EKSKINE LIBRARY OF USEFUL KNOWLEDGE. C A T T LE; BREEDS, MANAGEMENT, AND DISEASES; WITH AN INDEX. PCBWSHED UNDER THE SUPERINTENDENCE OF THE SOCIETY FOR THE DIFFUSION OF USEFUL KNOWLEDGE. LONDON: BALDWIN AND CRADOCK, PATERNOSTER-ROW. MDOCCXXXIV. COMMITTEE. Chai-man The Right Hon. the LORD CHANCELLOR, F.R.S., Memb. Nat. Tnst. of France. net-Chairman The Right Hon. Lord J. RUSSELL, M.P., Paymaster of the Forces. Treasurer -WILLIAM TOOKE, Esq., M.P., F.R.S. W. Allen, Esq., F.R. A R.A.S. T. Drummond, Esq., H.E.jRowland Hill, Esq., F.R.A.S, J. Herman' Merhale, Esq., Bt. HOB. Vise. Althorp, M.P. F.R.A.S. Edwin Hill, Eq. M.A., F.A.S. Chancellor of the Exch. Right Hon. Viscount Ebring- Th Ri!{lu Hon. Sir J. C. Hob- James Mill, Esq. Capt. F. Beaufort, R.N., F.H., ton, M.P. house, Bart. M.P W. H. Ord, Esq. M.P. and R.A.S., Hydrographer to C. L. Eastlake, Esq., H.A. David Jardine, Esq., M.A. The Right Hon. Sir H. Parncll, the Admiralty. T. F. Ellis, Esq., A.M., F.R.A.S. Henry B. Ker, Esq. Bart., M.P. Sir C. Bell, F.R.S.L. & E. Sir Henry Ellis, F.R.S., Sec. The Rt. Hon. the Earl of Kerry. Dr. Roget, Sec. R.S., F.R.A.S. G. Burrows, M.D. ' A.S. Prin. Lib. Brit. Mus. Thos. Hewitt Kev, Ksq., M.A. Sir M.A. Shee, P.R.A., F.R.S. C. Hay Cameron. Esq. John Elliotson, M.D., F.R.S. George C. Lewisi Esq., M.A. J. Abel Smith, Esq., M.P. Tb RL Rev. the Bishop of Thomas Falconer, Esq. James Loch, Esq., M.P., John Tuvlor, Esq., F.R.S. Chichester, D.D. I. L. Goldsmid, Esq., F.R. and' F G S. Dr. A. T. Thomson, F.L.S. William CouUon, E.q. R.A.S. jGeorge Lons, Esq., M.A. John Ward, Esq. R. D. Crei'/, Eta. B. Gompertz, Esq., F.R. and J. W. Dubbock. Esq., F.R., H. Wavmoulh, Esq. Wm. Crawford, Esq. R.A.S. R.A.. andL.S.S. J. Whishaw, Etq., M.A., F.R.S. J. Fred. Daniel), Esq., F.R.S. G. B. Greenough, Esq., F.R. & H. Maiden. Esq., M.A. John Wood, Esq. H. T Delabeche, Esq., V.P. L.S. A. T. Malkin, Esq. M.A. John Wiottesley, Esq., M.A., Geol. Soc. H. Hallam, Esq., F.R.S., M.A James Manning, Esq. F.R.A.S. The Right Honourable Lord M. D. Hill, Esq., M.P. Denman. THOMAS COATES, Esq., Secretary, 59, Lincoln's Inn Field. LOCAL COMMITTEES. Ansletea Rev. E. Williams. Cardigan The Rev. J. Black- J. Ashton Yates, Esq. ' E. Moore, M.D.. F.L.S., Sec. Rev. XX'. Johnson. well. Ludloia T. A. Knight, Esq., G. Wightwick.Esq. Mr. Miller. Carnarvon R. A. Poole, Esq. P.HS. Presteign Dr. A. XV. Davied, AM,u'tan J. F. Kingston, William Roberts, Esq. Maidenhead R. Goolden, Esq., M.D. Esq. Chester Haves I.yon, Esq. F.L.S. Kippon Rev. H. P. Hamilton, Barnslaple Bancraft, Esq. Henry Potts, Esq. A.M., F.R.S. and G.S. William Cribble, Ksq. Chicheslrr Dr. Forbes, F.R.S. Clement T. Smyth, Esq. Hev. P. Ewart, M.A. Billion Rev. W. Leigh. C. C. Dendy, Esq. John Case, Esq. Rulhen Hev. the Warden of. Birmingham Rev. John Cor- rie, K.R.S.. Chairman. Paul M. James, Esq., Trea- Coventry \r, Gregory, Esq. Corfu John Crawford, Esq. Mr. Plato Pctrides. Malmesbury B.C.Thomas.Esq. Manchester Local Association G. W. Wood, Esq., Chairman. Humphreys .lours, Esq. Byde, hie of H'JgAi Sir lid. Simoon, Bnrt., M.P. surer. Denbigh-John Madocks, Esq. Ben'. Heywood, Esq., Treas. Sheffield J. II. Abraham, Esq. W. Redfern, Esq., Hon. Sec. Bridjiorl Wm. Forster, Esq. Thos. Evans, Esq. Detbt/ Joseph Strutt, Esq. T. W. Wiustanlcy, Esq., Hon. Sec. Sheptnn Mallet G. F. Burroughs, Esq. Jami'S Williams, Esq. Edward Strutt, Esq., M.P. Sir G. Philip, Bart., M.P. Shreinbury 11. A. Slunev, Esq., rulol3. N. Sander?, Eq., Devonport and Stonehouse Benj. Gott, Esq. M.P. Chairman. John Cule, Esq. Mertlwr TydvilJ. J. Guest, South Fetherton J. Reynolds, Esq., Trea. Norman, Esq. Esq., M.P. J.Nicholetts, Esq. J. B. Estlin, Esq., F.L.S., Lt.-Col. C. Hamilton Smith, tlinthinhampton John Ball, St. Asaph Rev. Quo. Strong. Sec. F.R.S. Esq. Stockport Henrv Marsland, Calcutta L-,rd Wm. Benttnck. Sir Edward Ryu. Etruria Jos. Wedgwood, Esq. Exeter J. Tyrrell, Esq. lHonmouth J. H. Moggridge, Esq. Esq., Ti-easttr'i-r. Henrv Coppock, Ksq., Sec. James Young, Esq. Cambridge Rev. Jumei Bow- John Milford, Esq (Confer.) Glasgow-K. Finlay, Esq. Newcastle Rev. W. Turner. TavistockKev. \X'. F.vans. John Kundle, Esq. stead, M.A. Professor Mvlne. Newport, Isle of Wight Truro-Riehard Taunton, M.D. Rev. Prof. Henslow, M.A., F.L.S. a G.S. Bev. Leonard Jenyni, M.A., Alexander McGrigor, Esq. Charles Tennant, Esq. James Cowper, Esq. Abr. Clarke, Esq. T. Cooke, Jun., Esq. R. 13. Kirkpatrick, Esq. Henry So-well Stokes, Esq. Tunljriil^c Wells Dr. Yeats, M.D. F.L.S. Rev. John Lodge. M.A. Glamorganshire Dr. Malkln. Cowbridgc Newport Pagnetl J. Millar, Esq. Warwick Dr. Conolly. The Rev. W. Field, (Leant.) R. W. Kithmun, Esq., M.A., F.R.A.S. and G.S. W. Williami, Esq., Aberper- Neirtoirn, Montgomeryshire William Pngh, Esq. Watrrford Sir John Newport, B*rt. Rov. fieo. Peacock, M.A., F.R.S. 4 G.S. Guemsev F. C. Lukis, Esq. Hull]. C. Parker, Esq Kmvirli Right lion. Lord Suf- field Wulri'rhampton J. Pearson, Esq. Rev. Prof Sedgwick, M.A., Keigltley, Yorkshire Rev. T. Rich. Bacon, Esq. Urn-cater Dr. Corbet, M.D. F.R.S. A fi.S. PnfaMor Smyth, M.A. Dury, M.A. Launceslon Rev. J. Bnrfitt. Oxford Dr. Dnuho-nv, F.R.S., Professor of Chemistry. Dr. Hastings, M.D. C. H. llehb, Esq. Hev.C.Thirlwall, M.A. Cmlrrbllry-Alex. B. Higgins, Leamington Spa Dr. London, M.D. Rev. Professor Powell. Rev. John Jordan, B.A. (( rea-Jiam Thomas Kdgivorth , Esq. John Brent, Esq. Leeds ). Marshall, Esq. Lewes J. XV. Woollaar, Esq. Hev. R.Walker, M.A., F.R.S. E. W. Head, Liq., M.A. J. E. Bowman, Esq., F.L.S., K W r p m ' ^ arter M'tK, Liverpool Local Association W. H. Browne, Esq., M.A. Major William Lloyd. WltHamlfM*. r- W.\V.Currie,Ks q .,Cna.Vman. Penang Sir B. H. Mnlkin. Yarmouth C. E. "Rumbold, "ii TI blasters, Esq. J. Mulleneux, Esq., Treas Plymouth H. Woollcombe, Esq., M.P. 0" J. F. Davis, Eq., F.R.S. RCT. W. Shepherd. Esq., F.A.S., Chairman. Duwson Turner, Esq. Snow Harris, Esq., F.R.S. York Kev. J. Kenrick, A.M. THOMAS COATES, Esq. Secretary, 59, Lincoln's inn Field.. PREFACE. IN preparing this volume on " Cattle," the author has often had reason to deplore the want of materials, and which he has been enabled to obtain only by correspondence with competent individuals, and the personal in- spection of the present state of cattle, in the greater part of the British empire. To those noblemen and agriculturists from whom he derived information, the more highly estimated by him, because most readily and courteously granted, he begs to return his warmest thanks. His obliga- tion to Mr. Berry, for the admirable history of the Short-Horns, will not be soon forgotten. He has endeavoured to lay before the public an accurate and faithful account of the cattle of Great Britain and Ireland. He does not expect to please every one who reads his work or who has contributed towards it ; for long experience has taught him that, although there is some excellence peculiar to each breed, there is none exempt from defect; and the honest statement of this defect will not satisfy the partisan of any one breed, or or of any variety of that breed. He has passed lightly over the subject of the general management of cattle, in order to avoid trenching on the work on " British Husbandry," now publishing under the superintendence of the Society. The diseases of cattle was a favourite topic with the writer, but here, too, he painfully felt the deficiency of materials for a treatise worthy of such a subject. One branch of veterinary science has rapidly advanced. The dis- eases of the horse are better understood and better treated ; but, owing to the absence of efficient instruction concerning the. diseases of cattle in the principal veterinary school, and the incomprehensible supineness of agri- cultural societies, and agriculturists generally, cattle have been too much left to the tender mercies of those who are utterly ignorant of their struc- ture, the true nature of their diseases, the scientific treatment of them, and even the very first principles of medicine. With the few practitioners scattered through the country, who had praise- worthily devoted themselves to the study of the maladies of cattle, the author entered into correspondence ; and he derived from them a liberal assistance which does honour to the profession whose character they are establishing. 208 1C 30 fr PREFACE. To many of the contributors to that valuable periodical, " The Veterina- rian," he is under considerable obligation, which has been duly and gratefully acknowledged. He has likewise had recourse to various foreign authorities ; for, although far behind us in the cultivation of the breed of cattle, many continental writers, and continental agriculturists generally, have set us a laudable example of attention to the diseases of these animals. The author ventures to hope that the information derived from these sources, as well as from his own practice, may have enabled him to lay- before his readers a treatise on " Cattle" not altogether unsatisfactory; and that, particularly with regard to the maladies of the ox, so often grossly misunderstood and shamefully treated, he may have succeeded in laying down some principles which will guide the farmer and the practitioner through many a case heretofore perplexing and almost uniformly fatal. At all events, he will have laid the foundation for a better work, when com- mon sense, and a regard to the best interests of husbandry, shall have induced agriculturists to encourage, or rather to demand a higher degree of general education in veterinary practitioners, and shall have founded, south of the Tweed, those schools for professional instruction in every branch of the veterinary art which have been successfully established, and are honourably considered on the continent. W. YOUATT. Ncutau Street, Middlesex Hospital, London. CONTENTS. Page PREFACE . -. ...- - . . . ,, *. iii INTRODUCTION *,. 1 CHAPTER I. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE OX. '.:W J>'t His Zoological character domesticated before the Flood fossil bones. CHAPTER II. THE BRITISH OX. . v ?" ; "'| No satisfactory description of cattle by early writers The Lancashire and the Devon ox The ox of central Africa the backley of Southern Africa the Scotch bull the Swiss cows Return to our native cattle in the feudal times occasional wild cattle those of Chillingham Park Present cattle classed according to the size of their horns the middle-horns probably the original breed they are found where the natives retreated from their invaders essentially the same wherever found. > >'.?: : L ( >! .;> CHAPTER III. THE MIDDLE-HORNS. ij^,v 11 The NORTH DEVONS The proper form and shape of cattle the Devons tried by this test Lord Western's cattle the Devonshire cow the working properties of the Devon ox his disposition to fatten Experiments value of the cow for the dairy attempted crosses the Vale of Exeter South Devon cattle clouted cream CORNISH cattle principally North Devons crosses DORSETSHIRE cattle mixture of Devon and Dorset SOMERSETSHIRE cattle pure Devons on the borders of Devon gradual change of character the old Somersets the present cattle Cheddar chee&e The HEREFORDS description of them comparison between them and the Devons fattening proper- lies experiments GLOUCESTERSHIRE cattle the old Gloucesters the present breed in the hilly district in the vale of Berkeley crosses Gloucester cheese single and double SUSSEX cattle description comparison with Devons and Herefords Sussex cow crosses West Sussex cattle KENTISH cattle WALES general character of the Welsh cattle PEMBROKES GLAMORGAN'S former character of them present breed- late improvement Mr. David's breed MONMOUTHSHIRE cattle CARMARTHENS CAR- DIGANS-' Cattle of BRECKNOCKSHIRE and RADNORSHIRE Cattle of NORTH WALES ANGLESEY cattle the passage of the Menai crosses improvements Welsh tradi- tions The CARNARVONS The cattle of MERIONETH, MONTGOMERY, DENBIGH, FLINT, SCOTLAND the WEST HIGHLAND cattle the HEBRIDES Description of the true Kyloe early anecdotes Mr. Moorhouse Hebridean management The outer Hebrides the tacksman ARRAN the Duke of Hamilton's improvements general management BUTE ARGYLESHIRE the cattle rearing Can tire dairy-management INVER- NESS the ferry of Kyle-Rhea the shealings overstocking the trysts NORTH HIGHLAND cattle the SHETLANDERS description management the Holmes the ORKNEYS CAITHNESS Sir John Sinclair's valuable improvements present character of the cattle diseases strange superstitions SUTHERLAND introduction of sheep husbandry different breeds management superstitions Ross and CROMARTY peculiarity of the cattle Mr. Mackenzie's valuable account of Ross NAIRN, MORAY, BANFF the Banffshire breed Lord Findlater's improvements ABERDEEN descrip- tion of the cattle the Kintore ox the polled cattle the Buchan cows KINCAR- DINESHIRE the Mearns ox the cottar of the present and olden time ANGUS the horned breed FIFE description of the cattle origin the Durhams in Fife PERTH character of the cattle STIRLING the Carses David Dun, the Scot- tish Bakewell Falkirk tryst KINROSS, CLACKMANNAN, DUMBARTON the wintering grounds the Ayrshires in Dumbarton their produce RENFREW AYRSHIRE State of the county fifty years ago present state cattle opinions of their origin their value as dairy-cows produce profit boyening Dunlop cheese fattening properties of the Ayrshires management calves LANARK the Strathaveu veal the Willow- vi CONTENTS. bank dairy WEST LOTHIAN the cattle grazing MID-LOTHIAN the original and present cattle the Caledonian dairy EAST LOTHIAN Mr. Rennie's cattle ROX- BURGH BERWICK the cradle of Scottish agriculture Mr. Pringle, the first culti- vator of turnips in drills the progress of improvement SELKIRK change in its cha- racter. CHAPTER IV. POLLED CATTLE. . Page 154 GALLOWAY _ Description of the Galloways Mr.Mure's breed his Queen of the Scots _ peneral excellence of the Galloways DUMFRIES the Galloways of a larger size h ere _ ANGUS _ the polled cattle comparison between them and the Galloways Mr. "Watson's valuable breed NORFOLK the original breed horned source of the present l, ree d _ travels of the Galloway cattle fairs the Earl of Albemarle Mr. Coke SUFFOLK _ description extraordinary instances of produce DEVONSHIRE nats . YoHKSHiRE'polls. CHAPTER V. THE IRISH CATTLE. . 179 The- aboriginal breed middle-horns the Kerry cow the prevailing breed were pro- bably the Cravens Improvement slower in Ireland than in England Mr. Waller's improvements in Meath Lord Masserene Lord Farnham the Earl of Rosse Sir H. V. Tempest Mr. Conolly modern improvers exportation of Irish cattle cattle salesmen Irish butter. CHAPTER VI. THE LONG-HORNS. . 188 Originally from Craven the larger and smaller breed early improvers the black- smith of Linton Sir Thomas Gresley Mr. Webster Bloxedge Robert Bakewell his principles his success anecdotes errors of his successors Twopenny Mr. Fowler Siiakspeare Description of D Mr. Fowler's sale Mr. Prinsep Mr. Mundy Description of the improved Leicesters strangely rapid deterioration and disappearance of them WESTMORELAND LANCASHIRE the native breed now rarely seen crosses introduction of short-horns Mr. Kirk's long-horns DERBYSHIRE description of cattle CHESHIRE breed injured by the introduction of short-horns management of the dairy Cheshire cheese NOTTINGHAMSHIRE LEICESTERSHIRE RUTLAND HUNTINGDON CAMBRIDGE Cambridge butter NORTHAMPTON BED- FORD experiments at Woburn BUCKINGHAMSHIRE BERKSHIRE HAMPSHIRE crosses Isle of Wight WILTSHIRE the long-horns almost extinct crosses of all kinds cheese OXFORDSHIRE WARWICKSHIRE WORCESTERSHIRE STAFFORD- SHIRE tbe old Staffords the Staffords of the present day introduction of the short- horns SHROPSHIRE the old Shropshires the present breed. CHAPTER VII^-THE SHORT-HORNS. . 226 Description of the old breed Sir W. Quentin Mr. Milbank Mr. C. Colling history of his purchase of Hubback Favourite the Durham ox cross with the polled Galloway Bolingbroke Johanna Lady prices fetched by Lady's progeny sale of Mr. C. Coiling'* stock Mr. R. Colling sale of his stock Mr. Change of Newton Mr. Mason of Chilton Mr. G. Coates's Short-Horn Herd-Book history of remark- able fchort-horns Lord Althorp a successful breeder the milking properties of the improved short-horn undervalued not calculated for work Lord Althorp's bull Firby The improved Yorkshire cow she unites the two qualities quantities of milk yielded by her description of her CUMBERLAND Mr. Bates first crossed the Kyloe with the short-horns Mr. Maynard's experiments YORKSHIRE NORTH RioiMu once occupied by black cattle alone succeeded by the old Holderness crossed with tbe improved breed WEST RIDING every variety of cross in it Mr. Mitton's Badsworth EAST RIUING LINCOLNSHIRE the unimproved Lincolns _ the Turn* ills the present improved Lincolns the Lincolnshire ox ESSEX the calf-feeding _ the dairy Epping butter Epping sausages MIDDLESEX Booth's establishment at Brentford the number of cattle sold in Smithfield how supplied cruelties prac- tii*d there the number of cows kept in London the milk-business Laycock's dairy Rhodes 's dairy SUURY, CHAPTER VIII. THK FOREIGN BREEDS OF CATTLE. 266 The Alderney quantity and excellence of milk, fattens readily Najore cattle buffalo and Indian cattle. CONTENTS. vii CHAPTER IX. THE STRUCTURE AND DISEASES OF THE HEAD OF THE OX. .' ;'. ".-" Page 271 The skeleton the head shortness and breadth of forehead in the bull fine small head in the female extent of frontal sinuses inflammation of them the horns history of their growth treatment of fracture of them age as indicated by the horns tricks manufacture of beautiful horns the distinguishing character of the different breeds influence of sex horned Galloways comparison between the horned and hornless cattle uses of horn The brain, smaller than in the horse intelligence of cattle peculiar conformation of the brain and spinal marrow The ear difference of in different cattle diseases of The eye fracture of the orbit wounds tumours The eyelids eruption on them enlargement of haw in- flammation of the eye cataract gutta serena cancer Fracture of the skull Hyda- tids iu the brain water in the head apoplexy inflammation of the brain locked jaw epilepsy palsy rheumatism tail-slip ueurotomy madness. CHAPTER X. THE ANATOMY, USES, AND DISEASES, OF THE NOS- TRILS AND MOUTH. . . 308 The nasal bones sense of smelling more acute than the horse bleeding from the nose leeches in it polypus coryza glanders farcy The bones of the mouth the lips the bars of the mouth the pad teeth in the upper jaw the teeth the age in- dicated by them the long tongue of the ox the os hyoides gloss-anthrax or blain thrush in the mouth the glands and blood-vessels of the neck the parotid gland barbs or paps the soft palate the pharynx. CHAPTER XL ANATOMY AND DISEASES OF THE NECK AND CHEST. 338 The muscles of the neck and chest the crest of the bull form and size of the neck arteries of the neck bleeding the fleam preferred bleeding places the milk-vein with reference to bleeding The heart inflammation of its bag the bone of the heart the pulse the capillary vessels inflammation Fever inflammatory fever quar- ter-evil black quarter typhus fever the veins varicose veins The structure and form of the chest the brisket indications of its different forms The ribs proper form and direction of the spine reasons of its difference from that of the horse the larynx the round curled form of the epiglottis the windpipe tracheotomy the sweetbread the bronchial tubes catarrh or hoove epidemic catarrh the malig- nant epidemic murrain long account of the epidemics of different times sore throat inflammation of the pharynx puncturing the pharynx bronchitis multi- tude of worms often found in the air-passages bronchitis in Jamaica inflammation of the lungs acute pneumonia epidemic ditto pleurisy chronic pleurisy con- sumption importance of recognizing the peculiar cough of consumption. CHAPTER XII. THE STRUCTURE AND DISEASES OF THE GULLET AND STOMACH. , r - . 414 The peculiar structure of the gullet of ruminants choking the ossophagus-probang stricture of the gullet rupture of ditto the cesophagean canal the rumen or paunch the reticulum or honeycomb the manyplus or manifolds the abomasum or fourth stomach the cesophagean canal continued the muscular pillars of its floor they yield to a solid substance circumstances under which fluids pass over them into the third and fourth stomachs, or between them into the rumen the food macerated in the rumen passes through all the compartments of it thrown into the reticulum its honeycomb structure the pellet formed forced into the cesophagean canal reascends the gullet remasticated returned passes along the canal into the many- plus the leaves of the manyplus the fibrous parts of the food indigestible substances in the paunch concretions in ditto distention of the rumen from food ditto from gas hoove the stomach-pump the chloride of lime loss of cud poisons yew corrosive sublimate diseases of the reticulum diseases of the manyfolds clew- bound fardel-bound malformation of manyplus diseases of the fourth stomach vomiting. CHAPTER XIII. THE ANATOMY AND DISEASES OF THE SPLEEN LIVER, AND PANCREAS. . . 457 Anatomy and function of the spleen inflammation of it enlargement The liver inflammation of it haemorrhage jaundice or yellows The pancreas. CONTENTS. CHAPTER XIV. THE ANATOMY AND DISEASES OF THE INTESTINES. 4GG The duodenum jejunum ileum ccum colon rectum enlargement of the mesenterie glands inflammation of the bowels wood evil moor ill diarrhoea dy- senterv inflammation of the duodenum colic strangulation the cords or gut-tie introsnsception inversion of the rectum constipation calculi worms dropsy hernia or rupture. CHAPTER XV. THE URINARY ORGANS AND THEIR DISEASES. 503 The kidneys red water black water inflammation of the kidneys the ureters the bladder urinary calculi stone in the kidney ureters bladder urethra rup- ture of the bladder inversion of ditto. CHAPTER XVI.- BREEDING PARTURITION. . 522 The principles of breeding like produces like comparative influence of sire and dam suitableness to the soil and climate utility good feeding how far in and in Abortion or slinking symptoms of pregnancy treatment before calving natural labour the ergot of rye mechanical assistance unnatural presentation free-mar- tins the Caesarian operation embryotomy inversion of the womb rupture of ditto protrusion of the bladder retention of the foetus attention after calving the cleansing flooding dropping after calving puerperal or milk fever sore teats garget. CHAPTER XVII. THE DISEASES AND MANAGEMENT OF CALVES. 557 Navel ill constipation diarrhoea hoove castration French method of castration. CHAPTER XVIII THE DISEASES OF THE MUSCULAR SYSTEM AND THE EXTREMITIES. . . 562 Rheumatism swellings of the joints ulcers about the joints opened joints sprains diseases of the feet foul in the feet shoeing. CHAPTER XIX. THE DISEASES OF THE SKIN. 570 Structure of the skin sensible and insensible perspiration hide-bound mange leprosy lice warbles angle- berries warts. CHAPTER XX. A LIST OF THE MEDICINES USED IN THE TREAT- MKNT OF THE DISEASES OF CATTLE. 577 rtuhinp's mineral aloes alteratives alum ammonia anodynes antimonial pow- der blue vitriol butyr of antimony-antispasmodics astringents blisters calamine -calombo calomel camphor cantharidescarraways castor oil catechu-caustics chalk chamomile charges chloride of lime clysters cordials corrosive subli- mate croton diaphoretics digitalis diuretics drinks elder emetic tartar -fomentations gentian ginger Glauber's salts Goulard's extract lelmre, black iodine ipecacuanha laudanum linseed linseed oil lunar caustic ishes-nuTCiirial ointment mint myrrh nitre pitch poultices ergot of rve common salt setons-spirit of nitrons ether spirit, rectified sugar of lead sul- -tar tonics turpentine, common turpentine, spirit of vinegar white lead white vitriol. V An error exists as to the numbering of some of the Chapters in the bodv of the U hire rormt "^ tO lhe pagCS in which the res P ec 've subjects are considered CATTLE. INTRODUCTION. IF tliis volume of 'The Farmer's Series' is devoted to the history, general management, and medical treatment of an animal less connected with our commerce and our pleasure, and less endowed with intelligence and courage, and many a noble quality, than ' the horse,' we shall yet find in 'cattle,' a subject more identified with our agricultural prosperity, and with the comforts, and the very continuance of life. If an ox is not indi- vidually so valuable as a horse, yet, in the aggregate, cattle constitute a much greater proportion of the wealth of the country ; for although Great Britain contains a million and a half of horses, she has to boast of more than eight millions of cattle, unrivalled in the world. One hundred and sixty thousand head of cattle are annually sold in Smithfield alone, without including calves, or the dead-market the car- casses sent up from various parts of the country. If we reckon this to be a tenth part of the cattle slaughtered in the United Kingdom, it follows that 1,600,000 cattle are sent to the butcher every year ; and, averaging the life of the ox or the cow at five years, the value of British cattle, estimated at 101. per head, will be eighty millions sterling. 1,200,000 sheep, 36,000 pigs, and 18,000 calves, are also sent to Smithfield in the course of a year, and if we reckon these to be a tenth of the whole number, and allow only two years as the average duration of the lives of sheep and pigs, and value the calves at 21. 10s. each, the pigs at 21., and the sheep at II. 10s., we shall arrive at the additional sum of nearly forty millions ; so that we may safely compute the actual value of cattle, sheep and swine, to be nearly 120 millions sterling. Although much has been done by agricultural societies to improve the breed and the general treatment of these animals, and much valuable in- struction is to be found scattered in many a volume, no one has yet at- tempted to collect these fragments of ' useful knowledge,' and to add to them his own experience ; and in one very important part of our subject, there has been the most unaccountable neglect, for there is scarcely in the English language a work on the preservation of the health, and the prevention and cure of the diseases, of cattle and sheep, on which any dependence can be placed. Although a tenth part of the sheep and lambs die annually of disease (more than four millions perished by the rot alone in the winter of 1829 30), and at least a fifteenth part of the neat cattle are destroyed by inflammatory fever and milk-fever, red water, hoose and diarrhoea ; and the country incurs a loss of nearly ten millions of pounds annually, the agriculturist knows not where to go for information on the nature and the cure of the maladies of which B g CATTLE. they die ; and is either driven to confide in the boasted skill of the ignorant pretender, or makes up his mind that it is in vain to struggle against the evils which he cannot arrest, and lets matters take their course. There are two great sources of the mortality of cattle and sheep, and the loss of agricultural property, and it is difficult to say which is the worst, the ignorance and obstinacy of the servant and the cowleach, or the ignorance and supineness of the owner. Veterinary schools, that owed their origin to the ravages of epidemics among cattle, and that were established for the express purpose of teaching 4 a more systematic knowledge of the management of sheep and cows,' have shamefully neglected their trust. The horse has gradually absorbed the whole of their attention ; he alone has been heard of in the lectures and practice of these schools ; and, until within a very few years, the best veterinary practitioner was uneducated and uninformed in matters re- lating to cattle. A great deal has been written in different books respecting the pecu- liarities of the different breeds, and their adaptation to different purposes, and the points which may be said to be characteristic of each, and on which their excellence mainly depends : but the opinions of the writers are often too much at variance with each other; and the farmer too frequently rises from the perusal of them puzzled rather than instructed, and even led astray from his interest instead of being guided in its pursuit. The subject of the present work will be the Natural History, the different Breeds, the Structure, (more particularly with reference to their beauties and defects,) the utility for various purposes, and the Diseases, and General Management of Cattle, with their most rational and successful treatment ; and if we may be enabled to rouse the farmer to strive, and perhaps successfully strive, to rescue a few of his oxen from that destruction of which he has been an almost passive spectator ; and to direct his at- tention, the attention of the little farmer, and the cottager, as well as the wealthier and more influential individual, to that whfch should not have been so long and so utterly neglected, our main and most valuable purpose will be accomplished. CHAPTER I. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE OX. T" E * belnn s to the CLASS mammalia, animals having mammae, or teats Ine Horse, p. 62) ; the ORDER ruminantia, ruminating, or chewin- ie lr food a second time; the TRIBE bovida, the ox kind ; the GENUS bos, ox, the horns occupying the crest, projecting at first sideways, and r With ' n; Und thC SUB ' GENUS bo8taurus,or the teeth in the tow QCC rdinff to their teeth, they have eight incisors, or cutting qiL i - gnnciing teeth, in each jaw, and on each side. Horse,' p 63):- therdbre > be represented as follows :-(see 'The The ox incisors , canines p molarg . . T The nauve country of the ox, reckoninVfrom the time of the 'flood, was THE NATURAL HISTORY OP THE OX, 3 the plains of Ararat, and he was a domesticated animal when he issued from the ark. He was found wherever the sons of Noah migrated, for he was necessary to the existence of man ; and even to the present day, / wherever man has trodden, he is found in a domesticated or wild state. The earliest record we have of the ox is in the sacred volume. We are told that, even in the antediluvian age, and soon after the expulsion from Eden, the sheep had become the servant of man ; and the inference is not improbable, that the no less useful ox was subjugated at the same time. It is recorded, that Jubal, the son of Lamech, and who was probably born during the life-time of Adam, was the father of such as dwell in tents, and of such as have cattle*. Being domesticated before the flood, the ox would not be neglected by Noah and his sons afterwards ; and as the families of men spread abroad after the confusion of tongues, the ox would be carried with them, as con- stituting one of the most valuable portions of their wealth. When Abra- ham was in Egypt f, one hundred and eighty years before there is any mention of the horse, Pharoah presented him with sheep and oxen. The records of profane history confirm this account of the early domes- tication and acknowledged value of this animal, for it was worshipped by the Egyptians, and venerated among the Indians. The Indian legends say that it was ' the first animal that was created by the three kinds of gods, who were directed by the Supreme Lord to furnish the earth with animated beings.' The traditions of every Celtic nation enrol the cow among the earliest productions, and represent it as a kind of divinity. The parent race of the ox is said to have been much larger than any of the present varieties. The Urus, in his wild state at least, was an enor- mous and fierce animal, and ancient legends have thrown around him an air of mystery. In almost every part of the Continent, and in every district of England, skulls, evidently belonging to cattle, have been found, far exceeding in bulk any now known. There is a fine specimen in the British Museum : the peculiarity of the horns will be observed, resembling smaller ones dug up in the mines of Cornwall, preserved in some degree in the wild cattle of Chillingham Park, and not quite lost in our native breeds of Devon and East Sussex, and those of the Welsh moun- tains and the Highlands. The combat of Guy, Earl of Warwick, with the dun cow, the skull of which is yet preserved in the castle of Warwick, will sufficiently prove the comparatively large size of some of the wild cattle of that day. We have reason, however, to believe that this referred more to individuals than to the character of the breed generally, for there is no doubt that, within the last century, the size of the cattle has progres- sively increased in England, and kept pace with the improvement of agriculture. We will not endeavour to follow the migrations of the ox from Western Asia, nor the change in size, and form, and value, which it underwent, ac- cording to the difference of climate and of pasture, as it journeyed on towards the west, for there are no records of this on which dependence can be placed ; (the historians of early days were poor naturalists ;) but we will proceed to the subject of the present work, the British Ox. * Gen. iv. 20. f Gen. xii. 16. ./Ti / J - WUXJLJ Tk-e^ O-yi A^t^-r ^^* r*~~<^**-**- B 2 4 CATTLE CHAPTER II. THE BRITISH OX. IN the earliest and most authentic account that we possess of the British Isles the Commentaries of Caesar, we learn that the Britons possessed great numbers'of cattle ; that they comparatively neglected the plough, and lived on the flesh and the milk of these animals. The fondness for this kind of food, on account of which foreigners sometimes attempt to ridicule the Englishman, is inherited from ancestors of the remotest date. No satis- factory description of these cattle occurs in any ancient author ; but they would seem, with occasional exceptions, to have possessed no great bulk or beauty. The poets have celebrated the intelligence, or fidelity, or some interesting quality of almost every species of agricultural property but the heavy and seemingly stupid ox, not so uninteresting, however, as many have imagined him to be, when he is closely observed, and his habits and capabilities watched. Cattle are like most other animals, the creatures of education and cir- cumstances. We educate them to give us milk, and to acquire flesh and fat. There is not much intelligence required for these purposes. It fares with the ox, as with all our other domesticated dependents, that when he has lost the wild freedom of the forest, and become the slave of man, without ac- quiring the privilege of being his friend, or receiving instruction from him, instinct languishes, without being replaced by the semblance of reason. But when we press him into our immediate service, when he draws our cart and ploughs our land, he rapidly improves upon us ; he is, in fact, altogether a different animal : when he receives a kind of culture at our hands, he seems to be enlightened with a ray of human reason, and warmed with a degree of human affection. The Lancashire and the Devonshire ox seem not to belong to the same genus. The one has just wit enough to find his way to and from his pasture ; the other rivals the horse in activity and docility, and often fairly beats him out of the field in stoutness and honesty in work. He is as easily broken in, and he equals him in attachment and gratitude to his feeder. It is, however, in other countries where the services of the ox are more extensive, and his education more complete, that we are to look for that development of intellect, which his sluggish nature would scarcely promise here. Burchell, in the 1st vol. of his Travels into the Interior of Africa, p. 128, says: 4 These oxen are generally broken in for riding, when they are not more than a year old. The first ceremony, is that of piercing their nose to re- ceive the bridle ; for which purpose they are thrown on their back, and a Blit is made through the septum, or cartilage between the nostrils, large enough to admit a finger. In this hole is thrust a strong stick stripped of its Imrk, and having at one end a forked bunch to prevent it passing through. To each end of it is fastened a thong of hide, of a length sufficient to reach round the neck and form the reins ; and a sheep skin, with the wool on, placed across the back, together with another folded up, and bound on with a rein long enough to pass several times round the ody, constitutes the saddle. To this is sometimes added a pair of stirrups, conbisung only of a thong with a loop at each end slung across the sad- dle. Frequently the loops are distended by a piece of wood to form an THE BRITISH OX. 5 easier rest for the foot. While the animal's nose is still'sore/it is mounted and put in training, and in a week or two is generally rendered sufficiently obedient to its rider. The facility and adroitness with which the Hotten- tots manage the ox has often excited my admiration : it is made to walk, trot, or gallop, at the will of its master ; and being longer- legged and rather more lightly made than the ox in England, travels with greater ease and expedition, walking three or four miles in an hour, trotting five, and galloping on an emergency seven or eight.' Major Denham, in his Travels into Central Africa, gives the following amusing account of some of these excursions : 4 The beasts of burden used by the inhabitants, are the bullock and the ass. A very fine breed of the latter are found in the Mandara valleys. Strangers and chiefs in the service of the sheikh or sultan alone possess camels. The bullock is the bearer of all the grain and other articles to and from the markets. A small saddle of plaited rushes is laid on him, when sacks made of goat skins, and filled with corn, are lashed on his broad and able back. A leather thong is passed through the cartilage of his nose, and serves as a bridle, while on the top of the load is mounted the owner, his wife, or his slave. Sometimes the daughter or the wife of a rich Shouaa will be mounted on her particular bullock, and precede the loaded animals, extravagantly adorned with amber, silver rings, coral, and all sorts of finery ; her hair streaming with fat, a black rim of kohal, at least an inch wide, round each of her eyes, and I may say arrayed for conquest at the crowded market. Carpet or robes are then spread on her clumsy pal- fry, she sitsyam&e de pa,jambe de la, and with considerable grace guides her animal by the nose. Notwithstanding the peaceableness of his nature, her vanity still enables her to torture him into something like caperings and curvetings.' It is, however, in the southern part of Africa that the triumph of the ox is complete. His intelligence seems to exceed anything that we have seen of the horse, and he is but little inferior to that most sagacious of all quadrupeds, the dog. Among the Hottentots, these animals are their do- mestics, and the companions of their pleasures and fatigues ; they are both the protectors and the servants of the Caffre, and assist him in attending his flocks, and guarding them against every invader. While the sheep are grazing, the faithful backely, as this kind of oxen is called, stands and grazes beside them. Still attentive, however, to the looks of its master, the backely flies round the field, obliges the herds of sheep that are straying to keep within proper limits, and shows no mercy to robbers, who attempt to plunder, nor even to strangers : but it is not the plun- derers of the flock alone, but even the enemies of the nation, that these backelies are taught to combat. Every army of Hottentots is furnished with a proper herd of these creatures, which are let loose against the enemy. Being thus sent forward, they overturn all before them ; they strike down with their horns, and trample with their feet, every one who attempts to oppose them, and thus often procure their masters an easy victory, before they have begun to strike a blow. * An animal so serviceable is, as may be supposed, not without its re- ward. The backely lives in the same cottage with its master, and by long* habit gains an affection for him ; for in proportion as the man approaches to the brute, so the brute seems to attain even to the same share of human sagacity. The Hottentot and his backely thus mutually assist each other ; and when the latter happens to die, a new one is chosen to succeed him, by a council of the old men of the village. The new backely is thea joined with one of the veterans of his own kind, from whom he learns his 6 CATTLE. art, becomes social and diligent, and is taken for fife into human friendship and protection.' Illustrations of Natural History, p. 88. There is a well-authenticated story of a Scotch bull, which shows similar, but not equal sagacity. ' A gentleman in Scotland, near Laggan, had a bull which grazed with the cows in the open meadows. As fences are scarcely known in that part, a boy was kept to watch, lest the cattle should trespass on the neighbouring fields, and destroy the corn. The boy was fat and drowsy, and was often found asleep; he was, of course, chastised whenever the cattle trespassed. Warned by this, he kept a long switch, and with it revenged himself with an unsparing hand, if they exceeded their boundary. The bull seemed to have observed with concern this con- sequence of their transgression, and as he had no horns, he used to strike the cows with his large forehead, and thus punish them severely, if any of them crossed the boundary. In the mean time he set them a good example himself, never once straying beyond the forbidden bounds, and placing himself before the cows in a threatening attitude if they ap- proached them. At length his honesty and vigilance became so obvious, that the boy was employed in weeding, and other business, without fear of their misbehaviour in his absence.' Instinct Displayed, Letter 34. 1 Captain Cochrane, in his Travels in Colombia, vol. ii. p. 251, places them in another, and not uninteresting point of view: ' I was suddenly aroused by a most terrific noise, a mixture of loud roarings and deep moans, which had the most appalling effect at so late an hour. I imme- diately went out, attended by the Indians, when I found close to the ranchu, a lar^e herd of bullocks collected from the surrounding country; they had encompassed the spot where a bullock had been killed in the morning, and they appeared to be in the greatest state of grief and rage : they roared, they moaned, they tore the ground with their feet, and bel- lowed the most hideous chorus that can be imagined, and it was with the greatest difficulty they could be driven away by men and dogs. Since then, I have observed the same scene by daylight, and seen large tears rolling down their cheeks. Is it instinct merely, or does something nearer to reason tell them by the blood, that one of their companions has been butchered ? I certainly never again wish to view so painful a sight : they actually appeared to be reproaching us.' If catlle exhibit some of the good qualities of superior animals, or even of man himself, they likewise have some of his failings. Vanity forms as distinguishing an attribute of the female of this species, as of some others. The account of the Swiss cows is not a little amusing, although we be- lieve that it is somewhat exaggerated : ' In the Swiss Canton of Appensell, pasturage being the chief employ- ment of the inhabitants, the breeding of cattle, and the subsequent manage- ment of the dairy, are carried to the greatest perfection. The mountaineer lives with his cows in a perpetual exchange of reciprocal acts of kindness; the latter affording almost every requisite he needs, and in return they are provided for, and cherished by him, and sometimes more so than his own children. They are never ill-treated nor beaten, for his voice is suffi- cient to guide and govern the whole herd, and there reigns a perfect cor- diality between them. 4 In the Alps, the fine cattle are the pride of their keepers, who adorn st of them with an harmonious set of bells, chiming in accordance e celebrated ram des vaches. The finest black cow is adorned the largest bell, and the two next in appearance wear smaller ones. the spring, when they are removed to the Alps,or to some change t pasture, he dresses himself in all his finery, and proceeds along,, THE BRITISH OX. f> singing the ranx des vetches, followed by three or four fine goats : next comes the finest cow adorned with the great bell, then the other two with the smaller bells, and these are succeeded by the rest of the cattle walking one after another, and having in their rear, the bull with a one-legged milking stool on his horns, while the procession is closed by a sledge bearing the dairy implements. 'It is surprising to see the pride and pleasure with which the cows stalk forth, when ornamented with their bells. One would hardly imagine that these animals are sensible of their rank, and affected by vanity and jealousy ; and yet if the leading cow is deprived of her honours, she manifests her disgrace by lowing incessantly, and abstaining from food, and losing con- dition. The happy rival on whom this badge of superiority has devolved, becomes the object of her vengence, and is butted, and wounded, and per- secuted by her in the most furious manner, until she regains her bell, or is entirely removed from the herd.' Illustrations of Natural History, p. 72. Having thus somewhat vindicated the intellectual power and worth of the subject of our work, we return to the agricultural state of the country when the Romans invaded Britain. Caesar tells us, that the Britons neglected tillage, and lived on milk and flesh ; and other authors corroborate this account of the early inhabitants of the British Islands. It was that occu- pation and mode of life which suited their state of society. The island was divided into many petty sovereignties ; no fixed property was secure; and that alone was valuable, which might be hurried away at the threatened approach of an invader. Many centuries after this, when, although one sovereign seemed to reign paramount over the whole of the kingdom, there continued to be endless contests among the feudal barons, and still that property alone was valuable which could be secured within the walls of the castle, or driven beyond the invader's reach, an immense stock of pro- visions was always stored up in the various fortresses, both for the vassals and the cattle ; or it was contrived that the latter should be driven to the demesnes of some friendly baron, or concealed in some inland recess. When the winter had passed over in the castle of one of the Despencers, and the usual stock of provisions was comparatively exhausted, there yet remained in salt in the latter part of the spring, no fewer than eighty oxen, six hundred bacons, and six hundred sheep. Wheivhowever, the government became more powerful and settled, and property of every kind was proportionably secured, as well as more equally divided, the plough came into use ; and those agricultural pro- ductions were oftener cultivated, the reaping of which was sure after the labour of sowing had been expended. Cattle were now comparatively neglected, and for some centuries injuriously so. Their numbers dimi- nished, and their size appears to have diminished too ; and it is only within the last fifty years that any serious and successful efforts have been made materially to improve them. In the comparative roving and uncertain life which our earlier and later ancestors led, their cattle would sometimes stray and be lost. The country was then overgrown with forests, and the beasts betook themselves to the recesses of these woods, and became wild, and sometimes ferocious. They by degrees grew so numerous, as to be dangerous to the inhabitants of the neighbouring districts. One of the chronicles informs us, that many of them harboured in the forests in the neighbourhood of the metropolis. Strange stories are told of some of them, and doubtless, when irritated, they were fierce and dangerous enough. As, however, civilization ad- vanced, and the forests became thinned and contracted, these animals were - CATTLE. seldomer seen, and at length almost disappeared. A few of them yet re- main in Chatelherault Park, belonging to the Duke of Hamilton, in La- narkshire ; and in the park of Chillingham Castle in Northumberland, the seat of the' Earl of Tarikerville. They are thus described in the latter place by Mr. Culley, in his valuable observations on live stock : 1 The wild breed, from being untameable, can only be kept within walls or good fences, consequently very few of them are now to be met with, except in the parks of some gentlemen, who keep them for ornament, and as a curiosity. Those I have seen are at Chillingham Castle, in Northumberland, a seat belonging to the Earl of Tankerville. Their colour is invariably of a creamy white, muzzle black ; the whole of the inside of the ear, and about one-third of the outside, from the tips down- wards, red ; horns, white, with black tips, very fine, and bent upwards ; some of the bulls have a thin upright mane, about an inch and a half or two inches long. The weight of the oxen is from thirty-five to forty-five stone, and the cows from twenty-five to thirty-five stone the four quarters (fourteen pound to the stone). The beef is finely marbled, and of excellent flavour. From the nature of their pasture, and the frequent agitation they are put into by the curiosity of strangers, it is scarcely to be expected they should be very fat ; yet the six years old oxen are generally very good beef; from whence it may be fairly supposed, that in proper situations they would feed well. * At the first appearance of any person they set off in full gallop, and, at the distance of about two hundred yards, make a wheel round, and come boldly up again, tossing their heads in a menacing manner; on a sudden they make a full stop at the distance of forty or fifty .yards, looking wildly at the object of their surprise ; but upon the least motion being made, they all again turn round, and fly off with equal speed, but not to the same distance, forming a shorter circle, and again returning with a bolder and more threatening aspect than before ; they approach much nearer, probably within thirty yards, when they again make another stand, and then fly olf ; this they do several times, shortening their dis- tance, and advancing nearer and nearer, till they come within such a short distance, that most people think it prudent to leave them, not choosing to provoke them further. 4 The mode of killing them was perhaps the only remains of the gran- deur of ancient hunting. On notice being given that a wild bull would be killed on a certain day, the inhabitants of the neighbourhood came mounted and armed with guns, &c., sometimes to the amount of an hundred horse, and four or five hundred foot, who stood upon walls, or got into trees, while the horsemen rode off the bull from the rest of the herd until he stood at bay, when a marksmen dismounted and shot. At ome of these huntings twenty or thirty shots have been fired before he was subdued. On such occasions the bleeding victim grew desperately jnous, from the smartings of his wounds and the shouts of savage joy it were echoing on every side. But, from the number of accidents appened, this dangerous mode has not been practised of late years; Pa 6Cper al ne eneral 'y shoot ng them with a rifle gun at one ' When the cows calve, they hide their calves for a week or ten days in sequestered situation, and go and suckle them two or three times any person come near the calves, they clap their heads close the ground, and lie like a hare in form, to hide themselves: this is a heir native wildness, and is corroborated by the following cir- THE BRITISH OX. 9 cumstance that happened to Mr. Bailey, of Chillingham, who found a hidden calf, two days old, very lean, and very weak ; on stroking its head it got up, pawed two or three times like an old bull, bellowed very loud, stepped back a few steps, and bolted at his legs with all its force ; it then began to paw again, bellowed, stepped back, and bolted as before; but knowing its intention, and stepping aside, it missed him, fell, and was so very weak, that it could not rise, though it made several efforts ; but it had done enough. The whole herd were alarmed, and, coming to its rescue, obliged him to retire ; for the dams allow no person to touch their calves without attacking them with impetuous ferocity. When any one happens to be wounded, or is grown weak and feeble through age or sickness, the rest of the herd set on it and gore it to death.' The breeds of cattle, as they are now found in Great Britain, are almost as various as the soil of the different districts, or the fancies of the breeders. They have, however, been very conveniently classed according to the comparative size of the horns : the long horns, originally, so far as our country is concerned, from Lancashire, much improved by Mr. Bakewell of Leicestershire, and established through the greater part of the midland counties ; the short horns, originally from East York, im- proved in Durham, mostly cultivated in the northern counties and in Lin- colnshire, and many of them found in every part of the kingdom where the farmer attends much to his dairy, or a large supply of milk is wanted ; and the middle horns, not derived from a mixture of the two preceding, but a distinct and valuable and beautiful breed, inhabiting principally the north of Devon, the East of Sussex, Herefordshire, Gloucestershire; and, of diminished bulk, and with somewhat different character, the cattle of the Scottish and the Welsh mountains. The Alderney, with her crumpled horn, is found on the southern coast, and, in smaller numbers, in gentlemen's parks and pleasure-grounds everywhere; while the polled, or hornless cattle, prevail in Suffolk and Norfolk, and in Galloway, whence they were first derived. These, however, have been intermingled in every possible way. They are found pure only in their native districts, or on the estates of some opulent and spirited individuals. Each county has its own mongrel breed, often difficult to be described, and not always to be traced neglected enough, yet suited to the soil and to the climate ; and, among little farmers, maintaining their station, and advantageously maintaining it, in spite of attempts at supposed improvements by the intermixture or substitution of foreign varieties. The character of each, so far as it can be described, and the relative value of each for breeding, grazing, the dairy, or the plough, will be con- sidered before we inquire into the structure or general and medical treat- ment of cattle. Much dispute has arisen as to the original breed of British cattle. The battle has been stoutly fought between the advocates of the middle and the long horns. The short horns and the polls can have no claim ; the first is evidently of foreign extraction, and the latter, although it has existed in certain districts from time immemorial, was probably an accidental variety. We are very much disposed to adjudge the honour to the ' middle horns.' The long horns are evidently of Irish extraction, as in due place we shall endeavour to show. Britain has shared the fate of other nations, and, oftener than them, although defended by the ocean on every side, she has been overrun and subjugated by ferocious invaders. As the natives retreated before the 10 CATTLE. foe they carried with them some portion of the wreck of their property. We have staled that their property, in early times, consisted principally in cattle They naturally drove along with them as many as they could, when they retired to the fortresses of North Devon and Cornwall, or the more mountainous regions of Wales, or when they took refuge even in the wealds of East Sussex ; and there retaining all their prejudices and cus- toms and manners, they were jealous of the strict preservation of that which principally reminded them of their native country before it had vielded to a foreign yoke. In this manner probably was preserved the ancient breed of British cattle. Difference of climate gradually wrought some change, and par- ticularly in their bulk. The rich pasture of Sussex fattened the ox of that district into his superior size and weight. The plentiful but not so luxu- riant herbage of the north of Devon produced a somewhat smaller and more activeanimal, while the occasional privations of Wales lessened the bulk and thickened the hide of the Welsh runt. As for Scotland, it, in a manner, set its invaders at defiance ; or its inhabitants retreated for a while, and soon turned again on their pursuers. They were proud of their country, and proud of their cattle, their choicest possession ; and there, too, the cattle were preserved, unmixed and undegenerated. Thence it resulted, that in Devon, in Sussex, in Wales, and in Scot- land, the cattle has been the same from time immemorial ; while in all the Eastern coast, and through every district of Britain, the breed of cattle degenerated, or at least lost its original character : it consisted of a variety of animals, brought from every neighbouring and some remote districts, initialed in every possible variety, yet generally conforming itself to the soil and the climate. The slightest observation will convince us that the cattle in Devon- shire, Sussex, Wales, and Scotland, are essentially the same. They are middle-horned ; tolerable, but not extraordinary milkers, and remarkable for the quality rather than the quantity of their milk ; active at work ; and with an unequalled aptitude to fatten. They have all the cha- racters of the same breed, changed by soil and climate and time, yet little changed by the intermeddling of man. We may almost trace the colour, namely, the red of the Devon, the Sussex, and the Hereford; and even where the black alone are now found, the memory of the red prevails; it has a kind of superstitious reverence attached to it in the legends of the country; and in almost every part of Scotland, and in some of the mountains of Wales, the milk of the red cow is considered to be a remedy for every disease, and a preservative from every evil. Every one who has had opportunities of comparing the Devon cattle with the wild breed of Chatelherault Park, or Chillingham Castle, has been struck with the great resemblance in many points, notwithstand- ing the difference of colour, while they bear no likeness at all to the cattle ol the neighbouring country. For these reasons we consider the middle horns to be the native breed of Great Britain, and they shall first pass in review before us. 11 CHAPTER" III. THE MIDDLE HORNS. THE situation of Devonshire, at nearly the western extremity of the kingdom, and the undeniable fact, that one of the varieties of the middle horns is there found in a state of the greatest purity, render it the best as well as the most convenient point whence to start. DEVONSHIRE. THE north of Devon has been long celebrated for a breed of cattle beautiful in the highest degree, and in activity at work and aptitude to fatten un- rivalled. The native country of the North Devons, and where they are found in a state of the greatest purity, extends from the river Taw west- ward, skirting along the Bristol Channel ; the breed becoming more mixed, and at length comparatively lost before we arrive at the Parrett. Inland it extends by Barnstaple, South Molton, and Chumleigh, as far as Tiverton, and thence to Wellington, where again the breed becomes unfre- quent, or it is mixed before we reach Taunton. More eastward the Somersets and the Welsh mingle with it, or supersede it. To the south there prevails a larger variety, a cross probably of the North Devon with the Somerset; and on the west the Cornish cattle are found, or conta- minate the breed. The true and somewhat prejudiced Devonshire man confines them within a narrower district, and will scarcely allow them to be found with any degree of purity beyond the boundaries of his native county. From Portlock to Biddeford, and a little to the north and the south, is, in his mind, the peculiar and only residence of the North Devon. From the earliest records the breed has here remained the same ; or if not quite as perfect as at the present moment, yet altered in no essential point until within the last thirty years*. That is not a little surprising when it is remembered that a considerable part of this district is not a breeding country, and that even a proportion, and that not a small one, of Devon- shire cattle, are bred out of the county. On the borders of Somerset and Dorset, and partly in both, extending southward from Crewkerne, the country assumes the form of an extensive valley, and principally supplies the Exeter market with calves. Those that are dropped in February and March, are kept until May, and then sold to the drovers, who convey them to Exeter. They are there purchased by the Devonshire farmers, who keep them for two or three years, when they are sold to the Somerset- shire graziers, who fatten them for the London market ; so that a portion of the North Devon, and of the very finest of the breed, come from Somer- set and Dorset. The truth of the matter is, that the Devonshire farmers were, until nearly the close of the last century, not at all conscious that they possessed any thing superior to other breeds ; but, like agriculturists everywhere else, they bought and bred without care or selection. It is only within the last fifty or sixty years that any systematic efforts have been made to im- prove the breeds of cattle in any part of the kingdom ; and we must acknowledge, that the 'Devonshire men, with all their advantages, and with such good ground to work upon, were not the first to stir, and, * Lord Somerville, a name justly esteemed among agriculturists, and an excellent judge of cattle, and who, from his residence in the county, may be supposed to be well acquainted with the excellencies and defects of this breed, gives a long and very ac- curate and interesting account of them ia the Aiinals of Agriculture, to which w would refer the reader. 12 CATTLE. for some time, were not the most zealous when they were roused to exertion. They are indebted to the nature of their soil and climate for the beautiful specimens which they possess of the native breed of our island, and they have retained this breed almost in spite of themselves. A spirit of emulation was at length kindled, and even the North Pevons have been materially improved, and brought to such a degree of perfection, that, take them for all in all, they would suffer from inter- mixture with any other breed. Before, however, we attempt to describe the peculiarities of this, or any other breed, it may be proper to give a short sketch of the proper form and shape of cattle. Whatever be the breed, there are certain conforma- tions which are indispensable to the thriving and valuable ox or cow. When we have a clear idea of these, we shall be able more easily to form an accurate judgment of the breeds of the different counties as they pass before us. If there is one part of the frame, the form of which, more than of any other, renders the animal valuable, it is the chest. There must be room enough for the heart to beat, and the lungs to play, or sufficient blood for the purposes of nutriment and of strength will not be circulated ; nor will it thoroughly undergo that vital change, which is essential to the proper discharge of every function. We look, therefore, first of all to the wide and deep girth about the heart and lungs. We must have both : the proportion in which the one or the other may pre- ponderate, will depend on the service we require from the animal ; we can excuse a slight degree of flatness of the sides, for he will be lighter in the forehand, and more active ; but the grazier must have width as well as depth. And not only about the heart and lungs, but over the whole of the ribs, must we have both length and roundness; the hooped, as well as the deep barrel is essential ; there must be room for the capacious paunch, room for the materials from which the blood is to be provided. The beast should also be ribbed home ; there should be little space be- tween the ribs and the hips. This seems to be indispensable in the ox, as it regards a good healthy constitution, and a propensity to fatten ; but a largeness and drooping of the belly is excusable in the cow, or rather, notwithstanding it diminishes the beauty of the animal, it leaves room for the udder ; and if it is also accompanied by swelling milk veins, it gene- rally indicates her value in the dairy. This roundness and depth of the barrel, however, is most advantageous in proportiovi as it is found behind the point of the elbow, more than be- tween the shoulders and legs ; or low down between the legs, rather than upwards towards the withers : for it diminishes the heaviness before, and the comparative bulk 'of the coarser parts of the animal, which is always a very great consideration. The loins should be wide : of this there can be no doubt, for they are the prime parts ; they should seem to extend far along the back : and although the belly should not hang down, the flanks should be round and deep. the hips it is superfluous to say that, without being ragged, they should be large; round rather than wide, and presenting, when handled, plenty of muscle and fat. The thighs should be full and long, close toge- ler when viewed from behind, and the farther down they continue to be 1 better. The legs short, varying like other parts according to the ation of the animal ; but decidedly short, for there is an almost in- connexion between length of leg and lightness of carcase, and jrtness of leg and propensity to fatten. The bones of the legs, and nly being taken as a sample of the bony structure of the frame jencrally, should be small, but not too small small enough for the well- THE NORTH DEVON CATTLE. 13 known accompaniment, a propensity to fatten small enough to please the consumer; but not so small as to indicate delicacy of constitution, and liability to disease. Last of all the hide the most important thing- of all thin, but not so thin as to indicate that the animal can endure no hardship ; moveable, mellow, but not too loose, and particularly well covered with fine and soft hair. We shall enter more fully and satisfactorily into this subject in the proper place ; but this bird's-eye view may be useful. We return to the Devonshire cattle. {The Devon Bull.] The more perfect specimens of the North Devon breed are thus dis- tinguished. The horn of the bull ought io be neither too low nor too high, tapering at the points, not too thick at The root, and of a yellow or waxy colour. The eye should be clear, bright, and prominent, showing much of [ The Working Devon Ox.] 14 CATTLE. the white, and it ought to have around it a circle of a variable colour, but usually a dark orange. The forehead should be flat, indented, and small ; for bv the smallness of the forehead, the purity of the breed is very much estimated. The cheek should be small, and the muzzle fine : the nose should be of a clear yellow. A black muzzle is disliked, and even a mottled one is objected to by some who pretend to be judges of the true Devon. The nostril should be high and open: the hair curled about the head, and giving, at first appearance, an idea of coarseness which soon wears otf. The neck should be thick, and that sometimes almost to a fault. Excepting in the head and neck the form of the bull does not materially diller from that of the ox, but he is considerably smaller. There are some exceptions, however, to this rule, and as an illustration of this, we have inserted (p. 13) the portrait of a pure Devon bull (belonging to Mr. Western), father of the ox and the cow delineated at pages 16 and 17. We may fancy that we trace in this singular 'and noble animal, the lineaments of the native, and scarcely reclaimed British bull. The head of the ox is small, very singularly so, relatively to the bulk of the animal, yet it has a striking breadth of forehead. It is clean and free from flesh about the jaws. The eye is_very prominent, and the animal has a pleasing vivacity of countanance plainly distinguishing it from the heavy aspect of many other breeds. Its neck is long and thin, admirably adapting it for the collar, and even for the more common and ruder yoke. The want of the beautifully arched form of the neck, which is seen in the horse, has been considered as a defect in most breeds of cattle. It is accounted one of the characters of good cattle, that the line of the neck from the horns to the withers should scarcely deviate from that of the back. In the Devonshire ox, however, there is a peculiar rising of the forehand, reminding us not a little of the blood-horse, and essen- tially connected with the free and quick action by which this breed has ever been distinguished. It has little or no dewlap depending from its throat. The horns are longer than those of the bull, smaller and line even to the base, and of a lighter colour, and sometimes tipped with yellow. The animal is light in the withers; the shoulders a little oblique; the breast deep, and the bosom open and wide, par- ticularly as contrasted with the fineness of the withers. The fore-legs :ire wide apart, looking like pillars that have to support a great weight. 1 lie point of the shoulder is rarely or never seen. There is no projection of bone as in the horse, but there is a kind of level line running on to the neck. These are characteristic and important points. Angular bony pro- jections are never found in a beast that carries much flesh and fat. The fineness of the withers, the slanting direction of the shoulder, and the broad and open breast, imply both strength and speed, and aptitude to fatten. A narrow-chested animal can never be useful either for working or grazing. \N ith all the lightness of the Devonshire ox, there is a point about him, d in the blood or riding-horse, and not always approved in the horse ighl draught, the legs are far under the chest, or rather the breast a and wide before the legs. We see the advantage of this in uf slow draught, who rarely breaks into a trot, except when he is on in catching times, and the division of whose foot secures stumbling. The lightness of the other parts of his form, hovv- nterUlaneeg the Appearance of heaviness here. s arc straight, ft least in the best breeds. If they are in-kneed, >oked m the fore-legs, it argues a deficiency in blood, and comparative incapacity for work ; and not only for work, but for grazing too, for they will be hollow behind the withers, a point for which nothing can compensate, because it takes away so much from the place where good flesh and fat should be thickly laid on, and diminishes the capacity of the chest and the power of creating arterial and nutritious blood. The fore-arm is particularly large and powerful. It swells out suddenly above the knee, but is soon lost in the substance of the shoulder. Below the knee the bone is small to a very extraordinary degree, indicating a seeming of want of strength ; but this impression immediately ceases, for the smallness is only in front it is only in the bone : the leg is deep, and the sinews are far removed from the bone. It is the leg of the blood horse, promising both strength and speed*. It may perhaps be objected that the leg is a little too long. It would be so in an animal that is destined only to graze; but this is a working animal, and some length of leg is ne- cessary to get him pleasantly and actively over the ground. There is a very trifling fall behind the withers, but. no hollowness, and the line of the back is straight from them to the setting on of the tail. If there is any seeming fault in the beast, it is that the sides are a little too flat. It will appear, however, that this does not interfere with feeding, while a deep, although somewhat flat chest is best adapted for speed. Not only is the breast broad and the chest deep, but the two last ribs are particularly bold and prominent, leaving room for the stomachs and other parts concerned in digestion to be fully developed. The hips, or huckles, are high, and on a level with the back, whether the beast is fat or lean. The hind quarters, or the space from the buckle to the point of the rump, are particularly long, and well filled up a point likewise of very considerable importance both for grazing and working, It leaves room for flesh in the most valuable part, and, like the extensive and swelling quarters of the blood-horse, indicate much power behind, equally connected with strength and speed. This is an improvement quite of modern date. The fulness here, and the swelling out of the thigh below, are of much more consequence than the prominence of fat which is so much admired on the rump of many prize cattle. The setting on of the tail is high ; it is on a level with the back ; rarely much elevated, and never depressed. This is another great point in the bloods-horse, as connected with the perfection of the hind quarters. The tail itself is long and small, and taper, with a round bunch of hair at the bottom. The skin of the Devon, notwithstanding his curly hair, is exceedingly * It is sometimes not a little amusing to observe the seeming contrariety of opinion between excellent judges of cattle, and that on the very essential points of their conforma- tion; and yet, when the matter is properly explained, the slight shade of difference there is between them. We have now lying before us letters from two very skilful Devonshire farmers. They have been so obliging as to give us their opinion as to the points of the Devonshire ox. One insists upon that, on which we confess we should lay very great stress, and without which we should reckon any beast almost valueless, namely, small bones under the knee, and a clean neck and throat. This gentleman we have the pleasure of knowing; he has been improving the size and weight of the Devonshire ox, anxiously preserving these points : nay, we know that he did steal a cross from one of the finest-boned and lightest Herefords he could procure. The other has sound principles of breeding, but he is a man of the old school : he had been educated in the belief that what he calls the true Devons are unrivalled, and he would deem it a kind of sacrilege to debase their blood by a cross with any other breed ; yet experience has yet taught him, iu spite of all his prejudices, and although he will not own it, that the old Devous have their faults, and, among them, too much flatness of chest and general lightness ; he is, beside, a tillage fanner. He tells us that he does not like a fine neck, because it is accompanied by too narrow and light a breast, and that he does like large bones, because they will carry more meat. Why, these gentlemen were, in a measure, both right, but their observations referred to cattle, which although Devons, were essentially dirTereut, 16 CATTLE. mellow and elastic. Graziers know that there is not a moreTimportant point than this. When the skin can be easily raised from the hips, it shews that there is room to set on fat below. The skin is thin rather than thick. Its appearance of thickness arises from the curly hair with which it is covered, and curly in proportion to the condition and health of the animal. Good judges of these cattle speak of these curls as running like little ripples of wind on a pond of water. Some of these cattle have the hair smooth, but then it should be fine and glossy. Those with curled hair are somewhat more hardy, and fatten more kindly. The favourite colour is a blood red. This is supposed to indicate purity of breed ; but there are many good cattle approaching almost to a chestnut hue, or even a bay brown. If the eye is clear and good and the skin mellow, the paler colours will bear hard work, and fatten as well as others ; but a beast with a pale skin, and hard under the hand, and the eye dark and dead, will be a sluggish worker, and an unpro- fitable feeder. Those, however, that are of a yellow colour, are said to be subject to steal (diarrhoea). Some breeders object to the slightest intermixture of white not even a star upon the forehead is allowed ; yet a few good oxen have large dis- tant patches of white ; but if the colours run into each other, the beasts are condemned as of a mongrel and valueless breed. These are the principal points of a good Devonshire ox ; but he used to be, perhaps he is yet, a little too flat-sided, and the rump narrowed too rapidly behind the hip bones ; he was not sufficiently ribbed home, or there was too much space between the hip bones and the last rib ; and altogether he was too light for some tenacious and strong soils. The cut of the working ox, in page 13, contains the portrait of one formerly belonging to the Duke of Bedford. It embodies almost every good point of which we have spoken. Mr. Western has kindly enabled us here to add another portrait from his farm. It is a son of the bull given at page 13, and is a faithful repre- sentation of an ox beginning to fatten, but his characteristic points not yet concealed. Mr. Western has carefully preserved this breed unmixed for the last thirty years, and all the cattle that he fattens are Devons ; he rarely uses them for the plough. THE NORTH DEVON CATTLE. 17 A selection from the most perfect animals of the true breed, the bone still small and the neck fine, but the brisket deep and wide, and down to the knees, and not an atom of flatness all over the side or one cross, and only one with the Hereford, and that stealthily made, these have improved the strength and bulk of the North Devon ox, without impairing, in the slightest degree, his activity, his beauty, or his propensity to fatten*. There are few things more remarkable about the Devonshire cattle than the comparative smallness of the cow. The bull is a great deal less than the ox, and the cow almost as much smaller than the bull. This, however, is some disadvantage, and the breeders are aware of it; for, although it may not be necessary to have a large bull, and especially as those of any extraordinary size are seldom handsome in all their points, but somewhere or other present coarseness or deformity, it is almost impossible to procure large and serviceable oxen, except from a somewhat roomy cow. These cows, however, although small, possess that roundness and projection of the two or three last ribs, which make them actually more roomy than a careless examination of them would indicate. The cow is particularly distinguished for her full, round, clear eye, the gold coloured circle round the eye, and the same colour prevailing on the inside skin of the ear. The countenance cheerful, the muzzle orange or yellow, but the rest of the face having nothing of black, or even of white about it. The jaws free from thickness, and the throat free from dewlap. The points of the back and the hind quarters different from those of other breeds, having more of roundness and beauty, and being free from most of those angles by which good milkers are sometimes distinguished. We are here enabled to present our readers with the portrait of a cow, * In the ' Annals of Agriculture," vol. xxx., p. 314, we have the opinion, in somewhat provincial terms, of a good west-country grazier, respecting the best form of the Devon cattle. ' He buys at all times, from Christmas to May-day, North Devons, that are bred from Portlock to Biddeford, such as are five or six years old. He chooses such as are small-horned, and of a yellow-coloured horn rather than white small bones, as such beasts thrive best rib bones round, not flat a thick hide bad a very thiri one objection- able blade bones, chuck very thick and heavy in the bosom, as much weight lies there the heavier in the shoulder the better, but not to elbow out very wide and square from the points down to the thighs middling in the belly not cow-bellied not tucked up.' As a grazier he is right ; but this is not the true working Devonshire ox. C 18 CATTLE. belonging to that indefatigable agriculturist, Mr. Western. She was rising four years old. With regard to size she is a favourable specimen of the Devon cow. It will be seen at once how much more roomy and tit for breedin^ she is, than even her somewhat superior bulk would at first in- dicate. She is, perhaps, in a little better condition than cows generally are, or should be in order to yield their full quantity of milk. Their qualities may be referred to three points ; their working, fattening, and milking. Where the ground is not too heavy the Devonshire oxen are unrivalled at the plough. They have a quickness of action which no other breed can equal, and which very few horses exceed. They have also a degree of docility and goodness of temper, and also stoutness and honesty of work, to which many teams of horses cannot pretend. Vancouver, in his survey of Devonshire, says, that it is a common day's work on fallow land for four steers to plough two acres with a double-furrow plough. Four good Devonshire steers will do as much work in the field,, or on the road, as any three horses, and in as quick, and often quicker, time, although many fanners calculate two oxen to be equal to one horse. The principal objection to the Devonshire oxen is, that they have not sufficient strength for tenacious clayey soils: they will, however, exert their strength to the utmost, and stand many a dead pull, which few horses could be induced or forced to attempt. They are uniformly worked in yokes, and not in collars. Four oxen, or six growing steers, are the usual team employed in the plough. There is a peculiarity in driving the ox team, which is very pleasing to the stranger, and the remembrance of which, connected with his early days, the native does not soon lose. A man and a boy attend each team ; the boy chants that which can scarcely be regarded as any distinct tune, but which is a very pleasing succession of sounds, resembling the counter- tenor in the service of the cathedral. He sings away with unwearied lungs, as he trudges along almost from morning to night, while every now and then the ploughman, as he directs the movement of the team, puts in his lower notes, but in perfect concord. When the traveller stops in one of the Devonshire valleys, and hears this simple music from the drivers of the ploughs on the slope of the hill on either side, he experiences a pleasure which this operation of husbandry could scarcely be supposed to be capable of affording. This chanting is said to animate the oxen somewhat in the same way as the musical bells that are so prevalent in the same county. Certainly the oxen move along with an agility that would be scarcely expected from cattle ; and the team may be watched a long while without one harsh word being heard, or the goad or the whip applied. The opponents of ox- husbandry should visit the valleys of north or south Devon, to see what this animal is capable of performing, and how he performs it. The profit derived from the use of oxen in this district arises from the activity to which they are trained, and which is unknown in any other part of the kingdom. During harvest time, and in catching weather, they are sometimes trotted along with the empty waggons, at the rate of six miles an hour, a degree of speed which no other ox but the Devon has been able to stand. [t may appear singular to the traveller, that in some of the districts that re supposed to be the very head-quarters of the Devon cattle, they are w'ar 1 for the plough. The explanation, however, is plain enough. land for them among graziers is so great, that the breeders obtain a mg price for them at an earlier age than that at which they are generally broken in for the plough THE NORTH DEVON CATTLE. 19 They are usually taken into work at about two years, or twenty-six months old ; and they are worked until they are four, or five, or six : they are then grazed, or kept on hay, and in ten or twelve months, and without any fur- ther trouble, they are fit for the market. If the grass land is good, no corn, or cake, or turnips, are required for the first winter; but, of course, for a second winter these must be added. The grazier likes this breed best at five years-old, and they will usually, when taken from the plough, fetch as much money as at six. At eight, or nine years, or older they are rapidly declining in value. Lord Somerville states, that after having been worked lightly on the hills for two years, they are bought at four years old by the tillage-farmer of the vales, and taken into hard work from four to six ; and, what deserves consideration, an ox must be thus worked, in order for him to attain his fullest size. If he is kept idle until he is five or six, he will invariably be stinted in his growth. At six he reaches his full stature, unless he is naturally disposed to be of more than ordinary size, and then he continues to grow for another half-year. Their next quality is their disposition to fatten, and very few rival them here. They do not, indeed, attain the great weight of some breeds ; but, in a given time, they acquire more flesh, and with less consumption of food, and their flesh is beautiful in its kind. It is of that mottled, marbled character so pleasing to the eye, and to the taste. Some very satis- factory experiments have been made on this point. Mr. Carpenter, a very intelligent farmer, informs us, that the Duke of Bedford, who has considerable property in the county of Devon, had some prime Hereford oxen sent to his Tavistock estate in the month of April, and he ordered some Devons to be bought in Crediton market at the latter end of the same month. The Devons were not in so good con- dition as the Herefords when they were put to grass, and cost about bl. per head less than the Herefords ; but at the latter end of December, when they were all sold to the butcher, the Devons were superior*in fat- ness and in weight. A more satisfactory experiment was made by the same nobleman. Six oxen were selected in November 16, 1797, and fed until December 10, 1798, and the following was the result. First weight. Seco ad weight. Gained. Zoor oil cake Turnipi. Hjr. cwt qvs. it,-. cwt. qrs. Ibs. cwt qr. Ibs. or etone. Ibs. Ibs. Ibf. 1 Hereford . 17 1 18 3 1 2 27 24.3 2700 487 2 Do. 18 I 21 25 2 3 25 41.5 423 2712 432 3 Devon . 14 1 7 17 2 7 3 1 45.4 438 2668 295 4 Do. 14 i 4 19 1 4 2 14 64.6 442 2056 442 5 Sussex 16 2 19 3 3 1 45.4 432 2655 392 6 Leicester 15 2 14 18 2 2 3 14 40.2 434 2652 400 An experiment of the same nature was made, in order to compare the fat- tening properties of the Glamorgan with the Devon. They were fed from January 6, to December 1, 1804, and the following was the result. First weight. Second weight. Gain, cwt. qrs. Ibs. cwt. qrs. Ibs. cwt. qrs. Ibs. or stone. 1 Devon . . 13 1 7 17 3 7 420 63 2 Do. . . 16 10 20 3 14 432 67 3 Glamorgan . 13 3 16 14 3 3 18 54.6 We are aware that other experiments have been instituted, and with differ- ent results. One was made about the same time at Petworth, by the Earl of Egremont. Eight oxen, consisting of three Herefords, three of the Sussex C 2 20 CATTLE. breed, and three Devons, were put up to fat. They were allowed only six- teen weeks, they had not the trial nearly of a twelvemonth, as in the Duke of Bedford's experiment, and the Devons were found to be lowest on the list, and that to a very considerable extent. These Devons, although selected fairly enough, were probably exceptions to their general character for rapid thriving. We are, however, compelled to add, that the Duke of Bedford has, to a considerable extent, changed his breed at Woburn, and the Devons have, in a great degree, given way to the Herefords*. The North Devon oxen are rarely shod, and very rarely lamef. For the dairy, the North Devons must be acknowledged to be inferior to several other breeds. The milk is good, and yields more than an aver- age proportion of cream and butter; but it is deficient in quantity. There are those, however, and no mean judges, who deny this, and select the North Devons even for the dairy. Mr. Conyers, of Copt Hall, near Epping, a district almost exclusively devoted to the purposes of the dairy, preferred the North Devons on account of their large produce, whether in milk, butter, or by suckling. He thought that they held their milk longer than any other sort that he had tried ; that they were liable to fewer disorders in their udders ; and that being of small size, they did not eat more than half what larger cows consumed. He thus sums up his account of them : ' Upon an average, ten cows give me five dozen pounds of butter per week in the summer, and two dozen in the winter. A erood North Devon cow fats two calves a year. My thirty North Devon cows have this year (about 1788) upon an average produced a profit of 131. 14s. per cow.' Mr. Rogers, veterinary surgeon at Exeter, and to whom we are in- debted for some valuable hints, says that the quality of the milk is good, and the quantity remunerating to the dairyman. Such is not, however, the common opinion. They are kept principally for their other good qualities, in order to preserve the breed ; and because, as nurses, they are indeed excellent, and the calves thrive from their small quantity of milk, more rapidly than could possibly be expected. This aboriginal breed of British cattle is a very valuable one, and seems to have arrived at the highest point of perfection of which it is capable. It is heavier than it was thirty years ago, yet fully as active. Its aptitude * Of the extent to which prejudice will mislead the best judges, we have a remarkable instance in one of the most zealous patrons of the short horns in Worcestershire, who thus speaks of the Devonshire cattle in the Farmer's Magazine, February, 1827. 'Of the late maturity of the Devons I had an opportunity to form a tolerably correct opinion nt Bridgewater lair, where the best possible muster of Devonshire oxen is made. I saw one, and only one good ox among them. With the exception of this animal, I did not see one level carcase, but a want of beef in the roasting parts, low and poor loins, coarse shoulders, had twist, and a general want of the indications of inside proof.' He saw one of these oxen after it was killed, and he says, ' I never beheld a worse animal under similar circumstances. The meat was actually running about the stall, being nothing more than a mixture of flabby masses, deficient of firmness of texture and quality.' , K t. * . writei ; " the ' Farmer's Magazine,' Mr. Herbert, thus describes the Devonshire ox : le and free, outwalking many horses, healthy and hardy, and fattening even in a iw.yara good tempered, will stand many a dead pull, fat in half the time of a Sussex, uer 10 trie yoke than steers of any other breed, lighter than the Sussex ; but not so well lemlSid wShSr al ng thC t0p8 f h ' S libS> * s P arklir 'S cutter > and leau wel1 in - if tiMCOV, he says 'Red, starred, or white faced, better horned than the ox, very the playmate ot the children, a sure breeder, a good milker, a quick fattener, fair ISthe cow'to'% or e bo" 0nthSl The X fr m 110 * 13 st ne ' * l been fed to 170; THE NORTH DEVON CATTLE. 21 to fatten is increased, rather than diminished ; and its property as a milker could not be improved, without probable or certain detriment to its grazing qualities. Mr. Rogers tells us, that two breeders with whom he is acquainted, have lately attempted to cross the North Devons with the Herefords, but that the result was not satisfactory. We can account for that. Those points in which the Devons were deficient thirty years ago, are now fully supplied, and we cordially agree with him, that all that is now want- ing, is a judicious selection of the most perfect of the present breed, in order to preserve it in its state of greatest purity. Many of the breeders are as careless as they ever were ; but the spirit of emulation is excited in others. ^ Mr. Davy, of North Molton, lately sold a four-year old bull, for which the purchaser had determined to give one hundred guineas had it been asked ; and Mr. Kenwood of Crediton has now twenty-one cows, which, within a month from the period of losing their milk, would average at least ten score per quarter. The Duke of Somerset is a zealous patron and improver of the breed, and has some beautiful cattle ; and, whatever may be the case at Woburn, the Duke of Bedford here gives almost exclusive preference to the Devons. When offering it as his opinion, that the Devonshire cattle are more than usually free from disease, Mr. Rogers gives a hint that may be useful in every district of the kingdom. He attributes, and very truly, the greater part of the maladies of cattle, and all those of the respiratory system, to injudicious exposure to cold and wet; and he asks whether the height and thickness of the Devon- shire fences, as affording a comfortable shelter to the cattle, may not have much to do with this exemption from disease ? Mr. Roberts, veterinary surgeon at South Molton, informs us that the North Devons have been crossed with the Guernsey breed, and that the consequence has been, that they have been rendered more valuable for the dairy ; but they have been so much injured for the plough, and for the grazier, that the breeders are jealous to preserve the old stock in their native purity. Mr. Roberts speaks of a gentleman of South Molton, who was very tenacious in preserving unsullied a breed of first-rate North Devons, and who refused fifty guineas for a cow in calf. He sold her, afterwards, for 321., when she was thirteen years old. When this gentle- man sold off his stock, twelve cows fetched on an average 30/. each. Mr. Carpenter, to whom we have already alluded, says, that ' one cross of the North Devon with the Hereford is of advantage, as we have additional size and aptitude to fatten without losing activity.' We apprehend that he refers to the state of these cattle some years ago, and when they were lighter, rather than to the present improved breed; but he very judiciously adds, 'it must be one cross alone, you must not exceed the first dash, or you destroy the activity in labour, which is the principal source of profit to a Devonshire farmer.' He adds, ' never introduce heifers ; but get a bull of the very best blood, and after the first cross, return to the best Devon bull again, and continue until the white face is nearly extinct before you atlempt to cross a second time. The Durhams have been tried, but they will not work, and are too much loaded with coarse plain meat in the fore-quarter.' The treatment of the calf is nearly the same in every district of North Devon. The calves that are dropped at Michaelmas, and some time after- wards, are preferred to those that come in February, notwithstanding the additional trouble and expense during the winter. The calf is permitted to suck three times every day for a week. It is then used to the finger, and warm new milk is given it for three weeks longer. For two months 22 CATTLE. afterwards it has plenty of warm scalded milk, mixed with a little finely- powdered linseed-cake. Its morning and evening meals are then gra- dually lessened ; and, when it is four months old, it is quite weaned *. Of the other districts of Devonshire little need be said. Towards the south, extending from Hartland towards Tiverton, the North Devons pre- vail, and in their greatest state of purity. There are more dairies than in the north, and supplied principally by the North Devon cows, and a few of the South Devons. Such are the differences of opinion even in neigh- bouring districts, that the later calves are here uniformly preferred, which are longer suckled, and afterwards fed with milk and linseed-meal. Advancing more to the south, and towards the borders of Cornwall, a different breed presents itself, heavier and coarser. We have arrived now in the neighbourhood of Devonport, where larger cattle are required for the service of the navy ; but we must go a little more to the south, and enter on the tract of country which extends from Tavistock to Newton Abbott before we have the South Devons in full perfection. They are a mixture of the North Devons with the native breed of the country ; and so adapted do they seem to be to the soil, that all attempts to improve them, so far as grazing and fattening go, have utterly failed. They are often 14 cwt. to the four quarters ; and steers of 2^ cwt. are got with fair hay and grass to weigh from six to nine cwt. They bear considerable resemblance to the Herefords, and sometimes the colour and the horn and the white face are so much alike in both, that it is difficult to distinguish between them, except that they are usually smaller than the Herefords. There are few parts of the country in which there is such bad manage- ment, and utter neglect of the preservation of the breed as in this and the most eastern part of Devon. It is not properly a grazing district except in the neighbourhood of Tavistock ; but young cattle are rather brought forward for after-grass or turnips elsewhere than finished here for the market, and the method in which this is conducted is not to be commended. If a calf looks likely to fatten, it is suffered to run with the cow ten or twelve months, and then slaughtered. If others that had not before shown a dis- position to thrive now start, they are forwarded as quickly as may be, and disposed of; and therefore it is, that all those that are retained, and by which the stock is to be kept up, are the very refuse of the farm. Yet the breed is not materially deteriorated. It has found a congenial climate, and it will flourish there in spite of neglect and injury. The grand secret of breeding is to suit the breed to the soil and climate. It is because this has not been studied, that those breeds which have been invaluable in certain districts, have proved altogether profitless, and unworthy of culture in others. The South Devons are equally profitable for the grazier, the breeder, and the butcher ; but their flesh is not so delicate as that of the North Devons. They do for the consumption of the navy; but they will not suit the fasti- dious appetites of the inhabitants of Bath, and the metropolis. * The following account of the principal cattle fairs in Devonshire, and principally for the sale of the North Devon breed, is extracted from the Annals of Agriculture : Thote who would seek this breed at fairs, will find them first at Ashbrittle, a bordering between the two counties (Devonshire and Somerset), held for oxen on the 25th of lary ; but this does not terminate as to prices. Bishops Lydiard, five miles to the faunton, on the 25th of March, for oxen also. At this and Wellington, which r fairs than Ashbrittle, prices of stock are fully ascertained. Barnstapk', the Fntt i the 2Ut of April. The great monthly markets of Taunton, Wiveliscomb, Jiver Moulton, carry on the business till the fairs of Creditou, the llth of May. JJth, the 12ih, and Wiveliscomb the 13th. North Moulton, first Wedues- uay aiUjMhe ^th of May. Bampton, Whit-Tuesday ; and South Moulton, Wednesday THE NORTH DEVON CATTLE. 23 The farmers in the neighbourhood of Dartmoor breed very few cattle. Their calves are usually procured from East Devon, or even from Somer- set or Dorset. They are reared at the foot of the moors for the use of the miners. All, however, are not consumed ; but the steers are sold to the farmers of the South Hams, who work them as long as they are serviceable ; they are then transferred to the graziers from Somersetshire, or East Devon, or Dorset, by whom they are probably driven back to their native country, and prepared for the market of Bristol or London. A very curious pere- grination this, which great numbers of the west-country cattle experience. As we now travel eastward, we begin to lose all distinctness of breed. The vale of Exeter is a dairy district, and, as such, contains all kinds of cattle, according to the fancy of the farmer. There are a few pure North Devons, more South Devons, and some Alderneys ; but the majority are mongrels of every description : many of them, however, are excellent cows, and such as are found scattered over Cornwall, West Devonshire, Somerset, and part of Dorset. As we advance along the south and the east, to Teignmouth, Exmouth, Sidmouth, and over the hill to the fruitful vale of Honiton, we do not find oxen so much used in husbandry. The soil is either a cold hard clay, or its flints would speedily destroy the feet of the oxen. The same variety of pure North and South Devons, and natives of that particular district, with intermixtures of every breed prevail, but the South Devons are principally seen. Some of these cows seem to unite the opposite qualities of fattening and milking. A south Devon has been known, soon after calving, to yield more than two pounds of butter a day ; and many of the old southern native breed are equal to any short horns in the quantity of their milk, and far superior to them in its quality. I must not quit this part of the country without describing the clouted cream, which is peculiar to the west of England. The milk is suffered to stand in a bell-metal vessel four and twenty hours ; it is then placed over a small wood fire, so that the heat shall be very gradually com- municated to it. After it has been over the fire about an hour and a half, and is approaching to the state of simmering, the vessel is struck every now and then with the knuckle, or is very carefully watched. As soon as it ceases to ring, or the first bubble appears, a slight agitation or simmering, previous to boiling, has commenced ; and the secret of the preparation is that this simmering shall not proceed to boiling. The milk is immediately removed from the fire, and set by for twenty-four hours more. At the end of this time all the cream will have arisen, and be thick enough to cut with a knife. It is then carefully skimmed off. This is a great luxury with coffee or with tarts, and the Devonshire straw- berries and cream need no praise. The dairy people in these districts say, that it is the most profitable way of treating the milk ; that five pounds of butter can be obtained from a given quantity, where only four would be yielded by the ordinary method ; and that the butter is more saleable, on account of the pleasant taste it has acquired, and which even its occasional slight smoky flavour scarcely impairs. The milk is proportionably impoverished ; but it also has gained a taste which renders it more grateful to the pigs ; while it never scours them, but removes the diarrhoea produced by other food. The skim-milk cheese must, however, be abandoned, or if a little is made, it is exceedingly poor and tasteless. 24 CATTLE. CORNWALL. For much valuable information with regard to the breed and management of the cattle of Cornwall, we are indebted to Mr. Karkeek, veterinary surgeon at Truro. This gentleman observes, that fish, tin, and cop- per have long been considered the staple commodities of the county of Cornwall, while agriculture has been viewed as a secondary object of pursuit. There is no doubt that the pasturing of cattle, and the culti- vation of the soil, constituted the principal employment of the early inha- bitants ; but their attention was not long confined to the vegetable pro- ductions of the earth after they had discovered that greater riches might be torn from its bowels than reaped on its surface ; for although, when Caesar invaded the island, the Damnonians (the inhabitants of Devon and Cornwall) possessed great numbers of cattle, yet in a few centuries their pastures were neglected, and all their skill and industry were exerted in digging up ' the ores that speak the county's sterling praise.' Carew, the historian of Cornwall, says, that ' the people devoting them- selves entirely to tin, their neighbours in Devonshire and Somersetshire hired their pastures at a rent, and stored them with the cattle which they brought from their own homes, and made their profits of the Cornish by cattle fed at their own doors. The same persons also supplied them at their markets with many hundred quarters of corn and horse-loads of bread.' The state of agriculture has, however, within the last century or two, materially improved in this extreme western portion of the kingdom. The native breed of Cornwall is still to be found on some of the moors of the western parts of the county, and in the possession of many of the little farmers. They are small, black, with horns rather short, very coarsely boned, with large offals, and rarely weighing more than three or four hundred weight. They bear an evident resemblance to the native breeds of Wales and Scotland. They are very hardy, and calculated to endure the changeable temperature of this peninsular and unevenly-surfaced county. Although uncultivated and unimproved, this is far from being a bad breed of cattle. They are fair milkers; their thick hides keep out the cold and wet, and protect them from many diseases ; they range on the moors, and coarse grounds, and commons in the summer, at little or no expense, and in the winter are satisfied with heath and furze, and a small quantity of straw ; and when put upon better keep, they get fat with a rapidity scarcely credible. A more prevailing and a better breed is an evident cross between the North Devon and the indigenous one of the county. It is somewhat larger, with well-formed head, and more upright horns, resembling, in the manner in which they are turned, those of the wild cattle of Chilliiigham Park. Their necks, like those of the Devons, are thin, rapidly narrowing from the breast towards the head. Their chests are deep, but rather narrow, and the legs a little longer than in some other favourite breeds. . hind quarters are deep and full. They get fat in their points, but away much in their sides, and are thin in their belly-pieces ; they srelore weigh light, and their hides are thin and unprofitable. They stly bear some striking character of the North Devon, they have the dish-brown coat, bright dun muzzle, and ring about the eye. it parts of Cornwall, however, the extreme Western districts cepted, the true North Devons are found equal to any their native itry will produce. Many spirited farmers go to Barnstaple, or South THE CORNWALL CATTLE. 25 Molton, and buy up great numbers of one and two-year-old steers, and work them until they are eight or ten years old ; and, as often as they have opportunity, they purchase elsewhere the finest bulls and heifers that can be selected, from among the best Devonshire breeders. Some had objected to the apparently delicate frame and constitution of the North Devon, but he has always been found sufficiently hardy to endure even the changeable clime of Cornwall, where " the smiles of summer, and the rage of storms," often succeed each other in a few hours. The Rev. H. H. Tremayne, and J. P. Peter, Esq., were diligent breeders of the North Devon cattle ; and this beautiful animal did not degenerate under their management. The cows are chiefly of the Cornish and North Devon breeds ; but in the principal towns, and on the sea coast, a few Alderneys are kept. A breed between the Cornish and the Alderney has been attempted, and with considerable success, and uniting the rare qualities of abundance of milk with aptitude to fatten. The Durham breed has lately been introduced by Mr. Peter, and appears to have succeeded well in a few grazing districts. A cross between the Devon cow and the Durham bull is an evident improve- ment, for the animal thus produced is profitable both for the dairy and the butcher. It must, however, be confessed, that the majority of the Cornish farmers are partial to the North Devons, and they appear to be better adapted to the soil of this county than any other breed. There is no particular management of the dairy cow in Cornwall. About November, the cows are turned for the winter into crofts, or little fields that have been kept up for them. In the spring and summer, they go into larger or uninclosed ground. The fattening beasts are generally fed on turnips in the winter ; and many of them are turned out from Fe- bruary to J une for the home consumption of Devonport and Plymouth markets. The Cornish land is not usually very rich, but the farmer is industrious, and manages well. In many places the sod is pared and burned forwheat ; and after wheat come turnips, which produce much winter food, and a great deal of dung, yet not in sufficient quantity for the stock. The farmers are generally compelled to give their young stock, and even their older beasts, a great deal of straw. Sea-sand and sea-weed are often called into requisition for manure, and are found to be exceedingly useful. Arthur Young describes the method of rearing their calves which is still pursued in a great part of the county. They are taken from the cow between the fourth and sixth day. Raw milk is then given to them for ten days or a fortnight, and afterwards scalded milk and gruel, in the quantity of three or four quarts in the morning and at night. A mixture of gruel and milk is found to be better than scalded milk alone. Some give their own family-broth, which is thought to be as good as, or better than, the gruel. The calves are fond of it, and thrive upon it ; and the flavour of the salted provisions increases the appetite, and promotes digestion. One quart of broth or gruel is added to two quarts of milk. A little fine hay is now placed before them, which they soon begin to eat. For a little while after they are turned to grass, this food is continued, according to the quantity of milk in hand, or the goodness and quality of the pasture. When they are ten or fourteen weeks old, they need no more milk, and, a considerable time before this, the quantity is reduced to less than half. In some parts, the calves are, during the winter and after the two first months, reared solely on hay and turnips, the turnips being sliced for that purpose. Many of the best breeders place two calves to one cow. 2 CATTLE, In the summer, many farmers feed the calves from the pail with scalded milk, for a couple of months, and then turn them to grass. Very little cheese is made in Cornwall, and that little is exceedingly bad. The butter, however, is excellent; and the Cornish housewives are as expert in making'the delicious clouted cream as any of the Devonshire ones. The system of letting cows out to labourers or poor people is not uncommon in Cornwall. It is a great accommodation to the hirer, and affords a good remuneration to the owner. The price varies with the situation and keep ; but it is usually from six to eight pounds, the calf being the property of the owner of the beast. A few years ago, oxen were employed in husbandry as frequently in Cornwall as in any part of Devonshire. Not only the North Devons, but the improved Cornish breed, were used for the purpose. Although small and light, they were active, docile, and hardy. The Cornish plough is almost as proverbial as the Devon ; and it was formerly worked by four oxen, with a horse or two before them. This practice is now considerably on the decline, for experience has proved, that both oxen and horses are best worked by themselves. Oxen are also employed in butts and wains, substitutes for a kind of rude cart or waggon, and well adapted for the beasts that are to draw them, and the roads they are to travel. They are brought to the yoke at three years old, and worked until they are seven or eight. They are as active as any horses ; and, like the Devons, they are stimulated much more by the pleasing chaunt of the ploughboy than by the goad. They are shod, and brakes are generally used for this purpose. Of late years, however, the use of oxen in husbandry is getting out of practice. The propriety and economy of this will be discussed in the proper place ; but oxen are not now generally seen even in the plough, and on the road they are very rarely employed. Except for home consumption, few cattle are fattened in Cornwall, and the store beasts are usually sent to Somersetshire, or other grazing counties. DORSETSHIRE. The ' old Dorset ox' but whether it is the indigenous breed of the county, is a matter of doubt, has long horns. Some assert, and with an appearance of probability, that the true Dorset was a middle horn, some- what resembling the South Devon, but not so large, and that the long horn is an importation from the northern or midland counties, or a mix- ture of the Hampshire, the Wiltshire, and perhaps the Oxfordshire. However, a long-horned breed, a rough sort of cattle, and far from handsome, has been so many years established in various parts of the county, that it is regarded by some as the original one. These have been crossed with the Devon bull, and evidently with advantage : they are hardy, good milkers, and fatten quickly. They are principally found in the eastern and northern divisions of the county. Towards the west, a mixture of the Devon and the Dorset prevails, and many farmers culti- vate the pure Devons. The climate, however, does not appear to suit )evons, for they do not here grow to any great size ; and some that they are even worse milkers than in their native district, subject to various diseases, and particularly to diarrhrea. Mr. Nobbs, of Catstoke, is decidedly of this opinion. The mixture of the Devon and the Dorset is an improvement on both. have obtained a still better kind of cattle by crossing again with the others are, with every probability of success, engrafting THE SOMERSETSHIRE CATTLE. 27 the Hereford on the Dorset stock. Three points of superiority are said to be gained over the Devon cross : larger size, more hardiness, and a disposition to yield a greater quantity of better milk. The use of oxen for husbandry-work, had been for many years declining in this country, but it has of late, and to a somewhat extraordinary degree, revived in some districts. The oxen are oftener worked in collars than in yokes. The cattle used for the plough or the team are principally the pure North Devons, which are purchased at two years' old in the North Devon markets, worked two or three years, and then fatted, some for the London but mostly for the home markets ; sometimes, how- ever, a mixture of the Devon and Dorset is used for draught. In the northern part of the county we find crosses of almost every kind, including not only those from the neighbouring counties of Hants and Wilts, but from Oxford, Gloucester, Shropshire, and Leicestershire. In the Dorset dairies, there can scarcely be said to be a decidedly pre- vailing breed. If the heifer is likely to make a good milker, that is all that is regarded, and little or no attention is paid to the shape, or colour, or size. About a fifth part of Dorsetshire is occupied by the vale of Blackmoor, a very rich pastoral country, and well adapted for the pur- poses of the dairy. A considerable quantity of butter and cheese is made here. On those farms where most butter is made, the Double Dorset cheese is manufactured from the skimmed milk alone, and which, when kept until it becomes " blue-vinney'd," is very much approved ; it is, however, more celebrated in than out of the country. A great quantity of butter, both in its fresh and salted state, is sent to London. A great many calves are sent from the Vale of Blackmoor in the spring of the year to Poole, and there shipped for Portsmouth ; and the supply being greater than the demand, the butchers find it answer their pur- pose to forward much of it to the London market. Much of this concise account of Dorsetshire we owe to Mr. W. C. Spooner, veterinary surgeon at Blandford. SOMERSETSHIRE. The North Devon cattle prevail along that part of the county which borders on Devon until we arrive in the neighbourhood of Wincaunton and Ilchester, where the pure breed is almost lost sight of. In the north of Somerset few of the Devons are to be seen ; but along the coast, and even extending as far as Bristol and Bath, the purest breed of the Devons are preferred. They are valued for their aptitude to fatten, their quickness and honesty at work ; and they are said to be better milkers than in their native county. They are of a larger size, for the soil is better, and the pasturage more luxuriant. It is on this ac- count that the oxen bred in some parts, and particularly in the Vale of Taunton, although essentially Devons, are preferred to those from the greater part of Devonshire, and even from the neighbourhood of Barnstaple and South Molton. They are better for the grazier and for the dairy ; and, if they are not quite so active as their progenitors, they have not lost their docility and freeness at work, and they have gained materially in strength. Mr. Carpenter, to whom we have already referred, and who is now resident in the Vale of Taunton, informs us that the farmers in the south and south-west of Somerset are endeavouring to breed that sort of cattle that will answer for the pail, and the plough, and grazing, a very difficult point, as he acknowledges, to hit; for those that are of the highest proof (exhibiting those points or conformations of particular parts 28 CATTLE. which usually indicate a propensity to fatten) are generally the worst milkers, both as to quantity and quality. This being, however, a dairy county as well as a grazing one, or more so, the principal point with them is a good shew for milk. They are, for the most part, of the Devon red, and, as he thinks, the best suited for all purposes of any in the West of England. All that is necessary to keep them up in size and proof and of a good growth, is to change the bull every two years. This is a very important, although an overlooked and unappreciated principle of breeding, even where the stock is most select. No bull should be longer used by the same grazier, or some degree of deterioration will ensue. It must, nevertheless, be confessed, that in the greater part of the county, and where the Devons are liked best for husbandry and for grazing, experi- ence has taught many farmers to select another breed for the dairy. Some prefer the pure short horns, others the North Wilts, and a few a mixture between the two. The short horns, however, are very different from those that are seen anywhere else. They resemble neither the old nor the im- proved Durham or East York, but were originally made up of a mixture of the Devon with the old Somersetshire cow. The Somersetshire cattle are thus described by Mr. Herbert, as they existed sixty or seventy years ago ; but we can scarcely believe the account to be faithful. ' Somersetshire formerly had a breed of cattle which, from the crescent- form of its turned-up horn, seemed to be between the Sussex and the original short-horn (he must mean the middle horn, for the short horn is of foreign extraction) ; useful and heavy ; high on its legs, particularly behind. It was used for the supply of the ship- ping, and sent to Salisbury market, and thence forwarded to Portsmouth. The cows were good milkers, and fattened kindly.' If we may judge of them from what the West Somersets are now, they were a valuable breed. They betray their Devonshire origin ; but in the opinion of the Somersetshire farmers, they are far preferable to the native breed, and they have increased in size without losing any of their useful proper- ties. There are few better judges than these Somersetshire men ; for being the party concerned between the breeder on the one side, and the grazier on the other, and having opportunity daily to observe the failures or the success of each, they acquire a kind of intuitive knowledge of the points of cattle. A few of the present West Somerset cattle are characterised by a peculiarity of colour. They are called sheeted oxen. The head, the neck, the shoulders, and the hind parts appear as if they were uncovered, while there is a sheet fairly and perfectly thrown over the barrel. They do not, however, exhibit the true Devon colour in these uncovered parts, for the hair is yellow, instead of a deep blood red, or almost brown colour. In North Somerset few of the Devons are to be seen, but they are the same party-coloured kind of which I have just spoken. Mr. Billingsley, in his Survey of Somerset, says, that in this district, extending from Bath and Frome on the east, to Uphill and Kingsroad on the west, the cows are mostly short horns, with some fine long horns from rtn Wilts. A heifer of three years old that discovers any disposition to en, is turned out of the dairy, because experience has convinced the that she will seldom or never prove a good milker ; and the breeders in that part are often obliged to have recourse to Welsh nurses, because there is a deficiency of milk in the parent animal. ic middle of Somersetshire, from the Mendip hills on the north, to Cewater on the West, and Chard on the south (principally a grazing try;, he says that the business is divided into a summer and winter THE SOMERSETSHIRE CATTLE. 29, feed. For summer fattening, the Devons are principally bought in February, either in the northern part of Devon, or the lower part of Somerset. They are purchased in tolerable condition, and consume, between February and their turning out, ten or twelve hundred weight of inferior hay, the skimming of the summer leas. When at grass, they are allowed from an acre to an acre and a half per ox, and perhaps one sheep to each ox, and not more than one horse to twenty acres. About Michaelmas they are fat, and pay from three shillings and sixpence to four shillings per week for their keep. The farmers in that district think that frequent bleedings in small quantities accelerate the process of fattening. The home-breds are usually preferred for fattening. The Rev. Mr. King, ofBudgworth Rectory, informs us that an ox is purchased, or, if bred, turned off to graze in February. He has one and a half acre or more of the best pasture for summer feed; then comes the same range of after- math from the beginning of September to the end of November ; hay being added by degrees, until it is required entirely. These oxen are sold for the Salisbury or London markets, either before Christmas, or from that to Lady-day. A dairy farmer seldom grazes, except an old cow for the benefit of his neighbours ; and these seldom get more than four or six months grazing after they are dried up. Beef of this description is as plen- tiful in the autumn as veal in the summer, and about the same price (1832), from fourpence to fivepence per pound. Some farmers graze heifers in preference to oxen, buying in March and April, and selling in October or November; and which are stocked at the rate of a heifer to each acre, with one or two sheep. The sheep thus fatted are usually the two year old Dorsets or Somersets. Some give their prime oxen a second summer grass ; and the second year pays better than the first, for an animal nearly fat will consume much less food than a lean one. The time of calving is from the beginning of February to Lady-day. The farmers take great care to keep their cows in good condition for three weeks or a month before they calve, thinking that the milk will flow in proportion to the goodness of the keep at that time ; and the consequence of this is frequent attacks of puerperal fever and garget. The number of calves reared in this district is very great. Four hundred fat calves have been sold in Shepton-Mallet market in one day, but now the village butchers buy and slaughter them at home, and take the carcasses to Bristol for the Tuesday and Saturday markets. The calves that are reared are principally fed on cheese-whey, and are turned out to grass in May to shift lor themselves. In the south-east part of this district, where the dairy-lands are chiefly applied to the making of butter and skim-milk cheese, the calves are taken from their mothers at about three days old. Those that are to be fatted are suckled by hand out of the pail as soon as it is brought home from the field morning and evening. These calves are technically said to be on the stage. It will take the milk of three cows to fatten two calves up to from thirty-five to fifty pounds per quarter. The old practice of giving the calves mead or some other home- made wine is now discontinued. Soon after Lady-day, when the great business of cheese-making begins in good earnest, the milk is wanted for the cheese-vat instead of the suckling-pail. To fatten the calf, the farmer's wife then places the whey over the fire in a large copper, and the warmth forces a further portion of poorer curd (skim curds,) and these, with a little milk, and with the occasional addition of lintseed-meal, make a good calf. The calves to be reared are thought to be well off, if, like the pigs, they get whey. 30 CATTLE. The celebrated Bridg-ewater cheese is made on the marshes between that town and Cross. Huntspill, South Brent, and East Brent, are the three prime cheese-parishes. The mail-road from Bridgewater to Cross passes through each of them. The land is rich and cool, and the pasturage not only old, but principally consisting of blade grasses, with few flowers or odoriferous herbs to raise or produce that essential oil which is so detri- mental in the manufacture of cheese. Mr. King further informs us, that the present dairy cow of this district is either entirely red, which shows her Devon origin, or red with a white face which marks the Here- ford cross, or spotted red and white, and that the latter are generally preferred as the best milkers. They spring from Durham blood on one side, and the farmers of this district are much indebted to the late Mr. Stone, of South Brent, who, at a considerable expense, introduced several bulls of the Durham breed. The usual proportion in a dairy of forty cows is about twenty- five red ones, ten spotted, and five with a white face ; and yet, as the Hereford bull has been rarely if at all tried in this district, the white face is not owned by the farmer as of Herefordshire origin. A Durham ox, of Mr. King's breed from Warwickshire, was lately slaughtered here, weighing 21 score and 13 Ibs. per quarter. It was fed by Mr. Burman, of Henley-in-Arden. Very little of the prime Cheddar cheese is made at that village. It is chiefly manufactured in the parishes just mentioned, and in the marshes round Glastonbury. A somewhat inferior Cheddar is often sold as double Gloucester. As in the Vale of Berkeley, the cows are pastured and milked near to the farm-house, and the milk set with the rennet as soon as possible, and left undisturbed for two hours. The curd is then broken ; a por- tion of the whey first warmed and put to it, and then the whole of the whey made scalding hot, and poured upon it, and left for half an hour. The curd is afterwards put into the vat, and the other processes conducted much in the usual way. This scalding is supposed to favour an intimate union of the particles of the whey, and likewise to dispose the oleaginous matter to exude, and thus give the cheese that soft, rich, fatty appearance and flavour by which it is distinguished. Mr. King recommends the addition of one Guernsey to every dozen country-cows. He thinks that this quantity of rich milk being added might make the whole throw a greater weight of curd. It certainly is so when butter is the object, and that small quantity would not injure the keeping. Guernsey butter unmixed is too rich and will not keep, and so it might be with cheese. The Somersetshire dairymen usually keep their cows until they are ten or twelve years old, and then turn them off' for failing, not in the quantity but the quality of the milk. At this time they are reduced to half the value of a long-horned cow of the same age ; but if it should appear, as it generally will, that the short-horn will make a half-hundred of cheese more every season than the long-horned Wilts, and at the same time cost less for the keep, the balance will be found to be in favour of the short or middle-horned Somerset. In the upper part of the country, and where heifers are preferred, the graziers go into North Wilts and Hampshire to buy them. Some of the best of them are nearly equal to the Devons, but in general they are not so high in proof. Occasionally they are brought from Gloucestershire, and even from Yorkshire, and are now and then sold in October at thirty-eight or forty score pounds each. Many Irish cattle are fattened in Somersetshire, on account of the cheap rate at which they are purchased when lean. THE HEREFORDSHIRE CATTLE. 31 HEREFORDSHIRE. The Herefordshire white-faced breed, with the exception of a very few Alderney and Durham cows, have almost exclusive possession of this county. The Hereford oxen are considerably larger than the North Devons. They are usually of a darker red ; some of them are brown, and even yellow, and a few are brindled ; but they are principally distinguished by their white faces, throats, and bellies. In a few the white extends to the shoulders. The old Herefords were brown or red-brown, with not a spot of white about them. It is only within the last fifty or sixty years that it has been the fashion to breed for white faces. Whatever may be thought of the change of colour, the present breed is certainly far superior to the old one. The hide is considerably thicker than that of the Devon, and the beasts are more hardy. Compared with the Devons, they are shorter in the leg, and also in the carcase ; higher, and broader, and heavier in the chine ; rounder and wider across the hips, and better covered with fat ; the thigh fuller and more muscular, and the shoulders larger and coarser. The cut in the following page, is the portrait of an ox belonging to the Duke of Bedford. L Mr. Marshall gives the following account of them : it is tolerably correct, but does not sufficiently distinguish them from their kindred breed. ' The countenance pleasant, cheerful, open ; the forehead broad ; eye full and lively ; horns bright, taper, and spreading ; head small ; chap lean ; neck long and tapering ; chest deep ; bosom broad, and projecting forward ; shoulder-bone thin, flat, no way protuberant in bone (?), but full and mellow in flesh ; chest full ; loin broad ; hips standing wide, and level with the chine ; quarters long, and wide at the neck ; rump even with the level of the back, and not drooping, nor standing high and sharp above the quarters ; tail slender and neatly haired ; barrel round and roomy ; the carcase throughout deep and well spread ; ribs broad, standing flat and close on the outer surface, forming a smooth, even barrel, the hindmost large and full of length ; round bone small, snug, and not prominent ; thigh clean, and regularly tapering ; legs upright and short ; bone below the knee and hock small ; feet of middle size ; flank large ; flesh every- where mellow, soft, and yielding pleasantly to the touch, especially on the chine, the shoulder, and the ribs ; hide mellow, supple, of a middle thick- ness, and loose on the neck and huckle ; coat neatly haired, bright and silky ; colour, a middle red, with a bald face characteristic of the true Herefordshire breed.' They fatten to a much greater weight than the Devons, and run from fifty to seventy score. A tolerable cow will average from thirty-five to fifty score. A cow belonging to the Duke of Bedford weighed more than seventy score ; and an ox belonging to Mr. Westcar exceeded one hundred and ten score. They are not now much used for husbandry, although their form adapts them for the heavier work ; and they have all the honesty and docility of the Devon ox, and greater strength, if not his acti- vity. The Herefordshire ox fattens speedily at a very early age, and it is therefore more advantageous to the farmer, and perhaps to the country, that he should go to market at three years old, than be kept longer to be employed as a beast of draught. We are indebted to Mr. A. Knight, of Downton Castle, for some valuable observations on this and other subjects connected with the Herefordshire cattle, and breeding in general, of which we shall avail ourselves in the proper place. They are far worse milkers than the Devons. This is so generally acknowledged, that while there are many dairies of Devon cows in various 32 CATTLE. parts of the country, (none of which, however, are very profitable to their owners,) a dairy of Herefords is rarely to be found. To compensate for this, they are even more kindly feeders than the Devons, and will live and grow fat where a Devon would scarcely live. Their beef may be objected to by some as being occasionally a little too large in the bone, and the fore-quarters being coarse and heavy ; but the meat of the best pieces is often very fine-grained and beautifully marbled. There are few cattle more prized in the market than the genuine Herefords. The Devons and the Herefords are both excellent breeds, and the pre- judices of the Devonshire and Herefordshire farmers for their peculiar breed being set aside, a cross of the one will often materially improve the other. The Devon will acquire bulk and hardihood, and the Hereford a finer form and activity. The Hereford bull, and the West Highland or Kyloe cows, have been tried, but they did not feed so rapidly, nor weigh so well as the Hereford, and they had the defect of being extremely pug- nacious. Mr. Culley, although an excellent judge of cattle, formed a very erro- neous opinion of the Herefords when he pronounced them to be nothing but a mixture of the Welsh with a bastard race of long-horns. They are evidently an aboriginal breed, and descended from the same stock as the Devons. If it were not for the white face, and somewhat larger head and thicker neck, it would not at all times be easy to distinguish between a heavy Devon and a light Hereford. Their white faces may probably be traced to a cross with their not distant relations, the Montgomeries. J.JACKSOlT The Hereford cow is apparently a very inferior animal. Not only is she no milker, but even her form has been sacrificed by the breeder. Here- fordshire is more a rearing than a feeding county, and therefore the farmer looks mostly to the shape and value of his young stock ; and in the choice of his cow, he does not value her or select her, or breed from her according to her milking qualities, or the price which the grazier would give for her, but in proportion as she possesses that general form which experience has taught him will render her likely to produce a good ox. Hence the Hereford cow is comparatively small and delicate, and some would call her ill-made. She is very light-fleshed when in common condition, and beyond that, while she is breeding, she is not suffered to proceed ; THE HEREFORDSHIRE CATTLE. 33 but when she is actually put up for fattening-, she spreads out, and accumulates fat at a most extraordinary rate. Our cut gives us the por- trait of a beautiful cow, once belonging to the Earl of Egremont. The breeder has been taught by experience, that when the cow, although she should be somewhat roomy, is too large and masculine, the ox will be brawny and coarse, and perhaps a little sluggish at work, arid even some- what unkind and slow in the process of fattening, and these are objections which, most of all, he would be unwilling to have justly made. The Herefordshire cow is therefore somewhat undersized ; and it not unfre- quently happens that she produces a bull-calf that grows to three times her own weight. [ The Herefordshire Cow.] Kindly as the Hereford ox fattens, very few are grazed in their native country : even the beasts which the home consumption requires are prin- cipally heifers and old cows. The oxen are sold at five and six years old in tolerable condition, at the Michaelmas fair in Hereford, to the graziers of Buckinghamshire and the neighbouring counties, by whom they are principally preferred for the London market. The fertility of the soil in Herefordshire has been very much overrated. The traveller, and the superficial observer, have been misled by the luxuriant woods and rich alluvial soil upon the banks of its rivers. The pasture-grounds are generally poor, and the herbage is not nutritious, and therefore the farmer naturally confines his chief attention to his rear- ing-stock. The Dairy has been comparatively neglected ; for experience has proved that the breeding qualities of a cow are materially lessened, and even her form is deteriorated, by her being inclined to give a large quantity of milk. A very interesting trial was made in the winter of 1828-29, between the Herefords and the improved short-horned breeds of cattle, in the ordinary mode of feeding, without forcing by artificial food of any description, and the result seemed to be much to the advantage of the Herefords, consi- dering their original weight, and the quantity of food consumed. It must, D 34 CATTLE. however, be confessed that it is not sufficient to enable us to decide upon the relative merits of the two rival breeds of large cattle, nor are we yet quite prepared for the inquiry ; but we insert it as an experiment that was fairly conducted, to which the advocates of the Herefordshire cattle often refer, and which they will naturally expect to be placed upon record. Three Herefords and three short-horns were selected : they were put together in a straw-yard on the 20th of December, 1827, and were fed in the open yard, at the rate of one bushel of turnips per beast per day, with straw only, until May 2nd, 1828, when their weights were taken, and they were sent to grass. CwU. qrs. Ibs. Cwts. qrs. lb. No 1. Hereford 830 No. 1. Short-horn 920 2. 730 2. 820 3. 700 3. 900 On the 3d of November they were taken from grass, and put into the stall, when their weight was as follows : Cwt. qrs. Ibs. Cwt. qrs. lb. No. 1. Hereford 1130 No. 1. Short-horn 12 3 14 2. 10 2 2. 12 2 3. 10 3 3. 12 3 From that time to the 25th of March, 1829, they consumed the following quantities of Swedish turnips and hay : Turnips Ibs. Hay Ibs. The Herefords . . 46,655 5065 The short-horns . . 59,430 6779 They then weighed No. 1. Hereford 13 14 No. 1. Short-horn 14 2 2. 12 2. 14 1 14 3. 12 3. 14 2 14 being an increase of weight in favour of the Herefords of 13 2 14 and in favour of the Short-horns 17 2 and making a difference in favour of the Short-horns of 3 3 14 but then the Short-horns had consumed 12,7751bs. more of turnips, and I7141bs. more of hay. When they were all sold together at Smithfield on the 30th of March, the heavier short-horns fetched 97/., and the lighter Herefords 96/., being an overplus of only II. to pay for the enormous difference in the food con- sumed, and the greater price given on account of the heavier weight of the short-horns at the commencement of the experiment*. Another Hereford and a short-horn were also tried together at the same time ; but they did not undergo the same process, nor was so regular an account kept of their progress. The Hereford increased in weight 3 cwt. 3 qrs., and the short- horn 4 cwt. ] qr. * The Michaelmas cattle fair at Hereford is not exceeded by any show of beasts in condition in the kingdom. They are usually sold to the graziers in the neighbour- he metropolis, by whom they are prepared for the Smithfield market. i. is an entry ln an account book kept by William Town, in the neighbourhood of H *[r/ 0r . d ' '" lhe y 16 K of ihe price of fat oxen at that period. .cot 11 August, lG94,_8old the nine oxen at 52*. ; the money to be paid into the awiuer wiUua a mouth." The price of oxen is, at least, six times as great now, THE GLOUCESTERSHIRE BREED. 35 GLOUCESTER. THIS county is taken next, because, bordering on Hereford, many of the cattle of that county are found here. Throughout the whole of Gloucester- shire the Herefords are preferred for working and for fattening. They are less active than the Devons, but far more so than the Gloucesters. They consume less food when at work, and very far less when fattening ; but the Gloucesters are superior to the Herefords for the pail. Cattle of every kind, however, prevail in the dairy farms in this county, as in every other district. Of the old breed of the Gloucesters it is now difficult to speak, for they are nearly extinct. They were evidently of Welsh origin, mingled with the Hereford, and sometimes with the cattle farther inland. They were the Glamorgan chiefly, but upon a larger scale, and of a different colour. The Glamorgans are black, or inclining to brown ; the old Gloucesters were either red or brown. The horns were of a middle length, white, and tipped with black ; the bones small, and the carcase light, scarcely averaging more than twelve score per quarter. The bag was thin yet large, and the milk abundant and long continued. The characteristic mark was said to be a streak of white generally along the back, and always at the root of the tail. Many years ago the farmers began to cross them with the long-horns, and principally those from North Wilts. Thence arose considerable increase of size, with more tendency to fatten, and richer and not much less abundant milk. This breed is principally found in the hilly dis- trict of Gloucester, about the Cotswolds. Some farmers, indeed, have crossed so frequently with the long-horn, that little of the old Gloucester remains, and not a few use the long-horns alone. The prevailing breed, however, about the hills, and particularly among the small farmers, is the Gloucester and the Wiltshire combined. Some Suffolk duns are scattered in a few places ; some pure Devons, Durhams, and Leicesters are found, but chiefly a mixture from among them all, the Gloucesters and the North Wilts preponderating, while each farmer breeds and chooses according to his pleasure or caprice. In the hilly part of the county cattle are an inferior object of considera- tion ; there is little peculiar in the management of them; and even that little does not deserve commendation. The principal purpose for which they are here kept is to pasture on those spots which are unsound for sheep. A great proportion of many of the farms in this poor district can only be made profitable by turning young stock upon them ; which, however, are never thoroughly fattened there, but the young stock, and the cows, and even the sheep, are sold to graziers from the neighbouring districts, barely in tolerable store condition. The early-dropped calves are chosen for rear- ing ; the others might not have sufficient strength to endure the winter, and are speedily got rid of. The calves that are to be reared continue two or three days with the mother, sucking as they like, and taking the milk that is good for nothing else. They are then fed with skim-rnilk a little warmed, being first taught with the finger ; but they soon drink eagerly out of the pail. Linseed tea is after a little while mixed with the milk; afterwards the milk is laid aside, and oat or barley meal is stirred in with the tea ; and so they are gradually brought to solid food, and weaned. When the grass begins to fail in November, they are fed in the field, where there is some tolerable shelter for them j and the yearlings are D 2 ,- CATTLE. 3D also in the field, and fed with straw instead of hay. The pasture allotted to them is generally old and good, but such as had been previously eaten bare by the cows. Worse than all, during the early part of the winter the milch cows have nothing but straw allowed them. It is the custom in this part of the country not to take much care of the two-year-olds until Christmas is past. The heifers usually calve in April or May, and are taken into the dairy, and the steers then go to work after Christmas, when hay, but not of the best quality, is allowed them. This system of starvation, partly induced by the nature of the soil, (sufficient fodder not being produced for the proper nutriment of the stock,) and partly attributable to an absurd mode of treatment derived from their forefathers, has a tendency to cripple the improvement of live stock. The calves will not attain their full growth, and the cows will not yield sufficient milk for suckling or for the pail while this system is pursued. There is room for much improvement here, as well as in many other districts of the kingdom in the management of live stock. In the lower or vale part of the county, where cattle are kept principally for the dairy, and not to feed on the unsound and rotting ground, a more liberal and a more profitable system of management is adopted. In the Vale of Berkeley, as the long and rich tract of land is called that reaches from the Cotswolds to the Severn, the cows are, as in the hilly district, of various sorts and kinds. In all of them, however, traces of the old Gloucester are visible, and carefully preserved. The cross depends upon the fancy of the dairyman. Some have mingled the Alder- ney with the Gloucester, and they have both increased the quantity and the richness of the milk ; others have mixed the Wilts and the Gloucester, and they have a fair supply of excellent milk ; while some have introduced the Yorkshire, whereby they have certainly added to the quantity, although perhaps a little deteriorated the quality of the milk : but the majority, and still more judiciously, have mingled all these together, and they have materially improved both the quantity and the quality. There are no Herefords for the pail ; a few Devons, some Suffolks, some North Wilts, and the rest Gloucesters, with various crosses. A cross between the Gloucester and the Hereford has been attempted with considerable success. They yield from four to six gallons of good milk every day. It is difficult to account for the fact that, whife in grazing counties the large and small farmers agree in selecting a certain breed, and adhere to that selection, almost every dairy district is charac- terized by a motley assemblage of all sorts and kinds of cattle. We shall often have occasion to allude to this. This is a celebrated dairy country. From the Vale of Berkeley is pro- duced a great part of the cheese, which is known in every part of the kingdom under the names of the single and double Gloucester. A slight sketch of the peculiar management of this district must now be given to render our work perfect; but for a more detailed account, the reader is referred to the Twenty-first Number of the Farmer's Series, in which the usual management both of the Gloucestershire hill and vale farms is fully described. The calves remain with the mothers about a week. They are then fed kim-milk ; first, by means of the feeder's fingers introduced into uth.and which being supplied with milk, are sucked by the calves ; 'oon drink of themselves. Linseed tea is, after a little while, scr with the milk ; and soon after that the milk is quite withdrawn, and barley meal stirred with the linseed, until the calf is able to eat hay oats. About the middle of May they are turned out to good grass, and THE GLOUCESTERSHIRE BREED. 37 so they are kept until the grass is ready for them, on the earliest and best of which they are turned. From among the early ones, or those dropped before March, a selection is made to keep up the dairy, and those from the best milkers are uniformly chosen. The farmer is right here ; for every quality, both good and bad, is more decidedly hereditary than many have supposed, or are willing to allow. Some of the heifers that are weaned before March drop their calves when two years and a quarter old, and all of them are taken into the dairy at three years' old. The land here is rich and productive, and fodder of every kind is abundant. The cattle are much better kept, than in the hill country, and they pay their proprietors well for the additional trouble and expense. The richest even of these fertile pastures are set apart for the milch cows ; and in order that their appetite may not pall, they are frequently moved from pasture to pasture. This is a method of rendering them productive of which the majority of farmers are not aware. At the same time the farm is as much understocked as a hill-farm is too frequently overstocked ; at least there is plenty of good keep for every cow. It has been found that land, which has been lately and much manured, is not so good for the cows. The milk may be more abundant, but not so rich. Dr. Rudge, in his Survey of Gloucestershire, says, that there were two grounds adjoining each other alternately used for the pasture of cows. While they were on one, excellent cheese was made ; but when they were on the other, the cheese was rank, heaving, and hollow, and unfit for the market. The latter had been lately well-dressed with manure ; and the dairywoman remarked that, if the farmer continued to enrich his land with dung, she must give up making cheese. The cows are early moved from the pasture-ground into the after-grass. Experience has taught the farmer that few things are more conducive to the general health of the animal, as well as the abundant supply of milk, than the first flush of grass in the spring, or after mowing. As the winter comes on, they are moved into the driest and best-sheltered situations. It would be advantageous if there was some shed for them to retreat to as a protection from the extreme cold ; and they should have plenty of good hay allowed them once or twice in the day, before they have calved, and several times in the day afterwards. In some cases, however, although not by the generality of farmers, the system of false economy prevalent in the hilly district is adopted here, and the cows in calf, and the young and store beasts, are half-starved during the winter. There is no part of dairy and cattle management which more demands reformation than this. The principal product of the Vale of Berkeley is its cheese. It has a peculiar flavour, and is deservedly esteemed. It is not quite "clear to what peculiar circumstance the excellence of the Gloucester cheese is to be attributed ; for several things, probably, combine to produce the effect. The breed of the cow has little or nothing to do with it. We have stated that almost every variety of breed is found here, and the milk of all is mingled together. The cows are taken better care of. The pasture is good, and it is old, and is composed of the natural grasses of the country, which are grown here with little admixture of foreign or artificial ones. The fields, another circumstance not sufficiently appreciated, are near to, and surround as much as possible the farm-houses, so that the milk is but little agitated, or the component parts of it separated before it is curdled by the rennet. By this means, too, the milk may be set, before it is cooled below the proper temperature. 33 CATTLE. Every dairymaid knows well that the milk should be warm when it is set. She has rarely any thermometer to guide her. She needs it not, for she can tell with the accuracy of the best thermometer whether the tem- perature is above or below 85. When it is received from the cow, and before it is cooled in the pail, it is more than 90. It should be set when it has cooled to 85, and that, if possible, without the addition of any milk artificially heated to bring; it to the proper standard. The colouring matter and the rennet are then added, and particular care is taken that the rennet is old, yet free from unpleasant smell*. The tub is now covered until the curd is formed. The process of cutting and breaking the curd follows next ; and when it is sufficiently broken it is put into the vats, and pressed well down. The vats are filled as closely as possible, the cheese-cloth placed over all, and a little hot water is poured over the cloth, to harden the outside of the cheese ; the curd is then turned out into the cloth, and this being carefully folded round it, the cheese is returned once more into the vat. All the vats which are to be filled are placed one upon another, and all subjected to the action of the press. Here they remain four-and-twenty hours ; the vats of the next meal being placed underneath, and those of the preceding meal raised a tier, and dry cloths occasionally applied. In many dairies there is a second breaking of the curd, which, after having been reduced as small as possible, is scalded with a mixture of water and whey. This second and more perfect breaking down of the curd has been imagined to be the grand cause of the soft uniform sub- stance of the cheese when it is fully made. The practice, however, is getting somewhat into disuse ; for it is very reasonably urged that this scalding and washing must extract a portion of the oleaginous part of the cheese; therefore a great deal more care is taken in sufficiently reducing it with the knife rapidly worked about the tub before the curd is put into the vat. The old farmers, however, yet maintain that the whole art of making Gloucester cheese depends on this scalding process ; that the fatty matter of the milk and curd is thus disposed to develope itself, and to be brought so far out, as to form afterwards the uniform rich substance for which the Gloucester cheese is celebrated. At the expiration of twenty-four hours the cheeses are well rubbed with salt. This is repeated daily, for three days, for the single, and four days for the double Gloucester)- ; the cloths being now taken away, and the cheeses regularly returned to the press for four, or five, or six days, ac- cording to the state of the weather. They are then put upon the shelf, or "tack,' and turned twice in the day, for two or three days; and then placed in the cheese-room, where they are turned once in the day * Dr. Rudge says, that the rennet is sometimes made two months before it is wanted. To twelve gallons of water are usually added twelve pounds of common salt, and one pound of bay-salt. This is boiled until it will bear an egg. It is strained when cool, and twenty- four Irish " veils'* or stomachs, and twelve lemons with the rinds on, but incisions made them,^ and two ounces of cloves and cinnamon, are then put into the liquor. "Wsi tlC v Sm ,? le Gloucester" is the skim-milk cheese ; the "Double Gloucester," or t making " cheese, is manufactured from the pure or unskimmed milk ; although ut unuKtial in a. large dairy to set aside sufficient milk to afford cream and butter the family, and afterwards to add it to the next day's milking. These me an smmed milk, or sometimes two portio r'* r V r " coward " milk. The inferior cheese, acknowledged to be the skim- bcfore's! 8 lt ^ ni . ime "nports it to be; and the dairymaid usually skims it often enough THE GLOUCESTERSHIRE BREED. 39 for a" month. They are then scraped clean, and painted red or brown, or a mixture of both. After a few days the paint is rubbed off from the edges, and the cheese is continued to be turned once or twice every week. In some dairies the floor of the cheese-room is well rubbed with a variety of herbs, among which are elder-leaves, potato-stalks, mint, &c. This is supposed to answer the double purpose of giving the cheese a coat, and also preventing the " mints " or mites from getting into it. Others not only avoid this unclean practice, but wash the new-made cheeses with hot whey once a fortnight. This is said to give a firmer coat ; at least, it gives a cleaner one. There is nothing very peculiar in all this process, except the more than usually slight agitation of the milk before it is set with the rennet, and the great care with regard to the degree of temperature. Something, perhaps, may be attributed to a less degree of squeezing with the hand in bruizing the curd, when a great deal of the fatty matter of the cheese may be pressed out, the knife being more used than the hand in dividing it. The principal characteristics of the Gloucester cheese are its richness, and its smooth and oily texture instead of breaking when cut, and its retaining fatty matter so perfectly in the operation of toasting. We have already related the manner in which Cheddar cheese is made to resemble the double. Gloucester. A little before Michaelmas the cheese is submitted to the factor, who often adopts a very summary way of examining it. He treads upon each cheese, and those which yield to the tread he condemns as " heaved " or " hoved," and are kept for home, or, at least, for country consumption. Many causes have been assigned for this " heaving." Some attri- bute it to the pasture. It is said to have been too luxuriant, or to have had too many early plants in it. The dairymaid always stoutly maintains this. Others, with more justice, say that it is the fault of the maker: the curd was produced too quickly, either by making the milk too hot, or adding too much rennet, or by removing the cheese too soon to a close and hot room. The cheese-rooms are generally far too hot, and probably encourage this fermentation in the new-made cheese. They should be as cool and airy as possible. Some farmers prefer a stone floor for it, and with reason. The chief cause, however, is to be sought for in the first making. r -,-'.' As may be supposed, the grazing of cattle is comparatively neglected in this dairy district. Some of the farmers, however, buy in small Welsh beasts, principally heifers, "burries,'' and turn them on the rouen in August. They remain there until the following spring, being occasionally supplied with hay, as the season may demand, and are then in good con- dition, and yield a fair remunerating price. In the neighbourhood of Gloucester, however, a considerable number of oxen, principally of the Hereford breed, are fattened. If in poor con- dition they are bought in the spring, and, after running on the summer pastures until winter, are finished off in the stall. A more unprofitable way is to buy them in forward condition in the autumn, and feed them on hay with oil-cakes. Some from the lower part of the country are sent to Bristol or Bath ; but the greater part of them are destined for the Smith- field market. 40 CATTLE. [7%e Sussex Oj.] SUSSEX. SOME of the ancient Britons sought refuge from the attacks. of their in- vaders, amid the fastnesses of the Weald of East Sussex. Thither they drove, or there they found, some of the native cattle of the country ; and, as in the north of Devon, and, as will be presently seen, in the mountains of Wales, and the Highlands of Scotland, they anxiously preserved them free from all admixture, as relics of happier times, and records of what Britain once possessed. The resemblance between the Sussex and the Devon oxen is very great. They unquestionably betray the same origin. Lord Sheffield thought that there were two breeds of Sussex cattle ; one the larger and coarser, scarcely different from the Hereford, except that they had no white about them, and which were a mixture of the old Sussex with other breeds from the east and the west, and which having been fed on richer pasture, had ac- quired a larger growth : the lighter breed bore about it unequivocal marks of its being of the same common stock as the Devon. One of the best descriptions that we have of the Sussex ox is given by that excellent agriculturist Mr. Ellman, of Glynde, to whom the east- ern part of that county is much indebted for the preservation of its native breed of cattle, and the great improvement of the South-Down sheep. He speaks of the Sussex ox as having a small and well formed head; and so it has, compared with many other breeds, and even with the Hereford, but evidently coarser than that of the Devon ; the horns pushujg forwards httle, and then turning upwards, thin, tapering and long not so as to Wound this breed with the long horns, and yet in some cases a little ap- *jng to them. The eye is full, large, and mild in the ox ; but with etpee of unquietness in the cow. The throat clean ; and the neck, mpared with either the long horns or the short ones, long and thin, yet evidently coarser than that of the Devon. At the shoulder is the main point of difference, and the principal defect * cattle. There is more wideness and roundness on the 5 a straighter line from the summit of the withers towards oack, there is no projecting point of the shoulder when the animal is THE SUSSEX BREED. 