a 



34 MODERN FARRIER. 



The cow being strong and quiet, the business may 

 be effected with care and patience ; but should the 

 hook be positively necessary, hold must be taken, 

 either in the sockets of the eyes, cavity of tb.e ears, 

 or in the jaw. The case of dropsy in the calf will 

 be sufficiently apparent by its preternatural size ; 

 use the knife carefully, should that be necessary, to 

 pierce the belly of the calf. 



A late writer of good authority says, *When 

 every other plan has failed for turning the calf, so 

 as to put him into a favourable position for delivery, 

 the following has often succeeded : Let the cow be 

 thrown down in a proper situation, and placed on 

 her back ; then, by means of ropes and a pulley at- 

 tached to a beam above, let the hind parts be raised 

 up, so as to be considerably higher than the fore 

 parts : in this position the calf may be easily put 

 back towards the bottom of the uterus, so as to ad- 

 mit of being turned, or his head and fore-legs 

 brought forward without difficulty.' 



There is a very material obstruction v,'hich fre- 

 quently happens to the calving of cows. It is called 

 a horning of the lye or calf-bed, when the passage of 

 it is contracted into a very small circumference, in- 

 somuch, that at the full time of gestation, it will 

 not admit so much as the smallest hand, and grows 

 so sinewy or horned, as renders it utterly impossible 

 for the cow to calve without assistance, and many 

 cattle have died under this dreadful inconvenience, 

 when it might have been easily prevented. But so 

 little has been known hitherto of the diseases pecu- 

 liar to black cattle, that many thousands have fallen 

 victims to untimely death, that a simple remedy or 

 operation might have saved. 



In the case before observed, it must take a consi- 

 derable length of time before it is contracted as it is 

 often found ; but no suspicion or dread can reasona- 

 bly take place, imtil near the time when the beast 

 has arrived at the end of nine months, her full time 



