The American Reformed Cattle Doctor: Containing the necessary information for preserving the health and curing the diseases of oxen, cows, sheep, and swine, with a great variety of original recipes, and valuable information in reference to farm and dairy managementDadd, George H.
Science
The American Reformed Cattle Doctor: Containing the necessary information for preserving the health and curing the diseases of oxen, cows, sheep, and swine, with a great variety of original recipes, and valuable information in reference to farm and dairy management
Dadd, George H.
Veterinary medicine
There is no doubt but that brutes are often endowed with extraordinary
powers for sexual indulgence; yet, when kept for the purpose alluded to,
without sufficient muscular exercise,--breathing impure air, and living
on the fat of the farm,--his services in constant requisition,--then it
is no wonder, that if, under these circumstances, the offspring are weak
and inefficient.
Professor Youatt recommends that "valuable qualities once established,
which it is desirable to keep up, should thereafter be preserved by
occasional crosses with the best animals to be had of the same breed,
but of a different family. This is the great secret which has maintained
the blood horse in his great superiority."
The live stock of our farmers frequently degenerates in a very short
space of time. The why and the wherefore is not generally understood;
neither will it be, until animal physiology shall be better understood
than it is at the present time. Men are daily violating the laws of
animal organization in more ways than one, in the breeding, rearing, and
general management of all kinds of domestic animals,--until the
different breeds are so amalgamated, that, in many cases, it is a
difficult task to ascertain, with any degree of certainty, their
pedigree. If a farmer has in his possession a bull of a favorite breed,
the neighboring stock-raisers avail themselves of his bullship's
services by sending as many cows to him as possible: the consequence is,
that the offspring got in the latter part of the season are good for
nothing. The cow also, at the time of impregnation, may be in a state of
debility, owing to some derangement in the organs of digestion; if so,
impregnation is very likely to make the matter worse; for great sympathy
exists between the organs of generation and those of digestion, and
females of every order suffer more or less from a disturbed state of the
stomach during the early months of pregnancy. In fact, during the whole
stage they should be considered far from a state of health. Add to this
the fact that impregnated cows are milked, (not generally, yet we know
of such cases:) the foetus is thus deprived of its due share of
nourishment, and the extra nutrimental agents, necessary for its growth
and development, must be furnished at the expense of the mother. She, in
her turn, soon shows unmistakable evidences of this "robbing Peter to
pay Paul" system, by her sunken eye, loss of flesh, &c., and often,
before she has seen her sixth month of pregnancy, liberates the foetus
by a premature birth--in short, pays the penalty of disobedience to the
immutable law of nature. On the other hand, should such a cow go safely
through the whole period of gestation and parturition, the offspring
will not be worth keeping, and the milk of the former will lack, in some
measure, those constituents which go to make good milk, and without
which it is almost worthless for making butter or cheese. A cow should
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account