i 3 o BREEDS OF CATTLE 



believe that the view is correct. It is quite certain that the first 

 crosses from a Shorthorn bull mated with nondescript females 

 show to a marked extent the good qualities of their sire. If the 

 cross is repeated through a few generations, the good qualities 

 are reproduced regularly, or, as it is described, the stock breeds 

 true. The transformation is specially marked when the founda- 

 tion female stock are thin-fleshed, coarse, or slow-growing, or 

 have these bad qualities in combination. It is to be noted care- 

 fully that we are dealing here with fleshing qualities. The 

 power of imparting deep-milking has not been so carefully 

 recorded and observed in the breed as to warrant the expression 

 of any very definite opinion. 



The single characteristic to which I am most inclined to 

 attribute its pre-eminence in demand as a sire of beef-cattle is 

 one to which my attention was drawn many years ago. This 

 peculiarity has no name, but it is easy to explain. A Shorthorn, 

 or an animal in which the Shorthorn blood prevails, is fit for 

 slaughter with little preparation. That is to say, oxen of this 

 j/ breed furnish useful carcases for the butcher without as much 

 special feeding as is required by animals of many other varieties. 

 This is an attribute of which the value cannot be over-estimated 

 from the point of view of many foreign buyers. A breeder own- 

 ing a very large herd, or a great number of herds in a climate 

 liable to long periods of drought, -would be very much handi- 

 capped were he forced to keep all his saleable stock till they 

 were prime. If the breed being grazed had all to be held over 

 till they were quite finished, he would run the risk, in years of 

 drought, of finding the whole of his capital tied up without 

 bringing in any income at all. Shorthorns, on the other hand, are 

 quite fit for the butcher once they are at that stage which is called 

 "meat," as contrasted with the condition known as "flesh and 

 bone," and need not be kept till they are "prime." Through 

 this idiosyncrasy of the breed an owner of vast numbers may 

 always rely upon having a certain proportion of his stock in a 

 condition that enables him to cash them, and so upon having 

 money available for current expenses. 



The origins of this characteristic are well worth scientific 

 investigation. It occurred to me several years ago that the 



