THE PROFITABLE COW.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1106, 12 May 1893, Page 8

THE PROFITABLE COW.

(By Professor J. A. Robertson.) The cow the farmer should keep should have three powers—the power to breathe well first, because by her breathing she purifies her blood, and takes in enough oxygen from the air to keep herself warm. She should have strong heart action, so as to circulate her blood well, and should have vigorous stomach power and good digestion. This she must have to have a good constitution. You look for evidence of this in the cow having a deep chest. In getting good lung power you look for a deep chest, not a broad chest; if you have a broad chest you have lung room in breadth, and then a mountain of beef and bone on top of that. That means you have a Polled Angus. It is a good breed, but I do not want a Polled Angus for my dairying. I want a cow with a broad nose and oblong nostrils ; I want a cow that is very full behind the fore legs, She wants heart room and heart power, and the best indication of heart power will be found in the skin of the animal. If there is vigorous circulation, and the blood is defective in nourishment, then you have a skin that is hard and tight, and bristly hair, because the digestive organ or heart action are interfered with, and are not regular. Many men contend that the milk veins should be very large. I consider that to be immaterial, but the milk veins should be prominent. A cow's nose should be dewy and moist; when it is dry it is an indication of ill-health. It means bad digestion, waste of feed, and waste of profits. She should havo flat ribs, and wide apart. You want beyond those three powers the peculiar power in an animal of directing her energy to do what she is kept for. You want the directive power towards beef if you keep tin animal for beef; you want the directive power towards milk if you want milk. The directive power in an animal is the valuable power whereby you find her directing her energies to where you are to find the biggest profits. A scrub has good lungs as a rule. A scrub hog will often outrun a dog. You will have heart power in a scrub; sometimes you. have very powerful digestion, but she lacks the directive power that will concentrate those three powers to service and not to waste. In the milking cow you will find first evidence of the directive power in the kind of face she has—a rather, long lean face, with no superfluous skin ; no indication of flabbiness; large lustrous eyes, standing very wide apart and very prominent, with a forehead dished downward. A long, broad forehead, a large muzzle, a wide mouth, indicating powers—the only coarse part of a cow's head that is justifiable. It indicates the power to keep on grinding her food, and indicates a strong constitution, She should have a long, thin tapering neck. A bulky, beefy neck indicates a short milking season. Her shoulder bones should be right above the leg and wide apart, and the joints loose; the wider these are apart the better indication you have .of a large flow of milk when the cow is doing her best. I do not think is indicates anything of the length of the sea-

son. Thick, beefy hips, mean beef, not milk. The cows udder should be long and shapely, with a long line of attachment between the udder and the cow's body. You never find a coarse cow a good milker. I like a cow to have all the angles possible, but the bones themselves and skin ought to be fine in quality. Having a cow of this kind, it is possible to make her serve you well, but she never could do so without getting care, right feed, and proper handling.