ALBERT R. MANN 
 LIBRARY 
 
 New York State Colleges 
 
 OF 
 
 Agriculture and Home Economics 
 
 AT 
 
 Cornell University 
 
SF 197.Y6Tl889"""'"'''-'''"^ 
 '^^iMi'ifi!ii!™i!?.M?f *'®' ""aiagement, and dis 
 
 3 1924 002 927 105 
 
The original of tiiis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924002927105 
 
CATTLE; 
 
 BEEEDS, MANAGEMENT, AND DISEASES 
 BY WILLIAM yOUATT, 
 
 AUTHOR OF " THE HOKSB," " SHUBP," ETC. 
 NBW BVITIOS 
 
 PTTBLISHEC UWDEB THE SUPERINTENDENCE OP 
 
 THE SOCIETY FOB THE DirFUSION OF USEFUL KNOWLEDGE, 
 
 LONDON 
 SIMPKIN", MARSHALL, AND CO., 
 STATIONER'S HALL COURT. 
 1889. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 £n preparing this volume on " Cattle,'' the author has often had reason ta 
 deplore the want of materials, and which he has been enabled to obtain 
 only by correspondence with competent individuals, and the personal in- 
 spection of the present state of cattle, in the greater part of the British 
 empire. To those noblemen and agriculturists from whom he derived 
 information, the more highly estimated by him, because most readily and 
 courteously granted, he begs to return his warmest thanks. His obliga- 
 tion to Mr. Berry, for the admirable history of the Short-Horns, will not 
 be soon forgotten. 
 
 He has endeavoured to lay before the public an accurate and faithful 
 account of the cattle of Great Britain and Ireland. He does not expect 
 to please every one who reads his work or who has contributed towards it ; 
 for long experience has taught him that, although there is some excellence 
 peculiar to each breed, there is none exempt from defect; and the honest 
 statement of this defect will not satisfy the partisan of any one breed, or 
 OF of any variety of that breed. He has passed lightly over the subject of 
 the general management of cattle, in order to avoid trenching on the work 
 on " British Husbandry," now publishing under the superintendence ol 
 the Society. 
 
 The diseases of cattle was a favourite topic with the writer, but here, too, 
 he painfully felt the deficiency of materials for a treatise worthy of such a 
 subject. One branch of veterinary science has rapidly advanced. The dis- 
 eases of the horse are better understood and better treated ; but, owing to 
 the absence of efficient instruction concerning the diseases of cattle in the 
 principal veterinary school, and the incomprehensible supineness of agri- 
 cultural societies, and agriculturists generally, cattle have been too much 
 left to the tender mercies of those who are utterly ignorant of their struc- 
 ture, the true nature of their diseases, the scientific treatment of them, and 
 even the very first principles of medicine. 
 
 With the few practitioners scattered through the country, who had praise- 
 worthily devoted themselves to the study of the maladies of cattle, the 
 author entered into correspondence ; and he derived from them a liberal 
 assistance which does honour to the profession whose character they are 
 establishing. 
 
a PREF'VCK. 
 
 To many of the contributors to that valuable periodical, " The Veterina- 
 rian," he is under considerable obligation, which has been duly and 
 gratefully acknowledged. He has likewise had recourse to various foreign 
 authorities ; for, although far behind us in the cultivation of the breed of 
 cattle, many continental writers, and continental agriculturists generally, 
 have set us a laudable example of attention to the diseases of these 
 animals. 
 
 The author ventures to hope that the information derived from these 
 sources, as well as from his own practice, may have enabled him to lay 
 before his readers a treatise on " Cattle" not altogether unsatisfactory ; 
 and that, particularly with regard to the maladies of the ox, so often grossly 
 misunderstood and shamefully treatea he may have succeeded in laying 
 down some principles which will guiae ,the farmer and the practitioner 
 through many a case heretofore perplexing and almost uniformly fatal. 
 At all events, he will have laid the foundation for a better work, when com- 
 mon sense, and a regard to the best interests of husbandry, shall have 
 induced agriculturists to encourage, or rather to demand 'a higher degree 
 of general education in veterinary practitioners, and shall have founded 
 south of the Tweed, those schools for professional instruction in every 
 branch of the veterinary art which have been successfully established, and 
 are honourably considered on the continent. 
 
 W. YOUATT. 
 
 Nassau Street^ Middlesex Hospital, . 
 London* 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PlUtFACC ... . . . i(< 
 
 Introduction .... 1 
 
 Chapter I.— THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE OX. . S 
 
 His Zoological character — domesticated before the Fload.^fossil bones. 
 
 Chaptkr II.— THE BRITISH OX. . . < 
 
 Nfl satisfactory description of cattle by early writers — The Lancashire and the 
 Devon ox— The ox of central Africa —the baclcley of Southern Africa — the Scotch bull 
 —the Swiss cows — Return *o our native cattle — in the feudal times — occasional wild 
 cattle— those of Chillingham Park — Present cattle classed according to the size of their 
 horns — the middle-horns probably the original breed — they are found where the 
 natives retreated from their invaders — essentially the same wherever found. 
 
 Chapter III.— THE MIDDLE-HORNS. . 11 
 
 The North Devons — The proper form and shape of cattle — the Devons tried by this 
 test — Lord Western's cattle — the Devonshire cow — the working properties of the 
 Devon ox — his disposition to fatten— Experiments — value of the cow for the dairy — 
 attempted crosses^the Vale of Exeter^South Devon cattle — clouted cream — Cornish 
 cattle — principally North Devons— crosses— Dorsetshire cattle— mixture of Devon and 
 Dorset — Somersetshire cattle — ^pure Devous on the borders of Devon — gradual change 
 of character — the old Somersets — the present cattle — Cheddar cheese — The Herefords 
 — description of them — comparison between them and the Devons — fattening proper- 
 ties — experiments — Glouceiterbhire cattle — the old Gloucesters — the present breed 
 in the hilly district — in the vale of Berkeley — crosses — Gloucester cheese — single and 
 double — Sussex cattle — descriptions-comparison with Devons and Herefords — Sussex 
 cow — crosses — West Sussex cattle — Kentish cattle — Wales — general character of the 
 Welsh cattle — Pembrokes — Glamoroans — former character of them — present breed — 
 late improvement — Mr. David's breed — Monmouthshire cattle — Carmahthens — Car- 
 digans — Cattle of Brecknockshire and Radnorshire — Cattle of North Wales — 
 ANaLBSEY cattle— "the passage of the Menai-^rosses — improvements — Welsh tradi- 
 tions — The Carnarvohs — ^The cattle of Merioneth, Montgombhit, Denbigh, Flint, 
 Scotland— the West Highland cattle— ithe Hebrides — Description of the true Kyloe 
 — early anecdotes — Mr. Moorhouse — Hebridean management — The outer Hebrides — 
 the tacksman — Arkan — the Duke of Hamilton's improvements — general management 
 — Bute — Argyleshire — the cattle— rearing— Cantire — dairy-management — Inver- 
 ness — the ferry of Kyie-Rhe^— the shealings— overstocking — the trysts — North 
 Highland cattle — the Shetlandbrs— description — management — the Holmes — the 
 Orkneys — Caithness — Sir John Sinclair's valuable improvements — present character 
 of the cattle — diseases — strange superstitions — Suthebland — introduction of sheep 
 husbandry — different breeds — management — superstitions — Ross and Cromarty — 
 peculiarity of the cattle— Mr.J\Iackenzie's valuable account of Ross — Nairn, Moray, 
 Banff — the Banffshire breed — Lord Findlater's improvements — Aberdeen — descrip- 
 tion of the cattle — the Eintore ox — the ppUed cattle — the Buchan cows — Eincab- 
 diheshire — the Meams ox — the cottar of the present and olden time — Angus — the 
 horned breed — Fife-— description of the cattle — origin ■ — the Durhams in Fife— 
 Perth — character of the cattle — Stiblino — the Carses — David Dun, the Scot- 
 tish Bakewell — Falkirk tryst — Kinross, Clackmannan, Dumbarton — the wintering 
 grounds — the Ayrshires in Dumbarton — their produce — Renfrew — ^Ayrshire — State 
 of the county fifty years ago — present state — cattle — opinions of their origin — their 
 ralue as dairy-cows — ^produce-— -profit — 'boyening — Dunlop cheese — fattening properties 
 of the Ayrshires — management— calves — Lanark — the Strathaven real — the Willow 
 
vi C0NTENT8. 
 
 bank dairy — West Lothian — the cattle — grazing- — Mid-Lothia'N — the original and 
 presettt cattle — the Caledonian dairy — East Lothian — Mr. Rennie's cattle — Rox- 
 
 buuGH Bebwick — the cradle of Scottish agriculture — Mr. Pringle, the first culti. 
 
 vator of turnips in drills — the progress of improvement — Selkikk — ciiange in its cha- 
 racter. 
 
 Chapter IV.— POLLED CATTLE. Page 154 
 
 Galloway — Description of the Galloways — Mr. Mnre's breed — ^his Queen oftheSeots 
 — general excellence of the Gralloways — Dumfiues — the Galloways of a larger size 
 here — Angus — the polled cattle — comparison between them and the Galloways — Jlr. 
 Watson's valuable breed — Norfolk — the original breed horned — source of the present 
 areed — travels of the Galloway cattle — ^fairs — the Earl of Albemarle — Mr. Coke — 
 SuFFOtK — description — extraordinary instances of produce — Devonshike nats— . 
 ToRKSHiBE polls. 
 
 Chapter V;— THE IRISH. CATTLE. I79 
 
 The aboriginal breed middle-horns — the Kerry cow — the prevailing breed were pro- 
 bably the Cravens— Improvement slower in Ireland than in England — Mr. Waller's 
 improvements in Meath — Lord Masserene — Lord Farnham — the Earl of Rosse — Sir 
 H. V. Tempest — Mr. ConoUy — modern improvers — exportation of Irish cattle — 
 cattle salesmen — Irish butter. 
 
 Chapter VI.— THE LONG-HORNS. 188 
 
 Originally from Craven — the larger and smaller breed — early improvers — the black- 
 smith of Linton — Sii: Thomas Gresley — Mr. Webster — Bloxedge — Robert Bakewell 
 — his principles — his success — anecdotes — errors of his successors — Tw()])ennv — Mr. 
 Fowler — Shakspeare — Description of D — Mr. Fowler's sale — Mr. Priusep — Mr. 
 Mundy — Description of the improved Leicestersi — strangely rapid deterioiation and 
 disappearance of them — Westmoreland — Lancashire — the native breed now rarely 
 
 seen — crosses — introduction of short-horns — Mr. Kirk's long-horns — Dekb^shihe 
 
 description of cattle — Cheshire breed injured by the introduction of short-horns 
 
 management of the dairy — Cheshire cheese — Nottinghamshire — Leicestershire 
 
 Rbti.and — Huntingdon — Cambridge — Cambridge butter — Northampton Bed. 
 
 FORD— experiments at Woburn— Buckinghamshiue— Berkshire— Himpshire 
 —crosses — Isle of Wight— Wiltshire— the long-horns almost extinct — crosses ofall 
 kinds — cheese — Oxfordshire — Warwickshire — Worcestershire Stafford- 
 shire — the old Staffords— the Stafifords of the present day — introduction of the short, 
 horns — Shbopshire — the old Shropshires — the present breed. 
 
 Chapter VII.— THE SHORT-HORNS. 226 
 
 Description of the old breed — Sir W. Quentin — Mr. MiVuank Mr. C. Colling 
 
 history of his purchase of Hubback— Favourite— the Durham ox— cross with the polled 
 
 Galloway — Bolingbroke— Johanna— Lady— prices fetched by Lady's progeny sale of 
 
 Mr. C. Ceiling's stock— Mr. R. Colling— sale of his stock — Mr. Change of Newton 
 
 Mr. Mason of Chilton — Mr. G. Coates's Short-Horn Herd-Book ^history of remark- 
 able short-horns — Lord Altliorp a successful breeder — the milking properties of the 
 improved short-horn undervalued — not calculated for work — Lord Althorp'a bull 
 Firby— The improved Yorkshire cow— she unites the two qualitibs — quantities of 
 milk yielded by her— description of her — Cumberland— Mr. Bates first crossed the 
 
 Kyloe with the short-horns — Mr. Maynard's experiments — Yorkshire North 
 
 -Riding once occupied by black cattle alone — succeeded by the old Holderness crossed 
 
 with the improved breed — West Riding — every variety of cross in it Mr. Mitton's 
 
 Badsworth — East Riding — Lincolnshire — the unimproved Lincolns the Turn- 
 ills — the present improved Lincolns — the Lincolnshire ox — Essex the calf-feeding 
 
 the dairy — Epping butter— Epping sausages— Middlesex— Booth's establishment 
 
 Et Brentford— the number of cattle sold in Smithfield— how supplied cnielties prac. 
 
 tised there — the number of cows kept in London — the milk-business Laycock's dairr 
 
 — Rhodes's dairy — Surrt. ' 
 
 Chapter VIII.— THE FOREIGN BREEDS OF CATTLE. 266 
 
 The Alderney— quantity and excellence of milk,, fattens readily—Najore cattle 
 —buffalo ai>d Indian cattle. 
 
CONTENTS. tn 
 
 Ch*ptbr IX.— the structure AND DISEASES OF THE HEAD OF 
 
 THE OX. , . . Page 271 
 
 The skeleton — the head — shortness and breadth of forehead in the bull — fine email 
 
 head in the female< — extent of frontal sinuses — inflammation of them — the horns 
 
 history of their growth — treatmeoit of fracture of them — age as indicated by the 
 horns — tricks — manufacture of beautiful horns — the distinguishing character of the 
 different breeds — influence of sex — horned Galloways — comparison between the 
 homed and hornless cattle — uses of horn — The brain, smaller than in the horse — 
 intelligence of cattle — peculiar conformation of the brain and spinal marrow — The 
 ear — difference of in different cattle — diseases of — ^The eye — fracture of the orbit 
 — wounds — tumours — The eyelids — eruption on them — enlargement of haw — in- 
 flammation of the eye — cataract — gutta serena — cancer^— Fracture of the skull — Hyda- 
 tids in the brain — water in the head — apoplexy — inflammation of the brain — locked 
 jaw^ — epilepsy — palsy — rheumatism — tail-slip-^neurotomy — madness. 
 
 Chapter X.— THE ANATOMY, USES, AND DISEASES, OF THE NOS- 
 TRILS AND MOUTH. . . 308 
 
 The nasal bones — sense of smelling more acute than the horse — bleeding from the 
 nose — leeches in it — polypus — coryza — glanders — farcy — The bones of the mouth — the 
 lips — the bars of the mouth — the pad teeth in the upper jaw — the teeth— the age in- 
 dicated by them — the long tongue of the ox — the os hyoides — gloss-anthrax or WaiuT- 
 thrush in the mouth — the glands and blood-veosels of the neck — the parctid gland- 
 barbs or paps — the soft palate — the pharynx. 
 
 Chapter XI.— ANATOMY AND DISEASES OF THE NECK ANP CHEST. 338 
 
 The muscles of tne neck and chest — the crest of the bull — form and size of the neck 
 — arteries of the neck — bleeding — the fleam preferred — ^bleeding places-^the milk-vein 
 with reference to bleeding— The heart — ^inflammation of its bag — the bone of the hearli 
 — the pulse — the capillary vessels — inflammation — Fever — inflammatory fever — quar- 
 ter^vil — black quarter — typnus lever — tne vems — varicose veins — The structure and 
 form of the chest — the brisket — indications of its different forms — The ribs — proper 
 form and direction of — the spine — reasons of its difference from that of the horse— 
 the larynx — the round curled form of the epiglottis — the windpipe — tracheotomy — 
 the sweetbread — the bronchial tubes — catarrh or hoove — epidemic catarrh — the maJig- 
 nant epidemic — ^murrain— long account of the epidemics of different times — sore 
 throat — inflammation of the pharynx — puncturing the pharynx — bronchitis — multi- 
 tude of worms often found in the air-passages — bronchitis in Jamaica — inflammation 
 of the lungs— -acute pneumonia — epidemic ditto— pleurisy— ^dironic pleurisy — con- 
 nunption — ^importance of recognizing the peculiar cough of consumption. 
 
 Chaptek XII. — THE STRUCTURE AND DISEASES OF THE GULLET 
 AND STOMACH. . . 414 
 
 The peculiar structure of the gullet of ruminants — choking — the cesophagus-probang 
 —stricture of the gullet — rupture of ditto— the cesophagean canal — the rumen or paunch 
 — the reticulum or honeycomb — the manyplus or manifolds — the abomasum or fourth 
 Stomach — the oesophagean canal continued'>-the muscular pillars of its floor — they 
 yield to a solid substance — circumstances under which fluids pass over them into 
 the third and fourth stomachs, or between them into the rumen — the food macerated 
 in the rumen — ^passes through all the compartments of it — thrown into the reticulum 
 — its honeycomb structure — the pellet formed — forced into the oesophagean canal— ^ 
 reascends the gullet — ^remasticated — returned — passes along the canal into the many- 
 plus — the leaves of the nianyplus — the fibrous parts of the food — indigestible substances 
 in the paunch — concretions in ditto — distention of the rumen from food— ditto from 
 gas — hoove — the stomach-pump — the chloride of lime — loss of cud— poisons— yew- 
 corrosive sublimate — diseases of the reticulum — diseases of the manyfolds — clew- 
 bound — fardel-bound — malformation of manyplus — diseases of the fourth stomach— 
 romiting. 
 
 CHAPTEa XIII.— THE ANATOMY AND DISEASES OF THE SPLEEN, 
 LIVER, AND PANCREAS. . . 457 
 
 Anatomy and function of the spleen — inflammation ot it — enlargement — The liver 
 ^■inflammation of ii;_^ii«.*«rt™i.-~^ ^z.z.z,^lv^ ^^ ^v^mOws — The pancreas. 
 
C0NTKNT5, 
 
 Chapter XIV —THE ANATOMY AND DISEASES OF THE INTESTINES. 4t;« 
 
 The duodenum — jejunum — ileum^zecum — colon — rectum — enlargement of the 
 mesenteric glands — inflammation of the bowels — wood evil — moor ill — diarrhoea— -dy- 
 tentery — ^inflammation of the duodenum — colic — stranf^ulation — the cords or gut- tie — 
 introsuaception — inversion of the rectum— constipation — calculi — worms — dropsy — 
 hernia or rupture. 
 
 (Jhapteb XV.— the urinary ORGANS AND THEIR DISEASES. 503 
 
 The kidneys — red water — black water — ^inflammation of the kidneys — the ureters — 
 the bladder — urinary calculi — stone in the kidney — ureters — bladder — urethra — rup- 
 ture of the bladder — inversion of ditto. 
 
 Chapter XVI.- BREEDING— PARTURITION. . 522 
 
 The principles of breeding — ^like produces like— comparative influence of sire and 
 dam — suitableness to the soil and climate — utility — good feeding — ^how far in and in — 
 Abortion or slinking — symptoms of pregnancy — treatment before calving — natural 
 labour — the ergot of rye — mechanical assistance — unnatural presentation — free-mar 
 tins — the Caesarian operation — embryotomy — inversion of the womb— rapture of ditto 
 ' — protrusion of the bladder — retention of the fcetus — attention after calving — the 
 cleansing — flooding— dropping after calving — puerperal or milk fever — sore teats — 
 garget. 
 
 Chapter XVII.— THE DISEASES AND MANAGEMENT OF CALVES, 65? 
 
 Navel il. — constipation — diarrhcea — hoove — castration— French method of castration. 
 
 Chapter XVIII.— THE DISEASES OF THE MUSCULAR SYSTEM AND 
 THE EXTREMITIES. S62 
 
 Rheumatism — swellings of the joints — ulcers about the joints — opened joints— 
 rpraius — diseases of the feet — foul in the feet — shoeing. 
 
 Chapter XIX.— THE DISEASES OF THE SKIN. 570 
 
 Structure of the skin — sensible and insensible perspiration — ^hide-bound — mange- 
 leprosy — lice — warbles — angle-berries — warts. 
 
 Chapter XX —A LIST OF THE MEDICINES USED IN THE TREAT- 
 MENT OF THE DISEASES OF CATTLE. 677 
 
 jEthiop's mineral — aloes — alteratives — alum — ammonia — anodynes — antimonial pow 
 der — bluevitriol — butyrof antimony-antispasmodics — astringents — blisters — calamine 
 — calombo — calomel — camphor — cantharides — carraways — castor oil — catechu — caustics 
 — chalk — chamomile — charges— chloride of lime — clysters — cordials — corrosive subli- 
 mate — croton — diaphoretics — digitalis — diuretics ^drinks — elder — emetic tartar- 
 Epsom salts — fomentations — gentian — ginger — Glauber's salts — Goulard's extract—, 
 hellebore, black — iodine — ipecacuanha — ^laudanum — linseed — linseed oil — lunar caustic 
 ^mashes — mercurial ointment — mint — myrrh — nitre — ^pitch — poultices — ergot of rya 
 —common salt — setons — spirit of nitrous ether — spirit, rectified — sugar of lead — sul- 
 phur — tar — tonics — turpentine, common — turpentine, spirit of — vinegar — white lead 
 — white vltrioL 
 
 \* An error exists as to the numbering of some of the Chapters in the body of the 
 wock, but the reference to the pages in which the respective subjects are contidend 
 is hare correct. 
 
CATTLE. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Ir this volume o: ' The Farmer's Series' is devoted to the history, 
 general management, and medical treatment of an animal Jess connected 
 with our commerce and our pleasure, and less endowed with intelligence 
 and courage, and many a noble quality, than ' the horse,' we shall yet find 
 in 'cattle,' a subject more identified with our agricultural prosperity, and 
 with the comforts, and the very continuance of life. If an ox is not indi- 
 vidually so valuable as a horse, yet, in the aggregate, cattle constitute a 
 much greater proportion of the wealth of the country ; for although Great 
 Britain contains a million and a half of horses, she has to boast of more 
 tlian eight millions of cattle, unrivalled in the world. 
 
 One hundred and sixty thousand head of cattle are annually sold in 
 Smithfield alone, without including calves, or the dead-market — the car- 
 casses sent up from various parts of the country. If we reckon this to be a 
 tenth part of the cattle slaughtered in the United Kingdom, it follows that 
 1,600,000 cattle are sent to the butcher every year ; and, averaging the iifci 
 of the 01 or the cow at five years, the value of British cattle, estimated at 
 10/. per head, will be eighty millions sterling. 1.200,000 sheep, 3(i,000 
 pigs, and 18,000 calves, are also sent to Smithfield in the course of a 
 year, and if we reckon these to be a tenth of the whole number, and 
 allow only two years as the average duration of the lives of sheep 
 and pigs,, and value the calves at 21, 10s. each, the pigs at 21., and 
 the sheep at 1/. 10s., we shall arrive at the additional sum of nearly 
 forty millions ; so that we may safely compute the actual value of cattle, 
 sheep and swine, to be nearly 120 millions sterling. 
 
 Although much has been done by agricultural societies to improve the 
 breed and the general treatment of these animals, and much valuable in- 
 struction is to be found scattered in many a volume, no one has yet at- 
 tempted to collect these fragments of ' useful knowledge,' and to add to 
 them his own experience ; and in one very important part of our subject, 
 there has been the most unaccountable neglect, for there is scarcely in 
 the English language a work on the preservation of the health, and 
 the prevention and cure of the diseases, of cattle and sheep, on which 
 any dependence can be placed." Although a tenth part of the sheep 
 and' lambs die annually of disease (more than four millions perished by 
 the rot alone in the winter of 1829 — 30), and at least a fifteenth part 
 of the neat cattle are destroyed by inflammatory fever and milk-fever, 
 red water, hoose and diarrhiRa ; and the country incurs a loss of nearly 
 ten millions of pounds annually^ 'the agriculturist knows not where to 
 ^'1 for informatipn on the nature and th; cure of the maladies of whit 
 
» CATTLE. 
 
 tney die } and is either driven to confide in the boasted skill of the 
 ignorant pretender, or makes up his mind that it is in vain to struggle 
 against the evils which he cannot arrest, and lets matters take their course. 
 
 There are two great sources of the mortality of cattle and sheep, and the 
 loss of agricultural property, and it is difhcult to say which is the worst, 
 —the ignorance and obstinacy of the servant and the cowleach, or the 
 ignorance and supineness of the owner. 
 
 Veterinary schools, that owed their origin to the ravages of epidemics 
 among cattle, and that were established for the express purpose of teaching 
 ' a more systematic knowledge of the management of sheep and cows,' have 
 shamefully neglected their trust. The horse has gradually absorbed the 
 whole of their attention; he alone has been heard of in the lectures and 
 practice of these schools ; and, until within a very few years, the best 
 veterinary practitioner was uneducated and uninformed in matters re- 
 lating to cattle. 
 
 A great deal has been written in different books respecting the pecu- 
 liarities of the different breeds, and their adaptation to different purposes, 
 and the points which may be said to be characteristic of each, and on 
 which their excellence mainly depends : but the opinions of the writers are 
 often too much at variance with each other; and the farmer too frequently 
 rises from the perusal of them puzzled rather than instructed, and even 
 led astray from his interest instead of being guided in its pursuit. 
 
 The subject of the present work will be the Natural History, the different 
 Breeds, the Structure, (more particularly with reference to their beauties 
 and defects,) the utility for various purposes, and the Diseases, and 
 General Management of Cattle, with their most rational and successful 
 treatment; and if we may be enabled to rouse the farmer to strive, and 
 perhaps successfully strive, to rescue a few of his oxen from that destruction 
 of which he has been an almost passive spectator ; and to direct his at- 
 tention, — the attention of the little farmer, and the cottager, as well aE> 
 the wealthier and more influential individual, — to that which should not 
 have been so long and so utterly neglected, our main and most valuable 
 purpose will be accomplished. 
 
 Chapter I. 
 THE NATURAL HISTOHY OF THE OX. 
 
 The Ox belongs to the class tnatnrnalia, animals having mammse, or teats 
 (see ' The Horse,' p. 62) ; the order ruminantia, ruminating, or chewing 
 their food a second time ; the tribe bovidee, the ox kind ; the genus bos, 
 the ox, the horns occupying the crest, projecting at first sideways, and 
 being porous or cellular within ; and the sub-genus boa taurus, or the 
 domestic ox. 
 
 Distinguished according to their teeth, they have eight incuors, or cuttin" 
 teeth, in the lower jaw, and none in the upper. They have no tusks, bi!t 
 they iave six molars, or grinding teeth, in each jaw, and on each side. 
 
 "The whole would, therefore, be represented as follows: — (see 'The 
 Horse.'p. 63):— 
 
 The ox, incisors f, canines g, molars f:|. Total, 30 teeth. 
 
 The na'.ive country of the oji, reckonmg from the time of the flood, wui 
 
TOE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE OX. 3 
 
 the plains of Ararat, and he was a domesticated animal when he iasueil 
 From the ark. He was found wherever the sons of Noah migrated, for he 
 was necessary to the existence of man ; and even to the present day, 
 wherever man has trodden, he is found in a domesticated or wild state. 
 The earliest record we have of the ox is in the sacred volume. We are told 
 that, even in the antediluvian age, and soon afler the expulsion from 
 Eden, the sheep had become the servant of man; and the inference is nof 
 improbable, that the no less useful ox was subjugated at the same time. 
 It is recorded, that Jubal, the son of Lamech, and who was probably 
 horn during the life-time of Adam, was the father of such as dwell in tents, 
 and of such as have cattle*. 
 
 Being domesticated before the flood, the ox would not be neglected by 
 Noah and his sons afterwards ; and as the families of men spread abroad 
 afler the confusion of tongues, the ox would be carried with them, as con- 
 stituting one of the most valuable portions of their wealth. When Abra- 
 ham was in Egypt t, one hundred and eighty years before there is any 
 mention of the horse, Pharoah presented him with sheep and oxen. 
 
 The records of profane history confirm this account of the early domes- 
 tication and acknowledged value of this animal, for it was worshipped by 
 the Egyptians, and venerated among the Indians. The Indian legends 
 say that it was ' the first animal that was created by the three kinds- of 
 gods, who were directed by the Supreme Lord to furnish the earth with 
 animated beings.' The traditions of every Celtic nation enrol the cow 
 among the earliest productions, and represent it as a kind of divinity. 
 
 The parent race of the ox is said to have been much larger than any of 
 the present varieties. The Urus, in his wild state at least, was an enor- 
 mous and fierce animal, and ancient legends have thrown around him an air 
 of mystery. In almost every part of the Continent, and in every district 
 'of England, skulls, evidently belonging to cattle, have been found, far 
 exceeding in bulk any now known. There is a fine specimen in the 
 British Museum : the peculiarity of the horns will be observed, resembling 
 smaller ones dug up in the mines of Cornwall, preserved in some 
 degree in the wild cattle of Chillingham Park, and not quite lost in our 
 'native' breeds of Devon and East Sussex, and those of the Welsh moun- 
 tains and the Highlands. The combat of Guy, Earl of Warwick, with the 
 'dun cow, the skull of which is yet preserved in the castle of Warwick, 
 will suflSciently prove the comparatively large size of some of the wild cattle 
 of that day. We have reason, however, to believe that this referred more 
 to individual's than to the character of the breed generally, for there is 
 no doubt that, within the last century, the size of the cattle has progres- 
 sively increased in England, and kept pace with the improvement of 
 agriculture. 
 
 We will not endeavour to follow the migrations of the ox from Western 
 Asia, nor the change in size, and form, and value, which it underwent, ac- 
 cording to the difference of climate and of pasture, as it journeyed on 
 towards the west, for there are no records of this on which dependence can 
 be placed ; (the historians of early days were poor naturalists ;) but we 
 will proceed to the subject of the present work, the British Ox. 
 
 * Oen. iv. aO. f Gen. zii. 16. 
 
CATTLK 
 
 Chapter II. 
 
 THE BRITISH OX. 
 
 In the earliest and most authentic account that we possess of the British 
 Isles, the Commentaries of Cassar, we learn that the Britons possessed great 
 numbers of cattle ; that they comparatively neglected the plough, and lived 
 on the flesh and the milk of these animals. The fondness for this kind of 
 food, on account of which foreigners sometimes attempt to ridicule the 
 Englishman, is inherited from ancestors of the remotest date. No satis- 
 factory description of these cattle occurs in any ancient author ; but they 
 would seem, with occasional exceptions, to have possessed no great bulk or 
 beauty. The poets have celebrated the intelligence, or fidelity, or some 
 interesting quality of almost every species of agricultural property but 
 the heavy and seemingly stupid ox, — not so uninteresting, however, 
 as many have imagined him to be, when he is closely observed, and his 
 habitg and capabilities watched. 
 
 Cattle are like most other animals, the creatures of education and cir- 
 cumstances. We educate them to give us milk, and to acquire flesh and fait. 
 There is not much intelligence required for these purposes. It fares with 
 the ox, as with all our other domesticated dependents, that when he has lost 
 the wild freedom of the forest, and beconie the slave of man, without ac- 
 quiring the privilege of being his friend, or receiving instruction from him, 
 instinct languishes, wittiout being replaced by the semblance of reason. 
 But when we press him into our imniediale service, — when he draws our 
 cart and ploughs our land, — he rapidly improves upon us ; he is, in fact, 
 altogether a different animal: when he receives a kind of culture at our 
 hands, he seems to be enlightened with a ray of human reason, and 
 warmed with a degree of human a^^ection. The Lancashire and the 
 Devonshire ox seem not to belong to the sanie genus. The one has 
 just wit enough to find his way to and from his pasture ; the other rivals 
 the horse in activity and docility, and often fairly beats him out of the field 
 in stoutness and honesty in work. He is as ei^sily broken in, and he equals 
 him in attachment and gratitude to his feeder. 
 
 It is, however, in other countries where the services of the ox are more 
 extensive, and his education more complete, that we are to look for that 
 development of intellect, which his sluggish nature would scarcely promise 
 here. Burchell, in the 1st voL of his Travels into the Interior of Africa, 
 p. 128, says : — 
 
 ' These oxen are generally broken in for riding, when they are not more 
 than a year old. The first ceremony, is that of piercing their nose to re- 
 ceive the bridle ; for which purpose they are thrown on their back, and a 
 slit is made through the septum, or cartilage between the nostrils, large 
 enough to admit a finger. In this hole is thrust a strong stick stripped ut 
 its bark, and having at one end a forked bunch to prevent it passing 
 through. To each end of it is fastened a thong of hide, of a length 
 sufficient to reach round the neck and form the reins ; and a sheep skin, 
 with the wool on, placed across the back, together with another folded up, 
 and bound on with a rein long enough to pass several times round the 
 body, constitutes the saddle. To this is sometimes added a pair of stirrups, 
 consisting only of a thong with a loop at each end slung across the sad- 
 dle. Frequently ,he loops are distended by a piece of wood to form au 
 
THE BRITISH OX. » 
 
 easier rest for the foot. While the BDimal's nose is still sore, it is mounted, 
 and put in training, and hd a week or.two is generally rendered sufficiently 
 obedient to its rider. The facility and adroitness with which the Hottea' 
 tots manage the ox has ofien excited my admiration : it is made to walk, 
 trot, or gallop, at the will of its master } and being longer-legged and 
 rather more lightly made than the ox in England, travels with greater eafff 
 and expedition, walking three or four miles in an hour, trotting five, ana 
 galloping on an emergency seven or eight.' 
 
 Major Denham, in bis Travels into Central Africa, gives the following 
 amnsing account of some of these excursions : — 
 
 ' The beasts of burden used by the inhabitants, are the bullock and the 
 ass. A very fine breed of the latter are found in the Mandara valleys. 
 Strangers and chiefs in the service of the sheikh or sultan alone possess 
 camels. The bullock is the bearer of al) the grain and other articles to and 
 from the markets. A small saddle of plaited rushes is laid on him, when 
 sacks made of goat skins, and filled with corn, are lashed on his broad and 
 able back. A leather thong is passed through the cartilage of his nose, 
 and serves as a bridle, while on the top of the load is mounted the owner, 
 his wife, or his slave. Sometimes die daughter or the wife of a rich 
 Shouaa will be mounted on her particular bulloeky and precede the loaded 
 animals, extravagantly adorned with amber, silver rings, coral, and all 
 sorts of finery ^ hei' hair streaming with fat, a black rim of kohal, at least 
 an inch wide, round each of her eyes, and I may say arfayed for conquest 
 at the crowded market. Carpet or robes are then sipread on her clumsy pal- 
 fry, — she sits jambe de fa,jamhe de 2d,-^aad with considerable grace guides 
 her animal by the nose. Notwithstanding the peaceableness of his nature, 
 her vanity still enables her to torture him into something like caperings 
 and curvetings.' 
 
 It is, however, in the soothem part of Africa that the triumph of the ox 
 is complete. His intelligence seems to exceed anything that we have seen 
 of the horse, and he is but little inferior to that most sagacious of all 
 quadrupeds, the dog. Among the Hottentots, these animals are their do- 
 mestics, and the companions of their pleasures and fatigues ; they are both 
 the protectors and the servants of the Cafire, and assist him in attending 
 his flocks, and guarding them against every invader. While the sheep are 
 grarang, the faithful backely, as this kind of oxen is called, stands and 
 grazes beside them. Still attentive, however, to the looks of its master, 
 the hackdy flies round the field, obliges the herds of sheep that are 
 straying to keep within proper limits, and shows no mercy to robbers, 
 who attempt to plunder, nor even to strangers : but it is not the plun- 
 derers of the flock alone, but even the enemies of the nation, that these 
 baekelies are taught to combat. Every army of Hottentots is furnished' 
 with a proper herd of these creatures, which are let loose against the 
 enemy. Being thus sent forward, th^ overturn all before them ; they 
 strike down with their horns, and trample with their feet, every one who 
 attempts to oppose them, and thus oflea procure their masters an easy 
 victory, before they have began to strike a blow. 
 
 ' An animal so serviceable is, as may be supposedv not without its re- 
 ward. The backely Uves in the same cottage with its master, and by long 
 habit gains an affection for himi; for in proportion as the man approaches 
 to the brute, so the brute seems to attain even to the same share of human 
 sagacity. The Hottentot and his backely thus mutually assist each 
 other ; and when the latter happens to die, a new one is chosen to succeed 
 bim. by a council of the old men of the village. The new backely is then 
 'gained with one of the veterans of his own kind, from whom he learns his 
 
6 CATTLE. 
 
 art, becomes social and diligent, and is taken for life into human friendship 
 and protection.' — Illustrations of Natural History, p. 88 
 
 There is a well-authenticated story of a Scotch bull, which shows similar, 
 but not equal sagacity. 'A gentleman in Scotland, near Laggan, had a 
 bull which grazed with the cows in the open meadows. As fences are 
 scarcely known in that part, a boy was kept to watch, lest the cattle should 
 .trespass on the neighbouring fields, and destroy the corn. The boy was 
 tat and drowsy, and was often found asleep ; he was, of course, chastised 
 whenever the cattle tres^jassed. Warned by this, he kept a long switch, 
 and with it revenged himself with an unsparing hand, if they exceeded 
 their boundary. The bull seemed to have observed with concern this con- 
 sequence of their transgress'on, and as he had no horns, he used to strike 
 the cows with his large forehead, and thus punish them severely, if any of 
 them crossed the boundary. In the mean time he set them a good 
 example himself, never once straying beyond the forbidden bounds,, and 
 placing himself before the cows in a threatening attitude if they ap- 
 proached them. At leng*h his honesty and vigilance became so obvious, 
 that the boy was employed in weeding, and other business, without fear 
 of their misbehaviour in nis absence.' — Instinct Displayed, Letter 34. 
 
 Captain Cochrane, in his Travels in Colombia, vol. ii. p. 251, places 
 them in another, and not uninteresting point of view: * I was suddenly 
 aroused by a most te rific noise, a mixture of loud roarings and deep 
 moans, which had the ost appalling effect at so late an hour. I imine- 
 diately went out, attended by the Indians, when I found close to the 
 rancha, a large herd of bullocks collected from the surrounding country ; 
 they had encompassed the spot where a bullock had been killed in the 
 morning, and they appeared to be in the greatest state of grief and rage 
 they roared, they moaned, they tore the ground with their feet, and bel- 
 lowed the most hideous chorus that can be imagined, and it was with the 
 greatest difficulty they could be driven away by men and dogs. Since 
 then, I have observed the same scene by daylight, and seen large tears 
 rolling dcwn their cheeks. Is it instinct merely, or does something 
 nearer to reason tell them by the blood, that one of their companions 
 has been butchered ? I certainly never again wish to view so painful a 
 sight : — they actually appeared to be reproaching us.' 
 
 If cattle exhibit son e of the good qualities of superior animals, or even 
 of man himself, they likewise have some of his failings. Vanity forms as 
 distinguishing an attribute of the female of this species, as of some other.s. 
 The account of the Swiss cows is not a little amusing, although we be- 
 lieve that it is somewhat exaggerated : — 
 
 ' In the Swiss Canton of Appensell, pasturage being the chief employr 
 ment of the inhabitants, the breeding of cattle, and the subsequent manage- 
 ment of the dairy, are carried to the greatest perfection. The mountaineer 
 lives with his cows in a perpetual exchange of reciprocal acts of kindness; 
 the latter affording almost every requisite he needs, and in return they 
 are provided for, and cherished by him, and sometimes more so than his. 
 own children. They are never ill-treated nor beaten, for his voice is suffi- 
 cient to guide and govern the whole herd, and there reigns a perfect cor- 
 diality between them. 
 
 ' In the Alps, the fine cattle are the pride of their keepers, who adorn 
 the best of them with an harmonious set of bells, chiming in accordance 
 with the celebrated ram des vaehes. The finest black cow is adorned 
 with the largest bell, and the two next in appearance wear smaller ones., 
 Early in the spring, when they are removed to the Alps,or to some change, 
 ot pasture, he dresses himself in all his fiaery, and proceeds alons 
 
THK BRITISH OX. » 
 
 singling the ranz des taches, foHowed by three or four fine goats : next 
 comes the finest cow adorned with the great bell, then the other two with 
 the smaller bells, and these are succeeded by the rest of the cattle walking 
 one ailer another, and having in their rear, the bull with a one-legged 
 milking stool on his horns, while the procession is closed by a sledge 
 bearing the dairy implements. 
 
 * It is surprising to see the pride and pleasure with which fhe cows stalk 
 forth, when ornamented with their bells. One would hardly imagine that 
 these animals are sensible of their rank, and affected by vanity and jealousy ; 
 and yet if the leading cow is deprived of her honours, she manifests her 
 disgrace by lowing incessantly, and abstaining from food, and losing con- 
 dition. The happy rival on whom this badge of superiority has devolved, 
 becomes the object of her vengence, and is butted, and wounded, and per- 
 secuted by her in the most furious manner, until she regains her bell, or is 
 entirely removed from the herd.' — lUvstrations of Natural History, p. 72. 
 
 Having thus somewhat vindicated the intellectual power and worth nf the 
 subject of our work, we return to the agricultural state of the country when 
 the Romans invaded Britain. Ceesar tells us, thut the Britons neglected 
 tillage, and lived on milk and flesh ; and other authors corroborate this 
 account of the early inhabitants of the British Islands. It was that occu- 
 pation and mode of life which suited their state of society. The island 
 was divided into many petty sovereignties ; no fi^^ed property was secui;e ; 
 and that alone was vali^able, which might be hurried away at the threatened 
 approach of an invader. Many centuries after this, when, although one 
 sovereign seemed to reign paramount over the whole of the kingdom, there. 
 continued to be endless contests among the feudal barons, and still that 
 property alone was valuable which could be secured within the walls of the 
 castle, or driven beyond the invader's reach, an immense stock of pro- 
 visions was always stored up in the various fortresses, both for the vassals. 
 and the cattle ; or it was contrived that the latter should be driven to the 
 demesnes of some friendly baron, . or concealed in some inland recess. 
 When the winter had passed over in the castle of one of the Despencers, 
 and the usual stock of provisions was comparatively exhausted, there yet 
 remained in salt in the latter part of the spring, no fewer than eighty oxen, 
 six hundred bacons, and six hundred sheep. 
 
 When, however, the government became more powerful and settled, 
 and property of every kind was proportionably secured, as well as more 
 equally divided, the plough came into use ; and those agriauljoKal pro 
 ductions were oftener cultivated, the reaping of which was sure after the- 
 labour of sowing had been expended. Cattle were now comparatively 
 neglected, and for some centuries injuriously so. Their numbers dimi- 
 nished, and their size appears to have diminished too; and it. is only, 
 within the last fifly years that any serious and successful efforts have been 
 made materially to improve them. 
 
 In the comparative roving and uncertain life which our escrtier and later 
 ancestors led, their cattle would sometimes stray and be lost. The country 
 was then overgrown with forests, and the beasts betook themselves to the 
 recesses of these woods,. and became wild, and sometimes ferocious. They 
 by degrees grew so numerous, as to be dangerous to the inhabitants of 
 the neighbouring districts. One of the chronicles informs us, that many 
 of them harboured in the forests in the neighbourhood of the metropolis 
 Strange stories are told of some of them, and doubtless, when irritated,. 
 they were fierce and dangerous enough. As, however, civilization ad- 
 vanced, and the forests became thinned and cotttracted, these animals were 
 
8 CATTLE. 
 
 seldomer seen, and at length almost disappeared. A tew of them yet re- 
 main in Chatelherault Park, belonging to the Duke of Hamilton, in La- 
 narkshire ; and in the park of Chillingham Castle in Northumberland, the 
 seat of the Earl of Tankerville. They are thus described in the lattei 
 place by Mr. Culley, in his valuable observations on live stock :^ 
 
 * The wild breed, from being untameable, can only be kept within walls 
 or good fences, consequently very few of them are now to be met with, 
 except in the parks of some gentlemen, who keep them for ornament, and 
 as a curiosity. Those I have seen are at Chillingham Castle, in 
 Northumberland, a seat belonging to the Earl of Tankerville. Their 
 colour is invariably of a creamy white, muzzle black ; the whole of the 
 inside of the ear, and about one-third of the outside, from the tips down- 
 wards, red ; horns, white, with black tips, very fine, and bent upwards , 
 some of the bulls have a thin upright mane, about an inch and a half or 
 two inches long. The weight of the oxen is from thiriy-five to forty-five 
 stone, and the cows from twenty-five to thirty-five stone the four quarters 
 (fourteen pound to the stone). The beef is finely marbled, and of excellent 
 flavour. From the nature of their pasture, and the frequent agitation 
 they are put into by the curiosity of strangers, it i» scarcely to be expected 
 they should be very iat ; yet the six years old oxen are generally very 
 good beef; from whence it may be fairly siq>posed, that in proper srtuations 
 they would feed well. 
 
 ' At the first appearance of any person they set off in full gallop, and, 
 at the distance of about two hundred yards, make a wheel round, and 
 come boldly up again, tossing their heads in a menacing manner ; on a 
 sudden they make a full stop at the distance of forty or fifty yards, looking 
 wildly at the object of their surprise ; but upon the least motion being 
 made, they all again turn round, and fly off with equal speed, but not to 
 the same distance, forming a shorter circle, and again returning with a 
 bolder and more threatening aspect than before ; they approadi much 
 nearer, probably within thirty yards, when they again make another 
 stand, and then fly off: this they do several times, shortening their di»< 
 tance, and advancing nearer and nearer, till they come within such a 
 short distance, that most people think it prudent to leave them, not 
 choosing to provoke them further. 
 
 ' The mode of killing them was perhaps the only remains of the gran- 
 deur of ancient hunting. On notice being given that a wild bull would 
 3e killed on a certain day, the inhabitants of the neighbourhood came 
 mounted and armed with guns, &c., sometimes to the amount of an 
 hundred horse, and four or five hundred foot, who stood upon walls, or 
 got into trees, while the horsemen rode off the bull from the rest of the 
 herd until he stood at bay, when a marksmen dismounted and shot. At 
 some of these huntings twenty or thirty shots have been fired before he 
 was subdued. On such occasions the bleeding victim grew desperately 
 furious, from the smartings of his wounds and the shouts of savage joy 
 that were echoing on every side. But, from the number of accidents 
 that happened, this dangerous mode has not been practised of late years ■ 
 the park-keeper alone generally shooting them with a rifle gun at one 
 shot. 
 
 * When the cows calve, they bide their calves for a week or ten days in 
 some sequestered situation, and go and suckle tliem two or three times 
 a day. If any person come near the calves, they clap their heads close 
 to the ground, and lie like a hare in form, to hide themselves : this is a 
 proof of their native wildness, and is corroborated by the following cir- 
 
THE BRITISH OX. 9 
 
 eiimstance that happened to Mr. Bailey, of Cbillingham, who found a 
 hidden calf, two days old, very lean, and very weak ; on stroking its head 
 it got up, pawed two or three times like an old bull, bellowed very loud, 
 stepped back a few steps, and bolted at his legs with all its force ; it 
 then began to paw again, bellowed, stepped back, and bolted as before ; 
 but knowing its intention, and stepping aside, it missed him, fell, and 
 was so very weak, that it could not rise, though it made several efforts ; 
 but it had done enough. The whole herd were alarmed, and, coming to 
 its rescue, obliged him to retire ; for the dams allow no person to touch 
 their calves without attacking them with impetuous ferocity. When any 
 one happens to be wounded, or is grown weak and feeble through age 
 or sickness, the rest of the herd set on it and gore it to death.' 
 
 The breeds of cattle, as they are now found in Great Britain, arc 
 almost as various as the soil of the different districts, or the fancies of the 
 breeders. They have, however, been very conveniently classed according 
 to the comparative size of the horns : — the long hom.s, originally, so far 
 as our country is concerned, from Lancashire, much improved by Mr. 
 Bahewell of Leicestershire, and established through the greater part of 
 the midland counties ; — the short horns, originally from East York, im- 
 proved in Durham, mostly cultivated in the northern counties and in Lin- 
 colnshire, and many of them found in every part of the kingdom where the 
 former attends much to his dairy, or a large supply of milk is wanted ;— 
 and the middle hornst not derived from a mixture of the two preceding, 
 but a distinct and valuable and beautiful breed, inhabiting principally the 
 north of Devon, the East of Sussex, Herefordshire, Gloucestershire ; and, 
 of diminished bulk, and with somewhat different eharaeter, the cattle 
 of the Scottish and the Welsh mountains. The Alderney, with hei 
 crumpkd horn, is found on the southern coast, and, in smaller numbers, 
 in gentlemen's parks and pleasure-grounds everywhere ; while the polle'd, 
 or hornless cattle, prevail in Suffolk and Norfolk, and in GaUoway, whence 
 they were first derived. 
 
 These, however, have been intermingled in every possible way. They 
 are found pure only in their native districts, or on the estates of some 
 opulent and spirited individuals. Each county has its own mongrel breed, 
 often difficult to be described, and not always to be traced — neglected 
 enough, yet suited to the soil and to the cUmate ; and, among little 
 farmers, maintaining their station, and advantageously maintaining it, 
 in spite of attempts at supposed improvements by the intermixture or 
 substitution of foreign varieties. 
 
 The character of each, so far as it can be described, and the relative 
 value of each for breeding, grazing, the dairy, or the plough, will, be con- 
 sidered before we inquire into the structure or general and medical treat- 
 ment of cattle. Much dispute has arisen as to the original breed of British 
 cattle. The battle has been stoutly fought between the advocates of the 
 middle and the long horns. The short horns and the polls can have no 
 claim ; the first is evidently of foreign extraction, and the latter, although 
 U has existed in certain districts from time immemorial, was probably an 
 accidental variety. 
 
 We are very much disposed to adjudge the honour to the * middle 
 horns.' The long horns are evidently of Irish extraction, as in due place 
 we shall endeavour to show. 
 
 Britain has shared the fate of other nat'ons, and, oflener than them, 
 although defended by the ocean on every side, she has been overrun 
 and subjugate^ by ferocioun invaders As the natives retreated before the 
 
10 CATTLE. 
 
 foe, they carried with them some portion of the wreck of their property 
 We have stated that their property, in early times, consisted prineipallj 
 in cattle. They naturally drove along with them as many as they could 
 when they retired to the fortresses of North Devon and Cornwall, or the 
 more mountainous regions of Wales, or when they took refuge even in the 
 wealds of East Sussex ; and there retaining all their prejudices and cus- 
 toms and manners, they were jealous of the strict preservation of thai 
 which principally reminded them of their native country before it had 
 yielded to a foreign yoke. 
 
 In this manner probably was preserved the ancient breed of British 
 cattle. Difference of climate gradually wrought some change, and par- 
 ticularly in their bulk. The rich pasture of Sussex fattened the ox of that 
 district into his superior size and weight. The plentiful but not so luxu- 
 riant herbage of the north of Devon produced a somewhat smaller and 
 more active animal, while the occasional privations of Wales lessened the 
 bulk and thickened the hide of the Welsh runt. As for Scotland, it, in a 
 mannrr, set its invaders at defiance ; or its inhabitants retreated for a 
 while, and soon turned again on their pursuers. They were proud of their 
 country, and proud of their cattle, their choicest possession ; and there, 
 ton, the cattle were preserved, unmixed and undegenerated. . 
 
 Thence it resulted, that in Devon, in Sussex, in Wales, and in Scot- 
 land, the cattle has been the same from time immemorial ; while in all 
 the Eastern coast, and through every district of Britain, the breed of cattle 
 degenerated, or at least lost its original character : it consisted of a variety 
 of animals, brought from every neighbouring aiid some remote districts, 
 mingled in every possible variety, yet generally conforming itself to the 
 soil and the climate. 
 
 The slightest observation will convince us that the cattle in Devon 
 shire, Sussex, Wales, and Scotland, are essentially the same. They are 
 middle-horned; tolerable, but not extraordinary milkers, and remarkable 
 for the quality rather than the quantity of their milk ; active at work ; 
 and with an unequalled aptitude to fatten. They have all the cha- 
 racters of the same breed, changed by soil and climate and time, yet 
 little changed by the intermeddling of man. We may almost trace the 
 colour, namely, the red of the Devon, the Sussex, and the Hereford ; and 
 even where the black alone are now found, the memory of the red 
 prevails; it has a kind of superstitious reverence attached to it in the 
 legends of the country ; and in almost every part of Scotland, and in 
 some of the mountains of Wales, the milk of the red am is considered' 
 to be a remedy for every disease, and a preservative from every evil 
 Every one who has had opportunities of comparing the Devon cattle 
 with the wild breed of Chatelherault Park, or Chillingham Castle lias 
 been struck with the great resemblance in many points, notwith'stand- 
 ing the difference of colour, while they bear no likeness at all to the cattle 
 of the neighbouring country. 
 
 For these reasons we consider the middle horns to be the native breed 
 of Great Britain, and they shall first pass in review before us. 
 
w 
 
 Chapter III, 
 
 THE MIDDLE HORNS. 
 
 'Int. ftiioaiion of Devonshire, at nearly the western extremity of tht 
 kingdom, nnd the undeniable fact, that one of the varieties of the middle 
 horns is there found in a state of the ^eatest purity, render it the best 
 as well as the most convenient point whence to start. 
 
 DEVONSHIRE. 
 
 The north of Devon has been long celebrated for a breed of cattle beautiful 
 in the highest degree, and in activity at work and aptitude to fatten un> 
 rivalled. The native country of the North Devons, and where they are 
 foiind in a state of the greatest purity, extends from (he river Taw west- 
 ward, skirting along the Bristol Channel ; the breed becoming more 
 mixed, and at length comparatively lost before we arrive at the Farrett. 
 Inland it extends by Barnstaple, South Molton, and Chumleigh, as fair aa 
 Tiverton, and thence to Wellington, where again the breed becomes unfre- 
 quent, or it is mixed before we reach Taunton. More eastward the 
 Somersets and the Welsh mingle with it, or supersede it. To the south 
 there prevails a larger variety, a cross probably of the North Devon with 
 the Somerset ; and on the west the Cornish cattle are found, or conta- 
 minate the breed. The true and somewhat prejudiced Devonshire man 
 confines them within a narrower district, and will scarcely allow them to 
 be found with any degree of purity beyond the boundaries of his native 
 county. From Portlock to Biddeford, and a little to the north and the 
 south, is, in his mind, the peculiar and only residence of the North Devon. 
 
 From the earliest records the breed has here remained the same ; or if noi 
 quite as perfect as at the present moment, yet altered in no essential point 
 until within the last thirty years*. That is not a little surprising when it 
 is remembered that a considerable part of this district is not a breeding 
 country, and that even a proportion, and that not a small one, of Devon- 
 shire cattle, are bred out of the county. On the borders of Somerset and 
 Dorset, and partly in both, extending southward from Crewkerne, the 
 country assumes the form of an extensive valley, and principally supplies 
 the Exeter market with calves. Those that are dropped in February and 
 March, are kept until May, and then sold to the drovers, who convey 
 them to Exeter. They are there purchased by the Devonshire farmers, 
 who keep them for two or three years when they are sold to the Somerset-, 
 shire graziers, who fatten them for the London market ; so that a portion 
 of the North Devon, and of the very finest of the breed, come from Somer- 
 set and Dorset. 
 
 The truth of the matter is, that the Devonshire farmers were, until; 
 nearly the close of the last century, not at all conscious that they possessed 
 any thing superior to other breeds ; but, like agriculturists everywhere else, 
 they bought and bred without care or selection. It is only within the last 
 fifty or sixty years that any systematic efforts have been made to im- 
 prove the breeds of cattle in any part of the kingdom ; and we must 
 acknowledge, that the Devonshire men, with all their advantages, and 
 with such good ground to work upon, were not the first to stir, and, 
 
 * Lord Somerville, a name justly esteemed among agriculturists, and an excellent 
 ju Ige of cattle, and who, from his residence in the county, may be supposed to be well 
 aciiuainted with the excellencies and defects of this breed, gives a long and very ac- 
 curate and interesting account of them in the Aiinals of Agriculture, to vlii'h wa 
 vould refer the isader. ' 
 
I a CATTLE. 
 
 for some lime, were not the most zealous when they were loused to 
 exertion. They are indebted to the nature of their soil and climate for 
 the beautiful specimens which they possess of the native breed of our 
 island, and they have retained this breed almost in spite of themselves. 
 
 A spirit of emulation was at length kindled, and even the North 
 Devons have been materially improved, and brought to such a degree 
 of perfection, that, take them for all in all, they would suffer from inter- 
 mixture with any olher breed. 
 
 Before, however, we attempt to describe the peculiarities of this, or any 
 other breed, it may be proper to give a short sketch of the proper form 
 and shape of cattle. Whatever be the breed, there are certain conforma- 
 tions which are indispensable to the thriving and valuable ox or cow. 
 When we have a clear idea of these, we shall be able more easily to form 
 an accurate judgment of the breeds of the different counties as they pass 
 before us. If there is one part of the frame, the form of which, more 
 than of any Other, renders the animal valuable, it is the chest. There 
 must be room enough for the heart to beat, and the lungs to play, or 
 sufficient blood for the purposes of nutriment and of strength will not be 
 circulated ; nor will it thoroughly undergo that vital change, which is 
 essential to the proper discharge of every function. We look, therefore, 
 first of all to the wide and deep girth about the heart and lungs. We 
 must have both : the proportion in which the one or the other may pre- 
 ponderate, will depend on the service we require from the animal ; we 
 can excuse a slight degree of flatness of the sides, for he will hi lighter in 
 the forehand, and more active ; but the grazier must have width as well 
 as depth. And not only about the heart and lungs, but over the whole 
 of the ribs, must we have both length and roundness ; the hooped, as well 
 as the deep barrel is essential ; there must be room for the capacious 
 paunch, room for the materials from which the blood is to be provided. 
 The beast should also be ribbed home ; there should be little space be- 
 tween the ribs and the hips. This seems to be indispensable in the ox, 
 as it regards a good healthy constitution, and a propensity to fatten ; but 
 a largeness and drooping of the belly is excusable in the cow, or rather, 
 notwithstanding it diminishes the beauty of the animal, it leaves room for 
 the udder ; and if it is also accompanied by swelling milk veins, it gene- 
 rally indicates her value in the dairy.' 
 
 This roundness and depth of the barrel, however, is most advantageous 
 in proportion as it is found behind the point of the elbow, more than be- 
 tween the shoulders and legs ; or low down between the legs, rather than 
 upwards towards the withers : for it diminishes the heaviness before, and 
 the comparative bulk of the coarser parts of the animal, which is always 
 a very great consideration. 
 
 The loins should be wide : of this there can be no doubt, for they are the 
 prime parts ; they should seem to extend far along the back : and although 
 the belly should not hang down, the flanks should be round and deep. 
 Of the hips it is superfluous to say that, without being ragged, they 
 should be large; round rather than wide, and presenting, when" handled 
 plenty of muscle and fat. The thighs should be full and long, close toge- 
 ther when viewed from behind, and the farther down they continue to be 
 so the better. The legs short, varying like other parts according to the 
 destination of the animal ; but decidedly short, for there is an almost in- 
 separable connexion between length of leg and lightness of carcase and 
 shortness of leg and propensity to fatten. The bones of the legs', and 
 they only being taken as a sample of the bony structure of the frame 
 generally, should be small, but not too small — small enoiigh for the well- 
 
THE NCSXB DEVON CATTLE. 
 
 a 
 
 « nowu accompaniment a propensity to fatten— small enough to please 
 the consumer; but not so small as to indicate delicacy of constitution, 
 and liability to disease. 
 
 Last of all the hide — the most important thing of all^thin, but not so 
 thin as to indicate that the animal can endure no hardship ; moveable, 
 mellow, but not too loose, and particularly well covered with fine and soft 
 hair. We shall enter more fully and satisfactorily into this subject in the 
 proper place j but this bird's-eye view may be useful. We return to the 
 Devonshire cattle. 
 
 [7%r Devon Bull.] 
 
 The more perfect specimens of the North Devon breed are thus dis- 
 tinguished. The horn of the hull ought to be neither too low nor too high, 
 tapenng at the points, not too thick at the root, and of a yellow or waxy 
 colour. The eye should be clear, bright, and prominent, showing much of 
 
 [The U'urkiug Pevon Oj:\ 
 
•» CATTLE. 
 
 llie white, and itou§:ht to have around it a circle of a variable colour, hut 
 .usually a da rki orange. / The forehead should be flat, indented, and small' 
 for by the smallness of the forehead, the purity of the breed is very mucl 
 f estimated. The cheek should be small, and the muzzle fine : the nose 
 .should be of a clear yellow. A black muzzle is disliked, and even a 
 mottled one is objected to by some who pretend to be judges of the true 
 Devon. The nostril should be high and open : the hair curJed about 
 the head, and giving, at first appearance, an idea of coarseness which soon 
 wears' ofl The neck should be thick, and that sometimes almost to a fault. 
 
 Excepting in the head and neck the form of the bull does not materially 
 differ from that of the ox, but he is considerably smaller. There are some 
 exceptions, however, to this rule, and as an illustration of this, we have 
 inserted (p. 13) the portrait of a pure Devon bull (belonging to Mr. 
 Western), falher of the ox and the cow delineated at pages 16 and 
 17. We may fancy that we trace in this singular and noble animal, the 
 lineaments of the native, and scarcely reclaimed British bull. 
 
 The head of the ox is small, very singularly so, relatively to the bulk of 
 the animal, yet it has a striking breadth of forehead. It is clean and free 
 from flesh about the jaws; The eye is very prominent, and the animal has 
 a pleasing vivacity of countenance plainly distinguishing it from the 
 heavy aspect of many other breeds. Its heck is long and thin, admirably 
 adapting it for the collar, and even for the more common and ruder yoke. 
 
 The want of the beautifully arched form Of the neck, which is seen in 
 the horse, has been considered as a defect in most breeds of cattle. 
 It is accounted one of the characters of good cattle, that the line of ihe 
 neck from the horns to the withers should scarcely deviate from that 
 of the back. In the Devonshire ox, however, there is a peculiar rising 
 of the forehand, reminding us not a little of the blood-horse, and essen- 
 tially connected with the free and quick action by which this breed 
 has ever been distinguished. It has little or no dewlap depending 
 from its throat. The horns are longer than those of the bull, .smaller 
 and fine even to the base, and of a lighter colour, and sometimes 
 tipped with yellow. The animal is light in the withers ; the shoulders 
 a little oblique ; the breast deep, and the bosom open and wide, par- 
 ticularly as contrasted with the fineness of the withers. The fore-leo-s 
 are wide apart, looking like pillars that have to support a great vireiglit. 
 The point of the shoulder is rarely or never seen. There is no projection 
 of bone as in the horse, but there is a kind of level line runnino- on" to the 
 neck. 
 
 These are characteristic and important:, points. Angular bony pro- 
 jections are never found in a beast that carries much flesh and fat. The 
 fineness of the withers, the slanting direction of the shoulder, and the 
 broad and open breast, imply both strength and speed, and aptitude to 
 fatten. A narrow-chested animal can never be useful either for workino- 
 or grazing. 
 
 With all the lightness of the Devonshire ox, there is a point about him 
 disliked in the blood or riding-horse, and not always approved in the horsfl 
 ')(' light draught, — the legs are far under the chest, or rather the breast 
 projects far and wide before the legs. We see the advantage of this in 
 the beast of slow draught, who rarely breaks into a trot, except when he is 
 goaded on in catching times, and the division of whose foot secures 
 him from stumbling. The lightness of the other parts of his form, how- 
 ever, counterbalances the appearance of heaviness here. 
 
 The legs are straight, at least in the best breeds. If they are in-kneed 
 or crooked In the fore-leg-s. it argues a deficiency in blood, and comparative 
 
THE NORTH DEVON CATTLE. 15 
 
 iiK a,jacity for work ; and" not only for worlv, but for grazing too, for they wil. 
 'be hollow behind the withers, a point for which nothing can compensate, 
 because it takes away so much from the place where gobc) flesh and fat 
 'should be thickly laid on, and diminishes the capacity of the chest and 
 ' the power of creating arterial and nutritious blood. 
 
 The fore-arm is particularly large and powerful. It swells out suddenly 
 above the knee, but is soon lost in the substance of the shoulder. Below 
 the knee the bone is small to a very extraordinary degree, indicating a 
 seeming of want of strength ; but this impression immediately ceases, for 
 the smallness is only in front — it is only in the bone : the leg is deep, and 
 the sinews are far removed from the bone. It is the leg of the blood-horse, 
 promising both strength and speed*. It may perhaps be objected that 
 the leg is a little too long. It would be so in an animal that is destined 
 'only to graze ; but this is a working animal, and some length of leg is ne- 
 cessary to get him pleasantly and actively over the ground, 
 ' There is a very trifling fall behind the withers, but no hollownesn, and the 
 line of the back is straight from them to the setting on of the tail. If 
 -there is any seeming; fault in the beast, it is that the sides are a little too 
 "flat. It will ajipear; however, that this does not interfere with feeding, 
 while a deep, although somewhat flat chest is best adapted for speed. 
 
 Not only i& the breast broad and the chest deep, but the two last 
 ribs are particularly bold and prominent, leaving room for the stomachs 
 and other parts concerned in digestion ti. be fully developed. The hips, 
 or buckles, are high, and ona level with the back, whether the beast is fat 
 or lean. The hind quarters, or the space from the buckle to the point >of 
 the rumpi are particularly long, and well filled up — a point likewise of 
 very considerable importance both for grazing and working. It leaves 
 room for flesh in the most valuable part, and, like the extensive and 
 swelling quarters of the blood-horse, indicate much power behind, equally 
 'connected with strength and speed. This is an improvement quite of 
 ' modern date. The fulness here, and the swelling out of the thigh below, 
 are of much more consequence than the prominence of fat which is so 
 much admired on the rump of many prize cattle. 
 
 The setting on of the tail is high ; it is on a level with the back ; rarely 
 much elevated, and never depressed. This is another great point in the 
 blood-horse, as connected with the perfection of the hind quarters. The tail 
 itself is long and small, and taper, with a round bunch of hair at the bottom. 
 
 The skin of the Devon, notwithstanding his curly hair, is exceedingly 
 
 * It is sometinies not a little amusing to observe the seeming contrariety of opinio 
 between excellent judges of cattle, and that on the very essential points uf their conibrnii 
 tion ; and yet, when the matter is properly explained, the slight shade of difference there i» 
 between them. We have now lying before us letters from two very skilful Devonshire 
 farmers. They have been so obliging as to give us their opinion as to the points of the 
 Devonshire ox. One insists upon that, on which we confess we should lay very great 
 stress, and without which we should reckon any beast almost valueless, tiamely, small 
 bones under the knee, and a clean neck and throat. This gentleman we have the pleasure 
 of knowing; he has been improving the size and weight of the Devonshire ox, anxiously 
 preserving these points : nay, we know that he did steal a cross from one of the finest-boneu 
 and lightest Herefords he could procure. The other has sound principles of breeding, 
 but he is a man of the old school : he had been educated in the belief that what he calls 
 CO.. 'r-iR nevons are unrivalled, and he would deem it a kind of sacrilege to debase their 
 mood by a cross with any other breed ; yet experience has yet taught him, in spite of all 
 his prejudices, and although he will not own it, that the old Devons have their faults, and, 
 among them, too much flatness of chest and general lightness ; he is, beside, a tillac^e 
 fanner. He tells us that he does not like a fine neck, because it is accompanied by too 
 narrow and light a breast, and that he dues like large bones, because they will carry more 
 meat. Why, these gentlemen were, in a measure, both right, but their obsei-vutiuni 
 I jfurred to cattle, which although Dcvohs, were essentially dineient. 
 
16 
 
 CATTLE. 
 
 mellow juid elastic. Graziers know that there is not a more important 
 point than this. When the skin can be easily raised tiom the hips, it 
 shews that there is room to set on fat below. 
 
 The skinJs thin rather than thick. Its appearance of thickness arises 
 from.the curly hair with which it is ieoy«red, and curly in proportion to 
 the condition and health of the auimaL IJood judges of these cattle 
 epeak of these curls as running like little ripples of wind on a pond of 
 water. Some of these cattle iiave the hair smooth, but then it should 
 be fine and glossy. Those with curled hair are somewliat more hardy, and 
 fatten more kindly. The favourite colour is a blood red. This is supposed 
 to indicate purity of breed ; but there are jnany good cattle approaching 
 almost to a chestnut hue, or even a bay'brown. If the eye is clear and 
 good and the skin mellow, the paier colours will bear hard work, and 
 fatten, as well as others ; but a beast with a pale skin, and hard under the 
 hand, and the eye dark and dead, will be a sluggish worker, and an un- 
 profitable feeder. Those, however, that are of a yellow colour* are said 
 to be subject to steal (diarrhoea). 
 
 Some breeders object to the slightest intermixture of white-^npt even 
 a star upon the forehead is allow^ ; yet a few good oxen have large dis- 
 tant patches of white ; but if the colours run into each other, the beasts 
 are condemned as of a mongrel and valueless breed. 
 
 These are the principal points of a good. Devonshire ox ; but he used 
 to .be, perhaps he is yet, a little too flat-sided, and the rump narrowed 
 too rapidly behind the hip bones ; he was not sufficiently ribbed home, or 
 there was too much space between the hip bones and the last rib ; and 
 altogether he was too light for some tenacious and strong soils. The cut 
 of the working ox, in page 13, contains the portrait of one formerly 
 belonging to the Duke of Bedford. It embodies almost every good point 
 of which we have spoken. 
 
 Mr. Western has kindly enabled us here to add another portrait from 
 his farm. It is a son of the bull given at page 13, and is a faithful repre- 
 sentation of an ox beginning to fatten, but his characteristic points not 
 yet concealed. Mr. Western has carefully preserved this breed unmixed 
 for the last thirty years, and all the cattle that he fattens are Devons ; 
 he larely uses them for the plough. 
 
THE NORTH DEVON CATTLE. 11 
 
 A selection from the most perfect animals of the true breed, — the bona 
 Btill small and the neck fine, but the brisket deep and wide, and down to 
 \he knees, and not an atom of flatness all over the side — or one cross, and 
 only one with the Hereford, and that stealthily made, — these have improved 
 the strength and bulk of the North Devon ox, without impairing, in the; 
 slightest degree^ his activity, his beauty, or his propensity to fatten * 
 
 There are few things more remarkable about the Devonshire cattle than 
 the comparative smallness of the cow. The bull is a great deal less than 
 the ox, and the cow almost as much smaller than the bull. This, how- 
 ever, is some disadvantage, and the breeders are aware of it ; for, although 
 it may not be necessary to have a large bull, and especially as those ol 
 any extraordinary size are seldom handsome in all their points, but some- 
 where or other' present coarseness or deformity, it is almost impossible to 
 procure large and serviceable oxen, except from a somewhat roomy cow. 
 These cows, however, although small, possess that roundness and projec- 
 tion of the two or three last ribs, which make them actually more roomy 
 than a careless examination of them would indicate. The cow is particu- 
 larly distinguished for her full, round, clear eye, the gold coloured circle 
 round.the eye tnd the same colour p'revailing on the inside skin of tha 
 ear. The countenance cheerful, the muzzle orange or yellow, but the 
 rest of the face having nothing of black, or even of white about it. The 
 jaws free from thickness, and' the throat free from dewlap. The points 
 of the back and' the hind quarters different from those of other breeds, 
 having more of roundness and beauty, and being free from most of those 
 angles by which good milkers are sometimes distinguished. 
 
 We are here enabled to present our readers with the portrait of a cow, 
 
 * In the ' Annals of Agriculture/ vol. xxx., p. 314, ve have the opinion, in somewhat 
 provincial terms, of a gooi} west-countiy glazier, respecting the Wst form of the Devon 
 cattle. ' He huys at all times, from Christmas to May-day, North Devons, that are bred 
 from Fortlock to Biddeford, such as are five or six years old. He chooses such as are 
 •mall-horned, and'of a yellow-coloured horn rather than white — small bones, as such 
 beasts thrive,best>j— rib bones round, not flat — a thick, hide had — a very thin one objec- 
 tipnable — ^blade- bones, chuck-^very thick and heavy in the bosom, as much' weight lies 
 lKBre-:-the heaviet in the shoulder the better, but not to elbow ou^ — ^very wide and square 
 from the points down to the thighs — middling in the belly — not cow-bellied— not tucked" 
 ui>.' As a crazier he is lizht ; but this is not the true working Dovoushiie ox. 
 
 G 
 
18 CATTLE. 
 
 belonging to that indefatigable agriculturist, Mr. Weston. She was rising 
 four years old. With regard to size she is a favourablfe specimen of the 
 Bevon cow. It will be seen at once how much more roomy and fit for 
 breeding she is, than even her somewhiat superior bulk would at first in- 
 dicate. She is, perhaps, in a little better condition than cows generally 
 are, or should be, in order to yield their full quantity of miJk. 
 
 Their qualities may be referred to three points ; their working, fattening, 
 and milking. 
 
 Where the ground is not too heavy, the Devonshire oxen are unrivalled 
 at the plough. , They have a quickness of action which no other breed 
 can equal, and which very few horses exceed. They have also a degree 
 of docility and goodness of temper, and also stoutness and honesty of 
 work, to which many teams of horses cannot pretend. Vancouverj, in his 
 survey of Devonshire, says, that it is a common day's work on fallow land 
 for four steers to plough two acres with a double-furrow plough. Four 
 good Devonshire steers will do as much work in the field, or on the road, 
 as any three horses, and in as quick, and often quicker, time, although 
 many farmers calculate two oxen to be equal to one horse. The principal 
 objection to the Devonshire oxen is, that they have not sufficient strength 
 for tenacious clayey soils: they will, however, exert, their strength to the 
 utmost, and stand many a dead pull, which few horses could be induced 
 or forced to attempt. They are uniformly worked in yokes, and not in 
 collars. Four oxen, or six growing steers, are the usual team employed 
 in the plough. 
 
 There is a peculiarity in driving the ox team, which is very-pleasing to 
 the stranger, and the remembrance of which, connected with his early days, 
 the native does not soon lose. A man and a boy attend each team; the 
 boy> chants that which can scarcely be regarded as any distinct tune, but 
 whiah is. a very pleasing succession of sounds, resembling- the counter- 
 tenor in the service of the cathedral. He sings away with unwearied lungs, 
 as he trudges aJlong,, almost from morning to night, while every now and 
 ' thea the ploughman,, as he- directs the movement of the team, puts in his 
 lower notes, biit in perfect, concord. When the traveller stops iu one of the 
 Devonshire valleys, and hears this simple music from the drivers of the 
 ploughs on the slope of the hill on either side^ he experiences a pleasure 
 which this operation of husbandry could scarcely be supposed to be capable 
 of affording. This chanting is said to animate the oxen somewhat in the 
 same way as the musical bells that are so prevalent in the same county. 
 Certainly the oxen move along with an agility that would be' scarcely ex- 
 pected, from cattle ; and the team may be watched a long while without one 
 haF.sh word being heard, or the goad or the whip applied. The opponents 
 of ox-husbandry should -visit the valleys of north or south Devon, to see 
 what this animal is capable of performing, and how he performs, it., 
 
 The profit derived from the use of oxen in this district arises from' the 
 activity to which they are trained, and which is unknown in any other part 
 of the kingdom. During harvest time, and in catching wfiather, they are, 
 sometimes trotted along with the empty waggons, at the sate of six miles 
 an hour, a degree of speed which no other ox but the Devon has been able 
 to stand. 
 
 It may appear singular to the traveller, that in some of the districts that 
 are supposed to be the very head-quarters of the Devon cattle, they are 
 seldom used for the plough. The explanation, however, is plain enough. 
 The demand for them among graziers is so great, that the breeders obtain 
 a remunerating price for them at an earlier age than that at which they aro 
 generally broken in for the plough. 
 
THE NORTH DEVON CATTLE; IS 
 
 They are usually taken into work at about.two years, or tvreuty-six months 
 old ; and they, are worked until they are four, or five, or six : they are then 
 grazed, or kept on hay, and in ten or twelve months, and without any fur- 
 ther trouble, they are fit for the market. If the grass land is good, no 
 corn, or cake, or turnips, are required for the first winter; but, of course, 
 fur a second winter these must be added. The grazier likes this breed 
 best at five years-old, and they will usually, when taken from the plough, 
 fetch as much money as at six. At eight, or nine years, or older they are 
 rapidly declining in value. 
 
 Lord Somervilfe states, that afler having been worked lightly on the 
 hills for two years, they are bought at four years old by the tillage-farmer 
 of the vales, and taken into hard work from four to six ; and, what deserves 
 consideration, an ox must be thus worked, in order for him to attain his 
 fullest size. If he is kept idle until he is five or six, he will invariably be 
 stinted in his growth. At six he reaches his full staturp, unless he is naturally 
 disposed to be of more than ordinary size, and then he continues to grow 
 for another half-year. 
 
 Their next quality is their disposition to fatten, and very few rival 
 them here. They do not, indeed, attain the great weight of some breeds ; 
 but, in a given time, they acquire more flesh, and with less consumption of 
 food, and their flesh is beautiful in its kind. It is of that mottled, marbled 
 character so plbasing to the eye, and to the taste. Some very satis- 
 factory experiments have been made on this point. 
 
 Mr. Carpenter, a very intelligent farmer, informs us, that the Duke of 
 Bedford, who has considerable property in the county of Devon, had some 
 prime Hereford oxen sent to his Tavistock estate in the month of April, 
 and he ordered some Devons to be bought in Crediton market at the 
 latter end of the same month. The Devons were not in so good con- 
 dition as the Herefords when they were put to grass, and cost about bl. 
 per head less than the Herefords ; but at the latter end of December, 
 when they were all sold to the butcher, the Devons were superior in fat- 
 ness and in weight. 
 
 A more satisfactory experiment was made by the same nobleman. Six 
 oxen were selected in Novembeij 16, 1797, and fed until December 10, 
 1798, and the following was the result. 
 
 Pint weight. Second weight. Gained, Zocr oil c^Iie. Turnipe. Ha; 
 
 cwL an. ibf. owt, qni. Iba, eff t. qn. lbs. or stone. lbs. lbs. lbs, 
 
 1 Hetefotd . . 17 1 18 3 1 'i 2,7 24.3^ 3700 487 
 
 2 Do. . . 18 1 21 25 2 3 25 41.5 423 2712 432 
 
 3 Devon . . 14 1 7 17' 2 7 3 1 Q 45.4 438 2668 295 
 
 4 D». . . 14 2 4 19 1 4 2 14 64,6; 412 2056 442 
 
 5 Sussex . 16 2 19 3 3 10 45.4 432 2655 392 
 
 6 Leicester . 13 2 14 18 2 2 3 14 40.2 434 2652 400 
 
 An experiment of the same nature was made, in order to compare the fat- 
 tening properties of the Glamorgan with the Devon. They were fed from 
 January* 6,, to December 1, 1S04, and the following was the result. 
 
 Gala, 
 
 wt. on. Ibi. erstoa«i 
 
 4 2 Qi 63 
 
 4 3 2 67 
 
 3 3 18 54.6 
 
 We are aware that other experiments have been iUstitutedi and with diffei- 
 ent resuhs. One was made about the same time at Petworth,.by the- Earl of 
 Egremont. Eight oxen consisting of three Herefords, three of the Sussex 
 
 C 2 
 
 
 F'nt waight 
 
 
 
 cirt. qn. lbs. 
 
 cwt. qrs, Ibe. 
 
 I Devon . 
 
 .13 1-7 
 
 17 3 7 
 
 2 Do. 
 
 .16 10 
 
 20 3 14 
 
 3 Glamorgui 
 
 . 13 3 
 
 16 14 
 
20 CATTLE. 
 
 breed, and three Devoiis, were put up to fat. They were allowed only six 
 teen weeks, they had not the trial nearly of a twelvemonth, as in the Duke 
 of Bedford's experiment, and the Devons were found to be lowest on the 
 list, and that to a very considerable extent. These Devons, altlioujrh 
 selected fairly enough, were probably exceptions to their general character 
 for rapid thriving. We are, however, compelled to add, that the Duke 
 of Bedford has, to a considerable extent, changed his breed at Woburn, 
 and the Devons have, in a great degree, given way to the Herefords*. 
 
 The North Devon oxen are rarely shod, and very rarely lamef. 
 
 For the dairy, the North Devons must be acknowledged to be inferior 
 to several other breeds. The milk is good, and yields more than an aver- 
 age proportion of cream and butter ; but it is deficient in quantity. There 
 are those, however, and no mean judges, who deny this, and select the 
 North Devonsj even for the dairy. 
 
 Mr. Conyers, of Copt Hall, near Kpping, a district almost exclusively 
 devoted to the purposes of the dairy, preferred the North Devons 
 on account of their large produce, whether in milk, butter, or by 
 suckling. He thought that they held their milk longer than any other 
 sort that he had tried ; that they were liable to fewer disorders in their 
 udders ; and that being of small size, they did not eat more than half 
 what larger cows consumed. He thus sums up his account of them : 
 * Upon an average, ten cows give me five dozen pounds of butter per 
 week in the summer, and two dozen in the winter. A good North Devon 
 cow fats two calves a year. My thirty North Devon cows have this year 
 (about 1788) upon an average produced a profit of 131. Us. per cow.' 
 
 Mr. Rogers, veterinary surgeon at Exeter, and to whom we are in- 
 debted for some valuable hints, says that the quality of the milk is good, 
 and the quantity remunerating to the dairyman. Such is not, however, the 
 common opinion. They are kept principally for their other good qualities, 
 in order to preserve the breed ; and because, as nurses, they are indeed 
 excellent, and the calves thrive from their small quantity of milk, more 
 rapidly than could possibly be expected. 
 
 This aboriginal breed of British cattle is a very valuable one, and seems 
 to have arrived at the highest point of perfection of which it is capable 
 It is heavier than it was thirty years ago, yet fully as active. Its aptitude 
 
 • Of the extent to which prejudice will mislead the hest judges, we have a remarkable 
 instance in one of the most zealous patrons of the short boms in Worcestershire, who 
 tlius speaks of the Devonshire cattle in the Farmer's Magaiine, February, 1827. 'Of 
 the late maturity of the Devons I had an opportunity to form a tolerably correct opiniuu 
 at Bridgewater fair, where the best passible muster of Devonshire oxen is made. I saw 
 one, and only one good ox among them. With the exception of this animal, I did not 
 see one level carcase, but a want of beef in the roasting parts, low and poor loins, coarse 
 shoulders, bad twist, and a general want of the iudicatiuns of inside proof.' 
 
 He saw one of these oxea after it was killed, and he says, ' I never beheld a worse 
 animal under similar circumstances. The meat was actually running about the stall, 
 being nothing more than a mixture of flabby masses, deficient of firmness of texture auu 
 quality.' 
 
 + A writer in the ' Farmer's Magazine,' Mr. Herbert, thus describes the Devonshire ox ; 
 ' Nimble aijd free, outwalking many horses, healthy and- hardy, and fattening even in a 
 straw-yard, good tempered, will stand many a dead pull, fat in half the time of a Sussex, 
 earUer to the yoke than steers of any other breed, lighter than the Sussex ; but not so well 
 horned, thin fleshed, light along the tops of his rihs, a sparkling cutter, and lean well in- 
 termixed with fat.' 
 
 Of the cow, he says, 'Red, starred, or white faced, better horned than the ox, very 
 quiet, the playmate of the children, a sure breeder, a good milker, a quick fattener, fail 
 grass-fed "beW in three months. The ox from 110 to 130 stone, and has beea fed ta 170; 
 aud the cow, to 70 or 80.' 
 
THE NORTH DEVON CATTLE 21 
 
 1,0 fatten is increased, rather than diminished ; and its property as a milker 
 :ouM not be improved, without probable or certain detriment to its grazing 
 qualities. 
 
 Mr. Rogers tells us, that two breeders with whom he is acquainted, 
 have lately attempted to cross the North Devons with the Herefords, but 
 that the result was not satisfactory. We can account for that. Those 
 points in which the Devons were deficient thirty years ago, are now 
 fully supplied, and we cordially agree with him, that all that is now want- 
 ing, is a judicious selection of the most perfect of the present breed, 
 in order to preservsit in its state of greatest purity. Many of the breeders 
 are as careless as they ever were ; but the spirit of emulation is excited in 
 others. Mr. Davy, of North Molton, lately sold a four-year old bull, for 
 which the purchaser had determined to give one hundred guineas had it 
 been asked ; and Mr. Henwuod of Crediton has now twenty-one cows, 
 which, within a month from the period of losing their milk, would average 
 at least ten score per quarter. The Duke of Somerset is a zealous 
 patron and improver of the breed, and has some beautiful cattle ; and, 
 whatever may be the case at Woburn, the Duke of Bedford here gives 
 almost exclusive preference to the Devons. When offering it as' his 
 opinion, that the Devonshire cattle are more than usually free from 
 disease, Mr. Rogers gives ^ hint that may be useful in every district of the 
 kingdom. He attributes, and very truly, the greater part of the maladies of 
 cattle, and all those of the respiratory system, to injudicious exposure tt 
 cold and wet ; and he asks whether the height and thickness of the Devon 
 shire fences, as affording a comfortable shelter to the cattle, may not have 
 much to do with this exemption from disease? 
 
 Mr. Roberts, veterinary surgeon at South Molton, informs us that 
 the North Devons have been crossed with the Guernsey breed, and that 
 the consequence has been, that they have been rendered more valuable for 
 the dairy ; but they have been so much injured for the plough, and for the 
 grazier, that the. breeders are jealous to preserve the old stock in their 
 native purity. Mr. Roberts speaks of a gentleman of South Molton, who 
 was very tenacious in preserving unsullied a breed of first-rate North 
 Devons, and who refused fifty guineas for a cow in calf. He sold her, 
 afterwards, for 321,, when she was thirteen years old. When this gentle- 
 man sold off his stock, twelve cows fetched on an average 30/. each. 
 
 Mr. Carpenter, to whom we have already alluded, says, that ' one cross of 
 the North Devon with the Hereford is of advantage, as we have additional 
 size and aptitude to fatten without losing activity.' We apprehend that he 
 refers to the state of these cattle some years ago, and when they were 
 lighter, rather than to the present' improved breed; but he very judiciously 
 adds, ' it must be one cross alone, — ^you must not exceed the first dash, — or 
 you destroy the activity in labour, which is the principal source of profit to 
 a Devonshire farmer.' He adds, ' never introduce heifers ; but get a bull 
 of the very best blood, and after the first cross, return to the best Devon bull 
 again, and continue until the white face is nearly extinct before yon attempt 
 to cross a second time. The Durhams have been tried, but they will not 
 work, and are too much loaded with coarse plain meat in the fore-quarter. 
 
 The treatment of the calf is nearly the same in every district of North 
 Devon. The calves that are dropped at Michaelmas, and some time afler 
 wards, are preferred to those that come in February, notwithstanding the 
 additional trouble and expense during the winter. The calf is permitted 
 vO suck three times every day for a week. It is then used to the finger, 
 and warm new milk is given it for three weeks longer. For two months 
 
22 CATTLE. 
 
 afterwards it has plenty of warm scalded milk, mixed with a litt.e finely- 
 powdered liuseed-cake. Its mwning and evening meals are then gra- 
 dually lessened ; and, when it is four months old, it is quite weaned *. 
 
 Of the other districts of Devonshire little need be said. Towards the 
 south, extending from Hartland towards Tiverton, the North Devons pre- 
 vail, and in their greatest state of purity. There are more dairies than in 
 the north, and supplied principally by the North Devon cows, and a few of 
 the South Devons. Such are the differences of opinion even in neigh- 
 bouring districts, that the later calves are here uniformly preferred, whidh 
 are longer suckled, and afterwards fed with milk and linseed-meal. 
 
 Advancing more to the south, and towards the borders of Cornwall, a 
 different breed presents itself, heavier and coarser. We have arrived now 
 in the neighbourhood of Devonport, where larger cattle are required for 
 the service of the navy ; but we must go a little more to the south, and 
 enter on the tract of country which extends from Tavistock to Newton 
 Abbott before we have the South Devons in full perfection. They are 
 a mixture of the North Devons with the native breed of the countrj' ; and so 
 adapted do they seem to be to the soil, that all attempts to improve them, so 
 far as grazing and fattening go, Tiave utterly failed. They are oi\en 14 cwt. 
 to the four quarters ; and steers of 2J cwt. are got with fair 'hay and grass 
 to weigh from six to nine cwt. They bear considerable resemblance to 
 the M'erefords, and sometimes the colour and the horn and the white 
 face are so much alike m both, that it is difficult to distinguish between 
 them, except that they are usually smaller than the Herefords. 
 
 There are few parts of the country in which there is such bad manage- 
 ment, and utter neglect of the preservation of the breed as in this and the 
 most eastern part of Devon. It is not properly a grazing district except 
 in the neighbourhood of Tavistock ; but young cattle are rather brought 
 forward for after-grass or turnips elsewhere than finished here for the 
 market, and the method in which this is conducted is not to be commended. 
 If a calf looks likely to fatten, it is suffered to run with the cow ten or twelve 
 months, and then slaughtered. If others that had not before shown a dis- 
 position to thrive now start, they are forwarded as quickly as may be, and 
 disposed of; and therefore it is, that all those that are retained, and by which 
 the stock is to be kept up, are the very refuse of the farm. Yet the breed is 
 not materially deteriorated. It has found a congenial climate, and it will 
 flourish there in spite of neglect and injury. The grand secret of breeding 
 is to suit the breed to the soil and climate. It is because this has not been 
 studied, that those breeds which have been invaluable in certain districts, 
 have proved altogether profitless, and unworthy of culture in others. The 
 South Devons are equally profitable for the grazier, the breeder, and the 
 butcher ; but their flesh is not so delicate as that of the North Devons. 
 They do for the consumption of the navy ; but they will not suit the fasti- 
 dious appetites of the inhabitants of Bath, and the metropolis. 
 
 • The following account of the principal cattle fairs in Devonshire, and principally foi 
 the sale of the North Devon breed, is extracted from the Annals of Agriculture : 
 
 ' Those who would seek this breed at fairs, will find them first at Ashbrittle, a bordering 
 parish between the two counties (Devonshire and Somerset), held for oxen on the 25th of 
 February ; but this does not terminate as to prices. Bishops Lydiard, five miles to the 
 west of Taunton, on the 25th of March, for oxen also. At this and Wellington, which 
 are greater fairs than Ashbrittle, prices of stock are fully ascertained. Barnstaple, the 
 Friday before the 21stof April. The great monthly markets of Taunton, Wiveliscomh 
 TivBl^toa, and Moulton, carry on the business till the fairs of Crediton, the 11th of May. 
 We^t Bagborough, the 12th, and Wiveliscomb the 13th. North Moulton, first Wednes-' 
 day after the 12th of May. Bampton, Whit-Tuesday ; and South Moulton Wednesday 
 before the 22d of June." ' ' 
 
THE NORTH DEVON CATTLE. 23 
 
 The farmers in the neighbourhood of Dartmoor breud very few cattle. 
 Their calves are uiually procured from East Devon, or even from Somer- 
 set or Dorset, They are reared at the foot of the moors for the use of the 
 mmers. All, however, are not consumed ; but the steers are sold to the 
 farmers of the South Hams, who work them as long as they are serviceable ; 
 they are then transferred to the graziers from Somersetshire, or East Devon, 
 or Dorset, by whom itihey are probably driven back to their native country, 
 and prepared for the market of Bi'ip'ol or London. A very curious pere- 
 grination this, which great numbers ol'the west-country cattle experience. 
 
 As we now travel reastward, we be^in to lose all distinctness of breed. 
 The vale of Exeter is a dairy district, and, as such, contains all kinds of 
 cattle, according to the fancy of the farmer. There are a few pure North 
 Devons, more Sonth Devons, and some Alderneys; but the majority 
 are mongrels of every description : many of them, however, are excellent 
 cuws, and such as are found scattered over Cornwall, West Devonshire, 
 Somerset, and part of Dorset. 
 
 As we advance along the south and the east, to TeignmOuth, Exmouth, 
 Sidmouth, and over the hill to the fruitful vale of Honiton, we do not 
 find oseu so much used in husbandry. The soil is either a cold hard 
 clay, or its flints would speedily destroy the feet of the oxen. The same 
 variety of pure North and South Devons, and natives of that particular 
 district, -with intermixtures of every breed prevail, but the South Devons 
 are firhicipally seen. Some of these cows seem to uuite the opposite 
 qualities of fattening and milking. A south Devon has been knowji, soon 
 after calving, to yield more than two pounds of butter a day ; and many 
 of the old southern native breed are equal to any short horns in the 
 qnanitity of itheir milk, and far superior to them in its quality. 
 
 I must not quit this part of the country without describing the clouted 
 cream, which is peculiar to the west of England. The milk is suffered 
 to stand in a bell-metal vessel four and twenty hours'; it is then placed 
 over a small wood fire, so that the heat shall be very gradually com- 
 municated to it. Afler it has been over the fire about an hour and a half^ 
 and is approaching to the state of simmering, the vessel is struck every 
 now and then with the knuckle, or is very carefully watched. As soon 
 as it ceases to ring, or the first bubble appti&.i'S, a slight agitation or 
 simmering, previous to boiling, has commenced; and the secret of the 
 preparation is that this simmering shall not proceed to boiling. The milk 
 is immediately removed from the fire, and set by for twenty-four hours 
 more. At the end of this time all the cream will have arisen, and be 
 thick enough to cut with a knife. It is then carefully skimmed off. This 
 is a great luxury with coffee or with tarts, and the Devonshire straw- 
 berries and cream need no praise. \ 
 
 The dairy people in these districts say, that it is the most profitable 
 way of treating the milk ; that five pounds of butter can be obtained from 
 a g^ven quantity, where only four would be yielded by the ordinary 
 method ; and that the butter is more saleable, on account of the pleasant 
 ta.ste it has acquired, and which even its occasional slight smoky flavour 
 .■scarcely limpairs. The milk is proportionably impoverished ; but it also 
 has gained a taste which renders it more grateful to the pigs ; while it 
 never scours them, but removes the diarrhoea produced by other food. 
 The «kim-milk cheese must, however, be abandoned, or if a little is 
 oiade, it is ^(ceedingly [loor and tasteless. 
 
U CATTLE. 
 
 CORN WALL. 
 
 For much valuable information with repjard to the breed aiid management, 
 of the cattle of Cornwall, we are indebted to Mr. Karkeek, veterinary 
 surgeon at Truro. This gentleman observes, that fish, tin, and cop- 
 per have long been considered the staple commodities of the county 
 of Cornwall, while agriculture has been viewed as a secondary object of 
 pursuit. There is no doubt that the pasturing of cattle, and the culti- 
 vation of the soil, constituted the principal employment of the early inha- 
 bitants ; but their attention was not long confined to the vegetable pro- 
 ductions of the earth after they had discovered that greater riches might 
 be torn from its bowels than reaped on its surface ; for although, when 
 Caesar invaded the island, the Damnonians (the inhabitants of Devon 
 and Cornwall) possessed great numbers of cattle, yet in a few centuries 
 their pastures were neglected, and all their skill and industry were exerted 
 in digging up ' the ores that speak the county's sterling praise.' 
 
 Carew, the historian of Cornwall, says, that ' the people devoting them- 
 selves entirely to tin, their neighbours in Devonshire and Somersetshire 
 hired their pastures at a rent, and stored them with the cattle which they 
 brought from their own homes, and made their profits of the Cornish by 
 cattle fed at their own doors. The same persons also supplied them at their 
 markets with many hundred quarters of corn and horse-loads of bread.' 
 
 The state of agriculture has, however, within the Kist century or two, 
 materially improved in this extreme western portion of the kingdom. 
 
 The native breed of Cornwall is still to be found on some of the moors 
 of the western parts of the county, and in the possession of many of the 
 little farmers. They are small, black, with horns rather short, very coarsely 
 honed, with large ofials, and rarely weighing more than three or four 
 hundred weight. They bear an evident resemblance to the native breeds 
 of Wales and Scotland. They are very hardy, and calculated to endure the 
 changeable temperature of this peninsular and unevenly-surfaced county. 
 
 Although uncultivated and unimproved, this is far from being a bad 
 breed of cattle.- They are fair milkers; their thick hides keep out the cold 
 and wet, and protect them from many diseases ; they range on the 
 moors, and coarse grounds, and commons in the summer, at little or 
 no expense, and in the winter are satisfied with heath and furze, and a 
 small quantity of straw ; and when put upon better keep, they get fat with 
 a rapidity scarcely credible, 
 
 A more prevailing and a better breed is an evident cross between the 
 North Devon and the indigenous one of the county. It is somewhat 
 larger, with well-formed head, and more upright horns, resembling, in the 
 manner in which they are turned, those of the wild cattle of Chillingham 
 Park. Their necks, like those of the Devons, are thin, rapidly narrowino- 
 from the breast towards the head. Their chests are deep, but rathe'r 
 narrow, and the legs a little longer than in some other favourite breeds. 
 Their hind quarters are deep and full. They get fat in their points, but 
 fall away much in their sides, and are thki in their belly-pieces ; they 
 therefore weigh light, and their hides are thin and unprofitable. They 
 mostly bear some striking character of the North Devon,— they have the 
 same reddish-brown coat, bright dun muzzle, and ring about the eye. 
 
 In most parts of Cornwall, however, the extreme Western districts 
 excepted, the true North Devons are found equal to any tlieir native 
 country will produce. Many spirited farmers go to Barnstaple, or South 
 
THE CORNWALL; CATfLK. Ji 
 
 Molton, and liuy up. great number^ of olie and two-year-old steers, and 
 Work them until they are eight or ten years old ; and, as often as they 
 have opportunity, they purchase elsewhere the finest bulls and heifers that 
 t.>an be selected, from among the best Devonshire breeders. Some had' 
 objected to the apparently delicate frame and constitution of the North 
 Devon, but he has always been found sufficieritly hardy to endure even 
 the changeable clime of Cornwall, where " the smiles of summer, and 
 the rage of storms," often succeed each other in a few hours. The Rev. 
 H. H. Tremayne, and J. P. Peter, Esq., were diligent breeders of the 
 North Devon cattle ; and this beautiful animal did not degenerate under 
 their management. 
 
 The cows are chiefly of the Cornish and North Devon breeds j but in 
 the principal towns, and on the sea coast, a few Alderneys are kept. A 
 breed between the Cornish and .the Alderney has been attempted, and 
 with considerable success, and uniting the rare qualities of abundance of 
 milk with aptitude to fatten. 
 
 The Durham breed has lately been introduced by Mr. Peter, and 
 appears, to have succeeded well in a few grazing districts. A cross 
 between the Devon cow and the Durham bull is an evident improve-; 
 ment, for the animal thus produced is profitable both for the dairy and 
 the butcher. It must, however, be confessed, that the majority of the 
 Cornish farmers are partial to the North Devons, and they apr)ear to be 
 better adapted to the soil of this county than any other breed. 
 
 There is no particular management of the ddiry cow in Cornwall. 
 About November, the cows are turned for the winter into crofts, or little 
 fields that have been kept up for them. In the spring and summer, they 
 go into larger or uninclosed ground. The fattening beasts are generally 
 fed on turnips in the winter ; and many of them are turned out from Fe- 
 bruary to June for the home consumption of Devonport and Plymouth 
 markets. 
 
 The Cornish land is not usually very rich, but the farmer is industrious, 
 and manages well. In many places the sod is pared and burned forwheat ; 
 and after wheat come turnips, which produce much winter food, and a 
 great deal of dung, yet not in sufficient quantity for the stock. The 
 farmers are generally compelled to give their young stock, and even their 
 older beasts, a great deal of straw. Sea-sand and sea-weed are often 
 called into requisition for manure, and are found to be exceedingly useful. 
 
 Arthur Young describes the method of rearing their calves which is 
 still pursued in a great part of the county. They are taken from the cow 
 between the fourth and sixth day. Raw milk is then given to them for ten 
 days or a fortnight, and afterwards scalded milk and gruel, in the quantity 
 of three or four quarts in the morning and at night. A mixture of gruej 
 and milk is found to be better than scalded milk alone. Some give their 
 own family-broth, which is thought to be as good as, or better than, the 
 gruel. The calves are ^nd of it, and thrive upon it ; and the flavour of 
 the salted provisions increases the appetite, and promotes digestion. One 
 quart of broth or gruel is added to two quarts of milk. A little fine hay is 
 now placed before them, which they soon begin to eat. For a little while 
 after they are turned to grass, this food is continued, according to the 
 quantity of milk in hand, or the goodness and quality of the pasture. 
 When they are ten or fourteen weeks old, they need no more milk, and, 
 a considerable time before this, the quantity is reduced to less than half. 
 [n some parts, the calves are, during the winter and after the two first 
 months, reared solely on hay and turnips, the turnips being sliced for 
 that purpose. Many of the best breeders place . two calves to one cow. 
 
» OATTLE. 
 
 In tlie sttmlner, many farmers feed the calves frotn the pail iwith scalded 
 milk, for a couple <S unoritfas, and then torn them to grass. 
 
 Very little cheese is Mnrie "in Cornwall, and liiat little is exceedingly bad. 
 The butter, howrever, is iBHceHent; and the Cornish housewives are as expert 
 in making the delioieustilouted cream as any of the Devonshire ones. 
 
 The system of letting cows ©lA to laboiirers or poor peoiplb is 'not 
 VBCoimnon in Cornwall. It Is a great 'accommodation to the >hirer, and 
 affci^rils a good ^rentumerAtion to the owner. The price varies with the 
 idtuation amd keep; but it is ustraly ^om 8ix to eight pounds, the caU 
 being the property fof the Owner iof tlie beast. 
 
 A few years ago, oxen were employed in husbandry sas .frequently iu 
 Cornwall 'as in any part of DeVonshii-e. Not only the North Devons, but 
 tile intpflved Cornish breed, were used for the purpose.. Although small and 
 ligte, th*f were active, docile, and hardy. The Coniish plough isialmost as 
 proverbid as the Devon ;; and it was formerly worked by four oxen, with 
 a horse or two before them. This practice is now considerably on the 
 decline, for experience has proved, that >bolh oxen and horses are best 
 worked by themselves. Oxen -are also employed in bvits and wains, 
 substitutes ifor a kind of Kude cart dt waggon, and well adapted for the 
 leasts that ai^ to draw them, and the roads they aie to travel. 
 
 'Tb«^ are -brought to the yoke at three years old, and worked until they 
 are seven 'Or eight. They are as active as any horses ; and, like the 
 Devons, they 'are stimulated much more b/ the pleasing ohaunit of 'the 
 pllrjnighboy tihan 'by the goad. They are shod, and tbrakes are generally 
 ased for this purpose. 
 
 Of 'late years, 'however, the use of oxen rin husbandry is'geittjng'out of 
 ptiaotice. The ^ propriety and economy of this will be discussed in the 
 proper place ; but oxen are not now generally seen even in the plough, 
 a'nd 'On the road they are very rarely employed. 
 
 Except for home consumption, few cattle are fattened in Cornwall, 
 and the store beasts are usually sent to Somersetshire, 'Or other igrazing 
 Counties. 
 
 nORS'ETSHIHE. 
 
 "The * old Dorset ox'— but whether it is the in(ligcnous breed of the 
 county, is a matter of doubt,— has long .horns. Some assert, and with an 
 appearance of probability, that the true Dorset was a middle horn, some^ 
 what resembling the South Devon, but not so large, and that the long 
 horn is an importation from the northern or midland -counties, or a mix- 
 ture 'of 'the 'Hampshire, the Wiltshire, and perhaps the Oxfordshire. 
 Howevigr, 'a 4cHrg-horned Tweed, a rough sort of cattle, and far from 
 h&n&otne, has been so many years established in vavious pants of the 
 county, that it is regarded by some as the original one. These have been 
 trossed with the Devon bull, and evidently with advantage : they are 
 hardy, good milkers, and -fetten quickly. They are principally found in 
 the ■eastiern and northern divisions of the county. Towards the west, a 
 fnilcture of the Devon and the Dorset prevails, and many farmers culti- 
 vate the pure Devons. The cUtiiate, however, does not appear to suit 
 iihe true Devons, for they do not bere^jrow to any great size; and some 
 have said that ^ey are even worse milkers than in their native district, 
 and subject to various diseases, and particularly to diarrhoea. Mr. Nobbs, 
 of Gatstdfce, is deoidedly 'of <this opinion. 
 
 The mixture of the Dev®n and the Dorset is an improvement on both. 
 Some -have Obtained a Still better kind O*^ cattle by crossing again with the 
 Dtfrtiiim ; and others are, with evKry probability of success, engraftmy 
 
THE SOMERSETSHIRE CATTLE. 27 
 
 (lie Hereford on tlie Dorset stock. Three points of 'superiority are said 
 to be ^ined over the I)evon cross : — larger size, more hardiness, and a 
 disposition to yield >a greater quantity 'of better tAilk. 
 
 The use of oxen for husbandry- work, had been for many years decliningr 
 in this country, but it has 'of tate, and 'to a somewhat extraordinary de'gree, 
 revived in some districts. Thte oxen are oftener worlced in collars than 
 in yokes. The cattle used for thb 'plough or the team are {jrinclpally 
 the pure North Devons, wWch are purchased at two years' old in 
 the North Devon markets, worked two or three years, and then fatted,— 
 some for the London but mostly for the home markets ; sometiines, how- 
 ever, a mixture of the Devon and Dorset is used for draught. In 
 '-he northern part Ot" the county we find crosses of almost every kind, 
 rncluding^ not only those from the neighbouring counties of Hants and 
 Wilts, but from Oxford, Gloucester, Shropshire, and Leicestershire. 
 
 In the Dorset dairies, there can scarcely be said to be a decidedly pre- 
 vailing breed. If the heifer is likely to make a good milker, that is all 
 Jiat is regarded, and little or no attention is paid to the shape, or colour, 
 )r size. About a fifth part of Dorsetshire is occupied by the vale of 
 Blackmoor, a very rich pastoral country, and well adapted for the pur- 
 poses of the dairy. A considerable 'quantity of butter and cheese is 
 made here. On those farms where most butter is made, the Double 
 Dorset cheese is manufactured from the skimmed milk alone, and which, 
 when kept until it becomes " blue-vinney'd," is very much approved ; 
 it is, however, more celebrated in than out of the country. A great 
 quantity of butter, both in its fresh and salted state, is sent to Loudon. 
 
 A great many calves are sent from the Vale of Blackmoor in the spring 
 of the year to Poole, and there shipped for Portsmouth ; and the supply 
 being greater than the iemand, the butchers find it answer their pur 
 pose to forward much of it to the London market. 
 
 Much of this concise account of Dorsetshire we owe to Mr. W C. 
 Sflooner, veterinarv surgeon at Blandford. 
 
 SOHEBSETSHIRE. 
 
 The North Devon cattle prevail along that part of the country which 
 borders on Devon until we arrive in the neighbourhood of Wincaunton 
 and Ilchester, where the pure breed is almost lost sight of. In the north 
 »f Somerset few of the Devons are to be seen ; but along the coast, 
 and even extending as far as Bristol and Bath, the purest breed of 
 the Devons are preferred. They are valued for their aptitude to 
 fetten, then: quickness and honesty at work; and they are said to be 
 better milkers than in their native country. They are of a larger size, for 
 the soil is better, and the pasturage more luxuriant. It is on this ac- 
 count that the oxen bred in some parts, and particularly in the Vale of 
 Taunton, although essentially Devons, are preferred to those from 
 the greater part of Devonshire, and even from the neighbourhood of 
 Barnstaple and South Molton. They are better for the grazier and for 
 the dairy ; and, if they are not quite so active as their progenitors, they 
 have not lost their docility and freeness at work, and they have gained 
 materially in strength. _ 
 
 Mr. Carpenter, to whom we nave already referred, and vi^h'o is now resident 
 in the Vale of Taunton, informs us that the farmers in the south and 
 sojith-west of Somerset are endeavouring to breed that sort of cattle 
 that will answer for the pail, and the plough, and grazing,— a very 
 difficult point, as he ackiiowledges, to hit '; for those tbat are of the 
 highest proof (exhibiting tbbse points or conformations of particular parts 
 
28 CATTLE. 
 
 which usually indicate a propensity to fatten) are generally the worst 
 milkers, both as to quantity and quality. This being, however, a dairy 
 county as well as a grazing one, or more so, the principal point with 
 them is a good shew for milk. They are, for the most part, of the 
 Devon red, and, as he thinks, the best suited for all purposes of any in the 
 West of England. All that is necessary to keep them up in size and 
 proof and of a good growth, is to change the bull every two years. This 
 is a very important, although an overlooked and unappreciated principle of 
 breeding, even where the stock is most select. No bull should be longer 
 used by the same grazier, or some degree of deterioration will ensue 
 
 It must, nevertheless, be confessed, that in the greater part of the county, 
 and where the Devons are liked best for husbandry and for grazing, experi- 
 ence has taught many farmers to select another breed for the dairy. Some 
 prefer the pure short horns, others the North Wilts, and a few a mixture 
 between the two. The short horns, however, are very different from those 
 that are seen anywhere else. They resemble neither the old nor the im- 
 proved Durham or East York, but were originally made up of a mixture of 
 the Devon with the old Somersetshire cow. 
 
 The Somersetshire cattle are thus described by Mr. Herbert, as they 
 existed sixty or seventy years ago ; but we can scarcely believe the account 
 to be faithful. ' Somersetshire formerly had a breed of cattle which, 
 from the crescent-form of its turned-up horn, seemed to be between -the 
 Sussex and the original short-horn (he must mean the middle horn, 
 for the short horn is of foreign extraction) ; useful and heavy ; high 
 on its legs, particularly behind. It vfas used for the supply of the ship- 
 ping, and sent to Salisbury market, and thence forwarded to Portsmoutli. 
 The cows were good milkers, and fattened kindly.' 
 
 If we may judge of them from what the West Somersets are now, they were 
 a valuable breed. They betray their Devonshire origin ; but in the opinion 
 of the Somersetshire farmers, they are far preferable to the native breed, 
 and they have increased in size without losing any of their useful proper- 
 ties. There are few better judges than these Somersetshire men ; for being 
 the party concerned between the breeder on the one side, and the grazier 
 on the other, and having opportunity daily to observe the failures or the 
 success of each, they acquire a kind of intuitive knowledge of the points 
 of cattle. 
 
 A few of the present West Somerset cattle are characterised by a 
 peculiarity of colour. They are called sheeted oxen. The head, the neck, 
 the shoulders, and the hind parts appear as if they were uncovered, while 
 there is a sheet fairly and perfectly thrown over the barrel. They do not, 
 however, exhibit the true Devon colour in these uncovered parts, for the 
 hair is yellow, instead of a deep blood red, or almost brown colour. 
 
 In North Somerset few of the Devons are to be seen, but they are the 
 same party-coloured kind of which I have just spoken. 
 
 Mr. Billingsley, in his Survey of Somerset, says, that in this district, 
 extending from Bath and Frome on the east, to Uphill and Kingsroad on 
 the west, the cows are mostly short horns, with some fine long horns from 
 North Wilts. A heifer of three yearb. old that discovers any disposition to 
 fatten, is turned out of the dairy, because experience has convinced the 
 owner that she will seldom or never prove a good milker ; and the breeders 
 in that part are often obliged to have recourse to Welsh nurses, because 
 there is a deficiency of milk in the parent animal. 
 
 In the middle of Somersetshire, from the Mendip hills on the north, to 
 Bridgewater on the West, and Chard on the south (principally a grazin" 
 country), he says that the business is divided into a summer and winter 
 
THB SOMERSETSHIRE CATTLE. iD ; 
 
 feed. For summer fattening^, the Devons are principally bouglit in 
 February, either in the northern part of Devon, or the lower part o? 
 Somerset. They are purchased in tolerable condition, andconsiime, between 
 February and their turning out, ten or twelve hundred weight of inferior 
 hay, the skimming of the summer leas. When at grass, they are allowed 
 from an acre to an acre and a half per ox, and perhaps one sheep to each 
 ox, and not more than one horse to twenty acres. About Michaelmas they 
 are fat, and pay from three shillings and sixpence to four shillings per 
 week for their keep. The farmers in that district think that frequent 
 bleedings in small quantities accelerate the process of fattening. 
 
 The home-breds are usually preferred for fattening. The Rev. Mr. King, 
 of Budgworth Rectory, informs us that an ox is purchased, or, if bred, 
 turned off to graze in February. He has one and a half acre or more 
 of the best pasture for summer feed ; then comes the same range of after- 
 math from the beginning of September to the end of November ; hay being 
 added by degrees, until it is required entirely. These oxen are sold for 
 the Salisbury or London markets, either before Christmas, or from that 
 to Lady-day. A dairy farmer seldom grazes, except an old cow for the 
 benefit of his neighbours ; and these seldom get more than four or six 
 months grazing after they are dried up. Beef of this description is as plen- 
 tiful in the autumn as veal in the sumnaer, and about the same price (1832), 
 from fourpence to fivepence per pound. 
 
 Some farmers graze heifers in preference to oxen, buying in March and 
 April, and selling in October or November; and which are stocked nl the 
 rate of a heifer to each acre, with one or two sheep. The sheep thus 
 fatted are usually the two year old Dorsets or Somersets. 
 
 Some give their prime oxen a second summer grass ; and the second 
 year pays better than the first, for an animal nearly fat will consume much 
 less food than a lean one. 
 
 The time of calving is from the beginning of February to Lady-day. The 
 farmers take great care to keep their cows in good condition for three weeks 
 or a month before they calve, thinking that the niilk will flow in proportion 
 to the goodness of the keep at that time ; and the consequence of this 
 is frequent attacks of puerperal fever and garget. The number of calves 
 reared in this district is very great. Four hundred fat calves have been 
 sold in Shepton-Mallet market in one day, but now the village butchers 
 buy and slaughter them at home, and take the carcasses to Bristol for the 
 Tuesday and Saturday markets. 
 
 Tlie calves that are reared are principally fed on cheese-whey, and are 
 turned out to grass in May to shift for themselves. In the south-east 
 part of this district, where the dairy-lands are chiefly applied to the making 
 of butter and skim-milk cheese, the calves are taken -from their mothers at 
 about three days old. Those that are to be fatted are suckled by hand out of 
 the pail as soon as it is brought home from the field morning and evening. 
 These calves are technically said to be on the, stage. It will take the milk 
 of three cows to fatten two calves up to from thirty-five to fifty pounds per 
 quarter. The old practice of giving the calves mead or some other home- 
 made wine is now discontinued. Soon after Lady-day, when the great 
 business of cheese-making begins in good earnest, the milk is wanted for 
 the cheese-vat instead of the suckling-pail. To fatten the calf, the farmer's 
 wife then places the whey over the fire in a large copper, and the warmth 
 forces a further portion of poorer curd (skim curds,) and these, with a 
 little milk, and with the occasional addition of lintseed-meal, make a 
 good calf. The calves to be reared are thought tu be well off, if, like the 
 Digs, they get whey. 
 
so CATTLE. 
 
 The celebrated Bridg'ewater cheese is made on (he marshes between that: 
 town and Cross. Huntspill, South Breut, and East Brent, are the three 
 prime cheese-parishes. The mail-road from Bridge water to Cross passes 
 through each of them. The land is rich and cool, and the pasturage not 
 only oldi but principally consisting of blatle grasses, with few flowers or 
 odoriferous herbs to raise or produce that essential oil which is so detri- 
 mental in the manufacture of cheese. Mr. King further informs us,, 
 that the present dairy cow of this district is either entirely red, which 
 shows her Devon origin, or red with a white face which marks the Here- 
 ford cross, or spotted red and white, and that the latter are generally 
 preferred as the best milkers. They spring from Durham blood on one 
 side, and the farmers of this district are much indebted tu the late Mr. 
 Stone, of South Brent, who, at a considerable expense, introduced several 
 Lulls of the Durham breed. 
 
 The usual proportion in a dairy of forty cows is about twenty- 
 five red ones, ten spotted, and five with a white face ; and yet, as the 
 Hereford bull has been rarely if at all tried in this district, the white 
 face is not owned by the farmer as of Herefordshire origin. A Durham 
 ox, of Mr. King's breed from Warwickshire, was lately slaughtered here, 
 weighing 21 score and 13 lbs. per quarter. It was fed by Mr. Burman, of 
 Henley-in-Arden. 
 
 Very little of the prime Cheddar cheese is made at that village. It is 
 chiefly manufactured in the parishes just mentioned, and in the marshes 
 round Glastonbury. A somewhat inferior Cheddar is often sold as double 
 Gloucester. As in the Vale of Berkeley, the cows are pastured and milked 
 near to the farm-house, and the milk set with the rennet as soon as possible, 
 and lefl: undisturbed for two hours. The curd is then broken ; a por- 
 tion of the whey first warmed and put to it, and then the whole of the 
 whey made scalding hot, and poured upon it, and left for half an hour. The 
 curd is afterwards put into the vat, and the other processes conducted much 
 in the usual way. This scalding is supposed to favour an intimate union 
 of the particles of the whey, and likewise to dispose the oleaginous matter 
 to exude, and thus give the cheese that soft, rich, fatty appearance and 
 flavour by which it is distinguished. 
 
 Mr. King recommends the addition of one Guernsey to every dozen 
 country-cows. He thinks that this quantity of rich milk being added might 
 make the whole throw a greater weight of curd. It certainly is so when - 
 butter is the object, and that small quantity would not injure the keeping. 
 Guernsey butter unmixed is too rich and will not keep, and so it might 
 be with cheese. 
 
 The Somersetshire dairymen usually keep their cows until they are ten 
 or twelve years old, and then turn them off for failing, not in the quantity 
 but the quality of the milk. At this time they are reduced to half the 
 value of a long-homed cow of the same age ;. but if it should appear, as 
 it generally will, that the short-horn will make a half-hundred of cheese 
 more every season than the long-horned Wilts, and at the same time cost, 
 less for the keep, the balance will be found to be in favour of the short or 
 middle-horned Somerset. In the upper part of the country, and where 
 heifers are preferred, the^aziers go into North Wilts and Hampshire to 
 buy them. Some of the best of them are nearly equal to the DeTons,,but 
 in general they are not so high in proof. Occasionally they are brouglU 
 from Gloucestershire, and even from Yorkshire, and are nqw and then 
 sold in October at thirty-eight or forty score pounds each. 
 
 Many Irish cattle are fattened in Somersetshine, ou account of the cheap 
 ■ate at which they are purchased when lean. 
 
THE HEREFORDSHIRE CAfTLE. S] 
 
 HEREFORDSHIRE. 
 
 The Hereiirdshire white-faced breed, with the exception of a rery-few 
 AIdeFiii£y> and Durham cows, hav« almost exclusive possession of thi» 
 county. The Hereford oxen are considerabliy larger than the North Devons.. 
 They are usually of a darker red ; some of them are brown, and even 
 yellow, and a few are brindled ; but they are princrpally distinguished by 
 their white faces, throats, and bellies. In a few the white extend's to the 
 shoulders. The old Herefords were brown or red-brown-, with not a spot 
 of white about them. It is only within the last fifly or si^ty years that it has 
 been the fashion to breed for white faces. Whatever may be thought of the 
 change of colour; the present breed is certainly far superior to the old 
 one>. The hide is considerably thicker than that of the Devon, and 
 •he beasts are more hardy. Compared with the Devons, they are- shorter 
 in the leg,, and also in the carcase ; higher, and broadfer, and heavier 
 m the chine ; rounder and wider across the hips, and better covered with 
 fat ; the. thigh fuller and more muscular, and the- shoulders larger and 
 coarser. The: cut in> the following page, is the portrait of an- ox belonging 
 to the Duke of fiedfbtid> 
 
 Mc Marshall gives the following account of them': tt is tolerably, correct^ 
 but does, not suiflficieDbly distinguish them from their kindred breed. * The 
 countenance pleasant, cheerful', open ; the forehead broad ; eye full and 
 lively ; horns bright^ taper, and spreading ; head small ; chap lean ; neck 
 long and tapefing ; chest deep ; bosom broad, and projecting- forward ; 
 shoulder-bone thin, flat, no way protuberant in bone (?), but full and 
 mellow in flesh ; chest full ; loin broad ; hips standing wide, and level 
 with the chine ; quarters long, and wide at the neck ; rump even with the 
 level of the back, and not drooping, nor standing high and sharp above the 
 quarters ; tail slender and neatly haired ; barret round and roomy ; the 
 carcase throughout deep and well spread ; ribs broad, standing flat and 
 close on the outer surface, forming a smooth, even barrel, the hindmost 
 large and full of length ; round bone small, snug, and not prominent ; 
 thigh clean, and regularly tapering ; legs upright and short ; bone below 
 the knee and hock small ; feet of middle size ; flank large ; flesh every- 
 where mellow, soft, and yielding pleasantly to the touch, especially on the 
 chine, the shoulder, and the ribs ; hide meilOw, supple, of a middle thick- 
 ness, and loose on the neck and huckle ; coat neatly haired, bright and 
 silky ; colour, a middle red, with a bald face characteristic of the true 
 Herefordshire breed.' 
 
 They fatten to a much greater weight than the Devons, and run from 
 fifly ta seventy score. A tolerable cow will average from thirty-five to 
 fifty score. A cow belonging to the Duke of Bedford weighed more than 
 seventy score ; and. an ox belonging to Mr. Westcar exceeded one hundred 
 and ten score. They are not now much used for husbandry, although 
 their form adapts them for the heavier work ; and they have all the 
 honesty and docility of the Devon ox, and greater strength, if not his acti- 
 vi^. The Herefordshire ox fattens speedily at a very early age,, and it is 
 therefore more advantageous to the farmer, and- perhaps to the country, 
 that he should go to market at three years old, than be kept longer to be 
 employed as a beast of draught. We are indebted to Mr. A. Knight,, ol 
 Downton Castle, ibr some valuable observations on this and other subjects 
 connected with the Herefordshhre cattle, and breeding in general, of which 
 we shall avail ourselves in the proper place. 
 
 They arc far worse milkers than the Devons. This is so generally 
 Kknowkdged, that while there are many dairies, of Devon cows in varaous 
 
J2 
 
 CATTLE. 
 
 parts of the country, (none ot which, however, are very profitable to their 
 owners,) a dairy of Herefords is rarely to be found. 
 
 To compensate for this, they are even more kindly feeders than the 
 Devons, and will live and grow fat where a Devon would scarcely live. 
 Their beef may be objected toby some as being occasionally a little too 
 large in the bone, and the fore-quarters being coarse and heavy ; but the 
 meat of the best pieces is often very fine-grained and beautifully marbled. 
 There.are few cattle more prized in the market than the genuine Herefords. 
 
 The Devons and the Herefords are both excellent breeds, and the pre- 
 judices of the Devonshire and Herefordshire farmers for their peculiar 
 breed being set aside, a cross of the one will often materially improve the 
 other. The Devon will acquire bulk and hardihood, and the Hereford a 
 finer form and. activity. The Hereford bull, and the West Island or 
 Kyloe cows, have been tried, but they did not feed so rapidly, nor weigh 
 so well as the Hereford, and they had the defect of being extremely pug- 
 nacious. 
 
 Mr. CuUey, although an excellent judge of cattle, formed a very erro- 
 neous opinion .of the Herefords when he pronounced them to be nothing 
 but a mixture of the Welsh with a bastard race of long-horns. They are 
 evidently an aboriginal breed, and descended from the same stock as the 
 Devons. If it were not for the white face, and somewhat larger head 
 and thicker neck, it would not at all times be easy to distinguish between' 
 a heavy Devon and a light Hereford. Their white faces may probably be 
 traced to a cross with their not distant relations, the Montgomeries. 
 
 The Hereford cow is apparently a very inferior animal. Not only is she 
 no milker, but even her form has been sacrificed by the breeder. Here-- 
 f'ordshire is more a rearing than a feeding county, and therefore the farmer' 
 looks mostly to the shape and value of his young stock ; and in the choice" 
 nf his cow,, he does not value her or select hei;, or breed from her accordino- 
 to her milking quaUties, or the price which the grazier would give for he?^ 
 but in propbrtion as she possesses that general form which experience' 
 has ta;ught him will render her likely to produce a good ox. Hence th©i 
 Hereford cow is comparatively small and delicate, and some would call 
 her ill-made. She is very light-fleshed when in common condition arid. 
 beyond that, while she is breeding, she is not suffered to proceed ; but 
 
THE HEREFOKDSHIRE CATTLE, 
 
 33 
 
 when she is actually put up for fattening', she spreads out, and accumu- 
 lates fat at a most extraordinary rate. Our cut gives us the portrait of a 
 beautiful cow, once belonging to the Earl of Egremont. 
 
 The breeder has been taught by experience, that when the cow, although 
 she should be somewhat roomy, is too large and masculine, the ox will be 
 brawny and coarse, and perhaps a little sluggish at work, and even some- 
 what unkind and slow in the process of fattening, and these are objections 
 which, most of all, he would be unwilling to have justly made. The 
 Herefordshire cow is therefore somewhat undersized; ant) it not unfre- 
 que-itly happens that she produces a bull-calf that grows to three times 
 her own weight. 
 
 
 [Tht Uerefardshife C5»«-.] 
 
 Kindly as the Hereford ox fattens, very few are grazed in. their native 
 country : even the beasts which the home consumption requires are prin- 
 cipally heifers and old cows. The oxen are sold at five and six years old 
 in tolerable condition, at the Michaelmas fair in Hereford, to the graziers 
 of Buckinghamshire and the neighbouring counties, by whom they are 
 principally preferred for the London market. 
 
 The fertility of the soil in Herefordshire has been very much overrated. 
 The traveller, and the superficial observer, have been misled by the 
 lusuriant woods and rich alluvial soil upon the banks of its rivers. The 
 pasture-grounds are generally poor, and the herbage is not. .nutritious. 
 Mid therefore the farmer naturally confines his chief attention to his rear- 
 ing-stock. The Dairy has been comparatively neglected ; for experience 
 has proved that the breeding qualities of a cow are materially lessened, 
 and even her form is deteriorated, by her being inclined to give a large 
 quantity of milk. 
 
 A very interesting^trial was made in the winter of 1828-29, between the 
 Herefords and the improved short-horned breeds of cattle, in the ordinary 
 mode of feeding, without forcing by artificial food of any description, and 
 the result seemed to be much to the advantage of the Herefords, consi* 
 dering their original weight, and the quantity of food consumed. It must, 
 
34 CATTLE. 
 
 however, be toiWessed that it is not sufficient to enabie us to decide upon 
 the relative merits of the two rival breeds of large cattle, nor are we yet 
 quite prepared for the inquiry ; but we insert it as an experiment that was 
 fairly conducted, to which the advocates of the Herefordshire cattle often 
 refer, and which they will naturally expect to be placed upon record. 
 
 Three Herefords and three short-horns were selected : they were put 
 together in a straw-yard on the 20th of December, 1827, and were fed in 
 the open yard, at the rate of one bushel of turnips per beast i)er day, 
 with straw only, until May 2nd, 1828, when their weights were taken, 
 and they were sent to grass. 
 
 Cwu. ttn. Ibfc CwU. qra. lb.. 
 
 No. 1. Flereford 8 3 No. 1. Short-horn 9 2 
 
 2. „ 7' 3 2. „ 8 2 
 
 3. „ 7 3 .. 9 
 On the 3d of November they were taken from grass, and put into the stall 
 when their weight was as follows : — 
 
 Cwt qn. lb. Cvrt. qr.. lb.. 
 
 No. 1. Hereford 113 No. 1. Shorl^horn 12 3 14 
 
 2. „ 10 2 2. „ 12 2 
 
 3. „ 10 3 3. „ 12 3 
 
 From that time to the 25th of March, 1829, they consumed the following 
 quantities of Swedish turnips and hay : — 
 
 Tnnipa Ib>, lb.. 
 
 The Herefords 46,655 
 
 The short-horns 59,430 
 
 They then weighed — 
 
 No. 1. Hereford 13 14 No. 1. Short-horn 
 
 2. „ 12 2. 
 
 3. „ 12 3. 
 being an increase of weight in favour of the Herefords of 
 and in favour of the Short-horns 
 
 and making a difference in favour of the Short-horns of 
 
 but then the Short-horns had consumed 12,7751bs. more of turnips, and 
 17141bs. more of hay. 
 
 When they were all sold together at Smithfield on the 30th of March, 
 the heavier short-horns fetched 971., and the lighter Herefords 96^., being 
 an overplus of only IZ. to pay for the enormous difference in the food con- 
 sumed, and the greater price given on account of the heavier weight of the 
 short-horns at the commencement of the experiment*. Another Hereford 
 and a short-horn were also tried together at the same time ; but they did 
 not undergo the same process, nor was so regular an account kept of theii 
 progress. The Hereford inciieased in weight 3 cwt. 3 qrs., and the short- 
 horn 4 cwt. 1 qr. 
 
 * The Michaelmas cattle fair at Hereford is uot exceeded by any show of beasts in 
 euod cunditioa in the kingdom. They are usually sold tu the graziers in the neighboui- 
 tood of the metropolis, by whom theyare prepared for the Sinithiield market 
 
 There is an entry in an account book kept by William Town, in the neighbourhood of 
 Hereford, in the year 1694, of the price of £it oxen at that period. 
 
 "25th August, 1694, — sold the nine oxen at &?/. ; the money to be paid into the 
 Exchequer within a month." The price of o«en a, at least, six times as great now. 
 
 5065 
 
 
 6779 
 
 
 14 
 
 2 
 
 14 
 
 1 14 
 
 14 
 
 2 14 
 
 13 
 
 2 14 
 
 17 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 3 14 
 
THE GLOUCESTEliSIIIRE BllEEI). (i 
 
 OLOUCESTER. 
 
 This county is taken next, because, bordering on Hereford, many of tlie 
 caltle of that county are found here. Throughout the whole of Gloucester- 
 shire the Herefordsj are preferred for working and for fattening. 'J'hey 
 are less active than the Deyons, but far more so than the Gloucesters. 
 They consume less food when at work, and very far less when fattening; 
 but the Gloucesters are superior to the Herefords for the pail. Cattle 
 of every kind, however, prevail in the dairy farms in this county, as in 
 every other district. 
 
 Of the old breed of the Gloucesters it is now difficult to speak, for they 
 are nearly extinct. They were evidently of Welsh origin, mingled with 
 the Hcrefqrd, and sometimes with the cattle farther inland. They were the 
 •Glamorgan chiefly, but upon a l&rger scale, and of a different colour. The 
 Glamorgans are black, or inclining to brown ; the old Gloucesters were 
 either red or brown. The horns were of a middle length, white, and 
 tipped with black; the bones small, and the carcase light, scarcely 
 averaging more than twelve score per quarter. The bag was thin yet 
 large, and the milk abundant and long continued. The characteristic 
 mark was said to be a streak of white generally along the back, and always 
 at the root of the tail. 
 
 Many years ago the farmers began to cross them with the long-horns, 
 and principally those from North Wilts. Thence arose considerable 
 increase of size, with more tendency to fatten, and richer and not much 
 less abundant milk. This breed is principally found in the hilly dis- 
 trict of Gloucester, about the Cotswolds. Some farmers, indeed, have 
 crossed so frequently with the long-horn, that little of the old Gloucester 
 remains, and not a few use the long-horns alone. The prevailing breed, 
 however, about the hills, and particularly among the small farmers, is the 
 Gloucester and the Wiltshire combined. Some Suffolk duns are scattered 
 in a few places ; some pure Devons, Durhams, and Leicesters are found, 
 but chiefly a mixture from among them all, the Gloucesters and the North 
 Wilts preponderating, while each farmer breeds and chooses according to 
 his pleasure or caprice. 
 
 In the hilly part of the county cattle are an inferior object of considera- 
 tion ; there is little peculiar in the management of them ; and even that little 
 iloes not deserve commendation.' The principal purpose for which they are 
 here kept is to pasture on those spots which are unsound for sheep. A 
 great proportion of many of the farms in this poor district can only be 
 made profitable by turning young stock upon them; which, however, are 
 never thoroughly fattened there, but the young stock, and the cows, and 
 even the sheep, are sold to graziers from the neighbouring districts, barely 
 in tolerable store condition The early-dropped calves are chosen for rear- 
 ing; the others miijht not have sufficient strength to endure the winter, 
 and are speedily got rid of. ^ 
 
 The calves that are to be reared continue two or three days wijh the 
 mother, sucking as they like, and taking the milk that is good for nothing 
 else. They are then fed with skim-milk^a little warmed, being first taught 
 with the finger; but they soon drink eagerly out of the pail. Linseed tea 
 is after a little,while mixed wfith "the milk; afterwards the milk is laid aside, 
 and.oat or barley meal is stirred in .with the tea ; and so they are gradually 
 Drought to solid food, and weaned. 
 
 When the grass begins to fail in Nbvember, ^hey'.are fed in the field, 
 wiiere there is some tolerable shelter for them ; .'and the yearlings ar( 
 
 D 2 
 
30 CATTLE. 
 
 also in the field, and fed with straw instead of hay. The pasture allotted ti 
 them is generally old and good, but such as had been previously eaten 
 bare by the cows. Worse than all, during the early part of the winter the 
 milch cows have nothing but straw allowed them. It is the custom in 
 this part of the country not to take much care of the two-year-olds until 
 Christmas is past.. The heifers usually calve in April or May, and are 
 tftken into the dairy, and the steers then go to work after Christmas, when 
 hay, but not of the best quality, is allowed them. 
 
 This system of starvation, partly induced by the nature of the soil, 
 (sufficient fodder not being produced for the proper nutriment of the stock.) 
 and partly attributable to an absurd mode of treatment derived from their 
 forefathers, has a tendency to cripple the improvement of live stock. 
 The calves will not attain their full growth, and the cows will not yield 
 sufficient milk for suckling or for the pail while this system is pursued. 
 There is room for much improvement here, as well as in many other 
 districts of the kingdom in the management of live stock. 
 
 In the lower or vale part of the county, where cattle are kept principally 
 for the dairy, and not to feed on the unsound and rotting ground, a more 
 liberal and a more profitable system of management is adopted. 
 
 In the Vale of Berkeley, as the long and rich tract of land is called 
 that reaches from the Cotswolds to the Severn, the cows are, as in the 
 hilly district, of various sorts and kinds. In all of them, however, traces 
 of the old Gloucester are visible, and carefully preserved. The cross 
 depends upon the fancy of the dairyman. Some have mingled the Alder- 
 ney with the Gloucester, and they have both increased the quantity and 
 the richness of the milk ; others have mixed the Wilts and the Gloucester, 
 and they have a fair supply of excellent milk ; while some have introduced 
 the Yorkshire, whereby they have certainly added to the quantity, although 
 perhaps a little deteriorated the quality of the milk : but the majority, and 
 still more judiciously, have mingled all these together, and they have 
 materially improved both the quantity and the quality. There are no 
 Herefords for the pail ; a few Devons, some SuSblks, some North Wilts, 
 and the rest Gloucesters, with various crosses. 
 
 A cross between the Gloucester and the Hereford has been attempted 
 with considerable success. They yield from four to six gallons of good , 
 milk every day. It is difficult to account for the fact that, while in 
 grazing counties the large and small farmers agree in selecting a certain 
 breed, and adhere to that selection, almost every dairy district is charac- 
 terized by a motley assemblage of all sorts and kinds of cattle. We shall 
 oflen have occasion to allude to this. 
 
 This is a celebrated da.-y country. From the Vale of Berkeley is pro.- 
 duced a great part of the cheese, which is known in every part of the 
 kingdom under the names of the single and double Gloucester. 
 
 A slight sketch of the peculiar management of this district must now 
 be given to render our work perfect ; but for a more detailed account, the 
 reader is referred to the Twenty-first Number of the Farmer's Series, in 
 which the usual management both of the Gloucestershire hill and vale 
 fkrms is fully described. 
 
 The calves remain with the mothers about a week. They are then fed 
 with skim-milk ; first, by means of the feeder's fingers introduced into 
 the mouth, and which being supplied with milk, are sucked by the calves ; 
 out they soon drink of themselves. Linseed tea is, after a little while, 
 mixed with the milk ; and soon after that the milk is quite withdrawn, and 
 oat or barley meal stirred with the linseed, until the calf is able to eat hay 
 or oats. About the middle of May they are turned out to good grass, and 
 
THK GLOUCKSTERSUIRK BREhD. S) 
 
 W they are kept until the ^rass is ready for them, on the earliest bncl best 
 of which they ate turned. Fron" among the early ones, or those diop|)ed 
 before March, a selection is made to keep up the dairy, and those from the 
 best milkers are uniformly chosen. The farmer is right here ; for everj 
 quality, both good and bad, is more decidedly hereditary than many 
 have supposed, or are willing to allow. Some of the heifers that are 
 weaned before March drop their calves when two years and a quarter old, 
 and all of them are taken into the dairy at three years' old. 
 
 The land here is rich and productive, and fodder of every kind is 
 abundant. The cattle are much belter kept, than in the hill country, and 
 they pay their proprietors well for the additional trouble and expense. The 
 richest even of these fertile pastures are set apart for the milch cows ; and in 
 order that their appetite may not pal), they are frequently moved from 
 pasture to pasi lire. This is a method of rendering them productive of which 
 the majority of farmers are not aware. At the same time the farm is as 
 much understocked as a hill-farm is too frequently overstocked ; at least 
 there is plenty of good keep for ever) cow. 
 
 It has been found that land, which has been lately and much manured, 
 is not so good for the cows. The milk may be more abundant, but not so 
 rich. Dr. Rudge, in his Survey of Gloucestershire, says, that there were 
 two grounds adjoining each other alternately used for the pasture of cows. 
 While they were on one, excellent cheese was made ; but when they were 
 on the other, the cheese was rank, heaving, and hollow, and unfit for the 
 market. The latter had been lately well dressed with manure; and the 
 (lairywoman remarked that, If the farmer continued to enrich his land 
 with dung, she must give up making chee.se. 
 
 The cows are early moved from the pasture-ground into the after-grass. 
 Experience has taught the farmer that few things are more conducive to 
 the general health of the animal, as well as the abundant supply of milk, 
 than the first flush of grass in the spring, or after mowing. 
 
 As the winter comes on, they are moved into the driest and best-sheltered 
 situations. It would be advanv^^eous if there was some shed for them 
 to retreat to as a protection from the extreme cold ; and they should have 
 plenty of good hay allowed them once or twice in the day, before they 
 have calved, and several times in the day afterwards. In some cases, 
 however, although not by the generality of farmers, the system of false 
 economy prevalent in the hilly district is adopted here, and the cows in 
 calf, and the young and store beasts, are half-starved during the winter. 
 There is no part of dairy and cattle management which more demands 
 reformation than this. 
 
 The principal product of the Vale of Berkeley is its cheese. It has 
 a peculiar flavour, and is deservedly esteemed., It is not quite clear 
 to what peculiar circumstance the excellence of the Gloucester cheese 
 is to be attributed ; for several things, probably, combine to produce 
 the effect. 
 
 The breed of the cow has little or nothing to do with it. We have stated 
 that almost every variety of breed is found here, and the milk of all is 
 mingled together. The cows are taken better care of. The pasture is 
 good, and it is old, and is composed of the natural grasses of the country, 
 which are grown here with little admixture of foreign or artificial ones. 
 The fields, another circumstance not sufficiently appreciated, are near to, 
 and surround as much as possible the farm-houses, so that the milk is but 
 little agitated, or the component parts of it separated before it is curdle<l 
 bv the rennet. By this means, too, the milk may be set, before it is 
 Rooled below the proper temperature. 
 
S8 CATTLE. 
 
 Every dairymaid knows well that the milk should be waj-m when it it 
 net. She has rarely any thermometer to guide her. She needs it not, foi 
 she can tell with the accuracy of the best thermometer whether the tem- 
 perature is above or below 85°. When it is received from the cow, and 
 before it is cooled in the pail, it is more than 90°. It should be set when 
 it has cooled to 85°, and that, if possible, without the addition of any milk 
 artiticially heated to bring it to the proper standard. The colouring matter 
 and the rennet are then added, and particular care is taken that the rennet 
 is old, yet free from unpleasant smell*. The tub is now covered until tiie 
 curd is formed. 
 
 The process of cutting and breaking the curd follows next ; and when 
 it is sufficiently broken it is put into the vats, and pressed well down. 
 The vats are filled as closely as possible, — the cheese-cloth placed ovet 
 all, and a little hot water is poured over the cloth, to harden the outside o' 
 the cheese ; the curd is then turned out into the cloth, and this being 
 carefully folded round it, the cheese is returned once more into the vat. 
 All the vats which are to be filled are placed one upon another, and all 
 subjected to the action of the press. Here they remain four-and-twenty 
 hours ; the vats of the next meal being placed underneath, and those of the 
 preceding meal raised a tier, and dry cloths occasionally applied. 
 
 In many dairies there is a second breaking of the curd, which, after 
 having been reduced as small as possible, is scalded with a mixture of 
 water and whey. This second and more perfect breaking down of the 
 curd has been imagined to be the grand cause of the soft uniform sub- 
 stance of the cheese when it is fully made. The practice, however, is 
 getting somewhat into disuse ; for it is very reasonably urged that this 
 scalding and washing must extract a portion of the oleaginous part of the 
 cheese ; therefore a great deal more care is taken in sufficiently reducing 
 it with the knife rapidly worked about the tub before the curd is put into 
 the vat. The old farmers, however, yet maintain that the whole art ol 
 making Gloucester cheese depends on this scalding process ; that the 
 fatty matter of the milk and curd is thus disposed to develope itself, and 
 to be brought so far out, as to form afterwards the uniform rich substance 
 for which the Gloucester cheese is celebrated. 
 
 At the expiration of twenty-four hours the cheeses are well rubbed with 
 salt. This is repeated daily, for three days, for the single, and four days 
 for the double Gloucestert ; the cloths being now taken away, and the 
 cheeses regularly returned to the press for four, or five, or six days, ac- 
 cording to the state of the weather. They are then put upon the shelf, or 
 "tack," and turned twice in the day, for two or three days; and then 
 placed in the cheese-room, where they are turned once in the day 
 
 * Dr. Rudj^e says, that the rennet is sometimes made two months before it is wanted. 
 To twelve gallons of water are usually added twelve pounds of common salt, and one pound 
 of baj'-salt. This is boiled until it will bear an egg. It is strained when cool, and twenty 
 four Irish " veils '' or stomachs, and twelve lemons with the rinds on, but incisions made 
 into them, and two ounces of doves and cinnamon, are then put into the liquor. 
 
 + The " Single Gloucester " is the skim-milk cheese ; the " Double Gloucester," y 
 " best making " cheese, is manufactured from the pure or unskimmed milk ; aUhougl 
 it is not unusual in a large dairy to set aside sufficient milk to afford cream and butter 
 enough for the family, and afterwards to add it to the next day's milking. These 
 are sometimes called •' Coward ■" cheeses; they are either thin, weighing about 16 lbs. 
 3er cheese, or thick, averaging from 30 lbs. to 40 lbs. 
 
 The best " Single Gloucester" is either the " two-meal cheese," made of equal por- 
 tions of unskimmed and skimmed milk, or sometimes two portions of skimmed milk, aud 
 one part of pure or " coward " milk. The inferior cheese, acknowledged to be the skim- 
 cheese, is what its name imparts it to be ; aud the dairymaid usually s^ms it oftec euau^b 
 liutore she converts it into curd. 
 
THK GLOtJCBSTERSHIRK BREED. 8S 
 
 for a month They are then scraped clean, and painted red or brown, 
 or u mixture of both. After a few days the paint is rubbed oH 
 from the edges, and the cheese is continued to be turned once or twice 
 every week. 
 
 In some dairies the floor of the cheese-room is well rubbed with a variety 
 of herbs, among which are elder-leaves, potato-stalks, mint, &c. This i8 
 supposed to answer the double purpose of giving the cheese a coat, and 
 also preventing the " mints " or mites from getting into it. Others 
 not only avoid this unclean practice, but wash the new-made cheeses with 
 hot whey once a fortnight. This is said to give a firmer coat ; at least, it 
 gives a cleaner one. 
 
 There is nothing very peculiar in all this process, except tlie more than 
 usually slight agitation of the milk before it is set with the rennet, and the 
 great care with regard to the degree of temperature. Something, perhaps, 
 may be attributed to a less degree of squeezing with the hand in bruizing 
 the curd, when a great deal of the fatty matter of the cheese may be 
 pressed out, the knife being more used than the hand in dividing it. 
 
 The principal characteristics of the Gloucester cheese are its richness, 
 and its smooth and oily texture instead of breaking when cut, and its 
 retaining fatty matter so perfectly in the operation of toasting. 
 
 We have already related the manner in which Cheddar cheese, is made to 
 resemble the double Gloucester. 
 
 A little before Michaelmas the cheese is submitted to the factor, who 
 oflen adopts a very summary way of examining it. He treads upon each 
 cheese, and those which yield to the tread he condemns as " heaved " or 
 " hoved," and are kept for home, or, at least, for country consumption. 
 Many causes have been assigned for this " heaving." Some attri- 
 bute it to the pasture. It is said to have been too luxuriant, or to have 
 had too many early plants in it. Thf dairymaid always stoutly maintains 
 this. Others, with more justice, say that it is the fault of the maker : — 
 the curd was produced too quickly, either by making the milk too hot, or 
 adding too much rennet, or by removing the cheese too soon to a close 
 and hot room. The cheese-rooms are generally far toohot, and probably 
 encourage tlits fermentation in the new-made cheese. They should be as 
 cool and airy as possible. Some farmers prefer a stone floor for it, and 
 with reason. The chief cause, however, is to be sought for in the first 
 making. 
 
 As may be supposed, the grazing of cattle is comparatively neglected 
 in this dairy district. Some of the farmers, however, buy in small Welsh 
 beasts, principally heifers, "hurries,'' and turn them on the rouen in 
 August. They remain there until the following spring, being occasionally 
 supplied with hay, as the season may detnand, and are then in good con- 
 dition, and yield a fait remunerating price. 
 
 In the neighbourhood of Gloucester, however, a considerable number 
 of oxen, principally of the Hereford breed, are fattened. If in poor con- 
 dition they are bought in the spring, and, afler running on the summer 
 pastures until winter, are finished off in the stall. A more unprofitable 
 way is to buy them in forward condition in the autumn, and feed them 
 on hay with oil-cakes. Some from the lower part of the country are sent to 
 Bristol or Bath ; but the greater part of them are destined for the Smith- 
 field market. 
 
40 CAITLE. 
 
 [7%e Susiex Ox.] 
 
 SUSSEX. 
 
 Some of the ancient Britons sought refuge from the attacks of their in- 
 vaders, amid the fastnesses of the Weald of East Sussex. Thither they 
 drove, or there they found, some of the native cattle of the country ; and,, 
 as in the north of Devon, and, as will be presently seen, in the mountains 
 of Wales, and the Highlands of Scotland, they anxiously preserved them 
 free from all admixture, as relics of happier times, and records of what 
 Britain once possessed. 
 
 The resemblance between the Sussex and the Devon oxen is very great. 
 They unquestionably betray the same origin. Lord Sheffield thought 
 that there were two breeds of Sussex cattle ; one the larger and coarser, 
 scarcely different from the Hereford, except that they had no white about 
 them, and which were a mixture of the old Sussex with other breeds from 
 the east and the west, and which having been fed on richer pasture, had 
 acquired a larger growth : the lighter breed bore about it unequivocal 
 jiarks of its being of the same common stock as the Devon. 
 
 One of the best descriptions that we have of the Sussex ox is given by 
 that excellent agriculturist Mr. EUman, of Glynde, to vfhom the eastern 
 part of that county is much indebted for the preservation of its native 
 breed of cattle, and the great improvement of the South-Down sheep. 
 He speaks of the Sussex ox as having a small and well-formed head ; and 
 so it has, compared with many other breeds, and even with the Hereford, 
 but evidently coarser than that of the Devon ; the horns pushing forwards 
 a little, and then turning upwards, thin, tapering and long — not so as to 
 confound this breed with the long horns, and yet in some cases a little 
 approaching to them. The eye is full, large, and mild in the ox ; but 
 with some degree of unquietness in the cow. The throat clean ; and the 
 neck, compared with either the long horns or the short ones, long and 
 thin, yet evidently coarser than that of the Devon. 
 
 At the shoulder is the main point of difference, and the principal defect 
 in the Sussex cattle. There is more wideness and roun.lness on the 
 withers, — it is a straighter line from the summit of the withers towards 
 the back, — there is no projecting point of the shoulder when the animal is 
 
niK SUSSEX BREED. 41: 
 
 looked at from behind, but the whole of the fore-quarter is titickl) 
 cov<ered with flesh, giving too much weight to the coarser and less profit" 
 ab.e parts*. This is certainly a defect, but it is counterbalanced by many 
 admirable points. If tliere is more weight in front, the fore legs are neces- 
 sarily wider apart, straighter, and more perpendicular than in the Devon ; 
 they are placed more under the body rather than seeming to be attached to 
 the sides. The fore-arm is large and muscular, but the legs, although 
 coarser than those of the Devon, are small and fine downwards, and par- 
 ticularly below the fetlock. The barrel is round and deep — the back 
 straight— no rising spinal processes are to be seen, but rather a central 
 depression ; and the line of the back, if broken, is only dune so by a lump 
 of fat rising between the hips. The belly and flank are capacious, — there 
 is room before for the heart and lungs to prepare and circulate the blood, 
 and there is room behind, in the capacious belly, for the full development 
 •if all the organs of digestion ; yet the beast is well ribbed home, the space 
 between the last rib and the hip-bone is often very small, and there is no 
 hanging heavmess of the belly or flank. The loins of the Sussex ox are 
 wide : the hip-bone does not rise high, nor is it ragged externally ; but it is 
 large and spread out, and the space between the hips is well filled up. 
 
 The tail, which is fine and thin, is set on lower than in the Devon, yet 
 the rump is nearly as straight, for the deficiency is supplied by a mass of 
 flesh and fat swelling above. The hind quarters are cleanly made, and if 
 the thighs appear to be straight without, there is plenty of fulness within. 
 
 The Sussex ox holds an interOiediate place between the Devon and the 
 Hereford, with all the activity of the first, and the strength of the second, 
 and the propensity to fatten, and the beautiful, fine-grained flesh of both. 
 Experience has shown that it possesses as many of the good qualities of 
 both as can be combined in one frame. The Devons and the Uerefords 
 are said by some to have been improved by one judicious cross with the 
 other; but a cross with the Hereford often produces, in the Sussex, a heavier 
 animal, it is true, yet not fattening so profitably, or working so kindly. 
 Some graziers, however, have very ingeniously explained this, by the dif- 
 ferent parts on which the Hereford and Sussex cattle usually carry their 
 fat. The Hereford bears it upon the ribs and the sirloin ; the Sussex 
 more on the flank and the inside. There may be some truth in this : yet 
 it cannot be denied that the Herefords carry theirs in the best places ; and 
 it is on this account that the prize is so often adjudged to them at the 
 cattle-shows, and particularly at Smithfield. When the Sussex has been 
 crossed with the Devon a lighter breed has resulted, but not gaining in 
 activity, while it is materially deteriorated in its grazing properties. 
 
 The Sussex ox is of a deep chestnut-red — some, however, prefer a 
 b!ood-bay : much deviation from these colours generally indicates some 
 stain in the breed. The black, or black and white, which is sometimes 
 met with, generally indicates a cross from the Welsh. The white may 
 
 * Mr. W. Pitt, the author of some of the Agricultural Surveys, pronounces this breed 
 to be coraiiaratively much inferior to a good selection from the Lancashire, Hereford, or 
 Shropshire breeds ; and he says, " I cannot help thinjcingthem, on comparison with some 
 other breeds, though a weighty, yet an uncouth and coarse animal." On this the B«T. 
 A. Yomig very properly remarks, " There is no knowing what is meant by such expres- 
 sions as that Sussex oxen are uncouth and coarse animals. If it implies a coarse and 
 thick and rough hide, or a hard and coarse-grained flesh, nothing was ever further re- 
 noved from fact than such an assertion. Sussex oxen are as remarkable for the fineness 
 «f their hides as they are for the closeness and delicacy of their flesh. In his own Staf- 
 fordshire long-horns, there does not exist any shadow of comparison for feeding, graiio^, 
 or working. In quality of flesh, thriving disposition, &c., both the Sussex and Devoni es. 
 ceed you, and Hereford leaves you far behind." — Survey of Sussex. 
 
*2 CATTLE. 
 
 possibly remind us more of the original wild breed ; a few of which, as wt 
 have remarlied, remain at Chillingham, and which we shall also trace in 
 other parts. It would be satisfactory if we could discover the origin of 
 these red breeds, for we suspect they were not always so. Mr. Davis, of 
 Glynde, once liad a black ox, with a white face, from a red cow, by a red bull. 
 A few approach to a yellow colour, but they are weakly and apt to scour. 
 
 The hide of the true Sussex is soft and mellow ; a coarse, harsh, thick 
 hide is supposed to denote here, as in every other district, an ill-bred, or an 
 unthrifty beast The coat is short and sleek. There is seldom found on 
 the Sussex os that profusion of soft and wavy, and, occasionally, long 
 hair, which, almough it may have an appearance of roughness, is consistent 
 with a mellow and yielding hide, and one of the truest indications of more 
 than usual propensity to fatten. 
 
 In order fairly to estimate the working properties of the Sussex ox, the 
 two breeds of which Lord Sheffield has spoken must not be forgotten ; 
 and the confounding of them has given rise to much of the confusion and 
 contradiction which exist in the accounts of several writers. 
 
 The proportion of the labour performed by oxen is different in different 
 parts of the county. About the South Downs, oxen are much employed, 
 but not, perhaps, in an equal degree to horses. In the weald of Sussex, 
 they have the greater share of the labour; and ou a farm of about 100 
 acres, there is usually a horse and an ox team — on a larger farm there are 
 more oxen. Many farms of 150 or 200 acres have from ten to twelve 
 working oxen. These have grass and straw until they begin to work, 
 and then cut h"dy is mixed Vvitli their strtiw. 
 
 The coarser -breed is always slow, and soon after .six years old, it can 
 scarcely be worked at all with advantage. The liglitt- r breed, the true 
 Sussex of many a century, will step out as light and as fast, and will do 
 almost as much work as any horse, and stand as many or more dead pulls. 
 Some teams have been known to travel fifteen miles a day, with heavy 
 loads for several successive weeks, and without the slightest distress. 
 
 Of the speed which some of them possess proof was given when a 
 Su-isex ox ran four rnil'es against time over the Lewes race-course, and 
 accomplished the distance in sixteen minutes. Formerly, as many as four 
 pairs of oxen were not unfrequently seen attached to a single plough or 
 waggon, and they certainly used to pull well together ; but they who un- 
 derstand the power and the honesty of these animals rarely attach more 
 than two pairs. Some of them have been worked, and particularly by Lord 
 Sheffield, harnessed in every respect like horses, and they answered as truly 
 and as easily to the rein. 
 
 Some have used spayed heifers both for the plough and for draught, 
 with manifest advantage. Many farmers keep their oxen as long as they 
 continue to do their work well, and sometimes until they are twelve years 
 old, and they maintain that the beasts will then fatten quite as well as at 
 an earlier age. Lord Sheffield fattened two of more than twelve years, to 
 the great weight of 210 stones. Experience, however, does not confirm 
 this as a general rule. An old ox takes longer to fatten than a younger 
 one ; and after all there is generally a patcliiness and unevenness about him, 
 which do not please the eye, or answer in the market. Other farmers 
 work them during a much shorter period ; and they believe that if they have 
 ten oxen or heifers at work on their farm, the most profitable plan is to 
 sell off five or six every year, and break in an equal number to succeed 
 them. The beasts will thus be broken in at three years old, — worked until 
 five or six, and then fattened, and if they do not always grow to so large 
 M size, they improve more rapidly and pnifitahly. 
 
THE SUSSEX BREED. 43 
 
 AKIiou^h it is yet an undecided point at what a^e an ox that has been 
 worked will fatten most speedily and Ivindly, it cannot be denied, that he 
 never is in so good condition for work, and never so healthy, or so little 
 troublesome as at six years' old. So far as their work is concerned, we 
 should prefer a nine or ten-year-old ox, to any four or five-year-old one. 
 The youngsters are often a great plague to their owners, not only in the 
 breaking in, and especially if, as upon this plan, five or six are to ne 
 added to the team every year ; but, like the young horse, they are too fre- 
 quently ailing — they are injured by their work, or the diseases to which 
 they would otherwise be subject are increased by their work. 
 
 The general practice of the county, undoubtedly, is to turn the oxen off 
 at six, and slaughter them at seven ; but we are inclined to doubt the pro- 
 piiety of it. The system of recruiting the team so frecjuently has many 
 iuconveniencies. Mr. Young tells us that Lord Egremout had a pair of 
 Sussex oxen in the eleventh year of their age, which for seven years had 
 done as much ploughing and carting as any two horses inthe county ; and 
 then, with half a summer's grass after. having been taken from the collar 
 and an autumn's rouen, they were, without other food, sent to SmithfieltL 
 and sold for eighty guineas. 
 
 The oxen are usually di'afled from the team when the spring-sowing is 
 over; they are then turned into the lower or marsh land, in the proportion 
 of one ox to an acre, if the land is tolerably good, and are there pre- 
 pared for the winter stall-feeding. Sheep are generally mingled with the 
 oxen. In the level of Pevensey, where there is plenty of water, and the 
 grass is abundant, there are many cattle, although sheep are even there 
 increasing ; but at Winchelsea and Rye, there are most sheep, and only 
 one bullock to every four acres, in order to keep the pasture even. After 
 the hay is' cut and carried, the pastures are usually occupied by cattle 
 and sheep; but the reservation of rouen for the pinching part of the 
 spring when all artificial provender fails, or before the young clover and 
 other grasses have begun to shoot, is comparatively unknown. 
 
 Stall-feeding is very much practised in Sussex, and Lord Egremont 
 used to have his milch cows tied up during the greater part of the year. 
 He maintained, that one-third of the food was saved, — that the cows 
 were fed with a fourth part of the usual trouble, — that more dung was 
 made, — and that there was no poaching the ground. 
 
 The oxen are gradually accustomed to their stalls ; they are at first 
 brought in only at night; but, as the winter approaches, ' they are con- 
 stantly tied up. Comparing even the system of yard-feeding with the 
 fattening in stalls, Mr. Ellman, of Glynde (a skilful as well as zealous agri 
 turist, and whose opinion is of weight in cases like these), found that nine 
 oxen, fed loose in the yard, consumed, in destroying as well as eating, as 
 much as twelve oxen that were tied up. Many graziers, however, and 
 particularly in the midland districts, maintain that an ox loose in the yard 
 will fatten quicker than one that is tied up. 
 
 The average weight of the Sussex cattle when brought to Smitliiield is 
 about 120 stones ; but they have been slaughtered as high as 216 stones. 
 One belonging to Mr. Ellman, weighing 214 stones, measured from the 
 crown of the head to the ruinp, 9 feet 6 inches. The girth before the 
 shoulder was 9 feet 5 inches ; behind the shonlder, 9 feet ; round the 
 middle, 10 feet ; routid the flank, 9 feet ; and from the nostril to the tip 
 of the tail, was a distance of 14 feet 8 inches. 
 
 Mr. Edsaw, of Fettleworth, who was pai'tial to large cattle, has had 
 them 6 feet high behind, and 5)^' feet before, and 10^ feet girth over th« 
 neart. Two of them weighed 216 stones each. 
 
44 
 
 CATTLE. 
 
 The Sussex cow, like the Hereford one, is very inferior to the ox ; she 
 seems to be almost another kind of animal. The breeder has endeavoured, 
 but with comparatively little success, to give to the heifer the same points 
 that the ox possesses. 
 
 :;:;i*!:'^\jii^?f: 
 
 -" £SS.«^Mrv J^ 
 
 \The Sussex CoU'.j 
 
 The Rev. A. Young thus describes what the Sussex cow ought to be, 
 and some may be found to resemble the portrait : — '' The true cow has a 
 deep red colour, the hair fine, and the skin mellow, thin and soft ; a small 
 head ; a fine horn, thin, clean, and transparent, which should run out hori- 
 zontally, and afterwards turn up at the tips ; the neck very thin and clean 
 made ; a small leg ; a straight top and bottom, with round and springing 
 ribs ; thick chine ; loin, hips, and rump wide ; shoulder flat — but the pro- 
 jection of the point of the shoulder is not liked, as the cattle subject to this 
 defect are usually coarse ; the legs should be rather short ; carcase large ; 
 the tail should be lev^l with the rump : a ridged back-bone, thin and 
 hollow chines, are great'defects in this breed." 
 
 The Sussex cow does not answer for the dairy, Although her milk is 
 of very good quality, it is so inferior in quantity to that of the Holderness' 
 or the Suffolk, that she is little regarded for the making of butter or 
 cheese. Almost every mongrel breed finds its way into the Dairy in pre- 
 ference to her. A cross, however, has been attempted, and with some 
 success, between the Sussex and the Suffolk, retaining to a very fair de- 
 gree the fattening properties of the one, and the disposition of the other 
 to ^ve a considerable quantity of good milk. 
 
 Old Herbert says, that "while the Sussex oxen carry too much weight 
 on their coarser parts, the heifers and cows are better made, and carry 
 much of their weight on their backs ;" and he affirms that " they are sure 
 breeders, good at the pail, and handsome." The cow is lighter before, 
 but she is deficient in other points ; and as to her being good at the pail, 
 the fact that so few of them are kept as dairy cow3, even in Sussex, is a 
 sufficient proof that they are not fco. 
 
 There are some exceptions, however, to this. Lord Hampden, of 
 G ynde, had a cow which, in the height of the season, yielded ten pounds 
 of butter and twelve pounds of cheese every week, and yet her qu«<t**ty of 
 
THE SLSSEX BREED. ti 
 
 Biilk rnrely exceed,e(l fi.e ^a.Ioiis per day. The next year the same cow 
 gave 9J lbs. of butter per week for several weeks, and then for the rest of 
 the summer 8 lbs., or 8^ lbs., per week ; and until the hard frost set in, 7 lbs., 
 — and 4 lbs. per week during the frost. Yet as a proof of the quality of the 
 milk, she at no time gave more than five gallons in the day. Mr. Young 
 ■dds to this, that " four or five years before, the same person had a fine 
 black Sussex cow from Lord Gage, which also gave, in the height of the 
 ■eason, five gallons per day, but no more than 51bs. of butter were ever made 
 from it." This is accounted for in a singular way ; for there is a com- 
 mon opinion (a prejiidice, we should be disposed to call it) in the east 
 of Sussex, that "the milk of a black cow never gives' so much butter as 
 that of a red one." 
 
 It must be confessed that tliere is one great fault about the Sussex cows, 
 seemingly inconsistent with their propensity to fatten, and which cannot be 
 remedied. Their very countenance indicates an unquiet temper ; and (he^ 
 are often restless and dissatisfied, prowling thout the hedge-rows, and en 
 deavouring to break pasture, and especially if they are taken from the farm 
 on which they were bred. 
 
 They are principally kept as breeders, all tlie use being made of then 
 at the same time as dairy cows of which circumstances will admit. And it 
 cannot be denied that they are generally in fair condition, even while they 
 are milking; and that no beasts, except their kindred, the Devons and the 
 Herefords, will thrive so speedily after they are dried. The secretion of 
 milk being stopped, the Sussex cow will fatten even quicker than the ox. 
 It mu.st, however, be acknowledged that the Sussex cows are not perfect, 
 even as breeders; and that, unless a great deal of care is taken that the cow 
 chall not be in too good condition at the time of calving, she is subject to 
 puerperal fever, or 'dropping;' whiie many a calf is lost from the too 
 stimulating quality of her milk. 
 
 Next to the cross with the Suffolk for the improvement of the milk is 
 that with the Jersey, or French cow ; but there can scarcely be said to be 
 a decided breed for the dairy in any part of Sussex. 
 
 Nearly all the calves are reared, — the males for work, and the females for 
 breeding or rarly fattening. The following is a fair specimen of the breed- 
 ing and grazmg department of an ordinary East Sussex farm. A farm is 
 selected, on which eight cows, on the average, are kept ; — then it is sup- 
 posed that there will generally be six calves, six yearlings, six two-y^ar- 
 olds, four three-year-olds beginning to work, four fpur-year-olds, four five 
 year, and four six-year-olds. On some farms the calves are calculated as 
 being, occasional losses excepted, equal to the number of cows, and the 
 females are quite sufficient to keep up the stock. The calves are generally 
 cut at seven weeks old ; they are permitted to suck for ten or thirteen weeks, 
 and are weaned by being shut up, and having a little grass given to them 
 until they have forgotten the dam, when they are turned out. During 
 the first winter they are fed with the best hay, and after that they have grass, 
 and occasionally some straw, until the second Christmas is passed, when they 
 are broken in for working. A good cow, after her own calf has been weaned, 
 will suckle another, and sometimes even two others, for the butcher. 
 
 Mr. Young gives the following, as Lord Egremont's cattle system fd 
 work : — " The calves are dropped from December to the end of February. 
 They are weaned immediately, never letting them suck at all; but the milk 
 is given for three days as it comes from the cow. For weaning on skim- 
 milk they ought to fall about December, and then they should be kept warm 
 by housing, and thus they will be equally forward withcalves dropped late 
 in the spring that run with the cow. With the skim milk some oatmeal is 
 
♦* CATTlK. 
 
 piven, but not till two months olrl, and then only becai se the nnmber of 
 calves is too g:reat for the quantity of milk. Water and oatmeal are 
 afterwards mixed with it. A heifer, however, with her first calf is supposed 
 to suckle it the whole season, in order to make her a pood milker; but 
 with the second calf she is treated like the rest. In May they are turned 
 to g-rass. During the first winter they are fed upon rouen. The follow- 
 ing sinnmer they are at grass; the second winter out at straw, of which 
 they eat very little, as they run out on short rough grass. They hiive 
 been tried on hay alone, but straw and grass do better. The follovvJMg 
 .summer they are fed on grass, and are broken in at Christinas, being 
 three years old. They are at first lightly worked ; for the only object is 
 tO break them in, in order that their regular work may begin in the 
 spring. From that time their winter food is straw, wiih tlje addition of 
 a ton and a half of clover hay, given between the finishing of straw :ind 
 goinn; tp grass, and in order to prepare them for the spring-sowing. They 
 are worked about four years and a half, and then fattened." 
 
 When at straw in the winter they work three clays in the week, and 
 some of them every day. Mr. Young adds a remark which may deserve 
 consideration; that when an ox will not bear hard work and hard food, 
 he should be put to fatten, and, probably, he will thrive as well as one 
 that would stand work and hardship belter, for the qualities of fattening 
 well, and bearing hard work, are distinct. 
 
 The bull is changed every two years by the best breeders, from the 
 supposition that the breeding in and in will cause the i^tock to de- 
 generate. 
 
 The system of working in collars instead of yokes was once very pre- 
 valent in Sussex; but experience has not shown that it is decidedly supe- 
 rior to the old method of yoking them to the ploughs. 
 
 In some parts of Sussex there is a breed of black cattle, said to have 
 been introduced by Mr. Marten of Tirle. They are probably a cross of the 
 Sussex cow with a South Wales bull, and they retain a great deal of the 
 shape and form of the best blood of Sussex. They are as heavy, and work 
 well ; but they are exceedingly troublesome to break in. 
 
 Of the west of Sussex, little can be said with regard to any prevailing 
 breed. Mr. James Hack, who resides in the neighbourhood of Chichester, 
 and to whom we are indebted for some excellent remarks, fattens some 
 Devons ; but he prefers the Pembrokeshire black oxen, for they are 
 heavier in flesh, more hardy, and can better endure every variation of tem- 
 perature. Mr. Postlethwaite, of the same neighbourhood, describes the 
 dairy cows as consisting of a strange mixture of short-:horns, Devons, Sus- 
 sex, and French. Mr. Henry Freeland, of Appledram, near Chichester, 
 prefers a cross of the Sussex with the SutTolk polls for the pail. 
 
 In the western part, or the weald of Kent, the Sussex oxeti are •»'nch used 
 for the plough and for the road ; but there, as in Sussex, the dairy cattle 
 are drawn from other counties. They are principally Welsh, or a strange 
 and varying mixture of the Sussex, the Staffordshire, and the Wel.sV., 
 Even ip the Weald, the Sussex cattle are, with very few excep- 
 tions, kept only for the purpose of grazing. Their young cattle, of 
 whatever kind, are usually sent to Romney Marsh in the summer. The 
 farmer in the Weald would not know what to do with his bullocks at that 
 time of the year, because most of his pasture must be reserved for hay, or 
 'ood for his dairy. They are sent aboi'» the middle of May, and return at 
 
THE KENTISH BREED. 47 
 
 the end of September, when they are put on the inferior grass lands ; and 
 in winter they are sent to the straw-yard, or served witll hay in the field. 
 On the other hand, the Roniney Marsh graziers send the greater part of 
 ihfir iambs to the Weald for the winter. They go in September, and are 
 brought back in April. This interchange of stock is convenient and pro 
 fitable for both parties. The Weald farmer keeps the lambs about thirty 
 weeks, and the Marsh farmer grazes the cattle during twenty weeks. 
 
 At three years old the heifer, -and the steer at four years old, is ready 
 to fatten. Better food is then allowed them. They are kept on the best 
 grass and hay that the farm can afford. The hay of the old meadows is 
 generally reserved for the fattening of cattle. Of those that are kept at 
 home, thjB pastures are first stocked with milch cows, to take off the head- 
 gra-ss, and the leaner cattle and the working oxen follow them ; and thus 
 several fields are fed down in succession during the summer. 
 
 The practice of fattening cattle with distillers' wash commenced at 
 Bromley: it was afterwards adopted in the distilleries of Middlesex, of 
 which we shall give a particular account in the proper place. 
 
 So far as cattle, however, are concerned, Kent can scarcely be said to 
 be either a breeding or a dairy county. In the east of Kent e.specially, 
 few cattle are bred. The polled Scots are bought for summer-grazing 
 or the Welsh are purchased at Canterbury, or other markets. The prin- 
 cipal dairy cows are selected from them ; the rest are kept in the farm-yard 
 for the winter, and in the spring are placed among the sheep, where they 
 fatten rapidly, and reach from twenty to twenty-two scores. 
 
 Some graziers buy Welsh calves in the autumn, and put them out to 
 keep in the farm-yards for the winter : in the spring they place them 
 among their sheep, where they get fet in a few months, and weiglj from 
 18 to 23 scores. 
 
 In some parts of Kent oxen are stall-fed on oil-cake and hay, for the 
 purpose of supplying manure for the hop-grounds. This purpose may 
 probably be answered, in regard to the manure, but the fattening of the 
 ox in this way must be far from profitable. 
 
 There are very few dairy-farms in any part of Kent ; sufficient pasture- 
 land, to keep a few cows to supply the family with milk and butter, and per- 
 haps a little fresh butter for sale, is all that the best upland farms will yield. 
 
 The native cattle of Kent dfeserve more attention than has been hitherto 
 paid to them. Mr. Boys says, that " they are of a deep-red colour, with 
 small bone, and a kindly-soft skin. They have a great breadth of Join and 
 length of sirloin and rump, and a small head and neck ; the horns short 
 and standing upwards, and they have a ready disposition to fatten." 
 
 WALES. 
 
 To the Principality we naturally look for some trace of the native breed of 
 cattle, for the Welsh were never entirely subdued by any of the early 
 invaders. The Romans possessed merely a portion of that country ; the 
 Saxons scarcely penetrated at all into Wales, or not beyond the county 
 of Monmouth ; the Welsh long resisted the superior power of the English 
 under the Norman kings ; and it was not until late in the thirteenth cen- 
 tury that the Principality was annexed to the crown of England. We 
 therefore expect to find more decided specimens of the native productions 
 of our island: nor are we altogether disappointed. Howell Dha, or 
 Howell the Good, describes some of the Welsh cattle in the tenth century 
 
48 
 
 CATTLK, 
 
 as being "'white with red ears," resembling the wild cittle of Chilli ughaiil 
 Castle. An early record speaks of a hundred white cows with red eara 
 being demanded as a compensation for certain offences against the 
 Princes both of North and South Wales. If the cattle were of a dark or 
 black colour, 150 were to be presented. When the Cambrian princes did 
 homage to the King of England, the same number of cattle, and of the 
 same description, were rendered in acknowledgment of sovereignty. 
 Speed tells us that Maud de Breos, in order to appease King John, whom 
 her husband had offended, sent to his Queen a present from Brecknock- 
 shire of 400 cows and a bull, all white and with red ears. Whether this 
 was the usual colour of the ancient breed of Welsh and British cattle, o? 
 a rare variety, esteemed on account of its beauty, and chiefly preserved in 
 the parks of the nobles, we are unable to determine. The latter is the 
 most probable supposition ; and the same records that describe the " white 
 cattle with red ears," speak also of the " dark or black-coloured breed," 
 which now exists, and which is general throughout the principality. 
 
 The principal and the most valuable portion of the cattle of Wales are 
 middle horns. They are indeed stunted in their growth, from the scanty 
 food which their mountains yield, but they bear about them, in miniature, 
 many of the points of the Devon; Sussex, and Hereford cattle. We will 
 first consider the cattle of South Wales. 
 
 
 [The Pembroke Ox.'\ 
 
 SOUTH WALES. 
 
 PEMBllpKESHIRE. 
 
 Gkkat Britain does not afford a more useful animal than the PembroKe 
 cow or ox. It is black ; the great majority of them are entirely so ; a few 
 have white faces, or a little white about the tail, or the udders ; and the 
 horns are white. The latter turn up in a way characteristic of the breed 
 and indeed the general form of the cattle undeniably betrays their early 
 origin. They are shoiter legged than most of the 'Welsh breeds, but 
 longer than the Montgomeries, and have round and deep carcases. They 
 have a peculiarly lively look and good eye. The hair is rough, but short- 
 aud the hide 'i not thick. The bones, although not so small as in the 
 
THE GI.AMOKGANSHIRE BREED, 4S 
 
 Improved long horn?, are far from large ; and the Pembrokeshire cattle 
 mingle, to a considerable degree, and as far perhaps as they can be 
 combined, the two opposite qualities, of being very fair milkers, vrith 
 a propensity to fatten. The meat is generally beautifully marbled. 
 It is equal to that of the Scotch cattle, and some epicures prefer it. They 
 thrive in every situation. They will live where others starve, and they 
 will rapidly o\itstrip most others when they have plenty of good pasture. 
 I'he Glamorgans would jirobably get the start of the Pembrokes on good 
 pasture ; but on the rough and barren tracts, which are to be found in 
 both counties, the Pembrokes would decidedly obtain the advantage, and 
 are, therefore, purchased by many of the Glamorganshire farmers. The 
 Pembroke cow has been called the poor man's cow : it is perhaps one of 
 the best cottager's cows, while it is equally profitable to the larger farmer. 
 We shall see, when we come to describe the Anglesey breed, that the ori- 
 ginal cattle of North and South Wales are essentially the same; they are, 
 however, finer in the head, neck, and breast, than the Anglesey beasts, 
 but not so fine as the Glamorganshire cattle. 
 
 The Pembrokes are found in Carmarthenshire, Cardigan, and Brecon, 
 and, indeed, in every bordering county, mixed with the different breeds of 
 each, and imparting to each its very best qualities. They bear no slight 
 resemblance to the Kyloes. ' 
 
 The Pembroke ox is, like the Devon, a speedy and an honest worker, — 
 fit for the road as well as the plough, — and when taken from work fatten- 
 ing as speedily as he does. He is not quite so tractable as the Glamor- 
 gan, but easily managed if no foolish violence is resorted to. Great num- 
 bers of them are brought to the London market — they stand their journey 
 well and find a ready sale, for they rarely disappoint the butcher ; but, on 
 the contrary, prove better than appearance and touch indicated. The 
 Pembroke oxen get rid of their steer-like appearance sooner than most 
 other cattle. At three years old they have generally the true character 
 of the ox about them ; and, in their fourth year, they are usually ready 
 for the market. The Pembrokeshire cow is usually black, with occa- 
 sionally a dark brown, or, less frequently, a white face, or a white line 
 along the back. Mr. Davies describes lier as being " fine-boned, with a 
 clean light neck and head, small yellow horns inclining upwards, good 
 chine and loin, round long barrel, thin thigh and short legs : she is always 
 in good condition if tolerably kept, and has a rich wave in her hair, and 
 an oiliness of skin, which ever denote thriftiness.'' This is true with re- 
 gard to some of the best cows, but there are many exceptions. With all 
 these good points, proving her value as a grazing animal, the Pembroke 
 cow is, as we have described her, a very fair milker, and will yield 51bs. 
 Df butter per week during the dairy season. 
 
 OLAMOReANSHIRE. 
 
 The Glamorgans were once in fiign repute, and deservedly so. George III., 
 who was a good judge of cattle, was, very partial to them, and one of 
 his agents yearly visited Glamorganshire, to keep up his Majesty's stock 
 by a selection of the best cattle that count) could produce ; and the farm 
 at Windsor is still frequently recruited from this district. For the most 
 valuable portion of the following account of their early history and present 
 state we are chiefly indebted to Mr. Moggridge, of Newport, and Mr. 
 David, of Radyr. To the latter gentleman, whose tact and skill as a 
 breeder need no eulogy of ours, and whose side- oard is loaded with the 
 testimonies of the superiority of his cattle, we acknowledge peculiar obli- 
 fration. We have also extracted some useful matte, from Davis's excel* 
 
 £ 
 
5" CATTLE. 
 
 lent " Survey of South Wales,'' a very rare book, and complete!/ out 
 of print. 
 
 D. T., the Welsh topographer, who wrote in the Cambrian language in 
 1720, speaks of the cows as being large, some red, and some pied, with a 
 sleek coat and a fine head. Although we have traced the white ox with 
 red ears to Glamorgan, and the neighbouring county, Brecon, yet the old 
 legends agree that the domesticated breed was of a reddish colour, and that 
 they had some of the Norman and Devon blood in them. This is ac- 
 counted for by some of the chroniclers. A great part of Glamorgan 
 was, in the twelfth century, seized by Robert Fitzhamon and other 
 Norman Knights. Their connexion with their native country did not im- 
 mediately cease, ar)d they introduced some of the Norman cattle into 
 South Wales. The swelling crest of the Glamorgan ox at once reminds 
 us of the Norman bull. Did they spread from Glamorganshire to Angle- 
 sey, the cattle of which island are also recognized by the peculiar swelling 
 of the breast, and lofly bearing of the head ; or may we consider this state- 
 liness of appearance as indicative, in both districts, of the native breed? 
 
 We are also told that Sir Richard de Grenaville, one of the Knights 
 who divided among them the Lordship of Neath, also possessed the castle 
 of Bideford, on the northern coast of Devonshire, and introduced many of 
 the Devon cattle. This we can easily imagine, for in the old red-cow, 
 which we can recollect nearly fifty years ago, an admixture of Devon 
 blood could not be for a moment mistaken, and it is even yet evident in 
 the horns, the lively countenance, and the deer-like head and neck. The 
 red, however, was then degenerating into brown, and the brown has been 
 gradually darkening from crosses with the Pembroke black. Some of the 
 original reds are to be met with occasionally in the hilly districts, and 
 particularly in the neighbourhood of Aberdare ; but the poverty of the soil 
 has much reduced their size. Not a great many years ago there was in 
 the valleys of the Neath and the Towy, a breed of cattle of a light red 
 colour, and with white faces, which were said to have been the ancient 
 stock of the vale of Glamorgan. Although not so large as the brown 
 breed of the vale, they were good milkers, and fattened kindly. They 
 were not, however, always bare, but occasionally crossed with the stunted 
 blacks of the neighbouring parts of Carmarthenshire. 
 
 The Glamorganshire farmers, of half a century ago, took great pride in 
 their eallle, and evinced much judgment in their breeding and .selection. 
 There was one principle from which they never deviated ; — tkey admitted 
 no admixture of foreign blood, and they produced the Glamorgan ox, so 
 much admired for activity and strength, and aptitude to fatten ; and the 
 cow, if it did not vie with the best milkers, yielded a good remunerating 
 profit to the dairyman. 
 
 They were of a dark-hrown colour with white bellies, and a streak of 
 white along the back from the shoulder to the tail. They had clean 
 heads, taperiiig from the neck and shoulders ; long white horns, turning 
 upwards; and a lively countenance. Their dewlaps were small, the hair 
 short, and the coat silky. If there was any fault, it was that the rump, or 
 setting on -of the tail, was too high above the level of the back to accord 
 with the modern notions of symmetry. 
 
 Forty years ago the breed was eagerly sought after by the most skilful 
 breeders in Leicester, Northampton, Warwick, and Wilts. Their aptitude 
 to fatten rendered them exceedingly profitable when taken from the plough 
 at six or seven years old, and they were brought to great perfection on the 
 rich English pastures,^fi:equently weighing more than twenty scores pet 
 quarter. TJx h^ef w^s beautifully veined and marbled, the inside of the 
 
THE GLAMORGANSHIRE BREED. SI 
 
 (..iimal was well lined with tallow, and the Glamorgans commanded the 
 highest price both in the metropolitan and provincial market. Mr. Davies, 
 who wrote in the year 1814, says that " among the Glamorgan-vale 
 browns good cow-beet' weighs from eight to ten score pounds per quarter, 
 although some weigh as much as twelve or thirteen scores. Ox-beef is 
 from twelve "to fourteen scores per quarter; some, however, have reached 
 eighteen, and even twenty scores. 
 
 The steers were seldom yoked until three years old ; they were then 
 moderately worked for three or four years and well kept; and, after a few 
 weeks' rest, they were usually disposed of at the large spring fairs in this 
 county, which then displayed a collection of fine oxen, not often surpassed 
 in any of the English districts. 
 
 During the French revolutionary war the excessive price of corn attracted 
 '-he attention of the Glamorganshire farmers to the increased cultivation 
 of it, and a great proportion of the best pastures were turned over by the 
 plough. Turnip-husbandry necessarily followed; and then the improve- 
 ment of their sheep-stock became an object of importance, and the cattle 
 were almost entirely neglected. A proper selection for breeding was un- 
 attended to ; the calves were generally weaned at two or three weeks old, 
 and nursed on milk and water, hay-tea, and boiled linseed ; the produce 
 of the cow being entirely reserved for the dairy. The steers were taken 
 to labour when they were two years old, and seldom exceeded four years 
 when they were disposed of; they were depastured in summer, either on 
 land too wet to carry sheep, or too bare for corn, and in winter they 
 barely existed in the straw-yard. 
 
 The natural consequence of inattention and starvation was, that the 
 breed greatly degenerated in its disposition to fatten, and, certainly, with 
 many exceptions, but yet, as their general character, the Glamorganshire 
 cattle became and are flat-sided, sharp in the hip-joints and shoulders, 
 high in the rump, too long in the legs, with thick skins, and a delicate 
 constitution. 
 
 The Glamorganshire farmer was startled at the necessary result of this 
 alteration of system. His cattle, instead of being eagerly soflght after, and 
 sold at an extravagant price, could scarcely be sold at all, or only at a 
 serious loss. He was unwilling at first to acknowledge the real cause of 
 this deterioration and diminution of value, and many of the breeders, even 
 at the present day, take little or no pains to redeem their error. 
 
 A few spirited individuals, however, set the example ; and others have 
 been incited by their zeal and partial success to assist in endeavouring to 
 restore the breed to its former pre-eminence, or, at least, to adapt it to the 
 coarser fare which, under the altered state of husbandry, must now be to 
 a great degree its lot. 
 
 Among these, and one of the most skilful and successful of them, was 
 Mr. David, of Radyr, whose sketch of the deterioration and regeneration 
 ofthe breed we are giving our readers in a somewhat condensed form. 
 The result of these attempts has been, that, in the recent exhibitions of 
 stuck a Tredegar, the revived and pure Glamorgans have often success- 
 fully competed with the short-horns and the Herefords ; and Mr. David 
 has received, at Sir Charles Morgan's cattle shows, no less than twelve 
 silver cups for his Glamorgans. 
 
 The work of improvement, however, as yet has been, and could only 
 be, in few hands. It is comparatively easy to keep up a good breed ; but 
 to regenerate a bad one, or, at least, a deteriorated one, requires skill, 
 capital, and perseverance ; and these called into active requisition in the 
 fa<?e of hard times, and with little or no prospect of obtaining remuneratmg 
 
 E 2 
 
.S2 
 
 CATTLE. 
 
 prices. Therefore iL must be acknowledged at present, and perhaps it 
 must long continue to be the fact, that the Glamorgans, generally, are far 
 from being what they once were. They continue, however, to maintaiii 
 their character for stoutness and activity, and are still profitably employed 
 in husbandry-work. Only a little while ago four Glamorgan oxen ploughed 
 with ease half an acre of clover hay in two hours and three-quarters. The 
 beef is still good, marbled, and good-tasted ; and in proportion as the 
 value of the ox to the grazier has decreased, the value of the cow has be- 
 come enhanced for the dairy. He who is accustomed to cattle will under- 
 stand the meaning of this; and the kind of incompatibility between an 
 aptitude to fatten in little time, and on spare keep, and the property of 
 yielding a more than average quantity of milk. 
 
 Even Mr. David acknowledges that he had not succeeded to his perfect 
 satisfaction in reproducing the old breed, which combined so much of 
 both these excellencies ; and therefore he, and the most scientific breeders 
 of the county, began to be weary of this strict adherence to the Glamor- 
 ganshire breed, and to consider whether it might not be possible, by judi- 
 cious crossing with the cattle of other districts, to obtain an animal better 
 suiied to the present state of the country. 
 
 \_The Glamorganshire Ox.^ 
 
 The interest of the grazier were first considered, and the comparative 
 slowness in feeding in the present Glamorgans was attempted to be ob- 
 viated by crossing with the Hereford bull. This to a considerable extent 
 succeeded. An animal was produced well adapted for the grazier ; dis- 
 posed to accumulate flesh, and of a hardier constitution : but the ox was a 
 little injured for the yoke ; the beef, as is the case with every animal that 
 arrives at an early maturity, was not so fine ; and the value of the cow 
 was very much diminished ; she was neither so good a milker, nor nurse. 
 Besides this, the fattening of an animal that grew to so great a bulk as the 
 mingled Hereford and Glamorgan, interfered too much with the present 
 economy of Glamorganshire husbandry ; and the produce of this cross did 
 ot always thrive on the scanty fare on which it was compelled to subsist. 
 
 That important and not duly appreciated fact, to which we shall often 
 have occasion to allurle, was also here very apparent. The ad/antage of 
 
THE GLAMORGANSHIRE BREEO. 
 
 53 
 
 mingling the Hereford with the Glamorgan was evident enough in the 
 first cross, and the farmer began to congratulate himself on the result ; 
 but after the second and third generation, the influence of the foreign blood 
 rapidly disappeared, and the Glamorgan, with all his characteristic points 
 and defects, again stood before us. The heavy Leicester was likewise 
 tried, but the progeny became sluggish and unfit for labour, and slow in 
 feeding and coarse in beef, and unfit for stocking such a district. The 
 influence of soil and climate on the production, and the perpetuation of 
 certain breeds, is a circumstance that does not enter half so much into the 
 consideration of the farmer as it ought to do, and will account for a great 
 many of his disappointments and erroneous opinions. We shall seriously 
 consider this subject when we come to treat of the principles of breeding. 
 Breeders then began to take another view of the matter. They cohsi- 
 dered their cattle as mere machines for converting the raw produce of the 
 earth into human food ; and they inquired whether their soil and climate, 
 and situation for markets, and their mode of agriculture, were best adapted 
 for a machine to produce beef, or milk. The character and habits and 
 employment of the inhabitants of Glamorgan had essentially changed. 
 Mines had been sunk, and manufactures had been established in almost 
 every part of the county. It was become a very populous district, in 
 which dairy produce would always command a ready sale. In addition to 
 this, the good old custom still prevailed in this county, of farm-servants 
 being kept under their employer's roof; and their diet, in order to be 
 both wholesome and economical, was chiefly derived from the dairy. As, 
 therefore, the old Glamorgan could with so much difficulty, or scarcely at 
 all, be reproduced, the attention of the farmer was gradually directed tc 
 the dairy. 
 
 [The Glamorgamhre Cow.'] 
 
 At first he was unwilling quite to sacrifice the old pride and boast of 
 his native county ; and he endeavoured once more to accomplish both 
 objects, and he had recourse to the shoi-t-horns. A very little experience, 
 however, convinced him that his labour would here be lost. He retained 
 mdeed the milk, but he somewhat deteriorated its quality ; and the beast 
 was slow and sluggish, and not calculated for labour, and would not thrive 
 
54 CATTLE. 
 
 on the pasture and on the nourishment which this county usually afforda 
 In a happy hour he thought of the Ayrshire cow ; and he brought hei 
 from her native district. Some farmers used her pure ; others crossed 
 her with the best Glamorgan cattle; and others with still more judgment 
 procured the Ayrshire bull, and bred with him from the best of their own 
 heifers. The result was, an animal that yielded more milk than the old 
 Glamorgan, — that was hardier, and could be kept, and especially in the 
 winter, at much less expense, and that from its smaller size was more easily 
 fattened, and better suited to the coarse fare now generally afforded her by 
 the Glamorganshire farmer. This, then, is the breed which is becoming, 
 and profitably so, established in the populous districts of Glamorgan. 
 Among the improvers of the Glamorgan cattle Messrs. Bradley of 
 Treguff must not be forgotten. Their beasts bear a close resemblance to 
 the Herefords in fifgure, although inferior to them in size ; they feed 
 kindly — the flesh and fat are laid equally over them — the beef is beautifully 
 marbled, and they yield a more than average quantity of milk. They are 
 fattened to perfection at five years old, but not often at an earlier age ; and 
 will become sufficiently bulky on the good pastures of the vale without any 
 artificial food. In the hilly districts many of the old Glamorgans remain, 
 and attempts are made to restore the character of the pure Glamorgan 
 cattle of fifty years ago, but without that degree of success which will 
 fairly remunerate the farmer. 
 
 The cut in the preceding page is the portrait of a valuable cow, belong- 
 ing to the royal dairy at Windsor, and gives a faithful representation of 
 the present improved breed of Glamorgan dairy-cattle. 
 
 The average quantity of milk- given by a Glamorganshire cow is about 
 sixteen quarts per day. The principal object of the dairyman Is butter, 
 of which the average produce of each cow is at least 1 cwt. during the 
 season. The butter is esteemed ; and that which is not consumed in the 
 home-manufactories is usually sent to the Bristol market. The Glamorgan 
 cheese is often of an inferior, kind. There used to be, and in some mea- 
 sure there still is, an unpleasant dryness and brittleness about it, depend' 
 ing, according to some persons, on the clover in the natural pastures, buit 
 more attributable to some mismanagement in the manufacture^ or the 
 quantity of ewe's milk which was mingled with that of the cow. 
 
 With the 'establishment of a dairy breed, it has been thought by some 
 thai a little too much of the old false economy in the rearing of the calf 
 has been re-introduced. He is early weaned ; frequently in less than a 
 week ; always in little more than a fortnight, and alter that he is badly 
 sheltered and worse fed— skim milk, and not too much of that, is his only 
 provender. This is not perhaps to be strictly defended, for it is practised on 
 an animal that may be brought to grow to a large size, and whose constitu- 
 tion, although improved, is none of the hardiest : yet, on the other hand, 
 although the calf of the Hereford, or even of the short^horn, is a very supe- 
 rior animal at a yeSr old, it should not be forgotten that he has probablv 
 consumed the whole year's prod\ice of the cow, and that at weaning time 
 he must be supported by the most nourishing food ; so that, when the 
 balance is struck, the profits of the respective breeders may not be 
 very different, especially if two or three cwt. of cheese and butter are 
 added to the value of the Glamorgan yearling. 
 
 There is still another serious defect in the system of Glamorganshire 
 breeding: if the calf appears to fatten more than usually kindly, it is forth- 
 with sold to the butcher, and not reserved, as it should be, for the purpose 
 of breeding. In selecting their cattle, the first and almost only considera- 
 tion has reference to their milking qualities ; and a full udder will outweigb 
 every objection which might be made t» dieir flat sides, large offal, long 
 
THE MONMOUTHSHIRE BKEED. 55 
 
 legs, coarse shoulders, and thin skin. In some parts of (ilamorganshire 
 the pure Herefords are cultivated in preference to any mixture with the 
 native breed. Mr. Bradley, who resides near Cardiff, is partial to the 
 Herefords, and his stock does not yield to many in the neighbourhood, or 
 in the county generally 
 
 Tiie hilly, or rather the mountainous district, forms the g;reater,althoiin'ti 
 not the most populous^ part of this county. Mr. Jenkins, of St. y Nill, 
 informs us that, from the retired and attentive habits of the farmers, and 
 especially from the comparatively small part of the county that could be 
 submitted to the plough, the cattle of the hills have, in a great measure, 
 escaped the deterioration of thdse in the vale. They are browner than 
 those in the vale, well bodied, ai(d with short legs. Few crosses have 
 been attempted among them. They are hardier than those in the vale, 
 and advantage is often taken of this to expose them to too much privation. 
 While the »a/e-cattle are wintered, and often badly enough in the straw- 
 yard, the hill-caXiie have nothing but hay from poor peaty . meadows, 
 whose produce is not more than seven or eight cwt. to the acre, and which 
 are rarely or never manured. Notwithstanding this they thrive ; their 
 meat is of a superior quality, aiid they are much sought after in the London 
 market. 
 
 The Glamorganshire cattle continue to prevail in Monmouthshire, 
 of which, although not strictly a Welsh county, and far more a mining 
 than a breeding district, it will be convenient next to speak. 
 
 MONMOUTHSHIRE. 
 
 Here likewise Mr. Moggridge is our chief authority. 
 
 Monmouthshire may be divided into the hill and vale districts. The 
 cattle of the hili, country were probably derived from crosses of the 
 Brecon blacks with the Glamorgans. The latter predominated, and con- 
 tinued so to do, to the visible improvement of the breed. 
 
 Within the last few years, however, a great number of Irish cattle have 
 .found their way to every part of the Bristol channel by means of 
 steam-boats, and they were offered at prices so inferior to that of the 
 natives that they were greedily purchased. Not only, therefore, was all 
 improvement in the Monmouthshire cattle arrested, but the hill-farmers 
 were threatened with ruin, for they could sca;rcely sell their beasts at any 
 price. If this system is longer pursued, the breeding of the native cattle 
 will be in a manner abandoned. 
 
 Some Durhams have been lately introduced in the neighbourhood of 
 Pontypool, but with doubtful success. The Ayrshire cow has found her 
 way into some of the hill-dairies, and is much valued ; while great num- 
 bers of Scotch cattle are brought into the districts immediately connected 
 with the iron works, and even bred there. They live well on the mountain 
 pasture, and are soon fattened at the end of the season^ 
 
 Many of the native cattle, however, continue to be fattened in the hill- 
 district, and are thence driven into the richer pasture of the central coun- 
 ties to be finished. They are good milkers, although not equal to the 
 Glamorgans, of whose blood they inherit a considerable portion. Their 
 appearance is very much against them, and they will not thrive rapidly 
 even on good land. 
 
 The use of cattle for husbandry has been declining for many years^ 
 owing to the canals and railways which intersect the county, and the conse- 
 quent increased demand for horses : but should the introduction of locomo- 
 tive engines hereafter banish the horse from the mining districts, the use 
 of cattle in rural affairs may probably be resumed, to the future advantage 
 
50 CAITLK. 
 
 of the .an Uord and the tenant, although the present change is operating 
 unfavourably on both. 
 
 In the VALE DISTRICT of Monmouthshire the farmers were formerly 
 content with the Glamorgans, and the better Idnd of hill-cattle ; and these, 
 after being kept for some time, increased in size and in value. Of late 
 years, however, the Hereford have in a manner superseded both of these 
 breeds, and many fine beasts of that stock are to be found in the vale of 
 Usk generally, and particularly in the neighbourhood of Abergavenny. 
 Some intelligent farmers from Herefordshire have settled in this district. 
 They naturally brought with them their native cattle ; and the Herefbrds, or 
 crosses from them, may now be considered as some of the established breeds 
 through the whole of the vale. Sir Charles Morgan has introduced the Dur- 
 hams into the lower part of the county, and with a prospect of considerable 
 success. Some of his short-horns, and particularly those exhibited at his 
 cattle-show in 1830, were, as the intelligent judge of the cattle appropri- 
 ately called them, tremendously fat At what expense they were made so 
 is not, perhaps, considered so seriously as it ought to be. For the dairy 
 especially, it is probable that some valuable breeds may arise from crosses 
 between the Durham bull and the best of the vale cows. The Herefords 
 will never find their way into the dairy : they belong to the grazier and 
 the butcher*. 
 
 The prevailing cow is the Glamorgan, with some of the middle-sized 
 Gloucester-vale breed. 
 
 A great proportion of the labour of the vale husbandry is performed by 
 oxen, but the bye-roads of Monmouthshire, even more neglected and worse 
 than bye-roads generally are, compel the farmer to keep more horses than 
 he otherwise would. 
 
 There is a large tract of land comprising many thousand acres, that 
 can neither be called hill nor vale, and is locally known by the name of 
 Ihe levels, comprising all the flat land bordering on the Bristol channel. 
 Nearly the whole of this is meadow-laud, and naturally of very superior 
 quality. The prevailing stock used to be Glamorgans, and they were 
 ■selected with care and managed with judgment ; but during the last few 
 years the pressure of the times has paralysed all enterprise, and the stock 
 of this district is evidently deteriorated. The Irish cattle crossed this 
 tract in the way to the interior, and too many "of them loitered here and 
 are becoming in a manner naturalized 
 
 CARMARTHENSHIRE. 
 
 Tills county may also be divided into the hill and vale districts, and the 
 breed of cattle in the two is very dissimilar The hill-breed betrays much 
 
 * Mr. Walker, of 'Binton, tells us that this is too strongly expressed. It is his opinion 
 that " they want nothing but management to bring them into the dairy. Being so ad- 
 mirably adapted for the grazier, their milk is quite neglected. The Herefordshire farmers 
 want early calves, and their cows and heifers calve between the middle of December and 
 February, after living entirely on dry meat, and, therefore, by the time the grass comes, 
 they are nearly or quite dry ; but if the Hereford heifer calved for the first time at grass, 
 md about the middle of May, she might become a good milker. Some of the cows will 
 under the present management, yield from ten to twelve quarts of milk at one time, and 
 their milk is superior to that of any other cow except the Alderney. The quantity of milk 
 given by a cow will greatly depend on her treatment when with her first calf. If she has not 
 proper food to swell the milk veins at first starting, she will never afterwards make a good 
 milker. The Hereford cow has seldom a fair chance here. ' I speak from experienca ' 
 he says, ' for I have had much to do with the Herefords for several years, and have always 
 had many good milking cows of that breed.' " These are very important observations ; 
 and although we are not sufficiently convinced to alter what we have written, and what 
 almost universal experience and belief confirln, the remarks of Mr. Walker deserve serioiu 
 &tiM>ban. 
 
THE BEECKN0CK8H1RE BREED. M 
 
 Irish admbture. The cattle are small, but coarse; generally black; and 
 with a length as well as thickness of horn that would better entitle them 
 to a place in our next division, than among the aboriginal middle-horns. 
 They are a hardy race, but never carry much flesh, and are iedifferent 
 milkers. They have been much improved by the introduction of bulls and 
 heifers from Pembrokeshire. 
 
 The vale-breed is larger. The Glamorgan has found his way here, 
 and the native cattle have been considerably improved. The Shropshire 
 has also been introduced with advantage. The dairies have benefited by 
 this admixture, and a cross with the Hereford has been attempted with 
 advantage by the grazier. They are now much less used than formerly 
 in husbandry work or on the road, but they were very serviceable. Mr 
 Davies says that Mr. Gwynne, of Glan Br9,n Park, bought five three- 
 year-old bullocks in the winter of 1810, and began to work with them im- 
 mediately, and continued ploughing with them until the barley seed-time 
 was over. They were fed on straw, with some turnips, and when they 
 were worked unusually hard a little hay was allowed. In the summer 
 they went daily eighteen miles for lime. They had then a little respite, 
 but they were worked again at wheat-sowing, and sold in the following 
 January for 51. each more than their prime cost. 
 
 The average produce of the Carmarthenshire cow is about 1 cwt. of 
 butter during the dairy season, with nearly double the quantity of cheese. 
 In the vale of the Towy a greater quantity is yielded, when the river over- 
 flows its banks in the winter, or early in the spring, for the pastures are 
 then richly manured for the following season. A summer flood, however, 
 materially injures the feeding-grounds, and lessens the produce of the farm 
 
 CARDIOANgHIRE. 
 
 The Cardiganshire cattle belong to the Pembroke or Carmarthen breeds, 
 or are a mixture of the two. Mr. Walker says, that the Carmarthen and 
 Cardigan cattle are so much alike that he scarcely knows how to divide 
 them. They are not quick feeders, nor do they ever carry much fat ; but 
 the little flesh that they have upon them is very good. They pay more by 
 running upon tolerable land among the sheep, than they would, do by any 
 mode of stall-feeding. Mr. Lloyd, in Davies' Survey, more truly sayS, 
 that they are hardy, work and travel well, and take on fat kindly ; but that 
 the best improvement that could be made in the management of them 
 would be to give them better food in winter. 
 
 In speaking of Kent as a grazing county, we have mentioned that a 
 great many Welsh are fattened there. A considerable portion of them 
 are from Cardiganshire ; and, for small beef, they find a ready sale in the 
 London market. 
 
 The Cardiganshire cows are not to be despised for the dairy. Mr. Lloyd 
 averages the produce of an ordinary cow at 80 lbs. of butter and 160 lbs. 
 of cheese in the season. Other farmers average it at from six to seven 
 score lbs. of butter, with a corresponding quantity of cheese. This com- 
 pulation seems to be the nearest to the truth. The btUter is sent to Bris- 
 (ol, or to the iron-works of Glamorgan and Monmouth : the cheese is kept 
 for home consumption. 
 
 BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 
 
 The usual breed of this county is truer than many of its neighbours to ita 
 native origin. The middle-horn may be clearly traced with many of the 
 excellencies of that division of cattle. Much cannot be said of the Breck* 
 
*• CATTLE. 
 
 nock breed as milkers ; but they are useful and active at the ploug'h, and 
 deservedly valued by the grazier. Recourse has of late years been had to 
 two of the varieties of the middle-hom, the Devon and the Hereford, and 
 with evident advantage both for work and grazing. The cattle on the 
 side of Brecon that is nearest to Herefordshire are, in a particular manner, 
 becoming very strongly mixed with the Hereforda. 
 
 RADNOSSHIRB. 
 
 More cattle are probably bred in this county than in any other district in 
 Wales of equal extent, and large droves are sent from the cattle fairs to 
 Oxford, Northampton, Leicester, and even to Romney Marsh. The 
 native breed is the Pembroke, or one that very much resembles it ; but, 
 with commendable spirit and industry, the Radnorshire farmers have 
 endeavoured, and successfully, materially to improve it. They have prin- 
 cipally had recourse to the Hfirefords as a cross with their own catlle, 
 and, although they have thils produced a beast, too fairge, and too capable 
 of yielding beef to be perfected On their poor land, they have obtained one 
 that will thrive and pay everywhere else, and that will consequently find a 
 ready market. The general colour is red, or brindled, and the true 
 white face of the Hereford marks the Source whence the improvement in 
 the stock was derived ; the red heifer, however, with a dark and smoky 
 face, is most in request for the dairy. The dairy-women began to com- 
 plain that " too much soap had come into the country," — -that the red had 
 been washed off from the faces of too many of their cattle ; for it cannot be 
 denied that, although the Hereford cross increases the size, and does not 
 diminish the tendency to fatten, it very materially lessens the quantity of 
 milk. With Shropshire on the north, and Herefordshire on the east, they 
 had good materials at command, and they have wisely and diligently used 
 them. It may be truly said that they have got the start of most of their 
 neighbours in the breeding of good cattle. The Radnorshire farmer 
 rarely overstocks his ground, but the cattle have plenty of fond both in 
 winter and summer, and on which they rapidly thrive, however coarse it 
 may be. The calves in this county are usually taken from the cow at the 
 expiration of a week or nine days, especially if the farmer wishes the dam 
 to breed again. The young animal is then suckled by the hand with new- 
 milk for four or five weeks, when gruel or linseed-tea is gradually substi- 
 tuted, and dry-kneaded pellets of barley, or pease or bean-meal, or vetches, 
 are added. Closes of suitable size are appropriated to the calves — the sflii 
 being good, and the herbage sweet, and the stubbles being always pre- 
 ferred to the rouen after harvest. 
 
 NORTH WALES. 
 
 .\lthough we have pkced the cattle of North Wales in the same chapter 
 as ' the middle-horns,' we confess that we are a little approaching' to the 
 next division, ' the long-horns.' There is however a great deal of the cha- 
 racter of ' the middle horns' about them, and marking their common origin, 
 with the exception perhaps of some of the Anglesey oxen ; but their pecu- 
 liar bull-like appearance is to be traced to a practice which we shall pre- 
 sently have to describe. North Wales, considered as a cattle country, 
 may be divided into two districts. In the first the rearing of catlle is almost 
 exclusively attended to ; in the second, the dairy is a matter of consider- 
 able if not primary regard. The first will include Anglesey, Carnarvon, 
 and Merioneth ; and ;o the second belong the counties of Denbigh, Flint, 
 and Montgomery. 
 
lUE ANULKSEY BREED. 59 
 
 ANOLESRV. 
 
 Thb island of Anglesey, the Mona of ancient times, the peculiar seat ot 
 Druidical superstition, and lon£^ theraUyiD<T point of British independence, 
 is distinguished from the other divisions of !North Wales by the absence o( 
 an irregular and mountainous surface. It is diversified only by numerous 
 undulations, (they scarcely deserve the name of hills,) covered vtith grass 
 although not of a luxuriant nature, and on which a considerable uum>bei 
 of cattle are reared. Roberts, who published his Map of Commerce nearly 
 two hundred years ago, says that three thousand head of cattle were 
 annually swum across the straits of Menai. We shall not exaggerate 
 when we say that ten thousand are yearly exported from this island, the 
 aogregate value of which will be, at least, 50,000Z. The iron bridge of 
 Menai now affords an easier and securer passage ; yet the losses, wfien 
 the cattle were compelled to swim across the strait, were surprisingly few, 
 although the current was rapid and the water was deep, and the yearlings, 
 were sometimes swept down the stream even so far as three or four miles. 
 
 The Anglesey cattle are small and black, with moderate bone, deep chest, 
 rather too heavy shoulders, enormous dewlap, round barrel, high and 
 spreading haunches, , the face flat, the horns long, and, characteristic of the 
 breed with which we will still venture to class them, almost invariably 
 turning upward. The hair is apparently coarse, but the hide is mellow ; 
 they are hardy, easy to rear, and well-disposed to fatten when transplanted 
 to better pasture than their native isle affords. 
 
 The Anglesey calves are not weaned by some of the smaller farmers 
 unifl a late age. This would be advantageous to the future growth of 
 the beast, were it not more than counterbalanced by the false economy 
 which is practised by the Anglesey housewives during the period of 
 suckling. The young black cattle of this island have little more than 
 hay-tea, and gruel, and the common broth of the house.; and when they 
 are weaned, they are, in a manner, totally abandoned. The best treat- 
 ment they experience is to be folded in an unsheltered yard, with scarcely 
 enough oat and barley straw to keep them from starving ; for, from the 
 face of the country and the nature of the soil, there can be but little 
 provision for winter-feeding. This would deteriorate any breed less 
 hardy than that of the Isle of Mona. 
 
 Mr. Boggle, of Beaumaris, assures us, that the better kind of farmers 
 give their calves three months' milk, either by allowing the calf to suck, 
 or to have milk from the pail. After being weaned they are turned to 
 good pasture for the summer, and are well housed at night, and have bay 
 morning and evening during the first winter. On the following year they 
 fare the hardest of any part of the cattle-stock, being turned on the pooresv 
 pasture in the summer, and foddered on barley and oat straw, and gene- 
 rally in very bleak exposed situations in the winter, for there are few farm- 
 yards in the island. If they are kept another year they are better pastured 
 in the summer, being turned into the nejA best grass to the cows; and, 
 if kept over the winter, are generally outlayers, and have hay or straw 
 night and morning. Those that get hay are sold in good condition in the 
 spring, and taken to England ; those that get straw only are kept until 
 the autumn, when, having had good pasture, they also are got into good 
 store condition, and are purchased for the English market. 
 
 It is the common opinion, and we fear a true one, that the breed of 
 Anglesey cattle, like that ot Glamorgan, is somewhat deteriorated. The 
 Ktate ot the case is, that the attention of the Anglesey farmer was once 
 strongly direaed to the breeding of eattle ; copper and cattle were the 
 
60 
 
 CATTtE. 
 
 staple commodities in this island ; but when the war that commenced witii 
 the French revolution so suddenly and extravagantly raised the price of 
 corn, much of the old pasture-land of Anglesey, like that of Glamorgan, 
 was submitted to the plough. Cattle were then comparatively neglected ; 
 the farms were overstocked, in order to furnish the usual number of beasts ; 
 the calf- was half starved; the yearling was stinted; and the- Anglesey 
 runt sunk in estimation and value. The practice of the middling and 
 small farmers, and, indeed of many of the largest, of selling off their best 
 yearling heifers, and keeping the poorest only for the dairy and breeding, 
 and the culpable and general neglect of selecting good bull-calves, and 
 also the want of proper inclosures by which the steers could be kept from 
 the rest of the stock, contributed to increase the deterioration. 
 
 Some judicious, and many ill-judged, experiments were tried, in order 
 to restore the pristine excellence of the breed. Bulls from other districts 
 were introduced; but with little good effect. There were two impedi- 
 ments in the way. It was difficult to find another breed sufficiently hardy 
 to withstand the climate and the privations of Mona ; and even if such 
 had been found, there seemed to have been such an identity between the 
 cattle and the climate, that little permanent alteration could be accom- 
 plished. The first cross effected an evident change, but the Anglesey 
 blood, like that of the Glamorgans, predominated, — the produce bred back, 
 and, after a few generations, we had the Anglesey breed again, scarcely 
 altered, or, if so, for the worse, by being deprived of a portion of its 
 hardihood. 
 
 [ TAe Ang/esey Oj-.] 
 
 The Anglesey heifer has been crossed with the Lancashire bull, with 
 an evident increase of size, amounting to at least two scores per quarter 
 when three years old, and even an incieased propensity to fatten, and that 
 on scanty food; but, generally speakjiig, the Angleseys have not improved 
 by crossing, and least of all from the Irish cattle, which have been bought 
 ill great numbers by the farmers, on account of their being cheaper than 
 •Jieir own country beasts. 
 
 The breed is again improving; the best sDc.cimens ha\e been carefnllv 
 
THE ANGLESEY BREED. 61 
 
 selected ; and dearly-bought experience has forced upon the farmer this 
 truth, that it is false economy to starve the growing beast. 
 
 The Anglesey cattle are principally destined for grazing. Great num- 
 bers of them are purchased in the midland counties, and prepared for 
 metropolitan consumption; and not a few find their way directly to the 
 vicinity of London, in order to be finished for the market. In point ol 
 size, they hold an intermediate rank between the English breeds of all kinds, 
 and the Smaller varieties of Scotch cattle ; and so they do in the facility 
 with which they are brought into condition. If they are longer in pre- 
 paring for the market, they pay more at last ; and, like the Scots, they thrive 
 where an English beast would starve. Both the Scotch and the Welsh 
 breed have their advocates, and perhaps, upon the whole, the palm in point 
 of profit must be yielded to the inhabitants of the northern kingdom. 
 
 In consequence of the overstocking of their laud, and the dearth ol 
 winter provender, the Anglesey breeders are anxious to get rid of their cattle 
 as soon as they can. Many yearlings cross the bridge of Menai ; and very 
 few beasts are retained in the island after they are three years old. The 
 three-years-old are the most profitable to the English grazier. They are 
 eventually brought to the market from sixty to eighty, and sometimes even 
 a hundred -stones, and their meat will always bear a superior price to 
 that of the larger cattle. 
 
 In Anglesey, a"nd in the greater part of North Wales, the black cattle 
 were formerly used extensively for the plough, and even on the road ; they 
 were docile and hardy ; but their use for draught has now nearly ceased. 
 They are strong, active, and willing ; but it might be no disadvantage if they 
 were longer in the leg and less deep in the chest. The Anglesey oxen have 
 a peculiarly noble appearance. They were not cut until they were a year 
 old ; this gave them a tierce and bull-like form about the head and dewlap ; 
 a projection of the breast, and lofty bearing of the head. There is still a 
 .stateliness in the gait of an Anglesey ox, and a haughtiness of countenance, 
 which we have not recognized in any other breed. It presents a, striking 
 contrast with the mild intelligence of the Devon, and the quiet submission 
 of the Hereford. Early castration, however, is now commonly practised, 
 and the oxen are getting lighter about the head and dewlap. 
 
 Many of the Welsh traditions confirm the early, and indeed the exclusive 
 use of oxen for the plough ; and Howell the Good condescended to legis- 
 late with regard to these useful animals. The account which he gives of 
 the customary length of the yoke would show, however, that the oxen, 
 in those times, were a great deal smaller than we now find them. What- 
 ever number were attached to the plough, (and great strength was required, 
 from their perpendicular manner of forming the ridge, even on the steepest 
 ground,) they were all yoked abreast. The short yoke for two oxen was 
 four Welsh feet, of nine inches each, (three English feet) in length ; that 
 for four oxen was eight feet (six English feet) long ; and that for eight 
 oxen was sixteen (twelve English) feet long*. An ordinary ox of the 
 present day Mrould require a somewhat larger space than eighteen inches, 
 in order to work, or even to stand. 
 
 The oxen were not only smaller, but far less numerous than at present, 
 or the land was divided into much smaller portions. Each circumstanue, 
 probably, was influential in the formation of the fVeUh Ploughing Societies ; 
 with regard to which, also, the benevolent Howell legislated. A great 
 many little farmers clubbed together, according to their means, in order to 
 
 * Wottop s Leg. Wal., p. 284. The old Welsh acre consisted of 4320 square yards, being 
 ^20 less than the present statute one. . The North Wales acre, as now calculated, cunsista 
 of 32-10 square yards, being not quite three-quarters of the statute acre. 
 
62 CATTLB. 
 
 make up a team, vthich was to plough an acre of .and per day. The beat 
 sere was given to the maker and conductor of the plough, who was always 
 the same person ; the second acre was allotted to the owner of the plough- 
 irons ; the third to the owner of the right-hand ox ; the fourth to that ot 
 his yoke-mate; the fifth to the driver; then an acre to the owner of each 
 of the other oxen ; and the last acre of all to the furnisher of the plough 
 timber. 
 
 No more cows are kept for the dairy, in Anglesey, than are sufficient for 
 the home consumption. Of cheese, little is made, and what is made is 
 often ill-tasted, and of a spongy appearance. The fault of this, how- 
 ever, lies more with the farmer's wife, or the dairy-maid, than with the 
 cattle or the soil. 
 
 Having given so full a description of the Anglesey cattle, our notices of 
 the other districts of North Wales will be comparatively short. 
 
 On the other side of the straits of Menai we find 
 
 CARNARVONSHIRE. 
 
 This county, with the exception of the promontory of Lleyn at the south- 
 west extremity of it, consists of little more than a succession of abrupt 
 rocks, some of them swelling into enormous mountains. It may therefore 
 be supposed that the cattle are small. They may be considered as a 
 variety of the Angleseys, but inferior to them in size and shape. Few 
 attempts to improve them have been made, and those attended by no 
 great success. Both the farmers and the drovers obstinately adhere to 
 the native breed ; and certainly with this apology, that no others can vie 
 with them in hardiness, or be so cheaply reared. 
 
 In the promontory of Lleyn the surface is more level, and the breed 
 resembles that of Anglesey, but is, perhaps, a little inferior, for the soil is 
 not so rich, nor the pastures so luxuriant. Great numbers of cattle are 
 driven from this district into other. parts of Wales, and also into the mid- 
 land counties of England. 
 
 A very few oxen are here worked, but none in the other parts of the 
 county ; the extreme irregularity of the surface and the prejudices of the 
 farmers forbidding it. Some good cheese is also made in this part of 
 Carnarvon ; but, otherwise, the business of the dairy is completely neg- 
 lected. 
 
 MERIONETHSHIRE. 
 
 This county, chiefly devoted to breeding, is situated south-east of Car- 
 narvon, skirting St. George's Channel from Carnarvon to Cardigan- 
 shire; and is almost as mountainous as Carnarvon. Here likewise, on 
 the hilly ground, the cattle are only a smaller variety of the Angleseys, 
 and very inferior to them. They are ill-shaped as well as small, and, in 
 the opinion of Mr. Sharp, of Rhagatt near Corwen, they are some of the 
 worst in Wales. It is the pure Welsh breed, and to which the Merioneth 
 farmers have hitherto pertinaciously adhered, but it stands at the very 
 bottom of the list, for it has been most disgracefully neglected. The 
 Merioneth cattle, however, are capable of material improvement, if atten- 
 tion were paid to the selection of the best of the native breed. It is, after 
 all, the breed best adapted to the situation and climate, and every attempt 
 to render it more valuable by foreign admixture has uniformly failed. 
 
 A better breed is found in the vale district, principally devoted to the 
 dairy; and a considerable quantity of good butter is made in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Bala, and along the whole course of the Dovey. The valley 
 of Dovey affords the richest pasture in the county. 
 
THE FLINTSHIRE BREED. 6S 
 
 Thi> improved cattle have chiefly been obtained from Shtopshire or 
 Staffordsbire,.and have sometimes been crossed with the Galloway. East- 
 wara .of Merionethshire, and bordering on Cardigan, Radnor, and Shrop- 
 shire, is 
 
 MONTGOMERYSHIRE. 
 
 Here, in the hill country, the cattle are diminutive, but no longer closely 
 resembling the Anglesey. They are of a blood-red, with a dark .sitioky 
 face, ill-made, although short-legged; very hardy, good milkers, and with 
 a tolerable disposition to fatten : but in the vales of the Severn and the 
 Vyrnwy, the pasturage is excellent, and the breed of cattle much supe.ior. 
 They are here of a light brown colour, with no white except a narrow 
 band, from the udder to the navel. The horns do not stand wide, or turn 
 upwards, but are finely made, and of a true yellow colour. They bear 
 considerable resemblance to the Devons ; but in the grazing districts they 
 are chiefly abandoned for the Herefbrds, which are found to be suitable 
 to the soil aud climate, and much better feeders. Considerable attention 
 is here paid to the dairy, and particularly to the production of cheese, 
 which is little inferior to the Cheshire. 
 
 The cows, in this division of the county, are not only fair milkers but 
 the cattle generally show great aptitude to fatten. The Rev. Mr. Davies, in 
 his Survey of North Wales, quotes the opinion of 'a grazier of good iudg- 
 ment and great experience,' who prefers the breed of this district, because 
 ' they collect bulk on the most valuable parts, and have less offal than 
 those of Shropshire.' About nine months' feeding with grass, hay and 
 turnips, will add about threescore pounds' weight to each of their 
 quarters 
 
 The greater part of this county, and particularly the hills of Kerry and 
 Hopetown are little more than waste land, and employed in the breeding 
 and pasturing of sheep ; on this account cattle are comparatively neg- 
 lected ; but a great many Radnorshire calving heifers used to be bought 
 at the fairs on the borders and kept on straw and turnips until the spring, 
 when the Cheshire drovers bought them for the dairies of the cheese- 
 making districts. 
 
 L/ying north of Merioneth and Montgomeryshire, is 
 
 DENBIGHSHIRE. 
 
 This is a gfeat breeding county ; but the cattle are generally, and in the 
 hilly district partfcularly, of an inferior kind, although resembling the 
 Angleseys. The system of oversto(;kiiig used to be carried to a ruin us 
 extent here. In the vales, however, we ,begin to recognize a larger and 
 more valuable breed,-^a cross between the Welsh and the long-horn, — 
 and prevailing more as we approiich the borders of Flintshire. The dairy 
 is considerably attended to in the lowlands, and some excellent cheese is 
 produced there 
 
 FLINTSHIRE. 
 
 This county is placed at the northern extremity of WaleS ; and is bounded 
 on the north by the Irish Channel, and on the north-east by the estuary of 
 the river Dee. The cattle here may almost be said to have tost their 
 Y/elsh character. They most resemble their neighbours in Cheshire aud 
 in Shropshire, but with many variations. There cannot be said to 
 be an- distinct breed ; for, from their near connexion with Englandj 
 
M CAT1-;.E. 
 
 fresh supplies are continually brouaht in of almost eveiy kinrl. A great 
 many calves are also sent here, from Shropshire, to be suckled and 
 grazed, and more particularly from Cheshire, according to the fancy of 
 the breeders. 
 
 The Flintshire cattle appear to mingle the rare qualities of being excelleni 
 milkers and quick feeders. The Rev. Mr. Davies gives some illustrations 
 of this. He says that 'a Flintshire cow, at Mertyn, of the true lean milking 
 breed, gave, from May 1st to October 30th, 4026 quarts of milk, which 
 produced 358 pounds avoirdupois of butter, being nearly equal to two 
 pounds of butter and 22 quarts of milk per day, for 193 days successively.' 
 On the other hand, he says, that a gentleman of Flintshire, after ' having 
 worked his oxen until he had finished turnip-sowing in June, sold a pair 
 of them to a neighbouring grazier for 2bl., being about the market-price. 
 These, without the aid of any other luxury than rest from labour and 
 plenty of grass, were so increased in bulk, by the December following, 
 that they sold for more than double their prime cost.' 
 
 A considerable quantity of good butter is made in this district, but the 
 attention of the dairyman is more devoted to the manufacture of cheese, 
 which is little, if at all, inferior to the genuine Cheshire. iSacn cow is 
 supposed to produce nearly thiee hundred-weight of cheese every year. 
 
 SCOTLAND. 
 
 Scotland contains several distinct and valuable breeds of cattle evidently 
 belonging to our present division, 'The Middle Horns.' The West High- 
 landers, whether we regard those that are found in the Hebrides, 
 or the county of Argyle, seem to retain most of the aboriginal character. 
 They have remained unchanged, or improved only by selection, for many 
 generations, or indeed from the earliest accounts that we possess of Scot- 
 tish cattle. 
 
 The North Highlanders are a smaller, coarser, and in every way 
 inferior race, and owe the greater part of what is valuable about them to 
 crosses from the Western breed. 
 
 The North-Eastern Cattle were derived from, and bear a strong 
 resemblance to the West Highlander, but are of considerably larger size. 
 
 The Fife Breed are almost as valuable for the dairy, as for the 
 grazier, and yield to few in activity and docility. 
 
 The Ayrshire Breed are second to none as milkers. Many of the 
 varied mingling breeds of the Lowlands are valuable. 
 
 The Galloways, which scarcely a century ago were middle-horned, 
 and with difficulty distinguished from the West Highlanders, are now a 
 polled breed, — increased in size, with more striking resemblance to their 
 kindred the Devons — with all their aptitude to fatten, and with a hardi- 
 ness of constitution which the Devons never possessed. All these shall 
 pass rapidly in review before us. 
 
 THE WEST HIGHLAND CATTLE. 
 
 We will first describe the cattle of the islands on the Western coast, to 
 which the honour of being, or, at least of retaining the character of the 
 primitive breed is now generally yielded, and whence aie procured the 
 purest and the best specimens selected to preserve or to improve the 
 Highland cattle in other districts. 
 
( 65 ) 
 
 THE HEBRIDES, OR WESTERN ISLANDS. 
 
 
 \rii» fTetl Highland Bull.^ 
 Skirting the coast, from the i)roinontory of Cantire to the northern ex- 
 tremity of Scotland, is a range of islands appearing liiie so many frag- 
 ments torn off from the main land : these are the Hebrides, or Hebudas ; 
 nearly two hundred in number, and about half of them inhabited by man. 
 They may be conveniently divided into two groups, the inner and the 
 outer; the inner consisting of the larger islands, and some of them sepa- 
 rated from the main land by narrow channels only ; the outer Hebrides 
 being thirty or forty miles farther from shore. 
 
 Little is known of the history of the Hebudans, except that they 
 descended from the same stock with the Irish and ^he Highlanders, 
 but were oftener exposed to the incursions of roving tribes from every 
 quarter, and who successively mingled with, and were lost among, hut 
 never superseded the original inhabitants. If we are to credit the con- 
 current testimony of many old legends, and confirmed by the re- 
 mains of ancient pillars, and castles, and fortifications, which some ot 
 the islands yet present, the Hebudans of early times were powerful and 
 civilized. 'The kingdom of the Innsegallians was the pride of its allies 
 and the terror of its foes .'* 
 
 Sir Walter Scott says, that 'in Malcolm's reign (Malcolm IV., 1153,> 
 the Lords of the Hebridean islands, scarcely acknowledgin:; even a nominal 
 allegiance either to the crown of Scotland or that of Norway, though 
 daimed by both countries, began to give much annoyance to the western 
 coasts of Scotland, to which their light-armed gallevs or hirlins, and their 
 habits of piracy, gave great facilities .'t ' Alexander II. died in the remote 
 island of Kerrera in the Hebrides, while engaged in an expedition to 
 compel the island chiefs to transfer to the Scottish king a homage 
 irhich. some of them had paid to Norway.'^ In 1 263 all the Western 
 Islands were annexed to the Scottish crown under Alexander III. § 
 
 The occupation and character of the Hebudans does not appear to Iwve 
 
 ^ Macdonald's Scandena. 
 t History ofScotlaiid,,(Ij!iidner's Cabinet Cyclopedia,) vol. i. p. 34 
 I Ibid., p. 43. § Ibid., p..47./- ■ 
 
16 c.-vrrLK. 
 
 been ameliorated .by this change ; but the chiefs of the - different islands, 
 too far from the seat of government to be under mnch control, were con 
 tinually at war with each other; and the arts of agriculture being 
 neglected, they were compelled to resort to a predatory way of life in 
 order to obtain the means of subsistence : and thus, for more than three 
 centuries, the Hebrides were the resort of refugees, smugglers, and 
 freebooters ; and, at no very remote period, the inhabitants were singularly 
 uncultivated, ignorant, idle, and miserable. 
 
 After, however, the union between the English and Scottish kingdoms, 
 and when civilization had commenced on the mainland, the Hebrideans 
 began to be reclaimed, and that was chiefly manifested in, and promoted 
 by, a change of occupation. Although they did not abandon their sea- 
 taring life, they became honest, and were industrious fishermen, and they 
 began to learn to be agriculturists. Their cattle, which had been totally 
 neglected, and their value altogether unknown, retained their primitive 
 character*; tiie Uebiidans for the first time became aware of this, and 
 they bred them in greater numbers, and a few of the most intelligen* 
 farmers endeavoured to improve them by selections from the best speci- 
 mens of their native stock: the result has been, that the breeds of ."some 
 of these islands now bear the highest price among the Highland cattle. 
 
 It may be supposed that in a group of islands extending nearly two 
 handred miles from north to south, there will be considerable difference 
 in the character and value of the breed; but through the whole of them 
 the striking peculiarities of the Highland cattle are suflSciently evident, 
 except where they have been debased by the admixture of Irish blood. 
 The principal difference is in the size, and there the cattle of the southern- 
 most island, Islay, claim the superiority. This island is sheltered by its 
 situation from the storms to which most of the others are exposed, and 
 the pasturage is better ; the cattle are therefore earlier ready for the 
 market, and attain a greater weight. It is not, however, certain that this 
 increase of size would be of advantage on the northern islands, or 
 even on the mainland; — the cattle, deprived of a portion of their 
 hardihood, would not be proof against the inclemency of the weather, 
 and would starve on such scanty forage as the Highlands in general 
 can supply. Breeders are so much aware of this, that they endeavour to 
 preserve the purity and value of their stock, by selecting, not from the 
 districts wjiere the size has increased, but, by almost general consent, from 
 the Isle of Skye, where the cattle are small, but are suited to the soil and 
 to the climate; and can be most easily dnd securely raised at the least 
 expense; and when removed to better provender, will thrive with a rapidity 
 almost incredible. 
 
 The origin of the term Kyloe is obscure. Some writers, and among 
 whom is Sir John Sinclair, have curiously traced it to their crossing the 
 many Kylogs, or ferries which abound in the West of Scotland ; others, 
 and with more propriety, and one of whom is Mr. Macdonald, the author 
 of the Agriculture of the Highlands, tells us, that it is a corruption of the 
 
 * That excellent agriculturist, Adam Ferguson, Esq., of Woodhill, expresses a similar 
 opinion in his ingenious Essay on Crossing, contained in the First Number of the Quar- 
 terly Journal of Agriculture. ' I cannot but regard the West Highlanders, or, rather, 
 Islanders, as more genuine than anjr other breed we possess in Scotland, excepting, it 
 may be, the small remnant of aborigines in the park of his Grace the Duke of Hamilton. 
 The moist climate, mild winter, and, consequently, grassy tendency of our Western 
 Islands, point them out as having been, in all likelihood, early storked with the Boves 
 Tauri, of fine form and healthy constitution ; and the little intercourse for commercial 
 purposes with the mainland during many ages, gave a permanence to their individuality 
 not BO easily secured elsewhere. 
 
THE HEBRIDEAN BREED. 67 
 
 Gaelic word which signifies Highlani, and is cummonly pronounced ai 
 ■f spelled Kael. 
 
 We have been favoured with the following excellent description of the 
 true Kyloe, or West Highland bull, by Malcolm M'Neill, Esq., of the Isle of 
 Islay, the southernmost of the inner range of the Hebrides: — ' The High- 
 land bull should be black, the head not laitge, the ears thin, the muzzle 
 'ioe, and rather turned up. He should be broad in the face, the eyes 
 prominent, and the countenance calm and placid. The horns should 
 taper finely to a point; and, neither droopin<; too much, nor rising too high, 
 should be of a waxy colour, and widely set on at the root. The neck 
 should be fine, particularly where it joins tlie head, and rising with a 
 gentle curve from the shoulder. The breast wide, and projecting well 
 before the legs. The shoulders broad at the top, and the chine so full as 
 to leave but little hollow behind them. The girth behind the shoulder 
 deep ; the back straight, wide, and flat ; the ribs broad ; the space 
 between them and the hips small ; the belly not sinking low in the middle; 
 yet, in the whole, not forming the round and barrel-like carcase which 
 some have described. The thigh tapering tu the hock-joint; the bones 
 larger in proportion to the size than in the breeds of the southern districts. 
 The tail set on a level with the back. The lega short and straight. The 
 whole carcase covered with a thick long coat of hair, and plenty of hair 
 also about the face and horns, and that hair not curly. 
 
 The value of the West Highland cattle consists in their being hardy, 
 and easily fed ; in that they will live, and sometimes thrive, on the coarsest 
 pastures ; that they will frequently gain from a fourth to a third of their 
 original weight in six months' good feeding ; that the proportion of of&l is 
 not greater than in the most improved larger breeds ; that they will lay 
 their flesh and fat equably on the best parts ; and that, when fat, the beef 
 is closed fine in the grain, highly flavoured, and so well mixed or marbled, 
 .liat it commands a superior price in every macket. 
 
 The different islands of the Hebrides contain about one hundred and 
 Sfty thousand of these cattle, of which it is calculated that one- fifth 
 are sent annually to the main land, principally through Jura, or across 
 firom the ferry of the Isle of Skye. If these average about 5Z. per head, the 
 amount will be 1 50,000/., or more than the rental of the whole of the 
 islands, which Mr. Macdonald calculated at 106,720Z , but which now 
 produces a 'greater sum. Cattle, therefore, constitute th.e staple commodity 
 of the Hebrides. Three thousand five hundred are annually exported 
 from the island of Islay alone. 
 
 Mr. Moorhouse, from Craven, in Yorkshire, in 1763, was the first Eng- 
 lishman who came into the Hebrides to buy cattle. In the absence of her 
 husband, Mr. M'Donald, of Kingsburgh, he was kindly entertained by 
 ■Flora M'Donald, who made up for him the same bed that, seventeen years 
 before, had received ths unfortunate Prince Charles. 
 
 From Skye Mr. Moorhouse went to Raasay, whither, in three days, 
 Kingsburgh followed him ; and, during a walk in the garden, on a fine 
 harvest evening, they bargained for one thousand cattle, at two guineas a 
 head, to be delivered free of expense at Falkirk. Two days before he had 
 bought six hundred from Mr. M'Leod, of Waterside, at 21. 5s. 6d. 
 
 Forty years ago the treatment of cattle was, with very few exceptions, 
 absurd and ruinous, to a strange degree, through the whole of the Hebrides. 
 Withihe exception tff the milch cows, but not even of the calves, they weie 
 all wintered in the field : if they were scantily fed with hay, it was coarse. 
 and withered, and half-rotten ; or if they got a little straw, they were 
 (.hmio-ht to be well taken care of. Tbe majority got little more than g««- 
 
 V2 
 
C8 CATTLK. 
 
 weed, heather, and rushes. One-fifth of the cattle, on an average, used to 
 perish every winter from starvation. When the cold had been unusually 
 Revere, and the snow had lain long on the ground, one -half of the stock 
 has been lost, and the remainder have afterwards been thinned by the 
 diseases which poverty had engendered. 
 
 It proved the excellency of the breed, that in the course of two or three 
 months so many of them got again into good store-condit'ion, and might 
 almost be said to be half-fat, and could scarcely be restrained by any fence : 
 in fact, there are numerous instances of these cattle, which had been 
 reduced to the most dreadful state of impoverishment, becoming fattened 
 for the butcher in a few months, after being placed on some of the rich 
 summer pastures of Islay, Lewis, or Skye. 
 
 The cows were housed during the winter; but among the small farmers 
 t>.is was conducted in a singular way — for one rude dwelling contained 
 and sheltered both the family and the cattle. The family had their beds of, 
 straw or heath in the niches of the walls, while the litter was never removed 
 from the cattle, but fresh layers of straw were occasionally laid down, and 
 so the floor rose with the accumulation of dung and litter, until the 
 season of spreading it upon the land, when it was at length taken away*. 
 
 The peculiarity of the climate and the want of inclosed lands, and the 
 want, too, of forethought in the farmer, were the chief causes of this 
 wretched system of winter starvation. The rapidity of vegetation in the 
 latter part of the spring is astonishing in these islands. A good pasture 
 can scarcely be left a fortnight without growing high and rank ; and even 
 the unenclosed and marshy and heathy grounds are comparatively luxu- 
 riant. In consequence of this the farmer fully stocked, or overstocked, 
 even this pasture. He crowded his fields at the rate of six or eight 
 beasts or more to an acre. Fium their natural a^jtitude to fatten they, 
 got into tolerable con<lition, but not such as they might have attained,, 
 whether destined for the salesman or the butcher. Winter, however, suc- 
 ceeded to summer: no provision had been made for it, except for the 
 cows; and the beasts that were not properly fed even in the summer, 
 languished and starved in the winter t. 
 
 The Hebrides, however, have partaken of that ►mprovement in agricul- 
 tiue of which we shall have frequently to speak when describing the dif- 
 ferent districts of Scotland. In the island of Islay, the greater part of 
 which is the property of Walter F. Campbell, Esq., and to whoni we are 
 indebted for much valuable information, the following is the general system 
 of management among the better kind of farmers, and the account will 
 apply to the Hebrides generally, and to Argyleshire. 
 
 * Mr. Garnet in his ' Tour tliroujjh the Hijjhlands,' gives a sadder account of the 
 freiiueiit joint occvipaney of the same hut, by the jieasant and his cattle, in the Island of 
 Mull. He had Ijeen speaking of the privations of the peasant, hv adds — ' Nor are his 
 I'attle in a better situation : in summer they pick up a scanty support among the- morasses 
 and heathy mountains, but in winter, when the jjround is covered with snow, and when 
 the naked wilds aflbrd them neither shelter nor subsistence, the few cows, small,- lean 
 and ready to drop for want of pasture, are brought into the hut where the family resides, 
 ind frequently share with them their little stock of meal which had been purchased oi 
 raised for the family only ; while the cattle thus sustained, are bled occasionally to affiird 
 nourishment foi the children after the mingled oatmeal and blood has been boiled ut 
 made into cakes.' 
 
 f Dr Walker, in his Account of the Hebrides, gives a very curious statement of the 
 disproportion between the stock and the rent of a farm ; a dis{)roportion which must be 
 exceedingly jjreat, however low the rental may be. ' A farm in Kinta.il was found to have 
 on it 40 milch cows, which with their youug stock, from a calf to a four-year old, made 
 about 120 head of cattle; besides 80 ewes and 40 goats, which, with their young, were 
 about 250; and lU horses. Yet this farm, with arable laud sufficient to supply all the 
 family, was rented only at Iwenly puunda a year.' 
 
