206 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Mat 



summer. She rides in a chariot, because the 

 earth hangs suspended in the air, balanced and 

 poised by its own weight. But that chariot is 

 supported by wheels, since the earth is a re- 

 volving body, and turns round ; and it is 

 drawn by lions, because nothing is so fierce, 

 so savage, or so ungovernable, but a motherly 

 piety and tenderness is able to tame it, and 

 make it submit to the yoke. Her garments 

 are painted with divers colors, and figured 

 with the images of several creatures, as every- 

 body sees that such a dress is suitable to the 

 earth. 



It is pleasant, as month after month rolls 

 round, to know something of the meaning of 

 their names, and how they came by them. 



By our old Saxon ancestors, May was called 

 Tri-milJci, "because (as an old writer says,) 

 in that month they began to mllke their kine 

 three times in the day." 



In England, the first of May has long been 

 celebrated as one of the most joyous occasions 

 of the year. Old and young turned out and 

 decorated themselves with evergreen branches 

 and flowers ; troops of horse paraded the 

 streets, half smothered with green boughs and 

 leaves ; long poles were set up and twined 

 about with wreaths and garlands, while merry 

 men and women and boys and girls danced 

 around them amid the fragrance of a profusion 

 of flowers. There was great rivalry among 

 them to see which could bring out the most 

 rare shrub or the largest quantity of green 

 plants. So far was this carried, that "some 

 would openly show boughs of birch which were 

 privately made green long before the usual 

 time, by art, as by the heat of their stoves 

 and watering them, and privately brought in 

 as if they newly came from the wood." 



In our climate, until the fir^t of May Is post- 

 poned until the first of June we shall not be 

 able to engage in similar festivities. Some of 

 our "young folk," however, annually encase 

 themselves in mittens, over coats and rubber 

 boots, rush to the bleak pastures and leafless 

 woods for some green thing, or tiny flower that 

 has dared to peep out from some obstinate 

 snow-drift, in order to see whether Spring wa< 

 really coming or not! But they soon find 

 sharp exercise more grateful even than spring 

 flowers, and rush back, blue and shivering, to 

 the warm room, (we wish we could say fire- 

 side) to console themselves by reading the 



poets who sing of the beauties of the first of 

 May. 



We never shall get up much enthusiasm for 

 May until she materially changes her habits ; 

 and these are so thoroughly established, that 

 it is hardly worth while to make any effort. 

 But instead, let us make more of our old, 

 time-honored Election Day, which comes a 

 little later, or the fourth of July, when we can 

 get flowers ind green peas, also. Let us try 

 that for awhile, and let May have her own 

 way. 



"CASTINQ THE "WITHEES." 

 Casting the withers, or inversion of the 

 uterus, is a serious trouble of frequent occur- 

 rence among cows after calving. Mr. I. B. 

 Puffer of Putney, Vt., informs us that himself 

 and two of his neighbors have each saved 

 cows when in this situation by tying a cord 

 tightly around the protruding mass, near the 

 body, and cutting off the part below the cord, 

 and afterward fattening the cows. If the en- 

 tire uterus protrudes, and the cord is tied 

 above it, around the membrane connecting it 

 with the vagina, and the section Is made so as 

 to remove the entire womb, we think it may 

 succeed. No part of the womb should be left. 

 If the uterus cannot be returned, it may be 

 well to try this method to save thg life of the 

 animal. The "casting of the withers" is 

 caused by the womb becoming turned Inside 

 out, as when a man In taking off his coat turns 

 the sleeve wrong side out. The way to re- 

 place the withers is precisely that which a man 

 would take to return his sleeve to its proper 

 condition. He would take hold of the cuff 

 and push his arm through the sleeve to the 

 whole length of his arm. So here, the hand 

 must be placed on the fundus or upper end of 

 the womb, which will now be at the bottom 

 of the hanging mass, and bl; pushed up 

 through the cavity of the womb into the 

 vagina, and this process must be gently per- 

 sisted in, until the organ is replaced in its 

 natural position. It generally requires the 

 arm of the operator to be pushed into the 

 body its entire length. It would do no good 

 in returning a sleeve to re-turn it half its 

 length. The work must be done completely. 

 So in this case, if the reinverslon Is par- 

 tially done the womb will inevitably fall again. 

 When properly restored to its place, it gen- 



