WHAT THE COW FURNISHES US.
No other animal is so useful to us as the cow. We ought to be very grateful to our grandfathers who so long ago tamed the wild cattle. If the cattle had not been tamed they would all have been killed. How gentle the cow looks. She is not afraid of us and does not use her horns to hook us.
Let us see what the cow furnishes us. One of the most important things is milk. Milk contains everything which we need to keep us alive and make us grow.
• From milk we get butter and cheese. When milk stands for several hours the cream rises to the top and forms a thin layer over the milk. The cream was at first scattered all through the milk in the form of tiny globules.
The cream is skimmed from the surface of the milk and placed in a churn. There it is tumbled about until the little globules of cream have united to form the solid mass of yellow butter.
Do you know how cheese is made? The milk is first curdled by putting into it some liquid rennet. Rennet is the name given to a preparation made from the inner coating of the calf's stomach. The curd is separated from the watery part of the milk, which is called whey, and then pressed into solid cakes. The
curd is then called 'cheese.
When cattle. are killed nearly all the parts are used for some purpose. We eat the meat and think it very good. part of the meat is eaten fresh, other parts are either preserved by being placed in salt water, called brine, or dried in the open air.
The skin is tanned *and made into leather for our shoes. The hair which is taken off the skin is also saved. It is mixed in the mortar with which our houses are plastered. The hair helps to make the mortar stick upon the walls.
The bones are first burned and then ground to a fine powder. Bones contain substances which plants need for food. Where the soil does not con tain enough of these substances the bone dust is scattered over it. Thus the plants are made to grow stronger and larger.
Even the hoofs are saved. They are boiled in water and glue is made from them. The horns are not thrown away but are made into a number of things among the most important of which are combs.