THE HEBRIDEAN BREED. 5« 
 
 It is contrived, as. much as passible, that the calves stiall be aropped: 
 from the 1st of February to the middle of April. All the calves are 
 reared ; and for the first three or four mouths they are allowed to suck 
 three times in the day, but they are not permitted to draw any. great 
 quantity at a time. In summer all the cattle are pastured ; the calves are 
 sent to their dams twice in the day, and the strippings, or last part of the 
 mdk, is taken away by the dairy-maid, for it is commonly supposed, that 
 if the calf is allowed to draw all the milk he can, it will keep the dam in 
 low condition, and prevent her being in calf in proper time. The calves 
 are separated from their dams two or three weeks before the cast-cows are- 
 sent to the cattle-tryst at the end of October, for it is believed that if the 
 cows had milk in their udders they might be injured in the long journeys 
 they are then to take; the greater part of them being diiven as far as the 
 Lowland districts, whence they gradually find their way to the central and 
 southern counties of England. 
 
 The calves are housed in the beginning of November, and are highly 
 fed on hay'and roots (for the raismg of which the soil and climate are 
 admirably adapted) until the month of May. When there is plenty of 
 keep, the breeding cows are housed in November, but in general they are 
 kept out until three or four weeks before calving. In May the whole 
 cattle are turned out to pasture, and, if it is practicable, those of different 
 ages are kept separate ; while, by shifting the cattle, the pasture is kept as 
 much as possible in eatable condition, that is, neither eaten too bare, nor 
 allowed to get too rank, or to run into seed. 
 
 In the winter and the spring all the cattle except the breeding cows are 
 fed in the fields, the grass of which is preserved from the r2th of Augus 
 to the end of October. When these inclosures become bare, about the end 
 of December, a little hay is taken into the field witli turnips or potatoes, 
 once or twice in the day, according to circumstances, until the middle or 
 end of April. Few only of the farmers have these roots to give them, and 
 the feeding of the out^lying cattle with straw is quite abolished. If any 
 of them>, however, are very materially out of condition, they are fed with 
 oats in the sheaf. At two, or three, or four years old, all, except the heifers 
 that are retained for breeding, are sent to market. 
 
 There is little or no variety of, breeds of cattle in the Hebrides. They 
 are pure West Highlanders. Indeed, it is the belief of the Hebridean 
 farmer, that nO' other breed of cattle will thrive on these islands, and that 
 the Kyloes could not possibly be improved by being crossed with any 
 others. He appeals to his uniform experience, and most correctly so in 
 the Hebrides, that attempts at crossing have only destroyed the symmetry 
 of the Kyloes, and rendered them more delicate, and less suitable to the 
 climate and the pasture. 
 
 By selection from the choicest of the stock, however, the West High- 
 lander has been materially improved The Islay, the Isle of Skye, and 
 the Argyleshire beast, readily obtains a considerably higher price than any 
 other cattle reared in the Highlands of Scotland. Mr. M'Neil has been 
 eminently successful in his attempts to improve the native breed. . He has 
 often obtained lOOi. for three and four-year-old bulls out of his stock; an<? 
 for one bull he received 200^. He never breeds from bulls less than three 
 years, or more than ten years old ; and he disapproves, and rightly in such 
 a climate, of the system of breeding in and in. He also adheres to that 
 golden rule of breeding, the careful selection of the female; and, indeed, 
 it is not a small sum that would induce the Hebridean farmer to part with 
 any of his pjcksd cows. 
 
 It is true that grazing has never been the principal object of the Hebri- 
 
 orthy of his attention; thej'e 
 
'0 CATTLE 
 
 are very few cattle fattened upon any cf the islands, or in the north or 
 centre of Scotland ; but cast-cows from some of the best stocks, when 
 grass-fed in the Lowlands of Scotland, weigh more ,than forty Imperial 
 stones. It may, however, be worth inquiry, whether the farmer has not 
 forgotten his own interest in this exclusive pursuit of breeding. Mr. 
 Macdonald, in his ' Survey of the Hebrides,' has placed this in an inte- 
 resting point of view. He selects the islands of North Uist and Tiree 
 for the purpose of illustration, because the improved system of husbandry 
 is little adopted there, although the herbage is good. We will condense 
 and a little alter his calculation, agreeably to the different prices and 
 management of the present time :- 
 
 We will suppose that in October or November 900 head 
 of neat cattle, well salted, and weighing 33 stones. 
 Imperial, are sold at Greenock or Liverpool at 
 4s. 6d. per stone *. This would amount to . ^£6687 
 We will alsi) suppose that the same cattle, 
 sold iu April or May to the drovers, 
 would have fetched Al. 15s. per head ; 
 but as, in the course of six months, at 
 least one in ten would have been lost 
 by disease or accident, we will say that 
 the farmer had then 1000 cattle at 
 41. 15s. amounting to . . ^4,750 
 
 The best grass is let at 12s. per head for 
 
 these six months, making . . 600 
 
 The exjjense of looking after, at 2s. per 
 
 head ..... 
 
 Salt and casks, at 8s. each 
 Sending td market, 5s. each 
 Interest of 4,750Z. for six months 
 
 Total expenses 
 
 Balance in favour of fattening , ^503 14 
 
 Or more than 10 per cent ; and this average is taken very low, for the 
 cattle will usually weigh more than 20 stones per head. 
 
 It is fair, however, to suppose that the Hebridean farmer best knows his 
 own interest, — yet this may deserve consideration. 
 
 It will be concluded from what we have said of the milking properties 
 of the Kyloe, that the dairy is considered as a matter of little consequence 
 in the Hebrides ; and the farmer rarely keeps more milch cowsi than will 
 furnish his family with milk and butter and cheese. The Highland cow 
 will not yield more than a third part of the milk that is obtained from the 
 Ayrshire one at no great distance on the main land ; but that milk is ex 
 Geedingly rich, and the batter procured from it is excellent. In Arran and 
 Bute, in the Firth of Clyde, the Ayrshire cow was partially introduced 
 from the neighbouring coast, but in the other islands of the Hebrides, the 
 Highland cow is obstinately retained. In North Uist and Tiree the 
 dairy is more successfully followed than in the other islands, partly on 
 
 * In lome of the southern islands, and paiticulacly in CoUonsay and Islay, the pure 
 native breed are frequently fattened to from 34 to 42 stones Imperial. Mr. Campbell, 
 of Shawfield, had a heifer which, when slaughtered, weighed 63 stones ; but among the 
 lower class of farmers a, bullock of fair size will weigh about 33 stones, and a heifer 
 25 stones. They are larger in the southern islands than they are in Skye, for the pasturr 
 is better, and they might be raised to a still greater size, were it not for the shamefiil 
 lyitem of overstocking, to which weiils;" 1,-,; ; ,-> .:'t^; S^ -.\\-^~, 
 
 100 
 
 
 
 
 360 
 
 
 
 
 225 
 
 
 
 
 148 6 
 
 
 
 
 
 6,183 
 
 6 
 
JHE HEBRIDEAN BREEa M 
 
 account of the goodness of the herbage, but principally because the cows 
 yield milk for a long^er time after calving than in the neighbouring isles. 
 
 The management of the dairy is exceedingly simple, and, from the 
 very simplicity of it, other districts may learn a useful lesson. The cows 
 are driven as .slowly and quietly as possible to the fold ; the wild -character 
 of the animals, as well as a regard to the quality of the milk, show the 
 propriety of this. They are carefully drained to the last drop, not only on 
 account of the superior richness of the latter portion of the milk, but 
 because the retention of any part is apt to hasten, if it does not produce, 
 that which is one of the principal objections to the Highland cows as 
 milkers, the speedy drying up of their milk. The milk is carried to the 
 house with as little disturbance as practicable, and put into vessels 'of not 
 more than two or three inches in depth. The cream is supposed to rise 
 more rapidly in these shallow vessels; and it is removed in the course of 
 eighteen hours. A cow will not, on the average, yield more than 22 lbs. 
 of butter (of 24 oz. each) in the summer season : she will yield about 
 90 lbs. of cheese, which is much liked by some on account of the aromatic 
 Huviiur which is given to it by the mixture of rose-leaves, cinnamon, mace, 
 cloves, and lemon with the rennet *. 
 
 Oxen are never used for ihe plough or on the road on any of the 
 Hebrides. 
 
 We have stated that more than 20,000 of the Hebridean cattle are con- 
 veyed to the mainland, some of whom find their way even to the southern- 
 most counties of England ; but like the other Highland cattle their journey 
 is usually slow and interrupted. Their first resting-place is not a' great 
 way from the coast, for they are frequently wintered on the coarse pas- 
 tures of Dumbartonshire ; and in the next summer, after grazing awhile 
 on the lower grounds, they are driven farther south, where they are fed 
 during the second winter on turnips and hay. In April they are in good 
 condition, and prepared for the early grass, on which they are finished. 
 
 Many of these small cattle are permanently arrested in their journey, 
 and kept on low farms to consume the coarse grass, which other breeds 
 refuse to eat; these are finished off on turnips, which are given them in 
 the field about the end of Autumn, and they are sold about Christinas. 
 
 In the Outer Hebrides, principally separated from the inner range by 
 the channel called the Minsh, and, from the apparent continuity in the 
 range of the islands, and the hills all running in the same direction, called 
 the Long Island, there is but little improvement in agriculture, although 
 tile pasturage is quite equal to the generality of that in the inner range, and 
 the cattle are of somewhat more diminutive size. Mr. Macgillivray, in his 
 ' Prize Essay on the present State of the Outer Hebrides,' says, ' The 
 black cattle are small, but well proportioned ; and on the tacksmen's farms 
 ^a tacksman is one who has a large tract of land, which he holds by 
 lea.se) they are generally of good breed, and, although not heavy, very 
 
 * Martin, in his account of the Western Isles of Scotland, sixty years ago, describes a 
 superstition which then prevailed: ' It is a received opinion in these islands, that women, 
 by a charm, or some other secret way, are able to convey the increiise of their neighbours' 
 cuws' milk to their own use : anil that th» milk so charmed dues not produce the^ ordinary 
 liiiantity of butter, and the curds made of thai milk are so tough that it cannot be made so 
 hrm as other cheese, and is also much lighter in weight. The butter so taken away and 
 joined to the charmer's butter, is evidently discernible by a mark of separation, viz. the 
 diversity of colours; that which is charmed being still paler than th^tpart of th» butter 
 which hatji nut been charmed ; and if butter haiving these marks be foimd with a suspected 
 woman, she is directly said to be guilty. Their usual way of recovering their loss, is to 
 take a little of the rennet from all the suspected persons, and put it in an egg-shell full oi 
 milk, and when that from the chamber is mingled with it, it curdles, and not before.' 
 
72 
 
 CATTLE. 
 
 ....;;V'<«4j,,.#:»3<iii'. 
 
 [ ra« H'esl High/ami Cow. ) 
 
 haiidsuiiie. They are covered with a thick and long pile during winter 
 and spring ; and a good pile is considered one of the essential qualifica 
 ♦.ions of a cow. The most common colours are black, red, brown, or 
 hrandered (that is, a mixture of red and brown with stripes — brindkd') , 
 A whitish dun colour is also pretty frequently seen, not unlike that of the 
 original wild cattle of Scotland, both the horned breed at Chillingham, 
 and the polled one at Hamilton ; and it is remarked, that in all their tra- 
 ditions or fables of what are called fairy-cattle, this is the colour ascribed 
 to these animals. The breed of black cattle has been greatly iinpruved ot 
 late years, by the importation of bulls and cows from various parts of the 
 Highlands.' 
 
 On the tacksmen's farms the cattle are not housed in v.'inter, excepting 
 the calves ; those belonging to the cottars generally are. In summer the 
 cows and the milch-sheep are sent to the inland glens and moors, which 
 are covered with hard grasses and rushes, because the portion that yields 
 soft grass is not sufficient for their consumption during the whole year. 
 They are attended by a woman from each family, who has a small hut or 
 shealing for her habitation, and who makes the little butter and cheese 
 which their scanty milk affords. The cows are thus kept in good pasture 
 during the greater part of the summer, and autumn, when the young beasts 
 are sent to the moors. Towards the winter all the cattle are brought to the 
 lower grounds, and_ the stirks are separated and housed ai night. The 
 latter are fed excliisively on hay and straw, portions of which are dis 
 tiibuted to the other cattle during snow. 
 
 The cattle of the small tenants are all housed at uight during the 
 winter, and fed upon straw, hay, and the refuse of the family meal^. 
 The habitations of these people are usually divided into three apartments. 
 The first, which occupies half of the hut, is the general entrance, and 
 contains the agricultural implements, poultry, and cattle. The second, 
 comprising a fourth of the hut, is that in which the family reside ; and the 
 inner one, of the same size, is the sleeping room and granary. There are 
 DO chimneys ; the smoke fills the whole hut, and escapes partly by a hole 
 
THE AHAAN BREED. V3 
 
 in tlie roof, partly by the door, and partly by orifices formed between the 
 wall and the roof as .substitutes for windows, and which, in stormy 
 weatiier, ^re closed by. a bundle of straw. The fire is placed in th* 
 middle of the floor. The sopt accumulates on the roof, andj in rainy 
 weather, is continually dropping, and for the purpose of obtainmg it for 
 manure, the hut is unroofed in the beginning of May. The dung of the 
 cattle which had been accumulating, during the winter and spring, and 
 had been mixed with straw, ashes, and other matter, is at the same time 
 removed from the outer apartment. 
 
 In the spring all the cattle are in poor condition, and those of the small 
 tenants are in most wretched plight: sea- weed (chiefly Fucus canaliculatus), 
 boiled with husks of grain and a little meal or other substances, are then 
 employed to support them ; and in many places the cattle during the 
 winter and spring regularly betake themselves to the sea-shore at ebb- 
 tide to feed upon the fuci. 
 
 The milk of the cows is said to be excellent, but on account of the filthy 
 habits of too many of the cotters, the butter and cheese are eaten by few 
 beside the natives. 
 
 Having described so much at length the cattle of the inner and outer 
 Hebrides, we shall be able to pass with considerable rapidity over the 
 other districts of the Highlands. 
 
 ARRAN AND BUTE. 
 
 These islands are separated from the other Hebrides by the promontory 
 of Cautyre, and are situated in the Firth of Clyde, between Argyleshire 
 and Ayrshire, and form a county under the name of Bute. 
 
 Almost the whole of Arran is the property of the Duke of Hamilton 
 and Brandon, who kindly granted us every facility for becoming acquainted 
 with the cattle of (he island, and to whose very intelligent factor, Mr. 
 Paterson, we are indebted for much valuable information. 
 
 Seventeen years ago Arran was overrun by cattle of almost every ex- 
 traction and character. The West Highland was probably the native breed ; 
 but i[nany had been imported from Ireland, as the situation of Arran would 
 lead us to suspect; and more had been introduced from Galloway. The 
 Earls of Carrick were formerly the proprietors of this district ; and, at. an 
 early period, and, even before the time of Robert I., they had probably 
 introduced many cattle from their mainland estates into Arran, which was 
 then little better than a mere hunting-ground. These breeds were inter 
 mingled in every possible way, but all of them were small, narrow across 
 the loins, long legged, and thin in the hams ; their form was scraggy and 
 angular, and the skin coarse, yet with little hair ; they were black or 
 brown, but generally with white intermingled, frequently with white faces, 
 and almost invariably with white about the belly. 
 
 They yielded very little milk, although that which they did give was 
 good ; and, in the property of fattening, they were far inferior to those of 
 the other islands which we have just described. In fact, the whole system 
 of husbandry was wretched. Eaclj) farm was strangely let to various tenants, 
 who occupied in common or in runridge, i. e., one of the tenants sowed 
 one ridge, and a copartner the next, and so on ; and the arable part of 
 the farm was divided into numerous small lots, which were yearly appor- 
 tioned, and almost yearly changed *. No improvement could be effectf d 
 
 * Oue of the oUlest arrangements of the great proprietors of land was to collect their 
 whole tenantry or vassalage as nearly as possible around their own mansion or castle 
 The neighbouring grounds were (hen divided into fields of various «\tent according to 
 
'* CATTLB. 
 
 ander such a S)'stetn. The ridgea were cr<^ped with oats as long as it 
 was supposed they would produce a little more than what was thrown 
 upon them, and they were then abandoned until the weeds ^^no grass seeds 
 were sown) covered them for some years, and they were thought to be 
 able to bear two or three white crops again. 
 
 The croft or infidd land, that which was near the homesteads, although 
 a little better treated, suffered too. It is true that it had all the manure 
 of the farm, but it was cropped every year, and oats, and bear or bigg, 
 and beans or potatoes (this last invaluable vegetable was just beginning to 
 be known), succeeded each other without pause ; and the weeds were 
 covered for a little while by the crop during summer, but never extirpated. 
 Little fodder could be raised for cattle; and as there were no grass - 
 seeds sown, there was no hay; and there was nothing to maintain the 
 live-stock during winter but oat-straw. 
 
 Above what were called iYiehead-dylces, i. e.,rude banks to separate the 
 arable from the hill or pasture land, the cattle and sheep and horses ranged 
 in common over the whole island ; and the farmer, who, tor generation after 
 generation, had been taught to believe that his riches consisted in the 
 uumber of his cattle, instead of their individual worth, not only sent more 
 cattle to the hills in summer than they could well maintain, but reserved far 
 more than could possibly be kept in the winter. The number of cattle far 
 exceeded that of the inhabitants: a great many of them were carried off by 
 starvation and disease ; and the remainder were found in the spring in a 
 state of emaciation, provincially termed ' lifling;' they were declining in 
 size, and their good points were fast leaving them. 
 
 The Duke of Hamilton beheld this with much regret, and, with a zeal 
 for the improvement of the agriculture of the island, which reflects on 
 him the highest credit, and which is the best direction that true patriotism 
 can take, he set himself heartily to work, not only to ameliorate the breed 
 of cattle, but to reform and change the general system of husbandry. 
 
 The leases of nearly the whole of the island terminated in 1814. The 
 Duke directed that his fine property in Arran should be surveyed. He 
 divided it into distinct and separate farms of different dimensions, from 
 ten acres, to suit the former tenants in common, to more than three or 
 four hundred acres. He brought much of the waste land into cultivation 
 by the spade; he excavated drains to the extent of 120 miles in length ; 
 
 the supposed nature of the soil ; aad again subdivided into parcels or ridges of equal size, 
 conesponding with the number of the retainers : and one of the rigs or ridges was let ur 
 appropriated to each. It was thought that all would thus have an equal share of the good 
 and the bad land, without partiality or preference, although each one's possession (the 
 term still used) would probably he dispersed over a dozen places. This system of occu- 
 pation was denominated runrig, or runridge. Besides this general practice of having 
 the land in runri^, it was customary in some places 'fur the tenantry to exchange their 
 respective ridges every year; so that, in a given course of years, each tenant would have 
 rented and tilled the whole of the ridges. This was called ooup-rig, or change-rig. A 
 system more absurd or inconsistent with good cultivation can scarcely be imagined. 
 
 The division of the arable lauds into infield^ai outfield, was universal in Scotland, and 
 is not yet obsolete. The infield, as stated in the text, got all the dung produced on the 
 farm, and was kept under a constant* rotation of crops. Lime and fallow and artificial 
 grasses were unknown. The outfield bore three crops of oats, and, if it was more than 
 usually good land, four crops, and then lay idle for five or six years. The consequence 
 was, that, not more than forty years ago, the produce of every land was little in quantity 
 and poor in quality : the horses were fed in summer almost entirely on thistles, which 
 covered the outfield, and grew too plentifully in the infield ; and the owner of a little field 
 which, under improved cmtivation, now produces ninety bushels of oats yearly, told the 
 author, that although he sometimes had 1200 sheaves upon it, he would have given the 
 whole of the grainfor a single bushel of meal. He had straw for the winter feed of his 
 cattle, but his family might starve. — See Robertson's Rural Re:olleclions, p. 263. 
 
THE AKUAN BUEKD. 7> 
 
 be erected aFi iiecessary fences, and he built comfortable bouses of Tarioiis 
 sizes. He then offered the farms at a moderate rent, but with these 
 restrictions, that the land should be managed in a different and better 
 manner, and that the number of cattle which were kept should not exceed 
 a certain proportion to the size of the farm. 
 
 The old tenants were at first strangely averse to this new, and, as they 
 thought, absurd and tyrannical system. Some of them quitted the island 
 The Duke then let some of his farms to enterprising tenants from better- 
 cultivated districts ; foir he rightly judged tliat persons who had never 
 seen land well managed, would much more readily adopt changes in the 
 mode of husbandry if successfully made under their own observation, than 
 if they were merely described to them, and in a manner forced upon 
 them. The consequence has been, that the property of his Grace has 
 more than doubled in value, and his tenantry are more prosperous and 
 happy. 
 
 The Duke of Hamilton immediately introduced some choice and ex- 
 pensive bulls from the stock of the Duke of Argyle, in order to improve 
 the wretched breed of cattle ; but they were found at first to be too large 
 fur crossing the small cattle of Arran with perfect effect. Some bulls and 
 queys of the dairy breed were brought from Ayrshire, but they did not well 
 combine with the old stock of the island ; their skins and hair were too 
 thin for the bleak hills of Arran ; and this cross was soon abandoned as 
 a breeding stock. Some farmers, however, again had recourse to the 
 Argyle bulls, for the breed had evidently improved, at least on some 
 farms, and a spirit of emulation was beginning to be excited. 
 
 In consequence of this, several bulls of the Argyleshire sort were pur- 
 chased by the duke in the summer of 1823, and placed in various parts of 
 the country for the use of the tenants. The effect was now immediate, 
 and palpable ; and every year, and at very considerable expense, twenty or 
 thirty fresh bulls were imported, and scattered in the most convenient 
 places throughout the island; and, as far as influence and. persuasion 
 could go, the old breed was systematically discouraged. 
 
 The improvement was rapid and progressive. The Arran cattle are now 
 black or brown, and horned, and in most parts of the island still retaining 
 somewhat of the form of the original stock. This is most evident in the 
 smallness of -the limbs, the thinness of the neck, and the shortness of 
 the hair. On the farms, however, of more careful breeders, the differ- 
 ence between the Arran and Argyleshire beasts can scarcely be observed, 
 and that difference is yearly decreasing. The Arran improved black cattle 
 are genUe-tempered, and kindly feeders ; but better adapted for grazing 
 than the dairy. 
 
 The Arran beasts used to be scarcely saleable ; the southern drovers 
 -would not have them at any price : but in 1832 the stots of three years-of} 
 were sold in great numbers at ten pounds each afler having been fed on 
 grass alone, and queys at more than nine pounds. Cattle-husbandry has of 
 late improved through the whole of Scotland ; and in many of the districts 
 the character of the breed is essentially changed, but no where has so much 
 b"en done in a few years to ameliorate the stock, and better the condition 
 of the tenantry. Twelve or fourteen years ag«>, the average weight of an 
 aged Arran cow, when fed on grass, did not exceed eighteen or twenty 
 stones : she would now be at least three or four stones heavier, and some 
 of the oxen have reached fcirty-five or fifty stones. 
 
 The ealve», which are generally drdpi>ed in sprinij-, are not suffered lo 
 suck the dam, but are fed cm milk for about six weeks. Two int;als niiiy 
 
'6 CATTLE. 
 
 are allowed them in tlie day, and two or three quarts of genuine milk are 
 given at each meal. Some imagiue that this quantity is not sufGcient; 
 and it is perhaps a general fault in the Isle of Arran that the calves get too 
 little milk when they are young. A small portion of oatmeal is occasionally 
 mixed with the milk, and particularly when the time for turning out 
 approaches: some of the farmers, however, object to this, as frequently 
 disordering the bowels, and producing griping, inflammation, and death. 
 
 The calves, when weaned, are turned on a reserved pasture on the low 
 land. They are generally tethered until the crop is off the ground, and 
 they go in and out with the cattle; but they are always housed at night, 
 and none of them are sent to the hills during the first season. In winter 
 a little boiled food is given to them, consisting of potatoes or greens, with 
 chaff or straw, and chaff-fodder like the old cattle. 
 
 In summer the yearlings are sent to the hills, generally at no great 
 distance from the dwelling ; and, for the most part, they remain out until 
 the winter; then all the cuttle, young and old, are housed during tlie 
 night. While in the house they get straw-fodder, with sometimes a little 
 hay; the older cattle are occasionally indulged with potatoes or a few 
 turnips, and to this is added coarse, strong-growing, green kale, which is 
 cultivated in every small farmer's garden for this purpose. This practice, 
 if not peculiar to Arran, is practised there to a greater extent than in 
 most other districts. The cattle calving in the winter, or early in the 
 spring, are fed with kale, potatoes, and straw. Both the kale and 
 potatoes are usually .boiled, and sometimes the chaS ; and the milch-cows 
 almost always before calving, and sometimes for a little while afterwards,, 
 get some oafs or meal boiled with their other provender. Notwithstand- 
 ing the addition of the kale, the Arran cattle are not too well fed in the . 
 winter, and the growth of the young beasts is often materially stinted by 
 a false economy. When the weather is not stormy, the cattle are driven 
 out to pasture during the day — the young ones to the hills, and the older > 
 ones to the arable pastures and stubbles. 
 
 This system of housing at night is, in some instances, necessary on 
 account of the exposed and shelterless situation of the farms ; but, in other 
 cases, it might, with advantage, be dispensed with, especially with regard' 
 to the young cattle ; for it makes them tender, it prevents the growth of 
 that covering of thick soft hair which nature provides as a protection 
 against the searching blast, and it renders the beasts more liable to hoose : 
 and inflammation, when they must afterwards be exposed to no little coldi 
 while feeding on grass. 
 
 The majority of the cattle of Arran are sold in the autumn, from two, 
 to three years old. They are transported to the mainland, and after- 
 wards south, by the way of Dumfries, where they are fed on grass for 
 another year, and thus generally vrell prepared for the butcher : a few 
 stirks or yearlings are annually sold at the same time from farms on 
 which too many have been reared. The greater part of Arran is a 
 breeding and rearing district ; but on a few farms the cattle are fattened 
 on grass, and so successfully as to render it probable that the practice 
 might be more generally pursued with considerable advantage. Some of 
 the old cattle, when beginning to fail in milk, are fed off in the winter on 
 turnips or potatoes, either for home consumption or to be sold to the 
 drovers in the spring. About SOO head of cattle are yearly sent to the 
 mainland from Arran. 
 
 The milch cows are housed at night, even in the summer: they are 
 brought home in the evening for milking, after which they get cut grass 
 
THE BUTE BRKED. r: 
 
 t clover during the nig-ht, and, having been milked again in il.e nioriiing-, 
 are turned out for the day. The produce of milk has much increasi:>l 
 with the improvement in general husbandry, and the consequ;nt better 
 keeping of the cows. Some of the black cattle will give from three to 
 three and a half gallons of milk daily for four or five monihs after calving; 
 .he average quantity, however, will not much exceed two gallons ; but the 
 milk is excellent. There are some farms in which the Ayrshire eows are 
 established, and these cattle give in Arrsm as iinich milk as in their iiati>e 
 country. The small farmers cousume the milk and butter and clieeae 
 which their cows produce ; others sell a little butter ; and the hirger 
 farmers manufacture a considerable quantity of cheese, which can scarcely 
 be distinguished from the Ayrshire, and which is sent to the towns on the 
 banks of the Clyde. 
 
 We have dwelt the longer on the cattle husbandry of this little isiand 
 because it is a splendid example of what may be effected, in a very few 
 years, by the exertions of one patriotic individual. 
 
 The circumstances which, until the last eighty years, caused the Scottish 
 agriculturists to be so far behind their brethren in Ennland, were the con- 
 tinuance of the feudal system, and consequent vassalage in the northern 
 kingdom. Short leases alone were granted, frequently of not more than a 
 twelvemonth; a great partof the rent was demanded in kind, and the tenant 
 was harassed by the exaction of continual services in every oppressive form. 
 But when services were abolished, and a fixed rent in money was esta- 
 blished, and, by the length of the lease, security was given to the occupant 
 that he should reap the fruits of his improvement, he began to set liimself 
 thoroiighly to work. The rapidity of his improvement may be accounted 
 for by circumstances which fall not to the lot of the southern agriculturists 
 — tithes had been annihilated in Scotland, at least so far as the tenant 
 was concerned, and the burden of supporting the poor was scarcely felt. 
 
 The Isle of Bute, in Gaelic, signifying ' a bold furious head,' and so 
 called from the rugged rocks on the southern extremity, while the island 
 itself is comparatively fiat, is higher up the Firth. It is about fifteen 
 miles in length, and three in breadth, and contains 34,0U0 Scotch acies 
 of ground. Rothsay gives the title of Dnke to the heir-apparent of the Bri- 
 tish Crown ; and was formerly the residence of some of the Scottish kings. 
 The castle, a noble ruin, is still to be seen. Agriculture was even at a 
 lower ebb in this island than in Arran, but it somewhat earlier began to 
 emerge from its degraded state. The Marquis of Bute was induced, by 
 the illness of his lady, to reside two years on the island. lie had ocular 
 demonstration of the lamentable condition of his estates, and of the county 
 generally, and interest and patriotism induced him to endeavour to effect 
 their improvement. He enclosed many of the farms. This was the first 
 step, and without which everything else would have been of no avail. He 
 introduced the system of draining, fallowing, liming, &c., and much good 
 was effected ;. but the attention of the Marquis being completely occupied at 
 ' court, all was not accomplished that he wished ; and the island, although 
 improved, continues to rank low in the scale of agricultural merit. Th« 
 cattle were small. The farms were overstocked with them. There was 
 little sown grass, and no green food for winter; and until the pastures 
 were better covered than formerly, all attempts matej'ially to increase the 
 value of the breed would necessarily fail. With the advancement of agri7 
 culture generally the cattle have increased in value, although they are still 
 of a motley character; and they are beginning to have considerably more 
 if the Avrshire breed in them than is to be found in Arran. 
 
TB CATTLE. 
 
 ARQTLKSHIRE. 
 
 The county of Argyle stretches along the western coast ot Scotland for 
 115 miles, but its average breadth is little more than 30 miles. The 
 southern part is low, and comparatively level, and the temperature is 
 mild. The northern part is rugged and mountainous, and the climate 
 cold and ungenial. In the northern part there is much barren land, and 
 little good pasture; but in Cantire, at the south, there is plenty ol 
 excellent feed for cattle; therefore the cattle differ materially in the 
 northern and southern parts of the country. Among the monntains, the 
 Highland breed is found almost unmixed ; in the level country, there is 
 the same variety and mixture of breed which is observed in other dairy 
 districts. 
 
 Although the system of sheep-husbandry has been introduced into 
 Argyle, and is increasing there, yet, including every kind, there are sup- 
 posed to be nearly 65,000 black cattle in the county. John Campbell, 
 from Logwine, in Ayrshire, was the first who stocked a farm with sheep 
 in Argyleshire, in the year 1760, in the united parishes of Lochgoil Head 
 and Kilmorick. The country-people regarded him at first with an evil 
 eye, but the superiority of sheep-husbandry is now acknowledged in all 
 the mountainous districts of Scotland. 
 
 The North Argyle cattle are larger than the Hebrideans, and are 
 now bred to the full size which the soil, or the best qualities of the 
 animal will bear. That fundamental principle of breeding is generally 
 adopted here, that the size must be determined by the soil and the food; 
 and that it is far more profitable to the farmer to have the size of his 
 breed under, rather than over, the produce of his land. Both will gra- 
 dually adapt themselves to the soil ; but the small beast will become 
 more bulky, and improve in all his points — the large one will degenerate 
 in form and in every good quality. Therefore, the soil and management 
 of Argyle being, generally speaking, better than that of the Hebrides, it 
 was found that a somewhat larger animal might be admitted ; he was, 
 however, procured, not by crossing with a breed of superior size, but by 
 careful selection from the best of the pure breed. Experience and judg- 
 ment soon discovered when the proper point — the profitable weight — was 
 gained ; and then the farmer went back to the equally jiure, but smaller 
 breed of Skye, lest the form should be deteriorated, and the fattening 
 should not be so equable and true, and the meat should lose some of its 
 beautiful character and flavour. 
 
 There is no part of the Highlands where the soil and the climate are 
 better adapted to the perfection of the breed than in Argyle, or where we 
 oftener see the true characteristics of the best Highland cattle — short, and 
 somewhat strong in the shank, round in the body, straight in the back, 
 well-haired, long in the muzzle, and with a well-turned and rather small 
 horn. There is no district in which the farmer so superstitiously, and yet 
 we will say properly, refrains from foreign admixture. Could the two 
 great errors of the Highland farmer be remedied, but which are found 
 even here — namely, overstocking in the summer and starving in the 
 winter — there would be nothing more to desire, so far as the grazier is 
 concerned, except, perhaps, docility of temper ; and that will be gradually 
 acquired when further improvements in agriculture have rendered it unne- 
 cessary for the beast to wander so far, and over so wild a country, in 
 search of food^ and when he will be earlier and more perfectly domesti- 
 
THE ARGYLESHIRE BREED. 7S 
 
 cated. The Highlander, however, must be reared for the grazier alune. 
 Every attention lo increase his weight, in order to make him capable 
 of agricultural labour — every effort to qualify him for the dairy, will hot 
 only lessen his hardiness of constitution and propensity to fatten, but will 
 fail in rendering him valuable for the purpose at which the farmer foolishly 
 aims. The character of the Highlander must still be, that he will pay 
 better for his quantity of food than any other breed, and will fatten where 
 any other breed would scarcely live. This is the grand secret of profitably 
 breeding or grazing the Highland cattle. 
 
 The management both of the cow and her calf depend much on the 
 object which the breeder principally pursues. If he studies the character 
 !)f his stock, he makes little butter and cheese, and generally rears a calf 
 for every cow, giving it the greater part of her milk. A likely bull-calf 
 is sometimes allowed the milk of two cows for a considerable time, and 
 often for six months. When the calves are weaned, they are fed on the 
 hills during the summer, and brought on the lower grounds in winter; 
 and if the pasture is not good, they are occasionally fed with straw and 
 hay. It is after the first winter that the absurd and cruel system of over- 
 stocking and starving commences. From the superiority of the soil, 
 however, this is not carried to the ruinous extent that it is in the 
 Hebrides. In favourable situations, some farmers winter their calves in 
 open sheds, where they are fed with hay in the racks. This makes them 
 hardier, and does not cripple their growth. 
 
 The following has been given as the expense of rearing a Highland 
 slot '.n Argyleshire : — 
 
 To milk to the calf while su'^.king, 1} Scotch pints per 
 
 day, at 2d. per pint . . .^256 
 
 To expense of keeping the calf housed aiid fed on 
 straw and hay during the first winter, 12«. — but 
 deducting 3s. for manure, there remains . .090 
 
 To pasture next summer on hill grass • .076 
 
 To keeping next winter on low grounds, and feeding 
 
 in the fields with hay when necessary . . 10 
 
 To pasture on hilly ground next summer, being then 
 2^ years old . • 
 
 Deduct for risk of death» 
 
 Interest of money 
 
 Supposing that they then sell ioi- live guineas at first hand — and the 
 average price will not much exceed this — the profit will be but 5s. 6d. 
 This and the increased price of corn will sufficiently account for the 
 gradual substitution of sheep for cattle on the greater part of the breeding 
 country of Scotland. 
 
 The Argyleshire farmer is sometimes wrong in breeding from a favourite 
 cow too long. Although the Highlanders fatten rapidly for a certain 
 time, and begin early to fatten where the pasturage will give them oppor- 
 tunity to show it, they do not thrive so well when old. A cow ultimately 
 destined for the drover should not be permitted to breed after six years- 
 old. She may make fair meat for home consumption, but she will not 
 fatten so quickly, or so truly, and on all her points ; and, in fact, the 
 drover will seldom purchase her except at a very inferior price. 
 
 It is now also established as a principle among them, that the siinie 
 
 7 
 15 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 £A 19 
 
 6 
 
80 
 
 CATTLK 
 
 bull should not be used too long. The hardiness of some of the catt1« 
 has been thought to be materially affected by it. The bulls are generallx 
 disposed of at^six years-old, when they are in full vigour, and valuable foi 
 some distant herd. 
 
 [The Argyle Ox.] 
 
 The native cattle in Cantire, or the south of Argyle, are of a thinner, 
 lighter make, and not well haired : they are evidently of Highland 
 extraction, but they show much crossing with Irish blood. They are 
 better adapted for the pasturage which they find, and are fai^- mili<eis ; 
 therefore the dairy was always mure attended to than raaring in the district 
 of Cantire. The Ayrshire cow has, however, nearly superseded the 
 native breed, not only in Cantire, but through the whole of Argyleshire, 
 for the purposes of the dairy. She is promising to spread as rapidly and 
 as widely' through the middle and northern parts of Scotland as the short- 
 horn has done along the whole of the eastern part of England. A few 
 Holderness cows were tried, but with doubtful success. The West High- 
 lind cattle are universally adopted for grazing farms, and the Ayrstiire 
 nearly as generally for the dairy. The butter is good, except that it is 
 often too salt ; little, however, can be said in favour "of the cheesei The 
 manufacturer of the cheese is often more in fault than the milk or the 
 pasture ; for in Cantire he usually keeps his milk forty-eight hours, in 
 order to separate all the cream, and before the expiration of that time it is 
 qu te impoverished and becoming sour ; curds of different ages are alsc 
 mixed together, and which will not amalgamate and form one uniform 
 ma-s. 
 
 Some Galloways are found in Argyle, arid particularly in the southern 
 part of the county ; but they are not equal, to the native Highlanders 
 The latter have sometimes been crossed with the Galloways, to gn. 
 in rease of weight ; but the experiment has net >acceeded : theyhav^ 
 neither fattened so quickly, nor so equably. 
 
INVERNESS BREED. SJ 
 
 INVERNESS 
 
 This county will complete the Western HiglilaiiHs, j. rnperly so ciiiled. 
 Inverness stretches across the mainland from the little ciiauuel that 
 divides it from Skye to the Murray Firth. The ferry of Kyle Rhea, on the 
 north-western point of it, connects together the different districts inhabited 
 by the Highland cattle ; for all the cattle from Skye and the outei 
 Hebrides cross that ferry, not only in their way to Inverness and Arg^yle, 
 but to all the southern markets. Six or seven thousand annually pass this 
 little strait. They are not ferried in boats, as from the Long Island to 
 Skye, but by means of ropes, about a yard in length, with a noose at each 
 end, one of which is tied to the tail of the cow that is to swim before, and 
 the other round the jaw and under the tongue of the next ; and the beasts 
 are thus connected together until there is a string of six or eight. The 
 time of high water is chosen, when, although the passage is wider, there 
 is less current. The beasts are led into the water as quietly as possible 
 until they are afloat, when they immediately cease to resist, then the man 
 at the stern of the ferry-boat taking hold of the rope that holds the fore- 
 most beasts, the vessel is rowed steadily across, and the cattle follow with- 
 out a struggle. It is very rarely that one of them is lost. 
 
 The cattle, at least in Lochaber, and alor:g the western coast of Inver- 
 ness, and on the borders of Ross, are essentially the same as those in the 
 north of Argyle, and their treatment, with all its faults, the same. In the 
 central parts of the county, however, the breed is mixed, and principally 
 with the Galloway, or Fife, or Irish. On the borders of Murray there is 
 still a different breed, the origin of which it is difficult to trace ; heavier than 
 the Highlanders ; better milkers ; but not so profitable for the grazier. It 
 Is said that they were first bred of this superior size to make them heavy 
 enough for the yoke, but at present the ox is never used either for the 
 plough or on the road. So late, however, as the year 1791, the Rev. Mr. 
 Smith, in his statistical account of the parish of Petty on the Moray Firth, 
 says, that ' 1400 oxen were employed in that neighbourhood on husbandry 
 work.' He adds, that 'they were of the light nimble Highland breed ; 
 and, when unfit for work, disposed of to the dealers in cattle for the 
 English markets,' Few of them, however, were reared in Inverness, but 
 were broiiiiht from the Highlands when young. 
 
 Tlie sy.-'tem of summer feeding, or Agoing to shealings,' which we 
 have described as occasionally followed in the Hebrides, used to prevail 
 In Inverness ; but, as agriculture has improved, and sheep-feeding was 
 introduced, these rights of pasturing on the distant wastes were let to , 
 ihepherds, who live on them all the year.* 
 
 Or. Robertson, in his ' Survey of Inverness,' gives the following descrip- 
 ti(m of ' the sliealiugs :' — ' After the crops had been sown, and the peats 
 cut, the inhabitants removed annually, in the month of June, to their 
 distant pastures, with all their cattle and families ; and there, in some 
 snug spot, the best sheltered in all the range allotted to 'he cattle, they 
 
 * It is mentioned in Sir John Sinclair's ' Statistical Account of Scotland,' where the 
 parish of Laagan, in the mountainous country to the south-west of Inverness, is described, 
 that the number of cattle had considerably decreased in that district ; ' people deeming it 
 more profitable to rtduce their stock of black cattle, and increase their stock of sheep. 
 But tlie cattle that remain are very much improved. Twenty years aj^o (1770) a High- 
 land Stot was not worth more than '201. Scots, iwhereas it will now sell for 3^. or 4.. ster- 
 ling; and milch cows have risen in value from 31. \\)s. to 51. or 61.' Black cattle, hoW' 
 crer, may still be consid' red as the staple richd of Inverness, aqd un which principally' 
 
52 CATTLK. 
 
 resided for a certain number ot weeks, unti. the pasture became scarce 
 A. trusty person was sent before them to drive away any wandering cattle 
 that might have trespassed withm the bounds that were to be preserved. 
 The men returned occasionally to the farm or homestead, to collect the 
 fuel, or hoe the potatoes, or weed the crop ; and, when the season for 
 weeding the flax arrived, the women went home for that purpose. When 
 the bounds are extensive thej have frequently more than one of these 
 stations, which are called ree or aree*, in tiie language of the country, and 
 shealings in English. In such cases the guardian of the grass was 'sent 
 forward to another shealing whenever the family arrived at that destined 
 for their temporary residence. He was called the poindler, probably 
 because he had public authority to poind (whence, pound), and confine the 
 stray cattle, and to demand the fine established by law f()r the trespass. 
 When these pastures were unusually rich, as at the head of a lake or by 
 the sides of brooks in the valleys, the inhabitants of two or more farms 
 associated together, and ate the grass of their shealings in common. This 
 was the season of contentment and often of festivity. The women em- 
 ployed themselves in spinning wool to clothe their families, and in making 
 butter and cheese for part of their winter provisions t ; and the youths 
 occupied themselves in fishing or athletic exercises ; and at evening the 
 primitive custom of dancing on the green and singing Gaelic songs was 
 not forgotten. The shealings lasted from one to two months or more, 
 and when the pasjture was all consumed they returned to their home- 
 stead s.t ' 
 
 The Rev. Mr. M'Lean, in an Appendix to this Survey, has some 
 remarks on these shealings, the importance of which has been acknow- 
 ledged by the Inverness farmers, and the most valuable part of what he 
 recommended has been adopted. He is speaking of the system of over- 
 stocking generally, and even on these shealings. He says that, ' on every 
 farm, an overstock is kept. If the cattle are brought through the winter, 
 that is considered sufficient ; and after a severe winter they appear in a 
 most miserable plight, and those of them intended for sale are seldom fit 
 for the market before the end of the summer ;' and, he asks, 'is there not 
 an evident loss here ? — is there not more profit from one beast well, than 
 from two poorly or inditferently kept?' He, therefore, submitted to the 
 Society of Agriculture 'to give premiums to those who shall have their 
 whole stock of black cattle in the best order in the month of May, or who, 
 in that month, shall have the beasts intended for sale in the best market- 
 able condiiion. An emulation of this kind would prove an incitement to 
 the cultivation of turnips and sown grass, as, without these, it is not easy 
 
 * Ree is a Gaelic word, which signifies a deer-fufest ; these shealings, therefore, were 
 the first encroachments made by the inhabitants and theii cattle on the territories of the 
 deer, after ihey had got full possession of the siralhs, or lower vallies. 
 
 f Mr. Stewart, in his ' Highland Superstitions,' tells us that great virtue was once sup- 
 posed to belong to some of this cheese, but the difficulty which attended the manufacture 
 of it corresponded with its value. He says, ' you mast go to the summit of some steep 
 clifiF or mountain, where the feet of qimdrupeds never trod, and gather that herb in the . 
 Gaelic language called " mohan," which can be pointed out by any " wise person." This 
 herb you must give to the cow; and of the milk of the cow you are to make a cheese, and 
 whoever eats of that cheese is for ever after perfectly secure fi:om every species of fairy 
 agency.' 
 
 J The Rev. Mr. Bremmer, in his Statistical Account of Walls in the Orkneys, says of 
 these shealings, — ' Their household furniture must be described negatively. No bed, 
 no table, no chair. These the Highlander does not reckon among the necessaries of life, 
 as he can make the earth serve him for all the three. In his shealing, composed of earth 
 ■ad a few sticks, you find no other furniture than a few dishes fur his milk, and a bowl 
 for his meal : so true in fact, ao well as in philosophy, is the maxim, " nature ii content 
 with a Uttle." ' 
 
THE INVERNKSS BREED, 83 
 
 •0 keep cattle in good order through the winter.' He also asks • whether 
 it would not be for the interest of the tenants not to keep a larger stock of 
 black cattle than they could maintain witiiout sending any part of it to 
 the hill at any season of the year, and that the hill-grass should be applied 
 exclusively to the maintenance of sheep ? ' Mr. M'Lean little thought 
 how soon the sheep would be thus introduced, and how many 'flocks' 
 would be fed • on the Grampian hills,' to the improvement, and not the 
 diminution and deterioration of the breed of cattle. 
 
 If Inverness were no otherwise interesting to the agriculturist, it would 
 have some importance in his estimation as the grand mart of the West 
 Highland cattle. Not only all those from Skye and the outer Hebrides are 
 sent there for sale, and many come from Argyle to the trysts of Inverness, 
 whence they travel south again, but it contains within itself more than 
 42,000 head of cattle. These trysts are not fairs or markets appointed 
 by public authority, but by concert among the dealers. The manner of 
 conducting them is very curious. When the drovers from the south, or 
 from the interior of Scotland, make their appearance in the Highlands, 
 about the latter end of April or the beginning of May, they give notice at 
 the churches that, on a particular day, and at some central place in the 
 district, they will be ready to purchase. 
 
 The price is, like that of everything else, regulated by the demand, and 
 of this the farmers can only judge by the number of the drovers or the 
 intelligence which they have received from their correspondents in the 
 south. Much address is used on both sides to feel the pulse of the market 
 at these meetings, and perhaps many trysts are held before the price is 
 finally determined. Some appear to be resolved to guard themselves from 
 imposition, for they sell their cattle conditionally, bargaining that if the 
 prices rtse within a limited time they shall receive so much more, and that 
 if they fall the drover shall obtain a deduction. 
 
 This traffic is carried on, with little intermission, from May to October ; 
 for from the system of winter starvation, too much pursued, comparatively 
 few may be able to travel at first, or for a considerable time afterwards ; 
 although the cattle that ^re ready fetch the best price, because they can 
 be immediately put on the southern pastures. 
 
 The practice of letting cattle for hire is not unfreqnent in Inverness. 
 The hirer is usually bound to furnish the owner with one calf, one stone 
 (of twenty-two pounds) of butter, and two stones of cheese annually, or 
 one calf and a variable sum of money according to the quality uf the 
 cattle, all expenses of keep being defrayed by the owner. This is a very 
 unsatisfactory mode of conducting a farm ; and when the interests of the 
 two parties are continually clashing, as they must with such an arrange-, 
 ment, there can be little cordiality on either side, and there will often be 
 great injustice on both. 
 
 THE NORTH HIGHLAND CATTLE. 
 
 These occupy the whole of Scotland north of Inverness, ' including the 
 counties of Hoss, Sutherland and Caithness, and the Orkney and Shetland 
 islands. The cattle were exceedingly different from those which we have 
 described, more diminutive in size, and fifty years ago were deficient in 
 many valuable points. The heads of the native breed were large and 
 coarse, the backs high and narrow, the ribs flat, the chest small, the bones 
 large, the legs long ; and, as a necessary consequence of all this, there 
 was great difficulty in getting them fat at all, and they never fattened 
 v: I.:::;:;- ::;z -^ • :. ; : ;3sideration that the climatfl 
 
 G 2 
 
M 
 
 CATTLE. 
 
 it cold, tlie country ja an arable one, the distance from the market ik 
 great, and, therefore, tlie breeding of cattle had not always been a con- 
 sideration of much importance to the* farmer. This defect and disgrace 
 of the northern district was at length forced on tiie attention of the 
 agriculturist, and, by crosses from various breeds, he has endeavoured 
 to improve his stock both for the dairy, the grazier, and the plough : with 
 what success he has laboured, a rapid survey of the northern counties vriV. 
 show 
 
 THE SHETLAND ISLANDS. 
 
 [Tik Sttthnd BtdlJ] 
 
 We commence with the northernmost group of islands, situated nearly 
 half-way between the coasts of Scotland and Norway. They consist oi 
 one chief island, nearly sixty miles in length, and ten or twelve in breadth, 
 und a numerous group of diminutive ones scattered aroimd, and particu- 
 larly on the north. Jamieson, in his ' Mineralogy,' page 2, says that, ' on 
 viewing these islands, a wonderful scene of rugged, black, and barren 
 rocks presents itself to our view. No tree or shrub appears to relieve the 
 eye in wandering over these dreary scenes, and only gray rocks appear 
 rising from tlie midst of marshes, and pools, and shores, bounded by the 
 wildest precipices.' There are, in fact, few or no artificial jrrasses or green 
 crops, or enclosures capable of protecting these crops, and grasses could 
 not be brought to perfection in the open fields of these islands : there is 
 nothing but moss, and heath, and sea-weed, yet there is a breed of horses, 
 diminutive, indeed, -but beautiful, and hardy, and strong ; and the cattle 
 exhibit evident traces of the same origin with the West Highlanders, 
 They have been diminirfied in size by the coldness of the climate and the 
 scarcity of food ; but they have not been so seriously injured by the folly 
 of men — they have not been domesticated to be starved outright. They 
 are small, gaunt, ill-shaped, eo far, indeed, as their shape can be ascer- 
 tained through the long thidc hair with whick they are covered, and which 
 forms an impenetrable defence against the snow and the sleet. They an 
 rarely more than four feet hi^- - 1., 't"-— — •• «"»"■»»•*■■ scarcely vaun 
 than thirty-five or forty pound 
 
THE SHETLAND KRERU. Si 
 
 The Shetland cattle contrive to live on their native moors and wnateo, 
 and some of them fatten there ; for a considerable and increasin!>- quan- 
 tity of beef is salted in Shetland and sent to the mainland, the quality uf 
 which is exceedingly g'ood. When, however, the Shetlanders are trans 
 ported to the comparatively richer pastures of the north of Scotland, tliey 
 thrive with almost incredible rapidity, and their flesh and fat, being so newlv 
 and quickly laid on, is said to be peculiarly delicious and tender. They 
 run to fifteen or sixteen, or even twenty stones in weight. If Ihey are 
 carried still farther south they rarely thrive ; they become sickly, and even 
 poor, in the midst of abundance : the change is too great, and the consti- 
 tution cannot become habituated to it. The Duke of Bedford and Mr. 
 Wilmot Horton have given a fair trial to these Lilliputian cattle, and the 
 result has not been satisfactory. 
 
 The .Shetland cows are housed every night, whether in winter or 
 summer; and not having straw for litter, the defect is supplied by heith 
 and peat-dust. The dung used to be sntfered to accumulate in a strange 
 manner. Instead of being daily carried out, it was spread over the byre, 
 until the cattle could no lonaer find entrance between the floor and the 
 roof Then only it was of necesliity removed. They yield a very small 
 portion of milk, whether in their native zountry or elsewhere, but that 
 which they do give is exceedingly rich. 
 
 The Shetlanders have a curious way of extracting the butter from it. 
 The milk is put into the churn as soon as procured, and in small farms 
 two or three days elapse before the vessel is full. The process of churn- 
 ing then commences ; and when the butter is about to separate from the 
 whey some red-hot stones are thrown in, and the churning continued 
 until the separation is coniplete, and the butter floats on the top. This is 
 sometimes very carefully washed for home-consumption or for the market; 
 but when it is destined to constitute part of the rent (for a portion of 
 that was, not many years ago, demanded in kind) it was sadly dirty and 
 badly tasted. The butter-milk is then boiled, and another portion of butter 
 is separated, which is not .so rich : this is chiefly reserved for home use. 
 The remaining fluid, called bland, used to be, but is not so much now, 
 the ordinary drink of the poorer Shetlanders. It is sometimes preserved 
 until the winter, and is supposed to be very wholesome. 
 
 A country so barren may be easily overstocked, and it is so to a certain 
 degree, particularly since the introduction of sheep husbandry. A great 
 many of the calves are therefore killed very early, and some even on the 
 day that they are dropped. The calves that are reared are never allowed 
 to suck their mothers, but are fed, at first, with milk, and afterwards with 
 bland. This is poor food, but they are by this means early prepared for 
 the privations to which they are afterwards exposed. 
 
 The little Shetland oxen are still occasionally worked in thr plough. 
 Horses and oxen were formerly yoked abreast to the same plojgh; but the 
 oxen are gradually getting into disuse : indeed a great part of the island 
 is too rocky for the plough, and is d\ig with the spade ; and, sometimes, 
 even at the present day, the spade husbandry is used where the plough 
 might be profitably introrlnced. 
 
 Some of the smaller islands called ' The Holmes,' and which are nearly 
 or quite uninhabited, yield more succulent pasture ; and the cattle are 
 occasionally sent there to prepare them for their migration to the south. 
 They thrive rapidly on these little solitudes. When a statistical account of 
 these islands was taken forty years ago, they contained 3000 cows, 1000 
 oxen, and 10,000 young cattle. They have, however, rapidly increased, 
 for more thar 44,000 now inhabit the Shetland and Orkney Islands. It 
 
^^ CATTLE 
 
 i« much to be regretted that so numerous and valuable a breed should b« 
 so much neglected : but the fact is, that the Shetland isles are principally 
 a fishing station. Their very appearance caused them to be selected for 
 this purpose, and the profits occasionally resulting- from the fisheries — to 
 the heritors or proprietors, at least— have made tliem, and the inhabitants 
 of the Orkneys, comparatively careless as to the productions of the coil. 
 
 THE ORKNEY ISLANDS. 
 
 •fHE Orkney Islands, or ancient Orcades, lie much nearer the mainland, 
 and are not so considerable as the Shetland Islands. The number of 
 inhabited islands is twenty-nine, and there are thirty-nine smaller ones, 
 called holmes, covered with constant herbage, and on which cattle and 
 sheep are sometimes grazed. The climate is moist and variable, the sum- 
 mers short, and rarely hot, the winters long, but not cold, the spring late, 
 and the ungenial weather often continuing until June., 
 
 The cattle, which were formerly even smaller and more ill-shaped than 
 the Shetlanders, have been considerably improved, for there is much good 
 pasture in the Orkneys ; but there is necessity for greater improvement in 
 the management of them ere they can become a very profitable stock. So 
 late as 1795 ' all the cattle, except the mrlch-cows, were turned out to the 
 liills and moors, where they made a shift to preserve life, but were stinted 
 in their growth, and the queys were often five and six years old before they 
 had a calf. When the cattle are thus turned out to their liberty,' the 
 reporter savs, ' he whose corn is unripe must cut it down, or expect to 
 have it destroyed ; and when hunger and cold force home the half-starved 
 cattle from the hill, the hill dykes are too weak to keep them out ; it is 
 impossible either to poind these animals, or to prevent their incursions ; 
 and they must be hunted with dogs to the mountains, perhaps after dozens 
 of them have run through fields of standing corn.' — Rev. J. Malcolm's 
 Statistical Account of Stemiess. 
 
 The cattle are better milkers than the Shetlanders, and quite as good 
 feeders. More oxen are used for agricultural labour, and they are de- 
 cidedly better for this purpose than the Shetlanders ; yet, compared with 
 the Western Highlanders, they are an inferior race. Their heads are low, 
 their backs high, their buttocks thin, their bones prominent, their horns 
 she rt, and bending towards the forehead*. 
 
 * Mr. Morison, in his ' Statistical Account of the Parish of Dalting,' after saying that a 
 small part of it only is under cultivation, gives a very ^curious account of the manner of 
 ploughing. He says, that ' there are not more than six ploughs in the parish. The 
 plough is made of a small crooked piece of wood, at the end of which is fixed a slender 
 pliable piece of oak, that is fastened to the yoke laid across the necks of the oxen. The 
 man who holds the plough walks by its side, and directs it with a stilt or handle fixed 
 to the top of it. The driver, if so he can be called, goes. before the oxen, and pulls them 
 on by a rope tied round their horns, and some people with spades follow the plough, to 
 level the furrow and break the clods. 
 
 , ' A considerable number of cattle and sheep are sold to the Lerwick merchants, who 
 kill them, and send them packed to Leith market : 700 milch cows are kept it the parish, 
 beside oxen and young cattle. A great part of the land is let on ,hutter-rent. Good 1 2d. 
 Land will let at sixteen merks of butter (about 20 lbs.), and 24s. Scots (2s. English) per 
 merk, equivalent to about three-fourths of an acre. The butter is generally compounded for 
 at the average price. Beside this, 40rf. is required from each family for services, (assisting 
 in the reaping, hay-makingi and various agricultural labours,) if they are not paiil iu 
 kind ; and also a cock and a hen is demanded for every two merks of laud.' These 
 relics, however; of feudal tenure are now growing into disuse. At that time a good ox wa« 
 worth 36/. (3/. sterling) Scots; and a fat cow sold for 24/. (2/. sterling). The ox would 
 weigh from 300 to 400 cwt., and the cow from 170 to 250 lbs. 
 
 Mr. Morison say>, that ' the situation of that parish, and of the Highland* generally 
 
THE CAITHNESS BREEU 87 
 
 CAITHNESS. 
 
 This is the northernmost county of Scotland, and the climate is cold and 
 ungenial ; there is no high land on the north coast to break the force of 
 the wind, which sets in during the greater part of the year from the north 
 west or the west. In that season of the year when vegetation is most 
 rapid in other countries, namely, from the beginning of May to the middle 
 of June, the north-west wind blows incessantly, and the growth of every- 
 thing is completely checked. Three-fourths of the whole surface of tlie 
 county is either a deep peat-moss, or lofty barren mountain covered only 
 with peat-earth and heather. It will not then be wondered at tliat, not fifty 
 years ago, the Caithness breed of rattle, although hardy, was the worst iu 
 all Scotland, The distance of this county from all the markets for cattle, 
 discouraged any attempt at improving the breed, and the same improvi- 
 dent system of overstocking which we have reprobated in tlie Highlands 
 completed the evil*. Captain Hend<?rson, the scientific as well as instruc- 
 tive author of the 'Agricultural Survey of Caithness,' very expressively 
 says that ' these animals were not fed, but merely kept alive by a little 
 straw given them twice a day from the end of December until the hill- 
 pasture would recover them in May and June ; and that being thus 
 starved one-half of the year, they assumed a thin, lank shape t.' 
 
 was most deplorable in the winter of 1784. The crop of oats failed in 1782. It was 
 worse in 1783 ; and the winter of 1784 was a long and severe one. Many cattle died 
 of absolute starvation. A mortality broke out, and destroyed many more ; 4'27 were lost 
 in that parish. Oats rose to ibs. ver boll. The most substantial farmers fared badlv ; 
 the poorer ones lived on welks, and limpets, and such other iish as the sea-shore atiurded.' 
 — Sir John Sinclair's Statistical Account of Scotland. 
 
 * The Rev. Mr. Cameron, in his Statistical Account of Halkirk, in this county, has 
 some appropriate remarks on this point : — ' I am persuaded that the number (of black 
 cattle) reared is near one-third more than it ought tu liavc beeu, ur the parish can well 
 maintain. This is the cause why our cows do not usually yield so much milk as might 
 be expected — why the cattle are in general poorer, and ul' less size than they might have 
 been, and consequently fetch such low prices in the market. What is their motive for 
 this unfrugal and mistaken plan P Because the commerce in thai cattle is their principal 
 dependence ; and they calculate their stock according to their number, and not according 
 to their quality. Besides, having no other way to answer Martinmas demands, they 
 pinch their families in the necessary food arising from these anin^als, from an overweaning 
 expectation, and the mistaken idea, that if they have plenty of calves they will be able 
 to answerthese demands, which hang a mighty terror over their heads every year. Thus 
 it happens that they themselves and their cattle are half-starved, and their ill-founded 
 expectations often frustrated. Whereas, had they adopted auother plan, aud kept an 
 adequate number of cattle only, their famiUes would be better supported, their cattle better 
 in quality and value, and the demands of the landlord more readily answered.' 
 
 t The Rev. Mr. Taylor, in his Statistical Account of Watlin, in this county, in 1794, 
 very strongly and properly repnibaies the system of cattle-management in Caithness. 
 He says, — ' From our remote situation and little intercourse with other countries, we have 
 hitherto been neglected, if not despised. Of late, strangers have begun to creep in among 
 ds, but there are local practices and local prejudices among us which require to be laid 
 aside before great improvement can take place, or strangers reside with real comfort to 
 themselves. From time immemorial it had 6een the practice here, for cattle of all kinds 
 to travel and feed promiscuously, without distinction of property, from the day the lust 
 sheaf was put into the farm-yard till the conclusion of the bean seed, in the end of May 
 or the beginning of June. The ]irejudice of this practice to laud in general, and to arable 
 land in particular, is sufficiently evident. The active, enterprising farmer can never avail 
 himself of all the advantages to be derived from his possession, unless he is at liberty to 
 use and lay it out as he pleases. He can never benefit himself either by fallow or green 
 crops, so long as cattle of every kind — his neighbours, as well as his own— are at freedom, 
 fui eight months nearly out of the twelve, to traverse his fields, day and night, wet and 
 dry. Such a custom may, and no doubt does profit the sluggard. His cattle are half main- 
 tained at the expense of bin neighbours ; but men of this description ought not to be 
 supported at the expense of the willing, industrious farmers. His spiiited endeivoun ta 
 
88 CATTLE. 
 
 Caithness afforns a sf..endid example of what one scientific and zealoiM 
 man is capable of effecting. Sir John Sinclair had large property in 
 Caithness : he observed and lamented, and materially suffered by this 
 wretched state of the cattle, and thought of many plans for their improve- 
 ment. He first tried what he could do by crossing the native breed. The 
 chest was small, and the ribs flat, and the back thin ; there was not room 
 for the heart to beat, nor the lungs to play. He first thought of the deep 
 chest, and broad loins, and barrelled carcase of the Galloway. Here 
 seemed to be the very points in which the Caithness breed was most defi- 
 cient, and in which it was of most importance to improve them ; and there- 
 fore he crossed the Caithness cow vvith the Galloway bull. But he had 
 not sufficiently thought that although he might bring the rounded form, 
 and larger size of the Galloway bull, he could not bring the mild climate 
 and the fine herbage of Galloway ; and experience taught him the truth of 
 the axiom, that the breed must be suited to the climate, or it will not 
 thrive. He improved the size of the Caithness cattle : they were better 
 for the ypke, 'but they did not fatten so kindly, and their milking proper- 
 ties were even deteriorated. 
 
 He then bethought him of the West Highlanders, a kindred race, even 
 though his own were so degenerated ; the inhabitants likewise of a cold 
 and variable climate ; thriving there, and possessing also those admirable 
 points in which the Caithness were so deficient. The experiment suc- 
 ceeded. On a lowland farm, the Skye cattle grew to a size with which 
 none of the Caithness breed could compare, and they lost not one point 
 of excellence. On a highland farm they were somewhat inferior in size ; 
 but they throve even more rapidly than the others ; they made beef of the 
 most excellent quality, and they well paid the farmer for their keep. 
 
 Then the Caithness cattle were crossed by the West Highlanders ; and 
 at every cross they were improved; and when they had become almost 
 entirely Skye or Argyle blood, they were best of all. The Argyle cattle 
 were preferred for the lowlands, — the Skye for the higher and rougher 
 sountry ; and very considerable improvement was effected with regard 
 both to the breeding and the grazing of cattle. The only cause of regret 
 was the distance of the markets, yet the growing excellence of the cattle 
 paid for the length of the journey. 
 
 After this. Sir John Sinclair gradually discarded the Galloway even 
 from the plough ; and from the Skye, and more particularly from the 
 Argyle breed, he got as quick, and honest, and hardy workers, and pro- 
 fitable fattehers, as he could reasonably desire ; and Caithness will not 
 now yield to the neighbouring counties of Sutherland or Ross in the 
 form or value of her cattle. 
 
 The peculiarity of the climate of Caithness, and the want of food even 
 to the middle of June, were great obstacles to improvement; to which 
 may be added the same miscalculating avarice which induced the breeders 
 here, as in other counties, to overstock their farms. The want of spring food, 
 however, was, in some measure, supplied by the introduction of the rye- 
 grass, which will start early, and in the coldest weather, and afford a bite 
 at least, if not be ready to cut, when nothing else is to be had : and when 
 turnip-feeding was added to this, the improvement of the cattle, and the 
 profit of the farmer became greater ; for the beast which had been turnip- 
 fe»l m the winter, and got rye-grass in the, spring, was ready for the 
 
 ptoride or himself, and serve the public, ought not to be rendered abortive merely to 
 i;ratify the indolence of the sloven, who, rather than exert himself in constant acts o( 
 industry, is content to live iu a hovel, to be clothed in rags, and to feed upon bread and 
 «attt.' 
 
THE CAITHNESS BRKEI). gg 
 
 market a full year before he otherwise would have been. Tliis improTeij 
 mode of feeding was, however, in the hands of few, and the majority of 
 the cattle were straw-fed in the « inter, and had mere common paslnra{>,e 
 in the summer ; yet even they did well when not overstocked, and jieided a 
 reasonable remuneration to the farmer. 
 
 A few beasts are fed for home consumption ; but they are generally old 
 cows and oxen which the drovers refuse to purchase : yet at nine, ten, and 
 eleven years old, they will fatten speedily enough, and make good beef. 
 Some are grass-fed in the spring and summer ; and the early rye-grass is 
 particularly valuable here. Others are stall-fed, and at the close of the 
 autumn, this is accomplished quickly and without difficulty. Turnips with 
 oat-straw are given at first, and the beasts are finished ofif with bruised 
 oats and beans, which are said to give firmness to the flesh. The common 
 cattle do not now fare so badly in Caithness as in some other counties. 
 There is more arable ground here than is found farther south ; and 
 although the beasts often wander over the commons during the day, they 
 get straw, and, sometimes, turnips in the morning and evening. 
 
 In the highland past of the county the attention of the farmer, so far as 
 cattle are concerned, is principally devoted to the rearing of them. That, 
 in fact, is the primitive, although not always the most profitable, business 
 of the Hiffhlander; but in the lower part of the country the care of the 
 dairy is added, or tiie land is principally cultivated for the dairy. Here 
 a different breed of cows is necessary. It is needless to repeat that the 
 Highland cattle, excellent as they are for grazing, will yield no remu- 
 nerating profit as milkers. Sir John Sinclair first endeavoured to cross 
 the native cattle with the Buchan breed. These were the nearest, and 
 they were excellent dairy cows in their own peculiar district. To a certain 
 extent they answered, but the quantity was not increased so much as had 
 been expec ted, and the grazing qualities were a little impaired. 
 
 He next tried the Dunlop or Ayrshire bull. The Caithness became a 
 better milker ; but there was something in the character of the Highland 
 beast that would not amalgamate with the lowland dairy blood, for even 
 when on its native ground, it lost much of its propensity to speedy fatten- 
 ing. Many of the pure Ayrshire cows were therefore used in the dairies 
 of Caithness, and they still maintain their ground, either pure, or gradu- 
 ally working upon the milking unthriftiness of the Highlander. 
 
 The dairy is often managed here in the same unsatisfactory manner as 
 in other places more to the south. The farmer provides cattle and pasturage, 
 but he has nothing to do with the manufacture of the produce ; he bar- 
 gains with some dairy-woman to deliver to him annually a calf for every 
 two cows, and forty or fifty pounds of butter, and the same quantity of 
 cheese for each cow, the value of which may be nearly bl. ; but others, 
 and more satisfactorily, and profitably too, take upon themselves the whole 
 management of their property. The dairy has much improved in Caith- 
 ness ; but, on account of its situation and soil, it must alWays be very 
 .nferior to that in the southernmost coimties of Scotland. Many of the 
 Orkney cows are used by the small farmers, and for a cottager's cow 
 'here are few better. 
 
 Including the cattle both for the dairy and grazing, Caithness contains 
 about 15,000. Three thousand of these are annually sold to the 
 drovers, who make their appearance in this county, and begin to hold their 
 trysts, about the latter end of April. The first regular market for the sale 
 of the north-country cattle is at Amulrie on the first Wednesday in May • 
 to this suiEceeds Cockhill on the 16th, and then Falkirk, Broughill, and 
 Newcastle. The stots are usually three years and a half when first offered 
 
M CAITLE. 
 
 for sale, and then weigh about twenty stones : when fattened, they wU' 
 double that weight if of the improved breed ; but the old Caithness cattle 
 will seldom weigh more than twenty-five stones, when in the best condi- 
 tion. The pnice of these slots varies with the demand, and the season, and 
 the breed. The old Caithness will frequently not sell for more than 31. ; 
 the best Highlanders have brought 81. or 91. per head. The journey from 
 Caithness to Carlisle occupies from twenty-eight to thirty-two days ; they 
 •re usually takvu in droves of about 250, and tb" expense is nearly 7». 6(L 
 per head. 
 
 Oxen are yet used in Caithness for husbandry work. The native 
 breed has neither sufficient substance nor spirit ; the Galloways are 
 heavier but slow, and do not thrive well in Caithness, and, on the whole, 
 the Highlanders are the best working oxen. A pair of oxen are generally 
 used in the cart. Four were often driven abreast in the plough, the driver 
 curiously walking backward between the central oxen*. A small farmer, 
 now and then, harnesses two ponies with a pair of oxen. The heavier 
 southern cattle have had a fair trial, and are nearly abandoned ; and hus- 
 bandry work, even with the West Highland oxen, is not performed so much 
 as it used to be. The oxen are broken-in at three years' old ; at five they 
 •re in their prime, and they are worked until eight or ten years ; when they 
 are sometimes sold to the drovers in travelling condition, but oftener fat 
 tened at home. Their food in winter is straw, or chaff, and occasionally a 
 few turnips ; in summer they have hay, but no corn, except the larger 
 oxen ; and wlien they are not at work, they pasture with the milch cows. 
 
 It may be supposed that in so ungenial a climate as that of Caithness 
 the cattle are subject to many distempers. The sudden variation of tem- 
 perature and of food, and the change from starvation to comparative 
 plenty when vegetation does at length, and with strange rapidity, proceed 
 in the latter part of the spring, are the causes of some of the most fre- 
 quent and fatal diseases. Among the rest is inflammatory fever, known 
 in its various stages by the names of black quarter and hasty. Supersti- 
 tion is still prevalent enough in all parts of the Highlands, but nowhere 
 more so than in Caithness. Captain Henderson gives some strange ac- 
 counts of the treatment of these diseases in a country where the riaine of 
 a veterinary surgeon is almost unknown. He says that ' in former times,, 
 when a beast was seized with the black quarter it was taken to a house 
 where no cattle were ever after to enter, and there the heart was torn out 
 while the animal was alive, and hung up in the house or byre where the 
 farmer kept his cattle, and while it was there, none of his cattle would 
 again be seized with that distemper.' 
 
 When the murrain appeared the farmer would send for a charm-doctor 
 to superintend the raising oi a. need-fire. A circular booth was erected 
 upon some small island in the nearest river, or hum; and in tlie cenireot 
 it a straight pole was fixed, extending from the roof to the ground. 
 Another pole was set across horizontally, with four short arms or levers in 
 
 * The Rev. Mr. Jolly, in his Statistical Account of Dunnot (17U4), explains this: 
 
 ' The tenant's ploughs are generally drawn by fnur oxen or horses yoked abreast. That 
 practice appears ridiculous to strangers, but a better acquaintance with the people's cir- 
 itumstanees would lead to a more favourable oirinion. The cattle are very small and ilUfed, 
 and hence their strength is not sufficieiiit for drawing a ploupth, if they were yoked in any 
 manner where part might have an opportunity of throwing the whole burden occasionally 
 on the rest. This practice, however, is attended with the inconvenience, that one of the 
 cattle must walk on the ploughed groiuid ; of this some are beginning to be sensible, and 
 are substituting threa cattle abreast, endeavouring to get those of a better quality.' Th» 
 ploughman used to walk backward, or with his face to the plough, because he could ihu* 
 better observe whether the stren|{th of the team was fiiirly and equally exerted. 
 
THE SUTHERLAND BREED. 91 
 
 Its centre to work it rapidly round, and the ends were' tapered. One end 
 was exactly fitted into a hole in the perpendicular timber, and the other 
 into some side support. All the neisrhbours were then collected ; they 
 carefully divested themselves of all metal — not even a button was lefl on 
 any part of their clothes— and they set heartily to work, two by two, turn- 
 ing the end of the horizontal timber in the hole of the central and upright 
 one, and rapidly relieving each other as they became tired, until by the 
 violence of the friction, and assisted now and then by a little gunpowder 
 and tinder, the wood began to blaze. This was the need-fire. Every fire 
 in the farmer's house was immediately quenched, and others kindled from 
 this need-fire: all the cattle were then driven in, and made to pass through 
 the smoke of this new and sacred conflagration, and the plague was at 
 once stayed. Old traditions say that the Druids vised to superintend the 
 kindling of a similar fire on the 1st of May. That day is still called in 
 the Gaelic la-Beal-tin, i. e. the day of Baal's fire. 
 
 A remnant of this superstition still exists among those who lag a little-. 
 behind in the march of improvement, and they are not a few. When a beast 
 is seized with the murrain a few pieces of sooty divots (turf) are taken from 
 a thatched roof (we have said that in some of the poor cottages there is no 
 chimney) and put into a metal pot with a coal of fire, so that a strong 
 sooty smoke ascends. The patient is then brought, and its nostrils are 
 forcjbly held in the smoke for a quarter of an hour. Then some ale with, 
 plaintain root is given, and the beast is cured. Some interesting resem- 
 blances to old customs in other parts of the world, and far earlier times, 
 are evident. , 
 
 SUTHERLAND. 
 
 Sutherland and Caithness form the northern extremity of Scotland, the 
 western coast of which is occupied by Sutherland. The western and: 
 northern coasts are bleak and stormy enough, and the mountains, of im- 
 mense height, have not even a stalk of heath on their barren surfaces ; but 
 the south-eastern part of the country is more sheltered, and not a great' 
 deal colder, although rather more backward than some of the midland' 
 counties of Scotland. 
 
 The soil is as various as the climate. There are few or no artificial 
 grasses, and the only natural meadows are the valleys formed by the rivers; 
 and burns ; on them some cattle are fed, but on the higher ground, in 
 Sutherland and Ross, and the eastern and central Highlands, the black 
 cattle have given way to sheep. Although four times as large as Caith- 
 ness, this county does not contain twice the number of cattle. It has 
 never been calculated to possess more than 25,000, and, probably, there 
 are not now more than two-thirds of that number. 
 
 The statistical accounts of the numbers of horses, cattle, and sheep in 
 Sutherland, in 1798 and 1808, will afford a convincing proof of the decrease 
 of horses, cattle, and goats, and the wonderful increase of the sheep: — 
 
 Horsea. Cattle. Goats. Sheep. 
 
 1798 . . 7736 . . 24,287 . . . 6227 . , 37,130 
 1808 . . 4291 . . 17,333 ... 1128 . . 94,57C 
 
 Decrease 3445 Decrease 6954 Decrease 5099 Increase 57,440 
 
 If the value of each were the same at both truies, we stiould tind that 
 20,670Z. less capital was employed in horses, 32,502^. less in cattle, IbSil. 
 l«s« in ffOHts, and 34,806^. more in sheep. But the manifest improvement 
 
M CATTLE. 
 
 in the breed of cattle would materially diminish this apparent difference 
 How far this may be ultimately advantageous is a question which belongs 
 more to political economy than to a treatise on that part of agriculture 
 which is connected' with cattle, and for which we are otherwise not quite 
 prepared, since we have not yet inquired into the nature of the cultivation, 
 and the comparative value of sheep. It cannot be denied that the sheep 
 is the more useful animal — that, in the aggregate, he is reared and kept at 
 Ihe least expense — that the value of the land and the rent of the farm are also 
 enhanced — and that there are millions of acres that may be appropriated 
 to the feeding of sheep, and especially in the rugged and barren parts of the 
 country, which are now in a manner useless. There is one objection, it 
 must be confessed, to the exclusive cultivation of sheep anywhere, and 
 that is the incompatibility between it and a numerous and increasing 
 population. They are things which cannot exist together, and especially 
 not in a mountainous district, like the Highlands, or like Scotland gene- 
 rally. If a quantity of food is raised, sufficient to maintain the same 
 number of inhabitants as before, the same number of hands are not 
 required to procure it. Towns will be multiplied and filled, but the pea- 
 santry must be driven from the country, and their character and their 
 occupation must be changed : this will be a work of time — it cannot be 
 accomplished in one generation — and the starving cottagers and the small 
 farmers (for they must give way where sheep husbandry is introduced) 
 have no resource but to emigrate to foreign climes. All this is worth con 
 sideration as a general principle, and also as applicable to particular 
 districts. 
 
 Entering now, however, on that part of the Highlands where this 
 new system has been adopted, we are, in a manner, compelled to draw 
 some more detailed comparison between the old and the new way of 
 occupying the land. We will suppose that the proprietor of a consider- 
 able district is taking a survey of ibis property, — the produce and the rent, 
 the improvement or deterioration of his land, the character and the degree 
 of happiness of its occupants. What we have already said of the West 
 Highlands, and of Caithness, will prepare us for the result of his inquiry. 
 He traverses some of the romantic Highland glens, and he finds them 
 thickly studded with miserable huts, the occupants of which rent from him • 
 little patches of land, for which they nominally pay him an exceedingly 
 trifling sum of money. 
 
 Each farm, if so it may be called, consists of a strip of land on the side 
 of the glen, and a larger portion on the hill above. Some of the glen 
 division is attempted to be cultivated to raise a little corn for the winter 
 support of the family. This rarely succeeds ; for the torrent pours down 
 and destroys the greater part of the crop long before it is ready for the 
 harvest : and the farmer has seldom sufficient remaining for the support' of 
 his family during the winter, and that a long one in such a climate. But 
 he has his black cattle and his goats, and for the short summer months 
 he can send them to the hills, and there, at the shealings, they get fat, and 
 he is happy. 
 
 The summer rapidly passes over, the herbage on the hills is all con- 
 sumed, and he and his cattle return to the glen. The grass had. in the 
 mean time grown there ; it had ripened for hay ; some of the family had 
 been sent to mow it, and he has a little stock awaiting his return. It is a 
 little one, and barely sufficient for his cows and his calves. His growin<r 
 cattle have nothing but the straw of his half-destroyed oat crop, on which 
 •hey are to starve during the winter — and starve many of them 'iterally do 
 -r-while the rest aie mere walking skeletons, Jind, for a while, compara- 
 tively worthless. 
 
THE SUTHERLAND BKKKIj. <♦! 
 
 What becomes of the rent? — why it is paid when the tenant can pay it 
 Dut that is not regularly, and often not at all : on the contrary, the land- 
 lord has to supply his tenant with necessaries, and to half-maintain him 
 during a great part of the year ; and his land is all this while becoming 
 impoverished, worn out, and valueless. 
 
 This was the actual state of things. How was it to be remedied ? 
 Why, only by the introduction of a new system of husbandry ; by intro- 
 ducing stock of another kind, which would longer feed on the upland 
 pasture, — which, with some help, would-feed there all the year round; and, 
 by leaving the greater part of the lower ground for the feeding of the nil 
 cattle, for the growing of corn, and for the preparation of winter food ; and 
 which would be ready and in its prime when it was most wanted : in short, 
 if not entirely to substitute sheep for cattle, yet to make them the principal 
 objects of the farmer's care. 
 
 Would the Highlander consent to this ? — would he give up his shealiiigs, 
 the joyous time of his miserable year ? — would he abandon those customs 
 and modes of management which had been practised by his forefathers 
 time out of mind ? — Never ! Then it was necessary to introduce a new 
 race of men to accomplish this ; and that was attempted, in despite of the 
 prejudices, and violent opposition of the people. 
 
 The new settlers were at first maltreated : the inhabitants gathered from 
 every part ; they broke down the fences ; they got together thousands ot 
 the new sheep ; some they forced into the lakes and drowned, and the rest 
 they drove triumphantly to the edge of the county, there to be delivered 
 over to the mob of the next district, until they were expelled from the 
 Highlands, or had perished by the way. The laws of the country were 
 successfully appealed to ; the violence of the mob was suppressed ; and the 
 new system was left to feel its own way, and to stand or fall as it might 
 deserve. 
 
 It has weathered the storm, and is now the established system of hus- 
 bandry in most of the Highland districts. Sheep now cover the hills on 
 which the half-starved stot and goat formerly wandered. The deer-forests, 
 which had not then been intruded upon, — which were perfect deserts,^have 
 been brought under a certain degree of cultivation ; the mountains, which 
 were depastured for a few months and left waste for the rest of the year, 
 are now grazed all the year round ; and the low land, freed from that which 
 impoverished it, and which it could not support, yields plentifully for man and 
 beast The cattle, far from being banished, are somewhat reduced in num- 
 ber — improved in quality — fatter, and happiw— ^fully equal to the demand — 
 far more profitable to the breeder, and only confined to those pastures on 
 which sheep could not be safely fed. The population is certainly not so 
 numerous, but it is of a different character, — more intelligent, more indus- 
 trious, more respectable, more Useful ; and the remainder have either 
 sought employment in the south, or emigrated to America or some of the 
 British colonies. The value and the rent of the land is trebled — quadru- 
 pled ; and the tenant can pay it, which he could not before : while, in a 
 national point of view, the addition of food, the increased value of stock, 
 and the unprecedented supply of the raw- material for one of our most im- 
 portant manufactures, are circumstances of immense importance. 
 
 Having taken this cursory view of the change in the system of agricul- 
 ture, as It regards cattle, we can proceed more rapidly. 
 
 The native breed of Sutheriand is much smaller than that of Caithness 
 but far more valuable, and requiring oiily to be crossed by those from 
 Argute and Skye, to be equal to any that the northern Highlands can 
 ■ rt »- -T — r-y-. •". h- 'c~—.-:t=d that the Argyleshire cattle, in the. 
 
**> CAITLE. 
 
 possession of the Marquis of Stafford, at Dunrobin, have not been more 
 employed in im|)r()vlng the breed of the siirroundiiin: districts. The best 
 cattle are to be fuuiid in the neighbourhood of Duurobin and Skibo, on 
 the eastern coast ; and most of them are the pure Argyle or Skyes, or 
 crosses between the Sutherland cow and the West Highland bull. At 
 Skibo, in particular, a small breed is carefully preserved, which is much 
 sought after for its superior propensity to fatten; and although they 
 do not often weigh more than fifteen stones, their flesh is little inferior 
 to venison. Some of the Skibo cattle have been raised, in southern pastures, 
 to more than treble that weight. 
 
 Assynt, on the south-western coast, is celebrated for its cattle, of the 
 pure West Highland breed, or, if occasionally with one cross of the 
 native Sutherlands, not injured by that mixture. They are not larger 
 than the Skye cattle ; but they are hardier, short-legged, and well shaped^ 
 A great many other breeds have been tried, as'the Galloways, the Fifes, 
 the Banffs, and the improved Leice.sters; but none of them have answered 
 so well as the West Highlanders, or crosses between them and the natiyes> 
 
 Some of the little islands on the coast afford very good winter-pastur? 
 for the cattle. Oldney contains some valuable pasturage of this kind, 
 which is strictly preserved during the harvest, and on which the cattle are 
 turned some time in November, and gradually taken out to be housed in the 
 beginning of spring, or when they may appear to need provender. Some of 
 the cattle, however, are lost every year by attempting to climb to little 
 plots of grass among the rocks, with which the coasts of the islands 
 abound. 
 
 Very few cattle are fattened, but only got into good travelling condition 
 for the drover. The four-year-old improved slots will probably weigh 
 36 or 40 stones ; the country cattle not more than from 18 to 30 stones. 
 
 The manner of feeding is the same as in Caithness, and the shealings used 
 to be of the same kind. The sheep now have left but little upland 
 feed for this primitive pastoral life. In the winter most of the cattle 
 are housed at night, and fed with straw, and turned out into the fields 
 -during the day ; and, on the whole, although the system of stocking is 
 much to be complained of, the cattle are not subject to all the hardships 
 .which are so injurious to them in Caithness. When, however, it is consi- 
 dered that in many parts of Sutherland the cattle are not merely in the next 
 room to the owner, but actually enjoy the fire in common with the 
 family ; and then, in the morning, however cold or wet that may be, they 
 are driven out to wander in the fields, it does not admit of niuch doubt 
 that they must be seriously injured by the sudden transition. In the 
 neighbourhood of Dunrobin, they are not housed at all, not even the 
 calves after they have been-- weaned, nor the cows except at calving time. 
 
 Mr. Sellar gives the following account of the management of cattle on the 
 northern coast of Sutherland (Farmer's Series — Farm Reports, p. 75) :-^ 
 ' The grazing cattle are all bought- in from the people who are settled 
 round the sliores of Sutherland, in small lots of land, for the prosecution 
 of the herring- fishing. These people have one, two, or three cows each: 
 they sell the calves at from nine months to a year old. The tillage farmer 
 buys them, and prepares them to travel south. He purchases them in April, 
 JDuts them, during summer, on his superabundance of deer-hair, transfers 
 them, in August, to certain coarse rushy loams, where coarse grass grows ; 
 Wflgs them to his courtines to eat straw in winter, and finishes them off for 
 the Toad (luring next summer in the inclosures above-mentioned. With 
 . some little assistance from the field appropriated to the horses, the four 
 iields summer, on an average, one beast and a half per acre. It is tht 
 
THE ROSS AND CROMARTY BREED. M 
 
 practice to fall up two fields with three cattle per acre, and to shift thenn 
 once a fortnight.' The sales for the southern market take place iu July, 
 August, and September, and the fields are then cleared, in order to pre- 
 pare them for sowing wheat. 
 
 The dairy is a minor consideration with the Sutherland farmer ; and he 
 only manufactures butter and cheese enough for his own consumption. 
 The quantity produced will not exceed 70 lbs. of butter per year, and the 
 same quantity of cheese from each cow, and one calf reared between two 
 cows. This is a small quantity compared with what some of the southern 
 cows yield ; yet it is not often that the Sutherland dairyman gets so 
 much as this. 
 
 There is the same superstition among the peasantry as in the other 
 Hig'hland counties ; and when sometimes, as will naturally occur in so 
 barren a country, and under such absurd and injurious management, the 
 cow yields little milk, or becomes suddenly dry, Mr. Pennant, in hjs 
 ' Second Tour to Scotland,' tells us, that * when the good housewife 
 perceives the effects of the malicious one on any of her kine, she takes as 
 much milk as she can drain from the enchanted herd; for the witch gene- 
 rally leaves her very little. She then boils it with certain herbs, and adds 
 to them flints and tempered steel. This puts the witch in such agony, 
 that Sihe comes nilling-wiUing to the door, and begs to be admitted to 
 obtain relief, by touching the powerful pot : the good woman makes her 
 own terms; the witch restores the milk to the cattle, and is, in return, 
 freed from her pains.' 
 
 Oxen are employed to a considerable extent on the coast of Sutherland 
 for road'Work, and for the plough on niaiiy of the farms in the interior ; but 
 they are getting somewhat out of use : they are never shod. 
 
 ~ ROSS AND CaoMARTV. 
 
 These were originally distinct counties ; but Cromarty was so small, and 
 the additions that were made to it were in such detached portions, and so 
 scattered over Ross, that it is now, for the sake of convenience, and 
 almost of necessity, considered as amalgamated with Ross, and the two 
 constituting but one county. The climate, like that of most of the 
 Highland counties, is moist, but considerably warmer than that of Caith- 
 ness or Sutherland. The meadow-ground is of small extent, and usually 
 reserved for winter-feed for the cattle, and comparatively little of the 
 arable land is laid down for permaneat-pasture. The eastern part of Ross 
 and some portions of Cromarty contain excellent soil ; and not only the 
 wheat but the turnip husbandry is carried on extensively and succesKfiilly. 
 The system is more connected with sheep-feeding; than with either tlie 
 breeding or rearing of cattle. 
 
 For many excellent observations on the character and management of 
 the Ross cattle, we are indebted to Sir George Stewart Mackenzie's able 
 survey of that county and Cromarty. It is a model of wliat agricultural 
 surveys ought to be. 
 
 Ross may be divided into the low and high country : the former occu- 
 pies the eastern coast and district, and the latter the western part of the 
 county. The cattle which are kept in the lowlands are principally for the 
 dairy, and they are a mixed breed. There are many pure West High- 
 anders, but not so small as the common breed of ciittle in the counties far- 
 ther north, but there are more of the native cattle, with various degrees of 
 srossing; and others have the Fife and the. Moray, and crosses of .every 
 binJ ^vi**? ** ■•'". Th» dairv,. b"wp>^er. 1= not attended tO' for profit heie ; 
 
»* CATTLE. 
 
 but the farmer must have milk and butter and cheese, and he musi, also 
 have cattle to eat down the grass where he doe.i not dare to turn on his 
 sheep. The Leice&ters have been tried, but they did not answer for 
 breeding or for the dairy. There is a singular practice prevailing in Ross. 
 On some parts of the sea-coast the cheeses are buried separately within 
 the high-water-mark for several days, in order to give them a blue colour, 
 and a rich taste. 
 
 On the western coast the pure West Highlanders prevail, and this is de- 
 cidedly a breeding district. Next to the pure West Highlanders, is a cross 
 between them and the small, well-haired, hardy cattle of the country. 
 The best cow for the dairy is here supposed to be produced from that of 
 upper Fife, crossed with the true Highland bull : she will generally yield 
 four gallons of milk per day, — is easily fattened, and will weigh from 120 
 to 140 lbs. perquarter. They are a middle-sized, strong-, compact, hardy 
 race, well suited to the general means and climate of the country; but 
 they are very apt to degenerate, and, after the third or fourth generation, 
 will often be little better than the common country cattle. The cattle of 
 Kintail, called, on this account, Kintait no Bogh, Kintail of cows, are 
 celebrated all over the Highlands. Some say that they are the progenitors 
 of the Argyle breed ; but we are more inclined to trace them to the Skye 
 cattle, to which they bear great resemblance, and, like them, they are 
 smaller than the Argyles. Their distinguishing and favourable points 
 are, short legs, a thick pile, and weight in proportion to their apparent 
 size. In the neighbourhood of Kilmure there used to be a peculiar breed 
 of cattle, the result of a cross between the Fife or Aberdeen and the 
 Highlander, and a cross that added to the size and value of the beast. 
 
 Before cattle became so valuable in this district it was customary, as in 
 some other parts of the Highlands, to allow one calf to suck two cows. 
 The foster-mother was easily reconciled to it after it had been covered a 
 few times with the skin of her own that had been slaughtered ; but now 
 each cow rears her calf. The young ones are sutTered to suck for four, 
 five, or six months, according to the time at which they were dropped, — a 
 part of the milk being previously drawn for the dairy ; but the cow will 
 take care that too much shall not go, for, after the dairy-maid has wrung 
 the last drop she can extract, the mother has retained more than enough 
 for her offspring. The latest of them are weaned in the early part of 
 November ; and all are then sent to the best pasture until the winter 
 begins thoroughly to set in ; when they are housed, and fed, as the farm 
 will afford, on oat-straw and hay, 'to which turnips or potatoes, and 
 particularly the former, are occasionally added. On the following spring 
 they are sent to hill-pasture ; and in the winter are brought home to the 
 grounds which had been occupied by the milch-cows, and are fed, if 
 necessary, with straw and hay. Thence, in the spring, they are removed 
 o the coarser grass of the farm, and still occasionally fed, if needful ; 
 and on the approach of the third winter they once more follow the cows 
 in the reserved and best winter pasture of the farm. 
 
 The overstocking of the farm, although now sometimes to be com- 
 plained of, is not carried to the ruinous extent to which it used to be ; and 
 if the farmer has fewer cattle for the drover, they bring him more money : 
 they are at once fit for travelling, and he has escaped the serious losses 
 which used to annoy and cripple his predecessors. 
 
 The cattle are usually sold at three and a half and four years, and 
 drovers come from Perth, and Sterling, and Dumbarton, at the latter end 
 of March, to purchase them. The trysU and markets continue here until 
 September, when tJ<'. cowf come into request. So much business, how- 
 
THE ROSS-SHIRK BREKO. i)7 . 
 
 ever, is not done at these public meetinj^s as in some fither counties; out 
 the drovers go from farm to farm, anrl ihe sale is effected privately. 
 
 Mr. Bai^rie, who wrote the account of Ross-shire in No 18 of the 
 Farmer's Series, informs us that the first ref^ular market for the sale of the 
 north country cattle is the ' Stafford Market,' which is held at Clashmore, 
 in Sutherlandshire, on the Monday after the first Wednesday in May. 
 The second is held on the Tuesday following at Kildary in Ross-shire,, 
 and the third at the Muir of Ord, on the confines of Inverness and Ross-shire, 
 being the first of the series of great caltle-markels held monthly at the 
 latter place during the season. The cattle from all these early markets« 
 proceed to Cockhill. 
 
 The weight of the stot from three to five years old may be averaged 
 at 70 or 80 lbs. per quarter, but he will fatten to 110 lbs. The cow, 
 when lean, will weigh from 60 to 70 lbs. per quarter, and will likewise 
 fatten to 100 lbs. 
 
 Very few beasts are fattened in any part of Ross ; and the few that are 
 so consist of old oxen or cows, and principally for the supply of Inverness 
 and Fort St. George. For home consumption the West Highlanders are 
 preferred^ but the spare turnips are mostly used in bringing forward 
 young cattle. 
 
 Oxen were formerly more used for husbandry in the eastern part of the 
 county than they are at present. They were not reared in Ross, but 
 purchased at the different fairs in this county, or in Sutherland. Afler 
 some years' work they were generally sold to the grazier or the butcher 
 at a higher price than that at which they were bought. Where oxen are 
 now used generally there are four to a plough, or four oxen and two 
 horses. On a stiff and stony ground six oxen were occasionally used. 
 The four oxen cannot well go without a driver, but it is sometimes 
 attempted. The pair used for the harrow, on very light land, do not 
 require a driver. Curious stories were formerly told of the medley of 
 horses and oxen and cows harnessed to the ploughs of the small farmer. 
 Oxen are rarely used on the road. * 
 
 * Since this sketch of Ross-shire was sent to the press, we have been favoured with a 
 valuable account of the cattle of this district and their management, by Mr. Mackenzie of 
 Millbank, near Dingwall. It strongly corroborates our main points ; but at the same time 
 giving a different illustration of a. few particulars, we deem it right to present it to our 
 readers. 
 
 ' Although it is difHcult to trace the history or true pedigree of the old Ross-shire breed 
 of cattle, the various accounts that are handed down regarding it shew that it has long 
 existed as a separate and distinct one. The breed taken collectively, or as it may be termed 
 the north Highland breed, is exceedingly hardy and of very compact form. It is compara- 
 tively light in form, but the bone is fine, and the carcase is deep and lengthy, it is round 
 in the barrel, straight in the houghs and back, with a pile stronger and more closely laid 
 than that of almost any other breed. The head is generally light, with broad forehead, 
 short shaggy ears, and well-turned horns ; and they are of all colours, but black and 
 brindled predominate, and are the favourites, as indicating most constitution. 
 
 ' No description of cattle answers the soil and climate of Ross-shire so well as the original 
 north Highlanders ; but as a consideral)le part of the county is very highly cultivated, yxo- 
 ■lucing every variety of feeding, and fit for the reception of any kind of stock, several 
 crosses have been introduced, and some with advantage. Of these, n cross with the Aber- 
 deenshire horned cattle has produced very superior stock, both in point of symmetry and 
 weight, and for the use of the dairy. For the latter purpose, a cross with the Ayrshire is 
 often ibade; but that is found advantageous only in situations where there is great pro- 
 fusion of grass and turnips in their sea°un ; and the stock produced from it is coarse, and 
 not in demand either for feeding or driving. That which is most successfully followed 
 by the extensive breeders of the county, is a cross from the Arg»>''^ire Highlander, which 
 is of greater weight and size than the cattle of the north : \>\t in availing themselves oi 
 this cross, the Ross-shire breeders are always anxious to preserve as much as possible of 
 their owr etamp« because it is mure hardy, more suited to their pastures generally, and in 
 
98 CATTLK 
 
 THK NORTH-EASTERN DISTRICT. 
 
 This district extends along the eastern coast from Murray Firtli to the 
 Firth of Fortli, and there is a general resemblance between the cattle in 
 
 more general demand for driving to the south. There are a few graiiiers in Ross and In 
 vemess-shire who cross their cattle with superior bulls from the west Highlands of Pt-rth- 
 shire, which is found to answer equally as well as, if not better than, any other yet intro- 
 duced in that part of the country. 
 
 'The Ross-shire cattle, as already described, are decidedly more adapted for the grazmg 
 than the dairy system. The cows, particularly those pastured on hilly grounds, uutBeld 
 or meadow, are not famed for the quantity of their milk, although it is extremely rich 
 in quality ; and as there are comparatively but few cattle-farms now in the county, dairy, 
 pujduce does not form an article of export, or of which money is made. The produce of 
 an ordinary country cow may be computed, during five months of the year, at from five to 
 seven Scotch pints of milk per day, and from four to six pounds of butter, 'with rather more 
 than that quantity of cheese, in the week. 
 
 • Grazing, as the more profitable course, is -what is followed, and there being but little 
 encouragement for feeding, the cattle are chiefly sold to the southern dealers at two and 
 three years old; and such of them as have been kept for some time by the agricultural 
 farmers of the county, and brought to their full growth, are as fine animals as can be 
 produced anj where. It also very often happens that the breeders dispose of their young 
 stock to the graziers and farmers at the age of six quarters, there being many farms cal- 
 culated fur breeding that have not advantages for rearing, and vice verii. A well-bred 
 Ro!>$-shire bullock of three or four years old, when fully fed, will weigh twenty- five stones, of 
 twenty-one pounds Dutch ; but though it rarely brings a remunerating price to the feeder . 
 at home, the breed is reputed for quick feeding and for yielding more tallow in propor- 
 tion to size than most others, while it is ascertained that, when they arrive on the pas- 
 tures of the south, they compete in point of profit with any kind whatever. 
 
 ' Of all the cattle that are sent out of Ross-shire, those of the island of Lnoit (from whi^h 
 three thousand are annually exported) are most sought after for tht table, from the ftn^, 
 ness of their quaUty. Though of less size, and less prepossessing in appearance, than 
 most other cattle, their beef, which is always marbled is esteemed as beinj^ very supe- 
 lior ; and they are so hardy, that in driving even to the most southern parts of England 
 they rather improve than lose in condition, if properly attended to. 
 
 ' The system of managing a breeding stock of Highland cattle is simple, but very inte- 
 restmg, and a thorough knowledge of it, at the period when it was most extensively prac- 
 tised in Ross-shire, was confined to the natives of its pastoral districts, and formed their 
 peculiar element. This was about twenty or twenty-five years ago, when oiie-half of the 
 county was under black cattle, in farms carrying from twenty to sixty breeding cows, of 
 a stamp so equal as to be always distinguished at market. The principal and leading 
 points of management consist in particular attention to pedigree ; in a careful disposal of the' 
 stuck upon the farms ; and in the various arrangements connected with their food, whether 
 in stormg up the produce of the meadows, or in the appropriation of the pasturage to the 
 differentVasons, scrupulously reserving the roughest grasses and more sheltered portions, 
 for the fall of the year, when it is of great consequence to have the stock of Highland 
 fai ms kept in condition. 
 
 ' Tl.e establishment necessary for a breeding fold of cows is generally composed of an ex- 
 perienced principal herdsman, known by the name of the " Bowman," whose wife is head 
 dairy woman, with female assistants, at the rate of one to twenty cows, and herd-lads in 
 the same proportion, and some younger followers to tend the calves, during the intervals 
 of separation from their dams. It is customary, on extensive farms, to have " sheal' 
 bothies" erected at different stations, for the temporary accommodation. of such an esta- 
 blishment, when it is necessary to move the cows from place to place in order to give' 
 them the benefit of the whole grasses in due season ; and as undivided attention is be- 
 stowed on the charge, verj- superior stock is bred in this manner. The mode of learirig' 
 calves, under such management, is by suckling, and not by hand.feeding— that is, by- 
 allowing them to 9uck a certain portion of the milk at stated periods in the mornings and' 
 evenings. The common way is, to allow the calf to suck two teats, while the dairy-maid, 
 at the same time, milks the other two ; or else to allow the calf the use of the whole, at 
 the discretion of the dairymaid. Both calves and cows are found to thrive much better 
 in this way than by allowing them to run constantly together ; and besides, there is the ad- 
 vantage of so much extra dairy produce. This mode of haltsuckling prepares them likewise 
 Sw their wiuter^feeding; and the process of weaning generally takes place towards the end 
 uf. October. Having been weaned, the stirks, a.i they are then called, are put up for the 
 wtntet, generally lootM, in large byres, and fed on the finest of the meadow hay ; and as 
 fwuipo arejittti^'quiidtly grown to any extent on the large ]ia8toral farms of thg Hij;l» 
 
THE NAIRN BRKKD. 99 
 
 every part of it. Tliey evidently beiong to the West Highlanders, but the 
 ilifTerence of pasture has given them a larger form. We will commence 
 at the north, and proceed downwards. 
 
 NAIRN. 
 
 This is a small county lying between Inverness and Elgin, and having 
 the Murray Firth on the north. It does not contain many more than six 
 thousand cattle, and about double that number of sheep. Towards the 
 borders of Inverness some of the pure West Highlanders are found, but 
 mixed) on the lower grounds, with the Fife &nd with other varieties. 
 Formerly the whole of the husbandry work in this county was performed 
 by oxen, and then the object of the farmer was to obtain a stronger and 
 heavier breed than the native one, f)r the West Highlanders. That object 
 was, to a certain degree accomplished, but the b6ast became coarser, and did 
 not fatten so kindly, and even its qualities as a milker were not materially 
 improved. Very few pairs of oxen, however, are now seen, and the 
 farmers have gone back to the native and smaller, but more valuable and 
 profitable breed. The Isle of Skye bulls have been in much request, and 
 being crossed with the best cows, there are, in the higher parts of the 
 county, as fine specimens of Highland cattle as any part of Scotland will 
 produce ; the colour is not so uniform, but none of the good points or 
 qualities are lost. 
 
 Nairn is a breeding and rearing district. The early cattle, as they get 
 into tolerably good grazing condition, are sent to Banffshire, where the 
 fairs, in almost every village, succeed one another from the spring to the 
 
 lands, a run or outgo during the d<iy, on the roughest of the pasture, supplies their place. 
 The cows, after being separated from their calves, are sent to the portion of the farm that' 
 has been set apart for a general wintering ; but when calving time approaches, or when 
 the season is very severe, they are again brought near to the byre, fed from the barn, and* 
 treated with much care. The winter aud Spring bving past, the year-olds are generally 
 put upon low'lying haugh or woodland pasture, while the stronger part of the young stock 
 is sent to graze on the higher and more remote pendicles of the farm, to await a sale ; 
 special care being taken to select and retain such of them as are best calculated for sup- 
 plying the place of the draft of aged cows annually made from the fold, while as many 
 young bulls are kept as will atibrd a choice. 
 
 ' The breeding of cattle in Koss-ihire,however, has decreased very much, and the breed, 
 generally speaking, has become much deteriorated within the last twenty years, owing to 
 the rapid extension of sheep.farming. Sheep have, in fact, become the staple conitno» 
 dity of the North Highlands, and the system is attended with less expense, and afibrds, 
 perhaps, a more certain return than any other to the oocupier of the land. But although 
 the greater part of the pastoral districts of Ross-shire is best adapted for sheep, it is the 
 opinion of many persons of experience, that, from the almost universal breeding- of that 
 species of stock, cattle would pay fully as well in situations where equal justice as to 
 keeping could be afforded in winter as in summer. So great is the preference given to 
 sheep now i» Koss-shire, that the breeding of Jine cattle is almost entirely confined to tha 
 amateur proprietor, and a few tenants, who still maintain opinions difiering from those 
 of the shepherdtt, who have acqi lired by far the greatest part of the lainds. Still the num- 
 ber of cattle, of all descriptions, bred within the county is very considerable^ but though the 
 greater proportion of them are of the native breed, they have become diminutive, from 
 there being but little reservation of hill-grotind made in nieir favour, and from being ton- 
 iequently excluded from the pastures that produce most bone and ooAstituiion. The sys- 
 tem of throwing several cattle-farms iido one sheep-walk has limited the breeding of 
 cattle generally to tenants of small holdings, in the least favoured situations, and to cottara 
 placed either along the shores, or on the outskirts of the larger tenements ; and from 
 wanting good bulls in such situations, joined to other disadftntages, the breed, though i» 
 '■tains the original character, has greatly taWen off. 
 
 ' Upon the whole, therefore, there is at present a great decrease and a general deterVra 
 tion in Rots-shire cattle ; but many of a superior descniption. are still bred K> the connty 
 irhiSs the graater Dumbor of the whole are of the original stamp,' 
 
100 
 
 CATTLE. 
 
 autumn. Tlie small fanners adopt the same system of i rerstocking and 
 false economy which we have so often reprobated, and their cattle are 
 seldom got into condition before the autumn, when they are disposed of 
 in the same manner, 
 
 , The dairy used to be sadly neglected in Nairn, and even now it is 
 regarded as an object of only secondary importance. The Rev. Mr. Leslie 
 gives a curious illustration of the extent to which this neglect was carried ; 
 he tells us that considerable quantities of butter and cheese are brought 
 from Banffshire, and even from Cheshire and Gloucester ; and that, so 
 late as 1770, on many farms along the coast, no better way of making 
 butter was known than by a woman whisking about the cream, with her 
 naked arm, in an iron pot. 
 
 Kl GIN, OR MORAY. 
 
 The Elgin breed of cattle is undoubtedly the Kyloe improved, or, rather, 
 raised in size by good keeping, and crossing with Aberdeenshire horned 
 bulls, and by the great number of Buchan cows brought over as milch cows. 
 They are of an intermediate size between the Aberdeens and Kyloes, a 
 hardy breed, more adapted for grazing than for the dairy, affording beef 
 of the finest quality, but scarcely of the size that would be desirable. 
 
 Mr. Wagstaff informs us that some short-horned bulls have been lately 
 introduced, with a view to the production of an animal that will attain a 
 greater weight. There has not, however, been time to ascertain the result 
 of the experiment, but a previous cross with the Galloways did not answer 
 the expectations of those who tried it. The cross with the short-horns, if 
 it succeeds, will effect two very important objects, and in which the High- 
 landers are deficient, — increase of weight, and earliness of ripening. 
 According to Mr. Deuchar, by whom we have been favoured with some 
 valuable remarks, the Moray or Elgin cattle have more of the Aberdeen 
 about them than of the Kyloe; but they are neater and more compact 
 than the Aberdeens, and have of late greatly improved in consequence of 
 the premiums given for breeding stock by the Morayshire Farming Club 
 and the Highland Society. 
 
 Very few are full fed in their native district, being too far distant from 
 the large markets. A four-year-old, stalled in winter and fed on straw 
 and turnips, will average about 45 stones. Some oxen that have been 
 worked until seven or eight years ild, have weighed 70 or 80 stones. 
 Very few, however, are brought to perfection in Moray ; but after having^ 
 been stalled during the winter, or put into a straw-yard, and fed on 
 straw, with as many turnips as will keep them in tolerable condition and • 
 fresh for grass, they are generally sold to the Aberdeen and Angusshire " 
 graziers in the spring, as soon as the grass is ready. Several cattle have 
 been recently full-fed in the neighbourhood of Elgin, particularly by Mr. 
 Peter Brown, of Linleswood, and conveyed to Smithfield by steam- 
 vessels from Aberdeen. Steam navigation will probably, ere long, effect 
 a material alteration in the system of breeding and feeding in the niari-' 
 time counties of the west £ind north-east of Scotland. ' 
 
 The C9.1ves are suffered to suck until they are weaned. In winter they 
 are kept in the straw-yard, and fed on straw or turnips, and in the spring 
 urned to grass. The queys are not allowed to have calves until they are 
 three years-old, and are fed off at six or seven. 
 
 The straw-yard, with .he same quantity of straw and turnips, is, in this 
 distHct, tho'jght to be preferable to stall-feeding. The cattle-dealers 
 anagine tha- the beasTa stand the road better, and especially in case of bad 
 
THE BANFF BRiED. 101 
 
 weather happening when drivinir south. The dealers also complain of the 
 crosses with the Galloway and short-horn, the progeny not being sufRcieiitly 
 hardy to drive to the distant markets. 
 
 Sir John Sinclair, in his general report of Scotland, computes the 
 number of cattle in Elgin at 16,900. There are, probably, not so many 
 at present, more of the land having been enclosed and submitted to the 
 plough. 
 
 BANFF. 
 
 This county, lying between Elgin and Aberdeen, contains nearly 25,000 
 cattle, the ancient and still preponderating breed of which is the Aberdeen- 
 shire horned, the qualities of which are well known to, and appreciated 
 by graziers from the Firth of Moray to Smithfield. The Banffshire cattle 
 are somewhat smaller, however, than the Aberdeens, and of finer 
 symmetry. 
 
 Very few true specimens of that hardy and valuable breed, the old 
 Banffshire cattle, are now to be met with, except in some of the upper 
 districts of the county ; and even these, from the shortness of keep and 
 the want of turnips, in winter are considerably stinted in their growth. 
 Mr. Tait, veterinary-surgeon at Portsoy, to whom we return our thanks 
 for some valuable information, says, that * Any of the old breed that are 
 to be seen in the better cultivated districts are very handsome animals;, 
 for the most part with tine springing white horns with black points, fine 
 small heads, but broad between the eyes, and with short clean muzzles. 
 They are short in the legs, clean in the bone, and the flesh well down 
 upon the legs. The body is rather long, the ribs round, and the back 
 broad and straight ; the colour, for the most part, black or brindled, 
 party-colours being rarely met with in the native breed. They are hardy, 
 superior travellers, and at four years old will weigh from 50 to 60 stones.' 
 
 The cows are not celebrated for the quantity of milk that they yield, 
 but it is usually of very superior quality. From three to five gallons of 
 milk may be reckoned the average produce on good pasture and in the 
 prime of the season. 
 
 Banff is principally a breeding country ; a few oxen only are worked 
 in the upper part of the district* ; on the coast some cattle are pre- 
 pared fur the Mearus and Aberdeen markets: most of them are sold 
 half fat; but a few are finished off with turnips and hay. Mr. Mill,i 
 tenant of Mill of Byndie, near Banff, feeds a considerable number of 
 beasts full-fat, which he sends to Smithfield by the smacks from Portsoy 
 and Banff, and by the Aberdeen steam-vessels. There are some good 
 artificial pastures about the coast, but in the upper part of the country 
 there is little beside the natural herbage, and that not often improved 
 by manure. Banffshire is indebted to Lord Findlater for the greater 
 part of the improvements that have taken place- in that district. When 
 his Lordship first took up his residence in Banff Castle, about the year 
 1753, there were no roads, no turnips or potatoes reared, in the field, 
 no grass-seed sown, and no incloSure made, except about the mansions 
 of a few of the proprietors. He first took into his own possession one 
 of his farms (Craigherbs) near Banff Castle, and fallowed and limed 
 it, and laid down part of it in turnips, and part of it in grass-seeds. He 
 sent the sons of some of the farmers to study agriculture. As soon as the 
 iease was expired, he commenced the management of another of his farms ; 
 
 * The old Banff plough used to be drawn by six, or eight, or ten oxen or by oxen and 
 eowg intermingled, oi by oxen and horses. The black cattle were usually ought in about 
 Wbitiuntide and sold again in the autumn. 
 
'02 CATTLE. 
 
 he raised beller and constant food for the cattle, he inftproved the breetf 
 by crosses from the best of his own stock and the neighbouring districts, 
 and the agriculture of Banffshire, about the lowland part of the country 
 is now equal to any in Scotland. The local Agricultural Society has also 
 been of great service in carrying on the work of improvement ; and the 
 facilities afforded by steam passage will, in Banffthire, as in all the coun- 
 ties on the coast, give an additional stimulus to improvement, and effect 
 a rapid change both in the breeditig and management of cattle. 
 
 The lowland farmers sometimes buy young cattle at two years old 
 from the small upland farmers, and sell them again at three years. 
 Their food in the winter is almost entirely straw and turnips, a little hay 
 being added for the cows that have calved The cattle of the lower districts 
 of Banffshire are of a medium si^e, between those of the native Highlands 
 and the better fed ones of Kincardine *. Mr. M'Pherson, factor to the 
 Duke of Gordon, infbrms us, that about thirty years ago the Galloway 
 breed of cattle was introduced into this districtt and has increased so muclr, 
 that it now forms a large portion of the heavy stock ; some of the Buchan 
 cattle, also polled, but a distinct breed, appear in some of the districts of 
 Banff; they are devoted to the purposes of the dairy. Many of the 
 farmers crossed the Banff with the ppUed breed of Aberdeen, in order to 
 obtain greater weight, and which was warranted by the superior system of 
 husbandry that has lately been adopted in the greater part of the county ; 
 and they also reckoned, but not with so much reason, on the early maturity 
 of this cross. Others, and at the head of them stands Mr. Milne of Mill 
 Boyndie, and to whom also we owe much obligation, has all his cows of 
 the Banff breed, crossed with the Isle of Skye bull. Mr. Milne considers 
 this to be the most valuable stock that the country produces. 
 
 A few Ayrshire and Teeswater beasts are likewise also seen. A short- 
 horned bull was lately introduced by Mr. Wilson, of Brangan, whose stock 
 is promising. There is much prejudice against the short-horns at present 
 in Banffshire. It is supposed that the keep of this district can never be 
 good enough for them, and that the greater price, in proportion to their 
 weight, fetched by the native stock, would yield greater profit to the farmer 
 than he could obtain from a heavier and more expensively fed beast. 
 To a great degree this is an unfounded prejudice ; and we have no doubt 
 that in Banffshire, as everywhere else, the short-horn, cautiously and 
 judiciously introduced, will ultimately have justice done to him. 
 
 Much injury is supposed to have been done to the Banffshire breed of 
 cattle by the attempted introduction of the long- horns, forty or fifty years 
 ago. A cross with these, and especially when persisted in, produced an 
 ill-framed, unshapely animal, in which every good quality of the progenitors 
 ■was lost. Among the most intelligent and successful breeders in Banff- 
 shire we may reckon Mr: Gordon of Laggan, Mr. Gauld of Edinglassie, 
 and the late Rev. A. Milne of Boyndie. 
 
 Although horse-ploughing has superseded ox-labour, the number of 
 cattle in Banffshire has materially increased since the establishment of the 
 system of winter feeding. 
 
 ABERDEENSHIRE. 
 
 This extensive county, breeding or grazing more cattle than any other 
 district of Scotland, will require particular attention. The number of 
 ♦ Mr. Ballingall, in hi* Statistical Account of Forglen, says, in 1795, that ' on tna 
 y/aterside, the cattle, bv the richness of the pasture, are of a large »\te. One tenant in 
 ^agtiide ^ad a plough of eight oxen, which would, in most seasons, hate been good beef 
 from the yoke, and would have weighed from fifty to seventy stones, at an average, and, 
 if full-fed from seventy to ninety, and some seemed «ze enough to carry one hunted.' 
 
THE ABKKDKENSHIRE BKEEU. 103 
 
 cattle in Aberdeenshire lias been calculated at 110,000, at' wbivli more 
 than 20,000 are either slaughtered, or sold to the graziers every year. 
 
 The soil and climate are very dilierent in the hilly country towards 
 the south-west, burdening on Forfar, Perth, ^.nd Inverness, and in the 
 lowlands skirtinig the sea. There is better natural, pasture on the hills 
 than the Highlands usually afford, except upon the very ridges of the 
 Grampians, while the mellow clayey soil in the lower parts yield abundant 
 crops. The climate on the hills is cold enough, and especially when the 
 wind blows from the north-east ; but in the lowlands there is a mildness 
 and an equality of temperature, scarcely exceeded in the south-eastern 
 parts of England. Storms from the north and the east, however, some 
 times do considerable injury, and especially in the district of Buchau, and 
 when the crops are in bloom. 
 
 The character of the cattle varies with that of the country. Towards 
 the interior, and on the hills, formerly occupying the whole of that dis- 
 trict, and still existing in considerable numbers, is the native unmixed 
 Highland breed. It is suited to its locality: hardy but not docile ; living 
 and thriving, to a certain extent, on its scanty fare ; and at four years-old, 
 and when it was thought to be prepared for the dea1ers,'weighing, probably, 
 not more than 3i^c7/t. ; but with a disposition to grow to the full extent of 
 which its natural form is capable when conveyed to the richer pasture of 
 the south. 
 
 This breed, however, would be out of its place in the milder climate 
 and more productive soil of the lower district of Aberdeen ; another kind 
 of cattle was therefore gradually raised, the precise origin of which it is 
 difficult to describe. 
 
 It was first attempted, as in the districts that we have already surveyed, 
 by judicious selections from the native breed, and some increase of size 
 was obtained, but not suffieient for the pasture. Some spirited individuals 
 then sent far south, and the Lancashire long-horn was introduced, and 
 the short-horned Durham was tried; but either they did not amalga- 
 mate with the native breed, or a species of cattle was produced too large 
 for the soil. . 
 
 There were, however, some splendid exceptions to this, and we are 
 glad that we can present our readers with a portrait of one of them in 
 two stages of his preparation for the market. — (See p. 104 and 10.5.) 
 
 This beautiful animal was bred by Lord Kintore from an Aberdeenshire 
 jow and a Teeswater bull. We are indebted to his lord-ship for the chief 
 materials of our history of him. He was calved in April, 1837, and from 
 the Michaelmas of that year he was tied up in the house, according to the 
 practice of the country, with the other calves. He got turnips, with clover, 
 hay, and straw alternately twice a day, They were the Norfolk globe 
 turnips^ which are not considered so nutritious as the Aberdeen yellow } 
 and four or five ounces of salt were given him daily. 
 
 In 1828 be was at pasture from the 1st of May to the 20th of October, 
 and was then put into a straw-yard with sheds, getting about fire pounds 
 of oil-cake daily, with plenty of water and hay and straw, until the 10th of 
 May, 1829, when he again was sent to pasture until the middle' of Oc» 
 tober. He then g,ot a limited quantity of Aberdeen yellow turnips in 
 the house, as Lord Kintore did not then intend to have him fed o£P. He 
 went out almost daily for w^ter and exercise uintU the 1st of Aprils 1830, 
 wben he was again put into the straw-yard until the middle of May,, getting 
 about six pounds and a half of oil-cake daily, witlib the usual qiiaatity of 
 hay and straw. 
 
 He was afterwards at pasture until the 8th of October, and was treated in 
 
104 CATTLE. 
 
 the winter as before, with the addition of oil-cake for about ten days, previous 
 to his being again turned out to grass, which was on the 15th of May, 1831. 
 
 From the latter end of June until the close of August he was talsen in 
 the house during the day, where he»got cut grass, and was turned out at 
 night ; and from that time until the 2l8t of September he was again tied up, 
 getting hay and turnips until the 6th of October, when he left Keith alL 
 and was sent by the steamer to London. His weight miight have been con- 
 siderably increased had he been full fed from tlie first, but he was ow a 
 very fine animal, as the cut, from a portrait of him by Cooper, very kindly 
 lent to us by Mr. Combe, will sufficiently show. He was now supposed 
 to weigh 100 stones imperial weight, or 175 stones Smithfield weight. 
 
 I^TSe Ktntore Ox, when he was first sent to the South — o Cross lietmeen the Aberdeen 
 and the Improved Short-horn.'\ 
 
 He was consigned to the care of Lord Kintore's friend, Mr. Harvey 
 Combe, who was to use his own discretion whether he would exhibit him 
 at the next Smithfield cattle-show, and compete for a prize among tlie 
 extra stock, or whether he would keep him another year, and try for the 
 first prize. Mr. Combe decided, and very judiciously, to give him ano- 
 ther year's feeding. He was accordingly taken down to that gentleman's 
 estate at Cobham ; and from October to April was fed upon Swedish 
 turnips and hay, with about six pounds of oil-cake daily, and during the 
 spring and summer he had cut grass and oatmeal. He was let out daily 
 for exercise, and his greatest pleasure seemed to be to go among the cows 
 as they came into the yard, and talk to them. He was exceedingly 
 docile. Whoever approached him or handled him he scarcely moved, 
 except that he would not suffer the man who was once compelled to bleed 
 him to come near him for a week. 
 
 In September he commenced oil-cake and hay, eating about twelve 
 pounds daily of the former, until he was sent to Smithfield. During the 
 last two months he had a lump of rock salt in his manger, of which he 
 was particularly fond. A basket of earth also stood by him, of which he 
 occasionally ate a considerable quantity, and which, operated as a gentle 
 purgative. 
 
THE ABERDEENSHIRE BREED. 
 
 iO» 
 
 The following cut, taken from a painting by the same artist, containi 
 in accurate portrait of him just before he was sent to the Shew. 
 
 [7»e Kinlore Oje,fatled.\ 
 
 He was supposed now to weigh more than 180 stones imperial weig'nt, 
 and nearly, or quite, 320 stones Smithfield weight. He was universally 
 admired, particularly his still beautiful symmetry, the equable manner 
 in which the fat was laid upon him, and his almost perfect levelness from 
 the shoulder to the tail. 
 
 In the mean time the regulations of the Smithfield club with regard 
 to the age of cattle had been altered, and this noble animal was now a 
 year too old, and consequently could not compete for any prize. This 
 was a serious mortification both to Lord Kintore (from whom the animal 
 was very properly called the Kintore Ox) and to Mr. Combe. This gen- 
 tleman, however, was bid 757. for him; but as Lord Kintore had ano- 
 ther beast at Keith Hall a year younger, and nearly as good, he deter- 
 mined to have him sent down to Scotland again, in order that he might 
 exhibit them both at the next Highland Society cattle show at Aberdeen. 
 Lord Kintore is a great advocate for one cross of the Teeswater with the 
 Aberdeen, This animal was a sufficient proof of what may be effected 
 by it ; but they rapidly degenerate if the cross is further pursued. The 
 convenience of carriage, now afforded by the introduction of steam, 
 will probably tempt many of the northern breeders to try this first cross. 
 
 In the attempt permanently to improve the Aberdeen cattle, all the 
 southern Counties of Scotland were occasionally resorted to, but with 
 doubtful success, until at length the breeders directed their attention nearer 
 nome. The Fife, or Falkland breed, possessed enough of the old cattle to 
 Did fair to mingle and be identified with the natives, while the bones Were 
 smaller, the limbs cleaner, and yet short ; the carcase fairly round, and 
 the hips wide, and they were superior in size, hardy, and docile, and 
 excellent at work, and good milkers. These were desirable qualities, and 
 particularly as mingling with the Highland breed. Accordingly bulls 
 from Fife were introduced into Aberdeen, and the progeny so fully 
 answered the expectation of the breeder as to be generally adopted, and 
 to become the ioundation or origin of what is now regarded as the Abev* 
 deenshire native breed 
 
106 
 
 CATTLB. 
 
 The lioms do not taper so finely, nor stand so mach upwardu as in the West 
 Highlanders, and they are also whiter; the hair is shorter and thinner; 
 tlie ribs cannot be said to be flat, but the chest is deeper in proportion to 
 the circumference ; and the buttock and thighs are likewise thinner. The 
 colour is usually black, but sometimes brindled : they are heavier in car- 
 case ; they give a larger quantity of milk ; but they do not attain matu- 
 rity so early as the West Highlanders, nor is their flesh quite so beauti- 
 fully marbled : yet, at a proper age, thejr fatten as readily as the others, 
 not only on good pasture, but on that which is somewhat inferior. Mr. 
 James Rennie,' of Fantassie, used to prefer them as faiteners to any of 
 the Scotch cattle Mr. Walker, of Wester Fintray, on the banks of the 
 Don, has some very fine specimens of the pure Aberdeenshire breed. They 
 are perfectly docile, and sufficiently hardy iibr any climate to which they are 
 likely to be transplanted. They are now rarely used for husbandry work, 
 or, if they are, it is only for one year. At four years old they are usually 
 sent to grass for six months, after which they will weigh from 5 to 
 6 cwt. In the fertile districts -of the low country, aboundift'g with sum- 
 mer pasture and winter food, they usually reach at their full growth from 
 fifty to seventy stones Dutch ; and have been frequently known ,to feed from 
 fifteen to sixteen hundred pounds. The breed has progressively improved, 
 and that by judicious selections from this native stock. It has increased 
 in size, and become nearly double its original weight, without losing its 
 propensity to fatten, and without growing above its keep. The alteration 
 and improvement in agriculture, and the introduction of turnip-husbandry, 
 have contributed to effect this. Mr. Leith of Wliitehaugfa, and Mr. Canrine 
 of Auchery, very much contributed to the improvement of the Aberdeen 
 shire cattle. The breed of the former gentleman was remarkable, not 
 :mly for their increased size, and the perfection of some of their points, 
 but for being more than usually well horned ; the cows of Mr. Gamine 
 yielded from six to ten Scots pints of milk, instead of four pints> which 
 irere considered to be the average produce of a tolerable cow. 
 
 [rAe Abetdnmhire 0*.\ 
 
 Beside tlieae there is a breed of "oH"'? oaM'ps**''' by some to be different 
 from the Galloways, and to hav 
 
THE ABERIJBSNSHtRE BREED. ;]«; 
 
 biiWever, ^ith ^eater reason, consider them as the Galloways inliodiiiied 
 about thirty years ago, and somewhat changed by change ot'ulimate and soil. 
 They are of a larger size than the horned, although not so handsome. Ot. 
 late they have been much improTed by careful selection from the best of 
 their own stock, and are becoming more numerous. In some districts they 
 are equal, to or are superseding the horned breed. They usually equal 
 in weight the larger varieties of the horned breedj but the quality of 
 their meat is said to be inferior. As they are in a measure occupying 
 the situation of the larger horned cattle, these, in their turn, are intruding 
 on the cattle of the hill country ; there they rapidly diminish in size: hence 
 we have the small Aberdeetis of the hills, weighing from twenty to thirty 
 stones, and contending with and gradually displacing the Highland breed. 
 
 The Buchan cattle constitute a useful variety of Aberdeenshire cattle with 
 some, peculiarities of form and properties. Mr. R. Crray thus describes 
 them in the ' Quarterly Journal ot Agriculture:' — 'The cattle in Buchan 
 are chiefly af the short-horned kind,' (he means comparatively short, and 
 he thus speaks of them in opposition to the long horns,) 'not very large, 
 but short-legged and hardy. The best sort used to be polled *, and some 
 of them, that do not begin to have the Ayrshire blood in them, are so still, 
 ami are of a dark or brown colour. The oreed of cattle in Buchan is peculiar 
 to that part of the country, and deservedly esteemed fur its milking quality, 
 and the beef it produces. From the great extent of grass lands in Buchan 
 more cattle are produced in it than in most other districts. They are gene- 
 rally bought by dealers from the south when two, tliree, and four years old, 
 and at the latter age they weigh from fifty to sixty stones. The cows of 
 Buchan are not large, but, on account of the excellent quality of the pasture, 
 ttiey yield a considerable quantity of milk, from the cream of which butter 
 is made to a great extent, and of excellent quality,' 
 
 Notwithstanding their small size, they will yield ftwm three to four, 
 and sometimes seven gallons of milk per day. They are fed principally 
 with oat-straw in the winter, but they sometimes get plotted hay, or hay 
 on which boiling water has been poured. It used to be the practice in 
 the neighbourhood of Peterhead to give them green kale in April, which 
 is sown in the preceding spring, transplanted in June or July, stands 
 the winter belter than turnips, and vegetates strongly in April. By 
 adopting this plan, the dreadful interval for the farmer between the winter 
 and summer feed was in a great measure filled up. 
 
 ' In the course of the year there are nearly .fifty markets held in this 
 district for the sale of cattle, and the amount of the sales at Aiky fair 
 may be estimated at upwards of 12,000/. annually.' If we reckon that 
 one^fourth of the Buchan cattle are sold at this fair, we shall have 50,000/. 
 as the annual value of the beasts that are drafted from this district ; and, 
 calculating this district at not quite a fourth of the superficial extent of 
 the county, yet containing a considerable portion of the richer soil, we 
 •nay fairly conclude that 15[0,P00/, are brought into the county by the sale 
 of black cattle alone t- 
 
 * Mr. M<Pherson says, that ' a variety of the polled calttlen the principal breed in tht 
 Buchan district of Aberdeenshire.' The native, or Buchan cattht, were probably polled, 
 and the homed ones are a mixed breed, between the natives and' the Ayrshire : they ar« 
 out so hardy as the common Aberdeenshire cattle, and do not fatten so speedily. 
 
 t The vahie of those slaughtered Sir home consumption should be added ; and which 
 areabout 10,000, at 10/.i>er head, yielding 100,000/.; so that the tatalvalueof Aberdeen- 
 shire cattle annually sold or killed will be 250,000/. Dr. Keith, in his ' Snrvey of Aber- 
 deenshiiv,' has given a very laboured account of the value of the cattle stocl^ and which 
 may be interesting to the reader, since some of the principal markets for the sale of cattle 
 ini in this county, and it contains nearly double the number of beasts thai are to b« 
 
108 CATTLE. 
 
 A fourth variety consists o a . tne pure breeds from the north of Eng'*' 
 land and the south of Scotland. The Holderness has been once more 
 attempted to be introduced, but with no marked success. The Ayrshire 
 Cattle do well wherever they go if the soil is not too barren, or the climate 
 too severe ; but it must require a considerable alteration in the system of 
 husbandry to make Aberdeen, generally, a decidedly dairy county. In the 
 estimation of the Aberdeenshire farmers, no breed answers so well as the 
 native one of the district ; and certainly no cattle will fetch so good a price 
 among the drovers at Old Deer or Aiky fairs, or be so readily sold again 
 to the English graziers, who fatten them for the Smithfield market. The 
 present Duke of Gordon, 1o whom we are indebted for many facilities' in 
 acquiring a knowledge of the Aberdeen cattle, has been foremost in the 
 attempt to improve the breed of this district. His bulls and cows from Gal- 
 loway, Argyleshire, the Scottish islands, and Durham, were the best that 
 could be procured, while his selections from the native breed were most 
 judicious ; and although the cuttle retain much of their original cha- 
 racter, they have been considerably improved, while a spirit of emulation 
 has been excited which cannot tail to be useful. 
 
 fuuiid in any other county except Perth. His calculation was mads in 1810. He sup- 
 noses that there are 
 
 28,000 cows at 7/. each, value .... £196,000 
 
 22,000 calves are reared at 2/. .... 44,000 
 
 20,000 year-olds at 3/. 15s. ..... 75,000 
 
 19,000 two-year olds at 7/. 10». .... 142,500 
 
 21,000three-yearsandupwards, at 12/. 10<. . . . 262,500 
 
 llO.OOOtotalnumber, and in value . . £720,000 
 
 To this he adds from the records of Aberdeen, 
 3680 beasts slaughtered in the city : 
 
 Of that number there are 300 at £30 ... £ 9000 
 
 „ „ 600 at 25 , . . 15,000 
 
 . 16,000 
 
 . 12,800 
 
 . 10,000 
 
 . 3,800 
 
 . 3,400 
 
 
 800 at 20 
 
 
 800 at 16 
 
 Of inferior cattle 
 
 800 at 12 10.. 
 
 Of cows 
 
 380 at 10 
 
 Calves 
 
 1621 worth at least 
 
 Total killed in Aberdeen 5301 . . . Value £70,000 
 
 Killed in Peterhead, Tarriff, and other smaller towns, about the same 
 number, but chiefly cows and other inferior cattle, und the value 
 about 6/. each ...... 30,000 
 
 Sold to dealers 12,000 at 12/. 10«. . . . 150 000 
 
 Value of those which are killed or sold . . . 250,000 
 
 Value of stock as above ..... 720,000 
 
 Total value of Aberdeenshire Cattle . . . £970,000, 
 
 or nearly five times the annual rent, and a fourth part of the whole annual produce and 
 agricultural property of every kind. 
 
 A writer in the Farmer's Magazine (1807) gives a cunous and interesting .account 
 of the prices of husbandry stock in this district in the year 1747. He obtained it from a 
 venerable old farmer in the eighty-ninth year of his age. < On the death of his father he 
 was compelled to go to service, and the highest wages he ever obtained were 16*. Sd. in the 
 half-year. In 1731 he' a^eed with a lauded proprietor to cut a ditch through a piece of 
 mossy ground, ten feet wide at top, six at bottom, and six feet deep, for two-thirds of a 
 penny sterling per ell, and while thus employed he paid 13d. per week for his hoard. 
 By persevering in a course of honest industry and frugality, h^ found his stock, in 
 1747, increased to 50/. sterling, with which he purchased eight oxen, all under six years 
 of age, three cows, three horses, four one-year-uld stots and queys, furnished his house, 
 purchased ploughs, harrows, &c., paid the expense of his marriage, servants' nagt-s, and 
 other incidents, and at Lammas 1748, when he began to harvest his first crop, he was nut 
 due a peimy to the world.' 
 
THE ABERDEENSHIRE BREED. tO'J 
 
 Anderson says that Mr. Farquharson, of Invercaiild, has a breed of 
 Highland beasts once crossed with the Falkland or Fife (which, although 
 tolerable cattle, are by no means valued for their milk), yet the descend- 
 ants of these afford a large quantity of milk in proportion to their size, 
 and which is also of a very rich quality. One of these smell cows will 
 yield during the season four gallons and a half of milk in the day, the 
 cream of which being separated and churned will aiford 1 lb. 10 or 12 oz. 
 weight of butter. 
 
 Many cattle are grazed in Aberdeen that are not bred there. The 
 farmer begins to purchase them as soon as the grass springs up, and they 
 are sold oflT as the year advances. Some, however, are continued until 
 January, and are fed in the stalls on turnips and hay, and then driven to 
 Aberdeen, and sold. 
 
 There is nothing peculiar in the rearing of the calf, or the system 
 of fattening the grown beast. The general practice is to feed the calves 
 with milk warm from the cow ; but they are sometimes allowed to 
 suck until they are weaned, and, in a few instances, they are reared partly 
 on oil-cakes. Formerly, however, the calves were permitted to go at 
 large through the fields during summer, and pick up the grass at the 
 roots of the corn. The practice was occasioned by the want of proper 
 food and enclosures, and the fear of the calves being injured by being 
 confined with the large cattle in the fold ; but it was attended by much 
 damage to the corn from their lying upon it and trampling it down, v/hile 
 the calves acquired so restless a habit, that it was afterwards impossible 
 to confine them, except by the strongest and almost impenetrable fences. 
 The cattle are pastured in the fields in summer, and fed with straw 
 and turnips in winter, and sometimes with steamed potatoes, and a portion 
 of clover hay*. 
 
 Little butter or cheese is sent out of the county except in the district 
 of Buchan ; the rest is cousumed by the farmers or the inhabitants of 
 the towns. The Buchan cows have been stated to be good milkers ; and 
 those along the coast answer tolerably for the dairy. 
 
 Dr. Keith has formed a curious computation of the value of the milk, 
 butter, and cheese yielded by them. 
 
 1000 best cows, in the neighbourhood of some town, and prin- 
 cipally of Aberdeen, yield butter and cheese to the 
 value of 20i. each, oi . . . ^£20,000 
 
 2000 at 15Z. each .... 30,000 
 
 5000 at 10/. each . ... 50,000 
 
 10,000 farmers' cows at SI. each . . . SO.OOO 
 
 5000 of cottagers' or villagers" at 6/. each . . . 30,000 
 
 5000 small Highland cows at 4Z. each . . 20,000 
 
 28.000 as already stated, and value of their produce oC230,000t 
 
 * Mr. Gordon, in his answers to certain queries circulated by the Board of Agricul. 
 tnre, relates a singular instance of fecundity and early maturity in the Aberdeen 
 cattle : — ' On the 25th of September, 1 805, a calf of five months old, of the small Aber- 
 deenshire breed, happening to be put into an enclosure among other cattle, admitted a 
 male that was only one year old. In the month of June following, at the age of fourteen 
 months, she brought forth a very fine calf, and in the summer of 1807, another equally 
 good. The first calf, after working in the winter, spring and summer of 1809, was 
 killed in January, 1810, and weighed 6cwt. 3qrs. 161b. The second was killed Dec. 16, 
 1810, aged three years, six months, and weighed exactly 7cwt ; and on December 30, 
 1807, the mother, after having brought up these calves, was killed at the age of two 
 veats and eight months, and weighed 4 cwt. 1 qr. the four quarters, sinking the oiFal. 
 ' + The Statistical Account, describing the parish of -Udny, states that, in 1791, the cows 
 in the neighbourhood of Aberdeen yieldedfroin six to ten Scotch pints of milk (from thret 
 
no CA'ITMS 
 
 The horse has nearly superseded the ox for husbandry laoour. At a 
 iitlle more than half a century ago oxen were used alinost exclusively f6r 
 .the plough. Ten or twelve were often yoked together; but they were not 
 the cattle of Aberdeen, — they came from the southern dounties of Scotland.* 
 By degrees, part of the cattle were reared in Aberdeenshire, and some of 
 the improved breed and some of the Lothians were yoked together 
 Horses then began to occupy the place of the southern oxen, and the 
 horse and the ox worked together ; the nobler quadruped then gradually 
 displaced the cattle from the road-wdrk, bud left only the rougher pari of 
 the ploughing to the ox, and, at length, has nearly driven him from the 
 plough also t 
 
 KINCARDINESHIRE, OR THE MEARNS. 
 
 Trh small county insinuates itself in the form of a wedge between Aber 
 deenshire and Forfar. It is only thirty-two miles hi length, and twenty- 
 four in width at its broadest part, and much diversified with hill and dale, 
 and, therefore, possessing, within a little extent, a very great ditference of 
 climate. In the neighbourhood of the Grampians, occasionally covered 
 with snow even in the summer, the climate is cold ; along the coast, and 
 open to the easterly wind, it is likewise chilling; and it is only about the 
 banks of the Dee that it is mild and genial. The character of the cattle 
 varies with the climate. In the neighbourhood of the Grampians we have 
 the West Highlanders ; but about the Dee, and even on the coast, they are 
 little inferior to those of Buchan. A great many cattle are bred in the Mearns, 
 but this is quite as much a grazing as a breeding country ; and although 
 it sends a great many of its own beasts southward, a considerable number 
 are bought at the fairs in Aberdeenshire, which are fed on what are termed 
 the grass-parks, that are found in the neighbourhood of almost every gen 
 tleman'sseat : these, however, are on\y^.ying stock. 
 
 The prevailing colour of the Mearns cattle is black ; but some are dark- 
 brown, or brindled. They have rather larger and more spreading horns 
 than those of Aberdeenshire ; they feed as kindly as the Buchans, and are 
 not much inferior to them for the dairy. 
 
 to five gallons) daily, and that one faimer kept fourteen cows, the milk of which, after the 
 cream was taken, was sent to Aberdeen, and sold at Id. andl)f<. the Scotch pint (2 quarts); 
 while the bufter from these cows was two stones per week, and usually sold at Sd. per lb. 
 of 28 oz. 
 
 * The Rev. T. Shepherd, in his statistical account of Bourtie confirms this. Writitig 
 in 1 79.3, he says, ' About twenty years ago our country did not breed cattle of sufficient 
 bulk and strength to labour the frround. They were mostly brought from the south, par- 
 ticularly from Fifeshire. In a few years, by hard labour, they were >»Orn out and became 
 unfit for service, and, as the farmer had not the means of fattening them, he very often 
 sold them for a third part of what they cost him. The case is now much altered for the 
 better. The farmer brings up oxen able for his work ; sells them or fattens them vihea 
 they begin to be upon the decline; and in this way is rather a considerable gainer than 
 a loser upon his work cattle.' 
 
 The Rev. A. Smith, in his account of Keig, in the same year, says that the majority 
 of the farms are small, and the horses and cattle of two neighbournig tenants are oftMi 
 joined in one plough. He calculates the number of ploughs at 47, drawn by 88 horn; 
 tl cows, and 153 oxen and young cattle. 
 
 The Rev. T. Birnie, in his account of Alford, in 1795, says, ' Kvery farmer is «mhi- 
 tiiHis of having many pairs of oxen in his plough : some have six, and few common far- 
 mers have less than four. Smaller tenants yoke oxen, horses, and even bulls, cows, and 
 j'oung cattle, to make up what they deem a sufficient strength. Kvery farmer wUs one 
 cr two pairs of oxen yearly, and replaces them by others of his own rearing;' ; 
 
 f Sir John Sinclair, m his ' Statistical Accotmt of Scotland,' and spealciag of the 
 >«nsh«S of Keithhall and Kenhalt, says that they contained ' 1038 cattle, whofe value ' s 
 
THE KINCARUiNESHIRB BREED. Ill 
 
 Mr. G. Robertson, in a very interesting work, entitled ' Rural Recol- 
 lections,' and now quite out of ,: riot, says, that ' Previous to the yeat 
 1774,. there had been little done in this county to improve the breed oi 
 cattle ; but about that time there were sundry individuals who distin- 
 guished themselves by attention to this branch of rural economy. Oi 
 these may be mentioned Sir Alexander Ramsay of Balmain ; Mr. Leith, 
 of Whiterigs ; his brother. Dr. Leith, at Johnston ; and Mr. Fullarton of 
 Thornton. These gentlemen were all at great pains to select the best- 
 shaped of their own cattle for breeders ; and, what was of as muQh im- 
 portance, they took care to provide a full supply of green food for thein 
 in winter, by a more extensive cultivation of turnips. By this means they 
 imparted animal vigour to their stock, while nature, thus aided, still 
 further improved the shape. 
 
 'At the pre-sent time (1807) the Kincardine cattle are the best of the 
 Scottish breed; and, unless it be from Buchan, I have nowhere in Scot- 
 land seen a more stately ox*. 
 
 • A Mearns ox of a year old will weigh about 17 stones, Imperial weight ; 
 one of two years will average 28; one of three years old 40; and one of 
 four years old 52 ; increasing in weight ten stones per year after the first 
 year. Some, however, will grow to 90 stones ; and Sir Alexander Ram- 
 say killed one that was above 1 56 stones. A century ago the largest 07 
 did not weigh more than 25 or 30 stones.' 
 
 In the statistical report, it appeared that the number of cattle was 
 24,825, or, at the rate of one beast for every three acres in cultivation. 
 Uf this number 6236 were milch cows, and 5280 calves under a year old. 
 
 Mr. Robertson calculates their comparative value, and also with resped 
 to the land on which they are fed. 
 
 ' 5280 calves, each worth when reared, 2Z. . . .£10,560 
 
 5016 year-olds, each worth 42. t . . . 20,064 
 
 5016 two-year olds, at 8/. . ... 40.128 
 
 1672 three-year olds, at 12/. . . . 20,064 
 
 446 draught oxen, at 15/. . . . . 6690 
 
 6236 milch cows, at 8/. . . . . 40,888 
 
 1159 cattle bought in at 102 11,590 
 
 24,825 beasts, worth each on the average 6i. Us. . j0158,984 
 
 3733/.,' and that the number of cattle has veiy much decieaied, owing to the disuse of 
 oxen for the plough. In 1778 these parishes contained twenty-six ox-ploughs, with tea 
 or twelve oxen to each, besides a greater number of smaller ploughs; but that in 1 711 
 they had diminished to eight ploughs.' 
 
 * The StaUstical Account of Scotland, describing the parish of Banchory Tornan, in 
 this county, gives a satisfactory illustration of the rapid progress of impiovemeut. In 
 1758 that parish contained only two carts, in 1791 it could boast of 120. 
 
 f By year-olds, and two-year elds, is understood cattle that were of those ages in the 
 preceding spring; the price is calculated on the supposition of the cattle selling at 8>. 
 the stone weight, of 16 Amsterdam pounds, sinking the ofiUl ; and the Amsterdam pound, 
 which used to be the standard weight of that part of Scotland, containing 1 7^ oz. This 
 calculation supposes the cattle to sell at 3*. 8d. the Smithfield stone of 81bs. 
 
 We make another extract from this work, which is not now tobe }urchased, and will not 
 be reprinted. He is speaking of the variatibn io the price of cattle ' The price of cattle 
 varies here from year to year, like everything elsej but, on the whole, has greatly advanced 
 Juring the last fifty years. About the year 1740, the largest ox in the county, weighing 
 trom 25 to 30 stones (Dntch weight, 43 to 51 stones Imperial weight;, could have been 
 oought for 20>., or, at most, for Hi. Tfaey rose gradually in vtJue till about the year 
 1764 when cattle of that mze, and as fall fed as the country could make them, brought 
 from 31. to 4/., or from 2>. to 2<. Sd the stone. From this period, cattle, being somewhat 
 better fed, not only became larger in siie, but were imiiruved in condition ; and. from 
 (be inrrgMrd demand for butcher-meat, combined wi'h the gradual decline in the vahia 
 
112 CATTLE. 
 
 Tliis is at the rate of 21. 3i. 9d. on each acre, or 33^ beasts on every 1 00 
 acres ; but when the quantity of cultivated pasture alone is reckoned, ii 
 amounts to rather more than one beast per acre. This, however, varies 
 much in the different districts.' 
 
 He also calculates the keep of these cattle : ' the caJves at 21. each per 
 annum ; the year-olds at 21. 10s. ; the two-years at 3/. ; th" three' 
 years at 3/. 10s. ; the milch cows at bl.' He also takes into account the 
 average number of «heep and horses on the farm, and the value, expense, 
 and profit of each, and all the casualties of every kind ; and, on the 
 whole, he proves that ' the farmer does not derive more than 10 per cent, 
 ou his capital, and which will afiurd him but a scanty subsistence for 
 his family, and little or nothing to add to his capital.' 
 
 About one-half of the butter and cheese is usually consumed in the far- 
 mer's own family or among his labourers, and the rest is sent to the Aber- 
 deen, or Montrose, or Leith markets. The butter is usually excellent, 
 but the cheese of an inferior quality *. 
 
 of money, by the yearl792,brought up the price of half-fed cattle to the rate of 6s. 8</. the 
 stone (16 lbs.) Since that time the price has risen and fallen alternately; iu some years 
 it has been as high as 10«. a stone, and in others as low as As. or 6.v. 
 
 ' One remarkable circumstance in the price of cattle is, that they are generally dear or 
 cheap in the inverse ratio of the means of keeping them. Thus, in a year of plenty, con- 
 joining a weighty crop of turnips with a luxuriant vuggage, the price of cattle gets up ; 
 or the farmers, not only can afibrd to retain their cattle, but are compelled to do so, in 
 order to consume their crop. In a year of scarcity, again, particularly of winter food, the 
 price of cattle declines even to the lowest pitch, the farmers being forced to part with 
 them at any price they can get. In the great penury of fodder in 1807, some cattle were 
 'sold as low as at the rate of 1». a stone." — p. 440. 
 
 The a^ccoimt of the introduction of turnips into Kincardineshire must not be omitted, 
 rwrnijps.were first seen in this county about the year 1754, being introduced by Robert 
 Scott, Esq., Dunninauld, on the farm of the Miltown, in the parish of St. Cyrus, which 
 he then held in lease ; but he had few to follow his example for many years. In 1764, 
 William Lyall, a farmer in Wattiestim, in the parish of Fordoun, ventured to sow half an 
 acre in turnips, which, at the time, was the greatest extent of them in any farmer's hand, 
 and they were disposed lof chiefly in small parcels to his neighbours as kitchen vegetables, 
 at a penny the stone. It was not till about the year 1775 that they began to be gene- 
 rally cultivated. They are now universal over the whole county, insomuch that about 
 one-seventh part of the whole land in tillage is in turnips. 
 
 ' They are cultivated uniformly in drills ; and this crop now forms the very basis of good 
 cultivation in the Mearns, whether with respect to the succeeding crops, or to the feeding 
 of cattle to which it is applied, but more for the rearing than for the fully fattening of 
 them, as the thin population of the county does not require a tenth part of the fat cattle 
 'they could produce.' — p. 460. 
 
 * Of the keep of the ' cotter's' milch cow, and of the situation of the ' cotter" himself, 
 in this part of Scotland (in 1807), Mr. Robertson gives an interesting description. He 
 had been speaking of the cottages of the mechanics and little tradespeople, which are built 
 of stone and turf, or sometimes stone and lime, and consisting of two apartments, divided 
 by the furniture, the walls seldom more than six feet in height, and the roofing composed 
 of thin turfs, overlaid with a thinner coating of straw, tied down with straw ropes, like a 
 hay-stack ; every one with its little garden or kale-yard ; and many of them displaying 
 no little taste in its cultivation, and growing the different kinds of coleworts, of which 
 a dark-red kind is most prevalent, and forms the basis of ' old Scotia's kale-brose ;' and 
 besides this, some leeks and cresses, and bushes of gooseberries and currants, and flower- 
 ing shrubs, as roses and honeysuckles, — and fine-smelling herbs, as thyme and lavender, 
 and southernwood, and tansy ' to kill the worms," and a sprinkling, too, of perennial 
 flowers, as polyanthus and cov/slips, and yellow lilies ; and, in some cases, an apple-tree 
 trained upon the sunny side of the house wall, and house-leeks on the riggin. He goes 
 on next to speak of the cottages of the farm servants. 
 
 ' The cottages attached to the difierent farms are more regularly disposed, being gene- 
 rally set down by the way-sides, in the neighbourhood, but not in the immediate vicinity 
 of the farm-stead. They are beginning to be constructed in a, similar style, built iif 
 stone and lime, and of an increased height in the walls ; but the roof is still generally of 
 thatchjorinsomecasesof gray slate, and in a few instances of tile, which is the worst 
 -..'tofingof any. The internal acummodation is simply as it was wont, with two apart- 
 
FOUFAliSIlIEK OR ANGUS BRKBIJ II3 
 
 rORPARSHIIlE OR ANGUS. 
 
 This county derives its first name from its principal ano central town ; 
 the second oftenest occurs in ancient records, and was probably the original 
 name. The eastern part of it stretches iilong the coast from Kincardine- 
 shire to Fife, and the soil and climate resemble those of the coast districts 
 of Kincnrdine, Aberdeen, and Banff, while the interior (nearly half of the 
 county) is occupied by the Grampian HilLs. The cattle (said in the statistical 
 account to be 45,4U0*) may be divided into the horned and the polled. 
 The former, and of the West Highland breed, used to prevail in the interior, 
 and are still found, but of a diminutive size, and rarely exceediug twenty 
 or twenty-five stones. Towards the coast they resemble more those of 
 Kincardine and Aberdeen ; but there are some points of diflerence. The 
 prevailing colour is black, but wiih more admixture of other tints: some 
 
 nents Jivided by the furniture, but having nuw a, grate in the fire-place, and a glass win- 
 dow in the wall. These cottages have all u piece of garden ground lor raising potherbs ;. 
 also a bit of potato land, along with the master's own field ; a patch of flax sown ; and, 
 what is best of all, a milch cow, that feeds in the fields along with the master's own cattle, 
 und is otherwise not the worst fed of the whole herd. These good things, with a weekly 
 allowance of two (lecks of oatmeal, and an adequate money-fee, which has improved from 
 31. to 1 2/. or more in the year, makes this class of peasantry the most comfortably pro- 
 vided for of any. They may not get rich, indeed, but they never feel w&nt.'^Jiurat 
 BecoUections, p. 417. 
 
 * If this calculation of the number of cattle in Foifarshire be considered as giving 
 the average number tolerably correctly, and we estimate them at It. per head, the value 
 of this division of live stock will be 317,800/. 
 
 The Rev. C Peebles, in his statistical account of Mains, in Angus, asserts that oxen 
 were not used for husbandry work in Angus in 1790. He draws a very curious compa- 
 lison between the farmers and their mode of management in 1760, when he first began 
 lo observe them, and 1 790, when he wrote. The following are only a few of the points on 
 which he touches : — 
 
 1760. 1790. 
 
 Land ploughed with oxen. Only a few Oxen not employed in agriculture. Fan 
 
 horses kept to draw the harrow in seed- mers have their saddle-horses, worth from 
 time, and bring in the common harvest, '24/. to 30/., and work-horses from 20/. to 
 7/. thought a great price for a horse. 25/. each.* , 
 
 Land rented at 6>.per acre, and only two Land at 30s. and all enclosed with dykes 
 
 small farms enclosed. and thorn hedges. 
 
 No English cloth worn but by the mi- There are few who do not wear English 
 
 uister and a quaker. cloth, and several the best superfine. 
 
 Jtleu's stockings were what were called Cotton and thread stockings are worn by 
 
 plaidiug hose, made of woollen cluth. The both sexes, masters and servants. Some 
 women wore coarse plaids. Not a cloak have silk ones. The women who wear 
 nor a bonnet was worn by any woman in plaids have them fine and faced with silk. 
 the whole parish. Silk plaids, cloaks, and bonnets are very 
 
 numerous. 
 
 Only two hats in the parish. The men Few bonnets are worn, and the bonnet- 
 
 wore cloth bonnets. makers' trade is given up. 
 
 There was only one eight-day clock in Thirty clocks, one hundred watches, and 
 
 the parish, six watches, and one tea-kettle. above sixty tea-kettles. 
 
 The people never visited each other but People visit each other often. Six or 
 
 at Christmas. The entertainment was seven dishes are set on the table differently 
 broth and beef, and the visiters sent to some dressed. After dinner a large bowl of rum 
 ale-house for five or six pints of ale, and punch or whisky toddy is drunk — then tea, 
 were merry over it without any ceremony, then another bowl, then supper^ and, after 
 
 that, the grace drink. 
 
 Every person in the parish, if in health. Much lukewarmness prevails *ith regard 
 
 attended divine worship on Sunday, which to religious instruction, and a consequent 
 was -egularly and religiously observed. inattention and indifference to worship and 
 
 ordinances. 
 
 Few were guilty of any breach of the The third commandment seems to be 
 
 tinrd cummandment, almost forgotten, and profane swearing. 
 
 greatly abounds 
 
 J 
 
114 tATlXK. 
 
 have wliite spots oii ilie Ibrehead, and white on ihe flariks and belly. There 
 are more brindled cattle than in Aberdeen ; some are dark red, and others 
 of a silver yellow or dun. A few are black with white hairs intermixed; 
 and occasionally a beast is seen that is altogether white, with the exception 
 of a few black hairs about the head. 
 
 The Forfar hnrned cattle are shorter in the leg, thicker in the shoulder, 
 rounder in the carcase, straighter in the back, and carry the liead better 
 than the Aberdeens. The horns are smaller, better proportioned, curved 
 upwards and forwards, and sharper at the points. They are evidently a 
 cross between the Highland and the Low Country or doddied breed. 
 
 A writer in the ' Farmer's Magazine' for 1814, replying to some queries 
 respecting the breed of Angus, draws the following comparison between 
 the horned cattle of this county and those of the neighbouring districts. 
 
 ' The horns of Angus and Kincardineshire cattle' are much the samt, 
 being smaller and better proportioned than those of the Buchan district 
 of Aberdeenshire, and more like those of the middle district. At three 
 years old the horns of an Angusshire slot will be as well raised and sharp 
 at the extremity as at two years old, but not so strong in the horn. The 
 horns of the cattle in the higher districts of Aberdeenshire are by far 
 thicker, rounder, and straighter out from the sides of the head, than 
 those of the cattle in the middle districts of Angus, while the Fifeshire 
 cattle have horns larger, more oval, and not so sharp at the point, as the 
 generality of the Angus cattle. 
 
 'The Kincardineshire cattle are rather smaller than the Angus, but the 
 shapes are much the same. Those of Fifeshire are stronger, larger, and 
 rougher-boned than the Angus cattle. 
 
 • The weight of the Ang^s horned cattle cannot be well ascertained, as 
 few are kept in the county to the proper age, and the difference in keeping 
 of these is so great ; but being so well proportioned, they will weigh more 
 to their appearance than the cattle of either of the above counties. The 
 Angus cattle are preferable for feeding, having all the good qualities 
 for that purpose.' 
 
 An account of the Angus polled or doddied cattle, and which is now 
 become the most numerous and valuable breed of that county, will be 
 given hereafter when we treat of the polled cattle generally. 
 
 FIFESHIRE. 
 
 The county of Fife is a kind of peninsula included between the river Tay 
 on the north, and the Frith of Forth on the south, with Perth, Kinross, 
 and Clackmannan on the east. The climate along the Frith of Forth is 
 temperate ; it is also mild along the banks of the Eden ; but the west and 
 north-west parts, in the neighbourhood of the Lomond hills, are chilly 
 and ungeniai. In no county, however, is the character of the cattle so 
 uniform, and in fevr parts do they more decidedly unite the best qualities 
 which cattle can possess. They bear evident impress of their Highland 
 origin, but there has been a cross which distinguishes them from all other 
 Scotch cattle. Dr. Thompson*, in his not altogether scientific or satisfao- 
 
 * The statistical account of Scotland, under the article Duniehen, gives us no favourabln 
 opinion of the Scottish cow-leeches, when he describes the manner in which they were 
 there, and probably in the greater part of Scotland installed in their office. ' Formerly, 
 one blacksmith, who was also a farrier, was alone allowed to exercise his business on a 
 barony or estate. He had the exclusive privilege of doing all the blacksmith and farrier's 
 work. For this he paid a small rent to the proprietor, and i-vevy tenant paid him a certain 
 quantity of ^corn. About thirty years ago a person of this description had this sole rightj 
 en the baronv of Duniehen, for which he paid U. per annum yearly. 
 
FIFKSHIRE. 11$ 
 
 lory ' Survey of Fifeshire,' thus describes them : — ' Though the true Fife 
 breed may be found of any colour, the prevailing one is black ; nor are 
 they less esteemed though spotted or streaked with v\rhite or of a grey 
 colour. The horns are small, white, generally pretty erect, or at least 
 turned up at the points, and bending rather forward. (The Fife ox would 
 be readily distinguished at a considerable distance by this peculiarity in 
 the form of the horn.) ' The bone is small in proportion to the carcase ; 
 the limbs clean, but short; and the skin- soft : they are wide between the 
 extreme points of the hock bones ; the ribs are narrow and wide set, and 
 have a greater curvature than in other kinds, which gives the body a thick, 
 round form.' (The thick, round form of the Fife cattle is evident enough ; 
 but we confess we do not understand this account of the peculiarities or 
 shape which are to give it.) ' They fatten quickly, and fill up well, at 
 all the choice points. They are hardy, fleet, and travel well ; tame and 
 docile, and excellent for work, whether in the plough or in the cart.' The 
 use of oxen in husbandry, however, is much diminished even in Fife. In 
 1792, in Auchterderran, of the fifty-one ploughs which the parish con- 
 tained, seventeen were worked by horses, and now 8 smaller number 
 would be found worked with oxen. There is a very great difference in 
 ilie size of the Fife oxen, and this is to be attributed to the difference 
 in the quality of the pasture, and the attention paid in breeding and 
 rearing. When fed for the butcher, they generally weigh from thirty-five 
 to sixty-five stones. They have been slaughtered at more than 100 stones.. 
 
 They are far from unprofitable for the dairy. A good Fife cow will 
 give from five to seven gallons of milk per day, or from seven to nine 
 pounds of butter, or from 'ten to twelve pounds of cheese per week for some 
 months afler calving ; while the cow is in milk for ten or eleven 
 months. 
 
 Writers have amused themselves with many unsatisfactory disquisitions 
 as to the origin of the Fife breed. The Highland origin cannot be 
 disputed; bnt a southern cow or bull was certainly one of the progenitors 
 of this very useful variety of black cattle. Some say that when James VI. 
 (James I. of England) received the news of the death of Elizabeth, and 
 was cornpelled to set out on his journey to England without the time or 
 ihe means to make his triumphal procession sufficiently splendid, he 
 hastily borrowed a considerable sum of money from some of his faithful 
 adherents in Fife. The English treasury, however, was not sufficiently 
 rich, or his private resources not such as to enable him to repay the debt 
 in specie ; but as an honourable acknowledgment of the obligation, and 
 one of the greatest benefits he could confer on his former subjects, he sent 
 them .some valuable cattle from England. From what county they came, 
 or. to what breed they belonged, neither history nor tradition relates, 
 
 A more generally received opinion is, that in addition to the 30,030 
 angei-nobles, which Margeret, the daughter of Henry VII. of England, 
 brought with her when she became the bride of James IV. of Scotland, 
 300 English cows, a simple but invaluable wedding present, were added 
 by her -fether to the dowry.- The progeny of these cattle received the name 
 of Faikland.% because James and his young consort resided principally at 
 Falkland palace, and to the park belonging to which this present from her 
 father was naturally conveyed. Here again tradition is silent as to the 
 district whence these camel Cambridge claims the honour, but probably 
 without pretensions better founded than those of many other counties. 
 There is no doubt, however, that at a considerably remote period, the Fife 
 breed was materially improved by intermixture with some southern variety, 
 and that the improvement commenced in the neighbourhood of Falkland. 
 
 1 o 
 
116 CATTLE. 
 
 Similar attempts have since been made in other parts of Scotland, but 
 'arely with such decided success ; this, however, will not surprise the 
 agriculturist when it is recollected, that while the Highland cattle of 
 Scotland have remained, until very lately, nearly the same that they were 
 centuries ago, the English cattle generally have strangely altered their 
 character, and doubled their size, since the time of Henry VII., and even 
 that of James L The comparatively small cattle of England might then 
 amalgamate with the Scotch, but there would be less affinity between the 
 Scotch and those of the present day*. 
 
 However the fact may be explained, Fifeshire now contains, as decidedly 
 as Devonshire, or Herefordshire, or Sussex, a breed — and an excellent one, 
 too — of her own. Made wise, and somewhat expensively so by experience, 
 the Fifeshire farmers are convinced that their cattle cannot be further 
 improved in all their points, or as a whole, by any foreign cross, and they 
 confine themselves to a judicious selection from their own* The Fifes, 
 however, have never established themselves in the south, nor penetrated 
 towards the north beyond the counties immediately contiguous. The 
 prejudice of each district in favour of its native breed may partly account 
 for this, but a more satisfactory explanation results from the fact, not 
 sufficiently regarded by agriculturists, and to which we shall often refer, 
 that there must be everywhere a kind of identity between the breed and 
 the soil, and which is always slowly, and in many cases, never acquired. 
 
 There is no great peculiarity in the management of the Fifeshire cattle. 
 In some parts the dairy is particularly attended to, and from the account 
 which we have given of the quantity of milk and butter yielded by a 
 Fifeshire cow, it returns a fair average profit. 
 
 On farms adapted to breeding, the dairy is a secondary object. A 
 sufficient number of cows are kept to rear the calves, some of which are 
 bought of the cottagers, or at the neighbouring markets. They are fed 
 from the pail, and usually obtain every day 2J, or three gallons of 
 milk, or hay-tea, or gruel, mixed with the milk, for ten or twelve 
 weeks, when they are weaned. The late calves are generally disposed of 
 as soon as possible, and the milk converted to the purposes of the dairy. 
 The number of milk cows are calculated at about 10,000, Dr. Thompson 
 supposes that the whole stock of cattle, including lean ones, and others 
 
 • They have, however, in some cases, advantageously amalgamated. Mr. Adam 
 Ferguson, in his Essay on Crossing, (Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, No. 1,) after 
 obseiving that ■ nothing can wear a more inviting aspect than the idea of uniting the 
 early fattening propensity, docile habits, and large size of the one breed with the hardiness 
 and many valuable qualities of the other, securing, as is thus imagined, a permanent 
 variety exceeding in value either of the parent stocks,' and acknowledging that 'the first 
 fruits will, in general, tend to confirm this hope,' yet 'cautions the bleeder against over- 
 sanguine hope from such a system.' He relates, however, some instances in which the 
 experiment did succeed to a very great extent. His account is as follows : 
 
 • About the same time I had an excellent opportunity of observing, during three years 
 an interesting experiment, conducted upon an extensive scale by a gentleman of much 
 talent and zeal as an agriculturist. His object was to obtain a mixed breed which should 
 permanently retain all the good points of improved short-horns, and choice West High- 
 landers or Kyliies. He bred from the shorl-horn bull and Highland cow, and had contir 
 nued to do so through many gradations for ten or twelve years to the period when I last 
 inspected his stock. At this time my impression was, that the variety was fast returning 
 to the pure short-horn. Many fine animals were brought to market. 
 
 • The Rev. John Forrester, however, asserts, in his ' statistical account' of the parish 
 of Anstruther Wester, in this county, that the breed of cattle has been much improved 
 by crossing with the Lanark and the Holderness, and by winter-feeding on turnips. 
 The first result is, as we have asserted in the text, contrary to the experience of evwy 
 agriculturist : but of the truth of the latter assertion there can be no doubt, for there an 
 few more profitable applications of turnips in a breeding country than to the suppoit <if 
 tha Y juBg stock. 
 
THE TORTHSHIRK BREED. 117 
 
 brought from neighbouring counties, for grazing, is about 60,000 ; and 
 Ihe statistical account gives the same number. * 
 
 Some, however, of the Fifeshire farmers have suspected that their cattle, 
 although excellent, might be capable of improvement, and they have 
 crossed them with the Angus, the Ayrshire, and the Teeswater. A breed 
 of polled cattle has also made its appearance in Fife, possessing all the 
 good qualities of the horned, with even superior propensity to fatten, and 
 much greater quietness and docility. The pure Durhams have been esta- 
 blished in some parts of Fife, but not always without difficulty. Those 
 that were imported have been injured by, or sunk under, the greater rigour 
 of the climate; but many of the calves of the Durham breed, dropped in 
 Fifeshire, have, on good pasture, retained all the good qualities of the 
 short horns, combined with the requisite degree of hardihood. Lady Mary 
 Lindsay Crawfurd, of Crawfurd Priory, was unsuccessful at first in her 
 attempts to keep the Durham breed, but she has now many pure and 
 beautiful cattle of this kind. 
 
 THE CENTRAL DISTRICT 
 
 This consists of Perthshire, Stirlingshire, Clackmannan and Kinross, and 
 will not long detain us, as there is little distinctness of breed, and few pecu- 
 liarities of management. 
 
 PERTHSHIRE. 
 
 It would be difficult to point out any native breed of cattle in Perthshire. 
 If it can be found in any district it is in the moorland part of the county, 
 where the attention of the farmer used to be chiefly directed to the rearing 
 of cattle, for his ground was good for nothing else until the sheep 
 husbandry was introduced.t If we consider these as the true Perthshire 
 cattle, they are of an inferior kind. The highland origin is visible about 
 
 * The following account of the dimensions of a celebrated bull belonging to the Earl 
 of Devon may give agriculturists of other districts a mure satisfactory notion of the pro-' 
 portions of the best Fife cattle : — 
 
 Length of the head .... 
 
 Do. from the root of the horn to the rump . 
 
 Do. from the root of the horn to the top of the shoulder 
 
 Do. of the horn . . . . 
 
 Distance from point to point of ditto . 
 
 Girth of the body at the shoulder . . . 
 
 Do do. before hough bones , . 
 
 Girth of the body fore leg, smallest part between the knee 
 and hoof 
 
 Do. do. hinder leg at ditto . 
 
 Do. do. fore leg, at fore spald ^ . 
 
 Height at the shoulder 
 
 Do. at hough bone .... 
 
 Do. from the shoulder to the breast bone 
 
 Do. of the knee-joint — fore leg . 
 
 Breadth of the hou:{h bones 
 + Dr. Robertson, in his ' Survey of Perthshire,' gives an eloquent and unanswerable 
 defence of the system of sheep-husbandry introduced here, as well as in almost every 
 part of Scotland, and materially diminishing the breed of cattle. ' We ought by no means 
 to forget the improvement occasioned by the sheep. They enrich the quality, and 
 enlarge the quantity of grass within their walk more than any other species of animals. 
 They never deteriorate the soil ; they render it more and more productive ; and wherever 
 their numbers arc increased upon a certain extent of land, they help to support that 
 increase of numbers by producing an increase of food. The ground is not only made 
 green, and the heath extirpated by the enriching quality of their manure, but the finest 
 grass springs up spontaneously where it had formerly been scanty and coarse | and when 
 thia powerful top-diMnng of our "whole hills with sheep-dung and urine has been 
 
 Fwt. 
 
 Ini^hH. 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 ^ 
 
 1 
 
 H 
 
 1 
 
 10 
 
 7 
 
 6* 
 
 7 
 
 H 
 
 
 
 n 
 
 
 
 n 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 11 
 
 4 
 
 11 
 
 3 
 
 6 
 
 1 
 
 H 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
US CATTLE. 
 
 tlieni, but it has been cleteicorated by some southern mixture; or, at least; 
 the two breeds have not mingled well together — for the beauty of form 
 and propensity to fatten of the Argyle are diminished, and the milking 
 properties of the southrons are not fully developed. 
 
 In many parts of Perthshire the breeds of the nei»-libouring counties are 
 found unmixed. In the vicinity of Perth and the Bridge of Earn, and in 
 the Carse of Gowrie, the Fifeshire, and Angus cattle are found, either 
 pure, or mingled in various proportions. About Monteath many Gal- 
 loways are grazed. In other parts of the south, and on the borders of 
 Skirling and Dumbarton, the Ayrshire cows prevail, or have superseded all 
 the rest ; and on the borders of Argyle the true West-Highlanders are 
 seen, and degenerated in none of their essential points. A few gentle- 
 men have attempted to introduce the Devons, others the Guernseys, some 
 the short-horns, and even the long-horns have found their advocates. 
 Perthshire, like many of the midland counties of England, presents a 
 mixture of every breed, varying according to the soil, or the description of 
 the farm, or the whim of the occupier. 
 
 Another system of grazing is pursued in some parts of the county, and 
 particularly in the grazing districts. Highland stots are bought in at the 
 end of autumn,' and fed during the winter, for the May and June markets. 
 TTiey are turned out on the foggage, or pastures that have been mown, 
 until the middle or end of December, accoiding to the severity or mildness 
 of the season. Then a little straw with bog-hay is carried to them, and 
 In the May or June of the following year, they pursue their course soutii- 
 ward, yielding to the farmer a profit of 30s. or 21. per head. 
 
 In respect to the number of cattle which the county contains it stands 
 second ; the statistical account assigns to it more than 79,000, The 
 cattle have, however, of late materially improved, although they have not 
 assumed any distinguishing character; and the dairy cattle, in the midland 
 parts of the county, have taken somewhat the start in the career of improve- 
 ment. A few oxen are worked in the plough, but none on the road. 
 
 Sheep husbandry has advanced as rapidly in this country as in the 
 neighbouring ones, and the bleak mountains of Perth are nearly aban- 
 doned to the sheep ; on the other hand, the management of cattle, both 
 in the graizing and dairy districts, is materially improved. In the Carse 
 of Gowrie, where there is much arable land, the usual stock of the farm 
 is not always sufficient to consume the straw. Young cattle are therefore 
 bought in from the neighbouring markets, which are kept in the winter 
 on straw and turnips, and in the following May are sold to the dealers, 
 
 completed, there is little dombt that the Grampians will be as verdant as the Ochils, 
 while the Ochils had once as forbidding an aspect as the Grampians.' 
 
 We may compare with this, an account given of the management of cattle on the 
 moorlands twenty-five years ago (' Farmer's Magazine," 1807.) Formerly the cattle stock 
 in this quarter were very much neglected daring winter, no provision of succulent food, 
 nor indeed of anything excepting straw, being made for them. In the spriug this was 
 particularly hard upon the cows in calf. They were sometimes go debilitated as to be 
 unable to bring forth ; and frequently contracted diseases under which they laboured for 
 a loug time, and of which they never recovered. I well remember the poor wives during 
 the nipping north-east winds in May, provincially called the Cowijuaie, tending their cows, 
 reduced to a skeleton, and covered with a blanket, whue they picked up any spring grass 
 which had begun to rise in the kail-yard, or at the bottoms of walls or banks ; and to such 
 extremities wei:e they reduced at times, that I have heard of their taking the half-rotten 
 thatch from the roofs of houses, and giving it to the half-dead animal, as the means of 
 prolonging its miserable existence. On this account the half of them did not take the 
 bull, and those that did were too late for rearing stout calves. The yeld cattle were so 
 emaciated, that it was always the end of the season beforethe heath, and steril, hidebound 
 leas on which they were depastured, brought them into such condition as would now la 
 cunaidered as but half-fat. 
 
THE STIRLINGSHIRK BRKED. 11.9 
 
 or tlie farmers of the adja^'ent comities, who give tiiem a few tnonlhs' 
 summer pasturage, and dispose of ihem lor Eug-land, or the southern 
 districts of Scotland. In the Carse of Gowrie is tbund some of the most 
 fertile soil, and also some of the most intelligent farmers in the kin<;doiii ; 
 but in the Highland districts, even the sheep-husbandry needs much im- 
 provement, and the cattle are much neglected.* 
 
 Mr. Gorrie, in his ' Account of the Carse of Gowrie,' published in 
 the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture for June 1832, says, 'Although the 
 nature of the district renders the rearing of cattle less profitable than the 
 production of grain, some specimens of the most improved breeds have 
 been produced, which would have done credit to the most eminent breeders 
 of the south. On the Braes (a level tract) of the Carse, breeding and 
 rearing of cattle might be conducted more advantageously and toa greater 
 extent than at present, were the higher part of the ground inclosed and 
 properly sheltered by slips of planting. 
 
 8TIRLINOSHIRB. 
 
 This is far more a grazing than a breeding county : indeed, the attention 
 of the farmers iscontined to grazing, to the exclusion of almost everything 
 else, the very plough being chiefly used with a view to the sustenance of 
 their cattle during the winter. The pastures of Stirling.shire, both 
 natural and artificial, are exceedingly rich ; and from its situation it forms 
 the first convenient halting place for the Western Highland cattle, while 
 it is the great thoroughfare for these cattle during the whole of the sum- 
 mer. Many of the Stirlingshire farmers purchase the best of the Skye or 
 Argyle beasts about the beginning of summer, and turn them on their fine 
 natural or artificial pastures, on which they are made ready for the market 
 by the end of autumn. 
 
 The carses extending from Stirling to Boness can boast a soil, perhaps, 
 not exceeded by any in Britain, and they are almost entirely under tillage ; 
 and to the west of Falkirk, large tracts of land are farmed out for gt-aziiig, 
 either to residents in the neighbourhood or to speculators, and many of the 
 butchers from a considerable distance. The summer feeding never fails, 
 and, except in a year of extreme scarcity, the winter feeding for the large 
 stocks of sheep and cattle bought in at the trysts is excellent. 
 
 Jn the statistical account of Fintry, in this county, honourable mention 
 is made of Mr. David Dun, who established, if he did not introduce, this 
 improved mode of grazing, and which has been adopted in a considerable 
 portion of the west and south of Scotland. His principles were, to select 
 from the choicest cattle in order to stock his farm, and to keep his grass 
 lighter than farmers had been accustomed to do, i. e. to put fewer cattle 
 upon his land than had been usual ; and the consequence was, that his 
 
 " 111 the statistical account of Longforgan, in the county of Perth, a singular account is 
 givtin uf the manner of fattening calves. ' They are led iu a box, which is made of 
 very coarse boards, 4^ or 5 feet long, and 4 or 4^ high, and about 2 feet wide, 
 in proportion to the breed to be fed. The boards of which the box is made are to be put 
 au close to one another, as to let in sufficient air, but no moie, as the exclusion of light is 
 ;)ne essential part of the process. It stands upon four feet, and is placed a little 
 slanting to drain o£f all wetness, and the bottom should be covered with straw or hay, and 
 which should be changed twice a week. The calf is put into this box when newly dropped, 
 or as soon afterwards as possible, and for the 6rst week milk is given to it cautiously, 
 alter which the milk is given more heely, and when about ten days old it is bled. It 
 then gets as much sweet milk fresh from the cow as it can take three times a-day^ and a 
 large piece of chalk is bung in the box, which it occasionally licks. The bleeding is 
 ie]K'atetl once a week, and it hfcomes fine veal in ten weeks, it' it is a bull calf, it is cut 
 u about a week old, otherwise i he veal will neither' be so good, tiur so white. ' 
 
'20 CATTLE. 
 
 beasts throve with a rapidity before unexampled. He is said to liave sold 
 one Highland stot, which yielded fifty-two stones (tron) of beef*. At another 
 lime he disposed of twenty-five Highland stots for 12/. each, the lightest 
 of which weighed thirty stones (tron). He died in 1794. He was leading 
 a sheep across a wooden bridge, when the rail of the bridge giving way, 
 he was thrown into the river, and, falling upon a stone, he was killed On 
 the spot. He was, -with great propriety, called the Scotch Bakewell ; and 
 there was no man to whom the central districts of Scotland were more 
 indebted. 
 
 The breeding of cattle is mostly confined to the dairy districts, such as 
 Kilsyth, Campsie,t Strathblane, St. Ninians, and the muir lands to the 
 south of Falkirk ; and here it is pursued with greater ardour than formerly, 
 although seldom to much greater extent than to keep up the stock ; but this 
 stock is, since the introduction of Agricultural Societies and the offering of 
 premiums, very materially improved. 
 
 The dairy cattle have been, since the year 1817, chiefly of the Ayrshire 
 breed, and that mostly pure ; for a cross between the Ayrshire and the 
 native cattle has not generally succeeded. On the ground of some cottager, 
 however, a cow of the mixed breed will occasionally be found yielding 
 abundance of milk and tolerably good in quality, and afterwards fattening 
 with a rapidity scarcely inferior to the true Highlander. The cattle that 
 are designed for summer fattening are out day and night ; but the milch 
 cows are sometimes housed during the night, while by other farmers they 
 are housed and fed by soiling during the heat of the day, and turned out 
 at night 
 
 Oxen were formerly much used in Stirlingshire; but, very few teams are 
 now kept in any part of the country. The average number of cattle in 
 Stirlingshire, including the flying stock, is rather more than 19,000. 
 
 The central situation of Stirlingshire with regard to the breeders of cattle 
 in the northern and western counties, and the buyers or dealers from the 
 southern and eastern parts of Great Britain, cause it to be selected for the 
 
 * The weight is commonly calculated in these districts by the stone, tron, which con- 
 «ist3 of 16 lbs., at 22 oz. each, and, consequently, the weight of the beast was equivalent 
 io nearly 82 stones of Imperial weight, or 14 lbs. each, or exactly 143 stones Smithfield 
 weight of 8 lbs. each. 
 
 t The Rev. Mr. Lapslie, in his statistical account of Campsie, gives the following 
 accoiuit of the cattle in that parish in 1 793 : — ' Milk cows 749, which, within the last 
 thirty years have increased considerably in bulk, hence they have a tendency to be in 
 flesh more than to give milk ; they, however, give on the average from seven to eleven 
 Scots pints daily. Below seven they are not thought worth keeping for the dairy ; 
 above eleven they are considered remarkable. From eight Scots pints nearly one pound 
 of butter is produced, and the cheese is equal to that of Dunlop. Besides these there are 
 cow and queys, 503 ; fat cows, and young beasts for the Falkirk market and the butcher, 
 917; and winterers, which are mostly grazed next summer for the butcher, 345. The win- 
 terers graze in the open fields during the whole winter season, and are fed once or twice a 
 day with coarse hay, gathered in autumn among the cows' feet in their pastures. The gra 
 tiers commonly begin to fodder, as they terra it, about Christmas, (it is considered to, be 
 B severe winter when they are forced to begin before Christmas,) and continue till the 
 beginning of April, when the cattle refuse it. There are few cattle grazed but High- 
 landers, and those from Argyleshire are preferred. North country cattle are rejected, 
 being considered by the graziers sour, and difiicult to feed.' 
 
 Mr. Lapslie gives a calculation of the consumption of animal food in this parish. ' In 
 1714, only three cows were killed for winter-beef in the whole parish, the gentry excepted. 
 In 1744, the better farmers joined, and got a cow for a winter-mart, the price then being 
 only 35». or 40s. for a fat cow. In 1759, very decent farmers thought it necessary to 
 have some part of a fat cow, or a few sheep, salted up for winter store ; and in 1 794, three 
 hundred fat cows were killed annually about Martinmas time, for, winter provision, 
 beside the mutton, beef, and lamb, killed through the season ; and few of the tradesmen 
 •at down to dinner without fresh meat otj the table, and malt liquor to drink.' 
 
THE KINROSS SHIRE BREED Jfl 
 
 holding of the principal fairs or cattle-markets of Scotland. The Falkirk 
 trysts are the most frequented ; they are held on the second Tuesday in 
 Auffust, September, and October. All the cattle from every part of Scot- 
 laud, south as well as north, which are intended for sale, whether in good 
 Store condition, or almost ready for the butcher, or lean, and intended for 
 wintering in richer pasture in the south, are driven to Falkirk*. 
 
 KINROSS-SHIRE AND CLACKMANNANSHIRE. 
 
 There is little difference in the character and general treatment of 
 cattle in these diminutive counties ; they approach to the Perthshire or 
 Fifeshire breeds, in proportion as they bordfer on either (iistrict. A great 
 number of cattle used to be fattened in the distilleries of Clackmannan, and 
 ])arlicularly in that of Kilbogie; seven thousand have sometimes been fed 
 at this distillery in one year. The ordinary stock of Kinross is 5400, and 
 ttiat of Clackmannan nearly 1400, exclusive of those in the distillery. Th*" 
 cattle husbandry of Kinross has been materially improved within the las» 
 filly years. The soil of Clackmannan is more fertile, and the few cattle of 
 a superior description. 
 
 THE SOUTK-WEST LOWLANDS. 
 
 This district consists of Dumbartonshire, Renfrewshire, Ayrshire, and 
 Lanarkshire. It is a manufacturing district, and very thickly peopled. 
 Although occupying only one-thirteenth part of the extent of Scotland, it 
 contains full one-fourth of the inhabitants ; many cattle are, therefore,, 
 wanted for the butcher and the dairy. The soil and the climate ar^ 
 admirably adapted to the rearing and fattening of live-stock, and a more 
 valuable breed, and particularly of dairy cows, is not to be found in the 
 whole kingdom. 
 
 * The tryst used to be held on a large common in the immediate vicinity of Falkirk, 
 but which is now enclosed, and a field iu the neighbourhood of Stenhousmuir has since 
 been selected. It is about three miles from Falkirk, on the other side of the Carron and 
 the Glasgow canal, and is the property of Sir Michael Bruce. The road from Falkirk to 
 it is not uninteresting ; it is close to the celebrated Carron foundry, and that being past, the 
 sheet of water above the works, and the woody winding way between it and the village, are 
 very pleasing, while the traveller is but a little way from two spots connected with early 
 and later Scottish history — ^the peace concluded between the Romans and the Scots, and 
 the concealment and escape oi the hero Wallace. 
 
 The field, or the toll at its entrance, is let to a taxman at 120A yearly, and he demands 
 Sd, for every score of black cattle, 'id. for every score of sheepj and \d. for «very horse. 
 There are, beside, several tents erected on the field at which refreshments may be pro- 
 cured, or where business is transacted, and money paid and received ; for the use of each 
 uf these the taxman receives 13<. 
 
 At the last October tryst ( 1 832) there were, on the lowest computation, more than 
 50,000 black cattle, 30,0U0 sheep, and 3000 horses. It is worth going many a mile to 
 witness such a collection of beasts, and including every variety of every breed of Scotland. 
 It is a school for the agriculturist, from which he will not fail to derive tlie most useful 
 lessons ; and then, in the latter part of the day, when the tryst is over, to see every spot, 
 not only of the flat muir, but of the beautifully undulating ground above, covered wKk 
 cattle and sheep, and the herdsmen in their characteristic Scottish dresses, either stiretchetl 
 on their plaids and resting for a while their wearied limbs — but still watchful ; or gather- 
 ing into groups and relating the occurrences and bargains of the day ; this is a scene 
 which the agriculturist will not soon forget, and to which no one can be insensible. 
 
 The October is the largest tryst, for all the cattle which the farmer wishes to dispose of 
 before the winter are then brought forward. In the three trysts there cannot be less 
 than 80,000 cattle, 50,000 sheep, and 5000 horses, and, averaging the price of the cattle 
 at 71. each, and of the gheep at 18>., and of the horses at 10/., their gross value is neady 
 
'28 CATTLE. 
 
 DUMBARTONSHIRE. 
 
 In a great part of Dumbartonshire the introduction of sheep-husbaiulry 
 has materially lessened the number of cattle : of this the author of the 
 statistical account of Anoquhar gives a convincing proof, when he says 
 that in the whole of that parish there were (in 1791) only 480 black 
 cattle, although 10,000 sheep were kept. The cattle, however, are 
 materially improved, and the formerly desolate appearance of the country 
 is essentially changed. 
 
 The neat stock of Dumbartonshire may be divided into three classes : 
 those that are wintered in the county, those that are fattened there, and 
 the dairy cattle ; for few are bred there beyond the annual consumption. 
 
 The portion of land appropriated to the wintering of cattle is the natural 
 pasture, or uncultivated ground, of which there is a great deal. The grass 
 is long and coarse, but it will be eaten by cattle that have not been accus 
 tomed to anything better; and it is generally contrived that some part of it 
 shall be a little sheltered from the blast Many We.st-Highlanders, and 
 principally from Argyle, are purchased in October or November, and chiefly 
 at Falkirk market, and they are turned in the wintering grounds* without 
 any other provender, until the winter thoroughly sets in, and the ground 
 is covered with snow; they are then fed on coarse hay or straw given 
 in the tield, on some sheltered spot. It is thrown carelessly down, and 
 the strongest beast gets the better share, and part of it is trodden under 
 foot and spoiled. 
 
 There is often barely sufficient of this coarse hay and straw to last 
 through a winter of moderate length, and, therefore, after one of unusual 
 severity, the cattle, although not so reduced as we have described them to 
 be in some parts of the Highlands, are brought to market in poor con- 
 dition, and sold »* a very inferior price. 
 
 A few cattle are wintered in the straw-yard, but they fare not much 
 better, for they rarely get turnips, they have straw only, or this coarse 
 bog-hay, and they do not thrive so well upon it as if they were turned on 
 the pasture, scanty as it is. 
 
 in April or May they are usually sold to the dealers, who drive them 
 farther south. They are generally two-year-olds who go through this 
 process, and the owner of the coarse pasture is fairly repaid by the growth 
 of the cattle, and the greater price which beasts even of the same size 
 obtain in May, above that which would be given for them in November. 
 
 Thus commences the succession of journeys and stages of improvement 
 which a great proportion of the Highland cattle pass through. Messrs. 
 Whyte and Macfarlane thus speak of it in their ' Survey of Dumbarton- 
 shire :' — ' The reader will perceive here some traces of that extensive 
 distribution of labour, in the management of stock and the application of 
 grass ground, which is at once most profitable to individuals, and econo- 
 mical to the public. The cattle bred in the West Highlands are, at the 
 age of two years, or two years and a half, removed into Dumbartonshire 
 and the neighbouring counties. At three years old they are carried to 
 the northern couuties of Euglaud, and so by degrees southward, enjoying 
 
 * These wintering grounds are usually bo(^meiidow8, which are formed by the filling 
 up uf lakes and deposits of water, in consequence of the gradual accumulation of vegetable 
 matter, and which, at length, attain a sufficient degree of solidity to bear the cattle. The 
 herbage is at first of the coarsest nature, but it gradually improves, and, although sheep 
 will not eat it, becomes a valuable part of the farm, aud thechief support of the cattle both 
 in summer and winter. On the edges of most of the high sht'Hi- jiastures, there are slips 
 ttud tracks uf land on which the sheep will not feed, but uu wliic' cattle readily thrive. 
 
THE DUMBARTONSHIRE BREED. 123, 
 
 at each remove a milder climate and a richer pasture than before, till they 
 attain their full size, and reach the butcher in prime condition. By this 
 arrangement the power, so to speak, which each district of land possesses 
 in breeding, rearing, or fattening, is fully called into action ; tlie cattle are 
 exposed to no sudden or violent change, but their situation is from time 
 to time altered in a moderate degree for the better; their rapid growth 
 and continued improvement afford a reasonable profit to each grazier 
 through whose hands they pass, and, after all, they are brought to market 
 much cheaper than if every beast had remained until it was fit for being 
 killed on the soil where it was originally bred.' 
 
 The profit derived from the cattle thus wintered must vary with a great- 
 many circumstances, and especially with the length and severity of the, 
 winter and the change of price in the market, but the Dumbartonshire 
 grazier Is supposed to get about 35s. by each beast. 
 
 Some cattle are fattened altogether in Dumbartonshire, and, perhaps, 
 originally bred there. These also are West Highlanders. If the pasturage, 
 although coarse, is abundant and nutritive (for these moory ground 
 often yield much good produce), the cattle remain on the same enclosure, 
 or they are removed to other fields that are not so closely eaten down, 
 and when the flush of grass comes, they grow and fatten at a most rapid, 
 rate. 
 
 Some of the farms do better for summer than for winter fattening, and 
 then the Highlanders, or some old oxen or cows, are bought from their 
 neighbours, or at the surrounding markets, and turned on this natural 
 grass, which is changed, in due time, for the aftermath of the clover, 
 or, in a few instances, they are turned at once into the best pasture, when 
 a portion of it can be spared from the cows. In November they are fit 
 for the butcher, and average from twenty-five to thirty stones. The profit 
 on this summer-grazing varies in different seasons, but cannot be com- 
 puted at less than 50s. per head. 
 
 In a few parts of the country the North Highlanders have been tried, 
 Bs being cheaper than the others, but they have not fattened so kindly, nor 
 so well repaid the prime cost, and expense of keeping. 
 
 Stall-feeding has been introduced, and has answered well, particularly 
 as consuming the better kind of grass to much greater advantage than if 
 it were eaten down ; and Ukewise converting the turnip crop to the most 
 profitable use. On rich ground, and with much artificial food, it is a 
 method of feeding which will gradually supersede the pasturing in the 
 field ; but, in a district like this, the coarse grass and the fog-hay would 
 not be in any other way consumed than by the old method of summer and 
 more particularly of winter feeding. 
 
 The Highlanders never answered for the dairy, and therefore would not 
 be kept for this purpose in so populous a county as Dumbartonshire, and 
 more especially the small and inferior variety which passes under the 
 name of the native cow.' Some attempts have been made to cross her 
 wil:h the Fife, and afterwards with the Ayrshire cattle, but they did not 
 perfectly succeed; and the true Ayrshires have gradually , established 
 themselves in the greater part of the dairies. They- used to be purchased • 
 from the neighbouring counties of Renfrew and Ayr, but the greater part 
 of them are now bred in Dumbartonshire, and are in no way inferior to . 
 the original stock ; or rather, when properly managed, th^y are more valu- 
 able to the dairyman, for it is not often that a cow will thrive anywhere so 
 well, flr yield so much milk as in the counttyt and even on the farm in 
 which she was bred : and, most certainly, in cases of disease the strang^i 
 sow is lost much oftener than the one that is breathing her native air. 
 
124 CATTLE. 
 
 Ill winter the milch cows are fed on straw with turnips or potatoes, and 
 are let out once in the day for water and exercise ; but as soon as they 
 become dry the turnips and potatoes are too often withdrawn, and the 
 poor animals are fed on straw alone. This is done from the absurd idea 
 that the succulent food is relaxing, and apt to make them calve before 
 their time; whereas they are improperly weakened at the time, when, if it 
 is dangerous for them to be in full condition, they should at least be in 
 good plight ; in addition to this, the continuance of dry food will prevent 
 the natural flush of milk at the time of calving. 
 
 During the summer months the milch cow is in the field during the 
 night, but sheltered from the flies, and supplied with green meat in the 
 cowhouse during the day ; and when the flies cease to torment, and the 
 nights become cold, they are housed during the night, and graze at liberty 
 in the day. 
 
 This county, and the whole of the district including part of Stirling- 
 shire and Perth, is much indebted to the patriotic exertions of the Duke of 
 Montrose. His Grace's factor, Mr. Geekie, informs us, that as late as the 
 year 1817, the dairy cattle was of a very inferior kind, — small, coarse, 
 unshapely, and possessing few of the qualifications requisite in a dairy 
 stock. The Duke of Montrose and the principal landed proprietors of the 
 district, then formed themselves into a society, for the express purpose of 
 the improvement of cattle, and the introduction of the Ayrshire breed. 
 High premiums were oflered for the best bulls and cows which had been 
 bred out of this district. Liberal donations were added by the Highland 
 Society of Scotland. Great emulation was thus excited among the tenantry, 
 and the desired effect was produced of introducing many excellent animals 
 from Ayrshire and Lanarkshire ; their progeny became naturalized here, 
 and, for the reasons just stated, they are even more valuable than the ori- 
 ginal breed. 
 
 The produce of a good Ayrshire cow, bred in Dumbarton, is fully equal 
 to that yielded by any of its progenitors. Mr. Geekie thus averages it : — 
 For the first three months after calving, 10 Scots pints daily. 
 For the second . . 8 „ 
 
 For the third . . . 3 „ 
 
 For the next six weeks . . 1 J : she is then dried ; 
 
 having given, all the year round, more than 5J Scots pints, or nearly 3 
 gullons daily. 
 
 The calves for the dairy are generally taken from their dams as soon as 
 dropped, and fed with milk from the hand for about two months, the quan- 
 tity of milk being gradually decreased when they begin to take other food. 
 Linseed-tea is given in small quantities in order to keep the bowels in a 
 proper state while under milk. Where there is other demand for the milk, 
 bean or pease flour are gradually mixed with it or substituted for it. After 
 the calves are weaned they are turned on good pasture, and during the first 
 winter are housed, and fed on oat-straw or meadow hay, with, at least 
 once in every day, some turnips cut and mixed with the dry food. 
 
 During the second summer thev should have better pasture than they 
 usually get, or they will not be raised sufficiently in size ; and in the 
 second winter they are generally, and always should be, housed : a few 
 agriculturists, who study their own interests, as well as the comfort of 
 their cattle, allow them some turnips in addition to their straw and hay. 
 On the third summer inferior pasture is sufficient, or they will get too fat, 
 but in the third winter they should be well kept, and particularly in the 
 spring and until they have calved. 
 
 Heifers at three years old will weigh from twenty-eight to forty- five 
 
THK RENFREWSHIRE BREED. I!f5 
 
 •tones imperial weight ; the ox will average, at that age, Iroin forty-five 
 to fifty-five stones, but some have weighed 130 stones. 
 
 Oxen have gradually given way to horses on the road and for husbandry 
 work, and there is now scarcely a team employed in the whole county. 
 
 The statistical account assigns 9120 as the number of cattle in Dum- 
 bartonshire, being not more than one to every sixteen acres. If these are 
 averaged at 61. per head, the value of the cattle will be 54,720?. 
 
 RENFREWSHIRE. 
 
 Renfrewshire is on the Firth of Clyde, and south of Dumbartonshire. 
 Its greatest length is only thirty-one miles, and its breadth thirteen miles, 
 and it is decidedly a manufacturing county, three-fourths of the inhabitants 
 living in the small towns. It contains 10,000 cattle, or about one to every 
 fifteen acres ; so that a sufficient number only are kept for the purposes of 
 the dairy, and scarcely enough for the consumption of beef. 
 
 The Highland cow is rarely met with ; she has been properly superseded 
 by the dairy cow of Scotland, the Ayrshire*. The Alderney was tried, as 
 promising to be valuable in a dairy county, from both the quantity and 
 quality of her milk, but she was not found to answer. She was crossed, 
 but with no success, by the native bull. The Durham was afterwards 
 attempted, and the Alderney crossed with it ; but, except on a few estates, 
 all have given way to the Ayrshire. The Ayrshire breed has been 
 materially improved in Renfrewshire within the last twenty years, not so 
 much, perhaps, in size as in fineness of bone and beauty of form. There 
 was long a very great error in the Renfrew system of management ; four- 
 fifths of the calves were sold almost as soon as they were dropped, and the 
 stock was kept up by purchasing from Ayrshire. It is true the whole 
 milk of the cow was thus preserved, and that was an object of great im- 
 portance in a dairy country ; but the breed of cows in Renfrew suffered to a 
 certain degree. The farmer did not systematically rear the calves of those 
 cows which from experience he knew to be the best, and thus secure the 
 improvement of his stock, bilt he trusted to the chance of purchase, which 
 was a perfect uncertainty, whatever judge of cattle he might be ; and sup- 
 posing him to be always so fortunate as to select a good milker, he had 
 moved her from her native place, and, with the exception, perhaps, of the 
 Ayrshire cow, oftener than any-other, he had, to a much greater degree than 
 some imagine, lessened her value. To a considerable extent, this practice 
 has been rectified ; but there are still yet too many dairymen who look 
 more t» present convenience and profit than to distant although not un- 
 certain advantage. 
 
 A great deal of the milk supplies the dense population of Paisley and 
 Greenock, and also of Glasgow, which is close on the borders of the 
 county. The remainder is manufactured into butter, with which these 
 and the other towns are supplied, and which is often made from the milk, 
 instead of waiting for the separation of the cream. The remainder goes 
 to the making of cheese, than which Scotland cannot produce any better. 
 It is known under the nanr<e of the Dunlop cheese, but no great quantity 
 of it has for some years past been made. The greater part of it is manu- 
 
 * TheRev. Mr.Maxvrelljinhis Statistical Account of Kilbarchan( 1799), in this county, 
 tinknowingly proves that the Ayrshire cow was early introduced here when he says, ' Tha 
 lows most esteemed here are those of a small miiuth, head and neck long and smtU. 
 With respect to colour, those spotted brown and white are preferred.' The Rev. Sir. 
 M'Latchie, in his account of Mearns, in 1796, says, 'Most of the cows here are of a 
 
 give from ten to fifteen Scots pints 
 
'26 CATTLE. 
 
 factured in Ayrshire, as will be. presently described. The population n 
 far too dense for a cheese dairy, and the farmer can find a readier and moie 
 profitable sale for his milk. 
 
 Sir Michael Stewart, to whom we owe some useful information, is ot 
 opinion that the Ayrshire cow has not been deteriorated by her removal to 
 Renfrew ; that during^ eight months in the year she will, on the average, 
 yield four gallons of milk per day, and will produce nearly one pound of 
 butter daily, and that, although used almost exclusively for the dairy, 
 she is only inferior to the West Highlanders for grazing. 
 
 Mr. Wilson, who compiled the survey of this county, says, The dairy 
 seems at all times to have been an important object in Renfrewshire. 
 Crawford, who wrote his history a century ago, says, 'The higher parts of 
 the county abound with grass, and choice pasturage, where there is made 
 excellent butter and cheese; and besides what is made use of in the county, 
 there are considerable quantities carried to the neighbouring shires ; and 
 the rents of the extensive property in Lockwinnoch parish, which belong 
 to ttie abbey of Paisley, were paid in iticks and cheese.' 
 
 The Renfrew dairymen manage thieir cattle better at calving time than 
 those of Dumbartonshire, for while they are allowed potatoes with their 
 straw during winter, the quantity of succulent food is increased as the 
 time (if calving approaches, in order to prepare for an increased flow of 
 milk, which, if not wanted for the calf, is profitable to the dairyman. 
 
 The calves usually get three gallons of new milk daily for about two 
 months : they are then put on young grass for six months, and upon 
 inferior pasture for the next eighteen months; after which, when supposed 
 to be in calf, they are fed along with the dairy cows. The summer feeding 
 fur grazing cattle consists chiefly of grass in the field, with vetches or 
 clover in the house. The winter feeding consists of turnips and potatoes 
 boiled or steamed with chaff or cut hay, or the turnips and potatoes 
 given raw, with straw and meadow hay. In spring, bean-meal is fre- 
 quently mingled with these. Near distilleries a great deal of draff and 
 dreg is used at all seasons. 
 
 The Renfrewshire Agricultural Society, which holds its annual meeting 
 at Paisley, has contributed very materially to the improvement of the 
 cattle in this district*. 
 
 AYRSHIRE. 
 
 This county extends along the eastern coast of the Firth of Clyde, and 
 the North Channel from Renfrew to Wigtownshire, by the former of which 
 it is bordered on the north, and by the latter on the south, while it has 
 Kircudbright, Dumfries, and Lanark on the east. It is necessary to 
 ineiilion this, in order that the reader may better comprehend the rapid 
 distribution of the Ayrshire cattle over all these districts. The climate is 
 mojst but mild ; and the soil, with its produce, is calculated to render it 
 the finest dairy country in Scotland, and equal perhaps to any in Great 
 
 * A district society, consisting of the parishes of Kilmalcolm, Port Glasgow, Grreenock. 
 ami Inneskip, in Renfrewshire, and Largs, in Ayrshire, has since started in honourable 
 rivalry, under the patronage of the Highland Society. The show is held at Greenock in the 
 first Week in August.. In 1830, one hundred guineas were distributed in prizes fortheheit 
 cattle, horses, xheep, and swine : 89 Ayrshire cattle, 12 West Highlanders, 28 sheep, and 
 17 horses were exhibited— making a total of 166; and the number of competitors was 57. 
 In 1851, 115 Ayrshire cattle, 18 West Highlanders, 86 sheep, and 40 horses were exhi- 
 •iited: — total 259; and 62 competitors. In 1832, 110 Ayrshire cattle were shown, 
 14 West Highlanders, 160 sheep, and 33 horses: — total 317 ; and 63 competitors. For 
 information respecting this branch society, we are indebted to Claud Marshall, Ksij, of 
 Greeoock, a very active member of the parent ona. 
 
THE AYRSniRK BREED. 12; 
 
 Britain. There is a great deal of permanent pasture on tlie sides and 
 tops of the hills, which is covered by sheep ; but tlie greater part of the 
 arable land is pustnre and crop alternately. The pasture-ground is occu- 
 pied by the beautiful dairy-stock, a very small portion of i*. being 
 reserved for the fattening of onwstoo old to milk.* 
 
 Ayrshire is divided into three districts ; — that lying on the south aide of 
 the river Doon is called the Bailiary Carrick — the country between the 
 Doon and the Irvine is the Bailiary of Kyle, and the district on the north of 
 the Irvine is Cunningham. It is this last division which lays principal, 
 claim to be the native country of the Ayrshire cattle, and, indeed, they 
 went by the name of the Cunninn-hani cattle before these three Bailieries 
 were united into one county under the name of Ayr. 
 
 Mr. Aiton, in his ' Treatise on the Dairy Breed of Gows,' (the most 
 valuable work on the Dairy husbandry of the north, and on Pairy hus- 
 bandry generally, that has yet been published,) thus describes th^ Ayr- 
 shire cattle (p. 86)— 'The shapes most approved of in the dairy breed are 
 as follows : — 
 
 ' Head small, but rather long and narrow at the muzzle ; the eye small, 
 but smart and lively ; the horiis small, clear, crooked, and their routs at 
 considerable distance from each other ; neck long and slender, tapering 
 towards the head, with no loose skin below; shoulders thin ; fore -quarters 
 light; hind-quarters \-drge ; back straight, broad bt hind, tlie joints rather 
 loose and open ; carcase deep, and pelvis capacious, and wide over the 
 hips, with round Qeshy buttocks t. TaiZ long and small ; legs small and 
 short, with firm joints ; udder capacious, broad and squarf, stretching 
 forward, and neither Seshy, low hung, nor loose ; the niiik veins large 
 and prominent ; to^ short, all pointing outwards, and at considerable 
 distance from each other; mn thin and loose; hair siA'l and woolly. 
 The head, bones, horns, and all parts of Uast vaiue, small ; and the 
 general figure compact and well proportioned.' 
 
 Mr. Aiton also informs us, that ' the Ayrshire farmers prefer their 
 dairy-bulls, accordiqg to the feminine aspect of their heads and necks ; and 
 
 * It may not be uninteresting to contrast the present improved state of agriculture and 
 agriculturists with what it was eighty or .ninety years ago. Colunel Fullertun, in his 
 ' Surrey of Ayrshire,' thus describes it :^— ' There was scarcely a practicable road iu the 
 county; — ^tbe farm-houses were mere hovels moated with clay, having the open hearth 
 or fire-place in the middle, the dunghill at the dour, the cattle starving, and the people 
 wretched- The land was overrun with weeds and rushes, and gathered into high broad 
 serpentine ridges — the soil collected on the top of the ridge, and the furrow drowned 
 with water — no fallow^-^no green crop— no sown grasses— hardly a potato, or any other 
 esculent root — no garden vegetables, unless a few Scotch kail; little straw; no hay, 
 except a scanty portion of the coarsest quality collected from the bogs — little or no 
 available dung — no carts or waggons to convey it to the land, but the ground scourged 
 with oats after oats as long as it would pay for seed and labour, and afford a small 
 surplus of oatmeal for the family, and then was left in a state of absolute sterility, or 
 overrun with thistles, until r^st again enabled it to produce a scanty crop. No dung 
 was ever spread on the out-field ; the starved csttled were suffered to poach the fields 
 from the end of harvest until the ensuing seed-time, — thus the natural grass was cut up, 
 or drowned with water standing in the cattle's footsteps. As there were fejv or no 
 enclosures, the horses were either tethered during the summer months, or loose as well as 
 the cattle, but under the tendancy of a boy and a cur-dog, and the poor aninials were kept 
 in constant agitation, and impelled by starvation to fly from their bare leys. Thus the 
 poor cattle, starved during the winter in the houses, and perpetually harassed during 
 summer in the fields, were never in a fit condition fur the market ; the finest lands were 
 <et for two or three shillings per acre ; and there was neither ski", capital, industry, nor 
 credit to do away all this wretchedness.' 
 
 f Mr. Rankine Very properly remarks, that, ' ci'mpnted With other improved breeds, 
 the thighs, or what are called the twist of the Ayrshire cuw are thin. She is,; charae- 
 
'28 CATTLE. 
 
 wish them not round behind, but broad at the hook-bones jind hips,, and 
 full in the flanks.' (p. 27.) Experience, and tliat rather dearly bought by 
 the dairyman, led to this, for the consequence of the crossing of the small 
 native breeds, with the heavy cattle imported from the south, was the 
 production of a bony, ill-sliaped animal, not much improved as a milker, 
 and its disposition to carry fat lamentably decreased; it may, however, 
 demand consideration whether the round and compact form of the West 
 Highlander and the Galloway have not been rather too much sacrificed, 
 and even the defects of the short^horn needlessly perpetuated. 
 
 Mr. Aiton adds, in his ' Survey' — ' The qualities of a cow are of great 
 importance. Tameness and docility of temper greatly enhance the value 
 of a milch cow. Some degree of hardiness, a sound constitution, and a 
 moderate degree of life and spirits are qualities to be wished for in a 
 dairy-cow, and what those of Ayrshire generally possess. The most 
 valuable quality which a dairy-'COw can possess- is, that she yields much 
 milk, and that of an oily or butyraceous, or caseous nature, and that after 
 she has yielded very large quantities of milk for several years, she shall 
 be as valuable for beef "as any other breed of cows known ; her fat shall 
 be much more mixed through the whole flesh, and she shall fatten faster 
 than any other.' This is high praise, and if it can be truly affirmed 
 of the Ayrshire cattle, we are naturally anxious to know the origin, 
 the progressive history, and the general management of this valuable 
 animal. 
 
 [The Agnhire Cow.'\ 
 The origin of the Ayrshire cow is even at the present day a matter of 
 dispute ; all that is certainly known about her is, that a century ago there 
 was no such breed in Cunningham, or Ayrshire, or Scotland. Did the Ayr- 
 shire cattle arise entirely from a careful selection of the best of the native 
 breed ? — ^if they did, it is a circumstance unparalleled in the history of 
 agriculture. The native breed may be ameliorated by careful selection, its 
 value may be incalculably increased, — some good qualities — some of its 
 best qualities — may be for the first time developed : but yet there will be 
 some resemblance to the original stock, and the more we examine thia 
 animal, the more clearly we can trace out the characteristic point» of the 
 ancestor, although every one cf therr ■"'"»""<»'' 
 
THE AYRSHIRE BRKED. 
 
 129 
 
 Mr. Alton gives the following description of the Ayrshire cattle 
 fifty }'ear8 ago: — 'The cows kept in the. districts of Kyle and Cun- 
 ningham were of a diminutive size, ill fed, ill shaped, and they 
 yielded but a scanty return in milk ; they were mostly of a black 
 colour, with large stripes of white along the chine or ridge of their 
 backs,^ about their flanks, and on their faces. Their horns were high 
 and crooked, having deep ringlets at the root, the plainest prool 
 that the cattle were but Bcantily fed; the chine of their backs stood 
 up high and narrow ; their sides were lank, short and thin ; their hides 
 thick, and adhering to the bones ; their pile was course and open ; and 
 few of them yielded more than three or four Scotch pints of milk per 
 day, when in their best plight; or weighed, when fat, more than from 
 twelve or sixteen to twenty stones avoirdupoise, sinking offal.' — p. 19. 
 
 He very naturally adds — ' It was impossible that these cattle, fed as 
 they then were, could be of great weight, well shaped, or yield mucri 
 milk. Their only food in winter and spring was oat-straw, and what they 
 could pick up in the fields to which they were turned out almost every 
 day, with a mash of a little corn with chaff daily for a few weeks after 
 calving, and their pasture in summer was of the very worst quality ; and 
 that coarse pasture was so overstocked, and. eaten so bare, that the cattlo 
 irere half-starved.' 
 
 [The Ayrshire Biili.] 
 
 If Mr. Alton's description of the present improved Ayrshire is correct, 
 the breed is very much changed, and yet there is so much indistinct 
 resemblance, that a great deal of it must have been done by careful selection, 
 from among the native cattle, and better feeding and treatment; but 
 when we look closer into the matter, the shortness, or rather diminu- 
 tiveness of the horns, their width of base, and awkward setting on — the 
 peculiar tapering towards the muzzle ; the narrowing at the girth ; the 
 bellying ; and the prominences of all the bones — these are features which 
 it would seem impossible for any selection from the native breed to give. 
 While therefore the judge of cattle will trace the features of the old 
 breed, he will suspect, what general tradition confirms, that it was 
 a fortunate crosi. or a succession of nroasRS with some foreign Stock 
 
 K 
 
J 30 CATTLE. 
 
 and that, probably, it was the Holderness that helped to produce the 
 improved Cunrtinghaiii cattle. 
 
 In many a district the attempt to introduce the Teeswater breed, or to 
 establish a cross from it, had palpably failed, for the soil and the climate 
 suited only the hardihood of' the Highlander ; but here was a mild 
 climate — a dairy country ; the Highlander was in a manner out of his 
 place ; he had degenerated, and the milking properties of the Holderness, 
 and her capability of ultimately fattening, although slowly, and at con- 
 siderable expense, happily amalgamated with his hardihood, and dispo- 
 sition to fatten, and there resulted a breed, bearing about it thfe stamp of 
 Its progenitors, and, to a very considerable degree, the good qualities of 
 both. 
 
 Mr. Robertson, in his ' Rural Recollections,' says — 'Who introduced 
 the present breed is not very precisely ascertained, but the late Colonel 
 FuHarton, whose account of "^ The Husbandry of AyrMre," which was 
 published in 1793, and whose authority is of considerable weight in every- 
 thing relating to it, states, that a gentleman of long experience, Mr. Bruce 
 Campbell, asserts that this breed Was introduced by the late Earl of 
 Marchmont.' The Earl of Marchmont alluded to must have been that 
 Alexander Hume Campbell, who married Margaret Campbell, heiress of 
 Assnoch, in the same parish, and who became Earl of Marchmont in 1724, 
 and died in 1740. The introduction, then, of this dairy-stock must have 
 happened between these two dates, and so far corresponds with the 
 traditionary account. 
 
 Mr. Robertson goes on to say, ' from what particular part of the 
 country they came there appears no evidence. My own conjecture is, 
 that they are either of the Holderness breed, or derived from it ; judging 
 from the varied colour, or, from somewhat better evidence, the small head 
 and slender neck, in which they bear a striking resemblance to them*.' 
 
 These cattle, from which, by crosses with the native breed, the present 
 improved Ayrshire arose, were first introduced on Lord Marchmont's 
 estates in Berwickshire. They were soon afterwards carried to the farms 
 belonging to the same nobleman at Sornberg in Kyle. A bull of the new 
 stock was sold to Mr. Hamilton of Sundrum ; then Mr. Dunlop in 
 Cunningham imported some of the Dutch cattle, and their progeny was 
 long afterwards distinguished by the name of the Dunlop cows. These 
 were the first of the improved, or stranger breed that reached the bailliery 
 of Cunningham. Mr. Orr, about the year 1767, brought to his estate of 
 Grongar, near Kilmarnock, some fine milch cows of a larger size than 
 any which had been on the farm. It was not, however, until about 1780 
 that this improved breed might be said to be duly estimated, or generally 
 
 * Some bleeders, however, have maintained that they were produced from the native 
 cow, crossed by the Alderney bull. It requires but one moment's inspection of the ani- 
 mals, to convince us that this supposition is altogether erroneous. 
 
 In Kawlin's ' Complete Cow-doctor,' published at Glasgow, in 1794, the following 
 account is given of the Ayrshire cattle at that time — ' They have anothei breed called 
 the DuioIdp cows, which are allowed to be the best race for yielding milk in Great 
 Britain or Ireland, not only for large quantities, but also for richness in quality. It is 
 said to be a mixture, by bulls brought from the Island of Alderney, with their own cows. 
 These are of a small size, not weighing more, upon an average, than from 24 to 30 stones. 
 These are allowed to yield more milk daily than any other kind of cattle, when a just 
 comparison is made of their size and pasture. They are much leaner and thinner than 
 any other of the Scotch or English breeds, when in the best grass. They are not deemed 
 a race of handsome cattle, but rather the contrary, being shaped more like the Dutch 
 breed than any of the natives of Scotland. Their horns are small, and stand remark- 
 ably awkward ; their colour is generally pied or of a sandy red, varying in this from all 
 l^er races.'— P. 66. 
 
, THE AYRSHIRE BREED 131 
 
 established in that part of Ayrshire ; althousrh they had begun to extend 
 heyond the Irvine into Kyle. About 1790, according to Mr. Aiton, 
 Mr. Fulton from Blith carried them first into Carrick, and Mr. Wilson of 
 Kilpatrick was the first who took them to the southern parts of that 
 district. So late as 1804 they were introduced on the estate of Penmore, 
 ou the Stonchar, and they are now the established cattle of Ayrshire: 
 they are increasing in the neighbouring counties, and have found their way 
 to most parts of Briton. 
 
 The breed has nmch improved since Mr. Aiton described it, and is 
 short in the leg. the neck a little thicker at the shoulder, but finely shaped 
 towards the heid U the horns smaller than those of the Highlanders, but 
 clear and smOQth, pointing forwards, and turning upwards, and taper- 
 ing to a point. They are deep in the carcase, but not round and ample, 
 and especially not so in the loins and haunches. Some, however, have 
 suspected, and not without reason, that an attention to the shape and 
 beauty, and an attempt to produce fat and sleeky cattle, which may be 
 admired at the show, has a tendency to improve what is only their 
 second point — their quality as grazing cattle, — and that at the hazard or 
 the certainty of diminishing their value as milkers. The statistical 
 account assigns 61,000 cattle to Ayrshire, of which more than half are 
 dairy-cows. The average will be one beast to every fifteen acres *. 
 
 We agree with Mr. Aiton, that the excellency of a dairy cow is esti- 
 mated by the quantity and the quality of her milk. The quantity yielded 
 by the Ayrshire cow is, considering her size, very great. Five gallons 
 daily, for two or three months after calving, may be considered as not 
 more than an average quantity. Three gallons daily will be given for 
 the next three months, and one gallon and a half during the succeeding 
 four months. This would amount to more than 850 gallons ; but, allowing 
 for some unproductive cows, 600 gallons per year may be considered 
 as the average quantity obtained annually from each cow. We shall 
 enter more into this presently. 
 
 The disposal of the milk varies according to the situation of the farm 
 and the character of the neighbourhood. If it is sold as new milk, at 8d, 
 per gallon at the first hand, the produce of the cow will be 201. per annum. 
 Some imagine that the profit will be greater if employed in the fattening 
 of calves. Others, at a distance from any considerable town, convert it 
 into butter or cheese. 
 
 The quality of the milk is estimated by the quantity of butter or cheese 
 that it will yield. Thnee gallons and a half of this milk will yield about a 
 pound of butter, country weight, or a pound and a' half avoirdupois ; and 
 when one gallon of water is added to four of milk, the butter-milk is 
 worth to the farmer, or will sell at, 2d. per gallon. An Ayrshire cow, 
 therefore, may be reckoned to yield 257 English pounds of butter per 
 
 * Mr. Robertson, who, in 1819,. examined all the farms) in Cunningham, fonn-l the 
 number of milch cows to be 12,563, and that of yetl cattle (those not in milk) of all 
 ages to be 8991, making a total of 21,554. 'I should conceive,' he says — (' Rural 
 Recollections, p. 573,') — 'that not more than the odd 1554 would be Highland stots, or 
 other yell cattle, bought iu at Dumbarton, or other Highland fairs for grazing iu 
 gentlemen's parks, or in cattle-dealers' pastures for feeding or for sale ; and that the rest 
 would be of the native breed of Cunningham, and consisting of about 437 bulls, 12,563 
 dairy-cows, and 7000 young cattle of all descriptions under the third year for keeping up 
 ihe stock. Of these a very considerable proportion are annually sold, and particularly of 
 the etterlins, or quays in calf in their third year, and also of milch cows of all ages. From 
 1200 to 1500 cows are sold annually out of the county in Cunningham alone. They 
 bring a very considerable price, and this probably, combined with the yearly produce of 
 the dairy, is. nerhans, little less than the amount of all the land-rents. 
 
 K 2 
 
.S2 CATTLE. 
 
 annum, or about five pounds per week all the year round, beside ili* 
 value of the butter-milk and her calf. 
 
 When the calculation is formed, according to the quantity of cheese 
 that is usually produced, the following will be the result: — twenty-eight 
 gallons of milk, with the cream, will yield a stone (241bs.) of sweet-milk 
 cheese, or 514 lbs. avoirdupois per annum, beside the whey and thecal!*. 
 
 This is certainly an extraordinary quantiiy of butter and cheese, and 
 fully establishes the reputation of the Ayrshire cow, so far as the dairy is 
 concerned+ 
 
 It is the practice in many parts of Ayrshire to let the cows to a professed 
 milkman at so much per cow per annum. This is provincially called a 
 bowing, or boyening, from boyen, a milk-pail. The farmer provides the 
 cows and requisite dairy-vessels, the whole summer pasture and winter 
 foddering, and houses and litter for the cows, and a habitation for the 
 milkman ; while the boyener takes the whole charge of the milking, and ilie 
 management and disposal of the butter, or milk, or cheese, or whey, as he 
 chooses. The price varies from 8Z. to 15/. In the neighbourhood of 
 large towns it may be averaged at 15Z. ; and if to this be added the wage.s 
 of a milkman or milkmaid for every eight cows, the whole expense of the 
 cow will be 18Z. ; and the money received, at lOd. per gallon, for 600 
 gallons, being but 26i!., there will result only 11. per annum profit on each 
 cow ; but this supposes that the milk of the cow is fairly disposed of without 
 adulteration or trickery \. Mr. Alton rates the profit of the Ayrshire cow 
 
 * A Scotch pint is nearly two English quarts. An Ayrshire pound consists of 24 
 ounces, and sixteen of these pounds, or 24 lbs. avoirdupois, make a stone. Mr. FuUar- 
 ton, in his ' Statistical Account of Dulry,' in this county, states that in 1794, before 
 the establishment of this improved Ayrshire cow, each cow would yield, on the average, in 
 the course of the season, 18 stones, or 288 lbs. of sweet-milk cheese. 
 
 t In s«me experiments conducted at the Earl of Chesterfield's dairy at Bradley-Hull 
 farm, it appeared that, in the height of the season, the Holderness would yield 7 gallons 
 and a quart ; the long horn and the Alderney, 4 gallons 3 quarts ; and the Devon, 4 cal- 
 lous 1 pint per day : and when this was made into butter, the result was, from the Holder- 
 ness, 384 ounces ; from the Devon, 28 ounces ; and from the Alderney, 25 ounces. Tlit 
 Ayrshire yields 5 gallons per day, and from that is produced 34 ounces of butter. 
 
 I Mr. Robertson gives a curious extract from the farm-book of Mr. David Blair, of 
 GifFordland, in this county, dated 1743: — 
 
 ' Mind thatP. Lawson farmed 7 cows at 8 pounds each(13*. id., the Scots pound being 
 equivalent to Is. Sd.). She entered to the milk on the 21st of May, to the end of harvest. 
 • She made of sweet-milk cheese 9f stone, at 2/. 0». lOrf. . . ^19 10 
 
 6| stone of butter, at 2/. 13«. 4rf. . . . . . . 18 
 
 1 1^ stone, common cheese, at 1/. fis. 8rf. . . . . 15 6 8 
 
 Milk and cream to the house . . . . . . 6 
 
 Scots £58 16 8 
 ' She also sent ^ stone sweet-milk cheese to Glasgow, in a compliment.' — Rur. 
 ReciMec, p. 62. 
 
 The woman ijained 2,1. I6». 8rf. Scots, or 4». Hd. by her bargain, and the system of 
 bowing or boyemny was not again attempted during the period of thirty-six years, which 
 this bouk embraces. 
 
 This extract is interesting, as showing the improvement of the Ayrshire cow since that 
 period. These cows were taken at the very height of the season; and yet, reckoning 
 9 Scotch pints for a pound of butter, or 4^ pints for a pound of cheese, and that the 
 season lasted twenty weeks, they scarcely yielded 3 pints (1^ gallon) each per day. Tt 
 is a bad Ayrshire covp that does not now yield three times that quantity. 
 
 The same hook, extending from 1729 to 1 76,'), also records tlie ainimnt of waires — 
 1729—1742. 1743-1759. 176(1—1765. 
 
 A ploughman, yearly . . i2 13 4 .. jt;j 6 8 .. i3 10 to £5 Cl 
 A maid servant ,, • ; 16 8.. 1 10 .. 1 10 to 2 C 
 
 In more modern times, ir that part of the country, the wages were as follows ■ 
 
 179C. 1828. ■ 
 
 A ploughman, yearly . . £12 to £16 £14 C to £18 i< 
 k maid servant „ . . 5 t ^ „ „ .. 
 
THE AYRSHIRE BREED. 13, 
 
 at a higher value. He says, ' To sum up all in one sentence, I now repeat 
 that hundreds and thousands of the best Scotch dairy cows, when they are 
 in their best condition and well fed, yield at the rate of 2000 Scotch pints of 
 milk (1000 gallons) in one year ; that, in general, from 7 J to 8 pints (3| to 
 4 gallons) of their milk will yield a pound of butter, county weight (IJlb. 
 avoirdupois) ; that 55 pints (27^ gallons) of their milk will produce one 
 stone and a half imperial weight of full milk-cheese ; that at the proper 
 season, and when a healthy calf is fed, and the prices of veal as high as 
 they have frequently- been within the last fifteen years, milk will yield 
 a profit in veal equal to 3^d or id. per pint (^ gallon) ; and where the 
 buttermilk can be sold that will yield a similar profit. 
 
 Mr. Rankine, the author of an excellent report of a Kyle farm (in the 
 Reports of Select Farms, No. 2, Farmer's Series, No. 12), and some of 
 whose observations, with which we have been privately favoured, we have 
 embodied in our account of the Ayrshire cattle, very justly, we think, 
 maintains that Mr. Aitoli's statement is far too high, and his calculations 
 not well founded. ' He deduces his statement,' says Mr. Rankine, ' from 
 the circumstance of some farmers letting the milk of their cows for a year 
 at 15/. and 17Z., which, taking 60 pints (half-gallons) to produce an Ayr- 
 shire stone (24 lbs.) of cheese, and the price being 10s., would require 
 2160 pints for each cow. But he is not warranted in inferring that the 
 milk from which these rents were paid was all converted into cheese. I 
 am convinced that no such rents were ever paid for cows where a consi- 
 derable portion of the milk was made into cheese. In the vicinity of a 
 town where the whole of the milk could be sold for 4d. a pint (half-gallon), 
 900 pints would bring Ibl. Where the whole of the milk could have been 
 turned to such an account, such rents might have been paid ; but it is erro- 
 neous to calculate the quantity of milk given from the quantity of cheese 
 required to enable a rent of 15Z. to be paid. His first statement (page 
 110 of this work) that 1200 Scots pints (600 gallons) are yielded, though 
 far above the average of all the cows in the county, may be too low when 
 applied to the best-selected stocks and on good land, but I have reason tc 
 believe that no stock of 20 cows ever averaged 1 800 or 1700 pints (900 or 
 850 gallons) each in the year. I have seen eighteen pints of milk drawn 
 from a cow in one day. I had a three-year-old quey that once, for six 
 weeks after calring, gave 14 pints a day. The dairymaid predicted that 
 there "had been o'ermuckle talk about her, for ony luck to come of her," 
 and she soon afterwards received an injury in her udder, which caused 
 one of her quarters to become dry of milk. These, however, are rare 
 ' instances.' 
 
 ' I quote with confidence,' Mr. Rankine proceeds, ' the answers to 
 queries which I sent to two individuals. The first is a man of superior 
 intelligence and accuracy, and who has devoted himself very much to 
 dairy hu.sbandry. He keeps between twenty and thirty cows, and his 
 stock has for many years been the handsomest I ever saw, and his farm 
 being close to a small town, he had every inducement to keep them in the 
 highest condition that is requisite for giving the largest produce in milk. 
 He states that, at the best of the season, the average milk from eadh is 9 
 Scots pints (4J gallons), and in a year 1300 Scots pints (650 gallons) ; 
 tliat in the summer season 64 pints (32 gallons) of entire milk will make 
 an Ayrshire stone (24 lbs.) of cheese ; and 96 pints (48 gallons) of 
 skimmed milk will produce the same quantity : and that 180 pints (90 
 gallons) will make 24 lbs. of butter. 
 
 Another farmer, in a different district of this county, and who keeps a 
 stock of between 30 and 40 very superior cows, and always in conditionf 
 
134 CATTLE. 
 
 states thai the average produce of each is 1375 pints (6S7J gallons). 
 My belief, on the whole, is, that although there may be Ayrshire cows 
 capable of giving 1800 pints in the year, it would be difficult to bring half 
 a score of them together; and that in stocks of the greater number most 
 carefully selected, and liberally fed, from 1300 to 1400 pints is the very 
 highest produce of each in the year.' 
 
 Mr. Rankine concludes with giving his experience on his own farm, 
 the soil of which is of an inferior nature, and on which his cows produced 
 about 1100 pints (550 gallons), and the receipts from which amounted to 
 only Tl. 13s. Qd. per cow. 
 
 We Tiave entered at considerable length into this, because it is of some 
 importance to ascertain the real value and produce of this celebrated 
 Scottish breed of cattle, and also to correct an error in an agricultural 
 work, deservedly a standard one in Scotland, and which may otherwise be 
 implicitly relied on. 
 
 We have spoken of the improvement which a cross with the Ayrshire 
 has effected in some of the Welsh cattle ; but the Ayrshire cattle are not 
 yet sufficiently known, and cannot be procured cheap enough, or in ade- 
 quate numbers, to undergo a fair trial in the south. Some of them have 
 been tried in the London dairies. As mere milkers, they could not compete 
 with the long-established metropolitan dairy cow, the short-horn. They 
 yielded as much milk, in proportion to their size and their food, but not in 
 proportion to the room they occupied, and the increased trouble which 
 they gave from being more numerous in order to supply the requisite 
 quantity of milk. They produced an unusual quantity of rich cream ; but 
 there was so much difficulty in procuring them, so as to keep up the 
 stock, and the price asked for them was often so great, that they were com- 
 paratively abandoned. 
 
 The fattening properties of the Ayrshire cattle we believe to be a little 
 exaggerated. They will feed kindly and profitably, and their meat will be 
 good. They will fatten on farms and in districts where others could not 
 be made to thrive at all, except partly or principally supported by artificial 
 food. They unite, perhaps, to a greater degree than any other breed the 
 supposed incompatible properties of yielding a great deal of milk and beef. 
 It is, however, as Mr. Rankine well obserTes, on the inferior soil and the 
 moist climate of Ayrshire and the west of Scotland that their superiority as 
 milkers is most remarkable. On their natural food of poor quality they 
 give milk abundantly and long, and often until within a few days of 
 calving ; but when they are moved to richer pasture, their constitution 
 changes, and they convert their food more into beef. In their own country, 
 a cow of a fleshy make, and which seldom proves a good milker, mav be 
 easily raised to 40 or 50 stones, and bullocks of three years old are brought 
 to weigh from 50 to 60 stones. There is a lurking tendency to fatten about 
 them which good pasture will bring to light ; so that when the Ayrshire 
 cow is sent to England she loses her superiority as a milker, and begins 
 to accumulate flesh. On this account it is that the English dealers whc 
 purchase the Ayrshire cows generally select the coarsest animals they can 
 find, in order to avoid this consequence of the change of climate and food. 
 It is useless to exaggerate the qualities of any cattle, and it canntit be denied 
 that even in this tendency to fatten when their milk begins to fail, or which 
 often causes it to fail, the Ayrshires must yield to their forefathers the 
 Highlanders, and also to their neighbours the Galloways, when put on a 
 poor soil ; and they will be left considerably behind their short-horn sires 
 when transplanted to luxuriant pasture. It will be long, perhaps, before 
 they will be favourites with the butchers, for the fifth quarter will n<» 
 
THK AYRSHIRE BREED. 13» 
 
 naually weigh well in them. Their fat is mingled with the flesh rathei 
 than separated in the form of tallow; yet this would give a more beau- 
 tiful appearance to the meat, and should enhance its price to the consumer. 
 
 Two circumstances, however, may partially account for their not being 
 thought to succeed so well when grazed: they are not able to travel so far 
 on the same keeping as the Highland cattle can do ; and, from their great 
 value as milkers, they are often kept until they are too old to fatten to 
 advantage, or for their beef to become of the best quality. 
 
 Mr. Alton gives an account of the treatment of the Ayrshire cow in 
 large farms generally when he describes the management of that of his friend 
 Mr. Ralston of Kirkiim, in the county of Wigton. 
 
 ' He keeps sixty milch cows at Kirkum, and nearly the same number at 
 another farm a few miles distant ; besides, he rears on one or two other 
 farm.s thirty or forty young cows to keep up the stock and for sale. His 
 cows are of the Ayrshire breed in its greatest perfection, and so well 
 managed, that every milch cow on his farms yields him her own weight of 
 the best cheese to be met with in Scotland, and for which he draws the 
 value of the cow annually. 
 
 ' Mr. Ralston keeps his cows constantly in the byre till the grass has risen 
 so as to aSbrd them a full bite. Many put them out every good day through 
 the winter and spring, but they poach the ground with their feet, and nip 
 up the young grass as it begins to spring, which, as they have not a full 
 meal, injures the cattle. Whenever the weather becomes dry and hot, he 
 feeds his cows on cut grass in the b^'re from six o'clock in the morning to 
 six at night, and turns them out to pasture the iither twelve hours. When 
 rain comes, the house-feeding is discontinued. Whenever the pasture -grass 
 begins to fail in harvest, the cows receive a sujiply of the second growth 
 of clover, and afterwards of turnips strewed over the pasture-ground. 
 When the weather becomes stormy in the months of October or Novem- 
 ber, the cows are kept in the byre during the night, and, in a short time 
 after, during both night and day ; they are then fed on oat-straw and tur- 
 nips, and continue to yield a considerable quantity of milk for some tinie. 
 Part of the turnip crop is eaten up in the end of harvest and beginning of 
 winter to protract the milk, and part of them are stored up for green food 
 during the winter. After they are exhausted, the Swedish turnip and pota- 
 toes are used along with dry fodder till the grass can support the cows. 
 Chaff, oats, and potatoes are boiled for the cows after calving, and they 
 are generally fed on rye-grass during the latter partot the spring.' (Sur- 
 vey, p. 439.) 
 
 Mr. Rankine, in his account of his own farm of poorer ground, and 
 deficient in winter food, (Farmer's Series, No. 12, p. 45,) enters more 
 into particulars. ' In the end of autumn, when the nights become cold, 
 they are kept in the house after sunset, and get a little fodder ; and from 
 the middle of November until the pasture is again ready for them, they 
 are fed entirely in the house, and let out only in fine weather to get water. 
 They are regularly curried and kept as clean as possible. As there is not 
 a sufficient quantity of green crop to supply them with succulent food, the 
 milk is put off them as quickly after they are taken from the grass as it 
 can with safety. Those that are to calve late in the spring, and that are 
 continuing to give a considerable quantity of milk, get a little extra feeding; 
 the rest have straw alone. When the calving time approaches, they get 
 chaff or cut-hay, boiled in a good deal of water, and enriched with a few 
 potatoes or a little pea-meal, with hay to eat. In this way tliey go to the 
 grass, which happens in general about the middle of May, in as good 
 condition as when they left it. No food is found to produce so much 
 
'3« CATTLE. 
 
 effect as pea -meal, and will be profitably bestowed at the ordinary price of 
 the ^ain, and though given in very moderate quantity*. Till the beginnitig 
 of June they are seldom allowed to lie in the field during the night; but 
 though they are protected as much as possible fi-om cold, their houses are 
 at all seasons kept well aired and cool.' 
 
 The advantage of feeding well in winter, and sending a cow to grass in 
 good condition, is now generally understood ; but the defect in practice is, 
 that what can be afforded to the cows in this way is given only while they 
 are in milk or when they calve. The return is, indeed, rendered more 
 immediate, but it would be still more advantageous if a fair portion of 
 the proper winter's food were given to the dairy cows after they were dry 
 of milk. 
 
 Among smaller and poorer farmers, however, the Ayrshire cow under- 
 goes more hardships than she should be exposed to. It is in the winter 
 food ftiat these people are most deficient, and the cows frequently have 
 nothing besides oat-straw and bog-hay, or a very small quantity of turnips 
 in the winter, and potatoes in the spring ; so that, when they are turned 
 out to grass in May, they are very poor, and it is long before they give 
 their proper quantity of milk, or the milk is good for anything. It is well 
 for theni if there are any turnips left at winter, for in many cases these are 
 all given in the autumn in order to preserve the milk a little longer. If the 
 oat crop should fail, the cows of the small farmer fare hardly indeed. 
 Mr. Alton says that 'in 1800 more than a third part of the cows and 
 horses were killed for want of fodder. •Nothing could be done but to kill 
 part of the stock that the rest might be saved.* 
 
 Mr. Alton ('Dairy Husbandry,' p. 31) gives a satisfactory account of 
 the rearing of the dairy stock. They are selected from parents of the best 
 quality, and few are brought up that are not of the fashionable colour, 
 'i'hose are preferred that are dropped about the end of March or the 
 beginning of April, as they are ready for the early grass, and attain 
 some size before winter. 
 
