: 648 Live Stock Properties to te regarded in Aptitude for Labour. 



by the feel which it affords. This is the ftate of the hide or fkin. It is remarked 

 that &quot; when it feels foft and filky, it firongly indicates a tendency in the animal 

 to take on meat ; and it is evident that a fine and foft (kin muft be more pliable, 

 and more eafily ftretched out to receive any extraordinary quantity of flefh, than a 

 thick or tough one. At the fame time, thick hides are of great importance in va 

 rious manufactures. They are indeed neceflary in cold countries, where cattle are 

 much expofed to the inclemency of the feafons ; and in the beft breeds of High 

 land cattle, the fkin is thick in proportion to their fize, without being fo tough as 

 to be prejudicial to their capacity of fattening,* 



The property of fupplying in large proportions a ufeful product, fuch as that 

 of milk, is an object that (hould not be loft light of by the breeding farmer. The 

 queftion of the propriety of having a diftinct breed exclufively for this purpofe, 

 or that of having it only partly calculated for this ufe, and partly for that of the 

 butcher, has not yet been fully decided : but as it has been found, by long expe 

 rience, that fuch cows as have much propenfity to fatten, feldom anfwer the pur 

 pofe of the.dairy, it would feem that there ought to be a breed particularly for the 

 pail. It has however been fuggefted as probable that, &quot; by great attention a 

 breed might be reared, .the males of which might, in every rcfpect, be well calcu 

 lated for the lhambles, and the females, when young, produce abundant quantities 

 of good milk, yet, when they reached eight or nine years of age, be eafily fattened.&quot; 

 Such a breed would, it is fuppofed, be of the greateft value of any that could be 

 produced. Some .of .the beft Englifh and Scotch breeds are believed to havp 

 ; nearly attained this point of perfection.! 



The fitncfs of animals for the purpofe of labour is a quality that, in certain 

 eircumftances, may be neceffary to beconfidered in the breeding of cattle ftock. 

 The queftion of the advantage that may be gained in this practice, in regard to the 

 increafein the quantity of meat, is far from having been decided j nor has it been 

 .well explained whether injury may not be done in reftricting the growth of the 

 animals by this means, more than can be compenfated by their labour. It is ob 

 vious, however, that where cattle are worked, they muft be longer in being brought 

 to the marker. But as, from the greater cheapnefs of rearing and keeping neat 

 cattle than horfcs, and various other caufes, it may be neceffary to make ufe of 



* Sir John Sinclair in Farmer s Magazine, vol. III. * Ibid. 



