i9io.] Some Aspects of the Science of Breeding. 709 



and wide at the hip or hook. This idea is not of recent origin, 

 for it is referred to by many writers at the beginning and in 

 the middle of the last century. It will be understood that 

 these " points " may be summed up by saying that the back of 

 a good dairy cow should be wedge-shaped when viewed from 

 above. An American writer on animal husbandry, Mr. 

 William Warfield* avers this to be a fact of "common observa- 

 tion," so that the belief is evidently widespread. Personal 

 observations have led to the belief that while it is on the 

 whole true, there are very many exceptions. It would seem 

 that while most cows which milk well are fine at the chine (or 

 to be exact, are narrow where the shoulder blades lie alongside 

 of the spine) when they are in full milk, many will be broad 

 there when they have done milking, and put on flesh. It 

 would seem, however, from handling good milkers, that such 

 cows are wedge-shaped at the chine, i.e., that all deep milking 

 cows are so shaped that the shoulders are very much closer 

 together in front than at the back. Put in another way, it 

 seems, judging by handling only, that in the case of cattle 

 which milk well, be they good or bad for the butcher, it will 

 be found that though the shoulder blades "over the heart " are 

 "open " or wide apart, the lines of the scapulas (or shoulder- 

 blades) continued towards the head of the animal come to a 

 sharp point. 



It does not seem easy to form any definite opinion about the 

 wedge-shape of the rest of the body. Some cows seem to milk 

 very well, though the whole length of the back from the chine 

 to loin looks very narrow indeed, there being no sign of a 

 wedge-shape. This wedge-shape would be given by a well- 

 sprung rib, and many of the best milkers seem to be flat-sided. 



By the kindness of their owner it has been possible to 

 measure some of the cattle belonging to Lord Rayleigh. In 

 these famous herds are to be found a great number of cows 

 kept for milk production under exceptionally skilful manage- 

 ment, and milk records have been kept for a great many years, 

 and these conditions are essential to any real test of the sort. 



With the assistance of Mr. Gerald Strutt and the manager 

 (Mr. H. Jones), Mr. R. Beverley, of the Cambridge Agri- 



* " Cattle-Breeding," by William Warfield, p. 76, J. H. Saunders Publishing 

 .Company, Chicago, 1902. 



