280 CATTLE-BREEDING. 



we see that if it is desirable that all our breeding 

 cattle should have the utmost degree of per- 

 sonal excellence, in the bull it is pre-eminently 

 necessary. It is possible that even the most 

 fastidious might be willing, for one or another 

 reason, to retain a cow of mediocre quality in 

 the herd; but it is quite inconceivable that any 

 wise or ordinarily well-informed man should be 

 willing to breed to a bull of poor quality. It 

 is nothing less than sowing the wind, and 

 the reaping will surely be the whirlwind. Not 

 only ought the bull to have merit of a high 

 order, but it must be of a sort to commend him 

 for breeding purposes. One of the essentials 

 is what we call " masculine character." Just 

 what is meant by this masculine character is 

 difficult to explain, and the expression is often 

 misapprehended. We may say that on the one 

 hand, while it is by the very terminology of 

 the phrase distinctly differentiated from any- 

 thing approaching effeminacy too delicate 

 form and finish, or any of those indications of 

 want of sexual vigor which are specially to be 

 seen in the steer it is never to be con- 

 founded with coarseness. It has nothing in 

 common with coarseness. Big bones, awkward 

 build, clumsiness, though sometimes mistaken 

 for it, are in no sense masculinity. It is rather 

 the air of active vigor, which is more in what 

 we might call expression than in shape, were it 



