THE HOOF AND ITS CULTURE. 
351 
scalded both before and after using (in consequence of the 
difficulty in keeping them clean, wooden pails should not be 
used). The milker’s hands and the udder should both be 
washed before milking, and in every way an endeavor should 
be made to keep the milk sweet and fresh and free from bac¬ 
teria. 
Further, the calves should be kept in as strong and healthy 
a condition as possible; the pens in which they are kept 
should have light and plenty of fresh air; these are just as 
essential to the healthy development of animal life as of plant 
life. Dry bedding, and plenty of it, is another item that is 
too often neglected; the calf-pens are usually in a dirty, 
filthy condition ; on the average farm they are not cleaned 
out till a wet day comes round, when the hired man does 
odd jobs around the buildings. Nothing is worse for young 
stock of anv kind than to be compelled to lie in their own 
wet and tilth. Another important matter is the water sup¬ 
ply ; calves will drink a large quantity of water if they have 
free access to it, but when the wells are situated in or near 
the barnyard more or less of the surface drainage must find 
its way into the well and contaminate the water supply. 
In conclusion, the whole sum and substance of prevention 
is hygiene. Hygiene is of paramount importance ; unfor¬ 
tunately, however, farmers do not realize the importance of 
the subject, and until they do “scouring in calves ” will re¬ 
main as much a mystery and a source of loss to the farmer as 
it is to-day. 
THE HOOF AND ITS CULTURE. 
By Dr. Williamson Bryden, Y.S , Boston, Mass. 
(Read before the Massachusetts Veterinary Medical Association, June, 1893.) 
Permit me to apologize to you for again trespassing 
on your time to call attention to the subject of the “ Hoof and 
its Culture.” 
The study of the horse’s hoof and limbs, as most of you 
are aware, is not altogether new to me, for it is now almost 
twenty years since I first determined, after much hesitation, 
