cattle were chosen for the breeding stock, and later, as the art came to be more refined, not only the biggest animals, but those which had the beef best placed-namely, in the regions of the most valuable cutswere selected.

Dual-Purpose Cattle: Now there were certain other places in the older countries where the people preferred a combination animal-one that would be good for both milk and beef. At first it was thought that a breed of cattle could be developed which, for milk, would be equal to the best dairy breeds and for beef be equal to the best beef breeds. But this, in time, was found to be a physical impossibility. For the best dual-purpose animal can only be fairly good for milk and fairly good for beef. If it leans to the dairy side and is exceptionally good for milk, then such superiority must be at the expense of beef; and, on the other hand, if it leans to beef, it cannot produce so much milk. Later on we will tell you why this is so.

Now, while we imported our original cattle from Europe, breeders in this county have followed the same lines-Dairy types, Beef types, and Dual-Purpose types-and have even improved on the stock of the old countries in many instances.

Conformation: We have learned that the three lines of selective breeding mentioned have resulted in the development of three types of cattle, called the Dairy, Beef, and Dual-Purpose types, and that these differ from one another in certain important physical characteristics. If you will compare Figures 2 and 3, you will get some notion of these differences, but we will study them more particularly in our next lesson. There is one word, the meaning of which you will need to know, and that is conformation. We use it in two senses; one in relation to type, as "Dairy conformation," etc., and the other in relation to breed, as "Jersey conformation," "Hereford conformation," etc. Conformation means the general sum of characteristics or physical appearance of an animal which enables us to classify it by type and breed. Another definition of conformation is the relation of the parts of an animal, as the same are developed, which enables us to classify it. In practice, we have the picture in our mind's eye of the characteristics, respectively, which dairy cattle, beef cattle, and dual-purpose cattle should possess. Hence, when we see a given animal we are able to classify it by type accordingly as its physical appearance conforms to (agrees with) one of our three mental pictures. And likewise with the various breeds of cattle having a mental picture of the characteristics of each breed, we may so thus assign any given animal to its proper breed.

By the time these lessons are concluded we hope you will get these mental pictures of the different types of cattle accurately fixed in your minds, as also of the principal breeds, so that you will be able to recognize the type and breed of any animal you see. Before taking up this subject, however, it is desirable that you should learn the names of every part of the exterior of cattle.

1. Head.

2. Muzzle.

3. Nostril.

4. Face.

5. Eye.

6. Forehead.

7. Horn.

8. Ear.

9. Cheek. 10. Throat.

11. Neck.

Cattle Are Machines for Producing Milk and Beef-Conformation of the Three Types

The purpose of dairy cattle is to give milk; of beef cattle to make beef, and of dual-purpose cattle to produce both. You can best understand this lessson, if you think of cattle as machines for manufacturing the products mentioned-three variations of the same machines, each improved in accordance with its special purpose.

Cattle as Machines: The same natural laws which govern machinery in the mechanical world hold true of the animal mechanisms in the animal world. For example, there is the Law of Conservation which, in part, means that we cannot create Something from Nothing. We may set in motion the machinery of a flour-mill, a cotton-mill, or a

quartz-mill, but unless we put wheat into the flour-mill it cannot produce flour, cotton into the cotton-mill it cannot produce cloth, and ore into the quartz-mill it cannot produce bullion.

Even so, cattle are machines which cannot produce Something from Nothing. We must supply them with Food before their mechanisms can produce milk and beef.

Again, we can neither get more nor less out of a machine than we put into it. A certain man once took a sack of wheat, weighing 100 pounds, to the miller and asked that it be ground into flour. When the miller returned him but 80 pounds of flour the man declared he had been cheated-that he should have received 100 pounds of flour instead. So the miller placed on the scales the sack of flour, the dirt and chaff and straw that he had screened from the sack, and the bran that came from the envelope about each kernel of wheat, and, behold, the weight was exactly 100 pounds. Not all the wheat in the sack could be turned into flour, as you see, because it contained waste substances that could not enter into the composition of flour!

Food: Of the food that cattle eat, all of it can be accounted for, but not all as milk and beef. Food substances may be divided into two general parts: (a) the part that is digestible and (b) the part which is indigestible. The latter is the waste and is voided by the animal. Of the digestible part, a portion is required as fuel to supply the bodily heat, a portion to repair the wear and tear of tissues, leaving a balance only which can be converted into beef or milk, or both.

