1839] 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



847 



an excessive secretion of flesh and fat, should also 

 be productive of other rich secretions. Witliin 

 ilie hist three or four years, affidavits were sworn 

 beibre a mairistrate in America, that an improved 

 shoit-horned cow, imported thither, |)roduced after 

 the rate of 20 lb. of buiier per week. 



Wherever the improved short-horns have been 

 crossed with other eatlle, their superiority is equal- 

 ly manifest, in respect of dairy qualifications, as 

 in every other. On this subject the writer is able 

 to avail himself of the evidence of a jjentleman 

 who has addressed a communication on the sub- 

 ject to the conductor of the British Farmer''s 

 Magazine, which is so pertinent to the present 

 subject that liie temptation to take an extract is 

 irresistible. It is as Iblluws : "In the 27th number 

 of your valuable ma<fazine, when giving an ac- 

 count of my two-years'-old steer, you also give an 

 extract from my letter on the advantages of cross- 

 ing cows of dilferent breeds with improved short- 

 horn bulls ; ami in confirmation of this opinion, 

 (not hastily adopted, but the result of several 

 years practical experience, and a close attention to 

 the experiments ol" several friends during the last 

 seventeen years,) I send you the portrait and a 

 short account of a two-year old Durham and De- 

 von heifer of mine, lately slaughtered by Mr. 

 William Daniel, of Abergavenny, and accompa- 

 ny it with a lew brief siatements ol" the advanta- 

 ges derived from this system by several of my 

 own personal Iriends. 



"This heiler was the second cross, and was ol 

 a li<rht gray color. She weighed 35 scores and 

 8 lb.; rough fit, 98 lb.; she was allowed to be the 

 fattest and best beast of her age, in all points, 

 ever seen in Abergavenny. She had a dead call" 

 about six weeks before Chiisiuiiis; was dried the 

 17ih of January, and killed the 10th of June. She 

 sold fbr £ 19 3s. 6(/. 



"Her live weight, on the 8th of 



June, was - - - 1232 lbs. 



Ditto, on the l?th January - 840 



Increase in 140 days - - 392 



" Being aware that strong prejudice and much 

 incredulity existed on the subject ol" crossini;, I 

 c-ourted the attention of all the res[)ectable farmers, 

 breeders, and feeders in this neighborhood. Many 

 came to see her when first put up, and repeatedly 

 afterwards during the five months she was feeding; 

 and they all concurred in saying she went on faster 

 than any beast they had ever seen. She never 

 had any oil-cake. 



" I have seen many excellent beasts bred from 

 improved short-horn bulls and lonir-horti cows; 

 indeed I never knew one of" these bulls put to any 

 cow, where tlie produce was not superior to the 

 dam; but the cross which I advocate, anil with 

 which I am best acquainted, is that with the 

 Devon cow. I have uniformly remarked, that 

 each succeeding cross was attended with a pro- 

 portionate improvement in size, quality of flesh, 

 and aptitude to fatten. In every instance lliey 

 have shown themselves superior milkers, and tnnd 

 to the pail till within six or eight weeks of calving; 

 and several instances have come under my own 

 knowledge where they have never been dry since 

 they first calved ; and so highly are thoy prized 

 as milkers, that a friend of mine, who hired out 

 dairies, informed me that the dairymen gave him 



nearly 21. per cow per year more for the half and 

 three-quarter breds, than they would give Ibr eows 

 ol" other breeds. 



" A friend of mine had about a dozen North 

 Devon cows, small in size, but nice in quality, 

 and from these he commenced, about twenty 

 years since, breeding with short-horn bulls. He 

 has since invariably used those bulls. With each 

 succeeding cross the slock have rapidly improved 

 in every essential, and the only trace of the Devona 

 which"! could pieceive when I last saw them, 

 about two years since, was a peculiar richness in 

 their color. He breeds about thirty annually, and 

 generally sells his ihree-years-old, in ihe autumn, 

 at £, 17 to £22 ; and I have known him to sell in- 

 calf heifijrs to jobbers in fairs as high as 30 guineas 

 each. All his stock are superior milkers. Here 

 we have twenty years' experiment and continued 

 improvement. 



" Within the last eight years I have sent many 

 North Devon heifers to Ireland, to friends residing 

 in diflerent counties, and some of them occupying 

 land of very inliirior (juality. I also sent over two 

 young Durham bulls, l"rorn the stock of the Rev. 

 tlenry Berry, to cross them with. They have all 

 crossed them with short- horn bulls at my recom- 

 mendation, and the accounts they give are most 

 satisl"actory. They say the two-years old half- 

 breds are as good as the three-years old Devons, 

 and are all good milkers. One of these bulls, by 

 Mr. Berry's Mijnheer, has been lour times exhi- 

 bited in three diflerent counties, and has each 

 time taken the first prize. He was fast year sold for 

 tiO guineas, and is now serving cows at £1 each. 



C. H. Bolton. 



" Brynderry, near Abergavenny. '''' 



An opinion generally prevails that the short- 

 horns are unfitted fbr work ; and in some respects 

 it is admitted they are so ; but the correct reason 

 has not been assigned, and the question may fairly 

 come briefly under notice. That they are willing 

 and able to work, the writer knows, from one ia 

 particular among many instances. He has now a 

 team of two-years old steers, working constantly 

 nine hours a day ; a system he would by no means 

 recommend, and forced on him by circumstances 

 connected with entrance on a new farm, at present 

 ill adapted to grazing cattle. They work admi- 

 rably ; but surely cattle which, as the preceding 

 account proves, will go as profitably to the butcher 

 at two years old as any other breed at three, and 

 as many even at four, ought never, as a general 

 rule, to be placed in the yoke. No beast in the 

 present advanced state of breeding, ought to be 

 put upon a system which arose out of the neces- 

 sity of obtaining compensation by work ibr the 

 loss attending a tardy nr.aturify. But where it may 

 be convenient, the short-horns, particularly the 

 bulls, work admirably, as their great docility pro- 

 mises ; and there are many operations going on in 

 every firm which a bull would be judiciously em- 

 ployed in performing. And as the bulls of this 

 breed are apt to become useless, from acquiring 

 too much flesh in a state of confinement, mode- 

 rate work might, in most case, prove beneficial ibr 

 such as are intended for use at home. 



VV^ith deference, however, it is submitted to the 

 breeders of short-horns that they should avoid 

 breeding from too close affinities, and while ihey 

 steer clear cf coarseness, should require a suffi- 

 (jiency of masculine character in their males. 



