Sussex Cattle. 
119 
great weight of 14 cwt. 2 qrs. 16 lb., which works out at 
over 2 lb. daily gain, which we claim as a record up till 
now. The dead weight of this steer was 142 stone and 6 lb., 
or the excellent proportion of ’7 or over two-thirds of his 
live weight. The heaviest Sussex beast that has been shown 
of recent years was Mr. Winch’s steer which weighed nearly 
a ton at two years eight months old, and his dead weight was 
189 stone 3 lb. These figures are sufficient to prove the 
Sussex breed’s superiority as an early maturity butcher’s 
beast. We may add that where classes are provided for them 
at local shows calves at ten and eleven months of age often 
exceed nine hundredweight in live weight. 
Reviewing the present position of the breed, we hail with 
pleasure the fact that the number of registered herds has 
increased in the last few years, and that greater interest is now 
taken in Sussex cattle. At the same time, this may be partly 
due to the Sussex Herd Book Society admitting animals of 
unregistered breeding by inspection. Many undoubtedly 
excellent and pure bred animals have so been entered, but 
it is to be hoped in the interest of pedigree breeders that the 
Sussex Herd Book will not be opened again on the same 
liberal lines. 
On the other hand, we have to deplore the loss of great 
numbers of herds of Sussex type, which some twenty or 
thirty years ago were kept on the Wealds of Kent and Sussex, 
whence their produce supplied the farmers and hop growers 
with excellent stores to fatten. These herds had previously 
existed for generations, but the increase in the price of wool 
which occurred about that time, together with the greater 
demand for milk and other causes, has led to their 
disappearance. Sheep, always the predominant stock in Kent 
and Sussex, 1 now almost entirely replace the herds of breeding 
cattle, inferior cross-bred beasts being bought in the summer 
to act as scavengers to the sheep. 
While there are so many farms in Kent and Sussex 
contiguous to the Metropolis and the great seaside resorts, 
milk producing is likely to be profitable. There are, however, 
scores of farms not so favourably situated for the sale of milk, 
that would carry a few head of Sussex cattle with profit to the 
occupier. These unfortunately now do very little towards 
supplying the prime stores produced twenty or thirty years 
ago. Further, those farmers who have gone in for milk have 
not fully realised the advantage of using Sussex sires instead 
of the present bulls, which are often mongrels of the baser 
kind. 
1 Youatt remarked on the increasing numbers of sheep grazed in the Marsh 
districts. 
