perhaps does 

 yet in the minds of some dairymen, against the 

 large improved short-horns. The breed gen- 

 erally are great consumers ; and it was also sup- 

 posed that, in proportion to the condiiion of ihe 

 cow, she was likely to run to flesh instead of yiel- 

 ding milk, and therefore a ratlier small cow was 

 selected, and one that did not carry about her 

 many proofs ol" point. 



That there is a great difference in the quantity 

 of food consumed by diffi-rent breeds of cattle, can- 

 not be doubted; and that the short-horns occupy 

 the highest rank among the consumers of food is 

 evidenl enough ; but we never could be persuaded 

 that the difference of size in the same breed made 

 any material difference in the appetite, or the fijod 

 consumed. When they stand side by side in the 



