THE GENESEE FAT^rER. 



13 



HOW TO JUDGE CATTLE. 



Heney Stephens is his Booh of the Farm gives 

 ;he following rules for judging cattle: 



1. When you look at the near side of a ripe ox in 

 Drolile, wliich is the side nhvays begun with, 

 magine its body to be inscribed within a frame of 

 ivood of the form of a reetangled parallelogram, 

 ??hose length is horizontal, as in fig. 1 ; and if the 





FIG. 1 — THE SIDE VIEW OP A RIPE FAT OX. 



X is completely filled up in all points, his carcass 

 ?-ill occupy the frame about as fully as in the fig- 

 re ; but in most cases deficiencies will exist in 

 arious parts, — not that every deficiency will oc- 

 ur in tlie same animal. The fiank a, for example, 

 lav be shrunk up, and leave a large space above 

 tie line of the frame ; the brisket b may descend 

 ID oh farther down; the rump c may be elevated 

 l)ove the line of the back ; the middle of the back 

 may be much hollowed below that line; the top 

 f the shoulder e may be elevated above it; alai'ge 

 lace may be left unfilled at the haras/. 



2. A similar survey 

 should be made behind 

 the animal : the imaginary 

 frame inscribing the hind- 

 quarters in this view, being a 

 square, as represented in fig. 

 2, where the breadth of the 

 hook-bones, a to a, is carried 

 as far down as the houghs, 

 c c; and the closing be- 

 ^tween the legs is also well 

 "filled up. 



3. Then go in front of the 



ox, and imagine the outline 



2— The Front View of the body inscribed within 



of a ripe Fat Ox. the .same square frame, as in 



t,. 3. The shoulders, from a to a, are neai-ly of 



e same breadtli as across the hook-bones, a to o 



in fig. 2. Having thus Qbtain- 



ed an idea of the outline which 



a fat ox should have, in all 



the views it can be taken, let 



us attend to the filling up of 



the areas withia the frames. 



4r. On looking again at the 

 nearside view, fig. 1, observe 

 whether the ribs g are round- 

 ^ed, and nearly fill up the pro- 

 '^jectiug point of the shoulder A, 

 ■and the round i. Observe 

 fttoijflflt^/jwp— — — — wwhether the shoulder is flat, 

 ;. S— The Front View somewhat in the same plane 

 of a ripe Fat Ox. as the ribs, or more promi- 



nent or hollow; and whether the space beliind the 

 shoulder is filled up or hollow. Observe whether 

 the shoulder-point h is projecting forv\'ard ai.d 

 sharp, or rounded ofif; and wliether the neck, be- 

 tween « and h, sweeps finely into the shoulder, or 

 is fiat and small. Observe whether the nniscles at 

 i and/ are fidl and rounded, or thin and flat ; and 

 whether the hook-bone h appears to connect itself 

 easily with the rum[) c on the one hand, and with 

 the ribs cl on the other, or projects or sink in. In 

 all these alternatives, the former are the correct, 

 and the latter the objectionable forms, and the cor- 

 rect ones should be arranged in the following man- 

 ner, to constitute poinds in any perfection : 



5. The line fnmi tlie shoulder e to the liook-bone 

 -?', fig. 1, should be parallel to the back-bone. The 

 line on each side of the ribs d to e, on the one 

 hand, and to I on the other, sliould not fall in with 

 the line of the back, but be a little nearer, and al- 

 most as high as the back-bone, with the ribs fall- 

 ing in a rounded form down the side. The loin 

 above, from Jc to d, should be perfectly flat, and on 

 the same level with the back-bone, and drop sud- 

 denly down the side, and connect itself with the 

 rounding of the last three ribs. The point of the 

 hook-bone k should just be seen to project, and no 

 more; and the space between it and the rump c 

 should gradually sweep in a rounded form to the 

 narrower breadth of the pelvis, on each side of the 

 tail-head as in fig. 2. The utmost bend ot the ribs 

 is at g, through which a straight line should touch 

 every point, from the front of the shoulder to the 

 round. The triangular space of the neck compre- 

 hended above h should gradually taper from the 

 shoukler-pojnt to the head. The line of the back 

 should be straight from e to c; the tail should drop 

 perpendicularly from c; and the belly should 

 sweep in a somewhat level line, not too high at a 

 nor drooping at I. There are thus three straight 

 lines along the side of a fat ox: one along the back 

 from e to c, a second through the top of the ribs g 

 from h to i, and the third from the lower part of 

 tlie shoulder through the flank a to the buttock/. 

 6. Proceeding to behind the ox, fig. 2, the space 

 between the hooks, from a to a, should be level, 

 but a little rounded oS at both sides, and the bone 

 at the top of the tail project a little upward. 

 "When the muscL^s on each side of the rounds, be- 

 low the hook-bones, a, are fuller than the hooks, 

 it is no defor^niti/, but when no fuller, they are 

 right. The muscles at the buttock, at cand c, at 

 the lower end of the small rounds, should sweep 

 gradually toward the hock joints of the legs. 



v. On go'ng to the front view, fig. 3, the shonld- 

 er-top should be broad, with its sides naturally 

 rounded, and the muscles below it upon the should- 

 ei--blades at a a should always project farther than 

 the breadth of the shoulder-top ; and in this re- 

 spect the fore-quarter differs from the hind, where 

 the muscles below the hook-bones do not project 

 beyond them, for if they do, the hook is too nar- 

 row. The shoulder points .should not be promi- 

 nent, but rounded off" with the muscles of the neck 

 into the the brisket, where the front of the neck 

 comes from the head to the breast. The brisket 

 projecting a little forward, falls in a rounded form 

 to the lowest part of the body, and fills out on both 

 sides to the fore- legs. The fore-legs are usually 

 farther apart than the hind, but the hind at times. 



