Management of Breeding Cattle. 151 



being provided with sufficiently nutritious food after the milk is 

 discontinued, and also from keeping too many together, as I have 

 found large herds suffer more from husk than smaller ones. 



The only other serious complaint peculiar to young cattle is 

 murrain, or quarter-evil, treated of by Skellett under " black leg 

 or quarter." This attacks them in the spring or early part of the 

 summer, when they are about eighteen or twenty months old. I 

 have never had more than one well-defined case myself. Some 

 land is said to engender this disease, and I believe justly so ; I 

 think, however, it more frequently arises from the animals not 

 having thriven well during some portion of the winter, and then 

 thriving too rapidly when they go to grass. Few animals are 

 saved after the malady has developed itself. Various ridiculous 

 expedients are used for its prevention, amongst them, inoculating 

 the tail with garlic, &c. ; also what is called plugging, which con- 

 sists in putting a seton, most commonly through the dewlap : this 

 may prove of some use.* As there is no doubt the malady 

 proceeds from fulness of blood, aperient medicines, given at short 

 intervals during the spring, will prove of advantage. 



The general treatment I have here described I have found 

 eminently calculated " to ensure regular fecundity and successful 

 gestation." In all the cows I have had in calf during twenty-two 

 years, I have only had two per cent, which did not bring their 

 calves to the full time, and I have been fortunate in always 

 having my cows prove in calf in seasonable time. I have for 

 nearly twenty years possessed the knowledge of a remedy which 

 is said to be certain to secure conception in a cow, but, fortu- 

 nately, I have never had occasion to put it in practice till last 

 year. It consists in removing the clitoris from the vulva, which 

 may either be done with caustic or the knife : the latter was used 

 in this case. The cow operated upon produced twins in July, 

 185G, and was served by the bull within the usual time, but did 

 not stand, and became what is called a " perpetual buller," that 

 is, always in a state to take the bull, which is generally con- 

 sidered a most hopeless case. She is a very favourite cow, and 

 I was unwilling to subject her to what I supposed would be con- 

 siderable suffering ; therefore I delayed the operation till last 

 July, and was glad to find that it caused little pain or incon- 

 venience. It was performed immediately after the cow had been 

 served by the bull ; she took the bull again in three weeks, and 

 iias since produced a heifer-calf at the proper time. I gained my 

 information on this subject from the late Mr. Pegler, of Stow- 

 on-the-Wold, a man of great experience and judgment in all 

 agricultural matters ; and he observed it in practice during an 



* This practice is in constant use in many herds, and so far as my own obser- 

 vation and experience go, is perfectly efficacious. — Ed. 



