THE SKORT-HORNS. 18S 



The Yorkshire cow, which now alcnost exclusfvely occupies the 

 London dairies, is an unanswerable proof of the possibility of uniting 

 the two quahties, fatting and milking, perfecl.ly, but not at the same 

 tim- : — they succeed to each other, and at the periods when it suits 

 the convenience of the dairyman that they should. Years ago the 

 Yorkshire cow was, compared with other breeds, as great a favorite 

 in the London market as at present. She 3'ielded more milk, in pro- 

 portion to the quantity of food consumed, than could be obtained 

 from any other breed ; but when the dairyman had had her four or 

 five years, slie began to fall off, and he dried her and sold her. It 

 look a long time to get much flesh upon her ; and when he cal- 

 culated the expense of bringing her into condition, he found that his 

 cheapest way was to sell her for what she would fetch, and that sel- 

 dom exceeded 5/. 



By degrees, however, the moi-e intelligent of the breeders began 

 to find that, by cautiously adopting the principle of selection — by 

 finding out a short-horn bull whose progeny were generally milkers, 

 and crossing some of the old Yorkshites with him, — but still regard- 

 ing the milking properties of the dam, and the usual tendency to 

 possess these qualities in the offspring of the sire, — they could at 

 length obtain a breed that had much of the grazing properties of the 

 short-horn in the new breed, and retained, almost undiminished the 

 excellences of the old breed for the pail. Thence it has happened 

 that many of the cows in the London dairies are as fine specimens of 

 the improved short-horns as can possibly be produced. They do 

 not, perhaps, yield quite so much milk as the old ones, but what they 

 do yield is of better quality ; and whether the dairyman keeps them 

 a twelvemonth or lono-er — and this is rrettinor more and more the 

 habit of these people — or whether he milks them for three or four 

 years — as soon as he dries them, they fatten as rapidly as the most 

 celebrated of the high bred short-horns. 



"We give a fair specimen of one of these cows : the character of the 

 Holderness and the short-horn beautifully mingling. A milch cow 

 good for the pail as long as wanted, and then quickly got into mar- 

 ketable condition, should have a long and rather small head ; a large- 

 headed cow will seldom fatten or yield much milk. The eye should 

 be l)right, yet peculiarly placid and quiet in expression ; the chaps 

 thin, and the horns small. The neck should not be so thin as com- 

 mon opinion has given to the milch cow. It may be thin towards 

 the head ; but it must soon begin to thicken, and especially when it 

 approaches the shoulder. The dewlap should be small ; the breast, 

 if not so wide as in some that have an unusual disposition to fatten, 

 yet very far from being narrow, and it should project before the legs ; 



the chine, to a certain deofree fleshv, and even inclininir to fullness ; 



" ••■11 



the girth behind the shoulder should be deeper than it is usually 



found in the short-horn ; the ribs should spread out wide, so as to 



