Freemartins

Opunake Times, Volume II, Issue 81, 12 April 1895, Page 3

Freemartins

A correspondeufc supplies :;s with the following extract from the. Live j|Stcwfc Jotifnftl:—Answering our cor- • * respondent •« P F.M.," in our issue of October 27, wc adopted the commonly Bcceptedf theory that these anima's are imperfect females ; but we have no doubt Mr Tegetnieier's explanation is the rigbs:_one. Thus he writes : "The no.t<fs and. letters that have appeared inlthe Live Stock Journal on .the subject" of. freevnar:ins have not , exhausted the subject, and with your permission I would like to say a few word|on the matter. Firstly, as to the origin and employment of the term ' freemartin..' In the first edition of * BeU's^British Quadrupeds,' which contains . aV. much more complete account of domesticated animals than the editions, the following account of'the etymology of the name is given, os .taken, from the 'Glossary of Dialect's of Craven in the west riding of Yorkshire': When a cow produces two calves,.'one.-a male and the other a female, the female is styled a ' freemartin,' which, it is said, never breeds. In Scotland a cow or an ox which is fattened a * mart.' Hence probably..the*term originated. The female nbV fit for "breeding, was free, or at liberty for fattening.' My friend MrYarrelf suggests that freemartin may mean'? free from the mart or market.'

" With regard to the employment of the term.. ' freemartin,' it appears to me quite erroneous to give it to those twin cow.calves which are fertile, as they occasionally are."