ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION 225 



4 : Let the hair be oily or well nourished, and the skin 

 mellow or pliable. These conditions are hard to describe, but 

 are readily recognized by experience. 



These conditions mean good circulation and nutrition. 



Nerve Force. 



The eyes should be large and full, with a quiet look. The 

 secretion of milk is part of the passion of procreation. The 

 udder is supplied with a net work of nerves. The continued milk 

 giving continually excites these many nerves to action which, in 

 turn, excite the nerve organization to greater activity. The 

 brain is the power house of this system, and the full eye means 

 great nerve power. We might call the eye the nerve gauge. 



2 : The backbone, which is the casing of the spinal cord, 

 should be large for reasons given under head No. 3, of previous 

 sub-head. 



3 : The forehead should be broad and dished. The 

 breadth indicates brain capacity, and the dishing of the frontal 

 bone is caused by the eye socket being enlarged to meet the de- 

 mands of the enlargement of the eye before referred to. 



Digestion. 



1 : The mouth should be large. This breadth of muzzle 

 is an indication of great intestinal development. 



2 : The spinal processes at the point numbered 1, should 

 be prominent, giving a fin-like appearance. This is caused by 

 the weight of the great paunch pulling at the ribs so that they 

 hang less obliquely than in native stock, and as each rib is 

 attached to a single section of vertebra of the backbone, the 

 change of the rib from the oblique to the more perpendicular 

 position throws each spinal process up into greater prominence. 



Anyone taking the skeleton of the ox and pulling the ribs 

 toward the front legs, w^ill at once notice this corresponding 

 change in these projections of the vertebrae. 



This indicates then that the animal came from a line of 

 great eaters. 



