I was told afterwards by a shepherd, to whom I related the case, that I should have cut off all the teats, and although the horrid operation would, of course, have destroyed her for a milk cow, she might have been saved for feeding. He had never seen a cow so operated on; but it suggested itself to him in consequence of having been obliged at times to cut off the teats of ewes to save their lives. The suggestion I think is good. The cow was bred by Mr Currie, when at Brandon in Northumberland.

2242. Red-water.-The ninth day after a cow has calved, an uterine discharge should take place and continue for a day or two, after which the cow will exhibit all the symptoms of good health. I have observed that when this discharge does not take place, the cow will soon after show symptoms of red-water. She will evacuate urine with difficulty, which will come away in small streams, and be highly tinged with blood, and at length appear like dark grounds of coffee. "The nature and cause of the disease are here evident enough," as Mr Youatt well observes. "During the period of pregnancy there had been considerable determination of blood to the womb. A degree of susceptibility, a tendency to inflammatory action had been set up, and this had been increased as the period of parturition approached, and was aggravated by the state and general fulness of blood to which she had incautiously been raised. The neighbouring 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 an inflammation, and suffered most by means of it."* The prevention of this disease is recommended in using purgative medicine after calving; but as purging never fails to lessen the quantity of milk given by the cow for some time after, a better plan is to give such food as will also operate as a laxative, for some time before as well as after calving-and the substance which possesses these properties is oil-cake. I have proved this from experience. I lost two cows in Forfarshire by red-water, one a short-horn and the other an Angus, and one of the hinds lost one also; all in different but successive years. By examination of the stomach and bowels after death, I became satisfied that the determination of the blood to the womb, during pregnancy, had caused a tendency to inflammation in the bowels and stomach, and that indigestion and constipation were the consequences, and these were aggravated by the state of the food, which consisted entirely of Swedish turnips, and which, at that season, in April, were fibrous, dry, and sweet. The remedy was obvious-give a laxative diet; and as that cannot readily be effected by turnips, particularly in cows which do not receive as many as they can eat, nor by raw potatoes, which incur the risk of hoven, the only alternative was oil-cake; and, fortunately, from the period I employed it medicinally, for a month before and one after

* Youatt On Cattle, p. 504.

calving, to the extent only of 4 lbs. a-day to each cow, the complaint never recurred.

In

2243. I never saw the disease in Berwickshire ; and the opinion in Forfarshire, where the disease is prevalent, that it arises from cows eating some noxious plant, and is called the muir-ill, cannot be well founded-as cows living on the same kinds of soun grasses have been differently affected in different parts of the country. Besides, a two years' pasture has not time to become stocked with natural plants, whether noxious or innoxious; nor could the noxious effects of even natural pasture plants be felt in spring, after cattle had lived upon turnips for a number of months; nor can simple laxatives, for a few days in spring, counteract the effects of plants grazed on for half a year in the previous summer. digestion and constipation, at the time of calving, must therefore arise from some other cause than the consumption of plants in summer. One cause may be sought in the prevailing practice in Forfarshire, of keeping cows constantly in the byre during the winter half-year. Remove the tendency to constipation by a gentle laxative, and allow the cows air and exercise in winter in a court, and the complaint will never more be heard of after calving. Whatever may be the cause of the disease in summer, when it is said to be most prevalent in dry weather, where cows have liberty to roam over marshes, muirs, or woods, and eat what plants hunger may impel them, it is clear that the disease in spring cannot arise from the same cause.+

2244. Tail-ill or Tail-slip.-A very prevalent notion exists in Scotland amongst cattle-men, that when the tail of an ox or of a cow feels soft and supple immediately above the tuft of hair, there is disease in it; and it is called the tail-ill, or tail-slip. The almost invariable remedy is to make a large incision with the knife along the under side of the soft part, stuff the wound full of salt and butter, and sometimes tar, and roll it up with a bandage for a few days, and when the application is removed, the animal is declared quite recovered. Now, this notion is an absurdity. There is no such disease as imputed; and as the poor animal subjected to its cure is thus tormented, the sooner the absurd notion is exposed the better. The notion will not soon be abandoned by the cattle-men; but the farmer ought to forbid the performance of such an operation on any of his cattle without his special permission, and the absurd practice will fall into desuetude. "The disease, in ordinary cases," as Professor Dick describes it, "is said to consist in a softening of the bones about the extremity of the tail (mollities ossium); and is to be distinguished by the point of the tail being easily doubled back upon itself, and having, at this doubling, a soft and rather crepitating kind of feel. But let us inquire," as the Professor very properly suggests, "what is the healthy state of this organ, and what is its use,

