124 THE OX AND THE DAIEY. 



where the cows are held in high reputation as milkers ; but 

 the oxen were indifferent feeders, their skin red, coarse in the 

 offal, ill-formed, and produced meat of an inferior quality. 

 How great is the change which the breeder's pains and care 

 have effected ! In no strain of cattle is this more palpable ; 

 for now, while their milking properties are preserved, the 

 tendency to fatten is brought to a very high ratio ; and these 

 qualities are combined with size, a magnificent figure, the 

 production of beef most beautifully grained, and of the highest 

 excellence. Qualities, indeed, hitherto considered as incom- 

 patible with each other, meet together in the improved short- 

 horns of Holderness or Tees water celebrity. In Mr. Culley's 

 time (Obs. on Live Stock, 4th edit., 1807) we find, from his 

 own statement, the great improvement which had taken place 

 in this breed. He observes, that these cattle differ from 

 others " in the shortness of their horns, and being wider and 

 thicker in their form and mould, feeding, consequently, to the 

 most weight ; in affording by much the greatest quantity of 

 tallow when fattened ; in having very thin hides, with much 

 less hair upon them than any other breeds, Alderneys ex- 

 cepted. But the most essential difference consists in the 

 quantity of milk which they give beyond any other breed. 

 The great quantity of milk, thinness of their hides, and little 

 hair, is probably the reason why they are tenderer than the 

 other kinds, Alderneys excepted. It is said of this kind, and, 

 I suppose, very justly, that they eat more food than any of 

 the other breeds ; nor shall we wonder at this when we con- 

 sider that they excel in these three valuable particulars, viz., 

 in affording the greatest quantity of beef, tallow, and milk. 

 Their colours are much varied ; but the generality are red 

 and white mixed, or what the breeders call flecked : when 

 properly mixed the colour is very pleasing and agreeable." 

 Much in Mr. Culley's time remained to be done ; but he says, 

 " In a journey through Lincolnshire, I was happy to find that 

 many sensible breeders had improved their breed of short- 

 horned cattle (since my visiting that fine country ten years 

 before) by good bulls and heifers, brought from the counties 

 of Durham and York, on both sides of the Tees, where the 

 best are confessedly bred. In another excursion, in ] 789, I 



met with a Mr. Tindale, of , near Sleaford, who had the 



best breed of cattle which I ever saw in that county, and per- 

 haps inferior to few in any part of the kingdom. I was shown 



