STOCK. 267 



and they often pursue their vocation with a fidelity extremely 

 disgusting to their owners. 



The qualities of a good milch cow are patent and unmistak- 

 able ; and if such an one be coupled with a bull of pure milk- 

 ing race, her progeny will rarely disappoint the reasonable hopes 

 of the breeder; but if a grade bull be used, the progeny will, 

 like as not, resemble a scrub ancestor, raised because his mother 

 could not fatten him, and used because his services could be 

 obtained at the lowest possible rate. We once bought a hand- 

 some and excellent grade cow, with calf by a good-looking grade 

 bull ; and, allowing for a little poetic exaggeration in the matter 

 of the dewlap, the produce was a literal copy of Virgil's por- 

 trait of a stock cow. For breeding- working cattle, says Yirgil, 

 " the best form is that of the fierce looking cow, with coarse 

 head, and thick neck, and dewlaps hanging from her chin to her 

 shins. Her side immoderately long ; all her proportions are 

 massive, even her foot, and her shaggy ears under inbent horns. 

 All the better if she be streaked and spotted with white, or frac- 

 tions, or ugly with her horns, and more like a bull in the face, 

 and pretty hateful generally, and she sweeps the ground with 

 her tail as she steps along." 



Our heifer proved utterly worthless for milk, but some of the 

 neighbors thought she would breed splendid oxen. 



"While advocating the use of pure-bred males, we would em- 

 phatically denounce the idea that all animals of a particular 

 breed are of equal merit, or that a herd-book pedigree* is of 

 itself a satisfactory proof of a bull's fitness to perpetuate his 

 race. The best systems are liable to abuse ; and many a mis- 

 erable, rickety calf is raised because it is thoroughbred, which, 

 if only a grade, would meet with a fate more in accordance 

 with its deserts and the interests of the community. 



Such animals are constantly to be found in the hands of 

 characterless jobbers and inexperienced fanciers. Nobody 

 keeps them long ; but, as they will usually command a price 

 somewhat above their value for beef, they are passed from hand 

 to hand, to multiply their infirmities, and to bring disgrace on 

 the breed to which they pretend to belong. 



Another evil resulting from the breeding of pure-bred cattle 

 for sale, is the practice of letting the calf suck its dam for a 

 shorter or longer period, after which the cow is suffered to dry 



