JANUAi: y 59 



man, although, as a matter of fact, they are singularly docile in 

 character. Of course, as their name implies, they are hornless, a 

 great point where it is desired to keep a number of cattle in 

 small or medium-sized yards. Another advantage is their great 

 hardiness — with ordinary care it is not common to lose a red- 

 poll from sickness, or even in calving. During the seven or eight 

 years that I have been farming, indeed, I can only remember the 

 loss of two, and both by accident ; one of them, a fine young bull, 

 doing himself to death last year by getting his head fixed between 

 the hawthorn stems of a fence and struggling until he broke his 

 neck. Lastly, they ripen early for the butcher — as a rule I sell 

 mine at about two years of age, when, without undue forcing, they 

 average over forty stone dead weight — and for tenderness and gene 

 ral quality their beef is not to be surpassed by any that I know. 



The points urged against red-polls are : that they lack size, 

 and that their milk, although very rich, is scant in quantity. To 

 the first of these points I answer that they are quite large enough. 

 Nowadays few people want great-boned cattle, indeed the demand 

 is all for small beef. As to the second, I cannot speak with 

 authority myself, for it is not my practice to weigh and keep a 

 record of the milk of each individual cow, as is very properly done 

 in large herds, where they have more labour and better facilities at 

 command. Indeed, even if I could do so, the test would not be a 

 fair one, since I have only kept red-polls for a short time, whereas 

 it takes at least twenty years of weeding out and careful selection 

 to establish a herd of the very best milking qualities. As specimens 

 of what red-polls will do as milkers, however, I take the record 

 from the ' Red-Poll Herd-Book' for 1897 of the two best cows of 

 a few herds as set down therein for one year. 



Aspall Hall Herd 

 Sappho .... 9,716 lbs. weight of milk, 



Susan . . . . 9, 135 ), ■,-, ,, 



Cirotcestcr Park Herd 

 Fnimp .... 9,599 lbs. weight of milk. 



Sloe S,793 .. 



