108 CATTLE. 



justly valued, that many persons have allowed that completely to 

 occupy their attention, and the dairy has been disregarded. In such 

 a state of things, every advance towards one point has been to recede 

 from another ; because what tends to enhance a particular quality, 

 will also enhance a defect, provided such defect was of previous 

 existence. 



The objections which exist among breeders, for various and some 

 cogent reasons, against crossing with the stocks of each other, una- 

 voidably lead to the practice of breeding in and in ; which, in case of 

 any original deficiency of the milking property, must unquestionably 

 go on to render that deficiency greater. Bad milking, in a breed of 

 animals which were ever distinguished as good milkers, is not a ne- 

 cessary consequence of improvement in the animal in other respects, 

 but a consequence of the manner in which such improvement is 

 pursued. Short-horns, inferior to none for the grazier, may always 

 be selected and bred with the most valuable dairy properties. There 

 are many instances of the highest bred short-horns giving upwards 

 of four gallons of milk night and morning ; and attenlfion only is re- 

 quisite, on the part of the breeder, to perpetuate this quality to any 

 desirable extent. A moderately good milker will be found to yield 

 as much butter in the week as one giving an enormous quantity ; the 

 milk being imq.uestionably of very superior quality ; and, indeed, it 

 should be the case, that the animal economy, which leads to an ex- 

 cessive secretion of flesh and fat, should also be productive of other 

 rich secretions. 



Wherever the improved short-horns have been crossed with other 

 cattle, their superiority is equally manifest, in respect of dairy quali- 

 fications, as in every other. 



An opinion generally prevails that the short-horns are unfitted for 

 work ; and in some respects it is admitted they are so : but the 

 correct reason has not been assigned, and the question may fairly 

 come briefly under notice. They are wilHng and able to work, but 

 surely cattle which, as the preceding account proves, will go as 

 profitably to the butcher at two years old as any other breed at 

 three, and as many even at four, ought never to be placed in the 

 yoke. No beast, in the present advanced state of breeding, ought 

 to be put upon a system which arose out of the necessity of obtain- 

 ing compensation by work for the loss attending a tardy maturity. 

 But where it may be convenient, the short-liorns, particularly the 

 bulls, work admirably, as their great docility promises : And as good 

 bulls are apt to become useless, from acquiring too much flesh in a 

 state of confinement, moderate w^ork might, in most cases, prove 

 beneficial. 



The specimens which accompany this account will lender little 

 comment necessary on their form. With deference, however, it is 

 submitted to the breedei-s of short-boras, that they should avoid 



