Dr. Henry Stewart, the noted scientific and practical farmer and writer, said lately; “I have for some time past been studying the nature of the escutcheon physiogically and anatomically.” And he has “recently discovered a still more satisfactory connection between the milking capacity of a cow and the development of the escutcheon.”
“The milk-vein is an important mark of the deep-milking cow. But it is not the veins, but the arteries, which supply blood to the system, either for the production of tissue or the secretion of the milk. And yet the veins are important because they bear a direct relation to the arteries, being the return channels for the blood after it has fulfilled its functions; and so the larger supply of blood conveyed by the arteries requiring a vein of large capacity to return it, this vein is an ultimate indication of the vigor of the circulation of the lacteal organs. The main artery which supplies these organs is the subcutaneous abdominal [what Mr. S. says is commonly called the milk-vein.] This important artery supplies a large part of the posterior portion of the system, furnishing blood to the genital organs and the skin covering these and the adjacent parts. The subcutaneous abdominal artery is one of the two branches of the external pudic artery in the female, the other being the mammary artery. This last is very voluminous and distributes several main branches to the mammary glands and tissue, and also by a prolongation between the thighs, supplies the inferior commissure of the vulva and gives off many smaller branches, which spread into a network among the glandular tissue and the cutaneous structure. Here is the close connection, then, between the skin of the posterior part of the cow, from the lower point of the vulva down between the thighs and around the udder, and the udder itself. The same artery supplies all this portion of the skin, furnishes the subaceous glands and the hair follicles, and the whole cutaneous structure, and the hair also with blood, and also provides for the demands of the milk-secreting organs. A vigorous circulation through a voluminous arterial system ... gives a relatively vigorous milk secretion, and, as well, a growth of hair, which curls and forms the well-known peculiar structure of the escutcheon.”
C. L. SHARPLESS ON THE ESCUTCHEON.
We extract from our book on “The Jersey, Guernsey, and Alderney Cow,” some remarks on the escutcheon, by Charles L. Sharpless, of Philadelphia. We consider him one of the best judges, a most intelligent breeder, and he has paid the highest price ever given for a Jersey cow in this country. The portraits of Duchess, Rosa, Black Bess, Tiberia, and the bull, Comet of M., bear out our assertion.
“There is no point in judging a cow so little understood as the escutcheon. The conclusion of almost every one is, that her escutcheon is good, if there be a broad band of up-running hair from the udder to the vulva, and around it—see Fig. 1. These cows, with the broad vertical escutcheon, are nearly always parallel cows; that is, with bodies long, but not large, and with the under line parallel with the back. Their thighs are thin, and the thigh escutcheon shows on the inside of the thigh, rather than on its rear.
“Next comes the wedge-shaped cow, with the body shorter, but very large, deep in the flank, and very capacious. This form does not usually exhibit the broad vertical escutcheon, running up to the vulva, but with a broader thigh may exhibit a thigh escutcheon, which is preferable to the other, thus—see Fig. 2.
“In both vertical and thigh mirrors, where the hair runs down, intruding on the udder, (as low as above the dotted lines,) as in Figs. 3 and 4, it damages the escutcheon. If you find a cow with the hair all running down, and between the thighs—that is, with no up-running hair—stamp her as a cipher for milk-yielding.
“The artist has made the udders to Figs. 1, 2, 3, 4 the same size, while in reality they will vary according to the escutcheon.