India in 1887 as seen by Robert Wallace / [Robert Wallace].

  • Robert Wallace
Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: India in 1887 as seen by Robert Wallace / [Robert Wallace]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    174/550 (page 88)
    If a bull has been well fed, and is in consequence well for ward for his age—well developed—they castrate him at three years old, but not sooner under ordinary circum- stances. A bull which had been poorly or moderately fed, as is usually the case, will not reach the proper stage of development till four years old, when six teeth are up ; then the operation is performed. It is known that if animals are castrated too young (before four teeth arc up), although by good feeding and treatment the hump and neck are large, their growth is not permanent, and the parts weaken and diminish too much in size. It is found again, on the other hand, that if castration is delayed till the constitution is completely set, as indicated by all the eight incisor teeth being well up at five years, the dis- position of the animal is spoiled by the operation, it becomes sluggish and lazy, and wants the mettle neces- sary to make a good working bullock. This tendency is not confined to cattle alone, but must be familiar to most observers of nature in the cases of dogs and cats which have been fully matured before being emasculated. The listlessness is usually attributed to fat, but it is much more likely that the fat accumulates in virtue of the laziness and want of exercise. We know for a fact, at least, that many corpulent men are at the same time most active and energetic in spite of their fatness. The want of a proper knowledge of these facts has led European residents in India into the very serious blunder of castrating, or attempting to castrate, the inferior male cattle at an early age to prevent them breeding. It is thought to be next to impossible, in the ordinary system of herding village cattle, to keep back the young active and growing males, which are in consequence of these qualities likely to become the most prominent stock getters. Separating them into a herd by themselves, and pasturing them apart, is no doubt the effectual plan, and might be practised most successfully on large cattle farms ;