366 



i<' A R M E K S ' R E I S T E H . 



[No. 6 



that, for a century past, has maintained its ground, 

 and will continue to do so. 



Mr. Marshall uivcs a sinijular account of these 

 cattle, when first'iutroduced. lie says, that "the 

 liokierness .hreed were thin quartered, too light 

 behind, and too coarse hclbre; large shoulders, 

 coarse necks, and dewlaps. 'J'his ibrni heing 

 found disadvantageous to the butcher, increasing 

 the quantity ol' the coarser parts, and reducing 

 the weight ol" the prime pieces, liie breeder en- 

 deavored to enlarge the hind quarters; and had 

 he stopped when he hail got to the happy me- 

 dium, he would have wrought a good work ; but 

 the lashion was set— cloildy buttocks were in es- 

 timation. The first variety vf this species of cat- 

 tle,, which I can recollect, was a thick, large- 

 boned, coarse, clumsy animal, remarkably large 

 behind, wi'h thick jxummy thighs ; always fleshy, 

 but never lilt, and the Hesh being of a bad quality. 

 This, however, was not the worst: the monstrous 

 size of the buttocks of the calf was frequently 

 liiial to the cow, and numbers of cows were an- 

 nually lost in calving. These njonsiers were stig- 

 matized by the epithet 'Dutch buttocked,' and 

 they were probably the worst breed the Vale ever 

 knew." 



This evil, however, soon cured itself; and, by 

 judicious crossings (I'om their own stock, and, soon 

 afterwards, from the stock of the enterprising and 

 skilful breeders on the banks of the Tees, the 

 Yorkshire cow was brought to her present state of 

 perfection, retainin^^, with liiUe diminution, the 

 milking properties of the Holderness, and the gra- 

 zing ones of the improved short-horn. The old 

 and comparatively unimproved breed is still in- 

 deed Ibund in the posses'sion of most of the dairy 

 farmers of this part of the country, lor the preju- 

 dice — and, as we have confessed, not an unlbund- 

 ed one — against the improved short-horns, that 

 their milking properties have been sacrificed to 

 the accumulation of ll\t, still widely prevails. Ex- 

 perience, however, gradually established the fact, 

 that it is prudent to sacrifice a small portion of the 

 n^.ilk to assist in feeding, when too old to continue 

 in the dairy; or when, as in the neighborhood of 

 large towns, her service as a dairy-cow are dis- 

 pensed with at an early age. This cross being 

 judiciously managed, the diminution of milk is 

 so small, and the tendency to fatten so great, 

 that the opinion of Mr. Sale (as quoted by Mr. 

 Sneldon Cradock, of Hartlbrth, and to whom 

 we return our thanks for some .valuable informa- 

 tion) is perleclly correct — I have always found, in 

 my stock, that the best milkers, when dried for 

 feeding, make the most liil in the least time." 

 This is a doctrine which will be belter understood 

 and universally acknowledged by and by. Too 

 many of .the improvers of the short-horns have 

 done but half justice to their excellent stock. He 

 would deserve well of his country who, with skill 

 and means sufficient, would devote himself to the 

 illustration of this point. 



It has been observed, that the cattle of this dis- 

 trict have not improved of late so rapidly as iti 

 former times. There may be two reasons for this, 

 viz., that the system of breeding in-and-in has 

 been pursued somewhat too far, and that the de- 

 preciation of the times has withdrawn many 

 landed proprietors from asricultural pursuits, and 

 thus lessened that competition which was the mo&l 

 powerful stimulus to exertion. . 



■ TTie average weight of cattle in this riding of 

 Yorkshire varies with the food and age of the ani- 

 mal. A steer fi-om two and a half to three years 

 old, when fit for the market, will usually weigh 

 li-om sixty-hve to eevenly-Hve stones, imperial 

 weight, -ruid a heifer from fifty-five to sixty-five 

 stones. The usual method of prejiaring them for 

 ■the mrn-ket is simple enough. The calf gets milk 

 for the first two or three weeks, and alter that, scald- 

 ed skimmed milk, mixed with oil-cake boiled in 

 water, with hay and turnips, until the spring pas- 

 tures iiave sufficient produce to support him ; he 

 remain^in thenj until the following winter, when 

 he is either tied up, or turned loose into folds, and 

 led with straw and turnips until the ensuing May : 

 he is then turned once more into the pasture until 

 winter, when he is brought into the fold-yard as 

 before, until nearly May day; and now, approach- 

 ing to a state nearly fat enough for the butcher, 

 three or four months grass-feeding generally com- 

 pletes him. Both the improved and the unimproved 

 cattle are treated in the same way. Now, how- 

 ever, appears the essential difierence between the 

 breeds; the most forward of the unimproved are 

 scarcely ready, when the improved cattle are gone, 

 and they are never so fat and pointy as the others. 

 Upon tiie clay soil of Cleveland, and other parts 

 of this district, the grass land is principally appro- 

 priated to the purpose of the dairy. There the un- 

 improved breed mostly prevails ; but even there, 

 the most intelligent of the farmers begin to see the 

 propriety of a cross or two fr-om the Teeswater 

 blood. The young cattle are principally sold in 

 the neighboring markets, and are forwarded to the 

 possessors of extensive turnip farms in Leicester- 

 shire and Northamptonshire. 



A great proportion of the cows lor the supply of 

 the metropoliiah dairies come from the North Ri- 

 ding of Yorkshire. They are sent away within a 

 mouth or six weeks after calving; and eiiher journey 

 directly to London, or halt for a year or two in Bed- 

 fordshire, or some of tiie midland counties, in order 

 that they may not reach their ultimate destinatioQ 

 until they are five or six years old. 



Among the breeders of the pure short-horns, in 

 this Rilling, Major Bovver, of VVelham, deserves 

 honorable'^menlion. His name appears among 

 the purchasers at Mr. Charles Coliing's sale. His 

 cow Daisy, bought there, produced some excellent 

 stoclj. A heiler of his breed, slaughtered at the 

 age of eighteen months, weighed sixty-lour stones, 

 imperial weight, and ten stones of tallow. 



The Earl of Carlisle formerly endeavored to im- 

 prove the breed of this district by crossing with the 

 Devorishire, and Mr. Cleaver with Sussex cattle, 

 and it was said that more kindly feeders were ob- 

 tained; the size was reduced a little, the leg shor- 

 tened, the bone rendered finer, the form improved, 

 and the strength of the short-horn remained for 

 drauL'hl wiih the activity ofthe Devon. Whatever 

 might have been the case with the first cross, this 

 supposed improved race has passed quite away. 



A cross between the short-horn bull and the 

 Argyleshire heifer was attempted, with great pros- 

 pect of success. Mr. Bates had obtained some 

 excellent cattle from a similar attem[)t, but they 

 could not be fed to an equal weight in the same 

 time, and they were deficient in early maturity. 



fVest Riding.— Th\s is principally a manufac- 

 turing district, and there are comparatively few 

 ..agricultu-rists who pay much attention to the im- 



