110 DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 



price so low as to tempt him to be a purchaser. On tlie other hand, 

 the skin must not be thin, like paper, nor flaccid, nor loose in the hand, 

 cor flabby. This is the opposite extreme, and is indicative of delicate- 

 ness, bad, flabby flesh, and possibly of inaptitude to retain the fat. It 

 must be elastic and velvety, soft and pliable, presenting to the touch a 

 gentle resistance, but so delicate as to give pleasure to the sensitive 

 hand — a skin, in short, which seems at first to give an indentation 

 from the pressure of the fingers, but which again rises to its place by a 

 gentle elasticity. The hair is of nearly as mnch importance as the 

 skin. A hard skin will have straight and stiff hair; it will not have a 

 curl, but be thinly and lankly distributed equally over the surfs^ce. A 

 proper grazing animal will have a mossy coat, not absolutely curled, but 

 having a disposition to a graceful curl, a semifold, which presents a 

 waving inequality, but as difierent from a close and straightly-laid coat, 

 as it is from one standing otf the animal at right angles, a strong symp- 

 tom of disease. It will also, in a thriving animal, be licked here and 

 there with its tongue, a proof that the skin is duly performing its func- 

 tions. There must be also the full and goggle eye, bright and pressed 

 outward by the fatty bed below, because, as this is a part where nature 

 always provides fat, an animal capable of developing it to any consider- 

 able extent will have its indications here, at least when it exists in 

 excess. 



So much for feeding qualities in the animal, and their conformations 

 indicative of this kindly disposition. Next come such formations of the 

 animal itself as are favorable to the growth of fat, other things being 

 equal. There must be size where large weights are expected. Christ- 

 mas-beef, for instance, is expected to be large as well as fat. The symbol 

 of festivity should be capacious as well as prime in quality. But it is 

 so much a matter of choice and circumstance with the grazier that 

 profit alone will be his guide. The axiom will be, however, as a general 

 rule, that the better the grazing soil the larger the animal may be; the 

 poorer the soil the smaller the animal. Small animals are unquestion- 

 ably much more easily fed, and they are well known by experienced men 

 to be those best adapted to second-rate feedmg pastures. But beyond 

 this there must be breadth of carcass. This is indicative of fattening 

 perhaps beyond all other qualifications. If rumps are favorite joints, 

 and produce the best price, it is best to have the animal which will grow 

 the longest, the broadest, and the best rump ; the same of crop, and the 

 same of sirloin ; and not only so, but breadth is essential to the con- 

 sumption of that quantity of food which is necessary to the development 

 of a large amount of fat in the animal. Thus a deep wide chest, favor- 

 able for the respiratory and circulating functions, enables it to consume 

 a lai'ge amount of food, to burn up the sugary matter, and to deposit 

 the fatty matter — as then useless for respiration, but hereafter to be 

 prized. A full level crop will be of the same physiological utility, while 

 abroad and open framework at the hips will alford scope for the action 

 of the liver and kidneys. 



'I'here are other points also of much impoi'tance ; the head must be 

 small and fine; its special use is indicative of the quick fattening of the 

 animal so constructed, and also it is indicative of the bones being small 