41 looked at from behind, but the whole of the fore-quarter is thickly covered with flesh, giving too much weight to the coarser and less profit- able parts*. This is certainly a defect, but it is counterbalanced by many admirable points. If there is more weight in front, the fore legs are neces- sarily wider apart, straighter, and more perpendicular than in the Devon ; they are placed more under the body rather than seeming to be attached to the sides. The fore-arm is large and muscular, but the legs, although coarser than those of the Devon, are small and fine downwards, and par- ticularly below the fetlock. The barrel is round and deep the back straight no rising spinal processes are to be seen, but rather a central depression ; and the line of the back, if broken, is only done so by a lump of fat rising between the hips. The belly and flank are capacious, there is room before for the heart and lungs to prepare and circulate the blood, and there is room behind, in the capacious belly, for the full development of all the organs of digestion ; yet the beast is well ribbed home, the space between the last rib and the hip-bone is often very small, and there is no hanging heaviness of the belly or flank. The loins of the Sussex ox are wide : the hip-bone does not rise high, nor is it ragged externally ; but it is large and spread out, and the space between the hips is well filled up. The tail, which is fine and thin, is set on lower than in the Devon, yet the rump is nearly as straight, for the deficiency is supplied by a mass of flesh and fat swelling above. The hind quarters are cleanly made, and if the thighs appear to be straight without, there is plenty of fulness within. The Sussex ox holds an intermediate place between the Devon and the Hereford, with all the activity of the first, and the strength of the second, and the propensity to fatten, and the beautiful, fine-grained flesh of both. Experience has shown that it possesses as many of the good qualities of both as can be combined in one frame. The Devons and the Herefords are said by some to have been improved by one judicious cross with the other ; but a cross with the Hereford often produces, in the Sussex, a heavier animal, it is true, yet not fattening so profitably, or working so kindly. Some graziers, however, have very ingeniously explained this, by the dif- ferent parts on which the Hereford and Sussex cattle usually carry their fat. The Hereford bears it upon the ribs and the sirloin ; the Sussex more on the flank and the inside. There may be some truth in this : yet it cannot be denied that the Herefords carry theirs in the best places ; and it is on this account that the prize is so often adjudged to them at the cattle-shows, and particularly at Smithfield. When the Sussex has been crossed with the Devon a lighter breed has resulted, but not gaining in activity, while it is materially deteriorated in its grazing properties. The Sussex ox is of a deep chestnut-red some, however, prefer a blood-bay : much deviation from these colours generally indicates some stain in the breed. The black, or black and white, which is sometimes met with, generally indicates a cross from the Welsh. The white may * Mr. W. Pitt, the author of some of the Agricultural Surveys, pronounces this breed to be comparatively much inferior to a good selection from the Lancashire, Hereford, or Shropshire breeds ; and he says, " I cannot help thinking them, on comparison with some other breeds, though a weighty, yet an uncouth and coarse animal." On this the Rev. A. Young very properly remarks, " There is no knowing what is meant by such expres- sions as that Sussex oxen are uncouth and coarse animals. If it implies a coarse and thick and rough hide, or a hard and coarse-grained flesh, nothing was ever further re- moved from fact than such an assertion. Sussex oxen are as remarkable for the fineness of their hides as they are for the closeness and delicacy of their flesh. In his own Staf- fordshire long-horns, there does not exist any shadow of comparison for feeding, grazing, or working. In quality of flesh, thriving disposition, &c., both the Sussex and Devons ex, ceed you, and Hereford leaves you far behind." Survey of Sussex. 42 CATTLE. possibly remind us more of the original wild breed ; a few of which, as we have remarked, remain at Chillingham, and which we shall also trace in other parts. It would be satisfactory if we could discover the origin of these red breeds, for we suspect they were not always so. Mr. Davis, of Glvnde, once had a black ox, with a white face, from a red cow, by a red bull. A few approach to a yellow colour, but they are weakly and apt to scour. The hide of the true Sussex is soft and mellow ; a coarse, harsh, thick hide is supposed to denote here, as in every other district, an ill-bred, or an unthrifty beast. The coat is short and sleek. There is seldom found on the Sussex ox that profusion of soft and wavy, and, occasionally, long hair, which, although it may have an appearance of roughness, is consistent with a mellow and yielding hide, and one of the truest indications of more than usual propensity to fatten. In order fairly to estimate the working properties of the Sussex ox, the two breeds of which Lord Sheffield has spoken must not be forgotten ; and the confounding of them has given rise to much of the confusion and contradiction which exist in the accounts of several writers. The proportion of the labour performed by oxen is different in different parts of the county. About the South Downs, oxen are much employed, but not, perhaps, in an equal degree to horses. In the weald of Sussex, they have the greater share of the labour; and on a farm of about 100 acres, there is usually a horse and an ox team on a larger farm there are more oxen. Many farms of 150 or 200 acres have from ten to twelve working oxen. These have grass and straw until they begin to work, and then cut hay is mixed with their straw. The coarser breed is always slow, and soon after six years old, it can scarcely be worked at all with advantage. The lighter breed, the true Sussex of many a century, will step out as light and as fast, and will do almost as much work as any horse, and stand as many or more dead pulls. Some teams have been known to travel fifteen miles a day, with heavy loads for several successive weeks, and without the slightest distress. Of the speed which some of them possess proof was given when" a Sussex ox ran four miles against time over the Lewes race-course, and accomplished the distance in sixteen minutes. Formerly, as many as four pairs of oxen were not unfrequently seen attached to a single plough or waggon, and they certainly used to pull well together ; but they who un- derstand the power and the honesty of these animals rarely attach more than two pairs. Some of them have been worked, and particularly by Lord Sheffield, harnessed in every respect like horses, and they answered as truly and as easily to the rein. Some have used spayed heifers both for the plough and for draught, with manifest advantage. Many farmers keep their oxen as long as they continue to do their work well, and sometimes until they are twelve years old, and they maintain that the beasts will then fatten quite as well as at an earlier age. Lord Sheffield fattened two of more than twelve years, to the great weight of 210 stones. Experience, however, does not confirm this as a general rule. An old ox takes longer to fatten than a younger one; and after all there is generally a patchiness and unevenness about him, which do not please the eye, or answer in the market. Other farmers work them during a much shorter period ; and they believe that if they have ten oxen or heifers at work on their farm, the most profitable plan is to 1 1 ff ft * or six every year, and break in an equal number to succeed hem. The beasts will thus be broken in at three years old, worked until five or six, and then fattened, and if they do not always grow to so large a size, they improve more rapidly and profitably.. THE SUSSEX BREED. 43 Although it is yet an undecided point at what age an ox that has been worked will fatten most speedily and kindly, it cannot be denied, that he never is in so good condition for work, and never so healthy, or so little troublesome as at six years' old. So far as their work is concerned, we should prefer a nine or ten-year-old ox, to any four or five-year-old one. The youngsters are often a great plague to their owners, not only in the breaking in, and especially if, as upon this plan, five or six are to be added to the team every year ; but, like the young horse, they are too fre- quently ailing they are injured by their work, or the diseases to which they would otherwise be subject are increased by their work. The general practice of the county, undoubtedly, is to turn the oxen off at six, and slaughter them at seven ; but we are inclined to doubt the pro- priety of it. The system of recruiting the team so frequently has many inconveniencies. Mr. Young tells us that Lord Egremont had a pair of Sussex oxen in the eleventh year of their age, which for seven years had done as much ploughing and carting as any two horses in the county ; and then, with half a summer's grass after having been taken from the collar, and an autumn's rouen, they were, without other food, sent to Smithfield, and sold for eighty guineas. The oxen are usually drafted from the team when the spring-sowing is over ; they are then turned into the lower or marsh land, in the proportion of one ox to an acre, if the land is tolerably good, and are there pre- pared for the winter stall-feeding. Sheep are generally mingled with the oxen. In the level of Pevensey, where there is plenty of water, and the grass is abundant, there are many cattle, although sheep are even there increasing ; but at Winchelsea and Rye, there are most sheep, and only one bullock to every four acres, in order to keep the pasture even. After the hay is cut and carried, the pastures are usually occupied by cattle and sheep ; but the reservation of rouen for the pinching part of the spring when all artificial provender fails, or before the young clover and other grasses have begun to shoot, is comparatively unknown. Stall-feeding is very much practised in Sussex, and Lord Egremont used to have his milch cows tied up during the greater part of the year. He maintained, that one-third of the food was saved, that the cows were fed with a fourth part of the usual trouble, that more dung was made, and that there was no poaching the ground. The oxen are gradually accustomed to their stalls ; they are at first brought in only at night ; but, as the winter approaches, they are con- stantly tied up. Comparing even the system of yard-feeding with the fattening in stalls, Mr. Ellman, of Glynde (a skilful as well as zealous agri- turist, and whose opinion is of weight in cases like these), found that nine oxen, fed loose in the yard, consumed, in destroying as well as eating, as much as twelve oxen that were tied up. Many graziers, however, and particularly in the midland districts, maintain that an ox loose in the yard will fatten quicker than one that is tied up. The average weight of the Sussex cattle when brought to Smithfield is about 120 stones ; but they have been slaughtered as high as 216 stones. One belonging to Mr. Ellman, weighing 214 stones, measured from the crown of the head to the rump, 9 feet 6 inches. The girth before the shoulder was 9 feet 5 inches ; behind the shoulder, 9 feet ; round the middle, 10 feet ; round the flank, 9 feet ; and from the nostril to the tip of the tail, was a distance of 14 feet 8 inches. Mr. Edsaw, of Fettleworth, who was partial to large cattle, has had them 6 feet high behind, and 5^ feet before, and 10^ feet girth over the heart. Two of them weighed 216 stones each. 44 CATTLE. The Sussex cow, like the Hereford "one, is very inferior to the ox ; she seems to be almost another kind of animal. The breeder has endeavoured, but with comparatively little success, to give to the heifer the same points that the ox possesses. [The Sussex Cow.'} The Rev. A. Young thus describes what the Sussex cow ought to be, and some may be found to resemble the portrait : "The true cow has a deep red colour, the hair fine, and the skin mellow, thin and soft ; a small head ; a fine horn, thin, clean, and transparent, which should run out hori- zontally, and afterwards turn up at the tips ; the neck very thin and clean made ; a small leg ; a straight top and bottom, with round and springing ribs; thick chine; loin, hips, and rump wide; shoulder flat but the pro- jection of the point of the shoulder is not liked, as the cattle subject to this defect are usually coarse ; the legs should be rather short ; carcase large ; the tail should be level with the rump : a ridged back-bone, thin and hol- low chines, are great defects in this breed." The Sussex cow does not answer for the dairy. Although her milk is of very good quality, it is so inferior in quantity to that of the Holderness or the Suffolk, that she is little regarded for the making of butter or cheese. Almost every mongrel breed finds its way into the dairy in pre- ference to her. A cross, however, has been attempted, and with some success, between the Sussex and the Suffolk, retaining to a very fair de- gree the fattening properties of the one, and the disposition of the other to give a considerable quantity of good milk. Old Herbert says, that " while the Sussex oxen carry too much weight on their coarser parts, the heifers and cows are better made, and carry much of their weight on their backs ;" and he affirms that " they are sure breeders, good at the pail, and handsome." The cow is lighter before, but she is deficient in other points ; and as to her being good at the pail, the fact that so few of them are kept as dairy cows, even in Sussex, is a suffi- cient proof that they are not so. There are some exceptions, however, to this. Lord Hampden, of Glyiide. had a cow which, in the height of the season, yielded ten pounds butter and twelve pounds of cheese every week, and yet her quantity of THE SUSSEX BREED. 45 milk rarely exceeded five gallons per day. The next year the same cow gave 9^ Ibs. of butter per week for several weeks, and then for the rest of the summer 8 Ibs., or 8^ Ibs., per week ; and until the hard frost set in, 7 Ibs., and 4 Ibs. per week during the frost. Yet as a proof of the quality of the milk, she at no time gave more than five gallons in the day. Mr. Young adds to this, that " four or five years before, the same person had a fine black Sussex cow from Lord Gage, which also gave, in the height of the season, five gallons per day, but no more than 51bs. of butter were ever made from it." This is accounted for in a singular way ; for there is a com- mon opinion (a prejudice, we should be disposed to call it) in the east of Sussex, that " the milk of a black cow never gives so much butter as that of a red one." It must be confessed that there is one great fault about the Sussex cows, seemingly inconsistent with their propensity to fatten, and which cannot be remedied. Their very countenance indicates an unquiet temper ; and they are often restless and dissatisfied, prowling about the hedge-rows, and en- deavouring to break pasture, and especially if they are taken from the farm on which they were bred. They are principally kept as breeders, all the use being made of them at the same time as dairy cows of which circumstances will admit. And it cannot be denied that they are generally in fair condition, even while they are milking; and that no beasts, except their kindred, the Devons and the Herefords, will thrive so speedily after they are dried. The secretion of milk being stopped, the Sussex cow will fatten even quicker than the ox,. It must, however, be acknowledged that the Sussex cows are not perfect, even as breeders ; and that, unless a great deal of care is taken that the cow shall not be in too good condition at the time of calving, she is subject to puerperal fever, or 'dropping;' while many a calf is lost from the too stimulating quality of her milk. Next to the cross with the Suffolk for the improvement of the milk is that with the Jersey, or French cow ; but there can scarcely be said to be a decided breed for the dairy in any part of Sussex. Nearly all the calves are reared, the males for work, and the females for breeding or early fattening. The following is a fair specimen of the breed- ing and grazing department of an ordinary East Sussex farm. A farm is selected, on which eight cows, on the average, are kept ; then it is sup- posed that there will generally be six calves, six yearlings, six two-year- olds, four three-year-olds beginning to work, four four-year-olds, four five year, and four six-year-olds. On some farms the calves are calculated as being, occasional losses excepted, equal to the number of cows, and the females are quite sufficient to keep up the stock. The calves are generally cut at seven weeks old ; they are permitted to suck for ten or thirteen weeks, and are weaned by being shut up, and having a little grass given to them until they have forgotten the dam, when they are turned out. During the first winter they are fed with the best hay, and after that they have grass, and occasionally some straw, until the second Christmas is passed, when they are broken in for working. A good cow, after her own calf has been weaned, will suckle another, and sometimes even two others, for the butcher. Mr. Young gives the following, as Lord Egremont's cattle system for work : " The calves are dropped from December to the end of February. They are weaned immediately, never letting them suck at all; but the milk is given for three days as it comes from the cow. For weaning on skim- milk they ought to fall about December, and then they should be kept warm by housing, and thus they will be equally forward with calves dropped late in the spring that run with the cow. With the skim-milk some oatmeal is 46 CATTLE. ff iven, but not till two months old, and then only because the number of calves is too great for the quantity of milk. Water and oatmeal are afterwards mixed with it. A heifer, however, with her first calf is supposed to suckle it the whole season, in order to make her a good milker; but with the second calf she is treated like the rest. In May they are turned to grass. During the first winter they are fed upon rotten. The follow- in" 1 summer they are at grass; the second winter out at straw, of which they eat very little, as they run out on short rough grass. They have been tried on hay alone, but straw and grass do better. The following summer they are fed on grass, and are broken in at Christmas, being three years old. They are at first lightly worked ; for the only object is to break them in, in order that their regular work may begin in the spring. From that time their winter food is straw, with the addition of a ton and a half of clover hay, given between the finishing of straw and "oing to grass, and in order to prepare them for the spring-sowing. They are worked about four years and a half, and then fattened." When at straw in the winter they work three days in the week, and some of them every day. Mr. Young adds a remark which may deserve consideration ; that when an ox will not bear hard work and hard food, he should be put to fatten, and, probably, he will thrive as well as one that would stand work and hardship better, for the qualities of fattening well, and bearing hard work, are distinct. The bull is changed every two years by the best breeders, from the supposition that the breeding in and in will cause the stock to de- generate. The system of working in collars instead of yokes was once very pre- valent in Sussex ; but experience has not shown that it is decidedly supe- rior to the old method of yoking them to the ploughs. In some parts of Sussex there is a breed of black cattle, said to have been introduced by Mr. Marten of Tirle. They are probably a cross of the Sussex cow with a South Wales bull, and they retain a great deal of the shape and form of the best blood of Sussex. They are as heavy, and work well ; but they are exceedingly troublesome to break in. Of the west of Sussex, little can be said with regard to any prevailing breed. Mr. James Hack, who resides in the neighbourhood of Chichester, and to whom we are indebted for some excellent remarks, fattens some Devons ; hut he prefers the Pembrokeshire black oxen, for they are heavier in flesh, more hardy, and can better endure every variation of tem- perature. Mr. Postlethwaite, of the same neighbourhood, describes the dairy cows as consisting of a strange mixture of short-horns, Devons, Sus- sex, and French. Mr. Henry Freeland, of Appledram, near Chichester, prefers a cross of the Sussex with the Suffolk polls for the pail. KENT. IN the western part, or the weald of Kent, the Sussex oxen are much used for the plough and for the road ; but there, as in Sussex, the dairy cattle are drawn from other counties. They are principally Welsh, or a strange and varying; mixture of the Sussex, the Staffordshire, and the Welsh. Even in the Weald, the Sussex cattle are, with very few excep- tions, kept only for the purpose of grazing. Their young cattle, of whatever kind, are usually sent to Romney Marsh in the summer. The rmer in the Weald would not know what to do with his bullocks at that N the year, because most of his pasture must be reserved for hay, or for his dairy. They are sent about the middle of May, and return at THE KENTISH BREED. 47 the end of September, when they are put on the inferior grass lands ; and in winter they are sent to the straw-yard, or served with hay in the field. On the other hand, the Romney Marsh graziers send the greater part of their Iambs to the Weald for the winter. They go in September, and are brought back in April. This interchange of stock is convenient and pro- fitable for both parties. The Weald farmer keeps the lambs about thirty weeks, and the Marsh farmer grazes the cattle during twenty weeks. At three years old the heifer, and the steer at four years old, is ready to fatten. Better food is then allowed them. They are kept on the best grass and hay that the farm can afford. The hay of the old meadows is generally reserved for the fattening of cattle. Of those that are kept at home, the pastures are first stocked with milch cows, to take off the head- grass, and the leaner cattle and the working oxen follow them ; and thus several fields are fed down in succession during the summer. The practice of fattening cattle with distillers' wash commenced at Bromley : it was afterwards adopted in the distilleries of Middlesex, of which we shall give a particular account in the proper place. So far as cattle, however, are concerned, Kent can scarcely be said to be either a breeding or a dairy county. In the east of Kent especially, few cattle are bred. The polled Scots are bought for summer-grazing, or the Welsh are purchased at Canterbury, or other markets. The prin- cipal dairy cows are selected from them ; the rest are kept in the farm-yard for the winter, and in the spring are placed among the sheep, where they fatten rapidly, and reach from twenty to twenty-two scores. Some graziers buy Welsh calves in the autumn, and put them out to keep in the farm-yards for the winter: in the spring they place them among their sheep, where they get fat in a few months, and weigh from 18 to 22 scores. In some parts of Kent oxen are stall-fed on oil-cake and hay, for the purpose of supplying manure for the hop-grounds. This purpose may probably be answered, in regard to the manure, but the fattening of the ox in this way must be far from profitable. There are very few dairy-farms in any part of Kent ; sufficient pasture- land, to keep a few cows to supply the family with milk and butter, and per- haps a little fresh butter for sale, is all that the best upland farms will yield. The native cattle of Kent deserve more attention than has been hitherto paid to them. Mr. Boys says, that " they are of a deep-red colour, with small bone, and a kindly-soft skin. They have a great breadth of loin and length of sirloin and rump, and a small head and neck ; the horns short and standing upwards, and they have a ready disposition to fatten.'' WALES. To the Principality we naturally look for some trace of the native breed of cattle, for the Welsh were never entirely subdued by any of the early invaders. The Romans possessed merely a portion of that country ; the Saxons scarcely penetrated at all into Wales, or not beyond the county of Monmouth ; the Welsh long resisted the superior power of the English under the Norman kings ; and it was not until late in the thirteenth cen- tury that the Principality was annexed to the crown of England. We therefore expect to find more decided specimens of the native productions of our island : nor are we altogether disappointed. Howell Dha, or Howell the Good, describes some of the Welsh cattle in the tenth century. 48 CATTLE. as being " white with red ears," resembling the wild cattle of Chillingham Castle. 3 An early record speaks of a hundred white cows with red ears bein" demanded as a compensation for certain offences against the Princes both of North arid South Wales. If the cattle were of a dark or black colour, 150 were to be presented. When the Cambrian Princes did homage to the King of England, the same number of cattle, and of the same description, were rendered in acknowledgment of sovereignty. Speed tells us that Maud de Breos, in order to appease King John, whom her husband had offended, sent to his Queen a present from Brecknock, shire of 400 cows and a bull, all white and with red ears. Whether this was the usual colour of the ancient breed of Welsh and British cattle, or a rare variety, esteemed on account of its beauty, and chiefly preserved in the parks of v the nobles, we are unable to determine. The latter is the most probable supposition ; and the same records that describe the " white cattle with red ears," speak also of the " dark or black-coloured breed,' which now exists, and which is general throughout the principality. The principal and the most valuable portion of the cattle of Wales are middle horns. They are indeed stunted in their growth, from the scanty food which their mountains yield, but they bear about them, in miniature, many of the points of the Devon, Sussex, and Hereford cattle. We will first consider the cattle of South Wales. [The Pembroke Ox.] SOUTH WALES. PEMBROKESHIRE. GREAT BRITAIN does not afford a more useful animal than the Pembroke cow or ox. It is black ; the great majority of them are entirely so ; a few lave white faces, or a little white about the tail, or the udders ; and the horns "! W !l' te L The latter turn up in a wa y cnara cterislic of the breed, and the general form of the cattle undeniably betrays their early ;m. They are shorter legged than most of the Welsh breeds, but m the Montgomeries, and have round and deep carcases. They a peculiarly hvely look and good eye. The hair is rough, but short, the h.de is not thick. The bones, although not so small as in the THE GLAMORGANSHIRE BREED. 49 improved long horns, are far from large ; and the Pembrokeshire cattle mingle, to a considerable degree, and as far perhaps as they can be combined, the two opposite qualities, of being very fair milkers, with a propensity to fatten. The meat is generally beautifully marbled. It is equal to that of the Scotch cattle, and some epicures prefer it. They thrive in every situation. They will live where others starve, and they will rapidly outstrip most others when they have plenty of good pasture. The Glamorgans would probably get the start of the Pembrokes on good pasture ; but on the rough and barren tracts, which are to be found in both counties, the Pembrokes would decidedly obtain the advantage, and are, therefore, purchased by many of the Glamorganshire farmers. The Pembroke cow has been called the poor man's cow : it is perhaps one of the best cottager's cows, while it is equally profitable to the larger farmer. We shall see, when we come to describe the Anglesey breed, that the ori- ginal cattle of North and South Wales are essentially the same; they are, however, finer in the head, neck, and breast, than the Anglesey beasts, but not so fine as the Glamorganshire cattle. The Pembrokes are found in Carmarthenshire, Cardigan, and Brecon, and, indeed, in every bordering county, mixed with the different breeds of each, and imparting to each its very best qualities. They bear no slight resemblance to the Kyloes. The Pembroke ox is, like the Devon, a speedy and an honest worker,-~ fit for the road as well as the plough, and when taken from work fatten- ing as speedily as he does. He is not quite so tractable as the Glamor- gan, but easily managed if no foolish violence is resorted to. Great num- bers of them are brought to the London market they stand their journey well and find a ready sale, for they rarely disappoint the butcher; but, on the contrary, prove better than appearance and touch indicated. The Pembroke oxen get rid of their steer-like appearance sooner than most other cattle. At three years old they have generally the true character of the ox about them ; and, in their fourth year, they are usually ready for the market. The Pembrokeshire cow is usually black, with occa- sionally a dark brown, or, less frequently, a white face, or a white line along the back. Mr. Davies describes her as being " fine-boned, with a clean light neck and head, small yellow horns inclining upwards, good chine and loin, round long barrel, thin thigh and short legs : she is always in good condition if tolerably kept, and has a rich wave in her hair, and an oiliness of skin, which ever denote thriftiness." This is true with re- gard to some of the best cows, but there are many exceptions. With all these good points, proving her value as a grazing animal, the Pembroke cow is, as we have described her, a very fair milker, and will yield 51bs. of butter per week during the dairy season. GLAMORGANSHIRE. THE Glamorgans were once in high repute, and deservedly so. George III., who was a good judge of cattle, was very partial to them, and one of his agents yearly visited Glamorganshire, to keep up his Majesty's stock by a selection of the best catt-le that county could produce ; and the farm at Windsor is still frequently recruited from this district. For the most valuable portion of the following account of their early history and present state we are chiefly indebted to Mr. Moggridge, of Newport, and Mr. David, of Radyr. To the latter gentleman, whose tact and skill as a breeder need no eulogy of ours, and whose side-board is loaded with the testimonies of the superiority of his cattle, we acknowledge peculiar obli- gation. We have also extracted some useful matter from Davis's excel- E so CATTLE. lent " Survey of South Wales," a very rare book, and completely out of print. D. T., the Welsh topographer, who wrote in the Cambrian language in 1720, speaks of the cows as being large, some red, and some pied, with a sleek coat and a fine head. Although we have traced the white ox with red ears to Glamorgan, and the neighbouring county, Brecon, yet the old legends agree that the domesticated breed was of a reddish colour, and that they had some of the Norman and Devon blood in them. This is ac- counted for by some of the chroniclers. A great part of Glamorgan was, in the twelfth century, seized by Robert Fitzhamon and other Norman Knights. Their connexion with their native country did not im- mediately cease, and they introduced some of the Norman cattle into South Wales. The swelling crest of the Glamorgan ox at once reminds us of the Norman bull. Did they spread from Glamorganshire to Angle- sey, the cattle of which island are also recognized by the peculiar swelling of the breast, and lofty bearing of the head ; or may we consider this state- liness of appearance as indicative, in both districts, of the native breed? We are also told that Sir Richard de Grenaville, one of the Knights who divided among them the Lordship of Neath, also possessed the castle of Bideford, on the northern coast of Devonshire, and introduced many of the Devon cattle. This we can easily imagine, for in the old red-cow, which we can recollect nearly fifty years ago, an admixture of Devon blood could not be for a moment mistaken, and it is even yet evident in the horns, the lively countenance, and the deer-like head and neck. The red, however, was then degenerating into brown, and the brown has been gradually darkening from crosses with the Pembroke black. Some of the original reds are to be met with occasionally in the hilly districts, and particularly in the neighbourhood of Aberdare ; but the poverty of the soil has much reduced their size. Not a great many years ago there was in the valleys of the Neath and the Towy, a breed of cattle of a light red colour, and with white faces, which were said to have been the ancient stock of the vale of Glamorgan. Although not so large as the brown breed of the vale, they were good milkers, and fattened kindly. They were not, however, always bare, but occasionally crossed with the stunted blacks of the'neighbouring parts of Carmarthenshire. The Glamorganshire farmers, of half a century ago, took great pride in their cattle, and evinced much judgment in their breeding and selection. There was one principle from which they never deviated ; they admitted no admixture of foreign blood, and they produced the Glamorgan ox, so much admired for activity and strength, and aptitude to fatten ; and the cow, if it did not vie with the best milkers, yielded a good remunerating profit to the dairyman. They were of a dark-brown colour with white bellies, and a streak of white along the back from the shoulder to the tail. They had clean heads, tapering from the neck and shoulders ; long white horns, turning upwards ; and a lively countenance. Their dewlaps were small, the hair Bhort, and the coat silky. If there was any fault, it was that the rump, or setting on of the tail, was too high above the level of the back to accord 'Hh the modern notions of symmetry. Forty years ago the breed was eagerly sought after by the most skilful ' m Leicester, Northampton, Warwick, and Wilts. Their aptitude rendered them exceedingly profitable when taken from the plough .ix or seven years old, and they were brought to great perfection on the ' gl P!tt. frequently weighing more than twenty scores per Ler, Ihe beef was beautifully veined and marbled, the inside of the THE GLAMORGANSHIRE BREED. 51 animal was well lined with tallow, and the Glamorgans commanded the highest price both in the metropolitan and provincial market. Mr. Davies, who wrote in the year 1814, says that " among the Glamorgan-vale browns good cow-beef weighs from eight to ten score pounds per quarter, although some weigh as much as twelve or thirteen scores. Ox-beef is from twelve to fourteen scores per quarter ; some, however, have reached eighteen, and even twenty scores. The steers were seldom yoked until three years old ; they were then moderately worked for three or four years and well kept ; and, after a few weeks' rest, they were usually disposed of at the large spring fairs in this county, which then displayed a collection of fine oxen, not often surpassed in any of the English districts. During the French revolutionary war the excessive price of corn attracted the attention of the Glamorganshire farmers to the increased cultivation of it, and a great proportion of the best pastures were turned over by the plough. Turnip-husbandry necessarily followed; and then the improve- ment of their sheep- stock became an object of importance, and the cattle were almost entirely neglected. A proper selection for breeding was un- attended to ; the calves were generally weaned at two or three weeks old, and nursed on milk and water, hay-tea, and boiled linseed ; the produce of the cow being entirely reserved for the dairy. The steers were taken to labour when they were two years old, and seldom exceeded four years when they were disposed of; they were depastured in summer, either on land too wet to carry sheep, or too bare for corn, and in winter they barely existed in the straw-yard. The natural consequence of inattention and starvation was, that the breed greatly degenerated in its disposition to fatten, and, certainly, with many exceptions, but yet, as their general character, the Glamorganshire cattle became and are flat-sided, sharp in the hip-joints and shoulders, high in the rump, too long in the legs, with thick skins, and a delicate constitution. The Glamorganshire farmer was startled at the necessary result of this alteration of system. His cattle, instead of being eagerly sought after, and sold at an extravagant price, could scarcely be sold at all, or only at a serious loss. He was unwilling at first to acknowledge the real cause of this deterioration and diminution of value, and many of the breeders, even at the present day, take little or no pains to redeem their error. A few spirited individuals, however, set the example ; and others have been incited by their zeal and partial success to assist in endeavouring to restore the breed to its former pre-eminence, or, at least, to adapt it to the coarser fare which, under the altered state of husbandry, must now be to a great degree its lot. Among these, and one of the most skilful and successful of them, was Mr. David, of Radyr, whose sketch of the deterioration and regeneration of the breed we are giving our readers in a somewhat condensed form. The result of these attempts has been, that, in the recent exhibitions of stock a Tredegar, the revived and pure Glamorgans have often success- fully competed with the short-horns and the Herefords ; and Mr. David has received, at Sir Charles Morgan's cattle shows, no less than twelve silver cups for his Glamorgans. The work of improvement, however, as yet has been, and could only be, in few hands. It is comparatively easy to keep up a good breed ; but to regenerate a bad one, or, at least, a deteriorated one, requires skill, capital, and perseverance ; and these called into active requisition in the face of hard times, and with little or no prospect of obtaining remunerating E 2 52 CATTLE. prices. Therefore it must be acknowledged at present, and perhaps it must long continue to be the fact, that the Glamorgans, generally, are far from being what they once were. They continue, however, to maintain their character for stoutness and activity, and are still profitably employed in husbandry-work. Only a little while ago four Glamorgan oxen ploughed with ease half au acre of clover hay in two hours and three-quarters. The beef is still good, marbled, and good tasted ; and in proportion as the value of the ox to the grazier has decreased, the value of the cow has be- come enhanced for the dairy. He who is accustomed to cattle will under- stand the meaning of this ; and the kind of incompatibility between an apti- tude to fatten in little time, and on spare keep, and the property of yield- ing a more than average quantity of milk. Even Mr. David acknowledges that he had not succeeded to his perfect satisfaction in reproducing the old breed, which combined so much of both these excellencies ; and therefore he, and the most scientific breeders of the county, began to be weary of this strict adherence to the Glamorgan- shire breed, and to consider whether it might not be possible, by judicious crossing with the cattle of other districts, to obtain an animal better suited to the present state of the country. [The Glamorganshire O.T.] The interests of the grazier were first considered, and the comparative plowness in feeding in the present Glamorgans was attempted to be ob- viated by crossing with the Hereford bull. This to a considerable extent succeeded. An animal was produced well adapted for the grazier ; disposed to accumulate flesh, and of a hardier constitution: but the ox was a little injured for the yoke ; the beef, as is the case with every animal that rrives at an early maturity, was not so fine ; and the value of the cow was wh diminished; she was neither so good a milker, nor nurse, siues this, the fattening of an animal that grew to so great a bulk as the Hereford and Glamorgan, interfered too much with the present Glamorganshire husbandry; and the produce of this cross did not aiw mve on the scanty fare on which it was compelled to subsist, have occ* 1 'if 1, " Ot duly a PP re ^ted fact, to which we shall often on to allude, was also here very apparent. The advantage of THE GLAMORGANSHIRE BREED. 53 mingling the Hereford with the Glamorgan was evident enough in 'the first cross, and the farmer began to congratulate himself on the result ; but after the second and third generation, the influence of the foreign blood rapidly disappeared, and the Glamorgan, with all his characteristic points and defects, again stood before us. The heavy Leicester was likewise tried, but the progeny became sluggish and unfit for labour, and slow in feeding and coarse in beef, and unfit for stocking such a district. The influence of soil and climate on the production, and the perpetuation of certain breeds, is a circumstance that does not enter half so much into the consideration of the farmer as it ought to do, and will account for a great many of his disappointments and erroneous opinions. We shall seriously consider this subject when we come to treat of the principles of breeding. Breeders then began to take another view of the matter. They consi- dered their cattle as mere machines for converting the raw produce of the earth into human food ; and they inquired whether their soil and climate, and situation for markets, and their mode of agriculture, were best adapted for a machine to produce beef, or milk. The character and habits and employment of the inhabitants of Glamorgan had essentially changed. Mines had been sunk, and manufactures had been established in almost every part of the county. It was become a very populous district, in which dairy produce would always command a ready sale. In addition to this, the good old custom still prevailed in this county, of farm-servants being kept under their employer's roof; and their diet, in order to be both wholesome and economical, was chiefly derived from the dairy. As, therefore, the old Glamorgan could with so much difficulty, or scarcely at all, be reproduced, the attention of the farmer was gradually directed to the dairy. [The Glamorganshire Cow.~\ At first he was unwilling quite to sacrifice the old pride and boast of his native county ; and he endeavoured once more to accomplish both objects, and he had recourse to the short-horns. A very little experience, however, convinced him that his labour would here be lost. He retained, indeed, the milk, but he somewhat deteriorated its quality ; and the beast was slow and sluggish, and not^calculated for labour, and would not thrive 64 CATTLE. on the pasture and on the nourishment which this county usually affords. In a happy hour he thought of the Ayrshire cow; and he brought her from her native district. Some farmers used her pure ; others crossed her with the best Glamorgan cattle ; and others with still more judgment procured the Ayrshire bull, and bred with him from the best of their own heifers. The result was, an animal that yielded more milk than the old Glamorgan, that was hardier, and could be kept, and especially in the winter, at much less expense, and that from its smaller size was more easily fattened, and better suited to the coarse fare now generally afforded her by the Glamorganshire fanner. This, then, is the breed which is becoming, and profitably so, established in the populous districts of Glamorgan. Among the improvers of the Glamorgan cattle Messrs. Bradley of Treguff must not be forgotten. Their beasts bear a close resemblance to the Herefords in figure, although inferior to them in size ; they feed kindly the flesh and fat are laid equally over them the beef is beautifully marbled, and they yield a more than average quantity of milk. They are fattened to perfection at five years old, but not often at an earlier age ; and will become sufficiently bulky on the good pastures of the vale without any artificial food. In the hilly districts many of the old Glamorgans remain, and attempts are made to restore the character of the pure Glamorgan cattle of fifty years ago, but without that degree of success which will fairly remunerate the farmer. The cut in the preceding page is the portrait of a valuable cow, belong- ing to the royal dairy at Windsor, and gives a faithful representation of the present improved breed of Glamorgan dairy-cattle. The average quantity of milk given by a Glamorganshire cow is about sixteen quarts per day. The principal object of the dairyman is butter, of which the average produce of each cow is at least 1 cwt. during the season. The butter is esteemed ; and that which is not consumed in the home-manufactories is usually sent to the Bristol market. The Glamorgan cheese is often of an inferior kind. There used to be, and in some mea- sure ihere still is, an unpleasant dryness and brittleness about it, depend- ing, according to some persons, on the clover in the natural pastures, but more attributable to some mismanagement in the manufacture, or the quantity of ewe's milk which was mingled with that of the cow. With the establishment of a dairy breed, it has been thought by some that a little too much of the old false economy in the rearing of the calf has been re-introduced. He is early weaned ; frequently in less than a week ; always in little more than a fortnight, and after that he is badly sheltered and worse fed skim milk, and not too much of that, is his only provender. This is not perhaps to be strictly defended, for it is practised on an animal that may be brought to grow to a large size, and whose constitu- tion, although improved, is none of the hardiest : yet, on the other hand, although the calf of the Hereford, or even of the short-horn, is a very supe- rior animal at a year old, it should not be forgotten that he has probably consumed the whole year's produce of the cow, and that at weaning'time he must be supported by the most nourishing food ; so that, when the alance is struck, the profits of the respective breeders may not be very different, especially if two or three cwt. of cheese and butter are added to the value of the Glamorgan yearling. here is still another serious defect in the system of Glamorganshire "the calf appears to fatten more than usually kindly, it is forth- to the butcher, and not reserved, as it should be, for the purpose edmg In selecting their cattle, the first and almost only considera- nas reierence to their milking qualities ; and a full udder will outweigh 'cry objection which might be made to their flat sides, large offal, long THE MONMOUTHSHIRE BREED; 55 legs, coarse shoulders, and thin skin. In some parts of Glamorganshire the pure Herefords are cultivated in preference to any mixture with the native breed. Mr. Bradley, who resides near Cardiff, is partial to the Herefords, and his stock does not yield to many in the neighbourhood, or in the county generally. The hilly i or rather the mountainous district, forms the greater, although not the most populous, part of this county. Mr. Jenkins, of St. y Nill, informs us that, from the retired and attentive habits of the farmers, and especially from the comparatively small part of the county that could be submitted to the plough, the cattle of the hills have, in a great measure, escaped the deterioration of those in the vale. They are browner than those in the vale, well bodied, and with short legs. Few crosses have been attempted among them. They are hardier than those in the vale, and advantage is often taken of this to expose them to too much privation. While the va/e-cattle are wintered, and often badly enough in the straw- yard, the hill-cattle have nothing but hay from poor peaty meadows, whose produce is not more than seven or eight cwt. to the acre, and which are rarely or never manured. Notwithstanding this they thrive ; their meat is of a superior quality, and they are much sought after in the London market. The Glamorganshire cattle continue to prevail in Monmouthshire, of which, although' not strictly a Welsh county, and far more a mining than a breeding district, it will be convenient next to speak. MONMOUTHSHIRE. HERE likewise Mr. Moggridge is our chief authority. Monmouthshire may be divided into the kill and vale districts. The cattle of the HILL COUNTRY were probably derived from crosses of the Brecon blacks with the Glamorgans. The latter predominated, and con- tinued so to do, to the visible improvement of the breed. Within the last few years, however, a great number of Irish cattle have found their way to every part of the Bristol channel by means of steam-boats, and they were offered at prices so inferior to that of the natives that they were greedily purchased. Not only, therefore, was all improvement in the Monmouthshire cattle arrested, but the hill-farmers were threatened with ruin, for they could scarcely sell their beasts at any price. If this system is longer pursued, the breeding of the native cattle will be in a manner abandoned. Some Durhams have been lately introduced in the neighbourhood of Pontypool, but with doubtful success. The Ayrshire cow has found her way into some of the hill-dairies, and is much valued ; while great num- bers of Scotch cattle are brought into the districts immediately connected with the iron works, and even bred there. They live well on the mountain pasture, and are soon fattened at the end of the season. Many of the native cattle, however, continue to be fattened in the hill- district, and are thence driven into the richer pasture of the central coun- ties to be finished. They are good milkers, although not equal to the Glamorgans, of whose blood they inherit a considerable portion. Their appearance is very much against them, and they will not thrive rapidly even on good land. The use of cattle for husbandry has been declining for many years, owing to the canals and railways which intersect the county, and the conse- quent increased demand for horses : but should the introduction of locomo- tive engines hereafter banish the horse from the mining districts, the use of cattle in rural affairs may probably be resumed, to the future advantage 56 CATTLE. of the landlord and the tenant, although the present change is operating unfavourably on both. In the VALE DISTRICT of Monmouthshire the farmers were formerly content with the Glamorgans, and the better kind of hill-cattle ; and these, after being kept for some time, increased in size and in value. Of late years, however, the Hereford have in a manner superseded both of these breeds, and many fine beasts of that stock are to be found in the vale of Usk generally, and particularly in the neighbourhood of Abergavenny. Some intelligent farmers from Herefordshire have settled in this district. They naturally brought with them their native cattle; and the Herelbrds, or crosses from them, may now be considered as some of the established breeds through the whole of the vale. Sir Charles Morgan has introduced the Dur- hams into the lower part of the county, and with a prospect of considerable success. Some of his short-horns, and particularly those exhibited at his cattle-show in 1830, were, as the intelligent judge of the cattle appropri- ately called them, tremendously fat. At what expense they were made so is not, perhaps, considered so seriously as it ought to be. For the dairy especially, it is probable that some valuable breeds may arise from crosses between the Durham bull and the best of the vale cows. The Herefords will never find their way into the dairy : they belong to the grazier and the butcher*. The prevailing cow is the Glamorgan, with some of the middle-sized Gloucester-vale breed. A great proportion of the labour of the vale husbandry is performed by oxen, but the bye-roads of Monmouthshire, even more neglected and worse than bye-roads generally are, compel the farmer to keep more horses than he otherwise would. There is a large tract of land comprising many thousand acres, that can neither be called hill nor vale, and is locally known by the name of the. levels, comprising all the fiat land bordering on the Bristol channel. Nearly the whole of (his is meadow-land, and naturally of very superior quality. The prevailing stock used to be Glamorgans, and they were .selected with care and managed with judgment ; but during the last few years the pressure of the times has paralysed all enterprise, and the stock of this district is evidently deteriorated. The Irish catile crossed this tract in the way to the interior, and too many of them loitered here and are becoming in a manner naturalized. CARMARTHENSHIRE. Tins county may also be divided into the hill and vale districts, and the breed of cattle in the two is very dissimilar. The hill-breed betrays much * Mr. Walker, of Binton, tells us that this is too strongly expressed. It is his opinion that ' they want nothing but management to bring them into the dairy. Ueing so ad- mirably adapted for the grazier, their milk is quite neglected. The Herefordshire farmers want enr/y calves, and their cows ami heifers calve between the middle of December and iebi - ' -- " " "Jiy other cow except the Alderney. The quantity of milk n oy a cow w ,u great i y d epen( i on ) ler treatment when with her first calf. If she has not ilkcr Th lT she will never afterwards make a good g, and least of all from the Irish cattle, which have been bought * num ers by the farmers, on account of their being cheaper than their own country beasts. The breed is again improving ; the best specimens have been carefully THE ANGLESEY BREED. 61 selected ; and dearly-bought experience has forced upon the farmer this truth, that it is false economy to starve the growing beast. The Anglesey cattle are principally destined for grazing. Great num- bers of them are purchased in the midland counties, and prepared for metropolitan consumption ; and not a few find their way directly to the vicinity of London, in order to be finished for the market. In point of size, they hold an intermediate rank between the English breeds of all kinds, and the smaller varieties of Scotch cattle ; and so they do in the facility with which they are brought into condition. If they are longer in pre- paring for the market, they pay more at last ; and, like the Scots, they thrive where an English beast would starve. Both the Scotch and the Welsh breed have their advocates, and perhaps, upon the whole, the palm in point of profit must be yielded to the inhabitants of the northern kingdom. In consequence of the overstocking of their land, and the dearth of winter provender, the Anglesey breeders are anxious to get rid of their cattle as soon as they can. Many yearlings cross the bridge of Menai ; and very few beasts are retained in the island after they are three years old. The three-years-old are the most profitable to the English grazier. They are eventually brought to the market from sixty to eighty, and sometimes even a hundred stones, and their meat will always bear a superior price to that of the larger cattle. In Anglesey, and in the greater part of North Wales, the black cattle were formerly used extensively for the plough, and even on the road ; they were docile and hardy ; but their use for draught has now nearly ceased. They are strong, active, and willing ; but it might be no disadvantage if they were longer in the leg and less deep in the chest. The Anglesey oxen have a peculiarly noble appearance. They were not cut until they were a year old ; this gave them a fierce and bull-like form about the head and dewlap ; a projection of the breast, and lofty bearing of the head. There is still a stateliness in the gait of an Anglesey ox, and a haughtiness of countenance, which we have not recognized in any other breed. It presents a striking contrast with the mild intelligence of the Devon, and the quiet submission of the Hereford. Early castration, however, is now commonly practised, and the oxen are getting lighter about the head and dewlap. Many of the Welsh traditions confirm the early, and indeed the exclusive use of oxen for the plough ; and Hovvell the Good condescended to legis- late with regard to these useful animals. The account which he gives of the' customary length of the yoke would show, however, that the oxen, in those times, were a great deal smaller than we now find them. What- ever number were attached to the plough, (and great strength was required, from their perpendicular manner of forming the ridge, even on the steepest ground,) they were all yoked abreast. The short yoke for two oxen was four Welsh feet, of nine inches each, (three English feet) in length ; that for four oxen was eight feet (six English feet) long ; and that for eight oxen was sixteen (twelve English) feet long*. An ordinary ox of the present day would require a somewhat larger space than eighteen inches, in order to work, or even to stand. The oxen were not only smaller, but far less numerous than at present, or the land was divided into much smaller portions. Each circumstance, probably, was influential in the formation of the Welsh Ploughing Societies ; with regard to which, also, the benevolent Hovvell legislated. A great many little farmers clubbed together, according to their means, in order to * Wotton's Leg. Wai., p. 284. The old Welsh acre consisted of 4320 square yards, being 520 less than the present statute one. The North Wales acre, as now calculated; consists of 3240 square yards, being pot quite three-quarters of the statute acre. 62 CATTLE. make up a team, which was to plough an acre of land per day. The best acre was given to the maker and conductor of the plough, who was always the same person ; the second acre was allotted to the owner of the plough- irons ; the third to the owner of the right-hand ox ; the fourth to that of his yoke-mate ; the fifth to the driver ; then an acre to the owner of each of the other oxen ; and the last acre of all to the furnisher of the plough timber. No more cows are kept for the dairy, in Anglesey, than are sufficient for the home consumption. Of cheese, little is made, and what is made is often ill-tasted, and of a spongy appearance. The fault of this, how- ever, lies more with the farmer's wife, or the dairy-maid, than with the cattle or the soil. Having given so full a description of the Anglesey cattle, our notices of the other districts of North Wales will be comparatively short. On the other side of the straits of Menai we find CARNARVONSHIRE. THIS county, with the exception of the promontory of Lleyn at the south- west extremity of it, consists of little more than a succession of abrupt rocks, some of them swelling into enormous mountains. It may therefore be supposed that the cattle are small. They may be considered as a variety of the Angleseys, but inferior to them in size and shape. Few attempts to improve them have been made, and those attended by no great success. Both the farmers and the drovers obstinately adhere to the native breed ; and certainly with this apology, that no others can vie with them in hardiness, or be so cheaply reared. In the promontory of Lleyn the surface is more level, and the breed resembles that of Anglesey, but is, perhaps, a little inferior, for the soil is not so rich, nor the pastures so luxuriant. Great numbers of cattle are driven from this district into other parts of Wales, and also into the mid- land counties of England. A very few oxen are here worked, but none in the other parts of the county ; the extreme irregularity of the surface and the prejudices of the farmers forbidding it. Some good cheese is also made in this part of Carnarvon; but, otherwise, the business of the dairy is completely neg- lected. MERIONETHSHIRE. THIS county, chiefly devoted to breeding, is situated south-east of Car- narvon, skirting St. George's Channel from Carnarvon to Cardigan- shire ; and is almost as mountainous as Carnarvon. Here likewise, on the hilly ground, the cattle are only a smaller variety of the Angleseys, and very inferior to them. They are ill-shaped as well as small, and, in the opinion of Mr. Sharp, of Rhagatt near Corwen, they are some of the worst in Wales. It is the pure Welsh breed, and to which the Merioneth farmers have hitherto pertinaciously adhered, but it stands at the very bottom of the list, for it has been most disgracefully neglected. The Merioneth cattle, however, are capable of material improvement, if atten- tion were paid to the selection of the best of the native breed. It is, after sill, the breed best adapted to the situation and climate, and every attempt to render it more valuable by foreign admixture has uniformly failed. A better breed is found in the vale district, principally devoted to the dairy; :md a considerable quantity of good butter is made in the neigh- bourhood of Uala, and along the whole course of the Dovey. The valley Dovey ailords the richest pasture in the county. THE FLINTSHIRE BREED. 63 The improved cattle have chiefly been obtained from Shropshire or Staffordshire, and have sometimes been crossed with the Galloway. East- ward of Merionethshire, and bordering on Cardigan, Radnor, and Shrop- shire, is MONTGOMERYSHIRE. HEIIE, in the hill country, the cattle are diminutive, but no longer closely resembling the Anglesey. They are of a blood-red, with a dark smoky face, ill-made, although short-legged; very hardy, good milkers, and with a tolerable disposition to fatten : but in the vales of the Severn and the Vyrnwy, the pasturage is excellent, and the breed of cattle much superior. They are here of a light brown colour, with no white except a narrow band from the udder to the navel. The horns do not stand wide, or turn upwards, but are finely made, and of a true yellow colour. They bear considerable resemblance to the Devons ; but in the grazing districts they are chiefly abandoned for the Herefords, which are found to be suitable to the soil and climate, and much better feeders. Considerable attention is here paid to the dairy, and particularly to the production of cheese, which is little inferior to the Cheshire. The cows, in this division of the county, are not only fair milkers, but the cattle generally show great aptitude to fatten. The Rev. Mr. Davies, in his Survey of North Wales, quotes the opinion of 'a grazier of good judg- ment and great experience,' who prefers the breed of this district, because ' they collect bulk on the most valuable parts, and have less offal than those of Shropshire.' About nine months' feeding with grass, hay, and turnips, will add about threescore pounds' weight to each of their quarters. The greater part of this county, and particularly the hills of Kerry and Hopetown are little more than waste^ land, and employed in the breeding and pasturing of sheep ; on this account cattle are comparatively neg- lected ; but a great many Radnorshire calving heifers used to be bought at the fairs on the borders and kept on straw and turnips until the spring, when the Cheshire drovers bought them for the dairies of the cheese- making districts. Lying north of Merioneth and Montgomeryshire, is DENBIGHSHIRE. THIS is a great breeding county ; but the cattle are generally, and in the hilly district particularly, of an inferior kind, although resembling the Angleseys. The system of overstocking used to be carried to a ruinous extent here. In the vales, however, we begin to recognize a larger and more valuable breed, a cross between the Welsh and the long-horn, and prevailing more as we approach the borders of Flintshire. The dairy is considerably attended to in the lowlands, and some excellent cheese is produced there. FLINTSHIRE. THIS county is placed at the northern extremity of Wales ; and is bounded on the north by the Irish Channel, and on the north-east by the estuary of the river Dee. The cattle here may almost be said to have lost their Welsh character. They most resemble their neighbours in Cheshire and in Shropshire, but with many variations. There cannot be said to be any distinct breed; for, from their near connexion with England, 64 CATTLE. fresh supplies are continually brought in of almost every kind. A. great many calves are also sent here, from Shropshire, to be suckled and grazed, and more particularly from Cheshire, according 1 to the fancy of the breeders. The Flintshire cattle appear to mingle the rare qualities of being excellent milkers and quick feeders. The Rev. Mr. Davies gives some illustrations of this. He says that 'a Flintshire cow, at Mertyn, of the true lean milking breed, gave, from May 1st to October 30th, 4026 quarts of milk, which produced 358 pounds avoirdupois of butter, being nearly equal to two pounds of butter and 22 quarts of milk per day, for 183 days successively.' On the other hand, he says, that a gentleman of Flintshire, after ' having worked his oxen until he had finished turnip-sowing in June, sold a pair of them to a neighbouring grazier for 25/., being about the market-price. These, without the aid of any other luxury than rest from labour and plenty of grass, were so increased in bulk, by the December following, that they sold for more than double their prime cost.' A considerable quantity of good butter is made in this district, but the attention of the dairyman is more devoted to the manufacture of cheese, which is little, if at all, inferior to the genuine Cheshire. Each cow is supposed to produce nearly three hundred-weight of cheese every year. SCOTLAND. SCOTLAND contains several distinct and valuable breeds of cattle evidently belonging to our present division, ' The Middle Horns.' THE WEST HIGH- LANDERS, whether we regard those that are found in the Hebrides, or the county of Argyle, seem to retain most of the aboriginal character. They have remained unchanged, or improved only by selection, for many generations, or indeed from the earliest accounts that we possess of Scot- tish cattle. THE NORTH HIGHLANDERS are a smaller, coarser, and in every way inferior race, and owe the greater part of what is valuable about them to crosses from the Western breed. THE NORTH-EASTERN CATTLE were derived from, and bear a strong resemblance to the West Highlander, but are of considerably larger size. THE FIFE BREED are almost as valuable for the dairy, as for the grazier, and yield to few in activity and docility. THE AYRSHIRE BREED are second to none as milkers. Many of the varied mingling breeds of the Lowlands are valuable. THE GALLOWAYS, which scarcely a century ago were middle-horned, and with difficulty distinguished from the West Highlanders, are now a polled breed, increased in size, with more striking resemblance to their kindred the Devons with all their aptitude to fatten, and with a hardi- ness of constitution which the Devons never possessed. All these shall pass rapidly in review before us. THE WEST HIGHLAND CATTLE. WE will first describe the cattle of the islands on the Western coast, to ch the honour of being, or, at least of retaining the character of the itive breed is now generally yielded, and whence are procured the , - best s l )ecime ns selected to preserve or to improve the land cattle in other districts. ( 65 ) THE HEBRIDES OR WESTERN ISLANDS. [ The West Highland Bull.] SKIRTING the coast, from the promontory of Cantire to the northern ex- tremity of Scotland, is a range of islands appearing like so many frag- ments torn off from the main land these are the Hebrides, or Hebudas ; nearly two hundred in number, and about half of them inhabited by man. They may be conveniently divided into two groups, the inner and the outer; the inner consisting of the larger islands, and some of them sepa- rated from the main land by narrow channels only; and the Outer Hebrides being thirty or forty miles farther from shore. Little is known of the history of the Hebudans, except that they descended from the same stock with the Irish and the Highlanders ; but were oftener exposed to the incursions of roving tribes from every quarter, and who successively mingled with, and were lost among, but never superseded the original inhabitants. If we are to credit the con- current testimony of many old legends, and confirmed by the re- mains of ancient pillars, and castles, and fortifications, which some of the islands yet present, the Hebudans of early times were powerful and civilized. ' The kingdom of the Innsegallians was the pride of its allies and the terror of its foes *.' Sir Walter Scott says, that 'in Malcolm's reign (Malcolm IV., 1153,) the Lords of the Hebridean islands, scarcely acknowledging even a nominal allegiance either to the crown of Scotland or that of Norway, though claimed by both countries, began to give much annoyance to the Western coasts of Scotland, to which their light-armed gallies or birlins, and their habits of piracy gave great facilities f-' ' Alexander II. died in the remote island of Kerrera in the Hebrides, while engaged in an expedition to compel the island chiefs to transfer to the Scottish .king a homage which some of them had paid to Norway J." In 1263, all the Western islands were annexed to the Scottish crown under Alexander III. The occupation and character of the Hebudans does not appear to have * Macdonald's Scandena. t History of Scotland, (Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopedia,) vol. i. p. 34. $ Ibid., p. 43. Ibid., p. 47. P 66 CATTLE. been ameliorated by this change ; but the chiefs of the different islands, too far from the seat of government to be under much control, were con- tinually at war with each other; and the arts of agriculture being neglected, they were compelled to resort to a predatory way of life in order to obtain the means of subsistence : and thus, for more than three centuries, the Hebrides were the resort of refugees, smugglers, and freebooters ; and, at no very remote period, the inhabitants were singularly uncultivated, ignorant, idle, and miserable. After, however, the union between the English and Scottish kingdoms, and when civilization had commenced on the mainland, the Hebrideans began to be reclaimed, and that was chiefly manifested in, and promoted by, a change of occupation. Although they did not abandon their sea- faring life, they became honest, and were industrious fishermen, and they began to learn to be agriculturists. Their cattle, which had been totally neglected, and their value altogether unknown, retained their primitive character*; the Hebudans for the first time became aware" of this, and they bred them in greater numbers, and a few of the most intelligent farmers endeavoured to improve them by selections from the best speci- mens of their native stock: the result has been, that the breeds of some of these islands now bear the highest price among the Highland cattle. It may be supposed that in a group of islands extending nearly two hundred miles from north to south, there will be considerable difference in the character and value of the breed; but through the whole of them the striking peculiarities of the Highland cattle are sufficiently evident, except where they have been debased by the admixture of Irish blood. The principal difference is in the size, and there the cattle of the southern- most island, Islay, claim the superiority. This island is sheltered by its situation from the storms to which most of the others are exposed, and the pasturage is better ; the cattle are therefore earlier ready for the market, and attain a greater weight. It is not, however, certain that this increase of size would be of advantage on the northern islands, or even on the mainland ; the cattle, deprived of a portion of their hardihood, would not be proof against the inclemency of the weather, and would starve on such scanty forage as the Highlands in general can supply. Breeders are so much aware of this, that they endeavour to preserve the purity and value of their stock, by selecting, not from the districts where the size has increased, but, by almost general consent, from the Isle of Skye, where the cattle are small, but are suited to the soil and to the climate; and can be most easily and securely raised at the least expense; and when removed to better provender, will thrive with a rapidity almost incredible. The origin of the term Kyloe is obscure. Some writers, and among whom is Sir John Sinclair, have curiously traced it to their crossing the many Kyloes, or ferries which abound in the West of Scotland ; others, and with more propriety, and one of whom is Mr. Macdonald, the author of the Agriculture of the Highlands, tells us, that it is a corruption of the * That excellent agriculturist, Adam Ferguson, Esq., of Woodhill, expresses a similar opinion in his ingenious Essay on Crossing, contained in the First Number of the Quar- // , rnal of Agriculture. ' I cannot but regard the West Highlanders, or, rather, a;irfer as more genuine than any other breed we possess in Scotland, excepting, it may he, the small remnant of aborigines in the park of his Grace the Duke of Hamilton. ^ many age8> save a permaneace to their individuaUt y THE HEBRIDEAN BREED. 67 Gaelic word which signifies Highland, and is commonly pronounced as if spelled Kael. We have been favoured with the following excellent description of the true Kyloe, or West Highland bull, by Malcolm M'Neill, Esq., of the Isle of Islay, the southernmost of the inner range of the Hebrides: ' The High- land bull should be black, the head not large, the ears thin, the muzzle fine, and rather turned up. He should be broad in the face, the eyes prominent, and the countenance calm and placid. The horns should taper finely to a point ; and, neither drooping too much, nor rising too high, should be of a waxy colour, and widely set on at the root. The neck should be fine, particularly where it joins the head, and rising with a gentle cusve from the shoulder. The breast wide, and projecting well before the legs. The shoulders broad at the top, and the chine so full as to leave but little hollow behind them. The girth behind the shoulder deep; the back straight, wide, and flat ; the ribs broad; the space between them and the hips small ; the belly not sinking low in the middle ; yet, in the whole, not forming the round and barrel-like carcase which some have described. The thigh tapering to the hock-joint ; the bones larger in proportion to the size than in the breeds of the southern districts. The tail set on a level with the back. The legs short and straight. The whole carcase covered with a thick long coat of hair, and plenty of hair also about the face and horns, and that hair not curly. The value of the West Highland cattle consists in their being hardy, and easily fed ; in that they will live, and sometimes thrive, on the coarsest pastures ; that they will frequently gain from a fourth to a third of their original weight in six months' good feeding; that the proportion of offal is not greater than in the most improved larger breeds ; that they will lay their flesh and fat equably on the best parts ; and that, when fat, the beef is closed fine in the grain, highly flavoured, and so well mixed or marbled, that it commands a superior price in every market. The different islands of the Hebrides contain about one hundred and fifty thousand of these cattle, of which it is calculated that one-fifth are sent annually to the main land, principally through Jura, or across from the ferry of the Isle of Skye. If these average about bl. per head, the amount will be 150,000/., or more than the rental of the whole of the islands, which Mr. Macdonald calculated at 106,720 , but which now produces a greater sum. Cattle, therefore, constitute the staple commodity of the Hebrides. Three thousand five hundred are annually exported from the island of Islay alone. Mr. Moorhouse, from Craven, in Yorkshire, in 1763, was the first Eng- lishman who came into the Hebrides to buy cattle. In the absence of her husband, Mr. M'Donald, of Kingsburgh, he was kindly entertained by Flora M'Donald, who made up for him the same bed that, seventeen years before, had received the unfortunate Prince Charles. From Skye Mr. Moorhouse went to Raasay, whither, in three days, Kingsburgh followed him ; and, during a walk in the garden, on a fine harvest evening, they bargained for one thousand cattle, at two guineas a head, to be delivered free of expense at Falkirk. Two days before he had bought six hundred from Mr. M'Leod, of Waterside, at 21. 5s. 6d. Forty years ago the treatment of cattle was, with very few exceptions, absurd and ruinous, to a strange degree, through the whole of the Hebrides. With the exception of the milch cows, but not even of the calves, they were all wintered in the field : if they were scantily fed with hay, it was coarse, and withered, and half-rotten ; or if they got a little straw, they were thought to be well taken care of. The majority got little more than sea- F2 6 g CATTLE, weed, heather, and rushes. One-fifth of the cattle, on an average, used to perish every winter from starvation. When the cold had been unusually severe, and the snow had lain long on the ground, one-half of the stock has been lost, and the remainder have afterwards been thinned by the diseases which poverty had engendered. It proved the excellency of the breed, that in the course of two or three months so many of them got again into good store-condition, and might almost be said to be half-fat, and could scarcely be restrained by any fence : in fact, there are numerous instances of these cattle, which had been reduced to the most dreadful state of impoverishment, becoming fattened for the butcher in a few months, after being placed on some of the rich summer pastures of Islay, Lewis, or Skye. The cows were housed during the winter; but among the small farmers this was conducted in a singular way for one rude dwelling contained and sheltered both the family arid the cattle. The family had their beds of straw or heath in the niches of the walls, while the litter was never removed from the cattle, but fresh layers of straw were occasionally laid down, and so the floor rose with the accumulation of dung and litter, until the season of spreading it upon the land, when it was at length taken away*. The peculiarity of the climate and the want of inclosed lands, and the want, too, of forethought in the farmer, were the chief causes of this wretched system of winter starvation. The rapidity of vegetation in the latter part of the spring is astonishing in these islands. A good pasture can scarcely be left a fortnight without growing high and rank ; and even the unenclosed and marshy and heathy grounds are comparatively luxu- riant. In consequence of this the farmer fully stocked, or overstocked, even this pasture. He crowded his fields at the rate of six or eight beasts or more to an acre. From their natural aptitude to fatten they got into tolerable condition, but not such as they might have attained, whether destined for the salesman or the butcher. Winter, however, suc- ceeded to summer : no provision had been made for it, except for the cows ; and the beasts that were not properly fed even in the summer, languished and starved in the winter t. The Hebrides, however, have partaken of that improvement in agricul- ture of which we shall have frequently to speak when describing the dif- ferent districts of Scotland. In the island of Islay, the greater part of which is the property of Walter F. Campbell, Esq., and to whom we are indebted for much valuable information, the following is the general system of management among the better kind of farmers, and the account will apply to the Hebrides generally, and to Argyleshire. * Mr. Garnet in his ' Tour through the Highlands,' gives a sadder account of the frequent joint occupancy of the same hut, by the peasant and his cattle, in the Island of Mull. He had been speaking of the privations of the peasant, he adds ' Nor are his cattle in a better situation : in summer they pick up a scanty support among the morasses and heathy mountains, but in winter, when the ground is covered with snow, and when the naked wilds afford them neither shelter nor subsistence, the few cows, small, lean, and ready to drop for want of pasture, are brought into the hut where the family resides, and frequently share with them their little stock of meal which had been purchased or raised for the family only ; while the cattle thus sustained, are bled occasionally to afford nourishment for the children after the mingled oatmeal and blood has been boiled or made into cakes.' f Dr. Walker, in his Account of the Hebrides, gives a very curious" statement of the disproportion between the stock and the rent of a farm ; a disproportion which must be ,. . ..rail 01 catue ; besides 80 ewes and 40 goats, which, with their young, were bout 250; and 10 horses. Yet this farm, with arable land sufficient to supply all the iamily, was rented only at twenty pounclt a-year.' THE HEBRIDEAN BREED. 69 It is contrived, as much as possible, that the calves shall be dropped from the 1st of February to the middle of April. All the calves are reared ; and for the first three or four months they are allowed to suck three times in the day, but they are not permitted to draw any great quantity at a time. In summer all the cattle are pastured ; the calves are sent to their dams twice in the day, and the strippings, or last part of the milk, is taken away by the dairy-maid, for it is commonly supposed, that if the calf is allowed to draw all the milk he can, it will keep the dam in low condition, and prevent her being in calf in proper time. The calves are separated from their dams two or three weeks before the cast-cows are sent to the cattle-tryst at the end of October, for it is believed that if the cows had milk in their udders they might be injured in the long journeys they are then to take; the greater part of them being driven as far as the Lowland districts, whence they gradually find their way to the central and southern counties of England. The calves are housed in the beginning of November, and are highly fed on hay and roots (for the raising of which the soil and climate are admirably adapted) until the month of May. When there is plenty of keep, the breeding cows are housed in November, but in general they are kept out until three or four weeks before calving. In May the whole cattle are turned out to pasture, and, if it is practicable, those of different ages are kept separate ; while, by shifting the cattle, the pasture is kept as much as possible in eatable condition, that is, neither eaten too bare, nor allowed to get too rank, or to run into seed. In the winter and the spring all the cattle except the breeding cows are fed in the fields, the grass of which is preserved from the 12th of August to the end of October. When these inclosures become bare, about the end of December, a little hay is taken into the field with turnips or potatoes, once or twice in the day, according to circumstances, until the middle or end of April. Few only of the farmers have these roots to give them, and the feeding of the out-lying cattle with straw is quite abolished. If any of them, however, are very materially out of condition, they are fed with oats in the sheaf. At two, or three, or four years old, all, except the heifers that are retained for breeding, are sent to market. &n There is little or no variety of breeds of cattle in the Hebrides. They are pure West Highlanders. Indeed, it is the belief of the Hebridean farmer,' that no other breed of cattle will thrive on these islands, and that the Kyloes could not possibly be improved by being crossed with any others. He appeals to his uniform experience, and most correctly so in the Hebrides, that attempts at crossing have only destroyed the symmetry of the Kyloes, and rendered them more delicate, and less suitable to the climate and the pasture. By selection from the choicest of the stock, however, the West High- lander has been materially improved. The Islay, the Isle of Skye, and the Argyleshire beast, readily obtains a considerably higher price than any other cattle reared in the Highlands of Scotland. Mr. M'Neil has been eminently successful in his attempts to improve the native breed. He has often obtained 1001. for three and four-year-old bulls out of his stock; and for one bull he received 2001. He never breeds from bulls less than three years, or more than ten years old ; and he disapproves, and rightly in such a climate, of the system of breeding in and in. He also adheres to that golden rule of breeding, the careful selection of the female ; and, indeed, it is not a small sum that would induce the Hebridean farmer to part with any of his picked cows. It is true that grazing has never been the principal object of the Hebri- dean farmer, or has scarcely been deemed worthy of his attention : there fo CATTLE. fcre very few cattle fattened upon any of the islands, or in the nortli or centre of Scotland ; but cast-cows from some of the best stocks, when grass-fed in the Lowlands of Scotland, weigh more than forty Imperial stones. It may, however, be worth inquiry, whether the farmer has not forgotten his own interest in this exclusive pursuit of breeding. Mr. Macdonald, in his ' Survey of the Hebrides,' has placed this in an inte- resting point of view. He selects the islands of North Uist and Tiree for the purpose of illustration, because the improved system of husbandry is little adopted there, although the herbage is good. We will condense and a little alter his calculation, agreeably to the different prices and management of the present time : We will suppose that in October or November 900 head of neat cattle, well salted, and weighing 33 stones, Imperial, are sold at Greenock or Liverpool at 4s. 6d. per stone *. This would amount to . ,6687 We will also suppose that the same cattle, sold in April or May to the drovers, would have fetched 41. 15s. per head ; but as, in the course of six months, at least one in ten would have been lost by disease or accident, we will say that the farmer had then 1000 cattle at 41. 15s. amounting to . . ,4,750 The best grass is let at 12s. per head for these six months, making . . 600 The expense of looking after, at 2s. per head 100 Salt and casks, at 8s. each . . 360 Sending to market, 5s. each . . 225 Interest of 4,750J. for six months . 148 6 Total expenses . 6,183 6 Balance in favour of fattening . ,503 14 Or more than 10 per cent. ; and this average is taken very low, for the cattle will usually weigh more than 20 stones per head. It is fair, however, to suppose that the Hebridean farmer best knows his own interest, yet this may deserve consideration. It will be concluded from what we have said of the milking properties of the Kyloe, that the dairy is considered as a matter of little consequence in the Hebrides ; and the farmer rarely keeps more milch cows than will furnish his family with milk and butter and cheese. The Highland cow will not yield more than a third part of the milk that is obtained from the Ayrshire one at no great distance on the main land ; but that milk is ex- ceedingly rich, and the butter procured from it is excellent. In Arran and Bute, in the Firth of Clyde, the Ayrshire cow was partially introduced from the neighbouring coast, but in the other islands of the Hebrides, the Highland cow is obstinately retained. In North Uist and Tiree the dairy is more successfully followed than in the other islands, partly on ' In some of the southern islands, and particularly in Collonsay and Islay, the pure B c i i a J e frc( l uen % fattened to from 34 to 42 stones Imperial. Mr. Campbell, ild, had a heifer which, when slaughtered, weighed 63 stones; but among the lower class ot farmers a bullock of fair size will weigh about 33 stones, and a heifer ^J stones. They are larger in the southern islands than they are in Skye, for the pasture ter, and they might be raised to a still greater size, were it not for the shameful system of overstocking, to which we sliall have o often to allude, (<#-' ^**$* / THE HEBRIDEAN BREED. 71 account of the goodness of the herbage, but principally because the cows yield milk for a longer time after calving than in the neighbouring isles. The management of the dairy is exceedingly simple, and, from the very simplicity of it, other districts may learn a useful lesson. The cows are driven as slowly and quietly as possible to the fold; the wild character of the animals, as well as a regard to the quality of the milk, show the propriety of this. They are carefully drained to the last drop, not only ou account of the superior richness of the latter portion of the milk, but because the retention of any part is apt to hasten, if it does not produce, that which is one of the principal objections to the Highland cows as milkers, the speedy drying up of their milk. The milk is carried to the house with as little disturbance as practicable, and put into vessels of not more than two or three inches in depth. The cream is supposed to rise more rapidly in these shallow vessels ; and it is removed in the course of eighteen hours. A cow will not, on the average, yield more than 22 Ibs. of butter (of 24 oz. each) in the summer season : she will yield about 90 Ibs. of cheese, which is much liked by some on account of the aromatic flavour which is given to it by the mixture of rose-leaves, cinnamon, mace, cloves, and lemon with the rennet*. Oxen are never used for the plough or on the road on any of the Hebrides. We have stated that more than 20,000 of the Hebridean cattle are con- veyed to the mainland, some of whom find their way even to the southern- most counties of England ; but like the other Highland cattle their journey is usually slow and interrupted. Their first resting-place is not a great way from the coast, for they are frequently wintered on the coarse pas- tures of Dumbartonshire ; and in the next summer, after grazing awhile on the lower grounds, they are driven farther south, where they are fed during the second winter on turnips and hay. In April they are in good condition, and prepared for the early grass, on which they are finished. Many of these small cattle are permanently arrested in their journey, and kept on low farms to consume the coarse grass, which other breeds refuse to eat ; these are finished off on turnips, which are given them in the field about the end of Autumn, and they are sold about Christmas. In the Outer Hebrides, principally separated from the inner range by the channel called the Minsh, and, from the apparent continuity in the range of the islands, and the hills all running in the same direction, called the Long Island, there is but little improvement in agriculture, although the pasturage is quite equal to the generality of that in the inner range, and the cattle are of somewhat more diminutive size. Mr. Macgillivray, in his ' Prize Essay on the present State of the Outer Hebrides,' says, ' The black cattle are small, but well proportioned ; and on the tacksmen's farms (a tacksman is one who has a large tract of land, which he holds by lease) they are generally of good breed, and, although not heavy, very * Martin, in his account of the Western Isles of Scotland, sixty years ago, describes a superstition which then prevailed : ' It is a received opinion in these islands, that women, by a charm, or some other secret way, are able to convey the increase of their neighbours' cows' milk to their own use : and that the milk so charmed does not produce the ordinary quantity of butter, and the curds made of that milk are so tough that it cannot be made so firm as other cheese, and is also much lighter in weight. The butter so taken away and joined to the charmer's butter, is evidently discernible by a mark of separation, viz. the diversity of colours ; that which is charmed being still paler than that part of the butter which hath not been charmed ; and if butter having these marks be found with a suspected woman, she is directly said to be guilty. Their usual way of recovering their loss, is to take a little of the rennet from all the suspected persons, and put it in an egg-shell full of milk, aud when that from the charmer is mingled with it, it curdles, and not before.' 72 CATTLE. [The West Highland Cow.} handsome. They are covered with a thick and long pile during winter and spring ; and a good pile is considered one of the essential qualifica- tions of a cow. The most common colours are black, red, brown, or brandered, (that is, a mixture of red and brown in stripes brindled.') A whitish dun colour is also pretty frequently seen, not unlike that of the original wild cattle of Scotland, both the horned breed at Chillingham, and the polled one at Hamilton ; and it is remarked, that in all their tra- ditions or fables of what are called fairy-cattle, this is the colour ascribed to these animals. The breed of black cattle has been greatly improved of late years, by the importation of bulls and cows from various parts of the Highlands.' On the tacksmen's farms the cattle are not housed in winter, excepting the calves ; those belonging to the cottars generally are. In summer the cows and the milch-sheep are sent to the inland glens and moors, which are covered with hard grasses and rushes, because the portion that yields soft grass is not sufficient for their consumption during the whole year. They are attended by a woman from each family, who has a small hut or shealing for her habitation, and who makes the little butter and cheese which their scanty milk affords. The cows are thus kept in good pasture during the greater part of the summer and autumn, when the young beasts are sent to the moors. Towards the winter all the cattle are brought to the lower grounds, and the stirks are separated and housed at night. The latter are fed exclusively on hay and straw, portions of which are dis- tributed to the other cattle during snow. The cattle of the small tenants are all housed at night during the winter, and fed upon straw, hay, and the refuse of the family meals. The habitations of these people are usually divided into three apartments. The first, which occupies half of the hut, is the general entrance, and contains the agricultural implements, poultry, and cattle. The second, comprising a fourth of the hut, is that in which the family reside ; and the inner one, of the same size, is the sleeping room and granary. There are no chimneys ; the smoke fills the whole hut, and escapes partly by a hole THE ARRAN BREED. 73 in the roof, partly by the door, and partly by orifices formed between the wall and the roof as substitutes for windows, and which, in stormy weather, are closed by a bundle of straw. The fire is placed in the middle of the floor. The soot accumulates on the roof, and, in rainy weather, is continually dropping, and for the purpose of obtaining it for manure, the hut is unroofed in the beginning of May. The dung of the cattle which had been accumulating during the winter and spring, and had been mixed with straw, ashes, and other matter, is at the same time removed from the outer apartment. In the spring all the cattle are in poor condition, and those of the small tenants are in most wretched plight: sea-weed (chiefly Fucus canaliculatus), boiled with husks of grain and a little meal or other substances, are then employed to support them ; and in many places the cattle during the winter and spring regularly betake themselves to the sea-shore at ebb- tide to feed upon the fuci. The milk of the cows is said to be excellent, but on account of the filthy habits of too many of the cotters, the butter and cheese are eaten by few beside the natives. Having described so much at length 'the cattle of the inner and outer Hebrides, we shall be able to pass with considerable rapidity over the other districts of the Highlands. ARRAN AND BUTE. THESE islands are separated from the other Hebrides by the promontory of Cantyre, and are situated in the Firth of Clyde, between Argyleshire and Ayrshire, and form a county under the name of Bute. Almost the whole of ARRAN is the property of the Duke of Hamilton and Brandon, who kindly granted us every facility for becoming acquainted with the cattle of the island, and to whose very intelligent factor, Mr. Paterson, we are indebted for much valuable information. Seventeen years ago Arran was overrun by cattle of almost every ex- traction and character. The West Highland was probably the native breed ; but many had been imported from Ireland, as the situation of Arran would lead us to suspect ; and more had been introduced from Galloway. The Earls of Carrick were formerly the proprietors of this district ; and, at an early period, and, even before the time of Robert I., they had probably introduced many cattle from their mainland estates into Arran, which was then little better than a mere hunting-ground. These breeds were inter- mingled in every possible way, but all of them were small, narrow across the loins, long legged, and thin in the hams ; their form was scraggy and angular, and the skin coarse, yet with little hair; they were black or brown, but generally with white intermingled, frequently with white faces, and almost invariably with white about the belly. They yielded very little milk, although that which they did give was good ; and, in the property of fattening, they were far inferior to those of the other islands which we have just described. In fact, the whole system of husbandry was wretched. Each farm was strangely let to various tenants, who occupied in common or in runridge ; i. e., one of the tenants sowed one ridge, and a copartner the next, and so on ; and the arable [part of the farm was divided into numerous small lots, which were yearly appor- tioned, and almost yearly changed *. No improvement could be effected * One of the oldest arrangements of the great proprietors of land was to collect their whole tenantry or vassalage as nearly as possible around their own mansion or castle. The neighbouring grounds were then divided into fields of various extent according to 74 CATTLE. under such a system. The ridges were cropped with oats as long as it was supposed they would produce a little more than what was thrown upon them, and they were then abandoned until the weeds (no grass seeds were sown) covered them for some years, and they were thought to be able to bear two or three white crops again. The croft or infield land, that which was near the homesteads, although a little better treated, suffered too. It is true that it had all the manure of the farm, but it was cropped every year, and oats, and bear or bigg, and beans or potatoes (this last invaluable vegetable was just beginning to be known), succeeded each other without pause ; and the weeds were covered for a little while by the crop during summer, but never extirpated. Little fodder could be raised for cattle ; and as there were no grass- seeds sown, there was no hay ; and there was nothing to maintain the live-stock during winter but oat-straw. Above what were called the head-dykes, i. e., rude banks to separate the arable from the hill or pasture land, the cattle and sheep and horses ranged in common over the whole island ; and the farmer, who, for generation after generation, had been taught to believe that his riches consisted in the number of his cattle, instead of their individual worth, not only sent more cattle to the hills in summer than they could well maintain, but reserved far more than could possibly be kept in the winter. The number of cattle far exceeded that of the inhabitants : a great many of them were carried off by starvation and disease ; and the remainder were found in the spring in a state of emaciation, provincially termed ' lifting;' they were declining in size, and their good points were fast leaving them. The Duke of Hamilton beheld this with much regret, and, with a zeal for the improvement of the agriculture of the island, which reflects on him the highest credit, and which is the best direction that true patriotism can take, he set himself heartily to work, not only to ameliorate the breed of cattle, but to reform and change the general system of husbandry. The leases of nearly the whole of the island terminated in 1814. The Duke directed that his fine property in Arran should be surveyed. He divided it into distinct and separate farms of different dimensions, from ten acres, to suit the former tenants in common, to more than three or four hundred acres. He brought much of the waste land into cultivation by the spade ; he excavated drains to the extent of 120 miles in length ; the supposed nature of the soil ; and again subdivided into parcels or ridges of equal size, corresponding with the number of the retainers : and one of the rigs or ridges was let or appropriated to each. It was thought that all would thus have an equal share of the good and the bad land, without partiality or preference, although each one's possession (the term still used) would probably be dispersed over a dozen places. This system of occu- pation was denominated runrig, or runridge. Besides this general practice of having the land in runrig, it was customary in some places for the tenantry to exchange their respective ridges every year ; so that, in a given course of years, each tenant would have rented and tilled the whole of the ridges. This was called coup-rig, or change-rig, A system more absurd or inconsistent with good cultivation can scarcely be imagined. The division of the arable lauds into in fold and outfield, was universal in Scotland, and is not yet obsolete. The infield, as stated in the text, got all the dung produced on the farm, and was kept under a constant rotation of crops. Lime and fallow and artificial grasses were unknown. The outfield bore three crops of oats, and, if it was more than usually good land, four crops, and then lay idle for five or six years. The consequence was, that, not more than forty years ago, the produce of every land was little in quantity and poor in quality : the horses were fed in summer almost entirely on thistles, which covered the outfield, and grew too plentifully in the infield; and the owner of a little field which, under improved cultivation, now produces ninety bushels of oats yearly, told the author, that although he sometimes had 1200 sheaves upon it, he would have given the whole of the grain for a single bushel of meal. He had straw for the winter feed of his cattle, but bis family might starve. See liobertson't Rural KecoUecliom, p. 263. THE ARRAN BREED. 75 he erected all necessary fences, and he built comfortable houses of various sizes. He then offered the farms at a moderate rent, but with these restrictions, that the land should be managed in a different and better manner, and that the number of cattle which were kept should not exceed a certain proportion to the size of the farm. The old tenants were at first strangely averse to this new, and, as they thought, absurd and tyrannical system. Some of them quitted the island. The Duke then let some of his farms to enterprising tenants from better- cultivated districts ; for he rightly judged that persons who had never seen land well managed, would much more readily adopt changes in the mode of husbandry if successfully made under their own observation, than if they were merely described to them, and in a manner forced upon them. The consequence has been, that the property of his Grace has more than doubled in value, and his tenantry are more prosperous and happy. The Duke of Hamilton immediately introduced some choice and ex- pensive bulls from the stock of the Duke of Argyle, in order to improve the wretched breed of cattle ; but they were found at first to be too large for crossing the small cattle of Arran with perfect effect. Some bulls and queys of the dairy breed were brought from Ayrshire, but they did not well combine with the old stock of the island ; their skins and hair were too thin for the bleak hills of Arran ; and this cross was soon abandoned as a breeding stock. Some farmers, however, again had recourse to the Argyle bulls, for the breed had evidently improved, at least on some farms, and a spirit of emulation was beginning to be excited. In consequence of this, several bulls of the Argyleshire sort were pur- chased by the duke in the summer of 1822, and placed in various parts of the country for the use of the tenants. The effect was now immediate, and palpable ; and every year, and at very considerable expense, twenty or thirty fresh bulls were imported, and scattered in the most convenient places throughout the island; and, as far as influence and persuasion could go, the old breed was systematically discouraged. The improvement was rapid and progressive. The Arran cattle are now- black or brown, and horned, and in most parts of the island still retaining somewhat of the form of the original stock. This is most evident in the smallness of the limbs, the thinness of the neck, and the shortness of the hair. On the farms, however, of more careful breeders, the differ- ence between the Arran arid Argyleshire beasts can scarcely be observed, and that difference is yearly decreasing. The Arran improved black cattle are gentle-tempered, and kindly feeders ; but better adapted for grazing than the dairy. The Arran beasts used to be scarcely saleable ; the southern drovers would not have them at any price: but in 1832 the slots of three years-off were sold in great numbers at ten pounds each after having been fed on grass alone, and queys at more than nine pounds. Cattle-husbandry has of late improved through the whole of Scotland ; and in many of the districts the character of the breed is essentially changed, but nowhere has so much been done in a few years to ameliorate the stock, and better the condition of the tenantry. Twelve or fourteen years ago, the average weight of an aged Arran cow, when fed on grass, drd not exceed eighteen or twenty stones : she would now be at least three or four stones heavier, and some of the oxen have reached forty-five or fifty stones. The calves, which are generally dropped in spring, are not suffered to suck the dam, but are fed on milk for about six weeks. Two meals only 76 CATTLE. are allowed them in the day, and two or three quarts of genuine milk are given at each meal. Some imagine that this quantity is not sufficient ; and it is perhaps a general fault in the Isle of Arran that the calves get too little milk when they are young. A small portion of oatmeal is occasionally mixed with the milk, and particularly when the time for turning out approaches : some of the farmers, however, object to this, as frequently disordering the bowels, and producing griping, inflammation, and death. The calves, when weaned, are turned on a reserved pasture on the low land. They are generally tethered until the crop is off the ground, and they go in and out with the cattle ; but they are always housed at night, and none of them are sent to the hills during the first season. In winter a little boiled food is given to them, consisting of potatoes or greens, with chaff or straw, and chaff-fodder like the old cattle. In summer the yearlings are sent to the hills, generally at no great distance from the dwelling ; and, for the most part, they remain out until the winter ; then all the cattle, young and old, are housed during the night. While in the house they get straw-fodder, with sometimes a little hay; the older cattle are occasionally indulged with potatoes or a few turnips, and to this is added coarse, strong-growing, green kail, which is cultivated in every small farmer's garden for this purpose. This practice, if not peculiar to Arran, is practised there to a greater extent than in most other districts. The cattle calving in the winter, or early in the spring, are fed with kail, potatoes, and straw. Both the kail and potatoes are usually boiled, and sometimes the chaff; and the milch-cows almost always before calving, and sometimes for a little while afterwards, get some oats or meal boiled with their other provender. Notwithstand- ing the addition of the kail, the Arran cattle are not too well fed in the winter, and the growth of the young beasts is often materially stinted by a false economy. When the weather is not stormy, the cattle are driven out to pasture during the day the young ones to the hills, and the older ones to the arable pastures and stubbles. This system of housing at night is, in some instances, necessary on account of the exposed and shelterless situation of the farms ; but, in other cases, it might, with advantage, be dispensed with, especially with regard to the young cattle ; for it makes them tender, it prevents the growth of that covering of thick soft hair which nature provides as a protection against the searching blast, and it renders the beasts more liable to hoose and inflammation, when they must afterwards be exposed to no little cold while feeding on grass. The majority of the cattle of Arran are sold in the autumn from two to three years-old. They are transported to the mainland, and after- wards south, by the way of Dumfries, where they are fed on grass for another year, and thus generally well prepared for the butcher : a few stirks or yearlings are annually sold at the same time from farms on which too many have been reared. The greater part of Arran is a breeding and rearing district ; but on a few farms the cattle are fattened on grass, and so successfully as to render it probable that the practice might be more generally pursued with considerable advantage. Some of the old cattle, when beginning to fail in milk, are fed off in the winter on turnips or potatoes, either for home consumption or to be sold to the drovers in the spring. About 800 head of cattle are yearly sent to the mainland from Arran. The milch cows are housed at night even in the summer: they are brought home in the evening for milking, after which they get cut grass THE BUTE BREED. 77 or clover during the night, and, having been milked again in the morning, are turned out for the day. The produce of milk has much increased with the improvement in general husbandry, and the consequent better keeping of the cows. Some of the black cattle will give from three to three and a half gallons of milk daily for four or five months after calving; the average quantity, however, will not much exceed two gallons ; but the milk is excellent. There are some farms in which the Ayrshire cows are established, and these cattle give in Arran as much milk as in their native country. The small farmers consume the milk and butter and cheese which their cows produce ; others sell a little butter ; and the larger farmers manufacture a considerable quantity of cheese, which can scarcely be distinguished from the Ayrshire, and which is sent to the towns on the banks of the Clyde. We have dwelt the longer on the cattle husbandry of this little island because it is a splendid example of what may be effected, in a very few years, by the exertions of one patriotic individual. The circumstances which, until the last eighty years, caused the Scottish agriculturists to be so far behind their brethren in England, were the con- tinuance of the feudal system, and consequent vassalage in the northern kingdom. Short leases alone were granted, frequently of not more than a twelvemonth ; a great part of the rent was demanded in kind, and the tenant was harassed by the exaction of continual services in every oppressive form. But when services were abolished, and a fixed rent in money was esta- blished, and, by the length of the lease, security was given to the occupant that he should reap the fruits of his improvement, he began to set himself thoroughly to work. The rapidity of his improvement may be accounted for by circumstances which fall not to the lot of the southern agriculturists tithes had been annihilated in Scotland, at least so far as the tenant was concerned, and the burden of supporting the poor was scarcely felt. The Isle of BUTE, in Gaelic, signifying ' a bold furious head,' and so called from the rugged rocks on the southern extremity, while the island itself is comparatively flat, is higher up the Firth. It is about fifteen miles in length, and three in breadth, and contains 24,000 Scotch acres of ground. Rothsay gives the title of Duke to the heir-apparent of the Bri- tish Crown ; and was formerly the residence of some of the Scottish kings. The castle, a noble ruin, is still to be seen. Agriculture was even at a lower ebb in this island than in Arran, but it somewhat earlier began to emerge from its degraded state. The Marquis of Bute was induced, by the illness of his lady, to reside two years on the island. He had ocular demonstration of the lamentable condition of his estates, and of the county generally, and interest and patriotism induced him to endeavour to effect their improvement. He enclosed many of the farms. This was the first step, and without which everything else would have been of no avail. He introduced the system of draining, fallowing, liming, &c., and much good was effected ; but the attention of the Marquis being completely occupied at court, all was not accomplished that he wished ; and the island, although improved, continues to rank low in the scale of agricultural merit. The cattle were small. The farms were overstocked with them. There was little sown grass, and no green food for winter; and until the pastures were better covered than formerly, all attempts materially to increase the value of the breed would necessarily fail. With the advancement of agri- culture generally the cattle have increased in value, although they are still of a motley character ; and they are beginning to have considerably more of the Ayrshire breed in them than is to be found in Arran. 78 CATTLE. ARGYLKSH1RE. THE county of Argyle stretches along the western coast of Scotland for 115 miles, but its average breadth is little more than 30 miles. The southern part is low, and comparatively level, and the temperature is mild. The northern part is rugged and mountainous, and the climate cold and ungenial. In the northern part there is much barren land, and little good pasture; but in Cantire, at the south, there is plenty ot excellent feed for cattle; therefore the cattle differ materially in the northern and southern parts of the country. Among the mountains, the Highland breed is found almost unmixed ; in the level country, there is the same variety and mixture of breed which is observed in other dairy districts. Although' the system of sheep-husbandry has been introduced into Argyle, and is increasing there, yet, including every kind, there are sup- posed to be nearly 65,000 black cattle in the county. John Campbell, from Logwine, in Ayrshire, was the first who stocked a farm with sheep in Argyleshire, in the year 1760, in the united parishes of Lochgoil Head and Kilmorick. The country-people regarded him at first with an evil eye, but the superiority of sheep-husbandry is now acknowledged in all the mountainous districts of Scotland. The North Argyle cattle are larger than the Hebrideans, and are now bred to the full size which the soil, or the best qualities of the animal will bear. That fundamental principle of breeding is generally adopted here, that the size must be determined by the soil and the food; and that it is far more profitable to the farmer to have the size of his breed under, rather than over, the produce of his land. Both will gra- dually adapt themselves to the soil; but the small beast will become more bulky, and improve in all his points the large one will degenerate in form and in every good quality. Therefore, the soil and management of Argyle being, generally speaking, better than that of the Hebrides, it was found that a somewhat larger animal might be admitted ; he was, however, procured, not by crossing with a breed of superior size, but by careful selection from the best of the pure breed. Experience and judg- ment soon discovered when the proper point the profitable weight was gained ; and then the farmer went back to the equally pure, but smaller breed of Skye, lest the form should be deteriorated, and the fattening should not be so equable and true, and the meat should lose some of its beautiful character and flavour. There is no part of the Highlands where the soil and the climate are better adapted to the perfection of the breed than in Argyle, or where we oftener see the true characteristics of the best Highland cattle short, and somewhat strong in the shank, round in the body, straight in the back, well-haired, long in the muzzle, and with a well-turned and rather small horn. There is no district in which the farmer so superstitiously, and yet we will say properly, refrains from foreign admixture. Could the two great errors of the Highland farmer be remedied, but which are found even here namely, overstocking in the summer and starving in the winter there would be nothing more to desire, so far as the grazier is concerned, except, perhaps, docility of temper ; and that will be gradually acquired when further improvements in agriculture have rendered it unne- cessary for the beast to wander so far, and over so wild a country, in search of food, and when he will be earlier and more perfectly domesti- THE ARGYLESHIRE BREED. 79 cated. The Highlander, however, must be reared for the grazier alone Every attention to increase his weight, in order to make him capable of agricultural labour every effort to qualify him for the dairy, will not only lessen his hardiness of constitution and propensity to fatten, but will fail in rendering him valuable for the purpose at which the farmer foolishly aims. The character of the Highlander must still be, that he will pay better for his quantity of food than any other breed, and will fatten where any other breed would scarcely live. This is the grand secret of profitably breecfthg or grazing the Highland cattle. The management both of the cow and her calf depend much on the object which the breeder principally pursues. If he studies the character of his stock, he makes little butter and cheese, and generally rears a calf for every cow, giving it the greater part of her milk. A likely bull-calf is sometimes allowed the milk of two cows for a considerable time, and often for six months. When the calves are weaned, they are fed on the hills during the summer, and brought on the lower grounds in winter ; and if the pasture is not good, they are occasionally fed with straw and hay. It is after the first winter that the absurd and cruel system of over- stocking and starving commences. From the superiority of the soil, however, [this is not carried to the ruinous extent that it is in the Hebrides. In favourable situations, some farmers winter their calves in open sheds, where they are fed with hay in the racks. This makes them hardier, and does not cripple their growth. The following has been given as the expense of rearing a Highland stot in Argyleshire : To milk to the calf while sucking, 1| Scotch pints per day, at 2d. per pint . . . . 2 5 6 To expense of keeping the calf housed and fed on straw and hay during the first winter, 12s. but deducting 3s. for manure, there remains . ' .' ' 9 To pasture next summer on hill grass . " l \ '076 To keeping next winter on low grounds, and feeding in the fields with hay when necessary . 10 To pasture on hilly ground next summer, being then 2^ years old . . ? . .076 Deduct for risk of deaths i" - : . _.. 15 Interest of money ' *i? ' . .050 4 19 6 Supposing that they then sell for five guineas at first hand and the average price will not much exceed this the profit will be but 5s. 6d. This and the increased price of corn will sufficiently account for the gradual substitution of sheep for cattle on the greater part of the breeding country of Scotland. The Argyleshire farmer is sometimes wrong in breeding from a favourite cow too long. Although the Highlanders fatten rapidly for a certain time, and begin early to fatten where the pasturage will give them oppor- tunity to show it, they do not thrive so well when old. A cow ultimately destined for the drover should not be permitted to breed after six years- old. She may make fair meat for home consumption, but she will not fatten so quickly, or so truly, and on all her points ; and, in fact, the drover will seldom purchase her except at a very inferior price. L It is now also established as a principle among them, that the same 80 CATTLE. bull should not he used too long-. The hardiness of some of the cattle has been thought to be materially affected by it. The bulls are generally disposed of at six years-old, when they are in full vigour, and valuable for some distant herd. [The Ar gyle Or.] The native cattle in Cantire, or the south of Argyle, are of a thinner, lighter make, and not well haired : they are evidently of Highland extraction, but they show much crossing with Irish blood. They are better adapted for the pasturage which they find, and are fair milkers ; therefore the dairy was always more attended to than rearing in the district of Cantire. The Ayrshire cow has, however, nearly superseded the native breed, not only in Cantire, but through the whole of Argyleshire, for the purposes of the dairy. She is promising to spread as rapidly and as widely through the middle and northern parts of Scotland as the short- horn has done along the whole of the eastern part of England. A few Holderness cows were tried, but with doubtful success. The West High- land cattle are universally adopted for grazing farms, and the Ayrshire nearly as generally for the dairy. The butter is good, except that it is. often too salt; little, however, can be said in favour of the cheese. The manufacturer of the cheese is often more in fault than the milk or the pasture; for in Cantire he usually keeps his milk forty-eight hours, in order to separate all the cream, and before the expiration of that time it is quite impoverished and becoming sour; curds of different ages are also mixed together, and which will not amalgamate and form one uniform mass. Some Galloways are found in Argyle, and particularly in the southern part of the county ; but they are not equal to the native Highlanders. The latter have sometimes been crossed with the Galloways, to give increase of weight ; but the experiment has not succeeded : J.hey have neither fattened so quickly, nor so equably. INVERNESS BREED. 81 INVERNESS. THIS county will complete the Western Highlands, properly so called. Inverness stretches across the mainland from the little channel that divides it from Skye to the Murray Firth. The ferry of Kyle Rhea, on the north-western point of it, connects together the different districts inhabited by the Highland cattle; for all the -cattle from Skye and the outer Hebrides cross that ferry, not only in their way to Inverness and Arg-yle, but to all the southern markets. Six or seven thousand annually pass this little strait. They are not ferried in boats, as from the Long Island to Skye, but by means of ropes, about a yard in length, with a noose at each end, one of which is tied to the tail of the cow that is to swim before, and the other round the jaw and under the tongue of the next ; and the beasts are thus connected together until there is a string of six or eight. The time of high water is chosen, when, although the passage is wider, there is less current. The beasts are led into the water as quietly as possible until they are afloat, when they immediately cease to resist, then the man at the stern of the ferry-boat taking hold of the rope that holds the fore- most beasts, the vessel is rowed steadily across, and the cattle follow with- out a struggle. It is very rarely that one of them is lost. The cattle, at least in Lochaber, and along the western coast of Inver- ness, and on the borders of Ross, are essentially the same as those in the north of Argyle, and their treatment, with all its faults, the same. In the central parts of the county, however, the breed is mixed, and principally with the Galloway, or Fife, or Irish. On the borders of Murray there is still a different breed, the origin of which it is difficult to trace ; heavier than the Highlanders ; better milkers ; but not so profitable for the grazier. It is said that they were first bred of this superior size to make them heavy enough for the yoke, but at present the ox is never used either for the plough or on the road. So late, however, as the year 1791, the Rev. Mr. Smith, in his statistical account of the parish of Petty on the Moray Firth, says, that ' 1400 oxen were employed in that neighbourhood on husbandry work.' He adds, that 'they were of the light nimble Highland breed; and, when unfit for work, disposed of to the dealers in cattle for the English markets.' Few of them, however, were reared in Inverness, but were brought from the Highlands when young. The system of summer feeding, or ' going to shealings,' which we have described as occasionally followed in the Hebrides, used to prevail in Inverness ; but, as agriculture has improved, and sheep-feeding was introduced, these rights of pasturing on the distant wastes were let to shepherds, who live on them all the year.* Dr. Robertson, in his ' Survey of Inverness,' gives the following descrip- tion of ' the shealings :' ' After the crops had been sown, and the peats cut, the inhabitants removed annually, in the month of June, to their distant pastures, with all their cattle and families ; and there, in some snug spot, the best sheltered in all the range allotted to the cattle, they * It is mentioned in Sir John Sinclair's ' Statistical Account of Scotland,' where the parish of Laagan, in the mountainous country to the south-west of Inverness, is described, that the number of cattle had considerably decreased in that district ; ' people deeming it more profitable to reduce their stock of black cattle, and increase their stock of sheep. But the cattle that remain are very much improved. Twenty years ago (1770) a High- land stot was not worth more than 20/. Scots, whereas it will now sell for 3/. or 41. ster- ling ; and milch cows have risen in value from 3/. 10*. to 5/. or 6/. ' Black cattle, how- ever, may still be considered as the staple riches of Inverness, and on which principally the farmers depend to enable them to pay their rents. G 82 CATTLE. resided for a certain number of weeks, until the pasture became scarce. A trusty person was sent before them to drive away any wandering cattle that might have trespassed within the bounds that were to be preserved. The men returned occasionally to the farm or homestead, to collect the fuel, or hoe the potatoes, or weed the crop ; and, when the season for weeding the flax arrived, the women went home for that purpose. When the bounds are extensive they have frequently more than one of these stations, which are called ree or afee*, in the language of the country, and shealings in English. In such cases the guardian of the grass was sent forward to another shealing whenever the family arrived at that destined for their temporary residence. He was called the poindler, probably because he had public authority to poind (whence, pound), and confine the stray cattle, and to demand the fine established by law for the trespass. When these pastures were unusually rich, as at the head of a lake or by the sides of brooks in the valleys, the inhabitants of two or more farms associated together, and ate the grass of their shealings in common. This was the season of contentment and often of festivity. The women em- ployed themselves in spinning wool to clothe their families, and in making butter and cheese for part of their winter provisions t ; and the youths occupied themselves in fishing or athletic exercises ; and at evening the primitive custom of dancing on the green and singing Gaelic songs was not forgotten. The shealings lasted from one to two months or more, and when the pasture was all consumed they returned to their home- steads. J ' The Rev. Mr. M'Lean, in an Appendix to this Survey, has some remarks on these shealings, the importance of which has been acknow- ledged by the Inverness farmers, and the most valuable part of what he recommended has been adopted. He is speaking of the system of over- stocking generally, and even on these shealings. He says that, ' on every farm, an overstock is kept. If the cattle are brought through the winter, that is considered sufficient ; and after a severe winter they appear in a most miserable plight, and those of them intended for sale are seldom fit for the market before the end of the summer ;' and, he asks, ' is there not an evident loss here ? is there not more profit from one beast well, than from two poorly or indifferently kept ?' He, therefore, submitted to the Society of Agriculture 'to give premiums to those who shall have their whole stock of black cattle in the best order in the month of May, or who, in that month, shall have the beasts intended for sale in the best market- able condition. An emulation of this kind would prove an incitement to the cultivation of turnips and sown grass, as, without these, it is not easy * 7?ee is a Gaelic word, which signifies a deer-forest: these shealings, therefore, were the first encroachments made by the inhabitants and their cattle on the territories of the deer, after ^they had got full possession of the straths, or lower vallies. t Mr. Stewart, in his ' Highland Superstitions,' tells us that great virtue was once sup- posed to belong to some of this cheese, but the difficulty which attended the manufacture of it corresponded with its value. He says, ' you must go to the summit of some steep cliff or mountain, where ike feet of quadrupeds never trod, and gather that herb in the Gaelic language called " mohan," which can be pointed out by any " wise person." This herb you must give to the cow; and of the milk of the cow you are to make a cheese, and whoever eats of that cheese is for ever after perfectly secure from every species of fairy agency.' t The Rev - Mr. Bremmer, in his Statistical Account of Walls in the Orkneys, says of these shealings,' Their household furniture must be described negatively. No bed, able, no chair. These the Highlander does not reckon among the necessaries of life, as he can make the earth serve him for all the three. In his shealing, composed of earth and a tew sticks, you find no other furniture than a few dishes for his milk, and a bowl tU littT 1 : 8 UW! iU fdCt * US WeU a * iu I )hiloso P h y> " the maxim ; " nature is collteut THE INVERNESS BREED. p f to keep cattle in good order through the winter.' He also asks ' whether it would not be for the interest of the tenants not to keep a larger stock of black cattle than they could maintain without sending any part of it to the hill at any season of the year, and that the hill-grass should be applied exclusively to the maintenance of sheep ? ' Mr. M'Lean little thought how soon the sheep would be thus introduced, and how many 'flocks' would be fed ' on the Grampian hills,' to the improvement, and not the diminution and deterioration of the breed of cattle. If Inverness were no otherwise interesting to the agriculturist, it would have some importance in his estimation as the grand mart of the West Highland cattle. Not only all those from Skye and the outer Hebrides are sent there for sale, and many come from Argyle to the trysts of Inverness, whence they travel south again, but it contains within itself more than 42,000 head of cattle. These trysts are not fairs or markets appointed by public authority, but by concert among the dealers. The manner of conducting- them is very curious. When the drovers, from the south, or from the interior of Scotland, make their appearance in the Highlands, about the latter end of April pr the beginning of May, they give notice at the churches that, pn, a particular day, and at some central place in the district, they will be ready to purchase. The price is, like that of everything else, regulated by the demand, and of this the farmers can pnly judge by the number pf the drpvers or the intelligence which they have received from their correspondents in the south. Much address is used on both sides tP feel the pulse pf the market at these meetings, and perhaps many trysts are held befqre the price is finally determined. SpfflP appear to be resolved to guard themselves from imposition, for they sell their cattle conditionally, bargaining th&t if the prices rise within a limited, time they shall receive so much rn.pre ? and that if they fall the drover shall obtain a deduction. N This traffic is carried on, with little intermission, from May to October ; for from the system of winter starvation, too much pursued, comparatively few may be able to travel at first, or for a considerable time afterwards ; although the cattle that are ready fetch the best price, because they can be immediately put on the southern pastures. The practice of letting cattle for hire is not unfrequent in Inverness. The hirer is usually bound to furnish the owner with one calf, one stone (of twenty-two pounds) of butter, and two stones of cheese annually, or one calf and a variable sum of money according to the quality of the cattle, all expenses of keep being defrayed by the owner. This is a very unsatisfactory mode of conducting a farm ; and when the interests of the two parties are continually clashing, as they must with such an arrange- ment, there can be little cordiality on either side, and there will often be great injustice on both. THE NORTH HIGHLAND CATTLE. THESE occupy the whole of Scotland north of Inverness, including the counties of Ross, Sutherland and Caithness, and the Orkney and Shetland islands. The cattle were exceedingly different from those which we have described, more diminutive in size, and fifty years ago were deficient in many valuable points. The heads of the native breed were large and coarse, the backs high and narrow, the ribs flat, the chest small, the bones large, the legs long ; and, as a necessary consequence of all this, there was great difficulty in getting them fat at all, and they never fattened equably. This is easily explained by the consideration that the climate G 2 84 CATTLE. is cold, the country is an arable one, the distance from the market is great, and, therefore, the breeding of cattle had not always been a con- sideration of much importance to the farmer. This defect arid disgrace of the northern district was at length forced on the attention of the agriculturist, and, by crosses from various breeds, he has endeavoured to improve his stock both for the dairy, the grazier, and the plough : with what success he has laboured, a rapid survey of the northern counties will show. THE SHETLAND ISLANDS. [The Shetland Bull.] WE commence with the northernmost group of islands, situated nearly half-way between the coasts of Scotland and Norway. They consist of one chief island, nearly sixty miles in length, and ten or twelve in breadth, and a numerous group of diminutive ones scattered around, and particu- larly on the north. Jamieson, in his ' Mineralogy,' page 2, says that, ' on viewing these islands, a wonderful scene of rugged, black, and barren rocks presents ilself to our view. No tree or shrub appears to relieve the eye in wandering over these dreary scenes, and only gray rocks appear rising from the midst of marshes, and pools, and shores, bounded by the wildest precipices.' There are, in fact, few or no artificial grasses or green crops, or enclosures capable of protecting these crops, and grasses could not be brought to perfection in the open fields of these islands : there is nothing but moss, and heath, and sea-weed, yet there is a breed of horses, diminutive, indeed, but beautiful, and hardy, and strong ; and the cattle exhibit evident traces of the same origin with the West Highlanders. They have been diminished in size by the coldness of the climate and the scarcity of food ; but they have not been so seriously injured by the folly of men they have not been domesticated to be starved outright. They are small, gaunt, ill-shaped, so far, indeed, as their shape can be ascertained through the long thick hair with which they are covered, and which forms an impenetrable defence against the snow and the sleet. They are rarely more than four feet high at the withers, and sometimes scarcely more than thirty-five or forty pounds a quarter. THE SHETLAND BREED. 85 The Shetland cattle contrive to live on their native moors and wastes, and some of them fatten there ; for a considerable and increasing quan- tity of beef is salted in Shetland and sent to the mainland, the quality of which is exceedingly good. When, however, the Shetlanders are trans- ported to the comparatively richer pastures of the north of Scotland, they thrive with almost incredible rapidity, and their flesh and fat, being so newly and quickly laid on, is said to be peculiarly delicious and tender. They run to fifteen or sixteen, or even twenty stones in weight. If they are carried still farther south they rarely thrive ; they become sickly, and even poor, in the midst of abundance : the change is too great, and the consti- tution cannot become habituated to it. The Duke of Bedford and Mr. Wilmot Horton have given a fair trial to these Lilliputian cattle, and the result has not been satisfactory. The Shetland cows are housed every night, whether in winter or summer; and not having straw for litter, the defect is supplied by heath and peat-dust. The dung used to be suffered to accumulate in a strange manner. Instead of being daily carried out, it was spread over the byre, until the cattle could no longer find entrance between the floor and the roof. Then only it was of necessity removed. They yield a very small portion of milk, whether in their native country or elsewhere, but that which they do give is exceedingly rich. The Shetlanders have a curious way of extracting the butter from it. The milk is put into the churn as soon as procured, and in small farms two or three days elapse before the vessel is full. The process of churn- ing then commences ; and when the butter is about to separate from the whey some red-hot stones are thrown in, and the churning continued until the separation is complete, and the butter floats on the top. This is sometimes very carefully washed for home-consumption or for the market ; but when it is destined to constitute part of the rent (for a portion of that was,' not many years ago, demanded in kind) it was sadly dirty and badly tasted. The butter-milk is then boiled, and another portion of butter is separated, which is not so rich : this is chiefly reserved for home use. The remaining fluid, called bland, used to be, but is not so much now, the ordinary drink of the poorer Shetlanders. It is sometimes preserved until the winter, and is supposed to be very wholesome. A country so barren may be easily overstocked, and it is so to a certain degree, particularly since the introduction of sheep husbandry. A great many of the calves are therefore killed very early, and some even on the day that they are dropped. The calves that are reared are never allowed to suck their mothers, but are fed, at first, with milk, and afterwards with bland. ' This is poor food, but they are by this means early prepared for the privations to which they are afterwards exposed. The little Shetland oxen are still occasionally worked in the plough. Horses and oxen were formerly yoked abreast to the same plough ; but the oxen are gradually getting into disuse : indeed a great part of the island is too rocky for the plough, and is dug with the spade; and, sometimes, even at the present day, the spade husbandry is used where the plough might, be profitably introduced. Some of the smaller islands called ' The, Holmes,' and which are nearly or quite uninhabited, yield more succulent pasture ; and the cattle are occasionally sent there to prepare them for their migration to the south. They thrive rapidly on these little solitudes. When a statistical account of these islands was taken forty years ago, they contained 3000 cows, 1000 oxen, and 10,000 young cattle. They have, however, rapidly increased, for more than 44,000 now inhabit the Shetland and Orkney Islands. It gft CATTLE. is much (o be regretted that so numerous and valuable a breed should be so much neglected : but the fact is, that the Shetland isles are principally a fishing station. Their very appearance caused them to be selected for this purpose, and the profits occasionally resulting- from the fisheries to the heritors or proprietors, at least have made them, and the inhabitants of the Orkneys, comparatively careless as to the productions of the soil. THE ORKNEY ISLANDS. THE Orkney Islands, or ancient Orcades, lie much nearer the mainland, and are not so considerable as the Shetland Islands. The number of inhabited islands is twenty-nine, and there are thirty-nine smaller ones, called holmes, covered with constant herbage, and on which cattle and sheep are sometimes grazed. The climate is moist and variable, the sum- mers short, and rarely hot, the winters long, but not cold, the spring late, arid the ungenial weather often continuing until June. The cattle, which were formerly even smaller and more ill-shaped than the Shetlanders, have been considerably improved, for there is much good pasture in the Orkneys ; but there is necessity for greater improvement in the management of them ere they can become a very profitable stock. So late as 1795 ' all the cattle, except the milch-cows, were turned out to the hills and moors, where they made a shift to preserve life, but were stinted in their growth, and the queys were often five and six years old before they had a calf. When the cattle are thus turned out to their liberty,' the reporter says, ' he whose corn is unripe must cut it down, or expect to have it destroyed ; and when hunger and cold force home the half-starved cattle from the hill, the hill dykes are too weak to keep them out ; it is impossible either to poind these animals, or to prevent their incursions ; and they must be hunted with dogs to the mountains, perhaps after dozens of them have run through fields of standing corn.' Rev. J. Malcolm's Statistical Account of Stenness. The cattle are better milkers than the Shetlanders, and quite as good feeders. More oxen are used for agricultural labour, and they are de- cidedly better for this purpose than the Shetlanders ; yet, compared with the Western Highlanders, they are an inferior race. Their heads are low, their backs high, their buttocks thin, their bones prominent, their horns short, and bending towards the forehead*. * Mr. Morison, in his ' Statistical Account of the Parish of Baiting,' after saying that a small part of it only is under cultivation, gives a very curious account of the manner of ploughing. He says, that ' there are not more than six ploughs in the parish. The plough is made of a small crooked piece of wood, at the end of which is fixed a slender pliable piece of oak, that is fastened to the yoke laid across the necks of the oxen. The man who holds the plough walks by its side, and directs it with a stilt or handle fixed to the top of it. The driver, if so he can be called, goes, before the oxen, and pulls them on by a rope tied round their horns, and some people with spades follow the plough, to level the furrow and break the clods. ' A considerable number of cattle and sheep are sold to the Lerwick merchants, who kill them, and send them packed to Leith market: 700 milch cows are kept in the parish, beside oxen and young cattle. A great part of the land is let on butter-rent. Good I2d. land will let at sixteen merks of butter (about 20 Ibs.), and 24*. Scots (2s. English) per merk, equivalent to about three-fourths of an acre. The butter is generally compounded for at the average price. Beside this, 40^. is required from each family for services, (assisting in the reaping, hay -making, and various agricultural labours,) if they are not paid in kind ; and also a cock and a hen is demanded for every two merks of land.' These rehcs, however, of feudal tenure are now growing into disuse. At that time a good ox was worth 36/. (3/. sterling) Scots ; and a fat cow sold for 24/. (2/. sterling). The ox would W *M fro 1 . 300 to 400 cwt., and the cow from 170 to 250 Ibs. Mr. Morison says, that ' the situation of that parish, and of the Highlands generally, THE CAITHNESS BREED. 87 CAITHNESS. THIS is the northernmost county of Scotland, and the climate is cold and ungenial ; there is no high land on the north coast to break the force of the wind, which sets in during the greater part of the year from the north- west or the west. In that season of the year when vegetation is most rapid in other countries, namely, from the beginning of May to the middle of June, the north-west wind blows incessantly, and the growth of every- thing is completely checked. Three -fourths of the whole surface of the county is either a deep peat-moss, or lofty barren mountain covered only with peat-earth and heather. It will not then be wondered at that, not fifty years ago, the Caithness breed of cattle, although hardy, was the worst in all Scotland. The distance of this county from all the markets for cattle, discouraged any attempt at improving the breed, and the same improvi- dent system of overstocking which we have reprobated in the Highlands completed the evil*. Captain Henderson, the scientific as well as instruc- tive author of the ' Agricultural Survey of Caithness,' very expressively says that ' these animals were not fed, but merely kept alive by a little straw given them twice a day from the end of December until the hill- pasture would recover them in May and June ; and that being thus starved one-half of the year, they assumed a thin, lank shape t.' was most deplorable in the winter of 1784. The crop of oats failed in 1782. It was worse in 1783; and the winter of 1784 was a long and severe one. Many cattle died of absolute starvation. A mortality broke out, and destroyed many more ; 427 were lost in that parish. Oats rose to 45s. per boll. The most substantial farmers fared badly ; the poorer ones lived on welks, and limpets, and such other fish as the sea-shore afforded.' Sir John Sinclair's Statistical Account of Scotland. * The Rev. Mr. Cameron, in his Statistical Account of Halkirk, in this county, has some appropriate remarks on this point : ' I am persuaded that the number (of black cattle) reared is near one-third more than it ought to have been, or the parish can well maintain. This is the cause why our cows do not usually yield so much milk as might be expected why the cattle are in general poorer, and of less size than they might have been, and consequently fetch such low prices in the market. What is their motive for this unfrugal and mistaken plan ? Because the commerce in that cattle is their principal dependence ; and they calculate their stock according to their number, and not according to their quality. Besides, having no other way to answer Martinmas demands, they pinch their families in the necessary food arising from these animals, from an overweaning expectation, and the mistaken idea, that if they have plenty of calves they will be able to answer these demands, which hang a mighty terror over their heads every year. Thus it happens that they themselves and their cattle are half-starved, and their ill-founded expectations often frustrated. Whereas, had they adopted another plan, and kept an adequate number of cattle only, their families would be better supported, their cattle better in quality and value, and the demands of the landlord more readily answered.' t The Rev. Mr. Taylor, in his Statistical Account of Watlin, in this county, in 1794, very strongly and properly reprobates the system of cattle-management in Caithness. He says, ' From our remote situation and little intercourse with other countries, we have hitherto been neglected, if not despised. Of late, strangers have begun to creep in among us, but there are local practices and local prejudices among us which require to be laid aside before great improvement can take place, or strangers reside with real comfort to themselves. From time immemorial it had been the practice here, for cattle of all kinds to travel and feed promiscuously, without distinction of property, from the day the last sheaf was put into the farm-yard till the conclusion of the bean seed, in the end of May, or the beginning of June. The prejudice of this practice to land in general, and to arable land in particular, is sufficiently evident. The active, enterprising farmer can never avail himself of all the advantages to be derived from his possession, unless he is at liberty to use and lay it out as he pleases. He can never benefit himself either by fallow or green crops, so long as cattle of every kind his neighbours, as well as his own are at freedom, for eight months nearly out of the twelve, to traverse his fields, day and night, wet and dry. Such a custom may, and no doubt does profit the sluggard. His cattle are half main- tained at the expense of his neighbours ; but men of this description ought not to be supported at the expense of the willing, industrious farmers. His spirited endeavours, to 88 CATTLE. Caithness affords a splendid example of what one scientific and zealous man is capable of effecting. Sir John Sinclair had large property in Caithness : he observed and lamented, and materially suffered by this wretched state of the cattle, and thought of many plans for their improve- ment. He first tried what he could do by crossing the native breed. The chest was small, and the ribs flat, and the back thin ; there was not room for the heart to beat, nor the lungs to play. He first thought of the deep chest, and broad loins, and barrelled carcase of the Galloway. Here seemed to be the very points in which the Caithness breed was most defi- cient, and in which it was of most importance to improve them ; and there- fore he crossed the Caithness cow with the Galloway bull. But he had not sufficiently thought that although he might bring the rounded form, and larger size of the Galloway bull, he could not bring the mild climate and the fine herbage of Galloway ; and experience taught him the truth of the axiom, that the breed must be suited to the climate, or it will not thrive. He improved the size of the Caithness cattle : they were better for the yoke, but they did not fatten so kindly, and their milking proper- ties were even deteriorated. He then bethought him of the West Highlanders, a kindred race, even though his own were so degenerated ; the inhabitants likewise of a cold and variable climate; thriving there, and possessing also those admirable points in which the Caithness were so deficient. The experiment suc- ceeded. On a lowland farm, the Skye cattle grew to a size with which none of the Caithness breed could compare, and they lost not one point of excellence. On a highland farm they were somewhat inferior in size ; but they throve even more rapidly than the others ; they made beef of the most excellent quality, and they well paid the farmer for their keep. Then the Caithness cattle were crossed by the West Highlanders; and at every cross they were improved ; and when they had become almost entirely Skye or Argyle blood, they were best of all. The Argyle cattle were preferred for the lowlands, the Skye for the higher and rougher country ; and very considerable improvement was effected with regard both to the breeding and the grazing of cattle. The only cause of regret was the distance of the markets, yet the growing excellence of the cattle paid for the length of the journey. After this, Sir John Sinclair gradually discarded the Galloway even from the plough ; and from the Skye, and more particularly from the Argyle breed, he got as quick, and honest, and hardy workers, and pro- fitable fatteners, as he could reasonably desire ; and Caithness will not now yield to the neighbouring counties of Sutherland or Ross in the form or value of her cattle. The peculiarity of the climate of Caithness, and the want of food even to the middle of June, were great obstacles to improvement; to which may be added the same miscalculating avarice which induced the breeders here, as in other counties, to overstock their farms. The want of spring food, however, was, in some measure, supplied by the introduction of the rye- grass, which will start early, and in the coldest weather, and afford a bite at least, if not be ready to cut, when nothing else is to be had : and when turnip-feeding was added to this, the improvement of the cattle, and the profit of the farmer became greater ; for the beast which had been turnip- fed in the winter, and got rye-grass in the spring, was ready for the provide or himself, and serve the public, ought not to be rendered abortive merely to gratify the indolence of the sloven, who, rather than exert himself in constant acts of industry, is content to live iu a hovel, to be clothed in racs, and to feed upon bread and water.' THE CAITHNESS BREED. 89 market a full year before he otherwise would have been. This improved mode of feeding was, however, in the hands of few, and the majority of the cattle were straw-fed in the winter, and had mere common pasturage in the summer ; yet even they did well when not overstocked, and yielded a reasonable remuneration to the farmer. A few beasts are fed for home consumption ; but they are generally old cows and oxen which the drovers refuse to purchase : yet at nine, ten, and eleven years old, they will fatten speedily enough, and make good beef. Some are grass-fed in the spring and summer ; and the early rye-grass is particularly valuable here. Others are stall-fed, and at the close of the autumn, this is accomplished quickly and without difficulty. Turnips with oat-straw are given at first, and the beasts are finished off with bruised oats and beans, which are said to give firmness to the flesh. The common cattle do not now fare so badly in Caithness as in some other counties. There is more arable ground here than is found farther south ; and although the beasts often wander over the commons during the day, they get straw, and, sometimes, turnips in the morning and evening. In the highland part of the county the attention of the farmer, so far as cattle are concerned, is principally devoted to the rearing of them. That, in fact, is the primitive, although not always the most profitable, business of the Highlander; but in the lower part of the country the care of the dairy is added, or the land is principally cultivated for the dairy. Here a different breed of cows is necessary. It is needless to repeat that the Highland cattle, excellent as they are for grazing, will yield no remu- nerating profit as milkers. Sir John Sinclair first endeavoured to cross the native cattle with the Buchan breed. These were the nearest, and they were excellent dairy cows in their own peculiar district. To a certain extent they answered, but the quantity was not increased so much as had been expected, and the grazing qualities were a little impaired. He next tried the Dunlop or Ayrshire bull. The Caithness became a better milker ; but there was something in the character of the Highland beast that would not amalgamate with the lowland dairy blood, for even when on its native ground, it lost much of its propensity to speedy fatten- ing. Many of the pure Ayrshire cows were therefore used in the dairies of Caithness, and they still maintain their ground, either pore, or gradu- ally working upon the milking unthriftiness of the Highlander. The dairy is often managed here in the same unsatisfactory manner as in other places more to the south. The farmer provides cattle and pasturage, but he has nothing to do with the manufacture of the produce ; he bar- gains with some dairy-woman to deliver to him annually a calf for every two cows, and forty or fifty pounds of butter, and the same quantity of cheese for each cow, the value of which may be nearly bl. ; but others, and more satisfactorily, and profitably too, take upon themselves the whole management of their property. The, dairy has much improved in Caith- ness ; but, on account of its situation and soil, it must always be very inferior to that in the southernmost counties of Scotland. Many of the Orkney cows are used by the small farmers, and for a cottager's cow there are few better. Including the cattle both for the dairy and grazing, Caithness contains about 15,000. Three thousand of these are annually sold to the drovers, who make their appearance in this county, and begin to hold their trysts, about the latter end of April. The first regular market for the sale of the north-country cattle is at Amulrie on the first Wednesday in May : to this succeeds Cockhill on the 16th, and then Falkirk, Broughill, and Newcastle. The slots are usually three years and a half when first offered 90 CATTLE. for sale, and then weigh about twenty stones : when fattened, they will double that weight if of the improved breed ; but the old Caithness cattle will seldom weigh more than twenty-five stones, when in the best condi- tion. The price of these stots varies with the demand, and the season, and the breed. The old Caithness will frequently not sell for more than 31. ; the best Highlanders have brought Si. or 9/. per head. The journey from Caithness to Carlisle occupies from twenty-eight to thirty-two days ; they are usually taken in droves of about 250, and the expense is nearly 7s. 6d. per head. Oxen are yet used in Caithness for husbandry work. The native breed has neither sufficient substance nor spirit ; the Galloways are heavier but slow, and do not thrive well in Caithness, and, on the whole, the Highlanders are the best working oxen. A pair of oxen are generally used in the cart. Four were often driven abreast in the plough, the driver curiously walking backward between the central oxen*. A small farmer, now and then, harnesses two ponies with a pair of oxen. The heavier southern cattle have had a fair trial, and are nearly abandoned ; and hus- bandry work, even with the West Highland oxen, is not performed so much as it used to be. The oxen are broken-in at three years' old ; at five they are in their prime, and they are worked until eight or ten years ; when they are sometimes sold to the drovers in travelling condition, but ofterier fat- tened at home. Their food in winter is straw, or chaff, and occasionally a few turnips ; in summer they have hay, but no corn, except the larger oxen ; and when they are not at work, they pasture with the milch cows. It may be supposed that in so ungenial a climate as that of Caithness the cattle are subject to many distempers. The sudden variation of tem- perature and of food, and the change from starvation to comparative plenty when vegetation does at length, and with strange rapidity, proceed in the latter part of the spring, are the causes of some of the most fre- quent and fatal diseases. Among the rest is inflammatory fever, kno.wn in its various stages by the names of black quarter and hasty. Supersti- tion is still prevalent enough in all parts of the Highlands, but nowhere more so than in Caithness. Captain Henderson gives some strange ac- counts of the treatment of these diseases in a country where the name of a veterinary surgeon is almost unknown. He says that 'in former times, when a beast was seized with the black quarter it was taken to a house where no cattle were ever after to enter, and there the heart was torn out while the animal was alive, and hung up in the house or byre where the farmer kept his cattle, and while it was there, none of his cattle would again be seized with that distemper.' When the murrain appeared the farmer would send for a charm-doctor to superintend the raising of a need-fire. A circular booth was erected upon some small island in the nearest river, or burn; and in the centre of it a straight pole was fixed, extending from the roof to the ground. Another pole was set across horizontally, with four short arms or levers in * The Rev. Mr. Jolly, in his Statistical Account of Dunnot (1794), explains this : ' The tenant's ploughs are generally drawn by four oxen or horses yoked abreast. That practice appears ridiculous to strangers, but a better acquaintance with the people's cir- cumstances would lead to a more favourable opinion. The cattle are very small and ill-fed, and hence their strength is not sufficient for drawing a plough, if they were yoked in any manner where part might have an opportunity of throwing the whole burden occasionally on the rest. This practice, however, is attended with the inconvenience, that one of the cattle must walk on the ploughed ground ; of this some are beginning to be sensible, and are substituting three cattle abreast, endeavouring to get those of a better quality.' The ploughman used to walk backward, or with his face to the plough, because he could thus better observe whether the strength of the team was fairly and equally exerted. THE SUTHERLAND BREED. 