166 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



[No. 3. 



ON THE SPAYING OF COWS, AND ITS EFFECT 

 UPON THE SECRETION OF MILK. 



A private letter from a farmer in Goochland con- 

 tains the following inquiry and remarks : 

 To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



"I wish to make an inquirj of your correspondents, 

 through the Register. It is, whether any one can say 

 with certainty, how long a cow, spayed when she is in 

 full perfection, and giving the greatest quantity of 

 milk, will continue to give milk in full quantity, if 

 properly attended to? 



"Next to the stock enclosing system, (which the re- 

 peal of the present law of enclosures would cause,) the 

 above fact, if it be (as I have been told,) a fact, that 

 cows will continue to give milk plentifully as long as 

 they live, would be of the greatest importance to the 

 poor people. They would not then have to wait, every 

 year, for a half starved cow to have a calf, before their 

 children could get a supply of milk to keep them from 

 suffering for suitable food. They would have a supply 

 for years, and that from an animal easily kept, as spay- 

 ed animals always are. Small as this thing may seem 

 to be to those who abound in the good things of this 

 life, it is an important matter to be established as re- 

 gards the poor — and middle classes too." 



While joining with our correspondent in the request 

 that others will state whatever facts they may know on 

 this subject, we will oifer such information as we are 

 possessed of, and which, though not derived from per- 

 sonal experience, appears to be as well authenticated. 



The only publication which we have ever met with 

 on the spaying of milch cows, is contained in a late 

 French periodical — though it is there stated that the 

 advantage of this operation was first discovered by a 

 Mr. Winn of our own country: and no other facts than 

 his had been previously made known, nor are any 

 given by the French writer, except the few repetitions 

 of the experiments in Switzerland, the report of which 

 we will present below. It is singular that so little 

 should be known of the operation in the country in 

 which it originated. It is not stated from what Ameri- 

 can publication the knowledge of Mr. Winn's prac- 

 tice was learned, and we have to confess our entire ig- 

 norance as to the source ol information, as well as of 

 the person mentioned. 



Before proceeding to give the translation of the 

 French article, we will state a fact within our know- 

 ledge, that the spaying of milch cows was practiced 

 on the farm of a deceased friend, John Edmunds of 

 Sussex; and that when we saw the cows and were in- 

 formed by him of the facts, he was perfectly satisfied 

 with his success, and entertained no doubt of the cows 

 continuing to yield milk without diminution, so long as 

 they were properly kept, and properly milked. The 

 only doubt seems to be whether the secretion of milk 

 will continue through the healthy life of the animal, or 

 only for a time unusually long compared to that of 

 breeding cows — say for several years. We were then 

 struck with the obvious advantages of having a few 

 permanent milkers, which with care and attention 

 would yield regularly as much milk as thrice 

 their number in the ordinary way — and at the same 

 time getting rid of all the trouble of the continual 

 changes of cows, and fluctuations (natural and artifi- 



cial) of their yield of milk. The want of any person 

 capable of performing the operation with facility and 

 safety prevented our making the experiment. By the 

 way — it appears below that the art of castrating do- 

 mestic animals is thought in Europe not beneath the 

 attention of government — and that able veterinary sur- 

 geons are employed to give courses of instruction to 

 the common operators. So long as such operations are 

 performed here by ignorant negro?s, or others but lit- 

 tle better informed, there would be greatly increased 

 hazard of death, or of injury to cows in spaying. But 

 there can be no doubt that if proper knowledge and 

 skill are used, that the operation is easily performed, 

 and perfectly safe. It is scarcely necessary to observe 

 that spaying will not serve its intended purpose, if the 

 cows afterwards are as badly treated and milked after 

 the usual manner of lower Virginia — that is, to take 

 from the cow a little less milk every week, if nof every 

 day, until she "goes dry." Our milk maids consider 

 this to be the regular order of things; and it would be 

 very difficult to convince them of the possibility of 

 "flying in the face of nature," and of their established 

 usage, by spaying cows. 



Without any view of milking qualities, this operation 

 has been used by some of the old "good livers" of 

 lower Virginia, on heifers, for the purpose of making 

 superior beef. 



We proceed to give the article entire. 



Translated for the Farmers' rjejister, from the Bccncil de me- 

 decine vctcriauire pratique. February 1834. 



Mr. Winn, a proprietor in North America, has 

 been the first to report that he has spayed cows, 

 and preserved during many years the quantity of 

 milk which they gave at the time of the operation. 

 The action of ihe udder neither being injured by 

 the function of gestation, nor by the animal being 

 in heat, it, may be conceived that the secretion of 

 milk may continue. Many proprietors, especially 

 those who are situated near great cities, where 

 the high price of milk makes it unprofitable to 

 raise calves, would derive great advantage from 

 keeping cows whose milk would not dry up. 



But the observations of Mr. Winn were not nu- 

 merous, and besides, he has not indicated what 

 method of spaying he used for his animals. We 

 need new observations and more precise details. 

 M. Levrat, a distinguished veterinary surgeon of 

 Lausanne, from whom many communications 

 have been inserted in the JRecueil de medecine ve- 

 terinaire, reports his manner of performing this 

 operation on the cow, and the physiological results 

 which he has remarked after two cases. The 

 number of facts still needs to be increased: they 

 ought also to be observed longer, before a decided 

 opinion is formed of the dangers and consequences 

 of the operation. However, the notice which M. 

 Levrat has inserted in the Journal des Connois- 

 sances utiles will doubtless be interesting to our 

 readers. We frive in the author's words: 



"In May 1832 I was entrusted by the govern- 

 ment of the Canton de Vaud, with the direction 

 of a course of instructions for the country opera- 

 tors in the art of castration. The opportunity to 

 repeat the experiments made in America on spay- 

 ing cows, was too favorable to be missed. I per- 

 formed the operation of extracting the ovaries of a, 



