OVARIECTOMY IN HEIFERS 291 



price as steers in the market. On the smaller farms where 

 a few bovines are reared annually to be marketed for beef it 

 is no small convenience and no trivial asset to be able to 

 safely allow all the bovines to herd together in the same 

 pasture or in winter in the same yard, in contradistinction to 

 the annoyance of constantly keeping the sexes segregated 

 in different enclosures. These presents, in addition to the 

 advanced value of the spayed heifer on account of the ex- 

 cellency of its beef, gives a high value to the operation. The 

 operation should be practiced more extensively on the small 

 farms than it has been during past epochs, on account of its 

 great value in animal husbandry. The large majority of 

 American veterinarians have not only failed to encourage 

 the practice amongst stockmen, but they have actually 

 avoided the operation when it has been demanded. This 

 apathy has been due to the graduation of large bodies of 

 students by the veterinary colleges, who are entirely defi- 

 cient not only in the details of this most useful operation, 

 but who also lack proper knowledge of the essentials of 

 veterinary surgery in general. 



On the American ranges the operation of ovariectomy in 

 heifers needs no introduction. It has been performed for 

 years with gratifying results. In fact, the profitable manage- 

 ment of large herds would be quite impossible on account 

 of the difficulty of regulating reproduction, and the loss in- 

 curred in the wholesale marketing of pregnant females. 



RESTRAINT.— The operation may be performed both 

 in the standing position and in the recumbent position. The 

 standing position is the preferable one and should always be 

 adopted where a substantial and suitable yard, chute and 

 stocks can be constructed. The novice will find that the ova- 

 ries are more easily found when the viscera hang in their nor- 

 mal relations. A yard leading into a narrow chute admitting 

 the animals single file, and ending at an improvised stocks 

 fitted with a trap for the head, ropes to prevent lying down, 

 and an open space on the left side to expose the seat of opera- 

 tion, constitutes the ideal arrangement when a number of 

 heifers are to be operated upon consecutively. The animals are 

 driven into the chute, prodded along to the stocks, fastened, 

 operated upon and then released at the^ front end, leaving 

 the stock ready to receive the one waiting behind. With 

 such an arrangement large numbers can be operated upon 

 with minimum delay. The stocks construction is a simple 

 one. It is but the end of the chute, equipped in front with 

 two hinged railings between which the head is trapped, and 



