154 



on this account the horses are seldom sound. The sheep 

 have lost much of their quality as merinos, for which they 

 were formerly distinguished. The cattle are very fine. 

 I have never seen in any one section so many good oxen 

 as I have seen in and around Lisbon. They are large, 

 reaching often seven feet and three or four inches, of a 

 uniform dun or black color, with strong well-formed limbs, 

 straight bodies, wide hips, bevel rumps and well-shaped 

 heads. They work singly or in pairs and are trained to 

 perfection. The cows are also remarkably good, and are 

 well cared for. In Lisbon there are vaccarias or milk shops 

 in which are kept from six to twenty cows, provided with 

 elegantly furnished stalls, kept perfectly clean and used 

 to furnish fresh milk to customers. The cows and the 

 counter are in the same apartment. They are among the 

 finest specimens of dairy cows I have ever seen, being ap- 

 parently Holsteins of moderate size and admirable shape, 

 and well developed grade Jerse} r s. They are fed on all 

 they can eat of wheat straw carelessly threshed by tread- 

 ing and coarsely chopped ; to which are added twice a day 

 about ten quarts of a mixture of large beans soaked and 

 coarse wheat-bran — three quarts of beans and seven of 

 wheat-bran, — evidently a most nutritious food. 



Great care has been taken in breeding horses, and the 

 government has established sixty-five breeding-studs, thirty- 

 one in the north and thirty-four in the south, — in which 

 may be found the Thoroughbred, the cross of Arab and 

 Portuguese, the Anglo-Norman, the cross of English and 

 Portuguese, the Cleveland Bay, the Hackney, the Anglo- 

 Arab, and the cross of Portuguese and the Morocco. They 

 breed especially for the saddle throughout the kingdom, 

 and sure-footed, elastic, well-made horses for this purpose 

 can be found everywhere. A delegation from Morocco has 

 recently arrived in Lisbon bringing twelve beautiful spec- 

 imens of the horses of that country as a present to the 

 kino- of Portugal. 



