THE OX AND THE DAIRY. 131 



The short-horns of Holderness, and, indeed, of Yorkshire 

 generally, owe their modern improvement to judicious cross- 

 ings, and especially to the influence of the Teeswater and 

 Alloy strains. It must not, however, be supposed that the 

 old breed is universally improved ; on the contrary, many of 

 the dairy-farmers give the rough breed the preference, partly 

 from prejudice, and partly because the milking properties of 

 the improved breed have been more or less sacrificed to the 

 development of a constitutional tendency to the accumulation 

 of fat. Mr. Youatt, referring to this subject, well observes, 

 " Experience has gradually established the fact, that it is pru- 

 dent to sacrifice a small portion of the milk to assist in feed- 

 ing, when the cow is too old to continue in the dairy, or when, 

 as in the neighbourhood of large towns, her services as a 

 dairy cow are dispensed with at an early age. This cross 

 being judiciously managed, the diminution of milk is so small, 

 and the tendency to fatten so great, that the opinion of Mr. 

 Sale is -correct : * I have always found in my stock, that the 

 best milkers when dried for feeding, make the most fat in the 

 least time.' This is a doctrine which will be better under- 

 stood and universally acknowledged by and by, for many of 

 the improvers of the short-horns have but half done justice to 

 their excellent stock. He would deserve well of his country 

 who, with skill and means sufficient, would devote himself to 

 the illustration of this point." 



It is a remarkable fact, that the short-horned cow improves 

 both in the quantity and quality of her milk as she grows 

 older; that is, a cow of six years of age is superior, as a 

 milker, to one of two or three years of age ; and her milk will 

 yield more butter in proportion. The milk of a single cow, 

 on which the experiment was made, returned 373 Ibs. of 

 butter, in the space of thirty-two weeks ; the lowest weekly 

 amount being seven pounds, the highest, sixteen. Her milk, 

 during the time, averaged nearly twenty quarts per day; her 

 food was grass and cut clover until the turnip season ; but the 

 pasture was not of first-rate quality. With abundant proofs 

 of the value of the short-horns as milkers, it is the breeder's 

 interest not to neglect this point, which is compatible with 

 every property he can desire. 



The weight to which some of the improved short-horns 

 have been fed is astonishing. The " Durham Ox," when 

 slaughtered, was 165 imp. st. 12 Ibs. the four quarters, 

 besides yielding 11 st. 2 Ibs. of tallow; the hide weighed 



