| whole period of the animal’s existence. 
| tire rings. 
62 
ways fleshy, and formed a series of distinct ridges, 
are now lean, dry, and smooth, with little or no 
rising. The eye-pits, which in youth generally 
appear fleshy, plump, and smooth, are now sunk 
and hollow, and make the animal look lugubrious 
and ghastly. A horse which was formerly grey 
is now white; a horse which was formerly all 
black, is now probably grey over the eye-brows, 
or over a large proportion of the face; a horse, 
which was formerly black, but had a star or blaze 
fringed round with grey, is now grey or whitish 
over much of the face ; and most horses, according 
to the variety of their colour or constitution, 
sooner or later become flea-bitten over most of 
their body except about the joints. All horses, 
when very old, sink more or less in their back ; 
some, which are naturally long-backed, become so 
sunk that a saddle can hardly any longer be found 
to fit them; and most become so stiff in their 
joints as to trip and stumble upon even a smooth 
and almost level road. But long before a horse 
is transmuted into one of the mere animated 
skeletons which are sometimes seen to drag them- 
selves along the streets of a market town, every 
respectable farmer willhave repudiated the cruelty 
of fastening it under a harness. 
Age of Black Caitle—The horn of a cow is often 
regarded as affording, in the number of its rings, 
a distinct criterion of the animal’s age. The 
horn of a heifer, in ordinary cases, remains smooth 
or unprotuberant till the expiration of the second 
year of the animal’s life; a circle of thicker mat- 
ter, or a kind of horny button begins then to be 
formed, and is completed in a twelvemonth ; this 
circle of thicker matter moves next year from the 
head, or is impelled by a cylindrical growth of the 
horn; another circle of thicker matter is then 
begun to be formed; and, after a second twelve- 
month, is also impelled outward by a cylindrical 
growth ; and these alternations of ring and cylin- 
der follow each other year after year, during the 
Hence, 
were the growth of the horn quite uniform in all 
cows, and were the alternations of ring and cylinder 
| 1n each horn always distinct, the most common ob- 
server, simply by counting the number of rings 
on any cow’s horns, and adding two to their sum, 
| ought to be able to determine unerringly her age. 
But though two or three of the earlier rings are 
usually quite distinct, the later ones are often 
exceedingly confused; so much so that the two 
horns of one individual sometimes appear to dis- 
agree with each other to the amount of two en- 
Any heifer, too, which goes to the 
bull when she is about two years of age, imme- 
diately forms the first ring of her horns; and if 
judged by the common rule, would ever after- 
wards be pronounced a year older than she really 
is. A knavish cattle-dealer, besides, can easily 
rasp off two or three rings from the horns of an 
unsaleably old cow, and can so smoothen the rest 
| of the horns as to make it look in good keeping 
AGE OF ANIMALS. 
Let any sober-looking cow appear in the market 
with neat, small, smooth, glossy horns; and a 
young farmer, if not simpleton enough to con- 
strue these horns into indications of handsome- 
ness and mere middle-agedness, may pretty dis- 
tinctly learn from them that the animal is in 
extreme old age, and has been doctored for the | 
market by heartless knavery.—The rings in the 
bull’s horns do not begin to appear till he is five 
years of age, and are often or even usually too 
confused to be counted. The horn of the ox is 
so very strongly modified by his peculiar condi- 
tion as to be totally unlike that of the bull; and 
the horn of the heifer, as we have seen, is imme- 
diately and powerfully affected by the early com- 
mencement of gestation; so that the horn’s con- 
figuration and peculiarities are indicative rather 
of constitution than of age. 
The teeth of the cow afford criteria of age which 
possess almost perfect certainty, and are nearly 
incapable of being artificially altered. Newly 
born calves, indeed, present a diversity of appear- 
ance, corresponding to excess or deficiency in the 
average period of the cow’s gestation; and the | 
cow from six to nine years of age admits of only 
such conjectures respecting her age as may be a 
few months in error; but, with these exceptions, 
the criteria are not only certain but exact,—and 
they have also the recommendation of existing | 
solely in the incisors or front teeth, so as to be 
easily seen. At birth, in ordinary circumstances, 
the two central incisors either are protruding 
through the gum, or have actually attained a 
considerable size. 
second week, the second pair appear ; at the end of 
the third week, the third pair; and at theend ofthe | 
fourth week, the fourth or last pair. The edges of 
the teeth are exceedingly sharp ; and their enamel 
covers their crown, but does not enter into their 
composition. The wearing of the edges now con- 
stitutes for some time the chief criterion; yet | 
this occurs, not across the top of the teeth, but a | 
very little out of the line of their inner surface; | 
and it, in consequence, does not, till about the 
third month, begin to destroy the exceeding 
sharpness of the edges. At six weeks, the first 
pair are evidently worn; at two months, the 
second pair; at three months, the third pair; and 
at four months, the fourth pair. At three months 
also, the wearing down of the edges is observa- 
ble ; and at four months, this has produced a de- | 
gree of flatness in the surface of the teeth, with 
a bread line in the centre. About this time com- 
mences an absorption which slowly but gradually 
diminishes the size of the teeth, makes them 
slowly shrink from one another, causes the inner 
edge to be more worn down than the outer one, 
and occasions the form of the mark to be changed 
from a broad line to a sort of triangle. At eight 
months, the central pair of incisors are so much 
diminished as to be not more than one half of the ~ 
size of the next pair; at eleven months, the 
with the portions from which he rasps the rings. | second pair are diminished, and both this pair 
About the middle orend of the | 