 Calves reared for dairy stock are not allowed to suck their dams, but are 
 always fed by the hand from a dish. They are generally fed on milk, 
 only for the first four, five, or six weeks, and are then allowed from 
 four to five quarts of new milk, twice in the twenty-four hours (Mr. 
 Rankine says ' from 10 to 12 quarts'). Some never give them any other 
 food when young, except milk ; and lessen the quantity when the calves 
 begin to eat grass or other food, which they will generally do at about five 
 weeks old : the milk is totally withdrawn about the seventh or eighth 
 week of the calf's age. If, however, the calf is" reared in the winter, or 
 early in the spring before the grass rises, it must be longer supplied with 
 milk, for it will not so soon learn to eat hay or straw. Some mix 
 meal with the milk after the third or fourth week ; others add new whey 
 to the milk, which has been first mixed with meal ; and when the calf 
 gets two months old they withdraw the milk, and feed it on whey and 
 porridge. Hay-tea, broths, of peas or beans, or of pea or bean straw, 
 linseed beaten into powder, treacle, &c. have all been sometimes used to 
 
 * Take a bushel of chaff, and eight or ten sound yellow or Swedish turnips, having the 
 tops and tails carefully taken off: add a sufficient quantity of water, and boil them together 
 four or five hours. Add as much water as will allow the hand to move easily through the 
 mass. Squeeze down the turnips, and add three pounds of pea-meal. Give this to a cow 
 in the morning, and the same in the evening, and as much sweet hay as she will eat up 
 rlean, five times a day ; then, without much expense, her butter will be as rich, and of as 
 fine a flavour as can be produced in winter. Should the peculiar flavour of the turnip lie 
 detected, which is not likely, a small quantity of saltpetre put to the cream will lake 
 it off. 
 
THE AYRSHIRE BREED. I.t7 
 
 advantage in feeding calves ; but milk, wlien it can he spared, is tlie most 
 natural food. 
 
 Tiie dairy calves are generally fed on the best pasture during' the first 
 summer, and have some preference over the otlier stock in fooddiirinsf the 
 next winter; or they are allowed to run loose in a yard with a shed, and 
 are supplied with green food in cribs. When the green food is eaten, 
 they get with straw as many turnips as can be afforded them, and that is 
 generally a very small quantity. Mr. Eankine saVs that " there is no 
 reason to doubt that this mode of feeding during the first season is prefer- 
 able to pasturing. Besides the excellent dung produced, the animals 
 arrive, under this treatment, at a much greater size." From that time, until 
 they drop their first calf, they are generally turned on inferior pasture, and 
 are no better fed in winter than any other species of stock. They are 
 allowed what oat-straw they can eat during the night and morning, and, 
 except in time of snow, are turned out to the fields during the daytime. 
 The greatest part of the young dairy stock are kept in byres or in sheds 
 during winter, but some are laid out, and supported with straw in the 
 fields. 
 
 There is nothing peculiar in the mode of manufacturing the Ayrshire 
 butter, nor even the sweet milk or Dunlop cheese, so called from the dis- 
 trict in Cunningham in which it was either first or best made. It is 
 difficult to tell when it was first made, for a well-known rhyme says that, in 
 the olden time, it was customary to look to 
 
 ' Kyle for a man, 
 And Cairick for a cow, 
 Cunningham for butter and cheese, 
 And Galloway foi woo'.' 
 
 Some have traced the secret to an old woman who returned from Ireland 
 after the revolution of 1688: but the whole mystery consists in the rich- 
 ness of the milk ; in the cheese being honestly made of the milk, cream 
 and all, although strange stories are sometimes told of the pilferings of 
 the cream, and the extent to which it may be carried without detection ; 
 in the milk being, as its name imports, perfectly sweet ; in particular 
 attention being paid to the temperature of the milk when the rennet is 
 added (75 degrees, and that most accurately ascertained by the dairy- 
 maid's thermometer, the tip of her finger), and in the cheese being dried 
 in a cool place, without any painting or sweating, or rubbing with grease 
 or oil *. 
 
 The Dunlop sweet-milk cheese has a peculiarly mild and rich taste, and 
 also a frequent want of firmness ; thus being readily distinguished from the 
 harder, rougher, dryer Cheshire, and the mild and fatty but somewhat 
 sticky Gloucester cheese. 
 
 Tiie sldm-milk, or common cheese, is made in Ayrshire, as everywhere 
 else, of the milk from which the cream has been separated t- 
 
 In Carrick chiefly, but not exclusively, many black cattle are grazed 
 and' fattened for the Scotch and English markets. They are mostly a 
 peculiar breed, the history of which cannot be perfectly ascertained. 
 
 * Mr. Alton says, ' I had access to know that John Reid, tenant in Silverwood, in the 
 parish of Kilmarnock, made full-milk cheese on that farm as eaily as the year 1750. It 
 was made by John Love in Monkland in that neighbourhood, about the same period : 
 but it was not until the year 1770, that any considerable numher of the farmers in lh.it o. 
 neighbouring parishes began to make full-milk chtese. (' Pairy Husbandry.') 
 
 t For a very interesting comparison, and one rich in practical uilormation, between 
 the manufacture of the Cheshire and Dunlop cheise, we refer lo Mr. Alton's invalnabin 
 ' Tieadtise on Dairy Husbandry.' and also to the ■ British Husbandry' of the ' FarmM'i 
 
♦38 CAITLK 
 
 They are polled, yet they differ from the Galloways, and they differ as 
 essentially from the Kyloes. An intelligent writer in the ' Farmer's 
 Mag^uzine' (1807) describes them as 'black, with long thick hair— their 
 shape round and square, straight on the back, well limbed, and when 
 standing upright, the more they have of the four-footed stool, they are 
 esteemed the more perfect. Their general look and figure indicate 
 strength and hardiness, and the finer and more perfect that figure is, 
 the easier they are fed. They consist of stots and spayed queys, and 
 of cows.' 
 
 The stots and spayed queys are purchased from the breeder at a year 
 and a- half or two years old, and kept until they are three or four, when 
 they are driven to England along with the Galloway droves. They are 
 never in the house from the time they come from the breeder, but are 
 fed in the fields on grass and hay until they are driven away. 
 
 The transfer of these cattle is carried on by the drovers and country- 
 dealers (a kind of middle men between the Scotch and English dealers) 
 Some of them have a little capital to begin with, but others, at theii 
 outset, have only the credit of a fair character. Their common practice was 
 to deal upon credit, by giving their bill for what they purchase, payable at 
 three months : the grazier took this bill to a bank, endorsed it as a cau- 
 tioner, and got the money. If the drover met with a ready market in 
 England, he took up the bill when it became due— 'if not, the cautioner 
 had the debt to pay. 
 
 In consequence of this mode of doing business, there was a great dea. 
 of speculation and risk ; and when a great drover happened to fail, a 
 whole country-side was almost laid waste. This mode of dealing yet 
 continues to some extent, but the farmer, grown wise by experience, is 
 now far more anxious to deal for ready money. 
 
 Some of the farmers in Carrick carry on an extensive business ir. 
 grazing cows. They buy up those that are old, or which fail at the 
 pail, or are not good breeders, and lay them on the pasture about 
 Hallow-day, where they remain a year, when they are bought up by 
 dealers or butchers for supplying the Edinburgh and Glasgow markets. 
 They require grass of a better quality than the stots ; they are fed in the 
 open fields during the whole season ; they seldom get turnips or other 
 green food during the winter, but when the pastures begin to fail, hay and 
 straw are given to them twice in the day until about the beginning 
 of May. 
 
 On the heath-covered mountains of the south and south-east extremities 
 of Ayrshire a considerable number of black cattle are reared. They 
 are of the same kind as those which we have just described ; but even in 
 the present improved state of husbandry, many more stock are kept on 
 the ground than can possibly thrive, and there is a sad deficiency of 
 wholesome, nourishing food during the winter. 
 
 In the beautiful village of Colmonell, on the banks of the Struchian, 
 there are usually at least three thousand black cattle ; the breeding of 
 them is a great object in this part of the country, and their value has 
 rapidly increased*. 
 
 * A singular practice used to prevail in some parts of Ayrshire, and particularly in the 
 neighbourhood of Largs. — ^The husbandry horses were hired during the winter and spring 
 from the neighbouriug districts, and after the ploughing and sowing were over, they were 
 returned home, often in a poor state, to do the work of their ill-judging masters. The 
 saving of fodder, and the earning of a little money, were the alleged excuses. 
 
 Mr. Lockart, in his statistical account of the parish of Lanark, gives an interesting account 
 of the commencement of the inclosure and planting of Lanark-moor, which consisted of 
 1500 acres of land abandoned to heath e.iii bM* Krass, Jn the iw'irhbQurhoQd of a nonulous 
 
THE LANARKSHIRE BREED. 13f 
 
 A few of the native wild cattle are found in Androssan park belonging 
 to the Earl of Eglintown, and in Auchencruive park, the seat of ^.r. 
 Oswald. They are, however, suspected not to be in a state of perfect 
 purity ; they are of a cieam colour, with black muzzles, and black or 
 brown, or red ears. 
 
 Oxen are not worked, nor is there any creditable account of their 
 ever having been worked, in Ayrshire ; and the system of straw-yard 
 feeding is seldom practised. 
 
 LANARKSHIRE, OR CLYDESDALE. 
 
 The latter name is derived from the river Clyde, which rises in the 
 south-west on the borders of Peebles, and pursues its winding course for 
 sixty miles through the heart of the county. The climate is mild, and 
 severe frosts or snow are seldom of long continuance; — there is a great 
 deal of natural pasture and meadow-land, fitting it to become an 
 excellent dairy-country, and which has been its character for nearly a 
 century. 
 
 Lanark is supposed to contain 30,000 cattle, all of which are connected 
 with the dairy, except a very few that are bought in to feed on the 
 summer pastures. The breed, as in the majority of dairy counties, is 
 strangely various, according to the caprice, or skill, or ignorance of the 
 occupier of the ground. They may, however, be divided into two 
 classes-T-the Highlanders, with all their varieties and crosses, and the Ayr- 
 shires, which are gradually superseding everything else. 
 
 The dairy breed, on the borders of the Clyde, although of the Ayrshire 
 stock, are somewhat altered by the difference and superiority of soil. 
 They are longer and rounder in the chest, heavier in the fore-quarters, 
 and less capacious behind ; they appear to have materially improved in 
 their grazing qualities, and yet, contrary to their usual character, they have 
 not suffered much deterioration as milkers. 
 
 Mr. Aiton ('J)airy Husbandry,' p. 27) says that ' Lord Belhaven kept 
 at Wishaw-hduse for several years a bull of the dairy breed, of uncommon 
 beauty ; he was, however, a native of Beith, in the county of Ayr. He 
 was longer and rounder in the chest, deeper in the ribs near to the 
 shoulder, and his fore-quarters stronger and heavier than the bulls most 
 approved of in the county of Ayr.' From him descended a great part of 
 the Lanarkshire cattle. The fact was, that the richer soil of Lanark 
 would maintain a heavier beast than that of Ayrshire: Lanark was 
 not so decidedly and proverbially a dairy county ; therefore this bull 
 became deservedly a favourite, on account of his superior weight before 
 
 and manufacturing town. Mr. Honeyman, advocate of Groemsaj', was the first who ven- 
 tured to fen, or take on lease any great quantity of this common land. He obtained a grant 
 from the magistrates of nearly 300 acres. Part of it he inclosed forpasturage, and the rest 
 he planted with Scots pine and larch, and beech and ash; but he was violently opposed 
 by some of the burgesses, who claimed an immemorial right of servitude upon this moor 
 for the pasturage of a certain number of cattle, and for fuel, seal and divoi; and it was 
 long before they could be induced to accept a more than equivalent for this right. 
 
 He also states, that until after the middle of the last century, ' the lands of the out 
 parish were generally let in small farms for nineteen years, the rents paid in victuals, and 
 the labour performed by the tenant and his own family. A few acres adjoining to the 
 house were kept in constant tillage ; upon which all the dung of the farm was laid, and 
 the out-fields were kept alternately for three years in oats and three years in pasture.' 
 This is the wretched system of infield and outfield, to which we have before referred ; 
 but he adds, when the victual rents were abolished, a spirit of industry and improvement 
 began to difi'use itself over the parish, A regular system of inclosincf commenced, and 
 
40 CATTLE. 
 
 and his being deep and level at the heart placet which are points o< 
 essential innportance for grazing. 
 
 The object of the dairy is chiefly pursued on the banks of the Clyde, 
 and much butter and cheese are manufactured which find a ready sale at 
 Paisley, Glasgow, and Edinburgh. Even the higher parts of this district, 
 which elsewhere would be devoted to sheep-feeding, and which ought 
 to be so devoted here, are converted into dairy grounds ; and the butter, 
 although not so oily, is equally well flavoured, and scarcely ever becomes 
 rancid. The milch cows are fed on the best pastures during summer, and 
 a few turnips are given in the autumn to protract the milk ; but not in 
 sufficient quantity to produce the unpleasant taste of the butter which 
 usually accompanies full turnip-feeding. 
 
 Lanarkshire is principally noted for its feeding of calves, which is 
 chiefly carried on in the district of Strathaven, on the borders of Ayrshire. 
 The Lanark or Strathaven veal is supposed to possess a peculiarly 
 delicate flavour, and is much esteemed in the markets of Edinburgh 
 and Glasgow. The calves which are dropped in Ayrshire and La- 
 narkshire in the winter and the spring are sold to those who 
 attend to this branch of dairy husbandry in Ayrshire and Strat- 
 haven. Mr. Alton (' Survey of Ayrshire,' p. 442) gives the follow- 
 ing account of the management of this department of dairy hus- 
 bandry : — ' They are fed on milk, which they are taught to drink 
 from a dish ; it is given to them by some feeders sparingly at first, to 
 render their appetite more keen, and to prevent them from loathing their 
 food, and as they grow up, the quantity of milk is gradually increased to 
 as much as the calves can be made to drink ; but others, with better 
 success, give them a good supply from first to last.' For the first week or 
 two they will not be able to consume more than one-half of a good cow's 
 milk ; but when they are coaxed to eat in order to make fat veal, a calf 
 at a month old will consume a cow's milk, and, before it is two months 
 old, it will take the greater part of the milk of two cows. The calves 
 that are reared for stock have usually the first drawn milk, and those 
 that are feeding for veal, that which is last drawn from two or three cows; 
 or, if all are fattening for veal, the first milk, provincially named /oreiroarfs, 
 is given to the younger ones, and that which is last drawn, the afteringi, 
 to the older ones. Mr. Aiton reprobates the practice of mixing eggs and 
 meal with the milk, from the erroneous notion of their darkening the 
 flesh and web and lights of these animals: — certainly they cannot be 
 needed if plenty of milk is allowed, but of this crime of darkening the car- 
 case they are perfectly innocent. 
 
 He very properly adds, and it contains the whole mystery of calf 
 feeding: — 'The only art now used in feeding calves in the vicinity 
 of Strathaven is to give them, after the first two or three weeks, abun. 
 dance of milk, to keep plenty of dry litter under them, in a place that 
 is well aired, neither too hot nor too cold, and to exclude the, light, as 
 they are apt to become too sportive when they enjoy much light.' 
 
 When the calves become costive, a little bacon or mutton-broth will 
 open the bowels, and if they begin to purge, a small quantity of rennet 
 put into their milk will cure the disease. A lump of chalk is usually 
 placed within their reach, and with decided advantage. 
 
 The practice of bleedmg to expedite their fattening is not approved of; 
 neither are infusions of hay, or oil-cake, or linseed, or any other food 
 beside milk. They are occasionally reared to a most extraordinary size ; 
 they have weighed nearly twenty-six stones, exclusive of the oBal. An 
 account is on record of one that weighed more than forty stones. After 
 
THE LANARKSHIRE BREED 141 
 
 Ihe animal is eight or ten weeks old, and perhaps is worth from four to 
 six pounds, the continued feeding will seldom be profitable, and the milk 
 may be put to a better use*. T^vo or three days before the calf is des- 
 tined to be killed, he is sometimes fed on water-gruel, in order to dilute, 
 as it is supposed, his blood, and to give more whiteness to the flesh. 
 
 In this manner rich veal is fattened and sent to Glasgow, but prin- 
 cipally to Edinburgh, from Christmas to the end of summer, and it some- 
 times obtains a most exorbitant price. 
 
 This is a simple, but somewhat expensive method of feeding, and we 
 record it among the peculiarities of certain districts as they pass in review 
 before us. The profit from it is very great. A thriving calf can be pur- 
 chased, newly dropped, at from 6s. to 8s., and raised on the milk of one 
 cow to the price of 50s. or 60s. by the time it is. four or five weeks old, 
 and to AL, or more, when it is seven weeks old. If it is kept much longer, 
 the milk of more than one cow must be given to it, and then, at ten 
 weeks old, and in proper season, it will be worth 61. or 71. The Strathaven 
 farmer, therefore, realises a profit of more than 10s. per week from a thriv- 
 ing calf, and some have gained as much as 12s. or i6s. per week. There 
 is one practice of too frequent recurrence in Strathaven, which demands 
 unmingled reprehension. We relate it in the language of Mr. Alton (p. 99): 
 — ' Butchers and others who purchase young calves in the country to carry 
 them to towns to be slaughtered, do not in Scotland transport then stand- 
 ing on their feet, as is (sometimes) done in England, but they hang such 
 of them as cannot travel, in pairs by the feet over a horse's back, with 
 their backs and heads hanging downwards ; three or four pairs of them 
 on one horse, while the butcher sits upon the top of the group, deaf to 
 their agonizing cries. Others heap as many living calves into a cart, 
 above each other, all tied by the feet, as a horse can draw. It would 
 be worthy of the magistrates of the district to extend their commiseration 
 to these animals, so cruelly and so unnecessarily tortured, and to compel 
 the butchers, or others who deal in that species of stock, to treat them 
 with a proper degree of humanity. A merciful man is merciful even to 
 brutes, and those who practise cruelty towards animals will not long act 
 mercifully towards the human racet-' 
 
 . * Mr. Alton illustrates this in his ' Dairy Husbandry,' p. 90. ' Thomas Hamilton \>t 
 Great Hill, near Strathaven, fed, about the year 1765, a calf to such a degree, that he 
 sold it at the price of 5/. The price of veal was not higher at that time than 2^d. jier lb., 
 which woald make the calf more than 34 stones imperial weight.' ' In 1815, Mr. Stiaug 
 of Shawton, near Strathaven, fed a calf to the weight of 35 stones, and he was ofiered 
 nearly 16A for it; he refused to sell it at that price, and it soon afterwardb sickened and 
 died.' In 1819, Mr. William Granger of Dykehead fatted one to more than 38 stones im- 
 perial weight. Mr. Aiton properly remarks, that ' feeding to those weights proceeds, per- 
 haps, more from ostentation than prudence. A calf well fed until it is from four to six 
 weeks old, will (in the neighbourhood uf Strathaven) if it is ordinarily thriving, and 
 when the market is not very low, sell at from 41. to 6/. ; but when a calf is brought to 
 that pitch, the milk may be turned to better account by feeding a young one, than by 
 forcing one already sufficiently fed to a size and weight above nature.' 
 
 t We extract from the same author (p. 65) an accouut of the dairy established by 
 Mr. Harley, at Willowbank, in the neighbourhood of Glasgow, and from which that city 
 is principally supplied with milk. He previously tells us that ' the number of cows in 
 Glasgow and its neighbourhood whose milk is sold sweet to the citizens, may probably 
 amount to two thousand ; and as these cuws are the very best of the dairy-breed, collected 
 from all parts of the country, and are highly fed, both to pricine milk and to render 
 them fat ; and as they are always sold to the butcher whenever they are fatted, and are 
 replaced by other cuwsthat are lean and newly calved, it may je reasonable to suppose that 
 each cow will yield, on the average, twelve Scotch pints (six gallons) of milk every day.' 
 Tliis svems to be an enormous quantity, and, allowing for occasional deficiency, amount- 
 ing tu about 20UU gallons yearly from each cow. Then, after telling us that ' the feed- 
 ing is similar tu that practi^ied in other towns in Scotland, consisting of grains and 
 
l« CATTLE. 
 
 Butter-milk is used to a great extent by the labouring classes in ail part* 
 of Scotland, and particularly in the town of Glasgow. The milk of the 
 greater part of the cows that are kept more than two miles, and less 
 than twelve, from Glasgow, is manufactured into sour milk, and used by 
 
 draff from the breweries, burnt ale, or other refuse from the distilleries, the refuse of 
 flour usually termed hen's meal, oats and beans ; that they have green clover and rye- 
 grass in summer, with the offal of gardens; and turnips and potatoes in the winter, 
 both raw and boiled, with grain, chaff, infusions of hay, &c., but no oil-cake ;' he 
 proceeds to describe the extensive dairy of Mr. Harley : — 
 
 ' Like many other useful establishments, Mr. Harley's dairy proceeded more from 
 accident than original design. It was begun at first on a very limited scale, and has 
 been gradually extended and improved to its present refinement. Mr. Harley, who had 
 been long eng ged in manufacturing cotton goods, and who still carries on that branch 
 on an extensive scale, happened to discover in a field, which he had purchased near 
 Glasgow, a copious spring of excellent water. He not only converted that spring to 
 
 Sublic use by supplying the city better 'than it had been before, but he erected cold and 
 ot baths, the first and still the only thing of the kind provided for public use in or near 
 that city. Some of the people, who took the benefit of tliese baths, having expressed a 
 wish to be provided with warm milk after bathing, Mr. Harley procured a cow fur that 
 purpose ; and as the baths Soon became a place of general resort, he not only increased 
 the number of the cows, so as to answer the demand, but perceiving that the city of 
 Glasgow was ill supplied with that valuable article of food, and that much of that 
 which was sold there was of bad quality, he began at first to supply his friends, and 
 afterwards the city, with milk entire as it was drawn from the cow, and in a state of 
 cleanliness formerly unknown in that department of agricultural produce. His byre is 
 formed to hold ninety-six cows, but he has for some time past had about twenty more 
 in out-houses, and purposes to add to the cow-houses.. 
 
 ' The byre having been enlarged at different periods, its external figure is not so com- 
 plete as it might otherwise have been, but in its internal construction, it is the most 
 perfect of any byre in the kingdom. The cattle are placed in double rows across the 
 building, two rows facing each other, with a road or passage between them, from which 
 both rows are fed, each cow having a grip or groove behind, into which they drop their 
 dung or urine, with a road between it and that of the next row. Stalls for two cows are 
 divided from each other by pillars of cast iron, having grooves, into which the division 
 boards, called trevises, are fixed. Each cow is bound to an upright stake, with an iron 
 chain connected by a turn swivel to a ring round the stake, and which slides up and down 
 as the cow raises or lowers her head ; and when the cows are to be fed with potatoes, a 
 pin, suspended from the trevis by a small chain, is put through a hole in the stake,' 
 which, by keeping down the ring, prevents the cow from raising her head, and thereby 
 choaking herself with the potatoes. A trough, or crib, is placed before each cow, and, to 
 prevent them from scattering their fodder, a grating of strong wire, suspended on 
 puUies like the sash of a window, is placed in front of each pair of cows. It is thrown 
 up when food is to be set in, and put down to prevent the straw, &c., being thrown out 
 of the stall to the passage. The grating, while it keeps the iodder from being thrown 
 out of the crib, permits the cow's breath to escape, and does not confine it within the 
 stall, where it would render the food unpalatable, and oblige the cows to breathe in a 
 polluted atmosphere. 
 
 ' The byre is lighted chiefly from the ceiling, and the windows are constructed so that 
 they can be raised in order to give vent to the bad air, and by opening the doors or 
 windows on the sides of the byre, more or less, according to the state of the weather, 
 the ventilation of the house is so completely commanded, that it car be rendered at all 
 times as cool as the surrounding atmosphere. 
 
 ' The byre is kept as near as possible at sixty-two degrees on Fahrenheit's scale ; and to 
 enable the keeper to do so, a thermometer is placed within the house. 
 
 ' Besides the roads between the heads of every two rows of cows, and one between the 
 two grips, another runs down the centre of the house, from the one end of it to the other, 
 and all these roads af- lain with hewn pavement, and are, with the gratings, division 
 boards, &c., carefully washed every day, and kept as clean as the lobby of a dwelling- 
 house. The whole of the cows are curried and brushed daily, and kept as clet a as 
 - cavalry horses 
 
 ' The bottom of the grips declines a little towards the centre, to lead the water mto the 
 common drain, and also towards the cows, so that the urine may run off when the 
 dung is drawn back. The whole urine and washings of the byre, with the juices of the 
 dunghill, that of a public washing-house, connected with the baths, &c., are collected 
 into a proper reservoir, and used as manure. The cribs incline towards the centre, where 
 a stone trough is placed, so that by pourinnr a small tmsmtstv of vf,iter it ihr. a?h— — •• 
 
THE LANARKSHIRE BREED. 113 
 
 the inhabitants of that city. Mr. Aiton speaks of this with much 
 national feeling (Dairy Husbandry, p. 111.) 'The butter-milk is, on 
 the authority of the Secretary to the Board of Agriculture (Arthur 
 Young), adjudged to the pigs ; but it is in the western counties of Scot, 
 land, as well as in Ireland, used to a vast extent as human food. It is 
 used as drink, and is certainly far superior to the miserable table beer 
 generally drunk in England. It serves as kitchen to pottage, bread, 
 potatoes, &c. ; and when a linen bag, like a pillow slip, is filled with it, 
 and hung up till the serum drops out, and a small quantity of sweet cream 
 is mixed with what remains in the bag, and a little sugar, where the milk 
 is too sour, it forms a dish that might be placed on the table of a peer of 
 the realm.' 
 
 The coarse upland on the eastern part of the county is devoted to 
 grazing. The rough pastures there are allowed to grow from the end of 
 May to that of August. The herbage on the better spots is then mown, 
 and the hay stored up for winter food, and the pasture is stocked with 
 young Highland cattle, who live on the grass while the weather continues 
 fine, and to whom some of this bog-hay is given when the storms of winter 
 come on, or the snow is on the ground. If there is no sheltered spot 
 for this purpose, a rude kind of shed is erected, to which they imme- 
 diately betake themselves. These cattle are sold off in May, and are sup- 
 posed to have increased 2bs. or 30«. in value. On some farms of this 
 description, many neat cattle are bred : the females are retained to keep 
 up the milking stock, or to sell at two years old ; the calves are almost 
 immediately disposed of. 
 
 THE SOUTH-EAST LOWLANDS. 
 This district contains the three Lothians, with Roxburgh and Berwick. 
 It is an arable district, and in no part of Scotland has agriculture in all 
 its branches been carried to a greater degree of perfection. 
 
 LINLITHGOWSHIRE, OR WEST LOTHIAN. 
 
 This county is beautifully situated on the Firth of Forth ; its rich land is 
 occupied in pasture, or devoted to the raising of grain. The dairy occu- 
 
 the grains and refuse of food is washed into the trough, and is from thence carried to the 
 piggery. 
 
 ' The milk is clean, and free from every impurity ; it is poured immediately from the 
 milking pails through a hair-sieve into the milk vessel in which it is carried to town. 
 
 ' The pails into which the cows are milked, and other vessels used, being graduated, 
 and each cow having a running number, the quantity of milk drawn from each, and 
 s&g'^sS*^ of the whole, is ascertained, ahd regularly entered in a book by the overseer, 
 every time the cows are milked. Part of the milk is sold at the dairy-house near the 
 byres, and part of it is carried though the streets of Glasgow, in large cans fixed on 
 carts, each drawn by a pony. 
 
 ' A given quantity is put under the charge of the driver, for which he is accotmtable , 
 and so tenacious is Mr. Harley of supplying the citizens with milk pure and unadulte- 
 rated, that he puts it out of the power of those who retail it on the streets to introduce 
 water, or any other impurity. When the milk is placed in the cans, they are locked up 
 so close that no air is admitted, except as much as will make the milk run at the cock 
 below ; and the air hole is so constructed, that it is not in the power of the driver to intro- 
 duce water, or any other liquid, by it. The milk-pails, and the whole of the vessels, 
 are well washed and scalded in boiling water every time they are used. The cocks for 
 running off the milk are so constructed, that they can be opened and cleaned in the 
 inside at pleasure. 
 
 ' Mr. Harley has erected within the byres a very handsome steam-engine, which he 
 uses to raise water to supply the byres, drive a straw-cutter, and a machine for slicing 
 potatoes and turnips, on the principle of that used in cutting logwood. The steam from 
 the boiler is used in steaming potatoes and other food for the cows, in a large vat wfticb 
 the work people term " the cows' tea-pot." ' 
 
144 CATTLE. 
 
 pies some share ot the aiteniion of the farmer ; for the proximity of this 
 little district to the northern metropolis affords him an excellent market 
 for the sale of the produce. 
 
 The breeds of milch cattle are as various as can be imagined — some 
 Fifes are kept — with many more of the Ayrshire cattle ; but with the small 
 farmer, the native breed, still bearing' about it much of the Highlander, is 
 either preserved entire, or crossed in every possible way ; and crossed with 
 most advantage by tlie short-horn. 
 
 Mr. Dawson, of Bonnylear, informs us that ' the cow,' (i.e. the prevail- 
 ing breed) ' in Linlithgow, is something like the Ayrshire breed.' (It is 
 almost identical with the Roxburgh breed, of which we shall have fre- 
 quently to speak, when describing these districts.) ' She is small in the 
 head, small and long in the neck, with horns bent round to the centre of 
 the forehead, with a long tail, short small legs, and a straight back; the 
 colour generally black, brown, or a mixture of brown, or a black and 
 white, but the black prevails. The cow will feed to from 28 to 35 stones 
 Dutch. She will give about six imperial gallons of milk per day, and 
 about six or seven pounds of butter per week, for the first two months 
 after calving; after which, the milk will gradually decline, until three 
 months before her calving, when she will become dry.' 
 
 We are also indebted to Mr. Dawson, for the following valuable account 
 of the management of cattle in Linlithgow. ' The farmer occasionally 
 preserves a quey'-calf of a favourite cow ; but in general, the calves, both 
 bulls and queys, are sent to the butcher*. The calves that are preserved, 
 are fed on their mother's milk newly drawn for one month, and consun)- 
 ing two-thirds of the milk. The cow generally calves in May, and the 
 calf is put out to good grass in June. In the succeeding winter the calf 
 is put into a covered place, and fed on straw-chaff and the refuse of 
 grain and a few turnips, and turned out to graze in the ensuing spring on 
 the best grass. The bull-calf is castrated when two or three days old, 
 when intended to be reared ; and after being grazed and fed in the cart- 
 yard for four seasons, he is dispo.sed of to the butcher, and will weigh 
 from 45 to 55 stones Dutch — he will give from four to six stones of tallow, 
 and his hide will weigh from four to four and a half stones. The Lotliian 
 ox is a fine animal, compared with the cow of that district. The differ- 
 ence in the horn is very striking. It is a full-sized middle horn, the head 
 and neck are still small, but the ribs are deep and the legs are shori. 
 
 ' The grazitig cattle are chiefly of the West Highland breed, purchased 
 at the great trysts in Falkirk. They are put into a strawyard that is walled 
 round, with a shed or covered place to afford them shelter; and they are 
 supported during the winter on straw and water, with the refuse of the 
 grain. This is what is called watering, and it affords a good supply of 
 dung for the farm. In the spring they are turned out to graze, and if 
 they get into sufficient condition, are sold in the autumn to the butcher 
 but in many instances they are finished off with turnips. 
 
 ' Cattle that have been previously well grazed, are likewise bought at these 
 trysts, to consume the better sort of turnips. Tliey are slall-Ced from 
 October to February, and are then usually ready for market. They vveiah 
 from about 35 to 50 lbs. Dutch, and an acre of turnips will teed two 
 oxen for foiir months.' 
 
 • Mr. Eobertson confirms this ; he says, ' The farmers now do not even rear their own 
 milch cows, but purchase them from time to time as required ; in some cases every 
 season, so that their dairy is always in full milk, the new cows being {nirchased newly, 
 calved, and those of the former year put to fatten as soon as they become yell, or dried uy 
 ill milk, the ample store of succulent foiwl enablinc the husbandman so tu du.' 
 
THE EDINBURGHSHIRE BREED. US 
 
 The chief attention of the fanner is devoted to grazing, for which the 
 proximity of Linlithgow to Falkirk., the great cattle tryst of the south, 
 and the facilities afforded by the passage-boats at Queen's ferry, for the 
 procuring of lean or store cattle ; and also the neighbourhood to the 
 best markets for fat beasts, and, more than all, the excellence of the pas- 
 ture, are well adapted. The true Highlanders are usually selected, or 
 sometimes the Fifes; but the former fatten most speedily, and the beef 
 is usually preferred. The old inclosed pastures, and the artificial grasses 
 afford abundant provender in the summer, and in the winter too, when 
 the ground is not covered with snow ; and there is plenty of straw, hay, 
 and turnips. There are supposed to be about 8500 cattle in the county of 
 all kinds, or about one to every nine acres. Horses have now quite super- 
 ,eded oxen in husbandry work*. 
 
 EDINBURGHSHIRE, OR MID LOTHIAN 
 
 This county, although not of great extent, has more variety of climate, soil, 
 and produce, than any other in Scotland. The northern part of it, along 
 the Firth of Forth, is rich and highly cultivated. On the south side of the 
 metropolis, and to the very feet of the Pentland and Moorland hills, and 
 even up the sides of them, there is much ground tolerably productive, at 
 least in good seasons ; but on the tops of the hills, and in a great part of 
 the upland district, there are tracts of land which bid defiance to culti* 
 ration. 
 
 Not more than one-fifth of the arable land of the county is fairly de- 
 voted to pasture, and the greater part of that is in the hands of the Edin- 
 burgh butchers, whose stock is continually changing, and cannot be said 
 to have any specific character, and which is only halted and preserved 
 upon it rather than fed. Much of the pasture in the occupation of the 
 farmer is devoted to the same purpose, and his profit principally derived 
 from the sums he receives from the occasional, or regular turning out 
 of horses and cattle. , The permanent stock, and especially in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Edinburgh, consists of dairy cattle ;. and that, as every where 
 else, comprising all kinds of breeds. 
 
 The original Lothian breed, about 1765, according to Mr. Robertson, 
 tiras generally of a black colour, or having a great proportion of black in 
 Vis composition ; though intermixed with white in various proportions and 
 on various parts, as on the flanks, the belly, the shoulders, or not un- 
 frequently In a stripQ. along the back. They were generally from 22 to 27 
 stones in weight, when they were fed to a marketable condition ; and in 
 order to which, in those days, they were not required to be very fatf. 
 
 • Mr. Gray, in his statistical account of Livingstone, gives a curious description of the 
 ol«l Linlithgow plough. He writes in 1798, ' Not much more than 25 years ago, it was 
 nut uncommon to see four horses and four oxen, dragging and staggering before a large 
 heavy plough, with a very small furrow, at the rate of about a mile in an hour, whilst the 
 gadman or driver, the only active being of the .lavalcade, was obliged to traverse at least 
 three miles to their one, to prevent them from falling asleep. Now we see no plough 
 drawn by more than two horses, carrying with them a furrow of twice the weight, and 
 going with apparent ease and three times faster ; while the horses are of a better breed, 
 in better order, and maintained at a less expense.' This and several other improvements 
 in agriculture were introduced by Sir William Cunningham. 
 
 t Mr. Robertson (Rural Recollections, p. 165) gives an amusing account of the ma- 
 nagement of these cattle: — 'This species of stock was rather better cared for than that of 
 tne horses. They were peculiarly under the gudewif'e's management, who with her maid 
 took care that the milch cows should not be neglected in their sodden meat, which con- 
 iiis:ed in a hotchpotch of small potatoes, weak corn, with cabbage and greens, all boiled 
 up in a mass among bean-chaff, in a large cauldron for the purpose in an outhouse ; aa 
 aim. in «.nAratf* masses the kavinaa or rakin&rs from the b^rn-floor, and the ahorteit or 
 
U6 CATTLE 
 
 The Ayrshire, however, which was scarcely introduced in 1880, has 
 gradually prevailed; but the English short-horn is kept by many who 
 naturally look for profit in the quantity, and not the quality of the milk 
 in a metropolitan dairy ; and, of late, the Roxburgh cow has been much 
 used in dairy establishments, on account both of the quantity and the qua- 
 lity of its milk. It is a cross between the short-horned bull and the 
 Kyloe cows, and comprising the good qualities of both. 
 
 Mr. Brown, however, the present intelligent manager of the Caledonian 
 dairy at Meadow-bank, in the suburbs of Edinburgh, prefers the Ayrshire. 
 In a communication with which he has kindly favoured us, he draws the 
 following comparison between the Ayrshire and the Teeswater cow. ' I 
 would prefer the Ayrshire : take them in general, they give as much milk 
 as the Teeswaters, and can be purchased at a much less price. A Tees- 
 water cow will, at the present time, cost from 121. to 16/., whereas an 
 Ayrshire cow will cost from 9/. to 121. The Teeswater cow, after standing 
 long in the dairy, will occasionally fail in her feet, and she will then cease 
 to feed, and become a total wreck, especially if she is old. The Ayrshire 
 being smaller, is not so heavy on her feet, and although only half fat, may 
 be sold to better advantage and with less loss, if she too should begin to 
 feed badly, from tenderness in her feet, or any other cause.'* 
 
 best of the straw, together with the bladings of the greens in theii raw state from the 
 kail-yard, and then (as alleged) rips of corn drawn hiddling-wise from the stacks in the 
 bam- yard, especially to the new-calved cows, or any stray stuff that bore a semblance of 
 going otherwise to unuse. The herd boy, too, was enjoined-to let the cows get, aye, the 
 most choice patches of grass in preference to the horse, among the balks and waste 
 grounds that abounded so much in thuse times on almost every farm. This anxiety in 
 the gudewife for the welfare of her cows was generally connived at by the gudemaii, 
 who failed not to observe any little pilferings of the kind, as he knew it would be all very 
 thriftily applied.' 
 
 * The Caledonian Joint-Stock Dairy Company was established in 1825, for the pu> 
 pose of supplying the inhabitants of Edinburgh with pure milk. The grounds called 
 Meadow-bank, situated about a mile from Edmburgh on the London road, and alio some 
 other property named Wheatfield, were purchased at the expense of 8000/. ; and 14,000/. 
 more were expended in the erection of a noble building. In the front of the edifice is a 
 semicircular projection, in the centre of which is the principal entrance, having a column 
 on either side supporting a handsome pediment. Tlie interior uf this projection contains 
 a saloon corresponding with it in form, and through which the visitor passes into the 
 Great Byre. This is a noble place, and is supportt^d by two rows of cast-metal pillars. 
 The stalls are divided by the same material, and are capable of containing 200 cows under 
 one roof. It is 30 feet high, and from the centre of it rises a large dome, for the purpose 
 of light and ventilation. It is also lighted, and air admitted at both ends, and on one of 
 the sides. From a gallery over the principal door, the visitor has a pleasing view of 
 the whole. 
 
 The troughs are of stone, and each is supplied with a pipe ; by means of which it can 
 be readily cleansed, or water admitted fur the common drink of the animals. 
 
 Arched vaults extend below, through the whole length of the byre. The urine readily 
 passes, and the dung is conveyed without difficulty into these vaults, whence they are 
 removed through a tunnel that opens on the main road. 
 
 Over the saloon is a room for the Directors, and one above that for servants. The 
 other part of the building, parallel with the byre, contains the manager's house, counting- 
 house, milk-house, churning-house, engine-house to churn the. milk, store-houses fur 
 potatoes, lofts for hay, a steaming-house to prepare food for the cows, stables for the 
 horses, a shed for a bull, and everything that can be wanted in such a place. The ground 
 next to the road, and in front of the building, is tastefully laid out as a shrubbery ; and 
 there is an ice well to prepare the cream. 
 
 Like many other speculations of the kind, it did not answer. There were never more 
 than 160 or 170 cows in the byre ; these rapidly diminished in number, until the concern 
 was so plainly a losing one, that it was abandoned by the company, and let to a spirited 
 individual, (Mr. Bellis,) by whom it is still conducted, and who has 60 or 80 cows in the 
 byre. 
 
 For much of this information, and als» on many subjects connected with our work, we 
 Ve indebted to oui kind friend, Mr. Dick of Kdinburf(h. 
 
THE EDINBURGHSHIRE BREED. 147 
 
 Little butter, and still less cheese is made in such a district, the greatest 
 profit arising from the sale of the fresh milk.* 
 
 Except, however, in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, there are fewer 
 milch cows kept in all the Lothians, than tliere were before a portion of 
 the wild lands on the west and the south was brought under cultivation. 
 The crops of an arable farm are most easily disposed of, and more profit* 
 able in the vicinity of a great city. 
 
 The Lothian farmers rarely breed their own dairy cattle, but purchase 
 them from time to time as some of their stock become dry, or in condition 
 for the butcher. Some dairy men thus change the greater part of their 
 stock every year ; those of the former year being put to fatten as goon as 
 their milk is dried away, and thus, as we have stated when describing West 
 Lothian, their dairy is always full of milk, for the new cows have only 
 recently calved. Edinburgh is supplied with sweet milk by cowkeepers in 
 the neighbourhood, or large dairies ; two of which are established in the 
 outskirts of the town. The butter-milk, or sour milk, is brought from a 
 greater distance. 
 
 A few cattle are bred among the hills, and more are grazed, principally 
 winter grazing. These are chiefly of the West Highland breed. There 
 are many tracts of ground sufliciently sheltered, where they may run 
 during the winter, aud on which sheep cannot safely be tamed, while 
 other still wetter portions of the moorlands produce plenty of hay — coarse 
 enough — but which the stock readily eat during the winter months. 
 
 Mr. Brown has given us some valuable hints as to the management of these cows. 
 He prefers the fresh draff or grams irom a strong 4le brewery, to any other feeding for 
 the prudaction of milk and of a good quality. He gives them two feeds of this (half 
 a bushel constituting a feed) twice every day, and also two feeds of grass or turnips. 
 When green beans, or peas, or tares, are to be obtained at a moderate price, they are pre- 
 fened, as imparting a richer quality to the milk than the grass will do. A certain quan- 
 tity of salt is given at every meal to promote the digestion of the food, and preserve the 
 health of the animal, and produce a degree of thirst that will make them eager to drink, 
 and thus yield more milk. He considers the draff from table beer or draught ale as of 
 a very inferior quality, and producing a less quantity of milk and of a very inferior kind. 
 
 The sproutings (pummini) of malt furnish a valuable article of driuk. He puts two 
 bushels into a large tub, and adds as muchboiling water as will fairly draw it as tea. He 
 covers it up close for seven or eight hours, and then adds hot or cold water, as may be 
 required, so that the infusion may be given to the cows comfortably warm, having pre- 
 viously put in a very consideral<le quantity of salt. The tea from these two bushels will 
 be as much as 70 or 80 cows will drink at one time, and he commonly gives it to them 
 twice every day, before they are led with the drafil 
 
 At the commencement of the turnip iieason, and when the iurni]is are juicy and green, 
 he gives less of the cummina to drink, or has recourse to distillers' draff, in order to 
 prevent the milk from being too much lowered in quality. Potatoes likewise make a 
 very useful drink, when boiled, until they are dissolved through the water. • Two 
 bushels of potatoes may be thus mixed with sufficient water to satisfy 70 cows, and they 
 will -very considerably enrich the milk, when given with salt before the draff. 
 Steamed potatoes he seldom uses for the milch cows ; they fatten well, but they do not 
 produce so much milk as raw potatoes. Sometimes, when the turnips are fresh and juicy, 
 he! gives one feed of them, and one of steamed ptjtatoes, with the usual feeds of dratll 
 Steamed potatoes, with which a little bruised or ground grain is mixed, have been very 
 useful in preparing the dried cows for the butcher. 
 
 * The Costorpmne cream used to b^ in high repute in Edinburgh and the neighbour- 
 ing country. The process, as extracted from the statistical account of the parish of Cos- 
 torphine, is very simple. ' They put the milk when first drawn into a barrel or wooden 
 vessel, which is submitted to a certain degree of heat, generally by immersion in warm 
 water ; this accelerates the separation of the oleaginous from the serous p<irts,of the milk. 
 The milk is then drawn off by a hole in the lower part of the vessel, what remains is put 
 into the plunee-churn, and, after being agitated some tiaie, is sent to market as Costor- 
 phine cream. 
 
 LS 
 
148 CATTLE. 
 
 •lADDINBTON, OH EAST LOTH AN. 
 
 This highly cultivated district i.cs partly on the Firth of Forth, Biid 
 partly on the North Sea. On the sea-coast the system of g^razing is pur 
 isued, but not to a considerable extent ; the central parts are mostly 
 urable; and the hills of Lammermuir are devoted to sheep husbandry, or 
 to the breeding of a few Highland cattle. The old cattle were of a black 
 or dark-brown colour, with a thick hide of hair, handsome and hardy, 
 but not yielding much milk. A few of them are stall bred, and more are 
 grazed on the natural pastures of Liammermuir, where sheep would not 
 be nafe. 
 
 East Lothian cannot be called a breeding country, and theie are few 
 of, the farmers who breed cattle as a regular branch of their husbandry. 
 The great bulk of the cattle are bought at Falkirk, in September aiid 
 October, and selected not from any particular breed, but according t(> 
 the fancy of the purchaser. They are mostly Aberdeens, Angus, or 
 Fife cattle, with a few Highlanders, which are put into the yard im- 
 nediately on getting home, and are fed in the beginning of winter on 
 *liite turnips, and afterwards on Swedes. They are rarely tied up, but 
 feed in the yard. The reasons assigned for this are, that the skin and the 
 reet are in a better state to bear the journey to the market ; and that the 
 same number of cattle can rot a greater quantity of straw. Mr. Rennie, 
 to whom we are indebted for much useful information, tells us, that he 
 has from 700 to 1300 bullocks feeding during the winter, and that he 
 always prefers the short horns when he can get them well bred. 
 
 The dairy eows, until within a (iew years, were so various in their form 
 and quality, that it was difficult to tece their ancestry with anything like 
 precision; yet there were among them many very excellent milkers. 
 Mr. George Rennie, of Fantassie, had a cow, that, during one week, yielded 
 23 Scotch pints (11 gallons daily), from which were produced 22 pounds 
 10 ounces avoirdupois of butter. 
 
 They were chiefly a cross of the Holdernegs with the native breed, bu, 
 they have yielded in a great measure to the Fifeshire and the Ayrshire 
 breeds, which, with an increasing number of tolerably pure short-horns, 
 divide the county among them. 
 
 In the neighbourhood of Ormiston there used to be a mixture of the 
 Holderness with the native cattle. They were short-horned and hand- 
 some, they fattened well, and gave much milk. Five or six gallons of 
 milk daily was no uncommon produce. 
 
 We have been honoured with a letter from Mr. John Rennie on the 
 subject of his stock, from which we make the following extract, c(m 
 firmatory of Mr. Brown's account, and which, in justice to so enterprising 
 and skilful a breeder as Mr. Rennie, should be placed upon record. ' The 
 principal breed (he means among the few who have directed their atten- 
 tion to the breeding of cattle) is short horns, or Teeswaters, which 
 were introduced by myself; having selected them from Mr. Robertson, of 
 Lady-kirk, who, I have no hesitation in saying, had some of the best 
 nhort horns in the kingdom. 1 also had two or three bulls of the best 
 blood from the county of Durham. I had three or four large sales of 
 stock, which were attended by some of the most celebrated breeders in 
 England and Scotland. Bulls were bought at from 50/. to 120/. each, to 
 go 200 miles north, and above 300 miles south.' 
 
 Mr. Brown, of Drylaw-hill, to whom we are indebted for some previous 
 remarks, informs us, that about the year 1818 and 1819, the short- 
 hornedj or Teeswater breed of the best and purest sort, was introduced 
 
TIJE ROXBURGHSHIRE BREED. US 
 
 into the county principally from the stock of the late Mr, Robertson, of 
 Lady-kirk, and which were descended in a direct line from those of 
 Messrs. Collinjr, of Darlinn;ton. Others were likewise, brought from some 
 of the most celebrated st(,cks in the north of England. For this, he sajs, 
 the county was indebted to Mr. John Rennie, son of Mr. George Rennie. 
 The produce of his stock is now spread over the county; and as a proof 
 of its merit, a bullock, bred, by Mr. Rennie, and fed by Mr. Boyne, ot 
 Woodhail, received the second prize at the Smithfield Cattle Show, 
 hi 1831. 
 
 Mr. Rennie obtained many prizes from the Highland and his own 
 district Society. He has had many beasts that weighed from 80 to. 
 lot) stones (imperial weight) when at 2^ or 3 years old ; and he once 
 sold 18 steers, at 2i^ years old, which weighed from 85 to 100 stones, and 
 for which he received 33/. per head. 
 
 The spirited exertions of Mr. Rennie have not been followed up by- 
 others as they should have been, partly froui disinclination to move out 
 of the old track, but more from the badness of the times. 
 
 Some agriculturists, however, began to direct their attention to the cross- 
 ing -of the short-horn bull with some of the Scottish breeds, such as the 
 West Highland and Ayrshire cows, and confining themselves to one cross. 
 In this way they have produced some very fine animals, possessing many 
 of the best qualities of both breeds, and particularly combining the early 
 maturity, aptitude to fatten, and beautiful form of the sire, with the fine 
 beef and hardy constitution of the dam. A few went beyond the first 
 cross, and the best qualities of both breeds were lost. 
 
 ROXBUROHSHIRE. 
 
 The cattle of this district are much changed since Dr. Douglas wrote his 
 • Survey of Roxburghshire' in 1798. ^ He says, that ' if there ever was 
 a breed of black oattle peculiar to this county it cannot now be distin- 
 guished. For several years a number of the Northumberland, Lancashire^ 
 Galloway kinds, a few of the Dutch and Guernsey, and many from the 
 northern counties of Scotland, have been brought into Roxburghshire, 
 and their offspring, from various crosses with each other, forms the princi- 
 pal part of its present motley stock.' — P. 144. 
 
 Now, except with tjie small farmer, and it is the same with him 
 everywhere, there are few counties in which the breed is so distinct. He 
 acknowledges that two kinds were beginning to obtain a preference ; 
 ' one of them, the polled or Galloway kind, whose properties are well 
 known over all the island ; and the other (to which he does not give a 
 name) with small horns of a middling length, thin necks, round deep 
 bodies, and short legs.' 
 
 This nameless breed, which was indeed the Ayrshire, beginning to 
 assert its superiority over the other cattle of the south of Scotland, by 
 degrees drove before it the polled breed and all the crosses, and became 
 the prevailing stock in Roxburghshire. Within the last ten or twelve 
 years, however, a second revolution has been commencing. The short- 
 horns, zealously cultivated on the Englii<h portion of the south of the 
 Tweed, have been finding their way in increased numbers across the 
 borders, and disputing the palm with the Ayrshire, and threatening to 
 oeat them out of the field. The last cattle-show at Kelso (1832) will com- 
 plete the victory, for while thirty short-horned bulls competed for tha 
 prize, only two Ayrshire heifers were produced. 
 
 The rich soil of a considerable part of Roxburghshire, and of th* 
 
ISO CATTLE. 
 
 south of Scotland generally, may support this large and excellent breed , 
 but even in the southern counties there is no inconsiderable portion oi 
 inferior land, and in the northern counties there is a great deal of it, and 
 it may be worth while to consider how far it may be prudent so 
 decidedly to encourage a race of cattle, that must be restricted to compa 
 ratively favoured districts and localities. With all their pre-eminent quaii 
 ties, and we shall do them full justice in the proper place, they have alrea*^ 
 been tried in the middle and the north of Scotlai.d, and have failed. 
 
 The greater part of the rich pastures of Roxburghshire are devoted to 
 sheep, yet there are many cattle. In the neighbourhood of Kelso, and 
 extending thence to Jedburgh, much veal is fatted. Dr. Douglas says, 
 that 620 calves are killed by the butchers in Kelso alone, and 1400 in 
 Jedburgh and the other inferior markets. To fatten 2000 calves, and to 
 rear as many more for after-sale, or to keep up the stock, will require 
 more than an equal number of cows, so that in this district there is little 
 cheese made, and no more butter than is sufficient for the consumption of 
 the inhabitants. 
 
 Towards the middle and south of the county there is much fine pas- 
 ture, on which a great many cattle, bought at the northern trysts, or 
 from Northumberland, are grazed during the summer, or stall-fed in the 
 winter. 
 
 Dr. Douglas computes the turnip-fed cattle at 6000, and those that ar« 
 grass-fed at the same number. 
 
 Very few oxen are en.ployed in husbandry. 
 
 BERWICKSHIRE. 
 
 This county has well beeu called the cradle of Scottish agriculture. 
 Here some of the most important improvements in husbandry generally, 
 and particularly in the breeding and management of cattle, commenced ; 
 and although the march of improvement has been rapid elsewhere, some 
 parts of Berwick are not Inferior to the most highly cultivated districts oi 
 the south of Scotland. 
 
 So late as the year 1772, one of the parishes was described as pos- 
 sessing all the peculiarities of bad husbandi-y to which we have so often 
 alluded in our sketch of the cattle husbandry of Scotland. ' The country 
 was almost to'ally uninclosed, and let out into small farms ; an incon- 
 siderable part only of each could be kept in condition for tillage. The 
 croft part had all the little manure, the out-field was partly cropped with 
 oats, without any kind of manure, and partly allowed to lie waste, pas- 
 tured by some half-starved cattle. When that which was cropped was 
 quite "exhausted, it was allowed to rest, and a portion of the other waste 
 ground was taken up in its place , and the whole face of the country exhi 
 bited marks of extreme indigence*.' This was a faithful picture of Berwick- 
 shire; but now, by the introduction of turnip-husbandry, and a more 
 scientific attention to the rearing and feeding of cattle, a great part of it 
 has been converted from a bleak and neglected district into a beautiful 
 and well-cultivated country. 
 
 Among the earlier labourers in the work of improvement may be 
 reckoned Mr. Pringle, of Coldstream, who, in 1755, began to cultivate 
 turnips in drills. About the year 1770 Mr. Robert Hogarth, of Corpse. 
 
 * In consequence of a djjught, which continued duiing the whole summer of 1766, 
 two-thirds of the cattle at Lauder, in this county, were slaughtered at Martinmas, and 
 •old at 2f rf. per pound. Many of those that remained died at the stall in the foUowinjj 
 ipriog, iutei having consumed all the straw that remained. 
 
THE BERWICKSHIRE BREED. ISI 
 
 on the property of the Marquess of Tweeddale, took up the culture of the 
 turnip and of sown grasses. Mr. Brodie, of Ledgert Wood, speedily 
 iuUowied, and many spirited improvers were soon found in the Merse, or 
 lower part of the countiy. 
 
 The parish of Gordon, in Berwickshire, affords a singular illustration 
 of the rapid progress of turnip husbandry. In 1775 there were only 
 eleven beasts fed with turnips for the butcher; in 1781, an interval of 
 only six years, there were 200, beside a great many sheep. 
 
 This increase of more nutritious food for cattle necessarily led to the 
 introduction of a better stock. It is difficult to say what was the native 
 stock of cattle in Berwickshire. They were small and ill formed, especially 
 on the high moors which occupy the north of the country, but they were 
 essentially of the Highland breed. In the lower parts of the country they 
 were of larger size, and crossed in every possible way. They were hardy, 
 kindly feeders, especially when moved to richer pasture than the place of 
 their birth produced, or than was allotted to them there. In the drier 
 turnip-soiled part of the country, a somewhat larger breed could be 
 maintained ; and the natives were crossed by the Teeswaters, and a half- 
 bred and improved stock was the result. This differs little from the 
 Roxburgh cattle already described ; but some of the richer pastures, and 
 especially the vale of Merse, could support yet heavier cattle, and the 
 pure improved short-horn was established there. Mr. Robertson (Rural 
 Recollections, p. 369) thus describes the progress which Mr. Hogarth 
 had made : ' He had the finest hirsel of beautiful cattle, of his own rear- 
 ing, that I have seen in any one breeder's possession. On one occasion I 
 counted 136, full grown, pasturing in one field on the Carfrae farm, of an 
 elegant form, and fine brindled brown and white colour.' 
 
 Among the better kind of farmers, and where the ground will bear 
 them, the Teeswater is the favoarite breed ; but by them it is often very 
 capriciously, sometimes injuriously, and at other times advantageously 
 crossed. The smaller farmers have more of the half-bred, likewise 
 strangely mingled ; for many of the calves are bought of their servants, 
 or at some fair, almost without reference to the breed, and reared for 
 the dairy. 
 
 Grazing is carried to a considerable extent in the low country, where 
 there is plenty of hay and turnips. Some short-horns are raised to a 
 great size ; and a great many Highlanders are bought for winter-grazing, 
 or to consume the straw and inferior turnips in winter, and be prepared 
 lor sale by grass in the spring and summer. 
 
 A&. Kerr, in his excellent Survey of this County, published in 1809, 
 says, that ' there are few regular grazing farms in Berwickshire, but the 
 pastures are variously stocked with mixed feeding beasts, or young 
 cattle, or sheep of various ages, or young horses, or all mixed together. 
 These are occasionally going off to market, or taken home to the parti- 
 cular farms, as the home pastures become thinned of stock, or when the 
 latter-math of the hay-fields are ready for pasturing ; and their places are 
 supplied by draughts from the farms, by weaned lambs or calves ffr by pur- 
 chase from diffierent markets for feeding, or for carrying on to feed in 
 ■ winter upon turnips ; or these fields are occupied by the still more miscel- 
 laneous and continually changing stock of butchers or jobbers, serving as 
 receiving fields for their constant purchases, until the demand at market 
 enables them to kill or sell to advantage.' — p. 326. 
 
 ' No regular dairy grounds are to be found in Berwickshire. Any 
 little dairy there is, is entirely confined to such quantity of milk as can 
 be spared from rearing the regular yearly supply of young stock on eacli 
 
162 CATTLE. 
 
 farm, or rather after the calves are reared. This serves to supply each 
 family with milk, butter, and cheese, and sometimes leaves a small super- 
 fluity, chiefly of butter, for sale. The wives of the married ploughmen 
 and herds, who have always one cow each, make their little dairies an 
 object of particular attention, and by them chiefly the few contiguous 
 markets within their reach are supplied*.' — p. 327. 
 
 The winter food differs with the different kinds of stock. The cows in 
 calf, and those giving milk, are fed on white straw, with a few turnips. 
 Young cattle that are only carrying forward in the three first years are 
 treated in the same manner by farmers that have few turnips ; but where 
 this valuable root can be spared, the younglings have a more liberal allow- 
 ance, and which is amply repaid by their manure aud increase of size. 
 Hay is rarely allowed to the cattle stock, except to early calving cows a 
 little while before calving, or to other cattle when turnips fail before the 
 spring-grass comes in. Oil cake is not much used, except for carrying on 
 some favourite to a great siae. Soiling cattle is getting more into practice. 
 
 THE SOUTH-WESTERN LOWLANDS. 
 These contain Selkirk, Dumfries, Kirkcudbright, and Wigtown. 
 
 SELKIRK. 
 
 More tnan live-sixths of this little and thinly-populated county is devoted 
 to sheep pasture, and consequently, neither the rearing nor the fattening 
 of cattle is an object of much attention to the Selkirk farmer ; but, as on 
 most of the sheep pastures there is a considerable quantity of coarse 
 grass which the sheep will not touch, the agriculturist is compelled to 
 keep a certain number of cattle, either to eat it down in the field, or to 
 consume it when made into hay. Dr. Douglas, in his ' Survey of Selkirk' 
 in 1798, calculated that about 2200 black cattle were kept in the whole 
 county, while the number of sheep were 118,000 ; but since the draining 
 of so great a proportion of the bog-land, the succulent grass has increased 
 so much, that a mixture of cattle with the sheep is indispensable on every 
 recovered and drained pasture. Mr. Hogg calculates that there are 
 now 3000 head of dairy cattle, besides a great number of the Highland 
 breed which are grazed on the sheep grounds. 
 
 The middle division of Selkirk is said to have been first occupied as a 
 sheep country by James IV., in 1503 ; but the old prejudices in favour of 
 black cattle remained in the other districts for more than two centuries 
 afterwards, and the Ettrick Shepherd (in his short but interesting account 
 
 * Mr. Alton, in his ' Treatise on Daity Husbandry,' p. S, has some valuable remarki 
 on this too-negl«cted branch of agriculture. ' In a large store farm in the Lammermuir, 
 Annandale, or in any other of the southern or eastern districts of Scotland, fifty, one 
 hundred, perhaps several hundred, acres of land, much of it lying in a state of com- 
 plete waste, overrun with brambles, heath, and rushes, or burns, or streams of water at 
 times running over and wasting the best uf it, might, by proper industry, be converted 
 into excellent dairy-ground, and rendered productive of much grain, roots, aud hay, 
 without doing greal injury to the sheep walks. Fart of it could be appropriated every 
 winter to the feeding of the young or weak of the sheep flock ; and, when the hilUpaa. 
 ture was buried under snow, the sheep would often find relief on the low and cultivated 
 lands, or be supported on the hay, turnips, &c raised thereon, and stored up for theii 
 u»e in winter. Some of the store-masters argue, that the rich grass on such land 
 would induce disease on the sheep-stock ; yet, when deep snow lies long, they drive theii 
 (heep many miles to come at similar pasture. The range of sheep-pasture would, no 
 doubt, be a little narrowed by taking off the lowest lands fur dairy-ground, but is nothing 
 to be reckoned upon 10, 15, or 20 roilch cow> and a wnsideiable portion of good 
 giain m early ordinary seasons.' 
 
THB SELKIRK BREEIl, IM 
 
 rfthe ' Statistics of Selkirkshire," published in the 18th number of the 
 Quarterly Journal of Agriculture) says, ' in all the high-lying grassy 
 farms, the occupiers had shielings for the summer tending of cattle, of 
 which there are unequivocal marks in every glen. You have the mark 
 of the little bothy or shieling there, the small round fold for the calves, 
 the larger one for the cows, and the little milking bught for the cross 
 camstray ones. There you have the long raggled fence between the high 
 and the low grounds, or between the summer and winter grazing. Within 
 this all their arable land was contained, spread in patches here and there 
 over " an immense surface ; and within this fence the cattle were not 
 admitted until the harvest was over 
 
 Mr. Hogg, in a private communication, with which he kindly favoured 
 us, says that ' in his early remembrance, the cattle of Ettrick Forest (an- 
 other name for Selkirkshire, or for that part of it which includes the two 
 pastoral rivers, the Ettrick and the Yarrow, with all their tributary streams, 
 and the land around them) were all of one breed, a sort of cross made red, 
 or red and white breed, and rather a hardy and useful breed ; but now 
 the short-horns, or the Ayrshires, or a cross between the two, have almost 
 totally superseded them. The short-horns are becoming more and more 
 the favourites, yet for domestic purposes it may be doubtful whether they 
 excel either the old breed or the Ayrshire cross. 
 
 ' The premiums for cattle, given by the pastoral society of Selkirkshire, 
 are all for the short-horned breed, and therefore the principal farmers 
 cherish that breed ; but the cattle of the smaller farmers and the cottagers 
 are nearly all of the Ayrshire, or of the cross of which I have spoken, 
 and which is really the best for domestic purposes, producing more milk 
 and butter, proportioned to the weight of the carcase, than any other 
 breed or cross in Scotland.' 
 
 Mr. Hogg deserves much praise for his zeal in improving the forest 
 breed of cattle. The late Mr. Milne brought a fine short-horn bull- 
 calf from Northumberland, which proved so fine a beast, that he was 
 anxious to retain his produce as much as he could to himself. Mr. Hogg, 
 however, obtained a calf of his getting, which proved as fine an animal as 
 his sire, the use of which he permitted to all his neighbours, and by means 
 of which he effected a change in the breed of the whole district. He thus 
 describes them : ' They are of the short-homed breed, with horns white to 
 the top, and the prevailing colour white ; but the breed is rather small, 
 weighing when fat 60 or 70 stones. The quantity of milk they give is no» 
 large, but rich in butter.' 
 
 Speaking of the management of cattle in Selkirk, he says, that ' There 
 is generally, over Selkirkshire, a boundary between the sheep and cattle 
 pastures, over which the cows are not allowed to rang-e. It is always an 
 article in the Duke of Buccleugh's leases, that no cattle shall be allowed 
 lo graze on the sheep pasture : nevertheless, many farmers, both of his, 
 and of all the other proprietors, graze young cattle, and Highland cattle ou 
 their mountain pastures, wherever the farms are rough, coarse, and 
 spritty, for the cattle eat all the coarser grasses which the sheep have left 
 The fact is, that on many of our forest and Eskdale farms, the more 
 cattle they keep from May to September, the more sheep they can keep ; 
 as the former eat all the large, rich and succulent grasses, which, unless 
 they were mown, would lodge and perish. These Highland and young 
 cattle sometimes graze in the fields the greater part of the winter, but go 
 into the sheds and are foddered at night, and when fodder is plentiful, 
 and manure is wanted, they are fed in the sheds during tha whole.of the 
 
The calves are fed three times in the day, and get two quarts at each 
 meal fur three months ; ailer that, the farmers' wives begin to take A 
 stoup out o' their bicker,' as they term it, giving them less and less with 
 a little skimmed milk, until they are weaned. After this, the calves are 
 generally turned out into coarse pasture. The fattening cattle are fed 
 solely on grass in the summer, and on hay, straw and turnips in the winter. 
 The shepherds' cows are fed solely on bog-hay during the winter, and 
 graze with the sheep all the summer. 
 
 In his Statistical Account of this county, Mr. Hogg speaks of Lord 
 Napier, as having done much to improve the Selkirk cattle, and especially 
 by having established a pastoral society for the improvement of the breed 
 of all kinds of live stock ; the e£Fects of which, in a local point of view, have 
 been as beneficial as those of the Highland Society in a general one. 
 
 Having now treated of all the different breeds of the middle horns, we 
 must, in order to complete our description of the Scottish cattle, com> 
 mence a new chapter. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE POLLED CATTLE. 
 
 We have already stated that there appear to be the remnants of two dis- 
 tinct breeds of aboriginal cattle in the parks of Chillingham in Northum- 
 berland, and Chatelherault in Lanarkshire ; the first are middle horns, and 
 the second are polled. The continuation of the first we have evidently 
 traced in the Devon, the Hereford, the Sussex, and the Highland cattle ; 
 the others would appear to survive in the Galloways, the Angus humlies, 
 the Suffolks and the Norfolk*. How far this may be correct will aopear 
 as we take a rapid survey of these districts. 
 
 GALLOWAY. 
 
 The stewartry of Kirkcudbright and the shire of Wigton, with a part oi 
 Ayrshire and Dumfries, formed the ancient province or kingdom of Gal- 
 loway. The two first counties possess much interest with us as the native' 
 district of a breed of polled, or dodded, or */mmble cattle, highly valued in 
 some of the southern Scottish counties, and in almost every part of 
 England, for its grazing properties. So late as the middle of the last 
 century the greater part of the Galloway cattle were horned — they were 
 middle-hornj ; but some of them were polled — they were either remnants 
 of the native jjreed, or the characteristic of the aboriginal cattle would 
 be occasionally displayed although many a generation had passed. 
 
 For more than 150 years the surplus cattle of Galloway had been sent 
 %r into England, and principally to the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk.t 
 
 • Dr. Johnson gives a curious derivation of the term humble. He says of their black 
 (attle, (iourney to the Western Isles, p. 186) ' Some are without horns, called by th€ 
 .Scots humble cows, as we call a bee a humble bee that wants a sting.' 
 
 t In 1 663 the Rev. Andrew Symson was appointed minister of the parish of Kirkinner, in 
 the county of Wigton; and in 1682 he published a work, entitled ' A large Description o 
 Galloway.' The manuscript was accidentally found in the Library of the Faculty of Adv». 
 tates in E iinbuigh, and was published ''" s. <»ontiu,r...„ ■ •■■ - ■■ 
 
 ,.™*..-i ...uu n„ii 
 
KIRKCUDBRIGHT BREED. I5i 
 
 The polled beasts were always favourites with the English farmers; they 
 fattened as kindly as the others, they attained a larger size, their flesh lost 
 none of its firmness of grain, and they exhibited no trace of the wildness and 
 dangerous ferocity which were sometimes serious objections to the High- 
 ■and breed. Thence it happened that, in process of time, the horned breed 
 decreased, and was at length quite superseded by the polled ; except that, 
 now and then, to show the uncertainty of the derivation of the breed, a few 
 of the Galloways would have diminutive horns, but these were of a 
 very curious nature, for they were attached to the skin and not to the 
 skull. 
 
 The agriculture of Galloway, like that of every part of Scotland, was in 
 a sadly deplorable state until about 1786, when the Earl of Selkirk be- 
 came desirous of effecting some improvement in the management of his 
 estates both in the shire and the stewartry. He was however too far 
 advanced in life to engage personally in the business, and he delegated the 
 whole management of his property to one of his sons. Lord Daer. 
 
 This young nobleman entered enthusiastically into the views of his 
 father, and although he encountered much opposition, and many a diffi- 
 culty, from the ignorance and prejudice of the tenantry, he was beginning 
 to possess the satisfaction of witnessing the accomplishment of several of 
 his projects, when he was carried off by consumption at the age of thirty. 
 His plans, however, were adopted and zealously pursued by his brother, 
 who succeeded to the earldom, and Galloway owes much of its present 
 prosperity to these liberal and patriotic noblemen. 
 
 In addition to the Selkirk family, we may reckon among the most zea- 
 lous and successful improvers of the breed of Galloway cattle, the JVIurrays 
 
 now out of print. The foUowing extracts from it will be interesting, as exhibiting the state 
 of the breed and management of cattle in Galloway at that period. ' The north parts of the 
 comitrey are hilly and mountanous ; the southern parts more level and containing much 
 arable land. The soil is thin and gravelly, but towards the sea it is deeper. The snow 
 uses to melt shortly after it falls, unless it be accompanied by violent frosts. The pro- 
 ducts are bestiall, small horses, sheep, wool, white woUen, bier (barley), oats and hay; 
 as for wheat, there is very little. The bestiall are vented in England, the sheep at Edin- 
 burgh, the wool at Ayr and Glasgow and Stilling, and the horses and woolen cloath at 
 the faires. 
 
 ' In this parish of Kirkinner, Sir David Dunbar of Baldone (a) hath a park, about two 
 miles and an halfe in length, and a mile and an halfe in breadth, the greatest part whereof 
 is rich and deep valley ground, and yeelds excellent grass. This park can keep in winter 
 and in summer about a thousand bestiall, part whereof he buys from the countrey and 
 grazeth there all winter ; other part whereof is of his owne breed, for he hath neer two 
 hundred milch kine, which for the most have calves yearly. He buys also in the summer 
 time from the countrey many bestial, oxen for the most part, which he keeps till August 
 or September ; so tBat yearly he either sells at home to drovers, or sends to St. Faiths, 
 Satch, and other faires in England, about eighteen or twentie scores of the four year olds ; 
 those of his owne breed are very large, and may bring five or six pounds sterling apeece. 
 Those of his own breed are very large, yea, so large, that in August, 1682, nine and fifty of 
 that sort were seized upon in England for Irish (b) cattell, and tecause the person to whom 
 they were entrusted had not witnesses there ready at ibe time to swear that they were 
 seen calved in Scotland, (although he offered to depone that he lived within a mile of the 
 park where they were calved and reared,) they were, by the sentence of Sir J. T and 
 
 some others, knocked on the head and lulled : a very hard measure, and an act unworthy 
 ^wrsons of that quality and station. 
 
 < I canisay that the park of Baldone is the chiefe, yea, I may say, tlie first, and, as it 
 *ere, the mother of all the rest, Sir David Dunbar being the first man that brought parla 
 to be in request in this countrey ; but now many others, finding the great benefit thereof, 
 have foBowed his example, as the Earl of Galloway, Sir William Maxwell, Sir Godfrey 
 M'CuIloch, Sir James Dalrymple, and many others, who have now their parks and en- 
 closed grounds,' 
 
 fo) The ancestor of the Earl of Selkirk's family. 
 .. .. .1- — ■--..u.:_„^...:„„.fM..i..„.n„r.„p Ireland was prohibited. 
 
IS6 
 
 CATl'LE. 
 
 of Broughton, the Herons of Kirrouchtrie, the Gordons of Greenlaw, the 
 Maxwells of Munches, and the Maitlands in the valley of Tarff in Kirk- 
 cudbright; and in Wigton, the Earls of Galloway, the Maxwells of 
 Mouneith, the M'Dowals of Logan, the Cathcarts of Genoch, the 
 Hathorns of Castle- Wig, and the Stewarts of Phygell. 
 
 For much of the description of the Galloway beast, and for the greater 
 part of our account of the management of the cattle in that district, we 
 are indebted to an old and skilful and well-known breeder, whose name 
 we regret that we are enjoined to withhold; but he will accept our 
 thanks, and, at some future period, possibly the public will know to 
 whom we and they are much indebted. 
 
 <^, ^S>- 
 
 [Ziean GcUloutay Oac."] 
 
 This cut is the portrait of a lean Galloway ox which gained the High- 
 land Society's prize in 1821. It was bred by Mr. Mure of Grange, near 
 Kirkcudbright, (we wish that we were permitted to acknowledge all our 
 obligations to this gentleman,) and .belonged to James Bell, Esq., of 
 Woodford Lees. 
 
 The Galloway cattle are straight and broad in the back, and nearly level 
 from the head to the rumy,. They are round in the ribs, and also between 
 the shoulders and the ribs, and the ribs and the loins. ^ They are broad 
 in the loin without any large projecting hook bones. In roundness of bar- 
 rel and fulness of ribs they will compare with any breed, and also in the 
 proportion which the loins bear to the hook bones, or protuberances of the 
 ribs. The Rev. Mr. Smith, the author of the survey of Galloway, says 
 that, ' when viewed from above, the whole body appears beautifully rounded 
 like the longitudinal section of a roller.' They are long in the quarters 
 and ribs, and deep irk the chest, but not broad in the twist. The slightest 
 inspection will show that there is less space between the hook or hip bones 
 and the ribs than in most other breeds, a consideration of much import- 
 ance, for the advantage of length of carcase consists in the animal being 
 well ribbed home, or as little space as possible lost in the flank. 
 
THK GALLOWAY BREED. IB? 
 
 The Galloway is short in the leg, and moderately fine in the shank bones, 
 — the happy medium seems to be preserved in the leg, which secures hardi- 
 hood and a disposition to fatten. With the same cleanness and shortness of 
 shank, there is no breed so large and muscular above the knee, while there 
 is more room for the deep, broad, and capacious chest. He is clean, not 
 fine and slender, but well proportioned in the neck and chaps ; a thin and 
 delicate neck would not correspond with the broad shoulders, deep chest, 
 and close compact form of the breed. The neck of the Galloway bull is 
 thick almost to a fault. The head is rather heavy; the eyes are not 
 prominent, and the ears are large, rough, and full of long hairs on the 
 inside. 
 
 The Galloway is covered with a loose mellow skin of medium thickness, 
 and* which is clothed with long, soft, silky hair. The skin is thinner than 
 that of the Leicestershire, but not so fine as the hide of the improved Dur^ 
 ham breed, but it handles soft and kindly. Even on the moorland farms, 
 where the cattle, during the greater part of the year, are fed on the scantiest 
 fare, it is remarkable how little their hides indicate the privations they 
 endure. 
 
 The prevailing and the fashionable colour is black, — a few are of a 
 dark brindled brown, and still fewer are speckled with white spots ; and 
 some of them are of a dun or drab colour, perhaps acquired from a cross 
 with the Suffolk breed of cattle. Dark colours are uniformly preferred, 
 from the belief that they indicate hardness of constitution.* 
 
 [ Tlie Galloway Ox in good condition.l 
 
 * Mr. CuUey, who is great authority in these cases, thus describesthe Galloways : ' lo 
 most lesuects, except wanting hnins, '^hese cattle resemble the long-horns both in ciilonr 
 and shape, only they are shorter in thej form, which probably makes them weigh less' 
 Tneir hides seem to be a medium between the long and the short horns ; not so thick as 
 the former, nor so thin as the latter ; and, like the best feeding kind of long-horns, they lay 
 their fat upon the most valuable parts, and their beef is well marbled or mixed with fat. 
 They are mostly bred upon the moors or hilly country in Galloway, until rising four or five 
 rears old, when they are taken to the fairs^ih Norfolk and Suffolk previous to the turn^ 
 
-S8 CATTLE. 
 
 This cut represents the Galloway bullock almost ready for the butcher 
 The beautifully level bying on of the flesh and fat will not escape the notice 
 
 the reader. 
 
 The breeding of cattle has been, from time almost immemorial, the prin- 
 (jpal object of pursuit with the Galloway farmer ; indeed it is calculated that 
 more than thirty thousand beasts are sent to the south every year. The 
 soil and face of the country are admirably adapted for this. The soil, 
 although rich, is dry and healthy, particularly in the lower districts, the 
 substratum being either gravel or schistus rock. There are many large 
 ti'acts of old grass land, that have not been ploughed during any one's 
 recollection, and which still maintain their superior fertility ; while the finer 
 pastures are thickly covered with natural white clover, and other valuable 
 grasses. The surface of the ground is irregular, sometimes rising into 
 small globular hills, and at other times into abrupt banks, and thus form- 
 ing small fertile glens, and producing shelter for the cattle in the winter 
 and early vegetation in the spring. In the low districts there is little frost 
 and snow, but the climate is mild and rather moist ; and thus a languid 
 vegetation is supported during the winter, and the pastures constantly 
 retain their verdure 
 
 The rent of every farm is derived chiefly from rearing and feeding the 
 true Galloway cattle, except in the mountainous districts, where sheep and 
 Highland beasts are grazed. There are very few exclusively tillage lands, 
 or dairy farms, where cows are the principal stock and kept for making 
 cheese. In the few districts in which cows are introduced, they are of 
 the Ayrshire breed, which are undeniably better milkers than the Gal- 
 loways 
 
 On every farm a portion of the land is tilled, but the com crop is quite a 
 subordinate consideration ; the object of the farmer being to produce straw 
 and turnips and other food for the cattle in winter, and to improve the 
 pastui'e grounds. The young cattle are chiefly bred and reared to a cer- 
 tain age upon the hig-her districts, or upon the inferior lands in the lower 
 grounds. A few cows are kept in the richer soils to produce milk, butter, 
 and -cheese for the families, but it is found more profitable to breed and 
 rear the cattle upon inferior lands, and afterwards to feed them upon the 
 finer ground, and the rich old pastures. There would probably be no 
 objection to this if the Galloway farmers would atford their young stock 
 a little shelter from ihe driving blasts of winter. No inconsiderable num- 
 ber of the Galloway farms are as low as bOl. per annum, and even lower ; 
 a greater number are from 300Z. to 500Z., while a few may reach nearly or 
 quite 1000/. ; but the average rent may be fairly computed at about 2001. 
 per annum. 
 
 The calves are reared in a manner peculiar to Galloway. From the 
 time they are dropped, they are permitted to suck the mother more or less, 
 as long as she gives milk*. During the first four or five months they arc 
 
 feeding season, whence the greater part of them are ramoved in the winter and spring 
 (when fat) to supply the consumption of the capital, where they are readily sold and at 
 high prices, for few or no cattle sell so high in Smithfield market, owing to their laying 
 their fat on the most valuable parts ; and it is no unusual thing to see one of these little bui- 
 •ocks outsell a coarse Lincolnshire bullock, although the latter is heavier by several stones. 
 .— Culley on Live Stock, p; 59. 
 
 Mr. Lawrence says, in his excellent treatise on cattle, that • the pure Galloway breed 
 exist perhaps no where in original purity except in the moors of Monigaff and Glenlova, 
 ■ud that theae cattle are thinner in the hinder quarters than such as have been crossed 
 tty other breeds.' — ^p. 79. 
 
 * Mr. Culley gives a curious account of this—' The calves, from the time they are 
 
THE GALLOWAY BREED. » 
 
 allowed, morning and evening, a liberal supply ; generally mere than hail 
 the milk of the cow. The dairy-maid takes the milk from the teats on one 
 side, while the calf draws it at the same time, and exclusively, from the 
 other side When the calf begins to graze a little, the milk is abridged, 
 by allowing the calf to suck only a shorter time, and he is turned upon the 
 best young grass on the farm. In winter he is uniformly housed during 
 the night, and fed upon hay with a few turnips, or potatoes ; for the 
 breeder knows that, if he is neglected or stinted in his food during the first 
 fifleen months, he does not attain his natural size, nor does he feed so well 
 aflerwards. 
 
 The practice of allowing the calf to suck its mother is objected to by 
 some, and is apparently slovenly, and not economical ; but the rearing of 
 cattle is considered of more importance than the money that could be 
 realized from the milk and butter saved by starving the calf. It is also 
 imagined that the act of sucking produces a plentiful supply of saliva, 
 which materially contributes to the digestion of the milk and the health of 
 the calf. The Galloway farmer maintains that an evident difference may 
 be perceived between the calf that sucks its dam, and another that is fed 
 from the pail — the coat of the former is sleek and glossy, indicating health ; 
 while the hide of the other is dry and hard, nor is the unthriily appearance 
 removed until some time after the animal has been weaned and fed wholly 
 on grass. It is also said that a greater proportion of calves fed i'rom the 
 pail die of stomach complaints, than of those that suck the cow 
 
 It is desirable that the calves should be dropped in the latter part of the 
 winter or the beginning, of spring. A. Galloway farmer attaches a great 
 deal of importance to this, for he finds that nearly a year's growth and 
 profit is lost if the calf is born in the middle of the summer. 
 
 The regular Galloway breeders rarely sell any of their calves for veal* : 
 that is obtained only from those who keep cows for supplying the village»-s 
 with milk, and from the few dairy farms where cows afe kept for makmg 
 cheese. 
 
 The best queys are retained as breeders, in order to supply the place of 
 those whose progeny is not valuable, or who are turned off on account of 
 their age. The other female calves are spayed during the first year. The 
 spayed heifers are usually smaller than the bullocks, but they.arrive sooner 
 at maturity ; they fatten readily ; iheir meat is considered more delicate, 
 and, in proportion to their size, they sell at higher prices than the bullocks. 
 
 Mr. CuUev says, ' In Galloway they spay more heifers than perhaps in 
 
 dropped, until aUe to supportthemaelves, are allowed to run with their dams, out are pre- 
 vented from sucking by means of a small piece of leather, with sharp ^ikes of iron 
 Bxed upon the outside, tied upon the upper part of the calf's nose, which, by pricking 
 the cow every time the calf attempts to suck, prevents her from letting it, until the 
 milk-maid comes, when she takes off the muzzle from the little animal's nose, aud 
 while she strips two of the teats, the calf takes care to empty the other two. As soon 
 as the maid has done, she fixes on the instrument again, but it is done in such a man- 
 ner as nut to hinder the calf from feeding upon the grassJ This might have been the 
 practice in Mr. Culley's time, but little or nothing of it is seen now. 
 
 * It is an old proverb in Galloway, that a good farmer would rather kill his son 
 than a calf. ' The people of this country do very seldom^ or rather not at all, kill or 
 sell their calves, as they do in other places, so that it is a rare thing to see veal, except 
 some times, and at some few gentlemen's tables. They give two reasons for this : one 
 is, because, they say, a cow will not give down her milk without her calf, and so, should 
 %ey sell or kill the calfe, they should want the use of the cow ; but this, I suppose, 
 night be helped, would they but traine up the cow otherwise at her first calving. The 
 >ther reason is of more weight, viz., since a great part of their wealth consasts in tha 
 Iroduct of their oattel, they think it very ill husbandry to sell that for a shilling, whicl^ ill 
 We, would yeeld poundi.' — Symson'i ' Lvga Account of Galloway,' 1682. 
 
tM 
 
 CATTLE. 
 
 all the island besides, and in this too their method is different from any 
 other part I am acquainted with, for they do not castrate them until they 
 are about a year old, whereas in every other place I know the heifer calvei 
 are spayed from one to three months old ; and it is now generally admitted 
 as the safest practice to castrate calves and lambs, male or female, while 
 very young.* They are now generally spayed much earlier than they used 
 to be, but some of the breeders adhere to the old custom. 
 
 The young cattle are rarely housed after the first winter ; they are on 
 their pastures day and night, but in cold weather they receive hay and 
 straw in the fields, supporting themselves otherwise on the foggage left 
 unconsumed after the summer grass. Many of the farmers are beginning 
 to learn their true interest, and the pastures are not so much overstocked 
 in summer as they used to be, and a portion of herbage is left for the 
 cattle in the winter ; therefore, although the beasts are not in high con- 
 dition in the spring, they had materially increased in size, and are in a 
 proper state to be transferred to the rich pastures of the lower district. 
 
 Mr. Craig of Arbigland, in Kirkcudbright, introduced the, green crop 
 husbandry into Galloway about the year 1770. He began about that time 
 to raise drilled crops of potatoes, turnips, and cabbages, and is considered the 
 father of agriculture in the south-west of Scotland ; many years, however, 
 passed before the generality of the farmers followed his example. The cul- 
 ture of potatoes began to become general about 1 780, but the other green 
 crops hare never been universally cultivated. Turnips are produced 
 extensively on a few farms ; turnips and rape in a less proportion to the 
 size of the farm ; but, more generally, there are yet too many farms on 
 which neither of them is grown. 
 
 [Gallouiay Heifer.'] 
 
 This cut is the portrait of a beautiful heifer, deservedly called the ' Queen 
 of Scots,' bred also by Mr. Mure, and grazed by Mr. Wright of Rougham, 
 in Norfolk, The following were her proportions : height of .shoulder, 5 ft. 
 8 in. ; length from nose to rump, 10 ft. 4 in. ; width across the hip, 2 fit. 
 
TJCE GALLOWAY BREED. 
 
 t61 
 
 6in. ; across the middle of the back, Sft. ; across the shoulders, 2ft. 4in. ; 
 girth of leg below knee. Sin. ; distance of breast from the ground, 1ft. 
 3i^in. ; width between fore legs, 1ft. bin. The weight was 190 stones, 
 of 81b. to the stone, or 108 stones 101b. imperial weight. She was exhi- 
 bited at the Smithfield Cattle Show, and her portrait engraved under the 
 sanction of the Club. 
 
 [Galloway Caw.] 
 
 This cut contains the portrait of a beautiful Galloway cow, belonging 
 to Mr. Gurney, near Norwich. 
 
 The Galloway cows are not good milkers; but although the quantity 
 of the milk is. not great, it is rich in quality^ and yields a Targe. proportion 
 of butter. _ A- cow that gives from twelve to sixteen quarts of milk per day, 
 is considered a very superior milker, and, that quantity produces more 
 than a pound and a half of butter. The average milk, , however, of a 
 Galloway cow cannot be reckoned at more than six or eight quarts per 
 day, during the five summer months after feeding her calf. During the 
 next four months she does not give more than half of th^t quantity, and 
 for two or three months she is dry. 
 
 It has been said that the young Galloway, cattle are more exposed than 
 others to iterfwaier, particularly on grass lands that have not been ma- 
 nured with lime. This disease, however, is easily checked at an early 
 period by a few doses of Epsom salts, and removing the animal to good 
 young grass, where the field has been recently limed. Quarter Evil is also 
 • frequent arid fatal disease among these young cattle. From its highly 
 inflammatory character, it must be attacked in its earliest stage, or medical 
 skill will be of no avail. When, however, the Galloways become two 
 years old, they will yield in hardihood to none, and are comparatively 
 exempt from every complaint. 
 
 It has been remarked in this, as in some other breeding districts, that 
 cows and queys of good quality are to be met with everywhere, but that 
 it is difBcult to find a Galloway bull free from defect. Too many breeders 
 have become careless from this circumstance. They have been contented 
 ■with a bull of moderate pretensions, and the form and value of their catd 
 
 M 
 
l«2 CATTLE. 
 
 have been depreciated , yet not to the extent that might be feared, for the 
 imperfections of the sire do not always appear in the progeny, but the 
 sterling characteristics of the Galloway cattle break out again, although 
 obscured in one generation 
 
 A bullock well fattened will weigh from 40 to 60 stones at 3 or 3j years 
 I lid, and some have been fed to more than 100 stones imperial weight, at 
 5 years old. The average prices foi good Galloway beasts may be stated 
 as follows. Stirks at about 15 months old are worth from 31. 10s. to 
 41. 10s. per head ; cattle of 2 years old will bring from 6/. to 81., and at 
 8 and Sj years, they ought to sell at 10/. or 121. per head ; this, however, 
 supposes them to be sold in the lot, and no particular beast selected.* 
 Since the year 1818, Galloway cattle, like all others, have fallen in price, 
 nearly or quite one-third. 
 
 It 'has often and truly been remarked, with regard to the Galloway 
 cattle, that while in "most districts there may be some good beasts, but 
 mingled with others of a different and very inferior kind, there is a 
 uniform character, and tnat of excellence, here ; one bullock selected at 
 haphazard may generally be considered a fail sample of the lot. The 
 breeders know, from long experience, what kind of cattle will please the 
 farmers in Norfolk, and by whom they are chiefly prepared for the 
 London market, and to that kind of cattle they most carefully adhere. 
 The drover, likewise, becomes by his profession an excellent judge of 
 cattle, which he often purchases in large lots. He is unable to handle 
 half of them, but long practice has taught him to determine at a glance 
 whether they are of equal value and will prove good feeders, and in the 
 Galloway phrase, ' will sell best at the far end." 
 
 The chief sales for the southern markets take place in September and 
 October, to suit those at St. Faith's on October the 17th, and Hampton 
 on Novernber the 16th. The cattle are sent off in droves of from 200 to 
 300, under the charge of a person called the topsman, who generally goes 
 before to see that grass is secured at proper stations and to make all ne- 
 cessary arrangements, and who has under him other drovers, in the pro- 
 portion of one to about 30 cattle. The journey to Norfolk occupies about 
 three weeks. The expense in summer and autumn is from \L to 12. 4s. 
 per head, and' in winter, when they are fed with hay, they cost 10s. or 15s. 
 per: head additional. 
 
 The cattle are purchased and paid for by the drovers, sometimes in 
 •ash, but moie generally a part of the pric^ is paid in bills, and sometimes 
 the whole of it. In some instances, where the farmer has confidence in 
 the drover, he consents that the purchase money shall be remitted from 
 Norwich; or that the money shall be paid when the jobber returns to 
 Galloway. The business is hazardous, and now and then unfortunate ; 
 but the drover considers himself well paid, if, every expense of the journey 
 Deing discharged, he clears from 2s. 6d. to 5s. per head ; and when he 
 has either money or credit sufficient to take a drove of 600 or 1000 head 
 of cattle to the market, that is a good remunerating price. From 20,000 
 to 25,000 cattle are disposed of in this way every year, of which about 
 iwo-thirds are bullocks and one-third heiferst. 
 
 * The aj»e of tjie teast is reckoned somewhat differently from that of horses ; they are 
 tailed two years M until they are three, and three. years old until they are four. 
 
 f Thfi Galloway farmers, who breed for sale, however, are continually on the watch foi 
 » favourable opportunity of disposing of a portion of their stock ; and there are others io 
 the richer districts of the country who consider it more profitable to buy young cattle than 
 to'feip a large hreeding stock. They, too, are continually buying aDdsellinf;; and 
 
THE GALLOWAY BREED. 163 
 
 There is; perhaps, no breed of cattle which can be more truly said to be 
 indigenous to the country, and incapable of improvement by any foreign 
 cross than the Galloways. The short-horns almost every where else have 
 improved the cattle of the districts to which they have travelled. They 
 have, at least in the first cross, produced manifest improvement, although 
 the advantage has not often been prolonged much beyond the second 
 generation ; but even in the first cross, the short-horns have done little 
 good in Galloway, and, as a permanent mixture, the choicest southern 
 bulls have manifestly failed. The intelligent Galloway breeder is now 
 perfectly satisfied that his stock can only be improved by adherence to the 
 pure breed, and by care in the 8election> 
 
 iheuce, according to Mr. Smith, arose a peculiarity in the character of the Galloway fa> 
 mer. We do not believe, as he seems to think, that it belongs to the greater portion of 
 them, but some features of it are yet to be traced in some of the cattle breeders and 
 (rraziers. We give it in Ids own words in his Survey of Galloway. ' Frequent transfers 
 of cattle are necessary, and he seems to acquire the habit of buying and selling without 
 uny other object than the prospect of a good bargain. Some of them, therefore, keep a 
 b'lllock more than a year, or when markets are brisk, not more than a, few weeks. 
 With very good judges this has. succeeded to a great degree. Some of the most opulent 
 fanners have been indebted 'for their success to their skill in cattle and their address in 
 striking a bargain ; and this success has tempted others to embark in the trade, without 
 either the talents or resources for carrying it on. The truth is, it possesses all the fasci- 
 nation of the gaming table. The fluctuation and uncertainty of markets, the sudden 
 gains and losses that follow, the idea of skill and dexterity requisite, the risk connected 
 with the business, these excite the strong passions of the mind, and attach the cattle- 
 dealer, like the gambler, to his profession, although he may be assured that he is frequently 
 pursuing the road to ruin. He counts his gains, but seldom calculates his losses. After 
 a long succession of bad luck, he hopifs that a few successful adventures will enable him 
 to retrieve the desperate situation of his affairs, and the failure and ruin of those who 
 have been gambling in a large way are productive of great detriment to the agriculturist 
 and the community generally. The inevitable consequence of this mode of proceeding is, 
 that the farmer is a constant attendant on fairs and markets whether he has anything ta 
 do or not. Qne or two days in the week are (iseless, or worse than useless. That accu- 
 rate attention to minutiae on which so j;nuch of the farming business depends, order and 
 regularity in his habits, are forsaken and forgotten ; serious expenses, exceeding his profits, 
 are incurred; habits of dissipation are contracted; every moral principle is gradually 
 sapped and destroyed, and he becomes at last disqualified for any business or employment.' 
 This is a dark picture. It is not so true and faithful a one as it formerly was, but the 
 farmer may learn wisdom. 
 
 Of the lower kind of dealers, Mr. Ross, in one of his statistical accounts, gives a very 
 vivid description. 
 
 ' A mountaineer will travel from fair to fair for SO miles round with no other food than 
 the oaten cake which he carries with him, and what requires neither fire, table, knife, nor 
 other instrument to use. He will lay out the whole, or perhaps treble of all he is worth 
 (to which the facility of the country banks is a great encouragement) in the purchase 
 of 30 or 100 head of cattle, with which, when collected, he sets out for England, a country 
 with the roads, manners and inhabitants of which he is totally unacquainted. 
 
 ' In this journey, he scarcely ever goes into a house, sleeps but little, and then generally 
 in the open air, and lives chiefly upon his favourite oaten bread. If he fail of disposing 
 of his cattle at the fair of Carlisle, the usual place of sale, he is probably ruined, and h^ 
 to begin the world, as he terms it, over again. If he succeeds, he returns home only to 
 commence a new wandering and a new labour, and is ready in about a month perhaps to 
 get out again for England. 
 
 'There are others who job about from fair to fair without leaving the country. Tho 
 wandering a^d unsettled habits which this species of life induces are very unfavourable to 
 Improvement ; whenever by any accident the cattle trade is suspended, or becomes un- 
 profitable, the persons accustomed to be employed in it, being unfit for any soberer occu- 
 pation, remain in a great measure idle. Even agriculture is burdensome to them as want- 
 ing the variety and interest which their usual occupation affords : thus the fruits of so 
 much labour and enterprise are often wasted during tfaa long intervals of indolence and 
 inactivity.' The drovers, however, of the present day, deserve a fiir better character, aai 
 are, generally speokiui;, a very respectable and deserving class of men. 
 
 M 3 
 
164 
 
 3ATTLE. 
 
 *" *f* J 
 
 %J^f^-- 'j-lg 
 
 
 [Gu//oK'ay Bull.] 
 
 For this cut also we are indebted to Mr. Gurney. 
 
 The Galloway cattle are generally very docile. This is a most valuable 
 point about them in every respect. It is rare to find even a bull furious 
 or troublesome. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Smith, in his Survey of Galloway, has some very good 
 remarks on the old management of the breeders here, and a little applicable 
 to some of the present day. ' The graziers in.Galloway are generally censu- 
 rable for overstocking, although they are less so now than at former ti^mes, 
 or perhaps than the graziers of some other districts. Their greatest fault 
 lies in their winter and spring management, and this is more the effect of 
 necessity than choice, for the bulk of farms cannot keep the same number 
 of cattle in winter as in summer, and on a reduction of prices, which, often 
 occurs about the end of autumn, they must either sell to great disadvantage 
 or wait the issue of the spring market. Hence in ordinary pastures the 
 full stock of summer still remains with but a scanty allowance of fodder, 
 and are compelled by hunger to devour every remnant of grass, and 
 leave the fields naked and exposed, and thus not a little retard the subse- 
 quent vegetation. But this is not all ; for, from the deficiency of fodder, 
 the cattle are eager to snatch up every pile of new grass as it rises, and the 
 pasture being thus kept completely eaten down, and denuded in this first 
 vigoroiis period of vegetation, never afterwards acquires a full growth, nor 
 can it feed the same stock in summer which it might have fattened under 
 better management. Every experienced grazier knows the great advantage 
 of sparing his pastures in spring, until they have acquired their full cover 
 of herbage.' 
 
 During the last fifty years a very great improvement has taken place 
 both in the tillage management, and in the rearing and grajiingf of cattle 
 in Galloway. Most of the great landholders farm a portion of their own 
 c'^tates, and breed and graze cattle, apd some of -them very extensively. 
 Agricultural societies have been established in the counties of Kirkcud- 
 bright and ,Wigton, and all the land proprietors, and the greater part of 
 the tenants, have become members of them. These societies have bten 
 
THE DUMFRIES BRKKD. 105 
 
 enabled to grant numerous premiums for the best tillage husbandry and 
 mafiagement of stock, and rearing of stock, and the consequence has 
 been very considerable improvement in the breed of cattle, on the uii- 
 deviating principle, however, of selection and adherence to the pure breed. 
 Of the grazing properties of these valuable cattle, we cannot give u 
 more satisfactory illustration than by staling, that 60 Galloways were 
 bought in September last at Barnet fair for 10/, per head, to be turned 
 into his Majesty's Home Park at Hampton Court, and are now, (March, 
 1833,) after being fed occasionally with hay, selling at an average of 18/, 
 each. 
 
 About ten thousand Irish cattle are annually landed at Port Patrick in 
 Wigtonshire, a few of which remain in that district, but the greater part 
 find their way into England. Port Patrick is well situated for this pur- 
 pose, on account of the shortness of the passage from Ireland. This com- 
 merce was once prohibited, from the absurd notion, that it would be detri- 
 mental to the interests of the English breeders ; at length it was permitted 
 for seven years by way of experiment, in the fifth year of George III., 
 and made perpetual in the sixteenth year of the reign of the same mo- 
 narch. There is a great deal of speculation attending this traffic in cattle. 
 It is influenced materially by the quality of grass, and hay, and turnips 
 in England, or by the probability of large crops of these articles, and large 
 sums are often speedily gained or lost in the speculation *. 
 
 DUMFRIES. 
 
 This is a considerable wedge-shaped county, interposed between Lanark, 
 Peebles, Selkirk, and Roxburgh on the east, and Kirkcudbright on the 
 west, and divided from Cumberland by the river Liddel. The native cattle 
 of Dumfries were, according to Dr. Singer, in his survey of that county, 
 horned, long in the leg, narrow in the back, thin and short in the hair, 
 and neither weighty for their height nor hardy. These, however, have 
 been superseded by the Galloways for grazing, and by the Ayrshires, which 
 in their turn have partly yielded to the short-horns, for milking. There 
 is beside a fluctuating and uncertain number of flying stock consisting ol 
 Highlanders, principally from Falkirk tryst, and even a few Irish which 
 are grazed a part of the year, or wintered in the county. 
 
 The richer pasture of Dumfries has given to the Galloways, bred ot 
 grazed there, a somewhat larger form and earlier maturity, than they 
 possess in their native district, and on this account they used to be held 
 
 * Dr. John Scott, in his account of the parish of Swyneholm in Kirkcudbright, in 1 795, 
 deieribes the polled Galloways as then highly valued by the Norfolk farmers. They 
 would, at one year old, bring from 2/. to 5/. ; at two years old, they would bring from 
 4/. to 9/. ; and at three years, from 6/. to 10/. Atthattime, thebest pf the two years old were 
 usually sent with the three years old to the English market. Speaking of the attempt'! at 
 improvement, he says, ' our farmers cannot be too careful to [preserve this breed^ for any 
 trials to meliorate it by crossing with other bulls have hitherto failed. A gentleman in 
 this country, who had a large dairy remarkable for rearing the best cattle, and who kept 
 and fed them until a proper age, when he sent them with other cattle which lie bought 
 from his tenants to the English markets, in order to try the experiment, purchased one of 
 Mr. Bakewrll's bulls. He put one half of his cows to this beast, and the other half to a 
 Moorland bull' bred upon his owu estate. He fed the product equally until tbey were sent 
 to market at J\ orfolk, when those bred from the Galloway bull brought considerably more 
 Dfiuney than the others, besides being easier to feed.' 
 
 ' On the other hand, the Rev. Mr. Wilson, in his account of Kirkbean, says that Mr, 
 Craik of Arbigland introduced the Bakewell breed upon his estate, and that the same 
 number of cattle upon the sa ne field fattened equ.dly with thotz of the Galloway kind.' 
 
166 CATTLE 
 
 in much estimation. They were bought at the Dumfries market by the 
 Galloway farmers themselves, who, after keeping them for a certain time, 
 drafted them among their own cattle of a twelvemonth older, and sent 
 them for sale to Carlisle. It was doubtful, however, whether these 
 beasts had the perfect form of the native Galloways, and whether the fine 
 «^rain and flavour of their meat were not somewhat deteriorated. The 
 cattle market at Dumfries is the largest in the south of Scotland. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Wilson gives the following account of the cattle of Dum- 
 fries in 1811. ' The cows for breeding are principally of the Galloway 
 kind. The return or annual profit per cow is about 61. The young two- 
 year-old bullocks kept for grazing are one-half Galloways, and the other 
 half West Highlanders, bought at Falkirk tryst in October; and, after being 
 fed one year, they are sold to drovers to be forwarded to the English mar- 
 kets, after having yielded to the grazier a profit of 31. 3s. per head. Others 
 sell them early in the summer, after having fed them, on fog-hay in the 
 fields during the winter, and usually given from 11. to 21. per head*. 
 
 A very superior and finely flavoured butter is made on the borders of 
 the Esk in this county. It is made from the cream only, and no part of 
 the milk is churned. The milk is suffered to stand about 36 hours, when 
 the cream is collected, and the different meals thrown together, until there 
 is enough to be conveniently churned at one time, or the cream has be- 
 come a little sour of its own accord, and the sooner it is churned after it 
 has begun to become acid, the better will be the butter. 
 
 Robert Burns rented a farm at Dunscore in Dumfries, and, not content 
 with the Galloway breed, he introduced some of the west-country cows, 
 which he thought would produce more milk. The climate did not agree 
 with them, and the speculation was decidedly unsuccessful. 
 
 ANGUS POLLED CATTLE 
 
 There have always been some polled cattle in Angus ; the country-people 
 call them humlies or dodded cattle. Their origin is so remote, that no account 
 of their introduction into this country can be obtained from the oldest far- 
 mers or breeders. The attention of some enterprising agriculturists appears 
 to have been first directed to them about sixty years ago, and particularly 
 on the eastern coast, and on the borders of Kincardineshire. Some of the 
 first qualities which seem to have attracted the attention of these breeders 
 were the peculiar quietness and docility of the doddies, the easiness 
 with which they were managed, the few losses that were incurred from 
 their injuring each other in their stalls, and the power of disposing of a 
 greater number of them in the same space. 
 
 A few experiments upon them developed another valuable quality — 
 their natural fitness for stall-feeding, and the rapidity with which they 
 fattened. This brought them into much repute during the revolutionary 
 war, not only in their own country, where great numbers were fattened for 
 the Glasgow and Edinburgh markets, but also in England, whither they 
 we-e sent in numerous droves for the supply of Smithfield, and al.so of the 
 
 • A writer in the ' Gentleman's Magazine,' says that ' he was at the hridge end of 
 Dumfries in 1736, when Anthony M'Kie, of Nellverlon, sold five score of five years old 
 Gallowav cattle in good condition, to an Enghshman, for 2/. I2j. 6d. each ; and old Hob. 
 Halliday, who was a tenant of a great part of Preston estate, said that he reckoned he 
 could. giBie hii cattle on his farms at 2». 6rf. per head, i. e. his rent corresponded to that 
 imm.' 
 
THE ANGUS BREKD. t(7 
 
 mrmy and navy. They were purchased for Smithfield chiefly by the Nor- 
 folk and Leicestershire graziers, and after from one year and a half to two 
 years' English feeding they paid for their keep at least equal to the most 
 approved English cattle. They were brought to the south under the 
 denomination of Galloways, partly because they were a comparatively 
 unknown breed, bearing much resemblance to the Galloways, and also 
 because the purchasers of the Angus cattle were known to be extensive 
 speculators in the Galloway beasts. They were usually fed off at about 
 Aree years old, and reached to an average weight of sixty imperial 
 stones. 
 
 They have much of the Galloway form, and by those unaccustomed to 
 cattle would often be mistaken for the Galloways. A good judge, how- 
 ever, would perceive that they are larger, somewhat, longer in the leg, 
 thinner in the shoulder, and flatter in the side. 
 
 Climate and management have caused another difference between the 
 Angus doddies and the Galloways. The Galloways have to encounter 
 moist climate ; they are in most cases wintered out in the fields, < . 
 at least receive- only a scanty allowance of natural hay during the severest 
 part ofthe season, and are chiefly sent to the Norfolk market in a lean 
 state i^l^jjce they have a more robust appearance,, a much thicker skin, 
 and a rougher ccjat. of hair than the Angus, oxen. Forfarshire is a great 
 turnip country, and has its fields for the most part inclosed , the cattle are 
 regularly kept in straw-yards during six months of the year, receiving tur- 
 nips with their fodder every day, and in summer they are grazed on com- 
 paratively dry and warm pastures. By this mode of treatment they look 
 and fefel mwre; kindly than the Galloways. 
 
 Thi'greatbripartof them are black or with a few white spots. Thenfext 
 general colour is yellow, comprehending the brindled, dark red, and silver 
 coloured yellow. 
 
 They are a valuable breed, and . have rapidly gained ground on the 
 horned cattle. They have become far more numerous than the others, 
 particularly in the Lowlands ; and when the agriculturist now speaks of 
 the Angus breed, he refers to the polled and not to the horned species. 
 
 One of the most spirited and successful breeders of the dodded Angus 
 cattle is Mr. Watson, of Keillor, by Meigle, in Angus, and to him we are 
 indebted for much- valuable iuformation respecting the breed. 
 
 His stock of Angus cattle has deservedly obtained the name of 
 the Keillor breed, and a most excellent one it is. He has gained, on 
 account of them, more than 100 prizes, besides several valuable pieces of 
 p,late. The facilities which will now be afforded, by the establishment of 
 steam-carriage, will enable him and other enterprising breeders to send 
 many beasts to the London mairket, which will find a ready and pro- 
 fitable sale there. 
 
 The following cut contains the portrait of one of a pair of oxen exhibited 
 by him at the show of the Highland society at Perth, in 1829, and which 
 obtained the prize as " the best pair of oxen of the Angus breed '' He 
 was afterwards sent to the Smithfield show, at the Christinas of the same 
 year, when he was particularly admired. The butcher wh«9 purchased him, 
 Mr. Sparks, of High-street, Mary-le-bone, with whom we have conversed 
 on the subject, and who may be considered to be a competent judge, said, 
 after he was slaughtered, that he was one of the best quality he ever saw, 
 and he thought must have been the best of the breed that ever Waa 
 exhibited. The meat was finely grained, and there w^e more than 
 MOlhs. offat ' '" 
 
168 
 
 CATTLE. 
 
 [Angus Oj^jjat.^ 
 
 'Ihe next, cut is a fair specimen of an Angus bullock, in good store 
 rinidilion. It was the property of Mr. Clarke, a dealer in polled cattle. 
 
 The following cut gives us the portrait of a heifer, bred and fattened by 
 Mr, Watson. She was exhibited at the same show at Perth, and obtained 
 
THE ANGUS BREED. 
 
 ^69 
 
 the medal ' for extra stock of superior quality,' She also was sent to the 
 Smithfield show, and obtained the medal in the class of extra stock: The 
 Hiirhland Society requested that she might be sent there as a sample of 
 the excellence to which this breed of Scottish cattle could arrive : she was 
 then 4i^ years old. The chturman, in presenting the medal, stated ' that 
 the judg^es deemed it their duty to mention her as a most extraordinary 
 animal, and which they could not too highly commend.' Her dead weight 
 was estimated at 130 or 140 stones, and yet it was imagined th»t she had 
 not arrived at her point of extreme weight. She sold for 50/., and wag 
 publicly exhibited for a considerable time before she was slaughtered, and 
 realised a consiclerable sura for her purchasers*. We admired a very 
 superior pair of Angus oxen, exhibited by the same gentleman at the show 
 of the Highland Society at Kelso, in 1832 : one of them seemed to be 
 perfect in all his pmntst. 
 
 [Angus Cow,"] 
 
 We must, however, acknowledge that the Angus polled cattle generally 
 are not of that very superior quality and value which this account of the 
 Keillor breed would seem to indicate, or, what is the case with many other 
 breeds, they are exceedingly valuable in their own climate and on their, 
 own soil, but they do not answer the somewhat unreasonable expectations 
 ot their purchasers, when driven to the south. They have yielded a good 
 
 * She was out of a very small cow with a lemote dash of Guernsey blood in her yet 
 retaining all the best features of the pure Angus blood. The bone of herfoie leg, which 
 Mr. Watson has in his possession, was not thicker than that of a red deer, and she was 
 exceedingly active to the last. When killed her breast was nOt quite 8 inches clear from i 
 the ground, and her inside fat was equal to a quarter of her wliole weight of beef. 
 
 t At one year old this beast gained a prize at the annual show of the Strathinore 
 Agricultural Society at Coupar, Angus ; at t^o years old he also carried off the priae at 
 the next show of the same society. At three years old he and another ox, also bred by 
 Mr, Watson, gained the first premium of the same society for the best pair of fat «xru 
 of any breed ; and in the same year the same pair were shown, as we have stated, at the 
 fleeting of the Highland Society at Perth, 
 
I'O CATTLE. 
 
 lemunerating price, and the grazier has had no cause to complain, but 
 .hey are not quite equal to their ancestors the Galloways in quickness of 
 feeding, or fineness of grain. They attain a larger size, but they do 
 not\pay the grazier or the butcher so well. They have been fairly tried 
 m the south, and, on the faith of the excellency of the Keillor breed, Mr. 
 Watson sold a bull in 1831 for 100 guineas, and in the same year he sold 
 a lot of breeding heifers in calf at the rate of 40/. per head, yet in many 
 places the Angus cattle have gradually given way to the old occupiers of 
 the land, the Galloways. 
 
 The greatest shows of this kind of stock in Angusshire are at Brechin, 
 in June, and Forfar in July and August. The beasts are chiefly purchased 
 by English dealers. We saw a great many of them, and very fine ones 
 too, at the Falkirk Tryst in October, 1832. When in good condition they 
 sell, at 3 years old, at from 10/. to 15Z. 
 
 In the statistical account of Angus it is said to contain 45,400 cattle ; 
 but there could be no certain grounds on which to form the calculation, 
 the numbers depending on the season and on the quantity of keep. The 
 flying stock bear a greater proportion to the whole number of cattle than 
 in almost any other county. 
 
 The calves that were reared always fared better here than in many dis- 
 tricts ; they got nearly two gallons of milk, warm from the cow, every day for 
 more than three months; and were then put on the best grass, and' had tur- 
 nips and hay, or sometimes only straw, in the winter, wh6n they were 
 always housed : the cows were also generally housed, except there :Was a 
 scarcity of straw and other fodder, when, and especially in the hilly country, 
 they were permitted to wander over some rough pasture djiring the day. 
 
 Mr. Watson, about 20 years ago, introduced the practice of suckling the 
 calves in the house, and has .since continued the system with great success. 
 We find this plan thus described by himself in a letter to the conductor of 
 a work on domestic animals, under the patjronage of the Highland Society 
 of Scotland. 
 
 * The cows intended for nursing generally calve early in ..the season, 
 about the month of January or February, when a stranger calf is procured 
 from some of the small tenants in the district who have dairies. This 
 calf is suckled with the others, by the same cow ; and, although the cow 
 at first shows great dislike to the stranger, in a few days she receives it very 
 quietly — care being taken that both are put to suck (one on each side) 
 exactly at the same time, by tying the calves' bands to the stall, or the 
 band of the cow, so as to keep each calf at its own side. They remain 
 with the cow for fifteen or twenty minutes, by which time her milk is per- 
 fectly drawn away. As the calves advance in age they eat hay, sliced pota- 
 toes, porridge, and other food that they are inclined to take. By the Jst 
 of May, or as soon as grass is ready, they are weaned and turned out from 
 he byre, when two fresh calves are immediately put into their stalls and 
 teceive the same treatment, excepting that they are turned out at 12 o'clock, 
 after they have got their suck, to eat grass, and are brought into the byre 
 again in the evening, when the cows come in to be sucked. This set is 
 ready to wean by the 1st of August, and a single calf is put into the feed- 
 ing pen and fattened for the butcher, the season being now too late for 
 rearing. As these are fed off, the cows are let off milk, having each 
 suckled _/£«e calves. It is necessary to have a very careful and steady per- 
 spp to attend to the suckling, which has to be done three times a day, viz., 
 early in the morning before the cows are turned out to grass, at mid-day, 
 and in the evening when the cows come into the byre for the night and ge% 
 k littl« cut grass, tares, or other green food. The byre is arranged so that th* 
 
THE NORFOLK BREED. W 
 
 cowa have each a stall of about four feet wide, with their heads to the well ; 
 and ou the opposite wall the calves are tied up, two in a stall, exactly be- 
 hind the cow, so that there is little trouble in putting them to the cows, 
 and no chance of misplacing them. The fat calves have in some seasons 
 been sold at 5Z. each, this being the scarcest time of the year for veal. — 
 Keillor, October 1831.' 
 
 The quantity of milk yielded by the dairy cows is various. In the 
 hilly district from two to three gallons are given per day, but that is very 
 rich. In the lowlands the cows will give five gallons during the best of 
 the season. The cows of this district were formerly regarded as some 
 of the best dairy-cows in Scotland, but since the breed has been more im- 
 proved, and greater attention paid to the fattening qualities, they have 
 fallen off in their character for the pail. About half of the milk is con- 
 sumed at home, the rest is made into butter and cheese. The butter, as is 
 generally the case in this part of Scotland, is good, but the cheese poor 
 and ill-flavoured. No oxen are used on the road, and few for the plough. 
 
 Although there is so great a mixture of different breeds in Forfarshire, 
 they are all of Scottish origin. The southern breeds have been repeatedly 
 tried and have failed, and so has the Guernsey, which has contributed so 
 much to the improvement of some English dairies*. 
 
 Hating now returned to the districts with the character of the cattle of 
 which the greater part of our readers may be supposed to be tolerably 
 well acquamted, our description both of the peculiarities of the breeds of 
 the different counties, and the general management of cattle, will be brief. 
 
 Until the beginning of the last century, and for some years afterwards, 
 the native breed of Norfolk belonged to the middle-horns. Their colour 
 was usually red, or sometimes black ; they possessed many of the charac- 
 ters of the Devons on a smaller scale, with their pointed, turned up horns. 
 A few of them are yet occasionally seen in the less cultivated parts of the 
 county, and in the possession of the small farmer or the cottager. They 
 have, however, been almost superseded by a polled breed. 
 
 We have stated that from a very early period, a great part of the Gallo- 
 way cattle were prepared for the Smithfield market on the pastures of 
 Norfolk and Suffolk; nearly one-half of the beasts that supply the metro- 
 pohs come from these counties. Some of the Galloways, either accident- 
 ally, or selected on account of their superior form and quality, remained 
 in Norfolk ; and the farmer attempted to naturalize and to rear in his 
 own county, and he hoped at somewhat less cost, a breed of cattle so highly 
 
 * Some curious sports in nature have been observed in the breeding of Angus doddies. 
 One remarkable fact is stated by John Boswell, Esq., of Balmuto and Kingcaussie, in an 
 essay upon the breeding of live stock, communicated to the Highland Society in 1825.— 
 ' One of the most intelUgent breeders I have ever met with in Scotland, Mr Mustard, an 
 extensive farmer on Sir James Carnegie's estate in Angus, told me a singular fact with 
 regard to what I have now stated. One of his cows chanced to come into season while 
 pasturing on a field which was bounded by that of one of his neighbours, out of which 
 field an ox jumped and went with the cow, until she was brought home to the bull. The 
 ox. was white, with black spots, and homed. Mr. Mustard had not a homed beast in bis 
 possession, nor one with any white on it. Nevertheless, the produce of the following 
 -uring was d black and white calf, tidlh horns' Another fact, which shows the great iuire 
 lequired in keeping pure this breed, is related of the Keillor stock, where, two different 
 seasons, a dairy cow of the Ayrshire breed, red and white, was allowed to pasture witb 
 the black daddies. In the first experiment, firom pure black bulls and cows, there 
 appeared three red and white calves; and. on the second trial two of the calves were li( 
 mixed colours. Since that time, care has been taken to have almost every animal on th« 
 
172 
 
 CATTLE. 
 
 valued in the metropolitan market. To a certain degree he succeeded ; and 
 thus the polled cattle gradually gained upon the horned ones, and at length 
 became so much more numerous and profitable than the old sort, that 
 they began to be regarded as the peculiar and native breed of the county. 
 They retain much of the general form of their ancestors, the Galloways, 
 hut not all their excellencies. They have been enlarged but not improved 
 by a southern climate and a richer soil. They are usually red, some, 
 however, are black, or. either of these colours mixed with white, with a 
 characteristic golden circle about the eye. They are taller than the Gallo- 
 ways, but thinner in the chine, flatter in the ribs, longer in the legs, some- 
 what better milkers, of greater weight when fattened, but not fattening so 
 kindly, and the meat not quite equal in quality. 
 
 [^Norfolk CW.] 
 
 This cut presents a favourable specimen of them. The cow was bred 
 by Mr. George,' of Eaton, in the neighbourhood of Norwich. This beast, 
 at least, is an exception to the censure which has been passed upon them 
 as ' ugly and misshaped.' 
 
 Although too little care is taken in any part of this county to improve 
 the breed, yet it has been improved in many districts, not only in attain- 
 ing larger weights at all ages, but in the quality of the meat beiHg con-' 
 siderably better; yet it must be confessed that the Galloways afforded so 
 ample a remuneration to the Norfolk grazier during their temporary 
 abode with him in their journey to the Smithfield market, that the home-. 
 bred cattle were, after a while, comparatively neglected. 
 
 Norfolk is principally a grazing co\mty, and the cattle chiefly grazed- 
 there are the Galloway Scots. The following estimate of the expense and 
 profit in feeding them, is taken from the Agricultural Survey of Norfolk, 
 and was furnished by Mr. Barton. The more complete establishment of 
 the turnip husbandry has made some alteration, and that in favour of the 
 grazier. 
 
 ' Of the Scotch cattle there are three sorts wnich require consideration ; 
 the first is a bullock, turned of four years old, and bought at St. Faith», 
 Octrber I7th, for about 91., and in such candition as to be fit to be put. 
 
THE NORFOLK BREED. 173 
 
 immeiliately on turnips. He is put on turnips, and kept there about 34 
 wetfks ; in bad weather a little hay is given, and when to this is added 
 the customary straw, carriage, attendance, &c., the expense will amount 
 to about 4s. per week, bringing the cost of the ox to 13/. 16s. He will 
 now probably weigh from ."iO to 52 stones of 141bs, whioh at 5s. 6d. per 
 stone, or 3s. 8d. per Smithfield stone of 8 lbs., will amount to 14/. i6s., 
 leaving only 11. clear profit per head. 
 
 A second lot, and a year younger, is probably bought lean at the same 
 time, and at about 6/. They are put on stubble or ordinary grass, until 
 the straw-yard is open. They are then sent into the straw-yard at night, 
 where they eat the offals of every description, and follow the best beasts 
 during the day. This, for 21 weeks, until May day, and at Is. 6d. per 
 week, will amount to U. 16s. They are then put into the marshes, or on 
 good pasture, until a fortnight alter Michaelmas, which, reckoning 28 
 weeks at 2s. 3d. per week, will cost 31. 3s. more ; then to turnips for S 
 weeks at 3s., which will be 11. 4s., and amounting in the whole to 12/. 3s. 
 The weight of the bullock will now generally be about. 44 stones, and the 
 value 12/. 2c. 
 
 A third lot is probably bought at Harleston in December. The beasts 
 are lean, of the same age, and the price averages at about 7/. per head. 
 They are sent immediately to the straw-yard, and fed on offal turnips for 
 8 weeks at Is. 6d. per week, and amounting to 12s. They then go on 
 full keeping, turnips by day, and the straw-yard at night, for 10 weeks, 
 which at 2s. 6d. per week, will give an additional expense of 1/. 5s. They 
 then go into the two years' lay, or good pasture, for 20 weeks, making, at 
 3s. per week, 3/. more, which brings their cost to the graz.ler to 11/. 17s. 
 They will now probably weigh 46 stones, which at 5s. 6d. per stone will 
 amount to 12/. 13s. 
 
 It would appear from these calculations that the first lot paid 10 per 
 cent, interest on the capital laid out, and a fair price for what they con- 
 sumed. The second yielded no interest on the original cost, but a fair 
 price for the food ; and the third gave 15 per cent, in addition to the same 
 remunerating price ; but to this seemingly little profit must be added the 
 increased value of the succeeding crops, from the great quantity of 
 manure. 
 
 The grand fairs for the purchase of the Galloway cattle are at St. Faiths, 
 on October 17th*; Hampton Green, November 22ud.; and Harleston, 
 November 28th. The horned Scotch cattle are often grazed, although 
 not to the extent of the Galloways. Mr. Marshall, in that valuable work. 
 ' The Rural Economy of Norfolk,' gives the following account of two lots 
 of Kyhies. The buying and selling prices are now very different, but the 
 proportion between them is nearly the same. ' How profitable are th» 
 little Isle-of-Sky cattle to the Norfolk farmer, who has rough meadows to 
 
 them to run in? had eleven, bought last Hemlingreen fair, (ju'-t 
 
 twelve-months ago,) for three guineas a-pieee. They were kept entirely 
 
 * Mr. Marshall thus describes the Fair of St. Faiths : — 
 
 On Wednesday, 17th instant, I went to the first day of the fair of St. Faiths, a village 
 near Norwichj where one of the largest fairs iu the kingdom is held annually on that day, 
 for cheese and butter, and a variety of wares, but most especially the first, which is brought 
 in great quantities out of Suffolk to supply this country during the winter months, when 
 a Norfolk cheese is not to be purchased in this part of the country. 
 
 The first day of this feir also draws togethtr a good show of cattle, iiiincipally 'home 
 bred,' either for store or for fatting on turnips, and for which purpiises a show of Scotch 
 bullocks is also exhibited upon a rising ground at a small distance from the fair-field. 
 
 The sale of Scotch cattle continues for a fortnight, or longer time, until this quiuter ot 
 aha cauntv be snoolied with that species of stock. — Marshall's Ecouom\ of Nor.ulk. ii. 49- 
 
1 
 3 6 
 
 
 3 
 
 4 18 
 6 
 
 3 
 
 
 174 CATTLE. 
 
 on stratr and rushy grass, wtiich nothing else would have eaten, until the 
 month of May, when they were turned into some Norfolk meadowS; 
 (worth about ten shilhngs an acre) where they remained until September, 
 since which time they have been at good lattermath. Some of them are 
 now quite fat, and the rest nearly so ; one with another they are worth 
 •bout six pounds a-piece. n j 
 
 Supposing each occupied an acre of meadow, which") q' in n 
 (with town charges) reckon at j 
 
 Ten weeks' lattermath, at two shillings (the price of \ 
 such cattle) / 
 
 First cost and interest ... . . . . 
 
 Total cost . . 
 Present value . 
 Clear gain, besides a fair remunerating price for the") i i g 
 
 meadow ground and aftermath J 
 
 A neighbouring farmer bought a parcel at the same time, and at the 
 same price ; also some refuse ones so low as five-and-twenty shillings 
 a-piece; two of which he sold a few days ago for 111. 4s. 
 
 These, however, were followers at turnips the first winter. In summer 
 they were sent to a grazing ground ; since harvest they have been in the 
 stubble and ' roweus' at good keep*. 
 
 The short horns have established themselves in many parts of Norfolk. 
 Some of them are bought in to graze and others are bred there with con- 
 siderable success. The Devons have zealous advocates in Norfolk. The 
 Earl of Albemarle's straw-yard and sheds rarely contain fewer than 60 of 
 them every winter ; and Mr. Coke, while he selects the Devons for his 
 dairy, is zealously employed in grazing and winter feeding the improved 
 short horn. The Devons are selected for whatever husbandry work is 
 performed by oxen in Norfolk. 
 
 SUFFOLK. 
 
 The Suffolk Dun used to be celebrated in almost every part of the 
 kingdom, on account of the extraordinary quantity of milk that she yielded. 
 The dun colour is now, however, although occasionally met with out of the 
 county, rarely seen in Suffolk, and rejected as an almost certain indication 
 of inferiority. The breed, consistently with the title of the chapter under 
 which it is placed, is in general polled, but some of the calves would 
 have horns if they were reared, and even in the polled the rudiment of a 
 horn is often to be felt at an early age. 
 
 ■ The Suffolk, like the Norfolk beast, undoubtedly sprung from the Gal- 
 loway ; but it is shorter in the leg, broader and rounder than the Norfolk, 
 with a greater propensity to fatten, and reaching to greater weights. Mr. 
 John Kirby, the author of 'The Suffolk Traveller,' published nearly a cen- 
 tury ago, describes the Suffolk cow as Laving 'a clean throat, with little 
 dewlap, a snake headt, thin and short legs, the ribs springing well from 
 the centre of the back, the carcase large, the belly heavy, the back-bone 
 ridged the chine thin and hollow, the loin narrow, the udder square, large, 
 
 • Marshall's Economy of Norfolk, ii. 74. 
 
 t There is much variation with regard to this. We have seen many Suffolk cows 
 whose heads might be almost said to be clumsy, and who had theii fair share ot 
 dewlap, but they were not celebrated as milkers, and, being soon discarded on that 
 account, fattened with great rapidity. There was too much of the Galloway blood 
 about them. 
 
THE SUFFOLK BREED. . ) 75 
 
 .nose, and creased when empty, the milk veins remarkably large aud rising 
 in knotted pufTs ; and this so general, that I scarcely ever saw a famous 
 milker that did not possess this point, a general habit of leanness, hip 
 bones high and ill covered, and scareely any part of the carcase so formed 
 and covered as to please an eye that is accustomed to fat beasts of the ffnei 
 breeds.' The prevailing and the best colours are red, red and white, 
 brindled, and a yellowish cream colour. The bull is valued if he is of a 
 pure and unmingled red colour. In no part of the kingdom were the far- 
 mers more careless as to the breed, providing only that the cows were true 
 Suffolks. They merely inquired whether the bull came from a dairy of 
 good milkers ; and even the cows, which they rarely kept in milk for more 
 than two or three years, they bought at the neighbouring markets and fairs 
 much oftener than they bred them. 
 
 Some exaggerated accounts have been given of the milking properties of 
 the Suffolk cow, but. nevertheless, she is not inferior to any other breed in 
 the quantity of milk that she yields. In the heigh of the season some of 
 these cows will give as much as 8 gallons of milk in the day ; and 6 gal- 
 lons is not an unusual quantity. The produce of butter, however, is not 
 in proportion to the quantity of milk*. The Rev. Mr. Aspin, of Cockfield, 
 had three cows one of them a heiler with her first calf. They were kept 
 on three acres only of grass, without any change of pasture until afler 
 mowing time, and in the winter chiefly on straw with very little hay. Both 
 the old ones yielded 8 gallons of milk per day during the height of their 
 season, and the quantity of butter made from June to December was 
 683 lbs. The Rev. Arthur Young, the Secretary to the Board of Agricul- 
 ture, forty years ago, adds, that one Holderness cow would have consumed 
 all the food of the three, without returning half of the produce. There are 
 few short-horn cows, although fer superior in size to the Suffolks, and con- 
 suming nearly double the quantity of food, that will yield more milk than 
 is usually obtained from the smaller polled breed. 
 
 Fifty thousand firkins of butter are sent to London every year from Suf- 
 folk, of which each cow furnishes on an average three firkins, each weigh 
 ing i cwt., with J of a wey of cheese t. 
 
 * Some experiments were made by Mr. Chevalier, of Aspal, near Debenham, which 
 would give a more favourable opinion of the richness of the Suffolk cow's milk. Three 
 quarts of milk from a Suffolk cow, and the same quantity frbm a long-horn of Mr. Toosey'a 
 breed were set in separate bowls for 36 hours. The milk of each was then skimmed, and 
 Hie cream from the milk of the Suffolk weighed 2J ounces more than that from the horned 
 cow. The cream was after that put into two bottles and churned, and one quarter part 
 more butter was extracted from the cream of the polled cow than from that of the horned 
 one. 
 
 A variety of experuuents, however, must be made before this question can be settleJ. 
 and particularly in summer, when the milk of both is so much more abundant. The time 
 which has elapsed from the calving of each should also be attended to, and the condition 
 and food of the animals. The milk of a cow that keeps herself in good condition is well 
 known to be more productive of cream and butter than that of a half-starved one, who pos- 
 sibly may yield a greater quantity of milk ; and yet it may be questioned whether the 
 superiority of quality always mikes amends for the diminution of quantity. The most 
 extraordinary milkers are usually the very worst looking animals. 
 
 t Mr. Culley extracts from Mr. Young's Survey of Suffolk, an estimate of the produce 
 ■»f one of the cows ; — 
 
 jf *. d. 
 Three firkins of butter, dach weighing J cwt. at 32». . . 4 16 
 
 i wey of cheese 140 
 
 A hog 1 » 
 
 Acalt 10 
 
 Total 
 
 7 10 (J 
 
176 
 
 CATTLK. 
 
 A little good cheese is made in Suffolk, but, generally speaking, th« 
 milk is more profitably converted into butter, and the cheese ntariufactiiied 
 from the skim-milk alone is of very inferior quality. 
 
 \_Suffolk Caw.] 
 
 The'cattle are, by the majority of the farmers, much better attended lo 
 than they were when Mr. Young wrote his ' Survey.' He says, that ' few 
 cows were confined in the winter to a cow-yard, but the cattle ranged over 
 the fields almost at their pleasure, poaching the land dreadfully. Somer 
 times, however, they were tied up in the field, without house, or shed, or 
 roof to cover them. A rough manger was placed on the ground in which 
 turnips or cabbages*, or straw was given to them, and small posts were 
 driven into the ground 3ft. 6in. asunder, to which the cows were tied. A 
 faggot, hedge was set up before them, or they were placed before a thick 
 hedge in order to screen them from the blast. They were regularly littered, 
 and the dung was piled up behind them in the form of a wall, which served 
 them for another screen ; while a slight trench was dug at their heels to 
 conduct away the urine.' It was imagined that this was better than letting 
 
 la his third eilition, Mr. Young calcuIatiDg the butter and cheese at ahighei price, makes 
 the produce 8/. 1 2s. 6d. 
 
 Mr. Parkinson, a very excellent writer on the breeds and general treatment of cattle, 
 but not to be depended upon when he speaks of theii diseases, has the following very 
 appropriate remMks on this, vol. i. p. 119, which we have somewhat condensed 
 ' When it is asseited that the best of the cows give 24 quarts of milk in one day, and that 
 the profit uf one of them f>ir a year is only 71. 10«.,the milk and the quantity of butter bear 
 no sort of proportion to each other. There must be an error in the one ; for if the produce 
 of this cow be only calculated at half a year, or 26 weeks, the butter would be 1 841b3., 
 which, at 1<. a pound, would give 9/. it. ; the hog would be worth, in other butter and 
 cheese counties, 2/. ; and the calf about 15<. Skim-milk cheese fetches from 2/. 5s. to 
 2/. 15*. in Dorsetshire and Somersetshire, which would make the produce amount to 
 1 5/. 1 3»„ a sum much nearer the truth than «rfat stated by Mr. Young.' 
 
 * Forty years ago (1792) the practice of growing cabbages was almost universal among 
 (he dairy farmers ; but the butter was sometimes bad when the cabbages began to be 
 decayed, and thb vegetable did considerable damage to the succeeding crop. The cultaif 
 of this food for milch cows is therefore in a great measure superseded. 
 
THE SUFFOLK BREED. 
 
 177 
 
 tliein' range at will, and that every kind of food went much farther. The 
 laniiers believed that they were more healthy and profitable when thus 
 exposed to the weather, than if they had a roof over them, and that (he 
 warmth produced by their lying^ so close to each other, aud by the screen 
 before and behind, was sufficient. Mr. Young remarks, ' if they do as well 
 as under sheds much expense is saved, but this is a very doubtful question.' 
 When they had calved, or were near the time of calving, they were brought 
 into the cow-house. The land is now thrown a great deal more open than 
 it formerly was. These high impervious hedges are rarely to be found, 
 and this system of feeding in the field is comparatively seldom adopted. 
 
 There used to be, and still to a very considerable degree remain, some 
 other points of bad management. Although the calves that are reared are 
 .selected according to the milking properties of the dam, few of the early 
 dropped ones, which are generally the best, are saved. The price of veal 
 then offers a temptation which the farmer cannot resist ; and the yonug 
 ones are fattened and disposed of as soon as po!>sibIe. The selection is 
 therefore made almost entirely from the later calves, and they have not so 
 good a chance as the early-dropped ones would have had of becoming 
 strong and hardy before winter, and thus acquiring a good constitution,, 
 and the certainty of thriving and yielding well. 
 
 [Suffnill Bll//.] 
 
 "Another instance of mismanagement is not always avoided even at the 
 prej^ent day. He says that ' the bnlls are rarely suffered to live after they 
 are three years old, however excellent they may be, for the farmer believes 
 that if they are kept longer they do not get a stock equally good, and par- 
 ticularly that their calves are not so large after that period.' Nothing can 
 be more erroneous or mischievous. A bull is never in finer condition than 
 from four to seven years old. 
 
 Beside this, the practice of the Suffolk breeders is subject to radical ob- 
 jection, for before the value of the progeny of a bull can be known he is 
 slanghtered, so that if the cows got by him turn out to be the most excel- 
 lent milkers, no advantage could be derived from the discovery, the sire oi 
 
 • 1... ..*.w.1r U..:»«. ...^na 
 
 N 
 
I7« (JAITLK. 
 
 To such an extent was this absurd practice formerly carried, ihal Ms. 
 Voung justly observes that ' having obtained by accident, or by exeitiims, 
 the memory of which is now lost, a good breed of milkers, (he SulK)ik 
 people have preserved them almost by mere chance, and without any of 
 the care and attention which their value demanded.' 
 
 Somewhat of the same system was and is pursued with regard to the 
 heifers. A heifer of scarcely two-years old, with a calf at her toot, is no 
 rare object. This system of breeding before the form of either the sire or 
 the dam is developed ; this tax upon the power of nature to contribute to 
 the growth of the young mother as well as to that of the calf, must be 
 exceedingly injurious. She also at four-years old is frequently discarded 
 and fattened for the butcher, unless she has displayed more than usually 
 good milking properties. 
 
 The Suffolk cow when thus discharged, poor and angular as she may 
 look, fattens with a rapidity, not equal, indeed, to that ot the Galloways, 
 but greater than could be expected from her gaunt appearance. Whence she 
 obtained the faculty of yielding so much milk, is a question that no one has 
 yet solved. Her progenitor, the Galloway, has it not. The Holderiiess 
 could scarcely be concerned; for, more than a hundred years ago, the Suffolk 
 dun was as celebrated as a milker, as the breed of this county is at present, 
 and the Holderness had not then been introduced. The fattening property 
 derived from the northern breed is not yet impaired. The discarded 
 cow is easily fattened to forty or five-and-forty stones, and the quality of 
 her meat is excellent*. 
 
 The grazing property of the Suffolk has been supposed to be increasea 
 by a cross with the short-horn ; but although they are both excellent 
 milkers, their value has been uniformly lessened as milch cows by the 
 admixture of the two, and the progeny, although better tlian the Suffolk 
 for grazing, is decidedly inferior to the improved short-horn. Very 
 few of the Suffolks, however, are bred for the mere purpose of grazing ; 
 for, notwithstanding what we have said of their value in this respect, they 
 are decidedly inferior to the pure Galloways. 
 
 Vast numbers of the Galloways are bought at the fairs after Michaelmas. 
 The same management is pursued as in Norfolk, and the Galloways from 
 Suffolk join those from Norfolk in their journey to the London market, in 
 the s|)rin:;- and early part of the summer. 
 
 A great many Welsh cattle, and a few Irish, are also grazed, both in 
 Suffolk and Norfolk ; but they do not bear so high a. price in the market 
 as the Galloways, and their meat, although very good, is somewhat 
 inferior. The short-horns are also establishing themselves in some parts 
 of this county as grazing cattle; but as milkers, they cannot contest the 
 palm with the Suffolks on their native soil. Some Devons are found, 
 but they are not so numerous or such favourites as they are in Norfolk. 
 
 Lord Huntingfield has a very fine dairy of North Devon cows, and he 
 spares no expense to procure the purest and most beautiful bulls from that 
 district. In the year 1832, he gave two hundred and eighty guineas for a 
 bull of that breed. His lordship \s also very successfully engaged in the 
 grazing and winter feeding of the improved short-horn. Some very fine 
 beasts of his stock were exhibited at the last Smilhfield cattle show, 
 183?, 
 
 There is no other breed of polled cattle of siifficient consequence to 
 ieserve distinct mention here. Mr. John Lawrence, in his excellent 
 
 • M.-. Paikiiison says, — 'The oxen of this breed weigh from 570 lbs. to 700 lbs. j aoil 
 ihrcuw'j (cum 420 lbs. to 560 lbs., and io a ceneial way, 1 do not find any beef befun 
 fcfaeui.' 
 
THE IRISH BREED. m 
 
 Work on caule, speaks of the Northern or Yorkshire polled cattle. 
 He describes them as having the same qualities as the short-horna, 
 of different sizes, but some of them carrying vast substance, and he think* 
 that most of the various breeds of horned cattle are attended with horn- 
 'ess, but perfectly consrenial varieties. This is true to a very considerable 
 extent. The Devonshire Nats, or polled cattle, now rapidly decreasing in 
 number, possess the general figure and most of the good qualities of 
 the horned beasts of that district ; and the Yorkshire polls are almost as 
 large as the horned beasts of that county, and as good for grazing and 
 for the pail. Many breeders pay particular attention to the shape of the 
 head in these polled cattle, and to a certain extent, also, in the horned 
 ones. If the crown of the head is fine, like that of a doe, and drawn almost 
 to a point on t'le top, the breed is supposed to be good. 
 
 Chapter. V. 
 
 THE IRISH CATTLE. 
 
 Before we enter on the consideration of the two remaining breeds of 
 English cattle, the long and the short-horns, we will take a very rapid 
 glance at the Irish cattle. 
 
 They are evidently composed of two distinct breeds ; the middle and 
 ■the long-horns 
 
 The former is plainly an aboriginal breed. They are found on the 
 mountains and rude parts of the country, in almost every district. They 
 are small, light, active, and wild. The head is small, although there are 
 exceptions to this in various parts, and so numerous, indeed, are those 
 exceptions, that some describe the native Irish cattle as having thick heads 
 and necks; the horns are short compared with the other breed, all of them 
 fine, some of them rather upright, and frequently, alter projecting forward, 
 then turning backward. Although somewhat deficient in the hind quarters, 
 they are high-boned, and wide over the hips, yet the bone generally is not 
 heavy. The hair is coarse and long ; in some places they are black, 
 in others brindled; and in others black or brindled, with white facfis. 
 Some are finer in the bone, and finer in the neck, with a good eye, and 
 sharp nnizzle, and great activity. 
 
 They are exceedingly hardy ; they live through the winter, and some- 
 times fatten on their native mountains and moors ; and when removed to 
 abetter climate and soil, they fatten with all the rapidity of the aboriginal 
 cattle of the Highlands and Wales. They are generally very good 
 milkers, and many of them are excellent in this respect. The cow ol 
 Kerry, with a portrait of which the reader is here presented, is a favourable 
 specimen of them. Where they have much of the Kerry blood in them, 
 their very wildness proves them to be the native breed ; for there is no 
 fence nor ditch which they will not leap. 
 
 The cow of Kerry is truly a poor man's cow, living everywhere hardy, 
 yielding, for hsr size, abundance of milk 'of a good quality, and fattening 
 riipidly when required. The slightest inspection of the cit will convindi 
 
 N 2 
 
no 
 
 CATTLE 
 
 the reader of tlie difference between this breed and both the larger and Ihe 
 smaiier long-horned Irish one ; were it not for the cloddiness about the 
 fhoulder, and the shortness and thickness of the lower part of the neck, 
 «nd the pied colour, we should almost fancy that we saw the middle-horn 
 North Devon cow*. 
 
 These cattle usually run small, and are confined to the hilly and moor 
 {^rounds, or to the scanty portion of land possessed by the cottager and 
 the small farmer. There are, however, some exceptions to this. In Con- 
 naught this breed runs to a very considerable size, and are improved in 
 form as well as in weight. The horns, usually of middle length, turn up ; 
 as do the horns of those on the mountains; but they are shorter in the 
 leg, and shorter in the body ; their loins and haunches are heavy and 
 wide ; although the hair is thick, the hide is mellow, and they thrive with 
 a rapidity rarely excelled by any other breed. 
 
 [ Kerry Cow'\ 
 
 Mr. Walker, of Belmont, in Wexford, informs us, that this breed is now 
 not to be met with pure, except inland on the mountains ; being nearly 
 worn out in the more civilized parts of the country, by repeated crosses 
 with the Leicester, the Hereford, and the Devon ; but that for the dairy, all 
 the farmers still prefer those cows which show most of the native Irish blood. 
 
 Mr. CuUey seems to consider the middle-horn Irish as a mixed breed 
 between the long-horns and the Welsh or Scotch, but most inclined to the 
 
 * Mr. Rawson, in his Survey of Kildare, gives the following description of the native 
 Irish beast : — It should have a sweet, placiil countenance, — a neat, clean horn, — head very 
 small, — neck very thin at the head, tapering i;i^ntly, and increasing where it meet* the 
 slioulder, so as gently to cover it, — shoulders flat, and thin in the blade, — chine not too 
 fine, — chest very deep and full at the breast, — ribs rising roundly and swelling from the 
 chine,-^auples close, — ^hip not too wide, and nearly cunceali'd by the high arching of the 
 ribs, and the closeness of the couples, — hind-quarters broad and lengthy, narrowing gra 
 dually to the tail, which should lie snug between the bones, the quarters pu the outside 
 0at, on the inside full, but not fcT.tvnding too low, — legs tine, and clean in the bone, but 
 »»t lKgK>\ 
 
THE IRISH BREED. 
 
 is; 
 
 long^hnrns. This is an opininn to wbir.h we can by no meani! aMsent 
 The very locality of these cattle, (the smaller varieties especially,) — the 
 mountainous and comparatively inaccessible situation which tbey occupv, 
 seem to point them out, liUe the Welsh and the Scotch, as the aboriginal 
 breed, and to prove that one of a very similar character was indigenous 
 to both is.ands. 
 
 The other breed is of a larger size. It is the old or the partially im- 
 proved Craven or Lancashire beast, which we shall have presently to 
 describe. It is the true long-horn ; the horns first taking a direction out- 
 ward, then forming a curve, and returning towards the face, sometimes 
 threatening to pierce the bones of the nose, or at other times so to cross 
 before the nnizzle, that the animal shall be unable to graze. 
 
 The following cut represents this large variety of Irish cattle, and is 
 evidently identical with the Craven or Lancashire. In Tipperary, Limerick, 
 Meath, a great part of Munster, and particularly in Roscommon, many of 
 these cattle are found, of which, although we cannot say with the author 
 of the Survey of the county of Dublin, that ' the cattle of Ireland are in 
 such a progressive state of improvement, that in a few years the English 
 themselves will be out-done, and will finally resort to ui to improve iheir 
 breed,' yet we can affirm that they arc most valuable animals. 
 
 llrish Calt!e.] 
 Whence these long-horns originally came, is a question that has been 
 much disputed. There is no doubt that they very much resemble the 
 English long-horns, and have been materially improved by them ; but 
 whether Ireland or England was the native country of this breed will never 
 be determined. Ancient records are silent on the subject; and in both 
 countries we can trace the long-horns to a very remote period. As from 
 very early times Ireland has materially contributed to the supply of the 
 British capital and the British navy, and thousands of Irish beasts 
 yearly trsiverse almost every part of Great Britain, from Port Patrick to 
 
i»2 cArn.E. 
 
 the Itiamps, many persons have concluded thiit the English loii^-horn* 
 sprung from some of the Irish ones who were arrested in different parts o( 
 their journey. Others, however, and we think with more reason, finding 
 he middle-horns in every mountainous and unfrequented part of the 
 country, ana the long-horns inhabiting the lower and more thickly inhabited 
 districts, regard the first as the pure native breed, and consider the other 
 to have been a stranger race,v.and introduced, probably from Lancashire 
 where a breed of cattle of the same character and form is found. 
 
 However this may be, there were a variety of circumstances which ren 
 dered the march ofirnprovement much more rapid in England than in Ireland. 
 While the British long-horns had materially improved, those in Ireland, 
 owing to the depressed state of the peasantry, their proverbial indolence 
 in these matters, and the law of gavel-kind*, which, by the dirision 
 of even the smallest portion of land among all the children, produced a 
 too numerous class of embarrassed and starving tenants or little land- 
 holders, had not progressed in the slightest degree. 
 
 More than a century ago, some zealous agriculturists in Meath com- 
 menced the work of improvement. Mr. Waller introduced some of 
 the old Lancashires, a few of which long remained in Allenstown. Sixty 
 years afterwards, a namesake and successor of his brought over one of 
 the new Leicester breed. He permitted his neighbours and tenants to 
 have the almest unrestrained use of him, and there was scarcely a cottager 
 within three or four miles of Allenstown, that did not possess a cow dis- 
 playing some traces of the Leicestershire blood. Mr Lowlher, the Earl of 
 Beclive, and Mr. Noble, successively contributed tc the improvement of 
 the breed in this part of Ireland. 
 
 About the same time, Lord Mas^areiie introduced some fine long-horned 
 cattle into Antrim ; in 1775, Mr. Lesly, of Lesly-hill, imported one of 
 Mr. Bakewell's bulls ; and the cattle of the neighbouring country was 
 materially and rapidly improved. The Marquis of Donegal imported an- 
 other true Leicester from the stock of Mr. Astley. Mr. Watson, of Bros- 
 hill, likewise diligently crossed the country cows with a valuable Leicester 
 bull. 
 
 Lord Farnham was zealously em|)loyed in improving the cattle of 
 Cavan, but he was long opposed by the not unfounded ajiprehensions of 
 
 ♦ Mr. Ross, in his Survey of Londonderry, g^ves an interesting account of this custom of 
 gavel-kind and its pernicious effects. ' One great obstacle to imprnvemenT, ami which is 
 too general in Ireland, is their notion of the equal a,ud unaheuaMe ri^ht of all their 
 children to the inheritance of their father's property, whether land or giiuils. This 
 opinion, so just and reasonable in theory, t}ut so ruinous and absurd in practice, is inter- 
 woven in such a manner in the very constitution of their minds, that it is next to im. 
 possible to eradicate it. In spite of every argument, the smaller Irish landholders con- 
 tinue to divide their farms among their cmldren, and these divide on until division is no 
 longer practicable ; and in the course of two or three generations, the most thriving family 
 must necessarily go to ruin. 
 
 • I knew a respectable farmer who held about thirty acres of arable land, in one of the 
 mountain town-lands, and had two sons, between whom, according to custom, he equally di- 
 vided his farm, which was thus barely able to support them and their families. One of 
 these had himself four sons, among whom, during his lifetime, he also divided his fifteen 
 acres, reserving to himself an equal share. Here then were five persons with three acres 
 apiece ; and as each of the suns, considering himself at once an established landholder, 
 immediately married, there were five of the poorest and most wretched families that can 
 be well imagined, without scope for their industry, trade or manufacture to employ 
 them, or land sufficient to produce for them the common necessaries of Ufe. 
 
 ' Landlords blindly encourage this to increase their political influence. If the farm had 
 been bequeatiied to one of the sons, and the others bad been taught some useful trade, 
 and a little sum of money given to them to set up with, all might have been respectable 
 ud happy.' 
 
THE IRISH BREED. ]83' 
 
 .hB oottag^ers and small fanners. It was soon evident that he was able to 
 fatten his cattle on less ground and poorer pasture than he could before, 
 and raise them to a much a;realer weight ; but it was also plain, that in 
 proportion as he gave this dispdsition to fatten, he lessened the quantity 
 of milk, which the cottager could ill spare : thence arose a prejudice 
 against improvement altogether, and which was not surmounted without 
 considerable difficulty. 
 
 In Langford the cattle were much improved by the exertions of the late 
 Earl of Rosse, who imported several bulls of the best English breeds, and 
 brought them to his liighly cultivated demesne at Newcastle. On May 
 21, 1802, 10 six-year-old bullocks were sold at the fair of Ballyniahoe 
 for 400 guineas, and 10 foiir-years-old heifers for 300 guineas. These 
 cattle were the property of Lord Oxraantown, (afterwards Earl of Rosse) 
 and for size, shape, and fatness, could not be excelled. They were all fed 
 on common hay and grass. 
 
 In Clare, Sir Edward O'Biieii and Mr. Doxan of Fountain, Mr. Molony 
 of Kiltannon, and Mr. Blood of Riverstoiv, did much to render the breed 
 more valuable, by the importation of the improved Leicesters. In Ros- 
 common, the Messrs. Finch were particularly active in introducing the 
 Lancashire, Leicestershire, and Warwickshire cattle. 
 
 Almost every county and barony of Ireland had its zealous and suc- 
 cessful improver of the native breed, until, in the richer and more culti- 
 vated districts, the cattle became of as great a size and as perfect form as 
 any which the midland districts of England could produce. 
 
 There were, however, either two distinct breeds of long-horns, the one 
 capable of rapid improvement, while the other, in a manner, set at de- 
 fiance every means to add to the size, or give a tendency to early maturity, 
 or there were found too great a proportion of agriculturists who obsti- 
 nately refused to adopt the proper means for the amelioration of their 
 stock; or there were many districts into which the improved long- 
 horns rarely, or to a very inconsiderable degree, penetrated. From one or 
 all of these causes it happened, that there are at the present moment 
 two kinds of these cattle in Ireland, in character essentially different ; the 
 larger, which we have described, and a smaller, prevailing principally in 
 the north of the island. At first view, perhaps, these would appear to 
 be the same cattle, only smaller from poor keep and bad management ;- 
 but their horns, long out of all proportion, their clumsy heads, large bones 
 and thick hides, their bulkiness of dewlap contrasted with their lightness 
 of carcase, in fine, an accumulation of di'tects about them, clearly mark 
 them as being of far inferior value 
 
 Thousands of them, and more perhaps than of the improved breed, find 
 their way to the midland counties of England, in order that some attempt 
 may be made to prepare them for the metropolitan market. The pur- 
 chase of them is quite a lottery, or demands great skill and experience. 
 Occasionally they will thrive to a degree not much inferior to the 
 Welch cattle, while at other times a lot of them may be put on as good 
 'attening pasture as any in England, and be continued there the whole of 
 ,.he summer, consuming almost as much food as the largest oxen, and yet 
 scarcely improving in condition. 
 
 In process of time, the English long-horns, although of the improved 
 Bakewell breed, began to lose ground even in their native country ; or 
 rather a rival with somewhat higher pretensions appeared in the field. 
 The improved short-horns began lo attract the attention of the breeder ; 
 and their propensity to fatten, and the comparatively earlier period at 
 v>, hich they arrived at maturity, soon became evident. There were not 
 
M4 CATTLE. 
 
 wanting spirited agriculturists in Ireland, who quickly availed Ihemselvea 
 of this new mode of improving^ the Hibernian cattle. Sir Henry Vane 
 Tempest was one of the first who introduced the short-horned bull. The 
 improvement effected by the first cross was immediately evident in the 
 early maturity of the progeny. The pure short-horii, or this cross with 
 the long-horn, weighed as much at three years old as the pure long-horn 
 used to do at five. But the breed rapidly degenerated, and it perhaps 
 must be confessed that the first experiment in a great degree failed, and 
 particularly as it was found that while the cattle bred back to the native 
 Irish character, they never fully regained their hardihood, or their repu- 
 tation as milkers. 
 
 It was likewise found that the pure Teeswater did not suit the ordinary 
 management of cattle in Ireland. They answered only where the farmer 
 had capital and quick return, and where he could house and feed them 
 well. The Irish farmer had too much to alter in the system of treatment 
 to which he and his forefathers had been accustomed ; and he often had 
 not the means to effect the requisite change, or if he had, his prejudices 
 forbade him to use them. 
 
 The reputation of the short-horn, however, becoming more fully esta- 
 blished in England, other attempts were made to introduce him into 
 Ireland, and the experiments were more systematically conducted. Mr. 
 Conolly of Castletown, to whom we are indebted for some valuable infor- 
 mation, effected much improvement in Donegal. The pure short-horn 
 was found too delicate for the severe weather and inferior food which they 
 were destined to find in that mountainous district j but a half-bred stock 
 was introduced, which improved the shape and increased the size of the 
 Donegal cattle, and produced a better price. Mr. Conolly sent four bulls 
 to his estates in that county, and they were highly approved. The prizes 
 of the Farming Society of Donegal were adjudged to them, and theii 
 evident value has produced more attention to the care and feeding ot 
 Cattle generally. 
 
 Mr. Walker tells us, that * within the last ten years the breed has been 
 greatly improved by crossing with the Dutch, the A.yrshire, and the Dur- 
 ham ; yet that the improvements are mostly confined to the gentlemen 
 and large farmers, for the smaller farmers (who are the majority of the 
 inhabitants) consider that the short-horns require too much care and 
 feeding, and that their milk is not so good as that of the native breed.' 
 
 When speaking of the management of cattle in Wexford, Mr. Walker 
 gives a faithful account of that which takes place over a great part o' 
 Ireland. ' The farms are small, and the occupiers of them have little 
 capital ; therefore, except in summer, when grass is plenty, the cattle live 
 poorly and are exposed to hardships.' For the same reason, the calves 
 and young cattle are stinted in their growth ; but this does not appear to 
 injure their milking qualities. They generally go to the bull at a year, or 
 a year and a half old, so that they come into the dairy at two, or rising 
 three years old. 
 
 All cattle are here fed abroad on grass in the summer* Some of the 
 
 * The Rev. A. Boss, is his ■ Survey of Jjindondeny,' published in 18 14, thus speaks ol 
 the mode of letting, and the cost of these summerings : ' The grazing of cattle is paid by the 
 tamm, by which is to be understood, the grazing of a cow when above three year* old. 
 
 The proportions of other kinds of cattle are estimated by this in the following manner : 
 
 A summ is divided into three equal parts called feet, which is thus applied. A year-old 
 calf, is called a foot ; a two-year old, two feet ; a summ is three feet ; a horse is five feet ; 
 two colts are equal to a horse ; six sheep, or four ewes and four lambs, the same ; 24 geese 
 ■le a lumm. Thus then, if 6». be the price of a surpm a year old will be 2»., a two-yea 
 
THE IRISH BUKKtt 185 
 
 gentlemen an<l larjje farmers are bes:iiinin{f to cultivate mangel-wurzel 
 aiiH turnips, and to use hay ; but the generality of the cuttle are wintered 
 on straw and potatoes, and many of them very imperfectly housed. They 
 nf course thrive better and afford a largjer profit, where care is taken of 
 them; but they are so hardy in constitution, as to yield a fair return 
 under tlie common management*. 
 
 Mr. Anderson, of Shelton, in a letter with which we have been favoured 
 from him at the request of the Earl of Wicklow, describes the old Irish 
 cattle there, as a low, broad, hardy breed, with thick heads and necks, and a 
 thick hide. He says, that ' tlie farmers run their cattle out nearly all the 
 season, only takings them in in the evening, and then giving- them a small 
 quantity of hay. They are good dairy cows, but do not answer well for 
 tlie siraaier, as they do not fatten so well, and have more coarse meat than 
 the improved breed. The average weight of the cows are from four to 
 five hundred weight, (Mr. Walker states that the average weight of the 
 Wexford cow is about 4jcwt.) — but they might be greatly improved, it 
 proper attention were paid to them ; for the calves, after the two first 
 weeks, are generally reared upon butter-milk, and then left to shift for 
 themselves ; only they have a little hay at night in winter. 
 
 Mr. Anderson adds that ' the breed is considerably improved of late 
 years, by crossing with the Durham and Ayrshire.' Lord Wicklow, whose 
 stock consists almost entirely of the Durhams, much to his credit, gives 
 his tenants the free use of his bulls without charge ; and, encouraged by 
 the improvement that has taken place, he purposes not only to continue, 
 but to extend the system. 
 
 Soiling in the house is not much practised in this district ; but grazing- 
 in the summer, and hay in the winter, constitute the mode of feeding; 
 except that some of the graziers keep up part of their pasture for the fat 
 cattle, which they retain at the end of the season. These run out in all 
 weathers, and ha^e cribs fixed in the field to give them hay in a stormy 
 niiitit, but they have no shed over them. 
 
 Lord Wicklow, who stall-feeds with turnips, mangel-wurzel, and potatoes, 
 prefers the latter. The calves are reared on the cows, or have new milk 
 given to them from the pail, and they are housed in winter, and fed on 
 hay, with a few turnips or mangel-w\irzel, each day. 
 
 Lord Dunally, in a letter with which we have been honoured from him, 
 says, that ' in Tipperary he has kept the North Devon cattle for many 
 years, and much approves of them tor feeding, for the dairy, for working, 
 and also for hardness, or quality to bear bad weather. 
 
 His Lordship states, that the usual weight of the native cattle, when 
 fattened, is about five hundred pounds. He also gives a favourable account 
 of the grasing properties of these cattle. He says, that ' they are (iften 
 
 old 4«., a, horse 10<., and so on. The charge for a summ in the mountains, from I^'^y ^ 
 November, varies from 6t. to 16<., according to the goodness of the pasture, in the P rks 
 which are kept up for fattening, it is from 21. to 21. lOs.' 
 
 • Mr. Rawson gives the following account of the strange privations to which the cattle 
 are sometimes exposed. ' The droves of cattle when tunned nut are generally att ended 
 by a solitary herdsman and bis boy, who are obliged to keep boundaries. Hay is never 
 dreamed of as necessary ; and in case of deep snow of long continuance, the healing bul- 
 locks have nothing to resort to but coarse grass on undrained and unimproved mours and 
 wet lands, which have scarcely been trodden ou during the previous summer. Turnips, 
 rape, or even straw are never thought of; nay, an extensive grazier would laugh at wJiat 
 he would call your folly, if you doubted the health of his bullocks on his coarse crags.' 
 Houses or coverings of a^iy kind are not thought of. Yet alter all these severe trials nf 
 thriftiness, when at four years old, they are put to fatten about the 1st of May, ai<d in 
 five montl.s pre n.ade tit fur sUrighter.' 
 
186 CATTLE. 
 
 brousrht to be fat without stall-reeding ; and when upon gDod land, onljp 
 require fodder with hay upon the ground for about three months, and 
 without housing. They are, however, frequently housed, and fed with 
 turnips and potatoes with good .success.' 
 
 Mr. Moore O'Farrell speaks also of the great improvement effected in 
 the Irish cattle within the last twelve years, by the importation of the 
 Durham breed. He says, that ' they have displaced a cross of the long- 
 horn Leicester on the Irish cow, and that the farmers of the country 
 now prefer a cross of the Durham bull, on the Irish cow, to the pure 
 breed, as being less delicate, and giving a richer and greater quantity of 
 milk ;' but he very properly adds, that ' the two tirst crosses Me most 
 approved of.' 
 
 Sir Robert Bateson, of Bel voir Park, Belfast, purchased in 1820, a 
 bull and three cows, of Mr. Charles Howard of Melbourn, of »he best 
 sliort-horn b|;eed, which succeed admirably in that district. 
 
 Mr. M'Neil, of Lam, in Antrim, tried a Highland bull, but the breed 
 was not improved, either for the dairv or the butcher. 
 
 Perhaps there is po country in the world which, in proportion to Its 
 number of acres, contains so many cattle or possesses so extensive a trade 
 in cattle and their produce, as Ireland does. In 1812, no less than 
 79,285 live oxen and cows were exported from Ireland, constituting full 
 one-eighth part of the beef consumed in England, and stated to be of the 
 official vaiue of 439,128Z. From that period, the number seemed to be 
 gradually diminishing. In 1S24, there were only 62,393 oxen and cows 
 exported ; in 182.^, there were 63,524, and of the value of about 350,000/. 
 No later details can be given, fiir the traffic between Britain and Ireland 
 was then placed on the footing of a coasting trade: the numbers, however, 
 were not, until lately, fewer than the.y were in 1825. 
 
 Before the establishment of sti am navigation, many inconveniences 
 and difficulties attended the transport of the Irish cattle. Many of them 
 were driven a hundred or a hundred and fifty miles to the coast, where, if 
 the wind was contrary, they were detained perhaps several days, with a 
 very scanty allowance of food. They had none on the voyage ; and when 
 they arrived at the English shore, they were often in a starved state, and 
 scarcely able to walk. This may be placed in another point of view. 
 In a dry summer, the English fed cattle are sent to some of the markets, 
 and particularly to those on the western coast, and especially Liverpool, 
 to great disadvantage. From the scarcity of food and water, they do not 
 arrive in a prime slate of fatness ; they have a long way to be driven, and 
 are often badly supported on the road. In Ireland, they have had a 
 capital summer for grazing, never Wanting grass or water, — and the finest 
 long-horned cattle, a breed now almost extinct in this country, are sent, 
 over in the highest condition. Such is the facility of conveyance, that a 
 steam-packet with a cargo of fat cattle will leave Ireland one day, and 
 have deUvered and be cleared out in good time on the following day. 
 
 In addition to this transport of cattle for the graziers in England, 
 Ireland supplies an immense quantity of beef, for the navy and merchants' 
 vessels at all periods. During the late war, the cattle slaughtered at 
 Cork for the use of the navy were, perhaps, more numerous than all that 
 were disposed of in every other way. Mr. Culley saw at one fair at 
 Ballinasloe, in Roscommon, 35,000 head of cattle, and half of them 
 fat, all of which were bought up for slaughter at Cork. 
 
 Of the vexatious mode in which the business between the gra- 
 rier and the contractor was often transacted, we subjoin in a note 
 • somewhat humorous account, extracted from Diittoii's Survey or 
 
i.ilt litlSU ^JKKKD. 18» 
 
 ftie count) ol Clare we hope that ilie piclure .is iirc a little over- 
 
 timrg-ed. 
 
 The perfect establishment of steam navigation, while it afibrds facilities 
 for the transport of live-stock, yields still greater ones for the carriage of 
 the carcase ; and cattle may now be slaughtered in the evening at any 
 uf the ports on the eastern coast of Ireland, and sent to Liverpool, and, 
 by means of the railway, even to Manchester, in time for the morrow's 
 market. 
 
 We baye stated that the old breed of Irish cattle is most valueoTor the 
 dairy. They give, in proportion to their size, a much greater quantity of 
 milk than the long-horns, and richer in butter. A cow is supposed to 
 yield from 84 lbs. to 112 lbs. of butter in the year; a very good cow will 
 
 * When the merchants are combined, the |i;raziers are comiilettly at their mercy, and 
 snffKr. not only evi-»y kind of ^oss indignity ot treatment irom these great men, but 
 serioas losses from the cheating of every person concerned in slaughtering these cattle. As 
 it is scarcely known in other parts of the kingdom, it may be at least amusing to detail 
 the business a little. The grazier, finding no agent attending the fairs to buy, except 
 some trusty friend of the merchants, who reails a letter from Cork or Limerick stating 
 the rumours of a peace or the expected very tow price, is obliged to drive his cattle to 
 either of these markets. 
 
 After driving them into either of these towns, he waits upon the great man, and with 
 all humility, begs to know if he wants any iat cattle ; alter a good deal of pretended 
 hurry of business, and waiting for a repetition of the question, 'he believes he shall not 
 
 want anything more than what he has already engaged, but to oblige Mr. , he will 
 
 endeavour to make room for them as to the price, it is to be regulated by what the 
 other graziers receive.' 
 
 When this is settled, he must drive his beasts to a slaughter-house, many of which are 
 erected for this purpose. He pays for this a high price, and must give also the heads 
 and ofial. He must sit up all night, superintending the slaughtering, and must silently 
 observe every species of fraud committed by the very worst kind of butchers ; for, as has 
 frequently happened, if resentful language is used to those scoundrels, they begin to 
 whet their knives, and put themselves in an assassinating altitude. This in a slaughter- 
 ing-house at night, and amongst the horrid scene of carnage around him, requires no 
 small share of nerve. 
 
 Next morning, without taking any rest, he must bring his meat to the cutters up ; 
 here, unless they are feed, begins the second part of the fraud he has to sufier. First; 
 they take for their perquisites several pounds of his best beef ; and if he has cows, unless 
 they are well paid, will cut away large quantities of the udder, which they call offal, and 
 which is the property of the merchant, though he pays nothing for it. The merchant 
 also gets the tongues; and if, perhaps, the grazier wants a few, must buy them at the rate 
 of three shillings each. , 
 
 The third scene begins at the scales : here another perquisite must be paid, and much 
 good meat is reliised, tiecause, truly, it should be a few pounds less than the stipulated 
 weight per beast. 
 
 An appeal ,then is made to the great man, — ' he is gone out,' — ' he won't be home to- 
 night," — ' he is so busy he can't be seen;' at length, perhaps, he is visible, — and when 
 matters are explained, — ■' Really, Sir, 1 do not wish to take your cattle ; the prices I 
 r«ceive in England are so low, 1 shall lose by my contract ; suppose you would try if you 
 could do better elsewhere, btit I will agree to take your beef, though below the weight, if 
 you make the terms lower.' The grazier has now no redress, and must agree to any 
 terms. The business does not end here. Th'-ohe enquires what mode of iiayinent; 
 bills at ninety-one days are the best terms he can get. He then applies to a diaudler to 
 buy his fat. When this is settled, the tanner must be waited on; and here, as well as 
 with the chandler, bills at a long date are the only payment he can receive ; and as they 
 are generally men of small or no capital, if their speculations should not succeed, their 
 bills are worth little. 
 
 This is but a small part of the gross indignities the grazier has to suffer. He has to 
 transact a business totally foreign to his habits of life, consequently unable to cope with 
 those, who, from their infancy, are used to the tricks practised in this business, and, 
 therefore, able to avoid them, or turn them, perhaps, to their own benefit. The prica 
 depends, not only on the causes before-mentioned, but on the size of the beast, — those of 
 * large size bringing more per cwt. than those uf a .smaller one, which is a premium oa 
 large bone ; and cows are always lower in price than oxen, though they are sent ta 
 Kn({land in the same packages ; and, if fat, go as the best beef, called planter's men. 
 
t88 CAn'LK. 
 
 yield Ijcwt. ; about Jialf of which is consumed by the family, or in the 
 country, and the remainder is exported to England, Carlow bus the repu- 
 tation of producing the best butter ; but the firkins containing that which is 
 manulkclured iu all the surroanding counties are often branded with the 
 name of Carlow. It is highly esteemed in London, and is often sold for 
 Cambridge butter ; but much of the Irish butter is very salt, and some- 
 times smoky and tallowy. In fact, there are three distinct sorts of butter 
 in the Irish market. The best is sent to Dublin and to England ; and 
 from the latter country, exported to the East and West Indies. An 
 inferior sort finds a market in Spain ; and an inferior still, used to be sent 
 to Boulogne. In Cork, the half Holderness breed is chiefly used tor the 
 dairy. The principal dairy counties are — Carlow, Cork, Fermanagh, 
 Kerry, Leitrim, Longford, Slign, Waterford, and Westmeath. 
 
 Very little cheese is made in Irc'aiid, and that is of an inferior quality. 
 
 Chapter VI 
 
 THE LONG HORNS. 
 
 In the district of Craven, a I'erlile corner of the West Riding of Yorkshire, 
 bordering on Lancashire, iiiid separated from Westmoreland chiefly 
 by the western moorlands, there has been, from the earliest records of 
 British agriculture, a peculiar and valuable breed of cattle. They were 
 distinguish'>d from the home-breds of other counties, by a disproportionate 
 and frequently unbecoming length of horn. In the old breed this horn 
 frequently projected nearly horizontally on either side, but as the cattle 
 were improved the horn assumed other directions ; it hung down so that 
 the animal could scarcely graze, or it curved so as to threaten to meet be- 
 fore the muzzle, and so also to prevent the beast from grazing ; or imme- 
 diately under the jaw, and so to lock the lower jaw; or the points pre- 
 sented themselves against the bones of the nose and face, threatening to 
 perforate them. We have given a similar description of the improved 
 Irish breed. In proportion as the breed became improved the horns 
 lengthened, and they are characteristically distinguished by the name of 
 ' The Long Horns.' The cut of the Irish cattle in page 181, will give no 
 unfaithful representation of their general appearance and form. Cattle of a 
 similar description were found on the districts of Lancashire bordering on 
 Craven, and also in the south-eastern parts of Westmoreland ; but tradi- 
 tion, in both of these districts, pointed to Craven as the original habitation 
 of the long-horn breed. If there gradually arose any difference between 
 them, it was that the Craven beasts were the broadest in the chine, the 
 shortest, the handsomest, and the quickest feeders ; the Lancashire ones 
 were larger, longer in the quarters, but with a fall behind the shoulders, 
 and not so level on the chine. 
 
 Whence these cattle were derived was and still is a disputed point. Our 
 opinion of this matter has been already expressed when treating of the 
 Irish cattle. 
 
 The lojig horns seem to have first appeared in Craven, and gra- 
 dually to have spread along the western coast, and to have occupied 
 linioel e:iclusively the midland counties. 
 
THE CRAVKN BREED. 
 
 18it 
 
 There atv, as in Ireland, two distinct breeds ; the smaller Cravens 
 {nhabiling; the mountains and moorlands, hardy, useful valued by the 
 cottager and little farmer on account of the cheapness with which they 
 are kept, the superior quantity and excellent quality of the milk which 
 they yield, and the aptitude with which they fatten when removed to better 
 pasture. The larger Cravens, occupying a more level and richer pasture, 
 are fair milkers, although in proportion to their size not equal to the 
 others; but possess a tendency to fatten and acquire extraordinary bulk 
 scarcely inferior to that of the short-horns of the present day. 
 
 As either of these found their way to other districts, they mingled to a 
 greater or less degree with the native cattle, or they felt the influence of 
 change of clitnate and soil, and gradually adapted themselves to their new 
 situation ; and each assumed a peculiarity of form which characterized it 
 as belonging to a certain district, and rendered It valuable and almost 
 perfect there. The Cheshire, the Derbyshire, the Nottinghamshire, the 
 StafTordshire, the Oxfordshire, and the Wiltshire cattle were all essentially 
 long-horns, but each had its distinguishing feature, which seemed best to 
 fii it for its situation, and the purposes for which it was bred. Having 
 a>isumed a decided character, varying only with peculiar local circumstances, 
 the old long-horns, like the Devons, the Herefords, and the Scotch, con- 
 tinued nearly the same. There is no authentic detail of their distinguish- 
 ing points. Mr. CuUey says that ' the kind of cattle most esteemed before 
 Mr. Bakewell's time were the large, long-bodied, big-boned, coarse, flat- 
 sided kind, and often lyery or black fleshed.' This, however, is rather too 
 severe a censure on the Cravens or Lancashire beasts of that day. From 
 hints given by old writers, we may conclude that some of them at least 
 were characterized by their roundness and length of carcass, coarseness o( 
 bone, thickness and yet mellowness of hide, and the rich quality although 
 not abundant quantity of their milk. 
 
 ((Vd,C-«if« 8ui<.] 
 
90 CATTLK. 
 
 The toregoiiig cut contains the portrait of a Craven bull of the pr« 
 sent Hay, but suppostd to bear ahout h m many of the characters of the 
 old breed. He was drawn by Mr. Harvey as he stood in Smithfield 
 oiarket. 
 
 Here were evident materials for some skilful breeder to work upoi) ; a 
 connexion of excellencies and defects by no means inseparable. That 
 which was {rood might be rendered more valuable, and the alloy mii>ht 
 .be easily thrown off. It was not, however, until about the year 1720 that 
 any agriculturist seemed to possess sufficient science and spirit tu attempt 
 the work of improvement in good earnest. A blacksmith and farrier, of 
 Linton, in Derbyshire, on the very borders of Leicestershire, who at the 
 same time rented a little farm, has the honour of standing first on the 
 list. His name was Welby. He had a valuable breed of cows, which 
 came from Drakelow house, a seat of Sir Thomas Gresley, on the banks 
 of the Trent, about a mile from Burton. He prided himself much in 
 them, an they deserved ths care which he took in improving them and 
 keeping the breed pure; but a disease, which defied all remedial measures 
 then known, broke out and carried off the greater part of them, thus half 
 ruining Welby, and putting a final stop to his speculations. 
 
 Soon after this Mr. Webster, of Canley, near Coventry, distinguished 
 himself as a breeder. He too worked upon Sir Thomas Gresley's stock, 
 some of whose cows he brought with him when he first settled at Canley. 
 He was at considerable trouble in procuring bulls from Lancashire and 
 Westmoreland, and he is said to have had the best stock of cattle then known. 
 One of his ndmirers says that ' he possessed the best stock, especially of 
 beace, that ever were, or ever will be bred in the kingdom.' This is high 
 praise, and is recorded as evidence of the excellent quality of Mr. Web- 
 ster's breed. 
 
 It is much to be regretted that we have such meagre accounts of the 
 proceedings of the early improvers of cattle. Little more is known of Mr. 
 Webster than that he established the Canley breed, some portion of whose 
 blood flowed in every improved long-horn beast. 
 
 The bull, Bloxedoe, the Hubback of the long horns, and, like Him, 
 indebted to accident for the discovery of his value, was out of a three- 
 year old heifer of Mr. Webster's, by a Lancashire bull, belonging to a 
 neighbour. When a yearling he was so unpromising that he° was dis- 
 carded and sold to a person of the name of Bloxedge, (hence the name of 
 the beast,) but turning out a remarkably good stock-getler, Mr. Webster 
 re-purchased him, and used him for several seasons. He was afterwards 
 sold to Mr. Hanison, of Deakenedye, in Warwickshire, and Mr. Flavel, of 
 Hogshill, where he died. 
 
 Now appeared the chief improver of the long-horns, and to whom his 
 cotemporaries and posterity have adjudged the merit of creating as it 
 were a new breed of cattle. It is a disgrace to the agriculture of the 
 times that Bakewell should have been suffered to pass away without some 
 authentic record of what he effected, and the principles that guided him, 
 and the means by which his objects were accomplished. 
 
 The only memoir we have of Robert Bakewell is a fugitive paper in the 
 Gentleman's Magazine, from which every writer has "borrowed, and his 
 •jbligation to such a source none has condescended to acknowieage. It 
 .ells us that Robert Bakewell was born atDishley, in Leicestershire, about 
 1725. His fat her and grandfather had resided on the same estate. Hav- 
 ng remarked that domestic animals in general produced others possessing 
 qualities nearly similar to their own, he conceived that he had rnl;^ to 
 
THE CRAVEN BREEI>. 19) 
 
 *eleLt from tho most valuable breeds, such as promised to return llie 
 pieate.it possible emolument to the breeder, and that he should then be 
 «l)le. by careful attention to progressive improvement, to produce a breed 
 whence he could derive a maximniu of advantage. 
 
 Under the influence of this excellent notion, he made excursions into 
 different parts of England, in order to inspect the different breeds, and to 
 select those that were best adapted to his purpose, and the most valuable 
 of tijeir kind ; and his residence and his early habits disposed him to give 
 the preference to the long- horn catile. 
 
 We have no account of the precise principles nrhich guided him, nor of 
 the motives that influenced him in the various selections which he made; 
 but Mr. Marshall, who says that he ' was repeatedly favoured with oppor- 
 tunities of makinn: ample observations on Mr. Bakeweli's practice, and 
 with liberal communications from him on all rural subjects,' gives us some 
 2liie. He tells us, however, thiit ' it is not his intention to deal out Mr. 
 Bakeweli's private opinions, or even to attempt a recital of his particular 
 practice.' Mr. Marshall was doubtless influenced by an honourable 
 motive in witliholding so much that would have been highly valuable; and 
 we can only rej-ret that he was so situated as to have this motive pressing 
 upon his mind 
 
 He speaks of the general principles of breeding ; and when he does 
 this in connexion with the name of JBakewell, we shall not be veiy wrong 
 in concluding that these were the principles by which that great agricultu- 
 rist was influenced. 
 
 'The most oeneral principle," he says, (we are referring to his ' Eco- 
 nomy of the Midland Counties,' vol. i. p. 297) ' is beauty of form. It is 
 observable, however, that this principle was more closely attended to at 
 the outset of improvement (under an idea in some degree falsely grounded, 
 that the beauty of form and utility are inseparable) than at present, when 
 men who have long been conversant in practice make a distinction be- 
 tween a "useful sort" and a sort which is merely " handsome." 
 
 'The next principle attended to is a proportion of parts, or what may be 
 ca\led utility of form in distinction from beauty of form; thus the parts 
 which are deemed offal, or which bear an inferior nrice at market, should 
 be small in proportion to the belter parts. 
 
 ' A third principle of improvement is the texture of the muscular parts, 
 or what is termed Jlesh, a quality of live slock which, familiar as it may 
 ong have been to the butcher and the consumer, had not been sufiiciently 
 attended to by breeders, whatever it might have been by graziers. This 
 principle involved the fact that the grain of the meat depended wholly on 
 the breed, and not, as had been before considered, on the size of the ani- 
 mal. But the principle which engrossed the greatest share of attention, 
 and which, above all others, is entitled to the grazier's attention, in fatten- 
 ing quality, or a natural propensity to acquire a state of fatness at an early 
 aire, and when in full keep, and in a short space of time ; a quality which 
 is clearly found to be hereditary.' 
 
 Therefore, in Bakeweli's opinion, every thing depended on breed, and the 
 beauty and utility of the form, the quality of the flesh and the propensity 
 to fatnes.s were, in the offspring, the natural consequence of similar 
 qualities in the parents. His whole attention was centered in these four 
 points ; and he never forgot that they were compatible with each other, 
 tnd might be occasionally found united in the same individual. 
 
 Impr»)vement had hitherto been attempted to, be produced by selecting 
 .^emales from the native stock of the country, and crossing them with 
 males of an alien breed. Mr. Bakeweli's good sense led him to imagine 
 
»2 tATTLE. 
 
 Uiat the oliject niijiht be belter accomplished oy uniting; the siiporioi 
 branches of the same breed, than by any mixture of foreign onis. 
 
 On this new and judicious principle he started. He purchased two 
 long-horn heifers from Mr. Webster, and he procured a promising long- 
 horn bull from Westmoreland. To these and their progeny he, confined 
 himself; coupling them as he thought he could best increase, or establish 
 some excellent point, or speedily and effectually remove a faulty one. 
 
 As his stock increased, he was enabled to avoid the injurious and ener- 
 vating consequence of breeding too closely 'in and in.' The breed was the 
 same, but he could interpose a remove or two, between the members oV 
 the same family. He could preserve all the excellencies of the breed, 
 without the danger of deterioration; and the rapidity of the improve- 
 ment which he effected was only equalled by its extent. 
 
 Many years did not pass before his stock was unrivalled for the round- 
 ness of its form, and the smalluess of its bone, and its aptitude to acquire 
 external fat ; while they were small consumers of food in proportion to 
 their size ; but at the same time, their qualities as milkers were very con- 
 siderably lessened. The grazier could not too highly value the Dishley, 
 or new Leicester long-horn ; but the dairyman, and the little, farmer, 
 clung to the old breed as most useful for their purpose. 
 
 Mr. Bakewell had many prejudices opposed to him, and many difficul- 
 ties to surmount, and it is not therefore to be wondered at if he was more 
 than once involved in considerable embarrassment ; but he lived to see 
 the perfect success of his undertaking*. 
 
 He died when verging on his seventieth year. His countenance be- 
 spoke activity, and a high degree of benevolence. His manners were 
 frank and pleasing, and well calculated to maintain the extensive popu- 
 larity he had acquired. His hospitality to strangers was bounded only by 
 his means. 
 
 Many anecdotes are related of his humanity towaids the various tribes 
 of animals under his management. He would not suffer the slightest act 
 of cruelty to be perpetrated by any of his servants, and he sternly depre- 
 cated the barbarities practised by butchers and drovers ; showing, by 
 examples on his own farm, the most pleasing instances of docility in every 
 animalf. 
 
 » In that jileasing and instructive work, ' Illustrations of Natural History,' we find 
 the fullDwing ingenious, but too severe criticism, on Bakewell's system. 'It was his 
 graiiil maxim, that the bones of an animal intended for food could not be too small, and 
 iliat the fat being the most valuable part of the carcase, it could consequently not be too 
 aliuiidant. In pursuance of this leading theory, by inducing a preteiuatural smallness 
 i.f lione, and rotundity of carcass, he sought to cover the bones of all his animals exter- 
 nally with masses of fat. Thus, the entirely new Leicester breed, from their excessive 
 temiency to fatten, produce too small a quantity of eatable meat, and that, too, necessarily 
 iif inferior flavour and quality. They are in general found defective in weight, propor- 
 tiunably to their bulk, and if not thoroughly fattened, their flesh is crude and without 
 flavour : while, if they be so, their carcasses produce little else but fat, a very considerable 
 part of which must be sold at an inferior price, to make candles instead of food, not to 
 forget the very great waste that must ever attend the consumption of over-fattened meat. 
 
 ' This great and sagacious improver, very justly disgusted at the sight of those huge, 
 gaunt, leggy, and misshapen animals with which his vicinity abounded, and which 
 scarcely any length of time or quantity of food would thoroughly fatten, patriotically 
 dctrrmined upon raising a more sightly and a more profitable breed ; yet, rather unfor- 
 tunately, his zeal impelled him to the opposite extreme. Having painfidly, and at much 
 cost, raided a' variety of cattle, the chief merit of which is to make fat, he has appareutly 
 laid his disciples and successors under the necessity of substituiing another that will 
 makn lean.' — p. 5 — 8. ^ 
 
 + The writer in the ' Gentleman's Magazine, to whom we have before referred, sayi 
 that the i;cutleiiess of the different breeds of cattle coiild not escape th« attention of uay 
 
TUK CRAVKN BREED. I9J 
 
 Mr. Bakewell's celebrated bull Twopenny was the produce of the 
 Westmoreland bull, out of old Comely, who was one of the two heifen 
 purchased from Mr. Webster ; therefore he was, by the side of his dam, 
 a direct descendant of the Canley blood. 
 
 Mr. Bakewell had afterwards a more valuable bull than this, named D. 
 He retained him principally for his own use, except that he was let for 
 part of a season to Mr. Fowler, and that a few cows were brought to him 
 at five guineas a cow. He was got by a son of Twopenny, out of a 
 daughter and sister of the same bull, she being the produce of his own 
 dam. The method of rearing the young, as practised by Mr. Bakewell, 
 was not very different from that now in use. ' The calves sucked for a 
 week or a fortnight, according to their strength ; new milk in the pail, 
 was then given a few meals ; next, new milk and skim-milk mixed, a few 
 meals more ; then sknii-milk alone, or porridge made with milk, water, 
 ground oats, &c., and sometimes oil-cake, until cheese-making com- 
 menced, if it was a dairy farm ; after whichj whey porridge, or sweet 
 whey in the field, being careful to house them in the night until the 
 warm weather was confirmed. BuU calves, and high-bred heifers, however 
 were suffered to remain at the teat until they were six, nine, or perhaps 
 twelve months old, letting them run with their dams, or more frequently 
 less valuable cows or heifers*.' 
 
 Starting a few years afterwards, and rivalling Mr. Bakewell in the 
 value of his cattle, was Mr. Fowler of Rollwright, in Oxfordshire, on the 
 borders of Warwickshire. His cows were also of the Canley breed; most 
 of them having been purchased from Mr. Bakewell ; and his bull Shak- 
 speare, the best stock-getter that the long-horn breed ever possessed, was 
 got by D, out of a daughter of Twopenny, and therefore of pure Canley 
 blood. 
 
 Mr. Marshall gives the following description of this bull, and a very 
 interesting and instructive one it is. It is a beautiful explication of some 
 of the grand principles of breeding. ' This bull is a striking specimen of 
 what naturalists term accidental varieties. Though bred in the manner 
 
 observer. It seemed to run through them all. At an age when most of his brethren are 
 either fuaming or bellowing with rage and madness, old C, a bull, a son of the old parent 
 Comely, had all the geutleness of a lamb, both in his look and action. He would lick 
 the hand of his feeder; and if any one patted or scratched him, he would bow himself 
 down almost ou his knees,' 
 
 The same writer describes Mr. Bakewell's servants, one of whom had been with him 
 20 years, and another 32, and another 40 years. He likewise gives a curious account of 
 Mr. Bakewell's hall. ' The separate joints and points of each of the more celebrated of 
 his cattle were preserved in pickle, or hung up side by side ; showing the thickness of the 
 flesh and external fat on each, and the smallness of the ofial. There were also skeletons 
 of the different breeds, that the^ might be compared with each other, aUd the compara^ 
 tive difference marked. Some lulnts of beef, the relics of old Comely, the mother of the 
 stock, and who was slaughtered when her existence had become burdensome to her, were 
 particularly remarked. The fat of the sirloin on the outside was four inches in thickness.' 
 
 Mr. Young, in his Eastern Tour, gives the following account of Mr. Bakewell's manage- 
 ment of the cattle-^' Another peculiarity is the amazing gentleness in which he brings up 
 these animals. All his bulls stand still in the field to be examined : the way of driving 
 them from one field to another, or home, is by a little switch : he or his men walk by their 
 side, and guide them with the stick wherever they please ; and they are accustomed to this 
 method from being calves. A lad, with a stick three feet long, and as big as his finger, 
 will conduct a bull away from other bulls, and his cows, from one end of the farm to 
 the other. All this gentleness is merely the eflect of niianagement ; and the mischiel 
 often done by bulls is undoubtedly owing to practices very "lontrary, or else to a total 
 D«glect.' 
 
 * AUrshall's iMioland Counties, vol. i. p, 35S. 
 
 
 
.'J4 CATTLE. 
 
 that has been mentioned, he scarcely inherits a single point of the long- 
 horned breed, his horns excepted. When I saw him in 1784, then six 
 years old, and somewhat below his usual condition, though by no means 
 low in flesh, he was of this description. 
 
 ' His head, chap and neck remarkably fine and clean; his chest extra- 
 ordinarily deep, — his brisket down to his knees. His chine thin, and 
 rising above the shoulder points, leaving a hollow on each side behind 
 them. His loin, of course, narrow at the chine ; but remarkably wide 
 »t the hips, wOiich protuberate in a singular manner. His quarters long 
 in reality, but in appearance short ; occasioned by a singular formation of 
 the rump. At first sight, it appears as if the tail, which stands forward, 
 had been severed from the vertebrae by the chop of a cleaver, one of the 
 vertebrae extracted, and the tail forced up to make good the joint ; an 
 appearance, which, on examining, is occasioned by some remarkable 
 wreaths of fat formed round the setting on of the tail ; a circumstance 
 which in. a picture would be deemed a deformity, but as a point is in the 
 highest estimation. The round bones snug, but the thighs rather full 
 and remarkably let down. The legs short and their bone fine. The 
 carcase, throughout, (the chine excepted) large, roomy, deep, and well 
 spread. 
 
 ' His horns apart, he had every point of a Holderness or a Teeswater 
 bull*. Could his horns have been changed, he would have passed in 
 Yorkshire as an ordinary bull of either of those breeds. His two ends 
 would have been thought tolerably good, but his middle very deficient; 
 and I am of opinion, that had he been put to cows of those breeds, his 
 stoel- would have been of a moderate quality ; but being put to cows 
 deficient where he was full, (the lower part of the thigh excepted,) and 
 full where he was deficient, he has raised the long-horned breed to a 
 degree of perfection, which without so extraordinary a prodigy they never 
 might have reached.' 
 
 No wonder that a form so uncommon should strike the improvers of 
 this breed of stock, or that points they had been so long striving in 
 vain to produce, should be rated at a high price. His owner was the 
 first to estimate his worth, and could never be induced to part with him 
 except to Mr. Princep, who hired him for two seasons, at the unusual 
 price of eighty guineas a season. He covered until he was ten years old, 
 but then, although otherwise healthy, he became paralytic in his hind 
 quarters, and, consequently, useless. His sire, D, at the age of 12 or 
 13, was more active than bulls usually are at three or four years old. 
 
 At a public sale of Mr. Fowler's cattle, in 1791, the following prices 
 were given for some of the favourite beasts. This is a sufficient proof o( 
 the estimaiion in which the improved Leicesters were now beginning to 
 be held. 
 
 BULLS 
 Garrick, five years old 
 Sultan, two years old . 
 Washington, do. . 
 A, by Garrick, one year old 
 Young Sultan, do. 
 E, by Garrick, do, 
 
 * This may he true, accorfing to the character of the short-horns at that time, but 
 Shaksiwaie does not so stric'lv resemble them in their present improved stato. 
 
 £. 
 
 1. 
 
 d. 
 
 •250 
 
 
 
 
 
 230 
 
 
 
 u 
 
 21,5 
 
 
 
 
 
 Ihl 
 
 
 
 
 
 210 
 
 
 
 
 
 152 
 
 
 
 
 
THE CRAVEN BREED. 195 
 
 COWS. 
 
 Brinaled Beauty, by Shakspeare . . 273 
 
 Sister to Garrick . . . 1-iO 
 
 Nell, by do. . . . . 136 
 
 Young Nell, by brother of do. . . 126 
 
 Black Heifer . . . . l4l 
 
 Dam of Washiiiffton . . . 194 
 
 Fifty breed ot' cattle produced* . . 4-289 4 6 
 
 Another improver of the long- horns deserves mention before we 
 proceed, and that is Mr. Princep of Croxall, in Derbyshire. He was 
 supposed, at that time, to have the best dairy of long-horn cows in the 
 whole of the midland counties. He originally bred them from a cow of 
 the name of Bright, who was got by Mr. Webster's Bloxedge, the father 
 of the Canley blood, and he much improved his breed through the me- 
 dium of Shakspeare, which, as we have just stated, he hired of Mr. 
 Fowler for two successive seasons. It was remarked, that every cow and 
 heifer of the Shakspeare blood could be recoguized at first sight as a 
 descendant of his t. 
 
 Mr. Paget of Ibstock, in Leicestershire, should be added to the list of 
 the improvers of the long-horns. His cattle were of the purest of the 
 RoUwright blood, and consequently of the Canley stock. 
 
 Mr. Mundy of Derby must not be forgotten, whose cattle, although 
 not so large as some of the improved Leicesters, were excelled by none 
 in beauty of form or aptitude to fatten \ : and, last of all, mention should 
 
 * Mr, Fowler used to conduct his business on the old principle of selling. Mr. Mar- 
 shall says that Mr. Coke of Norfolk used to have all the cow calves he could spare at ten 
 guineas each, taking them when young ; and in 1 789, Mr Fowler had ten bull-calves, 
 for which he refused 500 guineas. The practice of letting bulls originated in this dis- 
 trict, and chiefly with Mr. Bakewell, and was generally adopted. The bulls were sent 
 out in April or the beginning of May, and were returned in August. The prices varied 
 from ten to fifty or sixty pounds ; but in one case, as we have just stated, a bull (Mr. 
 Fowler's Shakspeare) was let at eighty guineas a season. 
 
 Si>me inconvenience occasionally resulted from this ; and a bull that appeared a very 
 ' desirable one in the show-yard, was now and then returned, long before his season was 
 over, not only as deficient in some material point, but as absolutely useless. Mr. Mar- 
 shall very ingeniously accounts for this : he says that ' the breeder's object is to render 
 his bull, to the eye at least, as near perfection as may be . he is therefore made up for 
 the show by high keep, as well to evince his propensity to fatten as to hide his defects, 
 thereby showing him off to the best advantage : the consequence of which is, that being 
 taken from this high keep, and lowered at once to a common cow-pasture, he flags. 
 Hence it is become a practice of judicious breeders, when their bulls are let early enough, 
 to lower them down by degrees to ordinary keep, previous to the season of employment. 
 
 f Mr. Parkinson says', ' One of'the greatest excellencies in Mr. Frincep's cattle, is 
 their length, with smallness in their shoulders, giving so many fine cuts along their 
 upper parts. Mr. Frincep's cows are remarkably fat, so much so, I think, that if half a, 
 dozen of them were put in at the Smithfield show in their milking state, there would be 
 very few of the cattle exhibited, and made up for that purpose that would equally attract 
 the eyes of the public' Vol. i. p. 154. 
 
 We learn from the same authority, that Mr. Princep was bid 500 guineas for a two- 
 year old bull, and thirty (another acccint says fifty) guineas a cow for the use of hii 
 best bull to thirty cows, \ol. i. p. 102. He was also ofiiired 20002. for twenty dairy cows. 
 A four-year old steer of Mr. Frincep's breed, weighed 248 stones of 14 lbs. to the stone, 
 (424 stones Smithfield weight, or 3472 lbs.) In addition to this, there were 350 lbs. of 
 fat, and the hide weighed 177 lb. 
 
 Another of Mr. Frincep's oxej w .s fed by the Marquis of Donegal, in 1794. The 
 four quarters weighed 1988 lbs., the tallow 200 lbs., and the hide 177 lbs. 
 
 J Mr. Pirkinson bears the following testimony to the sdperiority of tlie new cattle, 
 even at this early period. He is speaking of Mr. Mundy. ' There was one thing whieh 
 prejudiced my mind much in favovir of Mr. Mundy's cattle, viz., it was in the month oi 
 September that I visited his farm, and his park lying very conveniently situated for tha 
 
 02 
 
19S 
 
 CATTU!. 
 
 be made of Mr. Astley, whose breed, larfjer than Mr. Mundy's.but setdorn 
 80 heavy as Mr. Princep's, were much admired. 
 
 And now we may inquire, a little more particularly, what was the resul 
 of all these combined efforts? Was a breed produced, worthy of the 
 talents and zeal of all these skilful agriculturists? On the Leicestershire 
 cattle, and in particular districts in the neighbouring counties, the change 
 was great and advantageous so far as the grazing and fattening, and 
 especially the early maturity of the animals were concerned. 
 
 We present our readers with the following two cuts of the improved 
 I eicesters. 
 
 
 
 [A'«« Leicester Biil/,'\ 
 
 This cut, and the following one, are taken from Garrard's beautiful 
 engravings of British oxen. Both the bull and the cow were of the pure 
 Pishley breed, and were the property of Mr. Honeybourn, Mr. Bakewell's 
 nephew and successor. 
 
 What is now become pf this improved long-horn breed? Where is it 
 to be found? It was a bold and a successful experiment. It seemed for 
 awhile to answer the most sanguine expectation of these scientific and 
 
 inhabitants of Derby, he permits them to pasture their cows in it. I think the number 
 seemed to be about eighty ; and as they probably belonged to half as many different 
 people, without doubt bought of jobbers cow by cow and from various parts of the king-' 
 dom, it seems almost impossible that the whole mass of these cows could be selected of a, 
 bad kind ; and as many of them had grazed in the park all the summer, they had had a 
 sufficient time to fatten, yet there was not a single cow in the whole number that had the 
 least pretensions to fat ; while Mr. Mundy had some of his own cows pasturing among 
 them, many of which were fatter ihan any single cow could be found on some market- 
 days in Smithfield. ' I do not know,' he adds, ' that a better trial, as an ezperimentr' 
 could be made, to show the superior value of Mr. Mundy's cattle.' These cows could 
 not be very deKcient at the pail, for one of Mr, Mundy's gave fourteen pounds oi buttar 
 Id one week. 
 
THh CRAVEN- BREED. 197 
 
 •pirited breeders. In the districts in which the experiments were carried 
 on, it established a breed of cattle equalled by few, and excelled by none 
 but the Herefords. It enabled the iong-horns to contend, and often suc- 
 cessfully, with the heaviest and best of the middle-horns. It did more ; 
 it improved, and that to a material degree, the whole breed of long-horns. 
 The Lancashire, the Derbyshire, the Staffordshire cattle became, and still 
 are an improved race ; they got rid of a portion of their coarse bone. 
 They began to gain their flesh and fat on the more profitable points * 
 they acquired a somewhat earlier maturity, and the process of improve, 
 ment not being carried too far, the very dairy-cattle obtained a disposition 
 to convert their aliment into milk while milk was wanted, and after that, 
 to use the same nutriment for the accumulation of flesh and fat. The 
 midland counties will always have occasion to associate a feeling of 
 respect and gratitude with the name of Bakewell. The Irish breeders 
 owe everything to the new Leicester cattle. A new stock, in fact, has 
 arisen since the improved long-horns were grafted on the native Irish 
 stuck. 
 
 [New Leicester Coto.] 
 
 Mr. Marshall, to whom, for a reason that will presently be stated, we are 
 compelled again to have recourse, thus describes the improved Leicesters 
 in his own time, which was that of Bakewell, Princep, and Fowler. 
 
 ' The forend long; but light to a degree of elegance. The neck thin, 
 the chap clean, the head fine, but long and tapering. 
 
 ' The eye large, bright and prominent. 
 
 * The horns vary with the sex, &c. Those of bulls are comparatively 
 short, from fifteen inches to two feet ; tho.se of the few oxen that have been 
 reared of this breed, are extremely large, being from two and a half to 
 three and a half feet long ; those of the cows nearly as long, but much 
 finer, tapering to delicately fine points. Most of them hang downward 
 by the side of the cheeks, and then, if well turned, as many of the eowi 
 are, iboot forward at the points. 
 
:98 CAl'TLE. 
 
 ' The shoulders remarkably fine and thin, as to bone ; but thickly 
 covered with flesh — not the smallest protuberance of bone discernible* 
 
 ' The gtrtli small, compared with the short-horn and middle-horn 
 breeds t. 
 
 • The chine remarkably full when I'at, but hollow when low in con- 
 JitionJ. 
 
 ' The loin broad, and the hip remarkably wide and protuberant § 
 
 ' The quarters long and level ; the nache of a middle width, and the 
 tail set on variously, even in individuals of the highest repute [j. 
 
 ' The round-bones small, but the thighs in general fleshy ; tapering, 
 however, when in the best form toward the gambrels. 
 
 ' The legs small and clean, but comparatively long^. The feet in 
 general neat, and of the middle size. 
 
 ' The carcase as nearly a cylinder, as the natural form of the animal 
 will allow. The ribs standing out full from the spine. The helly small**. 
 
 ' The flesh seldom fails of being of the first quality. 
 
 ' The hide of a middle thickness. 
 
 ' The colour various ; the brindle, the finch-back, and the pye, are 
 common. The lighter they are, the better they seem to be in esteem tt- 
 
 ' The fattening quality of this improved breed, in a state of maturity, 
 is indisputably good. 
 
 ' As grazier's stock, they undoubtedly rank high. The principle of the 
 utility of form has been strictly attended to. The bone and ofFal are 
 small, and the forend light ; while the chine, the loin, the rump and the 
 
 * The Dishley breed excelled in this (loiiit. Some uf the heifers had shoulders as fine 
 as race-hurses. 
 
 f Many of Mr. Fowler's breed, however, were very fairly let down in the girth. 
 
 \ This is considered hy accurate judges to be a criterion of good mellow flesh. The 
 large hard ligaments, (the continuation of the ligaments uf the neck, united with those of 
 the vertebrae uf the spine itself,) which iu some individuals, when in low condition, stretch 
 tightly along the chine, from the setting on of the neck to the fore part of the loins, is 
 said to be a mark of the flesh being of a bad quality. They are only proofs of great 
 strength iu the spine, and, probably, in the animal generally ; and indicating that the 
 meat will be sinewy and tough. 
 
 § A wide loin, with projections of fat on the hips, may be desirable ; but there can be 
 neither beauty nor use in the protuberance of the tuberosities of the bone. A full hip 
 »nay be of advantage, but scarcely a protuberant one. 
 
 II The quarters of Shakspeare have been described. Ttibse of the bull 1) were not less 
 remarkable, his tail appearing to grow out of the top of his spine, instead of being a cou- 
 tinuation of the .vertebrae; and the upper part of the tail forming an arch, which rose some 
 inches above the general level of the back. This, viewing him as a picture, has a good 
 effect ; but as a point, is a very bad one foi the grazier, as tending to hide the fatness of 
 the rump. In this, and in many other points, the son and the sire are as dissimilar as 
 if they had no consanguinity. 
 
 Mr. Parkinson relates an aisecdote respecting the peculiar length of quarters, and 
 length generally of these cattle. ' On my observing to Mr. Frincep the remarkable 
 length of his cattle, he said he was one day showing them to a gentleman, who, as the 
 men were turning the best bull out of the house, exclaimed in astonishment, " When will 
 c* your bull be out ? " ' — Parkinson on Live Stock, vol. i. p. 154. 
 
 4 This, however, is more owing to the gauntness of the carcase, than to the actual 
 length of the legs. 
 
 ** ITie improvers of the long-horns have been in error, when they have considered this 
 an excellence. The discussion of this point, however, will be advantageously deferred 
 until we have considered the anatomy and proper form of oxen. 
 
 ■j-f A light-coloured beast always appears to be larger than a dark-brown, or black one 
 of equal weight; therefore, perhaps it is, that theJighter ones are preferred. There is a 
 kind of optical deception in their favour ; but, otherwise, if coloM has anything to do 
 with the value of the animal, we should give the preference to a dark-coloured one, aa 
 mdicating superior hardihood, and generally with equal mellowness of skin. 
 
 It is said that Mr. Webster's cows, the parents of the Canley breed, were red ; and w 
 ireie some of the best of Mr. Fowler's, 
 
THE CRAVEN BRKEU. 19fc 
 
 ribs are heavily loaded, and with flesh of the finest quality. In point of 
 early maturity, they have also materially gained. In general, they have 
 gained a year |n preparation for the butcher ; and, aUhongh, perhaps not 
 weighing so heavy as they did before, the little diminution of weight is 
 abundantly compensated, by the superior excellence of the meat, its earlier 
 readiness, and the smaller quantity of food consumed. 
 
 * As dairy-stock, their merit is less evident ; op rather, it ■does 
 not admit of doubt that their milking qualities have been very much 
 impaired. 
 
 ' As beasts of draught, their general form renders them unfit ; yet 
 many of them are sufficiently powerful, and they are more active than 
 some other breeds used for the plough, or on the road ; but the horns 
 generally form an insuperable objection to this use of them.' 
 
 But what is become of Bakewell's improved long-horn breed? A veil 
 of mystery was thrown over most of his proceedings, wliich not even his 
 friend Mr. Marshall was disposed to raise. The principle on which he 
 seemed to act, breeding so completely ' in aiid in,' was a novel, a bold, 
 and a successful one. Some of the cattle to which we have referred were 
 very e&traordinary illustrations, not only of the harmlessness, but the 
 manifest advantage of such a system ; but he had a large stock on which 
 to work ; and no one knew his occasional deviations from this rule, nor 
 his skilful interpositions of remoter affinities, when he saw or apprehended 
 danger. 
 
 The truth of the matter is, that the master spirits of that day had no 
 sooner disappeared, than the character of this breed began imperceptibly 
 to change. It had acquired a delicacy of constitution, inconsistent with 
 common management and keep ; and it began slowly, but undeniably to 
 deteriorate. Many of them had been bred to that degree of refinement, 
 that the propagation of the species was not always certain. 
 
 In addition to this, a rival, — a more powerful rival, appeared in the 
 field. The improved short-horns began to occupy the banks of the Tees. 
 They presented equal aptitude to fatten, and greater bulk and earlier 
 maturity. 
 
 Westmoreland was the native land of the long-horns. Webster had 
 brought thence the father of the Canley stock ; and Bakewell had sought 
 the father of his breed there : but even in Westmoreland the short-horns 
 appeared; they spread; they established themselves ; they, in a manner, su- 
 perseded the long-horns. They found their way to southern districts ; they 
 mingled with the native breeds ; a cross from them generally bestowed 
 increase of milk, aptitude to fatten, and early maturity. It is true, 
 that a frequent recourse to the short-horn was generally necessary in order 
 to retain these advantages, but these advantages were bestowed, and 
 might be retained, except in a few districts, and for some particular pur- 
 poses. Thus they gradually established themselves every where ; they 
 were the grazing cattle of the large farmer and the gentleman, and an- 
 other variety of them occupied the dairy. The benefits conferred by the 
 improved long-horns remained, but the breed itself gradually diminished; 
 in some places it almost disappeared ; and at the present moment, and even 
 in Leicestershire, the short-horns are fast driving the long-horns from the 
 field.' The reader may scarcely give credit to the assertion, but it is 
 strictly true, that at the present moment (1833) there is not a single 
 improved Leiceste/ on the Dishley farm, and scarcely a half-horn^ 
 There are not a dozen pure Leicesters within a circuit of a dozen miles 
 nf Dishley, It would seem as if some strange convulsion of nature, or 
 
*» CATTLE. 
 
 some murderous pestilence, had suddenly 5wc|)t away the whole of this 
 valuable breed. 
 
 Havinn^ thus endeavoured to do this breed of cattle the justice which it 
 deserves, we will take a very rapid survey of the different counties which 
 it formerly, or still occupies. 
 
 • WESTMORELAND- 
 
 In the part of this county bordering on Lancashire and Yorkshire, and 
 in the neiglibourhnod of Kirby Lonsdale, the long horns used to exist in 
 their greatest purity ; but whether the farmers have suffered the best of 
 their stock to be drawn away, in order to keep up that of the midland 
 counties, while the best of the Teeswater are brought into Westmoreland 
 in return ; or, whatever may have been the cause, the effect is unde- 
 niable, that the short-horns are establishing themselves, and the long- 
 horns retrograding. 
 
 A vast number of Scotch catt'le are grazed in Westmoreland. They 
 are bought at Brough Hill fair in the beginning of September ; win- 
 tered on coarse pasture, or in the straw-yard ; sent to the commons in 
 May ; and the foremost being put upon the best grounds, they are ready 
 to journey farther south, or even to be killed for the Westmoreland con- 
 sumption in October. 
 
 On the wastes there are many Scotch, and also many of the native 
 breed, (the smaller Cravens,) with whieh neither the heavier improved 
 long-horns, nor the short-horns interfere. 
 
 In the better-cultivated parts of the country, the old and large long- 
 horns are found ; they are excellent feeders ; they grow to a very con- 
 siderable size, and lay their fat on the valuable parts. 
 
 LANCASHIRE. 
 
 In the southern part of this, the native county of the long-horns, that 
 breed is now rarely seen in a pure state. In the neighbourhood of large 
 towns, the Yorkshire milch cow is chiefly kept ; for where the quantity of 
 milk is regarded, no breed can vie with the Holderness*. Where butter 
 is made, a cross between the long and the short-horn is preferred. These 
 cattle are said to be more hardy, less liable to illness, and the milk of the 
 -short-horn progenitor is little diminished in quantity, while it acquires 
 much of the peculiar richness of that which is given by the long-liorn 
 breed. 
 
 Even for grazing, the native breed is rarely seen ; but at the annual 
 me«tings of the Manchester Agricultural Society, the short-horns bear 
 away the principal prizes, and in the centre of the county, although a 
 premium was formerly offered for the best long-horn bull, nut one has 
 
 * Tbe average quantity of milk, yielded by a good floldemess cow in the neighbour- 
 hood of Manchester, is about nine quarts per day. A good long-horn cow will yield 
 about seven quarts. Mr. Stevenson, who published a Survey of Lancashire, in 1814, 
 thus computes the expenses and returns of a milk-farm, in the neighbourhood of Mau> 
 cheater. The farm to which he refers was under the management of Mr. Peter M'Miven^ 
 it contained 115^ Lancashire acres. 
 
 £. 
 
 Bent per annum , . 520 
 Taxes . . ,8.4 
 
 Servanti' wages 234 
 
 FtaBt .... 867 
 
 1105 
 
 £: 
 
 15 acres cf oats at 15/. . 225 
 20 ditto at 20/. . . 400 
 40 cows' milk at 12/. . 480 
 
 IIOS 
 
THS LANCASHIRK BREED. 20: 
 
 tfeen s.iown for the last three or, four years. We are much indebted to 
 thi>t society, and particularly to its indefatigable secretary Mr. Thomas 
 Ashworlh. for some valuable information respecting the present stale of 
 cattle in this part of Laticashire. 
 
 On the hills and moors some Welsh cattle are found, and also 
 small long-horn beasts, whether Irish or home-bred, and mingled with 
 crosses of every kind. A society has lately been established at Liverpool, 
 which promises to be of essential service in benefiting the ag-ricultiiral 
 concerns of that district; and the example lately set by a few great land- 
 holders, and especially by the Earl of Derby, of keeping good bulls lor 
 the use of their tenantry, will speedily efifect a considerable and very 
 llesirable alteration. If the old long-horn breed is, in a manner, gone 
 Jlere, something as valuable should be substituted ; but as yet, with the 
 exception of the introduction of the Teeswater cattle, to the extent which 
 we have stated, among the larger farmers, and the Yorkshire cows among 
 the milk dairies, there cannot be said to be any prevailing breed esta- 
 blished in the southern part of Lancashire. 
 
 Mr. Bunnell, V. S. of Liverpool, assures us that in the neighbourhood 
 of that town, very few cattle are bred for the purpose of grazing, and that 
 those which are fed are chiefly confined to gentlemen's parks, and are 
 pi'incipally Scotch Highland bullocks. To the same gentleman we are 
 indebted tor the following account of the supply of the Liverpool market. 
 
 Weekly Ateraqe. 
 
 ' 600 Irish beasts, average about 6 cwt. of 120 lbs. 
 ' 140 English do. do. 6j^ do. 
 
 * 60 Scotch do. do. 5^ do. 
 
 ' Of the cattle from Ireland, abo\it twenty are short- horns ; sixty of the 
 long-horn Leicester breed, and the remainder of*the old Irish breed, with 
 the exception of a few Devons and Ayrshires. 
 
 ' Of the English cattle, about one-third are short-horns ; one-third 
 Cumberland long-horns ; and one-third Herefordshire and other breeds. 
 
 ' Of the Scotch cattle, about one-eighth are snort-horns, and the rest 
 Galloways and Highlanders, of various descriptions.' 
 
 Towards the middle of Lancashire, we find some zealous breeders 
 of the short-horns. Mr. Almond, of Standish, is foremost amongst 
 them, and his cattle bear off the bell, even among the most successful 
 cultivators of this breed. The Earl of Wilton is a frequent competitor 
 at the meetings of the Manchester society. In 1830, he exhibited the 
 best yearling short-horn bull, and some very fine specimens of cows 
 fattening after milking. 
 
 We meet with more of the long-horns, but they are principally of an 
 inferior sort. Mr. Harrison, V. S. at Lancaster, thus expresses himself : 
 ' Since the rage for short-horned cattle has commenced, and still goes on 
 ill this neighbourhood, the breed of the native long-horn has impercep- 
 ably declined, and it is now a very difficult point to find a good stock of 
 loug-horns ; there not being more than half a dozen breeders of them in 
 a district of 20 miles. There is, however, Mr. Allen Kirk's stock of long- 
 horns .at Middleton, which for purity of breed cannot be excelled. 
 
 ' The cattle in this neighbourhood are mostly cross-bred — long and 
 short-horn, short-horn and Scot; but the short-horn, with its various 
 crosses, is that which has encroached most upon the long-horn, and seems 
 to be rapidly superseding that breed. 
 
 ' Thai the long-horn breed has deteriorated of late years is not to be 
 vondercd at, when a half-bred cow, or any other cross, will fetch a (^reutei 
 
202 CATTLE. 
 
 price in any of our markets than the pure '.ong-horn, whether it be for 
 the grazier or the dairy.' 
 
 Mr. Harrison gives the following account of the long-horn of the pre- 
 sent day. • The head long and thick, with a broad forehead, and the top 
 of the head broad and flat ; large eye ; rather small ear ; horns flat at the 
 base, becoming rounder towards the«r apes, rather drooping from their 
 origin, and then ascending and curling in various directions. The neck 
 and fore-quarters thick and heavy, but fine in the chine ; wide in the 
 chest, but the sternum (the breast-bone) does not extend so far ante 
 riorly nor so high as in the short-horn, thereby making the neck appear 
 to issue low out of the chest. Ribs short, body very circular and long in 
 the sides. The horns are rather long, but the transverse processes of the 
 lumbar vertebrae are much shorter than in the short-horn; the quarters 
 are also narrow, owing to the ilium not presenting so broad and horizontal 
 a surface as in tne short-horn — many of them are also roughish about 
 the rump, from the bones in the centre of the hip (the sacral bones). 
 The thigh is generally rounder and larger, consequently affording a better 
 round of beef than the short-horn : the tail is thicker, and the bones of 
 the leg are thicker and heavier. The long-horn weighs heavier in propor- 
 tion to his size and measure than the short-horn, and his hide is heavier, 
 but it does not handle su loose and free. The colour varies ; but a red 
 roan with mottled or red legs, and a white streak down the back, is the 
 prevailing colour. Their average weight when fattened is eight score per 
 quarter, but their value is not so great either for grazing or milking by 
 nearly or quite 21. per head.' 
 
 We have extracted this accurate account of the best of the present long- 
 horns, that the reader may be enabled to compare them with the old Bake- 
 wellian breed already described, p. 195. Crosses of all descriptions abound 
 in the centre of Lancashire ; one between the long-horn and the Holderness 
 or the Durham being the most frequent and the most valuable; and said 
 here, more particularly, not only to retain but to possess in an increased 
 degree the good qualities of both. They suit all parts of the county. 
 They are of a more hardy nature than the short-horn, and they gain by the 
 cross an advantage of more milk and butter ; they are also better graziers 
 than the long-horns, fattening in less time, and arriving at maturity much 
 earlier. They are finer in the head and neck, the ribs are longer, and 
 they still preserve their cylindrical form. They are wider also across the 
 loins and quarters. They handle more freely, attain a greater weight 
 when fattened, and the hide is not so heavy. The prevailing colour of 
 this cross is red and white. 
 
 This first cross is excellent, but the produce is uncertain ; and in the 
 majority of cases, the third or fourth generation are iong-horns again, but 
 without the good qualities of the original stock. They are of diminished 
 size, they are bad milkers, and will not graze kindly ; in addition to 
 which, there is much uncertainty whether the cows will hold to the bull. 
 Full one-third of the cows among some of these half-breds fail of being 
 in calf. 
 
 Some breeders, fully sensible of these disadvantages, have wished once 
 more to restore the pure long-horn breed, but there is more difficulty in 
 procuring good long-horn bulls than could be conceived to be possible in 
 Lancashire, the original district of the long-horns : they have, therefore, 
 been compelled to have frequent recourse to the short-horn bull, or their 
 cattle would become almost worthless; yet the cottager, without any 
 resource of this- kind, often has a half-horn cow that is invaluable for his 
 purpose. Mr. Harrison, although, with natural partiality, he isunwillinfr 
 
THE LANCASHIRK BHKKIl. ; 303 
 
 to abandon his native long-horns, relates two vxpcriments Which ttrmi 
 naied unfavourably with regard to them. The late Mr. Gibson, of Querit- 
 moor Park, near Lancaster, tried an equal number of long and short 
 horns for twelve months ; and on summing up the profit and loss at 
 the expiration of the time, the short-horns had given considerably more 
 milk : the butter account was also in their favour ; and they had 
 improved considerably more in condition. 
 
 Mr. Lamb, of Hay Carr, having to stock Ashton Park, a seat belonging 
 to the Duke if Hamilton, wished to have done so vfith thejon,g-horns ; 
 but not being able to procure a sufficient number at the fair to which he 
 went, he was compelled to buy a great number of half-bred ones. The 
 half-bieds fattened and were sold off a. considerable time before the long- 
 horns were fit lor ihe market, 
 
 Mr. Bolden of Kyniug, and Mr. Jackson of Bowick Hall, are breeders 
 of short-hcirn cattle; Mr. Allen Kirk of Middleton, and Mr. Cottam of 
 Heaton, are almost the only patrons of the long-horns in this district. 
 
 Some good cheese is made in this district. The dairy-farmers usually 
 prefer the long-horns ; or, if they permit any admixture of shori-horu 
 blood, they are anxious that that of the old Lancashires shall decidedly 
 prevail. These cattle, when their milk fails, and they are in tolerably fat 
 condition, average from thirty-six to forty stones, imperial weight. Their 
 summer food is the native grass ; their winter food, meadow hay, with 
 cut potatoes (those which are too small for household purposes) with 
 oatmeal or bran, or cut straw ; but they are suffered to stand out in the 
 field a great part of the day, although there may be little or no grass for 
 them to eat. The calves are reared only in the spring, and suckled by 
 the hand until they are seven or eight weeks old, when they are turned 
 to grass, but still have a little hay for some time, and also hay-tea, or some 
 other preparation in the evening. 
 
 Ralph Thicknesse, Esq. of Beech-hall, near Wigan, will please to accept 
 our thanks for his polite attention to us respecting the cattle of this 
 district. 
 
 We have described the north of Lancashire as being peculiarly the 
 native district of the long-horns, and there, although a few short and half 
 horns are occasionally seen, these are the prevailing, or only distinct 
 breed : yet even there they are not what thiey once were, and compa- 
 ratively few traces of the Bakewellian improvement remain ; nor do the 
 cattle generally appear to be more valuable than when he sent to the 
 borders of Westmoreland for the fathers of the improved Leicester 
 breed 
 
 Within the last few years, however, excited probably by the improve- 
 ment going forward in Westmoreland, in the north, and in all the south 
 of Lancashire, and jealous of the superiority of the short-horns, some 
 farmers have endeavoured, and with considerable success, to renovate 
 the long-horned breed. It is an object worthy of their attention, for 
 although, as it regards the quantity of milk, the long-horns must ultimately 
 be superseded by one description of short-horn cattle, and in early 
 maturity by another, yet it is too valuable a breed to be lost, or to be 
 much deteriorated. 
 
 There are many large dairy-farms in this part of the country ; the long- 
 horned cow is usually kept. The average produce is from 2J to 3 cwt. of 
 cheese from each cow, in a strict cheese-dairy farm, the family beirg also 
 provided with milk and a little butt«r 
 
KM 
 
 CATTLE. 
 
 In the Survey of Lancashire we find the fullowing account of a dairy 
 •s usually conducted in this district : — 
 
 Cow-grass for 20 weeks 
 Winter keep in hay . 
 Green food . . 
 Attendance set against 
 
 manure 
 Profit 
 
 3 13 
 
 6 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 4 10 
 
 
 
 12 13 
 
 6 
 
 £. .. d. 
 
 Cheese, 1 1 lbs. weekly for 
 
 20 weeks, at 6d. per lb. 5 10 
 Butter, 6 lbs. weekly for 20 
 
 weeks at Is. per lb. 6 
 
 Calf 13 6 
 
 12 13 6 
 
 DERBYSHIRE. 
 
 The Derbyshire cows were originally long-hprns; and although of a 
 somewhat inferior breed, they were very useful animals, and especially in 
 the dairies of this county, the cheese of which has long been admired. 
 What cross gave them their peculiar character, and especially their sin- 
 gular horns, it is now impossible to determine. The head was frequently 
 thick and heavy, the chops and neck foul, the bone too large, the hide heavy, 
 and t he hair long ; even the bag was often overgrown and covered with 
 hair — a circumstance very objectionable to the dairyman ; they were little 
 disposed to take on flesh and fat, for when some of the improved bred 
 heifers had fattened for the butcher, the beasts of the old sort would be 
 little better than skin and bone ; yet they were excellent dairy cows. 
 
 [Derby Cow.'\ 
 
 The above cut is a faithful portrait of one of the best of them. The 
 noms are altogether characteristic. 
 
 An attempt was first made to cross the Derby with the improved short- 
 horn. The first cross answered admirably ; but, as we have said, when 
 speaking of Lancashire, the progeny of this cross was clumsily shaped, 
 and in every respect inferior to its progenitors. . 
 
THE CHESHIRE BREED. 
 
 205 
 
 Some partial attempts were also made to introduce a cross from the 
 short-horns and the Devons, but it failed ; for although a considerable 
 aptitude to fatten was thus obtained, yet, as a decrease of milk was the 
 consequence, the breed was removed from the dairy ; although, for grazing, 
 it probably would have answered well. 
 
 [DerAy Bui/.] 
 
 This cut gives a faithful representation of the old Derby bull. This 
 breed, however, has gradually died away, and it is comparatively seldom 
 that a pure Derby can now be met with. The short-horns have taken 
 possession of this portion of the territory of the long-horns also. The 
 prejudice against them as to their want of hardiness, and the thinness of 
 their milk, has vanished ; and there are few dairy farmers now, and especially 
 in the neighbourhood of Derby, that have any long-horns in their dairy ; 
 and yet it is confidently asserted that some cows of the ancient stock have 
 yielded as much as seventeen pounds of butter in the space of seven days 
 
 CHESHIRE. 
 
 The short-horn breed has penetrated into this dairy-county, and with 
 variable advantage. Amidst the dense population of some of the agricul- 
 tural districts the short-horn has materially increased the quantity of 
 milk, but it is more than doubtful whether he has not injured rather than 
 benefited the cheese dairy. 
 
 The Cheshire was chiefly a long-horned breed, of very mingled origin, 
 but which by degrees accommodated itself to the climate and the soil. 
 It contained in it a portion of the blood of the old Lancashire, the Derby- 
 shire, the Shropshire, the. Staffordshire, and the new Leicester ; and this in 
 some slight degree dashed with the Irish long-horn, the Welsh and Scotch 
 middle-horn, and the Yorkshire short-horn, and from a strange inter- 
 mingling of the whole proceeded the Cheshire cow. She was a rather 
 small, gaunt, and ill-shaped animal ; yet she possessed a large thin-skinned 
 
20fi CATTLK. 
 
 baaj, swelling milk-veins, shallow and light tore-quarter, wide loini, • 
 thin thigh, a white ()orn, a long thin head, a brisk and lively eye, and a 
 fineness and cleanness about the chops and throat. She has been crossed 
 still more with the Durham. She has become of larger size, handsome 
 in form, apter to fatten, but she has been decidedly injured as a cheese- 
 dairy cow ; her quantity of milk has not been materially increased, aud 
 the quantity of caseous matter produced from it has been diminished, and 
 somewhat deteriorated. 
 
 Mr. Holland, following closely a former report by Mr. Wedge, and 
 before the short-horns were so extensively introduced, says that ' calves 
 to keep up the dairies are generally reared from the best milkers, both as 
 it regards bull-calves and heifers. Those which are reared are generally 
 calved in February or March, and are kept on the cows for about three 
 weeks. They are afterwards kept on warm green whey, scalded whey 
 and butter-milk mixed, or hard fleetings. Some give oatmeal gruel and 
 butler-milk, with a little skimmed-mllk mixad. This is given twice in the 
 day, until the calves are turned to grass, ai;d once in the day for three or 
 four weeks after that. During the first and second winters they are kept 
 in a yard with an open shed, well foddered, and turned out as soon 
 as the grass is ready. In the summer following, when they are two- 
 years-ofF, they are put to the bull ; and during the third winter, they are, 
 by the best farmers, tied up at the same time that the cows are : they are 
 fed with straw night and morning, until a month before calving ; hay is 
 afterwards given as long as they continue housed, and sometimes crushed 
 oats when they calve early. 
 
 The cows are taken up into the cow-houses as soon as the weather gets 
 biid, and are permitted to go dry about ten weeks before calving. The 
 usual dry food is wheat, barley, and oat-straw, hay, and crushed oats. 
 The two former kinds of straw are given to those which are expected to 
 calve early, on account of a supposed tendency to dry the milk up sooner; 
 oat-straw, and sometimes hay, is given to those that are not expected to calve 
 until late in the spring; hay is given to all of them three or four weeks 
 before they are expected to calve. From the time they have calved until 
 they are turned out to grass, crushed oats are given twice in the day, and 
 at the rate of three-fourths of a bushel per week. The cows are turned 
 into an outlet (a bare pasture -field) near the building, from nine or ten in 
 the morning until three or four in the afternoon, but have no fodder in 
 the outlet; or if they show a desire of being taken up again, they are let 
 into the yard and housed, and this is better than suffering them to stand 
 shivering with cold in a field wiihout shelter. The turning the cows out 
 to grass in good condition is a matter much attended to, in order that 
 they may start well ; for if a cow is not in good condition when turned out 
 to grass, or has been too much dried with barley-straw, it is a long time 
 before she gets into full milk. 
 
 The introduction of green crops and particularly of turnips, and the 
 practice of stall-feediti^ for dairy cows, has materially altered the old 
 .system of management. 'I'he grand object with the dairy farmer is to 
 increase the quantity of his milk, and to continue it as long as possible. 
 This cannot be more effectually done than by giving green or succulent 
 food. The milk is more abundant, and it may be continued a month 
 lono-er. The ox-cabbage and the Swedish turnips are the kinds ot 
 oreen food most cultivated in Cheshire. The former is given when the 
 after-grass is consumed ; the latter are used in the winter, when the 
 cattle are feeding on straw ; and as little cheese is then made, the flavour 
 which they communicate to the milk is not of so much conseauence. 
 
THE NOTTINGHAMSHIRE BREED. 80J 
 
 The peculiar art of the manufacture of the Cheshire cheese belongs to 
 our work on ' British Husbandry,' generally. We have, at present, only tc 
 ]o with the cattle themselves. To that portion of ' The Farmer's Series 
 we beg to refer our readers, and also to Holland's ' General View of the 
 Agriculture of Cheshire,' and Alton's ' Treatise on Dairy Husbandry*.' 
 
 There is, however, nothing singular in the management ; and Mr. 
 Holland states it to be the prevalent opinion, that the quality of the soil is 
 the principal thing concerned. The breed of the cattle has much to do 
 with it, and the new breed has not yet identified itself with the soil. 
 
 Mr. Fenna calculates the number of dairy cows kept in Cheshire at 
 about 93,000 ; and, averaging the quantity of cheese made annually from 
 each cow at 2^ cwt., it will appear that the amazing quantity of 11,500 
 tons of cheese are made every year in that county f. 
 
 ^OTTINUHAMaHIRB. 
 
 This county, fifly yea s ago, contained few cattle except long-horns. 
 It has already been stated, in page 189, that the females, from whom ulti- 
 Mialely sprung the improved Leicester breed, were from Nottinijhamshire. 
 The earliest breed of which we have mention came from Drakelow, on 
 the borders of the Trent. The cows which Mr. Webster brought to 
 Canley were from the same farm ; and Mr. Bakewell's two heifers, the 
 mothers of all his stock, were purchased from Mr. Webster. 
 
 The better kinds of cattle, however, were confined to the banks of the 
 Trent. In the clay district, the beasts were poor and coarse ; and in the 
 'brest, few that were valuable were bred. The short-horns have here also 
 completely superseded the old cattle. They first began to appear in the 
 vale of Belvoir, and thence spread through the lime and coal districts ; 
 and now, either in the form of the pure Yorkshire cow, or many a varying 
 and mingled breed, they occupy nearly the whole of the county. 
 
 LEICESTER. 
 
 In this county, in which the long-horns had been brought to their 
 highest perfection, it would be imagined that the latest and most obsti- 
 
 ' Fuller, in his ' Worthies,* p. 68, thus speaks of the Cheshire cheese. ' This coiinty 
 doth afford the best cheese for quantity and quality, and yet thei); cows are not, as in other 
 shires, housed in the winter ; so that it may seem strange that the hardiest kine do make 
 the tenderest cheese. Some essayed in vain to make the like in other places, though 
 from thence they fetched both their kine and dairy-maids: it seems they should have 
 fetched .their ground too, whereiv. is surely some occult excellency iu this kind, or else so 
 good cheese will not be made. I hear not the like commendation of the butter in this 
 county, and perchance these tv/o commodities are like stars of a different horizon, so 
 that tiie elevation of the one to eminency is the depression of the other.' 
 
 Dr. Leigh, in his ' Natural History of Cheshire,' and Dr. Campbell, in his ' Political 
 Survey,' attribute the peculiar flavour of the Cheshire cheese to the abundance of saline 
 particles in the soil of this county, and the latter says that where the brine springs most 
 abound, the cheese is esteemed to be of the most superior quality; but this notion is now 
 ex)>loded. 
 
 The places and districts most celebrated for making the prime cheese are — the neigh- 
 :)ourhoud of Nantwich, the parish of Over, the mater part of the banks of the river 
 Weaver, and several farms near Congleton and Middlewich. 
 
 f In Lyme Park is a herd of upwards of twenty wild cattle, of the same sort as those 
 at Chillingham, chiefly white with red ears. They have been in the park beyond the 
 memory of any one now living ; and as there is no account of when they were placed 
 there, the tradition is that they are indigenous. In hot weather, these cattle generally 
 herd on the hilts and high grounds ; and in winter in the woudy parts of the park. In 
 severe weather they are fed with hay, for which, before the hollies with which the park 
 abfMmded were cut down, holly-branches were substituted. Two of the cows are generally 
 -I 4 1.. f... i„.„r — r,v<ion'R Matrna Bi-ilannica. Chester, p. 729 
 
W8 CATTLE. 
 
 nate battle for supremacy would be toug^ht between the long and the 
 short-horns. What was the peculiar breed of Leicester before the time ot 
 Bakewell, it is now impossible to ascertain. Probably there was not 
 any distinct one ; at least we have no record of it, and it was altogether 
 neglected by Bakewell, throughout the whole of his experiments. 
 
 The Leicestershire grazing grounds were always occupied by a strange 
 variety of beasts from Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, and from Stafford- 
 shire and Shropshire, and Herefordshire and Lancashire, and every 
 neighbouring county. It was one of the recognized feeding districts for 
 the metropolitan market, and its own breed was made up of a mixture of 
 all the sojourners. 
 
 Bakewell, however, created a breed for this county, the name and reco'- 
 ection of which will never be lost, notwithstanding the bretd itself has so 
 completely passed away. Although, however, the improved Leicester 
 lonir-horns have disappeared, it was from no fault of theirs, — Bakewell's 
 was decidedly an improved breed, the coarser parts of the animal were 
 lessened, and the more valuable were increased ; b>it they gradually 
 yielded to the superior claims of a race of cattle at that time scarcely 
 known. 
 
 Where a few of the long-horns do linger, the improved Leicesters are 
 gone ; they are the old breed cf the country retained or returned. For 
 grazing, and for early maturity, the long-horns must yield to the Durhams.; 
 and it is only their adaptation for particular localities, and the peculiar 
 quality of their smaller quantity of milk, in the production of certain 
 varieties of dairy produce, that enable them anywhere to maintain the con- 
 test. Thus they remain in Cheshire, in despite of the somewhat injudi- 
 cious attempts to displace them, and the stock of few of the dairy farms 
 of this and the neighbouring counties. About Hinchley, Bosworth, Ap- 
 pleby, and Snarestown, a few of the farms are supplied by the long-horni>,! 
 and more by a mixed breed between the Lancashire and the Durham. 
 More than 1500 tons of cheese are made in Leicester every year, and it is 
 said that 5000 tons are annually sent down the Trent from this and the 
 neighbouring counties *. 
 
 RUTLANDSHIRE. 
 
 This little county couid never make pretensions lo a peculiar breed. 
 Grazing was always the principal object here, and the Irish and small 
 Scotch were most in request. Marshall, in his • Agriculture of the Midland 
 Counties,' says that in his time, the Irish had not long been known in Rut- 
 landshire ; but that they were then bought in preference to the Welsh,, 
 and Shropshire, and large Scotch, which had been previously grazed. 
 After one summer's grass they were usually sent to London, stall-feeding 
 being little practised ; and occasionally hay was given in the fields to 
 some of the best of them, to keep them until after Christmas. Many of 
 
 * The celebrated Stilton cheese was first made at Wimondham, in the Melton quarter 
 of Leicestershire. Mr. Marshall gives the following account cf it: — ' Mr. Paulet, who 
 resided at Wimondham, a relation of Cooper Thornhill, who formerly kept the Bell a* 
 Stilton, in Huntingdonshire, on the great north road from London to Edinburgh, fur- 
 nished his house with cream-cheese, which, being of a singularly fine quality, was coveted 
 by his customers ; and through the assistance of Mr. P., his customers were gratified at 
 the expense of half a crown a pound. In what country this cheese was mamifactuied 
 was not publicly known, and hence it obtained the name of Stilton cheese. At length 
 the place of producing it was discovered, and the art of producing it learned by other 
 dairy-women of the neighbourhood. Ualby first took the lead, but it soon made its way 
 in almost every village in that quarter of Leicestershire, as well as in the neighbouring 
 Milages of Rutlandshire. Many tons of it are made every year.' 
 
THE NORTIIAIIPTONSIIIRK BRKKU. 209 
 
 itie short-horn cattle, however, are now grazed in Rutland. The heifers 
 are bought in at two years old, and sold in calf at three years old to the 
 jobbers, who take them to the dairy counties, or to London. 
 
 HUNTINGDONSHIRE. 
 
 In the statistical account of it, it is stated that the county contained 
 ' 924b head of cattle, almost all of a mixed breed, and of a very inferior 
 one too,' Parkinson in his ' Survey' of this county adds, that they were 
 ' of all kinds, but good ones :' yet he confesses that they were beginning 
 to improve on the side of Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire. Stone 
 says, that they are for the most part purchased at distant fairs, and are 
 the refuse of the Lancashire, Leicestershire, and Derbyshire breeds, or 
 are bred from these sorts without any particular care in selecting, them. 
 They have very materially improved. The mongrel long-horned breed of 
 the county has disappeared, and a great many pure short-horns are now 
 found, or a cross between them and the Derbyshire. The cross between 
 I he two is gradually disappearing, and the short-horns are taking undis- 
 puted possession of the district. 
 
 CAMBRIOOESHIRE. 
 
 The native breed of this county was a long-horn one ; but now the 
 short-horns prevail in every dairy where the land is tolerably good, and 
 on poorer land there is a smaller half-horn breed, which yields more and 
 better milk than its appearance would indicate, but is slow and unprofit- 
 able to fatten. The Rev. Mr. Gooch, in his ' Survey of Cambridgeshire,' 
 tells us that Cambridgeshire having been a dairy country from time imme- 
 morial, among other good milking stock attempted to be introduced, were 
 the polled cattle, from the neighbouring county of Suffolk. Mr. Fuller 
 purchased a dairy of them, but they began speedily to decline, when he 
 re-sold them to their former owner, who took them back to their native 
 situation, in which they were speedily restored to their original health. 
 
 It is true that the SufTolks have never extensively established them- 
 selves in Cambridgeshire ; but we know some dairies of them which 
 answer exceedingly well. 
 
 Few parts of England produce better butter than Cambridgeshire. It 
 is curiously rolled up in pieces of more than a foot in length, and not two 
 inches in diameter, for the convenience of the collegia/is, to whose table it 
 is sent in slices, called pats. A great deal of butter is likewise sent to the 
 London market, but there is not much cheese made, except at Sohan and 
 Cottenham. A great many bullocks are grazed, consisting chiefly of the 
 country stock, the Norfolks and SufFolks, and the Galloway Scots. The 
 most profitable method of grazing is to buy them about autumn, and sell 
 them at the succeeding autumn ; keeping them on 'nay and grass in the 
 winter, and finishing them off on grass. On the grazing grounds about 
 the fens, many Devon cattle are now prepared for the markets. 
 
 NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 Northamptonshire is not a breeding district, but cattle are brought from 
 other districts and purchased for the London market, and they as usual 
 consist of a great variety of breeds. An Agricultural Society has, however, 
 tieen established in this county, and is conducted with much spirit ; and iu 
 'consequence of this, the short-horns are now diligently cultivated by many 
 intelligent farmers* 
 
 * Marshall, in his * Agriculture of the. Midland Counties,' and quoting from ' Donald- 
 •Oil's Survey of Northamptonshire,' says, ' Very few cattle are reared in thi» county ; 
 
»'" CATTLK. 
 
