SHORT-HORN CATTLE. 665 



If the Short-Horns fail as milkers they have been wonderfully im- 

 proved as beef-makers, and as wonderfully developed in point of early 

 maturity, so that they are now produced ripe for the butcher at three 

 years old, and are quite lit for killing at any age from yearlings up. 



While they are wonderful as beef -makers, they certainly are the hand- 

 somest cattle, to the eye, of any in the known world. They have great 

 thickness of carcass, and the prime points especially are full. The offal 

 is no more than in ordinary steers that will not attain more than half 

 their weight. They have been sneeringly called " the gentleman's steers.'' 

 The breeding of them is certainly patronized by the wealthy, as objects 

 of beauty, and butchers seem to be especially anxious to get the ripe ones 

 for Christmas beef. In the older settled parts of the country there are 

 few cattle but show more or less of this almost universally admired blood. 



XIV. The Patton Family of Short-Horns. 



Soon after the Revolutionary war, as already stated, cattle, supposed 

 to have been pure-bred Short-Horns, were l)rought to Virginia. The 

 progeny of some of these cattle were taken to Kentucky by a gentleman 

 named Patton, from whence, in course of time, they became widely dis- 

 seminated as Patton stock — a name which was even corrupted into 

 "patent stock." This was not a misnomer however, since, as we knew 

 them over forty years ago, they were heavy cattle, that ripened at ai? 

 early age, for that day, and among them were many remarkable milkers. 

 They were somewhat coarse as compared with the Short-Horns of to- 

 day, but thick-mcated, broad-loined, round-barrelled animals, good at 

 the pail ; and, on the butcher's block, they gave large carcasses of excel- 

 lent beef. 



XV. Grade Cows and Steers. 



A report in the fifth volume of the "Transactions of Massachusetts," 

 gives the well-authenticated statement of INIr. Robinson of Barre, from 

 which we gather the following interesting facts : The cows under trial 

 were half and three-quarters bred. Seven of them yielded, during the 

 first seven days in June, 2,207 pounds of milk, averaging forty-five 

 pounds per diem to each cow. From this milk 232 pounds of cheese was 

 made, averaging one pound of cheese to nine and a half pounds of milk. 

 The same cows gave during the three following da^'s 955 pounds of milk, 

 from which forty-one pounds nine ounces of ])utter were made, averaging 

 one pound of butter to twent3-chree pounds of milk. It will be seen 

 that the milk that makes one pound of butter will make two and a half 

 pounds of cheese. These cows had no extra feed during the trial, hav- 

 ing been turned to pasture on the 15th of May. This instance is selected 

 not as a very extraordinary performance, but as a well-authenticated 

 and carefully-conducted experiment. 



