DIFFERENT BREEDS OF OXEN. 103 



the best young grass on the farm, it is not allowed to suck 

 for so long a time. In winter the calf is housed during the 

 night, and fed upon hay with a few turnips or potatoes ; for, if 

 stinted during the first fifteen months, the animal does not attain 

 the natural size^ nor does it feed so well afterwards. The 

 Galloway farmer holds that an ostensible difference can be dis- 

 cerned betwixt the calf that sucks its dam and another fed from 

 the pail ; that while the coat of the former is sleek and glossy, 

 indicating health, the hide of the other is dry and hard, and that 

 this unthrifty appearance is not removed until some time after 

 the animal has been weaned and fed entirely on grass, and, 

 finally, that a calf fed from the pail is more liable to die of 

 stomach complaints than one brought up according to the 

 method above described. The calves should be born in the 

 latter part of winter or the beginning of spring. Karely do 

 the Gralloway breeders sell their calves for veal. The G-alloway 

 cows do not give a great quantity of milk ; but that which they 

 do give is rich in quality, and yields a large proportion of butter. 

 The average amount of milk given by a Galloway cow is about 

 seven quarts per day during the five summer months after feed- 

 ing her calf. During the next four months she does not give 

 more than half that quantity, and for two or three months she 

 is dry. Young Galloway cattle are said to be especially liable to 

 two diseases known as redwater and quarter-evil respectively. 

 The former disease is dealt with by administering a few doses of 

 Epsom salts at an early period, and then removing the young 

 animal to good young grass where the land has been recently 

 limed. The latter disease is best dealt with by setoning the 

 animals as a preventive. When the Galloways are two years of 

 age, they are, as a rule, hardy animals. 



There is probably no breed of cattle which can with greater 

 truth be said to be indigenous to the country and incapable of 

 improvement by any foreign stock than the Galloways. The 

 shorthorns have almost everywhere else improved the cattle of 

 the district into which they have been taken, at least in the first 

 cross. Even in the first cross, however, the shorthorns have 

 done but little good in Galloway, and as a permanent mixture 

 the choicest shorthorn bulls have obviously failed. It seems that 

 the Galloway cattle can only be improved by adherence to the 

 pure breed, and by careful selection of the best animals of both 