 Tlie soil of Northamptonshire varies from a cold ilaj to a red loam. 
 The cattle are first g^razed in the old pastures, and those that have not 
 been made fat at grass are afterwards stall fed. In the red loamy .soils 
 ivtiich are adapted for turnips, stall-feeding on them, with an addition ol 
 seed-hay, is generally adopted. 
 No cattle are u.sed in husbandry. 
 
 It has been remarked to us by an eminent Northamptonshire breeder, 
 that the quarter evil, or black leg (inflammatory fever) is rarely known 
 among young cattle in this county. If this be true, it is an impor- 
 tant fact, for there is nothing peculiar in the management of cattle 
 here, and it would seem to connect the disease in some measure with the 
 climate or the soil, and its productions. Observations on the districts 
 where this disease is most prevalent, or rarely found, and the manage- 
 ment of soil and produce of those districts, might lead to some useful coo 
 elusions as to the cause of so generally prevalent and fatal a disea-ie, 
 
 BEDfORDSHlRE. 
 
 In Bedfordshire, also, the long-horns, the old cattle of the county, havp 
 altogether disappeared. There is not a single farmer who breeds them 
 in their pure state. Some half-horn cattle are to be found among the 
 small farmers, and the cow of th* cottager is here, as in so many othei 
 districts, the produce of the old' long-horn and the Yorkshire, crossed in 
 every possible way, and retainjng the milking properties of the one, and 
 the hardihood of the other, and therefore fitted to become the poor man's 
 cow. 
 
 With this exception, there is no distinguishing breed belonging to the 
 county. A tew gentlemen have the Devons — more prefer the Hereford*, 
 and still more the short-horns ; the short-horns, indeed, are here, as 
 everywhere else, superseding the rest. 
 
 Bedfordshire contributes much to the supply of the dairy cattle of fhe 
 metropolis. Many heifers are brought from the north, and having been 
 delayed for a while in this county, and become heavy in calf, are sent 
 forward to the metropolis. By some farmers, and in this respect we ima- 
 gine foolishly over-reaching themselves, they are detained longer; they 
 are milked for one or two years, and then despatched to the metropolis. 
 
 a few only in the open field (lordships excepted), and thefe are so crossed and mixed 
 with the breeds of other counties, which are often improperly chosen, and so stinted ia 
 their food, as to render them comparatively of little value. 
 
 * In a few instances where attention is paid to the breed of cattle on the inclosed farms, 
 the long-horns are the kind most preferred, and are far superior to the original breed of 
 the county, both in size and shape, and extraordinary disposition to fatten. 
 
 ' The dairy farmers in the south-west part of the county, however, prefer the short 
 horn Yorkshire cows, from which county they are principally supplied; and as they never 
 rear any calves, they sell them when a few days old to a set of men who make a trade 
 of carrying them to the markets of Buckingham and other places, where they are pur- 
 chased by dairy-farmers from Essex, to he fatted for veal for the London markets. 
 
 ' Soon after Lady-day, the farmer begins to purchase bullocks, and the breeds of Shrop- 
 shire and Herefordshire are preferred. In the course of the summer, some Scotch and 
 Welsh cattle are bought in — he btsgins selling off in September, and by the beginning 
 of February the whole are disposed of. 
 
 ' The manner of transporting the calves used to be both absurd and cruel. The jobber 
 had often a long round to take to complete his purchases ; and after that, he had to 
 travel 70 or 80 miles before he reached his abode or place of sale in Essex. Sometimes 
 twelve or sixteen calves were put into one cart, and laid on their backs in the straw, 
 with their feet tied together; and if the journey occupied seven or eight days, they had 
 rarely aoy thing to eat hut wheat-flour and gin mixed together, well known in that line 
 uf country by the name of gin -ball, and thus the calves were kept in a state of stupidity w 
 'utoxicatiuu during the whole of the time.' 
 
THE BKDFORDSHIRE BKEED. 21! 
 
 Very few short-horns are bred in Bedfordshire, and, indeed, very few o 
 any other breed, except by two or three spirited af^riculturists, at the hejiiJ 
 of whom stands the Dulve of Bedford. 
 
 Frarcis, Duke of Bedford, began to devote himself to agricultural pur 
 suits in the year 1795 or 1796. The chief object of his attention was the 
 improvement of the breed of sheep ; and of the spirit with which he en- 
 tered into this, and the extent to which the country is indebted to him, 
 and of those interesting and princely meetings, the annual sheep-shearings 
 and the exhibition of stock, we shall speak in our volume on Sheep. In 
 other parts of the ' Farmer's Series,' and particularly in the treatise on 
 ' British Husbandry,' justice will be attempted to be done to the labours 
 i)f this patriotic nobleman in every department of agricultural science. 
 There were few breeds of cattle whose relative qualities and value were 
 not put fairly to the test at Woburn, and one breed after another was 
 abandoned, until, at his decease in 1802, he was balancing between the 
 North Devons and the Herefords. 
 
 His brother, the present Duke of Bedford, (1833,) to whom we are 
 indebted for permission to view every part of his farm, and for much 
 valuable information besides, gave the preference to the Herefords ; and 
 they, with the exception of a few Ayrshire and Yorkshire cows, to pro- 
 vide milk for the calves and for the house, and always a succession of 
 West Highlanders to graze, constitute the whole of his stock*. Although 
 he abandoned the North Devons, he still considered them to be an ad- 
 mirable breed of cattle, and only inferior to the Herefords, as not suiting 
 the soil of Woburn quite so v\ell. A few North Devons are still kept for 
 farm work, but they are not the true Bideford breed, but of the some- 
 what heavier, but still more useful variety, most prevalent on the borders 
 nf Somersetshire. 
 
 The pasture at Woburn is somewhat inferior to that of Herefordshire 
 generally, and the cattle selected, and having much in them of the blood 
 of Messrs. Tulley's, and Tomkin's, and Price's stock, are not so large as 
 those which are principally met with on their native soil ; and they are 
 not the worse for this. They lose much of the heaviness and coarseness 
 of the shoulder which has sometimes teen objected to in the Herefords, 
 and they retain all the length of qiiarter, and much of the wideness and 
 roundness of hip, and fullness of thigh, which have been esteemed the 
 peculiar excellencies of the Herefords. A few of them might in their 
 fore-quarters be mistaken for Devonshires ; but wiih a broadness of 
 chine and weight behind which the Devons have rarely attained. There 
 is little that is unusual in the feeding of these beasts. The calf lies with 
 the mother for about a week, and is then taken away, and fed at first with 
 milk from the dairy, and, afterwards, with skim-milk. It then runs on the 
 ordinary pastures until two years old, when it ie put on better keep; it 
 passes the third summer at grass, is stall-fed in the winter, and ready for 
 market at three years of age, and will attain the average weight of ninety 
 or ninety-five stones.' His Grace has often exhibited cattle at Smithfield 
 of a far superior weight. 
 
 His present stock consists of from thirty to forty cows. The bull-calves 
 are fattened; the best of the females are retained for breeding; and other 
 beasts being bought in in the summer and autumn, seventy or eighty 
 
 * No polled cattle are now grazed on the' Woburn estate. After many trials, and 
 some of thena on a large scale, the Duke of Bedford gives a decided preference to the 
 horned breeds. When the polled cattle were grazed there,, the Galloways had gradually 
 given way to the Angus, and Mr. Todd expressed to us his decided ooinion, that they fe? 
 tiiste' than the Galloways, and afibrded meat equally as good. 
 
212 CATTLK. 
 
 are usually stall fed every winter. A new range of cattle•^hpds and pig- 
 geries has been lately erected ; a water-mill in the yard is fed by a con- 
 cealed stream ; the straw-yards are excellently contrived ; and every pos- 
 sible convenience, of a simple and unostentatious form, but in the strue'urf 
 of which neither expense nor ground has been spared, is to be friend 
 on the premises. Although the Herefords are now established atWoburn, 
 the spirited proprietor of the abbey has not discontinued the experiments 
 which were instituted by his brother, in order to determine the compara- 
 tive value of other breeds. Mr. Todd, the very intelligent bailiff of his 
 Grace, permitted us to have access to many of the records of these expe- 
 riments. Our readers will not object to the transcription of one or two 
 of them. 
 
 ' 1819, May 20th, four Pembroke spayed heifers in good store con- 
 dition, bought April the 29lh, at 161. bs. each, and four polled Galloway 
 spayed heifers, bought December 22d, 1818, at Ml. lis. each, in store 
 order, but rather fresher than the above, having been wintered on the 
 farm with very refuse bad hay, were put to grass in the same field, and 
 kept there until October 21st, being a period of five mouths. 
 
 Tod. Cwt. QrB. 
 
 The Perabrokes weighed on May 20 . , .112 
 
 On October 21st they weighed . . . 1 19 2 
 
 Gained in weight in the five months • • 
 
 The Scots weighed in May 
 
 Ditto in October . • • . 
 
 Having gained . . , . .081 
 
 And being an excess of weieht gained above that of thel,, ,, o 
 
 PemlLkes of . . . . T " ^ 
 
 £. £. >. £. ». 
 
 The Fembrokes sold at 84 Cost 65 Gained by (rrazing 19 
 
 The Scots . . 74 Cost 46 4 Gained . ' . 27 1 fi 
 
 
 
 7 2 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 10 1 
 18 2 
 
 Excess of gain in favour of the Scots . . . . . , . 8 16 
 
 From which, however, is to be deducted the value of the refuse hay 
 which they ate. 
 
 ' Twenty Devons and twenty Scots were bought in in October, 1822, 
 and wintered. 
 
 ' Ten of each sort were fed in a warm straw-yard upon straw alone, but 
 with liberty to run out upon the moor. 
 
 ' Ten were fed in a meadow, having hay twice every day until Christmas. 
 
 ' They afterwards lay in the farm-yard, and had oat-straw and hay, cut 
 together into chaff. They were then grazed in different fields, equal pro- 
 portions of each sort being put into the same field. 
 
 ' Those that lay in the warm straw-yard with straw only, were ready as 
 soon as the others, although the others had an allowance of hay d.ring 
 the winter. 
 
 ' Sixteen of each were sold at different times ; March 24th, 1824, 
 being the last sale. 'J he Scots were ready first, and disposed of before 
 the Devons. 
 
 The Scots cost 71. 12». lOd. each, amounting to 122/. 5». id. ; they sold for £. ». rf. 
 235/. IBs. &d. Gain by grazing . . . . . . ^ . 113 13 2 
 
 The Devons cost 71. 6». 6d. each, amounting to 1 17/. 4s., and they sold for 
 250/. ; but not being ready, on the average, until between six and seven weeks 
 after the Scots, and estimating their keep at 3j. %d. per week each, amounting 
 to 18/. 14j. 6rf., and this being subtracted from 230/., there will remain as the 
 sum actually obtained for them 211/. 5s. 6f/. Gain . . . . 94 j 6 
 
 Making a balance in favour of the Scots ..... ±79 Tl ^ 
 
TIIK BKDFORDSHIRE BREED. 213 
 
 The remaining four of eacli breed were kept and stall-fed on turnips 
 ami hay. The Scots sold at 75/., and the Devons at 841!., the account of 
 which will be as follows : — 
 
 ■£. » i. 
 
 Four Devuns at 7t. G». 6d., cost 29/. 6«. ; they sold for 84/.; leaving gain by 
 stall-feeding . . . 54 14 
 
 Four Scots at 71. 12s. lOt/., coist 30/. llj. id.; they sold for 75i. ; leaving 
 gain by stall-feeding 44 8 8 
 
 Making balance in favour of Devons . . . . . . 10 5 4 
 
 Or total balance in favour of Scuts . . . . . , .964 
 
 This experiment seemed to establish the superiority of the Scots for 
 a^razing, and the Devons for stall-feeding. But ag the gain by the four 
 stall-fed Devons was half as much as that by the sixteen Scots at straw- 
 yard, it was determined that another experiment should be made, in which 
 the whole should be fed alike, both at grass, and in the stall. 
 
 Twenty Scots and twenty Devons were again bought in in Octobfc,. 
 and sold at different times, but alvirays an equal number of each at each 
 time, the last sale taking place in March. 
 
 The twenty Devons cost 189/. 9i. ; they sold for 370/. 17«. 1 Od. ; leaving £. j. d. 
 
 for feeding . . . . . . . . 181 8 10 
 
 The twenty Scots cost 212/. 3*. ; they sold for 374/. 5». \^d. ; leaving for 
 
 feeding . . . . . . . . 162 1 ]| 
 
 Balance in favour of the Devons . . . . . £19 6 84 
 
 Two experiments, on the fattening properties of different kinds of 
 food, will not be unacceptable to our readers. 
 
 Six Scots, previously grazed together in the same field, were taken up 
 and stall-fed on the 6th of January, 1823, and the feeding was continued 
 until the I4th of April. They were divided into pairs. 
 
 To each of one and two were given daily, one bushel of mangel-wurzel, 
 two quarts o^ bean and barley flour mixed, and as much hay as they 
 would eat. 
 
 Three and four had one bushel of Swedes each, with the bean and 
 barley flour, and hay. 
 
 Five and six had three pecks and a half of potatoes, with the bean 
 and barley flour, and potatoes 
 
 £. >. d. £. ,. d. 
 
 One and two consumed 18 cwt. I qr. of hay 
 at 3/., amounting to 2/. 14s. 9f/. ; l^qr. of flour at 
 3s. 1/. 16s.; and 196 bushels of mangel-wurzel at 
 9</. 7/. 7s. amounting to . , . 11 17 9 ^ 
 
 They gained 3 cwt. 1 qr. 7 lb. at 5s. id. per 
 stone at that time . . . 12 7 4 Gained by feeding 9 7 
 
 Three and four consumed 20 cwt. 2 qrs. of 
 hay at 3/., 3/. 6s. ; beau flour 1/. 16s.; and 196 
 bushels of Swedes at 9rf., 7/. 7s., amounting to 12 9 
 
 They gained 3 cwt. 2 qrs. 21 lb. at 5s. id. 13 15 4 Gained 'by feeding 16 6 
 
 Five and six consumed 23 cwt. of hay at 3/., 
 3/. 9s.; bean flour \l 16s.; 78 bushels of potatoes 
 at Is. \d., 41. is. 6d. . . . .990 
 
 They gained 2 cwt, 3 qrs. 7 lb. at 5s. 4(/. 10 Gained by feeding 11 
 
 We will condense our account of the second experiment. Two Scots 
 were fed on English linseed cakes; two Devons on unboiled linseed,- 
 two others on boiled linseed, and another pair of Devons on foreign, all 
 of them having as much hay and chaflf as they could eat. It was a losing 
 concern in every case : the value of the manure was not equal to the 
 difference of the cost and the selling prices, and strange as it may appear, 
 
 ts were fed on oil cake : the 
 
^4 CATTLE. 
 
 next when foreign cake was used, the next when boiled linseed was used, 
 and the least of all when the simple unboiled linseed was given*. 
 
 We might make many more extracts, but these will show the spirit 
 with which this noble agricultural concern was conducted, and give us 
 some idea of the value of those who will devote their time and their pro- 
 perty to such pursuits 
 
 nUCKINfjHAMSHrRE. 
 
 This county, once inhabited by the lonn-horns, has now no distinct 
 breed of its own. The greater part of the cows and grazing stock is 
 bought in. It consists almost uniformly of the short-horns for both 
 purposes : many of the Lincolns are selected for grazing, and the York- 
 shire milch cow for the dairy. 
 
 Mr. Marshall truly says, that, with the exception of Pevensey Level and 
 Romney Marsh, there is no land in the kingdom better adapted for 
 grazing than the vale of Aylesbury. Its amazing fertility soon makes ii 
 visible alteration in the appearance of every beast, and causes them to 
 attain to an extraordinary size — these are proofs of the qualities ot the 
 land. The cattle are grazed about ten months, and do not often require 
 any additional care than a supply of hay in the field during winter. 
 
 Vast quantities of excellent butter are sent from the Vale of Aylesbury 
 to the metropolis. The butter merchants contract for it at different prices, 
 vafying with the season of the year ; and the carrier contracts for the 
 transport of it, at a certain charge for each dozen pounds, finding cloths, 
 baskets, &c. He fetches it from the dairyman and deliYers it to the 
 merchant. 
 
 BERKSHIRE, 
 
 The longhorns had penetrated as far south as this county, and at the 
 close of the last century fully occupied it. They bore much resemblance 
 to the cattle of Oxfordshire and Warwickshire. The different breeds of 
 the Yorkshire cattle have now, however, completely superseded them. A 
 long-horn beast is now rarely seen, and even the half-horns are disap- 
 pearing. Mr. Tomkins, of Abingdon, and Mr. Webb, of Oakingham, 
 were particularly distinguished by their early introduction of this breed. 
 
 In the forest districts of Berkshire, many Welsh and Scotch cattle are 
 grazed, and heavier cattle occupy the more fertile pastures. 
 
 A considerable quantity of butter is made on the borders of Oxford- 
 shire, and a part of the Vale of the White-horn is celebrated for its chee.se. 
 It is principally sold in London, under the name of single Gloucestei 
 cheese, and is formed in the press into a variety of curious shapes. Mr. 
 Mavor conjectures that ' they sell more dearly than other cheese, partly 
 on account of their shape, and partly because the best cheese is supposed 
 to be thus honoured.' These pine-apple cheeses are made without any 
 pressure from a machine : they are suspended in nets which gives then 
 the curious indentations which they present. From the wharf of Barcot, 
 in Oxfordshire, nearly three thousand tons of cheese are sent down the 
 Thames for metropolitan consumption, partly collected from neighbouring 
 )>arishes in other counties, but principally from Berkshire. 
 
 * To many records of experiments on the comparative fattening qualities of tlie 
 Hereford and Durham cattle, we will not now refer. One, although not then assigned to 
 its proper author, the present Duke of Bedford, was detailed at page 34 of this work. 
 We will content ourselves with referring to that. The patrons of the short-horns, how- 
 ever, have not considered it as altogeth - ... . ,.. ,.;. 
 
THK HAMPSHiriE BREED. 21* 
 
 HAMPSHIRE. 
 
 Hither also the long-horns penetrated, and were the prevailinjj breed 
 out they may be said to have, perfectly disappeared. They have given 
 way to the Devons, and indeed to breeds of every sort, ami, more particu- 
 larly near the coast, to the Alderney, or smaller breed of Norman cows 
 
 The latter are the favourites in consequence of the greater quantity of milk 
 which they yield in proportion to the food which they consume. Good 
 meadow land, however, ih not plentiful in this district, and is very dear ; the 
 dairy, therefore, is comparatively neglected on too many farms, and little 
 more butter is manufactured than is necessary for the consumption of the 
 county. The short-horns are beginning to find their way into Hampshire, 
 and where the soil is productive they are profitable, but much of the 
 county is incapable of supporting so large an animal. Our friend, Mr. 
 Moulden, informs us, that in the neighbourhood of Winchester, the 
 Norman is often crossed with the Hereford; the Norman is not injured 
 as a milker, while she is improved in size and disposition to fatten. 
 About Southampton, the Alderney is the prevalent breed. There are 
 many facilities for obtaining her from the contiguous islands of Guernsey 
 and Jersey. In this part of the county, the Alderney has been crossed with 
 the forest breed, and also with the Suffolk. The forester has improved, and 
 the Norman has deteriorated in consequence of the first cross, and the 
 second has been attended with doubtful success. Next to the Alderneys, 
 the Suffolks are most in favour on the coast of Hampshire. 
 
 Mr. Gawler, in his ' Report of -i North Hampshire Farm,' (Farmer's 
 Series, No. VII. p. 15,) states that ' the stock in general best adapted to 
 this soil are the Alderney, and the smaller race of Norman cows. The 
 Devonshire and larger breeds require richer pasture ; and although they 
 may be kept in condition, the milk they give is by no means in proportion 
 to the bulk of food they consume. Mr. Gawler's dairy stock was in the 
 proportion of one cow of the Devonshire breed to three of the Alderney 
 or Norman, and the milk was mixed on the presumption that, being thus 
 diluted, it produced better butter, and a larger quantity of it.' 
 
 Sir Richard Simeon has favoured us with a description of the cattle in 
 the Isle of Wight. They are a small mixed kind without any of those 
 peculiarities which would mark them as distinct breeds. Scarcely any 
 oxen are bred from them ; cow-calves are saved for the purpose of keep- 
 ing up the dairy ; invariably from the best milkers, and not with any view 
 to their aptitude to fatten. 
 
 The dairy stock has been ocsasionally mixed with the Guernsey or 
 Alderney cattle, and with success so far as the quantity and quality of milk 
 go. Some attempts have been made to introduce the short-horns, and 
 in some instances the cattle of the island have been improved in size and 
 appearance; but, looking to the general capabilities of the island for the 
 maintenance of large stock, and fitting them for the purpose of the butcher, 
 it may be doubtful whether the smaller and rougher kind of cattle may 
 not be a safer description of stock, and likely to produce a better result to 
 the farmer. The Alderney is a favourite breed — a cross between the 
 Devon has produced some very good cows here, well adapted for the 
 dairy, and not unprofitable for the butcher. 
 
 The value of the Isle' of Wight cattle depends almost exclusively upon 
 their being good milkers : for the purposes of the butcher, many of them 
 are of little value, on account of the generally received opinion, that a 
 cow which has an aptitude to fatten is a bad milker. The farmers rarely 
 
 grazing. 
 
216 CATTI.K. 
 
 The smallesi farmer in the Isle of Wight, has a dairy, and the contrast 
 is very striking to au inhabitant of the island who visits the neighbourhood 
 af Winchester, in the same county, where he may ride many a mile 
 without seeing a cow, because it is the custom to keep bullocks on that 
 land only that will not do for sheep. 
 
 Mr. R. G. Kirkpatrick has informed us, that the only farms (hat are 
 calculated for grazing lie along the streams that run through the valley 
 on the south side of the Chulk Downs, and chiefly on the Grading stream. 
 Lord Yarboiough, at Appeldurcombe, is one of the most extensive 
 graziers in the island. He annually imports forty or tifty head of cattle 
 from his estates in Lincolnshire and from Scotland. The other graziers 
 attend the different markets in the south and west of England, and 
 buy chiefly Sussex, Welsh, Devonshire, and other west country cattle. 
 The whole importation amounts to about 500 annually, besides which 
 there are about 100 west country calves brought into the island a little 
 before midsummer. These are partly taken into the dairies and partly 
 kept for fattening. One of the finest dairies in the island belongs to 
 Sir Richard Simeon. His cows are of a larger sort than are generally 
 seen here, and crossed with the Durham. He has devoted a great deal of 
 time and expense to agricultural pursuits. He first introduced mangel- 
 wurzel and Swedish turnips into the Isle of Wight. 
 
 Oxen are not much used in husbandry labour ; and the few o.x- 
 teams which we see on the south side of the Downs are generally brought 
 "Trom the west of England. They are used in field labour, but not on the 
 road, from the notion that their feet would sutfer, and that they are not 
 so well adapted as horses i'oT this kind of work. They are found to work 
 in the field nearly as fast and as well as horses, and are kept at much 
 less expense. 
 
 WILTSHIRE. 
 
 The whole of Wiltshire, but particularly the northern division of it 
 surrounded by the counties of Gloucestershire and Berkshire, was, at the 
 close of the eighteenth century, chiefly occupied by the long-horns.* 
 They are described by Mr. Baden, of Day-house, (to whom we are in- 
 debted for much information respecting this district,) as " a fine, healthy 
 sort, good for the dairy and for feeding, and with immense spreading 
 horns. Those, however which were formerly most approved of for the 
 dairy, had smaller horns, bending towards the mouth, but they were not 
 favourites with the grazier or butcher, because their flesh was sometimes 
 tough. They used to average from thirty-six to forty-eight scores." Mr. 
 Baden has raised them to fifty scores, and a relative of his has carried 
 ihem on to sixty scores, confining them to grass and hay alone. Many 
 scientific agriculturists used to object to these long-horned cattle. They 
 were said to be too heavy — they injuriously poached a land, the great 
 *ault of which was, that it was already too cold and wet, — they did not 
 
 * ' It does not appear what was the original kind of cow kept in this district, pro 
 bably the old Gloucestershire cow, a sort now almost lost, or, perhaps, as is the case in 
 Somersetshire, a mixture of all sorts : hut the universal rage for upwards of twenty years 
 past has been for the long-horns, or, as they are called, the " North country cows," and 
 at this time, perhaps, nine-teuths of the dairies in this district are entirely of tljat kind. 
 The reasons given for the general introduction of that sort are the nearness of their 
 situation to the north country breeders, but perhaps the real reason is that " pride of 
 stock," which, operating like " the pride of sheep and horses," in south Wiltshire, has 
 gradually led the farmers to an emulation in beauty and size more than in usefulness 
 and profit, and which pride the breeders have not been wanting in using every artifice tu 
 create and promote.' 
 
THE WILTSHIKE JiKEliJ). 217 
 
 tome to pei'fectiun until they were at least two years older tliiiii tiie com- 
 mon cattle of the country, (Bakewell's improvements were then unknown ; ) 
 and, comparing bulk lor bulk, they did not yield a proportionate quantity 
 of milk, nor equal to the additional quantity of food which they consume. 
 Some strenuous efforts were made to replace them by the Devons, smaller 
 in size, and beings less liable to tread and poach the wet lands — ripe at an 
 earlier age than the long-horned cow, and fattening more speedily, but 
 there seemed to he these objections, that they were deficient in milk ; 
 that milk was good, but not better than the milk of the long-horn,, and con- 
 sequently the same quantity of cheese was not produced, and they were not 
 sufficiently hardy for the cold and wet grounds on which they were 
 placed : they therefore never obtained any firm footing in Wilts. 
 
 The long-horns are now, however, almost extinct. Although they were 
 really valuable, they seemed to retreat before the short-horns, even more 
 ra|)idly than the other varieties of the old long-horns. A cross of them 
 with the short-horns remains, and are excellent dairy cattle. They yield 
 daily from four to five gallons of milk, during the height of the season. 
 They are an improved breed, for they retain the hardihood of the old long- 
 horns and good quality of the milk, with the early mutuiity and quantity of 
 milk of the short-horn. 
 
 This cross-breed, however, must be carefully watched, for it is exceed 
 innly apt to degenerate. Frequent recurrence must be had to the short- 
 horn bull, and the bull must often be changed. There are, however, in 
 various parts of North Wilts, and particularly in the hands of the cotta-' 
 gers, as various and inexplicable crosses as are to be met with in any ))art 
 of the kingdom, and some of them exceedingly useful beasts. It should be 
 contrived that the cows shall calve from Christmas to Lady-day on a 
 warm, early soil, but not until three weeks later on a backward, cold land. 
 
 Mr. Baden recommends that warm water should be given to the cow 
 after calving, especially if she has not cleansed, for cold water will often 
 retard or prevent the expulsion of the after-birth, arid particularly not to 
 draw all the milk from the teats for the first twelve hours. 
 
 if the calf is strong and healthy, the best time for weaning is at the 
 expiration of the third week ; it should be put into a cow-house, and 
 served from a pail : it will drink readily after being kept one meal from 
 the mother. One quart of skimmed milk, added to one warm from the cow, 
 is deemed a sufficient meal, and good hay should be placed before them, 
 for they will eat earlier than has been imagined ; they should be fed as 
 nearly as possible at the same hour morning and evening ; and as soon 
 as the grass appears, they should be turned out into a meadow during 
 the day, and the milk by degrees left off. In the month of October, they 
 should be put into a house and bled, and three ounces of Glauber's salts 
 should be given on three alternate mornings, to prevent the murrain : 
 in winter, a warm pen, or dry pasture, should be allowed. If they are to 
 have calves at two years old, they should be weaned in February, and 
 iihey should not calve before May. If they are to calve at three years 
 old, time and feed are not material.* 
 
 The cast-ofF cows and the steers are fatted somttim«8 on grass and 
 
 * In many parta of this district, the calves are seldom reared. The farmers say tliat 
 they can generally buy them cheaper than they can rear them on land that is generally 
 too good for the purpose, and tented too dear; and that calves will jviy better to be solil 
 as veal, than to be kept for stock. There is one thing, however, of which the Jairy-mnn 
 Bferywhere does not seem to be sufficiently aware, that few cows will settle so wlI' oh 
 t farm, or turn out so profitable, as those that have been reared un it. 
 
218 CATILK. 
 
 !iav, sometimes on hay and meal, or hay and Swedish turnips ; the latter 
 .s preferable when the hay is old and good. 
 
 We have given this account somewhat at length, as embodying the 
 management of cattle by the best farmers in North Wilts. There is a 
 very great proportion of grass to arable land through the whole of this 
 division of Wiltshire, and very much of the grass land is heavy and wet : 
 hence the necessity for more cattle than are usually found on such extent 
 of ground, and custom, old as the memory of man, has made it a district 
 for the production of cheese. The North Wiltshire cheese is known in 
 every part of the kingdom. It was at first an humble imitation of the 
 Gloucester, but it is now equal to the best from that county, and even 
 from the Vale of Berkheley itself. 
 
 Mr. Davis, in his Survey of Wiltshire, gives an opinion, that is to a 
 very considerable extent well founded, and from which dairymen every 
 where might derive instruction. ' One circumstance,' says he, ' goes a 
 great way to explain the goodness of the North Wiltshire cheese, viz., 
 the convenient situation of most of the farm-houses in the centre of the 
 farm, so that all the cows can be driven home to milk, and all the milk 
 can be put together, of an equal temperature, and, by beginning their work 
 early, the dairymen can make cheese twice in the day. Where servants 
 are sent to milk in detached and extensive pastures, this cannot be done. 
 Bad cheese can generally be traced to some fundamental fault in the art 
 of making it, and particularly in that essential article, the rennet.' We 
 thus far agree with the author of the ' Survey;' that a great deal is tn 
 be attributed to bad management, but we are inclined to think fully as 
 much, or even more, is connected with soil and pasture. 
 
 The quantity of cheese that is made from each cow in this district was 
 greater than is common in any other cheese-making country ; sometimes 
 as much as 4^ cwt. or 5 cwt. per cow, seldom lower than 3 cwt. Per- 
 haps 3J cwt. is a fair average in a good cheese-making year on every 
 Eow that calves in proper time*. 
 
 South Wilts is a very different country. A considerable portion of it 
 is occupied by extensive and open plains where sheep only will thrive. 
 There are, therefore, comparatively few cattle kept in this district, and 
 there would be still fewer were there not much wet and boargy ground 
 in the valleys between the different elevations of Salisbury plain, and 
 where sheep could not livef- The old Wiltshires never completely occu- 
 
 * The produce of cheese is, however, tnatetially influenced by the season ; Mr. Mar. 
 shall gives an illustration of this in his ' Economy of the Midland Counties.' ' One 
 year twenty cows produced foiu: tons of factor's cheese, besides the expenditure of the 
 family, making altogether upwards of 4 cwt. per cow ; yet in the next year the same 
 cows, with the addition of four or five more cows to the dairy, did not produce so much 
 theese.' 
 
 ' The first summer was warm and moderately wet ; neither too wet nor too dry ; a 
 happy mixture of warmth and moisture. The pastures were eaten level even to a degree of 
 bareness, yet always wore a freshness, and the cows throughout the summer looked sleek 
 and healthy. The next was a wet summer.' 
 
 f A writer in the Bath Society Papers, vol. vii. p. 170, very properly says, that ' the 
 great error in this stock is the smallness of the ijurntity kept, the rage for fine sheep 
 having almost driven the cow stock out of the district. South Wiltshire farms are not 
 calculated to keep many cows, but the greater part of them would keep more than they do. 
 Where there are water meadows cows are indispensably necessary to eat the after grass, 
 and in winter they are always so to eat the barley-straw, and make dung. There is 
 always as much distant land on a South Wiltshire farm as the sheep-fold can manure , 
 the home land should be manured with hot dung, and particularly when in preparation 
 for a turnip crop. If cows were formerly thought so useful as to be indispensable on 
 the farms of this district, they must certainly be much more so now when their produce 
 18 worth one-third more.' 
 
THE OXFORDSHIRE BREED. sm 
 
 pied the cow pastures of South Wilts. They were long-horns, hut little 
 ."are was taken about the breed. 
 
 The cows are here as uniformly devoted to the production of butter, aa 
 those of North Wilts are to that of cheese, and with almost equal success, 
 for the butter of South Wilts is in high repute. There is no particular 
 description of cow in the one to produce butter only, and in the other to 
 produce cheese, for the old breed in both is nearly gone. The short- 
 horns liave been introduced, and they remain in some cases pure, in others 
 crossed in various ways with the native breed *. Mr. Davis accounts for 
 this in the most satisfactory manner; ' perhaps it is custom or prejudice, 
 and these producing greater skill in the manufacture of each in the re- 
 spective districts." 
 
 OXFORDSHIRR. 
 
 The improved short-horns lingered longer in Oxfordshire than in most 
 of the districts which they had occupied. It has been stated, that Mr 
 Fowler, of Hollwright, derived his breed immediately trocn Mr. Bakewell, 
 and carried the improvement of the long-horn cattle to a greater extent 
 than Mr. Bakewell did. His bull, Shakspeare, has been already described 
 as the best stock-getter that the long-horn breed ever had. After Mr. 
 Bakewell died, his stock began to lose its high character under the 
 management of his nephew, Mr. Honeybourn ; Mr. Fowler's cattle 
 maintained their reputation for many years, until they, too, gradually 
 yielded to the superior claims of the short-horns. 
 
 Before Mr. Fowler's time, Oxfordshire could not be said to have any 
 peculiar breed, but the improved long-horns, bred and patronised by him, 
 speedily became the prevailing stock of the county. A few long-horns, 
 but somewhat deteriorated, are yet to be found in Oxfordshire ; the short- 
 horn, or the halt-horn, or a mixture between the short and the supposed 
 native cow, principally prevail. 
 
 Sir C. Willoughby was one of the first who introduced the short-horn 
 He had a dairy of 19 cows of that breed. The very intelligent Secretary 
 to the Board of Agriculture, the Rev. Arthur Young, (in his Survey of 
 Oxfordshire, published in 1809,) could not quite reconcile himself to this 
 intrusion, and speaks pointedly of the necessity of their being well fed 
 and taken care of in the winter. This was a grand objection when they 
 
 * ' Few reasons need he adduced to prove that the best kind of cow for this district 
 IS that whicli will bear hard keeping best, and particularly that kind which will best bear 
 wintering in a straw-yard.' — Bath Papers, vol. vii. p. 170. 
 
 The cow-commons, or cow-tlowns that used to be described by every statistical writer 
 and which were in a manner peculiar to the South Wiltshire and Hampshire Downs, 
 are diminished in number, and in many parts of these districts they are no longer 
 known. Tliese commons were on the best and most level parts of the down lands. 
 Mr. Marshall gives the following account of them. ' The cattle are collected in one com- 
 mon herd, each township or hamlet having their cow-herd, who drives them to the downs, 
 tends them there, and brings them back in the evening to be milked, distributing them 
 among their respective owners, who take the charge of them during the night. The 
 herdsman collects them again in the morning, by sound of horn, a custom probably of 
 many centiries standing. I have seen a hundred head at least in one of these town 
 herds. In summer, when the weather is sultry, the cows remain in the house, or yard, 
 and are fed there with grass and weeds collected for them, or are suffered to drop their 
 dung unprofitably in lanes, and other shady places, and are driven to the down in the 
 tool of the evening.' 
 
 The stuUble-fields being opened, they took possession of them also, in common with 
 the sheep. If there are common meadows, they have no exclusive right to feed on them 
 until St;. Martin 's-day, when the owners take them home to the. straw-yard. After the 
 ""+""■" into the stubble-field, it becomes common for the sheep- 
 en it is again laid up for the cows. 
 
 . 1 AU„ „n 
 
220 CATTLE. 
 
 w-ci-e first brought into notice, but it was perfectly groundless, for lliej 
 have thriven where many other breeds would have failed, and they ai« 
 now finding their way into Scotland, to contend with the northern cattle 
 on their own ground *. 
 
 WARWICKSHIRE. 
 
 We have recorded the name of Webster of Canley, in this county, as 
 one of the earliest improvers of the long-horns. The prevailing breed of 
 Warwickshire was, before his time, long-horned, and from the shape and 
 size of the beasts, seemed to have been originally brought from Lan- 
 cashire. Webster, however, began to vrork upon a better stock, for he 
 obtained some cows from the banks of the Trent, at that time celebrated 
 lOr the value of tlie cattle produced there. After Bakewell had traversed 
 every part of the kingdom in order to select subjects on which to com- 
 mence his experiments, he selected two heifers from Mr. Webster's dairy 
 as the foundation of his future stock. 
 
 Mr. Guibbs, of Blackford, soon afterwards emulated the example of 
 Webster, and produced a superior breed of cattle, hardy, short-legged, 
 and wide and deep in their frame. He first hired bulls from Mr. Bake- 
 well, and then bred from his own stock until he bought a bull that was 
 bred by Mr. Meeks, after which he still further improved his cattle by cross- 
 ing with Mr. Prince's long-horns. 
 
 Other breeders pursued the same landable course, and the consequence 
 was that the Warwickshire cattle would not yield to the improved Leices- 
 ters in any valuable point, hut were acknowledged as genuine branches 
 of the same stock. They also retained a considerable portion of all their 
 sterling value when Mr. Honeybourn's slock had dwindled into mere 
 shadows of what they once were. 
 
 At the present day, some long-horns are to be met with in Warwick- 
 shire, and the most valuable dairy breed is at least a mixture of the long 
 with the short horn. The short-horn is, however, gaining ground. 
 Lord Clonmell had a fine breed of pure Durhams at his seat Chateau- 
 Margeaux, some of which were afterwards purchased by Mr. King, then 
 living at Amberslade House, in this county t. 
 
 • The Secretary to the Board was always partial to the use of oxen at the plough, 
 and on the road. The advantage and disadvantage to be derived from using them was 
 in few places put more to the test of experience tlian in Oxfordshire, and the consequence 
 was, that many farmers who had tried both the Devons and the Hereford, returned 
 again to the use of the horse. Mr. Young, however, gives an account of the experience 
 of others on the contrary side of the question, so interesting, that we are induced to quote 
 a tew paragraphs. ' Mr. Thomas Latham, of Clifton, had a team of four oxen that drew 
 with ease ' quarters of wheat in a waggon ; and which were far beyond horses for 
 timber cartmg. " They were Scotch beasts. He worked them three years, and sold them 
 lean for 48/. They ploughed as well and as much as horses, and did not cost nearly so 
 much. JUr. Foster, of Bigual, worked a team of five spayed heifers in harness. He 
 began to plough with them at two years old ; they were in full work at three, and fat- 
 tened at seven. He had sold them as high as 100/. per pair. They were not shod, and 
 although on this stone-brash surface, they worked as well as horses. 
 
 f Mr. Murray, who published a ' Survey of Warwickshire,' in 1813, gives the following 
 estimate of the profit per acre, on diflferent kinds of farms and differently managed. 
 
 ' Thin clay land, under the rotation of fallow, wheat, beans, barley, clover, £. i. d. 
 and oats per acre ...... Loss. 016 
 
 ' Good elay land, on marl or limestone rock, same rotation Gain. 2 14 9 
 
 ' Light, poor, sandy soil under the rotation of turnip, fallow, from turf, 
 luruips eaten off by sheep, barley and seeds, clover eaten off by sheep Gain. 5 
 
 ' lied sandy loam under rotation of wheat, after leys, and the other crops, 
 IS iu the last . • • • . . . .282^ 
 
 ' A grazing farm .... .340 
 
 ' Dairy farm .... 
 
THE WORCKSTERSHIRE BREED. 221 
 
 WORCESTERSHIRE. 
 
 This county cannot be said to have possessed any distinguishing breed 
 of cattle. It was surrounded by breeding districts, but ils own pasture 
 was too good for khe rearing of young stock, therefore it purchased from 
 al! around it, whether Herefords, or Shropshire, or Staffordshire, or Welsh. 
 The few that are bred in the county are of a mixed character, or there is 
 rarely any particular object of improvement in tlieir selection, but chiefly 
 to procure milk and butter and cheese for the supply of the district, and 
 scarcely sufficient of either of them. The native cattle, however, are 
 evidently long-horns, and are very fair milkers. In some of tiie dairies, 
 there is a cross between them and the Holderness, and in a very consider- 
 able part of the county the pure short-horn is found, and begins to pre- 
 dominate as a dairy cow. The Herefords and the Durhams are strug- 
 gling for superiority on the grazing lands, and are the prevailing breeds 
 there, although the old Staffordshire is sometimes seen, and although 
 much improved by a mixture of Herefordshire or Durham blood, yet 
 not able to compete with either the Herefords or the Durhams. The 
 pure Herefords are no where superior to what we find them on the pas- 
 tures of Worcestershire. The most valuable cross is. between the Here- 
 ford and the Durham, and the produce is equally good for the dairy and 
 for grazing. 
 
 There is nothing peculiar in the management of cattle in Worcester- 
 shire. The calves are principally reared with skim milk, in some cases a 
 little oil cake and linseed being added until the animal is three months 
 old, when it is fed altogether upon grass. In summer, the cattle are fed 
 in the usual way upon grass, and in winter on irieadow hay, Swedish 
 turnips and oil-cake. We owe many thanks to Mr. Herbert, who, at the 
 request of the Earl of Coventry, fevoured us with some valuable observa- 
 tions on the Worcestershire cattle. 
 
 Approaching nearer to the borders of Staffordshire, while we still have 
 the Herefords and the Durhams, the old Staffordshire long-horns in- 
 crease in number, and rise in favour with the grazier. The Staffordshire 
 and the Durham are also crossed for the aairy, and with so much good 
 effect, that they are the prevailing breed for that purpose, but the Here- 
 ford is here supposed to bear off the palm as a grazing beast, and will 
 always obtain a greater price than either the Durham, or Staffordshire, or 
 any cross between them. To our friend Mr. Rushton of Dudley, we are 
 indebted for the suggestion of these hints. 
 
 The items of the two last are as follows : — 
 
 < Rent ....... 
 
 Tithe, poor-rates, road-duty, &c. .... 
 
 Proportional expense of a man ..... 
 
 Keep of six large sheep, at 25«. .... 
 
 For interest of stock and risk 
 
 ' If used as dairy exppnse as above . . . 
 
 ' Produce 2\ cwt. of cheese per acre, at 70s. 
 
 'Which leaves 4 
 
 ' The butttr and refuse of milk is supposed to paj' all other chiugrs.' 
 
 £ 
 
 s. 
 
 d. 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 i) 
 
 
 
 18 
 
 U 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 fi 
 
 
 
 7 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 6 
 
 « 
 
 S 
 
 15 
 
 c 
 
«8 CATTLE. 
 
 STAFFOllUSH.RE. 
 
 Tlie old StaBord cattle were a somewhat coarse kind of long--honis oi 
 middle size, of various colours, thick about the head, bad handlers, with 
 no great aptitude to fatten, but excellent for the dairy. A few of them, 
 and with very little improvement, are yet to be seen in the possession of 
 the cottager and small farmer. The first attempt at improving them was 
 the introduction of the Dishley breed ; and when Mr. Bakewell's cattle 
 were most in repute, crosses between the old SlafTordsbire and the im- 
 proved Leicester were carried to a very considerable extent. The size ol 
 the animal was increased, his form materially improved, and a disposition 
 'o fatten, before unknown, was given to him. It was, hov/ever, asserted 
 by those of the old school, that these improvements were purchased at 
 tlie expense of other qualities, even more valuable in a dairy country ; the 
 milk was probably enriched, but it was materially diminished in quantity, 
 and the same weight of cheese was not obtained ; and, therefore, thej 
 bred back again to a certain degree; the milking properties of the 
 native caitle were restored, while superior form, and size, and grazing 
 properties, were to a considerable extent retained. 
 
 The StalFordshires had now become an exceedingly valuable breed ; they 
 were much prized in the neighbouring counties, and great numbers of 
 them were annually sent to supply the dairies of North Wiltshire. On 
 the borders of Cheshire, cheese was produced equa' to the finest of that 
 county ; and on the Derbyshire side, the production of that district was 
 fairly rivalled, while the cows, the dairy work being done, were superior 
 to those of the former county, and not inferior to those of the lalier, in the 
 tendency to fatten*. 
 
 Some of them, a better kind of cattle than the long-horn of the cottager 
 just described, but still under the name of the ' old Staffordshire loug- 
 horns, continue to be bred in some parts of the county. Among others, 
 Mr. R. Wood, of Old Wood, near Rudgely ; Mr. Parton, Bromley Hurst, 
 near do.; Mr. Holland, Lee-Lane, near do. ; Mr. Bakewell, Oali-Fields, 
 near do. ; Mr. Brown, Farewell,, near Litchfield; Mr. Ashmell, do. ; all 
 breed exclusively from the long-horns. Mi. Bakeweli is President of the 
 Rudgely Agricultural Society. 
 
 Mr. Friend, V. S., of Walsall, has favoured us with the following account 
 of these old Statfbrdshires of the present day. ' The prevailing colours 
 of the long-horns are grizzled or brindled with an irregular broadish 
 
 * Mr. Marsliall gives a singular account of the method of rearing calves in his time, in 
 this district. ' Calves are here fatted at the teat, and in the early parr of the season are 
 kept to a good age ; but cheese-making unce begun, they are butchered as they drop, at 
 not more perhaps than three or four nays old, nor at more perhaps than three or four 
 shillings price. The market, the manufacturmg towns and the collieries of Stafiurd- 
 (hire. 
 
 ^ The only circumstance relative to the management of fatting calvfs which requires 
 notice, is an expedient used by some individuals — but not, 1 believe, m universal prac- 
 tice — to make them be quiet, and more especially during the temporary scarcity of milk 
 which will sometimes take place. In this case, balls made of wheat-tluur, and a sutHcient 
 quantity of gin to form it into a paste, are given them j three balls about the size of wa' 
 mils being given about a quarter of an hour after each meal. The efiect is, that instead 
 of wasting themselves by incessant bawling, they lie quiet, sleeping a principal part of 
 .heir time. By a liitle custom, the calves get fond of these paste-bails; eating them 
 freely out of the hand — a proof of their being acceptable to their stomachs. As an ea-- 
 fedient they are evidently eligible, and may be of service to a restless caif even when milk 
 is plentiful.' — Midland Counties, vol. i. p. 350. 
 
 Of the use of this paile or gm-ball, when calves are taken a long way from one market 
 to another, we have already spoken, in the acsusiis'. cl JX;iith^j^-f':".-,h.!r'i_ 
 
THE STAFFORDSHIRE BRKEI). "'is 
 
 streak of white runnings nearly the whole length of the back ; and even in 
 those that differ from this description, there is an irregularity and broken- 
 ness in the colours, and it is very rare indeed to see one with the plain 
 and somewhat uniform patches of colour, so common in the short-horned 
 cattle of the Durham breed. Whole-coloured ones also are very scarce. 
 The horns are very long and wide apart, and from the setting on of them, 
 they run back some considerable way before projecting forwaid to form 
 the curve. In addition to tins, the eye is simall and deep in the socket, 
 the arch of the orbit is very broad and prominent, giving altogether a 
 peculiar look of width and plainness to the countenance ; certainly not 
 pleasing at first sight, yet mingled in most instances with something of 
 gentleness and meekness very characteristic of the animal. 
 
 ' They are short and coarse on the leg, rough in the hide, and not 
 generally good handlers; though the hide, from its thickness and weight, 
 is valuable to the butcher and tanner. As feeders, they do not average 
 great weights, varying from about 40 to 70 stones of 14 lbs. to the sto'.ie. 
 They are deep in the brisket, and the fore-quarters weigh heavy. They 
 are, generally speaking, very quiet and docile, not disposed to break 
 pasture, and kept in bounds by small fences. The milk is rich in quality, 
 and will make proportionably more butter and cheese, though it is ac- 
 knowledged they will not give so much in quantity as the short-horns will, 
 both living well alike. They are said to require a less quantity of food 
 though I am convinced they will not do on that of a worse quality than 
 the others, from what I saw at Lord Bagot's, at Blythfield Park. He 
 had a number of long-horned and Hereford cows, each good of their kind, 
 tied up in the same range of building, and the bailiff informed me that 
 the Herefords had been eating hay inferior to that eaten by the long- 
 horns, and yet the Herefords beat them decidedly in condition. They 
 work a number of bullocks on the farm ; and he told me also, that he had 
 tried the long-horns for this purpose, but found them not at all equal to 
 the Herefords, either in pace or in capability of enduring fatigue. The 
 long-horns are still very hardy in constitution, and, from the coarseness of 
 their hides, are calculated to bear inclement weather better than the short- 
 horns, and this, added to the shortness of their legs, gives them the decided 
 advantage in rough weather and a bare pasture.' 
 
 At length theshorl-horn. in the course of its triumphant career, reached 
 the borders of Staffordshire, and some spirited breeders immediately put 
 their boasted value to the test. Some of the best short-horn bulls were 
 procured, and the Staffordshire cow was crossed by them Various de- 
 grees of success attended these crossings, according to the skill with which 
 they were conducted, and, on the whole, the symmetry of the animal was 
 considerably increased ; the weight and disposition to fatten were in 
 creased too ; a twelvemonth was gained in point of ripeness for the 
 butcher, the quantity of milk was greater, and to an extent which rendered 
 it more profitable to dairymen, although it might be somewhat diminished 
 in quality, and a very profitable breed this seemed to be. 
 
 It may, however, be imagined that the Staffordshire farmers were a little 
 jealous of this innovation, and many of them clung tenaciously to their 
 *avourite breed ; but, at length, experience convinced them that greater im- 
 provement was effected in their cattle by the introduction of the short- 
 horns, than the Leicesters of Bakewell had ever been able to effect; so 
 that the improved Staffordshires soon became even more rare than the 
 old natives, and a cross between the long-horn and the short prevailed in 
 most of the dairies in the southern part of the county. 
 
 li u_ . ._ — „ t„ ^„.,„ <'-""-'""t recurrence to the ftliort- 
 
224 ■ (JATTLE. 
 
 horn bull, in order to preserve the full advantage of the cross, for other 
 wise the long-horn gradually returned, and deprived of some of hit 
 excellent points. 
 
 In the south of Staffordshire, therefore, this breed might have been 
 considered as fully established, had not some enterprising agriculturists, 
 induced by the advantage which a mixture with the short- horn seemed tc 
 bestow, introduced the pure short-horn breed. The common Yorkshire 
 milch cow, with a little admixture of the new Durham blood, was 
 tried, and especially upon good land. There she perfectly answered the 
 farmer's purpose, and on the better kind of pastures' she is rapidly gaiuinij 
 ground; but on the poorer soils, the long-horns, or the half-horns, are 
 most profitable, and continue to be retained. Sir John Wrbltesley has a 
 dairy of twenty-five cows at Wrottesley Park, of the Holdemess breeii, 
 with Durham bulls*; other breeds have been tried, and have their 
 patrons. 
 
 Lord Bagot still retains the long-horns, and in their purest state. 
 The late Lord Anson had a fine breed of white cows, which he changed 
 for the Staffordshires improved by the Leieesters, and which he after- 
 wards parted with, and adopted the Devons. Mr. Tollett, of Betley, had 
 also Devons, and so had Mr. Chiide, who selected them with great care, 
 and sold them for very high prices at an annual fair. Sir George Pigott 
 has a dairy of Galloways at Pateshall, and farther to the north. Lord 
 Talbot has a noble stock or Herefords. 
 
 Sir John Wrottesley once crossed his heifers with a French bull. The 
 produce was very beautiful, and fattened very quickly and well, but when 
 slaughtered, the meat was of a bad colour. 
 
 Towards the north of the county, the long-horns continue to main- 
 lain their ground, and particularly on the banks of the Dove and tlie 
 Trent which separate StaiFordshire from Derbyshire. A cross between 
 the Derby and Staffordshire cattle there prevails. The fore-end is fine, 
 long, and standing low. The head small, the neck thin, but deep accord- 
 ing to the depth of the bosom. The shoulders fine, the rib full and the 
 loin broad. The thighs remarkably thin below, as if to give room for the 
 bag, which is large, clean, and bladder-like, with long teats, and remark- 
 ably large and elastic milk veins. The leg short, with the bone fine. 
 The flesh good. The hide of a middle thickness. The colour of a 
 brindled mottle, with a fine back and white legs. In temper very gentle,, 
 a quality of considerable value in a cow intended for the pail. 
 
 The principal difference between this and the improved long-horn is, 
 that the former is more roomy and better let down in the chest ; the 
 latter, better topped, fuller on the chine and loin, and generally fuller on 
 the thigh. Both are clean in the fore-end and shoulder ; the bone of both 
 is fine and the flesh good ; but the one loses her milk a few months after 
 calving, the other will milk all the year round. 
 
 'J'tiere is no peculiarity of management in Staffordshire, as it regards 
 either the calf or the adult animal. We beg leave to return our acknow- 
 ledgments to the Earl Talbot, and Sir John Wrottesley, for the kindness 
 with which they furnished us with information on several important points. 
 
 * For this mixture of the Durham with the Holderaess, he very satisfactorily accounts, 
 in a. letter which we have had the honour to receive from him. ' I do not believe,' ho 
 says, ' that a very good milker will have the same disposition to fatten as a bad one, and 
 vice versi ; added to which, the heifers that have a great disposition to feed are indisposed 
 to breed. This circumstance has induced me not to covet very high-bied animals, and to 
 sacrifice a small portion of the milk to assist in feeding, when too old to continue in th« 
 <airv.' 
 
THE SIIROPSHIRK BREED. 
 
 ess 
 
 ■Ir. Careless, Mr. Ford, of Synnerton, and Mr. Meyer, of Newcastle, will 
 .so receive our thanks 
 
 SHROPSHIRE. 
 
 The old Shropshire cattle, with a cut of one of which we are enabled 
 to present our readers, was of a long-horn hardy kind — of all colour^ 
 but generally brown mixed with bay and white, and with a streak of 
 white running along the back and under the belly. They were raw- 
 boned, cow-legged, and far from being handsome; bearing a genera 
 resemblance to the cattle scattered through Warwickshire and StaflFbrd 
 shire. They were, however, good milkers and fit for the dairy. 
 
 
 I'fhe Old Shrupnhiie Or] 
 
 Very few of the old sort are now left, but a cross between the Shrop 
 shire and the Holdernesa has been established, by which increase of size 
 has been obtained, hardihood, and a greater quantity of milk. They are 
 very docile ; and when red or spotted they ^re in great request : the spotted 
 are accounted the most valuable. This cross, however, should be kept 
 on good sound land ; on wet marshy land the old Shropshires are the 
 best. The cows sell well in spring, having calved, or being hear to the 
 calving time. The price of one of average goodness will be from 14/. to 
 18/., while a cow of the old Shropshire kind, and of the same age and 
 size, would not bring more than from 9/. to 12/. They are more profitable 
 for the butcher. They feed quickly in good pasture, and the beef is good. 
 The Herefords are established through the whole of Shropshire ; they 
 are occasionally seen in the dairy, and they occupy the greater part of 
 the grazing grounds. 
 
 ^A, few Montgomeries with smoky faces, and also some other Welsh 
 breeds, are-kept in some parts of Shropshire, but they are generally in the 
 ^*r s'Uisatar ' iind ^ai^. fiirniisirs, wii® lourchase them because they 
 -■>.■'-■/-■•- Q 
 
923 CATTLE. 
 
 are hardy, and will weather the winter on inferior keep better than most 
 otlier breeds. Great numbers of them pass throngh Shropshire in their 
 way to the southern counties. The short-horns, and principally the Hoi- 
 derness with a slight cross of the Durham, are now to be found in various 
 parts of Shropshire ; and the prejudice against their tenderness, and the 
 poverty of their milk, is wearing away. 
 
 Chapter VII. 
 
 THE SHORT-HORNS. 
 
 For every portion of the text in this excellent account of the Short-Horns, 
 we are indebted to the Rev. Henry Berry, than whom there are few more 
 zealous breeders of cattle, while there is no better judge of them. 
 
 Whatsoever differences of opinion may prevail respecting the compara- 
 tive merits of our several breeds of cattle, it must be admitted that the 
 short-horns present themselves to notice under circumstances of peculiar 
 interest. Possessing in an eminent degree a combination of qualities 
 which have generally been considered incompatible, and rendered irre- 
 sistibly attractive to the eye by their splendid frames, and beautifully varied 
 colours, it is not surprising that they have become objects of public cu- 
 riosity ; that they have realized for their breeders enormous sums of 
 money ; and that, throughout our own island, and in every foreign coun- 
 try where agriculture is attended to, they are in increasing request. 
 
 It might tend to throw much light on the science of breeding, could 
 these animals be traced, in the progress of their improvement, to an earlier 
 period than has hitherto been found possible. Of the extent of that im- 
 provement we may, however, form an estimate, by placing together one 
 of the improved, and one of the unimproved race. We should, in such a 
 case, discover resemblance just sufficient to support the belief in a very 
 remote alliance, but there all similarity would cease. 
 
 From the earliest periods as to which we have any accounts of our 
 breeds of cattle, the counties of Durham and York have been celebrated 
 for their short-horns, but principally, in the first instance, on account of 
 their reputation as extraordinary milkers *- To recite their recorded 
 feats at the pail would be to invite incredulity ; but it may be asserted, 
 on the best evidence, that, taken as a breed, they have never in this par- 
 
 * Bef jie this a large and valuable description of cattle had existed on the wesitem coast 
 of the continent of Europe, and extending from Denmark to the coufines of France. The^ 
 were celebrated for the great quantities of milk which they yielded, and some of them ex- 
 hibited au extraordinary aptitude to fatten. At what particular time they found their 
 way to England, or by whom they were imported, is unknown ; but there is a tradition 
 that, towards the close of the seventeenth century, a bull and some cows were introduced 
 into Holdercess. 
 
 lu external form, there appeased to be very little to recommend them, f>ir they had 
 large shoulders and coarse necks ; the sides wue flat, and the head was thick ; all the 
 coarse parts were bulky, and the prime ones were reduced in size, and they were almost 
 the reverse of what thfe agriculturist would select : they were, however, bulkier than the 
 native breeds, and they were better milkers than the generality of the cattle of that day. 
 They would, by dint of feeding, grow to an enormoas sice, bat they had not the aptitude 
 to fatten, nor the early maturity, to which thev have been since indebted for theii ttiumpfc 
 Bver every other breed. — Edit, 
 
THE SHORT-HORN BREKD. 
 
 227 
 
 ticiilar been equalled. The cattle so distinguished were always, as now- 
 ve.ry different from the improved race. They were generally of large 
 size, thin-skinned, sleek-haired, bad handlers, rather delicate in consti- 
 tution, coarse in the offal, and strikingly defective in the substance ot 
 girth in the fore-quarters. As milkers, they were most excellent, but 
 when put to fatten, as the foregoing description will indicate, were found 
 slow feeders, producing an inferior quality of meat, not marbled or mixed 
 as to fat and lean, and, in some cases, the latter was found of a particu- 
 larly dark hue. Such, also, are the unimproved short-horns of the pre- 
 sent day, and the distinction cannot be too frequently asserted, because 
 they are, in many eases, considered as specimens of the improved breed, 
 and have actually been resorted to in trials as to the comparative aptituda 
 of animals to fatten,T— trials which it is evident they could not successfully 
 sustain. 
 
 A period of more than eighty years has now elapsed, since the short- 
 horns, on the banks of the river Tees, hence called the Teeswater breed, 
 had assumed a very different character to that contained in the foregoing 
 description. In colour, they resembled the improved short-horns, being 
 occasionally red, red and white, and roan, though the lastTnamed colour 
 was not then so prevalent as now. They possessed a fine mellow skin 
 and flesh, good hair, and light offal, particularly wide carcases, and fore- 
 quarters of extraordinary depth and capacity. Perhaps no closer modern 
 resemblance can be found to the a^ove description of the Tpeswater 
 breed than Mr. Berry's bull presents, the portrait of which accompanies 
 this account. His dam was purchased by Mr. B. on account of the very 
 few crosses that intervened between her and some of the best of the 
 Teeswater cattle, to which he was desirous to go back, on account of the 
 extent to which breeding in and in has been carried. When slaughtered, 
 their proof was extraordinary, and many instances are recorded of th« 
 wonderful weight of their inside fat. 
 
 «•.//.] 
 
ZM CATTLE. 
 
 The remarkable diflereiue which existed betwee.i the loeswater and 
 the old unimproved ehort-homs may, with propriety, be ascribed to a 
 ipirit of improvement which had some time manifested itself amon^ th» 
 oreeders on the banks of the Tees, whose laudable efforts were well se 
 conded by the very superior land in the vicinity of that river. No reason- 
 able doubts can be entertained that they proceeded on a judicious system 
 of crossing with other breeds, because it was utterly impossible to raise 
 such a stock as the Teeswater from pure short-horn blood. One cross to 
 which they referred was, in all probability, the white wild breed; and if 
 this conjecture be well-founded, it will be apparent whence the short-horns 
 derived a colour so prevalent among them 
 
 It is also asserted that, about the period in question. Sir William St. 
 Quintin, of Scampston, imported bulls and cows from Holland, which 
 were crossed with the stock of the country. It would tend to little ad 
 vantage to proceed with conjectures, as to what other breeds were resorted 
 to, if any : this much is certain, that great improvement was soon mani- 
 fested, and a valuable variety established, as the two following instances 
 will prove. 
 
 Mr. Milbank, of Barmingham, one of the leading improver*, bred and 
 -slaughtered an ox, which, at five years old, weighed four quarters, one 
 hundred and fifty stones, of fourteen pounds to the stone, producing six- 
 teen stones of tallow ; and a cow bred from his stock, slaughtered by Mc. 
 Sharter, of Chilton, at twelve years old, weighed upwards of one hundred 
 and ten stones. 
 
 From Mr. Milbank's time, the Teeswater cattle continued to sustain 
 their excellence and celebrity in various hands, until Mr. Charles Colling 
 adopted them, when he manifested a superiority of skill as a breedei", 
 which, in a very brief period, secured him an ample fortune. 
 
 Whatever had been the merits of the Teeswater cattle, it is certain Mr. 
 Colling greatly improved them j and though it has been asserted that his 
 success was the result of chance, arising from the possession of an animal, 
 with the merits of which, it is supposed, he was at one period unac- 
 quainted, the writer of this article is of opinion that Mr. Colling's success 
 resulted from a deliberate and well-considered plan. He found the Tees- 
 water like all other extravagantly large cattle, frequently of loose make 
 and disproportion. He was sensible, also, of the difficulty of breedins'i 
 with anything like certainty, large good animals ; and though he has de- 
 clined on all occasions to throw any light on his views and proceedlnns, 
 the writer thinks he can detect, in the very outset, and through the pro- 
 gress of his practice, a resolution to reduce the size of this breed, and at 
 the same time, and by that means, to improve its form. This he is sup- 
 |)0sed to have effected, in the first instance, through the medium of a bull, 
 called " Hubback," an animal respecting which there has been much 
 controversy, principally touching the purity of his blood, a question now 
 of little importance, because it is admitted on all hands that Mr. Colling 
 adopted another cross, which prevails in a majority of superior short-horns 
 of the present day. It may, notwithstanding, be matter of interest to 
 state a few particulars respecting this bull. 
 
 Without entering on an inquiry by what circumstances Hubback's title 
 to be considered of pure blood is supported or weakened, it may suffice to 
 observe, that it appears probable he possessed on one side the imported 
 blood. ,The possessor of his dam was a person in indigent circumstances, 
 and grazed his cow in the highways. When afterwards she was removed 
 lo good land, near Darlington, she became so fat that she did not again 
 breed ; an^l her son, having the sstnie fj-ffdri-nj?- SjFcmf-iitv •" r kk'h -•- 
 
£. 
 
 s. 
 
 d. 
 
 525 
 
 
 
 
 
 1000 
 
 
 
 
 
 2000 
 
 
 
 
 
 THE STIORT-HORN BREED. Za* 
 
 gree, was useful as a bull dui'ing a very short period. The quality of 
 his flesh, hide, and hair, are supposed to have been seldom equalled ; 
 and as he was smaller than the Teeswater cattle, he was eminently cal- 
 culated toi forward Mr. Ceiling's views. 
 
 It has been remarked that we have at present no superior horse uu the 
 turf, which does not boast the blood of the Godolphin Arabian ; so it may 
 oe asserted that we have no superior short-horns which doi not claiir 
 descent nearly, or remotely, from Hubback *. 
 
 After the use of this bull, Mr. Charles Colling proceeded witli singular 
 success to produce, from time to time, superior animals; and the number 
 of bulls he disposed of by letting was highly encouraging. But the cir- 
 cumstance which brought the improved short-horns into most extensive 
 notice vvas the production of the " Durham Ox," an animal which speaks 
 volumes in favour of even a single cross of this biood ; for the ox was the 
 produce of a common cow, which had been put to ''^Favourite." At five 
 years old, the Durham ox was sold to Mr. Bulmer, of Harmby, near 
 Bedale, for public exhibition, at the price of 140?. .• this was in February, 
 1801. He was at that time computed to weigh 168 stones, of 141b., his 
 live weight being 216 stones; and this extraordinary weight, did not 
 arise from his superior size, but from the excessive ripeness of his points. 
 Mr. Bulmer having obtained a carriage for his conveyance, travelled 
 with him five weeks, and then sold him and the carriage, at Rotherham, 
 to Mr. John Day, on the 14th May, 1801, for 250Z. 
 On the 14th of May, Mr, Day could have 
 
 sold him for . . . 
 
 On the 13th of June, for 
 On the 8th of July, for . . , 
 
 Mr. Day travelled with him nearly six years, through the principal 
 parts of England and Scotland, till at Oxford, on the I9th February, 
 1807, the ox dislocated his hip-bone, and continued in that state till the 
 15th April, when he was obliged to be slaughtered, and, notwithstanding 
 
 * This is true, because Hubback was the sire of the dam of Mr. Charles ColUng'i 
 bull, Fuljambe, who was the grandsire ot Favourite ; aud there can be no doubt that 
 there has not been for many years any superior short-horn who was not descended from 
 Favourite. Mr. Charles Colling is said to have considered that the bull, Foljambe, was 
 the one who did his stock the greatest goad ; and this is not improbable, as Foljambe 
 vi :.s the sire both of the sire and dam of Favourite. Hubback, however, must have been 
 a remarkably good animal, and considering the short time during which he was used as 
 a bull, proved himself a first-rate stock-getter. 
 
 The following account of ' Hubback ' we had from Mr. Waistell, of Alihill, who, 
 although his name does not appear conspicuously in the ' Short-Horned Herd Book,' 
 deserves much credit for his discrimination here. He used to admire this calf, as he 
 rode alnost daily by the meadow in which it grazed ; and at length he attempleu to pur- 
 chase it from the owner. The price asked, 8/., seemed much for a calf not a year old |i_ 
 and the reputation of the short-horns not being yet established, the barp;ain was not 
 struck. Still he longed for the ypung beast ; and happening to meet Mr. Robirt Colling 
 near the place, he asked his opinion of the animal. Mr. Colling acknowledged iliat there 
 were some good points about him ; but there was something in his manner of acknow- 
 ledging this which indu(;ed Mr. Waistell to suspect that Mr. Colling thought somewhat 
 more higlily of the calf than his language expressed, and, therefore, he hastened the next 
 morning concluded the bargain, and paid the money. He had scarcely done so before 
 Mr. R. Colling arrived for the same purpose, and as the two farmers rode home together, 
 they agreed that it should be a joint speculation. 
 
 Some months passed by, and either Mr. Waistell's admiration of the calf a little cooled, 
 ui his partner did not express himself very warmly about the excelleuciex ot the animal, 
 aud Messrs. Waistell and R. Colling transferred young Hubback to Sir. C. Colling ; 
 who, with the quick eye of an experienced breeder, saw the value of the little beast. Mr. 
 Waistell expressed to us (October, 1*32) his regret (natural enongh) at having been 
 Induced to part with the sirs of the short-horns, and his extreme disappointment that 
 »,--*■.■.- ?rv-!""-— >i '-~Tr,T ic .-nvs"; ^';,;r, Olssrivs f;«uL';j„- ssjsSned him to his own stock, and 
 I Edit. 
 
^36 CATTLR 
 
 he must hare lost considerably jn weight, during trese eight week* ol 
 Ulness, his carcass weiffhed^- 
 
 Pour quarters .... 165 12 
 
 Tallow 11 2 
 
 Hide 10 2 
 
 This was his weight at eleven years old, under all the disadvantages of 
 travellin<r in a jolting c-arringe, and eight weeks of painful illness. Had 
 ne been kept quietly ai Kelton, and fed lill seven years old, there is little 
 doubt but he would haVe weighed more than he did at ten years old, at 
 which age Mr. Day stated his live weight to have been nearly thirty-four 
 hundred weight, or two hundred and seventy stones, from which, if fifty 
 tie taken for offal, it leaves the weight of the carcase two hundred and 
 twenty stones. 
 
 I is a well-ascertained fact, that, during his careen as a breeder, Mr. 
 Colling tried several experiments in crossing, and the breeds to which he 
 resorted on these occasions, being veriy considerably suialler than the short- 
 horns, this circumstance tends to corroborate the writer's opinion that he 
 considered it desirable to reduce their size. The cross with the Kyloe led 
 to no results worthy enumeration, but that with the polled galloway must 
 not be passed over without comment. Before stating the circumstances 
 attending this experiment, it may be proper to observe that no breed of 
 cattle promised so successful a cross with the short-horns as the galloway.- 
 They were calculated, by their deep massive frames and short legs, to 
 bring the short-horns nearer the ground, and to dispose their weight in a 
 more compact manner : their hardy habits would be essentially useful, and 
 the quality of their flesh and hair were such as to render the experiment 
 still metre safe. Add to this, that they could be obtained of a red colour ; 
 and we are prepared to admit, even without the sanction of a successful 
 experiment, that they were admirably adapted to cross with the short- 
 horn, standing frequently too high from the ground, not very well ribbed 
 home, and not seldom of loose, disjointed frame. 
 
 To this breed Mr. ColHng resolved to. resort ; and though at the time 
 when he did so, the event Was regarded with some degree of ridicule by 
 the pure-blood advocates, and comments -passed whicli would have de- 
 terred ordinary men from the exercise of their judgmeiit, Mr. Colling 
 persisted. 
 
 1 He was much favoured by circumstanees in promoting his object, which 
 ' was to take one cross, and .then breed back to the short-horn, — the only 
 Course, by the way, in which crossing can be successfully adopted. To 
 breed from the produce of a cross directly among thermselves will lead to 
 the results which have induced many persons, without due consideration, 
 to believe conclusive against crossing ; but to take one cross, and then • 
 return and adhere to one breed, will, in the course of a few generations, 
 be found to stamp a variety with sufficient certainty. 
 
 Mr. Colling's short-horned bull Bolingbroke was put to a beautiful 
 red-polled Galloway cow, and the produce, being a bull-calf, was, in due 
 time, put to Johanna, a pure short-hoj-n, — she also producing a bull-calf. 
 This grandson of Bolingbroke was the sire of the cow, Lady, by another 
 pure short-horned dam, and^ from Lady has ^rung the highly valuable' 
 femily of improved short-horns, termed, in reproach, the fUU>y. HowTai 
 thejalloy was derogatory, htjacts testify * 
 
 • The dam of Lady was also the dam of the bull Favourite; and as the grandson of 
 Boliugbfuke is hot known to have been the sire of any other remarkably good annnal, it 
 IB most probable that the imquestionaWe merit ef Lady and her descendants is to k 
 attributed "lore to her dam lliaB to her fb ^.c^«„ 
 
THE SHORT-HORN BREED. 
 
 131 
 
 It will probably be admitted that the prejudice against this cross was 
 ■t the highest at the time of Mr. Charles Ceiling's sale. The blood had 
 then been little, if at all, introduced to other stocks, and it was manifestly 
 the interest, whatever might be the inclination, of the many breeders who 
 had it not, to assume high ground for the pure blood, and to depreciate 
 the alloy. Under these untoward circumstances for the alloy, what said 
 public opinion, unequivocally certified by the stroke of the auctioneer's 
 hammer? Lady, before-mentioned, at fourteen years old, sold for two 
 hundred and six guineas. Countess, her daughter, nine years old, for 
 four hundred guineas. Laura, another daughter, four years old, for two 
 hundred and ten guineas. Major and George, two of iier sons, the for- 
 mer three years old, the latter a calf, for two hundred guineas, and one 
 hundred and thirty ; beside a number of others, more remotely descended 
 from Lady, which all sold at high prices — in fact, in a sale of forty-eight 
 lots, reilizing i67115 17s. Lady and her descendants sold for a larger 
 sum than any other family obtained *. 
 
 * The whole particulars of this first grand gale of short-horn stock ought to be pie- 
 served. We extract it from Mr. Bailey's Survey of Durham. 
 
 A Catalogue of Mr, C. Coding's Salf, tafipiproved Short-Horned Callie, 
 October nth, \S\0. 
 
 COWS. 
 
 Gotbr 
 
 Cows* 
 Age. 
 
 Bulled b; 
 
 Sold 
 for. 
 
 a>. 
 
 Cherry Old Cherry... Favourite 
 
 11 Comet 
 
 Kate 
 
 Peeress Cherry Favourite 
 
 Countess... Lady\ Cupid ... 
 
 Celina Countess ...... Favourite 
 
 Comet 4 Mayduke 
 
 5 Comet ... 
 9 Do .. 
 
 5 Petrarch 200. 
 
 Johanna.... Johanna., 
 
 Do. 
 
 Do. 
 
 (A g'-;indson of j 
 
 Lady Old Phoenix.. .< Liird Boling- >■ 14 Comet 
 
 I broke J 
 
 Bought br 
 
 )J. D. Nesham, Esq. 
 Houghtun-le-Springi 
 Durham. 
 „ r f • 1 r. Hunt, Morton, Dur- 
 ■^■'l ham. 
 .^.,j Major: Rudd, Marton, 
 
 \ Yorkshire. 
 400 Do. 
 
 Sir H. Ibbetson, Bart., 
 Denton Park, York- 
 shire. 
 H.Witham, Esq.Clifl 
 Hall, Yorkshire. 
 
 2Qg I C. Wright, Esq., Cleas- 
 I by, Yorkshire. 
 
 130 
 
 Cathelene.. 
 
 'A daughter ofi 
 
 ofjWashingto 
 
 -eq/G. Parker, Esq., near 
 \ Malton, Yorkshire. 
 
 210 Mr. Grant, Wyhan 
 
 the dam 
 I Phoenix ....' 
 
 Laura Lady Favourif* 
 
 Lily Daisy Comet \ 3 Mayduke 4]o|M j.'^^R"dd, 'Lincola. 
 
 ^ .~ ,-.1 , T-. • f A grandson ofl . 
 
 D«sy Old Daisy . ...| 1^^^^^... | . 
 
 Cora Countess Favourite 
 
 fSfissWashing-l ji^^^j, 
 
 I ton,. J 
 
 Beauty 
 
 RedRose... Eliza Comet. 
 
 Flora Du- • 
 
 (A son of Fa-1 
 
 6 Comet ... 
 
 4 Petrarch 
 
 4 Comet ... 
 
 70i 
 
 „. _ f A son of Fa-1 „ 
 
 Magdklene | 
 
 A heifer 
 WailuDgtoi 
 
 toJiComet. 3 Da. 
 
 ..QjMajor Bower, Wel- 
 I ham, Yotks^hise. 
 G. Johnson, Esq., near 
 Scarborough. 
 
 120 C. Wright, Esq. 
 
 Mavduke 45P- ^- ^^°*""' ^"'•' 
 Maydukt 4&| ^^^^ Doncaster. 
 
 Do. ... 70 Earl of Lonsdale. 
 
 {O. Gascoigne, Esq., 
 Parington, Tork- 
 shire, 
 
 _ J Charnpion, B»q- 
 
 • ""\ Blyth, Notts. 
 
 266S 
 
S33 CATTLE 
 
 As a specimen of the alloy, the reader is referred to this portrait of Mr 
 Berry's cow. It was taken three days before she calved, and exhibits her 
 
 BULLS, 
 
 Price. 
 NBmei, Ag*. Out of Got b; Gi Bought by 
 
 Messrs. Wetherill, Trotter, 
 
 r Messrs. wetneriu, xrotter, 
 
 Comet 6 PhoBnix Favourite 1000 ■< Wright, and Charge, near 
 
 ' Darhngton. 
 
 ^-^orough 9 Do 55 {^SZfind'"'''""'"' 
 
 Major 3 Lady .Comet 200 Mr. Grant, Wyham, 
 
 Mayduke 3 Cherry Do 145 Smithson, Esq. 
 
 Petrarch 2 Old Venus... . Do 365 Major Rudd. 
 
 Northumberland .... 2 Favourite 80 {'"'j;^^";*''"' Co^'ham, Dnr- 
 
 Alfred 1 Venus Comet l^" {^YorfehilJe""'"' '^"'"°' 
 
 D.ike 1 Duchess Do ,„. / A. Compton,Esq., Carham, 
 
 """^ i Uuchess uo luo ^ Northumberland. 
 
 Alexander 1 Cora Do 63 Mr. Fenton. 
 
 Ossian 1 Magdalene Favourite 76 Earl of Lonsdale. 
 
 Harold 1 Bed Rose Windsor 50 {^"terian^"'^"''' ^°'*'"™- 
 
 2249 
 BULL-CALVES, UNDER ONE YEAR OLD. 
 
 Price. 
 Nunei. Out o7 Got by 0». tiougbt hy 
 
 Ketton Cherry Comet 50 Major Bower. 
 
 Young Favourite.-.Countess Do. 140 {"^j^jfe'^'P''"*''' ^'"^■' ^''""'"' 
 
 Geerse Lady Do 130 Walker, Esq., Rotherham. 
 
 Sir Dimple Daisy Do 90 T. Lax, Esq., Ravensworth. 
 
 Narcissus Flora Do 15 Mr. Wright. 
 
 Albion Beauty Do 60 T. Booth, Esq., Catterick. ' 
 
 Cecil....; Peeress Do.- ^^O j^^J^^'*'™''' ^^l"' «°y°*»"^ 
 
 655 
 
 HEIFERS. 
 
 Plice, 
 Nuns*. Age Out of Got by O: Bought by 
 
 Phoebe 3 Dam by Favourite . . Comet 105 Sir H. Ibbetson. 
 
 YoungDnchess.... 2 Do Do.... 183 rcr^t^^^^'.^il^bS 
 
 Young Laura 2 Laura Do..., 101 Earl of Lonsdale. 
 
 Young Countess ... 2 Countess Do.... 206 Sir H. Ibbetsou. 
 
 Lucy 2 Dam by Washington Do.... 132 Mr. Wright 
 
 Charlotte 1 Cathelene Do.... 136 Mr. R. Colling. 
 
 Johanna 1 Johanna Do.... 35 G. Johnson, Esq. 
 
 808 
 
 HEIFER-CALVES, UNDER ONE YEAR OLD. 
 
 riin. 
 Vuna*. Out of Got by Os. riought by 
 
 LuciUa Laura Comet 106 Mr. Grant. 
 
 CaUsta Cora Do 50 f Sir H.V. Tempest, 
 
 ( yard, Durham. 
 
 WhiteBou Lily Yarbro' 75 Mr. Strickland, 
 
 Buby SedRose ,.. Do. 50 Major Bower. 
 
 Cowslip Comet 25 Earl of Lonsdale. 
 
 306 
 
THE SHOl^T-HORil BREED. 
 
 23^ 
 
 nsiial condition. She gives a moderate quantity of particularly net 
 
 milk. 
 
 [ The Rev. H. Berry's Cow.'] 
 It would answer no useful purpose, and would certainly be an objec- 
 lonable course, to bring under particular notice any one or more of the 
 nighly valuable stocks of improved short-horns of the present day. To 
 enumerate all would be impossible ; and the writer of this account would 
 most studiously avoid any partial or invidious comparison. The same 
 objection does not, however, exist, as to a remote period ; and it is but 
 justice to state that Mr. Robert Colling, brother of Mr. Charles, (who 
 certainly was the leader, and surpassed all competitors in the improve- 
 ment of the short-horns,*) Mr. Charge, of Newton, near Darlington, and 
 
 Tram the above it appears that ' £, i. d. 
 
 17 cows were sold for 2802 9 
 
 llbuUs 2361 9 
 
 7bnll-ealves 687 15 
 
 7heifer8 942 18 
 
 5 heifer-calves 321 6 .0 
 
 In all 47 were sold for 7115 17 
 
 ' * Mr. Robert Colling's stock was not sold off until the 29th September, 1818. when 
 the following great prices were obtained for some of his cattle, a sufficient proof of the 
 estim ation in which they were held : — 
 
 One 2-year old cow . . . sold for . . . . 331 guineas. 
 One 4-year old cow . . . , , . . 3U0 , , 
 
 One 5-year old cow ... , , .... 370 , , 
 
 One I -year old bull-calf . . ,, ... 270 ,, 
 
 One 4-year old bull ... , , .... 621 , , 
 
 It appears by the catalogue, with printed prices affixed, that 
 
 34 cows sold for ... , 4141 guineas. 
 
 17 heifers , , ... 1287 , , 
 
 6 bulls ...... ,, .... 1343 ,, 
 
 4 bull-calves , , ... 713 . ,' 
 
 . . . 7484 ,, 
 
 Ten 
 
£34 CATTLE 
 
 Mr. Mason, of Chilton, in the county of Durham, were only seeo'jid to 
 Mr. Charles Colling in his interesting and useful pursuit. Mr. Mason 
 started early with animals derived, it is believed, from Mr. Colling, in the 
 very commencement of his career ; and Mr. Charge, who had long possessed 
 a most valuable stock of Teeswater cattle, had at an early period crossed 
 them with Mr. CoUing's best bulls, and was one of the spirited purchasers 
 of Comet, at a thousand guineas. Mr. Mason's late successful sale suffi- 
 ciently stamps the value of his stock at that period, but, it is generally 
 admitted, the system of crossing with other herds, which he had of late 
 years judiciously adopted, proved highly instrumental in restoring those 
 qualities in his own, which too close breeding had in some degree threat- 
 ened to deprive them of 
 
 It would be unfair, on this occasion, to omit mention of a veteran 
 breeder, to whom the advocates for the preservation of pedigree are in- 
 debted for the ' Short-horn Herd Book' — Mr. George Coates. He is 
 now one of the oldest authorities on the subject in existence, and was 
 once the possessor of a very superior race of short-horns, though some- 
 what coarse. Portraits have been preserved "of some very fine animals 
 bred by him ; and he had the solid satisfaction to dispose of his bull 
 Patriot for five hundred guineas. 
 
 Mr. Coates fell into an error, but too common, and generally equally 
 fatal : he fancied his own stock the best, and disdained to cross them with 
 Mr. Ceiling's; which, as others afterwards proved, would have been a 
 most judicious proceeding. The consequence was, Mr. CoUing's sale 
 having settled the public judgment and taste, Mr. Coates's stock fell into 
 disrepute. If an apology be requisite for this statement of an undeniable 
 fact, it will be found in the utility of holding up such an example as a 
 caution to those who may be in danger of falling into a similar error. 
 
 It is considered that the specimens already appealed to, and the fine 
 animals, whose portraits accompany this account, the property of the noble 
 President of the Smithfidd Club, will render superfluous any attempt 
 more particularly to describe the short-horns. Of course they will be 
 found to vary greatly ; but sufficient may be collected from what is pre- 
 sented to the reader to inform him as to the character of this superior 
 breed of cattle* The next object, tkea, will be to show their capabilities 
 to make a return for food consumed, and the unparalleled early period at 
 which such return may be made. Indeed, early, maturity is the grand 
 and elevating characteristic of the short-horns, and their capacity to con- 
 tinue growing, and at the same time attaining an unexampled ripeness of 
 condition at an early age, has excited the wonder, and obtained the appro- 
 bation, of every looker-on not blinded by prqudice. 
 
 In order to do justice to the subject, and to show that these properties are 
 not all of recent acquirement, but were possessed in an eminent degree by 
 the Teeswater cattle, as well as the improved sltort-horns, it will be requi- 
 site to return to the former for a few facts in evidence. 
 
 About fifty years ago. Sir Henry Grey (of Howick) bred two oxen, 
 which were fed by Mr. Waistd.and when six years old weighed 130 stones 
 each, 141b. to the stone ; their inside fat being naost extraordinary. 
 
 A heifer, three years old, bred by Miss Allen {of Grange), fed on hay 
 and grass alone, weighed 90 stones. 
 
 Ten days afterwards, General Simson's stock of the same breed were sold at his seat at 
 Pitcorthie, Fifeshiie. As a proof of the established reputation of the short-horns, even 
 •o far north, and the degree to which they would even then thrive, iu a climate so diffe- 
 rent from their native one, it may be stated that 12 cows, 5 two-year old heifers, 3 bull- 
 calves, 7 bulls, 4 onc-jear old heifers^ and 6 quey calves, 37 in all, sold for 1388 guineas, 
 or naarly 40/. per head. 
 
 * For portraits of Lor<l A 'thorp's CO" ar.i 
 
THE SHORT-HORN BRECa S3S 
 
 Two three year's-oM steers, bred by the siime lady, and similarly fed, 
 weiiihed respectively 92 and 96 stones. 
 
 Mr. Waistel's four years'-old ox, by the bull supposed to be the grand- 
 sire of Hubbacki weighed 110 stones. 
 
 A four years'-old ox, bred by Mr. Simpson (of AycHffe), fed on hay and 
 turnips only, weighed 135 stones. 
 
 About the same period, a five years -old heifer, bred by a bishop of 
 Durham, weighed 110 stones. 
 
 A uow of Mr. Hill's, slaughtered in Northumberland, weighed 127 
 stones. 
 
 Mr. George Coates, before-mentioned, slaughtered a heifer, by the sup- 
 posed sire of Hubback, which, fed on turnips and hay, weighed, at two 
 years and two months old, 68 stones 
 
 An ox and heifer, bred by Mr. Watson (of Manfield), weighed, i.t 
 four years old, within a few pounds, 1 10 stones each. 
 
 A si-Ster to Mr. G. Coates's Badsworth, liaving run with her dam, and 
 fared as she did, without cake or corn, met with an accident, and died 
 when seven months old ; she weighed 34 stones 
 
 A steer, by a brother to the above heifer, three years and two months 
 old, weighed 105 stones; and another steer, by the same bull, exactly 
 three years old, weighed 95 stones. Both were kept as store-beasts till 
 two years old. 
 
 An ox, bred by Mr. Hill (of Blackwell), slaughtered at six years old, 
 weig'hed 151 stones, lOlbs. ; tallow, 11 stones. 
 
 The Howick red ox, seven years old, weighed 152 stones, 91b. ; tallow, 
 16 stones, 71b. 
 
 Mr. Charge's ox, seven years old, weighed 168 stones, 101b. ; tallow, 
 18 stones. 
 
 The foregoing instances of weight and proof satisfactorily show, that in 
 the Teeswater cattle, Mr. Charles Collins had pretty good materials with 
 which to commence operations. Let us now refer to a later period, and 
 state some particulars respecting their descendants, the improved short- 
 horns. 
 
 In the year 1808, Mr. Bailey, the agricultural historian of Durham, in- 
 forms us, he saw, at Mr. Mason's (of Chilton), a cow, not less remarkable 
 in point of fat than the Durham ox. At that time, the depth of fat, from 
 the rump to the hips, in a perpendicular position, was not lesS' than twelve 
 inches; and the shoulder score, at least nine inches thick. 
 
 Mr. Robert Colling's heifer, which, like the Durham ox, was exhibited 
 as a curiosity, was estimated, at four years old, to weigh 130 stones. 
 
 The same gentleman sold, in Darlington Market, on the 18th of April, 
 1808, a two years'-old stefer for ^l. ; the price of fat stock being at that 
 time seven shillings per stone. 
 
 At Mr. Nesham's (of Houghton-le-Spring), Mr. Bailey saw a steer, 25 
 months old, completely covered with fat over the whole carcase, and sup- 
 posed to be the fattest steer of his ag« «ver seen. Butchers estimated him 
 to weigh 75 stones. Neither of the last-mentioned were of large sise, and 
 would not have weighed above 40 stones httd they been no fatter than 
 those usually slaughtered. 
 
 Mr. Wetherill (of Field House) sold at the fair in Dartiagton, in March, 
 1810, two steers, under three years old, for 47/. 10*. each. The price of 
 ?attle at that fair, 10s. per stone*. 
 
 • BJr. Bailey obseires, that the common practice a'fflbng the breeders of the improved 
 
 thort-horns, and which he first observed at Mr. Wetherill's, was to put the year-old heifert 
 
 " ' ' ■ ' ■ later than the middlt of May. Tht 
 
236 
 
 CATTLfc 
 
 Mr. ArrowstnUh (of PerryhilOi who fed off his short-Horns at two years 
 old, furnished the following particulars of the prices he obtained from tin 
 butchers: viz. 
 
 In 1801, sold four for 25/, each; two steers, and two heifers. 
 
 1802, six for 17/. 10s. each ; three steers, and three heifers 
 
 1803, four for 17/. each. 
 
 1804, six for 18/. 10^. each. 
 
 1805, six for 17/. lOs. each ; two steers, and four heifers. 
 
 1806, four for 16/. each. 
 
 1807, eight for 18/. each. 
 
 1808, eight for 19/. each. 
 
 The time of selling, from the beginning to the latter end of May. 
 Management. — In the first winter they got straw in a fold-yard, with 
 nearly as many turnips as they could consume ; in May they went to 
 grass ; in November put to turnips through the winter, and turned to 
 grass the first week in May. 
 
 A twin heifer, belonging to Mr. Arrowsmith, calved the last week in 
 April, being kept the first year as the store-stock, was entered for a 
 sweepstakes, to be shown in June, at which time she would be two years 
 old. She was immediately turned to grass in the usual pastui'e. In No- 
 calves ran with and sucked their dams until August. The cows were then put upon fojr, 
 fed through the winter with turnips, and sold to the butchers in May or June following, 
 for 25/. on an average, which, with the value of the calf, could not be reckoned at lesi 
 than 30/. for a three-yeac-old heifer. 
 
 The following are portraits oi a cow and heifer beloniring to Lord Althorp: — 
 
 
 [Lard Ahluirp^s CW.] 
 
 The cow, marked ni his lordship's herd-hook by the figures 25, is particularly Jii. 
 "ence of her croD, plates, and loios- 
 
 Ihe cow, marKea ni nis lorosnip s nera-DooK b 
 linsushed by the excellence of her cruo, plates, and 
 
THE SHORT-HORN BREED. 
 
 23; 
 
 member she was estimated to weigh 28 stones; when she was put to the 
 ruta baga, and hay, and oil-cake, of which she ate 4 cwt., with 2 bush, 
 bean-meal, and 1 bush, barley. She went to grass again on the first ol 
 May, and from that period had neither cake nor corn. On the 23d of 
 .luly, it was the unanimous opinion of the best judges that she weighed 
 58 or 60 stones ; liaving gained 30 stones in 30 weeks. 
 
 In April, 1808, Mr. Bailey saw, at Mr. Arrowsmith's, eight yearlings, 
 intended for the course of feeding described as adopted by that gentleman; 
 whose sales, from 1801 to 1808 inclusive, have been already particularized. 
 They were very lean, not more than 15 stones each ; and, had they been 
 offered for sale in a fair, no person, unacquainted with the breed, would 
 have given more for them than 41. 10s. or bl. per head. 
 
 Mr. Walton (of Middleton in Teesdale) had been, in 1808, in the habit 
 of selling his steers, at two years and a quarter old, at from 20/. to 30/. 
 each ;■ their weight being 50 to 54 stones, fed solely on vegetable food. 
 He often, for the sake of experiment, bought in calves of the improved, or 
 old breed of the county, and he uniformly found that his own at two years 
 old got fatter, and fitter for the butcher, than the others did at three, 
 although fed and kept exactly alike. 
 
 Mr. Mason (of Chilton), in the course of an experiment to> ascertain 
 the weight of beef gained by the food given (turnips), found three steers, 
 under three years old, to have gained 20 stones each in 20 weeks. The 
 three steers averaged 70 stones each. 
 
 In 1816, Mr. Nesham's steer, three years and a half old, obtained the 
 premium offered by the Durham Agricultural Society ; his weight was, 
 4 quarters, 96 stones, l^lb. ; tallow, 1 1 stones, 71b. ; hide, 8 stones. 
 
 [Lord Althorp s Hnfer.\ 
 
 , .^»ki ft,4 jtJ/y*' 
 
 The heifer, called Clarion — a daughter of the opposite — is equal to her dam in these 
 """•"""""" "*^""'" "=>'-*'''"l!"\y in her rump and hips. Shaisji 
 
838 CATTLE. 
 
 Major Riuld (of Martan in Cleveland) obtained the premium offered by 
 •he Cleveland Agricultural Society in 1811, for the best steer, under tlire« 
 years old, and fed on vegetable food. The stetr was sold to the butcher 
 for lOs. per stone, and slaughtered vrhen three years and thirteen days 
 old ; the weight of his four quarters was 96 stones. 
 
 The late Mr. Robertson (of Ladykirk, near Berwick-upon-Tweed) fur- 
 nished the writer with the following particulars of short-horns, bred by 
 him, and fed, with few exceptionsi, on vegetable food : — 
 
 1794. — An ox, four years, ten months old; fourquarters, 145 stoneS|31b. ; 
 tallow, 24 stones, 71b. 
 A steer, under four years old ; four quarters, 106 stones ; tallow, 
 19 stones, 71b. 
 1814.— A steer, three years, nine months old ; four quarters, 101 stones ; 
 
 tallow, 15 stones. 
 1815. — A steer, three yea»s, eleven months old ; four quarters, I]2 6totieB, 
 71b. ; tallow, 26 stones. 
 A heifer, three years, eight months old ; four quarters, 89 stones. 
 ' 1817. — A steer, three years, two month? old ; four quarters, 95 stones, 
 101b. ; tallow, 17 §tones, lOlb. 
 1822. — ^An ox, four years and a iialf old; four quarters, 135 stones; tal- 
 low, 21 stones. 
 Own brother to the foregoing, three years and a half old ; four 
 
 quarters, 133 stones ; tallow, 21 stones. 
 A steer, three years, ten months old ; four quarters, 124 sloni4 ; 
 
 tallow, 17 stones. 
 A steer, three years, eight months old ; four quarters, 112 stones ; 
 tallow not weighed. 
 
 A steer, bred by Ool. Cooke (of Ouston, near Doncaster), fed on pota- 
 toes and straw, was slau!>htered when two years and twenty-two days old, 
 his four quarters weighed 72 stones. 
 
 Mr. John Rennie (of Phantassie) produced, at the East Lothian Agri- 
 cultural Society's meeting, in November, 1823, a steer, from eighteen to 
 twenty months old ; the four quarters of which weighed 118 stones, lib. 
 Smithfield-weight. 
 
 The same gentleman produced before the Highland Society of Scotland 
 a steer, aged two years, four months, whose four quarters weighed 153 
 stones, 71b. : also a steer, aged three years, six months, whose fore quar- 
 ters weighed 1C9 stones, 71b. ; tallow, 30 stones, lib. 
 
 Except in the three last instances, all the weights given have been by 
 the stone of 141b *. 
 
 Should the foregoing statement be considered to have been unreason- 
 ably extended, i't is presumed it will, at least, be admitted, that its ample 
 detail, if attended to, will establish the credit of the short-horns as an in- 
 valuable breed to the grazier. 
 
 In the commencement of this account, however, it was stated that thej 
 possess a combination of qualities, hitherto considered incompatible. It 
 will be obvious that the disposition to feed rapidly, in union with dairy 
 qualifications, is here intended. 
 
 • That extraordinary animal, which was lately exhibited under the name of ' the Lin- 
 eolnshire Ox,' although fed in that county by Lord Yarborough, was a piirt? short, botli 
 »n the side of the siie and the dam. He measured five feet six inches in height at the 
 ■huuldeis. eleven feet ten inches from the nose to the setting on of the tail, eleven feet 
 one inch in girth, and three feet three inches across the hips, shoulders, and mkldle of 
 the back. His breast was only fourteen inches from the ground, and he stood one foot 
 ten inches between the foie legs, — Edtt, 
 
THE SHORT-HORN BREKl). 23» 
 
 It might have the appearance of an intention to depreciate other breeds 
 of cattle, were an inquiry instituted how the very general impression came 
 lo be entertained that animals disposed to fatten rapidly seldom give much 
 milk. It is unquestionably true, that every perfection in cattle — whether 
 it be one of form, of quality of flesh, of disposition to fatten, or to yiela 
 milk — can be promoted and retained solely by the breeder's devoted 
 attention to his particular object ; and if one object be allowed a para- 
 mount importance in the breeder's estimation and practice, other objects 
 will suffer, in proportion as they are neglected. 
 
 The improvement in the carcase of the short-horns has been so sur- 
 prising, and so justly valued, that many persons hav^e allowed that com- 
 pletely to occupy their attention, and the dairy has been disregarded. In 
 such a state of things, every advance towards one point has been tanta- 
 mount to receding from another ; because the same proceeding which 
 tends to enhance a particular quality, will also enhance a defect, provided 
 such defect was of previous existence. 
 
 This may be rendered more intelligible by a short illustration : — Suppose 
 half a dozen animals to be selected in consequence of their possessing a 
 particular quality; which quality it is proposed, on a certain established 
 principle of breeding, to increase and render almost permanent by their 
 union. Suppose the animals so selected to come from the hands of 
 breeders who have neglected the milking property ; the certain conse- 
 quence will be, that the very union which developes and secures the 
 desired object will tend, on the same principle, to increase the defect as to 
 milk. In short, it will render it habitualui the produce. But this illus- 
 tration, by a selection,\s supposing too much in the probable state of the 
 case. The objections, which exist among- breeders, for various and some 
 cogent reasons, against crossing with the stocks of each other, unavoidably 
 lead to the practice of breeding in and in ; which, in case of any original 
 deficiency of the milking property, must unquestionably go on to render 
 that deficiency greater. It is hence evident that bad milking, in a breed 
 of animals which were ever distinguished as good milkers, is not a neces- 
 sary consequence of improvement in the animal in other respects, but a 
 consequence of the manner in which such improvement is pursued. This 
 the writer considers to be the reasoning properly applicatile to the subject; 
 which happily also admits of a satislactory appeal to facts ; and he is 
 strictly justified in asserting that improved short-horns, inferior to none 
 for the grazier, may always be selected and bred with the most valuable 
 dairy properties. Perhaps a more plentiful and steady milker than the 
 dam of Mr. Berry's bull, whose portrait fias been given, never stood over 
 a pail, and few such carcasses of beef have been exhibited as hers, when 
 an accident rendered it requisite to only half feed her. The bull himself 
 has an extraordinary disposition to carry flesh, and his calves are letdown 
 in the udders like miniature cows, in fact, all the bull's family are excel- 
 lent for the pail, and the quickest possible feeders. The writer has known 
 many instances of the highest bred short-horns giving upwards of four 
 gallons (wine measure) of milk night and morning; and it is certain that 
 attention only is requisite, on the part of the breeder, to perpetuate this 
 quality in any de.sirable extent. While on this subject, it is proper to ob- 
 serve, that the excessive quantities of milk obtained from the unimproved 
 short-horns are seldom or ever obtained from the improved ; but a 
 moderately good milker of the latter kind will be found to yield as much 
 biilter in the week as one of the former : the milk being unquestionably of 
 very superior quality ; and, indeed, it was likely such should be the case, 
 »ud that the artificial change in the animal economy, which leads to au 
 
240 C\TTLE. 
 
 excessive secretion of flesh and fat, should also be productive of other ricli 
 secretions Within the last three or four years, affidavits were sworn be- 
 fore a magistrate in America that an improved short-horned cow imported 
 thither, produced after the rate of 201b. of butter per week 
 
 Wherever the improved short-horns have been crossed with other cattle 
 their superiority is equally manifest, in respect of dairy qualifications, as in 
 every other. On this subject the writer is able to avail himself of the. evi- 
 dence of a gentleman who has addressed a communication oa the subject 
 to the Conductor of the British Farmer's Magazine, which is so pertinent 
 to the present subject that the temptation to take an extract is irresistible. 
 It is as follows: — ' In the 27th number of your valuable Magazine, when 
 giving an account of my two years'-old steer, you also give an extract from 
 my letter on the advantages of crossing cows of different breeds with im- 
 proved short-horn bulls ; and in confirmation of this opinion (not hastily 
 adopted, but the result of several years' practical experience, and a close at- 
 tention to the experiments of several friends during the last seventeen years), 
 I send you the portrait and a short account of a two-year old Durham and 
 .Devon heifer of mine, lately slaughtered by Mr. William Daniel (of Aber- 
 gavenny), and accompany it with a few brief statements of the advantages 
 tlerived from this system by several of my own personal friends. 
 
 ' This heifer was the second cross, and was of a light grey colour. She 
 weighed 35 scores and 81b. ; rough fat, 98Ib. : she was allowed to be the 
 fattest and best beast of her age, in all points, ever seen in Abergavenny, 
 She had a dead calf about six weeks before Christmas ; was dried the 17fh 
 of January, and killed the 10th of June. She sold for \9l. 3f. 6d 
 
 lbs. 
 
 ' Her live weight, on the 8th of June, was . 1232 
 Ditto, on the 17th January . . . 840 
 
 Increase in 140 days . . 392 
 
 ' Being aware that strong prejudice and much incredulity existed on 
 the subject of crossing, I courted the attention of all the respectable 
 farmers, breeders, and feeders in this neighbourhood. Many came to see 
 her when first put up, and repeatedly afterwards during the five months 
 she was feeding ; and they all concurred in saying she went on faster than 
 any beast they had ever seen. She never had any oil-cake. 
 
 ' I have seen many excellent beasts bred from improved short-horn 
 bulls and long-horn cows : indeed, I never knew one of these bulls put to 
 any cow, where the produce was not superior to the dam ; but the cross 
 which I advocate, and with which I am best acquainted, is that with the 
 Devon cow. I have uniformly remarked, that each succeeding cross was 
 attended with a proportionate improvement in size, quality of flesh, and 
 aptitude to fatten. In every instance they have shown themselves superior 
 milkers, and stand to the pail till within six or eight weeks of calving ; and 
 several instances have come under my own knowledge where they have 
 never been dry since they first calved ; and so highly are they prized as 
 milkers, that a friend of mine, who hired out dairies, mformed me that the 
 dairymen gave him nearly 21. per cow per year more for the half and 
 hree-quarter breds than they would give for cows of other breeds. 
 
 ' A friend of mine had about a dozen North Devon cows, small in size, 
 out nice in quality, and from these he commenced, about twenty years 
 since, breeding with short-horn bulls. He has since invariably used those 
 bulls. With each succeeding cross the stock have rapidly improved in 
 every essential, and the only trace of the Devons which I could perceive 
 
TUB SHORT-HORN BREKD. S4.1 
 
 when I last saw them, about two years since, was a peculiar richness in 
 their colour. He breeds about thirty annually, and generally sells hii 
 th ree years-old, in the autunxn, at 171. to 221. ; and I have known him 
 sel I in-calf heifers to jobbers in fairs as high as 30 guineas each. All his 
 stoc k are superior milkers. Here we have twenty years' experiment, and 
 continued improvement. 
 
 * Within the last eight years 1 have sent many North Devon heifers to 
 Trela nd, to friends residing in different counties, and some of them occu- 
 pyin land of very inferior quality. I also sent over two young Durham 
 bulls, from the stock of the Rev. Henry Berry, to cross them with. They 
 have all crossed them with short-horn bulls at my recommendation, and 
 the accounts they give are most satisfactory. They say the two years'-old 
 half-breds are as good as the three years'-old Devons, and are all good 
 milkers. One of these bulls, by Mr. Berry's Mynheer, has been four 
 times exhibited in three different counties, and has each time taken the 
 first prize. He was last year sold for 60 guineas, and is now serving 
 cows at 11., each. 
 
 ^ Brynderry, near Abergavenny. C. H. Bolton. 
 
 An opinion generally prevails thai the short-horns are unfitted for work; 
 and in some respects it is admitted they are so : but the correct reason 
 has no been assigned, and the question may fairly come briefly under 
 notice. That they are willing and able to work, the writer knows, from 
 one in particular among many instances. He has now a team of two 
 years-old steers, working constantly nine hours a day ; a system he would 
 by no means recommend, and forced on him by circumstances connected 
 with entrance on a new farm, at present ill adapted to grazing cattle. 
 They work admirably ; but surely ca^le which, as the preceding acbount 
 proves, will go as profitably to the butcher at two years old as any other 
 breed at three, and as many even at four, ought never, as a general rule, 
 lo b<» placed in the yoke. No beast, in the present adviHiced state of 
 breeding, ought to be put upon C system which arose out of the necessity 
 of obtaining compensation by work for the loss attending a ti.rdy maturity. 
 But where i^ may be convenient, the short-horns, particularly the bulls, 
 work admirably, as their great docility promisfs ; and there are many 
 operations going on in every farm which a bull would be judiciously em- 
 ployed in performing. And as the bulls of this breed are apt to become 
 useless, from acquiring too much flesh in a state of confinement, moderate 
 work might, in most cases, prove beneficial for such as are intended for 
 use at home. 
 
 As was before observed, the specimens which accompany this account 
 will render little comment necessary on their form. With deference, how- 
 ever, it is submitted to the breeders of short-horns that they should avoid 
 breeding from too close affinities, and, while they steer clear of coarseness, 
 iihould require a sufiiciency of masculine character in their males.* The 
 portrait of Lord Althorp's bull Firby evinces this requisite in a proper 
 degree. He has also — but, indeed, it is only part of the other; for with- 
 out it good masculine character cannot exist — an excellent loin. This 
 
 * Lord Althorp first adopted the short-horns in 1818, when he purchased the bull 
 Hegent at Mi. R. Colling' s sale, with several of that gentleman's cows; and since that 
 time his lordship has been unremitting in his attempts to improve the breed. The bull 
 Firby is good in almost every point. His flanks, loins, hips, and bosom are escellent; 
 His only failing is in the crop ; yet we are told by his lordship's very intelligent steward 
 (Mr. Hall), and we had proof of the accuracy of the observation, when we had the pleasure 
 of looking over the Wiseton herd, that, after uiine him six yean, very few of his slo 
 
21-2 
 
 CArrLK, 
 
 is a point in which many short-horns are rather deiective, and it is one 
 of infinite importance. Add to this, that if, in many instances, the length 
 Bf the carcase were abated, as well as that of the legs, a hardier animal, 
 with equal size, and on a more profitable scale, would be produced. Tht, 
 facilities for making this improvement are sufficiently numerous, the 
 short-horns being now more generally diffused. That wider diffusion 
 also multiplies the means of selecting for milk ; a quality which should 
 not be lost sight of; for it is the combination of perfections which ba> 
 conferred, and will perpetuate, the superiority of this breed of cattle. 
 
 \tortl4Morp'sBuU.\ 
 
 The colours of the improved short-horns are red or white, or a mixture 
 f the two, combining in endless variety, and producing, very frequently, 
 most brilliant effect. The white, it is very probable, they obtained from 
 an early cross with the wild breed ; and whenever this colour shows 
 itself, it is accompanied, more or less, with a red tinge on the extremity of 
 the ear ; a distinctive character, also, of the wild cattle. No pure improved 
 short-horns are found of any colours but those above named. There is a 
 large coarse short-horn, prevailing particularly in Lincolnshire, denomi- 
 nated in the quotations of the Smithfield markets ' Lincolns,' and gene- 
 rally sold at prices below those of any other cattle. These are frequently 
 black, black and white, blue, and dun ; but they have no further affinity 
 with the improved short-horns than as the latter have been referred to for 
 their improvement, which has been accomplished to a considerable degree. 
 A similar description of large, coarse short-horns, of these objectionable 
 colours— for they generally accompany a bad quality of flesh — prevails in 
 some of the midland counties. Tbey are great consumers of food, gutty, 
 and particularly low and bad in the loins, with excessively heavy shoulder- 
 blades. The owners cf this stock, however, are crossing with the im- 
 {iroved Dreed ; but the dairy-fa. .&„..»». ,-j.^«i..L„^,„»i,i, v.- ^ 
 
THE SHORT-HORN BREED. 243 
 
 to the s^uperiority of the short-horns, that they lay hold with avidity of any 
 thin^ which approaches them in colour, or is called by the name. Indeed, 
 should this breed continue to obtain the requisite attention, to maintain it 
 in its present excellence, it is not too much to suppose that it will, before 
 long;, alter the character of the cattle in most of the great breeding districts. 
 It would have been thought incredible some years ago, but is nevertheless 
 the fact, that they are treading closely on the strongholds even of the 
 Herefords ; and an observing traveller, who sees their colours starting to 
 view in very unwonted situations, must pronounce them universal in- 
 truders. 
 
 Thus far Mr. Berry, whose admirable account of the improved short- 
 horn Cattle our readers will duly estimate. There is no point which ho 
 has more triumphantly illustrated, than the value of this breed, as con- 
 taining a combination of perfections. It was a point which was in a 
 manner lost sight of by the early improvers. They developed the aptitude 
 to fatten, and the early maturity of the short-horns, but they neglected, 
 and were beginning to lose, their milking properties. Tliis is also the 
 grand error of many modern breeders ; and hence arose the general im- 
 pression, and founded on careful observation, that in proportion as the 
 grazing properties of the beast were increased, its value for the dairy was 
 proportionably diminished. 
 
 The Yorkshire cow, which now almost exclusively occupies the London 
 dairies, is an unanswerable proof of the possibility of uniting the two quali- 
 ties to a great degree of perfection, but not at the same time : — they succeed 
 to each other, and at the periods when it suits the convenience of the dairy- 
 man that they should. Twenty years ago the Yorkshire cow was, com- 
 pared with other breeds, as great a favourite in the London market as at 
 present. She yielded more milk, in proportion to the quantity of food 
 consumed, than could be obtained from any other breed ' but when the 
 dairyman had had her four or five years, she began to fall off, and he 
 dried her, and sold her. It took a long time to get much flesh upon her 
 bones ; and when he calculated the expense of bringing her into condition, 
 he found that bis cheapest way was to sell her for what she would fetch, 
 and that seldom exceeded d 
 
 By degrees, however, some of the more intelligent ot the breeders for 
 this market began to find that, by cautiously adopting Mr. Berry's prin- 
 ciple of selection, — by finding out an improved short-horn bull, whose pro- 
 geny were generally milkers, and crossing some of the old Yorkshires 
 with him, and then going back to the pure blood — but still regarding the 
 milking properties of the dans, and the usual tendency to possess these 
 qualities in the offspring of the sire — they could at length obtain a breed 
 that had lost little of the grazing properties of the new breed, an<l retained, 
 almost undiminished, the excellencies of the old breed for the pail. Thence 
 it has happened that many of the cows in the London dairies are as fine 
 specimens of the improved short-horn as can possibly be produced. They 
 do not, perhaps, yield quite so much milk as the old ones, but what they do 
 yield is of better quality ; and whether the dairyman keeps them a twelve- 
 month, or a little longer, — and this is getting more and more, the habit 
 of these people, — or whether he milks them for three or four years, — as 
 soon as he dries them, they fatten as rapidly as the most celebrated of the 
 improiKed breed. Mr. Parkinson gives an account of one which, after 
 being milked to the .5th of April, was put to grass with others, and sold on 
 the 5th of July, after 91 days' grazing, havin,g made in that time nearly 
 2«. a-day. 
 
 E 2 
 
i;ii 
 
 ■ CATTLE. 
 
 [The Yurkshtre Oiai.] 
 
 This is a fair specimen of one of these cows : the character of the Hol- 
 (Jerness and the 'Durham beautifully minffling. A milch cow, good for the 
 pail as long: as she is wanted, and then quickly got into marketable condi- 
 tion, should have a long and rather small head; a large-headed cow will 
 seldom fatten or yield much milk. The eye should be bright, yet with a 
 peculiar placidness and quietness of expression ; the cha|)s thin, and the 
 horns small. The neck should not be so thin as that which common 
 opinion has given to the milch cow. It may be thin towards the head ; 
 but it must soon begin to thicken, and especially when it approaches the 
 shoulder The dewlap should be small ; the breast, if not so wide as in 
 some that have an unusual disposition to fatten, yet very far from being 
 narrow, and. it should project before the legs ; the chine, to a certain 
 degree ' fleshy, and even inclining to fulness ; the girth behind the 
 shoulder should be deeper than it is usually found in the short-horn ; the 
 ribs should spread out wide, so as to give as globular a form as possible 
 to the carcase, and each should project farther than the preceding one to 
 the ""sry loins, giving, if after all the milch cow must be a little wider 
 below than above, yet as much breadth as can possibly be afforded to the 
 more valuable parts. She should be well formed across the hips and on 
 the rump, and with greater length there than the milker generally pos- 
 sesses ; or, if a little too short, not heavy. If she stands a little long on 
 the legs, it must not be too long The thighs somewhat thin, with a 
 slight tendency to crookedness, or being sickle-hammed behind : the tail 
 thick at the upper parti but tapering below ; and she should have a mel- 
 low hide, and little coarse hair. Common consent has given to her large 
 cpilk-veins; aud although the subcutaneous or milk-vein has nothing to 
 oo with the udder, but conveye the Hsiod fr-'-v fv.-j '"•r-e r-jr* ■^f *'«f 
 
 nhoDt 
 
XUE SHORT-HORN BREED. 34» 
 
 and sides to the inguinal vein, yet a large milk-vein pertainly indicates a 
 strongly developed vascular system — one favourable to secretion generally, 
 and to that of the milk among the rest. 
 
 The last essential in a milch cow that vre shall mention is the uddei, 
 rather inclining to be large in proportion to the size of the animal, but 
 not too large. It must be sufficiently capacious to contain the proper 
 quantity of milk, but not too bulky, lest it should thicken and. become 
 loaded with fat. The skin of the udder should be thin, and free from 
 lumps in every part of it. The teats should be of moderate size ; at 
 equal distances from each rther every way ; and of equal size from the 
 udder to nearly the end, where they should run to a kind of point. When 
 they are too large near the udder, they permit the milk to flow down too 
 freely from the bag, and lodge in them ; and wiien they are too broad at 
 the extremity, the orifice is often so large that the cow cannot retain hei 
 milk after the bag begins to be full and heavy. The udder should be 
 of nearly equal size before and behind, or, if there is any difference, it 
 should be broader and fuller before than behind *. 
 
 Tlie quantity of milk given by some of these cows is very great. It is 
 by no means uncommon for them, in the beginning of the summer, to 
 yield 30 quarts a-day ; there are rare instances of their having given 3S 
 quarts ; but the average measure may be estimated at 22 or 24 quarts. 
 It is said that this milk does not yield a proportionate quantity of butter ; 
 and that, although these cows may be valuable where the sale of milk is 
 the prime object, they will not answer for the dairy. 
 
 That their milk does not contain the same proportionate quantity of 
 butter as that from the long-horns, the Scotch cattle, or the Devons, is 
 probably true ; but we have reason to believe' that the difference has been 
 much exaggerated, and is more than compensated by the additional quan- 
 tity of milk. At the first introduction of the improved breed, the prejudice 
 against them on this account was very great, and certain experiments were 
 made, by the result of which it was made to appear that the milk of the 
 Kyloe cow yielded double the quantity of* butter that could be produced 
 from that of the improved short-horn. Two ounces were obtained from 
 the milk of the Kyloe, and one from that of the short- horn. 
 
 This aroused the advocates of the new breed, and they instituted their 
 experiments, the result of which was much less to the disadvantage of the 
 short-horns. Mr. Bailly gives an account of an experiment made by Mr. 
 Walton, of Middleton. 
 
 He took from his dairy 6 cows promiscuously, and obtained the fol- 
 lowing quantity of butter from a quart of 'the milk of each of them :— 
 
 * There are some doggrel lines, which so well express the greater number of the good 
 points of such a cow as we have been now describing, that we are tempted to copy theuL 
 fi&n the Farmer's Magazine : — 
 
 ' She's long in her face, she's fine in her horn, 
 She'll quickly get fat without cake or corn ; 
 She's clean in her jaws, and full in her chine, 
 She's heavy in flank, and wide in her loin. 
 
 ' She's broad in her ribs, and long in her rump, 
 A straight and flat back, without ever a hump : 
 She's wide in her hips, and calm in her eyes. 
 She's fine in her shoulders, and thin in her thighs. 
 
 < She's light in her neck, and small in her tail. 
 She's wide in her breast, and good at the pail. 
 She's fine in her bone, and silky of skin- 
 She's a grazier's without, and a butcher s within' 
 
B4S 
 
 
 CAl'TLK. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Of. 
 
 dwts. 
 
 ^0.1 
 
 ■ • • 
 
 3 
 
 e 
 
 2 
 
 , 
 
 
 6 
 
 3 
 
 • • 
 
 
 12 
 
 4 
 
 , , 
 
 
 10 
 
 5 
 
 ■ • 
 
 
 14 
 
 6 
 
 • 
 
 
 6 
 
 10 8, which, divided bj 
 6, leaves nearly loz. 14|dwts., or about J of the weight of butter 
 from the same quantity of milk. Then, the increased quantity of milk 
 yielded by the short-horn gave her decidedly the preference, so far as the 
 simple produce was concerned. 
 
 This experiment brought to light another good quality in the improved 
 short-horn, which, if not altogether unsuspected, was not sufficiently acted 
 upon — that she improved as a dairy-cow as she got older. The cow, a 
 quart of whose milk prodilced more than 3oz. of bu),ter, was six years 
 old ; the other five were only two years old ; at all events the experi- 
 ments proved that her milk was richer at six years old, than it had been 
 at two. This is a subject which deserves investigation. 
 
 Another circumstance is somewhat connected with such an inquiry. 
 The Kyloe and the long-horn cattle seem to care little about change of 
 situation and pasture ; but the short-horn is not so easily reconciled to a 
 change; and her milk is not at first either so abundant or so good as it 
 afterwards becomes. 
 
 A prejudice likewise existed, and perhaps does yet in the minds of some 
 dairyitien, against the larger improved short-horns. The breed generally 
 are great consumers ; and it was also supposed that, in proportion to the 
 condition of the cow, she wa« likely to run to flesh instead of yielding 
 milk, and therefore a rather small cow was selected, and one that did not 
 carry about her many proofs of point. 
 
 That there is a great difference in the quantity of food consumed by 
 different breeds of cattle, cannot be doubted ; and that the short-horns 
 occupy the highest rank among the consumers of food is evident 
 enough ; but we never could be persuaded that the difference of srze in the 
 same breed made any material difference in the appetite, or the food con- 
 sumed. When they stand side by side in the stall or the cow-house, and 
 experience has taught us the proper avferage quantity of food, the little 
 one eats her share, and the larger one seldom eats more, even when it is 
 put before her. There are occasiolnal differences in the consumption of 
 food by different animals, but these arise far oftener from constitution, or 
 from some imknown cause, than from difference of size. Experience 
 does, however, prove beyond the possibility of doubt, that the larger 
 cattle, the breed and other circumstances being the same, yield the great- 
 est quantity of milk. 
 
 Experience has also proved another thing, — that the good grazing points 
 of a cow, and even her being in fair store condition, do not necessarily in- 
 terfere with her milking qualities. They prove that she has the disposition 
 to fatten about her, but which will not be called into injurious exercise 
 until, in the natural process of time, or designedly by us, she is dried. She 
 will yield nearly as much milk as her unthrifty neighbour, and milk of 
 ». superior quality, and at four, five, or sis years old, might be pitted 
 against any Kyloe, while we have the pledge that it will cost us little to 
 prepare her for the butcher, v/hen we have done with her as a milker. It 
 b on this principle that many of the London dairymen now act, when 
 
THE SHORT.HORN BRGKD. 24) 
 
 they change their cows so frequently as they do; but whether this, even 
 allowing the rapidity with which the beasts fatten, is the best and most 
 profitable mode of management, will be the subject of future inquiry. 
 
 Some time after Mr. Walton's experiment, the following observations 
 were made by Mr. Calvert, of Sandysike, near Brampton, on the quantity 
 of butter yielded by one of his improved short-horns. The milk was kept 
 and churned separately from that of the other stock, and the following is 
 the account of the number of pounds of butter obtained in each week, — 
 7, 10, 10, 12, 17, 13, 13, 13, 15, 16, 15, 12, 13, 13, 13, J4, 14, 13, 12, 
 12, 13, 1 1, 12, 10, 10, 8, 10, 9, 10, 7, 7, 7. 
 
 From tills it appears that there were churned 373 pounds of butter in 
 the space of 32 weeks. The cow gave 28 quarts of milk per day, about 
 Midsummer, and would average nearly 20 quarts per day for 20 weeks. 
 She gave more milk when she was depastured in the summer than when 
 she was soiled in the house, in consequence of the very hot weather. She 
 was lame during six weeks, from ' foul in the feet,' which lessened the 
 quantity of milk during that time; and the experiment was discontinued, 
 because there was not a sufficient supply of turnips, and the milk of the 
 whole of the herd was rapidly diminishing. For the first fortnight after 
 calving, she was allowed a little broken com ; and from that period to the 
 commencement of the turnip-season, she lived entirely on grass, with 
 some cut clover, when it was necessary to shelter her from the inclement 
 heat. The pasture was by no means of a superior quality. 
 
 After such a record — and it is far from being a singular one, — ' there 
 can be no doubt,' to adopt the language of the reporter, ' of the possibility 
 of raising a breed of milking short-horns, which will surpass every variety 
 of cattle in the kingdom.' We may, perhaps, safely add, that we have 
 that breed, and that it only requires a little care in the selection, and in 
 crossing, to perpetuate it. 
 
 We will take a very rapid survey of the few counties not already 
 described, and in which the short-horns are the prevailing breed. 
 
 CUMBERLAND. 
 
 The native breed of Cumberland was a small long- horned beast, yield- 
 ing a fair quantity of milk, and of good quality ; answering well for the 
 dairy, but not so profitable as grazing cattle. With these were inter- 
 mingled the Kyloes and the Galloways, both of them quicker feeders than 
 the old Cumberlands. They were generally bought in about October, 
 and turned all the winter on the pastures out of which the fat cattle had 
 just been sold — a little hay being allowed them, according to circum- 
 stances. They were kept about a twelvemonth, and paid very well. 
 
 The long-horns were most used for the dairy, and chiefly for the produc- 
 tion of butter. They yielded from one to two firkins per annum, according 
 to their goodness and size r the average produce was about 84 lbs. per cow. 
 Some of them would yield eight quarts of milk per day during the season, 
 and three or four pounds of butter per week. The Cumberland butter 
 used to be in considerable request. The cheese was an inferior article, 
 and chiefly made of skimmed milk. 
 
 The short-horns were not slow in penetrating into Cumberland, and 
 establishing thepiselves there They were first used to cross the native 
 and Scotch breeds, and sometimes with considerable success. Mr. Bates, 
 of Halton Castle, attempted a cross between the Kyloe cow and the short- 
 horn bull. His object was to increase the quantity of milk from the 
 Kyloe, and to preserve its quality ; and to gain that, which every one 
 ttied to imagine the short-hom was sadly deficient in, hardiness. He 
 
S4« CATTLE, 
 
 hoped likewise to reduce the g^eat consumption of food by the short- 
 horn, and, at the same time, to retain his early maturity. To a very con- 
 siderable extent he succeeded. Mr. Maynard, than whom there could 
 lot be a better judge of cattle, and from whose stock descended some of 
 the best short-horns of the north, hired a bull from Mr. Bates, to try 
 what effect would be produced on son>e of his own pure breedins^ stock. 
 That the short-horns could be materially improved by such an admix- 
 ture could scarcely be expected , but the value of the old breed of the 
 country has been materially increased. 
 
 The pure short-horn is now zealously cultivated in Cumberland, and bv 
 none more so, or more successfully, than by Mr. Maynard. 
 
 YORKSHIRE NORTH RIDINO. 
 
 There are few parts of the kingdom in which so perfect a change has 
 taken place in the breed of cattle as in this extensive division of Yorkshire. 
 Mr. Marshall, who is undoubted authority here, says, in his ' Rural Eco- 
 nomy of Yorkshire,' that, at the commencement of the eighteenth cen- 
 tury, the ancient black cattle were the only breed in this district. They 
 resembled the present breed of the lowlands of Scotland, mostly horned, 
 but some of them humbled. To these succeeded the long-horned, or Cra- 
 ven breed, and which, by degrees, spread over the whole of the northern 
 and midland counties. At that time the chief work of the farm was done 
 by cattle ; the horse had not yet quite superseded the slower, but perhaps 
 more profitable, ox ; and many of the long-horns, until they began to be 
 improved by the breeders in the midland counties, were deficient in seve- 
 ral valuable points, while the use of them was exceedingly inconvenient, 
 and sometimes dangerous, in the yoke. 
 
 On these accounts, the long-horns in their turn gave way to the Hol- 
 derness, or short-horn breed, and that, for a century past, has maintained 
 its ground, and will continue to do so. 
 
 Mr. Marshall gives a singular account of these cattle, when first intro- 
 duced. He says, that ' the Holderness breed were thin-quartered, too 
 light behind, and too coarse before ; large shoulders, coarse necks, 
 andT deep dewlaps. This form being found disadvantageous to the 
 butcher, increasing the quantity of the coarser parts, and reducing the 
 weight of the prime pieces, the breeder endeavoured to enlarge the hind- 
 quarters ; and had he stopped when he had got to the happy medium, he 
 would have wrought a good work", but the fashion was set — cloddy bul- 
 locks were in estimation. The first variety of this species of cattle, which 
 I can recollect, was a thick, large-boned, coarse, clumsy animal ; remark- 
 ably large behind, with thick gummy thighs ; always fleshy, but never 
 fat, and the flesh being of a bad quality. This, however, was not the 
 woist : the monstrous size of the buttocks of the calf was frequently fatal 
 to the cow, and numbers of cows were annually lost in calving. These 
 monsters were stigmatized by the epithet " Dutch-buttocked," and they 
 were probably th? worst breed the Vale ever knew.' 
 
 This evil, however, soon cured itself; and, by judicious crossings from 
 their own stock, and, soon afterwards, from the stock of the enterprising 
 and skilful breeders on the banks of the Tees, the Yorkshire cow was 
 brought to her present state of perfection, retaining, with little diminution, 
 the milking properties of the Holderness, and the grazing ones of the im- 
 proved short-horn, and being, in point of fact, what we have described 
 her to be in p. 244. The old and comparatively unimproved breed is 
 ■till indeed found in the possession of most of the dairy farmers of this 
 part of the country , for the prejudice — and, as we have confessed, not an 
 
THE SHORT-HORN BREED. tii 
 
 unrounded one — against the improved short-horns, that their milking pro- 
 perties have been sacrificed to the accumulation of fat, still widely prevails. 
 Experience, however, gradually established the fact, that it is prudent to 
 sacrifice a small portiou of the milk to assist in feeding;, when too old to 
 continue in the dairy ; or' when, as in the neighbourhood of large towns, 
 her services as a dairy-cow are dispensed with at an early age. This 
 cross being judiciously managed, the diminution of milk is so small, and 
 the tendency to fatten so great, that the opinion of Mr. Sale (as quoted 
 by Mr. Sheldon Cradock, of Hartforth, and to whom we return our tha-uks 
 for some valuable information) is perfectly correct — ' I have always 
 found, in my stock, that the best milkers, when dried for feeding, make 
 the most fat in the least time.' This is a doctrine which will be better 
 understood and universally acknowledged by and by. Too many of the 
 improvers of the short-horns have done but half justice to their excellent 
 slock. He would deserve well of his country who, with skill and means 
 sufficient, would devote himself to the illustration of this point. 
 
 It has been observed, that the cattle of this district have not improved 
 of late so rapidly as in former times. There may be two reasons for this, 
 viz., that the system of breeding in and in has been pursued somewhat 
 too far, and that the depreciation of the times has withdrawn many 
 landed proprietors from agricultural pursuits, and thus lessened tha* com- 
 petition which was the most powerful stimulus to exertion. 
 
 The average weight of cattle in this riding of Yorkshire varies with the 
 food and age of the animal. A steer, from 2^ to 3 years old, when fit 
 for the market, will usually weigh from 65 to 75 stones, imperial weight, 
 and a heifer from 55 to 65 stones. The usual method of preparing 
 them for the market is simple enough. The calf gets milk for the first 
 two or three weeks, and after that, scalded skimmed milk, mixed with 
 oil-cake boiled in water, with hay and turnips, until the spring pastures 
 have sufficient produce to support him ; he remains in them until the fol- 
 lowing winter, when he is either tied up oi turned loose into folds, and 
 fed with straw and turnips until the ensuing May : he is then turned 
 once more into the pasture until winter, when he is brought into the fold- 
 yard as before, until nearly May-day, and now, approaching to a state 
 nearly fat enough for the butcher, three or four months' grass-feeding 
 generally completes him. Both the improved and the unimproved cattle 
 are treated in the same way. Now, however, appears the essential differ- 
 ence between the breeds — the most forward of the unimproved are 
 scarcely ready when the improved cattle are gone, and they are never so 
 &t and pointy as the others. 
 
 Upon the clay-soil of Cleveland, and other parts ot this district, the 
 grass-land is prfhcipally appropriated to the purposes of the dairy. There 
 the unimproved breed mostly prevails ; but even there, the most intelli- 
 gent of the farmers begin to see the propriety of a cross or two from the 
 Teeswater blood. The young cattle are principally sold in the neighbour- 
 ing markets, and are forwarded to the possessors of extensive turnip- 
 firuis in Leicestershire and Northamptonshire. 
 
 A great proportion of the cows for the supply of the metropolitan 
 dairies come from the North Riding of Yorkshire. They are sent away 
 within a month or six weeks after calving, and either journey directly to 
 London, or halt for a year or two in Bedfordshire, or some of the midland 
 counties, in order that they may not reach their ultimate destination until 
 they are five or six years old. 
 
 Among the breeders of the pure short-horns iu mis Riding, Major 
 " rr -' l^'-'hrm, ^p.'r.T-^s hnraati-skla mention. His name appears 
 
250 GATTIJ4. 
 
 among the purchasers at Mr. Charles Colling s sale. His cow Daisy, 
 bought there, produced some excellent stock. A heifer of his breed, 
 slaughtered at the age of 18 months, weighed 64 stones, imperial weight. 
 and 10 stones of tallow. 
 
 The Earl of Carlisle formerly endeavoured to improve the breed of this 
 district by crossing with the Devonshire, and Mr. Cleaver with the Sussex 
 cattle, and it was said that more kindly feeders were obtained, the size 
 was reduced a little, the leg sliortened, the bone rendered finer, the form 
 improved, and the strength of the short-horn remained for draught with 
 the activity of the Devon. Whatever might have been the case with the 
 first cross, tliis supposed improved race has passed quite away. 
 
 A cross between the short-horn bull and the Ari> yleshire heifer was 
 attempted, with greater prospect of success. Mr. Bates had obtained 
 some excellent cattle from a similar attempt, but tliey could not be fed to 
 an equal weight in the same time, and they were deficient in early ma- 
 turity. 
 
 WEST RFDINO. 
 
 This is principally a manufacturing district, and there are comparatively 
 few agriculturists who pay much attention to the improvement of the breed 
 of cattle. The short-horns, either the Holderness cr with some crosses of 
 the Durham, are chiefly found in the neighbourhood of large towns. 
 More in the country, and where the farms are small, (as they are through 
 a great part of this riding,) there are a variety of crosses with the long-horns, 
 and with nondescripts of former days. They go under the characteristic 
 name oi half-horns ; the country people are fond of them, they are hardy, 
 yield plenty of milk, and fatten with tolerable quickness. One would 
 wonder how they retain one good quality, for Mr. Sorby, of Holyland- 
 hall, very characteristically describes them, and the little farmers of almost 
 every district — 'Those who have a cow or two, of some favourite kind, 
 send them to the nearest bull, which does well enough, provided he gets 
 them a calf.' We must confess, that we nowhere saw so great a collec- 
 tion of mongrels as in the manufacturing portion of the West Riding. 
 
 Mr. Newman, the agent of Lord Fitzwilliam, satisfactorily accounts 
 for this. He thus writes to us — ' The breed of cattle in the greatest esteem 
 in the vicinity of Wentworth, and in fact throughout all the southern part 
 of the West Riding of Yorkshire, is the pure short-horn. A traveller, 
 however, passing through this district, will observe many deviations from 
 that breed, and will meet with crosses that he will have much difhculty to 
 identify. The farms are small, and the farmer has a kind of mixed em- 
 ployment, parttly agricultural and partly mercantile : hence his attention is 
 not so much directed to his farm as it should be, and hence arises a 
 certain degree of carelessness as to the selection of his cattle ; added lo 
 this, there is an idea, although an erroneous one, that the pure short- 
 horns are not good milkers, and which tends materially to check the 
 breed.' 
 
 In the districts near Doncaster, where the population is more strictly 
 agricultural, the short-horns prevail, and those of a breed and quality 
 highly creditable both to the mere tenant-farmer and to the gentleman 
 who farms his own estate. 
 
 It is due to the memory of the late Mr. Mitton, of Badsworth, to place 
 him at the very head of the improvers of short-horn cattle in this district. 
 His ' Old Bull,' kno\yn in the Herd Book by the name of ' Badsworth,* 
 is still in the recollection of the farmers of that neighbourhood, and no 
 animal contributed more to the improvement of the cattle for many miles 
 round. 
 
THE SHORT-HORN BREED. 3M 
 
 About the year r805, the WortlCjr Farmers' Club was e^itablished, 
 chiefly by Lord WharticlifFc (then Mr. Stuart Wortley); and by the ope' 
 rations of that Society very considerable improvement was effected in th<s 
 breed of cattle, sheep, and pigs, round Wortley. In 1818 this society 
 ceased to exist, for one more effective had been formed at Doncaster, under 
 the patronage of Earl Fitzwilliam, Lord Althorp, Sir A. Cooke, and Mr. 
 Fullerton of Thrybepgh Park, and Other neighbouring getitlemen. This 
 society still flonrishes, and a Very fair number of excellent cattle are 
 annually exhibited, the males of which become dispersed through a wide 
 district of country. The short-horn cattle have borne away all the prizes. 
 
 In almost every part of the West Riding, many Scotch are fed for one 
 year or two, and then sold to the butcher to be slaughtered for home 
 cunsumplion. 
 
 As we advance towards the moorlands of the west and north-west of 
 the district, the half-horns prevail more ; and in Craven, the native county 
 of the long-horns, we find both the large and the small variety of this 
 breed in tolerable perfection, but perhaps not so much so as in the north 
 of Lancashire. Even here, the short-horns have penetrated and are 
 increasing. 
 
 EAST RIDING. 
 
 The short-horns prevail universally through this riding, except among 
 the cottagers and little farmers, who still obstinately cling to some of the 
 different varieties of half-horns. It is decidedly a breeding country, and 
 a great number of cows are yearly sent from it to Lincolnshire, to be 
 prepared for the London dairies; yet many oxen and cows are 
 brought from the Wolds to the fortnightly and weekly markets so frequent 
 in Yorkshire, and pastured on the rich ground with which the riding 
 abounds *. 
 
 LINCOLNSHIRE. 
 
 Mr. Berry has disposed of the Lincolnshire cattle in a very summary 
 way, and we apprehend that no appeal can be made against his decision. 
 ' There is a large coarse short-horn prevailing, particularly in Lincolnshire, 
 denominated in the quotations of the Smithfield markets " Lincolns," but 
 they have no further affinity with the improved short-horns than as the 
 latter have been referred to for their improvement, which has been accom- 
 plished to a considerable degree.' As, however, we have to travel through 
 
 * In some part of this riding, as well as in the north of Lincolnshire, a very useful 
 society or club used to exist, aud is still to be occasionally met with, called ' The Cow 
 Club,' the principoi rules of which we abridge from ' Strickland's Survey.' 
 
 ' Each member shall, on the 12th of May and the 12th of November, pay three-pence 
 in the pound, on her value, for every cow that he insures, which sum when it amounts 
 to 20/. shall be placed at interest, in order to accumulate for the benefit of the club. No 
 cow shall be aditlitted without the approbation and valuation of one of the proper officers 
 of the district, to whom, if required. She shall 'be sent for inspection. 
 
 < Upon the death of any cow, the officer shall inquire into the manner of it; and if it 
 appears to have been caused by wilful neglect, or by his refusing to employ some farriejr 
 or veterinary surgeon, he shall receive no benefit but for every cow dying of disease, 
 and withgut the neglect of the owner, there shall be paid five-sixths of her estimated 
 Talue; but no member shall receive any benefit from the institution upon the death of a 
 cow more than fourteen years old. 
 
 ' If, upon any accident, the officer of the district shall deem it necessary to have > 
 cow slaughtered, the owner shall have the option of receiving the net value of her carcass, 
 the expense of slaughterii^ being deducted, or five-sixths of her estimated value in the 
 books. Every member not making payment on the day ap^ioinied, or within fourteen 
 days afterwards, shall be excluded.' 
 
 Thp <ive-jixths of the value will giv3 the cottager an interest m her tecoveiy ot pia> 
 
 might be careiets. 
 
»» CATTLK. 
 
 each of the counties of Great Britain, we must enter a little more into tha 
 consideration of the character and claims of tlie Lincoln cattle. 
 
 Many of the present upimpiDved Lincolns may be regarded as fair 
 specimens of the best of the old Dutch cattle. So prevalent is the opinion 
 that this was the origin of the breed, that the metropolitan butcher deno- 
 minates them Dutch cattle, and knows them much better by that name 
 than as Lincolns. There is a coarseness about the head and horn which 
 we have not seen either in the common Holderness or the improved 
 Durham ; the bone is comparatively large, the leg high, and the hips and 
 loins wide, approaching to raggedness. Mr. Lawrence has a very appro- 
 priate remark respecting them, that they demand that Bakewellian im- 
 provement which their sheep have received. 
 
 There have been some zealous, and, to a considerable degree, successful 
 improvers of this breed. At the head of them stands Captain Turnill, o( 
 Reesby on the Wolds. With what materials he went to work is not cer- 
 tainly known, but it is supposed that he confined himself to a selection 
 from the native breed ; and certainly he produced a valuable animal, 
 thinner in the horn, cleaner in the bone, lighter in the dewlap, shorter in 
 the leg, full in the bosom, and round in the carcase. The breed was pro- 
 perly called ' the Turnills," and they yet remain in the hands of many 
 farmers. They are handsome-looking beasts, always full of lean flesh ; 
 with far greater disposition than before to put some fat on that flesh, and 
 become sooner ripe for the market. 
 
 Others, with somewhat more judgment, called in the aid of the 
 Durhams, and more speedily and effectually completed their object. They 
 took away the disposition to make lean beef only, although in very great 
 quantities ; and if they could not perfectly give to the Lincolns their own 
 early maturity, they materially quickened the process of fattening. An 
 improved Lincolnshire beast is therefore now a very valuable animal ; and 
 if a finer grain could be given to the meat, the greater quantity of muscle, 
 compared with that of fat, would be no disadvantage. 
 
 
 Lincoililthire Ox 
 
THE SHORT-HORN BREED. re. 
 
 This cut is a fair specimen of the modern Lincoln, with a cross of the 
 Durham, and ready for the market. It was sketched by Mr. Harvey, as 
 it stood in Smithfield. 
 
 We are indebted for the following account of the management of the 
 Lincolnshire cattle to Mr. Shield of Fordston, and who, as a genuine 
 Lincolnshire man, is much attached to the Turnill breed. 
 
 ' After leaving the hand, or the cow, the young cattle are kept during 
 the first winter on hay, hay and turnips, or sometimes hay and a little 
 oil-cake. In the next summer they run op seeds or second-rate land, 
 and too often get nothing but straw in the winter. At two years old they 
 go on worse keeping, and are again wintered at straw. At three years 
 old they fare no better, except that some now give from two to four i^ounds 
 of oil-cake daily; and they are sold, in the spring or summer, by those 
 who have not the means to feed them, to jobbers, v^ho dispose of them to 
 the grazier. He winters them better if he buys them at the latter end of 
 summer, and feeds them off before another winter; but if they are bought 
 in the spring they are generally fed off before winter, many of them being 
 put up for stall-feeding, to which no breed is better adapted.' 
 
 The Lincolnshire cattle are principally red and white, but a dun variety 
 was introduced, about the middle of the last century, by Sir Charles Buck, 
 of Hanby Grange, and which have so much improved in size as almost to 
 overtake the common breed of the county. They are found principally in 
 the neighbourhood of Folkingham, and liave been fed up to 116 stones at 
 seven years old. 
 
 The extraordinary animal which was exhibited under the name of ' the 
 Lincolnshire ox,' although bred in that county, was an improved short- 
 horn ; and many of these are establishing themselves in every part of Lin- 
 colnshire. 
 
 Here, as in most other districts, there are greskt varieties of breeds, and 
 which are said to be increasing, and even interfering with the purity of 
 the native one, by means of the great annual importations of Irish cattle. 
 
 Some have purposely and very recently endeavoured to establish a cross 
 between the best of the long-horned Irish and the short-horns of the 
 county ; but the attempt, although promising some success at first, has 
 decidedly failed. 
 
 Among the small farmers, half-horns of every size and variety are found, 
 and they are crossed in every way that caprice or folly can suggest, yet 
 they are most of them good milkers. The Lincolns, although better 
 adapted for grazing than for the dairy, yield more milk, and of a richer 
 quality, than some of the advocates for the old order of things are willing 
 to allow. 
 
 A great number of the Yorkshire cows destined for the metropolitan 
 dairies halt in Lincolnshire, and many cattle from the north, as well as 
 numerous herds of Ir'sh beasts, are prepared for Smithfield market. 
 
 ESSEX. 
 
 There is no distinguishing breed in this county ; but the chief agricul- 
 tural business, so far as cattle are concerned, consists in the suckling of 
 salves and grazing in the marshes, with some at'tention to the dairy in 
 particular districts. 
 
 Our friend, Mr. May, veterinary surgeon, at Maldon, informs us, that 
 the suckling farmers procure their calves at the principal markets, viz., 
 Rorfford, Chelmsford, Maldon, Braihtree, and Colchester. The Romford 
 market is chiefly supplied from London ; Chelmsford and Maldon from 
 London and Suffolk ; and Colchester and Braintree chiefly from the Suf- 
 folk dairies. 
 
^^ CATTLE. 
 
 They are bought in at from a week to a fortnight old, and are generallj 
 fed about twelve or fourteen weeks, when they are either bought by the 
 butchers in the neighbourhood, who kill and dress them, and send them 
 to the London market, or they are sent alive to the Romford and Smith- 
 field markets, where they are purchased by the London butchers. 
 
 Many of these calves used to be reared in the rich pastures of Essex, 
 and particularly the heifer-calves from the metropolitan dairies ; and many 
 a cow went from Essex to keep up those establishments ; but this practice 
 is now almost totally discontinued. 
 
 The marshes afford excellent grazing for cattle that are not affected by 
 the brackishness of the water, and there are few who suffer materially by 
 this. When cattle are not perfectly ready for the market, a few weeks' 
 grazing on the marshes will bring them rapidly forward. Some are pur- 
 chased in store condition, in order that they may run three or four months 
 on this luxuriant pasture, and at the expiration of the time they are ready 
 for Smithfield. At some periods of the year these flats are covered with 
 cattle, chiefly of a small kind, and mostly the Welsh or Scotch runts ; in- 
 deed the grazing is principally confined to these small cattle, A few 
 farmers, however, in every part of Essex, apply tliemselves to the regular 
 grazing of cattle of a larger size. A few have the Devons, among whom 
 must be reckoned Lord Western, who is partial to these cattle, both to 
 feed and for the dairy. When they are grass-fed, there are always some 
 Scotch or Welsh runts as 'trimmers, '\. e., to eat down what the larger 
 and more valuable cattle leave. Many Herefords are prepared for the 
 London market in the same manner *. 
 
 The dairy business is confined to a comparatively small part of the 
 county. A considerable quantity of butter is made in the neighbourhood 
 of Epping, and sent to the metropolis in small rolls ; and it is deservedly 
 celebrated for the peculiar sweetness of its taste. This depends not on 
 the kind of cow, for occasionally a dairy contains half a dozen different 
 breeds of cows, although the short-horns are the most prevalent, but 
 because they feed during the summer in the shrubby pastures of Epping 
 Forest, and the leaves of the trees, and of numerous wild and aromatic 
 plants which there abound, impart to it its peculiarly sweet flavour. The 
 consumer, however, can seldom be certain that he has the real Epping 
 butter, for a: very fair imitation of it is sent up from Northamptonshire; 
 and t^'e London retail-dealers wash the salt well out of the Cambridge 
 butter, and, forming it into rolls, sell it for Epping butter ; while a few ' 
 are more impudeut, and sell almost any kind of butter as true Epping. 
 
 Attached to the dairy is another business, to which we shall have bcca 
 sion more particularly to allude in another volume of our work, namely, 
 the fattening of pigs, and the preparation of sausages. The skim-milk 
 is devoted to this purpose. Although the milk is always sour before it 
 reaches the troughs of the pigs, they thrive well, and their fat is firmer 
 than that which is procured from others that are fed with pease or meal. 
 This will not, however, appear surprising, when it is known that all the 
 caseous principle of the milk, or that which would produce cheese, is 
 retained in it. 
 
 MIDDLESEX. 
 
 There is no distinct breed in this county, and a very small portion of 
 the land is applied to the fattening of cattle for the butcher, for the pro- 
 duce from it procured in other ways can be sold at a much higher sum, 
 
 > These cattle, both large and small, are asuaily made fresh upon the marsheis, and 
 then tied np to hay turnips, mangel-wurzel, and oil-cake. 
 
THE SHORT-HORN BREED. 265 
 
 and would render the system of grazing a losing business. Some land, 
 however is necessarily devoted to the temporary keep of cattle, as they 
 jouniey to and from Smithfield, or while they remain unsold from one 
 mail<et-day to another ; and a great many cattle are prepared for the 
 market in this county, and more than would be readily supposed before 
 the circumstances of the case are explained. 
 
 In the first place, at least 12,000 cows are kept in the different dairies 
 in the metropolis and its immediate neighbourhood. These are all short- 
 horns ; and since the rapidity with which they can be fattened has been 
 established, few dairymen breed from their cows, but they are fattened and 
 sold as soon as their milk is dried. This will bring 5,000 or 6,000 cows 
 annually into the market. 
 
 There is an enormous consumption of fermented liquor and ardent spirit 
 in London, besides what is sold from the breweries, and sometimes from 
 the distilleries, 'o the regular dairymen. This is chiefly distilled from 
 grain, and the refuse is employed in the fattening of at least 6,000 or 7,000 
 more head of cattle. 
 
 Booth's establishment for the fattening of cattle will afford a fair 
 sample of the rest. It is attached to their distillery at Brentlbrd. The 
 account of the building is chiefly taken from the Farmer's Magazine, an 
 excellent agricultural publication, edited by Mr. Berry. 'The building is 
 210 feet long, and 180 wide. The side walls are about 10 feet high, with 
 20 windows on each side, and 8 windows at each end, unglazed, but 
 opened or shut at pleasure. It is lighted by glazed sky-lights in the 
 roof. The roof forms one ridge, and the centre part of it affords space for 
 an ample hay-loft. It is supported by numerous cast-iron and wooden 
 pillars, which, at the first entrance of the observer, have the appearance of a 
 forest of colunins. A passage of 6 feet in width extends round the 
 whole building, and between every two rows of cattle are passages of the 
 same width. The whole is lighted at night by 36 gas-lights. 
 
 ' The cattle stand in double stalls, 7i feet wide, and the space from the 
 manger to the gutter behind the cattle is about 10 feet : the gutters have 
 an inclination to one end, where are drains to carry off the contents of 
 the gutters. 
 
 ' There is a common manger, which extends the whole length of each 
 row of cattle, the bottom of which is on a perfect level; but opposite to 
 each beast is a second manger, placed in the first, and elevated three or 
 four Inches from the bottom of it, and being about a yard in length; and 
 into which are put the grains and other solid food, the common manger 
 being for the reception of the wash, or any other liquid food. 
 
 ' Ihe wash is kept in a cistern or tank, above the level of these mangers, 
 and in a different part of the premises; but pipes from this tank are con- 
 ducted beneath the floor of the building, and communicate with these 
 mangers by means of a distinct cock for each, so that, by turning the 
 cattle, in any one of the ranges, are instantly supplied with wash. This 
 'liquid serves them, in a manner, for food and drink, as it contains the 
 finer particles of the ground malt, and the greater part of the barley meal 
 nsed in the mashing process. 
 
 ' The grains are kept in pits, about 12 feet square, and 10 or 12 feet 
 deep, somewhat narrower at the bottom than the top, and lined with brick 
 set in cement. They are trodden in, and raised like the roof of a house, 
 and covered with road- stuff, to exclude the air, and protect them from the 
 weather. Little or no litter is used, and no green food or uncut hay is 
 ever given. Oil-c^ke is seldom used, it being found that rough clovei 
 ihaff. mixed with the grains and wash, will fatten to any extent. 
 
25fi 
 
 CATTLK. 
 
 The metropolis is the grand mart to which a considerable proportion of 
 the fat cattle from every part of the kingdom is sent. In llie year 1830, 
 there were sold in Smithfield, 159,907 cattle, 1,287,071 sheep, 254,672 
 pigs, and 22,500 calves, for the supply of the metropolis, and the villages 
 and towns within a circnit of ei»ht or ten miles, and occasional contracts 
 for the navy. Besides this there -!s a great quantity of dead meat sent up 
 from the country, generally speaking perfectly wholesome, and fairly and 
 honestly slaughtered, although it is said that the flesh of some animals 
 that did not come by their death through the hands of man, has occasion- 
 ally found its way to Newgate market. There are inspectors appointed, 
 who very impartially look after this. This is called the dead market, 
 and may be fiiirly set against the consumption of the places in the neigh- 
 bourhood of London, and also the irregular demands for the navy, so that 
 the numbers just stated may be considered as fairly representing the con* 
 sumption of animal food in the metropolis, exclusive of fish, poultry, 
 and salted provisions. 
 
 We subjoin in a note the number of cattle and sheep sold in Smithfield, 
 in every year from 1732 to 1830. It is taken from that most elaborate 
 and valuable work, M'CuUoch's Dictionary of Commerce *. 
 
 It will be seen that the numbers of cattle slaughtered have been more 
 than doubled during the century ; but the inhabitants of the metropolis 
 have been more than trebled since that time. Is less animal food con- 
 sumed now by each individual than at that time ? Not so : but there is 
 an important fact connected with the agricultural interests of the kingdom, 
 that while the numbers of the cattle slaughtered have increased, in ordei 
 
 * The numberaof Cattle and Sheep sold in Smithfield in each year frum 173*2 ta 
 1830:— 
 
 1732. 
 
 17.33. 
 
 1734., 
 
 1735. 
 
 1736. 
 
 1737., 
 
 1738. 
 
 1739., 
 
 1740. 
 
 1741., 
 
 1742., 
 
 1743. 
 
 1744. 
 
 1745. , 
 
 1746., 
 
 1747., 
 
 1748., 
 
 1749., 
 
 1750. 
 
 1751., 
 
 1752., 
 
 1753. 
 
 1754. 
 
 17.)5., 
 
 1756., 
 
 1757. 
 
 1758. 
 
 1759. 
 
 1760. 
 
 1761. 
 
 1762. 
 
 1763, 
 
 1764 
 
 Cattle. 
 76,210. 
 80,169. 
 78,810. 
 83,894. 
 87,606. 
 89,862., 
 87,010., 
 86,787. 
 84,810., 
 77,714.. 
 79,601., 
 76,475., 
 76,648., 
 74,188., 
 71,582., 
 71,150. 
 67,681.. 
 72,706.. 
 70,765.. 
 69,589.. 
 73,708., 
 75,2.52., 
 70,4.37., 
 74,290., 
 77,257., 
 82,612., 
 84,252. 
 86,439., 
 88,594. 
 82,514. 
 02,831. 
 80,851. 
 75,168. 
 
 Sheep. 
 514,700 
 555,050 
 566,910 
 590,970 
 587,420 
 607,330 
 589,470 
 568, 9«0 
 501,0211 
 536,180 
 503,260 
 468,120 
 490,620 
 563,990 
 620,790 
 621 ,780 
 610,060 
 624,2211 
 656,340 
 631,890 
 642,100 
 648,440 
 631,350 
 647,100 
 624,710 
 574,960 
 550,930 
 582,260 
 622,200 
 666,010 
 772,160 
 653,110 
 556,360 
 
 1765, 
 1766, 
 1767, 
 1768. 
 1769. 
 1770. 
 1771. 
 1772. 
 1773. 
 1774. 
 1775. 
 1776. 
 1777. 
 1778. 
 1779. 
 1780. 
 1781. 
 1782. 
 1783. 
 1784. 
 1785. 
 1786. 
 1787. 
 1788. 
 1789. 
 1790. 
 1791. 
 1792. 
 1793, 
 1794, 
 1795. 
 1796, 
 1797, 
 
 Cmttle. 
 . 81,630. 
 . 75,534. 
 . 77,-324. 
 . 79,360. 
 . 82,131. 
 . 86,890. 
 . 93,537. 
 . 89,503. 
 . 90,133. 
 . 90,419., 
 . 93,581.. 
 . 98,372. 
 . 93,714. 
 . 97,360. 
 . 97,352. 
 .102,383. 
 .102,543., 
 .101,176. 
 .101,840. 
 . 98,143. 
 . 99,074. 
 . 92,270., 
 . 94,946. 
 . 92,829. 
 . 93,269., 
 .103,708. 
 .101,164. 
 .107,348. 
 .116,848., 
 ,109,448. 
 .131,092. 
 .117,152. 
 .108,377. 
 
 sheep. 
 537,000 
 574,790 
 626,170 
 642,910 
 642,910 
 649,090 
 631,860 
 609,540 
 609,740 
 585,290 
 623,950 
 671,700 
 714,870 
 658,540 
 676,. 540 
 705,850 
 743,330 
 728,970 
 701,610 
 616,110 
 641,470 
 665,910 
 668,570 
 679,100 
 693,700 
 749,660 
 740,360 
 760,859 
 728,480 
 719,420 
 745,640 
 758,840 
 693,510 
 
 1798 
 1799 
 1800 
 1801 
 1802 
 1803 
 1804 
 1805 
 1806 
 1807 
 1808 
 1809 
 1810, 
 1811 
 1812 
 1813, 
 1814 
 1815, 
 1816. 
 1817, 
 1818 
 1819, 
 1820, 
 1821, 
 1822, 
 1823. 
 1824. 
 1825. 
 1826, 
 1827, 
 1828, 
 1829, 
 1830, 
 
 Cattle. 
 ..107,470 
 ,,122,986 
 ..125,073 
 ,.134,546 
 ,.126,389 
 .117,551, 
 .113,019, 
 .125,043 
 ,.120,2.50, 
 .134,326 
 .144,042, 
 .137,600 
 .132,155, 
 .125,012, 
 .133,854. 
 .137,770, 
 .135,071. 
 .124,948. 
 .120,439. 
 .129,888, 
 .138,047. 
 .135,226. 
 .132,933 
 .129,125, 
 .142,043. 
 .149,552, 
 .163,615. 
 .156,985. 
 .143,460, 
 .138,363. 
 .147,698. 
 .158,313. 
 .159,907, 
 
 Sheep. 
 ,. 753,010 
 . 834,400 
 ,. 842,210 
 . 760,560 
 . 743,470 
 . 787,430 
 . 903,940 
 . 912,410 
 . 858,570 
 . 924,030 
 .1015,280 
 . 989,250 
 . 962,750 
 . 966,400 
 . 953,638 
 . 891,240 
 . 870,880 
 . 962,840 
 . 968,560 
 .1044,710 
 . 963,250 
 . 949,900 
 . 947,990 
 .1107,230 
 .1340,160 
 .1264,920 
 .1239,720 
 .1130,310 
 .1270,530 
 .1335,100 
 .1288,460 
 .1240,300 
 .1287,070 
 
CALCULATION OF MEAT CONSUMED IN LONDON 257 
 
 to supply the greater demand, their size and value have also increased at 
 a rate that has not been sufficiently appreciated. 
 
 According to the estimate of Dr. Davenant, made in 1710, the average 
 weight of the carcasses of black cattle (so called because most of them 
 were then black) was only 370 lbs., that of a calf 50 lbs., and those of 
 sheep and lambs, taken promiscuously, 28 lbs. 
 
 Calculating upon this, the Select Committee of the House of Commons 
 on Waste Lands, in their first report, printed in 1795, stated that cattle 
 and sheep had, on an average, increased in size and weight about a 
 fourth since 1732. 
 
 Middleton, in his very incorrect Survey of Middlesex, calculates that 
 the average gross weight of bullocks fit for slaughter may be taken at 
 800 lbs., calves 140 lbs., and sheep and lambs 78 lbs., including ofial ; 
 and that being deducted, according to a rule, to which we shall give 
 due consideration in another place, there will be left 550 lbs. as the dead- 
 weight of the bullock, 50 lbs. as that of sheep and lambs, and 105 lbs. the 
 dead or net weight of calves, making a difference, as Mr. M'Culloch 
 properly remarks, of nearer otie-half than oiie-fourth. 
 
 The improvement of cattle has progressed with unsuspected rapidity 
 since the middle of the last century : in many important points, it could 
 hardly be said to have commenced at that time. After consultation 
 with several of the most intelligent butchers of the metropolis, we are -in- 
 duced to take 656 lbs. as the present average dead-weight of bullocks 
 (some butchers stated 85 stones Smithfield weight, none less than 80 — 
 we have taken 82 stones). The average weight of the calf is 144 lbs., 
 of the pig 96 lbs., and of the sheep and lamb 90 lbs., approaching to 
 double the weight of these animals in 1730. This renders the number 
 of cattle slaughtered in the metropolis and the increasing number of the 
 inhabitants a little more proportionate. 
 
 We may now form some not very inaccurate idea of the amount of this 
 branch of the provision trade in London: — 
 
 Average weight. No. of lbs. consumed. 
 
 Cattle . . 159,907 . . .656 lbs 104,898,992 
 
 Sheep, &c. 1,287,070 ... 90 „ ... 115,836,300 
 
 Pigs . . 254,672 . . . 96 , 24,448,512 
 
 Calves . . 22,500 ... 144 „ .... 3,240,000 
 
 Number of pounds of meat consumed 248,423,804 
 Tl.is, estimated at the average price of6d., would be 6,210,595/. 2s. Od. 
 At 8d. it would produce 8,268,2932. 9s. 4d., exclusive of bacon, hams, and 
 all salted provisions brought from a distance (the importation of Irish 
 bacon and hams into Great Britain is 500,000 cwt.), and also fish and 
 poultry. 
 
 This calculation will enable us to determine another curious question, — 
 what is the average quantity of meat consumed by each individual in the 
 course of a year? If we divide the gross number of pounds 248,423,804 
 jy 1,450,000, the estimated number of inhabitants in London and its 
 environs, the quotient will be 170, or each individual consumes nearly 
 half a pound of meat every day. This is a very high calculation compared 
 with that of Paris, where each person is supposed to consume but 80 
 pounds in the year ; and Brussels, where 89 pounds form the allotment of 
 each ; but ours is a meat-eating population, and composed chiefly of 
 Protestants ; and when we remember that this includes the bones as well 
 W the meat, half a pound per day is not too much to allow to each person, 
 
 Cattle are sent from every part of the kingdom to Smithfield markic. 
 
 o 
 
8*8 CATTUL 
 
 hilt many more from some districts than from others. A little l)efor« 
 Christmias, the fat beasts, to supply the good people of the metropolis with 
 beef of unusual quality for the holydays, begin to come in. They are sent 
 from every part — from Norfolk and Lincoln, Leicestershire and North- 
 ampton, Sussex, the Western and Midland counties, and from the stall- 
 yards more in the neighbourhood of the metropolis. Christmas having 
 passed, the Ntrfolk cattle, comprising all sorts, but a great many of them 
 home-breds and Galloways, throng to the market ; and their numbers, 
 compared with those of other districts, increase as the spring advances. 
 
 We have lymg before us a calculation of the respective numbers from the 
 different districts, at different seasons of the year. In February, March, 
 and April there arrived 16,000 Norfolks. nearly all stall-fed cattle ; while 
 from the North, including chiefly Leicester and Northampton, there 
 came but 600. In May, June, and July, the Norfolk cattle liad 
 increased to 17,800, and those from the North had risen from 600 to 
 3675. Ill July, August, and September, the grass-fed cattle begin to 
 pour in. The earliest are from the marshes of Essex, and therefore the 
 beasts from the centre and midland districts rise to 5350, while those 
 from Norfolk strangely decrease to 580. Some Leicesters, however, soon 
 •jecome ripe and quickly follow ; long droves from Northamptonshire 
 and Lincoln are not far behind; and the northern cattle, in the preceding 
 quarter 3675, rise to 16,340. In October, November, and the early part 
 of December, the grass-fed beasts still continue to occupy the market, and 
 no less than 33,000 arrived from Leicester, Northamptonshire, &c. ; while 
 the supplies from the marshes and the midland counties still partially kept 
 up, and are calculated at 6400, and the Norfolks at 2380. The grass 
 season is now past, and dependence begins to be placed on stall-feeHing ; 
 and therefore, as we observed at the outset, the northern cattle suddenly 
 fall to 600, and the Norfolks rise to 16,000. 
 
 The farmer has personally little to do with the sale of his cattle, but 
 custom and interest induce him to consign them to a salesman, who seldom 
 buys or sells on his own account. There is a law which prohibits him frt^m 
 buying altogether, but we fear that law is sometimes evaded. He is ac- 
 quainted with all the butchers and dealers of the district, and with the 
 contractors: he sees at a glance what is the state of the market ; he can 
 tell whether it is likely to rise or fall ; and, comparing the lot which is 
 entrusted to him with others, and with the market generally, he knows 
 exactly what they ought to fetch. The salesmen are generally honour- 
 able men ; they procure for the owner the value of his cattle under all 
 the circumstances of the market ; and although it may not always be so 
 much as the grazier had expected, it is more than he could have got 
 himself, and he is always sure of receiving his money. 
 
 When Smithfield was first appointed as the site of the periodical market 
 for cattle, no better situation could {Possibly have been selected. It was 
 without the walls of the city, it was a large uninclosed space, and would 
 have held ten times the cattle that were sent there. There was plenty of 
 room for them without their being cruelly packed together, and there was 
 no inconvenience nor danger from driving them through the streets. In 
 process of time, however, the field was encroached upon, and partly built 
 over ; and barely room was left for the accommodation of half the present 
 number of cattle, and those of only half the size of the improved breeds. 
 A dense population began to surround the field on every side, and it. was 
 necessary for the cattle to pass through the most crowded thoroughfares. 
 Thence arose danger to human life, and many an act of cruelty to the poor 
 bt;ust ; and not only so, but the most barbarous expedients were resorted to 
 
Tllli CRUEL1IES OF SMITHIIELD. 259 
 
 In pack the cattle in the circumscribed space which was now lefl to them, 
 — barbarities which it would not be thought could be practised in a Chris- 
 tian country, if they were not authenticated beyond all doubt. We sub- 
 join one statement of them in a note: it deserves the attentive perusal o{ 
 every one oonnected with cattle, and, we trust, will lessen the virulence 
 with which some, more from an erroneous calculation of interest, than 
 from an actual want of human feeling, oppose the removal of the cattle- 
 market once more to the outskirts of the city, and the establishment ot 
 abattpirs or slaughter-houses there. The extract is taken from ' The 
 Voice of Humanity,' an excellent and cheap quarterly publication, thai 
 ought to be in the hands of every one who is averse to unnecessary cruelty*. 
 
 * ' In Smithfield market there is not room to tie up to the rails much more than half of 
 the cattle seut there fur sale ! The remainder are disposed of by being formed, in groupi 
 of about twenty in each, into '■ riu)^" ur " off-droves,'* as such divisions are termed. About 
 two o'cLck in the morning the Smithiield barbarities are at the height, and the constables, 
 being sent into the market in the daytime only, are consequently uot in attendance. Th* 
 drovers surround the unfortunate bullocks which cannot be tied up in the market, and 
 commence by aiming with their bludgeons blows at their heads, to avoid which they 
 endeavour to hide their heads, by keeping them towards the ground. On attempting to 
 run backwards, the bullocks are restrained by blows upon their hocks and legs, together 
 with the application of goads ; whilst, if they venture to lift up the head, a dozen blud 
 geous are instantly hammering on it, until again lowered to the ground. This scene ol 
 barbarity is continued until every bullock, however refractory, obstinate, stupid, or dan 
 gerous at first, has been disciplined to stand quietly in a ring — their heads in the 
 centre, their bodies diverging outward like the radii of a circle : this is done that they 
 may conveniently be handled by the butchers. The barbarity of Smithfield is at its 
 height during the night; but in the daytime, by seeing the process by which one or 
 more bullocks, when sold, are driven out of a "ring" or "off drove," — and observing 
 the hammerings with bludgeons on the head; the thrusting the goads into the nos- 
 trils of the animals to make them move backwards, after similar instruments had been 
 applied to urge them in the contrary direction ; by witnessing the mode of re-forming the 
 " rings" or " off droves," which are constantly broken through by the withdrawment of pur- 
 chased animals, as well as by the passing and repassing of carts and drays, some faint idea 
 may be formed of the amount of needless barbarity infiicted, and of the consequent dete- 
 rioration of the meat. The deterioration of the meat has been calculated at no less a 
 sum than !00,000/. per annum, notwithstanding the care which the drovers take to 
 strike chiefly where there is no flesh interposed between the skin and the bone ; where the 
 animal feels most acutely, but there is no black mark to tell tales. — " I have lived fourteen 
 years in Smithfield," said a very intelligent witness, " and I find it perfectly impassible to 
 deep in the front of my house on the Sunday night. The cruelty practised upon the cattle, 
 in beating them into the ' rings,' no person can believe who has not seen it ; and, as it is 
 a matter very easily to be seen, I hope some of the committee (now sitting^ will see it 
 personally. Supposing a salesman to have twenty beasts (which could not be tied np), 
 he will have them all with their heads in and their tails out ; they form a ring ; and in 
 order to disdpline them to stand in that manner, the drovers are obliged to goad theia 
 behind and knock them upon the noses. They strike them with great force upon the 
 nose, and goad them cruelly behind, by which means they form themselves into ' a ring ;* 
 80 that, at the period I speak of, there is a great deal of unnecessary cruelty. At length 
 the cattle will stand in that manner, so perfectly diseipLned, that, at breakt'ast-time, there 
 shall be twenty or thirty 'rings' of this kind standing in the middle of the market. 
 Il the ' ring' is broken by any means, they are all in the greatest anxiety to get in again ; 
 and when the drovers are obliged to separate these 'rings,' aiul drive the cattle away, 
 they have a great deal of trouble, and the labonr of the men is excessive to get one single 
 beast out. Indeed, if you can conceive first getting the cattle into ' a ring,' as I have 
 stated, and if one is sold out of the ring at eleven in the day, the beast is ordered to be 
 driven through fifteen himdred cattle, whichever way he goes out of the market, and the 
 man is goading that beast all the way — if you can conceive men compelled to exer- 
 cise this t:ruelty, they will not be very delicate of the manner in which they use it after a 
 time ! " . 
 
 ' Another witness, who lad been " a salesman about eight years,*' thus described the 
 aeene:— 
 
 ' " I have stood behind eight of these offdroves, and the cruelty which is necessarily 
 ezercijed to get them to stand properly is very great indeed, and which, by tying up, 
 might be totally removed, and is the cause of the great complaint which exists of the 
 fr-.:-'- -r-? t™ ril.™.,;™ " n,. .I'~wB.«i .^'mieii mma massing throucb the streets, I 
 
 S2 
 
263 CATfLE. 
 
 The dairies of the metropulis are objects of much interest to the btranf;ei 
 and to the agriculturist. In pursuit of the object of this work we traveneo 
 
 will describe simply the manner in which U arises. Perhaps more than an hour's violenca 
 has been exercised towards the cattle, to get them to stand about twenty in each circle, — 
 and during the whole of this time they are beaten, now about the hocks, and then about 
 the head. If the head turns outward, they are beat about the head till they are turned 
 inward. The great cause of the inhumanity described arises from this circumstance, that 
 when a bullock is driven, perhaps from the centre of the market, by the butchers' drovers, 
 that bullock will run into five, six, seven, eight, or nine of the droves before he gets out 
 of the market : perhaps in every one of the droves that bullock is beat about the head 
 for ten minutes before he can be got out of it again, and then he runs to another drove, 
 from the circumstance of having been so beat about in the early part of the morning. 
 Consequently, perhaps, this bullock is beat out of ten droves before he gets out of the 
 market, to the very great injury of the animal. He is often beaten nearly or quite blind ; 
 and when it gets into the public streets, the bullock, irritated by the violence committed, 
 scarcely conscious where he is, runs at any thing, or over every thing, or through every 
 thing. All this would be entirely prevented, if there were room to tie each bullock sepa- 
 rately up." 
 
 We subjoin, \n connexion with this, au account of an undertaking of an opulent and 
 benevolent individual, Mr. Perkins, who, at the expense of 100,000/., has erected a cattle- 
 market, in the Lower Road at Islington, which will contain double the number of cattle 
 usually exhibited m Smithfield, and render the cruelties there practised in the packing 
 of them, no longer necessary. Tlie building, so far as it has proceeded, was first thrown 
 open to the inspection of the public, on the 13th of September, 1833. 
 
 ' The new mart stands upon an area of 22 acres, immediately abutting upoa the Lower 
 Road, Islington. The situation is airy and Ijealthy, and is peculiarly appropriate for the 
 purpose, as it is on the high road for the northern and eastern parts of the country, 
 whence the princinal supply of cattle for the London market comes. An immense 
 square is enclosed by high walls, around which are erected a continuous range of slated 
 sheds, supported by 244 Doric pillars, under which the cattle may at all times be pro- 
 tected i'rom the severity of the weather. These sheds are subdivided into numerous 
 compartments, with lairs enclosed by oak paling in front, to which the beasts may he 
 either fastened, or allowed to be at liberty, so as to be conveniently subject to the exami- 
 nation of the purchasers. In each lair there is a water-trough, constantly supplied with 
 fresh water, by meaus of pipes passing underground, from two immense tanks, which are 
 kept filled by machinery from capacious wells which have been sunk fur the purpose. 
 The average length of the sheds ia S30 feet, and they are capable of accommodating at 
 least 4,000 beasts, and here they may remain from one market-day to another, or tdl 
 such times as it may be convenient for the purchasers to remove them — an advantage 
 wholly impracticable at Smithfield. 
 
 ' The open space in the centre is divided into four quadrangles, intersected by wide 
 passages, and in these quadrangles are to be erected sheep-pens (the materials for which 
 are all ready), capable of holding 40,000, so placed as to be approached with perfect 
 facility. Other pens are constructed for calves, pigs, and such animals as are usually 
 brought for sale to the cattle- market, upon an obviously simple classification, so as to 
 avoid confusion or irregularity of any sort. 
 
 ' Every necessary office for salesmen and clerks of the market will be erected in a large 
 area in the centre, and the ingress is obtained through a large arched passage under the 
 market-house, a fine substantial building, with appropriate offices on each side for check- 
 clerks, and with accommodation up stairs, either for the counting-houses of bankers, or 
 public meetings connected with the business of the establishment. To the leads of this 
 house the visitors proceeded, and from thence a full view of the whole market was ob- 
 tained, as well as of the surrounding country ; at once showing the perfect appropriateness 
 and unobjectionable character of the site, which, in point of extent, is four times larger 
 than Smithfield. The piers and layers are all to he paved, if we may use the expressipn, 
 with hard bricks ; and the drainage is so contrived as to ensure perfect cleanliness in tba 
 most unfavourable weather. 
 
 ' .4Aa«ozV«.— Adjoiniiig the market it is intended to erect abattoirs for slaughtering 
 cattle of every description ; in which persons may either be accommodated with private 
 slaughter-houses, or have the animals slaughtered under appointed inspectors at a certain 
 fixed and moderate rate j so that all the expense, inconvenience, and mischief arising 
 from the present mode of driving the cattle through the ciowded streets on the market- 
 day may be avoided. 
 
 ' A market tavern, with stable-yard, stables, and sheds, capable of accommodating the 
 horses of the trequenters of the market, is also to be erected, together with a range o( 
 ■hops for the tale of such things as are calculated to meet the wants of the vario\is classea 
 
THE LONDON DAIRIES. 26 
 
 over the <rreater part of the United Kingdom ; and although we ol'ten had 
 no other recommendation than the simple statement of the purport of our 
 journey, we met with very few cases of incivility or of unwillingness to 
 give us the fullest information ; but when we returned to our usual resi 
 dence, and where we expected most facility in the attainment of otii 
 object, we will not say that the refusal to admit us was accompanied bj 
 rudeness, but the gate of the dairy remained closed This was the case 
 with our overgrown milk establishments. It was a species of illibe- 
 rality on which we had not calculated ; but it mattered little, for we had 
 seen many of the smaller ones, and we could guess with tolerable accuracy 
 at the difference of treatment in some points — indeed they had been 
 already wliispered to us, and we had besides a minute and accurate account 
 of them in the Magazine of our friend Mr. Berry. 
 
 The number of cows kept for the purpose of supplying the inhabitants 
 of the metropolis and its environs with milk is about 12,000. They are, 
 with very few exceptions, of the short-horn breed — the Holderness oi 
 Yorkshire cow, and almost invariably with a cross of the improved 
 Durham blood. The universal preference given to this breed by such a 
 body of men, differing materially on many branches of the treatment ol 
 cattle, is perfectly satisfactory as to their value, and that on three distinct 
 points. 
 
 First, as to the quantity of milk. This we need not press, for the ene- 
 mies of the short-horns have never contested this point. There is no cow 
 which pays so well for what she consumes in the quantity ofinilk that she 
 returns. 
 
 Thi.s, however, is not ail, though it may be the principal thing which 
 enters into the calculation of the metropolitan dairymen. 
 
 The name of new milk has something very pleasant about it, but it is an 
 article which rarely makes its appearance at the breakfast or tea table of 
 the citizen. That which is got from the cow at night is put by until the 
 morning, and the cream skimmed off, and then a little water being added, 
 it is sold to the public as the morning's milk. The real morning's milk is 
 also put by and skimmed, and, being warmed a little, is sold as the even- 
 ing's milk. This is the practice of most or all of the little dairymen who 
 keep their half a dozen cows ; and if this were all, and with these people 
 it is nearly all, the public must not complain • the milk may be lowered by 
 the warm water, but the lowering system is not carried to any great extent, 
 for there is a pride among them that their milk shall be better than that 
 of the merchants on a yet smaller scale, who purchase the article from the 
 great dairies ; and so it generally is. The milk goes from the yard of the 
 great dairy into the possession of the itinerant dealers perfectly pure ; what 
 is done with it afterwards, and to what degree it is lowered and sophisti- 
 cated, is known only to these retail merchants. 
 
 The proprietor of the large dairy is also a dealer in cream to a consider- 
 able extent among these people ; he is also a great manufacturer of 
 butter, for he must have milk enough to answer every demand, and that 
 demand is exceedingly fluctuating ; then it is necessary that the quality 
 of the milk sV.ould be good, in order that he may turn the overplus to 
 profitable account, in the form of cream or butter. The employment of 
 the short-horn cow, in all the dairies, is a convincing proof that her milk 
 is not so poor as some have described it to be. 
 
 It is the practice in most of the dairies to fatten a cow as soon as her 
 
 who may be drawn to the 8)>ot by their resppctive avocations. Every possible want hai 
 ill fact bnen foreseen ; dtld, as the place is nuw open for iD8pei:tioii, ihe public have ui 
 DDPortuuity of jiidi(tnjr of its utility by personal obseivatioo.' 
 
262 CATIXK. 
 
 milk becomes less than four quarts a day. Tliey are rarely siifTered to 
 breed while in the dairyman's possession. The fact of their beinp; so often 
 changed is a proof that while the cow pves a remuneratinnr quantity of 
 miil{ for a certain time, she is rapidly and cheaply fattened for the butcher 
 as soon as her milk is dry. Were much time or money employed in pre- 
 paring her for the market, this system would not answer, and would not 
 be so universally adopted. Fattening and milking properties can, there 
 fore, combine in the same animal, and they do so here. 
 
 Mr. Laycock, however, does not adopt this as a general rule. The 
 cows that are more than usually good milkers are suffered to take the 
 hull when in season. He always keeps some good short-horn bulls foi 
 this purpose. It sometimes happens that the cow will continue to give 
 m'lk until within a few weeks of calving ; and he judges, and perhaps 
 rightly, that this is a more profitable course than to fatten and get rid 
 of her, with the probability that he might replace her by a cow that would 
 give a less quantity of milk. 
 
 The present market-price of a good dairy cow is about ZOl., but the 
 owners of the small dairies have no little trouble to get a good cow. Th» 
 jobbers know that they will have a ready market for a considerable portion 
 of their lot in the yards of the great cow-proprietors, and will probably 
 get a larger price than the poorer man would give ; and therefore Messrs 
 Rhodes, or Laycock, or one or two others, have always the first selection. 
 Mr. Laycock has peculiar advantages for obtaining good cattle- In 
 addition to his dairy, he has sheds that will contain five or six thousand 
 beasts. A great proportion of tliem halt on his premises for a day or two 
 before they are brought into the market. In addition to the shilling a 
 nig.it which he charges for their standing, he claims the milk of the cows 
 as his perquisite. The cows are milked by his people ; he therefore 
 knows beforehand the quantity of milk which each will yield, and he is 
 thus enabled to cull thu very best of the herd. The dairymen do not like 
 a cow until she has had her third or fourth calf, and is five or six years 
 old ; she then yields the greatest quantity of milk, and of the best quality. 
 Two gallons of milk per day is the quantity which each cow is expected 
 to yield in order to be retained in the dairy. Taking one cow with an- 
 other, the average quantity obtained is rather more than nine quarts. 
 
 When she begins to fail in her milk, she is fattened on oil-cake, grains, 
 and cut clover hay, and disposed of. The dairyman calculates on getting 
 something more for her than when he first bought her, but sometimes he 
 meets with an animal that seems to verify the old prejudice against cows 
 m good condition. He bought her for her known milking properties, l)ut 
 she continues so poor that he in a manner hides her in some corner of his 
 dairy. She, however, does her duty ; she yields him plenty of milk, but 
 that at length dries up ; and he is unable, try what he will, to get much 
 flesh upon her bones, and he sells her for less than half of her first price. 
 
 The quantity of milk yielded by all these cows, at 9 quarts per day, 
 amounts to 39,420,000 quarts, or 27 quarts of genuine milk for each 
 individual. The retail dealers usually sell the milk for 4d. per quart 
 after the cream is separated from it, and then obtain 3s. per quart for the 
 cream ; beside this, a great deal of wa-ter is mixed with this skimmed 
 milk: so that we far underrate the price when we caleulate that the 
 geimme milk sells at 6d. per quart, which makes the money expended in 
 milk in the British metropolis amount to 985,500/. or nearly a million 
 pounds per annum. 
 
 If we again divide the 983,500/. by 12,000, (the number of cows,) we 
 shall have the strange and almost incredible sum of more than 82/« as the 
 
niE LONDON DAIRIES. 263 
 
 money produced by the milk of each cow. This is divided among' a 
 variety of persons, and after all affords but a scanty subsistence to many 
 of them ; but it unequivocally proves the rascality that pervades some oi 
 the departments of the concern. 
 
 We acquit the wholesale dealers of any share in the roguery, nor do We 
 believe tliat their profits are exocbitant. They sell the milk to the retail 
 dealers at a price that, according to Dr. Middleton, would enable them to 
 clear 64 per cent., without adulterating the article — (we believe that 50 
 per cent, would be nearer the truth.) When we consider the nature of the 
 business ; the distance the milk-girls have to travel; and the time wasted in 
 selling their little quantities from door to doo<-, this profit is not too great ; 
 but when they abstract the cream, and add the water, and, unless they 
 are much belied, some extraneous and abominable articles, the actual 
 profits will far exceed cent, per cent. In the spring of the year, when 
 London is full* the consumption and the deterioration are greatest. In the 
 latter part of the year the cream is converted into butter, »nd the butter- 
 milk given to the hogs. 
 
 Rhodes's dairy has been established more than thirty years, but some 
 of the same family or name have lived in that neighbourhood nearly a 
 century. ' Mr. Rhodes, farmer, near Islington,' is referred to by Dr. 
 Brocklesby, in his treatise on the murrain which prevailed among cattle 
 about the middle of the last century. The writer of ' London Dairies, 
 in the British Farmer's Magazine for February 1831, gives a description 
 'of it, of which the following is the substance : — The sutface on which the 
 buildings are placed is a gentle slope of two or three acres, facing the 
 east. The sheds run in the direction of the slope, as well for the drainage 
 of the gutters as for the supply of water for drinking, which will thus run 
 from trough to trongh the whole length of the shed. The sheds are 
 twenty-four feet wide ; the side-walls being about eight feet high, with 
 rising shutters for ventilation, and panes of glass let into iron frames for 
 'light. The floor is nearly flat, with a gutter along the centre, and a row 
 'of stalls, each seven feet and a half wide, along the sides, and adapted for 
 two cows, which are attached by chains to a ring that runs upon an 
 upright rod in the corner of the stalls. A trough or ma«ger, of the ordi- 
 nary. size of those nsed for horses, is placed at the top of the stall. Four 
 of these sheds are placed parallel and close to each other, and in the 
 party-walls are openings a foot wide, and four feet high, opposite to each 
 cow. The bottom of these openings is about nine inches higher than 
 the upper surface of the troughs, and contains a one-foot square cast-iron 
 ci.'-fern. which contains the water for drinking ; each cistern serves for two 
 cuwK that are placed opposite to each other, hut in different sheds: all 
 these cisterns are supplied from one large tank. These cisterns have a 
 wooden cover, which is put on while the cows are eating their grains, to 
 prevent their drinking at that time, and tainting the water by dropping 
 any of the grains into it. At the upper end and at one corner of this 
 quadruple range of sheds is the daii^y, consisting of three rooms, each 
 about twelve feet square ; the outer, or measiiring-room — the middle, or 
 scalding-room, with a fire-place and a boiler — and the inner, or milk and 
 butter room. 
 
 At the lower end of the range is a square yard surrounded by sheds, 
 some for fattening the cows when they have ceased to give milk, and the 
 others for store and breeding pigs. The pigs are kept to consume the 
 casual stock of skim-milk which remains on hand, owing to the fluctua- 
 tions of the demand. The milk is kept in a well, walled with brick laid 
 !U cement, about six feet in diameter, and twelve feet deep. The milk 
 
264 CATTLE. 
 
 soon becomes sour there, but is then most nourisliing to the hogs. Breed, 
 ino' swine is thought to be the most profitable, and the sucking pigs are 
 sold for roasting. 
 
 Beyond this yard is a deep pit or pond, into which tlie dung is 
 emptied. There is a stack yard, sheds, and pits for roots, straw, and hay; 
 a place for cutting chaflF, cart- sheds, stables, and every building which 
 such an establishment can require. The number of cows varies from 
 four to five hundred. 
 
 The treatment of the cows is singular in some respects. The cows are 
 never untied while they are retained as milkers. Some of them have 
 stood in the stall more than two years. Mr. Laycock, on the contrary, 
 turns his cows out once every day to dfink from troughs in the yard, and 
 they remain out from half an hour to three hours, depending on the 
 weather and the season of the year. From the end of June until Michael- 
 mas, they are turned into the fields from six o'clock in the morning until 
 twelve or one, and from two o'clock in the afternoon till about three 
 o'clock on the following morning. Mr. Rhodes's cows have always 
 v«ter standing in the cisterns before them. 
 
 We can readily conceive that, from the want of exercise, and consequent 
 cutaneous perspiration, Rhodes's cows may give a somewhat greater 
 quantity of milk than Laycock's ; but on the other hand, when we think 
 of an animal tied in the corner of a stall for twelve, or eighteen, or twenty- 
 four mouths together, we cannot help associating the idea of disease, or 
 tendency to disease at least, with such an unnatural state of things ; 
 the feet and the digestive system would particularly suffer, and we 
 should suspect a little vitiation of all the secretions, and some dete 
 rioratiou in the quality of the milk. We should hke to know the com- 
 parative state of health of the animals in(, the two establishments. The 
 inclination of our opinion would be strongly in favour of Mr. Laycock's 
 plan. ^ 
 
 The principal food of the cows in both of these, and in all the dairies 
 of the metropolis, is grains ; and as the brewing seasons are chiefly in 
 autumn and spring, a stock of grains is generally laid in at those seasons 
 for the, rest of the year. The grains are laid up in pits, lined with brick- 
 work set in cement, from ten to twenty feet deep, and of any convenient 
 size. They are firmly trodden down, and covered with a layer of moist 
 earth, eight or nine inches thick, to keep out the rain and frost in winter, 
 and the heat in summer. A cow consumes about a bushel of these grains 
 daily, the cost of which is from fourpence to fivepence, exclusive of car- 
 riage and preservation. The grains are, if possible, thrown into the pit 
 while warm and in a state of fermentation, and they soon turn sour, but 
 they are not liked the worse by cattle on that account : and the air being 
 perfectly excluded, the fermentation cannot run on to putrefaction. The 
 dairymen say that the slow and slight degree of fermentation which goes 
 on, tends to the greater development of the saccharine and nutritive prin- 
 ciple, and they will have as large a stock upon hand as they can afford, 
 and not open the pits until they are compelled. It is not uncommon for 
 two years to pass before a pit of grains is touched ; and it is said that 
 gome have lain nine years, and been perfectly good at the expiration of ' 
 that period. The dairyman, however, must know his brewer, and be 
 able to depend on him. The grains from a large ale brewery are the 
 most nourishing. Those from the porter brewery are not so good ; and 
 those from the little brewers, who first draw off their ale, and afterwards 
 extract every particle of nutriment in the formation of table beer are 
 ■carcely worth havin^t. 
 
SUKREl. 26b 
 
 Euch cow is allowed a portion of salt. In Rhodes's establishment it i.s 
 given witli the grains. Laycock salts his ricls when it is first made ; — a 
 most excellent plan, for the hay is not only eiTectually secured from be- 
 coming mow-burnt or mouldy, but it is rendered more grateful to the 
 animal, and we may venture to say, almost doubly nourishing, from the 
 development of the saccharine principle. It is to be doubted, however, 
 whether the cows obtain a sufficient quantity of salt in this way. Some 
 should be given with the grains 
 
 The grains are usually givei^ about three o'clock in the morning, and 
 two o'clock in the afternoon, being a little before the usual milking hours. 
 Between the milkings they have green meat, as long as the season will 
 permit. Cut-grass is a favourite and excellent food ; but where it cau be 
 managed, the plan of Mr. Laycock to let the cows cut the grass for them- 
 selves is a far superior one. Tares come in before the grass, and are 
 afterwards given alternately with it. In winter, turnips, potatoes, and 
 mangel-wurzel, are given as long as they can be obtained at any reason- 
 able price ; and then the dairyman is driven to hay or chaff: the supe 
 riority of chaff is now generally allowed. 
 
 Both of these gentlemen fatten off their dry cows with grains, oil-cake, 
 and clover-chaff, to which Mr. Laycock adds boiled linseed. Our readers 
 may recollect ilie experiments made by the Duke of Bedford on the fat- 
 tening quahty of linseed, boiled and unboiled, (p. 213), and in which the 
 simple unboiled linseed fattened the animals more expeditiously than any 
 cooked preparation of that seed. Mr. Laycock boils the linseed in a com- 
 mon boiler, and when reduced to a pulp, conveys it by tubes into large 
 wooden cisterns, where it is mixed with clover chaff roughly cut, and 
 sometimes with grains. 
 
 These wholesale dairymen usually agree with the retail dealers, that they 
 (the dealers) shall milk the cows. The dealer knows the quantity of 
 milk that he 'wants, and the dairyman knowing the usual quantity of milk 
 yielded by each cow, calculates what number of cows will meet the de- 
 mand, and the retail dealer attends at three o'clock in the morning and 
 two in the afternoon, to milk these cows. He carries it into the measur 
 ing-room, where its precise quantity is ascertained. If, as cows often vary 
 considerably in their flow of milk in the course of two or three days, he 
 has milked more than his quantity, it is put into a vessel belonging to the 
 dairyman ; or if the cows should not have given their usual supply, the de- 
 ficiency is made up from the dairyman's vessel. The milk which is left on 
 hand is put into shallow vessels, the crean). skimmed and made into butter, 
 and the skimmed-milk thrown into the pit%r the hogs. 
 
 The Joint-Stock dairies, which a few years ago sprung up in such 
 abundance, have either ceased to exist, or the number of cows, much di- 
 minished, have fallen into private hands. While there were many partners, 
 and the business was controlled by a committee of persons who knew 
 nothing at all about the matter, they all proved to, be lamentable failures. 
 Some of them, even in the hands of private individuals, who brought with 
 them little or no experience, were sadly ruinous concerns. The Metro- 
 politan Dairy was a striking illustration of this; but now, under the ma- 
 nagement of those who have been drilled into the business, it is doing 
 better. 
 
 SURREY. 
 
 This county, like Essex and Middlesex, cannot be said to have any 
 distinguishing breed. The short-horns undoubtedly prevail ; but in the 
 parts bordering on Sussex, the valuable breed of that county is found in 
 
S66 
 
 CATTLE. 
 
 great numbers. In some parts of the county, particularly in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Reigate, the Devons are the favourites ; but there are to be 
 found cattle of every breed, and crosses of every kind. Many calves are 
 reared for the London market about Chobham and Bagshot, and some 
 few about Esher and Ripley ; but the business has been found to bs not 
 so productive as it was once imagined to be, and has declined, particu* 
 tarly in the two Ittter places.- 
 
 Chapteh VIH. 
 THE FOREIGN BREEDS OF CATTLE. 
 
 
 
 
 'W^f-'-kdf' 
 
 ^^^yy^' 
 
 {The Altkrnei Bull.] 
 
 A>I,DERNEY CATTLE. 
 
 IV. 
 
 1 
 
 First among them, — and a regular importation of which is kept up, — we 
 have the Normandy, or Alderney cattle. The Normandy cattle are im- 
 ported from the French continent, and are larger and have a superior 
 tendency to fatten ; the others are from the islands on the French coast ; 
 but all of them,, whether from the continent or the islands, pass under the 
 common name of Alderneys. 
 
 Except in Hampshire, they are found only in gentlemen's parks and 
 pleasure-grounds, and they maintain their occupancy there partly on ac- 
 count of the richness of their milk, and the great quantity of butter which 
 It yields, but more from the diminutive size of the animals. Their real 
 ugliness is passed over on these accounts ; and it is thought fashionable 
 that the view from the breakfast or drawing room of the house should 
 present an Alderney cow or two grazing at a little distance. 
 
ALDKRJSKY CATTLK. 
 
 5ft- 
 
 [TheAldemey Cow,} 
 
 Juhn Lawrence describes them as ' light-red, yellow, dun or fawn- 
 »}IoiiKd ; short, wild;horned, deet^necked, thin and small-boned, irregu- 
 arly, but often very awkwardly shaped.' „ 
 
 Mr. Parkinson, who seems to have a determined prejudice against them' 
 says that ' their size is small, and they are of as bad a form as can pos- 
 sibly 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 behind the shoulders ; the 
 chine is nearly without flesh ; the bucks are narrow and sharp at the 
 ends, — ^the rump is short, and they are narrow and light in the brisket.' 
 This is about as bad a form as can possibly be described, and the picture 
 is very little exaggerated, when the animal is analysed point by point ; yet 
 all tliese defects are so put together, as to make a not uiipleasing whole. 
 
 The Aldemey, considering its voracious appetite — for it devours almost 
 as much as a short-horn — yields very little milk. That milk, however, is 
 of an extraordinarily excellent quality, and gives more butter than can be 
 obtained from the milk of any other cow. Of this no one can doubt who 
 has possessed any Aldemey cows. Some writers on agricultural subjects 
 have, however, denied it. The milk of the Aldemey cow fits her for the 
 situation in which she is usually placed, and where the excellence of t e 
 article is regarded, and not the expense : but it is not rich enough, yield* 
 ing the small quantity that she does, to pay for what she costs*. On t e 
 coast of Hampshire, there is great facility in obtaining the Aldernev 
 cattle, and they are great favourites there." We must refer our readers to 
 the ' Description of Hampshire,' p. 215, for the manner in which they 
 
 * John Lawrence says, that an Alderney cow that had strayed on the premises of a 
 friend of his, and remained there three weeks, made 19 lbs. of butter each week ; and 
 the fact was held so extraordinary, as to be thought worthy of a memorandum in the 
 parish books. 
 
269 
 
 CATTLE, 
 
 have established themselves in that part of the country, and the Tarious 
 ways in which other breeds have been crossed by them 
 
 One excellence it must be acknowledged that the Alderneys possess : 
 when they are dried, they fatten with a rapidity that would be scarcely 
 thought possible from their gaunt appearance, and their want of a! nost 
 every grazing point, while living. The Duke of Bedford exhibited a 
 French ox at the Smithfield cattle show, in 1802, whose four .quarters 
 weighed 95 stone 3 lbs., and the fat 17 stone 3 lbs., Smithfield weight. 
 
 Some have assigned to the Norman cattle a share in the improvement 
 of the old short-horns ; but the fact does not rest on any good authority. 
 
 EAST INDIAN CATTLE. 
 
 Several varieties of these have been imported, and attempts made to 
 naturalize them, but with varied success. 
 
 NAOORB CATTLE. 
 
 A bull and cow were exhibited at the Christmas cattle show, in 1832, 
 under the denomination of Nagore cattle. They were beautiful animals, 
 and attracted much attention. They were the property of Henry Perkins, 
 Esq., of Springfield, near Wandsworth, to whom we are indebted for the 
 substance of the following account of them. ^ 
 
 They were bred by Lieutenant-Colonel Skinner, at his farm at Danah, 
 near Pokah, on the borders of the Bichaneer desert, 100 miles to the west- 
 ward of Delhi. They are not buffaloes, but of the highest breed of Indian 
 cattle. They are used in India by the higher orders, to draw their state 
 carriages, and are much valued for their size, speed, and endurance, and 
 sell at very high prices. These specimens arrived at Calcutta, a distance 
 
 IThe ifagore Bull] 
 
KAST INDIAN CATTLE. 269 
 
 of 1400 miles, in January, 1829, and were then somethinj'' under sis 
 months old. They were sent as a present to Mr. Wood, who was then 
 residing- at Calcutta, and by whom they were forwarded to Mr. Perkins. 
 
 Colonel SUinner has a large stock of them ; and six or seven beasts are 
 always kept saddled to carry the military despatches. They remain saddled 
 three or four hours, and if not wanted .i that time, fresh ones are brought 
 out to relieve their companions. They will travel, with a soldier on their 
 backj 15 or 16 hours in the day, at the rate of six miles an hour. Their 
 action is particularly fine — nothing like the English cattle, with the side- 
 way, circular action of their hind legs — the Nagore cattle bring their 
 hind legs under them in as straight a line as the horse. They are very 
 active, and can clear a five-barred gate with the greatest ease. Mr. Per- 
 kins has a calf which has leaped over an iron fence higher than any five- 
 barred gate; and the bull frequently jumps over the same fence in order 
 to get at the water, and when he has drunk his fill, leaps back again. 
 
 The bull (Jupiter) was in high condition when exhibited. He is em- 
 ployed in a light cart, in various jobs about the farm : sometimes he goes 
 fore-horse in the waggon-team, to deliver corn ; he also drags the bush- 
 harrow, and draws the light roller over the ploughed land. He is 
 very docile and tractable, when one man drives him, and attends 
 upon him, but he has, now and then, shown symptoms of dislike to 
 others. 
 
 He is fed entirely on hay. Except that when he works, a little 
 bran is given to him, and in the turnip season he is treated occasionally 
 with a few slices of Swedes, of which he is very fond. He was at first 
 very troublesome to shoe ; and it was necessary to erect a break in order 
 to confine him. He was unwilling to go into it for some time, but now 
 walks iu very contentedly. 
 
 He is very fond of being noticed ; and often, when he is lying 
 down, if any one to whom he is accustomed goes and sits down upon him, 
 and strokes him over the face, he will turn round, and put his head on 
 their lap. and lie there contentedly iis long as they please. 
 
 Mr. Perkins very properly observes, that the chief advantage of these 
 Brahmin bulls would probably cofisist in their speed and strength, in both 
 of which they surpass any of our breeds. 
 
 The cow (lij) is at grass with the milch cows, and comes up with them 
 morning and evening, when they are driven to be milked ; but Mr. 
 Perkins has not ventured to have her milked, on account of the probable 
 danger of the attempt : the value of these cattle for the pail is therefore 
 unknown. Two calves have been bred from them, and a milch cow is 
 now in calf by the bull. 
 
 Neillier of the calves is yet old enough, or ready, for the butcher, and 
 therefore the quality of the meat is unknown; but, a strong perfume being 
 left upon the hand when it is passed over them, there may possibly be a 
 peculiar taint in the meat. 
 
 BUFFALO AND INDJAN CATTLB 
 
 Mr. C. Winn, of Nostal, near Wakefield, nas some cattle, the progeny 
 Df a zebra bull and a Brahmin cow. They breed once in the year, and 
 the calf is sutti^red to run with the mother as long as it pleases. Some of 
 them have been castrated, but with little development of form or improve- 
 ment of meat. When fattened, they weigh from 25 to 30 stones. One 
 A'as killed, weighing more than 35 stones, imperial weight. The bone is 
 
270 CATTLE. 
 
 exceedingly small, and the meat is not well-flavoured, and is compara. 
 lively destitute of gravy. They have bred with the English cattle, but the 
 oflFspring has never been reared. A calf from an Ayrshire cow, by one o£ 
 these bulls, became so fat at one month old, that it weighed 25 lbs. per 
 quarter, and was most delicious meat. 
 
 The Duke of Northumberland has a fine breed of buffalo-cattle in hia 
 beautiful park at Alnwick. They are not, however, the pure Indian 
 breed, but a cross with the Highland Kyloe, the original bull having died 
 soon after their arrival at Alnwick, more than twenty years ago. They 
 have never been allowed to increase much above their present number, 
 about 30, and only one or two bulls are suffered to be among them at one 
 time. They have promiscuously bred among each other, care being taken ' 
 to preserve those for breeders which most resembled the originals, the size 
 of the characteristic hump on the shoulder being the principal guide. 
 
 They are treated in a great measure like the other cattle, only, from 
 their wild nature, no attempt has been made to handle them. During 
 severe weather, or a storm in winter, they have a hovel to run into ; and 
 although they do not seem to bear the cold climate so well as one of their 
 progenitors, the Kyloes, they are usually very healthy. 
 
 When the calves are dropped, the mother endeavours to secrete them 
 among the long grass for a few days, like other wild cattle, so that the 
 herdsman has to watch the place, and a favourable opportunity, to castrate 
 or spiiy them. 
 
 They are good graziers ; the young ones getting into excellent condi- 
 tion in the summer ; and although they evidently lose flesh in the winter, 
 yet by the time they are killed in the fall of the year, when four or five 
 years old, they are very good beef. The meat is finely marbled, and well- 
 flavoured. 
 
 In Wentworth Park, the principal seat ot J^arl Fitzwilliam, there is a 
 herd of beautiful Indian cattle. They were presented to Lord Rocking- 
 ham, sixty or seventy years ago, by Mr. Yerelst, who was at that time 
 Governor of Bengal. They have been occasionally killed for the table, 
 but their flesh had a peculiar sweetish taste, not ple&sant to every palate. 
 Two years ago some of the calves were castrated, in order to see how they 
 would answer as grazing cattle ; they are not yet old enough to kill, but 
 they do not appear to thrive so well as those that were left in their natural 
 state. In winter they are driven into a yard with sheds ; for they would 
 nearly starve in the open ground. No cross has been attempted between 
 these and the cattle of the country, from an impression on the mind ot 
 '.he noble proprietor, that it would be more a matter of zoological curioait) 
 ihan of practical utility 
 
»7l 
 
 THE 
 
 ANATOMICAL STRUCTURE 
 
 DISEASES OF CATTLE. 
 
 Chapter IX. 
 THE STRUCTURE AND DISEASES OF THE HEAD OF THE OX. 
 
 Hi/iNO described the various breeds of cattle, and touched incidentally on 
 some of the principles of breeding, the method of rearing young stock, 
 and the general management of the (ix, we are prepared to enter into the 
 consideration of his structure. This will afiiird us opportunity of more 
 satisfactorily elucidating the peculiarities, or points, on the development 
 of which the excellence of the beast, for certain purposes, is supposed to 
 depend ; and will also enable us to understand the nature and proper 
 treatment of the diseases to which neat cattle are subject. The first 
 is an important but disputed topic : it has been founded too much on 
 mere assertion ; it has \aried with the caprice of individuals, or the fahhior 
 of the day ; and it has rarely been referred to principle, and to the necessary 
 effect of certain conformations on the capacity of the animal for certain 
 purposes : the latter, more important still, has been altogether neglected, for 
 until lately there did not exist; in the English language', and scarcely in 
 any other, a scientific and satisfactory account of the nature and causes 
 ■and cure of the maladies of neat cattle ; but these animals were, with few 
 exceptions, abandoned to the tender mercies of those whose practice may 
 be characterized as a compound of ignorance and brutality. 
 
 We should have endeavoured to make this part of our work perfect, with- 
 out reference to any other ; but having, in our treatise on * the Horse," en- 
 tered into a laboured description of the different parts of the frame of that 
 quadruped, we shall avoid repetition by occasional reference to that por- 
 tion of the Farmer's Series: and shall be enabled to make our anatomical 
 detail as brief as a clear understanding of the medical treatment of cattle 
 wdl admit, and consisting of that only which is peculiar to cattle. For the 
 purpose of future reference,: and. in conformity with the treatise on ' tlur 
 Hoise we first introduce the skeleton of the ox. 
 
172 
 
 a. The uppet jaw-bone. 
 
 t. The nasal bone, or bone of the nose. 
 
 c, The lachrymal bone. 
 
 d, The malar, or cheek-bone. 
 
 e, The frontal bone, or bone of the fore- 
 
 head. 
 
 /, The horns, being processes or continu- 
 ations of the frontal. 
 
 y, The temporal bone. 
 
 A, The parietal bone low in the temporal 
 fossa. 
 
 i, The occipital bone, deeply depressed 
 below the crest or ridge of the head, 
 
 J, The lower jaw. 
 
 i The grinders. 
 
 I. The nippers, found on the lower jaw 
 alone. 
 
 m. The ligament ol the neck, and iti 
 attachments. 
 
 », The atlas. 
 
 0, The dentata. 
 
 p, The orbit of the eye. 
 
 q, The vertebrae, or bones of the neck. 
 
 r, The bones of the back. 
 
 (, The bones of the loins. 
 
 t. The sacrum. _ 
 
 u, The bones of the tail. 
 
 V S, to. The haunch and pelvis. 
 
 [SteMoH of the Ox.] 
 
 X, The eight true ribs. 
 
 y. The false ribs, with their cartilages, 
 
 2, The sternum. 
 
 1, The scapula, or shoulder-blade. 
 
 2, The humerus, or lower bone of the 
 shoulder. 
 
 3, The ndius. or principal bone of the 
 
 4, The ulna, its upper part forming the 
 
 elbow. 
 3, The small bones of the kuee. 
 
 6, The large metacarpal or shank-bone 
 
 7, The smaller or splint-bone. 
 
 8, The sessamoid bones. 
 
 9, The bifurcation at the pasterns, and 
 
 the two larger pasterns to each foot. 
 
 10, The two smaller pasterns to each 
 
 foot. 
 
 11, The two coffin-bones to each foot. 
 
 12, The navicular bones. 
 
 13, The thigh-bone. 
 
 14, The patella, or bone of the knee, 
 
 15, The tibia, or proper leg-bone. 
 
 16, The point of the hock. 
 
 17, 17, The small bones of the hock. 
 18, 18, The metatarsals, or larger bones 
 
 of the hind leg. 
 19, 19, The pasterns and feet. 
 
 The head of the ox may be divided, like that of the hone, into two 
 parts — the skull and the face. The following cut represents a section of 
 both. 
 
STiUJCTURE OF THE HKAD OF THE OX. 
 
 2r3 
 
 ISection of the Head of the Ox.] 
 
 a The hurn, shawing it to be a process 
 of the frontal bone, and the manner 
 in which it is hollowed. 
 
 t, The frontal bone. 
 
 c. The frontal sinus, extending from the 
 
 nasal bone almost to the tip of the 
 horn and the great foramen. 
 
 d. The condyloid process of the occipital 
 
 bone, and the foramen, through 
 which the spinal cord passes from 
 the skull. 
 
 e. The cavitj of the skull. 
 
 /, The petrous portion of the temporal 
 bone appearing in the cavity of the 
 skuU. 
 
 g. The passage to the internal part of 
 the ear. 
 
 k. The foramen lacerum, or irregular 
 foramen, through which several of 
 the nerves escape from the space> 
 and some of the blood-vessels enter. 
 
 t, The foramen ovale — oval foramen. 
 
 j, The anterior condyloid foramen. 
 
 i, The posterior do. 
 
 /, The basilar process of the occipital. 
 
 n, The sphenoid bone. 
 
 n, The crista galli of the ethmoid bone. 
 
 g, The pterigoid bone. 
 
 p, The perpendicular portion of the pa- 
 latine bone. 
 
 q, The nasal bone. 
 
 r, The ethmoid bone. 
 
 «, The superior turbinated bone. 
 
 /, The inferior turbinated bone. 
 
 u, The lower cell of the ethmoid, so 
 large in the ox as to be termed by 
 some the middle turbinated bone. 
 
 V, The maxillary sinus. 
 
 to, The cells of the palatine bone. 
 
 X, The superior maxillary bone — its pa- 
 latine process. 
 
 y, The grinders. 
 
 2, The anterior maxillary bone, destitute 
 of incisor teeth. 
 
 ■ The cranium or skull, that portion of the head which contains and pro- 
 tects the brain, is composed of eight bones: two frontals, e, p. 272, and b, 
 p. 273 ; one parietal, A, p. 272 ; two temporals, g, p. 272, and f, p- 273 ; 
 one occipital, i, p. 272 ; and d and /, p. 273 ; one ethmoid, n and r, 
 p. 273 ; and one sphenoid, m, p. 273. 
 
 ' The difference in the appearance of the head of the ox and the horse is 
 principally caused by the different extent and form of the frontal and pa,^ 
 
274 tA'lTLE. 
 
 netai oones ; while in the horse, (see a and c, p. 66 of the • Horse') the 
 frontal bones extend but little more than half way from the orbit of th« 
 eye to the top of the head ; and, above them, the parietals, thickly covered 
 by the, temporal muscles, form the arch-shaped roof of the skull; in cattle, 
 the frontal bones extend from the nose to the superior rid^e of the skull, 
 presenting a flattened but irregular surface, and entirely bare of mus- 
 cular or fleshy covering. In the foetal calf, there are two distinct fron- 
 tals, but the suture soon disappears, and one broad and lengthened bone 
 remains. 
 
 THE FRONTAL BONES. 
 
 Nature has given to most species of cattle a formidable weapon of 
 offence, the horn. To be eflfective, it must be securely based ; and it 
 could only be so, or it could best be so, by this expanse of frontal bone. 
 From this bone the horn springs, and it is in fact a contitiuation of tlit 
 frontal, (see a, p- 273.) To the male animal this weapon seems to bp 
 most necessary, or by him it is most used : he is, in his wild state, the 
 natural and the courageous guardian of the herd, and many a contest he 
 has with his fellows before he establishes his supremacy over them, and 
 his right to be their protector : therefore, in order to give a firmer basis 
 to that by w.hich alone he could maintain his power, or defend his sub- 
 jects, the forehead of tire bull is considerably shorter and broader than 
 that of the cow or the ox. It is so in every breed. 
 
 The Ayrshire cow is distinguished by her small head, and lengthened 
 narrow brow; but the bull (see cut, p. 129) has as broad and masculine a 
 forehead as any of them ; and the animal, whose portrait is there repre- 
 sented, was too furious and impatient of control to be .safe. It was neces- 
 sary always to confine him, and even under confinement, he was a perfect 
 nuisance by his bellowing. 
 
 This shortness and breadth of forehead is not only characteristic of dif- 
 ference of sex, but it is regarded, and properly, as an essential point in a 
 bull. A deficiency here argues deficiency of constitutional power, and 
 materially diminishes his value as a stock-getter ; we do not recollect an 
 exception to this rule: and, on the other hand, we have rarely seen a cow 
 with a large head and broad forehead that had not, in other respects, 
 lost the most valuable points of the feminine character^^-she was neither 
 a good milker, nor a good mother, nor did she often fatten kindly ; there 
 was a coarseness in her whole form, and her very flesh was coarse when 
 she came to be slaughtered. 
 
 We have said that the smallness of the head in the horse or mare, how- 
 ever it may be considered to be a point of beauty, is very questionable 
 in its bearing on the temper and actual value of the animal ; but we believe 
 that there is no point more generally assented to by breeders than this, — 
 that a fine small head, tapering towards the muzzle, usually indicates a 
 good milker and a good feeder, and a good temper too. 
 - We present our readers, in the next page, with a cut of the head of 
 Lord Alihorp's bull, whose full portrait was given in page 242, With 
 the exception of somewhat too narrow a muzzle, it is a a-ood illustration 
 of the masculine character of a superior bull of the improved shortnhorn 
 breed. 
 
 With regard to some species of hornless cattle, this notion of the prope* 
 form of the frontal bone, is carried to a greater extent. The expanse ol 
 «his bone not being wanted as a base for the horn, is not ibuad ; on the 
 contrary, the Ihmt^ bones begin to contract a liMle abov# the eyes, and 
 terminate in a comparatively narrow ridge at the summit of the head. 
 
THE FRONTAt. SINUSES. 
 
 2T3 
 
 Tliis narrowuess of the parietal ridge (it is not the occipital ridge in cattle, 
 fur the occipital bone is pushed out of its place, and the parietal occupies 
 the situation of the superior portion of it) is deemed a characteristic of th« 
 purity of the breed and its grazing qualities. This is particularly the case 
 among the Galloway and Angus breeders. We believe that there is some 
 truth in this. It is a kind of pledge as to the fineness of the torm. and the 
 smallness of the bone vvervwhere. 
 
 
 [Head 0/ Firty— /or/i Mhorp's Bw//.] 
 
 THE FRONTAL SINUSES. 
 
 If this expanse of hone were solid, its weight would be enormous, and 
 it would fatigue and weigh the animal down. To obviate this, as in the 
 Horse (i, p. 68, 'Horse'), it is divided into two plates, separated \j 
 numerous vacuities, or cells ; but, unlike the horse, these extend throuoji 
 the whole of the bone— nay, they penetrate even through the parietal and 
 occipital bones. Hence it happens that the fronU/Ll sinuses (so these ca- 
 vities are called in cattle as well as in the horse) extend from the angle 
 of the eye to the very foramen through which the brain escapes from the 
 skull, nay. as we shall see presently, to the very tip of thfi horn (vide a 
 and c, p. 873). 
 
 There is the same septum, or division, in the centre of the frontal si- 
 nuses as in the horse ; but there is not the same perfect division between 
 ^he nostrils. Commencing about half way up the nose, the septum is 
 wanting at the lower part, and the two nostrils are, as it were, thrown 
 into one ; and the frontal sinuses communicating with the frontal, and 
 the frontal with the nasal, there is one continuous cavity from the muzzle 
 (0 the tip of the horn, and from one muzzle to the other. 
 
 'INFIiAMMATION O? THE FRONTAL SINUSES. 
 
 The whole of this cavity i^ lined by a prolongation pf the membrane of t]]e 
 DOTie, and when one part of it is inflamed, the whole is apt to be affected 
 
 t2 
 
"7a CATl'LE, 
 
 This accounts for the very serious character which nasal gleet, a dischargi 
 from the nostril, sometimes assumes in cattle In the horse we think 
 little of it, except it has a glanderous character, or is connected with con- 
 siderable cough or fever; but the sooner a gleet from the nose of an ox is 
 examined into and properly treated the better; for the inflammation is far 
 more extensive than that which occurs in the horse. 
 
 After a little cough, with slight nasal discharge, we occasionally find 
 the beast rapidly becoming dull and drooping, and carrying his head on 
 one side. Either grubs or worms have crept up the nostril, and are lodged 
 in some of the sinuses, and are a source of irritation there; or inflammation 
 at first merely that of the membrane of the nose, and connected with 
 •ommon cold, has extended along the cavity, and is more intense in 
 ^ome particular spot than in others ; or has gone on to suppuration, and 
 matter is thrown out and lodged there, and generally about the root of one 
 »f the horns.. The veterinary surgeon does one of two things; he either 
 opens the skull at the root of the horn with a trephine, or he proceeds in a 
 more summary and a belter way — he cuts off the horn at its root. More 
 than a pint of pus has sometimes escaped from the orifice ; and although 
 there may not have been any suppuration and throwing out of pus, yet 
 the inflammation will be materially relieved by the bleeding that neces- 
 sarily follows such an operation. The opening into the sinus which is 
 thus made should, however, be speedily closed, or the stimulus of the 
 atmospheric air will render the inflammation worse than it was before. 
 
 On account of the vast extent of cavity from the communication be- 
 tween all the partitions of the sinus, the ox occasionally suffers much 
 from the larva of a species of fly that creeps up the nose and lodges in 
 some part of the sinus. He is tortured much more than the sheep from 
 this cause; and the annoyance is somelimes so great as to be scarcely 
 distinguished from phrenitis. This, however, does not often happen ; for 
 the sinuses of his skull are more the accidental than the natural and re- 
 gular habitation of these insects. 
 
 THE USE OF THESE SINUSES 
 
 These plates of the skull are separated from each olhtr at least an inch 
 at all places, and in some parts more than double that distance (see cut, 
 p. 273 ) Do we not see the design of this ? The skull is the covering of the 
 biain. The weapons of offence in cattle spring from the skull, and they are 
 often used with terrible effect, and more about the skull than any other part. 
 Even the polled cattle use their heads as weapons of offence, and sometimes 
 butt each other with tremendous force. From the expanse of the forehead, 
 theroof of the skull cannot be covered and defended by the yielding but 
 most eflFectual resistance which the temporal muscle affords to the horse; 
 and although the frontal bone were so solid as almost to resist the very pos- 
 sibiUty of fracture, yet if the brain lay immediately underneath it, the 
 concussion that would result from the shock of their rude encounters 
 would always be dangerous, and often fatal Therefore the bones are di- 
 vided into two plates, and separated as widely as possible from each other, 
 where, as at the parietal crest, and the root of the horn, the shock is most 
 likely to fall. There are also inserted between tlie plates numerous little 
 perpendicular walls, or rather scales of bone, (seec, p. 273.) (for many of 
 them are of wafer-like thinness,) which, by their number, give sufficient 
 support to the outer plate in all ordinary cases, and by iheir thinness and 
 elasticity afford a yielding resistance similar to that of the temporal muscle 
 ^ In the horse, and capable of neutralizing almost any force. Thence it 
 . happens that if the external plate is fractured, the inner one is seldom 
 
THE HORNS. 27; 
 
 'njured; or if the external one is perforated by the horn, the inner one 
 ■s rarely touched. Hence also it occurs that in the occasional encoun- 
 ters between these animals — and furious enough they sometimes are — the 
 injuries are inflicted on other parts, and the head is comparatively un- 
 t'puched. Old and vicious beasts seem to be aware of this, and aim their 
 thrusts at the side or the flank. 
 
 THE FORAMINA OF THE FOREHEAD. 
 
 There are some marks of contrivance in the siructure of the head of the 
 ox, which should not be entirely passed over. At b (p. 66, ' Horse,*) are 
 seen the two foramina or holes through which the nerves and blood 
 vessels pass out to supply the forehead : but so much larger an expanse 
 as that of the forehead of the ox requires more nervous influence, and a 
 tyreater supply of blood ; and, therefore, there are two foramina, one for 
 the escape of the nerve, and the other of the artery. Each of these, 
 however, must be of considerable bulk, and they have to run over a flat- 
 ter .surface than in the horse, and a surface, passing over which, they are 
 exposed to much danger. There is provision made for this. A curious 
 groove is formed, in which they run for a considerable distance above 
 and below, securely defended by the ridge of bone on either side, until 
 they have given off various branches, and are either so diminished in bulk, 
 that they are comparatively out of the reach of injury, or if one branch, 
 whether of the nerve or the artery were injured, the nervous influence 
 and the blood would be supplied by other ramifications. 
 
 THE ARCH UNDEll WHICH THE TEMPORAL MUSCLE PLAYS. 
 
 In the cut (p. 66, Horse), and better seen in the cut in the next page 
 of that work, a strong process of the frontal bone goes to contribute to 
 the formation of the eygoma^ic arch under which the head of the lower 
 jaw moves and is defended; and not only the act of mastication is thus 
 securely performed, but there is so much room for the play of the muscle, 
 that the animal is enabled to use his teeth as weapons of offence. In 
 the ox the teeth are never weapons of offence; he may gore and trample 
 upon his enemy, but he does not bite him : and his food is more leisurely 
 {lathered in the first imperfect mastication, and still more lazily and 
 sleepily ground down in rumination ; this arch therefore needs not to be, 
 and is not so capacious and so strong. It is likewise, from its situation 
 iiiid the general shape of the head, exempt from the violence and injury 
 to which in thehor^e it is exposed ; and therefore the arch not only do6s 
 not project like the other for the purpose of strength, and to give room 
 for a mass of muscle that is not wanted, but the frontal bone does not 
 enter into its composition at all. (See g- and e, p. 272.) 
 
 THE HORNS. 
 
 The greatest difference between the frontals in the ox and the horse, 
 consists in their prolongation in the former, under the name, the horns. 
 The foetus of three months old has no horn ; during the fourth month it 
 begins to appear, and may he detected by a little irregularity of the frontal 
 bone. This increases, and hy the seventh month it is evident to the eye 
 under the form of a distinct tubercle elevating the skin. It now gradually 
 forces its way through the cutis or true skin, which it has accomplished 
 at the time of parturition ; and, continuing to grow, it detaches the cuticle 
 or scarf skin from the cutis, and carries it with it; and this gradually hard- 
 ening over it, forms the rudiment of the future horn or the covering of 
 Ihe bone. Beneath this cuticle the horn soon begins to form ; but it cou- 
 
278 CATTLE. 
 
 tinues covered until the animal is twelve or fifteen months old, giving to 
 it a skinny roughness, which then peels off shewing the shining and per- 
 fect horn. The horn of the ox then is composed of an elongation of the 
 frontal bone, covered by a hard coating originally of a gelatinous nature. 
 Its base is a process, or continuation of the frontal bone, and it is, like 
 that bone, hollow and divided into numerous compartments or cells, (a and 
 c, p. 273) all of them communicating with each other, and lined by a con 
 tinuation of the membrane of the nose. 
 
 The bone of the horn is exceedingly vascular ; it is the most vascular 
 bone in the whole frame, for it has not only to carry vessels for its own 
 nourishment, but for that of its covering ; it is therefore much roughened 
 on its surface, and has the appearance of being perforated, or, as it were, 
 worm-eaten by innumerable vessels. It is on this account that when it 
 is broken the haemorrhage is so great — there would scarcely be more pro- 
 fuse bleeding from the amputation of a limb. A veterinary friend of ours 
 had to remove a large half-bony tumour which had grown on a broken 
 horn. He sawed it oflF, and the blood flew out in a stream as large as 
 his finger ; and it was only by the repeated application of large budding 
 irons, heated red-hot, that he was able to arrest the bleeding. 
 
 FRACtURE OP THE HORN. 
 
 Young bullocks will often make too early use of their horns, and 
 many are the desperate encounters before it is determined who is master of 
 the pasture. In this way the horn occasionally gets fractured. If the 
 bone of the horn is evidently broken, but the external covering is not dis- 
 placed, nothing more is necessary than to fit some splents to the part, 
 and bind the whole well up, so that the fractured edges shall be kept 
 securely in apposition with each other, and in a fortnight or three weeks 
 all will be well. 
 
 Sometimes the horny covering is torn oflF. If the bone is not fractured 
 it will be best to leave the process to nature. Young beasts are parti 
 cularly subject to this loss of the covering of the bone, from their violent 
 contests with each other. There will be a great deal of hsemorrhage at 
 first ; but this at length ceases and leaves the bone covered by coagulated 
 blood. This by degrees hardens and forms a temporary case for the bone. 
 In the mean time another process commences at the base of the bone. 
 A dense flexible substance is found there, of the nature of which we shall 
 say more presently, and this begins rapidly to thicken and harden, and to 
 assume the character of good horn ; it then runs up the bone, displaces 
 the crust of coagulated blood as it grows, and, in a less time than would be 
 thought possible, covers the bone completely, and, much resembles in ap- 
 pearance, and is nearly as strong as, the original horn. 
 
 At other times, after the horny covering has been torn off, the bone will 
 be found to be fractured, but the parts are not perfectly separated fron- 
 each other. They must be brought in exact apposition with each other, 
 bound carefully up, and confined with splents, or sufficiently strong ban- 
 dages. Union between the divided edges of the bone will speedily take 
 place, new horn will grow over, and there will be scarcely a vestige of 
 the accident. 
 
 At other times, not only is the horny covering torn off, but the bone is 
 also snapped asunder and perfectly separated. The bone will never be 
 reproduced ; although nature will often attempt to do it, and a rude mis- 
 shapen mass will be formed, half bony and half cartilaginous. To 
 prevent this the horn must be sawed off level below the fracture, and 
 he nearer the head the better, because it will be the sooner covered bv a 
 
THE RINGS OF THE HORNS. 97» 
 
 prolongation of the cuticle. The hot iron must be freely passed over 
 the level surface, after which this effort at reproduction will seldom be 
 attempted ; or, if it is, the first granulations may be easily destroyed by the 
 cautery, and there will be an end of the matter. As soon as the bone has 
 been sawn off level, and the haemorrhage stopped, and the cautery applied 
 to the exposed surface, the part must be bound up as quickly as possible, 
 and with one tar-cloth above another, so as completely to exclude the 
 access of atmospheric air : for although the air has never been quite shut 
 out from the frontal sinuses, owing to their communication with the nostrils, 
 yet it has not had free access there; and being now admitted unrestrained 
 to a membrane so extensive and so irritable, it may produce dangerous in- 
 flammation. The cases are not unfrequent in which inflammation of the 
 brain or tetanus have followed a broken horn, and precisely from this 
 cause, — the exposure of the lining membrane of the cells of the head to 
 the unaccustomed stimulus of the air. 
 
 COMPOSITION AND GROWTH OP THE HORNY COVERING. 
 
 The horny covering is composed of albumen, with a little gelatine, and 
 about half per cent, of phosphate of lime. The ingredients are the same 
 as in the hoof of the horse, but there is rather more albumen which gives 
 the superior hardness to the horn. There is very little earthy matter iii 
 the horn. It does not yield by calcination more than one three- hundredth 
 part ; in fact, everything is excluded that can impart to it the slightest 
 degree of brittleness. 
 
 After long maceration the horn has been resolved into lamella or thin 
 plates ; but no nerves or blood-vessels have been found in it, although 
 they must exist there, or the process of nutrition and growth could not bt 
 carried on. The horn is exceedingly thin at its base, and appears as u 
 it were a continuation of the cuticle. The most careful dissection cannot 
 trace any separation between them ; but maceration has shown one, and 
 has proved that the cuticle and the covering of the bone of the horn are 
 two distinct substances. Aa from the coronary ligament at the upper part 
 of the foot of the horse, and which is connected with the cuticle, or is rather 
 a thickened bulbous prolongation of it, the hoof, or a portion of it is se- 
 creted, so, in the ox, from a less distinct prolongation of the cuticle pro- 
 ceeds the covering of the bone of the horn, or at least the basis of it. 
 The rings at the base of the horn, and which gradually recede from the 
 base, prove this : but the horn, like the hoof of the horse, thickens as it 
 grows down, and this thickening, and in fact the greater portion of the 
 horn, are derived from the vascular substance that surrounds the bone, and 
 which is fed by the innumerable vessels, that are interposed between it and 
 the horn. This substance, dense, vascular, filamentous, reticulated, is 
 very easily demonstrated by dissection ; but there is not the same closeness 
 of connexion, or the mutual interposition of horny and sensible laminae, 
 because there is not the same stress upon them, viz., the whole weight of 
 the horse to support. 
 
 RINGS OP THE HORN. 
 
 These rings, proving the first growth of the horn from the base, have 
 been considered as forming a criterion by which to determine the age of 
 the ox. At three-years-old, the first distinct one is usually observed : 
 *t four-years-old two are seen, and so on, one being added on each suc- 
 ceeding year. Thence was deduced the rule, that if two were added to 
 the number of rings the age of the animal would be given. 
 
 These rings, however, are perfectly distinct in tbe coW only ; in tbe ox 
 
^SO CATTLK. 
 
 Ihey do not appear until lie is five years old, and they are often confused :, 
 in the bull they are either not seen until five, or they cannot be traced at 
 all. These rings are not always distinct even in the cow ; the two or 
 ihree first may be so, but then comes a succession of mere irregula- 
 rities of surface that can scarcely be said to be rings, and which it is im- 
 possible to count. Another circumstance must also be taken into the 
 Hccoiint, that if a heifer goes to the bull when she is two-years-old, or a 
 little before or after that time, there is an immediate change in the horn, 
 and the first ring appears ; so that a real three-year-old would carry the 
 mark of a four-year-old. To this may be added, that after the beast is six ' 
 ir seven j'ears-old, these rings are so irregular in their appearance, and so 
 .ittle to be depended upon, that the age indicated by the two horns is not 
 always the same. We have repeatedly seen a difference of one year, and 
 in some instances we could not make the horns agree by two years at 
 least. Therefore, regarding this as a process of nature, it is far too irregu- 
 lar for any certain dependance to be placed upon it. It is a mere general 
 rule, with far too many exceptions. 
 
 There is also a certain instrument called a rasp, the use of which has 
 been said to have made many an arm ache a little before a large cattle 
 fair. What human being can tell whether the ring farthest from the head 
 has, or has not been removed ; or whether the second may not have fol- 
 lowed the first ? If the rasp is fine and gently used, and a little dirt, 
 with or without soot, is rubbed over the part, there is nothing to tell 
 tales, except a rather too great smoothness of the horn thereabouts ; and 
 this is said to be obviated by giving the whole of the horn a smooth and 
 polished appearance. We have never liked these pretty, small, smooth, 
 glossy horns. That art had been at work no one could deny ; and we were 
 uncharitable enough to suspect that it was oftener employed in the removal 
 of a defect, than the heightening of a beauty. Cattle-dealers are not so 
 bad as the horse-merchants ; but strange stories have been told of them 
 We are the less scrupulous in describing this deception, because we shall 
 presently have to speak of a method of judging of the age of cattle, 
 where no roguery can lead us astray. 
 
 THE DEGREE OF FEVER. ESTIMATEP BY THE HORN. 
 
 This thinness of the horn at the base will afford us an explanation of 
 the custom of the farrier and the cowleech, when examining a sick beast, 
 to feel, almost first of all, the root of the horn, and the lip of the ear. 
 There is much good sense about this. If the temperature is natural in 
 both, he concludes that there is no great degree of fever; but if the ears 
 are cold, deathy cold, it shows that the blood is no longer circulating 
 through the small vessels, but congesting round some iiriportant organ 
 which is the seat of inflammation — and nothing can be more dangerous 
 than this. He also gains from the horn an indication quite as important. 
 We have described the horn at the base as being very thin ; it is quite as 
 much so as the cuticle or scarf skin, and it covers one of the most vascular 
 bones in the whole body. No where else can the practitioner get so near 
 to the circulating fluid, or to so great a quantity of it. He, therefore, puts 
 his hand on the root of the horn, assured that he shall there have the precise 
 temperature of the blood, and thus be enabled to judge of the degre* 
 of general fever or constitutional disturbance. The horseman puts his 
 fingers into the mouth of the horse for the same purpose ; but he cannot 
 judge so accurately, for the vascularity is less, and the covering is thicker 
 
 On the same principles — the thinness of the horn and the vascularity 
 ■nd consequent tenderness of the bone beneath — brutal drovers often aim 
 
PECULIARITIES ABOUT TIIK HOllNS. 281 
 
 tlieir blows at the rbo't of the horn. In the cruelties which they inflict, 
 they are restricted by the butchers to the head, to the hocks and belov 
 the hocks, because the meat must not be injured; and these being; parts 
 with no yielding muscle interposed to break the violence of the blow, bu 
 the mere integumeut covering the bone, and, at the root of the horn, 
 the covering not being a quarter so thick as the general integument, 
 the pain is abundantly more acute than elsewhere. We have already 
 spoken of this when describing the cattle-market of S'milhfieid. 
 
 It is by reason of the extreme tenderness at the root of the horn, that 
 some fool-hardy and brutal fellows have declared that, armed only with a 
 stout bludgeon, they should not fear any bull ; for one or two heavy 
 blows on this part would stupify and put to flight the most ferocious 
 beast. 
 
 MANUFACTURE OF BEAUTIFUL HORNS. 
 
 On this account also it is, joined to the imperfect formation and yield- 
 ing nature of the bone at an early age, that some miscreants have been 
 said to have acquired the art, by means of heated irons, of giving the horns 
 any direction and form that they please. It has often been hinted that 
 the peculiar turn of many beautiliil horns is artificial. How far this 
 practice may be followed now we will not pretend to say; we hope that 
 it is falling into disuse. The great improvement which has been effected 
 in all the breeds of cattle, and particularly the introduction of the short- 
 horns, who have little pretensions to beauty in this part, have directed the 
 attention of gentlemen and agriculturists to far more important objects. 
 
 Barrow, in his travels into Southern Africa, tells us that this brutal cus- 
 tom was not contined to Britain or to Europe, and probably had not its 
 origin in either of them ; for oxen being used for the saddle as well as 
 draught, by the Naguamas and other tribes, and particularly, being often 
 ridden by ladies, great care was taken to select the handsomest fpr this pur- 
 pose; and the horns of the joung cattle were twisted into spiral curves 
 and a variety of fantastic forms by means of heated irons. 
 
 THE HORNS THE DISTINGUISHING CHARACTER OP THE DIFFERENT BREEDS. 
 
 In the preceding chapters, we have classed the different breeds of cattle 
 according to the length of the horn, and we cannot have a better guide. 
 Under the table of the middle-horns, we have ranked all the native horned 
 cattle, the Devons, the Sussex, the Herefords, the Welsh, the Scotch, and 
 some of the Irish. Of the origin of the long-horns we had some doubt; 
 they were either derived from a particular district of Yorkshire, or they 
 were of Irish extraction. The short-horns, now naturalized in every part 
 of England, and becoming as it were the British cattle, were confessedly 
 foreigners. In the crosses between them, the horns seem to follow a 
 determined course ; as long as the breed remains pure, our cattle may be 
 increased or diminished in size, according to the whim of the breeder or 
 the nature of the soil — they may be changed in the proportions of various 
 parts accordingly as a judicious or injudicious. selection has been made 
 for certain purposes — they may be made to assume the character of the 
 true grazing, or of the dairy cattle, but the horn remains the same ; it is 
 the distinguishing badge of the breed. 
 
 In the present race of short-horns there is a great variety in the form of 
 the horn. Some persons think this of little or no consequence ; we con- 
 fess that we are not of that number. It sometimes tells tales of crosses 
 V)ng gone by or forgotten, and totally unsuspected ; and we imagine it 
 to be possible thai iliey will indicate certain peculiarities, excellencies oi 
 
282 CATfLE. 
 
 defects, reaching perhaps to no great extent, but yet worthy of notice 
 and record. A treatise- on the horns of cattle,, and especially on those of 
 the improved breed, might be made a very interesting work', but it vrould 
 require experience that rarely falls to one man's lot, and an unusual 
 freedom from hypothesis and prejudice. 
 
 When speaking of the long-horn cattle, we described some that attained 
 an enormous and most inconvenient length; but they shrink into com«- 
 parative insignificance, if compared with the oxen of the northern part of 
 central Africa. The Galla oxen, although smaller than the majority of 
 the English cattle, have horns that are nearly four feet in length, and 
 will contain more than ten quarts. 
 
 The Burmese oxen, which are much larger, have singular horns of a 
 half-spiral form. Captain Clapperton says- ihat * the corneous external 
 coat is very soft, distinctly tibrous, and at the biise not much thicker than 
 the human nail ; the osseous case full of vascular grooves, and the inside 
 very cellular ; the pair together scarcely weighing four pounds, yet they 
 are three feet seven inches in length, two feet in circumference at the 
 base, and one foot six inches midway, towards the tip." 
 
 The longest horn, however, is that of the Great Arnee. Captain Wil- 
 liamson speaks of one of the true Arnee buffaloes of Bengal, who pursued 
 a sportsman to his elephant; and which, when killed, was more than 
 six feet in height, three feet wid^e across the breast, and had horns five 
 feet and a half long. Mr. Bruce gives a singular account of enormous 
 horns occasionally obtained from the Abyssinian cattle. ' The animal 
 furnishing these monstrous horns is a cow or bull, which would be 
 reckoned of a middling size in England. This extraordinary size of 
 its horns proceeds from a disease that the cattle have in these countries, of 
 which they die, and is probably derived from their pasture and climate. 
 When the animal shows symptoms of this disorder, be is set apart in the 
 very best and quietest grazing place, and never driven or molested from 
 that moment. His value lies then in his horns, for his body becomes 
 emaciated and lank in proportion as the horns grow large ; at the last 
 period of his life, the weight of his head is so great that he is unable to 
 lift it up, or at least for any space of time. The joints of his neck be- 
 come callous at last, so that it is not any longer in his power to lift his 
 head. In this situation he dies, with scarcely flesh to cover his bones, 
 and it is then his horns are of the greatest value. I have seen horns that 
 would contain as much as a common sized water-pail, such as they m-dke 
 use of in the houses in England *.' 
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF SEX ON THE HORNS. 
 
 Of the influence of sex on the horn, we have proof every day ; but it is ' 
 axerted in our domestic cattle in a manner different from all other rumi- 
 nants. It is the head of the male, and when in his perfect state, that is 
 usually encumbered or adorned with branching honours : the castrated 
 male loses his antlers altogether, or wears a pair of diminutive size, 
 marking his degradation ; while the female is generally hornless. On 
 the contrary, our bull is distinguished by a short, straight, comparatively 
 insignificant and ugly horn ; while a weaker, but longer, handsomer, and 
 beautifully curved horn adorns the head of the ox ; and a still more deli- 
 cately-shaped one is reserved for the cow. 
 
 OCCASIONAL HORNS ON THE GALLOWAVS 
 
 The most singular variety of horn, is that which now and then hangs 
 * tJruce's Travels, to!, vi. p. El). 
 
THE USES OF THE HORNS. 28S 
 
 from the brow of some of our polled cattle. It is no prolongation of the 
 frontal bone ; it is not at all attached to that or to any other bone of the head : 
 but it g;rows from the skin, and hangs down on the side of the face. We 
 have already disciiesed the question whether the polled cattle were one ot 
 the original native breeds, or an accidental variety introduced at a very 
 early period. This abortive horn gives much plausibility to the latter 
 notion. There is an occasional attempt «t breeding back even at this 
 distant period. 
 
 THE FRONTALS IN POLLED CATTLE. 
 
 Th(^ frontal bones hold the same situation in polled cattle. They reach 
 from the nasal bones to the parietal ridge ; but as they were not designed 
 to form the base of horns, they materially diminish in breadth towards the 
 poll. The breeders of polled cattle consider this to be a proof of pureiiess 
 of blood, and of the possession of a disposition to fatten; and we have 
 already said that they are not very wrong in this supposition. 
 
 Large cavities between the plates of the frontal bone are found in the 
 polled as well as in the horned breed ; but they are not so deep, nor do 
 they extend beyond the frontals. This, however, varies much in the dif- 
 ferent breeds of cattle. 
 
