282 JUDGING FARM ANIMALS 



The temperament of the dairy cow lias received much 

 attention in the United States since about 1890. Ex-Gov- 

 W. D. Hoard of Wisconsin, noted as a dairy authority, 

 probably was the first person to direct attention to this 

 subject. 8 In 1886 he first discussed this subject in a lecture 

 on ' ' Nervous and dairy temperament in cattle. ' ' He termed 

 it a "predisposing tendency in the animal to convert its 

 food either into milk or flesh/' and that temperament 

 pertaining to dairy cattle was called "dairy temperament." 

 He classed lean cattle of the dairy type as nervous, and 

 cattle of the beef type as phlegmatic, and referring to the 

 former said: "Here you see the open expression of the 

 barrel, you have the lean, bony outline of the nervous tem- 

 perament. Dairy breeders breed for the enlargement of 

 the dairy temperament." This is defined as "a strong, 

 powerful, nervous machinery and not excitation." Van 

 Pelt states 9 that "the term nervous temperament means 

 the inherent propensity to work, to eat food, digest it and 

 convert every available ounce of it not required for main- 

 tenance into milk products, and does not imply the cow is 

 nervous in the generally accepted meaning of the term, 

 nor does it mean that she is excitable." The dairy tem- 

 perament, as has already been indicated, is especially seen 

 in the lean conformation of body. It is also supposed to be 

 expressed in the broad, full forehead, in the large, prom- 

 inent backbone, and in the mild yet active eye. The brain 

 is the center of nervous force. A narrow, small forehead 

 is assumed to indicate a smaller brain than does a large one< 

 The nervous force radiates throughout the body by means 

 of the spinal cord passing from the brain through the back- 

 bone or spine. Prominence of spine would imply a good de- 

 velopment of spinal cord and consequently much nervous 

 force. The large, prominent, active eye gives evidence of an 

 active, nervous temperament. These are the various reasons 

 assigned for emphasizing temperament. From a scientific 



8 The Dairy Temperament in Cows, Bull. No. 5, Wis. Farm. Inst., 1891, p. 83. 

 8 Cow Demonstration, Hugh G. Van Pelt, 1911, p. 35. 



