132 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



profit is to give the cow succulent food, and then plenty of 

 water besides. 



That leads me to say this also, that we should give food 

 in such a form as will both preserve and promote the health 

 of the cow, and furnish all the material out of which in- 

 crease or product may be built, and also stimulate her organs 

 to activity. I am not afraid of using stimulants in my cow 

 stable, or anywhere else ; but I would not give my cows 

 any Scotch whiskey to drink, nor do I think it would be 

 pfood for men to swallow much of that stimulant either. But 

 there are many useful, safe stimulants. Let me mention 

 one. If you will put turnips and wheat straw together, you 

 can winter dry cows on that in capital condition, because you 

 have a stimulant in the roots and the bulky fodder which 

 seems to act on the whole interior canal, and makes the 

 organs of digestion and absorption work more actively. 

 What do we mean by saying the organs are sluggish ? In 

 such a condition you may run food through them by the ton, 

 and if the organs are sluggish, it will not be profitable. 

 But if you stimulate them into activity they will appropriate 

 nourishment from the food that is swallowed. The food for 

 cows should be nutritious, bulky, juicy, stimulating and 

 cheap. 



I have occasion to speak of one other organ of the cow. 

 I am confining myself to those two organs that are most 

 afi'ected in the feeding of a cow for milk. I have here a 

 rough diagram, a sectional view, of a half of the cow's 

 udder. The udder lies in two glands, as my two hands are 

 placed now. You can take them apart, each one com- 

 plete in itself, each one having two teats, and sometimes 

 havhig three. As far as I know there is no circulation be- 

 tween the two glands, but there is circulation between the 

 two quarters of one gland. Beginning at the bottom of the 

 cow's teat and carrying the investigation upwards, we come 

 to a valve which tlie cow seems to work as you would the 

 mouth of a cotton bag or tobacco pouch. If you pull the 

 strings running in opposite ways through its hem you close 

 the mouth of it. A cow by the contraction of muscles here 

 can close the valve, and when that valve is closed she is 

 holding up her milk. The only key that will unlock this 