 COMPARISON BETWEEN THE HORNED AND HORNLESS BREEDSi 
 
 There was a time when this question was. much, and somewhat warmly 
 discussed. It was taken for granted, by those who brought a great deal 
 more theory than practical experience to the consideration of the subject, 
 that the horns were not only useless things, but that they were a serious 
 evil ; and one, whose name will ever rank high as a scientific surgeon, 
 has scrupled not to say that, ' on a very moderate calculation, it would be 
 found that the loss in farming stock, and also in the diminution of animal 
 food, is very considerable from the production of horns and their appen- 
 dages.' The fact, however, has never yet been thoroughly determined, 
 whether the Galloway, or the Kyloe, with his branching honours, is the 
 most profitable grazing stock ; each has its zealous advocates, and each 
 is excellent. But it has been determined, that during the reign of the 
 Bakewellian stock, no cattle displayed such a propensity to fatten as the 
 long-horns ; and as the chest became deeper and more circular, and the 
 aptitude to fatten developed itself, the horn lengthened. It has also been 
 determined, that for grazing and milking properties, and particularly for 
 early maturity, no cattle can vie with the short-horns. 
 
 The question was most warmly discussed by those who knew nothing 
 about the matter ; the existence of horns, or the length of the horn, have 
 in themselves no connexion at all with grazing or with milking : a beast 
 does not fatten the quicker because there are no horns to consume a por- 
 tion of the nutriment, nor is he longer in getting into condition because 
 his brows happen to be^dorned by them. They are at least ornamental ; 
 they cost the breeder nothing ; thej are useful for various purposes ; and 
 they bring so much clear gain to the manufacturer. The hornless cattle 
 may, however, be occasionally packed somewhat closer than the others, 
 and being destitute of the natural weapon of offence, they are less quarrel- 
 some md more docile. But the ferocity of the horned beast is oftenei the 
 eifect of mismanagement than of natural disposition. 
 
 THE USES OF THE HORNS O? CATTLE. 
 
 We will ccDclude this account of the horns of cattle by an extract from 
 Professor Babbage's excellent treatise on Manufactures : — ' Amongst the 
 
i'i-i . CATTLK. 
 
 icanses which tend to the cheap production ot apy article, may he nieu- 
 lioned the care that is taken to allow no part of the raw produce out of 
 Which it is formed to be wasted. An enumeration of the purposes to 
 whiph the horns of cattle are applicable furnishes a striking example of 
 this kind of economy. The tanner who has purchased the hides, sepa- 
 rates' the horns, and sells them to the makers of combs and lanterns. 
 The horn consists of two parts, an outward horny case, and an inward 
 conical-shaped substance, somewhat between hardened hair and bone. 
 The first process consists in separating these two partst by means of a 
 blow against a block of wood. The horny outside is then cut into three 
 portions, by means of a fran>e-saw. 1st. The lowest of these, next the 
 root of the horn, after undergoing several processes by which it is ren- 
 dered flat, is made into combs. 2d. The middle of the liorn, after being 
 flattened by heat, and its transparency improved by oil, is split into thin 
 layers, and forms a substitute for glass in lanterns of the commonest kind. 
 3d. The tip of the horns is used by the makers of knife-handles and ihe 
 tops of whips, and for similar purposes. 4th. The interior, or cone, of the 
 horn, is boiled down in water. A large quantify of fat rises to the sur- 
 face, which is put aside, and sold to the makers of yellow soap. 5th. The 
 liquid itself is used as a kind of glue, and is purchased by the cloth- 
 dresser for stiffening. 6ih. The bony substance which remains behind, is 
 ground down and sold to the farmers for manure. Besides these various 
 purposes to which the different parts of the horn are applied, the chippings 
 which arise in comb-making are sold to the farmer for manure, at about 
 one shilling per busbel. In the first year after they are spread over the 
 soil, they have comparatively little effect, but during the next four or five 
 their efficiency is considerable. The shavings which form the refuse of 
 the lantern-makers, are of a much thinner texture. A few of them are 
 cut into various figures, and painted and used as toys, for they curl up 
 when placed in the palm of a warm hand; liut the greater part of these 
 shavings is sold for manure, which, from their extremely thin and di- 
 vided form, produces its full effect on the first crop.' 
 
 THE OTHER BONES OF THE SKULL. 
 
 We shall be very brief in our account of the other bones of the skull, as 
 little of a practical nature is connected with them. 
 
 The Parietal bone. — We speak advisedly when we call it one bone ; for 
 even in the foetal calf there is no suture. In the Horse (vide pp. 66 and 
 67), the parietal bone forms the chief part of the roof of the skull. In 
 the ox (h, p. 272), not the smallest portion of it appears on the superior 
 part of the head ; but it is found at the back of i»;, usurping the place of the 
 occipital bone, giving attachment to the muscles of the neck, and par- 
 ticularly to its strong supporting ligament (m, p. 272). It, however, spreads 
 along the side below the horn, giving it some support; and it imiles 
 there, as in the horse, with the temporal bone, and contributes to the 
 strength of the part. 
 
 The Temporal bones. — ^These bones (g, p. 272 and 273) have no stress 
 upon them in cattle ; they are therefore small, deep in the temporal fossa, 
 and destitute of the squamous suture. The most important difference is 
 the form of the superficial cavity which receives the head of the lower 
 jaw, and which is peculiarly adapted to the lateral grinding motion of 
 rumination. 
 
 The Occipital hone. — This bone is, in the ox, deprived of almost all its 
 inipartance. There is no crest, no tuberosity, and very small condyles for 
 ittacljmeut to the neck; and even its base, althouah a little widened, is 
 
THE INTELLIGENCE OF OXEN. 281 
 
 mnch curtailed in length. It, however, still contains the n^reat fbiaiiiea 
 through which the spinal marrow escapes from the skull (i, p. 272, and 
 d and /, p. 273.) There are two foramina for the passage of nerves. 
 
 The Sphenoid and Ethmoid bones are in the same relative situation. 
 The pterigoid processes ot" the former are much larger than in the horse 
 (o, p. 273). In the ethmoid bone (r, p. 273,.) there is no such mate- 
 rial or practical difference. 
 
 THE BRAIM. 
 
 All these bones unite to form the cranial cavity, and in which the brain 
 is contained. It is surrounded by the same membranes ; but, compar- 
 ing the bulk of the two animals, the brain of the ox Is not more than 
 one-half the size of that of the horse. The medullary substance which 
 forms the roots of the nerves is as large, and some of the nerves, and 
 particularly the olfactory nerve, or that of smell, are as much deve- 
 loped; the deficiency is in the cineritious part — that part which we ven- 
 tured to consider as connected with the intellectual principle. The 
 medullary substance is that by which impressions made by surrounding 
 objects are conveyed to the brain,, and received there, and the volitions of 
 the mind transmitted, and motion given to every part : the cineritious is that 
 portion where the impressions are received, and registered, and pondered 
 upon, and made the means of intellectual improvement, and from which 
 the mandates of the will proceed. Now the senses of the ox are as acute 
 as those of the horse ; he sees as clearly, hears as quicidy, and has the 
 sense of smelling in greater peifectiini ; but he has not half the sagacity. 
 He partly has it not, because he does not receive the education of the 
 horse; but more, because nature, by diminishing the bulk of the intellec- 
 tual portion of the brain, has deprived him of the power of much improve- 
 nent. Yet the difference is in degree, and not in kind. We have endea- 
 voured to prove, in the second chapter of this work, that he possesses 
 sufficient intellect to qualify him for the situation in which nature has 
 placed him, and to enable him to render us all the service that we can 
 justly require of him. We ventured to go farther than that, and to show 
 that when education lent her aid, and too wide a field was not opened, the 
 ox would display sagacity and docility for which the common observer 
 would not give him credit. Shall we somewhat enhven a dry part of our 
 work by adding one or two additional anecdotes to those already related? 
 
 THE INTELLIGENCE OF OXEN. 
 
 First — maternal affection-, mixed with a process of reasoning : — A person 
 was walking through a field, when a cow ran towards him, lowins: 
 most piteously. For a moment he was alarmed, and the suspicion of 
 madness occurred to him; but when she came near to him, she turned, 
 and went back the way she had come, looking earnestly at him and lowinir. 
 He wondered, but passed on. Again she came close to him, gazed 
 anxiously at him, and then lowing, trotted away in the same direction. 
 His curiosity was now roused, and he followed her. She led him to the 
 'arther end of ihe field, where her calf had fallen into the ditch, and was 
 nearly drowned. He rescued the little animal, and the mother expressed 
 her joy in many an awkward but expressive gambol. 
 
 Next — attachment to their keepers : — ' Two biparies, or carriers of grain 
 
 v\d merchandise on the backs of buffaloes', were driving a loaded string of 
 
 these animals from Palamow to Chittrah. When they were come within 
 
 few miles of the latter place, a tiger seized upon the man in the reur, 
 
886 CATTLE. 
 
 which was sei-n by a guallak (herdsman), who was watching a herd ol 
 buffaloes |>ra«ii)g, He boldly ran to the man's assistance, and cut the 
 tiger very severely with his sword, who immediately dropped the biparie 
 and seized the herdsman. His buffaloes observing it, attacked the tiger, 
 and rescued the herdsman; and they tossed the tiger about from one to the 
 other until they killed hini. Their aid was, however, ineffectual; for, 
 although the biparie recovered, the herdsman died.' 
 
 Every farm-yard has anecdotes of the attachment of cattle to particular 
 persons, and the power which they have over them. A cow has often 
 retained her milk day after day until her udder has been distended to the 
 utmost, and would sufl^r no one to approach and milk her, until her fa- 
 -vourite dairy-maid returned In the establishment of Mr. Bakewell, we 
 do not know that there were illustrations of this strength of attachment, 
 or of extraordinary sagacity, but there were numerous ones of the most 
 perfect docility. 
 
 One anecdote more, illustrative of the reasoning faculty in these ani- 
 mals. A gentleman near Laggan, in Scotland, had a bull which grazed 
 with the cows in the open meadows. As fences are scarcely known 
 in that part, a boy was kept to watch lest the cattle should trespass on 
 the neighbouring fields and destroy the corn. The boy was fat and 
 drowsy, and was often found asleep ; he was of course chastised when- 
 ever the cattle trespassed. Warned by this, he kept a long switch, and 
 revenged himself upon them with an unsparing hand, if ihev exceeded 
 (heir boundary. 
 
 The bull seemed to have observed with concern the consequence of their 
 transgression ; and, as he had no horns, he used to strike the cows with his 
 hard, forehead, and thus punish them severely if any one crossed the 
 boundary. In the meantime he set them a good example himself, never 
 once eiitering upon the forbidden grounds, and placing himself before the 
 cows in a threatening attitude if they approached it. At length, his ho- 
 nesty and vigilance became so obvious, that the boy was employed in 
 weeding and other business, without fear of their misbehaviour in his 
 absence. 
 
 We will not push the argument too far. The ox has but one-half the 
 bulk of brain of the horse, and not more than one-half of his intelligence ; 
 and we shall see in another part of our series, that the horse has not one- 
 half of the comparative bulk of brain of the dog, and certainly not one- 
 half of his sagacity and fidelity: therefore the dog is our companion and 
 friend, as much as our servant; the horse is employed in some of the 
 upper and more important departments of our service ; while the ox occu- 
 pies an inferior rank— but he, nevertheless, is our servant, and has sufficient 
 capacity to perform the duties we require of him. The difference be- 
 tween him and the rest— the difference that pervades all nature — is in 
 degree, and not in kind. He is, therefore, not so despicable as many 
 imagine him to be, and he deserves better treatment than he sometimes 
 receives. Except in some districts, where he is used for the plough and 
 on the road, and where he displays stoutness and docility equal to any 
 horse, (it is true, indeed, that no great degree of intellectual power is 
 required tor this,) we have degraded him to a state in which he has little 
 concern with anything beside his food, and the reproduction of the species. 
 In a country like ours, and with better servants at our command, that is 
 ■iie situation which he ought to occupy ; but if it were needed, he has in- 
 tellectual power far superior to this ; he occasionally displays the germ of 
 every social affection 5 and the knowledge of this should give us a kind- 
 tier feeling towards him, and protect him from many an abuse. 
 
THE EAR. 287 
 
 PECULIARITIES OF THE BRAIN OF THE OX. 
 
 Of the peculiarities of the brain of the ox we will say little, for they 
 are unconnected with that which is the main object of our treatise, the 
 useful knowledj^e' of the animal ; but at the posterior part of the brain, 
 under the cerebellum, or little brain, and at the commencement of the 
 spinal chord, (see p. 68, " Horse,') is a condensation of medullary matter, 
 (the medulla oblongata,) whence proceed the nerves that are connected 
 with the involuntary motions of life, and by which the heart beats, and 
 the lungs play, and the intestines propel the food. In the horse it is nearly 
 double the proportionate size of the same part in the human being, be- 
 cause the heart will often have to propel, ajid the lungs to purify, a greater 
 quantity of blood, in order to enable that animal to support a degree of 
 exertion rarely required from ,the human being. In cattle this part is, 
 in proportion to the size of the animal, of yet greater bulk, for he has to 
 contribute to the food of man, while living and when dead; and the 
 heart must strongly beat, and the stomach and the intestines must be con- 
 stantly and actively at work, in order to furnish the requisite quantity of 
 milk when living, and the expected abundance of flesh and fat when con- 
 signed to slaughter. 
 
 The ox, however, is, in a manner, exempt from labour. Even in the 
 districts of our own country, in which he is employed on the farm or the 
 road, his work, although not always light, is slow, and it is nothing com- 
 pared with that of the horse. A.t the termination of this medulla oblongata^, 
 Xq, p. 68, ' Horse,') commences the spinal chord, whence proceed all the 
 nerves connected with the voluntary motions of the body. Now although 
 the medulla oblongata is proportionally larger in the ox than in the horse, 
 for the reason we have just stated, the spinal cord is considerably smaller, 
 because so much muscular power is not needed. To the comparative 
 anatomist, this is a most valuable proof how admirably each animal is 
 adapted to his situation and destiny ; and these comparisons cannot be 
 devoid of iiiierest to any one who bag been accustomed to the observation 
 and study of the wori^s of nature. 
 
 Two of the senses, hearing and sight, have their residence in the head : 
 of them, therefore, we shall next spealc. 
 
 In horned cattle, where the ears are oflen comparatively small, and. 
 On account of their situation, limited in their motions, and can be seldom 
 erect, they are little regarded. The bull has usually the shorter horn 
 and the larger ear ; and in some breeds, and particularly the Kyloe, and 
 the Kyloe bull more especially, it has much to do with the beauty of the 
 head. 
 
 In polled cattle, the ear of a fair size but not too large, freely moveable 
 and well-fringed, corresponds with the beautifully curled forehead, and is 
 considered to be a point of some importance. The portrait of Mr. Wat- 
 son's Angus cow (p. 169) will illustrate our meaning ; while the snake- 
 head and large ears of the Suffolk cow, (p. 176,) and even in a horned 
 beast, the disproportionate length of the ears in the Ayrshire cow, (p. 128,) 
 will show how much they can diminish the beauty of the animal. In the 
 Ayrshire bull, however, (p. 129,) the ears are a great addition to his noble 
 countenance. A large ear would be generally objected to, as indicating 
 coarseness of form, and possibly of flesh. The only advantage of a large 
 ear would be, that it might be better able to discharge one of its functions, 
 and rather an unexpected one, to guard the eyes from injury. A person 
 cannot lon{>- observe an ox, without admiring the adroit use he makes of 
 
233 CATTLE. 
 
 his ears for this purpose: but even the weight of the ear wouid probablj 
 interfere with the requisite rapidity of tni)ti(iii. The eE.r of the ox is fur- 
 nished with two additional muscles, apparently for this purpose. 
 
 The internal mechanism of the ear is similar to that of the horse, of 
 which an ample description has been given in the treatise on that animal. 
 The osselets of the ear are, however, larger than they are in the horse, and 
 «•" are the semicircular canals ; but it does not appear that the ox has any 
 acuter sense of hearing than the horse. 
 
 DISEASES OF THE EAR 
 
 The ears of cattle are comparatively exempt from disease. The pas- 
 sage into the ear is more tortuous and better guarded with hair than in 
 the horse, and no igjiorant, brutal fellow sets to work to burn that hair. 
 Also the irregularities of the conch are larger and more abrupt. The incon- 
 veniences which arise from the introduction of insects into the ear seldom 
 occur. To contusions, however, these organs are much exposed, pro- 
 ducing swelling, abscess, and deafness. Fomentations will afford the 
 principal means of relief or cure, with occasional washing out of the eai 
 with warm water, or soap and water, and the application of a weak solution 
 of Goulard, while much inflammation remains, and of a still weaker solu- 
 tion of alum, when the inflammation has subsided 
 
 Simple inflammation of the ear is a somewhat rare disease in cattle. It 
 is recognized by the animal carrying his head a little on one side; 
 this is plainly referrible to the ear from the heat and tenderness of its base 
 both within and without, and a kind of immobility of the ear, resulting 
 from the pain which the animal suffers in moving it. Bleeding from the 
 jugular, a dose of physic, and fomentations applied to the part, will usu- 
 ally give relief; and afterwards a lotion composed of a drachm of the ex 
 tract of lead and the same quantity of laudanum added to four ounces o 
 water : a little of this may be poured into the ear, and the ear gently 
 moulded, so that the lotion shall find its way to every part of it. 
 
 Sometimes the beast appears to be very much annoyed by an itching of 
 the ear. On examination a dry scurfiness will be found spreading over a 
 greater or less part of the skin of the inside of the ear. That which we 
 will denominate the ' healing ointment' will afford the most ready cure. A 
 little of it must be gently but well rubbed into the inside of the ear, until 
 the scurfy skin is evidently softened, and this must be repeated daily. 
 The healing ointment is thus composed : — melt together four pounds of 
 lard, and one of common resiii ; set them by to cool, and when they 
 begin to thicken, stir in one pound of calamine powder, rubbed down to a 
 state of the greatest possible fineness. In a very few instances a collec- 
 tion of fluid will appear between the cartilage and the inner skin of the 
 ear. The tumour must be opened from end to end. 
 
 Still more rarely fungous granulations spring up from the base of the 
 ear. They must be cut down with the knife. A strong solution of the 
 nitrate of silver must then be applied over the exposed surface, and an 
 alum wash, not too strong, afterwards used. 
 
 THE EYE. 
 
 The orbit of the eye is of a q\iadrilateral shape in the ox, (A, p. 272,) ana 
 very strongly formed above, to defend it from the violence to which, fron, 
 its situation, it is too much exposed, and below, in order to protect the 
 lacrymal sac, and the commencement of the canal through which the 
 Kuperfluous moisture flows from the eye to the nose. The orbit, and par- 
 licMlarly the upper part, the superciliary ridge, is very subject to f-^cture. 
 
BOMY TUMOURS ABOUT THE EYES. 2H6 
 
 and more so in the ox than in the horse. The same mode of treatment 
 must be pnrsued. Tiie parts must be placed in their natural situation ; 
 they must be confined there as well as theycanbe; and inflammation 
 must be prevented by bleeding, physicking, &c. 
 
 The ox is oftener wounded in the eye than the hnrse is. whether by 
 ihe horn of one of his fellows or the prong of the brutal attendant. Here 
 must be no probing to gratify foolish curiosity with respect to the wound, 
 liut the evil must be combated by fomentations, bleeding, and physic. 
 
 It is too much owmg to the thoughtless or brutal conduct of those who 
 have the management of cattle, that the ox, oftener than any other domes 
 tic animal, is subject to bony tumours about the eyes, or on the edge of 
 the orbit. The contusions which are almost daily inflicted on the face of 
 the ox, in some ill-managed concerns, cannot fail of producing diseases of 
 the bone ; and they mostly take on the form of tumours. What would be- 
 come of many of our oxen that are driven to Smithfield, and whose heads 
 are covered with contusions, if that hour were not near which delivers 
 them from the barbarity of man ? 
 
 These tumours aippear generally on some part of the external division 
 of the orbit; they increase ' with greater or less rapidity; they take a di- 
 rection which may or may not interfere with vision; and occasionally they 
 bend towards the eye, and press upon it, and are sources of torture and 
 blindness. If the tumour is on the upper part of the orbit, and appears 
 to be attached by a kind of pedicle, it may be sawn off, and the root 
 to\iched with the cautery ; in other situations we shall generally be con- 
 fined to the use, and often the ineflFectual use, of external stimulants. The 
 best is the cautery. We shall not perhaps dare to apply it directly to the 
 part, but there is a method by which we may obtain the advantage of a 
 very high degree of temperature without destroying the skin. An iron is 
 to be prepared, somewhat -hollowed, and rather larger than accurately to 
 contain the tumour in its hollow. A piece of bacon-rind, with a liltle ot 
 the fat attached to it, is then to be cut to the shape of the tumour, and so 
 as to cover it ; and, being placed over it, the iron, heated nearly red hot, is 
 to be applied upon it, and firmly held there for the space of two or three 
 minutes, and afterwards more lightly applied until the rind is dried or 
 burned. The object of this is to bring a degree of heat, far above that of 
 boiling water, but not so great as of red hot iron, to bear upon the part. 
 Oil will boil at about 600 degrees of Fahrenheit ; the fat about the rind is 
 heated to that degree which will probably be sufficient to rouse the ab- 
 sorbents, and induce them to take up the bone, virithout destroying the life 
 of the part ; for we shall see presently that it is a tumour of a peculiar 
 character. This may be repeated two or three times, with intervals of two 
 days. Should the tumour not diminish, nothing more can be done ; for 
 these bony growths -n cattle, arising from local injury, have very little 
 lifie in them, and soon degenerate into a state of caries. 
 
 Sometimes these tumours spring from the back of the orbit, produced 
 by the injury or perforation of the bone there by the point of a fork. No 
 cure can be effected; but if the eye should become evidently painful, and 
 exhibit marks of intense inflammation, and then begin to protrude, there 
 is but one course to pursue, and that is to destroy the animal. 
 
 These external bony tumours frequently ulcerate, and the bone becomes 
 carious. No possible good can be done here, and humanity and interest 
 require us to put a speedy termination to the sufferings of the animal. 
 
 The eyes are placed more on the sides of the face than in the horse , 
 for the ox, in a state of nature, being exposed to the attacks of ferocious 
 animals, needs an extended field of vision in order that he may perceive 
 
 V 
 
2«» CATTLK 
 
 the approach of danger from every quarter. He is oftener the pursued 
 than the pursuer, and tho.refore requires a lateral, instead of a somewhat 
 forward direction of the eyes. The eyes are prominent, ,in order to in- 
 crease the field of vision, and they are rendered thus prominent by the 
 mass of fat which is accumulated at the back of them. A prominent eye 
 is reckoned a good point in a beast ; it shows the magnijude of this mass 
 of fat, and therefore the probability of fat being accumulated elsewhere. 
 This prominence, however, should not be accompanied by a ferocious or 
 unquiet look ; for breeders have agreed that neither the grazing nor the 
 milking beast can have too placid a countenance, or be too quiet and do- 
 cile in her habits. 
 
 THE EYELIDS AND THEIR DISEASES. 
 
 The eye is supported and covered by the lids, which were designed 
 to answer the same purposes as in the horse, viz., to close at the approacii 
 of danger, and so afford considerable protection to the eye; to siipply it 
 with that moisture which is necessary 'to preserve its transparency ; to 
 defend it from the light when diseased ; and to droop over it, and permit 
 the animal to enjoy the repose which nature requires. At the edge of eai h 
 of the lids- is a cartilage, to preserve their form, and to enable them to close 
 accurately; and along these edges are numerous little openings, which pour 
 out an unctuous fluid that defends them from the acrimony of the tears. 
 
 Cattle are very subject to a pustular eruption on the edges of the eye- 
 lids, accompanied sometimes by great soreness, and considerable ulcera- 
 tion. It bids defiance to every application, except the mild nitrated 
 ointment of mercury, and occasionally it does not jield even to that; yet, 
 on the approach of winter, it frequently disappears spontaneously. It 
 indicates a foul habit of body, and is often connected with mange ; and 
 unless proper means are taken, it will assuredly return in the following 
 spring. Purges of sulphur will be found useful ; but if the animal is so 
 fond of a mash, as not to refuse one with a powder in it, a course of altera- 
 tive medicine will be most serviceable. The powder should consist of one 
 part of jEthiop's mineral, two of nitre, and four of sulphur; and should 
 be given in doses of from half an ounce to an ounce every night, according 
 to the age and size of the beast.- 
 
 Warts on the eyelids are best removed by the scissors — the root being 
 afterwards touched with the nitrate of silver. 
 
 The ox has the same contrivance as the horse for cleansing the eji 
 from annoying substances. A flat piece of cartilage, of a semicircular 
 form, is placed within the corner of the eye. No muscular apparatus is 
 attached to it ; but when its use is required, the eye is drawn back by 
 the retractor muscle, and the mass of fat at the inner side of the eye is 
 forced forward, and drives the haw before it over the eye. When the re- 
 tractor ceases to act, the fatty substance returns to its place, and again 
 draws back the haw within the corner of the eye. 
 
 This part of the eye is more disposed to disease in the ox than in the 
 horse. The little portion of fleshy substance towards the inner edge of the 
 cartilage, and the caruncle, or small fleshy body, placed at the corner of 
 the eye to give a proper direction to the tears, take on inflammation 
 from sympathy with the eye generally, or from some injury done to them- 
 selves, or from the irritation of dust or gravel ; they swell prodigiously, 
 and the haw is protruded over the eye, and cannot return. Ulceration 
 soon begins to appear, and a fungous growth springs up. Sometimes 
 this seems to be as a kind of epizootic. I have seen more than a dozen 
 ■steers on one farm, with the caruncle on the bulb of the haw thus pro- 
 
DISEASES OF THE EYELIDS. 29. 
 
 fnided, ulcerated, and much enlarged, in consequence of a fungous ^-rowth 
 on it ; and there has sometimes been caries of the cartilage Every 
 means should be adopted to save this part, for the removal ol- it will in. 
 convenience and torment the animal as long as he lives. 
 
 If the disease is connected with inflammation of the eye generaKy, all 
 *rll subside with that inflammation, and this may be hastened by the ap- 
 plication of a Goulard wash, or diluted tincture of opium. If it appears to 
 be a disease originally of the part itself, the zinc lotion must be diligently 
 'ised, (two grains of white vitriol dissolved in an ounce of water, and the 
 vitriol gradually increased to four grains ; the application of it confined as 
 much as possible to the part, and the liquid not being suffered to get to the 
 sound part of the eye). A perseverance in the use of the zinc wash will 
 often do wonders. When it seems to lose its power, a lotion of corrosive 
 sublimate may be adopted, first of the strength of half a grain to an ounce 
 of water, and gradually increased to two grains. 
 
 If, after all, it becomes necessary to extirpate the p;.rt, the beast must 
 oe cast ; an assistant must keep open the eye with his fingers ; a crooked 
 needle, armed with strong silk, must be passed through the cartilage, by 
 means of which the part may be drawn out as far as possible ; and then, 
 with a pair of crooked scissors, the haw may be neatly dissected out. It 
 the ulceration has extended to any of the parts behind, or to the neigh- 
 bouring tissues, they also' must be removed. Considerable bleeding will 
 probably follow the operation, and some inflammation of the neighbouring 
 parts; but they must be subdued by proper means. If fungus should 
 sprout, it must be touched with the "austic , but there is little danger 
 attending the operation. 
 
 The eyelids are more subject to disease in the ox than in any other do- 
 mestic animal. If any foreign body gets into the eje, and remains long 
 there, the eyelids riever fail to partake of the irritation ; they become 
 hot and tender, and very much thickened. Sometimes the eyelid will 
 continue thickened after the inflammation of the eye has subsided. 
 Fomentations will be indicated here. Occasionally there is (Edematous 
 swelling of the eyelid, and especially where the pasture is damp and 
 marshy. These enlargements are too little thought of, and left to nature 
 to relieve; but they indicate a certain degree of general debility, and a 
 disposition in the eyes to take on disease. We have seen many old cattle 
 whose eyelids were either distended with fluid infiltrated into the cellular 
 texture, or from which a portion of the fluid had been removed by absorp- 
 tion, but a deposit remained, indicated by the impression of the finger 
 being left upon the lid. These cattle were always more or less out of 
 condition, or would not fatten kindly, or had lately had inflammation of 
 , the eyes, or were attacked by it soon afterwards. 
 
 A curious appearance — we can scarcely call it a disease — has been ob- 
 served in the eyelids of fat bullocks. They have been emphysematous. 
 A certain portion of gas has been infiltrated into the cellular tissue. It is 
 *aid that in France this has, now and then, been the consequence of the 
 rogueries of cattle-dealers. When there have been too many hollows, or 
 salient points, about the cattle, a perforation has been made through the 
 skin, a little pipe introduced, and a quantum suff. of air blown into the 
 cellular substance, a portion of which, by degrees, found its way into the 
 eyelids. We do not believe that tricks like these are attempted here ; 
 although we shall have to expose not a few of the dishonest and brutal 
 practices ofcattle-dealers. If this natural emphysema is supposed to be 
 a dissight, a slight scarification may be made on the lid, and the gas gra- 
 dually pressed out. 
 
 U 2 
 
2' 2 CATTLV. 
 
 'J he eye Of the ox generally is' larger and flatter than that of the horfc 
 but the transparent cornea is more convex. The pnpil is of a transverse 
 oblong form ; andthe iris is dark, but somewhat varying with the coloui 
 of the animal. The inner construction is the same as that of the horse, 
 and the diseases have too much affinity. 
 
 It is on account of the cornea of the ox being so convex, and the lens 
 also more than usually convex, that many cattle apfjear to be short- 
 sighted, at least while they are young. Every one accustomed to cattle 
 must have observed how close the herd generally, and the steers and 
 heifers particularly, will approach to a stranger, before they appear to 
 have made a satisfactory examination of him. 
 
 OPHTHALMIA. 
 
 Ophthalmia is as frequent in the ox as in the horse. When it can be 
 removed, it is by the same means as in the horse, and in other cases it 
 is equally obstinate. It has the same periodical character, and will disap- 
 pear and return until it has its natural termination' — blindness. The 
 cases of simple ophthalmia, however, proceeding from the introduction 
 of foreign bodies into the eyes, blows, or being the accompaniment of 
 other diseases, and then yielding to medical treatment, are more numerous 
 in the ox than in the horse, and therefore, as it is not always possible in 
 the early stage to distinguish the one from the other, the disease may be 
 attacked with more confidence. 
 
 The means of cure are the same, bleeding and physic, as the constitu- 
 tional treatment ; and fomentations, cold lotions — opium, in the form 
 of the vinous, or the dilute spirituous tincture — saturnine lotions — zinc 
 lotions, as local applications ; the opium during the acute stage, the lead 
 resorted to as soon as the inflammation begins to subfide, and the zinc as 
 a tonic, when the inflammation ig uearly subdued. The chief difference 
 in the mode of treatment is the necessity of having recourse to the tonic 
 lotion somewhat sooner for the ox than wouiQ be deemed prudent for the 
 horse. The increased strength of the vascular system in the ox will 
 account for this: inflammatory diseases speedily run their course in these 
 animals ; and debility, whether genejal or local, treads closely on the 
 heels of undue action. 
 
 The periodical nature of the disease being once apparent, the proprietor 
 should be immediately informed of the state of the case, that he may at 
 once send the animal to the butcher, or hasten to prepare it for sale; and 
 there is one fact that cannot be too deeply impressed on the mind of the 
 breeder, that ophthalmia is as certainly hereditary in cattle as it is in the 
 horse. 
 
 OTHER DISEASES OF THE EYE. 
 
 There is a singular disease of the eye, which cannot properly be called 
 ophthalmia, that is sometimes epizootic among cattle, and sadly frightens 
 the owner when it first appears. Young cattle pasturing on wet and 
 woody ground are suddenly seized with swellings of the tongue and 
 throat, and eruptions about the membrane of the mouth. At the same 
 time the eyes become intensely inflamed, and superficial ulcers appear on 
 the cornea. The cow-leech is sent for in haste, and he, thinking that des- 
 perate cases require desperate remedies, applies his caustic or his astringent 
 lotions. He adds fuel to fire, the inflammation grows more intense, and 
 several of the cattle become blind. A little experience would have taught 
 him that this was only one of nature's methods, a rather singular one 
 .mdeed, o*' getting rid of something that offended the constitution ; and tha 
 
FRACTURE OF THE SKULL. 293 
 
 his wisest way would be to let her pretty nearly alone. The skilful prac- 
 titioner t'omenUs with warm water, or, if the eyes are closed, perhaps he 
 applies an evaporating lotion of cold water with a little spirit, and possibly 
 he gives gentle physic . and he soon has the satisfaction to see the inflam- 
 mation disappearing, and the ulcers gradually healing, the process of which 
 he somewhat hastens by a very weak zinc wash. 
 
 The ox is subject to Cataract, but it is not often seen, because periodical 
 ophthalmia is not so frequent in him as in the horse ; and as soon as the 
 existence of that disease is ascertained, the animal is prepared for slaughter ; 
 yet there are few herds in which there is not found a beast with cataract in 
 one eye. 
 
 GuTTA SERENA, or palsy of the optic nerve, — blindness in one or both eyes, 
 yet the perfect transparency of the eye preserved, — is a disease of rare 
 occurrence among cattle, and partly for a similar reason, that it is no 
 sooner recognized than the beast is destroyed. A blind horse may be 
 useful for many purposes, a blind ox is good for nothing. 
 
 Cancer op the eye, or a perfect change of the mechanism of the eye 
 into a fleshy, half-decomposed substance that ulcerates and wastes away, 
 or from which fungous growths spring that can never be checked, is a 
 disease of occasional occurrence. The remedy would be extirpation of the 
 eye, if it were deemed worth while to attempt it. 
 
 A very curious disease of the eye has in a few instances been observed. 
 The common syniptomsof ophthalmia appear, as injection of the conjunctiva, 
 dinmess of the cornea, weeping, and swelling of the lids. These are properly 
 attended to, but the inflammation increases ; and, on very close examina- 
 tion, a small white worm, about the size of a hair and an inch in length, 
 is found swimming in the aqueous humour, or that fluid which is imme- 
 diately behind the cornea. Now it is at once evident that the only way 
 to get rid of, or to destroy tliis worm, is to puncture tlie cornea, and let it 
 out ; and this method has been resorted to. In some cases, however, not 
 many days pass before another worm makes its appearance, and the opera- 
 tion is to be performed a second time, and the horse eventually loses that 
 eye. A veterinary surgeon, Mr. Chaignaud, who seems to have had most 
 experience about this, says, that three or four days before the appearance of 
 the worms, one or two minute bodies, of a reddish white colour, are seen at 
 the bottom of the anterior chamber of the eye. He also says that the dis- 
 ease appears about June, and is not seen after December. We confess that 
 the malady has not fallen under our observation ; but in a work on 
 British cattle, every disease, of which there is authentic record, should 
 be described. There is no difficulty about these animalcules getting into 
 the eye, for there are undisputed instances of their passing through the 
 smallest capillaries, and bein^r found in almost every tissue. 
 
 FRACTURE OF THE SKULL. 
 
 One class of the diseases of the head to which cattle are exposed will 
 fall wa'i'.T the title of compression of, or pressure upon, the brain. Although 
 it is a curious fact, that portions of the external or cineritious part of the 
 brain may be cut away without the animal being conscious of it, yet the 
 slightest pressure cannot be made upon the brain without impairment of 
 consciousness, or loss of the power of voluntary motion. A curious 
 illustration of this occurred to a veterinary surgeon. Notwithstanding 
 the protection which the divided plates of the frontal bones together with 
 the interposed elastic bony walls afford, the horn of a vicious beast wil! 
 sometimes do mischief. It had penetrated both plates in the head of 
 cow, but she was seen grazing as usual, with a greas) bloody fluid runnin ■ 
 
294 CATTLE. 
 
 from the nostril. The finger was incautiously introduced to ascertain the 
 depth of the wound, when the cow fell as by a stroke of lightning;' but 
 after lying two or three seconds insensible, she got up and began to graze 
 again. She fed and ruminated for two day's, and then," on being taken out 
 to the water, she had no sooner quitted the stable than she began to turn 
 slowly round and round from the left to the right. She was stopped, and 
 led a little farther on, when she commenced the same rotatory motion 
 and in the same direction. She was immediately destroyed ; the horn had 
 penetrated deep into the brain, and almost to the base of it. 
 
 The very construction of the skull of the ox, which gives a degree of 
 security from ordinary danger, deprives us of a valuable means of relief, 
 in case of compression of the brain from fracture. lu the human being, 
 and in some situations in the horse, a hole may be made with a trephine 
 at a little distance from the depressed portion of the bone, and then a 
 slightly curved unyielding piece of iron introduced, which, acting on the 
 principle of the lever, raises the depressed bone to its proper situation. 
 This double plate of the frontal, and the distance interposed between the 
 two plates, renders it impo.ssible to use such an instrument with success 
 on the ox, and there'lore the animal should always be consigned to 
 slaughter. 
 
 ON HYD TIDS AND TUMOURS IN THE BRAIN. 
 
 The sheep is subject to a disease strangely termed turnsick, in which 
 the animal goes round and round in the same way as the cow with the 
 fractured skull. The cause of this peculiar motion has been satisfactorily 
 traced to an animacule, called an hydatid, pressing upon the brain, and 
 many strange operations have been had recourse to, in order to remove or 
 destroy the parasite. 
 
 The cow will sometimes exhibit the same symptoms. First, some degree 
 ot fever comes on — she perhaps scarcely eats — rumination is suspended — 
 the muzzle is dry — the ears and roots of the horns hot — the breathing 
 laborious, and the hair rough. It is fever without any evident local 
 determination. Perhaps she is bled and physicked ; but on the following 
 day, the th-ng begins to speak for itself; she turns round and round, and 
 always in the same direction : it is pressure upon the brain ; and, remember- 
 ing what he sees in his sheep, the farmer at once despairs, for it is plain 
 enough that no operation can relieve such an animal from the hydatid. 
 
 Let him not, however, despair. It is evidently pressure on the brain , 
 but is the pressure of the hydatid the only one that can affect the brain, or 
 produce this peculiar motion ' Would not effusion of blood, or of any fluid, 
 on some circumscribed portion of the brain, produce the same effect 5 
 There may have been a somewhat too great determination of blood to the 
 head, and some little vessel may have given way. It is worth trying for a 
 day or two at least, and the cow will not be much the worse for slaughter in 
 that time. She should be bled again, and that copiously ; and a stronger 
 dose of physic shouM be given. In some instances, perhaps we may be 
 justified in saying in the majority of cases, the animal will do well. 
 A somewhat spare diet at the time, and for a while afterwards, will be 
 plainly indicated. Success will not, however, attend every case, and in 
 some countries, much oftener than in Great Britain, cattle have hydatids 
 on the brain. 
 
 It is a disease, however, peculiar to young cattle. It seldom attacks 
 any beast after he is a year and a half old. Bartholin, an old ' writer, 
 states that, in 1661, a great many beasts perished from a species of frenzy, 
 and that when they were examined, vesicular wo'ins were found in ths 
 
WATER IN THE HEAD. 29j 
 
 brain. Iii Switzerland, attacks of tht -nydalid are said not to be unfre- 
 quent among cattle; and assoon as the beasts begin their circular walk, 
 they are caught and struck somewhat hardly on the head, and between the 
 horns, wjth a hammer, and the operator judges of the situation of the 
 hydatid by the shrinking of the animal, and the hollowness of the sound. 
 
 Now, we apprehend that enough has been said of the hollow between 
 the plates of the frontals, and occasional inflammation of the lining mem- 
 brane, and collections of pus about the roots of the horns, to satisfy the 
 reader with regard to the real nature of this supposed hydatid. The 
 shrinking will point out the spot at which the membrane is inflamed ; and 
 the svspenHon of the hollow sound will indicate where the pus is collected. 
 There the operator makes an opening into the skull, and a fluid escapes, 
 which he conceives to be the contents of the hydatid. 
 
 Veterinary writers, in those countries where the hydatid in cattle is 
 known, very properly remark that it may be discovered in young stock in the 
 same manner that it is in sheep, by the softening of the bone at a particular 
 part ;■ because the frontal sinuses are not fully developed in young beasts. 
 The hydatid may then be punctured with an awl in the common way, or 
 better got at with the trephine ; but for own parts the chance of perma- 
 nent cure is so slight in sheep, that we should be inclined to recommend 
 that the young cattle thus affected should be immediately destroyed. 
 
 WATER IN THE HEAD. 
 
 There is another species of pressure on the: brain, to which young and 
 very young cattle are confessedly subject, and that sometimes even in the 
 fffital state we mean hydrocephalus, or water in the head. The 
 fluid is usually found between the membranes, and it exists in so great a 
 quantity, and enlarges the cranium to such a degree, that parturition is 
 rendered difficult and dangerous ; and it is often necessary to destroy the 
 progeny in order to save the life of the mother. There should be no 
 hesitation about this, for a calf with water in the head will never be good 
 for anything. 
 
 A calf was born with a large tumour on the frontal bone — it was weak 
 — it staggered as it walked — it was unable to raise its head to seize the 
 teat, but it sucked heartily when it was held to the teat, and the head sup- 
 ported. The tumour was punctured on the third day. and two pints and 
 a half of fluid escaped. The calf then walked of its own accord to Ihf, 
 mother, held up its head for the first time, and sucked its fill. For three 
 days it seemed to be going on well — when a bloody pus began to flov/ 
 from the wound — the animal refused to suck— tetanus supervened, and 
 the calf died. 
 
 We have sometimes, yet not often, seen hydrocephalus appear aftei 
 birth in very weakly calves ; but we do not recollect an instance in an 
 healthy one; and in almost every case it has been fatal : therefore as in- 
 dicating weakness, and rapidly undermining the powers of" the constitu- 
 tion, prudence would immediately consign such an animal to death. 
 
 In the adult animal, the pressure of a serous fluid on the brain will 
 occasionally be a source of general disease, or death ; but it will then be 
 an accumulation of fluid in the ventricles of the brain, rather than between 
 /he membranes, and not indicated by any change in the size or form of 
 the skull. The symptoms will very much resemble those of apoplexy, 
 which we are presently to describe, except that they are of a milder cha- 
 racter, and the malady is slower hi its progress — and the plexus choroides, 
 or network of minute arteries and veins in the ventricles, are usua'ly 
 consideiably enlarged. 
 
^'C CATTLE. 
 
 APOPLEXY. 
 
 Cattle are very subject to suddcM determination of blood to the heart 
 They are naturally plethoric ; they are continually under the influence ol 
 a stimulating and forcing system ; and that without the exercise by means 
 of which the injurious effects of that system might in a great measure be 
 counteracted. The food of the horse is regulated by this consideration, 
 that while he obtains muscular power equal to the work that we require 
 from him, there shall be no useless accumulation of fat to impede him in 
 that work ; whereas the very object, in our management of the ox, is to 
 clothe him with as much flesh and fat as possible ; therefore it is that he 
 is so subject to all the diseases connected with a redundancy of blood, 
 and to apoplexy among the rest. 
 
 There are few premonitory symptoms in these cases. The animal is 
 struck all at once. The disease is called in many parts of the country 
 blood-striking. Had the beast been closely observed, it might have been 
 perceived that he was more than usually indisposed to move — that the 
 breathing was a little laborious, and the eye somewhat protruded ; but 
 the herdsman takes no notice of trifles like these. The animal seems to 
 be struck all at once — he falls — he breathes heavily and stertorously — 
 he struggles with greater or less violence, and then dies — sometimes in 
 five minutes — oftener after the expiration of a few hours. 
 
 If there is time to do anything, the beast should be bled, and aj much 
 blood should be taken away as can be got. A pound and a half of Epsom 
 •salts should next be given, and without any carminative; and this followed 
 up with doses of half a pound until the physic operates ; its action should 
 afterwards be maintained by six-ounce doses of sulphur every morning. 
 
 The congestion of blood in the vessels of the brain being removed, and 
 also the congestion which, to a certain degree, prevails everywhere, the 
 beast should be slaughtered ; for he is liable to a return of the complaint 
 from causes which would not, previous to his first attack, have in the 
 slightest degree affected him. 
 
 PHRENITIS 
 
 The PHRENSYor sough in cattle is too well known to the farmer and the 
 practitioner. There is generally, at first, much oppression and heaviness; 
 the animal can scarcely be induced to move ; the eyes are protruded and 
 are red; the respiration is hurried; and delirium, more or less intenw, 
 rapidly succeeds. The beast rushes at everything in its way ; it mis 
 chievously seeks out objects ; it is in incessant action, galloping about 
 with its tail arched, staggering, falling, bellowing hideously ; its skin 
 sticking to its ribs, and the sensibility of the spine strangely increased. 
 There is even in health a peculiar formation of the eye of the ox, or a 
 sensibility of the retina to certain colours, which makes the beast dislike 
 a brilliant red object* ; under this disease it raises him to the highest 
 pitch of fu'ry. 
 
 • The following anecdote, related by Sir Walter Scott, will illustrate this antipathy to 
 red which cattle sometimes exhibit, and at the same time give the reader some idea ol 
 the conversational peculiarities and powers possessed by that great man. The stoiy vra.s 
 told by him a year or two before his death. 
 
 * Talking of a mischievous bull puts me in mind of a similar case, which I myselt 
 witnessed many years ago in Edinburgh. I was proceeding from the old to the new 
 town, by the earthen mound, at the. head of which I was led for a few minutes to look at 
 a bull that had got into an inclosure there, after the unmerciful butcher-lads had driven 
 it fairly mad. The crowd that gathered on the outside of the fence increased the brute's 
 fierceness. At last they began to cast ropes over its horns and around its neck, thereby 
 to pull it to a strong hold, that it might be slain in the place where it was, which drove 
 « to Ai nsjst desperate fury. Its eyes w' glared madness ; there were handfuls of foam 
 
PHRKiNSY. . C'>7 
 
 A.S, however, the previous oppression and stupidity were much less ir.' 
 the ox than in the horse, so is the succeeding violence increased ; not 
 even a rabid ox is a more fearful animal, and it is somewhat more dilti- 
 cult to distinguish between these two diseases in the ox than in the 
 horse. In the earlv stage of phrenitis, althoiiarh there may be lowness or 
 oppression, there is nothing like apoplexy, or want of consciousness. Be- 
 sides, with all his fury, there is more ineiiiod in the madness of the rabid 
 than the phrenitic ox. The latter will run at everything- which presents 
 itself, but it is a sudden impulse ; the former will, as it were, plot 
 mischief, and will endeavour to lure his victims within his reach. A much 
 greater quantity of foam will also be discharged from the mouth of the 
 rabid than the phrenitic ox. 
 
 The causes are much the same as those of apoplexy, too stimulating 
 food, and too g-reat redundancy of blood ; to whicli may generally lie added 
 some immediately exciting cause, as hard and rapid work in sultry wea- 
 ther, over-driving, &c. In the neighbourhood of London, too many in- 
 stances of phrenitis occur from the latter cause. It once used to be the 
 sport of brutes in human shape to excite it, by selecting a beast from the 
 herd, and driving it furiously from street to street. 
 
 As to the treatment of phrenitis there is some difficulty. Is any treat- 
 ment practicable ? Is human life to be hazarded ? Cases will occur in 
 which a bullet would be the best remedy ; but then the flesh will be in 
 such a congested state that it cannot be sold. If the beast can be ma- 
 naged or approached during a momentary remission of the symptoms, 
 bleeding should be attempted, and if •* sT'^in can be opened, it should be 
 suffered to bleed on as long as it will. Physic, if it can be given, will be 
 indicated. Sometimes the beast labours under an insatiable thirst, and a? 
 his taste is not now very exquisite, he maybe cheated with water in 
 which Epsom salts have been dissoived. If there is time to get down one 
 hornful of drink, a scruple or half a dram of the farina of the Croton 
 nut may be administered, mixed with a little gruel. All other medicines 
 are completely out of the question. If bleeding and physic will not 
 save the ox, nothing will. Use should also be made of any temporary 
 respite to confine the animal ; or, if possible, to get him into some place 
 
 flying from its mouth ; with its fore feet it pawed the ground, throwing lumps of earth as 
 high as the adjolniug houses, and it bellowed so as to make one quake. It was anything 
 hut an agreeable sight, so 1 moved away homewards. But before I got to the foot of the 
 mound, an alarming shout caused me to look back, wheu I perceived the animal at no 
 great distance behind me, coming on with all its rage. I had just time to spring to the 
 top of the wall that lined the footpath, and to behold its future progress. 
 
 ' I shudder to this hour when I think of what immediately I saw. Among the people 
 that were near me and in jeopardy, was ayoung lady, and, as you have said, she wore a 
 red mantle, wliich is a very offensive colour to many of the brute creation. As I did, she 
 also made for the wall, but had neither time nor strength to gain its top ere the infuriated 
 animal drove towards her. She turned her back, however, to the inaccessible eminence, 
 as if to see the full extent of her fate, and then stood as nailed to it, save only her arms, 
 which she threw aloft in her despair, which would have been as fragile in defence as a 
 rotten reed. Her tender body would have been nothing against a force that could have 
 broken bars of brass, and horns that might have transfixed an animal of its own size. A» 
 I have said, directly towards the unprotected young lady the bull drove forward : with 
 intentest eye hs came on, he mistook his mark not an inch ; for as the multitude behind 
 him yelled their horror, he dashed with prodigious strength and madness against her. 
 
 ' Was it not a miracle that the dear young woman escaped unhurt and untouched ? 
 Yet, it was true; for the terrific animal struck at her so accuraiely, that a horn smote the 
 dead wall on either hand, thus embracing, but from their great lengtli shielding, hi r 
 person from even the slightest danger. But the staunch wall withstood the tremendous 
 thnist, and sent back with rebounding force, to a great distance, the huge and terriblo 
 brute, throwing him prostrate, never to rise again ; for numberless destructive weapons 
 •ere plunged into him, ere he had time to recoviw from the recoil.' 
 
-'S8 CATTLE. 
 
 where he cannot do much harm to himself or to any one else. Some 
 persons have. recommended setons of black hellebore root, inserted in 
 the dewlap,, and when these bcfjin to act, they generally do so to some 
 • effectual purpose ;: but the animal will usually have recovered, or be dead, 
 before the seton begins to discharge. 
 
 The. phrenzy having been subdued, the next consideration is, what is 
 to be done with the beast. No more dependence can be placed on him 
 than on the one that had recovered from a fit of apoplexy. The' purging 
 system should he continued to a moderate degree, arid thei fevei" medicine 
 .should be given to abate the quickness of the circulation ; and then, when 
 the conge.sted blood is. got pretty well oUt of the system, and the flesh 
 begins to look well, and has become healthy, the sooner he is disposed 
 of the better. 
 
 TET.4NUS, OK LOCKED JAW. 
 
 The nerves proceeding from the spinal chord are of two kinds,, those by 
 which the power of voluntary motion is conveyed to the limbs, and those 
 by wliich the impressions of surrounding objects are conveyed to the 
 mind. We will treat first of the, diseases of the nerves of motion.. There 
 is a fluid or influence conveyed from the brain, through the medium of 
 the spinal chord, to the various parts of the body, and by means of which 
 those parts are moved. In a state of health, that influence is communi- 
 cated in a uniform succession of undulations, or pulses. In disease, it 
 may rush on violently and without interruption ; if that is only partial and 
 has relation to a single muscle, or one set of muscles, the animal is said 
 to be cramped ; if this violent and uninterrupted action extends over the 
 frarne, he labours under tetanus ; if the stream of influence is rapid and 
 strong, but there are suspensions, he has fits ; and if the nervous influence 
 is altogether withheld, there is palsy. 
 
 Tetanl's is not of frequent occurrence in cattle, but it is seldom that a 
 beast recovers from it. Its approach is very insidious, and rarely observed 
 by the herdsman until the mischief is done. The animal is off its food, 
 ceases to ruminate, is disinclined to move, and stands with, its head pro- 
 truded, but there is no dryness of the muzzle, or heat of the horn, or cold- 
 ness of the ears; and nothing is done. The next day the beast is found in 
 the same state ; it has scarcely moved, and the herdsman begins to bea 
 little alarmed and mentions the case to the owner. The animal is now 
 standing straddling behind, he can scarcely be induced to alter his position, 
 and, if he is made to turn, he turns all togeiher. The finger is put into the 
 mouth, and it is found that the jaw is locked ; a discovery which might 
 have been made two or three days before, and when the ox might have 
 been saved. 
 
 Working cattle are most subject to tetanus, because they may be pricked 
 in shoeing ; and because, after a hard day's worU, and covered with per- 
 spiration, they are sometimes turned o'lt to graze during a cold and 
 wet night. Overdriving is, not an uncommon cause of tetanus in cattle. 
 The drovers, from long experience, calculate the average mortality among 
 a herd of cattle in their journey from the north to the southern markets; 
 and at the head of the list of diseases, and with the greatest number of 
 victims, stands ' locked jaw,' especially if the principal diover is long 
 absent from his charge. 
 
 The treatment of such a disease must be of the promptest character. 
 The animal should be bled until the pulse faulters, or. rather until the 
 patient V'lows, staggers, and threatens to fall. There is nothing so likely 
 vO relax spasm o' every kind, and to have some effect even "n this exces- 
 sive and xuiversa one, as bleeding almost to fainting. We lav? known 
 
TETANUS, OR LOCKED JAW. 29S 
 
 Iwenty, and even twenty-lbuV pounrls taken from ihe beast lufore llie de- 
 sired efTeet was produced, and these are the cases which ofteiiest do well, 
 when the constitution resists thebleeding as longas it can, and then jji^ea 
 Way. 
 
 One effect, not always so lasting' as we coiild tvish, follows the bleeding'; 
 the spasm is somewhat relaxed, and the jaws can be opened a little way. 
 Advantage must be immediately taken of this to pour in a dose of physic. 
 That which is most active, and lies in the smallest compass, is the best 
 here; and half a drachm or two scruples of the farina of the CrOton nut 
 should be given in a little' gruel with, if it can be then adrfiinistered, or as 
 soon as it can, a pound or a pound and a half of' Epsom salts in solution. 
 This must be followed up until the bowels' are well opened. All other 
 medicine, all other means, will be thrown away until brisk purgii g is pro- 
 duced. 
 
 There is .sometimes a great deal of difficulty in itiis. We shall have 
 occasion to show hereafter that the direction which a fluid takes, or the 
 stomach into which it goes, is uncertain. It may pass on at once through 
 the third and fourth stomachs and produce its effect on the bowels ; or it 
 may accumulate in the jjaunch without producing any effect whatever. 
 The manner in which it is given may have some influence here. If the 
 attendant is in a great hurry to take advantage of the relaxation of the 
 spasm, and pours down the whole drink as quickly as he can, and as it 
 were in one body, it is very likely to find its way into the paunch. If he 
 goes quietly to work, and gives a little at a time, or suffers it to run 
 gently down the throat, it will probably flow into the fourth stomach and 
 the intestinal canal. The explanation of thi.s will be given in its pi-oper 
 p^ace. 
 
 The bowels must he opened. After the first dose of Epsom salts and 
 Croton farina, half-pound doses of the salts should be given every six hours 
 until the desired effect is produced ; but the first day having passed, the 
 E| som salts may be changed with advantage for common salt. Injections 
 should likewise be administered every third hour, and in sufficient quan- 
 tity, (four or six quarts at least,) and in each of them half a pound of 
 Epsom salts should be dissolved. If four or six doses of medicine have 
 been given, and the animal continues to be constipated, the pulse, the ear 
 and the horn should be examined as to the degree of fever ; and if any 
 degree of it is indicated, or if the pulse does not plainly denote debility, a 
 second bleeding must be resorted to, and carried on as before until the 
 circulation is evidently affected. 
 
 [f the animal still remains constipated, it is clear enough that the 
 physic is accumulated in the paunch' ; and that that stomach is not dis- 
 posed to act. Strong doses of aromatics arid tonics must now be added 
 to the physic, in order to rouse the paunch, if possible, to the expulsion 
 of its contents, and should that fail, recourse must be had to the assistance 
 of the stomach-pump. The oeoophagus-tube must be introduced into the 
 gullet, and carried down into the rumen, and warm water must be pumped 
 in until that stomach is filled and overflows ; and then the contents will 
 either be returned by vomiting, or pass through the third into the fourth 
 stomach, and so into the intestines, and the v^ished-for purgative eflect 
 will follow. This instrument is invaluable to the proprietor of Cattle, and, 
 on the smallest farm, would soon repay the expense of the purchase. 
 
 Purging being established, an attempt must be m^ade to. allay the irritu- 
 bility of the nervous system by means of sedatives; and the best drug 
 iha*. can be administered, we should perhans be warranted in say-ng the 
 ?j y effectual one, is opium. The crude opium dissolved in warm water, 
 
JOO CATTLE. 
 
 and suspended by meats of mucilage of gum, or the yolk of an eg/;, witi 
 be the preferable form in which to give it. The dose should be a drachm 
 three times every day, and increased to a drachm and a half on the thiro 
 day, if the effect of the smaller dose is not evident. At the same time 
 the action of the bowels must be kept up by Epsom salts, or common 
 salt, or sulphur, and the proportions of the purgative and the sedative 
 must be so managed, that the constitution shall be under the influence of 
 both. It may occasionally be necessary to suspend the sedative for a 
 dose or for a day, when costiveness threatens to prevail. The animal 
 should be supported by mashes, which it will sometimes contrive to eat, 
 or at least to suck up the moisture from them ; and as soon as there is 
 any remission of the spasm, the beast may be turned out in a field near 
 at hand during the day, and taken up at night. 
 
 A seton of black hellebore root in the dewlap may be of service. It is 
 introduced into a new system, — a part not under the influence of the dis- 
 ea.se, — and it often causes a great deal of inflammation and swelling. 
 'J'he back and the loins may also be covered with sheepskins, frequently 
 changed, in order to excite constant perspiration, and, if possible, produce 
 relaxation in the part principally attacked: but the chief dependence 
 should be placed on the copious bleeding at first; a recurrence to it if the 
 spasm becomes yet more violent, or fever appears ; and the joint influ- 
 ence of the sedative and purging' medicine. 
 
 If the disease terminates successfully, the beast will be left; sadly out o, 
 condition, and he will not thrive very rapidly. He must, however, be 
 got into fair plight, as quickly as prudence will allo-y, and then sold ; for 
 he will rarely stand much work afterwards, or carry any great quantity of 
 flesh. 
 
 CHOREA. 
 
 Of this disease, so frequent in the dog, either after distemper, or con- 
 nected with it, and an affection resembling which we sometimes recognize 
 in the horse, under the name of stringhalt, we know nothing in cattle. 
 
 EPILEPSY. 
 
 This is a disease of rare occurrence, but one not easy to treat when it 
 does appear. It attacks animals of all ages, but chiefly those under three- 
 years-old. There are few symptoms to indicate the approach of the fit, 
 except, perhaps, a little dulness or heaviness which precedes many other 
 diseases, or which might be merely accidental, or the residt of very trifling 
 indisposition. AH at once the beast begins to stagger — he falls; some- 
 times he utters the most frightful bellowings ; at other times he makes no 
 noise, but every limb is convulsed ; the heaving at the flanks is particu- 
 larly violent ; the force with which the abdominal muscles act would 
 scarcely be credited unless seen ; the jaws are either firmly clenched, or 
 there is grinding of the teeth, and a frothy fluid is plentifully discharged 
 from the mouth, mixed with portions of the food, which seem to have been 
 prepared for rumination. The faeces and the urine flow involuntarily. 
 
 Sometimes these symptoms do not continue more than a few seconds ; 
 at other times the fit lasts several minutes, and then the convulsions be- 
 come less violent — they gradually cease, and the beast gets up, looks 
 about b'-n, seems to be unconscious of what has happened, — at length 
 he joins the herd, and begins to graze as before. 
 
 This disease is usually to be traced to some mismanagement with re- 
 gard to the food. It oftenest attacks young cattle in high condition, and 
 who have lately been turned on better pasture than usual, or who have 
 been exposed to some temporary excitement from over-driving, or the hea 
 
PALSY. 3(1 
 
 of the weaiher. ft is a species of vertigo, or stagsjers — a sudden deter- 
 miiiatiun of blood to the head ; and if the farmer does not taiie warning, 
 mischief will result. 
 
 A very serious part of this business is, that the hahit of fits is soon 
 formed. The first is . frequently succeeded by a second, and at length 
 three or four will occur in the course of a day. 
 
 Bleeding, physic, and short commons wilt comprize the treatment 
 here ; and the last is the most important of all. Perhaps, however, if 
 the beast were designed for the market at no distant period, the owner 
 will deem it prudent to hasten that time. 
 
 PALSY. 
 
 We shall not treat here of that loss of power over the hind limbs which 
 occasionally follows parturition, under the term ' dropping after calving;' 
 nor that partial and sometimes total inability to move the hind limbs, 
 which is the slow effect of rheumatism, or swelling of the joints ; but that 
 difficulty to move the hinder limbs chiefly which is to be attributed to 
 other causes, or perhaps cannot be traced to any particular cause, except 
 that, in the great majority of instances, it is, after all. more or less con- 
 nected with a rheumatic affection. 
 
 There are many low, woody, marshy situatiolis, the cattle in which are 
 notoriously subject to palsy. It is frequent everywhere during a cold, 
 nngenial spring ; and there are seasons in which it assumes the character 
 of an epizootic. Old beasts, and th'ose that have been worked, are parti- 
 cularly subject to it ; and especially when they are cruelly turned out to 
 gather their scanty food during a coH Might, after a hard day's work. It 
 is lamentable to think how many of the diseases of our quadruped servants 
 derive their origin from our negligence or cruelty. A damp and unwhole- 
 some cowhouse, from which the litter is rarely removed, but putrid effluvia 
 mingle with the aqueous vapour that is continually rising, is a fruitful 
 source of palsy, and especially if to this is added the baneful influence of 
 scanty and bad food and stagnant water. Old cows, whose milk has been 
 dried, and who cannot be made to carry much flesh, are very subject to 
 this cooiplaint. 
 
 Palsy is usually slow in its progress. There appears to be a general 
 debility ; perhaps referable 'to the part about to be attacked more than to 
 any other ; and it will be afterwards recollected, that there was a giving 
 way, or trembling of that part, and sometimes, but not always, a coldness 
 of it. The hind limbs are the parts which are most frequently attacked. 
 ft is at first feebleness which increases to stiffnes?, awkwardness of motion, 
 and at length to total loss of it. We have seen a few instances in which 
 the fore limbs have been the principal seat of the disease, but then the 
 hind limbs have always participated in the affection.- In no case, how- 
 ever, have we seen any affection of one side of the animal and not of the 
 other; this is a difference in the symptoms of palsy in the human beiug 
 and the brute, for which we are not able satisfactorily to account. 
 
 In many parts of the kingdom this complaint is traced to a most ridi- 
 culous cause. The original evil is said to be in the tail; and all maladies 
 of this kind, involving the partial or total loss of motion of the hind limbs 
 of the animal, are classed under the name of tail-ill, or tail-slip. Our 
 friend, Mr. Dick, of Edinburgh, has taken up this subject in a very inte- 
 resting point of view, in the 14th Number of the Quarterly Journal of 
 Agriculture ; and the public are much indebted to him for dispelling a 
 false and injurious and cruel superstition. The farmer and the cowleech 
 believe that the mischief passes along th« cow's tail to the back, and tliat 
 
2C2 (BATTLE. 
 
 it is on account of something wrong in the tail that she loses the nse ol 
 her legs; and then some set to work, and cut the cow's tail off; while 
 others, less cruel, or more scientific, make an incision into the under sur- 
 face, and allow the wbnnd to bleed freely, and then fill it up with a mix- 
 ture of tar and salt, and we know not what. 
 
 In some parts of the country, the practitioner is not content with this 
 treatment, but, supposing there is witchcraft in the business, he has re- 
 course to some charm in addition to the cutting and dressing. This 
 charm consists in binding a small piece of the rowan tree on the extre- 
 mity of the tail, and making a black cat pass three times round the cow's 
 body, OTcr her back, and under her belly, which (if it happens to be a 
 strange cat, as is often the case from the necessity of the colour being 
 black) so enran'es the animal, that she mews and scratches with all the 
 fury to which she is so easily excited, until she escapes from the hands ot 
 the necromancers, leaving them convinced that the devil has got into the 
 cat. 
 
 Mr. Dick, with a kind consideration, for which he deserves much 
 credit, condescends to reasonthe case with these foolish people, and what 
 he says is so much to the purpose, that we cannot refrain from introducing 
 it here. ' The disease, in ordinary cases, is said to consist in a softening 
 of the bones about the extremity of the tail, and is to be distinguished 
 by the point of the tail being easily doubled back upon itself, and having 
 at this doubling a soft and rather a crepitating kind of feel. But what 
 is the real state of the case? The tail is lengthened out to the extent of 
 about three feet, and is formed like a common whip. Towards the ex- 
 tremity, the bones terminate gradually, becoming insensibly smaller as 
 they proceed downwards. At this part is said to be found a soft space^ — • 
 the tail slip. Beyond this again, a firm swelling cartilaginous portion 
 is found, coveied with hair to brush off the ilies within its reach. Now 
 why have we the long cohurm of bones ; the termination with a soft 
 space of a few inches ; this thickened, hard, cartilaginous part at the very 
 extremity, and that extremity covered with hair, but with a view to form 
 a whip to drive off, and with the greate.st possible effect, the insects which 
 wound and torment the animal ? 
 
 ' Here the column of bones forms the shart or handle of the whip — the 
 soft part, the connexion between the handle and the thong, while the 
 thickened extremity may be easily recognised to represent the thong, and 
 the hairs to form the lash; or point ; so that we have a whip to drive away 
 the flies, and so complete one, 'hat the coachman may borrow a lesson 
 frbm its construction.' 
 
 We trust, therefore, that our readers will never be tound again looking 
 at the tail of the cow for an explanation of palsy, or any other complaint; 
 (for we believe this tail-slip is supposed to be connected with various 
 other maladies) ; but we will allow them to examine it once more, in order 
 to admire its adaptation to the purpose for which it is required, and the 
 peculiar contrivance of this supposed diseased part, for the more effectual 
 accomplishment of this natural purpose. 
 
 It may, however, be asked, — is not relief sometimes given by these 
 operations on the tail? — Very probably. We do not know what would 
 make a cow get up and use her limbs, if the pimishment of the knife, and 
 the rubbing-in of the tar and salt iailed ; and we can very readily conceive 
 that the loss of blood would often be beneficial, but not more because 
 taken from the tail than from any other part. 
 
 The most frequent cause of palsy is the turning out of beasis ot every 
 kind, but particularly of cows, too early to grass, after they, have been 
 
NKUROTOMY snj 
 
 housf^ (luring the winter and first part of ^he ?ptiiigr. We ha«e known 
 one-fourth of the stock completely, chilled and palded behind in the 
 course of two or three nights. . The igenei;al health has not been much 
 affected, except that, perhaps, hopse has come on ; but the beasts have lain 
 three or four weeks (we recollect one that lay three months) betbre they 
 recovered the use of their limbs ♦ . 
 
 The treatment of this disease would be. h^lf siimrned up in one word — • 
 comfort. The cattle should, . if .possible, be immecli^tely.reinqyed into a 
 warm, but not close, cow-house, and, well .littered up, and; perhaps a rug 
 thrown over them. It has been proposed to sling .them, but they are 
 rarely comfortable in the slings, and very frequently galjed.. If ^hey are 
 well littered up, turned twice in the day, and so laid that the faeces and 
 urine will flow from them, they will be much better without the slings. 
 
 Physic should be the first thing administered. This species of palsy 
 is usually attended by considerable constipation, which rnust be ovci- 
 come ; but with the physic, a fjood dose of cordial medicine sh.ould alwajs 
 be mixed. We would give an ounce of powdered ginger, and we would 
 crown the whole with a half pint at least of good sound ale. Except in 
 diseases of a decidedly inflammaiory nature, or ot such a state of nervous 
 irritability, as tetanus, the physic of cattle should be mixed with aro- 
 matics, and frequently with ale too. It is to the administration of thege 
 cordials in cases of fever that we so peremptorily object ; there is no 
 occasion that fuel should be then added to fire ; but in general cases, there 
 IS something m the constitution of the cow with which mild cordial medi- 
 cine does not disagree. 
 
 The patient does not quite refuse to eat in palsy, but there is usually an 
 indifference to food. This is another reason for giving a little co.rdial 
 with the physic. The beast should be coaxed to eat — the food which is 
 in season should be offered to it, and frequently changed. Two-drachm 
 doses of antimonial powder have been recommended as a diaphoretic, 
 but we has'e not much faith in the action of this drug on cattle. Good 
 hand-rubbing, and plenty of it, should be used two or three times every 
 day about the loins , a stimulating liniment may also be applied, con- 
 sisting of equal parts of spirit of turpentine, camphorated spirit, and 
 hartshorn. The chief dependence is on keeping the bowels open, and the 
 animal comfortable ; and then in a varriable period, from ten days to a 
 month, he will usually get up again. 
 
 There is an account in one of the French journals of the cure of a pa- 
 ralytic Qx, by the administration of nux vomica. We are not aware that 
 it has been tried by any English veterinarian. The strjchnine would be 
 worth a trial where the purgative comfortable system fails ; but that suc- 
 ceeds so often, that we should be loth to have recourse to anything else 
 n the first instance. The nux vomica effected a cure, but the doses were 
 enormous, consisting of more than an ounce each. 
 
 NEUROTOMY. 
 
 V'eteritiary surgeons have lately adopted an admirable method of re- 
 lieving the pain which the horse must otherwise endure from seveial 
 diseases of the foot. -They cut out a portion of the nerve of the leg. They 
 cannot interfere with the motion ol the limb, because there are no muscles 
 beneath the knee for the nerve to supply; but they cut off" the communi- 
 cation of the feeling of pain. If a nerve concerned with feeling is divided, 
 the impressions, whether of pleasure or of pain, made on it, faelpw the di- 
 vision, cannot be conveyed to (he biaia and therefore the animal is to 
 
C4 CATTLE. 
 
 tally unconscious of them. Many a valuable animal is thus reiieved ftrr 
 torture, and perhaps his services are retained for many a year. 
 
 We know not why this should not be applied to cattle. The workin<r 
 ox is subject to several diseases of the feet, the consequence of shoeing and 
 hard labour, and which are as painful and as difficult to treat as those of 
 the foot of the horse. From the division of his foot, and the hardness 
 and occasional inequality of the ground, and the consequent inequality oi 
 pressure on the two pasterns, he is subject to sprains of the fetlock joint, 
 and injuries of the shank-bone, which are rarely or never seen in the horse 
 Enlar<rements of the lower head of these bones are frequently found in the 
 ox, that have no parallel in the disortfanization of the fore limbs of the 
 horse. While labouring under these diseases, the animal is capable of 
 little work, and will not carry much flesh. Beside this there are diseases 
 which may be said to be natural to cattle, and which are productive of a 
 great deal of pain, and materially lessen the profit that we derive from 
 these animals. There is not a farmer who has not had cows in his dairy 
 that have lost, for a time, full half of their milk, on account of the pain which 
 tender or diseased feet have occasioned. There is not a grazier who has 
 not occasionally lost the advantage of three and four months' feedinar from 
 the same cause. In the London dairies tender feet is often a most serious 
 ailment ; and compels the milkman to part with some of his best cows, and 
 in very indifferent condition too. " 
 
 Why should not the operation of neurotomy be resorted to here ? There 
 is nothing difficult in it to any one who is acquainted with the anatomy 
 of the part; and its beneficial effect cannot admit of dispute. It is like- 
 wise free from many of the objections which attend the same operation on 
 the horse. The alteration in the going of the animal, and the joltinir and 
 somewhat dangerous uncertainty of action would not be regarded, or at 
 all observed here. The ox seldom would be s\ibject, and the cow never 
 would, to that hard and rapid work which, the sense of pain being removed, 
 has a tendency to batter and bruise the parts, increase the inflammation, 
 and aggravate the evil. 
 
 The operation is thus performed : — The ox is cast and secured, the hair 
 having been previously cut from the limb or limbs to be operated upon. 
 The leg is then to be removed from the hobbles, and distended, and a 
 tight Hgature passed round it beneath the knee, to prevent bleeding. 
 Then, on the centre of the back of the leg, (the cut, p. 308, No. 1, repre- 
 sents the left leg,) but a little inclining towards the inside, and about 2^ 
 inches above the fetlock, the artery will be felt for, and recognized by it,s 
 pulsation. Lying immediately inside of the artery, towards the other leg, 
 ii, the vein, and close to that the nerve ; so that the nerve will be found 
 about one-sixth part of an inch within the artery. The artery, we repeat, 
 is recognised by its pulsation- — the vein by its yielding to the pressure of 
 the fingeri and the nerve by its being a hard, unyielding body. The ope- 
 rator then makes a cautions incision, an inch and a half in length upon 
 the nerve, taking care merely to cut through the integument. The eel 
 lular substance is dissected through, and the nerve exposed. A crooked 
 needle, armed with silk, is next passed under it, to raise it a little ; it is 
 dissected from the cellular substance beneath, and about three-quarters ol 
 an inch of it cut out ; the first incision being made at the upper part, in 
 which case the second cut will not be felt. There is only one nerve to be 
 excised here, because the operation is to be performed a little above the 
 bifurcation of the nerve. 
 
 The edges of the wound are now brought together ; a small bit of tow 
 
NEUROTOMY. 
 
 309 
 
 or lint is placed over them, and upon that a bandage is drawn tolerably 
 light. The wound should not be examined for the first three days, after 
 which it may be dressed with the healing ointment, or the tincture of 
 aloes. In about three weeks it will be quite healed, but the relief will be 
 immediate, and the milk of the cow will return, and the grazing beast will 
 begin to fatten in the course of a day or two. 
 
 We give a cut (No. 1) of the lateral and posterior part of the leg and^ 
 foot of the ox, showing the distribution and relative situation of the blood- 
 
 [Leg and Fm of 
 No. I. 19. 
 
 1. The tendon of the extensor of the foot. 
 
 2. Capsukr ligaments of the fetlock joint. 
 
 3. Capsular ligaments of thq pastern joint. 
 
 4. Tendon of the perforans muscle. 
 
 5. Ligamentous portions. 
 
 6. Tendons of the perforans and perfoiatus 
 
 muscles. [phalangeus. 
 
 7. Division of the tendon of the carpo- 
 
 8. The lateiaVexternal arteiy of the canon, 
 
 or shank. ' 
 
 9. The mesian and posterior artery of the 
 
 fetlock. 
 
 10. The lateral internal artery. . [arteries. 
 
 11. The posterior branches of the plantar 
 
 12. The lateral external vein of the canon, 
 
 13. The lateral internal vein of the canon. 
 
 14. The lateral vein of the pastern. 
 
 15. A branch which is formed by the plan- 
 
 tar veins, and the venous reservoir 
 of the plantar. 
 
 16. The vascular reservoir, covered in part 
 
 by the coronet. 
 
 17. The plantar nerve before its bifurcation. 
 1 Nervous bran-hes, which, after having 
 
 parted from the preceding, take » 
 direction, the one backward and 
 downward to the lateral and external 
 pa:t of the fetUtck, and the other 
 downward to the internal part of the 
 lame joint. 
 
 20. 
 
 21. 
 
 22. 
 
 the Ox.] 
 
 The mesian division of the fame nerve. 
 
 It pursues its . course by the artery 
 
 of the same name. 
 A continuation of the plantar nerve, 
 
 accompanying the internal lateral 
 
 artery. 
 The sensible laminae of the co£Bn bone, 
 
 corresponding with the homy la- 
 mina of the hoof. 
 The usual horny excrescence at the 
 
 posterior part of the fetlock. 
 
 m~2. 
 
 The tendons of the extensor of the pas- 
 tern below their bifurcation. 
 
 The tendons of the extensor of the foot. 
 
 Internal lateral ligaments. 
 
 The capsular ligaments of the fetlock 
 joint. 
 
 The capsular ligaments of the pastern 
 jjints. 
 
 A portion of integnment, which unitea 
 he two hoofs at their superior and 
 internal part. The blood-vessels 
 brought principally into view, are, 
 the superficial veins of the leg above; 
 the anastomosis of the profound and 
 superficial veins below, between 
 the figui'es 2, 2 ; and the sujperfieiat 
 plantar arteries and veins, sulllowar 
 ^ovn. 
 
S06 CATTLE. 
 
 vessels and Aetves of tho86 portions oi' leg, fetlock, And fbot. Besides thcsa 
 there is only one superficial nerve accompanyittg the superficial vein down 
 to the cetitre of the great metacarpal, or rather, in the youhg animal, the 
 suture or Union between the two b0n6§, few Or notie of Whose fibres extend 
 b*elt)w the fetlbck, avid Which may be easily got hi and divided in disease 
 of that joint. 
 
 ■ Thfe clit (1^0. 2) is introduced to show how few nervous branches 
 extend dbwn the front of the lower part of the leg ; and how completely 
 the object of neurotomy will be accomplished by the division of the nerve 
 at the posterior part of the leg, in the manner that we have recommended 
 it to be done. The figures may illustrate the anatomy of the fore-part of 
 the fetlock and pasterns of the ox. The nerves are represented by a plain 
 black line as in No. 1. 
 
 It Will be seen fVom the foregoing cut, that there will ue plenty of room 
 for fknciful theory as to the precise portion of the foot which is diseased, 
 and the branch of the nerve which it will be proper to excise. There are 
 the two lateral and the median trunks for the operator to choose from ; 
 but as he trho is wise, when operating on a beast of draught or slow action, 
 will always make sure of his case, and excise the nerve above the fetlock in 
 the horse, so the prudent man will operate on the ox sufficiently above 
 the fetlock, and rather above than below the situation marked 17 in the 
 cut, and before the division of the nerve. 
 
 RABIES. 
 
 There is one more disease of the nervous system, the most fearful of 
 the list, vi2. Rabies. When a rabid or mad dog is wandering about, 
 labouring under an irrepressible disposition to bite, he seeks out first of 
 all his own species ; he travels out of his road to attack them : but if his 
 road lies by a herd of cattle he will attack the nearest to him, and if he 
 meets with much resistance he will set upon the whole herd and bite as 
 many of them as he can 
 
 Many tiostrums have been cfelebrated as preventing the appearance of 
 the disease, but no confidence can be placed on one of them. Let the 
 farmer save his money, and perhaps the life of the beast, by giving cre- 
 dence to t-his. There are old women in many a village who prepare won- 
 drous preventive drinks, but the stories of their success are mere ' old 
 women s stories' and nothing else. 
 
 When there is any suspicion that a beast has been bitten, the wound 
 should be carefully searched for. If any one was by when the attack was 
 made. Ire probably will be able to point out the limb that was most in 
 danger, or that was actually seized. 
 
 . The wound being discovered, the hair must be cut from the edges of it, 
 and the lunar caustic (nitrate of silver), the stick being reduced to a point, 
 ifltrodliced into it, and brought in contact with, and made thoroughly to 
 act upon, every part of it. If there is any doubt about the probability of 
 the caustic coming into contact with every part of the wound, it must be 
 enlarged with the knife, so as to give free access to the substance applied. 
 This is the only preventive, and the caustic being freely used upon the 
 whole of the wbuhd, and there being no other wound, the beast is safe. 
 But who, on an animal thickly covered with. hair, will venture to say that 
 there is no other wound ? It also unfortunately happens that the slightest 
 scratch neglected is as dangerous as a lacerated wound. 
 
 In this Btalfe of Uncertainty, therefore, the farmer must look out for the 
 vt'^tiX. ff the disease is to appear at all, it will be about the expiration of 
 IJie ^fth week) althbugh there will be no absolute security in le^s than 
 double the number of months. 
 
 Then (he beast will appear dull, languid, feverish, scarcely grazing, and 
 
RABIES. m 
 
 idly ruminating. Th^ese may be .he precursorj of many a different illness, 
 and the previous circumstances alone could excite suspicion of what ia 
 about to follow. The eyes become anxious, protruded, red — there is con- 
 siderable discharge of saliva, and to this succeeds a thirst that can scarcely 
 be quenched. There is no hydrophobia, no dread of water at any time. 
 This is a circumstance which cannot be too strongly impressed on the 
 mind, and which may preserve him from danger, anxiety, and fear, who 
 has to do with domesticated animals of any kind — that the constant and 
 characteristic dread of water is confined to the human being. The horse 
 and the ox, and the sheep, occasionally exhibit a momentary dislike t6 
 fluids, but generally they will drink to the last, and their desire of water 
 is increased rather than diminished by the disease. The dog never has 
 dread of water. 
 
 As in the dog, so also in the ox, the disease, from some cause unknown 
 to us, takes on two essentially different characters. The dog, labouring' 
 under what sportsmen call dumb madness, is frequently harmless through 
 every stage of the complaint ; so in the o%, the symptoms that we have 
 mentioneicl are succeeded by frequent and piliftil lawings^— a contintial 
 and painful attempt to evacuate the feeces. Staggering and weakness of 
 the loins appear oil the second or third day, and this is soon succeeded by 
 palsy of the hinder extremities. The animal sits on its haunches', making 
 ineffeettial attempts to rise — looking wofully Eiround it, and eagerly plung- 
 ing its mnzZle into the water, when placed within its reach, but it fnakes no 
 attempt to dd mischief. At other times, the earty symptoms are succeeded 
 by a dreadful state of excitation. The animal is eager to do every kind ol 
 mischief ; he »tan4s across the path bellowing incessantly, and tearing up 
 the ground with bis horns. In a few cases, the quiiet and melancholy mad- 
 ness suddenly changes into that of a ferocious eharaicter. There is no 
 cure now ; no nostrams will have avail here : and the animal should be 
 destroyed as soon as> possible. One circumstance also should be care- 
 fully renaeni-bered. The |)oison in all rabid animals seems to reside in 
 the salivfu | and the saliva of an ox is as dangerous as that of a dog. We 
 inoculated & dog with the saliva of a rabid bull, and it also became 
 rabid and died< Dr. Ashburner inoculated a fowl from the saliva of a 
 rabid cow, a&d two months afterwards the fowl had a wild and strange 
 appearance, and its eyes were blood-shot y it ran at the other fowls, ana " 
 became gi-adlually paralytic and died. 
 
 The rabid e/s. may attettipi to do more mischief with its horns than its 
 teeth, but occasionally it \tU\ bite i or, if it should not, yet it must not be 
 meddled with too muute. This dangerous foam is continually running 
 from the mouth ; it tnay fall on a sore places and it is then as dangerous 
 as if it h&it entered the circulation by means of a bite. 
 
 The kuot^ledge that the virus is confined to the saliva will settle an- 
 othei* matter that has occasionally been the cause of considerable uneasi- 
 ness. A &fW has been observed to be somew'hat ailing for a day or two, 
 bttt she has been milked as usual ; her milk has been mingled with the 
 rest, and has been used for doniestic purposes aj heretofore. She is at 
 length discovered to be rabid. Is the fatmily safe ? Can the milk of a 
 fabid cow be drunk with impunity ? Yes, perfectly so, for the poison is 
 Confir/ed to* the saliva. The livers of hundreds of rabid dogs have been 
 eaten in d^ys of ignorance, dressed iti all manners of ways, but usually 
 fried as nicely as possible, as a preventive against madness. Some mis- 
 creants have sent the flesh of rabid eattle to the market, and it has beien 
 eaten without harm ; and so, although not very pleasant, to think about* 
 the milk of the rabid cow may be drunk without the slightest danger. 
 
>0« CATTLK. 
 
 (..HikPTER X, 
 
 THK AIIATOMY, USES, AND DISEASES OF THE NOSTRILS 
 AND THE MOUTH. 
 
 The nasal cavity of the ox contains the apparatus for the sense of smell, 
 and is also devoted to the purposes of respiration. It is one of the com- 
 mencements of that si'ccession of passages by which the air is conveyed 
 to and from the lungs ; but as the ox part'y breathes through the mouth, 
 there are found in the cavity of his nose, contrivances for the greater 
 perfection of the smelling, which could not have existence in the nasal 
 cavity of the horse. 
 
 THE NASAL BONES. 
 
 From the great development of the frontal bones, in order to form a 
 lecnre basis For the horn, all the bones of the face are proportionately 
 diminished, and pushed out of their situation ; and therefore the nasal 
 hones in the ox (6, p. 273, and q, p. 274) are little more than a third so 
 large as those of the horse, {p q, p. 66, and a, p. 68 ' Horse'), They are 
 connected, as described in the horse, with each other, and with the fron- 
 tals (c, p. 273 and 5, p. 274), with the lacrymals (c, p. 273), with the superior 
 niaxillaries (a, p. 273 and x, p. 274), and with the anterior maxillaries (z, 
 p. 274.) They are pushed down quite out of their place, and not being so 
 much in a situation of danger, for a blow aimed at the head of the ox 
 Would usually fall higher, there is not the intricate and mortoised con- 
 nexion with any of the other bones except the frontals, which is found in 
 the horse. They are broad in proportion to their length ; and as, on 
 account of the construction of the mouth of the ox, the muzzle of that 
 animal was destined to be broader than the muzzle of the horse, each 
 bone terminates in two points, with a hollow between them ; and as the 
 inside points of the two lie in contact with each other, the nasal bones 
 may be considered as actually ending in three points instead of one, and 
 occupying a considerobly-extended surface. It is thus wide for the greater 
 attachment of muscle and cartilage ; for the muzzle must be broad and 
 thick and strong in order to compress and hold the grass firmly, until it 
 is partly cut and partly torn by the pressure of the incisors of the lower 
 jaw on the pad that will be presently described, and which occupies the 
 olace of the teeth in the upper one. 
 
 If the nasal bone is more closely examined, it will be found that it does 
 not consist, in its under surface, of one continuous arch as in the horse ; 
 but that there is an additional channel hollowed out of it, and running 
 along the crown of the arch. It can be seen above (r, p. 274.) This is 
 an addition to the upper meatus or passage of the nose (seen in cut 
 9. 68, Horse) above the upper turbinated bone, and which has nothing to 
 do with the act of breathing, but terminates in a blind pouch, so that the 
 air shall, as it were, loiter there, and any odoriferous particles which it car- 
 ries, make a stronger impression on the membrane of the nose. Only a 
 very small meatus could be spared to the horse, because the nostrils were 
 the only air-passages he had ; but a larger one can be given to the ox, 
 for a portion of the air enters and is expired through the mouth. Therefore, 
 'dnd for other reasons that will be stated p'esently, the ox has an acutei 
 sense of smell than the horse 
 
THE SENSE OF SMKLLING. 301 
 
 THE OTHER BONES OF THE NOSE. 
 
 Compare together this meatus or blind passag^e above a, in ]>, 68, 
 'Horse,' and above *• in p. 274 of this treatise. 
 
 The tvpenor maxillary bone, although much smaller than in the horse 
 forms the greater part of the wall and floor of the nasal cavity. It con- 
 tains the \ipper grinders on either side. Its floor does not consist of a 
 single plate of bone, but of sinuses or cells, like those of the frontal, parietal 
 and occipital bones. The same principle seems to be pursued, — lightness 
 where it could be' obtained consistently with strength, as a compensation 
 for the weight of the horn. This bone is represented at a, p. 273, and x, 
 p. 274, and may be compared with the same bone at I, p. 66, ' Horse.' 
 
 The anterior maxillary, (z, p. 274,) containing no incisor teeth, is a 
 very small bone compared with that of the horse. We shall have to speak 
 more of it presently. 
 
 The palatine botw (p, p. 274) is larger in the ox than in the horse and 
 occupies a greater portion of the palate and the floor of tbe nose. 
 
 CONTENTS OF THE NASAX CAVITY. 
 
 The nasal cavity contains the septum, a cartilaginous division extending 
 from the suture in the roof between the nasals, to a long bone in the form 
 of a groove, and named the vomer, and placed on the floor ; and from the 
 top of the nasals to the sthmoid bone, dividing the nose into two 
 equal parts. In the horse, the division was perfect, there was no direct 
 communication between the two nostrils, and this was designed to limit 
 the ravages of that most dreadful of all the disorders to which the horse is 
 subject, — glanders ; but the ox, being in a manner exempt from glanders, 
 or at least from any disease bearing the dreadfully contagious and fatal 
 character of glanders in the horse, there is no necessity for this perfect 
 division, and therefore the vomer, when it has reached about halfway up 
 the cavity, begins to leave the floor ; and it separates from the floor more 
 and more, as it approaches the posterior part of the nostrils, leaving a 
 free and extensive communication between them. This gives room for 
 still more effectual provision to be made for the perfection of the sense uf 
 smell, and which we will now describe. 
 
 THE SENSE OF SMELiaNG. 
 
 The olfactory, or first pair of nerves, connected with the sense of smell- 
 ing, is abundantly larger in the quadruped than in the human being ;, for 
 in the one it is merely, connected with occasional pleasure, or perchance' 
 annoyance; in the other it is connected with life itself. The same nerve 
 differs in size in different quadrupeds, according to the necessity that each 
 has for an acute sense of smell. The brain of the ox is not more than 
 half the size of that of the horse, and he does not possess the intelligence 
 of the horse; but, as we have before observed, not being so much domes- 
 ticated — being oftener sent into the fields to shift for himself — or, if worked 
 by day, being usually turned out at night, he has occasion for acuter smell, 
 and his olfactory nerve is nearly as large as that of the horse : and (which is 
 the right way of judging,) comparing the bulk of the two brains, it is a 
 great deal larger. 
 
 This nerve comes in contact with a thin plate of bone, the cribriform 
 plate, (perfo/ated like a cullender,) of the sethmoid bone, and which di- 
 vides the nasal cavity from that of the skull ; the somewhat thickened 
 portion of another bone interposed between these plates is seen at n, 
 p. ?.74. The pulpy matter ot the nerve is pressed through the holes of this 
 bone, and spread over a portion of the oiembraiiie of the nose. It is ihft 
 
SIO CATTLK. 
 
 impression which is made by the odoriferous particles of bodies striking 
 on this diffused pulpy matter, that produces the sense of smell ; and in 
 proportion to the extent of surface over which the nerv« is spread, m the 
 acuteness of the smell. 
 
 The ox partly breathinp: through \h^ moulh, and the hit passage being 
 widened by the removal of a portion ,pf the ^eptup1, provision can be macli? 
 for the more extensive diffusion of tb,e nervous pulp. Nearest to the skul}, 
 ^nd situated at the upper part pf the nasa} pavity> are the cells Qf the 
 sthmoid bone, (r, p. 274,) ,apd if these are compared with the ceils of the 
 same bone in the horse, (/, p. 68,) the superior development of them in 
 the ox syill be evident. The lower cell of the aethmoid labyrinth is so 
 piuch lengthened in the ox, that it is sometimes described as a third turbi- 
 nated bone. It is represented at u, p. 274. Belpjy these are the two tur- 
 binated bones, (s and t, p. 274,) both of them, and especially the lower one, 
 coQsid^ably more developed thaii in the horse. £«ach of these bones is 
 composed of .a laby^inlib of cells, divided from le^pb other by wafer^^ike 
 plates of bone, perforated like the cribriform plate of the sethmoid bone, — 
 lined by the Schneiderian membrane, with the nervous pulp spread over 
 or identified with thait i)(iembj!ane,-rrand » thowsaiul eoqiinunicatiQns be- 
 tween the membranies in cv^ypart, by means of the gauze-like, perforated 
 structure lof the plaites. 
 
 This membrane is either covered witJi em unctuous fluid, or tha air 
 passages are so complicated that the pure atmospheric air alone is suffered 
 to pass ; the slightest odoriferous particje or solid substance of any kind 
 is arrested. The confirmed snuff<>t#keT wiU afford a sufficient illustration of 
 this. Howevsr enormous may be his pinch, and wiv'Ji whatever force he 
 may sniff it up, not an atom finds its way to the lungs, or even into 
 the larynx j t^e whole is arrested by some portion or other of the 
 3chneideriafi meinbrane. Tbis is not only a wise 'jvovision for the per- 
 fection o-f ithe sense of smelling — it not only secures the contact of every 
 particle with the membrane of the nose, fmd its temporary Lodgment there, 
 but it pfiptetets the air pa/ssages frona many a source «>f annoyance, danger, 
 and de^th, Corv;idering the numerous deleterioius substances which, under 
 one form or another, are floating in the air, it is scarcely possible to conr 
 ceive how any animal could live an hour without some such protection to 
 the lungs as this affords. 
 
 Nature, tben, has provided an acute sense of smell for the ox; it was 
 wanted.. It was necessary that the animal should detect the peeuluir 
 scent of eveiFy plant, as connected either with nutrition or destruction. 
 Instinct perbaps teaches him much, but he is more indebted to the lessons 
 of experience. In the spring of the year, wben the scent, of the infant 
 plant is scarcely developed, cattle are often .deceived with regard to the 
 nature of the ^rbage ; they are subject to peculiar complaints of indiges^- 
 tion ; and they are soinetimes poisoned. 
 
 When the great jl^innaeus visited Tornea, the inhabitants complained 
 of a distemper that h^ killed many of their cattle, and especially when first 
 turned out into the n^eadows in the spring. He soon traced the disorder 
 to the water-hemlock, which grew abundantly there, and which in the 
 spring the cattle did not know how to avoid. The power of instinct is 
 great in animals that have not been reclaimed from a state of nature ; but 
 in proportion as they become domesticated, instinct ceases to prompt, 
 ^nd they are dependent on our guidance, or on the lessons which expe- 
 rience teaches. Thus when our calves and lambs are taken too soon 
 from the dani, and turned with little or no experience into the pasture, 
 they eat indiscriiniiiately of evcy herb that presents itself, and many of 
 
POLYPUS IN THE NOSE. Ill 
 
 th4in «re lost. Had they been suffered to browse a little while, or a little 
 longer with th^ mother, she would have taught them to distinguish the 
 sweet and wholesome herbage from the deleterious and destructive ; and 
 their keen sense of smell would have imprinted the lesson for ever on 
 their iitinds, This is a point of agricultural, economy no*' sufficiently 
 !*ttended to. 
 
 BLEEDINQ FROM THE NOSE. 
 
 Working oxen, and especially those tliat are in *.olerably high condition, 
 are occasionally subject to bleeding from the nose, and sometimes very 
 profuse bleeding. If he is too hardly and too long worked during the 
 heat of ^ sifmmeT's day, nasal hemorrhage may occur ; we, however, 
 have been ^pcustomed, whatever may be the excuse or the story of the 
 servants, to tr^ce the bleeding to blows inflicted on the nasals or on the 
 muzale by a brutal drover or plaughqian, far oftener than to any other 
 cause. It i^ not often that ^(ly unpleasant consequences have ensued. 
 The hieedi.qg has gradually ceased, except ii; one case, when It re^rned 
 again and again, and would hav^ destroyed t^e bgas^ had not the result 
 of the cfkse be^n somewhat anticipated. 
 
 LEECHES IN THE NASAL CAVITY. 
 
 We had oftep heard of leeches having fastened on ^he muzzle, and then 
 crept into the nostril of the ox when drinking at a stagnant pool, and 
 vfhich the OX is strangely fond of doing. One of these blood-suckers having 
 once introduced himself into the cavity, will usually shift from pl^ce to 
 place, biting here and there, and causing a very considerable haemorrhage. 
 The beast will tell us plainly enough the cause of the bleeding, by the 
 uneasiness which he will express, and by his continually snorting and 
 tossing his head about. 
 
 On examining the nostril in a good light, the leech may sometimes be 
 seen. It was so in a case that we recollect ; and covering the end of 
 the finger with a little salt, we were enabled to introduce it sufficiently 
 high to detach the blood-sucker frona his hold. At other times when a 
 leech is suspected, salt and water may be injected up the nostril. At all 
 events, however, when he is fully bloated, the intruder will detach him- 
 self; and, except he! has crept up the superior meatus, through which 
 there is no air passage, he will be expelled by the sneezing of the ox. 
 Only temporary inconvenienqe can res\ilt fj-p'm this accident, for the 
 bleeding will in due time stop, even from, ^p yascula;' a membrane as that 
 of the nose. 
 
 POLYPUS IN THE NOSE. 
 
 This i^ a rare diseas.e m the horse, ^■^^ still rarer in the Ox. We ha.ve 
 seen only one case of it; and that ipight have been said to be more 
 polypus in the pharynx than in the nasal cavity, had not its pedicle been 
 traced into that cavity, ai?>d seemingly attached to the upper part of the 
 inferior turbinated bwe, A cow was anxious to eat, and was otherwise 
 in good health ; bMt pisc^gioi^illy she was unable to swallow, and the 
 pellet was returned with a.n ^SqtI resembling vomiting. This increased 
 until she was scarcely %blc Uf eat, and was rapidly losing flesh. The case 
 indiqated some dis.^i^e <nf the b,a,ck, part of the mouth, or the commence- 
 ment of the gu,lJet i and WS saw,sed one pf the pieces of wood through 
 which the tij-lje f»f W^^ ptotpafih-pHm^ is p^a^ed jnto the moutl^, to be 
 made with an apertijre. si^flSciefitl^ l^Tge for the han,d to go throu^^. The 
 cow was ^pi^red ^d ihs t90Vlth,-<P.ie.9e fixed, and the hand parsed into the 
 fmuces, when a round body, moveable and attach 
 
'" CATTLK. 
 
 evident polypus, the pedicle of which could be traced upwards and for- 
 wards into tlie cavity of the nose, but the termination of which could not 
 be reached. It was seized with a pair of strong forceps with deeply 
 rougliened blades, and attempted to be removed by lortion, i. e., by twist- 
 ing it round and round until it broke. At the third turn the pedicle gave 
 way, and a polypus nearly half a pound in weight was brought out. 
 Polypi shouid be removed by a ligature round the pedicle, and as near 
 to the root as possible, or by tortion, and by the former whenever it can 
 be effected. 
 
 CORYZA. 
 
 By this term is meant inflammation of, and defluxion from, the nasal 
 cavity, or the cells with which it is connected ; when the same affection 
 extends to the fauces, it becomes catarrh. Catarrh is usually connected 
 wilh coryza, and is the natural consequence or progress of it ; but simple 
 coryza may and does occasionally exist in the ox. We are too oflen 
 teased and frightened by a discharge from the nostrils, mucous, purulent, 
 fcetid, and excoriating, and unaccompanied by cough. It is seen in 
 crowded and over-heated cow-houses ; it arises from imprudent exposure 
 to extreme cold, and it is frequently produced by the dust and gravel o( 
 the road. The ox was not designed to be exposed like the horse to this 
 last annoyance ; and he has no false nostril to turn off the current of 
 minute and irritating particles from the more susceptible parts of the nasal 
 cavity. Therefore, oxen driven any considerable distance to fair or market 
 in sultry, dusty weather, usually suffer from coryza. Dairymen whose 
 cows have to travel half a mile or more on a dusty road, wonder that, 
 with all their care, their cattle should have such frequent discharge from 
 the nose, and that this should sometimes run on to hoose. The cause is 
 plain enough, although little suspected by them. 
 
 There is a periodical coryza in cattle. During the winter season, and 
 probably from our mismanagement — from undue exposure of the animals 
 to cold, or to the extremes of heat and cold, there is considerable nasal 
 gleet, not interfering much with health, but unpleasant to the eye and 
 annoying to the animal, and which, in despite of the most careful treat- 
 ment, will remain. When, however, the genial warmth of spring returns, 
 it sometimes gradually disappears. This, however, is one of the most 
 favourable cases ; for it will occur that, from some improper management 
 hoose or cough has gradually become connected with the nasal discharge. 
 The farmer has not observed this connexion, nor is he alarmed although 
 the cough should remain when the nasal discharge ceases * nay, he cares 
 little about it, although the cough should be a frequent and harassing 
 one, if the beast does but carry its usual flesh, and yield its full quantity 
 of milk : when, however, the milk fails, and the cow begins to lose coudi 
 tion, he, for the first time, looks about him, and then it is too late. We 
 shall return to this point again and again ; for it is the sonrce of the 
 greater part of the mischief attendant on chest affections in cattle. 
 
 We are now, however, speaking of coryza, inflammation of, and dis- 
 charge from, the membrane of the nose. It is a matter of the utmost im- 
 portance for the proprietor of, or the attendant upon cattle, to assure himself 
 that it is simple coryza. He shoiild carefully examine whether there is 
 any cough, especially whether that cough is painful — any increased la- 
 bour of breathing — any diminution of appetite^suspension of rumina- 
 tion — ^fever? The pulse, felt at the left side, and the temperature of the 
 oot of the horn, will best ascertain this last particular. 
 
 Tf tbere is nothing of these, still we have inflammation, and of a cha- 
 
FAKCY. 31.1 
 
 racter that soon connects itself with some or all ot'thein ; therefore a mash 
 may be given in the evening, and a few doses of cooling medicine. 
 
 The best fever medicine for cattle is nearly the same as that recom- 
 mended for the horse, but in doses of only half the quantity. Half a 
 drachm each of powdered digitalis and emetic tartar, and two drachms 
 each of nitre and sulphur, will constitute the medium fever powder, to be 
 - given as occasion; may require, and increased or diminished in quantity, 
 according to the size and age of the beast, and the intei'sity of the disease. 
 This should be given in the form of drink, for reasons that will hereafter 
 be stated. 
 
 If the proprietor or the practitioner is assured that it is simple coryza, 
 he may add half a drachm of sulphate of copper (blue vitriol), finely pow- 
 dered, to the other ingredients. This drug seems to have a peculiar and 
 a very beneficial determination to the Schheiderian membrane, and is very 
 useful in pure inflammation, or ulceration of that membrane, or discharge 
 from it. A very slight degree of hoose, howev«r, and, particularly of 
 painful hoose, should be received as a sufficient indication that the fever- 
 powders alone -are to be used. , 
 
 If the coryza degenerates into catarrh, bronchitis, or inflammation of 
 the lungs, the proper treatment will be indicated when those diseases are 
 taken into consideration. 
 
 flLAMDERS. 
 
 Of this dreadful disease of the membrane of the nose in the horse, we 
 have never met with a case in cattle. Some singular accounts are on 
 record, but they are of doubtful authority. We acknowledge that this is 
 not a point fairly settled, and it deserves peculiar attention from the pro- 
 prietors of cattle. 
 
 fARCY. 
 
 There are cases, however, the authenticity of which cannot be doubted, 
 which bear a closer resemblance to farcy. One of the most frequent and 
 decisive characters of farcy in the horse, is inflammation, and thickening 
 of the absorbents, and particularly at the situation of the valves. They 
 have a corded feeling through a certain portion of their course ; and little 
 tumours, Imds or buttons, appear at a greater or less distance' from each 
 other along the cord. 
 
 There were four oxen in a farmer's yard, each of which had consider 
 able cough, and a large corded absorbent could be traced in each from 
 the fetlock up to the forearm. Farcy-buttons were evident, not only to 
 the touch, but to the eye, through the whole extent of the corded vessel., 
 Most of them were hard, schirrous ; and others had suppurated and ulce- 
 rated. The hot iron was applied to the buds, the wounds healed, the 
 cordiness of the absorbents gradually diminished, and the cough disap- 
 peared 
 
 Two months aftervrards, however, the farcy-buttons and the corded 
 absorbents were seen again, and the cough returned at the same time. 
 The same means were adopted with the same results. All appeared to be 
 cured. Two of them were sold, and on the other two the disease did not 
 return, nor was it communicated to any of the cattle that grazed In the 
 same pasture. It should be observed that these cases did not all appeur 
 at the same time, but a space of three years occurred between the tir.st 
 and the last. 
 
 Was this tarcy ? — need the farmer entertain serious apprehension of 
 this fatal disease breaking out in his herd ? The practitioner to whom 
 
Si4 CATTLE. 
 
 they occurred related them as cases of farcy ; but we confess that we are 
 very much of opinion that he was mistaken. We have seen many cases 
 of this inflammation of the absorbents, where farcy could not be suspected. 
 If an ox has had foul in the foot, or deep and painful ulcers about any of 
 the joints, the corded absorbent is seen above, anci the little buttons on 
 each of the valves. The foul in the foot, or the ulaerated joint, having 
 disappeared, the corded absorbent has also gradually vanished, yet not 
 always ; for we recollect cases in which the buttons have burst, and de- 
 generated into ulcers, exceedingly difficult to heal, and the matter from 
 which has corroded and ulcerated the neighbouring parts. In other in- 
 stances we have known inflammation extending up the leg, and involving 
 the whole of the cellular membrane, and even destroying the animal by 
 the constitutional disturbance which it created. There was no farcy in 
 these cases ; it was not for a moment suspected: and the decided pre- 
 ponderance of our opinion, and we are happy in being able to record it, 
 is, that cattle are exempt from glanders and farcy. 
 
 THE BONES OF THE MOUTH 
 
 The sides and the greater part of the roof of the mouth are fbrmed by 
 the superior maidllary, or upper jaw, seen at a, p. 373, and x, p. 274. 
 This, like the other bones of the face, is materially diminished in size by 
 the great development of the frontal bgijes. It articulates with the lacry- 
 mal bone at c, p. 273, and the malar bone at d. The ridge which runs 
 down from the malar bone, in the horse, fbr the attachment of the masse- 
 ter muscle, and which may be seen below k, (p. 66, Horse,) is wanting ; 
 but the surface of the bone is roughened and tuberuulated, to answer the' 
 same purpose. Immediately above the foremost of the upper grinders in' 
 the cut of the skeleton, p. 273, is a little black mark, representing the. 
 foramen, or hole through which the nerves and blood-vessels proceed, to 
 supply the lower part of the face. 
 
 The superior maxillary consists of two plates, jrregularly separated iVpir 
 each other ; the outer forms the external, and the other the internal walj 
 of the mouth, as seen at x, p. 274 ; and then extending upwards, and as- 
 suming an arched form, the commencement of which is seen at x, it con-' 
 stitutes the greater part of the bony roof of the mouth. The inferior cells 
 of the external part contain the back teeth, or grinders ; the superior ones 
 are the maxillary sinuses ; and in the oy there is a new set of cells, ' 
 formed by a separation of the plates of the bone, betweer) the roof of th? 
 mouth and the floor of the nasal cavity. ' 
 
 The palatine bone, p, p. 274, occupies considerably more of the roof ol 
 the mouth than it does in the horse. 
 
 The anterior maxillary bone is, compared with that of the horse, a 
 very insignificant one ; there is neither the firm and complicated connexion 
 with the superior maxillary, nor are there any tusks," or incisor teeth. 
 There are likewise considerable apertures, one of which is seen between x 
 and z, p. 274, which leave a somewhat extensive part of the roof of the 
 mouth and floor of the nose occupied only by celltilar substance and mem- 
 brane. There is little strength required in the part, and therefore there is 
 little provision for it. 
 
 At the base or floor of the mouth is the inf trior maxillary, ot lower 
 jaw (j, p. 273). It also partakes of the shortness of the bones of the 
 face, and is somewhat altered in form. It contains the only incisor teeth 
 which cattle have, eight in number, and six molar teeth on each side. It 
 has not the tuberosity which is found in the lower jaw of the horse, (a, 
 p 63, Horse,) but goes back in a manner straight to the angle, where it 
 
$9raa to t^fc^ ^q vtpper dtret^tion toir^rfls ita jaiq( with th« tempor<»l bone, 
 .Th« j^nsequence of this is, that the muscles, bpth on th^ in^)d« and th^ 
 flut?ide, are smaller and weaker. Power is not wanted i for thp grisders 
 l^re little if at all u^ed in the ^r?t gathering iipd mastication of the food* 
 and the act of rumination is genefsiily very leisurely and laaijy performed, 
 
 This difference in the fprm pf the jaw throws the submaxillary artery 
 further back in cattle than in the horse, {t is to be sought for a couple of 
 inches nearer to the angle pf (!)« jjiw, and sometimes it is scarcely to b^ 
 discovered. 
 
 Below g, p. 273, is seen tlw process of this bone, shorter than in the 
 horsi;, round which the temporal muscle is wrappe4> wi by which this 
 bope is piovtid ; and a little Ipwer is the sb^llow cavity of the temporal 
 bone, into which tlje proper head of this bone js reggived, mA W'th which 
 it form? a joint. The ridges ^ eithier i^nd pf (his p^yity in the horse (see 
 p. 136) are very materially lowered here, so as to allow more le^titiide of 
 motion, and admit of the grinding ^ctipn by which rmnint^tion i$ princi.* 
 pally characterised, Xhe muscle, b^ing inserted so near to the jpint, acts 
 with grp»t mechanijjal disadvantage ; bvt, although smaller than in tii* 
 horse, it !« guffieiently powerful fpr eygry purppgg th^t 'S reqt»ir?4f 
 
 the: cheeks. 
 
 Thp outer walls of the mouth are the cheeks »n4 lips. The fhieeks 
 ponsist princip^jiy of muscle, (the masseter and the bucciuator ni^^cles,) 
 They are cpyeped ejttef nally by the common integument, or skill ', and 
 lined by tbe membrane .of tbe mo«th. There is likewise considerable gian- 
 
 dular substance in their cprnpositipQ, and these glands bi%ve idisttPCt PPSVi" 
 
 ings iatp the roputb, »ni assist in supplying it with moisture- 
 
 THE LIPS. 
 
 The lips fflrm tlie SBtpripr ppeBJDg pf tbe mputjj J they «|pse it, an^ a?- 
 ^st in ^atherin^ aqd retaining the fpod- They likewise consist Pf muscu- 
 Hr^ gl.a.94Mlarr and cellular texture ^ and of inuch, and iu the upper lip 
 especially, of condensed substance almost resembling cartilage, I'h^. 
 muscles give them the power of motion, and particularly that of fprQJbly 
 seizing apd compressing the fppd, This is especially necessary jn the px,. 
 because there are no upper front teeth, ^nd for this purpose also the car- 
 tilaginous matter was added to them, and most of all to the upper lip. 
 Simple muscular subjstajiee Wppld bg too yielding to retain the grass, 
 when it was to be forcibly separated from the stalk or root. Qn ^ccoijmt 
 of this peculiar function of the upper lip of the ox, it is wider and Matter 
 than that of the horse, in order that it may be brought bettsi into fpn- 
 )act with the herbage, and gathered in sufficient quantities. 
 
 Being so much employed for this purpose^ there is a want of feeling 
 about the Ii]>s of cattle very different from the acute sensitiveness of those 
 parts in the horse. The ox is seldom used fpr the saddle. The Nagore 
 oxen, described p. '268, are sometimes ridden, but their pace is slow and 
 steady, and they are guided by reins perforating the septum of the nose. 
 The damsels in the Mandara valleys, (p. 5,) when t^hey ride to market in 
 all their finery, and cpntrive to torture their horned palfreys into something 
 like caperings and curvelings, also effect their ptjrpose by means of a 
 leathern thong passed through the cartilage of the no§e *. The~ox is not 
 
 * The Chili eoacliraaii, when l>p gtaiis his gis-in-faand teaip, guides hia oxen in the 
 «ame manner, but he has a singular way <jf getting them aloqg: — ' A thin pole, about 
 6v^ feet long, projected horizontally, is lashed to the loofof the cart, having at its extre- 
 oiity a grooved hole, through which the string passes : a goad is made of a hollow can«, 
 
816 CATTLK. 
 
 required to be alive, as it were, to the slightest motion of his driver oi 
 rider, and to anticipate his very thoughts ; but his muzzle is to be con- 
 tinually in contact with the ground, among smooth and rough herbage,— 
 things pleasing and annoying; and therefore all acute feeling is withheld 
 from him, and, consequently, he is rarely seen using his lips as substi- 
 tutes for hands, and forming his opinion of the objects around him by 
 the indications which they afford him, as we continually observe in the 
 horse. There can be scarcely greater difference than in the habits of these 
 two animals in this respect. 
 
 The excess of glandular substance in the lips of the ox is easily ac- 
 counted for. They must not only afford their share of the natural mois- 
 ture of the mouth, but they are, from their situation, form, and use, ex- 
 posed to various nuisances. Insects will be continually crawling about 
 the muzzle, and dirt and gravel will accumulate on it. If the grass is to 
 be firmly held between the pad in the upper jaw and the teeth in the 
 lower, and the upper lip must materially assist in the firmness of the 
 grip, it must of necessity be continually in absolute contact with the 
 ground, and cannot always be in the cleanest state. Nature has given the 
 best of all defences against this. The outer covering of the upper lip is 
 thickly studded with glands, and a fluid can be seen pouring out from 
 them. If an ox, standing and ruminating, is watched, drops as clear as 
 crystal are seen coursing one another down his muzzle, and falling on 
 the ground. The upper lip, in health, is always wet; the insect cannot 
 then fasten, and dirt cannot accumulate ; or if the one should adhere, or the 
 other begin to collect, the long tongue of the beast is protruded, it passes 
 over the moistened surface, and all is clear again. 
 
 We take considerable notice of the secretion from these glands when we 
 endeavour to form some judgment of the health of the animal, and the 
 degree of disease. While the muzzle is moist, i. e., while the natural se- 
 cretions are going forward.there is no great constitutional disturbance, and 
 consequently no great danger; in proportion as that secretion is lessened, 
 there is general sympathy with some local affection ; and when it becomes 
 altogether suspended, it is an indication of so much universal derange- 
 ment, that it behoves us to look about us. There is nothing more in this 
 secretion than in any other, but it is one which is easily observed, and the 
 changes in which can be accurately marked. ' 
 
 THE MEMBRANE OF THE MOUTH. 
 
 This is thin and delicate, compared with the external integument. Every 
 part of the mouth is lined with it, and it contains numerous glands, occa- 
 sionally rising into little papillae, from which a considerable portion of the 
 usual moisture of the mouth is derived. The gums and the bars are co- 
 vered by this membrane, but they are denser and less sensible 
 
 furty feet long, the butt -end being about four inches in diameter, while the smaller runs 
 tapering to a point. The front end is generally made of a piece of willow, secured to t^ie 
 end of the cane, and is armed at th^ tip with an iron point, neatly and curiously lashed 
 on by strips of horse-hide. This goad is huac in a kind of inverted stirrup attached to 
 'he end of the before-mentioned stnng, by pulling of which the Iriver, as he sits in the 
 cart, can elevate or depress at his pleasure the Btirrup which serves as the fulcrum of his 
 goad, and supports it nearly in equilibrio, as the thick butt-end counterbalances the lighter 
 lunger end tending forward : thus suspended, the point can easily be thrust forward or sider 
 way, so as to goad the haunches of the forward yoke of oxen : about five feet from the 
 extremity, another small goad, armed with iron, hangs pendent by a string, so that by 
 giving the cane a sideway motion, and lifting the butt-end, the point can be dexterously 
 directed, ai the pleasure of the driver, upon the haunches of the second pair of oxen ( a 
 short lance held in bis hand serves to goad forwaid the shaft-yoke.' — Muir'i Trave/i m 
 C'hiii and La Plata, vol. i. p. 244. 
 
THE PAD ON THB UPPER JAvV-BONE. sr 
 
 THE BARS. 
 
 These consist of a firm substance of a cartilaginous nature, adhering to 
 the bones of the roof of the mouth, by numerous little cords, penetratiuj^ 
 into these bones. They are thus hard and adherent, that the food may 
 be rolled against the palate, and formed into proper masses for swallow- 
 ing, whether in the first or second mastication. The palate is divided 
 into numerous ridges running across the mouth, and on the posterior 
 edge of which there is a fringed border, consisting of papiilse of no little 
 consistence and strength, and all pointing backward ; so that the food is 
 permitted to travel backward, in this process of formation into pellets, 
 but cannot again get into the fore part of the mouth. 
 
 THE PAD ON THE ANTERIOR MAXILLARY BONE. 
 
 These bars are flatter, harder, and more irregular in the ox than in the 
 horse, and these papills at the edges of the bars are very considerably 
 stronger. The bars thicken towards the fore part of the mouth, and there 
 they accumulate into a pad, or cushion, which covers the convex extre- 
 mity of the anterior maxillary bone. This pad is of a somewhat more 
 fibrous and elastic nature than the bars, and stands in the place of 
 upper incisor or cutting teeth. The grass is collected and rolled together 
 by means of the long and moveable tongue ; it is firmly held between the 
 lower cutting-teeth, and the pad, the cartilaginous upper lip assisting in 
 this ; and then by a sudden nodding motion of the head, in which the 
 pterigord muscles are the chief agents, the little roll of herbage is either 
 torn or cut ofiT, or partly both torn and cut. 
 
 The intention of this singular method of gathering the food, it is some- 
 what difficult satisfactorily to explain. It is peculiar to ruminants, who 
 have one large stomach, in which the food is kept as a kind of reservoir 
 until it is ready for the action of the other stomachs. While it is kept 
 there it is in a state of maceration ; it is exposed to the united influ- 
 ence of moisture and warmth, and the consequence of this is, that a 
 species of decomposition sometimes commences, and a vast deal of gas 
 is extricated. 
 
 That this should not take place in the natural process of retention and 
 maceration, nature possibly established this mechanism for the first gather-' 
 ing of the food. It is impossible that half of that which is thus procured 
 can be fairly cut through ; part will be torn, and no little portion will be 
 tt)rn up by the roots. If cattle a,re observed while they are grazing, it 
 will be seen that many a root mingles with the blades of grass ; and these 
 roots have sometimes no inconsiderable quantity of earth about them. 
 The beast, however, seems not to regard this; he eats on, dirt and all, 
 until his paunch is filled. 
 
 It was designed that this earth should be gathered and swallowed. It 
 was the meaning of this' mechanistn. A portion of absorbent earth is 
 found in every soil, sufficient not only to prevent the evil that would result 
 from occasionar deconripositioh, by neutralizing the acid principle as ra- 
 pidly as it is evolved ; but perhaps, by its presence, preventing that de- 
 composition from taking place. Hence the eagerness with which stall-fed 
 cattle, who have not the opportunity of plucking up the roots of grass, 
 evince for mould. It is seldom that a cow will pass a newly-raised mole-, 
 hill without nuzzling into it, and devouring a considerable portion of it. 
 This is particularly the case when there is any degree of indigestion. The 
 mould here is comminuted to the greatest degree, and probably possesses 
 peculiar freshness. When describing the Kyntore ox, at page 104, we 
 remarked that he always had a basket of earth standing by him, of which 
 to .."ciMionallv ats a cons'derable ouantitv. and which operated as a gentlt 
 
'^^ CATTLE. 
 
 purgative, \\iien aecompositiofi comnnenced, and the acescent principle 
 began to be developed, and the animal felt uneasiness on that account, he 
 had recourse to the mould ; and the acid uniting itself to the earth, the 
 uneasy feeling Irad relieved) atid a purgative neutral salt was manufactured 
 n the paunch, 
 
 THE tEEtH/ 
 
 The mouth likewise contains the principal agents iti ma^ticatiCrn, (he 
 teeth. The mouth of the oX when full contains thiriy-two teeth ; eight 
 iiicisors in the lower ja#, and three molafs in each jaw above, and below 
 atid on either side. The incisor teeth are admirably adapted to perform 
 their function. If thfere are no corresponding ones opposed, but mei'ely 
 an elastic pad, they must possess an edge of considerable sharpness in 
 order to perform this half-cutting, half-tearing process. With a blunt 
 edge there could be no cutting at all in such a case; but all the grass 
 v/ouid be torn up by the roots, and the pasture destroyed^ and the animal 
 overdone, absolutely choaked with this absorbent earth. The part of the 
 tooth above the gum is covered with enamel both to produce and retain 
 this necessary sharpness^ The crown of the tooth, or that part of it 
 which is above the gum, presents a surface somewhat convex externally, 
 but rising straight from the gum, while towards the mouth, it has a con- 
 cave face, diminishing gradually in thicl^ness as it recedes from the gum, 
 and terminating in an edge, than which in the young animal few scissors 
 are sharper. The elastic nature of the pad preserves it from laceration ; 
 but the less elastic substance interposea, the grass on which the animaf, 
 is browsing, is partly cut through. 
 
 The molar teeth are as well adapted for the mingled laceration and 
 grinding of the grassy fibres which are submitted to their action. Instead 
 of the flat and somewhat uneven and roughened surface of the molars of 
 the horse, presenting proper millstones for the grinding of corn, or dried 
 and hardened fibre, there are two oblique surfaces, those on the lower 
 jaw taking a direction upwards and from without, inwards, and those in 
 the upper jaw slanting in an opposite direction, while the upper surface of 
 the tooth is sawn into deep grooves. There are three in the last molar, 
 the edges of which, from cones of enamel sunk deep into the substance of 
 the tooth, are as sharp as knives, and cannot be roughly meddled with 
 without laceration, and these receive corresponding projecting portions 
 from the opposite teethe From the prolonged, although leisurely action 
 of machines like these, it happens that the food is reduced to a state of 
 extreme comminution, in order that every particle of nourishment may be 
 extracted from it. The horse requires only that portion of nutriment^ 
 which is easily extracted and for the purpose of present exertion ; and his 
 dnng is more than half composed of vegetable fibres ; the ox, on whose 
 flesh we subsist, must extract every particle of matter which the food con- 
 tains, and therefore not a fibre is seen in the faeces. The dung of the first 
 is excellent for manure ; that of the Second, escepi it be a stall-fed beast, 
 is comparatively of little worth. 
 
 TH£ AGE or OATTLB AS INDICATED 0Y THE TEETH. 
 
 When describing the horns of cattle (p. 279,) we spoke of the usual and 
 incorredt method 6f estimating thelf age by the horns. Far surer marks 
 afe pfeseiited in the teeth, and where there cart be little deception from 
 the frauds 6f dealers ; for their interest Would generally lead therti to give 
 a more youthful appearance than nature has allowed. 
 
 The moUth of the newly-bdra Calf presents an uncertain appearance, 
 depending on the molhef havltig exceeded or fallen Short of the average 
 period of iitero-gestafibtj. SOfnieti'"'"' •>'«■'■'• "i" h* "n vestiiiB of teeth: 
 
THE TEETH, 
 
 SIf 
 
 but generally, either two central ificisors will be protruding Ihrc igh the 
 gums, or they will have arisen and attained considerable bulk. 
 
 About the middle or close of the second week, a tooth will be added on 
 ■Ither side, making four incisors. 
 
 Birth. 
 
 Second week. 
 
 Al the expiration of the third week, the animal will have six temporary 
 incisor or front teeth. 
 
 Third weet 
 
 Month. 
 
 At a month, the full number of the incisors will have appeared. These 
 B,'e the temporary or inilk teeth. The enamel will be seen covep'ng the 
 whole of the crown of the tooth, but not entering into its composition as 
 in the horse, and it will be observed that the edge is exceedingly sharp. 
 The only indication of increasing age will be the wearing down of these 
 sharp edges, and the appearance of the bony substance of the tooth be- 
 neath. The two corner teeth will be scarcely op before the centre ti>eth 
 will be ft little worn. At two months, the edge of the four central teeth 
 will betvideatly worn; ^tas the wearing U not across the top of the 
 tooth, |iut a very little oijl (*' the line of its innef surface, the edge will 
 ennain neafly or quite as sharp as before. At three months the sis cen- 
 <tB) ioptht Afiktat four- months the whole set will be worn, and the central 
 
J'.'O 
 
 CATTLE. 
 
 ones most of all ; but after the second or third month, the edge of the 
 tooth will begin to wear down, and there will be more of a flat surfaof 
 with a broad line in the centre. 
 
 About this time a new change will begin, but very slowly to be seen 
 The central teeth will not only be worn down on their edges, but the 
 whole of the tooth will appear diminished, a kind of absorption will have 
 commenced. There will be a little but increasing space between them 
 The face of the tooth will likewise be altered, the inner edge will be 
 worn down more than the outer, and the mark will change fr^xm the ap- 
 pearance of a broad line to a triangular shape. The commencement ol 
 (his alteration of form and diminution of size may be traced to about the 
 fourth month, and our cut gives a representation of the two central inci- 
 sors at eight months. The central teeth are now nut above half the size 
 of the next pair, and they are evidently lessened. 
 
 Eight months. Eleven months. 
 
 At eleven months the process of diminution will have extended to the 
 'bur central teeth in the manner represented in the cut.^ The vacuities 
 between them, will now be evident enough. 
 
 This cut gives the mouth of a young steer fifteen months old. 
 
 Fifteen moutht 
 
 Eighteen 
 
THE TKKTH. 
 
 321 
 
 The last cut presented us with the curious and diminutive appearance of 
 nil the incisors in a bullock eighteen months old. It would appear diffi- 
 cult for him to obtain sufficient food to support himself in good condition. 
 It IS somewhat so, and it may be in a great measure owing to these changes 
 in the teeth, and the difficulty of grazing, that young beasts are subject to 
 so many disorders from seven or eight months find upwards, and are so 
 oflen out of condition. They contrive, however, to make up for this tem- 
 porary disadvantage by diligence in feeding ; and, to allude for a moment 
 to another animal, we have known many, not only a broken-mouthed, but 
 a toothless ewe thrive as well as any of the flock, for she was grazing all 
 the day, and ruminating all night. 
 
 At this time, eighteen months old, the corner teeth will not be more 
 than half their natural size; the centre ones will be yet more diminished; 
 and, as the cut very faithfully represents, the vacuities between them will be 
 almost equal to the width of the teeth. The faces of the teeth also, such 
 faces as remain, will be lengthened ; the triangular mark will diminish, 
 and principally in the central teeth ; while another, more or less deeply 
 shaded, will begin to appear around the original mark. 
 
 All this while, the second set of teeth, the permanent ones, have been 
 growing in their sockets, and approaching towards the gums ; but not as 
 is said to be generally the case with other animals, and with the human 
 being In particular, pressing upon the roots of the milk teeth, and causing 
 them to be absorbed, until, at length, losing all hold in the socket, 
 they fall out. The process of absorption commences here in the whole 
 milk-tooth, and as much in the crown or body of it as at its root. 
 
 The process of general diminution seems now for awhile retarded ; 
 't is confined to the central teeth, and they gradually waste away until 
 they are no larger in the body than crow-quills. About the expiration of 
 the second year, or a little fjefore, the milk teeth are pushed out or give 
 way, and the two central permanent teeth appear. 
 
 This cut gives the mouth of a two-year old beast, the two permanent 
 central incisors are coming up, and the other six milk teeth remain. The 
 bone in front of the lower jaw is taken away, in order that the alveoli, ol 
 
 Two Years. 
 
 Three Vearst 
 
J5K 
 
 t^ATTLK. 
 
 eel t far the teeth, may be expuse;!. The second pair of iiicisors havt 
 almDSt attained their proper size, but have not assumed Ihrir proper form. 
 The third pair are getting ready, but the jaw is not yet sufficiently widened 
 for the development of the fourth pair. 
 
 The process of absorption will still be suspended with regard to the 
 two outside pairs of milk teeth, but will be rapid with rep:ard to the second 
 pair, and a little before the commencement of the third year they will 
 disappear. This cut represents the three-year old beast, with four perma- 
 nent incisors and four milk teeth. 
 
 Now the remaining milk teeth will diminish very fast, but .hey show 
 no disposition to give v/ay, and at four-yeais old there will be six perma- 
 nent incisors, and often apparently no milk teeth ; but if the mouth ia 
 examined, the tooth that should have disappeared, and the tooth 
 that is to remain until the next year, are huddled together and concealed 
 behind the new permanent tooth. They are often a source of annoyance 
 to the animal ; and the tooth whose turn it was to go must be drawn 
 The four-year-old mouth then, as represented in this cut, should contain, 
 six oermanent incisors and two milk teeth.. 
 
 Four Years. 
 
 Five YeaTs. 
 
 At the commencement of the fifth year the eight permanent incisors 
 win be up ; but the corner ones will be small. This cut gives a five-year- 
 old mouth, or perhaps one a month or two after five years ; so that the 
 beast cannot be said to be full-mouthed, i. e., all the incisors fully up, 
 until it is six years old. It will be seen, however, in this mouth oi five 
 years, that the two central pairs are beginning to be worn down at the 
 edges, and that in a fiat direction, or Bomewhat inclining towards the 
 inside. 
 
 At six-years old, the teeth are all fully grown, but this mark has extended 
 over the whole set, and all. the teeth are a little flattened at the top ; while 
 on the two ceatre ones there begins to be a distinct darker line in the 
 middle, bounded by a line of harder borie*. 
 
 • We are jM^r^etly aware against what authority we are contending, when we thok 
 compute Ufa age 'of cattle b]r the appearance of the teeth.. - The pleasing author of the 
 " lUusiratious of Natural History" gives the beast a full linouth at three-years old, and 
 so dues Buffon and the Editor of the Kncyclopeedia Metrqpolitana. Mr. Parkinson gayi 
 that the mouth is full at four, although he acknowledges that the teeth are not perfectly 
 up until the animal is six years old. We have no hesitation, however, in appealing ia 
 tlie experience uttlu! ftrcedurs of cattle, lor the general acduraey o£ our account 
 
THE TKSTH. 
 
 323 
 
 Ttatr this time the age can orAf te gbesgei at^ and act decidedly 
 Affirmed ; and a freat detil will de^ 
 pend upon iht manner in vvhich the 
 animal is fed. The beast that is most 
 out, and that is cmtipelled most to 
 use his incisor teeth, will have them 
 worn farthest dowa. Perhaps, as ft 
 general rale, btit admittini; of many 
 an exe«ption, it may be siid that< at 
 seven years old, this line is becoming 
 broadest and rttore irreg&laf in an 
 of the teeth ; ftnd that a second and 
 broader, and more circular mark ap- 
 pears within the centre of the former 
 otte, and moSt distinct ifl the eetitrfti, 
 or two central pairs,— and which, at 
 ieight years, has spread over the «tx 
 central incisors. Sis Yearki 
 
 A year afterwards, however, a dhangt takes place which cannot be mis- 
 taken. The process of absftrpliofl has agtttn commenced, and precisely 
 Where h did when the animat was fOflr tttontbs old, viz., in the central 
 ilicisorAi but it is slow id its ptogresi; a«d il is raever carried to the extent 
 to which we observed it in the milk teeth. It itf hoWevery sufficiently 
 plain, and the two central teeth are . evidently smaller than their neigh- 
 bours. A considerable change has also tafeen place on the surface of the 
 teeth ; the two dark marks are rubbed into o«e in all but the corner teeth. 
 
 At ten, the four cetttral incisors are dlfirii*i»te*d in s-Sze, and (he mark is 
 becoming smaller and fainter, Tff« 
 cut represents the mouth at this age. 
 
 At eleteflf, tbe six central 6«es are 
 Btaaller; and Ait twePve, all of them 
 are very considerably diminished ; btit 
 not, as we have already observed, io 
 the same extent as in the young' beast. 
 The mark k now also fahrt, or nearly 
 obliterated, eXCept in the corner teeth, 
 and the inside €Wge is woifM down to 
 the guiti. 
 
 The beast fs now g-ettJng did j the 
 teeth continue to dinrinf^, and it is 
 not dften iha* the animal, after fmir-* 
 teen or sixteen years old, fe able te 
 maintain his full condition. He must 
 then be taken up and partly fed in Ten Yeats, 
 
 the house : yet there are many instances ia which favourite bulls haive 
 been kept until they were more than twenty years old ; and we know a 
 cow of the same age who pastures with the test dt the dairy, and gives a 
 bit quantity of milk. 
 
 Sdtne writers have asserted, that a good cow will usually cotrtinue good 
 flfltff that age ; but the dairyman would discover his error, both in the 
 qaanttty and the quality of his milt, if he received it as a general rule, that 
 a good cow will continue to breed and give milk until twenty years old. 
 Mr. Watkinson, however, had a cow that for seventeen years gave him 
 from ten to twenty quarts of ftiilk every day ; Wag Jn moderate conditiou 
 When taken tip ; six months in fattening ; and. being then tweiH^ years cW, 
 
 Y 2, 
 
m CATTLK. 
 
 was sold for more than 18/. Mr. John Holt, of Walton, in Lancashire, 
 had a healthy cow-calf presented to him, whose dam was in ber thirty- 
 second year, and could not be said to have been properly out of milk for 
 the preceding fifteen years. 
 
 This method, then, of judging of the age of cattle by the teeth, is more 
 satisfactory than by the horns, and little of the imposition can be practised 
 to which the buyer is sometimes exposed, whether the animal is young or 
 old. {t is true, that from six to nine we can only guess at the age ; but 
 we can form a shrewd guess, and can scarcely be out more than a few 
 months. 
 
 With regard to the horn we are subjec to imposition at all times ; we 
 are obliged to ask questions as to the first calf; and, when the animal 
 gets old, the supposed rings often present a mass of confusion of which 
 the best judges can make nothing. 
 
 The grinders will rarely be examined to ascertain the age of a beast. 
 They are too difficult to be got at ; and the same dependence cannot be 
 placed upon them. The calf is generally born with two molar teeth, and 
 sometimes with three in each jaw above and below. The fvjurth appears 
 about the expiration of the eighth month, and the fifth at the end of the 
 year, about which time the first molar is shed. The second is displaced 
 at the end of the second year, and so with the rest, at intervals of a year; 
 but the sixth molar, which is from the beginning a permanent tooth, does 
 qot appear until the sixth year. 
 
 THE TONGUE. 
 
 . The tongue occupies the base of the mouth. It is firmly held in its, 
 situation by muscles principally derived from the os hyoldes, a singular 
 bone common to it and to the larynx. It is composed of the union of 
 these muscles, which extend their fibres through every part of it, and with , 
 which is intermingled a considerable quantity of fatty matter, which gives 
 to the tongue its peculiar taste and appearance when cut into. It is 
 covered by the membrane of the mouth, but curiously modified ; it resem- 
 bles more the cuticle or scarf-skin, but the internal layer is fibrous and 
 sensitive, and between the two is a soft, reticulated substance which serves 
 as a bed for the papilla;, or little eminences scattered all over the tongue, 
 some of which, at least, are supposed to be the terminations of the gus- 
 tatory nerve, or that branch of the fifth pair on which the sense of taste 
 depends. The use of the tongue, generally, is to dispose of the food 
 between the grinders during mastication ; to collect it afterwards, and, 
 by the assistance of the bars, form it into a pellet for swallowing: it is 
 also the main instrument in drinking, and the canal through which the 
 fluid passes in the act of drinking. The outer covering of the tongue of 
 the ox possesses a hardness and roughness not found on that of the horse. 
 The peculiar way in which the food is gathered renders this necessary ; 
 and while the horse expresses his friendship tor his companion by nib- 
 bling him with his teeth, two cows will rub and rasp each other with theii 
 ioiigues for an hour or two at a time. 
 
 In the ox, however, it answers other purposes ; it helps to collect the 
 grass together and form it into a roll before it is brought between the pad 
 of the upper jaw and the incisor teeth of the lower one ; it serves to clean 
 Ihe muzzle from annoyances to which i* is exposed by means of dirt oi 
 insects ; and it likewise wipes from the nostril the filth that is discharged 
 fi-om it in the various diseases of the membrane of the nose or the ail 
 aassages, to which the ox is so subject. The mouth is shorter than that 
 '.,f the horse : the tongue, ?s it lies in tho mouth, is shorter, and yet it is 
 
THB TONOUB. 
 
 32i 
 
 able to discharge all those functions, which are only imperfectly peiformeri, 
 and some of them cannot be performed at all, by the tongue of ilie 
 horse. The following cuts will explain this : — 
 
 1. llie Bpur. 
 
 2. The basis, or greater cornu or horn. 
 
 3. The inferior lateral cornu. 
 
 4. The superior lateral cornu, 
 b. The epiglottis. 
 
 6. The arytenoid cartilage. 
 
 7. The thyroid cartilage. 
 
 8. The cricoid cartilage. 
 
 9. Rings of the trachea. 
 
 10. The interposed ligamentous subatanc* 
 
 between the rings, 
 
 11. The Rimse glottidis. 
 
 1 . The spur. 
 
 2. The basis, or greater cornu ur horn. 
 
 3. The inferior lateral coma. 
 3'. Hie middle cornu, 
 
 4. The superior lateral cornu. 
 ' t. The epiglottis 
 
 6, The arytsButfid cartilage. 
 
 7. The thyroid cartilage. 
 
 8. The cricoid cartilage. 
 
 9. Rings of the trachea. 
 
 10, The interposed ligamentous substance 
 
 between the rings. 
 
 1 1 , Tlie RimsB glottidis, or entrance into tfa( 
 
 windpipe. 
 
 Of the support which the os hyoides, resembling the Greek letter 
 uptilon, gives to the larynx, and its connexion with all the motions of thdi 
 beautiful cartilaginous box in the common I'unction of .sreathing, ur in \!z- 
 
S26 CATTL*.; 
 
 production pf the voice, and 9lsp in the coutroctioos of ibe pbwynx, m 
 shall treat hereafter. We have new (o do with the tqngup. The re^M 
 will remark the spur projettiog froro the centre Pf the Pody pf this bone 
 in the horse, j€g, 1. It is from two to three inches in extent, and it 
 penetrates deeply into the root and body of the tongue; and from its 
 sides, roughened for the purpose, there spring, through the whole extent 
 of the bone, powerful muscles, (the genin-hyo-glossi muscles, belongiuj.' 
 to the chin, the hyoid bone and the tiing'iie,) whose object is to draw dowr 
 the tongue within the mouth, and limit its action. 
 
 Why this in addition to muscles likewise confining the tongue which 
 are common to other animals ? Why this in the horse alone, at least to 
 anything like the same extent? Because he was designed to be subjected 
 to the government of the bit, Because he was to be ridden and driven 
 at our pleasure. A tongue of considerable, or of loose motion, would be 
 an inconvenience to him. Under the unequal pressure of the bit, it would 
 roll from one side to the other, and be excoriated or lacerated by the ter^th. 
 But thus tied down by the spur, or appendix of the hyoid bone, it forms 
 a useful pad on which the bit may rest, and on which it may be worked. 
 Without this contrivance the jaw, which even now is too often brutally 
 injured by the bit, would be exposed to yet more frequent and severe 
 mischief, and, therefore, the tongue of the horse is thus confined. We 
 rarely see the tongue of the horse protruded from his mouth, except he 
 has acquired thf! trjck pf lickirig his manger. 
 
 There is nothing about tb« p^l which reqiiireg thi$ confineinent of the 
 tongu€ ; but, on the contrary, ha has need of one possessing an extraordi- 
 nary freedom of motion . Look at the OS hyoides of the o«. Its spur (1. 
 p. 325) is reduced tp a mere tubercl?. There is no penetration or confine- 
 ment of the root of the tongue. The same muscles spring from it as 
 from the spur of the hyoid bone of the horse, but they are diminutive 
 and weak, and have little or no power over the body of the tongue. 
 
 Look again at the construction of the hyoid bone. The muscle which, 
 next to that which belongs to the spur, influences the motions of the 
 tongue, has its origin from, or is attached to, the cornu of the bone near 
 the spur. There are two joints connecting the cornti with the body of the 
 bone, in order to give a certain freedom of action to the bone, but the 
 extremity of the cornu is tied down to the temporal bone by a strong 
 cartilage. In the hyoid bone of the ox, the muscle (the hyo^glossus 
 longus, the long muscle belonging to the hyoid bone and the tongue) 
 has the same origin and attachment ; but there is an additional joint to 
 give greater freedom of motion, and not only so, but the bifurcation of 
 the superior lateral cornu, swelled out into a head or tubercle, has lost ita 
 unyielding cartilaginous attachment to the temporal bone, and is fitted into 
 a curious socket, formed between the mastoid process of the temporal bone, 
 and a plate of bone let down on purpose, and in which it plays loosely, yet 
 securely. These are points of comparative anatomy which the physiologist 
 will know how to value, and which will not be quite uninteresting to any 
 one who loves to trace the marks of design in the various works of Him 
 who made us all. 
 
 GLOSS-ANTHRAX OR BLAIN. 
 
 There is a disease of the tongue in cattle, which, from its sudden attack, 
 its fearful progress, and its frequently fatal termination, requires partieular 
 notice. The animal is dull, refuses his food, and rumination ceases. A 
 discharge of saliva appears from the mouth; it is at first limpid and 
 inoffensive, but it soon becomes purulent, bloody, and exeeedinglv ffletid , 
 
OLOSS-ANTHRAX OR BLAIN. 32t 
 
 ilie head and the neck beg^in to swell; they become enormously en- 
 lar^d ; the respiratory passages are obstructed ; the animal breathes 
 with the greatest difficulty, and is, in some cases, literally suffocated 
 This is the Blain or Gloss-anthrax — inflammation of the tongue. 
 
 On examination of the mouth, the tongue is apparently enlarged, but 
 it is, in fact, only elevated from its bed between the maxillary bones ; and 
 the cause of this being examined into, large vesicles pr bladders, red, livid, 
 or purple, are found rurming along the side and base of the tongue, and 
 particularly towards its anterior part. These bladders are strangely rapid 
 in their growth; they become of a great si^e; they quickly break; and 
 they form deep ulcerations. Other vesicles immediately arise in their 
 immediate nei^bourhoodj of a similar character, but of a still larger size. 
 Sometimes the animal dies in twenty-four hours from the first, attack; 
 but at other times fever rapidly succeeds of a typhoid pr malignant kind. 
 In a few cases these bladders have been found ou th^ upper part of the 
 tongue, and even nearer to the top of it than to the frsnum. The 
 tongue soon becomes really enlarged, and particularly when the lateral or 
 inferior parts of it are the seats of disease. General inflammation of it 
 speedily follows, and that part of it on which the ulcers first appeared be-, 
 comes mortified, and may be cut into, or cut away, without the animal 
 expressing the least degree of pain. Incisions into the tongue are not 
 followed by blood, but they bring to view tissues decomposed at some 
 points, and black at others^ and bearing the marks of incipient gangrene. 
 
 The primary seat of the disease is the membrane of the mouth beneath 
 or above the tongue. As the sublingual glands lie along the under part 
 of the tongue, and their ducts open on the side of the membrane or 
 ligament under the tongue, it is possible that this disease may proceed 
 from, or be connected with, obstructions or inflammation of these ducts. 
 Dissection, however, has not proved this, but the membrane at the base of 
 the mouth seems to be the part primarily concerned. 
 
 Post mortem examination shows intense inflammation, or even gangrene 
 of the part, and also inflammation and gangrene of the oesophagus, 
 the paunch, and the fourth stomach. The food in the paunch has a most 
 offensive smell ; and that in the manyplus is hard and dry. Inflammation 
 reaches to the small intestines, which are highly inflamed, with red and 
 black patches in the ccEcum, colon, and rectum. We cannot speak with 
 confidence as to the cause of this disease ; indeed, we believe it is, in a 
 great majority of cases, unknown. Some have said that it is more 
 frequent in low, marshy lands than in others ; that it attacks beast!; that 
 have been in poor condition, and are suddenly changed to good pasture ; 
 and that it oftener happens in spring and autumn than in the summer ot 
 winter. 
 
 We have considerable doubt about this, for we have seen it at al, 
 seasons, and under all circumstances ; — in the stall-fed cows of the me- 
 tropolis, whether newly bought, or those that are used to their situation ; 
 and in the grazing pastures of the country. When it becomes epidemic, — 
 when many cases occur about the same time, and over a considerable 
 extent of country, and in the town dairies as well as the country ones, it 
 is usually in the spring or autumn. Most epidemics of an inflammatory 
 character occur at those periods, for the process of moulting is then going 
 forward, and the animals are, to a certain degree, debilitated, and disposed ' 
 to inflammatory complaints ; and these assume a low and typhoid, and 
 then a malignant, form, much oftener and much more speedily in cattle 
 than in other domesticated animals. Our friend, Mr. Sewell, of Brighton, 
 speaking of this disease, and of the prostration of strength by which it it 
 
W8 CATTLE 
 
 frequently accompanied, says, that ' there appears to be a deficiency of 
 courage and nervous energy in cattle, compared with the horse, and a 
 consiequent inability to contend with disease.' It is a very judicious 
 remark, and affords a key to the progress and treatment of many of 
 the maladies to which these animals are subject. 
 
 Hurtrel d'Arboval, under the title ' Gloss-anthrax,* in his valuable 
 ' Dictionary of Veterinary Medicine and Surgery,' gives a fearful list of 
 the numerous times that it had appeared as an epidemic on the con- 
 tinent. If we owe nothing more to the establishment of veterinary 
 schools, aibout the middle of the last century, we are at least indebted to 
 them for the disappearance of these epidemics, or their being deprived of 
 their murderous character. The truth is, that these epidemics, although 
 dependent on, and produced by, some atmospheric agency, required a pre- 
 disposition in the animal to be afflicted by the disease ; that predispositioa 
 was the result of the injudicious treatmeat of cattle which then prevailed 
 That treatment was improved by the suggestions of veterinary men, and 
 then, although the agent remained, the predisposition was removed, atid 
 the epidemic ceased. It is singular, however, that although this is too 
 plain to be denied, the breeders of cattle have little to do with veterinary 
 men — they prefer their own antiquated recipes, or they have recourse tc 
 the blacksmith, or the unediicated cow-leech; and some veterinary schools,' 
 kicking down the ladder by which they climbed to a certain degree of repu- 
 tation, have abandoned the study of the diseases of cattle — so curiously do 
 extremes occasionally meet. 
 
 While the blain sometimes assumes an epidemic character, we fear that 
 there can be no doubt of its being contagious, and especially under the 
 malignant form. The disease, however, like glanders in the horse, is no* 
 communicated by the breath ; but there must be actual contact. The 
 beasts must eat from the same manger, or drink from the same trough, or 
 be in such a situation that the saliva, in which the virus seems to reside, 
 shall be received on some abraded or mucous surface. The malady ie 
 readily and too frequently communicated when animals graze in the same 
 pasturs. The farmer and the practitioner should be aware of this, and 
 should adopt every necessary precaution. 
 
 We fear that we are justified in stating, that this is one of the maladies 
 which may be communicated from the brute to the human subject, and the 
 list of these is fearfully increasing. We are unwilling to excite unfounded 
 fear, and we do not believe half the stories that are told us of herdsmen that 
 have attended on cattle, suffering under the blain, and becoming afflicted 
 with a similar disease ; but there are several accounts which are too 
 well authenticated to be for a moment disputed. We relate one — ^A man 
 held down the tongue of an ox with a silver spoon, in order to examine 
 the mouth, which had many of the characteristic vesicles. He afterwards, 
 and without any great care about cleaning it, ate some broth with the same- 
 spoon. Not many days had elapsed, when his mouth felt sore, pustules 
 appeared on the side of the tongue, malignant fever succeeded, and he 
 died. When this disease raged at Nismes, in 1731, it was communicated, 
 not only to the human being, but to various species of domesticated 
 animals. The appearance of this epidemic was strangely accounted for. 
 It prevailed in the autunm, after an exceedingly dry summer, and when 
 the beasts, all the grass being burned up, were compelled to feed upon 
 the leaves of the trees covered with snails. The danger, however, so far 
 as it can be ascertained, is trifling, and easily avoided; and a man may 
 attend on a hundred of these animals without injury: he has to take care 
 ■ihat the saliva or discharge from the moulh does not touch any sore placv 
 
GLOSS-AItTBSLAX OR BLAIN 329 
 
 i0> lodge upon the lips ; and if he should fear that it may have Come' into 
 contact with any little wound or sore, he has only to apply the lunar 
 
 -caustic lightly over the part, and there will be an end of the' matter. • 
 
 The treatment of blain is very simple ; and, if adopted in an early period 
 of the disease, eiTectual in a great majority of cases. Blain is, at ^rst. a 
 local malady, and the first and most important means to be adopted will 
 be of a local character. It is inflammation of the membrane of the 
 mouth along the side of, and under the tongue, and characterized by the 
 appearance Of vesicles or bladders ; perhaps pellucid at first, but becoming 
 red or livid, as the disease advances. These vesicles must be freely lancea 
 from end to end. 
 
 In some parts of the south of Scotland, the farmers, and the prac- 
 titioners, too, are anxious that the bladder should be carefully taken away 
 with a piece of cloth after it has been thus lanced, and especially that the 
 yellowish fluid which it contains should be removed ; the swallowing ot' 
 which is considered to be very dangerous. There is no necessity for this ; 
 it is quite sufficient if the vesicle is freely lanced. There will not be much 
 immediate discharge ; the bladder was distended by a substance imper- 
 iectly organized, or of such a glary or inspissated nature as not readily 
 to escape. If this operation is performed when the saliva first begins to 
 run from the mouth, and before there is any unpleasant smell or gan- 
 ^-renous appearance, it will usually effect a perfect cure*. If the mouth ir 
 examined four-and-twenty hours aflcrwards, the only vestige of the disease 
 "will be an incision, not looking very healthy at first, but that will soon be- 
 come so and heal 
 
 Some rub a little salt well into the incision as soon as it is made, and 
 others apply a solution of ahim. Either may be done, and the first is pre- 
 ferable, if the owner should appear to wish that something of the kind 
 should be attempted, but neither of them is necessary. If the disease has 
 •made considerable progress, and the vesicles bervin to have a livid ap-- 
 pearance, or perhaps some of them have broken, and the smell is be- 
 coming very offensive, the mouth must be carefully examined, and any 
 
 * It is agreed, on all hands, that these vesicles must be opeiied. The free use of the 
 lancet seems to us to be the most simple and effective method of opening them ; Mr., 
 Parkinson, however, whom we have often quoted with respect as n breeder, and a judge 
 of cattle, recommends the following injudicious aiid dangerous method. We should not 
 allude to it, had we not reason to believe that, on the faith of his name, it has been tuo> 
 frequently practised. He says, ' Breeding and Management of Live Stock,' vol. i., p. 234, 
 'provide a cane or stick that will bend, long enough to reach into the great bag, ur 
 stomach, of the animal ; the:i take a piece of soft woollen cloth, or linen, but flannel is the- 
 best, put into it some tow, soft bay, cotton, or wool, to the size of an egg, or a little' 
 larger, and tie it on the end of the stick, this being done, dip it in tar, and open the mouth- 
 of the animal ; with one hand take bold of the tongue, while with the other hand you 
 gently thrust the stick with the tar upon it down the throat into the stomach, there let it 
 . emain for about half a minute for the tar to dissolve and disperse, then draw it very gently 
 up, the slower the better, as wind will follow, which, in some cases, gives great ease. Re- 
 peat this three times, and the animal will be immediately relieved.' 
 
 - Now for the rationale of all this : the effe«t to be produced, and on an animal already 
 scarcely able to breathe — distressed by the increased respiration produced by the sUghtest 
 .-notion, and in fact threatened with absolute suffocation every moment. ' The immediate 
 efficacy of the medicine, I apjirehend, arises from thrusting the stick, or cane, down the 
 throat, u/hich breakt the bladders, and it is for that reason I prefer flannel to linen as more 
 likely, iu passing the root uf the tongue, to have that effect ; while the tar being, 
 nauseous, causes the animal to throw up a large quantity of thick saliva, coughing aud 
 ineezing violently.' 
 
 "We quote this passage not only to protest against a mode of treatment far more Ukely to 
 kill than to cure ; but also to shew the deplorable state of cattle medicine, whea one of 
 the best of our authors on the breeding and mauagement of live stock, aud a practical 
 tian too, can write ^hus ridiculuuslv.' 
 
•3« CATTLE. 
 
 ciclea atill remaining whole, or new ones beginning to rise, mus be 
 desply and effectually lanced, and the ulcers washed half-a-dozen times 
 in the day, or. oftener, with a diluted solution of the chloride of lime (a 
 dr«£bm of the powder to a pint of water) By means of a syringe or 
 piece of sponge, this may be brought into contact with every part of the 
 ulcerated surface. 
 
 In a very short time the unpleasant smell will diminish or cease, and 
 the ulcers will begin to assume a more healthy character. When ail fcelor 
 is removed, the mouth should be bathed with a lotion composed of equal 
 parts of tincture of myrrh and water ; or a pretty strong solution of alum, 
 to which a fourth part of the tincture of catechu has been added. 
 
 This plan of treatment will also be usually successful if the ulceration 
 has not assumed too much of a gangrenous character, and if symptomatic 
 or low fever has not appeared in too intense a degree. These are very im' 
 portant circumstances, and should not be passed lightly over by the pro- 
 prietor of cattle; for several of the most fatal diseases to which they are 
 exposed, are of comparatively little importance, and easily got rid of in the 
 early stage, and it is neglect that produces all the danger. It does so here; 
 for the blain, although easily cured when attacked in its early state, be- 
 comes uniformly fatal if neglected. We do not, however, mean to say 
 that, in these early stages of the blain, the disease should be always so 
 simply treated, and that the mere lancing of the vesicles should be the 
 only means adopted ; bnt it should be the first thing done, and that on 
 which we pi ace. the greatest dependence, as attacking the fountain-head of 
 all the after mischief, and getting rid of the danger of suffocation at least* 
 
 The blain, suffered to take its course, speedily becomes connected with 
 fever, end that fever is not long in taking on a typhoid form ; even then 
 we should certainly abstract blood. Four, or five, or six quarts should be 
 taken away according to the size of the beast, and the urgency of the case; 
 or, rather, we should bleed until we begin to perceive its effect on the 
 general circulation. 
 
 In addition to this, as constipation usually accompanies the commence- 
 ment of fever, and is never absent in cases of blain, we should administer 
 a purgative,-^from a pound to a pound and a half of Epsom salts ; and 
 we should likewise throw up some laxative injections. 
 
 We take this opportunity, when treating on one of the first serious dis- 
 orders of cattle, to protest against the unscientific, inefficient, beastly 
 method of administering purgatives, prevalent not only among the igno- 
 rant pretenders to the possession of foolish nostrums that are to be found 
 in every village, but among farmers, and some of them of the better sort, 
 and also among the lower class of practitioners. If a beast is to have a 
 dose of physic, it is ordered ^o be dissolved in a quart of human urine ; 
 and if the drink is sent, and not, given for a few days, its horrible stench 
 betrays the menstruum. There is something abominably disgraceful in all 
 this; and the man who hereafler recommends it deserves to be drenched 
 with his own medicine. Let the Epsom, or Glauber's, salts, or the com- 
 mon culinary salt, be dissolved in simple water or thin gruel. They want 
 nothing to ensure or increase their effect. 
 
 From the inveterate apathy and neglect of the farmer, the practitioner 
 may not be called in until gangrenous ulcers fill the mouth, and the 
 
 embrane of the mouth, and the tongue itself, seem to be sloughing away 
 •n pieces; ulcers, perhaps, have also begun to appear externally behind or 
 under the jaw, and most of all to be dreaded, and frequently accompany- 
 ing (he worst stages of blain, ulcers begin to break out about the feet, and 
 particularly at the junction of the hair and the hoof, and threaten the loss 
 »f the hoof 
 
THRUSH IN THU MOUTH. 88J 
 
 What is the practitioner no^ to do? He ro^st he more diligent .n riis 
 local treatment. Thp,t invaluable disinfectant, the chloride of lime, must 
 be used from morning to night, until the gaiigrenous character of the ulcers 
 is changed ; and then the tincture of aloes, or the tincture of myrrh may 
 be substituted. The ulcers that may appear in any other part, and particu^ 
 iarly about the feel, must undergo a similar treatment. Some have recom- 
 mended the application of the cautery to the bottom of the ulcers, but 
 there is no necessity for this. The chloride of lime, the solution being by 
 degrees strengthened, will not only remove the fcetor, but usually give the 
 ulcer a healthy surface 
 
 No bleeding will be required here : the stage of acute fever is passed. 
 Physic should be given^one doge at least, whatever is the state of the 
 bowels, and even although the diarrhcea of typhoid (ever should be 
 established ; but, at the same time, the system must be roused and sup-r 
 ported. A doulile dose of argipatic powder should accompany the physic ; 
 and, after that, the gentian, calumbp, and ginger roots should be regularly 
 administered in powder, suspended in gruel ; the half-pint of strong 
 home-brewed ale nqt being forgotten, Two drachms of gentian and 
 caluipbo, and one of ginger, wjll qgnstitute an average dose, and may be 
 repeated morning and night 
 
 The practitioner should pay considerable attention tp the food. It if not 
 always that the appetite fails in this disease ; nay, we have seen it, as in te: 
 tanus, remain unimpaired to the last ; but the soreness of the mouth has 
 prevented the animal from either eating or ruminating. He should be fed 
 with gruel — some of it should always be within his reach, and he will 
 occasionally sip no inconsiderable quantity of it. More should be poured 
 down, or given by the stomach-pump — the latter being the better way of 
 administering it. When poured down bodily from the horn, it will 
 generally find its way into the rumen, and there it will be retained, and 
 be in a manner lost; but when given from the small pipe of the pump, 
 and not too strongly forced on, it will trickle down the gullet, and be likely 
 to flow on into the fourth, or true digesting stomach, and be converted* 
 into immediate nutriment. 
 
 There is reason to hope that this is one of thef somewhat numerous class 
 of diseases, under which the animal either cannot labour a second time, or 
 to which the constitution betrays an' evident insusceptibility for a con- 
 siderable period. Cattle that have recovered from the blain have been 
 afterwards purposely subjected to the danger of contagion, but without 
 effect. 
 
 THRUSH JN THE MOUTH. 
 
 There is a disease, sometimes an epidemic, and especially in the spring 
 and winter, when the weather is unusually cold and wet, that may be 
 mistaken, and we believe has been so, for gloss-anthrax or blain, It 
 consists in the appearance of pustules, or sometimes vesicles, not merely 
 along the side, and at the root of the tongue, but all over the mouth, and 
 occasionally even on the outside of the lips. These pustules break, and 
 minute ulcers succeed, which may run a little into each other; but they 
 oilener speedily heal. Some persons have taken to themselves a great 
 deal of credit for the treatment of these supposed cases of blaia 
 
 This is a very harmless affair. There is sometimes a slight degree of 
 fever, but rarely such as to interfere with the appetite, and never such as 
 to indicate danger. The disease may last for ten days, or a .fortnight, or, 
 more ; but it gradually yields to a few mild doses of physic; artd we hav« 
 thought that the beast throve the better afterwards for having got rid of 
 tomcthing that was oppressive to the constitution. 
 
m 
 
 CArPLE. 
 
 THE SALIVARY GLANDS. 
 
 The fbuci, when first gathered, is rolled hastily into a pellet, and snal- 
 owed, without being mingled with much of the moisture of the mouth ; 
 but the second mastication is another atfair — the food is not only to hn 
 thoroughly broken to pieces and ground down, but brought into that 
 softened and pultaceous state, in which it can be thoroughly acted upon 
 by the gastric juice, and the function of digestion performed. The mouth 
 is furnished with various glands, which secrete a limpid fluid of a some- 
 what saline taste, and called the saliva, by which the food is thus softened. 
 These are differently named, according to their situation. 
 
 The PAROTID OLAND, Or the gland in the neighbourhood of the ear, 
 is the largest and most important of them. It is not so large as in 
 the horse, but it is of a redder colour, and, on that account perhaps, 
 more subject to inflammation than the same gland in the horse. It 
 occupies the hollow which extends from the root of the ear to the angle of 
 the lower jaw. It consists of a vast number of little glands connected 
 together by cellular tissue, each having its minute duct to convey away 
 the fluid that is secreted, and these ducts communicating with one 
 another, and joining together to form one main branch, termed the 
 parotid duct, through which the united stream is conveyed into the mouth. 
 
 The following cut will give the reader a sufficient notion of the situation, 
 and connexions of this gland, and also of the blood-vessels of the neck, 
 and principal muscles of the upper part of it. It may be compared with 
 the cut (p. 119) in 'The Horse.' 
 
 1. The sj>/en2us (spleen-shaped) muscle occupying almost the whole of the 
 upper and side part of the neck, and extending from the parietal ridge, as far 
 down as the fourth and fifth vertebrae of the back. It arises in the ox by 
 two tendons, one from the atlas and the other from the mastoid process of 
 
 ihe temporal bone : it is attached superiorly by tendinous and fleshy fibres 
 to the ligament of the neck, and inferiorly by fleshy fibres to the tiansvers* 
 orocesses of the bones of the neck, and the fore-part of the spine. There is 
 ane muscle on each side of the neck. When ihey act together hey erect 
 
THS SAIIVABY GLANDS. 333 
 
 and support the head and neck ; w.ien either acts alone, it inclines the 
 nead and neck on that side. - It is the muscle on which, with the trapeziut 
 in the next cut, the form of the upper part of the neck princi])a11y de- 
 pends ; and no one can be much acquainted with, or have admired, our 
 best breeds of cattle, without observing that it is much thinner and smaller 
 than in the horse, and has a direction less oblique. 
 
 2. The inferior oblique (taking an oblique direction). A deeper-ecalcd, 
 muscle on each side of the neck, from the first to the second bones uf the 
 neck. 
 
 3. The superior oblique. Likewise a deeper-seated muscle, from the 
 first bone of the neck to the portion of the parietal bone which forms the 
 poll. Both acting together, they elevate the head ;-^either, acting alone, 
 turns it on that side. When the hand is passed down the side of the 
 cervical ligament, even near to the poll, the muscles of the neck will be 
 observed to become rapidly thicker. The thickness of the neck of the ox 
 lies principally below ; so it is in almost all ruminants, and particularly in 
 the Ap^t tribe ; and therefore these muscles are considerably larger in the 
 ox than in the horse. 
 
 4. A portion of the levator humeri (the elevator of the arm) reversed. This 
 important muscle occupies the same situation in the ox as in the horse. It is 
 seen in its proper place at b, p. 119, ' Horse.' It arises by an aponeurotic 
 expansion from the parietal ridge, and by a strong tendon, from the mastoid 
 proceif;s of the temporal bone, and from the four first bones of the neck^ 
 and, connecting itself with the ligament of the neck, it goes to the muscles 
 of the shoulders and the upper bone of the arm. When the head is made 
 a fixed point, one of them, acting alone, draws forward the shoulder and 
 arm ; when the shoulder is made the fixed point, it turns the head and 
 heck ; or, the shoulder still being the fixed point, and both acting, the, 
 head is depressed. This muscle is much larger in the ox than in the 
 horse, and presents to the comparative anatomist and to the veterinary 
 student some important points of diflTerence. It is more decidedly united 
 with the rhomboidevs longus (the long rhomboid-shaped muscle) than in! 
 the horse, and evidently contributes materially to the formation of those 
 sub-cutaneous muscular fibres, which are substituted for the proper sub- 
 cutaneous muscle of the neck. Inferiorly it is divided into three branches 
 — the one, thin and inferior, goes to the anterior extremity of the sternum ; 
 the second, at the inferior part of the arm, furnishes a tendon, which is 
 inserted with that of the pectoralis Iransversus (the transverse muscle of 
 the chest) into the humerus ; while the superior division gives a strong 
 tendinous expansion, which spreads over, and loses itself upon the outer 
 face of the humerus. It may well, therefore, be a larger and more power- 
 ful muscle than in the horse. 
 
 a. The iub-scajnilo hyaidevs (belonging to the substance underneath 
 the shoulder, and to the ^yoid bone), from the shoulder-blade to the body 
 of the hyoid bone, to draw backward that bone, considerably larger in the 
 ox than in the horse. 
 
 6. Sterno-maxillaris (belonging to the sternum and the lower jaw) 
 from the cartilage in front of the chest to the angle of the lower jaw 
 considerably smaller than in the horse, but contrived to adapt itself 
 to the peculiar wants of the ain'mal. It is attached to the lower jaw 
 'jy means of a bifurcated tendon, as beautifully shewn in this cut. The 
 posterior branch is inserted into the masseter muscle, on which it 
 acts as a kind of bridle in the usual process of mastication, and more 
 particularly as tending to limit the lateral and ' grinding n(iotion a' 
 that m isrle. The other goes on' and attaches itself to the bucciuato. 
 
"4 cAtTLB, 
 
 miMCle >tnm«diatety to be deserib*A Thus they act quite as mucfi ft* 
 muscles of mastJc&tion, as they ai^e concerned in the bending of the head, 
 and perhaps more so. The whale muscle may act on the head*^ha 
 separate portions of it on the function of mastication. 
 
 7. The rfemo-%(rf«fe«4, from the sternum to the hyoid bone, and to 
 the thyroid cartilage of the larynx, in order to draw the bone and the 
 cartilage downward and backward. 
 
 8. The masjefer (masticating muscle) is far less developed than in 
 the horse, but the iibres run more obliquely, and are shorler, and 
 therefore do not lose so much in power as thmr want of volume would 
 seem to indicate. It occupies nearly the same situation as in the horse, 
 except that there is no projecting ridge of the malar bone. It covers the 
 greater part of the side of the superior maxillary bone, and is inserted 
 info the ronghened surface of the angle of the lowef jaw-bone. 
 
 9. The buccinator (the muscle by which the human being blows the 
 trumpet) extends from the alveolar borders of the upper and under 
 grinders, over the cheeks, and the membrane of the mouth, and to the 
 angle of the mouth. It tightens the membrane of the mouth, and thus 
 principally assists in the disposal of the food in the mouth, and also in 
 rethicting the angle of the mouth, 
 
 10; A branch of the os hyoidt-f. 
 
 11. The itylo-maxiltaris, from the styloid process of the occipital bone, 
 to the angle of the lower jaw, to draw it backward, and to open it. There 
 are considerable differences in the structure and connexion of this muscle 
 in the ox and the horse, but they would be difficult to explain in a work 
 like this. 
 
 12. That portion of the stylo- maxtUaris, which is called the digastrie, 
 from its double belly; is seen here 
 
 13. The little flat muscle, the stylo-hyaidetis, its here represented, bnt 
 even thinner than in the horse ; extending from the styloid process of the 
 occipital, to the angle of the comer of the hyoid bone, and its action con-« 
 fined to the refracting and elevating of the comer of that bone. 
 
 14. A muscle of the larynx. 
 
 15. The parotid gland (the gtand in the neighbourhood of the ear), 
 the greater part of it reversed, to shew the parts beneath 
 
 16. The parotid duct winding within the angle of the jaw, and escaping 
 again at a very little distance (its course within the jaw not being one-half 
 so long as it is in the horse), and in company with the maxillary vein and 
 artery climbing up the cheek, and perforating the bticcinafor muscle. In 
 order to discharge its contents into the mouth. The orifice is generally 
 found about the third or fourth grinder.' The situation of the duct, so 
 much more posteriorly than in the horse, should be carefofly observed, for 
 obstruction and fistula of this duct is far more frequent in the ox than in 
 (be horse, and operations of various kmds may be necessaty. 
 
 17. The sub-maxillary gtand (the gland under the jaw), placed more 
 posteriorly in the ox than in the horse. Its commencement is almost as 
 hrgh as that of the parOtid, but behind it ; thence it reaches down to (he 
 aiigle of the Jaw,, and there begins to take a direction forward between the 
 branches of the lower jaw, and terminates id a duct which opens on either 
 aide of the frgenum of the tongue. 
 
 IS. Lymphatic glands (glands containing lymph) of the neck, pTaced 
 still more posteriorly. 
 
 19. Lymphatic glands found between the branches of the lower jaw; 
 neither beloDging to the sub-maxiUary, nor sublingual glands, but often 
 et'nfound'ed with them. They becoriin -f, ♦v vrM and enlarged in almost 
 
INFLAMMATION OF THE PAROTID GLAND. 'SS 
 
 every case of catarrh, and they are some of ihese glands which, by their 
 hardness and adherence to the jaw, indicate glanders in the horse. These 
 g:lands often enlarge to a very considetaWe degree in the ew, and supprt- 
 rate, and troubleRume ulcers ensue. 
 
 "20. Thejugviar vein (the vein of the throat), previous to itK bifurcfttkin, 
 ana pointing out the usual situation for bleeding. Cow-kechest however, 
 bleed somewhat lower, .and the.re is nn great hiirin in that 
 
 21. The $uh-maxiUary oeiw returning the blood ftom the tongite, th* 
 month, and the face generally. Ii is scarcely lost at all within the anirle 
 of the lower jaw, but runs along the edge of it, and might be opened with 
 ft<lvantage in some affections of the face. When it emerges from the jaWi 
 luid begins to climb up the face, it is found betweeo the parotid duct and 
 Ihe sub-maxillary artery. 
 
 32. The larger branch of the yirgu/ar above the bifurcation receiving the 
 blood from the upper part of the face and neck, and also from the brain, 
 A bleeding from this branch is practicable in the horse, and i»' sometimes 
 desirable when it is our object, as in cases of staggers, to gpt the blood as 
 much as possible from the brain ; but in the ox, it is so near to the 
 parotid gland, that it would be difficult to open it there. The bifurcation 
 is sometimes completely covered by the parotid gland. We must therefore 
 be always content with bleeding below the division of the jugular in cattle. 
 
 -23. The temporal vein (the vein of the temple). 
 
 24. The trunk of the parolidean and auricular veins fthe veins of the 
 parotid gland and of the ear). 
 
 25. The internal jugular, and particularly its passage below the subsca 
 ^nlo-hyoideus muscle. The path of the internal jugular by the side of th« 
 carotid, under that muscle, is marked by a dotted line. 
 
 26. The carotid artery (so called because a Hgature of it was supposed to 
 produce sleepiness or coma), where it emerges from below the subscapolo^ 
 hyoideus muscle. Its path under that muscle, by the side of the internal 
 iugular, is also marked by a dotted line, showing the connexion of the two 
 vessels. The figures are placed at the spot wiiere it would be most con- 
 venient to operate, if circumstances should require that a ligature should 
 be passed round the carotid. 
 
 27. The sub-maxillary artery given off from the main trunk, and pur- 
 suing its course anteriorly, to bury itself beneath the angle of the lower 
 |aw. It is afterwards seen emerging from under that bone in company 
 with the sub-maxillary vein, and the parotid duct, and being the lowest of 
 the three. It will be observed that, on account of there being no tube 
 rosity of the lower jaw in cattle, the sub-raaxillary artery escapes froiM 
 under the jaw, and mounts the cheek more thau two 'nches farther back 
 than it does in the horse, and, therefore, the place at which the state of thff 
 pulse is ascertained in cattle is removed thus much &rtber back ; and 
 even at that place the artery will not always be distinctly felt, on account 
 of the peculiar and double insertion of the sternp-maxillaris muscle in 
 cattle (vid. fig. 6 in this cut), and also because the artery is, in a manner 
 buried behind the angle of the jaw. 
 
 2S. The tempoTid arterji at which the pulse may oden be conveniently 
 examined. 
 
 29. One of the arteries supplying the parotid gland. 
 
 30. The eighth pair of nerves, or the motor organic nerves. 
 
 31. One of the linguales, or nerves by means of which the. tongue is 
 moved. 
 
 INFLAMMATION OP THE PAROTID GLAND 
 
 The parotid gland, in cattle, i» very subject to inftanttnation Cont» 
 
'•* CATTLE. 
 
 sians, or woandf., of the pait, are frequent causes of inflammation ; and 
 this glanrl, in the ox, sympathizes strougly with catarrhal atfectious of the 
 upper air-passages. A bullock will rarely have house, accompanied by 
 any degree of fever, without some enlargement and tenderness of the 
 parotid. There is scarcely an epidemic among cattle, one of the earliest 
 symptoms of which is not swelling of the head and neck. These swell- 
 ings under the ear are guides on which we place much, and, perhaps, the 
 greatest dependence, in judging of the intensity and danger of the disease; 
 and particularly, and most of all to be dreaded, its tendency to assume a 
 typhoid form. These enlargements have been confounded with strangles, 
 but this has been through want of proper examination of the parts. 
 
 Inflammation of the parotid gland is accompanied by heat and tender 
 ness of the part, and which render the beast unwilling to eat, or to rumi 
 <iate ; and sometimes by so much swelling as to threaten immediate suiFo 
 cation. This, therefore, is one of the varieties of swelling about the 
 head of cattle characterized by the expressive term of strangullion. 
 
 The swelling of the parotid gland extends oftener and more rapidly 
 downwards than upwards, reaching the throat, and pressing upon all the 
 neighbouring vessels. When there is much swelling, suppuration and 
 abscess are at hnnd, and should be encouraged by.diligent fomentation; 
 and as soon as any fluctuation can be detected, the tumour should be freely 
 lanced ; the fluid will then readily escape, and the abscess fill up : but if 
 the swelling is suffered to burst, ulcers will be formed, exceedingly diffi- 
 cult to heal, and that will too often run on to gangrene. It is a singular 
 thing that while the flesh of the ox is one of the supports of human life, 
 and no food contributes more or healthier nutriment, there is no animal in 
 which gangrenous ulcers are so frequently formed, or in which they are so 
 corroding and maliguant. From inflammation, apparently of only an in 
 considerable portion of the parotid gland, we have known ulcers of the 
 most offensive character extend from ear to ear, and expose the most im- 
 portant vessels of the upper part of the neck. 
 
 This inflammation is to be combated, like all others, by fomentations, 
 cataplasms, and, occasionally, blisters, in the early stage; bleeding and 
 physicking must be resorted to according to the degree of general fever; 
 and after the ulcer has formed, the chloride of lime must be used to arrest 
 the progress of gangrene, and the tincture of aloes to heal the part afler 
 the bursting of the abscess. Mild purgatives will be very useful, each of 
 them containing aromatic or tonic medicine. 
 
 Obstruction to the passage of the saliva will sometimes occur in the 
 duct ; swelling will ensue at the place of obstruction ; and, at length, the 
 fluid continuing to accumulate, will burst the vessel, and a fistulous ulcer 
 will be the result. Personal examination alone will indicate the course to 
 be pursued in such a case, but the care of an expert veterinarian will be 
 required. 
 
 THE S17B-MAXILLARY 6LA.NDS. 
 
 The second source of the saliva is from the sub-maxillary glands. The 
 bulk of the maxillary gland is seen at fig. 17 (p. 332), even posterior to 
 the parotid gland. The direction within the branches of the jaw is also 
 plainly traced ; and there is a continuation of glandular substance, or a 
 collection of little glands extending on either side within the branches of 
 the jaws, the common duct from all of which pierces through the sub- 
 stance at the root of the tongue, and opens on either side of the fraenum. 
 
 The termination of the duct is particularly evident in cattle, and is very 
 curiously constructed ; a cartilaginous plate doubles upon itself, and serves 
 at a cove-ing, or roof, to the little teat-like orifice of the duct. 
 
THE PHARYNX 33J 
 
 BARBS OR PAPS. 
 
 Occasionally in catarrh, and oftener when the membrane of the mouth 
 g;enerally is somewhat inflamed, and the pustules of which we have spolcen 
 appear in various parts, these little projections likewise become red and 
 enlarged, and the beast is said to have the barbs or paps. The cow-leech 
 will too often set to work to burn or cut them away, and converts tem- 
 porary inflammation into serious, and even g^angrenous ulcers. A dose of 
 physic, and, if necessary, a moderate bleeding, will usually cause the barbs 
 to disappear ; or if a little disposition to ulceration should appear, an alum 
 wash will be all that is needed. The scissors and the irons of the cow- 
 leech should be kept as much as possible from the mouth of the cow. 
 
 In cases of deep abscess, which sometimes appear under the tongue, 
 from inflammation, or, much oftener, from improper treatment, the chlo- 
 ride of lime will be the first and chief application. It must be injected to 
 the very bottom of the sinuses, and continued to be used, several times in 
 the day, while any unpleasant Bmell is perceived. To this will succeed the 
 alum-wash, or an infusion of catechu, the manner of preparing which will 
 be found in the list of medicines at the end of the work. 
 
 THE SUBLINGUAL GLANDS. 
 
 The third source of the saliva is from numerous glands scattered over 
 the membrane of the mouth generally, but principally collected at its base, 
 and under the tongue, and therefore called the sublingual glands. They 
 consist of small collections of glands, with minute openings into the 
 mouth, but which also a little enlarge, when there is tendency to inflam- 
 mation in the mouth. No harm can ever come of these giqs and blad- 
 ders if the cow-leech does not make it. On every part of the cheeks and 
 lips these little glands are found : and the quantity of saliva obtained from 
 all of these, especially when they are excited to' action in mastication ot 
 rumination, is very great. 
 
 THE VELUH PALATI, OR SOFT PALATE. 
 
 Advancing to the back part of the mouth, we find the same curtain as in 
 the horse, dividing it from the pharynx, or cavity, immediately above the 
 gullet. It is formed of a continuation of the membrane of the mouth 
 anteriorly, and of that of the nose posteriorly, and it hangs from the 
 crescent-formed border of the palatine bone, p. 273. It reaches from 
 the palate almost to the entrance into the gullet and wind-pipe. In the 
 norse it does quite'so; it hangs upon the back of the tongue and epi' 
 glottis, and therefore all communication between the mouth and the wind- 
 {)ipe is cut ofi', and the horse can breathe only through his nose ; and as 
 this curtain is so contrived as to yield to any pressure from before, but re- 
 sist that which comes from behind, the food passes under it to arrive at the 
 t.iroat, tut cannot return, and therefore also when vomiting is excited in 
 a horse, the food is returned through the nose. 'In the ox, however, not 
 reaching quite so low, the horse breathes through the mouth, the food 
 is returned to the mouth in the natural process of rumination, and also iti 
 vomiting, when, and which occurs very rarely indeed, that process takes 
 place, or, at least, regurgitation from the rumen, for we much doubt 
 whether true vomiting, or the return of food from the fourth stomtfh, was 
 ever seen in cattle. 
 
 THE PHARYNX. 
 
 The food having passed beneath this soft palate, reaches a tunnel-shaped 
 cavity between the mouth and the gullet and windpipe. It is lined by a 
 membrane full of little glands that pour out a viscid fluid, by which the 
 oellet of food is covered and prepared to pass more readilv down the 
 
 Z 
 
3,3S 
 
 CAXrLE. 
 
 gullet. Within this membrane are musules that contract with considerable 
 force ; and the food, almost beyond the action of the tongue, is seized, as 
 it were, by these muscles, and forced along the pharynx to the entrance 
 into the oesophagus or gullet. 
 
 Having thus completed our survey of the head, we must entreat the 
 patience of our readers while we take a rapid view of the anatomy and 
 proper form of the neck and chest of the ox ; and if we draw occasional 
 comparisons between the structure of these parts in the ox and the horse, 
 as connected with the use and destiny of the two animals, a recollection 
 of the peculiar valuable points of each will be more deeply impressed on 
 the mind of the reader, and we shall have mteresting proof of the adiip- 
 tation of each to the purposes for which it was designed. 
 
 Chapter XI. 
 
 THE ANATOMY AND DISEASES OF THE NECK AND CHEST. 
 
 In order to understand the proper conformation of these parts, ditfering 
 so materially as they do in a kindly feeding and an unprofitable beast, and 
 differing, too, so much in various breeds, each excellent in its way, we 
 must have recourse to two anatomical plates, which we will contrive so as 
 to include, as much as possible, the whole muscular system of the ox. 
 
 1. Orbicularis oris (the ring-shaped muscle of the mouth). This 
 muscle is found within the border of the lips, and constituting their prin- 
 cipal substance and thickness, forming two semi-ovals, and Vinited toge- 
 ther at the angle of the lips. It is much larger in the ox than in the 
 horse, and mixed with more tendinous fibres, because the lips are more 
 powerfully employed in the ox than in the horse, in grasping and assisting 
 in tearing off the food. 
 
 2. The elevator of the upper lip, and angle cf the nose. This muscle is 
 much smaller in the ox than in the horse, because the lips are not used to 
 examine and to play with things as in the horse ; and the ox is not a beast 
 of speed, requiring rapid and extensive dilatation of the nostrils ■ to which 
 may be added, that there are no false nostrils in the ox to be dilated, and 
 about which this muscle is principally employed in the horse. , 
 
 3. The Zygomaticus (arising near the yoke-formed arch under which 
 the temporal mufcle passes) lies along the middle of the side of the lace , 
 it also assists in the motion of the lips, and particularly in retracting the 
 an!;le of the lips. This is particularly develoncd in the ox, for it has much 
 to dc in the gathering of the food. 
 
ANATOMY OF THE NECK ANI> CHEST. 339 
 
 4. The depressor of the lower eyelid, a sub-cutaneous muscle of con- 
 Biderable development. 
 
 5. The depressor of the lower lip, lying along the side of the lower 
 jaw, and going to the inferior lateral part of the under lip. To separate 
 the under lip from the upper, this is also larger than in the horse. 
 
 6. Orbicularis palpebrarum (the ring-shaped muscle of the lids), em- 
 ployed in keepii^ the eyes open> When this muscle ceases to act, the 
 eye closes, from the elasticity of the cartilage at the edge of the lid. 
 
 7. The levator of the upper eyelids. 
 
 8. The depressor of the ear. This is a singular muscle, lying imme- 
 diately under the skin ; running over, and attached to, the parotid gland ; 
 and reaching from the outer side of the root of the ear, down to the very 
 larynx. The horse has very extensive action of the ear, and holds a kind 
 of language by means of it ; but the motion of the ears of the ox have a 
 more extensive, although slower, motion, and they have an office which 
 those of the horse rarely discharge, — viz., to defend the eyes from insects. 
 
 9. The different portions of the levator humeri, throu!>h the whole of 
 their course: the upper part of this muscle was described at p. 333. On this 
 muscle the form of the lower part of the neck principally depends, and it 
 
 . is much more developed in some breeds than in others ; but in all it is 
 larger at its inferior insertions than it is in the horse. However thin and 
 deer-like we may wish the neck of a favourite ox to be at the setting on 
 of the head, we look for plenty of muscle at the bottom of it, or we shall 
 have neither strength nor substance in any part of the animal. 
 
 10. The siemo-maxillaris, described at p. 333. 
 
 11. The trapezius (the quadrilateral muscle). This muscle in the ox is 
 united with the rhomboideus longus, and forms the exterior muscular layer 
 immediately below the integument, and above the splenius. (See p. 332, 
 and also the next Cut.) On this, and on the splenius beneath, depend 
 the form of the upper part of the neck and withers, and, in some breeds, 
 the cervical portion of it is particularly fine. The combined action of the 
 whole is to raise the scapula, and draw the bone forwards 
 
 1 2. The latissimus dorsi, so called from its extent, being the widest 
 muscle of the back, and reaching over the whole of the upper and side 
 {>art behind the scapula, of which bone it is a muscle, drawing it back- 
 ward,' and elevating its inferior extremity. It is thinner in the ox than in 
 the horse, except that much adipose matter insinuates itself between the 
 fibres, and gives it a false appearance of substance. In fact, it has much 
 less work to do than in the horse. 
 
 13. The pe.ctoralis major (the larger pectoral muscle). It is in the ox 
 the only pectoral muscle, properly so speaking, for the minor is not found. 
 There are, however, the transverse pectorals, of which we shall give an 
 account presently. From the ensiform cartilage at the termination of the 
 true ribs, and even from the external oblique muscle of the belly, it extends 
 forward, strongly attaching itself to the fourth, fifth, and sixth pieces ol 
 the sternum, and also to the lesser tubercle of the humerus, and the inner 
 part of the end of the scapula or shoulder-blade. It draws the scapuU 
 into an upright position. This muscle is considerably smaller than in the 
 horse, because it has not the work to do. 
 
 14. The external oblique muscle of the abdomen. It extends over the 
 whole of the inferior and lateral portions of the belly, giving support to 
 the contents of the belly ; assisting in the evacuation of the fseces and 
 urine, and also in that of the fostus, and being a valuable auxiliary in the 
 process of breathing. Although it has. not so much work to perform as 
 io ^auxiliary muscle in respiration, or in supporting the abdomen arid itg 
 
MO 
 
 CATTLE. 
 
 contents in the shocks to whicli they are occasiunal'ly expoi-ed in lapid 
 motion, yet this and the other oblique muscle have a great deal more con- 
 stant labour than is generally siip))osed in supporting the immense weight 
 of the dis-tended paunch, and Sometimes powerfully contracting upon it. 
 These oblique muscles, which constituie the flank pieces of various kinds 
 In the carcase, are of considerable thickness, and never overlooked by the 
 butcher when examining a beast. 
 
 15. The gluteBus maximus, or great muscle, belonging to the bnttock, 
 principally constitutes the anterior, middle, and external parts of the 
 haunch. Its attachments are very complicated, and its action is what its 
 situation at once indicates, either to flex and bring forward the hind limbs 
 upon the loins, or the pelvis and loins upon the hind limbs, accordingly as 
 either is made a fixed point. This muscle, as we may suppose, is small in 
 comparison with that of the horse, for although the cow can sometimes 
 jump over a gate, almost as well as any horse, and Mr. Perkins's Nagore 
 bull could not be restrained by any fence, no great speed is usually re- 
 quired from them, nor do they want the sudden and powerful flexion of 
 the limbs which is sometimes demanded from the horse. This muscle is 
 brought into view in cattle by raising the aponeurotic expansion of the 
 fascia lata, and it is concealed superiorly and posteriorly by the pro- 
 longation of the semitendinosus muscle. 
 
 16. Fascia lata. This muscle, although we have termed it a fascia or 
 envelope, is a fleshy and tendinous expansion over the whole of the anterior 
 and external surface of the thigh, whence it spreads below the stifle. Its 
 chief use is to strengthen the muscles beneath ; but, beside this, it assists the 
 extension of the leg on the thigh, and the flexion of the thigh on the pelvis. 
 It is a more extensive and thicker muscle in cattle than in the horse. Its 
 fleshy portion is divided into two, and its tendinous expansion extends over 
 all the muscles of the quarters, and unites with the principal flexor muscle 
 of the thigh — the adductor magnus. This is a part of the beast where 
 we look for plenty of muscle and fat, and the cloddy buttocks of the first 
 Dutch cattle having passed away, we can hardly find quarters too long 
 and too well developed. 
 
 17 and 18. The biceps femorisyor two-headed muscle of the thigh. In the 
 horse, it is attached above to the spine of the sacrum, and to some of the 
 upper bones of the tail, and below by one head to the patella or bone of 
 the knee, and by another extending to the tibia, and the fascia covering 
 the leg. It flexes the leg upon the thigh, and contributes to turn the leg 
 inwards. In cattle, it has no spina! prolongation, and it does not ascend 
 beyond the ischial tuberosity. 
 
 19. The foramina belonging to the sub-cutandous abdominal vein. 
 
ANATOMY OF THE NECK AND CHEST. 34 
 
 1. The ^lenius lying under the trapesius, and which has been already 
 described in p. 332. 
 
 2. The anterior portion of the trapezius, extending along the edge ' pi 
 the cervical ligament, from the back of the head to within the superior part 
 of the scapula, and raising the scapula and carrying it forward. We have 
 already alluded to it, p. 339. 
 
 3. The rhomboideus longtis (the long diamond-shaped muscle). It has 
 already been stated that this muscle in the ox is united with the trapezius, 
 and forms the superior and lateral part of the neck, extending from the 
 head to the withers. It varies materially in different breeds. Nothing 
 can be so unlike as the ridge or crest of the neck in the Devon and the 
 Galloway, or even the Devon and ihe Hereford. In all cattle it is pro- 
 portionally larger than in ths horse, because the neck generally was de- 
 signed to be more fleshy ; a fine crest, however, the neck gradually thick 
 ening below, may be considered as a point of beauty in cattle. 
 
 4. The serratus anticus major (tlie anterior part of the great saw-shaped 
 muscles, or those by which the shoulder of the animal is attached to the 
 trunk, and the weight of the trunk supported). These muscles of the shoul- 
 der are more numerous in the ox than in the horse, and are more decidedly 
 separated from each other by cellular and adipose matter. The strength of 
 attachment which the rapid motion of the horse sometimes renders neces- 
 sary, is not wanted, but the accumulation of flesh and fat goes on wherever 
 it can. The serrated muscles are seen prolonged upon the side behind the 
 shoulder. 
 
 5. One of the insertions of the levator humeri. 
 
 6. A portion of the serratus muscle, occupying the posterior and infe- 
 rior portion of the neck, where the neck emerges from, or enters into the 
 chest. This, in every breed of cattle, is much larger than it is found in 
 the horse, indeed, it is altogether a diflFereiit muscle, or it consists of the 
 union of two or three muscles, particularly one lying across upon the first 
 ribs. It is composed of a long band, larger posteriorly, which takes its 
 origin about the middle of the fourth rib, and spreads forwards over the 
 three anterior ribs, and even to the vertebrae of the withers. 
 
 7. Another head of the levator humeri. 
 
 8. The Triceps extensor brachii, or three-headed extensor of the arm. 
 Two of the portions are here seen, the one from the external part of the 
 shoulder to the outer tubercle on the bone of the arm, and also to tlie 
 outer parts of the elbow ; and the other occupying the angular space 
 between the shoulder-blade and the bone of the arm ; the muscle has 
 its principal lower insertion in the posterior and superior part of the elbow. 
 There is a third portion on the interior of the scapula and the bone of tlie 
 arm. The action of the compound muscle is evidently to bind the 
 humerus, or bone of the arm, on the shoulder-blade, and thus to extend 
 and throw forward the lower part of the limb. These muscles are, in a 
 very marked degree, smaller in cattle than they are in the horse, and for 
 these evident reasons, that the same strength is not required in the ox, rarely 
 a beast of burden, and much seldomer his speed being taxed to any extent; 
 and because needless accumulation of flesh here would be precisely in the 
 part where it is coarsest and least valuable. The diminution of muscle 
 on the external part of the shoulder, and the accumulation of cellular and 
 adipose matter 'uetween it and the trunk being the reverse of what we find 
 in the horse, are apt jllustrations of the skill with which every animal is 
 adapted to his destiny. 
 
 9. Another portion of the serrated muscles, belonging to the back and 
 riliB These are principally muscles of respiration ; they elevate the ribiii 
 
342 CATTLE. 
 
 and bring them forward, and thus expand the chest, and assist in the pro 
 cess of inspiration. This is a small muscle compared with tliat of the 
 ame name in the horse, because from the idle life of the ox, his breathing 
 is seldom hurried. 
 
 10. The internal oblique muscle, or inner layer of hiuscles constituting 
 the walls of the belly. These muscles assist the external ones in support- 
 ing the weight of the belly, and compressing its contents. Being placed 
 somewhat farther back than the external oblique, they will offer less assist- 
 ance in respiration, but contribute more to the expulsion of the urine and 
 fsees. 
 
 17. The iliacus internui, or inner and larger muscle belonging to the 
 flanks, occupies the upper and inner space between the spine and the 
 thigh. Its use is to oring the thigh under the haunch, which, in the 
 slow-motioned ox, is rarely performed with much rapidity or force, there- 
 fore they are not so developed as in the horse. It enters into the coni- 
 position of the aitch bone and the upper part of the round. 
 
 18, 19, 20. The glutai muscles lie on the upper and outer parts of the 
 haunch, and the good or deficient form of the quarters depend upon them. 
 They are important in the horse, as indicating the strength of the quarters. 
 They are valuable in the ox, as indicating the general muscularity of the 
 system. This may, however, be carried too far, and it used to be in the 
 old Holderness cattle. In the horse, in whom they have so much to do, 
 these muscles are coarse and fibrous ; but, contributing to the formation of 
 the rump, and, in a certain degree, of the round, they constitute some of 
 the tenderest and most valuable parts of the ox. 
 
 21. Tbepyriform (pear-shaped) muscle, found within the cavity of the 
 pelvis, and on the inside of the aitch-bone and the rump. Small and 
 tendinous in the horse ; much larger, and composed of softer fibres, in the 
 ox. Its office is to assist in the extension of the haunch. 
 
 22. Levator caudcB brevis (the shorter elevator of the tail), of whicli 
 the horse makes beautiful use, when, in the moment of excitement, he 
 gallops along with his tail arched : it is used in common with other muscles 
 to drive away the insects which annoy the animal. 
 
 23. Levator caudts longus (the long elevator of the tail). 
 
 24. Depressor, caudie, by which the tail is pressed upon the haunch, and 
 that sometimes with a force that would scarcely be thought possible. " 
 
 23. The intertransversal muscles, whose oblique fibres run from the 
 base to the edge of the bones of the tail, through its whole extent, and by 
 which the lateral motions are affected. By the union of all of these muscles 
 the tail is made a most effective instrument in driving away or destroying 
 thousands of winged blood-suckers, by which the animal would otherwise 
 be tormented. 
 
 These muscles are not so large or so strong in the ox as in the horse. 
 
 26. The rectus femoris, or straight muscle of the thigh, runs along the 
 whole of the anterior portion of the thigh, from the ilium, to the patella, or 
 knee-cap. It is a very conspicuous muscle in the round, and . helps to 
 extend the thigh and advance the haunch. This muscle, however, is not 
 BO large in the ox as in the horse. 
 
 27. The vasti muscles, so called from their occupying the greater part 
 of the thigh. The three branches are much more distinct than in the 
 horse, but they are not so much developed,, for they ha;ve not the work to 
 do. The Dutcher thinks, and very truly, that there is a great difference 
 between the round of the beast that has worked, and of another that haa 
 done no work at all ; and he is very right, for nothirg tends so much tc 
 ilie development of the muscular system as regular exercise. 
 
DESCRIPTION OF THE NECK. 343 
 
 28. The great adductor, or bringer forward of the thi«;h. Tliis muscle 
 occupies the external face of the posterior part of (he thig^h. It rises as 
 high as the spine of the sacrum, and reaches the anterior portion of the 
 \e^ by three different branches or heads, and thence called the triceps 
 adductor femoris. It flexes the leg upon the thigh ; it carries the whole 
 limb backward in the act of kicking, and also assists in elevating the fore- 
 part of the body in preparing for a leap. It is larger than in the horse, 
 reaching along the spine, to the very angle of the croup. 
 
 29. The semi-tendinosus, so called from its half-tendinous construction, 
 constitutes, with the next muscle, the posterior and internal face of the 
 launch and thigh. It is a flexor of the leg. 
 
 30. Adductor tibiee longns (the long adductor, or bringer forward of the 
 high) ; sometimes called, from its construction, the semi-tendinosus 
 muscle. It is not so closely connected with the former in the ox as it is in 
 the horse, but it is, like it, a flexor of the leg. 
 
 The reader is now, perhaps, prepared to enter with us, so far as we can 
 do it without being too drily anatomical, into the consideration of the form 
 and structure of the neck and trunk of cattle ; and particularly as con- 
 nected with the two grand purposes for which they are bred — the production 
 of milk while living, and animal food when dead 
 
 DESCRIPTION OF THE NECK. 
 
 The neck of the ox (see cut of skeleton, p. 372) is composed of seven 
 bones, possessing the same relative situation, and distinguished by the 
 same names, as in the horse. (See p. 63, ' Horse.') Let us first take a 
 rapid glance at the neck of the horse. Observe the long chain of bones — 
 each small, compared with the length of the chain — smooth — so connected as 
 to assume an arched form, — and the head so set on, that pressure or power 
 bearing upon the lower part of it, the mouth, and in the direction of the body, 
 is modified and assisted by every varying bend of the arch of the neck. We 
 cannot look at it for a moment without being convinced that the purposes 
 in view, and which are beautifully accomplished, were gracefulness, light- 
 ness, facility of motion, and the perfect play of elasticity. If the hand of 
 the rider or driver must, after all, bear a portion of the weight, and have 
 the guidance and management of the whole machine, everything is so 
 contrived, that thai weight shall be scarcely felt, and that the immense 
 strength of the horse may ollen be safely managed by the energies of a 
 child. 
 
 Now, let us observe the neck of the animal that is the subject of the 
 present Treatise — an animal valuable, but for other purposes. Observe 
 the shortness of the neck generally — the shortness, and yet the magnitude 
 of every bone — the avoidance of the comparatively smooth surface which 
 we have observed in the horse, and the springing out, above and below, 
 and on one side and the other, of processes which, although found in the 
 horse, are neither so long nor so broad, nor so roughened. Then that 
 proudly-arched crest which we admired so much in the horse — it has 
 vanished; or rather, if it exists at all, it is reversed: while the head is set 
 on in a ten-times more awkward manner than we find it in the most 
 determined star-gazer. Pleasure of riding or driving cannot, for a 
 moment, be associated with such an animal ; and there is not an elastic 
 movement about the whole of this part of the machine. True, oxen are 
 ridden in the interior of India. It is because they are the cattle of the 
 country, and few horses are there; and, after all, they are used for little 
 else thaB the conveyance of despatches, in which the superior officer rarely 
 consults the ease or comfort of the messenger ; or for the drawing oif 
 
34* CATTLE. 
 
 carriages, where pleasantness of action is a matter of no consequence. 
 They are used, also, by the inhabitants of the vales of Mandara, but 
 horses are there unknown. 
 
 The intention of mature is plain enough in the construction of the neck 
 of the ox. All these widened, roughened, tuberous bones are for the 
 attachment of muscles — the accumulation of flesh. More can be got on 
 the neck of one ox than of two horses. True, these are not the prime parts 
 of the animal, but we see the commencement of the principle. The one 
 animal was destined to carry us for our pleasure, and the other to produce 
 flesh and fat for our nourishment. Let the reader compare two almost 
 perfect examples — the neck of the horse (in p. 154 of that Treatise) and 
 the neck of Mr. Mure's Queen of the Scots, and deservedly was she called 
 so, in p. 166 of this work. In both of these. Nature is working wisely and 
 well, and in both she is fitting the animal for the situation it occupies in 
 the creation. 
 
 A little of the arched form of the neck may be traced in the Devon ox, and 
 is no detriment either to his appearance or his actual value ; although com- 
 mon consent seems to have determined that the line from the horns to the 
 withers should scarcely deviate from that of the back. Is this trait of the 
 thorough bred horse, here appearing in cattle, connected with that activity 
 in work for which this breed has ever been unrivalled? This form of the 
 neck is seen to advantage in the cut of Lord Western's working Devon ox, 
 just beginning to fatten. The Sussex, and Hereford, and Pembroke, and 
 Welsh, generally, and all the Scots, horned or humbled, have, occasionally 
 at least, this rising of the forehand ; and we must be permitted still to 
 retain this form of the neck, as one of the characteristics, and no defect, of 
 the middle horns, who, in particular districts, and for particular purposes, 
 will still remain and be duly valued, when the triumph of the short 
 horns is complete. 
 
 We must go even a little further than this, and claihi the rising crest as 
 in essential point in every good bull of every breed. It shall be, what, in 
 the majority of cases, it perhaps is, nothing more than an accumulation of 
 fat about the ligament of the neck, and the splenius and complexut 
 muscles ; but it indicates that broad base of muscle beneath — that bulk 
 and strength of neck, so indicative of the true masculine character. We 
 refer to the Devon bull (p. 13), to whom, indeed, it belongs, in virtue of 
 his breed, — and we refer, also, to the West Highland bull (p. 65), who 
 has the same claim to it, and also to the Old Craven bull (p. 189) ; to the 
 new Leicester bull (p. 196), and even to the short-horned bull (p. 242) ; 
 nay, we must not forget the Nagore bull (p. 268), who to the arched form 
 of his neck owes much of the beauty which he actually possesses, notwith- 
 standing the unsightly hump upon his shoulders. 
 
 The actual bulk of muscle, however, in any part of the ox is not so 
 much greater as the extended and roughened surfaces would lead us to 
 imagine. The head, or the insertion of the muscle, may be spread over 
 the whole surface of the bone ; but we have not proceeded far in our 
 examination of that muscle, before we find that its structure, at least in the 
 unworked ox, is not so compact as that of the horse. A great deal more 
 cellular and adipose substance is inserted, not only between the different mus- 
 cles, but between the little divisions or bundles of which each muscle is com- 
 posed; and, in fact, between the very fibres of the muscle itself; andthat-to 
 so greai an extent, that in a well-fatted beast it is almost impossible to meet 
 with any simple muscle. The whole is marled — streaks of fat enclosed iu 
 cellular substance, run parallel with almost every fibre. This, at least, ha 
 the case with many breeds of cattle ; and it was one of the greatest 
 
rORM.OF THE NKCK. Hi 
 
 . triumphs achieved by the eSrly advocates of tlie short-horns, when tlicy 
 were enabled to get rid of the dark liery flesh of the old Holderness, and 
 substitute the far superior, yet not even now, to its full extent, the fine- 
 grained, marled beef of other breeds. Some improvement ipight be 
 effected here, and it is well worth the trial. 
 
 THE PKOPER FORM AND SIZE OF THE NECK. 
 
 Some breeds of cattle used to be remarkable for the fineness of the 
 neck at the setting on of the head, and this was considered to be one of 
 their greatest beauties, as well as the surest proof of the purity of their 
 breed : this was long the case with the North Devon ox, and when, by 
 chance, this fineness extended to the withers, and was accompanied by a 
 shoiilder almost as oblique as that of a thorough-bred horse, the animal 
 was imagined to be. perfect. He was a beautiful and a valuable animal, 
 and particularly as this fineness of the neck and withers was usually 
 contrasted in him by a deep breast and an open and wide bosom. Ttiat 
 man, nevertheless, deserved the thanks of the Devonshire breeders, who 
 first stealthily introduced one cross with the Hereford; he a little dimi- 
 nished this fineness of the neck, but he did not impair the general beauty 
 of the animal : he did not lessen his activity in the slightest degree ; but 
 he increased his size, and his aptitude to fatten, too. 
 
 In the Ayrshire cow of twenty years ago we had a specimen of the 
 extent to which a clean neck and throat might be carried, without, per- 
 haps, diminishing ^t all the milking properties ; but, we apprehend, mate- 
 rially to the disadvantage of the farmer when her milking days were past. 
 This prejudice in favour of the small neck led the farmer even to ' prefer 
 their dairy-bulls according to the feminine aspect of their heads and necks.' 
 Perhaps the disparity of size which then existed between the northern 
 and southern cattle might somewhat justify them in choosing the smallest 
 variety of the new breed. This, however, having passed over, the Ayr- 
 shire breeder, still fond of a neck finely shaped towards the head, has 
 produced one a great deal thicker towards the shoulder and breast; and 
 this not interfering, as experience has now taught him, with the milking 
 qualities of the animal, while it gave an earnest of aptitude to fatten after- 
 wards. 
 
 Mr. Marshall, when describing the new Leicester breed, speaks of ' the 
 forend being long, but light to a degree of elegance ; the neck thin, the 
 chap clean, and the head fine; the shoulders remarkably fine and thin as 
 to bone, but thickly covered withjlesh, and not the smallest protuberance 
 of bone discernible.' He also thus speaks of Mr. Fowler's celebrated bull, 
 Shakspeare : — ' His head, chap, and neck were remarkably fine and clean ; 
 but his chest was extraordinarily deep, and his brisket down to his knees.' 
 
 The present improved short-horn, in his state of greatest and most 
 unnatural fatness, has, or ought to have, a tendency to fineness of the 
 n«ck, at the setting on of the head, however that neck may rapidly 
 increase in bulk, and, in the opinion of some, give too ^'reat weight to the 
 fore-quarters. 
 
 The splenius, trapezius, and cornplexus muscles are those which have 
 most to do with the usual bulk of the superior part of the neck, and 
 with that which it may attain under the process of fattening. The 
 splenius may be seen at fig. 1, p. 332 ; the trapezius is depicted at 
 fig. 11, p. 339 ; and the rhomboideus lorigus, with which the trapezius is 
 united in the ox, is brought into view at fig. 3, p. 341. The complemt 
 major is situated under them. Some of it rises as low asUhe trans- 
 verse processes of the four or five first bones of the back, and from all. 
 
346 CATTLE. 
 
 except tl.e two higher of the bones of the neck. It therefore has ita 
 greatest bulk about the lower part of the neck ; and on it, and the fatty 
 matter connected with it, the form and bulk of that portion of the neck 
 depend. Its office is to raise the neck ; and elevate and protrude the 
 head. It is, however, generally speaking, a much smaller musrle than in 
 the horse. It lias not so much to do: there is not so extensive and rapid 
 motion of the head required from the ox. The form of the under part of 
 the neck is much influenced by the levator humeri, which is seen at fig. 4, 
 p. 332 ; fig. 9, p. 338 ; and, still lower down, by the pectoral muscle ; for 
 there is but one in the ox, seen at fig. 13, p. 339. Considering, however, 
 the laxity of the muscular fibre in the ox, and the interposition of fatty 
 matter in every part of the muscular system, this muscle can acquire con- 
 siderable bulk, and is, as we have said, that on which the form and bulk 
 of the neck, at its lower and more important part, principally depend. 
 Whatever may have been said of fine and small necks, the neck must 
 rapidly thicken as it descends, or we shall have a general lightness of 
 carcase, which will render the animal comparatively worthless as a grazing 
 beast. 
 
 There are other muscles, however, placed under the complexus — viz. 
 the complexus minor, and the large and small recti and oblique muscles, 
 concerned in the lateral motion of the head, which have comparatively 
 greater bulk in the ox than in the horse, and contribute materially to the 
 bulk of the neck. 
 
 THE ARTERIES OP THE NECK, 
 
 Before we leave the neck we should describe the principal blood-vessels 
 which are brought into view in the cut at p. 332. The carotid artery (fig. 26, 
 pp. 332 and 335), and some of its ramifications, are the only arteries that we 
 could bring into view. The carotid artery on either side, as in the horse, 
 proceeds from the heart — escapes from the chest with the windpipe and 
 the gullet; and approaching the windpipe, and clinging to its posterior 
 surface, climbs the neck, supplying the ditferent parts with blood, until it 
 arrives at the larynx, where it divides into two branches — the external and 
 internal. The external ramifies over the face and external part of the 
 head, — the internal enters the skull, and is the main source whence the 
 brain derives its arterial bkxid. Smaller streams are sent to the brain 
 from the vertebral arteries, which, defended and partly concealed in canals 
 formed for them in the bones of the neck, after having fed the neighbour- 
 ing parts, likewise expend the remainder on the brain, entering by the 
 great foramen, through which the spinal chord escapes. A third and 
 smaller branch, leaving the main trunk high up in the neck, sends a 
 small vessel to the brain, under the title of the occipital artery. 
 
 We can conceive of very few, if any, cases in which it would be either 
 necessary or advisable to bleed from an artery in the ox. The temporal, 
 which we sometimes, but not quite justifiably, open in the horse, is, in a 
 manner, out of our reach in the ox; and the artery of the forehead, 
 although larger than in the horse, is so defended by its bony canal, 
 as not to be easily got at ; besides which, in bleeding from an artery, there 
 will always be extreme difficulty either in getting the quantity of blood 
 which we want, on account of the contraction of the vessel, or of stop- 
 ping the haemorrhage, if the blood flowed freely. We will, therefore, only 
 speak of a few anatomical points of ditference, of which it is possible that 
 advantage may, yet very rarely, be taken in a practical point of view. 
 
 There is one circumstance which will strike every one who compares the 
 macular system of the horse and the ox, and that is. — with the exception o* 
 
BLEEDING. 347 
 
 the larger vessels immediately from the heart, — tJie smallnesBof the arteries, 
 and the largeness of the veins. What enormous vessels, compared with 
 the corresponding ones in the horse, are the jugulars and milk veins ! and 
 what a torrent of blood will pour from them if a large incision is made ! Is 
 it that there are fewer large venous trunks in the ox than the horse, and 
 that, therefore,' these few must be large? Anatomical research does 
 not sanction this; — or has it reference to the functions which the two 
 animals are generally called on to discharge, or does it give us a practical 
 lesson, as to the nature and proper treatment of these two classes of the 
 veterinary surgeon's patients? We do not feel ourselves yet qualified to 
 enter into the consideration of these questions, although they are most 
 important ones. We shall bear them in mind as we pass on. 
 
 Most of the arterial vessels of the head and face are smaller than in the 
 horse. 
 
 The sub-maxillary artery has been already described (fig. 27, pp. 332 and 
 335), pursuing its course anteriorly, to bury itself beneath the angle of the 
 lower Jaw, whence it speedily emerges again, and much closer to the angle of 
 the jaw than in the horse. This should be remembered when we are feeling 
 for the pulse ; fur many a beginner has felt himself a little mortified, because 
 he could not find the vessel in what he supposed was its proper place, and 
 sometimes could not find it at all. It occurs under some circumstances of 
 disease, that even in the horse it is difficult, or impossible, to ascertain 
 the pulse at the jaw. This is oftener the case in the ox, from circum- 
 stances that have, already been explained, and should, therefore, teach 
 us to go at once to the side when there is any difficulty about the jaw. 
 
 The temporal artery is much larger in the ox than in the horse, because 
 it has a greater surface to ramify upon and to feed : the figure will point 
 out the spot at which the pulse will usually be most conveniently felt. 
 
 The anterior auricular artery is also large in the ox. It supplies not 
 only the anterior muscles of the ear, but also the temporal muscle; not, 
 indeed, so developed as that of the horse, but deeply lodged in the temporal 
 fossa. The pulse may be very readily felt by means of it, and perhaps 
 more readily than from the temporal. 
 
 The superciliary artery, escaping from the foramen above the orbit o) 
 the eye, is a considerable one. It forms two branches, of which one goes 
 to the root of the horn, and contributes to the vascularity and nutriment oi 
 that part. The other descends downward, on the side of the face. 
 
 The ocdpital artery is smaller than in the horse: the brain of the ox, 
 which a branch of this artery supplies, is but one half as large as the brain 
 -of the horse. 
 
 THE TEINS OF THE NECK. 
 
 We here recognize the two jugulars which are found in most animals, 
 "but not in the horse. TJhe smaller, or internal jugular (fig. 25, p. 332), is 
 deeply seated, and no practical advantage can be taken of it, save the 
 knowledge, that in inflammation and loss of the external vein from bleed- 
 ing, the return of the blood from that side of the face and head would be 
 facilitated by the internal one: but even in the horse little injury is sus- 
 tained by the loss of the external jugular, for nature is wonderfully 
 ingenious in making provision for carrying on the circulation. 
 
 BLFEDINQ. 
 
 The jugular is, by common consent, adopted as the usual place for 
 bleeding cattle. The vessel is easily got at ; it is large, and can scarcely 
 De missed by the clumsiest operator. The strap round the neok, in order 
 
348 CATTLK. 
 
 to raise the rein, shuuld be dispensed with, at least among practitioners 
 It presses equally on both sides of the neck ; and we have, more than once, 
 seen consequences that, for a little while, bore an alarming appearance, 
 produced by this sudden stoppage of the return of so much of the blood 
 from the vein. If the vein is pressed upon by the finger, a little below 
 the intended bleeding place, it will, as in the horse, become sufficiently 
 prominent to guide any one who should be entrusted with the bleeding of 
 a beast. 
 
 The instrument of the veterinary surgeon should be the lancet, but one 
 considerably broader-shouldered than he uses for the horse. A larger 
 vessel will bear a proportionably larger orifice ; and the good efiFect of 
 bleeding depends more on the rapidity with which the blood is abstracted', 
 than on the quarntity drawn. The cowherd, or the owner of cattle, 
 would do better to confine himself to the old blood-stick and fleam, for 
 the hide of the ox is so much thicker than that of the horse, and the ed<;e 
 of the lancet is so apt to turn, that it requires a little experience and tact 
 to bleed with certainty and safety. 
 
 In the abstraction of blood from the ox, and especially at the com- 
 mencement of a disease, or while inflammation runs high, the rule is the 
 same as in the horse, — viz., to let the blood flow until the pulse plainly 
 indicates that the circulation is afiected. All other bleeding is worse than 
 useless — ^it is sapping the strength of the constitution, and leaving the 
 power of the enemy unimpaired. 
 
 We have seen as bad necks in cattle after bleeding, as in the horse, lut 
 they are not so common. They must be treated in the same way, by 
 fomentations and emollient lotions at first, and when these fail, the ap- 
 plication of the heated iron to the lips of the wound ; or, in very bad 
 cases, the introduction uf setons, or the injection of the zinc-wash into the 
 sinus. 
 
 BLEEDING PLACES. 
 
 If any affection of the mouth, or the nasal passages, should demand 
 local evacuation, cattle may be bled from the palatine vessels. If the 
 operator cuts but deep enough, plenty of blood will be obtained. The 
 cephalics before, and the saphena veins behind, are proper places for 
 bleeding, — and some say the milk, or sub-culaneous abdominal veins. 
 This last vein is large enough for the speedy abstraction of any quantity 
 of blood in the shortest period ; and if it were not a little awkward to get 
 at, might be occasionally used, but the jugular is the most convenient 
 bleeding-place in particular cases ; and the only question is, whether any 
 local advantage can be obtained by opening the sub-cutaneous abdominal. 
 
 THE HILK, OR SUB-CUTAWEOUS ABDOMINAL VEIN. 
 
 We will very briefly inquire into this. Professoi Girard, in his excellent 
 ' Anatomy of liomesticated Quadrupeds,' thus describes the milk vein, or, as 
 he more properly terms it, the subcutaneous abdominal, lying immediately 
 under the skin, and passing over the belly. ' This vein, the sub-cutaneous 
 abdominal, first comes into view under 'the abdomen, at the commence-, 
 ment of the cartilaginous circle of the false ribs. It emerges from two 
 foramina, or openings, (the situation of which is pointed out by fig. 18, 
 p. 338.) It approaches, on either side, the mesian line of the abdomen, 
 and burying itself between the thighs, it pursues its course towards the in- 
 guinal vein. Sometimes it unites with the .superpubian vein, and occa- 
 sionally gives a biranch to the sub-pelvian. In the neighbourhood of the 
 rartilaginous circle, it presents two branches, the one external and supe> 
 
THE HEART. 3» 
 
 rior, the other internal and inferior. The first springs trom various cuta- 
 neous ramifications, reaching even to the thorax, and anastomosing with 
 some of the sub-cutaneous veins of the thorax. The ether branch pene- 
 trates within the cartilaginous circle, and goss- to unite with a principal 
 division of the veins of the sternum.' 
 
 It appears, then, that this milk vein is derived from numerous rami- 
 fications from the walls of the chest as far anteriorly as the sternum, 
 and taking in some of the external intercostals. It belongs to the re- 
 spiratory system more than to any other. As it advances posteriorly 
 along the abdomen, it creeps by the side of the udder, or of the scrotum, 
 and disgorges itself partly into the inguinal, and partly into the sub- 
 pelvian vein. As it travels along the abdomen and the groin, it receives 
 some muscular and cutaneous fibres, but nothing more. Its use is 
 to assist in returning the blood from these parts, and also by this round- 
 about journey, and these curious anastamo«es, to establish a free com- 
 munication between the anterior and posterior cavis, or the blood which 
 is returned from the anterior and posterior portions of the body. This 
 may be a matter of considerable consequence in certain states of the con^ 
 Btitution. 
 
 Then the question. Whether we should have recourse to the milk 
 vein in order to obtain the benefit of local bleeding? is answered. We 
 should be justified in so doing, in cases of abdominal inflammation, for vte 
 should unload the vessels of the walls of the abdomen, and probably assis^t 
 in unloading some of the internal vessels too, and we should abate the 
 danger of peritoneal inflammation. For yet stronger reasons, we should 
 have recourse to it in thoracic affection, for most of, the smaller ramifica- 
 tions which compose this vein come from the thorax, and there is greater 
 sympathy, and there are more numerous anastomoses between the outer 
 and inner portion of the wail of the chest than of the abdomen. But if 
 we were to have recourse to bleeding from this vein, in garget, or any 
 inflammatory affection of the udder, we should betray our ignorance of 
 anatomy ; and still more so should we do it if we regarded this milk vein 
 as having any further connexion with the secretion of milk, than as being 
 a kind of measure or standard of the power and development 6f the 
 vascular system, with the existence of which the secretion of milk, as well 
 as the secretions generally, 's essentially connected. 
 
 THE. HEART. 
 
 We return to the neck, and we can trace the veins in their course down it 
 to the heart, and the arteries working their way upward from the heart. 
 We therefore naturally enter into the consideration of this viscus,; — this 
 great source of the circulation of the blood. We shall find, by-and'-by, 
 that the lungs, on either side, are inclosed in a separate and perfect bag; 
 each lung has its distinct pleura. The heart lies between these two mem- 
 branes ; and, more perfectly to cut off all injurious connexion between the 
 lungs and the heart, — all communication of disease — the heart is inclosed 
 in a pleura, or bag, of its own, termed the pericardium. This membrane 
 closely invests the heart; it supporto it in its situation, prevents too 
 great dilatation when it is gorged with blood, and too violent action 
 when it is sometimes unduly stimulated. Notwithstanding the confinement 
 of the pericardium, the heart beats violently enough against the ribs under 
 circnmstances of unusual excitation ; and were it not thus tied down, it 
 would often bruise and injure itself, and cause inflammation in the neigh-, 
 Souring parts. ' 
 
**" CATILE. 
 
 INFLAMMATION OF THE PERICARDIUM. 
 
 ^ We shall speak of this membrane somewhat at length, because it is occa- 
 sionally the seat of obscure, unsuspected, and fatal disease. The cow is a 
 greedy animal ; she will swallow almost everything that comes in her way, 
 as we shall have occasion to show when we treat of the rumen or paunch. 
 The wire-riddles, or sieves, which are used in the winnowing of corn, have 
 sometimes been demolished by her out of mere idleness. She will pick up 
 large pins and needles, and especially if the latter should have any thread 
 attached to them. A friend of ours lost a cow from some disease which 
 neither he nor the medical attendant understood. On opening her, a piece 
 of wire, two inches in length, was found sticking in the pericardium, and 
 "vhich had produced extensive ulceratioti and gangrene there. 
 
 Another cow was attended by Mr. Cartn right of Whitchurch. She was 
 near the time of calving, when she became seriously ill, but the symptoms 
 did not indicate any connexion with parturition ; indeed they were of that 
 obscure nature that it was impossible to say what was the malady. They 
 were dulness, unwillingness to move, constipation, and (Edematous swell- 
 ings about her. She died on the sixth day. On opening her, it appeared 
 that the heart, and its investing membrane, or bag, occupied nearly three 
 times their natural space. The delicate and transparent membrane was 
 thickened until it bore no slight resemblance to a portion of the paunch ; 
 and the bag contained a gallon of discoloured fluid. A piece of a darning 
 needle, two inches and a-half in length, with the eye broken off, was found 
 in the pericardium, and a small ulcer, three-quarters of an inch deep, ap- 
 peared near the apex, or point, of the heart. Two sixpenny nails were 
 found in her paunch. 
 
 Mr, Horseiield, of Wentworth, gives a similar account. He was de- 
 sired to see a large fat heifer. She was dull ; the breathing quickened ; 
 the pulse, also, quick, but intermitting ; the extremities cold ; she refused 
 to eat, and there was no rumination. It was impossible for the most 
 skilful practitioner to determine what was the nature of the disease; there 
 was fever, general derangement, but nothing more could be affirmed. 
 Mr. H. did all that he could do ; he bled her, and the bowels being already 
 open, he administered fever medicine. The next day she was no better , 
 he bled her again; and physicked her. On the following day, some slight 
 symptoms ofdropsy n the chest appeared ; he watched them, he made use 
 of that invaluable, but too much neglected method of detecting disease, — 
 .the application of the ear to the side and belly of the patient, and he as- 
 sured himself that there was effusion in the chest. He then knew well 
 that no good could be done, and he ordered her to be destroyed. Not 
 only the pericardic bag, but the whole of the chest was filled with serum: 
 the inflammation had spread overall the membranes ; but the focus of the 
 evil was a large pin, two inches long, which had pierced through the peri- 
 cardium, and wounded the heart. The pericardium was thickened, atid 
 the apex of the heart enlarged. These cases are extracted from ' The 
 Veterinarian,' a valuable monthly periodical, devuted to the diseases and 
 general management of domesticated animals, aud from which we shall 
 derive much assistance in the progress of this work. ' 
 
 We are strongly inclined to believe that these diseases occur oflener than 
 has been suspected ; and it is an unfortunate circumstance that these 
 pointed substances, which in other animals take very strange paths, but 
 generally comparatively harmless ones, in order to work theii way out of 
 the body, should here select this dangerous and fatal course. The pro- 
 
CIFIi'ERENCES OF CONSTEUCTION. o'& 
 
 prietors of cattle, and of cows particularly, — for the cow chiefly, or almost 
 alone, has this strange propensity, — will be a little more careful as to the 
 manner of feeding them. 
 
 THE HEART. 
 
 In all animals the existence of /ife is connected with, or we may rather 
 say, dependent upon, the constant supply of fresh arterial blood. There is 
 not a secretion that can be performed, or a function discharged, or {single 
 motion accomplished, without the presence of this vital fluid. The 
 heart is the grand engine by which it is circulated through the frame. It 
 is a large muscle, or combination of muscles, totally independent of the 
 will, as those essentially connected with life should be, and working with- 
 out cessation and without fatigue, from the first day of existence, until its 
 close. It Is the forcing-pump by which the vital current, having com- 
 pleted its course, is made to flow again and again to every part of the sys- 
 tem. It consists of four cavities surrounded by muscular walls, which, 
 stimulated by the organic nerves, ciin contract upon, and drive out, and 
 propel forward, the fluid which they contain, and then, left to themselves, 
 can instantly rc-assume their open dilated state by their inherent powei 
 of elasticity. 
 
 A portion of the blOod has completed the circulation, and enters, the 
 upper cavity of the heart — the right auricle — where it accumulates as in a 
 reservoir, until there is enough to fill the second and lower cavity on the 
 same side — the right ventricle — when the auricle suddenly contracts and 
 drives the blood forward into the ventricle. But this bloud is in a venous 
 state, and will not support life ; then we mupt change its character before 
 we throw it back again into the circulation. We must convey it into the 
 lungs, there to be exposed to the influence of the atmospheric air, and purir 
 fied, and arterialized. For this purpose the ventricle, stimulated by nervous 
 energy, contracts, and, as it contracts, it drives a little of the blood back, 
 but it forces more under a dense fringed membrane which hangs around 
 the opening between the auricle and the ventricle, and this membrane, 
 thus raised up all round, closes the opening, and prevents the return of 
 the principal part of the blood that way, and it is urged through another 
 aperture into the lungs. 
 
 We enter into these particulars that we may have opportunity to de- 
 ' scribe two or three points of difference in the mechanism of the" heart of 
 the horse and the ox. These fringes, which, in the dilated state of the ven- 
 tricle, hang loose, but which are forced up as the blood insinuates itself 
 behind them when the ventricle contracts, discharge the function of 
 a perfect valve: but they are, as we may suppose, tied down to a 
 certain extent by cords attached to their edges, and which spring from 
 certain fleshy or muscular columns that arise within the ventricle. The 
 edges, therefore, are permitted to be elevated, until they have attained an 
 horizontal direction, and meet each other, and perfectly close the opening, 
 and then are stopped by these tendinous cords, which oppose their strength 
 to the further elevation of the fringes, and that regukted or increased by 
 the muscular power of the columns beneath. 
 
 DIFFERENCES OF CONSTRUCTION. 
 
 We have said that, in the ox, the venous system is more developed than 
 in the fiorse. The vessels are more numerous and larger, and more blood 
 i« pouring on towards the right auricle and ventricle of the heart. These 
 tendinous cords, and the muscular columns beneath, are very considerably 
 larger and stronger in the ox than in the horse, in order to afford adequate 
 
•^52 CATTLE. 
 
 twsistance to the greater pressure of tne Diood. m this ventricle of the 
 heart of the ox, there is also a band, or fleshy muscle, running across from 
 oiifi side to the other, the double effect of whicli is beautifully evident, viz., 
 to prevent this cavity from being too much dilated, or possibly ruptured, 
 when the blood flows rapidly into the heart ; and to assist the ventricle in 
 contracting on the blood. A smaller and more tendinous band runs across 
 the same ventricle lower down, and for the same purpose. There is no 
 contrivance of the kind in the horse. The heart of that animal has enough 
 to do, and especially under circumstances of excitation or disease, to cir- 
 culate the blood in sufficient quantity and with sufficient force; but the 
 walls are thick and strong, the pump has great power, and there are only 
 occasional demands on all its energies. In the ox, however, from the pecu- 
 liar arrangement of the cireulutory system, there is always this pouring on 
 of blood to be arterialized ; for the secretion of milk, or the deposition of 
 fat, constitute the daily, unremitting duties of the animal. There is not 
 only to provide against accident, but, to fit the heart for this incessant hard 
 work ; and this supplemental muscle in the form of a fleshy band stretching 
 across from one side to the other is given, preventing dilatation, and assist- 
 ing in contraction. The right ventricle of the heart of the ox is worth 
 inspecting for the purpose of examining this contrivance. 
 
 The blood is drivfen out of the right ventricle into the lungs, and is there 
 exposed to the action of the atmospheric air, and purified ; thence it is 
 returned to the left auricle, passes into the left ventricle, and, by the con- 
 traction of that cavity, is propelled through the arteries. The left ven- 
 tricle is composed like that of the horse, except that these vessels, being 
 large enough doubtless for the distribution of sufficient blood for the general 
 purposes of nutrition, yet are not large enough for the occasional enormous 
 demands on the heart of the horse ; in fact, being smaller than they are in 
 the horse, more power is required to force a fluid through a narrow than a 
 capacious canal, and the walls of- the ventricle are thicker in the ox. The 
 diminished calibre of the arteries is nowhere more apparent than in the 
 neck ; the carotids of the horse are nearly double the size of those of the 
 ox ; the jugulars are scarcely half as large. 
 
 We begin, perhaps, to have a glimpse of the cause of the evident differ- 
 ence in the size of these different classes of blood-vessels in the horse and 
 the ox. The work of the one, although hard, is equable. There is little 
 in the habits or the services of the one to cause much variation in the de- 
 mand for blood. The labour of the other is irregular, often to the greatest 
 degree, and the vessels must be enabled to accommodate themselves to this 
 irregularity. The artery is a highly elastic tube, and will accommodate 
 itself to the smaller quantity of blood usually circulating in the horse, but 
 it is actually of greater size, to give free passage to those sudden rushes of 
 blood from which the ox is, in a state of health, comparatively exempt. 
 
 Ip the posterior aorta, however, or the large vessel which first receives the 
 blood from the heart in order to carry it to the viscera and the hinder extre- 
 mities, this is, in some measure, reversed, or at least some of the arteries 
 attain a magnitude not known in the horse. This is particularly the case 
 with the coeliac artery, which r-upplies the liver, the spleen, and the stomachs 
 The branch going to the liver is not much enlarged, but the splenic one is, 
 because many ramifications from it go to the rumen ; and the gastric artery 
 or the artery of the stomach, is considerably larger than the whole of the 
 cieliac in the horse. We need not, however, wonder at this when we con 
 sider the immense size of the rumen, or paunch, and the important officer 
 discharged by the other stomachs. 
 
 The vessels f'om the left ventricle, which carry the arterial blootl throtigb 
 
THE CAPILLARIES. 353 
 
 the frame, and those from the right ventricle that convey the venous 
 blood to the lungs, alike spring from the muscular and fleshy septum, or 
 wall, that separates the cavities of the heart, and divides that organ into 
 two distinct parts. These openings are so strengthened by the manner 
 in which they are connected with the septum, that their rupture or dic- 
 tation in the horse is scarcely possible, however powerful may be the 
 action of the heart. But the ventricles of the heart of the ox have more 
 constant and hard work to do, and additional strength is given by the 
 insertion of a bone into the septum at the base of these arteries, more 
 belonging to the aorta than to the pulmonary artery, but meant as a sup- 
 port to both. This os cordis, or bone of the heart, is found in most rumi- 
 nants, except the roe and fallow deer ; and they appear to be formed 
 about the expiration of the third year of the animal's life. These ossifi- 
 cations have been occasionally found in the heart of the human being, 
 and considered to be the effect of disease. They are rather an effort of 
 nature to give strength where it was wanted ; and either to relieve or avert 
 disease, although too often a contrary effect is produced. 
 
 The heart is subject to inflammation, but not so often as in the horse. 
 It would be principally recognized by the strength of the pulse, and by 
 the bounding action of the heart, evident enough when the hand is placed 
 on the .side of the chest, and which may be seen and heard even at a 
 distance. 
 
 THE ARTERIAL SYSTEM. 
 
 The blood is carried on through the arteries by the force of the heart. 
 These are composed of three coats ; the outer, or elastic, by which they 
 yield to the gush of blood ; the muscular coat by which the artery con- 
 tracts ag{dn when the gush of blood has passed ; and the inner, or smooth, 
 glistening coat, which lessens the friction of the blood against the side of 
 the vessel, and its consequent gradual retardation in its course. 
 
 THE PDLSE. 
 
 The muscular coat of the artery can be felt giving way to the gush 
 of blood : and the expansion of the artery, as the blood passes, is called 
 the pulse. Every one who knows the least about cattle is sensible of the 
 importance of the indications to be obtained by the pulse. The heat of 
 blood maybe felt at the root of the horn ; and the rallying of the blood 
 around some important, but inflamed part, may be guessed at by means 
 of the coldness of the ear, or the extremities : but here we ascertain the 
 state of the general system, and the increased force or debility of that cen- 
 tral machine on which every secretion and every function depends. It 
 has been stated that the pulse is not so easily felt at the jaw in the ox. The 
 emporal artery will generally be suflSciendy distinct ; but, on the whole, it 
 will be most convenient to ascertain the beating of the heart itself, b> 
 placing the hand on the left side, a little within and behind the elbow. 
 The average pulse of a full-grown healthy ox is about forty. The reader 
 is here referred to what has been said of the pulse in the Treatise on " the 
 Horse." 
 
 THE CAPILLARIES. 
 
 The blood continues to circulate along the arteries, until they and their 
 ramifications have diminished so much in size, as to be termed capillaries, 
 or hair-like tubes, although many of them are not one-hundredth part so 
 large as a hair. The heart ceases to have influence here. No force froa-. 
 behind could drive the blood through vessels so minute. Another ppwet 
 
 2 A 
 
sa4 CATTLK. 
 
 is called into exercise, namely, tlie influence of the organic motor nerves 
 on the muscular sides of these little tubes. 
 
 This is by far the most important part of the circulation. The blood is 
 carried through the arteries mechanically, and without change ; it is re- 
 turned through the veins mechanically, and almost without change : but it 
 is in the capillary system that every secretion is performed ; and that the 
 nutrition of every part is eifected. The arteries and veins are mere me- 
 chanical tubes ; these are connected with the vital principle ; — they are 
 portions of life itself. 
 
 INFLAMMATION. 
 
 The arteries are subject to mflammation, yet so rarely in the ox as to 
 render it unnecessary to detain us in describing it ; but a similar affection 
 of the capillaries constitutes the very essence and the most dangerous 
 part of every other disease. Inflammation is increased action of these 
 vessels. When the increased action is confined to a few capillaries, or a 
 small space, or a single organ, the inflammation is said to be local ; but 
 when it embraces the whole of the system, it assumes the name of fever. 
 
 If inflammation is the consequence of increased action of the capilla- 
 ries, the object to be eflected by the practitioner is to reduce that inordinate 
 action to the healthy standard, before the part has become debilitated or 
 destroyed by this overwork. Bleeding is one of the most effectual mea- 
 sures, and especially local bleeding. The increased action of the vessels, 
 and the consequent redness, heat and swelling of the part, are at once 
 the consequence of inflammatory action, and tend to prolong and to in- 
 crease it. A copious bleeding, therefore, by relieving the overloaded ves- 
 sels, and enabling them, once more, to contract on their contents, is un 
 questionably indicated. To this physic will follow, and there is scarcely 
 an inflammatory disease in the ox in which it can, by possibility, be inju- 
 rious. Mashes and cooling diet will be essential. 
 
 As to external applications, they will be best treated when the different 
 •ipecies of inflammation pass in review before us ; but, as a general rule, 
 (for the practitioner will occasionally be puzzled as to the propriety of hot 
 or cold remedies,) in cases of superficial inflammation, and in the early 
 stage of the disease, cold lotions will be most useful ; in cases of deeper- 
 seated injury, and of considerable standing, warm fomentations will be 
 preferable. The first will best succeed in abstracting the inflammatory 
 neat ; the other will relax the fibres of the neighbouring parts, which press 
 upon, and perpetuate, the injury, and will also restore the suspended per- 
 spiration. Cases, however, will continually occur in which the most 
 up|)osite treatment will be required in different stages of inflammation. 
 
 We have described fever as general capillary action, and with or without 
 any local affection ; or it is the consequence of the sympathy of the system 
 with inflammation of some particular part. The first is called pure or 
 idiopathic fever ; the other symptomatic fever. 
 
 Pure fever is far from being unfrequent in cattle. A beast, yesterday in 
 good health, is observed to-day — dull, the muzzle dry, rumination and 
 grazing having quite ceased, or being carelessly or lazily performed, the 
 flanks heave a little, the root of the horn is unnaturally hot, the pulse is 
 quickened, and is somewhat hard. The owner or the practitioner removes 
 him into the shed, and carefully examines him ; the animal is evidently not 
 •rei., Alt. ne :annot discover any local affection or disease ; he, Itowever, doeg 
 
INFLAMMATORY FEVER. S55 
 
 that Mtlnd. a prudent man would do, he gives a dose of physic ; perhaps he 
 bleeds ; he places a mash before his patient, and, on the following day, the 
 beast is considerably better, or well : or possibly, the animal, although appa- 
 rently better in the morning, becomes worse as the day advances, and, at 
 about the hour, or a little later, when he was seen on the preceding day. 
 What is this but a slight attack of fever without local affection ? Who, 
 especially living in woody and undrained districts, has not observed this ] 
 This is a species of intermittent fever, still without local determination. 
 J lid which goes on for three or four days, returning, or being aggravated 
 at a particular hour, until by means of his cordial purgatives the prac- 
 titioner or the owner has broken the chain. 
 
 At other times, the fever remains without these inter'^ssions. It in- 
 creases daily notwithstanding the means that we employ, and at length 
 assumes the form of pleurisy, or enteritis, or some local inflammatory 
 complaint. The general irritation has here concentrated itself on some 
 organ either previously debilitated, or at that time predisposed to take on 
 inflammation. It is pure or idiopathic fever, assuming, after a while, a 
 local determination. This is a serious, and frequently a fatal case ; for the 
 whole system having been previously affected, and, probably, debilitated, and 
 disposed to take on inflammatory action, the proper remedies caunut 
 be so fearlessly and successfully used. Local means of abating inflamma- 
 tion must here be pushed to their full extent. 
 
 Symptomatic fever is yet more frequent and dangerous. No organ of 
 consequence can be long disordered or inflamed without the neighbouring 
 parts being disturbed, and the whole system gradually sharing in the 
 disturbance. By the degree of this general affection, by the heat of the 
 mouth, and the frequency of the pulse, a judgment is formed not only of 
 the degree of general disturbance, but of the intensity of the local affec- 
 tion. The subsidence of the pulse, and the return of the appetite, and 
 the recommencement of rumination, are hailed as indications both of the 
 diminution of the general irritation, and the local cause of it. 
 
 Some have denied the existence of this essential fever in horses and 
 cattle ; but the facts that have been stated cannot be doubted. Cattle get 
 unwell, they are feverish ; a dose of physic is given, they are put on short 
 commons for a day or two, and they are well. At other times they are 
 feverish, and that fever all at once terminates in hoove or pneumona. In 
 one case, there is fever never becoming associated with local affection; 
 in the other, it speedily terminates in local affection ; but, in both, there 
 is, for awhile, pure fever. It would be scarcely necessary to recur to this 
 were there not so many instances of bad and dangerous practice in the 
 early treatment of these cases. If fever were plainly recognised, the 
 owner or the surgeon would be more anxious to get rid of the local 
 affection before the system was materially affected; and if he was aware 
 of pure and essential fever, he would endeavour to knock that down 
 before it took on local determination. These are the golden rules of prac- 
 tice, which no nonsensical theories should cause any one for a moment to 
 forget. 
 
 INFLAMMATORY FEVER. 
 
 Cattle are not merely subject to fever of common intensity, whether 
 pure or symptomatic, but thousands of them fall victims every year to a 
 disease which, from its virulent character and speedy course, may be 
 termed inflammatory fever. A disease of this character, but known by a 
 number of strange yet not inexpressive terms, is occasionally prevalent, 
 and exceedino-lv fatal amonar cattle in oto,-., j;-».:gt_ jj jg termed black- 
 
 2 A 2 
 
3"« CATTLK. 
 
 quarter, quarter evil, joint murrain, blood-strijjing. sirewl of blood, ftc. •, 
 and althonirh it may not, at any time, embody all the symptoms of either 
 of these diseases, according, at least, as they are understood in some parti 
 of the country, there are few cases iu which the prevailing symptoms of 
 most. of them are not exhibited in some of thes tages. 
 
