CATTLE. 
99 
milker. The rationale of this is, that this gravure is but a continuation 
of, and corresponds with the lactiferous vessels under the belly of the 
animal. These “ epis,” he states, correspond with the reservoir of milk, 
and are tufts of hair growing the wrong way on the right or left of the 
bearing. The largest cpis indicates the most rapid loss of milk. The 
contrepoil, or hair growing the wrong way on the gravure amidst that 
which grows upward, shows a default in the production of milk, even 
if the gravure be large. We give a fac-simile of his class 1 . Flandhines. 
So far is a very general description of a system which he invests with 
minutiae of no ordinary kind, and it is so precise and prolix that it re- 
quires a series of some score of plates to show the variations of family 
class, and order. 
Without definitively pronouncing that there is no merit in his obser- 
vations, it seems perfectly clear that many of his indications are of a 
character generally indicative of quality, but are pushed far beyond 
their legitimate objects ; for while a wide capacity of upper udder — a 
fine hair — a yelloiv scurf, are somewhat too indefinite to classify very 
precisely, they are just the points which may indicate the fineness of 
quality, and a large lactiferous capacity which may add to the physio- 
logical signs by which a milking-cow is judged by the practical grazier. 
Beauty of form is about the last qualification in a good dairy cow r . Sym- 
metry to a breeder is no criterion of milking qualities. The parallelo- 
gram is the beau ideal of a fattened ox in section, and a cylinder is that 
ot his superficies — thus exhibiting an essence of roundness, whereas the 
very converse is the perfection of a milker, i.e. “flatness.” The follow- 
ing are the best-settled marks or characteristics of a milking cow. Head 
small and fine, eye bright and lull, but with a quiet and placid expres- 
sion, neck thin and deep, which gives it an appearance of hollowness; 
shoulder and breast narrow, but projecting; ribs flat; rumps broad, and 
tapering down to the knee-joint, owing to the thighs being thin ; tail 
small ; udder large and round, with teats well formed, tapering to the 
end, and at a moderate distance from each other; thin in its skin, and 
with plenty of skin above; its fore-teats round and full, and with a 
large subcutaneous or milk vein. 
Tile Ayrshire CotV. — 111 Ayrshire and the adjacent portion of the Low- 
lands there is an admirable breed of milch cattle, independently of those 
that are grazed there for the butcher, which, from whatever source they 
originated, owe much to the care and selection of judicious breeders. 
At some period or other there has evidently been a cross of the Dur- 
ham or Holderness, and perhaps also of the Alderney. This breed, 
which became established from the middle to the close of the eighteenth 
century, has found its way not only into Lngland, but also into Ireland 
and Wales, recommended by the' excellency of the cows as milkers, 
although they are under the middle size. It has been estimated that a 
good Ayrshire cow will yield, for two or three months after calving, five 
gallons ot milk daily; for the next three months three gallons daily, and 
a gallon and a half for the following three months. This milk is calcu- 
lated to return about two hundred and fifty pounds of butter annually, 
or five hundred pounds of cheese. The foregoing estimate is, however, 
somewhat, exaggerated ; and perhaps during the best of the season four 
