WHY THE COW CHEWS THE CUD

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 2306, 26 November 1925, Page 9

WHY THE COW CHEWS THE CUD

In the dim, dark ages the cow was a much-hunted animal, compelled by her natural enemies to bolt her food and gather it in by fits and starts. Na< ture finds her own ways of adapting the body to the conditions under which it has to live, and so the cow developed a crop or store-house, and in the course of time acquired the power of cudding, or remasticating at her leisure, the food she had gathered up in haste. The crop is called the big bag or rumen. It lies on the left side, and occupies about three-quart-ers of the abdominal cavity. At the point, where the gullet joins the rumen is an elongated valve which has at least two functions: In the first place, during cudding, it lifts and compresses a little ball of rough food Irt readiness to be shot up into the throat when certain muscles contract and enable the cow to lift her oud, and, secondly, it forms a channel which allows at least a certain amount of. fluids and cudded food to pass over the rumen to the second stomach. The second stomach 1® believed to assist the rumen In holding liquids, and Is probably necessary to the cpddlng process. It also retains indigestible matter, such as stones, bits of stick and ths Ww._