No. 4. 



The Suffolk Cow. 



121 



C%_ 



THE SUFFOLK COW. 



The Suffolk Dun was once celebrated in almost every part of England, on account of 

 the extraordinary quantity of milk that she yielded; but the colour is no longer considered 

 the only, or chief recommendation, in this still favoured race. The breed is still known 

 as the Polled or Muley, although some of the calves are found with the rudiment of a 

 horn ; but these are rejected by the breeders. The Suffolk Cow is described as having a 

 clean throat, with little dewlap; thin and short legs; the ribs springing well from the 

 centre of the back ; the carcass large, the belly heavy, with the back-bone ridged ; the 

 chine thin and hollow ; the loin narrow ; the udder square, large and loose, and creased, 

 when empty; the milk veins remarkably large, and rising in knotted pufts, and this is so 

 general, that a famous milker was scarcely ever seen that did not possess this point; a 

 general habit of lameness; hip bones high, and ill covered; and scarcely any part of the 

 carcass so formed, as to please an eye that is accustomed to fat beasts of the finer breeds. 

 The prevailing colours, are red, and red and white, brindled, and the varieties of the Duns, 

 from the yellowish cream-colour to the brown. The bull is valued if he is of a pure ajid 

 unmixed red colour, and in no part of the country were the farmers more careless as to 

 the breed, provided only, that the cows were true SufFolks ; merely inquiring if the bull 

 came from a dairy of great milkers. The Suffolk cow is not inferior to any other breed in 

 the quantity of milk that she yields; some of these diminutive animals giving as much as 

 eight gallons a day ; six gallons not being an unusual quantity. From a comparison made 

 between the milk of a Suffolk cow and that from a long-horn of Mr. Toosey's breed, the 

 milk set in a bowl for thirty-six hours — it was found that the cream of the Suffolk, from 

 three quarts of milk, weighed two and a half ounces more than that from the long-horned ; 

 and on churning, one quarter part more of butter was obtained from the cream of this cow 

 than from that of the other. Three of these small animals, one of them a heifer with her 

 first calf, were kept on three acres of grass without any change of pasture until mowing 

 time ; and in the winter, chiefly on straw, with very little hay ; both the old cows yielded 

 eight gallons of milk per day during the height of the season, and the quantity of butter 

 made from June to December, was 683 lbs. The Rev. Arthur Young remarks, "One 

 Holderness cow would have consumed all the food of the three, without returning one half 

 the produce." There are few cows, although far superior in size to the Suffolk Polled 

 cow, and consuming nearly double the quantity of food, that will yield more milk than is 

 usually obtained from this diminutive, ill-formed race. Fifty thousand firkins of butter, 

 each weighing 56 lbs., are sent to London every year from Suffolk. A small quantity of 

 cheese is also made, but this is of inferior quality; the object with the dairy- man being 

 butter, which commands the highest prices in market, if warranted "ihe real Suffolk" 

 and of which, the beautiful yellow colour is often deemed a sufficient indication. 



