14 
THE OX. 
THE POLLED ANGUS BREED. 
sixty stones and upwards, like those of the Short-horned breed, is regarded as a more valuable animal than one that would require 
three or more years to be fattened to the same weight. The Angus is a good breed, well adapted to the natural and acquired 
fertility of a great tract of country; but it cannot be brought to the same weight of muscle and fat, and in the same period of 
time, as the Short-horns and Herefords. The latter, therefore, form the more valuable breeds, in the sense in which the term 
value is here employed. In like manner, the Short-horned and Herefords are said to be superior in value as breeds to the West 
Highland, though the latter is immeasurably superior to the others in adaptation to the countries in which it is naturalized, and 
may be equally a subject of profitable trade to the grazier and feeder. When we employ the term valuable, then, in the abstract, 
with relation to a breed, it must be understood as denoting the quality of reaching to the greatest weight of muscle and fat in the 
shortest time, and with the least consumption of food, and not the adaptation of the race to peculiar localities, or the profit that 
may be derived between the periods of buying and selling. These considerations kept in mind may prevent some of those disputes 
which sometimes arise between persons contending for the relative superiority of their respective breeds of animals. 
Sometimes the Angus breed has been crossed with the Short-horned, and in this way very fine animals, superior to the native 
race, have been produced: but the benefit ends in a great degree with the first cross; the subsequent progeny is inferior to the 
pure Short-horns in size and tendency to fatten, and to the indigenous stock in hardiness and adaptation to rough treatment. The 
better course, therefore, to pursue is to preserve the two breeds distinct and pure. Where the condition of farms, or the wishes of 
breeders, induce the adoption of the Short-horned breed, this ought to be cultivated in its state of purity; where other circumstances 
exist, the native breed should be preserved unmixed, care being used to call forth its useful properties by proper feeding and due 
attention to the selection of the breeding parents. 
The figure in the Plate will show the perfection to which this breed of cattle is capable of being brought. It is taken from 
the stock of one of the most distinguished cultivators of the Angus breed, Mr Watson of Keillor. 
