CATTLE. 



CATTLE. 



"The loins should be wide, for these are the 

 prime parts ; they should seem to extend far 

 along the back ; and although the belly should 

 not hang down, the flanks should be round and 

 deep, the hips large, without being ragged, 

 round rather than wide, and present, when 

 handled, plenty of muscle and fat; the thighs 

 full and long, and, when viewed from behind, 

 close together; the legs short, for there is al- 

 most an inseparable connection between length 

 of leg and lightness of carcass, and shortness 

 of leg and propensity to fatten. The bones of 

 the legs and of the frame generally should be 

 small, but not too small ; small enough for the 

 well-known accompaniment, a propensity to 

 fatten ; small enough to please the consumer, 

 but not so small as to indicate delicacy of con- 

 stitution and liability to disease. Finally, the 

 hide, the most important thing of all, should be 

 thin, but not so thin as to indicate that the ani- 

 mal can endure no hardships, movable, mellow, 

 but not too loose, and particularly well covered 

 with fine and soft hair." 



On the points by which live stock are judged, 

 some very excellent papers have .appeared in 

 the Edin. Quart. Journ. of Jr. t by Mr. James 

 Dickson, cattle-dealer of Edinburgh. He very 

 truly observes (vol. v. p. 159), that, "were an 

 ox of fine symmetry and high condition placed 

 before a person not a judge of live stock, his 

 opinion of its excellences would be derived 

 from a very limited view, and consequently 

 from only a few of its qualities. II- 

 observe and admire the beautiful outlii 

 figure, for that would strike the 



>-r. He might be pleased with the tint 

 of its colour^ the plumpness of its body, and 

 the smoothness and gl> its skin. He 



might be even delighted with the gentle and 

 complacent expression of its countenance; 

 all these properties he might judze of by the 

 eye alone. On touching the animal with the 

 hand, he could feel the softness of its body, 

 occasioned by the fatness of the flesh. But no 

 man not a judge could rightly criticise the pro- 

 perties of an ox farther. He could not possibly 

 discover without tuition those properties vrhich 

 had chiefly conduced to produce the high con- 

 dition in which he saw the ox. He would 

 hardly believe that a judge can ascertain merely 

 by the eye, from its general aspect, whether the 

 ox were in good or bad health; from the colour 

 of its skin, whether it were of a pure or cross 

 breed; from the expression of its countenance, 

 whether it were a quiet feeder ; and from the 

 nature of its flesh, whether it had arrived at 

 maturity. The discoveries made by the hand 

 of a judge might even stagsrer his belief. He 

 could scarcely conceive that the hand can feel 

 a hidden property. The touch, which of all 

 tests is the most surely indicative of fine qua- 

 lity of flesh and of disposition to fatten, can 

 find whether that flesh is of the most valuable 

 kind; and it can foretell the probable abundance 

 of fat in the interior of the carcass. In short, 

 a judge alone can discriminate between the 

 relative values of the different points, or appre- 

 ciate the aggregate value of all the points of 

 an ox. These 'points' are the parts of an ox 

 by which it is judged." The first point to be j 

 ascertained in examining an ox, is the purity ' 



of its breed, whatever that breed may be; fof 

 that will give the degree of the disposition to 

 fatten of the individuals of that breed. The 

 purity of the breed may be ascertained from 

 several marks: the colour or colours of the 

 skin of a pure breed of cattle, whatever those 

 colours are, are always definite. The colour 

 of the bald skin on the nose and round the eyes, 

 in a pure breed, is always definite, and without 

 spots. This last is an essential point. When, 

 horns exist, they should be smooth, small, ta 

 pering, and sharp-pointed, long or short, ac- 

 cording to the breed, and of a white colour 

 throughout in some breeds, and tipped with 

 black in others. The shape of the horn is a 

 less essential point than the colour. Applying 

 these remarks on the different breeds in Scot- 

 land, as illustrations of the point which we 

 have been considering, we have the definite 

 colours of white and red in the short-horns. 

 The colour is either entirely white or entirely 

 red, or the one or the other predominates in 

 their mixture. The skin on the nose and 

 around the eyes is uniformly of a rich cream 

 colour. The Ayrshire breed, in its purity, is 

 also distinguished by the red and white colour 

 of the skin, but always mixed, and the mixture 

 consists of spots of greater or smaller size not 

 blended together. The colour of the skin on 

 the nose and around the eye is not definite, but 

 rally black or cream-coloured. In other 

 points, these two celt brated breeds differ from 

 one another more th in in the characters which 

 I have just (i"vrribe I. In the West Highland, 

 Angus and Clalloway breeds, the colour of the 

 skin of the nose and around the eyes is indica- 

 tive of the pure blood of black-coloured cattle, 

 hut a cream-coloured nose may frequently b& 

 observed amongst the other colours of skin 

 The characters above given will certainly 

 apply to the purity of the blood in the short- 

 horn and Ayrshire breeds, if not to the Wes* 

 Highland- 



"The second point to be ascertained in an ox 

 is the form of its carcass. It is found that tha 

 nearer the section of the carcass of a fat ox, 

 taken longitudinally vertical, transversely ver- 

 tical, and horizontally, approaches to the figure 

 of a parallelogram, the greater quantity of flesh 

 will it carry within the same measurement. 

 That the carcass may fill up the parallelogram 

 as well as its rounded form is capable of filling 

 up a right-angled figure, it should possess the 

 following configuration : The back should be 

 straight from the top of the shoulder to the tail. 

 The tail should fall perpendicularly from the 

 line of the back. The buttocks and twist should 

 be well filled out. The brisket should project 

 to a line dropped from the middle of the neck. 

 The belly should be straight longitudim\lly, and 

 round laterally, and filled at the flank.: ^he 

 ribs should be round, and should project no- 

 rizontally, and at right angles to the back. 

 The hooks should be wide and flat ; an^ he 

 rump, from the tail to the hooks, should a. so 

 be filled and well filled. The quarter from the 

 itch-bone to the hook shouid be long. The loin 

 bones should be long, broad, and flat, and well 

 filled ; but the space betwixt the hooks and the 

 short ribs should be rather short and well 

 arched over, with a thickness of beef letwcen 



283 



