DIFFERENT BREEDS OF OXEN. 113 



amount, of very variable quality, and only seldom given for a 

 long period. For three months they may yield an abundant 

 supply, then the amount may suddenly be reduced to half the 

 previous quantity, and soon they may yield none at all. Few 

 shorthorn cows give milk for longer time than about seven and 

 a half mouths. However, after they have been used for the pur- 

 poses of the dairy they can in the general way be quickly fattened 

 for the meat market. 



We may now briefly give the characters of a milch-cow which 

 is valuable for the dairy and capable of afterwards being quickly 

 made ready for the market. The head should be long and rather 

 small ; the eye should be bright, but yet it should manifest a 

 placid expression ; the chaps should be thin, and the horns 

 small ; the neck may be thin where it joins the head, but it 

 ought soon to thicken a little, and particularly as it approaches 

 the shoulder ; the dewlap should be small, the breast ought by 

 no means to be narrow, and, on the other hand, it ought to pro- 

 ject in front of the legs; the chine may be slightly fleshy and 

 even full ; the girth behind the shoulder ought to be deeper 

 than it generally is in the cows of the shorthorn breed ; the ribs 

 ought to spread out widely so as to impart a globular form to 

 the carcase, and each successive rib should project out more 

 markedly than its predecessor as far as the loins. The cow 

 should be well formed and symmetrically proportioned across the 

 hips and on the rump, and there ought to be greater length in 

 that part than is usually the case in milch-cows. The thighs 

 should be somewhat thin and slightly crooked or sickle-hammed. 

 As for the tail, its upper part ought to be thick, but it should 

 taper below. The hide should be mellow ; the milk-veins ought 

 to be large, inasmuch as large milk-veins indicate good power 

 of secretion of milk. The udder likewise should be large ; but, 

 on the other hand, that organ may be too large. In fact, the 

 udder ought to be suflBciently capacious to contain the correct 

 amount of milk ; but if it be too bulky, one might suspect that 

 it may be thickened or loaded with fat. The skin of the udder 

 ought to be thin and free from lumps throughout its whole extent. 

 As for the teats, they should be of moderate size, situated at 

 equal distances apart from each other, and they ought to be of 

 an equal size from the udder almost to their extremity, at which, 

 however, they should run to a kind of point. If they are too 



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