FIRST CENTURY OF DAIRYING IN NEW SOUTH WALES. 



one possessing the largest and best-developed milk mirror is the b*st 

 for the purpose, and will be the most likely to get milkers of large 

 quantity and continued flow. But, however careful we may be to 

 select good milkers, and to breed from them with the hop- oi im- 

 provement, it is by no means easy to select such as are capable <>f 

 transmitting their qualities to their offspring. Hence the importance 

 of selecting milk cows from good breeds and good families, and es- 

 pecially in breeding stock, of selecting carefully both male and female. 



Another writer says : " On the selection of cows by Guenon's sys- 

 tem every one has his own views one will choose by the crumpled 

 horn, the capacious, thin-skinned udder, the large milk veins, and their 

 entrance into the belly, the color and texture of the skin ; while others 

 will judge by the feminine appearance, the wedge shape, the yel.ow 

 ears, the small head, and the broad muzzle, or by some other favourite 

 method. Yet with all these marks every dairyman will occasionally 

 purchase an animal that deceives him at the milk bucket or the cream 

 can and she is apt to be the handsome one. Now the questions arise. 

 With none of these modes can we tell just what a cow will do ; with 

 all of them combined we may select a very good cow, and at other 

 times we cannot or may not ; but with the escutcheon marks and 

 other points by which Guenon judged we can very surely tell whethe 

 the cow about to be purchased is a good one, as no one yet saw an 

 inferior escutcheon on a first-class dairy cow, or a rirst-class dairy 

 cow without a high-class escutcheon." 



It is, perhaps, unnecessary to say that attention should be paid to 

 the quality of the pasturage and keeping which a co\v has previously 

 had, as compared with that to which she is to be subjected. The 

 size of the animal should also be considered with reference to the fer- 

 tility of the pastures into which she is to oe put. Small or medium- 

 sized animals accommodate themselves to ordinary pastures far better 

 than large ones. Without due notice of these simple facts it is diffi- 

 cult the production of a cow by any system. 



258. 



