68 THE COW 



cat, and I am afraid the common barnyard variety 

 of hog is her intellectual superior. This is as it 

 should be, for the extreme dairy "temperament" is 

 characterized by placidity, not to say a phlegmatic 

 disposition. 



The modem dairy cow is a very artificial crea- 

 ture who by long centuries of environment and 

 selection has come to have a stomach capable of 

 digesting unbelievable quantities of food, and an 

 abnormally developed mammary gland that may 

 secrete mUk enough for three or four calves, while 

 at the same time she has very largely lost her old- 

 time keenness of hearing and scent. She remains, 

 however, a creature of habit and an excellent judge 

 of meal time, without the necessity of observing 

 the sun. If she knows that there is a little handful 

 of meal ready in her manger, she will be waiting 

 at the bars to meet you at milking time. So also, 

 the cow with an uncomfortably full udder comes 

 to understand that relief awaits her at the hand 

 of the mUker, and so she learns to present herself 

 for his attention. After all, man is not the only 

 animal who is most strongly appealed to through 

 the stomach. 



In all the year there is just one perfect month 

 for cows to pasture and that is June. Then the 

 grass is lush and abundant, and if there be a cow 

 heaven it must be typified by a pasture field in 

 June when she lies knee deep in verdant fragrant 

 grass with the sunlight flooding the land and the 



