The only precaution, in the way of management, to be observed as a preparative for the operation is, that on the preceding evening not so copious a meal should be given. The operation should also be performed in the morning before the animal has fed, so that the operator may not find any obstacle from the primary digestive organs, especially the paunch, which, during its state of ordinary fullness, might prevent operating with facility. The advantages of spaying milch-cows are thus summed up by able French writers: First, rendering permanent the secretion of milk, and having a much greater quantity within the given time of every year; second, the quality of milk being improved; third, the uncertainty of, and the dangers incident to, breeding being, to a great extent, avoided; fourth, the increased disposition to fatten even when giving milk freely, or when, from excess of age or from accidental circumstances, the secretion of milk is otherwise checked; fifth, the very short time required to produce a marketable condition; and sixth, the meat of spayed cattle being of a quality superior to that of ordinary cattle. This operation would seem to have originated in this country. The London Veterinary Journal of 1834 contains the following, taken from the United States Southern Agriculturist:--"Some years since, I passed a summer at Natchez, and put up at a hotel there, kept by Mr. Thomas Winn. During the time that I was there I noticed two remarkably fine cows, which were kept constantly in the stable, the servant who had charge of the horses, feeding them regularly three times a day with green guinea grass, cut with a sickle. These cows had so often attracted my attention, on account of the great beauty of their form, and deep red color, the large size of their bags, and the high condition in which they were kept, that I was at length induced to ask Mr. Winn to what breed of cattle they belonged, and his reasons for keeping them constantly in the stable in preference to allowing them to run in the pasture, where they could enjoy the benefit of air and exercise, and at the same time crop their own food, and thereby save the labor and trouble of feeding them? Mr. Winn, in reply to these inquiries, stated that the two cows which I so much admired were of the common stock of the country, and he believed, of Spanish origin; but they were both spayed cows, and that they had given milk either two or three years. Considering this a phenomenon (if not in nature at least in art), I made further inquiries of Mr. Winn, who politely entered into a very interesting detail, communicating facts which were as extraordinary as they were novel. Mr. Winn, by way of preface, observed that he, in former years, had been in the habit of reading English magazines, which contained accounts of the plowing-matches which were annually held in some of the southern counties of England, performed by cattle, and that he had noticed that