TREATISE ON MILCH C0W8. 



47 



having reference merely to the size of the Cows, and serving to distinguish animals which, 

 being the same in respect to the characteristic signs that serve to fix the class and the order to 

 which they belong, differ in hight alone, and in their yield so far only as this is dependent upon 

 size. 



By means of this classification, which is no less clear and distinct than simple, we are enabled, 



1st. To distinguish with ease, in any herd of Cows, each individual composed in it, according to 

 the quantity of milk which she is capable of yielding — ^from twenty-six quarts a day dovra to next 

 to nothiug, and all intermediate quantities. 



2d. To know the qualities of the milk which each will give, as being creamy or serous. 



3d. To determine during what time, after being got with calf, the Cow will continue to give 

 milk. 



This method — so precious, from the application of which it is susceptible, whether we be con- 

 cerned in the yield of milk only, or whether we avail ourselves of it for the improvement of fireeds, 

 which are constantly liable to deterioration from mismanagement in crossing — acquires a new in- 

 terest when we consider that it is applicable, not to full grown animals alone, but also to calves at 

 so early an age as three months. Thus, on the one hand, it affords the means of forming a sure 

 judgment of full grown animals, in regard to which we are often misled, by their form and their 

 parentage, to entertain great expectations which are never realized ; and, on the other hand, it se- 

 cures the improvement of herds, by enabling us to dispose at once of those calves which can nev- 

 er repay the trouble and cost of rearing them. 



This important end, hitherto so vainly aimed at, had it at length been attained ? To ascertain 

 this point is the doty with which your Committee were charged. The method of M. Guinon 

 having been revealed to them, it remained to ascertain how far the essential signs upon which it 

 rests might be susceptible of rigorous application. 



With this view they passed several days in visiting a number of pasture fields, situated in local- 

 ities that differed from each other, in order that the experiments might be made upon animals of 

 different breeds, and under varj^ing circumstances. They deem it proper to enter here into some 

 details respeoting their mode of proceeding, persuaded that you will thereby be tlie belter enabled 

 to undersfand and appreciate the merits of this method, and to form a correct judgment of the ex- 

 tent to which your protection is due to a discovery, which is submitted to^you by the author with 

 the greater confidence, because it bears directly upon the prosperity of the agriculturist. 



Every Cow subjected to examination was separated from the rest. What M. Gu^non had to 

 say, in regard to her was taken down in writing by one of the Committee ; and immediately after 

 the proprietor, who had kept at a distance, was intei;rpgated, and such questions put to him as 

 would tend to confirm or disprove the judgment pronounced by M. Guenon. In this way we 

 have examined, in the most careful manner — note being taken of every fact and evei'y obsci-vation 

 made by any one present — upward of sixty Cows and Heifers ; and we are bound to declare 

 that every statement made by M, Guenon with respect to each of them, whether it regarded the 

 quantity of milk, or the time during which the Cow continued to give milk after being got with 

 calf, or, finally, the quality of the milk as being more or less creamy or serous, was confirmed, and 

 its accuracy fully established. The only discrepancies which occurred were some slight differ- 

 ences in regard to the quantity of milk ; but these, as we afterward fully satisfied ourselves, 

 were caused entirely by the food of the animal being more or less abundant 



The results of this first test seemed conclusive; hut they acquired new force from those of a sec- 

 ond trial, in which the method was subjected to another test, through M. Guenon and his brother. 

 Your Committee, availing themselves of the presence of the latter, caused the same Cows to be 

 examined by the two brothers, but separately; so that, after a Cow had been inspected, and her 

 qualities, as indicated by the signs in question, had been pronounced upon by one of the brothers, 

 he was made to withdraw ; then the other brother, who had kept aloof, was called up, and desired 

 to state the qualities of the same animal. This mode of proceeding could not fail to give rise to 

 differences — to contradictions, even — between the judgments of the two brothers, unless their 

 method was a positive and sure one. Well ! Gentlemen, we must say it — this last test was abso- 

 lutely decisive : not only did the various judgments of the two brothers accord perfectly together, 

 but they were in perfect accordance, also, with all that was said by the proprietors in regard to 

 the qualities, good and bad, of every animal subjected to this examination. 



To the proprietors and to the bystanders, all this was the more surprising, from ine fact that the 

 examination was no less prompt than its results were certain. It was, however, easy to perceiv* 

 that they, ignorant as they were of the nature of the discovery, had but little confidence in it ; and 

 that they ascribed the cunning of M. Guenon simply to a great practical familiarity with Cows. 



