CATTLE 



CATTLE-PLAGUE 



23 



is favourable. As winter food, turnips and straw 

 or liny preponderate, but in the improved practice of 

 reel-lit years smaller quantities of roots and more of 

 tln> cmici'iitrated foods, such as cake and 'jiain. are 

 lirin^' given tn cut tli-. Silage is fast becoming an 

 important article of food for cattle. Now cattle 

 .in- laitened nil at t'iniii eighteen to thirty months 

 old, instead of from three to five years, as prior to 

 I s.'ii). The essence of the feeder's art is to produce 

 tin- maximum quantity of first-class meat in the 

 shortest possible time and at the lowest jiossible 

 cost ; and in the struggle after this the maturing 

 and fattening properties of cattle have been greatly 

 accelerated. The young or ' baby-beef,' as it has 

 been called, is more tender and perhaps more palat- 

 able than the substantial ' rounds ' of the slow- 

 growing five-year-old beeves of 'fifty years ago;' 

 but it is questionable if it is either so wholesome or 

 so strength -giving. Be that as it may, the popular 

 taste is entirely in favour of the ' baoy-beei ; and 

 \vliat the public desire the feeder must endeavour to 

 .supply. 



Since 1880 there has been considerable growth in 

 dairy-farming throughout the British Isles. When 

 it is mentioned, however, that in 1895 butter to the 

 value of 16,802,400, and cheese to the value of 

 4,674, 181 , were imported into the United Kingdom, 

 it will be seen that there is room for still further 

 extension. The system of management on dairy- 

 farms varies according to the locality and objects 

 of the farmer. Where the milk can be conveniently 

 -disposed of or despatched to towns, attention is given 

 mainly to milk-selling, which is the least trouble- 

 some, and perhaps also the most profitable system of 

 dairying. In other cases butter is the staple pro- 

 duce of the dairy ; in other parts again, cheese- 

 making is the prevailing feature. The consumption 

 of milk as human food has vastly increased in recent 

 years. The rate of consumption keeps on growing, 

 and ingenious facilities are devised for bringing 

 fresh milk from distant dairies dairies from 50 to 

 60 miles distant into towns every morning. As 

 would be expected, the calves bred on dairy-farms 

 .get little of their mothers' milk. They are reared 

 principally on ' milk substitutes,' either prepared 

 at home or by firms who make the production of 

 Battle foods their sole or chief business. Linseed 

 in various forms is very extensively used in calf- 

 rearing. 



Cattle are very variously used, and are the only 

 or the chief beasts of draught in many countries, as 

 Cape Colony and large part of America. In India 

 also horned cattle are the only beasts used for 

 ploughing, and are chiefly valued as draught 

 animals. A fatuous breed was formed for military 



Eurposes ; and in the Central Provinces there is a 

 igh-class breed of trotting bullocks. The best 

 ghee of India is obtained from the milk not of cows 

 but of buffaloes. In China, no use whatever is 

 made of cow's milk, though human milk is some- 

 times given to old people as a restorative. Nearer 

 home, in Italy even, milk and butter are but little 

 used, and cows are in request mainly for rearing 

 calves. The large Italian breed can do little more 

 than feed their young ; and milch cows, if wanted, 

 are brought from Switzerland. In Italy and some 

 other countries, cattle are all stall-fed, vine, elm, 

 and oak leaves forming an important part of their 

 food. 



Wild Cattle. In various parts of the world, 

 species occur of cattle more or less wild, which are 

 certainly different from any of the domesticated 

 European breeds. Such are the Banteng (Bos 

 banteng), the Gaur Ox (B. gaurus), the Gayal 

 (11. gavceits). But besides tliese extra- European 

 wild cattle, there are abundant remains of three 

 virtually extinct European species, from which the 

 domesticated breeds are believed to have gradually 



originated. These are B. primiqeniiu, B. lonoi- 

 frnnn, B. frontosus. The first Became virtually 

 i xiinct within historic times, is known an the 

 Ur in the Nibelungenlied, was domesticated in 

 Switzerland in the Neolithic period, was common 

 in Britain and on the Continent in the time ot 

 < '.-ar, seems to have persisted in Poland till the 

 17th century, and still survives in a semi-wild 

 stage, 'though much degenerated in size,' in Chil- 

 lingham Park in the north of Northumberland. In 

 1692 the Hock numbered but 28 ; in 1875, 62 in all. 

