58 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[February, 
the ends, so there will be no possibility of animals 
injuring themselves by their rough and sharp points. 
Maki ng Wooden Eave-troughs.— Eave-troughs 
should be attached to all buildings, not only as 
Eig. 6.—MAKING AN EAVES-TROUGH. 
a preservative of boards, timber, etc., but as a 
matter of convenience. Many who do not wish 
to go to the expense of tin eave-troughs,' may 
make troughs of straight saplings of pine, chest¬ 
nut, or cedar, and can in a few days’ tide, during 
the leisure of winter, make enough eave-troughs to 
supply a farm. A round 
straight stick from 15 
to 40 feet in length, 
from 4 to 6 inches in 
diameter at the but, and 
3 to 5 at the top, is 
readily converted into a 
trough. First, strike a 
chalk line, and hew a 
little over one-third of 
the stick away from the 
straight side ; then place 
the flattened side up on 
the trestles. On one of 
these I nail, at each side 
of the trough, a block 
the same hight as the 
trough, and over the top place a strip, nailing it 
fast to each block and the top of the trough. Any 
one skillful with the adze, can dig out a trough 
very fast, but others can do better with a common 
ax. The finishing is 
generally done with 
a 2-ineh chisel or 
large gouge. The 
manner of attaching 
the troughs to a 
building, (shown at 
figure 7), is by a 
hoard bracket made 
to fit the outside of 
the trough; this is 
nailed to a cleat, 
which in turn is nail¬ 
ed to the side of the 
building. A piece of 
pine 10 inches long, 1 inch wide, and i an inch thick, 
is nailed to the upper edge of the bracket and over 
the trough, to hold it in position. When finished 
it should be seasoned thoroughly in the shade, 
and be painted two coats both inside and out. 
Kitchen, Pump, and other Drains.— The com¬ 
mon method of disposing of the kitchen slops, 
which is to throw them upon the ground about the 
back door, is a very unwholesome practice, and 
productive of much disease. It is but a few hour’s 
work to construct a drain by which all the waste 
Fig. 9. —DRAIN FOR KITCHEN SLOPS. 
may be carried off. A wooden box, 18 in. square, 
and about 2 ft. deep, is set into the ground near 
the kitchen door, and filled in with round stones 
from 1 to 2 in. in diameter ; an outlet pipe, 2 or 3 
in. in diameter, square or round, and of either wood 
or metal, is fitted to the bottom of the box, as 
shown at figure 9. This js intended only for water, 
yegetable refuse should find it? way into the pig- 
trough. A drain for the waste of a pump (fig. 8) is 
made thus : at the lower edge of the platform, in 
front of the pump, is placed a funnel-shaped wood¬ 
en box, about 6x10 in. square at the top, and 4 in. 
square at the bottom. This is connected with a 
wooden discharge pipe. The waste from the pump 
is carried off by this pipe, and the ground kept dry. 
Ventilation of a Closet in an Ice-House. 
A correspondent in Colorado sends the descrip¬ 
tion of a meat-closet, which he contemplates mak¬ 
ing in the center of an ice-house, so that it will be 
surrounded with ice. The proposed refrigerator is 
shown in the accompanying engraving. The trouble 
is with respect to ventilation. This is a difficult 
matter to provide for, as a current of air, passing 
through the closet, will cause a considerable waste 
of ice, and will moreover introduce much moisture 
into the closet, where it will be condensed. The 
effort should be made to keep the air in the closet 
as dry as possible, as moisture greatly hastens pu- 
PLAN OF CLOSET IN ICE-HOUSE. 
trefaction of animal substances, and dry air pre¬ 
serves them. A ventilating pipe may, therefore, be 
made to pass out from the top of the closet, hut 
should be kept tightly closed, excepting when its 
use is imperatively required, when it may be open¬ 
ed on a cool night. At other times the moisture in 
the closet should be absorbed by the use of char¬ 
coal or fresh lime, hung up in a bag of some open 
fabric. The charcoal may be freshened occasional¬ 
ly by by drying it and baking it in a hot oven. 
The Marks of a Good Milk Cow. 
To know how to select a good cow is a necessary 
part of the education of a farmer, and more especi¬ 
ally of a dairyman. A competent judge of a cow 
should be able to select at sight the best milkers 
from a drove, and the points in which such cows 
differ from others, are so marked and conspicuous, 
that it should be very easy to know them. The 
head is the first thing that attracts notice. In a 
good cow this should be fine in the muzzle, deep in 
the jaw, broad between the eyes and between the 
jaws, and with large nostrils. The eyes should be 
large, mild, bright, and active, but not nervous and 
restless, and the membranes should be bright red 
and full of blood. The ears should be deep yellow 
inside, and the waxy secretion should be plentiful, 
and of a deep yellow color. The horns should be 
fine and thin, yellowish in color at the points, and 
very clear and waxy in the texture of the surface. 
