THE SHEETED BREED OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 
PLATE XYI. 
1. COW, of the Polled variety, Four Years Old, the property of John Weir, Esq., West Camel, 
Somersetshire. 
2. Horned variety, Four Years Old, from the Stock of the late Sir John Phileps, Montacute House. 
A variety of cattle rendered remarkable by the striking contrast of colours on the body, is found in Somersetshire and the 
adjoining counties. It has existed in the same parts of England from time immemorial. The red colour of the hair has a light- 
yellow tinge, and the white colour passes like a sheet over the body. The individuals are sometimes horned, but more frequently 
they are polled. The cows are hardy, docile, and well suited to the dairy. The beef of the oxen is of good quality and well 
marbled. The breed has become rare, which is to be regretted, since it is much better suited to the dairy than others that have 
been adopted. 
The peculiar marking which distinguishes these cattle is not confined to any otie breed. It appears amongst the cattle of 
Wales when they are crossed by the White Forest Breed; and is frequent amongst those of Ireland, and used to be so amongst 
the older Galloways of Scotland. It is very common in Holland, where the colours are black and white. It may be ascribed 
to the intermixture of two races having each a tendency to produce the pristine colour of the stock from which it is derived. 
Thus a mixture of the White Forest Breed and a Suffolk Dun might produce an animal resembling the Sheeted Somerset; with 
the Black Falkland, one resembling the sheeted varieties of the Dutch, and so on. The peculiarity, when communicated, is very 
constant; and, when two animals possessing it are mixed together in blood, the progeny never fails to preserve the marking of 
the parents. 
To these and to the other dairy breeds before described, such as the Kerry and the Suffolk-Dun, is to be added the Polled Irish 
Breed. The race is widely diffused, especially in the Yale of Shannon. It is of a brownish colour, is destitute of horns, and some¬ 
what resembles the Suffolk Dun, to which, however, it is superior in size, equalling in this respect the Short-horns. This useful 
breed has, however, long been diminishing in numbers, in consequence of its having been extensively crossed with the Durham, the 
effect of which mixture is always to produce animals superior in form and fattening properties to the native stock. 
Other varieties adapted to the dairy might be enumerated; but, for the most part, they are in small numbers, confined to 
narrow districts, and greatly mixed. It is rarely that a breed of dairy cows extends over a large tract. Where such a circum¬ 
stance exists, it is more favourable to the profitable practice of the dairy than when farmers are left to search for suitable milch- 
cows among breeds and crosses of different kinds. In the latter case, the farmer may, from time to time, procure excellent cows ; 
but it will be seen how little he can depend on breeding again from such animals, and how much of chance is thrown into the 
business of selection. But although over all the great dairy districts of England there exists the uncertainty arising from this 
mixture of races, still the main selection must be made from the ordinary breeds cultivated in the district. Thus, in the southern 
and south-eastern counties, the Devon and its varieties are principally used. They are deficient with respect to the quantity of 
milk which they produce, but the quality is good, and it is valued for the yellow tinge which it communicates to the products of 
the dairy. In the western counties, as Lancashire and Cheshire, the breed is usually the Long-horned. In the inland midland 
counties, the Long-horns are mixed with the Short-horns. In the eastern counties, again, the Short-horned, being the prevalent 
breed, furnishes likewise the chief supplies of cows for the dairy. 
The external form of the Cow which indicates the faculty of secreting milk in abundance has been already described. It was 
seen to correspond in a certain degree with that which indicated the property of secreting fat, but to differ from it also in certain 
respects. The chief indications of the milking power are furnished by the width and depth of the lumbar region, the size of the 
mammae, and the enlargement of the subcutaneous abdominal veins. The expansion of chest so essential to a fattening animal is 
not required for the secretion of milk, and it rarely happens that a cow which has a strong disposition to become fat, is not, in a 
corresponding degree, deficient in the power of yielding milk. Exceptions will doubtless present themselves in the case of indivi¬ 
dual cows, but these are not sufficiently numerous to invalidate the conclusion arrived at by experience. Constitutional soundness 
is a primary quality in a milching cow, and therefore that species of breeding termed “ in and in,” which consists in joining to- 
