626 CYCLOPEDIA OF LIVE STOCK AND COMPLET'E STOCK DOCTOR. 



tain eight incisors, and present the appearance as in figure 4. The mouth 

 is then called full, as containing the ultimate number of incisors. These 

 are not permanent, but temporary, or milk teeth, as they are called. 

 At six to eight months old the central teeth begin to be worn, and show 

 smaller than the others, see figure 5. At ten months absorption and the 

 widening of the jaw will have carried the two central teeth still farther 

 away from each other, and two other teeth, one on each side, will have 

 begun to diminish, in fact will have distinct spaces between them, see 

 figure 6. At twelve months absorption will have continued to two more 

 teeth, leaving intact only the two outside teeth, see figure 7. At fifteen 

 months the whole of the teeth will present the appearance as seen in figure 

 8. At this time the true or permanent teeth will have been growing in 

 the jaw, between and back of the milk teeth. Figure 9 shows the 

 appearance at fifteen months of age, the two permanent central teeth 

 appearing in the place of the two first milk teeth which have disappeared, 

 and the other permanent teeth are shown in their several stages of 

 growth. Figures 10, 11 and 12 show the teeth at two, three and four 

 years past. At the age of five years the animal will have a full mouth, 

 as shown in figure 13, and at ten years the incisors will present the ap- 

 pearance as in figure 14. 



Thus any person by the use of the chart, and by examination of the 

 teeth of cows, of ages known to correspond therewith, may easily 

 become an accurate judge of the age of cattle up to the age of four years. 

 In the four-year-old mouth, the two central pairs of teeth are beginning 

 to be worn down to the edges, and in aflat direction, or inclining slightly 

 to the inside ; yet the animal has not a full mouth — that is, the incisois 

 are not fully up until it is five years old. See figure 14. 



At five years old the teeth are fully grown, and the peculiar mark on 

 the teeth, called the cup, is shown in all. At the same time all will have 

 become flattened, while on the two center ones there begins to be a dis- 

 tinct darker line in the middle, bounded by a line of harder bone. From 

 this time on we may depend both on the incisors and the grinders. At six 

 years old the animal will have accpiired the last grinding tooth. This is 

 the sixth molar and is, from the beginning, a permanent tooth. From 

 this time until the eighth year, and indeed thereafter, in determining the 

 age of the animal, the nature of the soil upon which it has been fed must 

 be taken into account. Gritty, close- fed pastures will wear them faster, 

 and flush pastures slower. Thus in all the pasture regions of the West, 

 and Southwest, the wear will be light. As a general rule, but admitting 

 of many exceptions, at seven years old this line is becoming broader and 

 more irregular in all of the teeth ; and a second and broader, and more 

 circular mark appears within the center of the former one, the most 



