118 THE FARM DAIRY. 



hurt her and she is afraid that you are going to 

 hurt her again, and she feels that her safety de- 

 pends on her ability to defend herself. It is pos- 

 sible that if strict justice were to be done you 

 might need to be kicked out of the stable. , 



Twenty-five years ago I had a friend in the 

 village where I did business who had a choice- 

 cow and he often told me of her gpod qualities!, 

 but one,day he said to me that his cow had con- 

 tracted the habit of kicking and he could not 

 milk her and would have to sell her. I told him 

 there was some cause for this change, but he 

 could not think what it could be, and was posi- 

 tive that it was pure viciousness. This I would 

 not believe, and told him to put a little linseed 

 oil on her teats every time he finished milking 

 her. The next time I met him he laughed and 

 said his cow was cured, as a few applications of 

 the oil had remedied the trouble and showed 

 him what it was. The cause in this case was a 

 pond of water in the pasture in which the cow 

 stood fighting flies, getting her teats wet and 

 causing them to chap, but not so deeply that the 

 milker discovered it until the healing process 

 had commenced. Then he discovered the cause 

 and was made happy, as well as the cow. 



There is always a cause for a cow's kicking 

 and it is not to our credit not to be able to find 

 it. In case you cannot find and remove the 

 cause of a cow's kicking, the cow should be 



