times where there are so many servants, and the senders of cattle are
sometimes themselves to blame. I have never myself lost a beast by
rail; I prepare my cattle for their journey before they start from
home. My heavy cattle are turned out three different times at least
before they are sent to rail. I walk them in a lea field: the first day
they are put out four hours; I then give them a day to rest; turn them
out again on the second day and increase the distance, and they come
quite fresh out of the trucks at London. What can an owner of cattle
expect but that some will go down if he take his cattle six, eight, or
ten miles without their ever having left the stall for five or eight
months before, and put them on to rail? Many hundreds of good oxen have
been lost in this way, or crushed and bruised. Cattle when tied up are
kept in an unnatural state; they often take founder when at the stall
as a consequence, and sometimes paralysis; but such moderate exercise
as I have described tends to bring them back to their natural state. I
have often been asked the question by those who had seen my Christmas
market cattle--"How is it that your beasts are so good upon their legs
compared with others?" The first day after the cattle are put out for
four hours they will not look so well, and will return to the stalls
very much fatigued; but on the second and third days of their exercise
they will recover their wonted appearance. They will walk eight or ten
miles in a morning and go fresh into the truck, and on reaching their
destination will come out and stand well up in the market.
Founder generally yields to bleeding and two or three doses of salts
with sulphur and ginger: I never saw this treatment fail. Paralysis is
a more serious matter: in that case the firing-iron must be applied,
and after the most skilful treatment the results are often very
unsatisfactory. Cattle of all ages that are confined are liable to
paralysis of the hind quarters; the complaint, however, is most
prevalent among young bulls, and although removed, they generally lose
from six to twelve months' growth. Cattle that have been confined to
the stall, and even straw-yard cattle, are utterly unfit for the road,
on account of the softness of their hoofs, and when put to it at once,
are very apt to take paralysis if not carefully prepared by previous
exercise. A certain season of the year is more especially to be guarded
against--viz., from the middle of March to the middle of May. Cattle
that have been two weeks at grass may, however, be safely droved.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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