724 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part III. 



of intestines should be guarded against, as a most material defect, indicating a very un- 

 thrifty animal. Being too light of bone, as it is termed, is also a great fault. A good 

 grower, or hardy animal, has always a middling sized bone. A bull distinguished for 

 getting good growers, is inestimable ; but one whose progeny takes an unnatural or 

 gigantic size, ought to be avoided. 



4478. Arriving soon at perfection, not only in point of growth or size, but in respect 

 of fatness, is a material object for the farmer, as his profit must in a great measure de- 

 pend upon it. Where animals, bred for the carcass merely, become fat at an early age, 

 they not only return sooner the price of their food, with profit to the feeder, but in 

 general also, a greater value for their consumption, than slow-feeding animals. This 

 desirable property greatly depends on a mild and docile disposition ; and as this docility 

 of temper is much owing to the manner in which the animal is brought up, attention to 

 inure them early to be familiar, cannot be too much recommended. A tamed breed 

 also has other advantages. It is not so apt to injure fences, or to break into adjacent 

 fields ; consequently it is less lial)le to accidents, and can be reared, supported, and 

 fattened, at less expense. The property of early maturity, in a populous country, where 

 the consumption of meat is great, is extremely beneficial to the public, as it evidently 

 tends to furnish greater supplies to the market ; and this propensity to fatten at an 

 early age, is a sure proof, that an animal will fatten speedily at a later period of his 

 life. 



4479. In the wilder and bleaker parts of a country, the possession of a hardy and healthy 

 constitution, is a most valuable property in stock. Where the surface is barren, and the 

 climate rigorous, it is essential that the stock bred and maintained there, should be able 

 to endure the severities and vicissitudes of the weather, as well as scarcity of food, hard 

 work, or any other circumstance in its treatment, that might subject a more delicate 

 breed to injury. In this respect, different kinds of stock greatly vary ; and it is a matter 

 of much consequence, to select, for different situations, cattle with constitutions suitable 

 to the place where they are to be kept. It is a popular belief, that dark colors are 

 indications of hardiness. In mountain breeds of cattle, a rough pile is reckoned a de- 

 sirable property, more especially when they are to be kept out, all winter. It enables 

 them to face the storm, instead of shrinking from it. Hardy breeds are exempted from 

 various diseases, such as having yellow fat, also being blackfleshed, defects so injurious to 

 stock. 



4480. The prolific quality of a breed is a matter deserving attention. The females of 

 some breeds both bear more frequently than usual, and also have frequently more than 

 one at a birth. This property runs more strikingly in sub- varieties, or individual fami- 

 lies ; and though partly owing to something in the habits of animals, and partly to their 

 previous good or bad treatment, yet in some degree seems to depend upon the seasons, 

 some years being more distinguished for twins than others. In breeding, not only the 

 numbers, but the sex of the offspring, in some cases, seem to depend upon the female 

 parent. Two cows produced fourteen females each in fifteen years, though the bull was 

 changed every year. It is singular, that when they produced a bull calf, it was in the 

 same year. Under similar circumstances, a great number of males have been produced 

 by the same cow in succession, but not to the same extent. 



4481. Breeds are likewise distinguished by /Ae '7/a/Vr/ of their flesh. In some kinds 

 it is coarse, hard, and fibrous ; in others of a finer grain or texture. In some breeds 

 also, the flavor of the meat is superior ; the gravy they produce, instead of being white 

 and insipid, is high colored, well flavored, and rich ; and the fat is intermixed among 

 the fibres of the muscles, giving the meat a streaked, or marbled appearance. Breeds 

 whose flesh have these properties, are peculiarly valuable. Hence two animals of nearly 

 the same degree of fatness and weight, and who could be fed at nearly the same expense 

 to the husbandman, will sell at very different prices, merely from the known character of 

 their meat. 



4482. A disposition to fatten is a great object in animals destined for the shambles. Some 

 animals possess this property during the whole progress of their lives, while in others, it 

 only takes place at a more advanced period, when they have attained their full growth, 

 and are furnished at the same time with a suitable supply of food. There are in this 

 respect other distinctions : most sorts of cattle and sheep, which have been bred in hilly 

 countries, will become fat on low land pastures, on which the more refined breeds would 

 barely live ; some animals take on fat very quickly, when the proper food has been 

 supplied, and some individuals have been found, even in the same breed, which have, in 

 a given time, consumed the least proportional weight of the same kind of food, yet 

 have become fat at the quickest rate. Even in the human race, with little food, some 

 will grow immoderately corpulent. It is probably from internal conformation, that this 

 property of rapid fattening is derived. 



4483. The advantages and disadvantages of fattening cattle and sheej), at least to tho 

 extent frequently practised at present, are points that have of late attracted much public 



