CHAP. XIX.] FARMING FOR LADIES. 369 



way is to apply to some neighbouring farmer 

 for information, 



A heifer should not be bred from until she 

 is from two to three years old ; yet, such is 

 the anxiety of many persons to increase their 

 stock, that it is by no means uncommon to see 

 one heavy in calf before she has completed 

 her second year. 



The coio commonly goes nine calendar 

 months with calf, but this is not always to be 

 exactly counted upon ; for, according to the 

 details of Mons. Teissier — as recorded in the 

 Academie Royale cles Sciences — at Paris, it 

 was found that, of 1131 cows which he had 

 the opportunity of observing, the shortest pe- 

 riod of gestation was 240 days^ and the long- 

 est 331 ; and in a more recent account, given 

 by Earl Spencer to the Royal Agricultural 

 Society of England, it appears, from a series 

 of observations made during several years 

 upon his Lordship's stock, that of 764 cows, 

 respecting the gestation of which notes have 

 been taken, the shortest and the longest pe- 

 riods have been from 220 to 313 days. These 

 were, however, only single instances, while by 

 far the greater number — to the amount of 



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