118 
Sussex Cattle. 
breed, and it is perhaps remarkable that so great a reduction 
of size and coarseness has been effected. At the present day, 
however, the improvement mostly required is in the hind- 
quarters, the setting on of the tail and in breeding for better 
buttocks and thighs. 
The general thriftiness of these cattle makes them most 
excellent grazers on poor land ; the coarsest and most scanty 
herbage being sufficient to maintain the cows and bullocks 
in good and thriving condition. This is evidenced when they 
are grazed in the poor parks and on the rough pastures of 
Kent and Sussex ; on lands where sheep will not thrive and 
where less hardy breeds of cattle would starve. When, 
however, they are removed to richer and more fattening 
pastures, the steers rapidly put on flesh while the cows get 
too fat and heavy for breeding purposes. Had the lot of these 
cattle been cast in the Midlands we venture to assert that no 
breed would have been in such request for grazing and 
fattening in the beautiful pastures of Leicestershire and the 
neighbouring counties ; and, were their good qualities better 
known we feel sure that their locale would not be confined, 
as it is now, to the counties of Kent and Sussex. 
The Sussex steer is second to none in attaining great 
weight at an early age and, moreover, they are prime 
favourites with the butcher as they invariably “ die well ” 
with a large proportion of finely mottled lean meat on the 
best and most profitable joints. Many of the steer calves 
bred on arable farms when yarded at the time of weaning, 
will at eighteen to twenty months old, weigh 80 to 100 stone 
and realise the highest market price. 
We have before us the figures of the eight years, 1898 to 
1905, of the Sussex beasts shown at Smithfield, and find that 
the 66 steers under two years old averaged 13 cwt. 0 qr. 12 lb., 
with a daily gain of 2 lb. 1^ oz. The older steers during the 
same period showed a daily gain of 1 lb. 12 oz., and the 
heifers 1 lb. 10 oz. 
These figures are conclusive of the value of the good 
feeding qualities of the breed and compare most favourably 
with those of any other breed, particularly those of the Devons 
and Herefords. 
On more than one occasion the Sussex breed has provided 
the animals that held the record for the year for the highest 
daily gain, notably in 1902 when Mr. Gerald Warde’s steer, one 
year ten months old, weighed 15 cwt. 1 qr. 9 lb., with a daily 
gain of over 2 lb. 8 oz. This is not quite the record for 
Smithfield as an Aberdeen Angus steer once showed a daily 
gain of 2 lb. 10 oz. ; but in the same year a Sussex steer was 
exhibited at Ashford at twenty months old and scaled the 
