708 



FARMERS?, REGISTER 



[No. 12 



of the treatise on " The anatomical structure and 

 diseases of cattle," is the best extant on that sub- 

 ject. But its arrangement is too ecieniific to suit 

 ordinary readers, though it is therefore the best lor 

 those who desire to study the di.'^eases of cat tie 

 sysiemalicaliy and thorougiily. On account of its 

 regular order, the part on diseases cannot well be 

 extracted from ; each account'of a disease and its 

 remedy depending so much on the more general 

 preceding parts. The whole ought to be given, 

 if at all, together and in connexion ; and this we 

 would have done before lliis, but lor the fear that 

 so much on that subject would not be acceptable 

 to our readers in general. — Ed. F. R.] 



THE LONDON CATTLE MARKETS. 



From Youatt's Treatise on Cattle. 



When Smithfield was first appointed as the site 

 of the periodical market for cattle, no better situa- 

 tion could possibly have been selected. !t was 

 without the walls of the city, it was a large unin- 

 closed space, and would have held ten limes the 

 cattle that were sent there. There was plenty of 

 room for them without their being cruelly packed 

 together, and there was no inconvenience nor dan- 

 ger from driving them though the streets. In pro- 

 cess of time, however, the field was encroached 

 upon, and partly built over; and barely room was 

 left for the accomiuoil.iiion of half liie present 

 number of cattle, and those of only half the size 

 of the improved bre<='ds. A dense population be- 

 gan to sur;' >ijn:l the fi'^ld on every sid6, and it was 

 necessary lor tlie cattle to pass tiirough the most 

 crowded thoroughfares. Thence arose danger to 

 human lile, and many an act of cruelly to the poor 

 beast ; and not only so, but the most barborous ex- 

 pedients were resorted to lo pack the cattle in the 

 circumscribed space which wrs now left to them — 

 barbarities which it would not be thought could be 

 practised in a Christian country, if they were not 

 authenticated beyond all doubt. We subjoin one I 

 statement of them ; it deserves the attentive pe- 1 

 rusal of every one connected with cattle, and, we I 

 trust, will lessen the virulence with which some, ' 

 more Irom an erroneous calculation o( interest, than 

 from an actual want of human feeling, oppose the 

 removal of the catlle-market once more to the out- 

 skirls of the city, and the establishment of abat- 

 toirs or slaiifzhter-houses there. 



"In Smithfield market there is not room to tie 

 up to the rails much more than half of the cattle 

 sent there lor sale 1 The remainder are disposed 

 of by being formed, in groups of about twenty in 

 each, into ' ringr*' or 'od'-droves.' as such divi- 

 visions are termed. About two o'clock in the 

 morning the Smithfield barbariiies are at the 

 heiirht, and the constables, being sent into the 

 market in the daytime only, are consequently not 

 in attendance. The drovers surround the unfortu- 

 nate bullocks which cannot be lied up in the mar- 

 ket, and commence by aiming with their b'udireons 

 blows at their heads, to avoid which they endea- 

 vor to hide their heads, by keeping them towards 

 Jhe ground. On attempting to run backwards, 

 ithe bullocks are restrained by blows upon their 



hocks and legs, together with the application of 

 goads ; whilst, if they venture to lift up ihe head, 

 a dozen bludgeons are insianily hammering on it, 

 until again lowered to the ground. This scene of 

 barbarity is continued until every bullock, how- 

 every refractory, obstinate, stupid, or dangerous at 

 first, has been disciplined to stand quietly in a ring 

 — their heads in the centre, their bodies diverging 

 outward like the radii of a circle : this is done that 

 they may conveniently be handled by the butchers. 

 The barbarity of Smithheld is at its height during 

 the night ; but in the day time, by seeing the pro- 

 cess by which one or more bullocks, when sold, 

 are driven out of a 'ring' or *of!-drove' — and 

 observing the hammerings with bludgeons on the 

 head ; the thrusting Ihe goads into the nostrils of 

 the animals to make them move backwards, alter 

 similar instruments had been applied to urgp. them 

 in the contrar}'- direction ; by witnessing the mode 

 of re-forming tne 'rings' or 'off-droves,' which 

 are constantly broken through by the withdraw- 

 ment of purchased animals, as well as by the j)ass- 

 ing and repassing of carts and drays, some faint 

 idea may be formed of the amount of needless bar- 

 barbarity inflicted, and of the consequent deterio- 

 ration of the meat. The deteiioralion of the meat 

 has been calculated at no less a sum than 100,000L 

 per annum, notwithstanding the care which the 

 drovers take to strike chietly where there is no 

 flesh interposed between the skin and the bone ; 

 where tlife animal feels most acutely, but there is 

 no black mark to tell tales. ' I have lived fourteen 

 years in Smithfield,' said a very intelligent wit- 

 ness, 'and I find it perfectly impossible to sleep in 

 the front of my house on the Sunday night. The 

 cruelty practiscii upon -the cattle, in beating them 

 into the ' rings,' no person can believe who has not 

 seen it ; and, as it is a matter very easily to be 

 seen, I hops some of the committee (now silting) 

 will see it personally. Supposing a salesman "to 

 have twenty beasts (which could not be tied up), 

 he will have them all with their heads in and their 

 tails out ; they form a ring; and in order to disci- 

 pline them to stand in that manner, the drovers 

 are obliged to goad ihem behind and knock them 

 upon the noses. They strike them with great 

 force upon the nose, and goad them cruelly behind, 

 by which means they Ibrm themselves into 'a ring;' 

 so that, at the period 1 speak otj there is a great 

 deal of unnecessary cruelty. At length the cattle 

 will stand in that manner, so perfectly disciplined, 

 that, at breakfast-lime, there shall be twenty or 

 thirty 'rings' of this kind standing in the middle 

 of the market. If the 'ring' is l3roken by an3'- 

 means, they are all in the greatest anxiety to get 

 in again ; tind when the drovers are obliged to 

 separate these ' rings' and drive the cattle av/ay, 

 they have a great deal of trouble, and the labor of 

 the men is excessive to get one single beast out. 

 Indeed, if you can conceive first getting the cattle 

 into ' a ring,' as I have stated, and if one is sold 

 out of the ring at eleven in the day, the beast is 

 ordered to be driven through fifteen hundred cat- 

 tle, whichever way he goes out of the market, 

 and the man is goading that beast all the way — 

 if vou can conceive men compelled to exercise this 

 cruelty, they will not tie very delicate of the man- 

 ner in which they use it after a time !' 



"Another witness, who had been 'a salesman 

 about eight years,' thus described the scene: — 



" ' I have stood behind eight of these off-droves, 