The neck should be slender and tapering, with a 
capacious windpipe ; the dewlap should not be 
prominent or fleshy, and the point should show a 
yellow color. The chest should he broad and 
roomy, giving plenty of room for the play of the 
lungs, but not deep. The chine should be thin, 
and the back level, widening out across the hips, 
where it should be broad and flat. The body should 
be deep in the belly, gradually tapering from the 
shoulders backwards ; the ribs should spring out 
well from the backbone, and there should be ample 
space between the last rib and the hip. The shoul¬ 
ders and thighs should be shin and narrow, the 
legs fine in the bone, and not of great length; the 
hoofs should be clean and clear, with a waxy sur¬ 
face. The pelvis should be broad, and the tail 
should be set pretty high above it, lying well down 
between the prominent bones, and should be thiq 
and long, reaching down near to the ground. The 
udder should be large, loose, and squarely formed, 
with the teats placed well apart from each other, 
should come well forward and well up behind, 
where, when empty, it should hang in loose folds. 
The milk-vein should he large, and also come 
well forward; the veins of the udder should be 
abundant, the skin a deep yellow color, and cover¬ 
ed with short, soft, fine hair. The teats should 
be long, and of such a size that they can be hand¬ 
led in milking with ease, the milk should flow 
readily, and with gentle pressure. The skin of the 
whole body should be loose and elastic, of a yellow 
color, and covered with abundant soft, silky hair. 
The color of the hah- may be ignored, as a general 
rule, although we have 
found cows that have 
been the darkest in 
color, have given the 
richest milk ; this, how¬ 
ever, seeems to be a 
point that has not yet 
been determined. The 
escutcheon is a point 
that is greatly dwelt 
upon by many experts 
in dairy matters, and as 
6ome distinct inquiries 
have been made about 
it, we refer to this at 
length with our most 
recent observations. 
The “escutcheon” is 
the reversed growth of 
hair that is found upon 
nearly all cattle, from the thighs and udder,upwards. 
The peculiar form of this escutcheon, or “milk mir¬ 
ror,” is supposed to denote the value of the cow as 
a milker, both as to the quantity yielded, and the 
continuance of the yield. It was discovered by a 
Frenchman, M. Guenon, a dealer in cattle, who had 
observed the differences in the forms of the es¬ 
cutcheons of a great number of milch cows, and 
the corresponding difference in the milking capacity 
of the animals, and he attempted to reduce these 
differences to a system. His discovery was tested 
many times in France, and in recognition of its 
value the French government, about 40 years ago, 
conferred a pension upon him. Since then a good 
escutcheon has been considered as one of the char¬ 
acteristic points of a good cow. A full description 
of M. Guenon’s theory, and the rules for judging ■ 
cows by it, which he built up after many years 
study and observation, is given and amply illus¬ 
trated in a book entitled “ Guenon on Milch 
Cows,” published by the Orange Judd Company. 
Mr. Guenon divides the escutcheons into eight 
classes, each of which is characterized by a differ¬ 
ent form, and each class is divided into eight orders; J 
these orders being 
graded from best to . 
worst, as the peculiar j 
class of escutcheon de¬ 
creases in size or de- 1 
generates in character. 
The first order of the 
first class escutcheon is 
given in figure 1, as it 
appears in the book re¬ 
ferred to. This is taken 
to he the mark of the 
best milk cows, which 
yield over 20 quarts of 
milk per day, and never 
go dry if they are con¬ 
tinuously milked. As 
the quality of the cow 
decreases, the size of 
the escutcheon dimin- I 
ishes. From many observations of premium milk 
cows,exhibited at the State fairs for some years past, 
we haye found the escutcheon to be very variable, 
and in few cases to approach the classification of M. 
Guenon. For instance, from amongst all the cows 
exhibited at several State fairs in 1874, as large milk¬ 
ers, we could only select one whose escutcheon came 
near to the standard to which it ought to belong, 
This was in the cage of a cow fsxhibiteij by $9 
Fig. 7.— BRACKET. 
Fig. 8.—PUMP DRAIN. 
Fig. 1. 
guenon’s escutcheon. 