91 its centre to work it rapidly round, and the ends were tapered. One end was exactly fitted into a hole in the perpendicular timber, and the other into some side support. All the neighbours were then collected ; they carefully divested themselves of all metal not even a button was left on any part of their clothes and they set heartily to work, two by two, turn- ing the end of the horizontal timber in the hole of the central and upright one, and rapidly relieving each other as they became tired, until by the violence of the friction, and assisted now and then by a little gunpowder and tinder, the wood began to blaze. This was the need-fire. Every fire in the farmer's house was immediately quenched, and others kindled from this need-fire: all the cattle were then driven in, and made to pass through the smoke of this new and sacred conflagration, and the plague was at once stayed. Old traditions say that the Druids used to superintend the kindling of a similar fire on the 1st of May. That day is still called in the Gaelic la-Beal-tin, i. e. the day of Baal's fire. A remnant of this superstition still exists among those who lag a little behind in the march of improvement, and they are not a few. When a beast is seized with the murrain a few pieces of sooty divots (turf) are taken from a thatched roof (we have said that in some of the poor cottages there is no chimney) and put into a metal pot with a coal of fire, so that a strong sooty smoke ascends. The patient is then brought, and its nostrils are forcibly held in the smoke for a quarter of an hour. Then some ale with plaintain root is given, and the beast is cured. Some interesting resem- blances to old customs in other parts of the world, and far earlier times, are evident. SUTHERLAND. SUTHERLAND and Caithness form the northern extremity of Scotland, the western coast of which is occupied by Sutherland. The western and northern coasts are bleak and stormy enough, and the mountains, of im- mense height, have not even a stalk of heath on their barren surfaces ; but the south-eastern part of the country is more sheltered, and not a great deal colder, although rather more backward than some of the midland counties of Scotland. The soil is as various as the climate. There are few or no artificial grasses, and the only natural meadows are the valleys formed by the rivers and burns ; on them some cattle are fed, but on the higher ground, in Sutherland and Ross, and the eastern and central Highlands, the black cattle have given way to sheep. Although four times as large as Caith- ness, this county does not contain twice the number of cattle. It has never been calculated to possess more than 25,000, and, probably, there are not now more than two-thirds of that number. The statistical accounts of the numbers of horses, cattle, and sheep in Sutherland, in 1798 and 1808, will afford a convincing proof of the decrease of horses, cattle, and goats, and the wonderful increase of the sheep : Horses. Cattle. Goats. Sheep. 1798 . . 7736. . . 24,287 , . . 6227 . . 37,130 1808 4291 . . 17,333 ... 1128 . . 94,570 Decrease 3445 Decrease 6954 Decrease 5099 Increase 57,440 If the value of each were the same at both times, we should find that 20,6702. less capital was employed in horses, 32,5022. less in cattle, 15322. less in goats, and 34,806. more in sheep. But the manifest improvement 92 CATTLE. in the breed of cattle would materially diminish this apparent difference. How far this may be ultimately advantageous is a question which belongs more to political economy than to a treatise on that part of agriculture which is connected with cattle, and for which we are otherwise not quite prepared, since we have not yet inquired into the nature of the cultivation, and the comparative value of sheep. It cannot be denied that the sheep is the more useful animal that, in the aggregate, he is reared and kept at the least expense that the value of the land and the rent of the farm are also enhanced and that there are millions of acres that may be appropriated to the feeding of sheep, and especially in the rugged and barren parts of the country, which are now in a manner useless. There is one objection, it must be confessed, to the exclusive cultivation of sheep^ any where, and that is the incompatibility between it and a numerous and increasing population. They are things which cannot exist together, and especially not in a mountainous district, like the Highlands, or like Scotland gene- rally. If a quantity of food is raised, sufficient to maintain the same number of inhabitants as before, the same number of hands are not required to procure it. Towns will be multiplied and filled, but the pea- santry must be driven from the country, and their character and their occupation must be changed : this will be a work of time it cannot be accomplished in one generation and the starving cottagers and the small farmers (for they must give way where sheep husbandry is introduced) have no resource but to emigrate to foreign climes. All this is worth con- sideration as a general principle, and also as applicable to particular districts. Entering now, however, on that part of the Highlands where this new system has been adopted, we are, in a manner, compelled to draw some more detailed comparison between the old and the new way of occupying the land. We will suppose that the proprietor of a consider- able district is taking a survey of his property, the produce and the rent, the improvement or deterioration of his land, the character and the degree of happiness of its occupants. What we have already said of the West Highlands, and of Caithness, will prepare us for the result of his inquiry. He traverses some of the romantic Highland glens, and he finds them thickly studded with miserable huts, the occupants of which rent from him little patches of land, for which they nominally pay him an exceedingly trifling sum of money. Each farm, if so it may be called, consists of a strip of land on the side of the glen, and a larger portion on the hill above. Some of the glen division is attempted to be cultivated to raise a little corn for the winter support of the family. This rarely succeeds ; for the torrent pours down and destroys the greater part of the crop long before it is ready for the harvest : and the farmer has seldom sufficient remaining for the support of his family during the winter, and that a long one in such a climate. But he has his black cattle and his goats, and for the short summer months he can send them to the hills, and there, at the shealings, they get fat, and he is happy. The summer rapidly passes over, the herbage on the hills is all con- sumed, and he and his cattle return to the glen. The grass had in the mean time grown there ; it had ripened for hay ; some of the family had been sent to mow it, and he has a little stock awaiting his return. It is a little one, and barely sufficient for his cows and his calves. His growing cattle have nothing but the straw of his half-destroyed oat crop, on which they are to starve during the winter and starve many of them literally do while the rest are mere walking skeletons, and, for a while, compara- tively worthless. THE SUTHERLAND BREED. 93 What becomes of the rent ? why it is paid when the tenant can pay it, but that is not regularly, and often not at all : on the contrary, the land- lord has to supply his tenant with necessaries, and to half-maintain him during; a great part of the year ; and his land is all this while becoming impoverished, worn out, and valueless. This was the actual state of things. How was it to be remedied ? Why, only by the introduction of a new system of husbandry ; by intro- ducing stock of another kind, which would longer feed on the upland pasture, which, with some help, would feed there all the year round; and, by leaving the greater part of the lower ground for the feeding of the milch cattle, for the growing of corn, 'and for the preparation of winter food ; and which would be ready and in its prime when it was most wanted : in short, if not entirely to substitute sheep for cattle, yet to make them the principal objects of the farmer's care. Would the Highlander consent to this ? would he give up his shealings, the joyous time of his miserable year ? would he abandon those customs and modes of management which had been practised by his forefathers time out of mind ? Never ! Then it was necessary to introduce a new race of men to accomplish this ; and that was attempted, in despite of the prejudices, and violent opposition of the people. The new settlers were at first maltreated : the inhabitants gathered from every part ; they broke down the fences ; they got together thousands of the new sheep ; some they forced into the lakes and drowned, and the rest they drove triumphantly to the edge of the county, there to be delivered over to the mob of the next district, until they were expelled from the Highlands, or had perished by the way. The laws of the country were successfully appealed to; the violence of the mob was suppressed; and the new system was left to feel its own way, and to stand or fall as it might deserve. It has weathered the storm, and is now the established system of hus- bandry in most of the Highland districts. Sheep now cover the hills on which the half-starved stot and goat formerly wandered. The deer-forests, which had not then been intruded upon, which were perfect deserts, have been brought under a certain degree of cultivation ; the mountains, which were depastured for a few months and left waste for the rest of the year, are now grazed all the year round ; and the low land, freed from that which impoverished it, and which it could not support, yields plentifully for man and beast The cattle, far from being banished, are somewhat reduced in num- ber improved in quality fatter, and happier fully equal to the demand far more profitable to the breeder, and only confined to those pastures on which sheep could not be safely fed. The population is certainly not so numerous, but it is of a different character, more intelligent, more indus- trious, more respectable, more useful ; and the remainder have either sought employment in the south, or emigrated to America or some of the British colonies. The value and the rent of the land is trebled quadru- pled ; and the tenant can pay it, which he could not before : while, in a national point of view, the addition of food, the increased value of stock, and the unprecedented supply of the raw material for one of our most im- portant manufactures, are circumstances of immense importance. Having taken this cursory view of the change in the system of agricul- ture, as it regards cattle, we can proceed more rapidly. The native breed of Sutherland is much smaller than that of Caithness, but far more valuable, and requiring only to be crossed by those from Argyle and Skye, to be equal to any that the northern Highlands can produce. It is much to be lamented that the Argyleshire cattle, in the 94 CATTLE. possession of the Marquis of Stafford, at Dunrobin, have not been more employed in improving the breed of the surrounding districts. The best cattle are to be found in the neighbourhood of Dunrobin and Skibo, on the eastern coast ; and most of them are the pure Argyle or Skyes, or crosses between the Sutherland cow and the West Highland bull. At Skibo, in particular, a small breed is carefully preserved, % which is much sought after for its superior propensity to fatten ; and although 'they do not often weigh more than fifteen stones, their flesh is little inferior to venison. Some of the Skibo cattle have been raised, in southern pastures, to more than treble that weight. Assynt, on the south-western coast, is celebrated for its cattle, of the pure West Highland breed, or, if occasionally with one cross of the native Sutherlands, not injured by that mixture. They are not larger than the Skye cattle ; but they are hardier, short-legged, and well shaped. A great many other breeds have been tried, as the Galloways, the Fifes, the Banffs, and the improved Leicesters; but none of them have answered so well as the West Highlanders, or crosses between them and the natives. Some of the little islands on the coast afford very good winter-pasture for the cattle. Oldney contains some valuable pasturage of this kind, which is strictly preserved during the harvest, and on which the cattle are turned some time in November, and gradually taken out to be housed in the beginning of spring, or when they may appear to need provender. Some of the cattle, however, are lost every year by attempting to climb to little plots of grass among the rocks, with which the coasts of the islands abound. Very few cattle are fattened, but only got into good travelling condition for the drover. The four-year-old improved stots will probably weigh 36 or 40 stones ; the country cattle not more than from 18 to 30 stones. The manner of feeding is the same as in Caithness, and the shealings used to be of the same kind. The sheep now have left but little upland feed for this primitive pastoral life. In the winter most of the cattle are housed at night, and fed with straw, and turned out into the fields during the day ; and, on the whole, although the system of stocking_is much to be complained of, the cattle are not subject to all the hardships which are so injurious to them in Caithness. When, however, it is consi- dered that in many parts of Sutherland the cattle are not merely in the next room to the owner, but actually enjoy the fire in common with the family; and then, in the morning, however cold or wet that may be, they are driven out to wander in the fields, it does not admit of much doubt that they must be seriously injured by the sudden transition. In the neighbourhood of Dunrobin, they are not housed at all, not even the calves after they have been weaned, nor the cows except at calving time. Mr. Sellar gives the following account of the management of cattle on the northern coast of Sutherland (Farmer's Series Farm Reports, p. 75) : ' The grazing cattle are all bought in from the people who are settled round the shores of Sutherland, in small lots of land, for the prosecution of the herring-fishing. These people have one, two, or three cows each: they sell the calves at from nine months to a year old. The tillage farmer buys them, and prepares them to travel south. He purchases them in April, puts them, during summer, on his superabundance of deer-hair, transfers them, in August, to certain coarse rushy loams, where coarse grass grows ; brings them to his courtincs to eat straw in winter, and finishes them off' for the road during next summer in the inclosures above-mentioned. With some little assistance from the field appropriated to the horses, the four fields summer, on an average, one beast and a half per acre. It is the THE ROSS AND CROMARTY BREED. 95 practice to fill up two fields with three cattle per acre, and to shift them once a fortnight.' The sales for the southern market take place in July, August, and September, and the fields are then cleared, in order to pre- pare them for sowing wheat. The dairy is a minor consideration with the Sutherland farmer ; and he only manufactures butter and cheese enough for his own consumption. The quantity produced will not exceed 70 Ibs. of butter per year, and the same quantity of cheese from each cow, and one calf reared between two cow.s. This is a small quantity compared with what some of the southern cows yield ; yet it is not often that the Sutherland dairyman gets so much as this. There is the same superstition among the peasantry as in the other Highland counties ; and when sometimes, as will naturally occur in so barren a country, and under such absurd and injurious management, the cow yields little milk, or becomes suddenly dry, Mr. Pennant, in his ' Second Tour to Scotland,' tells us, that ' when the good housewife perceives the effects of the malicious one on any of her kine, she takes as much milk as she can drain from the enchanted herd; for the witch gene- rally leaves her very little. She then boils it with certain herbs, and adds to them flints and tempered steel. This puts the witch in such agony, that she comes nilling-willing to the door, and begs to be admitted to obtain relief, by touching the powerful pot : the good woman makes her own terms; the witch restores the milk to the cattle, and is, in return, freed from her pains.' Oxen are employed to a considerable extent on the coast of Sutherland for road-work, and for the plough on many of the farms in the interior ; but they are getting somewhat out of use : they are never shod. ROS3 AND CHOMAKTY. THESE were originally distinct counties ; but Cromarty was so small, and the additions that were made to it were in such detached portions, and so scattered over Ross, that it is now, for the sake of convenience, and almost of necessity, considered as amalgamated with Ross, and the two constituting but one county. The climate, like that of most of the Highland counties, is moist, but considerably warmer than that of Caith- ness or Sutherland. The meadow-ground is of small extent, and usually reserved for winter-feed for the cattle, and comparatively little of the arable land is laid down for permanent pasture. The eastern part of Ross and some portions of Cromarty contain excellent soil ; and not only the wheat but the turnip husbandry is carried on extensively and successfully. The system is more connected with sheep-feeding than with either the breeding or rearing of cattle. For many excellent observations on the character and management of the Ross cattle, we are indebted to Sir George Stewart Mackenzie's able survey of that county and Cromarty. It is a model of what agricultural surveys ought to be. Ross may be divided into the low and high country : the former occu- pies the eastern coast and district, and the latter the western part of the county. The cattle which are kept in the lowlands are principally for the dairy, and they are a mixed breed. There are many pure West High- landers, but not so small as the common breed of cattle in the counties far- ther north, but there are more of the native cattle, with various degrees of crossing ; and others have the Fife and the Moray, and crosses of every kind with them. The dairy, however, is not attended to for profit here j 96 CATTLE. but the farmer must have milk and butter and cheese, and he must also have cattle to eat down the grass where he does not dare to turn on his sheep. The Leicesters have been tried, but they did not answer for breeding 1 or for the dairy. There is a singular practice prevailing in Ross. On some parts of the sea-coast the cheeses are buried separately within the high-water-mark for several days, in order to give them a blue colour, and a rich taste. On the western coast the pure West Highlanders prevail, and this is de- cidedly a breeding district. Next to the pure West Highlanders, is a cross between them and the small, well-haired, hardy cattle of the country. The best cow for the dairy is here supposed to be produced from that of upper Fife, crossed with the true Highland bull : she will generally yield four gallons of milk per day, is easily fattened, and will weigh from 120 to 140 Ibs. per quarter. They are a middle-sized, strong, compact, hardy race, well suited to the general means and climate of the country; but they are very apt to degenerate, and, after the third or fourth generation, will often be little better than the common country cattle. The cattle of Kintail, called, on this account, Kintailno Bogh, Kintail of cows, are celebrated all over the Highlands. Some say that they are the progenitors of the Argyle breed ; but we are more inclined to trace them to the Skye cattle, to which they bear great resemblance, and, like them, they are smaller than the Argyles. Their distinguishing and favourable points are, short legs, a thick pile, and weight in proportion to their apparent size. In the neighbourhood of Kilmure there used to be a peculiar breed of cattle, the result of a cross between the Fife or Aberdeen and the Highlander, and a cross that added to the size and value of the beast. Before cattle became so valuable in this district it was customary, as in some other parts of the Highlands, to allow one calf to suck two cows. The foster-mother was easily reconciled to it after it had been covered a few times with the skin of her own that had been slaughtered ; but now each cow rears her calf. The young ones are suffered to suck for four, five, or six months, according to the time at which they were dropped, a part of the milk being previously drawn for the dairy ; but the cow will take care that too much shall not go, for, after the dairy-maid has wrung the last drop she can extract, the mother has retained more than enough for her offspring. The latest of them are weaned in the early part of November; and all are then sent, to the best pasture until the winter begins thoroughly to set in ; when they are housed, and fed, as the farm will afford, on oat-straw and hay, to which turnips or potatoes, and particularly the former, are occasionally added. On the following spring they are sent to hill-pasture ; and in the winter are brought home to the grounds which had been occupied by the milch-cows, and are fed, if necessary, with straw and hay. Thence, in the spring, they are removed to the coarser grass of the farm, and still occasionally fed, if needful ; and on the approach of the third winter they once more follow the cows in the reserved and best winter pasture of the farm. The overstocking of the farm, although now sometimes to be com- plained of, is not carried to the ruinous extent to which it used to be ; and if the farmer has fewer cattle for the drover, they bring him more money : they are at once fit for travelling, and he has escaped the serious losses which used to annoy and cripple his predecessors. The cattle are usually sold at three and a half and four years, and drovers come from Perth, and Sterling, and DumbartO^, at the latter end of March, to purchase them. The trysts and markets continue here until September, when the cows come into request. So much business, how- THE ROSS-SHIRE BREED. . 97 ever, is not done at these public meetings as in some other counties ; but the drovers go from farm to farm, and the sale is effected privately. Mr. Baigrie, who wrote the account of Ross-shire in No. 18 of the Farmer's Series, informs us that the first regular market for the sale of the north country cattle is the ' Stafford Market,' which is held at Clashmore, in Sutherlandshire, on the Monday after the first Wednesday in May. The second is held on the Tuesday following at Kildary in Ross-shire, and the third at the Muir of Ord, on the confines of Inverness and Ross-shire, being the first of the series of great cattle-markets held monthly at the latter place during the season. The cattle from all these early markets proceed to Cockhill. The weight of the stot from three to five years old may be averaged at 70 or 80 Ibs. per quarter, but he will fatten to HOlbs. The cow, when lean, will weigh from 60 to 70 Ibs. per quarter, and will likewise fatten to 100 Ibs. Very few beasts are fattened in any part of Ross ; and the few that are so consist of old oxen or cows, and principally for the supply of Inverness and Fort St. George. For home consumption the West Highlanders are preferred ; but the spare turnips are mostly used in bringing forward young cattle. Oxen were formerly more used for husbandry in the eastern part of the county than they are at present. They were not reared in Ross, but purchased at the different fairs in this county, or in Sutherland. After some years' work they were generally sold to the grazier or the butcher at a higher price than that at which they were bought. Where oxen are now used generally there are four to a plough, or four oxen and two horses. On a stiff and stony ground six oxen were occasionally used. The four oxen cannot well go without a driver, but it is sometimes attempted. The pair used for the harrow, on very light land, do not require a driver. Curious stories were formerly told of the medley of horses and oxen and cows harnessed to the ploughs of the small fanner. Oxen are rarely used on the road. * * Since this sketch of Ross-shire was sent to the press, we have been favoured with a valuable account of the cattle of this district and their management, by Mr. Mackenzie of Millbank, near Dingwall. It strongly corroborates our main points; but at the same time giving a different illustration of a lew particulars, we deem it right to present it to our readers. ' Although it is difficult to trace the history or true pedigree of the old Ross-shire breed of cattle, the various accounts that are handed down regarding it shew that it has long existed as a separate and distinct one. The breed taken collectively, or as it may be termed the north Highland breed, is exceedingly hardy and of very compact form. It is compara- tively light in form, but the bone is fine, and the carcase is deep and lengthy, it is round in the barrel, straight in the houghs and back, with a pile stronger and more closely laid than that of almost any other breed. The head is generally light, with broad forehead, short shaggy ears, and well-turned horns ; and they are of all colours, but black and brindled predominate, and are the favourites, as indicating most constitution. ' No description of cattle answers the soil and climate of Ress-shire so well as the original north Highlanders; but as a considerable part of the county is very highly cultivated, pro- ducing every variety of feeding, and fit for the reception of any kind of stock, several crosses have been introduced, and some with advantage. Of these, a cross with the Aber- deenshire horned cattle has produced very superior stock, both in point of symmetry and weight, and for the use of the dairy. For the latter purpose, a cross with the Ayrshire is often made; but that is found advantageous only in situations where there is great pro- fusion of grass and turnips in their season ; and the stock produced from it is coarse, and not in demand either for feeding or driving. That which is most successfully followed by the extensive breeders of the county, is a cross from the Argyleshire Highlander, which is of greater weight and size than the cattle of the north ; but in availing themselves of this cross, the Ross-shire breeders are always anxious to preserve as much as possible of their own stamp, because it is more hardy, more suited to their pastures generally, and in H 93 CATTLE. THE NORTH-EASTERN DISTRICT. THIS district extends along the eastern coast from Murray Firth to the Firth of Forth, and there is a general resemblance between the cattle in more general demand for driving to the south. There are a few graziers in Ross and In- verness-shire who cross their cattle with superior bulls from the west Highlands of Perth- shire, which is found to answer equally as well as, if not better than, any other yet intro- duced in that part of the country. 'The Ross-shire cattle, as already described, are decidedly more adapted for the grazing than the dairy system. The cows, particularly those pastured on 'hilly grounds, outfield or meadow, are not famed for the quantity of their milk, although it is extremely rich in quality ; and as there are comparatively but few cattle-farms now in the county, dairy produce does not form an article of export, or of which money is made. The produce of an ordinary country cow may be computed, during five months of the year, at from five to seven Scotch pints of milk per day, and from four to six pounds of butter, with rather more than that quantity of cheese, in the week. ' Grazing, as the more profitable course, is what is followed, and there being but little encouragement for feeding, the cattle are chiefly sold to the southern dealers at two and three years old ; and such of them as have been kept for some time by the agricultural farmers of the county, and brought to their full growth, are as fine animals as can be produced anywhere. It also very often happens that the breeders dispose of their young stock to the graziers and farmers at the age of six quarters, there being many farms cal- culated for breeding that have not advantages for rearing, and vice versa. A well-bred Ross -shire bullock of three orfour years old, when fully fed, will weigh twenty-five stones, of twenty-one pounds Dutch ; but though it rarely brings a remunerating price to the feeder at home, the breed is reputed for quick feeding and for yielding more tallow in propor- tion to size than most others, while it is ascertained that when they arrive on the pas- tures of the south, they compete in point of profit with any kind whatever. ' Of all the cattle that are sent out of Ross-shire, those of the island of Lewis (from which three thousand are annually exported) are most sought after for the table, from the fine- ness of their quality. Though of less size, and less prepossessing in appearance, than most other cattle, their beef, which is always marbled, is esteemed as being very supe- rior ; and they are so hardy, that in driving even to the most southern parts of England they rather improve than lose in condition, if properly attended to. ' The system of managing a breeding stock of Highland cattle is simple, but very inte- resting, and a thorough knowledge of it, at the period when it was most extensively prac- tised in Ross-shire, was confined to the natives of its pastoral districts, and formed their peculiar element. This was about twenty or twenty-five years ago, when one-half of the county was under black cattle, in farms carrying from twenty to sixty breeding cows, of a stamp so equal as to be always distinguished at market. The principal and leading points of management consist in particular attention to pedigree ; in a careful disposal of the stock upon the farms ; and in the various arrangements connected with their food, whether in storing up the produce of (he meadows, or in the appropriation of the pasturage to the different seasons, scrupulously reserving the roughest grasses and more sheltered portions, for the fall of the year, when it is of great consequence to have the stock of Highland farms kept in condition. ' The establishment necessary for a breeding fold of cows is generally composed of an ex- perienced principal herdsman, known by the name of the " Bowman," whose wife is head dairy woman, with female assistants, at the rate of one to twenty cows, and herd-lads in the same proportion, and some younger followers to tend the calves, during the intervals of separation from their dams. It is customary, on extensive farms, to have " sheal bothies" erected at different stations, for the temporary accommodation of such an esta- blishment, when it is necessary to move the cows from place to place in order to give them the benefit of the whole grasses in due season; and as undivided attention is be- stowed on the charge, very superior stock is bred in this manner. The mode of rearing calves, under such management, is by suckling, and not by hand-feeding that is, by allowing them to suck a certain portion of the milk at stated periods in the mornings and evenings. The common way is, to allow the calf to suck two teats, while the dairy-maid, at the same time, milks the other two ; or else to allow the calf the use of the whole, at the discretion of the dairy-maid. Both calves and cows are found to thrive much better in this way than by allowing them to run constantly together ; and besides, there is the ad- vantage of so much extra dairy produce. This mode of hali-suckling prepares them likewise for their winter-feeding; and the process of weaning generally takes place towards the end of October. Having been weaned, the stirks, as they are then called, are put up for the winter, generally loose, in large byres, and fed on the finest of the meadow hay ; and as turnips ate not frequently grown to any extent on the large pastoral farms of the High- THE NAIRN BREED. 99 every part of it. They evidently belong to the West Highlanders, but the difference of pasture has given them a larger form. We will commence at the north, and proceed downwards. NAIRN. THIS is a small county lying between Inverness and Elgin, and having the Murray Firth on the north. It does not contain many more than six thousand cattle, and about double that number of sheep. Towards the borders of Inverness some of the pure West Highlanders are found, but mixed, on the lower grounds, with the Fife and with other varieties. Formerly the whole of the husbandry work in this county was performed by oxen, and then the object of the farmer was to obtain a stronger and heavier breed than the native one, or the West Highlanders. That object was, to a certain degree accomplished, but the beast became coarser, and did not fatten so kindly, and even its qualities as a milker were not materially improved. Very few pairs of oxen, however, are now seen, and the farmers have gone back to the native and smaller, but more valuable and profitable breed. The Isle of Skye bulls have been in much request, and being crossed with the best cows, there are, in the higher parts of the county, as fine specimens of Highland cattle as any part of Scotland will produce ; the colour is not so uniform, but none of the good points or qualities are lost. Nairn is a breeding and rearing district. The early cattle, as they get into tolerably good grazing condition, are sent to Banffshire, where the fairs, in almost every village, succeed one another from the spring to the lands, a run or outgo during the day, on the roughest of the pasture, supplies their place. The cows, after being separated from their calves, are sent to the portion of the farm that has been set apart for a general wintering ; but when calving time approaches, or when the season is very severe, they are again brought near to the byre, fed from the barn, and treated with much care. The winter and spring being past, the year-olds are generally put upon low-lying haugh or woodland pasture, while the stronger part of the young stock is sent to graze on the higher and more remote pendicles of the farm, to await a sale ; special care being taken to select and retain such of them as are best calculated for sup- plying the place of the draft of aged cows annually made from the fold, while as many young bulls are kept as will afford a choice. ' The breeding of cattle in Ross-shire, however, has decreased very much, and the breed, generally speaking, has become much deteriorated within the last twenty years, owing to the rapid extension of sheep-farming. Sheep have, in fact, become the staple commo- dity of the North Highlands, and the system is attended with less expense, and affords, perhaps, a more certain return than any other to the occupier of the land. But although the greater part of the pastoral districts of Ross-shire is best adapted for sheep, it is the opinion of many persons of experience, that, from the almost universal breeding of that species of stock, cattle would pay fully as well in situations where equal justice as to keeping could be afforded in winter as in summer. So great is the preference given to sheep now in Ross-shire, that the breeding of fine cattle is almost entirely confined to the amateur proprietor, and a few tenants, who still maintain opinions differing from those of the shepherds, who have acquired by far the greatest part of the lands. Still the num- ber of cattle, of all descriptions, bred within the county is very considerable, but though the greater proportion of them are of the native breed, they have become diminutive, from there being but little reservation of hill-ground made in their favour, and from being con- sequently excluded from the pastures that produce most bone and constitution. The sys- tem of throwing several cattle-farms into one sheep-walk has limited the breeding of cattle generally to tenants of small holdings, in the least favoured situations, and to cottars placed either along the shores, or on the outskirts of the larger tenements ; and from wanting good bulls in such situations, joined to other disadvantages, the breed, though it retains the original character, has greatly fallen off. ' Upon the whole, therefore, there is at present a great decrease and a general deteriora tion in Ross-shire cattle ; but many of a superior description are still bred in the county, while the greater number of the whole are of the original stamp.' II 2 100 CATTLE. autumn. The small farmers adopt the same system of overstocking and false economy which we have so often reprobated, and their cattle are seldom got into condition before the autumn, when they are disposed of in the same manner. The dairy used to be sadly neglected in Nairn, and even now it is regarded as an object of only secondary importance. The Rev. Mr. Leslie gives a curious illustration of the extent to which this neglect was carried : he tells us that considerable quantities of butter and cheese are brought from Banffshire, and even from Cheshire and Gloucester ; and that, so late as 1770, on many farms along the coast, no better way of making butter was known than by a woman whisking about the cream, with her naked arm, in an iron pot. ELGIN, OR MORAY. THE Elgin breed of cattle is undoubtedly the Kyloe improved, or, rather, raised in size by good keeping, and crossing with Aberdeenshire horned bulls, and by the great number of Buchan cows brought over as milch cows. They are of an intermediate size between the Aberdeens and Kyloes, a hardy breed, more adapted for grazing than for the dairy, affording beef of tlie finest quality, but scarcely of the size that would be desirable. Mr. Wagstarf informs us that some short-horned bulls have been lately introduced, with a view to the production of an animal that will attain a greater weight. There has not, however, been time to ascertain the result of the experiment, but a previous cross with the Galloways did not answer the expectations of those who tried it. The cross with the short-horns, if it succeeds, will effect two very important objects, and in which the High- landers are deficient, increase of weight, and earliness of ripening. According to Mr. Deuchar, by whom we have been favoured with some valuable remarks, the Moray or Elgin cattle have more of the Aberdeen about them than of the Kyloe; but they are neater and more compact than the Aberdeens, and have of late greatly improved in consequence of the premiums given for breeding stock by the Morayshire Fanning Club and the Highland Society. Very few are full fed in their native district, being too far distant from the large markets. A four-year-old, stalled in winter and fed on straw and turnips, will average .about 45 stones. Some oxen that have been worked until seven or eight years old, have weighed 70 or 80 stones. Very few, however, are brought to perfection in Moray; but after having been stalled during the winter, or put into a straw-yard, and fed on straw, with as many turnips as will keep them in tolerable condition and fresh for grass, they are generally sold to the Aberdeen and Angusshire graziers in the spring, as soon as the grass is ready. Several cattle have been recently full-fed in the neighbourhood of Elgin, particularly by Mr. Peter Brown, of Linleswood, and conveyed to Smithfield by steam- vessels from Aberdeen. Steam navigation will probably, ere long, effect a material alteration in the system of breeding and feeding in the mari- time counties of the west and north-east of Scotland. The calves are suffered to suck until they are weaned. In winter they are kept in the straw-yard, and fed on straw or turnips, and in the spring turned to grass. The queys are not allowed to have calves until they are three years-old, and are fed off at six or seven. The straw-yard, with the same quantity of straw and turnips, is, in this district, thought to be preferable to stall-feeding. The cattle-dealers imagine that the beasts stand the road better, and especially in case of bad THE BANFF BREED. 101 weather happening when driving south. The dealers also complain of the crosses with the Galloway and short-horn, the progeny not being sufficiently hardy to drive to the distant markets. Sir John Sinclair, in his general report of Scotland, computes the number of cattle in Elgin at 16,900. There are, probably, not so many at present, more of the land having been enclosed and submitted to the plough. BANFF. THIS county, lying between Elgin and Aberdeen, contains nearly 25,000 cattle, the ancient and still preponderating breed of which is the Aberdeen- shire horned, the qualities of which are well known to, and appreciated by graziers from the Firth of Moray to Smithfield. The Banffshire cattle are somewhat smaller, however, than the Aberdeens, and of finer symmetry. Very few true specimens of that hardy and valuable breed, the old BanfFshire cattle, are now to be met with, except in some of the upper districts of the county ; and even these, from the shortness of keep and the want of turnips, in winter are considerably stinted in their growth. Mr. Tait, veterinary-surgeon at Portsoy, to whom we return our thanks for some valuable information, says, that ' Any of the old breed that are to be seen in the better cultivated districts are very handsome animals ; for the most part with fine springing white horns with black points, fine small heads, but broad between the eyes, and with short clean muzzles. They are short in the legs, clean in the bone, and the flesh well down upon the legs. The body is rather long, the ribs round, and the back broad and straight ; the colour, for the most part, black or brindled, party-colours being rarely met with in the native breed. They are hardy, superior travellers, and at four years old will weigh from 50 to 60 stones.' The cows are not celebrated for the quantity of milk that they yield, but it is usually of very superior quality. From three to five gallons of milk may be reckoned the average produce on good pasture and in the prime of the season. Banff is principally a breeding country ; a few oxen only are worked in the upper part of the district* ; on the coast some cattle are pre- pared for the Mearns and Aberdeen markets : most of them are sold half fat ; but a few are finished off with turnips and hay. Mr. Mill, tenant of Mill of Byndie, near Banff, feeds a considerable number of beasts full-fat, which he sends to Smithfield by the smacks from Portsoy and Banff, and by the Aberdeen steam-vessels. There are some good artificial pastures about the coast, but in the upper part of the country there is little beside the natural herbage, and that not often improved by manure. Banffshire is indebted to Lord Findlater for the greater part of the improvements that have taken place in that district. When his Lordship first took up his residence in Banff Castle, about the year 1753, there were no roads, no turnips or potatoes reared in the field, no grass-seed sown, and no inclosure made, except about the mansions of a few of the proprietors. He first took into his own possession one of his farms (Craigherbs) near Banff Castle, and fallowed and limed it, and laid down part of it in turnips, and part of it in grass-seeds. He sent the sons of some of the farmers to study agriculture. As soon as the lease was expired, he commenced the management of another of his farms ; * The old Banff plough used to be drawn by six, or eight, or ten oxen, or by oxen and cows intermingled, or by oxen and horses. The black cattle were usually bought in about Whitsuntide and sold again in the autumn. 102 CATTLE. he raised better and constant food for the cattle, he improved the breed by crosses from the best of his own stock and the neighbouring districts, and the agriculture of Banffshire, about the lowland part of the country, is now equal to any in Scotland. The local Agricultural Society has also been of great service in carrying on the work of improvement ; and the facilities afforded by steam passage will, in Bantfshire, as in all the coun- ties on the coast, give an additional stimulus to improvement, and effect a rapid change both in the breeding and management of cattle. The lowland farmers sometimes buy young cattle at two years old from the small upland farmers, and sell them again at three years. Their food in the winter is almost entirely straw and turnips, a little hay being added for the cows that have calved. The cattle of the lower districts of Banffshire are of a medium size, between those of the native Highlands and the better fed ones of Kincardine *. Mr. M'Pherson, factor to the Duke of Gordon, informs us, that about thirty years ago the Galloway breed of cattle was introduced into this district, and has increased so much, that it now forms a large portion of the heavy stock ; some of the Buchan cattle, also polled, but a distinct breed, appear in some of the districts of Banff; they are devoted to the purposes of the dairy. Many of the farmers crossed the Banff with the polled breed of Aberdeen, in order to obtain greater weight, and which w,as warranted by the superior system of husbandry that has lately been adopted in the greater part of the county ; and they also reckoned, but not with so much reason, on the early maturity of this cross. Others, and at the head of them stands Mr. Milne of Mill Boyndie, and to whom also we owe much obligation, has all his cows of the Banff breed, crossed with the Isle of Skye bull. Mr. Milne considers this to be the most valuable stock that the country produces. A few Ayrshire and Teeswater beasts are likewise also seen. A short- horned bull was lately introduced by Mr. Wilson, of Brangan, whose stock is promising. There is much prejudice against the short-horns at present in Banffshire. It is supposed that the keep of this district can never be good enough for them, and that the greater price, in proportion to their weight, fetched by the native stock, would yield greater profit to the farmer than he could obtain from a heavier and more expensively fed beast. To a great degree this is an unfounded prejudice ; and we have no doubt that in Banffshire, as everywhere else, the short-horn, cautiously and judiciously introduced, will ultimately have justice done to him. Much injury is supposed to have been done to the Banffshire breed of cattle by the attempted introduction of the long-horns, forty or fifty years ago. A cross with these, and especially when persisted in, produced au ill-framed, unshapely animal, in which every good quality of the progenitors was lost. Among the most intelligent and successful breeders in Banff- shire we may reckon Mr. Gordon of Laggan, Mr. Gauld of Edinglassie, and the late Rev. A. Milne of Boyndie. Although horse-ploughing has superseded ox-labour, the number of cattle in Banffshire has materially increased since the establishment of the system of winter feeding. ABERDEENSHIRE. THIS extensive county, breeding or grazing more cattle than any other district of Scotland, will require particular attention. The number of * Mr. Ballingall, in his Statistical Account of Forglen, says, in 1795, that ' on the waterside, the cattle, by the richness of the pasture, are of a large size. One tenant in jB-astsule had a plough of eight oxen, which would, in most seasons, have been good beef rTnr/r ' and W0uld have wei g hed from 6% to seventy stones, at an average, and, lull-led from seventy to ninety, and some seemed size enough to carry one hundred.' THE ABERDEENSHIRE BREED. 103 cattle in Aberdeenshire has been calculated at 110,000, of which more than 20,000 are either slaughtered, or sold to the graziers every year. The soil and climate are very different in the hilly country towards the south-west, bordering on Forfar, Perth, and Inverness, and in the lowlands skirting the sea. There is better natural pasture on the hills than the Highlands usually afford, except upon the very ridges of the Grampians, while the mellow clayey soil in the lower parts yield abundant crops. The climate on the hills is cold enough, and especially when the wind blows from the north-east; but in the lowlands there is a mildness and an equality of temperature, scarcely exceeded in the south-eastern parts of England. Storms from the north and the east, however, some- times do considerable injury, and especially in the district of Buchan, and when the crops are in bloom. The character of the cattle varies with that of the country. Towards the interior, and on the hills, formerly occupying the whole of that dis- trict, and still existing in considerable numbers, is the native unmixed Highland breed. It is suited to its locality: hardy but not docile ; living and thriving, to a certain extent, on its scanty fare ; and at four years-old, and when it was thought to be prepared for the dealers, weighing, probably, not more than 3^ cwt. ; but with a disposition to grow to the full extent of which its natural form is capable when conveyed to the richer pasture of the south. This breed, however, would be out of its place in the milder climate and more productive soil of the lower district of Aberdeen ; another kind of cattle was therefore gradually raised, the precise origin of which it is difficult to describe. It was first attempted, as in the districts that we have already surveyed, by judicious selections from the native breed, and some increase of size was obtained, but not sufficient for the pasture. Some spirited individuals then sent far south, and the Lancashire long-horn was introduced, and the short-horned Durham was tried ; but either they did not amalga- mate with the native breed, or a species of cattle was produced too large for the soil. There were, however, some splendid exceptions to this, and we are glad that we can present our readers with a portrait of one of them in two stages of his preparation for the market. (See p. 104 and 105.) This beautiful animal was bred by Lord Kintore from an Aberdeenshire cow and a Teeswater bull. We are indebted to his lordship for the chief materials of our history of him. He was calved in April, 1827, and from the Michaelmas of that year he was tied up in the house, according to the practice of the country, with the other calves. He got turnips, with clover, hay, and straw alternately twice a day. They were the Norfolk globe turnips, which are not considered so nutritious as the Aberdeen yellow; and four or five ounces of salt were given him daily. In 1828 he was at pasture from the 1st of May to the 20th of October, and was then put into a straw-yard with sheds, getting about five pounds of oil-cake daily, with plenty of water and hay and straw, until the 10th of May, 1829, when he again was sent to pasture until the middle of Oc- tober. He then got a limited quantity of Aberdeen yellow turnips in the house, as Lord Kintore did not then intend to have him fed off. He went out almost daily for water and exercise until the 1st of April, 1830, when he was again put into the straw-yard until the middle of May, getting about six pounds and a half of oil-cake daily, with the usual quantity of hay and straw. He was afterwards at pasture until the 8th of October, and was treated in i 104 CATTLE. the winter as before, with the addition of oil-cake for about ten days, previous to his being again turned out to grass, which was on the 15th of May, 1831. From the latter end of June until the close of August he was taken into the house during the day, where he got cut grass, and was turned out at ui-ht ; and from that time until the 21st of September he was again tied up, getting hay and turnips until the 6th of October, when he left Keith Hall, and was sent by the steamer to London. His weight might have been con- siderably increased had he been full fed from the first, but he was now a very fine animal, as the cut, from a portrait of him by Cooper, very kindly lent to us by Mr. Combe, will sufficiently show. He was now supposed to weigh 100 stones imperial weight, or 175 stones Smithfield weight. [ The Kintore OJT, when he was first sent to the South a Cross between the Aberdeen and the Improved Short-horn.] He was consigned to the care of Lord Kintore's friend, Mr. Harvey nbe, who was to use his own discretion whether he would exhibit him the next Smithfield cattle-show, and compete for a prize among the 3ck, or whether he would keep him another year, and try for the jrize. Mr. Combe decided, and very judiciously, to give him ano- T year s feeding. He was accordingly taken down to that gentleman's sstate at Cobham ; and from October to April was fed upon Swedish irnips and hay, with about six pounds of oil-cake daily, and during the spring and summer he had cut grass and oatmeal. He'was let out daily r exercise, and his greatest pleasure seemed to be to go among the cows as they came into the yard, and talk to them. He was exceedingly He. Whoever approached him or handled him he scarcely moved, cent that he would not suffer the man who was once compelled to bleed nm to come near him for a week. n,,^ Se J lt M mber he comm enced oil-cake and hay, eating about twelve Mt ul y u l he f rmer ' Until he was sent to Smithfield. During the months he had a l ump o f rock salt in his manger, of which he casion 1. y f0nd ' A basket of earth als s a bullock more than a year, or when markets are brisk, not more than a few weeks. With very good judges this has succeeded to a great degree. Some of the most opulent farmers have been indebted for their success to their skill in cattle and their address in striking a bargain ; and this success has tempted others to embark in the trade, without either the talents or resources for carrying it on. The truth is, it possesses all the fasci- nation of the gaming table. The fluctuation and uncertainty of markets, the sudden gains and losses that follow, the idea of skill and dexterity requisite, the risk connected with the business, these excite the strong passions of the mind, and attach the cattle- dealer, like the gambler, to his profession, although he may be assured that he is frequently pursuing the road to ruin. He counts his gains, but seldom calculates his losses. After a long succession of bad luck, he hopes that a few successful adventures will enable him to retrieve the desperate situation of his affairs, and the failure and ruin of those who have been gambling in a large way are productive of great detriment to the agriculturist and the community generally. The inevitable consequence of this mode of proceeding is, that the farmer is a constant attendant on fairs and markets whether he has anything to do or not. One or two days in the week are useless, or worse than useless. That accu- rate attention to minutiae on which so much of the farming business depends, order and regularity in his habits, are forsaken and forgotten ; serious expenses, exceeding his profits, are incurred; habits of dissipation are contracted; every moral principle is gradually sapped and destroyed, and he becomes at last disqualified for any business or employment.' This is a dark picture. It is not so true and faithful a one as it formerly was, but the farmer may learn wisdom. Of the lower kind of dealers, Mr. Ross, in one of his statistical accounts, gives a very vivid description. ' A mountaineer will travel from fair to fair for 30 miles round with no other food than the oaten cake which he carries with him, and what requires neither fire, table, knife, nor other instrument to use. He will lay out the whole, or perhaps treble of all he is worth (to which the facility of the country banks is a great encouragement) in the purchase of 30 or 100 head of cattle, with which, when collected, he sets out for England, a country with the roads, manners and inhabitants of which he is totally unacquainted. ' In this journey, he scarcely ever goes into a house, sleeps but little, and then generally in the open air, and lives chiefly upon his favourite oaten bread. If he fail of disposing of his cattle at the fair of Carlisle, the usual place of sale, he is probably ruined, and has to begin the world, as he terms it, over again. If he succeeds, he returns home only to commence anew wandering and a new labour, and is ready in about a month perhaps to set out again for England. ' There are others who job about from fair to fair without leaving the country. The wandering and unsettled habits which this species of life induces are very unfavourable to improvement ; whenever by any accident the cattle trade is suspended, or becomes un- profitable, the persons accustomed to be employed in it, being unfit for any soberer occu- pation, remain in a great measure idle. Even agriculture is burdensome to them as want- ing the variety and interest which their usual occupation affords : thus the fruits of so much labour and enterprise are often wasted during the long intervals of indolence and inactivity.' The drovers, however, of the present day, deserve a far better character, and are, generally speaking, a very respectable and deserving class of meu, M 2 164 CATTLE. [Galloway Bull.] For this cut also we are indebted to Mr. Gurney. The Galloway catlle are generally very docile. This is a most valuable point about them in every respect. It is rare to find even a bull furious or troublesome. The Rev. Mr. Smith, in his Survey of Galloway, has some very good re- marks on the old management of the breeders here, and a little applicable to some of the present day. 'The graziers in Galloway are generally censu- rable for overstocking, although they are less so now than at former times, or perhaps than the graziers of some other districts. Their greatest fault lies in their winter and spring management, and this is more the effect of necessity than choice, for the bulk of farms cannot keep the same number of cattle in winter as in summer, and, on a reduction of prices, which often occurs about the end of autumn, they must either sell to great disadvantage or wait the issue of the spring market. Hence in ordinary pastures the full stock of summer still remains with but a scanty allowance of fodder, and are compelled by hunger to devour every remnant of grass, and leave the fields naked and exposed, and thus not a little retard the subse- quent vegetation. But this is not all ; for, from the deficiency of fodder, the cattle are eager to snatch up every pile of new grass as it rises, and the pasture being thus kept completely eaten down, and denuded in this first vigorous period of vegetation, never afterwards acquires a full growth, nor can it feed the same stock in summer which it might have fattened under better management. Every experienced grazier knows the great advantage of sparing his pastures in spring, until they have acquired their full cover of herbage.' During the last fifty years a very great improvement has taken place both in the tillage management, and in the rearing and grazing of cattle in Galloway. Most of the great landholders farm a portion of their own estates, and breed and graze cattle, and some of them very extensively. Agricultural societies have been established in the counties of Kirkcud- bright and Wigton, and all the land-proprietors, and the greater part of the tenants, have become members of them. These societies have been THE DUMFRIES BREED. 165 enabled to grant numerous premiums for the best tillage husbandry and management of stock, and rearing of stock, and the consequence has been very considerable improvement in the breed of cattle, on the un- deviating principle, however, of selection and adherence to the pure breed. Of the grazing properties of these valuable cattle, we cannot give a more satisfactory illustration than by stating, that 60 Galloways were bought in September last at Barnet fair for 10. per head, to be turned into his Majesty's Home Park at Hampton Court, and are now, (March, 1833,) after being fed occasionally with hay, selling at an average of 18/. each. About ten thousand Irish cattle are annually lauded at Port Patrick in Wigtonshire, a few of which remain in that district, but the greater, part find their way into England. Port Patrick is well situated for this pur- pose, on account of the shortness of the passage from Ireland. This com- merce was once prohibited, from the absurd notion, that itwbuld be detri- mental to the interests of the English breeders ; at length it was permitted for seven years by way of experiment, in the fifth year of George III., and made perpetual in the sixteenth year of the reign of the same mo- narch. There is a great deal of speculation attending this traffic in cattle. It is influenced materially by the quality of grass, and hay, and turnips in England, or by the probability of large crops of these articles, and large sums are often speedily gained or lost in the speculation*. DUMFRIES. THIS is a considerable wedge-shaped county, interposed between Lanark, Peebles, Selkirk, and Roxburgh on the east, and Kirkcudbright on the west, and divided from Cumberland by the river Liddel. The native cattle of Dumfries were, according to Dr. Singer, in his survey of that county, horned, long in the leg, narrow in the back, thin and short in the hair, and neither weighty lor their height nor hardy. These, however, have been superseded by the Galloways for grazing, and by the Ayrshires, which in their turn have partly yielded to the short-horns, for milking. There is beside a fluctuating and uncertain number of flying stock consisting of Highlanders, principally from Falkirk tryst, and even a few Irish which are grazed a part of the year, or wintered in the county.- The richer pasture of Dumfries has given to the Galloways, bred or grazed there, a somewhat larger form and earlier maturity, than they possess in their native district, and on this account they used to be held * Dr. John Scott, in his account of the parish of Swyneholm in Kirkcudbright, in 1 795, describes the polled Galloways as then highly valued by the Norfolk farmers. They would, at one year old, bring from 11. to 5/. ; at two years old, they would bring from 4/. to 9/. ; and at three years, from 6/. to 1 0/. At that time, the best of the two years old were usually sent with the three years old to the English market. Speaking of the attempts at improvement, he says, ' our farmers cannot be too careful to preserve this breed, for any trials to meliorate it by crossing with other bulls have hitherto failed. A gentleman in this country, who had a large dairy remarkable for rearing the best cattle, and who kept and fed them until a proper age, when he sent them with other cattle which he bought from his tenants to the English markets, in order to try the experiment, purchased one of Mr. Bakewell's bulls. He put one half of his cows to this beast, and the other half to a Moorland bull bred upon his own estate. He fed the product equally until they were sent to market at Norfolk, when those bred from the Galloway bull brought considerably more money than the others, besides being easier to feed.' ' On the other hand, the Rev. Mr. Wilson, in his account of Kirkbean, says that Mr. Craik of Arbigland introduced the Bakewell breed upon his estate, and that the same number of cattle upon the same field fattened equally with those of the Galloway kind.' 166 CATTLE. in much estimation. They were bought at the Dumfries "market by the Galloway farmers themselves, who, after keeping them for a certain time, drafted them among their own cattle of a twelvemonth older, and sent them for sale to Carlisle. It was doubtful, however, whether these beasts had the perfect form of the native Galloways, and whether (he fine grain and flavour of their meat were not somewhat deteriorated. The cattle market at Dumfries is the largest in the south of Scotland. The Rev. Mr. Wilson gives the following account of the cattle of Dum- fries in 1811. ' The cows for breeding are principally of the Galloway kind. The return or annual profit per cow is about 61. The young two- year-old bullocks kept for grazing are one-half Galloways, and the other half West Highlanders, bought atFalkirk tryst in October; and, after being fed one year, they are sold to drovers to be forwarded to the English mar- kets, after having yielded to the grazier a profit of 31. 3s. per head. Others sell them early in the summer, after having fed them on fog-hay in the fields during the winter, and usually given from II. to 2L per head*. A very superior and finely flavoured butter is made on the borders of the Esk in this county. It is made from the cream only, and no part of the milk is churned. The milk is suffered to stand about 36 hours, when the cream is collected, and the different meals thrown together, until there is enough to be conveniently churned at one time, or the cream has be- come a little sour of its own accord, and the sooner it is churned after it has begun to become acid, the better will be the butter. Robert Burns rented a farm at Dunscore in Dumfries, and, not content with the Galloway breed, he introduced some of the west-country cows, which he thought would produce more milk. The climate did not agree with them, and the speculation was decidedly unsuccessful. ANGUS POLLED CATTLE. THERE have always been some polled cattle in Angus ; the country-people call them humlies or dodded cattle. Their origin is so remote, that no account of their introduction into this country can be obtained from the oldest far- mers or breeders. The attention of some enterprising agriculturists appears to have been first directed to them about sixty years ago, and particularly on the eastern coast, and on the borders of Kincardineshire. Some of the first qualities which seem to have attracted the attention of these breeders were the peculiar quietness and docility of the doddies, the easiness with which they were managed, the few losses that were incurred from their injuring each other in their stalls, and the power of disposing of a greater number of them in the same space. A few experiments upon them developed another valuable quality their natural fitness for stall-feeding, and the rapidity with which they fattened. This brought them into much repute during the revolution-dry war, not only in their own country, where great numbers were fattened for the Glasgow and Edinburgh markets, but also in England, whither they were sent in numerous droves for the supply of Smithfield, and also of the * A writer in the ' Gentleman's Magazine,' says that ' he was at the bridge end of Dumfiies in 1736, when Anthony M'Kie, of Nellverton, sold five score of five years old Galloway cattle in good condition, to an Englishman, for '2.1. }'2s. 6rf. each ; and old Rob. Halliday, who was a tenant of a great part of Preston estate, said that he reckoned he could graze his cattle on his farms at 2*. Of/, per head, i. e. his rent corresponded to that sum.' THE ANGUS BREED. ; 167 army and navy. They were purchased for Smithfield chiefly by the Nor- folk and Leicestershire graziers, and after from one year and a half to two years' English feeding they paid for their keep at least equal to the most approved English cattle. They were brought to the south under the denomination of Galloways, partly because they were a comparatively unknown breed, bearing much resemblance to the Galloways, and also because the purchasers of the Angus cattle were known to be extensive speculators in the Galloway beasts. They were usually fed off at about three years old, and reached to an average weight of sixty imperial stones. They have much of the Galloway form, and by those unaccustomed to cattle would often be mistaken for the Galloways. A good judge, how- ever, would perceive that they are larger, somewhat longer in the leg, thinner in the shoulder, and flatter in the side. Climate and management have caused another difference between the Angus doddies and the Galloways. The Galloways have to encounter a moist climate; they are in most cases wintered out in the fields, or at least receive only a scanty allowance of natural hay during the severest part of the season, and are chiefly sent to the Norfolk market in a lean state: hence they have a more robust appearance, a much thicker skin, and a rougher coat of hair than the Angus oxen. Forfarshire is a great turnip country, and has its fields for the most part inclosed ; the cattle are regularly kept in straw-yards during six months of the year, receiving tur- nips with their fodder every day, and in summer they are grazed on com- paratively dry and warm pastures. By this mode of treatment they look and feel more kindly than the Galloways. The greater part of them are black or with a few white spots. The next general colour is yellow, comprehending the brindled, dark red, and silver coloured yellow. They are a valuable breed, and have rapidly gained ground on the horned cattle. They have become far more numerous than the others, particularly in the Lowlands ; and when the agriculturist now speaks of the Angus breed, he refers to the polled and not to the horned species. One of the most spirited and successful breeders of the dodded An^us cattle is Mr. Watson, of Keillor, by Meigle, in Angus, and to him we are indebted for much valuable information respecting the breed. His stock of Angus cattle has deservedly obtained the name of the Keillor breed, and a most excellent one it is. He has gained, on account of them, more than 100 prizes, besides several valuable pieces of plate. The facilities which will now be afforded by the establishment of steam-carriage, will enable him and other enterprising breeders to send many beasts to the London market, which will find a ready and pro- fitable sale there. The following cut contains the portrait of one of a pair of oxen exhibited by him at the show of the Highland society at Perth, in 1829, and which obtained the prize as "the best pair of oxen of the Angus breed." He was afterwards sent to the Smithfield show, at the Christmas of the same year, when he was particularly admired. The butcher who purchased him, Mr. Sparks, of High-street, Mary le-bone, with whom we have. conversed on the subject, and who may be considered to be a competent judge, said, after he was slaughtered, that he was one of the best quality he ever saw, and he thought must have been the best of the breed that ever was exhibited. The meat was finely grained, and there were more than 24Ulbs. of fat. 168 CATTLE. [Angus Ox, FatJ] The next cut is a fair specimen" of an Angus bullock, in good store condition. It was the property of Mr. Clarke, a dealer in polled cattle. [Angus Ox.] The following cut gives us the portrait of a heifer, bred and fattened by Mr. Watson. She was exhibited at the same show at Perth, and obtained THE ANGUS BREED. 169 the medal ' for extra stock of superior quality.' She also was sent to the Smithfield show, and obtained the medal in the class of extra stock. The Highland Society requested that she might be sent there as a sample of the excellence to which this breed of Scottish cattle could arrive : she was then 4 years old. The chairman, in presenting the medal, stated ' that the judges deemed it their duty to mention her as a most extraordinary animal, and which they could not too highly commend.' Her dead weight was estimated at 130 or 140 stones, and yet it was imagined that she had not arrived at her point of extreme weight. She sold for 50 . and was publicly exhibited for a considerable time before she was slaughtered, and realised a considerable sum for her purchasers*. We admired a very supe- rior pair of Angus oxen, exhibited by the same gentleman at the show of the Highland Society, at Kelso, in 1832 : one of them seemed to be perfect in all his pointst. \_Angus Cow.] We must however acknowledge that the Angus polled cattle generally are not of that very superior quality and value which this account of the Keillor breed would seem to indicate, or, what is the case with many other breeds, they are exceedingly valuable in their own climate and on their own soil, but they do not answer the somewhat unreasonable expectations of their purchasers, when driven to the south. They have yielded a good * She was out of a very small cow with a remote dash of Guernsey blood in her, yet retaining all the best features of the pure Angus blood. The bone of her fore leg, which Mr. Watson has in his possession, was not thicker than that of a red deer, and she was exceedingly active to the last. W 7 hen killed her breast was not quite 8 inches clear from the ground, and her inside fat was equal to a quarter of her whole weight of beef. f At one year old this beast gained a prize at the annual show of the Strathmore Agricultural Society at Coupar, Angus ; at two years old he also carried off the prize at the next show of the same society. At three years old, he and another ox, also bred by Mr. Watson, gained the first premium of the same society for the best pair of fat oxen of any breed ; and in the same year, the same pair were shown, as we have stated, at the meeting of the Highland Society at Perth. 170 CATTLE. remunerating price, and the grazier has had no cause to complain, but thev are not quite equal to their ancestors the Galloways in quickness of feeding, or fineness of grain. They attain a larger size, but they do not pay the grazier or the butcher so well. They have been fairly tried in the south, and, on the faith of the excellency of the Keillor breed, Mr. Watson sold a bull in 1831 for 100 guineas, and in the same year he sold a lot of breeding heifers in calf at the rate of 40/. per head, yet in many places the Angus cattle have gradually given way to the old occupiers of the land, the Galloways. The greatest shows of this kind of stock in Angusshire are at Brechin, in June, and Forfar in July and August. The beasts are chiefly purchased by English dealers. We saw a great many of them, and very fine ones too, at the Falkirk Tryst in October, 1832. When in good condition they sell, at 3 years old, at from 10/. to Ibl. In the statistical account of Angus it is said to contain 45,400 cattle; but there could be no certain grounds on which to form the calculation, the numbers depending on the season and on the quantity of keep. The flying stock bear a greater proportion to the whole number of cattle than in almost any other county. The calves that were reared always fared better here than in many dis- tricts ; they got nearly two gallons of milk, warm from the cow, every day for more than three months; and were then put on the best grass, and had tur- nips and hay, or sometimes only straw, in the winter, when they were always housed : the cows were also generally housed, except there was a scarcity of straw and other fodder, when, and especially in the hilly country, they were permitted to wander over some rough pasture during the clay. Mr. Watson, about 20 years ago, introduced the practice of suckling the calves in the house,-and has since continued the system with great success. We find this plan thus described by himself in a letter to the conductor of a work on domestic animals, under the patronage of the Highland Society of Scotland. 'Tlie cows intended for nursing generally calve early in the season, about the month of January or February, when a stranger calf is procured from some of the small tenants in the district who have dairies. This calf is suckled with the others, by the same cow ; and, although the cow at first shows great dislike to the stranger, in a few days she receives it very quietly care being taken that both are put to suck (one on each side) exactly at the same time, by tying the calves' bands to the stall, or the band of the cow, so as to keep each calf at its own side. They remain with the cow for fifteen or twenty minutes, by which time her milk is per- fectly drawn away. As the cahes advance in age they eat hay, sliced pota- toes, porridge, and other food that they are inclined to take. By the 1st of May, or as soon as grass is reudy, they are weaned and turned out irom the byre, when two fresh calves are immediately put into their stalls and receive the same treatment, excepting that they are turned out at 12 o'clock, after they have got their suck, to eat grass, and are brought into the byre again in the evening:, when the cows come in to be sucked. This set is ready to wean by the 1st of August, and a single calf is put into the feed- ing pen and fattened for the butcher, the season being now too late for rearing. As these are fed off, the cows are let off milk, having each suckled^/zt'e calves. It is necessary to have a very careful and steady per- son to attend to the suckling, which has to be done three times a day, vi/., early in the morning before the cows are turned out to grass, at mid day, and in the evening when the cows come into the byre for the night and get a little cut grass, tares, or other green food. The byre is arranged so that the THE NORFOLK BREED. 171 cows have each a stall of about four feet wide, with their heads to the wall ; and on the opposite wall the calves are tied up, two in a stall, exactly be- hind the cow, so that there is little trouble in putting them to the cows, and no chance of misplacing them. The fat calves have in some seasons been sold at bl. each, this being the scarcest time of the year for veal. Keillor, October 1831.' The quantity of milk yielded by the dairy cows is various. In the hilly district from two to three gallons are given per day, but that is very rich. In the lowlands the cows will give five gallons during the best of the season. The cows of this district were formerly regarded as some of the best dairy-cows in Scotland, but since the breed has been more im- proved, and greater attention paid to the fattening qualities, they have fallen off in their character for the pail. About half of the milk is con- sumed at home, the rest is made into butter and cheese. The butter, as is generally the case in this part of Scotland, is good, but the cheese poor and ill-flavoured. No oxen are used on tlie road, and few for the plough. Although there is so great a mixture of different breeds in Forfarshire, they are all of Scottish origin. The southern breeds have been repeatedly tried and have failed, and so has the Guernsey, which has contributed so much to the improvement of some English dairies*. NORFOLK. HAVING now returned to the districts with the character of the cattle of which the greater part of our readers may be supposed to be tolerably well acquainted, our description both of the peculiarities of the breeds of the different counties, and the general management of cattle, will be brief. Until the beginning of the last century, and for some years afterwards, the native breed of Norfolk belonged to the middle-horns. Their colour was usually red, or sometimes black ; they possessed many of the charac- ters of the Devons on a smaller scale, with their pointed, turned up horns. A few of them are yet occasionally seen irr the less cultivated parts of the county, and in the possession of the small farmer or the cottager. They have, however, been almost superseded by a polled breed. We have stated that from a very early period, a great part of the Gallo- way cattle were prepared for the Smithfield market on the pastures of Norfolk and Suffolk; nearly one-half of the beasts that supply the metro- polis come from these counties. Some of the Galloways, either accident- ally, or selected on account of their superior form and quality, remained in Norfolk ; and the fanner attempted to naturalize and to rear in his own county, and he hoped at somewhat less cost, a breed of cattle so highly * Some curious sports iu nature have been observed in the breeding of Angus doddies. One remarkable fact is stated by John Bosvvell, Esq., of Balmuto and Kingcaussie, in an essay upon the breeding of live stock, communicated to the Highland Society in 1825. ' One of the most intelligent breeders I have ever met with in Scotland. Mr Mustard, an extensive farmer on Sir James Carnegie's estate in Angus, told me a singular fact with regard to what I have now stated. One of his cows chanced to come into season while pasturing on a field which was bounded by that of one of his neighbours, out of which field an ox jumped and went with the cow, until she was brought home to the bull. The ox was white, with black spots, and horned. Mr. Mustard bad not a horned beast in his possession, nor one with any white on it. Nevertheless, the produce of the following spring was a black and white calf, with horns.' 1 Another fact, which shows the great care required in keeping pure this breed, is related of the Keillor stock, where, two different seasons, a dairy cow of the Ayrshire breed, red and white, was allowed to pasture with the black dixldies. In the first experiment, from pure black bulls and cows, there appeared three red and white calves; and on the second trial two of the calves were of mixed colours. Since that time care has been taken to have almost every animal on the farm, down to the pigs and poultry, of a black colour. 172 CATTLE. valued in the metropolitan market. To a certain degree he succeeded ; and thus the polled cattle gradually gained upon the horned ones, and at length became so much more numerous and profitable than the old sort, that they began to be regarded as the peculiar and native breed of the county. They retain much of the general form of their ancestors, the Galloways, but not all their excellencies. They have been enlarged but not improved by a southern climate and a richer soil. They are usually red, some, however, are black, or either of these colours mixed with white, with a characteristic golden circle about the eye. They are taller than the Gallo- ways, but thinner in the chine, flatter in the ribs, longer in the legs, some- what better milkers, of greater weight when fattened, but not fattening so kindly, and the meat not quite equal in quality. [Norfolk Cow;.] This cut presents a favourable specimen of them. The cow was bred by Mr. George of Eaton in the neighbourhood of Norwich. This beast, at least, is an exception to the censure which has been passed upon them as ' ugly and mishaped.' Although too little care is taken in any part of this county to im- prove the breed, yet it has been improved in many districts, not only in attaining larger weights at all ages, but in the quality of the meat being considerably better ; yet it must be confessed, that the Galloways afforded so ample a remuneration to the Norfolk grazier during their temporary abode with him in their journey to the Smithfield market, that the home-bred cattle were, after a while, comparatively neglected. Norfolk is principally a grazing county, and the cattle chiefly grazed there are the Galloway Scots. The following estimate of the expense and profit in feeding them, is taken from the Agricultural Survey of Norfolk, and was furnished by Mr. Barton. The more complete esta- blishment of the turnip husbandry has made some alteration, and that in favour of the grazier. ' Of the Scotch cattle, there are three sorts which require consideration ; the first is a bullock, turned of four years old, and bought at St. Faiths October 17th, for about 91., and in such condition as to be fit to be put THE NORFOLK BREED. 173 immediately on turnips. He is put on turnips, and kept there about 24 weeks ; in bad weather a little hay is given, and when to this is added the customary straw, carriage, attendance, &c., the expense will amount to about 4s. per week, bringing the cost of the ox to 13/. 16s. He will now probably weigh from 50 to 52 stones of 141bs, which at 5s. '6d. per stone, or 3s. Sd. per Smithfield stone of, 8 Ibs., will amount to 14Z. 16.?., leaving only ]/. clear profit per head. * ; < - ' <- " A second lot, and a year younger, is probably bought lean at the same time, and at about Gl. They are put on stubble or ordinary grass, until the straw-yard is open. They are then sent into the straw-yard at night, where they eat the offals of every description, and follow the best beasts during the day. This, for 24 weeks, until May day, and at Is. 6d. per week, will amount to II. 16s. They are then put into the marshes, or on good pasture, until a fortnight after Michaelmas, which, reckoning 28 weeks at 2s. 3d. per week, will cost 31. 3s. more ; then to turnips for 8 weeks at 3s., which will be II. 4s., and amounting in the whole to 12/. 3s. The weight of the bullock will now generally be about 44 stones, and the value 12/. 2s. A third lot is probably bought at Harleston in December. The beasts are lean, of the same age, and the price averages at about 7^. per head. They are sent immediately to the straw-yard, and fed on offal turnips for 8 weeks at Is. 6d. per week, and amounting to 12s. They then go on full keeping, turnips by day, and the straw-yard at night, for 10 weeks, which at 2s. 6d. per week, will give an additional expense of II. 5s. They then go into the two years' lay, or good pasture, for 20 weeks, making, at 3.?. per week, 31. more, which brings their cost to the grazier to III. 17s. They will now probably weigh 46 stones, which at 5s. 6d. per stone will amount to 121. 13s. It would appear from these calculations that the first lot paid 10 per cent, interest on the capital laid out, and a fair price for what they con- sumed. The second yielded no interest on the original cost, but a fair price for the food ; and the third gave 15 per cent, in addition to the same remunerating price ; but to this seemingly little profit must be added the increased value of the succeeding crops, from the great quantity of manure. The grand fairs for the purchase of the Galloway cattle are at St. Faiths, on October 17th* ; Hampton Green, November 22nd ; and Harleston, November 28th. The horned Scotch cattle are often grazed, although not to the extent of the Galloways. Mr. Marshall, in that valuable work, ' The Rural Economy of Norfolk,' gives the following account of two lots of Kyloes. The buying and selling prices are now very different, but the proportion between them is nearly the same. ' How profitable are the little Isle-of-Sky cattle to the Norfolk farmer, who has rough meadows for them to run in ? had eleven, bought last Hemlingreen fair, (just twelve-months ago,) for three guineas a-piece. They were kept entirely * Mr. Marshall thus describes the Fair of St. Faiths : On Wednesday, 17th instant, 1 went to the first day of the fair of St. Faiths, a village near Norwich, where one of the largest fairs in the kingdom is held annually on that day, for cheese and butter, and a variety of wares, but most especially the first, which is brought in great quantities out of Suffolk to supply this country during the winter months, when a Norfolk cheese is not to be purchased in this part of the country. The first day of this fair also draws together a good show of cattle, principally ' home bred,' eitlu-r for store or for fatting on turnips, and for which purposes a show of Scotch bullocks is also exhibited upon a rising ground at a small distance from the fair-field. The sale of Scotch cattle continues for a fortnight, or longer time, until this quarter of the county be supplied with that species of stock. Marshall's Economy of Nprfolk, ii, 49, 174 CATTLE. on straw and rushy grass, which nothing else would have eaten, until the month of May, when they were turned into some Norfolk meadows, (worth about ten shillings an acre) where they remained until September, since which time they have been at good lattermath. Some of them are now quite fat, and the rest nearly so; one with another they are worth about six pounds a-piece. s d. Supposing each occupied an acre of meadow, which ") Q , ~ Q (with town charges) reckon at y Ten weeks' lattermath, at two shillings (the price of") i o such cattle) / First cost and interest 368 Total cost . . 4 18 3 Present value .600 Clear gain, besides a fair remunerating price for the")' {19 meadow ground and aftermath J A neighbouring farmer bought a parcel at the same time, and at the same price ; also some refuse ones so low as five-and-twenty shillings a-piece; two of which he sold a few days ago for III. 4s. These, however, were followers at turnips the first winter. In summer they were sent to a grazing ground ; since harvest they have been in the stubble and ' rowens' at good keep*. The short horns have established themselves in many parts of Norfolk. Some of them are bought in to graze, and others are bred there with con- siderable success. The Devons have zealous advocates in Norfolk. The Earl of Albemarle's straw-yard and sheds rarely contain fewer than 60 of them every winter; and Mr. Coke, while he selects the Devons for his dairy, is zealously employed in grazing and winter feeding the improved short horn. The Devons are selected for whatever husbandry work is performed by oxen in Norfolk. SUFFOLK. THE SUFFOLK DUN used to be celebrated in almost every part of the kingdom, on account of the extraordinary quantity of milk that she yielded. The dun colour is now, however, although occasionally met with out of the county, rarely seen in Suffolk, and rejected as an almost certain indication of inferiority. The breed, consistently with the title of the chnpter under which it is placed, is in general polled, but some of the calves would have horns if they were reared, and even in the polled the rudiment of a horn is often to be felt at an early age. The Suffolk, like the Norfolk beast, undoubtedly sprung from the Gal- loway ; but it is shorter in the leg, broader and rounder than the Norfolk, with a greater propensity to fatten, and reaching to greater weights. Mr. John Kirby, the author of 'The Suffolk Traveller,' published nearly a cen- tury ago, describes the Suffolk cow as having ' a clean throat, with little dewlap, a snake headt, thin and short legs, the ribs springing well from the centre of the back, the carcase large, the belly heavy, the back-bone ridged, the chine thin and hollow, the loin narrow, the udder square, large, * Marshall's Economy of Norfolk, ii. 74. f There is much variation with regard to this. We have seen many Suffolk cows whose heads might be almost said to be clumsy, and who had their fair share of dewlap, but they were not celebrated as milkers, and, being soon discarded on that account, fattened with great rapidity. There was too much of the Galloway blood about them. THE SUFFOLK BREED. 176 loose, and creased when empty, the milk veins remarkably large and rising in knotted puffs ; and this so general, that I scarcely ever saw a famous milker that did not possess this point, a general habit of leanness, hip bones high and ill covered, and scarcely any part of the carcase so formed and covered as to please'an eye that is accustomed to fat beasts of the finer breeds.' The prevailing and the best colours are red, red and white, brindled, and a yellowish cream colour. The bull is valued if he is of a pure and unmingled red colour. In no part of the kingdom were the far- mers more careless as to the breed, providing only that the cows were true Suffolks. They merely inquired whether the bull came from a dairy of good milkers ; and even the cows, which they rarely kept in milk for more than two or three years, they bought at the neighbouring markets and fairs much oftetier than they bred them. Some exaggerated accounts have been given of the milking properties of the Suffolk cow, but, nevertheless, she is not inferior to any other breed in the quantity of milk that she yields. In the height of the season some of these cows will give as much as 8 gallons of milk in the day ; and 6 gal- lons is not an unusual quantity. The produce of butter, however, is not in proportion to the quantity of milk*. The Rev. Mr. Aspin, of Cockfield, had three cows, one of them a heifer with her first calf. They were kept on three acres only of grass, without any change of pasture until after mowing time, and in the winter chiefly on straw with very little hay. Both the old ones yielded 8 gallons of milk per day during the height of their season, and the quantity of butter made from June to December was 683 Ibs. The Rev. Arthur Young, the Secretary to the Board of Agricul- ture, forty years ago, adds, that one Holderness cow would have consumed all the food of the three, without returning half of the produce. There are few short-horn cows, although far superior in size to the Suffolks, and con suming nearly double the quantity of food, that will yield more milk than is usually obtained from the smaller polled breed. Fifty thousand firkins of butter are sent to London every year from Suf- folk, of which each cow furnishes on an average three firkins, each weigh- ing cwt., with |- of a wey of cheese f- * Some experiments were made by Mr. Chevalier, of Aspal, near Debenham, which would give a more favourable opinion of the richness of the Suffolk cow's milk. Three quarts of milk from a Suffolk cow, and the same quantity from a long-horn of Mr. Toosey's breed were set in separate bowls for 36 hours. The milk of each was then skimmed, and the cream from the milk of the Suffolk weighed 2-J ounces more than that from the horned cow. The cream was after that put into two bottles and churned, and one quarter part more butter was extracted from the cream of the polled cow than from that of the horned one. A variety of experiments, however, must be made before this question can be settled, and particularly in summer, when the milk of both is so much more abundant. The time which has elapsed from the calving of each should also be attended to, and the condition and food of the animals. The milk of a cow that keeps herself in good condition is well known to be more productive of cream and butter than that of a half-starved one, who pos- sibly may yield a greater quantity of milk ; and yet it may be questioned whether the superiority of quality always makes amends for the diminution of quantity. The most extraordinary milkers are usually the very worst looking animals. f Mr. Culley extracts from Mr. Young's Survey of Suffolk, an estimate of the produce of one of the cows: Three firkins of butter, each weighing J cwt. at 32*. *. d. . 4 16 .140 .100 A calf . 10 Total . . . 7 10 In 170 CATTLE. A little good cheese is made in Suffolk, but, generally speaking, the milk is*more profitably converted into butter, and the cheese manufactured from th*e skim-milk alone is of very inferior quality. [Suffolk Cow.'] The cattle are, by the majority of the farmers, much better attended to than they were when Mr. Young wrote his 'Survey.' He says, that 'few cows were confined in the winter to a cow-yard, but the cattle ranged over the fields almost at their pleasure, poaching the land dreadfully. Some- times, however, they were tied up in the field, without house, or shed, or roof to cover them. A rough manger was placed on the ground in which turnips, or cabbages*, or straw was given to them, and small posts were driven into the ground 3ft. Gin. asunder, to which the cows were tied. A faggot hedge was set up before them, or they were placed before a thick hedge in order to screen them from the blast. They were regularly littered, and the clung was piled up behind them in the form of a wall, which served them for another screen ; while a slight trench was dug at their heels to conduct away the urine.' It was imagined that this was better than letting In his third edition, Mr. Young calculating the butter and cheese at a higher price, makes the produce 8/. 12s. Gd. Mr. Parkinson, a very excellent writer on the breeds and general treatment of cattle, hut not to be depended upon when he speaks of their diseases, has the following very appropriate remarks on this, vol. i. p. 119, which we have somewhat condensed. ' When it is asserted that the best of the cows give '24 quarts of milk in one day, and that the profit of one of them for a year is only 71. 10s., the milk and the quantity of butter bear no sort of proportion to each other. There must be an error in the one ; for if the produce of this cow be only calculated at half a 3'ear. or 2G weeks, the butter would be 1841bs., which, at Is. a pound, would give 9/. 4.. ; the hog would be worth, in other butter and cheese counties, 2/. ; and the calf about 15s. Skim-milk cheese fetches from 2/. 5. to 21. 15s. in Dorsetshire and Somersetshire, which would make the produce amount to I5/. 13.,a sum much nearer the truth than that stated by Mr. Young.' * Forty years ago (1792) the practice of growing cabbages was almost universal among the dairy farmers ; but the butter was sometimes bad when the cabbages began to be decayed, and this vegetable did considerable damage to the succeeding crop. The culture of this food for railch cows is therefore in a great measure superseded. THE SUFFOLK BREED. 177 them range at will, and that every kind of food went much farther. The farmers believed that they were more healthy and profitable when thus ex- posed to the weather, than if they had a roof over them, and that the warmth produced by their lying so close to each other, and by the screen before and behind, was sufficient. Mr. Young remarks, ' if they do as well as under sheds much expense is saved, but this is a very doubtful question.' When they had calved, or were near the time of calving, they were brought into the cow-house. The land is now thrown a great deal more open than it formerly was. These high, impervious hedges are rarely to be found, and this system of feeding in the field is comparatively seldom adopted. There used to be, and still to a very considerable degree remain, some other points of bad management. Although the calves that are reared are selected according to the milking properties of the dam, few of the early dropped ones, which are generally the best, are saved. The price of veal then offers a temptation which the farmer cannot resist ; and the young ones are fattened and disposed of as soon as possible. The selec- tion is therefore made almost entirely from the later calves, and they have not so good a chance as the early-dropped ones would have had of becoming strong and hardy before winter, and thus acquiring a good constitution, and the certainty of thriving and yielding well. [Su/olk Bull.'] Another instance of mismanagement is not always avoided even at the present day. He says that ' the bulls are rarely suffered to live after they are three years old, however excellent they may be, for the farmer believes that if they are kept longer they do not get a stock equally good, and par- ticularly that their calves are not so large after that period.' Nothing can be more erroneous or mischievous. A bull is never in finer condition than from four to seven years old. Beside this, the practice of the Suffolk breeders is subject to radical ob- jection, for before the value of the progeny of a bull can be known he is slaughtered, so that if the cows got by him turn out to be the most excel- lent milkers, no advantage could be derived from the discovery, the sire of the stock being gone. N 178 CATTLE. To such an extent was this absurd practice formerly carried, that Mr. Young justly observes that ' having- obtained by accident, or by exertions, the memory of which is now lost, a good breed of milkers, the Suffolk people have preserved them almost by mere chance, and without any of the care and attention which their value demanded.' Somewhat of the same system was and is pursued with regard to the heifers. A heifer of scarcely two-years old, with a calf at her foot, is no rare object. This system of breeding- before the form of either the sire or the dam is developed ; this tax upon the power of nature to contribute to the growth of the young mother as well as to that of the calf, must be exceedingly injurious. She also at four-years old is frequently discarded and fattened for the butcher, unless she has displayed more than usually good milking properties. The Suffolk cow when thus discharged, poor and angular as she may look, fattens with a rapidity, not equal, indeed, to that of the Galloways, but greater than could be expected from her gaunt appearance. Whence she obtained the faculty of yielding so much milk, is a question that no one has yet solved. Her progenitor, the Galloway, has it not. The Holderness could scarcely be concerned; for, more than a hundred years ago, the Suffolk dun was as celebrated as a milker, as the breed of this county is at present, and the Holderness had not then been introduced. The fattening property derived from the northern breed is not yet impaired. The discarded cow is easily fattened to forty or five-and-forty stones, and the quality of her meat is excellent *. The grazing property of the Suffolk has been supposed to be increased by a cross with the short-horn ; but although they are both excellent milkers, their value has been uniformly lessened as milch cows by the admixture of the two, and the progeny, although better than the Suffolk for grazing, is decidedly inferior to the improved short-horn. Very few of the Suffblks, however, are bred for the mere purpose of grazing ; for, notwithstanding what we have said of their value in this respect, they are decidedly inferior to the pure Galloways. Vast numbers of the Galloways are bought at the fairs after Michaelmas. The same management is pursued as in Norfolk, and the Galloways from Suffolk join those from Norfolk in their journey to the London market, in the spring and early part of the summer. A great many Welsh cattle, and a few Irish, are also grazed, both in Suffolk and Norfolk ; but they do not bear so high a price in tlie market as the Galloways, and their meat, although very good, is somewhat inferior. The short-horns are also establishing themselves in some parts of this county as grazing cattle; but as milkers, they cannot contest the palm with the Suffblks on their native soil. Some Devons are found, but they are not so numerous or such favourites as they are in Norfolk. Lord Huntingfield has a very fine dairy of North Devon cows, and he spares no expense to procure the purest and most beautiful bulls from that district. In the year 1832, he gave two hundred and eighty guineas for a bull of that breed. His lordship is also very successfully engaged in the grazing and winter feeding of the improved short-horn. Some very fine beasts of his stock were exhibited at the last Smithfield cattle show, 183:?. There is no other breed of polled cattle of sufficient consequence to deserve distinct mention here. Mr. John Lawrence, in his excellent * Mr. Parkinson says, ' The oxen of this breed weigh from 570 Ibs. to "00 Ibs. ; and the cows from 420 Ibs. to 560 Ibs., and, in a general wav, I do not find any beef before them.' THE IRISH BREED. 179 work on cattle, speaks of the Northern or Yorkshire polled cattle. He describes them as having the same qualities as the short-horns, of different sizes, but some of them carrying vast substance, and he thinks that most of the various breeds of horned cattle are attended with horn- less, but perfectly congenial varieties. This is true to a very considerable extent. The Devonshire Nats, or polled cattle, now rapidly decreasing in number, possess the general figure and most of the good qualities of the horned beasts of that district; and the Yorkshire polls are almost as large as the horned beasts of that county, and as good for grazing and for the pail. Many breeders pay particular attention to the shape of the head in these polled cattle, and to a certain extent, also, in the horned ones. If the crown of the head is fine, like that of a doe, and drawn almost to a point on the top, the breed is supposed to be good. CHAPTER V. THE IRISH CATTLE. BEFORE we enter on the consideration of the two remaining breeds of English cattle, the long and the short-horns, we will take a very rapid glance at the Irish cattle. They are evidently composed of two distinct breeds ; the middle and the long-horns. The former is plainly an aboriginal breed. They are found on the mountains and rude parts of the country, in almost every district. They are small, light, active, and wild. The head is small, although there are exceptions to this in various parts, and so numerous, indeed, are those exceptions, that some describe the native Irish cattle as having thick heads and necks; the horns are short compared with the other breed, all of them fine, some of them rather upright, and frequently, after projecting forward, then turning backward. Although somewhat deficient in the hind-quarters, they are high-boned, and wide over the hips, yet the bone generally is not heavy. The hair is coarse and long; in some places they are black, in others brindled; and in others black or brindled, with white faces. Some are finer in the bone, and finer in the neck, with a good eye, and sharp muzzle, and great activity. They are exceedingly hardy ; they live through the winter, and some- times fatten on their native mountains and moors ; and when removed to a better climate and soil, they fatten with all the rapidity of the aboriginal cattle of the Highlands and Wales. They are generally very good milkers, and many of them are excellent in this respect. The cow of Kerry, with a portrait of which the reader is here presented, is a favourable specimen of them. Where they have much of the Kerry blood in them, their very wildness proves them to be the native breed ; for there is no fence nor ditch which they will not leap. The cow of Kerry is truly a poor man's cow, living everywhere hardy, yielding, for her size, abundance of milk of a good quality, and fattening rapidly when required. The slightest inspection of the cut will convince N 2 180 CATTLE. the reader of the differertce between this breed and both the larger and the smaller long-horned Irish one ; were it not for the cloddiness about the shoulder, and the shortness and thickness oi' the lower part of the neck, and the pied colour, we should almost fancy that we saw the middle-horn North Devon cow *. These cattle usually run small, and are confined to the hilly and moor grounds, or to the scanty portion of land possessed by the cottager and the small farmer. There are, however, some exceptions to this. In Con- naught, this breed runs to a very considerable size, and are improved in form as well as in weight. The horns, usually of middle length, turn up; as do the horns of those on the mountains ; but they are shorter in the leg, and shorter in the body ; their loins and haunches are heavy and wide ; although the hair is thick, the hide is mellow, and they thrive with a rapidity rarely excelled by any other breed. [Kerry Cow.'] Mr. Walker, of Belmont, in Wexford, informs us, that this breed is now not to be met with pure, except inland on the mountains ; being nearly worn out in the more civilized parts of the country, by repeated crosses with the Leicester, the Hereford, and the Devon; but that for the dairy, all the farmers still prefer those cows which show most of the native Irish blood. Mr. Culley seems to consider the middle-horn Irish as a mixed breed between the long-horns and the Welsh or Scotch, but most inclined to the * Mr. Rawson, in his Survey of Kildare, gives the following description of the native Irish beast : It should have a sweet, placid countenance, a neat, clean horn, head very small, neck very thin at the head, tapering gently, and increasing where it meets the shoulder, so as gently to cover it,_shoulders flat, and thin in the blade, chine not too fine, chest very deep and full at the breast, ribs rising roundly and swelling from the chine, couples close, hip not too wide, and nearly concealed by the high arching of the nbs, and the closeness of the couples, hind quarters broad and lengthy, narrowing gra- dually to the tail, which should lie snug between the bones, the quarters on the outside flat, on the inside full, but not extending too low, legs fine, and clean in the bone, but not leggy. THE IRISH BREED. 181 long-horns. This is an opinion to which we can by no means assent. The Very locality of these cattle, (the smaller varieties especially,) the mountainous and comparatively inaccessible situation which they occupy, seem to point them out, like the Welsh and the Scotch, as the aboriginal breed, and to prove that one of a very similar character was indigenous to both islands. The other breed is of a larger size. It is the old or the partially im- proved Craven or Lancashire beast, which we shall have presently to describe. It is the true long-horn ; the horns first taking a direction out- ward, then forming a curve, and returning towards the face, sometimes threatening to pierce the bones of the nose, or at other times, so to cross before the muzzle, that the animal shall be unable to graze. The following cut represents this large variety of Irish cattle, and is evidently identical with the Craven or Lancashire. In Tipperary, Limerick, Meath, a great part of Munster, and particularly in Roscommon, many of these cattle are found, of which, although we cannot say with the author of the Survey of the county of Dublin, that ' the cattle of Ireland are in such a progressive state of improvement, that in a few years the English themselves will be out-done, and will finally resort to us to improve their breed,' yet we can affirm that they are most valuable animals. [Irish Cattle.} Whence these long-horns originally came, is a question that has been much disputed. There is no doubt that they very much resemble the English long-horns, and have been materially improved by them ; but whether Ireland or England was the native country of this breed will never be determined. Ancient records are silent on the subject ; and in both countries we can trace the long-horns lo a very remote period. As from very early times Ireland has materially contributed to the supply of the British capital and the British navy, and thousands of Irish beasts yearly traverse almost every part of Great Britain, from Port Patrick to 182 CATTLE. the Thames, many persons have concluded that the English long-horns sprung from some of the Irish ones who were arrested in different parts of their journey. Others, however, and we think with more reason, finding the middle-horns in every mountainous and unfrequented part of the country, and the long-horns inhabiting the lower and more thickly inhabited districts, regard the first as the pure native breed, and consider the other to" have been a stranger race, and introduced, probably from Lancashire, where a breed of cattle of the same character and form is found. However this may be, there were a variety of circumstances which ren- dered the march of improvement much more rapid in England than in Ireland. "While the British long-horns had materially improved, those in Ireland, owing to the depressed state of the peasantry, their proverbial indolence in these matters, and the law of gavel-kind*, which, by the division of even the smallest portion of land among all the children, produced a too numerous class of embarrassed and starving tenants or little land- holders, had not progressed in the slightest degree. More than a century ago, some zealous agriculturists in Meath com- menced the work of improvement. Mr. Waller introduced some of the old Lancashires, a few of which long remained in Allenstown. Sixty years afterwards, a namesake and successor of his brought over one of the new Leicester breed. He permitted his neighbours and tenants to have the almost unrestrained use of him, and there was scarcely a cottager within three or four miles of Allenstown, that did not possess a cow dis- playing some traces of the Leicestershire blood. Mr. Lowther, the Earl of Bective, and Mr. Noble, successively contributed to the improvement of the breed in this part of Ireland. About the same time, Lord Massarene introduced some fine long-horned cattle into Antrim ; in 1775, Mr. Lesly, of Lesly-hill, imported one of Mr. Bakewell's bulls; and the cattle of the neighbouring country was materially and rapidly improved. The Marquis of Donegal imported tin- other true Leicester from the stock of Mr. Astley. Mr. Watson, of Bros- hill, likewise diligently crossed the country cows with a valuable Leicester bull. Lord Farnham was zealously employed in improving the cattle of Cavan, but he was long opposed by the not unfounded apprehensions of * Mr. Ross, in his Survey of Londonderry, gives an interesting account of this custom of gavel-kind and its pernicious effects. ' One great obstacle to improvement, and which is too general in Ireland, is their notion of the equal and unalienable right of all their children to the inheritance of their father's property, whether land or goods. This opinion, so just and reasonable in theory, but sp ruinous and absurd in practice, is inter- woven in Such a manner in the very constitution of their minds, that it is next to im- possible to eradicate it. In spite of every argument, the smaller Irish landholders con- tinue to divide their farms among their children, and these divide on until division is no longer practicable ; and in the course of two or three generations, the most thriving family must necessarily go to ruin. ' I knew a respectable farmer who held about thirty acres of arable land, in one of the mountain town-lands, and had two sons, between whom, according to custom, he equally di- vided his farm, which was thus barely able to support them and their families. One of these had himself four sons, among whom, during his lifetime; he also divided his fifteen acres, reserving to himself an equal share. Here then were five persons with three acres apiece; and as each of the sons, considering himself at once an established landholder, immediately married, there were five of the poorest and most wretched families that can be well imagined, without scope for their industry, trade or manufacture to employ them, or land sufficient to produce for them the common necessaries of life. ' Landlords blindly encourage this to increase their political influence. If the farm had -been bequeathed to one of the sons, and the others had been taught some useful trade, and a little sum of money given to them to set up with, all might have been respectable and happy.' THE IRISH BREED. 183 the cottagers and small farmers. ~ It was soon evident that he was able to fatten his cattle on less ground and poorer pasture than he could before, and raise them to a much greater weight ; but it was also plain, that in proportion as he gave this disposition to fatten, he lessened the quantity of milk, which the cottager could ill spare : thence arose a prejudice against improvement altogether, and which was not surmounted without considerable difficulty. In Langford the cattle were much improved by the exertions of the late Earl of Rosse, who imported several bulls of the best English breeds, and brought them to his highly cultivated demesne at Newcastle. On May 21, 1802, 10 six-year-old bullocks were sold at the fair of Ballymahoe for 400 guineas, and 10 fonr-years-old heifers for 300 guineas. These cattle were the property of Lord Oxmantown, (afterwards Earl of Rosse) and for size, shape, and fatness, could not be excelled. They were all fed on common hay and grass. In Clare, Sir Edward O'Brien and Mr. Doxon of Fountain, Mr. Molony of Kiltannon, and Mr. Blood of Riverston, did much to render the breed more valuable, by the importation of the improved Leicesters. In Ros- common, the Messrs. Finch were particularly active in introducing the Lancashire, Leicestershire, and Warwickshire cattle. . Almost every county and barony of Ireland had its zealous and suc- cessful improver of the native breed, until, in the richer and more culti- vated districts, the cattle became of as great a size and as perfect form as any which the midland districts of England could produce. There were, however, either two distinct breeds of long-horns, the one capable of rapid improvement, while the other, in a manner, set at de- fiance every means to add to the size, or give a tendency to early maturity, or there were found too great a proportion of agriculturists who obsti- nately refused to adopt the proper means for the amelioration of their stock; or there were many districts into which the improved long- horns rarely, or to a very inconsiderable degree, penetrated. From one or all of these causes it happened, that there are at the present moment two kinds of these cattle in Ireland, in character essentially different ; the larger, which we have described, and a smaller, prevailing principally in the north of the island. At first view, perhaps, these would appear to be the same cattle, only smaller from poor keep and bad management ; but their horns, long out of all proportion, their clumsy heads, large bones and thick hides, their bulkiness of dewlap contrasted with their lightness of carcase, in fine, an accumulation of defects about them, clearly mark them as being of far inferior value. Thousands of them, and more perhaps than of the improved breed, find their way to the midland counties of England, in order that some attempt may be made to prepare them for the metropolitan market. The pur- chase of them is quite a lottery, or demands great skill and experience. Occasionally they will thrive to a degree not much inferior to the Welch cattle, while at other times a lot of them may be put on as good fattening pasture as any in England, and be continued there the whole of the summer, consuming almost as much food as the largest oxen, and yet scarcely improving in condition. In process of time, the English long-horns, although of the improved Bakewell breed, began to lose ground even in their native country ; or rather a rival with somewhat higher pretensions appeared in the field. The improved short-horns began to attract the attention of the breeder ; and their propensity to fatten, and the comparatively earlier period at which they arrived at maturity, soon became evident. There were not 184 CATTLE. wanting spirited agriculturists in Ireland, who quicldy availed themselves of this new mode of improving the Hibernian cattle. Sir Henry Vane Tempest was one of the first who introduced the short-horn bull. The improvement effected by the first cross was immediately evident in the early maturity of the progeny. The pure short-horn, or this cross with the long-horn, weighed as much at three years old as the pure long-horn used to do at five. But the breed rapidly degenerated, and it perhaps must be confessed that the first experiment in a great degree failed, and particularly as it was found that while the cattle bred back to the native Irish character, they never fully regained their hardihood, or their reputa- tion as milkers. It was likewise found that the pure Teeswater did not suit the ordinary management of cattle in Ireland. They answered only where the farmer had capital' and quick return, and where he could house and feed them well. The Irish farmer had too much to alter in the system of treatment to which he and his forefathers had been accustomed ; and he often had not the means to effect the requisite change, or if he had, his prejudices forbade him to use them. The reputation of the short-horn, however, becoming more fully esta- blished in England, other attempts were made to introduce him into Ireland, and the experiments were more systematically conducted. Mr. Conolly of Castletown, to whom we are indebted for some valuable infor- mation, effected much improvement in Donegal. The pure short-horn was found too delicate for the severe weather and inferior food which they were destined to find in that mountainous district; but a half-bred stock was introduced, which improved the shape and increased the size of the Donegal cattle, and produced a better price. Mr. Conolly sent four bulls to his estates in that county, and they were highly approved. The prizes of the Farming Society of Donegal were adjudged to them, and their evident value has produced more attention to the care and feeding of cattle generally. Mr. Walker tells us, that ' within the last ten years, the breed has been greatly improved by crossing with the Dutch, the Ayrshire, and the Dur- ham ; yet that the improvements are mostly confined to the gentlemen and large farmers, for the smaller farmers (who are the majority of the inhabitants) consider that the short-horns require too much care and feeding, and that their milk is not so good as that of the native breed.' When speaking of the management of cattle in Wexford, Mr. Walker gives a faithful account of that which takes place over a great part of Ireland. ' The farms are small, and the occupiers of them have little capital, therefore, except in summer, when grass is plenty, the cattle live poorly and are exposed to hardships. For the same reason, the calves and young cattle are stinted in their growth ; but this does not appear to injure their milking qualities. They generally go to the bull at a year, or a year and a half old, so that they come into the dairy at two, or rising three years old. All cattle are here fed abroad on grass in the summer *. Some of the * The Rev. A. Ross, in his ' Survey of Londonderry,' published in 1814, thus speaks of the mode of letting, and the cost of these summerings : ' The grazing of cattle is paid by the summ, by which is to be understood, the grazing of a cow when above three years old. The proportions of other kinds of cattle are estimated by this in the following manner : A summ is divided into three equal parts called feet, which is thus applied. A year-old calf, is called a foot ; a two-year old, two feet ; a summ is three feet ; a horse is five feet ; two colts are equal to ahorse; six sheep, or four ewes and four lambs, the same; 24 geese are a summ. Thus then, if 6*. be the price of a summ, a year .old will be 2*., a two year THE IRISH BREED. 185 gentlemen and large farmers are beginning to cultivate mangel-wurzel and turnips, and to use hay ; but the generality of the cattle are wintered on straw and potatoes, and many of them very imperfectly housed. They of course thrive better and afford a larger profit, where care is taken of them ; but they are so hardy in constitution, as to yield a fair return under the common management *. Mr. Anderson, of Shelton, in a letter with which we have been favoured from him at the request of the Earl of Wicklow, describes the old Irish cattle there, as a low, broad, hardy breed, with thick heads and necks, and a thick hide. He says, that ' the farmers run their cattle out nearly all the season, only taking them in in the evening, and then giving them a small quantity of hay. They are good dairy cows, but do not answer well for the grazier, as they do not fatten so well, and have more coarse meat than the improved breed. The average weight of the cows are from four to five hundred weight, (Mr. Walker states that the average weight of the Wexford cow is about 4cwt.) but they might be greatly ^improved, if proper attention were paid to them ; for the calves, after the two first weeks, are generally reared upon butter-milk, and then left to shift for themselves ; only they have a little hay at night in winter.' Mr. Anderson adds that ' the breed is considerably improved of late years, by crossing with the Durham and Ayrshire.' Lord Wicklow, whose stock consists almost entirely of the Durhams, much to his credit, gives his tenants the free use of his bulls without charge ; and, encouraged by the improvement that has taken place, he purposes not only to continue, but to extend the system. Soiling in the house is not much practised in this district; but grazing in the summer, and hay in the winter, constitute the mode of feeding; except that some of the graziers keep up part of their pasture for the fat cattle, which they retain at the end of the season. These run out in all weathers, and have cribs fixed in the field to give them hay in a stormy night, but they have no shed over them. Lord Wicklow, who stall-feeds with turnips, mangel-wurzel, and potatoes, prefers the latter. The calves are reared on the cows, or have new milk given to them from the pail, and they are housed in winter, and fed on hay, with a few turnips or mangel-wurzel, each day. Lord Dunally, in a letter with which we have been honoured from him, says, that ' in Tipperary he has kept the North Devon cattle for many years, and much approves of them for feeding, for the dairy, for working, and also for hardness, or quality to bear bad weather. His Lordship states, that the usual weight of the native cattle, when fattened, is about five hundred pounds. He also gives a favourable account of the grazing properties of these cattle. He says, that ' they are often old 4s., a horse 10*., and so on. The charge for a summ in the mountains, from May to November, varies from 6*. to 16*., according to the goodness of the pasture. In the parks which are kept up for fattening, it is from 21. to 21. 10*.' * Mr. Rawson gives the following account of the strange privations to which the cattle are sometimes exposed. ' The droves of cattle when turned out are generally attended by a solitary herdsman and his boy, who are obliged to keep boundaries. Hay is never dreamed of as necessary ; and in case of deep snow of long continuance, the healing bul- locks have nothing to resort to but coarse grass on undraiued and unimproved moors and wet lands, which have scarcely been trodden 011 during the previous summer. Turnips, rape, or even straw are never thought of; nay, an extensive grazier would laugh at what he would call your folly, if you doubted the health of his bullocks on his coarse bogs. Houses or coverings of any kind are not thought of. Yet after all these severe trials of thriftiuess, when at four years old, they are put to fatten about the 1 st of May, and in five months are made fit lor slaughter.' 186 CATTLE. brought to be fat without stall-feeding; and when upon good land, only require fodder with hay upon the ground for about three months, and without housing. They are, however, frequently housed, and fed with turnips and potatoes with good success.' Mr. Moore O'Farrell speaks also of the great improvement effected in the Irish cattle within the last twelve years, by the importation of the Durham breed. He says, that 'they have displaced a cross of the long- horn Leicester on the Irish cow, and that the farmers of the country now prefer a cross of the Durham bull, on the Irish cow, to the pure breed, as being less delicate, and giving a richer and greater quantity of milk ;' but he very properly adds, that ' the two first crosses are most approved of.' Sir Robert Bateson, of Belvoir Park, Belfast, purchased in 1820, a bull and three cows, of Mr. Charles Howard of Melbourn, of the best short-horn breed, which succeed admirably in that district. Mr. M'Neil, of Larn, in Antrim, tried a Highland bull, but the breed was not improved, either for the dairy or the butcher. Perhaps there is no country in the world which, in proportion to its number of acres, contains so many cattle or possesses so extensive a trade in cattle and their produce, as Ireland does. In 1812, no less than 79,285 live oxen and cows were exported from Ireland, constituting full one-eighth part of the beef consumed in England, and stated to be of the official value of 439, 128/. From that period, the number seemed to be gradually diminishing. In 1824, there were only 62,393 oxen and cows exported ; in 1825, there were 63,524, and of the value of about 350,000/. No later details can be given, for the traffic between Britain' and Ireland was then placed on the footing of a coasting trade : the numbers, however, were not, until lately, fewer than they were in 1825. Before the establishment of steam navigation, many inconveniences and difficulties attended the transport of the Irish cattle. Many of them were driven a hundred or a hundred and fifty miles to the coast, where, if the wind was contrary, they were detained perhaps several days, with a very scanty allowance of food. They had none on the voyage ; and when they arrived at the English shore, they were often in a starved state, and scarcely able to walk. This may be placed in another point of view. In a dry summer, the English fed cattle are sent to some of the markets, and particularly to those on the western coast, and especially Liverpool, to great disadvantage. From the scarcity of food and water, they do not arrive in a prime state of fatness ; they have a long way to be driven, and are often badly supported on the road. In Ireland, they have had a capital summer for grazing, never wanting grass or water, and the finest long-horned cattle, a breed now almost extinct in this country, are sent over in the highest condition. Such is the facility of conveyance, that a steam-packet with a cargo of fat cattle will leave Ireland one day, and have delivered and be cleared out in good time on the following day. In addition to this transport of cattle for the graziers in England, Ireland supplies an immense quantity of beef, for the navy and merchants' vessels at all periods. During the late war, the cattle slaughtered at Cork for the use of the navy were, perhaps, more numerous than all that were disposed of in every other way. Mr. Culley saw at one fair at Ballinasloe, in Roscommon, 35,000 head of cattle, and half of them fat, all of which were bought up for slaughter at Cork. Of the vexatious mode in which the business between the gra- -zier and the contractor was often transacted, we subjoin in a note a somewhat humorous account, extracted from Dutton's Survey of THE IRISH BREED. 187 the county of Clare*: we hope that the picture is not a little over- charged. The perfect establishment of steam navigation, while it affords facilities for the transport of live-stock, yields still greater ones for the carriage of the carcase ; and cattle may now be slaughtered in the evening at any of the ports on the eastern coast of Ireland, and sent to Liverpool, and, by means of the railway, even to Manchester, in time for the morrow's market. We have stated that the old breed of Irish cattle is most valued for the dairy. They give, in proportion to their size, a much greater quantity of milk than the long-horns, and richer in butter. A cow is supposed to yield from 84 Ibs. to 112 Ibs. of butter in the year; a very good cow will * When the merchants are combined, the graziers are completely at their mercy, and suffer, not only every kind of gross indignity of treatment from these great men, hut serious losses from the cheating of every person concerned in slaughtering these cattle. As it is scarcely known in other parts of the kingdom, it may be at least amusing to detail the business a little. The grazier, finding no agent attending the fairs to buy, except some trusty friend of the merchants, who reads a letter from Cork or Limerick stating the rumours of a peace or the expected very low price, is obliged to drive his cattle to either of these markets. After driving them into either of these towns, he waits upon the great man, and with all humility, begs to know if he wants any fat cattle ; after a good deal of pretended hurry of business, and waiting for a repetition of the question, ' he believes he shall not want anything more than what he has already engaged, but to oblige Mr. , he will endeavour to make room for them ; as to the price, it is to be regulated by what the other graziers receive.' When this is settled, he must drive his beasts to a slaughter-house, many of which are erected for this purpose. He pays for this a high price, and must give also the heads and offal. He must sit up all night, superintending the slaughtering, and must silently observe every species of fraud committed by the very worst kind of butchers ; for, as has frequently happened, if resentful language is used to those scoundrels, they begin to whet their knives, and put themselves in an assassinating attitude. This in a slaughter- ing-house at night, and amongst the horrid scene of carnage around him, requires no small share of nerve. Next morning, without taking any rest, he must bring his meat to the cutters up ; here, unless they are feed, begins the second part of the fraud he has to suffer. First, they take for their perquisites several pounds of his best beef; and if he has cows, unless they are well paid, will cut away large quantities of the udder, which they call offal, and which is the property of the merchant, though he pays nothing for it. The merchant also gets the tongues ; and if, perhaps, the grazier wants a few, must buy them at the rate of three shillings each. The third scene begins at the scales : here another perquisite must be paid, and much good meat is refused, because, truly, it should be a few pounds less than the stipulated weight per beast. An appeal then is made to the great man, ' he is gone out,' ' he won't be home to- night,' ' he is so busy he can't be seen;' at length, perhaps, he is visible, and when matters are explained, " Really, Sir, I do not wish to take your cattle ; the prices I receive in England are so low, I shall lose by my contract ; suppose you would try if you could do better elsewhere, but I will agree to take your beef, though below the weight, if you make the terms lower.' The grazier has now no redress, and must agree to any terms. The business does not end here. Then he enquires what mode of payment ; bills at ninety-one days are the best terms he can get. He then applies to a chandler to buy his fat. When this is settled, the tanner must be waited on; and here, as well as with the chandler, bills at a long date are the only payment he can receive ; and as they are generally men of small or no capital, if their speculations should not succeed, their bills are worth little. This is but a small part of the gross indignities the grazier has to suffer. He has to transact a business totally foreign to his habits of life, consequently unable to cope with those, who, from their infancy, are used to the tricks practised in this business, and, therefore, able to avoid them, or turn them, perhaps, to their own benefit. The price depends, not only on the causes before-mentioned, but on the size of the beast, those of a large size bringing more per cwt. than those of a smaller one, which is a premium on large bone; and cows are always lower in price than oxen, though they are sent to England in the same packages ; and, if 'fat, go as the best beef, called planter's mess. 188 CATTLE. yield licwt. ; about half of which is consumed by the family, or in the country, and the remainder is exported to England. Carlow has the repu- tation of producing the best butter ; but the firkins containing that which is manufactured in all the surrounding counties are often branded with the name of Carlow. It is highly esteemed in London, and is often sold for Cambridge butter ; but much of the Irish butter is very salt, and some- times smoky and tallowy. In fact, there are three distinct sorts of butter in the Irish market. The best is sent to Dublin and to England ; and from the latter country, exported to the East and West Indies. An inferior sort finds a market in Spain ; and an inferior still, used to be sent to Boulogne. In Cork, the half Holderness breed is chiefly used for the dairy. The principal dairy counties are Carlow, Cork, Fermanagh, Kerry, Leitrim, Longford, Sligo, Waterford, and Westmeath. Very little cheese is made in Ireland, and that is of an inferior quality. CHAPTER VI. THE LONG HORNS. IN the district of Craven, a fertile corner of the West Riding of Yorkshire, bordering on Lancashire, and separated from Westmoreland chiefly by the western moorlands, there has been, from the earliest records of British agriculture, a peculiar and valuable breed of cattle. They were distinguished from the home-breds of other counties, by a disproportionate and frequently unbecoming length of horn. In the old breed this horn frequently projected nearly horizontally on either side, but as the cattle were improved the horn assumed other directions ; it hung down so that the animal could scarcely graze, or it curved so as to threaten to meet be- fore the muzzle, and so also to prevent the beast from grazing ; or imme- diately under the jaw, and so to lock the lower jaw ; or the points pre- sented themselves against the bones of the nose and face, threatening to perforate them. We have given a similar description of the improved Irish breed. In proportion as the breed became improved the horns lengthened, and they are characteristically distinguished by the name of ' The Long Horns.' The cut of the Irish cattle in page 181, will give no unfaithful representation of their general appearance and form. Cattle of a similar description were found on the districts of Lancashire bordering on Craven, and also in the south-eastern parts of Westmoreland ; but tradi- tion, in both of these districts, pointed to Craven as the original habitation of the long-horn breed. If there gradually arose any difference between them, it was that the Craven beasts were the broadest in the chine, the shortest, the handsomest, and the quickest feeders ; the Lancashire ones were larger, longer in the quarters, but with a fall behind the shoulders, and not so level on the chine. Whence these cattle were derived was and still is a disputed point. Our opinion of this matter has been already expressed when treating of the Irish cattle. The long horns seem to have first appeared in Craven, and gra- dually to have spread along the western coast, and to have occupied almost exclusively the midland counties. THE CRAVEN BREED. 189 There are, as in Ireland, two distinct breeds ; the smaller Cravens inhabiting the mountains and moorlands, hardy, useful, valued by the cot- tager and little farmer on account of the cheapness with which they are kept, the superior quantity and excellent quality of the milk which they yield, and the aptitude with which they fatten when removed to better pasture. The larger Cravens, occupying a more level and richer pasture, are fair milkers, although in proportion to their size not equal to the others ; but possess a tendency to fatten and acquire extraordinary bulk scarcely inferior to that of the short-horns of the present day. As either of these found their way to other districts, they mingled to a greater or less degree with the native cattle, or they felt the influence of change of climate and soil, and gradually adapted themselves to their new situation ; and each assumed a peculiarity of form which characterised it as belonging to a certain district, and rendered it valuable and almost perfect there. The Cheshire, the Derbyshire, the Nottinghamshire, the Staffordshire, the Oxfordshire, and the Wiltshire cattle were all essentially long-horns, but each had its distinguishing feature, which seemed best to fit it lor its situation, and the purposes for which it was bred. Having assumed a decided character, varying only with peculiar local circum- stances, the old long-horns, like the Devons, the Herefords, and the Scotch, continued nearly the same. There is no authentic detail of their distin- guishing points. Mr. Culley says that ' the kind of cattle most esteemed before Mr. BakewelPs time were the large, long-bodied, big-boned, coarse, flat-sided kind, and often lyery or black-fleshed.' This, however, is rather too severe a censure on the Cravens or Lancashire beasts of that day. From hints given by old writers, we may conclude that some of them at least were characterized by their roundness and length of carcass, coarse- ness of bone, thickness and yet mellowness of hide, and the rich quality although not abundant quantity of their milk. [Old Craven Bull.} 100 CATTLE. The foregoing cut contains the portrait of a Craven bull of the pre- sent day, but supposed to bear about him many of the characters of the old breed. He was drawn by Mr. Harvey as he stood in Smithfield market. Here were evident materials for some skilful breeder to work upon ; a connexion of excellencies and defects by no means inseparable. That which was good might be rendered more valuable, and the alloy might be easily thrown off. It was not, however, until about the year 1720 that any agriculturist seemed to possess sufficient science and spirit to attempt the work of improvement in good earnest. A blacksmith and farrier, of Linton, in Derbyshire, on the very borders of Leicestershire, who at the same time rented a little farm, has the honour of standing first on the list. His name was Welby. He had a valuable breed of cows, which came from Drakelow house, a seat of Sir Thomas Gresley, on the banks of the Trent, about a mile from Burton. He prided himself much in them, and they deserved the care which he took in improving them and keeping the breed pure; but a disease, which defied all remedial measures then known, broke out and carried off the greater part of them, thus half ruining Welby, and putting a final stop to his speculations. Soon after this Mr. Webster, of Canley, near Coventry, distinguished himself as a breeder. He too worked upon Sir Thomas Gresley's stock, some of whose cows he brought with him when he first settled at Canley. He was at considerable trouble in procuring bulls from Lancashire and Westmoreland, and he is said to have had the best stock of cattle then known, One of his admirers says that 'he possessed the best stock, especially of beace, that ever were, or ever will be bred in the kingdom.' This is high praise, and is recorded as evidence of the excellent quality of Mr. Web- ster's breed. It is much to be regretted that we have such meagre accounts of the proceedings of the early improvers of cattle. Little more is known of Mr. Webster than that he established the Canley breed, some portion of whose blood flowed in every improved long-horn beast. The bull, BLOXEDGE, the HUBBACK of the long horns, and, like him, indebted to accident for the discovery of his value, was out of a three- year old heifer of Mr. Webster's, by a Lancashire bull, belonging to a neighbour. When a yearling he was so unpromising that he was dis- carded and sold to a person of the name of Bloxedge, (hence the name of the beast,) but turning out a remarkably good stock-getter, Mr. Webster re-purchased him, and used him for several seasons. He was afterwards sold to Mr. Hanison, of Deakenedge, in Warwickshire, and Mr. Flavel, of Hogshill, where he died. Now appeared the chief improver of the long-horns, and to whom his cotemporaries and posterity have adjudged the merit of creating as it were a new breed of cattle. It is a disgrace to the agriculture of the times that Bakewell should have been suffered to pass away without some authentic record of what he effected, and the principles that guided him, and the means by which his objects were accomplished. The only memoir we have of Robert Bakewell is a fugitive paper in the Gentleman's Magazine, from which every writer has borrowed, and his obligation to such a source none has condescended to acknowledge. It tells us that Robert Bakewell was born at Dishley, in Leicestershire, about 1725. His father and grandfather had resided on the same estate. Hav- ing remarked that domestic animals in general produced others possessing qualities nearly similar to their own, he conceived that he had only to THE CRAVEN BREED. 191 select from the most valuable breeds, such as promised to return the greatest possible emolument to the breeder, and that he should then be able, by careful attention to progressive improvement, to produce a breed whence he could derive a maximum of advantage. Under the influence of this excellent notion, he made excursions into different parts of England, in order to inspect the different breeds, and to select those that were best adapted to his purpose, and the most valuable of their kind ; and his residence and his early habits disposed him to give the preference to the long-horn cattle. We have no account of the precise principles which guided him, nor of the motives that influenced him in the various selections which he made ; but Mr. Marshall, who says that he ' was repeatedly favoured with oppor- tunities of making ample observations on Mr. Bakewell's practice, and with liberal communications from him on all rural subjects,' gives us some clue. He tells us, however, that ' it is not his intention to deal out Mr. Bakewell's private opinions, or even to attempt a recital of his particulat practice.' Mr. Marshall was doubtless influenced by an honourable motive in withholding so much that would have been highly valuable ; and we can only regret that he was so situated as to have this motive pressing upon his mind. He speaks of the general principles of breeding ; and when he does this in connexion with the name of Bakewell, we shall not be very wrong in concluding that these were the principles by which that great agricultu- rist was influenced. ' The most general principle,' he says, (we are referring to his ' Eco- nomy of the Midland Counties,' 1 vol. i. p. 297) ' is beauty of form. It is observable, however, that this principle was more closely attended to at the outset of improvement (under an idea in some degree falsely grounded, that the beauty of form and utility are inseparable) than at present, when men who have long been conversant in practice make a distinction be- tween a "useful sort" and a sort which is merely " handsome." ' The next principle attended to is a proportion of parts, or what may be called utility of form in distinction from beauty of form ; thus the parts which are deemed offal, or which bear an inferior price at market, should be small in proportion to the better parts. ' A third principle of improvement is the texture of the muscular parts, or what is termed flesh, a quality of live stock which, familiar as it may long have been to the butcher and the consumer, had not been sufficiently attended to by breeders, whatever it might have been by graziers. This principle involved the fact that the grain of the meat depended wholly on the breed, and not, as had been before considered, on the size of the ani- mal. But the principle which engrossed the greatest share of attention, and which, above all others, is entitled to the grazier's attention, is fatten- ing quality, or a natural propensity to acquire a state of fatness at an early age, and when in full keep, and in a short space of time ; a quality which is clearly found to be hereditary.' Therefore, in Bakewell's opinion, every thing depended on breed, and the beauty and utility of the form, the quality of the flesh and the propensity to fatness were, in the offspring, the natural consequence of similar qualities in the parents. His whole attention was centered in these four points ; and he never forgot that they were compatible with each other, and might be occasionally found united in the same individual. Improvement had hitherto been attempted to be produced by selecting females from the native stock of the country, and crossing them with males of an alien breed. Mr. Bakewell's good sense led him to imagine 192 CATTLE. that the object might be better accomplished by uniting the superior branches of the same breed, than by any mixture of foreign ones. On this new and judicious principle he started. He purchased two long-horn heifers from Mr. Webster, and he procured a promising long- horn bull from Westmoreland. To these and their progeny he confined himself; coupling them as he thought he could best increase, or establish some excellent point, or speedily and effectually remove a faulty one. As his stock increased, he was enabled to avoid the injurious and ener- vating consequence of breeding too closely ' in and in.' The breed was the same, but he could interpose a remove or two, between the members of the same family. He could preserve all the excellencies of the breed, without the danger of deterioration ; and the rapidity of the improve- ment which he effected was only equalled by its extent. Many years did not pass before his stock was unrivalled for the round- ness of its form, and the srnallness of its bone, and its aptitude to acquire external fat ; while they were small consumers of food in proportion to their size ; but at the same time, their qualities as milkers were very con- siderably lessened. The grazier could not too highly value the Dishley, or new Leicester long-horn ; but the dairyman, and the little, farmer, clung to the old breed as most useful for their purpose. Mr. Bakewell had many prejudices opposed to him, and many difficul- ties to surmount, and it is not therefore to be wondered at if he was more than once involved in considerable embarrassment ; but he lived to see the perfect success of his undertaking*. He died when verging on his seventieth year. His countenance be- spoke activity, and a high degree of benevolence. His manners were frank and pleasing, and well calculated to maintain the extensive popu- larity he had acquired. His hospitality to strangers was bounded only by his means. Many anecdotes are related of his humanity towards the various tribes of animals under his management. He would not suffer the slightest act of cruelty to be perpetrated by any of his servants, and he sternly depre- cated the barbarities practised by butchers and drovers ; showing, by examples on his own farm, the most pleasing instances of docility in every animalf. * In that pleasing and instructive work, ' Illustrations of Natural History,' we find the following ingenious, but too severe criticism, on Bakewell's system. ' It was his grand maxim, that (he bones of an animal intended for food could not be too small, and that the fat being the most valuable part of the carcase, it could consequently not be too abundant. In pursuance of this leading theory, by inducing a preternatural smallness of bone, and rotundity of carcass, he sought to cover the bones of all liis animals exter- nally with masses of fat. Thus, the entirely new Leicester breed, from their excessive tendency to fatten, produce too small a quantity of eatable meat, and that, too, necessarily of inferior flavour and quality. They are in general found defective in weight, propor- tiunably to their bulk, and if not thoroughly fattened, their flesh is crude and without flavour : while, if they be so, their carcasses produce little else but fat, a very considerable part of which must be sold at an inferior price, to make candles instead of food, not to forget the very great waste that must ever attend the consumption of over-fattened meat. ' This great and sagacious improver, very justly disgusted at the sight of those huge, gaunt, leggy, and misshapen animals with which his vicinity abounded, and which scarcely any length of time or quantity of food would thoroughly fatten, patriotically determined upon raising a more sightly and a more profitable breed ; yet, rather unfor- tunately, his zeal impelled him to the opposite extreme. Having painfully, and at much cost, raised a variety of cattle, the chief merit of which is to make fat, he has apparently laid his disciples and successors under the necessity of substituting another that will make lean.' p. 5 8. f The writer in the ' Gentleman's Magazine,' to whom we have before referred, says that < the gentleness of the different breeds of cattle could not escape the attention of any THE CRAVEN BREED. 193 Mr. Bakewell's celebrated bull TWOPENNY was the produce of the Westmoreland bull, out of old Comely, who was one of the two heifers purchased from Mr. Webster; therefore he was, by the side of his dam, a direct descendant of the Cauley blood. Mr. Bakewell had afterwards a more valuable bull than this, named D. He retained him principally for his own use, except that he was let for part of a season to Mr. Fowler, and that a few cows were brought to him at five guineas a cow. He was got by a son of Twopenny, out of a daughter and sister of the same bull, she being the produce of his own dam. The method of rearing the young, as practised by Mr. Bakewell, was not very different from that now in use. ' The calves sucked for a week or a fortnight, according to their strength ; new milk in the pail was then given a few meals ; next, new milk and skim-milk mixed, a few meals more ; then skim-milk alone, or porridge made with milk, water, ground oats, &c., and sometimes oil-cake, until cheese-making com- menced, if it was a dairy farm ; after which, whey porridge, or sweet whey in the field, being careful to house them in the night until the warm weather was confirmed. Bull calves, and high-bred heifers, however, were suffered to remain at. the teat until they were six, nine, or perhaps twelve months old, letting them run with their dams, or more frequently less valuable cows or heifers*.' Starting a few years afterwards, and rivalling Mr. Bakewell in the value of his cattle, was Mr. Fowler of Rollwright, in Oxfordshire, on the borders of Warwickshire. His cows were also of the Canley breed ; most of them having been purchased from Mr. Bakewell; and his bull Shak- speare, the best stock-getter that the long-horn breed ever possessed, was got by D, out of a daughter of Twopenny, and therefore of pure Canley blood. Mr. Marshall gives the following description of this bull, and a very interesting and instructive one it is. It is a beautiful explication of some of the grand principles of breeding. ' This bull is a striking specimen of what naturalists term accidental varieties. Though bred in the manner observer. It seemed to run through them all. At an age when most of his brethren are either foaming or bellowing with rage and madness, old C, a bull, a son of the old parent Comely, had all the gentleness of a lamb, both in his look and action. He would lick the hand of his feeder ; and if any one patted or scratched him, he would bow himself down almost on his knees.' The same writer describes Mr. Bakewell's servants, one of whom had been with him 20 years, and another 32, and another 40 years. He likewise gives a curious account of Mr. Bakewell's hall. ' The separate joints and points of each of the more celebrated of his cattle were preserved in pickle, or hung up side by side ; showing the thickness of the flesh and external fat on each, and the smallness of the offal. There were also skeletons of the different breeds, that they might be compared with each other, and the compara- tive difference marked. Some joints of beef, the relics of old Comely, the mother of the stock, and who was slaughtered when her existence had become burdensome to her, were particularly remarked. The fat of the sirloin on the outside was four inches in thickness.' Mr. Young, in his Eastern Tour, gives the following account of Mr. Bakewell's manage- ment of the cattle ' Another peculiarity is the amazing gentleness in which he brings up these animals. All his bulls stand still in the field to be examined : the way of driving them from one field to another, or home, is by a little switch : he or his men walk by their side, and guide them with the stick wherever they please ; and they are accustomed to this method from being calves. A lad, with a stick three feet long, and as big as his finger, will conduct a bull away from other bulls, and his cows, from one end of the farm to the other. All this gentleness is merely the effect of management ; and the mischief often done by bulls is undoubtedly owing to practices very contrary, or else to a total neglect.' * Marshall's Midland Counties, vol. i. p. 358. O 194 CATTLE. that lias been mentioned, he scarcely inherits a single point of the long- horned breed, his horns excepted. When I saw him in 1784, then six years old, and somewhat below his usual condition, though by no means low in flesh, he was of this description. ' His head, chap and neck remarkably fine and clean ; his chest extra- ordinarily deep, his brisket down to his knees. His chine thin, and rising above the shoulder points, leaving a hollow on each side behind them. His loin, of course, narrow at the chine ; but remarkably wide at the hips, which protuberate in a singular manner. His quarters long in reality, but in appearance short ; occasioned by a singular formation of the rump. At first sight, it appears as if the tail, which stands forward, had been severed from the vertebra by the chop of a cleaver, one of the vertebrae extracted, and the tail forced up to make good the joint ; an appearance, which, on examining, is occasioned by some remarkable wreaths of fat formed round the setting on of the tail ; a circumstance which in a picture would be deemed a deformity, but as a point is in the highest estimation. The round bones snug, but the thighs rather full and remarkably let down. The legs short and their bone fine. The carcase, throughout, (the chine excepted) large, roomy, deep, and well spread. ' His horns apart, he had every point of a Holderness or a Teeswater bull*. Could his horns have been changed, he would have passed in Yorkshire as an ordinary bull of either of those breeds. His two ends would have been thought tolerably good, but his middle very deficient ; and I am of opinion, that had he been put to cows of those breeds, his stock would have been of a moderate quality ; but being put to cows deficient where he was full, (the lower part of the thigh excepted,) and full where he was deficient, he has raised the long-horned breed to a degree of perfection, which without so extraordinary a prodigy they never might have reached.' n No wonder that a form so uncommon should strike the improvers of this breed of stock, or that points they had been so long striving in vain to produce, should be rated at a high price. His owner was the first to estimate his worth, and could never be induced to part with him except to Mr. Princep, who hired him for two seasons, at the unusual price of eighty guineas a season. He covered until he was ten years old, but then, although otherwise healthy, he became paralytic in his hind quarters, and, consequently, useless. His sire, D, at the age of 12 or 13, was more active than bulls usually are at three or four years old. At a public sale of Mr. Fowler's cattle, in 1791, the following prices were given for some of the favourite beasts. This is a sufficient proof of the estimation in which the improved Leicesters were now beginning to be held. BULLS. . s. d. Garrick, five years old . . . 250 Sultan, two years old . . . 230 Washington, do. . . . . 215 A, by Garrick, one year old . . 157 Young Sultan, do. ... 210 E, by Garrick, do. . . 152 * This may be true, according to the character of the short-horns at that time, but Shakupeare does not so strictly resemble them in their present improved state. THE CRAVEN BREED. 195 COWS. . . d. Brindled Beauty, by Shakspeare . . 273 Sister to Garrick . >.-//. . 120 Nell, by do. ' . . . ; . 136 Young Nell, by brother of do. . . 126 Black Heifer . ,..'.. . . 141 Dam of Washington . . . 194 Fifty breed of cattle produced* . . 