Cross-Brcedinr/ Cattle. 61 



besides carrying a greater quantity of meat on the more valuable 

 parts, and consequently presenting more roasting meat and less 

 offal tban most other animals. Again, as regards profit, reckoning 

 from birth to maturity, we may safely assert that they may be 

 equalled, but cannot be surpassed by any of our pure breeds for 

 producing an equal weight of meat at a given age. Those who 

 visited the Birmingham, London, and Liverpool shows for Fat 

 Cattle, as also the great Christmas market of Dec. 12, in 1864, 

 can testify that cross-bred oxen from Scotland and the North of 

 England fairlv distanced all competitors. 



To those about to commence breeding crosses, whatever be 

 the race to which the cows may belong, our observation and 

 experience incline us to recommend short-horn sires, as their 

 purity can be better depended upon than that of other bulls ; 

 and we are fully convinced that even for the purpose of cross- 

 breeding, the purer the blood on the paternal side the more 

 clearly will excellence be stamped on tlie progeny. In Scot- 

 land it may be difiicult to find a sufficient number of short- 

 horned bulls of good pedigree to supply the increasing demand 

 for the purpose of crossing : in England such a difficulty will 

 seldom arise. 



What constitutes a pure-breed animal is a point not very 

 clearly defined. Mr. Strafford, the editor of ' Coates's Herd- 

 book,' a high authority on such matters, considers that animals 

 which cannot show a descent for four generations from pure 

 bulls are ineligible for entry in the Herdbook ; and it is generally 

 considered that such a pedigree will suffice to produce an animal 

 possessing all the characteristics of his male progenitors. The 

 herd of crosses we have attempted to describe consists at the 

 present time of forty females, several of which have reached the 

 fourth cross, and some have been entered in the Herdbook : 

 those which have attained this stage possess the general cha- 

 racter of the improved short-horn ; they are straight in the back, 

 well ribbed, short in the leg, with abundance of hair, and of 

 very superior fjuality ; in short, in appearance they could not be 

 distinguished from that breed, and promise, if their manage- 

 ment be carried out with the same liberality and intelligence 

 which have hitherto been displayed, to become at no distant date 

 a most important and valuable breed of cattle. 



Elmston Castle, Derhy. 



