96 



AMERICAN CATTLE. 



The animal lays his flesh generously on the choice parts, arid it 

 is so interlarded with fat as to make it beautifully marbled,— a 

 capital point in its feeding. The weight of a well fed bullock 

 ranges from 600 to 800 pounds — flesh, hide, and taUow. 



Plate 11. West Highland Ox. 

 After saying thus much, and at such length, of tlie Highland 

 cattle, giving Youatt's admirable account of them, we may sura 

 up their -qualities pretty mucli as follows: They are an original 

 breed, bred for untold centuries in one of the roughest climates; 

 of great hardihood and endurance; homogeneous in their natures 

 and, habits; strong in blood, with a tendency and power to 

 transmit it upon anything with which they may be connected. 

 The cows are not fitted for the dairy, nor is it necessary they 

 should be for the purposes to which they are intended, yet giving 

 milk enough to rear their progeny well They mature early, 

 and when matured are full in all their points. They feed their 

 pastures closely, are active in movement, capable of ranging 

 over wide fields, gathering their subsistance without trouble, 

 adapted to chmates and soils where other cattle would glean a 