Now, there are many kinds of cattle foods-grasses, alfalfa, straw, plants, roots, grain, etc.-and these differ widely in the proportions of their digestible elements. Cattle will eat straw, for example, but, as you know, there is only a very small portion of straw that is digestible, most of it being waste. One the other hand, a much larger part of alfalfa is digestible, although there is considerable waste. But with grain, most of it is digestible. Perhaps from this statement you can gather that to produce milk or beef the animal mechanism must not only consume food, but both the quantity and the kind of it, from the standpoint of the proportion that is digestible, have to do with the quantity of milk or beef that may be produced.

Industrial Economics: So, therefore, with respect to the manufacture, out of raw materials, of any desired product by means of any suitable piece of machinery, animal or mechanical, there are three important elements to be considered:

First-The proportion of usable or digestible substances as compared with waste, in the raw materials fed into the machine;

Second-The capacity of the machine, in respect to the quantity of raw materials it is capable of handling in a day; and

Third-The efficiency of the machine for manufacturing the product desired in the least time and at the least cost.

No matter whether we are manufacturing cloth, or flour, or bullion, or beef, or milk, or any other manufacturable product, these three elements always enter into the enterprise.

Leaving the first, or food, element for consideration later, let us see how the second and third elements enter into the milk and beef industries.

Clearly, if cattle were human inventions, such as flour-mills or looms,

HOLSTEIN-FRIESIAN-Pontiac Clothilde De Kol 2d, R. 69991. Year's Record. Milk, 25,318 pounds; Butter-Fat (4.01%), 1,017.3 pounds, Equivalent to 1,196.8 pounds Butter.

the genius of mankind would have been exerted to perfect machines which could be fed the largest possible quantity of hay and other forage in order to manufacture the largest possible quantity of beef or milk in the least possible time and at the least cost.-One type of machine for beef production and another type of machine for milk productioncapacity and efficiency being the ends striven for in the perfection of the machines.

Now, selective breeding has done precisely this, for it has perfected two types of cattle organisms, each of high capacity to consume and digest food; one that is highly efficient for the production of milk, and the other of beef.

Capacity of Dairy Cows: The capacity for food consumption of the high-producing dairy cow is much greater than that of all other kinds of cattle. With beef cattle, or nonmilking cattle, the digestible portions of the food can only be assimilated in the body of the animal itself, thus limiting the development of the digestive organism to the animal's capacity for assimilation in this one channel. But with the milking dairy cow there are two channels-one of assimilation by the organism and the other of secretion and discharge as milk.

Judging Cattle: So in judging dairy cows, we give pronounced attention to three characteristics, namely: (a) the development of the animal's digestive organism; (b) the development of the animal's circulatory system, and (c) the development of the animal's organs for producing milk.

In judging beef cattle we give attention to (a) and (b) as above, but, in lieu of (c), we consider the weight and frame of the animal, and the placing of the meat in the regions where it is most valuable.

The Circulatory System: As we have not mentioned the circulatory system before, let us make it clear why we lay such stress upon it in judging cattle. The circulatory system includes the heart and lungs and their reciprocating parts, one pumping the blood through the body and the other purifying it. As the digestible parts of the food are first taken into the blood before being incorporated into the organism or secreted as milk, the lungs and heart must be large enough to meet the call put upon it. The principle is the same as in the mechanical world we require a large engine to drive large machinery.

Summary: What has so far been stated in this second lesson is necessary to any accurate understanding of the mechanics of animal husbandry. The whole subject may be divided into three great divisions, namely Selective Breeding, which we discussed in the first lesson and will have more to say about later; Animal Mechanics, which we have not yet finished, and Animal Industry, or the business side of the rearing and handling of live stock.

Our next problem is to learn to distinguish any one of the three types of animal machines from the others by external appearance.

THE DAIRY CONFORMATION-General Appearance: The true dairy cow has a lean appearance over every part of the body, with the framework (notably the hip-bones and back-bone) prominent, and but sparingly cushioned with flesh. She should show docility and intelligence, associated with a nervous temperament. She should have a wedge-shaped appearance viewed from the side, rear, and from above.