4289 4 6 Another improver of the long-horns deserves mention before we proceed, and that is Mr. Princep of Croxall, in Derbyshire. He was supposed, at that time, to have the best dairy of long-horn cows in the whole of the midland counties. He originally bred them from a cow of the name of Bright, who was got by Mr. Webster's Bloxedge, the father of the Canley blood, and he much improved his breed through the me- dium of Shakspeare, which, as we have just stated, he hired of Mr. Fowler for two successive seasons. It was remarked, that every cow and heifer of the Shakspeare blood could be recognized at first sight as a descendant of his t. Mr. Paget of Ibstock, in Leicestershire, should be added to the list of the improvers of the long-horns. -His cattle were of the purest of the Rollwright blood, and consequently of the Canley stock. Mr. Mundy of Derby must not be forgotten, whose cattle, although not so large as some of the improved Leicesters, were excelled by none in beauty of form or aptitude to fatten J : and, last of all, mention should * Mr. Fowler used to conduct his business on the old principle of selling. Mr. Mar- shall says that Mr. Coke of Norfolk used to have all the cow calves he could spare at ten guineas each, taking them when young; and in 1789, Mr. Fowler had ten bull-calves, for which he refused 500 guineas. The practice of letting bulls originated in this dis- trict, and chiefly with Mr. Bakewell, and was generally adopted. The bulls were sent out in April or the beginning of May, and were returned in August. The prices varied from ten to fifty or sixty pounds ; but in one case, as we have just stated, a bull (Mr. Fowler's Shakspeare) was let at eighty guineas a season. Some inconvenience occasionally resulted from this ; and a bull that appeared a very desirable one in the show-yard, was now and then returned, long before his season was over, not only as deficient in some material point, but as absolutely useless. Mr. Mar- shall very ingeniously accounts for this : he says that ' the breeder's object is to render his bull, to the eye at least, as near perfection as may be ; he is therefore made up for the show by high keep, as well to evince his propensity to fatten as to hide his defects, thereby showing him off to the best advantage ; the consequence of which is, that being taken from this high keep, and lowered at once to a common cow-pasture, he flags. Hence it is become a practice of judicious breeders, when their bulls are let early enough, to lower them down by degrees to ordinary keep, previous to the season of employment. -j- Mr. Parkinson says, ' One of the greatest excellencies in Mr. Princep's cattle, is their length, with smallness in their shoulders, giving so many fine cuts along their upper parts. Mr. Princep's cows are remarkably fat, so much so, I think, that if half a dozen of them were put in at the Smithfield show in their milking state, there would be very few of the cattle exhibited, and made up for that purpose that would equally attract the eyes of the public.' Vol. i. p. 1 54. "VVe learn from the same authority, that Mr. Princep was bid 500 guineas for a two- year old bull, and thirty (another account says fifty) guineas a cow for the use of his best bull to thirty cows, vol. i. p. 102. He was also offered 2000. for twenty dairy cows. A four-year old steer of Mr. Princep's breed, weighed 248 stones of 14 Ibs. to the stone, (424 stones Smithfield weight, or 3472 Ibs.) In addition to this, there were 350 Ibs. of fat, and the hide weighed 1 77 Ib. Another of Mr. Princep's oxen was fed by the Marquis of Donegal, in 1794. The four quarters weighed 1988 Ibs., the tallow 200 Ibs., and the hide 177 Ibs. J Mr. Parkinson bears the following testimony to the superiority of the new cattle, even at this early period. He is speaking of Mr. Mundy. ' There was one thing which prejudiced my mind much in favour of Mr. Mundy's cattle, viz., it was in the month of September that 1 visited his farm, and his park lying very conveniently situated for the 2 1S6 CATTLE. be made of Mr. Astley, whose breed, larger than Mr. Mundy's, but seldom so heavy as Mr. Princep's, were much admired. And now we may inquire, a little more particularly, what was the result of all these combined efforts? Was a breed produced, worthy of the talents and zeal of all these skilful agriculturists ? On the Leicestershire cattle, and in particular districts in the neighbouring 1 counties, the change was great and advantageous so far as the grazing and fattening, and especially the early maturity of the animals were concerned. We present our readers with the following two cuts of the improved Leicesters. \_New Leicester Bull.~\ This cut, and the following one, are taken from Garrard's beautiful engravings of British oxen. Both the bull and the cow were of the pure Dishley breed, and were the property of Mr. Honeybourn, Mr. Bakewell's nephew and successor. What is now become of this improved long-horn breed? Where is it to be found? It was a bold and a successful experiment. It seemed for awhile to answer the most sanguine expectation of these scientific and inhabitants of Derby, lie permits them to pasture their cows in it. I think the number seemed to be about eighty ; and as they probably belonged to half as many different people, without doubt bought of jobbers cow by cow and from various parts of the king- dom, it seems almost impossible that the whole mass of these cows could be selected of a bad kind; and as many of them had grazed in the park all the summer, they had had a sufficient time to fatten, yet there was not a single cow in the whole number that had the least pretensions to fat ; while Mr. Mundy had some of his own cows pasturing among them, many of which were fatter than any single cow could be found on some market days in Smitbfield. I do not know,' he adds, ' that a better trial, as an experiment, could be made, to show the superior value of Mr. Mundy's cattle.' These cows could not be very deficient at the pail, for one of Mr. Mundy's gave fourteen pounds of butter in one THE CRAVEN BREED. 197 spirited breeders. In the districts in which the experiments were carried on, it established a breed of cattle equalled by few, and excelled by none but the Herefords. It enabled the long-horns to contend, and often suc- cessfully, with the heaviest and best of the middle-horns. It did more ; it improved, and that to a material degree, the whole breed of long-horns. The Lancashire, the Derbyshire, the Staffordshire cattle became, and still are an improved race ; they got rid of a portion of their coarse bone. They began to gain their flesh and fat on the more profitable points; they acquired a somewhat earlier maturity, and, the process of improve- ment not being carried too far, the very dairy-cattle obtained a disposition to convert their aliment into milk while milk was wanted, and, after that, to use the same nutriment for the accumulation of flesh and fat. The midland counties will always have occasion to associate a feeling of respect and gratitude with the name of Bakewell. The Irish breeders owe everything to the new Leicester cattle. A new stock, in fact, has arisen since the improved long-horns were grafted on the native Irish stock. [New Leicester Cow.~\ Mr. Marshall, to whom, for a reason that will presently be stated, we are compelled again to have recourse, thus describes the improved Leicesters in his own time, which was that of Bakewell, Priricep, and Fowler. ' The forend long; but light to a degree of elegance. The neck thin, the chap clean, the head fine, but long and tapering. ' The eye large, bright and prominent. * The horns vary with the sex, &c. Those of bulls are comparatively short, from fifteen inches to two feet ; those of the few oxen that have been reared of this breed, are extremely large, being from two and a half to three and a half feet long ; those of the cows nearly as long, but much finer, tapering to delicately fine points. Most of them hang downward by the side of the cheeks, and then, if well turned, as many of the cows are, shoot forward at the points. 198 CATTLE. * The shoulders remarkably fine and thin, as to bone ; but thickly covered with flesh not the smallest protuberance of bone discernible*. ' The girth small, compared with the short-horn and middle-horn breeds t. ' The chine remarkably full when fat, but hollow when low in con- dition J. ' The loin broad, and the hip remarkably wide and protuberant. ' The quarters long; and level ; the nache of a middle width, and the tail set on variously, even in individuals of the highest repute ||. * The round-bones small, but the thighs in general fleshy ; tapering, however, when in the best form toward the gambrels. ' The legs small and clean, but comparatively long^[. The feet in general neat, and of the middle size. ' The carcase as nearly a cylinder, as the natural form of the animal will allow. The ribs standing out full from the spine. The belly small**. ' The fash seldom fails of being of the first quality. ' The hide of a middle thickness. ' The colour various ; the brindle, the finch-back, and the pye, are common. The lighter they are, the better they seem to be in esteem ff. * The fattening quality of this improved breed, in a state of maturity, is indisputably good. ' As grazier's stock, they undoubtedly rank high. The principle of the utility of form has been strictly attended to. The bone and offal are small, and the forend light ; while the chine, the loin, the rump and the * The Dishley breed excelled in this point. Some of the heifers, had shoulders as fine as race-horses. f Many of Mr. Fowler's breed, however, were very fairly let down in the girth. J This is considered by accurate judges to be a criterion of good mellow flesh. The large hard ligaments, (the continuation of the ligaments of the neck, united with those of the vertebrae of the spine itself,) which in some individuals, when in low condition, stretch tightly along the chine, from the setting on of the neck to the fore part of the loins, is said to be a mark of the flesh being of a bad quality. They are only proofs of great strength in the spine, and, probably, in the animal generally ; and indicating that the meat will be sinewy and tough. A wide loin, with projections of fat on the hips, may be desirable ; but there can be neither beauty nor use in the protuberance of the tuberosities of the bone. A full hip may be of advantage, but scarcely a protuberant one. || The quarters of Shakspeare have been described. Those of the bull D were not less remarkable, bis tail appearing to grow out of the top of his spine, instead of being a con- tinuation of the vertebrae ; and the upper part of the tail forming an arch, which rose some inches above the general level of the back. This, viewing him as a picture, has a good effect ; but as a point, is a very bad one for the grazier, as tending to hide the fatness of the rump. In this, and in many other points, the son and the sire are as dissimilar as if they bad no consanguinity. Mr. Parkinson relates an anecdote respecting the peculiar length of quarters, and length generally of these cattle. ' On my observing to Mr. Princep the remarkable length of his cattle, he said he was one day showing them to a gentleman, who, as the men were turning the best bull out of the house, exclaimed in astonishment, " When will all your bull be out ? " ' Parkinson on Live Stock, vol. i. p. 154. ^f This, however, is more owing to the gauntuess of the carcase, than to the actual length of the legs. ** The improvers of the long-horns have been in error, when they have considered this an excellence. The discussion of this point, however, will be advantageously deferred until we have considered the anatomy and proper form of oxen. ft A light-coloured beast always appears to be larger than a dark-brown, or black one of equal weight; therefore, perhaps it is, that the lighter ones are preferred. There is a kind of optical deception in their favour ; but, otherwise, if colour has anything to do with the value of the animal, we should give the preference to a dark-coloured one, as indicating superior hardihood, and generally with equal mellowness of skin. It is said that Mr. Webster's cows, the parents of the Canley breed, were red ; and so were some of the best of Mr. Fowler's. THE CRAVEN BREED. 199 ribs are heavily loaded, and with flesh of the finest quality. In point of early maturity, they have also materially gained. In general, they have gained a year in preparation for the butcher; and, although, perhaps not weighing so heavy as they did before, the little diminution of weight is abundantly compensated, by the superior excellence of the meat, its earlier readiness, and the smaller quantity of food consumed. * As dairy-stock, their merit is less evident ; or, rather, it does not admit of doubt that their milking qualities have been very much impaired. * As beasts of draught, their general form renders them unfit ; yet many of them are sufficiently powerful, and they are more active than some other breeds used for the plough, or on the road; but the horns generally form an insuperable objection to this use of them.' But what is become of Bakewell's improved long-horn breed? A veil of mystery was thrown over most of his proceedings, which not even his friend Mr. Marshall was disposed to raise. The principle on which he seemed to act, breeding so completely ' in and in,' was a novel, a bold, and a successful one. Some of the cattle to which we have referred were very extraordinary illustrations, not only of the harmlessness, but the manifes't advantage of such a system ; but he had a large stock on which to work ; and no one knew his occasional deviations from this rule, nor his skilful interpositions of remoter affinities, when he saw or apprehended danger. The truth of the matter is, that the master spirits of that day had no sooner disappeared, than the character of this breed began imperceptibly to change. It had acquired a delicacy of constitution, inconsistent with common management and keep ; and it began slowly, but undeniably to deteriorate. Many of them had been bred to that degree of refinement, that the propagation of the species was not always certain. In addition to this, a rival, a more powerful rival, appeared in the field. The improved short-horns began to occupy the banks of the Tees. They presented equal aptitude to fatten, and greater bulk and earlier maturity. Westmoreland was the native land of the long-horns. Webster had brought thence the father of the Canley stock ; and Bakewell had sought the father of his breed there : but even in Westmoreland the short-horns appeared ; they spread ; they established themselves ; they, in a manner, su- perseded the long-horns. They found their way to southern districts ; they mingled with the native breeds ; a cross from them generally bestowed increase of milk, aptitude to fatten, and early maturity. It is true, that a frequent recourse to the short-horn was generally necessary in order to retain these advantages, but these advantages were bestowed, and might be retained, except in a few districts, and for some particular pur- poses. Thus they gradually established themselves every where ; they were the grazing cattle of the large farmer and the gentleman, and an- other variety of them occupied the dairy. The benefits conferred by the improved long-horns remained, but the breed itself gradually diminished ; in some places it almost disappeared ; and at the present moment, and even in Leicestershire, the short-horns are fast driving the long-horns from the field. The reader may scarcely give credit to the assertion, but it is strictly true, that at the present moment (1833) there is not a single improved Leicester on the Dishley farm, and scarcely a half-horn. There are not a dozen pure Leicesters within a circuit of a dozen miles of Dishley. It would seem as if some strange convulsion of nature, or 200 CATTLE. some murderous pestilence, had suddenly swept away the whole of this valuable breed. Having thus endeavoured to do this breed of cattle the justice which it deserves, we will take a very rapid survey of the different counties which it formerly, or still occupies. WESTMORELAND. In the part of this county bordering on Lancashire and Yorkshire, and in the neighbourhood of Kirby Lonsdale, the long-horns used to exist in their greatest purity ; but whether the farmers have suffered the best of their stock to be drawn away, in order to keep up that of the midland counties, while the best of the Teeswater are brought into Westmoreland in return ; or, whatever may have been the cause, the effect is unde- niable, that the short-horns are establishing themselves, and the long- horns retrograding. A vast number of Scotch cattle are grazed in Westmoreland. They are bought at Brough Hill fair in the beginning of September ; win- tered on coarse pasture, or in the straw-yard ; sent to the commons in May; and the foremost being put upon the best grounds, they are ready to journey farther south, or even to be killed for the Westmoreland con- sumption in October. On the wastes there are many Scotch, and also many of the native breed, (the smaller Cravens,) with which neither the heavier improved long-horns, nor the short-horns interfere. In the better-cultivated parts of the country, the old and large long- horns are found ; they are excellent feeders ; they grow to a very con- siderable size, and lay their fat on the valuable parts. LANCASHIRE. In the southern part of this, the native county of the long-horns, that breed is now rarely seen in a pure state. In the neighbourhood of large towns, the Yorkshire milch cow is chiefly kept ; for where the quantity of milk is regarded, no breed can vie with the Holderness*. Where butter is made, a cross between the long and the short-horn is preferred. These cattle are said to be more hardy, less liable to illness, and the milk of the short-horn progenitor is little diminished in quantity, while it acquires much of the peculiar richness of that which is given by the long-horn breed. Even for grazing, the native breed is rarely seen ; but at the annual meetings of the Manchester Agricultural Society, the short-horns bear away the principal prizes, and in the centre of the county, although a premium was formerly offered for the best long-horn bull, not one has * The average quantity of milk, yielded by a good Holderness cow in the neighbour- hood of Manchester, is about nine quarts per day. A good long-horn cow will yield about seven quarts. Mr. Stevenson, who published a Survey of Lancashire, in 1814, thus computes the expenses and returns of a milk-farm, in the neighbourhood of Man- chester. The farm to which he refers was under the management of Mr. Peter M'Niven ; it contained 1 15^ Lancashire acres. . 15 acres of oats at 15/. . 225 20 ditto at 20/. . . 400 40 cows' milk at 12/. . 480 . Rent per annum . . 520 Taxes .... 84 Servants' wages . 234 Profit .... 257 1105 1105 THE LANCASHIRE BREED. 201 been shown for the last three or four years. We are much indebted to that society, and particularly to its indefatigable secretary Mr. Thomas Ashworth, for some valuable information respecting the present state of cattle in this part of Lancashire. On the hills and moors some Welsh cattle are found, and also small long-horn beasts, whether Irish or home-bred, and mingled with crosses of every kind. A society has lately been established at Liverpool, which promises to be of essential service in benefiting the agricultural concerns of that district; and the example lately set by a few great land- holders, and especially by the Earl of Derby, of keeping good bulls for the use of their tenantry, will speedily effect a considerable and very desirable alteration. If the old long-horn breed is, in a manner, gone here, something as valuable should be substituted ; but as yet, with the exception of the introduction of the Teeswater cattle, to the extent which we have stated, among the larger farmers, and the Yorkshire cows among the milk dairies, there cannot be said to be any prevailing breed esta- blished in the southern part of Lancashire. Mr. Bunnell, V. S. of Liverpool, assures us that in the neighbourhood of that town, very few cattle are bred for the purpose of grazing, and that those which are fed are chiefly confined to gentlemen's parks, and are principally Scotch Highland bullocks. To the same gentleman we are indebted for the following account of the supply of the Liverpool market. WEEKLY AVERAGE. ' 600 Irish beasts, average about 6 cwt. of 120 Ibs. 4 140 English do. do. 6 do. ' 60 Scotch do. do. 5 do. ' Of the cattle from Ireland, about twenty are short-horns ; sixty of the long-horn Leicester breed, and the remainder of the old Irish breed, with the exception of a few Devons and Ayrshires. ' Of the English cattle, about one-third are short-horns ; one-third Cumberland long-horns ; and one-third Herefordshire and other breeds. ' Of the Scotch cattle, about one-eighth are short-horns, and the rest Galloways and Highlanders, of various descriptions.' Towards the middle of Lancashire, we find some zealous breeders of the short-horns. Mr. Almond, of Standish, is foremost amongst them, and his cattle bear off the bell, even among the most successful cultivators of this breed. The Earl of Wilton is a frequent competitor at the meetings of the Manchester society. In 1830, he exhibited the best yearling short-horn bull, and some very fine specimens of cows fattening after milking. We meet with more of the long-horns, but they are principally of an inferior sort. Mr. Harrison, V. S. at Lancaster, thus expresses himself: ' Since the rage for short-horned cattle has commenced, and still goes on in this neighbourhood, the breed of the native long-horn has impercep- tibly declined, and it is now a very difficult point to find a good stock of long-horns ; there not being more than half a do/en breeders of them in a district of 20 miles. There is, however, Mr. Allen Kirk's stock of long- horns at Middleton, which for purity of breed cannot be excelled. ' The cattle in this neighbourhood are mostly cross-bred long and short-horn, short-horn and Scot; but the short-horn, with its various crosses, is that which has encroached most upon the long-horn, and seems to be rapidly superseding that breed. ' That the long-horn breed has deteriorated of late years is not to be wondered at, when a half-bred cow, or any other cross, will fetch a greater 202 CATTLE. price in any of our markets than the pure long-horn, whether it be for the grazier or the dairy.' Mr. Harrison gives the following account of the long-horn of the pre- sent day. ' The head long and thick, with a broad forehead, and the top of the head broad and flat ; large eye ; rather small ear ; horns flat at the base, becoming rounder towards their apex, rather drooping from their origin, and then ascending and curling in various directions. The neck and fore-quarters thick and heavy, but fine in the chine ; wide in the chest, but the sternum (the breast-bone) does not extend so far ante- riorly nor so high as in the short-horn, thereby making the neck appear to issue low out of the chest. Ribs short, body very circular and long in the sides. The horns are rather long, but the transverse processes of the lumbar vertebra? are much shorter than in the short-horn ; the quarters are also narrow, owing to the ilium not presenting so broad and horizontal a surface as in the short-horn many of them are also roughish about the rump, from the bones in the centre of the hip (the sacral bones). The thigh is generally rounder and larger, consequently affording a better round of beef than the short- horn : the tail is thicker, and the bones of the leg are thicker and heavier. The long-horn weighs heavier in propor- tion to his size and measure than the short-horn, and his hide is heavier, but it does not handle so loose and free. The colour varies ; but a red roan with mottled or red legs, and a white streak down the back, is the prevail- ing colour. Their average weight when fattened is eight score per quarter, but their value is not so great either for grazing or milking by nearly or quite 21. per head.' We have extracted this accurate account of the best of the present long- horns, that the reader may be enabled to compare them with the old Bake- wellian breed already described, p. 195. Crosses of all descriptions abound in the centre of Lancashire; one between the long-horn and the Holderness or the Durham being the most frequent and the most valuable ; and said here, more particularly, not only to retain but to possess in an increased degree the good qualities of both. They suit all parts of the county. They are of a more hardy nature than the short-horn, and they gain by the cross an advantage of more milk and butter ; they are also better graziers than the long-horns, fattening in less time and arriving at maturity much earlier. They are finer in the head and neck, the ribs are longer, and they still preserve their cylindrical form. They are wider also across the loins and quarters. They handle more freely, attain a greater weight when fattened, and the hide is not so heavy. The prevailing colour of this cross is red and white. This first cross is excellent, but the produce is uncertain ; and in the majority of cases, the third or fourth generation are long-horns again, but without the good qualities of the original stock. They are of diminished size, they are bad milkers, and will not graze kindly ; in addition to which, there is much uncertainty whether the cows will hold to the bull. Full one-third of the cows among some of these half-breds fail of being in calf. Some breeders, fully sensible of these disadvantages, have wished once more to restore the pure long-horn breed, but there is more difficulty in procuring good long-horn bulls than could be conceived to be possible in Lancashire, the original district of the long-horns : they have, therefore, been compelled to have frequent recourse to the short-horn bull, or their cattle would become almost worthless ; yet the cottager, without any resource of this kind, often has a* half-horn cow that is invaluable for his purpose. Mr. Harrison, although, with natural partiality, he is unwilling THE LANCASHIRE BREED. 203 to abandon his native long-horns, relates two experiments which termi- nated unfavourably with regard to them. The late Mr. Gibson, of Quern- moor Park, near Lancaster, tried an equal number of long and short horns for twelve months ; and on summing up the profit and loss at the expiration of the time, the short-horns had given considerably more milk : the butter account was also in their favour ; and they had improved considerably more in condition. Mr. Lamb, of Hay Carr, having to stock Ashton Park, a seat belonging to the Duke of Hamilton, wished to have done so with the long-horns ; but not being able to procure a sufficient number at the fair to which he went, he was compelled to buy a great number of half-bred ones. The half-breds fattened and were sold off a considerable time before the long- horns were fit for the market. Mr. Bolden of Kyning, and Mr. Jackson of Bowick Hall, are breeders of short-horn cattle ; Mr. Allen Kirk of Middleton, and Mr. Cottam of Heaton, are almost the only patrons of the long-horns in this district. Some good cheese is made in this district. The dairy-farmers usually prefer the long-horns ; or, if they permit any admixture of short-horn blood, they are anxious that that of the old Lancashires shall decidedly prevail. These cattle, when their milk fails, and they are in tolerably fat condition, average from thirty-six to forty stones, imperial weight. Their summer food is the native grass ; their winter food, meadow hay, with cut potatoes (those which are too small for household purposes) with oatmeal or bran, or cut straw ; but they are suffered to stand out in the field a great part of the day, although there may be little or no grass for them to eat. The calves are reared only in the spring, and suckled by the hand until they are seven or eight weeks old, when they are turned to grass, but still have a little hay for some time, and also hay-tea, or some other preparation in the evening. Ralph Thicknesse, Esq. of Beech-hall, near Wigan, will please to accept our thanks for his polite attention to us respecting the cattle of this district. We have described the north of Lancashire as being peculiarly the native district of the long-horns, and there, although a few short and half horns are occasionally seen, these are the prevailing, or only distinct breed : yet even there they are not what they once were, and compa- ratively few traces of the Bakewellian improvement remain ; nor do the cattle generally appear to be more valuable than when he sent to the borders of Westmoreland for the fathers of the improved. Leicester breed. Within the last few years, however, excited probably by the improve- ment going forward in Westmoreland, in the north, and in all the south of Lancashire, and jealous of the superiority of the short-horns, some farmers have endeavoured, and with considerable success, to renovate the long-horned breed. It is an object worthy of their attention, for although, as it regards the quantity of milk, the long-horns must ultimately be superseded by one description of short-horn cattle, and in early maturity by another, yet it is too valuable a breed to be lost, or to be much deteriorated. There are many large dairy-farms in this part of the country ; the long- horned cow is usually kept. The average produce is from 2^ to 3 cwt. of cheese from each cow, in a strict cheese-dairy farm, the family being also provided with milk and a little butter. 204 CATTLE. In the Survey of Lancashire, we find the following account of as usually conducted in this district. Cow-grass for 20 weeks Winter keep in hay Green food .... Attendance set against manure Profit . 3 4 t. 13 10 d. 6 4 10 12 13 6 . dairv rf. Cheese, 11 Ibs. weekly for 20 weeks, at 6d. per Ib. 5 10 Butter, Gibs, weekly for 20 weeks at Is. per Ib. 600 Calf . . . 136 12 13 6 DERBYSHIRE. The Derbyshire cows were originally long-horns ; and although of a somewhat inferior breed, they were very useful animals, and especially in the dairies of this county, the cheese of which has long been admired. What cross gave them their peculiar character, and especially their sin- gular horns, it is now impossible to determine. The head was frequently thick and heavy, the chops and neck foul, the bone too large, the hide heavy, and the hair long ; even the bag was often overgrown and covered with hair a circumstance very objectionable to the dairyman; they were little disposed to take on flesh and fat, for when some of the improved bred heifers had fattened for the butcher, the beasts of the old sort would be little better than skin and bone ; yet they were excellent dairy cows. {Derby Cow.] The above cut is a faithful portrait of one of the best of them. The horns are altogether characteristic. An attempt was first made to cross the Derby with the improved short- horn. The first cross answered admirably; but, as we have said, when speaking of Lancashire, the progeny of this cross was clumsily shaped, and in every respect inferior to its progenitors. THE CHESHIRE BREED. 205 Some partial attempts were also made to introduce a cross from the short-horns and the Devons, but it failed ; for although a considerable aptitude to fatten was thus obtained, yet, as a decrease of milk was the consequence, the breed was removed from the dairy; although, for grazing, it probably would have answered well. [Derby Bull.} This cut g-ives a faithful representation of the old Derby bull. This breed, however, has gradually died away, and it is comparatively seldom that a pure Derby can now be met with. The short-horns have taken possession of this portion of the territory of the long-horns also. The pre- judice against them as to their want of hardiness, and the thinness of their milk, has vanished ; and there are few dairy farmers now, and especially in the neighbourhood of Derby, that have any long-horns in their dairy ; and yet it is confidently asserted that some cows of the ancient stock have yielded as much as seventeen pounds of butter in the space of seven days. CHESHIRE. THE short-horn breed has penetrated into this dairy-county, and with variable advantage. Amidst the dense population of some of the agricul- tural districts the short-horn has materially increased the quantity of milk, but it is more than doubtful whether he has not injured rather than benefited the cheese dairy. The Cheshire was chiefly a long-horned breed, of very mingled origin, but which by degrees accommodated itself to the climate and the soil. It contained in it a portion of the blood of the old Lancashire, the Derby- shire, the Shropshire, the Staffordshire, and the new Leicester; and this in some slight degree clashed with the Irish long-horn, the Welsh and Scotch middle-horn, and the Yorkshire short-horn, and from a strange inter- mingling of the whole proceeded the Cheshire cow. She was a rather small, gaunt, and ill-shaped animal; yet she possessed a large thin-skinned 206 CATTLE. ha"-, swelling 1 milk-veins, shallow and light fore-quarter, wide loins, a thin thigh, a white horn, a long thin head, a brisk and lively eye, and a fineness and cleanness about the chops and throat. She has been crossed still more with the Durham. She has become of larger size, handsome in form, apter to fatten, but she has been decidedly injured as a cheese- dairy cow ; her quantity of milk has not been materially increased, and the quantity of caseous matter produced from it has been diminished, and somewhat deteriorated. Mr. Holland, following closely a former report by Mr. Wedge, and before the short-horns were so extensively introduced, says that ' calves to keep up the dairies are generally reared from the best milkers, both as it regards bull-calves and heifers. Those which are reared are generally calved in February or March, and are kept on the cows for about three weeks. They are afterwards kept on warm green whey, scalded whey and butter-milk mixed, or hard fleetings. Some give oatmeal gruel and butter-milk, with a little skimmed-milk mixed. This is given twice in the day, until the calves are turned to grass, and once in the day for three or four weeks after that. During the first and second winters they are kept in a yard with an open shed, well foddered, and turned out as soon as the grass is ready. In the summer following 1 , when they are two- years-off, they are put to the bull ; and during the third winter, they are, by the best farmers, tied up at the same time that the cows are : they are fed with straw night and morning, until a month before calving ; hay is afterwards given as long as they continue housed, and sometimes crushed oats when they calve early. The^coWs are taken up into the cow-houses as soon as the weather gets bad, and are permitted to go dry about ten weeks before calving. The usual dry food is wheat, barley, and oat-straw, hay, and crushed oats. The two former kinds of straw are given to those which are expected to calve early, on account of a supposed tendency to dry the milk up sooner ; oat-straw, and sometimes hay, is given to those that are not expected to calve until late in the spring; hay is given to all of them three or four weeks before they are expected to calve. From the time they have calved until they are turned out to grass, crushed oats are given twice in the day, and at the rate of three-fourths of a bushel per week. The cows are turned into an outlet (a bare pasture-field) near the building, from nine or ten in the morning until three or four in the afternoon, but have no fodder in the outlet; or if they show a desire of being taken up again, they are let into the yard and housed, and this is better than suffering them to stand shivering with cold in a field without shelter. The turning the cows out to grass in good condition is a matter much attended to, in order that they may start well ; for if a cow is not in good condition when turned out to grass, or has been too much dried with barley-straw, it is a long time before she gets into full milk. The introduction of green crops and particularly of turnips, and the practice of stall-feeding for dairy cows, has materially altered the old system of management. The grand object with the dairy farmer is to increase the quantity of his milk, and to continue it as long as possible. This cannot be more effectually done than by giving green or succulent food. The milk is more abundant, and it may be continued a month longer. The ox-cabbage and the Swedish turnips are the kinds of green food most cultivated in Cheshire. The former is given when the after-grass is consumed ; the latter are used in the winter, when the cattle are feeding on straw ; and as little cheese is then made, the flavour which they communicate to the milk is not of so much consequence. THE NOTTINGHAMSHIRE BREED. 207 Tiie peculiar art of the manufacture of the Cheshire cheese belongs to our work on ' British Husbandry,' generally. We have, at present, only to do with the cattle themselves. To that portion of ' The Farmer's Series' we beg to refer our readers, and also to Holland's ' General View of the Agriculture of Cheshire,' and Aiton's ' Treatise on Dairy Husbandry*.' There is, however, nothing singular in the management ; and Mr. Holland states it to be the prevalent opinion, that the quality of the soil is the principal thing concerned. The breed of the cattle has much to do with it, and the new breed has not yet identified itself with the soil. Mr. Fenna calculates the number of dairy cows kept in Cheshire at about 92,000 ; and, averaging the quantity of cheese made annually from each cow at 2^ cwt., it will appear that the amazing quantity of 11,500 tons of cheese are made every year in that county f. NOTTINGHAMSHIRE. This county, fifty years ago, contained few cattle except long-horns. It has already been stated, in page 189, that the females, from whom ulti- mately sprung the improved Leicester breed, were from Nottinghamshire. The earliest breed of which we have mention came from Drakelow, on the borders of the Trent. The cows which Mr. Webster brought to Canley were from the same farm ; and Mr. Bakewell's two heifers, the mothers of all his stock, were purchased from Mr. Webster. The better kinds of cattle, however, were confined to the banks of the Trent. In the clay district, the beasts were poor and coarse ; and in the forest, few that were valuable were bred. The short-horns have here also completely superseded the old cattle. They first began to appear in the vale of Belvoir, and thence spread through the lime and coal districts ; and now, either in the form of the pure Yorkshire cow, or many a varying and mingled breed, they occupy nearly the whole of the county. LEICESTER. In this county, in which the long-horns had been brought to their highest perfection, it would be imagined that the latest and most obsti- * Fuller, in his 'Worthies,' p. 68, thus speaks of the Cheshire cheese. ' This county doth afford the best cheese for quantity and quality, and yet their cows are not, as in other shires, housed in the winter; so that it may seem strange that the hardiest kine do make the teuderest cheese. Some essayed in vain to make the like in other places, though from thence they fetched both their kine and dairy-maids : it seems they should have fetched their ground too, wherein is surely some occult excellency in this kind, or else so good cheese will not "be made. I hear not the like commendation of the butter in this county, and perchance these two commodities are like stars of a different horizon, so that the elevation of the one to eminency is the depression of the other.' Dr. Leigh, in his ' Natural History of Cheshire,' and Dr. Campbell, in his ' Political Survey,' attribute the peculiar flavour of the Cheshire cheese to the abundance of saline particles in the soil of this county, and the latter says that where the brine springs most abound, the cheese is esteemed to be of the most superior quality; but this notion is now exploded. The places and districts most celebrated for making the prime cheese are the neigh- bourhood of Nantwich, the parish of Over, the greater part of the banks of the river Weaver, and several farms near Congleton and Middlewich. f In Lyme Park is a herd of upwards of twenty wild cattle, of the same sort as those at Chillingham, chiefly white with red ears. They have been in the park beyond the memory of any one now living ; and as there is no account of when they were placed there, the tradition is that they are indigenous. In hot weather, these cattle generally herd on the hills and high grounds ; and in winter in the woody parts of the park. In severe weather they are fed with hay, for which, before the hollies with which the park abounded were cut down, holly-branches were substituted. Two of the cows are generally shot yearly for beef. Ljson's Magua Britamiica, Chester, p. 729, 208 CATTLE. nate battle for supremacy would be fought between the long and the short-horns. What was the peculiar breed of Leicester before the time of Bakewell, it is now impossible to ascertain. Probably there was not any distinct one ; at least we have no record of it, and it was altogether neglected by Bakewell, throughout the whole of his experiments. The Leicestershire grazing grounds were always occupied by a strange variety of beasts from Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, and from Stafford- shire and Shropshire, and Herefordshire and Lancashire, and every neighbouring county. It was one of the recognized feeding districts for the metropolitan market, and its own breed was made up of a mixture of all the sojourners. Bakewell, however, created a breed for this county, the name and recol- lection of which will never be lost, notwithstanding the breed itself has so completely passed away. Although, however, the improved Leicester loiiij-horns have disappeared, it was from no fault of theirs, BakewelPs was decidedly an improved breed, the coarser parts of the animal were lessened, and the more valuable were increased ; but they gradually yielded to the superior claims of a race of cattle at that time scarcely known. Where a few of the long-horns do linger, the improved Leicesters are gone; they are the old breed of the country retained or returned. For grazing, and for early maturity, the long-horns must yield to the Durhams ; and it is only their adaptation for particular localities, and the peculiar quality of their smaller quantity of milk, in the production of certain varieties of dairy produce, that enable them anywhere to maintain the con- test. Thus they remain in Cheshire, in despite of the somewhat injudi- cious attempts to displace them, and the stock of few of the dairy farms of this and the neighbouring counties. About Hinchley, Bosworth, Ap- pleby, and Snarestown, a few of the farms are supplied by the long-horns, and more by a mixed breed between the Lancashire and the Durham. More than 1500 tons of cheese are made in Leicester every year, and it is said that 5000 tons are annually sent down the Trent from this and the neighbouring counties *. RUTLANDSHIRE. This little county could never make pretensions to a peculiar breed. Grazing was always the principal object here, and the Irish and small Scotch were most in request. Marshall, in his ' Agriculture of the Midland Counties,' says that in his time, the Irish had not long been known in Rut- landshire ; but that they were then bought in preference to the Welsh, and Shropshire, and large Scotch, which had been previously grazed. After one summer's grass they were usually sent to London, stall-feeding being little practised ; and occasionally hay was given in the fields to some of the best of them, to keep them until after Christmas. Many of * The celebrated Stilton cheese was first made at Wimondham, in the Melton quarter of Leicestershire. Mr. Marshall gives the following account of it: ' Mr. Paulet, who resided at Wimondham, a relation of Cooper Thornhill, who formerly kept the Bell at Stilton, in Huntingdonshire, on the great north road from London to Edinburgh, fur- nished his house with cream-cheese, which, being of a singularly fine quality, was coveted by his customers ; and through the assistance of Mr. P., his customers were gratified at the expense of half a crown a pound. In what country this cheese was manufactured was not publicly known, and hence it obtained the name of Stilton cheese. At length the place of producing it was discovered, and the art of producing it learned by other dairy-women of the neighbourhood. Dalby first took the lead, but it soon made its way in almost every village in that quarter of Leicestershire, as well as ia the neighbouring villages of Rutlandshire. Many tons of it are made every year." THE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE BREED. 209 the short-horn cattle, however, are now grazed in Rutland. The heifers are bought in at two years old, and sold in calf at three years old to the jobbers, who take them to the dairy counties, or to London. HUNTINGDONSHIRE. In the statistical account of it, it is stated that the county contained ' 9245 head of cattle, almost all of a mixed breed, and of a very inferior one too.' Parkinson in his ' Survey' of this county adds, that they were ' of all kinds, but good ones:' yet he confesses that they were beginning to improve on the side of Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire. Stone says, that they are for the most part purchased at distant fairs, and are the refuse of the Lancashire, Leicestershire, and Derbyshire breeds, or are bred from these sorts without any particular care in selecting them. They have very materially improved. The mongrel long-horned breed of the county has disappeared, and a great many pure short-horns are now found, or a cross between them and the Derbyshire. The cross between the two is gradually disappearing, and the short-horns are taking undis- puted possession of the district. CAMBRIDGESHIRE. The native breed of this county was a long-horn one ; but now the short-horns prevail in every dairy where the land is tolerably good, and on poorer land there is a smaller half-horn breed, which yields more and better milk than its appearance would indicate, but is slow and unprofit- able to fatten. The Rev. Mr. Gooch, in his ' Survey of Cambridgeshire,' tells us that Cambridgeshire having been a dairy country from time imme- morial, among other good milking stock attempted to be introduced, were the polled cattle, from the neighbouring county of Suffolk. Mr. Fuller purchased a dairy of them, but they began speedily to decline, when he re-sold them to their former owner, who took them back to their native situation, in which they were speedily restored to their original health. It is true that the Suffolks have never extensively established them- selves in Cambridgeshire ; but we know some dairies of them which answer exceedingly well. Few parts of England produce better butter than Cambridgeshire. It is curiously rolled up in pieces of more than a foot in length, and not two inches in diameter, for the convenience of the collegians, to whose table it is sent in slices, called pats. A great deal of butter is likewise sent to the London market, but there is not much cheese made, except at Sohan and Cottenham. A great many bullocks are grazed, consisting chiefly of the country stock, the Norfolks and Suffolks, and the Galloway Scots. The most profitable method of grazing is to buy them about autumn, and sell them at the succeeding autumn ; keeping them on hay and grass in the winter, and finishing them off on grass. On the grazing grounds about the fens, many Devon cattle are now prepared for the markets. NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. Northamptonshire is not a breeding district, but cattle are brought from other districts and purchased for the London market, and they as usual consist of a great variety of breeds. An Agricultural Society has, however, been established in this county, and is conducted with much spirit ; and in consequence of this, the short-horns are now diligently cultivated by many intelligent farmers*. * Marshall, in his ' Agriculture of the Midland Counties,' and quoting from ' Donald- son's Survey of Northamptonshire/ says, ' Very few cattle are reared in this county ; 210 CATTLE. The soil of Northamptonshire varies from a cold clay to a red loam. The cattle are first grazed in the old pastures, and those that have not been made fat at grass are afterwards stall fed. In the red loamy soils which are adapted for turnips, stall-feeding on them, with an addition of seed-hay, is generally adopted. No cattle are used in husbandry. It has been remarked to us by an eminent Northamptonshire breeder, that the quarter evil, or black leg (inflammatory fever) is rarely known among young cattle in this county. If this be true, it is an impor- tant fact, for there is nothing peculiar in the management of cattle here, and it would seem to connect the disease in some measure with the climate or the soil, and its productions. Observations on the districts where this disease is most prevalent, or rarely found, and the manage- ment of soil and produce of these districts, might lead to some useful con- clusions as to the cause of so generally prevalent and fatal a disease. BEDFORDSHIRE. In Bedfordshire, also, the long-horns, the old cattle of the county, have altogether disappeared. There is not a single farmer who breeds them in their pure state. Some half-horn cattle are to be found among the small farmers, and the cow of the cottager is here, as in so many other districts, the produce of the old long-horn and the Yorkshire, crossed in every possible way, and retaining the miiking properties of the one, and the hardihood of the other, and therefore fitted to become the poor man's cow. With this exception, there is no distinguishing breed belonging- to the county. A few gentlemen have the Devons more prefer the Herefords, and still more the short-horns ; the short-horns, indeed, are here, as everywhere else, superseding the rest. Bedfordshire contributes much to the supply of the dairy cattle of the metropolis. Many heifers are brought from the north, and having been delayed for a while in this county, and become heavy in calf, are sent forward to the metropolis. By some farmers, and in this respect we ima- gine foolishly over-reaching themselves, they are detained longer ; they are milked for one or two years, and then despatched to the metropolis. a few only in the open field (lordships excepted), and these are so crossed and mixed with the breeds of other counties, which are often improperly chosen, and so stinted in their food, as to render them comparatively of little value. ' In a few instances where attention is paid to the breed of cattle on the inclosed farms, the long-horns are the kind most preferred, and are far superior to the original breed of the county, both in size and shape, and extraordinary disposition to fatten. ' The dairy farmers in the south-west part of the county, hoyever, prefer the short- horn Yorkshire cows, from which county they are principally supplied ; and as they never rear any calves, they sell them when a few days old to a set of men who make a trade of carrying them to the markets of Buckingham and other places, where they are pur- chased by dairy-farmers from Essex, to be fatted for veal for the London markets. ' Soon after Lady-day, the farmer begins to purchase bullocks, and the breeds of Shrop- shire and Herefordshire are preferred. In the course of the summer, some Scotch and "Welsh cattle are bought in he begins selling off in September, and by the beginning of February the whole are disposed of. ' The manner of transporting the calves used to be bolh absurd and cruel. The jobber had often a long round to take to complete his purchases ; and after that, he had to travel 70 or 80 miles before he reached his abode or place of sale in Essex. Sometimes twelve or sixteen calves were put into one cart, and laid on their backs in the straw, with their feet tied together; and if the journey occupied seven or eight days, they had rarely any tiling to eat but wheat-flour and gin mixed together, well known in tlit line of country by the name of gin-ball, and thus the calves were kept in a state of stupidity or intoxication during the whole of the time.' THE BEDFORDSHIRE BREED. 21 1 Very few short-horns are bred in Bedfordshire, and, indeed, very few of any other breed, except by two or three spirited agriculturists, at the head of whom stands the Duke of Bedford. Francis, Duke of Bedford, began to devote himself to agricultural pur- suits in the year 1795 or 1796. The chief object of his attention was the improvement of the breed of sheep ; and of the spirit with which he en- tered into this, and the extent to which the country is indebted to him, and of those interesting and princely meetings, the annual sheep-shearings and the exhibition of stock, we shall speak in our volume on Sheep. In other parts of the ' Farmer's Series,' and particularly in the treatise on ' British Husbandry,' justice will be attempted to be done to the labours of this patriotic nobleman in every department of agricultural science. There were few breeds of cattle whose relative qualities and value were not put fairly to the test at Woburn, and one breed after another was Abandoned, until, at his decease in 1802, he was balancing between the North Devons and the Herefords. His brother, the present Duke of Bedford, (1833,) to whom we are indebted for permission to view every part of his farm, and for much valuable information besides, gave the preference to the Herefords ; and they, with the exception of a few Ayrshire and Yorkshire cowSj to pro- vide milk for the calves and for the house, and always a succession of West Highlanders to graze, constitute the whole of his stock*. Although he abandoned the North Devons, he still considered them to be an ad- mirable breed of cattle, and only inferior to the Herefords, as not suiting the soil of Woburn quite so well. A few North Devons are still kept for farm work, but they are not the true Bideford breed, but of the some- what heavier, but still more useful variety, most prevalent on the borders of Somersetshire. The pasture at Woburn is somewhat inferior to that of Herefordshire generally, and the cattle selected, and having much in them of the blood of Messrs. Tulley's, and Tomkin's, and Price's stock, are not so large as those which are principally met with on their native soil ; and they are not the worse for this. They lose much of the heaviness and coarseness of the shoulder which has sometimes been objected to in the Herefords, and they retain all the length of quarter, and much of the wideness and roundness of hip, and fullness of thigh, which have been esteemed the peculiar excellencies of the Herefords. A few of them might in their fore-quarters be mistaken for Devonshires ; but with a broadness of chine and weight behind which the Devons have rarely attained. There is little that is unusual in the feeding of these beasts. The calf lies with the mother for about a week, and is then taken away, and fed at first with milk from the dairy, and, afterwards, with skim-milk. It then runs on the ordinary pastures until two years old, when it is put on better keep ; it passes the third summer at grass, is stall-fed in the winter, and ready ftir market at three years of age, and will attain the average weight of ninety or ninety-five stones. His Grace has often exhibited cattle at Smithfield of a far superior weight. His present stock consists of from thirty to forty cows. The bull-calves are fattened ; the best of the females are retained for breeding ; and other beasts being bought in in the summer and autumn, seventy or eighty * No polled cattle are now grazed on the Woburn estate. After many trials, and some of them on a large scale, the Duke of Bedford gives a decided preference to the horned breeds. When the polled cattle were grazed there, the Galloways had gradually given way to the Angus, and Mr. Todd expressed to us his decided ooinion, that they fed taster than the Galloways, and afforded meat equally as good, P2 212 CATTLE. are usually stall-fed every winter. A new range of cattle-sheds and pig- geries has been lately erected ; a water-mill in the yard is fed by a con- cealed stream ; the straw-yards are excellently contrived ; and every pos- sible convenience, of a simple and unostentatious form, but in the structure of which neither expense nor ground has been spared, is to be found on the premises. Although the Herefords are now established atWoburn, the spirited proprietor of the abbey has not discontinued the experiments which were instituted by his brother, in order to determine the compara- tive value of other breeds. Mr. Todd, the very intelligent bailiff of his Grace, permitted us to have access to many of the records of these expe- riments. Our readers will not object to the transcription of one or two of them. ' 1819, May 20th, four Pembroke spayed heifers in good store con- dition, bought April the 29th, at 16/. 5s. each, and four polled Galloway spayed heifers, bought December 22d, 1818, at III. Us. each, in store order, but rather fresher than the above, having been wintered on the farm with very refuse bad hay, were put to grass in the same field, and kept there until October 21st, being a period of five months. Ton. Cwt. Qrs. The Pembrokes weighed on May 20 . . . 1 12 On October 21st they weighed . . . 1 19 2 Gained in weight in the five months . . .072 The Scots weighed in May . ... 1 10 1 Ditto in October . . . .' . 1 18 2 Having gained . . . . .081 1 bei Pel And being an excess of weight gained above that of thel,) ,, Pembrokes of .... I . . *. . *. The Pembrokes sold at 84 Cost 65 Gained by grazing 19 The Scots 74 Cost 46 4 Gained . 27 16 Excess of gain in favour of the Scots . . . . . . 8 16 From which, however, is to be deducted the value of the refuse hay which they ate. ' Twenty Devons and twenty Scots were bought in in October, 1822, and wintered. ' Ten of each sort were fed in a warm straw-yard upon straw alone, but with liberty to run out upon the moor. ' Ten were fed in a meadow, having hay twice everyday until Christmas. * They afterwards lay in the farm-yard, and had oat-straw and hay, cut together into chaff. They were then grazed in different fields, equal pro- portions of each sort being put into the same field. , ' Those that lay in the warm straw-yard with straw only, were ready as soon as the others, although the others had an allowance of hay during the winter. ' Sixteen of each were sold at different times ; March 24th, 1824, being the last sale. The Scots were ready first, and disposed of before the Devons. The Scots cost 71. 12*. \Qd. each, amounting to 122/. 5s. 4rf. ; they sold for . *. d. 235/. 18s. Gd. Gain by grazing 113132 The Devons cost //. 6*. 6., his live weight being 216 stones; and this extraordinary weight did not arise from his superior size, but from the excessive ripeness of his points. Mr. Bulmer having obtained a carriage for his conveyance, travelled with him five weeks, and then sold him and the carriage, at Rotherham, to Mr. John Day, on the 14th May, 1801, for 250/. On the 14th of May, Mr. Day could have . s. d. sold him for . . . 525 On the 13th of June, for . . 1000 On the 8th of July, for . . . 2000 Mr. Day travelled with him nearly six years, through the principal parts of England and Scotland, till at Oxford, on the 1 9th February, 1807, the ox dislocated his hip-bone, and continued in that stale till the 15th April, when he was obliged to be slaughtered, and, notwithstanding * This is true, because Hubback was ihe sire of the dam of Mr. Charles Colling's bull, Foljambe, who was the grandsire of Favourite ; and there can be no doubt that there has not been for many years any superior short-horn who was not descended from Favourite. Mr. Charles Colling is said to have considered that the bull, Foljambe, was the one who did his stock the greatest good ; and this is not improbable, as Foljambe was the sire both of the sire and dam of Favourite. Hubback, however, must have been a remarkably good animal, and considering the short time during which he was used as a bull, proved himself a first-rate stock-getter. The following account of ' Hubback' we had from Mr. Waistell, of Alihill, who, although his name does not appear conspicuously in the ' Short-Horned Herd Book,' deserves much credit for his discrimination here. He used to admire this calf, as he rode almost daily by the meadow in which it grazed ; and at length he attempted to pur- chase it from the owner. The price asked, 8/., seemed much for a calf not a year old ; and the reputation of the short-horns not being yet established, the bargain was not struck. Still he longed for the young beast ; and happening to meet Mr. Robert Colling near the place, he asked his opinion of the animal. Mr. Colling acknowledged that there were some good points about him ; but there was something in his manner of acknow- ledging this, which induced Mr. Waistell to suspect that Mr. Colling thought somewhat more highly of the calf than his language expressed, and, therefore, he hastened the next morning, concluded the bargain, and paid the money. He had scarcely done so before Mr. R. Colling arrived for the same purpose, and as the two farmers rode home together, they agreed that it should be a joint speculation. Some months passed by, and either Mr. Waistell's admiration of the calf a little cooled, or his partner did not express himself very warmly about the excellencies of the animal, and Messrs. Waistell and R. Colling transferred young Hubback to Mr. C. Colling who, with the quick eye of an experienced breeder, saw the value of the little beast. Mr. Waistell expressed to us (October, 1832) his regret (natural enough) at having been induced to part with the sire of the short-horns, and his extreme disappointment that when Hubback began to cover, Mr. Charles Colling confined him to bis own stock and would not let him serve even one of Mr. Waistell's cows. Edit. dSr 230 he must have lost considerably in weight, duHhg' these eig-ht weeks of illness, his carcass weighed Imp.-stones. Ibs. Four quarters . . . .165 12 Tallow ..... 11 2 Hide . ..... 10 2 ' This was his weight at eleven years old, under all the disadvantages of travelling in a jolting carriage, and eight weeks of painful illness. Had he been kept quietly at Ketton, and fed till seven years old, there is little doubt but he would have weighed more than he did at ten years old, at which age Mr. Day stated his live weight to have been nearly thirty-four hundred weight, or two hundred and seventy stones, from which, if fifty be taken for offal, it leaves the weight of the carcase two hundred and twenty stones. It is a well-ascertained fact, that, during his career as a breeder, Mr. Colling tried several experiments in crossing, and the breeds to which he resorted on these occasions, being very considerably smaller than the short- horns, this circumstance tends to corroborate the writer's opinion that he considered it desirable to reduce their size. The cross with the Kyloe led to no results worthy enumeration, but that with the polled galloway must not be passed over without comment. Before stating the circumstances attending this experiment, it may be proper to observe that no breed of cattle promised so successful a cross with the short-horns as the galloway. They were calculated, by their deep massive frames and short legs, to bring the short-horns nearer the ground, and to dispose their weight in a more compact manner : their hardy habits would be essentially useful, and the quality of their flesh and hair were such as to render the experiment still more safe. Add to this, that they could be obtained of a red colour ; and we are prepared to admit, even without the sanction of a successful experiment, that they were admirably adapted to cross with the short- horn, standing frequently too high from the ground, not very well ribbed home, and not seldom of loose, disjointed frame. To this breed Mr. Colling resolved to resort ; and though at the time when he did so, the event was regarded with some degree of ridicule by the pure-blood advocates, and comments passed which would have de- terred ordinary men from the exercise of their judgment, Mr. Colling persisted. He was much favoured by circumstances in promoting his object, which was to take one cross, and then breed back to the short-horn, the only course, by the way, in which crossing can be [successfully adopted. To breed from the produce of a cross directly among themselves will lead to the results which have induced many persons, without due consideration, to believe conclusive against crossing ; but to take one cross, and then return and adhere to one breed, will, in the course of a few generations, be found to stamp a variety with sufficient certainty. Mr. Ceiling's short-horned bull Bolingbroke was put to a beautiful red-polled Galloway cow, and the produce, being a bull-calf, was, in due time, put to Johanna, a pure short-horn, she also producing a bull-calf. This grandson of Bolingbroke was the sire of the cow, Lady, by another pure short-horned dam, and from Lady has sprung the highly valuable family of improved short-horns, termed, in reproach, the alloy. How far the alloy was derogatory, let facts testify *, * The dam of Lady was also the dam of the bull Favourite ; and as the grandson of Bolingbroke is not known to have been the sire of any other remarkably good animal, it is most probable that the unquestionable merit of Lady and her descendants is to be attributed more to her dam than to her sire. Edit. THE SHORT-HORN BREED. 231 It will probably be admitted that the prejudice against this cross was at the highest at the time of Mr. Charles Ceiling's sale. The blood had then been little, if at all, introduced to other stocks, and it was manifestly the interest, whatever might be the inclination, of the many breeders who had it not, to assume high ground for the pure blood, and to depreciate the alloy. Under these untoward circumstances for the alloy, what said public opinion, unequivocally certified by the stroke of the auctioneer's hammer? Lady, before-mentioned, at fourteen years old, sold for two hundred and six guineas. Countess, her daughter, nine years old, for four hundred guineas. Laura, another daughter, four years old, for two hundred and ten guineas. Major and George, two of her sons, the for- mer three years old, the latter a calf, for two hundred guineas, and one hundred and thirty; beside a number of others, more remotely descended from Lady, which all sold at high prices in fact, in a sale of forty-eight lots, realizing 7115 17s, Lady and her descendants sold for a larger sum than any other family obtained *. * The whole particulars of this first grand sale of short-horn stock ought to be pre- served. We extract it from Mr. Bailey's Survey of Durham. ' A Catalogue of Mr. C. Co/ling's Sak of improved Short-Horned Cattle, October 11^,1810. COWS. Got by Cows' Age. Sold Bulled by for. Gi. Bought by {J. D. Nesham, Esq., Houghton-le-Spring, Durham. Kate Comet 4 Mayduke 35 1 Mr. Hunt, Morton, Dur- Peeress Cherry Favourite .... 5 Comet ... 170J M y ;^ d > Marton ' 9 Do. . . 400 Do. Countess . Celina Johanna . . Lady Lady.., Cupid .... Countess ... ,. Favourite Johanna Old Phccni Do. f Sir H. Ibbetson, Bart., 5 Petrarch 200.J Dentoa Park, York- (. shire. 4 n^ i o ft [H.Witham, Esq.. Cliff *i UQ, ... lOv< TT ,, ~ r \ , .* \ Hall, Yorkshire. c A grandson of> ./-, nT ,, -n, ,-,, ix.J Lord Holing- 1 14 Comet ... 2 06( C \ Wr ^ ht '? ( l'' Cleas ' I broke.... .J * by, Yorksh lr e. rA daughter of~| {OL uaugiiier oil r ri Ph " 15 { 'Malton, Yorkshire. Laura Lady Favourite .... 4 Do. ... 210 Mr. Grant, Wyham. Lily Daisy Comet 3 Mavduke 410J M j. r re Rudd > Daisy Old Daisy {labourite } 6 Comet 14 Cora Countess Favoutite ... 4 Petrarch 7 Beauty ... fMissWashing-J Marsh 4 Comet _ m C . Wrightj Esq> 'W. C. ~ Eliza Comet 4 Mayduke Flora Do 3 Do. .., f A son of Fa- 45{ 70 Earl of Lonsdale. Miss Peggy { A jSf.f^ 3 Comet ... 60J ' Parington, (. shire. * j i fA heifer by),-, . o n irnf Champion, Mairdalene < i r i_- j. >Comet o uo. ... 170{ D1 ., ^y 1 ,, ( Washington j \ Blyth, Notts. 2669 BULLS. 232 CATTLE. As a specimen of the alloy, the reader is referred to this portrait of Mr. Berry's cow. It was taken three days before she calved, and exhibits her Names. Age. Out of . . . 6 Phoenix BULLS. Got by . .Favourite Price. Gt. Bought by r Messrs. Wetherill, Trotter, 1000 < Wright and Charge near ...9 . . Do I Darlington. rr /A. Gregson, Esq., Lowlinn, ... 3 Lady . . Comet \ Northumberland. 200 Mr Grant Wyham 3 Cherry. ... Do .. Do Petrarch ... 2 Old Venus.. . 365 Major Rudd. gA /Mr. Buston, Coatham, Dur- Northumberland . ... 2 Alfred . 1 Venus ...Comet \ ham. 110 JMr. Robinson, Acklam, Duke ... Do ... Do. ...Favourite ...Windsor .., 1 Yorkshire. ,Q_ I A. Compton, Esq., Carham, I Northumberland. 63 Mr. Fenton. 76 Earl of Lonsdale. - /Sir C. Loraine, Northum- Alexander , ... . . . 1 Cora Ossian . . 1 Magdalene. Harold . . 1 Red Rose... 2249 BULL-CALVES, UNDER ONE YEAR OLD. Price. Names. Out of Got by Gs. Bought by Ketton Cherry Comet 50 Major Bower. Young Favourite...Countess Do 140 { Skipworth, Esq., Lincoln- (. shire. Geerse Lady Do 130 Walker, Esq., Rotherham. Sir Dimple Daisy Do 90 T. Lax, Esq., Ravensworth. Narcissus Flora Do 15 Mr. Wright. Albion Beauty Do GO T. Booth, Esq., Catterirk. Cecil Peeress Do 170 JH. Strickland, Esq., Boynton, Yorkshire. HEIFERS. Price. Names. Age. Out of Got by Gi. Fought by Phoebe 3 Dam by Favourite . .Comet 105 Sir H. Ibbetson. vrkv o r r IOQJT. Bates. Esq., Halton Young Duchess.... 2 Do Do.... 3 { Castle, Northumberland. Young Laura 2 Laura Do 101 Earl of Lonsdale. Young Countess ... 2 Countess Do.... 206 Sir H. Ibbetsou. Lucy 2 Dam by Washington Do.... 132 Mr. Wright Charlotte 1 Cathelene Do.... 136 Mr. R. Colling. Johanna 1 Johanna Do.... 35 G. Johnson, Esq. 808 HEIFER-CALVES, UNDER ONE YEAR OLD. Price. Nnmei. Out of Got by Gs. Bought by Luc-ill. i . . t Laura Comet 106 Mr. Grant. r .. . r n , n /Sir H. V. Tempest, Bart., Win- Cahsta Cora Do 50 { yard,Durham. White Rose Lily Yarbro' 75 Mr. Strickland. Ruby Red Rose ... Do 50 Major Bower. Cowslip , . . , Comet 25 Earl of Lonsdale. 306 From THE SHORT-HORN BREED. 233 usual condition. She gives" a moderate quantity of particularly rich milk. [ The Rev. H. Berry' t Cow.] It would answer no useful purpose, and would certainly be an objec- tionable course, to bring under particular notice any one or more of the highly valuable stocks of improved short-horns of the present day. To enumerate all would be impossible ; and the writer of this account would most studiously avoid any partial or invidious comparison. The same objection does not, however, exist, as to a remote period ; and it is but justice to state that Mr. Robert Colling, brother of Mr. Charles, (who certainly was the leader, and surpassed all competitors in the improve- ment of the short-horns,*) Mr. Charge, of Newton, near Darlington, and From the above it appears that 1 7 cows were sold for . s. d. 2802 9 11 bulls 2361 9 7 bull-calves 687 15 7 heifers 942 18 5 heifer-calves 321 6 In all 47 were sold for 7115 17 * Mr. Robert Ceiling's stock was not sold off until the 29th September, 1818, when the following great prices were obtained for some of his cattle, a sufficient proof of the estima- tion in which they were held : One 2 -year old cow . . . sold for .... 331 guineas. One 4-year old cow ... , ... 300 One 5-year old cow ... , .... 370 ,, One 1 -year old bull-calf . . , ... 270 One 4-year old bull ... , .... 621 It appears by the catalogue, with printed p ices affixed, that 34 cows sold for . . . .4141 guineas. 17 heifers ... 1287 6 bulls .... 1343 4 bull calves ...... 713 61 head of cattle 7484 Ten 234 CATTLE, Mr. Mason, of Chilton, in the county of Durham, were only second to Mr. Charles Colling in his interesting and useful pursuit. Mr. Mason started early with animals derived, it is believed, from Mr. Colling, in the very commencement of his career ; and Mr. Charge, who had long possessed a most valuable stock of Teeswater cattle, had at an early period crossed them with Mr. Ceiling's best bulls, and was one of the spirited purchasers of Comet, at a thousand guineas. Mr. Mason's late successful sale suffi- ciently stamps the value of his stock at that period, but, it is generally admitted, the system of crossing with other herds, which he had of late years judiciously adopted, proved highly instrumental in restoring those qualities in his own, which too close breeding had in some degree threat- ened to deprive them of. It would be unfair, on this occasion, to omit mention of a veteran breeder, to whom the advocates for the preservation of pedigree are in- debted for the ' Short-horn Herd Book' Mr. George Coates. He is now one of the oldest authorities on the subject in existence, and was once the possessor of a very superior race of short-horns, though some- what coarse. Portraits have been preserved of some very fine animals bred by him ; and he had the solid satisfaction to dispose of his bull Patriot for five hundred guineas. Mr. Coates fell into an error, but too common, and generally equally fatal : he fancied his own stock the best, and disdained to cross them with Mr. Ceiling's ; which, as others afterwards proved, would have been a most judicious proceeding. The consequence was, Mr. Colling's sale having settled the public judgment and taste, Mr. Coates's stock fell into disrepute. If an apology be requisite for this statement of an undeniable fact, it will be found in the utility of holding up such an example as a caution to those who may be in danger of falling into a similar error. It is considered that the specimens already appealed to, and the fine animals, whose portraits accompany this account, the property of the noble President of the Smithfield Club, will render superfluous any attempt more particularly to describe the short-horns. Of course they will be found to vary greatly ; but sufficient may be collected from what is pre- sented to the reader to inform him as to the character of this superior breed of cattle*. The next object, then, will be to show their capabilities to make a return for food consumed, and the unparalleled early period at which such return may be made. Indeed, early maturity is the grand and elevating characteristic of the short-horns, and their capacity to con- tinue growing, and at the same time attaining an unexampled ripeness of condition at an early age, has excited the wonder, and obtained the appro- bation, of every looker-on not blinded by prejudice. In order to do justice to the subject, and to show that these properties are not all of recent acquirement, but were possessed in an eminent degree by the Teeswater cattle, as well as the improved short-horns, it will be requi- site to return to the former for a few facts in evidence. About fifty years ago, Sir Henry Grey (of Howick) bred two oxen, which were fed by Mr. Waistel, and when six years old weighed 130 stones each, 141b. to the stone ; their inside fat being most extraordinary. A heifer, three years old, bred by Miss Allen (of Grange), fed on hay and grass alone, weighed 90 stones. Te.n days afterwards, General Simson's stock of the same breed were sold at his seat at Pitcorthie, Fifeshire. As a proof of the established reputation of the short-horns, even so far north, and the degree to which they would even then thrive, in a climate so diffe- rent from their native one, it may be stated that 1 2 cows, 5 two-year old heifers, 3 bull- calves, 7 bulls, 4 one-year old heifers, and 6 quey calves, 37 in all, sold for 1388 guineas, or nearly 40/. per head. * For portraits of Lord Althorp's cow and heifer, see pp. 236, 237. THE SHORT-HORN BREED. 235 Two three year's-old steers, bred by the same lady, and similarly fed, weighed respectively 92 and 96 stones. Mr. Waistel's four years'-old ox, by the bull supposed to be the grand- sire of Hubback, weighed 110 stones. A four years'-old ox, bred by Mr. Simpson (of AyclifFe), fed on hay and turnips only, weighed 135 stones. About the same period, a five years'-old heifer, bred by a bishop of Durham, weighed 110 stones. A cow of Mr. Hill's, slaughtered in Northumberland, weighed 127 stones. Mr. George Coates, before-mentioned, slaughtered a heifer, by the sup- posed sire of Hubback, which, fed on turnips and hay, weighed, at two years and two months old, 68 stones. An ox and heifer, bred by Mr. Watson (of Manfield), weighed, at four years old, within a few pounds, 110 stones each. A sister to Mr. G. Coates's Badsworth, having run with her dam, and fared as she did, without cake or corn, met with an accident, and died when seven months old ; she weighed 34 stones. A steer, by a brother to the above heifer, three years and two months old, weighed 105 stones ; and another steer, by the same bull, exactly three years old, weighed 95 stones. Both were kept as store-beasts till two years old. An ox, bred by Mr. Hill (of Blackwell), slaughtered at six years old, weighed 151 stones, lOlbs. ; tallow, 11 stones. The Howick red ox, seven years old, weighed 152 stones, 91b. ; tallow, 16 stones, 71b. Mr. Charge's ox, seven years old, weighed 168 stones, lOlb. ; tallow, 13 stones. The foregoing instances of weight and proof satisfactorily show, that in the Teeswater cattle, Mr. Charles Collins had pretty good materials with which to commence operations. Let us now refer to a later period, and state some particulars respecting their descendants, the improved short- horns. In the year 1808, Mr. Bailey, the agricultural historian of Durham, in- forms us, he saw, at Mr. Mason's (of Chilton), a cow, not less remarkable in point of fat than the Durham ox. At that time, the depth of fat, from the rump to the hips, in a perpendicular position, was not less than twelve inches ; and the shoulder score, at least nine inches thick. Mr. Robert Colling's heifer, which, like the Durham ox, was exhibited as a curiosity, was estimated, at four years old, to weigh 130 stones. The same gentleman sold, in Darlington Market, on the 18th of April, 1808, a two years'-old steer for 221. ; the price of fat stock being at that time seven shillings per stone. At Mr. Nesham's (of Houghton-le-Spring), Mr. Bailey saw a steer, 25 months old, completely covered with fat over the whole carcase, and sup- posed to be the fattest steer of his age ever seen. Butchers estimated him to weigh 75 stones. Neither of the last-mentioned were of large size, and would not have weighed above 40 stones had they been no fatter than those usually slaughtered. Mr. Wetherill (of Field House) sold at the fair in Darlington, in March, 1810, two steers, under three years old, for 47/. 10s. each. The price of cattle at that fair, 10s. per stone*. * Mr. Bailey observes, that the common practice among the breeders of the improved short-horns, and which he first observed at Mr. WetherilFs, was to put the year-old heifers to the bull the beginning of July, so as to calve not later than the middle of May. The 236 CATTLE. Mr. Arrowstnith (of Ferryhill), who fed off his short-horns at two years old, furnished the following particulars of the prices he obtained from the butchers: viz. In 1801, sold four for 25/. each ; two steers, and two heifers. 1802, six for 17/. 10s. each ; three steers, and three heifers. 1803, four for 171. each. 1804, six for 181. 10s. each. 1805, six for 171. 10s. each ; two steers, and four heifers. 1806, four for 16/. each. 1807, eight for 131. each. 1808, eight for 19/. each. The time of selling 1 , from the beginning to the latter end of May. Management. In the first winter they got straw in a fold-yard, with nearly as many turnips as they could consume ; in May they went to grass ; in November put to turnips through the winter, and turned to grass the first week in May. A twin heifer, belonging to Mr. Arrowsmith, calved the last week in April, being kept the first year as the store-stock, was entered for a sweepstakes, to be shown in June, at which time she would be two years old. She was immediately turned to grass in the usual pasture. In No- calves ran with and sucked their dams until August. The cows were then put upon foy, fed through the winter with turnips, and sold to the butchers in May or June following, for 25/. on an average, which, with the value of the calf, could not be reckoned at less than 30/. for a three-year-old heifer. The following are portraits of a cow and heifer belonging to Lord Althorp : [Lord Althorp's Cow.'] The cow, marked in his lordship's herd-book ly the figures 25, is particularly dis- tinguished by the excellence of her crop, plates, and loins. THE SHORT-HORN BREED. 237 vember she was estimated to weigh 28 stones ; when she was put to the ruta baga, and hay, and oil-cake, of which she ate 4 cwt., with 2 bush, bean-meal, and 1 bush, barley. She went to grass again on the first of May, and from that period had neither cake nor corn. On the 23d of July, it was the unanimous opinion of the best judges that she weighed 58 or 60 stones ; having gained 30 stones in 30 weeks. In April, 1808, Mr. Bailey saw, at Mr. Arrowsmith's, eight yearlings, intended for the course of feeding described as adopted by that gentleman ; whose sales, from 1801 to 1808 inclusive, have been already particularized. They were very lean, not more than 15 stones each; and had they been offered for sale in a fair, no person, unacquainted with the breed, would have given more for them than 41. 10s. or 5/. per head. Mr. Walton (of Middleton in Teesdale) had been, in 1808, in the habit of selling his steers, at two years and a quarter old, at from 2QI. to 30/. each ; their weight being 50 to 54 stones, fed solely on vegetable food. He often, for the sake of experiment, bought in calves of the improved, or old breed of the county, and he uniformly found that his own at two years old got fatter, and fitter for the butcher, than the others did at three, although fed and kept exactly alike. Mr. Mason (of Chilton), in the course of an experiment to ascertain the weight of beef gained by the food given (turnips), found three steers, under three years old, to have gained 20 stones each in 20 weeks. The three steers averaged 70 stones each. In 1816, Mr. Nesham's steer, three years and a half old, obtained the pri-mium offered by the Durham Agricultural Society ; his weight was, 4 quarters, 96 stones, l^lb. ; tallow, 11 stones, 7lb. ; hide, 8 stones. ^' f ~'%y$j$jj&%jj& [ Lord ^/thorp's Heifer.'] The heifer, called Clarinn a daughter of the opposite is equal to her dam in these points, and far superior in some others ; particularly in her rump and hips. She is a very fine specimen of the short-horn heifer. Edit, 238 CATTLE. Major Rudd (of Marton in Cleveland) obtained the premium offered by the Cleveland Agricultural Society in 1811, for the best steer, under three years old, and fed on vegetable food. The steer was sold to the butcher for 10s. per stone, and slaughtered when three years and thirteen days old ; the weight of his four quarters was 96 stones. The late Mr. Robertson (of Ladykirk, near Berwick- upon-Tweed) fur- nished the writer with the following particulars of short-horns, bred by him, and fed, with few exceptions, on vegetable food : 1794. An ox, four years, ten months old ; four quarters, 145 stones, 31b. ; tallow, 24 stones, 71b. A steer, under four years old ; four quarters, 106 stones ; tallow, 19 stones, 71b. 1814. A steer, three years, nine months old ; four quarters, 101 stones ; tallow, 15 stones. 1815. A steer, three years, eleven months old ; four quarters, 112 stones, 71b. ; tallow, 26 stones. A heifer, three years, eight months old ; four quarters, 89 stones. 1817. A steer, three years, two months old ; four quarters, 95 stones, lOlb. ; tallow, 17 stones, lOlb. 1822. An ox, four years and a half old; four quarters, 135 stones; tal- low, 21 stones. Own brother to the foregoing, three years and a half old ; four quarters, 133 stones ; tallow, 21 stones. A steer, three years, ten months old ; four quarters, 124 stones ; tallow, 17 stones. A steer, three years, eight months old ; four quarters, 112 stones ; tallow not weighed. A steer, bred by Col. Cooke (of Ouston, near Doncaster), fed on pota- toes and straw, was slaughtered when two years and twenty-two days old; his four quarters weighed 72 stones. Mr. John Rennie (of Phantassie) produced, at the East Lothian Agri- cultural Society's meeting, in November, 1823, a steer, from eighteen to twenty months old ; the four quarters of which weighed 118 stones, lib. Smithfield-weight. The same gentleman produced before the Highland Society of Scotland a steer, aged two years, four months, whose four quarters weighed 153 stones, 7lb. : also a steer, aged three years, six months, whose fore quar- ters weighed 169 stor.es, 71b. ; tallow, 30 stones, lib. Except in the three last instances, all the weights given have been by the stone of 141b *. Should the foregoing statement be considered to have been unreason- ably extended, it i^ presumed it will, at least, he admitted, that its ample detail, if attended to, will establish the credit of the short-horns as an in- valuable breed to the grazier. In the commencement of this account, however, it was staled that they possess a combination of qualities, hitherto considered incompatible. It will be obvious that the disposition to feed rapidly, in union with dairy qualifications, is here intended. * That extraordinary animal, which was lately exhibited under the name of 'the Lin- colnshire Ox,' although fed in that county by Lord Yarborough, was a pure short, both on the side of the sire and the dam. He measured five feet six inches in height at the shoulders, eleven feet ten inches from the nose to the setting on of the tail, eleven feet one inch in girth, and three feet three inches across the hips, shoulders, and middle of the back. His breast was only fourteen inches from the ground, and he stood one foot ten inches between the fore legs. Edit. THE SHORT-HORN BREED. '239 It might have the appearance of an intention to depreciate other breeds of cattle, were an inquiry instituted how the very general impression came to be entertained that animals disposed to fatten rapidly seldom give much milk. It is unquestionably true, that every perfection in cattle whether it be one of form, of quality of flesh, of disposition to fatten, or to yield milk can be promoted and retained solely by the breeder's devoted attention to his particular object ; and if one object be allowed a para- mount importance in the breeder's estimation and practice, other objects will suffer, in proportion as they are neglected. The improvement in the carcase of the short-horns has been so sur- prising, and so justly valued, that many persons have allowed that com- pletely to occupy their attention, and the dairy Jias been disregarded. In such a state of things, every advance towards one point has been tanta- mount to receding from another ; because the same proceeding which lends to enhance a particular quality, will also enhance a defect, provided such defect was of previous existence. This may be rendered more intelligible by a short illustration : Suppose half a dozen animals to be selected in consequence of their possessing a particular quality ; which quality it is proposed, on a certain established principle of breeding, to increase and render almost permanent by their union. Suppose the animals so selected to come from the hands of breeders who have neglected the milking property ; the certain conse- quence will be, that the very union which developes and secures the desired object will tend, on the same principle, to increase the defect as to milk. In short, it will render it habitualin the produce. But this illus- tration, by a selection, is supposing too much for the probable state of the case. The objections which exist among breeders, for various and some cogent reasons, against crossjng with the stocks of each other, unavoidably lead to the practice of breeding in and in ; which, in case of any original deficiency of the milking property, must unquestionably go on to render that deficiency greater. It is hence evident that bad milking, in a breed of animals which were ever distinguished as good milkers, is not a neces- sary consequence of improvement in the animal in other respects, but a consequence of the manner in which such improvement is pursued. This the writer considers to be the reasoning properly applicable to the subject ; which happily also admits of a satisfactory appeal to facts ; and he is strictly justified in asserting that improved short-horns, inferior to none for the grazier, may always be selected and bred with the most valuable dairy properties. Perhaps a more plentiful and steady milker than the dam of Mr. Berry's bull, whose portrait has been given, never stood over a pail, and few such carcasses of beef have been exhibited as hers, when an accident rendered it requisite to only half feed her. The bull himself has an extraordinary disposition to carry flesh, and his calves are letdown in the udders like miniature cows. In fact, all the bull's family are excel- lent for the pail, and the quickest possible feeders. The writer has known many instances of the highest bred short-horns giving upwards of four gallons (wine measure) of milk night and morning; and it is certain that attention only is requisite, on the part of the breeder, to perpetuate this quality in any desirable extent. While on this subject, it is proper to ob- serve, that the excessive quantities of milk obtained from the unimproved short-horns are seldom or ever obtained from the improved ; but a moderately good milker of the latter kind will be found to yield as much butter in the week as one of the former : the milk being unquestionably of very superior quality ; and, indeed, it was likely such should be the case, and that the artificial change in the animal economy, which leads to an 240 CATTLE, excessive secretion of flesh and fat, should also be productive of other rich secretions. Within the last three or four years, affidavits were sworn be- fore a magistrate in America that an improved short-horned cow imported thither, produced after the rate of 201b. of butter per week." Wherever the improved short-horns have been crossed with other cattle their superiority is equally manifest, in respect of dairy qualifications, as in every other. On this subject the writer is able to avail himself of the evi- dence of a gentleman who has addressed a communication on the subject to the Conductor of the British Farmer's Magazine, which is so pertinent to the present subject that the temptation to take an extract is irresistible. It is as follows: ' In the 27th number of your valuable Magazine, when giving an account of my two years'-old steer, you also give an extract from my letter on the advantages of crossing cows of different breeds with im- proved short-horn bulls ; and in confirmation of this opinion (not hastily adopted, but the result of several years' practical experience, and a close at- tention to the experiments of several friends during the last seventeen years), I send you the portrait and a short account of a two-year old Durham and Devon heifer of mine, lately slaughtered by Mr. William Daniel (of Aber- gavenny), and accompany it with a few brief statements of the advantages derived from this system by several of my own personal friends. 4 This heifer was the second cross, and was of a light grey colour. She weighed 35 scores and 81b. ; rough fat, 981b. : she was allowed to be the fattest and best beast of her age, in all points, ever seen in Abergavenny. She had a dead calf about six weeks before Christmas ; was dried the 17th of January, and killed the 10th of June. She sold for 19/. 3s. 6d. Ibs. ' Her live weight, on the 8th of June, was . 1232 Ditto, on the 17th January . . . 840 Increase in 140 days . . . . 392 ' Being aware that strong prejudice and much incredulity existed on the subject of crossing, I courted the attention of all the respectable farmers, breeders, and feeders in this neighbourhood. Many came to see her when first put up, and repeatedly afterwards during the five months she was feeding ; and they all concurred in saying she went on faster than any beast they had ever seen. She never had any oil-cake. ' I have seen many excellent beasts bred from improved short-horn bulls and long horn cows: indeed, I never knew one of these bulls put to any cow, where the produce was not superior to the dam ; but the cross which I advocate, and with which I am best acquainted, is that with the Devon cow. I have uniformly remarked, that each succeeding cross was attended with a proportionate improvement in size, quality of flesh, and aptitude to fatten. In every instance they have shown themselves superior milkers, and stand to the pail till within six or eight weeks of calving; and several instances have come under my own knowledge where they have never been dry since they first calved ; and so highly are they prized as milkers, that a friend of mine, who hired out dairies, informed me that the dairymen gave him nearly 21. per cow per year more for the half and three-quarter breds than they would give for cows of other breeds. ' A friend of mine had about a dozen North Devon cows, small in size, but nice in quality, and from these he commenced, about twenty years since, breeding with short-horn bulls. He has since invariably used those bulls. With each succeeding cross the stock have rapidly improved in every essential, and the only trace of the Devons which I could perceive THE SHORT-HORN BREED. 241 when I last saw them, about two years since, was a peculiar richness in their colour. He breeds about thirty annually, and generally sells his three years-old, in the autumn, at 111. to 221. ; and I have known him. sell in-calf heifers to jobbers in fairs as high as 30 guineas each. All his stock are superior milkers. Here we have twenty years' experiment, and continued improvement. ' Within the last eight years I have sent many North Devon heifers to Ireland, to friends residing in different counties, and some of them occu- pying land of very inferior quality. I also sent over two young Durham bulls, from the stock of the Rev. Henry Berry, to cross them with. They have all crossed them with short-horn bulls at my recommendation, and the accounts they give are most satisfactory. They say the two years'-old half-breds are as good as the three years'-old Devons, and are all good milkers. One of these bulls, by Mr. Berry's Mynheer, has been four times exhibited in three different counties, and has each time taken the first prize. He was last year sold for 60 guineas, and is now serving cows at II. each. 4 Brynderry, near Abergavenny. ' C. H. BOLTON.' An opinion generally prevails that the short-horns are unfitted for work; and in some respects it is admitted they are so : but the correct reason has not been assigned, and the question may fairly come briefly under notice. That they are willing and able to work, the writer knows, from one in particular among many instances. He has now a team of two years-old steers, working constantly nine hours a day ; a system he would by no means recommend, and forced on him by circumstances connected with entrance on a new farm, at present ill adapted to grazing cattle. They work admirably ; but surely cattle which, as the preceding account proves, will go as profitably to the butcher at two years old as any other breed at three, and as many even at four, ought never, as a general rule, to be placed in the yoke. No beast, in the present advanced state of breeding, ought to be put upon a system which arose out of the necessity of obtaining compensation by work for the loss attending a tardy maturity. But where it may be convenient, the short-horns, particularly the bulls, work admirably, as their great docility promises; and there are many operations going on in every farm which a bull would be judiciously em- ployed in performing. And as the bulls of this breed are apt to become useless, from acquiring too much flesh in a state of confinement, moderate work might, in most cases, prove beneficial for such as are intended for use at home. As was before observed, the specimens which accompany this account will render little comment necessary on their form. With deference, how- ever, it is submitted to the breeders of short-horns that they should avoid breeding from too close affinities, and, while they steer clear of coarseness, should require a sufficiency of masculine character in their males.* The portrait of Lord Althorp's bull Firby evinces this requisite in a proper degree. He has also but, indeed, it is only part of the other; for with- out it good masculine character cannot exist an excellent loin. This * Lord Althorp first adopted the short-horns in 1818, when he purchased the bull Regent at Mr. R. Colling's sale, with several of that gentleman's cows; and since that time his lordship has been unremitting in his attempts to improve the breed. The bull Firby is good in almost every point. His flanks, loins, hips, and bosom are excellent. His only failing is in the crop ; yet we are told by his lordship's very intelligent steward (Mr. Hall), and we had proof of the accuracy of the observation, when we had the pleasure of looking over the Wiseton herd, that, after using him six years, very few of his stock have inherited this imperfection, 2iW&M>,The haunch and pelvis. The head of the ox may be divided, like that of the horse, into two parts the skull and the face. The following out represents a section of both. STRUCTURE OF THE HEAD OF THE OX. 273 [Section of the Head of the Ox.~\ a, The horn, showing it to be a process of the frontal bone, and the manner in which it is hollowed. 6, The frontal bone. e, The frontal sinus, extending from the nasal bone almost to the tip of the horn and the great foramen. d, The condyloid process of the occipital bone, and the foramen, through which the spinal cord passes from the skull. e, The cavity of the skull. f, The petrous portion of the temporal bone appearing in the cavity of the skull. ff, The passage to the internal part of the ear. A, The foramen lacerum, or irregular foramen, through which several of the nerves escape from the space, and some of the blood-vessels enter. i t The foramen ovale oval foramen. j, The anterior condyloid foramen. ft, The posterior do; /, The basilar process of the occipital. m, The sphenoid bone. n, The crista galli of the ethmoid bone. o, The pterigoid bone. ]>, The perpendicular portion of the pa- latine bone. (], The nasal bone. r, The ethmoid bone. s, The superior turbinated bone. t } The inferior turbinated bone. u, The lower cell of the ethmoid, so large in the ox as to be termed by some the middle turbinated bone. v, The maxillary sinus. w, The cells of the palatine bone. ar, The superior maxillary bone its pa- latine process. y, The grinders. z, The anterior maxillary bone, destitute of incisor teeth. The cranium or skull, that portion of the head which contains and pro- tects the brain, is composed of eight bones : two frontals e, p. 272, and b, p. 273 ; one parietal, A, p. 272 ; two temporals, g, p. 272, and/, p. 273 ; one occipital, /, p. 272 ; and d and /, p. 273 ; one ethmoid, n, and r, p. 273 ; and one sphenoid, m, p. 273. The difference in the appearance of the head of the ox and the horse, is principally caused by the different extent and form of the frontal and pa T 274 CATTLE. rietal bones ; while in the horse, (see a and c, p. 66 of the ' Horse') the frontal bones extend but little more than half way from the orbit of the eye to the top of the head ; and, above them, the parietals, thickly covered by the temporal muscles, form the arch-shaped roof of the skull ; in cattle, the frontal bones extend from the nose to the superior ridge of the skull, presenting a flattened but irregular surface, and entirely bare of mus- cular or fleshy covering. In the foetal calf, there are two distinct fron- tals, but the suture soon disappears, and one broad and lengthened bone remains. THE FRONTAL BONES. Nature has given to most specks of cattle a formidable weapon of offence, the horn. To be effective, it must be securely based ; and it could only be so, or it could best be so, by this expanse of frontal bone. From this bone the horn springs, and it is in fact a continuation of the frontal, (see a, p. 273.) To the male animal this weapon seems to be most necessary, or by him it is most used : he is, in his wild state, the natural and the courageous guardian of the herd, and many a contest he has with his fellows before he establishes his supremacy over them, and his right to be their protector : therefore, in order to give a firmer basis to that by which alone he could maintain his power, or defend his sub- jects, the forehead of the bull is considerably shorter and broader than that of the cow or the ox. It is so in every breed. The Ayrshire cow is distinguished by her small head, and lengthened narrow brow ; but the bull (see cut, p. 129) has as broad and masculine a forehead as any of them ; and the animal, whose portrait is there repre- sented, was too furious and impatient of control to be safe. It was neces- sary always to confine him, and even under confinement, he was a perfect nuisance]by his bellowing. This shortness and breadth of forehead is not only characteristic of dif- ference of sex, but it is regarded, and properly, as an essential point in a bull. A deficiency here argues deficiency of constitutional power, and materially diminishes his value as a stock-getter ; we do not recollect an exception to this rule : and, on the other hand, we have rarely seen a cow with a "large head and broad forehead that had not, in other respects, lost the most valuable points of the feminine character she was neither a good milker, nor a good mother, nor did she often fatten kindly ; there was a coarseness in her whole form, and her very flesh was coarse when she came to be slaughtered. We have said that the srnallness of the head in the horse or mare, how- ever it may be considered to be a point of beauty, is very questionable in its bearing on the temper and actual value of the animal ; but we believe that there is no point more generally assented to by breeders than this, that a fine small head, tapering towards the muzzle, usually indicates a good milker and a good feeder, and a good temper too. We present our readers, in the next page, with a cut of the head of Lord Althorp's bull, whose full portrait was given in page 242. With the exception of somewhat too narrow a muzzle, it is a good illustration of the masculine character of a superior bull of the improved short-horn breed. With regard to some species of hornless cattle, this notion of the proper form of the frontal bone, is carried to a greater extent. The expanse of this bone not being wanted as a base for the horn, is not found; on the contrary, the frontal bones begin to contract a little above the eyes, and terminate in a comparatively narrow ridge at the summit of the head. THE FRONTAL SINUSES. 275 This narrowness of the parietal ridge (it is not the occipital ridge in cattle, for the occipital bone is pushed out of its place, and the parietal occupies the situation of the superior portion of it) is deemed a characteristic of the purity of the breed and its grazing qualities. This is particularly the case among the Galloway and Angus breeders. We believe that there is some truth in this. It is a kind of pledge as to the fineness of the form, and the smallness of the bone everywhere. [Head o/fiibyLord AUhorp's Bull.} THE FRONTAL SINUSES. If this expanse of bone were solid, its weight would be enormous, and it would fatigue and weigh the animal down. To obviate this, as in the Horse (6, p. 68, ' Horse,') it is divided into two plates, separated by numerous vacuities, or cells ; but, unlike the horse, these extend through the whole of the bone nay, they penetrate even through the parietal and occipital bones. Hence it happens that the frontal sinuses (so these ca- vities are called in cattle as well as in the horse) extend from the angle of the eye to the very foramen through which the brain escapes from the skull, nay, as we shall see presently, to the very tip of the horn (vide a and c, p. 273). There is the same septum, or division, in the centre of the frontal si- nuses as in the horse; but there is not the same perfect division between the nostrils. Commencing about half way up the nose, the septum is wanting at the lower part, and the two nostrils are, as it were, thrown into one; and the frontal sinuses communicating with the frontal, and the frontal with the nasal, there is one continuous cavity from the muzzle to the tip of the horn, and from one muzzle to the other. INFLAMMATION OF THE FRONTAL SINUSES. The whole of this cavity is lined by a prolongation of the membrane of the nose, and when one part of it is inflamed, the whole is apt to be affected. T2 '27'h diminishes, the flanks become quiet, the appetite returns, the milk is yielded more abundantly, the general condition of the beast seems to improve, and both owner and practitioner begin to fancy that danger has ceased. There is too much reason, however, for caution and fear. There is one circumstance, and one only, which will enable them to understand the real ground on which they stand, and that is, the character of the cough, which will still remain, although much less frequent. Is it, again, the clear sonorous cough which indicates the comparative healthi- ness of the air-passages, or does it continue to be, to a greater or less degree, the painful, inward, feeble, gurgling cough? If it is the latter, the amendment is delusive. It is one of those strange, but temporary vallyings of nature, or transient effects of medicine, which are sometimes witnessed ; or, perhaps, there has been some salutary change of atmo- spheric influence : but there is mischief still irretrievable mischief and the most salutary advice that could be given to the owner would be, to dispose of the animal while something like its value can be obtained. Weeks, months may pass on ; but by and by, from some slight cause or from no cause that can be detected the symptoms of confirmed phthisis appear, and the animal is lost. This secondary, and more violent attack, has many symptoms similar to those that have been described as attending the later stages of bron- chitis or pleurisy ; but there are a few which would point out the nature and seat of the disease when there is no previous history of the case to guide the practitioner. The milk gradually diminishes, and, had it been examined before its diminution in quantity, an evident deterioration in quality would have been observed ; it has acquired an unpleasant flavour it quickly becomes sour it spoils, or gives a peculiar taste, to that with which it is mixed. The butter that is made from it is ill-flavoured, and the cheese will not acquire a proper consistence. Some have said that the milk is of a blue colour, and that it has more serum in its composition than ordinary and healthy milk. There are few dairies in which there are not occasional differences in the quantity and quality of the produce. The disappointment and the loss of the dairyman have sometimes been considerable, and he has puzzled himself to no purpose to discover the cause; and has blamed the pasture or the servants, when his want of common observation has been the principal source of the evil. Some of our readers may recollect these occurrences in their establishments ; they may also recollect that a little while after- wards one, or two, or more, of their cows had bad hoose, and were losing condition, and they got rid of them as quickly as they could. When consumption begins to be confirmed the animal loses flesh wilh greater or less rapidity, and becomes evidently weak. She eats with almost undiminished appetite ; but the process of rumination requiring long, and now fatiguing' action of the jaws, is slowly and lazily per- formed. There is frequently a discharge from the mouth or nostrils, or both ; at first colourless and without smell, but soon becoming purulent, bloody, and foetid. Diarrhoea is present, and that to a degree on which the most powerful astringents can make no impression. Then, also, appears the inflammation of the tissue beneath the skin. Whatever part PHTHISIS, OR CONSUMPTION. 413' of the animal is pressed upon, she shrinks ; and if upon the loins, she moans with pain. The skin becomes dry and scaly; and it strangely creaks as the animal crawls staggering along. One circumstance is very remarkable and characteristic. The mind and animal desires even of this comparatively dull and insensible being are roused to an extreme degree of intensity. The cow is, in many cases, almost continually at heat. When she is impregnated, the oestrum does not go oil'; and the consequence of this continuance of excitement is that she is very subject to abortion. One of the causes of consumption, almost unsuspected by many breeders, and sufficiently guarded against only by a few hereditary pre- disposition cannot be spoken of in too peremptory terms. It is rare, indeed, that the offspring of a consumptive cow is not also consumptive. If it is a heifer-calf, she may possibly live a little after her first calving, and then she usually sickens, and the disease proceeds with a rapidity un- known in the mother. The author recollects two dairies that were almost destroyed by this hereditary taint. Change of climate is a more frequent cause than many imagine. Some dairymen are aware how much depends on the cow being suited to the climate, or, rather, being in her native climate. This explains the strange difference of opinion with regard to breeds. Almost every farmer is par- tial to his own breed, and undervalues those of other districts, and even those of his neighbours ; and to a very great degree he is right. His cattle breathe their native air ; they are in a climate to which, by a slow and most beneficial process, and extending through many a generation back, their constitution has been in a manner moulded ; and it is only after a long seasoning, and sometimes one attended by no little peril, that the stranger becomes at home in a foreign district ; and so adapted and reconciled to the temperature, and degree of dryness or moisture, and to the difference of soil and herbage, as to do quite as well, and yield as much and as good milk, as in the vale in which she was reared. There is more in this than is often dreamed of in the farmer's philosophy. Experience teaches that a change of climate involving a material differ- ence in temperature, or soil, or herbage, is frequently prejudicial ; and that while there is derangement in every system, the respiratory one seems to suffer most, and a slow, insidious, yet fatal change is there oftenest effected. If a dairy of cows is removed from a moist situation to a dry and colder one, consumption will often appear among them, although a dry air is otherwise esteemed a specific against the complaint ; but if they are taken from a dry situation, and put on a woody and damp one, phthisis is sure to appear before the first season is past. Hurtrel D'Arboval states a curious fact relating to the Swiss cattle, and connected with this part of our subject. He says that the cows in Swit- zerland are not subject to consumption, although they pass the spring and summer on the mountains, unsheltered, breathing the coolest and purest air, and in the autumn and winter are shut up in close and hot stables, where not a breath of pure air can reach them, except when they are driven, as they daily are, far through the snow to water. They, however, who have no upland pasture to which their cattle can be removed, and whose beasts rarely go out of the miserable huts in which they are con- fined and fed, lose many an animal from phthisis. Habit, and a consti- tution gradually formed by the influence of these changes on many a gene- ration, had prepared the first for them, or had rendered them in a manner necessary ; but habit could not secure the others from the deleterious effect of empoisoned air and unwholesome or insufficient food. 414 CATTLE. There is one striking fact, showing the injurious effect of heated and empoisoned air on the pulmonary system. There are some cowhouses in which the heat is intense, and the inmates are often in a state of profuse perspiration. The doors and the windows must sometimes be opened, -and then the wind blows in cold enough upon those that are close to them, and, one would naturally think, could riot fail of being- injurious. No such thing. These are the animals who escape ; but the others at the farther end, on whom no wind blows, and where no perspiration is checked, are the first to have hoose, inflammation, and consumption. This fact speaks volumes with regard to the management in many a farm. This is an unsatisfactory account of the nature and treatment of con- sumption ; and, in now dismissing the diseases of the respiratory system, the author is far more disposed to direct the attention of his readers to the preventive than the medical treatment. By the former they may do much. Let the over-filled cow-houses be enlarged, and the close and hot ones better ventilated ; let cruel neglect, and exposure, and starvation yield to more judicious and humane treatment; when cattle are fed on dry meat, let them have sufficient to drink two or three times every day ; let those that exhibit decided symptoms of consumption be removed from the dairy, not because the disease is contagious, but because it is undeniably here- ditary ; and, in fine, where so little can be done in the way of cure, let nothing be omitted in the way of prevention. CHAPTER XI. THE STRUCTURE AND DISEASES OF THE GULLET AND STOMACHS. THE (ESOPHAGUS, OR GULLET. THE food having been forced along the posterior part of the mouth by the consecutive action of the tongue and the muscles of the pharynx, reaches the oesophagus, or gullet. This tube extends from the mouth to the sto- machs, and conveys the food from the one to the other. In cattle this is true in a double sense ; for not only does the food descend from the mouth to one of the stomachs, when it is first gathered, but is returned for a second mastication, and afterwards, a third time, traces the same path to its destination in the true digestive stomach. We may expect, and we shall find, some peculiarity of structure in the oesophagus, in order to prepare it for this increased duly. We first observe the great thickness and strength of the gullet in the ox, compared with that of the horse. It is really worth while to compare the two together, and see how that of the ox is fitted for its treble work. The outer coat of loose cellular substance is the same in both yielding and elastic. The second coat is a muscular one, and of great substance and power. Its increased substance enables it to dilate, when the large pellets of rapidly plucked grass, or pieces of parsnip or potato, or other hard roots, enter it ; and the same increase of muscular substance enables it to contract more powerfully on such food, and pass it on to the stomach. There are two layers of muscles in the gullet of all our domesticated animals, and the fibres of the outer and inner layer run in different direc- tions, and with plain and manifest reference to the natural food and habits of the animal. THE (ESOPHAGUS, \)R GULLET. Il5 The horse lives on grass or corn ; or if, when he is stabled, roots are sometimes given to him, especial care is taken that they are so cut and si iced as to pass along the gullet without danger of forming any obstruction there. The form and symmetry of the animal require that the tube shall not be large or prominent, and yet, in his state of servitude, and his labours too often capriciously exerted, little time is allowed either for rest or food. The two layers in him are thus arranged : the fibres of the outer layer are longitudinal, which, in their relaxed state, admit of the lengthening of the tube when the neck is extended and the head brought close to the ground in the act of grazing ; and by their contraction they shorten the gullet in the act of swallowing. The fibres of the inner layer are circular, which, although not adapted to extend much, in order to admit of the pas- sage of large and hard bodies, are best calculated to contract on the kind of food which the horse swallows, and to force it down to the stomach with all the rapidity that is sometimes needed. The fibres of both layers of the muscular coat in the ox are spiral, but they wind their way round the gullet in contrary directions, admitting thus of the lengthening and shortening of the tube in grazing and swal- lowing ; offering, perhaps, not so much pressure on the food, and which the lazy mastication and rumination of the animal does not require ; and permitting a great deal more dilatation when some large and hard sub- stance finds its way into the gullet. The inner coat, although a continuation of the membrane of the pha- rynx, is of a different character. It is more cuticular, smooth, and glisten- ing. It lies in longitudinal plaits, so wide and numerous as sufficiently to dilate when the food passes, and to add very little to the obstacle when a portion of food unusually large is arrested in its passage. The gullet pursues its course down the neck on the left of the windpipe, until it reaches the chest. It enters with the windpipe and blood-vessels through the opening between the two first ribs, and then winds its way along the upper part, until it reaches the diaphragm, which it pierces, and then soon terminates in a singular canal, which will presently be described. OBSTRUCTION IN THE GULLET. This is commonly called choking, whether it occurs in horses or cattle, and is far more fatal in the former than the latter, although not so fre- quent*. When a beast is first put on carrots, or parsnips, or potatoes, or * Although this treatise is devoted to Cattle, yet we cannot forbear quoting a paragraph or two relating to choking in the horse. The history of these curious cases, communi- cated to ' the Veterinarian* by Mr. King, of Stanmore, may put the owners of horses a little on their guard. ' I was some years ago, as I was accidentally passing, calkd in to the horse of a coach proprietor. The owner said that his horse had a bad sore throat, and could not swallow. He could not swallow ; in fact, he did not even make an attempt, on severe compression. The history being, that he had worked and fed well the preceding day, and the oesopha- gus, as far as it could be examined, appearing without any obstruction, I did not suspect the real cause. He was blistered and drenched, but without any good effect, all the liquids returning without any efforts to swallow. On the third day after I first saw him he died. I much wished to ascertain the cause of the obstruction, and which proved to be a large ball of tobacco ashes, wrapped up in a double paper, and which rested in the oesophagus, about half way between its entrance into the chest and the stomach. All knowledge of its having been given was stoutly denied, but it was afterwards confessed that the nostrum was exhibited as a supposed cure for worms. ' A cause of choking, and which has killed many horses, likewise exists in a notion that new-laid eggs will improve condition. I believe the practice is, previously to giving the egg, to star the shell in a few places; and when the shell has not been sufficiently weak- ened to yield to the pressure of the parts, the mischief ensues. I was once called to a very violent horse with supposed sore throat t He had taken nothing for two days, The 416 CATTLE* turnips, he is very apt to be choked. The first mastication is always a very careless affair, and everything that is put before the animal is swal- lowed with very little chewing. If the herdsman has not been atten- tive in slicing or bruising the roots, mischief of this kind is likely to happen. It happens oftener than the cow-herd or the owner is willing to confess, when eggs, either to promote condition in cattle, are given whole, or loaded with tar, or some nauseous drug, in cases of blain, hoose, maw- sick, or other supposed stomach complaints. When the root sticks in the gullet, and can be evidently seen and felt there, the farmer or the cowherd first gets his cartwhip in good hands, not a dangerous instrument, on account of its being pliable and yielding ; others take a cart-rope, which is somewhat more objectionable, because the ends may do mischief. They who have neither good sense, nor regard for the sufferings they may inflict, take even a common rack-stave. Whatever it be, they thrust it down the gullet, and work away, might and main, to drive the offending body down. There is no doubt that some instrument should be introduced into the gullet in order to push the root into the stomach, but it is the force that is used to which we object, and that does all the mischief. A case or two will illustrate this. The first occurred in the practice of Mr. King. A cow was choked with a turnip; the rack-stave was had recourse to, and the owner was sure that ' he had passed the turnip, for the cow had swal- lowed a drink that had been given.' Still she was not doing well ; there was no rumination, and she would neither eat nor drink. Mr. King was sent for. He found his patient low and feverish, and she heaved con- siderably ; she swallowed everything that was poured down the throat ; there was no swelling of the neck ; no tumour could he felt externally, and the probang went its full length into the stomach. The practitioner gave the proper medicines in such a case, but on the third day the beast died. On examining her it was found that the rack-stave had been used with so much force as to make a considerable rent in the oesophagus, through which the turnip escaped, and lay in the surrounding cellular membrane. The second case occurred to the writer of this treatise. A market gar- dener, on rooting up his parsnips, ordered them to be cut into small pieces and given to his cattle. The hind gave them whole, and the beasts greedily devoured them. A large piece stuck in the gullet of a valuable cow, and was evidently seen and felt about half way down the neck, and the poor animal began to swell enormously, and panted sadly. The cow-leech was sent for, who using, first, the butt-end of a cartwhip, and afterwards a long and stout osier rod, forced it into the chest, and then had no more power over it witlreilher of his rude instruments. The author was now sent for. On applying a probang, he found the obstruction about three inches within the thorax, and he soon ascertained that it was firmly impacted there. The application of force in the common way was out of all question ; he, therefore, withdrew the slider which guarded the protrusion of the stilett, and endeavoured to move the obstruction forward by slight but repeated percussions, and was convinced that he was gaining ground, although very slowly. He persisted, and after the expiration of about twenty minutes the parsnip gave way, and the probang entered the stomach. attendant swore he could not account for it; but as the animal had every general indi- cation of health, I gave little credit to his statement. Having properly secured the horse, I passed the probang down the throat, in doing which I experienced some resist- ance. On its return to the mouth the bulb was literally covered with fragments of egg- shell. The horse was soon well; but I doubt, if this egg had not been weakened, whe- ther the quiet introduction of the instrument would have broken it down in that situation.' Veterinarian, January, 1833, DESCRIPTION OF THE (ESOPHAGUS PROBANG. 417 A vast quantity of gas, mixed with fluid of a very foetid character and small portions of food, was violently discharged. The enlargement of the belly subsided, and the animal experienced sudden, and, as it was thought, perfect relief. By way of making everything sure, she was bled, and a dose of physic was given to her ; but in eight-and-forty hours she was dead. The whole of the gullet, from about eight inches below its com- mencement to within the same distance from the stomach, presented a mass of laceration and inflammation which had destroyed her. DESCRIPTION OF THE (ESOPHAGUS PROBANG. Every farmer should have a flexible probang ready for use, either of (he improved kind, as contrived by Mr. Read, or on the plan of that which was first introduced by Dr. Monro. This cut will give a sufficient idea of the construction of the most use- ful probang, or cesopfiagus-tube : Jig 1 a y Fig. 1. a. The tube, made either of simple leather, or of leather covering a canal formed of spiral wire. It is about four feet and a half in length, so as to reach from the mouth to the rumen, and leaving a sufficient por- tion outside the mouth for it to be firmly grasped. b. The stilett, represented as introduced into the tube, and running the whole length of it. It gives greater firmness and strength to the tube, when it is either passed into the stomach in cases of hoove, or used to force any thing down the gullet. c. The handle of the stilett. d. A hollow piece of wood running freely upon the stilett, and placed between the handle of the stilett and the round extremity of the tube. The stilett is longer than the tube by the extent of this piece of wood, but is prevented from protruding beyond the bulb of the tube at the other end by the interposition of this slider at the handle. The stilett may be introduced at either end of the tube. It is usually inserted at e when the instrument is used to force any obstructing body down the throat, be- cause the enlarged and bulbous termination of the tube at the other end has a flat or rather concave surface, and can therefore act with more effect and power on the substance which sticks in the throat. e. The end of the tube which is introduced into the paunch in cases of hoove. Its rounded extremity will permit it to be more easily forced through the roof of the paunch, and it is perforated with holes for the escape of the gas with which the paunch may be distended. 2 E 418 CATTLE. Fig. 2 represents the whalebone stilett, with the hollow piece of wood running upon it, and shows how easily it may be withdrawn from the stilett when that is taken out of the tube. The running piece of wood being withdrawn, if the handle of the stilett is then pushed down on the bulb of the tube, a portion of it will project at the other end ; and by moving the stilett up and down in the tube, this may be made to act on the obstructing body in the manner and with somewhat of the force of a hammer. Fig. 3 will be presently described. Fig. 4 is a piece of thick strong wood, widest at the centre, and there perforated. It is introduced into the month in order to keep it open during the use of the probang, which is inserted through the hole in the centre. Leathern straps are nailed to the extremities: these are buckled round the horns, and by means of them this mouth-piece is securely fastened ; while one of the extremities, being grasped by the ope- rator, forms a very useful point of support during the use of the tube. The farmer should also have another mouth-piece, with a central hole that will admit of the passage of a small hand. He will thus be enabled to get at and to remove substances that have not descended beyond the com- mencement of the gullet, or that have been returned so far by means to be hereafter described. This mouth-piece will be very useful in cases of polypus in the nose and many diseases of the pharynx ; but it would be too large to be long continued in the mouth without great pain to the animal, nor could the probang be so securely or effectually worked through so extensive an aperture. It is high lime that those rude, and danger- ous, and ineffectual instruments the cart-whip, and the cart-rope, and the rack-stave should be banished from the practice of the veterinary surgeon, and discarded by the farmer too. MODE OF OPERATING FOR THE REMOVAL OF SUBSTANCES OBSTRUCTING THE GULLET. Let it be supposed that a cow has swallowed a potato, or turnip, too large to descend the gullet, and which is arrested in its progress, and evidently seen at a certain distance down the throat. The farmer should have immediate recourse to the oesophagus-tube, introducing the flatter end into the throat, and using moderate force. If the obstructing body yields to this, he will be justified in pushing it on within the chest ; but if, with the application of a fair degree of force, it is very slowly, and with difficulty pushed on, the operator should instantly relinquish the de- termination to drive it down, for the fibres of the muscular coat of the gullet, soon become irritated by the continued distention, and contract powerfully, and, as it were, spasmodically, upon the foreign body, and imprison it there. It should also be remembered that the gullet itself be- comes smaller as soon as it has entered the thorax ; and, consequently, that, which could not be moved without difficulty in the upper part of the neck, will not be moved at all in the lower portion of it. The next consideration then is, whether, although the obstructing body cannot be driven on, it may not be solicited, or forced backwards. The fibres of the upper part of the gulle*t have already yielded, and suffered this substance to pass them they are somewhat weakened by the unnatural distention they have not yet had time to recover their tone, and they may yield again. It is at least worth the trial. The internal coat of the oesophagus is naturally smooth and glistening; it may, however, be made more so, and the surface of the obstructing body may be polished too. A half-pint of olive oil should be poured down OPERATION FOR OBSTRUCTION IN THE GULLET. 4l9 the throat, and an attempt then made with the fingers, applied externally, to give the body a retrograde motion. By patient manipulation this will be effected much oftener than is imagined. The intruding substance will be dislodged from the situation in which it was impacted, and will be brought to the upper part of the oesophagus, or even into the pharynx, and will then be sometimes got rid of by the efforts of the beast itself, or may be easily drawn out by means of a hand introduced through the large mouth-piece to which reference was made in the explanation of the oeso- phagus-tube. If the obstructing body cannot be moved in this way, we are not yet without resource. Mr. Read has made an important improvement on, or addition to, the oesophagus-tube, in the form of a corkscrew. Vide fig. 3, in the preceding cut. a. The leather tube, as before, but somewhat larger, and longer, and stronger ; and the upper part of it, for the purpose of additional strength, composed of brass. b. The handle of the stilett which runs through it, as through the other tube. c. One of two pieces of wood placed between the handle and the tube ; hollowed so as to fit the stilett; removable in a moment, and, like the hollow piece of wood in the other tube, permitting the stilett to be two or three inches longer than the tube. They are here removed, and one of them hangs down, suspended by a string. d. The bulb which is introduced through the mouth-piece, and forced down the gullet. It is considerably larger than those at the ends of the other tube, but not so large as the distended gullet. e. A corkscrew fixed to the end of the stilett, and which, coming out in the centre of the knob, cannot possibly wound the gullet. When this instrument is used, the stilett is pulled up so that the screw is perfectly retracted and concealed within the knob. The pieces of wood, c, are placed upon the stilett, between the handle and the top of the tube, and tied there, so that the screw is now fixed within the knob ; and the instrument is introduced through the month-piece, and forced down the throat until it reaches the obstruction. The pieces of wood are then untied, and, by turning the handle, the screw is worked into the obstructing body, as the common corkscrew is into a cork in the neck of a bottle. If the potato or the turnip is fresh and sound, it would hardly be credited what purchase is obtained, and in how many instances the nuisance may be drawn up the throat and got rid of. If the centre of the root should give way, and a portion of it only be brought out, there is still some good done, and the screw should be returned again and again, until it will no longer take hold. By this time, probably, the root will have been so weakened and broken down that it will yield to the pressure of the first probang, and be forced along into the rumen ; or at least it will be so weakened, that the stilett of the first tube may be used with advan- tage. The stilett must be withdrawn from the tube, and the running piece of wood taken away ; the stilett is then returned to its sheath, and may be made to project a couple of inches beyond the knob. Tt is retracted, and the tube is passed into the throat ; when it will be evident that the ope- rator may use either the comparatively broad part of the knob, or the small and sharp stilett, as the case may seem to require. To the first he can only apply simple pressure to the stilett he can give a percussive action. By sharply pushing down the handle of the stilett, he will make the other end act with the power of a little hammer, and thus more break down, and 2 E 2 420 CATTLE. probably work through, the centre of the root, as in the case which has been just related. A perforation having been made through the centre, and (lie obstruction having been previously torn and weakened by the screw, the whole may gradually be broken down, or will more readily yield to pressure. These directions have been founded on the supposition that the foreign body is lodged in the gullet above the^ entrance into the thorax ; and if the operator fails in all these contrivances, perhaps he will now admit, although reluctantly, the application of external force. It has been recom- mended to place a small piece of wood against the gullet, and in contact with that portion of the skin which covers the obstructing body, and then, with a wooden mallet, to hammer away against the opposite side. The root has been thus occasionally broken down, and then forced on with the cart-whip ; but more frequently the beast has been sadly punished without any good effect having been produced ; and, in some instances, although the nuisance was for awhile got rid of, so much tenderness of the gullet remained, and inflammation arose, and ran to such an extent, that the animal did not regain its appetite for many weeks afterwards, or pined away, and became comparatively worthless. The practitioner will, therefore, unwillingly have recourse to this, and will be justified in first seeing what bleeding will do. There is not a more powerful relaxant than bleeding and especially when it is carried on, if necessary, to absolute fainting. For awhile every spasmodic action ceases, and every muscular fibre loses its power to contract. The operator will, probably, take ad- vantage of the momentary relaxation, in order to force the body either upwards or downwards upwards first, and by far in preference ; or if downwards, yet still cautiously balancing in his mind the degree of resist- ance with the chance of ultimate success ; for, if the resistance continues to be considerable, he may depend upon it that when he has arrived at the thorax, all further efforts will be fruitless, and the patient will be lost. He has one last resource, and he needs not to be so afraid of venturing upon it as some practitioners have been. There is the operation of cesopha- gvtorny, or the cutting down upon the obstruction, and thus removing it. The veterinary surgeon will never find, or ought never to find, difficulty here, although the human surgeon is deemed bold who ventures upon the operation. After having passed a little way down the neck, the oesophagus is found on the left of the trachea, and between the carotid and the jugular. The artery will be detected by its pulsation, and the vein by its turgescence. The only muscle that can be in danger is the sterno-maxillaris, and that may, in a very great majority of cases, be avoided, or, if it is wounded, no great mischief will ensue. The animal should be cast, (at least this is the safest way, as it regards both the operator and the patient). It should be thrown on the right side, and the head should be a little stretched out, but lying as flat as the horns will permit. The place of obstruction will be seen at once. An incision is by some persons made immediately into the gullet, sufficiently long for the extraction of the root. The safer way, however, is for the cellular substance to be a little dissected away before the gullet is opened, when, if the incision is long enough, the incarcerated body will readily escape. The edges of the O3sophagus should then be brought together, and confined by two or three stitches ; the skin should also have the same number passed through it, the ends of the stitches of the gullet having been brought through the external wound. The beast should have nothing but gruel for two or three days ; and, after that, gruel and mashes RUPTURE OF THE OESOPHAGUS. 421 for a little while longer. In a fortnight or three weeks the wound will generally be healed, and scarcely a trace of the incision will be visible. If the obstruction is not observed, or the practitioner not called in until the potato or parsnip has passed into that portion of the gullet which is within the thorax, the chances of saving the animal are materially dimi- nished. The common probang should first be tried, and, that failing, the corkscrew should be resorted to, either to draw the body out, or so to pierce it and break it clown, that it may be forced onward either by the stilett or the knob. The practitioner must stand at little ceremony here, and he should, if necessary, use all the force he can ; for, if the obstruction is not overcome, the animal will assuredly perish. It has often been observed, and with much truth, that cows, in whose gullet this obstruction has once taken place, are subject to it afterwards. Either they have a habit of voracious feeding, or the muscles are weakened by this spasmodic action, and not able to contract upon the food with suffi- cient force for the ordinary purposes of deglutition. It will therefore ge- nerally be prudent to part with the cow that has once suffered from an accident of this kind. STRICTURE OF THE O3SOPHAGUS. This rarely occurs either in horses or cattle. It is, however, a little more frequent in the latter than in the former. The writer of this treatise has met with only one marked case of it. The cow had been observed to be a slow feeder : she was grazing when the others were ruminating ; and she was ruminating long after they had been busily employed in grazing. At length the owner, being more attentive than the proprietors of cattle gene- rally are, observed that the food occasionally accumulated in the upper part of the gullet until there was a swelling eight or ten inches in length, termi- nating in an evident contraction of the oasophagus. She was then in rather low condition, and was gradually losing flesh. Sometimes, with an effort, she could force the contents of the gullet along their proper course ; then, two or three days or a week would elapse before anything would again accumulate there ; and, at all times, the proprietor could easily press down the food which was thus interrupted in its passage. It was an evi- dent stricture of the oesophagus ; and, so far as could be learned, the dia- meter of the gullet had been gradually lessening at this point. The practitioner recommended that she should be destroyed ; alleging that a cure was improbable, and must, at the best, occupy a long period of time, and be expensive. She was young in calf, and that by a valuable bull, and he was desired to do what he could. He passed a probang through the stricture, as large as, without too great violence, he could manage, and confined it there for an hour by means of tapes. The cow was violent, but still this was accomplished for a few days, when a larger probang was used; but at length she became perfectly unmanage- able. She was then cast, and the introduction of the probang attempted ; but there was an awkwardness about it, and her violence threatened injury to herself and those about her. Some ground, however, had been gained ; and with that the owner, tired of the trouble, and afraid of the expense, expressed himself contented. The food accumulated less fre- quently, and, soon after her calving, ceased to accumulate at all. RUPTURE OP THE OESOPHAGUS. In cases of laceration, or rupture of the gullet, which too frequently follow the violent attempts of unskilful persons to force down the obstructing body, something might be done if the mischief was immediately ascer- 422 CATTLE. tained. Prudence, however, would dictate the sacrifice of the animal, \vhile it could be fairly sold to the butcher. If the cure is undertaken, the part must be opened the foreign body liberated from the cellular texture into which it had probably been driven all the dirt and indigested matter cleared carefully away the ragged and lacerated edges cut off the divided portions brought as neatly and as closely together as possible and the whole secured by bandages passed several times round the neck ; while the animal is allowed gruel only for many a day, and then mashes. The dressing should be the healing ointment, daily applied. The power of nature is great; and, the foreign body having been removed before it could cause inflammation 'and mor- tification by its presence, the parts may be reinstated to every useful pur- pose. THE (ESOPHAGUS WITHIN THE THORAX. As the oesophagus approaches the chest it takes a direction more and more towards the left, and enters it on that side of the windpipe. It is there found between the laminae of the mediastinum, following the direction of the dorsal vertebrae. It passes, as in the horse, by the base of the heart, leaving the venee cavae on the right, and the aorta on the left. It by de- grees separates itself from the spine, but not so much as in the horse, penetrating between the lungs, and, pursuing its course towards _the diaphragm, passes through the great opening between the crura of THE (ESOPHAGEAN CANAL. 423 that muscle. As it travels through the mediastinum and between the lungs, it diminishes in size, and acquires considerable firmness of texture; but it has no sooner entered the abdomen, and begun to dip downwards, than it becomes more muscular, and less firm in its structure. It also rapidly increases in size until it assumes almost the shape of a funnel ; and terminates directly in no particular stomach, but in a canal which opens into all the stomachs, of which, as will be seen, the ruminant pos- sesses four. Recourse must be had to a few cuts in order to render this intelligible to the reader. . The cut in the preceding page will exhibit the form of the stomachs when filled, their relative situations, and their connexion with each other. a. The oesophagus gradually enlarging as it descends, and apparently running into the rumen or paunch, but, in fact, terminating in a canal. b. A continuation of the spiral muscles of the oesophagus, thicker and more powerful as they approach the termination of that tube. Before the reader proceeds to the consideration of the other parts deli- neated in that tut, it may be advantageous to take a different view of the structure and termination of the gullet. a. The oesophagus enlarging as it descends, and becoming more muscular, and particularly the upper and posterior part of it. The continuation of it along the stomachs is slit up, in order to show that it would form the con- tinuous roof of the canal |which is here laid open, and which leads to the third and fourth stomachs. 6. The cesophagean canal exposed by slitting the roof from the termina- tion of the gullet to the third stomach. A considerable part of the floor is composed of two muscular pillars, lying close to each other. It would therefore appear, at first inspection, to be a perfect canal, and that what descended into it from the gullet would run on to the third and fourth stomachs. These pillars are duplicatures of the roof of the first and second stomachs, which lie immediately underneath them. c is the continuation of the same canal into and through the many- plus, or third stomach, which is known by its leaves and thin hooked edges. d is a prolongation of the same canal into the fourth, or true digestive stomach. It is easy therefore to perceive that the food, whether solid or fluid, may, at the will of the animal, or under particular circumstances of the constitution, pass into the third and fourth stomachs, without a particle of it entering into the first or second ; and we know that this is the case with the food after it has undergone the process of rumination, or a second mastication. 424 CATTLK. The following cut will give another view of the same parts. a is again the oesophagus, terminating in the cesophagean canal 6 is, as before, the cesophagean canal ; but now, at the will of the ani- mal, or under certain states of the constitution, these pillars are no longer in contact with each other, but there is a large opening at the bottom of the oesophagus displaying the two first stomachs lying under them. c is the rumen, or paunch, or first stomach, placed immediately under the termination of the gullet, and substances descending that tube fall through this opening, and are received into it. All the food, when first swallowed, goes there to be preserved for the act of rumination; and a portion, and occasionally the greatest portion of the fluids that pass down the gullet enter the rumen. Farther on, at d, is the reticulum, or second stomach. From the state of that stomach, or at the will of the animal, the muscular pillars here also relax, seldom or never to permit that which is passing along the oesophagean canal to enter the reticulum, but that the contents of the reticulum may be thrown into the cesophagean canal. This is the case when'the pellet of food is returned for remastication, it is thrown into the canal from the reticulum it is seized by the powerful muscles at the base of the gullet, and carried up by the spiral muscles of that tube in order to be remasticated. It will be seen the upper pillar (situated towards the right in the living subject), and the lower part of the opening made by the re- laxation of the pillars, belong to the reticulum ; the lower pillar and the anterior portion of the opening (situated towards the left) belong to the roof of the rumen. This is very satisfactorily seen in the dried stomachs of a young calf. e is the manyplus, or third stomach, and through which the canal is still to be traced to. b. The abomasum, or fourth or true disgesting stomach. So that, as was asserted, this canal leads to no particular stomach exclusively, but to all of them, according to circumstances. We are now, perhaps, prepared to return to the consideration of the first cut (p. 422). c c represent the form of this stomach in the greater part of rumi- nants, and particularly in oxen and sheep. It is situated somewhat ob- liquely in the abdominal cavity, and occupies nearly three-fourths of it. It THE EXTERIOR OF THE STOMACHS. 425 is divided into two unequal compartments, or sacs, and reaches from the diaphragm to the pelvic cavity. By its superior surface it is attached to the sublumbar region by its vessels, nerves, and a portion of mesentery. On the right side it is covered by a portion of the intestines ; on the left side it is more elevated, and is in contact with the left flank. It is on this account that we are sometimes induced to adopt the unsurgical mode of giving relief in cases of hoove ; for when we plunge our lancet or knife into the left flank, we puncture the distended stomach. Its inferior surface rests upon the floor of the belly. The left side reaches to the diaphragm, and thence, under the left flank, to the pelvis. The right side rests on the floor of the abdomen, and is covered by the fourth stomach. The anterior extremity is attached to the diaphragm by the oesophagus, and by the cardiac ligament ; and the right extremity floats free, generally occupying the pelvis, but pushed thence in the latter period of gestation. Deep scissures not only divide it into two lobes, as has been mentioned, but another scissure posteriorly, which will be shown in the next cut, forms it into two others ; so that its interior presents four compartments, separated from each by deeply projecting duplicatures of the walls of the stomach. This cut represents two of the three coats of the rumen. The external, or peritoneal, coat is here represented as turned back at different places in order to show the muscular coat, which, as in the horse, consists of two layers, the one running longitudinally and the other trans- versely ; yet not accurately so, for they appear to run obliquely, and in many different directions, according to the varying curvatures of the stomach. A very erroneous opinion of this great macerating stomach would be formed by considering it as a mere passive reservoir in which the food is contained until it is wanted for rumination : it is in constant motion ; the food is perpetually revolving through its different compart- ments, and undergoing important preparation for future digestion. These muscles are the mechanical agents by which this is effected, and by run- ning in these different directions they are enabled to act upon all the differently-formed cells of this enormous viscus. d. The reticulum, or honey-comb, or second stomach, viewed externally, and supposed to be filled. It is a little curved upon itself from below up- wards, and is the smallest of all the stomachs. It rests against the diaphragm in front of the left sac of the rumen, and is placed under the cEsophagus, and upon the abdominal prolongation of the sternum. There are two layers of muscles belonging to this stomach, one of them run- ning longitudinally and the other transversely, as in the rumen. e gives the external appearance of the manyplus, or third stomach. It is less rounded, and longer than the reticulum. It is curved upon it- self from above downwards. Its little curvature is applied on the left, partly over the reticulum, and more on the paunch ; and on the right, it is placed over the base of the fourth stomach. It is situated obliquely from the right side of the abdomen, between the liver and the right sac of the rumen. Girard thus describes it : " Its anterior face rests against the liver and the diaphragm its posterior is placed over the right sac of the rumen. Its great, rounded, convex curvature is attached to the fourth stomach, and also to the rumen, by a prolongation of mesentery; and its little curvature is continuous with that of the reticulum." Fig. 1 and 2 represent the two layers of muscles as before. f. The abomasum, or fourth stomach, is described by Girard as " elon- gated, and of a cone-like form, yet somewhat bent into an arch, situated obliquely to the right of and behind the manyplus, and between the dia- 426 CATTLE. phragm and the right sac of the rumen." It has two free or unattached faces, one against the diaphragm and the other against the right sac of the rumen two curvatures, the inferior and larger i convex, and giving attachment along its inner border to a portion of mesentery, which ex- tends to the inferior scissures of the rumen ; and the superior or smaller receiving the portions of mesentery which go from the reticulum to the su- perior scissures of the rumen. It is also said to have two extremities, the one anterior, which is the largest and placed inferiorly, adhering to the smaller curvature of the manyplus, and constituting the base, or great ex- tremity of the abomasum and the posterior and superior, which; is nar- row, elongated, curved above and backwards on the superior face of the right sac of the rumen, and called the smaller or pyloric extremity. A dissection of the muscular coat is given here as in the other stomachs. g represents the commencement of the duodenum, or first intestine. The reader is now prepared for the consideration of the interior of these stomachs. a. The oesophagus, as before, enlarging, and assuming a funnel-like shape as it approaches the stomachs. b. The (esophagus cut open at the commencement of the cesophagean canal, in order to show its communication with the first and second stomachs. c. The rumen laid open and divided into its different compartments by scissures, more or less deep, and which on the internal surface appear as indentations, or duplicatures of the coals of the stomach. They are re- THE INTERIOR OF THE STOMACHS. 427 cognized under the name of the double-tripe when prepared for the table. The rumen is divided into two large sacs, seen in the cut of the external form of the stomachs (p. 422), and the walls that separate them are thick, arid perpendicular to the surface of the stomach, so as to form a very con- siderable separation between the compartments of the stomach. These again are subdivided by transversal bands, which form smaller compart- ments. Two, belonging to the posterior portion of the stomach, are given in this cut. There are similar divisions in the anterior sac, but which are here concealed by one of the folds of the stomach. The whole of the rumen is covered by a cuticular membrane, consti- tuting the third or inner coat. Immediately under this, and arising from the interposed tissue between the muscular and cuticular coats, there are innumerable small prominences or papilla. They are of different sizes and forms in different parts of the rumen. Towards the longitudinal bands or duplicatures they are small, and thinly set; they are more nume- rous and larger towards the centre of the compartments ; and largest of all in the bottom of the posterior and most capacious sac. In every part of the rumen they are more thickly set, and broad and strong towards the centre or bottom of each compartment. They are also harder and blacker in these places. When regarded in different compartments, they appear to be bent or inclined in different directions ; but when they are more closely examined", they are all inclined in the direction which the food takes in its passage through the various divisions of the rumen. They are evidently erectile, and may sometimes bristle up and oppose the passage of the food ; while at other times they yield and bend, and suffer it to pass with little or no obstruction. Some have imagined that these are glandular bodies, and that they secrete a peculiar fluid ; others confine the glandular apparatus to the tissue between the cuticular coat, and numerous little prominences, which can be seen in the inflated stomach of a young rumi- nant when exposed to the light, are best accounted for by considering them as glandular bodies. There are two openings into the rumen ; the one already spoken of at the base of the oesophagus, and through which the substances gathered at the first cropping of the food, and perhaps all solids fall, and a consi- derable proportion of the liquids swallowed. The other opening is below this. It is larger and always open; it communicates with the second stomach ; but there is a semilunar fold of the rumen that runs obliquely across it, and acts as a valve, so that nothing can pass from the first into the second stomach, except by some forcible effort ; and it is very seldom that anything is returned from the rumen direclly into the O3so- phagus. Considering the size of the paunch, it has very few blood-vessels ; in fact, it has not much to do except macerating the food. The arteries are supplied by the splenics, which are of very great size in ruminants. The nerves are given out by the cceliac plexus. d. The reticulum, or second stomach. The cuticular coat here covers a very irregular surface, consisting of cells, shallower and wider than those of a honey-comb, but very much resembling them ; hence this stomach is sometimes called the honey-comb. Each of these divisions contains several smaller ones ; and at the base and along the sides 'of each are found numerous minute prominences or papillae, which are evidently secreting glands. There are two openings into this stomach ; one through the floor of the resophagean canal, one of the pillars of which is formed of a duplicature of the coats of the lesser curvature of the reticulum. The other is that already described, between this stomach and the rumen. 428 CATTLE. The muscular coat of this stomach is thick and powerful, but the blood- vessels are not numerous ; for it will hereafter appear that its functions are very simple. The arteries and nerves of the reticulum are derived from the same source as those of the rumen. e. The manyplus, or third stomach. The internal structure of this stomach is very singular. The cesophagean canal changes its form and character at the commencement of the manyplus, and the fleshy pillars, of which mention has been so often made, unite, forming a kind of obtuse angle. The floor of the canal is now perfect, and nothing can any longer fall into the stomachs beneath. A small circular aperture alone is left between them, which conducts to the third stomach, the floor of which is closed, but the roof is constructed in a remarkable way. The whole of the stomach contributes to form this roof; and from it there descend numerous duplicatures of the cuticular coat, each duplicature containing within it cellular tissue, blood-vessels, and a thin but powerful layer of muscles. They are formed into groups. A long duplicature, resembling a leaf or curtain, hangs from the roof, and floats free in the stomach, and reaches nearly down to the floor. On either side of it is a shorter leaf, and beyond that a shorter still, until the outer leaf becomes very narrow. Then com- mences anotherjgroup with a long leaf in the centre, and others progres- sively shortening on each side, until the stomach is filled with these leaves, hanging down from every part of it, floating loosely about, and the lower edge of the longest of them reaching into the continuation of the cesophagean Canal. The cuticular covering of these leaves is peculiarly dense and strong, and thickly studded with little prominences ; so that when the leaf is exa- mined it exhibits a file-like hardness, that would scarcely be thought pos- sible; and is evidently capable of acting like a file, or a little grindstone. These prominences are larger and harder towards the lower part of the leaf; and, in the central leaves, assume the form and office of little crotch- ets, or hooks, some of which have the hardness of horn, so that nothing solid or fibrous can escape them. These groups of leaves vary in number in different animals, and the number of leaves constituting each group vary too. They float thickest, and the canal is smallest at the entrance into this stomach, where they are most wanted, Towards the fourth stomach the course is left more open. As would be expected, from the complicated mechanism of this stomach, it is more abundantly supplied with blood-vessels and with nerves than the second, or even than the first, although that is many times larger than the third. f. The abomasum, or fourth stomach, is lined by a soft villous membrane, like the digestive portion of the stomach of the horse. It also contains a great number of folds, or leaves, somewhat irregularly placed, but running chiefly longitudinally. They are largest and most numerous at the upper and wider part of the stomach ; and one of the folds, in particular, is placed at the entrance into the abomasum, yielding to the substances which pass from* the third stomach into the fourth, and leaving, as it were, a free and open way, but opposing an almost perfect valvular obstruction to their return. This explains the reason why vomiting is so rare in the ruminant ; and that when it does occur, it must be produced by such violent spasmodic efforts as to cause or indicate the approach of death. See g and k, p. 424. Towards the lower and narrower part of the stomach these folds are less numerous and of smaller size : they are also more irregular in the course which they take ; some of them running obliquely and even transversely. CHANGES OF THE FOOD IN THE RUMEN. 