 Cattle of all descriptions and ages are occasionally subject to inflamma- 
 tory fever ; but young stock, and those that are thriving most rapidly, are its 
 chief victims. So aware is the proprietor of young short-horn cattle of this, 
 that while he is determined to take fall advantage of their unrivalled early 
 maturity by turning them on more luxuriant pasture than prudence would 
 always dictate, he endeavours to guard himself by periodical bleeding, or by 
 the insertion of setons in the dewlap of all his yearlings. This disease is 
 sometimes epidemic, that is, the cattle of a certain district have been 
 pushed on too rapidly ; they have lurking inflammation about them, or 
 they have a tendency to it ; and, by-and by, comes some change or state of 
 the atmosphere which acts upon this inflammatory predisposition, and the 
 disease runs through the district 
 
 There are few premonitory symptoms of inflammatory fever. Often 
 without any, and generally with very slight indications of previous ill- 
 ness, the animal is found with his neck extended ; his head brought, as 
 much as he can effect it, into a horizontal position ; the eyes protruding, 
 and red ; the muzzle dry ; the nostrils expanded : the breath hot ; the root 
 of the horn considerably so ; the mouth partly open ; the tongue en- 
 larged, or apparently so; the pulse full, hard, and from 65 to 70 ; the 
 breathing quickened and laborious ; the flanks violently heaving, and th« 
 animal moaning in a low and peculiar way. 
 
 Sometimes the animal is in full possession of his senses, but generally 
 there is a degree of unconsciousness of surrounding objects : he will 
 stand for an hour or more without the slightest change of posture ; he 
 can scarcely be induced to move, or when compelled to do so, he staggers ; 
 and the staggering is principally referrible to the hind-quarters ; rumi- 
 nation has ceabed, and the appetite is quite gone. After awhile he becomes 
 more uneasy, yet it is oftener a change of posture to ease his tired limbs, 
 than a pawing: at length he lies down, or rather drops ; gets up almost 
 immediately ; is soon down again ; and, debility rapidly increasing, he con- 
 tinues prostrate; sometimes he lies in a comatose state ; at others, there are 
 occasional but fruitless efforts to rise. The symptoms rapidly increase ; 
 there is no intermission ; and the animal dies in twelve or twenty-four 
 hours. 
 
 In the majority of cases, and especially if the disease has been pro- 
 perly treated, the animal seems to rally a little, and some of the symp- 
 toms appear, from which the common names of the disease derive their 
 origin. The beast attempts to get up : after some attempts he suc- 
 ceeds, but he is sadly lame in one or both of the hindquarters. If he is 
 not yet fallen, he suddenly becomes lame ; so lame as to be scarcely able 
 to move. He has quarter evil— joint murrain. 
 
 This is not always an unfavourable symptom. The disease may be 
 leaving the vital parts for those of less consequence. If the apparent 
 return of strength continues for a day or two, we may encourage some 
 hope, but we roust not be sanguine ; or it is too often only a temporary 
 and delusive respite. 
 
 One of the symptoms now most to be dreaded is the rapid progress of 
 that which has already begun to appear — tenderness on the loins and 
 back. The patient will not bear even the slightest pressure on these parts 
 The case is worse if to these are added swellings about the shouldcm 
 
INFLAMMATORY ^^EVKR. 357 
 
 and back, and loins, with a peculiar crackling emphysematous noise, aa 
 if some gas were extricated in the cellular membrane, and the procesii 
 of decomposition had commenced durins: the life of the animal. Worse 
 even than this is the appearance of sudden, hard, scurfy patches of what 
 seems to be dead skin. It is a kind of dry gangrene, and it is the com- 
 mencement of a slonghing process, extensive and rapid to an almost incon- 
 ceivable degree. Now, we have black qvarter, with all its fearful 
 characters. 
 
 The ulcers first appear about the belly, tlie quarters, and the teats, 
 but they spread everywhere ; and particularly about the mouth and 
 muzzle. The mouth is almost invariably ulcerated, and the tongue is 
 blistered and ulcerated too ; and there is either a discharge of sanious, 
 offensive, or bloody fluid from the nose and mouth, or considerable 
 hsmorrhage from both of them. Now, the urine, which had before been 
 high-coloured, becomes darker, or bloody ; the dung likewise has streaks 
 of blood over it, and both are exceedingly fcetid. 
 
 In this state the animal may continue two or three days, until it dies 
 a mass of putridity ; unless there has been an honest, active assistant, 
 who never shrinks from his duty — who has some courage and a good 
 stomach, — and who will properly dress the ulcers and administer the 
 medicines. Many a beast has been saved even at this point of the dis- 
 ease; and the farmer or the veterinary surgeon should prize such a 
 servant. The first favourable symptom will be a slight diminution of 
 the foetor — the ulcers will then speedily heal, and the strength return. 
 
 The chief appearance after death will be venous congestion everywhere. 
 The larger and the smaller trunks will be black, and distended almost to 
 bursting. It is a striking illustration of the peculiar vascular system of 
 the animal ; and, as will be presently seen, speaks volumes as to the mode 
 of treating this and similar diseases. , 
 
 The congestion is everywhere. It affects both of the pleuree, the in- 
 tercostal and the pulmonary ; and the whole substance of the lungs. It' 
 extends over the peritoneum, and more particularly over the mucous 
 membrane of the intestines ; and patches of inflammation and ulceration 
 are found in every part of the colon. These are the appearances when 
 the animal is carried off during the inflammatory stage of the disease. 
 
 If the complaint has assumed a putrid type, there is eSiision, the smell 
 of which can scarcely be borne, both in the chest and belly ; with adhesion 
 and agglutination of all the small intestines. Often vomicae in the lungs, 
 and effusion in the pericardium. Every stomach is inflamed, and the 
 fourth ulcerated through. The substance of the liver is broken down. 
 There are ulcerations generally of the smaller, and always of the larger, 
 intestines ; and in every part of the cellular membrane there are large 
 patches of inflammation running fast into gangrene. 
 
 There cannot be a doubt respecting either the nature or treatment of 
 such a disease. It is, at first, of a purely inflammatory character, but the 
 inflammation is so intense, as speecBly to destroy the powers of nature. 
 The capillary vessels must have been working with strange activity, in 
 order to fill and to clog every venous canal. The congestion prevails in 
 the cranium as well as in other parts, and the distended vessels press upon 
 tlie substance of the braiui and that pressure is propagated to the com- 
 mencement of the nerves ; and hence debility, and staggering, and almost 
 perfect insensibility. As the congestion early takes place, the coma, or 
 Btupor is early in its appearance. 
 
 The nervous energy being thus impeded, the power of locomotion seems 
 Ant to fail ; then general debility succeeds, and atleng-th other parts of th4 
 
S53 CATTLE. 
 
 vascular system are invulve^l. The mouths "f the excretory ducts can no 
 /oiiger contract oa their contents, hence fluid is effused in the chest and 
 in the belly, and in the cellular membrane ; and hence, too, the rapid 
 formation of ulcers. The vital powers generally are weakened, and in 
 consequence of this there is the speedy tendency of every excretion to 
 putridity, and the actual commencement of decomposition while the animal 
 is yet alive. The blood shares in this abstraction or de6ciency of vitality, 
 and hence the disposition to ulceration, gangrene, and dissolution, by 
 which the later stages of the disease are characterised. 
 
 Inflammatory fever, although not confined to young stock, is far most 
 prevalent among them. It appears principally in the spring and fall ol 
 the year, for then we have the early and late flush of grass. On poor 
 ground it is comparatively unknown ; but the young and the old stock, in 
 thriving condition, need to be closely watched when the pasture is good 
 and the grass springing. If it is at times epidemic, it is only when 
 the season, or the eagerness of the farmer, have exposed the consti- 
 tution to an excess of otherwise healthy stimulus ; and when the ani- 
 mal is, in a manner, prepared for fever. Some have attributed the 
 disease to an undue quantity of crowfoot, or other acid plants. They are 
 harmless here. It is the excess of healthy stimulus. 
 
 When the early part of the spring has been cold and ungenial, and then 
 the warm weather has suddenly set in, nothing is so common as for 
 inflammatory fever to appear : but the change in the temperature, or other 
 qualities of the atmosphere, has had only an indirect effect in producing 
 this ; it is the sudden increase of nutriment which has done the mischief. 
 When cattle are moved from a poor to a more luxuriant pasture, if the 
 new grass is sufficiently high, they distend the paunch almost to bursting, 
 and hoove is the result; but if the change is more in the quality than in 
 the quantity of the food, the evil is more slowly produced, and it is more 
 fatal — a disposition to inflammation is excited, which wants but a slight 
 stimuUts to kindle into a flame. It is the penalty which the breeder must 
 pay, or the evil which he must carefully, and not always successfully, 
 endeavour to avoid, when he is endeavouring to obtain all the advantage 
 he can from the richness of his pasture, and the aptitude to fatten, and 
 early maturity of his cattle. 
 
 A gentleman, who speculated — and with very considerable advantage — 
 in the enclosing of a considerable tract of land, newly recovered from the 
 sea, running down from Wareham towards Poole, bought a dairy of 
 thirty Suffolk cows. They arrived in the very early part of the spring ; they 
 were liberally fed on Swedish turnips, and, as soon as it was practi- 
 cable, they were turned on this maiden and luxuriant pasture. In the 
 course of less than three months twelve of them died. This was rather 
 singular, for milch cows are, generally speaking, exempt from inflamma- 
 tory fever; and perhaps this circumstance prevented both the ownei 
 and the bailiff from tracing the fearful mortality to its true cause. 
 
 A veterinary surgeon was sent for from London to inquire into the 
 Lature and cause of the disease. There was not a sick animal on 
 the premises, and the only circumstance which could excite attention 
 was, that the cattle looked in much better condition than Suffolk cows 
 usually do, or ought to do. The bailiff was a little jealous of the inter'^ 
 ference of the veterinarian, and threw no more light upon the subject than 
 he could help ; and the veterinarian was, in his turn, cautious and 
 guarded. He expressed a wish to see a little of this fine estate. The 
 request could scarcely be refused, and. indeed, was gratifying ; and, soon 
 arrivit«g at a somewhat upland, but still very good pasture, he stopped, 
 
INFLAMMATORY FEVER S5* 
 
 and, turning to the bailifl', thus addressed him — ' Bleed and physic every 
 one of your remaining cows, and turn them up here , and do not change 
 their pasture until you are forced to do so, and then take care that they 
 shall work a little, in order to obtain their living.' This led to a friendly 
 understanding between them ; the nature, the cause, and the remedy of 
 the disease were canvassed ; the suggestions of the veterinarian were 
 attended to, and not another animal was lost. 
 
 We have known inflammatory fever caused by the driving of fat beasts 
 in the beginning of summer, — perhaps no very great distance, — but with 
 somewhat too much hurry. It has broken out among stall-fed cattle stil , 
 later in the year, but only when the process of fattening has been inju- 
 diciously hastened. In fact, from the peculiar vascular system of cattle, 
 that excitement which would produce pneumonia, pleurisy, or inflam- 
 mation of the feet in the horse, is the usual cause of inflammatory fever in 
 them. The weakest part is attacked — the lungs and the feet suffer most 
 from our mismanagement in the, horse — the vascular system is most subject 
 to disease in the ox, for we keep him, as nearly as we can with any 
 rational hope of safety, in a state of plethora. 
 
 The very name of the disease, infiammaiory fever, indicates the mode 
 of treatment. In a case of excessive vascular action, the first and most 
 important step is copious depletion. As much blood must be taken as 
 the animal will bear to lose ; and the stream must flow on until the beast 
 staggers or threatens to fall. Here, more than in any other disease, 
 there must be no foolish directions about quantities. As much blood 
 must be taken away as can be got ; for it is only by the bold and persever- 
 ing use of depletory measures that a malady can be subdued that runs its 
 tuurse so rapidly. 
 
 Purging must immediately follow. The Epsom salts are here, as in most 
 niflammatory diseases, the best purgative. A pound and a half, dissolved 
 in water or gruel, and poured down the throat as gently as possible, should 
 be our first dose ; and no aromatic should accompany it. If this does not 
 operate in the course of six hours, another pound should be given ; and, 
 after that, half-pound doses every six hours until the effect is produced. 
 
 At the expiration of the first six hours the patient should be carefully 
 examined. Is there any amendment ? Is the pulse slower, softer? If 
 not, he must be bled a second time, and until the circulation is once 
 more affected. If the animal is somewhat better, yet not to the extent that 
 could be wished, the practitioner would be warranted in bleeding again, 
 provided the sinking and fluttering of the pulse does not indicate the com- 
 mencement of debility , 
 
 If the pulse is a little quieted, and purging has taken place, and the ani- 
 mal is somewhat more himself, the treatment should be followed up by the 
 diligent exhibition of sedative medicines. A drachm and a half of digitalis, 
 and one drachm of emetic tartar, and half an ounce of nitre, should be 
 given three times every day ; and setons inserted in the dewlap. Those 
 of black hellebore-root aie the best, as producing the quickest and the 
 most extensive inflammation No trouble need to be taken about remov- 
 mg the beast now, although he may be in the pasture which has been the 
 cause of all the mischief, for he will not eat until he is very considerably 
 better ; and then he cannot be too quickly moved. 
 
 If the animal is not seen until the inflammatory stage of the fever 
 bas nearly pa.xsed, the skill of the practitioner will be put to the test; and 
 fet he will not find much difficulty in deciding how he ought to act. Has 
 .he animal been bled at all ? if it has not, nothing can excuse the neglect 
 af bleeding now, except debility too palpable to be mistaken. It tiay 
 
360 CATTLE. 
 
 perhaps be more truly affirmed, that even that should be no excuse. Thrf 
 congestion of blood is a deadly weight on the constitution, which the 
 powers of unassisted nature will not be able to throw off. It must be very 
 great debility, indeed, which should frighten the practitioner from this 
 course; and debility which, in ninety-nine times out of a hundred, would 
 terminate in death. As a general rule in this stage of the disease, the 
 effect of bleeding should certainly be tried; but cautiously — very cau- 
 tiously — and with the finger constantly on the pulse. If the pulse gets 
 rounder and softer as the blood flows, the abstraction of blood will as- 
 suredly be serviceable, and if the pulse becomes weaker, and more indis- 
 tinct, no harm will have been done, provided that the orifice is imme- 
 diately closed. 
 
 Physic will, in this stage of the disease, also be indispensable ; but double 
 the usual quantity of the aromatic should be added, in order to stimulate the 
 rumen, if the drink should get into it, — and also to stimulate the fourth sto- 
 mach and the whole of the frame, if fortunately it should reach so far as this 
 stomach. A pound of the Epsom salts at first, and half-pound doses 
 afterwards, until the bowels are opened, will be sufficient in this stage ; 
 and if, after the fourth dose, (injections having been given in the mean 
 time,) purging is not produced, the quantity of the aromatic, but not of 
 the purgative, may be increased. It is probable that the medicine has 
 found its way into the rumen, where it will remain inert until that cuticular 
 and comparatively insensible stomach is roused to action by the stimulus 
 of the aromatic. No other medicine should be given until the bowels have 
 been opened ; and in many cases very little other medicine will afterwards 
 be required. 
 
 The bowels having been opened, recourse should be had once more 
 to the pulse. If it indicates any degree of fever, as it sometimes 
 will, (for the apparent debility is not always the consequence of ex- 
 haustion, but of vascular congestion,) the physic must be continued, but 
 the constitution would perhaps be too weak for the direct sedative medi- 
 cine. On the other hand, however, no tonic medicine must be given : 
 the fire must not be kindled afresh after it has been partially subdued. 
 If, however, the pulse is weak, wavering, irregular, giving sufficient 
 intimation that the fevei has passed, and debility succeeded, recourse 
 may be had to tonic medicines. The tonics, however, which in such cases 
 would be beneficial in cattle are very few. The exhibition of the mineral 
 tonics has rarely been attended by any satisfactory result — the barks have 
 not always appeared to agree, but in gentian, calombo, and ginger, the 
 practitioner on the diseases of cattle will find almost every thing that he 
 can wish. The two first are excellent stomachics, as well as tonics ; the 
 last is a tonic, simply because it is the very best stomachic in the cattle 
 pharmacopcEia. They may be given three times every day in doses of a 
 drachm each of the two first, and half a drachm of the last. They will 
 be more effectual in these moderate doses than in the overwhelming 
 quantities in which some administer them, and in which they oppress and 
 cause nausea, rather than stimulate and give appetite. They should 
 always be given in gruel, with half a pint, or even a pint of sound ale. 
 
 The practitioner may possibly be called in after ulcers have broken 
 out, and the sloughing process has commenced : there must be no bleeding 
 then ; the vitality of the system has received a sufficient shock, and vari- 
 ous parts of it are actually decomposing; but physic is necessary, with a 
 double dose of the aromatic, in order to rouse the energies of the diges- 
 tive system, and to get rid of much offensive and dangerous matter col- 
 lected in the intestinal canal. Epsom salts will here also constitute the 
 
INFLAMMATORY FEVER. S6l 
 
 best purgative. The enlargements about the knee, and elbow, and stifle, 
 and hock, should be fomented with warm water ; and any considerable 
 indurations, and especially about the joints, embrocated with equal parts 
 of turpentine, hartshorn, and camphorated spirit 
 
 The ulcers should be carefully and thoroughly washed several times 
 «very day with a solution of the chloride of lime, of the strength already 
 recommended. The ulcers about the muzzle, mouth, and throat, should be 
 treated in a similar manner; and a pint of the solution may be horned 
 down twice in the course of the first day. If there is hoove, this will 
 combine with the extricated gas, and prevent the continued formation of it; 
 and it will materially correct the foetor which pervades the whole of the 
 digestive canal. Mashes and plenty of thick gruel should be offered to 
 the beast, and forced upon him by means of the stomach-pump if he re- 
 fuses to take it voluntarily. In this case, the pipe should not be introduced 
 more than half-way down the oesophagus, as there will then be greater 
 probabili'y of the liquor flowing on into the fourth stomach. 
 
 Tonics should on no account be neglected, but they should not be ad- 
 tninistered with any nonsensical views of their antiseptic nature, or their 
 changing the properties of the animal fluids, but simply as calculated to 
 rouse to action the languid, or almost lifeless powers of the frame. 
 
 If the stench from the ulcers does not abate, the solution of the chlo- 
 ride should be quickly increased to a double strength; but as soon as thefcetor 
 has ceased, and the wounds begin to have a healthy appearance, the heal- 
 ing ointment or the tincture of aloes may be adopted, and the latter is prefer- 
 able. When the animal begins to eat he should be turned into a field close 
 at hand, the grass of which has been cropped pretty closely. A seton, or 
 a rowel should be retained for three or four weeks ; but as for medicine, it 
 cannot be too soon discontinued when the animal is once set on its legs. 
 When art has subdued the disease, nature, although slowly, will mos* suc- 
 cessfully resume her wonted functions. 
 
 The breeder has much in his power in the way of prevention. His 
 cattle should be carefully examined every day. Any littie heaving at the 
 flanks, or inflammation of the eyes, or heat-bumps on the back, or rub- 
 bing, will be regarded with suspicion, and met by a gentle purgative, or 
 the abstraction of a little blood ; but the decided appearance of inflamma- 
 tory fever in one of them will not be misunderstood for a moment : it will 
 convince him that he has \)een making more haste than good speed, and 
 in the disease of one, he will see the danger of all. All who have been 
 subject to the same predisposing causes of disease, should be bled and 
 physicked, and turned into a field of short and inferior keep. 
 
 John Lawrence, whose work on cattle has often been mentioned with 
 respect, expresses himself in his own somewhat peculiar way, but very 
 much to the purpose, on this point. ' Prevention of this malady is 
 the only cure worth notice, because, after the attack, the very nature of 
 the case renders all remedy either uncertain, or of very little profit, even if 
 successful, on account of the expense of time and money. A piece of 
 short or inferior keep should be reserved as a digesting place, in which the 
 cattle may be occasionally turned to empty and exercise themselves. 
 Those observed to advance very fast may be bled monthly for several 
 months, of the efficacy of which practice I have, however, by no means 
 Eo good an opinion as of that of giving medicines which prevent interna] 
 obstruction. I am well aware of the difficulty of such measures with a 
 number of cattle in the field, but I am convinced that occasional purges, 
 or alterative medicines, would prevent those diseases which seem to tak« 
 Jieir rise in over-repletion and accumulation.' 
 
368 CATTLE. 
 
 There is a great deal of sterling good sense and practical knowledge in 
 this quotation. The editor perfectly agrees with him in being somewhat 
 afraid of these periodical bleedings. So far as he has had opportunity 
 of observing, they have increased rather than lessened the disposition to 
 make blood and fat. He does not see so much difficulty, but a great deal 
 of good, in the occasional administration of physic ; and he regards the 
 digesting place, and the wearing of a seton, and the frequent, careful ex- 
 amination of the owner or the bailiff, as worth the whole veterinary phar- 
 macopoeia. 
 
 The editor is far from being certain that he has been enabled to give a 
 description of this disease satisfactory to all his readers, for it differs mate- 
 rially in its symptoms in different districts, and in the same district at 
 different times. The difficulty lies in the other diseases with which the in- 
 flammatory fever is combined, — sometimes one, and sometimes anolher, 
 assuming a prominent character, and while they all generally follow 
 inflammatory fever, yet, some of them occasionally precedinp' »S, 
 
 In the North Riding of Yorkshire, the first symptoms are those of 
 quarter ill. The cattle are seized first in one quarter, and then in the other. 
 The skin puffs up, and the crackling noise is heard almost from the begm- 
 ning. The disease is usually fatal when it assumes this form. 
 
 In the West Riding, where from the rapidity with which it runs its 
 course it is called the «;7ee(2, it also generally begins behind. Inflamma- 
 tion, or rather mortification, seizes one hock. It runs up the quarter, 
 which becomes actually putrid in the course of an hour or two, while the 
 other limbs continue sound. Few, and especially young beasts, survive 
 an attack of this kind. Here the active use of local applications is indi- 
 cated; and yet they will rarely be of much service. 
 
 In some parts of Surry, under the name of the puck, the fore-quarter, or 
 the side, is the part mostly affected ; and the animal freq[uently dies in 
 an hour or two. On skinning the beast, the whole quarter appears black 
 from the extravasation of blood, and is softened and decomposed as though 
 it were one universal bruise. 
 
 Mr. Turner, of Reigate, puts this in a very clear point of view. He 
 says, 'The name (quarter-evil) is indicative only of a variety of it; or, 
 rather, is one of the diseases that connects itself with it : and this disease 
 is generally as completely limited to the quarter attacked as a fit of hemi- 
 plegia is to one side of the buuian being. The animal is generally in the 
 highest possible state of fever ; but the quarter-evil is limited to the quar- 
 ter, which feels, as it is popularly expressed, precisely like a jelly. There 
 is no remedy, but there are many preventives, in which great confidence 
 is placed, and which agree only in being composed of the most powerful 
 stimulants.' 
 
 Mr. Trayton has a singular notion about it, yet containing in it some 
 truth. He says ' that it is caused by cattle feeding on the buds of trees or 
 shrubs in copses and hedge- rows, together with an over-indulgence in 
 ruminating while lying down, whereby they acquire a sluggish habit, and 
 the blood becomes torpid. His preventive is very consistent with this 
 theory, but it is rather a singular one. He says that they should be turned 
 into large enclosures of coarse sharp-bladed grass, and there should be 
 mixed among them colts of a year or two years' growth, which, by their 
 mischievous gambols, will harass the calves thoroughly ; and by keeping 
 them in action keep them in health. 
 
 None of our readers, we trust, will have recourse to that preventive, 
 
 which Mr. J. Lawrence describes in his usual happy manner (p. 586), 
 
 Some skilful ieech introduced the following most extraordinary operatiot 
 
TYPHUS FEVKK. S63 
 
 A3 a preventive of the disease, which I apprehend, m tlie conteinplation 
 either of physiology or commonsensology, could have no better prophy- 
 jactic or preventive vieve than shaving the animal would have, and which 
 I beg to recommend in its stead, as at least free from cruelly. The ill- 
 starred beast is cast, bound to a stake, and then all his four legs are cut 
 open from the claws upward to the height of several inches, in order to 
 find among the tendons and ligaments a strong blood-vessel of a bluish 
 colour, guilty of the sin of producing joynt-murrain ; and which, beinp- 
 caught with a crooked needle, is cut away. It is a great pity that the 
 abovesaid blue blood-vessel had not been called a worm, since the brains 
 of so many of our cattle-folk have been infested with worms from very 
 high antiquity.' 
 
 This disease, there called the hasty, was once prevalent in Caithness 
 and many of the Highland straths ; and it was traced to the numerous 
 shrubs which grew on some of their wild pastures, and shaded the coarse 
 grass from the sun until it had attained an enormous growth, and was 
 become of an acrid and stimulating nature. It is added that when, as 
 agriculture improved, these shrubs were cut down, the herbage became 
 milder and more wholesome, and the disease rarely appeared. The effect 
 may, with greater probability, be attributed to the improvement in the 
 general management of cattle, and the increased knowledge of their 
 constitution and diseases. Indeed, some more accurate knowledge was 
 required of the nature and treatment of the diseases of cattle, when the 
 tbllowing absurd and cruel superstition was had recourse to in Caithness, 
 not merely by the peasants but by those who ought to have known better. 
 The beast attacked by black quarter was taken into a byre, or house, into 
 which cattle were never after to enter ; the heart was taken out while the 
 animal was alive, and carried into the byre where the farmer kept his 
 cattle, and hung up there; and while it remained there none of the beasts 
 would be attacked by this malady. 
 
 They have more harmless superstitions in other countries. A French 
 veterinary surgeon was called on to treat this disease in some cattle. The 
 owner was the mure grieved at its breaking out in his farm since he had 
 lately purchased, at considerable expense, an amulet that was to ensure 
 the safety of his cattle for ever. The surgeon inquired about this charm, 
 and was told that it had been buried with great ceremony at the door of 
 the cow-house, with the assurance that every animal that passed over it 
 was charmed against the complaint. M. Desplas expressed his determi' 
 nation to dig up this amulet, and see what it was made of. He was 
 entreated not to do so, for certain and sudden death would follow the 
 profane attempt. He obtained the proper instruments, and presently dis- 
 interred the awful talisman. It was in the form of a packet ; and, on being 
 unfolded, presented a farthing, a little leavened bread, and a bit of wax, 
 wrapped in a small piece of black stuff pilfered from the stole of a priest. 
 M. Desplas placed these sacred things in his museum, and set to work 
 and cured the beast. The enchanter had received a quantity of wheat, 
 worth five francs, and several couples of pullets. It is added (and if 
 descriptive of the lower class of French agriculturists, it is no less so of 
 those cf England) that, after all, he who had taken the money and had 
 aot cured the animal, inspired more confidence than the veterinary surgeon, 
 who, sent by Government, had cured the beast gratuitously. 
 
 TYPHUS FEVER. 
 
 One other species of fever is yet to be described, that has not been 
 Admitted into the sadlv incomplete veterinary nosology, but will" which evtwy 
 
S64 CATILE. 
 
 farmer is tno well acquainted. It is of a low, chronic, typhoid form. It 
 sometimes follows intense inflammatory action, and then it may be consi- 
 dered as the second stage of that which has just been considered ; but, 
 often, there have been no previous symptoms of peculiar intensity, at least 
 none that have been observed, but a little increased heat of the ears, horns, 
 and mouth ; a pulse of sixty or seventy ; a certain degree of dulness ; a 
 deficiency of appetite ; an occasional suspension of rumination ; a disincli- 
 nation to move ; a gait approaching to staggering ; and a gradual wasting. 
 These are plain indications that there is a fire burning, and rapidly con- 
 suming the strength of the animal. The vital energies are evidently 
 undermining; but the. Jirevs smothered. It is not phthisis (consumption), 
 which will be described in due place; it is not murrain, for the early 
 symptoms of ulceration and decomposition are not found; and it is not 
 inflammatory fever, for the intense inflammation, which has been repre- 
 sented as characterizing that malady, is seldom seen ; — it is true typhus 
 'ewer. 
 
 As soon as itbpcomes established, diarrhoea succeeds; and this is either 
 produced by small doses of medicine from which no danger could be sus- 
 pected, or it comes on spontaneously. It is not, however, violent, but it 
 continues day after day. It bids defiance to the skill of the most experi- 
 enced practitioner, or, if it is arrested for a little while, it is sure to return. 
 The discharge is peculiarly fcetid ; occasionally mixed with blood, anc 
 generally containing a considerable quantity of mucus. 
 
 Three or four weeks have probably now elapsed, and then succeed the 
 peculiar symptoms oi low fever in cattle. Tumours form round the joints 
 or appear on the back or udder ; these ulcerate, spread, and become foetid. 
 The beautiful, sweet breath of the ox is gone, — it is as offensive as the 
 ulcers ; and, in fact, we have that which can scarcely be distinguished 
 from the second stage of inflammatory fever. 
 
 It is most prevalent in the spring and fall of the year, and when the 
 first has been ungenial and the latter wet. The pasture generally pos- 
 sesses some degree of luxuriance, although its herbage may be coarse ; 
 and the beast is usually in good condition when first attacked by the 
 malady. 
 
 This disease has sometimes been epidemic and fatal to a dreadful extent, 
 occasionally assuming the form of, or being connected with, epidemic 
 catarrh ; at other times accompanied by dysentery ; but frequently being, 
 for many a day, or for some weeks, typhoid fever without any local deter- 
 mination. 
 
 The cause of typhoid fever both in the ruminant and the human being 
 is involved in much obscurity. Some have accounted for it from the ex- 
 trication of certain gases or miasmata from vegetable substances under- 
 going the process of decomposition. Certainly it is most prevalent, on 
 cold, wet lands ; and during cold, wet, variable weather. A long wet 
 winter is sure to be followed by typhus fever in every low, marshy 
 district. In the higher pastures, where the cattle seem exposed to greater 
 cold, but have less wet, little of it is seen. 
 
 It is much to be doubted wb»therit is infectious ; but all the cattle have 
 been exposed to the same predisposing causes of disease. The farmer 
 would do well to remove the infected beasts from the sound ones as soon 
 as possible ; and the carcase of the animal that dies of inflammatory or 
 typhoid fever should be buried without delay. 
 
 These are cases which puzzle the farmer and the practitioner too ; and, 
 when treated in the best way, they too frequently will not yield to medical 
 skill. There is one rule, however, which cannot mislead. If there is fire. 
 
TYPHUS FEVKR. 36a 
 
 it must be put out. No apparent debiluy should mislead here. That debi- 
 Jity may, and often does, result from the presence of fever, and not from 
 any dangerous impairment of vital power ; and the incubus being thrown 
 off", nature will rally; at all e'veiits, the debility is the consequence of the 
 fever, and is daily and rapidly increasing while the fever continues : there- 
 fore, (he first steo is to bleed, and to bleed until the character of the pulse 
 begins to change. It should never be forgotten by the proprietor or the 
 practitioner that one bleeding of this kind will often do good, and 
 cannot be injurious. It is the fear of bleeding lest the animal should 
 be more debilitated, or the pushing on of the bleeding, in order to obtain 
 a definite quantity, after the pulse has begun to falter, that has done all 
 the mischief. 
 
 If the heat, and neaving, and disinclinaiiun to food should have been 
 relieved by this bleeding, but, a day or two afterwards, should threaten 
 to return, more blood should be taken, but with the same caution as to the 
 pulse. 
 
 Physic will naturally follow, but with some caution, too ; for it has 
 been already stated that there is a natural tendency to diarrhoea connected 
 with this disease, and which is often troublesome to subdue. One dose of 
 Epsom salts should be given with the usual quantity of aromatic medicine ; 
 but the action of this purgative should be secured and kept up by half- 
 pound doses of sulphur, administered as circumstances may indicate. 
 
 To this will follow the usual sedative medicine — digitalis, emetic tartar, 
 and nitre. The practitioner must not be deluded here. While the mouth 
 and horns are hot, and the pulse rapid, tonics would be poison : he wants 
 them not at all. He hat to put out the fire, and not to feed it. Wlieu 
 the fever is subdued, but nature finds some difficulty in rallying, we may 
 give our gentian, calumbo, and ginger, with advantage. There are few 
 circumstances in which the cow-leech has done so much harm or destroyed 
 so many victims, as when a fire has been smouldering and consuming the 
 energies of life, and he has fed it, and caused it to burst out with resistless 
 force, by means of his abominable cordials.* 
 
 When the tumours and ulcerations appear, the second stage of inflam- 
 matory fever is established, and the measures recommended when that 
 malady passed under consideration must be adopted. This disorder attacks 
 cattle of all ages. Full-grown beasts are more subject to typhoid than to 
 Miflammatory fever ; bnt among the younger ones and the weaning calves, 
 and those of eight, nine, and ten months' old, it is extremely fatal, for 
 they have not strength to bear up against this secretly-consuming tire. 
 
 The mode of prevention, when it first breaks out among the stock, is 
 similar to that of inflammatory fever, — namely, to bleed and physic ; 
 the grand thing of all, however, is to remove not merely to shorter, but 
 to dryer pasture. With the youngsters, bleeding may, perhaps, be dis- 
 
 * We transcribe the ingredients of & felon drink, a name for cold, rheumatism, fevei, 
 and various unclassed diseases. It is recommended by Mr. Knowlson, who has been 
 6fty-seven years in full practice. He first describes the disease. The beast's hide'is 
 stiff, and not good to get hold of : it loses its flesh ; walks stiff in its limbs ; its eyes look 
 dim and watery ; and it neither aats nor drinks so freely as it should do. Take, for a 
 strong beast, 2 ounces of beast spice, 1 do. turmeric, I do. powder of aniseed, 1 do. canary 
 seed in powder, 2 do. ginger in powder, 2 do. grains of Paradise in powder, I do. diapente, 
 ^ do. sweet fennel, 1 do. Mithridate. All these are to be mixed together in 2 quarts of 
 «le with a little treacle, and to be given fasting. 
 
 The next he calls the common felon drink : it is the usual cordial drink of the cow-leech, 
 Ind administered for almost every disease. Take 2 ounces of bea!<t spice, 1 do. ginger, 
 I do. aniseed, 1 do, long pepper, 1 do. diapente,^ 1 do. Foenugreek, 1 do. turmeric, 1 do. 
 
 ithridate, 1 do. grains of Paradise, 1 do. Galengaf, 1 do. carraway seeds. — Can wt 
 4nder at the almost uniformly fatal termination of inflammatory diseases in cattk P 
 
366 CATTLE. 
 
 pensed with : but a dose of paysic should be given, and a seton itisprted 
 iu the devrlap ; and the change of pasture should be considered as indis- 
 pensable. 
 
 Low and damp situations do not agree with ruminants of any kind. 
 After a long, wet winter, there is a strange mortality among the deer in 
 some parks. A wet situation is the acknowledged cause of the most fatal 
 disease to which sheep are subject ; and the inhabitants of low, marshy 
 grounds have too often a sad account to render of their cattle. 
 
 THE VEINS. 
 
 The principal diseases of the capillary vessels, including inflammation 
 and the various kinds of fever, having thus been disposed of, the bto'-'^ 
 must be again traced back to the heart. 
 
 By means of the various important functions which are discharged by 
 the capillaries the blood is essentially changed as it traverses them. It 
 becomes black, venous, and no longer capable of sustaining life; and it must 
 be sent back to the heart to be again rendered arterial. The capillaries 
 in which the blood has undergone this cliange begin to unite, and, when a 
 sufficient number of them have joined their streams, that branch is called 
 a vein. The coats of the vein are much weaker and thinner than those of 
 the artery, and the blood flows through them by a different principle from 
 that which influences the circulation either in the arteries or capillaries. 
 
 All the veins of the limbs, or that are subject to the pressure of any of 
 the muscles, have valves, which permit the blood to flow on towards the 
 heart, but oppose an insuperable obstacle to its course in a contrary direc- 
 tion , thus, by the pressure of the muscles, a considerable power is, occa- 
 sionally at least, called into exercise to propel the blood along the veins. 
 All the veins, however, are not under the influence of these muscles. The 
 large veins of the chest and belly are out of the reach of muscular pressure, 
 and are destitute of this valvular apparatus, but they are acted upon by a 
 more powerful principle. 
 
 The heart has been described as an elastic muscle. It has scarcely 
 closed by the stimulus of the organic nerves when it expands again by its 
 own inherent elasticity, and that important principle; by the influence of 
 which the water follows the sucker in the common pump, and rushes in 
 and fills the barrel when the piston is raised in the fire-engine, — that prin- 
 ciple — the pressure of the atmosphere, — acts here, too, and the cavities of 
 the heart are filled again as soon as they expand ; and this living pump 
 would work on while there was fluid in circulation. It would be forced in 
 from the nearest and from the most distant veins, in the same manner as 
 the water would flow along the pipes from the most distant reservoir in 
 order to supply the inferior machines — the works of men's hands. Thus 
 the circulation is maintained by the action of the heart, while the blood is 
 passing through the arteries ; by the muscular power of the capillaries, 
 while it permeates those little vessels ; and by the pressure of the muscles 
 and the valvular apparatus of the veins in some part of its course through 
 Ihem ; and by atmospheric pressure, and the principle of the pump, through 
 their whole extent. 
 
 VARICOSE VEINS. 
 
 The horse, except under the form of bog and blood spavin, and occa- 
 sional enlargement of the jugular and thigh veins, is free from varicose 
 tumours: in the ^ow, they seldom appear, except in the veins of the udder, 
 Bi[>d in the neighbourhood of joints that have suffered even more than usual 
 irom the tumours of these parts to which cattle are so liable. An old cow 
 
THK CHEST. 3b7 
 
 that has been a superior milker, frequently has the veins cA tiie teats pei- 
 tnanently enlarged. No application will take down the swelling, but 
 which, however, is rarely productive of any serious inconvenience. The 
 veins of the teats are sometimes much enlarged under Garget. Warm 
 'bmentations, in order to abate the general inflammation of the ba;;, will 
 afford most relief. In two cases, however, in the experience of the writer, 
 one connected with garget, and the other not to be traced to any satisiactory 
 cause, there arose a tumour on the bag, evidently containing venous blood. 
 They were superficially .situated, and were rapidly increasing. The first 
 was punctured and venous blood flowed out in a full stream, nor could 
 the haemorrhage be arrested but by the severe application of the cautery, and 
 that applied at a venture, for the precisie situation of the bleeding vessel 
 could not be ascertained. Alarmed by this, the operator dissected out 
 the other. He found that two considerable venous trunks poured their 
 Diood into a cellated structure, dense within, but the cells increasing in 
 size towards the surface, and communicating with each other. These 
 vessels were secured by a ligature, and thecellular substance was removed, 
 and which, emptied of its blood, shrunk into an unexpectedly small 
 compass. 
 
 The varicose enlargement was never removed from the first cow, and 
 occasionally it became hot and tender, and interfered with the milking. 
 The wound presently healed in the second cow, and there was an end of 
 the matter. 
 
 THE CHE6T. 
 
 The form of the chest is of as much consequence in the ox as in the 
 horse ; nay, it is of considerably greater moment ; for plenty of courage 
 will compensate, to a certain degree, for defects in the form, and for dimi- 
 nution of strength. His own natural spirit will carry many a horse, 
 evident deficiently in physical power, through exertions under which the 
 coward would sink and die. No labour of this kind is required from 
 *.he ox ; but still there are important offices to be performed by the viscera 
 of the chest which demand constant energetic action, over which the 
 mind has no control, and where all depends on the form and extent of the 
 thoracic cavity. The blood mnst be purified, and it must be circulated 
 through the frame, and that with a rapidity and perfection which must not 
 know a moment's intermission. 
 
 The chest consists of 13 ribs on either side, or 26 in the whole ; being 
 10 less than are found in the horse. Of these 8 on each side are, as in 
 the horse, directly connected with the sternum, or breast bone, and are 
 termed true ribs ; the other 5 are attached to cartilages, which are linked 
 together, and also connected with the sternum in an indirect manner — 
 these are termed false ribs. 
 
 The true ribs are considerably longer, larger, thicker, and farther apart 
 from each other than in the horse ; for, in consequence of the smaller 
 number of short, or false ribs, they take a more backward direction, and 
 cover a portion of the abdomen above, while the sternu n supports it 
 below. 
 
 They are so formed in the ox as to render the cavity of the chest of a 
 far more circular shape than it could be in the horse. The reader is 
 referred, in the first place, to the sternum, or breast bone. In the horse, 
 as shown in page 163 of the Treatise on that animal, the breast bone is 
 narrow and deep ; it bears no indistinct resemblance to the keel of a 
 ship. It i& plainly contrived tor tlie purposes of strength ; it opposes its 
 curved form and its depth to the weight which it is destined to supjiurt, 
 and the momentum, or force, with which that weight will sometimes be 
 
o68 
 
 CATTLB. 
 
 [The Breast Bone of the Ox.] 
 1. The body of the sternum, (so called from its resemblance in the 
 horse to the stern of a ship) or breast bone. 
 
 3. The cartilages by which the ribs are attached to the sternum. 
 
 3. The ribs cut off. 
 
 4. The xiphoid cartilage (resembling a sword, which it does in the 
 horse) at the posterior part of the sternum, supporting the rumen. 
 
 5. 5. The joints, with their capsular ligaments, uniting the cartilages 
 with the sternum, 
 
 6. 6. Do., uniting the cartilages with the ribs. 
 
 7. The socket, receiving the moveable bone at the point of the sternum. 
 In the ox, as the above cut will show, the sternum is thin and flat. It 
 
 presents a level surface of considerable width for the floor of the chest, and, 
 therefore, ensures a circular form for the chest, which the horse could never 
 have. It would be a defect in him if he had it, for it would throw too much 
 weight before, and would render him dangerous both to ride and drive. 
 
 Breadth at the breast is an essential requisite in the ox. The Lin- 
 colnshire ox was one foot and ten inches between the fore legs. It is this 
 conformation alone which will give sufficient surface for the attachment 
 of muscles of the character of those of the ox, and will secure sufficient 
 room for the lungs to purify, and the heart to circulate blood enough for 
 the proper discharge ot every function. The following cut of the breast 
 of Firby, Lord Althorp's bull, will aflbrd a practical illustration of these 
 (vhservations. 
 
THK CIIKST. 
 
 m 
 
 [ Uird Althorp'a Buli.] 
 
 Now comes another illustration ol the admirable manner in which different 
 animals are adapted for the purposes which we require of them ; and of 
 the economy of nature in giving to each that which he needs, and no more. 
 The horse cannot have this permanently circular chest ; for althoiig;h it 
 would ensure to him a plentiful supply of arterial blood, it would give him 
 a heaviness before, and a general accumulation of muscle and fat which 
 would interfere with his general usefulness : yet that the chest may pos- 
 sess the power of expansion to a certain degree, every rib is attached to 
 the sternum by a perfect joint ; and thus the hurried breathing of un- 
 usually quickened action is materially assisted. The chest is expanded 
 and contracted much more rapidly, and to a greater extent, and with less 
 expenditure of muscular power, than could be effected without these 
 joints. 
 
 The flatness of the breast bone at the base of the chest of the ox secuies 
 a permatient sufficiency of capacity ; and a perfect joint between the ribs 
 and the sternum is not only not wanted, but might interfere with the 
 equable action of the respiratory apparatus in this animal. The union, 
 however, between the rib and the sternum does admit of a considerable 
 degree of motion, and would, to a great extent, contribute to the enlarge- 
 ment of the chest, if rapid action, or accident, or disease should require it. 
 
 The sternum of the ox has a process projecting very considerably 
 anteriorly, but not closing the entrance; into the chest so much as is done 
 in that which is found in the horse. That process, or first division of the 
 sternum, has a joint which is not found in the horse. It admits of a certain 
 degree of lateral action only. It materially assists the walking or other 
 action of the animal, and which appears to be absolutely necessary, when 
 we consider the vast accumulation of flesh and fat about these parts ; and 
 especially that singular collection of them, the brisket, scarcely a vestige 
 of which is observed in the horse.- 
 
 The muscles which are most concerned in giving bulk to the breast are 
 the tranwerse fectoraU. They form the grand proniinencet in front of the 
 
 2 B 
 
37" C.VITLK. 
 
 enect, aad exienj from llie aiilerior extremity of the sternum to the iiiicUile 
 of the arm. 
 
 The great pectoral (fiji. 13, pp. 338, 339), arising from the lateral and 
 (he posterior part of tlie sternum, may be considered more as a con- 
 tinuation of '.he muscles of the breast, extending laterally and backwards 
 
 THE BRISKET. 
 
 This is a sivigular portion of the breast of the ox, and to which, and 
 very properly, much importance has been universally attached, although, 
 perhaps, on false grounds. It has been considered as a part of the anterior 
 wall of the chest, and as a ptt^af of its depth and capacity. This is altogether 
 erroneous. It is a mere appendix to the chest. It is a projection of sub- 
 stance, partly muscular, but more celluit>r and fatty, from the anterior and 
 moveable division or head of the sternum, extending sometimes from 
 li to 20 inches in front of it, and dipping downwarJs nearly or quite as 
 much. It is no proof of depth of chest, it is found of a great size 
 in all the improved cattle, varying in size in different breeds, snd in 
 different cattle of the same breed ; and it was always looked for and 
 valued in the better specimens of the old cattle. It is, at least, a proof of 
 tendency to fatness. A beast that will accumulate so much flesh and fat 
 about the brislcet will not be deficient in other points. 
 
 In the Lincolnshire ox, the brisket was only 14 inches from the ground. 
 Mr. Mure's Queen of Scots carried her brisket only 1 5J inches from the 
 ground. 
 
 It is very probable that this may be carried too far. An enormously pro- 
 jecting brisket may evince a more than usual tendency to fatten ; but nol 
 unfrequently a tendency to accumulate that fat irregularly — to have it 
 too much in patches, and not spread equally over the frame. Many 
 examples of this must present themselves to the recollection of the grazier, . 
 and especially in some of the short-horn breeds. In a very few instances 
 it has been almost fancied that this enormously projecting brisket was a 
 ■defect, rather than an excellence; at least, that it somewhat impaired the 
 uniform beauty of the animal, if it did not diminish his sterling excellence. 
 
 The brisket should be prominent as well as deep ; perhaps on one 
 account more prominent than deep, for it will then be more likely, either 
 before, or by the time it arrives at the posterior border of the elbow or 
 fore-arm, to have subsided to the thickness of the fatty and other substance 
 naturally covering the sternum. One defect, but not of half the con- 
 sequence which it is generally supposed to be, would then be avoided — ■ 
 the apparent diminution of the chest at the girthing place, or immediately 
 behind the elbows. Some have evidently considiired this to be an actual 
 elevation of the floor of the chest, and a consequent lessening of its 
 capacity at this point ; and, on that account, a most serious defect. There 
 are few things which the patrons of the short-horns have laboured more 
 zealously,. and generally more unsuccessfully, to remedy. It is certainly 
 a defect, because it evinces a disposition to accumulate fat in a somewhat 
 patchy manner; but it is not so bad as has been represented or feared 
 It indicates no elevation of the sternum, — no diminution of the capacity 
 of the chest : it is a rather too sudden termination of the protuberance 
 of the brisket, either from the accumulation of the principal part of 
 -its substance too forward, or from a want of disposition in (he beast to 
 fatten in an equable way. If the brisket were removed, the bicast-bond 
 would be found to be gradually rounding, and rising from this spot, and 
 not let down lower between the elbows. It will be interesting to corap.ai» 
 
THK RIBS. 371 
 
 tl.e (iiltVrent forms of the brisket in the diflerent breeds of tattle. The 
 bulls of Mr Berry and Lard Althorp will show how much variety can 
 exist in different animals, and favourite ones too, of the same breed ; 
 and those who recollect the portrait of Mr. C. Ceiling's Comet, to whose 
 brisket, few, perhaps, could at first reconcile themselves so far as beauty 
 of form was concerned, will be aware of greater variety still. 
 
 When the observer now admires or wonders at the protuberant and 
 unwieldy briskets of these cattle, he will recognize the use of the joint in 
 the first, or supplementary, bone of the sternum of oxen. Thfy could not 
 walk with ease, and it would be scarcely possible for them to turn at all, if 
 it were not for the lateral motion which this joint permits. The muscles 
 most concerned in this action, and, indeed, that constitute the bulk of the 
 fleshy part of the brisket, are the anterior portions of the external and 
 internal sternocostal muscles (those which are concerned with the sternum 
 and the ribs), and whose action is to elevate the ribs, and so dilate the 
 chest and assist in inspiration. 
 
 THE RIBS. 
 
 The first rib on either side is a short, rather straight, and particularly 
 strong bone. It has much of the head and neck to support ; and it is 
 the fulcrum or fixed point on which all the other bones are to move. 
 Each rib is united to the spine by a strength of attachment which will 
 almost rival that of the horse. 
 
 They spring from the spine in a more horizontal direction than in the 
 horse ; and, consequently, there is a provision for the capacity of the chest 
 above as well as below. The ribs of the horse take from the beginning an . 
 evident slanting direction. The bones, being more numerous, give greater 
 elasticity and ease of motion by their multiplied joints ; the withers, and 
 back, and loins, are narrower, for the convenience of the rider : but in 
 the ox the bones are fewer, in order that they may be larger for the attach- 
 ment of additional muscle; they spring out at once laterally, taking such 
 a direction as would render them exceedingly awkward for the saddle, in 
 order to secure that permanent capacity of chest which the functions of 
 the ox require. 
 
 Therefore it is that in some breeds a little flat-sided ness (the less the 
 better) may be forgiven, because the width of the sternum btlow, and of 
 the spine, in some degree, but more particularly the springing out of the 
 ribs above, secure a sufficient and an unsuspected capacity of chest. It is 
 on this account that the Devon ox is active and profitable while at work, 
 and afterwards grazes kindly. The conformation of the bones which have 
 been just described give him a considerable capacity of chest, notwith- 
 standing his somewhat too flat sides • yet in the animal which was chiefly 
 valued for his grazing properties, something more would be looked for, 
 and would be found. 
 
 The shoulder being past, this horizontal projection of the ribs is more 
 and more evident j and, in order that the barrel-form shall be as complete 
 as it can be made, each rib is twisted. Its posterior edges are turned 
 upwards and outwards ; and as, proceeding backwards, each projects 
 beyond the preceding one, not only until the eight true ribs is passed, 
 but also the five false ones ; the carcase of a well-made, profitable beast 
 increases in width and in capacity, until we arrive at, or nearly at, the 
 loins. For illustration of this reference may be made to any or all of the 
 uts of the Kyloe, Galloway, or New Leicester, or Short-horn cattle. 
 
 f. „«;«. „f f.~» 1 "-- '•- Dassed, and the abdomen 
 
 2 B 2 
 
«72 CATTLE. 
 
 presents itself; but the principle is the same: the ribs are spread out. 
 not only to afford room in the thorax for lungs considerably larger than 
 tho3e of the horse, but for that immense macerating stomach, the rumen, 
 which fills the greater part of the abdomen, and which must be preserved 
 as much as possible from injury and pressure. 
 
 THE SPINE. 
 
 The principal difference between the spine of the ox and thatof the 
 horse consists in the greater size of the individual bones, the small 
 quantity of elastic lisjamentous substance interposed between them, and the 
 length and roughness of all the processes in the former. Two objects are 
 accomplished, sufficient strength is obtained for the protection of the parts 
 beneath, and for the purposes for which the animal may be required, and 
 as much roughened surface as possible for the insertion of muscles. As 
 the joints are fewer, some provision seems to be made for this, by their being 
 more complicated than in the horse. 
 
 The spinous processes of the anterior bones of the back, constituting 
 the withers, are stronger, but not so long as tliey are in the horse. While 
 a very slight curve should mark the situation of the withers, the irregu- 
 larity of the processes of the bones should never be visible. The less the 
 curve the better, and no decided hollow behind should point out the place 
 where the withers terminate, and the more level surface of the back com- 
 mences. This is a departure from good conformation, for which nothing 
 can compensate. It not only takes away .so much substance from the 
 spot on which good flesh and (at should be thickly laid on, but it generally 
 shows an indisposition to accumulate flesh and fat in the right places 
 The proper form of these parts, however, will be better understood when 
 we describe the fore limbs of the ox ; and the spine generally more pro- 
 perly belongs to the cavity of the belly, of which it is the roof. We, 
 therefore, once more go back to the upper part of the neck. 
 
 THE LARYNX. 
 
 At the posterior part of the pharynx, and the top of the windpipe, we find 
 a curiously constructed cartilaginous box called the larynx. It is the guard 
 of the lungs, lest panicles of food, or any injurious substance should 
 penetrate into the air-passages, and it is at the same time the instrument 
 of voice. (See cut 1, p. 325.) Every portion of food, whether swallowed 
 orretiirned for the purpose of re-mastication, passes over it; and it would be 
 scarcely possible to avoid frequent inconvenience, and danger of suffoca- 
 tion, were it not for a lid or covering to the entrance of this box, termed 
 the epiglottis (fig. 5), which yields "to the pressure of the food passing 
 over it, and lies fiat on the entrance into the windpipe, and, being of a car- 
 tilaginous structure, rises again by its inherent elasticity as sooi, as the 
 pellet hah been forced along, and permits the animal to breathe again. 
 Tne whole of the larynx is composed of separate cartilages, to which 
 muscles are attached that regulate the size of the opening into the 
 windoipe. as the voice, or alteration in breaahina; from exertion or disease, 
 may require. Fig. 1 1 gives a view of the rimte gloWdis, or edge 
 of the glottis, or opening into the windpipe. It appears a little more pro- 
 minent than in the horse, but the opening into the windpipe is consider- 
 ably smaller than in that animal, because little speed is required in the 
 labour of the ox, a,nd there is rarely any hurried or distressed breathing. 
 
 But although the opening into the windpipe is smaller, there is more 
 danger of substances gi?tting into it, for all the food pfllsses thrice over it; 
 
THE WINDPIFK. 
 
 873 
 
 and at its first passage is formed into a Very loose and imperfect pellet. 
 Provision is made for this ; the epiglottis of the ox is broader tlian that of 
 the horse : it more than covers the opening into the windpipe. In the hors« 
 it merely fits it : and while care is taken that, under ordinary circumstances, 
 the air-passages shall be suflBciently guarded, equal or more care seems 
 to be bestowed on the removal of every impediment to the breathing 
 and therefore the epiglottis of the horse (fig. 5, cut 1, p 325), with its 
 sharp termination, was adjusted so as just to cover the rimee glottidis and 
 no more. In the ox, the breathing is seldom hurried, and the food passes 
 ofiener over the opening, and therefore the epiglottis is broad and rounded. 
 (Fig. 5, cut 2, p. 325.) 
 
 Not only so, but in the horse the food passes only one way ; it is simply 
 Fwallowed : in the ox it is returned for a second mastication. The pro- 
 vision made for the horse would be totally insufficient, for portions of 
 the food would insinuate itself under the epiglottis, and enter the larynx. 
 In order to prevent this, we have the broad epiglottis, overlapping on 
 either side, and at the angle of the opening ; the cartilage of which it 
 is composed is thinner; its rounded extremity is curled, — turned back, — 
 so as to yield and be pressed down, and give an uninterrupted passage, 
 and securely cover the opening when the food is returned, while also, from 
 its thinness, it yields in another way, and uncurls and covers the opening 
 when the food is swallowed *. 
 
 The arytsnoid cartilages (fig. 6) are smaller in the ox than in the horse: 
 the thyroid cartilages (fig. 7) are larger. The interior of the larynx of the 
 ox — the organ of voice — is more simple than in any other domesticated 
 animal. There is neither membrane across the opening, nor are there any 
 duplicatures of membrane resembling sacs within the larynx ; in fact, his 
 voice is the least capable of modulation of any of our quadruped servants. 
 
 THE WIHTDPIPE. 
 
 The trachea, or windpipe, of the cattle is considerably smaller than in 
 the horse, because so much air is not wanted. The ox is not a beast of 
 speed, and he rarely goes beyond the walk or trot The cartilaginous 
 rings are narrower (fig. 9, cut 2, p. 325), and although thicker, they are 
 i>f less firm consistence. The interposed ligamentous substance is weaker 
 (fig. lU, cut 1, p. 325). It is also wider in the fresh subject, although 
 from its thinness and weakness, it quickly contracts as closely as it is 
 represented in this cut. A tube of looser construction is sufficient for 
 the portion of air which the ox needs in respiration ; and gathering 
 usually the whole of his food from the ground, and gathering it slowly, 
 and being longer occupied almut it, more freedom of motion, and a greater 
 ilegree of extension is requisite 
 
 * Some peisons have said, and indeed the author is Tery much inclined to believe it, 
 and his old recollections and present experience confirm that belief, that many of the 
 tuii'rues which in large towns are pickled by the drysalter, and find their way to the tables 
 of the taverns, or of private individuals, never came from the mouth of the ox. The 
 epiglottis, however, will tell tales. It is generally preserved in the pickled tongue ; or if it is 
 nut, that will be regarded as a very suspicious circumstance. The observation, then, whether 
 this cartilage is rounded and curled, or sharp, will decide the question as to the animal to 
 whom it once belonged. One inspection of fig. 5 in the cuts of the larynx in page 325 
 will prevent all doubt on a subject of some importance to the lovers of good living. It 
 may be added that the tongue of the horse is tied down by the spur of the liyoid bone, 
 anil is short and thick. (See fig. 1 in the cut of the larynx of the horse, cut 1, p. 325.) 
 In the ox the spur is a mere tubeicle (see cut 2, fig. 1, p. 325), and the tongue released 
 rriim this curb is used to clean the whole of the muzzle, and can be insinuated even into 
 the u'istril. A short plump tongue, then, until the e|)iglattiB is seen, is a suspicious aSair { 
 but » long, ugly looking tongue with a rounded epiglottis, may be eaten without fear. 
 
374 CATTLK 
 
 In addition to this, it will be observed by the comparative anatomist, 
 ' and by every one who feels pleasure in comparing the structure of animals 
 with their situation and wants, that there is no careful and intricate over- 
 lapping of the cartilages behind as described in 'the Horse,' p. 1 59 , 
 they are simply brought into approximation with each oiher ; and their op- 
 posing edges project behind so that they are very loosely bound to the 
 cervical vertebrae. There is also no transverse muscle, because the calibre 
 of the tube can seldom or never be so much varied as in the rapid progres- 
 sion of the horse : but then, by way of compensation, the lining membrane 
 of the trachea is denser and more extensible, and more elastic, and 
 capable of discharging, although imperfectly, a function similar to that of 
 the transverse muscle. 
 
 At the lower part of the windpipe there is even a more striking differ- 
 ence; the triangular prolongation of cartilage for the defence of the tube 
 in the immediate neighbourhood of the lungs is smaller, and the addi- 
 tional plates of cartilage given to the horse for the same purpose are alto- 
 gether wanting. The rings of the windpipe of the ox are about 60, or 8 
 or 10 more than are usually found in the horse. 
 
 TRACHEOTOMY. 
 
 Although there are fewer diseases of cattle in which the animal is 
 threatened with suffocation than there are in the horse, yet occasionally 
 in blain, in inflammation of the parotid gland, and in those varieties of 
 fever which in the ox are so much characterized by the formation of 
 tumours, there will be pressure on the windpipe, much contracting its 
 calibre, and rendering the act of respiration laborious, and almost im- 
 practicable. In inflammation, of the larynx, to which cattle are nmch 
 exposed, the distressing labour of breathing is scarcely credible. 
 
 Tracheotomy, or the formation of an artificial opening into the wind- 
 pipe, is an operation very easily and safely performed. The beast should 
 be secured, and the hair cut closely from the throat over the windpipe, 
 and opposite to the fifth or sixth ring. The skin is then lightened by the 
 finger and thumb, and an incision is made through it at least three 
 inches in length. This must be carefully dissected off from the parts 
 beneath, and then a portion of the windpipe, half an inch wide, and an 
 inch in length, carefully cut out. There is no occasion for the soli- 
 citude required in the horse, that this shall consist of equal quantities of 
 two rings, for any little contraction of the windpipe here would be a 
 matter of no consequence : sufficient speed is not exacted from the ox for 
 roaring to be a imisance, or even to be percieived. The lips of the wound 
 should be kept open by threads passed through the edges and tied over the 
 neck ; until the pressure or inflammation above no longer exists, and then 
 they may be brought together and the wound healed. 
 
 It is Wonderful what instantaneous and perfect relief this operation 
 affords. The beast that was struggling for breath, and seemed every 
 moment ready to expire, is in a- moment himself. 
 
 In cases of permanent obstruction, as tumour in the nostrils, or distor- 
 tion of the latynx or trachea, the animal will generally be consigned to 
 the butclier ; but instances may occur in which it is desirable to pre- 
 serve the beast for the sake of breeding, or for other purposes. Then a 
 tube tnay be introduced into the opening two or three inches long, curved 
 at the top, and the external orifice turning downward, with a little ring on 
 each side, by which, through the means of tapes, it may be retained in its 
 lituation. A horse has worked two or three vears wearing a tube of thi« 
 
PHK miONCHIAL TUBES. -379 
 
 kind, and a favourite cow or bull might be thus preservedi but extraor- 
 dinary cases alsne would justify such a proceeding. 
 
 THE THYMUS GLAND, OR SWEETBREAD. 
 
 Before the track of the windpipe is followed into tiie chest, it may be 
 convenient to notice an irregular glandular body, of a pale pink colour, 
 situated in the very fore part of the thorax, and vulgarly called the sweet- 
 bread. In the early period of the life of the foetus, it is of no con- 
 siderable size, and is confined mostly to the chest; but during the latter 
 months it strangely develops itself. It protrudes from the thorax ; it 
 climbs up on each side of the neck, between the carotids and the trachea, 
 and reaches even to the parotid gland, and becomes a part and portion of 
 that gland. It cannot be separated from the parotid ; and when cut into, a 
 milky fluid exudes from it. 
 
 Very soon after birth, however, a singular change takes place ; it spon- 
 taneously separates from the parotid; it gradually disappears, beginning 
 from above downwards ; and in the course of a few months not a vestige 
 of it remains along the whole of the neck. It then more slowly diminishes 
 within the chest ; but at length it disappears there too, and its situation is 
 occupied by the thoracic duct. 
 
 It is evidently connected with the existence of the animal previous to 
 birth, and more particularly with the latter stages of foetal life. It seems 
 to be a part of the nutritive system. It pours a bland and milky 
 fluid through the parotid duct into the mouth, and so into the stomach, in 
 order to habituate the stomach by degrees to the digestive process, and to 
 prepare it for that function on which the life of the animal is to depend ,- 
 and also to prepare the intestines for the discharge of their duty. When, 
 after birth, it begins to be separated from the parotid gland, it has no 
 means of pouring its secretion into the stomach, and it gradually dwindles 
 away, and disappears. 
 
 THE BRONCHIAL TUBES. ' 
 
 The windpipe pursues its course down the neck, until it arrives at the 
 chest. It there somewhat alters its form, and becomes deeper and nar- 
 rower in order to suit itself to the triangular opening through which it is 
 to pass. It enters the chest, and preserves the same cartilaginous struc- 
 ture until it arrives at the base of the heart, where it separates into twc 
 tubes corresponding with the two divisions of the lungs. These are called 
 the bronchial tubes. They plunge deep into the substance of the lungs ; 
 these presently subdivide ; and the subdivision is continued in every direc- 
 tion, until branches of the trachea penetrate every portion of the lungs. 
 These are still air-passages, and they are carrying on the air to its desti- 
 nation for the accomplishment of a vital purpose. The lungs of the ox 
 afford the most satisfactory elucidation of the manner in which these air- 
 tubes traverse that viscus. They can be followed until they almost elude 
 the unassisted sight, but the greater part of them can be evidently traced 
 into the lobuli, or little divisions of the substance of the lung which are 
 so evident here. The minute structure of these lobuli has never been 
 demcnstratcd ; but we may safely imagine them to consist of very small 
 cells in which the bronchial tubes terminate, and to which the air is 
 c jnveyed ; and that these cells are divided from each other by exceedingly 
 Jelicate membrane:* ' 
 
375 CATTLE. 
 
 THE ALTERATION OF TUB BIOOD. 
 
 The blond has been already described as sent fiom the r'^ht ventricle of 
 the heart into the lung, and the blood-vessels dividing and subdividing 
 until they have attained a state of extreme minuteness, and then ramify- 
 ing over the delicate membrane of these cells. The blood, however, is in 
 a venous state ; it is no longer capable of supporting life; and it is forced 
 through the lungs, in order that it may be rendered once more arterial, and 
 capable of supporting life and all its functions. For this purpose these 
 minute veins spread over the delicate membrane of the cells, aud for this 
 purpose also the air has been conveyed to these cells by the bronchial tubes. 
 
 Novy the chemical, It may almost be said, the vital ditference, betwee,n 
 venous and arterial blood is, that the former is loaded with carbon, and defi- 
 cient in oxygen . It here comes, if not in absolute contuci with atmospheric 
 air, yet so close as to be separated only by a gossamer membrane, which 
 offers little obstacle to the power of chemical affinity or attraction ; and 
 the carbon which it contains is attracted by the oxygen which abounds in 
 the atmospheric air, and is taken out of the circulation, and empoisons 
 the air instead of the blood. Carbonic acid gas, or fixed air, is fornftd 
 by the union of the oxygen and the carbon, the presence of which in 
 undue quantities renders the air destructive to life. The other con- 
 stituents of the blood hars also an affinity for oxygen, and more of that 
 gas is taken from the atmospheric air, and passes through the mem- 
 brane of the air-cells, ,ar.J mingles with the blood. 
 
 The change, then, from venous to arterial blood consists in the carbon 
 being taken away, and oxygen imbibed ; and this is effected by the blood 
 being brought so nearly into contact with atmospheric air, of which oxygen 
 is a constituent part, and which has a greater affinity for carbon, and other 
 principles in the blood, than it has for the gases with which it wa!> 
 combined in the constitution of atmospheric air. 
 
 The capillary vessels, now carrying arterial instead of venous blood, 
 unite and form larger and yet larger vessels, until the united stream is 
 poured into the right cavity of the heart, thence to be propelled through 
 the frame. This subject has been treated at somewhat greater length, 
 because the lungs of the ox aflRjrd the best illustration of the division of 
 the bronchial tubes, and the separation of the substance of the lungs in,to 
 distinct lobuli, or little lobes, in which the bronchial tubes terminate, and 
 the air«celU are developed. 
 
 CATARRH OR HOOSE. 
 
 Anatomical detail may now, for a considerable time, be laid aside, and 
 inquiry be made into the diseases of the respiratory organs. Those only ol 
 the first of the air-passages, that of the nose have as yet been considered, 
 however, inflammation has spread beyond the lining membrane of the nasal 
 cavities, and begins to involve the fauces, the glands of the throat, and 
 the upper air-passages generally ; it is no longer coryza, but assumes the 
 name of catarrh, or is better known in the country by the term hoose. 
 This is a disease too little regarded by the owner of cattle, but the fore- 
 runner of the most frequent and fatal diseases to which they are subject. 
 
 It is often hard to say whence catarrh, or common cold, arises. The 
 slightest change of management or of temperature will sometimes pro- 
 duce it. In the beginning of spring, and towards the latter part of 
 autumn, it is particularly prevalent. Young beasts, and cows after calvino-. 
 •re very subject t; it. In e great B'any cases, however, it is the result u] 
 
LATAHRH OR HOOSF.. 377 
 
 mmniiinairemoiit. When cattle are crowded togelher Uiey are seldom 
 wiihmit hoose. If the cow-house is suffered to be heated to a considerable 
 number of degrees above the temperature of the external air, it is sure to 
 be present there. Many a sad cold is caught at the straw-yard, and particu- 
 'arly by young cattle . the food is scanty there ; it is not sufficient to afford 
 proper nourishment, or to keep up the proper warmth ; and the more 
 forward drive the others about, and permit them to obtain only a small 
 portion of their proper share of the provender; and then the depressing 
 elTects of cold, and wet, and hunger, so debilitate these poor beasts, that 
 they are seldom without catarrh — and that catarrh too frequently runs on 
 to a more serious disease. 
 
 Some breeds are more subject to hoose than others. The natives of a 
 southern district are seldom naturalized in a northern and colder clime 
 without several times passing through the ordeal of severe catarrh ; and, 
 where the system of breeding in and in has been carried to too great an 
 extent, and been pursued in defiance of many a warning, hoose, perpe- 
 tually occurring, difficult to remove, and degenerating into confirmed 
 phthisis, will painfully, but somewhat too late, convince the farmer of his 
 mistake. 
 
 The principal error, however, of the agriculturist is not that he suffers 
 the causes nf hoose to exist, or always gives them existence, but that he 
 underrates the mischievous and fatal character of the disease. To this 
 point we shall have to refer again and again; and if we can but induce 
 iiim to listen to the dictates of humanity and of interest, the present 
 treatise may rank among those which have diffused some ' useful 
 knowledge. ' 
 
 There is no disease of a chronic nature by which cattle are so seriously 
 Injured, or which is eventually so fatal to them, as hoose ; yet not one 
 herdsman in twenty, and very few of those whose interest is more at 
 stake, pay the slightest attention to it. The cow may cough on from week 
 to week, and no one takes notice of it until the quantity of milk is 
 seriously decreasing, or she is rapidly losing flesh, and then medical treat- 
 ment is generally unavailing. The disease has now reached the chest ; 
 the lungs are seriously affected ; and the foundation is laid for confirmed 
 consumption. 
 
 It is far from the wish of the author to inculcate a system of over- 
 nursings He knows full well that those cattle are most healthy that are 
 exposed to the usual changes of the weather, yet somewhat sheltered 
 from its greatest inclemency. He would not consider every cow that 
 hooses as a sick animal, and shut her up in some close place, and physic 
 and drench her, but he would endeavour to prevail on the farmer to be a 
 great deal more on the look out. The farmer or the herdsman should 
 be aware of every beast that coughs. It may be only a slight cold, 
 and in a few days may disappear of itself. He may wait and see whether 
 It will unless there are some urgent symptoms ; but, these few days 
 having passed, and the cow continuing to hoose, it begins to be im- 
 peratively necessary for him to adopt the proper measures, while they 
 may be serviceable. 
 
 I<et her be taken up and examined. Does she feed as well as ever? , 
 Does the dew stand upon her muzzle ? Are her flanks perfectly quiet ? 
 then one or two nights' housing, and a mash or two, or a dose of physic, 
 -nay set all light. But if, on examination, the muzzle is a little dry, and 
 Jhe root of the horn hot, and she heaves (although not much) at the 
 flanks, and the coat is mt so sleek as usual,, and she is a little off her 
 feed let her be bled. Experience will teach the larmer that these ciicsi 
 
S78 CATTLE. 
 
 affections, in cattle, often and speedily assume a highly inflammable cr>«>' 
 racter, and that they must be conquered at the first, or not at all. 
 
 To bleeding should succeed a dose of Epsom salts, with half an ounce 
 of ginger in it, to prevent griping and to promote perspiration, and to 
 excite the rumen to action ; but none of the hot, stimulating drinks of the 
 cowleech, and of the farmer too, by means of which they cause the 
 fire to burn with tenfold fury, instead of extinguishing it*. To this should 
 De added warmth, warm mashes, warm drinks, warm gruels, and a warm 
 out well-ventilated cow-house. 
 
 EPIDEMIC CATARRH. 
 
 Catarrh occasionally assumes an epidemic form ; it spreads over whole 
 districts ; it is more than usually virulent ; it associates with itself the 
 symptoms of other and of worse diseases, and it is strangely fatal. If a 
 cold yet variable spring succeeds to a wet and mild winter, there will be 
 scarcely a dairy or a straw-yard in some districts in which a considerable 
 number of cows will not labour under distressing hoose. Obstinate 
 costiveness attends the early stage of this disease, on which neither 
 Epsom salts, nor common salt, nor hnseed oil, can make any impression. 
 All seems to go into the rumen, and has for a while no power on the cuti- 
 cular coat of that stomach ; and then, whether the purgative course is pur- 
 sued or suspended, diarrhoea suddenly comes on, and bids equal defiance 
 to all astringent medicines. Sometimes, however, diarrhoea is present and 
 obstinate from the very beginning. 
 
 Tumours about the head, the roots of the ears, the neck, the back 
 and loins, and many of the joints, soon succeed, accompanied by a 
 singular crackling sound when pressed upon. There is decomposition 
 going on everywhere, and in the cellular texture among the rest, accom- 
 panied by the extrication of gas, the passage of which among the cells 
 beneath the skin is the cause of this crackling 
 
 While these tumours indicate decomposition in one part, the appearance 
 and odour of the fteces show that it is not inactive in the intestinal canal. 
 The discharge is offensive to a high degree, the breath loses its peculiar 
 and beautiful scent, and the vital powers are rapidly exhausted. 
 
 In most of these epidemics the first attack seems to be made on the 
 
 * Future ages will scarcely believe that, in the nineteenth century, a, work was pub- 
 lished on the diseases of cattle, and which had an unexampled sale, in which the foUow- 
 ing drink is recommended as powerful in removing ' fever and inflammation of the lungs, 
 and diseases of this kind.' There is not a single good ingredient in the whole mixture : 
 there are some inert dnigs, and the bulk is made up of absolute poison. 
 
 ' Take balsam of sulphur, two ounces ; Barbadoes tar, one ounce , the yolks of two eggs : 
 beat them well together in a large basin until they are properly incorporated, then add 
 ginger, aniseeds, cummin-seeds, elecampane-root, grains of paradise, and liquorice-ruot, 
 of each one ounce, in powder. Salt of tartar, half an ounce ; honey, four ounces. Mix 
 all together, and add by a little at a time, constantly stirring, one quart of warm ale 
 or gruel. If gruel is used, add a wine-glass of gin or brandy, and give it when new- 
 milk warm. 
 
 ' If it be given at the commencement of the disease, one or two of the drinks are gene- 
 rally found sufficient to remove the complaint. Its effects are powerful in removing and 
 carrying off the offending humours from the pulmonary vessels, and in restoring them to 
 their proper tune again. It warms, stimulates, and gives fresh action to the stomach and 
 I ntestines, by which nature will retturn to its regular course, and the health of the animal 
 le speedily restored.' 
 
 This is extracted from Clater's ' Every Man his own Cow-doctor. We will, however, 
 do justice to the proprietors of that work ; they have endeavoured to keep pace with the 
 increasing knowledge of the times : all this, worse than nonsense, is f xpunged, and 
 the work is now of a respectable character. 
 
THE MALIGNANT EPIDEMIC— MURRAIN. 3« 
 
 powers of organic life, and soon afterwards the animal syslen< shares it 
 the deleterious influence. The beast is unwilling to move ; it scarcely 
 Can move ; it staggers as it walks. It loses flesh every day ; the coat 
 stares, and clings to the bones ; the appetite is quite gone ; a foetid dis- 
 charge commences from the mouth and nostrils, and death soon follows. 
 
 The treatment of this disease in its early stage, and when alone it can 
 be treated with reasonable hope of success, may be characterized under 
 two words — promptitude and vigour. The state of inflammatory fever 
 which accompanies the early period of the disease is intense ; and unless 
 arrested it will (as we have seen in treating of that disease) speedily 
 exhaust every vital power ; therefore, fever existing, bleeding is impera- 
 tive. The qiiantitv of blood to be abstracted will be regulated by the 
 intensity of the inflammation, the apparent approach or commencement 
 of debility, and the effect produced while the blood continues to flow. All 
 of these circumstances should be most carefully attended to. If the fever 
 rages, the ox will bear to lose a much greater quantity of blood than the 
 horse, and uniformly with manifest advantage. If the state of debility is 
 evidently approaching, or has even commenced, bleeding, regulated by the 
 pulse, and stopped the moment that that falters, will generally be bene- 
 ficial : but, debility being established, or the bleeding carried on, after the 
 pulse has forbidden it, the abstraction of blood will only hasten the 
 catastrophe. 
 
 Aperients should undoubtedly be administered, accompanied or not by 
 aromatics, or the proportion of the aromatic regulated by the preponder- 
 ance of fever or debility. The sulphate of magnesia will be preferred ; 
 and early recourse should be had to the stomach-pump, in the manner 
 which has been already described, should the physic seem to accumulate 
 in the paunch. 
 
 The other medicines will also be regulated by the sym])toms. While 
 fever continues, the digitalis emetic tartar and nitre will be indicated. 
 When the febrile stage is passed, spirit of nitrous ether, laudanum, gen- 
 tian, and ginger will be indicated. The cow-house should be warm, yet 
 well ventilated. Mashes should be given, and green meat of every kind, 
 and this changed daily, if necessary, in order to humour the capricious 
 appetite of the patient. The strength being a little renovated, the bpast 
 may be turned into some pasture, close at hand, for a few hours during 
 the middle of the day. 
 
 THE MALIGNANT EPIDEMIC. MURRAIN. 
 
 Epidemic catarrh much oftener assumes a malignant form in cattle than 
 in horses, on account of the greater vascularity of the system, and intensity 
 of febrile action, and consequent vital exhaustion. It also appears as a 
 disease which is maligilatit from its very commencement. In former 
 times it was the pest of cattle, while horses comparatively escaped ; and, 
 in the present day, there is no disease of the horse, with the exception of 
 farcy and glanders combined, .so malignant as the murrain of cattle. It 
 once used to sweep away the horned stock of whole districts, and there 
 are few years in which it is not now seen in some part of the kingdom!. 
 It is here ranked under the diseases of the respiratory system, because that 
 System is usually first of all affected, and for a longer or shorter time alone 
 affected ; but the disease gradually takes on a typhoid character, and its 
 pestilential influence invades every portion of the frame. It principally 
 appears in marshy and woody districts, or where under-draining has beea 
 neglected or the cattle have been exposed and half-starved. 
 
 Thpre are foui d'lsefifes tbaf. a^surn.?. in its earlier or later stages, b 
 
J80 CATTLE. 
 
 greater variety of foriris; bu., disarmed of somewhat of its virulence i* 
 modern times, or at least having not appeared in all its terrors for some 
 years f)ast, it will generally be distinguished by some or the greater part 
 of the following symptoms. 
 
 There will be cough, frequent and painful, and, in many cases, for a 
 week or more before there is any other marked symptom. The farmer 
 may not always be aware of this, but he will find it out if he inquires 
 about it ; and he will be fully aware of the importance of the fact before 
 we have done with this division of our subject. 
 
 After a few days some heaving of the flanks will be added to the cough ; 
 the pulse will be small, hard, frequent, and sometimes irregular ; the 
 mouth hot ; the root of the horn cold ; the feeces sometimes hard and 
 black, at others liquid and black, and then very foetid. Presently 
 afterwards, that of which we have to speak again and again, is observed 
 — extreme tenderness along the spine, and particularly over the loins. 
 
 The cough becomes more frequent and convulsive, and a brown or 
 bloody matter runs from the nostrils and mout-h ; the eyes are swelled and 
 weeping; the patient grinds his teeth; there is frequent spasmodic con- 
 traction about the nostrils ; and the animal rarely lies down, or, if he does, 
 rises again immediately. 
 
 The eyes soon afterwards become unusually dull ; the pulse remains 
 small, but it has become feeble ; the respiration is quicker ; the flanks are 
 tucked up ; the tenderness on the loins is removed ; insensibility is steal- 
 ing over the frame ; and the faces are more loaded with mucus, and more 
 foetid. The patient moans ai d lows, and grinds his teeth almost inces- 
 santly; the head is agitated by a convulsive motion ; blood begins to 
 mingle with the fieces : the breath, and even the perspiration, become 
 offensive ; and the beast staggers as he walks. 
 
 Tumours and boils now, or often earlier, appear on various parts. If 
 they are to come forward, the sooner they rise the better, for much de- 
 pends on what becomes of them. If the animal has sufiicient strength for 
 them to go through the usual process of suppuration, although the slough- 
 ing and the stench may be greater than could'be thought possible, the 
 beast will have a chance to recover ; but if there is not energy to bring them 
 forward — if they become stationary — and, most assuredly, if they recede 
 and disappear, the patient will die. 
 
 The treatment of this disease is most unsatisfactory. If the farmer 
 could be brought to attend more to this cough in cattle, — if, here, he hiid 
 recognised the violent and increasing cough, — and, although he had not 
 dreamed of murrain, had bled and physicked the beast on account of the 
 cough, the disease would probably have been arrested, orut least its viru- 
 lence would have abated. 
 
 The early stage even of murrain is one of fever, and the treatment 
 should correspond with this — bleeding. Physic should be cautiously yet 
 not timorously resorted to. For sedative medicines there will rarely ha 
 room, except the cough should continue. Small doses of purgative 
 medicine, with more of the aromatic than we generally add, will be 
 serviceable, effectingthe present purpose,and not hastening or increasingthc 
 debility which generally is at hand ; but if the bowels are sufficiently open, 
 or diarrhoea should threaten, and yet symptoms of fever should be apparent, 
 no purgative must be given, but the sedatives should be mingled with some 
 vegetable tonic. The peculiar loetijd diarrhoea must be met with astrin- 
 gents, mingled also with vegetable tonics. In combating the pustular 
 and sloughing gangrenous stage, the chloride of lime will be the best 
 axternal application ; while it little of it administered with the other 
 
THE MALIGNANT EPIDKMIC— MURRAIN. 381 
 
 medicines inwardly may possibly lessen the tendency to general decumpo- 
 sition. The external application of it should not be confined to the 
 ulcerated parts alone, but it should be plentifully sprinkled over and 
 about the beast ; and the infected animal should be immediately removed 
 from the sound ones. 
 
 There is no satisfactory account of the malignant distemper which 
 occasionally appeared in former times, and swept away almost the whole 
 of the cattle in many districts. Those which do exist were written mostly 
 by physicians. They were the best chroniclers, certainly, which the age 
 afforded, but they knew little about cattle either in sickness or health; and 
 were not aware how little many of the principles of human medicine 
 apply either to the theory or the treatment of the diseases of cattle ; and 
 (most to be lamented, and most disgraceful to the parties) the farmer 
 would not furnish the physicians with sufficient relations of the symp- 
 toms, but purposely misled them, because they had recommended to the 
 government restrictions with regard to these diseased cattle inconsistent 
 with the inattention, prejudice, and fatalism of the owners. 
 
 An endeavour will here be made to supply this chasm in the history of 
 ■jattle, and to collect a connected account of these devastations. It will be 
 jseful and not uninteresting as a record, and it will throw considerable 
 {"'lit on the nature of the disease which yet remains, but, fortunately for 
 he farmer and his cattle, under an incomparably milder form. 
 
 The earliest record we have of murrain is the destruction of the cattle 
 of the Egyptians (Exod. ix. 2, &c.) • ' If thou refuse to let them go, 
 behold the hand of the Lord is upon thy cattle which is in the field ; 
 there shall be a very grievous murrain. To-niorrow the Lord shall do 
 this thing in the land. And the Lord did that thing on the morrow, and 
 all the cattle of Egypt died.' 
 
 During the siege of Troy vast numbers of (he cattle of the Greeks, and 
 of the Greeks themselves, are said to have perished by a pestilence. 
 Homer, the father of Grecian poetry, who is supposed to have written 
 about 900 years before Christ, in attributing the disorder to the arrows 
 of Apollo, might have meant only to suggest that the cause of these 
 mulignant diseases was in the air: and thus, perhaps, brutes receive 
 the contagion first, because their sense of smell is more acute than that of 
 the human being*. 
 
 Hippocrates, who flourished about 50.0 years afler Homer, and is the 
 earliest writer on medicine, while he justly ascribes all disorders to 
 divine agency, yet combats this supernatural and judicial interference, as 
 the offspring, of superstition and hypocrisy t- 
 
 Plutarch tells us that, during the reign of Romulus, a pestilence, after 
 destroying the fruits of the earth and the cattle, swept off many of the 
 Romans ; and Livy, speaking- of another visitation of the pest, says that 
 the consuls had the greater difficulty in raising their recruits, because the 
 plague which the year before had raged among the horned cattle had 
 ihen broken out among the men X- 
 
 Virgil, in his ' Georgics,' by ver.y far the most beautiful of his poems 
 
 BakX. — Iliad, lib. i. 
 
 On mules and dogs th' infection fiist began, 
 And last the vengeful arrows fixed in man. — Pope, 
 
 + ni(. ' Iijw Vnn. 
 
 I Delectus cuusiilibim eo diiEcilior eiat, quod pestileniia que priori anno ic liovet 
 •gnierat, eo verterat in horainum morboa. — Lnv lib. xIL 
 
582 CATTLK. 
 
 and containing many good agricultural precepts, which mojierii im- 
 provements have not rendered obsolete, gives a long history of the 
 murrain as it devastated some of the Roman farms*. He wrote ahou* 
 50 years before the Christian era. 
 
 * The picture is drawn from the very life, and the reader will forgive the length of 
 suine of the extracts. 
 
 Hie quondam morbo cobU miseranda coorta est 
 
 Tempestas, totoque autumni incanduit aestu. 
 
 Et genus omne neei pecudum dedit, omne ferarum, 
 
 Corrupitque lacus, infecit pabula tabo. 
 
 Nee via mortis erat simplex, sed ubi ignea venis 
 
 Omnibus acta sitis miseros addtixerat artus ; 
 
 Rursus abundabat iiuidus liquor; omniaque in se 
 
 Ossa miuutatim morbo collapsa trahebat. 
 
 Saepe in honore Deum medio stans hostia ad aram, 
 
 Lanea dum nivea circumdatur infula vitta. 
 
 Inter cunctantes cecidit moribunda ministros. 
 
 Aut si quam ferro mactaverat ante sacerdos ; 
 
 Inde neque impositis ardent altaria fibris. 
 
 Nee responsa potest consultus reddere vates ; 
 
 Ac vix suppositi tinguntur sanguine cultri, 
 
 Summaque jejuna sanie infuscatur arena. 
 
 Georg. lib. iii. v er. 478, Sic 
 
 Here from the vicious air and sickly skies 
 
 A plague did on the dumb creation rise : 
 
 During th' autumnal heats th" infection grew, 
 
 Tame cattle and the beasts of Nature slew, 
 
 Pois'ning the standing lakes and pools impure ; 
 
 Nor was the foodful grass in fields secure. 
 
 Strange death ! for, when the thirsty fire had druitV. 
 
 Their vital blood, and the dry nerves were shrunk, 
 
 When the contrsicted limbs were cramp'd, ev'n then 
 
 A wat'rish humour swell'd and ooz'd agen, 
 
 Converting into bane the kindly juice, 
 
 Oi-dain'd by Nature for a better use. 
 
 The victim ox, that was for altars prest, 
 
 Trimm'd with white ribbons and with garlands drest. 
 
 Sunk of himself, without the God's command, 
 
 Preventing the slow sacrificers' hand. 
 
 Or, by the holy butcher if he fell, 
 
 Th' inspected entrails could no fates foretell ; 
 
 Nor laid on altars, did pure flames arise ; 
 
 But clouds of mould'ring smoke forbade the sacrifice. 
 
 Scarcely the knife was redden'd with his gore. 
 
 Or the black poison stain'd the sandy floor. — Dryden. 
 
 It would seem that the disease assumed in that part of Italy the character which it 
 does theie, and on the continent generally, at the present day, much oftener, and to a 
 greater extent, than is seen in our country : it is what the French call " Fievre pernicieux 
 carbonculaire." It is not merely that inflammation of the cellular texture beneath tha 
 skin, so peculiarly the disease of cattle, which causes general tenderness wherever the 
 animal is touched, and pain which he cannot bear when he is pressed on the loins ; but 
 it proceeds to the formation of tumours, carbuncles, ulcers, and deposit of purulent fluid 
 everywhere. When the animal is examined after death, no blood follows the knife, but a 
 yellow, or glaiiy, and pus-like fluid ; and this not only immediately beneath the skin, but 
 deep between the muscles. Kven durmg life there is a kind of bloodlessness, and the knife 
 must penetrate deeply in order to find the vital fluid. The latter part of the above 
 quotation refers to this ; the former to the effusions either in the thorax or abdomeu 
 which are sometimes found on examining cattle that have died of murrain . 
 
 Hiiic laetis vituli vulgo moriuntur in herbis, 
 Et dulces animas plena ad praesepia reddunt. 
 Hinc canibus blandis rabies venit, et quatit aegios 
 Tugsis anhela sues, ac faucibus angit obesis. 
 Labitur infelix studiorum, atque immemor herbae 
 Victor equus, fontesque avertitur, et pede terram 
 
THE MALIGNANT EPIDEMIC— MURRAIN. 3S3 
 
 Our accounts of this disease are now few and meagre for iiiHiiy a cen- 
 •ury. In the year 376 after Christ, a murrain broke out among the cattle 
 over the whole of Europe. The historian is Cardinal Baronius, who, 
 either deeply imbued with the superstition of the age, or scrupling not to 
 support a noble cause by means unworthy of it, says that ' none escaped 
 but such as were marked on the forehead with the sign of the cross, by 
 which miracle many people were convertea to Christianity *.' 
 
 In 810 every head of cattle was destroyed in the Emperor Charlemagne's 
 rmy, and also throughout the greater part of his dominionsf. In 1514, 
 
 d again in 1599^, the Venetian states were so ravaged by it, that to 
 
 Crebro ferit : demissae aures : incertiis ibidem 
 Sudor, etilleqiiidem morituris frigidus : aret 
 Pellis, et ad tactum tractaati dura resistit, 
 Hsec aate exitium primis dant signa diebus. 
 Sin in jjrocessu coepit criidescere morbus, 
 Turn vero ardent es oculi, atque attractus ab alto 
 Spiritus interdum gemitu gravis : imaque lougo 
 Ilia singultu tendunt : it naribus ater 
 Sanguis, et obsessas fauces premit aspera lingua. 
 Ecce autem dure fumans sub vomers taurus 
 Concidit, et mixtum spumis vomit ore cruorem, 
 Extremosque ciet gemitus ; it tristis arator, 
 Moerentem abjungens fraterna morte juvencum, 
 Atque opeie in medio defixa relinquit aratra. 
 Non umbrae altorum nemorum, non moUia possunt 
 Prata movere animum, nun qui per saxa volutus 
 Purior electro campum petit amnis: at ima 
 Solvuntur latera, atque uculos stupor urguet inertes. 
 Ad terramque fluit devexo pundere cervix, — 
 
 Gearg. lib. iii. ver. 494, kt 
 
 The thriven calves in meads their food forsake, 
 
 And render their sweet souls before the plenteons ra<;k. 
 
 The fawning dog runs mad ; the wheezing swine 
 
 With coughs is chok'd, and labours from the chine : 
 
 The victor horse, forgetful of his food. 
 
 The palm renounces, and abhors the flood. 
 
 He paws the ground, and on his hanging ears 
 
 A doubtful sweat in clammy drops appears ; 
 
 Parch'd is his hide, and rugged are his hairs. 
 
 Such are the symptoms of this youn^ disease ; 
 
 But in time's process, when his pains increase. 
 
 He rolls his mournful eyes ; he deeply groans 
 
 With patient sobbing, and with manly moans. 
 
 He heaves for breath ; which from his lungs supplied 
 
 Aod fetch'd from far, distends his lab'ring side. 
 
 To his rough palate his dry tongue succeeds ; 
 
 And ropy gore he from his nostril bleeds. 
 
 The steer who to the yoke was bred to bow 
 
 (Studious of tillage, and the crooked plough) 
 
 Falls down and dies ; and, dying, voids a flood 
 
 Of foamy madness, miz'd with clotted blood. 
 
 The clown, who cursing Providence, repines. 
 
 His mournful fellow from the team disjoins ; 
 
 With many a groan forsakes his fruitless car^ 
 
 And in th' unfinish'd furrow leaves the share. 
 
 The pining steer nor shades of lofty woods 
 
 Nor fiow'ry meads, can ease, nor crystal Soods 
 
 RoU'd from the rock : his Sabby flanks decrease ; 
 
 His eyes are settled in a stupid peace ; 
 
 His bulk too weighty for his thighs is grown ; 
 
 And his unwieldy neck hangs drooping down. — Drgdat. 
 
 • Layard, on the Contagion? Distemper among Horned Cattle, p. P . 
 f Lancisi de Bovilla Peste. Part III. p. 1 10. 
 ( Itommaiini de Contagiosa Boum Epidemia. Ed, Lond, 1 717, p. 456. 
 
il84 CATTLK. 
 
 prevent the suppose', ill consequences of eating the flesh of tahited beasts^ 
 as well as to save the little remnant of cattle that was left, all beef and 
 I'eal were forbidden by the senate to be eaten throughout their state. 
 
 The Journal des Savans for 1632 contains an account of an epidemic 
 which destroyed a great number of cattle in most of the provinces of 
 France. The history of its symptoms shows how little was then known 
 of the diseases of cattle, or how careless were the examinations that were 
 made even by scientific men, and for the purpose of enlightening the pub- 
 lic. The animals ate and worked as usual until they fell dead in a 
 moment. The explanation of this is a little marvellous, and does not 
 quite agree with the previous story. ' A violet-coloured vesicle is found 
 under the tongue, on which an eschar or scab forms in five or six hours, 
 and on the falling of the eschar, the animal dies ; and when he was 
 opened, the intestines were in a state of gangrene, and so was the tongue, 
 for it often fell to pieces.' This was the gloss-anlhrax, or blain which has 
 been already described, but of a very malignant character, and associated 
 with murrain, as it is now sometimes found to be ; but the marvellous 
 story of the animal dropping all at once betrays inattention or ignorance, 
 or both, and makes us a little cautious how we implicitly trust to the re- 
 cords of those times. The practitioners of that day had, however, a 
 glimpse of the mode of treatment on which alone the slightest depend- 
 ence can be placed, for they rubbed the part (the vesicle under the tongue) 
 with a piece of silver, untilit bled, and then they washed the worind with 
 vinegar, well seasoned with pepper and salt. 
 
 It was in 1711 that the epidemics commenced, which, although some- 
 times suspending their ravages for a few years, or rather vi.siting new dis- 
 tricts when they ceased to desolate others, continued to be objects of terroi 
 until the establishment of veterinary schools. 
 
 The origin of the epidemic of 1711 seems to be clearly traced*. Some 
 cattle- merchants were importing, according to their annual custom, beasts 
 from Dalmatia, which were in request in some parts of Italy. One of 
 these oxen being taken ill, and straying from the herd, was abandoned by 
 the merchants in the neighbourhood of Padua. A servant of the canon 
 of Padua found him, and, whether with or without the knowledge of his 
 master does not appear, took possession of him, and put him into a cow- 
 house among others that were perfectly well. In a few days he died ; but 
 not until he had infected every beast ; and so surely that they all perished 
 except one, in whose neck setons had been placedf- The contagious nature 
 of the disease (for the contagiousness of true murrain cannot for a mo- 
 ment be doubted), finding a too powerful auxiliary in some peculiar state 
 of the atmos[)hei'e at that time, the malady quickly spread through the 
 whole Venetian territory. 
 
 Two Italian physicians, Rammazini anu Lancisi, have left us more in- 
 telligible and consistent accounts of it than we have of any of the epi- 
 demics which speedily followed on the continent of Europe, or of those 
 that occurred in onr own country nearly half a century afterwards. 
 
 By giving a short sketch of it as it appeared in Italy, there will be less 
 occasion to dilate on the succeeding epidemics of the Continent. It com- 
 menced with a shivering fit, followed by unnatural heat, extreme thirst, 
 difficulty of breathing, and general debility. A thick mucous discharge 
 from the nose atid mouth speedily succeeded, attended by a very un- 
 
 * Vid. Riimmaziui «t Laucisi. 
 
 f Kaminazini de Contagiosa Epidetr.ia, p. 456. See %\»o Hira on the Mortality ol 
 Huriic'd Cattle, p. 16. 
 
THE MALIGNANT EPIDEMIC MURRAIN. 38J 
 
 pleasant smell. There were twitchiiigs of various parts of the frame ; 
 frequent fcetid and bloody ejections ; and the appetite and rumination 
 ceased. On the fifth day there was a pustular eruption in the mouth, 
 which covered the tonjjue and the pharynx ; and abscesses followed, and 
 the bones beneath quickly became carious. The cattle died generally on 
 or about the fifth or ninth day. 
 
 The hair usually came partly or entirely off. If after the fall of the 
 hair, the skin became firmer ; or if the disease attacked the leg's or thighs, 
 and there were swellings of the joints, or about the limbs, and which almost 
 prevented the motion of the animal, he generally recovered. Cows that 
 gave milk often survived, but their calves uniformly perished. 
 
 On examination after death, hydatids were found in the brain and 
 lungs ; and it was said that they contained an infectious gas that could 
 scarcely be endured. If this were the case, they were vesicles formed by 
 the extravasated air in the process of decomposition, and not hydatids. 
 Ulcers were found at the root of the tongue, and gangrene in the intes- 
 tines. The third stomach always contained a hard, black, infections mass, 
 which adhered to the lining membrane, and could scarcely be separated 
 from it. 
 
 Ijancisi says, that he found no medicine effectual against this com- 
 plaint. Setons and the actual cautery were sometimes serviceable. Ram- 
 mazini fully confirms this, and says that the cattle in which either setons 
 or the cautery, or natural tumours and ulcerations had produced acopious 
 discharge of thick, purulent and fcetid matter, were the only ones that 
 escaped * 
 
 The pest was soon propagated over the greater part of Italy. It ap- 
 peared in Milan, under even a more virulent character than it had assumed 
 in the Venetian States; and when it reached the duchy of Ferrara, it had 
 so fearfully acquired strength as it proceeded, that it was the prevalent 
 opinion among the best-informed persons in the duchy, that the whole 
 species of horned cattle would quickly become extinct. As it travelled 
 it selected other victims; horses, deer, swine, and domestic poultry of 
 every kind were attacked by it. 
 
 As might be supposed, the most absurd ideas were entertained of its 
 nature and cause. Many of the beasts that had died in the preceding 
 year had not been buried deep enough, and clouds of hornets had bur- 
 rowed down to them, and fed on the putrid flesh. It was confidently 
 affirmed that a great proportion of the cases of murrain might be traced 
 to the empoisoned sting of these hornets. Some persons pretended to 
 find the black stings of these winged insects in different parts of the 
 animals t- 
 
 In 1714 it reached Piedmont, still apparently increasing in malignity. 
 According to Fantoni, Professor of Medicine at Turin, more than seventy 
 thousand cattle perished in that little territory J. 
 
 From Piedmont, it easily found its way into France. All the provinces 
 of the south of France, and bordering on Germany, were devastated by 
 it. And now its progress was rapid and murderous to a fearful degree i 
 ior before the end of the year, it had reached Brabant and Holland, in the 
 alter of which at least two hundred thousand cattle perished ; and 
 it bad crossed the channel to England, where it was as destructive as 
 on the Continent : but of its history and specific character in Britain 
 ihere is not any authentic record. 
 
 The disease afterwards began to exhibit new symptoms. If it first 
 
 • Vid. Sammazini, et Lancisi in loc. + Hurtrel lyArboval (Tyiihiis) 
 
 I tbia. 
 
3SR CATTLE. 
 
 attacked the membrane of the nose it sometimes confined its virulence to 
 that and the neighbouring parts, and the malady assumed the precise 
 form of mahg-nant acute glanders. The septum was ulcerated through 
 and through, and the horse and the ox died, in consequence of the local 
 mischief there done, and the constitutional irritation consequent upon 
 it, without determination of the malignant principle to any other part. 
 
 If the first attack was on the alimentary canal there tho fury of the 
 •disease was expended, and the animal was destroyed by dysentery: if the 
 membrane of the mouth was affected, it was soon covered by tumours, of 
 greater or less size, and many of them running on to ulceration. 
 
 The extensive ravages of murrain seemed now for awhile to cease ; 
 but it frequently appeared in certain districts, confining itself to them, but 
 being there murderous enough, and exciting the too well-grounded fear 
 that it would break out again, clothed with all its terrors. 
 
 In 1731, the epidemic of 1682 seemed to return. Glossanthrax, or 
 blain, of a malignant character, was prevalent in many of the provinces 
 of France, and very fatal there. 
 
 The vesicle formed most rapidly, and, if neglected, suffocated the 
 animal in less than twenty-four hours; or, if the vesicle broke, it was 
 succeeded by a chancrous ulcer, far more corroding than chancres gene- 
 rally are, and which, destroying the tongue and the posterior part of the 
 mouth, produced the death of the animal. The incomprehensible story 
 was again revived (there were no veterinary surgeons yet), that the beast 
 continued to eat and to drink, and to appear well, until the tongue fell 
 piecemeal from the mouth. 
 
 The cause of the disease was supposed to be the same as in 1682, and 
 it fared even worse with the horse than it did with the ox. 
 
 In 1743 and 1744, it appeared again, with increased fury, in the north 
 of France, and great part of Germany. 
 
 In 1745, it laid Holland waste a second time. More than 200,000 
 cattle now perished. In the same year, it again found its way to the 
 coast of Britain. It seems to have been clearly brought to us from Hol- 
 land, although there are two versions of the story. Dr. Mortimer says 
 that it was imported by means of two white calves which a farmer at 
 Pqplar sent for, in order to cross his own breed ; and that it spread into 
 Berkshire by means of two cows that were brought out of Essex. The 
 other account is, that one of our tanners bought a parcel of distempered 
 nides in Zealand, and which were forbidden to be sold there, and should 
 have been buried, and so transplanted this dreadful disease among us. 
 " Thus by one man's unlawful gain," says Dr. Layard, " if by this way 
 it was conveyed, the ruin of many graziers and farmers was effected.' It 
 is certain, however, that the pest first appeared in the immediate 
 neighbourhood of London, and on the Essex side of the river, and 
 that thence it gradually spread through Essex and Hertfordshire, and the 
 whole of the kingdom 
 
 For more than twelve years it continued to lay waste the country. The 
 number of beasts that were actually destroyed by it was not, and perhaps 
 could not, be ascertained; but, in the third year of the plague, when the 
 government had so seriously taken up the matter as to order that every 
 beast that exhibited the slightest marks of infection should be destroyed, 
 a remuneration being made to the owner, no fewer than 80,000 cattle were 
 slaughtered, besides those which died of the disease, and which formed, 
 according to the narration of one of the commissioners, nearly double 
 Ihat number. In the fourth year of the plague they were destroyed at 
 -he rate of 7000 per month, until, from the numerous impositions that 
 
THE MALIGNANT EPIDEMIC MURRAIN. 387 
 
 were practised, this portion of the preventive regulations was sus 
 pended. 
 
 In the year 1747, more than 40,000 cattle died in Nottinghamshire and 
 Leicestershire, and in Cheshire 30,000 died in about half a year. 
 
 The symptoms of the disease are best described by Drs. Brocklesby 
 and Hird, who, with many other medical men, exerted themselves in the 
 most praiseworthy manner to ascertain the nature and method of cure, or 
 the pi-evention, at least, of this dreadful malady. Dr. Layard's work is 
 the most laboured performance ; but he drew too much from Hippocrates, 
 and Sydenham, and Aldrovandus, and Aretaeus, and gives us far too little 
 of the result of his own observation. 
 
 The disease generally commenced with a dry, short, husky cough, as it 
 does at the present day ; but, as cattle are very subject to hoose, and par- 
 ticularly in the spring and fall, this, although it continued without any 
 other symptoms for eight or ten days, was generally overlooked. At 
 length the coat began to appear unhealthy; the eyes were heavy; 
 rumination ceased; the animal refused all food and drink; the milk 
 begin to decrease ; it acquired an unpleasant taste ; it became yellow, and 
 Eoon afterwards dried up. 
 
 These were precursory symptoms. The real and serious attack of the 
 disease was a shivering fit, succeeded by an intense heat and uncertain 
 remissions. The eyes became more heavy and dejected, and the conjunc- 
 tiva inflamed. The cough was now more violent, and respiration so 
 difficult that the animals seemed to struggle and pant for breath. 
 
 A swelling became visible externally about the glands of the throat, 
 ' which, in some cases, became so large as to threaten immediate suffocation. 
 The tongue and internal part of the mouth were hot and slimy ; the head 
 iiung down ; the ears drooped ; there was an unusual listlessness and 
 unwillingness to stir; a choice of solitude; a separation from the resi 
 of the herd ; and an evident dislike of being, in the slightest degree, 
 disturbed. 
 
 The bowels were at first costive, but looseness succeeded in less than 
 forty-eight hours after the shivering fit. The excrement was at first 
 green, watery, and intolerably foetid ; but it afterwards altered to a viscid 
 slimy matter. The purging continued, in fatal cases, through the whole 
 of the disease ; in those that recovered, it began to abate about the seventh 
 day. The existence of this looseness for a while was necessary to the 
 favourable termination of the disease ; for all in whom it did not appeal 
 within a few days after the shivering fit died. 
 
 A considerable foetid discharge proceeded in every case from the nos- 
 trils, and, iu some instances, from the eyes and mouth. It was thinner, 
 and of a more serous nature in the animals which died of the distemper; 
 but more consistent and better digested in those that recovered. 
 
 If the disease terminated fortunately, the inner surface of the mouth, and 
 the glands of the throat continued to have a healthy, inflammatory blush, 
 without any tendency to gangrene or mortification. Internal ulceration was 
 generally regarded as a most unfavourable symptom ; but if the external 
 swellings, whether of a greater or less size, -which usually appeared, 
 about the third or fourth day, broke, and discharged a great quantity oi 
 stinking purulent matter, the beast usually did well, although the ulcers 
 occasionally spread to a most fearful degree, and were always very difficult 
 to heal. Most of the beasts had a universal emphysema, or crackling 
 under the skin, and this in some proceeded to a very strange and curious 
 extent. 
 
 The continuance of the disease was very uncertain. Some died almcsl 
 
 SIC 2 
 
ass CATTLE- 
 
 suoUenly; in others, inflammation of the brain seemed to come rapidi; 
 on, and the cattle became so furious and danperous, that it was necessarj 
 to destroy them. Most died on the sixth or seventh day, and very few 
 lived on to the eleventh. The approach of death was usually indicated 
 by the mouth becoming cold, the breath foetid and cadaverous, the eyes 
 sunk in their orbits, the skin tense and clinging to the bones, and especially 
 the horns and teats becoming intensely cold. 
 
 The recovery was generally very rapid. On one day a beast appeared 
 in extreme distress, with every symptom urgent, and in less than four-and- 
 "wenty hours rumination had returned, the milk flowed free, and of its 
 natural colour, and she turned to the crib with some degree of appetite. 
 
 On dissection the paunch was always found very much distended with 
 food.* In the second stomach there was nothing unusual; but on the 
 third being cut into, there generally flowed from it a great quantity of thin 
 greenish water, of a most offensive smell. The fourth stomach exhibited 
 marks of inflammation, sometimes running on to gangrene. The intes- 
 tines had patches of inflammation, or gangrene ; but the liver, the spleen, 
 and the kidneys were scarcely affected. The lungs exhibited traces of the 
 intensest inflammation; they were usually congested with blood, while 
 purulent matter ran from every part of the bronchi. 
 
 The disease was evidently epidemic. It would cease, in a great degree, 
 towards the approach of summer. During one or two summers, in the 
 twelve years that it raged, it seemed to have altogether disappeared ; but 
 at the approach of winter it broke out afresh, sometimes in districts, the 
 cattle of which it had previoiisly thinned ; at other times, in places whicli 
 had hitherto escaped its fury, and very distant from those in which it had 
 seemed gradually to die away. It prevailed most generally and was most 
 fatal towards the latter part of the winter. February and sometimes 
 March were destructive months. There was also a strange caprice about 
 it. It would select its victims here and there. It would carry off half the 
 cattle in every dairy round a certain farm, and not touch a single beast there ; 
 but six months afterwards, it would return, and pounce upon this privileged 
 spot, and not leave one animal alive. There were other instances in which, 
 although it attacked the cattle on a certain farm, it readily yielded to the 
 power of medicine, or to that of nature, and not one in a dozen was lost ; 
 while on a contiguous farm, the soil, the produce, and the management 
 being apparently the same, not one in a dozen was saved. Its virulence 
 evidently depended on some mysterious atmospheric agency. 
 
 Was it contagious as well as epidemic ? This seems to have been 
 taken for granted by every one who had opportunity of observing the 
 disease ; and on this were founded the orders in council for the non 
 removal of infected beasts, the slaughter of them, and their burial within 
 three hours after death- 
 
 That it was communicable by immediate contact there can be little 
 doubt. The history of its introduction into Padua, and its propagation 
 through the neighbouring territory, were sufficient proofs of this. That 
 it might be communicated in a more indirect way, by the contact of the 
 person or thing that had been near or had touched the deceased animal, 
 was probable enough, and there were said to have been numerous instances 
 of it ; but, as is natural in these cases, the public were a great deal 
 more frightened about the matter than the real danger would justify. 
 
 The disease had far more of an epidemic than of a contagious character 
 about it ; and all that was really necessary, or could be of avail in those 
 cases, (and in the same disease, when it appears in the present day,) was 
 to remove the infected animal from all possible contact with others as soon 
 
THE MALIGNANT EPIDEMIC MURRAIN. .3S; 
 
 Bs pos'-ible ; to destroy all the litter and forajre which was left behind ; tf, 
 burn the less valuable harness or utensils ; to scour the place well with 
 chloride of lime ; and to forbid those who attended on the sick beasts from 
 having anything to do with the healthy ones. 
 
 The contagion would now be limited in virulence and extent ; and, in 
 many cases, it would be altogether destroyed by the plentiful use of the 
 chloride of lime. 
 
 lo was also very proper to have the carcases buried as soon as possible. 
 After such diseases the body runs to decomposition very rapidly, and the 
 neighbourhood of a mass of putrid matter cannot at any time be conducive 
 to health. 
 
 As to the using for human food the flesh of an animal that had died 
 of such a disease, common decency would forbid it. The law which pro 
 hibits the flesh of an animal that had perished by any disease from being 
 eaten, is a very proper one ; for it is impossible to say, however strong 
 may be the antiseptic power of the stomach, or the power of converting 
 a semiputrid matter into wholesome nutriment, that injurious effects 
 might not be produced on constitutions debilitated, or predisposed to 
 disease. 
 
 There were stories of pigs, and dogs, and ducks having perished in 
 consequence of eating the flesh of an animal that had died of murrain ; 
 but, on the other hand. Dr. Brocklesby relates a story of a countryman 
 who had often solicited a butcher to give him a beef-steak : at length the 
 butcher, tired with the fellow's importunities, determined to satisfy his 
 desire, and presented him with a large slice of meat from a beast that had 
 died of murrain. The clown was thankful enough, and soon afterwards 
 he returned with fresh solicitations for such another steak. After three 
 weeks had elapsed, the man was pointed out to Dr. Brocklesby, and was 
 apparently in perfect health ; but he certainly did not know what kind 
 of meat he had eaten. 
 
 Inoculation for this disease was tried by some celebrated agriculturists, 
 and particularly by Sir William St. Quentin, of Scrampton, in Yorkshire- 
 Eight calves were inoculated ; seven of which had the distemper and 
 recovered, and were afterwards turned into a herd of infected cattle, 
 without being diseased a second time. 
 
 He likewise inoculated an old ox, which had the distemper from inocu- 
 lation and recovered. This beast was afterwards turned into a herd of 
 infected cattle, and continued in the pasture with them until they were 
 all dead ; he was then put with another herd of infected cattle, but 
 still he escaped. 
 
 Dr. Layard produces «ome singular testimonies to this effect. He 
 speaks of one farmer who had eight cows that survived the distemper in 
 1746, and which, when the disease was again 'among his stock in 1749, 
 1755, and 1756, were in the midst of the sick cattle, lay with them in the 
 same barns, ate of the same fodder, and even of such as the distempered 
 beasts had left and slavered upon, drank after them, and constantly 
 received their breath and .steam, without being in the least affected. The 
 farmers were so assured of this, that they were always ready to give an 
 advanced price for those who recovered. 
 
 By order of council, boards of health were established in various parts 
 of the kingdom. They had instructions to prevent the sale or removal of 
 cattle from one district to another ; to cut off all communication between 
 the healthy and infected parts of the country ; to kill every beast that 
 they deemed to be infected, and to see that every beast that died was 
 
390 CATTLt 
 
 immediately buried. They were likewise charged with the institution of 
 certain means of cure, and more particularly of prevention.* 
 
 * As a matter of eutioBity, we put upon record, the first legislative enactment on such 
 B matter. 
 
 First Commission, March 12th, 1745. 
 
 His Majesty being desirous of doing all in his power to put a stop to the spreading o{ 
 the said distemper, has thought it fit, by and with the advice of his privy council (who 
 have consulted physicians and surgeons thereupon, and they have given it as their opinion 
 that all the methods of cure, which have been put in practice both at home and abroad, 
 have proved so unsuccessful, that they have rather contributed to propagate than stop tha 
 infection ; for while means have been using to save the sick, the disease spread amongst 
 the sound, and is increasing more and more, in proportion to the number seized with itj, 
 to make and establish the rules and regulations following, which his Majesty does, by 
 this order of his privy council, requiring and commanding all his subjects, in the several 
 counties, cities, towns, corporations, and parishes, and all parts of his realm, strictly to 
 pursue and observe, during his royal pleasure. 
 
 First, That all cowkeepers, farmers, and owners of any of the said several sorts of 
 cattle, in any place where the said distemper "has appeared, or shall hereafter appear, do, 
 as soon as any of the said cattle shall appear to have any signs or marks of the said 
 distemper, immediately remove such cattle to some place distant from the rest, and cause 
 the same to be shot, or otherwise killed, with as little effusion of blood as may be, and 
 the bodies to be immediately buried, wAh the skin and horns on, at least four feet in 
 depth above the body of the beast so buried, having first cut and slashed the hides 
 thereof from head to tail, and quite round the body, so as to render them of no use. 
 
 Secondly. That they do cause all the h.iy, which such infected cattle have breathed 
 upon, and all the hay, straw, or litter that they have touched or been near, to be forthwith 
 removed and burned ; and that no person who shall attend any infected cattle, shall go 
 near the sound ones in the same clothes. 
 
 Thirdly. That they do cause the houses, or buildings, where such infected cattle have 
 Btood, to be cleared from all dung and filth, and wet gunpowder, pitch, tar, or brimstone, 
 to be burnt or fired in several parts of such buildings, atithe same time keeping in the 
 smoke as much as possible ; and that the same be afterwards frequently washed with 
 vinegar and warm water ; and that no sound cattle be put therein for two months at 
 least. 
 
 Fourthly. That they do not sufier any of their cattle that shall have recovered from 
 he said distemper before the notification of this order, to be brought amongst the sound 
 cattle, until they shall have been kept separate a month at least, and until they shall 
 have been well curried and washed with vinegar and warm water. 
 
 Fifthly. That no person whatsoever do buy, sell, or expose for sale, the milk, or any 
 part of the flesh or entrails of any such infected cattle ; or feed, or cause to be fed, any 
 hug, calf, lamb, or any other animal therewith ; or drive, or cause to be drove, any such 
 infected cattle to any fair or market, either in or out of the county where the said cattle 
 now are, or to or from any place whatsoever, out of their own respective ground while 
 they are so distempered^ 
 
 Sixthly. That no person do drive or remove any of the said sorts of cattle, whether 
 infected or not infected, from any farm or ground, where any such infected cattle are, or 
 shall have been, within the space of one month before such removal. 
 
 Seventhly. That as soon as the distemper shall appear in or amongst any of the said 
 sorts of cattle of any cowkeepers, farmers, or other persons, they do immediately give 
 notice thereof to the constable }f the town or parish, and also to the churchwardens and 
 overseers of the parish or place where such infected cattle shall be, of the appearance of 
 such infection, or to any inspector to be appointed by the justices of the peace for the 
 district where sueh parish or place shall be, pursuant to the directions hereinafter given, 
 to the end that the said officers may be the better enabled to do their duty, according to 
 the directions hereinafter mentioned 
 
 That no person do presume to obstruct any constable, churchwarden, or overseer of the 
 poor, or other person, to be appointed by the justices of the peace, to assist in the execution 
 of the powers or directions given, or to be given, in pursuance of this order. 
 
 That whosoever shall disobey these said rules, orders, or regulations shall be strictly 
 prosecuted for the penalties inflicted by the said act. 
 
 And his Majesty doth further strictly command all constables, churchwardens, and 
 overseers of the poor, and such inspectors, if any shall be appointed as aforesaid, as soon 
 as they shall know, or be informed, that any of the said sorts of cattle, within their 
 respective districts, are infected, toygo to, and take an exact account of the number and 
 sorts of such cattle in the possession of any person, distinguishing the infected from such 
 »8 arc not BO, and to repeat those accounts weekly; and to we that the infected be shot, 
 
THE MALIGNANT EPIDEMIC MURRAIN. 391 
 
 They were composed of some of the magistrates of the district, and 
 of physicians who very handsomely proffered their gratuitous services ; 
 and they laboured twelve yeeers, and with so little avail, that at length, as 
 it were, by a simultaneous act they dissolved themselves. They could 
 discover no preventive — no cure for the disease, and the restrictions with 
 regard to the sale or removal of cattle, and communication between dif- 
 ferent districts were so frequently evaded, that it was either impossible or 
 impolitic to levy the penalties. 
 
 There was so much caprice about the disease, and beasts so often 
 recovered after all hope had seemed to have passed away, that the farmers 
 resisted the slaughtering of their cattle, or concealed them when they 
 were sick ; and, on the other hand, in ridicule of the competence of these 
 judges, they brought all their old and worn-out animals, or those that 
 were ill of totally different complaints, and had them destroyed, and 
 claimed the remuneration which the government allowed for those that 
 were infected with murrain. 
 
 Of the propriety, however, of this bonus for the destruction of infected 
 cattle, there cannot be a doubt ; for there were numerous mstances in 
 which those who began to kill the sick as soon as the distemper appeared 
 among their cattle, lost very few ; but others, who would kill none until 
 their own folly had made them wiser, did not save more than one out 
 of ten. 
 
 As to the more strictly medical part of the affair, there were such con- 
 tradictory opinions among these scientific men — some maintaining that il 
 was an inflammatory fever, and others that it was a bilious fever, and 
 each defending his theory with so much warmth and obstinacy, that the 
 simple farmer was first puzzled and then disgusted ; and there were also 
 such different modes of treatment recommended, — drugs both for pre- 
 vention and cure, which either had never been used for the diseases ot 
 cattle, or had been proved, even by the beast-leeches of the day, to be 
 perfectly inert in the ruminant ; and all evidently founded on conjecture 
 and hypothesis, and borrowing nothing from experience, that, iu the 
 language of Dr. Davies, " the graziers found more recover when left to 
 themselves, than when tampered with, and that nature was a better director 
 than an officious pretender." Dr. Layard gives a very curious account 
 of the matter. " Disappointed in their hopes from regular practitioners 
 of physic, they (the farmers) despised all regular methods, and ran head- 
 long after such remedies as were at once to remove every complaint, and 
 were honoured by the authors with the ever-recommending title of 
 Infallihles. Nor were these remedies more efficacious : tar water, Bate- 
 
 or otherwise killed, as aforesaid, reiroved, and buried, according to the beforementloned 
 rule; and that all that the other beforementioned rules, orders, and regulations, and such 
 directions as shall be given by the said justices, be punctually performed and obeyed. 
 
 And for the encouragement of the owners of such infected cattle, his Majesty doth 
 hereby promise, that they shall be paid by the commissioners of the treasury, for every 
 such infected beast as shall be killed according to these rules, immediately after the 
 affection shall appear upon them, one moiety, or half the value of his such cattle, not 
 exceeding the sum of forty shillings for each of the said sorts, excepting calves, and not 
 exceeding ten shillings for each calf, the numbers, and values, and conformities to the 
 said rules to be ascertained by the oaths of the owners, and two of the said constables,- 
 churchwardens, overseers, or inspectors, to be taken before one or two of the said justices, 
 who shall certify under their hands, or the hand of one of them, the sums of money 
 which such owners shall appear to their or his satisfaction to be entitled to, by virtue oi 
 this order, for infected beasts shot or killed, slashed and buried, according to the above 
 regulations. 
 
 Aud it is hereby further decreed, that for the better notifying of this order, the sama 
 t;e forthwith printed and published, and also inserted in the next London Gazette. 
 
392 CATTLE. 
 
 man's drops, Godfrey's cordial, worm powders, and many other thinffs 
 were all given, and all to no purpose, until, bewildered in a labyrinth 
 of opinions, and distracted through their absurd credulity, they became 
 as superstitious in this case for their beasts, as fatalists are with regard to 
 themselves.* They would only bleed and give milk-pottage, because they 
 believed these things innocent J and when by loss of blood or scouring 
 the cattle died, they said that they left the whole to Providence. If they 
 were cured, they said it was well ; if they died, they said no one knew 
 anything of the matter, nor could anything have done them good." 
 
 It is the character of these epidemics gradually to wear themselves out. 
 They are frequent, and malignant, and fatal enough at first ; but in pro- 
 cess of time they become more rare, and more tractable, and at length they 
 disappear ; or they select some other country, near or remote, as the scene 
 of devastation. About the year 1758, this epidemic was evidently declining 
 throughout the whole of the kingdom ; but it could not be said to have 
 quite left \is for several years afterwards. 
 
 In 1757, it again appeared in France, assuming a somewhat new 
 character. It was compoimded of inflammation of the tissue beneath 
 the skin, shown by the appearance of tumours on every part, asso- 
 ciated with acute inflammation of the lungs. It spread from cattle to 
 horses. The poor ass is said, for the first time, to have fallen a victim to 
 it, and these animals perished in great numbers. The stags in the neigh- 
 bouring forests did not escape ; and many flocks of sheep, over which 
 these epidemi;cs usually pass harmlessly, were swept away. The malady 
 yielded to bleeding and purging in the earliest stage ; but, being once 
 
 • For the amusement of our readers, and as a proof of the ignorance of the times, we 
 place upon record some curious preventions and modes of cure. 
 
 The infected beast was buried alive in a hole full of mud, with nothing out but ita 
 head, for nine hours, when it was taken out quite well. 
 
 For every beast seized with murrain, a small round pie was made up, with stiff paste 
 made of flour and butter, as is usually made for mince-pies, and as large as would hold 
 about six ounces of tar. When the tar was put into the pie, it was covered with a lid of 
 the same paste (it is not said whether or not it was to be baked, nor how it was to he 
 given), and one given to each beast. 
 
 Take a gallon of human urine, if a fortnight or three weeks old the better, put into it 
 ten himdfuls of hen's dimg. After ten hours' steeping, strain It off; and give to each 
 beast a pint and a half of it, throwing into each drink a good handful of rue, bruised or 
 ground. 
 
 Take two ounces of assafoetida, the like quantities of garlic, and a handful of rue, beat 
 them together into a kind of paste. A ball thereof, about the size of a walnut, must be 
 put into the ear of the beast, and stitched up. This is strongly recommended by a peer 
 of the realm. 
 
 We will add but two remedies more ; the one a very pleasant, and the other a very 
 marvellous one. 
 
 As soon as the distemper appears in any one or more of the cattle, on any farm, make 
 some good, strong, genuine rum-punch, in proportion to the number of cattle on such 
 farm. Then give every beast one, two, or three half-pints, in proportion to the size of the 
 beast, and that will put an immediate stop to the contagion, or if not, it may be repeated. 
 
 A very prevalent practice was to smoke the cattle almost to suffocation, by kindling 
 straw, Utter, and other combustible matter about them ; and this arose from the following 
 circumstance, which " rests on indisputable authority." An angel was seen to descend in 
 iforkshire, and to set a large tree on fire. The strange appearance of the thing, or the 
 smell of the smoke collected the neighbouring cattle around it, whether sound or infected, 
 and those which were infected were immediately cured, and on the others was bestowed 
 an immunity against the disease. The angel did not communicate verbally with any of 
 the people of the district, but he left a written direction, that they should catch this super- 
 natural fire, and communicate it from one to another with all possible speed ; and that 
 in case, by any unhappy means, it should be extinguished, a new fire of equal virtue 
 might be obtained, by rubbing two pieces of wood together until they caught fire. 
 
 For some weeks the whole country was in an uproar, and the sacred fire was commu- 
 aicat»>-' "'Dm one farmer to another over a very great extent of country. 
 
THE MALIGNANT EPIDEMIC MURRAIN. 393 
 
 established, it ran its course in spite of allmedical treatment, and the 
 measures adopted usually hastened the catastrophe. 
 
 In 175S, it had spread to Finland. There it assumed another form 
 modified by the climate, and many local causes. Some cattle were taken 
 all at once. There was violent trembling, amounting almost to convulsion 
 of every limb, and blood ran from the nose, and bloody slime from the 
 mouth, and the animal died in a few hours. In other cases the attack 
 was not so violent ; but after the shivering fit, tumours began to form 
 between the thighs, or on the front of the breast, or beneath the jaws ; 
 when the jaws were affected, the patient was supposed to be most in 
 danger. Diarrhoea usually followed. If it appeared early, it seemed to be 
 an effort of nature to throw off the evil, and frequently a successful one ; 
 if it came on after the second or third day, the beast had not long to live. 
 General bleeding was supposed to be dangerous, except in the very 
 earliest stage of the first species of the disease. Stimulants were thought 
 to be more useful, and particularly free and deep scarifications of the 
 tumours, and the surface of the ulcers. 
 
 From Finland the murrain passed into Russia, and was said to be very 
 fatal there; but we have not any satisfactory account of its progress in 
 that country. 
 
 Half a century had now elapsed, and, with occasional remissions, and 
 often very short ones, this malignant epidemic had prevailed, and novv it 
 had reached the very extremity of Europe. The attention of every 
 government had been anxiously directed to it. Prompted by benevolence, 
 or urged by the hope of honour or reward, the most eminent physicians 
 of the day had devoted their time and medical skill to the elucidation of 
 its nature, cause, and mode of treatment ; and all, not only without 
 success, but, it would almost seem, with an unfortunate result ; for the 
 malady continued to spread, although it was not so untractable or 
 murderous. 
 
 At length it became evident to the medical men who had fruitlessly 
 laboured to remedy the evil, and to the agriculturist who had suffered so 
 severely by it, that they were contending with the foe at much disadvan- 
 tage ; for they knew not his mode of warfare, nor the source whence he 
 derived his power. 
 
 They had not studied — ^no persons had then studied — the anatomy of 
 domesticated animals, or the influence of the conformation of the parts 
 on the discharge of the various functions, or the nature and cause of the 
 diseases of domesticated animals, and the effects of medicines on cattle in 
 health or disease. At length common sense suggested the propriety of the 
 establishment of veterinary schools ; and in 1761 the first European 
 vetennary school was established at Lyons, under the superintendence of 
 the justly celebrated Boargelat. 
 
 Partly, perhaps, from natural causes, the disease beginning, as we have 
 hinted, to wear itself out in France, but, to a considerable degree, from the 
 diligence and skill of the professors, the ravages of the epidemic were 
 evu'ently and quickly restrained ; and, although it could never be said to 
 have quite disappeared, either in France, or elsewhere, and is yet occasion- 
 ally far too fatal, yet its victims are, comparatively speaking, few, and it is 
 deprived of most of its terrors. This altered character and decreased 
 devastation of every subsequent epidemic must be traced mainly to one 
 cause — the preventive or curative measures suggested by veterinarians, 
 and the former, perhaps, much more than the latter. 
 
 The beneficial consequences of this new study and profession were to 
 
394 CATTLE. 
 
 manifest, that young men flocked to the school hi Lyons, not orly from 
 every province in France, but from Switzerland, Sardinia, Austria, Prussia, 
 and even Denmark and Sweden. A second school was established four 
 years afterwards at Alfort, and in process of time a third at Toulouse, and 
 the last was appropriated exclusively to the study of the diseases of cattle 
 and sheep. 
 
 Other governments fallowed the laudable example of that of France ; 
 and with the establishment of these schools was not only connected a 
 mitigation of these fatal maladies, but of every disease to which cattle and 
 horses were subject. Last of all (strange that it should have been so), 
 awakened to a sense of her interest, England established her veterinary 
 school, and devoted it to the same object as the continental ones — the 
 ijtudyof the art of preserving the health of all domesticated animals, and 
 cattle principally. Unfortunately, the English Veterinary College was 
 established at St. Pancras, too near to the metropolis ; and, like the one at 
 Alfort, in the immediate neighbourhood of Paris, the influence of situation 
 prevailed over the most excellent regulations that could be adopted, and 
 the patients became principally, or almost exclusively, horses. In the 
 French school, indeed, the instruction continued to extend to the treatment 
 of all domesticated animals, although the value and effect of that instruction 
 were much diminished by the want of cases illustrative of it ; but in the 
 English school, not only were there no horned patients, but not a lecture 
 was given on the anatomy or diseases of cattle ; and the pupils were sent 
 where they would of necessity have the ox and the sheep as their patients, 
 without the slightest knowledge of the maladies of either. 
 
 A veterinary school has lately, however, been established in Edinburgh, 
 under the patronage of the Highland Society of Scotland, where every- 
 thing that it behoves the practitioner to know is taught to the pupil ; and, 
 more recently, that excellent and truly liberal institution, the University of 
 London, has admitted a veterinary school under its roof, and, on the same 
 extended plan, embracing every object of the veterinarian's care. The neces- 
 sary and the beneficial result of this will be, that the diseases of cattle and 
 sheep, hitherto so. disgracetiiUy neglected among us, will be better under- 
 stood, and at no distant period the dreadful annual loss which the country 
 sustains in the death of cattle and sheep, and which has been underrated 
 rather than exaggerated at the commencement of this treatise, wili be 
 materially diminished. Why has the Board of Agriculture in England, 
 and the Agricultural Societies of England, so long neglected their duty, 
 while in every continental state the improvement of veterinary science has 
 been an object undeviatingly and successfully pursued ? The Highland 
 Society of Scotland is reaping the benefit of its judicious patronage of 
 veterinary science in the increased value of Scottish cattle ; and it is to be 
 hoped that the agriculturists of England will not be much longer inatten 
 tive to the dictates of interest, reason, and common sense. 
 
 Inflammation of the respiratory passages is often confined to particular 
 and to very small portions of them. The posterior part of the mouth, the 
 pharynx, through the funnel-shaped cavity of which the food passes in 
 order to arrive at the gullet, is peculiarly subject to inflammation : it is 
 recognised under the term sore throat, and is usually accompanied with 
 cough, and other symptoms of catarrh. 
 
 PHARYNQITES SORE THROAT 
 
 The characteristic symptoms are disinclination to food, suspension of 
 ruminatign, and difficulty in swallowing. Solid food is either dropped from 
 the mouth when partly masticated, or it is forced down by an evidently 
 
SOKE THROAT, &c. 39J 
 
 painful eSbrt ; liquids are generally obstinately refused, or are swallowed by a 
 convulsive kind of gulp. There is tenderness extending from ear to ear, and 
 usua'iy some degree of enlargement in proportion to the inflammation of 
 .he neighbouring parts, and especially the parotid glands are involved 
 Occasionally the irritation of the pharynx produces constriction of it« 
 muscles, and a portion of the food, both solid and fluid, is returned through 
 the nostrils. The cough of sore throat is a painful one, and is evidently 
 confined to the throat. It is seldom that this disease is a simple affection 
 in the horse ; it is usually combined with catarrh or influenza: it speedily 
 terminates in them ; or it is the sympathy of the pharynx with other 
 inflamed parts, and its treatment merges in the treatment of them ; except 
 that recourse should be had to local wacrmth and the application of local 
 stimuli. In cattle it is often a decidedly local affection ; there is not the 
 same tendency to take on inflammation in the neighbouring parts produced 
 by ill-usage or mismanagement; the treatment, however, will be the same, 
 viz. bleeding and physic, to abate the general fever, and stimulating 
 embrocations, or even blisters, to subdue the local inflammation. 
 
 The great development of the ethmoid and turbinated bones in the nose 
 of the ox, in order to increase the acuteness of smell in that animal, has 
 already been described (vide p. 310) : the consequence of this is, that there 
 is but a small passage left for the air; and when the membrane of the nose 
 occasionally sympathizes with that of the pharynx, and becomes inflamed 
 and thickened, there ensues a difficulty of breathing from sore throat which 
 is rarelv seen in the horse. It is true that the ox breathes partly through 
 the mouth, but the pharynx itself is constricted and thickened, and the 
 breatliing becomes laborious almost to suffocation : therefore sore throat 
 should be considered in a rather more serious light in the ox than in the 
 horse, and be treated with corresponding promptitude. 
 
 LARYNOITES INFLAMMATION OF THE LARYNX. 
 
 This is a dreadful disease, and, fortunately, one of rare occurrence. It is 
 inflammation of the lining membrane of the larynx, and is attended by a 
 quickened and loud and laborious breathing that would scarcely be 
 thought credible. In some few exceedingly acute cases the number of 
 respirations equals, or even exceeds, that of the pulse. The least pressure 
 on the neck over the larynx seems to give intense pain. The treatment is 
 here plainly indicated — bleeding, physic, blisters, and, when suffocation 
 actually threatens, tracheotomy. 
 
 EPIDEMIC AFFECTION OF THE UPPER AIR-PASSAGES, 
 
 In low and marshy districts, and a wet, cold, ungenial spring or autumn, 
 there is occasionally an epidemic inflammation of the pharynx, larynx, anc 
 windpipe, which differs in some respects from any of the diseases that have 
 yet been described, and is very fatal. The malaidy commences like most 
 febrile ones, with loss of appetite and suspension of rumination ; tp 
 these speedily succeed dulness, some prostration of strength, and a slight 
 difficulty of breathing. On the following day, or in the course of a few 
 hours, the throat becomes tender, and it is evidently a little gorged between 
 the channel, and extending some way down the neck. The animal finds 
 difficulty and pain in moving his head or his neck, and also in swallowing 
 the medicines or drinks which are given to him. The engorgement slowly 
 proceeds, or seems to be stationary for a while; the fever acquires no high 
 dsgree of intensity, but the languor and prostration of strength increase 
 
 anmc^'moe llorp i" Hischnro-p friim fhg ^^.jjth Or nOSC of a DUrulent cllB- 
 
396 CAITLK. 
 
 racter, yellowish-white in colour, foetid, tinged with blood, and seeminfr to 
 contain particles of some mucous membrane which has been corroded, and 
 is coming away piecemeal. The disease frequently terminates in suffoca- 
 tion about the fourth or fifth day. 
 
 On examination after death, the pharynx is generally filled with this purn- 
 ent matter, and the membrane beneath is in a state of ulceration, or gan- 
 grene. The inflammatory appearance, and the gangrenous one too, 
 extend to a greater or less distance down the gullet ; they usually occupy 
 the whole of the larynx, and often a considerable portion of the windpipe, 
 and occasionally may be traced into the bronchial tubes. It is evidently a 
 local affection; it is acute inflammation of the pharynx or the larynx; 
 ofl;enest of the former, and sometimes of both. The contents of the thorax 
 and the abdomen have usually been free from disease. 
 
 Bleeding has been found of little service in this complaint; the mani- 
 fest object of the practitioner is, either to hasten the suppuration while the 
 surrounding membrane and other parts retain some vital power, or to 
 evacuate the fluid as quickly as possible. For the first purpose blisters of 
 various kinds, and even the heated iron, have been applied to the throat; 
 for the second, the tumour has been lanced, however deeply it may be 
 seated. It requires, however, an experienced veterinary surgeon to con- 
 duct any operation here, for the part is crowded with important blood- 
 vessels, the wounding of one of which may be fatal. 
 
 When there is no great external enlargement, and yet much difficulty of 
 breathing exists, and suffocation is threatened, there is reason to apprehend 
 that the pharynx, or some factitious pouch which nature has suddenly 
 formed for the fluid, or (yet very rarely, for they are small in the ox) the 
 guttural pouches, or the commencement of the communication between the 
 mouth and the ear, are filled with pus. None but a veterinary surgeon, 
 and a skilful one too, should attempt an opening in such a case. The 
 following hints may be some guide to the young veterinarian. 
 
 PUNCTURING THE THAaYNX. 
 
 The beast must be cast, and properly secured. This must be effected 
 with as little violence as possible, for in the struggles of the animal, and 
 the sudden quickening of the breathing, suffocation may ensue in a mo- 
 ment. If there is a little greater enlargement ■ on one side than on the 
 other, the animal should be cast with that side upwards. The operator 
 should now have the head of the patient moderately extended, and then he 
 will ascertain the situation of the middle of the anterior edge of the atlas, 
 or first bone of the neck (vide n., p. 272). Close upon this, or con- 
 nected with it, he will find the posterior edge of the parotid gland. He 
 should'elevate the skin, and, taking the edge of the atlas as a guide, and fol- 
 lowing its direction, he should make his incision about two, or not exceed- 
 ing three inches in length, but no deeper than the skin and the cellular 
 substance, and the centre of his incision should answer to the centre of the 
 rounded edge of the atlas. A thin layer, partly muscular and partly 
 fibrous, will now present itself. It belongs to the subcutaneous muscle of 
 the neck, and it lies upon the parotid gland. He should dissect through it 
 carefully, and if his first incision has been a correct one, he will come upon 
 the posterior edge of the parotid gland. This he must separate cautiously 
 from the atlas, and from the cellular tissue by which it is tied down, and 
 elevate, or turn it aside, as far as the middle of the space which separates 
 the atlas from the mastoid process 
 
 The forefinger must now be introduced into the opening. There is first 
 felt a layer of soft parts, and then the superior lateral branch of the hy<r'' 
 
BRONCHtTIS. 39 
 
 bone, from the extremity of which a flat muscle — the stjlo-hyoideus (fig. 13 
 p. 332) — goes to the styloid process of the occipital bone. Immediately 
 under this muscle lies that portion of the pharynx which is connected with 
 the Eustachian tube ; and now, the back of the instrument being turnea 
 towards, or touching tlie parotid gland, and the edge of it towards the 
 ear and the head being somewhat more extended in order to change a little 
 the situation of the carotids and nerves, the bistoury is plunged through 
 the muscle into the pharynx beneath. 
 
 Sometimes the whole of the fluid cannot be evacuated through this first 
 incision, and a new one must be sought in a more dependent direction. A 
 curved sound must be introduced into the first orifice, and the end of it 
 made to press against different parts of the cavity, until it can be plainly 
 felt externally between ihe bifurcation of the jugular: every important 
 vessel and nerve will be in this way pushed aside, and the point of the 
 sound may be cut down upon v/ithout danger 
 
 BRONCHITIS. 
 
 When catarrh begins to spread, and to involve the lower and more 
 important air-passages, it attacks the bronchial tubes oftener than any 
 other portion of the respiratory apparatus. That which would become 
 inflammation of the substance of the lungs in the horse, is a similar atf'Bc- 
 tion of the lower and minuter air-passages in cattle. We are unable to 
 assign any satisfactory reason for this, but it is an important pathological 
 fact. It used to be called inflammation of the lungs in cattle, and is so 
 considered by the majority of farmers and cowleeches ; but since the im- 
 provement of veterinary science, this distinction, and one ot some moment, 
 has been established. Bronchitis, however, is seldom pure ; it is the pre- 
 vailing disease, but it is complicated with slighter inflammation of the 
 neighbouring substance of the lungs. Bronchitis is rarely sudden in its 
 attack. It is preceded, and generally for a lung time, by cough — cough 
 becoming more and more frequent and painful, and husky and wheezing. 
 
 Here, then, is another motive for attention to the hoose of cattle. 
 Catarrh, simply as catarrh, may do little harm ; but the inflammatory 
 affection will gradually involve other and more important membranes, 
 inflammation of which is generally fatal. Bronchitis is the interme- 
 diate step between catarrh and consumption, and it unfortunately is that 
 step which, if once taken, the other must follow. We may, therefore, 
 except when the disease assumes an epidemic character, (which it not 
 unfrequently does, and particularly in young cattle,) attribute it to the 
 neglect or mismanagement of the herlsman or the owner. 
 
 The existence of bronchitis may usually be detected by a gradual change 
 of the countenance; a sunken, anxious, haggard look; a rapid and labori- 
 ous breathing, attributable, at first glance, to something more than mere 
 catarrh, however severe that may occasionally be ; a cough, painful to a 
 very great degree, and against the full action of which the animal strives 
 as much as he is able, so that it is not full and perfect, but husky and 
 wheezing. There is a very considerable disinclination to move, v\ hich is 
 easily accounted for; for inflammation of the bronchial membrane is 
 accompanied by thickening of it, and by the secretion of a quantity of 
 viscid mucus, so that the passages are, to a considera')le degree, obstructed. 
 This gives a consciousness of the danger of suffocation, and occasionally 
 the disease terminates in suffocation. The slightest motion aggravates the 
 cough ; and motion of a sudden kind sadly oppresses and terrifies the 
 naimal. The breath, passing over so great an extent of inflamed surface, 
 iH evidently hot. The seal uf inflammation being deep, no pain is indi- 
 
»"» CATTLE. 
 
 cated when the side of the animal is pressed upon, or lightly struck ; and foi 
 the same reason the animal does not gaze anxiously at its sides. In addition 
 to this, and most important of all, and marking the fatal progress of the dis- 
 ease, the animal loses flesh rapidly, and to a very great extent ; the patient 
 , becomes a mere skeleton, and has not been unaptly described as crawling 
 about with merely a dry skin covering a set of creaking bones. 
 
 To young cattle bronchitis is particularly destructive, and the symp 
 toms and accompanying circumstances are very singular. A yearling is 
 often observed to have a cough peculiarly distres.sing. If he is bled, and 
 setoned, and physicked, the symptoms will sometimes rapidly abate, par- 
 ticularly, some think, if the worm-drink of the village doctress is adminis- 
 tered ; but in most cases remedial measures are applied in vain. The 
 cough continues as distressing as ever. The intermissions are short, and 
 the paroxysms exceedingly violent. The beast is off his feed, hidebound, 
 his belly tucked up, his coat staring, his flank heaving, and it is painful tc 
 hear him cough. This occurs principally on low, marshy, woody lands. 
 
 The animal at length dies, and the whole of the bronchial passages are 
 found to be completely choked up with worms. They are of the strongylus 
 species, and mostly ihejilaria. Many of them are also found in the 
 windpipe ; and the mucous membrane both of the windpipe and the bron- 
 chial passages presents an appearance of the intensest inflammation. 
 
 The generation of these parasitical insects will be best discussed when 
 (he worms that infest other passages are described : it will be suffi- 
 cient to observe, at present, that worms are oftenest found in an injurious 
 quantity in a moist state of the atmosphere, or in moist situations, and 
 especially in those which abundantly produce the vegetables and grasses 
 peculiar to such a locality ; and also in young subjects, and in those whose 
 constitution is somewhat enfeebled. AH these predisposing causes are 
 present here ; but the origin of the worm, — whether the eggs possibly float- 
 ing in the atmosphere, or contained in the food or the,drink of the animal, 
 find their proper and destined nidus in the vitiated secretion of the inflamed 
 mucous membrane of the trachea or bronchi, and are there hatched into 
 life ; or the membrane is irritated and inflamed by the presence of these 
 parasites, deposited ere the part was diseased ; — these are questions which 
 will be better solved by-and-by*. 
 
 * The ravaj^es of bronchitis in cattle are not confined to our country. The author has 
 lately been favoured with an account of the same disease, but with a somewhat different 
 character, as it prevails among and destroys thousands of the cattle of Jamaica every 
 year. It is essentially the bronchitis of Great Britain, modified by difference of climate ; 
 and miliary tubercles also usurping the place of the strongyli. It is most prevalent in low 
 marshy situations, but it is frequent and fatal in all the West India islands. Young cattle 
 are pecuUarly subject to it ; but it attacks beasts of every age. It is so fatal that no 
 means of cure are attempted ; but as soon as a beast begins to cough he is slaughtered, 
 if in tolerable condition; or he is got into condition as quickly as possible, and destroyed. 
 Cattle so attacked are called cough cattle, and there are droves of them upon, every 
 plantation of considerable size, with negroes, whose proper business it is to attend to 
 them, and who change them about among the best pasturage that the plantation will 
 afford. 
 
 Unon dissection, the fine delicate membrane lining the windpipe, especially about the 
 end next the fauces, is studded and thickly covered with a semi-orgauized deposition, to 
 the eye like hydatids, but fixed to the membrane itself, and not hanging down like the 
 grape-bunch; these are of various sizes, resenibling herring-roe, or fish-spawn. On being 
 cut into, a substance may be turned out of a gritty calculous description, so firmly con- 
 nected with the cyst that contains it, as scarcely to be separated. This substance niiay be 
 traced partially along the canal of the whole tube, and extending to the bronchi, and 
 imbedding itself eventually in the substance of the lungs, where alone it appears to be 
 accompanied by purulent matter, or pus of a yellow thick consistence. It is found in 
 various parts of the lungs ; sometimes in their substance, and also adhering to the pleura 
 axternally, and to the pleura costalis, where some degree of vascularity is evident. In 
 
BUONCHITIS. Syl 
 
 Bronchitis, when not attended with all the violent syinptonns that cha- 
 •acterize the existence of worms in young cattle, should be treated like 
 other inflammatory complaints. Bleeding will, as usual, be the first 
 remedy, and it should be carried to the extent which the pulse will allow ; 
 in general, however, the ox will not in this complaint bear the loss of so 
 much blood as in other chest affections. To this should follow physic, 
 and the sedative medicines already recommended, with mashes, &c. 
 
 In some cases a favourable termination of the case has been produced ; 
 but in the bronchitis with worms there. are exceedingly few cases of 
 successful treatment. The farmer is so convinced of the almost uniform 
 fatality of the malady, that he either slaughters the animal at once or 
 suffers him to take his chance. He may, perhaps, apply to some old 
 woman in his own or the neighbouring parish, who has an infallible drink 
 for all the diseases of cattle, but he rarely has recourse to the veterinary 
 surgeon. 
 
 Can nothing: then be done ? Is there no drug that can be brought to 
 bear upon these worms ? None directly ; for not only no fluid destruc- 
 tive to the worms, no fluid of a poisonous nature, can be introduced into 
 the trachea and bronchi, but no fluid at all can pass into these tubes. 
 Can any gas, then, of a deleterii)us character be breathed, not in sufhcient 
 quantity to injure the beast, and yet with a chance of destroying the 
 vermin ? Diluted chlorine gas might be inhaled. It might be breathed 
 more readily, and would not be arrested by the watchful sentinels in the 
 nasal cavities and the larynx, if an artificial opening were made into the 
 larynx. Other symptoms of bronchitis, and particularly the feeling o< 
 suffocation, might also be relieved or removed by this. 
 
 The animal would, probably, be much annoyed by sucn inhalation ; he 
 might cough for awhile with even greater violence ; but the worms dying, 
 or their hold being loosened, they might be expelled through the natural 
 or artificial opening by the very urgency of the cough. That veterinary 
 surgeon or agriculturist would deserve well of his country who puts this 
 fairly to the test. 
 
 There is another mode of going to work, and one that promises occa- 
 sional success. There are certain drugs that are taken up by the lacteals, 
 or by some of the absorbent vessels, and carried into the circulation, and 
 produce their effect by immediate contact with the part on which they 
 operate. Thus mercury acts in various local diseases ; iodine lessens the 
 growth of many tumours; and turpentine is a diuretic. Turpentine is 
 peculiarly destructive to worms. It most effectually expels the tape-worm 
 from the human being; and it often produces the expulsion of vast quan- 
 tities of the round worm from the horse. It also £nters into every part of 
 the circulation : it is recognisable in the urine and in the breath. Can i', 
 through the medium of the circulation, be brought into contact with these 
 worms ? It is worth the trial 
 
 Are there no medicines that promote expectoration in cattle, i. e. which 
 loosen the morbidly viscid mucus secreted in these tubes, and cause it to 
 be more easily discharged in the act of coughing? There is ao doubt 
 
 traversing the windpipe small worms are frequently discovered, like the end of a thread, 
 and of the shape of ascarides ; but whether they are the effect of accident, or connected 
 with the disease, does not clearly appear, for very few are found, and they are not always 
 present. Tubercles containing the same gritty substance are found in various parts oi 
 the liver. 
 
 In some cases this morbid appearance is not found in the upper part of the windpipe, 
 nor are there any si^n ^ of its havmg existed there ; but about the bifurcation of that tube, 
 and the commencement of the bronchi. Many flukes are often found in the livers— 
 I 'rival* Letter. 
 
•too CATTLE. 
 
 ihat certain drugs effect this purpose in the human being ; the exhaieutj 
 of the bronchi, under their influence, pour out an increased quantity o 
 mucus, far less adhesive in its nature, and expelled with little difficulty. 
 Some practitioners are so much in the habit of mingling numerous drugs 
 in the same ball, or drink, that ttiey cannot be assured of the precise effect 
 of each ; and others, from an equally erroneous habit of contracting their 
 pharmacopoeia, and shunning almost every drug in which the human 
 practitioner places confidence, have made few well-conducted experiments 
 on the power of different medicines even on the horse, and none on those 
 which are administered to cattle. The turpentine should take the pre- 
 cedence in any trial that may be made to expel the strongyli from the 
 bronchi ; and, that failing,: it might be worth while to experiment on the 
 effect of squills, or the gum benzoin, or the balbaiiis of Peru and Tolu. 
 
 INFLAMMATION OF THE LUNGS. 
 
 The beautiful appearance of the lights or lungs in cattle, compared with 
 those of the horse, will sufficiently prove that these animals are compara- 
 tively seldom subject to pure inflammation of the lungs. It has been 
 acknowledged, however, that, to a certain extent, it accompanies bron- 
 chitis; for, when the membrane of the air-passages is inflamed, it is 
 to be expected that the air-cells in which these passages terminate will 
 not quite escape. 
 
 The substance of the lungs is made up of thousands of these little ctlls 
 or pouclies, into which, as has been already stated, the air is at length 
 conducted ; and over the delicate membranes constituting the divisions of 
 which, myriads of minute vessels are ramifying, and where the blood 
 undergoes its important change. It is easy to imagine that this mem- 
 brane, so delicate and so loaded with blood-vessels, must be subject to 
 inflammation, and that of an exceedingly dangerous character. 
 
 Still, however, these air-cells are not so often the seat of inflammation 
 in cattle as might on first consideration be imagined. There are exciting 
 causes enough of inflammation in .the air-passages from exposure to the 
 inclemency of the weather, and from the general bad management to which 
 cattle are subject; and this may run on to the formation of tubercles and 
 ulcers, and death : but there is not the irregularity of exercise — the sud- 
 den and exorbitant demand for arterialized blood — the rushing of the 
 blood through these minute vessels — the distention, the labour, the rupture 
 of them, and their consequent disposition to inflammation. ' They are 
 different parts of the lungs which are exposed to danger in the two species 
 of animals ; and this suffieiently accounts for the different character of 
 disease. 
 
 Until lately all chest affections were confounded under the term pneu- 
 monia, or inflammation of the lungs ; and there is no reason for pushing 
 our distinctions too far, except that it is satisfactory to know the precise 
 nature of the disease which destroys our cattle, for that will probably lead 
 us to the discovery of the actual cause of the malady, different as we see 
 here in bronchitis and pneumonia. It may also lead to minute, yet im- 
 portant differences in the treatment of disease, as we shall have to point 
 out in the present case. 
 
 Pneumonia occasionally attacks all cattle, but more particularly working 
 beasts, and those that have been driven a long way, or that have been 
 unnecessarily hurried on a journey of a considerable length. The dis- 
 ease usiially appears at the distance of some hours, or a day or two, from 
 the exciting cause of it, and can generally be clearly traced to that cause 
 In the catching weather of harvest, in the haste to get the manure on tnu 
 
BRONCHITIS. 40\ 
 
 ^rniiiid when a sliarp hoar-frost suddenly appears and that does not 
 seem likely to last long, and in the hurrying from fair to fair when the 
 markets follow each other closely in distant parts of the district — we trace 
 evident causes of pneumonia. The beast is dull — the head is extended 
 or drooping — grazing and rumination have ceased. The flanks heave, 
 but not so laboriously as in bronchitis. There is cough, frequent — sore, 
 but not so frequent, nor so urgent, nor so painful as that of bronchitis. 
 The mouth is hot, but the horns and ears and feet are cold — deathy cold. 
 The animal will not lie down — he will scarcely move, but more from 
 inability to move because he wants the use of the muscles for other pur- 
 poses, than from fear of suffocation — and he plainly and anxiously points 
 out the seat of disease by looking at one or both flanks. Pneumoniav 
 then, would be easily distinguished from the disease which has been just 
 treated of, and from pleurisy, which will next come under consideration, 
 if the symptoms of the maladies of cattle were but a little more attended 
 to than they generally are. 
 
 Tlie treatment will vary in some minute particulars. Bleeding will 
 he indicated, and as early as possible, and, pursuing the old rule, the 
 blood should flow until the pulse is affected. A much greater quantity 
 will be abstracted in this disease than in bronchitis, because the animal 
 will bear up, or struggle with the loss of blood. In a membrane so vascular 
 as that which lines the air-cells, the inflammation will often be so intense 
 that it will not yield to one bleeding, and the progress of the disease must 
 therefore be watched with this view. 
 
 Physic will be as plainly indicated as in bronchitis ; and in despite 
 of a very proper fear about its being carried too far in the horse, and pro- 
 ducing a more untractable disease in the abdominal cavity, physic may 
 be given to cattle in pneumonia, generally with advantage, and always 
 without apprehension. It should, however, be of an unirritating kind 
 The purgative effect should be first produced by the Epsom salts, aijd 
 kept up by sulphur. In an acute inflammation, like that of the lungs, it 
 is necessary that the physic should act speedily, and yet it may amazingly 
 accumulate in the rumen. The practitioner hardly dare to unite with it 
 much aromatic or stimulating matter in order to rouse this comparatively 
 insensible viscus to action, but he must have speedy recourse to the sto- 
 mach-pump in the way already pointed out. 
 
 Blisters will here be especially indicated. The inflammation is no 
 longer that of the air-passages deep in the substance uf the lungs, but of 
 their terminations, upon the surface of the lungs, as well as everywhere 
 else. It is difficult to cause a blister to rise on the thick skin of the ox : 
 yet the common blister-ointment, thoroughly rubbed in, will occasionally 
 have effect. The turpentine tincture of cantharides, repeatedly applied, will 
 cause considerable swelling ; or, both of these failing, there remain, in bad 
 cases, boiling water and the hot iron at the command of the surgeon. 
 Setons in the dewlaps should never be omitted. 
 
 The same attention to diet is requisite as in other acute inflammations 
 of the chest. 
 
 ACDTE AND KPIDEMIC PNEUMONIA. 
 
 An acute species of pneumonia in cattle is sometimes met with, and it 
 occasionally appears as an epidemic. The beast hangs his head — there 
 is dryness of the muzzle — the mouth and breath are hot — the flanks more 
 or less agitated — there is a hard, dry, and frequent cough — the appetite is 
 gone, but the thirst is excessive — the ^excrement is solid and black, or 
 Hauid- black, and fetid — the coat rousJi — the horns. and ears hot, oi alter. 
 
 2 D 
 
402 CAlfLE. 
 
 nately hot und cold — there is languor and apparent weakness, and &u|h» 
 times direct lameness, and most frequently of one of the hind legs 
 
 To these rapidly succeed other symptoms — that tenderness along the spine 
 and the whole of the lumbar region which has been again and again descrit)ed 
 as so characteristic of almost every inflammatory disease of cattle ; the head 
 is now stretched out — the eyes are unnaturally bright, yet weeping — there 
 is grinding of the teeth — the mouth and breath become hotter — a mucous, 
 or sometimes purulent discharge runs from the mouth and nostrils, at 
 first clear, but soon becoming brown, red, or bloody — the flanks heave 
 more violently — the cough is more urgent — it has become convulsive — 
 the nostrils dilate and contract with spasmodic violence — the animal no 
 longer lies down, or if he does, rises again immediately — sweats break 
 out on different parts of the body — the temperature of different parts 
 varies, and very curiously changes — the secretion of milk is suspended, 
 but the teats become hard and swelled — tumours appear on various parts 
 — a shivering, partial or total, succeeds, and the tumours disappear, but 
 they speedily rise again and are more permanent. Possibly some of the 
 most urgent of the symptoms remit when the tumours begin to appear, 
 but towards night an exacerbation succeeds, which does not subside until 
 the morning. 
 
 The prostration of strength increases — the belly is tucked up and 
 corded — the flanks heave with greater violence — the back and loins 
 become bowed — the limbs are drawn together towards the centre of gra- 
 vity — the stools are liquid and fetid, and accompanied by much straining 
 and tenesmus — the sensibility of the loins is now subsided — the sensibility 
 generally is almost gone — the flies collect about the beast, and he makes 
 no effort to drive them away — every irritant ceases to act upon the skin — 
 the respiration is quickened, and more and more laborious — it is accom- 
 panied by a gurgling noise in the chest, dislinctly heard even without the 
 application of the ear to the side — the nostrils become yet more dilated, 
 and the mucus flowing from them varies in colour, but exhales a cadaverous, 
 infectious odour — the breath is now become cold, and is as offensive as 
 the discharge — the pupil of the eye becomes dilated-^an offensive secre- 
 tion proceeds from tlie lids, and the animal is evidently becoming blind 
 — the prostration of strength still goes on — the beast I'alls^he perhaps . 
 rises again (or a little while — and then falls and dies. 
 
 The disease is sometimes rapid in its progress, and the animal is destroyed 
 in twenty-four or eighi-and-forty hours after the first attack. This is 
 particularly the case with young cattle, and those that are in good condi* 
 tion. At other times, the beast lingers on six or seven days. 
 
 On examination after death, the lungs are gorged and black with blood; 
 they are softened, and easily torn ; they, however, contain some spots of 
 hepatization, or condensed substance, and often abscesses filled with pus. 
 In many parts gangrene has begun, and chiefly about the anterior portion 
 of the lung. The pleura, the pericardium, and the diaphragm are black, 
 thickened, and disposed to gangrene. Traces of inflammation are found 
 in the abdomen, but not of so intense a character. The rumen is filled 
 with dry food ; the contents of the manyplus are so hardened that they 
 may be broken and reduced to powder ; the fourth stomach is more or 
 less inflamed; the liver is enlarged, and of a yellow colour, and the bile 
 is thick6.it:d. 
 
 It is evidently inflammation of the lungs, associated, more or less, wiifa 
 that typhoid form of disease to which cattle are so subject. Solitary cases 
 of it are seen ; but it often appears as a kind of epidemic. It used to be 
 called gangrenous inflammation of the lungs, from the supposed gAa- 
 
ACUTE AND EPIDEMIC PNEUMONIA. <03 
 
 jrenous state in which the \angs were found ; but veterinary surgeons 
 are now aware that these appearances are produced more by conges- 
 lion ; and indicate the violence with which the blood has been driven 
 through the vessels of the air-cells, and by which those vessels have been 
 ruptured, and the cells tilled with blood. The blood, once effused, soon 
 coagulates in the cells, and gives that olack, softened, pulpy kind ol 
 appearance which the cowleech and the herdsman used to think was 
 proof positive of rottenness. It is true that this effused blood soon begins 
 to be decomposed, and the fcetid smell of corruption ensues ; but this is 
 very different from gangrene of a living part. These congested lungs 
 show that the inflammation was of the intensest character, and had not 
 been long in destroying the animal. 
 
 Foreign writers give several accounts of this disease raging as an epi- 
 zootic, and destroying a considerable proportion of the cattle. The his- 
 tory given by the poet Silins Italicus of an epidemic which raged in 
 Sicily two hundred and twelve years before the Christian era paints the 
 disease of modern times with almost perfect accuracy. It followed a long- 
 continued and excessive drought, which corrupted the water everywhere. 
 In 1693 the principality of Hesse lost the greater part of its cattle by a 
 malignant inflammation of the lungs. Here the winter had been wet and 
 cold, and the spring which succeeded was as hot as summer. It was also 
 said that an acrid and corrosive dew fell which tinged the linen with a 
 yellow hue 
 
 These writers imagined that the disease was not only epidemic, but 
 contagious. They affirm that an epizootic pneumonia, which ravaged the 
 department of Loiret, was brought into the environs of Montargis by some 
 cattle that had been sold by the drovers ; that it rapidly spread in all the 
 villages in which the infected cattle had been purchased, and that its com- 
 munication from place to place could easily be traced. 
 
 Professor Abildgaard, of Copenhagen, speaks of a species of pneu- 
 monia which lie considers to be contagious, and which spread through 
 the establishment of the King of Denmark. The contagious character 
 o*' the disease, however, is far from being established. No other variety 
 of pneumonia with which we are acquainted'is contagious, at least under 
 ordinary circumstances ; yet the accounts that have been given of it are 
 so contradictory, and veterinary science, as it regards cattle, is so truly in 
 its infancy, that the farmer should take the most prudent course, and 
 avoid, as much as he can, the possibility of contagion. 
 
 Few years pass in which this acute pneumonia does not visit some 
 districts of the United Kingdom. The symptoms vary, but it is decided! / 
 a disease of the respiratory system primarily, and the danger depends on 
 the intensity of the inflammatory action in the early stage, and the degree 
 in which the vital power being exhausted, disease of a typhoid and malig- 
 nant character succeeds. 
 
 Of the nature of the treatment there can be no rational doubt. Although 
 the state of acute fever is quickly succeeded by one of a, perfectly contrary 
 character, it is not until it has committed the most fearful ravages. The 
 congested state of the lungs — the breaking down of the substance of that 
 important ' part — ^must be sufficient to convince any rational person <i 
 the mischief that is gomg forward in the early stage, and the necessity 
 of disarming the enemy oefore that mischief is irreparably inflicted 
 Therefore this acute pneumonia snould be attacked in time, and by the 
 most energetic treatment. Bleeding is the sheet-anchor, and should be 
 pushed to its full extent. The important fact that the pulse, duly 
 „it^nAaA *f> w~:u «.«-;-> jK- ipssrljbiliiY ui" iuiiiurious consequences from 
 
«)4 CAITLK. 
 
 bleeding iil every case cannot be too often alluded to. While the pulae 
 keeps vp, the power of the constitution, or rather the power of the disease, 
 is unimpaired ; and the falteritig of pulse gives timely warning that one or 
 the other is preparing to give way. It is folly to object that the after 
 weakness will be increased, or that the bleeding will undermine the power 
 of the constitution : it is the disease which is doing this, and which will 
 perfectly and fatally accomplish its work if unchecked. By weakening 
 the power of the disease, and especially if it could be beaten out of the field, 
 the vigour of the system would be preserved, and the animal would be 
 saved. In proportion to the intensity and rapid progress of the inflam 
 mation should be the vigour of the attack. 
 
 The stale of the cough, and heat of the breath, and heaving of the flanks, 
 will indicate, in the space of a few hours, whether the fever is permanently 
 diminished, or has again rallied its forces ; and by this the practitioner will 
 be guided as to the propriety of a .second bleeding, and the Quantity of 
 blood to be taken away. 
 
 Physic will of course succeed. Two scruples of the farina of the croton 
 nut should first be given, as most likely to operate speedily ; and the 
 Epsom salts and the injection-pump should be in requisition until the 
 bowels are well opened. 
 
 This being accomplished, the nature of the medicines next to be admi- 
 nistered may well give the practitioner pause. If the inflammation 
 evidently continues, the digitalis, emetic tartar, and nitre will be given. 
 If the fever is, to a very considerable degree, subdued, but it is far from 
 certain whether there may not be lurking danger of its return, the sedative 
 medicines must still be given, but half an ounce of the spirit of nitrous 
 ether should be added. This is an excellent medicine in such cases. It 
 is both a sedative and a tonic. It allays irritation, and it stimulates to 
 healthy action. Its good effect, however, is often destroyed by its being 
 given in outrageous doses. In these doubtful cases it will rarely be 
 prudent to give more than half an ounce; and when designed as a stimu- 
 lant, the dose should rarely or never exceed double that quantity. 
 
 If the stage of debility is evidently and rapidly approaching, the chance 
 of doing good is almost gone. What power will restore the tiornier 
 healthy state of the lung? Yet there is no cause for absolute despair. 
 The mouth and nostrils and any suppurating tumours must be washed 
 with the chloride of lime. A small quantity — half a drachm of the powder 
 in solution — should be given internally, morning and night. The .spirit 
 of nitrous ether and laudanum, in doses not exceeding an ounce of the 
 former with half an ounce of the latter, should be administered ; and to 
 them may be added ginger, gentian, and Colombo, the whole being given 
 in thick gruel, with half a pint of good ale. 
 
 Malt ma.slies, vetches, carrots, clover, hay— according to the season — 
 may be offered as food, and, should the situation and time of the year 
 permit it, the animal should be turned into a salt-marsh as soon as it hati 
 strength to travel there. 
 
 The epidemic nature of the malady not admitting of any doubt, and its 
 contagious character being yet a question of dispute, while the healthy 
 beasts are separated from the diseased, the owner cannot too often visit, 
 nor too closely examine his cattle, in order to detect the earliest symptom 
 of the disease, and to attack it while there is fair hope of success. 
 
 The sound animals, every one of them, should be bled and physicked. 
 This inflammation is most intense in its character, and strong and healthy 
 beasts in good condition fare the worst ; then care should be taken to 
 remove a plethoric state of the svstein. and thus to remove the pmlis- 
 
PLEUKIST. 4U5 
 
 position to disease. They should likewise be turned, if possible, intti a 
 pasture g'ood and containing sufficient nourishment, but not quite so luxu- 
 riant as that on which they had probably been placed. 
 
 PLEURISY. 
 
 While disease of the substance of the lunges usually takes on the form 
 of bronchitis iu cattle, these animals are nevertheless, and much oftener 
 than the horse, subject to inflammation of the pleurae, or covering: mem- 
 brane of the lung, and the lining one of the chest. Some — although, pei- 
 haps, not quite satisfactory — reasons may be assigned for this. The 
 exemption of the ox from many of the exciting causes of pneumonia in 
 the horse has already been hinted at, and to this may be added many of 
 the exciting causes of pleurisy also. Among these, and the most frequent 
 and active of them, is the exposure to partial cold. A horse may be hardly 
 worked and ill used, but he generally has something which bears the sem- 
 blance of a stable or a hovel to shelter him at night ; but the ox, after hard 
 work, and the cow, too soon after parturition, have nothing but the cold 
 damp ground to lie upon. If the horse is thoughtlessly and cruelly aban- 
 doned in the same manner, yet the food passes out of his little stomuch 
 almost as fast as he gathers it, and he wanders about grazing during the 
 greater part or the whole of the night ; but the paunch of the ox is filled 
 before a third part c^ the night has passed, and then comes the slower 
 process of rumination, during which he usually lays himself down. What 
 i-an afford so prolific a cause of pleurisy ? If the horse can scarcely be 
 ridden against a keen wind, or immersed, although but for a little while, 
 as high as his chest in cold water, without exhibiting symptoms, more or 
 iess mtense, of pleurisy, what will become of the ox, whose side, during 
 the greater part of the night, is in contact with the frozen ground ? 
 
 Even in hts stable the ox is too much neglected. In many ill-managed 
 farms his shed is little more than a repository for dung, which there 
 undergoes its first fermentation. A little fresh litter is occasionally 
 strewed over it ; but underneath is a damp and poisonous mass, where the 
 process of evaporation and the diffusion of pestilential gas are in great 
 and almost equal activity. Supposing a beast to be couching on this 
 fomes of disease during the greater part of the night, — what can be more 
 likely to cause inflammation of the lining membrane of the chest, sepa- 
 rated from the muck-heap by so small a distance ? 
 
 Pleurisy may be produced by contusions on the side, and by wounds 
 penetrating the thoracic cavity : to these evils the ox, among his horned 
 brethren, is far more exposed than the horse. 
 
 Whatever be the cause, post-mortem examination proves that, next to 
 bronchitis, the most frequent disease of the chest is pleurisy. 
 
 Among the symptoms by which we may distinguish pleurisy from every 
 other inflammatory affection of the chest, is the greater frequency of uni- 
 versal shivering, and particularly of shivering or trembling of tl e shoul- 
 ders. This is a very peculiar symptom, and should be carefully studied. 
 . Even while the animal is otherwise quiet, the shoulders and upper part of 
 the chest are trembling violently. 
 
 The cough of pleurisy is lower, shorter, and more painful than that of 
 most ether chest affections. The breathing, seldom so laborious as in 
 some other cases, is shorter and broken off in the act of inspiration, and 
 lengthened in that of expiration. The sides are tender; the animal shrinks 
 '/ they are but lightly torched ; and there are twitchings of the skin, nr»l 
 
106 CATTLE. 
 
 a very curious succession of wavy iines running over the affected side oi 
 sides. 
 
 The author recollects one case in which these symptoms of pleurisy 
 were said to be absent — they certainly were absent when he saw the 
 patient. It was a cow that, during nearly two months, had been wasting 
 The emaciation had proceeded to a most unusual degree ; the skin clung 
 to the very bones, the flanks were tucked up, and the hair was coming off. 
 , She ute and ruminated as usual, and the only disease that could be con 
 necied with this loss of flesh was obstinate constipation. 
 
 Plenty of purgative medicine was given, but she continued to waste 
 away, and died. There was no disease of any of the viscera of the ab- 
 domen, and the only unusual appearance was the almost total absence of 
 internal fat, the diminution, or almost disappearance, of the mesenteric 
 glands, and a constricted state of the small intestines ; but the chest was 
 full of stinking puriform fluid, and there were adhesions in various direc- 
 tions. The real disease was pleurisy. The proprietor and the herdsman 
 were very closely questioned with regard to previous cough and other 
 -symptoms of this disease ; but they had not heard her hoose at all— they 
 were sure that she had not. 
 
 She must have had cough and other characteristic symptoms of pleurisy, 
 but to so slight a degree as not to attract the attention of those who look 
 over their cattle so carelessly as both farmers and their servants generally 
 do. It is, however, an instructive case, showing how much mischief may 
 be going forward when it is least suspected, and of what imperative 
 necessity an attention to the hoose of cattle is. 
 
 In bronchitis the animal dies of suffocation, or he is worn out by a 
 continuance of inflammation on so extensive a membrane : — in pneumonia 
 there is usually congestion of the lungs, so that the blood can no longer 
 circulate, or there are tubercles or vomicae, or the animal sinks here like- 
 wise under the continuance of the inflammation ; but the termination of 
 pleurisy is by the effusion of fluid into the chest, compressing the lungs 
 on every side, gradually rendering respiration difficult, and at length im- 
 possible, and destroying the beast here likewise by suffocation 
 
 There is little difference in the treatment of pneumonia and pleurisy. 
 In both the inflammation must be subdued by bleeding, physic, sedatives, 
 blisters, setons, and restricted diet. Half an ounce of the common liquid 
 turpentine may be used with advantage, instead of the nitre, when the 
 presence of pleurisy is clearly ascertained. 
 
 No advantage has been taken of an operation on the pleuritic ox by 
 which the fluid might be withdrawn from the chest, as in the horse. It 
 may be worth the attempt ; yet, when the few cases in which the punc- 
 turing of the chest has succeeded in the horse are considered, there 
 would not be room for any sanguine hope of success if it were practised 
 on the ox. 
 
 Besides this, there are generally adhesions between the covering of the 
 lung and the lining of the sides ; and between the lung and the diaphragm, 
 which would always interfere materially with the act of respiration and the 
 health of the animal. 
 
 In all these cases ot chest affection there is so little prospect of saving 
 the beast, that it would be the interest ot the owner to have him slaugh- 
 tered at the beginning, if he is at all in condition, or rather if he is not 
 deplorabl; thin. 
 
CHRONIC PLEURISY. 407 
 
 CHRONIC PLEURISY. 
 
 There is so instructive bn account of a chronic species of pleurisy, or of 
 mingled pneumonia and pleurisy, in ', The Recueil de M6dic'me V^t^ri- 
 naire,' for May, in the present year (1833), that the author is tempted to 
 give it at considerable length. It is written by M. Lecoq, one of the 
 teachers of the veterinary school of Lyons. There is considerable 
 resemblance between it and the account which has been given of common 
 pleurisy, but the reader will readily mark the difference, which is between 
 an acute and a chronic disease. 
 
 He is speaking of Soire-le-Chateau, in the arrondissement of Avesnes, 
 in which the farmers fatten more cattle than they breed, and therefore are 
 obliged to purchase out of the neighbouring districts, and principally 
 from Franche ComttS. He says that ' the cattle of tliat country are very 
 handsome, of a compact form, and fatten rapidly ; and that they are 
 the kind of cattle from which the grazier would derive most advantage, 
 were it not for some diseases to which they are subject. The malady by 
 whi(;h they are most frequently attacked, and which is particularly preva- 
 lent in some years, is one that is generably incurable, and the slaughter of 
 the animal before he has perceptibly wasted is the only means by which 
 the farmer can avoid losing the whole value of tlie beast : <his is chronic 
 pleura-pnemrumia — chronic pleurisy combined with pneumonia. 
 
 ' The symptoms are scarcely recognisable at first, and often the beast is 
 ill a long time without its being perceived. He fattens well, and when he 
 is slaughtered the owner is astonished to find scarcely half of the lung 
 capable of discharging the function of respiration. When, however, the 
 ox has not sufficient strength of constitution to resist the ravages of dis- 
 ease, the first symptom that is observed is diminution, or irregularity, of 
 appetite. Soon afterwards a frequent and dry cough is heard, which be- 
 comes feeble and painful as the disease proceeds. The dorso-lumbar por- 
 tion of the spine grows tender, the animal flinches when the part is pressed 
 upon, and utters a peculiar groan or grunt which the graziers regard as a 
 decisive symptom of the malady. 
 
 ' Quickly after this the movements of the flanks become irregular and 
 accelerated, and the act of respiration is accompanied by a kind of 
 balancing motion of the whole body. The sides of the chest become as 
 tender as the loins, or more so, for the animal immediately throws him 
 self down, if pressed upon with any force. The elbows in many subjects 
 become more and more separated from the sides of the chest. The pulse 
 is smaller than natural, and not considerably increased. The muzzle is 
 not and dry alternately ; the animal lies down as in a healthy state, but 
 rumination is partially or entirely suspended. The faeces are harder than 
 they should be; the urine is of its natural colour and quantity; the mouth 
 's often dry, and the horns and the ears retain their natural temperature. 
 
 ' This first stage of the disease sometimes continues during a month, 
 ir more, and then, if the animal is to recover, or at least apparently so, 
 the symptoms gradually disappear. First of all, the appetite returns, and 
 the beast begins to acquire a little flesh. The proprietor should then 
 make haste and get rid of him, for it is very rare that the malady, 
 however it may be palliated for awhile, does not reappear with greater 
 •ntensity than before. 
 
 * In most cases the disease continues to pursue its course towards its 
 fatal termination without any remission— every symptom gradually increas- 
 ing in mtensity. The respiration becomes more painful ; the head is 
 more exte ided ; the eyes are brilliant ; every expiration is accompanied by 
 
i08 CAITLK 
 
 a grunt, and by a kind of puckering of the angles of the lips; the cough 
 becomes snialler, more suppressed, and yet more painful ; the tongue pro- 
 trudes from the mouth, and a frothy mucus is abundantly discharged; 
 the breath becomes offensive ; a purulent fluid of a bloody colour escapes 
 from the nostrils ; diarrhoea, profuse and foetid, succeeds to the constipa- 
 tion ; the ■'inimal becomes rapidly weaker ; he is a complete skeleton, and 
 at length he dies. 
 
 ' Examination after death discovers slight traces of inflammation in the 
 intestines, discoloration of the liver, and a hard and dry substance con- 
 tained in the manyplus. The lungs adhere to the sides and to the dia- 
 phragm by numerous bands, evidently old and very firm. The substance 
 of the lungs often presents a reddish-grey hepatization throughout almost 
 its whole extent. At other times there are tubercles in every state of 
 hardness, and in that of suppuration. The portion of the lung that is not 
 hepatized is red, and gorged with blood. Beside the old adhesions, there 
 are numerous ones of recent date. The pleura is not much reddened, 
 but by its thickness in some points, its adhesions in others, and the effu- 
 sion of a serous fluid, it proves how much and how long it has partici- 
 pated in the inflammatory action. The trachea and the bronchi are 
 slightly red, and the right side of the heart is gorged with blood.' 
 
 M. Lecoq hazards some conjectures respecting the cause of this dis- 
 ease, which are very ingenious, and from which our breeders and graziers 
 may derive some useful hints. He says that ' the graziers imagine that 
 the animals bring the disease with them from their native country; and the 
 traces of chronic disease which are found in them, even when they are 
 slaughtered soon after their arrival, sing^ilarly confirm this opinion. Cattle 
 that have been worked hard, and driven far, and somewhat too rapidly, 
 are often attacked by diseases of the chest, which generally leave some 
 dangerous traces behind them ; and besides this, the breeders know their 
 interest sufficiently well to ^et rid of those animals as soon as they can 
 that have been affected with chest complaints. 
 
 ' The manner in which the journey is performed contributes much to 
 revive the old disorder. The cattle purchased in Franche Comt^ are 
 brought into Avesnes at two periods of the year — in the autumn and in 
 the spring. Those which are brought in the autumn are more subject to 
 *he disease than those which arrive in the spring ; and, almost always, the 
 years in which the malady is most prevalent are those in which the wea- 
 ther was bad during the journey of the beasts ; and the disease is usually 
 fatal in proportion to the badness of the weather. 
 
 ' The journey, also, is performed by two different routes — through Lor- 
 raine and Champagne, and often the disease appears only in the cattle that 
 have arrived by one of these routes. 
 
 ' The manner in which the cattle are 'reated on their arrival may con- 
 tribute not a little to the development of the disease. They have, perhaps, 
 been driven a hundred leagues during bad weather ; they have been half- 
 starved on their journey, and they arrive famished and worn out, and, in 
 fact, the greater part of them are lame. Calculating on their ravenous 
 appetite, the graziers, instead of giving them wholesome food, make 
 them consume the worst that the farm contains — all that is musty and 
 mouldy ; and it is often by the cough which the act of eating of such food 
 necessarily produces, that the malady is first discovered.' 
 
 The treatment of chronic pleurisy is. the most unsatisfactory part of this 
 excellent memoir. He orders mild and nourishing food ; for he argues 
 that by increasing the debility of the animal, his death will be hastened. 
 He recommends green meat, ia order to soften .^ft straugeiy-hardened 
 
CHRONIC PLEURISY. 4ej 
 
 coiitetits.of the nianyplus, and mucilaginous drinks (made' of oatmeal or 
 linseed) for the same purpose. Wliey is often given witn the same view, 
 bnd on account of the nutriment which it contains. Bleeding is rarely 
 employed ; or if the pulse should indicate venesection, very little blood is 
 abstracted at a time, but the small bleedings are occasionally repeated. 
 The ]irincipal dependence is placed on setons and rowels, which, if used 
 ^ all, are carried to a preat extent : but before these are resorted to, the 
 proprietor is requested lo determine whether he is disposed to persist in 
 the medical treatment of the animal ; for this mode of treatment having 
 been once commenced, the swellings and discolourations produced by the 
 setons and rowels will prevent llie butcher from afterwards purchasing 
 these animals. Injections, friction, and warmth are the auxiliary means 
 emplojed. 
 
 However skilful may be the treatment, or however steadily pursued, it 
 is rarely that a beast is saved ; and that is not surprising, considering the 
 numerous adhesions which were formed between the lungs and the sides 
 of the chest before the animal began to exhibit any symptoms of illness. 
 M. Lecoq adds, that it is good, although unpleasant, advice to give — it is 
 what has been many a time inculcated in this treatise — that it is always 
 preferable to send the diseased or suspected animal to the butcher before the 
 process of emaciation is established in good earnest: a part of the original 
 pri"e of the beast is then recovered, and the expense of medical treatment, 
 always long, and generally unsuccessful, is saved M. Lecoq candidly 
 confesses, that of thirty beasts of which he had the care, two only were 
 apparently cured, and got into condition, and one of them died suddenly 
 a few days after he was sold. 
 
 M. Lecoq finally enters into the question of the contagiousness of this 
 disease. The farmers believe it to be contagious, and he is partly of their 
 opinion. When a beast falls sick in the pasture, the others, after his 
 removal, go and smell at the grass where he has lain, and which he has 
 covered with his saliva ; and after that, M. Lecoq has always seen new 
 cases succeed to the first. He has also seen three cases in which the 
 cattle of the country, perfectly well before, have fallen ill, and died with 
 the same symptoms, except that they were more acute after they have been 
 kept with pleuritic cattle. He, therefore, regards this affection as contagious ; 
 or at least, he imagines that, in the progress of the disease, the breath 
 infects the air of a cowhouse in which there were other animals already 
 predisposed to this, or similar, maladies. On the other hand, he acknow- 
 ledges that many cases usually appear at the same time, and in cattle 
 that have been widely separated from each other. 
 
 M. Lecoq has very clearly stated the chief causes of this disease, in 
 addition to which it has clearly an epidemic character. There are certain 
 states of the atmosphere which call into action these lurking predispositions 
 to disease, found niost in the stranger cattle, but sometimes in the natives 
 (for bad management, and hoose, and pleurisy exist too much every- 
 where), but there is not yet sufficient evidence of the contagious nature of 
 all these affections of the respiratory organs. He, however, can never err 
 who has recourse to the careful use of every precautionary measure. 
 
 PHTHISIS, OR CONSUMPTION. 
 
 This is only a continuation of the same subject, or, rather, it in a de 
 scription of anotuer termination of chronic disease of the lungs. One of 
 the consequences of continued inflammation of the lungs is the formation 
 of tubercles. There is a greater or smaller number of little distinct cysts, 
 nr feWa. inlo which some fluid is poured in the progress of inflammation. 
 
'll l;.VTTLE. 
 
 These enlarjje, and occupy a space varying from the size of a pin's iieatl 
 to that of a large egg. By degrees the fluid changes to a solid, and the 
 tumour becomes harder than the surrounding substance, and so continues 
 for awhile— 'the consequence of inflammation, and the source of new irrita- 
 tion and disease. 
 
 At length it once more changes. The tubercle begins to soften at its 
 centre, something like suppuration goes on there, and the contents of 
 the swelling become perfectly fluid, but of a different nature from that 
 which first filled the cyst. It is now pus. The cyst increases with greater 
 or less rapidity; it comes in contact with neighbouring ones, and the walls 
 of each are absorbed by their mutual pressure. They run together and 
 form one cyst, which is called an abscess, or vomica. 
 
 An animal possessing this tuberculated state of the lungs, and the 
 tubercles running into abscesses, is said to be consumptive. So much of 
 the liuig is destroyed, that there is not enough left for the purposes of life, 
 and the patient wastes away, and dies. 
 
 The lungs of the cow after chronic or neglected catarrh, or bronchitis, 
 or pneumonia, or pleurisy, are much disposed to assume this tuberculated 
 and ulcerated state. The symptoms of consumption are not always to be 
 distinguished from those of pleurisy, or even pneumonia or bronchitis ; 
 and sometimes there may be extensive ulceration of the lungs without 
 any indication of disease sufficient to attract notice. When a bullock is 
 fattened for the butcher, and killed, we occasionally wonder to observe how 
 little of the Inn"' is left for the purpose of breaking. 
 
 A cough is the earliest symptom, but ■■ ■^— ■^w—^yi?""'-"" character. 
 It is too common to say carelessly, and sometimes cruerlyl^P a human 
 being, ' that person has a churchyard cough.' The prediction is^o often 
 verified: for although it would be difficult to describe that cqilgh, there 
 is a character of its own about it which cannot be mistaken. It is so with 
 regard to cattle That veterinary surgeonisignoTatit e^ ^^S'^profession, 
 who does not at once, and at a d i^aiii|e,^^&)teu i se tlie cough which, 
 although it- may not precisely indjaftte phthisis, beftrays a state of the lungs 
 pregnant with danger. How m^^ a neast mi^t the farmer save if he 
 would be attentive to this '• ^.^ ^ 
 
 A bullock hooses : — if thJ^oiigh is sonon/us and clear, the lung is not 
 yet fatally injured. ^||s^!^p^h, however,| must not be neglected long. 
 it tells of inflau|}?iation — it is the prodjhct of inflammation^and of 
 inflammation tMb* may be silently, but rapidly, disorganizing the lungs. 
 The prudent man will not suffer such a/cough to continue many days, 
 without giviti* a mash, or a dose of physic; or, perchance, bleeding, and 
 inserting a siton. This is one of the points to which we cannot too often 
 recur. It p new practice — it is new doctrine ; hut the interests of the 
 agriculturist are peculiarly connected with it. 
 
 But, by Sand by, this cough becomes altered. It is no longer loud, and 
 clear, and 'careless ; it is lower in its tone — feeble — hoarse. Mischief has 
 now been done, and perhaps of an irreparable kind. It must not, perhaps, 
 be said that the farmer will always' be able to point out the precise nature 
 of the affection of the chest from the sound of the cough ; but he will soon 
 learn to do it much oftener, and much more certainly, than he has hitherto 
 thought it possible. In simple catarrh there is an honest and unchecked 
 effort of the lungs to force on the cough ; yet some hoarseness may attend 
 that cough, plainly referable to the superior air-()assages. In bronchitis 
 there will also be a forcible effort; the mucus is viscid; and the membrane 
 of the tubes is thickened ; and the passage is diminished ; and considerable 
 force must be used tp urge on a volume of air, ani?. to carry tlie mucus 
 
PrirtllSIS, OR CONSUMPTION. 4, 
 
 hpfore it; but it is a force which acts slowly, and bj pressure, for the 
 raemhrane being inflamed is tender. The cough bespeMis pain; it is no 
 lonijer full and perfect, it is slowly performed, and at the same time husky 
 and wheezing, and the mucus rattles in the passages as it is forced along. 
 In pneumonia the cough is frequent— sore ; but it is not so sore as in 
 bronchitis, for it has not the same inflamed membrane to pass over ; it is, 
 however, painful, for the substance of the lung is inflamed, and therefore 
 it is low, and, to a certain degree, suppressed. In pleurisy the cough is 
 sharper, spasmodic, yet not loud. Hitherto the pain has been confined to 
 the lungs ; here the lining membrane of the chest is atFected, and intense 
 pain is felt at every rising and falling of the chest ; therefore the cough is 
 short — it is cnt short — it is somewhat spasmodic, and yet no louder than 
 can be helped. 
 
 All this, it is confessed, is new doctrine, and may be considered as bor- 
 dering too nearly on the regions of fancy by him who, never having attended 
 to these things, knows nothing about them; but let him begin to attend to 
 them, and the writer will venture to promise him that, although puzzled at 
 first, his progress in the art of distinguishing sounds will be most rapid ; and 
 he will at length begin to wonder that he could have lived so long among 
 his cattle, and have been so deaf to that which is become too plain to be 
 for a moment misunderstood. 
 
 The cough of incipient phthisis is an inward, feeble, painful, hoarse, 
 rattling, gurgling one. The farmer will have reas(m to tremble when 
 he recognises it, because it reveals fearful disorganization, which can 
 seldom be repaired. He needs not, however, quite despair. The lungs 
 of the cow have not been so sadly used as those of the horse. She is not 
 hurried beyond her will or her strength at the caprice or cruelty of her 
 owner. The progress of the mischief is not unnecessarily accelerated, nor 
 is the process of disorganization rapid. Weeks and months, or, under 
 favourable circumstances, years, may pass on, and few other symptoms be 
 added to this peculiar cough. 
 
 There is one duty, however, which the farmer owes 10 himself, and the 
 practitioner to him by whom he is employed, and that is, to take a fair 
 view of the whole of the case. Here is disorganization of the lungs — that 
 cough which, once understood, can never deceive, has plainly revealed it. 
 It is disorganization which may, in a few cases, be repaired; but in the 
 great, the decided majority of them, will proceed to its fatal termination. 
 At the same time, it is a disorganization which does not immediately inter- 
 fere with the discharge of the functions of life. The beast will fatten, and, 
 perhaps, almost as rapidly as before. In some cases it has been imagined 
 that, by careful feeding, a very considerable degree of condition has been 
 acquired with unusual quickness ; but this will not, cannot, last long. 
 The effect of diseased structure, and diminished substance of the lungs 
 will soon tell in the unthriftiness and loss of condition of the beast 
 Except, therefore, peculiar value is attached to the animal, will it be pru 
 dent to attempt any medical treatment at all, or at least beyond that of s 
 mere palliative nature? 
 
 If anything is to be done, bleeding will be here, as in other inflammatoiy 
 cases, the first step, but pursued in a more cautious manner than in any 
 of the others — never pushed beyond. the very first indication of its proper 
 etlect, nor repeated until afler due consideration, and a full conviction 
 .hat renewed irritation is begir.ning to be set up. To this must be added 
 mild doses of physic, and the use of the sedative medicines , with proper 
 care that the animal is not unnecessarily exposed to the vicissitudes of the 
 weather, and yet avoiding too much nursing 
 
<12 (JATILK 
 
 Another view may bj taken of the case. Induced by some peculiar 
 value which is placed on the breed, or by some circumstances which have, 
 in the owner's estimation, a favourable appearance, or, somewhat too 
 often, by the unjustifiable representations and promises of the practitioner, 
 the medical treatment of a phihisicky beast is attempted in good earnest. 
 
 The attempt appears to be successful ; the animal rallies, the cough 
 diminishes, the flanks become quiet, the appetite returns, the milk is 
 yielded more abundantly, the general condition of the beast seems to 
 improve, and both owner and practitioner bejrin to fancy that danger has 
 ceased. There is too much reason, however, for caution and fear. 
 
 There is one circumstance, and one only, which will enable them to 
 understand the real gro\ind on which they stand, and thiit is, the tharacter 
 of the cough, which will still remain, although much less frequent. Is it, 
 again, the clear sonorous cough which indicates the comparative healthi- 
 ness of the air-passages, or does it continue to be, to a greater or less 
 degree, the painful, inward, feeble, gurgling cough? If it is the latter, 
 the amendment is delusive. It is one of those strange, but temporary 
 rallyings of nature, or transient effects of medicitie, which are sometimes 
 witnessed; or, perhaps, there has been some salutary change of atmo- 
 spheric influence : but there is mischief still — irretrievable mischief — and 
 the most salutary advice that could be given to the owner would be, to 
 dispose of the animal while something like its value can be obtained. 
 Weeks, months may pass on ; but by and by, from some slight cause — or 
 from no cause that can be detected — the symptoms of confirmed phthisis 
 appear, and the animal is lost. 
 
 This secondary, and more violent attack, has many symptoms similat 
 to those tnat have been described as attending the later stages of bron- 
 chitis or pleurisy ; but there are a fiew which would point out the nature 
 and seat of the disease when there is no previous history of the case tc 
 guide the practitioner. The milk gradually diminishes, and, hud it been 
 eiiamined before its diminution in quantity, an evident deterioration in 
 quality would have been observed ; it has acquired an unpleasant flavour 
 — it quickly becomes sour — it spoils, or gives a peculiar taste to that with 
 which it is mixed. The butter that is made from it is ill-flavoured, and 
 the cheese will not acquire a proper consistence. Some have said that the 
 milk is of a blue colour, and that it has more serum in its composition 
 than ordinary and healthy milk. 
 
 There are few dairies in which there are not occasional differences in 
 the quantity and quality of the produce. The disappointment and the loss 
 of the dairyman have sometimes been considerable, and he has puzzleij 
 himself to no purpose to discover the cause; and has blamed the pasture ot 
 the servants, when his want of common observation has been the principal 
 source of the evil. Some of our readers may recollect these occurrences 
 in their establishments ; they may also recollect that a little while after- 
 >vards one, or two, or more, of their cows had bad hoose, and were losing 
 condition, and they got rid of them as quickly as they could. 
 
 When consumption begins to be confirmed the animal loses flesh will, 
 greater or less rapidity, and becomes evidentlv weak. She eats with 
 almost undiminished appetite ; but the process of rumination requiring 
 long, and now fatiguing' action of the jaws, is slowly and lazily per- 
 formed. There is frequently a discharge from the mouth or nostrils, oi 
 both ; at first colourless and without smell, but soon becoming purulent, 
 bloody, and foetid. Diarrhoea is present, and that to a degree on which 
 tie most powerful astringents can make no impression. Then, also 
 appears the inflammation of the tissue beneath the skin. Whalever part 
 
PHTHISIS, OR CONSUMPTION 413 
 
 of the animal is pressed upon, she shrinks ; and if upon the loins, she moans 
 with pain. The skin becomes dry and scaly ; and it strangely creaks as 
 the animal crawls staggering alon:;. 
 
 One circumstance is very remarkable and characteristic. The mind and 
 animal desires even of this comparatively dull and insensible being are 
 roused lo an extreme degree of intensity. The cow is, in many cases, almost 
 continually at heat. When she is impregnated, the cestrum does not 
 go oti'; and the consequence of this continuance of excitement is that she 
 is very subject to abortion. 
 
 One of the causes of consumption, almost unsuspected by many 
 breeders, and sufficiently guarded against only by a few — hereditary pre- 
 disposition — cannot be spoken of in too peremptory terms. It is rare, 
 indeed, that the offspring of a consumptive cow is not also consumptive. 
 If it is a heifer-calf, she may possibly live a little after her first calving, 
 and then she usually sickens, and the disease proceeds with a rapidity un- 
 known in the mother. The author recollects two dairies that were almost 
 destroyed by this hereditary taint. 
 
 Change of climate is a more frequent cause than maiiy imsigine. Some 
 dsirymen are aware how much depends (m the cow being suited to the 
 climate, or, rather, being in her native climate. This explains the strange 
 difference of opinion with regard to breeds. Almost every farmer is par- 
 tial to his own breed, and undervalues those of other districts, and even 
 those of his neighbours ; and to a very great degree he is right. His 
 cattle breathe their native air ; they are in a climate to which, by a slow 
 and most beneficial process, and extending through many a generation 
 back, their constitution has been in a manner moulded ; and it is only 
 after a long seasoning, and sometimes one attended by no little peril, that 
 the stranger becomes at home in a foreign district ; and so adapted and 
 reconciled to the temperature, and degree of dryness or moisture, and to 
 the difference of soil and herbage, as to do quite as well, and yield as 
 much and as good milk, as in the vale in which she was reared. There is 
 more in this than is often dreamed of in the farmer's philosophy. 
 
 Experience teaches that a change of climate involving a material differ- 
 ence in temperature, or soil, or herbage, is frequently prejudicial ; and 
 that while there is derangement in every system, the respiratory one seems 
 to suffer most, and a slow, insidious, yet fatal change is there oftenest 
 effected., If a dairy of cows is removed from a moist situation to a dry 
 and colder one, consumption will often appear among them, although a 
 dry air is otherwise esteemed a specific against the complaint ; but if they 
 are taken from a dry situation, and put on a woody and damp one, phthisis 
 is sure to appear before the first season is past. 
 
 Hurtrel D'Arboval states a curious fact relating to the Swiss cattle, and 
 connected with this part of our subject. He says that the cows in Swit- 
 zerland are not subject to consumption, although they pass the spring and 
 summer on the mountains, unsheltered, breathing the coolest and purest 
 air, and in the autumn and winter are shut up in close and hot stables, 
 where not. a breath of pure air can reach them, except when they are 
 driven, as they daily are, far through the snow to water. They, however 
 who have no upland pasture to which their cattle can be removed, and 
 whose beasts rarely go out of the miserable huts in which they are con- 
 fined and fed, lose many an animal from phthisis. Habit, and a consti- 
 tution gradually formed by the influence of these changes on many a gene- 
 ration, had prepared the first for them, or had rendered them in a manner 
 necessary ; but habit could not secure tlie others from the deleterious efiecl 
 «f oninnisnned air and unwholesome or insufficient food. 
 
».4 CATTLl!. 
 
 There is one striking fact, showing the injurious effect of heated niid 
 einpoisonad air on tiie pulmonary system. There are some rowhouses in 
 which the heat is intense, and the inmates are often in a state of profuse 
 perspiration. The doors and the windows must sometimes be opened, and 
 then tlie wind blows in cold enoug'h upon those that are close to them, 
 iind, one would naturally think, could not tail of bein<r injurious. No such 
 thing. These are the animals who escape ; but the others at the farther 
 end, on whom no wind blows, and where no perspiration is checked, are 
 the first to have hoose, inflammation, and consumption. This fact spesKs 
 volumes with regard to the management in many a farm. 
 
 This is an unsatisfactory account of the nature and treatment of con 
 sumption ; and, in now dismissing the diseases of the respiratory system, 
 the author is far more disposed to direct the attention of his readers to the 
 preventive than the medical treatment. By the former they may do much. 
 Let the over-filled cow-houses be enlarged, and the close and hot ones 
 better ventilated ; let cruel neglect, and exposure, and starvation yield to 
 more judicious and humane treatment ; when cattle are fed on dry meat, 
 let them have sufficient to drink two or three times every day ; let those 
 that exhibit decided symptoms of consumption be removed from the dairy, 
 nut because the disease is contagious, but because it is undeniably here- 
 ditary ; and, in fine, where so little can be done in the way of cure, let 
 nothing be omitted in the way of prevention. 
 
 CHAPTER XIT. 
 THE STRUCTURE .\ND DISEASES OF THE GULLET AND STOMACH& 
 
 THE (ESOPHAGUS, OR GULLET. 
 
 The food having been forced along the posterior part of the mouth by the 
 consecutive action of the tongue and the muscles of the pharynx, reaches 
 tlie (esophagvs, or gvllet.. This tube extends from the mouth to the sto- 
 machs, and conveys the food from the one to the other. In cattle tliis is 
 true in a double sense ; for not only does the food descend from the mouth 
 to one of the stomachs, when it is first gathered, but is returned for a 
 second mastication, and afterwards, a third time, traces the same path to 
 its destination in the true digestive stomach. We may expect, and we 
 shall find, some peculiarity of structure in the oesophagus, in order to 
 prepare it for this increased duty. 
 
 We first observe the great thickness and strength of the gullet in the 
 ox, compared witn that of the horse. It is really worth while to compare 
 the two together, and see how that of the ox is fitted tor its treble work. 
 Tlie outer coat of loose cellular substance is the same in both — yielding 
 and elastic. The second coat is a muscular one, and of great substance 
 and power. Its increased substance enables it to dilate, when the large 
 pellets of rapidly plucked grass, or pieces of parsnip or ])otato, or other 
 hard roots, enter it ; and the sam« increase of muscular substance enables 
 it to contract more powerfully on such food, and pass it on to the stomach 
 There are two layers of muscles in the gullet of all our dohieslicated 
 animals, and the fibres of the outer and innet layer run in different direc- 
 tions, and with plain and manifest reference to the natural food and habits 
 sf the animal. 
 
THE (ESOPHAGUS, OK GULLET. 4?5 
 
 The horse lives on grass or corn ; or if, when he is stabled, roolss are 
 someiimes given to him, especial care is taken that they are so cut and 
 sliced as to pass along the gullet without danger of forming any obstruction 
 there. The form and symmetry of the animal require that the tube shall 
 not be .arge or prominent, and yet, in his state of servitude, and his labours 
 too often capriciously exerted, little time is allowed either for rest or food. 
 The two layers in him are thus arranged : — the fibres of the outer layer 
 are longitu:tlinal, which, in their relaxed state, admit of the lengthening of 
 the tube when the neck is extended and the head brought close to the 
 ground in the act of grazing ; and by their contraction they shorten the 
 gullet in the act of swallowing. 1 he fibres of the inner layer are circular, 
 which, although not adapted to extend much, in order to admit of the pas- 
 sage of large and hard bodies, are best calculated to contract on the kind 
 of food which the horse swallows, and to force it down to the stomach 
 with all the rapidity that is sometimes needed. 
 
 The fibres of both layers of the muscular coat in the ox are spiral, but 
 they wind their way round the gullet in contrary directions, admitting 
 thus of the lengthening and shortening of the tube in grazing and swal- 
 lowing ; offering, perhaps, not so much pressure on the food, and which 
 the lazy mastication and rumination of the animal does not require ^ and 
 permitting a great deal more dilatation when some large and hard sub- 
 stance finds its way into the gullet. 
 
 The inner coat, although a continuation of the membrane of the pha- 
 l-ytix, is of a different character. It is more cuticular, smooth, and glisten- 
 ing. It lies in longitudinal plaits, so wide and numerous hs sufficiently 
 to dilate when the food passes, and to add very little to the obstacle whtn 
 a portibn of food unusually large is arrested in its passage. 
 
 The gullet pursues its cour.ie down the neck on the left of the windpipe, 
 until it reaches the chest. It enters with the windpipe and blood-vessels 
 through the opening between the two first ribs, and then winds its way 
 along the upper part, until it reaches the diaphragm, which it pierctis* and 
 then soon terminates in a singular canal, whicii will presently be desciibed. 
 
 OBSTRIICnoN IN THE OULLET. 
 
 This is commonly called choking, whether it occurs in horses or cattle, 
 ard is far more fatal in the former than the latter, although not so fre- 
 quent*. When a beast is first put on carrots, or parsnips, or potatoes, or 
 
 * Althougti this treatise is devoted to Cattle, yet we cannot forbear quoting a paragraph 
 or two relating to choking in the horse. The history of these curious cases, coramuiii. 
 CKted to ' the Veterinarian' l>y Mr. King, of Slanmore, may put the owners of horses a 
 little on their guard. 
 
 ' I was some years ago, as I was accidentally passing, called in to the horse of a coach 
 proprietor. The owner said that his hor-e had a bad sore throat, and cuuld not swbllow. 
 He could not swallow ; in fact, he did not even make an attempt, on sei/ere compression' 
 The history being, that he had worked and fed well the preceding day, and the oesoplia- 
 gus, as far as it could be examined, appearinij without any obsfrticlion, 1 did not suspec-l 
 the real cause. He was blistered and dlfenel*d, liut without any good eflect all the 
 liquids returning without any efforts to swallow. On the third day after I first saw him 
 he died. I much wished to asceitain the cause of the obstruction, and which proveil to 
 be a large ball of tobacco ashes, wrapped up in a double paper, and wWch rested in the 
 iBsophagus, about half way between its entrance into the thest and the stomach. All 
 knowledge of its having been given was stoutly denied, but it was afterwards confusst-d 
 that the nostrum was exhibited as a supposed cure for worms. 
 
 ' A cause of choking, and which has killed many horses, likewise exists in a notion that 
 new-laid eggs will improve condition. ' I believt Ai6 practice is, previoiisly to giving the 
 egg, to star the shell in a few places; andwheti the shell has not been suiBciently weak- 
 ened to yield to the pressure of the parts, thi mischief ensues. I was once called to a 
 -^... »,„!.,,,♦ l,nr«« with »u;)nu»ed sure throat. He had taken nothiug fur two days. 'J'he 
 
<18 cattlk. 
 
 urnips, he is very apt to be choked. The first mastication is always a 
 very careless affair, and everything that is put before the animal is swal- 
 lowed with very little chewing. If the herdsman has not been atten- 
 tive in slicing' or bruising the roots, mischief of this kind is likely to 
 happen. It happens oftener than the cow herd or the owner is willing to 
 confess, when eggs, either to promote condition in cattle, are given whole, 
 or loaded with tar, or some nauseous drug, in cases of blain, hoose, maw- 
 sick, or other supposed stomach complaints. 
 
 When the root sticks in the gullet, and can be evidently seen and fell 
 there, the farmer or the cowherd first gets his cartwhip — in good hands, not 
 a dangerous instrument, on account of its being pliable and yielding; 
 others take a cart-rope, which is somewhat more objectionable, because the 
 ends may do mischief. They who have neither good sense, nor regard for 
 the sufferings they may inflict, take even a common rack-stave. Whatever 
 it be, they thrust it down the gullet, and work away, might and main, to 
 drive the offending body down. 
 
 I'here is no doubt that some instrument should be introduced into the 
 gullet in order to push the root into the stomach, but it is the force that 
 is used to which we object, and that does all the mischief. A case or two 
 will illustrate this. The first occurred in the practice of Mr. King. A 
 cow was choked with a turnip ; the rack-stave was had recourse to, and 
 the owner was sure that ' he had passed the turnip, for the cow had swal- 
 lowed a drink that had been given.' Still she was not doing well ; there 
 was no rumination, and she would neither eat nor drink. Mr. King was 
 sent for. He found his patient low and feverish, and she heaved con- 
 siderably ; she swallowed everyihing that was poured down the throat; 
 there was no swelling of the neck ; no tumour could be felt externally, and 
 the probang went its full length into the stomach. The practitioner gave 
 the proper medicines in such a case, but on the third day the beast died. 
 On examining her it was found that the rack-stave had been used with so 
 much force as to make a considerable rent in the oesophagus, through 
 which the turnip escaped, and l£iy in the surrounding cellular membrane. 
 
 The second case occurred to the writer of this treatise. A market gar- 
 dener, on rooting up his parsnips, ordered them to be cut into small pieces 
 and given to his cattle. The hind gave them whole, and the beasts greedily 
 devoured them. A large piece stuck in the gullet of a valuable cow, and 
 was evidently seen and felt about half way down the neck, and the poor 
 animal began to swell enormously, and panted sadly. The cow-leech was 
 sent for, who using, first, the butt-end of a cartwhip, and afterwards a long 
 and stout osier rod, forced it into the chest, and then had no more power 
 over it with either of his rude instruments. The author was now s^ent for. 
 On applying a probang, he found the obstruction about three inches within 
 the thorax, and he soon ascertained that it was firmly impacted there. 
 The application of force in the common way was out of all question ; he, 
 therefore, withdrew the slider which guarded the protrusion of the stilett, 
 and endeavoured to move the obstruction forward by slight but repeated 
 percussions, and was convinced that he was gaining ground, although 
 very slowly. He persisted, and after the expiration of about twenty 
 minutes the parsnip gave way, and the probang entered the .stomach. 
 
 attendant swore he could not account for n; but as the animal liad every ;;eiieral indi- 
 cation of health, I gave little credit to his statement. Having properly secured l\v- 
 horse, I passed the probang down the throat, in doing which I experienced some resist' 
 ance. On its return to the mouth the bulb was literally covered with fragments of egg- 
 ihell. The horse was soon well ; but I doubt, if this egg had not been weakened, wh» 
 ther the quiet introduction of the instrument would have broken it dovn in that situation. 
 —Feleriimrwm, Jatmary, 1 833. 
 
DESCRIPTION OF THE (ESOPHAOUS PROBANG. 
 
 417 
 
 A vast quantity of gus, mixed with fluid of a very foetid character and 
 small portions of food, was violently discharged. The enlargement of the 
 belly subsided, and the animal experienced sudden, and, as it was thought, 
 perfect relief. By way of making everything sure, she was bled, and a 
 dose of physic was given to her ; but in eight-and-forty hours she was 
 dead. The whole of the gullet, from about eight inches below its com- 
 mencement to within the same distance from the stomach, presented a mass 
 of laceration and inflammation which had destroyed her. 
 
 DESCRIPTION OF THE (ESOPHAOUS PROBANO. 
 
 Every farmer should have a flexible probang ready for use, either of the 
 improved kind, as contrived by Mr. Read, or on the plan of that which 
 was first introduced by Dr. Monro. 
 
 This cut will give a' sufficient idea of the construction of the most use- 
 ful probang, or oesophagus-tube :^ 
 
 o -^^ 
 
 Fig. 1. a. The tube, made either of simple leather, or of leather covering 
 a canal formed of spiral wire. It is about four feet and a half in length, 
 so as to reach from the mouth to the rumen, and leaving a sufficient por- 
 tion outside the mouth for it to be firmly grasped. 
 
 b. The stilett, represented as introduced into the tube, and running the 
 whole length of it. It gives greater firmness and strength to the tube, 
 when it is either passed into the stomach in cases of hoove, or used to 
 force any thing down the gullet. 
 
 c. The handle of the stilett. 
 
 d. A hollow piece of wood running freely upon the stilett, and placed 
 between the handle of the stilett and the round extremity of the tube. 
 The stilett is longer than the tube by the extent of this piece of wood, 
 but is' prevented from protruding beyond the bulb of the tube at the other 
 end by the interposition of this slider at the handle. The stilett may 
 be introduced at either end of the tube. It is usually inserted at e when 
 the instrument is used to force any obstructing body down the throat, be< 
 cause the enlarged and bulbous termination of the tube at the other end 
 has a flat or rather concave surface, and can therefore act with more 
 efiect and power on the substance which sticks in the throat. 
 
 e. The end of the tube which is introduced into the paunch in cases of 
 hoove. Its rounded extremity will permit it to be more easily forced 
 through the roof of the paunch, and it is {Perforated with holes for the 
 escane of the eras with which the paunch mav be distended. 
 
 2 E 
 
■lU CATTLK 
 
 Hg. 2 represents the whalebone stilett, with the hollow piece of wood 
 running upon i-t, and shows how easily it may be withdrawn from the 
 stilett when that is taken out of the tube. The running piece of wood 
 being withdrawn, if the handle of the stilett is then pushed down on the 
 bulb- of the tube, a portion of it will project at the other end ; and by 
 moving the stilett up and down in the tube, this may be made to act 
 on the obstructing body in the manner and with somewhat of the force 
 of a hammer. 
 
 Fig. 3 will be presently described. 
 
 Fig. 4 is a piece of thicl^ strong wood, widest at the centre, and there 
 perforated. It is introduced into the mouth in order to keep it open 
 during the use of the probang, which is inserted through the hole in 
 the ceiitre. Leathern straps are nailed to the extremities: these are 
 buckled round the horns, and by means of them this mouth-piece is 
 securely fastened ; while one of the extremities, being grasped by the ope- 
 rator, forms a very useful point of support during the use of the tube. 
 The farmer should also have another mouth-piece, with a central hole that 
 will admit of the passage of a small hand. He will thus be enabled to 
 get at and to remove substances that have not descended beyond the com- 
 mencement of the gullet, or that have been returned so far by means to 
 be hereafter described. This mouth-piece will be very useful in cases of 
 polypus in the nose and many diseases nf the pharynx ; but it would be 
 too large to be long continued in the mouth without great pain to the 
 animal, nor could the probang be so securely or eflfectually worked through 
 so extensive an aperture. It is high time that those rude, and danger- 
 ous, and ineffectual instruments — the cart-whip, and the cart-rope, and the 
 rack -stave — should be banished from the practice of the veterinary surgeon, 
 and discarded by the farmer too. 
 
 MODE OF OPERATING FOR THE REMOVAL OF SUBSTANCES OBSTRUCTINQ 
 
 THE GULLET. 
 
 Let it be supposed that a cow has swallowed a potato, or turnip, too 
 large to descend the gullet, and which is arrested in its progress, and 
 evidently seen at a certain distance down the throat. The farmer should 
 have immediate recourse to the oesophagus-tube, introducing the flatter 
 end into the throat, and using moderate force. If the obstructing body 
 yields to this, he wili be justified in pushing it on within the chest ; but 
 if, with the application of a fair degree of force, it is very slowly, and 
 with difficulty pushed on, the operator should instantly relinquish the de- 
 termination to drive it down, for the fibres of the muscular coat of the 
 gullet soon become irritated by the continued distention, and contract 
 powerfully, and, as it were, spasmodically, upon the foreign body, and 
 imprison it there. It should also be remembered that the gullet itself be- 
 comes smaller as soon as it has entered the thorax ; and, consequently, 
 that, which could not be moved without difficulty in the upper part of the 
 neck, will not be moved at all in the lower portion of it. 
 
 The next consideration then is, whether, although the obstructing body 
 cannot be driven on, it may not be solicited, or forced backwards. The 
 fibres of the upper part of the gullet have already yielded, and suffered 
 this substance to pass them — they are somewhat weakened by the unnatural 
 distention — they have not yet had time to recover their tone, and they 
 may yield again. It is at least worth the trial. 
 
 'Ihe internal coat of the oesophagus is naturally smooth and glistening; 
 it may, however, be made more so, and the surface of the obstructing 
 iwdy may be polisbed too. A half-pint of olive oil should be poured down 
 
OPKIiATION FOR OBSTUUCTION IN THK GULLKT. 419 
 
 rfic iliro;!!, Hiul uii at.teinpt Uieii made with the fingers, applied externally, 
 lo i;ive llie body a retronrade motion By patient muiiipiilatioii this will 
 be rtlecled mucli ofteiirr than is imagined. The intruding substinice will 
 he dislodged from the situation in which it was impacted, and will be 
 brought to the upper part of the oesophagus, or even into the pharynx, and 
 will then be sometimes got rid of by the efforts of the beast itself, or may 
 be easily drawn out by means of a hand introduced through the large 
 mouth-pieev' to which reference was made in the explanation of the oeso- 
 phagus-tube. 
 
 If the obstructing body cannot be moved in this way, we are not yet 
 without resource. Mr. Read has made an important improvement on, or 
 addition to, the oesophagus-tube, in the form of a corkscrew. Vide fig. 3, 
 in the preceding cut. , 
 
 a. The leather tube, as before, but somewhat larger, and longer, and 
 stronger ; and the upper part of it, for the purpose of additional strength, 
 composed of brass. 
 
 6. The handle of the stilett which runs through it, as through the other 
 tube. 
 
 c. One of two pieces of wood placed between the handle and the tube ; 
 hollowed so as to fit the stilett; removable in a moment, and, like the 
 hollow piece of wood in the other tube, permitting the stilett to be two or 
 three inches longer than the tube. They are here removed, and one of 
 them hangs down, suspended by a string. 
 
 d. The bulb which is introduced through the mouth-piece, and forced 
 down the gullet It is considerably larger than those at the ends of the 
 other tube, but not so large, as the distended gullet. 
 
 e. A corkscrew fixed to the end oi tne stilett, and which, coming out in 
 the centre of the knob, cannot possibly wound the gullet. 
 
 When this instrument is used, the stilett is pulled up so that the screw 
 is perfectly retracted and concealed within the knob. The pieces of 
 wood, c, are placed upon the stilett, between the handle and the top of 
 the tube, and tied there, so that the screw is now fixed within the knob ; 
 and the instrument is introduced through the mouth-piece, and forced 
 down the throat until it reaches the obstruction. The pieces of wood 
 are then untied, and, by turning the handle, the screw is worked into 
 the obstructing body, as the common corkscrew is into a cork in the neck 
 of a bottle. If the potato or the turnip is fresh and sound, it would hardly 
 be credited what purchase is obtained, and in how many instances the 
 nuisance may be drawn up the throat and got rid of. If the centre of the 
 root should give way, and a portion of it' only be brought out, there is still 
 £ome good done, and the screw should be returned again and again, until 
 it will no longer take hold. By this time, probably, the root will have 
 been so weakened and broken down that it will yield to the pressure of 
 the first probang, and be forced along into the rumen ; or at least it will 
 be so weakened, that the stilett of the first tube may be used with advan- 
 tage. 
 
 The stilett must be withdrawn from the tube, and the running piece of 
 wood taken away ; the stilett is then returned to its sheath,' and may be 
 made to project a couple of inches beyond the knob. It is retracted, and 
 the tube is passed into the throat; when it will be evident that the ope- 
 rator may use either the comparatively broad part of the knob, or the small 
 ana sharp stilett, as the case may seem to require. To the first he can 
 only apply simple pressure — to the stilett he can give a percussive action. 
 By sharply pushing down the handle of the stilett, he will make the other 
 
 ! u.-.r , J tv ' r 1 'x\, 'p. , ram 11,.- ^-!<i thus more break down, and 
 
 2 E2 
 
•Jo OA»l.>.h.. 
 
 liiotialiU wmk !liMiii:;li, il'e ceiiire i)l ilie root, as in ihe case which ha* 
 ^>^'en yin ifl;ii(.(|. A piTfnration havinij been made throiiffh the centre, 
 and the obslnicliuii liaviiiir been previously torn and weakened by the 
 screw, tiie whole may gradually be broken down, or will more readily 
 jieid to pressure.. 
 
 These directions have liMn founded on the supposition that the foreign 
 body is' lodged in the ijfljr above the entrance into the thorax; and if 
 the operator fails in alf tnese contrivances, perhaps he will now admit, , 
 although reluctantly, the application of external force. It has been recom- 
 mended to place a Small piece of wood against the gullet, and in contact 
 with that portion 'of the skin which covers the obstructing body, and then, 
 with a wooden mallet, to hammer away against the opposite side. The 
 root lias been thus occasionally broken down, and then forced on with 
 the cart-whip ; but more frequently the beast has been sadly punished 
 without any good effect having been produced ; and, in some instances, 
 although the nuisance was for awhile got rid of, so much tenderness of tiie 
 gullet remained, and inflammation arose, and ran to such an extent, that 
 the animal did not regain its appetite for many weeks afterwards, or 
 pined away, and became comparatively worthless. The practitioner will, 
 therefore, unwillingly have recourse to this, and will be justified in first 
 seeing what bleeding will do. There is not a more powerful relaxant than 
 bleeding — and especially when it is carried on, if necessary, to absolute 
 fainting. For awhile every spasmodic action ceases, and every muscular 
 fibre loses its power to contract. The operator will, probably, take ad- 
 vantage of the momentary relaxation, in order to force the body either 
 upwards or downwards — upwards first, and by far in preference ; or if 
 downwards, yet still cautiously balancing in his mind the degree of resist- 
 ance with the chance of ultimate success ; for, if the resistance continues 
 to be considerable, he may depend upon it that when he has arrived at the 
 thorax, all further efforts will be fruitless, and the patient will be lost. 
 
 He has one last resource, and he needs not to be so afraid of venturing 
 upon it as some practitioners have been. There is the operation of CBSopha- 
 gotoT/iy, or the cutting down. upon the obstruction, and thus removing it. 
 The veterinary surgeon will never find, or ought never to find, difiiciiliy 
 here, although the human surgeon is deemed bold who ventures upon 
 the operation. 
 
 After having passed a little way down the neck, the (Esophagus is found 
 on the left of the trachea, and between the carotid and the jugular. The 
 artery will be detected by its pulsation, and the vein by its turgescence. 
 '^rhe only muscle that can be in danger is the sterno-maxillaris, and that 
 may, in a very great majority of cases, be avoided, or, if it is wounded, 
 no great mischief will ensue. 
 
 The animal should be cast, (at least this is (he safest way, as it regards 
 both the operator and the patient). It should be thrown on the right 
 side, and the head should be a little stretched out, but lying as flat as the 
 horns will permit. The place of obstruction will be seen at once. An 
 incision is by some persons made immediately into the gullet, sufficiently 
 long for the extraction of the root. The safer way, however, is for the 
 cellular substance to be a little dissected away before the gullet is opened, 
 when, if the incision is long enough, the incarcerated body will readily 
 escape. The edges of the esophagus should then be brought together, 
 and confined by two or three stitches ; the skin should also have the 
 same number passed, through it, the ends of the stitches of the gullet 
 having been brought through the external wound. The beast should have 
 nothing but gruel for two or three days ; and, after that, gruel and mashes 
 
RLIPTURK OF THE OssOPHAGUS. 4'Jl 
 
 fur m little while longer. In a fortnight or three weeks iliie wound wilt 
 generally be healed, and scarcely a trace uf the incision will be visible. 
 
 If tfae obstruction is not observed, or the practitioner not called in until 
 the potato or parsnip has passed into that portion of the gullet which is 
 within the thorax, the chances of saving the animal are materially dimi- 
 nished. The common probang should first be tried, and, that failing, Ih'* 
 corkscrew should be resorted to, either to draw the body out, or so tn 
 pierce it and break it down, that it may be forced onward either by the 
 stilett or the knob. The practitioner must stand at little ceremony hert- , 
 and he should, if necessary, use all the force he can ; fur, if the obstruction 
 is not overcome, the animal will assuredly perish. 
 
 It has often been observed, and with much truth, that cows, in whose 
 gullet this obstruction has once taken place, are subject to it afterward.';. 
 Kiiher they have a habit of voracious feeding, or the muscles are weakened 
 by this spasmodic action, and not able to contract upon the food with suflR- 
 cient force for the ordinary purposes of deglutition. It will therefore ge- 
 iK-ially be prudent to part with the cow that has once suffered from an 
 accident of lliis kind. 
 
 STRICTURE OF THE lESOPHAQUS. 
 
 This rarely occurs either in horses or cattle. It is, however, a little 
 more frequent in the latter than in the former. The writer of this treatise 
 has met with only one marked case of it. The cow had been observed to be 
 a slow feeder: she was grazing when the others were ruminating; and she 
 was ruminating long after they had been busily employed in grazinii;. At 
 length the owner, being more attentive than the proprietors of cattle gene- 
 rally are, observed that the food occasionally accumulated in the upper part 
 of the gullet until there was a swelling eight or ten inches in length, termi- 
 nating in an evident contraction of the oesophagus. She was then in 
 rather low condition, and was gradually losing flesh. Sometimes, with an 
 effort, she could force the cont-ents of the gullet along their proper co'urse ; 
 then, two or three days or a week would elapse before anything would 
 again accumulate there ; and, at all times, the proprietor could easily press 
 down the food which was thus interrupted in its passage. It was an evi- 
 dent stricture of the oesophagus; and, so far as could be learned, the dia- 
 meter uf tlie gullet had been gradually lessening at this pnint. 
 
 The practitiuner recommended that she should be destroyed ; alleging 
 that a cure was improbable, and must, at the best, occupy a long period 
 of time, and be expensive. She was young in calf, and that by a valuable 
 bull, and he was desired to do wliat he could. He passed a probang 
 through the stribture, as large as, without too great violence, he could 
 manage, and confined it there for an hour by means of tapes. The 
 cow was violent, but still this was accomplished for a few dajs, wheii a 
 larger probang was used ; but at length she beciime perfectly unmanage- 
 uble. She was then cast, and the introduction uf the probang attempted ; 
 but there wras an awkwardness about it, and her violence threatened 
 injury to herself and those about her. Some ground, however, had been 
 gained; and with that the owner, lired of the trouble, and afraid of the 
 expense, expressed himself coMtenteiJ. The food accumulated less fre- 
 quently, and, soon after her calving, ceased to accumulate at all. 
 
 RUPTURE OF THE (KSOPHAGUS. 
 
 In cases of laceration, or rupture of the gullet, which too frequently 
 follow the violent attempts of unskilful persons to lorce down the obstructing 
 >ody, something might be done if the mischief was immediately 
 
4n 
 
 CATTLE. 
 
 tained. Prudence, however, would dictate the sacrifice of the animal, 
 while it could be fairly sold to the butcher. 
 
 If the cure is undertaken, the part must be opened — the foreign body 
 liberated from the cellular texture into which it had probably been driven — 
 all the dirt and indigested matter cleared carefully away — the ragged and 
 lacerated edges cut off — the divided portions brought as neatly and as 
 closely together as possible — and the whole secured by bandages passed 
 several times round the neck ; while the animal is allowed gruel only for 
 many a day, and then mashes. The dressing should be the healing 
 ointment, daily applied. The power of nature is great ; and, the foreign 
 body having been removed before it could cause inflammation and mor- 
 tification by its presence, the parts may be reinstated to every useful pur- 
 pose. 
 
 THE (ESOPHAGUS WITHIN THE THORAX. 
 
 As the oesophagus approaches the chest it takes a direction more and 
 more towards the left, and enters it on that side of the windpipe. It is 
 there found between the laminae of the mediastinum, following the direction 
 of the dorsal vertebrae. It passes, as in the horse, by the base of the heart, 
 leaving the venae cavae on the right, and the aorta on the left. It by de- 
 grees separates itself from the spine, but not so much a.^ in the horse, 
 penetrating between the lungs, and, pursuing its course towards the 
 diaphragm, passes through the great opening between the crura of 
 
THE CESOPHAGEAN CANAL, 423 
 
 that muscle. An it travels through the mediastinuai and between the 
 lungs, it diminishes in size, and acquires considerable firmness of texture; 
 but it has no sooner entered the abdomen, and begun to dip downwards, 
 than it becomes more muscular, and less firm in its structure. It also 
 rapidly increases in size until it assumes almost the shape of a funnel ; 
 and terminates directly in no particular stomach, but in a canal which 
 opens into all the stomachs, of which, as will be seen, the ruminant pos- 
 sesses four. 
 
 Recourse must be had to a few cuts in order to render this intelligible 
 to the reader. 
 
 The cut in the preceding page will exhibit the form of the stomachs 
 when filled, their relative situations, and their connexion with each other. 
 
 a. The oesophagus gradually enlarging as it descends, and apparently 
 running into the rumen or paunch, but, in fact, terminating in a canal. 
 
 &• A continuation of the spiral muscles of the oesophagus, thicker and 
 more powerful as they approach the termination of that tube. 
 
 Before the reader proceeds to the consideration of the other parts deli- 
 neated in that cut, it may be advantageous to take a different view of the 
 structure and termination of the gullet. 
 
 a. The oesophagus enlarging as it descends, and becoming more muscular, 
 and particularly the upper and posterior part of it. The continuation of 
 it along the stomachs is slit up, in order to show that it would form the con- 
 tinuous roof of the canal which is here laid open, and which leads to 
 the third and fourth stomachs. 
 
 b. The cesophagian canal exposed by slitting the roof from the termina- 
 tion of the gullet to the third stomach. A considerable part of the floor 
 is composed of two muscular pillarsj lying close to each other. It would 
 therefore appear, at first inspection, to be a perfect canal, and that what 
 descended into it from the gullet would run on to the third and fourth 
 stomachs. These pillars are daplicatures of the loof of tiie first and 
 second stomachs, which lie immediately underneath them. 
 
 c is the continuation of the same canal into and through the many- 
 plus, or third stomach, which is known by its leaves and thin hooked 
 edges. 
 
 e{ IS a prolongation of the same canal into the fourth, or true digestive 
 stomach. It is easy therefore to perceive that the food, whether solid or 
 fluid, may, at the will Of the animal, or under particular circumstances of 
 ttie constitution, pass into the third and fourth stomachs, without a particle 
 of it entering into the first or second ; and we know that this is the case 
 with the food afler it has undergone the process of rumination, oi » second 
 mastica iou. 
 
*34 CATTLE. 
 
 The folFowing cut wil. give another view of the same parts 
 
 a is again the oesophagus, terminating in the oesophagean canal. 
 
 h is, as before, the oesophagean canal ; but now, at the will of the ani- 
 mal, or under certain states of the constitution, these pillars are no longer 
 in contact with each other, but there is a large opening at the bottom 
 of the oesophagus displaying the two first stomachs lying under them. 
 
 c is the rumen, or paunch, or first stomach, placed immediately under 
 the termination of the gullet, and substances descending that tube fall 
 through this opening, and are received into it. All the food, when first 
 swallowed, goes there to be preserved for the act of rumination ; and a 
 portion, and occasionally the greatest portion of the fluids that pass 
 down the gullet enter the rumen. Farther on, at 
 
 d, is the reticulum, or second stomach. From the state of that 
 stomach, or at the will of the animal, the muscular pillars here also relax, 
 seldom or never to permit that which is passing along the oesophagean 
 canal to enter the reticulum, but that the contents of the reticulum may 
 be thrown into the oesophagean canal. This is the case when the pellet 
 of food is returned for remastication, — it is thrown into the canal from 
 the reticulum — it is seized by the powerful muscles at the base of the 
 gullet, and carried up by the spiral muscles of that tube in order to be 
 remasticated. , It will be seen the upper pillar (situated towards the right 
 in the living subject}, and the lower part of the opening made by the re- 
 laxation of the pillars, belong to the reticulum ; the lower pillar and the 
 anterior portion of the opening (situated towards the left) belong to the 
 roof of the rumen. This is very satisfactorily seen in the dried stoiiiuchs 
 of a young calf. 
 
 e is the manyplus, or third stomach, tmd through which the canal is 
 still to be traced to. 
 
 6. The abomasuin, or fourth or true disgesting stomach. So that, as 
 was asserted, this canal leads to no particular stomach exclusively, but to 
 all of them, according to circumstances. 
 
 We are now, perhaps, prepared to return to the consideration of the 
 first cut (p. 422), 
 
 c c represent the form of this stomach in the greater part of rumi- 
 nants, and particularly in oxen and sheep. It is situated somewhat ob- 
 liquely ia the abdominal cavity, and occupies nearly three-fourths of it. It 
 
THE EXTERIOR OF THE STOMACHS, 42S 
 
 is divided into two unequal compartments, or sacs, uiul reaches from the 
 diaphragm to the pelvic cavity. By its superior surface il is attached to 
 the sublumbar region by its vessels, nerves, and a portion of mesentery. 
 On the right side it is covered by a portion of the intestines ; on the left 
 side it is more elevated, and is in contact with the left flank. It is on 
 this account that we are sometimes induced to adopt the unsurgical mode 
 of giving relief in cases of hoove ; for when we plunge our lancet or 
 knife into the left flank, we puncture the distended stomach. Its inferior 
 surface rests upon the floor of the belly. The left side reaches to the 
 diaphragm, and thence, under the left flank, to the pelvis. The right side 
 rests on the floor of the abdomen, and is covered by the fourth stomach. 
 The anterior extremity is attached to the diaphragm by the oesophagus, 
 uud by the cardiac ligament ; and the right extremity floats free, generally 
 occupying the pelvis, but pushed thence in the latter period of gestation. 
 
 Deep scissures not only divide it into two lobes, as has been mentioned, 
 but another scissure posteriorly, which will be shown in the next cut, 
 Ibrms it into two others ; so that its interior presents four compartments, 
 separated from each by deeply projecting duplicatures of the walls of the 
 stomach. 
 
 This cut represents two of the three coats of the rumen. 
 
 The external, or peritoneal, coat is here represented as turned back at 
 different places in order to show the muscular coat, which, as in the horse, 
 consists of two layers, the one running longitudinally and the other trans- 
 versely; yet not accurately so, for they appear to run obliquely, and 
 in many difl^^rent directions, according to the varying curvatures of the 
 stomach. A very erroneous opinion of this great macerating stomach 
 would be formed by considering it as a mere passive reservoir in which 
 the food is contained until it is wanted for rumination: it is in constant 
 motion ; the food is perpetually revolving through its different compart- 
 ments, and undergoing important preparation for future digestion. These 
 muscles are the mechanical agents by which this is effected, and by run- 
 ning in these different directions they are enabled to act upon all the 
 differently-formed cells of this enormous viscus. 
 
 d. The reticulum, or honey-comb, or second stomach, viewed externally, 
 and supposed to be filled. It is a little curved upon itself from below up- 
 wards, and is the smallest of all the stomachs. It rests against the 
 diaphragm in front of the left .sac of the rumen, and is placed under the 
 oesophagus, and upon the abdominal prolongation of the sternum. There 
 are two layers of muscles belonging to this stomach, one of them run- 
 ning longitudinally and the other transversely, as in the rumen. 
 
 e gives the external appearance of the manyplus, or third stomach. 
 It is less rounded, and longer than the reticulum. It is curved upon it- 
 self from above downwards. Its little curvature is applied on the left, 
 partly over the reticulum, and more on the paunch ; and on the right, it 
 is placed over the base of the fourth stomach. It is situated obliquely 
 from the right side of the abdomen, between the liver and the right sac 
 of the rumen. Girard thus describes it : — " Its anterior face rests against 
 the liver and the diaphragm — its posterior is placed over the. right sac o( 
 the rumen. Its great, rounded, convex curvature is attached to the fourth 
 stomach, and also to the rumen, by a prolongation of mesentery ; and 
 its little curvature is cpnti/iuous with that of the reticulum." 
 
 Fig. 1 and 2 represent the two layers of muscles as before. 
 
 f. The abomasum, or fourth stomach, is described by Girard as " elon- 
 gated, and of a cone-like form, yet somewhat bent into an arch, situated 
 (.bliquely to the right of and behind the manyplus, and between the dia- 
 
426 
 
 CATTLE. 
 
 phragm and the right sac of the rumen." It has two free or unattached 
 faces, one against the diaphragm and the other against the right sac of 
 the rumen — two curvatures, the inferior and larger convex, and giving, 
 attachment along its inner border (o a portion of mesentery, which ex 
 tends to the inferior scissures of the rumen ; and the superior or smaller 
 receiving the portions of mesentery which go from the reticulum to the su- 
 perior scissures of the rumen. It is also said to have two extremities, 
 the one anterior, which is the largest and placed inferiorly, adhering to the 
 'smaller curvature of the manyplus, and constituting the base, or great ex- 
 tremity of the abomasum — and the posterior and superior, which is nar- 
 row, elongated, ci\rved above and backwardi. on the superior face of the 
 right sac of the rumen, and called the smaller or pyloric extremity. 
 
 A dissection of the muscular coat is given here as in the other stomachs. 
 
 g- represents the commencement of ihe duodenum, or first intestine. 
 
 The reader is now prepared for the consideration of the interior of these 
 stomachs. 
 
 V. The oesophagus, as before, enlargmg, and assuming a funnel-lik« 
 soape as it approaches the stomachs. 
 
 b. The (esophagus cut open at the commc^ocement of the (Bsophagean 
 canal, in order to show its communication with the first and second 
 stomachs. 
 
 c. The rumen laid open and divided into its different compartments by 
 scissures, more or less deep, and which on the internal surface appear as 
 indentations, or duplicatures of the coats of the stomach. They are re- 
 
THE INTERIOfi OF THE STOMACHS. 42* 
 
 :ognized under the name of the double-tripe when prepared for the table. 
 The rumen is divided into two large sacs, seen in the cut of the external 
 form of the stomachs (p. 422), and the walls that separate them are thick, 
 and perpendicular to the surface of the stomach, so as to form a very con- 
 siderable separation between the compartments of the stomach. These 
 again are subdivided by transversal bands, which form smaller compart- 
 ments. Two, belonging to the posterior portion of the stomach, are given 
 in this cut. There are similar divisions in the anterior sac, but which 
 are here concealed by one of the folds of the stomach. 
 
 The whole of the rumen is covered by a cuticular membrane, consti- 
 tuting the third or inner coat. Immediately under this, and arising from 
 the interposed tissue between the muscular and cuticular coats, there are 
 innumerable small prominences or papillae. They are of different sizes 
 and forms in different parts of the rumen. Towards the longitudinal 
 bands or duplicatures they are small, and thinly set; they are more nume- 
 rous and larger towards the centre of the compartments ; and largest of all 
 in the bottom of the posterior and most capacious sac. In every part of the 
 rumen they are more thickly set, and broad and strong towards the centre 
 or bottom of each compartment. They are also harder and blacker in 
 these places. When regarded in different compartments, they appear to 
 be bent or inclined in different directions ; but when they are more closely 
 examined, they are all inclined in the direction which the food takes in its 
 passage through the various divisions of the rumen. They are evidently 
 erectile, and may sometimes bristle up and oppose the 'passage of the 
 food ; while, at other times they yield and bend, and suffer it to pass 
 with little or no obstruction. Some have imagined that these are glandular 
 bodies, and that they secrete a peculiar fluid ; others confine the glandular 
 apparatus to the tissue between the cuticular coat, and numerous little 
 prominences, which can be seen in the inflated stomach of a young rumi- 
 nant when exposed to the light, are best accounted for by considering 
 them as glandular bodies. 
 
 There are two openings mto the rumen ; the one already spoken of at 
 the base of the oesophagus, and through which the substances gathered at 
 the first cropping of the food, ahd perhaps all solids fall, and a consi- 
 derable proportion of the liquids swallowed. The other opening is below 
 this. It is larger and always open ; it communicates with the second 
 stomach ; but there is a semiltmar fold of the rumen that runs obliquely 
 across it, and acts as a valve, so that nothing can pass from the first 
 into the second stomach, except by some forcible effort ; and it is very 
 seldom that any thing is returned from ihe rumen directly into the oes - 
 phagus. 
 
 Considering the size of the paunch, it has very few blood-vessels ; ii^ 
 fact, it has not much to do except macerating the food. The arteries are 
 supplied by the spicules, which are of very great size in ruminants. The 
 nerves are given out by the cceliac plexus. 
 
 d. The reticulum, or second stomach. The cuticular coat here covers a 
 i^ery irregular surface, consisting of cells, shallower and wider than those 
 of a honey-comb, but very much resembling them ; hence this slum ch 
 is sometimes called the honey-comb. Each of these divisions contains 
 several smaller ones ; and at the base and along the sides of each are 
 found numerous minute prominences or papillae, which are evidently 
 secreting glands. 
 
 There are two openings into this stomach ; one through the floor pf the 
 (Esophagean canal, one of the pillars of which is formed of a duplicaturc 
 of the coats of the lesser rurnotni-e r-f »h-= rsticulum. The other is that 
 r --■ -)p rnmen 
 
<M CAITLK. 
 
