64 GUENON'S METHOD. MARKS OF A MILKER. 



transmitting the qualities for which his breed is most 

 noted ; and when it is considered that during his life 

 he may scatter his progeny over a considerable section 

 of country, and thus affect the cattle of his whole 

 neighborhood, attention to this becomes a matter of 

 no small public importance. 



This principle, so far as its application to breeding 

 for the shambles is concerned, seems to me to be sound, 

 and fully established by long experience and practice. 

 Perhaps it is equally so, also, in breeding for the 

 dairy. But it may be well to consider whether there 

 are not other rational modes of judgment in the selec- 

 tion of animals for breeding with this specific object 

 in view. 



There is a difference of opinion with regard to the 

 practical value of the system of classification and judg- 

 ment of milch cows discovered and developed by 

 Guenon: some being inclined to ridicule it, as absurd ; 

 others to adopt it implicitly, and follow it out in all 

 its details ; and others still and among this class I gen- 

 erally find a very large number of the most sensible 

 practical judges of stock to admit that in the main it 

 is correct, though they discredit the practicability of 

 carrying it so far, and so minutely into detail, as its 

 author did. 



It may be remarked, at the outset, that the fact that 

 the best of the signs of a great and good milker 

 adopted by Guenon are generally found united with tho 

 best forms and marks almost universally admitted and 

 practised upon by good judges, gives, at least, some 

 plausibility to the system, while the importance of it, 

 if it be correct, is sufficient to demand a careful exam- 

 ination. Every good judge of a milch cow, for instance, 

 wants to see in her a small, fine head, with short and 

 yellowish horns : a soft, delicate, and close coat of hair ; 



