158 Remarks on the Cattle Procession, 



practice among graziers, and that a more rational plan 

 must be adopted before the desirable end of the " im- 

 provement of the breed of cattle," can be effected. 



The same principles which are so well established 

 with regard to the human race, apply with full force to 

 the brute creation. How then, it may be asked, is the 

 form of mankind improved ? Is it by long continued 

 overfeeding them, when in the decline of life, to clothe 

 their bodies and line their interiors with loads of fat ? 

 What would be thought of a people, who avowed that 

 such means were the best to mend the shapes of a badfy 

 formed community? And yet the fashionable practice 

 among graziers with their cattle is not less absurd. Ex- 

 cluding the bears, deers and kids from consideration, let 

 us confine our remarks to cattle, sheep and hogs. A 

 number of large framed oxen with capacious bodies, 

 some of them eight or nine years old, are selected, and 

 after the fullest allowance of the finest pasture, either 

 hired, or given to them to the exclusion of the rest of the 

 stock on the farm, are put up in the winter, and fed at 

 regular hours with as much Indian-corn meal, ground 

 oats, potatoes, pumpkins and hay as they can possibly 

 digest, and until thty groan from the oppression they 

 suffer. Their hides are also curried and brushed with as 

 much attention, as is bestowed upon a southern race horse. 

 Sometimes corn meal, and the other articles are given to 

 the animal while at pasture. From one, to even four 

 years of such treatment are required to bring the animal 

 to the " sticking point." Sheep of the New Leicester 

 or Bakewell breed are also selected, for similar experi- 

 ments. This breed, from its admirable form, is known 

 to take on fat with great ease, and individuals of it, with , 

 go(^d pasture, will always in one season become as lat 

 as any reasonable man ought to desire ; but by the treat 

 ment mentioned, they are so overloaded with fat as 



