| with the shipping butchers. 
CATTLE. 
stantly exported, at very low prices, to be fat- 
tened by English graziers. 
The other long-horned Irish breed prevails 
over all the great central plain of Ireland, from 
Dublin away into Connaught, and from the con- 
fines of Ulster away to the centre of Munster; 
it is, in many instances, particularly in the coun- 
ties of Roscommon, Meath, Limerick, and Tippe- 
rary, a breed of great value,—quite worthy to be 
compared to many of the esteemed middle-horns 
of Great Britain; and it appears to have been 
the true or exclusive origin of the long-horns of 
England ; and yet, as at present existing, it has 
acquired material improvement from crossings 
with some of the best long-horns of Lancashire. 
The back of an ox of this breed is straight and 
level; the bones are strong; the flesh is com- 
pactly accumulated; the skin is thick, rather 
hard, and profusely hairy; the shoulders are 
thick ; the expression of the eye and countenance 
is placid; the horns first project outward, then 
form a curve, and then return to the face, threat- 
ening in some instances to pierce the bones of 
the nose, and in others so to pass before the muz- 
| ale as to prevent the animal from grazing; and 
the colour along the back is usually white, and 
athwart the body very various, but chiefly red 
and white blended into a coarse and unpleasant 
roan. The beef is of medium quality, juicy, and 
well-flavoured, but decidedly coarse in the grain ; 
and when well fattened, it is in high request 
The best specimens 
of this breed are usually to be seen in the Smith- 
| field market of Dublin; exported droves of them 
constitute the principal supply of the shambles 
of Liverpool and Manchester; and though never 
preferred by English graziers to Scotch cattle, 
they fatten very rapidly in their own humid cli- 
mate, and on their own rich plains, especially on 
the surpassingly finé pastures of Meath, Roscom- 
mon, and Limerick. “It is perhaps owing to 
fast feeding,’ says Mr. Dickson, “that the grain 
of the flesh is larger, and it is this property which 
makes the meat take so well at Liverpool for the 
shipping. Many are also sent fat to the Glasgow 
market, where the heavy parts, such as shoulders 
and rounds, are salted for hams, that city having 
long been famed for beef hams. The hides of 
these cattle, on account of their thickness, give 
from ten to twenty shillings a-piece more than 
the hides of short-horns of the same weight. 
Upon the whole, they are a useful breed of cattle, 
but they have not the fine quality of the Scottish 
Galloways or the West Highlanders, which take 
so readily in London. But the Irish cattle can 
be brought to great weights. I saw a lot in Dub- 
lin market of five-year olds, which were esti- 
mated in weight 110 stones each, and were sold 
for £32 a-piece.” 
The English long-horns have, from the earliest 
recorded period, existed, as a distinct and pecu- 
liar breed, in the district of Craven,—a part of 
the West Riding of Yorkshire adjacent to Lan- 
cashire, and separated from Westmoreland prin- 
cipally by the western moorlands. JDroves of 
Irish cattle have, from time immemorial, been 
landed in Galloway and in the north of England, 
and driven through Westmoreland and Lanca- 
shire toward the southern counties, there to sup- 
ply the markets of London and other large towns ; 
and some of these, arrested during their pro- 
gress southward, seem to have constituted the 
origin of the long-horns of Craven, Lancashire, 
and Westmoreland. The Craven group appear 
to have become settled before the groups of the 
two adjacent counties; they, at a subsequent 
period, obtained the distinction of being broader 
in the chine, shorter in the body, more symme- 
trical in form, and more rapid in fattening than 
the Lancashire and Westmoreland long-horns; 
and they have been pretty generally regarded as 
the best crossing source for effecting improve- 
ments on all other groups of long-horns, whether 
in Ireland or in England. The long-horns spread 
from their original settlements into most of the 
inland districts of England; and, in a more or 
less modified condition, as well as with a greater 
or less degree of predominance, became the 
adopted cattle of Derbyshire, Cheshire, Notting- 
hamshire, Leicestershire, Rutlandshire, Cam- 
bridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, Northampton- 
shire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Stafford- 
shire, Warwickshire, Shropshire, Worcestershire, 
Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Wiltshire, and Hamp- 
shire; yet, formerly over a great extent of these 
counties, they were both intermixed and crossed 
with the middle-horns; and at present over an 
additional extent, they have become pic reeded 
by the short- horns. 
The long-horns of England, like those of Ire- 
land, are readily discernible from all other breeds 
by the disproportionate length and sometimes 
encumbering form of their horns. 
Craven breed, the horns projected almost hori- 
zontally ; but in the offspring and improved va- 
rieties, they either grew perpendicularly down so 
as to render grazing difficult, or made such cur- | 
vatures as to threaten to meet before the muz- | 
zle, or swept so round as to threaten to lock the | 
under jaw, or turned their points so inward upon | 
the nose or other parts of the face as to seem to | 
be about to pierce them. Most of the present 
English long-horns have long, spreading, and | 
sometimes drooping horns; a dark red and brin- 
dled colour, with white along the back; good — 
coats of hair ; rather coarse bones; fair symmetry; 
a good adjustment of beef along the back ; a capa- 
city of attaining great weight; and a habit of 
both sound and somewhat rapid feeding. But | 
even the Craven group, like the whole of the 
Irish long-horns, though with no such wide dif- 
ference of value, are divisible into two great and 
very distinct sections. The smaller Cravens in- 
habit the moorlands and hills; are hardy and 
easily kept; yield a large produce of excellent 
milk; have a capacity of rapid fattening when 
cat ee 
In the old | 
