276 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



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POINTS OP CATTLE. 



POINTS OF FAT CATTLE. 



TThatevek theoretical objections may be raised 

 against over-fed cattle, aud great as may be the 

 attempts to disparage the mountains of fat — as 

 highly-fed cattle are sometimes designated— there 

 is no"^ doubt of the practical fact, that the best 

 butcher can not sell anything but the best fatted 

 beef: and of whatever age, size or shape a half- 

 fatted ox may be, he is never selected by judges as 

 fit for human food. Hence, a well-fatted' animal 

 always commands a better price per pound than 

 one imperfectly fed, and the parte selected as the 

 priraest beef are precisely the parts which contain 

 the largest deposits of fat. The rump, the crop 

 and the sirloin, the very favorite cuts — which 

 always command from twenty to twenty-five per 

 cent, more than any other part of the ox — are just 

 those parts on which ttie largest quantities of fat 

 are found ; so that, instead of the taste and fashion 

 of the age being against the excessive fattening of 

 animals, the fact is, practically, exactly the reverse. 

 ■Where there is the most fat, there is the. best lean ; 

 where there is the greatest amount of muscle, 

 without its share of fat, that part is accounted in- 

 ferior, and is used for a different purpose ; in fact, 

 60 far from fat's being a disease, it is a condition 

 of muscle, necessary to its utility as food — a source 

 of luxury to the rich, and of comfort to tl^ poor, 

 furnishing a nourishing and healthy diet for their 

 families. 



Fattening is a secretive power which grazing 

 animals possess, enabling them to lay by a store of 

 the superfluous food which they take for seasons 

 i-»f cold or scarcity. It collects round the angular 

 bones of the animal, and gives the appearance of 

 rotundity ; hence the tendency to deposit fat is in- 

 dicated by a roundness of form, as opposed to the 

 fatness of a milk-secreting animal. But its great- 

 est use is, that it is a store of heat-producing 

 kliment, laid up for seasons of scarcity and want. 

 The food of animals, for the most part, may be 

 said to consist of a saccharine, an oleaginous, and 

 • ti albuminous principle. To the first belong all 

 the starchy, saccharine and gummy parts of the 

 plants, which undergo changes in the digestive 

 organs similar to fermentation before they can be 

 asfciinilated in the system ; by them also animal 

 heat is sustained. In indolent anim.ili', the oily 

 p&rtB of plants are deposited and l&id up as fat; 



and, when vigor and strength fail, this is taken up 

 and also used in breathing to supply the place of 

 the consumed saccharine matter. The albuminous, 

 or gelatinous principle of plants is mainly useful in 

 forming muscle ; while the ashes of plants, the un- 

 consumable parts, are for the supply, mainly, of 

 bone, hair and horn, but also of muscle and of 

 blood, and to supply the waste which continually 

 goes on. 



Now, there are several qualities which are es- 

 sentially characteristic of a disposition to fatten. 

 There" have not, as yet, been any book-rules laid 

 down, as in the case of !NL Guenon's indications 

 of milking-cows ; but there are, nevertheless, 

 marks so definite and well understood, that they 

 are comprehended and acted upon by every grazier, 

 although they are by no means easy to describe. 

 It is by skillful acumen that the grazier acquires 

 his knowledge, and not by theoretical rules; ob- 

 servation, judgment and experience, powerful per-' 

 ceptive faculties, and a keen and minute compari- 

 son and discrimination, are essential to his success. 



The first indication upon which he relies is the 

 touch. It is the absolute criterion of quality^ 

 which is supposed to be the keystone of perfection 

 in all animals, whether for the pail or the butcher. 

 The skin is so intimately connected with the inter- 

 nal organs, ia all animals, that it is questionable 

 whether even our schools of medicine might not 

 make more -use of it in a diagnosis of disease. Of 

 physiological tendencies in cattle, however, it is of 

 the last and mo«t vital importance. It must 

 neither be thick, nor hard, nor adhere firmly to the 

 muscles, ^i it is so. the animal is a hard grazier, 

 a difficult aud obstinate feeder — no skillful man 

 will purchase it — such a creature must go to a 

 novice, and even to him at a price so Igw as to 

 tempt him to become a purchaser. On the other 

 hand, the skin must not be thin, like paper, nor 

 flaccid, nor loose in the hand, nor flabby. This is 

 the opposite extreme, and is indicative of delicater 

 ness, bad, flabby flesh, and, possibly, of inaptitude 

 to retain the fat. It must be elastic and velvety, 

 soft and pliable, presenting to the touch a gentle 

 rewstence, but so delicate as to give pleasure to tlifi 

 sensitive hand — a skin, in sliort, which seems at 

 first to give an indentation from the pressure of 

 the fingers, but which agaix rises to its place by a 

 gentle elasticity. 

 I The hair is of nearly ae macb importance as tho 



