The Manayement of a Shorthorn Herd. 
415 
One man would keep the cows up to their milk to any extent, 
while another in a very short time would contrive to dry all the 
cows he milked. Mr. Aylmer prefers to have one regular plan 
and not a mixture of various ways, so when he found the draw- 
backs to his first system, he changed entirely to the second, and 
has retained it ever since. 
No difficulty in getting the cows that suckle their calves to 
breed regularly is found at West Dereham Abbey. The reason 
why so many breeders do meet with this difficulty is supposed 
to exist in the continued companionship of cow and calf. If 
the calf is allowed to run out with the cow, or to lie in with 
her, the cow, as a rule (a rule, however, by no means without 
exception), is said to be longer in coming to profit again, in 
fact shows no disposition to be fruitful, until the calf is taken 
away ; whereas if the cow sees her calf only morning and 
evening, just long enough to feed it, she is virtually in much 
the same circumstances as a hand-milked cow that never sees 
her calf, and she will breed again quite as soon as if milked 
only by hai^d. The great point, Mr. Aylmer insists, in favour 
of reproductiveness in the case of the female is never to let her 
(jet too fat. If once she is allowed to reach the condition of 
obesity, there is no dependence to be placed upon her as a 
breeder. Reducing in condition may bring her back to her 
duty, but it is a tiresome and risky process, and very uncertain 
in its results. The rule that prevention is better than cure 
applies with great force to this part of Shorthorn management. 
If one of the West Dereham cows is observed to be making fat 
too rapidly, a few weeks' banishment to the purgatorial fen farm 
is the precaution taken ; and in the event of a cow obstinately 
growing fat to the destruction of her reproductive powers, she 
is handed over to the butcher, for whose offices she has prepared 
herself. Idlers are not permitted to remain in the herd. 
In the treatment of calves, exercise is a matter of the first 
importance for health, and to keep the limbs straight. It also 
has the advantage of promoting docility, by making the calves 
accustomed to the company of the herdsman, and to handling, 
and trains them to step out smartly when required for inspection. 
The calves, therefore, are regularly either led out in a halter 
every day, or turned out to stretch their limbs and take their 
airing in the straw-yard. 
No particular season of the year is made the calving-time : it 
is all the year round, and if the ages of bulls do not happen to 
suit the home buyer, they may do for the colonist or the foreigner. 
The calves are turned out to grass at six months old, or as near 
that age as possible, according to the time of their birth. The 
calves born late in the year, or early in the new year, go out in 
