size, food, and the hygienic circumstances in
which they are kept, if they present the following characteristics:
veins of the perineum large, as if swollen, and visible on the
exterior--as in cut A--or which can easily be made to appear by pressing
upon the base of the perineum; veins of the udder large and knotted;
milk-veins large, often double, equal on both sides, and forming
zig-zags, under the belly.

To the signs furnished by the veins and by the mirror, may be added also
the following marks: a uniform, very large, and yielding udder,
shrinking much in milking, and covered with soft skin and fine hair;
good constitution, full chest, regular appetite, and great propensity to
drink. Such cows rather incline to be poor than to be fat. The skin is
soft and yielding; short, fine hair; small head; fine horns; bright,
sparkling eye; mild expression; feminine look; with a fine neck.

Cows of this first class are very rare. They give, even when small in
size, from ten to fourteen quarts of milk a day; and the largest sized
from eighteen to twenty-six quarts a day, and even more. Just after
calving, if arrived at maturity and fed with good, wholesome, moist food
in sufficient quantity and quality, adapted to promote the secretion of
milk, they can give about a pint of milk for every ten ounces of hay, or
its equivalent, which they eat.

They continue in milk for a long period. The best never go dry, and may
be milked even up to the time of calving, giving from eight to ten
quarts of milk a day. But even the best cows often fall short of the
quantity of milk which they are able to give, from being fed on food
which is too dry, or not sufficiently varied, or not rich enough in
nutritive qualities, or deficient in quantity.

[Illustration: MILK-MIRROR [H.]]

The SECOND class is that of _good cows_; and to this belong the best
commonly found in the market and among the cow-feeders of cities.

They have the mammary part of the milk-mirror well developed, but the
perinean part contracted, or wholly wanting, as in cut G; or both parts
of the mirror are moderately developed, or slightly indented, as in cut
H. Cut E belongs also to this class, in the lower part; but it indicates
a cow, which--as the upper mirror, 1, indicates--dries up sooner when
again in calf.

These marks, though often seen in many good cows, should be considered
as certain only when the veins of the perineum form, under the skin, a
kind of network, wh