429 This coat of the stomach, when the animal is in health, is thickly covered with mucus, while, from innumerable glands, it secretes the gastric juice, or true digestive fluid. The pyloric or lower orifice of this stomach is guarded by a rounded projecting thick substance, by which the entrance into the intestine is much contracted, and which, indeed, partly discharges the function of a sphinc- ter muscle. g is a portion of the duodenum, or first intestine. h gives the place where the biliary and pancreatic ducts enter the duo- denum. i. A stilett is here supposed to be passed through that portion of the oesophagean canal (the very beginning of it), through which the gullet communicates with the paunch. k. A stilett is here supposed to run through that part of the canal by means of which the gullet communicates with the second stomach. I. A stilett here passes below the last, and under the oesophagean canal, showing the situation of the direct communication between the rumen and the reticulum. m. The supposed direction of the oesophagean canal to the third stomach over the roofs of the paunch and the second stomach. n. Its passage through the third stomach, and entrance into the fourth. THE CHANGES OF THE FOOD IN THE DIFFERENT STOMACHS. The ox rapidly and somewhat greedily crops the herbage, which under- goes little or no mastication, but, being rolled into a pellet, and, as it passes along the pharynx, being somewhat enveloped by the mucus there se- creted, is swallowed. The pellet, being hard and rapidly driven along by the action of the muscles of the oesophagus, falls upon the anterior portion of the cesophagean canal, and its curiously-formed floor ; and either by the force with which it strikes on these pillars, or by some instinctive influence, they are separated, and. the pellet falls into the rumen, which is found immediately under the base of the gullet, as represented at c, p. 424, and i, p. 426. The food, however, which thus enters the rumen does not remain stationary in the place where it falls. It has been seen that the walls of this stomach are supplied with muscles of considerable power, and which run longitudinally and transversely, and in various directions all over it, and by means of them the contents of the paunch are gradually conveyed through all its compartments. At first the food travels with comparative rapidity, for the muscles of the stomach act strongly, and the papillae with which it is lined easily yield and suffer it to pass on ; but, the rumen being filled or the animal ceasing to graze, the progress of the food is retarded. The muscles act with less power, and the contents of the stomach with greater difficulty find their way over the partitions of the different sacs, and, at the same time, probably, the papillae exert their erectile power, and oppose a new obstacle. Some cruel experiments have been instituted in order to ascertain the nature of this muscular action of the coats of the rumen, so necessary to produce this revolution of the food through its compartments. A consi- derable opening was cut into the flank, immediately over the paunch, and a swinging or balancing motion of that stomach, both upwards and down- wards, and forwards and backwards, was plainly seen. The uses of the papillae seem to be various ; they support the weight of the superincumbent food, rough, unmasticated, and liable to injure the coat of the stomach over which it is continually moving ; they take away the pressure from the follicular glands of the stomach, and which pressure 430 CATTLE; would render it impossible for these glands to discharge that mucous lubricating fluid, which is requisite for the protection of the stomach and the revolution of the food. The papilla? are consequently more numerous and larger and stronger at the centre or bottom of each of the compart- ments where the food would accumulate and press most, and they are more thinly scattered, and in some places almost disappear, where there is no danger from the pressure or the friction. In addition to all these, are the important functions of yielding and suffering the food to pass unimpeded along while the stomach is rapidly filling as the animal grazes, and then by their erectile power retarding that progress when the beast has ceased to eat, and the slow process of rumination has com- menced. The glandular bodies, to which allusion has been made, are most plentifully situated, and are of largest size, on the upper part of the sides of the rumen, where they are least exposed to pressure, and may discharge the lubricating mucus which they secrete without obstacle. The only change that takes place in the food in a healthy state and action of this stomach is that of maceration, and preparation for the second mastication, as may be easily proved by taking from the mouth of a cow a pellet that has been returned for rumination, and which will be found to be merely the grass, or other food, no otherwise altered than as being softened, and covered with a portion of mucus. The fluid which the rumen contains is not secreted there ; but whenever the animal drinks, a portion of the water breaks through the pillars of the cesophagean canal, regulated in quantity either by the will of the beast, or by the sympathy of the parts with the state and wants of the stomach, or with the state of the constitution generally. The rumen of a healthy ox always con- tains a considerable quantity of fluid. The food, having traversed all the compartments of this stomach, would arrive again at the point from which it started, were it not that a fold of the rumen arrests its course, and gives it a somewhat different direction. This fold is placed at the spot where there exists a communication between the rumen and the reticulum, and which also is guarded by a fold or valve ; but the peristaltic motion of the stomach going on, and the food pressing from behind, a portion of it is at length, by a convulsive action, partly voluntary and partly involuntary, thrown over this fold into the reti- culum. The inner coat of the reticulum, or second stomach, has been described as divided into numerous honeycomb- formed cells (they are well repre- sented at d, p. 426), at the base of each of which are numerous small secre- tory glands, which also furnish a considerable quantity of mucus. The action of this stomach consists in first contracting upon its contents ; and, in doing this, it forms the portion just received from the rumen into the proper shape for its return up the oesophagus, and covers it more completely with mucus : then, by a stronger and somewhat spasmodic action, it forces the pellet between the pillars at the floor of the ocsophagean canal, where it is seized by the muscles, that are so powerful at the base of the oesophagus, and which extend over this part of the canal, and is conveyed to the mouth. The reticulum, expanding again, receives a new portion of food from the rumen, and which had been forced over the valve by the convulsive action of that viscus. It is curious to observe the manner in which these acts are performed. The cow is generally found couching on her right side, in order that the intestines which are principally lodged on that side may not press upon and interfere with the action of the rumen. After a pellet that has undergone the pro- cess of rumination is swallowed, there is a pause of two or three seconds, THE DIFFICULTY OF PURGING CATTLE. 431 during which the cow is making a slow and deep inspiration. By means of this the lungs are inflated and press on the diaphragm ; and the dia- phragm in its turn presses on both the rumen and the reticulum, and assists their action. Suddenly the inspiration is cut short by an evident spasm ; it is the forcible ejection of the pellet from the reticulum, and of a fresh quantity of food over the valvular fold to enter the reticulum as soon as it expands again. This spasmodic action is immediately followed by the evident passage of the ball up the oesophagus to the mouth. The spiral muscles of the oesophagus, with their fibres interlacing each other, are admirably suited to assist the ascent as well as the descent of the pellet of food. This prolonged inspiration is precisely the same as that to which the human being has recourse when he would expel a portion of the gas that distends his stomach. This account of the construction and function of the rumen will throw considerable light on some circumstances not a little annoying to the practitioner. It has been stated that a portion of the fluid swallowed usually enters the rumen, and that the quantity which actually enters it depends a little perhaps on the will of the animal, more on the man- ner in which the fluid was administered, but most of all on some state of the constitution over which we have no control. Accordingly it happens, and not unfrequently, and particularly under some diseases of an inflammatory nature, and in which physic is imperatively re- quired, that although it is administered in a liquid form and as gently as possible, the greater part, or the whole of it enters the rumen, and remains there totally inert. Dose after dose is administered until the practitioner is tired, or afraid to give more ; and, ignorant of the anatomy and functions of the stomachs, he wonders at the obstinate constipation which seems to bid defiance to all purgative medicine ; whereas, in fact, little or none of it had entered the intestinal canal. At length, perhaps, the rumen is ex- cited to action, and ejects a considerable portion of its liquid, and some of its more solid contents, either directly into the oasophagean canal, or through the medium of the reticulum ; and which, by an inverted and forcible con- traction, is driven through the manyplus and into the fourth stomach, and thence into the intestinal canal, and produces sometimes natural, but at other times excessive and unmanageable and fatal purgation. The great quantity of fibrous substance, which occasionally is found in the dung, warns us that this has taken place. Occasionally, when dose after dose has been given, and the animal dies apparently constipated, the whole of the physic is found in the rumen. These are difficulties in cattle practice which are not yet sufficiently under- stood. When two or three moderate doses have been given, and purging is not produced, the practitioner may begin to suspect that the medicine has fallen through this oesophagean fissure into the rumen ; and then, although he does not quite discontinue the physic, he should principally endeavour to stimulate this cuticular, yet not quite insensible, stomach. He should lessen the quantity of the purgative, and he should double or treble that of the aromatic and stimulant; and, in many cases, he will thus succeed in producing an intestinal evacuation, the fibrous nature of which will prove the unnatural process by which it was effected *. It was, perhaps, from observation of the occasional benefit derived * Mr. Friend, V. S., of \Valsall, has, in the 'Veterinarian' for 1833, some exceedingly valuable observations on the practice which he adopted iii these annoying and puzzling circumstances. 432 CATTLE. from the administration of aromatics and stimulants, even in inflamma- tory cases, that the absurd and mischievous practice of giving them in every disease, and every state of disease, arose. The reason and the propriety of the administration of cattle-medicine in a liquid form is hence evident. A ball, in consequence of its weight, and the forcible manner in which it is urged on by the muscles of the oesophagus,, breaks through the floor of the cesophagean canal, and enters the rumen and is lost. A liquid, administered slowly and "carefully, and trickling down the oesophagus without the possibility of the muscles of that tube acting upon it and increasing its momentum, is likely to glide over this singular floor, and enter the fourth stomach and the intestines. A hint may hence be derived with regard to the manner of administering a drink. If it is poured down bodily from a large vessel, as is generally done, it will probably fall on the canal with sufficient force partly, at least, to separate the pillars, and a portion of it will enter the rumen and be useless. In the calf, fed entirely on its mother's milk, the rumen is in a manner useless, for all the food goes on to the fourth stomach. It is of a liquid form, audit is swallowed in small quantities, and with little force at each act of deglutition. The instinctive closure of the pillars an act of organic life (because the milk if suffered to fall into the rumen would be lest, or would undergo dangerous changes there) has far more to do with the direction of the fluid than any mechanical effect resulting from the form of the aliment, or the force with which it descended the gullet. It is curious to observe the comparatively diminutive size of the rumen, and the development of the abomasum in the foetal calf. THE SUBJECT OF RUMINATION, AND THE CHANGES OF THE FOOD RESUMED. The food, being returned from the reticulum to the mouth, is there sub- jected to a second mastication, generally very leisurely performed, and which is continued until enough is ground not only to satisfy the cravings of hunger, but to fill the comparatively small true stomach and intestines of the animal ; and then, if he is undisturbed, he usually falls asleep. The act of rumination is accompanied, or closely followed, by that of digestion, and requires a considerable concentration of vital power ; and hence the ap- pearance of tranquillity and sleepy pleasure which the countenance of the beast presents. Sometimes the process is carried on while the animal is standing, and especially if he is accustomed to, or fears, interruption ; and the working ox, if he is not driven too fast, or has not too heavy a load behind him, will ruminate as he walks along. The rumen is rarely or never emptied ; and probably the food, that is returned for rumination, is that which has been macerating in the stomach during many hours. The process of rumination is very easily interrupted. Anything that surprises or frightens the animal will have this effect: even the compelling of the couching beast to rise will suspend it; and it is sometimes a long while before the process is recommenced. Some persons have had the curiosity to count the number of times that the jaws have moved in the arct of grinding the pellet, and these have varied from thirty to forty, according to the time the animal had fasted, or his freedom from interruption ; but the portion of food having been sufficiently comminuted, is at length swallowed a second time ; and then either being of a softer consistence, or not being so violently driven down the gullet, or, by some instinctive influence, it passes over the floor of the canal, without separating the pillars, and enters the manyplus, or third stomach. This is represented at 6, p. 423, and m, p. 426. SWALLOWING INDIGESTIBLE SUBSTANCES/ 433 The manyplus presents an admirable provision for that perfect commi- nution of the food which is requisite in an animal destined to supply us with nutriment both when living and when dead. That which is quite ground down is permitted to pass on ; but the leaves, that have been described as hang-ing from the roof, and floating close over the oesophagean canal, and armed with numerous hook-formed papilla?, seize upon every particle of fibre that remains, and draw it up between them, and file it down by means of the hard prominences on their surfaces, and suffer it not to escape until it is reduced to a pulpy mass. These three stomachs, then, are evidently designed for the preparation and comminution of the food before it enters the fourth stomach, in which the process of digestion may be said to commence, and where the food, already softened, is converted into a fluid called chyme. The villous coat of the abomasum abounds with small follicular glands, whence is secreted a liquid called the gastric juice, and which is the agent in producing this chyme. The change, in all probability, merely consists in the food being more perfectly dissolved, and converted into a semi-fluid homogeneous mass. This form it must of necessity assume before its nutritive matter can be separated. The solution being complete, or as much so as it can be rendered, the food passes through the pyloric, or lower orifice of the stomach, into the duodenum, or first intestine (g, p. 426), where its sepa- ration into the nutritive and innutritive portions is effected, and the former begins to be taken up, and carried into the system. We are now prepared to enter into the consideration of the diseases of this complicated apparatus. DISEASES OP THE RUMEN OR PAUNCH. It has already been hinted that the cow, and particularly while she is in calf, is a greedy animal, and will not only choke herself by swallowing broken food, half masticated, or scarcely masticated at all, but will occa- sionally devour very strange things. Inflammation of the pericardium has not unirequently been produced by wires from the riddles or sieves which the animal has demolished from mere wantonness, and from needles and large pins that she has picked up. Three very instructive cases of this were given in page 250. This is particularly the case with the cattle of poor people, and where the women and children live, as it were, among them. SWALLOWING INDIGESTIBLE SUBSTANCES. There are some singular records of this depraved appetite, if so it may be called. The museum of the veterinary school at Alfort contains a cal- culus that was taken from the rumen of an ox, and the nucleus, or central body, around which the vegetable and slimy matter gradually formed and hardened, was a woman's neckerchief, without one laceration in it. In the same museum is a pair of scissors, to which a cow had.taken a fancy; and which had worked their way through the coats of the stomach, and at length begun to protrude between two of the ribs, whence they were extracted. It was necessary to break the rivet by which the blades were united, before their removal could be accomplished. Another cow swal- lowed a similar pair, but these were arrested in their passage down the throat, whence they penetrated into the thorax, and at length protruded between two of the ribs. An old shoe was found in the paunch of an ox ; and the lash of a whip, with part of the handle attached to it, began to elevate the left flank of a cow, and was extracted after an incision had been made upon it. An ox, destined to be slaughtered, was led to 2 F 434 CATTLE. the abattoir, where the man in attendance had taken off his waistcoat, and left it in the slaughter-house, from which he was called away for a few minutes. On his return the waistcoat was missing', and his companions were accused of the theft, or trick ; but it was presently found in the paunch of the beast. A cow exhibited symptoms of choking", and was in extreme distress. There was evidently no obstructing body in the portion of the gullet above the thorax, nor could it be detected lower ; yet the symptoms were those only which could be referred to the lodgment of some foreign body in the gullet, or the orifice of the stomach. A large in- cision was made in the left flank, sufficient for the admission of a man's hand ; that incision was carried on into the rumen, and a buckskin glove was abstracted, that had been fixed between the pillars of the floor of the cesophagean canal, between which lies the entrance into the rumen *. The presence of bodies like these in the rumen cannot fail of being inju- rious to the animal. They must produce local irritation, interfering with the proper function of this stomach ; suspending the process of rumination, or rendering it less effectually performed ; and exciting inflammation, pro- bably of the stomach generally as this foreign body is traversing i(s diffe- rent compartments, or of some particular portion in which it may be acci- dentally arrested, and leading on to abscess and perforation of the stomach at that spot. During the strange journey of these bodies through various parts of the frame, previous to their final expulsion, and while they are, as it were, seeking a way of escape, they cannot fail of producing much serious indisposition. The symptoms which would indicate this peculiar cause of disease are not yet sufficiently known; but there must be con- siderable disturbance when a body sufficiently hard and pointed thus to force its way commences its journey. Inflammation, as conducting to suppuration and destruction of the living substance, must precede its course and make way for it; and as it passes along, the aperture closes, and the wound is healed behind it. The nerves and blood-vessels which lie in its way are, with mysterious skill, unerringly avoided, and as little injury as possible is done to the neighbouring tissues ; but local inflamma- tion and pain attend the whole process, which, in many cases, are accom- panied by general and severe disease. It is seldom that medical skill could be of avail here, until the substance approaches to the skin, even if the case were understood. All that can be done is to prevent the animals, as much as possible, from having the op- portunity of swallowing these things. CONCRETIONS IN THE RUMEN. A more frequent and a more serious complaint is the formation of va- rious concretions in the rumen. They are generally round, but occasion- ally of various forms, and varying likewise in weight from a few ounces to six or seven pounds. The composition of these balls is also very different. Those which are decidedly peculiar to cattle are composed entirely of hair matted together by the mucous secretion from the follicular glands of the stomach. Sometimes they have no distinct central body ; at other times it exists in the form of a bit of straw or wood, or frequently of stone or iron. They exist in the rumen, and in the abomasum. In the aboina- sum they are composed exclusively of hair, irregularly matted and held together by the mucus of the stomach ; in the rumen there is generally a mixture of food, or earthy matter, in the composition of the concretion. * Vide Kecueil de Medecine Veterinaire, 1830, p. 324. Memoires et Observations Rur la Chirurgie et la Medeeine Veteriuaires, totne ii. p. 3GO, et Diet. Veterinaire, par Ilurtrel d'Arboval, 'Corps Etrangers.' DISTKNTION OF THE RUMEN FROM FOOD. 435 When simple Food mingles with the hair, the ball seems to be formed by a succession of concentric layers, and in the centre is a bit of nail or stone ; or, if the beasts have access to running water, a piece of shell often con- stitutes the nucleus. The hair is obtained by the habit which cattle, and even very young calves, have of licking each other. Two cows will sometimes stand for a long while titillating one another in this manner. A considerable quan- tity of hair is loosened and removed by the rough tongues of these animals, the greater part of which is swallowed ; and there seems to be a kind of power in the stomach to separate these indigestible matters from the other substances which it contains. It is also easy to imagine that the hairs which the mariyplus, with all its grinding power, cannot rub down, will collect together when floating in the semi-fluid contents of the fourth stomach, and gradually accumulate in considerable and hard masses. These balls will begin to form at a very early age of the animal. Mr. Linton, of Bishop's Auckland, found a ball ' as large as his two fists,' in the rumen of a calf that was slaughtered, when only five weeks old. This calf, although it was made sufficiently fat for the butcher, was subject to distention of the rumen, and was always uneasy for the space of an hour after its milk had been given to it *. When only a little hair enters into the formation of these calculi, they are usually made up of earthy matter, with bits of hay, straw, or other food, agglutinated together by the mucus of the stomach. These have uniformly a hard central nucleus, generally metallic. The concentric layers can here also be traced, but they are, occasionally, somewhat con- fused. In some cases, but not so often as in the horse, more of the various compounds of lime, and still more of silicious matter, can be detected by chemical analysis. These concretions are round ; they are seldom found except in the rumen, and never in the intestines; and there is always a central nucleus of stone or metal ; the concentric layers are regularly and beautifully marked; and the concretion, when sawn asunder, will bear a high degree of polish. Of the effect of these substances on the health of the animal it is difficult to speak. One thing, however, is certain, that they are often found and in greater numbers in those that are ailing and out of condi- tion, than in stronger and thriving beasts ; but whether some fault in the digestive organs, indicated by this poorness of condition, gives a tendency to the formation of concretions in the paunch, or the presence of these concretions impairs the digestive powers and produces general unthrifti- ness, are questions which it is difficult to answer. Each opinion may in its turn be true, but it is probable that the latter state of things oftenest occurs. However this may be decided, these calculi are not so injurious to cattle as to the horse, because they are, with few exceptions, confined to the stomach, where they may produce a sense of oppression and impairment of appetite, but cannot be the cause of that severe colic, and obstruction, and inflammation, and strangulation of the intestines which destroy so many horses. DISTENTION OF THE RUMEN FROM FOOD. Cattle, when first put on succulent grass or turnips, or when suffered to gorge themselves with potatoes or grains, or even with chaff, will some- times distend the rumen almost to bursting. The disease is recognised in * Veterinarian. October, 1833. 2 F 2 43C CATTLE. town-dairies by the name of grain-sick ; in some parts of the country it is termed maw-bound. The history of the case will generally unfold the nature of it ; and it will be distinguished from hoove from its not being attended by occasional eructation, by the swelling not being so great as in hoove, and by the hardness of the flanks. Should any doubt, however, remain, the probang should be passed into the rumen, when, if that is distended with gas, a sudden and violent rush of the imprisoned air will follow. The probang, however, should always be used, not only to determine this point, but the degree to which the rumen is distended by food. When, although the animal may be dull, refusing to eat, and ceasing to ruminate, generally lying down and shewing great disinclination to move, yet the pulse is not materially quickened, and the muscle is cool and moist, and there is little heaving at the flanks, and no indication of pain, the practitioner may content himself with a free bleeding and a power- ful dose of physic. These symptoms, however, are often treacherous, and, without warning, uneasiness and heaving, and stupor and death, may rapidly succeed. Some farmers place great reliance on goose-grease, which is carefully preserved to be used in this complaint ; and, it is said, that one pound of it boiled in a quart of milk will give immediate relief. If it does give relief, it is because the goose-grease is an aperient ; but a dose of olive or castor-oil would have answered the same purpose, with- out the danger of poisoning by the deleterious acid that is sometimes de- veloped in this animal matter. Mr. Parkinson strongly recommends his chamberley and salt, as an effectual remedy for grain-sick, which they may use who are not ashamed to administer so filthy a medicine. He, however, very properly adds, that "the beasts should be turned into the cow-stand or pasture, exercise being an essential in the cure of this complaint." In these milder cases, stimulants may also be resorted to with frequent advantage. Ammonia, ether, aromatics, and ardent spirits, have succeeded in rousing the stomach to action, and establishing the process of rumination ; and that once established, there is little fear of the result of the case. These stimulants should, however, be always accompanied by aperient medicines. When, however, the symptoms are sudden dulness, uneasiness, shifting of posture, moaning, swelling at the sides, the flank feeling hard and not yielding to pressure; when rumination ceases, and the uneasiness and moaning increase, and the animal gradually becomes unconscious, this is a most serious business, and will admit of no delay. It is a case that demands mechanical relief. The practitioner will probably be able to obtain some account of the nature of the contents of the stomach, and the introduction of the pvoban - will ascertain the degree of distention. Should the probang enter a little way into the stomach, and the operator be able to move it about, he will have proof that, although the paunch is sufficiently distended to produce severe annoyance and considerable danger to the animal, it is not stretched to the utmost ; and he will consider whether he may not first try the effect of mild measures, and he will be especially encouraged to attempt this if he finds that the food is of a rather light nature. A case related by Mr. Cotcheifer, of Newark,* will best illustrate the method to be pursued. He was consulted respecting two cows that had gorged themselves with eating wheat-chaff', and one of which was already * Veterinarian, June, 1830. DISTENTTON OF THE RUMEN FROM FOOD. 437 dead. Mr. Cotcheifer, that he might lose no time, first administered a strong 1 purging draught to the living one. He then proceeded to examine the dead cow ; and finding that both the first and second stomachs were filled with this chaff', he immediately saw that he must have recourse to other means in order to remove this accumulated food. Reasoning upon the nature of the food, ancV the distention not being exceedingly violent, he sent home for Read's Stomach Pump, and, having passed the flexible tube into the paunch, he injected a considerable quantity of water. He then attempted to pump out some of the contents which he had thus softened, but he found this to be impracticable, from the lightness and half masticated state of the food, which soon stopped up the syringe ; he therefore injected water into the rumen until it began to react upon its contents, and a considerable proportion of them were discharged by vomit. He afterwards threw up a large clyster of warm water, and ordered the cow to be drenched with it several times in the day, and to be moved gently about. The physic, assisted by the clyster, acted freely. On the following day, the cow was better, and she recovered ; but it was a con- siderable time before she fully regained her appetite and condition. If the probang cannot be introduced at all into the rumen, or the food eaten is heavy, as grains or potatoes or corn, the most judicious plan will be to make an incision without delay through the left flank into the rumen, and thus extract its contents. A case, related by Mr. J. Steel, of Biggar, N. B.,* will form a useful commentary on the advice here given. He was sent for in haste to a cow that was supposed to be very much hoven, and that seemed to be dying. He found indeed every appearance of approaching dissolution. A sur- geon had been prevailed on by the owner to puncture her with a trocar, but no air came away ; and it was evident (as it would have been by exami- nation with the probang) that the stomach was distended with food. She had been feeding on clover pasture. Mr. Steel, with a decision that did him credit, proposed an immediate opening into the stomach, and the mechanical removal of its contents. He was supported by the opinion of the surgeon ; and the owner consented when he was assured that not a moment was to be lost. Mr. S. made an incision, five inches in length, through the flank into the stomach. The contents immediately came rushing out in a large stream, and continued doing so for some time ; and when it stopped coming of itself, he introduced his hand, and removed a great deal more of it; and he says that the quantity of this indigested mass that was taken out was almost incredible. He then stitched up the wound, abstracted some blood, and gave a purgative. Some days having elapsed, and the bowels not acting, and the cow not feeding, he examined the state of the rumen through the wound, some of the stitches having given way. He found that the portion of the food, which was not removed, was lying in large hard masses in the paunch. He was unwilling to open the whole of the wound afresh; but, with the point of a long syringe, he broke down these masses as well as he could, injected a good quantity of warm water, and gave a smart dose of physic, which acted briskly. On the next day, she was evidently better, and continued to improve ; and, at length, in spite of a severe catarrhal fever, which was brought on by an accidental cause, she perfectly recovered. This mode of proceeding, however, is recommended only in cases of extreme distention with heavy food. The rumen of cattle, with few blood-vessels and nerves, will endure very severe treatment without serious * Veterinarian, February, 1(534. 438 CATTLE. injury. The principal danger is, and it exists to a considerable extent, that a portion of the food will, during- the extrication of the rest from the stomach, fall into the abdomen, and there remain a source of irritation, and the unsuspected cause of serious and fatal disease when the fears of the owner had completely subsided. A beast that has been subjected to this operation, or, indeed, whose paunch has been distended to any considerable degree, should be prepared for the butcher as soon as 'possible, or sold almost immediately, if in tolerable condition : for a stomach, whose muscular fibres have been so stretched and enfeebled, will not soon do its full duty again ; or a small portion of food, which, notwithstanding the most careful manage- ment may fall into the belly, will sometimes, after a while, produce inflam- mation of the intestines, and death. HOOVE, OR DISTENTION OF THE STOMACH FROM GAS. If a beast, taken from poor or less nutritive food, is put upon clover, or turnips, or rich-fog, it eats so greedily and so much, that the rumen ceases to act. These green vegetable substances are naturally subject to fermentation, during which much gas is extricated, but when inclosed in the stomach and exposed to the combined influence of heat and moisture, the commencement of the fermentation is hastened, and its effect increased. The " Hoove" or "Blown" is distention of the rumen, by gas extri- cated from substances undergoing the process of fermentation within it. In a healthy discharge of the functions of the stomach, the food simply undergoes a process of maceration or softening ; but if the food is retained in the stomach longer than the usual period, it, or perhaps only a portion of the juices which it contains, begins to ferment; or, as in animals with simple stomachs, even this preparatory one may so sympathise with certain states of the constitution, as either to secrete an acid principle, or to favour the development of it in the food. It is from this cause that some degree of hoove accompanies most fevers ; it has been seen that it is the consequence of general irritation produced by obstruction of the oesophagus ; and it sometimes accompanies difficult parturition, and to such an extent, that it is necessary to puncture the rumen before the calf can descend sufficiently low into the pelvis to be extracted. Its most frequent cause, however, is that which has been just stated, namely, the turning of a beast from poor, or less nutritious food, into plentiful and luxuriant pasture, when he frequently eats so greedily, and so much, that the stomach is overloaded, and is unable to circulate the food through its cavities, and from the combined action of heat and moisture its contents speedily ferment, and gas is extricated. The follow- ing are the symptoms : The animal gradually becomes oppressed and distressed. It ceases to eat; it does not ruminate ; it scarcely moves; but it stands with its head extended, breathing heavily, and moaning. The whole belly is blown up: this is particularly evident at the flanks and most of all at the left flank, for under that the posterior division of the rumen lies. When the effects of this distention of the stomach in the horse were described, a determination of blood to the head was spoken of as an early and a fearful symptom. Many blood-vessels go to the stomach of the horse, and it is richly supplied with nervous influence, therefore the brain soon sym- pathises witti this overloaded organ, and staggers are produced. It has been shown, however, that the rumen in cattle is scantily supplied with either blood-vessels or nerves, and therefore the brain is seldom much affected in an early stage of hoove. Swelling, unwillingness to DISTENT! ON OF THE RUMEN FROM GAS. 439 move, and laborious breathing, are the first and distinguishing symptoms. In proportion as the stomach becomes distended by the extricated gas, the case becomes more desperate, not only from the pressure on the other contents of the abdomen, thus impeding the circulation of the ^blood ; and also on the diaphragm, against which the rumen abuts, and. thus impeding respiration, and also the danger of rupture of the paunch, but the construction of the cesophagean canal renders it manifest that the rumen will be more obstinately closed in proportion as it is distended. It is the relaxation of the muscular fibies which causes the two pillars that constitute the floor of the canal and the roof of the rumen to be easily opened, either for the admission or the return of food ; but when the stomach is filled and elongated, as well as widened, these fleshy pillars must be stretched, and in proportion as they are distended, will they be brought closer to each other, and firmly held there. Two cords, tied toge- ther at the ends, may be easily separated from each other in the centre, when they are loosely held; but if they are tightly stretched, they are brought close together, and the difficulty of separating them increases with the tension. This every-day illustration may explain the seeming difficulty of the rumen becoming thus dangerously distended, with these moveable pillars in its roof. When the rumen is filling, there are occasional eructations of a sour or foetid character; but when the stomach is once filled, there is no longer the possibility of escape for its contents. The animal cannot long sustain this derangement of important parts ; inflammation is set up, and the circulation becomes seriously and dan- gerously disturbed by this partial obstruction. Affection of the brain comes at last, characterised by fulness of the vessels, hardness of the pulse, redness of the conjunctiva, and protrusion of the eye. The tongue hangs from the mouth, and the mouth is filled with spume. The beast stands with his back bent, his legs as much as possible under him ; and he gradually becomes insensible immoveable he moans falls struggles with some violence, and, as death approaches, some relaxation of the parts ensues, and a quan- tity of green sour liquid, occasionally mixed with more solid food, flows from the mouth and nose. There can be no dispute as to the first object to be accomplished, in order to save the animal ; the gas must be liberated, or otherwise got rid of. Some persons, when symptoms of hoove appear, drive the animal about, and keep him for a while in constant motion. This is parti- cularly the case with sheep. It is supposed, that in the motion of all the contents of the abdomen, while the animal is moving briskly about, the pillars of the roof of the paunch must be for a moment relaxed, and oppor- tunity given for the gas to escape into the cesophagean canal, and through the gullet; and this will, undoubtedly, be the case to a certain degree. In sheep, that can be more easily driven about than oxen, this is sometimes effectual ; but the ox cannot without much difficulty, and often not at all, be induced to move with rapidity, which is necessary to produce concus- sions sufficiently powerful to shorten and disunite the muscular pillars. There must also be some danger of rupturing the stomach so much dis- tended, or the diaphragm, against which it is pressing, by the very pro- duction of these concussions. In some parts of Leicestershire, the farmers still retain the old method of very effectually producing these shocks : pails-full of cold water are thrown one after another on the beast. A violent eructation follows, and the animal is relieved; but it unfortunately happens that the stomach now and then gives way, instead of the pillars of the oisophageau canal, and the patient is lost. 440 CATTLE. Some writers recommend the administration of vinegar, the propriety of which admits of much doubt, for the fluid contained in the stomach is already sufficiently acid. Others have recommended alkalis, and described them as almost a spe- cific. Ammonia has been extolled as seldom failing to give relief. It may be conceded, that the alkali would be likely to neutralise the acid contents of the stomach ; but there is one objection to it, (another will be stated presently,) viz., that the same closing of the roof of the rumen, which prevents the escape of the gas, would also prevent the entrance of the alkali, which would, consequently, pass on to the third and fourth stomachs, where there is no acid for it to neutralise. Oil (whether olive, or spermaceti, or castor, or common whale oil, seems to be a matter of indifference) will sometimes prove serviceable in cases of hoove ; but' it is either at the very commencement, before the muscular pillars are tightened, and when a portion of it can enter the paunch, and produce a disposition to vomiting or purging; or, if the whole passes on into the fourth stomach, and so into the intestinal canal, a sympathetic but inverted action is excited in the rumen, and a portion of its contents is sent, by an unusual passage, from the rumen through the third and into the fourth stomach, and so relief is obtained. In this way purging is occasionally established, either in consequence of a stimulus applied imme- diately to the coats of the first stomach, or from sympathy with the action going forward in the intestinal canal, a portion of the food is carried from the rumen into the intestines without being returned to the mouth to be remasticated. The grassy and harder fibres, sometimes found in the dung in considerable quantities, prove that that portion of it could not have undergone rumination. This, however, is not striking at the root of the evil. The object to be accomplished is the extrication of the gas, and the prevention of any fresh quantity of it being developed. If the farmer or the practitioner, at a distance from home, sees any of his cattle so danger- ously hoven or swelled as to threaten speedy death, he adopts a summary mode of getting rid of the gas : he takes a sharp-pointed knife, and plunges it into the left flank, underneath, and in contact with which the rumen is found. The gas rushes violently through the aperture, carrying with it steam, and fluid, and pieces of food. The belly falls, and the beast is immediately relieved. The safest place for this operation is the following: Supposing a line to be drawn close along the vertebra?, from the haunch-bone to the last rib, and two other lines of equal length to extend down the flank, so as to form an equilateral triangle, the apex of the triangle, or the point where these lines would meet, would be the proper place for the operation, for there is no danger of wounding either the spleen or the kidney. It may also be suggested, that a small trocar is far preferable to a knife for this operation, and might very conveniently be carried in the instrument-case of the surgeon, or the pocket of the farmer. It consists of a short strong stilett, terminating in three cutting edges converging to a point, and having a handle that may be grasped with some force. To this is accurately fitted a silver canula or tube, reaching from the ter- mination of the three edges to the handle. It is, in fact, the instrument used by human surgeons in tapping for dropsy. This is plunged into the flank ; the stilelt is then withdrawn, and the canula remains as long as the operator pleases, and may be secured by tapes attached to two rings at the base of it, and tied round the body ol the animal. The gas is certainly extricated in this way, and generally successfully DISTENTION OF THE RUMEN FROM FOOD. 441 so. When gas ceases to escape, it may be taken for granted that the manufacture of it has ceased in the rumen ; the trocar may then be with- drawn, and the wound will speedily heal. There are, however, oc- casional bad consequences, which are altogether unsuspected by the farmer or the practitioner. At the commencement of the operation, when the inside of the flank is in close contact with the paunch, the gas, fluid, and fibrous matter will all be safely thrown out through the two wounds, for, lying upon each other, they are but as one ; but when the stomach is partially emptied of the gas, it sinks, and is no longer in contact with the parietes of the abdomen. The gas and particles of solid food continue to be discharged for a considerable time after this ; and although the greater part may be ejected with sufficient force to be driven through the aperture in the flank, yet some portion will neces- sarily faU into the abdomen and remain there. This will, ere long, become a source of considerable and dangerous irritation ; slow or rapid in its progress and effects, according to the quantity of food that has escaped from the stomach into the abdominal cavity : accordingly it happens, that although the beast may appear to be perfectly relieved by this operation, he does not thrive well afterwards, and, in the course of a few weeks or months, sickens and dies of some obscure disease, but which is principally referrible to inflammatory affection of the abdomen. There- fore, the farmer or practitioner who has faith in and occasional recourse to the mode of cure by puncturing the rumen should always carry a trocar with, him, for the canula penetrating three or four inches into the abdomen would form a continuous passage between the rumen and the flanks, notwithstanding the subsidence of the former, and would prevent the escape of any portion of the contents of the rumen into the abdomen. Although a portion of the gas may be liberated by this operation, yet the process of fermentation may proceed. The gas may escape, but that which would furnish a long, continued, and annoying and dangerous sup- ply of it remains. Then the advocates for paunching carry their operation a little farther. They enlarge the aperture into the paunch, until, as in bad cases of maw-bound, they can introduce their hand, and shovel out the contents ; and, as before stated, the stomach, from its comparative in- sensibility, and want of vitality, bears all this without any considerable in- flammation or danger ; there is, however, as in the simple paunching, danger from the escape of a portion of the contents into the cavity of the abdo- men. This larger opening into the rumen should never be attempted except by a veterinary surgeon, or a person perfectly acquainted with the anatomy of cattle, and the precise situation of the viscera of the belly. A cow had eaten a great quantity of lucern, and was hoven. A neighbour, who was supposed to know a great deal about cattle, made this large incision into the paunch : the gas escaped, a great portion of the food was removed, and the animal appeared to be considerably relieved, but rumination did not return, and on the following day the animal was dull she refused her food, but was eager for drink she became worse and worse and, on the sixth day, she died. She was examined after death; and one of the kidneys was found to be punctured, and the peritoneum in the neighbour- hood of the wound was black with inflammation. The French Practical Journal of Veterinary Medicine (for ]8<29, p. 390) contains a case in which the cow was destroyed by the operation, although the larger opening was not resorted to, and even a rude kind of canula was used. A cow that was hoven was punctured by the shepherd with his knife. The gas escaped, and the animal was relieved ; but whether the man 442 CATTLE. had made the opening' into the rumen too large, or had irritated the wound by holding it open with his fingers, while someone procured a hollow piece of elder to be introduced as a canula into it, the cow was evidently ill on the following day, and became rapidly worse, and exhibited symptoms of inflammation of the bowels, and, on the seventh day after the puncturing, was so bad, that she was destroyed. Several gallons of fluid were found in the belly, with a considerable quantity of half-chewed food swimming in it : many portions of the small intestines were highly inflamed, and the peritoneum generally was so, and particularly in the neighbourhood of the wound. It was the knowledge of facts like these, (and similar ones must have oc- curred in the experience of every practitioner,) that produced the conviction that the practice of puncturing the rumen was not so simple and so free from danger as some had imagined, and led to the invention and use of the probang and stomach-pump. The tube (fig. 1, a. p. 417) is intro- duced into the mouth, and is passed down the throat, with the rounded extremity, e, downwards, and is forced on through the pillars of the ceso- phagean canal : the stilett is then withdrawn, and the gas rushes violently out. The tube is continued in the mouth until the belly sinks, and liltle gas escapes: the animal is greatly relieved, and if it begins to swell again, the probang is once more introduced. But the tube cannot remain in the mouth and gullet for any great length of time ; and when it is withdrawn, the ma- nufacture of gas may continue undiminished, and the relief be only tem- porary, and so far the probang may be in some degree inferior to the trocar. The practitioner then has recourse to the stomach-pump, and he throws in a considerable quantity of warm water, and pumps it out again; and repeats the operation until he has washed away all the acid fermenting fluid, and then usually the process of rumination recommences, and the animal does well. Sometimes he so overcharges the stomach that vomit- ing is produced, and a great portion of the contents of the rumen is thus discharged. Hoove, however, had long been considered to be a case in which the aid of chemistry might be resorted to with considerable benefit ; and alkalis were thrown into the stomach to neutralise the supposed acid principle which then prevailed. The carbonate of ammonia was a favourite medi- cine for this purpose ; but they who were deluded by this supposed appli- cation of chemistry, forgot that the necessary consequence of the com- bination of the alkali with the acid would be the extrication of an immense volume of gas, of a diiferent nature indeed, but which would still more distend the rumen, and that even to bursting. As, however, a very small portion of it, if any, enters the rumen, it will principally do good, and much good it frequently does effect by its stimulant effect on the fourth stomach, propagated by sympathy to the first. Acids are resorted to by other practitioners, but it would be difficult to say on what principle, except their stimulant effect on the rumen, and thus rousing it to contract, if possible, upon, and expel its contents. More pow- erful stimulants than the acids are with great propriety adopted by ano- ther set of practitioners, and peppermint, wine, and even ardent spirits are freely administered, and in many cases with beneficial effect, and espe- cially when they can be got into the rumen. At length it occurred to some inquiring men to turn their chemistry to better account by an analysis of the gas that was so rapidly and abun- dantly extricated, and the extrication of which was the source of all the mischief. It had been suspected that it consisted principally of hydrogen ; DISTENTION OF THE RUMEN FROM FOOD. 443 for when a lighted candle had been accidentally brought into contact with the vapour as it rushed from the aperture in the flank, the gas immediately caught fire. Careful analysis indicated that the gas was differently com- bined, in different stages. In recent hoove it consisted chiefly of carbu- retted hydrogen the union of carbon with hydrogen; in more chronic cases there was a mixture of sulphuretted hydrogen the union of sulphur and hydrogen; and, in proportion to the continuance of the hoove, the sulphuretted hydrogen increased, and at length prevailed. In. both cases hydrogen was the chief constituent. Then came the inquiry, whether something might not be introduced into the stomach which would combine with the gas already extricated, and cause it to disappear, and also prevent its future accumulation, by combining with it as soon as it was produced. Chlorine suggested itself to the mind of the inquirer, between which and hydrogen a very strong affinity prevailed, and which rapidly combined with hydrogen, and formed muriatic gas, while this new and compound gas was immediately absorbed by water, and became muriatic acid. There were, however, some obvious difficulties attached to the adminis- tration of chlorine; for, in the form of gas, it is destructive to life, and, even when combined with water, it produces speedy and dangerous in- flammation of the stomach and bowels. The muriatic acid also the result of the combination of the chlorine and the hydrogen and water was not a very harmless thing in the stomach of the horse, or of cattle. A method, nevertheless, was soon discovered, by which it might be ad- ministered with perfect safety and admirable result. Chlorine had affi- nity for various substances, as lime, potash, and soda ; and its combina- tion with either of these could be substituted for the unmanageable and destructive chlorine. When introduced by means of the stomach-pump into the rumen, the chlorine would separate itself from the alkali, and combine with the hydrogen, for which it had a more powerful affinity, and formed muriatic gas. This gas had a strong affinity for water, and would be quickly absorbed by the fluid always contained within the stomach ; and so, quitting its gaseous for a fluid form, it quickly dis- appeared, or would not retain a thousandth part of its former bulk, and muriatic acid would be formed. At the' same time, the lime or potash, or soda, (according to the combination that w'as used,) would be libe- rated ; yet no danger would result from the presence of this corroding acid and caustic alkali 5 for there was a chemical affinity between them which would be soon exerted, and the harmless and inert muriates of lime or potash, or soda, would be produced. This was not mere theory, but when brought to the test of practice, was verified in every particular ; and hence resulted one of the most important improvements in cattle-medicine that modern times have produced. The chloride of lime is as good as either of the others, and should always be in the possession of the farmer and practitioner, not only for this purpose, but because, in cases of foul, foetid ulceration, and gangrene generally, it is the most powerful disinfectant, and the most useful sti- mulant that can be applied. The proper and safe dose is two drachms of the powdered chloride of lime dissolved in two quarts of water, and injected into the paunch by means of the stomach-pump. This may be repeated an hour afterwards, if circumstances should appear to require it. The trocar will then supersede the use of the knife and the lancet, when, under circumstances of emergency, the practitioner may be com- pelled to act promptly; for, by the continuance of the canula in the wound, some of the distant and unsuspected results of the common method 444 CATTLE. of puncturing the rumen may be avoided ; but when the practitioner is near home, or can obtain speedy access to his stomach-tube and pump, the trocar will be completely discarded. The animal having been relieved, and the gas ceasing- to distend the paunch, a pound of Epsom salts should be administered with an ounce of carraway powder, and half an ounce of ginger ; and, on several successive mornings, four ounces of Epsom salts, two of powdered gentian, and half an ounce of ginger, should be given. The object of the practitioner, or the owner, should be (o restore, as speedily and as effectually as possible, the tone and action of the rumen. The return of the process of rumina- tion will show when that is beginning to be effected, and rumination will usually precede the desire to eat. Attention should for some time be paid to the manner of feeding. A mash should be daily allowed, and the pasture on which the beast is turned should be short and bare, rather than luxuriant. It should also be kept in mind that the over-distended stomach of the hoven beast will not soon, and in most cases will never, quite recover its former energy; and that, if the beast is in tolerable condition, it should be sent to the butcher, or it should be got ready for the market as quickly as that can with safety be effected. One of the most singular cases of hoove that we have on record is con- tained in one of the French periodicals *. A cow that had been turned into the pasture in perfect health, was found, in the course of the morning, labouring under great excitation, making frequent and violent efforts to vomit, and then galloping over the field with her mouth half open, and the saliva running from it as if she were mad. The eyes were haggard and fixed, and starting from their orbits, and the nostrils were unusually dilated. When she stood still her back was bowed, but presently she would stretch herself out, and bound away over the field. Her paunch began speedily to swell, and she moaned dreadfully, and could not be still for a moment. The practitioner, not having a trocar, punctured the rumen with a bis- toury. A vast quantity of gas rushed violently out; the enlargement of the abdomen subsided, and she appeared to be perfectly at ease ; but pre- sently the efforts to vomit recommenced, and the aperture into the paunch being accidentally closed,' she began rapidly to swell again. The practi- tioner now suspected that the cause of all this mischief was concealed somewhere in the gullet, or the entrance into the first stomach. He care- fully examined along the whole extent of gullet in the neck, but could not detect any obstruction. He then opened the mouth, and raised the head, in order to introduce a flexible osier rod into the gullet, when the animal again making a sudden and more violent effort to vomit, he saw the tail of a snake in the posterior part of the mouth. He seized it immediately with his right hand, and, steadying himself by laying firm hold of the horn with his left hand, he drew it out: it was dead, and measured three feet and eleven inches in length. There was no appearance of bite or wound upon it, but it was covered with a greenish spume. The efforts to vomit immediately ceased, the hoove disappeared, and the cow began to rumi- nate, and steadily regained her appetite and spirits. Sucking calves are occasionally subject to hoove. Little more will be necessary in this case than the introduction of the probang. This disten- sion of the rumen arises from some accidental and temporary cause, and there is rarely any continued manufacture of gas within the stomach. * Recueil tie Med. Vet., 182G, p. 403. POISONF. 445 Some calves become blown from the trick which they frequently have of Kicking each other's pizzle or ear. It is curious to see with what eager- ness they will do this, and how quickly .they blow themselves up by the air which they draw in and swallow. The introduction of the probang will be sufficient here, but it will be prudent to separate the animals *. LOSS OF CUD. The cessation of rumination, designated by the term " the loss of cud," is more a symptom of disease, than a disease of itself. It accompanies most inflammatory complaints, and is often connected with those of debi- lity. It will be the duty of the practitioner to ascertain the cause of this suspension of second mastication, and to adapt his mode of treatment to the nature of that cause. A dose of physic, with a very small portion of aromatic medicine, will be indicated if any fever can be detected ; more than the usual quantity of the aromatic will be added in the absence of fever, and still more s with tonic and alterative medicine, if general debility is indicated. The carraway and ginger powder are the best aromatics that can be employed, and will supersede every other : the gentian and gin- ger, with Epsom salts, as recommended in p. 444, will prove a very useful tonic and alterative, in cases of "loss of cud " that cannot be traced to any particular diseased state of the animal, or that seems to be con- nected with general debility. INFLAMMATION OF THE RUMEN. In almost every book on cattle-medicine mention is made of " inflam- mation of the stomach ; " and certainly cases do, although but rarely, occur in which evident traces of inflammation of the rumen may be dis- covered on examination after death. The cuticular coat is not discoloured, but it peels from the mucous coat below at the slightest touch, and that coat is red and injected. This is particularly the case when a beast dies soon after apparent recovery from distention of the stomach by gas, or when he is destroyed by the accumulation of solid food that could not be removed. It is likewise found in every case of poisoning, but the symptoms during life are so obscure that it would be useless to bestow further time on the consideration of this disease. POISONS. Nature has endowed the brute with an acuteness of the various senses, and with a degree of instinct which, so far as the life and enjoyment and usefulness of the animal are concerned, fully compensate for the lack of the intelligence of the human being. The quadruped is scarcely bora ere * It is amusing to observe the strange notions which some persons have formed of this disease and its treatment. Mr. Parkinson contends that it chiefly arises from the glands of the mouth being over-abundantly supplied with saliva, which, passing con- tinually down the throat, the stomach becomes too full, and the end of the gullet or windpipe is stopped, so as to prevent the passage of the wind or breath. (What strange activity of the salivary glands, even to fill the enormous cavity of the rumen, and to stop the end of the gullet or windpipe ! Excellent anatomy ! The mode of cure is worthy of it.) ' I am convinced it is solely occasioned by a too abundant flow of salivain the stomach. I have myself been much troubled with this complaint, for which, after trying many things prescribed by the faculty, I found an effectual remedy in smoking tobacco. Th.iy I do immediately after every meal, spitting as much as possible. Any stick with a knob thrust down the throat will give ease ; but I much approve of tar being admi- nistered, as, from its nauseous quality, it will cause the animal to throw up much sa- liva (I have known them to discharge as much as a quart at a time) and affords an effectual and immediate relief.' Parkinson's Treatise on Live Stock, vol. i. p. 238. 446 CATTLE. he is mysteriously guided, and without any of the lessons of experience, to the kind of food which affords him the most suitable nourishment, and he is warned from that which would be deleterious. There is scarcely a pasture which does not contain some poisonous plants, yet the beast crops the grass close around them without gathering a particle of that which would be injurious. In the spring of the year, however, and especially after they have been kept in the stall or the straw-yard during the winter, and supported chiefly on dry food, as soon as they are turned into the fields cattle eat greedily of every herb that presents itself, and frequently are seriously diseased, and sometimes quite poisoned. They are under the influence of appetite almost ungovernable, and few plants have then ac- quired their distinguishing form and colour, and taste and smell. It has already been stated (p. 310) that when Linnaeus visited Tornea, the inhabi- tants complained of a disease which destroyed many of their cattle, and especially if, during the spring, they were turned into a particular meadow in the neighbourhood. He soon traced the disorder to the water-hemlock, which grew plentifully in that place, and which the cattle in spring did not know how io avoid*. The common and water-hemlock, the water- dropwort, and the yew, are the principal plants that are poisonous to cattle ; but it is said that the common-crowfoot, and various others of the ranunculus family, are occasionally destructive. The writer of this treatise recollects losing one cow that had fed on the wild parsnip, and another by black henbane ; and there is a case on record in which eight cows were poisoned by the stalks of the wild poppy, f The symptoms of poisoning by these acrid and narcotic plants are obscure, unless they can be connected with the history of the case. They are principally sudden swelling, with a peculiar stupor, in the early stage of the attack; cessation of rumination; a change in the quality of the milk, which becomes thin and serous, and presently ceases to be secreted ; the refusal of all solid food, and eagerness after water ; quickening of the pulse, which yet becomes small, and, in some cases, scarcely to be felt; and the animal frequently grinds his teeth, and paws, and rolls, as if it felt severe colic pains. In a few instances the stupor passes over, and a degree of excitement and blind fury succeeds, which has been mistaken for madness. On examination after death, the greater part of the poison is usually found in the paunch, but, in a few cases, it has been remasticated, and conveyed into the fourth stomach and intestines. The sense of taste does not seem to be very acute in cattle ; it is a sleepy kind of pleasure which they feel in rumination, and the acrid and bitter flavour of many a plant appears to give them little annoyance. Inflammation is found in the paunch and second stomach characterised by the 'ease with which the cuticular coat is separated from that beneath. The manyplus is usually filled with dry and hardened food ; and the fourth stomach and intestines exhibit inflammation and ulceration proportioned to the acrimony of the poison, and the quantity of it which had passed into these viscera. The yew is probably the most destructive poison, especially when a quantity of it is taken unmixed with other food. M. Husard, however, relates that, in Hanover and Hesse, the cattle are partly fed on the leaves of the yew. He examined the trees as they grew in the mountains of those countries, and he found them to be the true yew. In winter, and * Lachesis Laponica, vol. ii. p. 13C. f Recueil de Med. Vett'rinaire, Oct. l2y, p. 91). POISONS. 44* especially when fodderis more than usually scarce, a portion of yew leaves and branches is mingled with the other food. The quantity of the yew is small at first, but it is gradually increased until it constitutes the greater part of the food ; and it has the reputation of materially contributing- to the fattening of the beast. The inhabitants of Hanover and Hesse are, nevertheless, perfectly- aware of the poisonous property of the leaves of this tree, and are some- times taught, by dear experience, that it will destroy their cattle, unless it is managed with this degree of caution. M. Husard adds, that on his return to France he determined to put this matter to the test, but he selected the horse instead of cattle as the subject of his experiment. He gave the yew mixed with oats in the proportion of half a pound of the former to a pound and a half of the latter, and the horse did not appear to be in the slightest degree inconvenienced by what he had eaten. This animal, however, was enfeebled and emaciated previous to the ex- periment ; and it occurred to M. Husard that there might be a deficiency of sensibility in the stomach, and in the frame generally, and that, in con- sequence of this, the poison might not produce its fatal effects : he, there- fore, selected a mare in good health and condition, as the subject of a second experiment. She ate the mingled yew and oats, and suffered no inconvenience. He selected another horse as the subject of a third and decisive experi- ment. He took seven ounces of the yew, and bruised and mixed it with twelve ounces of water, so as to make a kind of electuary, which he gave to a horse that had fasted four hours ; an hour afterwards he fell and died*. The British agriculturist will scarcely be tempted to make experiments like these, except in times of the greatest scarcity, and then he would act with all the caution of the Hanoverian, for several instances occur to the recollection of the writer in which the presence of a considerable quantity of other food in the rumen did not preserve the beast from the fatal effects of the yew. Fortunately, it is seldom that cattle browse upon the green yew ; the mischief is usually done by the half-dried clippings of the yew- trees, or hedges, which are too often suffered to lie in the way of cattle, and which they will eat, if not with avidity, yet freely. Little can be done in the way of medicine when cattle have browsed on these poisonous plants, and the only hope of the practitioner must be founded on the early and persevering use of the stomach-pump. Plenty of warm water should be injected and pumped out, and that repeated again and again ; and at length the stomach should be fully distended with water, for the purpose, and in the hope of, producing vomiting, as in Mr. Cot- cheifer's case. Whether this succeeds or not, a brisk purgative should be next administered, but as cautiously and gently as possible, that it may pass on over the closed floor of the cesophagean canal into the fourth stomach, and not, by the power with which it descends, force open the pillars that compose that floor, and enter the rumen and be lost. Tonics and aromatics will here also follow the evacuation of the stomach, in order to restore its tone. While speaking of poisons, it will, perhaps, be proper to mention that cattle are sometimes exposed to extreme danger from the application of deleterious mineral preparations for the cure of mange and other cutaneous eruptions. A practitioner had been attending on some mangy cows ; he had applied the usual preparation of sulphur mixed with a portion of * Instructions sur les Maladies de les Animaux Domestiques, tome vi. p. 300* ^.j 448 CATTLE. mercurial ointment, and the animals were decidedly gelling better, al- though not so rapidly as the impatient owner desired. The gentleman be- came dissatisfied, and another person was called in, who freely applied a lotion to the sore and mangy spots ; but before he had dressed the last of the cows, the first became suddenly and violently ill, and died. The former practitioner was sent for in great haste, but ere he had arrived, three had died, and he came just in time to witness the death of a fourth. They were all dead in less than two hours after the external application of the lotion. He found the bottle with a portion of the lotion remaining in it, which he carried away, and appointed the following morning for the open- ing of the animals, to which he desired that the second man should be summoned, and arriving at his home, he set to work to analyze the con- tents of the bottle. Combined with some unknown vegetable matter, he found a nearly saturated solution of corrosive sublimate. On the following morning the post-mortem examination took place. Considerable inflam- mation of the first and second stomachs was found, evidenced by the ready separation of the cuticnlar coat ; the fourth stomach and the intestines were ulcerated, and in many places nearly perforated. The gas which proceeded fiom the abdomen and rumen was of so poisonous a character that the butcher who opened the animals, although warned of his danger, yet exposing himself to the blast of the gas as it escaped, had erysipelatous swelling of the face and head, which threatened his life. The cows were poisoned by the application of the mercurial wash to the mangy and abraded spots. It is no unusual thing for cattle that have been incautiously dressed with a strong solution of corrosive sublimate to become seriously ill. They cease to eat and to ruminate; the saliva drivels from their mouths; they paw with their feet ; look anxiously at their flanks, and are violently purged blood usually mingling with the faces. The remedy, if there is time and opportunity to have recourse to it, is the white of several eggs, beaten up with thick gruel, and gently poured down the throat, that it may be more likely to pass on to the fourth stomach ; and this repealed every hour, until the animal is eilher relieved or dead. As soon as decided relief is obtained, a dose of physic should be given, and if any fever seems to be coming on, a few pounds of blood should be taken away. It is scarcely possible that cattle should suffer from the poison of arsenic, unless it is maliciously administered, for it ought not to enter into the composition of any medicine, or external application. The antidote would be lime-water, or chalk and water plentifully administered. DISEASES OF THE RETICULUM. Of these, in the present state of knowledge of cattle-medicine, little can be said. Some of the foreign substances that are found in the rumen have been occasionally discovered in the reticulum, as pins, pieces of wire, nails, small stones, &c. They were, probably, ejected over the valve between the two stomachs, enveloped by, or attached to, the portion of food that was preparing for a second mastication. In the forcible con- traction of the stomach, it has been severely wounded by these substances, and so much inflammation has ensued, that the animal has been lost. The following narrative, by M. Dupuy, director of the Veterinary School at Toulouse, which is almost exclusively devoted to the consideration of the diseases of cattle, will form a sufficient illustration of this. A bull, three years old, died after an illness of fourteen days. The symptoms scarcely extended beyond the peculiar heaving and short cough of hoove. DISEASES OF THE MANYPLUS, OR MANIFOLDS. 449 On examination, after death, it was found that the second stomach adhered to the diaphragm by a false membrane, which was clearly the consequence of intense inflammation of that stomach. The coats of the reticulum had been pierced, and in the aperture was a piece of iron wire, that had penetrated tliroug-h the diaphragm and the pericardium, and entered the right ventricle of the heart. Within the diaphragm, and between it and the heart, was a sac containing nearly a pound of blood mingled with the liquid food usually contained in the second stomach. The mischief had been of long standing, for the walls of the ventricle were become white and of a cartilaginous structure, and the ventricle itself was filled with coagulated blood deposited layer upon layer. The pericardium was contracted and adhered to the heart, and might almost be said to have disappeared. The lungs were emphysematous, and con- tained numerous encysted tubercles resembling hydatids, or actually being so. The writer of this treatise has frequently seen inflammation of the second stomach sometimes accompanying that of the paunch, and at other times seemingly confined to the reliculum. This inflammation was, as in the rumen, characterised by the peeling off of the cuticular coat, and the redness of the tissue beneath it ; but the symptoms were so different in different cases, and always so obscure, that no legitimate conclusion could be drawn from the appearances that presented themselves. DISEASES OF THE MANYPLUS, OR MANIFOLDS. Although "the function of this stomach is one of a purely mechanical nature, there seems to be a strong bond of sympathy between it and almost every part of the frame. There are few serious diseases by which cattle are afflicted, and there are none of an acute and inflammatory nature, in which the manyplus is not involved. It is so common in cases of catarrh, con- stipation, inflammation of the lungs or bowels, simple fever, dropping after calving, blain, and even murrain, to find the manyplus either choked with food in a hardened state, or, if continuing soft, yet having become exceedingly putrid and emitting a most nauseous smell, that the idea of the animal being fardel-bound, or having disease of ihefaik is always present in the mind of the farmer and the country-practitioner. They are seldom wrong in this surmise, for the fardel-bag either sympathises with the diseases of other parts, or is the original seat and focus of disease. The manyplus has been described as containing numerous leaves or curtains or duplicatures of its cuticular coat, and with interposed layers of muscular and vascular tissue, which hang from its roof and float loose in its cavity. These leaves are covered with innumerable little hard papillae or prominences ; and many of these, and especially toward the lower edges, assume a greater degree of bulk, and something of a hook-like form. Those portions of food that are returned after the second mastication, and that have not been thoroughly ground down, are seized by these hooked edges of the leaves and drawn up between them, and there retained until, by the action of these flexible grindstones, they are sufficiently comminuted for the purpose of digestion. It is easy to imagine that, either sharing in the irritability of other parts, or being the original seat of irritation and inflammation, the many- plus may spasmodically contract upon, and forcibly detain the substances that have been thus taken up between its leaves. By this contraction the natural moisture of the food, or that which it had acquired in the processes of maceration and mastication, is mechanically squeezed out, or drained 2 G 450 CATTLE. away by the very position of the leaves, and a hard and dry mass necessarily remains. When the contraction is violent, and this imprisonment of the food long continued, we can even conceive of the possibility of its becoming so hardened and dry as to be snapped between the fingers, and to be capable of being reduced to powder. The description of it is not exaggerated when it is said to " look as if it had been baked in an oven." On the other hand, it can as readily be imagined that, either debilitated by inflammatory action peculiar to itself, or sympathising with, and sharing in the debility of other parts, the leaves may have lost the power of acting on the food contained between them, and which, supported by the irregularities of the cuticular coat, and imprisoned there in a somewhat pultaceous form, will gradually become putrid and offensive. A third case may not nnfrequently happen. The animal may be fed on too dry and fibrous matter, or he may lazily and but half perform the process of rumination ; in consequence of this the hard parts of the food may accumulate in the manyplus more rapidly than they can be ground down, and so the stomach may become clogged and its function suspended. Whatever may be the cause, this state of contraction or inaction of the manyplus often occurs, and either aggravates the pre-existing malady, or becomes a new source of disease, and hastens or causes the death of the animal. When this stomach has been spasmodically contracted, or long and forci- bly distended, the imprisoned food presents a very curious appearance. There is an indentation of the papilla? on the surface of the detained mass. The impression is as perfect as could be made by any seal. All this force must have produced inflammation of the part ; and that intense inflamma- tion does occasionally exist in the manyplus, sufficient to produce great and general derangement and even to destroy the beast, is rendered sufficiently evident by the easy separation of the cuticular coat. In many cases, or perhaps in the majority of them, it is impossible to remove the detained mass from its situation without a portion of the cuticular coat accompanying and covering it. It must, however, be confessed, that even this hardened state of the contents of the manyplus is not always a proof of general dis- ease. It is an unnatural and morbid state of the stomach, but very consi- derable local disease may exist in this organ, as it is known to do in many other parts, without materially, or in any appreciable degree, interfering with general health and good condition. Tubercles and abscesses in the lungs, and inflammation and almost complete disorganization of the liver, will occasionally be found on examination of the carcase, of the exist- ence of which there was not the slightest suspicion during the life of the animal. So, in this case, the fardel-bag has been found choked with food, and that dry, and black, and roasted, and yet the beast had apparently been in perfect health. The author of this treatise has seen the loss of function confined to one part only of this stomach. Between some of the leaves, or on one side or curvature of the manyplus, the contents have been green and fluid ; in the other portion of it they have been perfectly baked. It is a wise and kind provision of nature tiiat the general health and thriving of the animal shall in various cases be so little impaired by local, although serious, disease. Many a trifling circumstance, nevertheless, may cause this local evil to spread rapidly and widely ; and, even without any additional excitement, the mere continuance of such a disease, accompanied by such derangement of function, can scarcely fail of being attended by injurious consequences. A very singular account, however, is recorded of the great length of time during which this hardened matter may be detained between the leaves of DISEASES OF THE MANYPLUS, OR MANIFOLDS. 451 the manyplus. A person at Bourbourg had a valuable cow that was fed principally on vetches. A serious epizootic broke out in that neighbour- hood, and (he cow was removed to a distant and uninfected place, where she remained for six weeks apparently well, and without the possibility of her getting at any vetches ; she then became infected by this prevalent malady and died. The third stomach wws filled with vetches, dry, hard, and, as it were, roasted. Although there was no apparent illness, it is im- possible to determine how far this long-continued and unnatural state of the manyplus had preyed on the strength of her constitution, and prepared her for a fatal attack of the epidemic*. In the Veterinarian for November, 1829, several cases of " staking" or " bound " are recorded by Mr. Cartwright, which were plainly referable to this stomach. A drove of Anglesea cattle were on their journey to the London market. They appeared to be in perfect health when they crossed the ferry, and they stopped one night in a field near Bangor. They had not got far from this place when one of them was taken ill, and, being alto- gether unable to proceed, he was slaughtered. A little further on two others began to fail ; and when they arrived on the borders of Shropshire the disease was spreading rapidly among them. They were dull, moaning ; they could scarcely be induced to move, and they remained obstinately standing. Proper measures were resorted to : they were bled and purgative medicine was administered, but four of them presently died. In two of these the manyplns was full, clogged with food, but it was soft ; in the third, the greater part of the food was soft, but in the larger curvature it was hurd and friable. In the fourth beast the manyplus was quite full and hard, each layer being so dried that it would snap short off; and upon each layer there was a thin pellicle of secretion of a blueish colour that could be easily separated; the leaves of the stomach were of a light pinkish hue, and the vessels were injected." Four others, that had been taken ill in the same way, recovered ; but it was eight or nine days before any medicine operated, although great quantities were administered. In the third sto- mach of each there were a great number of small seeds from some unknown plant, said to have grown in this field at Bangor, and which had remained in the stomach from that night. A more satisfactory proof of the serious nature of the maladies of this stomach is recorded-)-. Towards the end of September, 1746, a great number of cows died at Osterwich, in the principality of Halberstadt. Lieberkuhn, a celebrated physician, (there were not any veterinary surgeons at that time,) was sent to examine into the nature of the disease, which was supposed to be one of the species of murrain that was then committing such ravages among the cattle in various parts of the continent. There were none of the tumours, or pestilential buboes, that in an earlier or later period of the malady usually accompanied and characterised murrain, but, on inspection of the dead bodies, considerable peritoneal inflammation was found ; the first and second stomachs were filled with food, but the third stomach was the pal- pable seat of disease its leaves were black and gangrened. The mass contained between the leaves was black, dry, and so hard that it could scarcely be cut with a scalpel. It intercepted the passage of the food from the two first stomachs to the fourth ; and this latter stomach was empty and much inflamed. Neither the heart nor the lungs nor intestines exhibited * Moyens Curatifs, par Vicq-d'Azir, p. 481. f Disputations de Haller. Torn, v. Journal Pratique, 1826, p. 38. 2 G 2 452 CATTLE. any trace of disease. Twelve cows were opened, and the appearances were nearly the same in all of them.* M. Lieberkuhn thus accounted for the disease : the pasture had been overflowed in the preceding month, and when the water subsided, vegetation was much quickened by the united influence of moisture and heat, and the numerous poisonous plants with which that locality abounded (different species of dropwort, clematis, and ranunculus growing rapidly, and succu- lent with the rest) not possessing the natural odour or taste of the mature plant, the beasts, like those in the island of Tornea, fed on them uncon- sciously, and the poisonous principle which they contained was evidenced in the paralysis, or over-excitation of the muscles of the manyplus. This state of the manyplus is one of the most serious species of indiges- tion to which these animals are subject, and deserves the attentive consi- deration of the practitioner. There are, nevertheless, many difficulties accompanying the study of this important subject, and which chiefly arise from the present wretched state of the knowledge of cattle-medicine. The symptoms by which primary or dangerous disease of the manyplus may be distinguished from that of the other stomachs, and the manner in which it can be successfully treated, these are points on which no author has writ- ten, nor has any veterinary teacher on the south side of the Tweed instructed his pupils with regard to them. There is no clue, no light, to guide the bewildered practitioner on his way. Is it not disgraceful, that when the veterinary art has professedly been studied in England more than forty years, no effective school of cattle-medicine has yet been established ; but oxen and sheep, the most valuable of the live stock of the agriculturist, continue to be abandoned to the ravages of the various diseases to which they are exposed? It is high time for the different farming societies and for government to interfere, and to protect the most important interests of the agriculturist, and the most effectual source of national prosperity and wealth. The clue, or fardel-bound, names by which the retention of the food in the manifolds is distinguished, may be occasionally produced by the animal feeding on too stimulating plants, or on those which are of a narcotic nature. A sudden change from green, and succulent food to that which is hard and fibrous may also readily be supposed to be a very likely cause of it. The strange fancy that induces many cows, and especially those in calf, to refuse the soft, and nutritious food of the pasture and browse on the coarse grass and weeds which the hedges produce, will necessarily overload the manyplus with hard and fibrous substances ; and many a beast has suffered in this way from being too rapidly and exclusively put on chaff of various kinds. The symptoms vary in different animals, but the following is an outline of them: the animal is evidently oppressed; the pulse is somewhat accele- rated and hard ; the respiration not so much quickened ; the muzzle is dry ; the mouth hot; the tongue protruded, and seemingly enlarged ; the mem- brane both of the eyes and nose is injected ; the eye is protruded or weeping ; the head is extended ; the animal is unwilling to move ; and the gait is uncertain and staggering; the urine is generally voided with diffi- culty, and is sometimes red and even black. There is apparent and obsti- nate costiveness, jet small quantities of liquid faeces are discharged. As the disease proceeds, and often at an early period, there is evident deter- * The reporter adds, (exhibiting the wretched state of veterinary science, and how far the most scientific mea were deluded by the absurd notions of the cow-keeper of that period), <( we examined and divided the tail in various parts, and found it in its natural btate." DISEASES OF THE MANYPLUS, OR MANIFOLDS. 453 . mination of blood to the head, evinced not only by this staggering gait, but by a degree of unconsciousness ; the eyes weep more ; the lids are swollen ; the costiveness continues or some hardened excrement is voided, but foetid and mixed with blood ; rumination ceases ; the secretion of milk is usually suspended, or the milk becomes offensive both in taste and smell ; the urine flows more abundantly, but that too continues of a dark colour. Many of these symptoms distinguish this complaint from distension of the rumen ; there is not the hardness at the flanks, and the general swelling of the belly, which is observed in distension by toed; nor the greater dis- tension and threatened suffocation which accompany hoove. In bad cases, and when the symptoms take on much of the character of that undescribed, and unintelligible disease, wood-evil, tremblings of the frame generally, a de- gree of palsy, coldness of the extremities, actual swelling of the tongue, the eyes glaring, smd the ears and the tail being in frequent and convulsive motion, these are the precursors of death. The period of the termination of the disease is uncertain ; it extends from three or four days to more than as many weeks. Many of these symptoms so often accompany other diseases that they are utterly insufficient always, or generally, to lead to a right conclusion as to the nature of the complaint ; and careful enquiry must be made into the history of the case. The treatment is as unsatisfactory as the history of the symptoms. It will always be proper to bleed in order to diminish any existing fever, or to prevent the occurrence of that which continued disease of this important stomach would be likely to produce. To this should follow a dose of physic, in order to evacuate the intestines beyond the place of obstruction, and, by its action on them, possibly recall this viscus also to the discharge of its healthy function. The Epsom salts, with half the usual quantity of ginger, will form the best purgative ; and it should be administered either by means of a small horn, or the pipe of the stomach-pump introduced half way down the gullet, and the liquid very slowly pumped in. By this cautious method of proceeding the pillars of the cesophagean canal will probably not be forced open, and the liquid will flow on through the passage still partially open at the bottom of the manyplus, and thence into the abomasum. Of the sympathetic influence which the establishment of increased action of the intestines has on the stomachs above, in rousing them to their wonted function, mention has already been made : it is a fact of much importance, and should never be forgotten by the practitioner. A consideration of the nature of the disease will necessarily lead to the next step. Either a great quantity of food is retained between the leaves of the manyplus in a natural and softened state, or it is powerfully compressed there, and has become dry and hard. Now the longer leaves of this sto- mach reach from the roof almost or quite to the base of it, and some of them float in the continuation of the oesophagean canal through which all fluids pass in their way to the fourth stomach. Then plenty of fluid should be made to flow through this canal ; and this may readily be effected by the small horn, or much better by the stomach-pump. An almost constant current of warm water may thus be kept up through the canal, by means of which the food retained towards the lower edge of the leaves, and most obstinately retained there on account of the hook-like form of the papillae, will be gradually softened and washed out. This will leave room for the descent of more ; and the natural action of this portion of the leaves being possibly re-established, when freed from the weight and oppression of that by which they had been filled, the mass that remains above will begin to be loosened ; it will gradually descend and be softened by the stream, and it too will be carried off; and so, in process of time, a great part of 454 CATTLE. the stomach will be emptied, and the manifolds will be so far relieved as to be able to renew its natural function. The use of oil has been recommended for this purpose, but the hardened food will be more readily softened by warm water, than by any oleaginous fluid that can be administered. Some portion of aperient salt should be dissolved in the water, in order that purgation may be established as soon as possible, or kept moderately up when it is established ; but no heating, stimu- lating, tonic medicine, beyond the prescribed proportion of aromatic to the purgative, should on any account be given, for it is impossible to tell what inflammatory action may be going forward in the manyplus, or to what degree the spasmodic contraction on its contents may be increased. No food should be allowed except soft or almost fluid mashes, but the animal may be indulged in water or thin gruel without limit. Clysters can have little effect, and will only uselessly tease the animal already sufficiently annoyed by frequent drenching. After all, it may be doubtful whether the injury and danger produced by the distension of the manifolds with food is not sometimes brought about in a different way from that which has been hitherto imagined. This stomach has already been described (p. 425), as situated obliquely between the liver and the right sac of the rumen, and, therefore, when distended by food it will press upon the liver, and impede the circulation through the main vessel that returns the blood from the intestines to the heart, and thus cause the retention of an undue quantity of blood in the veins of the abdo- men. From this will naturally or almost necessarily arise a determination of blood to the brain, and the winding up of the disease by a species of apoplexy. This, however, will not alter the opinion that has been given of the proper treatment of the disease ; but will throw considerable light on the nature and causes of some of these determinations to the head, which have not hitherto been perfectly understood. MALFORMATION OF THE MANYPLUS. A singular construction of the manifolds is related by Mr. Harrison, and from which some useful hints may be derived*. He says that " two cows were observed, during the whole of their lives, to eat a more than ordinary quantity of food ; so much so, as at some times to double, and even treble, that which was consumed by ordinary cattle. They did not, however, repay this great consumption by a better appearance or more plentiful supply of milk; on the contrary, their milk was rather smaller in quantity, and of an inferior quality compared with ordinary cows; and the fattening of them was attended with great cost and trouble, and took much longer than the usual time. I for a long time narrowly watched them, unable to give any satisfactory reason for their great voracity, and frequently thinking that if bulimia (unnatural appetite) was ever known to exist in the brute creation, it was here presented to my view, for food of every description, except animal, was devoured by them with wonderful rapidity. The cause of this remained unknown and unsuspected until they were slaughtered, when, to me, a most important point in the physiology of digestion in ruminants stood clearly developed ; for, upon examining into the structure of their manifolds, the internal surface of one of them merely displayed rugae not quite so long as my finger, and in the other the corrugations were even less strongly marked. The fact, then, was plainly demonstrated, that the food in these two cases, owing to the mal-formation of the manifolds, was not retained that * Veterinarian, 1833, p. 584. VOMITING. 455 length of time which was necessary for the breaking or macerating of it into a pulp, for the complete action of the abomasum and intestines ; and that in its passage through the latter, as much chyle could not be separated from an equal quantity of food, as would have been had not nature played this freak ; and that from this cause they were obliged to take in a larger quantity, or in other words, to eat more frequently than ordinary cattle, in order to produce the required quantity of nutriment for their due support, and the healthy performance of the various secretions." THE DISEASES OF THE ABOMASUM OF FOURTH STOMACH. Our knowledge of the nature and symptoms and treatment of these dis- eases is as imperfect as of those of the manyplus. Concretions, and mostly of hair, are occasionally found iu this stomach, which, by their pressure, must produce disease to a certain extent. Poisonous substances, received into this stomach alter rumination, as is sometimes the case when the plants are fully grown, from the deficiency of acute taste in the ox, and which oftener happens when, in spring, neither their taste nor their smell is developed, produce inflammation and ulceratiou of the coats of the ahomasum. Inflammation may and does exist from other causes, as exposure to too great heat, and the continuance of unseasonable cold and wet weather, too sudden change of food, the administration of acrid and stimulating medicines ; but the practitioner can rarely distinguish them from inflammatory disease of the other stomachs, or of the intestinal canal. So far as the catalogue of symptoms can be arranged, they are nearly the following: there is fever ; a full and hard pulse at the commencement, but rapidly changing its character and becoming small, very irregular, inter- mittent, and, at last, scarcely to be felt except at the heart. The beast is much depressed and almost always lying down, with its head turned towards its side, and its muzzle, as nearly as. possible, resting on the place beneath which the fourth stomach would be found ; or when standing, it is curiously stretching out its fore limbs, with its brisket almost to the ground. The inspirations are deep, interrupted by sighing, moaning, grinding of the teeth, and occasionally by hiccup; the tongue is dry and furred, and red around its edges and at the tip ; the belly generally is swelled, more so than in distension of the rumen by food, but less so than in hoove, and, as further distinguishing the case from both, it is exceedingly tender ; there is frequently distressing tenesmus, and the urine is voided with difficulty and drop by drop. After death, the stomach exhibits much inflammation of the lining membrane, but very seldom any ulceration. The remedies would be bleeding, purgatives, mashes, and gruel*. It is almost useless to dwell longer on this unsatisfactory portion of the subject, except to warn the practitioner against being misled by the pecu- liar softness of the inner lining membrane of the fourth stomach of the ox. That which would be said to be diseased condition, or softening, or even decomposition of the inner coat of the stomach in other animals, is the natural state of the abomasum in cattle. VOMITING. A case was related, in page 436, of the treatment of a cow that had gorged herself by eating wheat chaff. Water was injected into the rumen, * Some of the foreign remedies for this malady are stranger and more absurd than those which disgrace the practice of the most ignorant empirics in the British islands. A pound of shot is first administered, and this succeeded, or perhaps superseded by a drug of a very different kind ; a black pullet is roasted with all its feathers upon it : it is then pulled to pieces, boned, and crammed down the throat of the animal. Toggia, Malattiede' Bovei, torn. i. p. 63. 456 CATTLE. until that stomach began to react upon its contents, and a considerable pro- portion of them was discharged by vomit. M. Girard mentions a case in which the contents of the rumen were thrown off without this injection of water. He was sent for to some cows that had been feeding on young lucern, and that were beginning to swell. He found one in the act of dying ; two others were prodigiously swelled they breathed with difficulty, and seemed to be in danger of immediate suffocation ; others were much inconvenienced by the distension of the paunch. He hastened to puncture the flank of one of those that appeared to be in extreme clanger ; and, while he was thus employed, the other, after some convulsive efforts, vomited two pailsful of untnasticatcd food. Her flanks immediately subsided, and in the course of a very little while she seemed to have perfectly recovered*. The knowledge of these facts, of the occasional occurrence of which few practitioners can be ignorant, will point out a mode of proceeding that promises the happiest result when the stomach is distended by food. This is not, however, strictly speaking, the act of vomiting ; it is only an extension of the process of returning the food to the mouth for the purpose of rumina- tion, or it is the whole returned suddenly and in a mass, instead of pellet after pellet. True, vomiting is the return of food from the fourth or digest- ing stomach, that which alone may be considered as a veritable stomach, in distinction from the mere preparatory functions discharged by the others. Respecting this, it has been stated in page 428, that it is comparatively a rare process, and attended with extreme danger. The slightest recon- sideration of the structure and connexion of that portion of the digestive apparatus which has been described, will render it evident that every thing is disposed to facilitate the return of the food from the rumen to the mouth, but to render that return difficult from the fourth stomach. First, there is the fold of that stomach placed at the entrance into it from the many- plus. It is delineated at g and h, page 424. It evidently leaves a free and open way to the substances that pass from the third stomach into the fourth, but presents an almost perfect valvular obstruction to their return. Supposing that could be surmounted, it is evident that when the fourth stomach, pressed upon by the abdominal muscles and the diaphragm, con- tracted, the other stomachs would contract too, and especially the many- pluss; arid, in that contraction, the aperture between it and the cesophagean canal would be firmly closed: or even, if that were not the case, there is only a small circular aperture between the cesophagean canal and the fourth stomach, through which the returned semifluid mass would pass very slowly, and not in the quantity in which it would be ejected from the abo- masum in the effort to vomit. M. Fleurens put this to the test. He injected a solution of emetic tartar into the veins. This was followed by the greatest distress, and violent efforts to vomit, but not a particle of the remasticated food was returned. He injected more into the rnanvplus, whence it passed into the abomasum. The efforts to vomit were here also violent, but fruitlessf. There is, however, a case of true vomiting, so singular, as to deserve to be put upon record. An ox presented the following appearances : the hair rough; the skin dry and adherent; the muzzle dry; the appetite di- minished ; rumination slow and seldom; and slight tension of the left flank. Having heard that the animal occasionally vomited, the practitioner de- termined to remain awhile in the stable in order to satisfy himself of the accuracy of the account. In about an hour rumination commenced, pre- ceded by deep and sonorous eructations having a penetrating odour. This * Memoire sur le Vomissement, par J. Girard, p. 24. f Recueil Med. Vet., Aout 1833. THE SPLEEN. 457 lasted about ten minutes ; after which the animal got up, backed himself in his stall ; hung on the chain ; his fore limbs trembled ; he brought his hind extremities as much as possible under him, and bent his neck, and de- pressed his head, and, after a deep and powerful inspiration, he vomited 15 pounds of semifluid matter, perfectly triturated. The vomiting' ceased, the ox remained for a moment motionless, and then lay down again, and ruminated afresh. He continued this about thirty-five minutes, when he had a renewed fit of vomiting perfectly similar to the preceding. This was the only one of the herd that vomited, but the others were con- stipated, and hide bound, and in every way out of condition. The cause of this was supposed to be that the animals were driven nearly a league twice every day in order to be watered, at a time when the heat was ex- cessive. They were ordered to be oftener watered, and that at home; and the one that vomited was bled, physic was administered, and the sickness almost immediately ceased*. It is impossible to doubt the accuracy of this account, or that it was a case of true vomiting. The matter discharged was semifluid, and well triturated, and, consequently, could neither come from the rumen nor the manyplus. The same author, M. Creuzel, relates other instances of what he terms vomiting, but evidently ejection of the contents of the ru- men : all of them were connected with hoove, and in every case the animal experienced immediate and perfect relief. CHAPTER XII. THE ANATOMY AND DISEASES OF THE SPLEEN, LIVER, AND PANCREAS. THE SPLEEN. THE Spleen, or Melt, is a long, thin, dark-coloured substance, situated on the left side, attached to the rumen, and between that stomach and the diaphragm. It is longer, and yet narrower and smaller in cattle than in the horse, and is more closely tied to the stomach by blood-vessels, and cellular texture. In the horse, it is thick at one end, and tapers towards the other ; in cattle, it is of a uniform size through its whole extent, except that it is rounded at both ends. Of its use we are, in a manner, ignorant ; and it has been removed without any apparent injury to digestion. Its artery is large and tortuous, and its vein is of great size, and forms a con- siderable portion of that which conveys the blood from the other contents of the abdomen to the liver. It is probably connected either with the functions of the liver, or with the supply of some principle essential to the blood. It is subject to various diseases, inflammation, ulceration, increased size, tubercles, hydatids, ossification ; but in the present state of cattle medicine it is impossible to state the symptoms by which the greater part of these are characterised. In sheep, inflammation of the spleen, and haemorrhage from it, or exu- dation of blond through its coats, is not an uncommon disease. In those that die of inflammatory fever, with which a high degree of intestinal in- flammation is connected, or that perish in consequence of inflammation of the peritoneum or investing membrane of the bowels, it is not unusual to find an effusion of a deep blood-coloured fluid in the abdomen. This has been almost uniformly attributed to one or the other of these diseases, in propor- * Journal Pratique, 1830, p. 322 458 CATTLE, tion as they have been observed to prevail;" but the occasional seat of disease, the spleen, and which is found most especially to have suffered, is too frequently overlooked. So it is in cattle. A beast in high condition, over-driven, or placed in too luxuriant pasture, is suddenly taken ill : he staggers; his respiration becomes laborious; his mouth is covered with foam ; he stands with his head stretched out, labouring 1 for breath ; he moans ; blood escapes from the nostrils or the anus; the disease runs its course in the space of a few hours, and the animal staggers and dies. On opening- him, the vessels beneath the skin are all gorged with blood ; the skin itself is injected and red ; the lungs and abdominal viscera are congested with blood ; the liver is gorged with it. It is inflammatory fever that has destroyed the animal ; but the spleen is most of all affected and dis- organised it is augmented in size, softened, its peritoneal covering- torn, and blood has rushed from it and filled the belly ; or the blood has oozed through the investment without any visible rupture. In such a malady, the skill of the practitioner can be of little avail. Had the peculiar determination of disease to the spleen been discovered, it could not have been arrested ; and all that can be obtained is a lesson of wisdom, a caution to adopt a more equable and less forcing system of feeding, and the avoidance of all those causes of general inflammation in which the weakest onjan suffers most, and by its disorganization, causes, or, at all events, hastens death. M. Dupuy, professor of the veterinary school at Toulouse, records a case of haemorrhage from the spleen, but not attended by so much general inflammation as is usually found. He says, that on the 2lst of March, 1831, a beast, eighteen or twenty hours after it died, was brought to the school to be examined as to the cause of death. It had a cough for several months ; but the disease that had probably destroyed it, had come on all at once, and had run its course in a few hours. The belly contained 2^ gallons of blood, but the intestinal canal was perfectly sound. All the vessels of the abdomen were carefully examined, in order to dis- cover the source of ha?morrhage, but no rupture was found. The liver was double its natural size, soft, friable and of a grey colour. The spleen three times as large as it is found to be in a state of health. The peritoneal coverinir was detached from the substance of the spleen, and the cavity thus made was filled by a clot of blood three or four lines in thickness ; and towards the middle of the inferior border was a laceration four or five inches in length, whence the blood had flowed. The substance of the spleen was reduced to a semifluid form, and was of a livid red-colour. The pericardium contained half a pound of bloody serosity.* THE LIVER. This organ is situated on the right side of the abdomen, between the manyplus and the diaphragm. It is principally supported by a duplica- ture "of the peritoneum extending from the spine; and is confined in its situation by other ligaments, or similar peritoneal duplicatures connecting its separate lobes or divisions with the diaphragm. It is divided into two lobes of unequal size. The right lobe is larger than that in the liver of the horse ; the smaller one is comparatively diminutive ; and, altogether, the liver of the ox is less than that of the horse. It has just been stated that the blood from the other contents of the abdomen, instead of flowing directly to the heart, passes through the liver. It enters by two large vessels, and is spread through every part of the liver by means of the almost innumerable branches into which these vessels di- vide. As it passes through the liver, a fluid is secreted from it, called the * Journ. Prat, de Md. V6t., Mai 1831, p. 161, INFLAMMATION OF THE LIVER. 459 "bile, probably a kind of excrement, the continuance of which in the blood would be injurious, but which, at the same time, answers a peculiar pur- pose in the process of digestion, that will be presently described. The bile thus secreted flows into the intestines, and enters the duode- num through an orifice, the situation of which is marked out by h, p. 426. In the horse, it flows into the intestines as fast as it is secreted or separated from the blood ; but in cattle, a portion of it, probably a compara- tively small portion, is received into a reservoir, the gall- bladder , where it is retained until needed for the purpose of digestion. While the ox is graz- ing or asleep, there is no necessity for the whole of the bile to run on into the intestines, but a part of it accumulates in the gall-bladder. While it is retained there, it undergoes some change; part of the water which it contains is absorbed, and the residue becomes thickened, and more effec- tive in its operation ; and when the animal begins to ruminate, and por- tions of food pass through the fourth and true stomach into the duo- denum, not only is the flow of bile into the gall-bladder stopped, but, either by some mechanical pressure on that vessel which no one has yet ex- plained, or, more probably, by the sympathy which exists among all the organs of digestion, and the influence of the great organic nerve causing the (probably) muscular coat of the vessel to contract, the bile flows out of iis reservoir, and proceeds to its ultimate destination, along with the portion which continues to run directly from the liver into the intestine, through the medium of the hepatic duct. This pear-shaped reservoir, the gall- bladder, is placed in a depression in the posterior lace of the liver, and ad- heres to it by means of a delicate cellular texture. The construction of this vessel deserves attention. It has the same external peritoneal coat with the viscera generally; beneath is a thicker coat, evidently composed of cellular substance, in which no muscular fihres have yet been demon- stratively traced, but in which they may be well conceived to exist, and in which, doubtless, they do exist, in order to enable the gall-bladder to contract and expel its contents. The inner coat is a very singular one. It has not precisely the honeycomb cells of the reticulum in miniature, but it is divided into numerous cells of very irregular and different shapes, in the base of which, as in the cells of the reticulum, are minute follicular glands that secrete a mucous fluid to defend the internal surface of the gall-bladder from the acrimony of the bile which it contains. INFLAMMATION OF THE LIVER. Cattle, and especially those that are stall-fed, are far more subject than the horse to inflammation of the liver. This appears evidently enough on examination after death, but the symptoms during life are exceedingly obscure, and not to be depended upon. An almost invariable one, how- ever, is yellowness of the eyes and skin; but this accompanies, or is the chief characteristic of obstruction of the biliary duct, and possibly exists without the slightest inflammation of the substance of the liver. It should also be remembered that there is scarcely any acute disease to which cattle are subject in which the liver does not sympathise. We shall have reason to suppose, by-and-by, that the bile performs an important part in the process of digestion. It is secreted in great abun- dance in a healthy state of the animal, and that secretion is very much increased under almost every intestinal disease, on account of the sympathy which exists between the liver and the other organs of digestion. The feed- ing too much on oil-cake will produce in most cattle a yellowness of the skin during life, and a yellow tinge of the fat and the envelopes of the muscles after death 460 CATTLE. In addition to the common symptoms of fever, (quickness of the pulse, heaving 1 , dryness of the muzzle, heat of the month and root of the horn, listless or suspended rumination,) those that would lead to the suspicion of inflammation of the liver would be, lying continually on the right side, slight spasms on that side, or wavy motions of the skin ever the reion of the liver, a general fulness of the belly, but most referrible to the right side, and the expression of considerable pain when pressure is made on that side. Occasionally, the animal looks round on this part, and endea- vours to rest his muzzle upon it. There is usually some degree of consti- pation ; the beast does not urine so often or so abundantly as in health, and the urine is yellow or brown, or, in a few cases, bloody. The proper remedies are bleeding, physic, blisters on the right side, and restricted diet, from which everything of a stimulating kind is carefully withdrawn. The most frequent causes of this complaint are blows, over- driving, the use of too stimulating food, arid the sudden repulsion of some cutaneous disease. Inflammation of the liver sometimes takes on a chronic form. Perhaps it never assumed any great degree of intensity, or the intense inflamma- tion was palliated, but not removed; and this state may exist for some months, or years, not characterised by any decided symptom, and but little interfering with health. Then commences induration, or hardening of a portion of the liver, or of the greater part of it, and accompanied by tuber- cles, vomica?, hydatids, and the existence of the fluke-worm in the ducts. A cow came up from the west to Smithfield market, in the year 1832. She was in tolerable condition, yet not in such a state as to afford a chance of her being bought by any respectable butcher ; she was, therefore, set apart for the sausage-makers, and to them she was sold. She walked pretty well with the other cattle, and had no indication of disease, except enlarge- ment of the belly, yellowness of the skin, and her not carrying so much flesh as the rest. On examination after death, the liver weighed no less than 1371bs., and measured, from one lobe to another, more than a yard and a quarter. There was little of the common appearance of inflamma- tion, but it was evident that there were numerous hydatids : in fact, they occupied the larger part of the organ, and had hollowed it into various cavities of greater or smaller size. One cavity, nearly thirty inches in circum- ference, presented when opened the appearance of a honeycomb, all the cells of which, and the whole of the excavation, were filled with hydatids, from the size of a sparrow's egg to that of a swan : there were nearly 300 of them. Some cysts were filled with blood, and others with matter of a fibrous character, arid others had large fibrous cords extending from side to side. A few portions presented nearly the character of healthy liver, but, in general, where there were no hydatids, the substance resembled a deposit of matter that had gradually hardened into cartilaginous cells, and the centre of the liver was perfectly fibro-cartilaginous, without any trace of its original structure. This disease had probably existed during a long period, and had only interfered with health by preventing her attaining the usual condition of fatted cattle. Mr. Goodworth, of Howden, relates another case of the existence of disease of the liver, apparently for a considerable period, and not interfering with health. He says, that " a cow, the property of a neighbour, had calved, and done well. She was milked twice a day, and appeared in good health for six weeks, when the maid going to milk her in the morning found her very uneasy, and evidently ill. The cow was bled, and a mes- senger was sent to a druggist for medicine; but although he was absent only a lew minutes, the cow was dead on his return. On opening the HEMORRHAGE FROM THE LIVER. 461 body, all the abdominal viscera were found in perfect health, except the liver, the right lobe of which was much enlarged ; and on an incision being made into it, a quart of matter of the consistence and colour of cream escaped."* The difficulty of detecting this chronic inflammation during the life of the animal throws much obscurity on the mode of treating it. Perma- nent yellowness of the skin a constant, but not violent cough and the want of, or the slowness in acquiring, condition beyond a certain degree, would be the symptoms of most frequent occurrence. The treatment should consist of the frequent exhibition of gentle purgatives, with a more than the usual quantity of the aromatic (six ounces of Epsom salts, and half an ounce of ginger), and the food should be green, succulent, and as little stimu- lating as possible. Mercury, to which recourse is usually had when a similar complaint is suspected to exist in the human subject, would be worse than thrown away upon cattle. In the majority of cases in which it is used for the diseases of cattle, it produces decided injurious effect. HEMORRHAGE FROM THE LIVER. It has already been observed that when these animals are turned on the fresh grass in the spring or the fog in autumn they are subject to various plethoric or inflammatory complaints. The ravages of apoplexy and in- flammatory fever at these times have been described. An undue quantity of blood rapidly formed oppresses the whole system, and, from some cause of determination to it, a particular organ or part becomes violently congested or inflamed, and the animal is destroyed. The liver occasionally suffers in this way. A case will illustrate this. It occurred in the practice of Mr. Tait, of Portsoy.~ He was requested to see a heifer, two years old, that on the previous night had been observed to be unwell. The pulse was 80, nearly imperceptible at the jaw ; the extremities were cold, and rumination was suspended. There was much trembling of the hind quarters. An attempt was made to bleed her, but ere the blood could flow, she fell and ex- pired. On opening the belly, the cavity was found to contain nearly six gallons of blood, which had escaped from a rupture, two inches in length, in one of the lobes of the liverf. It would have been more satisfactory if fuller particulars of the previous symptoms of the disease and of the appearance of the other viscera had been given, but the experience of almost every practitioner will supply the deficiency. Certain beasts have died of some obscure disease ; it has been rapid in its progress, and not characterized by any symptoms of great in- flammation, or the inflammatory symptoms, if such had appeared, have subsided, and those of evident and extreme exhaustion have suc- ceeded. The pulse has been feeble, or almost indistinct the mouth has been cold the membranes of the mouth and nose pale. The breath- ing has been accelerated, and the weakness extreme. After death, the substance of the liver has been found softened; it has broken on the slightest handling : it may be washed away, and the various vessels which permeate it exposed : the peritoneal covering has been loosened elevated from the liver, and the interval has been occupied by a clot of blood ; and from some rupture in this covering, which has partaken of the softening of the viscus itself, a quantity of blood has been poured out ; or it has oozed through the covering, and partially or almost entirely filled the cavity of the abdomen. * The " Veterinarian," June, 1831, p. 307. f Ibid. March, 1834, p. 147- 462 CATTLE. In such a case, the resources of medical art would be powerless ; but every instance of haemorrhage from the liver should be regarded as a warning- against the adoption of too forcing 1 a system of fattening, espe- cially in young- beasts, and in the spring or fall of the year. JAUNDICE, OR THE YELLOWS. There are few diseases to which cattle are so frequently subject, or which are so difficult to treat, as jaundice, commonly known by the appro- priate name of the ydlows. It is characterised by a yellow colour of the eyes, the skin generally, and the urine. Its appearance is sometimes sudden, at other times the yellow tint gradually appears and deepens. In some cases it seems to be attended, for a while, by little pain or incon- venience, or impairment of condition ; in others, its commencement is an- nounced by an evident state of general irritation and fever, and particu- larly by quickness and hardness of pulse, heaving of the flanks, excessive thirst, and the suspension of rumination ; to these rapidly succeed depres- sion of spirits, and loss of appetite, strength, and condition. The animals can scarcely be induced to move, or they separate themselves from the herd, and retiring to the hedge, either slowly pace along the side of it, or .stand, hour after hour, listless and half unconscious. Not only the skin, but the very hair, gradually becomes yellow; a scaly eruption appears, attended by extreme itching, and sometimes degenerating into the worst, species of mange. It is seldom, indeed, that bad mange appears among cattle without being accompanied by a yellow skin ; and the cutaneous eruption was probably caused by the presence and constant excretion of bile irritating the exhalent vessels of the skin. A state of costiveness usually accompanies the yellow skin, at least in the early period of the disease, although diarrhrea, which no astringents will subdue, may afterwards appear, and, in fact, will generally wind up the affair, and carry the patient off. Jaundice cannot long exist without being accom- panied by general impairment of health, and loss of condition. Cows are particularly subject to it in spring and autumn. The milk soon shares in the yellowness of the other secretions, and occasionally acquires an unpleasant and bitter taste. The usual cause of jaundice is obstruction of the passage of the bile from the gall-bladder into the duodenum. This obstruction is effected in various wajs ; but most frequently by biliary concretions or calculi. Dur- ing the continuance of the bile in the gall-bladder, a certain portion of the water which it contains is removed by the process of absorption ; the resi- due becomes proportionably thickened, and the most solid parts are either precipitated, or form themselves into hard masses. Biliary calculi are not unfrequently found in the gall-bladder of cattle, of varying size, from that of a pin's head to a large walnut. Their form indicates that they were composed by some process of crystallization; they are round, with concentric circles, or conical, or assuming in a rude way the form of a cube, or a pentagon, or hexsigon. There is usually some central portion of harder bile round which the rest is collected. They are of less specific gravity than the bile, and even than water, and are found swim- ming in the gall-bladder. They are composed of the yellow matter of the bile, with a portion of mucus holding it together; and this colouring matter is valued by the painter on account of its peculiar and almost unrivalled permanence. It is insoluble in water and alcohol, but it readily diffuses itself in a solution of potash. So far as can be observed, the presence of these calculi in the gall-bladder does not inconvenience the animal, or interfere with health, lor they are JAUNDICE, OR THE YELLOWS. 463 found in the greater number of oxen that are brought to the metropolitan slaughter-houses. At all events, there are no recognised symptoms by which their presence can be detected, or even suspected. In some cases the writer of this work has detected more than a hundred small calculi in the bladder of one ox*. Sometimes, however, they enter the duct (the cystic) which conveys the bile to the intestines. They are likely to do this on account of their swimming on the surface of the fluid which the bladder contains. The cystic duct is large at its union with the bladder ; it is a continuation of the neck of the bladder ; and the gall-stone may be easily pressed into the com- mencement of the tube : but it has scarcely entered it before its passage is obstructed by the folds of the inner coat of the duct. These assume a semilunar form, with the edges projecting towards the bladder, and they act as partial valves, retarding the progress of the bile, so that it may not be all pressed out at once, but gradually escape as the process of digestion may require. The gall-stone being thus impacted, violent spasmodic action takes place in the muscles of the duct, occasioned by the irritation of its conti- nued pressure. It is fortunate, however, that although the muscles of these ducts act with some power, the obstruction is usually, with no great difficulty, overcome. The duct distends ; as it distends, these valvular folds lie closer to the sides, and no longer oppose the passage of the calculus, which is pressed on until it reaches the common duct. The calibre of this tube is larger, and, unless the calculus is of considerable bulk, no farther difficulty occurs until it reaches the opening into the duo- denum, which being situated in the centre of a muscular prominence, acting as a valve, and preventing the passage of all matters whether fluid or solid from the intestine into the ducts, a new difficulty is opposed to the progress of the gall-stones, and there is some return of pain, and in a few cases the pain is evidently more intense than in the early stage. At length this sphincter muscle of the duodenum dilates ; the calculus enters the intestinal canal ; the pain ceases, and the natural colour of the skin returns. In this species of jaundice, we have, in addition to the yellow skin, the heaving of the flanks, the hard concentrated pulse, the diminished appetite, the insatiable thirst and the other symptoms of fever. Then, too, we have the alternate coldness and heat of the ears, the roughness of the coat, the urine becoming first of a transparent yellow, and then opaque red, saffron-coloured, or brown, and the sediment brown. The bowels are constipated, the faeces seldom evacuated, and, when appearing, are hard and black. Bleeding is now clearly indicated, and that until the animal becomes faint. During this partial sjmpathy, the muscles of the duct may cease their spasmodic constriction, and the calculus may pass on. To this should be added powerful purgation, consisting of doses ot a pound and a half each of Epsom salts, or of a pound of the sails, with 1 grains of the Croton Tiglii ; the medicine being repeated once in six hours, until purging is produced. Mashes should be given to hasten and increase the action of the physic, and the beast should, if possible, be turned out to grass during the day, and taken up at night. Opium or digitalis, and particularly the latter, may be given, in dozes of half a drachm of either, witli a view to allay the violent constriction of the duct. From the knowledge that biliary con- * " The number of calculi sometimes contained in the gall-bladder is almost incre- dible. Morgagni took 3046 out of this reservoir belonging to a human being ; and in the Hunteriaii Museum, at Glasgow, 1000 are preserved, which are stated to have been extracted from one gall-bladder." Cyctopadiu of Practical Medictne, article Jaundice, 464 CATTLE. cretions dissolve in a solution of potash, considerable quantities of nitrate and acetate of potash have been given, but with doubtful success. Ether, hydrochlorate of ammonia, potash, and soda, have also been fruitlessly administered for the same purpose. Another mechanical cause of jaundice maybe the obstruction formed by the fasciola or fluke-worm. This singular parasite, resembling in form a little sole, and of the natural history of which, or of the changes that it has undergone, or may undergo, nothing is known, is found in great quantities in the livers of rotted sheep and deer, and, next to them, in the livers of cattle, and especially of those that are bred in low and marshy situations. They accompany almost every chronic disease of the liver, and often exist in the healthy animal. They inhabit the ducts into which the bile is poured from the smaller vessels of the liver they are swimming in the bile, and said to be generally found working their way against the course of that fluid. There is no case on record in which it has been proved by examination after death that the fluke-worm has mechanically obstructed the passage of the bile, and thus caused both the yellowness and the spasm, yet it can easily be imagined that this will sometimes occur. There are no peculiar symptoms to indicate the existence of these worms, for they have never been voided from the mouth or the anus : to the first, there would be a mechanical impediment from the construction of both the lower and upper orifices of the stomach ; and the digestive process going on through the whole of the intestinal canal would render the latter improbable, if not im- possible. Their presence could only be guessed at from the nature of the pasture, or from their having been found in other beasts of the same herd. The same means would be adopted as in supposed obstruction by a cal- culus, but with this probable difference, that the obstruction would be more easily and quickly removed. Of the other species of jaundice in which the attack is more gradual, and apparently unconnected with pain, and in which the symptoms are weak- ness, listlessness, oedematous swellings, high-coloured urine, hardened ex- crement, declining condition, and occasional death, anatomical observation has discovered various causes. The state of the liver itself will some- times account for every symptom. It may labour under chronic inflamma- . lion, without disorganization, and the secretion of bile will be considerably increased, and produced more rapidly than the ducts can carry it off, or than it can be disposed of in the process of digestion, and it will lurk in the intestines, and be taken up by the absorbents and carried into the circula- tion. At other times the diseased state of the liver prevents the escape of the bile, whether in its natural or even diminished quantity ; thus, general enlargement of the substance of the liver will press upon and partially close the biliary ducts tubercles, or other tumours in the liver, will effect the same thing. Inflammation may exist in the ducts themselves. They may become thickened or ulcerated, and thus cease to give passage to the bile, which will then be taken up by the absorbents of the liver, or mechanically forced back upon the vessels whence it was secreted. These are occasional causes of jaundice ; and when they exist, it will not be wondered at that the complaint is obstinate, and too often fatal. Sometimes the source of the evil may exist in the duodenum. It may be inflamed or ulcerated, or thickened, and so the opening from the biliary duct into the intestine may be closed: or the mucus which maybe se- creted in the duodenum may be too abundant, or of too viscid a character, and thus also the orifice may be mechanically obstructed. What symptom will indicate to the practitioner which of these morbid JAUNDICE, OR THE YELLOWS. 465 states of the liver, or its ducts, or if the first intestine, is the cause of the disease? or if it did, what means could he adopt in such a case with the hope of ultimate success ? The treatment of confirmed jaundice is a thankless and disheartening business. The practitioner, however, must look carefully and anxiously to the symptoms, and be guided by them. There is no general rule to direct him here. If there is evident fever, he must bleed, and regulate his abstraction of blood by the apparent degree of fever. In every case but that of diarrhoea ; and at the commencement of that, he must administer purgatives, in large doses when fever is present, or in somewhat smaller quantities, but more frequently repeated, when constipation is observed ; and in doses still smaller, but yet sufficient to excite a moderate and yet continued purgative action, when neither fever nor constipation exists. Considering, however, the natural temperament of cattle, the purgative should be accompanied by a more than usual quantity of the aromatic, unless the degree of fever should plainly forbid it. There are few things respecting which veterinary practitioners differ more than the kind of purgative that should be administered in this case. Some, who are usually partial to the Epsom or Glauber's salts, here prefer the aloes. Mr. Leigh, of Bristol, in a letter with which he favoured the writer of this treatise, says, that "jaundice is soon checked at the begin- ning, by administering Barbadoes aloes, Castile soap, and Venice turpen- tine ;" Mr. Baker, of Reigate, as easily effects a cure by the admini- stration of Epsom or Glauber's salts in doses according to the size of the beast; while the author of " the Survey of Somersetshire" gives us a remedy for yellows, which seldom or never fails; " flower "of mustard, mixed with any liquid, and in doses of two ounces, repeated two or three times in the course of twenty-four hours.* '* It may not, perhaps, be quite a matter of indifference what purgative is administered. The Epsom salts here, as in other cases, is the safest, the most to be depended upon, and the most effective : but the secret of treating jaundice, not with the almost invariable success of which some speak, but with the best prospect of doing good, is by the repetition of mild purga- tives, accompanied, and their power increased, and the digestive powers of the animal roused, and his strength supported, by the addition of aromatics and stomachics in such doses as the slight degree, or the absence, of fever may indicate. The writer of this article certainly cannot confirm by his testimony the opinion of the comparative ease with which the complaint may be removed : he has not only found it to be one of the most common affec- tions of the liver, but one of the most untractable and fatal ; and this from the insidious manner in which it proceeds until it has fixed itself on the constitution beyond the power of medicine to remove it. The following * Some boil 8oz. of saffron in a quart of milk, and esteem it to be a never-failing cure of jaundice. The drink will certainly be expensive, but what good effect can be produced by the employment of this inert yellow drug for the cure of the yellow dis- ease yet remains to be proved. Every one who is in the slightest degree acquainted with* cattle medicine would pronounce such a decoction to be altogether ineffective. It was this superstitious notion of getting rid of one yellow by the application of an- other, that gradually made the powerless and useless turmeric an indispensable ingre- dient in cattle medicine, since jaundice is more or less mixed up with the various diseases to which cattle are subject. The use of saffron, however, is of no recent date in horse as well as cattle-practice. The following recipe is extracted from the Harleian MSS. No. 5107, as arranged in the library of the British Museum. "Take three pennyworth of English saffron, two pennyworth of treacle, one penny- worth of sallad oyle, three of sugar candy, two of turmericke, and a quarte of milke. Seethe all this together, and then let it stand until it is cool, and give it to the horse fasting, and ride him a little upon it, and set him up warm, but he must be blooded first; and three howers afterwards give him a mash." 2 H 466 CATTLE. short directions comprise all that can be done: subdue the' inflammation or fever, by bleeding and physic; keep the bowels afterwards under the mild but evident influence of purgative medicine ; add aromatics and stomachics to the medicine almost from the beginning ; to these, if the strength and condition of the animal should appear to be wasting, add tonics the gentian root will stand at the head of them ; and lastly, when the disease has been apparently subdued, a few tonic drinks will restore the appetite, prepare for the regaining of condition, and re-establish the secretion of milk. THE PANCREAS. This is a long, irregularly formed, flattened gland, considerably smaller in cattle than in the horse, and confined in them to the left side of the ab- domen, in the neighbourhood of, but not adhering to, the fourth stomach, and mostly connected with the duodenum and colon, by mesenteric attach- ments. It is of a pale red colour, and evidently composed of an accumu- lation of small glands resembling salivary ones ; each of them is a secreting gland, and a duct proceeds from each ; these unite and form one common canal, which takes its course towards the duodenum, unites itself with the biliary duct, already described, and enters with it into the duodenum, as represented at h, in the cut in p. 426. The nature of the fluid thus conveyed will be presently considered. This gland appears to be subject to very few diseases, and the symptoms of these diseases are, in the present state of the knowledge of the patho- logy of cattle, very imperfectly known. In a few instances, enlarge- ment of the pancreas has been found after death ; (in one case, this conglomerate gland was more than treble its natural size ;) at other times, there have been inflammation, tubercles, a schirrous induration, and con- siderable abscess ; but there were no previous symptoms to lead to the sus- picion that this gland was the principal seat of disease, and there were other morbid appearances in the stomachs or intestines, to indicate sufTicient cause of death without reference to the state of the pancreas. This is a subject which deserves the attention of the veterinary surgeon, and on which no one has yet ventured to write*. We are now prepared to follow the passage of the food from the fourth stomach into the intestinal canal. CHAPTER XIII. THE ANATOMY AND DISEASES OF THE INTESTINES. IF the reader will refer to the cut of the Intestines of the Horse, in page 202 of the Treatise on that animal in the Farmer's Series, he will perceive a considerable difference in their appearance and structure in the horse and in cattle. There is in cattle comparatively little of the irregu- larity of size which is seen in the intestines of the horse. The colon and the caecum, although larger than the small intestines in cattle, are diminutive compared with those viscera in the horse. The reason of this is * As some guide to the researches of the veterinarian, the following extract from Dr. Abercrombie's valuable " Pathological and Practical Researches" is introduced. " Many cases are on record of chronic disease of the pancreas, exhibiting much diversity of symptoms, and nearly in the following proportion : Of twenty-seven cases which I find mentioned by various writers, six were fatal with gradual wasting and dyspeptic symptoms, and without any urgent symptoms. In eight, there were frequent vomitings, with more or less pain in the epigastric region; and thirteen were fatal, with long-continued pain without vomiting : in some of these, the pain extended to the back, and in others, it was much increased by taking food. In several there were dropsical symptoms, and in three or four there was jaundice from the tumour com- pressing the biliary ducts. In the morbid appearances also there was great variety." THE DUODENUM. 467 sufficiently evident. The enormous development of the rumen, occupy- ing nearly three-fourths of the abdominal cavity, leaves no room for an intestine so bulky as the caecum of the horse: the bowels are therefore diminished in size, in order that they may be more readily packed wherever room can be found for them. The larger intestines, particularly the colon and the cajcum, have not the cellated structure in cattle, which the slightest inspection of their ex- ternal covering shews that they possess in the horse ; and, consequently, the food will pass through them with considerably greater rapidity. Lest this, however, should prevent the abstraction of all the nutriment which it contains, and thus interfere with the destiny of cattle, the furnishing of the human being with food while they are living and after they are dead, the intestinal canal is greatly prolonged. The intestines of the horse are ten times as long as the body of that animal ; the intestines of the ox are twenty-two times as long as his body. Each intestine shall be briefly described. 1. The Duodenum. 2. The Jejunum. 3. The Ileum 4. The Caecum. 5. The Colon. 6. The Rectum. 7- The Mesentery. 8. Mesenteric Glands. 9. Blood-vessels. THE DUODENUM. This, as will be observed at, cr, p. 203, in the Treatise on the Horse, is'of considerable size in that animal compared with the small intestines ; but it will be remarked (g, p. 426, and Jig, 1. in this cut) that the duodenum is, at its commencement from the stomach, little larger than the jejunum and 2 II 2 468 CATTLE. ileum, which are prolongations from it. The stomach of the horse is an exceedingly small one ; the food necessarily passes quickly out of it, and the work of digestion, so far as the stomach is concerned, namely, the dis- solving of the food, and the conversion of it into one homogeneous mass, is imperfectly performed : therefore it is detained in the upper portion of the duodenum for this solution to be completed, or as much so as the nature of the food will admit, before the true function of this intestine commences. In consequence, however, of the maceration of the food in the rumen, the double mastication, and the mechanism of the manyplus, by means of which every fibrous particle is seized and ground down, the food is nearly dissolved before it enters the fourth stomach; it is easily completed there, and the duodenum has nothing to do of this nature. On this account, the duode- num of the horse is a capacious one ; it is a kind of second stomach : while the duodenum of cattle is little larger than the small intestines which succeed to it. The duodenum and all the intestines have, like the stomachs, three coats. The outer one is the peritoneum, or the membrane by which all the contents of the belly are invested; by which also they are all confined in their natural situations, and by the smoothness and moisture of which, all injurious friction and concussion are avoided. The second is the muscular coat, supplied by the motor organic nerves, and by means of the contraction of which the food is propelled along the intestinal canal in the process of healthy digestion, or hastened when those muscles are made to contract more rapidly and violently under the influence of irrita- tion, whether referrible to disease or to some purgative drug. The inner coat is a mucous one, thickly studded with minute glands, which, in a state of health, secrete sufficient mucous fluid to lubricate the passage ; and, under the stimulus of a purgative, throw out a fluid increased in quantity, and of a more aqueous character, and in which the contents of the intestines are softened and involved and carried away. On this coat likewise openthe months of innumerable vessels the lac- teal absorbents which imbibe or take up the nutritive portion of the food. These vessels ramify across the mesentery, and convey this nutri- ment to a common duct that passes along it, and by means of which it is carried into the great veins in the neighbourhood of the heart, where it is mixed with the venous blood returned from every part. By the power of the heart it is propelled through the lungs, where it is purified and vita- lized ; and having been returned to this organ it is driven through other vessels all over the frame, and bestows nutriment and life'on every part. The food, in a state of perfect solution, and under the name of chyme, is forced on by the muscular coat of the fourth stomach into the duodenum, where another change immediately commences. The food is separated into two distinct portions or principles that which is nutritive or capable of being imbibed by the lacteals awhile fluid called chyle; and that which is either innutritive, or which they reject, and which is propelled along the intestines and finally evacuated. There has been much dispute as to the manner in which this separation is effected. The chyme that has been formed by the agency of the gastric- juice may contain in itself a tendency to this separation, or precipitation of the excrementitious part; or this may be effected by some fluid secreted from the mucous coat of the duodenum ; or the bile and pancreatic juice may be the main agents in producing the change. Ten or twelve inches down the duodenum, as may be seen at h, p. 426, two ducts penetrate the coats of that intestine, and pour into it the fluid secreted by the pancreas and liver. It would seem likely, from the dis- THE C^CUM. 469 tance from the stomach at which these fluids enter, that some change had already taken place in the contents of the duodenum, which was to be perfected by means of these auxiliaries. The separation or pre- cipitation is more rapidly and effectually made ; while the bile also has some stimulating- effect on the coats of the stomach, urging the exhalents and the absorbents, and the muscles of the intestines, to stronger and more effectual action ; and the pancreatic juice may dilute the biliary secretion, and shield the intestine from its occasional too great acrimony. While, however, the bile is thus acting in promoting healthy digestion, (and no animals afford more frequent illustration of the connexion between the biliary secretion and the digestive process than cattle do,) the true notion of it is, perhaps, that it is an excrementitions substance, containing properties that would be noxious to the constitution, but, as in most of the contrivances of nature, the mode of its evacuation answers another and a salutary purpose*. The length of the duodenum varies according to the fancy of different writers. It terminates in the jejunum, but there is no assignable point where the one can be said to terminate and the other begin. THE JEJUNUM AND ILEUM. These intestines, together with the duodenum, the caecum, and a por- tion of the colon, will be seen (in the cut p. 467, at Jigs. 2 and 3) to be united together and enfolded in one common expansion of the mesentery. They lie on the right side of the belly occupying the flank, and resting upon the right portion of the rumen. The jejunum and the ileum constitute the border of this mesenteric expansion, and are disposed in the form of numerous spiral convolutions. If they were unfolded the length of these intestines would, in an ox of common size, amount to more than 100 feet. This length of small intestine is designed to compen- sate for the want of development and of cancelli in the larger ones. The food is detained by the length of the passage, and also by the con- struction of the convolutions. They may be considered as discharging the function of the caecum and colon in the horse, and the principal absorp- tion of chyle takes place in them. THE C^CUM Is a very different viscus from that which bears the same name in the * The gall of the ox is applied to various uses ; it was formerly used medicinally, as readily combining with the hardened wax of the ear and contributing to its easier re- moval, and also as a mild and beneficial external stimulant in cases of inflammation of the ear, and particularly those of a chronic character and connected with partial deaf- ness. It has also been adopted as a stimulant in some cases of ophthalmia, and old people used to think that it was beneficial in difficult menstruation, and also in difficult labour. In commerce its value is of a more decided character. It is boiled and skimmed ; one ounce of alum is then added to each pint of the gall ; to another pint of the gall one ounce of common salt is added ; the liquids are placed in separate bottles, corked down, and kept close for three months ; the clear portion is then poured off from each, and the contents of the two bottles being mixed together, a precipitation or coagulum is rapidly formed, leaving a portion of the liquid above clear and colourless. This is called refined ox-gall. It is considered by some to possess a cosmetic quality ; it cer- tainly combines with the greasy matter with which old paintings may be stained, and also with that which may have been mixed with various colours; it gives a coating to ivory, and even to tracing paper and to satin, which enables the artist to paint with water colours upon them, and to lay successive coats of colours when drawing, and to fix chalk and pencil drawings so that they may be tinted. An extract of ox-gall has also been used instead of soap, more readily and effectually to clean greasy cloths. Gray and Rennie's Supplements to the Pharmacopoeia, 470 CATTLE. horse. It describes a considerable arch, (see Fig. 4. p. 467) the superior extremity of which is fixed to the portion of mesentery common to it and the small intestines, while the inferior portion floats loose in the abdomen, and is prolonged into the pelvic cavity, where it has a rounded termination. The portion of food that can enter into it is smaller than in the horse, and cannot be detained long there, because there are no longitudinal bands to pucker the intestine into numerous and deep cells; but the contents of the caecum have the same character of being more fluid than in any other part of the intestinal canal. The length of the caecum differs little from that of the horse, seldom exceeding a yard. THE COLON. This intestine is evidently divisible into two parts (see Fig. 5. p. 467) ; the one smaller than the caecum is supported by the common mesentery, the other floats loose in the belly, and forms part of the second mass of intes- tines. It has somewhat the same convolutions as in the horse, but is destitute of its muscular bands. It is also less than the caecum, but, com- bined with the next and the last intestine, the rectum, it measures more than thirty-three feet, being almost double the length of those intestines in the horse. The want of mechanical obstruction to the passage of the food is thus made up by the increased length of the viscera. In the colon, the process of digestion may be considered to be in a manner ter- minated, and all that remains is fseculent matter, that continues to be urged on in order to be expelled. THE RECTUM. This intestine, so called from the straight course which it runs, termi- nates the digestive canal. It also has no longitudinal bands, for it con- tains little beside the excrement that is to be discharged, or that should least of all be detained. The lacteal absorbents may still be traced in this intestine, but it is probable that very little nutritive matter is taken up, although, from the occasional hardened state of the dung, it is possible that much fluid may be carried off. A circular muscle, always in action, is placed at the termination of the rectum, in order to prevent its contents from being involuntarily dis- charged. Its power is just sufficient for the purpose ; and it readily yields, when, by the pressure of the abdominal muscles and the diaphragm, the excrement is forced against it, in the voluntary efforts of the animal. The contents of the rectum in cattle are essentially different from those that occupy the same intestine in the horse. They are semifluid their nutritive qualities are nearly exhausted, and they are of very inferior value for agricultural purposes. The scientific author of the treatise on " British Husbandry," in the Farmer's Series, p. 227, says, that " when used alone, cow-dung has been considered, in most cases, as nearly worthless. It has also been thought that the dung of milch cows is inferior to that of oxen ; but this can only be attributed to their yielding milk, which probably deprives the dung of some portion of its richness, for when they are dried off and fattened there is no perceptible difference." He makes two quotations in illustration of the inferior quality of the cow-dung, one from the Essex Report, vol. ii., p. 238, in which it is stated that " fifteen acres having been manured for beans, six with horse-dung, and nine with dung from the cow-yard, the six acres produced far more than the nine," and that "in an experiment made near Grantham, in Lincolnshire, on a poor dry soil, the manure from a horse-yard, and that from a yard where neat cattle were wintered, were ENLARGEMENT OF THE MESENTERIC GLANDS. 471 used separately for turnips, and the former was found to have greatly the advantage." He adds, however, that "mixed with other kinds of manure, it is exceedingly valuable ; that although its effect upon the soil is slower and less powerful than that of horse-dung, it is more durable, and that upon sand and gravel, and a dry and warm soil, its cooling qualities render it of much service." The comparison which he draws in other respects, between the two kinds of dung will be found to be interesting and instructive. THE DISEASES OF THE INTESTINES. These, with the exception of diarrhoea, are seldom so acute or fatal as in the horse, but they are too numerous, and destroy too many of our tattle. Those which belong to the membranes that invest or line the intestines, and that are referrible to the greater part, or the whole, of their extent, will with most convenience first come under consideration, Those which affect only particular viscera, or parts of them, will naturally follow. ENLARGEMENT OF THE MESENTERIC GLANDS. It has been stated that there are numerous vessels, termed lacteals opening on the inner coat of the intestines, in order to convey the chyle to the thoracic duct, so that it may mingle with and supply the waste of the blood. These little vessels, ere they reach the main trunk, pass through a glandular body, in which some unknown change is probably effected in the chyle. Some of these mesenteric glands are represented at fig. 8, page 467. These glands occasionally become unnaturally enlarged, and then, whether from the abstraction of so much nutriment, in order to contribute to this enlargement, or from this unknown change not taking place in the chyle before it mingles with the blood, or from the consti- tutional disturbance which the presence of such a body in the abdomen must produce, the animal ceases to thrive, his belly becomes enlarged, cough and consumption appear, and he gradually wastes away and dies. On examination after death, some of the mesenteric glands are of unusual bulk, and occasionally have grown to an enormous size. Mr. Brown, of Melton, has recorded a case of singular enlargement of one of these glands*. He was sent for to examine a cow with con- siderable depression of countenance, the eyes shrunk in their orbits, the membrane of the nose and the mouth of a pale yellow colour, and the skin around the eyes, nose and mouth also presenting the same tinge. The pulse was quick, the breathing difficult, the belly swelled, and she could scarcely be induced to move. When the hand was passed along the right side, a large tumour could be distinctly felt, and which would not yield to pressure. Mr. Brown very properly decided that the case was hopeless, and ad- vised that she should be destroyed. She was, however, given up to him for experiment. He determined first to try the effect of mercury, and he gave her every night two scruples of calomel, with a drachm of hemlock, and half a drachm of opium; he also administered four ounces of Epsom salts every morning, in eight ounces of infusion of cascarilla. A more judicious plan of treatment he could scarcely have adopted. As soon as purging commenced, he omitted the internal medicine, shaved the hair from the right side, and well rubbed in daily an ounce of strong mercurial ointment with a drachm of camphor. This was continued for six days ; but the patient continuing to lose flesh, and becoming so weak as not to be * Veterinarian, Feb. 1830. 472 CATTLE. able to raise herself up when down, and the tumour not diminishing, he ordered her to be destroyed. On opening the abdomen, the first thing that presented itself filling the iliac region was a large mesenteric gland, of irregular form, weighing 1601b. On making a section through it, its appearance was chiefly that of a schirrous deposit. The mesenteric glands generally were unhealthy, and many of them were schirrous. This case is a valuable one ; it is the only one on record of schirrous enlargement of the mesenteric glands of the ox ; but the recollection of every practitioner will furnish him with not a few instances of these tumours unexpectedly presenting themselves on examination of the abdomen. They have been found chiefly in young beasts that had been bred too much in and in, or that had been weakly from other causes, and particularly in those that had been subject to chronic cough, associated with tubercles in the lungs. In low and damp situ- ations these tumours have been found on the mesentery of cattle that have been long unthrifty and out of condition, and that have at length died apparently in consequence of some other disease. The association, however, with these diseases has differed so materially in different cases, and the symptoms have been so obscure, or so much resembling those of various and almost opposite complaints, that they have not yet been satisfactorily classed and arranged. This also must be the work of future veterinarians, and when cattle medicine begins to re- ceive that attention which it deserves. The treatment of these mesenteric enlargements, when they are sus- pected and pretty well ascertained, would be a course of mild purgatives, mingled with tonics (the Epsom salts with gentian and ginger, a dose sufficient to keep the bowels gently open being administered every morn- ing), with the exhibition of from six to ten grains of the hydriodate of potash, at noon and night, and the removal of the animal to good and dry pasture. INFLAMMATION OF THE BOWELS. Of this malady, as in the horse, there are two species : the first is inflam- mation of the external coat of the intestines, accompanied by considerable fever, and usually by costiveness; the second is that of the internal or mucous coat, and generally attended by violent purging. The first of these, designated by the term ENTERITIS, is, in most cases, sudden in its attack. Beasts of middle age, strong, in good condition, and particularly working cattle, are most subject to it. Calves, old beasts, and milch cows are comparatively exempt from it. The disease is most frequent in hot weather, and after long-continued drought. The beast, that on the preceding day seemed to be in perfect health, is observed to be dull depressed his mu/zle dry his hair rough: he shrinks when his loins are pressed upon, and his belly seems to be enlarged on the left side. To these symptoms speedily succeed disinclination to move weakness of the hind limbs trembling of them staggering heaving of the flanks protrusion of the head redness of the eyes heat of the month and ears and roots of the horns, and a small, but rapid pulse, generally varying from 60 to 80 beats in a minute. Rumination has now ceased ; the appetite is lost ; the faeces are rarely voided, and are hard and covered with a glazy mucus, and that mucus is sometimes streaked with blood j-^the animal also moans with intensity of pain. These symptoms rapidly increase ; the patient becomes more depressed ; the pulse more feeble ; the moaning incessant, and the beast is conti- nually down. He becomes half unconscious, and is evidently half-blind ; INFLAMMATION OF THE BOWELS. 