CATTLE. 
113 
able and indeed prevailing color— he speaks of it as possessing ‘‘the 
mellowest touch, supported on small clean limbs, showing, like those of 
the greyhound and the race-horse, the union of strength with fineness 
and ornamented with a small, lengthy, tapering head, neatly set on a 
broad, farm, deep neck; furnished with a small muzzle, wide nostrils 
prominent mildly-beaming eyes; thin, large, veiny ears, set near the 
crown of the head, and protected in front with semicircularly-bent 
white or waxy-colored short, smooth, pointed horns; all these several 
parts combine to form a symmetrical harmony which has never been 
surpassed in beauty and sweetness by any other species of the domesti- 
catcd ox. 
Keeping in mind what was said to be the perfection of a fat animal, 
the same authority, speaking of the short-horn, says: “We have a 
straight level back from behind the horns to the top of the tail full 
buttocks, and a projecting brisket; we' have, in short, the rectangular 
form ; we have also the level line across the hook-bones (hip), and the 
level top of the shoulder across the ox, and perpendicular lines down the 
hind and fore legs on both sides ; these constituting the square form 
when the ox is viewed before and behind ; and we have straight parallel 
lines from the sides of the shoulders along the utmost parts of the 
ribs and the sides of the hind quarters; and we have these lines con- 
nected at their ends by others of shorter and equal length across the 
end of the rump and the top of the shoulder; thus constituting the 
rectangular form ot the ox when viewed from above down the back.” 
It will be very wide from our purpose to show either the immense 
amount of fat which has at one time or another accumulated on the 
backs of these wonderful animals, or the speed with which this has been 
done. Neither would it tend much to elucidate the principles of breed- 
ing or grazing to detail at any length the prices which short-horns have 
commanded and do command. 
Nor is it in their rapid fattening alone that this race of cattle excels, 
they are, beyond all question, the most remarkable for early maturity, 
hat deposits are generally the result of a mature state of the animal. 
lere are tew animals who will lay it on, to any degree, at least, until 
they are fully formed. The short-horn is an exception. They com- 
mence the fat-forming process as calves. This seems to increase with 
their growth, and at a year old they have all the semblance of cows. 
ihe feeders of short-horns, instead of keeping them to three, four or 
hve years of age, fatten them and sell them off at from two to two and 
a halt years ; they can thus turn off one-half more at least, if not a 
greater proportion, of beef, from their farms or their stalls, than could 
possibly be done with any other breed. Hence they have quick returns 
and large amounts of beef for the food-consumer. We will not deny 
that the short-horn requires good keep, and shelter, and care. She 
needs nourishing diet ; but she pays for all, for she is a cow when another 
is a calf— the ox is fat when the other is growing. Hence the short- 
eattle StandS the VCTy first 011 the list of the fat-producing breeds of 
The Hereford Breed.— This is a middle-horn breed of cattle, upon which 
a good deal of pains has lately been taken. The success of short- 
