88 ORGANIZATION. 



It is not merely necessary that the Ayrshire should 

 conform outwardly to this type : somewhat more is 

 needed, as will be seen from the following consid- 

 erations. 



Three systems, to which all the organs are directly 

 or indirectly subsidiary, are united in the plan upon 

 which the cow is formed. There is the nutritive sys- 

 tem, composed of stomach, intestines, liver, pancreas, 

 glands, and vessels by which food is elaborated, 

 effete matter removed, the blood manufactured, and 

 the Avhole organization nourished. This is the com- 

 missariat. Then there is the nervous system, which 

 co-ordinates all the organs and functions, and enables 

 the animal to entertain relations with the world 

 around it, directing it what to avoid and what to 

 approach, and without which so much complexity of 

 structure as tinds place in her organization would be 

 constantly at fault. There is, again, the repi'oductive 

 system, by which a succession of animals is secured, 

 and the hold of the race on earth assured. ^ 



The breed of cow that we should desire must have 

 these systems, each in health and order. Each and 

 all should be developed, not alone to pursue their 

 relations fitly, and to serve their own specific uses, 

 but all developed in the direction to render the 

 animal adapted to serve a particular use, viz. in the 

 dairy cow, the greatest possible utilization of food in 

 the production of a good quality of milk. 



The cow in nature lives to one end, the keeping 



1 These remarks are suggested by, and adapted from, Dr. Clarke's Sex In 

 SducaiioD, 



