CHAPTER VIII. 



DETERMINING THE AGE OF STOCK. 



Almost everyone knows the old story about the ten- 

 derfoot who took up the bet that a certain young- 

 appearing cow in the herd was "so old that she did 

 not have a single front tooth in her upper jaw." Nat- 

 urally he lost. 



The Mouth Test for Cattle. The "toothing" of cattle 

 on the range is the means of settling many a wager as 

 to the age of an animal. It is not by any means a very 

 satisfactory method because of so many variations in 

 the age at which different animals shed their milk teeth 

 and get the permanent ones. This is due to accidents, 



Incisors of the calf a, external face; b, internal face. 



feed, breeding and many other causes. On a range 

 where cattle eat browse they break off their calf teeth 

 much earlier than otherwise. 



The following very liberal rules were adopted by the 

 management of the International Live Stock Exposition, 



Mil 



