THE OX AND THE DAIRY. 65 



Holderness breed, are applicable to Nottinghamshire, North- 

 amptonshire, Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, &c. In the latter 

 county Holderness cattle, and other short-horns, prevail ; but 

 not to the exclusion of Devons and Herefords, with Highland 

 cattle, for fattening. In Buckinghamshire the short-horns 

 have superseded the long-horns ; and the same may be said 

 of Berkshire and Wiltshire. In Hampshire the long-horns 

 have disappeared ; and, in some favourable tracts, short-horns 

 are to be seen ; but, in its southern portion, the Alderney and 

 Suffolk breeds prevail ; while, more inland, a mixed breed, 

 between the Alderney and Suffolk, Hereford or Devon, is 

 cultivated. In the Isle of Wight, a small mixed breed, good 

 for the pail, but worthless for the feeder, is mostly to be found. 



In Oxfordshire the improved long-horns have ceased to 

 retain their ground ; a few of a mixed race still remain, but 

 the introduction of the short-horns, by Sir C. Willoughby arid 

 other spirited improvers of neat stock, has ended in the pre- 

 valence of the latter. Against their introduction objections 

 were raised at the time by breeders, who feared the pasturage 

 not adapted to their constitution : their fears, however, proved 

 utterly groundless. 



It would appear, then, from this survey, that in a short time 

 (if such is not the case at present) the long-horned stock of 

 cattle, formerly the characteristic breed of our midland coun- 

 ties, and brought during the last century to perfection by Mr. 

 Webster, Mr. Bakewell, and other zealous cultivators of the 

 ox, will disappear ; it will merge into other breeds ; it will 

 become, so to speak, absorbed and lost, and the old Craven, 

 or Lancashire ox, as well as the improved Leicesters of Mr. 

 Bakewell's cultivation, will be known only by description. 

 They have succumbed before the superiority of the short- 

 horns, cattle of larger bulk, of earlier maturity, and even 

 superior aptitude to fatten, compared with the best improved 

 long-horns, and also hardier than the latter. 



The fact is, that the great improvers of the long-horns, 

 while they aimed at, and succeeded in producing a grazier's 

 stock, rendered the cattle, as a dairy stock, inferior to the old 

 coarse breed, and entailed upon it a delicacy of constitution 

 which disqualified it for the ordinary farm Mr. Culley says, 

 speaking of the comparative merits of the long-horns and 

 short-horns, in his day (1807): " When I say the long-horns 

 excel the short-horns in the quality of the beef, I mean that 

 preference is only due to the particular variety of long-horns 



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