OCR Text |
Show Dehorn the Dairy Cows. The dehorning of cattle is a sub-1 ject which may be said to be settled in the affirmative so far as the great dairy districts of Illinois, and Minnesota Min-nesota are concerned. A journey through these States will show to the intelligent observer that nearly one-half one-half the cattle are minus their horns. And it appears to be the case that the large herds have been dehorned more completely than the smaller ones. On approaching a farmer for his reasons why he had dehorned his stock he stated that it made the cows more gentle and docile, and that he noticed somewhat of an in crease in the milk yield since it had been done. The cows lost the fidgety, nervous appearance and did not seem to be so much afraid of the leader of the herd Now as to the humanitarian side of this question. Humane people who live in town and have had no practical experience with stock speak of dehorning as cruel. But it is not. It is an act of mercy to prevent cows from injuring each other, and there is little more pain connected with it than there is in trimming a finger nail. The cows were given horns to protect themselves from their enemies, enem-ies, but in our modern civilization man protects the cow from her enemies, ene-mies, and she does not need the horns for defense. Even Mother nature, herself, seems to recognize this fact. The great Texas steers that have to fight for their lives against wolves, bears and members of their own kind, have long, sharp, cruel horns with a spread often of four feet, and they have to use them savagely in order to live. The gentle gen-tle Jersey cow, with man as her friend, and with no persistent enemy en-emy larger than a house fly, has stubby, useless little horns of four or five inches in length, and doubtless doubt-less Nature will in time eliminate even these. When man removes the horns from domestic stock he is only finishing fin-ishing up what nature has begun. Nervousness and dread among dairy cows do not increase in milk giving. Quietness and gentleness should reign supreme on the, dairy farm. If the farmers can teach his cow that she has nothing to fear form the horns of her sister, he will see the result of his teaching in the milk pail. Removing the horns, when it is properly done by the Keystone Dehorning De-horning Knives made by A. C. Bros-ius, Bros-ius, Cochranville, Pa., is not a painful pain-ful operation, as is evidenced by the fact that it will scarcely interfere inter-fere with the flow of a cow's milk as much as the chase around the pasture in front of the farmer's dog will do. Those best aoquaintde with dehorning and its results are its strongest advocates. Ex. |