Tail Cutting. 31 



These facts, taken into consideration with reasons already 

 given, lead me to come to the conclusion already expressed, 

 that all tailless dogs are more or less artificial productions, 

 the results of some of the anomalies of our boasted civilisa- 

 tion. Arguments against my supposition may be produced 

 in the case of terriers with their ears cut, and hounds with 

 their aural appendages rounded, but neither is an exactly 

 analogous case, and the effect on the system, through the 

 spine and muscles, is much more likely to be of a permanent 

 character where the tail is operated upon than where the 

 infliction is confined to the ears. 



Following the discontinuance of the custom of cutting 

 farmers' dogs' tails and other changes, sheepdogs had to 

 pay the same impost to the Legislature as other varieties 

 of the canine race. This arrangement was, however, not 

 sufficiently satisfactory as to be permanent, for in 1878, 

 when the dog regulations were again revised, special 

 individual exemptions for dogs used in farm work had to 

 be obtained from the excise, a method of arrangement 

 which remains in operation at the present time. Bearing 

 this in mind, agriculturists cannot be too careful in keeping 

 such exempted dogs solely to their natural work, for in 

 case they allow them to assist in a day's rabbit catching on 

 the farm, the licence is required, and the farmer lays himself 

 open to a prosecution for keeping such a dog without 

 paying the usual seven shillings and sixpence for the good 

 of his country. 



The popularity of the collie made much greater progress 

 in some counties and localities than in others, for, where 

 sheep formed the staple commodity of the farm, he was found 

 to be an absolute necessity. This was especially the case in 

 the more mountainous districts, such as are found in Wales, 