before we proceed to pronounce upon this supposed disease. Almost all the lower animals are furnished with this organ; in some adding much to their grace and symmetry, and in all being an organ of greater or less utility." Now, the natural structure of the tail is this: "The tail of the ox is lengthened out to the extent of 3 feet, and is formed like a common whip. Towards the extremity, the bones terminate gradually, becoming insensibly smaller as they approach the termination. At this part is found a soft space, which is said to be the seat of this disease, the tail-slip. Beyond this, again, a firm, swelling, cartilaginous portion is found, covered with hair, to brush off the flies within its reach. Now, why have we the long column of bones, the termination with a soft space of a few inches, and this thickened hard cartilaginous part at the very extremity, and that extremity covered with hair? Why, but with a view to form a whip to drive off, with the greatest possible effect, the insects which wound and do torment the animal. Here, the column of bones forms the elastic shaft or handle of the whip; the soft part, the connexion between the handle and thong, the couple; while the thickened extremity may be easily recognised to represent the thong, and the hair to form the lash or point. They have thus a whip to drive and a brush to wipe off their foes as they make their attack." The tail being thus shown to be admirably suited for its pnrpose, it could not be so well suited for it if it wanted that soft part which is said to be in a state of disease. On the conclusion to be drawn from this statement of facts, the Professor anticipates it thus-" But it will perhaps be asked, after what I have stated of the facts previously ascertained, do I deny the existence of the tailslip? I answer, Yes. But if I am again asked, Is the tail not liable to disease? I answer, it is; but these diseases, or rather injuries, are only those common to other parts. The softness at the extremity is no disease; it is the natural structure, intended to allow a free and extensive motion; and although, in some cases, mortification may have attacked the extremity of the tail, ought we not to ascribe this to some common cause some external injury? or might it not, perhaps, have become frost bit by exposure to cold?" A real disease of the tail, whatever it is, is, at all events, not the tail-ill.

ON THE MILKING OF COWS.

2245. The structure of a cow's udder is remarkable. It consists of 4 glands, disconnected with each other, but all contained within one bag or cellular membrane; and the glands are uniform in structure. Each gland consists of 3 parts, the glandular or secreting, the tubular or conducting, and the teat or receptacle or receiving part. The glandular forms

2247. The teats should be at equal distances every way, not too long or too short, but of moderate size, and of equal thickness from the udder to the point, which should be smaller. They should not be too large at the udder, to permit the milk to flow down too freely from the bag and lodge in them; nor too small at that place, to allow the coagulation of the milk to cord up or fill the orifice; nor too broad at the point, to have the orifice as large as that the cow cannot retain her milk after the bag becomes full and heavy. They should be smooth, and feel like velvet, firm and soft to handle, not hard and leathery. They should yield the milk freely, and not require to be forcibly pulled.

2248. When the milk is first to be taken from the cow after calving, the points of the teats will be found plugged up with a resinous substance, which, in some instances, requires some force to be exerted on them before it will yield. The milk that is obtained for the first four days has a thick consistence, and is of a yellow colour, and has obtained the name of beistyn in Scotland. It possesses the coagulable properties of the white of an egg, and will boil into a thick substance called beistyn cheese; but it is never used for such a purpose, and is given to the calf, because the country people have a notion that it is not wholesome to use the beistyns.

2249. "Thus, then," says a writer," we perceive that the milk is abstracted from the blood in the glandular part of the udder; the tubes receive and deposit it in the reservoir or receptacle; and the sphincter at the end of the teat retains it there till it is wanted for use." This is not quite correct, for the teat does not terminate in a sphincter-the milk being upheld in the teat simply by a valvular structure, like as the blood is supported in the veins. A sphincter acts by the power of four muscles, which contract or expand at will across a common orifice. "But we must not be understood to mean, that all the milk drawn from the udder at one milking, or meal, as it is termed, is contained in the receptacle. The milk, as it is secreted, is conveyed to the receptacle, and when this is full, the larger tubes begin to be filled, and next the smaller ones, until the whole become gorged. When this takes place, the secretion of the milk ceases, and absorption of the thinner or more watery part commences. Now, as this absorption takes place more readily in the smaller or more distant tubes, we invariably find that the milk from these, which comes the last into the receptacle, is much thicker and richer than than what was first drawn off. This milk has been significantly styled afterings; and should this gorged state of the tubes be permitted to continue beyond a certain time, serious mischief will sometimes occur: the milk becomes too thick to flow through the tubes, and soon produces, first irritation, then inflammation, and lastly suppuration, and the function of the gland is materially impaired or altogether destroyed. Hence the great importance of emptying these smaller tubes regularly and thoroughly, not merely to prevent the occurrence of disease, but actually to increase the quantity of milk; for so long as the smaller tubes are kept free, milk is constantly forming; but whenever, as we have already mentioned, they become gorged, the secretion of milk ceases until they are emptied. The cow herself has no power over the sphincter (?) at the end of the teat, so as to open it and relieve the overcharged udder; neither has she any power of retaining the milk collected in the reservoirs when the spasm of the sphincter is overcome." *

