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MAMMALIA. 
supply with material a host of useful manufactures. As a return 
for so many services so liberally rendered, what is it that it asks 
in return ? Nothing but a due amount of care and cleanliness, 
a well- ventilated shed, and a sufficiency of wholesome food, the 
manure arising from the latter paying nearly all its expense. 
The Ox is neither so dull nor so stupid as is popularly believed ; 
but, on the contrary, is endowed with a degree of intelligence 
which, in certain countries, Man has developed and turned to 
his profit ; for some of the tribes of South Africa entrust to Oxen 
the care of their flocks, duties which the sagacious Buminants 
fulfil with a zeal and intelligence worthy of all praise. Pru- 
dence and a quick perception of danger are also qualities 
possessed by the Ox. If, either by his own fault or that of his 
guide, he finds himself in a dangerous place, he develops resources 
for extricating himself quite surprising. 
When we are considering the advantages which society derives 
from them, domestic cattle may be looked at in four different 
aspects : as beasts of burthen, that is, producers of mechanical 
force applicable to the cultivation of the soil ; as supplying milk ; 
as furnishing meat ; and, lastly, as makers of manure or fer- 
tilizing matter. Allowing all this, the question arises, is it 
possible to manage the breeding and rearing of the Ox so as 
to ensure the maximum result of all these four requirements P 
All the agriculturists who have had any experience in breeding 
cattle give a negative reply to this question. Qualities so 
different in their nature as muscular vigour, abundance of milk, 
fitness for fattening, and richness of fertilizing residuum, cannot, 
they say, be the attribute of one animal or one breed ; in fact, 
they exclude one another, and one quality can only be encouraged 
at the expense of the others. A good breed for work can hardly 
at the same time be a good breed for the butcher. If, therefore, 
any one quality is to be specially developed, the others must, to 
some extent, be sacrificed. By this plan perfection may, at all 
events, be arrived at in one point, whilst by a different course of 
procedure nothing but mediocrity can be attained. This is the 
principle which ought to guide the agriculturist in the choice and 
breeding of his cattle. 
Beef, after all, is the most useful product which the Ox affords. 
To the improvement of it must therefore tend all our efforts. 
