24 NOTES ON FIELDS AND CATTLE. 



for the butcher), there will be no internal hindrances, 

 and consequently at calving comparatively little fear 

 of inflammation. 



A petted cow is sure to have a hard time of it. 

 How sadly I remember, even now, going one bright 

 May morning into the rich paddock, where a favourite 

 Ayrshire was feeding, fetlock deep, in grass and 

 trefoil. She was the very model of a cow, although 

 one of the first I had the good fortune to possess, 

 having been bought with some others at the sale of 

 a deceased friend who was an excellent judge. A 

 spotted yellow-red, low and lengthy, with a sweet 

 countenance, a gentle eye, and a glove-like skin that 

 might delight the grazier, she would at the same 

 time, during her first flush, fill the pail, and yet milk 

 on if allowed until within a few days of calving. To 

 my delight she was standing over a new-born heifer 

 calf, which she was licking, the very picture of her- 

 self. Two hours after I was fetched in haste, and 

 found her reeling to and fro : staggering, as I have 

 learnt since, half-blinded by a rush of blood to the 

 brain. I had not the sense to bleed, but wasted time 

 in sending for a veterinary surgeon, who did not 

 arrive for some hours, and then to find her on the 

 ground in a shed to which we had managed to move 

 her. He bled and physicked her, but it was now too 

 late. She laid back her head on her heaving side, 

 which under circumstances of internal disorder is a 

 most fatal sign, though occasionally you will see a 

 cow do it when simply asleep in the sun. Her 

 hours, however, were numbered, and I saw my pet 

 no more. 



