CHOOSING A COW 197 



The milk-veins should be large, tortuous, long, and branching. 

 These veins are considered important as they indicate the 

 amount of blood that has passed through the udder. The veins 

 usually lack development in heifers with their first calf. In 

 a cow that has recently dropped her calf, the milk veins should 

 be very prominent and full, e^dending well forward, and much 

 crooked, passing into the body through .large holes called 

 " milk wells." 



MUk signs. — In the cow, as in the buU, there are a consider- 

 able number of soMjalled milk signs that are relied upon more 

 or less in the choice of a dairy 

 animal. First among these 

 is the " open " organization. 

 It is said that an animal in 

 which the joints of the skele- 

 ton are loosely knit is likely ^ ff - * 

 to have good powers of secre- j<i4^l|pMMMI''=^4%l|^ 

 tion and assimilation. This 



loosHointedness or lax organ- ^ii^l^^^^'S^l^^'^r^^^] 

 ization is well indicated by l. Ames, 

 the distance between the 



vertebrse in the spinal column, and this open or loose chine — 

 the jointing of the spinal column — is taken to indicate good 

 capacity to secrete milk. When the edges of these spinal pro- 

 cesses are very prominent on either side, it is called a double 

 chine, and this is supposed to be even a better indication of milk 

 production. A long tail is also thought by many to indicate 

 good powers of secretion, and we find many cattle judges who 

 criticize the animal if the tail does not reach to the hock and the 

 longer the better. 



On the back of the thighs and above the udder, it will be 

 observed that the hair runs in the opposite direction from that 

 on the other parts of the body. This up-growing hair upon 

 the rear of the udder, thighs, and perineum constitutes what 



