JANUAR 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 Ibs. weight of milk. 

 Susan . . . . 9,135 



Cirencester Park Herd 



Frump .... 9,599 Ibs. weight of milk. 

 Sloe 8,793 



