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The Country Gentleman s Magazine 



FASHIONABLE ANIMALS AND FANCY PRICES. 



AT the dinner of the North Walsham 

 Agricultural Association last week, 

 Mr J. T. Mott, in toasting the successful 

 competitors, gave his " experiences " of 

 "fancy" priced heifers and bulls. He 

 said he had lately attended several sales of 

 shorthorns in the county and elsewhere. The 

 first he bought was a perfect picture — a 

 strawberry roan, eighteen months old, with 

 no end of pedigree, said to be in calf to a 

 Duke of Oxford, or some other swell in the 

 herd book. He was congratulated by his 

 friends upon having secured such an animal 

 for so trifling a sum as 32 guineas, and he 

 was proud of his purchase. Alas ! a rapid 

 change was soon visible in her complexion, 

 her sleeky coat lost its gloss, her dug lost its 

 fatness, and she soon ceased to be what 

 "fancy painted her, so lovely and divine," 

 and she " became small by degrees and 

 beautifully less." That had also been the 

 case with two other heifers purchased lately 

 at high prices, which looked splendidly in 

 the show yard, but soon shrunk after they 

 came home. They were fed in the same 

 pasture and treated exactly as his own young 

 stock, which were as fat as butter. He need 

 not tell them the reason for this. They had 

 been pampered up on cake for sale. It was 

 well known that a young animal, if starved, 

 never got over it, and he believed that ar- 

 tificial fatting was almost as injurious to a 

 breeding animal in its young state as starva- 

 tion. This system was no doubt good policy, 

 but it was far from profitable to the unwary 

 purchaser. He did not pretend to be a good 

 judge, — he never v/ent deeply into the matter 

 or gave 1200 guineas for a cow, for the good 

 reason that he could not afford it. Every one 

 knew that a well-bred animal would pay 

 much better than one ill-bred, and would 

 graze in half the time ; but in his opinion the 

 milk pail was the best criterion, — the most 

 satisfactory pedigree, — and he found his cows 

 paid so well that it did not answer his pur- 



pose to fat them up for exhibition, which was 

 one reason Vv'hy he did not often exhibit 

 at this show. He would now give them a 

 little of his experience with bulls. Three 

 years since, being in Yorkshire, and wanting 

 a bull, he went over and bought one from 

 Lord Feversham's herd. A beautiful fat 

 animal he was ; but he was not used at all. 

 They knew the story of the Uttle boy who asked 

 his mamma the difterence between a bull and 

 bullock, and was told very properly that 

 the bull was the "papa," the bullock the 

 "uncle" of the calf. Now this animal was 

 not actually but physically a bullock, and so 

 he was forced to turn him quickly into beef. 

 His next experiment was less satisfactory. 

 He went to stay with a friend in Lincoln- 

 shire, in order to select a bull from the many 

 herds that were kept there, and after travel- 

 ling many miles he found a very handsome 

 bull about eighteen months old, with au 

 excellent pedigree. It was tied by the head 

 in a stall and was not led out, the yardman 

 being absent, but he was assured it was all 

 right. Soon after it was to arrive at Dere- 

 ham by train. He sent a man to meet it. 

 As soon as the carriage was opened the 

 poor beast rushed out, with its tongue hang- 

 ing out, and clearing the station took acrosp 

 country. After a long chase his man came 

 up with it, when it became so frantic that 

 they were obliged to get mere help. The 

 result was that he received next day the 

 skin of his bull which had shown fight, and 

 was stoned to death in the river. He after- 

 wards learnt that the animal was so violent 

 when led out of the owner's yard, that it 

 took four men to get him into the train,, 

 where the poor creature was tied down by 

 the head twenty-four hours without food or 

 water, so that no one could wonder at its 

 rabid state when it reached Dereham. The 

 moral to be deduced from this was, " Don't 

 be such a fool as to buy a bull without seeing 

 him led out of the stable." 



