86 CATTLE AND DAIKY FARMING. 



A tolerably correct estimate of the weight of a beast may be ascer- 

 tained by measurement, and the process is not a difficult one. But 

 whoever undertakes to solve the problem in this way should himself be 

 a good judge of a beast, and should know something as to the length 

 of time the animal has been in the stalls, the kind of food supplied, and 

 the characteristics of the breed. Cattle which fatten at an early age 

 lay on more fat externally, whereas the late-fattening breeds have more 

 internal fat. 



The method of measurement, as summarized by Curteis is to take the 

 girth immediately behind the shoulder, drawing the tape fairly tight; 

 then take the length from the shoulder to the tail end, each place being 

 determined by an imaginary perpendicular line let fall and clearing the 

 fore and hind quarters respectively. Square the girth in feet, and mul- 

 tiply the result by the length and the product again by a decimal se- 

 lected from the following : A moderately fat beast 0.23 5 fat 0.25 ; prime 

 0.26 5 very fat 0.27. The result gives the weight in imperial stones. 

 But a simpler rule is to multiply the square, of the girth in inches by 

 the length in inches and divide the product by 7238, and the quotient 

 will give the weight in imperial stones. Another rule is to multiply the 

 square of the girth in feet by five times the length in feet and divide 

 by 21, and we have the same results. 



(1) BED-POLLED CATTLE. 



The Bed-Polled cattle of Norfolk and Suffolk have within the last 

 two years gained an important place in public favor. Interest in the 

 breed has been shown to such an extent that its history and its claim 

 to recognition can no longer be said to be a mere local matter. These 

 circumstances will doubtless be accepted by my readers as sufficient 

 warrant for a brief notice of the Bed Polls. 



The history of Bed-Polled cattle can be carried back well into the last 

 century. Suffolk had from time immemorial its breed of Polled cattle, 

 producing butter which, one hundred and fifty years ago, was asserted 

 to be "justly esteemed the pleasantest and best in England.' 7 Arthur 

 Young, in his " Survey " (A. D. 1794), defines the area " a tract of coun- 

 try 20 miles by 12, * * * the seat of the dairies of Suffolk," which, 

 he said, must be peculiarly considered the headquarters of the Suffolk 

 Polled stock, though he found the breed spread over the whole country. 

 In this survey we get the first accurate description of the breed. Though 

 Arthur Young makes no note of Norfolk Polled cattle, yet advertise- 

 ments of sales held in and from the year 1778 prove that dairies of such 

 animals were numerous in the county, and that they extended from the 

 northern boundary of the Suffolk "headquarters" well into the center 

 of Norfolk. 



An old Elmharn tenant, who survived till 1872, recollected Bed-Polled 

 cattle on the estate so long ago as the year 1780. At Shipdham they 

 were greatly valued from a date certainly as early. At Necton they 

 were kept from a remote period. The predominant breed in Norfolk at. 

 that time (see Marshall's " Bural Economy of Norfolk," notes written 

 from 1780 to 1782) was, however, a "Herefordshire breed in miniature" 

 and " the favorite color a blood-red, with a white or mottled face." Mar- 

 shall, fortunately, preserves for this generation a record of the process 

 by which the excellencies of this now extinct old Norfolk blood-red stock 

 have been combined with the proverbial merits of the Suffolk Bed- 

 Polled. He says there were several instances of the Norfolk breed being 

 crossed with Suffolk bulls, and that the result was " increase of size and 

 an improvement of form." 



