VOL. XLVII. NO 1981. NEW YORK, JANUARY 14, 1888. 
PRICE FIVE CENTS. 
$2.00 PER YEAR. 
[Entered according to Act of Congress, In the year 1888, by the Rural New-Yorker In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.] 
BREEDING FOR QUALITY IN BEEF. 
HON. T. C. JONES. 
Neglect of animal physiologists-, appearance 
of good meat on the block ; how it can be 
obtained ; BakeweWs practice and opinion ; 
hereditary transmission of muscular as 
well as bony structure , and individual as 
well as breed characteristics-, diversity of 
quality in each breed-, the best butcher beast 
not the most profitable; the value of a breed 
depends on the net profits it yields ; milk and 
beef-producing properties can be profitably 
united , as proved by American and Euro¬ 
pean experience ; opinions of “ Jersey ” 
breeders. 
I HAVE elsewhere pointed out the general 
characteristics which in the living animal in 
dicate superior quality of beef, and have now 
to describe, in general terms, the appearance 
of good meat as we see it on the butcher’s 
block. It is remarkable that while the patho¬ 
logist has fully investigated the structure of 
the muscular system and published most in¬ 
teresting and satisfactory results of these in 
vestigations, so far as essential to the proper 
understanding of this department of medical 
science, I am not aware that the structure of 
muscular and adipose tissues with a view to a 
better understanding of their value as human 
food, or of the method of producing them has 
ever engaged the attention of the animal phys¬ 
iologist. Here as in other branches of the 
stock breeding industry it is surprising how 
little we are indebted to the researches of 
scientific men. As observed by an accom¬ 
plished British writer who is also a man of 
practical experience, “the botanical physiolo¬ 
gist and the chemist have been very dilatory 
in proposing suggestions to the farmer; but 
the animal physiologist has hitherto almost 
entirely neglected him.” Stephens’s Book of 
the Farm, volume II., page 428. 
hoi our piesent purpose it will be neceessary 
to observe only in general terms,that good beef 
is of a bright rather than a dark-red color, the 
dark color indicating tough meat and inferior 
flavor. The structure of the muscle is fine in 
texture, “fine-grained” as it is called, and well 
marbled.” That is,the cellular adipose tissue, 
showing the intermixture of fat with the lean 
meat, will be observable in cuts from the 
round as well as the loin and fore ribs. This 
intermixture of fat with the lean flesh is as 
essential to good quality as is the fine texture 
of the meat. But in addition to this we must 
have juiciness and flavor. 
[In order to show clearly the marked differ¬ 
ence between the best and the poorest beef, we 
have had careful drawings made of samples 
purchased in this city. We procured samples 
of the best sirloin steak and rib roasts to be 
found in this market, or at least the samples 
costing the most money. These were placed, 
by the side of the cheapest samples obtainable,' 
and accurately drawn. These drawings are, 
as we believe, the most accurate meat draw¬ 
ings that have ever been presented. Fig. 6 
shows a sample of the sirloin steak that com¬ 
mands the best price here; while Fig. 8 (p. 21) 
shows the best specimen of rib roust. Figs. 7 
and !> ;p. 21) show cheap specimens of these 
meats.— Eds. 1 
How is the cattle grower to secure these 
most desirable qualities? Are they inherita¬ 
ble properties transmissible from parents to 
offspring? Here is where we should expect 
light from the animal physiologist, but unfor¬ 
tunately, as before observed, he has neglected 
us. The first great authority on this subject 
and an authority now often cited, was Rob¬ 
ert Bakewell, an English farmer of limited 
education, who began his career as an improv¬ 
er in breeding livestock about the middle of 
the last century. He is credited with estab¬ 
lishing a new variety of long-wooled sheep 
and long-horned cattle. His attention was 
directed mainly to the fattening qualities and 
early maturity of his stock, and to such an 
extent did he carry this purpose of creating 
an abnormal disposition to acquire fat at an 
early age, that it is alleged that;|he declared 
peculiarly fine structure of his muscles, is in 
herited by the Thoroughbred race-horse ii 
Great Britain and the United States, and s< 
we may safely assume the quality of the mus 
cular structure of our cattle is, in like manner 
transmissible. But here we are to observe 
that the term breed was not always used in Mr 
Bakewell’s time as meaning an establishec 
race of animals, but often to designate the 
stock of a practical breeder,or the descendant: 
THE BEST SIRLOIN STEAK. From Nature. Fig. 6. 
that he did not care whether his sheep pro¬ 
duced any wool at all if he could establish de¬ 
sirable excellence in the fattening quality. 
His success was remarkable in this di¬ 
rection; so great that it was ob¬ 
served by some of his contemporaries 
that he had carried the fat-producing quality 
to such an extent that his sheep were all fat 
and another improver was needed to establish 
the faculty of producing lean. Mr. Bakewell 
wrote nothing, and probably r^ad very little. 
