WHY CATTLE SHOULD BE KEPT IN HERDS 185 



before the door, toasted to tinder by weeks of fierce 

 sunshine, grazes a good Alderney cow, type of patient 

 usefulness. Depending as I do on her to supply me 

 with cream and butter for breakfast, I cannot be 

 indifferent to things concerning her comfort; and, 

 seeing that July is the worst month in all the 

 calendar for flies, I am glad to note that she has 

 a fine switch of black hair at the end of her tail, and 

 that with this efficient fly-flap she keeps her loins 

 and ribs free from annoyance. But obviously it is 

 not long enough; it does not reach her forequarters; 

 her withers, shoulders, and dewlap are densely 

 covered with black swarms of flies, which must be 

 intensely irritating. Now, if I had been designing 

 a cow, methinks I should either have made the tail 

 a couple of feet longer, or, better, brought out a 

 subsidiary one halfway up the spinal column, to 

 serve the poor beast's fore-quarters. 



' Gently there ! Mr. Humanitarian,' I seemed to 

 hear somebody whisper, 'put the saddle on the right 

 horse if you please. It is only too true that yonder 

 gentle creature is suffering horribly, but whose fault 

 is that ? ' 



It did not require profound or prolonged re- 

 flection to show where the blame really lay. It was 



