A FEW HINTSON SELECTING MILCH COWS.

Waikato Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 1553, 17 June 1882, Page 4

A FEW HINTSON SELECTING MILCH COWS.

It is believed that the beat and surest way to 'secure gobfl'cows is to raise them from good milking ' stock. But 1 a ; large proportion of dairymen, for one Reason 1 or another, prefer itb fill up vacancies, which are ever oecitring, by purchasing. It requires fivquent additions to a dairy to keep its numbers good. The milking period of dairy cows averages only ten years, from which it follows that ten per cent must be renewed annually, aud when allowance is also made for losses by accident or disease, and the rejection of such animals as prove inferior, it will require eleven per cent, or more, to sustain the yearly diminution. In the agregate this makes a large traffic, and it demands a ready appreciation of the merits of the animals with which it is proposed to supply the deficiency. How much such a knowledge may avail, an instance I may now mention to you will show. A. L. Fish, of Winfield, N.Y., U.S.A., by a skilful selection of superior milkers, averaged, for a series, of years over 8001bs of cheese to a cow in a season. His cows averaged, when feed was the best, 32 quarts of milk each per day, and in one season he made over to the cow. There is no one thing on which the success of a dairyman depends more than on the selection of the cows which are to compose his herd. There is no profit in keeping poor ones. The steadily increasing price of land brings the cost o£ keeping so high that poor milkers often fail to pay for the provender they consume. The money made by dairying is all made from good cows, and skill in selecting is therefore a matter of great consequence. There are certain external indications of the capacity for producing milk which are as apparent from an inspection of a cow as are the signs of strength and speed in the horse. To write out all the marks that are relied upon as showing merit and demerit, would be difficult. They are best learnt by practice and close observation. But some of the leading points may be stated that will be of some service in determining some of the wider differences. Milk is a feminine product, and its production may reasonably be expected to be more or less affected if the organisation varies much from the characteristics peculiar to the sex. First of all, see that the animal has a feminine appearance. The next thing to be looked after is the digestive apparatus, particularly the stomach and bowels. A large and vigorous stomach is most essential for production of milk. A cow cannot make milk out of nothing. If she gives a large flow, she must eat and digest a large amount of food to make it from, and she must have a stomach equal to the task ; one that has capacity to hokl, and power to digest enough to manufacture the milk out of. When the digestive organs ai'e relatively larger than the other viscera, they give depth and breadth to the abdomen, and a somewhat wedgeshaped form, the body tapering forward. The large stomach and bowels above-mentioned indicate a diathesis, in which the fluids abound, a condition as will readily be understood very essential to a large flow of milk ; and the broad hips, and the depth and breadth of the lumbar region indicate a large development and flow of blood, aud vital influence to all the parts surrounding and connected with the milk producing vessels. Gaunt cows are small milkers. The constitution of a cow depends mostly upon the heart and lungs, the size of which may be determined by the depth and breadth of the thorax. They should have a good development, enough to secure health and vigor, but the lungs, in particular should not be excessively large. When very large they burn up by increased respiration, the fat-forming material. By the extraordinary energy they create, they induce unusual exercise and motion, which make a rapid waste of tissue, and a rapid assimilation to repair it, and thus divert nutriment from producing milk. If too small, the animal may bo an excellent milker while she lives, but will be feeble and short-lived. The capacity of the lungs corresponds with the size of the apertures through which they are filled. Large open nostrils indicate large lungs, and vice vena. In the same way the indications of the mouth correspond with the size of the stomach. The chine is regarded as an index to milking capacity, When it is double it denotes breadth of vertebras, which correspond to the broad open structure which is favorable to a large flow. It is an accompaniment of broad hips, and these in turn denote a large cavity which is essential to good milkers. Soft, fine hair is, by many, regarded as an evidence of richness, and oftener than otherwise it proves true, but again some cows that give the very richest milk have hair that is not so very fine and soft. The appearance of the skin is another guide. A clear white or pale skin is an evidence either that yellow fat is not formed, or if formed the peculiarities of the animal arc such that it is used up in supporting respiration. When the fat is so abundant as to lodge in the pores of the skin and give it a yellow color, it may be expected to appear also in the milk, and give it the same color. High color and richness seldom fail to go together, hence a yellow skin becomes an evidence of rich milk ; but it some^mes happens that the skin is of such a hue that the yellow fat docs not affect i its color, in such a case appearance , of .the skin has no significance. One of the indications of the richness of milk is the appearance of- the inside -of the ear. If that is yellow and| sheds i'a yello.w dandruff rich milk is very'stfrfc to abbotnpany, The same is ! taue .-in 1 regard, to the 'ttyist. ■ The 1 fat '''of ' animals is stored iri 'a netwoi'k of cells called cellular tissue, and 'an abundance of these cells' is; coupled with a tendency to form' fat "whereVrlth to fill them. When a cow 1 is in niilki wej fat l f6rmed is carried away in thetfiilki making 1 it fich. Hence^ wherethis'tidsue 'abounds, rich milk may be expected.' 1 When dry, the cow having iit fattens >. rapidly. * '-Th'eV supply of celjlular tissue mayibekridwiiiby -feßling the skin. When i£ jgu plentiful it forms" a sort of cushio^unile^-fche skin, giving it a soft and mejlpw^reeLiSg. Wnen it is wanting, the ,'skm^feels hard, and the hand when restirig*"on /the animal feels J friuch* as if resting the^ Bare bonea, A soft velvety .feeling of th&JSKin. 'on the f utat^antkribsris aJßfron&fcafKUcaj- ' ftioh tisBueH>durtabiMdan'6e,; ■tftiff/ AlboUle-shabidiHaglitooMvß^ alM'ic? tiWaeai of 'WityUp |&s^pbtij^ : fMm^%^hich ; and wn-Qvrt |M^tfW

