394 
OBSERVATIONS ON THE AGE OF THE OX. 
Questions. 
Answers 
of the Director of the Royal 
Dairy at Pin. 
Answers 
of the Director of the Royal 
Dairy at Poussery. 
Several of our breeding 
cows, born in the course of 
the year 1841, carry in 
their teeth signs of being 
two and even three years 
beyond their real age. 
their age, and agreeing teeth, and have a full 
with the generally received mouth at four years of 
data. age*. 
So that the results of observations made by two individuals, 
specially located in situations the most favourable for clearing up 
the question, are : — 
1st. That in general the progress of dentition is more active, 
and that the permanent teeth especially are cut earlier, in Durham 
cattle than in our indigenous breeds. 
2d. That most of the bulls of the Durham breed get all their 
permanent teeth at their fourth year at latest ; and that it is not 
a rare thing to see the whole of the permanent teeth at three years 
old, and even earlier. 
3d. That, henceforth, we shall be liable to great errors in pre- 
tending to estimate the age of such animals according to the rules 
ordinarily laid down by authors. 
At the same time, as I had the honour of saying at the com- 
mencement of this letter, these observations are not the only ones 
I have collected. The Hon. M. Masse (du Cher) has been so 
kind as to communicate to me all the observations he has made on 
this important subject; and it is the interest which I myself feel 
on it that urges me to make the substance of the same known to 
you. These go to prove that, as well as breed, abundance of good 
feed at an early age has the effect, at the same time that it ac- 
celerates the general growth of the individual, of equally hastening 
* M. Girard, senior, has already informed us, in his Treatise on Age , 
chapter Age or the Ox, that the cutting of the permanent incisor teeth may 
prove earlier or later by some months, according to the constitution of the 
animal and its growth. 
In subjects forced by feeding, and whose growth is rapid, dentition will be 
early likewise. It advances faster ; and the teeth being earlier formed, they 
are cut earlier. 
The contrary happens in weakly, stunted animals, and such as have suf- 
fered much illness, or have been over-worked, and in consequence become 
but imperfectly developed in growth and bodily powers. 
