MODERN FARRIER. 309 



order. If it be produced by feeding cattle too 

 hastily, and this seems to be the opinion of all those 

 who have written on the subject, the mode of pre- 

 venting it is sufficiently obvious. Mr. Lawrence 

 has very properly advised, that a piece of short or 

 inferior keep should be reserved, as a digesting 

 place, where cattle may occasionally be turned to 

 empty and exercise themselves. This is certainly 

 better than bleeding, or any medical preventive. 



' I think it necessarj^' says Mr. White, ' to men- 

 tion another mode of prevention, which, I have 

 been informed by an intelligent gentleman, who 

 has had great experience in breeding and rearing 

 cattle, has been adopted by him and his neighbours 

 with great success. 



*He informs me, also, that before this method 

 was discovered, they lost so many young cattle by 

 the disease, that they had determined to breed no 

 more. They happened, however, to hear of this 

 preventive, and purchased it, as a valuable secret. 



' Having properly secured the animal, an incision 

 is to be made in the skin, beginning from the divi- 

 sion of the claws, and carrying it upward, to the 

 extent of two inches. A blueish vessel will be seen, 

 which is to be drawn up with a hook, and removed 

 with scissors ; the part is afterward to be dressed as 

 a common wound. Mr. Lawrence is very humour- 

 ous upon this apparently whimsical operation ; and 

 I should certainly consider it in the same light that 

 he does, but for the very respectable authority from 

 which I received it.' 



10. Putrid Fever, or Murrain. 



The most serious epidemic fevers that have ever 

 appeared among domestic animals, are those which, 

 from their violence and fatality, have been called 

 murrains, ov pests, and which have raged occasion- 

 ally from the earliest historical accounts. From the 