He was a mere empiric, and his proceedings 
were conducted with so much secrecy that 
of distinguished animals—a “strain” or “soi 
And the cattle-grower will do well to bear 
mind that even in the oldest and best bree 
there are individual characteristics that a 
transmissible as well as the characteristics 
the breed; and that there is no breed so p< 
feet that diversity and even inferiority w 
not occasionally appear, however careful t 
biceding. And in the most highly esteem 
breeds of cattle we find diversity of excellen 
in the quality of the flesh. As a gener 
rule, animals of well established breeds m i 
be relied upon to transmit the prevailii 
_ X..Y-Y 
CHEAP SIRLOIN STEAK. From Nature. Fig. 7. 
very little is known of the principles by 
which he was guided. But it is believed, from 
his constant assertion that every thing depend¬ 
ed upon breed, that he assumed that the char¬ 
acter of the muscular as well as the bony 
structure was transmissible from parents to 
offspring. And this, in a general sense, we 
cannot doubt. The hard and dense structure 
of the bone of the Arab horse, as well as the 
characteristics of the race; but the fact th 
individual characteristics which are not coi 
mon in the race are also sometimes inherit: 
by the progeny is not to be overlooked by ti 
breeder, whose aim must always be to brei 
from the best—in the matter we are now co 
sidering to select his breeding stock, especial 
his bulls, with due regard to the excellence 
their flesh. All this has reference to the ge 
eral structure of the muscular system which 
must be such as, with proper feeding and 
management, may be depended upon to pro¬ 
duce the best quality of beef. 
As respects the feeding and management to 
be practiced by the cattle-grower, it is to be 
observed, in the first place, that it is not prac¬ 
ticable to adopt a system with sole reference 
to excellence of flesh, for the farmers of our 
country are especially a practical race, and 
can no more be expected to approve a prac¬ 
tice that will yield no profit than the business 
man or tradesman, though generally the farm¬ 
ers are satisfied with more moderate gains. 
And so it is that the best and most profitable 
beast for the butcher, or for the consumer, is 
not to be adjudged the most profitable in a 
general sense. The excellence of an animal or 
a breed of animal%is rather to be determined, 
as observed by an eminent British authority, 
“by the profits it will yield to the breeder, the 
grazier and feeder conjointly, from its birth 
to maturity.” And again, “the value of a 
breed is not determined by the profit which 
persons may obtain by purchasing; but by the 
net produce derived from the animals from 
the period of birth to that of maturity.” Of 
course the question of quality must be under¬ 
stood as affecting the profits, and the cattle- 
grower will aim to produce the very best he 
can afford, because it is always salable at the 
highest prices. We are therefore to consider 
what is the best system of management the 
cattle-grower can afford to practice with a 
view to producing beef of the best quality. 
And here we are led to consider, as bearing 
upon the question of profit, whether it is prac¬ 
ticable to unite dairy with beef-producing 
properties iu the cattle-growing industry. 
This, while of little consequence where land is 
of inferior quality and cheap, and cattle of an 
inferior sort may be profitably reared for the 
inferior flesh they yield, is an all-important 
matter for the consideration of the occupiers 
of the vast tracts of rich and valuable lands in 
our great agricultural States where a system 
of mixed husbandry is found to be essential to 
success. In these districts the holdings are 
not large, averaging probably little more than 
100 acres each, and yet the statistics show 
that it is by farmers of this class that a large 
majority of our best beef-producing as well 
as dairy stock is reared. 
Now it is well known that this most import¬ 
ant class of our population as a general rule 
keep cows to furnish milk and butter for the 
family as well as for the purpose of rearing 
stock to be grazed and fed for the butcher, ex¬ 
perience proving that they cannot afford to 
breed cattle for but one of these objects. We 
shall not have space to enter into the discus¬ 
sion of the practicability of uniting both these 
valuable properties,—the production of beef 
and milk in cattle growing—and must content 
ourselves by remarking generally that the al¬ 
most universal practice of the best farmers as 
well in this country as in the British Islands, 
where the system of mixed husbandry is prac¬ 
ticed, is based upon the assumption that it is 
practicable to unite both these excellencies in 
our cattle—that in selecting cows the farmer 
looks as well to the form and quality of the 
animal with reference to its feeding and graz¬ 
ing excellence as to its dairy properties. I ob¬ 
serve, moreover, that a practical experience 
and very careful observation of nearly two 
score years have satisfied me that good milk¬ 
ing cows are frequently, if not generally, 
among the best and quickest feeders when 
dried off, and produce male progeny having 
the same feeding excellence. I must not be 
understood here as arguing that what 
are classed as “beef breeds” are ever 
equal in dairy properties to the dairy 
breeds, or may be bred to equal excellence 
with them. I have, in this discussion nothing 
to do with the comparative excellence of the 
