i4 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
January 2 
THE UDDER OF THE COW. 
WHAT IT 18 ; WHAT IT DOES. 
PAKT I. 
Mr. Van Wagenen has recently told 
us something about milk and how it is 
made. While the subject is fresh in 
mind, we wish to continue it with a fur¬ 
ther description of the udder. Prof. C. 
S. Plumb, of the Indiana Experiment 
Station, has made a very careful study 
of this subject. In a recent bulletin, he 
has recorded the results of some of his 
investigations, and these notes and illus¬ 
trations are taken from this bulletin. 
What we call the cow’s udder or ‘ bag,” 
consists of two glands which lie horizon¬ 
tally side by side separated by tissues 
which help support them. There is no 
connection between these two glands. 
Each one has two teats on the lower 
side, and through these teats the milk is 
drawn. Each teat takes the milk from 
a •* quarter ” of the udder, and each 
quarter is, to a certain extent, distinct 
from the others. A cow may have gar¬ 
get in one quarter, or give bloody milk 
through one teat, while the others are 
in good condition. 
Fig 8 shows an udder with the out¬ 
side skin removed, while Fig. 9 shows 
one of the glands cut through the center 
of the teats. To make a simple compari¬ 
son, we may say that the stomach of the 
cow is like the engine in a great fac¬ 
tory. The food is the fuel. In the course 
of digestion, a part of it is passed 
through the walls of the stomach into 
the blood vessels and carried all over the 
body to be deposited wherever it is 
needed. The veins may be called the 
belts and shafting by which the power 
(and in this case the material) is con¬ 
veyed from the stomach to the machine. 
The odder is the delicate machine which 
takes the prepared material out of the 
blood and mixes or manufactures it into 
milk. It is, in one sense, like a loom 
reaching out with its steel fingers to 
weave and arrange the different colored 
threads which have been prepared for 
it. Just now we wish to consider the 
machine. We will take up the belting 
and the engine later in a review of the 
Primer Science articles on feeding. 
We have said that the udder of a cow 
consists of two glands. What is a gland ? 
As a rough definition, we might say that 
it is an organ that has the power to 
secrete or take out of the blood sub¬ 
stances that are not intended for use in¬ 
side the body. The kidneys, for example, 
are glands. As the blood passes through 
them, certain impurities are taken out 
in solution and run out of the body as 
urine. Other illustrations are the sweat 
glands, through which other impurities 
are mixed or dissolved in water and sent 
out through the skin as perspiration or 
sweat. The best illustrations for our 
present purpose are the glands in the 
chin which furnish saliva or spittle for 
the mouth. We all know how working 
the jaws will cause the saliva to pass 
out into the mouth. Pleasant anticipa¬ 
tion of good food or other favorable con¬ 
dition will cause the mouth to “ water,” 
while fear, nervousness or great excite¬ 
ment will leave the mouth “ as dry as a 
bone.” We know that these influences 
have more or less control of the work¬ 
ings of the kidneys and other glands, 
and we shall see that the secretion of 
milk is also affected by them. 
Now how is our milk machine or gland 
made up ? Fig. 9 shows that the teats 
are hollow, tapering to a small hole at 
the end. This hole is kept closed by 
small muscles which grip or contract 
like a rubber band. The force of squeez¬ 
ing the milk out opens them, and when 
this force is removed, they close up 
again. Above each teat is a cavity or 
space known as the milk reservoir. 
Around and above it the udder looks 
like a pinkish white sponge, with holes 
and passages running all through it. If 
we follow this sponge up and examine 
it with a microscope, we shall find that 
the udder is composed of an immense 
number of little structures which be¬ 
come smaller and smaller as they near 
the blood vessels. These structures are 
known as lobes, lobules and alveoli. 
such intricate “works” produced by any 
tool that man can handle. Naturally, a 
machine doing such fine work is easily 
thrown out of gear. If, by a sudden fit 
of passion, or even by some sudden blow 
or moment of fright, the kidneys or the 
glands that secrete saliva may he stopped, 
it is easy to see that the nervous system 
of the cow is closely associated with this 
wonderful milk machine. Very heavy 
They may be likened to a bunch of 
grapes, the lobe representing the bunch, 
the lobule one grape (see Fig. 10) and the 
alveoli smaller glands or passages inside 
the one fruit. 
The chief work of milk secretion is 
done by the alveoli. These tiny glands 
are so small that from 125 to 200 of them 
placed side by side would come inside of 
an inch. What we call “ milk ” is taken 
milkers and, particularly, heavy butter 
producers are, as a rule, much more 
nervous than beef animals that secrete 
but little milk. 
Prof. Plumb quotes authorities in his 
bulletin to show that, in the cow, two 
branches of a nerve that starts from the 
spinal column are distributed through¬ 
out the udder. In the udder, these 
nerves are so distributed that one branch 
HALF SECTION OF THE UDDER .GLAND. Fig. 9. 
from the blood by these little glands, 
and carried through thousands of pas¬ 
sages and other glands until it finally 
accumulates in the milk cistern and is 
runs to the teats and another to the 
milk cistern, while the third is dis¬ 
tributed among the lobes and alveoli. 
Now when the teats are worked with 
milked out. Mr. Van Wagenen told us 
how “milk” is a solution of sugar, 
casein, salts, etc., with tiny globules of 
fat mixed (not dissolved) in it. The fat 
is not put into the milk until it passes 
out of the blood. You might say that 
this fat is really a part of the udder it¬ 
self. The little alveoli are provided 
with epithelial cells in which the butter 
fat is secreted or produced. When thus 
made these cells shed off and pass into 
the milk as globules of butter fat. Thus, 
as the milk is taken from the blood, the 
alveoli are constantly secreting the fat 
and shedding these minute cells to go 
on with the “ milk ” into the milk 
cistern. In addition to this, the alveoli 
act much like the small glands in the 
kidneys to take from the blood a certain 
solution of sugar, casein, salts, etc., in 
water which, when mixed with the fat 
cells, give us “ milk”. 
This gives us an idea of the delicate 
machinery at work within the cow’s 
udder. No human mind can conceive of 
the hands, these nerves are excited 
and, naturally, this excitement spreads 
through the nerve system all over the 
udder. The glands are thus stimulated 
and contracted, so that they pour out 
(Continued on next pa/je). 
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