CHAPTER TX. 



THE LONG-HORNS. 



It is still a disputed question in England, whether this some- 

 what remarkable race of cattle originated in the north-western 

 Enghsh counties of Lancashire, Westmoreland, and the adjoin- 

 ing part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, or in Ireland, as 

 from time immemorial they appear to have been natives of both 

 countries, and probably were intermixed, more or less, by 

 importations from one to the other. The characteristics of the 

 cattle of each country are so identical, that they are acknowl- 

 edged to be of the same primitive race, although it is contended 

 by English authorities that the Irish long-horns were coarser 

 and less cultivated in their breeding than the English. 



Youatt says : "In the district of Craven, a fertile corner of the 

 West Riding of Yorkshire, bordering on Lancashire, and sepa- 

 rated from Westmoreland chiefly by the western moorlands, 

 there has been, from the earliest records of British Agriculture, 

 a peculiar breed of cattle. They were distinguished from the 

 home-breds of other counties by a disproportionate and frequently 

 unbecoming length of horn. In the old breed this horn frequently 

 projected nearly horizontal on either side, but as the cattle were 

 improved, the horn assumed other directions ; it hung down so 

 that the animal could scarcely graze, or it curved so as to threaten 

 to meet before the muzzle, and so also to prevent the beast from 

 grazing; or immediately under the jaw, and so to lock the lower 

 jaw ; or the points presented themselves against the bones of 

 the nose and face, threatening to perforate them. We have 

 given a similar description of the Irish breed. In proportion as 

 the breed became improved, the horns lengthened, and they are 



