Tlie Management of a Sliorthorn Herd. 
433 
here has been to keep in view principles of management and 
facts, and not to overlook opinions, when they were the opinions 
of thoughtful and experienced men. 
There are a few more matters of detail I wish to notice. 
Next to beef, milk must have the place of favour with a great 
majority of the managers of herds. In future years, so far as 
we can judge the tendencies of current events, we shall be 
thrown more than we are at present upon dairy-farming as 
a source of profit and of the national food-supply. In the 
belief that without losing in the smallest degree the Shorthorn's 
usefulness as a grazing animal, we may largely increase its 
yield of milk, I am supported by the carefully founded opinion 
of some of the most practical and successful breeders of grazing 
stock. In all probability, the three-times-a-day milking would 
greatly tend to cause an increased flow of milk ; and a great 
deal, I believe, might be done by attention to the bag. In 
hand-milking, a lazy milker goes to the hind-quarters of the 
bag first, because they are the easiest to draw ; and for the same 
reason he sticks to them longest, so that eventually they increase, 
while the fore-quarters diminish, and a " can-bag," all down 
behind and shallow and shrunk in front, is the necessary con- 
sequence. Eventually, the fore-quarters become almost useless, 
not in the first cow that is so treated, but by gradual deterio- 
ration through successively mismanaged generations of cows, 
I until in a great part of the stock, common as well as highly 
I bred, which should be the dairy stock of the country, the 
1 capability of the udder is seriously impaired. More attention 
j to this on the part of the owners of Shorthorn herds is urgently 
I needed : not only on the part of owners of herds kept for the 
I dairy, but more especially of the owners of bull-breeding herds ; 
i for it is the bulls bred from cows with no fore-bags that do the 
I mischief all over the country. 
Much care should be devoted to the exercise of young animals, 
and making them accustomed to the halter, the slip-noose of 
which should be knotted or " locked," as the ordinary term is, to- 
prevent its tightening upon the animal, pinching and so causing 
great pain and consequent restlessness. This is especially im- 
portant in tying animals up in horse-boxes, or other means of 
conveyance for travelling. In driving cows the stick should be 
raised only to point the way, a hint which properly treated 
animals readily take. Otherwise the stick is seldom necessary, 
and, if necessary, must be used with a light and careful hand. 
The abominable cruelty of tail-twisting will never be permitted 
by any intelligent owner. The herdsman who loses his temper 
with the cattle under his charge is totally unfit for his place. 
He must have a kindly liking for them in oi'der to get thorough 
VOL. XVI. — S. S. 2 F 