473 the mouth is filled with foam, and the tongue is covered with a brownish yellow deposit. There is grinding of the teeth, and difficulty in the swal- lowing of liquids ; a tucked up appearance of the belly, mingling with the enlargement of the left flank, and the whole of the belly is exceedingly tender. Until he is too weak to raise himself, he is exceedingly restless, lying down, and immediately getting up again, and with convulsive movements of the muscles of the neck and extremities. The evacuation of the faeces is entirely suppressed, or a little stream of liquid excrement forces a passage through the hardened mass by which the rectum is distended, and that which is voided has an exceedingly foetid and putrid smell. This symptom is characteristic. The person who is accustomed to cattle says, that the beast is fardel-bound or sapped, but he often mistakes the nature of the case, and fancies that diarrhoea instead of costiveness exists. The urine becomes thick and oily and brown, and has a peculiarly disagreeable and penetrating smell. As the disease proceeds, the weakness and suffering increase, until the animal dies, sometimes exhausted, but mostly in con- vulsions, and frequently discharging a bloody foetid fluid from the mouth, the nose, and the anus. Sometimes, when the disease has not been attacked with sufficient energy, and oftener in despite of the most skilful treatment, other symptoms appear. The animal seems to amend ; the pulse is slower and more de- veloped rumination returns the patient eats a little the enlargement of the flanks subsides the excrement, whether hard or fluid, is more abundantly discharged : but the beast is sadly thin he is daily losing ground his coat stares the hair is easily detached the skin clings to the bones he is sometimes better, and sometimes worse, until violent inflammation again suddenly comes on, and he is speedily carried off*. On examination after death the first thing that presents itself is the engorgement of the sub-cutaneous vessels with black and coagulated blood, and the discoloration of the muscles, softened in their consistence and be- coming putrid. The abdomen exhibits the effusion of a great quantity of bloody fluid ; eight, ten, and twelve gallons have been taken from it. The peritoneum is inflamed almost universally so; there are black and gan- grenous patches in various parts, and on others there are deposits of flaky matter, curiously formed, and often curiously spotted. The liver is en- larged and its substance easily torn ; the rumen is distended with food, generally dry, and its lining membrane inflamed and injected, and of a purple or blue tint : the rcticulum does not escape the inflammatory action ; the rnanyplus is filled with dry and hard layers which cannot be detached without difficulty from the mucous membrane of that stomach ; the fourth stomach is highly inflamed, with patches of a more intense character, and its contents are liquid and bloody, particularly towards the pyloric orifice. The small intestines contain many spots of ulceration, the lining membrane is every where inflamed, and they are filled with an adhesive or bloody mucous fluid ; the larger intestines are even more inflamed, they exhibit more extensive ulceration, and contain many clots of effused blood. The rectum is ulcerated and gangrenous from end to end. * Hurtrel D' Arboval, in his " Dictionary of Veterinary Medicine and Surgery,'' thus describes some of the symptoms in a more than usually aggravated case. " The con- vulsive movements were exceedingly violent. The animal, seemingly afraid of every thing around him, dragged himself along, and beat himself about in every direction, uttering the most frightful lowings. His tongue, red and swelled, hung from his mouth ; the nostrils were dilated ; the eyes haggard and full of tears; all the mucous membranes were of a scarlet red ; the ears and horns were burning, as also was the whole surface of the body. The beatings of the heart were violent and rapid, yet the pulse was scarcely perceptible, aud no blood could be obtained from the jugular." 474 CATTLE. There is usually considerable effusion in the chest ; the coverings of the lungs are inflamed ; the bag of the heart more so ; the substance of the lungs is sometimes emphysematous, and at other times gorged with blood, and the heart is marked with black spots outwardly, and in its cavities, The lining membrane of all the air-passages is of a red brown colour ; the larynx and the pharynx are intensely red, and so is the membrane of the gullet. Of the causes of this disease it is difficult to speak. It seems occasionally to be epidemic, for several instances of it occur of the same character, and in the same district. M. Creuzel gives an illustration of this in his descrip- tion of the disease that destroyed so many cattle in the years 1826 and 1827, in the department de la Nievre. Out of 218 cattle belonging to three farmers, 113 were attacked by the disease, and 83 of them died. One farmer, in a neighbouring district, had 19 head of cattle, all of whom sickened, but only three of them were lost. These were unusually hot summers. The upland pasture was burnt up, or what remained of it was rendered unusually stimulating; and the acrid plants of the marshes and low grounds acquired additional deleterious agency *. . When isolated cases occur, they may generally be attributed to mis- management. Exposure to cold, or the drinking of cold water when heated with work ; too hard work in sultry weather; the use of water stagnant, impure, or containing any considerable quantity of metallic salts; the sudden revulsion of some cutaneous eruption ; the crowding of animals into a confined place ; too luxuriant and stimulating food gene- rally ; and the mildewed and unwholesome food on which cattle are too often kept, are fruitful sources of this complaint. WOOD-EVIL, MOOR ILL, PANTAS. These are but varieties of the same disease, frequently produced, as the first name would import, by browsing on the young buds of trees, and par- ticularly on those of the ash and the oak. These buds are tempting to cattle at the commencement of the spring, but they are of too acrid and stimulat- ing a character to be eaten with impunity in any considerable quantities. Heat of the mouth and skin redness of the membranes thirst obstinate constipation hardness of the little faeces that are expelled the covering of them with mucus and blood difficulty of voiding urine, and its red colour and penetrating odour colicky pains depression, are the characteristic symptoms of this disease. Some veterinarians give the name of wood-evil to complaints allied to rheumatism, or being essentially rheumatic ; others consider it to be a disease of debility, looking to the consequence of inflammation, and not to the inflammation itself. If any distinction were drawn between wood-evil and enteritis in cattle., it would be, that although in wood-evil there seems to be more affection of the head, and the animal appears now and then as if it were rabid, there is not so much intestinal inflammation, and the disease does not so speedily run its course f- Wood-evil may last from twelve to twenty days. t * Kec. de Med., Oct. 1828, p. 243. t M. Girard observed in 1816, a similar disease among the cows in a village near Brie. At the commencement the animals were dull, disinclined to eat, sptune dropped from the mouth, and the spine was tender. There ran from the vagina of the cow a bloody matter, of a peculiar smell, which the urine also possessed. The con- stipation was obstinate ; the dung was hard and in pellets, and covered with streaks of blood. The animal remained in this state twenty-four hours, after which the bloody evacuations ceased ; the patient became palsied behind ; violent diarrhoea followed, foetid, and infectious, and the patient was presently lost. D'Arboval, Diet, de Vet, Med, DIARRHCEA AND DYSENTERY. 475 The prognosis, or expectation of the termination of the disease is always unfavourable when after a certain time much fever comes on, or the costiveness will not give way, or the urine is thick or bloody, or the disease attains its full intensity in the space of a few days. Then, instead of ter- minating in resolution, the inflammation runs on to gangrene ; all the acute symptoms suddenly disappear, and death is not far distant. On the other hand, the result will be favourable when the disease does not reach that degree of intensity of which it is capable ; when, after a few days, the symptoms gradually disappear, and the animal regains his former habits, and the excrement resumes its natural form and consistence*. The history that has been given of this disease will leave little doubt respecting the course of treatment that should be pursued. A malady of so intensely an inflammatory character should be met by prompt and deci- sive measures ; and to them it will, in its early stage, generally yield. Nothing is so easy as to give relief to a sapped or fardel-bound beast, before he begins to heave at the flanks or ceasesjto ruminate; but quickness of breathing, and heat of the mouth, and evident fever, being once established, the animal will probably be lost. The patient should be bled. If it is simple costiveness without fever, the abstraction of six or eight quarts of blood may suffice ; but if the symptoms of inflammation cannot be misunderstood, the measure of the bleeding will be the quantity that the animal will lose before he staggers or falls. Purgatives should follow the first dose being of the full strength, and assisted by quickly repeated ones, until brisk purging is produced. Hot water, or blisters, should be applied to the belly, and the food of the beast should be restricted to gruel and mashes. This will, in most cases, include the whole of the treatment. If other symptoms should arise, or other parts appear to be involved, the practitioner will change his mode of proceeding accordingly; but he will be cautious how he gives aromatics or tonics, until he is convinced that the state of fever has passed over, and circumstances indicate the approach of debility and of typhus fever. DIARRHCEA AND DYSENTERY t- The frequent and abundant evacuation of faecal matter, whether with or without mucus, may be considered either as simple, or connected with other diseases. In its former state it will be the subject of present consi- deration, and may be regarded as acute or chronic. Acute diarrhoea may be produced by various causes ; the abuse of purgatives, by their being administered in too active a form feeding on certain poisonous plants sudden change of food, generally from dry to green aliment, but occasionally from green to dry excess of food the drinking of bad water or by some humid and unhealthy state of the atmosphere. From the last cause it usually assumes an epizootic character, particu- larly in autumn. A great many cows in a certain district are suddenly attacked by it, although there is no reason to suspect that it is in the slightest degree contagious. Calves and milch cows are far more subject to this species of intestinal inflammation than are full grown or working oxen. The proper treatment of acute diarrhoea will consist in the administra- * D'Arboval, Diet., Article EnierM. f The distinction between these two diseases, and it is of essential importance to observe it in the treatment of cattle, is, that diarrhoea consists in the evacuation of faecal matter, in an undue quantity, and more than naturally liquid form. In dysen- tery, more or less mueus, or mucus and blood combined, mingles with the faces. 476 CATTLE. tion of a mild purgative, in order to carry off any source of irritation in the intestinal canal ; the abstraction of blood, if there is any degree of fever, and in proportion to that fever ; and then the exhibition of alkalis and astringents. The most effectual medicines are prepared chalk, opium, catechu, and ginger, in the proportions of one ounce of the first, one drachm of (lie second, four drachms of the third, and two of the last in each dose, and to be administered in thick gruel. This will generally be successful : but, occasionally, these acute cases of diarrhoea are obstinate and fatal ; and too often it happens that what has been represented to the practitioner as a sudden attack turns out to be the winding up of some chronic disease, and he does not discover the mistake until it is too late. Diarrhoea is not always to be considered as a disease. It is often a salutary effort of nature to get rid of that which would be injurious ; or it is a somewhat too great action of certain of the digestive organs, which soon quiet down again to their natural and healthy function. An occa- sional lax state of the bowels in calves is known to be favourable to the acquirement of fat; and a beast that is well purged on being first turned on spring-grass or turnips thrives far more rapidly than another that is little, or not at all, affected by the change. Diarrhoea, in some critical stages of disease, is to be hailed as the precursor of health, rather than feared as the attack of a new malady ; it should be so in pneumonia, red water, and puerperal fever. All that is then to be done is to prevent its becoming so violent as to depress the vital energies. Diarrhoea may assume a chronic form, with greater or less severity, and producing loss of condition and debility; it maybe prolonged for many a month, and even for years, and at length terminate fatally. This is often the case with cows that have been drained of their milk and badly kept. The diarrhoea of calves will be considered when the diseases of those animals come under notice. The treatment of chronic diarrhoea is difficult, and unsatisfactory. Pur- gatives cannot be dispensed with, but they must be administered with con- siderable caution. Both the medicine and the quantity should be well considered, for if the aperient is not strong enough, the disorder will be increased and prolonged ; and if it is too strong, both these effects will be produced to a greater extent, and fatal inflammation and superpurgation may ensue. Castor oil will he the safest, and the most effectual medicine, in 'doses from a pint to a bottle ; and a small quantity, ten grains, of powdered opium, will not interfVre with the aperient quality of the oil, while it may allay irritation. After two doses of the oil have been given, the powder already recommended may be tried, but with a double quantity of ginger, and half a drachm of powdered gentian. Alter a while, a drachm of the Dover's powder may be given, morning and night ; and, that also ceasing to have effect, the first powder may again be administered. Alum whey is often of considerable service. If the animal is turned out, it should be on the driest pasture, but it will be better for her to be kept up with plenty of hay, and gruel to drink. It is, however, with DYSENTERY that the practitioner is most loth to cope, a disease that destroys thousands of our cattle. This also may be either acute or chronic. Its causes are too often buried in obscurity, and its premonitory symptoms are disregarded or unknown. There appears to be a strong predisposition in cattle to take on this disease. It seems to be the winding up of many serious complaints, and the foundation of it is sometimes laid by those that appear to be of the most trifling nature. It is that in cattle which glanders and farcy are in the horse the breaking up of the constitution. DIARRHOEA AND DYSENTERY. 477 Dysentery may be a symptom and a concomitant of other diseases. It Is one of the most fearful characteristics of murrain ; it is the destructive accompaniment or consequence of phthisis. It is produced by the sud- den disappearance of a cutaneous eruption ; it follows the cessation of chronic hoose ; it is the consequence of the natural or artificial suspen- sion of every secretigji. Were any secretion to be particularly selected, the repression of which would produce dysentery, it would be that of the milk. How often does the farmer observe that no sooner does a milch cow cease her usual supply of milk than she begins to purge ! There may not appear to be anything else the matter with her, but she purges, and in the majority of cases that purging is fatal. It may, sometimes, however, be traced to sufficient causes, exclusive of previous disease. Unwholesome food exposure to cold neglect at the time of calving low and marshy situations the feeding on meadows that have been flooded (here it is peculiarly fatal) the grazing (according to Mr. Leigh, and our experience confirms his statement) upon the clays lying over the blue lias rock the neighbourhood of woods, and of half stagnant rivers the continuation of unusually sultry weather over- work, and all the causes of acute dysentery may produce that of a chronic nature or acute dysentery neglected, or badly, or even most skilfully treated, may degenerate into an incurable chronic affection. Half starve a cow, or overfeed her ; milk her to exhaustion, or dry her milk too rapidly, dysentery may follow. The following may probably be the order of the symptom?, if they are carefully observed. There will be a little dulness or anxiety of counte- nance, the muzzle becoming short and contracted a slight shrinking when the loins are pressed upon the skin a little harsh and dry the hair a little rough there were will be a slight degree of uneasiness, and shivering, that scarcely attracts attention then (except it be the dege- neracy of acute into chronic dysentery) constipation may be perceived it will he to a certain degree obstinate the excrement will be voided with pain it will be dry, hard, and expelled in small quantities. In other cases, perhaps, purging will be present from the beginning ; the animal will be tormented with tenesrnus, or frequent desire to void its excrement, and that act attended by straining and pain, hy soreness about the anus and protrusion of the rectum; and sometimes by severe colicky spasms. In many cases, however, and in those of a chronic form, few of these distressing symptoms are observed even at the commencement of the disease, but the animal voids her fasces oftener than it is natural that she should, and they are more fluid than in a state of health ; but at the same time, she loses her appetite and spirits and condition, and is evi- dently wasting away. In acute cases, if the disease does not at once destroy the animal, the painful symptoms disappear, arid little remains but a greater or less degree of dulness, disinclination to food, rapid decrease of condition, and frequent purging. The fffices are often voided in a peculiar manner ; they "are ejected with much force, and to a considerable distance, and the process of shooting has commenced. The faeces, too, have altered their character; a greater quantity of mucus mingles with them; sometimes it forms a great proportion of the matter evacuated, or it hangs in strings, or accumulates layer after layer under the tail. The fanner and the prac- titioner anxiously examine the evacuation. As the thin mass falls on the ground, bubbles are formed upon it? They calculate the time that these vesicles remain unbroken. If they burst and disappear immediately, the observer does not quite despair: but if they remain several minutes on the 478 CATTLE. surface of the dung, he forms an unfavourable opinion of the case, for he knows that these bladders are composed of the mucus that lined the intestines, and which is not separated from them except under circumstances of great irritation; or which being thrown off, the denuded membrane is exposed to fatal irritation. In this state the beast may remain many weeks, or months ; sometimes better, and sometimes worse ; and even promising to those who know little about the matter, that the disease will gradually subside. The farmer, however, has a term for this malady, too expressive of the result, although not strictly applicable to what is actually taking place within the animal. She is rotten, he says, and she dies as if she were so. The writer of this treatise will not say, with one well-informed and skilful practitioner, that " chronic diarrhoea invariably wears the animal down, sooner or later, in spite of all means*," nor with another, that "the animal loses its flesh, becomes exceedingly thin, and ultimately dies in despite of any treatment ; and in this stage the cow-leeches have each their favourite specific, the only good of which consists in the money they can obtain for itf.'' There are cases of recovery, but they are few and far between. In most cases the tragedy gradually draws to a close. The beast is sadly wasted vermin accumulate on him his teeth become loose swellings appear under the jaw, and he dies frpm absolute exhaustion ; or the dejections gradually change their character blood mingles with the mucus purulent matter succeeds to that it is almost insupportably fcetid it is discharged involuntarily gangrenous ulcers about the anus sometimes tell of the process that is going on within ; and, at length, the eyes grow dim and sunk in their orbits, the body is covered with cold per- spiration, and the animal dies. In some cases the emaciation is frightful ; the skin cleaves to the bones, and the animal has become a living skeleton ; in others there have been swellings about the joints, spreading over the legs generally, occasionally ulcerated ; and in all, the leaden colour of the membranes, the rapid loss of strength, the stench of the excrement, and the unpleasant odour arising from the animal himself, announce the approach of death. The appearances after death are extraordinarily uniform, considering of how many diseases this is the accompaniment or the consequence, and the length of time that it takes to run its course, and during which so many other organs might have been readily involved. The liver is rarely in any considerable state of disease. The first and second stomachs are seldom much affected ; the third stomach presents a variable appearance with regard to the state of the food that it contains, and which is sometimes exceedingly hard, and sometimes almost pultaceous, but there is no inflam- mation about the stomach itself. The fourth stomach exhibits a peculiar change : there is an infiltration or collection of serous fluid in the cel- lular substance between the mucous and muscular coat, showing some, but no very acute degree of inflammation in the submucous tissue. The small intestines are frequently without a single trace of inflammation, but sometimes, however, they are thickened and corrugated, but not injected. It is in the caecum, colon, and rectum, that the character of the disease is to be distinctly and satisfactorily traced. Mr. Cartwright, describing the morbid appearances in a beast that had died of dysentery, says " that the colon and caecum were inwardly of a dirty colour, with blackish streaks running over them in every direction, * Mr. Farrow. Veterinarian, June, 1831, p. 3IC. f Mr. Hales. Ibid. August, 1831, p. 438. DIARRHCEA AND DYSENTERY. 479 The parietes were very thin, without the least covering of mucus. The liver was the smallest I ever saw. It was perfectly sound, of a uniform clear light-blue colour, and firm in texture *." In a subsequent commu- nication f, he narrates the lesions of some other beasts that had been under his treatment. He thus speaks of the first case " The plaits upon the fourth stomach were about an inch thick, and underneath the secreting- coats there was contained a quantity of serum and lymph, which had the appearance of jelly J. The caBcum had two or three small abscesses just under the inner coat, but which had not burst, and many places of it were marked with black streaks. The whole of the abdo- minal cavity was very white, and infiltrated with serum." In the second case, he states, that " the plaits on its internal surface were much filled with serum, and which would gravitate when held in different posi- tions. On the villous coat of the large intestines, and throughout them-, were a great many reddish spots, and in other places there were whole patches of the same ; and on wiping this red secretion off, the coat was found to be abraded or ulcerated, and the intestines between those spots were thickened ." * Veterinarian, Feb. 1829, p. 71. f Ibid. Dec. 1831, p. C69. J Mr. Farrow also has noticed these senms depositions between the coats of the Stomach. Veterinarian, June, 1831, p. 316. It may not be uninteresting to give a short sketch of the symptoms and appearances after death, of dysentery in the human subject. Its identity with the rottenness of cattle will not be for a moment doubted. The quotation is selected from that most valuable work " The Cyclopaedia of Practical Medicine," article Dysentery, by Dr. Joseph Brown. " A case of this description may commence with feculent and liquid stools, and they may subsequently become mucous, with occasionally a slight admixture of blood, or they may be of the latter character from the beginning. There is little, if any, fixed pain in the abdomen, but considerable griping during the evacuation, and heat of the anus, with distressing straining. The dejections, however, do not exceed seven or eight times in the day. Difficulty of breathing and of voiding the urine attend severe cases of the disease. The appetite is generally impaired the thirst considerable, and the tongue is sometimes furred. The mean duration of this slight form of the disease is from seven to eight days : it may be said to be never fatal, but it not nnfrequently lays the foundations of chronic dysentery, and often leaves such a tenderness of the bowels, as renders them more prone than before to morbid action, from cold or other causes. " A more intense form of the disease will be found of frequent occurrence when dysentery is prevailingly epidemic. Occasionally a well-marked rigor (shivering fit), followed speedily by febrile heat, introduces the disease, while in other cuses the first symptom is pain in the bowels, to which the mucous stools, characteristic of dysentery, in a short time succeed. In many instances, some slight derangement of the stomach or bowels, indicated by flatulency, costiveness, inappetency, and nausea, is experienced. When the disease is fully formed, the characteristic mucous, or muco-sanguinolent stools are passed very frequently, with great pain, and an extreme degree of straining. There is a warm skin a hard, generally frequent and small pulse the tongue is either covered with a white mucous coat, or it is dark and dry there is great prostration of strength, and the urine is scanty and high-coloured, and is passed with pain and diffi- culty. The griping which precedes each evacuation is very distressing. " Should no relief be afforded by the remedies employed, the prostration of strength becomes great, the pulse feeble, with coldness of the extremities, the tongue either furred and brown, or glazed and red ; the discharges from the intestines are dark and offensive ; the mind is low and desponding, and death sometimes takes place in a period varying from a fortnight to three weeks from the commencement of the attack : but much more frequently, even in bad cases, some mitigation of the symptoms is ob- tained, and the disease degenerates into a chronic form. " Restoration to health may be expected when there is diminution of pain in the abdo- men, of straining, and of the frequency of discharges, and especially, if, instead of the mucous or muco-sanguinolent dejections, the stools become natural. An abatement of the febrile symptoms, and thirst, and a return of appetite, are all favourable symptoms : but all favourable symptoms are to a certain extent fallacious, for, after a tiuce of a few days, we may discover that we have that insidious and slowly wasting disease, chronic 480 CATTLE. Hurtrel D'Arboval, when describing the disease under the names of diarrhoea and dysenteric enteritis, tlins writes of the first variety: "The mucous membrane of the large intestines is more or less red and thickened, offering sometimes erosions, land at other times characters of extravasation of blood, or being black, without consistence, and diffusing a noisome odour." Of the second he says, " there was more considerable thickening of the mucous membrane, with different shades of redness, and frequent deep ulcerations. The muscular coat of the intestine was untouched, and pre- sented a sort of floor for the ulcerations. These ulcers were more numerous in the rectum, and towards the curvature of the colon, than in any other part of the large intestines ; many other organs presented some morbid change, in proportion as they had participated more or less in the inflammation, but they were only secondary changes, and deserved little attention." The account of these post mortem appearances is given at considerable length, because they clearly indicate the hitherto unsuspected nature of the disease, unsuspected at least among veterinarians ; and they will probably lead to a mode of treatment that promises a little more success than has hitherto attended the efforts of practitioners. It is plainly inflammation (at first acute, but gradually assuming a chronic, a more insidious and dysentery to combat. Chronic dysentery may be considered as almost a more dis- tressing termination of the acute form than death itself, for recoveries from it are rare. The fever which attends tbe acute form subsides, and a temporary recruiting of strength and appetite is experienced, but this truce from distress proves deceptive. The patient occasionally feels sharp pains of the bowels, with frequent stools, consisting of food apparently little changed by the process of digestion, mixed with slight streaks of blood : these symptoms may subside and continue to occur at intervals, either from some manifest imprudence in regimen, or without any assignable cause, until extensive disorganization of the intestine takes place. The stools are then mucous and blood v, sometimes mixed with purulent matter, varying from three or four, to seven or eight times in the day the abdomen feels full and hard, and without being very painful on pressure the urine is high-coloured, and is passed with pain. The patient when in bed lies on his side, with his body much curved, so as to relax the muscles of the abdo- men as much as possible. The pulse is feeble, intermitting, and generally slow ; the skin is cold, sallow, dry, and rough ; emaciation proceeds rapidly, the feet and legs become redematous, and ascites occasionally takes place ; the patient sometimes becomes jaundiced, and finally, after the lapse of weeks or months, he sinks from irritation and exhaustion. " The pathological appearances vary according to the period of death, and the nature of the case. If dysentery prove fatal in an early stage, the appearances are those of inflammation simply, or of inflammation and gangrene of the mucous membrane of the large intestines, with few or no traces of inflammation. If at a more advanced period, the other coats of the bowels are found to participate in the disease, and numerous and extensive ulcers are discovered. The external appearance of the bowel is healthy, but on opening it, portions of its mucous membrane throughout the whole extent of the colon and rectum, and occasionally some part of the small intestines, are found of a bright red and brownish colour, and sensibly elevated above the level of the more healthy parts. These inflamed portions are sometimes covered with a puriform, sanguineous, or sanious secretion, which gives them the appearance of ulceration, but if this is scraped off with the hack of a scalpel, the surface is found unbroken. " In cases which have terminated fatally in a more chronic way, there is thickening of the tunics of the intestine, and the bowel is contracted in diameter and ulcerated. The ulcers are diffuse or follicular. The former may be of the size of a sixpence or a shilling, or an extensive portion 'of the membrane may be in a state of almost con- tinued ulceration, the diseased surface being varied by portions in astate of red fungous elevation running irregularly ovor it. The ulceration occasionally perforates the coat of tbe intestine so as to allow its contents to escape into the cavity of the abdomen. Ad- hesion to the neighbouring viscera and serous effusion into the cavity of the abdomen are not unusual occurrences. "The mesenteric glands are sometimes enlarged the liver is occasionally found small and indurated, or enlarged and at the same time of a firmer consistence than natural, or an abscess has been formed in it, but changes in its structure are much less frequent than was imagined, and by no means essential to dysentery." DIARRHCEA AND DYSENTERY. 481 dangerous form) of the large intestines, the. colon, ceccum, and rectum ; it is the dysentery of the human being ; it is that which was once the scourge of the human race, but thousands of whose victims are now rescued from its grasp by the discovery of its real seat and character, and the adoption of those measures which such a disease plainly indicates. If this malady is of an inflammatory type, the first, and most obvious, and most beneficial measure to be adopted is bleeding; and this regulated by the age, size, and condition of the beast, the suddenness and violence of the attack, and the degree of fever. From two to five or six quarts of blood should be abstracted. There must be very great debility the disease must in a manner have run its course, or the practitioner will be without excuse who, in a case of inflammation of the large intestines, neg- lects the abstraction of blood. General bleeding bleeding from the jugular will be of service, as lessening the general irritation, and the de- termination of blood to the part; but in this case the practitioner can in some measure avail himself of the advantage of local bleeding, for by opening the subcutaneous or milk vein he takes blood from the parietes of the abdomen, and from that portion of them which is nearest to the inflamed part. The repetition of the bleeding must depend on circumstances, of which the practitioner will be the best judge. If this has not been the common practice in the treatment of dysentery, it must be attributed to the disgraceful state of veterinary education so far as cattle are concerned, in consequence of which so few persons have been aware of the nature of the disease. The author, however, is happy to be enabled to refer to Mr. Sorby, (with whose present residence he is un- acquainted,) to Mr. Storry, of Pickering, to Mr. Baker, of Reigate, and to his friend Mr. Dickens, of Kimbolton, as having long, and with evident advantage, had recourse to this best antagonist of inflammation. As another abater of inflammation, the veterinary surgeon will next administer a mild aperient. A little consideration will show that this is not contra-indicated even by the degree of purging which then exists ; for the retention of matter, such as that discharged in dysentery, must be a far greater source of irritation than the stimulus of a mere laxative. The kind of medicine is a consideration of far more consequence than seems to be generally imagined. There would be a decided objection to the aloes so frequently resorted to in these cases : there would be some degree of doubt respecting that excellent and best medicine for general purposes, the Epsom salts. Both of them might add to the excessive irritation which the practitioner is so anxious to allay. Castor oil will here, as in acute diarrhoea, be decidedly preferred, and in the same doses. Some judgment will be required as to the repetition of the purgative. Its object is the simple evacuation of morbid faecal matter, and not the setting up of any permanently increased action of the bowels : therefore, if instead of the comparatively scanty and mucous discharges of dysentery, a fair quan- tity of actual faeces has been brought away, there can be no occasion for, or, rather, there would be objection to, the continuance of the purgative. The author could refer to many a practitioner, justly held in estimation by the agriculturist and by his brethren, for testimony to the beneficial effect of mild aperients in the early treatment of dysentery. They may differ, they may a little err in the choice of the purgative, but they unite in the prin- ciple. The names of his friend Mr. Sewell, of Brighton, Mr. Baker, of Reigate, Mr. Nobbs, of Cattistock, and Mr. Sorby, immediately occur to him. Mr. Baker gives linseed oil, which certainly stands next in value to the castor oil as an aperient, when the bowels are in an irritable sta'e. 21 482 CATTLE. This being inflammation of the large or lower intestines, there will be evident propriety in the administration of emollient injections. These intestines although longer than in the horse, are not so capacious as in that animal ; and they have not that irregular and cellated structure, which prevents the injected fluid from filling, or even reaching them to any ex- tent. By means of the newly invented enema-pump, the intestines in the ox, which are the seat of this disease, may be completely filled with some emollient fluid; and that which is most of all indicated here, and especially in the early stage of treatment, is gruel, well-boiled and thick ; a pailful of it may be thrown up with advantage two or three times every day. Let it now be supposed that this treatment has been pursued two or three days ; if the discharges are more faecal, a little greater in quantity, and attended by less pain or less effort in the expulsion of them, that pur- pose has been effected which the practitioner was anxious to accomplish, and he must look about for other measures ; or, if the state of the animal remains the same, it will be useless longer to pursue this plan. Then the surgeon refers once more to the character of the malady inflammation of the mucous membrane of the large intestines and he asks what he can bring in direct contact with the diseased surface, that is likely to allay irritation or to abate inflammation. He does not long hesitate here. Opium immediately presents itself, at once an astringent and an anodyne an astringent, because it is an anodyne and he determines to give it in doses of half a drachm, and in the best form in which it can be adminis- tered, namely, in that of powder, mixed with thick gruel. He likewise adds it to the gruel of the injection, either under the form of powder, or he boils a few poppy-heads in water, and then causes the gruel to be made with the decoction. Here all practitioners seem to agree. Whether they prepare the way for the opium by the administration of an aperient, or whether, deceived by the state of purging, they give it at once, they are all anxious to try the power of this drug ; but too many of them, either forgetting or not knowing the nature of the disease, add medicines of an opposite character, and that cannot fail of being injurious. They administer astringents and tonics, which are useful and indispensable in a later stage of the treatment, but, while the inflammation remains unsubdued, are only adding fuel to fire. There are too many practitioners who scruple not to give alum and sulphate of zinc as soon as they are called in to such a case ; and before the lining membrane of the intestines is prepared for their action. These drugs are acrid they are caustic as well as astringent they are astringent because they are caustic, and they too frequently set up another and de- structive inflammation. No better illustration than this would he required of the lamentable consequence of the utter neglect of the diseases of cattle in the system of veterinary instruction south of the Tweed. When will agriculturists and agricultural societies awake to a sense of their true interest? It is usual, however, to add something to the opium, in order to increase or to regulate, or to modify its power; and that which is without compari- son the most serviceable is one of the mild preparations of mercury, viz. calomel, or the blue pill, or mercury triturated with chalk. Mere theory might induce the fear that mercury would add to the irritation already too unmanageable, and so it would, if given alone ; but, combined with and guarded by the opium, it has the most beneficial effect : the opium does not produce costiveness, the calomel does not gripe and purge, but irri- tation is allayed, while the natural action of the bowels is promoted. Mr. Dickens gives calomel and opium. In a letter with which he DIARRHCEA AND DYSENTERY. 483 favoured the author, in 1831, he says, "This disease has been very pre- valent in our neighbourhood this spring, and I have been tolerably suc- cessful in the treatment of it. I at first administered the various astrin- gents, as chalk, kino, opium, but, much to my disappointment, I found little or no good effect from them. I then administered one drachm each of calomel and opium in some good thick gruel, which I consider of the greatest importance, acting as a sheath to the intestines, already under a state of excitement. I repeat this according to the size of the animal, and the violence of the disease, but I have rarely had occasion to repeat the dose more than twice in the course of three or four days, continuing to give the gruel in the interval ; but I ought to state, that if the disease is of recent date, or what Mr. Blaine calls acute, I always bleed." Mr. Sewell also gives calomel, but without the opium. He, with his usual openness and humour, thus describes his practice, and at the same time shows the injurious and undeservedly low estimation in which veteri- nary surgeons are held by many farmers, and in which they will be held until the public are assured that they are competently instructed in the treatment of neat cattle : " I have frequently seen bullocks at farm- houses, (when I have been attending a horse for the owner,) that have been a long time ill with diseased liver and constipated bowels, and been under the treatment of what they call a skilful cow-leech, who has at length given them up as incurable, and the animals have been, comparatively speaking, wasted to skin and bone. I have now and then asked the farmer to allow me to undertake the case; I have given calomel, aloes, and sul- phate of soda ; I have brought the liver into action by repeating my doses at intervals, and keeping the animal upon bran-mashes and linseed ; and he has recovered, returned to his work, and afterwards grazed and fatted as well as any other beast. Yet the very men for whom I have done these things, when they have fresh cases, send for the cowleech in preference to me."* The author will not again contest with his scientific friends the question on which his opinion has been already freely stated respecting the nature and seat of this disease inflammation of the large intestines, and no neces- sary affection of the liver but he is happy in being enabled to add his decided experience of the efficacy of mercurial preparations in this malady. Mr. Meyer gives a favourable report of the blue pill, combined with Dover's powder (a preparation of opium with ipecacuanha) : but the author very much doubts whether either of these medicines, although excellent in human dysentery, is sufficiently powerful for cattle; and acknowledges that he gives the preference to calomel and simple opium. In order that this mode of treatment may have a fair chance, the beast should be housed and fed on bran-mashes, a little hay, and plenty of well- boiled gruel. While the patient continues at grass the practitioner has no chance, however skilful in other respects his treatment may be. So much depends on the avoidance of all green and succulent food, that many a beast, from whom every symptom of dysentery had disappeared, has relapsed, and been lost, from having been turned out too soon. The green food of one day has produced irreparable mischief. There are other auxiliary measures which deserve consideration. Setons in the dewlap have been strongly recommended. They may be useful when much fever accompanies the early stage of dysentery, for they will, in some measure, divert the current of blood from the inflamed and irri- tated part, and thus lessen the local inflammation and discharge, and also the general fever ; but no very material degree of benefit can be expected * Veterinarian, Sept. 1831, p. 511. 212 484 CATTLE. from them ; and there certainly cannot be that importance which is some- times attached to the substance, or the root that is inserted. There is no peculiar virtue in the bearsfoot, on which so much superstitious confidence has been placed ; the common cord, or hair-rope, will answer every pur- pose : the black hellebore root, however, produces the speediest inflamma- tion and the most copious discharge. Fomentation of the right flank and the right side of the belly with hot water, or, in acute cases, the blistering of those parts will be far more ser- viceable than any seton in the dewlap can possibly be. That admirable disinfectant, the chloride of lime, promises to be of essential service in the treatment of dysentery ; not only in changing the nature of the intestinal discharge, and depriving it of all its putridity, but in disposing the surface of the intestine, with which it may be brought into contact, to assume a more healthy character. When applied exter- nally to wounds and ulcers of every kind it effects wonders in both of these respects ; and, being properly diluted, it has not been found to give any great pain, or dangerously to increase inflammation in the most irri- table ulcer. It may be administered either by the mouth, or in the form of clyster. The practitioner will probably avail himself of its aid in both forms. It should not be mingled with any other drug ; but half an ounce of the solution, or a drachm of the powder, may be mixed with a quart of water, and given between the regular periods for the administration of the other remedies. The reader will forgive a repetition of the caution as to the mode of administering liquid medicine to cattle ; for in a disease so serious and so fatal as dysentery it cannot be too deeply impressed on the mind of the practitioner. Whether the medicine is given by means of a horn or the pump, it should flow as gently as possible down the gullet, that it may not break through the floor of the oesophagean canal, but have a better chance of passing on to the fourth stomach and the intestines. In this, as well as in the chronic stage of dysentery, a great deal more depends upon attending to the comfort of the animal than too many seem to believe. The patient should be housed, and well littered down, and, in some cases, moderately clothed. Of his food, little portions at a time should be culled for him and offered to him ; and warm gruel and warm mashes should be frequently put within his reach. The author will not go so far as J. E. (Ellman) in the survey of Sussex, who, perhaps dis- gusted with the ignorance of the cow-leech, and the recklessness with which he pours in his drugs, says, " Jf any of my cattle get into a low weak state I generally recommend nursing, which, in most cases, is much better than a doctor ; having often seen the beast much weakened, and the stomach relaxed, by throwing in a quantity of medicine injudiciously, and the animal lost; when, with good nursing, in all probability it might have been otherwise ;" but there can be no doubt that more benefit is connected with that one word comfort, than can be procured from half the drugs which the veterinary pharmacopoeia contains. In many cases, and in every case that can be brought to a successful termination, it will be observed, after the perseverance of ten days or a fortnight in this mode of treatment, that the pain preceding and accom- panying the evacuations is materially lessened, and that the nature of the matter evacuated is changed. The stools will probably be as frequent ; they will be more copious ; but less mucus will be found in them, and they will have become more decidedly faecal and not so offensive. The belly will be less tender ; the countenance less anxious ; the general ap- pearance improved. The inflammation of the inner surface of the large DIARRHOEA AND DYSENTERY. 485 intestines will have materially subsided, but the habit of purgation will continue for a while, and will be increased by the state of relaxation and debility in which the vessels are left. Then, but not until then, astringents will be admissible and highly beneficial. Catechu stands at the head of this class of medicines in such a case ; and its power may be increased by the addition of oak bark, or it may be given in a decoction of oak bark. The opium must not, however, be omitted ; for although direct inflammation may have been subdued, and relaxa- tion and debility have followed, much irritability may remain, to control which the soothing power of opium will be required. To catechu and opium it has been usual to add chalk ; for in all these diseases there is a tendency in the stomach, and probably in the intestinal canal, to generate a considerable quantity of acid. A greater source of irritation can scarcely be imagined when the state of the lining membrane of the large intestine is taken into consideration. The chalk, or the car- bonic acid of the chalk, will unite with and neutralize this acid, and render it harmless. Theoretic chemistry would lead to the substitution of mag- nesia for the chalk, for the carbonic acid being withdrawn, it might be feared that the caustic lime would be injurious ; but experience has proved that magnesia is not so efficacious in cattle : that, in fact, it seems to be almost inert, while chalk has usually answered the purpose intended, and no inconvenience has resulted from it.* Some practitioners strangely mingle vegetable and mineral tonics toge- ther, forgetful of the decomposition which frequently, or almost constantly ensues, and the impairment or total loss of medicinal power. Vegetable astringents agree best with the constitution of cattle, and they will not often deceive. The nature of the disease however being considered, will the practitioner confine himself to the astringents? He has now to struggle with the consequences of inflammation the weakness and want of tone which in- flammation has produced, not only in the part itself but in the whole * The author of the "Survey of Dumfries" recommends "an infusion of water trefoil, or the juice of the sloe." Mr. Daniell speaks of "a pint of dried box-leaves, rubbed small, and four ounces of madder, in a quart of milk." In Nairn, some farmers give raw potatoes, mashed ! and others give undried oats and barley, made into a kind of mash, with a handful of salt, and a portion of potatoes. Mr. Parkinson, in his "Treatise on Live Stock," (vol. i. p. 246,) says, " I had a cow reduced so low by the flux in cattle called the skit, or rottenness, as scarcely to afford any milk, and I had had an eminent cow-doctor to her, who gave her up, and persuaded me that she must die, and advised me to send her to Smithfield, where she would sell for forty or fifty shillings, that being more than she would fetch when dead ; and this doctor was recommended to me as one being particularly famous for curing this disorder ; but I never knew a beast cured that was as bad as this cow. Knowing that almost all complaints arise from the stomach being in an improper state, I considered the case, and took the following method for cure : I put about four ounces of chalk, beaten to a very fine powder, in one quart of the lees of red port, which I prefer, when they can be obtained : having mixed them well together, I gave it to the cow ; and three doses, one every other day, effected the cure ; for she came to her milk, calved, milked well, and afteiwards made a good^fat cow. I have since given it to two other cows, and it has had the desired effect." There are worse prescriptions than this, yet a much better astringent might have been administered than the. port wine lees, with the quantity of ardent spirit which they contain : besides, if port wine is to be given at all, it should be in its pure state, and not the accumulation of all the tartaric acid and extractive matter which it contains deposited in the lees. Mr. Knowles improves upon Mr. Parkinson. After recommending a strange mixture of tormentil root, and bole armenian, and grains of paradise, and turmeric, and madder, and these to be given in oak-bavk tea, for the cure of dysentery, he says, that " red wine would be much better, or a pint of common brandy and a pint of water." This for inflam- mation of the bowels and shown to be of the most intense character by the mucus being discharged so abundantly, that, in his elegant language, the beast is "parting with his puddings!" 486 CATTLE. system. He will also take into consideration the natural temperament and constitution of horned cattle. Some physiologists speak rather unin- telligibly of the prevalence of the lymphatic system in certain persons and animals ; but the fact is that cattle will not bear disease, nor the treatment of disease like some other animals, and particularly as the horse will. Diseases speedily run their course in cattle, and the patients often sink under the prompt and vigorous and scientific treatment of the malady. An ox may bear one copious bleeding well ; but he cannot be bled again and again as the horse may. He will derive the usual advantage from purgation to a certain extent, but care must be taken lest it dege- nerate into the disease which is now under consideration. The prac- titioner will therefore mingle stomachics, and probably tonics, with his astringents in this case. Here also he will find the best in the vegetable kingdom. Not only custom but experience of its beneficial effect has made ginger a necessary ingredient in almost every medicine, unless the animal evidently labours under fever. Gentian is an admirable tonic and stomachic; and if to these are added calumba and cascarilla, the veterinary surgeon has sufficient choice. The proportions of the different medicines will necessarily vary with the age and strength of the animal, and the character, duration, and ravages of the disease. Vegetable astringents and tonics having been fairly tried, and either not producing the desired effect, or beginning to lose their power, the mineral ones may be resorted to. The preference should undoubtedly be given to alum, and that in the common and very convenient form of alum whey. (See List of Medicines.) To this the usual quantity of ginger may be added without producing decomposition ; and, if it should be deemed advisable, the opium may be continued. Should this not succeed, or not to the full extent that the practitioner wishes, blue vitriol (sulphate of copper) may be substituted ; and to this the opium will be a necessary auxiliary. The dose should be about one drachm of the former and half a drachm of the latter. There is no other mineral astringent or tonic that can be depended on or safely given. Clysters should not be neglected in this stage of the disease. With the assistance of the injection pump they promise to be as efficacious as any medicines that can be administered by the mouth, for they may be brought into immediate contact with the inflamed or ulcerated surface. Gruel may be made with a decoction of poppy-heads, as already recom- mended. To this may succeed an infusion of catechu, decoction of oak- bark, and with or without opium ; and possibly a weak solution of alum or blue vitriol. The practitioner will here, however, proceed with consi- derable caution. The malady being apparently subdued, there will be need for much caution in the after-treatment of the animal. He must not soon return altogether to green meat, and more especially not to luxuriant pas- ture. J. E., in the Survey of Sussex, speaking of the prevention of the first attack of diarrhoea and dysentery in working oxen, gives some excellent advice, which is applicable to all cattle, in order to guard against a recurrence of the disease. " The best way to prevent this (diarrhoea) is to continue to give a small quantity of hay for some time after turning to grass, and not to keep them too many hours at a time from water. When I see it coming on I keep the ox as much as possible on hay and bran, and let him have water often in small quantities." For a long period after a severe attack of this complaint the animal will be subject to occasional diarrhoea, and will require careful management. The best thing to be done is to get him, as quickly as the state of his INFLAMMATION OF THE DUODENUM. 487 constitution will admit, into fair condition and sell him ; but there will be some difficulty in accomplishing this, for abundance even of the most wholesome food will often be more than his debilitated powers of digestion can manage, and hoove, or diarrhoea, or dysentery will ensue. At the best, he will rarely be got beyond fair condition, and with that the farmer must be content. While the experience of the writer of this treatise fur- nishes him with various instances of permanent recovery from dysentery, it supplies him with but few cases in which the patient has " afterwards grazed and fatted as well as any other beast." However perfect may seem to be the cure, the animal that has once been a decided shooter should never be bred from. There is a taint about him which will almost certainly be communicated to his stock. Dysentery is not only the pest of certain districts, and especially of cold and wet ones, but of certain breeds. The beautiful Dishly breed of long-horned cattle was swept away by it, when the master-mind of Bakewell no longer regulated the admirable, but (to the inexperienced agriculturist) dangerous system of breeding from near affinities ; and there is reason to believe that many of the yet more valuable short-horned stock have been destroyed by it. The breeding too far, and too incautiously in and in, will produce a weakness of constitution that predisposes to dysentery ; but, without insisting on this, the experience of many a farmer and many a dairyman will convince him, that the sooner he gets rid of a beast that has been a scanterer the better it will be for his stock. One point more should, perhaps, be adverted to before this subject is dismissed the supposed contagiousness of dysentery. There is a great deal of contradictory evidence with regard to the contagiousness of this complaint in the human being, and it would probably be deemed presumption in a veterinary surgeon to give an opinion on the subject ; but of his own patients he rnay speak, and he would say that there is not the slightest reason for believing that the dysentery of cattle is contagious. As the large intestines are the principal, and, in most cases, the only seat of that inflammation which is characterised by the term dysentery, other intestines are occasionally subject to maladies either peculiar to them, or in which the neighbouring viscera participate to a greater or less extent. INFLAMMATION OF THE DUODENUM. Examination after death has occasionally discovered an inflammatory affection almost confined to the duodenum, or first intestine. This occurred to the author in two varieties of jaundice. In the one there appeared to have been an undue secretion of bile ; and this being received into the duodenum in its undiluted state, the mucous membrane of the whole of that viscus was inflamed. There were also spots of effused blood, and a small ulcer that seemed to have penetrated the mucous coat alone. In the other case there was considerable inflammation of the thickened substance that surrounds the orifice through which the bile enters this intestine, and which was probably produced by the continued presence and irritation of a gall-stone that had been here arrested in its progress. There were numerous red lines radiating in every direction. In both cases there was slight inflammation of the upper part of the jejunum. In neither of these instances were there any peculiar or characteristic symptoms that would at once direct the attention of the practitioner to the duodenum as the chief or the only seat of disease j but in both there was a yellow skin evident pain fever and purging. A history of this disease must be left to future observers. 488 CATTLE. COLIC. Of this disease there are two varieties. The one is FLATULENT COLIC, arising from the distension of certain portions of the intestines, occasioned by the food contained in them undergoing: a process of fermentation. The pain which the animal evidently suffers, his meanings, his striking at his belly with his hind feet, a swelling on the right side of the belly, the occasional discharge of gas from the mouth and anus, constant restless- ness, continual getting up and lying down again immediately, and all this accompanied by fever, would induce the suspicion that the animal was labouring under flatulent colic. There are various reasons, however, why cattle should seldom be subject to this complaint. By the maceration which the food undergoes in the paunch, and the second mastication to which it is subjected in rumination, it is prepared for speedy and perfect digestion; and little of the mechanism that has been admired in the horse for the detention of the food is to be found in cattle. There is neither time nor disposition in the sub- stances contained in the intestinal canal for this process of fermentation to be set up ; and if there were, there are no labyrinthian irregularities to detain the gas, but it would be readily pressed on by the common peristaltic motion of the bowels, and expelled. Spasmodic colic has sometimes been mistaken for that which has been occasioned by the distension of the bowels ; or, more frequently, inflammation of the outer coat of the intes- tines (the red colic of the horse) has been confounded \vithjlatulent colic. This species of colic will generally be relieved by the administration of almost any aromatic drink ; but the chloride of lime, as in hoove, is most to be depended upon. Two drachms of the chloride dissolved in a quart of warm water, to which an ounce of the tincture of ginger, (or two drachms of the powdered ginger,) and twenty drops of essence of pepper- mint have been added, will form one of the most effectual colic drinks that can be administered. The chlorine unites with the extricated hydro- gen gas, and causes it, or the greater part of it, to disappear ; while the aromatic stimulates the intestine to contract upon and force forward and expel any small portion that may remain. The beast should be walked about : exercise alone will sometimes cause the gas to be expelled ; but the owner must not adopt the dangerous expedient of driving or worrying the beast with dogs, otherwise he may produce strangulation, or netting, or rupture of the intestines. Should the first dose, and gentle exercise for a quarter of an hour, not produce relief, a purgative drink should be given, and that of an aloetic nature as more likely to operate speedily. The mode of preparing this drink will be found in a note.* Clysters of warm water, or thin gruel, should not be neglected, and with each clyster two ounces of the aloetic tincture should be administered. Friction on the belly and flanks is occa- sionally useful, and, in obstinate cases, it will be advisable to stimulate the whole of the belly with spirit of turpentine well rubbed in. In very bad cases, but not until other remedies have been applied, it will be useful to bleed. Warm mashes, warm gruel, and good old hay, should constitute the food of the beast for some time afterwards. * Take of Barbadoes aloes four ounces, pimento powdered two ounces, and gum arabic Iwo ounces; pour on them a quart of boiling water ; stir the inixtuie well, and often; when it is cold add half a pint of spirit of wine, and bottle the whole for use : shake the bottle well before the requisite quantity is poured out. STRANGULATION OF THE INTESTINES. 489 A more prevalent species of colic, yet not so frequent in cattle as in the horse, is the SPASMODIC. It is spasm, or contraction of a portion or por- tions of the small intestines, and accompanied by more excruciating pain than the former. The animal is exceedingly uneasy, lowing, pawing, striking at his belly with his hind legs or his horns, continually lying down and getting up, becoming very irritable, and sometimes being dangerous to handle. It is distinguished from flatulent colic by the smaller quantity of gas that is expelled, the comparative absence of tension or enlargement of the belly, the more evident spasms relaxing for a little while and then returning with increased violence, and the freedom with which the animal moves during the remissions. The feeding on acrid plants, or even on healthy food too great in quan- tity or too nutritive, the commencement of feeding on grains, exposure to cold after work, the drinking of too cold water, and especially afler exercise, or of water impregnated with metallic salts, are occasional causes. More dangerous ones are the long continuance of purging and also the long con- tinuance of costiveness. The treatment will be the same, except that as this proceeds from irritation in the intestinal canal generally, or in particular portions of it, which is apt to run on to inflammation, bleeding will be earlier resorted to ; and the practitioner will not suffer the first symptom of inflammation to appear without adopting this best method of subduing it. After every case of colic, whether flatulent or spasmodic, the animal will require some attention and nursing, for in both of them the intes- tines are considerably weakened and predisposed to a repetition of the attack, and there are few maladies, the habit of the recurrence of which is so soon formed. STRANGULATION OF THE INTESTINES. Spasmodic colic, if neglected, or bidding defiance to medical treatment, occasionally leads to such an entanglement of different parts of the bowels with each other that they become tied into a kind of knot, and the passage of food along them is obstructed. This is no unfrequent consequence of colic in the horse, and when the small intestines of cattle are observed, hanging loose, as it were, at the end of the mesentery, (see Fig. 2. p. 451,) it is not to be wondered at, if, in the disturbed, increased, hurried, and sometimes inverted peristaltic motion which takes place in consequence of colic, one portion of the intestine should be entangled among the rest, and the fatal knot should be tied. Occasionally a small piece of fatty matter disengages itself from the mesentery and hangs floating in the belly, and then, either in the changes of situation which the bowels undergo in natural exercise, or more particularly in the commotion of colic, it en- twines itself round a portion of the intestine and obstructs the passage. These twists, and loops, and knots are sometimes strangely intricate. When the dead animal lies before the practitioner it is almost impossible to un- ravel them. This is the true net or knot so dreaded in some parts of the country. It is the result of those colicky pains which have been mistaken for strangulation, and which have been increased and hurried on to the production of this involved state by the absurd and brutal measures that have been adopted. Strangulation having once taken place, there is and can be no remedy. All that can be done is to attack every case of colic in good earnest, as soon as it is perceived ; for no one can tell how soon the displacement, twist, knot, or whatever it be, will occur in consequence of the perverted action of the intestines, or the violent struggles of the animal, caused by the torture which he endures. 490 CATTLE. THE CORDS OR GUT-TIE. This is another singular and fatal species of intestinal strangulation that has lately been brought under notice by Mr. Corbet, of Simonborn.* It is not of unfrequent occurrence in some districts, and especially in wet and marshy situations : it is peculiar to the ox, and is rarely observed in him after the second or third year. The beast shows disinclination to food rumination is suspended, or performed in a listless, interrupted manner the animal appears to be griped he strikes at his belly with his hind legs he lies down, and as he gets up again bows his back in an extra- ordinary way, and then, all at once, stretching out every limb, he gives the spinal column a somewhat concave form. Small quantities of faeces are voided, mingled with mucus, and sometimes with blood; and if the animal is examined, by introducing the hand into the rectum, he evidently suffers extreme pain. By degrees the ailment is referrible to one side more than the other, and generally to the left side. The hind leg on that side is frequently ad- vanced and then retracted, and, in some cases, becomes partially paralysed. These symptoms are more and more alarming if the ox can be induced to eat, the griping pains are immediately increased the belly swells the countenance becomes anxious the ears, the horns, the nose, and the thighs become cold the pulse is small and accelerated, and scarcely to be felt the breathing is laborious and heard at a distance the mouth and nostrils are pale. The disease continues during six, seven, or eight days; it yields to no medicine it is aggravated by most of the measures adopted it is especially so if the beast is moved about and at length death terminates the period of suffering. On examination, strangulation of some part of the intestine is found, and generally of the small intestine. It is tied by a distinct and evident cord in some cases it is the spermatic cord, which, after castration, unskilfully performed, or, now and then, by mere accident, has been retracted into the belly, and has become enlarged, and has had tumours forming on it, and particularly at its extremity. Oftener it is an adventitious or unnaturally formed membrane which becomes entangled round the intestine and assumes the appearance of a cord. The mode of operation, in castrating bullocks, is often very absurd. Some practitioners pride themselves on performing it with scarcely the loss of any blood. They open the scrotum, and lay bare the spermatic cord, and then, by mere dint of pulling and twisting, they tear it out. There is, certainly, no bleeding, and the portion that remains immediately retracts into the belly ; but the consequence of all this violence is that inflammation ensues tumours, false membranes, are formed, and the foundation is laid for this complaint. Others draw the cord out as far as they can without tearing it, and then cut it off close to the pelvis. There is no external bleeding in this case; but there is bleeding within the cavity of the belly, and a source of irritation is set up by the presence of this blood, and various abdominal diseases ensue, and, among the rest, the cords or gut- tie. Mr. Dick, the talented professor of veterinary medicine at Edinburgh, to whom his own profession, and agriculturists in general, are deeply indebted, as a teacher of cattle medicine, gives a similar account of the cause of this disease. He says, "This seems to be the effect of cas- * An account of this disease was published in the Repertory of Arts and Sciences, 1795, by Mr. Harris, a well-informed farmer in Herefordshire. It is said to have been very common in that county. THE CORDS OR GUT-TIE. 491 trating the ox, by drawing out the cord or spermatic artery. The vessel, when torn asunder, recedes into the scrotum and up into the abdomen, and there producing inflammation, the formation of a new membrane is the consequence."* It is not, however, to be uniformly traced to this cause alone. It seems, especially, to prevail in low and damp situations it has followed the use of half mouldy and unwholesome fodder it has seemed to be connected with hard work, and that on an irregular or steep surface; and some have imagined that it is most prevalent where the floor of the ox stables is too much inclined, on account of the great pressure on this part of the abdomen, and especially in the act of rising. It can be readily believed that any source of irritation, whether of the spermatic cord, or of the intes- tines lying in the neighbourhood of it, or of the intestinal canal generally in fact, that any, or all of the sources of common colic may be the predis- posing, or immediate causes of this species of strangulation. If any cir- cumstance, however, were to be selected as that to which the disease might be oftenest traced, it would be this unskilful mode of castration.f Although it has been stated that no medicine seems to be of avail, the patient should not be abandoned. There is an operation, apparently difficult and dangerous, but really simple, easy to be performed, and generally effectual. This operation is described, but somewhat unsatisfactorily, both by Mr. Harris and Mr. Corbet, The former had performed it on cattle from three months to nine years old. The following is the account of Mr. Corbet : " The operation is begun by making an opening into the inside of the ox, beginning a little before the ileum. The arm is introduced, and, in general, the cord or ligament is easily felt, commencing a little behind the kidneys at the origin of the spermatic vessels, and attached to some part of the pelvis, and which appears to strangulate a portion of intestine. In some cases, I have found two ligaments, varying in size from a small quill to three times that magnitude. If operated upon early, the animal generally recovers without the aid of medicine. I have known an animal remain five days, and I have then operated upon him, and the case has turned out successful.''^ It will be evident that this operation should be performed, the side line being used, and the beast remaining standing close to a wall, and fastened to it as well as circumstances will permit. The incision should be made on the left side, and taking, as the centre of it, the spot at which the flank * Veterinarian, May, 1834, p. 266. Mr. Harris's account of this entanglement is drawn too much from imagination, and is deficient in correctness of anatomical detail. He says, "This stricture or gut-tie is occasioned by an erroneous method of castrating the calves, which the breeders practise throughout Herefordshire. They open the scrotum, take hold of the testicles with their teeth, and tear them out with violence, by which means all the vessels belonging to the part are ruptured. The vasa deferentia, entering by the holes of the transverse and oblique muscles, pass over the ureters at acute angles, and turning, by their great length and elastic force the peritoneum is ruptured. The vas deferens is severed from the testicles, and, springing back, forms a kind of bur. The part of the gut that is tied by it is the jejunum, at its turning from the right side to the left, and the entanglement is generally effected by some sudden motion of the beast." Rep. of Arts, 1 795. j- A disease of this kind is very prevalent in Switzerland, and particularly in the canton of Bern. M. Anker, professor at the Veterinary School at Bern, has published a very satisfactory account of the symptoms and treatment of it, as furnished by his brother, a veterinary practitioner at Ins. (See Practische Abhandlung ties Feberwii/ef, &c.) He attributes this entanglement to the spermatic cord, but he says little of the mode of castration, and dwells mostly on situation, and food, and stabling, aud work among the steep mountains of Switzerland. J Veterinarian, May, 1834, p. 265, 492 CATTLE. is generally punctured in cases of hoove, and where a small portion of the jejunum, and that which is the most likely to be entangled is protruded over the rumen, and floats by itself at the extremity of the mesentery. It should be a vertical incision, or a little oblique in a direction from behind forwards. A small opening should first be made, through the integument and muscle, avoiding, if possible, the peritoneum. Into this the first and second fingers of the left hand should be introduced, and thus, by means of a probe-pointed bistoury, guarded and guided by these fingers, the wound may be enlarged so as to permit the introduc- tion of the hand of the operator. There will probably be a considerable gush of blood when the external oblique is first divided, but that will speedily cease by the retraction of the artery. The peritoneum should next be divided, if it has not been so already, and the hand of the surgeon, the arm having been bared and well oiled, should be introduced into the wound; the epiploon or cawl gently torn ; and the hand passed among the intestines in a direction upwards and backwards, or as Mr. Corbet describes it "a little behind the kidneys." The operator will soon feel the strangulated part, and the cord by which it is sus- pended or tied, and usually "attached to some part of the pelvis." Having satisfied himself with regard to the situation of the cord, he will withdraw his hand, and, taking another shorter and more curved and probe-pointed bistoury,* and having it in the hollow of his hand, and guarding the cutting edge with his finger and thumb, he will introduce it into the abdomen, find out the cord again, and cautiously divide it. The hand will once more be removed, in order to get rid of the bistoury, and then re-introduced to as- certain whether the whole of the strangulated part has been liberated, which is easily effected by tracing all the neighbouring circumvolutions and passing them through the hand. The operator being satisfied as to the state of the bowels, brings the edges of the wound together, and confines them by a sufficient number of stitches, including the peritoneum, muscle, and integument, in the same stitch. A pledget of tow is placed over the wound, and a broad bandage passed tightly several times round the belly, which must not be removed during the first six or eight days. The decided majority of cattle thus operated upon are saved, and the wound is usually healed in somewhat less than a month. It may, how- ever, be supposed that after the extensive opening into the abdominal cavity, and this laceration of the cawl, and groping and cutting among the intestines, some alarming symptoms will occasionally supervene. The belly will swell, and sometimes to a considerable extent. Fomentations, and, if necessary, scarifications may be resorted to. There may be manifest symptoms of fever, as shiverings, heaving at the flanks, and cessation of rumination. Blood should then be abstracted, according to the state of the patient ; half-pound doses of Epsom salts should be given morning and night, until the bowels are moderately opened, and the beast should have little besides mashes and gruel, and should be kept as quiet as pos- sible. INTROSUSCEPTION OF THE BOWELS. This is another fatal consequence of colic. While certain portions of the ileum or jejunum generally, but occasionally of the larger bowels, are distended by gas, other parts are spasmodically contracted, and then, by the increased peristaltic motion which is going on, the collapsed part of * Mr. Harris describes the knife as being of the form of a large fish-hook, with a cut- ting edge on the concave side. INTROSUSCKPTION OF THE BOWELS. 493 the superior or anterior intestine slides, or is forced down, into the dis- tended part behind ; or, by that inverted action which takes place in the intestine commotion of colic, a contracted portion of the bowel slides or is forced into the distended part before, and thus one intestine is strangely contained within another, and that occasionally reaching to a considerable extent. The mesentery is usually torn in this unnatural procedure, for otherwise that too must be taken up or carried down into the distended intestine above or below. It will be easily conceived that this will inflict great torture on the beast, and an examination after death will sufficiently prove the intensity of the suffering ; for there will be much inflammation, and generally gan- grene of the involved part, and sometimes of both portions of the intestine. The symptoms by which the practitioner may be induced to suspect, or may know that colic has run on to introsusception, are not yet determined. Increase of pain, attended by obstinate constipation, rapid prostration of strength, and comparatively little fever, may be obscure indications. It is evident that this case must be beyond the reach of medical skill. The most powerful purgatives, the crude mercury, the shot, the living trout of some practitioners,* must be useless ; a knowledge of the anatomy of the stomachs, however, should have taught these men, that the shot, and the mercury, and the trout would necessarily have found their way into the rumen, where they could not possibly have produced any good effect. Mr. Cartwright furnishes the only case on record of the occurrence of introsusception in cattle. He saw a bull-calf six days old, that ap- peared to be in pain. It was continually lifting its head towards its belly ; it discharged some blood from the anus, and it would not suck. Being at some distance from home, he gave it two ounces of Glauber's salts, and two table-spoonfuls of common gin in a pint of the cow's milk. In the evening it was worse ; it was almost continually down ; it shifted its legs towards its belly ; ft continued to discharge blood in small quantities ; and the pulse was quickened. He ordered it to be drenched with new milk. On the following day, it was weaker ; it could not stand ; it breathed very quickly and laboriously ; but the discharge of blood had ceased. The pulse could scarcely be felt, and no vein could be raised in order to ab- stract blood. Six ounces of Glauber's salts were given, but the calf died in the afternoon. On examination after death, the rectum was found to be hard and dis- tended ; it presented both strangulation and introsusception, for one por- tion of intestine was contained within another, with its coats much thick- ened and black, and in a completely gangrenous state.f The case-book of the writer of this treatise furnishes him with a more extraordinary and decisive case. It was an old and rather overworked ox. The beast had performed its task well three days before. That day was cold and wet, but the animal fed as usual on his return, and there was no indication of illness. On the following morning, however, there * A pupil of Mr. Dick was consulted respecting an ox labouring under constipation of the bowels. The disease proved obstinate ; it resisted every remedy adopted, and the case was abandoned as utterly hopeless. At this stage of the business the old-established leech of the district stepped in, and confidently engaged to set matters to rights. He commenced with no less active a remedy than a lively trout, transferred from the river to the stomach of the patient, with the conviction that his agent would thread his way through all the mazes of the intestines ; and he ascribed the failure of so notable a dose to the previous mismanagement of the Edinburgh student. Quarterly Journal of Agri- culture. f Veterinarian, Feb. 1829, p. 71. 494 CATTLE. were evident symptoms of colic ; the ox was in great agony. Antispas- modics, stimulants, and purgatives were freely administered, and twelve pounds of blood were abstracted. The animal at length obtained some relief; he lay down ; he occasionally looked at his right flank ; he struck it with his horn ; he moaned ; but there was not so much expression of in- tense agony. The bowels were obstinately costive, although four pounds of Epsom salts had been given and a drachm of the farina of the croton nut, and numerous injections had been administered. At length purging came on, and was exceedingly violent ; the beast then got up ; it staggered listlessly along ; it now and then looked at its side ; it began at long intervals and half unconsciously to ruminate ; and it drunk some gruel. On the second day of the purging, the animal strained considerably, and a black substance was observe to protrude and hang from the anus. It was evidently a portion of intestine. There had been introsusception, and this was the involved part, which had become gangrenous, and had sepa- rated and passed away. It was some time before the ox fully recovered his usual health and appetite, but he was sent to the market, six months afterwards, in fair condition. INVERSION OF THE RECTUM. It has occasionally happened in the straining of diarrhoea, and in the still more violent efforts with which the faeces are expelled in dysentery, that a portion of the rectum is protruded from the anus ; the sphincter muscle of the anus then contracts violently upon it, and no effort of the animal can draw it back, nor will it readily yield to any external force em- ployed. The blood is necessarily congested in the protruded intestine, from the situation of the part ; the gut is intensely red, and it gradually becomes livid, black, gangrenous. The animal all the while is making frequent and violent efforts, during which small quantities of excrement, or mucus, or blood, or gas, are extricated ; the protrusion of the gut in- creases ; irritative fever ensues ; and death speedily follows. Internally, in order to allay irritation, and in some measure lessen these efforts by which more of the intestine is expelled or its return prevented, a pint of castor oil with two drachms of opium should be administered ; and a quantity of blood, varying with the size and condition of the animal, abstracted. The protruded part should be thoroughly cleaned, and dili- gently fomented, during the space of an hour with a decoction of poppy- heads, lukewarm. Gentle, but long-continued efforts should then be made to return the intestine, which will be accomplished much oftener than would be imagined if the operator will have patience enough. The gut having been returned, cold water should be applied around the anus, and for a considerable time, in order that the sphincter muscle may more powerfully close, and confine the intestine in its proper situation. It may, however, again protrude, but it should be immediately returned, and, care having been taken to allay the irritation of the bowels and of the system generally, the straining will gradually cease, and the intestine will no longer be forced out. If the protrusion continues in despite of every effort, and the part begins to swell, and to become black, and fetid, and mortified, and the pulse is small, and the mouth hot, and the ears cold, and the muzzle dry, and the eyes red, and the appetite and rumination are suspended, and the animal is rapidly becoming weak, the practitioner must have recourse to a bold and dangerous operation, but which will succeed much oftener than it will fail : he must cut off the protruded intestine close to the anus. There will CONSTIPATION. 495 probably be considerable haemorrhage, but he must not be alarmed at that ; it will be beneficial rather than injurious; it will prevent or abate inflam- mation, and it will cease long before the strength of the patient is ex- hausted. The little portion of intestine half protruded at the anus will gradually return; the sphincter muscle will contract; union of the divided portion of the intestine will take place, and the animal will perfectly re- cover. CONSTIPATION. The immediate cause of many of these affections of the bowels is con- tipation. The beast is sapped or bound. This constipation is often ex- ceedingly difficult to remove, not, perhaps, from any want of power in the intestinal canal to be acted upon by purgative medicines, but from the impossibility of getting any considerable proportion of the purgative into contact with the internal surface of the bowels. It has already been ob- served that in a state of health much of the fluid swallowed by cattle enters into the rumen, and is detained there for the purpose of macerating the food and preparing it for rumination ; and we have proof, and that suffi- ciently annoying, that in some circumstances of disease, all the fluid swal- lowed goes into the rumen, and is lost so far as the purpose for which it was administered is concerned. Mr. Simonds relates a case in which a heifer had been feverish, and had refused all food during five days ; and four pounds of Epsom salts, and the same quantity of treacle, and three-fourths of a pint of castor oil, and numerous injections had been administered before any purgative effect could be produced.* It has not unfrequently happened that six, seven, and eight days have passed, and the bowels have remained in a consti- pated state. This must of necessity aggravate the symptoms of many diseases, and lay the foundation for others, and, among the rest, for those to the con- sideration of which the few last pages have been devoted. The method of proceeding in such cases is sufficiently evident. When the state of the animal indicates the administration of the Epsom salts, they should be accompanied by the usual quantity of some aromatic, (half an ounce of ginger,) and be given in as gentle a way as possible. There can scarcely be a better way than suffering it to run from a long narrow-necked bottle introduced into the mouth. Should not this operate at the expected time, a second dose should be given, and, probably, with the same quantity of the aromatic; certainly so if little fever is present. If this, however, should have no effect, it is very probable that from some sympathetic influence extending over the whole of the digestive organs, the roof of the rumen is open, or the pillars of which that roof is composed are in a relaxed state, and yield even to the pressure of a fluid gently poured down the gullet. Then the next dose (for the purgative must be continued until it does operate, and the nature of that purgative, and the knowledge of the manner in which the quantity already given has been disposed of, remove all fear of inflammation or superpurgation being pro- duced) must have an increased proportion of aromatic, increased in defi- ance of existing fever, and increased to the full extent to which the practi- tioner dares to go. Probably, a cordial-drink (an ounce of ginger and the same quantity of carraway powder) would be given with advantage ; for the rumen might be roused to its natural action by the stimulus, and the pillars of its roof might be closed, and the next dose might run on through the manyplus into the abomasum. The rumen may possibly be roused * Veterinarian, Sept. 1829, p, 357. 496 CATTLE. to act in another way ; a portion of the fluid that it contains may be in- jected into the resophagean canal by a process somewhat resembling that by which the pellet of food is thrown there for remastication ; and the muscles of that canal, and of the base of the gullet, not being able to grasp it because it is a fluid, it will necessarily pass on through the manyplus into the fourth stomach and intestines. It has been stated that there are other ways in which the rumen may be excited to act, viz. when, although comparatively rarely, the contents of that stomach, instead of being returned, pellet after pellet, are thrown in great quantities into the oesophagean canal, and conveyed to the mouth by a process similar to that of vomiting ; and, more frequently, when, although they are still ejected from the stomach in considerable quantities, the muscles of the cesophagean canal, and of the gullet, do not lend their aid to effect their expulsion through the mouth ; and, consequently, a passage being denied them through the gullet, they are driven through the base of the manyplus, and are recognised in the dung by their fibrous character. It is by some mechanism of one of these kinds that purging is at length established after obstinate cases of constipation ; or, when the animal dies, and almost all the purgative medicine that has been given is found in the rumen, it is because that stomach has not been sufficiently stimulated. There is something in the structure of cattle which renders certain medical rules and principles altogether inapplicable, and which, in defiance of all fever, occasionally compels us to mingle strange doses of aromatics and stimu- lants with the very means by which we are endeavouring to subdue inflam- mation. This is a very important consideration in the treatment of disease, and the profession owes much to Mr. Friend for having first directed their attention to it ; although it should be stated, in justice to the lecturer on veterinary medicine in the University of London, that it was a doctrine which he had long inculcated on his pupils. CALCULI. It has been stated (pp. 434 and 435) that various concretions are found in the rumen of cattle. It is the natural situation for them, for there the food is longest detained, and there they have time to form, as in the colon and caecum of the horse. A few, but much smaller calculi, are occasionally found in the reticulum ; others, composed of thin and friable concentric layers, occupy, yet comparatively rarely, the large intestines of cattle; but they also are not of great size, for the food passes too rapidly over the smooth surface of these portions of the digestive canal. There are no symptoms by which their presence can be recognised, nor is there any evidence of their being the cause of disease, although it is not improbable that the presence and pressure of these bodies, and the irritation produced by them, may in some instances be the cause of colic, strangulation, and other serious affections. WORMS. These occasionally are found in the intestines of cattle, but in no great quantities ; nor are there any authenticated accounts of their being the cause of irritation or disease. The food is so perfectly prepared for diges- tion, and that process is so rapidly accomplished, and the nutriment is so completely extracted, that there is little left for the support of worms ; nor, if they are received into the intestines in the state of ova, or eggs, would they be likely to escape the processes of digestion which take place in cattle. The Amphistoma conicum, a worm with a mouth, or the appearance of DROPSY* 497 one, at each end, and often found plentifully in the intestines of birds, fre- quently inhabits the rumen and reticulum of cattle. It is here of con- siderably larger size, and swells into a somewhat conical form. The Teenia denticulata, the denticulated tape-worm, small in size, and the neck becoming- fine, and sometimes almost threadlike, is found in the fourth stomach and in the small intestines. The Lumbricus teres, the common intestinal round worm, and fully as large as in the horse, lives in the small intestines. A small species of the Strongylus is a frequent companion of the last; and another small long worm, the Tricocephalus affinis, with its minute head attached to its lengthened and threadlike neck, has been discovered in the caecum. The presence of these worms is rarely taken into account by the practitioner, and few means are taken for their expulsion. Mention has already been made of the hydatid (Ccenurus cerebralis) inhabiting the brain ; and others (Cysticerci tenuicolles) found in the liver, the lungs, the spleen, and in the peritoneum and the pleura ; the Strongylus filaris, occupying the bronchial tubes of cattle, and the Distoma hepaticum, the fluke, worm, swimming in the biliary ducts. DROPSY. This is an accumulation of fluid in the cavity of the belly. The whole of that cavity is lined with, and every viscus which it contains is covered by, a polished, glistening membrane, so that the contents of the abdomen may glide over and move easily among each other, and the injurious effects of friction be as much as possible avoided. In a state of health there are certain vessels which continually secrete or pour out the fluid that is re- quisite for this purpose, and which are called exhalent vessels ; and there are others that take this fluid up and carry it into the circulation .when it has, discharged its duty, or when it is secreted in undue quantities, and which are denominated absorbent vessels. Dropsy, then, is the conse- quence of the pouring out of an undue quantity of fluid, and faster than the absorbents can carry it away ; or it is the pouring out of the natural quantity while the absorbents are paralysed, or do not do their duty in removing it; and in either way it accumulates in the abdomen. It is easy, therefore, to suppose, that when the lining membrane generally, or a portion of it, is inflamed, and a greater quantity of blood than usual is determined to that part, the secretion from the exhalent vessels will be increased; and in consequence of this there will be accumulation of fluid in the bag of the heart, when that organ, or its investing membrane, is inflamed ; dropsy in the chest will be the consequence of pleurisy, and dropsy of the abdomen that of inflammation of the peritoneal membrane generally, or of any part of it. Chronic inflammation of the liver or spleen, or of any particular portion of the intestinal canal, will have the same ter- mination from increased action of the exhalents ; a similar effect will occa- sionally be produced by the sudden stopping of any long-continued eva- cuation, or acute or chronic eruption ; and on the other hand, feeding in low, marshy situations ; the privation of wholesome aliment, and every cause of general debility, will produce an accumulation of fluid from loss of power in the absorbents.* * The luminous description of the cause of dropsy given by Mr. Knowlson is here sub- joined. When a person who has " been fifty-seven years in full business" can write so nonsensically, the knowledge of cattle medicine must be at a low ebb. "It is a stoppage in the gall-pipes which lead from the gall to the bladder, and enter the neck of the bladder, from whence there is a passage between two skins to the bottom, 2 K 498 CATTLE. Of acute dropsy the practitioner has occasional examples. A beast, apparently well on the preceding day, suddenly exhibits manifest symp- toms of inflammation of the bowels. The disease proceeds in defiance of all medical treatment, and in two or three days the patient is lost. On examination after death the traces of inflammation of the peritoneum are sufficiently evident ; there is deposition of flocculent matter ; there are adhesions; but, most important of all, the belly is filled with clear, or turbid, or bloody fluid ; and the death of the animal was as much occasioned by the irritation produced by the pressure of this fluid, and the labour of breathing which it occasioned, as by the previous or still-existing in- flammation. Of chronic dropsy, or a slower filling of the belly, he has more frequent proof. The beast increases slowly in size ; it is an enlargement, not of the left side as in hoove, or of the right as in flatulent colic, but of the belly generally, and sometimes almost as slow as in the increase of condition. It evidently is not that, for the limbs are wasting ; or if they occasionally increase in size, it is a puffy oedematous enlargement, and not the honest accumulation of flesh and fat. The animal at the same time is dull ; disinclined to move ; the skin is dry ; the coat is rough ; the thirst is excessive ; there is alternate constipation and diarrhoea ; the membranes of the mouth and nose are pale, and the conjunctiva is of a faint yellow. By degrees the belly drops, and leaves a considerable hollow at the flanks, and by tapping on the sides the evident fluctuation of water can be perceived. The pressure of the fluid on the diaphragm lessens the cavity of the chest, and does not leave sufficient room for the lungs to expand labour of breathing ensues it increases ; the animal is not able to stand long, and when he lies down the respiration is so difficult, and the feeling of suffocation is so strong, that he scrambles up again as quickly as his remaining strength will permit, and at length dies either of absolute suffocation, or mere debility. The chance of success in the treatment of such a disease must be little. The first object is to relieve the sad oppression under which the animal labours, and that must be effected by puncturing the belly, and suffering the fluid to escape. There is neither art nor danger about the operation. The beast should be tied up close, and a side line put on;* a puncture should be made with a lancet or trocar under the belly, six or eight inches from the udder, and half as much from the middle line of the belly, and on the right side, the milk vein and the artery which accompanies it being carefully avoided. The opening should not be larger than would admit the little finger ; and if it is made with a trocar, the canula may be left in the wound until the fluid has quite run out. The wound being thus small there is no need for the often fruitless care to close it again with adhesive plaster when the purpose for which it was made has been effected. There will not only be no danger, hut manifest advantage, in a small drain of this kind being left open ; for the fluid which before it enters the bladder. When the pipes are too much forced, or stopped by glueish matter, the urine cannot find a free passage, but oozes out, and in lime fills the beast's body." Knowtson't Complete Cow-Leech or Cattle Doctor, p. 65. * Many veterinary surgeons prefer to cast the beast ; but rupture of the diaphragm has followed the violent struggle which generally occurs in casting, and especially when there was previously so much pressure on that part by the accumulated fluid. The dis- tress of the dropsical animal is frequently extreme after it is thrown, not only on account of the respiration being hurried, but the additional pressure on the lungs when the patient is lying down. There is not the supposed danger of wounding the intestines while the animal is standing, for they are floating loose in the fluid, and recede before the instru- ment; while there is this advantage in the standing position, that the fluid drains away to almost the last drop. DROPSY. 499 may continue to be secreted will dribble away during two or three days, and thus permit the peritoneal membrane and the abdominal viscera (freed from the oppression around them) to recover their healthy tone : whereas if the wound is immediately closed, the fluid of dropsy will begin at once to accumulate again, and there will be far less chance of effecting perma- nent benefit. The quantity of fluid that is sometimes got rid of by means of this operation is very great. Mr. Wright, of Burnharn Overy, told the author that he once took away twenty-seven gallons at one time, and ten gallons more from the same cow a little while afterwards. It is by no means uncommon for twenty gallons to escape, and there are records of thirty-two gallons having been drawn at once. There is little chance of permament cure in cases like these, for there must have been great disease and disorganization in order to produce effusion to this extent, and that disease must have been of long standing, and therefore not easy to be removed. In addition to this, all the viscera of the abdomen must have been debilitated, and have lost their natural tone and function by the continued pressure and maceration. Still a cure is worth attempting, for the prac- titioner has done little by the mere temporary relief which the operation has afforded. In order to prevent the refilling of the belly two objects must be ac- complished, namely, the determination of this fluid to some other part where it shall be regularly discharged, and the restoration of the general health of the animal, and, with this, the proper balance between the ex- halent and absorbent vessels. It is therefore usual to give a dose of phy- sic immediately after the operation, that the fluid which might otherwise begin again to fill in the belly may be carried off by the discharge thus established ; the physic is repeated as frequently as the strength of the animal will permit. This is a way of proceeding, however, ifbt very favourable to the re-establishment of health and strength, and therefore greater reliance is placed on a course of diuretic medicine, with which tonics can be combined ; purgative medicine being still occasionally given. Half an ounce of nitre, with a quarter of an ounce each of lartrate of iron, common liquid turpentine, gentian and ginger, may be given daily with great advantage. Bran and malt mashes will be useful at first, and when the beast goes again to grass, care should be taken that the pasture is good, but not too luxuriant or rank. Mr. Tait, of Portsoy, N. B., operated on a cow that was dropsical ; eight gallons of fluid escaped. The cow seemed to be faint when she got up ; and, in general, some weakness and disin- clination to food will remain two or three days after the operation, at- tended at first by considerable heaving, and apparent distress, for it is a great change from the tumid and overloaded belly to the perfectly free and natural state of its contents, and which do not at once accommodate them- selves to that change. He gave her a dose of physic consisting of Epsom salts with ginger, and commenced a course of nitre in doses of half an ounce. The animal became " quite well again." * This was a favourable case, and the quantity of fluid evacuated was comparatively small ; but the belly so frequently fills again after the lapse of two or three weeks, that it will be prudent to part with a cow that has been dropsical as soon as she can be got into tolerable condition. The exhibition of diuretic and tonic medicines will, perhaps, stave off the re- turn of the disease until this can be accomplished ; but the organs of di- gestion have been so debilitated, and these exhalent and absorbent vessels have been so habituated to an unnatural action, that a perfect and perma- nent restoration to health can seldom be expected. A second operation * Veterinarian, Feb. 1833. p. 78. 2K 2 500 CATTLE. may be attempted if the belly has filled again, but the chances of success are then most materially diminished. There is scarcely a book on cattle medicine in which, if this disease is mentioned at all, there ia not strict caution that the beast should not have too much water. This is altogether erroneous. The object to be accom- plished is to restore the animal as nearly as possible to a state of health ; and this can never be effected by curtailing the proportion of fluid that is necessary for the maceration and digestion of the food, and the supply of all the secretions. A state of unnatural thirst and fever would, on the contrary, be induced, which would weaken the animal, and dispose it for a recurrence of the disease. HERNIA, OR RUPTURE. A portion of the intestine occasionally protrudes through the walls of the abdomen. This may be the consequence of external violence, the beast having been gored by one of its companions. The external wound may probably be small, or, in some cases, the skin may not be broken at all, but the internal wall of the belly is injured, and partially or entirely rup- tured. In consequence of this a tumour soon appears, varying in size ac- cording to the extent of the injury. It is a portion of the intestine that is protruding. The enlargement is tender when pressed upon, but it does not seem to interfere with the health of the animal, and a fortnight or three weeks elapse before any serious consequence is observed : at length the tumour begins to increase very rapidly ; the animal expresses considerable pain on being moved, and is only comparatively easy when lying down, and even then it moans occasionally; the breathing is quick- ened; the countenance is anxious; the pulse is quick and small; rumination has stopped, and the usual evacuation of faeces is diminished. It is plainly a protrusion of the bowels, and now attended with some degree of strangu- lation, or pressure of the edges of the wound upon them and thus obstructing the passage of their contents. The tumour is generally soft and yielding, and, on pressure, a gurgling noise is heard within it. On inspection of the cut, p. 467, and observation of the loose manner in which the small intestines are attached to the edge of the mesentery, it will be easy to account for the occasional enormous size of the tumour, and the quantity of intestine which is protruded. It is rarely possible, by any manipulation (taxis), to return the bowel ; and if it could be returned, it would immediately escape again. It is there- fore loss of time to endeavour thus to treat the case. It would be worse than loss of time, for considerable inflammation may be set up by a long-continued and rough handling of the part. The beast must be thrown and held on his back, with the hind parts somewhat elevated. An incision must be made through the skin corre- sponding with the length of the tumour, especial care being taken that the protruded intestine, which will be found immediately underneath, is not wounded. Then, if there is any strangulation of the intestine, which in most cases there will be, the first and second fingers of the left hand must be introduced between the bowel and the edge of the wound ; a crooked knife (a bistoury) must next be passed cautiously between the fingers, and the wound enlarged sufficiently to enable the protruded mass to be returned. The bowel having been thus replaced in its natural cavity, the edges of the wound through the walls of the belly must be brought together and retained with stitches, the skin, if necessary, being dissected back a little in order to get at the whole of the wound. Stitches must then be passed through the skin, the divided edges of which should be HERNIA, OR RUPTURE. 501 brought together in the same manner. In a few cases it will be practi- cable, and always advisable when practicable, to include the skin and the muscular wall of the belly in the same stitch. A pledget of fine tow must be placed over the incision, and upon that another pledget smeared with simple ointment. This must be confined by a bandage five or six inches wider than the wound, and which must be passed twice or thrice round the body, firmly sewed, and, if possible, not removed for ten days. At the expiration of that period the edges will be found to have adhered along the greater part of the incision, the stitches may be withdrawn, and what remains unhealed may be treated as a common wound. Should much redematous swelling appear on either side of the bandage, the parts should be well fomented with warm water, or, if requisite, lightly scarified. The beast should be kept on rather short allowance, the food consisting chiefly of mashes, with a little hay or green meat, and a dose or two of physic should be given during the progress of the cure. If the horn should have broken the skin, as well as lacerated the mus- cular part beneath, and the intestine protrudes, it must be cleared from any dirt or extraneous matter about it, then carefully returned, and the wound closed and the bandage applied as already directed. The author has not only seen a considerable portion of bowel protruding, but the bowel itself torn. Even then he has not despaired, for the heal- ing power in these animals is such as the human surgeon would scarcely deem possible. The rent of the intestine may be closed by a stitch or two, with well-founded hope of (he edges uniting, and the intestinal canal becoming perfect and whole.* Calves are occasionally dropped with ruptures. They principally occur along the middle line of the belly, and not far from the navel. It is usually a protrusion of a portion of the omentum or caul ; but in a few instances one or two small convolutions of the intestines have been involved. The principal danger is that the rumen, when unnaturally distended by food or gas, may press upon and injure the portion of caul or intestine imme- diately within the abdomen, and turning over the edge of the opening. * Dr. Cheselden relates a very extraordinary case of this healing power, and does not forbid hope, although the intestines may have been injured to a very great extent. " An ox," he says, " was suffering under constipation of the bowels. Thomas Brayer, a doctor for cattle, opened the ox in the flank, and took out great part of his bowels ; upon searching which he found there was a perfect stoppage in the guts, and the gut was, about the stoppage, putrified for three quarters of a yard ; whereupon he cut off" so much of the gut as was putrified, and took it quite away, and then drew the ends of the guts which remained sound, after what was cut off, together upon a hollow keck, which was about three or four inches long, and sewed the said ends of the guts together upon the said keck, leaving the keck within the guts, and then sewed up the hole cut in the hide upon the flank of the said ox. Within the space of one hour after this operation was performed, the ox dunged, and the piece of the keck which the said ends of the gut were sewn upon, came away from the ox with the dung, whereupon the ox recovered, and lived to do the owner service several years." Mr. Thomson, of Beith, relates a similar case in the pig. He was castrating one, and he says, " having laid the animal on a table, and while I was in the act of cutting through the peritoneum one of the assistants lost his hold ; the pig sprung up, and the scalpel was plunged deep into the belly. I proceeded to extract the testicles, but saw that some of the intestines were wounded, as faeces were escaping from the opening in the side. The greater part of the small intestines had to be drawn out through the opening before the injury could be discovered. The knife had entered deep among the convolu- tions of the ileum, and divided one of the guts almost through, and it had also made a considerable wound in the mesentery. A fine needle and thread were immediately pro- cured ; the gut and mesentery were nicely adjusted and sewn together, and returned into the belly ; the side was secured by stitches, and the pig was liberated. I had not much hope of success in this case, but the healing power in the swine appears to be strong, for in two days afterwards little appeared to be the matter, and the animal soon completely recovered." Veterinarian, March, 1834, p. 149. 502 . CATTLE. Any serious operation with a view to the reduction of the rupture would scarcely be advisable, but it would be prudent to fatten and dispose of the animal as soon as convenient. Bull calves are sometimes born with rupture in the groin. The opening through which the testicle afterwards descends into the bag is lax, and yields to slight pressure, and in the motions of the foetus in the womb a small convolution of the intestine slips down. This sometimes continues of nearly its original size for several months: in some cases it is gradually retracted and disappears ; in others it increases in volume with greater or less rapidity. A remedy is often to be found for this as soon as the testicles descend into the bag; and at which time, if the hernia will ever be serious, it begins to increase or to be strangulated the beast should be castrated. After the animal is thrown and properly confined, the protruded intestine should be gently and carefully pushed up through the ring or opening, the testicle being somewhat drawn out, in order to render this more practi- cable. Continued and gentle pressure applied on the sides of the tumour will more facilitate this than the application of the greatest force. The intestine having been returned, the finger of an assistant is placed at the opening, and the operator proceeds to cut into the scrotum as quickly as he can, and to denude the testicle, to apply the clams, (which will be here- after described,) and to divide the cord. The clams will form a temporary and effectual support ; and by the following day, when it is usual to re- move the clams, a degree of inflammation and engorgement of the parts will have been set up, that will either obliterate the ring, or so far contract it, that it will be impossible for the gut afterwards to descend. There is one circumstance to which the practitioner should most care- fully attend. The protruded intestine always carries with it a portion of peritoneum it is contained in a bag formed by the investing membrane of the bowels. The whole of this bag may not have been returned when the intestine is pushed up : the operator must ascertain this, and by no means open any part of the peritoneal covering that may remain. Castration will usually remove this hernia and all its unpleasant or dangerous consequences, and the beast will be as valuable for grazing and for working as if nothing had occurred. In a few cases, however, the hernia will be strangulated. So great a por- tion of intestine, or of faecal matter in that intestine, will have descended, that the operator cannot return it through the abdominal ring. Even the somewhat desperate expedient of introducing the hand into the rectum, and endeavouring to find out the portion of intestine connected with that which has descended, and forcibly retract it, may fail : a different kind of operation must then be attempted, and which a skilful veterinarian alone can perform. A species of rupture, very difficult to be treated, has occurred to cows in an advanced period of pregnancy. An excessive accumulation of fluid has taken place in the womb, or calf-bed, and the tendinous expan- sion of the muscles which support the lower part of the belly has given way. The farmer says, that " the rim of the cow's belly is ruptured." A portion of the womb escapes through the opening, and descends into the groin, or seems to occupy the udder. Mr. Allinson, of Idle, relates a case,* in which the head of a calf had been forced down into the groin. The calf was extracted with no great difficulty, but the bowels then descended through the rupture into the place that had been occupied by the foetus, and the animal was irrecoverably lost. There is one more species of rupture to which cattle are subject, and * Veterinarian, October, 1831 r p. 555. THE KIDNEYS. 503 the existence of which cannot always be ascertained during life, namely, that of the diaphragm, or midriff. In distension of the rumen there is always great pressure against the midriff. This is increased when severe colicky pains come on, and especially when improper means have been re- sorted to, such as strong stimulating drinks, or rude exercise, or when the animal, in a state of half-unconsciousness, has violently beaten himself about. The midriff has then given way, and a portion of the intestine, or of one of the stomachs, or of the omentum or caul, or of the liver, has been forced into the cavity of the chest. This may be suspected when, after the usual symptoms of hoove or colic, great difficulty of breathing suddenly comes on, and is evidently attended by excessive pain when the animal is every moment looking at her side, and especially at the left side when she shrinks, and bows herself up as if the muscles of the belly were vio- lently cramped and when she stiffens all over, and then suddenly falls and dies in convulsions. Examination after death has sometimes displayed chronic rupture of this kind. The attack has been as sudden, but the colicky pains have not been so violent ; they have intermitted disappeared ; but an habitual difficulty of breathing has been left behind disinclination to rapid motion fright when suddenly moved anxiety of countenance perhaps impairment of condition and certainly impossibility of acquiring any considerable de- gree of condition. This has continued during several months, until the animal has been destroyed, or has died from some cause unconnected with these, symptoms; and then an old rupture of the diaphragm has been dis- covered, the edges of which had been completely healed, and the second stomach, or the liver, had been firmly placed against the opening, and had occupied it, and in a slight degree projected into the thorax. No medical treatment or operation could be of the slightest service in this case. CHAPTER XIV. THE URINARY ORGANS AND THEIR DISEASES. THE KIDNEYS. THE blood contains much watery fluid, which, after it has answered cer- tain purposes connected with digestion, or the various secretions, is sepa- rated and carried out of the frame. The kidneys are the main instruments by which this is effected ; and they are often called into increased action in order to compensate for the deficiencies of other parts. When the usual discharge of perspiration from the skin is suspended, the kidney takes on increased activity ; and when fluids are accumulating in the frame gene- rally, or in particular parts, they escape by means of these organs. Also other substances, the accumulation or the continuance of which in the frame would be injurious, are got rid of by means of the kidneys. The essential principle of the urine (the urea) is one that would be noxious, or perhaps destructive. The kidneys are two glandular substances attached on either side to the spine beneath the muscles of the loins. They are not, however, exactly opposite to each other, but the left kidney is pushed somewhat backward by the great development of the rumen. A very large artery runs to each. The quantity of blood which that vessel carries shows the importance of the kidneys, and well accounts for the inflammation and other diseases to which they are occasionally subject. These arteries divide into innume- rable little branches, coiled upon and communicating with each other in a sino-ular manner ; and the blood, traversing all these convolutions, has its 504 CATTLK. watery and noxious ingredients separated in the form of urine, which is carried on to the bladder, while the portion that remains is returned to the circulation by means of the veins, which bear a proportionate size to that of the arteries. As the process of digestion is so much more perfectly performed in cattle than in the horse, and all the nutritive, and some perhaps of the noxious matter which the food contains, is taken up and received into the circula- tion, the kidneys have more to do in order to complete this process of separation ; they are therefore of considerably greater size in cattle than in the horse; they are more complicated in their appearance ; they present an assemblage of different lobes or lobules, separated by deep scissures ; there are additional provisions made for their security they are deeply embedded in a covering of fat, and there is another accumulation of fat surrounding and defending the different vessels that are received or given off. The bulk of the rumen, and the danger of occasional pressure from it, may in some degree account for these provisions of safety; but a more satisfactory reason is to be found in the greater extent and importance of the function which these organs in cattle have to discharge. RED-WATER. Although the destructive stimuli, which, under the form of unwholesome food, or diuretic medicine, are so often applied to the kidneys of the horse, are rarely used in the general management of cattle, or in the treatment of their diseases, these organs are, from the natural extent and importance of their function, much more liable to inflammation than the kidneys of the horse. The disease, termed red-water from the colour of the urine, is one of the most frequent and untractable maladies of cattle. It may be conveniently divided into acute and chronic ; in fact, two diseases essentially different in their symptoms, demanding different treatment, and referrible to different organs, have been confounded under this name. A cow, in somewhat too high condition, and in whom the prudent pre- cautions of bleeding or physicking had been omitted, frequently, a week or two before the time of calving, suddenly exhibits symptoms of fever ; she heaves at the flank ; she ceases to ruminate, and evidently suffers much pain; her back is bowed ; she is straining in order to evacuate her urine, and that is small in quantity, expelled with force, highly tinged with blood, and sometimes consisting of almost pure blood.* At other times, a few days after calving, when she had not cleansed well, or was in too good condition, and had not had that dose of purgative medicine which should always follow parturition, she suddenly manifests the same symptoms of illness, speedily succeeded by a similar discharge of bloody urine. The nature and cause of the disease are here evident enough. During the period of pregnancy there had been considerable determination of blood to the womb. A degree of susceptibility, a tendency to inflamma- tory action had been set up, and this had been increased as the period of parturition had approached, and was aggravated by the state and general fulness of blood to which she had incautiously been raised. The neigh- bouring organs necessarily participated in this, and the kidneys, to which so much blood is sent for the proper discharge of their function, either quickly shared in the inflammation of the womb, or first took on inflammation, and suffered most by means of it. * Mr. Storry, speaking of the force with which it is expelled, says, that he has sometimes found the neck of the bladder so contracted that he was compelled to use a catheter. RED-WATER. 505 In other cases there is not this additional local determination: an over- driven bullock is seized with acute inflammation of the kidneys ; another that has been shifted from poor to luxuriant pasture is soon observed to have red-water.* There are some seasons when it is in a manner epidemic, when a great proportion of the beasts in a certain district are attacked by it, and many of them die. Atmospheric influence has not been taken sufficiently into the account in the consideration of this and almost every other disease. It is seldom that one dairy is attacked by red-water without many or most of the neighbouring: ones being annoyed by it, and especially if the soil and the productions of the soil are similar; and even cattle in the straw-yard have not then quite escaped. It is more prevalent in the spring and autumn than in the winter, and more in the winter than in the summer: it is particularly prevalent when, in either the spring or the fall of the year, warm days succeed to cold nights and a heavy dew. It is peculiar to certain pastures : the farmer scarcely dares to turn even the cattle of the country upon some of them ; and a beast brought from a distant farm or market is sure to be attacked. It oftenest occurs in woody districts, and particularly in low marshy lands ; but in them there are exceptions, which, in the present state of the botanical knowledge of the farmer and the veterinarian cannot be satisfactorily accounted for. A wall or a hedge may divide a perfectly safe pasture from another which gives the red-water to every beast that is turned upon it. One farmer scarcely knows what the disease is except by name, while on the grounds of his neighbour it destroys many a beast every year. The same pasture is safe at one time of the year and dangerous and destructive at another. The fields surrounded by copses may be stocked with impunity, or advan- tage, in summer or winter; but the farmer must beware of them when the buds are shooting or the leaves are falling. The result of general experience is, that it has more to do with the nature of the food than with any other cause ; and the production, or the unusual growth of astringent and acrimonious plants may have considerable influence here. The different species of crowfoot, or ranunculus, and also the anemones, and particularly the white-wood (anemone nemorosa) and the yellow-wood (anemone ranunculoides) have been accused as the most frequent causes of this disease ; but instinct will generally warn the animal to avoid sources of evil so palpable as these ; and the malady may with more probability be traced to the quality of the general produce of the soil than to the prevalence of certain plants of known acrimonious or poisonous properties. This noxious quality may be communicated by excess or deprivation of moisture. There is no farmer who is not aware of the injurious effect of the coarse rank herbage of low, and marshy, and woody countries, and he regards such districts as the chosen residence of red-water. Mr. Ford, in a letter with which the author was favoured from him, says, that " red-water was very prevalent in the neighbourhood of Etruria, in Staffordshire, about twenty years ago before the wet lands were drained. In a dairy of twenty or thirty cows, two-thirds of the number were afflicted with this disease annually, but since the draining not more than one or two annually have been attacked by it. The fair inference is, that swampy land is one cause of the disease, whether from the insalubrity of the atmosphere occasioned by the stagnant water, or from the coarse aquatic herbage with which such land abounds." On the other hand, * A dairy in my neighbourhood was once removed from a farm on a flinty soil, to one on a strong clay, and every one of them, consisting of seventeen, were affected. Three of them died, although they ha>l been charmed, Letter from Mr. Nobbs.\ 506 CATTLE. Mr. Harrison, of Lancaster, says,* that in " the land situated east and south-east of that town, a lofty and wild region, and where, in hot and dry summers, water can rarely, if at all, be procured by the parched animals thereon, red-water rages like an epidemic, annually attacking all ages, and numbers falling victims to it, while in the sur- rounding valleys a case very rarely occurs." He adds, " I have known red-water make its appearance as an epidemic upon farms where it had hitherto remained unknown except by name, and which could be traced to no other apparent cause than an excess of draining, by which process the natural and artificial grasses had become altered in quality and quantity." The farmer must carefully observe the effect of the different parts of his farm in the production of this disease, and observation and thought may suggest to him that alteration of draining or manuring, or other manage- ment which may to a considerable degree remedy the evil. Acute Red-water is ushered in by a discharge of bloody urine, and is generally preceded by dysentery, suddenly changing to obstinate costive- ness ; and as soon as the costiveness is established the red-water appears. There is laborious breathing, coldness of the extremities, ears and horns, heat of the mouth, tenderness of the loins, and every indication of fever: it often runs its course with fearful rapidity, and the animal is sometimes destroyed in a very few days. When the carcase is examined there is generally found some inflam- mation of the kidney, enlargement of it, turgescence of its vessels, yet very rarely any considerable disorganization, and certainly not so much affec- tion of it as would be expected ; but in cows the uterus exhibits much greater inflammation; there is often ulceration, the formation of foetid pus, and occasionally gangrene ; there is also peritoneal inflammation, exten- sive, intense, with adhesions and effusions, while the lining membrane of the bowels rarely escapes inflammation and ulceration. There can be little doubt about the treatment of such a disease. There has either been an undue quantity of blood determined to the kidneys with much local inflammation and before the pressure of which the vessels of that organ have given way, or so much blood has been always traversing the kidney, that there is a facility in setting up inflammation there. Bleeding will be the first step indicated. The first bleeding should be a copious one; but the repetition of it will depend upon circumstances. The haemorrhage, or bleeding, is clearly active. It is produced by some irritation of the part : its colour shows that it proceeds from the minute arterial or capillary vessels. When bloody urine flows from the kidney, that organ is giving way under an increased discharge of its natural function, and that func- tion is increased in order to compensate for the suspended one of another part, namely, the natural action of the bowels. Three objects will be accomplished by venesection : the first, a diminution of the general quan- tity of blood ; the second a consequence of the first the removal of congestion in the part; and the third is the giving a different direction to the current of blood. Purgatives should follow with a view more quickly and effectually to accomplish all these objects; and from the recollection of a circumstance most important to the practitioner, that red-water closely followed the esta- blishment of constipation. A pound of Epsom salts should be imme- diately exhibited, and half-pound doses every eight hours afterwards, until the bowels are thoroughly acted upon. There is too frequently great difficulty in purging cattle when labouring under red-water : dose after dose may be administered lor three or four * Veterinarian, May, 1833, p. 244. RED-WATER. 507 days, and yet the bowels will remain obstinately constipated. Either there is a strange indisposition in them to be acted upon, or, the rumen sympa- thising with the derangement of other organs, the muscular pillars of its roof yield to the weight of the fluid, whether hastily or cautiously administered, and the medicine enters that stomach, and is retained there, until the beast is lost. The physic must be repeated again and again ; it must gently trickle down the gullet, so that it shall fall on thereof of the paunch with as little force as possible ; and, after the second day, in spite of the fever, unusual doses of aromatics must mingle with it, that the rumen, or the intestines, or both, may be stimulated to action. In the majority of cases, and especially before the strength of the animal becomes exhausted, the. commencement of purging will be the signal of recovery. It, nevertheless, too often happens that the constipated state of the bowels cannot be overcome, but the animal becomes rapidly weaker, while the blood assumes a darker, and sometimes a purple or even a black colour. The danger is now increased, and, probably, death is not far dis- tant. In many cases, however, the beast not being too much exhausted, the dark and coffee-coloured urine is a favourable symptom, especially if it is discharged in evidently larger quantities and not so frequently. The appearance of the darker fluid, and even the continuance of the florid red urine, when the fever has subsided to a considerable degree, will indicate a different mode of treatment. The haemorrhage will have become passive. The blood will flow because the vessels have lost their power of contracting on their contents. It has then been usual to give astringents ; but this is dangerous practice, for the constipation, which is the worst symptom of the disease, and which immediately preceded the red-water, and was, probably, the exciting cause of it, may be confirmed or recalled. Stimulants, and those which act upon the kidney, will be most likely to have beneficial effect. The common turpentine, the balsam of copaiba, or even spirit of turpentine, especially if it is guarded by the addition of a few drachms of laudanum, may be given with advantage. The weakened vessels of the kidney may occasionally be roused to close on their contents, and the hemorrhage may be arrested : but the author cannot agree with some of his correspondents, who say that it can easily be cured by almost any diuretic.* * A remedy of much repute in the neighbourhood of Chester is a very simple and a very ridiculous one. A handful of salt and a handful of oatmeal are fried in a pan until black, and given in a quart of cold buttermilk, the beast being kept without food a little while before. " This," say the credulous, " given once or twice will remove the complaint, if not too long neglected." There is always some salvo of this kind attending the exhibition of these wonder-working medicines. A friend of the author's was standing by when Webb's infallible medicine for the cure of rabies was given to a dog. The animal died about the usual time, and the fellow was reproved on account of the inefficacy of his nostrum: " Oh," replied he, "my medicine got all the madness out of him, you may depend upon it; but you did not support him, and of course he died." Captain J. Henderson, in his " Survey of Caithness," gravely tells his readers, that when the Highlanders find a beast troubled with red-water, they search either for a trout or a frog, and put it alive down the animal's throat ; while others give warm milk as a specific. In Inverness, cold water poured down the throat was formerly esteemed a sovereign remedy ; or a decoction of nettles with a handful of salt. In Dumbarton it is cured by water in which a portion of earth has been infused, with a few leaves of ash or alder. In Roxburghshire a. handful of salt was mixed with a pint of the beast s own blood as it came warm from the vein, and this was poured down his throat. In some districts of Ireland a very successful preventive was used : the beast was daily drenched with water thickened with clay, until it became accustomed to the pasture. Some of the farmers in Norfolk used to give a quart of churned milk, and a handful of salt. Others gave a quart of round coal reduced to powder, or a quart of coal ashes min- gled with a quart of spring water, and this was deemed to be infallible. . 508 CATTLE. Chronic red-water is more prevalent than that which is acute, and, in its first stage, is far more a disease of the digestive organs, and especially of the liver than of the kidney. The urine is observed to be of a brown colour, or brown tinged with yellow ; the beast feeds nearly as well as before, but ruminates rather more lazily. In a few days a natural diarrhea comes on, and the animal is well at once; or a purgative drink is administered, and a cure is presently effected. This occurs frequently in cows of weak constitution and in calves. At other times there is manifest indisposition : the animal is dull, heavy, languid the ears droop the back is bowed she separates from the herd she refuses her food she ceases to ruminate. Presently she gets better she rejoins her companions ; but this is only for a little while.* The urine, which at first was brown, with a tinge of yellow, has now red mingling with the brown, or it is of the colour of porter. It is increased in quantity it is discharged sometimes with ease, at other times with considerable straining in little jets, and with additional bow- ing of the back. The milk diminishes it acquires a slight tinge of yellow or brown the taste becomes unpleasant it spoils all that it is mingled with. The pulse is accelerated it reaches to 60 or 70. If blood is drawn, the serum which separates from it is brown. The skin is yellow, but of a darker yellow than in jaundice it has a tinge of brown. The conjunctiva is also yellow, inclining to brown. The urine becomes of a darker hue it is almost black. The animal usually shrinks when the loins are pressed upon ; occasionally there is much tenderness, but oflener the beast scarcely shrinks more than he is accustomed to do when labouring under almost every disease. The belly is not so much tucked up as drawn together at the sides. There is considerable loss of condition the legs and ears get cold the animal is less inclined to move there is evident and general de- bility. In every stage there is costiveness, and that exceedingly difficult to overcome, but, on close inquiry, it is ascertained that there was diarrhoea at the beginning, and which was violent andfcetid, and which suddenly stopped. Mr. Dickens, of Kimbolton, says, that " a few years back there was a gentleman living in Huntingdonshire who was very celebrated for the cure of red-water, and his son, a most respectable farmer, tells me the following was his never-failing recipe : Bol. arme- nian Jii. a handful of salt, and a strong decoction from the common nettle; of this he made a drink which he used to sell for 2s. 6d." Mr. T. Browne, of Hinckley,says, that red-water is not very common in his neighbour- hood ; and that he knows but of one farm that is subject to it : this farm lies in a low damp situation, and the farmer cures it by the administration of brandy. Mr. Ford, speaking of the treatment of red-water in the neighbourhood of Etruria, says, that " some use astringents, as rock alum, tincture of cantharides, and the juice of nettles ; some give writing paper boiled to pieces in skimmed milk ; while others give Epsom or Glauber's salts, or common kitchen salt, in order to counteract the tendency to constipation, and leave the disease itself to the effort of nature, which usually stops the blood after a greater or less degree of exhaustion." In a book which is found on the shelves of many agriculturists, and a very useful one so far as the general treatment of cattle is concerned, the following remedy for red-water stands recorded : "Take two or three handfuls of stinging nettles, and boil or stew them slowly in three quarts of water until reduced to one quart ; when cool, give it to the beast. Then having ready a pint of common salt, put it into a quart bottle filled up with chamber lye ; shake it well until the salt be dissolved, and immediately give it to the beast. This remedy I believe to be infallible, and my success in this disorder has led me to many other discoveries. It is a doubt with me whether the nettles have anything to do with the cure, as I have known this disease cured with buttermilk and pig's dung, and a frog with a large quantity of cold spring water ; but I have known each of these remedies to fail ; the former prescription never." Parkinson's Treatise on Live StocA, vol.i. p. 243. But enough of this absurdity! * The author, however, has one case strong in his recollection, in which there was a respite of several months, and that repeated three times, but every cow in the dairy at length i erished. RED-WATER. 50? Examination after death shows the skin and the cellular membrane underneath to be of a dark yellow ; the fat about the belly is of the same hue, or perhaps of a lighter tinge. The first and second stomachs are full : there is no fermentation and little gas, or sour smell. The manyplus is perfectly dry baking could hardly add to the hardness were it not for its weight it might be kicked about as a football. The leaves of the many- plus cling to the food contained between them : the papillae leave their evi- dent indentations on the hardened mass, and that mass cannot be detached without considerable portions of the cuticle clinging to it. The fourth stomach is empty, and the lining membrane covered with brown mucus, exhibiting patches of inflammation underneath. The intestines are rarely inflamed. There is no fluid in the belly, nor inflammation of its lining membrane. The kidney is of a yellow-brown colour, and sometimes a little enlarged, but there, is rarely inflammation or disease about it. Drops of dark and brown-coloured urine may be pressed from it. The lungs display no mark of dangerous disease, but they too have a yellow hue The fluid in the bag of the heart is yellow. The chyle, which is travers ing the lacteal vessels, is yellow too, and there is the same discolouration of the fluids everywhere. The liver is evidently of a darker colour ; it is enlarged, generally inflamed, sometimes rotten, and filled with black blood. The gall-bladder is full, almost to distension. The bile is thick and black: it looks more like lamp-black mixed with oil, than like healthy bile. All these appearances lead to the necessary conclusion that this is far more a disease of the digestive organs than of the kidney ; in fact, that it is not primarily an affection of the kidney. It is disease of the liver, either consisting in inflammation of that organ, accompanied by increased secretion of bile, or a change in the quality of the bile. In consequence of this the whole circulatory fluid becomes tinged with the colour of the bile, and which is shown in the hue of the skin generally, and in the colour of the blood, and particularly in the change that takes place in that blood when drawn from the vein. The fluid discharged from the kidneys participates in the general change ; it becomes yellow yellow-brown brown. The change is most evident here, because so great a quantity of blood, in proportion to the size of the organ, circulates through the kidneys ; and more particularly it is evident here, because it is the office or duty of the kidneys to separate from the blood, and to expel from the circulation, that which is foreign to the blood, or would be injurious to the animal. The bile, however, possesses an acrid principle to a considerable degree. While it is an excrementitious substance that must be got rid of, it stimu- lates the intestinal canal as it passes along in order to be discharged ; it particularly does so when it is secreted in undue quantities, or when its quality is altered. There is abundant proof of this in the bilious irritation and diarrhoea which cattle so frequently exhibit. The kidney, at length, is evidently irritated by the continued presence of this diseased fluid : it be- comes inflamed, its minute vessels are ruptured, and a red hue begins to mingle with the brown. There is found discolouration and increased size of the kidney, and pain in the region of that organ ; this, however, is rarely carried to any considerable extent, and the seat and principal ravages of disease are to be clearly traced to a different part, namely, the liver. It is with peculiar pleasure that the author refers to the opinion of Mr. Harrison:* " That chronic indigestion in cattle is a principal cause of most diseases to which they are incident, has long been observed by me. * Veterinarian, May, 1833. p. 244. 510 CATTLE. Hsematuria, (red-water,) I am perfectly convinced, owes its origin to it, at least in the generality of cases ; and I feel quite assured that the discoloration of urine is entirely referrible to that cause, and not to any nephritic affection, as is too generally, and oftentimes fatally sup- posed." Mr. Friend is much of the same opinion. " This disease appears to be one brought on also by indigestion. There are certain pastures which seem peculiarly to produce it, and certain seasons which seem equally fo predispose towards it. Where the facts of the case can be got at, it is generally found that the mucous membrane of the intestines is first af- fected, producing diarrhoea; though this always extends as the disease pro- ceeds to the peritoneal coat, and probably to the whole substance of the intestines, and the most obstinate costiveness is the result." * It is evident, then, that acute and chronic red-water, as the author of this treatise has termed them, (for he did not, in the present state of our knowledge of cattle medicine, dare to deviate too far from the usual ar- rangement and designation of disease,) are essentially different maladies : they belong to different organs they are characterised by different symp- toms they require different treatment. The first is inflammation of the kidney ; it is characterised by the evident pain and fever, and by the red and bloody urine which accompanies it in an early stage ; it requires the most active treatment, and it speedily runs its course. The second is in- flammation of, or altered secretion from, the liver ; not often accompanied in its early stage by pain or fever; characterised by the dark brown colour of vitiated bile, and more slowly, but as fatally, undermining the strength of the constitution. As to the first step in the treatment of chronic red-water, there is a difference of opinion among veterinary surgeons ; many strongly recom- mend bleeding, and others as strenuously deprecate it. The truth is, that the propriety of bleeding depends on the condition of the beast, and the degree of fever. An animal in high or in fair condition can never be hurt by one bleeding ; while, on the contrary, lurking, deceptive, fatal febrile action may be subdued. If there is the slightest degree of actual fever, nothing can excuse the neglect of bleeding. The quantity taken, or the repetition of the abstraction of blood, must be left to the judgment of the practitioner. On the next step there is not a difference of opinion among well-in- formed men. The animal must be well purged if he is in a constipated state ; or if there is already a discharge of glairy fscal matter, the character of that must be changed by a purgative. There has been dispute, and more than there needed to be, as to the nature of the purgative. That is the best whose effects are most speedily and certainly produced, and there is no drug more to be depended upon in both these respects than the Epsom salts. It may be alternated with Glauber's salts, or common salt, or an aperient of a different character, sulphur, may be added to it. Much good effect is often produced by this mixture of aperients. Mr. Friend is a strenuous advocate of sulphur combined with Epsom salts ; and, as there is either so much real costiveness indisposition to be acted upon by purgative medicine or so much relaxation of the floor of the oesopha- gean canal that the medicine falls into the rumen instead of going to its proper destination, and as the establishment of purgation seems to have so uniform and beneficial an effect in relieving the disease, the medi- cine that is adopted should be given in a full dose. It should consist of * Veterinarian, June, 1833, p. 299. RED-WATER. 511 at least a pound of Epsom salts, and half a pound of sulphur, and this should be repeated in doses consisting of half the quantity of each, until the constipation is decidedly overcome. It is imperatively necessary that the practitioner should have made up his mind as to the real nature of the disease ; for althoug-h he might, in inflammation of the kidney, fear to weaken by active purgation an animal that was likely to be speedily debilitated by excessive loss of blood, (yet that fear would generally be destitute of all reasonable foundation,) and would be tempted to try whether the hemorrhage might not be arrested by astringents or stimulants, it would scarcely need a moment's reflection to convince him that he must check this excessive discharge of vitiated bile, or divert it from that organ which is chiefly suffering under its influ- ence. Most of all he would be convinced, that he must restore the liver to a healthy discharge of its natural functions ; and that he can best accom- plish these purposes by freely opening the bowels, and in fact by no other means accomplish them. Stimulants would be dangerous, and astringent medicine would be actual poison in this disease.* It will not be forgotten that the precautions already recommended should be carefully observed, in order to give the physic the best chance of passing into the bowels ; that the patent pump should be infrequent requi- sition for the administration of clysters ; and that when purging is once induced, a lax state of the bowels should be kept up by means of the fre- quent repetition of smaller doses of the medicine. The diet should con- sist principally of mashes, gruel, linseed tea, fresh cut young grass, young and fresh vetches, and a few carrots. The conclusion of the treatment will be best given in the language of Mr. Friend : " I gene- rally find it necessary to administer the Epsom salts in doses of four or six ounces, as an alterative, for a few days afterwards ; to which, if there exists any debility, I add two drachms of the calumba powder, (gentian has better effect,) and one drachm of ginger."f * Mr. Friend relates an anecdote that well illustrates this : " Sir," said a farmer once to him, (alluding to his having lost a beast with this disease,) "the farrier cured the beast of his staling blood well enough, but somehow his drinks dried his body up, and killed him." Veterinarian, June, 1833, p. 299. f Veterinarian, May, 1833, p. 245. The Highland Society of Scotland offered in 1 830 a gold medal, or ten sovereigns, for the best essay on the causes, prevention, and cure of red-water. There were seven competitors, whose essays were published in the "Quarterly Journal of Agriculture," for May, 1831 . The history of this prevalent and fatal disease cannot, perhaps, be better concluded than by a condensation of the substance of these papers. At that period they were the only publications of the slightest value on this im- portant subject, and some of them reflect a high degree of credit on the authors. One competitor was a farmer ; and although there are very strange notions of this disease prevalent among agriculturists, yet the opinion of a sensible practical man is always valuable. Mr. W. A. SI.AKER, of Ardiffhy, Aberdeenshire, states, that cows after calving, and calves after the milk is taken from them, are most liable to red-water ; that it is most prevalent from the beginning of January to the end of April ; that sudden transitions from heat to cold, and dry stimulating food, and costiveness, the natural conse- quence of the latter, or otherwise produced, are the chief causes. By way of prevention, he recommends that cows should be bled before calving, and that the bowels should be kept moderately open by occasional doses of common salt dissolved in water. As a cure, he gives twenty ounces of Epsom salts in warm water, and half an hour afterwards two quarts of gruel with half a pound of butter dissolved in it ; half the quantity of the gruel and butter to be repeated every two hours ; the physic to be repeated, if necessary, at the expiration of twenty-four hours; and, should the constipation be obstinate, clysters composed as follows should be frequently administered : boil an ounce of aniseed in a quart of water, strain the clear liquor, and dissolve in it four ounces of butter, and a table- spoonful of salt. To calves he gives four ounces of Epsom salts, and half an ounce of nitre, with the same kind of gruel. He often finds the manyplus so dry that it might almost serve for fuel. He considers that more animals die of the fever by which the disease is accompanied than by the loss of blood, and thinks it of the utmost consequence 512 CATTLE. BLACK-WATER. This is only another and the concluding stage of RED-WATER. When it follows the acute or inflammatory disease, it may be considered as a favourable symptom if the urine contains no purient matter, and has no to keep the bowels open. Mr. Slaker writes like a sensible man, and would beat many a veterinary surgeon out of the field. Mr. A. HENDERSON, land surveyor, Edinburgh, was bred a farmer, and had afterwards most extensive opportunities of observing this disease, and of which he appears to have diligently availed himself. He considers queys and cows most liable to red-water, which occasionally prevails at all times, but is most prevalent in cold spring, or long-continued dry summer weather. The causes are various : scarcity of water in summer, the drinking of bad or stagnant water, change of pasture, particularly from fine to coarse quality, yet often observed on a light soil, during a dry and hot season, and when cattle on a deeper soil would escape, and when on that soil, in a moist season, not one would be affected, change of atmospheric temperature, strains, bruises, or anything that may excite inflammation in the kidneys or neighbouring parts. When cattle were journeying, he observed that twenty females were attacked for one male, and particularly such as had had calves, that at the commencement of the journey the disease was rarely very preva- lent, provided there was a constant supply of water, and the weather proved stead}', that want of water and sudden changes of weather soon produced it, that the tendency to it was increased by strains and bruises, and the cattle fretting, and riding upon each other, and by the unmerciful blows of the drivers, for those that fell behind, and were thus exposed to mal-treatment, were most frequently affected. It was his opinion, that it was more an accidental disease, and brought on by ill treatment, than a constitutional or epidemical one ; yet some animals of the same breed and age were more subject to it than others, and those that once had the disease were more apt to be again affected by it. Prevention. A supply of pure water the cattle not being put on change of pasture, and particularly of inferior quality, when hungry not being put on rough, coarse pasture in summer, nor fed on heated hay in winter not being put at once into a damp, cold pasture in the evening, after having been overheated during the day and when the dis- ease commences in a stock, a little blood being taken from all of them. Cure. Removal to some moderately warm, dry, and sheltered place ; bleeding ; purging with common salt. In more advanced stages, and when the inflammation is subdued, two ounces of Castile soap, one ounce of bole armenian, half an ounce of dragon's blood, and one drachm of rock alum, in a quart of warm ale or beer. (?) In the still later stages the same drink, or occasionally a cordial one ; clysters, and a stimu- lating embrocation to the loins. Next stands Mr. A. WATT, druggist, Kintore. Every one who is really acquainted with the treatment of the diseases of cattle, views an essay on cattle medicine by a drug- gist south of the Tweed with a great deal of suspicion; and there seems to be cause for that suspicion further northward. It is strange that the Society should have admitted a paper recommending so many deadly poisons ; and if a portion of it is here extracted, it is that the readers of the Farmer's Series maybe warned against so murderous a practice : " A liberal use of opium, with mercurials, alkalies, sulphuric acid, turpentine, ether, and nitre, is the best practice. I have found the annexed recipe to answer better than auy yet tried, as out of 200 trials it only failed in four: take of tincture of opium half an ounce, sulphate of potash half an ounce, sulphuric acid sixty drops, spirit of hartshorn one ounce; mix, and give in a bottle of new milk : repeat every eight hours. If there should be costiveness, injections of butter, green oil, and warm water, should be em- ployed. Loss of the hoofs and part of the tail may be prevented by rubbing the back and legs with salt brine twice a day for a week after the disorder has been subdued." The veterinary surgeon is always glad when the scientific practitioner of human medi- cine condescends to bestow some attention on the diseases of domestic animals. Dr. JAMES BAYNE, of Oatfield, Inverness, favoured the Society with a paper on red-water. If he is a little in error when he says that the disease is most severe and obstinate in males, that bulls are particularly liable to it, and that it generally makes its appearance during the summer months, and in the beginning of autumn, but never in winter and spring ; yet his mode of cure is simple, scientific, and effectual. It forms a singular and pleasing contrast to that which was last mentioned. On the first appearance of the disease the animal is confined to the house or yard, and from half a pound to a pound and a half of Glauber salts administered ; and if there is much appearance of fever, about a quart (qy. four or five quarts ?) of blood is taken from the neck ; and if costiveness is present, frequent injections of warm water are administered. He has frequently injected a pailful at a time. During the continuance of the disease the animal should not be allowed to go out to pasture, but small quantities of cut grass should be given. BLACK-WATER. 