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The large breeds, such as the Short-Horns, Herefords, and Dutch, are better adapted to 

 rich, level, or rolling lands with, an abundance of grasses, while the Jersey, Guernsey, Devon, 

 Galloway, and Alderney would be better fitted than the former for localities where the 

 pastures are hilly and less luxuriant. The principal characteristics of the beef and dairy 

 breeds of cattle have already received so much attention in previous pages as to render it 

 unnecessary to compare their respective merits in this connection; suffice it to state that in 

 making a choice of breeds adapted to his locality, the farmer should be careful to select the 

 one best adapted to the locality and conditions, and the special use to which it is to be put. 



Cattle One Should Never Buy, can more easily be described than a selection made 

 as &quot; the best &quot; breed, among the excellent beef and dairy breeds that we have at present to 

 select from, each possessing especial valuable qualities. Allen has given a good pen-picture 

 of the kind of cattle to be avoided, thus: 



&quot;A big-headed, narrow-chested, flat-ribbed, hollow-backed, narrow-hipped, and droop- 

 tailed ox is a poor worker, and such a cow, if she be not a poor milker, is seldom a profitable 

 one, for both ox and cow are huge feeders. The ox has no room in his narrow chest for full 

 lungs to play. Therefore he is short-winded. His flat ribs and narrow hips allow him but a 

 small development of muscular power. His strength is therefore contracted. His anatomy 

 being sacrificed in breadth and depth, he has no place to lay on flesh as a beef animal, and he is 

 worthless, comparatively, for any purpose. So with the cow; if she take flesh poorly, she 

 gives a less quantity of milk; but if she do happen to milk well, it is because her food is 

 chiefly thrown into the secretions of her milk veins, which happen, in such instances, to be 

 extraordinarily developed. We have seen such, but they were the exceptions, not the rule, 

 and all such cattle are to be avoided. There is no profit in them, any way ; as a calf, the 

 butcher does not want him, except at a reduced price; as a steer, the grazier jews down his 

 price; as a working ox, nobody wants him, except he can get him &quot; cheap; &quot; as a fat bullock 

 if he ever can be fatted the butcher &quot;blows&quot; on him; and as for the consumer he is 

 to be pitied. Soups, and dried beef and poor at that is all that he is fit for. He is a 

 drag on every one s hands unfortunate enough to own him, from birth to slaughter. And so 

 with the cow; poor in every quality, she goes through a miserable life, an object of con 

 tempt, and ill-usage throughout, simply because her breeder did not veal her at six weeks 

 old, for she has never been good for anything in the hands of anybody stnce, and has taken 

 the place of a better creature, which might have been profitable in every condition of her 

 life, and a pleasure to every owner.&quot; 



Such an animal as above described will not only prove unprofitable to the owner in the 

 returns of beef or milk, but will consume nearly twice the amount of food that would have 

 been required to maintain in good condition a really fine and valuable animal. Coarse-boned 

 animals will invariably be found to be gross feeders, according to their weight, and will give 

 the least for the food consumed. 



The Breeding of Cattle. The progress in agricultural advancement in any country 

 or period of its history, is marked quite as much by the improvement of its domestic animals, 

 as by the general methods of agricultural practice, the implements employed, and the skill 

 with which they are utilized, etc. Jn none of the animals domesticated by man, is there 

 manifest a more striking display of the breeder s skill, than in some of the improved breeds 

 of cattle of the present time. The raising of cattle for dairy use or beef production has 

 become such an important industry in this country, that the attention of farmers generally is 

 being directed more than formerly to the necessity of keeping better stock than the native or 

 common class of animals furnish, and the proper means are being employed more extensively 

 towards the accomplishment of this object, by disposing of inferior animals, and substituting 

 better breeds in their places, or by improving what they may have by judicious crossing with 

 pure bred animals. 



