MANAGEMENT OP CATTLE. 433 



and Greece ; and wherever he is met with, he is made serviceable as 

 a beast of draught and burden, and as food. 



In breeding oxen, the great consideration is the bull. According 

 to Thaer, the bull ought to have a short thick neck, the head short 

 and small, the forehead broad and curled, the eyes black and spark- 

 ling, the ears long and well placed, the chest broad and deep, the 

 body long, the legs short and columnar in shape.* A well-made 

 bull would serve seventy or eighty cows were the season spread 

 equally over the whole year ; but as it is not so, Thaer thinks that 

 twenty is as many as can properly be given to the same animal ; and 

 this, in fact, is the number which we adopt at Bechelbronn. 



The cow gives more milk than any animal known. A great va- 

 riety of external signs of a good milker have been particularized ; 

 but it may be said that there is none infallible. In a general way, I 

 think that race has much to do with the point ; the cow that is the 

 offspring of a mother of a good kind, and a free milker, will herself 

 be a good milker also. I will only a<dd, that among the milch-kine 

 which I have had an opportunity of observing, those that showed 

 little tendency to take on fat, while they kept their appetite, have ap- 

 peared to me to yield milk in largest quantity, and for the longest time. 



The age at which it is advisable to put heifers to the bull, depends 

 a good deal on the way in which they have been kept and brought 

 up, and also on their growth. Young animals of a good kind, that 

 have been well fed from the birth, and received all the care which 

 contributes so powerfully to their development, will be ready to re- 

 ceive the bull when they are between a year and a half and two 

 vears old. At Bechelbronn, we bull the greater number of our 

 heifers at the age of about eighteen months. Whenever they enter 

 into heat with any thing like force, whatever their age, they ought 

 to be put to the bull, or there is risk of the disposition to receive him 

 dying away, and never returning ; the heifer then begins to lay on 

 fat, and ever after refuses the male. The rule, however, is not to 

 allow the young female to be leaped until she is nearly at her full 

 growth ; this, in fact, is the season when the desire for the male 

 usually first shows itself. 



If there be no new indication of heat, in the course of three or 

 four weeks after the male has been admitted, there is reason to be- 

 lieve that the animal is pregnant. The cow goes with calf about 

 forty weeks ; the delivery generally takes place between the 277th 

 and the 299th day after the access of the bull ; but periods so short 

 as 240 days, and others so long as 321 days have been observed.f 



The calf that is brought up with proper care is generally allowed 

 to suck for five or six weeks ; but it sometimes happens that even 

 at three weeks old the quanity of milk supplied by the mother is 

 insufficient : an additional quantity of food is therefore requisite. 

 One of the best drinks for calves is made by mixing a proper quantity 

 of oil-cake with tepid water ; the large proportion of vegetable ca- 

 Beum,of oily matter, and of phosphates which the substance contains, 



• Principles of Agriculture, vol. iv. p. 296. 



t Teissier in Annals of French Agriculture, vol. Ix. 2d series. 



37 



