CLASSES OF Hide Must attacked. xxv 



quality is not at all deteriorated ; it interferes very much with the 

 outward appearance, and more if the heef hangs for a week or more ; 

 the colour becomes somewhat darker, but certainly it has not a bitter 

 taste, for only on Sunday last we cooked a piece (of beef of that 

 character) from an animal slaughtered ten days before, which was very 

 much licked, and beef of better quality no one could eat." 



Mr. Wm. Thompson, Newcastle, writes: — "When beef is badly 

 licked, it is very biiter ; I have seen it quite unsaleable, all the outside 

 fat taken off, and you could not get the bottom of it. Sometimes it is 

 so bad that it is right through the chain and down to the rib-bone, 

 when it is as bad as that it is quite useless." 



It is perhaps worse than useless to venture a conjecture where 

 those who thoroughly understand the subject differ amongst themselves 

 in opinion, but it does occur whether the difference in bitterness of 

 taste may not be according to the completeness with which the diseased 

 tissues above the meat may have been removed. — Ed. 



With regard to atje of cattle at which infestation has been found most 

 prevale7it, it will be seen by casting the eye along the columns of the 

 foldiiiff table of particulars of sound and warbled hides sold at one of 

 the Birmingham markets, that the three heaviest classes named, 

 ranging from 75 lbs. to 95 lbs. and upwards, do not suffer as much as 

 the three lighter classes, ot which details are given on the same table. 



The three lighter classes (that is, the classes weighiug 65 to 74 lbs., 

 66 to 64 lbs., and 55 lbs. and under) are principally heifer hides, and 

 are shown by the table to be the greatest sufferers. We also find that 

 in these three lighter classes infestation was fouud contmuiug from 

 about seven to sixteen weeks later in the season than with the three 

 heavier classes, warble being still present in the lighter classes to some 

 degree up to Sept. 19th. Dates from Feb. 14th to Sept. 19th, 1885. 



The following notes give some individual observations on the 

 subject of the warble-maggots being fouud in young things, down to 

 the size of animal of which the back can be reached by a little lad of 

 ten years old. These are perhaps no information to all versed in 

 warble matters, but are inserted partly in reply to an enquiry, or 

 erroneous view, recently sent me : — 



" Cattle at the age of one or two years are most subject to attack." 

 — John Dalton, Wigton, Cumberland. 



" Young (yearliug and two-year-old) beasts are most subject to 

 attack [of warbles] , and shorthorns more so than the thicker-skinned 

 Welsh or Scotch breeds ; the hide of a Welsh ' runt' is quite twice as 

 thick as that of a shorthorn bullock." — E. A. Fitch, Brick House, 

 Maldon, Essex. 



" They are worst upon young cattle, if they strike, as they often 



