132 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



Then I wanted to speak of the physiological structure of 

 the cow. The cow is very peculiar in regard to her diges- 

 tive orofans. All animals which chew the cud have four 

 stomachs. Their food passes through three. It passes into 

 the first stomach, which is called the rumen, and hence a cow 

 is called a ruminating animal ; and after that the grass or 

 fodder goes into the 7'eticulum. It lies there until it has 

 fermented and got into a sort of pliable state, and then the 

 cow raises it. She chews her cud ; she cannot help it ; it is 

 her nature to do it. The operation of nature forces so much 

 up into her mouth, and she chews it. When she swallows it, 

 it does not go into the rumen as it did before ; the grass or 

 fodder pushes aside a valve which closes the aperture of the 

 first stomach, and when she swallows it the second time it 

 passes into the second stomach, and from there into the third 

 and fourth. Now, when a cow is fed grain, it should be wet, 

 because it will then be put into a condition where the cow 

 will digest more of it ; and she "will give more milk if fed in 

 that way than if fed dry grain. That is why steaming fodder 

 has been thought to be an advantage sometimes, because the 

 o^rain was fed with the coarse fodder and it went into the 

 rumen and remained there until it was in a better state to be 

 digested. Now, since people have found out these things 

 about the cow, they have begun to think that all the good 

 they got from steaming coarse fodder was that their cows 

 would eat it. Perhaps I did not explain quite fully that 

 there is no way by which the cow can get this coarse fodder 

 out of the rumen and into the second stomach except by 

 chewing it over in the cud. For that reason she should be 

 fed but twice a day. She needs the middle of the day as 

 well as the night to chew that over. There is no outlet for 

 it except to come l)ack into the mouth and be chewed over 

 and swallowed in another direction. So that I claim that 

 twice a day is enough to feed a cow. 



Adjourned to one o'clock. 



