EXAMINING FOR SOUNDNESS AND HEALTH 53 



CONSIDERING FOR A SPECIAL PURPOSE 



Now, as a last factor of your examination, con- 

 sider the uses to which the animal is put. If you 

 are looking for breeding animals be sure to know 

 that the udder is not injured. Of what use is a cow 

 with a bad udder? How often do we find a quar- 

 ter of the udder destroyed or a teat cut or so badly 

 mangled as to be of little use! Some udders are 

 dead, heavy, fleshy ; some are diseased, lumpy ; and 

 even though the animal is otherwise good you must 

 reject her. 



If the udder is good, superior in many respects, 

 and shows great milk production, you can often 

 aflford to overlook other defects, especially if the 

 result of accident. 



In the case of horses, a disease or blemish due to 

 accident may be overlooked, if the work to which 

 the animal will be subjected does not interfere, 

 let us say, for breeding purposes. The horse has 

 good conformation, good quality, is healthy and 

 very superior, but unfortunately a leg was broken. 

 Shall she be rejected as a breeder? No heavy 

 work will be required of her — she is wanted for 

 colt raising. Take her; of course you will pay 

 less for her. This accident interferes in no way 

 with her value for breeding purposes. Many cases 

 of accidental injuries are similar to this example 

 among cattle and horses. 



A good rule is to reject those having defects or 

 blemishes that interfere with functional activity or 

 the work to which you wish to put them. Then, as 

 breeders, reject all with constitutional defects, as 

 bad feet, narrow hocks, coarse disease-appearing 

 bones, and bad conformation and scrubby character. 



