THIRTY-SEVENTH ANNUAL CONVENTION. 69 



blood in the vessels which are passing to the udder. An indica- 

 tion which determines more accurately, I believe, the amount of 

 blood passing through the udder is found in the mammary veins. 

 All cows have two of these veins, one on each side of the abdo- 

 men. Some cows have short straight veins ending in a small 

 milk well. Other cows have veins that are large and tortuous, 

 extending far forward, as do the veins of this cow, to a large milk 

 well, an opening in the abdomen large enough to insert my thumb, 

 and passing on to a second milk well and some times on to a third 

 or fourth. These are termed double extension veins. Some cows 

 have three veins, one extending forward from the udder along 

 the center of the abdomen between the two outside veins. Such 

 a vein is termed a center extension. The size, length and tortu- 

 ousness of these veins together with the number and size of milk 

 wells when found passing forward from the udder of the cow in- 

 dicates the amount of blood that is circulated past the digestive 

 apparatus, picking up food nutrients, carrying them to the udder 

 and being rid of its load, is on the way back to the heart and 

 lungs for purification and to be pumped back again. I have never 

 seen a good cow with small, short, straight mammary veins and 

 I have never seen a cow with large tortuous veins and large, 

 numerous milk wells that was a poor cow. A consideration of 

 the blood flow will determine largely the character of a cow from 

 the standpoint of milk and butter fat production. Feed deposited 

 on the back of the cow cannot be made into milk and on the other 

 hand feed that is deposited by the blood in the udder of the cow 

 cannot be manufactured into beef, and for this reason a dairy bred 

 animal is considered from the standpoint of beef production as a 

 scrub and likewise a beef bred animal from the standpoint of milk 

 and butter fat production is a scrub. This is due to the fact that 

 no animal can do two things with the same pound of food at the 

 same time. In selecting animals whose ancestors have for hun- 

 dreds of generations been bred for the purpose of putting their 

 food on top of their backs and striving to induce these animals 

 to turn the circulation of their blood around to the under line of 

 the body instead of the top line is working against nature and 



