52 THE JERSEY, ALDERNEY AND GUERNSEY COW. 



tracing to the Biddle or the earlier Colt importations. 

 Their rejection was, of course, no criticism on their 

 quality. 



**The call for contributions for this essay was re- 

 sponded to by only two or three members, and it has 

 seemed best to allow what they have written to influence 

 the character of the essay rather than to be quoted into 

 it with unavoidable repetition. 



" The request has been made that particular points 

 in breeding and management might receive especial 

 attention ; the idea being advanced that white color 

 indicates a deterioration of health, but there seems no 

 sufficient foundation for the belief to warrant its incor- 

 poration here. On the contrary, from the polar bear 

 to the white bantam, all races that are wholly or in part 

 white seem to afford ample evidence of the entire com- 

 patibility of vigorous health with th^ absence of color. 

 That color has a physiological significance is not im- 

 probable ; but what that significance is we are far from 

 being able to say, and the practical relation of all such 

 intricate physiological questions must be referred to a 

 more advanced state of knowledge than our own. In 

 like manner it has been stated that a bull whose tongue 

 is black is more likely than another to impress his own 

 characteristics on his offspring. A careful investigation 

 of the evidence, which is within the reach of all, will 

 surely prove that this theory is entirely without founda- 

 tion. So long as black-tongued bulls beget white- 



