AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
269 
valuable, for the purposes of yielding milk for 
the dairy, and meat for the butcher. 
Spaying of cows at a certain period of their 
life, offers immense advantages to the agricul¬ 
turist and consumer, in producing much aug¬ 
mentation of milk and meat, without any in¬ 
crease of kind arising; in this way, the animal 
escapes a host of ailments, and spares a host of 
losses sustained in consequence of her bulling 
at times when it is either inconvenient or impos- 
ible to gratify her desires. 
_ Formerly, such an operation, successful for a 
time at first, was consequently followed by sad 
reverses, in consequence of which it was once 
again abandoned. It evidently became, for the 
purpose of bringing it into favor, absolutely ne¬ 
cessary that means should be devised to render 
the operation of spaying less dangerous. This 
it has been my object to effect. 
At first I resolved an important modification 
in the proceeding recommended by Levrat. I 
essayed torsion restricted to the rupture of the 
Fallopian tubes, instead of tearing out the ova¬ 
ries. In this way, I avoided the haemorrhage 
which had proved the cause of death; but this 
effect, for want of instruments, was not invaria¬ 
ble, and as the wound in the flank was, in fact, 
a Caesarian operation, it was apt to give rise to 
hermea, and to be attended with all its dangers. 
Relinquishing this method, I determined to 
seek for the ovary through the natural channels. 
I had already felt it one day, while examining a 
cow to test her being in calf, in which I had 
made two lacerations through the root of the 
vagina, which, although they readily healed up, 
I afterwards thought ought to be made by sim¬ 
ple incision ; but the difficulty attendant on the 
introduction of any cutting instrument into an 
organ I know to be mobile and elastic, and pro¬ 
vided, in certain parts, with numerous large ves¬ 
sels, and to be surrounded by other highly im¬ 
portant organs, with the want of fit instruments 
for the purpose, made me recoil from this like¬ 
wise. In this predicament, I found myself left 
either with the choice still to persevere, and, 
perhaps, in the end to succeed, or to abandon 
the affair altogether. 
After much reflection, much lucubration, 
many experiments, in slaughter-houses, and on 
my own cows, many trials of all descriptions, 
many sacrifices, instruments of all kinds, I at 
length succeeded in rendering castration of the 
bovine female simple, facile, painless for the an¬ 
imal, and certain of success, unless in a case 
wherein either the subject, or the part operated 
on, were in a state of disease at the time, or un¬ 
less through some unforeseen occurrence, as has 
been shown by upwards of two hundred opera¬ 
tions which have been performed without any 
reverse. 
This it is that forms the foundation of the 
new work I have had the honor of submitting 
to the Academy of Sciences; a work divided 
into three parts; the first part showing that 
spaying has the effect both of augmenting the 
return of milk and aptitude to fatten; the sec¬ 
ond, its effect on the health of milk cows; the 
third, treating of the manner of operating, with 
such modifications as I conceive ought to be 
entertained; terminating with some reflections 
on the spaying of cows that have had calves, 
and of heifers. 
Advantages of Spaying to Agricultural and 
Industrial Economy. —Two questions here meet 
our view; one is—Does the operation give rise 
to an. augmented supply of milk ? The other, 
does it favor the fattening of the beast? 
First—Let us inquire into the usual manage¬ 
ment of milk cows by cow-keepers and farmers, 
and others, who keep them for the purpose of 
milking. Two methods are pursued by them; 
the first consists in keeping the cows for several 
years, and producing fat calves every eleven or 
twelve months; the second, in keeping their 
milk solely, without ever desiring any reproduc¬ 
tion. The former custom of keeping cows to 
breed every year, is now for the most part aban¬ 
doned, in consequence of the inconvenience it 
puts them to, and of the losses sustained by it; 
the cow remaining, perhaps, many months dry, 
or giving but little milk during the latter months 
of gestation. Such fluctuation in the supply of 
milk, such short-coming in the annual income, 
added to the necessity of keeping a third or a 
half more number of cows, in order to meet the 
demand for milk—privations like these felt by 
the small farmer and vineyard-keeper having 
but one or two cows, occasion their being 
months in the year without milk, or butter, or 
cheese either. 
A small dairy such as this, notwithstanding 
it has but a few cows, is forced to keep a bull, 
which yields no profit save its dung, and is sold 
at a loss when wanted to be got off. When one 
has no bull of one’s own, there may be none 
within reach, or within a long way off, and dur¬ 
ing the bulling season it may be impossible to 
get the cows to him, on account of the weather, 
or that one has nobody at hand to take them. 
In this predicament, the bulling may pass off. 
The cow may fail to conceive, although experi¬ 
encing, more than ever, desire for copulation. 
Moreover, cows which are bulling, who have not 
been in the habit of going out, become intracta¬ 
ble; often they break their halters, make their 
escape, and come to harm, or injure, or even 
kill persons. The proprietor of the bull, not 
being forewarned, it may happen that after two 
or three leaps the animal fails in the act, the 
effect of which is rather to excite sexual desire 
than to calm it, such as happens when he is a 
bad calf-getter. Or the bull may prove too 
large for the cow, or beget a calf too large for 
parturation. Or the bull may be unwell. Or, 
as happens not unfrequently, the journey to the 
bull is postponed from day to day, until the 
cow loses all desire; or this may be done pur¬ 
posely to prolong her duration of yielding milk. 
