DISEASES AND TREATMENT OF CATTLE 445 



5. Feeding Apples to Cows. 



We do not wonder that there is strong prejudice against 

 allowing cows, and especially milk cows, to eat apples. For 

 the most part it is well grounded. While it is possible to 

 give a milking cow a few ripe apples without drying up her 

 milk perceptibly, that is not the kind of apples she usually 

 gets. If the cow is in an orchard where apples are falling, 

 she runs every time she hears one drop and eats it greedily, 

 however wormy, sour, green or bitter it may be. All apples 

 have some malic acid in them, even including those that we 

 call "sweet." This malic acid, together with the tannin that 

 is found in the apple peel, and especially in green, small 

 apples, contracts the cow's stomach. If she eats much of 

 such fruit, it gives her the colic just as surely as it does the 

 small boy. The cow's stomach wasn't made to digest such 

 stuff, and so sure as it is put into her stomach there are riot 

 and rebellion. Everyone knows that giving vinegar to cows 

 and rubbing her udder with vinegar will dry her off. 



6. Barrenness in Cows and Bulls. 



Thiy is a common thing in well-bred cows, especially in 

 Jerseys. 



Causes. — Being kept in too high condition, a diseased 

 state of the ovaries, a contracted or diseased state of the neck 

 of the womb, or the womb being deformed, such as the neck 

 being twisted to one side may be the cause. One or other of 

 twin heifers is often barren. Bulls or cows that are too 

 closely inbred in the same line of breeding for several genera- 

 tions may become barren, or what is known as "run out." It 

 is also caused in bulls from fatty degeneration of the testicles 

 —mostly seen in old bulls. Rig bulls (that is, those in which 

 only one or neither of the testicles are down in the scrotum) 

 a*-e sometimes barren. This rule also holds good in horses. 



Treatment.— If caused by a cow being in high condition, 

 bleed her; take a half pail of blood away the day before 

 taking her to the bull, or give her a physic of one and a half 

 pounds of Epsom salts in a quart of lukewarm water as a 

 drench. The idea of this is to cool her blood. Examine her, 

 and if from contraction of the neck of the womb, pass your 

 hand up gently and open by working your fingers in it. If 

 from the neck of the womb being to one side, straighten it. 

 In doing this have your hand and arm oiled. In either of 



