SELECTING DAIRY COWS. 319 



A yellow skin and a yellow ear (inside) is almost univer- 

 sally regarded as present in a cow that gives rich yellow 

 milk ; but after you find the indications mentioned above, 

 you may admire as many other points as you please ; such 

 as a first-class escutcheon, a long, slim tail, a beautifully- 

 turned dishing face, a drooping, waxy horn, a small, straight, 

 slim leg, or any other fancy points ; but do not look for 

 these till you have found the essentials. 



Again : When you have found all these essentials, if 

 the cow is five years old and does not yield 5,000 pounds of 

 milk per year, she is not worth possessing as a milker or 

 breeder. Let good appearances be coupled with perform- 

 ance ; yet, if the cow be five years old, and actually yields 

 6,000 or more pounds of good milk, you may safely buy 

 her, without regard to her points. She must digest the food 

 to make it, and her machinery is so far above criticism. 



But the length of her period of lactation must not be 

 forgotten ; this is a quality inherited as much as her 

 capacity for quantity. A cow that, well fed, will not milk 

 for ten months, is not to be desired. A moderate and 

 nearly uniform quantity continuing for ten months, will 

 produce a larger aggregate yield than heavy milking for a 

 short period. Twenty- three pounds per day for ten months 

 will give 7,000 Ibs. ; while a short period of seven months 

 would require 33 Ibs. per day. Nearly all great annual 

 yielders of milk have long periods. . This is a matter of so 

 much consideration, that a cow having a short period of 

 lactation should be rejected as a breeder, as this would be 

 inherited by her offspring. 



Still another important consideration, even in the selec- 

 tion of a common-blood cow, is her pedigree. If you can 

 find her descent from a large-milking dam, grandam, and 

 great-grandam, this will greatly increase the probability of 

 your success in breeding her to a thoroughbred bull from 

 deep-milking ancestors. 



