IJIIIUIIII^ZS 
v'CiQJ 
Vol. XL. No. 1665.} 
NEW YORK, DEC. 24, 1881. j 
(PRICE FIVE GENTS 
t $2.00 PER TEAR 
[Entered according to Act of Congress, In the year 1881, by the Rural New-Yorker, In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.] 
fyt ijcriJsntati. 
A GROUP OF POLLED CATTLE. 
Much space and a good deal of information 
have been of late given in our columns about 
the Aligns Polled cattle. We have given them 
such prominent notice because we Itelieve that 
a more general knowledge of their character¬ 
istics and value would be useful, and because 
we do not in any way sympathize with the 
popular prejudice against them on account of 
their want of horns; indeed we should rather 
say absence of horns, because the word want 
would tend to indicate that the horns were 
something needful and valuable, whereas we 
believe they are neither. The great require¬ 
ment of American agriculture for many years 
to come will be beef cattle of the best breeds, 
and as the Scotch polled breed has met the 
best of Short horns and Herefords in the ring, 
and has occasionally beaten them and taken 
the blue ribbon from them, it has certainly a 
right to some recognition from an agricultural 
journal as well as from breeders and graziers. 
We present the accompanying portraits of 
our heifers belonging to the herd of Mr. Fer- 
POLLED CATTLE. 
G. F. FABER. 
My attention has been called to some state¬ 
ments with reference to polled cattle con¬ 
tained in the Rural of Nov. 26 in “ Notes by 
a Stockman” which are certainly erroneous in 
some particulars and reveal in regard to these 
cattle somewhat of the prevailing ignorance 
of which the writer makes mention, and he 
might truthfully have added that a great 
deal of prejudice accompanies the ignorance. 
I very much doubt if the writer of that arti¬ 
cle has ever owned polled cattle ; if so his ex¬ 
perience differs greatly from that of others 
who have them. Admitting his assertion that 
“ the proportion of cross or savage cattle will 
be found quite as great among the polls as 
among the horned cattle,” of the two I think 
he would prefer to take the risk of an en¬ 
counter with the polled animal. But with my 
experience I cannot admit this assertion. I 
have owned several aged polled bulls, none of 
which have been vicious. In leading them I 
use nothing but a rope tied to the ring in the 
nose. I never owned an aged horned bull 
that I felt safe in leading so. I have never 
heard of any person receiving serious injury 
others. My neighbors have been more un¬ 
fortunate, losing the lives of the animals in¬ 
jured. During the last eight years, I have 
had polled cows and to my knowledge they 
have never done the slightest injury to any 
animal on the farm. 
“ Stockman” closes his remarks with the 
assertion that “ in the dairy these cattle will 
never become popular, and simply because 
they are not so profitable as the Jerseys, the 
Ayrshires, the Dutch, the Short-horns or good 
average natives, that is, considering the mar¬ 
ket value of these last,” In the experience of 
others as well as of myself this is far from true. 
There are families of polled cattle that for the 
production of butter, both as to quantity and 
quality, are fully equal to the far-famed Jer- 
seys. The red or dun polled cows of Suffolk 
County, England, have long been noted for 
their superiority as milch cows, while in the 
adjoining county of Norfolk the red polled 
cattle, there designated as ** Home-breds” are 
little, if any, inferior in this respect. At the 
Suffolk County (England) Fair of June !50, 
1881, the red polled cow “Wild Rose” received 
the prize for the best milch cow. She was 
placed in charge of the steward of the fair and 
produced thirteen quarts of milk in twelve 
hours, which was less than she had given on 
named above. The milk from the Red Polled 
cow showed one-and-one-fourth inch of 
cream, as did also that from the native cow, 
this being considerably in excess of that on 
the other samples tested. 
Native cows are referred to above and their 
market value brought into consideration. 
Have we not native polled cows of no greater 
market value fully their equal for dairy pur¬ 
poses i In conversation with farmers I find 
that they have a very high opinion of the 
native polled cows or “ muleys” as milkers, 
and in speaking of them I have often heard 
the question asked, “ Did you ever know of a 
“muley” cow that wasn’t a good one V' 
Onr author above quoted adds: “ Let us 
have the truth anyhow and give the polled 
cattle their due.” That is the only favor 
that breeders of polled cattle will ever ask of 
their competitors of the homed breeds, and 
that their stock shall not be subjected to the 
premature judgment of persons so strongly 
prejudiced as to be unable to detect any good 
quality in them. It may be, as this writer 
predicts, that there is going to lie a polled 
cattle boom, and if so there may be a great 
depreciation in the values of horned stock ; 
hut let not the advocates of homed cattle 
despair. It is not impossible that there may 
IfelSSfc 
GROUP OF POLLED ANGUS OR ABERDEEN CATTLE— (From a Photograph)—Fig. 561. 
guson of Cowper-Angus, Scotland, as w’orthy 
of study as ty pical auimals showing the points 
of the breed in an excellent manner. The en¬ 
graving is 'from a photograph, and as a 
work of art alone, is worthy of commenda¬ 
tion. The discussion of the merits of Polled 
Cattle in the succeeding columns obviates 
the necessity of a lengthy account of them 
from us in addition to our former articles 
from an encounter with a polled animal, 
while probably all know of such injuries 
having been inflicted by homed beasts in their 
own vicinity. Again, my experience with 
the eows of the two varieties has been as fol¬ 
lows : For many years I owned homed cows 
and during the time quite a number were en¬ 
tirely ruined for dairy purposes in conse¬ 
quence of injuries received from the horns of 
the farm. Other cows of the same breed, but 
not in full profit yielded from eight to ten 
quarts. Cows of this strain have reliable but¬ 
ter records of from twelve to twenty pounds 
per week. At the International Dairy Fair 
held in New York in 1878, Mr. A. N. Car¬ 
penter, of Illinois, tested the quality of the 
milk given by cows of the different breeds 
there exhibited, which included all of those 
eventually be a demand for those specimens 
of the breed extant, that shall cause them to 
realize large prices. I note that at a recent 
sale of menagerie stock a two-horned rhinoc¬ 
eros sold for the large sum of $17,100, it be¬ 
ing the only one of the kind in the country. 
It is perhaps not altogether improbable that 
at some future date a similar demand may 
arise for one-horned and two-homed speci- 
