BEEF AND MUTTON. 107 



an English nobleman breeds Shorthorns to make beef of, and 

 make it rapidly ; but he docs not eat it — he knows better than 

 that. He breeds Cotswold sheep, that are precisely analogous 

 to Shorthorn cattle, but he does not eat them — he knows better 

 than that. When he wants a piece of meat that is suited to his 

 palate he will go to the Highlands, or to the Devonshire region, 

 and select an animal that ripens less rapidly than his Shorthorn, 

 and whose meat is more mature, better marbled, and the juices 

 of which are more matured, for the purpose of making the best 

 kind of beef. I remember that one day, in conversation with 

 Senator Sumner about farming, (and he finds out pretty much 

 everything there is going on,) he delivered a lecture to me upon 

 cattle. Among other things, he said that some years ago he 

 was in Scotland, and stopped with a friend of his not far from 

 Edinburgh. In walking about his estates, he saw running on 

 the hills a little solid, well-shaped black Highland ox — what the 

 nobleman called a " Highlander " — what we call a " West High- 

 lander." Two or three days after there was upon the gentle- 

 man's table a fine, sweet, juicy piece of beef, with a certain 

 mountain flavor to it. The senator at once remarked, " This is 

 a remarkable piece of beef." " Yes," said the nobleman, " that 

 is the little black fellow you saw running on the hills the other 

 day." That is the beef the epicures eat and have upon their 

 tables, because it is of a higher quality than the beef of the 

 Shorthorn — matures slowly, ripens well, and comes as near the 

 condition of the natural, wild mountain meat as anything can 

 come. 



Having touched a little upon the question of meat, I will go 

 to the question of color. All the animals that range alongside 

 of that Highland black ox that so fascinated the palate of the 

 senator and his friend — all the cattle that come alongside of 

 that for the purposes of the table — are of a sort of red color, 

 more or less. The Devons are the next in order. Everybody 

 knows the quality of a piece of Devon beef. There is no ques- 

 tion about it at all. There is nothing better in the world. It 

 comes nearer to that native beef I have just described than 

 anything else, because it does not ripen quickly. The breeder 

 of Devons does not take his animals to market until they are 

 four or five years old. He does not sell his calves, because they 

 are not ready to fatten at once ; he keeps them and sells his 



