MASS. BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 745 



et projecting well forward ; milk veins large ; deep in the flank; 

 large hind quarters, and small fore quarters ; bag, when empty, 

 small and skinny, not fleshy, running well forward into the 

 belly ; teats middling size, neither large nor small, but rather 

 long and elastic ; color of teats, reddish brown, never white ; 

 hair upon the bag, soft and silky, growing or pointing on the 

 hind parts upwards ; except she be a very good cow, she may 

 have an oval spot of hair growing downward, a little above 

 each hind teat ; if not quite so good, one spot above the left 

 hind teat ; if a little poorer, one spot above the right hind teat ; 

 hair thick, short and glossy ; color red, dun, or brindle, with a 

 golden colored ring around the eyes and muzzle." 



The treatise on milch cows, by Guerson, a Frenchman, is 

 worthy the study of every dairyman, — that peculiar turning 

 up of the hair upon the udder, and embracing the vulva, called 

 the escutcheon. Its divisions and subdivisions, it appears to 

 me, are too minute to be of much practical use ; but so far as 

 I have examined cows, and conversed with others of great 

 experience, I find that this mark, when distinct, holds good. I 

 have never seen a cow, having this peculiar trait large and dis- 

 tinct, that was not a good milker. There may be exceptions ; 

 cows without this pe-culiarity may be good milkers, having the 

 other marks ; but, as a general thing, they will be either defi- 

 cient in the quantity or the quality of their milk, or the time 

 they continue to give it between their calves. A cow that 

 gives a large quantity of milk for a few weeks after calving, 

 and then goes dry four or five months, is a very unprofitable 

 cow, and ought to be removed from the dairy and fattened for 

 the shambles, and her place filled by a better one. Much de- 

 pends upon the time a cow goes dry between her calves. The 

 best cows on record have given milk almost without interrup- 

 tion. Cows that are great milkers are usually thin of flesh, 

 they had better go dry six or eight weeks; the calf will be 

 better, and the cow will be in a better condition to pass through 

 the parturient state. The cow holding out to give her milk 

 depends upon circumstances,-^upon the pasture, the kind of 

 food, the age, and, above all, upon the management of the 

 heifer with her first calf. K she is well fed, well cared for, 

 well milked, she will go dry but a short time between her 

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