STRUCTURE OF THE UDDER. 145 



Milking. — The manner of milking exerts a more 

 powerful and lasting influence on the productiveness of 

 the cow than most farmers are aware of. That a slow 

 and careless milker soon dries up the best of cows, 

 every practical farmer and dairyman knows ; but a care- 

 ful examination of the beautiful structure of the udder 

 will serve further to explain the proper mode of milking, 

 to obtain and keep up the largest yield. " The udder 

 of a cow," says a writer in the Rural Cyclopaedia, " is a 

 unique mass, composed of two symmetrical parts, simply 

 united to each other by a cellular tissue, lax, and very 

 abundant ; and each of these parts comprises two 

 divisions or quarters, which consist of many small 

 granules, and are connected together by a compact 

 laminous tissue; and from each quarter proceed systems 

 of ducts, which form successive unions and confluences, 

 somewhat in the manner of the many affluents of a 

 large river, until they terminate in one grand excretory 

 canal, which passes down through the elongated mam- 

 millary body called the teat. Its lactiferous or milk 

 tubes, however, do not, as might be supposed, proceed 

 exactly from smaller to larger ducts by a gradual and 

 regular enlargement, because it would not have been 

 proper that the secretion of milk should escape as it 

 was formed; and therefore we find an apparatus adapted 

 for the purpose of retaining it for a proper time. This 

 apparatus is to be found both in the teat and in the in- 

 ternal construction of the udder. The teat resembles a 

 funnel in shape, and somewhat in office ; and it is pos- 

 sessed of a considerable degree of elasticity. It seems 

 formed principally of the cutis, with some muscular 

 fibres, and it is covered on the outside by cuticle, like 

 every other part of the body ; but the cuticle here not 

 only covers the exterior, but also turns upwards, and 

 lines the inside of the extremity of the teat, as far as it 

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