188 AMERICAN CATTLE. 



contracted. His anatomy being sacrificed in breadth and depth, 

 he has no ptace to lay on flesh as a beef animal, and he is worth- 

 less, comparatively, for any purpose. So with the cow ; if she 

 take flesh poorly, she gives a less quantity of milk; but if she do 

 happen to milk well, it is because her food is chiefly thrown mto 

 the secretions of her milk veins, which happen, Ln such instances, 

 to be extraordinarily developed. We have seen such, but they 

 were the exceptions, not the rule, and all such cattle are to be 

 avoided. There is no profit in them, any way; as a cal^ the 

 butcher does not want him, except at a reduced price; as a 

 steer, the grazier jews down his price; as a working ox, nobody 

 wants him, except he can get him "cheap;" as a fat bullock — if 

 he ever can be fatted — the butcher "blows '' on him; and as for 

 the consumer — he is to be pitied. Soups, and dried beef — and 

 poor at that — is all that he is fit for. He is a drag on every 

 one's hands unfortunate enough to own him, from birth to 

 slaughter. And so with the cow; poor in every quality, she 

 goes through a miserable life, an object of contempt, and ill- 

 usage throughout, simply because her breeder did not veal her 

 at six weeks old, for she has never been good for anything in 

 the hands of anybody since, and has taken the place of a better 

 creature, which might have been profitable in every condition of 

 her life, and a pleasure to every owner. 



Now, reverse the picture. Here is a creature with a small 

 head, a fine muzzle, and a light bone. He has a clean, sinewy 

 neck, and deep, wide chest; springing ribs, giving ample room 

 for vigorous lungs to play; a straight back from the shoulders to 

 the tail; broad hips, and a deep flank — symmetrical through- 

 out. He is so anatomically framed as to admit the largest 

 supplies of flesh in the best points; he has much less oft'al, even 

 to the same amount of consumable flesh than the other, and no 

 more offal to all the additional flesh which can be piled on to his 



