COWS. 23 



of which his Majesty George III. used to import 

 annually into the Home Park, was, it is reported, 

 only a cross between the old black aboriginal, of 

 abundant blue-milk fame, with the first bovine 

 settlers that were imported over the Bristol Channel 

 from the high-banked hazel fences and ruddy soil of 

 Devon. The tinge upon their coats alone might tell 

 that. To an eye at all artistic, the analysis of the 

 blended colours is at once apparent. Of thinnish 

 milk a good cow of this sort will yield a cataract, but 

 it too often takes a houseful of cake and roots to 

 get them ready for the butcher. Hence they are 

 being rapidly superseded, except in the hands of a 

 few sternly conservative ; so that Colonel Lascelles 

 entices but rarely a competitor by the annual prize 

 he gives at the Tredegar show for the " best fat Gla- 

 morgan ox." 



In fact, as I have already said, you must not expect 

 both milk and fat from the same animal. You can- 

 not burn your candle at both ends and find it last as 

 long. The reason is obvious, if Mr. Horsfall's theory 

 be sound that a cow's milking power may be tested 

 periodically by her weight; a theory endorsed by 

 Buffon, who says that you should buy for your dairy 

 cows young and fleshy. On the other hand, you 

 must be especially careful that your cows are not 

 allowed to roam in good keep when the period of 

 their calving draws near. They should rather be put 

 on a very bare field by themselves, where they have 

 to work hard for their livelihood. Then, however hot 

 the weather, however padded externally they may be 

 with beef (and we have one that is always half-ready 



