360 CATTLE-BREEDING. 



a phenomenon confined to the genus bos. It is 

 true of all young males in the period of transi- 

 tion to maturity? 



A well-grown yearling bull is capable of per- 

 forming light service, and it is very desirable 

 to have such an one to breed to yearling heifers. 

 He should of course be used with great caution, 

 very infrequently and on very few cows for the 

 first year. Fifteen or twenty are quite enough 

 for him his first year, and rather more than half 

 of the work had better fall in the second half 

 of the year. As he grows older the number 

 may be steadily and gradually increased, until 

 at five years old, if he is a strong and vigorous 

 animal, he ought to be capable of covering a 

 hundred cows with the certainty of getting a 

 calf in nearly every instance. Of course no bull 

 gets so high a proportion of calves. There are 

 many disturbing causes quite apart from any 

 want of vigor on his part. The chief of these 

 are disease or other causes affecting the females 

 solely. Still a hundred cows is hard service, 

 even for an exceptionally vigorous bull, and he 

 must be well cared for and fed an abundance 

 of strength-supplying food if he is to be ex- 

 pected to be a sure and regular breeder. Let 

 me strongly emphasize the necessity of abun- 

 dant out-of-door life and exercise for the stock 

 bull. Too much stabling is unnatural and 

 highly enervating, and robs all males of their 



