I.
n.
«A framework for securing the head ofa cow while she is milked.» (`O.E.D.')
This word, marked in `O.E.D.' and other Dictionaries as Australian, is provincial English. In the `English Dialect Dictionary,' edited by Joseph Wright, Part I., the word is given as used in «Ireland, Northamptonshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Hampshire and New Zealand.» It is also used in Essex.
1872. C. H. Eden, `My Wife and I in Queensland,' p. 83:
«In every milking yard is an apparatus for confining a cow'shead called a `bail.' This consists of an upright standiron,five feet in height, let into a framework, and about six inchesfrom it another fixed at the heel, the upper part workingfreely in a slit, in which are holes for a peg, so that whenthe peg is out and the movable standiron is thrown back, thereis abundance of room for a cow's head and horns, but whenclosed, at which time the two standirons are parallel to eachother and six inches apart, though her neck can work freely upand down, it is impossible for her to withdraw her head . . .»
1874. W. M. B., `Narrative of Edward Crewe,' p. 225:
«The former bovine female was a brute to manage, whom it wouldhave been impossible to milk without a `bail.' To what man orcountry the honour of this invention belongs, who can tell? Itis in very general use in the Australian colonies; and myadvice to any one troubled with a naughty cow, who kicks likefury during the process of milking, is to have a bailconstructed in their cow-house.»
II.
See baal