Isometric View of Open-courted Steading for Dairy-farm of 250 Acres. 



CATTLE-DAIRY HUSBANDRY. 



NEXT to the horse, the cow is justly valued as 

 the most useful animal that man has been 

 able to domesticate and retain permanently in his 

 service. The ox tribe, of which it is the female, 

 belongs to the order Ruminantia, in the class 

 Mammalia these terms implying that the ani- 

 .mals ruminate or chew their food a second time, 

 and have mammae, or teats, with which they suckle 

 their young. In the ox tribe (Bovtdee), there are 

 different species, all more or less varying from 

 each other. Of the domesticated ox (Bos taurus), 

 the varieties, from the effect of climate, with atten- 

 tion to selection and care in feeding, are now very 

 numerous. The ox, in one or other of its varieties, 

 has been domesticated and carefully reared from 

 the earliest times, for the sake of its labour as a 

 beast of draught, for its flesh, or for the milk of its 

 female. In some parts of Asia, the ox is used for 

 riding and for carrying burdens, as the camel 

 is in the East, or the packhorse in Europe. In 

 ancient Egypt the ox was raised to the rank of 

 a divinity ; while in India, at the present time, he 

 is, by several of the Hindu castes, held as an 

 object of extreme veneration. 



The domesticated species of the family, common 

 to the British Isles and Europe generally, is, in 

 all its varieties, materially altered from its wild 

 parentage. Influenced by climate, peculiar feed- 

 ing, and selection in the domesticated state, its 

 bony structure is diminished in bulk, its ferocity 

 tamed, and its tractability greatly improved. The 

 ox in a wild state is kept at Hamilton Palace, and 

 40 



also at Chillingham Park, Northumberland. Our 

 observations in the present sheet will refer chiefly 

 to the domesticated ox, on which very great 

 changes have been effected by domestication. 

 The most remarkable of these is an increased 

 capacity in the female for giving milk. In a wild 

 state, the udder is small ; but when domesticated 

 for the sake of its milk, and the lactic fluid is 

 drawn copiously from it by artificial means, the 

 lacteal or milk-secreting vessels enlarge, and the 

 udder expands, so as to become a prominent feat- 

 ure in the animal. In this manner, by constant 

 attention, the economy of the cultivated species 

 has been permanently altered, and rendered suit- 

 able to the demands which are made on the cow. 

 Yet it is important to remark, that those milk- 

 yielding powers are not equal in the different 

 varieties or breeds. Some breeds, from the in- 

 fluence of circumstances which it is here unneces- 

 sary to inquire into, give a large quantity of milk ; 

 while others yield less, but of rich quality. The 

 quantity and quality of the milk depend, however, 

 on various conditions. The principal are, the age 

 of the animal, the feeding, the housing, &c. In 

 the more highly cultivated breeds, the variations 

 in the flow and in the quality of the lactic fluid 

 in different animals are often remarkable. The 

 cause or causes are usually extremely difficult to 

 account for. In general, near large towns, where 

 the demand for milk is considerable, the object of 

 dairymen is to keep cows which will give a large 

 quantity. 



