38 



THE SPAYING OF COWS. 



? at the time when she g^ves the largest quantity of milk, continnes to grive the like quantity, if not 

 during her whole lifetime, at least during many years, and at the time when the milk begins to dry 

 up the animal fattens. We are able to add, moreover, at this day, certain facts, the result of many 

 years' experiment, that the milk of the spayed cow, although as ahandaut, and sometimes more so, 

 than before the operation, is of a superior quality to that from a cow not spaypd ; that it is uniform 

 in its character, that it is richer, consequently more buttery, and that the butter is always of a 

 golden color. 



" We believe that we ought to remark in passing, that if w^e feed the spayed cow too abundantly, 

 lactation diminishes, and that the beast promptly fattens. It is therefore important that the feed- 

 ing shoald not be more than sufficient to enable us to obtain the desired result. 



" 2. The spayed cow fattens more easQy ; its flesh, age considered, is better than that of the ox ; 

 it is more tender and more juicy. 



" Indeed, no one is ignorant of the fact that all domestic animals, females as well as males, de- 

 prived of their procreative organs, fatten more quickly than those which retain them ; that the 

 flesh of the spayed females is more tender and more delicato tha i that of males. The same 

 phenomena take place among spayed cows that occur among other females that have submitted to 

 this operation ; so. besides the advantage of furnishing a long-continued sapply, before commencing 

 a coarse of fattening, of abundant milk, and butter of a superior quality, the cow fattens easily and 

 completely, and a certain benefit follows this coarse. 



" 3. In spaying decrepit cows, that is to say, of the age of from six to seven yeara, puny, small 

 ones; those which, though fine in appearance bear badly ; those which are subject to miscarriage; 

 those which frequently experience diflScult calving, or delivery ; those difficult to keep ; and finally, 

 all those that are tavreliet-es, that is to say. constantly in heat — we have in addition to an abun- 

 dant production of milk and butter, and a facility of fattening, the advantage of preventing a de- 

 generation of the species, and moreover of avoiding a crowd of accidents or maladies which fre- 

 quently take place during or after gestation, aud of diminishing those which happen during the period 

 of heat, such as that of heavy cows mounting others, or being jumped upon by too heavy bolls. 



" Except under peculiar circumstances, we should take care in spaying the cow, that its teats 

 have acquired their complete development, and that the milk has the proper qualities. The most 

 suitable time is after the third or fourth calving. 



" Many societies of agriculture, impressed with the important results that this operation effects, 

 fix yearly at their agricultural meetings, premiums for the encouragement of the spaying of old 

 covfB. We doubt not that other societies who have not yet adopted this plan — not being convinced 

 of its importance — when they are, will imitate their example. By this means they bestow upon 

 the country a new source of products. 



"We have been engaged for four years in researches upon this valuable discovery, we believe 

 that it is incumbent upon us to state the results that we have obtained up to the present time. In 

 the number of twenty-seven cows, aged fi-om six to fifteen years, that we have actually spayed, 

 we have had the following resolts : 1. Increase of milk in cows of six years ; 2. Constant produc- 

 tion in those that have passed that age ; 3. Milk richer than that of the cow not spayed, conse- 

 quently more battery, and the hatter both of a uniformly golden color, and having an aroma and 

 taste far superior to that of a cow that has not undergone this operation. 



" Early in July, 1842, we obtained as a subject of experiment, a cow from Brittany, of the small 

 kind, twelve years old, calved about two months before, and which gave when we obtained her, 

 about six quarts of milk daily. The next day after we performed the operation of spaying, indeed 

 the first eight days after that, the secretion of milk senfflbly diminished, in consequence of the light 

 diet on which she had been put; but, on the ninth day, the time at w^hich the cure w^as complete 

 aud the cow put on her ordinary food, the milk promptly returned as to its former quantity, anxl she 

 at the same tune assumed a plumpness that she had not had previously. Customarily brining 

 together, the yield of three days for batter-making being eighteen quarts, it produced constantly \ 

 two kilograms ofbutter of the best quality. From the month of December to the following March, , 

 the quantity of milk diminished about one third, and the butter proportionally, the cow during that i 

 time having been put on dry fodder. But so soon as we were able to turn her into pasture — about . 

 the beginning of April — the milk, after eight days of this new food, resumed its former course, and 

 the animal continued daily to furnish the same relative amounts of milk and butter as before. 



" Three cows, two of which were foarteen years old, and the other fifteen, have dried up two 

 years after the operation, and at the same time promptly fattened, without increase or change of food. 



" One cow eight years old, plentifully supplied with trefoil and cabbage, gave, a short time after 

 the operation, a quantity of milk nearly double that which she gave before, although she was kept 

 on the same kind of food. She has during a year continued to famish the same amount, and has 

 in addition fattened so rapidly, that the owner has been obliged, seeing her fatness, to sell her to the 

 butcher, although she was still very good for milk. 



" Another fact, no less worthy of remark, we must not pass over in silence ; and which goes to 

 prove the superior and unchanging quality of the milk of ft spayed cow. It is, that a proprietor 

 having spayed a cow five years old, recently calved, vrith the special intention of feeding with her 

 milk a newly-boni infant, tfie infant arriving at the age of six months, of a robust constitution, re- 

 fused its pap since it bad been accidentally prepared with milk diflerent from that of the spayed cow. 



" The other cows which had been spayed continued to give entire satisfaction to their owners, 

 c as well in respect to the quantity and quality of the milk, as also by their good condition. 

 ( " Six cows manifested, shortly after the operation, and on divers occasions, the desire for copu- 

 l lation ; but we have not remarked this peculiarity except among the younger ones. In other 

 J respects, as my colleagues, MM. Levrat and Rfeg^re, have statefl, lue milk has not indicated the 

 ) least alteration in quantiiy or quality. 



I " Indeed, the happy results that are daily attained from this important discoveiy, are so conclusive, 

 J and so well known at this time in our part of the country, that as we write, many proprietors bring 



