THE 



COMPLETE GRAZIEK. 



BOOK THE FIEST. 



ON THE VARIETIES, BREEDING, REARING, FATTENING, AND 

 GENERAL MANAGEMENT OF CATTLE. 



CHAPTER I. 



INTRODUCTORY VIEW OF THE DIFFERENT BREEDS OF CATTLE IN 

 THE BRITISH ISLES. 



OF all the various sources from which the wealth of nations is 

 derived, there is not one that possesses a claim to attention supe- 

 rior to that branch of rural economy which forms the subject of the 

 following pages. In fact, when we consider that not only the 

 servants of a farmer, but his cattle also, are productive labourers ; 

 when we recollect the stimulus to industi'y, as well as the rapid 

 circulation of capital, which the farmer occasions hy furnishing con- 

 stant employment both to his servants, and to the numerous artificers 

 who are occupied in manufacturing the implements that are necessary to 

 him ; when we call to mind the immense mass of materials which his 

 productive labour supplies for the purposes of commercial intercourse, 

 and especially the influence exercised by that labour on the comfort 

 and support of towns, whose inhabitants might otherwise be destitute 

 of the necessaries of life ; when all these diversified circumstances are 

 taken into consideration, every reflecting inquirer must acknowledge 

 that, of all the methods in which capital can be employed, this is by 

 far the most advantageous to society. 



Justly, therefore, has it been remarked, " that the capital employed 

 in agriculture not only puts into motion a greater quantity of produc- 

 tive labour than any equal capital employed in manufactures, but also, 

 in proportion to the quantity of productive labour which it employs, it 

 adds a much greater value to the annual produce of the land and 

 labour of the country, while it increases the real wealth and revenue of 

 its inhabitants." : 



1 Smith's "Wealth of Nations," 4th edit. vol. ii. p. 53. 



