HISTOEY OF HEREFOED CATTLE 



297 



qualities after having been kept for a full week 

 exposed to the air." 



The Doctor made a practical test by cooking 

 samples of all the meats referred to, and his 

 deductions from the tests are simply a corrob- 

 oration of the opinion that the HIGH-GRADE 

 MKATS ARE THE ONLY ONES FIT FOR 

 THE TABLE. 



Upon the question of the excessive fatness, 

 about which so much has been said and writ- 

 ten, the examiner, after minutely describing 

 where this excess of fat is to be found, and the 

 immediate cause thereof, says: 



"It would be very proper, and a step in ad- 

 vance, to offer a prize on the beast, or rather 

 to the man who should breed and rear the 

 beast, capable of showing the highest specimen 

 of marbling with the least accumulation of fat, 

 merely as such, outside of and measurably away 

 from the muscles. Men can express their likes 

 and dislikes, it costs nothing to do this, but 

 mere expressions of opinion cut no figure in so 

 strictly a practical matter as growing meat for 

 the million. The true inwardness of the sub- 

 ject is, as a rule, very imperfectly understood, 

 though the ways of getting at a better under- 

 standing are being gradually found out. The 

 idea entertained by some, generally vegetarians, 

 that fat accumulated in the system is the re- 

 sult of fatty degeneration of muscles, is er- 

 roneous in every particular. Fat in the human 

 system and in all animals is as natural an ele- 

 ment as are muscles and skin. That some por- 

 tion of the muscular system may (as is oc- 

 casionally the case with the heart, which is 

 (hollow) muscle) be the seat of deposit of 

 an unnatural amount of adipose matter, caus- 

 ing the muscles to become pale and the heart's 

 motion feeble, is no proof that all fat presents 

 evidence of degeneration. The blood in perfect 

 health contains fatty elements which in its 

 rounds are given off and taken in by the fat 

 vesicles, these latter holding it in store. The 

 blood also carries the material out of which 

 linger nails, hoofs and hairs are made, leaving 

 tli is at the proper place to replenish waste; and 

 it would be just as proper to charge the hair 

 and the finger and toe nails with being a de- 

 generation from muscular substance as to 

 charge this to the usual accumulation of fat 

 in the system of man or beast. 



"Cattle breeders have always been divided in 

 opinion as to the superiority of meat grown 

 upon the frames of bony steers which are pas- 

 ture-fed. Some breeders claim that meat thus 

 made must of necessity be of a better quality on 

 account of the continued outdoor exercise af- 

 forded and the natural food which the animal 



takes, while just as thorough and practical men 

 insist upon the correctness of their views, that 



A STALL-FED STEEE 



would produce as good, sound, hardy muscle 

 and as choice meat as could be shown upon an 

 animal fed in the open air and upon natural 

 food." After stating that no one questions that 

 exercise hardens the muscles, the Doctor says: 



"The notion entertained by some that an 

 animal cannot be mainly kept in a stall and be 

 made to produce healthy, sound meat is a non- 

 sensical assumption not sustained by physi- 

 ology, nor is it by experience. That such an 

 animal is liable to fatty degeneration is equally 

 nonsensical. The evidences of health in the 

 stall-fed ox are just as apparent, under reason- 

 ably favorable circumstances, as are the 

 evidences of soundness in an apple grown in a 

 fixed position on a limb." 



Many of the most prominent breeders of the 

 country pin their faith upon the idea that they 

 can by handling ascertain and determine 

 whether an animal will show marbled meat and 

 other signs of good blood and thorough breed- 

 ing. Because a steer presents a soft glossy 

 hide, and the proper fullness in parts that in- 

 dicate good blood and equally good care, these 

 gentlemen have been known to go so far as to 

 wager large sums of money that animals show- 

 ing these outside signs of excellence would, 

 upon being butchered, show highly marbled 

 meat. In fact, they have professed to be able 

 to locate this choice beef before death. Dr. 

 Sprague held that this was not only impossible 

 but preposterous, and that 



THE BUTCHER'S- TEST WAS THE ONLY ONE 



that could establish the presence of these de- 

 sirable qualities. Upon this subject he says: 

 "We acknowledged to having looked upon 

 these meat tests with no little interest, in that 

 we hoped to prove that the outward signs of 

 a fine handler would point quite unerringly 

 to the quality of the meat fibre and the mar- 

 bling of it. So we selected a steer having a 

 soft, mossy coat and mellow skin, with the 

 other indications of a fine handler in a marked 

 degree, upon which to apply the tests so long 

 recognized and acted upon by breeders. This 

 steer, upon being cut up, gave no evidence of 

 any higher marbling of flesh than either^ of 

 the others, no matter what their touch, under 

 the hand. Failing to find corroborative evi- 

 dence in this regard, we applied the micro- 

 scope with care, in the hope of discovering a 

 muscular fibre susceptible of minuter division 

 by far than the fibre of other steers in the 



