158 
DOMESTIC AJNIMAL8. 
Laving been put on dry fodder. But so soon as we were able to turn 
her into pasture — about the beginning of April — the milk, after eight 
days of this new food, resumed its former course, and the animal con- 
tinued daily to furnish the same relative amounts of milk and butter as 
before. 
“ Three cows, two of which were fourteen years old, and the other 
fifteen, have dried up two years after the operation, and at the same time 
promptly fattened, without increase or change of food. 
“ One cow, eight years old, plentifully supplied with trefoil and cab- 
bage, gave, a short time after the operation, a quantity of milk nearly 
double that which she gave before, although she was kept on the same 
kind of food. She has during a year continued to furnish the same 
amount, and has, in addition, fattened so rapidly, that the owner has 
been obliged, seeing her fatness, to sell her to the butcher, although she 
was still very good for milk. 
“ Another fact, no less worthy of remark, we must not pass over in 
silence ; and which goes to prove the superior and unchanging quality 
of the milk of a spayed cow. It is, that a proprietor having spayed a 
cow five years old, recently calved, with the special intention of feeding 
with her milk a newly-born infant, the infant, on arriving at the age of 
six months, of a robust constitution, refused its pap when it was once ac- 
cidentally prepared with milk different from that of the spayed cow. 
“The other cows which had been spayed continued to give entire 
satisfaction to their owners, as well in respect to the quantity and quality 
of the milk, as also by their good condition. 
“ Six cows manifested, shortly after the operation, and on divers occa- 
sions, the desire for copulation ; but we have not remarked this peculi- 
arity except among the younger ones. In other respects, as my col- 
leagues MM. Lcvrat and Regero have stated, the milk has not indicated 
the least alteration in quantity or quality. 
“ Indeed, the happy results that are daily attained from this important 
discovery are so conclusive, and so well known at this time in our part 
of the country, that, as we write, many proprietors bring ns constantly 
good milch cows, since we have called upon them to do so, for us to 
practice the operation of spaying upon them. Every owner of cattle is 
aware that, from the time that the cow has received a bull, and in pro- 
portion as gestation advances, the milk changes and diminishes progress- 
ively, until at last, two or three months before a healthy parturition, the 
animal gives very little or no milk, whence ensues considerable loss ; 
while at the same time, after the cows are subjected to the bull, the 
milk and butter are, for fifty days at least, of a bad quality, and im- 
proper to be exposed for sale; but, in addition to this, breeding cows 
are generally subjected to such loss in winter, and their keepers find 
themselves during a great part of the year entirely deprived of milk 
and butter, and at a time, too, when they most need them. 
“By causing the cows to undergo this operation, as we have men- 
tioned in the preceding remarks, the owner will never fail of having 
milk and butter of excellent quality; will fatten his animals easily when 
they dry up, and also will improve the race, an anxiety for which is 
perceived in many provinces of France. 
