52 
THE HEREFORDS. 
a stallion, parading him on rising ground, thrusting 
his head up and of course sinking his back till it is 
hollow, and his haunch sticks out like a starved 
calf’s, stuffed for show with hog hay. This may be 
called stallionizing. When he takes you to his 
table, and his cook has served the piece of beef that 
his butcher sold him (and if bad cheated him in it), he 
does not know how to cut it; he carves so that, if 
good, it is made poor, and if poor, worthless. Yet 
this same man, if one criticises his cattle, will con¬ 
demn the judgment. He assumes to be a judge, and 
goes to cattle-shows and acts as such. His judgments 
will go by his fancies, and by the interest he has in 
particular strains of blood; and these will follow 
the pedigree of the animals or their breeders’ reputa¬ 
tion. If he be interested in the stock of one of two 
rival breeders, he will condemn that of the other. 
He will perhaps fancy one point and have a proper 
notion of it, and will on that one point praise or 
condemn an animal, and on it make awards, and in 
most cases wrongly. Into the herd of this judge a 
purchaser who really knows, shall go and choose 
his best animals, and the judge will laugh in his 
sleeve at the ignorance of the buyer. The pur¬ 
chases made by drovers and butchers (who know 7 
and keep their knowledge to themselves) out of 
farmers’ herds daily illustrate this. If he has 
wealth and is a breeder, with a large herd having 
fashionable pedigrees, he will scatter worthless 
cattle far and wide, bought by ignorance as profound 
as his own. He, and all like him, are the dupes of 
English cattle jobbers, who foist upon them, mise¬ 
rable brutes, with high sounding pedigrees, at enor¬ 
mous prices. And like this one breeder and judge 
are the whole race. They know nothing that they 
do not plagiarize ; and w 7 hen knowledge is given to 
them, they learn its words and retail them without 
their spirit. 
I draw this picture for the reason that by such 
judges different families and herds (among them the 
Herefords) have been decried and depressed, and by 
such I shall be judged and condemned. For my 
opinion of Mr. Sotham’s cattle I have not received 
one word of approval save from one real judge (a 
Short-Horn man exclusively, too), but from many, 
those of censure. But in the mean time w 7 hile the 
Herefords have been decried by breeders of other 
races, by opposing interests and prepossessions in 
favor of other kinds, on the one hand, keen-sighted 
judgment begins to see and purchase on the other. 
Now what are the excellences of cattle ? I pro¬ 
pose directing my remarks only to the consumable 
excellences. Head, neck, legs, tail, I shall not 
here notice. They are mere offal, and are not eaten. 
They are good or bad in themselves only as they 
connect themselves with consumable excellence, 
&c.; in themselves from their nature only indicat¬ 
ing goodness or badness, and of no consequence 
otherwise. Were I to discuss them here, it would 
occupy more space than proper at present. 
Passing them, I will take up first the brisket. 
Here lies, in a proper beast, some of the finest 
corning pieces in the whole carcass. If the brisket 
he full in front and broad between the legs, there 
will be a large layer of fine flesh on it. There 
is the same amount of bone in a bad brisket as 
in a good one. The expansion into prominence 
is nearly, and in breadth wholly, from flesh Hence 
a thin brisket is all bone and worthless; a full one 
is covered with flesh and is valuable. 
2d. The chine should be broad, full, and level, 
and why ? If it be sharp and thin it projects. 
There is more bone in a thin chine than in a 
broad one; it is higher. The space upon which 
muscle attaches itself is so much larger, that more 
is devoted to that purpose. Now the more of a 
given quantity of flesh that is used to attach the 
whole mass to its appropriate bones, the greater the 
tension, and from the tension the tougher the beef. 
When the chine is broad and round, the bones are 
lower and smaller, the space for attachment is 
smaller, and if the flesh be only the same in amount 
as in a high chine it will have less tension and be 
more tender. But a high chine is always connected 
with a flat rib ; a broad chine with a round rib A 
flat rib attaches to the spine in an oblique direction, 
making an obtuse angle ; a round rib attaches in a 
perpendicular direction, making a right angle. But 
the right angle will contain the most flesh. There 
is move flesh from the capacity of the enclosing 
space with the same cones, and it is tenderer, be¬ 
cause less is used for attachment. Hence broad 
chines are excellence. 
3d. Crops; these are bad for the want of flesh, 
and good from its presence. Hence full crops, be¬ 
ing good ones, are excellence. The chines and 
crops are at the points where the primest beef lies. 
The animal, to be good, must have them good. 
4th. The back and loins must be broad, and for 
the same reason that the crop must be broad, to have 
a round rib and space for flesh and small attaching 
surface for the muscles. 
5th. The rib must be round; and for the reason 
that it give§ breadth of chine and back, and makes 
a right angle at its junction with the spine, giving 
room for flesh and less attaching surface. It must 
be round also, to give more room to the viscera of 
the chest and belly, and these must be large, to give 
capacity to furnish the proper amount of nutriment 
to make a large amount of flesh. Round ribs are 
excellence. 
6th. The rumps must be long, broad and level 
The longer they are the more space for meat; they 
must be broad and level, for the reason that the 
chine and back should be. The rump makes some 
of the best steaks in the carcass; those next the 
hips are the very best in the carcass ; the tail end 
of the rump makes the very best corning piece in 
the animal, and quite as good a steak as the meat 
of the upper part of the loin. The shorter the rump 
the narrower it is, and the less steaks and corning 
meat. When it is narrow the tail is high, the skin 
and muscles are rigid, and the flesh is not only small 
in quantity but poor. When it is broad and level, 
the meat is more in quantity and better in quality. 
7th. The hip bones should be broad; this because 
of the formation which makes broad backs and 
rumps. The same bony formation which makes 
back and rump broad, maizes hips broad; hence 
they should be broad. They are offal, but are su- 
rounded by meat; and therefore are important as an 
indication, direct, not collateral, as in the case oi 
proper heads and legs. The wider the hip bones 
the more space to hold meat, and the wide ones do 
hold the meat which the narrow ones cannot. 
8. The thigh should he small , thin, light and Jim 
