In bull or cow which is becoming unduly fat and showing
indications of sexual indifference, the treatment must be active. Turning
out on a short pasture where it must work hard for a living will often
suffice. The bull which can not be turned out to pasture may sometimes be
utilized in the yoke or tread power, or he may be kept a part of his time
in a field or paddock chained by the ring in his nose to a strong wire
extending from one side of the lot to the other and attached securely to
two trees or posts. The wire should be higher than the back of the bull,
which will move frequently from end to end. If he is indisposed to take
sufficient exercise in this way he may be safely driven. An instance of the
value of the exercise in these incipient cases of fatty degeneration is
often quoted. The cow Dodona, condemned as barren at Earl Spencer's, was
sold cheap to Jonas Webb, who had her driven by a road a distance of 120
miles to his farm at Wilbraham, soon after which she became pregnant. In
advanced cases, however, in which the fatty degeneration is complete,
recovery is impossible.

In case of rigid closure of the mouth of the womb the only resort is
dilatation. This is far more difficult and uncertain in the cow than in the
mare. The neck of the womb is longer, is often tortuous in its course, and
its walls so approximated to each other and so rigid that it may be all but
impossible to follow it, and there is always danger of perforating its
walls and opening into the cavity of the abdomen, or, short of that, of
causing inflammation and a new, rigid, fibrous formation which on healing
leaves matters worse than before. The opening must be carefully made with
the finger, and when that has entered the womb further dilatation may be
effected by inserting a sponge tent or by careful stretching with a
mechanical dilator. (Pl. XX, fig. 6.)

STERILITY FROM OTHER CAUSES.

The questions as to whether a bull is a sure stock getter and whether a cow
is a breeder are so important that it would be wrong to pass over other
prominent causes of sterility. Breeding at too early an age is a common
source of increasing weakness of constitution which has existed in certain
breeds. Jerseys have especially been made the victims of this mistake, the
object being to establish the highest milking powers in the smallest
obtainable body which will demand the least material and outlay for its
constant repair of waste. With success in this line