Na7. 



TJie Improved Yorkshire Cow. 



209 



THE IMPROVED YORKSHIRE COW. 

 Twenty years ago the Yorkshire Cow was, compared with other breeds, as great a favour- 

 ite in the London market as at present. She then yielded more milk in proportion to the 

 quantity of food consumed than could be obtained from any other breed, but when turned off 

 to fatten, it took a long time to get much flesh upon her bones. By a single cross with the 

 improved short-horn, and going immediately back to the pure blood, a breed has been ob- 

 tained that has lost but little of the grazing properties of the new, and retained almost 

 undiminished, the excellencies of the old breed for the pail. The above is a fair specimen of 

 one of these valuable animals — the character of the Holderness and Durham beautifully 

 mingled — good for the pail as long as she is wanted, and then quickly got into marketable 

 condition. She has a long and rather small head, the eye bright, yet with a peculiar placid- 

 ness and quietness of expression ; the chops thin and the horns small. The neck thin to- 

 wards the head, but soon thickening, especially as it approaches the shoulder. The dewlap 

 small, the breast far from narrow, projecting before the legs; the chine fleshy and inclined 

 to fullness, the girth behind the shoulder deep, and the ribs spread out wide, each projecting 

 farther than the preceding one, to the very loins, giving — if after all the milch-cow must 

 be a little wider below than above — as much breadth as can possibly be aflbrded to the more 

 valuable parts. She is well formed across the hips and on the rump, with greater length 

 there than the milker generally possesses. The legs neither longer short, the thighs thin, 

 with a very slight tendency to crookedness or being sickle-hammed behind ; the tail thick at 

 the upper part, but tapering below, with a mellow hide and rather coarse hair. Large milk- 

 veins, which, although the milk-vein has nothing to do with the udder, properly speaking, its 

 office being to convey the blood from the fore-part of the chest and the sides to the inguinal 

 vein, yet a large milk-vein certainly indicates a strongly developed vascular system, favour- 

 able to secretion generally, and to that of the milk amongst the rest. The udder is large 

 in proportion to the size of the animal, and sufficiently capacious to contain the proper quan- 

 tity of milk, but not too bulky, lest it should thicken and become fat and fleshy ; the skin of 

 the udder thin, and free from lumps, the teats of moderate size, and at equal distance from 

 each other every way, and of equal size from the udder to nearly the end, running to a kind 

 of point; for 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 too broad at the extremity, the orifice is 

 often so large that the cow cannot retain her milk after the bag begins to be full and heavy; 

 the udder being of nearly equal size before and behind, or if any difference, broader and 

 fuller before than behind. The quantity of milk given by such a cow is very great, it being 

 by no means uncommon to amount to 30 quarts per day, while 36 quarts have been taken, 

 the average being from 22 to 24 quarts per day. 



