4 BULLETIN 434, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
is- also important to know which of those yielding a profit are the 
best, that their offspring mar be used in improving the herd. Les- 
sons in judging are an important part of school work in dairying, 
as they aid the student in learning the desirable points of dairy 
animals. 
How dairy cows are judged. — The teacher should bear in mind 
that the aim of the lesson is to give the student such knowledge 
concerning the dairy cow. and to develop his judgment to the extent, 
that he will get full value in buying or selling cows. If a practical 
dairyman of good judgment is buying a cow he wants to know the 
amount of feed she consumes, how much milk she is giving, the 
percentage of butter fat. and her record for maintaining the milk 
flow. An accurate milk record will mean much in indicating her 
value. He will want to milk the cow himself, to watch her eat and 
drink, and to be assured that she is in good health. If he is going 
to use her for breeding purposes, he will desire to learn what he 
can of her breeding and of her ability to transmit her qualities to 
her offspring. If she is a registered animal, he may learn a good 
deal from her pedigree. The importance of these points may be 
impressed by having students weigh and test the milk of cows in 
the district, keep records of the milk and fat produced, and study 
the records of production of ancestors in their pedigrees. 
If the keeping of herd records is made one of the home projects 
of the students, it will be well for them to learn the methods used 
in testing cows in cow-testing associations and for advanced registry. 
Information may be obtained from the United States Department 
of Agriculture and from the breed associations. 
Records of production are not always kept, and . frequently it is 
desirable to know the value of cows not giving milk. Fortunately, 
there is a marked correlation between the form or type of dairy 
cows and their power to produce. It is very important that the 
dairyman know what constitutes true dairy conformation in milch 
cows, so school work in judging becomes largely a study of dairy 
types. 
The dairy type. — If beef animals have been studied prior to taking 
up the work with dairy breeds, from the beginning there will be a 
natural comparison of the beef type with the dairy type (fig. 4). If 
an outline of a beef animal has been on the blackboard it will be 
helpful to transform it to represent a dairy cow before the students. 
Charts and pictures will be helpful in bringing out the contrast 
between the two types (fig. 5). 
The functions of production and reproduction in dairy cows are 
so closely related that the form which indicates heavy production 
will usuallv denote a o-ood breeder. TVnen viewed from the side, 