 At Cadzow near Hamilton w another herd, differing 

 somewhat from those of Chillingham, but presumed 

 to be also representatives of a detachment of the 

 wild cattle that roamed the Caledonian Forest. 

 Other herds are still found at Chartley ( Stafford- 

 shire), Somerford (Cheshire), and Kilmory (Argyll- 

 shire) ; whilst that at Gisburn (Yorkshire) became 

 extinct in 1859, and that of Lyme (Cheshire) 

 dwindled from 34 head in 1850 'to 4 in 1875. 

 Though the interesting survivals preserved at 

 Chillingham 'are less altered from the true primi- 

 genitis type than any other known breed,' there is 

 some reason to suppose from their white colour and 

 some other features that they are descended from 

 a partially domesticated ancestry. As to other 

 descendants of B. primigeniiis, which have diverged 

 further from the primitive type, it is generally 

 supposed that the Podolian cattle of South Russia, 

 Hungary, &c., the larger breeds in Friesland, 

 Holland, and other parts of the Continent, and 

 the Pembroke breed in England, are to be referred 

 back to the same source. 



B. longifrons or brachyceros was a smaller animal 

 with short body. It was domesticated in Switzer- 

 land in the Neolithic period ; it was early intro- 

 duced into Britain (vast quantities of its bones 

 having been found in remains of a lake-dwelling at 

 Croyland ) ; and it has its probable descendants in 

 some of the mountain breeds of Switzerland, the 

 Tyrol, and Bavaria (e.g. the Appenzell cattle), and, 

 according to Owen, in some of the Welsh and 

 Highland cattle. 



B. frontosm is found along with the latter 

 species, to which it is closely allied. It occurs in 

 the peat-mosses of Scandinavia, and also in Ire- 

 land. It is regarded as the probable ancestor of 

 the Norwegian mountain cattle, of the Bern cattle, 

 and, according to Owen and others, of some of the 

 Scotch Highland varieties. In regard to many of 

 these pedigrees, dogmatic statement is quite im- 

 possible, and much difference of opinion obtains. 

 The most divergent opinion is that of Wilckens, 

 who maintains that some of the European domestic 

 breeds are descended from the European bison. 



Darwin's Animals and Plants under Domestication, 

 voL i. , may be conveniently consulted for facts and refer- 

 ences. See the articles Bovine, BREED, BULL-FIGHT, 

 GAUR, MDSK Ox, RANCHING, YAK, ZEBU, Ac. The 

 diseases of cattle are discussed under their own heads 

 CATTLE-PLAGUE, PLEURO-PNEUMONIA, ANTHRAX, MUR- 

 RAIN, BOT, BLACK QUARTER, &c. ; the law thereof under 

 CONTAGIOUS DISEASES ; and G. Fleming's Animal Plaguet 

 (1871-82). See also DAIRY, BUTTER, CHEESE, and MILK. 

 On cattle generally, see Youatt's Complete Orazier ( 13th 

 ed., rewritten by Dr Wm. Fream, 1893); Pringle's Live 

 Stock of the Farm ; "Wallace's Farm Live Stock of Great 

 Britain ; Stephens's Book of the Farm ( new ed. by Mac- 

 donald ) ; and Allen's American Cattle ( New York ). For 

 "Wild Cattle, see "Wilckens, JRinderrasscn Mittel-Europas 

 (Vienna, 1876) ; J. A. Smith, Ancient Cattle of Scotland 

 (1873) ; and Hartin-, Kxtinct British Animals (1880). 



Cattle, in English Law. See CHATTEL. 



Cattle-plajnie (Ger. Rinderpest; Lat. Typhus 

 Boris Contaqiosus ). This is a specific malignant and 

 contagious fever indigenous to the Asiatic steppes 

 of Russia, India, Persia, China, Burma, Ceylon, 

 &c. ; never occurring in Britain but as a result 

 of direct or indirect communication with imported 



