102 CATTLE AND DAIRY FARMING. 



In selecting young bulls for dairy herds it is not only essential that 

 they are descended from dams and tribes which have the desired milk- 

 ing capabilities ; they ought, also, to carry in their own persons some 

 recognized characters indicative of dairy usefulness. Size, substance, 

 and masculine character, are essential for health and vigor. Close- 

 made, compact sizes, although sometimes captivating on account of 

 shapely, even form, are rarely good getters, either of steers or dairy 

 cows. There is a happy medium between smart heifer-like or steery- 

 bulls, and rough, coarse leggy brutes.. The head should be kindly ,free 

 from coarseness, but withal of a masculine character, without which a 

 bull is unlikely to leave his mark. I do not object to tolerable growth 

 of horn, which shows constitution. The neck should be rather long to 

 secure carriage and length of carcass, merging in those curved lines of 

 beauty into a well- developed prominent bosom. The chest, necessarily 

 capacious to give ample room for heart and lungs, should approach the 

 oval of the well-bred horse, rather than the round or square propor- 

 tions of the cart-horse. This will bring the dewlap somewhat near the 

 ground. The shoulder blades will be well laid back; there will be no 

 roughness or overdue prominence of the shoulder points. In a young, 

 growing animal in moderate condition this conformation will entail a 

 somewhat light appearance of the fore quarters and the fore chine may 

 not be so abundantly clothed with beef as the butcher would desider- 

 ate. The back and loin cannot be too wide, the back ribs should be 

 well sprung ; the narrow weak-backed bull is certain to have the worst 

 of all faults, a delicate constitution. The quarters should be long, well- 

 clothed with lean meat, but alike in bulls and cows of milking proclivi- 

 ties, they will not be so thick and massive as in animals selected more 

 exclusively for beef making. The body will be invested with a skin of 

 moderate thickness, soft and pliant, not papery, and covered with rather 

 long fine hair. The soft undergrowth of mossy hair, so pleasant to handle, 

 augurs fattening rather than milking capabilities. It is not absolutely 

 necessary for ordinary dairy herds that the bull should have a long, 

 fashionable, or even perfectly consistent pedigree, free of the so-called 

 alloy, and satisfying the taste of the critical purist. But a good sound 

 pedigree secures uniform, certain results. A bull whose pedigree is 

 made up of a number of dissimilar strains is unlikely to get his calves 

 with that uniformity of good type which is so desirable. The fashion 

 of the present day is to use young bulls, beginning with them when 

 they are about 15 months, and discarding them often when they are 3 

 years old ; frequently they are slaughtered before their stock becomes 

 appreciated. In olden times bulls were wont to be used charily at first, 

 their progeny were carefully noticed, and a successful sire was used so 

 long as he continued serviceable. 



i I recently visited the Berkely herd of Lord Fitzhardinge, which is 

 somewhat famous from the fact of his having given 4,500 for the cele- 

 brated bull, Duke of Connaught, which I judged to weigh as I saw him 

 well on for 2J tons. The herd is bred for sale and beef, but in the dis- 

 trict, a famous dairy one, were numbers of grand Dairy Shorthorns. 

 Here, as at Lord Ducie's, near at hand, the Shorthorns are all pedigree 

 beasts, and extremely hardy, and certainly not highly fed. To prevent 

 quarter evil, setons are let in below the brisket. The Vale of Berkely 

 is near the Severn, and exposed to southwest gales, which are here very 

 severe. 



Dairy Shorthorns. The following will give some idea of the value of 

 what is known in the midland counties of England as the Dairy Short- 

 horn, for its milking properties. There are some families of this old 



