506 AMERICAN CATTLE. 



weeks, or months, did not return to regular breeding, without a 

 repetition of the misfortune, so that we have had little experi- 

 mental knowledge of the malady. 



Some fifteen years ago, a gentleman in the eastern part of 

 this State had a valuable herd of short-horns. The cows had 

 bred successfully, until one summer, while in their usual pastures, 

 a large majority of them, one after another, slipped their calves. 

 The fact was so extraordinary and continuous in the herd, that 

 their owner at once resolved to send them away to a distance for 

 keeping. They were driven out to a fine grass farm about a 

 hundred and fifty miles distant. Arriving there, no farther abor- 

 tions took place, and they were not returned to their old home 

 for some months, until the pasturing season had transpired. 

 Meantime, the proprietor of the herd began to examine into the 

 cause of this strange malady, and soon recollected that he had, 

 early in the spring, some time before the abortions commenced, 

 spread over his grounds a large quantity of fur clippings and 

 trimmings, the refuse of a manufactory where caps, and other 

 fur clothing were extensively made. He found these clippings 

 of skin and fur in various stages of offensive decomposition in 

 his pastures, and the cause of the difficulty, in his own mind, 

 was readily solved. By the end of the season the clippings had 

 become entirely decomposed, and absorbed, or amalgamated into 

 the soil. By the next spring, all but their fertilizing power had 

 disappeared, and no further ill effects were produced. It is hard- 

 ly necessary to say that the experiment was not repeated, and 

 the cows were thereafter healthy, and free from further abortions. 



This subject should be well understood. It is so admirably 

 and fully treated in Youatt, that in the absence of any mention 

 of it by Mr. Lowson, from whom we have so freely quoted, wa 

 give, at length, Mr. Youatt's remarks on the disease, if disease 

 it may be called : 



" The cow is more than any other animal subject to abortion. 

 This takes place at different periods of pregnancy, from half of 



