CHAPTER II. 

 THE DIFFERENT BREEDS. 



Speaking of the different breeds of cattle in Great Britain and Ire- 

 land, Wilson says : " The diversities observable in the 'size, shape, 

 habits, and produce of their cattle have arisen partly from modern 

 artificial breeding, but chiefly from the prolonged and combined in- 

 fluence of climate, soil, pasturage, and general treatment. So long as 

 cattle were allowed their natural liberty, unrestrained and unmodified 

 by enclosures, cultivation, and artificial treatment, all were clean made, 

 glossy, swift footed, shy, spirited, and active ; but when they become 

 completely subject t'"> the control of man, and dependent on him for 

 food and protection, they lost their sagacity and energy ; such as 

 were amply supplied with nutritive food became plethoric, bulky, and 

 sluggish ; and such as were ill-ifed continued small in size, and ac- 

 quired bad shapes and lean, feeble, unproductive habits. Comparatively 

 few of them migrate from district to district, or undergo changes of 

 -limate, pasturage, and artificial treatment ; but most are reared and 

 fed for generations in the same district, and many on the same est.ite 

 or farm ; and they consequently retain -for ages an uniformity, or at 

 the utmost a very limited diversity, of size, shape, and constitutional 

 qualities. Hence particular breeds were formed and fixed long before 

 the modern period of artificial improvement ; large, strong breeds per- 

 vade some districts, and small, weak breeds pervade others ; powerful, 

 bulky, well-formed, and productive breeds are co-extensive with the 

 range of climate, soil, herbage, culture, and treatment best fitted to 

 improve them ; such large cattle as those o-f the eastern counties of 

 Scotland are merely varieties of the same breed as the small ones of 

 the Grampian Mountains and the Hebridean Islands ; and the smallest 

 feeblest, worst shaped, and least productive are capable of being in 

 the course of two or three generations, transmuted, by means of 

 superior climate, feeding, crossing, and management, into as valuable 

 cattle as any of the best existing varieites." 



Mr. Wilson probably bases his assumption on the old theory, 

 " What's best in a breed goes in at the mouth." But it would require 

 a long number of years to convert a Jersey into a Shorthorn by either 

 change of soil, climate, or food, or all three combined, without resort- 

 ing, as he says, to crossing ; then it is doubtful if either of those 

 breeds would benefit by such a cross to such an extent as would 

 pay for the experiment. 



To revert to Air. Wilson again : " The breeds and varieties of 

 cattle at present reared on British farms are exceedingly nu nerous, 

 and approximate one another by a series of the nicest and almost 

 imperceptible gradations. Yet, though capable of multitudinous clas 

 sification, and though often requiring, for purposes of convenience, 

 to be arranged into numerous distinct divisions, they can be compre- 

 hensively distributed into five great groups fh^ polled or hornless, 

 in Galloway, Suffolk, and Norfolk ; the crumpled-horned in Alderney, 

 and some parts of Ireland and Scotland ; the Shorthorn in Durham. 

 Eastern Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, and the northern English counties ; 

 the middle-horned in Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, North Devon, 

 East Sussex, Wales, and most of Scotland ; and the Longhorned in 

 Ireland, Lancashire, and the Midland counties of England. But only 

 in their native districts, or. on a few select estates, are these to be 

 found pure. Everywhere else tlu-y are so thoroughly mixed as to 

 form a bewildering number of mongrel varieties." 



Youatt claims the Longhorns as an Irish breed; in this he is cer- 

 tainly right, but when he says that the middle-horned breeds arc the 

 aboriginal breed of England he soon becomes lost in history. 



104. 



