358 Report on the Agriculture of Denmark, tcith a Note on 
nearer to the alluviums of Schleswig and Holstein, where they are finished off. 
These cattle ave never used as working oxen, horses alone being employed as 
draught animals in those districts." 
M. Tisserand thus confirms in general terms my account of 
the peculiar system of rearing oxen which is adopted in Jutland 
on the ordinary farms of the country. The result of the system 
in producing fat beasts fit for our markets is well expressed in 
the following extract from a letter addressed to me by Messrs. 
Swan and Son, of Edinburgh, in 1874, just previous to my first 
visit to Denmark for the purpose of this Report. 
" The Jutland breed of cattle we consider one of the best on the C!ontinent j 
as cows they possess great capabilities in the production of butter. The 
bullocks, especially those stall-fed, show considerable excellence, but have this 
drawback — that they, like the Polled Angus, Aberdeen, and West Highland 
cattle of this country, are not easily fed up to the mark before they are five 
years old ; while they have this defect — that they are deficient in beef in 
their best points, viz., along the sirloins, roasts, and rounds. These cattle 
even now command a ready sale ; still, when weighed, they generally scale 
less than what they are called. We have for many years, in our Annual 
Eeport of the Cattle-trade to the Danish Consul-General, urged the necessity of 
Shorthorn-bulls being introduced into Jutland, and we have this year (1874) 
sent a large lot of such into that country. At first there was a prejudice 
against crossing, but now that is being gradually, but we think surely, over- 
come. For example, at the recent Jutland Cattle Show (May 26th) there was 
a display of first- and second-cross Shorthorns, many of which would have 
occupied a high place in any fat Show in this country. The ^jremief prize 
was given to a wonderfully good ox, first-cross between Jutland and Short- 
horn bull ; while two bullocks, one a first- and one a second-cross, were sold 
at 651. each. This was, perhaps, 20?. more than the commercial value ; but 
the buyer is now exhibiting them in Copenhagen. We have frequently sold 
large lots of native-bred Jutland bullocks to farmers here, and these in all 
cases have paid well ; but there can be no doubt whatever, that were a general 
system of crossing adopted in Sweden and Jutland, in these countries pro- 
verbially the healthiest in Europe, where the whole prosperity of the people 
is centred in agriculture, and where the isolation of them from other countries 
is so complete, Great Britain could derive a large and increasing supph* not only 
of prime fat, but likewise a lot of really good and useful store-cattle." 
The supply of meat to Great Britain from extraneous sources 
need not, indeed, be confined to fat cattle, provided that suffi- 
cient precautions are taken at the ports of shipment, as well as 
the ports of landing, against the conveyance of disease. With 
proper regulations, thoroughly carried out, there ought to be even 
less risk of importing disease from certain countries of Northern 
Europe, which are generally free from contagious or infectious 
cattle-diseases, than from Ireland. The United Kingdom may 
be said to be never quite free from foot-and-mouth disease and 
pleuro-pneumonia, especially as the cross-Channel cattle-trade 
is practically uncontrolled in reference to the conveyance of 
infected beasts, although efforts which have lately been made to 
