No. 5. 



The Suffolk Bull 



145 



THE SUF )LK 



The above is an excellent portrait of the real Suffolk bull. Some of these animals are 

 handsome, but the wonder is, that ere now all claims to good figure have not departed 

 from the race, for the bulls are rarely suffered to live after they are three years old, how- 

 ever excellent they may be ; for the breeder believes that if they are kept longer, they do 

 not get stock equally good, and particularly, that their calves are not so large after that 

 period. But nothing can be more erroneous or mischievous, for a bull is never in better 

 condition than from four to seven years old. And in another point of view the practice is 

 subject to radical objection, for before the value of the progeny of a bull can be known, he 

 is slaughtered ; so that if the cows by him turn out to be the most excellent milkers, no 

 advantage can be derived from the discovery, the sire of the stock having passed away. 

 And to such an extent was this absurd practice formerly carried, that having obtained, 

 either by accident or exertions a good breed of milkers, the people have preserved them by 

 the merest chance, and without any of the care and attention which their value demanded. 

 And somewhat of the same system is pursued with regard to the heifers, — a heifer under 

 two years old with a calf at her foot, being no rare object. This system of breeding before 

 the form of either the sire or dam is developed; this tax upon the powers of nature to con- 

 tribute to the growth of the young mother as well as to that of the calf, must be exceedingly 

 injurious. She, also, at four years old often being discarded and fattened for the butcher, 

 unless she has displayed uncommon milking properties; but even when so discarded, poor 

 and angular as she may be, she fattens with a rapidity far greater than could be expected 

 from her gaunt appearance. Whence she obtained the faculty of yielding so much milk, 

 is a question which no one has yet been able to solve, for her progenitor, the Gallow 7 ay, has 

 it not, and the Holderness could scarcely be concerned, for more than a century ago the 

 " Suffolk dun" was as celebrated a milker as she is at present, and the Holderness had not 

 at that time been introduced; while the fattening property of the Galloway has not yet 

 been impaired. The grazing property of the Suffolk has been supposed to be increased by 

 a cross with the short-horn, but their value as milkers has been uniformly diminished by the 

 admixture; while the progeny, although better than the Suffolk for grazing, is still inferior 

 to the pure short-horn. Few of the real Suffolks are, however, l-eared for grazing; their 

 value in this respect being decidedly inferior to the pure Galloways. 



Another cause of the deterioration of the breed, exists in the practice every where ob- 

 served, of slaughtering the early calves ; for although the calves for rearing are selected 

 according to the milking properties of the dams, few of the early-dropped ones, which are 

 generally the best and strongest, are saved ; the high price of veal offering a temptation 

 which few can resist. The selection is, therefore, almost entirely from amongst the latter 

 calves, which have not so good a chance as the early dropped would have had, of becoming 

 strong and hardy before winter, and thus acquiring a good constitution and the certainty of 

 thriving and yielding well. 



