EARLY HISTORY AND TYPICAL BREEDS OF CATTLE. 615 



When the cows calve, they hide their calves for a week or ten days in 

 some sequestered situation, and go and suckle them two or three times a 

 day. If any person comes near the calves, they clap their heads close to 

 the ground, to hide themselves ; this is a proof of their native wildness. 

 The dams allow no person to touch their calves, without attacking them 

 with impetuous ferocity. When any one happens to be wounded, or is 

 grown weak and feeble through age or sickness, the rest of the herd set 

 on it and gore it to death." 



The breeds now found in Great Britain, are almost as various as the 

 Goils of the different districts, and are purely artificial in their breeding, 

 according to the several fancies of the originators, and successive 

 breeders. 



XV. Native Districts of Some Breeds. 



The same careful authority, heretofore quoted, has divided them into 

 Long-Horns, Short-Horns and Middle-Horns. Their history, which may 

 be taken as correct, their classification, and their habits, as known in 

 his day, are given as follows : "The Long-Horns were originally from 

 Lancashire, much improved by Bakewcll, and established through the 

 greater part of the midland counties ; the Short-Horns, mostly cultivated 

 in the northern counties, and in Lincolnshire, and many of them found in 

 every part of the kingdom where the farmer attends much to his dairy, 

 or a large supply of milk is wanted ; and the Middle-Horns, not derived 

 from a mixture of the two preceding, but a distinct and valuable and 

 beautiful breed, inhabiting principally the north of Devon, the east of 

 Sussex, Herefordshire, and Gloucestershire ; and, of diminished ])ulk, 

 and with somewhat different character, the cattle of the Scottish and the 

 Welsh mountains. The Aldcrney, with her crumpled horn, is found on 

 the southern coast, and, in smaller numbers, in gentlemen's parks and 

 pleasure-grounds every where ; while the polled, or hornless cattle, pre- 

 vail in Suffolk, and Norfolk, and in Galloway, whence they were first 

 derived. 



"These, however, have been intermingled in eveiy possible way. They 

 are found pure only in their native districts, or on the estates of some 

 opulent and spirited individuals. Each county has its own mongrel breed, 

 ftften diflScult to be described, and not always to be traced — neglected 

 enough, yet suited to the soil and to the climate ; and, among little farmers, 

 maintaining their station, in spite of attempts at improvements by the 

 intermixture or the substitution of foreign varieties. 



"The character of each important variety, and the relative value of 

 each foi breeding, grazing, the dairy, or the plough, will be considered 

 before wo inquire into the structure or general and medical treatment of 

 juttle. Much dispute has arisen as to the original breed of British cattle. 



