TRANSMISSION OP MILK-MIRROR. 67 



first calves of his get had also very large milk-mir- 

 rors. The female offspring of the first bull of good milk- 

 mirror promised first rate, though they had not then 

 come in. His inference is, that in breeding from cows 

 noted as milkers regard should be had to the form 

 of the mirror on the bull, and the chance of his 

 transmitting it. If any credit is due to this inge- 

 nious method, it may be laid down, as a principle in 

 the selection of a bull to get dairy stock, that the one 

 possessing the largest and best-developed milk-mirror 

 is the best for the purpose, and will be most likely to 

 get milkers of large quantity and continued flow. This 

 method will be more fully developed in the chapter on 

 the Selection of Milch Cows. 



But, however careful we may be to select good 

 milkers, and to breed from them with the hope of im- 

 provement, it is by no means easy to select such as are 

 capable of transmitting their qualities to their off- 

 spring. This is rendered still more difficult by the 

 fact that there is no known mark to indicate it, and we 

 are left to use our own judgment ; for, in the case of 

 bulls, we are often obliged to give them up before their 

 progeny have arrived at an age to show their qualities 

 by actual trial. We are thrown back, therefore, upon 

 their external marks. But, as M. Magne, a very sensible 

 French writer, justly observes in his admirable little 

 work (Clioix des Vaches Latieres, p. 86, Paris, 1857), 

 the fixed characteristics which have existed in races 

 for several generations will be transmitted with most 

 certainty. Hence the importance, he says, of selecting 

 milch cows from good breeds and good families, and 

 especially, in breeding stock, of selecting carefully both 

 male and female. The male designed to get dairy stock 

 ought to possess the structure which, in the cow, indi- 

 cates the greatest activity of the mammary glands, as 



