74 THE JERSEY, ALDERNEY AND GUERNSEY COW. 



when the skin Is thin, and the cow old), the veins, though 

 little developed, are apparent, or easily become so, with- 

 out being very bulky. It is necessary to have regard 

 to their size ; though they may be very easily detected, 

 still, if they are small, the cows are not very good. 



'' It is not always on the upper part of the perinaeum, 

 near the vulva^ that the vein is most visible ; sometimes 

 it is discernible only in the lower part of this region, 

 near the udder ; it there appears under the form of 

 knots, which are, at times, very large, and are observed 

 on the perinaeum and the udder, and the space between 

 them. 



" Of all the marks of abundant milk secretion, the 

 best, and indeed the only infallible marks, are furnished 

 by the veins of the perinaeum and of the udder. But, 

 although the surest, they are not absolutely decisive. 



"To estimate them, it is necessary to take into ac- 

 count the state of the cows in respect of flesh, the thick- 

 ness of the skin, food, general activity, fatigue, journeys, 

 heat; all the circumstances, in short, which cause varia- 

 tions in the general state of the circulation, and in the 

 dilatation of the veins. It is necessary, moreover, to 

 recollect that in both sexes all the veins are larger in 

 the old than in the young; that the veins which encircle 

 the udder are those which, if the cows are in milk, vary 

 most according to the different periods of life ; though 

 scarcely apparent in youth, they are of considerable size 

 when, after several calvings, the operation of milking 

 has given the gland its full development. 



