388 THE OX. 



cows, indeed, are found to retain the milching properties of 

 the older race, but this is an exception to the common re- 

 sult. The Oxen are eminently distinguished by the property 

 of arriving at early maturity of muscle and fatness. Great 

 numbers of them are now disposed of at the age of about 

 twenty-four months, in the highest perfection, and of a weight 

 at which no other cattle in Europe arrive at the same age. 



This highly cultivated breed, it has been seen, extended 

 from the district of the Tees, as from a centre, as soon as 

 its value became known. It quickly spread northward all 

 through Durham and Northumberland into the valley of the 

 Tweed, and in later years, it had extended northward through 

 the eastern lowlands of Scotland to the Pentland Firth, and 

 is now mingling with the native breeds. It soon extended 

 southward through Yorkshire, where it was cultivated on the 

 largest scale. The district of Holderness, it has been said, 

 early obtained cows from Holland, and became distinguished 

 beyond any other part of England for the excellence of its 

 dairy stock. Many cows of the Holderness variety are yet 

 to be found, but generally they have been more or less mixed 

 with the Durham blood. The effect has been to improve 

 their form, but to impair their milching properties ; never- 

 theless, the modern Holderness still stands in the first rank 

 of dairy cows, and the great London dairies are chiefly sup- 

 plied by them. The Durham breed extended likewise across 

 the Humber, and was largely mingled with the cattle of Lin- 

 colnshire and the neighbouring districts. Individual animals 

 are still to be found in the fens, with the clumsy form, dark 

 muzzle, and dingy skin, of the former race ; but, generally 

 speaking, the blood of the improved Teeswaters has been 

 more or less infused into all the cattle of this part of Eng- 

 land. Further, the breed has extended westward through 

 Leicestershire and most of the midland counties, where it 

 is either cultivated in a state of purity, or has been so mingled 

 with the former breed as to modify or efface the Long-horn 

 characters. It has taken root in Lancashire, Westmoreland, 



