148 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL, [1 Frs., 1899, 
DEHORNING CATTLE. 
THe following is from an official bulletin issued from the Maine Experiment 
Station :— 
Dehorning is to be recommended because dehorned cattle are more easily 
cared for than those with horns. The best time to !perform the operation is 
during cold weather, when there will be no trouble from flies. To dehorn 
mature animals, use clippers that will remove the horn perfectly at a singlé 
stroke and ina moment of time. With suitable clippers, properly used, thé 
operation is simple and very quickly performed. Animals do not givé 
evidence of great suffering as an effect of dehorning. The tissues injured in 
dehorning are not very well supplied with nerves, and they are quickly cut 
through. Good evidence that dehorning is not very painiul is the fact that 
cattle will resume feeding immediately after being operated on, and the yield 
of milk in cows is not perceptibly affected. Compared with castration of colls 
and calyes, dehorning may be considered painless. ‘Those who are familiar 
with the operation and the results of it are its most enthusiastic advocates. 
To prevent the growth of horns, calves under three weeks of age can hayé 
the embryo horns removed with one stroke of a sharp knife, or they can bé 
treated with caustic sufficiently powerful to destroy them. In the past, efforts 
have frequently been made to prevent the practice of dehorning on the groun 
that it caused needless pain. It would seem to us that efforts can now better 
be expended by endeavouring to have the last relic of a horn removed from out 
domestic cattle, who ceased to need them when they came under the protection 
of man. Horns may sometimes be ornamental, but it is evident that they ar¢ 
usually useless, expensive, and dangerous luxuries. 
DEAD WEIGHT OF PIGS. 
Te following table, showing the age, live weight, and dead weight and loss in 
pounds and tenths per 20 lb. of live weight, will doubtless be of interest and 
value to our readers :— 
| 
| y ae Saleable Dead |Loss in Ib, 2010, 
Age. | Live Weight. Weight. tive WGcee 
a nt apeenes ce, ae a = | — = 
| Months. Days. Lb. | Lb. Lb. 
Hop ty Mr toe a 3 135 109 3°85 
Boat eae apt Meio hig 155 198 418 
Hoste oes! Gils es 7rerl 2 ie | 167 184 3°95 
Gites. pee ar | 10 ae Le 278 | 249 2°59 
The table, which is given by a correspondent of the tarmer and Stock- 
breeder, gives particulars of very heavy animals. For instance, one sow (age 
not given) weighed 643 Ib., her saleable dead weight was 570 lb., and the loss 
per 20 Ib. live weight 2°27 lb. In Queensland such enormous pigs are not 
marketable, the usual weight acceptable by the bacon factory proprietors being 
from 90 Ib. to 150 Ib. 
By the above table, a pig weighing 140 lb. would lose about 28 Ib., giving 
112 Ib. of saleable meat. 
A NOVEL POULTRY CLUB. 
TERE has recently been formed in London a club called “ The Utility Poultry 
Club,” for the laudable purpose of keeping up and improving the utility 
characteristies of poultry. One can wish them every success without accepting 
their dictum that “there is no doubt that purebred birds, when bred for the 
purpose, are the most profitable of any, producing eggs and meat, and also 
being the foundation of the profitable first cross.’ What is a pure breed ? 
But the club does not insist on this point, for the first of the eight objects of 
the club is “ to encourage the breeding of pure or cross bred birds, with due 
