Cow's Bones.

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1824, 15 March 1884, Page 2 (Supplement)

Cow's Bones.

Chewing Every now and then some person full of imagination and theory, gives us a dissertation on cows ohewing bones. They imagine that when a cow does this she must be in a disordered condition and needs something — they don't exactly know what. Those inclining to chemical fertilisers insist that bone is wanting, and they resommend buying bone dust and strewing the pastures with it. One versatile genius, with more theory than practice, who writes a great deal for the agricultural press, says he cures his cattle of this peculiar appetite by giving them salt frequently. He imagines his cattle chew bones because they don't have salt enough. Now the truth is, according to my observation, cattle chew bones because they like to, and one cow may chew them more than another just as one girl may chew more gum than another. My cattle are never without salt, as it is kept in a tight box where they can help themselves every day, and yet they chew bones whenever they can find them, and, bo far as my observation goes, all cattle do the same. —Col. F. D. Curtis in Rural New Yorker.