Na 10. 



The Herefordshire Ox. 



313 



Mr. Marshall's description of this famous breed of cjittle, is admirably pourtrayed in the 

 above engraving ; it is as follows: ! 



"The countenance, pleasant and open; the forehead,|broad ; eye, full and lively; horns, 

 bright, tapering, and spreading; chest, deep; bosom, broil and projecting forwards; shoulder 

 bone, thin, flat, and no way protuberant in bone, but ful and mellow in flesh ; loin, broad ; 

 hips, wide and level with the spine; quarters, long and yide; rump, even with the general 

 level of the back; tail, slender ; barrel roomy, with carca^ throughout deep and well spread ; 

 ribs, broad and standing close and flat on the outer surnce, forming a smooth, even barrel, 

 the hindmost large and of full length; round-bone, smill and snug, and not prominent; 

 thigh, clean and regularly tapering; legs, upright andjshort, with bone below the knee 

 small ; flank, large ; twist, round and full ; flesh, everywhere mellow, soft, and yielding plea- 

 santly to the touch, especially on the chine, shoulder, ajd rib; hide, mellow and supple; 

 coat, neatly haired, bright and silky; colour, a middle red with bald face. 



The breeders of these cattle would do well to preserve the old blood in as great a state 

 of purity as possible, for they possess one of the most valulble breeds of cattle in the world. 

 The distinguishing qualities of the Hereford O.v are, the geat produce of beef, quick feeding 

 in proportion to their growth and size, with immense strength and speed in labour. With 

 respect to the most profitable return in quantity of beef, i1 may be presumed that no breed 

 in England can stand in competition with them, and theyjiave accordingly been most suc- 

 cessful at the annual prize cattle shows, commanding the fist price, alive or dead. A writer 

 observes: "This breed, so celebrated for producing quant ,y of beef, seems to combine all 

 other desirable qualities — length, depth, substance, roturlity, fineness, yet sufficiency of 

 bone. Their origin is supposed to have been a cross beween the old Hereford and the 

 Northern breed, and this opinion is strengthened by the renark of a Herefordshire breeder, 

 who says, about 80 years ago, a Mr. Gallier, of the Grang(, procured a bull from Yorkshire 

 with a white face, and wide horns, and bred from him; thaproduce became fashionable, and 

 actually laid the foundation of the present famous breed -4 and hence, the bald face of the 

 Herefords; a breed which, conjoining beef and labour, stnd on the summit: they fatten 

 speedily at an early age, and will live and grow fat whee others would scarcely subsist. 

 It is, however, universally admitted, that as milkers theyare inferior to the Devons and 

 many other breeds, while compared with these, they are shorter in the leg, higher and 

 broader and heavier in the chine, rounder and wider across he hips, and better covered with 

 fat; the thigh fuller and more muscular, and the shoulders krger and coarser." 



The weight of Mr. Westcar's Herefordshire prize Ox, 2l92 lbs. the lour quarters. 



