CHAP. in. BAKEWELL'S PRINCIPLES OF SELECTION. 87 



This, however, is so intimately connected with the second principle, 

 that we comprise them both in the same description. 



ii. Utility of form. Both beauty and utility demand that the head 

 of the cow and the ox should be fine and small, gradually tapering 

 towards the muzzle. This is a great point of beauty, and it is also 

 essentially connected with utility, for there are few good milkers, or 

 good feeders, who have not this fineness of muzzle. A thick clumsy 

 head denotes a want of refinement and of quality. The neck, towards 

 the setting on of the head, should be finely shaped, although it may be 

 allowed somewhat rapidly to thicken towards the shoulder and breast. 

 The chest is an all-important part. It should be deep and broad, and 

 carried forward to the fullest extent. The back should be broad as well 

 as level, and the barrel ribbed almost to the hip. There should not only 

 be room for the heart and lungs before, but for the capacious paunch 

 behind. The loins should be wide at the hips, but not too prominent, 

 for there is the most valuable meat. The thighs should be full and 

 long and near together, and the legs short almost to a blemish. The 

 bones of the legs should be small, but not disproportionately so, and 

 the hide mellow, and fairly loose everywhere covered with hair, soft 

 and fine, but not effeminately so feeling like a soft rug doubled in the 

 hand. Such is the animal in which the qualities of beauty and utility 

 are blended. 



in. The flesh, or texture of the muscular parts, is a quality that 

 necessarily varies according to the age and size of cattle, yet it may be 

 greatly regulated by attention to the food employed for fattening them. 

 It is best shown in the flesh being marbled, or having the fat and lean 

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

 alive, a firm and mellow feeling. 



iv. In rearing live stock of any description, it should be an invariable 

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

 skinned, and barrel-shaped animals, having clean necks and throats, 

 and little or no dewlap ; carefully rejecting all those which have 

 coarse legs and roach backs, or with much appearance of offal. 

 As some breeds have a tendency to develop great quantities of fat 

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

 with the flesh of every portion of the animal, this circumstance will 

 claim the attention of the breeder as he advances in the knowledge of 

 his business. 



v. In the purchasing of cattle, whether in a lean or fat state, the 

 farmer should on no account procure them out of richer or better 

 grounds than those into which he intends to turn them. He should 

 select them either from stock feeding in the neighbourhood, 

 or from such breeds as are best adapted to the nature and situation 

 of the soil. As an example, it may be noticed that Highland cattle 

 will often thrive on English pastures that are unsuited to most delicate 

 animals. 



vi. Docility of disposition is an object of great moment ; for, inde- 

 pendently of the damage committed by cattle of wild tempers on fences, 

 fields, &c., it is an indisputable fact that tame beasts require less food 



