AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
19 
mowing. He perceives that if a small basin 
were excavated in the top of that sandy knoll, 
and filled with water to overflowing, the rim be¬ 
ing nicely adjusted to a common level, the water 
would diffuse itself in every direction over an 
acre or two, and might render that barren spot 
one of the most verdant on his farm. I suppose 
the summit to be 15 or 20 rods from a slight fall 
in the brook, and the elevation to be 8 or 10 feet 
above the stream. Would it be worth the ex¬ 
pense, say of from 20 to 30 dollars, to throw on 
that elevation a stream of water by means of 
the hydraulic ram, or by a forcing pump to be 
carried by the stream ? 
It sometimes, though rarely, happens that a 
plot of ground lies almost precisely level, and 
yet so low that a stream of water can be turned 
upon it. In such a case, irrigation can be effected 
as above; A representing a stream of water 
brought from some river, brook, or pond, or 
possibly from the drainage of neighboring lands; 
B, a channel to carry off the surplus water after 
the irrigation has been accomplished; 1, 2, 3, 
and 4, smaller channels connecting with the main 
channel A, the ground being first thrown into 
ridges with the plow, and these smaller chan¬ 
nels running along the summits of the ridges, 
and overflowing on both sides, so that the water 
will run down a gentle slope into the catch- 
drains 5, 6, 7, these last to connect with the 
waste-drain B, and to empty their surplus water 
into it. In order to irrigate in this way, it 
would be necessary to bring the whole plot to a 
very nice level, so that the banks of the channels 
1, 2, 3, 4 should be in all parts equally high, as 
otherwise, the water would discharge itself over 
them into the intervening catch-drains in some 
places and not in others; and I do not believe 
that an effect at irrigation in this way could be 
commended, unless in cases where, from the na¬ 
ture of the soil and the character of the water, 
great benefit would be sure to result, especially 
as great care would be requisite to keep the 
banks of the distributing drains from settling 
out of level. 
In England it seems to be no matter what an 
improvement costs, if it but promises to pay five 
per cent, or more on the outlay. The Duke of 
Portland’s water-meadows have been improved 
at an expense of $200,000. Other improvements 
of a like kind in that kingdom have been made 
at enormous rates of expense. Especially is it 
so with the application of sewerage water to 
lands, as at Edinburgh and other places. In¬ 
deed, improvements are now talked of, with re¬ 
gard to the sewerage of London, which, if ever 
accomplished, will have to be done to the tune 
of hundreds of millions sterling. There, land is 
scarce and money plenty; labor is low and pro¬ 
duce high, and there is hardly an end to im¬ 
provements, which it may be wise for them to 
make on lands, or to the expenses which they 
may wisely incur for this end. With regard to 
land and money, labor and produce, it is other¬ 
wise with us. We cannot yet rush into these 
huge expenses which there are wise. Still, high 
as labor is here, and high as interest is, there is 
mainy an odd acre of bog land, ugly and pestifer¬ 
ous, which might be drained and rendered beau¬ 
tiful and healthy, with a certainty of paying 
double our usual rates of interest in the outlay; 
there is many an extended marsh, now creating 
disease and shorting life, which could be re¬ 
claimed with a like certainty of paying well; and, 
if I am not mistaken, there arc thousands of 
fields among us, the whole, or parts of which, 
might be irrigated, with an absolute certainty of 
paying such a return for the outlay as should 
satisfy any reasonable mind. 
Amherst , Feh. 12, 1854. 
HOW TO CHOOSE A GOOD MILK COW. 
J. II. Magne, of the Veterinary School, of 
Alfort, France, lias recently published a valua¬ 
ble little work entitled as above. This 
has been translated in England, and a sup¬ 
plement added by Jonx Haxton, very good in 
the main, with the exception of his apooyphal 
history of the Short-horns and their improve¬ 
ment by a cross with a polled Galloway Cow! 
It is astonishing how ignorant many of the Eng¬ 
lish remain on this subject. The Royal Agri¬ 
cultural Society Journal , The Mark Lane Ex¬ 
press, and other British journals, have for the 
past few years completely exposed the absur¬ 
dity of this cross, and far from its being an im¬ 
provement, shown that it was a great deteriora¬ 
tion of all their good qualities, and yet the false¬ 
hood of Berrv, as copied b}^ Youatt, still goes 
the rounds of nearly every new publication in 
Great Britain on the subject of cattle. How hard 
it is to head a great untruth or a stupid absur¬ 
dity. 
With this exception, we can commend the 
work, though we believe it is not on sale in this 
county, as we were obliged to import a copy 
for our own use ; and on this account we now 
commence copying some extracts which we will 
continue till we have presented our readers 
all the more valuable portions. We copy in this 
number the chapter headed 
Points Indicative of a Good Cow. 
