FEATURES OF ANIMAL FORM 59 



milk or fat a dairy cow will produce in a year or how fast 

 a horse can trot or run. As a matter of fact, the actual 

 test is the only practical means of making the latter deter- 

 mination, although even here an approximate idea of func- 

 tional capacity can be had from the study of form. 



The novice is impressed with the rapidity with which the 

 experienced judge will make his analysis of animal form. 

 The detailed scoring of an animal, even by an expert, 

 will require much more time than may be consumed 

 in forming a very accurate notion of the sum total of 

 the individual's good and bad points. " Practice makes 

 perfect," and the practiced eye can discern more quicklj', 

 but, in addition, consideration of the law of correlation 

 enables the expert judge to cut corners, as it were. 



75. The correlation of parts. — One part is an index to 

 other parts with which it is correlated. Thus the buyer 

 of feeder cattle seeks out broad, flat backs as he looks 

 down, on them from his pony, or short, broad heads if they 

 are faced about to him in the pens. A head of these dimen- 

 sions will be found only on a low set, broad, deep and 

 usually a thick-fleshed steer, while a long, narrow head 

 indicates the reverse. - 



As a rule, longitudinal dimensions of all parts are alUce 

 long or short and are inversely related to transverse and 

 perpendicular dimensions. Hence a long-legged animal is 

 long all over, head, neck and back, while inversely narrow 

 and short ribbed. It is as essential to know what are 

 not correlated as what are; quality and substance, milk 

 and beef, power and speed are opposed to each other by 

 this same law. 



Digitized by Microsoft® 



