BRIEF DESCRIPTIONS APPLICABLE TO MOST 

 BREEDS OF CATTLE, SWINE, AND SHEEP. 



By Robert Wallace, 



UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH. 



General Points of Beef-producing Cattle.— The masculine 

 or the feminine characteristics naturally represented in 

 individual specimens of each sex. 



General appearance stylish, and showing quality; figure 

 compact and well-proportioned, deep, broad, and low set 

 as opposed to being leggy. 



Head broad between the eyes, flat across the crown (with 

 exceptions in polled breeds) and down the face, which should 

 be neither "dished" nor Roman, but short, or of medium 

 length, with a quiet expression; forehead broad and full; 

 muzzle broad, full, distinct, and dewy; mouth large; jaw 

 wide; nostrils large; eyes large, placid, and clear; horns 

 none, or varying in length, color, and strength, according to 

 breed, fine and symmetrical, set on the crest of the head; 

 ears full and sensitive, of fine texture, well covered with 

 hair, and varying slightly in position in the different breeds. 



Neck medium length, full at the " neck-vein," or " shoulder- 

 vein" where it joins the body, broad (muscular and crested 

 in the male), but fine, and tapering toward the head — to 

 which it should join without thickness or chokiness — and 

 straight from the shoulder top to the roots of the horns, 

 excepting when it rises into the crest of a bull. 



Body long and deep, equally balanced before and behind; 

 back broad throughout its length, smooth and even, and 

 straight from the top of the shoulders to the tail-head; the 

 frame well and equally covered with firm flesh, especially 

 in the regions of the best cuts, not patchy on the hooks, 

 tail-head, rump, shoulders, or other parts (when prime fat, 

 a little pit may be felt on the point of each hook). The trunk, 



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