324 CASTRATION. 



that he is the slave of man, and that we have the power, by other means than 

 those of kindness, to bend him to our will. The education of the horse should be 

 that of the child. Pleasure is, as much as possible, associated with the early les- 

 sons ; but firmness, or, if need be, coercion, must establish the habit of obedience. 

 Tyranny and cruelty will, more speedily in the horse than even in the child, 

 provoke the wish to disobey ; and, on every practicable occasion, the resist- 

 ance to command. The restive and vicious horse is, in ninety-nine cases 

 out of a hundred, made so by ill-usage, and not by nature. None but those 

 who will take the trouble to try the experiment are aware how absolute a 

 command the due admixture of firmness and kindness will soon give us over 

 any horse. 



CASTRATION. 



The period at which this operation may be best performed depends much on 

 the breed and form of the colt, and the purpose for which he is destined. For 

 the common agricultural horse the age of four or five months will be the most 

 proper time, or, at least before he is weaned. Few horses are lost when cut at 

 that age. Care, however, should be taken that the weather is not too hot, nor the 

 flies too numerous. We enter our decided protest, however, against the recom- 

 mendation of valuable but incautious agricultural writers, that ' colts should be 

 cut in the months of June or July, when flies pester the horses, and cause them 

 to be continually moving about, and thereby prevent swelling.' One moment's 

 reflection will convince the reader that nothing can be more likely to produce 

 inflammation, and consequent swelling and danger, than the torture of the flies 

 hovering round and stinging the sore part. 



If the horse is designed either for the carriage or for heavy draught, the farmer 

 should not think of castrating him until he is at least a twelve-month old ; and, 

 even then, the colt should be carefully examined. If he is thin and spare 

 about the neck and shoulders, and low in the withers, he will materially im- 

 prove by remaining uncut another six months ; but if his fore-quarters are fairly 

 developed at the age of a twelve-month, the operation should not be delayed, 

 lest he become heavy and gross before, and perhaps has begun too decidedly to 

 have a will of his own. No specific age, then, can be fixed ; but the castration 

 should be performed rather late in the spring or early in the autumn, when the 

 air is temperate, and particularly when the weather is dry. No preparation is 

 necessary for the sucking colt, but it may be prudent to bleed and to physic one 

 of more advanced age. In the majority of cases, no after-treatment will be ne- 

 cessury, except that the animal should be sheltered from intense heat, and more 

 particularly from wet. In temperate weather he will do much better running 

 in the field than nursed in a close and hot stable. The moderate exercise that 

 he will take in grazing will be preferable to perfect inaction. A large and well- 

 ventilated box, however, may be permitted. 



The manner in which the operation is performed will be properly left to the 

 veterinary surgeon. The haste, carelessness, and brutality, of the common 

 gelder should no longer be permitted ; but the veterinary surgeon should be 

 able and willing to discharge every portion of his duty. The old method of 

 opening the scrotum on either side, and cutting off the testicles, and preventing 

 hemorrhage by a temporary compression of the vessels while they are seared 

 with a hot iron, must not, perhaps, be abandoned ; but there is no necessity 

 for that extra pain, and that appearance, at least, of brutality, which occur when 

 the spermatic cord (the blood-vessels and the nerve) is as tightly compressed 

 between two pieces of wood as in a powerful vice, and left there until either the 

 testicle drops off, or is removed on the following day by the operator. 



To the practice of some farmers, of twitching their colts at an early period. 