2250. You thus see the necessity of drawing away the last drop of milk at every milking, and the greater milker the cow is, this is the more necessary. You also see the impropriety of hefting or holding the milk in cows until the udder is distended much beyond its ordinary size, for the sake of showing its utmost capacity for holding milk, a device which all cow-dealers, and indeed every one who has a cow for sale in a market, scrupulously adopts. It is remarkable that so hackneyed a practice should deceive any one into its being a measure of the milking power of the cow-for every farmer is surely aware, or ought to be, that the person who purchases a hefted cow, on account of the magnitude of its udder as exhibited in the market, gains nothing by the device; for, after the cow comes into his possession, she will not be hefted, and, of course, not show the greatest magnitude of udder, and cannot yield the advantage for which she was bought erroneously in preference to others with udders in a more natural state. If, then, purchasers derive no benefit from hefting, because they do not allow it after the cow becomes their own, why do they encourage so cruel and injurious a practice in dealers? Is it not better to select cows by the udder in the state in which it will be in their own possession? Were purchasers to set their face against the barbarous practice, by insisting on a reduction in the price of the cow, for the injury done her by the hefting, the dealers would soon be obliged to relinquish it.

2251. There is also another fallacy in regard to the milking properties of a cow, which should be exposed-I mean the notion of a large milk-vein below the belly indicating the milking powers of the cow. The vein, commonly called the milkvein, is the sub-cutaneous vein, and has nothing to do with the udder; it belongs to the respiratory system, and is the means of keeping up an equilibrium in the blood between the fore and hind quarters. This vein certainly indicates a strongly developed vascular system, which is favourable to secretion generally, and no doubt is so to that of the milk among the rest.

2252. The vessel used for receiving the

THE MILK PAIL.

milk from the cow is simple, and is shown in fig. 197, which represents one of the most convenient form, and the size Fig. 197. may be made to suit the dairymaid's taste. It is made of thin oak staves bound together with three thin iron hoops, which should always be kept bright. Pitchers of tin are mostly used to milk in in the dairies of towns. In Holland the milking pails are made of brass, and of course must be kept quite bright, otherwise they would injure the milk. The Dutch dairy-maids have a great deal of trouble in keeping these vessels in proper order. A pail, as fig. 197, is of a convenient size when 9 inches in diameter at the bottom, 11 inches at the top, and 10 inches deep, with a handle 5 inches high, and having a capacious enough mouth to receive the milk as it descends, and of a sufficient height to rest on the edge of its bottom when held firmly between the knees of the dairy-maid, as she sits upon the threelegged stool. Of course the pail should not be milked full, and should be large enough to contain all the milk that a cow will give at a milking, as it is undesirable to disturb the cow by rising from her before the milking is finished, or exchanging one pail for another.

2253. The byre-stool is seen in fig. 198, made of ash, to stand 9 inches in height, or any other height to suit the convenience Fig. 198.

L

THE MILKING STOOL.

of the dairy-maid, with the top 9 inches in diameter, and the legs a little spread out below to give the stool stability. Some milkers do not care to have the assistance of a stool, and prefer sitting on their haunches; but a stool keeps the body so steady and secure, that the arms have greater freedom of action, and are more ready to prevent accidents to the milk in case of any commotion with the cow.

2254. The cow being a sensitive and capricious creature, is so easily offended, that, if the dairy-maid rise from her before the milk is all withdrawn, the chances are she will not again stand quietly at that milking; or if the vessel used in milking is taken away before the milking is finished, and another substituted in its place, the probability is that she will hold back her milk-that is, not allow it to flow. This is a curious property which cows possess, and how it is effected has, I believe, never been ascertained; but there is no doubt of the fact occurring when a cow becomes irritated, or frightened by any cause. Of course, all cows are not affected to the same degree; but, as a proof of their extreme sensitiveness in this respect, very few can be milked so freely by a stranger the first time as by one to whom they have been accustomed.

