276 * FIELD AND FERN. 



tion^^ fairly burst his bull. A great deal depends upon 

 the jockeying during that time. A cow is generally 

 kept sharp set till four or five hours before the show. 

 If she had been on too fine food, her paunch would 

 be drawn up, and the vessel would lean forward, and 

 the teats not in position ; whereas if the paunch it^ 

 gradually filled in these few last hours, first by giving 

 her common food, and then by coaxing her into 

 quantity by bettering it at every supply, she is filled 

 to repletion, and the vessel hangs taut and square. 

 She often gets her pound of salt at night, and be- 

 tween the two agencies she should be turned out 

 qiiite the thing in the morniug. Cows are also kept 

 well up to " tid" during the show season with gruel 

 made of linseed-meal, oat-meal, and flour, diluted 

 with their own milk, and sometimes as much as 31bs. 

 of treacle in it. The shape of the vessel is also as 

 carefully looked to and adjusted as the Spanish cock's 

 comb, which was, w^liile the fashion set that way, 

 kept up in pasteboard splints, till just before going 

 into Bingley Hall. A board is put beloAV the vessel 

 with holes for the teats, and tied with strings round 

 the cow's back, so as to keep it in position, and the 

 vessel is laved with cold water all night, to make it fiat 

 and contracted and give it consistency. 



They are also washed over v.'ith butter-milk, and 

 the finer lights put in with soap and gum. Sometimes 

 the cow barbers use butter-milk for the legs, and take 

 to hair-oil, and the horns are rubbed with charcoal or 

 hawthorn ashes, in accordance with an old supersti- 



