62 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. • 



large. The legs ought to be straight below the knee and hock, and of 

 moderate length, light-boned, clean from fleshiness, yet having joints and 

 sinews of a moderate size, for the united purposes of strength and activity. 

 In these points all intelligent breeders concur ; but as beauty of shape too 

 often depends on the caprice of fashion, it is more requisite to regard. 



" 2. Utility of Form, or that nice proportion of the parts which has 

 already been noticed. 



"3. The Flesh, or texture of the muscular parts; a quality, which 

 was formerly noticed only by butchers, but the knowledge of which is 

 justly deemed essential by the enlightened breeders of the present day ; 

 and although this quality necessarily varies according to the age and size 

 of the cattle, yet it may be greatly regulated by attention to the food 

 employed for fattening them. As a knowledge of this requisition can 

 only be acquired by practice, it is sufficient to state that the best sign of 

 good flesh is that of being marbled, or having the fat and lean finely 

 veined or intermixed, when the animals are killed ; and, while alive, by 

 a firm and mellow feel. 



" 4. In Rearing Live Stock of any description, it should be an invariable 

 rule to breed from small-boned, straight-backed, healthy, clean, kindly- 

 skinned, round-bodied, and barrel-shaped animals, with clean necks and 

 throats, and little or no dewlap ; carefully rejecting all those w^hich may 

 have heavy legs, roach backs, together with much appearance of offal. 

 And, as some breeds have a tendency to generate great quantities or fat 

 on certain parts of the body, while in others it is more mixed with the 

 flesh of every part of the animal, this circumstance will claim the attention 

 of the breeder, as he advances in business. 



" 5. In the Purchasing of Cattle, whether in a lean or fat state, the 

 farmer should on no account buy beasts out of richer, or better grounds 

 than those into which he intends to turn them ; for, in this case, he must 

 inevitably sustain a very material loss by the cattle not thriving, particu- 

 larly if they be old. It will therefore be advisable to select them, either 

 from stock feeding in the neighborhood, or from such breeds as are best 

 adapted to the nature and situation of the soil. 



" 6. Docility of Disposition, Avithout being deficient in spirit, is of equal 

 amount ; for, independently of the damage committed by cattle of wild 

 temper on fences and fields, which inconvenience will thus be obviated, 

 it is an indisputable fact that tame beasts require less food to rear, support, 

 and fatten them ; consequently every attention ought to be paid, early to 

 accustom them to be docile and familiar. 



" 6. Hardiness of Constitution, particularly in bleak and exposed 

 districts, is indeed a most imjiortant requisite ; and in every case it is 

 highly essential to the farmer's interest to have a breed that is liable 

 neither to disease nor to any hereditary distemper. A dark color, and in 



