MONTHLY 



JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



VOL. II. SEPTEMBER, 1846. 



BRITISH OXEN.. ..BY james h. fennell. 



We cannot exactly see the applicability of the title to the context of this paper, as it is, in 

 fact, a curious, valuable, and highly interesting paper on the qualities of various races of 

 English cattle, together with instmctivc observations on their food, the management of th» 

 dairy, statistics of the London milk trade, &c. with little or nothing about oxen in 'particu- 

 lar ! We are not sure, however, that the departure of the discourse fi-om the text is wider 

 than we have known it to be on some other occasions — all going to show that in what wo 

 read, as well as in what we hear, we should keep our attention alive, and form our judgment 

 of wliat is said or written for ourselves, and independently, rather than from any index which 

 may be prefixed according to the judgment or caprice of another. 



If we were asked the question, What is the use of reading about Agriculture, and espe- 

 cially about English Agriculture ? we should be willing to answer by reference even to thia 

 single paper. We could easily throw it into the foiTn of a catechism, or series of questions, 

 which should elicit the information and facts embodied in this article, and would then inquiro 

 of any one having a right appreciation of what becomes an enhghtened agriculturist, not ex- 

 actly how much money may be made by the knowledge it is fitted to impart, but whether 

 there be, in such papers, anything idle or superfluous, or anything of which an intellectual 

 cultivator of the soU, with a proper shai'e of professional pride and self-esteem, should be will- 

 ing to remain ignoi-ant ? For one, we do not hesitate to confess that we utterly despise and 

 detest, and feel ijidignant at the thought that an American RepubUcan freeholder, and culti- 

 vator of his own freehold, should be merely a successful, practical, money -making farmer! — 

 It was not a mere phlebotoniizer who discovered the circTilation of the blood, nor a simple 

 navigator that invented the chronometer ! And your 7nere practical men, while they rarely 

 do much for the progress of their art, except to illustrate, like the machine itself, the valuo 

 of inventions by men who think, are in all professions exactly those who are apt to bo made 

 subservient to the men who scheme for themselves. Such men as Bogakdus, the gi-eat ma- 

 chinist, of New- York; and Whitney, the inventor of the cotton-gin; and Audubo.v, the un- 

 rivaled ornithologist, are not apt to be practical money-makers ; but who would exchange 

 their genius and their enthusiasm, and the honor of their discoveries and writings, for any 

 amount of sordid wealth, united with stolid ignorance ? 



The particular breeds of horned cattle may be readily distinguished by certain 

 characteristics. Thus the Ayrshire cattle, found in many parts of Scotland and 

 England, have small size, [1] line bone, much flesh, good symmetry, thin and 



(1). The Ayrshire cattle which have been brought to this country are of what would be called 

 not " small size," but good sized cattle, about the weight of our ordinary country cattle — not so 

 large as the Short-Horn or Durham, but iu shape the Short-Hom ia miuiature. [Ed. Farm. Lib. 

 (241) 7 



