cxxxii INTRODUCTION. 



starting to market ; cattle that had no corn the previous spring were well grazed and fed from five to 

 six months. Now, cattle handled as the former would begin to go to market by the 1st of July, and 

 all or nearly all would be in market before the 1st day of January. Quite a common way of prosecut 

 ing the business now is to commence feeding the cattle in January or February, when less than three 

 years old, on corn in limited quantities, substituting more fodder or other rough feed, but increasing 

 the quantity of corn in March or April, often to full feeding, say from twenty-five to forty bushels in 

 the aggregate, per head, and these cattle will commence to be sent to market by the 1st of June, and 

 by the 1st of October by far the greater portion will have gone ; comparatively few of them, perhaps, 

 having been detained to be fed on corn for a month or two before starting them. Of course the quality 

 of the beef of cattle so young, and handled after this fashion, can bear no comparison with that as made 

 by the former method. 



The first introduction into the west of English cattle was made by Matthew Patton, (hence the 

 name given to that celebrated stock,) who removed from Hardy county, Virginia, to Kentucky, about 

 the year 1794, and brought the cattle with him. Patton had obtained the ancestors of this stock of 

 Mr. Goff, of Maryland, in 1783, who had then recently imported them from England. John Patton, a 

 son of Matthew, removed in 1800 from Kentucky to Chillicothc, Ohio, bringing a part of the same 

 stock with him. Between that time and 1817, occasionally a few other animals were introduced, 

 mostly of the same breed, but including some of an importation made by a Mr. Miller, of Maryland, 

 between 1790 and 1795. These cattle, both Goff and Miller importations, were of very large size, and 

 the cows generally good milkers, and when first introduced were a fine quality of beef-cattle bone not 

 large for the size of the animal but on account of their great growth were longer maturing than the 

 common stock of the country ; but in the course of time their defects grew upon them. They became 

 larger, coarser, and longer maturing, and of course harder to fatten. This change was attributed to the 

 rich feed, which was probably the fact. We know that poor feed will degenerate, and it was probably 

 this latter fact that led Count Buffon, the great European naturalist, to assert that all animals when 

 translated from Europe to America would degenerate. The finest animal of the cow kind I have ever 

 seen was of this breed; in the fall of 1819 this was six and one-half years old, and was estimated to 

 weigh over 2,000 pounds, net beef. His head, neck, and limbs were remarkably neat, his brisket very 

 deep and broad, and he girted immediately behind the shoulders the extraordinary measure often feet 

 ten inches, and his back and loin I certainly never have seen excelled, if equalled. I have been thus 

 minute in this description, because I have seen several treatises, or rather communications on the com 

 parative excellence of the different breeds of cattle imported into this country, and all of them 

 disparaging in a greater or less degree this breed of cattle. This breed proved an admirable one for 

 crossing with the common stock of the country better, perhaps, than any following importation. In 



1817 Messrs. Saunders, Zugarden, and , of Kentucky, imported from England five bulls three 



short horns, and two long horns and eight or nine cows of the two breeds. The long horns being 

 the most sightly animals, took the fancy of the people at first, and some of those having good stock of 

 former importations wellnigh ruined them for the shambles by introducing the long horns among them. 

 Their flesh was very dark and tough, without any admixture of fat, as a butcher s animal should have, 

 and withal the cows were poor milkers. The short horns proved a valuable acquisition to the existing 

 stock of the country, though the quality of their beef was perhaps no better than the Patton or Miller 

 stock, nor were the cows better milkers, but their early maturity, and aptitude to fatten were qualities 

 peculiarly desirable at the time, had they been properly appreciated and improved upon by the breeders 

 generally. But unfortunately, in Kentucky in particular, the long horns got a pretty general dissemina 

 tion before they were entirely discarded, and a practice of somewhat indiscriminate breeding followed, 

 producing about as undesirable a stock for the shambles as could well be imagined. They were very 

 large, but very unsaleable, and nick-named by the butchers of the eastern cities, &quot; red horses.&quot; There 

 never was enough of the short horned breed clear of admixture in the eastern markets for their sham 

 ble qualities to be clearly established by the butchers there, though in the west it was known to be 

 at least not inferior to any breed then existing. 



