TREATMENT OF BREEDING COWS. 243 



"Highly satisfactory results have been gained by a thorough 

 change of climate, when the stock were sent to hilly districts 

 where the air is bracing, and they have to take plenty of exer- 

 cise. Barrenness may also be traced to too close relationship, or 

 a similarity of temperament. This is, however, a qualified bar- 

 renness, to be overcome by proper selection on the part of the 

 breeder. The fat condition of the male animal, and his want 

 of constitutional vigor, are frequently the chief causes of diffi- 

 culty. I have known of bulls, which had become valueless for 

 breeding purposes, being worked upon the land in carts, and 

 thereby rendered serviceable. 



"I believe that we have the condition of successful reproduc- 

 tion, very much under our own control, and that the cases of 

 legitimate barrenness, either on the part of the male or female, 

 are much more rare than we imagine. I know that animals 

 which are naturally capable of breeding, can be rendered incpm- 

 petent by adopting a special course of treatment ; and I consider 

 that in our usual system of management, we must retard and 

 interfere with the healthy performance of this natural function 

 of animal life. 



"For the purpose of more fully investigating the causes of 

 barrenness, I have examined the ovaries of several heifers, which 

 were, after careful trial, condemned and killed as barren; and I 

 have every reason to believe that by far the larger proportion, 

 were naturally quite competent for breeding, and that in the 

 majority of cases, non-impregnation arose from the seminal fluid 

 never reaching the ovum, which was ready for fertilization, or 

 from that fluid not being of a healthy character. In some cases 

 in which the ova were, to all appearance, perfectly healthy, the 

 tubes — whereby the seminal fluid should have been conveyed — 

 were so overcharged with fatty matter, that impregnation was 

 rendered impossible. In other cases, the ovaries were in an 

 unhealthy condition, either one or both having, to a great extent, 



