LIVE STOCK. 561 





exchange. I have Known a farmer to weigh repeatedly two 

 fattening oxen of fine thrift, and size, and extreme fatness, and 

 he discovered that, for a whole month before they were sent to 

 market, they had not gained a single pound. They appeared to 

 have reached their acme, beyond which they could not be forced. 

 It is a curious fact in regard to the human animal, that in a con- j 

 dition of health no change of diet and no abundance of diet ever J 

 carries him beyond a certain point ; so that every adult man has 

 what he terms his own weight, which does not vary for years. 

 Whether an analogy to this fact is to be found in the inferior 

 animals, would, as far as it is possible to be ascertained, be a 

 curious and useful inquiry. Ordinarily, I admit, not always, ani 

 mals consume in proportion to their size. I believe it will be 

 found, in general, that two small, or medium-sized animals, of 

 good constitution and thrift, pay the farmer better, in proportion 

 to the amount of food consumed, than one large animal, which 

 would give an equal or superior weight. The English farmers 

 generally consider the small Highland cattle the most profitable 

 for fattening. We know certainly that the milking properties 

 of cows do not always bear a proportion to their size. The two 

 best cows which I have known one making 19^ Ibs. of butter 

 in a week, arid more than 480 Ibs. in a year ; and the other hav- 

 s- ing produced more than 20 Ibs. in a week were two medium 

 s, sized cows of the North Devonshire breed ; and it seems an es 

 tablished prejudice, if so it must be called, that fatness, and the 

 abundant secretion of milk, in the same animal, at the same 

 time, are to a degree incompatible with each other. 



1. OXEN AND Cows. I saw some very large oxen from 

 Normandy in a fat condition on exhibition at Poissy. The 

 cattle, however, most admired on that occasion were a cross of 

 the improved Durham short-horn with some of the best breeds 

 of the country. 



The cows, as met with ordinarily in Prance, are inferior. 

 They show in the early part of the season the effect of bad 

 keeping in winter, and appear scarcely to recover from it during 

 the season. The cows, at several private establishments which 

 I visited, were admirable for their milking properties, but of no 

 particular race ; though at Grignon, at Petit Bourg, and generally, 

 I found the Swiss cows held in high estimation. The Dutch 



