48 
The Early Fattening of Cattle and Sheep. 
months, except when salted, and the population generally ate 
scarcely any mutton or beef. The million in those days lived 
largely on " spoon meat,'' which now our working classes 
despise. The bulk of the population was not then assembled in 
towns, as now ; it was spread over the country, and the only 
meat commonly used was that of the only animal suited to very 
small farms — the pig, the fattest of all domestic animals ; as fat 
when finished off, at thirty stone, as any bullock of four years 
old whose skin-full of tallow was ever rewarded by a prize. 
I have mentioned the fat pork of our predecessors, because a 
clever writer, making fun of " baby meat/' has described it as 
" a soft, juicy mixture of fat and lean, by the eating of which 
we hope to produce large and strong muscles in our own bodies 
and limbs. Hope does, indeed, ' tell a flattering tale.' " The 
accomplished writer could have little thought that within three 
or four years of his pronouncing against early fattening, as it is 
now practised, the system would have extended itself throughout 
the length and breadth of the land. If he had taken the other 
side, he might just as well have shown that the juicy mixture 
is at least digestible, that it contains a great deal more lean than 
the meat consumed at any former period of history, and that, 
moreover, it is Hobson's choice with the public — they must take 
what they can get. Meat is not so plentiful in these days 
that we can afford to wait for the complete maturity of the live- 
stock which produce it. It is not necessary, however, to point 
out the futility of opposing a national predilection, and I shall 
proceed at once to offer a slight historical sketch of the gradual 
improvement of cattle which rendered " baby beef" possible. 
The modifications in the domestic breeds of animals, effected 
partly under the influence of locality, partly by intention on the 
part of breeders, may be recognised in their results by the exist- 
ence of widely different families of cattle and sheep. " The 
possibility of selection rests on variability," says Mr. Darwin, 
and we see in all directions that the domestic animals 'have 
varied profoundly from their original types. There is scarcely 
any limit to the extent of variation when persistent attempts 
have been made to influence, it in one particular direction. At 
any of our great shows of fancy pigeons or of clogs, to say 
nothing of the ordinary live-stock of the farm, the marvels — one 
might say the excesses and absurdities — of variation may be 
recognised. The cattle of the Channel Islands offer a familiar 
example of what may be accomplished in selection for the dairy 
under favourable conditions. Colonel Lo Couteur has well re- 
marked in this Journal (Vol. V., 1st Series, p. 43) that the cattle 
of the small island of Jersey could no), have been improved in 
