44 AXIEEICAN CATTLE. 



and the looseness of the anatomy generally, contrasted with 

 the round springing rib, wide chest, clean neck, deep flank, 

 short leg, and compact carcass of the other, shows the superi- 

 ority of the latter in every way, so that the merest neophyte 

 cannot mistake the difference; yet the spectator in our cattle 

 markets will see many more bad specimens than good ones, and 

 many of the bad not much better than the Texans ; or, if all 

 their unnecessary offal, by extraordinary pains and feeding, be 

 covered with a reasonable quantity of flesh, it is done at a 

 great waste of good fodder. 



Men inured by long habit to a partiality for the common 

 cattle, always contending that "the breed is in the moiith," and 

 blindly averse to all improvement, may insist on the equality 

 of their rough beasts to the finer ones. But it is of no use. 

 Measured by the scales, both animal and food, and the time it 

 takes to bring the creature to the block — the only way to settle 

 the matter — they must be unprofitable; and, compared with 

 improved animals, the time, labor, and food bestowed on them 

 by their owners, is measurably lost. Our beef eating population 

 — and almost all are such — ^know the difference between the 

 good and poor article. They will take the one at a good price, 

 provided the article can be had at all, and reject the other at 

 a lower one. Our agriculture is now sufficiently advanced to 

 breed and rear good animals, while the poor should be discarded ; 

 and it is a waste of both time and money to adhere to the 

 poor, so long as the valuable ones can be procured. Nothing 

 but sheer ignorance, or obstinacy, can be an apology for adhering 

 to a bad practice in anything ; and when only a common dili- 

 gence and foresight is necessary to acquire the gQod, he who 

 doggedly persists in the bad, deserves little sympathy, either for 

 his want of success, or absolute losses. 



