Abstracts. 299 



cow. Exceptional data have been made available to this Sta- 

 tion for the solution of this problem by the courtesy of Mr. 

 R. M. Gow. These data give the exact scores of 1674 registry 

 of merit Jersey cows as determined by about 140 judges. 



The mean conformation as measured by score is given for 

 the cow as a whole and for the parts into which it is divided. 

 Within this group of Jersey cows the average score was 89.848 

 ±.073. The average Jersey cow was therefore about 10 points 

 below the ideal Jersey cow. When this measure of the con- 

 formation as a whole is analyzed in terms of its parts, it was 

 found that the fore udder differed most from the ideal type. 



When considered in abstract terms it was found that the 

 most seriously defective parts of the body in the minds of the 

 judges had to deal with the mammary system, its size and blood 

 supply. Of those parts which dealt with the body proper the 

 least ideal was the barrel. 



The variation of the different body parts is compared by 

 means of the standard deviation and the coefficient of variation. 

 The most variable part of the body included the eyes, horns and 

 muzzle, the least variable the size of the body. 



The variability is futher compared with characters of sim- 

 ilar nature to those of conformation save that the variability 

 was determined on data measured or weighed accurately in 

 English or metric units. Bone material was in general found 

 to vary less than the scores assigned to parts of the body de- 

 pending chiefly on variations in bone length. The amount of 

 this difference was slight, however. The variation of the udder 

 parts was found to be at the lower end of the range of varia- 

 tion of other soft parts of the body. 



Correlation coefficients for milk yield with the conforma- 

 tion as a whole and for the various parts were determined. The 

 correlation coefficients ranged from ■ — 0.0697^1.0165 to +0.1941 

 ±.0160. Out of the nineteen correlations only one was minus 

 in value ; seventeen were more than three times their probable 

 error. The total score had the highest correlation with milk 

 yield. The parts of the conformation having a distinctly sig- 

 nificant relation to milk production of the cow were the milk 

 veins, size and condition of udder, the size and shape of rear 

 udder, the shape and size of barrel and the general appearance 

 of the cow. 