Among practical dairymen there lias long ex¬ 
isted a number of rules, by which the milking 
properties of a milk cow are judged of; and as 
these rules are the results of long experience, 
transmitted from one generation to another, they 
contain, when collected together, the sum of all 
that information which is known by the name of 
practical knowledge. That this knowledge is cor¬ 
rect, in a general way, cannot be questioned, be¬ 
cause it is the result of actual experiments re¬ 
peated and confirmed not only for a long period 
of time, but in a great variety of ways, and under 
circumstances so different, that any errors must 
long ere now have been detected. Notwith¬ 
standing the existence of these established rules, 
of judging, by external signs, of the qualities of 
an animal suitable for the dairy, there are very 
great differences in the modes and results of ap¬ 
plying them practically. Some men have a 
natural turn or peculiar adroitness for minute 
and careful observation, which others are devoid 
of; and consequently the former are far more 
successful in rearing, selecting, or buying dairy 
stock, than the latter; and hence, too, we find 
that to these instinctive judges of stock, a glance 
or a touch will reveal a greater amount of infor¬ 
mation than the closest inspection of others. 
While it is necessary, however, that there 
should be long and habitual familiarity with 
recognized data in order to their being success¬ 
fully applied in practice, they at the same time 
furnish a set of rules, a knowledge of which is 
of very great advantage to those who have been 
prevented from acquiring an experimental ac¬ 
quaintance with the points to which such rules 
refer, either by youth or want of opportunity. 
The points to be attended to in judging of a 
good milk cow, are, by universal consent, con¬ 
sidered to be shape and size of the animal, both 
as a whole, and in detail; texture of the skin 
and hair, development of the lactiferous parts ; 
temperament or habit of body and disposition; 
and finally, strength or endurance of constitu¬ 
tion. A maximum development of these points 
marks out a first-class cow of the breed to 
which she belongs ; but the milking properties 
differ in endless variety, not merely as these 
points are prominent or the reverse, but also in 
proportion to the circumstances of climate, soil, 
and treatment. The escutcheon test of M. 
Guenon, already described in the former section 
of this work, is a new element in the question ; 
and when fully established, and better under¬ 
stood, will probably occupy the first rank among 
the external signs which indicate the natural 
milking properties of cows; but as yet it is 
rarely recognized in Britain ; and there are few 
farmers, even in the best dairy counties, that 
have even heard of such a test. How far M. 
Guenon’s observations have been borne out b}^ 
facts supplied by the examination of a great 
many dairy cows in our own country, both by 
the writer and others, will be discussed at the 
close of this section; meantime, we shall direct 
the reader’s attention to those points which ex¬ 
perience has proved to possess a marked influ¬ 
ence on the milking properties of cows. 
Shape. —Whatever may be the breed to which 
a cow belongs, there are certain points of con¬ 
figuration which are considered essential as re¬ 
gards her milking properties. There may be, 
and are frequently, great discrepancies between 
the one and the other; but still, generally speak¬ 
ing, the rule holds good that, all things being 
alike, the cow which approaches nearest to a 
certain standard will be the best milker. The 
head must be rather lengthy, especially from 
the eye to the point of the nose ; the nose and 
muzzle should be cleaniy cut, and free from thick 
skin or fleshy lumps; the cheek bones , thin, and, 
in like manner, devoid of thick skin or flesh 
(not thick chapped;) eye prominent, of a placid 
and benignant expression, with little of the 
white exposed to view. If horned, the horns 
should taper gradually to a point, and have a 
clean surface, free from rugosities ; the breed 
will determine the shape and set of the horns. 
The neck should be long, thin, and free from 
loose skin. A good milk cow may be deer or 
ewe-necked, but never bull-necked. The chest 
and breast should be deep, rather than broad, 
and the brisket should project forwards and 
downwards; and, whether large or otherwise, 
should be round, well shaped, and without 
loose folds of skin depending from it. The 
girth , behind the shoulders, moderate, and aris¬ 
ing more from depth than breadth of chest; 
shoulders rather narrow at the top ; back-bone 
on a line with the shoulder-top; ribs arched, 
and well home to the haunch-bones, which 
should be wide apart, and form a straight line 
across, neither depressed in the center, at the 
lumbar vertebrae, nor drooping at the extremi¬ 
ties ; hind-quarters lengthy, and the rump, or 
tail-top, nearly on a line with the back-bone; 
thighs rather thin, but broad, well spread, and 
giving plenty of room for the udder; belly pro¬ 
jecting outwards rather than downwards, with 
plenty of room for food; the udder should be 
large in a lineal direction, that is, well back¬ 
ward as well as upward, between the hind legs 
and forward on the belly; also broad in front, 
filling up the space between the lower flanks, 
but rather short vertically ; a deep hanging ud¬ 
der, from its swinging motion, being always the 
cause of great fatigue to the animal when walk¬ 
ing ; the teats should be moderately long, 
straight, and equal in thickness from the udder 
j to the point, and also at considerable and equal 
