EIGHTH CLASS.
First order (fig. 15) will give fifteen quarts per day; time, eight months. Skin in escutcheon reddish-yellow and silky, hair fine, teats far apart. The eighth order (fig. 16) yields two and a half quarts a day, and dries up on getting with calf.
Fig. 15. Fig. 16.
Order 1. Horizontal Cut Cow. Order 8.
Each class of cows has a kind called bastards, among those whose escutcheons would otherwise indicate the first order of their class: these often deceive the most practised eye. The only remedy is to become familiar with the infallible marks given by Guenon by which bastards may be known. This defect will account for the irregularity of many cows, and their suddenly going dry on becoming with calf, and often for the bad quality of their milk. They are distinguished by the lines of ascending and descending hair in their escutcheon.
Fig. 17. Fig. 18. Fig. 19.
In the Flanders cow (fig. 17) there are two bastards; one distinguished by the fact that the hair forming the line of the escutcheon bristles up, like beards on a head of grain, instead of lying smooth, as in the genuine cow; they project over the intersection of the ascending and descending hair in a very bristling manner. The other bastard of the Flanders cow is known by having an oval patch of downward growing hair, about eight inches below the vulva, and in a line with it; in the large cows it is four inches long, and two and a half wide, and the hair within it always of a lighter color than that surrounding it. Cows of this mark are always imperfect. In the bastards, the skin on the escutcheon is usually reddish; it is smooth to the touch, and yields no dandruff.
Bastards of the SELVAGE COW are known by two oval patches of ascending hair, one on each side of the vulva, four or five inches long, by an inch and a half wide (fig. 18). The larger the spot, and the coarser the hair, the more defective they prove, and vice versa.
Bastards of the CURVELINE COW are known by the size of spots of hair on each side of the vulva (fig. 18). When they are of four or five inches by one and a half, and pointed or rounded at the ends, they indicate bastards. If they be small, the cow will not lose her milk very rapidly on getting with calf.
Bastards of the BICORN COW are indicated precisely as in the preceding—by the size of the spots of ascending hair, above the escutcheon and by the sides of the vulva (F, F, fig. 18).
Bastards of the DEMIJOHN COW are distinguished precisely as the two preceding—size of the streaks (fig. 18).
The SQUARE ESCUTCHEON COW indicates bastards, by a streak of hair at the right of the vulva (fig. 19). When that ascending hair is coarse and bristly, it is a sure evidence that the animal is a bastard.
Limousine cows show their bastards precisely as do the CURVELINE and BICORN, by the size of the ascending streaks of hair, on the right and left of the vulva. (Fig. 19.)
Bastards of the HORIZONTAL CUT COWS have no escutcheon whatever. By this they are always known.
Some bastards are good milkers until they get with calf, and then very soon dry up. Others are poor milkers. Those with coarse hair and but little of it, in the escutcheon, give poor, watery milk. Those of fine, thick hair will give good milk.
Bulls have escutcheons of the same shape as the cows, but on a smaller scale. Whenever there are streaks of descending hair bristling up among the ascending hair of the escutcheon, rendering it quite irregular and rough in its appearance, the animal is regarded as a bastard. Never put a cow to any bull that has not a regular, well-defined, and smooth escutcheon. This is as fully as we have room to go into M. Guenon's details. We fear this will fall into the hands of many who will not take the pains to master even these distinctions. To those who will, we trust they will be found plain, and certain in their results. From all this, one thing is certain, and that is of immense value to the farmer: it is, that on general principles, without remembering the exact figure of one of the indications above given, or one of the arbitrary terms it has been necessary to use, any man can tell the quality and quantity of milk a cow will give, and the time she will give milk, with sufficient accuracy to buy no cow and raise no heifer that will not be a profitable dairy cow, if that is what he desires. The rules by which these things may be known are the following:
No cow, of any class, is ever a good milker, that has not a large surface of hair growing upward from the teats and covering the inner surface of the thighs, and extending up toward or to the tail.
No cow that is destitute of this mark, or only has a very small one, is ever a good milker. Every cow having a scanty growth of coarse hair in the above mark will only give poor, watery milk; and every cow having a thick growth of fine hair on the escutcheon, or surface where it ascends, and considerable dandruff, will always give good rich milk, and be good for butter and cheese.
Every cow on which this mark is small will give but little milk, and dry up soon after getting with calf, and is not fit to be kept.
Observe these brief rules, and milk your cows at certain hours every day—milk very quickly, without stopping, and very clean, not leaving a drop—and you never will have a poor cow on your farm, and at least twenty-five per cent. will be added to the value of the ordinary dairy, that is made up of cows purchased or raised in the usual, hap-hazard way.
If your cows' udders swell after calving, wash them in aconite made weak with water; it is very good for taking out inflammation. Other common remedies are known. If your cow or other creature gets choked, pour into the throat half a pint, at least, of oil; and by rubbing the neck, the obstruction will probably move up or down. Curry your cows as thoroughly as you do your horses; and if they ever chance to get lousy, wash them in a decoction of tobacco.