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animal is thus kept can not fail to materially reduce the milk yield, and to use 

 up in the process of breathing the carbonaceous matter which would otherwise 

 have been devoted to the production of butter. It is wisdom, therefore, to ' : go 

 the whole hog or none " in this matter — to dehorn all the animals kept in the 

 same herd, or to leave all in their natural state. To leave a few dehorned cows 

 in a horned herd and then to complain of the reduced yield of the former is 

 utterly unreasonable. The timid and abused animal in a herd can never reach 

 its full possible yield, and the mingling together of horned and dehorned cattle 

 can only have the effect of impairing the milk secretion of the latter. 



Second. The removal of the horns, by removing the possibility of success- 

 fully attacking other cattle, obviates the disposition to attempt such attack, and 

 fosters a placid, equable, restful disposition. This disposition is of high value, 

 especially in beef breeds and hardly less so in dairy cattle. It lessens at once the 

 nervous excitability, the muscular activity and the breathing, and in so doino- 

 diminishes the expenditure in these directions of the albuminoids or cheese-pro- 

 ducing principles and of the carbonaceous or butter and sugar producing 

 principles. It the materials thus economized could be all devoted to the 

 production of milk the dehorning would be an unalloyed gain for the dairy. But 

 in this case as to the selection of docile, horned animals, the tendency is not all 

 to the production of milk, and unless great care is taken in feeding and manao-e- 

 ment, it is liable to be turned largely to the production of beef, as has happened 

 to the Shorthorns and Polled- Angus cattle. What then? Must we avoid animals 

 that have at once a placid disposition and a good digestion ? Assuredly not. 

 These two qualities are fundamental to all improvement in stock, and to the 

 preservation of all good qualities in dairy or beef stock. It is the duty of the 

 stockowner to guard against any evil that may threaten in connection with these 

 good qualities. The domestication and improvement of stock always introduce a 

 series of drawbacks. If we neglect to watch for and counteract these, our im- 

 proved stock will perish under our eyes, or more commonly retrograde toward 

 their original poor condition. If we want merely to keep around us the hardiest 

 and most vigorous of animals, let us go back at once to the Texas cattle or to the 

 buffalo of the plains. But hardy as such stock is, it would not in these northern 

 States furnish us with a living. We must, therefore, take our improved stock 

 with all their weakness of constitution, their inability to bear exposure and pri- 

 vations, their lack of natural protection instincts, their helplessness as calves, 

 and their predisposition to diseases of the vital organs in age, their tendency to 

 fat rather than milk, and all their other drawbacks, if we would secure a liveli- 

 hood from keeping stock. The more highly cattle are improved the greater the 

 vigilance required to keep them in that straight course of improvement which 

 will be most profitable to us. Eternal vigilance is the price of profit, and if we 

 fail to exercise that, we must look for discomfiture. It is a compliment to the 

 dehorned cow to say that she has a tendency to run to fat. It shows that she 

 has been started so far on a course of improvement, and just as in the case of the 

 Shorthorn which was for so long the standard of all excellence in cattle alike for 

 the dairy and abattoir, we must retain the milking qualities by an aqueous and 

 albuminoid diet, and stimulate the functions of the gland which yields the golden 

 product. I don't stand here to advocate dehorning. I merely aim at a review of 

 the subject in its physiological bearings, and at furnishing the most prominent 

 reasons for and against as viewed from this standpoint. At the same time I am 

 an uncompromising enemy of pointed horns and of the suffering and loss which 

 they occasion. I do therefore strongly advocate a resort to some means of 

 removing the evil. Let the horns be cut square off as far from the points as you 

 can without injuring the quick, and their power for evil will be practically 



