A WONDERFUL COW.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1385, 29 August 1885, Page 2

A WONDERFUL COW.

A cow belonging to Mr Siegert, of Temuka, was the subject of much attention recently. This cow was the source of a good income to Dr Hayes’s groom. He made a shilling every time he impounded her and he impounded her almost daily, till Mr Siegert got tired of paying poundage, and sent ber down to Prattley’s farm. Last Tuesday news was brought to him that she had calved, and he despatched one of his employees to bring her home. The calf looked a day or two old, but was evidently in want of food, for on no aooount would the cow take to it. This rather supriaed Mr Siegert, but his astonishment was intensified when he found the cow had no milk. The cow was tied up and persons skilled in the diseases of cattle consulted, but the matter still remained a dark and inscrutable mystery. A lady who has made cows a life-study said she never know the like, and made a desperate attempt to milk the cow, but to no purpose. She pronounced the disease to be “ milk fever.” Another lady, of a more self ■ assertive disposition, undertook so set matters right at once, and insisted upon drenching the cow with some sort of a mixture, but it failed, This lady held that the cow had “ foundered ” The case was becoming serious, and the excitement was hourly intensifying, while one after an other of Mr Siegerb’s employees suggested remedies. Mr Demuth held that the cow was suffering from dry murrain and suggested suitable remedies, while Mr Gaze believed it to be the commencement of a disease known as rinderpest, and thought that by giving her a couple of bottles of whisky she might yet be saved. This suggestion was not adop L d,and Mr Gaze said in that case he h&d no hope of her recovery. Others suggested Holloway’s Pills, others salts and senna, while MrLevens gave it as his opinion that a galvanic shook would promote circulation and cause milk to come. Thus time wore on. Many tried their hand at milking her, but as many failed, and the amount of past experience, knowledge of cattle, and general learning that was expended over that oow would make up an interesting volume. On Wednesday morning the cow was still the same, and the crowd that had S3en her the previous day became mote puzzled, and more curious to ascertain the cause of the extraordinary phenomenon. The lady who gave the mixture held that the oow had been bewitched, bub sceptics laughed at this, although in the innermost recesses of their own hearts they were inclined to believe it. To see the erowd eyeing the poor, bewildered, disgusted animal was a study. They shot glances at each other, examined her longue, observed the sot of her back, and eyed her from stem to stern, bu could nob make anything of her, while Mr Gaze felt very much disgusted became she was not getting whisky to drink. Mr Siegert held out against this, and urged that linseed oil was what she wanted, and, regardless of warnings from those who prescribed other things, poured a bottle of it down her throat. The poor cow was disgusted j she could not make it out, and when the. first opportunity offered she cleared on’, feeling certain she bad escaped from a lunatic asylum. Oa Thursday morning a horseman was despatched to look for her, and h« f juod her down in the flax lovingly suckling a young oslf, which she had brought Into the world during the night. The truth then dawned on those who had been so much puzzled, The first calf did not belong to the oow, but had followed her on losing its own mother. The oow doctors and nurses smile now when talked to of certain remedies for cattle, but they all admit Mr Siegert’s linseed oil remedy to have been the beft, as it hastened a solution of the mystery.