CHAPTER XYI. 



THE GLAMORGAN BREED OF CATTLE, 



By MOEGAN EVANS. 



OME of our old breeds of cattle are rapidly dis- 

 appearing, and it is well to note their existence ere 

 it is too late, and to record their merits and failings 

 whilst any trace of them remains. The exertions of 

 a few eminent breeders have raised some of our indigenous cattle 

 into world-wide repute. Other once celebrated breeds have not 

 been so fortunate, and have been all but crushed out in rivalry 

 with contemporary animals that have been cultivated with more 

 care and further developed towards perfection in shape, size, and 

 quality. The tendency of modern agriculture is to obliterate 

 local breeds of farm stock. Improved farmyards, improved 

 systems of cropping and manuring land, gradually lead to the 

 adoption throughout the kingdom of improved breeds of cattle 

 to the exclusion of purely local strains. The Shorthorns, Here- 

 fords, and Devons are ever extending the boundary of their 

 influence, and the counties from which they originated are not 

 now, as at one time, the sole homes of these cattle. Where 

 high farming is practised, one of our fashionable breeds is 

 generally adopted. Great hardihood may be dispensed with 

 when cattle are never exposed to cold and rain. Early maturity 

 and rapidity in fattening when in the stalls are the qualities 

 most sought for. Wherever a country is in a highly advanced 

 state of cultivation, the hardy native oxen of the district become 

 abandoned for breeds more suited to the commercial interests 

 of the farmer in a time when quick returns on his capital are of 

 -vital importance. Eough waste pastures give way to broad 



