32 



DOMESTIC ANIMALS 



CATTLE. 



CATTLE is a term applied to the 

 whole of that large variety of domestic 

 animals known as the Bovine family. 

 Naturalists have divided them into two 

 primary groups — the hump-backed cattle 

 (Bos Indicus) and the straight-backed 

 cattle {Bos Taurus). 



Some naturalists claim that these two 

 groups are really only different varieties 

 of the same species, while others claim 

 that the marked differences in structure, 

 habits and voice are such as would indi- 

 cate a specific distinction. 



The hump-backed variety is chiefly 

 found in India and Africa, while the 

 straight-backed cattle are common in all 

 parts of the globe. Cattle seem to have 

 been domesticated as far back as written 

 and traditional history will take us. 



The remains of the cow and the ox 

 have been found as a part of the many 

 evidences of the oldest civilizations, their 

 bones having been discovered in the same 

 caves with stone axes and stone knives. 

 That the cow contributed immensely to 

 the earlier civilizations cannot be doubt- 

 ed. Besides contributing to the daily 

 bill of fare she became the common beast 

 of burden, drawing the rudest of plows, 

 sleds and carts, and in fact she does the 

 same to-day to some extent in many parts 

 of the world. 



The common straight-backed cattle, as 

 we know them in our country, remain an 

 important factor even in this stage of 

 civilization ; while they are not generally 

 used as beasts of burden, they furnish 

 millions of gallons of milk and number- 

 less pounds of butter, and finally sacri- 

 ficing their entire bodies to the use of 

 man. The principal part of the body 

 goes to the meat block to become 

 steaks, roasts and soup bones ; the refuse 

 flesh going to the manufacture of soaps 

 largely; the hide furnishes most of our 

 leather, the bones become fertilizer, the 

 hoofs and horns make our glue, and 



lastly, the hair makes it possible for us to 

 live in plastered houses. 



In olden times a man's wealth seems to 

 have been measured by the number of 

 cattle he owned, and during the same 

 period cattle were used as money, or a 

 medium of exchange. Later when metal 

 coinage came into use in Greece the 

 image of an ox was stamped on the new 

 money in commemoration of the old sys- 

 tem. The same idea has left its impres- 

 sion on the languages of Europe as seen 

 in the Latin word pecunia and the Eng- 

 lish word "pecuniary," both words being 

 derived from pecus cattle. 



America is the great cattle-producing 

 country of the world. In the early set- 

 tlement of this country the immense 

 tracts of uncultivated grass lands were 

 well adapted to cattle-raising, and many 

 were the large herds to be seen west of 

 the Ohio river on the great prairies of the 

 country once known as the Northwest 

 Territory. But as men came with their 

 plows the herds were gradually driven 

 farther and farther west. Cattle are very 

 interesting animals when we once get ac- 

 quainted with them. 



The writer, when a boy, had some ex- 

 perience herding cattle on an Illinois prai- 

 rie. In this particular herd of which I 

 wish to speak there were about seven 

 hundred head and it required two of us 

 and also two good shepherd dogs to keep 

 them in control during the early part of 

 the herding season or until we got them 

 "broken in," as the old herders used to 

 say. These cattle had been wintered on 

 various farms surrounding the herd 

 grounds, so when they were brought to- 

 gether in the spring there were about fif- 

 teen different clans to contend with, each 

 clan having its recognized leader. Now. 

 these leaders are always a source of 

 trouble to the herder, and especially is 

 this true for the first few weeks after 

 bringing them together. 



