76 
THE ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE OX. 
The tokens, then, by which farmers are enabled to recognize the 
disposition of an animal to arrive quickly to maturity are, after 
all, only the outward and visible signs of the inward structure of 
the nutritive organs ; and accordingly it has been found that “ the 
order of the aptitude of animals to fatten depends on the compara- 
tive smallness of their lungs. The pig first, the sheep second, the 
ox third, and lastly the horse*” the lungs of the horse being larger 
in proportion to his size than that of the other three. 
It is by breeding in this manner, that is, from animals in a fat- 
tening condition, that I believe the greatest improvements have 
been effected from time to time ; and again, by pursuing this 
system too far, it has been found that many of our best bred cows 
and bulls have ceased to breed. 
Nothing is more common to hear, nowaday, respecting the 
cattle that have such a wonderful propensity to fatten, that they 
have ceased to breed. This is the effect of over refinement in 
breeding, — pushing the fattening qualities too far, without paying 
sufficient attention to the muscular development of the animal. 
An instance was related to me a short time since of a breeder of 
North Devons. He found the good qualities of his breed gradually 
disappearing one after another. His stock was getting smaller, 
more tender and more easily affected by change of food and 
weather. Beside this, he had great difficulty in getting his cows 
pregnant ; so that, instead of producing annually a number of calves, 
as he used to do, he had difficulty in rearing any, bull calves in 
particular. 
This, perhaps, is the most difficult point which a breeder can 
come to; for the nearer you approach perfection, the more difficult 
will be the selection, and the greater the chance of retrograding. 
However, he decided upon introducing fresh blood ; and his first 
attempt was to put some of his cows to a neighbour’s bull of the 
same breed, but of a larger description than his own, and the result 
answered his most sanguine expectation. His neighbour had cul- 
tivated with success a breed of Devons that possessed the milching 
properties to a much greater degree than is generally the case 
with that beautiful breed, and this, in my opinion, is a great error 
which many breeders of other breeds than this most commonly 
fall into ; for however desirable it may be to possess a breed that 
will readily fatten and come quickly to maturity, yet, if these qua- 
lities are obtained at the expense of hardiness of constitution and 
a difficulty of propagating their race, it becomes a loss instead of 
a gain. This is a point I believe generally acknowledged, that in 
Journal Royal Agricultural Society, p. 258, v. iv. 
