112 Scientific Proceedings, Royal Dublin Society. 



It ought to be mentioned that data similar to those found in the Danish 

 herd-books have been found in the dairy herds belonging to Mr. L. A. 

 Beamish, Ashgrove, Queenstown ; Mr. John Evens, Burton, Lincoln ; 

 Messrs Hobbs & Sons, Kelmscott, Oxfordshire ; and Mr. George Taylor, 

 Cranford, Middlesex. Mr. Beamish's herd is a small one, consequently his 

 numbers were small ; and the three English breeders, like the Danes, liave 

 not been in the habit of retaining any poor-milking heifers that may have 

 turned up in their herds till they made four or five records. Thus, since 

 the figures got from these herds were merely a confirmation of the Danish 

 ones, and, since their numbers as a whole were not essentially greater, it has 

 not been thought necessary to publish them. 



A few remarks by way of caution are necessary. 



1. The whole of the foregoing data have been gathered from full-sized 

 cattle : red Danish, shorthorns and shorthorn crosses. It may be that there 

 are breeds in which there are fewer or even more general grades ; but this 

 is unlikely among British breeds, as all have had a very similar admixture 

 by way of ancestry to those from which the data have been derived. 



2. It is very probable that size plays a part in determining the yields 

 of different grades. On this, however, we have had no evidence. 



3. Althougli it has been possible to separate full sized cows into three 

 general grades, it is possible, and even probable, that there are sub-grades 

 within each, just as the red-and-w!iite colour in cattle is a sub-grade of 

 red, and just as among white cattle, there are pure whites, whites with red 

 ears, and whites with black ears. 



4. While examining many thousands of dairy cattle during the last 

 five or six years, the question of external signs of yield was not considered 

 definitely because it was assumed from the first that the usual signs relied 

 upon are not reliable. But three tilings in the main have impressed 

 themselves as being common to all good milking cows, viz. : a large and 

 roomy udder, an excellent digestive capacity, and an absence or " patchiness," 

 that is of accumulations of fat at the point of the hooks and elsewhere. 



5. Tliere are considerable variations in cows' yields, depending upon 

 the way in which they are fed and cared for. A cow which may give 1000 

 gallons iu one man's hands may drop to 700 or 800 in another's, and may 

 rise even to 1100 in still another man's hands. This fact has to be reckoned 

 with in estimating yields. 



It need scarcely be pointed out that the writer of this paper realizes to 

 the full that we are only beginning to understand how little we know about 

 the oow and her yield, and how vast is the field of work yet before us. The 