513 unpleasant smell. It shows that the blood is not discharged so rapidly and forcibly as it was ; and that it hangs about the mouths of the vessels, or is contained in the cavity of the kidney, or in the bladder sufficiently long to be changed from arterial to venous blood, and the practitioner will be encouraged to proceed in the course which he had adopted : but if purulent matter mingles with the black blood, it indicates the sad extent of the mis- chief that has been done. It is a proof of ulceration, if not of gangrene, and shows that a degree of disorganization has taken place which must speedily terminate in death. If in chronic red-water, or that which depends on disease of the liver, the discharge becomes of a darker and still darker brown, until it has The three other competitors for the medal were veterinary surgeons. Mr. B. W. LAING, of Banchory Ternan, Aberdeenshire, states, that in his district red- water occurs most frequently in autumn, winter, and the early part of spring; and is pro- duced by want of exercise, want of access to earth, every cause of costiveness, the use of barley, and chaff, and the sudden setting in of frosty weather. As preventives, he recommends as much liberty as possible during the winter, bleeding and physicking two or three weeks before calving, thawing the turnips in frosty weather, and giving no boiled food or grain. As a cure, he has recourse to bleeding; he then gives, in the form of balls, twelve drachms of Barbadoes aloes, three of calomel, and an ounce of Castile soap ; twelve hours after the administration of which he administers two ounces each of Epsom salts and common salt in cold water : after this, occasional doses of linseed oil are given until the physic operates. He then has recourse to the following drink, which is continued morning and evening until the water becomes clear : acetate of lead half a drachm, alum two drachms, and catechu two drachms, dissolved in boiling water, and given blood-warm. Immediately after this, two (fills of vinegar, mixed with a bottle of cold water, are horned down. Surely, if the medicine is not deprived of much of its astringent power by the decomposition which must necessarily take place, this is almost as injudicious a practice as that of Mr. Watt, the druggist of Kintore. Mr. PETEK SMITH, of Ardgethan, Aberdeenshire, stands next on the list. Although the reasoning on which it is founded may not be perfectly admissible, or, rather, it is too complicated to be easily understood or assented to, yet he adopts the very proper conclusion that red-water is not a local, but a constitutional disease. He would prevent it by administering aperient medicine during those states of the constitution, and under those circumstances, and at those periods of the year when an attack of the disease is most to be dreaded. As a cure, he places his chief dependence on purgation. He begins with a pound and a half of Epsom salts, and half a pint of castor oil, and this is soon accompanied by injections containing common salt and butter. The purgation is repeated every twelve hours, until the urine becomes clearer. When this has been accomplished he diminishes the dose, but he keeps the bowels under the influence of the medicine until the animal is quite recovered. Succulent vegetables are given at first, but after the bowels are well cleaned, and the urine becomes clearer, the cow may be allowed the moderate use of straw or hay. In bad cases, he inserts a blister in the dew-lap. When the animal is getting better, he gives half an ounce of each of carraway, aniseeds, and spirit of hartshorn. Mr. Smith remarks, that in his neighbourhood red-water occurs during the summer months to cattle out at pasture ; that animals reared in the district are rarely affected by it, but those from a district where the darn (the provincial name of this disease) does not occur, are almost sure to be seized with it ; and that the inhabitants when purchasing cattle are careful to ascertain whether they are darn-bred, that is, whether they come from a district where darn prevails. The inhabitants attribute the disease to the wood anemone, (ane- mone ncmorosa,~) and give that plant the name of darn-grass, and which, they say, is a rare plant where darn does not occur, but is very common in the darn district. Mr. Smith's essay does him much credit. The seventh competitor, and the most deserving, is Mr. R. Thomson, now of Beith. After a most accurate detail of symptoms, he states it to be his opinion, that it is the black, inspissated bile, which, taken up by the absorbents, and passed into the blood, colours all the secretions. He believes purgatives of any kind, given in large quantities of water, to be the best medicine that can be employed, and he prefers common salt. He continues his purgative, with plentiful dilution, until the bowels are well opened ; and he afterwards keeps them in a lax state by administering linseed oil. Diuretics and astrin- gents combined can be only of service when the bowels are open; and even then, the improper administration of them often causes inflammation of the bowels and kidneys. If the bowels are kept open by laxatives, the disease will generally disappear without their use. Veterinary 2L C14 CATTLE. assumed an almost black character, it shows either that the system is loaded with a superabundance of this empoisoned secretion, and of which it cannot rid itself, or that the irritation caused by the continued presence of so acrimonious a fluid is producing inflammation, gangrene, and death in the vessels that are filled and oppressed by it. Mr.. Thomson well de- scribes this : " In the last stage of the disease, when the urine assumes a darker brown or black colour, no remedy seems to have any efficacy ; the animal is sunk beyond recovery, and he stretches himself out and dies as if perfectly exhausted."* INFLAMMATION OF THE KIDNEYS. Cattle are occasionally subject to an affection of the kidneys bearing considerable resemblance to acute red-water, but attended by more of the symptoms of pure inflammation of that organ in other animals. At first there are seldom any indications of disease beyond a straining effort in voiding the urine, and which is ejected forcibly and in small quantities, the loins being more than usually tender, and, perhaps, a little hot. In a day or two afterwards, however, the beast becomes dull, and careless about his food ; the difficulty of staling increases; blood is perceived to mingle with the urine ; the muzzle becomes dry ; the horns and ears cold ; the pulse frequent and hard, and the breathing quickened. Diarrhoea or dysentery is now observed; the evacuations are foetid ; they too are discharged with effort and in diminished quantities, and at length cease to appear. The difficulty of passing the urine becomes rapidly greater ; the beast strangely bows his back, and groans from intensity of pain; at length total suppression of urine ensues; cold sweats break out, principally about the back, sides, and shoulders, and the patient trembles all over ; he moans continually, but the moaning gets lower and lower ; he becomes paralysed behind; the pulse can scarcely he felt; the animal falls; he is incapable of rising, and he dies in three or four days after the apparent commence- ment of the attack. This is especially a disease of the spring time of the year. It is the con- sequence of over-nourishment : there is a predisposition to inflammation ; and from some cause, more or less apparent, that inflammation is directed to the kidney. The treatment will comprise plentiful bleeding, active purging, the administration of emollient clysters, fomentation over the loins or the application of a mustard poultice to them, bran mashes, gruel, and a small quantity of green succulent food. There is a connexion be- tween all these affections of the kidneys, and inflammation of the larger intestines lying in the neighbourhood of them; thence the previous dysen- tery, and the often obstinate constipation of red-water and pure inflam- mation of these organs; and thence the necessity of large and repeated Veterinary practitioners and agriculturists generally, are much indebted to the High- land Society of Scotland for the publication of these papers. However objectionable may be the treatment recommended in two of them, they all contain some useful hints, and that by Mr. Thomson comprises the substance of that treatment which is founded ou prin- ciple, and will be attended by success where success can be attained. The following extract from a letter just received from Mr. Steel, V. S.. of Biggar, N. B., is strongly confirmatory of the opinion the author has expressed of red- water, viz. : that it is far more a disease of the digestive than of the urinary system, and that the liver is the organ principally affected. He is describing a case of acute red-water. He says," The uterus had spots of inflammation, the gall-bladder was filled with a fluid resembling the urine which the cow was passing, the manyplus was rather hard and dry, and the kidneys had a relaxed bleached-like appearance. The blood, when it is drawn, very much resembles the urine ; and there is sometimes no other difference, than that the blood coagulates, and the urine does not." * Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, May, 1831, p. 12, THE KIDNEYS AND BLADDER. 615 doses of purgative medicine, but from which all stimulating ingredients should be excluded, and which would probably, in these cases, best consist of castor or linseed oil. The clysters also should be truly emollient, that while they assist in opening the bowels, they may act as soothing fomentations in the neighbourhood of the inflamed organ. Both the oil and the clysters should be continued until the inflammation has perfectly subsided. To the use of these the treatment should generally be con- fined most certainly in no part of it should the slightest portion of diuretic medicine be administered. THE KIDNEYS AND BLADDER. The urine secreted, or separated by the kidney, having first accumulated in the cavity in the centre of that organ, is conveyed through a duct called the ureter to a more capacious reservoir, the bladder. The kidney of the ox is larger and better defended than that of the horse, on account of the increased importance of its function in an animal that is to furnish us with milk while living, and more solid food when dead. The ureters also are considerably larger; the internal membrane is stronger; the opening into the bladder is even nearer to the neck of that vessel than in the horse, and the ureters terminate much nearer to each other. Comparative anatomists also know that there are not any renal capsules in the ox. These are small, elongated, irregularly formed bodies, placed opposite to the kidneys, and between these organs and the spine. Their function is a subject still wrapped in utter obscurity. The BLADDER of the ox, larger, longer, and of a more oval form than that of the cow, is lodged between the rectum and the internal surface of the lower bones of the pelvis. It is supported by a transverse ligament, which ties it to the sides of the pelvis ; while it is attached by cellular membrane to the rectum above and to the pelvis below. It is confined entirely to the cavity of the pelvis, for one of the compartments of the paunch affords an insuperable obstacle to its entering the proper cavity of the abdomen. When distended by urine, its increase of size is principally shown by its greater roundness, and not, as in the horse, by its increased length and xlescent into the cavity of the belly. In examination and in operation for stone in the bladder this should not be lost sight of. It has three coats : the outer and peritoneal ; the central or muscular, which is not so thick as in the horse, and consequently the force with which it contracts upon and expels the urine is not so great ; and the inner coat, which is lined with numerous glands, that secrete a mucous fluid in order to defend the bladder from the acrimony of the urine. The bladder terminates in a small neck, around which is a continuation of the common muscular coat, or, in the opinion of some, a distinct circular muscle, whose natural state is that of contraction; so that the passage re- mains closed, and the urine retained, until, the bladder being stretched to a certain extent, the fluid is expelled either by the will of the animal, or the involuntary contraction of the muscular coat. This muscle, or this portion of the muscular coat, is considerably weaker in the ox than in the horse, for the intestines pressing upon the bladder are not so voluminous ; and in the slow motion of the ox this vessel is not exposed to those con- cussions which it often experiences in the rapid progression of the horse, and in which the bladder has occasionally been ruptured. Advantage may be taken of this weakness of the sphincter muscle, for in retention of uirne, or when, for the purpose of some operation, it may be expedient to empty the bladder, the slightest pressure upon it by the hand introduced into the rectum will readily effect it. 2L2 516 CATTLE. Having passed the sphincter muscle, the urine flows through the urethra and is evacuated. This canal is longer and smaller than it is in the horse ; it also pursues a more tortuous path than that of the horse. The peculiar form and direction of some of the muscles of that region compel the penis to take a kind of double curve, not unlike an S, before it takes its ultimate straight course ; and on these accounts the ox suffers oftener than the horse from the entanglement of calculi in the folds of the urethra. The bladder of the cow is smaller and rounder than that of the ox. The rumen is as large as in the ox, and occupies the greater part of the abdomen ; but additional room must be left for the impregnated uterus, and that is effected in some measure at the expense of the bladder : while also, to obviate the ill effects of occasional pressure in the distended state of the uterus, the sphincter muscle at the neck of the bladder of the cow is much larger and stronger than the same muscle in the ox. The circumstances of disease to be considered with reference to the bladder are the foreign bodies, principally calculi, which it may contain ; the inflammation resulting from that or from other causes; rupture, and inversion of it. URINARY CALCULI. Concretions are oftener found in the urinary passages of cattle than of the horse. Perhaps there is greater tendency to their formation in these animals. One cause of their retention may arise from the different form of the pas- sages. The urethra has been described as smaller in cattle than in the horse, and therefore many calculi that would pass away with the urine in the one are retained in the bladder of the other, and thus become the nuclei of larger concretions, or the centre around which other matter collects, layer upon layer. It is probably on this account that calculi are found so much oftener in the ox than the cow; in the former the urethra is long arid small, in the latter it is short and capacious. The increased function discharged by the kidney in cattle may likewise account for the more frequent formation of calculi. When so much more blood passes through this organ in order that the useless or excrementitious parts of it may be expelled, the supposition is not unreasonable that a greater portion of the substances of which urinary calculi are composed will be found. The food of cattle may have much to do with it; and the greater proportion of earthy matter which they swallow, whether in the first rude cropping of the herbage, and the carelessness with which they open tear it up by the root, or the earth which they sometimes voluntarily take in order to prevent the development of acidity in the stomach, or to remove it. The urinary calculi that have hitherto been examined have been found to be composed of nearly the same materials, and in proportions not often varying. They have chiefly yielded carbonate of lime, a small quantity of carbonate of magnesia, some traces of phosphate of lime, and a certain quantity of mucus, which has served as cement between the different layers that have accumulated around a central point. The form of the calculus has considerably differed. When there has been but one central nucleus, the form has been more or less circular ; but in the majority of those which have fallen under the writer's observation, the stone has acquired magnitude by the union of various small distinct calculi. The form of the collected mass has consequently been exceedingly different in different specimens. STONE IN THE KIDNEY. One instance only of this has occurred in the author's practice, and he STONE IN THE URETERS. 517 is not aware that any other is on record. It was supposed to be a case of acute red-water, or inflammation of the kidney, and was treated as such. The cow was bled and repeatedly physicked, but with variable and no satisfactory relief. Great pain was always expressed while the urine was voided ; at other times there appeared to be colicy spasms ; there was excessive tenderness on the loins, and some heat. The treatment con- tinued five days ; there was no amendment, and she began to lose flesh ; but being yet in tolerably fair condition, she was destroyed. There was considerable peritoneal inflammation, in which the intestinal convolutions in the neighbourhood of the right kidney were involved. It was evident, before the fatty capsule of the kidney was cut through, that the seat of disease lay in that organ. It was enlarged to nearly double its natural size, and was much inflamed. Its cavity was filled with a yellow muco-purulent fluid, in which were a great many calculi; some were scarcely larger than sand, but three were of the size of a kidney bean. There was no inflammation of the ureter or the bladder, nor was any thing unusual found in them. These calculi were irregularly formed very light porous and of a yellow colour, deepening into brown. They were probably formed from the superabundance of that acid principle which is always found in the urino;and had a similar sandy substance, or small grains resembling coarse sand, been previously observed in the urine, it is possible that some good might have been done. The floor of the cow-house, and sometimes bare places in the field, will show where a considerable quantity of gritty matter has been discharged. This indicates a diseased state of the urine at the time, not perhaps sufficiently serious to interfere materially with the general health, but which may eventually lead to the formation of stone in the bladder or kidney, or to other serious maladies. The sandy matter is either white, approaching to grey or yellow ; or it is brown, with varying shades of red or yellow. Chemists have now satisfactorily ascertained the nature and causes of these discharges, and the means of remedying them. The light-coloured granules show deficiency, and the dark-coloured prove excess, of acid in the urine. In the one there is a deposit of earthy matter from deficiency of acid, and in the other there is a crystallization of the acid itself. In the one, cream of tartar, or dilute sulphuiic acid might be administered with advantage ; and in the other, earth, or a portion of chalk mixed with common loam, may be placed before the beast, or doses of carbonate of soda may be given. Danger is most to be apprehended from the white deposit, which is frequently the precursor or the accompaniment of gravel a deposition in the bladder to which cattle are far more subject than farmers or agriculturists are usually aware. STONE IN THE URETERS. There can be no doubt that many calculi descend from the cavity or pelvis of the kidney through the ureters into the bladder ; yet there is but one case of it on record. While the kidneys of cattle are considerably larger than those of the horse, the ureters are more than proportionably increased in bulk, and calculi of a moderate size readily pass through them. The case is briefly and somewhat unsatisfactorily related by Hurtrel d'Arboval. He says * that Gattoin had sent to the Royal and Central Society of Agriculture a history of the sickness and the examination of a cow, in the left ureter of which many calculi were found, that had pro- * Dictionnaire de Med, et Chirurg. Vet., CALCULI. 518 CATTLE. duced considerable dilatation of that canal, retention of urine above them, and all the symptoms that had preceded death. They were of a brilliant metallic bronze colour; they were polished, irregular, and heavy. One of them was composed of several united together, and presented a very sin- gular triangular form. Chabert, according to Hurtrel d'Arboval, thinks that the presence of these calculi in the ureters might be detected by introducing the hand into the rectum. He does not seem to speak from experience ; but he says, that in case of deficiency in the urinary discharge, accompanied by pain and fever, and tenderness on the loins, and especially by suppression of urine, he should endeavour to explore the ureters in this way. From the situation of the bladder in the pelvic cavity, this might be accomplished through the greater part of the course of the ureters. If calculi were de- tected in these passages, the practitioner should endeavour to force them on into the bladder, and, not being able to accomplish this, and knowing that the beast must otherwise die, he would perhaps have recourse to the dangerous operation recommended by Chabert, he would cut through the rectum and the ureter, and extract the stone.* STONE IN THE BLADDER. It is with the calculus that has descended into the bladder and there increased in size, or that was originally formed there, that the practitioner will have most to do either while it continues in the bladder, or in its after progress through the urethra. The symptoms that would indicate stone in the bladder are somewhat obscure. There are many that prove plainly enough a state of suffering, and of general excitation or fever; rumination ceases the mouth is hot the flanks heave the animal is continually lying down and getting up again it is looking mournfully towards its flank. Then comes a peculiar trembling of the hind limbs, and the frequent straining to void urine, a straining at some limes quite ineffectual, at other times producing the discharge of a small quantity, and tliat occasionally mingled with blood. These symptoms will direct the attention of the practitioner to the urinary organs. In order to ascertain the nature of the complaint, he will intro- duce his hand into the rectum. The bladder will easily be detected. It will probably be distended by urine: he will gently press upon it, and the contained fluid will be expelled, and if there is a calculus in the bladder it will be readily felt. He must not, however, be alarmed if this pressure should at first produce violent pain resembling colic he must desist for a few minutes, and try again. A sound could not be used for the purpose of detecting the calculus, nor even the flexible catheter that is of such admirable use for the horse. There are two courses to be pursued in such a case, either to slaughter the animal immediately, if it should be in tolerable condition, or to remove the stone by the usual operation of lithotomy. All attempts to dissolve the calculus by the use of muriatic or any other acid will be as fruitless as they have proved to be in the human being ; and the length and small calibre of the urethra, as well as its double curve, prevent the possibility of having recourse to the safe and effectual operation of breaking down the stone within the bladder. The beast being cast, and properly confined, the operator will recollect a very material difference in the construction of these parts in the horse and the ox. In the horse, he would be able to pass a stilett up the urethra as * Diet, de M6d. et Chirurg. Vt., CALCULI. STONE IN THE URETHRA. 619 far as its curve into the pelvis, and to make his first and chief incision at once ; but in the ox, on account of the length of the penis, or for other reasons, two muscles descend from the anus, and pursue their course until they arrive at about the middle of the penis, a little in front of the scrotum : there they attach themselves to the penis, and draw it up, and force it to bend or curve upon itself; and it takes, as has already been stated, the form of an inverted S. No stilett can be forced through such a double curvature. The operator must either cut down on the urethra, without any stilett within to guide him, at the point where again, below the anus, it curves round the pelvic bones in order to enter the pelvic cavity, and which, if he is a tolerable anatomist, and proceeds with some caution, he may readily accomplish ; or he must get rid of the first curve, and that may be effected without much difficulty. The hair must be cut off immediately in front of the scrotum ; a longitudinal incision must then be made, six inches in length, through the sheath, upon the penis, and in the direction in which it lies. The penis being exposed, it is seized and drawn forward in its sheath ; the muscles relax, the penis is readily brought into a straight direction, and held so for a sufficient time to admit the introduction of a stilett, which should either be composed of whalebone, and very flexible, or it should be made of iron, and jointed, resembling that used for the stone operation on the horse by Mr. Taylor, of Nottingham.* The more flexible the catheter is, the more readily it will accommodate itself to the tendency of the muscles to restore the inverted S curve, and the more readily likewise may it be bent round the bony arch beyond, and so diminish the length of the incision which must afterwards be made between the anus and the scrotum. The sound being passed through the curvature thus temporarily removed, and its point felt below the anus, the operator must cut into the urethra at that part. Into this opening he must introduce another rod, straight and grooved, and pass it on into the bladder ; and then, by means of a probe- pointed bistoury running in this groove, the incision must be carried on to the side of the anus, and through a portion of the neck of the bladder cor- responding with the supposed size of the calculus. The operator must then pass his right hand into the rectum, and the two first fingers of the left hand into the bladder, and with the right hand guide the calculus between the fingers of the left hand, by which, or by means of a pair of forceps pushed into the wound, it should be seized and extracted. It is not always that there will be much bleeding, or that it will be neces- sary to take up any of the vessels, or even to pass any sutures through the edges of the wound, unless the incision has been more than usually large. The urine will for a few days be principally passed through the wound, but a portion of it will soon begin to find its way through the urethra, and that quantity will daily increase, and, in quite as short a time as can be ex- pected, the wound will be perfectly healed. STONE IN THE URETHRA. On account of the length, and narrowness, and curvature of the urethra in the ox, obstruction of that passage by a calculus is a circumstance of too frequent occurrence. The symptom which would lead to a suspicion of this would be, in addition to the evidence of considerable pain, and ge- neral irritation, a complete, or almost complete, suppression of urine. The practitioner should examine the urethra through the whole of its course an- terior to the inverted S curve ; the calculus will then be felt, or probably the protuberance caused by its presence will be immediately seen. The * Veterinarian, April, 1834, p. 201. 520 CATTLE. duty of the surgeon is now, in most cases, easily and quickly performed. An oblique incision must be made upon the calculus, sufficiently long to enable it to be taken out. By means of the oblique incision, the calculus and the urethra are less likely to roll under the knife, and the wound will more readily heal. One or two sutures should be passed through the edges of the wound, which will speedily adhere. The operation is simple, but the danger of neglect is great ; and many a beast has been lost by the bladder being distended, and continuing so until violent inflamma- tion of its mucous coat has taken place, or it has been ruptured. Should not the calculus be in this anterior portion of the urethra, that between the scrotum and the anus should be carefully examined ; and if it is not found there, it is imprisoned somewhere in the inverted S curve. An incision must then be made anteriorly to the scrotum, in the manner already described ; the perfis drawn out ; the curve for a while obliterated ; the situation of the obstruction discovered ; the urethra laid open at that point ; and the calculus extracted. M. Peyron relates a singular case of calculus in the urethra. He was sent for in great haste to an ox that was evidently in great pain. The ani- mal was continually getting up and lying down, and straining to void his urine, but only a few drops appeared. On looking attentively at the course of the urethra, while a tapping motion was made on the upper part of it, the fluctuation of some fluid could be perceived. From this, M. Peyron concluded that the passage through the urethra was obstructed. He cut into the canal at the place where it proceeded from the ischium, and the urine im- mediately gushed out. He did not push the operation further, persuaded that after he had been so fortunate as to extract the calculus, another would soon descend from the bladder and form a fresh obstruction. The beast was kept during a month, and then sold advantageously, having fully retained its condition, but the urine had continued to flow from the wound during the whole time.* The reasoning of M. Peyron would not have satisfied most practitioners, but they would have endeavoured to ascertain the precise situation of the calculus, and extracted it, undeterred by the fear of that which might never have happened : the case, however, shows that no material mischief will be done, even if the wound should not readily heal, f Some veterinarians have remarked, that oxen are most subject to the formation of these calculi during the autumn and winter; and that, as the spring advances, the new grass produces a more abundant secretion of urine, and thus relaxes the urinary organs, and enables the calculi more easily to pass ; while the fresh herbage gives an alkaline and soapy charac- ter to the urine, which causes some of the recently formed calculi to be dissolved in the bladder. RUPTURE OF THE BLADDER. This is the necessary consequence of over-distension of a vessel the coals of which are naturally weak ; or it may be produced by a careless or brutal mode of casting the animal. It would not require any great shock in * Journal Pratique, 1827, P- 333. f An interesting account of the operation of lithotomy on the horse will lie found in Perceval's Lectures, vol. iii. p. 45 ; another by Mr. Sewell, Assistant Professor at the Royal Veterinary College, in the " Veterinarian" for May. 1829, p. 172; and a third, and the most detailed and satisfactory, hy Mr. Taylor, of Nottingham, in the " Veteri- narian," for April. 1834, p. '201 . The operation of DILATATION, which Mr. Perceval (" Lectures," vol. iii. p. 470 describes as singularly applicable in veterinary practice, not only in the female but in the male subject, could not possibly succeed in the ox. INVERSION OF THE BLADDER. 521 order to rupture the bladder, after suppression of urine had existed several days, and the coats of the bladder had begun to be weakened by inflam- mation. M. Peyron examined a beast that had laboured under suppression of urine eight days : he was slaughtered, and the bladder was found to be ruptured. No mention is made of any effect produced by the urine in the abdominal cavity, either as exciting peritoneal inflammation or discolour- ing the flesh ; it is, therefore, probable that the rupture had taken place a little while only before death, and perhaps in the act of falling. In ano- ther case, the perfect depression of the animal, the feeble and slow pulse, and the staggering walk, coupled with a long suppression of urine, excited a suspicion that rupture of the bladder had already taken place ; and on examination 'after death, the whole of the abdominal cavity was so dis- coloured by the urine that the meat could not be used. The circumstances which would most unerringly indicate a rupture of the bladder would be the the impossibility of detecting that vessel in the pelvic cavity when the hand was introduced into the rectum ; or, after the bladder had bsen felt, round and hard almost as a foot-ball, and the ani- mal had been expressing in every possible way the torture he endured, r a perfect calm all at once succeeding. This would probably be hailed by the inexperienced practitioner as a symptom of recovery, but the skilful one would regard it as the forerunner of death. If a day or two had passed since the rupture of the bladder, the experienced eye would detect it by a certain engorgement of the limbs, and particularly of the hind limbs ; and there would often be an evident urinous smell about the animal even before it was dead. In such case, the bladder is commonly found in a state of gangrene; the intestines are highly inflamed, and the whole of the meat is discoloured and nauseous. It is, therefore, of consequence to ascertain the state of these parts during the life of the animal, either that an operation may be attempted, or that the farmer may sell him, while there is any thing about him that is saleable beside his skin. In fine, when it is recollected that the existence of these calculi betrays a constitutional ten- dency to their formation, and that the removal of one may at no great length of time be followed by the appearance of another; when, from the length and narrowness, and, more especially, from the singular curvature of the urethra in the ox, it is in a manner impossible for calculi half so large to pass as those that easily traverse this canal in the horse ; and that the walls of the bladder in the ox are so weak compared with those of the horse, it will become a matter for consideration, whether the beast, in good sale- able condition, should not be destroyed as soon as this obstruction is clearly ascertained : and, most certainly, the animal that has been successfully operated upon for suppression of urine, and that is not then fit for the market, should be fattened, and got rid of as quickly as possible. The cow is in a manner exempt from these sad accidents, because the calculi readily find their way through her short, and capacious, and straight urethra. INVERSION OF THE BLADDER. This has occasionally taken place in the violent throes of parturition. The efforts of the practitioner must then be confined to the preservation of the calf, for the bladder can never be returned to its natural situation : and although the mother might possibly survive the removal of this vessel, yet as the urine must continue to be secreted, and to be got rid of, and, trickling down her legs, would produce constant soreness and ulceration, she would ever be a nuisance to herself, and a disgusting object to those who had the care of her. 522 CATTLE. The following case, which happened to a skilful practitioner, may per- haps be a warning to others : A cow had been three days in the act of calving, and little advance had been made. She was lying on her right side exhausted, but occasionally lowing mournfully, and making violent efforts to expel the fostus. A round, fibrous, white tumour presented itself it was evidently distended by some fluid, for the fluctuation was de- tected at the slightest touch. Not dreaming that it could be any thing beside the membranous bag which contained the natural uterine fluid, he punctured it, and he was astonished when that which ran out had the colour and smell of urine. It was the bladder which had protruded through a rent in the vagina, and which he might have recognised by its smaller bulk, its firmer texture, and by the ease with which the neck would have been discovered after a very slight examination. The calf was saved the mother might, probably, have been saved too the internal laceration might have been healed, and the practitioner would have escaped the consciousness of having made a somewhat disgraceful blunder. CHAPTER XVI. BREEDING. PARTURITION. THE characteristics of the different breeds of British cattle, the peculiar excellencies and the peculiar defects of each, and their comparative value, as adapted to different climates and soil and pasture, have been already considered : a few remarks on the principles of breeding were reserved for this chapter. That which lies at the foundation of the improvement of every stock, or the successful management of it, is the fact, the common, but too much neglected axiom, that " like, produces like." This is the governing law in every portion of animated nature. There is not a deviation from it in the vegetable world, and the exceptions are few and far between among the lower classes of animals. When in the higher species the principle may not seem at all times to hold good, it is because another power, the intel- lectual the imaginative somewhat controls the mere organic one; or, in a great many instances, the organic principle is still in full activity, for the lost resemblance to generations gone by is pleasingly and strongly revived. The principle that " like produces like,*" was that which gave birth to the valuable, but too short-lived, new Leicester breed ; it was the principle to which England is indebted for the short-horns, that are * "The simple observation, that domestic animals possess a tendency to produce ani- mals of a quality similar to their own, was the ground-work of all Bakewell's proceed- ings. It was equally obvious to others as to him, but by him first applied to the useful purpose to which it has since been rendered subservient. Having made this observa- tion, he inferred, that by bringing together males and females possessing the same valuable properties, he should insure their presence in their offspring, probably in an increased degree, they being inherited from both parents ; and he concluded, that by persisting in breeding from animals the produce of such selections, always keeping in sight the properties that constituted their value, he should at length establish a breed of cattle of which those properties would form the distinguishing and necessary charac- teristic. By this process it was that in his time, with respect to his long-horns, and subsequently with regard to other breeds of cattle, the term blood came to be distinc- tively applied. When reference could be made to a number of ancestors of distinguished excellence, the term blood was admitted." The Rev. H. Berry's admirable Prize Essay on Breeding. BREEDING. PARTURITION. 523 now establishing their superiority in every district of the kingdom. Every cow and heifer of the SHAKSPEARE blood could be recognized at first sight as having descended from Mr. Fowler's stock; and the admirer of the short-horns can trace in the best cattle of the present day the un- doubted lineaments of FAVOURITE. This principle extends to form, constitution, qualities, predisposition to, and exemption from disease, and to every thing that can render an animal valuable or worthless. It equally applies to the dam and to the sire. It is the foundation of scientific and successful breeding*. Let it be supposed, that the cattle of a certain farmer have some excellent qualities about them ; but there is a defect which considerably deteriorates from their value, and which he is anxious to remove. He remembers that " like produces like," and he looks about for a bull that possesses the excellence which he wishes to engraft on his own breed. He tries the experiment, and, to his astonishment, it is a perfect failure. His stock, so far from improving, have deteriorated. The cause of this every-day occurrence was, that he did not fairly esti- mate the extent of the principle from which he expected so much. This new bull had the good point that was wanting in his old stock ; but he too was deficient somewhere else, and, therefore, although his cattle had in some degree improved by him in one way, that was more than counterbalanced by the inheritance of his defects. Here is the secret of every failure the grand principle of breeding. The new-comer, while he possesses that which was a desideratum in the old stock, should like- wise possess every good quality that they had previously exhibited then, and then alone, will there be improvement without alloy. What can a farmer expect if he sends a worthless cow to the best-bred bull or, on the other hand, if his cows, although they may have many good qualities, are served by a bull that perhaps he has scarcely seen, or whose points he has not studied, and whose only recommendations are, that he is close at hand and may be had for little money ? The question as to the comparative influence of the sire and the dam is a difficult one to decide. That farmer will not err, who applies the grand principle of breeding equally to both of them. In the present system of breeding, most importance, and that very justly, is attributed to the male. He is the more valuable animal, and principally more valuable on account of the more numerous progeny that is to proeeed from him, and thus his greater general influence; and therefore superior care is bestowed on the first selection of him for rearing. The farmer studies the bull-calf closely, and assures himself that he possesses, in a more than usual degree, the characteristic excellencies of the breed. When this care as to the pos- session of such combination of good points has extended from the sire to the son through several successive generations, it may be readily supposed that he will possess them in a higher degree than the female can. They * There are a few strange exceptions to this, showing the power of imagination even over so dull a beast as the cow. Her progeny is often much affected by circum- stances that happen during the time of conception, or rather during the period she is in season. Mr. Boswell says, " One of the most intelligent breeders I ever met with in Scotland, Mr. Mustard, of Angus, told me a singular fact with regard to what I have now stated. One of his cows chanced to come in season, while pasturing on a field, which was bounded by that of one of his neighbours, out of which an ox jumped, and went with the cow, until she was brought home to the bull. The ox was white, with black spots, and horned. Mr. Mustard had not a horned beast in his possession, nor one with any white on it. Nevertheless, the produce of the following spring was a black and white calf with horns. Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, vol. i. Essays, p. 28. 524 CATTLE. will be made, as it were, a part and portion of his constitution, and he will acquire the power of more certainly, and to a greater extent, communi- cating them to his offspring. In this way the influence of the sire may, in well-bred animals, be considered as superior to that of the female ; but hers is always great, and must not be forgotten. In Arabia, where the mare is the object of chief attention, and her good qualities are carefully sludied and systematically bred in her, the influence of the female decidedly preponderates; and, on the same principle, that of the highly bred cow will preponderate over that of the half-bred bull. Her excellencies are an hereditary and essential part of her, and more likely to be communicated to her offspring than those which have been only lately and accidentally acquired by the bull with no pedigree, or with many a blot in it. Custom and convenience, however, induce the generality of breeders to look most to the male. * At the outset of his career, the farmer should have a clear and deter- mined conception of the object that he wishes to accomplish. He should consider the nature of his farm ; its abundance or deficiency of pasturage ; the character of the soil ; the seasons of the year when he will have plenty or deficiency of food ; the locality of his farm ; the market to which he has access, and the produce which will there be disposed of with greatest profit, and these things will at once point to him the kind of beast which he should be solicitous to obtain. The man of wealth and patriotism may have more extensive views, and nobly look to the general improvement of British cattle ; but the farmer, with his limited means, and with the claims that press upon him, regards his cattle as a valuable portion of his own little property, and on which every thing should appear to be in natural keeping, and be turned to the best advantage. The best beast for him is that which suits his farm the best ; and, with a view to this, he studies, or ought to study, the points and qualities of his own cattle, and those of his neighbours. The dairy-man will regard the quantity of milk the quality the time that the cow continues in milk its value for the production of butter or cheese the character of the breed for quietness or as being good nurses the predisposition to red-water, garget, or dropping after calving the natural tendency to turn every thing to nutriment the easiness with which she is fattened, when given up as a milker, and the proportion of food requisite to keep her in full milk, or to fatten her when dry. The grazier will consider the kind of beast which his land will bear the kind of meat most in demand in his neighbourhood the early maturity the quickness of fattening at any age the quality of the meat the parts on which the flesh and fat are principally laid and, more than all, the hardihood and the adaptation of constitution to the climate and soil. In order to obtain these valuable ^properties, the farmer will make him- self perfectly master of the character and qualities of his own stock. He will trace the connexion of certain good qualities and certain bad ones, with an almost invariable peculiarity of shape and structure ; and at length he will arrive at a clear conception, not so much of beauty of form (al- * Mr. Adam Ferguson, of Woodhill, to whom the Highland Society of Scotland, and the Scottish agriculturists generally, are so much indebted, has an amusing anecdote on this point. " I recollect, several years ago, at a distinguished breeder's in Northumberland, meeting with a shrewd Scottish borderer, (indeed, if report be true, the original and identical Dinmont,) who, after admiring with a considerable spice of national pique, a very short-horned bull, demanded anxiously to see the dam. The cow being accordingly produced, and, having undergone a regular survey, Dandy vociferated, with characteristic pith, " I think naething of your bull now, wi' sic a caumb." Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, vol. i. p. 34. BREEDING. PARTURITION. 525 though that is a pleasing object to contemplate) as of that outline and proportion of parts with which utility is oftenest combined. Then care- fully viewing his stock, he will consider where they approach to, and how far they wander from, this utility of form ; and he will be anxious to pre- serve or to increase the one, and to supply the deficiency of the other.* He will endeavour to select from his own stock those animals that excel in the most valuable points, and particularly those which possess the greatest num- ber of these points ; and he will unhesitatingly condemn every beast that be* trays manifest deficiency in any one important 'point. He will not, however, too long confine himself to his own stock, unless it is a very numerous one. The breeding from close affinities the breeding in and in has many advantages to a certain extent. It may be pursued until the excellent form and quality of the breed is developed and established. It was the source whence sprung the cattle and the sheep of Bakewell, and the superior cattle of Colling ; and to it must also be traced the speedy degeneracy the absolute disappearance of the new Leicester cattle, and, in the hands of many an agriculturist, the impairment of constitution and decreased value of the new Leicester sheep and the short-horned beasts. It has, therefore, become a kind of principle with the agriculturist to effect some change in his stock every second or third year, and that change is most con- veniently effected by introducing a new bull. This bull should be, as nearly as possible, of the same sort; coming from a similar pasturage and climate; but possessing no relationship or, at most, a very distant one to the stock to which he is introduced. He should bring with him every good point which the breeder has laboured hard to produce in his stock, and, if possible, some improvement, and especially where the old stock may have been somewhat deficient ; and most certainly he should have no manifest defect of form ; and that most essential of all qualifications, a hardy consti- ution, should not be wanting. There is one circumstance, however, which the breeder occasionally forgets, but which is of as much importance to the permanent value of his stock as any careful selection of animals can be and that is, good keep. It was judiciously remarked by the author of the " Agricultural Report of Staffordshire/' that " all good stock must be both bred with attention and well fed. It is necessary that these two essentials in this species of improve- ment should always accompany each other; for without good resources of keeping, it would be vain to attempt supporting a capital stock." This is true with regard to the original stock ; it is yet more evident when animals are absurdly brought from a better to a poorer soil. The original stock * " Upon the principle that ' like produces like,' he |(Bakewell) started, and the advantages which crowned his exertions may be thus stated : an increased perfection of general symmetry, by which is to be understood not only a form attractive to the eye of taste, but one in which the judgment acknowledged a considerable preponderance of the valuable parts of the carcase over those of less value; an increased tendency to lay on flesh of a superior quality under all circumstances of feeding, and, of course, a superior article for the use of the consumer, produced by a decreased consumption of vegetable or other food. " A person would often be puzzled : he would find different individuals possessing different perfections in different degrees one, good flesh, and a tendency to fatten, with a bad form another, with fine form, but bad flesh, and little disposition to acquire fat : what rule should he lay down, by the observance of which good might be generally produced, and as little evil as possible effected ? UTILITY. The truly good form is that which secures constitution, health, and vigour a disposition to lay on flesh, and with the greatest possible reduction of offal. Having obtained this, other things are of minor, although perhaps of considerable, importance." The Rev, H. Berry's Prize 526 CATTLE. will deteriorate if neglected and half-starved ; and the improved breed will lose ground even more rapidly, and to a far greater extent. The full consideration, however, of the subject of breeding belongs to the work on " British Husbandry," and there full justice will be done toil: but the few hints that have here been dropped with reference to the funda- mental principles on which the improvement of cattle must be founded will not, perhaps, be deemed irrelevant.* THE PROPER AGE FOR BREEDING. The proper age at which the process of breeding may be commenced will depend on various circumstances. Even with the early maturity of the short-horns, if the heifers could be suffered to run until they were two and a half, or three years old, they would become larger, finer, and more valuable ; and their progeny would be larger and stronger : but the expense of the keep for so long a time is a question that must be taken into serious consideration. The custom which at one period was beginning to be so prevalent in the breeding districts, of putting the heifer to the male at one year old, or even at an earlier period, cannot be too much reprobated. At the time when they are most rapidly growing themselves, a sufficient quantity of nutriment cannot be devoted to the full development of the foetus, and both the mother and the calf must inevitably suffer. From two, to two-and-a-half years old, according to the quality of the pasture, will be the most advantageous time for putting the heifer to the bull. In fair pasture, the heifer will probably have attained sufficient growth at two years. If the period is prolonged after three years, and especially with good keep, the animal will often be in too high condition, and there will be much uncertainty as to her becoming pregnant, t At an * The following extract from " the Rev. H. Berry's Prize Essay" contains the sum and substance of the principles of breeding : " A person selecting a stock from which to breed, notwithstanding he has set up for himself a standard of perfection, will obtain them with qualifications of different de- scriptions, and in different degrees. In breeding from such he will exercise his judg- ment, and decide what are indispensable or desirable qualities, and will cross with animals with a view to establish them. His proceeding will be of the ' give and take' kind. He will submit to the introduction of a trifling defect, in order that he may profit by a great excellence ; and between excellencies, perhaps somewhat incompatible, he will decide on which is the greatest, and give it the preference. " To a person commencing improvement, the best advice is to get as good a bull as he can ; and if he be a good one of his kind, to use him indiscriminately with all his cows; and when by this proceeding, which ought to be persisted in, his stock has, with an occasional change of bull, become sufficiently stamped with desirable excel- lencies, his selection of males should then be made, to eradicate defects which he thinks it desirable to get rid of. " He will not fail to keep in view the necessity of good blood in the bulls resorted to, for that will give the only assurance that they will transmit their own valuable pro- perties to their offspring ; but he must not depend on this alone, or he will soon run the risk of degeneracy. " In animals evincing an extraordinary degree of perfection, and where the consti- tution is decidedly good, and there is no prominent defect, a little close breeding may be allowed as the son with the mother, to whom he is only half-blood or the brother with the sister. But this must not be injudiciously adopted or carried too far, for although it may increase and confirm valuable properties, it will also increase and con- firm defects; and no .breeder need be long in discovering that in an improved state animals have a greater tendency to defect than to perfection. Close breeding, from affinities, impairs the constitution, and affects the pi ocreative powers, and therefore a strong cross is occasionally necessary." f When heifers of this age will not stand their bulling, a couple of doses of physic, or the turning on shorter pasture until they next come into season, will set all right. Mr. Parkinson's opinion, although somewhat different in one point from that we have stated, deserves consideration : " I had three heifers, when I lived at Slane, ABORTION, OR SLINKING. 527 early age there will often be danger in calving from the heifer not having attained her proper size ; and another, that has her first calf too late, will be in danger from fever. It will be evident from this that the bull should not be suffered to run with the young stock ; and although it is said that cows are quieter, and thrive better, and are more readily and surely impregnated as they come in season when they have the bull with them in the pasture, yet it is becoming more the practice, and often very advantageously so, to separate him from them altogether. ByVatching the cows as they come into season, and keeping them back when the time of parturition would be inconvenient, the farmer will be enabled to get them to calve at the periods that best suit his pasture or his arrangements. The calves may be dropped at the beginning of the year, when veal and butter will yield the greatest profit ; or later in the season, when the spring grass is preparing to come in, and when the young animal will thrive better, and a greater secretion of milk, and the habit of yielding it at every subsequent calving, will be established in the mother.* = That which has been said of the best age for beginning to breed in the cow will equally apply to the bull. It is absurd and dangerous to begin to use him as some have done when a yearling. He will come into season at two years old he will be better at three; and although the farmer may not deem it prudent to keep him more than two or three years, he may then be sold advantageously, in his full prime, to another breeder. ABORTION, OR SLINKING. The usual period of pregnancy in a cow is nine calendar months, or 270 days ; but there is often considerable variation in the time of what seems to be a natural delivery, and when the calf is likely to live.f. The cow, however, is more than any other animal subject to abortion. This takes place at different periods of pregnancy, from half of the usual time to the seventh, or almost the eighth month. The symptoms of the approach of abortion, except the breeder is very much among his stock, are not often perceived; or if perceived, they are concealed by the cow- herd, lest he should be accused of neglect or improper treatment. took the bull at one year old, I believe, in consequence of their being reared in the open air at the haystacks, which caused them to be forwarder. I had not the least idea of this happening, or I should have prevented it, as 1 think it very injudicious. It is the opinion of some persons, that by suffering heifers to be three or four years old they make fine cattle, but I never found any material difference ; while there is a loss of one year, besides the danger of not standing the bulling; and it adds very much to the profit of the heifer if she be given to the bull at two or two and-a-half years old, for the time she is in calf, added to that of the calf sucking and the time she will be fattening, bring her to four or four years and a half when she is slaughtered. A heifer that has had a calf will fatten quicker and tallow better than one of the same age that has not, while a calf is gained, worth, if of a good breed, eight or ten pounds as a store beast." Treatise on Live Stock, vol. i. p. 99. * Most of the various recipes to bring a cow into season are absurd and dangerous. One given by Mr. Parkinson is the simplest, the most harmless, and the most success- ful too : " Give a quart or more of milk, immediately drawn from a cow that is in season, before the bull has been admitted to her, and in three or four days it will have the desired effect." Treatise on Live Stock, vol. i. p. 101. The repeated return of the period of heat during the spring and summer months will, if the farmer keeps his bull apart from the cows, enable him to arrange the periods of parturition almost at his pleasure. f- M. Tessier, in a Memoir read to the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris, says, that in 1131 cows, which he had the opportunity of observing, the shortest period of gestation was 240 days, and the longest 321 difference 81 days ; and counting from nine mouths, 51 days over and 30 days under. 528 CATTLE. The cow is somewhat off her feed rumination ceases she is listless and dull the milk diminishes or dries up the motions of the foetus become more feeble, and at length cease altogether there is a slight degree of enlargement of the belly there is a little staggering in her walk when she is down she lies longer than usual, and when she gets up she stands for a longer time motionless. As the abortion approaches, a yellow or red glairy fluid runs from the vagina (this is a symptom which rarely or never deceives) her breathing becomes laborious and slightly convulsive. The belly has for several days lost its natural rotundity, and has been evidently falling she begins to moan the pulse becomes small, wiry, and inter- mittent. At length labour comes on, and is often attended with much diffi- culty and danger. If the abortion has been caused by blows or violence, whether arising from the brutality of the cowherd, or the animal being teased by other cows in season, or by unskilfully castrated oxen, the symptoms are more intense. The animal suddenly ceases to eat and to ruminate she is 'uneasy, paws the ground, rests her head on the manger while she is standing, and on her flank when she is lying down hemorrhage frequently comes on from the uterus, or when this is not the case, the mouth of the uterus is spasmodically con- tracted. The throes come on, they are distressingly violent, and they continue until the womb is ruptured. Should not all these circumstances be observed, yet the labour is protracted and dangerous. Abortion is sometimes singularly frequent in particular districts, or on particular farms. It seems to assume an epizootic or epidemic form. This has been accounted for in various ways. Some have imagined it to be contagious. It is destructively propagated among the cows, but this is probably to be explained on a different principle than that of contagion. It has been stated that the cow is an animal considerably imaginative, and highly irritable during the period of pregnancy. In abortion the foetus is often putrid before it is discharged; and the placenta, or afierbirth, rarely or never immediately follows it, but becomes decomposed, and, as it drops away in fragments, emits a peculiar and most noisome smell. This smell seems to be singularly annoying to the other cows they sniff at it, and then run bellowing about. Some sympathetic influence is produced on their uterine organs, and in a few days a greater or less number of those that had pastured together likewise abort. Hence arises the rapidity with which the foetus is usually taken away and buried deeply, and far from the cows ; and hence the more effectual preventive of smearing the parts of the cow with tar or stinking oils, in order to conceal or subdue the smell ; and hence, too, the ineffectual preventive of removing her to a far distant pasture. Chabert, in his " Veterinary Instructions," relates a singular case of this a kind of pest or plague in the dairy of a farmer at Toury. For thirty years his cows had been subject to abortion. His cowhouse was large and airy ; his cows were apparently in good health ; they were fed like others in the village ; they drank from the same pond ; there was no- thing different in the pasture ; his servants were not accustomed to ill-use the cattle, and he had changed these servants many times in the thirty years. He had changed his bull many a time he had pulled down his cowhouse, and he had built another in a different situation, with a different aspect, and on a different plan ; he had even (agreeably to the superstition of the neighbourhood) taken away the aborted calf through the window, that the curse of future abortion might not be entailed on the cow that passed over the same threshold ; nay, to make all sure, he had broken through the wall at the end of the cowhouse, and opened a new door, in ABORTION, OR SLINKING. 529 order that there might not be the possibility that an elf-struck foetus had previously gone that way; but still a greater or less number of his cows every year slunk their calves. Thirty years before he had bought a cow at a fair, and she had warped, and others had speedily followed her example ; and the cow that had once slunk her calf was liable to do the same in the following year, and so the destructive habit had been perpetuated among his beasts. Several of the cows had died in the act of abortion, and he had replaced them by others ; more of those that had aborted once or twice, or oftener, had been sold, and the vacancies filled up. M. Chabert advised him to make a thorough change. This had never occurred to the farmer, but he at once saw the propriety of the counsel. He sold every beast, and the plague was stayed *. This sympathetic influence is one main cause of the slinking of the calves. There is no contagion, but the result is as fatal as the direst contagion could have made it. Another cause of abortion is the extravagantly high condition in which cows are. sometimes kept. They are in a continual state of excitement; and from the slightest cause inflammation is set up in the uterus, rendered more susceptible by the state of pregnancy, and abortion is the frequent consequence of that inflammation. M. Cruzel has given an instructive account of abortion thus produced. He was consulted by a farmer who had ten breeding cows, that occa- sionally worked at the plough, as is often the case in France. During the first year three of them aborted. They recovered, and were soon again in calf. Two of them slunk their calves a second time, between the fifth and sixth month of pregnancy; the third went her full time, and pro- duced a weakly calf that died on the second day. In the following year a fourth aborted, and M. Cruzel was sent for. He was immediately struck with the unnecessary high condition in which all the cows and their calves were : he carefully inquired, but could discover no other probable cause for these repeated accidents, and he at once attributed them to the state of plethora in which the beasts were kept. He ordered their .quantity of food to be materially reduced he bled every one of them the farmer took care that nutriment should not afterwards be so dangerously wasted upon them, and abortion ceased to appear on the farm t. Mr. Wedge, in his " Survey of Cheshire," confirms this. He says that " slinking happens generally in wet seasons, or when the cattle are in very high condition, and generally continues for two or three years together. In several parts of North Wales, where the cattle through necessity are kept in lower condition, instances of the kind very rarely happen." The pastures on which the blood or inflammatory fever is most pre- valent are those on which the cows oftenest slink their calves. Whatever can become a source of general excitation and fever is likely, during preg- nancy, to produce inflammation of the womb; or whatever would, under other circumstances, excite inflammation of almost any organ, has at that time its injurious effect determined to this particular one. There are some curious illustrations of this. It is well known that cattle of all kinds are sometimes seriously injured by feeding in the autumn on grass thickly covered with hoar-frost. Inflammation of the bowels of a dangerous character, and sometimes palsy of the rumen, have been thus produced. In Switzerland, the commencement of the hoar-frost is the signal for the appearance of abortion. It is occasionally seen at other times in all the cantons, but now its victims are multiplied tenfold. M. Barruel, V. S. * Instructions V6terinaires, torn. vi. p. 1 17. | Journ.Theor.etPrat., 1832, p. 157- 2 M 530 CATTLE. of Chartres, speaks of sixteen cows that aborted at different periods of pregnancy from this cause, and most of whom died *. It has been stated (page 505) that acrid plants are often prejudicial to cattle. " There is no farmer who is not aware of the injurious effect of the coarse, rank herbage of low, marshy, and woody countries, and he regards these districts as the chosen residence of red-water ;" it may be added, that these districts are also the chosen residence of abortion. Hard and mineral waters are justly considered as laying the foundation for many diseases in cattle, and for this among the rest. A writer in a German periodical gives the following account: " In 1822 twelve of his in-calf heifers cast their calves, and in the following year the like accident happened to twelve others, the whole of which used to drink from ponds the water of which was strongly impregnated with iron. In 1824 ten cows that were watered at other places all calved safely, while a single cow that was allowed to drink of the ferruginous water cast her calf. The same occurred in two following years t." Some careful observers have occasionally attributed abortion to the dis- proportion in size betwen the male and female. Farmers used to be too fond of looking out for a great overgrown bull for their dairy or breeding cows, and many a heifer or little cow was seriously injured : she either cast her calf or was lost in parturition. This error has been long exploded among the breeders of sheep; and breeders of cattle are beginning to act more wisely J. Cows that have been long afflicted with hoose, and that degenerating into consumption, are exceedingly subject to abortion. They are continually at heat they rarely become pregnant, or if they do, a great proportion of them cast their calves. When consumption is established, and the cow is much wasted away, she will rarely retain her calf during the natural period of pregnancy. An in-calf beast will scarcely have hoove to any considerable extent with- out afterwards aborting. The pressure of the distended rumen seems to injure or destroy the fretus. Even where the distention of the stomach does not wear a serious character, abortion often follows the sudden change from poor to luxuriant food. Cows that have been out and half-starved in the winter, and incautiously turned on rich pasture in the spring, are too apt to cast their calves from the undue general or local excita- tion that is set up ; and, as has been already remarked, a sudden change from rich pasture to a state of comparative starvation will produce the same effect, but from an opposite cause. Hence it is that when this disposition to abort first appears in a dairy, it is usually in a cow that has been lately purchased. Fright, from whatever cause, may produce abortion. There are singular cases on record of whole herds of cows slinking iheir calves after being terrified by an unusually violent thunder-storm . Commerce with the bull soon after conception is a frequent cause of abortion. The casting of the calf has already been attributed to the sympathetic influence * Journ. Thdor. et Prat., 1832, p. 154. f Landund Hauswirtb, March, 1827, p- 132. + Mr. Wedge, in his " Survey of Cheshire," says that a whole dairy of nearly twenty cows cast their calves in one year. The farmer sold the hull he had used to a neigh- bour, and the whole number of cows to which he was put cast their calves also. The original owner took back the bull, and three of his cows were again put to him, and they also cast their calves. In this instance there was clearly some delect in the male. Instructions VetSrinaires, vol.vi.p 154. Dr. Kudge, in his" Survey of Gloucester- shire,'' says, that there was an enclosure near Arlingham, close to which was a dog-- kennel. Kight heifers and cows out of twenty warped, in consequence, as it was sup- posed by the farmer, of the frequent exposure of flesh, and the skinning of dead horses before them. The remainder were removed to a distant pasture and did well. ABORTION, OR SLINKING. 531 of the effluvia from the decomposing placenta: there are plenty of instances in which other putrid smells have produced the same effect, aud therefore the inmates of crowded cowhouses are not unfrequently subject to this mishap. Besides these tangible causes of abortion, there is the mysterious agency of the atmosphere. There are certain seasons when abortion is strangely frequent and fatal ; while at other times it in a manner disappears for several successive years. In the " Leipsic Agricultural Gazette," March 22, 1777, it is stated, that, " by an unheard-of fatality, the abortion of cows in that district was almost general, and that after the most anxious research, no assignable cause for it could be discovered, nor would any medicine or medical treatment arrest the plague." In 1789, all the cows in Beaulieu aborted. This, however, was traced to the long continuance of wet weather *. In 1782 the cows near Granvilliers slinked their young, and this was attributed to the excessive heat of the preceding summer. In 1784 almost all the cows and mares at Chalons aborted, and the cause was unknown f. In 1787 all the cows at Bournonville cast their calves. They had not been out of the cowhouse during the whole of the winter, and had been well taken care of J. There is no doubt that this must be added to the number of epidemic diseases. The consequences of premature calving are frequently of a very serious nature. It has been stated that there is often considerable spasmodic closure of the mouth of the uterus, and that the calf is produced with much difficulty and pain, and especially if a few days have elapsed after the death of the young one. When this is the case the mother frequently dies, or her re- covery is much slower than after natural parturition. The coat continues rough and staring for a long time the skin clings to the ribs the appetite does not return, and the milk is dried up. Some internal chronic com- plaint now takes its rise, and the foundation is laid for consumption and death. When the case is more favourable, the results are, nevertheless, often annoying. The cow very soon goes again to heat, but in a great many cases she fails to become pregnant ; she almost certainly does so if she is put to the bull during the first he.at after abortion. The heat again and again returns, but she does not stand to the bulling ; and so the season is wasted, while she becomes a perfect nuisance by continually worrying the other cattle . If she should come in calf again during that season, it is very probable that about the same period of utero-gestation, or a little later, she will again abort; or that when she becomes in calf in the following year, the same fatality will attend her. Some say that this disposition to cast her young one gradually ceases; that if she does miscarry, it is at a later and still later period of pregnancy ; and that, in about three or four years, she may * Instructions Veterinaires, torn. vi. p. 137- t Ibid. pp. 130, 131. J Somewhat analogous is an account given by White, in his most interesting and instructive work, the " Natural History of Selborne." Dr. Johnson says, that in 177! the season was so severe in the Isle of Skye, that it is remembered by the name of the black spring. The snow, which seldom lies at all, covered the ground for eight weeks ; many cattle died, and those that survived were so emaciated that they did not require the male at the usual season. The case was just the same with us here in the South. Never were so many barren cows known as in the spring following that dreadful period : whole dairies missed being in calf together. P. 396, The French have a very express! ve name for these cows : they call them taurei/leres. A kind of nymphomania is produced, under the influence of which the cow frequently wastes awav and becomes a perfect skeleton. 2 M 2 532 CATTLE. be depended upon as a tolerably safe breeder : he, however, would be exceedingly inattentive to his interest who kept a profitless beast so long 1 . The calf very rarely lives, and in the majority of cases it is born dead or putrid. If there should appear to be any chance of saving it, it should be washed with warm water, carefully dried, and fed frequently with small quantities of new milk, mixed, according to the apparent weakness of the animal, either with raw eggs or good gruel ; while the bowels should, if occasion requires, be opened by means of small doses of castor oil. If any considerable period has to elapse before the natural term of pregnancy would have expired, it will usually be necessary to bring up the little animal entirely by the hand. The treatment of abortion will differ little from that of parturition, pre- sently to be described. If the farmer has once been tormented by this pest in his dairy, he should carefully watch the approaching symptoms of cast- ing the calf, and as soon as he perceives them, should remove the cow from the pasture to a comfortable cowhouse or shed. If the discharge is glairy, but not offensive, he may hope that the calf is not dead : he will be assured of this by the motion of the foetus, and then it is possible that the abortion may yet be avoided. He should hasten to bleed her, and that copiously, in proportion to her age, size, condition, and the state of excita- tion in which he may find her; and he should give a dose of physic imme- diately after the bleeding. The physic beginning to operate, he should administer half a drachm of opium and half an ounce of sweet spirit of nitre. Unless she is in a state of great debility, he should avoid above all things the comfortable drink, which some persons so strangely recommend, and which the cowleech will be almost sure to administer. He should allow nothing but gruel, and he should keep his patient as quiet as he can. By these means he may occasionally allay the general or local irritation that precedes or causes the abortion, and the cow may yet go to her full time. Should, however, the discharge be foetid, the natural conclusion will be that the foetus is dead, and must be got rid of, and that as speedily as pos- sible. Bleeding may even then be requisite, if much fever exists ; or, per- chance, the aforesaid comfortable drink may not be out of place. In other respects, the animal must be treated as if her. usual time of pregnancy had been accomplished. Much may be done in the way of preventing the formation of this habit of abortion among the cows. The fcetiis must be got rid of immediately. It should be buried deep, and far from the cow-pasture. Proper means should be taken to hasten the expulsion of the placenta. A dose of physic should be given ; the ergot of rye, as hereafter to be described, should be administered ; the hand should be introduced, and an effort made, cautiously and gently, to detach the placenta : all violence, however, should be care- fully avoided, for considerable and fatal hemorrhage may be speedily pro- duced. The parts of the cow should be well washed with a solution of the chloride of lime, and this should be injected up the vagina, and also given internally. In the mean time, and especially after the expulsion of the placenta, the cowhouse should be well washed with the same solution, in the manner that was recommended when the treatment of the malignant epidemic was under consideration. The cow, when beginning to recover, should be fattened and sold. This is the first and the grand step towards the prevention of abortion, and he is unwise who does not immediately adopt it. All other means are compa- ratively inefficient and worthless. It was the charm by means of which Chabert arrested the plague which for thirty successive years had devas- TREATMENT BEFORE CALVING. 533 tated the farm at Toury. Should the owner be reluctant to part with her, two months at least should pass before she is permitted to return to her companions. Prudence would probably dictate that she should never return to them ; but be kept, if possible, on some distant part of the farm. Abortion having once occurred on the farm, the breeding cows should be carefully watched. Although well fed, they should riot be suffered to get into too high condition. Unless they are decidedly poor and weak, they should be bled between the third and fourth months of pregnancy, and a mild dose of physic should be administered to each. If the pest continues to reappear, the owner should most carefully examine how far any of the causes of abortion that have been detected may exist on his farm, and exert himself in carefully removing them. SYMPTOMS OF PREGNANCY. The symptoms of "pregnancy in its early stage used to be thought ex- ceedingly unsatisfactory. The period of being in season (which gene- rally lasts three or four days, and then ceases for a while, and returns in about three weeks or a month) might entirely pass over ; and although it was then probable that conception had taken place, yet in a great many instances the hopes of the breeder were disappointed. It was not until between the third and fourth month, when the belly began to enlarge, or in many cases considerably later, and when the motions of the foetus might be seen, or at all events felt by pressing on the right flank, that the farmer could be assured that his cow was in calf. That greatest of improvements in veterinary practice, the application of the ear to the chest and belly of various animals (in order to detect, by the/Ufferent sounds which, after a short time, will be easily recognised the state of the circulation through most of the internal organs, and consequently the precise seat and degree of inflammation and danger), has now enabled the breeder to ascertain the existence of pregnancy at as early a stage of it as six or eight weeks. The beating of the heart of the calf will be distinctly heard, twice, or more than twice as frequent as that of the mother ; and each pulsation will betray the singular double beating of the foetal heart. This will also be accompa- nied by the audible rushing of the blood through the vessels of the placenta. The ear should be applied to the right flank, beginning on the superior part of it, and gradually shifted downwards and backwards. These sounds will soon be heard, and cannot be mistaken *. TREATMENT BEFORE CALVING. Little alteration needs to be made in the management of the cow for the first seven months of pregnancy ; except that, as she has not only to yield milk for the profit of the farmer, but to nourish the foetus which is growing in * The following is an extract from an" Essay on Auscultation, as the only unequi- truly philanthropic spir very different purpose by Drs. Hunt, Corrigan, and myself, and bound on its back on the operating table. I casually applied the stethoscope to its abdomen, without the slightest previous knowledge of its pregnancy, and was surprised to detect almost imme- diately the distinct double pulsations of a foetal heart. My two friends, to whose accuracy of observation I have often been indebted, satisfied themselves perfectly of the fact ; and on examining the uterus about an hour afterwards, we extracted a foetus, the heart of which did not exceed the size of a hazel nut. On inquiring of the person who sold us the goat, and on whose accuracy we could depend, we learnt that it was exactly seven weeks from copulation." Dublin Medical Transactions, vol. i. part 1 ; New Series. 534 CATTLE. her womb, she should be well, yet not too luxuriantly fed. The half-starved cow will not adequately discharge this double duty, nor provide sufficient nutriment for the calf when it has dropped; while the cow in high con- dition will be dangerously disposed to inflammation and fever, when, at the time of parturition, she is otherwise so susceptible of the power of every stimulus. If the season and the convenience of the farmer will admit of it, she will be better at pasture, at least for some hours in the day, than altogether confined in the cowhouse. At a somewhat uncertain period before she calves, there will be a new secretion of milk for the expected little one ; and under the notion of some- what recruiting her strength, in order better to enable her to discharge her new duty, but more from the uniform testimony of experience that there is danger of local inflammation and of general fever garget in the udder, and puerperal fever, if the new milk descends while the old milk continues to flow, it has been usual to let the cow go dry for some period before parturition. Farmers and breeders have been strangely divided as to the length of this period. It must be decided by circumstances. A cow in good condition may be milked much longer than a poor one. Her abun- dance of food renders a period of respite almost unnecessary ; and all that needs to be taken care of is that the old milk should be fairly gone before the new milk springs. In such a cow, while there is danger of inflammation from the sudden rush of the new milk into a bag already occupied, there is also considerable danger of indurations and tumours in the teats from the habit of secretion being too long suspended. The emaciated and overmilked beast, however,' must rest a while before she can again advantageously discharge the duties of a mother. Were the period of pregnancy of equal length at all times and in all cows, the one that has been well fed might be milked until within a fort- night or three weeks of parturition ; while a holiday of two months should be granted to the poorer beast; but as there is much irregularity about this, it may be prudent to take a month or five weeks as the average period. The process of parturition is one that is necessarily accompanied by a great deal of febrile excitement ; and therefore, when it nearly approaches, not only should a little care be taken to lessen the quantity of food, and to remove that which is of a stimulating nature, but a mild dose of physic, and a bleeding regulated by the condition of the animal, will be very proper precautionary measures. A moderately open state of the bowels is more necessary at the period of parturition in the cow than in the mare. During the whole time of pregnancy her enormous stomachs sufficiently press upon and confine the womb; and that pressure may be productive of injurious or fatal conse- quences, if at this period the rumen is suffered to be distended by unnutri- tious food, or the manyplus takes on that hardened state to which it is occasionally subject. Breeders have been sadly negligent here. NATURAL LABOUR. The springing of the udder, or the rapid enlargement of it from the renewed secretion of milk the enlargement of the external parts of the bearing (the former, as it has been said by some, in old cows, and the latter in young ones) the appearance of a glairy discharge from the bearing the evident dropping of the belly, with the appearance of lean- ness and narrowness between the shape and the udder a degree of uneasi- ness and fidgetiness moaning occasionally accelerated respiration all these symptoms will announce that the time of calving is not far off. The cow should be brought near home, and put in some quiet, sheltered place. MECHANICAL ASSISTANCE. 535 In cold or stormy weather she should be housed. Her uneasiness will rapidly increase she will be continually getting up and lying down her tail will begin to be elevated, and the commencement of the labour- pains will soon be evident. The natural progress of parturition should not be unnecessarily inter- fered with. The cow should be frequently looked at, but not disturbed. Although her pains may not be so strong as could be wished, she should not be too closely approached or examined until the water-bladder or bag containing the fluid in which the calf has hitherto floated has protruded and is broken. Soon afterwards it may be proper to ascertain whether the calf is " comitig the right way." In the natural presentation of the foetus, the calf may be considered as couching or lying on its belly; its fore-legs protruding into the passage, its head lying upon them, or being a little be- tween them, and reaching down about as far as the knees, and the back of the calf corresponding with or opposed to the back of the mother. While the throes continue tolerably strong, the farmer or practitioner should have patience, although the progress of the labour may be tediously slow. Nature will at length safely accomplish her object. But if the pains are evidently diminishing-, and hour after hour has passed and the calf protrudes little or not at all more than it did, assistance should be rendered. A pint of sound ale, warmed, should be given in an equal quantity of gruel ; warm gruel should be frequently administered, or at least put within the animal's reach ; and access to cold water should be carefully prevented. To the first pint of ale should be added a quarter of an ounce of the ergot of rye (spurred rye), finely powdered; and the same quantity of the ergot, with half a pint of ale, should be repeated every hour until the pains are reproduced in their former and natural strength, or the labour is terminated *. MECHANICAL ASSISTANCE. The power of medicine failing, recourse should be had to mechanical assistance. Twelve hours or more having elapsed from the commencement of the labour, this should be done, even although the calf may continue to be alive ; and it should not be deferred one moment after it is ascertained that the foetus is dead. Even now, however, the cow should not be dis- turbed more than is absolutely necessary ; and it cannot be too deeply im- pressed on the mind of the farmer, that the frequent habit of rousing the poor animal, and driving- her about, while she is in the act of calving, or even before the labour begins, is an unnatural, brutal, and dangerous one. * There is some difference of opinion among practitioners as to the power of the spurred rye. Mr. Allinson, of Idle, says (" Veterinarian,", Feb. "1834, p. 73) " The ergot of rye has never yet failed in my practice to stimulate the uterus of cattle, whether the muscular power of that organ was exhausted by previous efforts, or torpid from peculiar temperament." On the other hand, Mr. Harrison, of Lancaster, (" Veterinarian," July, 1834, p. 360,) relates a casein which he gave it to the extent of more than a quarter of a pound without its producing the slightest effect. The experience of the author of this work is undoubtedly in favour of the ergot. On the morning in which he writes this note, he witnessed its power in exciting the womb of a deer to very powerful action ; but he must acknowledge that he has more than once, like Mr. Harrison, been disappointed in his expectations from it, which he is inclined to attribute to the peculiar formation of the stomachs of cattle which so often suspends the action of the most powerful purgative. He likewise adds his tes- timony to that of Mr. Harrison, that although it may not produce the desired stimu- lating effect on the uterus, there is no danger to be apprehended from its use in mode- rate quantities. He would therefore advise every practitioner and every farmer to have it at hand. Some interesting accounts of its power of exciting uterine action in other animals are contained in the Numbers of the " Veterinarian" for September and October, 1833. 536 CATTLE. Mr. Skellett, in his work on " the Parturition of the Cow," (a truly valuable one as it regards the point now under consideration, the mecha- nical assistance that can be rendered in difficult and protracted labour,) observes, " As the business proceeds, and the pains increase in strength and rapidity, she confines herself to a lying posture, and in this posture she is delivered of the calf. When we reflect on this conduct of the animal, left to herself, we cannot too much reprobate the advice of those who recommend the driving her in the act of calving, or immediately before it takes place. The author has known a great many instances where it has proved the death of the cow, by producing inflammation and all its bad consequences. Every rational man will agree that the above practice is both cruel and inconsistent; for the animal herself, as soon as the hours of calving come on, immediately leaves the rest of the flock, and retires to some corner of the field, or under a hedge, in order to prevent the other cows or any thing else coming near that may disturb her in bringing for- ward her young." P. 113. If the head is sufficiently advanced to be grasped by the hands, or for a hand to be introduced by the side of it so as to urge it forward, an assistant at the same time laying hold of the fore-legs, and pulling with moderate force at each of the throes of the mother, the little animal may often be brought forward without endangering its life. If, however, it is firmly impacted in the passage, a cord with a slip knot should be fastened round each leg immediately above the fetlock, and a third cord around the lower jaw. Greater power may then be applied, the persons holding the cords pulling in concert, accommodating themselves to the natural pains of the mother, and exerting their strength, although somewhat forcibly, yet quietly and gradually. Here again the brutal violence resorted to by some per- sons is much to be reprobated ; it inevitably destroys the calf, and en- dangers the life of the mother. If the foetus cannot be extracted by moderate force, one of the shoulders should be slipped (taken off), which may easily be effected by means of a small knife curved like those used for pruning, so as to be easily introduced into the passage in the hollow of the hand, and there used without danger of wounding the cow. An incision should be made in the fore-arm of the foetus, and the skin elevated and turned back by means either of the knife or the fingers. The shoulder may then be easily detached from the body and drawn out ; and the bulk of the calf being thus materially lessened, the remainder of it will be readily extracted. UNNATURAL PRESENTATION. It will soon be evident whether the calf is in the right position. The appearance of the feet and the situation of the head will be satisfactory on this point: but from fright, or violence, or some unknown cause, the posi- tion of the fetus is sometimes strangely altered, so as to render its ex- traction difficult or impossible. Mr. Skellett lias given a very useful account of these unnatural or false presentations and to which the reader is referred ; a slight sketch only of the most frequent of them being here introduced. In some cases, although the throes rapidly succeed each other and are not deficient in power, nothing, or perhaps only the mere hoofs, protrude from the vagina. This must not be suffered long to continue, for if it does, the strength of the cow will be rapidly wasted. The hand and arm, having been well oiled, must be introduced into the passage in order to ascer- tain the position of the foetus. The whole of the passage being probably well occupied by the head or fore-limbs, and the uterus and the vagina powerfully contracting, the arm of the operator will receive very consider- able and benumbing pressure; and sometimes to such an extent that the UNNATURAL PRESENTATION. 53? perfect feeling of the limb will not be restored until some hours have passed. This must not be regarded, but the surgeon must steadily, yet not vio- lently, push the arm forward, taking care that he does not wound the cow with his nails. If he finds the fore-feet far up the passage, and the head between them, but sunk down below the bones of the pelvis, he will immediately perceive that the extraction of the calf is impossible while it remains in this position. He will therefore pass a cord with a slip-knot round each of the feet, and push them back into the womb. Next, with the slip-knot of a third cord in his hand, he will push back the whole of the foetus gradually, but firmly, until he is able to get his hand under the head and elevate it and pass the noose round the lower jaw : then grasping the upper jaw and endeavouring thus to raise the muzzle above the rim of the pelvis, his assistants will draw the three cords and easily bring the head and the feet into the passage in the natural position. If the head is not depressed between the feet, but bent down on one side below the passage, cords must be put round the fore -feet, and they are to be returned as in the other case. The head is to be sought out, and a noose passed round the jaw, and then the operator putting his hand against the chest of the foetus and pushing it back, his assistants are to gently draw the three cords, until the head and the feet are properly placed. Great care should, however, be taken that, in drawing out the fore-feet, the womb is not injured by the hoofs ; they should generally be brought for- ward separately and guarded by the hand of the operator within the womb. If there should be insuperable difficulty in raising and bringing the head round, and the calf is dead, the skin must be turned back from one of the legs, beginning at the fore-arm and reaching the shoulder, as already de- scribed, and the shoulder detached, which, considering the weakness of the muscles and ligaments at that age, will be readily effected. The assistant then pulling steadily at the legs, and the surgeon forcing the chest, back into the belly, the. extraction of the foetus will rarely be difficult. It may happen that after many throes no portion of the foetus appears, but the calf is found turned in the womb, with his back resting on the belly of the mother, the feet against the spine, the head depressed below the bones of the pelvis, and the poll pressing against these bones. To turn the calf in this position will be difficult, and often impossible; but, cords having been fastened, as before, to the feet and the lower jaw, the hand should be introduced under the head, so as to raise it in some measure, and enable the assistants, by means of the cords, to bring it and the feet into the passage. If the foetus should be dead, or the life of the mother appears to be in danger, it will be very easy, while in this position, to sepa- rate one or both shoulders, and the head may then be readily brought out. It is not uncommon for the tail alone to be seen at the mouth of the passage. This is a breech presentation, and a very dangerous one. The calf cannot be expelled by the natural throes of the mother, the doubling of the hind legs offering an insuperable obstacle ; nor will it be possible for the foetus to be turned in the womb. The hand must be introduced ; one of the hocks searched out, and the noose end of a cord brought round it : next, the free end of the cord must be carried in and passed through the noose, which is to be tightened and fixed above the hock. The operator must then press against the breech, forcing the calf backwards and up- wards, while the assistants draw the hock to the commencement of the passage by means of the cords. The surgeon should then shift his hand down^to the hoof in order to guard the uterus, as the foot is brought over 838 CATTLE. the ridge of the pelvis. The other hock being afterwards drawn from under the foetus in the same way, the birth may be easily accomplished. The birth being effected, the practitioner should examine the womb in order to ascertain the state of the placenta, and whether there is a second calf. The cases of twins will not often give the practitioner much trouble, for the calves are generally small and easily brought through the passage, unless they should both present themselves at the same time; therefore, at the commencement of every labour, the surgeon should carefully ascertain whether the parts presenting may not belong to two distinct calves; in which case one must be pushed back until the other is delivered, for in the attempt to extract them both together the mother and the calves would in- evitably perish. FREE-MARTINS. The opinion has prevailed among breeders from time out of date that when a cow produces two calves, one of them a bull-calf and the other a cow, the male may become a perfect and useful bull, but the female will be incapable of propagation, and will never show any desire for the bull. The curious name of free-martin has been given to this animal. That accurate enquirer, Mr. John Hunter, spared no pains or expense to ascertain the real foundation of this belief; and he availed himself of the opportunity of examining three of these free-martins. In all of them there was a greater or less deviation from the external form and appearance of the cow ; and in the head and the horns some approach to those of the ox ; while neither of them had shown any propensity to breed. The teats were smaller than is usual in the heifer ; but the outward appearance of the bear- ing was the same. They were slaughtered, and he examined the internal structure of the sexual parts : he found in all of them a greater or less deviation from the form of the female, and the addition of some of the organs peculiar to the male ; and he ascertained that they were in fact hermaphrodites. His description of one of them is given in the subjoined note, and will be in- teresting to the veterinary and medical student*. It is not then a mere vulgar error that the female twin is barren ; and Mr. J. Hunter has very satisfactorily accounted for the reason of her being so f. On the other hand, there are several well-authenticated in- * " Mr. Arbuthnot's free-martin, seven years old. The external parts were rather smaller than in the cow. The vagina passed on, as in the cow, to the opening of the urethra, and then it began to contract into a small canal which passed on to the division of the uterus into the two horns, each horn passed along the edge of the broad ligament laterally towards the ovaria. " At the termination of these horns were placed both the ovaria and the testicles. Both were nearly ol the same size, which was about as large as a small nutmeg. To the ovaria I could not find any Fallopian tube. " To the testicles were vasa deferentia, but they were imperfect. The left one did not come near the testicle, the ri^htone only came close to it, but did not terminate in the body called the epididymis. They were both pervious and opened into the vagina, near the opening of the urethra. " On the posterior surface of the bladder, or between the uterus and bladder, were the two bags called ve&iculce seminales in the male, but much smaller than they are in the bull. The ducts opened along with the vasa-deferentia. This animal then had a mix- ture of all the parts, but all of them were imperfect." Philosophical Transactions, vol. Ixix. p. 289. f It is singular that the Romans should have called their barren cows tauree, as if they had something of the bull about them. Columella, lib. vi. cap. 2'2, speaks of " tauree which occupy the place of fertile cows, and should be sent away." Varro also, De Re JRuglica, lib. ii. cap. 5, calls the barren cow taura. This would be a curious subject of inquiry. THE C^ISARIAN OPERATION. 539 stances of these free-martins having bred. An anonymous writer in the " Farmer's Magazine, for November, 1806,'' describes a free-martin be- longing to Mr. Buchan of Killintringham, that had a calf, and who was a handsome beast, with a well-placed udder, and was a good milker. The same gentleman, however, had another free-martin, which never bred. Another writer in the same Magazine, November, 1807, says, " on the llth of November, 1804, a cow of mine brought forth two calves, one a bull, and the other a cow calf; and in spring last the female twin produced a very good male calf; yet a neighbour of mine assures me that a female twin belonging to him never would take the bull, and was sold on that account to the butcher at the age of four or five.' It would hence appear that the rule is, and a very singular anomaly in natural history it is, that the female twin is barren, because she is an her- maphrodite ; but in some cases, there not being this admixture of the organs of different sexes, or those of the female prevailing, she is capable of breeding. There have been instances of the cow producing three calves at one birth, but they have been so rare that there has been no record of the pro- creative power of the female. The editor of the ' British Farmer's Ma- gazine,' May, 1828, speaks of three calves being produced by a small cow of the mixed Alderney and Yorkshire breeds, which in size, shape, and make, were a fac-simile of each other, and between which the most minute observer could not detect a difference. There is a more singular account in a French periodical. A cow pro- duced nine calves at three successive births ; four at first, all females, in 1817 ; three at the second, of which two were females, in 1818 ; and two females, in 1819. All these, except two at the first birth, were nursed by the mother*. ' THE CAESARIAN OPERATION. Some practitioners have lately recommended, in desperate cases, the opening of the side of the mother, and the extraction of the calf. The circumstances must indeed be desperate which can justify such a procedure. If, at the very earliest period of parturition, the veterinary surgeon can ascertain that there is a malformation of the pelvis, which will render delivery in a manner impossible, and the breed is a valuable one, and the mother, with this malformation, would never again be useful as a breeding cow, and no violent attempts have been made to extract the foetus nothing has been done which could set up inflammation, or give a disposition to inflammatory action ; or if it can be clearly ascertained that there is a deformity in the foetus, an enlargement of the head, or a general bulkiness, which will forbid its being extracted either whole or piecemeal, the prac- titioner might be justified in attempting this serious operation : but in a later stage of the process, when the usual measures have been adopted when the parts have been bruised and injured, and the animal has been fatigued and worn out, and the foetus itself probably has not escaped injury, such an operation can scarcely be defended on any principle of science or humanity. The writer of this work has twice attempted the operation, but in neither case did he save either the mother or the calf; nor is he aware of any English veterinarian who has succeeded. There is an account of one successful case by M. Chretienf, but it is one only out of the several that he attempted, and he attempted this, because, on examination, he found that there was a hard tumour in the womb, which nearly half filled the cavity of the pelvis, and forbade the possibility of delivery. * Nouveau Bulletin cles Sciences. f Journ. Pratique, 1826, p. 221. 540 CATTLE. In such case the experiment was justifiable, and it must have been very gratifying to M. Chretien to have succeeded, but let not the dawn of vete- rinary science be clouded by the reckless infliction of torture on any of our quadruped slaves. If a similar impossibility of delivery should occur in the practice of the veterinary surgeon, and equally justifying the experiment, the operation must be thus performed. The rumen must first be punctured at the flank, or some of the solution of the chloride of lime introduced, in order to get rid of any gas which it contains, and thus to bring the uterus better into view, and prevent as much as possible that pressure on it, and on the intestines, which will usually cause a troublesome and dangerous protrusion of them as soon as an incision is made into the belly. The animal is then to be thrown on the left side and properly secured ; the right hind leg, being detached from (he hobbles, must be brought as far back- wards as possible, and fixed to some post or firm object, so as to leave the right flank as much exposed as it can be. Commencing about two inches before and a little below the haunch bone, an incision is now to be made through the skin, six or seven inches long, in a direction from above downwards, and from behind forwards, and this incision is afterwards to be carried through the skin, and the muscular wall of the flank. A bistoury being taken and two fingers introduced into the wound in order to protect the intestines, the wound is to be lengthened five or six inches more over the superior and middle part of the uterus. At this moment, probably, a mass of small intestines may protrude ; they must be put a little on one side, or supported by a cloth, and the operator must quickly search for the fore feet and head of the foetus. An incision must be made through the uterus of sufficient length to extract the calf, which must be lilted from its bed, two ligatures passed round the cord, the cord divided between them, and the young one, if living, consigned to the care of a slander by, to be conveyed away and taken care of. The placenta is now to be quickly yet gently detached, and taken away. The intestines are to be returned to their natural situation, the divided edges of the uterus brought together and retained by means of two or three sutures, the effused blood sponged out from the abdomen, and the muscular parietes likewise held together by sutures, and other sutures passed through the integuments. Dry soft lint is then to be placed over the incision, and retained on it by means of proper bandages, and the case treated as consisting of a serious wound. Some valuable observations on this operation will be found in the Dictionuaire de Med. Vet., GASTRO-HYSTEROTOMIE. EMBRYOTOMY. In cases of malformation of the calf, or when, as now and then happens, the powers of nature seem to be suddenly exhausted, and no stimulus can rouse the womb again to action, the destruction of the foetus, should it still live, and the removal of itpiecemeal, is a far more humane method of pro- ceeding, and much oftener successful. All that will be necessary will be a very small kind of pruning knife, already described, with the blade even a little more curved than those knives generally are, and that can be carried into the passage in the hollow of the hand with scarcely the possibility of wounding the cow. A case related by M. Thibeaudeau will best illustrate this operation*. ' I was consulted respecting a Breton cow twenty years old, which was unable to calve. I soon discovered the obstacle to the delivery. The fore limbs presented themselves as usual, but the head and * Veterinarian, June, 1831, p. 346. INVERSION OF THE WOMB. 541 neck were turned backwards, and fixed on the left side of the chest, while the foetus lay on its right side on the inferior portion of the uterus.' M. Thi- beaudeau then relates the ineffectual efforts he made in order to bring the foetus into a favourable position, and that he at length found that his only resource to save the mother was to cut in pieces the calf which was now dead. He afterwards describes the knife which he had manufactured for this purpose, and thus proceeds : ' I amputated the left shoulder of the fetus, in spite of the difficulties which the position of the head and neck presented. Having withdrawn this limb, I made an incision through all the cartilages of the ribs, and laid open the chest through its whole extent, by means of which I was enabled to extract all the thoracic viscera. Thus having lessened the size of the calf, I was enabled, by pulling at the remain- ing fore-leg, to extract the foetus without much resistance, although the head and neck were still bent upon the chest. The afterbirth was removed immediately afterwards. More recently I have employed the same instru- ment in operating upon a cow the neck of whose uterus was so constricted that the ringer could scarcely be introduced ; I divided the stricture, and saved both cow and calf.' INVERSION OF THE WOMB. In the convulsive efforts in order to accomplish the expulsion of the foetus, the womb itself sometimes closely follows the calf, and hangs from the bearing, as low as or lower than the hocks, in the form of a large red or violet coloured bag. This is called ' the downfall of the calf-bag.' It should be returned as soon as possible, for there is usually great pressure on the neck of the womb, which impedes the circulation of the blood, and the protruded part quickly grows livid and black, and is covered with ulcerated spots, and becomes gangrenous and mortified; and this is rapidly increased by the injury which the womb sustains in the continual getting up and lying down of the cow in these cases. The womb must first be cleansed from all the dirt which it may have gathered. If much swelling has taken place, and the bag looks thickened and gorged with blood, it should be lightly yet freely scarified, and the bleed- ing encouraged by warm fomentations. While this is done, it should be care- fully ascertained whether there is any distension of the rumen, and if there is, either the common puncture for hoove should be made in the flank, or a dose of the solution of the chloride of lime administered. A distended rumen would form an almost insuperable obstacle to the return of the uterus. Two persons should now support the calf-bag by means of a strong yet soft cloth, while, if the placenta yet remains attached to it, a third person gently separates it at every point. It would be useless to attempt to return the womb until the cleansing is taken away, for the labour pains would return as violently as before. The operator will carefully remove the little collections, or bundles of blood-vessels, which belong to the foetal portion of the placenta, and which are implanted into the cotyledons or fleshy excrescences, that, for some reason, never yet fully explained, grow upon the surface of the impregnated womb, and gradually disappear again after the birth of the calf. If much bleeding attends this process, the parts are to be washed with a weak mixture of spirit and water. The bleeding being a little stayed, and every thing that may have gathered round the calf-bag being removed, the assistants should raise the cloth, and bring the womb on a level with the bearing; while the surgeon, standing behind, and having his hand and arm well oiled, and a little oil having been likewise smeared over the womb generally, places his right hand, with the fingers bent or clenched, against the fundus or bottom the very inferior and far- 542 CATTLE. ther part of that cornu or division of the uterus which contained the foetus, and forces it through the passage, and as far as he can into the belly ; and there he retains it, while, with the other hand, he endeavours likewise to force up the smaller horn, and the mouth of the womb. He will find considerable difficulty in effecting this, for the strainings against him will often be immense, and sometimes when he thinks he has attained his object the whole will again be suddenly and violently expelled. A bleeding from the jugular, and the administration of a couple of drachms of opium, will, materially lessen these spasmodic efforts. The surgeon must, in spite of fatigue, patiently persist in his labour until his object is accomplished ; and he will be materially assisted in this by having the cow either standing, or so placed on straw that her hinder parts shall be considerably elevated. The practitioner should be careful that the parts are returned as nearly as possible into their natural situation, and this he will easily ascertain by examination with the hand. Much of the after quietness of the animal, and the retention of the womb thus returned, will depend upon this. Although the return of the parts to their natural situation may be toler- ably clearly ascertained, yet it will be prudent to provide against a fresh access of pain and another expulsion of the uterus. For this purpose it has been usual to pass three or four stitches of small tape through the lips of the bearing; but this is a painful thing and sometimes difficult to accom- plish ; and the cases are not unfrequent when these stitches are torn out, and considerable laceration and inflammation ensue. A collar should be passed round the neck of the cow, composed of the kind of web that encircles the neck of the horse when he is confined for certain operations : a girth of the same material is then put round the body behind the shoulders, and this is connected with the collar, under the brisket and over the shoulder, and on each side. A second girth is passed behind the first, and a little anterior to the udder, and connected with the first in the same way. To this, on one side, and level with the bearing, a piece of stout wrapping cloth or other strong material, twelve or sixteen inches wide, is sewed or fastened, and brought over the bear- ing, and attached to the girth on the other side in the same manner. A knot on each side will constitute the simplest fastening, and this pressing firmly on the bearing will effectually prevent the womb from again pro- truding. If it should be necessary, another piece may be carried from below the bearing over the udder to the second girth, and a corresponding one, slit in order to pass on each side of the tail, may reach from above the bearing to the upper part of the second bandage. The cow should be kept as quiet as possible ; warm mashes and warm gruel should be allowed ; bleeding should again be resorted to, and small doses of opium administered if she should be restless, or the pains should return ; but it will not be prudent during the first day to give either those fever medicines, as nitre and digitalis, which may have a diuretic effect and excite the urinary organs, or to bring on the straining effect of purging, by admi- nistering even a dose of saline medicine. Should twenty-four hours pass and the pains not return, the stitches may be withdrawn from the bearing, or the bandage removed. RUPTURE OF THE UTERUS. Another more serious evil sometimes accompanies inversion of the womb, namely, a laceration or rupture of that organ, effected either by the unusually strong contraction of the womb, or by the violence with which the feet of the calf are drawn forward in the unskilful treatment of false presentation, or by the general concussion which accompanies the expul- RETENTION OF THE FCETUS. 643 sion of the womb. The laceration is sometimes a foot in length, and is generally found on one side, and not far from the bottom of the uterus. The animal needs not to be abandoned even in such a case, although there will be considerably more difficulty in returning the womb, because the same pressure cannot be made with the doubled hand on the bottom of it, and that difficulty may be increased by the furious state of the beast suffering such intensity of pain, and the whole frame disordered by such an accident. No time should be lost in vain efforts to bring the lacerated parts together and secure them by stitches ; but, the womb having been well cleaned, the placenta removed, and the bleeding somewhat stayed, it must be returned as well and as speedily as can be managed, and the bandage applied, or the lips of the bearing secured by stitches : the cow should then be bled, and opiates administered. Nature will often do wonders here the mischief will be repaired the uterus will become whole again, and that without a tenth part of the fever that might be expected ; and there are instances upon record in which the cow has suckled her calf, and produced another a twelvemonth afterwards*. Rupture of the uterus may occur without protrusion of the part, from the too powerful action of that organ. The symptoms are obscure they have not yet been sufficiently observed. They would probably be gradual ceas- ing of the labour pains coldness of the horns and ears and mouth paleness of the mouth a small and accelerated pulse swelling of the belly, and the discharge of bloody, glairy, fetid matter from the shape. Nothing can be done in such a case. PROTRUSION OF THE BLADDER. In long protracted labour, accompanied by pains unusually violent, the bladder has protruded. A practitioner mistook it for the water-bag, and punctured it. If the calf is not already born, it must be extracted as quickly as the case will admit, and that without scrupulous regard to the safety of the cow ; for the protruded bladder can never be returned to its natural situation in consequence of pain and inconvenience the animal can never afterwards carry high condition, but will be a miserable and disgusting object as long as she lives. RETENTION OF THE FCETUS. It may happen that the pains of parturition gradually abate, and at length cease. If the cow has been much exhausted or injured by the con- tinuance of the labour, or the efforts made to relieve her, and the foetus has been wounded or broken, and considerable inflammation and fever have been set up, she will probably die ; but if she is no more exhausted than may be naturally expected, and the fever is slight, and she eats a little, she should not be abandoned. Mr. King, sen., of Stanmore, relates an instructive case of this kind: ' A few years ago I was called to see a heifer which appeared to be rather losing condition, and which had been observed occasionally to void some offensive matter from the vagina. Before I could get to her, some portion of a calf's fore extremity came away. The owner was very appre- hensive of her doing well, and earnestly pressed the extraction of the re- mainder of the foetus. ' On examination I found the os uteri so small and contracted, that I could not pass my hand ; and as the beast ate and drank, and was so little, either locally or constitutionally, disturbed, I persuaded him to leave her to nature, watching her in case of assistance being required. He consented, * Veterinarian, October, 1828. Rec. de Med. Vet. 1828, p. 365, and 1833, p. 294, 544 CATTLE. and, by degrees, and in detached portions, the greater part, or perhaps the whole of the calf (she was not confined) came away, and she did well, and became fat, and was sent to Smithfield market *.' The same gentleman relates another case which occurred in Stanmore some years previously. ' A cow, healthy, fine, and fat, was slaughtered. The uterus was found to contain the skeleton of a calf almost entire, all the soft parts having separated, and wholly escaped. Nothing of her history was known t-' ATTENTION AFTER CALVING. Parturition having been accomplished, the cow should be left quietly with the calf; the licking and cleaning of which, and the eating of the placenta, if it is soon discharged, will employ and amuse her. It is a cruel thing to separate the mother from the young so soon ; the cow will pine, and will be deprived of that medicine which nature designed for her in the moisture which hangs about the calf, and even in the placenta itself; and the calf will lose that gentle friction and motion which helps to give it the immediate use of all its limbs, and which, in the language of Mr. Berry, ' in- creases the languid circulation of the blood, and produces a genial warmth in the half exhausted and chilled little animal.' A warm mash should be put before her, and warm gruel, or water from which some of the cold- ness has been taken off J. Two or three hours afterwards it will be pru- dent to give an aperient drink consisting of a pound of Epsom salts and two drachms of ginger. This may tend to prevent milk fever and garget in the udder. Attention should likewise be paid to the state of the udder. If the teats are sore, and the bag generally hard and tender, she should be * Veterinarian, January, 1834. t There is an instance on record of the head of a calf (all the other parts having passed away unobserved) being retained in the womb eighteen months. Pains resembling those of parturition then came on. The veterinary surgeon, on examination, detected a hard round body which he mistook for a calculus, and which was so firmly imbedded in the womb that he was compelled to have recourse to a bistoury in order to detach it. In a fortnight she seemed to be well. Instruct. Vett-r. torn. iv. p. 265. A more singular case is related by M. Coquet, in Ihe same work, vol. ii. p.3 1 7. A farmer in the neighbourhood of Neufchsitel purchased a cow that did not appearto be well ; her excrement was liquid, and she had excessive thirst: she gradually got worse, the appetite was lost, and the diarrhoea became more violent and offen- sive. On carefully examining the excrement, the farmer recognised pieces of bone. He sent for a veterinary surgeon, who picked out portions of ribs bones of the leg, and an entire under jaw-bone. She died three wteks afterwards. The colon, at its last curva- ture, was very much enlarged ; its walls were thickened, black, and gangrenous ; and it was perforated on the inferior and right side ; it contained a considerable mass of bones, particularly a pelvis, which, unable to follow the curvature of the intestine, had been im- bedded there, and had also nearly penetrated through the intestine. The womb at that place was hard and thickened, and engorged with blood; the peritoneum was also inflamed, and there was considerable bloody and purulent effusion in the belly. It was evident that, on the death of the foetus, whether by accident or in the process of parturition, inflam- mation of the womb and the intestine had followed ; adhesion had taken place between them ; suppuration, perforation, and the passage of the foetus from the one to the other that portion of the intestine being placed under that coruu of the womb. The uterus, having got rid of that which it contained, closed and healed; but the bones of the foetus gradually separating, and passing along the mucous coat of the intestine produced a constant state of irritation, and at length the pelvis becoming imbedded there, a degree of inflammation was set up which speedily destroyed the animal. \ Can anything he more unnatural, absurd, or dangerous, than the following direc- tions? ' After a cow has calved, it is advisable to let her have an opportunity of drink- ing as much cold water as she will, but by no means warm water ; the latter opening the pores and letting in cold air: warm water is diluting, cold is bracing. It may be observed, that when cows calve in pasture*, if there be water in the place, they arealmost sure to calve near it. Nature has taught them what they want. By drinking much cold water their urine is increased, and the continual straining to void it causes them to force their cleansing.' Parkinson's Treatise on Live Stock, vol. i. p. 1120. BLEEDING (FLOODING) FROM THE WOMB. 545 gently but carefully milked three or four times every clay. The natural, and the effectual preventive of this, however, is to let the calf suck her at least three times in the day if it is tied up in the cow-house, or to run with her in the pasture, and take the teat when it pleases. The tendency to inflammation of the udder is much diminished by the calf frequently sucking; or should the cow be feverish, nothing soothes or quiets her so much as the presence of the little one. THE CLEANSING. The placenta, or afler-Urth, or cleansing, should be discharged soon after the calving. It soon begins to act upon the uterus as a foreign body, producing irritation and fever ; it likewise rapidly becomes putrid and noi- some, and if it is then retained long, it is either an indication of a weakly state of the cow, or it may produce a certain degree of low fever that will interfere with her condition. Every cowleech, therefore, has his cleansing drink ready to administer; but it is too often composed of stimulating and injurious drugs, and which lay the foundation for after disease. The aperient drink recommended to be given after calving, with the addition of half a pint of good ale to it, will be the best assistant in this case and the only thing that should be allowed. Should the cleansing continue to be retained, some have recommended that a weight of six or eight ounces should be tied to the cord, the gentle and continual action of which will usually separate the placenta from its adhesions, without any risk of hemorrhage*: but if the after-birth should still remain in the womb, and decomposition should evidently commence, the hand must be introduced into the passage, and the sepa- ration accomplished as gently as possible. There is, however, a great deal more fear about this retention of the after-birth than there needs to be ; and it is only the actual appearance of inconvenience or disease resulting from it that would justify a mechanical attempt to extract it. It is occasionally retained seven or eight clays with- out any dangerous consequence. BLEEDING (FLOODING) FROM THE WOMB. This, although rarely, may follow natural parturition. It is oftener seen when the uterus has been wounded in the forcible extraction of the calf, and it still more frequently follows the long retention and mechanical sepa- ration of the after-birth. The application of cold to the loins will be most serviceable in this case. A pound of nitre should be dissolved in a gallon of water, and the loins and bearing of the cow kept constantly wet by means of cloths dipped in the solution. If, the season of the year will permit, the water yielded by the melting of pounded ice mixed with salt may be used, being colder, and therefore more effectual. The cow may now drink cold water, and in any quantity that she may be inclined to take, and large doses of opium (two drachms every second hour) should be administered. The hinder parts of the cow should be elevated, in order that the blood may be retained in the womb, and coagulate there. She should be kept perfectly quiet, and the calf not permitted to suck. There are few hemorrhages from the womb, except those produced by absolute rupture of it, which will not yield to this treatment. * There is no objection to this method of proceeding when the after-birth is actually retained in the uterus longer than it should be, but the common notion of its preventing the return of the cord into the womb is absurd. 2 N 5l CATTLE. MILK (PUERPERAL) FEVER. DROPPING AFTER CALVING. Although parturition is a natural process, it is accompanied by a great deal of febrile excitement. The sudden transferring of powerful and accu- mulated action from one organ to another from the womb to the udder must cause a great deal of constitutional disturbance, as well as liability to local inflammation. The bitch, a few days after pupping, pants, heaves, refuses her food, becomes delirious, convulsed, and, unless speedily relieved, dies. The ewe, soon after, lambing, heaves at the flanks,, separates herself from the flock, reels, falls, and dies. So the cow, after parturition, is subject to inflammation of some of the parts the functions of which are thus changed : it is mere local inflam- mation at first, but the system speedily sympathises, and puerperal fever appears. It is called dropping after calving because it follows that pro- cess, and one of the prominent symptoms of the complaint is the loss of power over the motion of the hind limbs, and consequent inability to stand. In a great number of cases, loss of feeling accompanies that of voluntary motion ; and no sense of pain is evinced, although the cow is deeply pricked in her hind limbs. There are few diseases which the farmer dreads more, and that for two reasons ; the first is, that the animal now labours under a higli degree of excitement, and every local inflammation, arid particularly near the parts in which the sudden change of circulation and of function has taken place, assumes a peculiar character, and an intensity, obstinacy, and fatality, unknown at other times : the second reason is, that from his inattention to the animal, or his ignorance of the real nature of the diseases of cattle, he does not recognise this malady until its first and manageable state, that of fever, has passed, and the strength of the constitution has been undermined, and helpless debility has followed. The first symp- tom which he observes, or which the practitioner has generally the opportunity to observe, is the prostration of strength which violent fever always leaves behind it. The early deviations from health are unob- served by the agriculturist, and probably would not always attract the attention of the surgeon. This disease is primarily inflammation of the womb, or of the peritoneum, but it afterwards assumes an intensity of character truly specific. The affection is originally that of some particular viscus, but it soon is lost in a peculiar general inflammatory state, as rapid in its progress as it is violent in its nature, and speedily followed by a prostration of vital power that often bids defiance to every stimulus. Cows in high condition are most subject to an attack of puerperal fever. Their excess of condition or state of plethora disposes them to affections of an inflammatory character at all times, and more particularly when the constitution labours under the excitement accompanying parturition. The poorest and most miserable cattle have, however, sometimes dropped after calving; and they Irave particularly done so when, on account of the approach of this period, they have been moved from scanty to luxuriant pasture, or from low keep to high stall feeding*. * Mr. Hales very properly remarks, that " dropping after calving happens to cows that are very fresh and fat, and particularly to those that calve far on in the season in hot weather; hut cows that are too fat often drop after calving in the winter; and it is observed that the cases that occur in the winter will frequently recover, while the animals that are thus attacked in hot weather too generally die. f'elerinarian, August, 1831. Mr. Storry of Pickering very justly observes in a letter with which he favoured the editor, MILK (PUERPERAL) FEVER. 547 A cow is comparatively seldom attacked with milk fever at her first calving 1 , because in the present system of breeding she has seldom attained her full growth, and therefore the additional nutriment goes to increase of size instead of becoming the foundation of disease. Cases, however, do occur, in which cows of three years old have been speedily carried off by this complaint, but then they had been most injudiciously exposed to the influence of the forcing system. Much depends on the quantity of milk which the cow is accustomed to yield ; and great milkers, although they are not often in high condition, are very subject to this affection. All cows have a slight degree of fever at this time ; a very little addition to that will materially interfere with the secretion of milk, and, perhaps, arrest it altogether; and the throwing back upon the system the quantity of milk which some of them are disposed to give, must strangely add fuel to fire, and kindle a flame by which the powers of nature are speedily consumed. Whether the present improved method of selection, whereby the properties of grazing and giving milk are united in the same animal, will increase the tendency to inflammation, and particularly to this dangerous species of fever, is a question deserving of consideration. It used to be objected to the Short Horns, that they were more liable to puerperal fever than the Long Horns were ; and that it was oftener fatal to them. Much of this arose from the unfounded prejudice which existed against the Short Horns, when they were first introduced ; yet the principle which has just been hinted at should never be forgotten by the breeder of short-horned cattle, that in a disease the early and almost uniform symptom and the most dangerous part of which is the suppression of the secretion of milk, that danger must increase in propor- tion to the quantity of the secretion thus suddenly arrested. Puerperal fever sometimes appears as early as two hours after parturi- tion ; if four or five days have passed, the animal may generally be considered as safe: yet Mr. Leaver relates a case in which a fortnight elapsed between the calving and the dropping of the cow *. The early symptoms of dropping after calving are evidently those of a febrile character. The animal is restless, shifting her feet, pawing, and she heaves laboriously at the flanks. The muzzle is dry and hot, the mouth open and the tongue protruded. The countenance is wild and the eyes staring. She wanders about mournfully lowing ; she becomes irri- table ; she "butts at a stranger, and sometimes even at the herdsman. Delirium follows ; she grates her teeth, foams at the mouth, throws her head violently about, and, not unfrequently, breaks her horns. The udder becomes enlarged, and hot, and tender, at the very commencement of the disease. This is always to be regarded as a suspicious circumstance in a cow at that time ; and if this swelling and inflammation are accompanied, as they almost uniformly are, by a partial or total suspension of the milk, that which is about to happen is plain enough. The disease is an inflammatory one, and must be treated as such, and being thus treated, it is generally subdued without difficulty. The animal should be bled, and the quantity -of blood withdrawn should be regulated by that standard so often referred to that rule without an exception the impression made upon the circulation. From six to ten quarts will pro- bably be taken away, depending upon the age and size of the animal, on tha day of parturition. * Veterinarian, Aug. 1831. * JN * 548 :iv'i'i before the desired effect is produced. Tliere.is no malady which more satisfactorily illustrates the necessity of endeavouring to subdue as quickly as possible every inflammatory complaint of cattle by the free use of the lancet ; for all of them run their course with a rapidity which a person unaccustomed to these animals, and which the human practitioner espe- cially, would scarcely deem to be possible. To-day the cow is seen with the symptoms just described she is bled, and she is relieved ; or she is neglected, and the fever has sapped the strength of the constitution, and left a fearful debility behind. The small bleedings to which some have recourse are worse than inefficient, for they only increase the natural tendency of these maladies to take on a low and fatal form. A pound, or a pound and a half of Epsom salt, dependent on the size of the beast, must next be administered, with half the usual quantity of aromatic ingredients ; and half-pound doses of the same must be repeated every six hours. Should not the medicine soon begin to act, the usual quantity of aromatic medicine must be doubled, for in addition to the con- stipation usually attending fever, there is that which arises from the occa- sional state of the rumen, and the passage leading to it, and that in- sensible stomach must be roused to action and excited to discharge its contents, in despite of the stimulating influence of the spice on the con- stitution generally. The. bowels must be opened, or the disease will run its course ; and, purging once established in an early stage, the fever will, in the majority of instances, rapidly subside, leaving the strength of the constitution untouched *. After the physic has begun to opsrate, the usual sedative medicines should, if necessary, be given. In a great number of cases, however, this all-important period will have passed away, and the practitioner will be called in to witness the fatal winding-up of the affair, and perhaps to be censured for his want of skill, when he is unable to accomplish impossibilities. The digestive function first of all fails when the secondary and low state of fever comes on. The rumen ceases to discharge its food, and that being retained, begins to ferment, and the paunch and the intestines are inflated with foetid gas, and the belly of the animal swells rapidly. Next, the nervous system is attacked the cow begins to stagger. The weakness is principally referable to the hinder quarters, and rapidly iu- ; If * The following; testimony of Mr. Bainbridge of Saffron-Walden to the general efficacy of this mode of treatment is too important to be omitted, although perhaps the extent to which he carried the bleeding might not always be justifiable. " The months of February and March, 1833, afforded me several cases of dropping after calving, I,. immediately bleed to the amount of two gallons, or, in some cases, more, and give a draught composed of Epsom salts Ib. i, spirits of nitre 5^3., and linseed oil Ib. i, jii plenty of thin grueli I ulso order from four to six ounces of salts to be given in gruel every six hours afterwards; some ginger being always boiled with the gruel. If my patient is not relieved in twenty-four hours, and her state permits it, I bleed again, and repeat the salts, oil, &c. Out of six cases in the last two months five perfectly re- covered." Veterinarian, February, 1834, p. 74, Mr. Friend considers this disease as closely connected with a disordered state of the digestive organs, and is a strenuous advocate for purgatives. He s:iys, " Kpsom salts in large quantities, Crotqn seed and sulphur are most to be depended upon. The salts act immediately on the abdomen and intestines, and are excellent pioneers for the Croton, whose action is more upon the other stomachs, and consequently very valuable. I dare not depend upon either alone ; on the salts, because they are apt to pass the three first stomachs too quickly; or on the Croton, because it is so much slower in its operation, and cannot be so immediately extended in its effects. In conjunction they will perform wonders. Common salt is an excellent medicine, but rather objectionable where milk is an object, it having a tendency to diminish the secretion of that fluid." f-'eterinaria n, June, 1833. l. it 1 ^'^ii-jiiOfKiif in Hit 'o .fan! bii.c .'."''ill i ' - '. MILK (PUERPERAL) FEVER. 549 creases. She reels about for awhile, and then falls ; she gets up, falls once more, and at length is unable to rise ; her head is bent back towards her side, and all her limbs are palsied ; and now, when in too many cases no good cari be done, the proprietor, for the first time, begins to be alarmed. This portion of the " Farmer's Series" will not have been written in vain if it induces an earlier attention to the diseases of domesticated animals. The duration of this second stage of puerperal fever is uncertain; but although it is usually more protracted than the first, the period in which hope may be reasonably encouraged is short indeed. If the cow is seriously ill, and off her feed, and does not get up again in two or three days, the chances are very much against her; the author, however, knew one that was saved after she had suffered considerable fever, and had been. down nine days ; and where debility is the principal symptom, and the cow seems to lie tolerably comfortable, and without pain, and picks a little, she may occasionally get up after she has been down even longer than that. The treatment of this stage of the disease, although there has been a great deal of dispute about it, depends on one simple principle, the existence and the degree of fever. Notwithstanding there is debility, there may be fever ; although the strength of the constitution may have been to a great degree wasted, there may be still a smothered fire that will presently break out afresh. In another point of view, much of this apparent weakness may be deceptive ; it may be the result of oppression and venous congestion, and not of exhaustion. The pulse will be the guide, and should be carefully consulted. Is it weak, wavering, irregular, dying away, pausing a beat or two, and then weakly creeping on again? We must not bleed here. These are indi- cations of debility that cannot be mistaken nature wants to be supported, stimulated, not still further weakened. The abstraction of blood would settle the business at once. Is the pulse small, but regular, hard, wiry, and quickened or is it full and quickened? Blood should certainly be taken away. These are as plain indications of secret and destructive fire as can possibly be given. The practitioner should bleed, but with the finger on the pulse, anxiously watching the effect produced, and stopping at the first falter of the heart. Many a beast has been decidedly saved by this kind of bleeding in drop- ping after calving; and many have been lost through neglect of bleeding. Some may have perished when the bleeding was carried too far, and some, if the animals were bled when the pulse gave indications of debility, but none when the pulse indicated power, and the possibility of febrile action. There is a great deal of disgraceful dispute about the propriety or impropriety of bleeding in dropping after calving. One practitioner affirms that he never bleeds, and another that he always bleeds in this disease. One thing, however, is certain, that when the proprietor, or attendant on the cattle, hazards a random or sweeping assertion in this case, either for or against bleeding, he stands in need of a great deal of information with regard to the diseases of cattle ; and when a professional man commits himself in this way, he proves that he is perfectly ignorant of his business and ought to go to school again. The propriety and impropriety of the abstraction of blood depends on the state of the pulse and the degree of fever circumstances which vary in every case, and in different stages of the same case, and which accurate observation alone can determine. - Next, in order of time, and first of all in importance in this stage of the 550 CATTLE. disease, stands physic. The bowels must be opened, otherwise the animal will perish ; but the fever having been subdued by a judicious bleeding, and the bowels after that being excited to action, the recovery is in a manner assured. The medicine should be active, and in sufficient quan- tity ; for there is no time for trifling here. A scruple of the farina of the C'roton-nut, and a pound of Epsom salt, will constitute a medium dose. .For a large beast the quantity of the neutral salt should be increased. Doses of half a pound should afterwards be given every six hours until purgation is produced. The usual quantity of aromatic medicine should be added. Here, too, the constitution of the stomachs of cattle should not be forgotten. If twenty-four hours have passed, and purging has not commenced, even after the administration of such a drug as the Croton- nut, there is reason to suspect that the greater part of our medicine has not got beyond the rumen ; and on account of the cuticular and com- paratively insensible lining of this stomach strong stimulants must now be added to the purgative medicine, in order to induce it to contract upon and expel its contents. Two drachms eiich of ginger, gentian, and caraway powder, with half a pint of old ale, may, with advantage, be given with each dose of the physic. It would seem superfluous to recommend the diligent use of injections in order to hasten the operation of the medicine had not some of (he writers on cattle-medicine strangely objected to them*. Warm water, with Epsom suit dissolved in it, or warm soap and water, will form the best injection, and should be thrown up frequently, and in considerable quantities. Should the constipation obstinately continue, it may be worth while to inject a considerable quantity qf warm water into the rumen, and thus soften and dissolve the hard mass of undigested food, and permit the medicine to come more effectually into contact with the coats of the sto- mach. The warm water would also stimulate the stomach to contract, and thus get rid of a portion of its contents, either by vomiting or purg- ing. In the first case, there would be room for the exhibition of more purgative medicine ; in the other, the effect most of all desired would have been obtained. The rumen will often annoy the practitioner in another way in this com- plaint : either on account of a vitiated secretion in that stomaoh, or from the retention of the food, which, exposed to the united influence of warmth and moisture, begins to ferment, there will be considerable extrication of gas, and the animal will swell with even more rapidity and to a greater extent than in simple hoove. The flanks should immediately be punc- tured, or the probang introduced, in order to permit the carburelted hydro- gen to escape. A dose of the solution of the chloride of lime, as already recommended under " Hoove," should be given to prevent the extrication of more gas ; and a greater quantity of aromatic and fever medicine should be added to the purgative, that the stomach may be roused to healthy action. Ere this the practitioner will have thought it necessary to pay some attention to the comfort of the patient. This part of medical treatment is * Mr. Knowlson lias the following singular and ridiculous caution against the use of injections in dropping after calving : " Many fire for giving clysters, and I have known them given in this complaint until the animal has been blown as full of wind as she could hold, which was the direct way to cure her, for the clysters and air must fill tho bowels, and yet some of these people call themselves cow-doctors. It is difficult enough to prevent her swelling, without giving her s>o many clysters as to cause her to swell." P, MILK (PUERPERAL) FEVER. 551 too often neglected. She should have been watched before she actually dropped, and got as soon as possible into the house, and well and warmly littered up. If she drops in the field it will always be difficult to get her home ; and if she continues out, and bad weather comes on, she will assuredly be lost. She should be placed on one side, or, if possible, on her belly, inclining a little to one side, and, as much as can be managed in her usual position, and with her fore parts a little elevated, and she should be secured in that position by trusses of straw. She should be moved or turned morning and night, in order to prevent soreness and excoriation. Warm gruel and water should be frequently offered to her, and if these are obstinately refused, she should be moderately drenched with thick gruel. Bean and malt mashes may be given with a little sweet hay : but it must be remembered, that while moderate nourishment is necessary to recruit her strength, and support her through such a disease, yet the digestive powers have usually shown that they have shared in the debility of the frame, and must not be too early, or too much taxed. Having well opened the bowels and subdued the fever, the future pro- ceedings of the surgeon must be regulated by the state of the patient. In general, little more will be necessary than attention to diet and comfort. At all events, tonics and stimulants should not be too hastily thrown in. It should be recollected, that the disease was essentially of a febrile nature. Experience will convince the practitioner, that there long remains a lurking tendency to the renewal of febrile action, and he will beware lest he kindles the tire afresh ; but if the cow should continue in a low and weakly state, and especially if her remaining strength should seem to be gradually declining, gentian and ginger may be administered twice in the day, in doses of half an ounce of the first, and a quarter of an ounce of the second, and given in good sound ale ; but the outrageous quantities of aromatics and bitters, and ardent spirits, that are occasionally given, cannot fail of being injurious. It occasionally happens that the cow appears to recover a portion of strength in her fore-quarters, and makes many ineffectual attempts to rise, but the hind-quarters are comparatively powerless. This partial palsy of the hind extremities is the natural consequence both of inflammation of the wotnb and of the bowels. The best remedy is the charge which is generally applied to the horse. Ail embrocations are thrown away on the thick skin of the cow, and the constant stimulus of a charge and the mechanical support afforded by it, will alone effect the desired purpose. A week or ten days should be given to the animal", in order to see whether the power of voluntary motion in these limbs will return ; but should the paralytic affection then remain, a sling must be contrived by which she may be supported, and during the use of which she may be enabled gra- dually to throw a portion of her weight on these legs, and reaccustoin them to the discharge of their duty. A very singular variety of the disease has already been hinted at. The cow is down, but there is apparently nothing more the matter with her than that she is unable to rise ; she eats, and drinks, and ruminates as usual, and the evacuations are scarcely altered. In this state she con- tinues from two days to a fortnight, and then she gets up well *. There is a common consent among the different organs of the frame both under healthy and diseased action. It has been stated that a partial or total suppression of the secretion of milk is frequently an early symp- tom, and, in some stage or other, an almost invariable one of the dis- ease. Experience likewise shows that if the secretion of milk can be * Yt'terinanan, August, 1831, .... 552 CATTLE. recalled, the restoration of the use of the limbs is not far distant. The teats should be frequently drawn, and the discharge of milk industriously solicited. This is a simple method of cure, but it is a far more effectual one than many imagine. That milk-fever is sometimes epidemic there is every reason to suppose. The practitioner may, perhaps, be long without a case, but if one comes under his notice, he has reason to suspect that it will soon be followed by others. The contagious character by which it is so fatally distinguished in the human subject is not, however, so decided ; but this is a subject which well deserves further inquiry. That there is a constitutional tendency to this complaint cannot be denied. Beasts in high condition are peculiarly subject to it ; and an animal that has once experienced an attack of it becomes exceedingly liable to the disease at her next, or at some future calving. Agricul- turists are perfectly aware of this; and if a cow recovers from puer- peral fever, her milk is dried, and she is fattened and sold without much loss of time. Something may be and is done by many graziers in the way of preven- tion. If the cow is in a high, and consequently a dangerous state of condition, and has been fed on luxuriant pasture, it will be very proper, as has been already stated, to bleed her, and give her a dose of physic; and remove her to a field of shorter bite, a little before her expected time of calving. Many valuable animals have been saved by this precaution *. I ^M'_;"'_n>in! -<.*. ./.'ri'vi.'jVi'!!.' ."ji />,. - SOKE TEATS. Cows are very subject to inflammation of the udder soon after calving. The new or increased function which is now set up, and the sudden dis- tension of the bag with milk produce tenderness and irritability of the udder, and particularly of the teats. This in some cases shows itself in the form of excoriations or sores, or small cracks or chaps, on the teats, and very troublesome they are. The discharge likewise from these cracks mingles with the milk. The cow suffers much pain in the act of milking, and is often unmanageable. Many a cow has been ruined, both as a quiet and a plentiful milker, by bad management when her teats have been sore. It is folly to have recourse to harsh treatment to compel her to submit to the infliction of pain in the act of milking, she will only be- come more violent, and probably become a kicker for life ; if by soothing and kind treatment she cannot be induced to stand, nothing else will effect it. She will also form a habit of retaining her milk, and which very speedily and very materially reduce its quantity. The teats should be fomented with warm water, in order to clean them and get rid of a por- tion of the hardened scabbiness about them, the continuance of which is the cause of the greatest pain in the act of milking ; and after the milk- ing, the teats should be dressed with the following ointment ; Take an ounce of yellow wax, and three of lard, melt them together, and when they begin to get cool, well rub in a quarter of an ounce of sugar of lead and a drachm of alum finely powdered. * There are man}' absurd notions about this disease, prevailing in different districts, but none so ridiculous as M. Gelle describes as existing in La Vendee. A cow that he had attended, labouring under puerperal fever, died. The pretended medical man of the place declared that she had been killed by bleeding, and that there were hedgehogs which were the cause of her complaint, and which ought to have been taken away from her. If a cow in calf pastured, before the sun had risen, on any herb over which a hedge- hog had passed, she would have a parcel of little hedgehogs in her womb with the calf. These wise men mistook the cotyledons found in the uterus of ruminants for little hedge- hogs, and introduced the' hand and tore them off without mercy as soon as the cow dropped. Journal Pratique, 1826. p. 477. GARGET. 