Rich food, and plenty of it, which is given to 
the cow to force her milk, is apt to engender 
disease, besides creating in her a desire for cop¬ 
ulation. And, as an inflamed surface refu>es 
generally to absorb the substances applied to it, 
surexcitation of the vagina, uterus, Fallopian 
tubes, and ovaries, will, in like manner, be lia¬ 
ble to continue to the failure of impregnation 
taking place, from lack of absorption of the fe¬ 
cundating fluid. Should the cow become with 
calf, then has the animal to encounter all the 
accidents and diseases attendent on gestation 
and parturition, &c. 
1. The operation prolongs the milking period, 
and augments the annual return from such pro¬ 
duction. 
In order to prove this assertion, I may repeat 
what has been before stated by my predeces¬ 
sors, based upon a series of facts whose authen¬ 
ticity is guaranteed; and afterwards, I may cite 
such facts as have occurred under my own cog¬ 
nizance, based upon certificates of cow-keepers, 
with the legalization of administrative authority; 
and, lastly, I may establish comparisons be¬ 
tween the products of cows not castrated and 
cows that have undergone the operation. 
From M. Levrat, of Lausanne, we learn that 
spayed cows yield, annually , for the first two 
or three years, from a fourth to a third more 
milk than they were in the habit of giving be¬ 
fore the performance of the operation. And 
further trials convince M. Levrat, that the in¬ 
crease cannot be estimated at less than one-third 
of the annual amount. 
M. Regire, of Bordeaux, asserts, that in five 
cases he experimented on, the cows yielded at 
least double the quantity they did before the 
operation. 
And, lastly, M. Morin, veterinarian at the 
National Depot of Languet, asserts that a cow 
spayed thirty or forty days after calving, or at 
the time that she is giving most milk, continues 
to yield, if not for the remainder of her life, at 
least for many years, the same large quantity of 
milk, and sometimes more than she gave at the 
moment of the performance of the operation. 
M. Roche-Lubin is the only person opposed 
to this latter opinion. M. Prange has shown, 
by his experiments, that there was no reason 
I for him to repose on the authority of Roche- 
Lubin, since they themselves had proved to him 
the uncertainty of castration having the effect 
of maintaining the congenital natural supply of 
milk, his own trials having varied in its results 
in this respect; nevertheless they have shown 
an increase in the annual amount. It appears 
of consequence that the operation of spaying 
should be performed at a proximate and proper 
time after calving. 
This second part of M. Charlier’s paper com¬ 
mences with an account of the cases in support 
of what he has already advanced, in which he 
shows, by proof positive, that in spite of the 
doubts and contrary assertions expressed, it re¬ 
mains for certain that spaying has the effect of 
prolonging the milking period, as well as of aug¬ 
menting the annual supply of milk. From this 
he proceeds to show that, 
2dly. Castration favors the fattening of cows. 
M. Magne, in his Traite d’ Hygiene Veieri- 
naire Appliquee, gives a reason for this—If 
cow’s flesh, he says, is in little estimation, that 
depends mostly on their not being fatted until 
they have grown old, and left off yielding milk. 
And further on, he adds, cows which give no 
milk, providing they be well fed, have their gen¬ 
ital organs in a condition excited and ready for 
the male, and at this time become fat with dif¬ 
ficulty. Hence arises the bad odor their meat 
acquires at the butchery, where all emes are 
reckoned oxen. If they were castrated, it would 
not be so, since that would destroy the more 
powerful influence against their fattening. By 
such a practice there would be no need of work¬ 
ing young oxen up to the moment of their be¬ 
ing put up to fatten. By aid of castration the 
cow as well would come in, and yield both milk 
and fat. Thus would the price of meat become 
lowered in the market. Contradicting the com¬ 
mon assertion that castration is not favorable to 
fattening, and that it is physiologically impossi¬ 
ble to obtain, at the same time, milk and meat 
from a cow who has undergone such an opera¬ 
tion. Observation daily shows the contrary of 
this. 
In regard to the observation that castration 
detracts from consumption, by lessening the num¬ 
ber of calves, and that it detracts also from the 
reproduction of the species. If calves produced 
by persons who keep cows for milking purposes 
were made fat before they were sold to the 
butcher, I could not deny that this was true; 
but when one comes to know the fact that, in 
general, these productions are disposed of at a 
very low price, in despite of the law, almost im¬ 
mediately after they are dropped, to the country 
butchers or others, to be food for classes not so 
well off, we are led to think otherwise. So that, 
in point of fact, castration does not so much 
harm to the propagation of the species, but 
rather contributes, in stopping bad cows from 
breeding, to our advantage. Nor can I compre¬ 
hend how such an objection can be raised, when 
every day we behold at the butchery an im¬ 
mense number of cows in calf. 
THICK AND THIN SOWING. 
Never in our remembrance did corn of all 
kinds look more encouraging than at the pre¬ 
sent time; and where it is isolated and not 
planted too thick, an unusually abundant crop 
may be expected. Last season we stated the 
possibility of obtaining from single grains of 
wheat, at the extreme distance of three feet 
apart, upwards of 80 perfect ears, containing 50 
kernels each, or more than 4000 fold. Our spe¬ 
cimens of last year, and of the growing crop 
this season for inspection, corroborates the as¬ 
sertion. This gives upwards of 10 qrs. per 
acre, from two pints of seed. We are also pre¬ 
pared to prove that isolated plants, one foot 
apart, at about six pints of seed per acre, will, 
under judicious treatment, also produce as great 
a crop; but if planted closer than this standard, 
it is an utter impossibility, as the plants then 
cannot perform their natural capababilities. 
Respecting the opposite extreme—thick sow¬ 
ing, we now make the bold statement that every 
