144 BREEDS 



* 



The Sussex. 



To-day the Sussex is essentially a beef-breed; one hundred 

 years ago it was essentially the draught beast of the heavy 

 Weald Clay in the county from which the name of the variety 

 is derived. The transformation is one of which the Sussex 

 breeders may be proud. For the working ox, of which the 

 eighteenth century "Sussex" was a very typical specimen, was 

 leggy, strong-boned and coarse, not particularly well sprung 

 in the rib, slow-growing, and carrying hard, stringy meat. The 

 Sussex to-day is quite as quick-growing as any of the beef-breeds, 

 is deep, and, when thoroughly well finished, the carcase carries 

 a very fine quality of meat. It is, moreover, famous for its 

 hardiness, more especially as regards the breeding stock. Not 

 only will the herd of cows stand exposure on cold clay lands 

 located in exposed situations that might well be expected to 

 kill cattle of ordinary constitution, but they will thrive under 

 these trying circumstances on food that would be considered 

 altogether inadequate for stock by those accustomed to other 

 breeds. I have known a breeder leave the thistles on his farm 

 uncut so that the Sussex cows might feed on them in time of 

 drought. I have seen the herd of cows belonging to this farmer 

 grazing the thistles, two feet high, with great gusto and thriving 

 on the weed almost as well as if they had been browsing decent 

 pasture-grasses. 



It cannot, on the other hand, be denied that the Sussex 

 inherits some of the faults of the draught-cattle from which he 

 springs. He has not the symmetry of many breeds ; he is very 

 liable to be coarse ; and the hard muscle of his progenitors has 

 left undesirable traces of its presence in the animal economy 

 of some stock of the present day. Admittedly the Sussex bullock 

 has to be thoroughly fattened before he is a really good butcher's 

 animal. If the beast is slaughtered before he is thoroughly 

 finished the meat is tough, unpalatable, and of a bad colour. 

 It is only when the bullocks are thoroughly prime that they 

 yield carcases of the firm meat that attracts the butcher's 

 customers. 



The great hardiness of constitution, upon which all who 



