Book VII. 



VARIETIES OF THE BULL FAMILY. 



955 



horned breed, when properly fed, victual the East India ships, as they produce the 

 thickest beef, which, by retaining its juices, is the best adapted for such long voyages. 

 Our royal navy should also be victualled from these ; but by the jobs made by 

 contractors, and other abuses, it is feared our honest tars are often fed with beef of 

 an inferior quality; however, the coal ships from Newcastle, Shields, Sunderland, 

 &c. are wholly supplied with the beef of these valuable animals. These oxen com- 

 monly weigh from sixty to a hundred stone (fourteen pound to the stone), and they 

 have several times been fed to one hundred and twenty, one hundred and thirty, and 

 some particular ones to upwards of one hundred and fifty stone, the four quarters only. 

 {Culleyy p. 48.) 



6110. In comparing the breeds of long and short-horned cattle, CuUey observes, that the long-homs 

 excel in the thickness and firm texture of the hide, in the length and closeness of the hair, in their beef 

 being finer grained, and more mixed and marbled than that of the short-horns, in weighing more in pro- 

 portion to their size, and in giving richer milk ; but they are inferior to the short-horns, in giving a less 

 quantity of milk, in weighing less upon the whole, in affording less tallow when killed, in being generally 

 slower feeders, and in being coarser made and more leathery or bullish in the under side of the neck. In 

 few words, says he, the long-horns excel in the hide, hair, and quality of the beef; the short-horns in the 

 quantity of beef, tallow, and milk. Each breed has long had, and probably may have, its particular 

 advocates ; but if he may hazard a conjecture, is it not probable that both kinds may have their particular 

 advantages in different situations? Why not the thick, ittm hides, and long close-set hair of the one kind, 

 be a protection and security against those impetuous winds and heavy rains to which the west coast of 

 this island is so subject; while the more regular seasons and mild climate upon the east coast are more 

 suitable to the constitutions of the short-horns. 



6111. The middle-homed breeds comprehend in like manner, several local varieties, of 

 which, the most noted are the Devons, the Sussexes, and the Herefords ; the two last, ac- 

 cording to CuUey, being varieties of the first, though of a greater size, the Herefords 

 being the largest. These cattle are the most esteemed of all our breeds for the draught, 

 on account of their activity and hardiness; they do not milk so well as the short-horns, 

 but are not deficient in the valuable property of feeding at an early age, when not em- 



642 



ployed in labor. 



6112. The Devonshire cattle [Jig. e'^^.) are 

 of a high red color (if any white spots, they 

 reckon the breed impure, particularly if those 

 spots run one into another), with a light-dun 

 ring round the eye, and the muzzle of the 

 same color, fine in the bone, clean in the 

 neck, horns of a medium length, bent up- 

 wards, thin-faced, and fine in the chops, wide 

 in the hips, a tolerable barrel, but rather flat 

 on the sides, tail small, and set on very high ; 

 they are thin skinned, and silky in handling, 

 feed at an early age, or arrive at maturity sooner than most other breeds. {Cvlley, p. 51). 

 Another author observes, that they are a model for all persons who breed oxen for the 

 yoke. (^Parkinson on Live Stock, vol. i. p. 112). The weight of the cows is usually from 

 thirty to forty stone, and of the oxen from forty to sixty ; the North Devon variety, in 

 particular, from the fineness in the grain of the meat, is held in high estimation in 

 Smithfield, (Dickson's Practical Agriculture, vol. ii. p. 120). 



6113. Lawrence says, that the red cattle of North Devon and Somerset are doubtless one of our original 

 breeds, and one of those which has preserved most of its primitive form : the excellence of this form for 

 labor is best proved by the fact, that the fashionable substitution of horses has made no progress in the 

 district of these cattle, by their high repute as feeders, and for the superior excellence of their beef, which 

 has been acknowledged for ages. They are, he says, the speediest working oxen in England, and will 

 trot well in harness ; in point of strength, they stand in the fourth or fifth class. They have a greater 

 resemblance to deer than any other breed of neat-cattle. They are rather wide, than middle-horned, 

 as they are sometimes called ; some, however, have regular middle horns, that is, neither short nor 

 long, turned upward and backward at the points. As milkers, .they are so far inferior to both the long 

 and short-horns, both in quantity and quality of milk, that they are certainly no objects for the regular 

 dairy, however pleasing and convenient they may be in the private family way. 



6114. The Sussex and Hereford- 

 shire cattle (Jig. 643.) are of a deep ^^3 

 red color, with fine hair and 

 very tliin hides ; neck and head 

 clean, the face usually white, horns 

 neither long nor short, rather 

 turning up at the points ; in gene- 

 ral, they are well made in the hind 

 quarters, wide across the hips, 

 rump, and sirloin, but narrow in 

 the chine, tolerably straight along 

 the back, ribs loo flat, thin in the 



thigh, and bone not large. An ox, six years old, when fat, will weigh from sixty 

 to one hundred stone, the fore-quarters generally the heaviest ; the oxen are mostly 



