48 THE COMPLETE GRAZIER. BOOK i. 



they are somewhat deficient in fulness in the front, this being narrow 

 as compared with the hind-quarters. The cattle sent out by the best 

 breeders to the various shows are such as prove the value of the breed ; 

 few but what are fit, in the words of an eminent breeder from another 

 county, "to go to any show-yard." One peculiarity makes them very 

 valuable to the grazier their hardiness, which enables them to fit them- 

 selves for a wide range of districts, and to thrive in situations exposed 

 to cold winds where other cattle would not do at all. This also helps 

 them to improve even on such poor pasture-lands as would be quite 

 unfitted for the keep of cattle of other breeds. 



According to Mr. Henry F. Euren, Editor of the " Red Polled Herd- 

 book," the history of red polled cattle can be carried far back into the 

 last century. Colour was, in the opinion of the old fanciers of Suffolk 

 Polls, a distinctive characteristic. " The red cow established the 

 breed." The red, which is now recognised as the mark of excellence, 

 is a deep rich blood-red. The predominance of the deep red shows 

 plainly the degree in which the old Norfolk breed has affected the 

 Polls, and, on the other hand, the freedom from horns, and from white 

 on the udder and face, is evidence of the persistence of the Suffolk 

 Polled character. The amalgamation of the two varieties Norfolk 

 Polled and Suffolk Polled may with certainty be traced from the year 

 1846. Nevertheless, the breed continued to be without a name until 

 the Royal Agricultural Society, at the Battersea Meeting in 1862, 

 opened classes for " Norfolk and Suffolk Polled " cattle. This desig- 

 nation was thereupon adopted by Norfolk, but it was never accepted 

 by the Suffolk Society, whose practice it has been either to provide 

 classes for " Suffolks,'" or for " Suffolk and Norfolk Polled." In 1882 

 it was announced that the breed, having a herd-book, and being dis- 

 tributed far beyond the boundaries of the two counties, would hence- 

 forward be known as the " Red Polled," and the register as " The 

 Red Polled Herd-book." 



The standard description of Red Polled cattle (see fig. 12) is : 



Essentials. Colour : Red. The tip of the tail and the udder may 

 be white. The extension of the white of the udder a few inches along 

 the inside of the flank, or a small white spot or mark on the under part 

 of the belly by the milk veins, shall not be held to disqualify an animal 

 whose sire and dam form part of an established herd of the breed, or 

 answer all other essentials of the " standard description." 



Form : There should be no horns, slugs, or abortive horns. 



Points of a Superior Animal. Colour : A deep red, with udder 

 of the same colour, but the tip of the tail may be white. Nose not 

 dark or cloudy. 



Form : A neat head and throat ; a full eye. A tuft or crest of hair 

 should hang over the forehead. The frontal bones should begin to 

 contract a little above the eye, and should terminate in a comparatively 

 narrow prominence at the summit of the head. 



As a dairy cow the Red Polled is rapidly rising in public estimation. 

 For three or four years a daily record has been carefully kept of the 

 yield of milk from Mr. Garrett Taylor's herd, at Whitlingham, one of 