2255. There is one side of a cow which is usually called the milking side—that is, the left side-because, somehow, custom has established the practice of milking her from that side. It may have been adopted for two reasons: one, because we are accustomed to approach all the larger domesticated animals by what we call the near side-that is, the animal's left side-as being the most convenient one for ourselves; and the other reason may have been, that, as most people are right-handed, and the common use of the right hand has made it the stronger, it is most conveniently employed in milking the hinder teats of the cow, which are often most difficult to reach, because of the position of the hind legs, and the breadth of the hinder part of the udder. The near side is most commonly used in Scotland, but in many parts of England the other side is preferred. Whichever side is selected, that should always be used, as cows are very sensitive of changes.

2256. It is a rare sight to see a cow milked in Scotland by any other person than a woman, though men are very commonly employed in England. For my part, I never see a man milking a cow without being impressed with the idea that he is engaged in an office which does not befit him; and this sense seems to be expressed in the terms usually applied to the persons connected with cows-a dairymaid implying one who milks cows, as well as performs the other functions of the dairy, —a dairy-man, one who owns a dairy.

2257. Milking is performed in two ways, stripping and nievling. Stripping consists of seizing the teat firmly near the root between the face of the thumb and the side of the fore-finger, the length of the teat lying along the other fingers, and by pressing the finger and thumb while passing them down the entire length of the teat, and causing the milk to flow out of its point in a forcible stream. The action is renewed by again quickly elevating the hand to the root of the teat. Both hands are employed at the operation, each having hold of a different teat, and are moved alternately. The two nearest teats, the fore and hind, are first milked, and then the two farthest.

2258. Nierling is done by grasping the teat with the whole hand, or fist, making the sides of the fore-finger and thumb press upon the teat more strongly than the other fingers, when the milk flows by the pressure. Both hands are employed, and are made to press alternately, but so quickly in succession, that the alternate streams of milk sound on the ear like one forcibly-continued stream; and although stripping also causes a continued flow, the nievling, not requiring the hands to change their position, as stripping does, draws away the larger quantity of milk in the same time. Stripping is thus performed by pressing and passing certain fingers along the teat; nievling by the doubled fist, pressing the teat steadily at one place.

2259. Of the two modes, I prefer the nierling, because it appears to me to be the more natural one of imitating the sucking of a calf. When a calf takes a teat into its mouth, it seizes it with the tongue and palate, causing them to play upon the

teat by alternate pressures or pulsations, while retaining it in the same position. This is what nievling does; but stripping is not like this at all,-it is rather like the action which a thief would make when stealing milk from the cow. It is said that stripping is good for agitating the udder, and agitation is conducive to the withdrawal of a large quantity of milk; but there is nothing to prevent the dairymaid agitating the udder as much as she pleases, while holding the teats in nievlingindeed, a more constant agitation could be kept up in that way, by the vibrations of the arms, than by stripping, and is more like the poking of the udder with the nose when the calf sucks. Stripping, by using a constrained pressure upon two sides of the teat, is much more apt to press it unequally than grasping the whole teat in the palm of the hand; while the friction occasioned by passing the finger and thumb firmly over the skin of the teat, is more likely to excite heat and irritation in it than a mere grasp of the hand. To show that this friction causes an unpleasant feeling even to the dairy-maid, she is obliged to lubricate the teat frequently with milk, and to wet it at first with water; whereas nievling requires no such expedients. And as a further proof that stripping is a mode of milking which may give pain to the cow, it cannot be employed when the teats are chapped, or when these and the udder are affected with the cow-pox, with so much ease to the cow as nievling. This difference I saw strikingly exemplified one summer, when all my cows were affected with the cow-pox, and when the assistant, who could only milk by stripping, was obliged to relinquish her duty till the cows were so far recovered as to be again able to endure her mode of milking.

2260. Milking should be done fast, to draw away the milk as quickly as possible; and it should be continued as long as there is a drop of milk to bring away. This is an issue which the dairy-maid cannot too particularly attend to herself, and see it attended to by her assistants. Old milk left in the receptacle of the teat soon changes into a curdy state; and the caseous matter, not being at once broken and removed by the next milking, is apt to irritate the lining membrane of the teat during