cows which are raised $i£ the farm are worth one quarter more than-those of the same natural capacity which have to endure a long journey and a change of food and habits to be placed in the dairy. The less the habits of milch cows are changed the better. In changing places, where there is a wide ghnnge in their mode of living and treatment, it takes a - lon« time for adult cows to become used to their new situation. I may as well mention here a French indication of milkin" capacity. This consists of the peciiliapAppeai'ange 'pi tHe hair; SiTtTfe'' udllerl ' -Prof: Guenon/ a FrendhinaVhais called this judging by the milk-mirror, or escutcheon. He describes it thus : Looking at the hind part of a cow more or less of the hair which covers the udder and adjacent parts, will be seen to turn upward or outward. This reversed hair forms the so-called escutcheon or milk-mirror. If the space occupied by the upturned hair, especially the lower part of it, is very large and broad, so that it extends far outward on to the thighs, it is regarded as an indication of a large flow of milk. If the tipper part of it ia broad and smooth, it is regarded as favorable to a prolonged flow. If the reversed hair is narrow in its lower part, the flow is supposed to be small ; if it ia narrow and irregular in its upper part, it is unfavorable to a prolonged flow. The manner in which the inverted hair connects with the hair adjacent, is supposed to have significance. A gradual- blending rather than abrupt connection -is preferred. 'Prof.. Magne says, the connection of the escutcheon with the flow of milk is accounted for in this way : The hair turns in the direction in which the arteries ramify, and that the reversed hair on the udder and adjacent parts indicates the termination of the arteries which supply the udder with blood. When these arteries are large, they are not confined to the udder, but extend down through it and upward and outward ramifying on the skin beyond the udder, giving the hair the peculiar appearance which distinguishes it from the rest of the surface. If the arteries supplying the udder with blood are very small, they are not likely to extend much beyond the udder, and hence form a small escutcheon indicates a ieeble supply of blood to the udder and consequently but little material to make milk of, and hence a small flow of milk. Professor Gnenon studied and explained these marks only* as they appear on the hind part of the bag, and the marks noticed by him were supposed to apply to the whole udder, Professor G. C. Caldwell does not agree with Guenon, in this he says :— Each quarter of the udder is supplied'with blood by a distinct' and separate arterial branch, and they may, and often do, vary considerably in size in the respective quarters of the bag. Those supplying the two hind quarters ,of the bag are usually larger than those which supply the front part, but sometimes the reverse is true, in which case the marks on the back part of the bag would not be a correct indication of the front part and so with other inequalities. Each quarter of the bag has an escutcheon for itself, made by the ramifications of the arterial branch supplying it with blood, and which serves as an index only to" that division of the udder. • These mirrors blend in the middle and appear as one, but the outside of the reversed hair varies for each quarter according to the size of the arterial branch by which it is supported. Corneluis Baldwin of Nelson, Ohio, United States, America, who has made a close study of milk marks gives as much significance to the mirror on the front part of the bag as that on the hind part. If there is more escutcheon on one side or one quarter of the bag, it indicates a flow from that side or quarter corresponding to the excess of the development. The size of the escutcheon is regarded as the measure of the quantity of blood supplied to the milk producing vessels, and are evidence of their capability of elaborating milk. In the same way, the veins take up the blood and carry it back in the milk veins which pass through the bag and along the belly, and enter the body through one or moi c holes on their way to tiie heart. The size of these milk veins and the holes where they enter the body, vary with the escutcheon, and like it give evidence of the quantity of venous blood passing away from and through the udder, and they have the same significance with reference to quantity, as the supply of arterial blood and the size of the escutcheon. But none of these indications, taken singly is an infallible evidence of large yield. They must be considered together. A large escutcheon and milk veins coupled with a small stomach, would be marked down at least one half of what they might otherwise signify ; and a large disgestive apparatus, coupled with small milk veins and escutcheon, should be marked down in the same way. Keeping the leading indications in view, and by attentive observations will soon learn to make them of practical utility. Hoeace Walpole, Hamilton.