The Assembling of Herds 693 



9. The purchaser should demand and receive for each 

 animal a specific written warranty. If an animal is being 

 purchased as pregnant, she should be warranted as pregnant 

 at a stated date and place of delivery, and, failing in the 

 terms of such warranty, the purchase price should be re- 

 turned. This may sometimes be modified by agreement at 

 the time of purchase and made a part of the contract, by 

 which an alternate animal is named, which, in case the 

 original fails, may be substituted at an agreed price. The 

 plan which some breeders try to carry out of substituting 

 another animal "equally good", in case of breach of war- 

 ranty, is unsatisfactory, and the buyer should see that no 

 such condition enter into a bill of sale. If an animal sold 

 for breeding purposes and so warranted by the breeder is 

 unfertile, the purchase price morally and legally belongs to 

 the purchaser and should be paid as promptly as a banker 

 honors a check against a deposit. A warranty of pregnancy 

 should ordinarily apply to the date of delivery only if deter- 

 mined by veterinary examination. If the determination is 

 not made by such examination, a warranty of pregnancy is 

 unsatisfactory. If a breeder believes he has sold a pregnant 

 cow or heifer and the purchaser reports later that she 

 proved non-pregnant, the breeder may believe that she has 

 aborted and that consequently the warranty was fulfilled. 



Warranty against the phantom disease of "contagious 

 abortion" is impracticable and may lead to endless litigation. 

 There is no legal definition of "contagious abortion", no sci- 

 entific definition of it given or possible, and no means of 

 diagnosis which is applicable in the exchange of cattle. This 

 question has already been discussed at length. I think it 

 best neither to demand nor give a warranty against abortion. 

 The warranty had best be limited to one of three conditions : 

 the female is fertile, she is pregnant, or she will give birth 

 to a calf at an approximately given date. These three items 

 are each definable and determinable. 



The warranty of fertility should definitely apply to the 

 point of destination — not to the place of sale. A purchaser 

 in California has no use for a heifer or bull which is said to 



