Failure to Breed. 231 



facts in such cases that enable us to draw conclusions that 

 are mainly consistent, and probably trustworthy. 



The heated condition which leads to coupling, for in- 

 stance, would not come on without an increase of blood 

 and heat in the region of the ovaries. Nor would coup- 

 ling recur so much more frequently than at the normal in- 

 tervals, unless there was a recurrence of abundant blood 

 in the region of the ovaries, as frequently is the case when 

 this accidental coupling heat comes on in cows, after they 

 have aborted. 



The peculiar circumstance in cows that have recently 

 aborted is : They come into heat in a few days — from four 

 to ten — after aborting, which is contrary to natural rule ; 

 as the cow species breed only once a year, naturally, and 

 do not come into heat for several weeks after calving, or 

 until they are capable of breeding, which is generally 

 about the time the calf's teeth are grown, and hard enough 

 to enable it to graze. Then, milk being no longer demand- 

 ed by the grazing calf, the cow dries up, and the milk- 

 forming blood, not being demanded at the udder, the blood 

 supply and heat about the ovaries are increased, bringing 

 on heat, or cestrura in the natural way, and at the natural 

 period. 



In aborting cows, on the other hand, coupling heat 

 comes on in a few days after they abort, which, in different 

 cases, varies all the way from the third or fourth to the 

 seventh or eighth month, the coupling heat occurring in a 

 few days after such premature delivery ; this preliminary 

 condition of breeding, thus occurring in and invading 

 the current breeding season, even as far back as the mid- 

 dle of a current and unexpired breeding term. So the 

 heat that comes on early and suddenly after an abortment, 

 occurs at various premature periods, or by from one to six 

 months earlier than breeding begins again, in cows that 

 carry their calves to full term ; this arising from a dis- 



