THE IDEAL COW 89 



next milking. In this process of getting ready for the next milking 

 between milkings, the cells of the tissues in the udder are distended. 

 When the milk is drawn off from an udder made up largely of truly 

 secreting tissue, the cells are not so distended at the end of the 

 milking process and the udder is soft, elastic and mellow and very 

 easily manipulated. After the milk is drawn from a good udder, 

 there should be no hard spots in it. One should be able to manip- 

 ulate the whole udder thoroughly. 



The skin of the udder should be rather thin, mellow and abun- 

 dant, so that even when the udder is fully distended it will not 

 be too tight. The hair should be soft and silky and short, with no 

 evidence of coarseness. 



141. Teat placement.— The teats should be only four in 

 number. Extra teats do not mean a better cow. These four teats 

 should be well placed and of such a size and length that the milk 

 can be easily drawn. The udder should be snugly held against 

 the body so that it will not hang down too much. If the udder is 

 pendulous, as the cow grows older it is likely to break down and be 

 dragged in the mud, which will cause the teats to become sore and 

 make her hard to milk. In our breeding operations, we should 

 be very careful to keep firmly in mind the ideal form and quality 

 of udder in the selection of breeding animals. 



142. Capacity of milk veins. — The milk veins carry the blood 

 away from the udder. Since the amount of milk depends on the 

 amount of blood circulating through the udder, the milk veins are 

 an indication of the capacity of the circulation of the cow. They 

 should be long and tortuous, from one-half inch to one inch in diam- 

 eter on a mature cow. On the very best milkers they are usually 

 crooked and extend at least half way forward to the front legs. It 

 is usually a good sign if the veins branch and enter the body 

 through more than one milk wall or hole in the abdominal wall. It 

 is also a usual thing on the best milkers to be able to see the net- 

 work of veining on the outside of the udder itself. We never see a 

 large mature milk producer without seeing the milk vein system 

 very well developed on each side. The walls of the milk veins 

 should be elastic. 



