740 
in size, very ill shaped, and altogether destitute 
of some of the best points of cattle character ; but 
their milk is surpassingly rich, and yields more 
butter in proportion to quantity than that of 
any other kind of cows; and partly on this ac- 
count, partly for fashion’s sake, they are gen- 
erally esteemed as occupants of fine parks. Mr. 
Parkinson, speaking somewhat exaggeratingly, 
says, “ They are of as bad a form as can possibly 
be described; the bellies of many of them are 
four-fifths of their weight ; the neck is very thin 
and hollow; the shoulder stands up, and is the 
highest part; they are hollow and narrow be- 
tween the shoulders; the chine is nearly with- 
out flesh; the hucks are narrow and sharp at 
the ends; the rump is short; and they are nar- 
row and light in the brisket.”—“ When viewed 
from behind,” says another writer, “ their body 
appears like two boards nailed together, as thin 
asa lath.” Their skin is very thin and papery; 
their hair is short and smooth; their cast of 
countenance is timid ; and their colour is, for the 
most part, alight-brownish-red, mixed sometimes 
with white, and sometimes with white and dun. 
Short-Horned Cattle—The short-horned cattle 
have, in recent times, acquired much more cele- 
brity than any other breed. Their origin in Bri- 
tain belongs to the counties of York and Durham, 
but is very obscurely known. ‘Toward the close 
of the 17th century, or perhaps at an earlier pe- 
| riod, a bull and some cows, which appear to have 
been one source of the breed, were introduced to 
Holderness from some part of continental Europe 
between Denmark and France. They had large 
shoulders, flat sides, a coarse neck, and a thick 
head ; their coarse parts were too large, and 
their fine points too small; yet they were better 
milkers, larger in size, and more capable of being 
fattened to an enormous bulk than almost any 
other cattle which were then known; and, on 
these accounts, they were esteemed, propagated, 
and intermixed with such of the native cattle as 
most nearly resembled them.—A race of cattle, 
of totally unknown origin, and constituting an- 
other source of the modern short-horns, existed 
from time immemorial within the basin of the 
Tees, on the mutual border of the counties of 
York and Durham, and acquired the appropriate 
name of Teeswater cattle. ‘In colour,” says the 
Rev. Henry Barry, “they resembled what is call- 
ed the improved breed of the present day, except 
that the fashionable roan was not quite so pre- 
valent. They are described in general characters 
also to have differed very little from their de- 
scendants; possessing a fine mellow touch, good 
hair, light offal, particularly wide carcasses, and 
deep fore-quarters. They were also justly cele- 
brated for extraordinary proof when slaughtered, 
—resembling thus closely their descendants of the 
present day. One trifling difference is alone 
| worth recording,—the horns of the old Teeswater 
breed were rather longer, and turned gaily up- 
wards.”—During the latter part of last century, 
CATTLE. 
numerous bulls, which proved a third source of 
the present short-horns—but a source in some 
degree identical with the first—were imported 
to the counties of York and Durham from Hol- 
stein and Holland. The frame of the cattle of 
the present day in Holstein and Holland is supe- 
rior to that of the old Teeswater breed, and some- 
what similar to that of the modern improved 
short-horns, but inferior to the latter in several 
of the best points. The colours of the Dutch, too, 
are black and white, while those of the Teeswater 
were red and white.—Improvements of succes- 
sive stages, but of unrecorded pedigree, were made 
by crossings of the Teeswater with the Dutch 
and the Holstein, till a new and established breed 
was produced, called the Teeswater Short-horns ; 
and this latter breed was afterwards improved, 
by a series of recorded and widely-known cross- 
ings, commencing with the red and white bull 
Studley, belonging to Mr. Sharter of Chilton, till it 
resulted in the present race of Short-horns,—the 
finest and most celebrated breed of cattle now 
pastured in Britain. 
The frame of a thorough-bred fattened short- 
horn, exactly corresponds to the established rules 
respecting rectangularity of outline. “When 
we survey the frame, we have a straight level 
back from behind the horns to the top of the 
tail, full buttocks, and a projecting brisket,—we 
have, in short, the rectangular form; we have 
also the level loin across the hookbones, and the 
level top of the shoulder across the ox, and per- 
pendicular lines down the hind and fore legs on 
both sides, these constituting the square form 
when the ox is viewed before and behind; and 
we have straight parallel lines from the sides of 
the shoulders along the outmost points of the 
ribs to the sides of the hind quarters, and we 
have these lines connected at their ends by 
others of shorter and equal length, across the 
énd of the rump and the top of the shoulder, 
thus constituting the rectangular form of the ox 
when viewed from above down upon the back. 
We have, in this manner, the form of the short- 
horn ox and heifer in perfect accordance with 
the diagrams of the rule.” But the bull very 
perceptibly deviates in an elevation of the neck, a 
dependence under the brisket, and a fulness of the 
neck vein; and the cow, when young, slightly de- 
viates in a thinness in the buttocks,—and, when 
old, considerably deviates in an enlargement of 
the belly, and generally, though not always, in a 
hollowness in the loins. The flesh of the short- 
horn, whether ox, heifer, bull, or cow, is accu- 
mulated and well adjusted in the most valuable 
parts ; the fat of it is in due and even preponder- 
ating proportion to the lean; and the fibres of 
the lean are fine, well mixed or even marbled. 
with fat, and abundantly juicy. The bone of the 
head and the legs is fine, thin, and clean; the 
expression of the eye is calm, pleasant, and com- 
paratively intelligent ; the horns are finely taper- 
ing, and either white or otherwise light coloured ; 
