134 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



than one or two durinf^ the next twenty years from that cause. 

 In the town of Westborough, above me, some years one-third of 

 the stock have produced abortions. If anything can be found 

 to prevent it, it will be one of the greatest boons we have dis- 

 covered yet. 



Mr. Goodman. "We think, up our way, that feeding wheat 

 bran prevents it. Mr. Bucklin can state some facts in regard 

 to the matter. 



Mr. BucKLTN of Adams. I have had a good many cases of 

 abortion in my stock. The first case occurred in 1864. We 

 had only two or three cases that year. The next season, with 

 a stock of about forty, we had eighteen. We were using at 

 that time, as was customary with the farmers in our neighbor- 

 hood, what is called a " cock-tail bull " or " scrub bull," — young 

 bulls usually. We were not feeding our stock with anything 

 except hay. The next season after that, which was 1866, we 

 Lad thirteen cases. I then purchased a thoroughbred Ayr- 

 shire l)ull, which was three years old, and have used a thorough- 

 bred bull ever since, and have fed wheat bran to a considerable 

 extent ; using coarse wheat bran through the summer quite 

 extensively, never milking a cow without feeding her two or 

 three quarts of wheat bran, and we have had no case of abor- 

 tion for the last four years. There have been a great many 

 abortions in our town, and farmers who do not feed wheat bran 

 have had a great many cases this fall. 



The Chairman. Do you feed the bran dry or wet ? 



Mr. Bucklin. Part of it I wet with whey, the other part I 

 feed dry. I have no limestone in my vicinity, and the cattle 

 have soft water invariably. 



Mr. NouRSE of Westborough. In Westborough and vicinity, 

 and in Grafton, the farmers who have suffered most severely 

 are those who have fed the most wheat bran. In a stock of 

 twenty-two or twenty-three cows, within a year and a half, I 

 have lost eighteen calves, and I never fed more shorts than I 

 have during the last year or year and a half. I have fed six 

 quarts a day, perhaps, and some of my friends have told me, 

 " If you will stop feeding your cows so high, you will find they 

 "will come round as usual." A friend of mine who has lost 

 thirty calves from the same cause during the last year and a 

 half, is also one who has fed as much shorts as any man I know. 



