LECTURES AND ESSAYS READ AT INSTITUTES, 131 



A'OTES ON KE PRODUCTION IN DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 



]!Y E. A. A. GRANGE. 

 LRead at Eaton Uapids Institute.! • 



Eeproductioa may be defined to be the process by which living bodies pro- 

 duce others similar to themselves — a proceeding which is of great importance 

 to the agriculturist who is engaged in stock raising. 



In commencing my remarks upon this subject, it is of little moment where 

 I begin, for if we follow the course through we eventually get back to the 

 starting point. 



I have selected for my beginning the period of puberty, or sexual maturity, 

 from which time onwards I shall briefly discuss such subjects as gestation, 

 sterility and its removal when possible, hygienic treatment, or care and man- 

 agement of pregnant animals, hygienic treatment, or care and management 

 of the young, breeding sex at will, concluding with a description of some of 

 the difficulties in parturition ; and in doing so, will endeavor to be as brief 

 and practical as possible, for I am well aware that the full consideration of 

 such an immense subject would occupy a great deal more time than we have 

 at our disposal. 



I'UBEETY, OR SEXUAL MATURITY, 



Is the period when animals have sufficiently matured to be capable of bring- 

 ing forth their young, which conditiou varies considerably in different species, 

 and even in different animals of the same species. Surrounding circumstaHces 

 also change the advent of this period ; domestication, for instance, by 

 inducing more rapid development of the animal, hastens the coming of puberty, 

 and it is sooner attained in the female than in the male. 



Although animals arrive at this interesting stage of their existence consid- 

 erably before they have matured in other respects, yet it is not considered 

 advisable to breed from them until they are about full grown, as it is thought 

 to weaken their constitutions and produce early decay. 



The usual period in the mare being about three years, in cattle say two-and- 

 a-half years, in sheep about one year and a half, and in swine and bitches 

 about one year old ; but I have the records of one or two cases where animals are 

 said to have produced their young at very much earlier periods than the above, 

 one of the most remarkable is reported in one of the first volumes of the Lan- 

 cet (a medical journal), in which it is stated that a bull calf three months old 

 copulated with a heifer calf about two months old, and within nine months 

 the heifer brought forth a calf, and both did well. 



The period when reproduction ceases is not exactly known. I have known 

 stallions to become sires at upwards of thirty years, and mares are recorded to 

 have produced at considerably beyond that age. Cattle are said to have pro- 

 duced their young at over twenty years ; but for other animals, I do not know 

 of their having conceived at any advanced age. 



Puberty is preceeded by a condition termed the 03struni or heat, which term 

 is generally lost sight of in a more popular phrase for each species. This con- 

 dition is characterized by a peculiar systemic excitement, producing in some 

 animals a degree of ill temper which renders them even dangerous. In the 

 female the generative organs are turgid with blood, with a mucous-like dis- 



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