392 THE MANAGEMENT AND FEEDING OF CATTLE 



can most quickly bring healing to the wounded parts 

 of the body. It is also deemed advantageous to fast the 

 animals for several hours before spaying them. 



As will be manifest to the reflecting mind, spaying 

 is a more difficult operation than castration. It is more 

 difficult because it seeks to remove what is not apparent 

 to the eye, and what cannot be reached without making 

 a wound in some part of the body before the organs to 

 be removed can be reached. Because it is more difficult, 

 it calls for higher skill to perform it without hazard, 

 hence where much spaying is to be done, the services of 

 a veterinary surgeon or of some one else accustomed to 

 the work should be secured. 



Females that should be spayed. — It is safe to say 

 that all females grown under range conditions should be 

 spayed when not reserved for breeding. When not 

 spayed it would be difficult, if not impossible, to prevent 

 them from breeding. They would also be liable 

 to breed at an age too early for successful breeding. 

 They will also make better gains within a given time 

 since the energies of the system cease to be drawn upon 

 to maintain the organs of reproduction as soon as the 

 animals are spayed. 



Females reared for meat on the arable farm should 

 be spayed unless they are to be slaughtered young. 

 There is not the same hazard that they become pregnant 

 as when grown on the range, but the disturbance to 

 them and to other animals of the herd by the periods of 

 heat are ever recurring after they become capable of 

 breeding. If they are to be sold as baby beef, the wis- 

 dom of spaying them is to be questioned, as the opera- 

 tion is always attended with some hazard. 



In some instances, it may be profitable to spay cows 

 that have been used for breeding or milk production, or 

 for both uses, before they are sent to the block. Es- 

 pecially may this he done with cows of the classes named 

 that are to be fattened before sending them to the block. 



