ON THE LAND.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3086, 7 January 1909, Page 7

ON THE LAND.

MILK VEINS AND UDDER. The milk veins in front of the udder are usually an infallible mark of a good miieh cow, and the larger they are the better the indications. In extra good cows they branch oat into four arteries along the belly, but they all unite before reaching the uddar. The more irregular the course the more sure you may be the cow is a good milker, but the veins give no indication of the quality or richness of the milk. The udder should be covered with a short, downy coat' of hair. This hair should begin to turn its backward course from the front teats running in this direction between the teats, then on the back part of the udder, called the escutcheon, and on as far as the vulva in the best cows. The wider the belt of this upturned hair the better. Jt should be short and velvety, covering a soft, orangecoloured skin. The shape and size of the udder is, however, by far the most - reliable index of a good cow. AH the other marks are only of relative importai ce, and it is better to have a scraggy-looking cow any day with a good udder than a grandlooking beast with a miserable hag. No matter how good-looking a dairy cow may be, except she has a welldeveloped udder, with its accompanying network of mammary glands, she cannot be expected to excel as a pail-hilt r. Asa rule, heavy milkers* are seldom the best-looking cows, because though good-koking anirna s capable of creditably acquitting themselves at the pail are occasionally met with, it i? the almost invariable rule to find cows which are good at the pail very thin in the flesh, narrow across the shoulders, slack over the loins, and in other ways deficient from a butcher's point of view. The ideal udder is the one which is well developed both fore and aft, one that is carried high up towards the escutcheon, and at the same time goes a long way forward under the bel'j-. Ii addition to this, the udder must be deep and square in shape—the deeper and the better. Its four teats should be of Rood sizp, and placed as nearly as possible at equal distances apart. Cows posfessing udders of this kind may always be counted on to prove good milkers just as other cows possessing smell, round-shaped udders, with teats so close together that they almost touch one another at the points, may invariably be put c'own as poor pail fillers, no matter how fine their appearance may be, or how good looking in other respects.