THE FEEDING AND CARE OF BULLS 125 



When seeking to restore the loss of generative 

 power the aim should be to feed food that is succulent 

 and nutritious and withal rich in protein, and only in 

 such quantity as will maintain a reasonable amount of 

 flesh, to allow no attempts at service b}^ the animal for 

 a time, and to give the same bull liberty of exercise, and, 

 if possible, under conditions favorable to restfulness. 

 These conditions may be most perfectly secured in a 

 pasture when no females unless such as are spayed 

 are allowed. Restored powers are scarcely to be looked 

 for during the reducing process. It is when the system 

 becomes normal, or when building up begins, that the 

 lost powers are most likely to return. AA^ith animals 

 that are valuable such treatment may bring with it a 

 valuable reward, but it will usually be more profitable 

 to supplant an impotent male of only ordinary merit 

 with another whose procreative powers are unimpaired. 



Purchase and disposal of bulls. — The practice of pur- 

 chasing bulls to be placed at the head of herds w^hile 

 still quite young is so common as to be almost universal. 

 It rests upon the desire, first, to effect a saving in freight 

 on the lighter animal, and, second, to dispose of him at 

 an age when he may be readily prepared for the market. 

 To the purchase of bulls under the age of one year, and, 

 especially, during the milk period, there is the objection 

 that not infrequently, in many instances, the form under- 

 goes such modifications as development progresses that 

 it changes materially, sometimes in the line of improve- 

 ment and sometimes in the opposite direction. The 

 character of the development, therefore, when the animal 

 is matured, can be predicted with more certainty sub- 

 sequent to the age mentioned than previously. 



It is to the present advantage of the grower of bulls 

 to dispose of them when young, as the cost of rearing 

 increases with the advance in age. He finds it more 

 or less difficult to dispose of 1:>ulls held for sale in the 

 one-year form, and increasingly so as they grow older. 