553 GAIIGET. jf'iiit^ijbflf jffirn 1o s^'TfiifoHrS 3ilj v! Too often, however, the inflammation assumes another and worse cha- racter: it attacks the internal substance of the udder one of the teats or the quarters becomes enlarged, hot, and tender it soon begins to feel hard, it is knotty ; it contains within it little distinct hardened tumours or kernels. In a short space of time, other teats, or other quarters pro- bably assume the same character. The milk has coagulated in the bag to a certain degree, and it has caused local inflammation where it lodges. This occurs particularly in young cows after their first calving, and \vhen they are in a somewhat too high condition, and it is usually attended by a greater or less degree of fever. The most effectual remedy for this, in the early stage of the complaint, is a very simple one : the calf should be put to the mother, and it should suck and knock about the udder at its pleasure. In most cases this will relieve her from the too great flow of milk, and disperse all the lumps. If the inflammation continues or increases, or the bag should be so tender that the mother will not permit the calf to suck ; and especially should the fever evidently increase, and the cow refuse to eat, or cease to ruminate, and the milk become discoloured, and mixed with matter or with blood, the case must be taken seriously in hand. The cow should be bled ; a dose of physic administered ; the udder well fomented ; the milk drawn gently, but. completely off, at least twice in the day, and an ointment composed of the following ingredients, as thoroughly rubbed into the bag as the cow will permit. (Rub down an ounce of camphor, having poured a tea-spoonful^' of spirit of wine upon it ; add an ounce of mercurial ointment, and half a pound of elder ointment, and well incorpo- rate them together.) Let this be applied after every milking, the udder being well fomented with warm water, and the remains of the ointment washed off before the next milking. If the disease does not speedily yield to this treatment, recourse must be had to iodine, which often has admirable effects in diminishing glan- dular enlargements. The only objection to iodine, and which renders it advisable to give the camphorated mercurial ointment a short trial, is that while, by its power of exciting the absorbents of the glands generally to action, it causes the dispersion of unnatural enlargements, it occasionally acts upon, and a little diminishes the gland itself. This, however, rarely happens to any considerable degree, and will not form a serious objection to its use when other means have tailed. It should be applied externally in the form of an ointment (one part of the hydriodate of potash being well triturated with seven parts of lard), one or two drachms of which should be rubbed into the diseased portion of the udder, every morning and night. At the same time the hydriodate may be given internally in doses gradually increased from six to twelve grains daily. The udder should be frequently examined, for matter will soon begin to form in the centre of these indurations, and should be speedily evacuated lest it should burrow in various parts of the bag, and, when at length it does find its way to the surface and bursts through the skin, irregular ulcers should be formed, at all times difficult to heal, and sometimes in- volving the loss of more than one of the quarters. Whenever there is any appearance of suppuration having commenced, (a minute observa- tion \\ill enable the practitioner to discover the very spot at which the tumour is preparing to point,) the diseased part should be freely and deeply lanced, and an immense quantity of matter will often be dis- charo-ed. It is generally bad practice to cut off the teat ; not only is it 554 CATTLE. afterwards missed in the milking, but the quantity of the milk is usually lessened to a greater or less degree. Should the tumour iiave been left to break, a deep and ragged ulcer will then be formed, and must immediately be attended to, for the -neigh- bouring part will be rapidly involved. Half of the bag has in some cases become mortified in a few days, and diseased portions have either dropped off, or it has been necessary to remove them in order to stop the spread of the gangrene. The chloride of lime is an invaluable application here. The wound should be well cleaned with warm water, and then a dilute solution of the cloride freely applied to every part of it; not only will the unpleasant smell from the ulcer be immmediately got rid of, but its destructive progress will be arrested, and the wound will speedily take on a healthy character. When this is effected, recourse may be had to the Friar's balsam ; but the occasional use of the chloride will be advantageous until the bag is perfectly healed. Chronic indurations will sometimes remain after the inflammation of garget has been subdued ; they will be somewhat tender, and they will always lessen the quantity of milk obtained from that quarter. The iodine will seldom fail of dispersing these tumours. The ointment just recommended should be well rubbed in twice every day, and if the enlarge- ment does not speedily subside, the hydriodale should also be given in- ternally. Mr. Christian, of Canterbury, and the author's friend, Mr. May, of Maldon, relate two cases of chronic garget, in one of which the induc- tion had existed four months, and occupied two of the quarters, and was accompanied by the occasional discharge of blood ; and in the other it had been observed more than a twelvemonth, and was increasing. An oint- ment was used by Mr. Christian, in the form of the iodine itself triturated with lard ; and a liniment composed of the tincture of iodine with soot by Mr. May. In] the course of three weeks, the udder was in both cases as well as if it never had been diseased *. The hydriodate of potash is, however, the most manageable and the most effectual preparation of iodine. The causes of garget are various : the thoughtless and unfeeling expo- sure of the animal to cold and wet, at the time of, or soon after parturi- tion, the neglect of physic or bleeding before calving, or suffering the cow to get into too high condition, are frequent causes. So powerful is the latter one, that instances are not unfrequent, of cows that have for some time been dried, and of heifers that have never yielded milk, having violent inflammation of the udder t- The hastily drying of the cow has given rise to indurations in the udder that have not easily been removed. An awkward manner of lying upon, and bruising the udder is an occa- sional cause ; and a very frequent one is the careless habit of not milking the cow clean, but leaving a portion in the bag, and the best portion of the milk too, and which gradually becomes a source of irritation and inflam- mation in the part. Connected with this last cause is the necessity of the advice already given, to milk the cow as clean as possible at least twice in the day, during the existence and treatment of garget. THE COW-POX. The consideration of this disease may be conveniently introduced here. * It often happens to fattening cows, but more in certain districts than otlu-rs, so much so, that on some mars>h lands in the county of Lincoln, a cow cannot be fat- tentd, nor even a heifur that has never giv'ii milk : an ox has there been known to exhibit symptoms of garget. Parkinson on Live Cattle, vol. i. p. 245. . f Veterinarian, Jan. 1830, and M*y, 1833. THB. COW-POX. 555 Cows are subject to two distinct species of pustular eruption on the teats. Little vesicles or bladders appear ; they often differ considerably in size and form, and are filled with a purulent matter. In the course of a few days a scab forms upon them, which peels off, and the part underneath is sound. If the pustules are rubbed off in the act of milking, or in any other way, small ulcers are left, which are very sore, and sometimes difficult to heal. The best treatment is washing and fomenting; a dose of physic, and the application of the ointment for sore teats recommended in page 552. The cause, like that of many .other pustular eruptions, is unknown; except that it is contagious, and is readily communicated from the cow to the milker if the hand is not quite sound, and from the milker to other cows. There is another kind of pustular eruption, of a more important charac- ter, and with which the preceding one has been confounded. It also con- sists of vesicles or bladders on the teats ; but they are larger, round, with a little central depression ; they are filled at first with a limpid fluid, which by degrees becomes opaque and purulent, and each of them is surrounded by a broad circle of inflammation. This is more decidedly a constitutional disease than the former. The cow exhibits evident symptoms of fever ; she does not feed well ; sometimes she ceases to ruminate, and the secretion of milk is usually diminished. These pustules go through a similar process with the former ones they dry up, and at length the scabs fall off leaving the skin beneath sound ; but if they are broken before this, the ulcers are larger, deeper, of a more unhealthy character, and generally far more difficult to heal. This is the genuine cow-pox. The treatment is nearly the same, except that being accompanied by more constitutional disturbance, an aperient is more necessary, and it may occasionally be prudent to abstract blood. The frequent application of a Goulard's lotion, with an equal portion of spirit of wine, will, at least in the early stage of the ulcer, be preferable to the ointment ; but better than this, and until the ulcers are beginning to heal, will be the dilute solution of the chloride of lime. If the teats are washed with this before the cow is milked, it will go far towards preventing the communication of the disease. There is some difficulty respecting the cause of this disease. It is as contagious as the other, and, perhaps, usually propagated by contact ; but it occasionally appears when there does not seem to have been a possi- bility of contact, directly or indirectly, with any other animal previously simi- larly affected. It was the opinion of Jenner, and is still the opinion of many medical men, that the cow-pox originated from infection by the matter of grease in horses, and which had been conveyed to the teat of the cow by means of the unwashed hands of some one who had the care of the horses while he was occasionally employed in the dairy*. This, when brought to the test of experience, has been proved to be altogether erro- * " He (Jenner) conceived the sanious fluid of the grease to be the original disease, and the cow-pox, in the cow itself, to be nothing more than a casual inoculation produced by the cows lying down in a meadow, where the affected horse had been previously feeding, and her udder coming in contact with the discharge which had dropped on the grass and lodged there; and he endeavoured to show the identity of the fluids by the identity of their effects, in respect of the small-pox." Dr. Mason Good's Study of Medicine, vol. iii. p. 59. Dr. George Gregory, in his " Practice of Physic," says, " It has been rendered highly probable, that the cow-pox is only a secondary disease in cows ; that originally it is an affection of the hoof of the horse, communicated to man directly Or to him through the cow." p. 113. 556 neous. A pustular disease has been communicated by contact with the matter of grease, but it resembled far more the spurious vesicle that has been described in the last page than the genuine cow-pox. In a great many instances, however, nothing that could be considered as bearing any analogy to the true vaccine disease followed inoculation with the matter of grease. Woodville, Simmons, Professor Coleman of the Veterinary Col- lege, Bartholini, and others, failed entirely in producing cow-pox in this way; and Dr. Pearson very satisfactorily proved that the cow-pox was oc- casionally found in diseases where the attendants on the cows could have had no communication with greasy horses, nor, in fact, with any horses sick or well ; and where the cows, likewise, had no access to pastures on which horses had fed for many years before. Whatever may still be the opinion of a few medical men. it will be difficult to find a veterinary surgeon whose life is spent amidst these diseases, and who ought to be well acquainted 'with their nature, causes, and effects, who believes that grease 'is*', the origin of cow-pox, or that there is the slightest connexion betweeiT them *. The next interesting circumstance connected with this pustular erup- tion is, that the persons on whom it appeared were, for a considerable period, (it was once thought, during life,) protected from the small-pox.' ' This was known among farmers from time immemorial, and that not only in England, and almost every part of the continent, but also in the Neyr" World. The majority of medical men, however, had regarded it as a inere popular error, and to no one, whom experience had convinced of the active, protective power of the cow-pox, had it occurred to endeavour to ascer- tain, whether it might not be " possible to propagate the affection by in- oculation from one human being to another, and thus communicate secu- rity against small-pox at will." To the mind of Mr. Jenner, then a surgeon at Berkeley in Gloucestershire, the probability of accomplishing this, first presented itself. He spoke of it to his medical friends ; but from every one of them he met with discourage- ment. They sportively threatened to banish him from their club, if hft continued to tease them with his wild speculations. For more than twenty years he brooded on the subject, ere he could summon sufficient resolution to oppose himself to the ridicule of his friends and of the profession gene- rally by making the decisive experiment. At length he inoculated a boy with the matter taken from the hands of a milkmaid, who had been m-;'" fected by her master's cow. The disease was communicated, and with {^^ the immunity which he expected. He multiplied his experiments, and he < was successful in all of them ; and, although his brethren and the public' ^ were slow to believe him, he at length established the power of vaccinatio'rY:'' -" and proved himself to be one of the greatest benefactors to the human race that ever lived f- This account of the progress of vaccination is not out .oin-A place, since the prophylactic against that destructive scourge of the human race, the small-pox, was derived from the animal to the consideration 4f -o ) aaw xoq-woD adi Jsdl bovoiq > a ipw nOf-noVl .iQ SYJSiI bJuoo 8woa orlJ no aJncbtrsMfi sriJ oiodw ^.ecagib m bnuol 1 ylfsaojeeo CHAPTER XVIII. daiiiw no eo-uite-oq oJ g^ovjc on ' v?or- off) *ntf7/ bus ; Ifswi.o THE GENERAL DISEASES AND MANAGEMENT OF CALVES. _>i.oi{w noajnua v--- . Lo) tfootftih sd 1'ijpji .fl'un feoibsm wol 1 HE management of the calf, so far as the profit of the farmer is concerned, belongs to the work on " British Husbandry," this volume having re- lation to that only which is connected with health, or disease, or general welfare, or improvement. In whatever manner the calf is afterwards to be reared, it should remain with the mother for a few days after it is dropped, and until the milk can be used in the dairy. The little animal will thus derive the benefit of the first milk, that to which nature has given an aperient property, in order that the black and glutinous faeces that had been accumulating in the intestines, during the latter months of the foetal state might be carried off. The farmer acts wrongly when he throws away, as he is too much in the habit of doing, the beasti7igs, or first milk of the cow. * Good's Studies of Medicine, vol. iii. p. 55; Gregory's Report, April, 1821. It was the opinion of Jenner, and it is still the belief of some sportsmen, that the cow-pox is a preventive against the distemper in dogs. It might be observed, that there is not the slightest similarity between the two diseases, but that, on the contrary, they affect per- fectly different textures ; it might also be urged that the description given of the distemper in dogs, by the advocates of the power of vaccination, is altogether so erroneous that no dependence can be placed upon it : the most satisfactory appeal, however, is to fact. There is very great caprice with regard to the contagiousness of distemper, whether depending on certain modifications of the disease ; or a certain degree of predisposition or the want of it in the animals exposed to the contagion ; or on different states of atmos- pheric influence. The reason of it has never been sufficiently explained, but the fact admits of no denial, that during two or three successive years there may be isolated cases of it in a certain kennel, but the inhabitants of that kennel generally seem to possess a kind of immunity against its power; but in other years, no sooner does the distemper appear, than it rapidly spreads among the dogs, and carries off the majority of them. There is also no fact better known among sportsmen than that much of the susceptibility of infection depends on the breed. Some dogs, bred too much in and in, can scarcely be reared at all, while in others the disease can scarcely be distinguished from common catarrh. It was probably at some of these periods of security, or the subjects of his ex- periments belonging to some of these privileged breeds, that Dr. Sacco of Milan inocu- lated two hundred and thirty dogs with vaccine matter, and only one of them afterwards had the distemper and died ; and it was probably when the contagious influence of the disease was more powerful, or the breed predisposed to take on the disease in its most fearful character, that Dr. Valentin of Nancy lost from distemper two dogs out of three which he had previously inoculated with vaccine matter; and that Gohier was quite un- successful in obtaining an immunity against the disease. The author of this work has inoculated more than sixty dogs, and the result of his experience is, that the vaccine matter neither destroys the contagion, nor mitigates the disease. Numerous experiments were made on the effect of inoculation with the vaccine mat- ter, in preventing or mitigating the scab in sheep, and the strangles in horses. The accounts given by the experimentalists are inconsistent to a degree scarcely credible ; but public opinion seems to have decided that here too it was powerless. It was only in one of those moments of " reverie" pardonable in a mind enthusiastically devoted to the pursuit of a benevolent and noble object, and when the " wish is father" to many a con- clusion, that it could be believed that the cow-pox would afford protection against rabies. Diet, de Med. e.t de Chirurgie Vet., VACCINATION. 553 CATTLE. , .':i/'*l "'>rfl ni ?^ NAVEL-ILL. The calf being cleaned, and having begun to suck, the 'navel-string should be examined. Perhaps it may continue slowly to bleed. In this case a ligature should be passed round it closer, but, if it can be avoided, not quite close to the belly. Possibly the spot at which the division of the cord took place may be more than usually sore. A pledget of tow well wetted with Friar's balsam should be placed over it, confined with a bandage, and changed every morning and night ; but the caustic applica- tions, that are so frequently resorted to, should be avoided. Sometimes when there has been previous bleeding, and especially if the caustic has been used to arrest the hemorrhage, and at other times when all things have seemed to have been going on well, inflammation suddenly appears about the navel between the third, and eighth, or tenth day. There is a little swelling of the part, but with more redness and tenderness than such a degree of enlargement would indicate. Although there may be nothing in the first appearance of this to excite alarm, the navel-ill is a far more serious business than some imagine. Mr. Sitwell, an intelligent breeder at Barmoor Castle in Northumberland, says, " that in his part of the country, as soon as the calf takes on this disease, they consider it as dead ; and butchers and graziers will not purchase any calves until the usual time for having the disorder is passed *." Fomentation of the part in order to disperse the tumour, the opening of it with a lancet if it evidently points, and the administration of two or three two-ounce doses of castor oil, made into an emulsion by means of an egg, will constitute the first treatment ; but if, when the inflammation abates, extreme weakness should come on, as is too often the case, gentian and laudanum, with, perhaps, a small quantity of port wine, should be administered. CONSTIPATION. If the first milk or beastings has been taken from the calf, and consti- pation, from that, or from any other cause, succeeds, an aperient should be administered without delay. The sticky black faeces, with which the bowels of the newly-born calf are often loaded, must be got rid of. Castor oil is the safest and the most effectual aperient for so young an animal. It should be given, mixed up with the yolk of an egg, or in thick gruel, in doses of two or three ounces ; and even at this early age, the carminative which forms so usual and indispensable an ingredient in the physic of cattle must not be omitted a scruple of ginger should be added to the oil. Constipation of another kind may be prevented, but rarely cured. If the weather will permit, and the cow is turned out during the day, and the calf with her, the young one may suck as often and as much as it pleases the exercise which it takes with its mother, and the small quantity of green meat which it soon begins to crop, will keep it healthy ; but if it is under shelter with its dam, and lies quiet and sleepy the greater part of the day, some restraint must be put upon it. It must be tied in a corner of the hovel and not permitted to suck more than three times during the day, otherwise it will take more milk than its weak digestive powers will be able to dispose of, and which will coagulate, and form a hardened mass, and fill the stomach and destroy the animal. The quantity of this hardened curd which has sometimes been taken from the fourth stomach almost exceeds belief. This is particularly the case when a foster mother, that probably had calved several weeks before, is given to the little one, or the calf has too early been fed with the common milk of the dairy. The only chance * British Farmer's Magazine. HOOSE. 559 of success in this disease lies in the frequent administration (by means of the stomach-pump, or the drink poured gently down from a small horn) of plenty of warm water, two ounces of Epsom salt being dissolved in the quantity used at each administration. At a later period, the calf is sometimes suffered to feed too plentifully on hay, before the manyplus has acquired sufficient power to grind down the fibrous portions of it. This will be indicated by dulness, fever, enlarge- ment of the belly, and the cessation of rumination, but no expression of extreme pain. The course pursued must be the same. The manyplus must be emptied either, by washing it out, by the frequent passage of warm water through it, or by stimulating it to greater action, through the means of the sympathetic influence of a purgative on the fourth stomach, and the intestinal canal. A tendency to costiveness in a calf should be obviated as speedily as possible it is inconsistent with the natural and profitable thriving of the animal, and it can never long exist without inducing a degree of fever, - always dangerous, and generally fatal. The farmer is sadly inattentive here, and loses many of his best young stock, for they are generally the most disposed to costiveness. ?, i : 'w ? * fYiJnuoo DIARRHCEA. The disease, however, to which calves are most liable, and which is most fatal to thorn, is purging. It arises from various causes the milk of the mother may not agree with the young one ; it may be of too poor a nature, and then it produces that disposition to acidity, which is so easily excited in Ihe fourth stomach, and the intestines of the calf; or, on the other hand, it may be too old and rich, and the stomach, weakened by the attempt to convert it into healthy chyle, secretes or permits the development of an acid fluid. It is the result of starvation and of excess it is the almost neces- sary consequence of a sudden change of diet ; in fact, it is occasionally produced by every thing that deranges the process of healthy digestion. The farmer needs not to be alarmed although the faeces should become thin, and continue so during two or three days, if the animal is as lively as usual, and feeds as he was wont; but if he begins to droop, if he refuses his food, if rumination ceases, and he is in evident pain, and mucus, and perhaps blood, begin to mingle with the dung, and that is far more foetid than in its natural state, not an hour should be lost. The proper treat- ment has already been described under the titles of diarrhoea and dysentery, pp. 475, et seq. A mild purgative (two ounces of castor oil, or three of Epsom salt) should first be administered, to carry away the cause of the disturbed state of the bowels. To this should follow anodyne and astringent and alkaline medicines, with a mild carminative. The whole will consist of opium, catechu, chalk, and ginger. The union of these constitutes the medicine known under the name of the " Calves' Cordial ;" but the carminative generally exists in unnecessary and dangerous pro- portions. The proportions of each have already been given in p. 476, when describing the treatment of diarrhoea. The use of this mixture should be accompanied by frequent drenching with starch or thick gruel ; by the removal of green or acescent food, and by giving bran mashes, with a little pea or beau flour. HOOSE. A sufficiently alarming view has been given of this disease in adult cuttle, but calves are even more subject to it ; it takes on in them a more 560 CATTLE. dangerous character, and more speedily terminates in wasting and in death. Hoose often assumes an epidemic form in cattle of a twelvemonth old and upwards ; it often appears as an epidemic among 1 calves, and carries off great numbers of them. The treatment recommended for grown cattle under the article Hoose, in p. 378 et seq., should, with such deviation as the different age and situation of the beast require, be adopted here. The bleeding, perhaps, should not be carried to so great an extent, and even somewhat more attention should be paid to the comfort of the animal. CASTRATION. ' There used to be a strange difference of opinion among farmers as to the time when this operation should be performed. In some parts of the north of the kingdom it is delayed until the animal is two years old; but this is done to the manifest injury of his form, his size, his propensity to fatten, the quality of his meat, and his docility and general usefulness as a working ox. The period which is now pretty generally selected is between the first and third months. The nearer it is to the expiration of the first month, the less danger attends the operation. Some persons prepare the animals by the administration of a dose of physic ; but others proceed at once to the operation when it best suits their convenience, or that of the farmer. Care, however, should be taken that the young animal is in perfect health. The mode formerly practised was simple enough : a piece of whipcord was tied as tightly as possible round the scrotum. The supply of blond being thus completely cut off, the bag and its contents soon became livid and dead, and were suffered to hang, by some careless operators, until they dropped off, or were cut off on the second or third day. It is now, however, the general practice to grasp the scrotum in the hand, between the testicles and the belly, and to make an incision on one side of it, near the bottom, of sufficient depth to penetrate through the inner covering of the testicle, and long enough to admit of its escape. The testicle immediately bursts from its bag, and is seen hanging by its cord. The careless or brutal operator now firmly ties a piece of small string round the cord, and having thus stopped the circulation, cuts through the cord half an inch below the ligature, and removes the testicle. He, how- ever, who has any feeling for the poor animal on which he is operating, considers that the only use of the ligature is to compress the blood-vessels and prevent after hemorrhage, and therefore saves a great deal of un- necessary torture, by including them alone in the ligature, and afterwards dividing the rest of the cord. The other testicle is proceeded with in the same way, and the operation is complete. The length of the cord should be so contrived that it shall immediately retract into the scrotum, but not higher, while the ends of the siring hang out through the wounds. In the course of about a week the strings will usually drop olF, and the wounds will speedily heal. It will be rarely that any application to the scrotum will be necessary, except fomentation of it, if much swelling should ensue. A few, but their practice cannot be justified, seize the testicle as soon as it escapes from the bag, and, pulling violently, break the cord and tear it out. It is certain that when a blood-vessel is thus ruptured, it forcibly contracts, and very little bleeding follows ; but if the cord breaks high up and retracts into the belly, considerable inflammation has occa- sionally ensued, and the beast has been lost. This tearing of the cord may be practised on smaller animals, as pigs, or lambs, or rabbits ; the vessels are small, and there is but little substance to be torn asunder: CASTRATION. 5W but even there the knife, somewhat blunt, will be a more surgical and humane substitute. This laceration should never be permitted in the castration of the calf or the colt. The application of torsion, or the twisting of the arteries by means of a pair of forceps which will firmly grasp them, promises to supersede every other mode of castration, both in the larger and the smaller domesticated animals. The spermatic artery is exposed, and seized with the forceps, which are then closed by a very simple mechanical contrivance ; the vessel is drawn a little out from its surrounding tissue, the forceps are turned round seven or eight times, and the vessel liberated. It will be found perfectly closed ; a small knot will have formed on its extremity ; it will retract into the surrounding substance, and not a drop more blood will flow from it: the cord may be then divided, and the bleeding from any little vessel arrested in the same way. Neither the application of the hot iron or of the wooden clams, whether with or without caustic, can be necessary in the castration of the calf*. ,8/Ifnotn hv*0 &; * In many parts of France the bull-calf is castrated by means of a curious species of orsion, termed bistouritage. The animal is thrown and secured ; the operator places himself behind the animal, and opposite to the tail; he seizes the testicles with both his hands, and pushes them violently upwards and downwards several times, in order to destroy their adhesion to their coverings. He continues this manipulation until he thinks that he has produced sufficient lengthening of the cords, and dilatation of the bag itself ; he then pushes up the left testicle as nearly as possible to the ring, leaving the right one low in the bag ; he seizes the cord of the right testicle between the finger and thumb of the left hand, about an inch above the testicle, and grasping the bottom of the scrotum with his right hand, he turns the testicle, and pushes it forcibly upwards, until he has re- versed it, and its inferior extremity is uppermost Some little practice is required in order readily to effect this. Then, the right hand holding the testicle while the left hand raises the cord, the testicle is turned round from right to left four or five, or six times, until there is a degree of tension and difficulty in the turning, which indicates that the spermatic vessels are so far compressed or obliterated as to be deprived of the power of secreting or conveying the seminal fluid. The testicle is by this means brought up nearly to the abdominal ring, where it is retained by turning the scrotum over it, while the left testicle is brought down, reversed, and turned in the same manner. Last of all, in order to prevent the untwisting of the cords and the descent of the testicles, the operator grasps the bottom of the scrotum in his left hand, and holding one end of a piece of cord, eighteen inches in length, and about as large as a quill, between his teeth, and having the other end in his right hand, he makes with it several turns round the scrotum with considerable firmness below and close to the testicles, yet not so tightly as quite to stop the circulation of blood through the bag. This is taken away at the end of the second day, after which the testicles will remain fixed against the abdomen, and will gradually wither away. The animal is usually bled after the operation, and half of its allowance of food is for a while taken away, and it may be sent to pasture on the second or third day, if the weather is favourable. This mode of castration does not appear to be very painful to the animal, and is rarely attended by any dangerous results, it is, however, principally adapted for young cattle ; for when the muscle of the scrotum is powerful, especially in cold weather, and when there is much adhesion between the testicle and its surrounding tunics, the torsion of the testicle is scarcely practicable. The animals that are thus emasculated are said to preserve more of the form of the bull than others from whom the testicles are excised : they also retain mure of the natural desires of the bull, and are occasionally very trouble- some among the cows. Diet, de Med. et Chirurg. Vet. CASTRATION, i/a* . -.--., ,;..., . . ,i**u> : .. : -, ^ irj j ad Q* i 2 O 562 -CATTLE. " ''.' ' r.ji-i'CM ,(: '' '.--^ CHAPTER XVIII. ' . ' - '. . ..,.." >,*;. 1/ui^ ~;i'.i ifi iBoq<[/- DISEASES OF THE MUSCULAR SYSTEM AND OF THE EXTREMITIES. RHEUMATISM. Although some writers have been strangely averse to acknowledge the existence of this disease in the horse, no farmer has a doubt of its frequent occurrence in cattle. It is inflammation of the fascia, or cellular coat of. the muscles, and also of the ligaments and synovial membranes of the joints. If a cow has been necessarily, or carelessly and cruelly, exposed to unusual cold and wet, particularly after calving, or too soon after recorery from serious illness, she will often be perceived to droop. She becomes list- less,. unwilling to move, and by degrees gets off her feed. If urged to more, there is a marked stiffness in her action, at first referrible chiefly, or almost entirely, to the spine ; and she walks as if all the articulations of the back and loins had lost their power of motion. She shrinks when pressed on the loins ; and the stiffness gradually spreads to the fore or hind limbs. The farmer calls it chine fellon ; if it gets a little worse, it acquires the name of joint fellon, and worse, unless care is taken, it speedily will become. Some of the joints swell: they are hot and tender; the animal can scarcely bend them ; and he cannot move without difficult)' and evi- dent pain. Who could doubt that the same causes which produce rheumatism in the human being will produce it also in the quadruped ? Where is either the proof or the probability of exemption? Thus we find rheumatism in cattle chiefly prevalent in a cold, marshy country in places exposed to the coldest winds in spring and in autumn, when there is the greatest vicis- situde of heat and cold in animals that have been debilitated by insuffi- cient diet, and that cannot withstand the influence of sudden changes of temperature in old cattle particularly, and such as have been worked hard, and then turned out into the cold air, with the perspiration still hanging about them. It seems to assume the acute and the chronic form as evidently as it does in the human being. One animal will labour under considerable fever ; he will scarcely be able to move at all, or when he does, it extorts from him an expression of suffering. Another seems to be gay and well, when the air is warm and dry ; but as soon as the wind shifts, or imme- diately before it changes, he is uneasy, and comparatively helpless. On some portions of a farm, nothing seems to ail the cattle ; on others, lower, moister, or more exposed, the cattle crawl about stiffly and in pain. In some extreme cases, the quantity of milk rapidly diminishes, and the cow wastes away and becomes a mere skeleton. The rheumatism in cattle, as in the human subject, may be palliated, but rarely removed. The treatment of it consists in making the animal comfortable in sheltering her from the causes of the complaint in giving her a warm aperient, which, while it acts upon the bowels, may determine to the skin, as sulphur, with the full quantity of ginger. The practitioner will afterwards give that which will yet more determine to the skin, as antimonial powder, combined with an anodyne medicine, almost any pre- paration of opium; and lie will have recourse to an embrocation stimu- lating to the skin, and thus probably relieving the deeper seated pain, as camphorated oil, or spirit of turpentine and laudanum. \ SWELLINGS OF THE JOINTS. These are usually the consequence of rheumatism. Small tumours appear in the neighbourhood of the joints that were most affected. They seem at first to belong (o the muscles ; but they increase: they involve the tendons of the muscles, and then the ligaments of the joints, and the lining- membrane of the joints. When this is the case, other diseases are at hand inflammation of the lungs or bowels ; but, oftenest of all, rheu- matism degenerates into palsy *. The superficial veins in the neighbourhood of the joints sometimes become full and large ; they grow decidedly varicose. When the causes of rheumatism are removed, the situation of the animal changed, and the weather has become more congenial, the lameness decreases, the swellings diminish, but the varicose veins remain. The enlargements of the joints connected with, or the consequences of rheumatism are removed bul in the majority of cases only temporarily by stimulating embrocations, of which spirit of turpentine or the com- pound one of turpentine, ammonia, camphorated spirit, and laudanum, is the most effectual. Some, however, will not disappear without the appli- cation of the cautery. There are other tumours about the joints, and particularly the knees of cattle, which are not necessarily connected with rheumatism, and in many cas^s quite independent of it, although they are found only in beasts that are out at pasture. They are of two kinds. The first occupies the fore-part of the knee, and generally one knee at a time. A fluid collects in the tissue imme- diately beneath the skin, and which yields to the pressure of the finger. The pressure causes no pairi, nor is there any inflammation of the skin, but there is some degree of lameness. The tumours insensibly increase; they still contain a fluid. Inflammation is now sufficiently evident : the lameness is very great; the animal is incapable of work, and the motion of the joint is almost destroyed. Frictions with turpentine and hartshorn are often employed : sometimes one composed of tincture of cantharides is used. These occasionally dis- perse the tumours for a while, but they speedily re-appear. The budding * Mr. Tait of Portsoy gives an interesting account of these affections of the joints, under the designation of " Crochles" He says that the early symptoms are pains in the feet, and particularly the fore-feet, with enlargement of the joints ; the hiiid-quarters particu- larly becoming so weak and contracted that the animal can scarcely stand ; and some- times she lies for many weeks without the power of moving. If she is neglected she certainly dies ; and then the cartilages of the joints are always ulcerated, and sometimes nearly destroyed. Mr. Tait has no faith in any medicine or external application ; but he believes that the removal of the animal to a more comfortable situation, and particularly to a drier pasture, will, in the early stages of the complaint, be attended with decided good effect. It is a very simple remedy, and is worth a trial. A brother practitioner related a very curious anecdote of the occasional treatment of this disease, which Mr. Tait gives in his own words: "Soon after commencing practice in this district, I was particularly struck \vith the appearance of a cow belonging to a cottar. On inquiring into the cause of the animal's apparent helplessness, my informant stated to me that ' she had had the crochles, but was now in a way of getting better, a man having pared out the worm that was the cause of the awful complaint ; that the man knew the very spot where the worm lodged, and that he appeared to have great experience, having travelled much as a beggar? In fact, he had sawn off two inches from each claw of her feet. The cow was in a woful plight ; her joints enlarged, her muscles shrunk, and her skin clinging to her bones." After remonstrating with the cottar on his folly, Mr. Tait's friend persuaded the cottar to remove her to a farm which the disease had never visited. The animal in a very short time began to move about, and would have become perfectly sound, had not " the beggar" removed apart of the boues of her feet along with the worm. Veterinarian, August, 1834. 202 564 CATTLE. iron is a more effectual remedy. If the tumour is pierced with it, a glairy fluid escapes, and the swelling- subsides. A blister should then be ap- plied, and the animal kept in the cow-house. The tumour does not often return, but it is a considerable time before the lameness quite disappears. A more frequent species of tumour is of a hard character. It does not yield at all to pressure ; it evidently causes considerable pain, and the animal is very lame. These tumours are almost invariably confined to one knee. Here, neither frictions nor perforation with the budding-iron will be of material benefit, although deep firing has sometimes succeeded. Other tumours, sometimes immediately on the joints, and at other times at a greater or less distance from them, and of variable degrees of hardness ; sometimes adhering to and identified with the substance be- neath, and at other times more or less pendulous, do not appear to give much pain to the animal, nor do they often interfere with the motion of the joints, but they are a great eyesore, and, in a few instances, they sud- denly take on a disposition to increase with great rapidity. These have been blistered without effect setons have been passed through them with variable result, and occasionally recourse has been had to excision. Some surgeons have very lately begun to treat them with iodine ; the ointment of the hydriodate of potash has been well rubbed into the tumours and the neighbouring parts ; and the hydriodate has at the same time been administered internally. The success of this treatment with the two last species of tumours, has been almost as great as the practitioner could desire. They have uniformly very much diminished in size; and in the great majority of cases they have disappeared. The ointment should be composed as already recommended, and six grains of the hydrioc'ate given morning arid night in a mash. On the first species of tumour unconnected with rheumatism, the iodine has seldom had decided effect. ULCEUS ABOUT THE JOINTS. These tumours sometimes assume very much the appearance of farcy in the horse. They run in lines, they follow the apparent course of the veins, but they belong to the absorbents. They frequently ulcer- ate the wounds are painful, deep, and spreading. They have already been described (p. 313,) when the question of farcy in cattle was con- sidered. The dilute solution of the" chloride of lime will form the best appli- cation, and will usually be successful; especially if occasionally aided by some caustic wash, as a solution of blue vitriol, or dilute nitric acid. .I)U /on 191 yiibu'j'' "' .->-' . . ouiuijjiw OPENED JOINTS. These sometimes occur from the injudicious lancing of the first kind of tumour, but oftener from accident. The principle of the treatment of open joints is the same as was recommended in the " Treatise on the Horse,'' p. 242, namely, to close the orifice as soon as possible, and before the secretion of the joint oil is stopped, and the cartilages of the opposing bones rub on each other, and the delicate membrane which lines these cartilages becomes inflamed, and the animal suffers extreme torture, and a degree of fever ensues by which he is speedily destroyed. The wound is best closed by means of the firing iron. For a description of the operation the reader is referred to "the Horse," under the title " Broken Knees." SPRAINS. _,. fi;v t 1 3JU4PJ 3?nJ Jo ai^H'maflfl o) gsaoitejU} , Working oxen, and those that have been driven long journeys, are liable FOUL IN THE FOOT. 565 to sprain, and particularly of the fetlock joint. The division of the lower part of the cannon or shank bone, in order that it may articulate with the two pasterns into which the leg is divided renders this joint particularly weak and susceptible of injury. The treatment is the same as in the horse, and consists of fomentation of the part, to which should succeed band- ages very gradually increasing in tightness, cold lotions, and afterwards, if the deep-seated inflammation cannot otherwise be subdued, stimulating applications, blistering, or, as the last resource, firing. The inflammation attending sprain of this joint is often very great, and enormous bony enlargement and anchylosis are not unfrequently seen. They embrace the fetlock joint ; they frequently include the pastern : but oftener, the inflammation and bony enlargement extend up the leg, and particularly the posterior part of it almost to the knee ; for the division of the flexor tendons, in order to reach both toes, takes place considerably above the fetlock (the precise place varying in different animals), and these, from the oblique direction which they take, are peculiarly liable to strain, with probability of serious injury. The firing iron must be severely applied before the mischief has proceeded to this extent. ; "jniboi nl/w man) Juaif oi mr^'jd '(JaJjel ^iw 9vi?ri snosgiua amoS ' n9<> DISEASES OF THE FEET.//d 9lfo lo i(I9min 1c- SHOEINO n 3 ,fj boa'toorf ailHo astefq wioi- This, as in the horse, is a necessary evil. A beast used for road work would soon be crippled and ruined without shoes ; and the farmer would find it his interest never to send an ox to plough unshod. He would be well repaid for the expense of shoeing by the increased speed, the greater capability of work, the endurance and the superior condition of his cattle. Little skill is required in the smith in order to adapt the shoe to the foot of the ox ; there is no weakness of particular parts, no corn, no tenderness of frog, no disposition to contraction to be studied; the simple principle is to cover the sole effectually. Around the outer rim the shoe should follow the line of the foot it should somewhat project in- wardly towards the toe, and be rounded towards the heel, with the pro- jection likewise inward. It should be fastened by three nails on the outer edge, the posterior nail being about the middle of that edge. The nails should be thin, and flat-headed, so that when driven close they shall occupy a considerable portion of the ground surface of the fore part of the shoe. Both the ground and foot surfaces should be flat, and the shoes made of good iron, but thin and light. The only difference between the fore and the hind shoe is that the hind shoe is thinner and lighter, not quite so broad or so much curved, and, particularly, more pointed, and more turned up at the toe. v A- JuJ bmins terfJ ni "AwrvM" ^ riliw ^ric -iTOO 89i.J>3 it JtsriJ 10 ij^cbfiBd A -xa iuoriliw no i!omn ?-i xo ail; 10 ^JJa^bft Jdoffl siiJ iUiiio ku rijiw bslesiJite laJls 9 9tiJ ^riiae^ioniT 9"6bujsd aril "Jo B bna jiluloa ^aoita i ad aioblaa aJifiq sill yi 9iU 1o JuaiiuQint anoni ,3aiod auolor/ etneaa nieq .trj;^noC) A. The ground-surface of the fore-shoe. B. Do. of the hind shoe. Some farmers shoe the fore feet only, others take in the two outside claws of the hind feet; but it would be little additional trouble or expense to shoe them all round, and then they would be safe. ; 576 CATTLE. The principal objection to shoeing the ox arises from the difficulty of putting the shoes on. The beast will seldom submit quietly, and recourse must be had to the trevis, or to casting him. The latter is dangerous, and frequently accompanied by accident either to the ox or the smith. The best trevis is that recommended by Bakewell, a description and en- o-raving of which may be found in the " British Husbandry, 5 ' p. 221. Much of the unruliness of the beast, however, might be overcome by kind treatment, and by often handling the steer, and lifting his feet, and strik- ing them gently with a hammer. Finding that no harm is done to him, he will permit this without fear, and he will be likely to submit to the apparently similar process of shoeing. It is fear, and not natural indo- cility, which causes the resistance of the beast. CHAPTER XIX. THE DISEASES OF THE SKIN. THE skin of the ox differs little from that of the horse, except that It is thicker, and apparently less sensible ; therefore for some observations on the structure and functions of the skin, the reader is referred to the Trea- tise on the Horse, p. 369 ; they apply equally to the greater part of our domesticated animals. The horseman properly attaches great importance to the state of the skin in that animal. If it is hard and dry, and unyielding, he says that the horse is out of condition ; and then he knows full well that although tlie animal may have no decided disease about him, yet he is scarcely capable of discharging his ordinary duty, and altogether unequal to any extraordinary exertion. Graziers know as well that the beast whose skin is not soft, and mellow, and elastic, can never carry any profitable quantity of flesh and fat; therefore they judge of the value of the animal even more by the handling than they do by the conformation of parts. The skin is filled with innumerable little glands which pour out an oily fluid, that softens and supples it, so that we can easily take it between the finger and thumb, and raise it from the parts beneath ; and while we are doing this, we are sensible of its peculiar mellowness and elasticity. At another time or in another animal, the skin seems to cling to the muscles beneath, and feels harsh and rough when we handle it: but the skin is not altered or diseased, it is this secretion of oily fluid that is suspended. We attach the idea of health to the mellow skin, and of disease to the harsh and immoveable one, because the experience of ourselves and of everybody else has confirmed this connection ; and the principle is that when one secretion is properly discharged, the others will generally be so, and when one is interrupted the harmony of the system is too much disturbed for the animal to thrive or to be in vigour. Then, as a symptom of a diseased state of the constitution generally, the attention is first directed to HIDE-BOUND. The term is very expressive the hide seems to be bound, or to cling to the muscles and bones. It does not actually do so, but it has lost its mDE-BQUND. 571 softness, and we can no 'longer raise it, or move it about. The secretion of the oily fluid which supples the skin is disturbed ; this argues dis- turbance elsewhere, and the feeling- of the skin usually indicates the degree of that disturbance. With hide-bound is connected a rough and staring coat. The surface of the skin is become hard and dry ; the minute scales with which it is covered no longer yield to the hair, but separating themselves in every direction, they turn it in various ways, and so give to it that irregular and ragged appearance which is one of the characteristics of want of condition. These two circumstances hide-bound and a staring coat are unerring indications of evil. A cow may be somewhat off her feed she may hoose a little she may have various little ailments ; they should not be neglected ; but while the skin is loose and the hair lies smooth the farmer has not much to fear: if, however, the coat begins to stare, and the skin to cling to the ribs, it behoves him to examine into the matter. What dis- ease unobserved has been preying upon the constitution ? has hoose been degenerating into phthisis ? has some chronic affection of the liver been weakening the strength of the digestive organs? or what has been wrong in the management of the beast? Has she been unnecessarily and cruelly exposed to cold and wet has she been fed on unwholesome pro- vender, or has she been half starved ? If the thrifty appearance cannot be traced to any evident cause, still there can he no doubt that something is wrong. Hide-bound is rarely a primary disease ; it is a symptom of disease, and oftener than of any other disease of the digestive organs. A dose of physic should be given (eight ounces of sulphur, with half an ounce of ginger), and a few mashes should be allowed. After this medicines should be administered that have a ten- dency to rouse the vessels of the skin to their due action, .as sulphur, nitre, and antimonial powder, with a small quantity of ginger. No direct tonic should be administered while the cause of this want of con- dition is unknown, but warm purgatives and diaphoretic medicines will often have a good effect. MANGE. This is the most serious among the diseases of the skin in cattle. The first symptom is a constant itchiness. The cow eagerly rubs herself against everything that she can get at. The hair comes quite off or gets thin on various parts of the body. There are few scabs or sores ; but either in consequence of the rubbing, or as an effect of the disease, a thick scur- finess appears, particularly along the back, and in patches on other places. It is first seen about the tail, and thence it spreads in every direction. The cow soon begins to lose condition, the ridge of her back becomes promi- nent, and her milk decreases, and sometimes is deteriorated in quality. The causes are Various ; they are occasionally as opposite as it is pos- sible for them to be. Too luxuriant food will produce it ; it will more certainly follow starvation. The skin sympathizes with (he over-taxed powers of digestion in the one case, and with the general debility of the frame in the other : and nothing is so certain of bringing on the worst kind of it as the sudden change from comparative starvation to luxuriant food. Want of cleanliness, although highly censurable, has been oftener accused as the cause of mange than it deserves ; but to nothing can it more frequently be traced than to contagion. The treatment is simple and effectual. The diseased cattle should be removed to some distant stable or shed where there can be no possible 572 CATTLE. communication with the others. The disease, however produced, must be considered and treated as a local one. The scurfiness of the skin must first be got off, by means of a hard brush, or a curry-comb, somewhat lightly applied. To this must follow the application of an ointment which appears to have a specific eifect on the mange, and which must be well rubbed in with a soft brush, or, what is far better, with the hand, morning and night: there is no danger of the disease being communicated to the person so employed. That ointment must have sulphur as its basis, aided by turpentine, whicli somewhat irritates the skin and disposes it to be acted upon by the sulphur ; and, to render it still more efficacious, a small portion of mercury must be added. The following will be a safe, and very effectual application there are few cases which will resist its power. " Take of flowers of sulphur a pound, common turpentine four ounces, strong mercurial ointment two ounces, and linseed oil a pint. Warm the oil and melt the turpentine in it ; when they begin to get cool add the sulphur, and stir the ingredients well together, and afterwards incorporate the blue ointment with the mass by rubbing them together on a marble slab." Vast numbers of cattle have been lost by the use of stronger and poi- sonous applications. Corrosive sublimate, in the form of an almost saturated solution of it, is a favourite lotion with many practitioners *. Arsenic hellebore tobacco t have had their advocates, and have murdered thousands of cattle. The practitioner must not, however, confine himself to mere local treat- ment, physic should always be administered. Sulphur, in doses of eight ounces every third day, will materially assist in effecting a cure ; and on the intermediate days nothing better can be given than the powder recommended for hide-bound (p. 571). Mashes also should be allowed every night. LEPROSY. - i-.,,.'j;, jjir" , ' OCib'JJ !.". " Mange neglected or improperly treated may degenerate into a worse disease, but fortunately not one of frequent occurrence. The scurf will be succeeded by scabs there have been cases in which the scabs have appeared from the beginning and the skin becomes thickened and cor- rugated, and covered with scales, and occasionally the scales peel off, and corroding ulcers appear beneath. * The author of this Treatise attended five cows belonging to a gentleman that were afflicted with bad mange. He applied the ointment and the powders here recommended, and the case was going on slowly but satisfactorily. He did not wish to make too much haste in the bujdneBSyfor the disease had been of considerable standing, and the animals had been . much pggdiu^d by it, He was afraid of a worse evil if he repelled this con- firmed and general cutaneous eruption too quickly. The gentleman, however, was im- jiatient; tbe cowherd was more so, and the case was put under the hands of a farrier. He brought a great bottle of some lotion ; he applied it freely about them ; he used almost the whole of it. In a little more than twelve hours one of them began to foam at the mouth she staggered, fell, and died. In less than twenty-four hours they were all dead. The first practitioner was sent for in great haste, and arrived just in time to witness the death of the last cow. He secured the bottle : it contained a strong solution of corrosive sublimate mixed with some unknown vegetable decoction. f A friend of the Editor was requested to see four cows that had been dressed for mange. One of them was dead when he arrived; another died afterwards; the other two recovered, and were found to be cured of the mange. Another friend who sometimes uses a decoction of tobacco, says that he is sometimes thoroughly frightened by it that the animal breaks out into profuse perspiration, and falls and rolls, and there is great prostration of strength ; and that nothing should induce him to have recourse to this mode of treatment, except in his own stables, and under bis immediate inspection. .O-JM. W rf #r*iU n. wwjol ttQ ud6 Urw iqfi<) lultteii A .01 .q ,llfi ~t oas &l .7- LICE. 573 The same ointment, but with double the quantity of mercury, must be used for this aggravated state of the disease, and a stronger alterative powder, consisting of two drachms of Ethiop's Mineral, added to the one already recommended. All this mercury, however, must be used with caution, for it is not a drug that always agrees with the ruminant; and salivation would, temporarily at least, and in most cases permanently, injure the beast, both for the dairy and the pasture. In those sadly aggravated cases that come under the observation of the practitioner, in which the whole of the skin is thickened and corrugated, with deep chaps running down on either side, or uniting together in variotis directions when within the substance of the skin numerous tubercles can be felt, varying from the size of a millet-seed to that of a kidney-bean when the eye-lids are swelled so that the animal can scarcely see, and a great quantity of mucus is discharged from them when the nostrils and lips are thickened, and dense and yellow mucus runs from the nose when, beginning from the knees, and reaching almost to the hoofs, the intervals between the chaps are occupied by tuberculous grapes, of dif- ferent sizes, and some of which discharge a serous fluid ; in such cases the surgeon may well be puzzled what to do. The animal must be bled and physicked ; but his strength must be supported by mashes and plenty of fresh green meat : he must be fomented all over many times every day, and he must be kept where he cannot com- municate the infection. If the inflammation does not begin to subside, he must be bled again and again ; the physic must be repeated ; sulphur will constitute the best physic here, and he must be kept under its purgative influence : and, at length, the skin beginning to supple the cutaneous inflammation having, to a considerable degree, subsided the ointment and the powder recommended for mange must be used. Should they not have sufficient effect, recourse must be had to the stronger ones pre- scribed for leprosy. Previous, however, to the use of either of the oint- ments, and after the inflammation has abated, the solution of the chloride of lime may be applied on two or three successive days with much advan- * ^ h*003 ariT .SDnsTUiooo Jnanwft lo suo Joa "fojiiuuJicl jud ri) rfoirfw id ? f w) nysiL.^^ vvjdi atl.soa yd bobg^-jua ad LICK. -jno bne I }3trj,!-jinJ gsnjoo^d OM* jni one 'gianijiyad stii moil baisaqqe Connected with mange, the usual accompaniment, and probably the occasional cause of it, is the appearance of vermin on the skin. It cannot be supposed that they are originally produced by any disease or state of the skin ; but the ova (eggs) of these animalculae, floating in the atmo- sphere, find* in the skin of cattle, under certain circumstances, and under those alone, a proper nidus, or place where they may be hatched into life. A beast in good health and condition will not have one of those insects upon him unless he mixes with lousy cattle ; but if he is turned out in the straw-yard in winter, and is half-starved there, and his coat becomes rough, and matted, and foul, they will soon swarm upon him. By the constant irritation which they excite, they will predispose the skin to an attack of mange from other causes, if they do not actually produce it. He who had not personal observation of the fact, would hardly believe how numerous they soon become. There are myriads of them on the hide of the ill-fated beast. They keep him in a constant state of torment, and are, in a manner, devouring him before his time. It cannot be surprising * For illustrations of this form of the disease, the reader is referred to a Memoir, by M. Santin, on Elephantiasis in cattle, and also to the Journal Pratique for 1829, p. 421 ; and for 1831, p. 10. A useful paper will also be found in the Rec, de Med. Vet., 1830, p. 42. 574 CATTLE. that they rapidly spread from one animal to another. The slightest con- tact, the lying 1 on the same lair, or the feeding 1 on the same pasture, is suf- ficient to enable them to be communicated from the infected beast to all the rest. The animalcule thrives everywhere, although the ovum did not find a proper nidus on the skin of the healthy beast; and the vermin, once established there, soon change the character of the skin, and cover it with scurf and mange. Various powders and lotions have been recommended for the destruc- tion of these parasites. A powder can scarcely be brought into contact with a thousandth part of them ; nor can a lotion, unless used in a quan- tity sufficient to kill the beast as well as those that are feeding upon him. An ointment is the most convenient application, and by dint of rubbing, a little of it may be made to go a great way. The common scab ointment for sheep (one part of strong mercurial ointment and five of lard) will be effectual for this purpose ; and if a little of it is well rubbed in, instead of a great deal being smeared over the animal, there will be no danger of salivation. WARBLES. Towards the latter part of the summer and the beginning of autumn, and especially in fine and warm weather, cattle out at pasture are fre* queutly annoyed by a fly of the Diptera order and the (Estrus genus, that seems to sting them with great severity. The animal attacked runs bel- lowing from his companions, with his head and neck stretched out, and his tail extending straight from his body, and he seeks for refuge, if pos- sible, in so;ne pool or stream of water. (The fly seems to fear, or to have an aversion to the water, and cattle are there exempt from its attack.) The whole herd, having previously been exposed to the same annoy- ance, are frightened, and scamper about in every direction, or, one and all, rush into the stream. Under the excitation of the moment, they dis- regard all control ; and even oxen at work in the fields will sometimes betake themselves to flight with the plough at their heels, regardless of their driver or of the incumbrance which they drag behind them. The formidable enemy that causes this alarm, and seems to inflict so much torture, is the (Estrus Bovis, the Breeze or Gad-fly, which at this time is seeking a habitation for its future young, and selects the hides of cattle for this purpose. It is said to choose the younger beasts, and those that are in highest condition. There has evidently been considerable exercise of selection, for a great many of the cattle in the same pasture will have only a few warbles on their backs, while others will, in a man- ner, be covered by them. Naturalists and agriculturists are indebted to Mr. Bracy Clark for a very accurate account of this fly ; and the author acknowledges his obli- gations to this celebrated veterinarian, and more particularly to that excel- lent French entomologist, M. Reaumur, for much of that which he is enabled to offer respecting the history of this insect. The cefstrus bovis is the largest and most beautiful of this genus. Its head is white, and covered with soft down its thorax yellow anteriorly, with four black longitudinal lines the centre of the thorax is black, and the posterior part of an ashen colour the abdomen is also of an ashen colour, with a white black band in the centre, and covered posteriorly with yellow hair. It does not leave its chrysalis state until late in the summer, and is then eagerly employed in providing a habitation for its future pro- geny. It selects the back of the ox, at no great distance from the spine on either side, and alighting there it speedily pierces the integument, WARBLES. 575 deposits an egg in the cellular substance beneath it, and probably a small quantity of some acid, which speedily produces a little tumour on the part, and accounts for the apparent suffering of the animal *. The egg seems to be hatched before the wound is closed, and the larva, or mascot, occupies a small cyst or cell beneath it. The tail of the larva projects into this opening-, and the insect is thus supplied with air, the prin- cipal air-vessels being placed posteriorly ; while with the mouth, deep at the bottom of the abscess, it receives the pus, or other matter that is secreted there. A fluid, resembling pus, can always be squeezed from the tumour, and increasing in quantity as the animal approaches his change of form. In its early stage of existence the larva is white, like that of most other flies ; but as it approaches its maturity, it becomes darker, and at length almost black. These little tumours form the residence of the larva, and are recognised by the name of warbles. The abscess having been once formed, appears to be of little or no in- convenience to the beast on whose back it is found. It certainly does not interfere with his condition f, and the butcher regards the existence of these warbles even as a proof of a disposition to thrive. The injury to the skin, however, is another affair, and the tanner would probably tell a dif- ferent story. The larva, if undisturbed, continues in this cyst, until the month of June or July in the following year, and then forces itself through the aperture already described, and the accomplishment of which occupies two days. It is soft when it first e-scapes, but it soon hardens ; and if it is fortunate enough to escape the birds which are on the look-out for it, or if it does not fall into the water, which the cattle seem now instinc- tively to seek, as it were to destroy as many of their enemies as possible, it conceals itself in the nearest hiding-place it can find, where it remains motionless until it changes to a chrysalis, which is speedily effected ; it continues in its new form about six weeks, and then bursts from its shell a perfect fly. It is a very singular circumstance, that the escape of the larva from its prison on the back of the ox always takes place in the morning, and between six and .eight o'clock. Is the mysterious principle of instinct already at work ? Does the maggot know, that if it forced itself through the hole in the warble at a later period, the heat of the sun would destroy it; or that if i-t fell during the night, it would perish before it could reach a place of refuge ? Being also exposed to many dangers in its chrysaline state, it is then covered with a scaly box of great strength, and from which it would seem impossible for it ever to make its escape ; but when its change is com- plete, and it begins to struggle within its prison, a valve atone end of its narrow house, and fastened only by a slight filament, flies open, and the insect wings its way, first to find its mate, and then to deposit its eggs on the cattle in the nearest pastures. Some farmers are very careless about the existence of these warbles; others very properly endeavour to destroy the grub that inhabits them. ?jl .eutraii eirfj'to h&tefidd&um fcod M^i^ 9flJ ei > -\\ o> .-v. . * The weapon by means of which the perforation is effected is a very singular one. It seems to be formed of three different pieces, inclosed the one within an other, like the divisions of a telescope, and from the farthest aud smallest the true auger, or perfo- rator, proceeds. -j- In 1823 and 1824, however, the cestri were so numerous in the department of Loh-et, in France, and the tumours accumulated to that extent on the cattle, that they occasioned fever, inflammation, and death. There was a disposition to inflammatory fever prevailing at the same time amongst most species of domesticated animals. Rap- port a la Societe Royale et Centrale_d' Agriculture, 1826, 576 CATTLE. This is effected in various ways a little corrosive liquor is poured into the hole, or a red-hot needle introduced, or the larva is crushed or forced out by pressure with the finger and thumb. Although the existence of the warble is a kind of proof of the health and condition of the animal, yet there is no reason why the best beasts should be tormented by the gad- fly, or the strongest and best hides be perforated, and, in a manner, spoiled in their best parts. Although when the larva escapes or is expelled, the tumour soon subsides, the holes made are scarcely filled up during that season ; and even a twelvemonth afterwards, a weakness of the hide, and disposition to crack, will show where the bot has been. If all farmers could be induced to search for and destroy the insect when a larva, the cattle of that district might be nearly or quite freed from this pest. ANGLE-BERRIES, OR WARTS. ' Cattle are subject to various excrescences growing from the cuticle at first, but afterwards identified with the true skin. They assume many forms, from that of scales of greater or less thickness, and accompanied some- times by chaps and sores, to fungous growths, of different size and hardness, and bearing the character of warts. They are occasionally very numerous and exceedingly troublesome ; and they are most numerous and exceedingly troublesome about the teats. When they grow about the eye- lids they are a sad nuisance to the beast. When there are only exfoliations and scales of the cuticle, friction with camphorated oil will occasionally remove them. It has been known to disperse the warty excrescences. Mercurial preparations, whether blue ointment, or corrosive sublimate and soap, are dangerous, but they will usually get rid of the angle-berries. When they are numerous, and parti- cularly about the udder, the practitioner will probably try to remove the largest of them by means of a ligature passed round their roots. This, however, will often be an almost endless affair, and recourse must be had to the knife and the cautery. The cautery will stop the bleeding, destroy the root of the wart, and thus prevent its springing again. When they are small, this will be most successfully attacked by means of the nitrate of silver, the warts being touched daily with it in a solid form, if they are few and distinct ; or washed with a strong solution of it, if they are more numerous and scattered over a large surface. They have been attributed to various causes, as contusions, stings of insects, want of con- dition, inflammation of the skin ; but fn most cases the actual cause is unknown. A singular case of the periodical appearance of warts occurred in the author's practice. At uncertain intervals, from six to nine, or ten months, a cow suddenly lost flesh, her coat stared, she would scarcely eat, and at length, rumination was entirely suspended ; then would appear, and nearly all over her, and particularly about the udder and in the mouth, and on the eyelids, a thick crop of warts, varying from the size of a millet-seed to twice that bulk. She was well physicked, and mashes were given to her she recovered her appetite and spirits, the warts began to diminish, and in a fortnight they were gone. Mr. Starks of Westwoodside, Lanark, relates a somewhat similar case. He had a cow mostly of a white colour with some black spots. She be- came ill from being over heated as Mr. Starks supposed her appetite failed she yielded no milk she became exceedingly weak, and her eyes sunk in their sockets the pulse was sixty the skin warm the extremities cold. She soon became hide-bound, and her skin was strangely hard. MEDICINES USED IN THE TREATMENT OF CATTLE. 577 She was bled and purged, and sulphur was given daily as an alterative, and she was well rubbed with oil in order to soften the skin. In a little while the cuticle, or outer layer of the skin, began to separate from the cutis or true skin beneath ; the hair separated along- with it, until from the mouth to the tail, and half-way down the legs, there was not a particle of hair remaining, except where there had been a spot of black, and on that place it continued quite soft and healthy. From the moment of the falling of the hair, the cow began to get better, and speedily recovered her appe- tite, and yielded her usual quantity of milk ; the "hair, likewise, was by degrees reproduced on every part but the shoulders*. , J8*K. CHAPTER XX. teftltttobi rb-tew ,,/Ji; &K A LIST OF THE MEDICINES USED IN THE TREATMENT OP THE DtSEASES 0* CATTLE. IN the present imperfect state of the knowledge of the diseases of cattle and their remedial treatment, it may be supposed that many gross errors are committed many inert or injurious medicines administered many complaints aggravated, and thousands of animals lost. The pharmaco- poeia of the cow-leech does not indeed contain a numerous list of drugs, but a considerable proportion of them are either useless or dangerous, or administered in ineffectual or destructive doses. It is not, however, the object of the editor of this work to draw up a catalogue of errors and abuses in cattle-practice, although he might easily present one, ridiculous and disgusting to an almost inconceivable degree ; but to describe the pro- perties, and doses, and combinations of those medicines which the ex- perience of rational practitioners in former times, and the inquiries of scientific men in these later years of veterinary improvement, have sanc- tioned. ALCOHOL. There are two circumstances which not only render the prac- tice of giving stimulants to cattle far more excusable than in the horse, but absolutely necessary : the first is the disposition which all the inflam- matory diseases of cattle have to take on a typhoid form, and assume a malignant character; and the second is, the construction of the stomachs of these animals, in consequence of which a considerable portion of the medicine falls into the comparatively insensible paunch. Hence, inflam- mation having been subdued, the practitioner is always anxious to support the strength of the constitution ; and even while he is combating inflamma- tion, he cautiously adds a stimulant to the purgative, in order that he may dispose the tissues with which that purgative may come into contact to be affected by it. Hence ginger forms an indispensable ingredient in every aperient drink ; hence the recourse to wine in many cases of low fever ; and hence also the foundation of, and the excuse for, the custom of adding the sound home-brewed ale to almost every purgative, and especially for young and weakly cattle, when evident inflammatory action does not forbid it. The fiery spices and the almost undiluted spirit administered by the cow-leech can never be justified ; yet, in cattle-practice, the beneficial effect of the aperient often depends fully as much on the carminative by which it is accompanied, as on the purgative power of the drug itself. * Veterinarian, Feb. 1831, p. 97. 2 P 678 CATTLE. ALOES. This is the best, and almost the only purgative on which de- pendence can be placed in the treatment of the horse ; but it holds a secon- dary rank, or might be almost dismissed from the list of cattle-aperients. It is always uncertain in its effect, and sometimes appears to be absolutely inert. Six ounces have been given without producing any appreciable effect; and, in another case, a similar dose was given, which was followed by considerable irritation and fever, but it did not purge. The animal was destroyed on the following day, in order to ascertain how far this apparent inertness might be attributed to that state of the cesophagean canal in which the greater part of the medicines administered enters the rumen, and being detained there cannot possibly produce its destined effect. A very small quantity of the drug was found in that stomach. Still, how- ever, as there is no case on record in which it has destroyed the ox by super- purgation, as it too often has the horse, and as occasionally it does seem to exert some purgative effect, it may be admitted in combination with, or alternating with other purgatives when constipation is obstinate : few, however, would think of resorting to it in the first instance. The Barbadoes Aloes should be selected, for the horse ; and on ac- count of the construction of the stomachs of ruminants, it must be always administered in solution, for a ball would break through the floor of the cesophagean canal and be lost in the rumen. Two ounces of aloes, and one ounce of gum-arabic (in order to suspend the imperfectly-dissolved portion of the aloes) should be put into a pint of boiling water, and the mixture frequently stirred during the first day ; then two ounces of tincture of ginger are to be added, not only to prevent the mixture from fermenting, but because that aromatic seems to be so useful, and in a manner indispen- sable in cattle purgatives. The dose should consist of from half-a-pint to a pint of the solution, or from four to seven or eight drachms of the aloes. Some persons boil the aloes in the water, but the purgative effect of the drug is much lessened by this. Aloes are very useful in the form of tincture. Eight ounces of pow- dered aloes and one ounce of powdered myrrh should be put into two quarts of rectified spirit, diluted with an equal quantity of water. The mixture should be daily well shaken for a fortnight, when it will be fit for use. It is one of the best applications for recent wounds ; and in old wounds especially, accompanied by any foulness of them, or discharge of foetid pus, nothing will be more serviceable than equal parts of this tincture and a solution of the chloride of lime. ALTERATIVES. These are medicines that are supposed to have a slow yet beneficial effect in altering some diseased action of the vessels of the skin or of the organs of circulation or digestion. To a cow with yellows, or mange, or that cannot be made to acquire condition, or where the milk is diminishing, small quantities of medicine are often administered under the tempting, but deceptive, term of alteratives. They had much better be let alone in the majority of cases. If a cow is really ill, let her be treated accordingly ; let her be bled or physicked, or both ; but let her not be nau- seated, or her constitution ruined, by continually dosing her with various drugs. The want of condition and thriving in cattle is far more connected with a diseased state of their complicated stomachs, and particularly with obstruction in the manyplus, than with any other cause ; the alteratives, then, should be small quantities of purgatives, with arornatics, as Epsom salt, or sulphur with ginger ; or, what would be still preferable, rock salt in the manger for them to lick, or common salt mingled with their food. There can, however, be no doubt that in many cutaneous affections, and especially where mange is suspected, alterative medicines will be very MEDICINES USED IN THE TREATMENT OF CATTLE. 679 beneficial. They should be composed of ^Ethiop's mineral, nitre, and sulphur, in the proportions of one, two, and four, and in daily doses of from half an ounce to an ounce. ALUM. This is a useful astringent in diarrhoea, and especially in the purging of calves. It is best administered in the form of alum whey, which is composed of two drachms of powdered alum, dissolved in a pint of hot milk ; a drachm of ginger may be added ; and, if the purging is violent, a scruple of opium. Alum is rarely used externally in the treat- ment of cattle, unless for canker in the mouth, and as a useful wash after the tongue has been lanced in blain ; and unless in the form just mentioned, the less it is used internally the better. AMMONIA is not frequently used. In the form of hartshorn it enters into the composition of some stimulating liniments, as in cases of palsy. The carbonate of ammonia has been extolled as a specific for hoove. The author always doubted this ; he put it to the test, and it failed. It was administered on a chemical principle, it being supposed that the alkali would neutralise the acid gas that was extricated from the fermenting food ; but it has been proved that this gas consists chiefly either of car- buretted or sulphuretted hydrogen : besides which there is another consi- deration, that, except administered by means of Read's pump, not one drop of the ammonia would find its way into the paunch. ANODYNES. The only one used in cattle-practice is opium. The doses in which it may be employed have already been pointed out when treat-* ing of the diseases in which it is indicated. ANTIMONY. There are but three preparations of it that can be useful to the practitioner on cattle. The first is EMETIC TARTAR, which, in doses from half a drachm to a drachm, and combined with nitre and digitalis, has great efficacy in lowering the circu- lation of the blood in inflammation of the lungs and every catarrhal affec- tion, and particularly in that species of pleurisy to which cattle are so sub- ject. Emetic tartar, rubbed down with lard, constitutes a powerful and very useful stimulant when applied to the skin. ANTIMONIAL POWDER the powder of oxide of antimony with phos- phate of lime. It is frequently sold in the shops under the name of James's Powder, and possesses all the properties of that more expensive drug. It is a useful febrifuge in cases where it may not be advisable to nauseate the beast to too great a degree. CHLORIDE (BUTYR) OF ANTIMONY. Where it is wished that a caustic shall act only superficially, this is the most useful one that can be em- ployed. It has a strong affinity for water, and therefore readily combines with the fluids belonging to the part to which it is applied, and so becomes diluted and comparatively powerless, and incapable of producing any deep and corroding mischief. It has also the advantage, that, by the change of colour which it produces, it accurately marks the extent of its action, and therefore forms an unerring guide to the surgeon. For warts, foul in the foot, cankered foot, and for some indolent and un- healthy wounds, it is a valuable caustic and stimulant. ANTISPASMODICS. Opium, for its general power, and particularly for its efficacy in locked jaw, stands unrivalled. The spirits of turpentine and nitrous ether are useful in cases of colic. ASTRINGENTS. These are few in number, but they are powerful : alum, catechu, opium (an astringent because it is an anodyne) and blue vitriol comprise the list : the first used both externally and internally; the two next internally ; and the last internally, but chiefly powerful as arresU ing nasal discharge. 2 P 2 km fiCd CATTL& BLISTERS.- The thickness of the skin of cattle tenders it somewhat diffi* cult to produce any great degree of vesication. The part should be pre- viously fomented with hot-water, then thoroughly dried, and the blistering application well rubbed in. With these precautions the common blister ointment will act very fairly ; the turpentine tincture of cantharides still better ; while an ointment composed by triturating one drachm of emetic tartar with six of lard will produce more powerful and deeper irritation, but not so much actual blistering. Sometimes boiling water, and in a few cases, and especially in bony enlargements about the legs attended by much lameness, the hot iron will be resorted to. CALAMINE. See ZINC. CALOMBO. A very useful tonic, and especially in those cases of debility which accompany or follow dysentery. It should be given in doses of from one to three drachms, combined with ginger. CALOMEL. See MERCURY. CAMPHOR. Used externally alone in cattle-practice. It is a component part in the liniments for palsy and garget. CANTHARIDES, the principal ingredient in all blistering ointments, and to which they owe their power. Corrosive sublimate, sulphuric acid, and euphorbium, may increase the torture of the animal, but they will generally blemish, and often lay the foundation for deep and corroding ulcers. The best blister ointment for cattle is composed of one part of cantharides (Spanish flies) finely powdered, three of lard, and one of yellow resin ; the lard and the resin should be melted together, and the flies added when these ingredients begin to cool. CARRAWAYS. The powder of these seeds may be used as an occasional change for ginger ; yet it is not so stomachic as the ginger, and is deci- dedly inferior to it, except in cases of flatulent colic. It may be given in doses, from half an ounce to two ounces, r. ,-j> (ojncj CASTOR OIL. An effectual and safe purgative for cattle in doses from twelve ounces to a pint, and that will be properly employed when Epsom salt or other aperient drugs have not produced their desired effect. It is usually made into a kind of emulsion with the yolk of an egg. It is however to be doubted whether it is much superior to a less expensive purgative, the linseed-oil. CATECHU is an extract from the wood of one of the acacia trees. It is much less expensive than the Gum Kino, and it is, when unadulterated, more effectual than that gum in subduing the diarrhoea of calves or adult cattle. The quantity, and the drugs with which it should be com- bined, have been stated in p. 476. CAUSTICS. In the treatment of foul in the foot, these are indispen- sable, and the chloride (butyr) of antimony has no rival in the certainty with which it destroys the fungus or otherwise unhealthy surface to which it is applied, and the equal certainty of its destructive power being confined to the surface. For warts, angle-berries, &c., externally situated, the nitrate of silver in substance, or in the form of a strong solution, will be most effectual ; for canker in the mouth, barbs, and paps, a strong solution of alum will be as useful as any thing; and in order to stimulate indolent and unhealthy ulcers, nothing can compare with the diluted nitric acid. CHALK. See LIME. CHAMOMILE. If it were necessary to add another Ionic to the gentian and calombo it would be the chamomile, and on the principle of not being so powerful as either of the others, and therefore used in somewhat doubt- ful cases, when, if the state of fever has not quite passed over, a stronger stimulant might have been prejudicial. MEDICINES USED IN THE TREATMENT OF CATTLE. 581 CHARGES. These are thick adhesive plasters spread over parts that have been strained or weakened, or that are affected with rheumatism, and which, -being 1 applied warm, mingle so with the hair, that they cannot be separated for a long time afterwards. They give a permanent sup- port to the part, and likewise exert a gentle but constant stimulating- power. Old cows, weakened and rendered almost useless by a rheumatic affection of the loins, which is degenerating into palsy, often derive much benefit from the application of a charge. It is also useful when the joints are the seat of rheumatic lameness. CLYSTERS. The importance of the administration of injections has not yet been sufficiently acknowledged in cattle-practice. A recurrence to the account which has been given of the lower or larger intestines of cattle, and which, although long, are not capacious compared with those of the horse, and whose surface is not irregular and cellated as in that ani- mal, but perfectly smooth, so that a fluid will readily pass along them and to their full extent, will show the propriety of having frequent recourse to this mode of administering medicine. A soothing and emollient injection may be brought into contact with the inflamed and irritable surface of these intestines; or, on the other hand, that surface may be extensively and beneficially stimulated by the direct application of purgative medicine. The former is a most important consideration in diarrhoea and dysentery ; and the latter is not of less moment when the comparative insensibility of the three first stomachs of cattle is regarded. Much may be done by means of the bladder and pipe, but the newly-invented stomach and enema-pump of Read enables the prac- titioner to derive from injections all the advantages that can be connected with their administration. COPPER. There are but two compounds of this metal that have any value in cattle-practice, and they are the BLUE VITRIOL, or sulphate of copper, and VERDIGRIS, or acetate of copper. The use of the first is limited to the coryza, or inflammation of and defluxion from the nose in cattle, accompanied by little or no cough or fever, and which is some- times in a manner epidemic. The manner of administering it is de- scribed in p. 313. As a caustic the blue vitriol is altogether superseded by those mentioned under that head. VERDIGRIS is employed externally only, in one of the varieties of foul in the foot, in order to repress fungous growths. It is mixed with an equal portion of the sugar of lead, reduced to a fine powder, and sprinkled on the diseased surface. CORDIALS. These are destructively abused by many cow-leeches, but, as has been again and again stated, there is that in the structure and constitution of cattle, which will excuse their administration much oftener than in the horse. Except in extreme cases, and when their use is sanc- tioned by the decision of a competent veterinary practitioner, they should not extend beyond good home-brewed ale, and ginger and carravvays; or, perhaps, because the farmer will seldom believe that a drink for a cow can be good for anything unless it stinks of aniseed, a few drops of the oil of those seeds may be allowed. The bay berries, and cardamom seeds, and coriander seeds, and cummin seeds, and diapente, and elecam- pane, and fennel seeds, and fenugreek seeds, and grains of paradise, and juniper berries, and horse-spice, and pepper, and various other pungent aromatics that encumber the shelves and load the drinks of him of the old school, should be banished from the pharmacopoeia of the rational practitioner of cattle-medicine. CORUOSIVE SUBLIMATE. See MERCURY. 582 CATTLE. CROTOM SEEDS. These can scarcely be admitted into practice on ordinary occasions, or as a usual purgative ; but in cases of phrenitis, tetanus, inflammatory fever, and in those strange constipations which so often puzzle and annoy, the croton seed, in doses of from ten to sixteen grains, may be allowed. The bowels having been opened, the prac- titioner will keep up the purgative action by means of a milder and safer aperient. The seeds should be kept in a close bottle, and when wanted, should be deprived of their shells, and pounded for use. The farina soon loses its power, and the oil is shamefully adulterated. DIAPHORETICS. The thick hide of the ox forbids us to expect much advantage from those drugs which are supposed to have their principal influence determined to the skin, and thus to increase the sensible and insensible perspiration ; yet emetic tartar and sulphur are, to a con- siderable extent, valuable in cases of fever and the latter most certainly in cutaneous eruption and mange, by opening the pores of the skin, or exciting its vessels to healthy action. One, however, of the best diapho- retics is that which has been comparatively lately introduced in the general management of cattle, viz., friction applied to the skin. It needs but the slightest observation to be convinced that the health of the stall-fed beast, and his thriving and getting into condition, are materially promoted by the liberal use of the brush, and sometimes even of the curry-comb. DIGITALIS (FOXGLOVE). The leaves of this plant, gathered about the flowering season, dried, kept in the dark, and powdered when wanted, are most valuable in diminishing the frequency of the pulse, and the general irritability of the system in cattle. A reference to the treatment of almost every febrile disease will illustrate this. The dose is from half a drachm to a drachm, with emetic tartar, nitre and sulphur, and administered twice or thrice in the day, according to the urgency of the case. The practitioner must not be alarmed at the intermittent pulse which is produced. It is by means of certain pauses and intermissions in the action of the heart, that the rapidity of the circulation is dimi- nished when this drug is exhibited. The intermittent pulse is that which the practitioner will be anxious to obtain, and which he will generally regard as the harbinger of returning health. DIURETICS. These fortunately are not so much used in cattle-practice as in that of the horse ; they are, however, allowable and beneficial in swelled legs, foul in the foot, and all dropsical affections, while they advantageously alternate with other medicines in the treatment of mange, and all cutaneous affections, and in cases of mild or chronic fever. Nitre and liquid turpentine are the best diuretics, and almost the only ones on which dependence can be placed. The doses have been already pointed out. DRINKS. It is needless again to explain the reason why all medicines that cannot be concealed in the food must be administered to cattle in the form of DRINKS. If they are exhibited in a solid form, they will break through the floor of the oesophagean canal, and enter the rumen. Far- riers and cow-leeches, however, often give to their drinks the force and momentum of a ball, by the large vessels from which they are poured all at once down the throat. There are few things of more consequence than attention to the manner in which a drink is administered. ELDER. The leaf of this tree is used boiled in lard. It forms one of the most soothing and suppling ointments that can be applied. The prac- titioner should make his own-elder ointment, for he will often receive from the druggist an irritating unguent formed of lard coloured with verdigris, instead of the emollient one furnished by the elder. EPSOM SALT. See MAGNESIA. MEDICINES USED IN THE TREATMENT OF CATTLE. 583 FOMENTATIONS. If, owing to the greater thickness of the skin, these are not quite so effectual in cattle as in the horse, yet, as opening the pores of the skin and promoting perspiration in the part, and thus abating local swellings, and relieving pain, and lessening inflammation, they are often exceedingly serviceable. The practitioner may use the decoction of what herbs he pleases, but the chief virtue of the fomentation depends on the warmth of the water. GENTIAN. An excellent stomachic and tonic, whether at the close of illness, or as a remedy for chronic debility. Its dose varies from one to four drachms, and should be almost invariably combined with ginger. GINGER. The very best aromatic in the list of cordials for cattle, and with the exception of carraways, superseding all the rest. The dose will vary from half a drachm to four drachms. GOULARD'S EXTRACT. See LEAD. HELLEBORE, BLACK. The root of it forms an excellent seton when passed through the dew-lap ; it produces plenty of swelling and dis- charge, and rarely or never runs on to gangrene. IODINE. The use of this mineral is limited to a few cases, but there its effect is truly admirable. It will scarcely ever fail of dispersing enlarge- ments of the glands, or hardened tumours, whether under or at the side of the jaw, or round the joints. One part of hydriodate of potash must be triturated with seven parts of lard, and the ointment daily and well rubbed on and round the part. Indurations of the udder seldom resist its power, unless the ulcerative process has already commenced. There is a still more important use to which this drug may be applied. It possesses some power to arrest the growth of tubercles in the lungs, and even to disperse them when recently formed. It is only since the former part of this work was written that the attention of the author has been so strongly directed to this property of iodine, and that he has had such exten- sive opportunities of putting it to the test. He will not say that he has discovered a specific for phthisis or consumption in cattle, but he has saved, some that would otherwise have perished, and, for awhile, prolonged the existence and somewhat restored the condition of more. He would urge the proprietor of cattle, and more especially his fellow-practitioners, to study closely the symptoms of phthisis, as detailed in page 410 ; to make themselves masters of the inward, feeble, painful, hoarse, gurgling cough of consumption ; and as soon as they are assured that this termination, or consequence of catarrh, or pneumonia, or pleurisy, begins to have exist- ence that tubercles have been formed, and, perhaps, have begun to suppurate, let them have recourse to the iodine, in the form of the hydrio- date of potash, given in a small mash in doses of three grains morning and evening at the commencement of the treatment, and gradually increased to six or eight grains. To this should be added proper attention to com- fort, yet not too much nursing ; and free access to succulent, but not stimulating, food; and the medicine should be continued not only until the general condition of the beast begins to improve, but until the cha- racter of the cough has been essentially changed. IPECACUANHA. This drug is used in the composition of the Dover's, or compound ipecacuanha powder, which has been recommended by some practitioners in the treatment of dysentery. It is thus made 'Take ipecacuanha root powdered, and opium also in powder, of each a drachm, and sulphate of potash an ounce. Rub them together to a fine powder.' The dose is from two to four drachms. This, however, is not an efficient medicine for such a disease. LARD, This is the principal basis of all ointments, 584 CATTLE. LAUDANUM. See Opiinf.- LEAD, SUGAR OF (SUPERACETATE OF LEAD.) This, mixed with the subacetate of copper (verdigris, which see), forms a useful caustic for the destruction of fungous growths. GOULARD'S EXTRACT (LIQUOR PLUMBI SUPERACETATIS.) When the skin is unbroken, this preparation of lead is completely thrown away, whether used either as a lotion to subdue inflammation, or to disperse tumours er effusions. It is principally serviceable, applied in a very dilute form, to abate inflammation of the eye. WHITE LEAD (SUBCARBONAS PLUMBI) is the basis of a cooling, drying- ointment, used chiefly for excoriations, or superficial wounds. LIME. CARBONATE OF LIME, CHALK. This is a useful ingredient in all the drinks given in diarrhoea or dysentery. In every stage of these diseases there is a tendency in the fourth stomach, and perhaps in the intestines, to generate a considerable quantity of acid, than which a greater source of irritation can scarcely be imagined. The chalk, or the alkali of the chalk, will unite with this acid, and neutralize it, and render it harmless. In the diarrhoea of the calf it is absolutely indispen- sable, for there the acid principle is frequently developed to a great degree. The dose will vary from a drachm to an ounce. CHLORIDE OF LIME. The list of medicines for cattle does not contain anything more valuable than this. As a disinfectant, if the walls, the floor, and the furniture of the cow-house or stable, are twice or thrice well washed with it, the sound cattle may return to the building with perfect safety, however contagious may have been the disease of those that had previously perished there. Applied to the pudenda of the cow that has aborted, it destroys that peculiar smell which causes abortion in others, more readily than any preparation of the most powerful oi nau- seous ingredient. In blain, garget, foul in the foot, and sloughing ulcers of every description, it removes the factor ; and, if the process of deconi position has not proceeded too far, gives a healthy surface to the ulcers which nothing else could bring about; and, administered internally in blain, in the malignant epidemic, and in diarrhoea and dysentery, it is of essential service. In the last disease it is particularly beneficial in chang- ing the nature of the intestinal discharge, and depriving it of us putridity and infection, and disposing the surface of the intestine to take on a more healthy character. Half an ounce of the powder, dissolved in a gallon of water, will give a solution of sufficient strength, both as a disinfectant applied to the cow-house, and for external and internal use as it regards the animal. LINSEED. .Nothing can compare with the linseed meal as an emollient poultice if the ulcer is foul, a little of the chloride of lime should be mixed with iU If the object of the poultice is to bring an ulcer into a proper state of suppuration, a little common turpentine may be added ; but the cruelly-torturing caustics of the cow-leech and the farrier should never disgrace the regular practitioner. An excellent mash in cases of catarrh or sore-throat, and as an emollient in any intestinal affection, is made by adding bran to an infusion of linseed. LINSEED OIL. This is little inferior to castor-oil as a purgative ; it is much cheaper, and it is equally safe. Where the case seerns to indi- cate an oily purgative, and the first dose of castor-oil fails, it may be followed up by smaller doses of linseed-oil, until the desired effect is pro- duced. MAGNESIA, SULPHATE OF. EPSOM SALT. This may be regarded as MEDICINES USED IN THE TREATMENT OF CATTLE. 585 the staple purgative of cattle. It is as safe, as Glaubers salt; it is more certain, and it. will dissolve in one-third of the quantity of water. The first dose of physic should always consist of the Epsotn salt, quickened in its action, in extreme cases, by the farina of the cioton-nut ; the purga- tive elFect may be kept up by means of sulphur or Epsom salt, in doses of six ounces of the former, or eight of the latter, as the state of the animal niay appear to require. The medium dose is about a pound, with a quarter of an ounce of ginger, but a pound and a half may be given to a large beast without the slightest danger. i.'oijjemmeBm 9}ds oJ ,rmdt MASHES are very useful in cattle-practice, not so much to prepare for physic, or to get into condition, as to form a soothing and cooling substi- tute, when the case requires a temporary abstinence from dry and stimu- lating food. They may be composed, like those of the horse, of bran only, with hot or cold water; or of bran with a decoction of linseed. la cases of debility; steeped or ground oats may be mixed with the bran, or malt may be used as a substitute for the bran and oat^m to soTr/os HJBOT* MERCURY. MERCURIAL OINTMKNT. The practitioner should be very cautious in his use of this on cattle. Indeed, it is scarcely allowable except in a very diluted state, and with the common sulphur ointment, in bad cases of mange ; or a small quantity of it may be mixed with lard for the destruction of vermin. Muorbarat SULPHATE OF MERCURY, /ETHIOP'S MINERAL. A very useful altera- tive combined with sulphur and nitre, where there is any cutaneous affec- tion. The circumstances under which it may be administered, and the doses, will be found in various parts of this work. . ,.-,--, , EROTO-CHLORIDE OF MERCURY. CALOMEL. This should rarely be given to cattle, and never as a purgative. In chronic inflammation of the liver, it often has a decidedly injurious effect: in jaundice, caused by a gall-stone obstructing the biliary ducts, or in that of a more chronic nature accompanied by debility and declining condition, the experience of the writer will not warrant him in recommending the administration of calomel : he would, on the contrary, be disposed to confine its use to dysentery, in which, combined with and guarded by opium, irritation is allayed, while the natural action of the bowels is promoted, BICHLORIDE OF MERCURY. CORROSIVE SUBLIMATE. This drug may almost be dispensed with by the practitioner on cattle. It can never be administered internally ; it is highly dangerous used externally in consi- derable or efficient quantity for the cure of mange or any cutaneous erup- tion, and as a caustic there are many as goo&rus r 3ajjod-v/o: MINT. An infusion or decoction of this plant will be a useful vehicle in which other medicines may be administered for the cure of diarrhoea or colic. MYRRH. The tincture of myrrh is a useful application to wounds, and is also applied to the cankered mouth ; but it contains nothing to render it preferable to the tincture of aloes in the former case, or a solution of alum in the latter. NITRE. See POTASH. NITROUS ETHER, SPIRIT OF. A favourite medicine with many practi- tioners in the advanced stages of fever. It is said to rouee, to a certain degree, the exhausted powers of the animal, while it rarely brings back the dangerous febrile action that was subsiding. It is not, however, a stimu- lant to which the author has often dared to have recourse, except in the advanced stages of epidemic catarrh, or thejnalignant epidemic. The dose should not exceed half an ounce. - Nux VOMICA. This is not introduced from any experience which the author has had of its efficacy, but from the favourable opinion which some 586 CATTLE. continental veterinarians have expressed of it in the cure of palsy. The doses which they gave consisted of more than an ounce. The author has tried the nux vomica, and its essential principle, the strychnine, as a cure for palsy in the dog% but never with success. OPIUM. As an anti-spasmodic, au allayer of irritation, and an astrin- gent because it does allay irritation, opium stands unrivalled. It is that on which the chief, or almost the only dependence is placed in locked jaw. A cholic drink would lose the greater part of its efficacy without it ; and if it were left out of the medicines for diarrhoea and dysentery, almost every other drug' would be administered in vain. It is most conveniently given in the form of powder, and held in suspension with other medicines in thick gruel. The tincture of opium (laudanum) is useful in inflammation of the eyes ; and a poultice of linseed meal made with a decoction of poppy-heads often has admirable effect when applied to irritable ulcers, or to parts labouring; under much inflammation. PITCH. This is only useful as the principal ingredient in charges, so useful in cases of palsy, or sprain, or chronic local debility. POTASH, NITRATE OF, NITRE. As useful to cattle as to the horse. It has an immediate effect in abating inflammation, and it is a mild diuretic. The dose would vary from two to four drachms. When dissolved in water it much lowers the temperature of that fluid, and therefore the solution, applied immediately after it is made, forms an excellent application in cases of sprains, or where there is much superficial inflammation without any lesion of the skin. Combined with antimonial powder, or emetic tartar and digi- talis, it forms an almost indispensable ingredient in every fever drink. SULPHATE OF POTASH. An ingredient in the Dover's powder. POULTICES. These are justly valued for abating inflammation, cleansing wounds, and disposing them to heal. In some cases of foul in the foot, and especially in that most painful, and occasionally fatal variety whose immediate seat is at the division of the pasterns, also in ulcers about the throat or joints, and in garget, poultices can scarcely be dispensed with. The basis will generally be linseed meal, rendered even more soothing by opium ; or to which activity may be given by the addition of common tur- pentine or chloride of lime. RYE, ERGOT OF. The spurred rye has lately, and with considerable advantage, been introduced into veterinary practice in protracted or diffi- cult parturition, in order to stimulate the uterus to renewed and increased action, when the labour pains appeared to be subsiding. For the testi- mony in favour of and against the ergot, the reader is referred to p. 535 of this work. SETONS. The use of setons in practice on the diseases of cattle is in a manner limited to the passing of a piece of hair, rope, or of black hellebore root through the dewlap; and, as exciting inflammation in the neigh- bourhood of the diseased part, and thus lessening the original one, and causing a determination of blood to a greater or less extent to this new seat of irritation, they are useful both in acute and chronic inflam- mation of the respiratory organs. In young cattle rapidly thriving, and placed in pasture perhaps a little too luxuriant, permanent setons are highly beneficial. They act as a salutary drain, and prevent that accu- mulation of the circulating fluid, which is the usual cause of inflammatory fever and other fatal complaints. SULPHATE OF SODA, GLAUBER'S SALT. A very common purgative for cattle, and a very good one, but inconvenient on account of its requiring three times its weight of water in order to dissolve it, and also on account MEDICINES USED IN THE TREATMENT OF CATTLE. 687 of its so readily efflorescing when it is exposed to the atmosphere, and, in its state of efflorescence or powder, becoming- more purgative than when in its crystalline/orm. The practitioner sometimes finds it a little difficult to calculate the amount of the dose which he should give, on account of this variation in form and effect; and this may explain the occasional uncertainty of the Glauber's salt. The Epsom salt, a very little dearer, dissolving in its own weight of water, and retaining the same form and the same purgative power under every state of the atmosphere or of exposure to it, is now rapidly superseding the Glauber's. CHLORIDE OP SODIUM. COMMON SALT. The experience of almost every farmer will now confirm the benefit derived from the mixture of salt with the food of cattle. It appears to be the natural and universal stimulus to the digestive organs of animated beings. In this place, however, its medicinal power alone is the subject of consideration. It is a purga- tive, second only to the Epsom salt in the first instance ; and, whether from the effect of the change of medicine, or of some chemical compo- sition or decomposition which takes place, it is the surest aperient that can be given when the Epsom salt has failed ; but the writer does once more indignantly protest against the disgraceful, beastly menstruum in which it is frequently administered. It is a tonic as well as a purgative, and therefore perhaps somewhat objectionable in the early stage of fever. It frequently recalls the appetite more speedily than any stomachic. When a dose of it is given to the animal recovering from acute disease, debili- tated, listless, careless about or refusing its food, it sometimes has an almost magical effect in creating a disposition to feed. It is a vermifuge which, in cattle, seldom fails. SILVER, NITRATE OF. LUNAR CAUSTIC. Used for the destruction of warts either in its solid state, or that of a strong solution ; and, from the full command which the operator has over it, and the firm eschar which it forms, is the very best caustic that can be applied to a wound inflicted by the bite of a rabid dog. SULPHUR. A very good aperient when the object is merely to evacuate the bowels, or when there is any cutaneous affection ; but not sufficiently powerful in cases of fever : yet even there purgation, once established, may be kept up by means of it. The dose varies from eight to twelve ounces. As an alterative for hide-bound, mange, or a generally unthrifty appearance, it is excellent combined with yEthiop's mineral and nitre ; and it constitutes the basis of every ointment for the cure of mange. TONICS. These are indicated in cases of great, and especially of chronic debility, but, administered injudiciously, they have destroyed thousands of beasts. They have clone so when they have been poured in while the fever continued, or too soon after the subsidence of the fever, and when too great a disposition to its reappearance prevailed. When disease has been once removed, the powers of nature are usually sufficient to re- establish health. Gentian, calombo, and cascarilla, are the best, and almost the only safe tonics for cattle. TURMERIC, or coloured pea-flour, for it is seldom anything more, is fit only to give that yellow colour to cattle-medicines, which long usage has accustomed the cow-herd and the cow-leech to consider as indis- pensable. TURPENTINE. Several of the products of the fir tree are more or less useful in the medical treatment of cattle. TAR, spread upon coarse cloth, is the best covering for broken horns, and excludes both the fly and the atmospheric air. It is useful for the same purpose in cases of wounds puncturing the belly or chest. Alone, 538 CATTLE. or in combination with some greasy matter, it is used to defend sore or diseased feet from becoming 1 wet or bruised. PITCH is the principal ingredient in charges. COMMON LIQUID TURPENTINE is useful as a digestive, or to produce a healthy appearance or action in wounds, and dispose them to heal. For this purpose it is added to the linseed poultice or to the simple ointment. Some practitioners administer it as a diuretic, and with good effect. OIL, or SPIRIT OF TURPENTINE, is applied as an external irritant, either alone, or in the form of a tincture of cantharides. It is administered internally in colic ; and some give it in red-water with a view to cause the debilitated blood-vessels to contract, and thus arrest the passive hemorrhage which they imagine is then taking place. From the rapidity and great extent with which it is taken up by the absorbents, and carried into the circulation, and the destructive effect which it is known to have on intestinal worms when otherwise brought into contact with them, the trial of its power would be justified in bronchitis, the too frequent and fatal concomitant of which is the presence of thousands of worms in the air-passages. RESIN is often used to give consistence to plasters, where the degree of irritation which it might produce is not regarded, or would be be- neficial. VINKGAR. This used to be considered almost a specific in distention of the rumen with gas, but on what principle it would be difficult to explain. It has also been given with manifest impropriety in cases of fever. On the thick skin of the- ox it can have little preference to hot water as a fomentation, and may with no great loss be erased from the list of medicines. WAX. Its only use is to give consistence to ointments and plasters. ZINC. NATIVE CARBONATE OF CALAMINE. This is the basis of an ointment which, from its soothing, and, at the same time, drying qualities, is termed, in various parts of this work, " the healing ointment." Jt i^ useful in superficial wounds, and in deeper ones when they have been brought to a healthy character. WHITE VITRIOL. This is a useful tonic application to the eyes, when the inflammation has been subdued, and debility of the vessels alone remains. It is particularly useful after inflammation of the haw of the eye. Some administer it in red-water, and others in dysentery, very iiw- properly. As a general caustic it is superseded by many others. ^i ..!!';;; '! '> V' };f'..a->v; ;t{l .V;-1 : ^JI '. 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',.11(1111 !iiij;-.,.'i;-i.| -.nil iiinliiA ,'\' i^nufio-i.'ii .i-.'iimin L'c'-t ,n< yijU:, 'io Ji&aid '"" ' .".''' i . iu tnsaii.';M; I>;ia ifaoJ^urv.-! t y>tslri t>/}/,T srii . --- ^ S^'l' ,!(!!? uT. _'i'.> 8t (ib'.Jfjjra'.') nrfot .;vnf/.f.'i1 :>H .-.tin it jlTr.iSl sdt 'io noikjiTJsylt ,riti(.:yl ( '.''J ,\ ,ta'jai3/;iii,m jwifi l> ut Inrihb o) ni Ji ,'iaJJpm d 93JiBoiq o) 10 r y>tttaygsb R SG futsaij io1 .Ifisd o) msrfJ Sioqsib insrninio 9lnmi ->ift oi MO ; nJ;/^ ii< .-' d 10 lav/ -vininioo^d moil }'jt b -J] ^roni j IT:/ r J .iT'jni.T vmjjiir/i'V i-vsaiHuT iiitiv; .711 floijc.fi jasanil ad I ot h 1 ' ^ iq ?.iril ABERDEEN-SHIRK cattle, description of the, Arran, the great improvement effected 103, 106 origin of p. fat' the pre- sent breed of, 105 polled cattle, account of the, 106 Abomasum, the internal structure of, 423, 424, 426, 428 diseases of the, 455 a c^rTnTifnmu nf ^*?7 Abortion, the symptoms of, 527 , the usual causes of, 530 , precautions to prevent the recur- , rence of, 532 Abyssinian cattle, enormous length of the horns of, 282 ney, Holderness, and Devon, 132 African ox, description of the, 4, 5 cow, the quantity of her milk, Age, the natural, of cattle, 323 and the quantity ot butter, 131, 132 , as indicated by the horns, 279 there by the Duke of Hamilton, 74 , description of the cattle, 75 Arteries, their structure and functions, 353 . , the smallness of, in the ox, com- pared with the veins, 346 Assynt, the breed of cattle in, 94 ,,jn ^r\ Astringents, the best for cattle, 574 Aylesbury, vale of, the fertility of, 214 Ayrshire cow, Mr. Alton's description of her, 127 , origin of, 128, 130 [ a hJ the present, 131 the Alder- compared with by the teeth, 318 , the proper, for breeding, 526 Alderney cattle, account of them, 267 Allinson, Mr., his favourable opinion of liie action of ergot of rye, 535 rjgo Althorp, Lord, description of his bull Fir- by, 241, 368,371' , cuts and description of his cow and heifer, 236, 237 Aloes, not a good purgative for cattle; 677 Alteratives, their nature, and the bust com- position of them, 578 Alum, the medicinal properties of, 678 Ammonia, the medicinal properties of, 579 Anglesey may be considered as the native country of the \Ytlsh cattle, 59 cattle, description of, 61 2- j ^ lj> , comparison between them and the Scotch, 61 Angus cattle, description of the horned breed of, 11-3, 114 . farmers, a curious description of them in 1760 and 1790, 113 polled cattle, 166 . , difference between them and the Galloways, 167, 169 , Mr. Watson's breed, a very superior one, 167 , curious anecdote re- specting them, 171 Antimony, the medicinal properties of, 579 Antrim, the principal improvers of the breed of cattle in, 182 Apoplexy, symptoms and treatment of, 294, 296 Appetite, voracious, in oxen, curiously ac- counted for, 454 Argyleshire sheep-husbandry, first intro- duced by John Campbell, 78 , North, description of the cattle and their management, 78, 79 , South, the cattle of, 80 BACKLET:, the African, interesting descrip- tion of, 5 Baclsworth, Mr. Milton's old bull, descrip- tion of, 250 Bagot, Lord, a patron of the Staffordshire long-horns, 223 Bakewell, Mr., the great improver of the long-horns, 190 , his supposed principles, as stated by Mr. Marshall, 191 , description of his cattle, 192 , his benevolent character, ib. the practice of letting bulls originated with him, 1 95 Banff cows, the superiority of, 101 . Barbs in the mouth, treatment of, Bars of the mouth, description of, ib. Bedford, Francis, Duke of, used to be a zealous breeder of Devon cattle, 21 -- , the Herefordshire cattle of the present Duke of, 211 Bedfordshire, the breeds of cattle in, 210 Belfast, the present state of cattle, 186 Berkeley, the vale of, history of the manu- factory of cheese in, 37 Berkshire cattle, account of, 214 Berry, the Rev. H., his admirable account of the short-horns, 226 --- , extracts from his Prize Essay on Breeding. 522, 525,526 Berwickshire, the cradle of Scottish agri- culture, 150 -- turnips, introduced there in 1755, 150 - , the rapid progress of agri- culture after that, 151 Bile, the composition and uses of, 459, 469 Black quarter, the nature and treatment of, 356 Black water, the treatment of, 512 Bladder, inversion of the, 521 , protrusion of, treatment of, 543 590 INDEX. Bladder, on ruplure of the. 520 , stone in the, symptoms and treat- ment of, 518 BUiin, the symptoms find treatment of, 326 , contagious, 328 , sometimes epidemic, 327 Bleeding, the rule by which it should be guided, 348 places, the preferable, ib, Blisters, the difficulty of raising them in cattle, 401 Blood, determination of to the brain, 294 Blown See " Hoove." Bloxedge, the sire of the long-horns, an ac- count of him, 190 Bolinbroke, an early short-horn bull, an account of him, 230 Bone of the heart, description of the, 353 Booth's establishment for fattening cattle, account of, 255 Boyening, description of, 132 Brahmin cattle, an account of the, 269- Brain, description of the, 285 ; determination of blood to, 294 , inflammation of the, 269 , hydatids in the, 294 Breast, the projecting and wide, advantage of, 14, 368 bone, description of the, 369 Brecknockshire cattle, description of, 58 Breeding, the principles of, 191, 522 , the grand principle of it, that like produces like, 522 , comparative influence of the sire and dam in, 523 in and in, 525 , the value of good keep in, ib, , the proper age for, 526 Bridgewater cheese, account of, 30 Brisket, description of the, 370 ,, remarkable deepness of, in some cattle, ib. British cattle, earliest history of, 4 , the original were probably middle-horned. 9 Bronchitis, nature and treatment of, 397 , the air-passages filled with worms in, 398 Buchan cattle, description of the, 107 , calculation of the value of their produce, 109 Buckinghamshire cattle^ description of, 214 Buffalo cattle, art account of, 2ft9 Bute, description of the cattle of, and their management, 77 Butter, experiments to ascertain the various quantities of. from different breeds, 245 . , extraordinary quantity of, yielded by a Sussex cow, 45 . " .'.flj'hoM .[*l*fl/i CJF.CUM, description of the, 467,469 CiKsarian operation, description of, and when justifiable, 539 Caithness, doscription of the old cattle, 87 , the improvement effected there by Sir John Sinclair, 88 , present state of the cattle of, ib, , markets aud trysts of, 89 Calamine, the basis of the best healing ointment, 588 Calculi iu the rumen of cattle, 435,496 *- in the kidney, composition, symp- toms, and treatment of, 5lG , urinary, ditto, ib. Caledonian dairy, account of the, 146 Calombo, a useful tonic, 579 Calomel, the cases in which it should be used, 585 Calves, diseases and management of, 557 Calving, the treatment of the cow before it, 533 , natural, the treatment of, 535 , the power of ergot of rye in ex- citing the labour pains, ib. , the management of unnatural pre- sentations, 536 , when the calf should be cut awayj and description of the operation, 540 , on retention of the foetus, 543 -, attention to the cow after it, 544 Cambridgeshire, the breeds of cattle in, 209 butter, account of, ib. Camphor, its medicinal properties, 580 Cancer of the eye, treatment of, 293 Cantharides, the basis of the best blister application, 580 Capillary vessels, description of them, 353 Cardiganshire cattle, description of, 57 Carmarthenshire, the hill breed, an indif- ferent kind of cattle, ib. , description of the differ- ent breeds of the vale districts, ib. Carnarvonshire cattle, a smaller and in- ferior variety of the Angleseys, 62 Carotid artery, description of the, 335, 346 Carraway, a useful aromatic, 580 Castor oil, the use of it as a medicine, ib. Castration of calves, the various methods of, 560 will often remove rupture iu the calf, 502 Cataract, treatment of, 293 Catarrh, nature and treatment of, 376 1 '-, the necessity of attention to it its first appearance, 377 -, epidemic, symptoms of, ib. _ Catechu, its useful astringent properties, 580 Cattle, British, the number slaughtered yearly, 1 , the aggregate value of, ib. , average mortality of, ib. , the diseases of, too much neglected by all veterinary writers, ib. , ditto, in the principal English veterinary school, 394 , the state of, in the middle ages. 7 the average weight of, in 1710 and 1830, 257 , the proper points of, generally, 12 , the intelligence of, 285 , wild, account of, 7 -, dealing system of, in the south of Scotland, 138, 1<>2 Caustics, those used in cattle practice, 580 Cavuiij the principal improvers of the breed of cattlo in, 18ii INDEX. 591 Chalk, its utility in the treatment of dy- sentery and d'iarrhopa, 485, 584 Chamomile, its tonic properties, 580 Charge, Mr., an account of his fat seven- year-old ox, 235 Charges, the use of, and the method of applying, 580 Cheese, Cheddar, an account of, 30 , Cheshire, account of, 207 , Gloucester, history of the manu- facture of, 38 , single and double, the difference between, ib. -, North Wiltshire, account of, 218 Cheshire cattle, account of the, 205 , the short-horns, introduced with doubtful advantage, 206 Chest, the advantage of a capacious one in .cattle, 12 , the proper form of, 367 Chloride of lime, the value of, 584, 443 Chlorine gas, might it destroy worms in the bronchial tubes ? 399 Choking in cattle, treatment of, 415, 418 Chyle, its nature and formation, 468 Clackmannan, account of the cattle of, 121 Clare, the principal improvers of the breed of cattle in, 183 Cleansing. See Placenta. drink, the best, 545 Cleveland, character of the catt!e in, 249- Clouted cream, description of, 23 Clue-bound, treatment of, 449, 451 Clydesdale. See Lanarkshire. Clysters, the benefit of, 580 Coates, Mr. G., the author of the Short- Horned Herd Book,' 234 Colic, flatulent, its symptoms, nature, and treatment, 488 , spasmodic, its symptoms, nature, and treatment, 489 , too often leads on to strangulation of the intestines, ib. Colling, Mr. Charles, at the very head of the improvers of the short-horns, 228 > , supposed principally to aim at their improvement by reducing the size of the breed, ib. , an account of the cross of his cattle with the Galloway, 230 -, a detailed account of his sale of the improved short-horns, 231 . Robert, a successful improver of the short-horns, 233 , the sale of his stock, ib. Colon, description of the, 467, 470 Colours, the prevailing ones of cattle, 242 Constipation, the treatment of, 495, 558 Consumption, nature and treatment, 409 , the peculiar cough of, 411 , delusive character and pro- gress of, 412 Copper, the compounds of, used in cattle practice, 581 Cordials, the use and abuse of, ib. Cords, the nature and treatment of, 490 Cork-screw probang, description of the, 41 ff Cornish cattle, description of the native, 24 Cornwall, a sketch, of its agriculture and commerce, 24 i-, management of dairy cows in, 25 , method of rearing calves in, ib. Corrosive sublimate, its use in cattle prac- tice, 581 , the treatment of poi- soning by, 44B Coryza, the nature and treatment of, 31 2 Corstorphine cream, account of the, 146 Cottar, the Scotch, description of the, 112 Cows, Swiss, their vanity, 6 poetical description of, 245 Cows' commons, description of the, 219 Cow-club, an account of the, 251 Cow-pox, distinction between the true and the false, 545 , history of its establishment as a preventive against small-pox, 555 has not its origin in the grease of horses, ib. no preventive against the dis- temper in dogs, 556 ditto rabies, 557 Cow-quake, description of the, 118 Craven, the native country of the long* horns, 188 Cravens, two distinct breeds of, the smaller and larger, 189, 251 Crochles in cattle, symptoms and treat* ment of, 563 Cromarty, general history of, 95 Croton, a powerful purgative, 581 Cruelty to cattle in Smithfield, 259 Cud, loss of the, treatment of, 445 Cumberland, the native breed of, was long* horned, 247 , history of the establishment of the short-horns there, ib. D, MB. BAKEWELL'S bull, account of, 1 93, 198 Dairy cows, the number of, kept in Lon- don, 255 , the kind of, preferred, 261 , the system of management, ib., 265> Denbighshire, the cattle of, 63 Derbyshire cattle, account of, 204 , crosses with, ib., 224 Devonshire cattle, 23 , general experience is against them for the dairy, 20 ox, his activity his most ya- luable quality, 18 -, his qualities for grazing, 19 , trial of his fattening pro- perties with different breeds, 19, 31, 41 Devon, South, the cattle of, 22, 23 , comparison between them and the North Devons, 22 nats, account of the, 179 Diaphragm, rupture of the, 503 Diarrhoea, acute, the nature and treat- ment of, 475 , distinction between it and dy- sentery, ib. , chronic, the nature and treat- ment of, 476 592 INDEX. Diarrhoea, in calves, nature and treatment of. 559 Digitalis, its medicinal properties, 582 Disiention of the rumen by 1'uod, nature and treatment of, 435 < gas, nature and treatment of, 438 Doncaster Agricultural Society, account of the, 251 Donegal, the cattle of, 184 Dorset ox, description of the, 26 . , crossed with the Devon and Durham advantageously, ib. Dropsy, general remarks ou the causes and treatment of, 497 Drying a cow, the proper period for, 534 Dumbartonshire, the cattle of, 122 Dumfries, the Galloways, for grazing, and the Ayrshires for the dairy there, 165 Dun, Mr. David, the Scottish Bakewell, ac- count of, 119 Dung, the different qualities of that of cattle and horses, 470 Dunlop cheese, account of the, 125, 137 Duodenum, description of the, 467 . , inflammation of the, 487 Durham ox, an account of the, 229 Dysentery, causes and symptoms of, 477 , appearances of, after death, 478 is inflammation of the mucous membrane of the large intestines, 480 -, treatment of it, 481 " , the value of the chloride of lime in the treatment of it, 484 EAR, description of the, 287 , the form and shape of, connected with the beauty of the animal, ib. , the diseases of the, 288 Earth, the eating of it, prevents the fer- mentation of the food, 317 , the quantity of. eaten daily by the Kintoreox, 104 East Indian cattle, an account of the, 268 Lothian, the breeds of cattle of, 148 , the short horns introduced by Mr. John Rennie, ib. Edinburgh, the Veterinary School at, has improved the treatment of cattle, 394 Ediuburghshire. See Mid Lothian. Elgin, description of the cattle in, 100 Elder, the leaves of, make a good soothing ointment, 582 Embryotomy, when justifiable, and a de- scription of the operation, 540 Emetic, tartar, the use of. 579 Enteritis, symptoms of, 472 , appearances after death, 473 , causes and treatment of, 474 Epidemic catarrh. See Catarrh. Epidemics. See Murrain. Epiglottis, difference between that of the horse and the ox, 373 Epilepsy, the treatment of, 300 Epping, the manufactory of butter at, 254 Epsom salt, the best purgative, 585 Ergot of rye, its power in stimulating the womb to action, 535 Essays on red- \vati_r, 511 E^sex has no distinguishing breed of cattle, 253 , management of calves in, 254 marshes, the principal mode of feed- ing on, ib. Exeter, description of the vale of, 23 Eye, general description of the, 288 , inflammation of the, the nature and treatment of, 2!)2 , worm in the, treatment of, 293 , wounds of the, management of, 289 Eyelids, description of the, 290 , diseases of the, ib. FARCY in cattle, supposed causes of, 313 Fardel-bound, description of it, 449 , several cases of. 451 Falkirk, account of the tryst at, 120 Feet, the, description of, 272 , diseases of the, 565 Ferrying cattle, the method of, from the Scottish islands to the mainland, 81 Ferocity, occasional, in cattle, 296 Fever, intermittent, its symptoms and treat- ment, 355 -, pure or idiopathic, does often exist in cattle, 354 , its symptoms and treatment, ib. . , symptomatic, frequent and danger- ous, 355 , inflammatory, its nature and treat- ment, ib. , typhus, its nature and treatment, 363 Fife cattle, description of the old breed, 115 crossed with the short-horns, 116 , many of the Durhams have now es- tablished themselves there, 117 bull, admeasurement of one, ib. cattle, the mingling with the native breed the origin of the Aberdeens, 105 Findlater, Lord, account of his improve- ments in Banff, 101 Firby, description of Lord Althorp's bull, 241, 368, 371 Firing, an advantageous mode of, for some bony tumours, 289 Fits, the treatment of, 300 Fitzwilliam, Earl of, an account of his East Indian cattle, 270 Flintshire cattle, description of ihe, 64 Flooding after calving, treatment of, 545 Fluke-worm, the, a cause of jaundice, 464 Foatus, retention of it for a long time with- out injury, 543 Food, its changes in the stomachs, 429 , how conveyed into the reticulum, 430 , the difference in the quantity of, very trilling in animals of different sizes, but of the same breed, 246 Forehead of a bull, the, should be short and broad, 274 of Firby, description of the, 274 the Devon, description of, 14 the North Highlanders, do., 97 the old Hauilj do., 101 INDEX. 593 Foul in the foot, description of, 565 . -, most prevalent in low, marshy countries, 566 , mode of treatment of, 566 , probable advantage of neurotomy in, 568 Fowler, Mr., an improver of the long-horns, 193, 219 , account of the sale of his stock, 194 Free martens usually barren, 538 , dissections of three, ib. , a few cases in which they have bred, 539 French cattle, the chronic pleurisy to which they are subject, 407 Frontal sinuses, description of, 273, 274 . , use of the, 275. 270 , inflammation of the, na- ture and treatment of, 275 , worms in the, 276 GAI.L.V oxen, the enormous horns of, 282 Gall-bladder, the structure and use of, 459 Gall-stones, their composition, 462 , a frequent cause of jaun- dice, 463 Galloway, the greater part, of the cattle \veve horned at the middle of the last century, 154 , the present breed of, 156 bull, a perfect one seldom found, 1C1 cows not good milkers, ib. occasionally have horns, 282 farmers, description of, 1 63 Galloways, Mr. Culley's description of, 157 Gangrenous inflammation of the lungs, symptoms and treatment of, 402 Garget, the cause of, 552, 554 , the efficacy of iodine in, 553, 554 , the state of the veins of the utlder in, 367 Gas, the kind of, extricated in hoove, 443 Gavel-kind, its impediment to the improve- ment of agriculture, 182 Gentian, the best tonic, 582 Ginger, the best aromatic, ib. Girth, the, of cattle, should be both deep and wide, 12 Glamorganshire cattle, early history of, 50 , deteriorated when they were neglected for the growth of corn, 51 , again gradually im- proving, i 1). hill cattle, description of them, 55 Glanders in cattle, on, 313 Glauber's salt, interior to the Epsom, 586 Gloss-anthrax, the symptoms and treat- ment of, 326 Gloucestershire cattle, description of the old breed of, 35 , history of the pre- sent breed in the hilly country, ib. cheese, the good quality of Gloucestershire cheese, single and double, the difference between, 38 Grains, the best method of keeping them, on a large scale, for dairy cows, 255, 264 Grainsick, the treatment of, 435 , part of the food discharged by vomiting, 437 Gutta serena, cause and treatment of, 293 Gut-tie, the nature and treatment of, 490 HADDINGTON. See East Lothian. Hair, cattle should be covered with a thick pile of, 13 Hamilton, Duke of, the valuable improve- ments he effected in Arran, 74 Hampshire, the breeds of cattle in, 215 Haunch, description of the, 272 Haw, description of the, 290 , inflammation of the, ib. , method of extirpating the, 291 Head, section of the, 273 Healing power in animals, illustrations of the, 501 Heart, description of the, 349 , theory of its action, 351 -, the muscular columns and tendinous cords of it stronger in the ox than the horse, 351 , a muscle running across the right ventricle, peculiar to the ox, 352 -, description of the bone of it, 353 Hebrides, history and description of the, 65 , the inner, the number and value of the cattle, 67 , disgraceful manage- ment of cattle formerly, ib. , , accounts of the misery of the cattle and the cottagers in the winter, 68 , reasons of this strange misma- nagement, ib. , present management, 69 -, no crosses with any other breed has succeeded in these islands, ib. , management of the dairy in them, 71 20,000 cattle annually exported from them, ib. , the outer, description of the cattle of, ib. , mode of treatment, 72 Hellebore, black, makes the best seton, 300, 583 Hemlock, the treatment of poisoning by, 446 Hemorrhage from the nose, on, 311 after parturition, the treatment of, 545 Herd-book, the short-horned, compiled by Mr. G. Coates, 234 Herefordshire cattle, description of the, 31 , comparison between them and the Devons. 19, 31, 32 , their propensity to fat- it depends more upon the pasture than the breed of cows, 38 ten, 31 , comparison between the old and new breed, ib. have been crossed with advantage by the Devons, 32 2 Q 594 INDEX. Herefordshire cattle, Mr. Culley's erroneous opinion of, ib. cow, inferior in shape to the ox, ib. not good for the dairy, 35 Hernia, the nature and treatment of, 500 , in calves, management of, 501 Hide of cattle, should be thin, mellow, and not too lean, 13 Hide-bound, the treatment of, 570 Highlanders, comparison between them and the Welsh cattle, 6 I Hips, the, of cattle should be large and round, 12 Hiring husbandry-horses, the old system of, in Ayrshire, 1 38 Hock, description of the, 272 Holderness cattle, the old, 248 , their improvement, ib. Holmes, the, among the Shetland islands, description of the, 85 Homer, his account of murrain, 581 Honeycomb. See Reticulum. Hooped form of the barrel, in cattle, im- portance of, 12 Horns, description of the, 272 are elongations of, and hollowed like, the frontal bones, 278 the different breeds of cattle dis- tinguished by, 9, 281 , description of, in foreign cattle, 282 , beautiful ones, manufactured, 281 , the influence of sex on the, 282 , as connected with the age of the beast, 279 -, the uses of, 283 < , the danger of cutting them, 276 , fracture of them, how treated, 278 , the degree of fever, how estimated by means of them, 280 , tenderness of the roots accounted for, ib. Horned and hornless breeds, comparison between them, 283 Horny covering, composition and growth of the, 279 Hoose. See Catarrh. , in calves, the treatment of, 559 Hoove, the cause of, 438 , symptoms and treatment of, 438 , medicines administered in, do not enter the stomach, 440 , objections to puncturing the rumen in, ib. , danger of a large incision, 441 , when the rumen is punctured, it should be with a trocar and canula, ib. , the use of the probang, or stomach- pump, recommended, 442 , the nature of the gas which is extri- cated in, 443 , the treatment of, when the gas has escaped, 444 , a singular case of, ib. Unwell the Good, his laws respecting cattle, 61 Ho wick red ox, an account of, 235 Hubback, the father of the improved short- horns, account of him, 229 Humble-cows, Dr. Johnson's curious deri- vation of the word, 150 Huntingdonshire, breeds of rattle in, 209 Hydatids in the brain, symptoms and treat- ment of, 294 , numerous, found in the liver of a cow, 460 Hydrocephalus, treatment of, 295 II.KUM, description of the, 407, 467 In-and-in, the principle of breeding adopted by Bakewell, 192 , the question considered, 525 Indian cattle, an account of the, 270 Inflammation, the nature and general treatment of, 355 Inflammatory fever, causes, symptoms, and preventions of, 356 , treatment of, 357, 359 Intelligence of cattle, the comparative de- gree of, 286 Intestines, description of the, 467 , the diseases of the, 471 , inflammation of the external coat of the. See Enteritis. mucous coat of. See Diarrhoea and Dysentery. Inverness, description of the cattle of, 81 Inversion of the rectum, 494 womb, 544 Iodine, the admirable use of, 583 Ireland, the establishment of the short- horns in, 183 Irish butter, account of, 188 cattle, the middle horns an aboriginal breed, 179 , long-horns, probably derived from Lancashire, 182 of, 183 -, two different kinds -, numbers of, imported into Eng- land, 186 Islay, island of, superiority of the cattle there, 66 Jaundice, causes of, symptoms and treat- ment, 462 Jejunum, description of the, 467, 469 Jenner, Dr., his discovery of the preventive power of the cow-pox, 556 Joint murrain, its treatment, 356 Joints opened, the treatment of, 564 , swellings of them, the causes and treatment of, 562 Journeys of the Scotch cattle to the south, description of the, 122 Jugular vein, description of the, 335 KENT, description of the various breeds in, 46 Kerry, the cow of, description of, 179 Kidneys, anatomical structure of the, 503 , inflammation of the, causes, symptoms, and treatment of, 514 , calculi in, symptoms and treat- ment of, 516 INDEX. 595 Kineardineshire. See Mearns.' Kinross, account of the cattle of, 121 Kintail, account of the cattle in, 96 Kintore ox, description of the, 103 Knee, description of the, 272 Kyle Rhea, description of the ferry of, 81 Kyloe, origin of the term, 66 LANARKSHIRE cattle, account of the breeds of, 139 Lancashire, the various breeds of, 200 , many short-horn breeders in the central districts, '201 , the long-horn breed has gra- dually declined in value there, ib. -, fruitless experiments to restore them, 203 Laryngites, the treatment of, 395 Laycock, Mr., an account of his dairy, 262, 263 Lead, the usual preparations of, 583 Legs, the, of cattle should be short, 12 Leicestershire, account of the cattle in, 208 Leicester new breed, inquiry into the value of, 196 , improved the whole breed of long-horns, 198 superseded by the short- horns, 199 Leprosy, the nature and treatment of, 572 Letting bulls, the system originated with Mr. Bakewell, 195 , the advantages and^disad- vantages of the system, ib. Lice, how produced, and the method of destroying them, 573 Like produces like, the grand principle of breeding, 522 Lime, the chloride of, an excellent disen- fectant, 36 1 Lincolnshire cattle, description of, 242, 251 , an account of the Turnhill cattle, 252 Linlithgowshire. See West Lothian. Linseed, experiments on its fattening pro- perties, 213 meal, excellent for poultices, 584 . oil, a good purgative, ib. Lip, upper, the use of the numerous glands in, 316 Lips, description and use of, 315 Liquids, the circumstances under which they enter the rumen, 432 Liver, the structure and functions of, 458 '^ ',"on inflammation of the, 459 , a case of enormous enlargement and disease of, 460 , the difficulty of detecting chronic inflammation of, 461 , on hemorrhage from it, 461 , a case of abscess in, 460 Lochabar, description of the cattle of, 81 Long-horns, the, appear to have originated in Craven, 188 : , two distinct breeds of, the smaller and the larger, 189 -, Mr. Culley's account of the Long-horns, the, history of the improve- ment of, 190 Loss of cud, nature and treatment of, 445 , more a symptom of disease than a separate disease, ib. Lungs, the, their structure, 375, 400 , inflammation of, symptoms and treatment of, 400 , acute and epidemic, its occasional devastations, 401, 403 MADNESS, causes and treatment of, 306 Mandana ox, account of its docility, 5, 315 Mange, the nature and treatment of, 571 Manyplus, internal construction of the, 423, 424, 426, 428, 449 , the manner in which it reduces the food to a pulpy mass, 433 , the diseases of, 449, 451 -, the occasional strangely har- dened state of its contents, 450 Mawbound, the symptoms and treatment of, 435 Mearns cattle, description of the, 110 Meat, the average quantity of, annually consumed in London, 257 Meath, the improvement of Irish cattle commenced in, 182 Mercury, the different preparations of it used, 585 Merionethshire, an inferior variety of the Angleseys in the hill district, 62 , description of the better breeds of the vale, 61 Mesenteric glands, their structure and use, 471 , enlargement of them, ib. Mesentery, description of the, 467, 468 Middle-horns, the, were probably the ori- ginal cattle, 10 Mid-Lothian, description of the cattle of, 145 Milch-cow, the cottar's, interesting descrip- tion of the, 112 Milk, the average quantity of, yielde dby the Yorkshire cow, 245 fever, its nature and treatment, 546 , the importance of purging in, 548, 550 _ trade, the, in London, 261 vein, description of the, 340 , importance of a large one, 244 old, 189 Montgomery cattle, small in the hill dis- trict, 63 , in the lower country, fair milkers and good feeders, 63 Moor-ill, the nature and treatment of, 474 Morgan, Sir Charles, introduced the short- horns into Monmouthshire, 56 Motor organic nerves, account of the, 335 Mouth, account of the bones of the, 314 Murrain, the nature, symptoms, and treat- ment of, 379, 380 , accounts of its early appearance in Europe, 383 , spreads in England, 386 , contagious as well as epidemic, 388 2 Q 2 596 INDEX. Murrain, experiments on inoculation with its virus, 389 , its devastations led to the founda- tion of veterinary schools, 393 NAIRN, description of the cattle of, 99 Nagore cattle, an account of, 2G9 Navel-ill, the nature and treatment of, 557 Neck of cattle, description of, 332, 338, 340, 343, 345 , comparison between it and that of the horse, 343 Nerves of the leg, cuts of, 305 Net or knot, the nature and treatment of, 489 Neurotomy might be practised on cattle, 303 . , the probable advantage of it in foul in the foot, 568 , description of the operation, 304 , cuts illustrative of, 305 Nitre, its value in cattle practice, 586 Nitrous ether, spirit of it, when useful, 585 Norfolk, the native cattle of, 171 polled cattle, their origin, ib. Galloway Scots, principally grazed there, 172 its supply of fat cattle for the Smithfield market, 258 Northamptonshire, breeds of cattle in, 209 , its supply of fat cattle for the Smithfield market, ib. North Uist, the island of, comparison of breeding and grazing there, 70 Nose, bleeding from the, 311 , leeches in the, ib. , polypus in the, ib. , its membrane, inflammation of, 312 CE.SOPHAGEAN canal, cuts of it, 423, 424 (Esophagus, the structure of, 414,4-6 -, obstruction in the, treatment of, 415 -, the manner of opening in choking, 420 . rupture of the, 421 -, stricture of the, ib. (Estrus bovis, the history of its several status, 574 Opened joints, the treatment of, 564 Ophthalmia, its nature and treatment, 292 Opium, the best anodyne, antispasmodic and astringent, 585 Orkney Islands, the cattle of, and their treatment, 86 Ox, zoological description of, 2 , the degree of intelligence which he possesses, 4 , British, early history of, ib. , Afiican, docility of, 4, 5 Oxfordshire, description of the cattle of. 214 PAD on the upper jaw, description and use of the, 317 Palsy, causes and treatment of, 301, 303 Pancreas, the structure, functions, and diseases of, 466 Pantas, the nature and treatment of, 474 Papillae of the rumen, description of them, and of their uses, 430 Paps in the mouth, treatment of, 337 Parotid glands, inflammation of the, symp- toms and treatment of, 335 Parturition. See Calving. Paunch. See Rumen. Pembrokeshire cattle, description of, 48 Pericardium, inflammation of the, 350 1 , the, often penetrated by sharp substances that have been taken into the rumen, ib. Perthshire, an account of the various breeds of cattle in, 118 Pharyngites, the symptoms and treatment of, 394, 395 Pharynx, description of the, 337 , inflammation of the, 394, 395 , the mode of puncturing it in ab- scess situated there, 396 Phrenzy, symptoms and treatment of, 296 Phthisis. See Consumption. Placenta, the retention of it, in abortion, 532 ~, the, should be discharged soon after calving, 545 , method of separating it from the womb, ib. Pleurisy, its symptoms and treatment, 405 , chronic, symptoms and treatment of, 407 Pleuro-pneumonia, interesting account of it, ib. Pneumonia, the symptoms and treatment of, 400 , acute and epidemic, 40 1 Points of cattle, a description of the prin- cipal, 12 Poisons, a list of the various, and the mode of treating them, 445 Polled cattle, an account of the, 154 and horned cattle, a comparison be- tween them, 283 Polypus in the nose, on, 311 Poultices, when useful, 586 Probang, the use of, in hoove, recom- mended, 442 Pregnancy, the usual period of, 527 symptoms of, 533 Presentation, natural, the management of, 534 , unnatural, do., 536 Puck, the disease so called, 362 Puncturing the rumen in hoove, objec- tions to, 44 1 Puerperal fever. See Milk Fever. Pulse, cause of the, 353 , importance of attention to the, ib. Purgatives, the usual beastly method of administering them, 330 Purging cattle, the occasional difficulty of, accounted for, 431, 496 , the method of proceeding when this occurs, ib. QUARTERS, importance of their being long aud full, 15 INDEX. 597 Quarter-evil, its nature and treatment, 356 , a peculiar kind of, in the North Riding of Yorkshire, 362 Queen of Scots, Mr. Mure's beautiful heifer, a description of her, 166 RABIES, the causes and symptoms of, 306 Radnorshire cattle, much crossed with the Herefbrds, and a valuable breed, 58 Rectum, description of the, 467, 470 , the treatment of inversion of, 494 Red-water, the nature and causes of, 504 has more to do with the diges- tive organs and the food than any other cause, 505 is most frequent in low marshy woody countries, ib. , acute, the nature and treatment of, 506, 507 , the importance of bleeding and purging in, ib., 510 -, chronic, the nature and treat- ment of, 508, 509 , the prize essays on it in the ' Quarterly Journal of Agriculture,' 511 Renfrewshire, the old breed there super- seded by the Ayrshire, 125 Reticulum, the interior construction of it, 424, 426, 427 , the action of it in the return of the food to the stomach, 424, 430 , the diseases of the, 448 Rheumatism, the cause and treatment of, 561 Rhodes, Messrs., an account of their dairy, 262, 263 Ribs, the number and proper form of, 367 Ribbed home, the importance of being, 12 Riding oxen in Mandara, an account of the, 5, 315 Rings, the, on the horn, as indicating the age, 279 , uncer- tainty of, 80 Ross, description of the cattle in, 93, 97 , the different crosses of cattle in, 97 the cattle generally more adapted for grazing than the dairy, 98 , average produce of the cows, ib. Rottenness. See Dysentery. Rumen, the, viewed externally, 422, 423 internally, 424, 426 -, general description of it, 425, 427 -, description of its papillae, and their uses, 429 , the fluid swallowed sometimes enters it, 431, 496 , this accounts for' the occasional difficulty of purging cattle, 431, 496 , an account of the diseases of it , 433 , the strange substances often found in it, ib. , calculi in the, symptoms of, 434 -, the effect of, 435 -, distention of it by food, the symp- toms, and treatment of, 435, 436 gas, 438 ; inflammation of the, 436 Rumination, description of it, 432 Rupture of the parietes of the abdomen. See Hernia. of the bladder, symptoms of, 520 . qesophagus, treatment of, 421 womb, treatment of, 542 Rutlandshire has no peculiar breed, 208 Rye, ergot of, its use in parturition, 586 SALIVARY glands, description of the. 332 Salt, its use in food as a medicine, 556 Sapped.: See Constipation. Saphena vein, the, when it should be opened, 348 Scotch cattle, description of their journey to the south, 122 Scott, Sir Robert, first introduced turnips into Kincardineshire, 112 , Selkirkshire, the original breed of cattle in, 153 Septum, the nasal, why not perfect in the ox, 309 Setons, their occasional use, 586 Shealings, description of the, 72, 81 , Mr. M'Lean's admirable re- marks on them, 82 Sheep husbandry compared with that of cattle, unanswerable defence of, 117 Sheeted ox, description of it, 28 Shetland Islands, general description of them, 84 -, description of the cattle there, 85 -, treatment of the cattle, ib. Shewt of blood, its nature and treatment, 356 Shoe of the ox, description of it, 569 Shooting. See Dysentery. Short-horns, the, history of, 226 supposed to be originally im- ported from the Continent, ib. -, description of the old unim- proved ones, 227 -, the commencement of their improvement, ib. -, the mode in which their im- provement was effected, 228 their excellence consists in a combination of qualities before believed to be incompatible, 226 -, the question of their capacity for work, 241 their early maturity should preclude their being put to work, ib. -, the prevailing colours of, 242 Short-horned bulls, the advantage of cross- ing different breeds with them, 240 ____ cow, her milking qualities much improved lately, 246 an account of the cross be- tween it and the Kyloe, 247 Short-sighted, many cattle appear to be, 392 Shoulders, a slanting direction of them, the importance of, 14 Shropshire cattle, the old, 225 598 INDEX. Shropshire cattle, the cross between them and the Holderness, 225 , the Herefbrds r prevail through the whole of the county, ib. Silver, nitrate of, its use as a caustic, 587 Sinclair, Sir John, the great improver of cattle in Caithness, 88 Skeleton of the ox, cut of the, 272 Skibo, description of the small breed of cattle so called, 94 Skin, the cause and importance of its soft mellow feeling, 570 ', diseases of the, ib. Skull, cavity of the, cut of, 273 , fVacture of the, treatment of, 293 . , almost invariably fatal, ib. Slinking. See Abortion. Smelling, on the sense of, 309 Sinithfield, the average number of cattle and sheep annually sold there, 256 ,the yearly numbers of cattle sold there from 1732 to 1830, ib. -, parts of the kingdom by which it is supplied at different periods of the year, 258 , the mode of sale there, ib. , cruelties practised there, ib. Snake, a, in the gullet of a cow, the cause of hoove, 444 Soft palate, description of the, 337 Somerset, Mid., description of the cattle., 28 , North, ditto, ib. , West, ditto, ih. , principally devoted to grazing, 29 Sore teats, treatment of, 552 throat, the symptoms and treatment of, 3'J5 Speed, the disease so called, 362 Spinal cord, the comparative smallness of, accounted for. 287 Spine, comparison between it in the ox and horse. 372 Spleen, structure and function of the, 457 , hemorrhage from the, 458 Sprain in the leg and foot, symptoms and treatment of, 564, 565 Staffordshire, the old cattle of, 222 , history of the improvement of the cattle, 222 description of the present long-horns, 223 . a cross between them and the Derbyshire cattle, 224 Staking, several cases of, 451 Sternum, description of the, 367 , the width of the, sometimes com- pensates for flatness oi the sides, 371 Stimulants, the propriety of administering, when it is difficult to purge cattle, 431 Stirlingshire, the general management of cattle in, 119 Stomachs of cattle, cuts of them, 422, 423, 424, 426 Stomach-pump, the use of it in hoove re- commended, ib. Stone in the bladder,! symptoms and treat- ment of, 518 in the kidneys, ditto and ditto, 516 ureters, ditto and ditto, 517 urethra, ditto and ditto, 519 St. Pancras, the establishment of a veteri- nary school at, 394 Strangulation of the intestines, symptoms and treatment of, 489 Strangullion, description of it, 336 Strathaven, the management of calves there, 140 , the cruelty sometimes practised , 141 , account of extraordinary calves reared there, ih. Stricture of the oesophagus, treatment of, 421 Subcutaneous abdominal vein, the question when it should be bled from, 348 , the ana- tomy of it, 349 Sublingual glands, description of the, 337 Submaxillary vein, description of the, 335 artery, ditto, 335 Suffolk cattle, were originally duns, 174 , description of the, ib. . , milking properties of, 175 , the bull cast off far too early, 177 Sulphur, an excellent purgative and altera- tive, 587 Summerings of cattle in Wexford, descrip- tion of them, 184 Surrey has no distinguishing breed, 265 Sussex oxen, description of the, 40 , resemblance and difference between them and the Devons, ib. , ditto, Herefords, 41 -, their working qualities consi- , curious instance of the speed dered, 42 of one, 43 -, average weight of, ib. cow, description of her, 44 not {rood for the dairy, ib. , extraordinary quantity of milk and butter yielded by one, 45 , a breed of black cattle in, 46 -, West, no distinguishing breed in, ib. Sutherland, general description of, 91 , decrease of the breed of cattle in, ib. , strange increase in the number of sheep in, ib. -, comparison between the former state of cattle husbandry and the present state of sheep husbandry, 92 , the manner in which the change was effected, 93 , its happy effects, ib. -, description of the breed of cattle in, 93 Sweetbread, description of the, 375 Swelling of the joints, the causes and treat- ment of, 562 Swiss cattle,, illustrations of vanity in, 6 INDEX. 599 Swiss cattle, curious account of, as con- nected with consumption, 413 Switzerland, the disposition of cows to abor- tion at the setting in of hoar frost, 533 TAIL, description of the bones of the, 272 , should be level with the bones of the back, 15 , description of it generally, 302 slip, ridiculous notions of it, 301 Tankerville, Lord, account of the wild cattle in his park, 8 Tape-worm, an account of the, 497 Tapping in dropsy, a description of the operation, 498 Tar, its use in cattle practice, 587 Taunton, the vale of, description of the cattle in, 27 Tavistock, the South Devons purest about, 22 Teeth, the form and structure of them, in ruminants, 318 , regarded as indicating the age, ib. , cuts of them, at different ages, 319, &c. , curious process of diminution of, com- mencing at three months, 319 , when the mouth can be said to be full of, 322 , the grinders, the age imperfectly estimated by, 324 Tempest, Sir H. Vane, first introduced the short-horns into Ireland, 184 Temporal artery, description of the, 335, 337 bone, description of the, 372, 374, 384, 315 vein, description of the, 335 Tetanus, symptoms and treatment of, 298 Thighs, they should be full, long, and close together when viewed from behind, 12, 15 Thigh-bone, description of the, 272 Thrush in the mouth, symptoms and treat- ment of, 331 Thymus gland, description of the, 365 Tibia, or leg-bone, description of the, 272 Tipperary, description of the cattle in, 185 Tongue, description of it and its uses, 324 of the horse, reason of its being tied down by the spur of the os-hyoides, 326 ox, reason of its not being tied down, 326 -, method of distinguishing between that of the horse and ox, 373 Tonics, when admissible in the treatment of distemper, 486, 587. Torsion, the method of castration by, 560 Trachea, description of the, 373 Tracheotomy, description of the operation of, 374 ' , cases in which it should be performed, ib. Trysts, the, of Inverness and the North, de- scription of them, 83 Tumours, bony, about the eye, management of, 289 Tumours, bony, about the eye, an advan- tageous way of firing, 289 Turnhill cattle, description of the, 252 Turnips, history of the first introduction of them into the Mearns, 112 , introduced into Berwickshire in 1755, 150 Turpentine, liquid, its uses as a digestive and a diuretic, 587 , oil of, its medicinal use, 587 might possibly destroy the worms in the bronchial tubes, 399 Typhus fever, nature of the, 363 , frequently follows inflam- matory fever, 364 , symptnms of, ib. , treatment of, 365 -, the kind of cattle most sub- ject to, ib. , prevention of, ib. Tyree, the island of, comparison between the profits of breeding and grazing there, 70 Twopenny, Mr. Bakewell's bull, account of, 193 UDDER, description of the, 245 Ulcers, fetid, use of chloride of lime for, 361 University of London, the establishment of a veterinary school at the, 394 Upper jaw-bone, description of the, 272, 309,314 Ureters, description of the, 515 , larger than in the horse, ib. , stone in the, symptoms and treat- ment of, 517 Urethra, description of its curve, ib. , stone in the, symptoms and treat- ment of, 519 Urinary calculi, symptoms of their pre- sence, 516, 517 (Composition of, 516 Urus, account of the ancient, 3 VANITY, illustrations of, in cattle, 6 Veins, the largeness of, in the ox, compared with the arteries, 374 , description of the, 366 , varicose, the nature and treatment of, ib. Verdigris, its use in cattle practice, 584 Vertebrae of the spine, description of, 272 Veterinary schools, their origin, 2, 393 , their establishment put an end to the epidemics which devastated Europe, 393 establishment of that at Edinburgh, 394 eras, ib. -, St. Pun-. -,tlie Uni- versity of London, ib. Vinegar, of little use in cattle practice, 588 Virgil, his beautiful description of the mur- rain, 381 Vitriol, white, the use of, 588 600 INDEX. " Voice of Humanity," the, recommended, 259 Vomiting, how far it may be produced, 456 . true, rare and attended with danger, ib. , a case of, 457 WAISTELT., Mr., the original proprietor of Hubbuck, 229 , account of his fat four- year-old ox, 235 Waller, Messrs., the first improvers of Irish cattle, 182 Warbles, how produced, 574 , history of the fly and its several states, ib. Warts, their nature and treatment, 576 Warwickshire, the cattle of, 220 , the long-horns still pre- valent there, ib. Water iu the head, symptoms and treat- ment of, 295 drop-wort, the treatment of poisoning by, 446 Webster, Mr., ofCanley, an improver of the long-horns, 190, 220 Will>y> a farrier, stands first among the improvers of the long-horns,' 190 Welsh cattle, the, were some of them white with red ears, 48 W T estern counties, their supply of fat cattle for the Smithfield market, 258 West Highland cattle, the points in which they ate valuable, 67 . , the pecret of profit- ably breeding and grazing them, 79 West Lothian, description oi the cattle, 144 , management of them, 144 Westmorland cattle, account of the, 200 Wexford, management of cattle in, 184 Wicklow, description of cattle in, 34, 185 Wight, Isle of, description of the cattle, 215 Wild cattle, account of, 7 Willowbank, account of the dairy at, 141 Willoughby, Sir C., first introduced the short-horns into Oxfordshire, 219 Wiltshire, North, description of the cattle there, 215 ' , until lately occupied by the long-horns, 217 , value of the present cross-breed, ib. 217 , method of rearing in, , cheese equal to the Gloucester, 218 , South, description of the cattle of, ib. Wind-pipe, description of the, 373 Wintering grounds of Dumbartonshire, de- scription of, 122 Withers, hollowness behind them, disad- vantage of, 15 Womb, inversion of the, treatment of, 541 , rupture of the, ditto, 542 Wood-evil, nature and treatment of, 474 Worcestershire, description of the cattle of, 221 contains some of the best Herefords, 221 the Herefords and Dur- hams struggling for superiority on the grazing lands, 221 Worms in the frontal sinuses of cattle, 276 in the eye, treatment of, 293 , an account of the various intesti- nal ones, 496 Wortley farmers' club, an account of the, 251 Wounds of the eye, management of, 289 YELLOWS, the (see Jaundice), 462 Yew, the treatment of poisoning by, 446 eaten with impunity by the cattle in Hanover and Hesse, 447 mixed with other food may be eaten without danger, ib. Yorkshire cow, the history of the establish- ment of the present one, 243 , description of her, 244 ., average quantity of milk yielded by her, 245, 261 -, the question of the average quantity of butter, 245 , East Riding, an account of the cattle of, 251 - , North Riding, description of the cattle of, 248 of, were long-horns, ib. the native cattle account of the first Holderness established there, ib. , history of their improvement, ib. ment of, 249 , general manage- -, the cows princi- pally supply the metropolitan dairies, ib. , West Riding, description of the cattle of, 250 -, the prevalence of the half-horns accounted for, ib. Young calves, the danger of taking them too soon from their dams, 310 ZINC, the preparations of it which are used medicinally, 338 Zygomatic arch, the peculiar construction of it in the ox, 277 Zygomaticus muscle, description of the, 338 London: Printed by W. CLOWES, Duke-street, Lambeth. m j if 1 ; inn A 000047902 2