14 CATTLE-BREEDING. 



fore, except in a few instances, extremely slow 

 and variable. Hence it is that we find al- 

 though the classic writers of Greece and Rome 

 reveal again and again the existence of im- 

 proved breeds of various kinds of domestic 

 animals, with few exceptions those animals 

 existed at the beginning of the eighteenth 

 century throughout Europe in a state which 

 showed little or no advance over the breeds 

 described by Pliny and Columella. Not that 

 there was not then as now great variety in the 

 breeds cultivated in different countries. Then 

 a long-horned, ill-favored breed roamed the fair 

 but infertile plains of Italy, while the low coun- 

 tries, that are the Holland and Belgium of to- 

 day, possessed a breed that was the natural com- 

 plement of their frugal and thrifty, if homely 

 life. The hills of Wales then, as now, were 

 occupied by a diminutive stock, while the rich 

 uplands and luxuriant meadow lands of "Merrie 

 England" raised, even then, cattle from which 

 the feeder reared beeves whose carcasses were 

 eaten with gusto in hall and tavern. But in 

 every land it was the native stock, improved, 

 if improved at all, only by the unconscious 

 moulding of the national wants and needs. 

 The Dutch loved cheese, the English beef, and 

 the result was worked out in broad but in as 

 yet indefinite lines in the cattle of the two 

 countries. 



