866 Rural School Leaflet 



Answers to questions on cows 



1. Prehistoric animals related to our cattle were domesticated by the 

 Swiss Lake Dwellers. These cattle existed in rather large numbers down 

 to historic times and were the ancestors of our domestic breeds of the 

 present day. The two kinds of domestic cattle that exist to-day are 

 our own cattle as we know them as separate breeds in Europe and America, 

 and the humped zebus of the eastern countries of the globe. The humped 

 zebu was domesticated in Egypt 2,000 years before the Christian Era. 



The cattle of the United States have come chiefly from England, Scot- 

 land, the Channel Islands (the islands of Jersey and Guernsey in the 

 EngHsh Channel), and Holland. The beef breeds and all the dairy breeds 

 except the Holstein-Friesian originated in England, Scotland, and the 

 Channel Islands. The Holstein-Friesian cattle came from Holland. 

 The man who may be called the father of all modern breeding and improve- 

 ment of cattle was Robert Bakewell, who lived in England from 1725 to 



1795- 



2. The parts of the body of the cow are shown in the illustration on 



the preceding page and require no further explanation. The udder and 

 the milk veins make up the mammary organs of the cow. The milk veins 

 do not carry milk. They drain the blood from the udder. The fresh 

 blood from which the milk is manufactured is supplied to the udder from 

 the heart through arteries and is drained away through milk veins. The 

 larger the milk veins, the larger the amount of blood probably flowing 

 through the udder and the larger the milk production of the cow. 



The wedge shape and the dairy shape are explained in the article in this 

 leaflet on " The Beef Type and the Dairy Type," by H. H. Wing, page 69. 



The body of the cow is so made up that she can reach match farther 

 forward when she kicks than can the horse. This enables her to protect 

 her udder to a greater extent. A horse usually kicks straight out with 

 both feet to protect himself. 



3. A cow has thirty-two permanent teeth: twenty-four molars, twelve 

 on each side, six above and six below, and eight incisors. The incisors 

 are all on the lower jaw. The place of the incisors on the upper jaw is 

 taken by a hard pad of cartilage against which the lower chisel-like teeth 

 strike when the animal crops the herbage in the pasture. The arrange- 

 ment of the teeth of the sheep is the same as that of the cow. Sheep and 

 cows can crop the grass closer to the ground than can horses. 



4. A calf, when born, has two pairs of incisors. The other two pairs 

 appear during the first month. "When a calf is 18 months old he loses 

 the middle pair of " milk " incisors and grows a permanent pair. The 

 next pair, one on each side, are replaced at 27 months of age, the third 

 pair at 36 months, and the fourth or outside pair at 45 months. The 



