THE COW AND HER HORNS 



WHAT would the cow be without her horns ? The 

 poets would be lost, from him who sang of the " cow 

 with a crumpled horn " and of the " little Kyloe cow " 

 downwards. " A bull by his horns, a wolf by his 

 ears," runs the old precept ; but the bull of to-day 

 is led by the nose, and his horns are daily becoming 

 a greater nuisance. We have only to realise the 

 fact and to speak the word, when the horns will 

 fall off as by a stroke of magic, and the cow of old 

 poetry become as mythical as the unicorn itself. If 

 we can have poultry without spurs, plum trees without 

 thorns, cacti without spines, plums without stones, 

 oranges without pips, so we can have cows without 

 horns, even such paradoxes as shorthorns and long- 

 horns as smooth-polled as the red Suffolk. 



We saw the cow with a crumpled horn only yester- 

 day. One horn, instead of pointing outward as a 

 weapon of defence should, had turned in, and 

 threatened the owner's eye, which, in order of growth, 

 it would have put out if the farmer had not had the 

 point sawn off. Her straight-horned sisters, playing 

 together in crowded herd, are apt to do one another 

 unwitting damage. It is not very uncommon, even 

 under peaceful English farm conditions, for one of 

 4'5 



