SELECTION OF MILK COWS. 373 



" We have observed, in all fairs and large markets, that there 

 are very few good cows among those which have had three or 

 four calves ; the good are confined to the young or aged. 



"Artificial nursing has numerous advantages, in several re- 

 spects, but some persons think that it is not favorable to the 

 secretion of the milky glands; they believe that cows which 

 have suckled their calves, and whose glands have been long 

 stimulated by the mouth of one or several sucklings, have 

 always much more milk than those whose teats have only been 

 in contact with the hands of a milker. 



"It is conceivable that the gentle heat, the moisture of the 

 lips, the agitation produced in the glands, and the powerful suc- 

 tion of the calves, may have much more effect in stimulating the 

 milky glands than a hand, sometimes brutal, and almost always 

 defective in intelligence. It does not seem, however, that this 

 influence is so great as might be supposed, for there are many 

 countries where they get on very well without allowing calves 

 to suckle; indeed, -artificial suckling is very much on the increase. 



DISEASES BY WHICH COWS HAVE BEEN AFFECTED. 



" The influence of disease, which may be easily comprehended, 

 is sometimes very great, and lasts during life. Affections which 

 make great changes on the principal organs — the lungs, the 

 stomach, the intestines, and the womb, and those which derange 

 the functions of digestion and respiration — ^lessen the secretion 

 of milk, and often render the liquid watery and bad. 



"Local diseases — those which cause acute pain — those which 

 have their seat in the extremities, or in the mouth, and hamper 

 the animal, either in walking among the grass, or in taking food, 

 diminish the secretion of milk, even when they do not affect the 

 exercise of the principal functions of life. 



"But among local diseases, afi'ections of the milky glands have 

 the greatest influence in regard to milk. They attack sometimes 



