Some people continue to milk their cows until within a very short time of calving. This is very poor economy. The milk at such times is thin and insipid, and unfit for food. I have never found any “preparatory treatment” of the cow prior to parturition, such as physicing, etc., to be necessary; but place her on short rations for a few days—administering, as one writer terms it, “judicious starvation.” The feed of roots is continued, as they exert a laxative effect on the bowels and tissues, thereby obviating the necessity of giving a huge dose of Epsom Salts. In an experience of fifteen years, by following this plan of restricting the diet, I have not had a case of milk fever, apoplexy, or retention of placenta, and but one case which called for assistance, and this was due wholly to an accident. When a single cow is kept, she is, of course, exempt from the ill consequences which so often result from crowding and fighting with other cows, and, if kindly treated and provided with comfortable accommodations for feeding and shelter, she will seldom have any trouble. But cases where assistance is indispensable do sometimes occur, even under the best management, the most frequent of which is the retention of the placenta or after-birth. If, at the end of twenty-four hours, the cow has not “cleaned,” it is then time to undertake the removal of the placenta. This can be accomplished by carefully introducing the right arm of a man having a small hand, which should previously be well greased, into the cavity of the uterus, when the connecting attachments will readily be found and may be separated, after which the whole may be brought away. These attachments are often quite numerous, and care should be taken that all are detached, and that the whole of the after-birth is removed, as serious results sometimes occur when a portion of it is retained.