 The muscular coat of this stomach is thicU and powerful, but the blood 
 vessels are not numerous ; for it will hereafter appear that its functions 
 are very simple. The arteries and nerves of the reticulum are derived 
 from the same source as those of the rumen. 
 
 e. Tile manyplus, or third stomach. The internal structure of this 
 stomach is very singular. The oesophagean canal changes its form and 
 character at the commencement of the manyplus, and the fleshy pillars, oi 
 which mention has been so often made, unite, forming a kind of obtuse 
 angle. The floor of the canal is now perfect, and nothing can any longer 
 fall into the stomachs beneath. A small circular aperture alone is left 
 between them, which conducts to the third stomach, the floorof which is 
 closed, but the roof is constructed in a remarkable way. The whole of the 
 stomach contributes to form this roof; and from it there descend numerous 
 duplicatures of the cuticular coat, each duplicature containing within it 
 cellular tissue, blood-vessels, and a thin but powerful layer of muscles. 
 They are formed into groups. A long duplicature, resembling a leaf or 
 curtain, hangs from the roof, and floats free in the stomach, and reaches 
 nearly down to the floor. On either side of it is a shorter leaf, and beyond 
 that a shorter still, until the outer leaf becomes very narrow. Then com- 
 mences another group with a long leaf in the centre,- and others progres- 
 sively shortening on each side, until the stomach is tilled with these 
 leaves, hanging down from every part of it, floating loosely about, and 
 the lower edge of the longest of them reaching into the continuation oi 
 the oesophagean canal. 
 
 The cuticular covering of these leaves is peculiarly dense and strong, 
 and thickly studded with little prominences ; so that when the leaf is exa- 
 mined it exhibits a Ale-like hardness, that would scarcely be thought pos- 
 sible ; and is evidently capable of acting like a file, or a little grindstone. 
 These prominences are larger and harder towards the lower part of the 
 leaf; and, in the central leaves, assume the form and ofiice of little crotch- 
 ets, or hooks, some of which have the hardness of horn, so that nothing 
 solid or fibrous can escape them. 
 
 These groups of leaves vary in number in different animals, and the 
 number of leaves constituting each group vary too. They float thickest, 
 and the canal is smallest at the entrance into this stomach, where they 
 are most wanted. Towards the fourt'h stomach the course is left more 
 open. 
 
 As would be expected, from the complicated mechanism of this stomach, 
 it is more abundantly supplied with blood-vessels and with nerves than 
 the second, or even than the first, although that is many times larger than 
 the third. 
 
 f. The abomasum, or fourth stomach, is lined by a soft villous membrane, 
 like the digestive portion of the stomach of the horse. It also contains 
 agreatnumber of folds, or leaves, somewhat irregularly placed, but running 
 chiefly longitudinally. They are largest and most numerous at the upper 
 and wider part of the stomach ; and one of the folds, in particular, is 
 placed at the entrance into the abomasum, yielding to the sabstances 
 which pass from the third stomach into the fourth, and leaving, as it were, a 
 free and open way, but opposing an almost perfect valvular obstruction 
 to their return. This explains the reason why vomiting is so rare in the 
 ruminant ; and that when it does occur, it must be produced by such 
 violent spasmodic efforts as to cause or indicate the approach of death. 
 See g and h, p. 424. 
 
 Towards the lower and narrower part of the stomach these folds are less 
 numerous and of smaller size : they are also more irregular in the course 
 which they take ; some of them sMiamiij: assi ; 'i ■ >■ i. , <.. ^v.. l , 
 
CHANGES OF THE FOOD IN THE RUMEN. 436 
 
 This coat of the stomach, when the animal is in health, is thickly covered 
 with mucus, while, from innumerable glands, it secretes the gastric juice, 
 or true digestive fluid. 
 
 The pyloric or lower orifice of this stomach is guarded by a rounded 
 projecting thick substance, by which the entrance into the intestine is much 
 contracted, and which, indeed, partly discharges the function of a sphinc- 
 ter muscle. 
 
 g' is a portion of the duodenum, or first intestine. 
 
 h gives the place where the biliary and pancreaiic ducts enter the duo> 
 denum. 
 
 i. A stilett is here supposed to be passed through that portion of the 
 cesophagean canal (the very beginning of it), through which the gullet 
 communicates with the paunch. 
 
 k. A stilett is here supposed to run through that part of the canal by 
 means of which the gullet communicates with the second stomach. 
 
 /. A stilett here passes below the last, and under the oesophagean canal, 
 showing the situation of the direct communicalion between the rumen 
 and the reticulum. 
 
 m. The supposed direction of the cesophagean canal to the third stomach 
 over the roofs of the paunch and the second stomach. 
 
 71. Its passage through the third stomach, and entrance into tiie fourth. 
 
 THE CHANGES Or THE FOOD IN THE DIFFERENT STOMACHS. 
 
 The ox rapidly and somewhat greedily crops the herbage, which under- 
 oes little or no vnastication, but, being rolled into a pellet, and, as it passes 
 long the pharynx, being somewhat enveloped by the mucus there se- 
 creted, is swallowed. The pellet, being hard and rapidly driven along 
 by the action of the muscles of the oesophagus, falls upon the anterior 
 portion of the cesophagean canal, and its curiously-formed floor ; and either 
 by the force with which it strikes on these pillars, or by some instinctive 
 influence, they are separated, and the pellet falls itito the rumen, whjch is 
 found immediately under the base of the gullet, as represented at c, p. 424, 
 and i, p. 426. The food, however, which thus enters the rumen does not 
 remain stationary in the place where it falls. It has been seen that the 
 walls of this stomadh are supplied with musules of considerable power, and 
 which run longitudinally and transversely, and in various directions all 
 over it, and by means of them the contents of the paunch are gradually 
 conveyed through all its compartments. At first the food travels v^ith 
 comparative rapidity, for the muscles of the stomach act strongly, and the 
 papills with which it is lined easily yield and suffer it to pass on ; ()ut, 
 the rumen being filled or the animal ceasing to graze, the progress of the 
 food is retarded. The muscles act with less power, and the contents of 
 the stomach with greater difficulty find their way over the partitions of the 
 different sacs, and, at the same time, probably, the papille exert their 
 erectile power, and oppose a new obstacle. 
 
 Some cruel experiments have been instituted in order to ascertain the 
 nature of tliis niuscular action of the coats of the rumen, so necessary to 
 produce this revoluiion of the food through its compartments. A con^- 
 derable opening was cut into the flank, immediately over the paunch, and 
 a swino-ing or balancing motion of ihat stomach, both upwards and down- 
 wards, and forwards and backwards, was plainly seen. 
 
 The uses of tlie papillaE) ^eem to be various ; they support the weight 
 of the superinciunbei)t fpodi rough, un masticated, and liable to injure tht, 
 coat of the stomach pver wliith it is continually moving; they take away 
 ih<> r.i.o..dii.u fr/un iho f'nllir'iihir ni-aiiils nf tlip stomach, and whicli prcbbure 
 
130 CATTLE. 
 
 would render it impossible for these glands to discliarge that miicoui 
 ubricating fluid, which is requisite for the protection of the slomach and 
 the revolution of the Ibod. The papillie are consequently more numerous 
 ■nd larger and stronger at the centre or bottom of each of the compart- 
 ments where the food would accumulate and press most, and they are 
 more thinly scattered, and in some places almost disappear, where there 
 IS no danger from the pressure or the friction. In addition to all these, 
 are the important 'functions .of yielding and suffering the food to pass 
 unimpeded along while the stomach is rapidly filling as the animal 
 grazes, and then by their erectile power retarding that progress when the 
 beast has ceased to eat, and the slow prucess of rumination has com 
 menced. The glandular bodies, to which allusion has been made, art 
 most plentifully situated, and are of largest size, on the upper part of the 
 sides of the rumen, where they are least exposed to pressure, and may 
 discharge the lubricating mucus which they secrete without obstacle. 
 
 The only change that takes place in the food in a healthy state and 
 action of this stomach is that of maceration, and preparjition for the second 
 mastication, as may be easily proved by taking from the mouth of a cow 
 a pellet that has been returned for rumination, and which will be found to 
 be merely the grass, or other food, no otherwise altered than as being 
 soAened, and covered with a portion of mucus. The fluid which the 
 rumen contains is not secreted there; but whenever the animal drinks, 
 a portion of the water breaks through the pillars of the oesophagean canal, 
 regulated in quantity either by the will of the beast, or by the sympathy 
 of the parts with the state and wants of the stomach, or with the state 
 of the constitution gpnerally. The rumen of a healthy ox always con- 
 tains a considerable quantity of fluid. 
 
 The food, having traversed all the compartments of this stomach, would 
 arrive again at the point from which it started, were it not that a fold of 
 the rumen arrests its course, and gives it a somewhat different direction. 
 This fold is placed at the spot where there exists a communication between 
 the rumen and the reticulum, and which also is guarded by a fold or valve ; 
 but the peristaltic motion of the stomach going on, and the food pressing 
 from behind, a portion of it is at length, by a convulsive action, partly 
 voluntary and partly involuntary, thrown over this fold into the reti- 
 culum. 
 
 The inner coat of the reticulum, or second stomach, has been described 
 as divided into numerous honeycomb-formed cells (they are well repre- 
 sented at d, p. 426),, at the base of each of which are numerous small secre- 
 tory glands, which also furnish a considerable quantity of mucus. The action 
 of this stomach consists in first contracting upon its contents ; and, in doing 
 this, it forms the portion just received from the rumen into the proper 
 shape for its return up the oesophagus, and covers it more completely with 
 mucus : then, by a stronger and somewhat spasmodic action, it forces the 
 pellet between the pillars at the floor of the oesophagean canal, where it is 
 seized by the muscles, that are so powerful at the base of the oesophagus, 
 and which extend over this part of the canal, and is conveyed to the mouth. 
 The reticulum, expanding again, receives a new portion of food from the 
 rumenj and which had been forced over the valve by the convulsive action 
 of that viscus. 
 
 It is curious to observe the manner'in which these acts are performed. The 
 cow is generally found couching on her right side, in order that the intestines - 
 which are principally lodged on that side may not press upon and interfere 
 with the action of the rumen. After a pellet that has undergone the pro- 
 cess of rumination is swallowed, there is a pause of two or three seconds, 
 
THK DIFFICULTY OF PURGING CATTLW. 431 
 
 during wriich the cow is making a slow and deep inspiration. By means 
 of this the lungs are inflated and press on the dlaphragiii ; and the dia- 
 phragm in its turn presses on both the rumen and the reticulum,, and 
 assists their action. Suddenly the inspiration is cut short by an evident 
 spasm ; it is the forcible ejection of the pellet from the reticulum, and of 
 a fresh quantity of food over the valvular fold to enter the reticulum a? 
 soon as it espands again. This spasmodic action is immediately follower 
 hj the evident passage of the ball up the oesophagus to the mouth. 
 The spiral muscles of the cesopliagus, with their fibres interlacing each 
 otiter, are admirably suited to assist the ascent as .well as the descent ol' 
 the pellet of food. 
 
 This prolonged inspiration is precisely the same as that to which the 
 human being has recourse when he would expel a portion of the gas 
 that distends his stomach. 
 
 This account of the construction and function of the rumen will throw 
 considerable light on some circumstances not a little annoying to the 
 practitioner. It has been stated that a portion of the fluid swallowed 
 usually enters the rumen, and that the quantity which actually enters it 
 depends a little perhaps on the will of the animal, more on the man« 
 n'er in which the fluid was administered, but most of al] on some 
 state of the constitution over which we have no control. Accordingly it 
 ha]>pens, and not unfrequently, and particularly under some diseases 
 of an inflammatory nature, and in which physic is imperatively re- 
 quired, that although it is administered in a liquid form and as gently as 
 possible, the greater part, or the whole of it enters the rumen, and remains 
 there totally inert. Dose aifler dose is administered until the practitioner 
 is tired, or afraid to give more ; and, ignorant of the anatomy and functions 
 of the stomachs, he wonders at the obstinate constipation which seems to 
 bid defiance to all purgative medicine ; whereas, in fact, little or none of it 
 had entered the intestinal canal. At length, perhaps, the rumen is ex- 
 cited to action, and ejects a considerable portion of its liquid, and some of 
 its more solid contents, either directly into the ossophagean canal, or through 
 the medium of the reticulum ; and which, by an inverted and forcible con- 
 traction, is driven through the manyplus and into the fourth stomach, and 
 thence into the intestinal canal, and produces sometimes natural, but 
 at other times excessive and unmanageable and fatal purgation. The 
 great quantity of fibrous substance, which occasionally is found in the 
 dung, warns us (hat this has taken place. 
 
 Occasionally, when dose after dose has been given, and the animal dies 
 apparently constipated, the whole o*" the physic is found in the rumen. 
 Ihese are difficulties in cattle practice which are not.yet sufficiently under- 
 stuod. 
 
 When two or three moderate dosos have been, given, and purging is no- 
 produced, the practitioner may begin to suspect that the medicine has fallen 
 through this oesophagean fissure into the rumen ; and then, ahhough he 
 does not quite discontinue the physic, he should principally endeavour to 
 ^<timulate this cuticular, yet not quite insensible, stomach. He should 
 lessen the quantit.y o; the purgative, and he should double 01 treble that 
 of the aromatic and stimulant; and, in many cases, he will thus succeed 
 in producing an intestinal evacuation, the fibrous nature of which will 
 prove the unnatural process by which it was effected *. 
 
 It was, perhaps, from observation of the occasional benefit derived 
 
 * Mr. Friend, V. S., of Walsall, has, in the < Veterinarian' for 1 833, some exceedingly 
 valuable observations on the practice which he adopted in these annojr'ng and puzzling 
 nrcuDistances. y 
 
«2 CATTLE. 
 
 f'rum the administration of aromatics and stimulants, even in inflamma- 
 tory cases, that the absurd and mischievous practice of giving them in 
 every disease, and every state of disease, arose. 
 
 The reason and the propriety of the administration of cattle-medicine 
 in a liquid form is hence evident. A ball, in consequence of its weight, 
 and the forcible manner in which it is urged on by the muscles of the 
 cesophagus, breaks through the floor of the cesophagean canal, and enters 
 the rumen and is lost. A liquid, administered slowly and carefully, and 
 trickling down the oesophagus without the possibility of the muscles of 
 that tube acting upon it and increasing its momentum, is likely to glide 
 over this singular floor, and enter the fourth stomach and the intestines. 
 A hint may hence be derived with regard to the manner of administering 
 a drink. If ills poured down bodily from a large vessel, as is generally 
 done, it will probably fall on the canal with sufficient force partly, at 
 least, to separate the pillars, and a portion of it will enter the rumen and 
 be useless. 
 
 In the calf, fed entirely on its mother's milk, the rumen is in a manner 
 useless, for all the food goes on to the fourth stomach. It is of a liquid 
 form, and it is swallowed in small quantities, and with little force at each 
 act of deglutition. The instinctive closure of the pillars — an act of 
 organic life — (because the milk if suffered to fall into the rumen would be 
 lost, or would undergo dangerous changes there) — has far more to do with 
 the direction of the fluid than any mechanical effect resulting from the 
 form of the aliment, or the force with which it descended the gullet. It is 
 curious to observe the comparatively diminutive size of the rumen, and 
 the development of the abomasum in the fcetal calf 
 
 THE SUBJECT OF RUMINATION, AND THE CHANGES OF THE FOOD RESUMED, 
 
 The food, being returned from the reticulum to the mouth, is there sub- 
 jected to a second mastication, generally very leisurely performed, and 
 which is continued until enough is ground not only to satisfy the cravings 
 of hunger, but to fill the comparatively small true stomach and intestines of 
 the animal ; and then, if he is undisturbed, he usually falls asleep. The act 
 of rumination is accompanied, or closely followed, by that of digestion, ami • 
 requires a considerable concentration of vital power ; and hence the ap- 
 pearance of tranquillity and sleepy pleasure which the countenance of the 
 beast presents. Sometimes the process is carried on while the animal is 
 standing, and especially if he is accustomed to, or fears, interruption ; and 
 the working ox, if he is not driven too fast, or has not too heavy a load 
 behind him, will ruminate as he walks along. The rumen is rarely or 
 never emptied ; and probably the food, that is returned for rumination, 
 is that which has been macerating in the stomach during many hours. The 
 process of rumination is very easily interrupted. Anything that surprises 
 or frightens the animal will have this effect : even the compelling of the 
 couching beast to rise will suspend it ; and it i!> somt-umes a long while 
 before the process is recommenced. 
 
 Some persons have had the curiosity to count the number of times that 
 the jaws have moved in the act of grinding the pellet, and these have 
 varied from thirty to forty, according to the time the animal had fasted, 
 or his freedom from interruption ; but the portion of food having been 
 sufficiently comminuted, is at length swallowed a second time ; and then 
 either being of a softer consistence, or not being so violently driven down 
 the gullet, or, by some instinctive influence, it passes over the floor of 
 the canal, without separating the pillars, and enters the manyplus, or third 
 stomach. This is represented at 6, p. 423, and m, p. 426. 
 
SWALLOWING INDIGKSTIBLK SUBSTANCES. 43S 
 
 Tlie manyplus presents an admirable provision for that perfect commi- 
 mition of the food which is requisite in an aniiiial destined to supply us with 
 nutriment both when living and when dead. That which is quite ground 
 down is permitted to pass on ; but the leaves, that have been described 
 as hanging from the roof, and floating close over the oesophagean canal, 
 and armed with numerous hook-formed papills, seize upon every particle 
 of fibre that remains, and draw it up between them, and file it down by 
 means of the hard prominences on their surfaces and suffer it not to 
 escape until it is reduced to a pulpy mass. 
 
 These three stomachs, then, are evidently designed for the preparation 
 and comminution of the food before it enters the fourth stomach, in which 
 the process of digestion may be said to commence, and where the f6od, 
 already soAened, is converted into a fluid called chyme. The villous coat 
 of the abomasum abounds with small follicular glands, whence is secreted 
 a liquid called the gastric juice, and which is the agent jn producing this 
 chyme. The change, in all probability, merely consists in the food being 
 more perfectly dissolved, and converted into a semi-fluid homogeneous 
 mass. This form it must of necessity assume before its nutritive matter 
 can be separated. The solution bbing complete, or as much so as it can 
 be rendered, the food passes through the pyloric, or lower orifice of the 
 stomach, into the duodenum, or first intestine (g, p. 426), where its sepa- 
 ration into the nutritive and innutritive portions is effected, and, the former 
 begins to be taken up, and carried into the system. 
 
 We are now .prepared to enter into the consideration of the diseases of 
 this complicated apparatus. 
 
 DISEASES OP THE RUMEN OR PAUNCH. 
 
 It has already been hinted that the cow, and particularly while she is 
 in calf, IS a greedy animal, and will not only choke herself by swallowing 
 broken food, half masticated, or scarcely masticated at all, but will occa- 
 sionally devour very strange things. Inflammation of the pericardium has 
 not unfrequently been produced by wires from the riddles or sieves which 
 the animal has demolished from mere wantonness, and from needles and 
 large pins that she has picked up. Three very instructive cases of this 
 were given in page 250. 
 
 This is particularly the case with the cattle of poor people and where 
 the women and children live, as it were, among them. 
 
 SWALLOWING INDIGESTIBLE SUBSTANCES. 
 
 There are some singular records of this depraved appetite, if so it may 
 be called. The museum of the veterinary school at Alfort contains a cal- 
 culus that was taken from the rumen of an ox, and the nucleus, or central 
 body, around which the vegetable and slimy matter gradually formed and 
 hardened, was a woman's neckerchief, without one laceration in it. In 
 the same museum is a pair of scissors, to which a cow had taken a fancy ; 
 and which had worked their way through the coats of the stomach, and 
 at length begun to protrude between two of the ribs, whence they were 
 extracted. It was necessary to break the rivet by which the blades were 
 united, before their removal could be accomplished. Another cow 'swal- 
 lowed a similar pair, but these were arrested in their passage down the 
 throat, whence they penetrated into the thorax, and at length protruded 
 between two of the ribs. An old shoe was found in the paunch of an ox ; 
 and the lash of a whip, with part of the handle attached to it, began to 
 elevate the lefl flank of a cmr, and was extracted after an incisioii had 
 *"■"" r"?de ur?o'i iL k^ os, dsstined to be slaughtered, was led t» 
 
434 CATTLE. 
 
 the abattoir, where the man in attendance had taken off his waistcoi.t, 
 and left it in the slaughter-liouse, from which he was called away for a few 
 minutes. On his return the waistcoat was missing, and his companions 
 were accused of the theft, or trick ; but it was presently found in the 
 paunch of the beast. A cow exhibited symptoms of choking, and was in 
 extreme distress. There was evidently no obstructing body in the portion 
 of the gullet above the thorax, nor could it be detected lower ; yet the 
 symptoms were those only which could be referred to the lodgment of 
 some foreign body in the gullet, or the orifice of the stomach. A large in- 
 cision was made in the left flank, sufficient for the admission of a man's 
 hand ; that incision wa.s carried on into the rumen, and a buckskin glove 
 was abstracted, that had been fixed between the pillars of the floor of the 
 oesophagean canal, between which lies the entrance into the rumen *. 
 
 The presence of bodies like these in the rumen cannot fail of being inju- 
 rious to the animal. They must produce local irritation, interfering with 
 the proper function of this stomach ; suspending the process of rumination, 
 or rendering it less effectually performed ; and exciting inflammation, pro- 
 bably of the stomach generally as this foreign body is traversing its diffe- 
 rent compartments, or of some particular portion in which it may be acci- 
 dentally arrested, and leading on to abscess and perforation of the stomach 
 at that spot. During the strange journey of these bodies through various 
 parts of the frame, previous to their final expulsion, and while they are, as 
 it were, seeking a way of escape, they cannot fail of producing much 
 serious indisposition. The symptoms which would indicate this peculiar 
 cause of disease are not yet sufficiently known; but there must be con- 
 siderable disturbance when a body sufficiently hard and pointed thus to 
 force its way commences its journey. Inflammation, as conducting to 
 suppuration and destruction of the living substance, must precede its 
 course and make way for it; and as it passes along, the aperture closes, and 
 the wound is healed behind it. The nerves and blood-vessels which lie 
 in its way are, with mysterious skill, unerringly avoided, and as little 
 injury as possible is done to the neighbouring tissues ; but local inflamma- 
 tion and pain attend the whole process, which, in many cases, are accom- 
 panied by general and severe disease. 
 
 It is seldom that medical skill could be of avail here, until the substance 
 approaches to the skin, even if the case were understood. All that can be 
 done is to prevent the animals, as much as possible, from having the op- 
 portunity of swallowing these things. 
 
 CONCRETIONS IN THE RUMEN. 
 
 A more frequent and a more serious complaint Is the formation of va- 
 rious concretions in the rumen. They are generally round, but occasion- 
 ally of various forms, and varying likewise in weight from a few ounces to 
 six or seven pounds. The composition of these balls is also very different. 
 Those which are decidedly peculiar to cattle are composed entirely of 
 hair matted together by the mucous secretion from the follicular glands 
 of the stomach. Sometimes they have no distinct central body ; at other 
 times it exists in the form of a bit of straw or wood, or frequently of stone 
 Of iron. They exist in the rumen, and in the abomasum. In the aboma- 
 sum they are composed exclusively of hair, irregularly matted and held 
 together by the mucus of the stomach ; in the rumen there is generally a 
 mixture of food, or earthy matter, in the composition of the concretioni. 
 
 * Vide Eecueil de M^dedne V^terlnaire, 1830, p. 324. M^moires et Observations 
 »nr la Chirurgie et JaMedecine Vet^rinairea, tome :i. p. 360 et Diet. V^terinaire, par 
 Hurtrel d'Arhoval, ' Corps Etrangera.' 
 
DISTENTION OF THE IttmEN FROM FOOD. 43j 
 
 When simple food mingles with the hair, the ball seems to be formed b;p 
 a succession of concentric layers, and in the centre is a bit of nail or stone » 
 or, if the beasts have access to running water, a piece of shpH often con- 
 stitutes the nucleus. 
 
 The hair is obtained by the habit which cattle, and even very young 
 calves, have of licking each other. Two cows will sometimes stand for a 
 long while titillating one another in this manner. A considerable quan- 
 tity of hair is loosened and removed by the rough tongues of these animals^ 
 the greater part of which is swallowed ; and there seems to be a kind of 
 power in the stomach to separate these indigestible matte!rs from the 
 other substances which it contains. It is also easy to imagine that the hairs 
 which the manyplus, with all its grinding power, cannot rub down, will 
 collect top^ether when floating in the semi-fluid contents of the . fourth 
 stomach, and gradually accumulate in considerable and hard masses. 
 
 These balls will begin to form at a very early age of the animal. Mr. 
 Linton, of Bishop's Auckland, found a ball ' as large as his two fists,' in 
 the rumen of a calf that was slaughtered, when only five weeks old. This 
 calf, although it was made sufficiently fat for the butcher, was subject to 
 distention of the rumen, and was always uneasy for the space of an hour 
 after its milk had been given to it *- 
 
 When only a little hair enters into the formation of these calculi, they 
 are usually made up of earthy matter, with bits of hay, straw, or other 
 food, agglutinated together by the mucus of the stomach. These have 
 uniformly a hard central nucleus, generally metallic. The concentric 
 layers can here also be traced, but they are, occasionally, somewhat con- 
 fused 
 
 In some cases, but not so often as in the horse, more of the various 
 compounds of lime, and still more of silicious matter, can be detected 
 by chemical analysis. These concretions are round; they are seldom 
 found except in the rumen, and never in the intestines ; and there is always 
 a central nucleus of stone or metal ; the concentric layers are regularly 
 and beautifully marked; and the concretion, when sawn asunder, will 
 bear a high degree of polish. ' 
 
 Of the effect of these substances on the health of the animal it is 
 difficult to speak. One thing, however, is certain, (hat they are often 
 found and in greater numbers in those that are ailing and out of condi- 
 tion, than in stronger and thriving beasts ; but whether some fault in the 
 digestive organs, indicated by this poorness of condition, gives a tendency 
 to the formation of coiicretions in the paunch, or the presence of these 
 concretions impairs the digestive powers and produces general unthrifti- 
 ness, are questions which it is difficult to answer. Eacfh opinion may in 
 its turn be true, but it is probable that the latter state of things oftenest 
 occurs. However this may be decided, these calculi are not so injurious to 
 cattle as to the horse, because they are, with few exceptions, confined to the 
 stomach, where they may produce a sense of oppression and impairment of 
 appetite, but cannot be the cause of that severe colic, and obstruction, 
 and inflammation, and strangulation of the intestines which destroy so 
 many horses. 
 
 DISTENTION OP THE RUMEN FROM FOOD 
 
 Cattle, when first put on succulent grass or turnips, or when suffered to 
 gorge themselves with potatoes or grains, or even with chaff, will some- 
 times distend the rumen almost to bursting. The disease is recognised in 
 
 2 F 2 , 
 
)36 CATT'E. 
 
 town-dairies by the name of grain-sick ; in some parts of the countrv il 
 is termed maw-bounds 
 
 The history of the case will generally unfold the nature of it ; and il 
 will be distinguished from hoove from its not being attended by occasional 
 eructation, by the swelling not being so great as in hoove, and by the 
 hardness of the flanks. Should any doubt, however, remain, the probang 
 should be passed into the rumen, when, if that is distended with gas, a 
 sjidden and violen*. rush of the imprisoned air will follow. The probang, 
 however, should acways be used, not only to determine this point, but the 
 degree to which the rumen is distended by food. 
 
 When, although the animal may be dull, refusing to eat, and ceasing 
 to ruminate, generally lying down and shewing great disinclination to 
 move, yet the pulse is not materially quickened, and the muscle is cool 
 and moist, and there is little heaving at the flanks, and no indication of 
 pain, the practitioner may content himself with a free bleeding and a power 
 ful dose of physic. These symptoms, however, are oflen treacherous, and, 
 without warning, uneasiness and heaving, and stupor and death, may 
 rapidly succeed. Some farmers place great reliance on goose-grease, 
 which is carefully preserved to be used in this complaint; and, it is said, 
 that one pound of it boiled in a quart of milk will give immediate relief. 
 If it does give relief, it is because the goose-grease is an aperient ; but a 
 dose of olive or castor-oil would have answered the same purpose, with- 
 out the danger of poisoning by the deleterious acid that is sometimes de- 
 veloped in this animal matter. 
 
 Mr. Parkinson strongly recommends his chamherley and salt, as an 
 effectual remedy for graiti-sick, which they may use who are not ashamed 
 to administer so filthy a medicine. He, however, very properly adds, 
 that " the beasts should be turned into the cow-stand or pasture, exercise 
 being an essential in the cure of this complaint," In these milder cases, 
 stimulants may also be resorted to with frequent advantage. Ammonia, 
 ether, aroraatics, and ardent spirits, have succeeded in rousing the stomach 
 to action, and establishing the process of rumination ; and that once 
 established, there is littlfe fear of the result of the case. These stimulanis 
 should, however, be always accompanied by aperient medicines. 
 
 When, hewever, the symptoms are sudden dulness, uneasiness, shifting 
 of posture, moaning, swelling at the sides, the flank feeling hard and not 
 yielding to pressure ; when rumination ceases, and the uneasiness and 
 moaning increase, and the animal gradually becomes unconscious, this is 
 a most serious business, and will admit of no delay. It is a case that 
 demands mechanical relief. 
 
 The practitioner will probably be able to obtain some account of the 
 nature of the contents of the stomach, and the introduction of the probang 
 will ascertain the degree of distention. 
 
 Should the probang enter a little way into the stomach, and the operator 
 oe able to move it about, he will have proof that, although the paunch 
 is sufficiently distended to produce severe annoyance and considerable 
 Hanger to the animal, it is not stretched to the utmost; and he will 
 consider whether he may not first try the effiect of mild measures, and he 
 will be especially encouraged to attempt this if he finds that the food is 
 31 a rather light nature. 
 
 A case related by Mr. Cotcheifer, of Newark,* will best illustrate the 
 method to be pursued. He was consulted respecting two cows that had 
 gorged themselves with eating wheat-chaff, and one of which was alread) 
 
 Veterinarian, June, 1830. 
 
DISTENTION OK THE RUMEN FROM FOOD. 437 
 
 Jead. Mr. Cotcheifer, that he might lose no time, first administered a 
 .strong purging draught to the living one. He then proceeded to examine 
 the dead cow ; and finding that both the first and second stomachs were 
 filled with this chaff, he immediately saw that he must have recourse to 
 other means in order to remove this accumulated food. Reasoning upon 
 the nature of the food, and the distention not being exceedingly violent, 
 he sent home for Read's Stomach Pump, and, having passed the flexible 
 tube into the paunch, he injected a considerable quantity of water. He 
 then attempted to pump out some of the contents which he had thus 
 softened, but he found this to be impracticable, from the lightness and half 
 masticated stale of the food, which soon stopped up the syringe ; he 
 therefore injected water into the rumen until it began to react upon its 
 contents, and a considerable proportion of them were discharged by vomit. 
 He afterwards threw up a large clyster of warm water, and ordered the 
 cow to be drenched with it several times in the day, and to be moved 
 gently about. The physic, assisted by the clyster, acted freely. On the 
 following day, the cow was better, and she recovered ; but it was a con- 
 siderable time before she fully regained her appetite and condition. 
 
 If the probang cannot be introduced at all into the rumen, or the food 
 eaten is heavy, as grains or potatoes or corn, the most judicious plan will 
 be to mal(e an incision without delay through the left flank into the rumen, 
 and thus extract its contents. 
 
 A case, related by Mr. J. Steel, of Biggar, N. B.,* will form a useful 
 commentary on the advice here given. He was sent for in haste to a cow 
 that was supposed to be very much hoven, and that seemed to be dying. 
 He found indeed every appearance of approaching dissolution. A sur- 
 i^eim had been prevailed on by the owner to puncture lier with a trocar, 
 but no air came away ; and it was evident (as it would have been by exami- 
 nation with the probang) that the stomach was distended with food. She 
 had been feeding on clover pasture. Mr. Steel, with a decision that did 
 him credit, proposed an immediate opening into the stomach, and (he 
 u\echanical removal of its contents. He was supported by the opinion o; 
 the surgeon ; and the owner consented when he was assured that not a 
 :noment was to be lost. 
 
 Mr. S. made an incision, five inches in length, tnroiigh the flank into 
 the stomach. The contents immediately came rushing out in a large 
 stream, and continued doing so for some time ; and when it stopped 
 coming of itself, he introduced his hand, and removed a great deal more 
 of it ; and he says that the quantity of this indigested mass that was 
 taken out was almost incredible. He then stitched up the wound, abstracted 
 some blood, and gave a purgative. Some days having elapsed, and the 
 bowels not acting, and the cow not feeding, he examined the state of the 
 rumen through the wound, some of the stitches having given way. He found 
 that the portion of the food, which was not removed, was lying in large 
 liard masses in the paunch. He was unwilling to open the whole of the 
 wound afresh; but, with the point of a long syringe, he broke down these 
 masses as well as he could, injected a good quantity of warm water, and 
 gave a smart dose of physic, which acted briskly. On the next day, she 
 was evidently better, and continued to improve; and, at length in spite 
 of a severe catarrhal fever, which was brought on by an accideutal cause, 
 she perfectly recovered. 
 
 This mode of proceeding, however, is recommended oiily in cases of 
 extreme distention with heavy food. The rumen or cattle, with few 
 blood-veasels and nerves, will endure very severe tieatment without serioui 
 * Veterinarian, February, 1834. 
 
43« CAITLK 
 
 injury. The principal danger is, and it exists to a considerable 
 extent, that a portion of the food will, during the extrication of the rest 
 from the stomach, fall into the abdomen, and there remain a source of 
 irritation, and the unsuspected cause of serious and fatal disease when the 
 fears of the owner had completely subsided. 
 
 A beast that has been subjected to this operation, or, indeed, whose 
 paunch has been distended to any considerable degree, should be prepared 
 for the butcher as soon as possible, or sold almost immediately, if in 
 tolerable condition : for a stomach, whose muscular fibres have been so 
 stretched and enfeebled, will not soon do its full duty again ; or a 
 small portion of food, which, notwithstanding the most careful manage- 
 ment may fall into the belly, will sometimes, after a while, produce inflam- 
 mation of the intestines, and death. 
 
 HOOVE, OR DISTENTION OP THE STOMACH FROM 0A8. 
 
 If a beast, taken from poor or less nutritive food, is put upon clover 
 or turnips, or rich-fog, it eats so greedily and so much, that the rumen 
 ceases to act. These green vegetable substances are naturally subject to 
 fermentation, during which much gas is extricated, but when inclosed in 
 the stomach and exposed to the combined influence of heat and moisture, 
 the commencement of the fermentation is hastened, and its effect increased. 
 
 The " Hoove" or "Blown" is distention of the rumen, by gas extri- 
 cated frpm substances undergoing the process of fermentation within it. 
 In a healthy discharge of the functions of the stomach, the food simply 
 undergoes a process of maceration or softening ; but if the food is retained 
 in the stomach longer than the usual period, it, or perhaps only a portion 
 of the juices which it contains, begins to ferment ; or, as in animals with 
 simple stomachs, even this preparatory one may so sympathise with certain 
 states of the constitution, as either to secrete an acid principle, or to favour 
 the development of it in the food. It is from this cause that some 
 degree of hoove accompanies most fevers ; it has been seen that it is 
 the consequence of general irritation produced by obstruction of the 
 oesophagus ; and it sometimes accompanies difficult parturition, and to such 
 an extent, that it is necessary to puncture the rumen before the calf can 
 descend sufficiently low into the pelvis to be extracted. 
 
 Its most frequent cause, however, is that which has been just stated, 
 namely, the turning of a beast from poor, or less nutritious food, into 
 plentiful and luxuriant pasture, nhen he frequently eats so greedily, and 
 so much, that the stomach is overloaded, and is unable to circulate the 
 food through its cavities, and from the combined action of heat anc^ 
 moisture its contents speedily ferment, and gas is extricated. The follow- 
 ing are the symptoms : — 
 
 The animal gradually becomes oppressed and distressed. It ceases to 
 eat ; it does not ruminate ; it scarcely moves ; but it stands with its head 
 extended, breathing heavily, and moaning. The whole belly is blown 
 up : this is particularly evident at the flanks and most of all at the left 
 flank, for under that the posterior division of the rumen lies. When the 
 effects of this distention of the stomach in the horse were described, a 
 determination of blood to the head was spoken of as an early and a fearful 
 symptom. Many blood-vessels go to the stomach of the horse, and it 
 is richly supplied with nervous influence, therefore the brain soon sym 
 pathises witli this overloaded organ, and staggen are produced. I 
 has been shown, however, that the rumen in cattle is scantily supplied 
 with either blood-vessels or nerves, and therefore the brain is seldom 
 much affected in an early stage of hoove. Swelling, unwillingness tc 
 
DISTENTION OF THE RUMEN FROM GAS 43S 
 
 move, and laborious breathing, are the first and distinguishing symptoms. 
 In proportion as the stomach becomes distended by the extricated gas, the 
 case becomes more desperate, not only from the pressure on the other 
 contents of the abdomen, thus impeding the circulation of the blood ; 
 and also on the diaphragm, against which the rumen abuts, and thus 
 impeding respiration, and also the danger of rupture of the paunch, but 
 the construction of the oesophagean canal renders it manifest that the 
 rumen will be more obstinately closed in proportion as it is distended. It 
 is the relaxation of the muscular fibies which causes the two pillars that 
 constitute the floor of the canal and the roof of the rumen to be ousily 
 opened, either for the admission or the return of food; but when the 
 stomach is filled and elongated, as well as widened, these fleshy pillars 
 must be stretched, and in proportion as they are distended, will they be 
 brought closer to each other, and firmly held there. Two cords, tied toge- 
 ther at the ends, may be easily separated from each other in the centre, when 
 they are loosely held ; but if they are tightly stretched, they are brought 
 close together, and the difiSculty of separating them increases with the tension. 
 
 This every-day illustration may explain the seeming difficulty of the 
 rumen becoming thus dangerously distended, with these moveable pillars 
 in its roof. When the rumen is filling, there are occasional eructations ot 
 a sour or foetid character ; but when the stomach is once filled, there is no 
 longer the possibility of escape for its contents. 
 
 The enimal cannot long sustain this derangement of important parts ; 
 inflammation is set up, and the circulation becomes seriously and dan- 
 gerously disturbed by this partial obstruction. Affection of the brain comes 
 at last, characterised by fulness of the vessels, hardness of the pulse, redness 
 of the conjunctiva, and protrusion of the eye. The totigde hangs from the 
 mouth, and the mouth is filled with spume. The beast stands with his back 
 bent, his Itgs as much as possible under him ; and he gradually becomes 
 insensible — immoveable — he moans — falls — struggles with some violence, 
 and, as death approaches, some relaxation of the parts ensues, and a quan- 
 tity of green sour liquid, occasionally mixed with more solid food, flows 
 from the mouth and nose. 
 
 There can be no dispute as to the first object to be accomplished, 
 in order to save the animal ; the gas must be libeAted, or otherwise 
 got rid of. Some persons, when symptoms of hoove appear, drive the 
 animal about, and keep him for a while in constant motion. This is parti- 
 cularly the case with sheep. It is supposed, that in the motion of all the 
 contents of the abdomen, while the animal is moving briskly about, the 
 pillars of the roof of the paunch must be for a moment relaxed, and oppor- 
 tunity given for the gas to escape into the oesophagean canal, and through 
 the gullet ; and this vrill, undoubtedly, be the case to a certain degree. In 
 sheep, that can be more easily driven about than oxen, this is sometimes 
 effectual ; but the ox cannot without much difficulty, and often not at all, 
 be induced to move with rapidity, which is necessary to produce concus- 
 sions sufficiently powerful to shorten and disunite the muscular pillars. 
 There must also be some danger of rupturing the stomach so much dis- 
 tended, or the diaphragm, against which it is pressing, by the very pro- 
 duction of these concussions. 
 
 In some parts of Leicestershire, the farmers still retain the old method 
 of very effectually producing these shocks : pails-full of cold water are 
 thrown one after another on the beast. A violent eructation follows, and 
 the animal is relieved; but it unfortunately happens that the stomach 
 now and then gives way, instead of the pillars of the oesophagean canal 
 iiid the pa*ient is lost. 
 
no CATTLE 
 
 Some writers recommend the administration of vinegar, the propriety of 
 which admits of much doubt, for tlie fluid contained in the stomach is 
 already suflSiciently acid. 
 
 Others have recommended alkalis, and described them as almost a spe- 
 cific. Ammonia has been extolled as seldom failing to give relief. It ma) 
 be conceded, that the alkali would be likely to neutralise the acid contents 
 of the stomach ; but there is one objection to it, (another will be stated 
 presently,) viz., that the same closing of the roof of the rumen, which 
 prevents the escape of the gas, would also prevent the entrance of the 
 alkali, which would, consequently, pass on to the third and fourth stomachs, 
 where there is no acid for it to neutralise. 
 
 Oil (whether olive, or spermaceti, or castor, or common whale- oil, seems 
 to be a matter of indifference) will sometimes prove serviceable in cases 
 of hoove ; but it is either at the very commencement, before the muscular 
 pillars are tightened, and when a portion of it can enter the paunch, and 
 produce a disposition to vomiting or purging ; or, if the whole passes on 
 into the fourth stomach, and so into the intestinal canal, a sympathetic 
 but inverted action is excited in the rumen, and a portion of its contents 
 is sent, by an unusual passage, from the rumen through the third and into 
 the fourth stomach, and so relief is obtained. In this way purging is 
 occasionally established, either in consequence of a stimulus applied imme- 
 diately to the coats of the first stomach, or from sympathy with the action 
 going forward m the intestinal canal, a portion of the food is carried from 
 the rumen into the intestines without being returned to the mouth to ba 
 remasticated. The grassy and harder fibres, sometimes found in the dung 
 in considerable quatitities, prove that that portion of it could not have 
 undergone rumination. This, however, is not striking at the root of the 
 evil. 
 
 The object to be accomplished is the extrication of the gas, and the 
 prevention of any fresh quantity of it being developed. If the farmer or 
 th'e practitioner, at a distance from home, sees any of his cattle so danger- 
 ously hoven or swelled as to threaten speedy death, he adopts a summary 
 mode of getting rid of the gas : he takes a sharp-pointed knife, and 
 plunges it into the left flank, underneath, and in contact with which the 
 rumen is found. The gas rushes violently through the aperture, carryinj; 
 with it steam, and fluid, and pieces of food. The belly falls, and the 
 beast is immediately relieved. The safest place for this operation is the 
 following: — Supposing a line to be drawn close along the vertebrae, from 
 the haunch-bone to the last rib, ^nd two other lines of equal length to 
 extend down the flank, so as to form an equilateral triangle, the apex ot 
 the triangle, or the point where these lines would meet, would be the 
 proper place for the operation, for there is no danger of wounding either 
 the spleen or the kidney. 
 
 It may also be suggested, that a small trocar is far preferable to a 
 knife for this operation, and might very conveniently be carried in the 
 instrument-case of the surgeon, or the pocket of the farmer. It consists 
 of- a short strong stilett, terminating in three cutting edges converging to a 
 point, and having a handle that may be grasped with some force. To 
 this is accurately fitted a silver canula or tube, reaching from the ter- 
 mination of the three edges to the handle. It is, in fact, the instrument 
 used by human surgeons in tapping for dropsy. This is plunged into 
 '.he flank ; the stilett is then withdrawn, and the canula remains as long 
 as the operator pleases, and may be secured by tapes attached to two 
 rings at the base of it, and tied round the body of the animal. 
 
 The gas is certainly extricated in tLiis way, and generally successfully 
 
DISTENTION OF THE HUMKN FROM FOOD. 44, 
 
 so. When gas ceases to escape, it may be taken for granted that the 
 manufacture of it has ceased in the rumen } the trocar may then be with 
 drawn, and the wound will speedily heal. There are, however, oc 
 nasional bad consequences, which are altogether unsuspected by tha 
 farmer or the practitioner. At the commencement of the operation 
 when the inside of the flank is in close contact witli the paunch, th« 
 gas, fluid, and fibrous matter will all be safely thrown out through the 
 two wounds, for, lying upon each other, they are but as one ; but when 
 the stomach is partially emptied of the gas, it sinks, and is no longer 
 in contact with the parietes of the abdomen. The gas and particles 
 of solid food continue to be discharged for a considerable time after this ; 
 aud although the greater part may be ejected with sufRcient force to 
 be driven through the aperture in the flank, yet some portion will neces- 
 sarily fall into the abdomen and remain there. This will, ere long, 
 become a source of considerable and dangerous irritation ; slow or rapid 
 in its progress and effects, according to the quantity of food that has 
 escaped from the' stomach into the abdominal cavity * accordingly it 
 happens, that although the beast may appear to be perfectly relieved by 
 this operation, he does not thrive well afterwards, and, in the course of a 
 few weeks or months, sickens and dies of some obscure disease, but which 
 is principally referrible to inflammatory affection of the abdomen. There- 
 fore, the farmer or practitioner who has faith in and occasional recourse 
 to the mode of cure by puncturing the rumen should always carry a 
 trocar with him, for the canula penetrating three or four inches into the 
 abdomen would form a continuous passage between the rumen and the 
 flanks, notwithstanding the subsidence of the former, and would prevent 
 the escape of any portion of the contents of the rumen into the abdomen. 
 
 Although a portion of the gas may be liberated by this operation, yet 
 the process of fermentation may proceed. The gas may escape, but that 
 which would furnish a long, continued, and annoying and dangerous sup- 
 ply of it remains. Then the advocates for paunching carry their operation 
 a little farther. They enlarge the aperture into the paunch, until, as in 
 bad cases of maw-bound, they can introduce their hand, and shovel out 
 the contents ; and, as before stated, the stomach, from its comparative in- 
 sensibility, and. want of vitality, bears all this without any considerable in- 
 flammation or danger ; there is, however, as in the simple paunching, danger 
 from the escape of a portion of the contents into the cavity of the abdo- 
 men. 
 
 This larger opening into the rumen should never be attempted except by 
 a veterinary surgeon, or a person perfectly acquainted with the anatomy 
 of cattle, and the precise situation of the viscera of the belly. A cow had 
 eaten a great quantity of lucern, and was hoven. A neighbour, who was 
 supposed to know a great deal about cattle, made this large incision into 
 the paunch : the gas escaped, a great portion of the food was remove^ 
 aud the animal appeared to be considerably relieved, but rumination did 
 not return, and on the following day the animal was dull — she refused her 
 food, but was eager for drink — she became worse and worse — and, on the 
 sixth day, she died. She was examined after death ; and one of the 
 kidneys was found to be punctured, and the peritoneum in the neighbour- 
 hood of the wound was black with inflammation. 
 
 The French Practical Journal of Veterinary Medicine (for 1829, p. 390) 
 contains a case in which the cow was destroyed by the operation, although 
 the larger opening was not resorted to, and even a rude kind of canula 
 was used. A cow that was hoven was punctured by the shepherd with his 
 ■ ■' ».. T" a:.-; .s iiBt;.'. arid tfe@ asiBia! was relieved ; but whether the man 
 
«2 CATTLE. 
 
 had uiaJe the opening into the rumeu too large, or had irritated the wovjid 
 by holding it open with his fingers, while some one procured a hollow piece 
 of elder to be introduced as a canula into it, the cow was evidently ill on 
 the following day, and became rapidly worse, and exhibited symptoms ot 
 inflammation of the bowels, and, on the seventh day after the puncturing, 
 was so bad, that she was destroyed. Several gallons of fluid were found 
 in the belly, with a considerable quantity of half-chewed food swimming 
 in it : many portions of the small intestines were highly inflamed, and the 
 peritoneum generally was so, and particularly in the neighbourhood of the 
 wound. 
 
 It was the knowledge of facts like these, (and similar ones must have oc- 
 curred in the experience of every practitioner,) that jirodiiced the conviction 
 that the practice of puncturing the rumen was not so simple and so free 
 from danger as some had imagined, and led to the invention and use of 
 the probang and stomach-pump. The tube (fig. 1, a. p. 417) is intro- 
 duced into the mouth, and is passed down the throat, with the rounded 
 extremity, e, downwards, and is forced on through the pillars of the oeso- 
 phagean canal : the stilett is then withdrawn, and the gas rushes violently 
 out. The tube is continued in the mouth until the belly sinks, and little gas 
 escapes: the animal is greatly relieved, and if it begins to swell again, the 
 probang is once more .ntroduced. But the tube cannot remain in the mouth 
 and gullet for any great length of time ; and when it is withdrawn, the ma- 
 nufacture of gas may continue undiminished, and the relief be only tem- 
 porary, and so far the probang may be in some degree inferior to the 
 trocar. 
 
 The practitioner then has recourse to the stomach-pump, and he throws 
 in a considerable quantity of warm water, and pumps it out again ; and 
 repeats the operation until he has washed away all the acid fermenting 
 fluid, and then usually the process of rumination recommences, and the 
 animal does well. Sometimes he so overcharges the stomach that vomit- 
 ing is produced, and a great portion of the contents of the rumen is thus 
 discharged. 
 
 Hoove, however, had long been considered to be a case in which the aid 
 of chemistry might be resorted to with considerable benefit; and alkalis 
 were thrown into the stomach to neutralise the supposed acid principle 
 which then prevailed. The carbonate of ammonia was a favourite medi- 
 cine for this purpose ; but they who were deluded by this supposed appli- 
 cation of chemistry, forgot that the necessary consequence of the com- 
 bination of the alkdi with the acid would be the extrication of an immense 
 volume of gas, of a different nature indeed, but which would still more 
 distend the rumen, and that even to bursting. As, however, a very small 
 portion of it, if any, enters the rumen, it will principally do good, and 
 much good it frequently does effect by its stimulant effect on the fourtb 
 stomach, propagated by sympathy to the first. 
 
 Acids are resorted to by other practitioners, but it would be difficult to 
 say on what principle, except their stimulant effect on the rumen, and thus 
 rousing it to contract, if possible, upon, and expel its contents. More pow- 
 erful stimulants than the acids are with great propriety adopted by ano- 
 ther set of practitioners, and peppermint, wine, and even ardent spirits 
 are freely administered, and in many cases with beneficial effect, and espe- 
 cially when they can be got into the rumen. 
 
 At length it occurred to some inquiring men to turn their chemistry to 
 neiter account by an analysis of the gas that was so rapidly and abun- 
 laiitly extricated, and the extrication of which was the source of all the 
 'iiiscliief. It had been suspected '^"t •' ('nneislpH nrincinallv of hvdroffen: 
 
DISTENTION OF THE RUMEN FROM FOOD. 443 
 
 fur when a lighted candle had been accidentally brought into contact with 
 the vapour as it rushed from the aperture in the flank, the gas immediately 
 caught file. Careful analysis indicated that the gas was differently com- 
 bined, in different stages. In recent hoove it consisted chiefly of carbu- 
 retted hydrogen — the union of carbon with hydrogen ; in more chronic 
 cases there was a mixture of sulphuretted hydrogen — the union of 
 sulphur and hydrogen ; and, in proportion to the continuance of the 
 hoove, the sulphuretted hydrogen increased, and at length prevailed In 
 both cases hydrogen was the chief constituent. 
 
 Then came the inquiry, whether something might not be mtruciuced 
 into the stomach which would combine with the gas already extricated, 
 and causb it to disappear, and also prevent its future accumulation, by 
 combining with it as soon as it was produced. Chlorine suggested itself 
 to the mind of the inquirer, between which and hydrogen a very strong 
 affinity prevailed, and which rapidly combined with hydrogen, and formed 
 muriatic gas, while this new and compound gas was immediately absorbed 
 by water, and became muriatic acid. 
 
 There were, however, some obvious difficulties attached to the adminis- 
 tration of chlorine; for, in the form of gas, it is destructive to life, and, 
 even when combined with water, it produces speedy and dangerous in- 
 flammation of the stomach and bowels. The muriatic acid also — the 
 result of the combination of the chlorine and the hydrogen and water — was 
 not a very harmless thing in the stomach of the horse, or of cattle. 
 
 A method, nevertheless, was soon discovered, by which it might be ad- 
 ministered with perfect safety and admirable result. Chlorine had affi- 
 nity for various substances, as lime, potash, and soda ; and its combina- 
 tion with either of these could be substituted for the unmanageable and 
 destructive chlorine. When introduced by means of the stomach-pump 
 into the rumen, the chlorine would separate itself from the alkali, ana 
 combine with the hydrogen, for which it had a more powerful affinity, 
 and formed muriatic gas. This gas had a strong affinity for water, and 
 would be quickly absorbed by the fluid always contained within the 
 stomach ; and so, quitting its gaseous for a fluid form, it quickly dis- 
 appeared, or would not retain a thousandth part of its former bulk, and 
 muriatic acid would be formed. At the same time, the lime or potash, 
 or soda, (according to the combination that was used,) would be libe- 
 rated ; yet no danger would result from the presence of this corroding 
 acid and caustic alkali ; for there was a chemical affinity between them 
 which would be soon exerted, and the harmless and inert muriates of lime 
 or potash, or soda, would be produced. This was not mere theory, but 
 when brought to the test of practice, was verified in every particular ; and 
 hence resulted one of the most important improvements in cattle-medicine 
 that modern times have produced. 
 
 The chloride of lime is as good as either of the oth.*rs, and should 
 alwavs be in the possession of the farmer and practitioner, not only for 
 this nurpose, but because, in cases of foul, foetid ulceration, and gangrene 
 generally, it is the most powerful disinfectant, and the most useful sti- 
 mulant that can be applied. The proper and safe dose is two drachms 
 of the powdered chloride of lime dissolved in two quarts of water, and 
 injected into the paunch by means of the stomach-pump. This may be 
 repeated au hour afterwards, if circumstances should appear to require it. 
 
 The trocar will then supersede the use of the knite and the lancet, 
 when, under circumstances of emergency, the practitioner may be com- 
 pelled to act promptly ; for, by the continuance of the canula in the 
 
 iur..,nr1 cnmo .if ilio rllctgnt Qtlrl i^nc^cnaMoA feSultS of thc COmmOn mCthod 
 
*<* CATTLE. 
 
 c€ puncturing the rumen may be avoided ; but when the practitioner i» 
 rear home, or can obtain speedy access to his stomach-tube and pump, 
 ihe trocar will be completely discarded. 
 
 The animal having been relieved, and the gas ceasing to distend the 
 paunch, a pound of Epsom salts should be administered with an outice of 
 carraway powder, and half an ounce of ginger ; and, on several successive 
 mornings, four ounces of Epsom salts, two of powdered gentian, and half 
 an ounce of ginger, should be given. The object of the practitioner, or 
 the owner, should be to restore, as speedily and as efiectually as possible, 
 the tone and action of the rumen. The return of the process of rumina- 
 tion will show when that is beginning to be effected, and rumination will 
 usually precede the desire to eat 
 
 Attention should for some time be paid to the manner of feeding. A 
 mash should be daily allowed, and the pasture on which the beast is 
 turned should be short and bare, rather than luxuriant. It should also be 
 kept in mind that the over-distended stomach of the hoven beast will not 
 soon, and in most cases will never, quite recover its former energy ; and 
 that, if the beast is in tolerable condition, it should be sent to the butcher, 
 or it should be got ready for the market as quickly as that can with safety 
 be effected. 
 
 One of the most singular cases of hoove that we have on record is con- 
 tained in one of the French periodicals *. A cow that had been turned 
 into the pasture in perfect health, was found, in the course of the morning, 
 labouring under great excitation, making frequent and violent efforts to 
 vomit, and then galloping over the field with her mouth half open, and 
 the saliva running from it as if she were mad. The eyes were haggard 
 and fixed, and starting from their orbits, and the nostrils were unusually 
 dilated. When she stood still her back was bowed, but presently she would 
 stretch herself out, and bound away over the field. Her paunch began 
 speedily to swell, and she moaned dreadfully, and could not be still for a 
 moment. 
 
 The practitioner, not having a trocar, punctured the rumen with a bis- 
 toury. A vast quantity of gas rushed violently out ; the enlargement of 
 the abdomen subsided, and she appeared to be perfectly at ease ; but pre- 
 sently the efforts to vomit recommenced, and the aperture into the paunch 
 being accidentally closed, she began rapidly to swell again. The practi- 
 tioner now suspected that the cause of all this mischief was concealed 
 somewhere in the gullet, or the entrance into the first stomach. He care 
 fully examined along the whole extent of gullet in the neck, but could not 
 detect any obstruction. He then opened the mouth, and raised the head, 
 in order to introduce a flexible osier rod into the gullet, when the animal 
 again making a sudden and more violent effort to vomit, he saw the tail of 
 a snake in the posterior part of the mouth. He seized it immediately with 
 his right hand, and, steadying himself by laying firm hold of the horn with 
 his left hand, he drew it out : it v/as dead, and measured three feet and 
 eleven inches in length. There was no appearance of bite or wound 
 upon it, but it was covered -with a greenish spume. The efforts to vomit 
 immediately ceased, the hoove disappeared, and the cow began to rumi- 
 nate, and steadily regained her appetite and spirits. 
 
 Sucking calves are occasionally subject to hoove. Littie more will be 
 accessary in this case than the introduction of the probang. This disten- 
 sion of the rumen arises from some accidental and temporary cause, and 
 there is rarely any continued manufacture of gas within the stomach. 
 
 > Recueil de Med. Vet. 1826, p. 403. 
 
POISONS. 4« 
 
 Some calves become blown from the trick which they frequenilj' have of 
 sucking each other's pizzle or ear. It is curious to see with what eager- 
 ness they will do this, and how quickly they blow themselves up by the 
 air which they draw in and swallow. The introduction of the probang 
 will be sufficient here, but it will be prudent to separate the animals *. 
 
 LOSS OF CUD. 
 
 The cessation of rumination, designated by the term " the loss of cud, 
 's more a symptom of disease, than a disease of itself. It accompanies 
 most inflammatory complaints, and is often connected with those of debi- 
 Mty. It will be the duty of the practitioner to ascertain the cause of this 
 suspension of second mastication, and to adapt his mode of treatment to 
 the nature of that cause. A dose of physic, with a very small portion of 
 aromatic medicine, will be indicated if any fever can be detected ; more 
 than the usual quantity of the aromatic will be added in the absence of 
 fever, and still more, with tonic and alterative medicine, if general debility 
 is indicated. The carraway and ginger powder are the best aromatics that 
 can be employed, and will supersede every other : the gentian and gin- 
 ger, with Epsom salts, as recommended in p 444, will prove a very 
 useful tonic and alterative, in cases of "loss of cud " that cannot be traced 
 to any particular diseased state of the animal, or that seems to be con- 
 nocted with general debility. 
 
 INFLAMMATION OF THE RUMEN. 
 
 In almost every book on cattle-medicine mention is made of " inflam- 
 mation of the stomach ; " and certainly cases do, although but rarely, 
 occur in which evident traces of inflammation of the rumen may be dis- 
 covered on examination after death. The cuticular coat is not discoloured, 
 but it peels from the mucous coat below at the slightest touch, and that 
 coat is red and injected. This is particularly the case when a beast dies 
 soon after apparent recovery from distention of the stomach by gas, or 
 when he is destroyed by the accumulation of solid food that could not be 
 removed. It is likewise found in every case of poisoning, but the 
 symptoms during life are so obscure that it would be useless to bestow 
 further time on the consideration of this disease. 
 
 POISONS. 
 
 Nature has endowed the brute with an acuteness of the various senses, 
 and with a degree of instinct which, so far as the life and enjoyment and 
 usefulness of the animal are concerned, fully compensate for the lack of 
 the intelligence of the human being. The quadruped is scarcely born ere 
 
 • It is amusing to observe the strange notions which some persons have formed of 
 this disease and its treatment. Mr. Parkinson contends that it chiefly arises from the 
 glands of the mouth being over-abundantly supplied with saliva, which, passing con- 
 tinually down the throat, the stomach becomes too full, and the end of the gullet or 
 windpipe is stopped, so as to prevent the passage of the wind or breath. (What 
 strange activity of the salivary glands, even to fill the enormous cavity of the rumen, 
 and to stop the end of the gullet or windpipe ! Kxcellent anatomy ! The mode of 
 cure is worthy of it.^ 
 
 < I am convinced it is solely occasioned by a too abundant flow of saliva in the stomach. 
 I have myself been much troubled with this complaint, for which, after trying many 
 things prescribed by the faculty, 1 found an effectual remedy in smciiing tobacco. This 
 I do immediately after every meal, spitting as much as pos.sible. Any stick with a 
 kuob thrust down the throat will give ease ; but I much approve of tar being admi 
 nistered as, from its nauseous quality, it will cause the animal to throw up much sa- 
 liva — (I have known them to discharge as much as a quart at a time) — and alfurda 
 »j effectual and immediate relief.' — Parkinson's Treatise on Live Stock, vol. i. p. '^38. 
 
44« CATTLE 
 
 he IS mysteriously guided, and without any of the lessons of experience^ 
 to the kind of food which affords him the most suitable nourisliment, and 
 he is warned from that which would be deleterious. There is scarcely a 
 pasture which does not contain some poisonous plants, yet the beast crops 
 the grass close around them without gathering a particle of that which 
 would be injurious. In the spring of the year, however, and especially 
 after they have been kept in the stall or the straw-yard during the winter, 
 and supported chiefly on dry food, as soon as they are turned into the 
 fields cattle eat greedily of every herb that presents itself, and frequently are 
 seriously diseased, and sometimes quite poisoned. They are under the 
 influence of appetite almost ungovernable, and few plants have then ac- 
 quired their distinguishing form and colour, and taste and smell. It has 
 already been stated (p. 310) that when Linnsus visited Tornea, the inhabi- 
 tants complained of a disease which destroyed many of their cattle, and 
 especially if, during the spring, they were turned into a particular meadow 
 in the neighbourhood. He soon traced the disorder to the water-hemlock. 
 which grew plentifully in that place, arid which the cattle in spring did 
 pot know how to avoid*. The common and water-hemlock, the water- 
 ilropwort, and the yew, are the principal plants that are poisonous to 
 cattle ; but it is said that the common-crowfoot, and various others 
 of the ranunculus family, are occasionally destructive. The writer of this 
 treatise recollects losing one cow that had fed on the wild parsnip, and 
 another by black henbane ; and there is a case on record in which eight 
 cows were poisoned by the stalks of the wild poppy.f 
 
 The symptoms of poisoning by these acrid and narcotic plants are 
 obscure, unless they can be connecied with the history of the ease. They 
 are principally sudden swelling, with a peculiar stupor, in the early sta^e 
 of the attack ; cessation of rumination ; a change in the quality of the 
 milk, which becomes thin and serous, and presently ceases to be secreted ; 
 the refusal of all solid food, and eagerness after water ; quickening of the 
 pulse, which yet becomes small, and, in some cases, scarcely to be felt ; 
 and the animal frequently grinds his teeth, and paws, and rolls, as if it felt 
 severe colic pains. In a few instances the stupor passes over, and a 
 degree of excitement and blind fury succeeds, which has been mistaken 
 for madness. 
 
 On examination after death, the greater part of the poison is usually 
 found in the paunch, but, in a few cases, it has been remasticated, and 
 conveyed into the fourth stomach and intestines. The sense of taste does 
 not seem to be very acute in cattle ; it is a sleepy kind of pleasure which 
 they feel in rumination, and the acrid and bitter flavour of many a plant 
 appears to give them little annoyance. 
 
 Inflammation is found in the paunch and second stomach characterised 
 by the ease with which the cuticular coat is separated from that beneath 
 The manyplus is usually filled with dry and hardened food ; and the fourth 
 stomach and intestines exhibit inflammation and ulceration proportioned 
 to the acrimony of the poison, and the quantity of it which had passed 
 into these viscera. 
 
 The yew is probably the most destructive poison, especially when a 
 quantity of it is taken unmixed with other food. M. Husard, however, 
 relates that, in Hanover and Hesse, the cattle are partly fed on the leaves 
 of the yew. He examined the trees as they grew in the mountains of 
 ihose countries, and he found them to be the true yew. In winter, and 
 
 * Lachesis Laponica, vol. ii. p. 136. 
 t Recueil de M£d. V<t£rinaire, Oct. 1829, p. OU. 
 
POISONS. 44; 
 
 especially when fodderis more than usually scarce, a portion of yew leaves 
 and branches is mingled with the other food. The quantity of the yew is 
 small at first, but it is gradually increased until it constitutes the greater 
 part of the food ; and it has the reputation of materially contributing to 
 the fattening of the beast. 
 
 The inhabitants of Hanover and Hesse are, nevertheless, perfectly 
 aware of the poisonous property of the leaves of this tree, and are some- 
 times taught, by dear experience, that it will destroy their cattle, unless it is 
 managed with this degree of caution. 
 
 M. Husard adds, that on his return to France he determined to put this 
 matter to the- test, but he selected the horse instead of cattle as the subject 
 of his experiment. He gave the yew mixed with oats in the proportion of 
 half a pound of the former to a pound and a half of the latter, and the 
 horse did not appear to be in the slightest degree inconvenienced by what 
 he had eaten. 
 
 This animal, however, was enfeebled and emaciated previous to the ex- 
 periment ; and it occurred to M. Husard that there might be a deficiency 
 of sensibility in the stomach, and in the frame generally, and that, in con- 
 sequence of this, the poison might not produce its fatal effects : he, there- 
 fore, selected a mare in good health and condition, as the subject of a 
 second experiment. She ate the mingled yew and oats, and suffered no 
 inconvenience. 
 
 He selected another horse as the subject of a third and decisive experi- 
 ment. He took seven ounces of the yew, and bruised and mixed it wiih 
 twelve ounces of water, so as to make a kind of electuary, which he gave 
 
 a horse that had fasted four hours ; an hour afterwards he fell and died*. 
 
 The British agrieulturist will scarcely be tempted to make experiments 
 •Vke these, except in times of the greatest scarcity, and then he would act 
 with all the caution of the Hanoverian, for several instances occur to the 
 recollection of the writer in which the presence of a considerable quantity 
 of other food in the rumen did not preserve the beast from the fatal effeet* , 
 of the jew. Fortunately, it is seldom that cattle browse upon the- greeu 
 yew ; the mischief is usually done by the half-dried clippings of the yew 
 trees, or hedges, which are too often suffered to lie in the way of cattle, 
 and which they will eat, if not with avidity, yet freely. 
 
 Little can be done in the way of medicine when cattle have browsed on 
 these poisonous plants, and the only hope of the practitioner must be 
 foundted on the early and persevering use of the stomach-pump. Plenty 
 of warm water should be iin|ected and puraped out, and that repeated again 
 and again ; and at length the stomach should be fully distended with water, 
 for the purpose, and in the. hope of, producing vomiting, as in Mr. Cot- 
 cheifer's case Wluther this succeeds or not, a brisk purgative should 
 be next administered, but as cautiously and' gently as possible, that it may 
 pass on. over the closed floor of the oesophagean- canal into the fourth 
 stomach, and not, by the power with which ii desceridsi forc^e open the 
 pillars that compose that floor, and enter the rumen and be lost. Tonics 
 and aromaties will here alsr fellow the evacuation of the stomach, in order 
 to restore its tone. 
 
 While speaking of poisons, it will, perhaps, be proper to nrention that 
 cattle are sometimes exposed to extreme danger from the application 01 
 delelerioTis mineral preparations for the cure of mange and other cutaneous 
 eruptions. A practitioner had been attending on some mangy cows ; he 
 had' applied the us"al preparation of sulphur mixed with a portion of 
 
 * iDstmctiuns aur les Maladies de les Animauz Domestiques, tume vi. p, 3U0. 
 
«8 CATTT.K. 
 
 mercurial ointment, and the animals were decidedly getting belter al 
 though not so rapidly as the impatient owner desired. The gent.eman be 
 came dissatisfied, and another person was called in, who freely applied a 
 lotion to the sore and mangy spots ; but before he had dressed the last of 
 the cows, the first became suddenly and violently ill, and died. The former 
 practitioner was sent for in great haste, but ere he had arrived, three had 
 died, and he came just in time to witness the death of a fourth. They 
 were all dead in less than two hours after the external application of the 
 lotion. He found the bottle with a portion of' the lotion remaining in it, 
 which he carried away, and appointed the following morning for the open- 
 ing of the animals, to which he desired that the second man should be 
 summoned, and airriving at his home, he set to work to analyze the con- 
 tents of the bottle. Combined with some unknown vegetable matter, he 
 found a nearly saturated solution of corrosive subhmate. On the following 
 morning the post-mortem examination took place. Considerable inflam- 
 mation of the first and second stomachs was found, evidenced by the ready 
 separation of the cuticular coat ; the fourth stomach and the intestines 
 were ulcerated, and in many places nearly perforated. The gas which 
 proceeded from the abdomen and rumen was of so poisonous a character 
 that the butcher who opened the animals, although warned of his danger, 
 yet exposing himself to the blast of the gas as it escaped, had erysipelatous 
 swelling of the face and head, which threatened his lite. The cows were 
 poisoned by the application of the mercurial wash to the mangy and 
 braded spots. 
 
 It is no unusual thing tor cattle that have been incautiously dressed 
 with a strong solution of corrosive sublimate to become seriously ill. 
 They cease to eat and to ruminate ; the saliva drivels from their mouths ; 
 they paw with their feet; look anxiously at their flanks, and are violently 
 purged — blood usually mingling with the fseces. 
 
 The remedy, if there is time and opportunity to have recourse to it, is 
 the white of several eggs, beaten up with thick gruel, and gently poured 
 down the throat, that it may be more likely to pass on to the fourth 
 stomach ; and this repeated every hour, until the animal is either relieved 
 or dead. As soon as decided relief is obtained, a dose of physic should be 
 given, and if any fever seems to be coming on, a few pounds of blood 
 should be taken away. 
 
 It is scarcely possible that cattle should suffer from the poison of arsenic, 
 unless it is maliciously administered, for it ought not to enter into the 
 composition of any medicine, or external application. The antidote would 
 be lime-water, or chalk and water plentifully administered. 
 
 DISEASES or THE RETICULUM 
 
 Of these, in the present state of knowledge of cattle-medicine, little can 
 be said. Some of the foreign substances that are found in the rumen 
 have been occasionally discovered in the reticulum, as pins, pieces of 
 wire, nails, small stones, &c. They were, probably, ejected over the 
 ralie between the two stomachs, enveloped by, or attached to, the portioD 
 of food that was preparing for a second mastication. In the forcible con- 
 traction of the stomach, it has been severely wounded by these substances, 
 and so much kiflammation has ensued, that the animal has been lost. 
 The following narrative, by M. Dupuy, director of the Veterinary School 
 at Toulouse, which is almost exclusively devoted to the consideration 
 of the diseases of cattle, will form a sufficient illustration of this. A bull, 
 three years old, died after an illness of fourteen days. The symptoms 
 scarcely extended beyond the peculiar heaving and short cough, of hoove. 
 
DISEASES OF THE MANTPLUS, OR MANIFOLDS. 449 
 
 On examinalion, after death, it was found that the second stomach 
 adhered to the diaphragm by a false membrane, which was clearly the 
 consequence of intense inflammation of that stomach. The coats of the 
 reticulum had been pierced, and in the aperture was a piece of iron wire, 
 that had penetrated through the diaphragm and the pericardium, and 
 entered the right ventricle of the heart. Within the diaphragm, and 
 between it and the heart, was a sac containing nearly a pound of blood 
 mingled with the liquid food usually contained in the second stomach. 
 
 The mischief had been of long standing, for the walls of the ventricle 
 were become white and of a cartiltiginous structure, and the ventricle 
 iiself was filled with coagulated blood deposited layer upon layer. The 
 pericardium was contracted and adhered to the heart, and might almost be 
 ^aid to have disappeared. The lungs were emphysematous, and con- 
 tained numerous encysted tubercles resembling hydatids, or actually 
 being so. 
 
 The writer of this treatise has frequently seen inflammation of the 
 second stomach — sometimes accompanying that of the paunch, and at 
 other times seemingly confined to the reticulum. This inflammation was, 
 as in the rumen, characterised by the peeling off of the cuticular coat, 
 and the redness of the tissue beneath it ; but the symptoms were so different 
 in diiierent cases, and always so obscure, that no legitimate conclusion 
 could be drawn from the appearances that presented themselves. 
 
 DISEASES OF THE MANYPLUS, OR MANIFOLDS. 
 
 Although the function of this stomach is one of a purely mechanical 
 nature, there seems to be a strong bond of sympathy between it and almost 
 every part of the frame. There are few serious diseases by which cattle are 
 afflicted, and there are none of an acute and inflammatory nature, in which 
 the manyplus is not involved. It is so common in cases of catarrh, con ■ 
 stipation, inflammation of the lungs or bowels, simple fever, dropping 
 after calving, blain, and even murrain, to find the manyplus either choked 
 with food in a hardened state, or, if continuing soft, yet having become 
 exceedingly putrid and emitting a most nauseous smell, that the idea of 
 the animal being fardel-bound, or having disease of the faik is always 
 present in the mind of the farmer and the country-practitioner. They are 
 seldom wrong in this surmise, for the fardel-bag either sympathises with 
 the diseases of other parts, or is the original seat and focus of disease 
 
 The manyplus has been described as containing numerous leaves or 
 curtains or duplicatures of its cuticular coat, and with interposed layers of 
 muscular and vascular tissue, which hang from its roof and float loose in its 
 cavity. These leaves are covered with innumerable little hard papillse or 
 prominences ; and many of these, and especially toward the lower edges, 
 assume a greater degree of bulk, and something of a hook-like form. Those 
 portions of food that are returned after the second mastication, and that 
 have not been thoroughly ground down, are seized by these hooked edges 
 of the leaves and drawn up between them, and there retained until, by the , 
 action of these flexible grindstones, they are sufficiently comminuted for the 
 purpose of digestion. 
 
 It is e^sy to imagine that, cither sharing in the irritability of other 
 parts, or being the original seat of irritation and inflammation, the many- 
 ' plus may spasmodically contract upon, and forcibly detain the substances 
 that have been thus taken up between its leaves. By this contraction the 
 natural moisture of the food, or that which it had acquired in the processes 
 ol maceration and mastication, is mechanically squeezed out, or drained 
 
 2 Q 
 
<«50 CATTLE. 
 
 away by the very position of the leaves, and a liard and dry jsiass uece^sariljr 
 remains. When the contraction is violent, and this imprisonment of the 
 food long continued, we can even conceive of the possibility of its becoming 
 so hardened and dry as to be snapped between the fingers, and to be capable 
 of being reduced to powder. The description of it is not exaggerated when 
 it is said to " look as if it had been baked in an oven." On the other 
 hand, it can as readily be imagined that, either debilitated by inflammatory 
 action peculiar to itself, or sympathising with, and sharing in the debility 
 of other parts, the leaves may have lost the power of acting on the food 
 contained between them, and which, supported by the irregularities of the 
 cuticular coat, and imprisoned there in a somewhat pultaceouB form, will 
 gradually become putrid and offensive. 
 
 A third case may not unfrequently happen. The animal may be fed 
 on too dry and fibrous matter, or he may lazily and but half perform 
 the process of rumination ; in consequence of this the hard parts of the food 
 may accumulate in the manyplus more rapidly than they can be ground 
 down, and so '.he stomach may become clogged and its function suspei. ded. 
 Whatever may be the cause, this state of contraction or inaction of the 
 manyplus often occurs, and either aggravates the pre-existing malady, or 
 Decomes a new source of disease, and hastens or causes the death of the 
 animal. 
 
 When this stomach has been spasmodically contracted, or long and forci- 
 bly distended, the imprisoned food presents a very curious appearance. 
 There is an indentation of the papillae on the surface of the detained mass. 
 The impression is as perfect as could be made by any seal. All this force 
 must have produced inflammation of the part ; and that intense inflamma- 
 tion does occasionally exist in the manyplus, sufficient to produce great and 
 general derangement and even to destroy the beast, is rendered sufficiently 
 evident by the easy separation of the cuticular coat. In many cases, or 
 perhaps in the majority of them, it is impossible to remove the detained 
 mass from its situation without a portion of the cuticular coat accompanying 
 and covering it. It must, however, be confessed, that even this hardened 
 state of the contents of the manyplus is not always a proof of general dis- 
 ease. It is an unnatural and morbid state of the stomach, but very consi- 
 derable local disease may exist in this organ, as it is known to do in many 
 other parts, without materially, or in any appreciable degree, interfering 
 with general health and good condition. Tubercles and abscesses in the 
 lungs, and inflammation and almost complete disorganization of the liver, 
 will occasionally be found on examination of the carcase, of the exist- 
 ence of which there was not the slightest suspicion during the life of the 
 animal. So, in this case, the fa^rdei-bag has been found choked with food, 
 and that dry, and black, and roasted, and yet the beast had apparently 
 been in perfect health. 
 ^ The author of this treatise has seen the loss of function confined to one 
 part only of this stomach. Between some of the leaves, or on one side or 
 curvature of the manyplus, the contents have been green and fluid ; in the 
 other portion of it they have been perfectly baked. It is a wise and kind 
 provision of nature that the general health and thriving of the animal shall 
 in various cases be so little impaired by local, although serious, disease. 
 Many a trifling circumstance, nevertheless, may cause this local evil to 
 spread rapidly and widely ; and, even without any additional excitement, 
 the mere continuance of such a disease, accompanied by such derangement 
 of function, can scarcely fail of being attended by injurious consequences. 
 A very singular account, however, is recorded of the great length of time 
 auiing which this hardened matter may be detained between the leaves of 
 
DISEASES OF THE MANYPLUS. OR MANIFOLDS. 451 
 
 the manyplus. A person at Bourbourg had a valuable cow that was fed 
 principally on vetches. A serious epizootic broke out in that neighbour- 
 hood, and the cow was removed to a distant and uninfected place, where 
 she remained for six weeks apparently well, and without the possibility of 
 her getting at any vetches ; she then became infected by this prevalent 
 malady and died. Tlie third stomach wus filled with vetches, dry, hard, 
 and, as it were, roasted. Although there was no apparent illness, it is im- 
 possible to determine how far this long-continued and unnatural state of 
 the manyplus had preyed on the strength of her constitution, and prepared 
 her for a fetal attack of the epidemic*. 
 
 In the Veterinarian for November, 1829, several cases of " staking" or 
 " bound " are recorded by Mr. Cartwright, which were plainly referrible to 
 this stomach. A drove of Anglesea cattle were on their journey to the 
 London market. They appeared to be in perfect health when they crossed 
 the ferry, and they stopped one night in a field near Bangor. They had 
 not got fer firom this place when one of them was taken ill, and, being alto- 
 gether unable to proceed, he was slaughtered. A little farther on two 
 others began to fail ; and when they arrived on the borders of Shropshire 
 the disease was spreading rapidly among them. They were dull, moaning , 
 they could scarcely be induced to move, and they remained obstinately 
 standing. Proper measures were resorted to : they were bled and purgative 
 medicine was administered, but four of them presently died. In two of 
 these the manyplus was full, — clogged with food, — but it was soft ; in the 
 third, the greater part of the food was soft, but in the larger curvature it 
 was hard and friable. In the fourth beast the manyplus was quite full and 
 hard, each layer being so dried that it would snap short off; and upon each 
 layer there was a thin pellicle of secretion of a blueish colour that could be 
 easily separated ; the leaves of the stomach were of a light pinkish hue, 
 and the vessels were injected." Four others, that had been taken ill in the 
 same way, recovered ; but it was eight or nine days before any medicine 
 operated, although great quantities were administered. In the third sto- 
 mach of each there were a great number of small seeds from some unknown 
 plant, said to have grown in this field at Bangor, and which had 
 remained in the stomach from that night. 
 
 A more satisfactory proof of the serious nature of the maladies of this 
 stomach is recordedf. 
 
 Towards the end of September, 1746, a great number of cows died at 
 Osterwich, in the principality of Halberstadt. Lieberkuhn, a celebrated 
 physician, (there were not any veterinary surgeons at that time,) was sent 
 to examine into the nature of the disease, which was supposed to be one of 
 the species of murrain that was then committing such ravages among the 
 cattle in various parts of the continent. There were none of the tumours, 
 or pestilential buboes, that in an earlier or later period of the malady 
 usually accompanied and characterised murrain, but, on inspection of the 
 dead bodies, considerable peritoneal inflammation was found ; the first and 
 second stomachs were filled with food, but the third stomach was the pal- 
 pable seat of disease — its leaves were black and gangrened. The mass 
 contained between the leaves was black, dry, and so hard that it could 
 scarcely be cut with a scalpel. It intercepted the passage of the food from 
 the two first stomachs to the fourth ; and this latter stomach was empty 
 Mid much inflamed. Neither the heart nor the lungs nor intestines exhibited 
 
 * Moyens Curatifs, par Vicq-d'Azir, p. 481. 
 f PisputalionB de Haller. Tom. v — Journal Pratique, I82(>, p. 38. 
 
 2 Q 2 
 
JSa CATTLE. 
 
 any trace of disease. Twelve cows were opened, and the appearances wer« 
 nearly the same in all of them.* 
 
 , M. Lieberkuhn thus accounted for the disease : the pasture had been 
 overflowed in the preceding' month, and when the water subsided, vegetation 
 was much quickened by the united influence of moisture and heat, and the 
 numerous poisonous plants with which that locality abounded (different 
 species of dropwort, clematis, and ranunculus growing rapidly, and succu- 
 lent with the rest) not possessing the natural odour or taste of the mature 
 plant, the beasts, like those in the island of Tornea, fed on them uncon- 
 sciously, and the poisonous principle which they contained was evidenced 
 in the paralysis, or over-excitation of the muscles of the manyplus. 
 
 This state of the manyplus is one of the most serious species of indiges- 
 tion to which these animals are subject, and deserves the attentive consi- 
 deration of the practitioner. There are, nevertheless, many difliculties 
 accompanying the study of this important subject, and which chiefly arise 
 from the present wretched state of the knowledge of cattle-medicine. The 
 symptoms by which primary or dangerous disease of the manyplus may be 
 distinguished from that of the other stomachs, and the manner in which it 
 can be successfully treated, — these are points on which no author has writ- 
 ten, nor has any veterinary teacher on the south side of the Tweed 
 instructed his pupils with regard to them. There is no clue, no light, to 
 guide the bewildered practitioner on his way. Is it not disgraceful, that 
 when the veterinary art has professedly been studied in England more than 
 forty years, no efitctive school of cattle-medicine has yet been established ; 
 but oxen and sheep, the most valuable of the live stock of the agriculturist, 
 continue to be abandoned to the ravages of the various diseases to which 
 they are exposed ? It is high time for the different farming societies and 
 for government to interfere, and to protect the most important interests of 
 the agriculturist, and the most effectual source of national prosperity and 
 wealth. 
 
 The clue, or fardel-hound, names by which the retention of the food in 
 the manifolds is distinguished, may be occasionally produced by the animal 
 feeding on too stimulating plants, or on those which are of a narcotic nature. 
 A sudden change from green and succulent Ibod to that which is hard and 
 fibrous may also readily be supposed to be a very likely cause of it. The 
 strange fancy that induces many cows, and especially those in calf, to 
 refuse the soft and nutritious food of the pasture and browse on the coarse 
 grass and weeds which the hedges produce, will necessarily overload the 
 manyplus with hard and fibrous substance's ; and many a beast has suffered 
 in this way from being too rapidly and exclusively put on chaff of various 
 kinds. 
 
 The symptoms vary in different animals, but the following is an outline 
 of them : the animal, is evidently oppressed ; the pulse is somewhat accele- 
 rated and hard ; the respiration not so much quickened ; the muzzle is dry ; 
 the month hot ; the tongue protruded, and seemingly enlarged ; the mem- 
 brane both of the eyes and nose is injected ; the eye is protruded or 
 weeping ; the head is extended ; the animal is unwilling to move ; and the 
 gait is uncertain and staggering , the urine is generally voided with diffi- 
 culty, and is sometimes red and even black. There is apparent and obsti- 
 nate costiveness, jet small quantities of liquid faeces are discharged. As 
 the disease proceeds, and often at an early period, there is evident deter- 
 
 * The reporter adds, (exhibiting the wretched state of veterinary science, and how far 
 the most scientific men were deluded by the absurd notions of the cow-keeper of that 
 period)," we examined and divided the tail in various parts,' and fo'ind it in its natura 
 sUte.*' 
 
DISEASES OF THE MANYPLUS, OR MANIFOLDS. 453 
 
 tnination of blood to the head, evinced not only by this staggering gait, but 
 by a degree of unconsciousness ; the eyes weep more ; the lids are swollen ; 
 the costiveness continues or some hardened excrement is voided, but foetid 
 and mixed with blood ; rumination ceases ; the secretion of milk is usually 
 suspended, or the milk becomes offensive both in taste and smell ; the urine 
 flows more abundantly, but that too continues of a dark colour. 
 
 Many of these symptoms distinguish this complaint from distension of 
 the rumen ; there is not the hardness at the flanks, and the general swelling 
 of the belly, which is observed in distension by food ; nor the greater dis- 
 tension and threatened suffocation which accompany hoove. In bad cases, 
 and when the symptoms take on much of the chat-acter of that undescribed, 
 and unintelligible disease, wood-evil, tremblings of the frame generally, a de- 
 gree of palsy, coldness of the extremities, actual swellin^w of the tongue, 
 the eyes glaring, and the ears and the tail being in frequent and convulsive 
 motion, — these are the precursors of death. 
 
 The period of the termination of the disease is uncertain; it evitends from 
 three or four days to more than as many weeks. Many of these symptoms 
 so oilen accompany other diseases that ihey are utterly insufficient always, 
 or generally, to lead to a right conclusion as to the nature of the complaint ; 
 and careful enquiry must be made into the history of the case. 
 
 The treatment is as unsatisfactory as the history of the symptoms. It 
 will always be proper to bleed in order to diminish any existing fever, or to 
 prevent the occurrence of that which continued disease of this important 
 stomach would be likely to produce. To this should follow a dose of 
 physic, in order to evacuate the intestines beyond the place of obstruction, 
 and, by its action on them, possibly recall this viscus also to the discharge 
 of its healthy function. The Epsom salts, with half the usual quantity of 
 ginger, will form the best purgative ; and it should be administered either 
 by means of a small horn, or the pipe of the stomach-pump introduced 
 half way down the gullet, and the liquid very slowly pumped in. By 
 this cautious method of proceeding the pillars of the oesophagean canal 
 will probably not be forced open, and the liquid will flow on through the 
 passage still partially open at the bottom of the manyplus, and thence into 
 the abomasum. Of the sympathetic influence which the establishment of 
 increased action of the intestines has on the stomachs above, in rousing 
 them to their wonted function, mention has already been made : it is a fact 
 of much importance, and should never be forgotten by the practitioner, 
 
 A consideration of the nature of the disease will necessarily lead to the next 
 step. Either a great quantity of food is retained between the leaves of the 
 manyplus in a natural and softened state, or it is powerfully compressed 
 there, and has become dry and hard. Now the longer leaves of this sto- 
 mach reach from the roof almost or quite to the base ,of it, and some of them 
 float in the continuation of the oesophagean canal through which all fluids 
 pass in their way to the fourth stomach. Then plenty of fluid should be 
 made to flow through this canal ; and this may readily be effected by the 
 small horn, or much better by the stomach-pump. An almost constant 
 current of warm water may thus be kept up through the canal, by 
 means of which the food retained towards the lower edge of the leaves, and 
 most obstinately retained there on account of the hook-like form of the 
 papillae, will be gradually softened and washed out. This will leave room 
 for the descent of more ; and the natural action of this portion" of the leaves 
 being possibly re-established, when freed from the weight and oppression 
 of that by which they had been filled, the mass that remains above will begin 
 to be loosened ; it will gradually descend and be softened by the stream, 
 . ..::; 1 rrZ: ::r " ;: _- ::jcess of time, a great part of 
 
454 CATTLE, 
 
 the litumacli will be emptied, and the manifolds vtill be so far reiic\ed a.s to 
 be able to renew its natural function. 
 
 The use of oil has been recotnmcnded for this purpose, but the hardened 
 food will be more readily softened by warm water, than by any oleaginous 
 fluid that can be administered. Some portion of aperient salt should be 
 dissolved in the water, in order that purgation may be established as soon as 
 possible, or kept moderately up when it is established ; but no heating, stimu- 
 lating, tonic medicine, beyond the prescribed proportion of aromatic to the 
 purgative, should on any account be given, for it is impossible to tell what 
 inflammatory action may be going forward in the manyplus, or to what 
 degree the spasmodic contraction on its contents may be increased. No food 
 should be allowed except soft or almost fluid mashes, but the animal may 
 be indulged in water or thin gruel without limit. Clysters can have little 
 effect, and will only uselessly tease the animal already sufficiently annoyed 
 by frequent drenching. 
 
 After all, it may be doubtful whether the injury and danger produced by 
 the distension of the manifolds with food is not sometimes brought about in 
 a different way from that which has been hitherto imagined. This stomach 
 has already been described (p. 425), as situated obliquely between the liver 
 and the right sac of the rumen, and, therefore, when distended by food it 
 will press upon the liver, and impede the circulation through the main 
 vessel that returns the blood from the intestines to the heart, and thus 
 cause the retention of an undue quantity of blood in the veins of the abdo- 
 men. From this will naturally or almost necessarily arise a determination 
 of blood to the brain, and the winding up of the disease by a species of 
 apoplexy. This, however, will not alter the opinion that has been given 
 of the proper treatment of the disease ; but will throw considerable light on 
 the nature and causes of some of these determinations to the head, which 
 have not hitherto been perfectly understood, 
 
 MALFORMATION OF THE MANYPLUS. 
 
 A singular construction of the manifolds is related by Mr. Harrison, and 
 from which some useful hints may be derived*. He says that " two cows 
 were observed, during the whole of their lives, to eat a more than ordinary 
 quantity of food ; so much so, as at some times to double, and even treble, 
 that which was consumed by ordinary cattle. They did not, however, 
 repay this great consumption by a better appearance or more plentiful 
 supply of milk; on the contrary, their milk was rather smaller in quantity, 
 and of an inferior quality compared with ordinary cows ; and the fattening 
 of them was attended with great cost and trouble, and took much longer 
 dian the usual time. 
 
 I for a long time narrowly watched them, unable to give any satisfactory 
 reason for their great voracity, and frequently thinking that if bulimia 
 (unnatural appetite) was ever known to exist in the brute creation, it was 
 here presented to my view, for food of every description, except animal, was 
 devoured by them with wonderful rapidity. The cause of this remained 
 unknown and unsuspected until they were slaughtered, when, to me, a 
 most important point in the physiology of digestion in ruminants stood 
 clearly developed ; for, upon examining into the structure of their manifolds, 
 the internal surface of one of them merely displayed ruge not quite so 
 long as my finger, and in the other the corrugations were even less 
 strongly marked 
 
 The fact, then, was plainly demonstrated, that the food in these two 
 casss owing to the mal-formation of the manifolds, was not retained that 
 
VOMITINQ. 456 
 
 length of time which was necessary for the breaking or macerating; of it into 
 a pulp, for the complete action of the abomasum and intestines ; and that 
 in its passage through the latter, as much chyle could not be separated 
 from an equal quantity of food, as would have been had not nature played 
 this freak ; and that from this cause they were obliged to take in a largei 
 quantity, or in other words, to eat more frequently than ordinary cattle, 
 in order to produce the required quantity of nutriment for their due 
 support, and the healthy performance of the various secretions." 
 
 THE DISEASES OF THE ABOMASUM OF FOURTH STOMACH 
 
 Our knowledge of the nature and symptoms and treatment of these dis- 
 eases is as imperfect as of those of the many plus. Concretions, and mostly 
 of hair, are occasionally found in this stomach, which, by their pressure, 
 must produce disease to a certain extent. Poisonous substances, received 
 into this stomach after rumination, as is sometimes the case, when the 
 plants are fully grown, from the deficiency of acute taste in the ox, and 
 which oftener happens when, in spring, neither their taste nor their smell 
 is developed, produce inflammation and ulceration of the coats of the 
 abomasum. Inflammation may and does exist from other causes, as 
 exposure to too great heat, and the continuance of unseasonable cold and 
 wet weather, too sudden change of food, the administration of acrid and 
 stimulating medicines ; but the practitioner can rarely distinguish them from 
 inilammaotry disease of the other stomachs, or of the intestinal canal. 
 
 So far as the catalogue of symptoms can be arranged, they are nearly the 
 following : there is fever ; a full and hard pulse at the commencement, but 
 rapidly changing its character and becoming small, very irregular, inter- 
 mittent, and, at last, scarcely to be felt except at the heart. The beast is 
 much depressed and almost always lying down, with its head turned 
 towards its side, and its muzzle, as nearly as possible, resting on the place 
 beneath which the fourth stomach would be found ; or when standing, it 
 is curiously stretching out its fore limbs, with its brisket almost to the 
 ground. The inspirations are deep, interrupted by sighing, moaning, 
 grinding of the teeth, and occasionally by hiccup ; the tongue is dry and 
 furred, and red around its edges and at the tip ; the belly generally is 
 swelled, more so than in distension of the rumen by food, but less so than in 
 hoove, and, as further distinguishing the case from both, it is exceedingly 
 tender ; there is firequently distressing tenesmus, and the urine is voided 
 with difficulty and drop by drop. After death, the stomach exhibits much 
 inflammation of the lining membrane, but very seldom any ulceration. 
 
 The remedies would be bleeding, purgatives, mashes, and gruel*. 
 
 It is almost useless to dwell longer on this unsatisfactory portion of the 
 subject, except to warn the practitioner against being misled by the pecu- 
 liar softness of the inner lining membrane of the fourth stomach of the ox. 
 That which would be said to be diseased condition, or softening, or even 
 decomposition of the inner coat of the stomach in other animalSj^ is the 
 natural state of the abomasum in cattle. 
 
 VOMITING. 
 
 A case was related, in page 436, of the treatment of a cow that had 
 gorged herself by eating wheat chaff. Water was injected into the rumen, 
 
 * Some of the foreign remedies for this malady are stranger and more absurd than 
 those which disgrace the practice of the most ignorant empirics in the British islands. 
 A pound of shot is first administered, and this succeeded, or perhaps superseded by a 
 drug of a very different kind ; a black pullet Is roasted with all its feathers upon it : 
 .t is then pulled to pieces, boned, and cr^nmed down the throat of the animal. Toggis 
 
^56 CATTLE. 
 
 nntil that stomach began to react upon its contents, and a considerable pro- 
 portion of them was discharged by vomit. M. Girard mentions a case in 
 which the contents of the rumen were thrown off without this injection of 
 water. He was sent for to some cows that had been feeding on young 
 lucern, and that were beginning to swell. He found one in the act of 
 dying ; two others were prodigiously swelled — they breathed with difficulty, 
 and seemed to be in danger of immediate suffocation ; others were much 
 inconvenienced by the distension of the paunch. He hastened to puncture 
 the flank of one of those that appeared to be in extreme danger ; and, while 
 he was thus employed, the other, after some convulsive efforts, vomited two 
 pailsful of unmasticated food. Her flanks immediately subsided, and in 
 the course of a very little while she seemed to have perfectly recovered*. 
 
 The knowledge of these facts, of the occasional occurrence of which 
 few practitioners can be ignorant, will point out a mode of proceeding that 
 promises the happiest result when the stomach is distended by food. This 
 is not, however, strictly speaking, the act of vomiting ; it is only an extension 
 of the process of returning the food to the mouth for the purpose of rumina- 
 tion, or it is the whole returned suddenly and in a mass, instead of pellet 
 after pellet. True, vomiting is the return of food from the fourth or digest- 
 ing stomach, that which alone may be considered as a veritable stomach, 
 in distinction from the mere preparatory functions discharged by the others. 
 Respecting this, it has been stated in page 428, that it is comparatively a 
 rare process, and attended with extreme danger. The slightest recon- 
 sideration of the structure and connexion of that portion of the digestive 
 apparatus which has been described, will render it evident that every thing 
 is disposed to facilitate the return of the food from the rumen to the mouth, 
 but to render that return difficult from the fourth stomach. First, there 
 is the fold of that stomach placed at the entrance into it from the many- 
 plus. It is delineated at g and h, page 424. It evidently leaves a free 
 and opeii way to the substances that pass from the third stomach into the 
 fourth, but presents an almost perfect valvular obstruction to their return. 
 Supposing that could be surmounted, it is evident that when the fourth 
 stomach, pressed upon by the abdominal muscles and the diaphragm, con- 
 tracted, the other stomachs would contract too, and especially the many- 
 plus ; and, in that contraction, the aperture between it and the oesophagean 
 canal would be firmly closed : or even, if that were not the case, there is 
 only a small circular aperture between the oesophagean canal and the 
 fourth stomach, through which the returned semifluid mass would pass very 
 slowly, and not in the quantity in which it would be ejected from the abo- 
 masum in the effort to vomit. 
 
 M. Fleurens put this to the test. He injected a solution of emetic tartar 
 into the veins. This was followed by the greatest distress, and violent 
 efforts to vomit, but not a particle of the remasticated food was returned. 
 He injected more into the manyplus, whence it passed into the abomasum. 
 The efforts to vomit were here also violent, but fruitlesst. 
 
 There is, however, a case of true vomiting, so singular, as to deserve Ic 
 be put upon record. An ox presented the fb^pwing appearances : the hair 
 rough ; the skin dry and adherent ; the muzzle dry ; the appetite di- 
 minished : rumination slow and seldom ; and slight tension of the left flank. 
 Having, heard that the animal occasionally vomited, the practitioner d«>- 
 lerminetl to remain awhile in the stable in order to satisfy himself of the 
 accuracy of the account. In about an hour rumination commenced, pre- 
 ceded by Jeep and sonorous eructations having a penetrating odour. This 
 
 * Memoire sur le Vomissement, par J. Girard, p. 24. 
 f Becueil Mid. \€t., Aout 1833. 
 
THE SPLEEN. 457 
 
 lasted about ten minutes ; after which the animal got up, backed himself in 
 his stall ; hung on the chain ; his tore limbs trembled ; he brought his hind 
 extremities as much as possible under him, and bent his neck, and de- 
 pressed his head, and, after a deep and powerful inspiration, he vomited 
 1 5 pounds of semifluid matter, perfectly triturated. The vomiting ceased, 
 the ox remained for a moment motionless, and then lay down again, and 
 ruminated afresh. He continued this about thirty-five minutes, when he 
 had a renewed fit of vomiting perfectly similar to the preceding. 
 
 This was the only one of the herd that vomited, but the others were con- 
 stipated, and hide-bound, and in every way out of condition. The cause 
 of this was supposed to be that the animals were driven nearly a league 
 twice every day in order to be watered, at a time when the heat was ex- 
 cessive. They were ordered to be oftener watered, and that at home ; and 
 the one that vomited was bled, physic was administered, and the sickness 
 almost immediately ceased*. 
 
 It is impossible to doubt the accuracy of tnis account, or that it 
 was a case of true vomiting. The matter discharged was semifluid, and 
 well triturated, and, consequently, could neither come from the rumen nor 
 the manyplus. The same author, M. Creuzel, relates other instances of 
 what he terms vomiting, but evidently ejection of the contents of the ru- 
 men : all of them were connected with hoove, and in every case the animal 
 experienced immediate and perfect relief. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE ANATOMY AND DISEASES OF THE SPLEEN, LIVER, AND 
 PANCREAS. 
 
 THE SPLEEN. 
 
 The Spleen, or Melt, is a long, thin, dark-coloured substance, situated on 
 the left side, attached to the rumen, and between that stomach and the 
 diaphragm. It is longer, and yet narrower and smaller in cattle than in 
 the horse, and is more closely tied to the stomach by blood-vessels, and 
 cellular texture. In the horse, it is thick at one end, and tapers towards 
 the other ; in cattle, it is of a uniform size through its whole extent, except 
 that it is rounded at both ends. Of its use we are, in a manner, ignorant ; 
 and it has been removed without any apparent injury to digestion. Its 
 artery is large and tortuous, and its vein is of great size, and forms a con- 
 siderable portion of that which conveys the blood from the other contents of 
 the abdomen to the liver. It is probably connected either with the functions 
 of the liver, or with the supply of some principle essential to the blood. 
 
 It is subject to various diseases, inflammation, ulceration, increased size, 
 tubercles, hydatids, ossification ; but in tne present state of cattle medicine 
 it is impossible to state the symptoms by which the greater part of these 
 are characterised. 
 
 In sheep, inflammation of the spleen, and haemorrhage from it, or exu 
 dation of blood through its coats, is not an uncommon disease. In those 
 that die of inflammatory fever, with which a high degree of intestinal in- 
 flammation is connected, or that perish in consequence of inflammation of the 
 peritoneum or investing membrane of the bowels, it is not unusual to find 
 an effusion of a deep blood-coloured fluid in the abdomen. This has been 
 almost uniformly attributed to one or the other of these diseases, in proper* 
 ♦Journal Pratique, 1830, p. 322 
 
^^ CAriLE. 
 
 tion as they have been observed to prevail; but the occasional seat of 
 disease, the spleen, and which is found most especially to have sulTered, is 
 too frequently overlooked. So it is in cattle. A beast in high condition, 
 over-driven, or placed in too luxuriant pasture, is suddenly taken ill : 
 he staggers ; his respiration becomes laborious ; his mouth is covered 
 with foam ; he stands with his head stretched out, labouring for breath ; 
 he moans ; blood escapes from the nostrils or the anus ; the disease runs its 
 course in the space of a few hours, and the animal staggevs and dies. 
 On opening him, the vessels beneath the skin are all gorged with blood ; 
 the skin itself is injected and red ; the lungs and abdominal viscera are 
 congested with blood ; the liver is gorged with it. It is inflammatory fever 
 that has destroyed the animal ; but the spleen is most of all affected and dis- 
 organised — it is augmented in size, softened, its peritoneal covering torn, 
 and blood has rushed from it and filled the belly ; or the blood has oozed 
 through the investment without any visible rupture. 
 
 In such a malady, the skill of the practitioner can be of little avail. Had 
 the peculiar determination of disease to the spleen been discovered, it could 
 not have been arrested ; and all that can be obtained is a lesson of wisdom, 
 a caution to adopt a more equable and less forcing system of feeding, and 
 the avoidance of all those causes of general inflammation in which the 
 weakest organ suffers most, and by its disorganization, causes, or, at all 
 events, hastens death. M. Dupuy, professor of the veterinary school at 
 Toulouse, records a case of haemorrhage from the spleen, but not attended 
 by so much general inflammation as is usually found. He says, that on the 
 2 1st of March, 1831, a beast, eighteen or twenty hours after it died, was 
 brought to the school to be examined as to the cause of death. It had a cough 
 for several months ; but the disease that had probably destroyed it, had 
 come on all at once, and had run its course in a few hours. The belly 
 contained 2i^ gallons of blood, but the intestinal canal was perfectly sound. 
 All the vessels of the abdomen were carefully examined, in order to dis- 
 cover the source of haemorrhage, but no rupture was found. The liver 
 was double its natural size, sofl:, friable and of a grey colour. The spleen 
 three times as large as it is found to be in a state of health. The peritoneal 
 covering was detached from the substance of the spleen, and the cavity 
 thus made was filled by a clot of blood three or four lines in thickness ; 
 and towards the middle of the inferior border was a laceration four or five 
 inches in length, whence the blood had flowed. The substance of the 
 spleen was reduced to a semifluid form, and was of a livid red-colour. 
 The pericardium contained half a pound of bloody serosity.* 
 
 THE LIVER. 
 
 This organ is situated on the right side of the abdomen, between the 
 manyplus and the diaphragm. It is principally supported by a duplica- 
 ture of the peritoneum extending from the spine ; and is confined in its 
 situation by other ligaments, or similar peritoneal duplicatures connecting 
 Its separate lobes or divisions with the diaphragm. It is divided into two 
 lobes of unequal size. The right lobe is larger than that in the liver of 
 the horse ; the smaller one is comparatively diminutive ; and, altogether, 
 the liver of the ox is less than that of the horse. 
 
 It has just been stated that the blood from the other contents of the 
 abdomen, instead of flowing directly to the heart, passes througti the liver. 
 It enters by two large vessels, and is spread through every part of the liver 
 by means of the almost innumerable branches into which these vessels di 
 vide. As it passes through the liver, a fluid is secreted from it, called the 
 * Journ. Prat, de M^d. V^t., Mai 1831, p. 161. 
 
INFLAMMATION OF THE LIVER. 4SS 
 
 bik, probably a kind ot excrement, the continuance of which in the blood 
 would be injurious, but which, at the same time, answers a peculiar pur- 
 pose in the process of digestion, that will be presently described. 
 
 The bile thus secj-eted^flows into the intestines, and enters the duode- 
 num through an orince, the situation of which is marked out by h, p. 426. 
 In the horse, it flows into the intestines as fast as it is secreted or 
 separated from the blood ; but in cattle, a portion of it, probably a compara- 
 tively small portion, is received into a reservoir, the gall-bladder, where 
 it is retained until needed for the purpose of digestion. While the ox is graz- 
 ing or asleep, there is no necessity for the whole of the bile to run on into 
 tiie intestines, but a part of it accumulates in the gall-bladder. While 
 it is retained there, it undergoes some change; part of the water which it 
 I'.ontains is absorbed, and the residue becomes thickened, and more effec- 
 tive in its operation ; and when the animal begins to ruminate, and por- 
 tions of food pass through the fourth and true stomach into the duo- 
 denum, not only is the flow of bile into the gall-bladder stopped, but, either 
 by some mechanical pressure on that vessel which no one has yet ex- 
 plained, or, more probably, by the sympathy which exists among all the 
 organs of digestion, and the influence of the great organic nerve causing 
 the (probably) muscular coat of the vessel to contract, the bile flows out of its 
 reservoir, and proceeds to its ultimate destination, along with the portion 
 which continues to run directly from the liver into the intestine, through 
 the medium of the hepatic duct. This pear-shaped reservoir, the gall- 
 bladder, is placed in a depression in the posterior face of the liver, and ad- 
 heres to it by means of a delicate cellular texture. The construction of 
 this vessel deserves attention. It has the same external peritoneal coat 
 with the viscera generally ; beneath is a thicker coat, evidently composed 
 of cellular substance, in which no muscular fibres have yet been demon- 
 stratively traced, but in which they may be well conceived to exist, and in 
 which, doubtless, they do exist, in order to enable the gall-bladder to 
 contract and expel its contents. The inner coat is a very singular one. It 
 has not precisely the honeycomb cells of the reticulum in miniature, but 
 it is divided into numerous cells of very irregular and different shapes, 
 in the base of which, as in the cells of the reticulum, are minute follicular 
 glands that secrete a mucous fluid to defend the internal surface of the 
 gall-bladder from the acrimonv of the bile which it contains. 
 
 INFLAMMATION OF THE LIVER. 
 
 • Cattle, and especially those that are stall-fed, are far more subject than 
 the horse to inflammation of the liver. This appears evidently enough on 
 examination after death, but the symptoms during life are exceedingly 
 obscure, and not to be depended upon. An almost invariable one, how- 
 ever, is yellowness of the eyes and skin ; but this accompanies, or is the 
 chief characteristic of obstruction of the biliary duct, and possibly exists 
 without the slightest inflammation of the substance of the liver. It should 
 also be remembered that there is scarcely any acute disease to which cattle 
 are subject in which the liver does not sympathise. 
 
 We shall have reason to suppose, by-and-by, that the bile performs an 
 important part in the process of digestion. It is secreted in great abun- 
 dance in a healthy state of the animal, and that secretion is very much 
 inci eased under almost every intestinal disease, on account of the sympathy 
 which exists between the liver and the other organs of digestion. The fe.ed- 
 ing too much on oil-cake will produce in most cattle a yellowness of the 
 skin during life, and a yellow tinge of the fat and the envelopes of the 
 
*60 CATTLE. 
 
 In addition to the ccmmon symptoms of fever, (quickness of the puls^ 
 heaving, dryness of the, muzzle, heat of the mouth and root sf the horn, 
 listless or suspended rumination,) those that v^ould lead to the suspicion 
 of inflammation of the liver would be, lying continually on the right side, 
 slight spasms on that side, or wavy motions of the sisin over the region of 
 the liver, — a general fulness of the belly, but most referrible to the right 
 side, and the expression of considerable pain when pressure is made on 
 that side. Occasionally, the animal looks round on this part, and endea- 
 vours to rest his muzzle upon it. There is usually some degree of consti- 
 pation ; the beast does not urine so often or so abundantly as in health, 
 and the urine is yellow or brown, or, in a few cases, bloody. 
 
 The proper remedies are bleeding, physic, blisters on the right side, and 
 restricted diet, from which everything of a stimulating kind is carefully 
 withdrawn. The most frequent causes of this complaint are blows, over- 
 driving, the use of too stimulating food, and the sudden repulsion of some 
 cutaneous disease. 
 
 Inflammation, of the liver sometimes takes on a chronic form. Perhaps 
 it never assumed any great degree of intensity, or the intense inflamma- 
 tion was palliated, but not removed ; and this state may exist for some 
 months, or years,, not characterised by any decided symptom, and but little 
 interfering with health. Then commences induration, or hardening of a 
 portion of the liver, or of the greater part of it, and accompanied by tuber- 
 cles, vomicffi, hydatids, and the existence of the fluke-worm in the ducts. 
 
 A cow came up from the west to Smithfield market, in the year 1832. 
 She was in tolerable condition, yet not in such a state as to afford a chance of 
 her being bought by any respectable butcher ; she was, therefore, set apart 
 for the sausage- makers, and to them she was sold. She walked pretty 
 well with the other cattle, and had no indication of disease, except enlarge- 
 ment of the belly, yellowness of the skin, and her not carrying so much 
 flesh as the rest. On examination after death, the liver weighed no less 
 than 1371bs., and measured, from one lobe to another, more than a yard 
 and a quarter. There was little of the common appearance of inflamma- 
 tion, but it was evident that there were numerous hydatids : in fact, they 
 occupied the larger part of the organ, and had hollowed it into various 
 cavities of greater or smaller size. One cavity, nearly thirty inches in circum- 
 ference, presented when opened the appearance of a honeycomb, all the 
 cells of which, and the whole of the excavation, were filled with hydatids, 
 from the size of a sparrow's egg to that of a swan : there were nearly 
 300 of them. Some cysts were filled with blood, and others with 
 matter of a fibrous character, and others had large fibrous cords extending 
 from side to side. A few portions presented nearly the character of 
 healthy liver, but, in general, where there were no hydatids, the substance 
 resembled a deposit of matter that had gradually hardened into cartilaginous 
 cells, and the centre of the liver was perfectly fibro-cartilaginous, without 
 any trace of its original structure. This disease had probably existed 
 during a long period, and had only interfered with health by preventing 
 her attaining the usual condition of fatted cattle. 
 
 Mr. Goodworth, of Howden, relates another case of the existence of 
 disease of the liver, apparently for a considerable period, and not interfering 
 with health. He says, that " a cow, the property of a neighbour, had 
 calved, and done well. She was milked twice a day, and appeared in good 
 health for six weeks, when the maid going to milk her ih the morning 
 iound her very uneasy, and evidently ill. The cow was bled, and a mes- 
 senger was sent to a druggist for medicine; but although he was absent 
 only a lew minutes, the cow was dead on Ms return. On oneuinir the 
 
H^MORHHAGK FROM THE LIVKR. 461 
 
 body, all the abdominal viscera were found in perfect health, except the 
 liver, the right lobe of which was much enlarged ; and on an incision being 
 made into it, a quart of matter of the consistence and colour of cream 
 escaped."* 
 
 The difficulty of detecting this chronic inflammation during the life ol 
 the animal throws much obscurity on the mode of treating it. Perma- 
 nent yellowness of the skin — a constant, but not violent cough — and the 
 want of, or the slowness in acquiring, condition beyond a certain degree, 
 would be the symptoms of most frequent occurrence. The treatment should 
 consist of the frequent exhibition of gentle purgatives, with a more than the 
 usual quantity of the aromatic (six ounces of Epsom salts, and half au ounce 
 of ginger), and the food should be green, succulent, and as little stimu- 
 lating as possible. Mercury, to which recourse is usually had when a 
 similar complaint is suspected to exist in the human subject, would be 
 worse than thrown away upon cattle. In the majority of cases in which it 
 is used for the diseases jf cattle, it produces decided injurious effect. 
 
 HEMORRHAGE FROM THE LIVER. 
 
 ^It has already been observed that when these animals are turned on the 
 fresh grass in the spring or the fog in autumn they are subject to various 
 plethoric or inflammatory complaints. The ravages of apoplexy and in- 
 flammatory fever at these times have been described. An undue quantity 
 of blood rapidly formed oppresses the whole system, and, from some cause of 
 determination to it, a particular organ or part becomes violently congested 
 or inflamed, and the animal is destroyed. The liver occasionally suffers in 
 this way. 
 
 A case will illustrate this. It occurred in the practice of Mr. Tait, of 
 Portsoy. He was requested to see a heifer, two years old, that on the 
 previous night had been observed to be unwell. The pulse was 80, nearly 
 imperceptible at the jaw; the extremities were cold, and rumination was 
 suspended. There was much trembling of the hind quarters. An attempt 
 was made to bleed her, but ere the blood could flow, she fell and ex- 
 pired. On opening the belly, the cavity was found to contain nearly six 
 gallons of blood, which had escaped from a rupture, two inches in length, 
 in one of the lobes of the liverf. 
 
 It would have been more satisfactory if fuller particulars of the previous 
 symptoms of the disease and of the appearance of the other viscera had 
 been given, but the experience of almost every practitioner will supply the 
 deficiency. Certain beasts have died of some obscure disease ; it has been 
 rapid in its progress, and not characterized by any symptoms of great in- 
 flammation, or the inflammatory symptoms, if such had appeared, have 
 subsided, and those of evident and extreme exhaustion have suc- 
 ceeded. The pulse has been feeble, or almost indistinct — the mouth 
 has been cold — the membranes of the mouth and nose pale. The breath- 
 ing has been accelerated, and the weakness extreme. After death, the 
 substance of the liver has been found softened ; it has broken on the 
 slightest handling : it may be washed away, and the various vessels which 
 permeate it exposed : the peritoneal covering has been loosened — elevated 
 from the liver, — and the interval has been occupied by a clot of blood ; and 
 from some rupture in this covering, which has partaken of the softening 
 of the viscus itself, a quantity of blood has been poured out ; or it has 
 oozed through the covering, and partially or almost entirely filled the 
 Avity of the abdomen. 
 
 * The " Veterinarian," June, 1831, p. SO?. 
 t Ibid. Marcti, 1834, p. lif. 
 
«2 CATTLE 
 
 In suca a case, the resources of medical art would be powerless ; but 
 every instance of hsemorrhage from the liver should be regarded as s 
 warning against the adoption of too forcing a system of fattening, espe- 
 cially in young beasts, and in the spring or fall of the year. 
 
 JAUNDICE, OR THE YELLOWS. 
 
 There are few diseases to which cattle are so frequently subject, or 
 which are so difficult to treat, as jaundice, commonly known by the appro- 
 pnate name of the yellows. It is characterised by a yellow colour of the 
 eyes, the skin generally, and the urine. Its appearance is sometimes 
 sudden, at other times the yellow tint gradually appears and deepens. In 
 some cases it seems to be attended, for a while, by little pain or incon- 
 venience, or impairment of condition; in others, its commencement is an- 
 nounced by an evident state of general irritation and fever, and particu- 
 larly by quickness and hardness of pulse, heaving of the flanks, excessive 
 thirst, and the suspension of rumination ; to these rapidly succeed depres- 
 sion of spirits, and loss of appetite, strength, and condition. The animals 
 can scarcely be induced to move, or they separate themselves from 
 the herd, and retiring to the hedge, either slowly pace along the side of 
 it, or stand, hour afler hour, listless and half unconscious. Not only the 
 skin, but the very hair, gradually becomes yellow ; a scaly eruption 
 appears, attended by extreme itching, and sometimes degenerating into 
 the worst species of mange. It is seldom, indeed, that bad mange 
 appears among cattle without being accompanied by a yellow sldn ; and 
 the cutaneous eruption was probably caused by the presence and constant 
 excretion of biie irritating the exhalent vessels of the skin. A state of 
 costiveness usually accompanies the yellow skin, at least in the early 
 period of the disease, although diarrhcBa, which no astringents will subdue, 
 may afterwards appear, and, in fact, will generally wind up the affair, and 
 carry the patient off. Jaundice cannot long exist without being accom- 
 panied by general impairment of health, and loss of condition. Cows 
 are particularly subject to it in spring and autumn. The milk soon shares 
 in the yellowness of the other secretions, and occasionally acquires aa 
 unpleasant and bitter taste. 
 
 The usual cause of jaundice is obstruction of the passage of the bile 
 from the gall-bladder into the duodenum. This obstruction is effected in 
 various ways ; but most frequently by biliary concretions or calculi. Dur- 
 ing the continuance of the bile in'the gall-bladder, a certain portion of the 
 water which it contains is removed by the process of absorption ; the resi- 
 due becomes proportionably thickened, and the most solid parts are either 
 precipitated, or form themselves into hard masses. Biliary calculi are not 
 unfrequently found in the gall-bladder of cattle, of varying size, from that 
 of a pin's head to a large walnut. Their form indicates that they 
 were composed by some process of crystallization ; they are round, with 
 concentric circles, or conical, or assuming in a rude way the form of a 
 cuDe, or a pentagon, or hexagon. There is usually some central portion 
 of harder bile round which the rest is collected. They are oif less 
 specific gravity than the bile, and even than water, and are found swim- 
 ming in the gall-bladder. They are composed of the yellow matter of 
 the biie, with a portion of mucus holding it together ; and this colouring 
 matter is valued by the painter on account of its peculiar and almost 
 unrivalled permanence. It is insoluble in water and alcohol, but it 
 readily diffuses itself in a solution of potash. 
 
 So far as can be observed, the presence of these calculi lU the gall-bladder 
 does not inconvenience the animal, or interfere with health, ibr they ar« 
 
JAUNDICE, OR THE YELLOWS. 
 
 46S 
 
 found in the greater number of oxen thai are brought to the metropolitan 
 ^laughter-hous^. At all events, there are no recognised symptoms by 
 which their presence can be detected, or e\en suspected. In some cases 
 the writer of this work has detected more than a hundred small calculi in 
 the bladder of one ox*. 
 
 Sometimes, however, they enter the ductlfthe cystic) which conveys 
 the bile to the intestines. They are liliely to do tliis on account of their 
 swimming on the surface of the fluid which Ithe bladder contains. The 
 cystic duct is large at its union with the bladdei ; it is a continuation of the 
 neck of the bladder ; and the gall-stone may be'easily pressed into the com- 
 mencement of the tube : but it has scarcely entfered it before its passage is 
 obstructed by the folds of the inner coat of tht duct. These assume a 
 semilunar form, with the edges projecting towaVds the bladder, and they 
 act as partial valves, retarding tlie progress oV the bile, so that it may 
 not be all pressed out at once, but gradually iscape as the process of 
 digestion may require. 
 
 The gall-stone being thus impacted, violent Spasmodic action takes 
 place in the muscles of the duct, occasioned by tie irritation of its conti- 
 nued pressure. It is fortunate, however, that akhough the muscles of 
 these ducts act with some power, the obstruction is usually, with no 
 great difficulty, overcome. The duct distends a as it distends, these 
 valvular folds lie closer to the sides, and no long^ oppose the passage of 
 the calculus, which is pressed on until it reaches tie common duct. The 
 calibre of this tube is larger, and, unless the cajcVlus is of considerable 
 bulk, no farther difficulty occurs untilit reaches tneVpening into the duo- 
 denum, which being situated in the centre of i muscular prominence, 
 acting as a valve, and preventing the passage of all matters whether fluid or 
 solid from the intestine into the ducts, a new diflculty is opposed to the 
 progress of the gall-stones, and there is some retutiof pain, and in a few 
 cases the pain is evidently more intense than ir the early stage. At 
 length this sphincter muscle of the duodenum dila !s ; the calculus enters 
 the intestinal canal ; the pain ceases, and the nai iral colour of the skin 
 returns. In this species of jaundice, we have, in addition to the yellow 
 skin, the heaving of the flanks, the hard concentrate, pulse, the diminished 
 appetite, the insatiable thirst and the other symptoiK of fever. Then, too, 
 we have the alternate coldness and heat of the ear^ the roughness of the 
 coat, the urine becoming first of a transparent yellw, and then opaque 
 red, safFron-colpured, or brown, and the sedimeiJ brown. The bowels 
 are constipated, the fieces seldom evacuated, andiwhen appearing, are 
 hard and black. 
 
 Bleeding is now clearly indicated, and that unti the animal becomes 
 faint. During this partial sympathy, the muscles o the duct may cease 
 their spasmodic constriction, and the calculus may jss on. To this should 
 be added powerful purgation, consisting of dosesof a riundand a half each of 
 Epsom salts, or of a pound of the salts, with 10 grainlpf the Croton Tiglii ; 
 the medicine being repeated once in six hours, untiburging is produced. 
 Mashes should be given to hasten and increase the ;tion of the physic, 
 and the beast should, if possible, be turned out to g^ss durino- the day, 
 and taken up at night. Opium or digitalis, and parti larly the latter, may 
 be given, in dozes of'half a drachm of either, with view to allay the 
 violent constriction of the duct. From the knowljge that biliary con- 
 
 • " The number of calculi sometimes contained in the gallWder is almost incre- 
 dible. Morgagni took 3646 out of this reservoir belonging tofcuman being ; and in 
 the Hunterian JMusenm, at Glasgow, 1000 are pre.wrred, wbh are stated to have 
 been extracted from one gall-bladder." — Cyciirpadia of Preicat Medicine, artii^ 
 
**4 CATTLE. 
 
 cretions dissolve in a solution of potash, considerable quantities of nitrata 
 end acetate of potash have been sriven, but with doubtful success. Ether 
 hydrochlorate of ammonia, potash, and soda, have also been fruitlessly 
 administered for the same purpose. 
 
 Another mechanical cause of jaundice may be the obstruction formed by the 
 fasciola or flulee-worm. This singular parasite, resembling in form a little 
 sole, and'Of the natural history of vrhich, or of the changes that it has 
 undergone, or may undergo, nothing is known, is found in great quantities 
 in the livers of rotted sheep and deer, and, next to them, in the livers of 
 cattle, and especially of these that are bred in low and marshy situations. 
 They accompany almost eyery chronic disease of the liver, and often exist 
 in the healthy animal. Iliey inhabit the ducts into which the bile is 
 poured from the smaller vessels of the liver — they are swimming in the 
 bile, and said to be generally found working their way against the course 
 of that fluid. 
 
 There is no case on record in which it has been proved by examination 
 after death that the fluks-worm has mechanically obstructed the passage 
 of the bile, and thus caised both the yellowness and the spasm, yet it can 
 easily be imagined thatthis will sometimes occur. There are no peculiar 
 symptoms to indicate tie existence of these worms, for they have never 
 been voided from the nouth or the anus : — to the first, there would be a 
 mechanical impedimen from the construction of both the lower and upper 
 orifices of the stomacl ; and the digestive process going on through the 
 whole of the intestinal canal would render the latter improbable, if not im- 
 possible. Their preseniei could only be guessed at from the nature of the 
 pasture, or from their having been found in other beasts of the same 
 herd. 
 
 The same means would be adopted as in supposed obstruction by a cal- 
 culus, but with this prcbable difierence, that the obstruction would be more 
 easily and quickly remfved. 
 
 Of the other species )f jaundice in which the attack is more gradual, and 
 apparently unconnectel with pain, and in which the symptoms are weak- 
 ness, listlessness, cedenatous swellings, high-coloured urine, hardened ex- 
 crement, declining coiJition, and occasional death, anatomical observation 
 has discovered various causes. The state of the liver itself will some- 
 times account for ever symptom. It may labour under chronic inflamma- 
 tion, without disorgarzation, and the secretion of bile will be considerably 
 increased, and prodced more rapidly than the ducts can carry it off, or 
 than it can be disposd of in the process of digestion, audit will lurk in the 
 intestines, and be takn up by the absorbents and carried into the circula- 
 tion. At other timeithe diseased state of the liver prevents the escape of 
 the bile, whether in ii natural or even diminished quantity ; thus, general 
 enlargement of the abstance of the liver will press upon and partially 
 close the biliary duct — tubercles, or other tumours in the liver, will effect 
 the same thing, aflammation may exist iu the ducts themselves. 
 They may becom« thickened or ulcerated, and thus cease to give 
 passage to the bile,/hich will then be taken up by the absorbents of the 
 liver, or mechanical' forced back upcn the vessels whence it was secreted. 
 These are occasiorl causes of jaundice ; and when they exist, it will 
 not be wondered at lat the complaint is obstinate, and too often fatal. 
 
 Sometimes the airce of the evil may exist in the duodenum. It may 
 be inflamed or ulcated, or thickened, and so the opening from the biliarj 
 duct into the inteine may be closed: or the mucus which maybe se 
 creted in the duodaim may be too abundant,' or of too viscid a character, 
 »nd thus also the lifice may be mechanically obstructed. 
 What symptomnll indicate, to the nractitioner which of ilicse morbid 
 
JAUNDICE. OR THE YELLOWS. 46S 
 
 states of the ]iver, or its ducts, or if the first intestine, is the cause o' the 
 disease? or if it did, what means could he adopt in such a case with the 
 hope of ultinnate success? The treatment of confirmed jaundice is a 
 thankless and disheartening business. The practitioner, however, must 
 look carefully and anxiously to the symptoms, and be guided by them. 
 There is no general rule to direct him here. If there is evident fever, he 
 must bleed, and regulate his abstraction of blood by the apparent degree 
 of fever. In every case but that of diarrhoea, and at the commencement of 
 that, he must administer purgatives, — in large doses when fever is present, 
 or in somewhat smaller quantities, but more frequently repeated, when 
 constipation is observed ; and in doses still smaller, but yet sufficient to 
 excite a moderate and yet continued purgative action, when neither fever 
 nor constipation exists. Considering, however, the natural temperament 
 of cattle, the purgative should be accompanied by a more than usual 
 quantity of the aromatic, unless the degree of fever should plainly forbid 
 it. There are few things respecting which veterinary practitioners differ 
 more than the kind of purgative that should be admiiii>-tered in this case. 
 Some, who are usually partial to the Epsom or Glauber's salts, here prefer 
 the aloes. Mr. Leigh, of Bristol, in a letter with which he favoured the 
 writer of this treatise, says, that "jaundice is soon checked at the begin- 
 ning, by administering Barbadoes aloes, Castile soap, and Venice turpen- 
 tine ;" Mr. Baker, of Reigate, as easily effects a cure by the admini- 
 'stration of Epsom or Glauber's salts in doses according to the size of the 
 beast ; while the author of " the Survey of Somersetshire" gives us & 
 remedy for yellows, which seldom or never fails ; " flower of mustard, 
 mixed with any liquid, and in doses of two ounces, repeated two or three 
 times in the course of twenty-four hours.*" 
 
 It may not, perhaps, be quite a matter of indifference what purgative is 
 'administered. The Epsom salts here, as in Other cases, is the safest, the 
 most to be depended upon, and the most effective : but the secret of treat- 
 ing jaundice, not with the almost invariable success of which some speak, 
 but with the best prospect of doing good, is by the repetition of mild pur- 
 gatives, accompanied, and their power increased, and the digestive powers 
 of the animal roused, and his strength supported, by the addition of aro- 
 matics and stomachics in such doses as the slight degree, or the absence, of 
 fever may indicate. The writer of this article certainly cannot confirm by 
 his testimony the opinion of the comparative ease with which the complaint 
 may be removed : he has iiot only found it to be one of the most common 
 affections of the liver, but one of the most untractable and f'atui ; and this 
 from the insidious manner in which it proceeds until it has fixed itself on 
 the constitution beyond the power of medicine to remove it The following 
 
 * Some boil 8oz. of saffron in a quart of milk, and esteem it to be a never-failing 
 cure of jaundice. The drinli will certainly be expensive, but what good effect can be 
 produced by the employment of this inert yellow drug fur the cure of the yellow dis- 
 ease yet remains to be proved. Every one who is in the slightest degree acquainte'l 
 with cattle medicine would pronounce such a decoction to be altogether ineffective 
 It was this superstitious notion of getting rid of one yellow by the application of an- 
 other, that gradually made the powerless and useless turmeric an indispensable iijgre- 
 dient in cattle medicine, since jaundice is more or less mixed up with the various 
 diseases to which cattle are subject. 
 
 The use of saffron, however, is of no recent date in horse as well as cattle practice. 
 The following recipe is extracted from the Harleian MSS. No. 5107, as arranged in tlio 
 library of the British Museum. 
 
 " Take three pennyworth of English saffron, two pennyworth of treacle, one penny- 
 worth of sallad oyle, three of sugar candy, two of turmericke, and a quarte of milKe. 
 Seethe all this together, and then let it stand until it is cool, and give it to the horse 
 fasting, and ride him a little upon it, and set him up warm, biit be must be blooded 
 8nt ; and three heweri afterwards ^ve 'aim a mash." 
 
 2 H 
 
-»<'« CATIXE. 
 
 short directiuiis comprise all that can be done : — subdue the inflammation 
 or fever by bleeding and physic; — i«eep the bowels afterwards under the 
 mild but evident influence of purgative medicine; — add aromatics and 
 stomachics to the medicine almost from the beginning ; to these, if ihe 
 strength and condition of the animal should appear to be wasting, add 
 tonics — the gentian root will stand at the head of them ; — and lastly, 
 when the disease has been apparently subdued, a few tonic drinks will 
 restore the appetite, prepare for the regaining of condition, and re-establish 
 the secretion of milk. 
 
 THE PANCREAS. 
 
 This is a long, irregularly formed, flattened gland, considerably smaller 
 in cattle than in the horse, and confined in them to the left side of the ab- 
 domen, ill the neighbourhood of, but not adhering to, the fourth stomach, 
 and mostly c04inected with the duodenum and colon, by mesenteric attach- 
 ments. It is of a pale red colour, and evidently composed of an accumu- 
 lation of small glands resembling salivary ones ; each of them is a 
 secreting gland, and a duct proceeds from each ; — these unite and form 
 one common canal, which takes its course towards the duodenum, unites 
 itself with the biliary duct, already described, and enters with it into the 
 duodenum, as represented at h, in the cut in p. 436. The nature of the 
 fluid thus conveyed will be presently considered. 
 
 This gland appears to be subject to very few diseases, and the symptoms 
 of these diseases are, in the present state of the knowledge of the patho- 
 logy of cattle, very imperfectly known. In a few instances, enlarge- 
 ment, of the pancreas has been found after death; (in one case, this 
 conglomerate gland was more than treble its natural size ,) at other times, 
 there have been inflammation, tubercles, a schirrous induration, and con- 
 siderable abscess ; but there were no previous symptoms to lead to the sus- 
 picion that this gland was the principal seat of disease, and there were 
 other morbid appearances in the stomachs or intestines, to indicate 
 sufficient cause of death without reference to the state of the pancreas. 
 This is a subject which deserves the attention of the veterinary surgeon, 
 and on which no one has yet ventured to write * 
 
 We are now prepared to follow the passage of the food from the fourth 
 stomach into the intestinal canal. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE ANATOMY AND DISEASES OF THE INTESTINES. 
 
 If the reader will refer to the cut of the Intestines of the Horse, in 
 page 202 of the Treatise on that animal in the Farmer's Series, he wifl 
 perceive a considerable difference in their appearance and structure in the 
 horse and in cattle. There is in cattle comparatively -little of the irregu- 
 larity of size which is seen in the intestines of tlie horse. , The colon 
 and the cscum, although larger than the small intestines in cattle, ar^ 
 diminutive compared with those viscera in the horse. The reason of this is 
 
 * As some guide to the researches of the veterinarian, the following extract from 
 Dr. Abercrombie's valuable " Pathological and Practical Researches" is introduced. 
 
 " Many cases are on record of chronic disease of the pancreas, exhibiting much 
 diversity of symptoms, and nearly in the following proportion : — Of twenty-seven cases 
 which I find mentioned by various writers, six were fatal with gradual wasting and 
 dyspeptic symptoms, and without any urgent symptoms. In eight, there were frequent 
 vomitings, with more or less pain in the epigastric region ; and thirteen were fatal, with 
 long-continued pain without vomiting: in some of these, the pain extended to the 
 back, and in others it was much increased by taking food, in several there were 
 dropsical symptoms, and in three or four there was jaundice from the tumour con^ 
 pressing the biliary ducts. In the '■■'' —«.«.. aian ,iiaN wnu <rr«utt varirtv »» 
 
THE DUODENUM. 
 
 467 
 
 sufficiently evident. The enormous development of the rumen, occupy- 
 ing .nearly three-fourths of the abdominal cavity, leaves no room for an 
 intestine so bulky as the caecum of the horse : the bowels are therefore 
 diminished in size, in order that they may be more readily packed wherever 
 room can be found for them. 
 
 The larger intestines, particularly the colon and the caecum, have not 
 the cellated structure in cattle, which the slightest inspection of their ex- 
 ternal covering shews that they possess in the horse ; and, consequently, 
 the food v»iil pass through them with considerably greater rapidity. Lest 
 this, however, should prevent the abstraction of all the nutriment which 
 it contains, and thus interfere with the destiny of cattle, — the furnishing 
 of the human being with food while they are living and after they are 
 dead, — the intestinal canal is greatly prolonged. The intestines of the 
 horse are ten times as long as the body of that animal ; the intestines of 
 the ox are twenty-two times as long as his body 
 
 Each intestine shall be briefly described. 
 
 1. The Daodeniim. 
 
 2. Tbe Jejunum. 
 
 3. The Ileum 
 
 4. The Cscum. 
 
 5. The Colon. 
 
 6. The Rectum. 
 
 THE DUODENUM. 
 
 7- The Mesentery. 
 & Mesenteric Glauda. 
 9. Blood-vessels. 
 
 This, as will be obseiTed at a, p. 203, in the Treatise on the Horse, is of 
 considerable size in that animal compared with the small intestines ; but it 
 will be remarked (g, p. 42fi, and^g. 1. in this cut) that the duodenum is, 
 ftt its coniinencement from the stomach, little larger than the jejunum and 
 
 2 H 2 
 
468 CATTLK. 
 
 ileatn, which are prolongations from it. The stomach of the horse is an 
 exceedingly small one ; the food necessarily passes quickly out of it, ana 
 the work of digestion, so far as the stomach is concerned, namely, the dis- 
 solving of the food, and the conversion of it into one homogeneous mass, is 
 imperfectly performed .- therefore it is detained in the upper portion of the 
 duodenum for this solution to be completed, or as much so as the nature of 
 the food will admit, before the true function of this intestine commences. In 
 consequence, however, of the maceration of the food in the rumen, the double 
 mastication, and the mechanism of the manyplus, by means of which every 
 fibrous particle is seized and ground down, the food is nearly dissolved 
 before it enters the fourth stomach ; it is easily completed there, and the 
 duodenum has nothing to do of this nature. On this account, the duode- 
 num of the horse is a capacious one ; it is a kind of second stomach : while 
 the duodenum of cattle is little larger than the small intestines which 
 succeed to it. 
 
 The duodenum and all the intestines have^ like the stomachs, three 
 coats. The outer one is the peritoneum, or the membrane by which all 
 the contents of the belly are invested; by which also they are all confined 
 in their natural situations, and by the smoothness and moisture of 
 which, all injurious friction and concussion are avoided. The second is 
 the muscular coat, supplied by the motor organic nerves, and by means of 
 the contraction of which the food is propelled along the intestinal canal 
 in the process of healthy digestion, or hastened when those muscles are 
 made to contract more rapidly and violently under the influence of irrita- 
 tion, whether referrible to disease or to some purgative drug. The inner 
 coat is a mucous one, thickly studded with minute glands,, which, in a 
 state of health, secrete sufficient mucous fluid to lubricate the passage ; 
 and, under the stimulus of a purgative; throw out a fluid increased in 
 quantity, and of a more aqueous character, and in which the contents of 
 the intestines are softened and involved and carried away. 
 
 On this coat likewise openthe mouths of innumerable vessels — the lac- 
 teal absorbents — which imbibe or take up the nutritive portion of the 
 food. These vessels ramify across the mesentery, and convey this nutri- 
 ment to a common duct that passes along it, and by means of which it 
 is carried into the great veins in the neighbourhood of the heart, where it 
 is mixed with the venous blood returned from every part. By the power 
 of the heart it is propelled through the lungs, where it is purified and vita- 
 lized; and having been returned to this organ it is driven through othei 
 vessels all over the frame, and bestows nutriment and life on every part. 
 
 The food, in a state of perfect solution, and under the name of chyme, is 
 forced on by the muscular coat of the fourth stomach into the duodenum, 
 where another change immediately commences. The food is separated 
 into two distinct portions or principles — that which is nutritive or capable 
 of being imbibed by the lacteals — a white fluid called chyle; — and that 
 which is either innutritive, or which they reject, and which is propelled 
 along the intestines and finally evacuated 
 
 There has been much dispute as to the manner in which this separation 
 is effected. The chyme that has been formed by the agency of the gastric 
 juice may contain in itself a tendency to this separation, or precipitation 
 of the excrementitious part ; or this may be effected by some fluid secreted 
 from the mucous coat of the duodenum ; or the bile and pancreatic juice 
 may be the main agents in producing the change. 
 
 Ten or twelve inches down the duodenum, as may be seen at h, p. 426, 
 two ducts penetrate the coats of that intestine, and pour into it the fluid 
 •wcreted by (he pancreas and liver. It would seem likely, from the d» 
 
1"HE CMCUM. 469' 
 
 tance from the stomach at which these fluicts enter, that some' change, 
 had already taken place in tiie contents of the duodenum, which was 
 to be perfected by means of these auxiliaries. The separation or pre- 
 cipitation is more rapidly and effectually made ; while the bile also has 
 some stimulating effect on the coats of the stomach, urging the exhalent? 
 and the absorbents, and the musclesof the intestines, to stronger and more 
 effectual action; and the pancreatic juice may dilute the biliary secretior, 
 and shield the intestine from its occasional too great acrimony. 
 
 While, however, the bile is thus acting in promoting healthy digestion, 
 (and no animals afford more frequent illustration of the connexion between 
 the biliary secretion and the digestive process than cattle do,) the true 
 potion of it is, perhaps, that it is an excrementitious substance, containing 
 properties tha' would be noxious to the constitution, but, as in most of the 
 contrivances of nature, the mode of its evacuation answers another and 
 a salutary purpose*. 
 
 The length of the duodenum varies according to the fancy of different 
 writers. It terminates in the jejunum, but there is no assignable point 
 where the one can be said to terminate and the otiier begin. 
 
 THE JEJUNUM AND ILEUM. 
 
 These intestines, together with the duodenum, the caecum, and a por- 
 tion of the colon, will be seen (in the cut p. 467, at Jigs. 2 and 3) to be 
 united together and enfolded in one common expansion of the mesentery. 
 They lie on the right side of the belly occupying the flank, and resting 
 upon the right portion of the rumen. The jejunum and the ileum 
 constitute the border of this mesenteric expansion, and are disposed in the 
 form of numerous spiral convolutions. If they were unfolded the length 
 of these intestines would, in an ox of common size, amount to more 
 than 100 feet. This length of small intestine is designed to compen- 
 sate for the want of development and of cancelli in the larger ones. 
 The food is detained by the length of the passage, and also by the con 
 siruction of the convolutions. They may be considered as disch9,rgin!r , 
 the function of the caecum and colon in the horse, and the principal absorp- 
 tion of chyle takes place in them. 
 
 THE C^CUM 
 
 Is a very different viscus from that which bears the same name in tlie 
 
 * The gall of the qx is applied |;o various uses ; it was ' formerly used medicinally, as 
 readily combining with the hardened wax of the ear and contributing to its easier re- 
 moval, and also as a mild and beneficial external stimulant in cases of inflammation of 
 the ear, and particularly those of a chronic chatacter and connected with partial deaf- 
 ness. It has also been adopted as a stimulant in some cases of ophthalmia, and old 
 people ufeA to thinly that it was beneficial in difficult menstruation, and also in difficult 
 labour. 
 
 In commerce its value is of a more decided character. It is boiled and skimmed ; 
 one ounce of alum is then added to each pint of the gall ; to another pint ot the gall 
 one ounce of common salt is added ; the liquids are placed in separate bottles, corked 
 down, and kept close for three months ; the clear portion is then poured off from each,, 
 and the contents of the two bottles being mixed together, a precipitation or coagiilum 
 is rapidly formed, leaving a portion of the liqnid above clear and colourless. This i> 
 •ailed refined ox-gall. It is considered by some to possess a cosmetic quality ; it cer- 
 tainly combines with the greasy matter with which old paintings may be stained, and 
 also with that which may have been mixed with various colours ; it gives a coating 
 to ivory, and even to tracing paper and to satin, which enables the artist to paint 
 with water colours upon them, and to lay successive coats of colours when drawing, 
 Slid to fix chalk and pencil drawings so that they may be tinted. An extract of ox-gall 
 has also been used instead of soap, more readily and effectually to clean greasy cloths.— 
 Gra^ and Bennie's Supplements to the Fkut mucoptcia. 
 
«70 CATTLE. 
 
 horse. It describes a considerable arch, (see Fig. 4. p. 467) the superior 
 extremity of which is fixed to the portion of mesentery common to it and 
 the small intestines, while the inferior portion floats loose in the abdomen, 
 and is prolonged into the pelvic cavity, where it has a rounded termination 
 The portion of food that can enter into it is smaller than in the horse, and 
 cannot be detained long there, because there are no longitudinal bands 
 to pucker the intestine into numerous and deep cells; but the contents of 
 the caecum have tlie same character of being more fluid than in any 
 other part of the intestinal canal. The length of the caecum differs littls" 
 from that of the horse, seldom exceeding a yard. 
 
 THE COLON. 
 
 This intestine is evidently divisible into two parts (see Fig. 5. p. 467) ; 
 the one smaller than the caecum is supported by the commuu mesentery, thr. 
 other floats loose iu ,the belly, and forms part of the second mass of intes- 
 tines. It has somewhat the same convolutions as in the horse, but i., 
 destitute of its muscular bands. It is also less than the ciecum, but, com- 
 bined with the next and the last intestine, the rectum, it measures more 
 than thirty-three feet, being almost double the length of those intestines 
 in the horse. The want of mechanical obstruction to the passage of the 
 food is thus made up by the increased length of the viscera. In th*. 
 colon, the process of digestion may be considered to be in a manner ter- 
 minated, and all that remains is faeculent matter, that continues to be 
 urged on in order to be expelled. 
 
 THE RECTUM. 
 
 This intestine, so called from the straight course vrhich it runs, termi- 
 nates the digestive canal. It also has no longitudinal bands, for it con- 
 tains little beside the excrement that is to be discharged, or that should least 
 of all be detained. The lacteal absorbents may still be traced in this 
 intestine, but it is probable that very httle nutritive matter is taken up, 
 although, from the occasional hardened state of the dung, it is possible 
 that much fluid may be carried off 
 
 A circular muscle, always in action, is placed at the termination of the 
 rectum, in order to prevent its contents from being involuntarily dis- 
 charged. Its power is just sufficient for the purpose; and il readily yields, 
 when, by the pressure of the abdominal muscles and the diaphragm, the 
 excrement is forced against it, in the voluntary efforts of the animal. 
 
 The contents of the rectum in cattle are essentially different from those 
 that occupy the same intestine in the horse. They are semifluid — their 
 nutritive qualities are nearly exhausted, and they are of very inferior value 
 for agricultural purposes. 
 
 The scientific author of the treatise on " British Husbandry," in the 
 Farmer's Series, p. 227, says, that " when used alone, cow-dung has been 
 considered, in most cases, as nearly worthless. It has also been thought 
 that the dung of milch cows is inferior to that of oxen ; but this can only 
 be attributed to their yielding milk, which probably deprives the dung 
 of some portion of its richness, for when they are dried off and fattened 
 there is no perceptible difference." He makes two quotations in illustration 
 of the inferior quality of the cow-dung, — one from the Essex Report, 
 vol. ii., p. 238, in which it is stated that " fifteen acres having been manured 
 for beans, six with horse-dung, and nine with dung from the cow-yard, the 
 six acres produced far more than the nine," and that "in an experiment 
 made near Grantham, in Lincolnshire, on a poor dry soil, the manure from 
 a horse-yaid, and that from a yard where neat cattle were wintered, were 
 
liiNi.ARUisMifiN'r or THE meskntkkh; glands. 47r 
 
 ased separately for turnips, and the former was found to have greatly tlie 
 advantage." He adds, however, that "mixed with other kiudi o( 
 manure, it is exceedingly valuable ; that although its effect upon the soil is 
 slower and less powerful than that of horse-dung, it is more durable, and 
 that upon sand and gravel, and a dry and warm soil, its cooling qualities 
 render it of much service." The comparison which he draws in olher 
 respects, between the two kinds of dung will be found to be interesting 
 and instructive. 
 
 THE DISEASES OF THE INTESTINES. 
 
 These, with the exception of diarrhcea, are seldom so acute or fatal as 
 in the horse, but they are too numerous, and destroy too many of our 
 cattle. Those which belong to the membranes that invest or line the 
 intestines, and that are rel'errible to the greater part, or the whole, of their 
 extent, will with most convenience tirst come under consideration. 
 Those which affect only particular viscera, or parts of them, will naturally 
 follow. 
 
 ENLARGEMENT OF THE MESENTERIC GLANDS. 
 
 It has been stated that there are numerous vessels, termed lacteals, 
 opening on the inner coat of the intestines, in order to convey the 
 chyle to the thoracic duct, so that it may mingle with and supply the 
 waste of the blood. These little vessels, ere they reach the main trunk, 
 pass through a glandular body, in which some unknown change is prbbably 
 efiected in the chyle. Some of these mesenteric glands are represented at 
 fig. 8, page 467. These glands occasionally become unnaturally enlarged, 
 and then, whether from the abstraction of so much nutriment, in order to 
 contribute to this enlargement, or from this unknown change not taking 
 place in the chyle before it mingles with the blood, or from the consti- 
 tutional disturbance which the presence of such a body in the abdomen 
 must produce, the animal ceases to thrive, his belly becomes enlarged, 
 cough and consumption appear, and he gradually wastes away and dies. 
 On examination after death, some of the mesenteric glands are of 
 UMUSual bulk, and occasionally have grown to an enormous size. 
 
 Mr. Brown, of Melton, has recorded a case of singular enlargement o( 
 one of these glands* He was sent for to examine a cow with con- 
 siderable depression of countenance, the eyes shrunk in their orbits, the 
 membrane of the nose and the mouth of a pale yellow colour, and the skin 
 around the eyes, nose and mouth also presenting the same tinge. The 
 pulse was quick, the breathing difficult, the belly swelled, and she could 
 scarcely be induced to move. When the baud was passed along the right 
 side, a large tumour could be distinctly felt, and which would not yield to 
 pressure. 
 
 Mr. Brown very properly decided that the case was hopeless, and ad- 
 vised that she should be destroyed. She was, however, given up to him 
 for experiment. He determined first to try the effect of mercury, and he 
 gave her every night two scruples of calomel, with a drachm of hemlock, 
 and half a drachm of opium; he also administered four ounces of Epsom 
 salts every morning, in eight ounces of infusion of cascarilla. A more 
 judicious plan of treatment he could scarcely have adopted. As soon as 
 purging commenced, he omitted the internal medicine, shaved the hair 
 i'roin the right side, and well rubbed in daily an ounce of strong mercurial 
 ointment with a drachm of camphor. This was continued for six days ; 
 but the patient continuing to lose flesh, and becoming so weak as not to b« 
 
 ■ Veterinarian, Feb. 1830. 
 
«'2 CATTLE. 
 
 «be to raise herself up when down, and the tumour not diminishing, he 
 ordered her to be destroyed. 
 
 On opening the abdomen, the first thing that presented itself filling the 
 Iliac region was a large mesenteric gland, of irregular form, weighing 
 1601b. On malting a section through it, its appearance was chiefly that 
 of a schirrous deposit. The mesenteric glands generally were unhealthy, 
 and many of them were schirrous. This case is a valuable one ; it is the 
 only one on record of schirrous enlargement of tlie mesenteric glands of 
 the ox ; but the recollection of every practitioner will furnish him with not 
 a few instances of these tumours unexpectedly presenting themselves on 
 examination of the abdomen. They have been found chiefly in young 
 beasts that had been bred too much in and in, or that had been weakly 
 from other causes, and particularly in those that had been subject to chronic 
 cough, associated with tubercles in the lungs. In low and damp situ- ' 
 ations these tumours have been found on the mesentery of cattle that have 
 been long unthrifty and out of condition, and that have at length died 
 apparently in consequence of some other disease. 
 
 The association, however, with these diseases has differed so materially 
 in different cases, and the symptoms have been so obscure, or so much 
 resembling those of various and almost opposite complaints, that they . 
 have not yet been satisfactorily classed and arranged. This also must be 
 the work of future veterinarians, and when cattle medicine begins to re- 
 ceive that attention which it deserves. 
 
 The treatment of these mesenteric enlargements, when they are sus- 
 pected and pretty well ascertained, would be a course of mild purgatives, 
 mingled with tonics (the Epsom salts with gentian and ginger, a dose 
 sufficient to keep the bowels gently open being administered every morn- 
 ing), with the exhibition of from six to ten grains of the hydnodate of 
 potash, at noon and night, and the removal of the animal to good and dry 
 pasture. 
 
 INFLAMAIATION OP THE BOWELS. 
 
 Of this malady, as in the horse, there are two species : the first is inflam- 
 mation of the external coat of the intestines, accompanied by considerable 
 fever, and usually by costiveness ; the second is that of the internal or 
 mucous coat, and generally attended by violent purging. 
 
 The first of these, designated by the term Enteritis, is, in most cases, 
 sudden in its attack. Beasts of middle age, — strong, — in good condition, 
 and particularly working cattle, are most subject to it. Calves, old beasts, 
 and milch cows are comparatively exempt from it. The disease is most 
 frequent in hot weather, and after long-continued drought. 
 
 The beast, that on the preceding day seemed to be in perfect health, is 
 observed to be dull — depressed — his muzzle dry — his hair rough : — he 
 shrinks when his loins are pressed upon, and his belly seems to be enlarged, 
 on the left side. To these symptoms speedily succeed disinclination to 
 move — weakness of the hind limbs — trembling of them — staggering — 
 heaving of the flanks — protrusion of the head — redness of the eyes — heat 
 of the mouth and ears and roots of the horns, and a small, but rapid pulse, 
 generally varying from 60 to 80 beats in a minute. Rumination has now 
 ceased ; the appetite is lost ; the faeces are rarely voided, and are hard 
 and covered with a glazy mucus, and that mucus is sometimes streaked 
 with blood J — the animal also moans with intensity of pain. 
 
 These symptoms rapidly increase ; the patient becomes more depressed ; 
 the pulse more feeble ; the moaning incessant, and the beast is conti- 
 nually down. He becomes half unconscious, and is evidently half-blind ; 
 
INFLAMMATION OF THE BOWELS 473 
 
 the month is fiilled with foam, and the tongue is covered with a brownish 
 yellow deposit. There is grinding of the teeth, and difficulty in the swal- 
 lowing of liquids ; a tucked up appearance of the belly, mingling with the 
 enlargement of the left flank, — and the whole of the belly is exceedingly 
 tender. Until he is too weak to raise himself, he is exceedingly restless, lying 
 down, and immediately getting up again, and with convulsive movements uf 
 the muscles of the neck and extremities. The evacuation of the feeces is 
 entirely suppressed, or a little stream of liquid excrement forces a passage 
 through the hardened mass by which the rectum is distended, and that which 
 is voided has an exceedingly fcetid and putrid smell. This symptom is 
 characteristic. The person who is accustomed to cattle says, (hat the 
 beast is fardehimind or sapped, but he often mistakes the nature of the 
 case, and Ikncies that diarrhoea instead of costiveness exists. The urine 
 becomes thick and oily and brown, and has a peculiarly disagreeable and 
 penetrating smell. As the disease proceeds, the weakness and suffering 
 increase, until the animal dies, sometimes exhausted, but mostly in con- 
 vulsions, and frequently discharging a bloody foetid fluid from the mouth, 
 the nose, and the anus. 
 
 Sometimes, when the disease has not been attacked with sufficient 
 energy, andoftener in despite of the most skilful treatment, other symptoms 
 tippear. The animal seems to amend ; the pulse is slower and more de- 
 veloped — rumination returns — the patient eats a little — the enlargement of 
 the flanks subsides — the excrement, whether hard or fluid, is more 
 abundantly discharged : but the beast is sadly thin — he is daily losing 
 ground — his coat stares — the hair is easily deteched^the skin clings to 
 the bones — he is sometimes better, and sometimes worse, until violent 
 inflammation again suddenly comes on, and he is speedily carried oiF*. 
 
 On examination after death the first thing that presents itself is the 
 engorgement of the sub-cutaneous vessels with black and coagulated blood, 
 and the discoloration of the muscles, softened in their consistence and be- 
 coming putrid. The abdomen exhibits the efiusion of a great quantity of 
 bloody fluid ; eight, ten, and twelve gallons have been taken from it. The 
 peritoneum is inflamed — almost universally so ; — there are black and gan- 
 grenous patches in various parts, and on others there are deposits of flaky 
 matter, curiously formed, and often curiously spotted. The liver is en- 
 larged and its substance easily torn ; the rumen is distended with food, 
 generally dry, and its lining membrane inflamed and injected, and of a 
 purple or blue tint : the reticulum does not escape the inflammatory action ; 
 the manyplus is filled with dry and hard layers which cannot be detached 
 without difficulty from the mucous membrane of that stomach ; the fourth 
 Stomach is highly inflamed, with patches of a more intense character, and 
 its contents are liquid and bloody, particularly towards the pyloric orifice. 
 The small intestines contain many spots of ulceration, the lining membrane 
 is every where inflamed, and they are filled with an adhesive or bloody 
 mucous fluid ; the larger intestines are even more inflamed, they exhibit 
 more extensive ulceration, and contain many clots of efiiised bloud. The 
 rectum is ulcerated and gangrenous from end to end. 
 
 * Hurtrel D'Arboval, in his " Dictionary of Veterinary Medicine and Surgery,' thui 
 clescribea some of the symptoms in a more than usually aggravated case. " The con- 
 vulsive movements were exceedingly violent. The animal, seemingly afraid of every 
 thing around him, dragged himself along, and beat himself about in every direction. 
 Uttering the most frigtitful lowings. His tongue, red and swelled, hung from his 
 month ; the nostrils were dilated ; the eyes haggard and full of tears ; all the mucous 
 membranes were of a scarlet red ; the ears and horns were burning, as also was the 
 whole surface of the body. The beatings uf the heart were violent and rapid, yet th« 
 
 obtained from the jugular." 
 
*7i CATTLE. 
 
 There is usually consideraole effusion in the chest ; the coverings of th« 
 lungs are inflamed j the bag of the heart more so ; the substance of the 
 lungs is sometimes emphysematous, and at other times gorged with blood, 
 and the heart is marked with black spots outwardly, and in its cavities. 
 The lining membrane of all the air-passages is of a red brown colour ; the 
 larynx and the pharynx are intensely red. and so is the membrane of the 
 gullet. 
 
 Of the causes of this disease it is difficult to speak. It seems occasionally 
 to be epidemic, for several instances of it occur of the same character, and 
 in the same district. M. Creuzel gives an illustration of this in his descrip- 
 tion of the disease that destroyed so many cattle in the years 1S26 and 
 1827, in the department de la Nievre. Out of 218 cattle belonging to 
 three farmers, 113 were attacked by the disease, and 83 oi 'hem died. 
 One farmer, in a neighbouring district, had 19 head of cattle, all of whom 
 sickened, but only three of them were lost. These were unusually hot 
 summers. The upland pasture was burnt up, or what remained of it was 
 rendered unusually stimulating^ and the acrid plants of the marshes and 
 low grounds acquired additional deleterious agency *. 
 
 When isolated cases occur, they may generally be attributed to mis- 
 management. Exposure to cold, or the drinking of cold water when 
 heated with work ; too hard work in sultry weather ; the use of water 
 stagnant, impure, or containing any considerable quantity of metallic 
 salts; the sudden revulsion of some cutaneous eruption; the crowding of 
 animals into a confined place ; too luxuriant and stimulating food gene 
 rally ; and the mildewed and unwholesome food on which cattle are too 
 often kept, are fruitful sources of this complaint. 
 
 WOOD-EVIL, MOOR ILL, PANTAS. 
 
 . These are but varieties of the same disease, frequently produced, as the 
 first name would import, by browsing on the young buds of trees, and par- 
 ticularly on those of the ash and the oak. These buds are tempting to cattle 
 at the commencement of the spring, but they are of too acrid and stimulat- 
 ing a character to be eaten with impunity in any considerable quantities. 
 Heat of the mouth and skin — redness of the membranes — thirst — obstinate 
 constipation — hardness of the little faces that are expelled — the covering of 
 them with mucus and blood — difficulty of voiding urine, and its red colour 
 and penetrating odour — colicky pains — depression, — are the characteristic 
 symptoms of this disease. 
 
 Some veterinarians give the name of wood-evil to complaints allied to 
 rheumatism, or being essentially rheumatic ; others consider it to be a 
 disease of debility, looking to the consequence of inflammation, and not to 
 the inflammation itself. If any distinction were drawn between wood-evil 
 and enteritis in cattle, it would be, that although in wood-evil there seems 
 to be more affection of the head, and the animal appears now and then as 
 if it were rabid, there is not so much intestinal inflammation, and the 
 disease does not so speedily run its course t- Wood-evil may last from 
 twelve to twenty days. 
 
 * Rec. de Med., Oct. 1828, p. 243. 
 
 t M. Girard observed in 1816, a similar disease among the cows in a village near 
 Brie. At the commencement the animals were dull, disinclined to eat, spume 
 dropped from the mouth, and the spine was tender. There ran from the vagina of the 
 cow a bloody matter, of a peculiar smell, which the urine also possessed. The con- 
 stipation was obstinate ; the dung was hard and in pellets, and covered with streaks of 
 olood. The animal remained in this state twenty-four hours, after which the bloody 
 evacuations ceased ; the patient became palsied behind ; violent diarrhoea followed, 
 <i»tid, and infections, and thepatient was presently lo«l. — D'Arbuval, Dicl.dcfel.Med. 
 
r>IARRH(EA AND DYSENTERY. 47S 
 
 The proicnosis, or expectation of the termination of the disease is always 
 jiit'avourable wlien after a certain time much fever comes on, or the 
 ;iistiveness will not give way, or the urine is thick or bloody, or the disease, 
 attains its full intensity in the space of a few days. Then, instead of ter 
 rninating in resolution, the inflammation runs on to gangrene; all the 
 acute symptoms suddenly disappear, and death is not far distant. On the 
 oilier hand, the result will be favourable when the disease does not reach 
 tliat degree of intensity of which it is capable ; when, after a few days, the 
 symptoms gradually disappear, and the animal regains his former habits, 
 and the excrement resumes its natural form and consistence*. 
 
 The history that has been given of this disease will leave little doubt 
 respecting the course of treatment that should be pursued. A malady of 
 30 intensely an iiiHammatory character should be met by prom{)t and deci- 
 sive measures ; and to them it will, in its early stage, generally yield. 
 Nothing is so easy as to give relief to a sapped or fardel-bound beast, 
 before he begins to heave at the flanks or ceases to ruminate; but 
 quickness of breathing, and heat of the mouth, and evident fever, being 
 once established, the animal will probably be lost. 
 
 The patient should be bled. If it is simple costiveness without fever, 
 the abstraction of six or eight quarts of blood may suffice ; but if the 
 symptoms of inflammation cannot be misunderstood, the measure of the 
 bleeding will be the quantity that the animal will lose before he staggers 
 or fails. Purgatives should follow — the first dose being of the full 
 strength, and assisted by quickly repeated ones, until brisk purging is 
 produced. Hot' water, or blisters, should be applied to the belly, and the 
 food of the beast should be restricted to gruel and mashes. This will, in 
 most cases, include the whole of the treatment. 
 
 If other symptoms should arise, or other parts appear to be involved, 
 the practitioner will change his mode of proceeding accordingly; but he 
 will be cautious how he gives aromatics or tonics, until he is convinced 
 that the state of fever has passed over, and circumstances indicate the 
 approach of debility and of typhus fever. 
 
 DIARRHCEA AND DYSENTEKY f. 
 
 The frequent and abundant evacuation of fscal matter, whether with or 
 without mucus, may be considered either as simple, or connected with 
 other diseases. In its former state it will be the subject of present consi- 
 deration, and may be regarded as acute or chronic. Acute diarrhoea may 
 be produced by various causes ; — the abuse of purgatives, by their 
 being administered in too active a form — feeding on certain poisonous 
 plants — sudden change of food, generally from dry to green aliment, 
 but occasionally from green to dry — excess of food — the drinking of 
 bad water — or by some humid and unhealthy state of the atmosphere. 
 From the last cause it usually assumes an epizootic character, particu- 
 larly in autumn. A great many cows in a certain district are suddenly 
 attacked by it, although there is no reason to suspect that it is in the 
 slightest degree contagious. 
 
 Calves and milch cows are far more subject to this species of intestinal 
 inflammation than are full grown or working oxen. 
 
 The proper treatment of acute diarrheea will consist in the administra 
 
 * D'Arboval, Diet., Article EnterM. 
 
 f The distinction between these two diseases, and it is of essential impoitance to 
 observe it in the treatment of cattle, is, that diarrhoea consists in the evacuation of 
 faecal malter, in an undue quantity, and more than naturally liquid form. In dysen- 
 
 '.-."?. i •!•- 1:1 ! - ufcdE. i- iuusassseaai siooa osmbined, mingles with the fscM. 
 
476 CATTLE. 
 
 lion of a mild purgative, in otder to carry off any soiirce of irritation in 
 the intestinal canal ; the abstraction of blood, if there is any degree of 
 fever, and in pfoportion to that fever ; and then the exhibition of 
 alkalis and astringents. The most effectual medicines are prepared chali<. 
 opium, catechu, and ginger, in the proportions of one ounce of the first, 
 one drachm of the second, four drachms of the third, and two of the last in 
 each dose, and (to be administered in thick gruel. 
 
 This will generally be successful : but, occasionally, these acute cases of 
 diarrhcea are obstinate and fatal ; and too often it happens that what has 
 been represented to the practitioner as a sudden attack turns out to be the 
 winding up of some chronic disease, and he does not discover the mistake 
 until it is too late. 
 
 Diarrhoea is- not always to be considered as a disease. It is often a 
 salutary effort of nature to get rid of that which would be injurious ; or it 
 is a somewhat too great action of certain of the digestive organs, which 
 soon quiet down again to their natural and healthy function. An occa- 
 sional lax state of the bowels in calves is known to be favourable to the 
 acquirement of fat ; and a beast that is well purged on being first turned 
 on spring-grass or turnips thrives far more rapidly than another that is 
 little, or not at all, affected by the change. Diarrhcea, in some critical 
 stages of disease, is to be hailed as the precursor of health, rather than 
 feared as the attack of a new malady ; it should be so in pneumonia, red 
 water, and puerperal fever. All that is then to be done is to prevent its 
 becoming so violent as to depress the vital energies. Diarrhoea may 
 assume a chronic form, with greater or less severity, and producing loss 
 of condition and debility; it maybe prolonged for many a month, and 
 even for years, and at length terminate fatally. This is often the case 
 with cows that have been drained of their milk and badly kept. The 
 diarrhoea of calves will be considered when the diseases of those animals 
 come under notice. 
 
 The treatment of chronic diarrhcEa is difficult, and unsatisfactory. Pur- 
 gatives cannot be dispensed with, but they must be administered with con- 
 siderable caution. Both the medicme and the quantity should be well 
 considered, for if the aperient is not strong enough, the disorder will be 
 increased and prolonged ; and if it is too strong, both these effects will be 
 produced to a greater extent, and fatal inflammation and superpurgatiou- 
 may ensue. Castor oil will be the safest, and the most effectual medicine, 
 in doses from a pint to a bottle ; and a small quantity, ten grains, of 
 powdered opium, will not interfere with the aperient quality of the oil, 
 while it may allay irritation. After two doses of the oil have been given, 
 the powder already recommended may be tried, but with a double 
 quantity of ginger, and half a drachm of powdered gentian. After a 
 while, a drachm of the Dover's powder may be given, morning and 
 night ; and, that also ceasing to have effect, the first powder may again be 
 administered. Alum whey is often of considerable service. If the animal 
 is turned out, it should be on the driest pasture, but it will be better for 
 her to be kept up with plenty of hay, and gruel to drink. 
 
 It is, however, with dvsentery that the practitioner is most loth to 
 cope, a disease that destroys thousands of our cattle. This also may be 
 either acute or chronic. Its causes are too often buried in obscurity, and 
 its premonitory symptoms are disregarded or unknown. There appears to 
 be a strong predisposition in cattle to take on this disease. It seems to 
 be the winding up of many serious complaints, and the foundation of it is 
 sometimes laid by those that appear to be of the most trifling nature. It 
 16 that in cattle which glanders and farcv are in the horse-^tlie breaking u 
 of the consiitutiou. 
 
DIARRHCEA AND DYSENTERY. M7 
 
 Dysentery may be a symptom and a concomitant of other diseases. It 
 is one of the most fearful characteristics of murrain ; it is the destructive 
 accompaniment or consequence of phthisis. It is produced by the sud 
 den disappearance of a cutaneous eruption ; it follows the cessation of 
 chronic hoose; it is the con.sequence of -the natural or artificial suspen- 
 sion of every secretion. Werg any secretion to be particularly selected, 
 the repression of which would produce dysentery, it would be that of the 
 milk. How often does the farmer observe that no sooner does a milch 
 cow cease her usual supply of milk than she begins to purge ! There 
 may not appear to be anything else (he matter with her, but she purges, 
 and in the majority of cases that purging is fatal. 
 
 It may, sometimes, however, be traced to sufficient causes, exclusive of 
 previous disease. Unwholesome food — exposure to cold — neglect at the 
 time of calving — low and marshy situations — the feeding on meadows that 
 have been flooded (here it is peculiarly fatal) — the grazing (according to 
 Mr. Leigh, and our experience confirms his statement) upon the clays 
 lying over the blue lias rock — the neighbourhood of woods, and of half 
 stagnant rivers — the continuation of unusually sultry weather — over- 
 work, and all the causes of acute dysentery may produce that of a chronic 
 nature — or acute dysentery neglected, or badly, or even most skilfully 
 treated, may degenerate into an incurable chronic affection. Half starve a 
 cow, or overfeed her ; milk her to exhaustion, or dry her milk too rapidly, 
 dysentery may follow. 
 
 The following may probably be the order of the symptoms, if they are 
 carefully observed. There will be a little dulness or anxiety of counte- 
 nance, the muzzle becoming short and contracted — a slight shrinking 
 when the loins are pressed upon— T-the skin a little harsh and dry — the 
 hair a little rough — there were will be a slight degree of uneasiness, and 
 shivering, that scarcely attracts attention-^then (except it be the dege- 
 neracy of acute into chronic dysentery) constipation may be perceived — it 
 will be to a certain degree obstinate — the excrement will be voided with 
 pain — it will be dry, hard, and expelled in small quantities. In other 
 cases, perhaps, purging will be present from the beginning ; the animal 
 will be tormented with tenesmus, or frequent desire to void its excrement, 
 and that act attended by straining and pain, by soreness about the anus 
 and protrusion of the rectum j and sometimes by severe colicky 
 spasms. In many cases, however, and in those of a chronic form, few of 
 these distressing symptoms are observed even at the commencement of 
 the disease, but the animal voids her faeces oftener than it is natural that 
 she should, and they are more fluid than in a state of health i but at the 
 same time, she loses her appetite and spirits and condition, and is evi- 
 dently wasting away. 
 
 In acute cases, if the disease does not gX once destroy the animal, the 
 painful symptoms disappear, and little remains but a greater or less 
 degree of dulness, disinclination to food, rapid decrease of condition, and 
 frequent purging. The faeces are often voided in a peculiar manner ; 
 they are ejected with much force, and to a considerable distance, and the 
 process of shooting has commenced. The faeces, too, have altered their 
 character; a greater quantity of mucus mingles with them; sometimes it 
 forms a great proportion of the matter evacuated, or it hangs in strings^ 
 or accumulates layer after layer under the tail. The farmer and the prac- 
 titioner anxiously examine the evacuation. As the thin mass falls on the 
 ground, bubbles are formed upon it ? They calculate the time that these 
 vesicles remain unbroken. If they burst and disappear immediately, the 
 observer does not quite despair: but if they remain several minutes on the 
 
47H 
 
 CATTLE. 
 
 surface of the dun^, he furms an unfavourable opinion of the case, fo; 
 he knows that these bladders are composed of the mucus that lined the 
 intestines, and which is not separated from them except under circumstances 
 of great irritation; or which being thrown off, the denuded membrane is 
 exposed to fatal irritation. la this state the beast may remain many 
 weeks, or months ; sometimeB better, and sometimes worse ; and even 
 promising to those who know little about the matter, that the disease 
 will gradually subside. The farmer, however, has a term for this malady, 
 too expressive of the result, although not strictly applicable to what is 
 actually taking place within the animal. She is rotten, he says, and she 
 dies as if she were so. 
 
 The vmter of this treatise will not say, with one well-informed and 
 skilful practitioner, that " chronic diarrhoea invariably wears the animal 
 down, sooner or later, in spite of all means*," nor with another, that " the 
 animal loses its flesh, becomes exceedingly thin, and ultimately dies in 
 despite of any treatment ; and in this stage the cow-leeches have each 
 their favourite specific, the only good of which consists in the money they 
 can obtain for itf.'' There are cases of recovery, but they are few and far 
 between 
 
 In most cases the tragedy gradually draws to a close. The beast is sadly 
 wasted — vermin accumulate on him — his teeth become loose — swellings 
 appear under the jaw, and he dies from absolute exhaustion ; or 
 the dejections gradually change their character — blood inin«les with the 
 mucus — purulent matter succeeds to that — it is almost insupportably 
 foetid — it is discharged involuntarily gangrenous — ulcers about the anus 
 sometimes tell of the process that is going on within ; and, at length, the 
 eyes grow dim and sunk in their orbits, the body is covered with cold per- 
 spiration, and the animal dies. 
 
 In some cases the emaciation is frightful ; the skin cleaves to the 
 bones, and the animal has become a living skeleton ; in others there 
 have been swellings about the joints, spreading over the legs generally, 
 occasionally ulcerated ; and in all, the leaden colour of the membranes, the 
 rapid loss of strength, the stench of the excrement, and the unpleasant 
 odour arising from the animal himself, announce the approach of death. 
 
 The appearances after death are extraordinarily uniform, considering of 
 how many diseases this is the accompaniment or the consequence, and the 
 length of time that it takes to run its course, and during which so many 
 other organs might have been readily involved. The liver is rarely in any 
 considerable state of disease. The first and second stomachs are seldom 
 much affected ; the third stomach presents a variable appearance with 
 regard to the state of the food that it contains, and which is sometimes 
 exceedingly hard, and sometimes almost pultaceous, but there is no inflamn- 
 mation about the stomach itself. The fourth stomach exhibits a peculiar 
 change : there is an infiltration or collection of serous fluid in the cel- 
 lular substance between the mucous and muscular coat, showing some, 
 but no very acute degree of inflammation in the submucous tissue. The 
 small intestines are frequently without a single trace of inflammation, 
 but sometimes, however, they are thickened and corrugated, but not 
 injected. It is in the caecum, colon, and rectum, that the character of the 
 disease is to be distinctly and satisfactorily traced. 
 
 Mr. Cartwright, describing the morbid appearances in a beast that had 
 died of dysentery, says " that the colon and csecum were inwardly of a 
 iirty colour, with blackish streaks running over them in every direction, 
 
 * jklr. Farrow. — Felerinarian, June, 1831, p. 316. 
 f Mr. HiUes.— Ibid. August, 1831, p. 438. 
 
DIARRHOEA AND DYSENTERY. 479 
 
 The parietes were very thin, without the least covering of iniicus. The 
 liver was the smallest 1 ever saw. It was perfectly sound, of a uniform 
 clear light-blue colour, and firm in texture *." In a subsequent commu 
 nication tt he narrates the lesions of some other beasts that had been under 
 his treatment. He thus speaks of the first case — " The plaits upon the 
 fourth stomach were about an inch thick, and underneath the secreting 
 coats there was contained a quantity of serum and lymph, which 
 had the appearance of jelly J. The caecum had two or ttiree small 
 abscesses just under the inner coat, but which had not burst, and many 
 places of it were marked with black streaks. The whole of the abdo- 
 minal cavity was very white, and . infiltrated with serum." In the 
 second case, he states, that " the plaits on its internal surface were much 
 filled with serum, and which would gravitate when held in different posi- 
 tions On the villous coat of the large intestines, and throughout them, 
 were a great many reddish spots, and in other places there were whole 
 patches of the same ; and on wiping this red secretion off, the coat was 
 found to be abraded or ulcerated, and the intestines between those spots 
 were thickened §." 
 
 * Veterinarian, Feb. 1829, p. 71- t Ibid. Dec. 1831, p. 669. 
 
 { Mr. Farrow also has noticed these serous depositions between the coats of the 
 stomach. — yeterinarian^ June, 1831, p. 316 
 
 § It may not he uninteresting to give a short sketch of the symptoms and appearances 
 after death, of dysentery in the human subject. Its identity with the rottenness of 
 cattle will not be for a moment doubted. The quotation is selected from that 
 most valuable work " The Cyclopsdia of Practical Slediciae," article Dysentery, by 
 Dr. Joseph Brown. 
 
 " A case of this description may commence with feculet^t and liquid stools, and they 
 may subsequently become mucous, with occasionally a slight admixture of blood, or 
 they may be of the latter character from the beginning. There is little, if any, fixed 
 pain in tlie abdomen, but considerable griping during the evacuation, and heat of the 
 anus, with distressing straining. The dejections, however, do not exceed .seven or 
 eight times in the day. Difficulty of breathing and of voiding the urine attend severe 
 cases of the disease. The appetite is generally impaii'ed — the thirst considerable, and 
 the tongue is sometimes furred. The mean duration of this slight form of the disease 
 is from seven to eight days : it may be said to be never fatal, but it not unfrequently 
 lays the foundations of chronic dysentery, and often leaves such a tenderness of the 
 bowels, as renders them m >re prone than before to morbid action, from cold or other 
 causes. 
 
 " A more intense form of the disease will be found of frequent occurrence when 
 dysentery is prevailingly epidemic. Occasionally a well-marked rigor (shivering fit), 
 followed speedily by febrile heat, introduces the disease, while in other cases the first 
 symptom is pain in the bowels, to which the mucous stools, characteristic of dysentery, 
 in a short time succeed. In many instances, some slight derangement of the stomach 
 or bowels, indicated by flatulency, costiveness, inappetency, and nausea, is experienced. 
 When the disease is fully formed, the characteristic mucous, or mnco-sanguinolent 
 stools are passed very frequently, with great pain, and an extreme degree of straining. 
 There is a warm skin — a hard, generally frequent and small pulse — the tongue is either 
 covered with a white mucous coat, or it is dark and dry — there is great prostration of 
 strength, and the urine is scanty and high-coloured, And is passed with pain and diffi- 
 culty. The griping which precedes each evacuation is very distressing. 
 
 " Should no relief be afforded by the remedies employed, the prostration of strength 
 becomes great, the pulse feeble, with coldness of the extremities, the tongue either 
 furred and brown, or glazed and red ; the discharges from the intestines are dark and 
 offensive ; the mind i.s low and desponding, and death sometimes takes place in a 
 period varying from a fortnight to three Weeks from the commencement of the attack : 
 but much more frequently, even in bad cases, some mitigation of the symptoms is ob- 
 tained, and tlie disease degenerates into a chronic form. 
 
 " Restoration to health may be expected when there is diminution of pain in the abdo- 
 men, oi straining, and of the frequency of discharges, and especially, if, instead of the 
 mucous or muco-sanguinolent dejections, the stools become natural. An abatement of 
 the febrile symptoms, and thirst, and a return of appetite, are all favourable symptoms '. 
 .mt all favourable symptoms are to a certain extent fallacious, for, after a tiuce of a few 
 lUvi. we mav discover that we have that inniHinns and slowly wasting; diteue, chronit 
 
<S0 CATTLE 
 
 Uurtrel D'Arboval, when describing the disease under the names of 
 diarrhoea and dysenteric enteritis, tlius writes of the first variety : '' The 
 mucous membrane of the large intestines is more or less red and ihicliened, 
 offering sometimes erosions, and at other times characters of extravasation 
 of blood, or being black, without consistence, and diffusing a noisome 
 odour." Of the second he says, " there was more considerable thickening ol 
 the mucous membrane, with different shades of redness, and frequent deep 
 ulcerations. The muscular coat of the intestine was untouched, and pre- 
 sented a sort of floor for the ulcerations. These ulcers were more numerous 
 in the rectum, and towards the curvature of the colon, than in any other part 
 of the large intestines ; many other organs presented some morbid change, 
 in proportion as they had participated more or less in the inflammation, 
 but they were only secondary changes, and deserved little attention." 
 
 The account of these post mortem appearances is given at considerable 
 length, because they clearly indicate the hitherto unsuspected nature of the 
 disease,— unsuspected at least among veterinarians ; and they will probably 
 lead to a mode of treatment that promises a little more success than has 
 hitherto attended the efforts of practitioners. It is plainly inflammation 
 (at first acute, but gradually assuming a chronic, a more insidious and 
 
 dysentery to combat. Chronic dysentery may be considered as almost a more dis- 
 tressing termination of the acute form than death itself, for recoveries from it are rare. 
 The fever which attends the acute form subsides, and a temporary recruiting of 
 strength and appetite is experienced, but this truce from distress proves deceptive. 
 The patient occasionally feels sharp pains of the bowels, with frequent stools, consisting 
 of food apparently little changed by the process of digestion, mixed with slight streaks 
 of blood : these symptoms may subside and continue to occur at intervals, either from 
 some manifest imprudence in regimen, or without any assignable cause, until extensive 
 disorganization of the intestine takes place. The stools are then mucous and bloody, 
 sometimes mixed with pUrulent matter, varying from three or four, to seven or eight 
 times in the day — the abdomen feels full and hard, and without being very painful on 
 pressure — the urine is high-coloured, and is passed with pain. The patient when in 
 lied lies on his side, with his body much curved, so as to relax the muscles of the abdo- 
 men as much as possible. The pulse is feeble, intermitting, and generally slow; tha 
 skin is cold, sallow, dry, and rough; emaciation proceeds rapidly, the feet and legs 
 ))ecome cedematous, and ascites occasionally takes place ; the patient sometimes becomes 
 jaundiced, and finally, after the lapse of weeks or months, he sinks fi'om irritation and 
 exhaustion 
 
 ■' The pathological appearances vary according to the period of death, and the nature 
 of the case. If dysentery prove fatal in an early stage, the appearances are those of 
 inflammation simply, or of inflammation and gangrene of the mucous membrane of the 
 large intestines, with few or no traces of inflammation. If at a more advanced period, 
 the other coats of the bowels are found to participate in the disease, and numerou$ 
 and extensive ulcers are discovered. The external appearance of the bowel is healthy, 
 but on opening it, portions of its mucous membrane throughout the whole extent of 
 the colon and rectum, and occasionally some part of the small intestines, are found of a 
 bright red and brownish colour, and sensibly elevated above the level of the more 
 healthy parts. These inflamed portions are sometimes covered with a puriform, 
 sanguineous, or sanious secretion, which gives them the appearance of ulceration, but 
 if this is scraped off with the back of a scalpel, the surface is found unbroken. 
 
 " In cases which have tKrminated fatally in a more chronic way, there is thickening 
 of the tunics of the intestine, and the bowel is contracted in diameter and ulcerated. 
 The ulcers are ditfiise or follicular. The former may be of the size of a sixpence or a 
 shilling, or an extensive portion of the membrane may be in a state of almost con- 
 tinued ulceration, the diseased surface being varied by portions in astate of red fungous 
 elevation running irregularly over it. The ulceration occasionally perforates the coat of 
 the intestine so as to allow its contents to escape into the cavity of the abdomen. Ad- 
 hesion to the neighbouring viscera and serous eSusiou into the cavity of the abdomen 
 are not unusual occurrences. 
 
 " The mesenteric glands are sometimes enlarged — the liver is occasionally focmd small 
 and indurated, or enlarged and at the same time of a firmer consistence than natural, 
 or an abscess has been formed in it, but changes in its structure are much leu frequaat 
 ^an was imagined, and by no means essential to dysentery." ,.j 
 
DIARRHOEA AND DYSENTERY. 48 1 
 
 •'.aiifferous form) of tfie large intestines, the colon, ctecum, a nd rectum ; it 
 Is the dysentery of the human being; it is that which was once the scourge 
 of the human race, but thousands of whose victims are now rescued 
 from its grasp by the discovery of its real seat and character, and the 
 adoption of those measures which such a disease plainly indicates. 
 
 If this malady is of an inflammatory type, the first, and most obvious, 
 and most beneficial measure to be adopted is bleeding; and this regulated 
 by the age, size, and condition of the beast, the suddenness and violence 
 of the attack, and the degree of fever. From two to five or six quarts of 
 blood should be abstracted. There must be very great debility — the 
 disease must in a manner have run its course, or tlie practitioner will be 
 without excuse who, in a case of inflammation of the large intestines, neg- 
 lects the abstraction of blood. General bleeding — bleeding from the 
 jugular — will be of service, as lessening the general irritation, and the de- 
 termination of blood to the part ; but in this case the practitioner can in some 
 measure avail himself of the advantage of local bleeding, for by opening 
 the subcutaneous or milk vein he takes blood from the parietes of the 
 abdomen, and from that portion of them which is nearest to the inflamed 
 part. 
 
 The repetition of the bleeding must depend on circumstances, of which 
 the practitioner will be the best judge. 
 
 If this has not been the common practice in the treatment of dysentery 
 it must be attributed to the disgraceful state of veterinary education so far as 
 cattle are concerned, in consequence of which so few persons have been 
 aware of the nature of the disease. The author, however, is happy to be 
 enabled to refer to Mr. Sorby, (with whose present residence he is un- 
 acquainted,) to Mr. Storry, of Pickering, to Mr. Baker, of Reigate, 
 and to his friend Mr. Dickens, of Kimbolton, as having long, and with 
 evident advantage, had recourse to this best antagonist of inflammation. 
 
 As another abater of inflammation, the veterinary surgeon will next 
 administer a mild aperient. A little consideration will show that this is 
 not contra-indicated even by the degree of purging which then exists ; for 
 the retention of matter, such as that discharged in dysentery, must be a 
 far greater source of irritation than the stimulus of a mere laxative. 
 
 The kind of medicine is a consideration of far more consequence than 
 seems to be generally imagined. There would be a decided objection to 
 the aloes so frequently resorted to in these cases : there would be some 
 degree of uoubt respecting that excellent and best medicine for general 
 purposes, the Epsom salts. Both of them might add to the excessive 
 irritation v,rhich the practitioner is so anxious to allay. Castor oil will 
 here, as in acute diarrhoea, be decidedly preferred, and in the same doses. 
 Some judgment will be required as to the repetition of the purgative. Its 
 object is the simple evacuation of morbid fscal matter, and not the setting 
 up of any permanently increased action of the bowels : therefore, if instead 
 of the comparatively scanty and mucous discharges of dysentery, a fair quan- 
 tity of actual feces has been brought away, there can be no occasion for, 
 or, rather, there would be objection to, the continuance of the purgative. 
 The author could refer to many a practitioner, justly held in estimation by 
 the agriculturist and by his brethren, for testimony to the beneficial effect of 
 mild aperients in the early treatment of dysentery. They may differ, they 
 may a little err in the choice of the purgative, but they unite in the prin- 
 ciple. The names of his friend Mr. Sewell, of Brighton, Mr. Baker, of 
 Reigate, Mr. Nobbs, of Cattistock, and Mr^ Sorby, immediately occur to 
 him. Mr. Baker gives linseed oil, which certainly stands next in value to 
 the castor oil as an aperient, when the bowels are in an irritable state. 
 
 21 
 
*^~ CATTLK. 
 
 This being inflammalioii of the large or lower intestines, theie will be 
 evident propriety in the administration of emollient injections. These 
 intestines, althojgh longer than in the horse, are not so capacious as in 
 this animal ; and they have not that irregular and cellated structure, whicli 
 prevents the injected fluid from filling, or even reaching them to any ex- 
 tent. By means of the newly invented enema-pump, the intestines in the 
 ox, which are the seat of this disease, may be completely filled with some 
 emollient fluid; and that which is most of all indicated here, and especially 
 in the early stage of treatment, is gruel, well-boiled and thick ; a pailful 
 of it may be thrown up with advantage two or three times every day. 
 
 Let it now be supposed that this treatment has been pursued two or 
 three days ; — if the discharges are more faecal, a little greater in quantity, 
 and attended by less pain or less effort in the expulsion of them, that pur- 
 pose has been efliected which the practitioner was anxious to accomplish, 
 and he must look about for other measures ; or, if the state of the animal 
 remains the same, it will be useless longer to pursue this plan. Then the 
 surgeon refers once more to the character of the malady — inflammation of 
 the mucous membrane of the large intestines — and he asks what he can 
 bring in direct contact with the diseased surface, that is likely to allay 
 irritation or to abate inflammation. He does not long hesitate here. 
 Opium immediately presents itself, at once an astringent and an anodyne — 
 an astringent, because it is an anodyne — and he determines to give it in 
 doses of half a drachm, and in the best form in which it can be adminis- 
 tered, namely, in that of powder, mixed with thick gruel. He likewise 
 adds it to the gruel of the injection, either under the form of powder, or 
 he boils a few poppy-heads in water, and then causes the gruel to be made 
 with the decoction. 
 
 Here all practitioners seem to agree. Whether they prepare the way 
 for the opium by the administration of an aperient, or whether, deceived 
 by the state of purging, they give it at once, they are all anxious to try the 
 power of this drug ; but too many of them, either forgetting or not 
 knowing the nature of the disease, add medicines of an opposite character, 
 and that cannot fail of being injurious. They administer astringents and 
 tonics, which are useful and indispensable in a later stage of the treatment, 
 but, while the inflammation remains unsubdued, are only adding fuel to 
 fire. There are too many practitioners who scruple not to give alum and 
 sulphate of zinc as soon as they are called in to such a case ; and before the 
 lining membrane of the intestines is prepared for their action. These drugs 
 are acrid — they are caustic as well as astringent — they are astringent 
 because they are caustic, and they too frequently set up another and de- 
 i'tructive inflammation. No better illustration than this would be required 
 of the lamentable consequence of the utter neglect of the diseases oi 
 cattle in the system of veterinary instruction south of the Tweed. When 
 will agriculturists and agricultural societies awake to a sense of their true 
 interest? 
 
 It is usual, however, to add something to the opium, in order to increase 
 or to regulate, or to modify its power; and that which is without compari- 
 son the most serviceable is one of the mild preparations of mercury, viz 
 calomel, or the blue pill, or mercury triturated with chalk. Mere theory 
 might induce the fear that mercury would add to the irritation already too 
 unmanageable, and so it would, if given alone ; but, combined with and 
 guarded by the opium, it has the most beneficial effect : the opium does 
 not produce costiveness, — the calomel does not gripe and purge, but irri- 
 Sation is allayed, while the natural action of the bowels is promoted. 
 Mr. Dickens gives calomel and ooiura In a letter with which he 
 
DIARRHCEA AND DYSENTKRY. 4S3 
 
 fiivoured the author, in 1831, he says, " This disease has been very pre- 
 valent in our neighbourhood this spring, arid I have been tolerably suc- 
 cessful in the treatment of it. I at first administered the various astrin- 
 gents, as chalk, kino, opium, — but, much to my disappointment, I found 
 little or no good etfect from them. I then administered one drachm each 
 of calomel and opium in some good thick gruel, which I consider of the 
 greatest importance, acting as a sheath to the intestines, already under a 
 state of excitement. I repeat this according to the size of the animal, and 
 the violence of the disease, but I have rarely had occasion to repeat the 
 dose more than twice in the course of three or four days, continuing to give 
 the gruel in the interval ; but I ought to state, that if the disease is of recen; 
 date, or what Mr. Blaine calls acute, I always bleed." 
 
 Mr. Sewell also gives calomel, but without the opium. He, with his 
 usual openness and humour, thus describes his practice, and at the same 
 time shows the injurious and undeservedly low estimation in which veteri- 
 nary surgeons are held by many farmers, and in which they will be held 
 until the public are assured that they are competently instructed in the 
 treatment of neat cattle : — " I have frequently seen bullocks at farm- 
 houses, (when I have been attending a horse for the owner,) that have 
 been a long time ill with diseased liver and constipated bowels, and been 
 under the treatment of what they call a skilful cow-leech, who has at length 
 given them up as incurable, and the animals have been, comparatively 
 speaking, wasted to skin and bone. I have now and then asked the farmet 
 to allow me to undertake the case ; I have given calomel, aloes, and sul- 
 phate of soda ; I have brought the liver into action by repeating my doses 
 at intervals, and keeping the animal upon bran-mashes and linseed ; and 
 he has recovered, returned to his work, and afterwards grazed and fatted 
 as well as any other beast. Yet the very men for whom I have done these 
 things, when they have fresh cases, send for the cowleech in preference 
 xi me."* 
 
 The author will not again contest with his scientific friends the question 
 on which his opinion has been already freely stated respecting the nature 
 and seat of this disease — inflammation of the large intestines, and no neces- 
 sary affection of the liver — but he is happy in being enabled to add his 
 decided experience of the efficacy of mercurial preparations in this malady. 
 
 Mr. Meyer gives a favourable report of the blue pill, combined with 
 Dover's powder (a preparation of opium with ipecacuanha) : but the 
 author very much doubts whether either of these medicines, although 
 excellent in human dysentery, is sufficiently powerful for cattle ; and 
 acknowledges that he gives the preference to calomel and simple opium. 
 
 In order that this mode of treatment may have a fair chance, the beast 
 should be housed and fed on bran-mashes, a little hay, and plenty of wcU- 
 boiled gruel. While the patient continues at grass the practitioner has 
 no chance, however skilful in other respects his treatment may be. 
 So much depends on the avoidance of all green and succulent food, that 
 many a beast, from whom every symptom of dysentery had disappeared, 
 has relapsed, and been lost, from having been turned out too soon. The 
 green food of one day has produced irreparable mischief. 
 
 There are other auxiliary measures which deserve consideration. Setons 
 in the dewlap have been strongly recommended. They may be useful 
 when much fever accompanies the early stage of dysentery, for they will, 
 in some measure, divert the current of blood from the inflamed and irri- 
 .ated part, and thus lessen the local inflammation and discharge, and also 
 the general fever; but no very material degree of benefit can be expected 
 
 » Veterinarian, Sent. 1831, p. 511. 
 
 lit 
 
484 CATTLE. 
 
 from ihem ; and tliere certaialy cannot be that importance which is somc- 
 times attached to the snbstance, or the root that is inserted. There is no 
 pecufliar virtue in the bearsfoot, on which so much superstitious confidence 
 has been placed ; the common cord, or hair-rope, will answer every pur- 
 pose: the black hellebore root, however, produces the speediest inflamma- 
 tion and the most copious discharge. 
 
 Fomentation of the right flank and the right side of the belly with hot 
 water, or, in acute cases, the blistering of those parto will be far more ser- 
 viceable than any seton in the dewlap can possibly be. 
 
 That admirable disinfectant, the chloride of lime, promises to be of 
 essential serwce in the treatment of dysentery; not only in changing the 
 niture of the intestinal discharge, and depriving it of all its putridity, 
 but in disposing the surface of the intestine, with which it may be brought 
 into contact, to assume a more healthy character. When applied exter- 
 nally to wounds and ulcers of every kind it effects wonders in both of these 
 respects; and, being properly diluted, it has not been found to give any 
 great pain, or dangerously to increase inflammation in the most irri- 
 table ulcer. It may be administered either by the mouth, or in the form 
 of clyster. The practitioner wilT probably avail himself of its aid in both 
 forms. It should not be mingled with any other drug ; but half an ounce 
 of the solution, or a drachm of the powder, may be mixed with a quart 
 of water, and given between the regular periods for the administration of 
 the other remedies. 
 
 The reader will forgive a repetition of the caution as to the mode of 
 administering liquid medicine to cattle ; for in a disease so serious and so 
 fatal as dysentery it cannot be too deeply impressed on the mind of the 
 practitioner. Whether the medicine is given by means of a horn or the pump, 
 it should flow as gently as possible down the gullet, that it may not break 
 through the floor of the oesophagean canal, but have a better chance of 
 passing on to the fourth stomach and the intestines. 
 
 In this, as well as in the chronic stage of dysentery, a great deal more 
 depends upon attending to the comfort of the animal than too many seem 
 to believe. The patient should be housed, and well littered down, and, 
 in some cases, moderately clothed. Of his food, little portions at a time 
 should be culled for him and offered to him ; and warm gruel and warm 
 mashes should be frequently put within his reach. The author will not 
 go so far as J. E. (EUman) in the survey of Sussex, who, perhaps dis- 
 gusted with the ignorance of the cow-leech, and the recklessness with 
 which he pours in his drugs, says, " If any of my cattle get into a low 
 weak state I generally recommend nursing, which, in most cases, is much 
 better than a doctor ; having often seen the beast much weakened, and 
 the stomach relaxed, by throwing in a quantity of medicine injudiciously, 
 and the animal lost ; when, with good nursing, in all probability it might 
 have been otherwise ;" but there can be no doubt that more benefit is 
 connected with that one word comfort, than can be procured from half 
 the drugs which the veterinary pharmacopoeia contains. 
 
 In many cases, and in every case that can be brought to a successful 
 termination, it will be observed, after the perseverance of ten days or a 
 fortnight in this mode of treatment, that the pain preceding and accom- 
 panying the evacuations is materially lessened, and that the nature of 
 the matter evacuated is changed. The stools will probably be as frequent ; 
 they will be more copious ; but less mucus will be found in them, and 
 thev will have become more decidedly faecal and not 90 offensive. The 
 belly will be less tender ; the countenance less anxious ; the general ap- 
 pearance improved. The inflammation of the inner surface of the large 
 
DIARRHffiA AND D'SSENTERV. 48S 
 
 Intestines will ha\e materially subsided, but the habit of purgation wiP 
 continue for a while, and will be increased by the state of relaxation and 
 debility in which the vessels are left. Then, but not until then, astringents 
 will be admissible and highly beneficial. 
 
 Catechu stands at the head of this class of medicines in such a case ; and 
 its power may be increased by the addition of oak bark, or it may be given 
 in a decoction of oak bark.. The opium must not, however, be omitted ; 
 for although direct inflammation may have been subdued, and relaxa- 
 tion and debility have followed, much irritability may remain, to control 
 which the soothing power of opium will be required. 
 
 To catechu and opium it has been usual to add chalk ; for in all these 
 diseases there is a tendency in the stomach, and probably in the intestinal 
 canal, to generate a corisiderable quantity of acid. A greater source of 
 irritation can scarcely be imagined when the state of the lining membrane 
 of the large intestine is taken into consideration. The chalk, or the car- 
 bonic acid of the chalk, will unite with and neutralize this acid, and render 
 it harmless. Theoretic chemistry would lead to the substitution of mag- 
 nesia for the chalk, for the carbonic acid being withdrawn, it might be 
 feared that the caustic lime would be injurious ; but experience has proved 
 that magnesia is not so efficacious in cattle : that, in. fact, it seems to be 
 almost inert, while chalk has usually answered the purpose intended, and 
 no inconvenience has resulted from it.* x 
 
 Some practitioners strangely mingle vegetable and mineral tonics toge- 
 ther, forgetful of the decomposition which frequently, or almost constantly 
 ensues, and the impairment or total loss of medicinal power. Vegetable 
 astringents agree best with the constitution of cattle, and they will not 
 often deceive. 
 
 The nature of the disease however being considered, will the practitioner 
 confine himself to the astringents? He has now to struggle with the 
 consequences of inflammation^-the weakness and want of tone which in- 
 flammation has produced, not only in the part itself but in the whole 
 
 * The author of the " Survey of Dumfries" recommends "an infusion of irater trefoil, 
 or the juice of the sloe." Mr. Daniell speaks of "a pint of dried i box-leaves, rubbed 
 small, and four ounces of madder, in a quart of milk." In Nairn, some farmers give raw 
 potatoes, mashed ! and others give undried oats and barley, made into a kind of mash, 
 with a handful of salt, and a portion of potatoes. Mr. Parkinson, in his " Treatise on 
 Live Stock," (vol. i. p. 246,) says, " I had a cow reduced so low, by the flux in cattle 
 called the shit, or rottenness, as scarcely to afford any milk, and I had had an eminent 
 cow-doctor to her, who gave her up, and persuaded me that she must die, and advised 
 me to send her to Smithfield, where she would sell for forty or fifty shillings, that being 
 more than she would fetch when dead ; and this doctor was recommended to me as one 
 being particularly famous for curing this disorder ; but I never knew a beast cured that 
 was as bad as this cow. Knowing that almost all complaints arise from the stomach 
 being in an improper state, I considered the case, and tciok the following method for 
 cure : — I put about four ounces of chalk, beaten to a very fine powder, in one quart of the 
 lees of red port, which I prefer,, when they can be obtained : having mixed them well 
 together, 1 gave it to the cow ; and three doses, one every other day, effected the cure ; 
 fur she came to her milk, calved, milked well, and afterwards made a good fat cow. I 
 have since given it to two other cows, and it has had the desired effect." There are 
 worse prescriptions than this, yet a much better astringent might have been administered 
 than the port wine lees, with the quantity of ardent spirit which they contain : besides, if 
 port wine is to be given at all, it should be in its pure state, and not the accumulation of 
 all the tartaric acid and extractive matter which it contains deposited in the lees. 
 
 Mr. Knowles improves upon Mr. Parkinson. After recommending a strange mixture 
 of tormentil root, and bole armenian, and grains of paradise, and turmeiic, and madder, 
 and these to be given in oak-bark tea, for the cure of dysentery, he says, that " red wine 
 would be much better, or a pint of common brandy and a pint of water." This for inflam. 
 (nation of the bowels — and shown to be of the most intense character by the miicus being 
 discharged so abundantly, that, in his elegant lani;uage, the beast is "parting with hig 
 iiuddiniral" 
 
*f6 CATTLE. 
 
 »ystein. He will also take into consideration the natuial temperamenl 
 and constitution of horned cattle. Some physiologists speak rather unin- 
 telligibly of the prevalence of the lymphatic system in certain persons and 
 animals ; but the fact is that cattle will not bear disease, nor the treatment 
 of disease like some other animals, and particularly as the horse will. 
 Diseases speedily run their course in cattle, and the patients often sink 
 under the prompt and vigorous and scientific treatment of the malady. An 
 ox may bear one copious bleeding well ; but he cannot be bled again 
 and again as the horse may. He will derive the usual advantage from 
 purgation to a certain extent, but care must be taken lest if dege- 
 nerate into the disease which is now under consideration. The prac- 
 titioner will therefore mingle stomachics, and probably tonics, with his 
 astringents in this case. Here also he will find the best in the vegetable 
 kingdom. Not only custom but experience of its beneficial effect has made 
 ginger a necessary ingredient in almost every medicine, unless the animal 
 evidently labours under fever. Gentian is an admirable tonic and 
 stomachic; and if to these are added calumba and cascarilla, the veterinary 
 surgeon has sufficient choice. The proportions of the different medicines 
 will necessarily vary with the age and strength of the animal, and the 
 character, duration, and ravages of the disease. 
 
 Vegetable astringents and tonics having been fairly tried, and either 
 not producing the desired effect, or beginning to lose their power, the 
 mineral ones may be resorted to. The preference should undoubtedly be 
 given to alum, and that in the common and very convenient form of alum 
 whey. (See List of Medicines.) To this the usual quantity of ginger may 
 be added without producing decomposition ; and, if it should be deemed 
 advisable, the opium may be continued. Should this not succeed, or 
 not to tlie full extent that the practitioner wishes, blue vitriol (sulphate 
 of copper) may be substituted ; and to this the opium will be a necessary 
 auxiliary. The dose should be about one drachm of the former and half 
 a drachm of the latter. There is no other mineral astringent or tonic that 
 can be depended on or safely given. 
 
 Clysters should not be neglected in this stage of the disease. With 
 the assistance of the injection pump they promise to be as efficacious as 
 any medicines that can be administered by the mouth, for they may be 
 brought into immediate contact with the inflamed or ulcerated surface. 
 Gruel may be made with a decoction of poppy-heads, as already recom- 
 mended. To this may succeed an infusion of catechu, decoction of oak- 
 bark, and with or without opium ; and possibly a weak solution of alum 
 or blue vitriol. The practitioner will here, however, proceed with consi- 
 derable caution 
 
 The malady being apparently subdued, there will be need for much 
 caution in the after-treatment of the animal. He must not soon return 
 altogether to green meat, and more especially not to luxuriant pas- 
 ture. J. E., in the Survey of Sussex, speaking of the prevention o. 
 the first attack of diarrhoea and dysentery in working oxen, gives some 
 excellent advice, which is applicable to all cattle, in order to guard against 
 a recurrence of the disease. " The best way to prevent this (diarrhoea) 
 is to continue to give a small quantity of hay for some time after turning 
 to grass, and not to keep them too many hours at a time from water. 
 When I see it coming on I keep the ox as much as possible on hay and 
 bran, and let him have water often in small quantities." 
 
 For a long period after a severe attack of this complaint the animal will 
 be subject to occasional diarrhoea, and will require careful management. 
 The best thing to be done is to get him, as quickly as the state of hii 
 
INFLAMMATION OF THE DUODENUM. is, 
 
 constitution 'will admit, into fair condition and sell him ; but there will be 
 Bume difficulty in accomplishing this, for abundance even of the most 
 \ holesome food will often be more than his debilitated powers of digestion 
 can manage, and hoove, or diarrhcea, or dysentery will ensue. At the 
 best, he will rarely be got beyond fair condition, and with that the farmer 
 must be content. While the experience of the writer of this treatise fur- 
 nishes him with various instances of permanent recovery from dysentery, 
 it supplies him with but few cases in which the patient has " afterwards 
 grazed and fatted as well as any other beast," 
 
 However perfect may seem to be the cure, the animal that has once 
 been a decided shorter should never be bred from. There is a taint about 
 him which will a most certainly be communicated to his stock. Dysentery 
 is not only the pest of certain districts, and especially of cold and wet 
 ones, but of certain breeds. The beautiful Dishly breed of long^horned 
 2attle was swept away by it, when the master-mind of Bakewell no longer 
 regulated the admirable, but (to the inexperienced agriculturist) dangerous 
 system of breeding from near affinities ; and there is reason to believe that 
 many of the yet more valuable short-horned stock have been destroyed by 
 it The breeding too far, and too incautiously in and in, will produce 
 a weakness of constitution that predisposes to dysentery ; but, without 
 insisting on this, the experience of many a farmer and many a dairyman 
 will convince him, that the sooner he gets rid of a beast that has been a 
 scanterer the better it will be for his stock. 
 
 One point more should, perhaps, be adverted to before this subject 
 is dismissed — the supposed rontagiousness of dysentery. There is a 
 great deal of contradictory evidence with regard to the contagiousness of 
 this complaint in the human being, and it would probably be deemed 
 presumption in a veterinary surgeon to give an opinion on the subject ; 
 but of his own patients he may speak, and he would say that there is not 
 the slightest reason for believing that the dysentery of cattle is contagious. 
 
 As the large intestines are the principal, and, in most cases, the only 
 seat of that inflammation which is characterised by the term dysentery, 
 other intestines are occasionally subject to maladies either peculiar to them, 
 or in wliich the neighbouring viscera participate to a greater or less extent, 
 
 INFLAMMATION OF THE DUODENUM. 
 
 Examination after death has occasionally discovered an inflammatory 
 affection almost confined to the duodenum, or first intestine. This 
 occurred to the author in two varieties of jaundice. In the one there 
 appeared to have been an undue secretion of bile ; and this being received 
 into the duodenum in its undiluted state, the mucous membrane of the 
 whole of that viscus was inflamed. There were also spots of effused 
 blood, and a small ulcer that seemed to have penetrated the mucous 
 coat alone. In the other case there was considerable inflammation of the 
 thickened substance that surrounds the orifice through which the bile 
 enters this intestine, and which was probably produced by the continued 
 presence and irritation of a gall-stone that had been here arrested in its 
 progress. There were numerous red lines radiating in every direction. In 
 both cases there was slight inflammation of the upper part of the jejunum. 
 
 In neither of these instances were there any peculiar or characteristic 
 symptoms that would at once direct the attention of the practitioner to the 
 duodenum as the chief or the only seat of disease 3 but in both there was 
 a yellow skin — evident pain — fever and purging. 
 
 \ history of this disease must be left to future observers. 
 
*88 CATTLE. 
 
 COLIC. 
 
 Of this disease there are two varieties. The one is fl/itulent colic, 
 arising from -he distension of certain portions of the intestines, occasioned 
 by the food contained in them undergoing a process of fermentation. The 
 pain which the animal evidently suffers, his moanings, his striking at his 
 belly with his hind feet, a swelling on the right side of the belly, the 
 occasional discharge of gas from the mouth and anus, constant restless- 
 ness, continual getting up and lying down again immediately, and all 
 this accompanied by fever, would induce the suspicion that the animal was 
 labouring under flatulent colic. 
 
 There are various reasons, however, why cattle should seldom be 
 subject to this complaint. By the maceration which the food undergoes 
 in the paunch, andtthe second mastication to which it is subjected in 
 rumination, it is prepared for speedy and perfect digestion ; and little of the 
 mechanism that has been admired in the horse for the detention of the food 
 is to be found in cattle. There is neither time nor disposition in the sub- 
 stances contained in the intestinal canal for this process of fermentation to 
 be set up; and if there were, there are no labyrinthian irregularities to'detain 
 the gas, but it would be readily pressed on by the common peristaltic 
 motion of the bowels, and expelled. Spasmodic colic has sometimes been 
 mistaken for that which has been occasioned by the distension of the 
 Dowels ; or, more frequently, inflammation of the outer coat of the intes- 
 tines (the red coZic of the horse) has been confounded with _fiatulent colic. 
 
 This species of colic will generally be relieved by the administration of 
 almost any aromatic drink ; but the chloride of lime, as in hoove, is most 
 to be depended upon. Two drachms of the chloride dissolved in a quart 
 of waim water, to which an ounce of the tincture of ginger, (or two 
 drachms of the powdered ginger,) and twenty drops of essence of pepper- 
 mint have been added, will form one of the most effectual colic drinks 
 that can be administered. The chlorine unites with the extricated hydro- 
 gen gas, and causes it, or the greater part of it, to disappear ; while the 
 aromatic stimulates the intestine to contract upon and force forward and 
 expel any small portion that may remain. 
 
 The beast should be walked about: exercise alone will sometimes cause 
 the gas to be expelled ; but the owner must not adopt the dangerous 
 expedient of driving or worrying the beast with dogs, otherwise he may 
 produce strangulation, or netting, or rupture of the intestines. 
 
 Should the first dose, and gentle exercise for a quarter of an hour, not 
 produce relief, a purgative drink should be given, and that of an aloetic 
 nature as more likely to operate speedily. The mode of preparing this 
 drink will be found in a note.* Clysters of warm water, or thin .gruel, 
 should not be neglected, and with each clyster two ounces of the aloetic 
 tincture should be administered. JFriction on the belly and flanks if occa- 
 sionally useful, and, in obstinate cases, it will be advisable to stimulate the 
 whole of the belly with spirit of turpentine well rubbed in. In very bad 
 cases, but not until other remedies have been applied, it will be useful to 
 bleed. Warm mashes, warm gruel, and good old hay, should constitute 
 the food of the beast for some time afterwards. 
 
 * Take of Barbadoes aloes four ounces, pimento powdered two ounces, and gum arabie 
 two ounces; pour on them a quart of boiling water ; stir the liiixture well, and often; 
 »hen it is cold add half a pint of spirit of -wine, and bottle th3 whole for use: shake the 
 ^ttle well before the requisite quantity is poured out. 
 
STRANGULATION OF THE INTESTINES. 481 
 
 A more prevalent species of colic, yet not so frequent in cattle as in the 
 horse, is the spasmodic. It is spasm, or contraction of a portion or por- 
 tions of the small intestines, and accompanied by more excruciating pain 
 than the former. The animal is exceedingly uneasy, lowing, pawing, 
 striking at his belly with his hind legs or his horns, continually lying down 
 and getting up, becoming very irritable, and sometimes being danijerous to 
 handle. It is distinguished from flatulent colic by the smaller quantity of 
 gas that is expelled, the comparative absence of tension or enlargement of 
 the belly, the more evident spasms relaxing for a little while and then 
 returning with increased violence, and the freedom with which the animal 
 moves during the remissions. 
 
 The feeding on acrid plants, or even on healthy food too great in quan- 
 tity or too nutritive, the commencement of feeding on grains, exposure to 
 cold after work, the drinking of too cold water, and especially after exprcise, 
 or of water impregnated with metallic salts, are occasional causes. More 
 dangerous ones are the long continuance of purging and also the long con- 
 tinuance of costiveness. The treatment will be the same, except that as thi s 
 proceeds from irritation in the intestinal canal generally, or in particular 
 portions of it, which is apt to run on to inflammation, bleeding will be 
 earlier resorted to ; and the practitioner will not suffer the first symptom 
 of inflammation to appear without adopting this best method of subduing 
 it. After every case of colic, whether flatulent or spasmodic, the animal 
 will require some attention and nursing, for in both of them the intes- 
 tines are considerably weakened and predisposed to a repetition of the 
 attack, and there are few maladies, the habit of the recurrence of which is 
 so soon formed. 
 
 STIIANGDLATION OF THE INTESTINES. 
 
 Spasmodic colic, if neglected, or bidding defiance to medical treatment, 
 occasionally leads to such an entanglement of different parts of the bowels 
 with each other that they become tied into a kind of knot, and the passage 
 of food along them is obstructed. This is no unfrequent consequence of 
 colic in the horse, and when the small intestines of cattle are observed, 
 hanging loose, as it were, at the end of the mesentery, (see Fig. 2. 
 p. 451,) it is not to be wondered at, if, in the disturbed, increased, hurried, 
 and sometimes inverted peristaltic motion which takes place in consequence 
 of colic, one portion of the intestine should be entangled among the rest, 
 and the fatal knot should be tied. Occasionally a small piece of fatty matter 
 disengages itself from the mesentery and hangs floating in the belly, and 
 then, either in the changes of situation which the bowels undergo in 
 natural exercise, or more particularly in the commotion of colic, it en- 
 twines itself round a portion of the intestine and obstructs the passage. 
 These twists, and loops, and knots are sometimes strangely intricate. When 
 the dead animal lies before the practitioner it is almost impossible to un- 
 ravel them. This is the true net or knot so dreaded in some parts of the 
 country. It is the result of those colicky pains which have been mistaken 
 for strangulation, and which have been increased and hurried on to the 
 production of this involved state by the absurd and brutal measures that 
 have been adopted. Strangulation having once taken place, there is and 
 can be no remedy. All that can be done is to attack every case of colic in 
 good earnest, as soon as it is perceived ; for no one can tell how soon the 
 displacement, twist, knot, or whatever it be, will occur in consequence of 
 the perverted action of the intestines, or the violent struggles of the animal, 
 
 ^-....A.^ Kit i\\o inviywf* w/hiph hP PHfilirPS 
 
490 CAITLK. 
 
 THE CORDS OR GUT-TIE. 
 
 This is another singular and fatal species of intestinal strangulation 
 that has lately been brought under notice by Mr. Corbet, of Simonborn* 
 It is not of unfrequent occurrence in some districts, and especially in wet 
 and marshy situations • it is peculiar to the ox, and is rarely observed in 
 him after the second or third year. The beast shows disinclination to food 
 — rumination is suspended, or performed in a listless, interrupted manner 
 — the animal appears to be griped — he strikes at his belly with his hind 
 legs — he lies down, and as he gets up again bows his back in an extra- 
 ordinary way, and then, all at once, stretching out every limb, he gives 
 the spinal column a somewhiit concave form. Small quantities of faeces 
 are voided, mingled with mucus, and sometimes with blood; and if the 
 animal is examined, by introducing the hand into the rectum, he evidently 
 suffers extreme pain. 
 
 By degrees the ailment is referrible to one side more than the other, 
 and generally to the left side. The hind leg on that side is frequently ad- 
 vanced and then retracted, and, in some cases, becomes partially paralysed. 
 
 These symptoms are more and more alarming — if the ox can be 
 induced to eat, the griping pains are immediately increased — the belly 
 swells — the countenance becomes anxious — the ears, the horns, the nose, 
 and the thighs become cold — the pulse is small and accelerated, and 
 scarcely to be felt — the breathing is laborious and heard at a distance — 
 the mouth and nostrils are pale. The disease continues during six, seven, 
 or eight days; it yields to no medicine — it is aggravated by most of the 
 measures adopted — it is especially so if the beast is moved about — and at 
 length death terminates the period of suffering. 
 
 On examination, strangulation of some part of the intestine is found, and 
 generally of the small intestine. It is tied by a distinct and evident cord 
 — in some cases it is the spermatic cord, which, after castration, unskilfully 
 performed, or, now and then, by mere accident, has been retracted into the 
 belly, and has become enlarged, and has had tumours forming on it, and 
 particularly at its extremity. Oftener it is an adventitious or unnaturally 
 formed membrane which becomes entangled round the intestine and 
 assumes the appearance of a cord. 
 
 The mode of operation, in castrating bullocks, is often very absurd. 
 Some practitioners pride themselves on performing it with scarcely the loss 
 of any blood. They open the scrotum, and lay bare the spermatic cord, 
 and then, by mere dint of pulling and twisting, they tear it out. There is, 
 certainly, no bleeding, and the portion that remains immediately retracts 
 mto the belly; but the consequence of all this violence is that inflammation 
 ensues — tumours, false membranes, are formed, and the foundation is laic 
 for this complaint. Others draw the cord out as far as they can without 
 tearing it, and then cut it off close to the pelvis. There is no external 
 bleeding in this case; but there is bleeding within the cavity of the belly, 
 and a source of irritation is set up by the presence of this blood, and 
 various abdominal diseases ensue, and, among the rest, the ccrds or gut' 
 tie. 
 
 Mr. Dick, the talented professor of veterinary medicine at Edinburgh. 
 to whom his own profession, and agriculturists in general, are deeply 
 indebted, as a teacher of cattle medicine, gives a similar account ot 
 the cause of this disease. He says, " This seems to be the efJect of cas- 
 
 * An account of this disease was published in the Repertory of Arts and Scieni'f s, 
 v795, by Mt. Harris, a well-infoimed faiinet in Ueiefoidshire. It is saiil tn li.ive lieen 
 very common in that country. 
 
THK CORDS OR GUT-TIE. 491 
 
 tratii;g the ox, by drawing out the cord or spermatic artery. The vessel, 
 when torn asunder, recedes intc the scrotum and up into the abdomen, and 
 there producing inflammation, the formation of a new membrane is the 
 consequence."* 
 
 It is not, however, to be uniformly traced to this cause alone. It seems, 
 especially, to prevail in low and damp situations — it has followed the use 
 of half mouldy and unwholesome fodder — it has seemed to be connected 
 with hard work, and that on an irregular or steep surface; and some have 
 imagined that it is most prevalent where the floor of the ox stables is 
 too much inclined, on account of the great pressure on this part of the 
 abdomen, and especially in the act of rising. It can be readily believed 
 that any source of irritation, whether of the spermatic cord, or of the intes- 
 tines lying in the neighbourhood of it, or of the intestinal canal generally — 
 in fact, that any, or all of the sources of common colic may be the predis- 
 posing, or immediate causes of this species of strangulation. If any cir- 
 cumstance, however, were to be selected as that to which the disease 
 might be oftenest traced, it would be this unskilful mode of castration.f 
 
 Although it has been stated that no medicine seems to be of avail, the 
 patient should not be abandoned. There is an operation, apparently difEcull 
 and dangerous, but really simple, easy to be performed, and generally 
 effectual. 
 
 This operation is described, but somewhat unsatisfactorily, both by Mr. 
 Harris and Mr. Corbet. The former had performed it on cattle from 
 three months to nine years old. The following is the account of Mr. 
 Corbet : — " The operation is begun by making an opening into the inside 
 of the ox, beginning a Httle before the ileum. The arm is introduced, and, 
 in general, the cord or ligament is easily felt, commencing a little behind 
 the kidneys at the origin of the spermatic vessels, and attached to some 
 part of the pelvis, and which appears to strangulate a portion of intestine. 
 In some cases, I have found two ligaments, varying in size from a small 
 quill to three times that magnitude. If operated upon early, the animal 
 generally recovers without the aid of medicine. — I have known an animal 
 remain five days, and I have then operated upon him, and the case has 
 turned out successful."J 
 
 It will be evident that this operation should be performed, the side hne 
 being used, and the beast remaining standing close to a wall, and fastened 
 to it as well as circumstances will permit. The incision should be made 
 on the left side, and taking, as the centre of it, the spot at which the flank 
 
 * Veterinarian, May, 1834, p. 266. Mr. Harris's account of this entanglement is 
 drawn too much from imagination, and is deficient in correctness of anatomical detail. 
 He says, " This stricture or gut-tie is occasioned by an erroneous method of castrating the 
 talves, -which the breeders practise throughout Herefordshire. They open the scrotum, 
 take hold of the testicles with their teeth, and tear them out with violence, by which 
 means all the vessels belonging to the part are ruptured. The vasa deferentia, entering 
 by the holes of the transverse and oblique muscles, pass over the ureters at acute angles, 
 and turning, by their great length and elastic force the peritoneum is ruptured. The vas 
 deferens is severed from the testicles, and, springing back, forms a kind of bur. The 
 part of the gut that is tied by it is the jejunum, at its turning from the right side to. the 
 left, and the entanglement is generally effected by some sudden motion of the beast." Rep. 
 of Arts, 1795. 
 
 f A disease of this kind is very prevalent in Switzerland, and particularly in the 
 canton of Bern. M. Anker, professor at the Veterinary School at Bern, has published 
 a very satisfactory account of the symptoms and treatment of it, as furnished by his 
 brother, a veterinary practitioner at Ins. (See Practitche Ahhandlung des Veberwufe; 
 ftc.) He attributes this entanglement to the spermatic cord, but he gays little of the 
 •node of castration, and dwells mostly ou situation, and food, and stabling, and work among 
 the steep mountains of Switzerland. 
 
 t Veterinarian. Mav. 1834. Xk. 265. 
 
J92 CATTLE 
 
 is generally punctured in cases of hoove, and where a small portion of the 
 jejunum, and that which is the most likely to be entangled is protruded 
 over the rumen, and floats by itself at the extremity of the mesentery. 
 It should be a vertical incision, or a little oblique in a direction frocn 
 behind forwards. A small opening should first be made, through 
 the integument and muscle, avoiding, if possible, the peritoneum. Into 
 this the first and second fingers of the left hand should be introduced, 
 and thus, by means of a probe-pointed bistoury, guarded and guided by 
 these fingers, the wound may be enlarged so as to permit the introduc- 
 tion of the hand of the operator. There will probably be a considerable 
 gush of blood when the external oblique is first divided, but that will 
 speedily cease by the retraction of the artery. 
 
 The peritoneum should next be divided, if it has not been so already, 
 and the hand of the surgeon, the arm having been bared and well 
 oiled, should be introduced into the wound; the epiploon or cawl gently 
 torn ; and the hand passed among the intestines in a direction upwards and 
 backwards, or as Mr. Corbet describes it "a little behind the kidneys." The 
 operator will soon feel the strangulated part, and the cord by which it is sus- 
 pended or tied, and usually "attached to some part of the pelvis." Having 
 satisfied himself with regard to the situation of the cord, he will withdraw 
 his hand, and, taking another shorter and more curved and probe-pointed 
 bistoury,* and having it in the hollow of his hand, and guarding the cutting 
 edge with his finger and thumb, he will introduce it into the abdomen, find 
 out the cord again, and cautiously divide it. The hand will once more be , 
 removed, in order to get rid of the bistoury, and then re-introduced to as- 
 certain whether the whole of the strangulated part has been liberated, 
 which is easily effected by tracing all the neighbouring circumvolutions 
 and passing them through the hand. 
 
 The operator being satisfied as to the state of the bowels, brings the 
 edges of the wound together, and confines them by a sufficient number of 
 stitches, including the peritoneum, muscle, and integument, in the same 
 stitch. A pledget of tow is placed over the wound, and a broad bandage 
 passed tightly several times round the belly, which must not be removed 
 during the first six or eight days. 
 
 The decided majority of cattle thus operated upon are saved, and the 
 wound is usually healed in somewhat less than a month. It may, how- 
 ever, be supposed that after the extensive opening into the abdominal 
 cavity, and this laceration of the cawl, and groping and cutting among the 
 intestines, some alarming symptoms will occasionally supervene. The 
 belly will swell, and sometimes to a considerable extent. Fomentations, 
 and, if necessary, scarifications may be resorted to. There may be manifest 
 symptoms of fever, as shiverings, heaving at the flanks, and cessation of 
 rumination. Blood should then be abstracted, according to the state 
 of the patient ; half-pound doses of Epsom salts should be given morning 
 and night, until the bowels are moderately opened, and the beast should 
 have liUle besides mashes and gruel, and should be kept as quiet as pos- 
 sible 
 
 INTROSUSCEPTION OF THE BOWELS 
 
 This is another fatal consequence of colic. While certain portions of 
 the ileum or jejunum generally, but occasionally of 'the larger bowels, are 
 distended by gas, other parts are spasmodically contracted, and then, by 
 the increased peristaltic motion which is going on, the collapsed , part of 
 
 ♦ Mr. Harris describes the knife as being of the form of a large fish-hgok, with a cut- 
 •ing edge on the concave side. 
 
INTROSUSCEPTION OF THE BOWELS. 4!)3 
 
 the superior or anterior intestine slides, or is forced down, into the dig 
 tendeo part behind ; or, by that inverted action which taltes place in the 
 intestine commotion of colic, a contracted portion of the bowel slides or ia 
 forced into tiie distended part before, and thus one intestine is strang;ely 
 contained within another, and that occasionally reaching to a considerable 
 extent. The mesentery is usually torn in this unnatural procedure, for 
 otherwise that too must be taken up or carried down into the distended 
 intestine above or below. 
 
 It will be easily conceived that this will inflict great torture on the 
 beast, and an examination after death will sufficiently prove the intensity 
 of the suffering; for there will be much inflammation, and generally gan- 
 grene of the involved part, and sometimes of both portions of the inte&tine. 
 The symptoms by which the practitioner may be induced to suspect, or may 
 know that colic has run on to inlrosusception, are not yet determined. 
 Increase of pain, attended by obstinate constipation, rapid prostration of 
 strength, and comparatively little fever, may be obscure indications. It 
 is evident that this case must be beyond the reach of medical skill. The 
 most powerful purgatives, the crude mercury, the shot, the living trout of 
 some practitioners,* must be useless ; a knowledge of the anatomy of 
 the stomachs, however, should have taught these men, that the shot, and 
 the mercury, and the trout would necessarily have found their way into 
 the rumen, where they could not possibly have produced any good effect. 
 
 Mr. Cartwright furnishes the only case on record of the occurrence of 
 introsusception in cattle. He saw a bull-calf six days old, that ap- 
 peared to be in pain. It was continually lifting its head towards its belly ; 
 it discharged some blood from the anus, and it would not suck. Being at 
 some distance from home, he gave it two ounces of Glauber's salts, and 
 two table-spoonfuls of common gin in a pint of the cow's milk. In the 
 evening it was worse ; it was almost continually down ; it shifted its legs 
 towards its belly ; it continued to discharge blood in small quantities ; 
 and the pulse was quickened. He ordered it to be drenched with new 
 milk. 
 
 On the following day, it was weaker ; it could not stand; it breathed 
 very quickly and laboriously ; but the discharge of blood had ceased. The 
 pul§e could scarcely be felt, and no vein could be raised in order to ab- 
 stract blood. Six ounces of Glauber's salts were given, but the calf died 
 In the afternoon. 
 
 On examination after death, the rectum was found to be hard and dis- 
 tended ; it presented both strangulation and introsusception, for one por- 
 tf )n of intestine was contained within another, with its coats much thick- 
 ened and black, and in a completely gangrenous state.f 
 
 The case-book of thfe writer of this treatise furnishes him with a more 
 extraordinary and decisive case. It was an old and rather overworked 
 ox. The beast had performed its task well three days before. That day 
 was cold and wet, but the animal fed as usual on his return, and there 
 was no indiiation of illness. On the following morning, however, there 
 
 * A pupil of Mr. Dick was consulted resjiecting an ox labouring under cuustipation of 
 the bowels. The disease proved obstinate ; it resisted every remedy adopted, and the case 
 was abandoned as utterly hopeless. At this stage of the business the old-establishei] 
 leech of the district stepped in, and confidently engaged to set matters to rights. Ue 
 commenced with no less active a remedy than a lively trout, transferred from the river to 
 the stomach of the patient, with the conviction that his agent would thread his way 
 through all the mazes of the intestines ; and he ascribed the failure of so notable a dosa 
 to the previous mismanagement of the Edinburgh student. — Quarterly Journal of AgrU 
 ni'iure. 
 
 + Veterinarian, Feb. 1829, p. 71. 
 
♦•'* CAITLE 
 
 were evident symptoms of colic; the ox was in s:reat agony. Anlis|AB- 
 mudicR, stimulants, and purgatives vyere freely administered, and twelve 
 pounds of blood were abstracted. The animal at length obtained some 
 relief; he lay down ; he occasionally iioked at his right flank ; he struct 
 it with his horn : he moaned ; but there was not so much expression of in- 
 tense agony. The bowels were obstinately costive, although four pounds of 
 Epsom salts had been given and a drachm of the farina of the croton nuts 
 and numerous injections had been administered. At length purging came 
 on, and was exceedingly violent , the beast then got up; it staggerer 
 listlessly along ; it now and then looked at its side; it began at long 
 intervals and half unconsciously to ruminate ; and it drunk some gruel. 
 On the second day of the purging, the animal strained considerably, and 
 a black substance was observe to protrude and hang from the anus. It 
 was evidently a portion of intestine. There had been introsusception, and 
 this was the involved part, which had become gangrenous, and had sepa- 
 rated and passed away. 
 
 It was some time before the ox fully recovered his usual health and 
 appetite, but he was sent to the market, six months afterwards, in fair 
 condition. 
 
 INVERSION OF THE RECTUM. 
 
 It has occasionally happened in the straining of diarrhoea, and in the 
 still more violent efforts with which the fsces are expelled in dysentery, 
 that a portion of the rectum is protruded from the anus ; the sphincter 
 muscle of the anus then contracts \iolentIy upon it, and no effort of the 
 animal can draw it back, nor will it readily yield to any external force em- 
 ployed. The blood is necessarily congested in the protruded intestine, from 
 the situation of the part ; the gut is intensely red, and it gradually 
 necomes livid, black, gangrenous. The animal all the while is making 
 frequent and violent efforts, during which small quantities of excrement, 
 or mucus, or blood, or gas, are extricated ; the protrusion of the gut in- 
 creases ; irritative fever ensues ; and death speedily follows. 
 
 Internally, in order to allay irritation, and in some measure lessen these 
 efforts by which more of the intestine is expelled or its return prevented, a 
 pint of castor oil with two drachms of opium should be administered ; and 
 a quantity of blood, varying with the size and condition of the animal, 
 abstracted. The protruded part should be thoroughly cleaned, and dili- 
 ffently fomented, during the space of an hour with a decoction of poppy- 
 heads, lukewarm. Gentle, but long-continued efforts should then be made 
 to return the intestine, which will be accomplished much ofteuer than 
 would be imagined if the operator will have patience enough. The gut 
 having been returned, cold water should be applied around the anus, and 
 for a considerable time, in order that the sphincter muscle may more 
 powerfully close, and confine the intestine in its proper situation. It may, 
 however, again protrude, but it should be immediately returned, and, care 
 having been taken to allay the irritation of the bowels and of the system 
 generally, the straining will gradually cease, and the intestine will no 
 longer be forced out. 
 
 If the protrusion continues in despite of every effort, and the part begins 
 to swell, and to become black, and foetid, and mortified, and the pulse is 
 small, and the mouth hot, and the ears cold, and the muzzle dry, and the 
 eyes red, and the appetite and rumination are suspended, and the animai 
 is rapidly becoming weak, the practitioner must have recourse to a bold 
 and dangerous operation, but which will succeed much oftener than it will 
 %il : he must cut off the protruded intestine close to the anus. There will 
 
CONSTIPATION. 4% 
 
 probably be considerable hsemorrhage, but he must not be alarmed at that ; 
 it will be beneficial rather than injurious ; it will prevent or abate inflam- 
 mation, and It will cease long before the strength of the patient is ex- 
 hausted. The little portion of intestine half protruded at the anus will 
 gradually return; the sphincter muscle will contract; union of the div'ded 
 portion of the intestine will take place, and the animal will perfectly re- 
 cover. 
 
 CONSTIPATION. 
 
 The immediate cause of many of these affections of the bowels is con- 
 ation. The beast is sapped or bound. This constipation is often ex- 
 dingly difficult to remove, not, perhaps, from any want of power in the 
 testinal canal to be acted upon by purgative medicines, but from the 
 impossibility of getting any considerable proportion of the purgative into 
 contact with the internal surface of the bowels. It has already been ob- 
 served that in a state of health much of the fluid swallowed by cattle 
 enters into the rumen, and is detained there for the purpose of macerating 
 the food and preparing it for rumination ; and we have proof, and that suffi- 
 ciently annoying, that in some circumstances of disease, all the fluid swal- 
 lowed goes into the rumen, and is lost so far as the purpose for which it 
 was administered is concerned. 
 
 Mr. Simonds relates a case in which a heifer had been feverish, and had 
 refused all food during five days ; and four pounds of Epsom salts, and 
 the same quantity of treacle, and three-fourths of a pint of castor oil, and 
 numerous injections had been administered before any purgative effect 
 could be produced.* It has not unfrequently happened that six, seven, 
 and eight days have passed, and the bowels have remained in a consti- 
 pated state. 
 
 This must of necessity aggravate the symptoms of many diseases, and 
 lay the foundation for others, and, among the rest, for those to the con- 
 sideration of which the few last pages have been devoted. 
 
 The method of proceeding in such cases is sufficiently evident 
 When the state of the animal indicates the administration of the Epsom 
 salts, they should be accompanied by the usual quantity of some aromatic, 
 (half an ounce of ginger,) and be given in as gentle a way as possible. 
 There can scarcely be a better way than suflering it to run from a long 
 narrow-necked bottle introduced into the mouth. Should not this operate 
 at the expected time, a second dose should be given, and, probably, with 
 the same quantity of the aromatic; certainly so if little fever is present. If 
 this, however, should have no effect, it is very probable that from some 
 sympathetic influence extending over the whole of the digestive organs, the 
 roof of the rumen is open, or the pillars of which that roof is composed 
 are in a relaxed state, and yield even to the pressure of a fluid gently 
 poured down the gullet. Then the next dose (for the purgative must be 
 continued until it does operate, and the nature of that purgative, and the 
 knowledge of the manner in which the quantity already given has been 
 disposed of, remove all fear of inflammation or superpurgation being pro- 
 duced) must have an increased proportion of aromatic, increased in defi- 
 ance of existing fever, and increased to the full extent to which the practi- 
 tioner dares to go. Probably, a cordial-drink (an ounce of ginger and the 
 same quantity of carraway powder) would be given with advantage ; for 
 the rumen inight be roused to its natural action by the stimulus, and the 
 pillars of its roof might be closed, and the next dose might run on through 
 the manyplu.' into the abomasum. The rumen may possibly be ro 
 * Veterinarian, Sent. 1829, p. 357. 
 
^'■^"^ "CATTI.E. 
 
 to act in another way ; a portion of the fluid that it contains may be irt 
 jected into the ojsophagean canal by a process somewhat resembling tlmt 
 by which the pellet of food is thrown there for remastication ; and the 
 muscles of that canal, and of the base of the gullet, not being able to grasp 
 it because it is a fluid, it will necessarily pass on through the manyplus 
 into the fourth stomach and intestines. It has been stated that there are 
 other ways in which the rumen may be excited to act, viz. when, although 
 comparatively rarely, thecontentsof that stomach, instead of being returned, 
 pellet after pellet, are thrown in great quantities into the oesophagean canal, 
 and conveyed to the mouth by a process similar to that of vomiting ; and, 
 more frequently, when, although they are still ejected from the stomach in 
 considerable quantities, the muscles of the oesophagean canal, and of the 
 gullet, do not lend their aid to effect their expulsion through the mouth ; and, 
 consequently, a passage being denied them through the gullet, they are 
 driven through the base of the manyplus, and are recognised in the dung 
 by iheir fibrous character. 
 
 It is by some mechanism of one of these kinds that purging is at length 
 established after obstinate cases of constipation ; or, when the animal dies 
 and almost all the purgative medicine that has been given is found in the 
 rumen, it is because that stomach has not been sufficiently stimulated. There 
 is something in the structure of cattle which renders certain medical rules 
 and principles altogether inapplicable, and which, in defiance of all fever, 
 occasionally compels us to mingle strange doses of aromatics and stimu- 
 lants with the very means by which we are endeavouring to subdue inflam- 
 mation. This is a very important consideration in the treatment of disease, 
 and the profession owes much to Mr. P'riend for having first directed their 
 attention to it; although it should be stated, in justice to the lecturer on 
 veterinary medicine in the University of London, that it was a doctrine 
 ■•vhicli he had long inculcated on his pupils. 
 
 CAICULI. 
 
 It nas been stated (pp. 434 and 435) that various concretions are 
 found in the rumen of cattle. It is the natural situation for them, for 
 there the food is longest detained, and there they have time to form, as in 
 the colon and caecum of the horse. A few, but much smaller calculi, are 
 occasionally found in the reticulum ; others, composed of thin and friable 
 concentric layers, occupy, yet comparatively rarely, the large intestines of 
 cattle; but they alsoarenotof great size,for the food passes too rapidly over 
 the sniooth surface of these portions of the digestive canal. There are no 
 symptoms by which their presence can be recognised, nor is there any 
 evidence of their being the cause of disease, although it is not improbable 
 that the presence and pressure of these bodies, and the irritation produced 
 by them, may in some instances be the cause of colic, strangulation, 
 and other serious affections. 
 
 WORMS. 
 
 These occasionally are found in the intestines of cattle, but in no great 
 quantities ; nor are there any authenticated accounts of their being the 
 cause of irritation or disease. The food is so perfectly prepared for diges- 
 tion, and that process is so rapidly accomplished, and the nutriment is so 
 ^■ompletely extracted, that there is little left for the support of worms ; nor 
 if they are received into the intestines in the state of ova, or eggs, would 
 they be likely to escape the processes of digestion which take place in 
 cattle. 
 
 The Ampkialoma conieum, a worm with a mouth, or the appearance of 
 
DKOPSY idJ 
 
 one, at each end, and often found plentifully in the intestines of birds, fre- 
 quently inhabits the rumen and reticulum of cattle It is here of fon- 
 siderably larger size, and swells into a somewhat conical form. 
 
 The TtBnia denticulala, the denticulated tape-worm, small in size, and 
 the neck becoming fine, and sometimes almost threadlike, is found in the 
 'burth stomach and in the small intestines. 
 
 The Lumbricus teres, the common intestinal round worm, and fully as 
 laige as in the horse, lives in flie small intestines. 
 
 A small species of the Strongylus is a frequent companion of the last , 
 and another small long worm, the Tricocephalus affinis, with its minute 
 head attached to its lengthened and threadlike neck, has been discovered 
 in the caecum. 
 
 The presence (f these worms is rarely taken into account by the 
 practitioner, and few means are taken for their expulsion. 
 
 Mention has already been made of the hydatid (Ccenurus cerebralis) 
 inhabiting the brain ; and others (Cysticerci tenuicolles) found in the 
 liver, the lungs, the spleen, and in the peritoneum and the pleura ; the 
 Strongylus filaris, occupying the bronchial tubes of cattle, and the Disiorna 
 hepaticum, the Jluke worm, swimming in the biliary ducts. 
 
