252 AGRICULTURAL SURVEY OF chap. XIII. 



they bring a much higher price at Smithfield 

 market, than almost any other kind, and are 

 generally selected by the English butcher for the 

 tables of the greatest connoisseurs, and most 

 luxurious of his employers. I have heard an 

 English dealer say, that a Fife bullock of 40 

 tone, suppose, will bring an equal, and often a 

 higher price at the London market, than an 

 English bullock 10 stone heavier, and equally 

 fat. 



The size is very various ; and this variety is 

 owing to the difference in the quality of the 

 pasture, and the attention paid in breeding and 

 rearing them. When fed for the butcher, bul- 

 locks weigh, in general, from 30 to 50 or 60 

 Dutch stones. Fed cows and heifers weigh less. 

 A Fife bullock, slaughtered lately in this neigh- 

 bourhood, weighed, the four quarters, 67 stone 

 14 lib.; the tongue and braids I stone 3 lib. and 

 the hide and tallow 2 t stone 3 lib. amounting, 

 in whole, to 90 stone 4 lib. Dutch weight. And 

 it is well known that many of them have been, 

 slaughtered, both at home and in the English mar- 

 ket, of considerably greater weight. Indeed, by 

 care in rearing and feeding, they maybe raised to a 

 size equal to almost any in the kingdom. It is 

 allowed, however, that the small and middle 

 sized cattle make the finest beef. When three 

 years old they are fit to be fed with advantage 

 for the butcher. At 6, and from that to 8 years 

 old, they are judged to be in their greatest per- 

 fection, when the richness and delicacy of the 

 meat, and not merely its fatness, is the object. 



And as the Fife cattle are in high estimation 

 for the shambles, so they are of equal repute for 



