DISEASES OF CATTLE 457 



tain by the fact that the openings through the skin and cartilage 

 are not in apposition. 



DEHORNING. 



SIMPLE METHOD OF RESTRAINING THE ANIMALS. 



The dehorning of cattle can be very satisfactorily performed 

 without other apparatus or instruments than a good strong clothes- 

 line and a clean sharp meat saw, or a miter saw with a rigid back. 

 The same simple means for controlling the animal is just as applic- 

 able when dehorning clippers are to be used as when the horns are 

 to be removed with the saw. The head of the animal is secured to 

 the horizontal rail or stringer which holds the upper ends of the 

 stanchion boards. The animal is put in the stanchion in the usual 

 manner; then one end of a heavy clothesline is passed around the 

 upper part of the neck and tied in a knot that will not slip, otherwise 

 it will choke the animal. The free end of the rope is now carried 

 between the horns, through the stanchion to the front, up and over 

 the horizontal stanchion rail, then down underneath the neck and 

 up and over the top of the stanchion rail to an assistant, who should 

 hold it firmly. Now open the stanchion, allowing the animal to 

 withdraw its head ; then, keeping the rope tight, pass it once around 

 the muzzle, up and over the stanchion rail, and through to the 

 front again to the hands of the assistant, who should stand 3 or 4 

 feet in front of the animal and hold the rope firmly, but prepared to 

 release it when told to do so by the operator. The animal is now 

 ready for the dehorning operation. 



It is necessary that the rope be held by an assistant, as in the 

 event of the animal struggling during the operation so as to throw 

 itself off its feet, or if there appears to be danger of its choking, the 

 rope may be slackened promptly at the word of the operator and 

 the animal partly released. This, however, is rarely necessary, for 

 as soon as the head is secured the operator should be ready, standing 

 at the right shoulder of the animal with his saw, and proceed to 

 saw off first the right and then the left horn. It is a good plan be- 

 fore commencing the real work to experiment upon an animal in 

 the matter of control by tying the head to the stanchion rail as 

 described. 



If the stanchion rail is too wide to permit of properly securing 

 the lower part as well as the upper part of the animal's head, the 

 turn of the rope around the muzzle may be omitted and the last lap 

 of the rope carried around the stanchion rail to the front and to the 

 hands of the assistant. Care should be taken "that the rope pass each 

 time over the neck of the animal to the stanchion rail between the 

 horns in such a way that it will not interfere with the work of the 

 saw. 



WHERE TO CUT THE HORNS. 



The horns should be severed from a quarter to a half inch below 

 where the skin joins the base of the horn, cutting from the back 

 toward the front. If the cut is made too high an irregular, gnarly 

 growth of horn is very apt to follow. It will be seen that the point 



