158 DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 



having been put on dry fodder. But so soon as we were able to turn 

 her into pasture — about the beginning of April — the milk, after eight 

 days of this new food, resumed its former course, and the animal con- 

 tinued daily to furnish the same relative amounts of milk and butter as 

 before. 



" Three cows, two of which were fourteen years old, and the other 

 fifteen, have dried up two years after the operation, and at the same time 

 promptly fattened, without increase or change of food. 



" One cow, eight years old, plentifully supplied with trefoil and cab- 

 bage, gave, a short time after the operation, a quantity of milk nearly 

 double that which she gave before, although she was kept on the same 

 kind of food. She has during a year continued to furnish the sa?ne 

 amount, and has, in addition, fattened so rapidly, that the owner has 

 been obliged, seeing her fatness, to sell her to the butcher, although she 

 was still very good for milk. 



"Another fact, no less worthy of remark, we m«st not pass over in 

 silence ; and which goes to prove the superior and unchanging quality 

 of the milk of a spayed cow. It is, that a proprietor having spayed a 

 cow five years old, recently calved, with the special intention of feeding 

 with her milk a newly-born infant, the infant, on arriving at the age of 

 six months, of a robust constitution, refused its pap when it was once ac- 

 cidentally prepared with milk different from that of the spayed cow. 



"The other cows which had been spayed continued to give entire 

 satisfaction to their owners, as well in respect to the quantity and quality 

 of the milk, as also by their good condition. 



" Six cows manifested, shortly after the operation, and on divers occa- 

 sions, the desire for copulation ; but we have not remarked this peculi- 

 arity except among the younger ones. In other respects, as my col- 

 leagues MM. Levrat and Regere have stated, the milk has not indicated 

 the least alteration in quantity or quality. 



" Indeed, the happy results that are daily attained from this important 

 discovery are so conclusive, and so well known at this time in our part 

 of the country, that, as we write, many proprietors bring us constantly 

 good milch cows, since we have called upon them to do so, for us to 

 practice the operation of spaying upon them. Every owner of cattle is 

 aware that, from the time that the cow has received a bull, and in pro- 

 portion as gestation advances, the milk changes and diminishes progress- 

 ively, until at last, two or three months before a healthy parturition, the 

 animal gives very little or no milk, whence ensues considerable loss; 

 while at the same time, after the cows are subjected to the bull, the 

 milk and butter are, for fifty days at least, of a bad quality, and im- 

 proper to be exposed for sale; but, in addition to this, breeding cows 

 are generally subjected to such loss in winter, and their keepers find 

 themselves during a great part of the year entirely deprived of milk 

 and butter, and at a time, too, when they most need them. 



"By causing the cows to undero-o this operation, as we have men- 

 tioned in the preceding remarks, the owner will never fail of having 

 milk and butter of excellent quality; will fatten his animals easily when 

 thf.-y dry up, and also will improve the race, an anxiety for which is 

 perceived in many provinces of France. 



