CATTLE. 127 



CHAPTER IX. 



CATTLK. 



Improved Short Horns. — Origin. — Milking Properties. — Herd- 

 book. — Devonshire Cattle. — Description and Weight of Beef. 

 — Milk.— Herefords. — Long Horns. — Ayreshire and Gallo- 

 ways. 



No apology can be necessary for calling the atten- 

 tion of our readers to the subject of cattle, and the 

 necessity of adopting the best breeds introduced 

 from abroad for our pastures and dairies. It costs 

 but little more to keep a breed of cattle that will 

 weigh from seven to ten hundred at two years old, 

 than it does a kind that must be three or four years 

 old to reach the same weight. Size, beauty, quici? 

 ness of motion, rapidity in fattening, and great milk- 

 ing qualities, are rarely found combined in the same 

 animal or the same breed ; and one of the reasons, 

 perhaps the greatest, is, the attention of the breeder 

 of cattle to a single excellence, by which other val- 

 uable properties are lost sight of, and perhaps de- 

 stroyed. " It is unquestionably true, that every per- 

 fection in cattle — whether it be of form, of quality 

 of flesh, of disposition to fatten, or to yield milk — ■ 

 can be pronfoted and retained solely by the breeder's 

 devoted attention to his particular object ; and if one 

 object be allowed a paramount importance in the 

 breeder's estimation and practice, other objects will 

 suffer in proportion as they are neglected."* But it 

 does not hence follow that a breed of cattle may not 

 be produced which shall combine the greatest num- 

 ber and greatest degree of good qualities which can 

 be compatible with uniform excellence ; and in the 



♦■ Uev. Mr. Berry's Treatise on Short Horns. 



