. The dairyman's manual. A practical treatise on the dairy .. . a par with the special dairybreeds previously described. If a dairyman wants aherd of cows which are withont horns, he can find suchcows among the polled Norfolks. While considering this matter of horns, it might besaid that there are many weighty reasons to be urged infavor of hornless cattle. Horns are offensive weaponsof the most dangerous character, and may be suddenlyturned against an unwary owner as quickly as againstother cattle in the herd. Numerous distressing acci-dents occur every year in this way, and very great dam-ag
. The dairyman's manual. A practical treatise on the dairy .. . a par with the special dairybreeds previously described. If a dairyman wants aherd of cows which are withont horns, he can find suchcows among the polled Norfolks. While considering this matter of horns, it might besaid that there are many weighty reasons to be urged infavor of hornless cattle. Horns are offensive weaponsof the most dangerous character, and may be suddenlyturned against an unwary owner as quickly as againstother cattle in the herd. Numerous distressing acci-dents occur every year in this way, and very great dam-age results to cows, calves, and other animals from thepugnacity of cows and bulls, who use these most injuriousand often fatal weapons offensively in every sense of theterm, and never defensively, as nature intended, butwiiich are not required under domestication. Then thequestion arises, how can the cattle be deprived of theseoffensive and threatening horns without injury, damage,or inconvenience ? A horn has a bony center, which is a cows FOB THE DAIBT. 47 j. 48 THE DAIRTMANS manual. part of the skull, a prolongation of the frontal process,protected by the smooth covering known as the horn. Ina young animal, a calf of a month, the horn is unformed,and becomes developed slowly, beginning to grow out-wardly at the age of six to eight weeks. At this timeit first appears upon the surface as a horny plate, whichis not attached to the skull, but is a growth from theskin, with which it is identical in composition. If thishorny plate be cut loose from the skin and removed, andthe wound be touched for an instant with the point of ahot iron, the embryo horn is at once destroyed and nofurther growth takes place. If, then, it is desirable tohave hornless cattle, there is no necessity to select anyinferior animals simply because they are devoid of horns,but to rear the best calves and dishorn them when it canbe done easily and painlessly; the operation being verysimple, and free from all b
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectdairyin, bookyear1894
