CATTLE. 



CATTLE. 



They are rather rough about the head, with 

 large ears. Their bodies are long and legs 

 short, hip-bones high, and generally deficient 

 in the points of the finer breeds. Still many 

 of the cows fatten well, and produce beef of 

 superior quality. In proportion to their size, 

 the Suffolk dun cows yield a great abundance 

 of milk ; and as a dairy stock, there are very 

 few breeds that are preferable. 



Irish Cattle. Of the Irish cattle there are 

 two breeds, the middle and the long-horns. 

 The middle-horns are the original breed, and 

 tenant the forests and most mountainous dis- 

 tricts. " They are," says Mr. Youatt, " small, 

 light, active, and wild ; the head commonly 

 small ; the horns short but fine, rather upright, 

 and frequently, after projecting forward, turn- 

 ing backward ; somewhat deficient in hind- 

 quarters ; high-boned, and wide over the hips, 

 yet the bone not commonly heavy ; the hair 

 coarse and long, black or brindled, with white 

 faces. Some are finer in the bone and in the 

 neck, with a good eye and sharp muzzle, and 

 great activity ; are hardy, live upon very scanty 

 fare, and fatten with great rapidity when re- 

 moved to a better soil : they are good milkers. 

 The Kerry cows are excellent in this respect. 

 These last, however, are wild and remarkable 

 leapers. They live, however, upon very little 

 food, and have often been denominated the 

 poor man's cow." 



The other breed is of a larger size. It has 

 much of the blood of the old Lancashire or 

 Craven breed, or true long-horn. Their horns 

 first turn outwards, then curve, and turn in- 

 wards. Of each of these kinds, an immense 

 number of both lean and fat stock are annually 

 exported to 'England; in 1825 it amounted to 

 63,524. 



The lanst-linni*. The long-horns of England 

 came originally from Craven in Yorkshire, and 

 derived their name from a length of horn, 

 which often extended to an unbecoming degree. 

 Bakewell, Culley, and other great breeders im- 

 proved upon, and have long since destroyed, 

 the chief traces of the old, long-bodied, coarse, 

 large boned breed. It is needless, therefore, to 

 follow this breed through the various counties 

 in which it once predominated, for it has long 

 been rapidly disappearing, and has almost 

 everywhere given place to better kinds. 



The improved breed of Leicestershire, is 

 said to have been formed by Webster of Cau- 

 ley, near Coventry, in Warwickshire. Bake- 

 well, of Dishley, in Leicestershire, afterwards 

 got the lead as a breeder, by selecting from 

 Cauley's stock ; and the stocks of several other 

 eminent breeders have been traced to the same 

 mrce. 



The Lancashire breed of long-horned cattle 

 PI. 12, A;), is distinguished from others by the 

 lickness and firm texture of their hides, the 

 igth and closeness of their hair, the large 

 size of their hoofs, and their coarse, leathery, 

 thick necks. They are likewise deeper in their 

 fore quarters, and lighter in their hind quarters 

 than most other breeds ; narrower in their 

 shape, less in point of weight than the short- 

 horns, though better weighers in proportion to 

 their size ; and though they give considerably 

 less milk, it is said to yield more cream in pro- 



portion to its quantity. They are more varied 

 in colour than any other breeds ; but, whatever 

 the colour may be, they have in general a 

 white streak along their back, which the breed- 

 ers term JincheJ, and mostly a white spot on the 

 inside of the hough. (Culley, p. 53.) "In a ge- 

 neral view," says Loudon, " this race, notwith- 

 standing the singular efforts that have been, 

 made towards its improvement, remains with 

 little alteration ; for, except in Leicestershire, 

 none of the subvarieties (which differ a little 

 in almost every one of those counties where 

 the long-horns prevail) have undergone any 

 radical change or any obvious improvement." 

 (Lmulons Encyc. of jigr. p. 1015.) 



The short-horns. Of this noble breed of cattle, 

 which seems to be annually increasing in fa- 

 vour with the dairyman and the grazier, we 

 are mainly indebted to the description of the 

 late Rev. Henry Berry. Durham and York- 

 shire have for ages been celebrated for a breed 

 of these possessing extraordinary value as 

 milkers, "in which quality," says Mr. Youatt, 

 "taken as a breed, they have never been 

 equalled. The cattle so distinguished were 

 always, as now, very different from the im- 

 proved race. They were generally of large 

 size, thin skinned, sleek haired, bad handlers, 

 rather delicate in constitution, coarse in the 

 offal, and strikingly defective in the substance 

 of girth in the fore-quarters. As milkers they 

 were most excellent, but when put to fatten, as 

 the foregoing description will indicate, were 

 found slow feeders, producing an inferior 

 quality of meat, not marbled or mixed as to fat 

 and lean ; the latter sometimes of a very dark 

 hue. Such, too, are the unimproved short-horns 

 of the present day." 



About the year 1750, in the valley of the 

 Tees, commenced that spirit of improvement 

 in the breeders of the old short-horns, which 

 has ended in the improved modern breed. 

 These efforts, begun by Sir William Quintin, 

 and carried on by Mr. Milbank of Barming- 

 ham, were nearly completed by Mr. Charles 

 Colling. The success of this gentleman was, 

 from the first, considerable. He produced, by 

 judicious selections and crossings, the cele- 

 brated bull Hubback, from whom are descend- 

 ed the best short-horns of our day. Of this 

 breed was the celebrated Durham ox, which 

 was long shown in a travelling van at country 

 fairs, and which, when slaughtered in April, 

 1807, at eleven years of age, weighed 187 

 stone ; and the Spottiswoode ox, probably the 

 largest ever exhibited. In June, 1802, he 

 measured height of shoulder, 6 feet 10 inches; 

 girth behind the shoulder, 10 feet 2 inches ; 

 breadth across the hooks, 3 feet 1 inch ; com- 

 puted weight, 320 stones of 14 Ibs. (Quart. 

 Journ. of Jlgr. vol. vi. p. 271.) 



Besides Mr. Colling, his brother Mr. Robert 

 Colling, Mr. Charge, and Mr. Mason were 

 hardly second to him in skill and success as 

 breeders of the short-horns. 



With the pure improved short-horns, crossed 

 with a red polled Galloway cow, was produced 

 a variety of this breed, which was long named 

 " the alloy," but for which at Mr. C. Collings's 

 sale, October 11, 1810, some most extraordinary 

 prices were obtained : thus a cow called 



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