CHAP. L SHORTHORN CATTLE. 25 



shoulder-blades should not be tightly laid in at the top, but should be free to 

 open to the growth of flesh. The fore-rib over the heart, if amply expanded 

 and richly covered with flesh, fills the space behind the out-shoulder and below 

 the crops. The floor of the chest should be proportionately wide and padded 

 with muscle and layers of fat, the fore-flank, or packing immediately behind 

 the hoxter, big enough to fill, or more than fill, the hollow ; and the breast 

 sufficiently prominent, substantial, full from arm to arm and evenly shaped 

 forward to the end The line of the back must be strong and generally straight, 

 yet a slightly heaving line over the chine is permissible if the crops be wide and 

 full ; the ribs springing out well to give breadth of back for the beef. A good 

 loin is broad, strong, deeply and evenly covered with flesh, thick at the nearly 

 parallel edges (not rapidly narrowing forward, but square towards the ribs), 

 and in the fatted animal in line with the width of the hips. In fact, on lean 

 animals the hip-bones must be literally covered, not bare, hard, or sharp ; each 

 hip ' cleft ' and the hollow filled with elastic flesh. This is an important test of 



Phot o by G. H. Parsons. 



Fig. 2. Shorthorn Bull, "Linksfield Champion/' 



Winner of Champion Prize at the Royal Agricultural Society's Show at Lincoln, 1907. 

 The property of Mr. F. Miller, Birkenhead. 



the quality of the animal, especially in the lean state. The hind-quarters should 

 be wide, well tilled, and moderately long, straight on the top, ending squarely, 

 and the tail dropping perpendicularly at a right angle ; the thighs thick, and the 

 ' twist ' (or filling over the back of the udder) very full ; flank heavy ; the 

 underline of the body approximating to straight in the heifer, swelling gently as 

 the cow advances in age ; the legs straight, wide set, and the fore and hind legs 

 in line. The hair should be abundant and of moss-like softness. 



" The characteristics of the bull are those of the cow adapted to difference of 

 sex. The head has a bolder outline, inclining rather to the convex than the 

 concave ; the horns are stronger, less bent, and usually shorter than those of the 

 cow, standing out wide from the back of the crown-ridge, and the broad forehead 

 is plentifully covered with hair, wavy or curling ; the eyes, prominent and lively, 

 wide-set in large rounded sockets, with a hollow between ; the lower part of the 

 face shortish and deeply cut out between the eye and the muzzle, although the 

 outline of the nose may be somewhat high. The swelling outline over the bones 

 surrounding the eyes, as seen in full profile, gives the rounder line of the bull's as 

 compared with the cow's face, and the convexity is often continued to the muzzle. 

 The ideal bull's neck is powerful, massive, rounded, and thickly covered with 



