CASTRATION OF THE COW. 
451 
would run through the chute, on reaching the lever, and passing 
her head beyond it, a man with a rope attached to its free ex¬ 
tremity would pull it over, grasping the neck of the cow, pressing 
it against the side of the chute, and so tightly that she could 
neither pull her head back, or shove forward to any extent. 
Then, by placing a bar under her abdomen to keep her from lying 
down, the animal was ready for the operation. Of course she had 
some slight lateral freedom with her hind parts, but that was un¬ 
objectionable. No precaution was taken to keep the cows from 
kicking me, and only one attempted to do so. Nearly all of them 
fought pretty hard before we could get them into the lever, con¬ 
sequently receiving a beating in proportion, and with uncalled-for 
brutality from the ranchmen, many of them suffering the loss of 
one or both horns, causing them intense pain as they would after¬ 
wards manifest. All this, no doubt, added sensibly to the reac¬ 
tional fever, and I noticed that nearly every cow that lost a horn 
died. During the operations the cows showed no signs of pain or 
distress until the ovaries were being crushed off, when many of 
them would arch their backs and flinch slightly, not enough how¬ 
ever to evince any acute suffering. After the ovaries were ex¬ 
tracted, and before each cow was liberated, she had to be branded 
with a red hot iron, for the purpose of distinguishing her from 
the non-castrated cows. When the iron was applied they would 
often thrash around violently, showing this to be another of the 
tortures which they had to endure. After being operated upon 
they were driven about a mile, to a large island in the North 
Platte Diver. The pasture was too small to accommodate all, and 
this was the only means afforded of holding them excepting herd¬ 
ing in the day, and corralling at night, which always gives them 
more or less excitement. To get them to this island they had to 
wade through water up to their abdomens, and climb a steep em¬ 
bankment about five or six feet high. On the way there they 
showed no unnatural symptoms with the exceptions of most of 
them carrying the tail elevated, and a very few showed stiffness 
in the hind limbs. They drank freely in crossing the water to 
the island, and immediately went to grazing on reaching it. The 
symptoms following the operation, are a flexing of the vertebral 
