THE POLLED SUFFOLK BREED. 323 



white. The general form of the unmixed race is uncouth ; 

 the head is heavy, and the extremities are coarse. The belly 

 is large, and the back narrow, which gave occasion to Bake- 

 well to observe of them, that they were too like a^ penthouse- 

 top, and would do very well if turned upside down. The 

 cows have the udders very large, with the subcutaneous ab- 

 dominal vein prominent, a character which always indicates 

 the power of the female to yield much milk. Nearly a cen- 

 tury ago, the cows were described as having " the carcasses 

 large, the belly heavy, the back-bone ridged, the chine thin 

 and hollow, and the loin narrow." With the exception of 

 the narrowness of the loin, this description applies truly to 

 such of the descendants of the older breeds as remain un- 

 mixed. They are found in the greatest purity and numbers 

 in the middle division of the county of Suffolk, where numer- 

 ous dairies are established. This may be regarded as the 

 central habitation of the breed, its characters changing as 

 we recede from this district. About Ipswich, and southward 

 to the coast, the animals are larger, and of coarser bone, 

 retaining, however, the conformation and colour distinctive 

 of the breed. In Cambridge and Essex, they exhibit a greater 

 or smaller degree of departure from the parent type. In 

 Norfolk, they are mixed in blood with an older race, distin- 

 guished by small upright horns, which has now disappeared, 

 either by the substitution of the pure Suffolk, or by the effects 

 of crossing. 



The breed was probably formed at an early period, its pe- 

 culiarities having arisen from the attention of breeders being 

 mainly directed to the fitness of the animals for the dairy. 

 Camden thus describes the county of Suffolk between two 

 and three centuries ago : " A large country it is, and full of 

 havens, of a fat and fertile soil (unlesse it be eastward), being 

 compounded (as it is) of clay and marie ; by meanes whereof, 

 there are in every place most rich and goodly corne fields, 

 with pastures as battable for grazing and feeding of cattell. 

 And great store of cheeses are there made, which, to the 



