18 Oattle Problems. 



or incident, of the now very general practice of hand- 

 milking itself. And, as hand-milked cows necessarily 

 store and carry all the milk they make between successive 

 milking-times, in their bags, it results that the udder be- 

 comes a reservoir or store-tank, in degree according to the 

 average twelve hour or semi-daily yield of each dairy or 

 domestic cow. So the extent of storage increases with the 

 increase of milk formed by the udder glands ; and the size, 

 or storage capacity, of the bag is thus enlarged by enforced 

 storage, the enforcement consisting in practically " stank- 

 ing" the udder, or not allowing the milk to be drawn, 

 either by hand of maid or man in the artificial way, nor 

 in the natural way by the calf, at less than an average of 

 twelve hour intervals. 



There can be no doubt that " stanking" the udder, and 

 making it a semi-daily store sack has greatly enlarged the 

 bag of the cow ; but it will not do to confound milk " for- 

 mation " — from the artery blood — with the storing of it in 

 the udder, after it is formed by cell action in the milk 

 glands, for the production of milk depends upon the blood 

 supply, and its natural basis, digestive power ; which is a 

 vital process ; while storing milk is merely a mechanical 

 process, or rather allowing a quantity of milk to accumu- 

 late in the udder, and keeping it there, for convenience, till 

 the usual milking time; the quality of the milk being some- 

 times injured by retaining it in the udder too long. 



An effect, in numbers of instances, of stanking the ud- 

 der too long, and increasing its dimensions and storage 

 capacity in that way, is a liability to overstrain the skin of 

 the bag, and so repeatedly, till relaxation, or loss of 

 conlractibility, results; which some mistakenly approve, 

 because it makes the skin thin and flexible, while it is 

 really a permanent injury to the cow, in destroying cdn- 

 tia( tibility in the part 



The origin of storing, or stanking the udder, dates back 



