346 REARING AND FEEDING OF ANIMALS. 



Devons, their steady strength and a sufficient degree of activity, 

 suits them well for the draught. 



In almost every country there are families of oxen destitute 

 of horns. Few, however, are remarkable for points of pecu- 

 liar excellence; very little pains having been taken to improve 

 them. They are generally a hardy race, and some varieties 

 are said to be excellent milkers. The most esteemed of the 

 polled or hornless breed in England, is the Suffolk duns,* 

 but the most generally approved of this race, is the Galloway 

 breed of Scotland, to which the Suffolk duns bear some re- 

 semblance. 



A true Galloway bullock is straight and broad in the back, and nearly level 

 from the head to the rump closely compacted between the shoulder and ribs, 

 and also betwixt the ribs and the loins broad at the loins, but not with hooked 

 or projecting knobs. He is long in the quarters, but not broad in the twist 

 deep in the chest short in the leg, and moderately fine in the bone clean in 

 the chop and in the neck. His head is of a moderate size, with large rough, 

 ears, full but not prominent eyes, so that he has a calm but determined look 

 he is clothed in a loose and mellow, though rather thick skin, covered with 

 long, soft and glossy hair. Galloway Report. 



There are a great number of minor varieties of cattle to which 

 the term breeds may be applied, but they are generally infe- 

 rior in points of excellence to those already noticed, from which 

 our stock have been derived and which almost, if not entirely, 

 engrosses the attention of American farmers. 



Improvement of breeds. The breed must be adapted to the means, natural or 

 acquired, possessed of supplying food. Art and an improved system of tillage 

 do much in supplying the food of herbivorous animals. By cultivation we can 

 change the nature, and increase the abundance, of the food supplied. But in 

 manv cases, tillage is only practicable or expedient to a limited degree, and 

 then the natural pastures of the country must furnish the main supplies of food. 

 In a mountainous country, where the principal food is natural herbage, and 

 where the means do not exist of obtaining artificial food, it would be vain to 

 attempt the rearing of a large and fine breed of oxen. We must, in such a 

 case, be satisfied to rear a race of hardy properties, of small size, and capable 

 of subsisting on coarse herbage. Where, again, art or the natural fertility of 

 a country admits of supplying sufficient food, the study of the breeder should 

 be to select a race of animals, the best that circumstances will allow him to 

 rear. 



Having fixed on the kind of breed which is the best suited to the circum- 

 stances of the district or farm, the practical question to be determined.- is the 

 manner in which a proper breed should be obtained, or the old one improved. 

 There are three methods which may be adopted for this purpose: 



1. The entire change of the existing stock, and the substitution of a different 

 breed, females as well as males. 



2. The retaining of the old breed, male and female, and improving them by 

 breeding from the best animals of the same breed. 



3. The improving of the breed by crossing with males of a different breed. 



* They possess little of the beauty of the original stock, and are chiefly re- 

 markable for the abundance of milk given by the cows, on which account they 

 are great favourites with the London dairymen the best milkers giving 

 thirty-two quarts per day after calving, and twenty-four for the greater part 

 of the season. Arthur Young's Survey of Suffolk. 



