CATTLE. 
Ill 
and the legs short. For constitutional powers, the beast should have his 
ribs extended well toward the thigh-bones or hips, so as to leave as 
little unprotected space as possible. There must be no angular or 
abrupt points; all must be round, and broad, and parallel. Any de- 
pression in the lean animal, will give a deficient deposit of flesh and 
fat at that point, when sold to the butcher, and thus deteriorate its 
value ; and hence the animal must be round and full. But either fancy, 
or accident, or skill — we will not pretend to say which — has associated 
symmetry with quality and conformation, as a point of great importance 
in animals calculated for fattening; and there is no doubt that, to a 
certain extent, this is so. The beast must be a system of mathematical 
lines. To the advocate of symmetry the setting on of a tail will be a 
condemning fault; indeed, the ridge of the back, like a straight line, 
with the outline of the belly exactly parallel, viewed from the side, and 
a depth and squareness when viewed from behind, which remind us of 
a geometrical cube rather than a vital economy, may be said to be the 
indications of excellence in a fat ox. These qualities are inherent in 
some breeds ; there may be cases and instances in all the superior breeds, 
and in most there may be failures. 
By far the first in the list for feeding excellence are — 
The Short-Horn or Durham Breed,— The origin of the breed is involved in 
great obscurity. They are supposed by some to be traced into Holder- 
ness ; and to have been imported from Holstein, according to others ; 
from continental Europe they certainly seem to have come ; and, being 
successively improved by a variety of breeders, they have ended in that 
distinct race of animals, extraordinary beyond all others for their as- 
tonishing propensities to feed. Others, again, refer their origin to a 
native race of cattle called the Teeswater, because they have from 
time immemorial inhabited the valley which the Tees has formed by 
its washings down of the mountain limestone rocks, in which it has its 
origin ; these, it is said, being crossed by the Iiolderness importations, 
gradually became a new race. 
The late Mr. Bates traces back the short-horns to a breed in the 
possession of the Aslabies of Studley, and the Rev. H. Berry to an im- 
provement in the East Riding of Yorkshire, by the importation of a 
breed from Holland by Sir W. St. Quintin of Scampston. Of these early 
ages of the short-horns, however, it is hardly necessary to say more 
than this — that a breed from time immemorial inhabited the valley of 
the Tees, and, trained and bred to feed, for a vast succession of genera- 
tions, on its fertile deposits, acquired the habits of speedy fat-forming ; 
for in these valleys, where hay alone will feed the largest ox, the pro- 
duction of fat would be so far an object that breeders would always 
select the best and easiest feeding animals ; and thus the character of 
the district, through a number of centuries, might easily lay the ground- 
work of that improvement which the Milbanks, the Greys, the Booths, 
the Coates, and, above all, the Codings, have effected. 
We will give the latest description of the qualities of the modern 
short-horn from the most recent authority, Mr. Dickson. After referring 
to the general symmetry of the frame and its delicate color, either deep- 
red cream-colored, white, or delicate roan — the latter the most fashion- 
