444 
Management of Cattle. 
by the pail, and kept in loose hovels or sheds in winter ; run upon 
inferior pastures afterwards ; and are fed oft rising four years old 
in stalls or loose hovels, and weigh upon an average from 56 to 
60 stones. 
The Aberdeenshire breed is very similar in many respects to 
the last, but possesses a better aptitude to fatten and a greater 
thickness of meat on the roasting joints. They are treated in a 
similar way to the Fifeshire, being fed oft" at home, principally in 
winter, rising four years old, and weigh from 60 to 64 stones. 
The females of both the last-named are only indifferent milkers. 
The Angus breed is both horned and polled. The horned ones 
are a cross between the best West Highlanders and the Aberdeen- 
shire : they have short legs, a deep carcass, and are generally speak- 
ing good handlers. They feed more quickly and cover better 
than the Aberdeenshire, and weigh from 56 to 60 stones. They are 
reared and fed in the same manner as the two preceding breeds. 
The polled Angus are generally speaking very inferior to good 
Galloways, although there are a few herds of this breed which 
have been greatly improved lately. They want hair and lean 
flesh, and are often bad handlers, and slow feeders. They are 
treated like the last, and will weigh about the same. 
Diseases. 
Although it is not my intention to enter here into a minute 
detad of the diseases of cattle, yet there are some which come so 
closely under our daily observation that it may be necessary to 
notice them briefly. 
To the breeder there is none more distressing than that well- 
known, and too often fatal, disorder, called puerperal or milk 
fever in cows. Many die of this complaint, which is generally 
produced by the animal being too fat at the time of calving, or 
from improper force and violence being employed at the time of 
delivery. This malady has been hitherto little understood. It 
was formerly supposed that the womb was the seat of the disease, 
but it is now the opinion of the most eminent veterinary surgeons 
that the brain and nervous system aie its principal seats. It 
sometimes destroys life in a very few hours, and I believe in the 
majority of cases it proves fatal. The question, then, arises, as 
milk fever is seldom cured, how it can best be prevented. I 
believe cows kept in the field are much less liable to it than 
when they are tied up, or closely confined, in summer. If the 
animal is in vei-y high condition, and the weather hot, bleeding 
ten days or a week before calving, and a reduction of the diet is 
highly necessary. Exposure to severe wet and cold in winter 
wilh very low diet, such as straw or bad hay, is quite as likely to 
produce disease as the opposite treatment in summer. 
