ABORTION IN COWS. 133 



in the latter part of September, and they continued along until 

 within three or four weeks. No animal has got to the herd, so 

 far as I know, and they all seemed to be in a perfectly healthy 

 state before the abortions and immediately after. I have gone 

 right on with the cows that were in milk, and they appear to be 

 in just as healthy a state as any cows in my barn. Perhaps 

 another year the same difficulty will occur in another herd, 

 without any apparent cause, and I shall be entirely free from it. 

 In Hardwick and Barre, the same season, without any apparent 

 cause, from one-half to three-quarters of the cows lost their 

 calves. Perhaps another year they will lose none. 



If we can discover a remedy for this, we shall confer upon the 

 farming community something that will be of great value to 

 them. 



In my case, the difficulty could not have been caused by 

 smutty corn, for the corn was all gathered from the fields over 

 which they roamed, and they went over the same fields over 

 which they have gone in years past. They had, to all appear- 

 ance, the same feed. I have no limestone water. The water 

 the cows get is soft water. I know of no cause whatever, and 

 I know of no one who has been able to give any explanation 

 that is satisfactory on this subject. 



Mr. Fay of Southborough. In one word I will relate my 

 experience in regard to abortion in cows. Some twenty-five 

 years ago, I had a stock of thirty cows, and eighteen lost their 

 calves, commencing not far from the first of November, and con- 

 tinuing until about the first of March. I wrote to different indi- 

 viduals in regard to it, but I could learn nothing satisfactoiy. I 

 got from the different individuals diffi3rent opinions. I took the 

 pains to separate the cows that lost their calves from the others, 

 as far as I could, but I found no benefit from it. I bought six 

 cows in the fall, from Vermont. Those six cows were put into 

 stalls near the others, and not one of them lost her calf, although 

 cows right by the side of some of them lost their calves. I was 

 convinced that there was nothing in sympathy. If there was, 

 why did not those six cows lose their calves ? 



I believe I kept fourteen out of those eighteen cows. My. 

 neighbors told me it was no use to keep them ; that they would 

 lose their calves the next season just the same. But I did not 

 lose one the next season by abortion, and I did not lose more 



