THE TYPES 197 



Feeders are usually picked under "conditions that permit 

 of only a very general inspection. They are often sorted 

 as they are run through the alleys, past the mounted 

 buyer who indicates which of the two pens, accepted or 

 rejected, they are to be allotted to. 



DAIRY CATTLE 



The primitive bovine female possessed, in common with 

 all mammals, the capacity to produce milk with which to 

 nurture her young to a self-sustaining age. For this pur- 

 pose she was required to give but a small amount, of 

 ordinary quality, the scant flow of which was maintained 

 by the succulent spring grasses whose growth was incident 

 to the season at which she invariably calved. 



The modern domesticated dairy cow, on the other hand, 

 has given annually, in record instances, milk equivalent 

 in amount to from 25 to 30 times her own weight, and so 

 rich in fat as to yield more than the equivalent of her 

 weight in butter. Furthermore, she may be made to 

 freshen any month in the year and to maintain the milk 

 flow continuously for a period of years in some instances. 

 Live-stock husbandry offers no more striking example 

 of the development of a natural function by means 

 of generations of selective breeding. 



216. Production. The function of the dairy cow is to 

 furnish, for any ten months in the year, milk in such quan- 

 tity and of such quality as to return a fair margin of profit 

 over the cost of maintenance of the cow herself and the 

 additional expense of her production. 



217. Dairy form and function. The province of the 

 dairy cow can be best understood by considering her as a 

 factory, of which the udder is the essential machine, and 

 in this she stands intermediate between the grain bins 



