330 REARING AND FEEDING OF ANIMALS. 



of cattle, are now considered generally as two distinct occu- 

 pations.* 



Of all the species the domestic ox is most generally diffused, 

 and beyond all calculation the most valuable. He has existed 

 in a domesticated state beyond all the records of history and 

 tradition; and we are, therefore, left to conjecture alone, as to 

 the parent stock. Like all animals necessary to the comfort 

 and subsistence of man, he suits himself in a wonderful degree 

 to the circumstances in which he is placed. In size, he scarce 

 exceeds the deer, in those regions where the herbage is scanty; 

 but where it is abundant and nutritious, he attains a large 

 growth. He is found from the equator almost to the limits of 

 vegetable life, and is every where subservient to the wants and 

 conveniences of the human race. 



The female is in a most remarkable degree subordinate to 

 the interests of mankind. She is every where docile, patient 

 and humble. Milk, which forms so nutritive an aliment for 

 the human species, is yielded by her, with an abundance and 

 facility unknown in the case of any other animal. She has a 

 more capacious udder than any creature known to us. Although 

 she gives birth to but one young at a time, she has four teats. 

 Like the sheep and the goat, she yields milk freely to the hand, 

 although far more abundantly; whilst many other animals re- 

 fuse their milk, unless their own young or some other animal 

 be allowed to partake of it, by sucking them. 



Many circumstances have occurred, stretching through a 

 series of years, to render live stock an object of very great 

 importance to the farmer and notwithstanding the great ad- 

 vances made, and still progressing in other branches of hus- 

 bandry, none has undergone a greater change of system, or has 

 received more manifest improvement, than the breeding, rear- 

 ing, and management of cattle. The varieties of the cultivated 

 ox or cattle, are the European, Indian, Zebu, Surat, Abyssinian, 

 Madagascar, Tinian and African. From the European variety 

 has been found the different breeds cultivated in Great Britain 

 and the United States; our native stock, as it is termed, having 

 been principally derived from England; but many of the cat- 

 tle of the middle states are descended from the stock originally 

 brought over in great numbers by the early Dutch and Ger- 

 man emigrants. 



They are very numerous; but we only notice such as are in 

 most esteem, and from which our present stock is derived. 

 We consider it important to our farmers generally, and espe- 

 cially to those who are just entering upon, or are about to 



* Penny Cyclopaedia, vol. vi. p. 378. 



