THE COW. 25 



set is completely renewed. For some time they re- 

 main tolerably white and even ; but, as the animal ad- 

 vances in age, their colour and regularity gradually 

 change, and mastication becomes so very difficult, 

 that the creature often dies from not being able to chew 

 a sufficient quantity of food *. 



The horns are, perhaps, a more determinate method 

 of ascertaining the animal's age ; for, at three years 

 old, it completely sheds them, and new ones arise in 

 their place ; which every year receive a fresh ring, and 

 by that means prove a register of its life. 



The pains which the English have taken to bring 

 horned cattle to perfection, has been amply repaid by 

 the superiority of their breed ; for, by mixing them 

 with those of foreign countries, they have increased 

 their beauty as well as their strength. The Lincoln- 

 shire cattle, which are famous for their size, derive 

 that perfection from the Holstein breed ; and many were 

 formerly imported from Poland, but none are now 

 thought better than what our own country will produce. 

 Among the Elam Tartars, where the pastures are re- 

 markably rich, the cow becomes of so large a size that 

 the man must be tall who can reach its shoulder with 

 his hand ; but in France, where the creature is stinted 

 for food, it greatly degenerates both in form and size. 



Though the height of this animal so much depends 

 upon the quantity and quality of its food, yet the hair, 

 the horns, and the whole structure, so often varies, that 

 Naturalists sometime describe them as of a distinct 

 race. Thus the Urus and the Bison, from a want of 

 similitude in their form and make, have been ranked as 



* The cow goes nine months with young, and seldom lives longer tlian 

 fourteen years. 



