EARLY RECORDS 133 



of the neatness of the smaller animal. The cows have not 

 been developed as milkers. 



The bullocks, which combined in a marked degree 

 strength and activity, supplied an excellent class of animals 

 suitable for working the heavy land of the weald of the breed 

 in Sussex and the adjoining counties. 



Aged oxen used to be sold at the local fairs, and after 

 grazing for a year were resold to the butchers, "weighing 

 from one hundred and eighty to two hundred stones. . . . The 

 famous ox from Burton Park, near Petworth, was i6J hands 

 in height, 8 ft. from the back of the horns to the tail ; and 

 from hip-bone to hip-bone across the back, 2 ft. 8 in. ; the 

 depth of shoulder, 4 ft. / in. ; girth behind the shoulders, 10 ft, 

 and weight, 287 st. 4 Ibs." 



It is not at all certain that it was an improvement in prac- 

 tice altogether to discontinue the employment of oxen in 

 favour of horses in working some of the heavier classes of 

 soils. Such land under the plough suffers much more from 

 the trampling of horses than from that of draught cattle, 

 and in consequence there are some clayed districts where 

 cattle may yet be seen at field work. The steers are great 

 favourites with the graziers, butchers, and consumers, and they 

 are said to be " second to none as regards early maturity and 

 weight for age." At three years well-fed specimens weigh 

 twelve to fourteen score of Ibs. per quarter. It has been 

 tritely and accurately stated by W. C. Young, secretary of 

 the breeds Herd Book Society, that " for beef-production, 

 draught purposes, hardiness, early maturity, beautifully fine- 

 grained flesh, and ability to thrive on poor fare, few breeds 

 can equal the Sussex." 



Edward Cane of Berwick Court was one of the most 

 successful of the early improvers of the breed : he introduced 

 it to the notice of the Smithfield Club, a circumstance which 

 greatly influenced breeders to adopt much-needed methods for 

 its advancement. 



It was a Sussex steer that in 1867 was one of the chief 

 competitors for the celebrated Smithfield Award carried off 

 by M'Combie's " Black Prince." It was a complaint against 

 the Royal Agricultural Society about 1875, fifteen years after 

 the Sussex Herd Book had been established, that it was too 

 slow to recognise and to encourage at its annual shows the 



