SUSSEX BREED. 



THE SUSSEX OX. 

 THE SUSSEX CATTLE. 



Some of the ancient Britons sought refuge from the attacks of 

 their invaders, amid the fastnesses of the Weald of East Sussex. 

 Thither they drove, or there they found, some of the native cattle of 

 the country ; and, they anxiously preserved them free from all admix- 

 ture. 



The resemblance betv^^een the Sussex and the Devon oxen is very 

 great. They unquestionably betray the same origin. 



The Sussex ox has a small and well formed head, compared with 

 many other breeds, and even with the Hereford, but evidently coarser 

 than that of the Devon ; the horns pushing forward a httle, and 

 then turning upward, thin, tapering and long — not so as to confound 

 this breed with the long horns. The eye is full, large and mild in 

 the ox ; but with some degree of unquietness in the cow. The 

 throat clean, and the neck, compared with either the long horns or 

 the short ones, long and thin, yet evidently coarser than that of the 

 Devon. 



At the shoulder is the main difference, and the principal defect in 

 the Sussex cattle. There is more wideness and roundness on the 

 withers — it is a straighter line from the summit of the withers toward 

 the back — there is no projecting point of the shoulder when the ani- 

 mal is looked at from behind, but the whole of the fore-quarter is 

 thickly covered with flesh, giving too much weight to the coarser 

 and less profitable parts. This is counterbalanced by many admira- 



