22 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Jan., 1902. 
Dairying. 
EVOLUTION OF THE COW. 
By J. VAN WAGENAN, 
At New York Dairymen’s Association. 
I want to try and interest you for a few minutes in the evolution of 
dairying as it has taken place in our memories, as it is going on around us 
to-day, and as it will probably go on for years to come. 
First, I want to speak of the cow, because (the Chicago and Kansas City 
packers always excepted) no one has been able to engage in the dairy business 
without taking the cow into partnership. 
So note this: —That in the cow, in modern times, there has been evolution 
from two different causes, along two distinct lines. First, the cow has been 
changing in an unconscious effort to fit herself to her changing. environment ; 
and, secondly, she has been changing because of man’s selection in his effort to 
bring her to a new ideal. 
If there is one primary and unchallenged doctrine of Darwinism, it is that 
all life is a struggle for existence and that only the fittest survive. In a state 
of nature the vast majority of individuals perish, leaving no progeny to hand. 
down their characteristics to future generations. In the long run only those 
survive who are particularly fitted for and are victorious in the struggle. 
And before men took a hand in her destiny, what was the fitcow? It was 
not the one with incurved, waxy horns. It was not the one with incurved 
thighs and a prominent pelvic arch. It was not the one with big milk 
veins and double chest extensions. It was not the cow that could give 
1,000 gallons of milk, producing 400 Ib. of butter, in twelve months. But 
it was the cow who could beat off the wild beast that would devour her 
young. 1t was the cow who had hardiness and vitality to live through the time 
when vegetation was buried deep under the winter snow. It was the cow who, 
when there was not food enough for all, had strength and stamina enough to be 
among those who survived the famine. In short,the best cow of that day was 
the one who was enabled to overcome the daily and almost hourly vicissitudes of 
that time. 
But man has changed all that. When we domesticate the cow and 
provide her with food and shelter against the cold ; when we kill the offspring 
of others, then we have reversed the economy of nature, and no longer put a 
premium on hardiness and brute strength. And so, for thousands of years, the 
cow has been dropping off some of her old characteristics and has been assuming 
some new ones. So here we have changes due to environment. 
And then we have another vast series of changes due to man’s conscious 
selection. Note here that man’s conscious selection of the cow has not always 
been towards the same ideals. It is perhaps strange, but I think true, that it 
was beef, rather than milk, which first attracted the attention of breeders. It 
is 150 years since Bakewell brought the now extinct Longhorns to great perfec- 
tion, and bred Old Comely, with the fat on her sirloin 6 inches thick. It is 
more than 100 years since the careful recording of Shorthorn pedigrees was 
begun. It is ninety years since the Shorthorn bull Comet sold for 1,000 
guineas, but it is less than fifty years since we began to keep records of pro- 
duction or to record the pedigrees of animals bred for milk instead of beef 
production. 
The most evident development of the cow is in accord with the constantly 
growing conviction that she must be selected along special lines for special 