 This is an accumulation of fluid in the cavity of the belly. The wlio'e 
 of that cavity is lined with, and every viscus which it contains is covered 
 by, a polished, glistening membrane, so that the contents of the abdomen 
 may glide over and move easily among each other, and the injurious effect;s 
 of friction be as much as possible avoided. In a state of health there are 
 certain vessels which continually secrete or pour out the fluid that is re- 
 quisite for this purpose, and which are called exhalent vessels ; and there 
 are others that take this fluid up and carry it into the circulation when it 
 has discharged its duty, or when it is secreted in undue quantities, and 
 which are denominated absorbent vessels. Dropsy, then, is the conse- 
 quence of the pouring out of an undue quantity of fluid, and faster than the 
 absorbents can carry it away ; or it is the pouring out of the natural 
 quantity while the absorbents are paralysed, or do not do their duty in 
 removing it; and in either, way it accumulates in the abdomen. It is 
 easy, therefore, to suppose, that when the lining membrane generally, 
 or a portion of it, is inflamed, and a greater quantity of blood than usual 
 is determined to that part, the secretion from the exhalent vessels will be 
 increased, and in consequence of this there will be accumulation of fluid 
 in the bag of the heart, when that organ, or its investing membrane, is 
 inflamed ; dropsy in the chest will be the consequence of pleurisy, and 
 dropsy of the abdonien that of inflammation of the peritoneal membrane 
 generally, or of any part of it. Chronic inflammation of the liver or spleen, 
 or of any particular portion of the intestinal canal, will have the same ter- 
 mination from increased action of the exhalents ; a similar effect will occa- 
 sionally be produced by the sudden stopping of any long-continued eva- 
 cuation, pr acute or chronic eruption j and on the other hand, feeding in 
 low, marshy situations ; the privation of wholesome aliment, and every 
 cause of general debility, will produce an accumulation of fluid..from oss 
 of power in (he absorbents.* 
 
 * The luminous description of the cause of dropsy ;;iven tiy Mr. Knowlson is here 8ub> 
 joined. When a person who has " been fifty-seven years in full business" can write (a 
 nonsensically, the knowledge of cattle medicine must be at a low ebb. 
 
 "It is a stoppage in the gall-pipes which lead from the gall to the bladder, and entoi 
 ihe neck of the bladder, from whence there is a passage between two skins to the bottom 
 
 i! K 
 
<S8 CATTLK. 
 
 Of acute dropsy the practitioner has occasional examples, A beust, 
 apparently well on the preceding day, suddenly exhibits manifest symp- 
 toms of inflammation of the bowels. The disease proceeds in defiansu of 
 ail medical treatment, and in two or three days the patient is lost. On 
 examination after death the traces of inflammation of the peritoneum are 
 sufficiently evident ; there is deposition of flocculent matter ; there are 
 adhesions; but, most important of all, the belly is filled with clear, or 
 turbid, or bloody fluid ; and the death of the animal was as much occasioned 
 by the irritation produced by the pressure of this fluid, and the labour of 
 breathing which it occasioned, as by the previous or still-existing in- 
 flammation. 
 
 Of chronic dropsy, or a slower filling of the belly, he has more frequent 
 proof. The beast increases slowly in size ; it is an enlargement, not of 
 the left side as in hoove, or of the right as in flatulent colic, but of the 
 belly generally, and sometimes almost as slow as in the increase of 
 condition. It evidently is not that, for the limbs are wasting ; or if they 
 occasionally increase in size, it is a puffy oedematous enlargement, 
 and not the honest accumulation of flesh and fat. The animal at the 
 same time is dull ; disinchned to move ; the skin is dryj ihe coat is rough ; 
 the thirst is excessive ; there is alternate constipation and diarrhoea ; the 
 membranes of the mouth and nose are pale, and the conjunctiva is of a faint 
 yellow. By degrees the belly drops, and leaves a considerable hollow at 
 the flanks, and by tapping on the sides the evident fluctuation of water 
 can be perceived. The pressure of the fluid on tlie diaphragm lessens the 
 cavity of the chest, and does not leave sufficient room for the lungs to 
 expand — labour of breathing ensues — it increases ; the animal is not able 
 to stand long, and when he lies down the respiration is so difficult, and 
 the feeling of suffocation is so strong, that he scrambles up again as 
 quickly as his remaining strength will permit, and at length dies either of 
 absolute suffocation, or mere debility. 
 
 The chance of success in the treatment of such a disease must be little. 
 The first object is to relieve the sad oppression under which the animal 
 labours, and that must be effected by puncturing the belly, and suffering 
 the fluid to escape. There is neither art nor danger about the operation. 
 The beast should be tied up cIofc, and a sije line put on;* a puncture 
 should be made with a lancet or trocar under the belly, six or eight inches 
 from the udder, and half as much from the middle line of the belly, and on 
 the right side, — the milk vein an^ the artery which accompanies it being 
 carefully avoided. The opening should not be larger than would admit the 
 little finger ; and if it is made with a trocar, the canula may be left in the 
 wound until the fluid has quite run out 
 
 The wound being thus small there is no need for the often fruitless care 
 to close it again with adhesive plaster when the purpose for which it was 
 made has been effected. There vrill not only be no danger, but manifest 
 advantage, in a small drain of this kind being left open ; for the fluid which 
 
 before it enters the bladder. When the pipe« are too much forced, or stopped by glueish 
 matter, the urine cannot find a free passage, but oozes out, and in time fills th beast's 
 body," — Kmnelmn'i Complete Cow-Leech or Cattle Doctor, p. 65. 
 
 * Many veterinary surgeons prefer to cast the beast ; but rupture of the diaphragm has 
 followed the violent struggle which generally occurs in casting, and especially when 
 there was previously so much pressure on that part by the accumulated fluid, 'inie dis- 
 tress of the dropsical animal is frequently extreme after it is thrown, not only on account 
 uf the respiration being hurried, but the additional pressure on the lungs when the patient 
 is lying down. There is not the supposed danger of wounding the intestines while the 
 animal is standmg, for they are floating loose in the fluid, and recede before the instru- 
 ment ; while there is this advantage in the standing position, that the fluid drains away 
 tu almost the last druy. 
 
DROPSY. 4C8 
 
 may continue to be secreted will dribble away during .two or three days, 
 and thus permit the peritoneal membrane and the abdominal viscera (freed 
 from the oppression around them) to recover their healthy tone : whereas 
 if the wound is immediately closed, the fluid of dropsy will begin at once 
 to accumulate again, and there will be far less chance of effecting perma- 
 nent benefit. The quantity of fluid that is sometimes got rid of by means 
 of this operation is very great. Mr. Wright, of Biirnhain Overy, told the 
 author that he once took away twenty-seven gallons at one time, and ten 
 gallons more from the same cow a little while afterwards. It is by no 
 means uncommon for twenty gallons to escape, and there are records of 
 thirty-two gallons having been drawn at once. There is little chance of 
 peimament cure in cases like these, for there must have been great disease 
 and disorganization in order to produce effusion to this extent, and that 
 disease must have been of long standing, and therefore not easy to be 
 removed. In addition to this, all the viscera of the abdomen must have been 
 debilitated, and have lost their natural tone and function by the continued 
 pressure and maceration. Still a cure is worth attempting, for the prac ■ 
 titioner has done little by the mere temporary relief which the operation 
 has afforded. 
 
 In order to prevent the refilling of the belly two objects must be ac 
 complished, namely, the determination of this fluid to some other part 
 where it shall be regularly discharged, and the restoration of the genera' 
 health of the animal, and, with this, the proper balance between the ex- 
 halent and absorbent vessels. It is therefore usual to give a dose of phy- 
 sic immediately after the operation, that the fluid which might otherwise 
 begin again to fill in the belly may be carried off by the discharge thus 
 established ; the physic is repeated as frequently as the strength of 
 the animal will permit. This is a way of proceeding, however, not very 
 favourable to the re-establishment of health and strength, and therefore 
 greater reliance is placed on a course of diuretic medicine; with which 
 tunics can be combined ; purgative medicine being still occasionally given. 
 Half an ounce of nitre, with a quarter of an ounce each of tartrate of iron, 
 common liquid turpentine, gentian and ginger, may be given daily with 
 great advantage. Bran and malt mashes will be useful at first, and when the 
 beast goes again to grass, care should be taken that the pasture is good, 
 but not too luxuriant or rank. Mr. Tait, of Porisoy, N. B., operated on a 
 cow that was dropsical ; eight gallons of fluid escaped. The cow seemed 
 to be faint when she got up ; and, in general, some weakness and disin- 
 clination to food will remain two or three days after the operation, at- 
 tended at first by considerable heaving, and apparent distress, for it is a 
 great change from the tumid and overloaded belly to the perfectly free and 
 natural state of its contents, and which do not at once accommodate them- 
 selves to that change. He gave her a dose of physic consisting of Epsom 
 salts with ginger, and commenced a course of nitre in doses of half an 
 ounce. The animal became " quite well again." * 
 
 This was a favourable case, and the quantity of fluid evacuated was 
 comparatively small; but the belly so frequently fills again after the lapse 
 of two or three weeks, that it will be prudent to part with a cow that ha? 
 been dropsical as isoon as she can be got into tolerable cc^ditiou, Tlte 
 exhibition of diuretic and tonic medicines will, perhaps, stave off the re- 
 turn of the disease until this can be accomplished; but the organs of dj- 
 geation have been so debilitated, and these exhalent and absorbent vessels 
 have been so habituated to an unnatural action, that a perfect and perma- 
 nent restoration to health can seldom be expected. A second operaticr 
 * Veterinarian, Feb. 1833, p. 78. 
 
 7K 3 
 
£00 CATTLK. 
 
 may be altempteil if the belly has filled again, but the chances of 
 are then most materially diminished. 
 
 There is scarcely a book on cattle medicine in which, if this disease is 
 mentioned at all, there is not strict caution that the beast should not have 
 too much water. This is altogether erroneous. The object to be accom- 
 plished is to restore the animal as nearly as possible to a state of health ; 
 and this can nevei be effected by curtailing the proportion of fluid that 
 is necessary for the maceration and digestion of the food, and the supply 
 of all the secretions. A state of unnatural thirst and fever would, on the 
 contrary, be induced, which would weaken the animal, and dispose it for 
 a recurrence of the disease. 
 
 HERNIA, OR RUPTURE. 
 
 A portion of the intestine occasionally protrudes through the walls of 
 the abdomen. This may be the consequence of external violence, the 
 beast having been gored by one of its companions. The external wound may 
 probably be small, or, in some cases, the skin may not be broken at all, 
 but the internal wall of the belly is injured, and partially or entirely rup- 
 tured. In consequence of this a tumour soon appears, varying in size ac- 
 cording to the extent of the injury. It is a portion of the intestine that is 
 protruding. The enlargement is tender when pressed upon, but it does 
 not seem to interfere with the health of the animal, and a fortnight or 
 three weeks elapse before any serious consequence is observed : at 
 length the tumour begins to increase very rapidly ; the animal expresses 
 considerable pain on being moved, and is only comparatively easy when 
 lying down, and even then it moans occasionally; the breathing is quick- 
 ened; the countenance is anxious; the pulse is quick and small; rumination 
 has stopped, and the usual evacuation of faeces is diminished. It is plainly 
 a protrusion of the bowels, and now attended with some degree of strangu- 
 lation, orpressureof the edges of the wound upon them and thus obstructing 
 the passage of their contents The tumour is generally soft and yielding, 
 and, on pressure, a gurgling noise is heard within it. On inspection of 
 the cut, p. 467, and observation of the loose manner in which the small 
 intestines are attached to the edge of the mesentery, it will be easy to 
 account for the occasional enormous size of the tumour, and the quantity 
 of intestine which is protruded. 
 
 It is rarely possible, by any manipulation (taxis), to return the bowel ; 
 and if it could be returned, it would immediately escape again. It is there- 
 fore loss of time to endeavour thus to treat the case. It would be worse 
 than loss of time, for considerable inflammation may be set up by a 
 long-continued and rough handling of the part. 
 
 The beast must be thrown and held on his back, with the hind parts 
 somewhat elevated. An incision must be made through the skin corre- 
 sponding with the length of the tumour, especial care being taken that 
 the protruded intestine, which will be found immediately underneath, is 
 not wounded. Then, if there is any strangulation of the intestine, which 
 in most cases there will be, the first and second fingers of the lefl hand 
 must be introduced between the bowel and the edge of the wound ; a 
 crooked knife (a bistoury) must next be passed cautiously between the 
 fingers, and the wound enlarged sufficiently to enable the protruded mass 
 to be returned. The bowel having been thus replaced in its natural cavity, 
 t'ne edges of the wound through the walls of the belly must be brought 
 together and retained with stitches, the skin, if necessary, being dissected 
 back a little in order to get at the whole of the wound. Stitches must 
 then be passed through the skin, the divided edges of which should be 
 
HERNIA, OR RUPTURE. 501 
 
 brought together in the same manner. In a few cases it will be praoti- 
 oable, and always advisable when practicable, to include the skin and the 
 muscular wall of the belly in the same stitch. A pledget of fine tow must 
 be placed over the incision, and upon that another pledget smeared with 
 simple ointment. This must be confined by a bandage five or six inches 
 wider than the wound, and which must be passed twice or thrice round 
 the body, firmly sfewed, and, if possible, not removed for ten days. At the 
 expiration of that period the edges will be found to have adhered along 
 the greater part of the incision, the stitches may be withdrawn, and what 
 remains unhealed may be treated as a common wound, Should much 
 (Edematous swelling appear on either side of the bandage, the parts should 
 be well fomented with warm water, or, if requisite, lightly scarified. The 
 beast should be kept on rather short allowance, the food consisting chiefly 
 of mashes, with a little hay or green meat, anil a dose or two of phys.'c 
 should be given during the progress of the cure. 
 
 If the horn should have broken the skin, as well as lacerated the mus- 
 cular part beneath, and the intestine protrudes, it must be cleared fronr. 
 any dirt or extraneous matter about it, then carefully returned, and the 
 wound closed and the bandage applied as already directed. 
 
 The author has not only seen a considerable portion of bowel protruding, 
 but the bowel itself torn. Even then he has not despaired, for the heal- 
 ing power in these animals is such as the human surgeon would scarcely 
 deem possible. The rent of the intestine may be closed by a stitch or two, 
 with well-founded hope of the edges uniting, and the intestinal canal 
 becoming perfect and whole.* 
 
 Calves are occasionally dropped with ruptures They principally occur 
 along the middle line of the belly, and not far from the navel. It is usually 
 a protrusion of a portion of the omentum or caul ; but in a few instances 
 one or two small convolutions of the intestines have been involved. The 
 principal danger is that the rumen, when unnaturally distended by food 
 or gas, may press upon and injure the portion of caul or intestine imme- 
 diately within the abdomen, and turning over the edge of the opening. 
 
 * Dr. Cheselden relates a very extraordinary case of this healing power, and does not 
 forbid hope, although the intestines may have been injured to a very great extent. "An 
 ox," he says, " was suffering under constipation of the bowels. Thomas Brayer, a doctor 
 for cattle, opened the ox in the flank, and took out great part of his bowels j upon 
 searching which he found there was a perfect stoppage in the guts, and the gut was, 
 about the stoppage, putrified for three quarters of a yard j whereupon he cut off so much 
 of the gut as was putrified, and took it quite away, and then drew the ends of the guts 
 which remained sound, after what was cut off, together upon a hollow keck, which was 
 about three or tour inches long, and sewed the said ends of the guts together upon the 
 said keck, leaving the keck within the guts, and then sewed up the hole cut in the liide 
 upon the flank of the said ox. Within the space of one hour after tiiis operation was 
 performed, the ox dunged, and the piece of the keck whicji the said ends of the gut were 
 sewn upon, came away from the ox with the dung, whereupon the ox recovered, and lived 
 to do the owner service several years." 
 
 Mr. Thomson, of Beith, relates a similar case in the pig. He was castrating one, and 
 he says, " having laid the animal on a table, and while I was in the act of cutting 
 through the peritoneum one of the assistants lost his hold'; the pig sprung up, and the 
 scalpel was plunged deep into the belly. I proceeded to extract the testicles, but saw 
 that some of the intestines were wounded, as faeces were escaping from the opening is 
 the side. The greater part of the small intestines had to be drawn out through the opening 
 before the injury could lie discovered. The knife had entered deep among the convolu- 
 tions of the ileum, and divided one of the guts almost through, and it had also made a 
 considerable wimnd in the mesentery. A fine needle and thread were immediately pro- 
 Tured ; the gut and mesentery were nicely adjusted and sewn together, and returned int* 
 the belly ; the side was secured by stitches, and the pig was liberated. 1 had not much 
 hope of success in this case, but the healing power in the swine appears to be strong, fnt 
 in two days afterwards little appeared to be the matter, and the animal soon completely 
 ■ecoveied." — felerinarian, March, 1834, p. 149. 
 
502 CATTLE. 
 
 Any serious operation with a -view to the reduction of the rupture would 
 Bcarcely be advisable, but it would be prudent to fatten and dispose of the 
 animal as soon as convenient. 
 
 Bull calves are sometimes born with rupture in the groin. The opening 
 through which the testicle afterwards descends into the bag is lax, and 
 yields to slight pressure, and in the motions of the foetus in the womb a 
 small convolution of the intestine slips down. This sometimes continues 
 of nearly its original size for several months: in some cases it is gradually- 
 retracted and disappears ; in others it increases in volume with greater or 
 less rapidity. A remedy is often to be found for this as soon as the testicles 
 descend into the bag; and at which time, if the hernia will ever be serious, 
 it begins to increase or to be strangulated — the beast should be castrated. 
 
 After the animal is thrown and properly confined, the protruded intestine 
 should be gently and carefully pushed up through the ring or opening, the 
 testicle being somewhat drawn out, in order to render this more practi- 
 cablej Continued and gentle pressure applied ou the sides of the tumour 
 will more faciUtate this than the application of the greatest force. The 
 intestine having been returned, the finger of an assistant is placed at the 
 opening, and the operator proceeds to cut into the scrotum as quickly as 
 he can, and to denude the testjcle, to apply the clams, (which will be here- 
 after described,) and to divide the cord. The clams will form a temporary 
 and effectual support ; and by the following day, when it is usual to re- 
 move the clams, a degree of inflammation and engorgement of the parts 
 will have been set up, that will either obliterate the ring, or so far contraci 
 it, that it will be impossible for the gut afterwards to descend. 
 
 There is one circumstance to which the practitioner should most care- 
 fully attend. The protruded intestine always carries with it a portion of 
 peritoneum — it i^ contained in a bag formed by the investing membrane of 
 the bowels. The whole of this bag may not have been returned when the 
 intestine is pushed up ; the operator must ascertain this, and by no means 
 open any part of the peritoneal covering that may remain. 
 
 Castration will usually remove this hernia and all its unpleasant or 
 dangerous consequences, and the beast will be as valuable for grazing and 
 for working as if nothing had occurred. 
 
 In a few cases, however, the hernia will be strangulated. So great a por- 
 tion of intestine, or of faecal matter in that intestine, will have descended, 
 that the operator cannot return it through the abdominal ring. Even the 
 somewhat desperate expedient of introducing the hand into the rectum, 
 and endeavouring to find out the portion of intestine connected with that 
 which has descended, and forcibly retract it, may fail : a different kind of 
 operalion must then be attempted, and which a skilful veterinarian alone 
 can perform. 
 
 A species of rupture, very difficult to be treated, has occurred to cows 
 in an advanced period of pregnancy. An excessive accumulation of 
 fluid has taken place in the womb, or calf-bed, and the tendinous expan- 
 sion of the muscles which support the lower part of the belly has given 
 way. The farmer says, that " the rim of the cow's belly is ruptured." A 
 portion of the womb escapes through the opening, and descends into the 
 groin, or seems to occupy the udder. Mr. AUinson, of Idle, relates a 
 case,* in which the head of a calf had been forced down into the groin. 
 The calf was extracted with no great difficulty, but the bowels then 
 descended through the rupture into the place that had been occupied by 
 the fxtus, and the animal was irrecoverably lost. 
 
 Thare is one more species of rupture to which cattle are subject, and 
 ' Veterinarian, October, 1831, p. &.'>3. 
 
I J.±i^ R^M.M^^' 
 
 ^EYS. 608 
 
 the existence of which cannot always be ascertained during life, namely, 
 that of the diaphragm, or midriff. In distension of the rumen there ia 
 always great pressure against the midriff. This is increased when severe 
 zolicky pains come on, and especially when improper means have been re- 
 ported to, such as strong stimulating drinks, or rude exercise, or when the 
 animal, in a state of half-unconsciousness, has violently beaten Himself 
 about. The midriff has then given way, and a portion of the intestine, or 
 of one of the stomachs, or of the omentum or caul, or of the liver, has been 
 forced into the cavity of the chest. This may be suspected when, after 
 the usual symptoms of hoove or colic, great difficulty of breathing suddenly 
 comes on, and is evidently attended by excessive pain — when the animal is 
 every moment looking at her side, and especially at the left side — when 
 she shrinks, and bows herself up as if the muscles of the belly were vio- 
 lently cramped — and when she stiffens all over, and then suddenly falls 
 and dies in convulsions. 
 
 Examination after death has sometimes displayed chfonic rupture of 
 this kind. The attack has been as sudden, but the colicky pains have not 
 been so violent ; they have intermitted—^disappeared ; but an habitual 
 difficulty of breathing has been left behind — disinclination to rapid motion — 
 fright when suddenly moved — anxiety of countenance — perhaps impairment 
 of condition — and certainly impossibility of acquiring any considerable de- 
 gree of condition. This has continued during several months, until the 
 animal has been destroyed, or has died from some cause unconnected with 
 these symptoms; and then an old rupture of the diaphragm has been dis- 
 covered, the edges of which had been completely healed, and the second 
 stomach, or the liver, had been firmly placed against the opening, and had 
 occupied it, and in a slight degree projected inio the thorax. No medical 
 treatment or operation could be of the slightest service in this case. 
 
 Chaptek XV. 
 THE URINARY ORGANS AND THKIR DISEASES. 
 
 THE KIDNEYS. 
 
 The blood contains much watery fluid, which, after it has answered cer- 
 tain purposes connected with digestion, or the various secretions, is sepa- 
 rated and carried out of the frame. The kidneys are the main instruments 
 by which this is effected ; and they are often called into increased action in 
 order to compensate for the deficiencies of other parts. When the usual 
 discharge of perspiration from the skin is suspended, the kidney takes on 
 increased activity ; and when fluids are accumulating in the frame gene- 
 rally, or in particular parts, they escape by means of these organs. Also 
 other substances, the accumulation or the continuance of which in the 
 frame would be injurious, are got rid of by means of the kidneys. The 
 essential principle of the urine (the urea) is one that would be noxious, or 
 perhaps destructive. 
 
 The kidneys are two glandular substances attached on either side to the 
 Bpine beneath the muscles of the loins. They are not, however, exactly 
 opposite to each other, but the left kidney is pushed somewhat backward 
 by the great development of the rumen. A very large artery runs to each. 
 The quantity of blood which that vessel carries shows the importance of 
 the kidneys, and well accounts for the inflammation and other diseases to 
 which they are occasionally subject. These arteries divide into innume- 
 rable little branches, coiled upon and communicating with each other in a 
 tingular manner ; and the blood, traversing all these convolutions, has its 
 
504 CATTLE. 
 
 watery and noxious insrredients separated hi the form of urine, which is 
 carried on to the bladder, «rhiie the portion that remains is returned to t 
 circulation by means of the veins, which bear a proportionate size to that 
 of the arteries. 
 
 As the process of dig^estion is so much more perfectly performed in cattle 
 than in the horse, and all the nutritive, and some perhaps of the noxious 
 matter which the food contains, is taken up and received into the circula- 
 tion, the kidneys have more to do in order to complete this process of 
 separation ; they are therefore of considerably greater size in catUe than in 
 the horse ; they are more complicated in their appearance ; they present 
 an assemblage of different lobes or lobules, separated by deep scissures ; 
 there are additional provisions made for their security — they are deeply 
 embedded in a covering of fat, and there is another accumulation of fat 
 surrounding and defending the different vessels that are received or given 
 off. The bulk of the rumen, and the danger of occasional pressure from 
 it, may in some degree account for these provisions of safety; but a more 
 satisfactory reason is to be found in the greater extent and importance of 
 the function which these organs in cattle have to discharge. 
 
 RED-WATER. 
 
 Although the destructive stimuli, which, under the form of unwholesomo 
 food, or diuretic medicine, are so oflen applied to the kidneys of the horse 
 are rarely used in the general management of cattle, or in the treatment of 
 their diseases, these organs are, from the natural extent and importance of 
 their function, much more liable to inflammation than the kidneys of the 
 horse. The disease, termed red-water from the colour of the urine, is 
 one of the most frequent and untractable maladies of cattle. It may 
 be conveniently divided into acute and chronic; in fact, two diseases 
 essentially different in their symptoms, demanding different treatment, and 
 referrible to different organs, have been confounded under this name. 
 
 A cow, in somewhat too high condition, and in whom the prudent pre- 
 cautions of bleeding or physicking had been omitted, frequently, a week or 
 two before the time of calving, suddenly exhibits symptoms of fever ; she 
 heaves at the flank ; she ceases to ruminate, and evidently suffers much 
 pain; her back is bowed; she is straining in order to evacuate her urine, 
 and that is small in quantity, expelled with force, highly tinged with blood, 
 and sometimes consisting of almost pure blood.* 
 
 At other times, a few days after calving, when she had not cleansed 
 well, or was in too good condition, and had not had that dose of purgative 
 medicine which should always follow parturition, she suddenly manifests 
 the same symptoms of illness, speedily succeeded by a similar discharge of 
 bloody urtne. 
 
 The nature and cause of the disease are here evident enough. During 
 the period of pregnancy there had been considerable determination of 
 blood to the womb. A degree of susceptibility, a tendency to inflamma- 
 tory action had been set up, and this had been increased as the period of 
 parturition had approached, and was aggravated by the state and general 
 fulness of blood to which she had incautiously been raised. The neigh 
 bouring organs necessan'^y participated in this, and the kidneys, to which so 
 much blood is sent for the proper discharge of their function, either qvickly 
 hared in the inflammation of the womb, or first took on inflammation, 
 and suffered most by means of it. 
 
 * Mr. Stony, speaking of the force with which it is expelled, says, that he has sometimei 
 found the neck of 'be bladder so contracted that he was compelled to use a catheter. 
 
RED-WATER. 505 
 
 In other cases there is not this additional local determination, an over- 
 driven bullock is seized with acute inflammation of the kidneys ; another 
 that has been shifted from poor to luxuriant pasture is soon observed 
 to have red-water.* There are some seasons when it is in a manner 
 epidemic, when a great proportion of the beasts in a certain district are 
 attacked by it, and many of them die. Atmospheric influence has not been 
 taken sufficiently into the account in the consideration of this and almost 
 every other disease. It is seldom that one dairy is attacked by red-water 
 without many or most of the neiajhbouring: ones being annoyed by it, and 
 especially if the soil and the productions of the soil are similar; and even 
 cattle in the straw-yard have not then quite escaped. It is more prevalent 
 in the spring and autumn than in the winter, and more in the winter than 
 in the summer: it is particularly prevalent when, in either the spring or 
 the fall of the year, warm days succeed to cold nights and a heavy dew. It 
 is peculiar to certain pastures : the farmer scarcely dares to turn even the 
 cattle of the country upon some of them ; and a beast brought from a 
 distant farm or market is sure to be attacked. It oflenest occurs in 
 woody districts, and particularly in low marshy lands ; but in them there 
 are exceptions, which, in the present state of the botanical knowledge of 
 the farmer and the veterinarian cannot be satisfactorily accounted for. 
 A wall or a hedge may divide a perfectly safe pasture from another which 
 gives the red-water to every beast that is turned upon it. One farmer 
 scarcely knows what the disease is except by name, while on the grounds 
 of his neighbour it destroys many a beast every year. The same pasture 
 is safe at one time of the year and dangerous and destructive at another. 
 The fields surrounded by copses may be stocked with impunity, or advan- 
 tage, in summer or winter; but the farmer must beware of them when the 
 buds are shooting or the leaves are falling. 
 
 The result of general -Jence is, that it has more to do with the 
 
 nature of the food than with any other cause; and the production, or the 
 unusual growth of astringent and acrimonious plants may have considerable 
 influence here. The different species of crowfoot, or ranunculus, and also 
 the anemones, and particularly the white-wood {anemone nemorosa) and 
 the yellow-wood {anemone ranunculoides) have been accused as the most 
 frequent causes of this disease ; but instinct will generally warn the animal 
 to avoid sources of evil so palpable as these ; and the malady may with 
 mttr«\piiDbability be trac< to the quality of the general produce of the 
 soil than to the prevalence of certain plants of known acrimonious or 
 poisonous properties. 
 
 This noxious quality may be communicated by excess or deprivation of 
 moisture. There is no farmer who is not aware of the injurious effect of 
 the coarse rank herbage of low, and marshy, and woody countries, and 
 he regards such districts as the chosen residence of red-water. 
 
 Mr. Ford, in a letter with which the author was favoured from him, 
 says, that " red-water was very prevalent in the neighbourhood of Etruria, 
 in Staffordshire, about twenty years ago before the wet lands were drained. 
 In a dairy of twenty or thirty cows, two-thirds of the number were afflicted 
 with this disease annually, but since the draining'not more than one or two 
 annually have been attacked by it. The fair inference is, that swampy 
 land is one cause of the disease, whether from the insalubrity of the 
 atmosphere occasioned by the stagnant water, or from the coarse 
 aquatic herbage with which such land abounds." On the other hand, 
 
 * A dairj' 1^ mv nen^hbonihood was once removed fiom a farm on a flinty soil, to oua 
 on a strong clay, and every one of them, consisting of seventeen, were affected. Thtae 
 of their died, although they had been charmed. — Letter from Mr. Nohbi, 
 
SOS CATILK. 
 
 Mr. Hanison, of Lancaster, says * that in " ihe land situated east 
 and south-east of that town, a lofty and wild region, and where, in 
 hot and dry summers, water can rarely, if at all, be procured by the 
 parched animals thereon, red-water rages like an epidemic, annually 
 attacking all ages, and numbers falling victims to it, while in the sur- 
 rounding valleys a case very rarely occurs." He adds, " I have known 
 red-water make its appearance as an epidemic upon farms where it had 
 hitherto remained unknown except by name, and which could be traced to 
 no other apparent cause than an excess of draining, by which process the 
 natural and artificial grasses had become altered in quality and quantity." 
 
 The farmer must carefully observe the eflFect of the different parts of his 
 farm in the production of this disease, and observation and thought may 
 suggest to him that alteration of draining or manuring, or other manage- 
 ment which may to a considerable degree remedy the evil. 
 
 Acute Red-water is ushered in by a discharge of bloody urine, and is 
 generally preceded by dysentery, suddenly changing to obstinate costive- 
 ness ; and as soon as the costiveness is established the red-water appears. 
 There is laborious breathing, coldness of the extremities, ears and horns, 
 heat of the mouth, tenderness of the loins, and every indication of fever : 
 it often runs its course with fearful rapidity, and the animal is sometimes 
 destroyed in a very few days. 
 
 When the carcase is examined there is generally found some inflam- 
 mation of the kidney, enlargement of it, turgescence of its vessels, yet very 
 rarely any considerable disorganization, and certainly not so much affec- 
 tion of it as would be expected ; but in cows the uterus exhibits much 
 greater inflammation; there is oflen ulceration, the formation of fcetid pus 
 and occasionally gangrene ; there is also peritoneal inflammation, exten- 
 sive, intense, with adhesions and effusions, while the lining membrane of 
 the bowels rarely escapes inflammation and ulceration. 
 
 There can be little doubt about the treatment of such a disease. There 
 has either been an undue quantity of blood determined to the kidneys with 
 much local inflammation and before the pressure of which the Tessels of that 
 organ have given way, or so much blood has been always traversing the 
 kidney, that there is a facility in setting up inflammation there. Bleeding 
 will be the first step indicated. The first bleeding should be a copious one; 
 but the repetition of it will depend upon circumstances. The hsemorrhage, 
 or bleeding, is clearly active. It is produced by some irritation of the part : 
 its colour shows that it proceeds from the minute arterial or capillary 
 vessels. When bloody urine flows fVom the kidney, that organ is givmg 
 way under an increased discharge of its natural function, and that func- 
 tion is increased in order to compensate for the suspended one of anothei 
 part, namely, the natural action of the bowels. Three objects will be 
 accomplished by venesection: the first, a diminution of thegenera'i auari 
 tity of blood ; the second — a consequence of the first — the lemovai o 
 congestion in the part ; and the third is the giving a different direction U 
 the current of blood. 
 
 Purgatives should follow with a view more quickly and elfectually to 
 accomplish all these objects ; and from the recollection of a circumstance 
 most important to the practitioner, that red-water closely followed the esta- 
 blishment of constipation. A pound of Epsom salts should be imme 
 diately exhibited, and half-pound doses every eight hours afterwards, until 
 th^ bowels are thoroughly acted upon. 
 
 There is too frequently great difficulty in purging cattle when labouring 
 ander red-water : dose after dose may be administered for three or four 
 • Veterinarian May, 1833, p. 244. 
 
RED-WATER. 507 
 
 days, an! yet the bowels will remain obstinately constipated. 'Either there 
 is a strange indisposition in them to be acted upon, or. the rumen sympa- 
 thising with the derangement of other organs, the muscular pillars of its root 
 yield to the weight of the fluid, whether hastily or cautiously administered, 
 and the medicine enters that stomach, aud is retained there, until the 
 beast is lost. The physic must be repeated again and again ; it must 
 gently trickle down the gullet, so that it shall fall on the roof of the paunch 
 with as little force as possible ; and, after the second day, in spite of the 
 fever, unusual doses of aromatics must mingle with it, that the rumen, 
 or the intestines, or both, may be stimulated to action. In the majority 
 of cases, and especially before the strength of the animal becomes exhausted, 
 the commencement of purging will be the signal of recovery. 
 
 It, nevertheless, too often happens that the constipated state of the 
 bowels cannot be overcome, bnt the anitiial becomes rapidly weaker, while 
 the blood assumes a darker, and sometimes a purple or even a black 
 colour. The danger is now increased, and, probably, death is not far dis- 
 tant. In many cases, however, the beast not being too much exhausted, 
 the dark and coffee-coloured urine is a favourable symptom, especially if it 
 is discharged in evidently larger quantities and not so frequently. 
 
 The appearance of the darker fluid, and even the continuance of the 
 florid red urine, when the fever has subsided to a considerable degree, will 
 indicate a different mode of treatment. The haemorrhage will have 
 become passive. The blood will flow because the vessels have lost their 
 power of contracting on their contents. It has then been usual to give 
 astringents ; but this is dangerous practice, for the constipation, which is 
 the worst symptom of the disease, aud which immediately preceded the 
 red-water, and was, probably, the exciting cause of it, may be confirmed 
 or recalled. Stimulants, and those w.liich act upon the kidney, will be 
 most likely to have beneficial effect. The common turpentine, the balsam 
 of copaiba, or even spirit of turpentine, especially if it is guarded by the 
 addition of a few drachms of laudanum, may be given with advantage. 
 The weakened vessels of the kidney may occasionally be roused to close 
 on their contents, and the haemorrhage may be arrested : but the author 
 cannot agree with some of his correspondents, who say that it can easily 
 be cured by almost any diuretic* 
 
 * A remedy of much repute in the neighbourhood of Cheater is a very simple and a 
 very ridiculous cue. A handful of salt and a handful of oatmeal are fried in a pan 
 until black, and given in a quart of cold buttermilk, the beast being kept without food 
 a little vrhile before. " This," say the credulous, " given once or twice will remove the 
 complaint, if not tea long neglected!' There is always some salvo of this kind ittending 
 the exhibition of these wonder-working medicines. A friend of the author's was standmg 
 by when Webb's infallible medicine for the cure of rabies was given to a dog. The 
 animal died about the usual time, and the fellow was reproved on account of the 
 inefEcacy Of his nostrum : " Oh," replied he, " my medicine got all the madness out of 
 him, you may depend upon it ; but you did not support him, and of course he died." 
 
 Captain J. Henderson, in his " Survey of Caithness," gravely tells his readers, that when 
 the Highlanders find a beast troubled with red-water, they search either for a trout or a 
 frog, and put it alive down the animal's throat; while others give warm milk as a specific. 
 In Inverness, cold water poured down the throat was formerly esteemed a sovereign 
 remedy ; or a decoction of nettles with a handful of salt. 
 
 In Dumbarton it is cured by water in which a portion of earth has been infused, with 
 a few leaves of ash or alder. 
 
 In Roxburghshire a handful of salt was mixed with a pint of the beast's own blood as 
 't caine warm from the vein, and this was poured down his throat. 
 
 In some districts of Ireland a very successful preventive was used : the beast was daily 
 drenched with water, thickened with clay, untilp it became accustomed to the pasture. 
 
 Some, of the farmers in Norfolk used to give a quart of churned milk, and a handful of 
 sail. Others gave a quart of round coal lednced to powder, or a quart of coal ashes min- 
 gled with a quart of spring water, and this was deemed to be infallible. 
 
508 CATTLE. 
 
 Chronic red-water is more prevalent than that which is acute, anci, 
 in its first stage, is far more a disease ol the dig^esiive organs, and 
 especially of the liver than of the kidney. The urine is observed to be of a 
 brown colour, ,or brown tinged with yellow ; fhe beast feeds nearly" as we!) 
 as before, but ruminates rather more lazily. In a few days a natural 
 diarrhoea oomes on, and the animal is well at once; or a purgative drink 
 is administered, and a cure is presently effected. This occurs frequently 
 in cows of weak constitution and in calves. 
 
 At other times there is manifest indisposition : the animal is dull, 
 heavy, languid — the ears droop — the back is bowed — she separates from 
 the herd — she refuses her food — she ceases to ruminate. Presently she 
 gets better— she rejoins her companions ; but this is only for a little 
 while.* The urine, which at first was brown, with a tinge of yellow, 
 hag now red mingling with the brown, or it is of the colour of porltr. I* 
 is increased in quantity — it is discharged sometimes with ease, at othei 
 times with considerable straining — in little jets, and with additional bow- 
 ing of the back. The milk diminishes — it acquires a slight tinge of yellow 
 or brown — the taste becomes unpleasant — it spoils all that it is mingled 
 with. The pulse is accelerated — it reaches to 60 or 70. If blood is drawn, 
 the serum which separates from it is brown. The .skin is yellow, but of a 
 darker yellow than in jaundice — it has a tinge of brown. The conjunctiva is 
 also yellow, inclining to brown. The urine becomes of a darker hue — it is 
 almost black. The animal usually shrinks when the loins are pressed upon ; 
 occasionally there is much tenderness, but oflener the beast scarcely 
 shrinks more than he is accustomed to do when labouring under almost 
 every disease. The belly is not so much tucked up as drawn together at 
 the sides. There is considerable loss of condition — the legs and ears get 
 cold — the animal is less inclined to move — there is evident and general de- 
 bility. In every stage there is costiveness, and that exceedingly difficult to 
 overcome, but, on close inquiry, it.is ascertained that there was diarrhoea at 
 the beginning, and which was violent and foetid, and which sudden ly stopped. 
 
 Mr. Dickens, of Kimbolton, says, that " a few years back there was a gentleman living 
 in Huntingdonshire who was very celebrated for the cure of red-water, and his son, a 
 most respectable farmer, tells me the fuUowing was his never-failing recipe : Bol. arme- 
 nian Jii. a handful of salt, and a strong decoction from the common nettle ; of this he 
 made a drink which he used to sell for 2s. %d." 
 
 Mr. T. Browne, of Hinckley,8ays, that red-water is not very common in his neighbour- 
 hood ; and that he knows but of one farm that is subject to it : this farm lies in a low 
 damf situation, and the farmer'cures it by the administration of brandy. 
 
 Mr. Furd, speaking of the treatment of red-water in the neighbourhood of Ktruria) 
 says, that -' some use astringents, as rock alum,' tincture of cantharides, and the juice of 
 nettles ; some give writing paper boiled to pieces in skimmed milk ; while others give 
 Kpsom or Glauiier's salts, or common kitchen salt, in order to counteract the tendency to 
 constipation, and leave ihe disease itself to the effort of nature, which usually stops the 
 blood after a greater or less degree of exhaustion." 
 
 In a book which is found on the shelves of many agriculturists, and a very useful one 
 so far as the general treatment of cattle is concerned, the following remedy for red-water 
 stands recorded : " Take two or three handfuls of stinging nettles, and boil or stew them 
 slowly in three quarts of water until reduced to one quart ; when cool, give it to the beast. 
 Then having reaiiy a pint of common salt, jmt it into a quart bottle filled up with chambei 
 lye ; shake it well until the salt be dissolved, and immediately give it to the beast. This 
 remedy I believe to be infallible, and my success in this disorder has led me to many 
 other discoveries. It is a duubt with me whether the nettles have anything to do with 
 the cure, as I have known this disease cured with buttermilk and pig's dung, and a frog 
 with a large quantity of cold spring water ; hut I have known each of these remedies 
 to fail ; the former prescription never." — Parkinson's Treatise on Live Steak, vol. i. p. 243. 
 But enough of this absurdity ! 
 
 * The author, however, has one case strong in his recollection, in which there was s 
 re$pite of several months, and that repeated three times, bjt every cow ii tlie dairy at 
 length perished. 
 
RKnWATER. 5U9 
 
 F.xnmination after death shows the skin ami ihe cellular mefri(>rane 
 underneath to be of a dark yellow ; the fat about the belly is of the same 
 hue, or perhaps of a lighter tinge. The first and second stomachs are 
 full . ti.ere is no fermentation and little gas, or sour smell. The manyplus 
 is perfectly dry — baking could hardly add to the hardness — were it not for 
 its wein-ht it might be kicked about as a football. The leaves of the many- 
 plus cling to the food contained between them : the papillae leave their evi- 
 dent indentations on the hardened mass, and that mass cannot be detached 
 without considerable portions of the cuticle clinging to it. The fourth 
 stomach is empty, and the lining membrane covered with brown mucus, 
 exhibiting patches of inflammation underneath. The intestines are rarely 
 inflamed. There is no fluid in the belly, nor inflammation of its lining 
 membrane. The kidney is of a yellow-brown colour, and sometimes a 
 little enlarged, but therein rardy inflammation or disease about it. Drops 
 of dark and brown-coloured urine may be pressed from it. The lungs 
 display no mark of dangerous disease, but they too have a yellow hiie- 
 The fluid in the bag of the heart is yellow. 'I'he chyle, which is travers. 
 ing the lacteal vessels, is yellow too, and there is the same discolouration of 
 the fluids everywhere. 
 
 The liver is evidently oj" a darker colour; it is enlarged, generally 
 inflamed, sometimes rotten, aiidfllled wi.th black blood. Ttie gall-bladder 
 is full, almost to distension. The bile is thick and black : it looks more 
 like lamp-black mixed with oil, than like healthy bile. 
 
 All these appearances lead to the necessary conclusion that this is far 
 more a disease of the digestive organs than of the kidney ; in fact, that it 
 is not primarily an affection of the kidney. It is diseiase of the liver, 
 either consisting in inflammation of that organ, accompanied by increased 
 secretion of bile, or a change in the quality of the bile. In consequence 
 of this the whole circulatory fluid becomes tinged with the colour of the 
 bile, and which is shown in the hue of the skin generally, and in Ihe colour 
 of the blood, and particularly in the change that takes piace in that blood 
 when drawn from the vein. 
 
 The fl\iid discharged from the kidneys participates in the general 
 change ; it becomes yellow — yellow-brown — brown. The change is most 
 evident here, because so great a quantity of blood, in proportion to the 
 size of the organ, circulates through the kidneys ; and more particularly 
 it is evident here, because it is the office or duty of the kidneys to separate 
 from the. blood, and to expel from the circulation, that which is foreign to 
 the blood, or would be injurious to the animal. 
 
 The bile, however, possesses an acrid principle to a considerable degree. 
 While it is an excrementitious substance that must be got rid of, it stimu- 
 lates the intestinal canal as it passes along in order to be discharged ; it 
 particularly does so when it is secreted in undue quantities, or when its 
 quality is altered. There is abundant proof of this in the bilious irritation 
 and diarrhoea which cattle so frequently exhibit. The kidney, at length, is 
 evidently irritated l)y the continued presence of this diseased fluid : it be 
 comes inflamed, its minute vessels are ruptured, and a red hue begins to 
 mingle with the brown. There is found discolouration and increased size 
 of the kidney, and pain in the region of that organ ; this, however, is rarely 
 carried to any considerable extent, and the seat and principal ravages of 
 disease are to ^ clearly traced to a different part, namely, the liver. 
 
 It is with peculiar pleasure that the author refers to the opinion of Mr. 
 Harrison : * " That chronic indigestion in cattle is a principal cause o( 
 most diseases to which they are incident, has long been observed by me. 
 * Veterinarian, May, 1833. p. 244. 
 
S»0 CATTLE. 
 
 Hieinaturia, (red- water,) I am pertectly convinced, owes its ongin to 
 it, at least in the generality of cases ; and I feel quite assured that the 
 discoloration of urine is entirely referrible to that cause, and not to 
 any nephritic affection, as is too generally, and oftentimes fatally sup- 
 posed. ' 
 
 Mr. Friend is much of the same opinion. " This disease appears to be 
 one brought on also by indigestion. There are certain pastures which 
 seem peculiarly to produce it, and certain seasons which seem equally to 
 predispose towards it. Where the facts of the case can be got at, it is 
 generally found that the mucous membrane of the intestines is first af- 
 fected, producing diarrhoea; ttiough this always extends as the disease pro- 
 ceeds to the peritoneal coat, and probably to the whole substance of the 
 intestines, and the most obstinate costiveness is the result." * 
 
 It is evident, then, that ticute and chronic red-water, as the author of this 
 treatise has termed them, for he did not, in the present state of our 
 knowledge of cattle medicine, dare to deviate too far from the usual ar- 
 rangement and designation of disease,) are essentially different maladies : 
 they belong to different organs — they are characterised by different symp- 
 toms — they require different treatment. The first is inflammation of the 
 kidney ; it is characterised by the evident pain and fever, and by the red 
 and bloody urine which accompanies it in an early stage ; it requires the 
 most active treatment, and it speedily runs its course. The second is in- 
 flammation of, or altered secretion frorji, the liver ; not often accompanied 
 in its early stage by pain or fever; characterised by the dark' brown 
 colour of vitiated bile, and more slowly, but as fatally, undermining- the 
 strength of the constitution. 
 
 As to the first step in the treatment of chronic red-water, there is a 
 difference of opinion among veterinary surgeons ; many strongly recom- 
 mend bleeding, and others as strenuously deprecate it. The truth is, that 
 the propriety of bleeding depends on the condition of the beast, and the 
 degree of fever. An animal in high or in fair condition can never be hurt 
 by one bleeding ; while, on the contrary, lurking, deceptive, fatal febrile 
 action may be subdued. If there is the slightest degree of actual fever, 
 nothing can excuse the neglect of bleeding. The quantity taken, or the 
 repetition of the abstraction of blood, must be left to the judgment of the 
 practitioner. 
 
 On the next step there is not a difference of opinion among well-iji- 
 formed men. The animal must be well purged if he is in a constipated 
 state ; or if there is already a discharge of glairy faecal matter, the character 
 of that must be changed by a purgative. There has been dispute, and 
 more than there needed to be, as to the nature of the purgative. That is 
 the best whose effects are most speedily and certainly produced, and there 
 is no drug more to be depended upon in both these respects than the 
 Epsom salts. It may be alternated with Glauber's salts, or common salt, 
 or an aperient of a different character, sulphur, may be added to it. Much 
 good effect is often produced by this mixture of aperients. Mr. Friend is 
 a strenuous advocate of sulphur combined with Epsom salts ; and, ^s 
 there is either so much real costiveness — indisposition to be acted upon 
 •Dy purgativfe medicine — or so much relaxation of the floor of the oesopha- 
 gean canal that the medicine falls into the rumen instead of going to 
 its proper destination, and as the establishment of purgation seems to 
 have so uniform and beneficial an effect in relieving the disease, the medi- 
 cine that is adopted should be given in a full dose. It should consist a. 
 
 • \eterinarian, June, 1833, p. 299. 
 
RED- WATER. 611 
 
 at least a pound of Epsom salts, and half a pound of sulphur, and this 
 should be repeated in doses consistino; of half the quantity of each, until 
 the constipation is decidedly overcome. 
 
 It is imperatively necessary that the practitioner should have made u|> 
 his mind as to the real nature of the disease ; for although he mie^ht, in 
 inflammation of the kidney, fear to weaken by active purgation an animal 
 that vras likely to be speedily debilitated by excessive loss of blood, (yet 
 that f«ar would generally be destitute of all reasonable foundation,) and 
 would be tempted to try whether the hemorrhage might not be arrested 
 by astringents or stimulants, it would scarcely need a moment's reflection 
 to convince him that he must check this excesshre discharge of vitiated 
 bile, or divert it from that organ which is chiefly suffering under its influ- 
 ence. Most of all he would be convinced, that he must restore the liver 
 to a healthy discharge of its natural functions ; and that he can best accom- 
 plish these purposes by freely opening the bowels, and in fact by no othe' 
 means accomplish them. Stimulants would be dangerous, and astringent 
 medicine would be actual poison in this disease.** 
 
 It will not be forgotten that the precautions already recommended 
 should be carefully observed, in order to give the physic the best chance of 
 passing into the bowels; that the patent pump should be in frequent requi- 
 sition for the administration of clysters ; and that when purging is once 
 induced, a lax state of the bowels should be kept up by means of the f-e- 
 quent repetition of smaller doses of the medicine. The diet should con- 
 sist principally of mashes, gruel, linseed tea, fresh cut young grass, 
 young and fresh vetches, and a few carrots. The conclusion of the 
 treatment will be best given, in the language of Mr. Friend : " I gene- 
 rally find it necessary to administer the Epsom salts in doses of four or 
 six ounces, as an alterative, for a few days afterwards ; to which, if there 
 exists any debility, I add two drachms of the calumba powder, (gentian 
 has better effect,) and one drachm of ginger. "t 
 
 * Mr, Friend relates an anecdote that well illustrates this : " Sir," said a farmer once 
 to him, (alluding to his having lost a beast with this disease,) " the farrier cured the beast 
 of his staling blood well enough, but somehow his drinks dried his body up, and killfd 
 }um."—Feterinarian, June, 1.833, p. 299. 
 
 f. Veterinarian, May, 1833, p. 245. The Highland Society of Scotland oiFered in 1 830 
 a gold medal, or ten sovereigns, fur the best' essay on the causes, prevention, and cure uf 
 red-water. There were seven comjietiturii, whose essays were published in the " Quarterly 
 Journal of Agriculture," for May, 1831. The history of this prevalent and fatal disease 
 cannot, perhaps, be better concluded than by a condensation of the sulistance of these 
 papers. At that period they were the only publications uf the slightest value on this im 
 portant subject, and some of them reflect a high degree uf civdit on the authors. 
 
 One competitor was a fanner ; and althuugh there are very strange notions of this 
 disease prevalent among agriculturists, yet the opinion of a sensible practical man is 
 always valuable. Mr. W. A. Slakes, of Ardifihy, Aberdeenshire, states, that coirs after 
 calving, and calves after the milk is taken from them, are most liable to red-water ; that 
 it is most prevalent from the beginning of January to the end of April ; that sudden 
 transitions from heat to cold, and dry stimulating fuod, and costivenest, the natural conse- 
 quence of the latter, or otherwise produced, are the chief causes. By way of prevention, 
 he reeommends that cows should be bled before calving, and that the bowels should be 
 kept moderately open by occasional doses of common salt dissolved in water. As a 
 mre, he gives twenty ounces of Epsom salts in warm water, and half an hour afterwards 
 two quarts of gruel with half a pound of butter dissolved in it ; half the quantity of the 
 gruel and butter to be repeated every two hours ; the physic to be repeated, if neeessarv, 
 at the expiration of twenty-four hours; and, should the constipation be obstinate, clysters 
 composed as follows should be frequently administered : — bod an ounce of aniseed in a 
 quart of water, strain the clear liquor, and dissolve in it four ounces of butter, and a table- 
 spoonful of salt. To calves he gives four ounces of Epsom salts, and half an ounce of 
 nitre, with the same kind of gruel. He often finds the manyplus so dry that it might 
 almost serve for fuel. He cuntiders that more animals die of the fever by which the 
 disease is accompanied than by the loss uf blood, and thinks it of the utmost consequenca 
 
512 
 
 ^^TTIjV.. 
 
 Bi-ACK-WATER. 
 
 This is only another and (he concluding stage of Red-water. WIipd 
 it follows the acute or inflammatory disease, it may be considered as a 
 favourable symptom if the urine contains no purient matter, and has no 
 
 to keep the bowels open. Mr. Slaker writes like a sensible maa, and would beat many 
 reterinary surgeon out of the field. 
 
 Mr. A. Henderson, land surveyor, Edinburgh, was bred a farmer, and had afterwards 
 most extensive opportunities of observing this aiseass, and of which he ajipears to have 
 diUgently availed himself. He considers queys and cows most liable to red-water, which 
 occasionally prevails at all times, but is most prevalent in cold spring, or long-continued 
 dry summer weather. The causes are various : scarcity of water in summer, — the drinking 
 of bad or stagnant water, — change of pasture, particularly- from fine to coarse quality, 
 yet often observed on a light soil, during a dry and hot season, and when cattle on a 
 deeper soil would escape, and when on that soil, in a moist season, not one would be 
 affected, — change of atmospheric temperature, — strains, — bruises, — or anything that may 
 excite inflammatiou in the kidneys or neighbouring parts. When catTle were journeying 
 he observed that twenty females were attacked for one male, and particularly such as had 
 had calves, — that at the commencement of the journey the disease was rarely very preva- 
 lent, provided there was a constant supply of water, and the weather proved steady, — that 
 want of water and sudden changes of weather soon produced it, — that the tendency to it 
 was increased by strains and bruises, and the cattle fretting, and riding upon each other, 
 and by the unmerciful blows of the drivers, for those that fell behind, and were thus 
 exposed to mal-treatment, were most frequently affected. It was his opinion, tha* it was 
 more an accidental disease, and brought on by ill treatment, than a constitutioual oi 
 epidemical one ; yet some animals of the same breed and age were more subject to it 
 than others, and those that once had the disease were more apt to be again affected by it. 
 Prevention. — ^A supply of pure water — the cattle not being put on change of pasture, 
 and particularly of inferior quality, when hungry — not being put on rough, coarse pasture 
 in summer, nor fed on heated hay in winter — not being put at once into a damp, cold 
 pasture in the evening, after having been overheated during the day — and when the dis- 
 ease commences in a stock, a little blood being taken from all of them. 
 
 Cure. — Removal to some moderately warm, dry, and sheltered place; bleeding; 
 purging with common salt. In more advanced stages, and when the inflammation is 
 subdued, two ounces of Castile soap, one ounce of bole armenian, half an ounce of 
 dragon's blood, and one drachm of rock alum, in a quart of warm ale or beer, f ? ) In 
 the still later stages the same drink, or occasionally a cordial one ; clysters, and a stimu- 
 Tating embrocation to the loins. 
 
 Next stands Mr. A. Watt, druggist, Kintore. Every one who is really acquainted 
 with the treatment of the diseases of cattle, views an essay on cattle medicine by a drug- 
 gist south of the Tweed with a great deal of suspicion ; and there seems to be cause, for 
 that suspicion further northward. It is strange that the Society should have admitted a 
 paper recommending so many deadly poisons ; and if a portion of it is here extracted, it 
 is that the readers of the Farmer's Series maybe warned against so murderous a practice : 
 " A liberal use of opium, with mercurials, alkalies, sulphuric acid, turpentine, ether, and 
 nitre, is the best practice. I have found the annexed recipe to answer better than any 
 yet tried, as out of 200 trials it only failed in four : take of tincture of opium half an 
 ounce, sulphate of potash half an ounce, sulphuric acid sixty drops, spirit of hartshoru 
 one ounce; mix, and give in a bottle of new milk : repeat every eight hours. If there 
 should be costiveness, injections of butter, green oil, and warm water, should be em- 
 ployed. Loss of the hoofs and part of the tail may be prevented by rubbing the back 
 and legs with salt brine twice a day for a week after the disorder has been subdued." 
 
 The veterinary surgeon is always glad when the scientific practitioner of human medi- 
 cine condescends to bestow some attention on the diseases of domestic animals. Dr. James 
 Batne, of Oatfield, Inverness, favoured the Society with a paper on red water. If he 
 is a little in error when he says that the disease is most severe and obstinate in males, — 
 that bulls are particularly liable to it, — and that it generally makes its appearance during 
 the summer months, and in the beginning of autumn, but Tiever in winter and spring ; 
 yet his mode of cure is simple, scientific, and eflEectual. It forms a singular and pleasing 
 contrast to that which w^s last mentioned. On the first appearance of the disease tha 
 animal is confined to the house or yard, and from half a pound to a pound aud a half of 
 Glauber salts administered ; and if there is much appearance of fever, a^ut a quart 
 (qy. foiv or five qaaMs ?) of blood is taken from the neck ; and if costiveness is present, 
 frequent injections of warm water are administered. He has frequently injected a pailful 
 at « time. During the continuance of the disease the animal should not be allowed to gc 
 sirf to pasture, but small juantities of cut grass should be given. 
 
BLACK-WATKR. SUl 
 
 aiipleasunt smell. It shows that the blood is not discharnjed so rapidly and 
 forcibly as it was ; ano that it hangs about the mouths of the vessels, or 
 is contained in the cavity of the kidney, or in the bladder sufficiently long 
 to be changed from arterial to venous blood, and the practitioner will be 
 encouraged to proceed in the course which he had adopted : but if purulent 
 matter mingles with the black blood, it indicates the sad extent of the mis- 
 chief that has been done. It is a proof of ulceration, if not of gangrene, 
 and shows that a desyree of disorganization has taken place which must 
 speedily terminate in death. 
 
 If in chronic red-water, or that which depends on disease of the liver, 
 the discharge becomes of a darker and still darker brown, until it has 
 
 Xhe three other competitors for the medal were veterinary surgeons, 
 
 Mr. B. W. Lainq, of Banchory Teruan, Aberdeenshire, states, that in his district red- 
 water occurs most frequently in a\itumn, winter, and the early part of spring ; and is pro- 
 duced by want of exercise, want of access to earth, every cause of costiveuess, the use 
 uf barley, and chaff, aud the sudden setting in of frosty weather. As preventives, he 
 recommends as much liberty as possible during the winter, — bleeding and physicking 
 two or three weeks before calving, — thawing the turnips in frosty weather, and giving no 
 boiled food or grain. As a cure, he has recourse to bleeding; he then gives, in the form 
 of balis, twelve drachms of Barbadoes aloes, three of calomel, and an ounce of Castile 
 soap ; twelve hours after the administration of which hu administers two ounces each of 
 Upsom salts and common salt in cold water : after this, occasional doses of linseed oil 
 are given until the physic operates. He then has recourse to the follo\iring drink, which 
 Is continued morning and evening until the water becomes clear : acetate of lead half 
 a drachm, alum two drachms, and catechu two drachms, dissolved in bailing water, and 
 given blood-warm. Immediately after this, two yilh of vinegar, mixed with a bottle 
 of cold water, are horned down. Surely, if the medicine is not deprived of much of 
 its astringent power by the decomposition which must necessarily take place, this is 
 almost as injudicious a practice as that of Mr. Watt, the druggist of Kintore. 
 
 Mr. Petek S.\iith, of Ardpethan, Aberdeenshire, stands next on the list. Although 
 the reasoning on which it is founded niay not be perfectly admissible, or, rather, it is 
 too complicated to be easjly understood or assented to, yet he adopts the very proper 
 conclusion that red-water is not a local, but a constitutional disease. He would prevent 
 it by administering aperient medicine (luring those states of the constitution, and under 
 those circumstances, and at those periods of the year when an attack of the disease is 
 must to be ilreadeil. As a cure, he places his chief dependence on purgation. He begins 
 with a pouud and a half of Kpsum salts, and half a pint of castor oil, and this is soon 
 accompanied by injections containing common salt and butter. The purgation is repeated 
 every twelve hours, until the urine becomes clearer. When this has been accomplished 
 he diminishes the dose, but he keeps the bowels under the influence of the medicine until 
 the animal is quite recovered. Succulent vegetables are given at first, but after the 
 bowels are well cleaned, and the urine becomes clearer, the cow may be allowed the 
 moderate use of straw or hay. lu bad cases, he inserts a blister in the dew-lap. When 
 the animal is getting better, he gives half an ounce of each of carraway, aniseeds, and 
 spirit of hartshorn. 
 
 Mr. Smith remarks, that in his neighbourhood red-water ocburs during the summer months 
 to cattle out at pasture ; that animals reared in the district are rarely affected by it, but 
 those from a district where the darn (the provincial name of this disease) does not occur, 
 are almost sure to be seized with it ; and that the inhabitants when purchasing cattle are 
 careful to ascertain whether they are dam-bred, that is, whether they come from a district 
 where darn prevails. The inhabitants attribute the disease to the wood anemone, {ane- 
 mone nemorosa,') and give that plant the name of darn-grass, and which, they say, is a 
 rare plant where darn does not occur, but is very common in the darn district. Mr. 
 Smith's essay does him much credit. 
 
 The seventh competitor, and the most deserving, is Mr. R Thomson, now of Beith. 
 After a most accurate detail of symptonis, he states it to be his opinion, that it is the 
 black, inspissated bile, which, taken up by the absorbents, and passed into the blood, 
 colours all the secretions. He believes purgatives of any kind, given in large quantities 
 of water, to be the best medicine that can be employed, and he prefers common salt He 
 continues his purgative, with plentiful dilution, until the bowels are well opened; aiid he 
 afterwards keeps them in a las state by administering linseed oil. Diuretics and astrin- 
 gents combined can be only of service when the bowels are open ; and even then, the 
 improper administrsiion of them after: causes inflammation of the bowels and kidneys. If 
 the bowels are kept open by laitatives, the disease will generally disappear without their use. 
 
 Veterinary 
 21- 
 
514 CATTLK. 
 
 assumud an almost black character, it sliows either that the system is 
 loaded with a siipenibuiidance of this empoisoned secretion, and of which 
 it cannot rid itself, or that the irritation caused by the continued presence of 
 so acrimonious a fluid is producing inflammation, gangrene, and death in 
 the vessels that are filled and oppressed bj' it. Mr. Thomson well de- 
 scribes this : — " In the last stage of the disease, when the urine assumes a 
 darker brown or black colour, no remedy seems to have any efficacy ; the 
 animal is sunk beyond recovery, and he stretches himself out and dies as 
 if perfectly exhausted."* 
 
 INFLAMMATION OF THE KIDNEYS 
 
 Cattle are occasionally subject to an afTeotion of the kidneys bearing 
 considerable reremblance to acute red-water, but attended by more of the 
 symptoms of pure inflammation of that organ in other animals. At first 
 there are seldom any indications of disease beyond a straining effort in 
 voiding the urine, and which is ejected forcibly and in small quantities, 
 the loins being more than usually tender, and, perhaps, a little hot. In a 
 day or two afterwards, however, the beast becomes dull, and careless about 
 his food ; the difficulty of staling increases; blood is perceived to mingle with 
 the urine; the muzzle becomes dry; the horns and ears cold; the pulse 
 frequent and hard, and the breathing quickened. Diarrhoea or dysentery 
 is now observed; the evacuations are foetid ; they too are discharged with 
 effort and in diminished quantities, and at length cease to appear. 
 
 The difficulty of passing the urine becomes rapidly greater ; the beast 
 strangely bows his back, and groans from intensity of pain; at length total 
 suppression of urine ensues; cold sweats break out, principally about the 
 back, sides, and shoulders, and the patient trembles all over ; he moans 
 continually, but the moaning gets lower and lower; he becomes paralysed 
 behind; the pulse can scarcely be felt; the animal falls; he is incapable 
 of rising, and he dies in three or four days after the apparent commence- 
 ment of the attack. 
 
 This is especially a disease of the spring time of the year. It is the con- 
 sequence of over-nourishment : there is a predisposition to inflammation ; 
 and from some cause, more or less apparent, that inflammation is directed 
 to the kidney. The treatment will comprise plentiful bleeding, active 
 purging, the administration of emollient clysters, fomentation over the 
 loins or the application of a mustard poultice to them, bran mashes, gruel, 
 and a small quantity of green succulent food. There is a connexion be- 
 tween all these affections of the kidneys, and inflammation of the larger 
 intestines lying in the neighbourhood of them; thence the previous dysen- 
 tery, and the often obstinate constipation of red-water and pure inflam- 
 mation of these organs ; and thence the necessity of large and repeated 
 
 Veterinary practitioners and agriculturists generally, are much indebted to the High- 
 land Society of Scotland for the publication of these papers. However objectionable may 
 be the treatment recommended in two of them, they all contain some useful hints, ana 
 that by Mr. Thomson comprises the substance of that treatment which is founded on prin- 
 ciple, and will be attended by success where success can be attained. 
 
 The following extract from a letter just received from Mr. Steel, V. S., of Biggar, 
 N. B., is strongly confii'matory of the opinion the author has expressed of red-water, 
 viz. : that it is far more a disease of the digestive than of the urinary system, and that 
 the liver is the organ principally affected. He is describing a case of acute red-water. 
 He says, — " The uterus had spots of inflammation, the gall-bladder was filled with a 
 fluid resembling the urine which the cow was passing, the manyplus was rather bard 
 and dry, and the kidneys had a relaxed bleached-like appearance — The blood, when it 
 is drawn, very much resembles the urine ; and there is sometimes no other diilt;rcuce 
 than that theUood coagulates, and the urine does not." 
 
 • Quarterly Journal of Agriculture May, 1831, p. 12. 
 
THE KIDNEYS AND BLADDER. 61S 
 
 rfoses of purgative medicine, but from which all stimulating ingredients 
 should be excluded, and which would probably, in these cases, best consist 
 of castor or linseed oil. The clysters also should be truly emollient, that 
 while they assist in opening the bowels, they may act as soothing 
 fomentations in the neighbourhood of the inflamed organ. Both the oil 
 and the clysters should be continued until the inflammation has perfectly 
 subsided. To the use of these the treatment should generally be con- 
 fined — most certainly in no part of it should the slightest portion of 
 diuretic medicine be administered. 
 
 THE KIDNEYS AND BLADDER. 
 
 The urine secreted, or separated by the kidney, having first accumulated 
 m the cavity in the centre of that organ, is conveyed through a duH called 
 <Ae ureier to a more capacious reservoir, the bladder. The kidney of the 
 ox is larger and better defended than that of the horse, on account of 
 the increased importance of its function in an animal that is to furnish us 
 with milk while living, and more solid food when dead. The ureters also are 
 considerably laiger; the internal membrane is stronger; the opening into the 
 nladder is even nearer to the neck of that vessel than in the horse, and 
 the ureters terminate much nearer to each other. Comparative anatomists 
 also know that there are not any renal capsules in the ox. These are 
 small, elongated, irregularly formed bodies, placed opposite to the kidneys, 
 and between these organs and the spine. Their function is a subject still 
 wrapped in utter obscurity. 
 
 The Bladder of the ox, larger, longer, and of a more oval form than 
 that of the cow, is lodged between the rectum and the internal surface of 
 the lower bones of the pelvis. It is supported by a' transverse ligament, 
 which ties it to the sides of the pelvis ; while it is attached by cellular 
 membrane to the rectum above and to the pelvis below. It is confined 
 entirely to the cavity of the pelvis, for one of the compartments of the 
 paunch affords an insuperable obstacle to its entering the proper cavity of 
 the abdomen. When distended by urine, its increase of size is principally 
 shown by its greater roundness, and not, as in the horse, by its increased 
 length and descent into the cavity of the belly. In examination and in 
 operation for stone in the bladder this should not be lost sight of. It has 
 three coats : the outer and peritoneal ; the central or muscular, which is 
 not so thick as iu the horse, and consequently the force with which it 
 contracts upon and expels the urine is not so great ; and the inner coat, 
 which is lined with numerous glands, that secrete a mucous fluid in order 
 to defend the bladder from the acrimony of the urine. 
 
 The bladder terminates in a small neck, around which is a continuation 
 of the common muscular coat, or, in the opinion of some, a distinct circular 
 muscle, whose natural state is that of contraction ; so that the passage re- 
 mains closed, and the urine retained, until, the bladder being stretched to 
 a certain extent, the fluid is expelled either by the will of the animal, or 
 the involuntary contraction of the muscular coat. This muscle, or this 
 portion of the muscular coat, is considerably weaker in the ox than in the 
 horse, for the intestines pressing upon the bladder are not so voluminous ; 
 and in the slow motion of the ox this vessel is not exposed to those con- 
 cussions 'which it often experiences in the rapid progression of the horse, 
 and in which the bladder has occasionally been ruptured. Advantage may 
 be taken of this weakness of the sphincter muscle, for in retention of urine, 
 or when, for the purpose of some operation, it may be expedient to empty 
 the bladder, the slightest pressure upon i by the hand introduced into the 
 rectum will readilv effect it 
 
»« CATTLE. 
 
 Having passed the sphincter muscle, the urine flows through the ureihii 
 and is evacuated. This canal is longer and smaller than it is in the horse ; 
 it also pursues a more tortuous path than that of the horse. The peculiar 
 form and direction of some of the muscles of that region compel the penis 
 to take a kind of double curve, not unlike an S, before it takes its ultimate 
 straight course ; and on these accounts the ox suffers oflener than the 
 horse from the entanglement of calculi in the folds of the urethra. 
 
 The bladder of the cow is smaller and rounder than that of the ox. 
 The rumen is as large as in the ox, and occupies the greater part of the 
 abdomen ; but additional room must be left for the impregnated uterus, and 
 that is effected in some measure at the expense of the bladder : while also, 
 to obviate the ill effects of occasional pressure in the distended state of the 
 uterus, the sphincter muscle at the neck of the bladder of the cow is much 
 larger and stronger than the same muscle in the ox. 
 
 The circumstances of disease to be considered with reference to the 
 bladder are the foreign bodies, principally calculi, which it may contain ; 
 the inflammation resulting from that or from other causes; rupture, and 
 inversion of it. 
 
 URINARY CALCULI. 
 
 Concretions are oftener found in the urinary passages of cattle than of the 
 horse. Perhaps there is greater tendency to their formation in these animals. 
 One cause of their retention may arise from the different form of the pas- 
 sages. The urethra has been described as smaller in cattle than in the horee, 
 and therefore many calculi that would pass away with the urine in the 
 one are retained in the bladder of the other, and thus become the nuclei of 
 larger concretions, or the centre around which other matter collects, layer 
 upon layer. It is probably on this account that calculi are found so much 
 oflener in the ox than the cow ; in the former the urethra is long and 
 small, in the latter it is short and capacious. 
 
 The increased function discharged by the kidney in cattle may likewise 
 account for the more frequent formation of calculi. When so much more 
 blood passes through this organ in order that the useless or excrementitious 
 parts of it may be expelled, the supposition is not unreasonable that a 
 greater portion of the substances of which urinary calculi are composed 
 will be found. The food of cattle may have much to do with it ; and the 
 greater proportion of earthy matter which they swallow, whether in the 
 first rude cropping of the herbage, and the carelessness with which they 
 often tear it up by the root, or the earth which they sometimes voluntarily 
 take in order to prevent the development of acidity in the stomach, or to 
 remove it. 
 
 The urinary calculi that have hitherto been examined have been found 
 to be composed of nearly the same materials, and in proportions not often 
 varying. They have chiefly yielded carbonate of Ume, a small quantity of 
 carbonate of magnesia, some traces of phosphate of lime, and a certain 
 quantity of mucus, which has served as cement between the different 
 layers that have accumulated around a central point. The form of the 
 calculus has considerably differed. When there has been but one central 
 nucleus, the form has been more or less circular ; but in the majority of 
 those which have fallen under the writer's observation, the stone has 
 acquired magnitude by the union of various small distinct calculi. The 
 form of the collected mass has consequently been exceedingly different 
 in different specimens. 
 
 STONE IN THE KIDNEY. 
 
 One instance only of this has occurred in the author's practice, and hv 
 
STONK IN THK URETERS. 617 
 
 IS not aware that any other is on record. It was supposed to be a cas" 
 of acute red-water, or inflammation of the kidney, and was treated as 
 such. The cow was bled and repeatedly physicked, but with variable and 
 no satisfactory relief. Great pain was always expressed while the urine 
 was voided ; at other times there appeared to be colicy spasms ; there was 
 excessive tenderness on the loins, and some heat. The treatment con- 
 tinued five days j there was no amendment, and she t)egan to lose flesh ; 
 but being yet in tolerably fair condition, she was destroyed. 
 
 There was considerable peritoneal inflammation, in which the intestinal 
 convolutions in the neighbourhood of the right kidney were involved. It 
 was evident, before the fatty capsule of the kidney was cut through, that 
 the seat of disease lay in that organ. It was enlarged to nearly double 
 its natural size, and was much inflamed. Its cavity was filled with a 
 yellow muco-purulent fluid, in which were a great many calculi ; some 
 were scarcely larger than sand, but three were of the size of a kidney-bean. 
 There was no inflammation of the ureter or the bladder, nor was any 
 thing unusual found in them. 
 
 These calculi were irregularly formed — ^very light — porous — and of a 
 yellow colour, deepening into brown. They were probably (brmed from 
 the superabundance of that acid principle which is always found in the 
 urine ; and had a similar sandy substance, or small grains resembling 
 coarse sand, been previously observed in the urine, it is possible that some 
 good might have been done. The floor of the cow-house, and sometimes 
 bare places in the field, will show where a considerable quantity of gritty 
 matter has been discharged. This indicates a diseased state of the urine 
 at the time, not perhaps sufiBciently serious to interfere materially with 
 Ihe general health, but which may eventually lead to the formation of 
 stone in the bladder or kidney, or to other serious maladies. The sandy 
 matter is either white, approaching to grey or yellow ; or it is brown, with 
 varying shades of red or yellow. 
 
 Chemists have now satisfactorily ascertained the nature and causes of 
 these discharges, and the means of remedying them. The light-coloured 
 granules show deficiency, and the dark-coloured prove excess, of acid in 
 the urine. In the one there is a deposit of earthy matter from deficiency 
 of acid, and in the other there is a crystallization of the acid itself. In 
 the one, cream of tartar, or dilute sulphuric acid might be administered 
 with advantage ; and in the other, earth, or a portion of chalk mixed 
 with common loam, may be placed before the beast, or doses of carbonate 
 of soda may be given. Danger is most to be apprehended from the white 
 deposit, which is frequently the precursor or the accompaniment of gravel — 
 a deposition in the bladder to which cattle are far mure subject than 
 farmers or agriculturists are usually aware. 
 
 STONE IN THE URETERS. 
 
 There can be no doubt that many calculi descend from the cavity or 
 pelvis of the kidney through the ureters into the bladder ; yet there is but 
 one case of it on record. While the kidneys of cattle are considerably 
 larger than those of the horse, the ureters are more than proportionably 
 increased in bulk, and calculi of a moderate size readily pass through 
 them. 
 
 The case is briefly and somewhat unsatisfactorily related by Hurtrel 
 
 d'Arboval. He says * that Gattoin had sent to the Royal and Central 
 
 Society of Agriculture a history of the sickness and the examination of a 
 
 ',ow ia the left ureter of which many calculi were found, that had pro- 
 
 • Dictionnaire de M^d. et CUrun?, V^t, Calculi. 
 
M8 CATTLE. 
 
 fliiced considerable dilatation of that canal, retention of urine above tliein, 
 and all the symptoms that had preceded death. They were of a brilliant 
 metallic bronze colour; they were polished, irregular, and heavy. One of 
 them was composed of several united together, and presented a very sin- 
 gular triangular form. 
 
 Chabert, according to Hurtrel d'Arboval, thinks that the presence of 
 these calculi in the ureters might be detected by introducing the hand into 
 the rectum. He does not seem to speak from experience ; but he says, that 
 in case of deficiency in the urinary discharge, accompanied by pain and 
 fever, and tenderness on the loins, and especially by suppression of urine, 
 he should, endeavour to explore the ureters in this way. From the 
 situation of the bladder in the pelvic cavity, this might be accomplished 
 through the greater part of the course of the ureters. If calculi were de- 
 tected in these passages, the practitioner should endeavour to force them on 
 into the bladder, and, not being able to accomplish this, and knowing that 
 the beast must otherwise die, he would perhaps have recourse to the 
 dangerous operation recommended by Chabert, — he would cut through 
 the rectum and the ureter, and extract the stone.* 
 
 STONB IN THE BLADDER. 
 
 It is with the calculus that has descended into the bladder and there 
 increased in size, or that was originally formed there, that the practitioner 
 will have most to do either while it continues in the bladder, or in its after 
 progress through the urethra. 
 
 The symptoms that would indicate stone in the bladder are somewhat 
 "bscure. There are many that prove plainly enough a state of suffering, 
 and of general excitation or fever ; — rumination ceases — the mouth is hot — 
 the flanks heave — the animal is continually lying down and getting up 
 again — it is looking mournfully towards its flank. Then comes a peculiar 
 trembling of the hind limbs, and the frequent straining to void urine, — 
 a straining at some times quite ineffectual, at other times producing the 
 discharge of a small quantity, and that occasionally mingled with blood. 
 These symptoms will direct the attention of the practitioner to the urinary 
 organs. In order to ascertain the nature of the complaint, he will intro- 
 duce his hand into the rectum. The bladder will easily be detected. It 
 will probably be distended by urine : he will gently press upon it, and the 
 contained fluid will be expelled, and if there is a calculus in the bladder it 
 will be readily felt. He must not, however, be alarmed if this pressure 
 should at first produce violent pain resembling colic — 'he must desist for a 
 few minutes, and try again. A sound could not be used for the purpose 
 of detecting the calculus, nor even the flexible catheter that is of such 
 admirable use for the horse. 
 
 There are two courses to be pursued in such a case, — either to slaughter 
 the animal immediately, if it shoufd be in tolerable condition, or to remove 
 the stone by the usual operation of lithotomy. All attempts to dissolve 
 the calculus by the use of muriatic or any other acid will be as fruitless as 
 they have proved to be in the human being ; and the length and small calibre 
 of the urethra, as well as its double curve, prevent the possibility of having 
 recourse to the safe and effectual operation of breaking down the stone 
 within the bladder. 
 
 The beast being cast, and properly confined, the operator will recollect a 
 very material difference in the construction of these parts in the horse and 
 the ox. In the horse, he would be able to pass a stilett up the urethra as 
 
 * Diet, de yiii. et Chirurg. V6t., Calculi, 
 
STONE IN THE URETHRA. 51S 
 
 far as its curve into the pelvis, and to make his first anu chief incision at 
 once ; but in the ox, on account of tiie length of the penis, or for other 
 reasons, two muscles descend from the anus, and pursue their course until 
 they arrive at about the middle of the penis, a little in front of the scrotum : 
 there they attach themselves to the penis, and draw it up, and force it to 
 bend or curve upon itself; and it takes, as has already been stated, the 
 form of an inverted S. No stilett can be forced through such a double 
 curvature. The operator must either cut down on the urethra, without any 
 stilett within to guide him, at the point where again, below the anus, it 
 curves round the pelvic bones in order to enter the pelvic cavity, and which, 
 if he is a tolerable anatomist, and proceeds with some caution, he may 
 readily accomplish ; or he must get rid of the first curve, and that may be 
 eflected without much difficulty. The hair must be cut off immediately in 
 front of tlie scrotum ; a longitudinal incision must then be made, six inches 
 in length; through the sheath, upon the penis, and in the direction in which 
 it lies. The penis being exposed, it is seized and drawn fomard in its 
 sheath ; the muscles relax, the penis is readily brought into a straight 
 direction, and held so for a sufficient time to admit the introduction of a 
 stilett, which should either be composed of whalebone, and very flexible, or 
 it should be made of iron, and joiiited, resembling that used fur the stone 
 operation on the horse by Mr. Taylor, of Nottingham.* The mure flexible 
 the catheter is, the more readily it will accommodate itself to the tendency 
 of the muscles to restore the inverted S curve, and the more readily likewise 
 may it be bent round >he bony arch beyond, and so diminish the length of 
 the incision which must afterwards be made between the anus and the 
 scrotum. 
 
 'llie sound being passed through the curvature thus temporarily removed, 
 and its point felt below the anus, the operator must cut into the urethra at 
 that part. Into this opening he must introduce another rod, straight and 
 grooved, and pass it on into the bladder ; and then, by means of a probe- 
 pointed bistoury running in this groove, the incision must be carried on to 
 the side of the anus, and through a portion of the neck of the bladder cor- 
 responding with the supposed size of the calculus. The operator must then 
 pass his right hand into the rectum, and the two first fingers of the left 
 hand into the bladder, and with the right hand guide the calculus between 
 the fingers of the left hand, by which, or by means ofa pair of forceps pushed 
 into the wound, it should be seized and extracted. 
 
 It is not always that there will be much bleeding, or that it will be neces- 
 sary to take up any of the vessels, or even to pass any sutures through the 
 edges of the wound, unless the incision has been more than usually large. 
 The urine will for a tew aays be principally passed through the wound, 
 but a portion of it will soon begin to find its way through the urethra, and 
 that quantity will daily increase, and, in quite as short a time as can be ex 
 pected, the wound will be perfectly healed. 
 
 STONE IN THE URETHRa. 
 
 On account of the length, and narrowness, and curvature of the urethra 
 in the ox, obstruction of that passage by a calculus is a circumstance of too 
 frequent occurrence. The symptom which would lead to a suspicion of 
 this would be, in addition to the evidence of considerable pain, and ge- 
 neral irritation, a complete, or almost complete, suppression of urine. The 
 practitioner should examine the urethra through the whole of its course an- 
 terior to the inverted S curve ; the calculus will then be felt, or probably 
 the protuberance caused by its presencewill be immediately seen. The 
 Ve-ernarian, April, IBS*, p. 201 
 
120 a\TTLE. 
 
 duty ot the surgeon is now, in most cases, easily and quickly performed. 
 An oblique incision must be made upon the calculus, sufficiently long to 
 enable it to be taken out. By means of the oblique incision, the calculus 
 and the urethra are less likely to roll under the knife, and the wound 
 will more readily heal. One or two sutures should be passed through the 
 ed^es of the wound, which will speedily adhere. The operation is 
 simple, but the danger of neglect is great ; and many a beast has been lost 
 by the bladder being distended, and continuing so until violent inflamma- 
 tion of its mucous coat has taken place, or it haS been ruptured. 
 
 Should not the calculus be in this anterior portion of the urethra, that 
 Delween the scrotum and the anus should be carefully examined ; and if it 
 is not found there, it is imprisoned somewhere in the inverted S curve 
 An incision must then be made anteriorly to the scrotum, in the manner 
 already described ; the penis drawn out ; the curve for a while obliterated ; 
 the situation of the obstruction discovered ; the urethra laid open at that 
 point; and the calculus extracted. 
 
 M. Peyron relates a singular case of calculus in the urethra. He was 
 sent for in great haste to an ox that was evidently in great pain. The ani- 
 mal was continually getting up and lying down, and straining to void his 
 urine, but only a few drops appeared. On looking attentively at the course 
 of the urethra, while a tapping motion was made on the upper part of it, the 
 fluctuation ofsome fluid could be perceived. From this, M. Peyron concluded 
 that the passage through the urethra was obstructed. He cut into the 
 r.anal at the place where it proceeded from the ischium, and the urine im- 
 >«iediately gushed out. He did not push the operation further, persuaded 
 that after he had been so fortunate as to extract the calculus, another 
 would soon descend from the bladder and form a-freshfibstruction. The 
 beast was kept during a month, and then sold advantageously, having fully 
 retained its condition, but the urine had continued to flow from the wound 
 during the whole time.* The reasoning of M. Peyron would not have 
 satisfied most practitioners, but they would have endeavoured to ascertain 
 the precise situation of the calculus, and extracted it, undeterred by the 
 /ear of that which might never have happened : the case, however, shows 
 that no material mischief will be done, even if the wound should not readily 
 heal, t 
 
 Some veterinarians have remarked, that oxen are most subject to the 
 formation of these calculi during the autumn and winter; and that, as the 
 spring advances, the new grass produces a more abundant secretion of 
 urine, and thus relaxes the urinary organs, and enables the calculi more 
 easily to pass ; wrhile the fresh herbage gives an alkaline and soapy charac- 
 ter to the urine, which causes some of the recently formed calculi to be 
 dissolved in the bladder, 
 
 RUPTURE OF THE BLADDEa. 
 
 This is the necessary consequence of over-distension of a vessel the coals 
 of which are naturally weak ; or it may be produced by a careless or brutal 
 mode of casting the animal. It would not require any great shock in 
 
 • Journal Pratique, 1827, p. 333. 
 
 f An interesting account of the oiieraiion of lithotomy on the horse will be found ir 
 Perceval's Lectures, vol. iii. p. 45 ; another by Mr. Sewell, Assistant Professor at thl 
 Royal Veterinary College, in the " Veterinarian" for May. 1829, p. 172j and a third, 
 and the most detailed and satisfactory, by Mr. Taylor, of Nottingham, in the " Veteri- 
 narian," for April, 1834, p. 201 . The operation of Dilatation, which Mr. Perceva! 
 (" Lectures," vol. iii. p. 47.) describes as singularly applicableinveterinarypractice,n(>( 
 MJly in the female but in the male subject, cc'i!d not possibly succeed in the ox. 
 
INVERSION OF THE jJLADDKR. a'il 
 
 Jrder to rupture the bladder, after suppression of urine hail existed' se vera 
 days, and the coats of the bladder had begun to be weakened by iuflani- 
 (nation. 
 
 M. Peyton examined a beast that had laboured under sujipression of 
 urine eight days : he was slaughtered, and the bladder was found to be 
 ruptured. No mention is made of any effect produced by the urine in the 
 abdominal cavity, either as exciting peritoneal inflammation or discolour- 
 ing the flesh ; it is, therefore, probable that the rupture had taken place a 
 little while only before death, and perhaps in the act of falling. In ano- 
 ther case, the perfect depression of the animal, the feeble and slow pulse, 
 and the staggering walk, coupled with a long suppression of urine, excited 
 a suspicion that rupture of the bladder had already taken place ; and on 
 examination after death, the whole of the abdominal cavity was so dis- 
 coloured by the urine that the meat could not be used. 
 
 The circumstances which would most unerringly indicate a rupture of 
 the bladder woidd be the the impossibility of detecting that vessel in the 
 pelvic cavity when the hand was introduced into the rectum ; or, after the 
 bladder had been felt, round and hard almost as a foot-ball, and the ani- 
 mal had been expressing in every possible way the torture he endured, a 
 perfect calm all at once succeeding. This would probably be hailed by 
 the inexperienced practitioner as a symptom of recovery, but the skilful one 
 would regard it as the forerunner of death. If a day or two had passed 
 since the rupture of the bladder, the experienced eye would detect it by a 
 certain engorgement of the limbs, and particularly of the hind limbs ; 
 and there would often be an evident urinous smell about the animal even 
 before it was dead. In sueh case, the bladder is commonly found in a 
 state of gangrene; the intestines are highly inflamed, and the whole of 
 the meat is discoloured and nauseous. It is, therefore, of consequence to 
 ascertain the state of these parts during the life of the animal, either that 
 an operation may be attempted, or that the farmer may sell him, while there 
 is any thing about him that is saleable beside his skin. In fine, when it is 
 recollected that the existence of these calculi betrays a constitutional ten- 
 dency to their formation, and that the removal of one may at no great length 
 of time be followed by the appearance of another ; when, from the length 
 and narrowness, and, more especially, from the singular curvature of the 
 urethra in the ox, it is in a manner impossible for calculi half so large to 
 ("tiss as those that easily traverse this canal in the horse ; and that the walls 
 ui' he bladder in the ox are so weak compared with those of the horse, 
 it wdl become a matter for consideration, whether the btast, in good sale- 
 able condition, should not be destroyed as soon as this obstruction is clearly 
 ascertained : and, most certainly, the animal that has been successfully 
 operated upon for suppression of urine, and that is not then fit for the 
 market, should be fattened, and got rid of as quickly as possible. 
 
 The cow is in a manner exempt from these sad accidents, because the 
 calculi readily find their way through her short, and capacious, and straight 
 urethra. 
 
 INVBRSins OF THE BLADDER. 
 
 This has occasionally taken place in the violent throes of parturition. 
 The efforts of the practitioner must then be confined to the preservation of 
 the calf, for the bladder can never be returned to its natural situation : and 
 although the mother might possibly survive the removal of this vessel, yet 
 as the urine must continue to be secreted, and to be got rid of, and, 
 trickling down her legs, would produce constant soreness and ulceration, 
 she would ever be a nuisance to herself, and a disgusting object to thosa 
 
 flatter. 'Krif^ 4I10 rtava r\T llor 
 
*2^ CATTLE. 
 
 Tne following' case, which happened to a skilful practitioner, may per- 
 haps be a warning to others : A cow had been three days in tlie act of 
 calving, and little advance had been made. She was lying on her right 
 side exhausted, but occasionally lowing mournfully, and making violent 
 efforts to expel the foatus. A round, fibrous, white tumour presented itsell 
 — it was evidently distended by some fluid, for the fluctuation was de- 
 tected at the slightest touch. Not dreaming that it could be any thing 
 beside the membranous bag which contained the natural uterine fluid, he 
 ))unctured it, and he was astonished when that which ran out had the 
 colour and smell of urine. It was the bladder which had protruded through 
 a rent in the vagina, and which he might have recognised by its smaller 
 bulk, its firmer texture, and by the ease with which the neck would have 
 been discovered after a very slight examination. The calf was saved — the 
 mother might, probably, have been saved too — the internal laceration 
 might have been healed, and the practitioner would have escaped the 
 consciousness of having made a somewhat disgraceful blunder. 
 
 Chapter XVI. 
 
 BREKDING.— PARTURITION. 
 
 Thf characteristics of the different breeds of Rritish cattle, the peculiar 
 excellencies and the peculiar defects of each, and their comparative value, 
 as adapted to different climates and soil and pasture, have been alreadj' 
 considered : a few remarks on the principles of breeding were reserved 
 for this chapter. 
 
 That which lies at the foundation of the improvement of every stock, ot 
 the successful management of it, is the. fact, — the common, but too much 
 neglected axiom, that " like produces like'' This is the governing law in 
 every portion of animated nature. There is not a deviation from it in the 
 vegetable world, and the exceptions are few and far between among 
 the lower classes of animals.' When in the higher species the principle may 
 not seem at all times to hold good, it is because another power, the intel- 
 lectual — the imaginative — somewhat controls the mere organic one; or, in 
 a great many instances, the organic principle is still in full activity, for 
 the lost resemblance to generations gone by is pleasingly and strongly 
 revived. The principle that "like produces like,*" was that which gave 
 birth to the valuable, but too short-lived, new Leicester breed ; it wa» 
 tlie principle to which England is indebted for the short-horns, that are 
 
 * " Tlie simple observation, that domestic animals possess a tendency to produce ani- 
 mals of a qaality similar to their own, was the gronnd-work of all Bakewell's proceed- 
 ngs. It was equally obvious f o others as to him, but by him first applied to the useful 
 purpose to which it has since been rendered subservient. Having made this observa- 
 tion, he inferred, that by bringing together males and females possessing the sama 
 valuable properties, he should insure their presence in their offspring, probably in an 
 increasnd degree, they being inherited from both parents ; and he concluded, that by 
 persisting in breeding from animals the produce of such selections, always keeping iu 
 sight the properties that constituted their value, he should at length establish a breed 
 of cattle uf which those properties would form the distinguishing and necessary charac- 
 teristic. By this process it was that in his time, with> respect to his long-horns, and 
 subsequently with regard to other breeds of cattle, the term blood came to be distinc- 
 tively applied. When reference could be made to a number of ancestors of distinguished 
 excellence, the term blood was admitted." — The Rev. H. Berry's admirable Priie Essay 
 »n Breeding. 
 
B.tliEDlNG.— PARTfJlilTION. S93 
 
 now estahl.shin^r thi;ir superiority in every district of the kingdom. Every 
 cuw and lieifer of the Shakspeare blood could be recognized at first 
 sight as having descended from Mr. Fowler's stock ; and the admirer o' 
 tlie short-horns can trace in the best cattle of the present day the un- 
 doubted lineaments of Favourite. 
 
 This principle extends to form, constitution, qualities, predisposition to, 
 and exemption from disease, and to every thing that can render an animal 
 valuable or worthless. It equally applies to the dam and to the sire. It 
 is the foundation of scientific and successful breeding *. 
 
 Let it be supposed, that the cattle of a certain farmer have some 
 excellent qualities about them ; but there is a defect which considerably 
 deteriorates from their value, and which he is anxious to remove. He 
 remembers that " like produces like," and he looks about for a buM that 
 possesses the excellence which he wishes to engraft on his own breed. 
 He tries the experiment, and, to his astonishment, it is a perfect failure. 
 His stock, so far from improving, have deteriorated. 
 
 The c-ause of this every-day occurrence was, that he did not fairly esti- 
 mate the extent of the principle from which he expected so much. This 
 new bull had the good point that was wanting in his old stock ; but he 
 too was deficient somewhere else, and, therefore, although his cattle had 
 in some degree improved by him in one way, that was more than 
 counterbalanced by the inheritance of his defects. Here is the secret of 
 every, failure — the grand principle of breeding. The new-comer, while 
 he possesses that which was a desideratum in the old stock, should like- 
 wise possess every good quality that they had previously exhibited — then, 
 and then alone, will there be improvement without alloy. Whit can a 
 farmer expect if he sends a worthless cow to the best-bred bull — or, on 
 the other hand, if his cows, although they may have many good qualities, 
 are served by a bull that perhaps he has scarcely seen, or whose points he 
 has not studied, and whose only recommendations are, that he is close at 
 hand and may be had for little money ? 
 
 The question as to the comparative influence of the sire and the dam 
 is a difficult one to decide. That farmer will not err, who applies the 
 grand principle of breeding equally to both of them. In the present 
 system of breeding, most importance, and that very justly, is attributed to 
 the male. He is the more valuable animal, and principally more valuable 
 on account of the more numerous progeny that is toproeeed from him, and 
 thus his greater general influence; and therefore superior care is bestowed 
 on the first selection of him for re&ring. The farmer studies the bull-calf 
 closely, and assures himself that he possesses, in a more than usual degree, 
 the characteristic excellencies of the breed. When this care as to the pos- 
 session of such combination of good points has extended from the sire to 
 the son through several successive generations, it may be readily supposed 
 '^at he will possess them in a higher degree than the female can. They 
 
 * There are a few strange exceptions to -this, showing the power of imagination 
 even ove<' so dull a beast as the cow. Her progeny is often much aifected by clrcuin- 
 stances that happen during the time of conception, or rather during the period she :.t 
 in season. Mr. pSoswell says, " One of the most intelligent breeders I ever met with 
 in Scotland, Mr. Mustard, of Angus, told me a singular fact with regard to what I 
 have now stated. One of his cows chanced to come in season, while pasturing on a 
 field, which was bounded by that of one of his neighbours, out of which an ox jumped, 
 and went with the cow, until she was brought hone to the bull. The ox was white, 
 with black spots, aud horned, itir. Mustard had not a homed beast in his possession, 
 .lor one with any white on it. Nevertheless, the produce of the following spring was 
 a black 4ud white calf w'th horns. — Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, vol. i. Essays, 
 p.2«. 
 
634 CATTL2. 
 
 will be made, as it were, a part and portion of his constitution, and he wil 
 ecquire the power of more certainly, and to a greater extent, commuui- 
 cating them to his offspring. 
 
 In this way the influence of the sire may, in well-bred animals, be 
 considered as superior to that of the female, but hers is always great, and 
 must not be forgotten. In Arabia, where the mare is the object of chief 
 attention, and her good qualities are carefully studied and systematically 
 bred in her, the influence of the female decidedly preponderates ; and, on 
 the same principle, that of the highly bred cow will preponderate over that 
 of the half-bred bull. Her excellencies are an hereditary and essentia! 
 jiart of her, and more likely to be communicated to lier offspring than those 
 which have been only lately and accidentally acquired by the bull with no 
 pedigree, or with many a blot^ in it. Custom and convenience, however, 
 induce the generality of breeders to look most to the male. * 
 
 At the outset of his career, the farmer should have a clear and deter- 
 mined conception of the object that he wishes to accomplish. He should 
 consider the nature of his farm ; its abundance or deficiency of pasturage ; 
 the character of the soil ; the seasons of the year when he will have plenty 
 or deficiency of food; the locality of his farm ; the market to which he 
 has access, and the produce which will there be disposed of with greatest 
 profit, and these things will at once point to him the kind of beast which 
 ne should be solicitous to obtain. The man of wealth and patriotism may 
 have more extensive views, and nobly look to the general improvement o. 
 British cattle ; but the farmer, with his limited means, and with the claims 
 that press upon him, regards his cattle as a valuable portion of his own 
 little property, and on which every thing should appear to be in natural 
 keeping, and be turned to the best advantage. 
 
 The best beast for him is that which suits his farm the best ; and, with a 
 view to this, he studies, or ought to study, the points and qualities of his 
 own cattle, and those of his neighbours. The dairy-man will regard the 
 quantity of milk — the quality — the time that the cow continues in milk — 
 its value for the production of butter or cheese — the character of the breed 
 for quietness — or as being good nurses — the predisposition to red-water, 
 o-arget, or dropping after calving — the natural tendency to turn every 
 thing to nutriment — the easiness with which she is fattened, when given 
 up as a milker, and the proportion of food requisite to keep her in full 
 milk, or to fatten her when dry. The grazier will consider the kind ot 
 beast which his land will bear — the kind of meat most in demand in his 
 neighbourhood — the early maturity — the quickness of fattening at any 
 age — the quality of the meat — the pjvrts on which the flesh and fat are 
 principally laid — and, more than all, the hardihood and the adaptation of 
 constitution to the climate and soil. 
 
 In order to obtain these valuable properties, the farmer will make him- 
 self perfectly master of the character and qualities of his own stock. He 
 will trace the connexion of certain gcod qualities and certain bad ones, 
 ivith an almost invariable peculiarity of shape and structure ; and at length 
 le will arrive at a cl^ar conception, not so much of beauty of form (al- 
 
 ■* Mr. Adam FerKuson, of Woodhill, to whom the Highland Society of Scotland, 
 and the Scottish agriculturists generally, are so much indebted, has au amusing 
 anecdote on this point. " I recollect, several years ago, at a distinguished brcederg 
 iu Northumberland, meeting with a shrewd Scottish borderer, (indeed, if report bs 
 true, the original and identical Dinmont,) who, after admiring with a considerabis 
 spice of national pique, a very short-horned bull, demanded anxiously to see the dam. 
 The cow being accordingly produced, and, having undengone a regular survey. Dandy 
 vociferated, with characteristic pith, " 1 think naething of your bull now, wi' sic a 
 eaumb."— Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, vol. i. p. 34. 
 
BREEDING.— PARTURITION. 62» 
 
 tliough that is a pleasing object to contemplate) as of that outline antf 
 proportion of parts with which utility is oftenest combined. Then care- 
 fully viewing his stock, he will consider where they approach to, and how 
 tar they wander from, this utility of form ; and he will be anxious to pre- 
 serve or to increase the one, and to supply the deficiency of the other.* He 
 will endeavour to select from his own stock those animals that excel in the 
 most valuable points, and particularly those which possess the greatest num- 
 ber of these points ; and he will unhesitatingly condemn every beast that be ■ 
 trays manifest deficiency in any one important point. He will not, however, 
 too long confine himself to his own stock, unless it is a very numerous one. 
 The breeding from close affinities — the breeding in andin — has. many 
 advantages to a certain extent. It may be pursued until the excellent form) 
 and quality of the breed is developed and established. It was the sourceJ' 
 whence sprung the cattle and the sheep of Bakewell, and the superior 
 cattle of Colling ; and to it must also be traced the speedy degeneracy — 
 the absolute disappearance of the new Leicester cattle, and, in the hands 
 of many an agriculturist, the impairment of constitution and decreased 
 value of the new Leicester sheep and the short-horned beasts. It has, 
 therefore, become a kind of principle with the agriculturist to effect some 
 change in his stock every second or third year, and that change is most con- 
 veniently effecied by introducing a new bull. This bull should be, as nearly 
 as possible, of the same sort; coming from a similar pasturage and climate ; 
 but possessing no relationship — or, at most, a very distant one — to the 
 stock to which he is introduced. He should bring with him every good 
 point which the breeder has laboured hard to produce in his stock, and, if 
 possible, some improvement, and especially where the old stock may have 
 been somewhat deficient ; and most certainly he should have no manifest 
 defect of form ; and that most essential of all qualifications, a hardy consti- 
 ution, should not be wanting. 
 
 There is one circumstance, however, which the breeder occasionally 
 forgets, but which is of as much importance to the permanent value of his 
 stock as any careful selection of animals can be — and that is, good keep. 
 It was judiciously remarked by the author of the " Agricultural Report of 
 Staffordshire,'' that" all good stock must be both bred with attention and 
 well fed. It is necessary th^t these two essentials in this species of improve- 
 ment should always accompany each other; for without good resources of 
 keeping, it would be vain to attempt supporting a capital stock." This is 
 true with regard to the original stock ; it is yet more evident when animals 
 are absurdly brought from a better to a poorer soil. The original stock 
 
 * " Upon the principle that ' like produces like,' he (Bakewell) started, and tiu 
 adv,antage.<i which crowned his exertions may be thus stated : an increased peri'ecuon (il 
 general symmetry, by which is to be understtiod nut only a form attractive tu the eyf 
 of taste, but one in which the judgment acknowledged a considerable prepouderaiu e of 
 the valuable parts of the carcase over those of less value ; an increased tendency tu lay 
 on flesh of a superior quality under all circumstances of feeding, and, of cuuisu, i 
 superior article for the use of the consumer^ produced by a decreased consumption ul 
 vegetable or other food. 
 
 '' A person would often be puzzled : he would find different individuals possessing 
 different perfections in different degrees — one, good ilesh, and a tendency ui fatten, 
 with a bad form — another, with fine form, biitliad flesh, and little disposition to acquire 
 fat : — what rule should he lay down, by the observance of which good might be generally 
 produced, and as little evil as possible eflected ? — Utility. The truly good form is 
 that which secures constitution, health, and vigour — a disposition to lay on flesh, and 
 with the greatest possible reduction of offal. Having obtained this, other things are 
 of minor, although perhaps of considerable, importance." — The Rev. H. Berry's Prizj 
 Kssay 
 
V2r. CATTLE. 
 
 will deteriorate if neglected and half-starved ; and tht iiuprovprl Lreed will 
 jose {jroiind even more rapidly, and to a far greater extent. 
 
 The full consideration, however, of the subject of breedings belongs to 
 the work on " British Husbandry," and there full justice will be done to it: 
 but the few hints that have here been dropped with reference to the funda- 
 mental principles on which the improvement of cattle must be founded will 
 not, perhaps, be deemed irrelevant.* 
 
 THE PROPER AGE FOR BREED[NG. 
 
 The proper age at which the process of breeding may be commenced 
 will depend on various circumstances. Even with the early maturity of 
 the short-horns, if the heifers could be suffered to run until they were two 
 and a half, or three years old, they would become larger, finer, and more 
 Valuable; and their progeny would be larger and stronger: but the expense 
 jf the keep for so long a time is a question that must be taken into serioup , 
 consideration. The custom which at one period was beginning to be sa 
 prevalent in the breeding districts, of putting the heifer to the male at one 
 year old, or even at an earlier period, cannot be too much reprobated. 
 At the time when they are most rapidly growing themselves, a sufficient 
 quantity of nutriment cannot be devoted to the full development of the 
 fcetus, and both the mother and the calf must inevitably suffer. 
 
 From two, to two-and-a-half years old, according to the quality of the 
 pasture, will be the most advantageous time for putting the heifer to the 
 bull. In fair pasture, the heifer will probably have attamed sufficient 
 growth at two years. If the period is prolonged after three years, and 
 especially with good keep, the animal will often be in too high condition, 
 and there will be much uncertainty as to hei becoming pregnant.f At an 
 
 * The following extract from " the Rev. H, Berry's Prize Essay" contains the sum 
 and substance of the principles of breeding : — 
 
 " A person selecting a stock from which to breed, notwithstanding he has set np for 
 himself a standard of perfection, will obtain them with qualifications of different de- 
 scriptions, and in different degrees. In breeding from such he will exercise his judg- 
 ment, and decide what are indispensable or desirable qualities, and will cross with 
 animals with a view to establish them. His proceeding will be of the ' give and take' 
 kind. He will submit to the introduction of a trifling defect, in order that he may 
 profit by a great excellence ; and between excellencies, perhaps somewhat incompatible, 
 he will decide on which is the greatest, and give it the preference. 
 
 " To a person commencing improvement, the best advice is to get as good a bull as 
 he can ; and if he be a good one of his kind, to use him iudiscriii^inately with all his 
 cows ; and wheii by this proceeding, which ought to be persisted in, his stock has, 
 with an occasional change of bull, become sufficiently stamped with desirable excel- 
 lencies, his selection of males should then be made, to eradicate defects which he thinks 
 it desirable to get rid of. 
 
 " He will not fail to keep in view the necessity of good blood in the bulls resorted to, 
 for that will give the only anurance that they will transmit their own valuable pro- 
 perties to their offspring ; but he must not depend on this alone, or he will soon run 
 the risk of degeneracy. 
 
 " In animals evincing an extraordinary degree of perfection, and where the consti- 
 tution is decidedly good, and there is no prominent defect, a little close breeding may 
 I be allowed — as the son with the mother, to whom he is only half-blood — or the brother 
 I with the sister. But this must not be injudiciously adopted or carried too far. for 
 although it may increase and confirm valuable properties, it will also increase and con- 
 firm defects-; and no breeder need lie long in discovering that in an improved state 
 animals have a greater tendency to defect than to perfection. Close breeding, froci 
 affinities, impairs the constitution, and affects the piocreative powers, and therefore a 
 strong cross is occasionally necessary." 
 
 f When heifers of this age will not stand their bulling, a couple of doses of physic, 
 pr the turning on shorter pasture until they next come into season, will set all right. 
 
 Mr. Parkinson's opinion, although somewhat different in one point from that we 
 aare stated, deserves consideration :— " I had three heifers, when I lived at Slana 
 
ABORTION, OR SLINKING. 5'27 
 
 early aiye there will often be (fanger in calving' from the heifer not liaviii^ 
 attained her proper size ; and another, that has her first calf too late, will 
 be in danger from fever. 
 
 It will be evident from this that the bull should not be suffered to run 
 with the young stock ; and although it is said that cows are quieter, and 
 thrive better, and are more readily and surely impregnated as they come 
 in season when they have the bull with them in the pasture, yet it is 
 becoming more the practice, and often very advantageously so, to separate 
 him from them altogether. By watching the cows as they come into season, 
 and keeping them back when the time of parturition would be inconvenient, 
 the farmer will be enabled to get them to calve at the periods that best 
 suit his pasture or his arrangements. The calves may be dropped at the 
 beginning of the year, when veal and butter will yield the greatest profit ; 
 or later in the season, when the spring grass is preparing to come in, and 
 when the young animal will thrive better, and a greater secretion of milk, 
 and the habit of yielding it at every subsequent calving, will be established 
 ii' the mother.* 
 
 That which has been said of the best age for beginning to breed in the 
 row will equally apply to the bull. It is absurd and dangerous to begin 
 to use him as some have done when a yearling. He will come into season 
 at two years old — he will be better at three; and although the farmer may 
 not deem it prudent to keep him more than two or three years, he may 
 then be sold advantageously, in his full prime, to another breeder. 
 
 ABORTION, OR SLINKING. 
 
 The usual period of pregnancy in a cow is nine calendar months, or 
 270 days ; but there is often considerable variation in the time of what 
 seems to be a natural delivery, and when the calf is likely to live.t. 
 
 The cow, however, is more than any other animal subject to abortion 
 This takes place at different periods of pregnancy, from half of the usual 
 time to the seventh, or almost the eighth month. The symptoms of the 
 approach of abortion, except the breeder is very much among his stock, 
 are not often perceived; or if perceived, they are concealed by the cow- 
 herd, lest he should be accused of neglect or improper treatment. 
 
 took the bull at one year old, I believe, in consequence of their being reared in the open 
 air at the haystacks, which caused them to be forwarder. I had not the lea^it idea oi 
 this happening, or I should have prevented it, as 1 thinlc it very injudicious. It is the 
 opinion of some persons, that by suffering heifers to be three or four years old thev 
 make fine cattle, but I never found any material difference; while there is a loss (if 
 one year, besides the danger of not standing the bulling; and it adds very much to the 
 profit of the heifer if she be given to the bull at two or two and-a-half years old, for 
 the time she is in calf, added to that of the calf sucking and the time she Avill be 
 tatteiiing, bring her to four or four years and a half when she is slaughtered. A heifer 
 that has had a calf will fatten quicker and tallow better than one of the same age that 
 has not, while a calf is gained, worth, if of a good breed, eight or ten pounds as a stpre 
 beast." — Trfotise on Live Stock, vol. i. p. 99. 
 
 * Most of the various recipes to bring a cow into season are absurd and dangerous. 
 One given by Mr. Parkinson is the simplest, the most harmless, and the most success- 
 ful too ! — " Give a quart or more of milk, immediately drawn from a cow that is in 
 season, before the bull has been admitted to her, and in three or four days it will have 
 the desired effect."— Treatise on Live Slock, vol. i. p. 101. 
 
 The repeated return of the period of heat during the spring and summer months will, 
 if the farmer keeps his bull apart frora the cotrg, enable him to arrange the periods of 
 parturition almost at his pleasure. 
 
 . f M. Tessier, in a Memoir read to the Rcya] Academy of Sciences at Paris, says, 
 that in 1131 cows, which he had the opportunity of observing, the shortept period oi 
 gestation was 240 days, and the longest 321 — difference 81 days ; and counting froin 
 a'oe months, 51 days over and '30 days under. 
 
''^^ ■ CATTLE. 
 
 Tlie cow is somewhat off her feed — rumination ceases — she is listless 
 *iid liull — the milk diminishes or dries up — the motions of the fojtiis 
 become more feeble, and at length cease altogethei — there is a slight degree 
 of enlargement of the belly — there is a little staggering in her walk — when 
 she is down she lies longer than usual, and when she gets up she stands 
 tor a longer time motionless. As the abortion approaches, a yellow or red 
 fflairy fluid runs from the vagina (this is a symptom which rarely or never 
 deceives) — her breathing becomes laborious and slightly convulsive. The 
 belly has for several days lost its natural rotundity, and has been evidently 
 falling — she begins to moan — the pulse becomes small, wiry, and inter- 
 mittent. At length labour comes on, and is often attended with much diffi- 
 culty and danger. 
 
 If the abortion has been caused by blows or violence, whether arising from 
 the brutality of the cowherd, or the animal being teased by other cows in 
 season, or by unskilfully castrated oxen, the symptoms are more intense. The 
 animal suddenly ceases to eat and to rnminale — slie is uneasy, paws the 
 ground, rests her head on the manger while she is standing, and on her flank 
 when she is lying down — hemorrhage frequently comes on from the uterus, 
 or when this is not the case, the mouth of the uterus is spasmodically con- 
 tracted. The throes come on, they are distressingly violent, and they 
 continue until the womb is ruptured. Should not all these circumstances 
 be observed, yet the labour is protracted and dangerous. * 
 
 Abortion is sometimes singularly frequent in particular districts, or on 
 particular farms. It seems to assume an epizootic or epidemic form. This 
 has been accounted for in various ways. Some have imagined it to be 
 contagious. It is destructively propagated among the cows, but this is 
 probably to be explained on a different principle than that of contagion. 
 It has been stated that the cow is an animal considerably imaginative, and 
 highly irritable during the period of pregnancy. In abortion the foetus is 
 often putrid before it is discharged ; and the placenta, or afterbirth, rarely 
 or never immediately follows it, but becomes decomposed, and, as it drops 
 away in fragments, emits a peculiar and most noisome smell. This smell 
 seems to be singularly annoying to the other cows — they suiffat it, and 
 then run bellowing about. Some sympathetic influence is produced on 
 their uterine organs, and in a few days a greater or less number of those 
 that had pastured together likewise abort. Hence arises the rapidity with 
 which the foetus is usually taken away and buried deeply, and far from the 
 cows ; and hence the more effectual preventive of smearing the parts of the 
 cow with tar or stinking oils, in order to conceal or subdue the smell ; and 
 hence, too, the ineffectual preventive of removing her to a far distatit 
 pasture. 
 
 Chabert, in his " Veterinary Instructions," relates a singular case of 
 this — a kind of pest or plague in the dairy of a farmer at Toury. For 
 thirty years his cows had been subject to abortion. His cowhouse was 
 large and airy ; his cows were apparently in good health ; they were ted 
 like others in the village ; they drank from the same pond ; there was no- 
 thing different in the pasture; his servants were not accustomed to ill-use 
 the cattle, and he had changed these servants many times in the thirty 
 years. He had changed his bull many a time — he had pulled down his 
 cowhouse, and he had built another in a different situation, with a different 
 aspect, and on a different plan ; he had even (agreeably to the superstition 
 ot the neighbourhood) taken away the aborted calf through the window, 
 that the curse of future abortion might not be entailed on the cow that 
 passed over the same threshold ; nay, to make all sure, he had broken 
 .hrough the wall at the end of the cowhouge, and opened a new door, iu 
 
ABORTION, OR SMNKING. S2H 
 
 srder ttiat there might not be the possibility that an e.f-struck foetus had 
 previously gone that way; but fetill a greater or less number of his cows 
 every year slunk their calves. 
 
 Thirty years before he had bought a cow at a fair, and she had warped, 
 and others had speedily followed her example ; and the cow that had once 
 slunk her calf was liable to do the same in the following year, and so the 
 destructive habit had been perpetuated among his beasts. 
 
 Several of the cows had died in the act of abortion, and he had replaced 
 them by others ; more of those that had aborted once or twice, or oftener, 
 had been sold, and the vacancies tilled up. M. Chabert advised him to 
 make a thorough change. This had never occurred to the farmer, but 
 he at once saw the propriety of the counsel. He sold every beast, and 
 the plague was stayed *- This sympathetic influence is one main cause of 
 the slinking of the calves. There is no contagion, but the result is as fatal 
 as the direst contagion could have made it. 
 
 Another cause of abortion is the extravagantly high condition in which 
 cows are- sometimes kept. They are in a continual state of excitement; 
 and from the slightest cause inflammation is'set up in the uterus, rendered 
 more susceptible by the state of pregnancy, and abortion is the frequent 
 consequence of that inflammation. 
 
 M. Cruzel has given an instructive account of abortion thus produced. 
 He was consulted by a farmer who had ten breeding cows, that occa- 
 sionally worked at the plough, as is often the case in France. During 
 the first year three of them aborted. They recovered, and were soon again 
 in calf. Two of them slunk their calves a second time, between the 
 fifth and sixth month of pregnancy ; the third went her full time, and pro- 
 duced a weakly calf that died on the second day. In the following year 
 a fourth aborted, and M. Cruzel was sent for. He was immediately struck 
 with the unnecessary high condition in which all the cows and their calves 
 were : lie carefully inquired, but could discover no other probable cause 
 for these repeated accidents, and he at once attributed them to the state of 
 plethora in which the beasts were kept. He ordered their quantity of food 
 to be materially reduced — he bled every one of them — the farmer took 
 care that nutriment should not afterwards be so dangerously wasted upor. 
 them, and abortion ceased to appear on the farm t. 
 
 Mr. Wedge, in his " Survey of Cheshire," (Confirms this. He says that 
 "' slinking happens generally in wet seasons, /or when the cattle are in very 
 high condition, and generally continues for ^o or three years together. In 
 several parts of North Wales, where the cattle through necessity are kept 
 in lower condition, instances of the kind very rarely happen." 
 
 The pastures on which the blood or inflammatory fever is most pre- 
 valent are those on which the cows oflenest slink their calves. Whatever 
 can become a source of general excitation and fever is likely, during preg- 
 nancy, to produce inflammation of the womb ; or whatever would, under 
 other circumstances, excite inflammation of almost any organ, has at that 
 time its injurious effect determined t0 this particular one. 
 
 There are some curious illustrations of this. It is well known that cattle 
 of all kinds are sometimes serious'iy injured by feeding in the autumn on 
 grass thickly covered with hoar-frpst. Inflammation of the bowels of a 
 dangerous character, and sometimes palsy of the rumen, have been thus 
 produced. In Switzerland, the commencement of the hoar-frost is the signal 
 for the appearance of abortion. It is occasionally seen at other times in ali 
 the cantons, but now its victims are multiplied tenfold. M. Barruel, V. S 
 
 * Instnictlons V^tdrinaires, torn. vi. p. 1 17. 
 + Journ.Thtor.et Prat., 1832, p. 157- 
 
 2 M 
 
•''30 CATTLE. 
 
 of Chartres, speaks of sixteen cows that aborted at different periods of 
 pregnancy from this cause, and most of whom died * 
 
 It has been stated (page 505) tliat acrid plants are often prejudicial to 
 cattle. " There is no farmer who is not aware of the injurious effect of the 
 coarse, rank herbage of low, marshy, and woody countries, and he regards 
 these districts as the chosen residence of red-water ;" it may be added, that 
 these districts are also the chosen residence of abortion. 
 
 Hard and mineral waters are justly considered as laying the foundation 
 for many diseases in cattle, and for this among the rest. A writer in a 
 German periodical gives the following account:—" In 1822 twelve of 
 his in-calf heifers cast their calves, and in the following year the like 
 accident happened to twelve others, the whole of which used to drink from 
 ponds the water of which was strongly impregnated with iron. In 1824 ten 
 cows that were watered at other places all calved safely, while a single cow 
 ihat was allowed to drink of the ferruginous water cast her calf. The 
 same occurred in two following years t." 
 
 Some careful observers have occasionally attributed abortion to the dis- 
 proportion in size betwen the male and female. Farmers used to be too 
 fond of looking out for a great overgrown bull for their dairy or breeding 
 cows, and many a heifer or little cow was seriously injured : she either 
 cast her calf or was lost in parturition. This error has been long exploded 
 among the breeders of sheep ; and breeders of cattle are beginning to act 
 more wisely J 
 
 Cows that have been long afflicted with hoose, and that degenerating 
 into consumption, are exceedingly subject to abortion. They are continually 
 at heat — they rarely become pregnant, or if they do, a great proportion of 
 them cast their calves. When consumption is established, and the cow is 
 much wasted away, she will rarely retain her calf during the natural period 
 of pregnancy. 
 
 An in-calf beast will scarcely have hoove to any considerable extent with 
 out afterwards aborting. The pressure of the distended rumen seems to 
 injure or destroy the foetus. Even where the distention of the stomach 
 does not wear a serious character, abortion often follows the sudden change 
 from poor to luxuriant food. Cows that have been out and half-starved 
 in the winter, and incautiously turned on rich pasture in the spring, 
 are too apt to cast their calves from the undue general or local excita- 
 tion that is set up ; and, as has been already remarked, a sudden change 
 from rich pasture to a state of comparative starvation will produce the same 
 effect, but from an opposite cause. Hence it is that vehen this disposition 
 to abort first appears in a dairy, it is usually in a cow that has been lately 
 purchased. Fright, from whatever cause, may produce abortion. There 
 are singular cases on record of whole herds of cows slinking their calves 
 after being terrified by an unusually violent thunder-storm §. Commerce 
 with the bull soon after conceptior* is a frequent cause of abortion. The 
 casting of the calf has already been attributed to the sympathetic influence 
 
 • Journ. Th^or. et Prat., 1832, p. 164. V 
 
 / Landund Hauswirth, March, 1827, p.\l32. 
 
 $ Mr. Wedge, in his " Survey of Cheshirt," says that a whole dairy of nearly twenty 
 cows cast their ralves in one year. The fariiaer sold the bull he had used to a neigh- 
 bour, and the whole number of cows to whicb lie was put cast their calves also. The 
 original owner took back the bull, and three\ of his cows were again put to him, and 
 they also cast their calves. In this instance tSerewas clearly some delpct in the male. 
 
 § Instructions V^t^rinaires, vol. vi. p. 1S4. EJr. Rudge, in his " Survey of Gloucester* 
 shire, ' says, that there was an enclosure near A rlingham, close to which was a dog- 
 kennel Eight heifers and cows out of twenty v^arped, in consequence, as it was sup- 
 posed bythe farmer, of the frequent exposure of fliesh, and the skinning of dead hone< 
 so near them. The remainder were removed to a (^listant pasture and did well. 
 
ABORTION, OR SLINKING. 531 
 
 of the effluvia from the decomposing placenta : there are plenty of instanc<><« 
 ill which other putrid smells have produced the same effect, and therefore 
 the inmates of crowded cowhouses are not unfrequently subject to this 
 mishap. 
 
 Besides these tangible caufesof abortion, there is the mysterious agency 
 of the atmosphere. There are certain seasons when abortion is strangely 
 frequent and fatal ; while at other times it in a manner disappears for several 
 successive years. In the " Leipsic Agricultural Gazette," March 22, 1777, 
 it is stated, that, " by an unheard-of fatality, the abortion of cows in that 
 district was almost general, and that after the most anxious research, no 
 assignable cause for it could be discovered, nor would any medicine or 
 medical treatment arrest the plague."^ 
 
 In 1769, all the cows in Beaulieu aborted. This, however, was traced 
 to the long continuance of wet weather *. 
 
 In 1782 the cows near Granvilliers slinked their young, and this was 
 attributed to the excessive heat of the preceding summer. In 1784 
 almost all the cows and mares at Chalons aborted, and the cause was 
 anknown t- In 1787 all the cows at Bournonville cast their calves. They 
 had not been out of the cowhouse during the whole of the winter, and had 
 been well taken care of j;. There is no doubt that this must be added to 
 the number of epidemic diseases. 
 
 The consequences of premature calving are frequently of a very serious 
 nature. It has been stated that there is often considerable spasmodic closure 
 of the mouth of the uterus, and that the calf is produced with much difficulty 
 and pain, and especially if a few days have elapsed after the death of the 
 young one. When this is the case the mother frequently dies, or her re- 
 covery is much slower than afier natural parturition. The coat continues 
 rough and staring for a long time — the skin clings to the ribs — the appetite 
 does not return, and the milk is dried up. Some internal chronic com- 
 plaint now takes its rise, and the foundation is laid for consumption and 
 death. 
 
 When the case is more favourable, the results are, nevertheless, often 
 annoying. The cow very soon goes again to heat, but in a great many 
 cases she fails to become pregnant ; she almost certainly does so if she is put 
 to the bull during the first heat afler abortion. The heat again and again 
 returns, but she does not stand to the bulling ; and so the season is wasted, 
 while she becomes a perfect nuisance by continually worrying the other 
 cattle §. 
 
 If she should come in calf again during that season, it is very probable 
 that about the same period of utero-gestation, or a little later, she will again 
 abort; or that when she becomes in calf in the following year, the same 
 fatality will attend her. Some say that this disposition to cast her young 
 one gradually ceases ; that i" she does miscarry, it is at a later and still 
 later period of pregnancy ; and that, in about three or four years, she may 
 
 • Instructions VfitSrinaires, torn. vi. p. 137 t Ib'd. pp. 130, 131. 
 
 J Somewhat analogous is an account given by 'White, in his most interesting and 
 instructive work, the " Natural History of Selborne." Dr. Johnson says, that in 1771 
 ihe season was so severe in the Isle of Bkye, that it is remembered by the name of the 
 black tpring. The snow, which seldom lies at all, covered the ground for eight weeks ; 
 many cattle died, and those that survived were so emaciated that they did not require 
 the male at the usual season. The case was just the same with us here in the South. 
 N ever were so many barren cows known as in the spring following that dreadful period i 
 whole dairies missed being in calf together. — P. 396. 
 
 ^ The French have a very express! ve name foi these cows : they call them tauniltk-et. 
 A kind of nymphomania is produced, under the infiuence oi which the cow frequently 
 wastes awav and becomes a perfect skeleton. 
 
 2 Ma 
 
^32 CArrJ.R. 
 
 he depended upon as a tolerably safe breeder : .le, however, would be 
 exceedingly inattentive to his interest who kept a profitless beast so long-. 
 
 The calf very rarely lives, and in the majority of cases it is born dead 
 or putrid. If there should appear to be any chance of saving it, it should 
 be washed with warm water, carefully dried, and fed frequently with small 
 quantities of new milk, mixed, according to the apparent weakness of the 
 animal, either with raw eggs or good gruel ; while the bowels should, if 
 occasion requires, be opened by means of small doses of castor oil. If any 
 considerable period has to elapse before the natural term of pregnancy 
 would have expired, it will usually be necessary to bring up the little animal 
 entirely by the hand. 
 
 The treatment of abortion will differ little from that of parturition, pre- 
 sently to be described. If the farmer has once been tormented by this pest 
 in his dairy, he should carefully watch the approaching symptoms of cast- 
 ing the calf, and as soon as he perceives them, should remove the cow 
 from the pasture to a comfortable cowhouse or shed. If the discharge is 
 glairy, but not offensive, he may hope that the calf is not dead : he will be 
 assured of this by the motion of the foetus, and then it is possible that the 
 abortion may yet be avoided. He should hasten to bleed her, and that 
 copiously, in proportion to her age, size, condition, and the state of excita- 
 tion in which he may find her; and he should give a dose of physic imme- 
 diately after the bleeding. The physic beginning to operate, he should 
 administer half a drachm of opium and half an ounce of sweet spirit of 
 nitre. Unless she is in a state of great debility, he should avoid above all 
 things the comfortable drink, which some persons so strangely recommend, 
 and w^hich the cowleech will be almost sure to administer. He should 
 allow nothing but gruel, and he should keep his patient as quiet as he can. 
 By these means he may occasionally allay the general or local irritation 
 that precedes or causes the abortion, and the cow may yet go to her fuK 
 time. 
 
 Should, however, the discharge be foetid, the natural conclusion will be 
 that the foetus is dead, and must be got rid of, and that as speedily as pos- 
 sible. Bleeding may even then be requisite, if much fever exists ; or, per- 
 chance, the aforesaid comfortable drink may not be out of place. In other 
 respects, the animal must be treated as if her usual time of pregnancy had 
 been accomplished. 
 
 Much may be done in the way of preventing the formation of this habit 
 of abortion among the cows. The foetus must he got rid of immediately. 
 It should be buried deep, and far from the cow-pasture. Proper means 
 should be taken to hasten the expulsion of the placenta. A dose of physic 
 should be given ; the ergot of rye, as hereafter to be described, should be 
 administered ; the hand should be introduced, and an effort made, cautiously 
 and gently, to detach the placenta : all violence, however, should be care- 
 fully avoided, for considerable and fatal hemorrhage may be speedily pro- 
 duced. The parts of the cow should be well washed with a solution of the 
 chloride of lime, and this should be injected up the vagina, and also given 
 internally. In the mean time, and especially after the expulsion of the 
 placenta, the cowhouse should be well washed with the same solution, in 
 the manner that was recommended whej the treatment of the malignant 
 epidemic was under consideration. 
 
 The cow, when beginning to recover, should be fattened and sold. This 
 IS the first and the grand step towards the prevention of abortion, and he is 
 unwise who does not immediately adopt it. All other means are compa 
 ratively inefficient and worthless. I1was the charm by means of which 
 Chabert arrested the plague which or thirtv successive years had devas- 
 
TREATMENT BEFORE CALVING 633 
 
 tated the farm at Tbury^ Should the owner be reluctant to part with her, 
 two months at least should pass before she is permitted to return to her 
 companions. Prudence would probably dictate that she should never returiv 
 to them ; but be kept, i .* possible, on some distant part of the farm. 
 
 Abortion having once occurred on the farm, the breeding cows should be 
 carefully watched. Although well fed, they should not be suffered to get 
 into too high condition. Unless they are decidedly poor and weak, they 
 should be bled between the third and fourth months of pregnancy, and a 
 mild dose of physic should be administered to each. If the pest continues 
 to reappear, the owner should most carefully examine how far any of the 
 causes of abortion that have been detected may exist on his farm, and exert 
 himself in carefully removing them. 
 
 SYMPTOMS OF PREGNANCY. 
 
 The symptoms of pregnancy in its early stage used to be thought ex- 
 ceedingly unsatisfactory. The period of being in season (which gene- 
 rally lasts three or four days, and then ceases for a while, and returns 
 in about three weeks or a month) might entirely pass over ; and although 
 it was then probable that conception had taken place, yet in a great many 
 instances the hopes of the breeder were disappointed. It was not until 
 between the third and fourth month, when the belly began to enlarge, or 
 in many cases considerably later, and when the motions of the foetus might 
 be seen, or at all events felt by pressing on the right flank, that the farmer 
 could be assured that his cow was in calf. That greatest of improvements 
 in veterinary practice, the application of the ear to the chest and belly of 
 various animals (in order to detect, by the different sounds — which, after a 
 short time, will be easily recognised — the state of the circulation through 
 most of the internal organs, and consequently the precise seat and degree 
 of inflammation and danger), has now enabled the breeder to ascertain the 
 existence of pregnancy at as early a stage of it as six or eight weeks. The 
 beating of the heart of the calf will be distinctly heard, twice, or more than 
 twice as frequent as that of the mother ; and each pulsation will betray the 
 singular double beating of the foetal heart. This will also be accompa- 
 nied by the audible- nishing of the blood through the vessels of the placenta. 
 The ear should be applied to the right flank, beginning on the superior 
 part of it, and gradually shifted downwards and backwards. These sounds 
 will soon be heard, and cannot be mistaken *. 
 
 TREATMENT BEFORE CALVING. 
 
 Little alteration needs to be made in the management of the cow for the first 
 seven months of pregnancy ; except that, as she has not only to yield milk 
 for the profit of the farmer, but to nourish the foetus which is growing in 
 
 • The following is an extract; from an " Essay on Auscultation, as the only unequi- 
 vocal Evidence of Pregnancy," by Dr. J. C. Ferguson, Professor of Midwifery at 
 Kiiig's College, London. The whole of the Essay is important even to the veterinary 
 practitioner, and reflects the highest credit on the power of philosophical investigation 
 and the truly philanthropic spirit of the writer : — " A goat had been procured for a 
 very different purpose by Drs. Hunt, Corrigan, and myself, and bound on its back on 
 the operating table. I casually applied the stethoscope to its abdomen, without the 
 slightest previous knowledge of its pregnancy, and was surprised to detect almost imme- 
 diately the distinct double pulsations of a fcetal heart. My two friends, to whose accuracy 
 of observation I have often been indebted, satisiied themselves perfectly of the fact ; 
 and on examining the uterus about an hour afterwards, we extracted a fcetus, the heart 
 of which did not exceed the size of a hazel nut. On inqniring of the person who sold 
 ui the goat, and on whose accuracy we could depend, we learnt that it was exactly 
 ■even weeks from copulation." — Dublin Medical Transactions, vol. i. part 1; New 
 
S34 CATTLE. 
 
 her womb, she should be well, yet not tooluxnriantly fed. The half-starved 
 cow will not adequately dischargee this double duty, nor provide sufficient 
 nutriment for the calf when it has dropped; while the cow in high con- 
 dition will, be dangerously disposed to inflammation and fever, when, at 
 the time of parturition, she is otherwise so susceptible of the power of 
 every stimulus. If the season and the convenience of the farmer will admit 
 of it, she will be better at pasture, at least for some hours in the day, than 
 altogether confined in the cowhouse. 
 
 At a somewhat uncertain period before she calves, there will be a new 
 secretion of milk for the expected little one ; and under the notion of some- 
 what recruiting her strength, in order better to enable her to discharge her 
 new duty, but more from the uniform testimony of experience that there 
 is danger of local inflammation and of general fever — garget in the udder, 
 and puerperal fever, if the new milk descends while the old milk continues 
 to flow, it has beeti usual to let the cow go dry for some period before 
 parturition. Farmers and breeders have been strangely divided as to the 
 length of this period. It must be decided by circumstances. A cow in 
 good condition may be milked much longer than a poor one. Her abun- 
 dance of food renders a period of respite almost unnecessary ; and all 
 *hat needs to be taken care of is that the old milk should be fairly 
 gone before the new milk springs. In such a cow, while there is danger 
 of inflammation from the sudden rush of the new milk into a bag already 
 occupied, there is also considerable danger of indurations and tumours in 
 the teats from the habit of secretion being too long suspended. The 
 emaciated and overmilked beast, however, must rest a while before she can 
 again advantageously discharge the duties of a mother. 
 
 Were the period of pregnancy of equal length at all times and in all 
 cows, the one that has been well fed might be milked until within a fort- 
 night or three weeks of parturition ; while a holiday of two months should 
 be granted to the poorer beast ; but as there is much irregularity about this, 
 it may be prudent to take a month or five weeks as the ayerage period. 
 
 The process of parturition is one that is necessarily accompanied by a 
 great deal of febrile excitement ; and therefore, when it.nearly approaches, 
 not only should a little care be taken to lessen the quantity of food, and 
 to remove that which is of a stimulating nature, but a mild dose of physic, 
 and a bleeding regulated by the condition of the animal, will be very proper 
 precautionary measures. 
 
 A moderately open state of the bowels is more necessary at the period 
 of parturition in the cow than in the mare. During the whole time of 
 pregnancy her enormous stomachs sufficiently press upon and confine tha 
 womb ; and that pressure may be productive of injurious or fatal conse- 
 quences, if at this period the rumen is suffered to be distended by unnutri- 
 tious food, or the manyplus takes on that hardened state to which it is 
 occasionally subject. Breeders have been sadly negligent here. 
 
 NATURAL LABOUR. 
 
 The springing of the udder, or the rapid enlargement of it from thi'. 
 renewed secretion of milk — the enlargement of the external parts of the 
 bearing (the former, as it has been said by some, in old cows, and the 
 latter in young ones) — the appearance of a glairy discharge from the 
 bearing — the evident dropping of the belly, with the appearance of lean- 
 ness and narrowness between the shape and the udder — a degree of uneasi- 
 ness and fidgetiness — moaning occasionally — accelerated respiration — all 
 these symptoms will announce that the time of calving is not far off. The 
 cow should be brought near home, and put in some quiet, sheltered plnctt. 
 
MEGHAN lOAL ASSISTANCE. 535 
 
 In cold Of stormy weather she should be housed. Her uneasiness will 
 rapidly increase— she will be continually getting up and lying down^ 
 her tail will begin to be elevated, and the commencement of the labour- 
 pains will soon be evident. 
 
 The natural progress of parturition should not be unnecessarily inter- 
 fered with. The cow should be frequently looked at, but not disturbet' 
 Although her pains may not be so strong as could be wished, she should 
 not be too Closely approached or exarained until the water-bladder or bag 
 containing the flnid in which the calf has hitherto floated has protruded 
 and is broken. Soon afterwards it may be proper to ascertain whether th« 
 calf is " coming the right way" In the natural presentation of the foetus, 
 the calf may be considered as couching or lying on its belly ; its fore-legs 
 protmding into the passage, its head lying upon them, or being a little be- 
 tween them, and reaching down about as far as the knees, and the back of 
 the calf corresponding with or opposed to the back of the mother. 
 
 While the throes continue tolerably strong, the farmer or practitioner 
 should have patience, although the progress of the labour may be tediously 
 slow. Nature will at length safely accomplish her object. But if the pains 
 are evidently diminisbing, and hour after hour has passed and the calf 
 protrudes little or not at all more than it did, assistance should be rendered. 
 A pint of sound ale, Wanbed, should be given in an equal quantity of gruel ; 
 warm gruel should be frequently administered, or at least put within the 
 animal's reach ; and access to cold water should be carefully prevented. 
 
 To the first pint of ale should be added a quarter of an ounce of the 
 ergot of rye (spurred rye), iinely powdered; and the same quantity of the 
 ergot, with half a pint of ale, should be repeated every hour until the 
 pains are reproduced in their former and natural strength, or the labour is 
 terminated *. 
 
 ttECHANICAL ASSISTANCE. 
 
 The power of fnediciue failing, recourse should be had to mechanical 
 assistance. Twelve hours or more having elapsed from the commencement 
 of the labour, this should be done, even although the calf may continue 
 to be alive ; aiid it should not be deferred one moment after it is ascertained 
 that the foetus is dead. Even now, however, the cow should not be dis- 
 turbed more than is absolutely necessary ; and it cannot be too deeply im- 
 pressed on the mind of the farmer, that the frequent habit of rousing the 
 poor animal, and driving her about, while she is in the act of calving, or 
 even before the labour begins, is an unnatural, brutal, and dangerous one. 
 
 * There ia some difference of opinion among practitioners as to the power of the 
 spurred rye. Mr. Allinson, of Idle, says ('' Veterinarian," Feb. 1834, p. 73) — 
 '' The ergot of rye has never yet failed in my practice to stimulate the uterus of cattle, 
 whether the muscular power of that organ was exhausted by previous efforts, or 
 torpid from peculiar temperament." On the other hand, Mr. Harrison, of .Lancaster, 
 (" Veterinarian," July, 1834, p. 360,) relates a case in which he gave it to the extent of 
 more than a quarter of a pound without its producing the slightest effect. 
 
 The experience of the author of this work is undoubtedly in favour of the ergot. On 
 the morning in which he writes this note, he witnessed it^ power in exciting the 
 womb of a deer to very powerful action ; but he must ackisiawledge that he has more 
 than once, like Mr. Harrison, been disappointed in his expectations from it, which 
 he is inclined to attribute to the peculiar formation of the stomachs of cattle which 
 so often suspends the action of the most powerful purgative, tie likewise adds his tes- 
 timony to that of Mr. Harrison, that although it may not produce the desired stimu- 
 lating effect on the uterus, there is no danger to be apprehended from its use in mode- 
 rate quantities. He would therefore advise every practitioner and every fanner to 
 have it at hand. 
 
 Some interesting accounts of its power of exciting uterine action in other animals 
 ve contained in the Nunzhcrs of the " Veterinarian'' for Septetdber and October, 1S33, 
 
»3B CATTLE. 
 
 Mr. Skellett. in his work on " the Parturition of the Cow," (a trulj 
 valuable one as it regards the point now under consideration, the mecha- 
 nical assistance that can be rendered in difficult and protracted labour,) 
 observes, " As the business proceeds, and the pains increase in strength 
 and rapidity, she confines herself to a lying posture, and in this posture she 
 is delivered of the ca.f. When we reflect on this '■i..i.»..ct of the animal, 
 left to herself, we cannot too much reprobate the advice of those who 
 recommend the driving her in the act of calving, or immediately before it 
 takes place. The author has known a great many instances where it has 
 proved the death of the cow, by producing inflammation and all its bad 
 consequences. Every rational man will agree that the above practice is 
 both cruel and inconsistent ; for the animal herself, as soon as the hours 
 of calving come on, immediately leaves the rest of the flock, and retires to 
 some corner of the field, or under a hedge, in order to prevent the othei 
 cows or any thing else coming near that maydisturb her in bringing for- 
 ward her young." — P. 113. 
 
 If the head is sufficiently advanced to be grasped by the hands, or for a 
 hand to be introduced by the side of it so as to urge it forward, an assistant 
 at the same time laying hold of the fore-legs, and pulling with moderate 
 force at each of the throes of the mother, the little animal may often be 
 brought forward without endangering its life. If, however, it is firmly 
 impacted in the passage, a cord with a slip knot should be fastened round 
 each leg immediately above the fetlock, and a third cord around the lower 
 jaw. Greater power may then be applied, the persons holding the cords 
 pulling in concert, accommodating themselves to the natural pains of the 
 mother, and exerting their strength, although somewhat forcibly, yet quietly 
 and gradually. Here again the brutal violence resorted to by some per- 
 sons is much to be reprobated ; it inevitably destroys the calf, and en- 
 dangers the life of the mother. If the foetus cannot be extracted by moderate 
 f()rce, one of the shoulders should be slipped (taken ofi), which may easily 
 be effected by means of a small knife curved like those used for pruning, 
 so as to be easily introduced into the passage in the hollow of the hand, 
 and there used without danger of wounding the cow. An incision should 
 be made in the fore-arm of the fcetus, and the skin elevated and turned 
 back by means either of the knife or the fingers. The shoulder may then 
 be easily detached from the body and drawn out ; and the bulk of the 
 calf being thus materially lessened, the remainder of it will be readily 
 extracted. 
 
 UNNATURAL PRESENTATION. 
 
 It will soon be evident whether the calf is in the right position. The 
 appearance of the feet and the situation of the head will be satisfactory on 
 this point : but from fright, or violence, or some unknown cause, the posi- 
 tion of the foetus is sometimes strangely altered, so as to render its ex- 
 traction difficult or impossible. Mr. Skellett has given a very useful account 
 of these unnatural or false presentations and to which the reader is referred ; 
 a slight sketch only of the most frequent of them being here introduced. 
 
 In some cases, although the throes rapidly succeed each other and are 
 not deficient in power, nothing, or perhaps only the mere hoofs, protrude 
 from the vagina. This must not be sufl«red long to continue, for if it does, 
 the strength of the cow will be rapidly wasted. The hand and arm, having 
 been well oiled, must be introduced into the passage in order to ascer- 
 tain the position of the foetus. The whole of the passage being probably 
 well occupied by the head or fore-limbs, and the uterus and the vagina 
 powerfully contracting, the arm of the operator willreceive very consider- 
 able and benumbing pressure ; and sometimes to such an extent that the 
 
UNNATURAL PRESENTATION. 6S7 
 
 perfect feeling of the limb will not be restored until some hours have passed, 
 This must not be regarded, but the surgeon must steadily, yet not ■vio- 
 lently, push the arm forward, taking care that he does not wound the cow 
 with his nails. 
 
 If he finds the fore-feet far up the passage, and the head between theno 
 but sunk down below the bones of the pelvis, he will immediately percei 
 that the extraction of the calf is impossible while it remains in this position. 
 He will therefore pass a cord with a slip-knot round each of the feet, and 
 push them back into the womb. Next, with the slip-knot of a third cord 
 in his hand, he will push back the whole of the fostus graduaFly, but firmly, 
 until he is able to get his hatM under the head and elevate it and pass the 
 noose round the lower jaw : then grasping the upper jaw and endeavouring 
 thus to raise the muzzle above the rim of the pelvis, his assistants will draw 
 the three cords and easily bring the head and the feet into the passage in 
 the natural position. 
 
 If the head is not depressed between the feet, but bent down on one side 
 below the passage, cords must be put round the fore-feet, and they are to 
 be returned as in the other case. The head is to be sought out, and a noose 
 passed round the jaw, and then the operator putting his hand against the 
 chest of the foetus and pushing it back, his assistants are to gently draw 
 the three cords, until the head and the feet are properly placed. Great 
 care should, however, be taken that, in drawing out the fore-feet, the 
 womb is not injured by the hoofs ; they should generally be brought for- 
 ward separately and guarded by the hand of the operator within the womb. 
 If there should be insuperable difficulty in raising and bringing the head 
 round, and the calf is d^ad, the skin must be turned back from one of the 
 legs, beginning at the fore-arm and reaching the shoulder, as alrea,dy de- 
 scribed, and the shoulder detached, which, considering the weakness of 
 the muscles and ligaments at that age, will be readily effected^ The 
 assistant then pulling steadily at the legs, and the sufgeon forcing the chest 
 back into the belly, the extraction of the foetus will rarely be difficult. 
 
 It may happen that after many throes no portion of the foetus appears, 
 but the calf is found turned in the womb, with his back resting on the 
 belly of the mother, the feet against the spine, the head depressed below 
 .the bones of the pelvis, and the poll pressing against these bones. To 
 turn the calf in this position will be difficult, and often impossible ; but, 
 cords having been fastened, as before, to the feet and the lower jaw, the 
 hand should be introduced luider the head, so as to raise it in some measure, 
 and enable the assistants, by means of the cords, to bring it and the feet 
 into the passage. If the foetus should be dead, or the life of the mother 
 appears to be in danger, it will be very easy, while in this position, to sepa- 
 rate one or both shoulders, and the head may then be readily brought out. 
 
 It is not uncommon for the tail alone to be seen at the mouth of the 
 passage. This is a breech presentation, and a very dangerous one. The 
 calf cannot be expelled by the natural throes qf the mother, the doubling 
 of the hind legs offering an insuperable obstacle ; nor will it be possible fur 
 the foetus to be turned in the womb. The hand must be introduced ; one 
 of the hocks searched out, and the noose end of a cord brought round it : 
 next, the free end of the cord, must be -carried in and passed through the 
 aoose, which is to be tightened and fixed above the hock. The operator 
 must then press against the breech, forcing the calf backwards and up- 
 wards, while the assistants draw the hock to the commencement of the 
 passage by means of the cords. The surgeon should then shift his hand 
 down to the hoof in order to guard the uterus, as the foot is brought over 
 
»38 CATTLE. 
 
 the ridge of the pelvis. The other hock being afterwards drawn from undei 
 the foetus in the same way, the birth may be easily accomplished. 
 
 The birth being' effected, the practitioner should examine the womb in 
 order to ascertain the sta*e of the placenta, and whether there is a second 
 calf. The cases of twins will not often give the practitioner much trouble, 
 for the calves are generally small and easily brought through the passage, 
 unless they should both present themselves at the same time; therefore, at 
 the commencement of every labour, the surgeon should carefully ascertain 
 whether the parts presentmg may not belong to two distinct calves; in 
 which case one must be pushed back until the other is delivered, for in the 
 attempt to extract them both together the mother and the calves would in- 
 evitably perish, 
 
 FREE-MARTINS. 
 
 The opinion has prevailed among breeders from time out of date that 
 when a cow produces two" calves, one of them a bull-calf and the other a 
 cow, the male may become a perfect and useful bull, but the female will be 
 incapable of propagation, and^'wUl never show any desire for the bull. The 
 Curious name of free-martin has been given to ttiis animal. That accurate 
 enquirer, Mr. John Hunter, spared no pains or expense to ascertain the 
 real foundation of this belief; and he availed himself of the opportunity 
 of examining three of these free-martins. In all of them there was a 
 greater or less deviation from the external form and appearance of the 
 cow ; and in the head and the horns some approach to those of the ox ; 
 while neither of them had shown any propensity to breed. The teats were 
 smaller than is usual in the heifer ; but the outward appearance of the bear- 
 ing was the same. 
 
 They were slaughtered, and he examined the internal structure of the 
 sexual parts : he found in all of them a greater or less deviatioii from the 
 form of the female, and the addition of some of the organs peculiar to the 
 male; and he ascertained that they were in fact hermaphrodites. His 
 description of one of them is given in the subjoined note, and vrill be in- 
 teresting to the veterinary and medical student* 
 
 It is not then a mere vulgar error that the female twin is barren ; and 
 Mr. J. Hunter has very satisfactorily accounted for the reason of her 
 being so f. On the other hand, there are several well-authenticated in- 
 
 * " Mr. Arbuthnot's free-martin, seven years old. The external parts were rather smaller 
 than in the cow. The vagina passed on, as in the cow, to the opfning of the urethra, and 
 then it befi;an to contract into a small canal which passed on tu the division of the uterus 
 into the two horns, each horn passed along the edge of the broad ligament laterally 
 towards the ovaria. 
 
 " At the termination of these horns were placed both the ovaria and the testicles. Both 
 were nearly oi' the same size, which was about as large as a small nutmeg. To the ovari* 
 1 could not find any Fallopian tube. 
 
 " To the testicles were vasa d^erentia, but they were imperfect. Tlie left one did not 
 come near the testicle, the ri^ht one only came close to it, but did not terminate in the 
 body called the epididymis. They were both pervious and opened into the vagina, near 
 the opening of the urethra. 
 
 " On the posterior surface of the bladder, or between the uterus and bladder, were the 
 two bags called vesicula seminales in the male, but much smaller than they are in the 
 bull. The ducts opened along with the vasa-del'erentia. This animal then had a mix* 
 ture of all the paits, but all of them, were imperfect." — Philosophical Transactions, vol, 
 Ixix. p. 289. 
 
 f It is singular that the Romans should have called their barren cows taurte, as if they 
 nad something of the bull about them. Columella, lib. vi. cap. 22, speaks of " taura 
 which occupy the place of fertile cows, and sliould be sent away." Varro also, De Re. 
 Rutticd, lib. ii. cap. 5, calls the barren cow taura. This would be a curiuis subject of 
 diauiry 
 
THli Ci4;SARIAN OPERATION. bii 
 
 Stances of these free-martins having bred. An anonymous write? in the 
 " Farmer's Majjazine, for November, 1806,'' describes a free-martin be- 
 longing to Mr. Biichan of Killintringham, that had a calf, and who was a 
 handsome beast, with a well-placed udder, and was a good milker. The 
 same gentleman, however, had another free-martin, which never bred. 
 Another writer in the same Magazine, November, 1807, says, " on the 
 llUi of November, 1804, a cow of mine brought forth two calves, one a 
 bull, and the other a cow calf j and in spring last the female twin produced 
 a very good male calf ; yet a neighbour of mine assures me that a female 
 twin belonging to him never would take the bull, and was sold on that 
 account to the butcher at the age of four or five.' 
 
 It would hence appear that the rule is, and a very singular anomaly in 
 natural history it is, that the female twin is barren, because she is an her- 
 miiphnidite ; but in some cases, there not being this admixture of the organs 
 of different sexes, or those of the female pievailing, she is capable of 
 breeding. 
 
 There have been instances of the cow producing three calves at one 
 birth, but they have been so rare that there has been no record of the pro- 
 creative power of the female. The editor of the ' British Farmer's Ma- 
 gazine,' May, 1828, speaks of three calves being produced by a small cow 
 of the mixed Alderney and Yorkshire breeds, which in size, shape, and 
 make, were a fac-simile of each other, and between which the most minute 
 observer could not detect a difference. 
 
 There is a more singular account in a French periodical. A cow pro- 
 duced nine calves at three successive births; four at first, all females, in 
 1817 ; three at the second, of which two were females, in 1818 ; and two 
 females, in 18].9. All these, except two at the first birth, were nursed by 
 the mother *. 
 
 THE CjBSARIAN OPERATION. 
 
 Some practitioners have lately recommended, in desperate cases, the 
 opening of the side of the mother, and the extraction of the calf. The 
 circumstances must indeed be desperate which can justify such a procedure. 
 If, at the very earliest period of parturition, the veterinary surgeon can 
 ascertain that there is a malformation of the pelvis, which will render 
 delivery in a manner impossible, and the breed is a valuable one, and the 
 mother, with this malformation, would never again be useful as a breeding 
 cow, and no violent attempts have been made to extract the foetus — nothing 
 has been done which could set up inflammation, or give a disposition to 
 inflammatory action ; or if it can be clearly ascertained that there is a 
 deformity in the foetus, an enlargement of the head, or a general bulkiness, 
 which will forbid its being extracted either whole or piecemeal, the prac- 
 titioner might be justified in attempting this serious operation : but in a 
 later stage of the process, when the usual measures have been adopted — 
 when the parts have been bruised and injured, and the animal has been 
 fatigued and worn out, and the foetus itself probably has not escaped injury, 
 such an operation can scarcely be defended on any principle of science oi 
 humanity. The writer of this work has twice attempted the operation, 
 but in neither case did he save either the mother or the calf; nor is he 
 av7are of any English veterinarian who has succeeded. There is an account 
 of one successful case by M. Chretienf, but it is one only out of the 
 several that he attempted, and he attempted this, because, on examination, 
 • he found that there was a hard tumour in the womb, which nearly hal^ 
 filled the cavity of the pelvis, and forbade the possibility of delivery. 
 
 • Nouveau Bulletin des Sciencas. f Journ. Pratique, 1826, p. 221. 
 
540 CATTLE. 
 
 In such case the experiment was justifiable, and it must have been very 
 gratifying to M. Chretien to have succeeded: but let not the dawn of vete- 
 rinary science be clouded by the reckless infliction of torture on any of our 
 quadtiped slaves. 
 
 If a similar impossibility of delivery should occur in the practice of the 
 veterinary surgeon, and equally justifying the experiment, the operation 
 must be thus performed. The rumen must first be punctured at the 
 flank, or some of the solution of the chloride of lime introduced, in 
 order to gel rid t,Tany gas which it contains, and thus to bring the uterus 
 better into view, and prevent as much as possible that pressure on it, and 
 on the intestines, which will usually cause a troublesome and dangerous 
 protrusion of them as soon as an incision is made into the belly. The 
 animal is then to be thrown on the left side and properly secured ; the right 
 Iiind leg, being detaohed from the hobbles, must be brought as far back- 
 wards as possible, and fixed to some post or firm object, so as to leave 
 the right flank as much exposed as it can be. Commencing about two 
 inches before and a little below the haunch bone, an incision is now to be 
 made through the skin, six or seven inches long, in a direction from above 
 downwards, and from behind forwards, and this incision is afterwards to be 
 carried through the skin, and the muscular wall of the flank. A bistoury 
 being taken and two Angers introduced into the wound in order to protect 
 the intestines, the wound is to be lengthened five or six inches more over 
 the superior and middle part of the uterus. 
 
 At this moment, probably, a mass of small intestines may protrude ; they 
 must be put a little on one side, or supported by a cloth, and the operator 
 must quickly search for the fore feet and head of the fcetns. An incision 
 must be made through the uterus of sufficient lenjith to extract the calf, 
 which must be lifted from its bed, two ligatures passed round the cord, the 
 cord divided between them, and the young one, if living, consigned to the 
 care of a stander by, to be conveyed away and taken care of. The placenta 
 is now to be quickly yet gently detached, and taken away. The intestines 
 are to be returned to their natural situation, the divided edges of the uterus 
 brought together and retained by means of two or three sutures, the effused 
 blood sponged out from the abdomen, and the muscular parietes likewise 
 held together by sutures, and other sutures passed through the integuments. 
 Dry soft lint is then to be placed over the incision, and retained on it 
 by means of proper bandages, and the case treated as consisting of a 
 serious wound.' Some valuable observations on this operation will be 
 found in the Dictionuaire de M6d. Vtlt., Gastpo-Hvsterotomie. 
 
 EMBRYOTOMY. 
 
 In cases of malformation of the calf, or when, as now and then happens, 
 tne powers of nature seem to be suddenly exhausted, and no stimulus can 
 rouse the womb again to action, the destruction of the fcetus, should it still 
 live, and the removal of it piecemeal, is a far more humane method of pro- 
 ceeding, and much oftener successful. All that will be necessary will be a 
 very small kind of pruning knife, already described, with the blade even a 
 .ittle more curved than those knives generally are, and that can be carried 
 ,nto the passage in the hollow of the hand with scarcely the possibility ot 
 wounding the cow. A case related by M. Thibeaudeau will best illustrate 
 this operation*. ' I was consulted respecting a Breton cow twenty years 
 oldy which was unable to calve. I soon discovered the obstacle to the 
 delivery. The fore limbs presented themselves as usual, but the tiead and 
 
 • Veterinarian, June, 183 1, p. 346. 
 
INVERSION OF THE WOMB. 541 
 
 neck were turned backwards, and fixed on the left side of the chest, while the 
 foetus lay on its right side on the inferior portion of the uterus.' M. Fhl- 
 beaudeau then relates the inefTectual efforts he made in order to bring the 
 foetus into a favourable position, and that he at length found that his 
 only resource to save the mother was to cut in pieces the calf which was 
 now dead. He afterwards describes the knife which he had manufactured 
 for this purpose, and thus proceeds : • I amputated the left shoulder of the 
 foetus, in spite of the difficulties which the position of the head and neck 
 presented. Having withdrawn this limb, I made an incision through all 
 the cartilages of the ribs, and laid open the chest through its whole extent, 
 by means of which I was enabled to extract all the thoracic viscera. Thus 
 having lessened the size of the calf, I was enabled, by pulling at the remain- 
 ing fore-leg, to extract the foetus without much resistance, although the 
 head and neck were Still bent upon the chest. The afterbirth was removed 
 immediately afterwards. More recently I have employed the same instru • 
 ment in operating upon a cow the neck of whose uterus was so constricted 
 that the finger could scarcely be introduced ; I divided the stricture, and 
 saved both cow and calf ' 
 
 INVEHSION OF THE WOMB. 
 
 In the convulsive efforts in order to accomplish the expulsion of the 
 foetus, the womb itself sometimes closely follows the calf, and liangs from the 
 bearing, as low as or lower than the hocks, in the form of a large red or 
 violet coloured bag. This is' called 'the downfall of the calf-bag' I' 
 should be returned as soon as possible, for there is usually great pressure 
 on the neck of the womb, which impedes the circulation of the blood, and 
 the protruded part quickly grows livid and black, and is covered with 
 ulcerated spots, and becomes gangrenous and mortifiedj and this is rapidly 
 increased by the injury which the womb sustains in the continual getting 
 up and lying down of the cow in these cases. 
 
 The womb must first be cleansed from all the dirt which it may have 
 gathered. If much swelling has taken place, and the bag looks thickened 
 and gorged with blood, it should be lightly yet freely scarified, and the bleed- 
 ing encouraged by warm fomentations. While this is done, it should be care- 
 fully ascertained whether there is any distension of the rumen, and if there 
 is, either the common puncture for hoove should be made in the flank, or a 
 doseof the solution of the chloride of lime administered. A distended rumen 
 would form an almost insuperable obstacle to the return of the uterus. 
 Two persons should now support the calf-bag by means of a strong yet 
 soft cloth, while, if the placenta yet remains attached to it, a third person 
 gently separates it at every point. ' It would be useless to attempt to return 
 the womb until the cleansing is taken away, for the labour pains would 
 return as violently as before. The operator will carefully remove the 
 little collections, or bundles of blood-vessels, which belong to the foetal 
 portion of the placenta, and which are implanted into the cotyledons or 
 fleshy excrescences, that, for some reason, never yet fully explained, grow 
 upon the surface of the impregnated womb, and gradually disappear again 
 afler the birth of the calf. If much bleeding attends this process, the parts 
 are to be washed with a weak mixture of spirit and water. The bleeding 
 being a little stayed, and every thing that may have gathered round the 
 calf-bag being removed, the assistants should raise the cloth, and bring the 
 womb ou a level with the bearing; while the surgeon, standing behind, and 
 iiaving his hand and arm well oiled, and a little oil having been likewise 
 smeared over the womb generally, places his right hand, with the Anger!) 
 hcnf or clenched, asrainst the fundus or bottom — the very inferior and f**- 
 
*^2 CATTLK. 
 
 ther part of that corau or division of the uterus winch contained the foslus 
 and forces it through the passage, and as far as he can into the belly ; and 
 there he retains it, while, with the other hand, he tuileavours likewise to 
 force up the smaller horn, and the mouth of the womb. He will find 
 considerable difficulty in effecting this, for the strainings against him will 
 often be immense, and sometimes when he thinks he has attained his objea 
 the whole will again be suddenly and violently expelled. A bleeding from 
 the jugular, and the administration of a couple of drachms of opium, will 
 materially lessen these spasmodic elTorls. The surgeon must, in spite of 
 fatigue, patiently persist in his labour until his object is accomplished ; and 
 he will be materially assisted in this by having the cow either standing, or so 
 placed on straw that her hinder parts shall be considerably elevated. 
 
 The practitioner should be careful that the parts are returned as nearly 
 as possible into their natural siluation, and this he will easily ascertain by 
 examination with the hand. Much of the after quietness of the animal, 
 and the retention of the womb thus returned, will depend upon this. 
 
 Although the return of the parts to their natural situation may be toler- 
 ably clearly ascertained, yet it will be prudent to provide against a fresh 
 access of pain and another expulsion of the uterus. For this purpose it 
 has been usual to pass three or four stitches of small tape through the lips 
 of the bearing ; but this is a painful thing and sometimes difficult to accom- 
 plish ; and the cases are not unfrequent when these stitches are torn out, 
 and considerable laceration and inflammation ensue, 
 
 A collar should be passed round the neck of the cow, composed of the 
 kind of web that encircles the neck of the horse when he is confined for 
 certain operations : a girth of the same material is then put round the 
 body behind the shoulders, and this is connected with the collar, under 
 the brisket and over the shoulder, and on each side. A second girth is 
 passed behind the first, and a little anterior to the udder, and connected 
 with the first in the same way. To this, on one side, and level with the 
 bearing, a piece of stout wrapping cloth or other strong material, twelve 
 or sixteen inches wide, is sewed or fastened, and brought over the bear- 
 insr, and attached to the girth on the other side in the same manner. A 
 kn'cjt on each side will constitute the simplest fastening, and this pressing 
 firmly on the bearing will effectually prevent the womb from again pro- 
 truding. If it should be necessary, another piece may be carried from below 
 the bearing over the udder to the second girth, and a corresponding one, 
 slit in order to pass on each side of the tail, may reach from above the 
 bearing to the upper part of the second bandage. 
 
 The cow should be kept as quiet as possible ; warm mashes and warm 
 "ruel should be allowed ; bleeding should again be resorted to, and small 
 doses of opium administered if she should be restless, or the pains should 
 return ; butit will not be prudent during the first day to give either those fever 
 rnedicines, as nitre and digitalis, which may have a diuretic effect and excite 
 the urinary organs, or to bring on the straining efiFect of purging, by admi- 
 nistering even a dose of saline medicine. Should twenty-four hours pass 
 and the pains not return, the stitches may be withdrawn from the bearing, 
 or the bandage removed. 
 
 RUPTURE OF THE WTERUS. 
 
 Another more serious evil sometimes accompanies inversion of the 
 womb, namely, a laceration or rupture of that organ, eflFected either by the 
 unusually strong contraction of the womb, or by the violence with which 
 the feet of the calf are drawn forward in the unskilful treatment of false 
 aresentation, or by the general concussion which accompanies the expul- 
 
RETENTIOTi OF THE FCETL'S. g^., 
 
 ■ion of the wotnl). The laceration is sometimes a foot in .eiigth, and ia 
 generally found on one side, and not far from the bottom of the uterus. 
 
 The animal needs not to be abandoned even in such a case, although 
 there will be considerably more difficulty in returning the womb, because 
 the same pressure cannot be made with the doubled hand on the bottom of 
 it, and that difficulty may be increased by the furious state of the beast 
 suffering such intensity of pain, and the whole frame disordered by such 
 an accident. No time should be lost in vain efforts to bring- the lacerated 
 parts together and secure them by stitches ; but, the womb having been 
 well cleaned, the placenta removed, and the bleeding somewhat stayed, 
 it must be returned as well and as speedily as can be managed, and the 
 bandage applied, or the lips of the bearing secured by stitches : the cow 
 should then be bled, and opiates administered. Nature will often do wonders 
 here — the mischief will be repaired — the uterus will become whole again, 
 and that without a tenth part of the fever that might be expected ; and 
 'here are instances upon record in which the cow has suckled her calf, and 
 produced another a twelvemonth afterwards*. 
 
 Ruptuie of the uterus may occur without protrusion of the part, from the 
 too powerful action of that organ. The symptoms ars obscure — they have 
 not yet been sufficiently observed. They would probably be gradual ceas- 
 ing of the labour pains — coldness of the horns and ears and mouth- 
 paleness of the mouth — a small and accelerated pulse — swelling of the 
 belly, and the discharge of bloody, glairy, fetid matter from the shape. 
 Nothing can be done in such a case. 
 
 PROTRUSION OP THE Bt.ADDER. 
 
 In long protracted labour, accompanied by pains unusually violent 
 the bladder has protruded. A practitioner mistook it for the water-bag, 
 and punctured it. If the calf is not already born, it must be extracted as 
 quickly as the case will admit, and that without scrupulous regard to the 
 safety of the cow; for the protruded bladder can never be returned to its 
 natural situation — in consequence of paiix and. inconvenience the animal 
 can never afterwards carry high condition, but will be a miserable and 
 disffusting object as long as she lives. 
 
 RETENTION OF THE F(ETUS. 
 
 It may happen that the pains of parturition gradually abate, and at 
 length cease. If the cow has been much exhausted or injured by the con- 
 tinviance of the labour, or the efforts made to relieve her, and the foetus 
 has been wounded or- broken, and considerable inflammation and fever 
 have been set up, she will probably die ; but if she is no more exhausted 
 than may be naturally expected, and the fever is slight, and she eats a little, 
 she should not be abandoned. 
 
 Mr. Kin"-, sen., of Stanmore, relates an instructive case of this kind- 
 
 ' \ few years ago I was called to see a heifer which appeared to be 
 
 rather losing condition, and which had been observed occasionally to void 
 some offensive matter from the vagina. Before I could get to her, some 
 portion of a calf's fore extremity came away. The owner was very appre- 
 hensive ot her doing well, and earnestly pressed the extraction of the re- 
 mainder of the foetus. 
 
 ' On examination I found the os uteri so small and contracted, that I 
 
 could not pass my hand ; and as the beast ate and drank, and was so little 
 
 either locally or constitutionally, disturbed, I persuaded him to leave her to 
 
 nature, watching her in cage of assistance being required. He consented, 
 
 » veterinarian, October, 1828. Rec. de Mid. V6t. 1828, p. 365, and 1833. p. 294 
 
^** CATTLE. 
 
 and, by dearrees, and in detached portions, the greater part, or perhaps th« 
 whole ofUie calf (she was not confined) came away, and she did well, and 
 became fat, and was sent to Smithfield market *." ' 
 
 The same {gentleman relates another case which occurred in Stanmore 
 some years previously. ' A cow, healthy, fine, and fat, was slaughtered. 
 The uterus was found to contain the skeleton of a calf almost entire, all 
 the soft parts having separated, and wholly escaped. Nothing of her 
 history was known t.' 
 
 ATTENTION AFTER CaLVINO. 
 
 Parturition having been accomplished, the cow should be left quietly 
 with the calf; the licking and cleaning of which, and the eating of the 
 placenta,if it is soon discharged, will employ and amuse her. It is a cruel 
 thing to separate the mother from the young so soon ; the cow will pine, 
 and will be deprived of that medicine which nature designed for her in the 
 moisture which hangs about the calf, and even in the placenta itself; and 
 the calf will lose that gentle friction and motion which helps to give it the 
 immediate use of all its limbs, and which, in the language of Mr. Berry, ' in- 
 creases the languid circulation of the blood, and produces a genial warmth 
 in the half exhausted and chilled little animal.' A warm mash should 
 be put before her, and warm gruel, or water from which some of the cold- 
 ness has been taken off J. Two or three hours afterwards it will be pru- 
 dent to give an aperient drink consisting of a pound of Epsom salts and 
 two drachms of ginger. This may tend to prevent milk fever anj garget 
 in the udder. Attention should likewise be paid to the state of the udder. 
 If the teats are sore, and the bag generally hard and tender, she should be 
 
 * Veterinarian, January, 1834. 
 
 t There is an instance on record uf the head of a calf (all the other parts having passed 
 away unobserved) being retained in the womb eighteen months. Pains resembling those 
 of parturition then came on. The veterinary surgeon, on examination, detected a hard louitd 
 body which he mistook for a calculus, and which was so firmly imbedded in the womb that 
 he wascompelledtohave recourse to a bistoury in order to detach it. In afortnight she seemed 
 to be well. — Instruct. Vitcr. toiji. iv. p. 2C5. Amore singular case is related by M. Coquet, iu 
 1 he same work, vol. ii. p.3 1 7. A farmer iu the neighbourhood of Neufch&tel purchased a cow 
 thatflid not appear to lie well; — her excrement was liquid, and she had excessive thirst; she 
 gradually got worse, the appetite was lost, and the diarrhcea became more violent and ofirn- 
 sive. On carefully examining the excrement, the farmer recognised pieces of bone. He 
 sent for a veterinary surgeon, who picked out portions of ribs, bones of the leg, and an 
 entire under jaw-bone. She died three weeks afterwards. The culun, at its last curvar 
 ture, was very much enlarged ; its walls were thickened, black, and gangrenous ; and 
 it was perforated on the inferior and right side ; it contained a considerable mass uf bones, 
 particularly a pelvis, which, unable to follow the curvature of the intestine, had been im- 
 tedded there, and had also nearly penetrated through the intestine. The womb at that 
 placewas hard and thickened, and engorged with blood; the peritoneum was also inflamed, 
 and there was considerable bloody and purulent effiision in the belly. It was evident 
 that, on the death of the foetus, whether by accident or in the process of parturition, inijam- 
 raation of the womb and the intestine had followed; adhesion had taken place between 
 them ; suppuration, perforatioii, and the passage of the foetus from the one to the other — 
 that portion of the intestine being placed under that cornu of the womb. The uterus, 
 having got rid of that which it contained, closed and healed; but the bones of the foetus 
 gradually separating, and passing along the mucous coat of the intestine produced a 
 constant state of irritation, and at length the pelvis becoming imbedded there, a degree 
 of inflammation was set up which speedily destroyed the animal. 
 
 J Can anything be more unnatural, absurd, or dangerous, than the following direc- 
 tions.' ' After a cow has calved, it is advisable to let her have an opportunity of drink- 
 ing as much cold water as she will, but by no means u>arm water ; the latter opening 
 the pores and letting in cold air: warm water is diluting, cold is bracing. It may be 
 observed, that when cows calve in pastures, if there be water in the place, they are almost 
 sure to calve near it. " Nature has taught them what they want. By drinking mudi cold 
 water their urine is increased, and the continual straining to void it causes them to foroa 
 their cleansing,' — Parkinson's Treatise on Live Stock, vol t. p. 1120. 
 
BLEEDING cFLOODING) FROM THE WOMB. 54S 
 
 pciilly bat carefully milked three or four limes every day. The natural, 
 and the effectual preventive of this, however, is to let the calf suck her at 
 least three times m the day if it is tied up in the cow-house, or to run with 
 her in the pasture, and take the teat when it pleases. The tendency to 
 inflammation of the udder is much diminished by the calf frequently 
 sucking; or should the cow be feverish, nothing soothes or quiets her so 
 much as the presence of the little one. 
 
 THE CLEANSING. 
 
 Thp placenta, or after-birth, or cleansing, should be discharged soon 
 after the calving. It soon begins to act upon the uterus as a foreign body, 
 producing irritation and fever ; it likewise rapidly becomes putrid and noi- 
 some, and if it is then retained long, it is either an indication of a weakly 
 slate of the cow, or it may produce a certain degree of low fever that 
 will interfere with her condition. Every cowleech, therefore, has his 
 cleansing drink ready to administer; but it is too often composed of 
 stimulating and injurious drugs, and which lay the foundation for after 
 disease. The aperient drink recommended to be given after calving, with 
 the addition of half a pint of good ale to it, will be the best assistant in 
 this case and the only thing that should be allowed. 
 
 Should the cleansing continue to be retained, some have recommended 
 that a weight of six or eight ounces should be tied to the cord, the gentle 
 and continual action of which will usually separate the placenta from its 
 adhesions, without any risk of hemorrhage* : but if the after-birth 
 should still remain in the womb, and decomposition should evidently 
 commence, the hand must be introduced into the passage, and the sepa- 
 ration accomplished as gently as possible. 
 
 There is, however, a great deal more fear about this retention of the 
 after-birth than there needs to be ; and it is only the actual appearance ol 
 inconvenience or disease resulting from it that would justify a mechanical 
 attempt to extract it. It is occasionally retained seven or eight days with- 
 out any dangerous consequence. 
 
 BLEEDING (fLOODINg) FROM THE WOMB. 
 
 This, although rarely, may follow natural parturition. It is oflener seen 
 when the uterus has been wounded in the forcible extraction of the calf, 
 and it still more frequently follows the long retention and mechanical sepa- 
 ration of the after-birth. The application of cold to the loins will be most 
 serviceable in this case. A pound of nitre should be dissolved in a gallon 
 of water, and the loins and bearing of the cow kept constantly wet by means 
 of cloths dipped in the solution. If the season of the year will permit, 
 the water yielded by the melting of pounded ice mixed with salt may be 
 used, beino- colder, and therefore more effectual. The cow may now 
 drink cold water, and in any quantity that she may be inclined to take, 
 and large doses of opium (two drachms every second hour) should be 
 administered. The hinder parts of the cow should be elevated, in order 
 that the blood may be retained in the womb, and coagulate there. She 
 should be kept perfectly quiet, and the calf not permitted to suck. 
 There are few hemorrhages from the womb, except those produced by 
 absolute rupture of it, which will not yield to this treatment. 
 
 * There is no objection to this method of proceeding when the after-tirth is actually 
 retained in th* uterus longer than it should be, but the common notion of its preventii.g 
 the reiuin of the coid into the womb is absurd. 
 
 8 N 
 
S46 CATTLK. 
 
 VrLK (pUEIUMRAl) fever. DROPPING AFTER CAl.VING 
 
 A!tllough parturition is a natural process, it is accompanied by a greet 
 deal of febrile excitement. The sudden transferring of powerfnl and accu- 
 mulated action from one organ to another — from the womb to the udder 
 — must cause a great deal of constitutional disturbance, as well as liability 
 to local inflammation. 
 
 The bitch, a few days after pupping, pants, heaves, refuses her food, 
 becomes delirious, convulsed, and, unless speedily relieved, dies. 
 
 The ewe, soon after lambing, heaves at the flanks, separates herself from 
 the flock, reels, falls, and dies. 
 
 So the cow, after parturition, is subject to inflammation of some of the 
 parts the functions of which are thus changed : it is mere local inflam- 
 mation at tirst, but the system speedily sympathises, and puerperal 'ever 
 appears. It is called dropping after calving because it follows that pro- 
 cess, and one of the prominent symptoms of the complaint is the loss of 
 power over the motion of the hind limbs, and consequent inability to 
 stand. In a great number of cases, loss of feeling accompanies that of 
 voluntary motion ; and no sense of pain is evinced, alth(>ugh the cow is 
 deeply pricked in her hind limbs. 
 
 Tliere are few diseases which the farmer dreads more, and that for two 
 reasons ; the first is, that the animal now labours under a high degree of 
 excitement, and every local inflammation, and particularly near the parts 
 in which the sudden change of circulation and of function has taken 
 place, assumes a peculiar character, and an intensity, obstinacy, and fatality, 
 unknown at other times : the second reason is, that from his inattention 
 lo the animal, or his ignorance of the real nature of the diseases of 
 cattle, he does not recognise this malady until its first and manageable 
 state, that of fever, has passed, and the strength of the constitution has 
 been undermined, and helpless debility has followed. The first symp- 
 tom which he observes, or which the practitioner has generally the 
 opportunity to observe, is the prostration of strength which violent fe\er 
 always leaves behind it. The early deviations from health are imob- 
 served by the agriculturist; and probably would not alwajs attract the 
 attention of the surgeon. 
 
 This disease is primarily inflammation of the womb, or of the peritoneum, 
 but it afterwards assumes an intensity of character truly ^specific. The 
 affection is originally that of some particular viscus, but it soon is lost 
 in a peculiar general inflammatory state, as rapid in its progress as it 
 is violent in its nature, and speedily followed by a prostration of vital 
 power that often bids defiance to every stimulus. 
 
 Cows in high condition are most subject to an attack of puerperal fever. 
 Their excess of condition or state of plethora disposes them to affections of 
 an inflammatory character at all times, and more particularly when the 
 coiistitution labours under the excitement accompanying parturition, The 
 poorest and most miserable cattle have, however, sometimes dropped after 
 calving ; and they have particularly done so when, on account of the 
 approach of this period, they have been moved from scanty to luxuriant 
 pasture, or from low keep to high stall feeding*. 
 
 * Mr. Hales very i)ropeily remarks, that " dropping after calving happens to cnws 
 that are very fresh and fat, and particularly to those that calve tar on in the season in hot 
 weather; but cows that are too fat often drop after calving in the winter; and it is 
 observed that the cases that occur in the winter will frequently recover, while the animals 
 that aie thus attacked in hot weather too generally die. ' — Veterinarian, August, 1831. 
 
 Ml, Storry of Pickering very justly observes in a letter with which he favoured the 
 
 editor 
 
MILK CPUERPKRAL, FEVER. 547 
 
 A cow is comparatively seldom attacked with milk fever at her first 
 calvinjr, because in the present system of breeding she has seldom attained 
 her full growth, and therefore the additional niitriment goes to increase of 
 size instead of becoming the foundation of disease. Cases, however, do 
 occur, in which cows of three years old have been speedily carried off by 
 this complaint, but then they had been most injudiciously exposed to the 
 influence of the forcing s) stem. 
 
 Much depends on the quantity of milk which the cow is accustomed to 
 yield ; and great milkers, although they are not often in high condition, 
 are very subject to this affection. All cows have a slight degree of fever 
 at this time ; a very little addition to that will materially interfere with the 
 secretion of milk, and, perhaps, arrest it altogether; and the throwing 
 back upon the system the quantity of milk which some of them are disposed ' 
 to give, must strangely add fuel to fire, and kindle a flame by which the 
 powers of nature are speedily consumed. Whether the present improved 
 method of selection, whereby the properties of grazing and giving milk are 
 united in the same animal, will increase the tendency to inflammation, and 
 particularly to this dangerous species of fever, is a question deserving of 
 consideration. It used to be objected to the Short Horns, that they were 
 more liable to puerperal fever than the, Long Horns were; and that it was 
 oftener fatal to them. Much of this arose from the unfounded prejudice 
 which existed against the Short Horns, when they were first introduced ; 
 yet the principle which has just been hinted at should never be forgotten 
 by the breeder of short-horned cattle, that in a disease the early and 
 almost uniform symptom and the most dangerous part of which is the 
 suppression of the secretion of milk, that danger must increase in propor- 
 tion to the quantity of the secretion thus suddenly arrested. 
 
 Puerperal fever sometimes appears as early as two hours after parturi- 
 tion ; if four or five days have passed, the animal may generally be 
 considered as safe: yet Mr. Leaver relates a case in which a fortnight 
 elapsed between the calving and the dropping of the cow*. 
 
 The early symptoms of dropping after calving are evidently those of, a 
 febrile character. The animal is restless, shifting her feet, pawing, and 
 she heaves laboriously at the flanks. The muzzle is dry and hot, the 
 mouth open and the tongue protruded. The countenance is wild and the 
 eyes staring. She wanders about mournfully lowing ; she becomes irri- 
 table ; she butts at a stranger, and sometimes even at the herdsman. 
 Delirium follows ; she grates her teeth, foams at the mouth, throws her 
 head violently about, and, not unfrequently, breaks her horns. The udder 
 becomes enlarged, and hot, and tender, at the very commencement of the 
 disease. This is always to be regarded as a suspicious circumstance in a 
 cow at that time ; and if this swelling and inflammation are accompanied, as 
 they almost uniformly are, by a partial or total suspension of the milk, that 
 which is about to happen is plain enough. ' 
 
 The disease is an inflammatory one, and must be treated as such, and 
 being thus treated, it is generally subdued without difficulty. The animal 
 should be bled, and the quantity of blood withdrawn should be regulated 
 by that standard so often referred to — that rule without an exception — the 
 impression made upon the circulation. From six to ten quarts will pro- 
 bably he taken away, depending upon the age and size of the animal, 
 
 editor, that it oftun arises from the "very comfortable drink" which so many cow- 
 leeches absurdly administer, before or after calving. In three casen which had occurred 
 a little while before he wrote, he traced it to the freely giving of bean-meal to the cows 
 vn the day of parturition. 
 * Veterinarian, Aug 1831. 
 
 ■2 N 2 
 
548 CATTLK. 
 
 before the desired effect is produced. There is no inulady which moit 
 satisfactorily illustrates the necessity of endeavourinjj to subdue as qiiickij 
 as possible every inflammatory complaint of cattle by the free use of the 
 .ancet ; for all of them run their course with a rapidity which a person 
 unaccustomed to these animals, and which the hum<in practitioner espe- 
 cially, would scarcely deem to be possible. To-day the cow is seen with 
 the symptoms just described — she is bled, and she is relieved ; or she 
 is neglected, and the fever has sapped the strength of the constituiiou, 
 and left a fearful debility behind. The small bleedings to which some 
 have recourse are worse than inefficient, for they only increase the natural 
 tendency of these maladies to fake on a low and fatal form. 
 
 A pound, or a pound and a half of Epsom salt, dependent on the size 
 of the beast, must next be administered, with half the usual quantity of 
 aromatic ingredients; and half pound doses of <the same must be repeated 
 every six hours. Should not the medicine soon begin to act, the usual 
 quantity of aromatic medicine must be doubled, for in addition to the con- 
 stipation usually attending fever, there is that which ari.oes from the occa- 
 sional Slate of the rumen, and the passage leadinij- to it, and that in- 
 sensible stomach must be roused to action and excited to discharge its 
 contents, in despite of the stimulating influence of the spice on the con- 
 stitution generally. The bowels must he opened, or the disease will run 
 its course ; and, purging once established in an early stage, the fever will, 
 in the majority of instances,' rapidly subside, leaving the strength of the 
 constitution untouched*. 
 
 After the physic has begun to operate, the usual sedative medicines 
 should, if necessary, be given. 
 
 In a great number ol cases, however, this all-important period will hare 
 passed away, and the practitioner will be called in to witness the fatal 
 winding-up of the affair, and periiaps to be censured for his want of skill, 
 when he is unable to accomplish impossibilities. 
 
 The digestive function first of all fails when the secondary and low stale 
 of fever comes on. The rumen ceases to discharge its food, and that 
 being retained, begins to ferment, and the paunch and the intestines are 
 inflated with foetid gas, and the belly of the animal swells rapidly. 
 
 Next, the nervous sjstem is attacked — the cow begins to stagger. The 
 weakness is principally leferrible to the hinder quarters, and rapidly in- 
 
 * The following testimony of Mr. Bainbridge of Safiron-Walden to the general 
 efficacy of this mode of treatment is too important to be omitted, although gierhaps the 
 extent to which he carried the bleeding might not always be justifiable. " The months 
 of February and March, 1833, afforded \ue several cases of dropping after calving, I 
 immediately bleed to the amount of two gallons, or, in some cases, more, and give a 
 Iraught composed of Epsom salts lb i, spirits of nitre ^!iB., ajid Imseed oil lb. i, in 
 plenty of thin gruel. I also order from four to six ounces of salts to lie given in gruel 
 every six hours afterwards ; some giii<j;er being always boiled with the gruel. If my 
 patient is not relieved in twenty-lour hours, and her state permits it, I bleed again, anil 
 repeat the salts, oil, &c. Out of six cases in the last two months five perfectly re- 
 covered." — Veterinarian, Febmary, 1834, p. 74. 
 
 Mr. Friend considers this disease as closely connected with a disordered state of the 
 digestive organs, and is a strenuous advocate for purgatives. He s..y8, " Kpsom salts 
 m large quantities, Croton seed and sulphur are most to be depended upon. The salts 
 act immediately on the abdomen and intestines, and are excellent pioneers for the Croton, 
 whose action is more upon the other stomachs, and consequently very valuable, I dare 
 not depend n^n either alone ; on the salts, because they are apt to pass the three first 
 stomachs too quickly ; or on ihe ('roton, because it is so much slower in its operation, and 
 cannot be so immediately extended in its efierts. In conjunction they will perform 
 wonders. Cdmmuu suit is an excellent medicine, but rather objectionable where milk is 
 an iil>ject, it huviog a tendency to diminish the seccetion of that fluid." — yeitriniMrian. 
 June, 1833. 
 
mun. ii-ujcRi-jiRAL, FEVER. 5+9 
 
 creases. She reels about fir awhile, and tltenfalla; she pets up, fnlh 
 oiiee more, and at length is unable lo rise ; her head is bent back towards 
 her side, and all her limbs are palsied ; and now. when in too many cases 
 no pood can be done, the proprietor, for the first time, begins to be 
 alarmed. 
 
 This portion of the " Farmer b Series" will not have been written in vain if 
 It induces an earlier attention to the diseases of domesticated animals. 
 
 Tiie duration of this second stdge of puerperal fever is uncertain; but 
 although it is usually more protracted than the first, the period in which 
 hope may be reasonably encouraged is short indeed. If the cow is 
 seriously ill, and off her feed, and does not get up again in two or three 
 days, the chances are very much against her; the author, however, knew 
 one that was saved after she had suffered considerable fever, and had been 
 down nine days ; and where debility is the principal symptom, and the 
 cow seems to lie tolerably comfortable, and without pain, and picks a 
 little, she may occasionally get up alter she has been down even longer 
 than that 
 
 The treatment of this stage of the disease, although there has been a 
 .great deal of dispute about it, depends on one simple principle, the 
 existence and the degree of liever. Notwithstanding there is debility, 
 there may be fever ;, although the strength of the constitution may have 
 been to a great degree wasted, there may be still a smothered fire that 
 will presently break out afresh. In another point of view, much of this 
 apparent weakness may be deceptive ; it may be the result of oppression 
 and venous congestion, and not of exhaustion. 
 
 The pulse will be the guide, and should be carefully consulted. Is it 
 weak, wavering, irregular, dying away, pausing a heat or two, and then 
 weakly creeping on again? We must not bleed here. These are indi- 
 cations of debility that cannot be mistaken — nature wants to be supported, 
 stimulated, not still further weakened. The abstraction of blood would 
 settle the business at once. 
 
 Is the pulse small, but regular, hard, wiry, and quickened — or is it full 
 and quickened ? Blood should certainly be taken away. These are as 
 plain indications of secret and destructive fire as can possibly be given. 
 The practitioner should bleed, but with the finger lui the pulse, anxiously 
 watching the effect produced, and stopping at the first fialter of the heart. 
 Many a beast has been decidedly saved by this kind of bleeding in drop 
 ping after calving ; and many have been lost through neglect of bleeding. 
 Some may have perished when the bleeding was carried too far, and some, 
 if the animals were bled when the pulse gave indications of debility, but 
 none when the pulse indicated power, and the possibility of febrile action. 
 
 There is a great deal of disgraceful dispute about the propriety or 
 impropriety of bleeding in dropping after calving; O le practitioner 
 affirms that he never bleeds, and another that he alwayM bleeds in this 
 disease. One thing, however, is certain, that when the proprietor, or 
 attendant on the cattle, hazards a random or sweeping assertion in this 
 case, either for or against bleeding, he stands in need of a great deal of 
 information with regard to the diseases of cattle ; and when a professional 
 man commits himself in this way, he proves that he is perfectly ignorant 
 of his business and ought to go to school again. The propriety and 
 impropriety of the abstraction of blood depends on the state of the pulse 
 and the degree of fever — circumstances which vary in every case, and in 
 ailfertiit stages of the same case, and which accurate observation alone can 
 determine. 
 
 Next, in order of time, and first of all in importance in this stage of the 
 
=^0 CATTLE. 
 
 ''i^ease, stands physic. The bowels must be o|)eiied, oiherwise the aniina! 
 will perish ; but the fever having- been subdued by a judicious bleedir)g, 
 and the bowels after that being excited to action, the recovery is in a 
 iiianner assured. The medicine should be active, and in sufficient quan- 
 tity ; for there is no time for trifling here. A scruple of the farina of the 
 Croton-nut, and a pound of Epsom salt, will constitute a medium dose. 
 For a large beast the quantity of the neutral salt should be increased. 
 Doses of half a pound should afterwards be given every six hours until 
 purgation is produced. The iisnal quantity of aromatic medicine should 
 be added. Here, too, the constitution of the stomachs of cattle should 
 not be forgotten. If twenty-four hours have passed, and purging has not 
 commenced, even after the administration of such a drug as the Croton- 
 nut, there is reason to suspect that the greater part of our medicine has 
 not got beyond the rumen ; and on account of the culicular and com- 
 paratively insensible lining of this stomach strong- stimulants must now 
 be added to the purgative medicine, in order to induce it .to contract 
 upon and expel Its contents. Two drachms each of ginger, gentian, 
 and caraway powder, with half a pint of old ale, may, with advantan-e, 
 be given with each dose of the physic 
 
 It would seem superfluous to recommend the diligent use of injections 
 in order to hasten the operation of the medicine had not some of (he 
 writers on cattle-medicine strangely objected to them *. Warm water 
 with Epsom salt dissolved in it, or warm soap and water, will form the 
 best injection, and should be thrown up frequently, and in considerable 
 quantities. 
 
 Should the constipation obstinately continue, it may be worth while to 
 inject a considerable quantity of warm water into the rumen, and thus 
 soften and dissolve the hard mass of undigested food, and permit the 
 medicine to come more effectually into contact with the coats of the sto- 
 mach. The warm water would also stimulate the stomach to contract, 
 and thus get rid of a portion of its contents, either by vomiting or purg- 
 ing. In the first case, there would be room for the exhibition of more 
 purgative medicine ; in the other, the effect most of all desired would 
 have been obtained. 
 
 The rumen will often annoy the practitioner in another way in this com- 
 plaint : either on account of a vitiated secretion in that stomach, or from 
 the retention of the food, which, exposed to the united influence of warmth 
 and moisture, begins to ferment, there will be considerable extrication of 
 gas, and the animal will swell with even more rapidity and to a greater 
 extent than in simple hoove. The flanks should immediately be punc- 
 tured, or the probang introduced, in older to permit the carburelted hydro- 
 gen to escape. A dose of the solution of the chloride of lime, as already 
 recommended under " Hoove,'' should be given to prevent the extrication 
 of more gas ; and a greater quantity of aromatic and fever medicine should 
 be added to the purgative, that the stomach may be roused to healthy 
 action. 
 
 Ere this the practitioner will have thought it necessary to pay some 
 attention to the comfort of the patient. This part of medical treatment is 
 
 * Mr. Knowlson has the foUownig singular and ridiculous caution against the use 
 of injections in dropping after calving : — " Many are for giving clysters, and I have 
 known them given in this complaint until the animal has been blown as full of wind as 
 she could hold, which was the direct way to cure her, for the clysters and air must fill 
 the bowels, and yet some of these people call themselves cow-doctors. It is diiScult 
 enough to prevent her svelhng, without giving her so many clysters as to cause her m 
 •well."— P. 
 
RAL) FEVKH. 5Si 
 
 too often neglected. She should have been watched herore she actually 
 dropped, and got as soon as possible into the house, and well and warmly 
 littered up. If she drops iu the field it will always be difficult to get her 
 home ; and if she contiinies out, and bad weather comes on, she will 
 assuredly be lost. She should be placed on one side, or, if possible, on 
 her belly, inclining a little to one side, and, as much as can be managed 
 in her usual position, and with her fore parts a little elevated, and she 
 should be secured in that position by trusses of straw. She should be 
 moved or turned morning and night, in order to prevent soreness and 
 excoriation. Warm gruel and water should be frequently offered to her, 
 and if these are obstinately refused, she should be moderately drenched 
 with thick gruel. Bean and malt mashes may be given with a little sweet 
 hay : but it must be remembered, that while moderate nourishment ia 
 necessary to recruit her strength, and support her through such a disease, 
 yet the digestive powers have usually shown that they have shared in 
 the debility of the frame, and must not be too early, or too much taxed. 
 
 Having well opened the bowels and subdued the fever, the future pro- 
 ceedings of the surgeon must be regulated by the state of the patient. In 
 general, litile more will be necessary than attention to diet and comfort. 
 At ail events, tonics and stimulants should not be too hastily thrown in. 
 It should be recollected, that the disease was essentially of a febrile 
 nature. Experience will convince the practitioner, that there long 
 remains a lurking tendency to the renewal of febrile action, and he wiil 
 beware lest he kindles the fire afresh , but if the cow should continue in a 
 low and weakly state, and especially if her remaining strength should 
 seem to be gradually declining, gentian and ginger may be administered 
 twice in the day, in dosesof half an ounce of the first, and a quarter of ar, 
 ounce of the second, and given in good sound ale ; but the outrageous 
 quantities of aromatics and bitters, and ardent spiriis, that are occasionally 
 given, cannot fail of being injurious 
 
 It occasionally happens that the cow appears to recover a portion of 
 strength in her fore-quarters, and makes many ineffectual attempts to rise, 
 but the hind-quarters are comparatively powerless. This partial palsy 
 of the hind extremities is the natural consequence both of inflammation 
 of the womb and of the bowels. The best remedy is the charge which 
 is generally applied to the horse. All embrocations are thrown away on 
 the thick skin of the cow, and the constant stimulus of a charge and the 
 mechanical support afforded by it, will alone effect the desired purpose. A 
 week or ten days should be given to the animal, in order to see whether 
 the power of voluntary motion in these limbs will return ; but should the 
 paralytic affection then remain, a sling must be contrived by which she 
 may be supported, and during the use«of which she may be enabled gra- 
 dually to throw a portion of her weight on these legs, and reaccustom 
 them to the discharge of their duty. 
 
 A very singular variety of the disease has already been hinted at. The 
 cow is down, but there is apparently nothing more the matter with her 
 than that she is unable to rise ; she eats, and drinks, and ruminates as 
 usual, and the evacuations are scarcely alterecj. In this state she con- 
 tinues from two days to a fortnight, and then she gets up well *. 
 
 There is a common consent among the different organs of the frame 
 both under healthy and diseased action. It has been stated that a partial 
 or total suppression of the secretion of milk is frequently an early symp- 
 tom, and, in some stage or other, an almost invariable one of the dis 
 ease. Experience likewise shows that if the secretion of milk can be 
 * Veterinac, August, i83l- 
 
552 CATTLE. 
 
 recalled, the restoratio.. ^, the use of the limbs is i.ot far distant. The 
 teats should be frequently drawn, and the discharge of milk industriously 
 solicited. This is a simple method of cure, but it is a far more effectual 
 one than many imagine. 
 
 That milk-fever is sometimes epidemic there is every reason to suppose. 
 The practitioner ma,y, perhaps, be long without a case, but if one comes 
 under his notice, he has reason to suspect that it will soon be followed by 
 others. The contagious character by which it is so fatally distinguished 
 in the human subject is not, however, so decided ; but thv is a subject 
 which well deserves further inquiry. 
 
 That there is a constitutional tendency to this com])laint cannot be 
 denied. Beasts in high condition are peculiarly subject to it ; and an 
 animal that has once experienced an attack of it becomes exceedingly 
 liable to the disease at her next, or at some future calving. Agricul- 
 turists are perfectly aware of this; and if a cow recovers from puer-- 
 peral fever, her milk is dried, and she is fattened and sold without much 
 w^s of time. 
 
 Something may be and is done by many graziers in the way of preven- 
 tion. If the cow is in a high, and consequently a dangerous state of 
 condition, and has been fed on luxuriant pasture, it will be very proper, as 
 has been already seated, to bleed her, and give her a dose of physic ; and 
 remove her to a field of shorter bite, a little before her expected time of 
 calving. Many valuable animals have been saved by this precaution *. 
 
 SORE TEATS. 
 
 Cows are very subject to InflammHtion of the udder soon after calving. 
 The new or increased function which is now set up, and the sudden dis- 
 tension of the bag with milk produce tenderness and irritability of the 
 udder, and particularly of the teats. This in some cases shows itself in 
 the form of excoriations or sores, or small cracks or chaps, on the teats, 
 and very troublesome they are. The discharge likewise from these cracks 
 mingles with the milk. The cow suffers much pain in the act of milking, 
 and is often unmanageable. Many a cow has been ruined, both as a 
 quiet and a plentiful milker, by bad management when her teats have 
 been sore. It is folly to havef recourse to harsh treatment to compel her 
 to submit to the infliction of pain in the act of milking, she will only be- 
 come more violent, and probably become a kicker for life ; if by soothing 
 and kind treatment she cannot be induced to stand, nothing else will effect 
 it. She will also form a habit of retaining her milk, and which very 
 speedily and very materially reduce its quantity. The teats should be 
 fomented with warm water, in order to clean them and get rid of a por- 
 tion of the hardened scabbiness about them, the continuance of which is 
 the cause of the greatest pain in the act of milking ; and after the milk- 
 ing, the teats should be dressed with the following ointment : — Take an 
 ounce of yellow wax, and three of lard, melt them together, and when they 
 •jegin to get cool, well rub in a quarter of au ounce of sugar of lead and a 
 drachm of alum finely powdered. 
 
 ' There are many absurd notions about this disease, prevailing in different districts, 
 but none so ridiculous as M. Gell£ describes as existing in La Vendue. A cow that he 
 had attended, labouring under puerperal fever, died. The pretended medical man of 
 the place declared that she had been killed by bleeding, and that there were hed^ehugx 
 which were the cause of her complaint, and which ought to have been tiiken away from 
 her. If a cow in calf pastured, before the sun had risen, on any herb over which a hedge- 
 hog had passed, she would have a parcel of little hedgehogs in her womb with the caif. 
 These wise men mistook the cotyledons found in the uterus of ruminants for little hedjiu- 
 nogs, and introduced the hand and tore them off without mercy as soon as the c»» 
 Iropi^ed. — Journal Pratique, 1826. p. 477. 
 
GARGET. .553 
 
 GAROfiT. 
 
 Too often, however, the iiiflummation assumes another and worse cha- 
 racter : it attacks the internal substance of the udder — one of the teats oi 
 the quaiters becomes enlarged, hot, and tender — it soon begins to feel 
 hard, it is knotty ; it contains within it little distinct tiardened tumours 
 or kernels. In a short space of time, other teats, or other quarters pro- 
 bably assume the same character. The milk has coagulated in the bag to a 
 certain degree, and it has caused local inflammation where it lodges. This 
 occurs particularly in young cows after their first calving, and when 
 they are in a somewhat too high condition, and'it is usually attended by 
 a greater or less degree of fever. 
 
 The most effectual remedy for this, in the early stage of the complaint, 
 is a very simple one : the calf should be put to the mother, and it should 
 suck and knock about the udder at its pleasure. In most cases this will 
 relieve her from the too great flow of milk, and disperse all the lumps. 
 
 If the inflammation continues or increases, or the bag should be so 
 tender that the mother will not permit the calf 'to suck; and especially 
 should the fever evidently increase, and the cow refuse to eat, or cease to 
 ruminate, and the milk become discoloured, and mixed with matter or 
 with blood, the case must be taken seriously in hand. The cow should 
 be bled; a dose of physic administered; the udder well fomented ; the 
 milk drawn gently, but completely oS*, at least twice in the day, and an 
 ointment composed of the following ingndients, as thoroughly rubbed 
 into the bag as the cow will permit. (Rub down an ounce of camphor, 
 having poured a tea-spoonful of spirit of wine upon it ; add an ounce of 
 mercurial ointment, and half a pound of elder ointment, and well incorpo- 
 rate them together.) Let this be applied after every milking, the udder 
 being well fomented with warm water, and the remains of the ointment 
 washed off before the next milking. 
 
 If the disease does not speedily yield to this treatment, recourse must 
 be had to iodine, which often has admirable effects in diminishing glan- 
 dular enlargements. The only objection to iodine, and which renders it 
 advisable to give the camphorated mercurial ointment a short trial, is that 
 while, by its power of exciting the absorbents of the glands generally to 
 action, it causes the dispersion of unnatural enlargements, it occasionally 
 acts upon, and a little diminishes the gland itself. This, however, rarely 
 happens to any considerable degree, and will not form a serious objection 
 to its use when other means have failed. It should be applied externally 
 in the form of an ointment (one part of the hydriodate of potash being 
 well triturated with seven parts of lard), one or two drachms of which 
 should be rubbed into the diseased portion of the udder, evejy morning 
 and night. At the same time the hydriodate may be given internally in 
 doses gradually increased from six to twelve grains daily. 
 
 The udder should be frequently examined, for matter will soon begin to 
 form in the centre of these indurations, and should be speedily evacuated 
 lest it should burrow in various parts of the bag, and, when at length it 
 does find its way to the surface and bursts through the skin, irregular 
 ulcers should be formed, at all times difiBcuit to heal, and sometimes in- 
 volving the loss of more than one of the quarters. Whenever there is 
 any appearance of suppuratii)n having commenced, (a minute observa- 
 tion will enable the practitioner to discover the very spot at which the 
 tumour is preparing to point,) the diseased part should be freely and 
 deeply lanced, and an immense quantity of matter will often be dis 
 rharged. It is generally bad practice to cut off" the teat ; not only is it 
 
554 CATTLE 
 
 afterwards misied in the milking, but the quaiility of the rajlk is usuallj 
 'essened to a greater or less degree. 
 
 Should the tumour have been left to break, a deep and ragsjed ulcer 
 will then be formed, and must immediately be attended to, for the neigh- 
 bouring part will be rapidly involved. Half of the bag has in some cases 
 become mortified in a few days, and diseased portions have either dropped- 
 off, or it has been necessary to remove them in order to stop the spread of 
 the gangrene. The chloride of lime is an invaluable application here. 
 The wound should be well cleaned with warm water, and then a dilute 
 solution of the cloride freely applied to every part of it; not only will the 
 unpleasant smell from the ulcer be imnimedialely got rid of, but its 
 destructive progress will be arrested, and the wound will speedily take on 
 a healthy character. When this is effected, recourse may be had to the 
 Friar's balsam , but the occasional use of the chloride will be advantageous 
 until the bag is perfectly healed. 
 
 Chronic indurations will sometimes remain after the inflammation of 
 garget has been subdued ; they will be somewhat tender, and they wiU 
 always lessen the quantity of milk obtained from that quarter. The 
 iodine will seldom fail of dispersing these tumours. The ointment just 
 recommended should be well rubbed in twice every day, and if the enlarge- 
 ment does not speedily subside, the hydriodate should also be given in- 
 ternally. Mr. Christian, of Canterbury, and the author's friend, Mr. May, 
 of Maldon, relate two cases of chronic garget, in one of which the indura- 
 tion had existed four months, and occupied two of the quarters, and was 
 accompanied by the occasional discharge of blood ; and in the other it had 
 'been observed more than a twelvemonth, and was increasing. An oint- 
 ment was used by Mr. Christian, in the form of the iodine itself triturated 
 with lard; and a liniment composed of the tincture of iodine with soot by 
 Mr. May. In the course of three weeks, the udder was in both cases 
 as well as if it never had been diseased *. The hydriodate of potash is, 
 however, the most manageable and the most effectual preparation of 
 iodine. 
 
 The causes of garget are various : the thoughtless and unfeeling expo- 
 sure of the animal to cold and wet, at the time of, or soon after parturi- 
 tion, the neglect of physic or bleeding before calving, or suffering the cow 
 to get into too high condition, are frequent causes. So powerful is ;he 
 latter one, that instances are not unfrequent, of cows that have for some time 
 been dried, and of heifers that have never yielded milk, having violent 
 inflammation of the udder t. The hastily drying of the cow has given 
 rise to indurations in the udder that have not easily been removed. 
 An awkward manner of lying upon, and bruising the udder is an occa- 
 sional cause ; and a very frequent one is the careless habit of not milking 
 the cow clean, but leaving a portion in the bag, and the best portion of the 
 milk too, and which gradually becomes a source of irritation and inflam- 
 mation in the part. Connected with this last cause is the necessity o*" 
 the advice already given, to milk the cow as clean as possible at least twice 
 in the day, during the existence and treatment of garget. 
 
 THE COW-POX. 
 
 The consideration of this disease may be conveniently introduced here, 
 
 * It often happens to fattening cows, but more in certain districts thar others, 
 so much so, that on some marsh lands in the county of Lincoln, a cow cannot be fat> 
 tened, uor even a heifer that has neve.r given milk: an ox has there been known te 
 exhibit symptoms of garget. — ^Parkinson on Live Cattle, vol. i. p. 24i. 
 
 t Veterinarian, Jan. : 830, and May, 1833. 
 
THE COW-POX. 55!i 
 
 Cows are subject to two distinct species of pustular eruption on the teats. 
 Little vesicles or bladders appear ; they often differ considerably in size 
 and form, and are filled with a purulent matter. In the course of a few 
 days a scab forms upon them, which peels off, and the part underneath, is 
 sound. If the pustules are rubbed off in the act of milking, or in any other 
 way, small ulcers are lefl, which are very sore, and sometiraeb difficult 
 to heal. 
 
 The best treatment is washing and fomenting; a dose of physic, and 
 the application of the ointment for sore teats recommended in page 552. 
 The cause, like that of many other pustular eruptions, is unknown ; 
 except that it is contagious, and is readily communicated from the cow to 
 the milker if the hand is not quite sound, and from the milker to other 
 cows. 
 
 There is another kind of puslular eruption, of a moie important charac- 
 ter, and with which the preceding one has been confounded. It also con- 
 sists of vesicles or bladders on the teats ; but they are larger, round, with 
 a little central depression ; they are filled at first with a limpid fluid, which 
 by degrees becomes opaque and purulent, and each of them is surrounded 
 by a broad circle of inflammation. This is more decidedly a constitutional 
 disease than the former. The cow exhibits evident symptoms of fever; she 
 does not ft^ed well ; sometimes she ceases to ruminate, and the secretion 
 of milk is usually diminished. 
 
 These pustulef^ go through a similar process with the former ones — they 
 dry up, and at length the scabs fall off leaving the skin beneath sound ; 
 but if they are broken before this, the ulcers are larger, deeper, of a more 
 unliealthy character, and generally far more difiicult to heal. This is the 
 genuine cow-pox. 
 
 The treatment is nearly the same, except that being accompanied by 
 more constitutional disturbance, an aperient is more necessary, and it may 
 occasionally be prudent to abstract blood. The frequent application of a 
 Goulard's lotion, with an equal portion of spirit of wine, will, at least 
 in the early stage of the ulcer, be preferable to the ointment ; but better 
 than this, and until the ulcers are beginning to heal, will be the dilute 
 solution of the chloride of lime. If the teats are washed with this before 
 the cow is milked, it will go far towards preventing the communication of 
 the disease. 
 
 There is some difficulty respecting the cause of this disease. It is as 
 contagious as the other, and, perhaps, usually propagated by contact; 
 but it occasionally appears when there does not seem to have been a possi- 
 bility of contact, directly or indirectly, with any other animal previously simi 
 larly affected. It was the opinion of Jenner, and is still the opinion ot 
 many medical men, that the cow-pox originated from infection by the 
 matter of grease in horses, and which had been conveyed to the teat of the 
 cow by means of the unwashed hands of some one who had the care of the 
 horses while he was occasionally employed in the dairy*. This, when 
 brought to the test of experience, has been proved to be altogether erro- 
 
 * " He (Jenner) conceived the sanious fluid of the grease to be the original disease, 
 and the cow-pox, in the cow itself, to be nothing more than a casual inoculation produced 
 by the cows lying down in a meadow, where the affected horse had been previously 
 feeding, and her udder coming in contact with the discharge which had dropped on the 
 grass and lodged there ; and he endeavoured to show the identity of the fluids by the 
 identity of their effects, in respect of the small-pox." — Dr. Mason Good's Study of 
 Medicine, vol. iii. p. 59. Dr. George Gregory, in his " Practice of Physic," says, " It has 
 been rendered highly probable, that the cow-pox is only a secondary disease in cows, 
 that originally it is an affection of the hoof of the horse, communicated to man directly 
 ir to him through the cow." — p. 113. 
 
W6 CATILE. 
 
 ncous. A pustular disease has been communicated by contact with the 
 matter of grease, but it resembled far more the spurious vesicle that has 
 been described in the last page than the genuine cow-pox. In a great 
 many instances, however, nothing that could be considered as bearing any 
 analogy to the true vaccine disease followed inoculation with the matter of 
 grease. Woodville, Simmons, Professor Coleman of the Veterinary Col- 
 lege, Bartholini, and others, failed entirely in producing cow-pox in this 
 way; and Dr. Pearson very satisfactorily proved that the cow-pox was oc- 
 casionally found in diseases where the attendants on the cows could have 
 had no communication with greasy horses, nor, in fact, with any horses sicU 
 or well ; and where the cows, likewise, had no access to pastures on which 
 horses had fed for many years before. Whatever may still be the opinion 
 of a few medical men, it will be difficult to find a veterinary surgeon whose 
 life is spent amidst these diseases, and who ought to be well acquainted 
 with their nature, causes, and effects, who believes that grease i,s 
 the origin of cow-pox, or that there is the slightest connexion betweer. 
 them *. 
 
 The next interesting circumstance connected with this pustular erup- 
 tion is, that the persons on whom it appeared were, for a considerable 
 pt riod, (it was once thought, during life,) protected from the small-pox. 
 This was known among farmers from time immemorial, and that not only 
 in England, and almost every part of the continent, but also in the JVew 
 World. The majority of med,ical men, however, had regarded it as a mere 
 popular error, and to no one, whom experience had convinced of the active 
 protective power of the cow-pox, had it occurred to endeavour to ascer- 
 tain, whether it might not be '* possible to propagate the affection by in- 
 oculation from one human being to another, and thus communicate secu- 
 rity against small-pox at will." 
 
 To the mind of Mr. Jenner, then a surgeon at Berkeley in Gloucestershire, 
 the probability of accomplishing this, first presented itself. He spoke of it 
 to his medical friends ; but from every one of them lie met with discourage- 
 ment. They sportively threatened to banish him from their club, if he 
 continued to tease them with his wild speculations. For more than twenty 
 years he brooded on the subject, ere he could summon sufficient resolution 
 to oppose himself to the ridicule of his friends and of the profession gene- 
 rally by making the decisive experiment. At length he inoculated a boy 
 with the matter taken from the hands of a milkmaid, who had been in- 
 fected by her master's cow. The disease was cnnmiunicated, and with it 
 the immunity which he expected. He multiplied his experiments, and he 
 was successful in all of them ; and, although his brethren and the public 
 were slow to believe him, he at length established the power of vaccinatioii. 
 and proved himself to be one of the greatest benefactors to the human race 
 that ever lived f. This account of the progress of vaccination is not out of 
 place, since the prophylactic against that destructive scourge of the human 
 race, the small-pox, was derived from the animal to the consideration of 
 
 * See a very candid and satisfactory statement of the argument on both sides in 
 Dictionuaire de Med. et de Cluiurgie V£t. par Uuritel d'Arboval, Eaux. aux Jaubes. 
 
 f The ibllowing picture uf what passed ni his mind before he had quite accomplished 
 his object cannot fail uf being interesting to the reader. " While the vaccine discovery 
 was progressive, the joy felt at the prospect before me, of being the instrument destined 
 to take away from the world one of its greatest calamities, blended with the fond hope of 
 enjoying independence and domestic peace and happiness, were iften so excessive, that in 
 f ursuing my favourite subject among the meadows, I have sometimes found myself in a 
 kind of reverie. It is pleasant to me to recollect, that those reflections always ended in 
 'devout acknowledgment to that Being from whom this and all othv blessings flow."— - 
 Bacon's Life of Jenner. 
 
DISKASKS AND MANAGEMENT OF CAIA'KS. 557 
 
 whost general and medical ireatment this work is devoted ; and some prac- 
 titioners of nb little eminence have recommended (and perhaps it deservei 
 more consideration than has been given to it) a leturn* to the primary 
 fountain for a recruit of power and energy after the lapse of a certain 
 period, and the prosecution of a certain number of successive experiments. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIIl. 
 THE GENERAL DISEASES AND MANAGEMENT OF CALVES. 
 
 The management of the calf, so far as the profit of the farmer is concerned, 
 belongs to the work on " British Husbandry," this volume having re- 
 lation to that only which is connected with health, or disease, or genera, 
 welfare, or improvement. In whatever manner the calf is afterwards to 
 be reared, it should remain with the mother for a few days after it is 
 dropped, and until the milk can be used in the dairy. The. little animal 
 will thus derive the benefit of the first milk, that to which nature has given 
 an aperient property, in order that the black and glutinous fiEces that had 
 been accumulating in the intestines, during the latter months of the fcetal 
 state might be carried off. The larmer acts wrongly when he throws 
 away, as he is too much in the hubit of doing, the beastings, or first milk 
 of the cow. 
 
 • Good's Studies of Medicine, »ol. iii. p. 55; Gregory's Report, April, 1821. It wa» 
 the opinion of Jenner, and it is still the belief uf some sportsmen, that the cow-pox is a 
 preventive against the distemper in dogs. It miji;ht be observed, that there is not the 
 slightest similarity between the two diseases, but that, on the contrary, they affect per- 
 fectly different textures ; it might also be urged that the description given of the distemptr 
 in dogs, by the advocates of the power of vaccination, is altogether so erroneous that no 
 dependence can be placed upon it : the most satisfactory appeal, however, is to fact. 
 
 There is very great caprice with regard to the contagiousness of distemper, whether 
 depending on certain modifications of the disease ; or a certain degree of predisposition 
 or the want of it in the animals exposed to the contagion ; or on diflerent states of atmos- 
 pheric influence. The reason of it has never been sufficiently explained, but the fact 
 admits of no denial, that during two or three successive years there may be isolated cases 
 of it in a certain kennel, but the inhabitants of that kennel generally seem to possess _a 
 kind of immunity against its power; but in other years, no soonrr does the distemper 
 appear, than it rapidly spreads among the dogs, and carries off the majority of them. 
 There is also no fact better known among sportsmen than that much of the susceptibility 
 of infection depends on the breed. Some dogs, bred too much in and in, can scarcely be 
 reared at all, while in others the disease can scarcely be distinguished from common 
 catarrh. It was probubly at some of these, periods of security, or the subjects uf his ex- 
 periments belonging to some of these privileged breeds, that Dr. Sacco of Milan inocu- 
 lated two hundred and thirty dogs with vaccine matter, and only one of them afterwards 
 had the distemper and died ; and it was probably when the contagious influence of the 
 disease was more powerful, or the breed predisposed to take ou the disease in its most 
 fearful character, that Dr. Valentin of Nancy lost from distemper two 'dogs out of three 
 which he had previously inoculated with vaccine matter; and that Gghier was quite un. 
 successful in obtaining an immunity against the disease. The author of this work has 
 inoculated more than sixty dogs, and the result of his experience is, that the vaccine 
 matter neither destroys the contagion, nor mitigates the disease. 
 
 Numerous experiments were made on the effect of inoculation with the vaccine mat- 
 ter, in preventing or mitigating the scab in sheep, and the strangles in horses. The 
 accoimts given by the experimentalists are inconsistent to a degree scarcely credible ; 
 but public opinion seems to have decided that here too it was powerless. It was only in 
 one of those moments of " reverie" pardonable in a mind enthiisiastically devoted to the 
 pursuit of a twnevolent and noble objedt, and when the " wish is father" to many a con- 
 elusion, that it could be believed that the cow pox would afford protection against 
 iiiAi».— Diet, de Mid. i-t de Chirurgie Vet., Vaccination. 
 
'58 CATTLE. 
 
 NAVEL-ILL. 
 
 The calf being cleaned, and having begun to suck, the navel strinw 
 should be examined. Perhaps it may continue slowly to bleed. In this 
 case a lijiature should be passed round it closer, but, if it can be avoided 
 not quite close to the belly. Possibly the spot at which the division of the 
 cord took place may be more than usually sore. A pledget of tow well 
 wetted with Friar's balsam should be placed over it, confined with a 
 bandage, and changed every morning and night ; but the caustic applica- 
 tions, that are so frequently resorted to, should be avoided. 
 
 Sometimes when there has been previous bleeding, and especially if the 
 caustic has been used to arrest the hemorrhage, and at other times when 
 all things have seemed to have been going on well, inflammation suddenly 
 appears about the navel between the third, and eighth, or tenth day. 
 There is a little swelling of the part, but with more rednesp and tenderness 
 than such a degree of enlargement would indicate. Although there may 
 be nothing in the first appearance of this to excite alarm, the navel-ill is a 
 far more serious business than some imagine. Mr. Sitwell, an intellio-ent 
 breeder at BaVmoor Castle in Northumberland, says, " that in his part of 
 the country, as soon as the calf takes on this disease, they consider it as 
 dead ; and butchers and graziers will not purchase any calves until the 
 usual time for having the disorder is passed *." Fomentation of the part 
 in order to disperse the tumour, — the opening of it with a lancet if it 
 evidently points, and the administration of two or three two-ounce doses 
 of castor oil, made into an emulsion by means of an e^g, will constitute the 
 first treatment ; but if, when the inflammation abates, extreme weakness 
 should come on, as is too often the case, gentian and laudanum, with, 
 perhaps, a small quantity of port wine, should be administered. 
 
 CONSTIPATION. 
 
 If the first milk or beasttJigs has been taken from the calf, and consti- 
 pation, from that, or from any other cause, succeeds, an aperient should 
 be administered without delay. The sticky black faeces, with which the 
 bowels of the newly-born calf are often loaded, must begot rid of Castor 
 oil is the safest and the most effectual aperient for so young an animal. 
 It should be given, mixed up with the yolk of an egg, or in thick gruel, 
 in doses of two or three ounces ; and even at this early age, the carminative 
 which forms so usual and indispensable an ingredient in the physic of cattle 
 must not be omitted— a scruple of ginger should be added to the oil. 
 
 Constipation of another kind may be prevented, but rarely cured. If the 
 weather will permit, and the cow is turned out during the day, and the 
 calf with her, the young one may suck as often and as much as it pleases — 
 /he exercise which it takes with its mother, and the small quantity of green 
 meat which it soon begins to crop, will keep it healthy ; but if it is under 
 shelter with its dam and lies quiet and sleepy the greater part of the day, 
 some restraint must be put upon it. It must be tied in a corner of the 
 hovel and not permitted to suck more than three times during the day, 
 otherwise it will take more milk than its weak digestive powers will be able 
 to dispose of, and which will coagulate, and form a hardened mass, and fill 
 the stomach and destroy the animal. The quantity of this hardened curd 
 which has sometimes been taken from the fourth stomach almost exceeds 
 belief. This is particularly the case when a foster mother, that probably 
 had calved several weeks before, is given to the little one, or the calf has 
 «t early been fed with the common milk of the dairy The only chanct 
 ■ j».:»;«i^ Farmer's Magazine. 
 
HOOSE. 5S9 
 
 or success In this disease lies in the frequent administration (by means ol 
 the stomach-pnmp, or the drink poured gently down from a small horn) 
 of plenty of warm water, two ounces of Epsom salt being dissolved in 
 the quantity used at each administration. 
 
 At a later period, the calf is sometimes suffered to feed too plentifully on 
 hay, before the manyplus has acquired sufficient power to grind down the 
 fibrous portions of it. This will be indicated by dulness, fever, enlarge- 
 ment of the belly, and the cessation of rumination, but no expression of 
 extreme pain. The course pursued must be the same. The manyplus 
 must be emptied either by washing it out, by the frequent passage of 
 warm water through it, or by stimulating it to greater action, though the 
 means of the sympathetic influence of a purgative on the fourth stomach, 
 and the intestinal canal. 
 
 A tendency to costiveness in a calf should be obviated as speedily as 
 possible — it is inconsistent with the natural and profitahle thriving of 
 the animal, and it can never long exist without inducing a degree of fever, 
 always dangerous, and generally fatal. The farmer is sadly inattentive 
 here,, and loses many of his best young stock, for they are generally the 
 most disposed to costiveness. 
 
 OIARRHCEA 
 
 The disease, however, to which calves are most liable, and which is most 
 fatal to 'hem, is purging. It arises from various causes — the milk of the 
 mother may not agree with the young one ; it may be of too poor a nature, 
 and then it produces that disposition to acidity, which is so easily excited 
 in the fourth stomach, and the intestines of the calf; or, on the other hand, 
 it may be too old and rich, and the stomach, weakened by the attempt to 
 convert it into healthy chyle, secretes or permits the development of an acid 
 fluid. It is the result of starvation and of excess — it is the almost neces- 
 sary consequence of a sudden change of diet; in fact, it is occasionally 
 produced by every thing that deranges the process of healthy digestion. 
 
 The farmer needs not to be alarmed although the ffcces should become 
 thin, and continue so during two or three days, if the animal is as lively as 
 usual, and feeds as he was wont ; but if he begins to droop, if he refuses 
 his food, if rumination ceases, and he is in evident pain, and mucus, and 
 perhaps blood, begin to mingle with the dung, and that is far more fcetid 
 than in its natural state, not an hour should be lost. The proper treat- 
 ment has already been described under the titles of diarrhoea and dysentery, 
 pp. 475, et seq. A mild purgative (two ounces of castor oil, or three ol 
 Epsom salt) should first be administered, lo carry away the cause of 
 the disturbed state of the bowels. To this should follow anodyne and 
 astringent and alkaline medicines, with a mild carminative. The whole 
 will consist of opium, catechu, chalk, and ginger. The union of these 
 constitutes the medicine known under the name of the " Calves' Cordial ;" 
 but the carminative generally exists in unnecessary and dangerous pro- 
 portions. The proportions of each have already been given in p. 476, 
 when describing the treatment of diarrhoea. The use of this mixture 
 should be accompanied by frequent drenching with starch or thick gruel ' 
 by the removal of green or acescent food, and by giving bran mashes, 
 with a little pea or bean flour. 
 
 HOOSE. 
 
 A sufficiently alarming view has been given of this disease in adnlt 
 attle, but calves are even more subject to it : it takes on in them a more 
 
^"O CATTLE 
 
 (iaiifferous charactei, and more speedily terminales in wasting and in death 
 Hoose often assumes an epidemic form in cattle of a twelvemonth old and 
 upwards ; it often appears as an epidemic among calves, and carries off 
 great numbers of them. The treatment recommended for grown catlie 
 under the article Hoose, in p. 378 et seq., should, with such deviation as 
 the different age and situation of the beast require, be adopted here. The 
 bleeding, perhaps, should not be carried to so great an extent, and even 
 somewhat more attention should be paid to the comfort of the animal. 
 
 CASTRATION. 
 
 There used to be a strange difference of opinion among farmers as to 
 the time when this operation should be performed. In some parts of the 
 north of the kingdom it is delayed until the animal is two years old; but 
 this is done to the manifest injury of his form, his size, his propensity tii 
 fatten, the quality of his meat, and his docility and general usefulness as a 
 working ox. The period which is now pretty generally selected is between 
 the first and third months. The nearer it is to the expiration of the first 
 monih, the less danger attends the operation. 
 
 Some persons prepare the animals by the administration of a dose of 
 physic ; but others proceed at once to the operation when it best suits 
 their convenience, or that of the farmer. Care, however, should be taken 
 that the young animal is in perfect health. The mode formerly practised 
 was simple enough : — a piece of whipcord was tied as tightly as possible 
 round the scrotum. The supply of blood being thus completely cut off, the 
 bag and its contents soon became livid and dead, and were suffered to 
 hang, by some careless operators, until they dropped off, or were cut off on 
 the second or third day. 
 
 It is now, however, the general practice to grasp the scrotum in the 
 hand, between the testides and the belly, and to make an incision on one 
 side of it, near the bottom, of sufficient depth to penetrate throngh the inner 
 covering of the testicle, and long enough to admit of its escape. The 
 testicle immediately bursts from its bag. and is seen hanging by its cord. 
 The careless or brutal operator now firmly ties a piece of small string 
 round the corH, and having thus stopped the circulation, cuts through the 
 cord half an inch below the ligature, and removes the testicle. He, how- 
 ever, who has any feeling for the poor animal on which he is operating, 
 considers that the only use of the ligature is to compress the blood-vessels 
 and prevent after hemorrhage, and therefore saves a great deal of un- 
 necessary torture, by including them alone in the ligature, and afterwards 
 dividing the rest of the cord. The other testicle is proceeded with in 
 the same way, and the operation is complete. The length of the cord 
 should be so contrived that it shall immediately retract into the scrotum, 
 but not higher, while the ends of the string hang out through the wounds. 
 In the course of about a week the strings will usually drop off, and the 
 wounds will speedily heal. It will be rarely that any application to the 
 scrotum will be necessary, except fomentation of it, if much swelling 
 should ensue. 
 
 A few, but their practice cannot be justified, seize the testicle as soon 
 as it escapes from the bag, and, pulling violently, break the cord and 
 tear it out. It is certain that when a blood-vessel is thus niptured, 
 it forcibly contracts, and very little bleeding follows ; but if the cord breaks 
 high up and retracts into the belly, considerable inflammation has occa- 
 sionally ensued, and the beast has been lost. This tearing of the cord 
 may be practised on smaller anim?.ls, as pigs, or lambs, or rabbits ; the 
 ressels are small, and there is but little substance to be turn asunder 
 
CASTRATION. S«i 
 
 but even there the knife, somewhat blunt, wi. be a more surgical and 
 /iiimaiie substitute. This laceration should never be permitted in the 
 castration of the calf or, the colt. 
 
 The application of torsion, or the twisting of the arteries by means of a 
 pail" of forceps which will firmly grasp them, promises to supersede every 
 other mode of castration, botli in the larger and the smaller domesticated 
 animals. The spermatic artery is exposed, and seized with the forceps, 
 which are then closed by a very simple mechanical contrivance ; the vessel 
 is drawn a little out from its surrounding tissue, the forceps are turned 
 round seven or eight times, and the vessel liberated. It will be found 
 perfectly closed ; a small knot will have formed on its extremity ; it will 
 retract into the surrounding substance, and not a drop more blood will 
 flow from it : the cord may be then divided, and the bleeding from any 
 little vessel arrested in the same way. Neither the application of the hot 
 iron or of the wooden clams, whethei with or without caustic, can be 
 necessary in the castration of the calf*. 
 
 * In many parts of France the bull-calf is castrated, b; means sf a curious species of 
 fornoir, termed bisloumage. The animal is thrown and secured; the operator placet 
 himself behind the animal, and opposite to the tail ; he seizes the testicles with both 
 his hands, and pushes them violently upwards and downwards several times, in order to 
 destroy their adhesion to their coverings. He continues this manipulation until he thinks 
 that he has produced sufficient lengthening of the cords, and dilatation of the bagitself ; 
 he then pushes up the left testicle as nearly as possible to the ring, leaving the right one 
 low in the bag ; he seizes the cord of the right testicle between the finger and thumb of 
 the left hand, about an inch above the testicle, and grasping the bottom: of the scrotum 
 with his right hand, he turns the testicle, and pushes it forcibly upwards, uutil he has re- 
 versed it, and its inferior extremity is uppermost Some little practice is required in order 
 readily to effect this. Then, the right hand holding the testicle while the left hand raises 
 the cord, the testicle is turned round from right to left four or five, or six times, until there 
 is a degree of tension and difficulty in the turning, which indicates that the spermatic 
 vessels are so far compressed or obUterated as to be deprived of the power of secreting or 
 conveying the seminal fluid. The testicle is by this means brought up nearly to the 
 abdominal ring, where it is retained by turning the scrotum over it, while the left testicle 
 is brought down, reversed, and turned in the same manner. Last of all, in order to 
 prevent the untwisting of the cords and the descent of the testicles, the operator grasps 
 the bottom of the scrotum iu his left hand, and holding one end of a piece of cord, 
 eighteen inches iu length, and about as large as a quill, between his teeth, and having 
 the other end in his right hand, he makes with it several turns round the scrotum with 
 considerable firmness below and close to the testicles, yet notso tightly as quite to stop 
 the circulation of blood through the bag. This is taken away at the end of the second 
 c'ay, after which the testicles will remain fixed against the abdomen, and will gradually 
 wither away. The animal is usually bled after the operation, and half of its allowance 
 of food is for a while taken away, and it may be sent to pasture on the second or third 
 day, if the weather is favourable. 
 
 This mode of castration does not appear to be very painful to the animal, and is rarely 
 attended by any dangerous results. It is, however, principally adapted for young cattle ; 
 for when the muscle of the scrotum is powerful, especially in cold weather, and when 
 there is much adhesion between the testicle and its surrounding tunics, the torsion of 
 the testicle is scarcely practicable. Tlie animals that are thus emasculated are said to 
 preserve more of the form of the bull than others from whom the testicles are excised ■ 
 they also retain more of the natural desires of the bull, and are occasionally very trouble- 
 some among the. cows. — Diet, de M^d. et Chirurg. Vet. CASTitATioN. 
 
SCS CATTLE. 
 
 CHiiPTER XVIII, 
 
 DISEASES OF THE MUSCULAR SYSTEM ANO OF THE EXTREMITIES 
 
 RHEUMATISM. 
 
 Although some writers have been strangely averse to acknowledge th 
 existence of this disease in the horse, no farmer has a doubt of its frequen 
 occurrence in cattle. It is inflammation of the fascia, or cellular coat o 
 the muscles, and also of the ligaments and synovial membrants of the 
 joints. If a cow has been necessarily, or carelessly and cruelly, exposed 
 to unusual cold and wet, particularly after calving, or too soon after recovery 
 from serious illness, she will often be perceived to droop. She becomes list- 
 less, unwilling to move, and by degrees gets off her feed. If urged to move, 
 there is a marked stiffness in her action, at first referrible chiefly, or almo -t 
 entirely, to the spine ; and she walks as if all the articulations of the back 
 and loins had lost their power of motion. She shrinks when pressed on 
 the loins ; and the stiffness gradually spreads to the fore or hind limbs. 
 The farmer calls it chine fellon ; if it gets a little worse, it acquires the 
 name of joint fellon, and worse, unless care is taken, it speedily will 
 become. Some of the joints swell: they are hot and tender; the animal 
 can scarcely bend them ; and he cannot move without difficulty and evi- 
 dent pain. 
 
 who could doubt that the same causes which produce rheumatism m the 
 human being will produce it also in the quadruped ? Where is either the 
 proof or the probability of exemption ? Thus we find rheumatism in cattle 
 chiefly prevalent in a cold, marshy country — in places exposed to the 
 coldest winds — in spring and in autumn, when there is the greatest vicis- 
 situde of heat and cold — in animals that have been debihtated by insuffi- 
 cient diet, and that cannot withstand the influence of sudden changes of 
 temperature — in old cattle particularly, and such as have been worked 
 hard, and then turned out into the cold air, with the perspiration siill 
 hanging about them. 
 
 It seems to assume the acute and the chronic form as evidently as it 
 does in the human being. One animal will labour under considerable 
 fever ; he will scarcely be able to move at all, or when he does, it extorts 
 from him an expression of suffering. Another seems to be gay and well, 
 when the air is warm and dry ; but as soon as the wind shifts, or imme- 
 diately before it changes, he is uneasy, and comparatively helpless. On 
 some portions of a farm, nothing seems to ail the cattle ; on others, lower, 
 moister, or more exposed, the cattle crawl about stiffly and in pain. In 
 some extreme cases, the quantity of milk rapidly diminishes, and the co\» 
 wastes away and becomes a mere skeleton. 
 
 The rheumatism in cattle, as in the human subject, may be palliated, 
 but rarely removed. The treatment of it consists in making the animal 
 comfortable — in sheltering her from the causes of the complaint — in giving 
 her a warm aperient, which, while it acts upon the bowels, may determine 
 to the skin, as sulphur, with the full quantity of ginger. The practitioner 
 will afterwards give that which will yet more determine to the skin, as 
 antimonial powder, combined with an anodyne medicine, almost any pre- 
 paration of opium ; — and he will have recourse to an embrocation stimu- 
 lating to the skin, and thus probably relieving the deeper seated pain, as 
 camphorated oil, or spirit of turpentine and laudanum. 
 
( 004 ) 
 
 SWELLINGS OF THE JOINTS. 
 
 Tbise arc usually the consequence of rheumatism. Small tumoura 
 appear in the neig'hbourhood of the joints that were most affected. They 
 seena at first to belong to the muscles ; but they increase : they involve 
 '.he tendons of the muscles, and then the ligaments of the joints, and the 
 lining membrane of the joints. When this is the case, other diseases are 
 at hand — ^inflammation of the lungs or bowels ; but, oflenest of all, rheu- 
 matism degenerates into palsy *. 
 
 The superficial veins in the neighbourhood of the joir;<s sometimes 
 become full and large ; they grow decidedly varicose. When the causes 
 of rheumatism are removed, the situation of the animal changed, and the 
 weather has become more congenial, the lameness decreases, the swellings 
 diminish, but the varicose veins remain. 
 
 The enlargements of the joints connected with, or the consequences of 
 rheumatism are removed — but in the majority of cases only temporarily — 
 by stimulating embrocations, of which spirit of turpentine or the com- 
 pound one of turpentine, ammonia, camphorated spirit, and laudanum, is 
 the most effectual. Some, however, will not disappear without the appli- 
 cation of the cautery. 
 
 There are other tumours about the joints, and particularly the knees of 
 cattle, which are not necessarily connected with rheumatism, and in many 
 cases quite independent of it, although they are found only in beasts that 
 are out at pasture. 
 
 They are of two kinds. The first occupies the fore-part of the ktiee, 
 and generally one knee at a time. A fluid collects in the tissue imme- 
 diately beneath the skin, and which yields to the pressure ot the finger. 
 The pressure causes no pain, nor is there any inflammation of the skin, but 
 there is some degree of lameness. The tumours insensibly increase ; 
 they still contain a fluid. Inflammation is now sufficiently evident : the 
 lameness is very great; the animal is incapable of work, and the motion 
 of the joint is almost destroyed 
 
 Frictions with turpentine and hartshorn are often employed : sometimes 
 
 . one composed of tincture of cantharides is used. These occasionally dis 
 
 perse the tumours for a while, but they speedily re-appear. The budding 
 
 * Mr. Tait of Portsoy gives an interesting account of these affections of the joints, under 
 the designation of " Crochles" He says that the early symptoms are pains in the feet, 
 and particularly the fore-feet, with enlargement of the joints ; the hind-quarters particu- 
 larly becoming so weak and contracted that the animal can scarcely stand ; and some- 
 times she lies for many weeks without the power of moving. If she is neglected she 
 certainly dies ; and then the cartilages of the joints are always ulcerated, and sometimes 
 nearly destroyed. Mr. Tait has no faith in -any m'-dicine or external application ; but 
 he believes that the removal of the animal to a more comfortable situation, and particularly 
 to a drier pasture, will, in the early stages of the complaint, be attended with decided 
 good effict. It is a very simple remedy, and is worth a trial 
 
 A brother practitioner related a very curious anecdote of the occasional treatment of 
 this disease, which Mr. Tait gives in his own words: — "Soon after commencing practice 
 in this district, I was particularly struck with the appearance of a cow belonging to a 
 cottar. Un inquiring into the cause of the animal's apparent helplessness, my informant 
 stated, to me that ' she had had the crochles, but was now in a way of getting better, a 
 man having pared out the worm that was the cause of the awful complaint ; that the 
 man knew the very spot where the worm lodged, and that he appeared to have great 
 experience, having travelled much as a beggar' In fact, he had sawn off two inches 
 from each claw of her feet. The cow was in a woful plight ; her joints enlarged, her 
 muscles shrunk, and her skin clinging to her bones." 
 
 After remonstrating with the cottar on his folly, Mr. Tait's friend persuaded the cottar 
 to remove her to a farm which the disease had never visited. The animal in a ver} 
 short time began to move about, and would have become perfectly sound, had not '■ fha 
 beggar" removed a part of the bones of her feet along with the worm. — ^Veteriniirian. 
 August, 1834. 
 
 202 
 
j04 cafi le. 
 
 iron is a more effectual remedy. If the tumour is pierced with it, a glairjf 
 fluid escapes, and the swelling subsides. A blister should then be ap- 
 plied, and the animal kept in the cow-house. The tumour does not oftan 
 return, but it is a considerable time before the lameness quite disappears. 
 
 A more frequent species of tumour is of a hard character. It does not 
 yield at all to pressure ; it evidently causes considerable pain, and the 
 animal is very lame. These tumours are almost invariably confined to 
 one knee. Here, neither frictions nor perforation with the budding-irou 
 will be of material benefit, although deep firing has sometimes succeeded. 
 
 Other tumours, sometimes immediately on the joints, and at other 
 times at a greater or less distance from them, and of variable degrees of 
 hardness ; sometimes adhering to and identified veith the substance lie- 
 neath, and at other times more or less pendulous, do not appear to give 
 much pain to the animal, nor do they often interfere with the motion of 
 the joints, but they are a great eyesore, and, in a few instances, they sud- 
 denly take on a disposition to increase with great rapidity. These have 
 been blistered without effect — setons have been, passed through them with 
 variable result, and occasionally recourse has been hat! to excision. 
 
 Some surgeons have very lately begun to treat them with iodine ; 
 the ointment of the hydriodate of potash has been well rubbed into the 
 tumours and the neighbouring parts ; and the hydriodate has at the same 
 time been administered internally. The success of this treatment with the 
 two last species of tumours, has been almost as great as the practitioner 
 could desire. They have uniformly very much diminished in size; an! 
 in the grtat majority of cases they have disappeared. The ointment 
 should be composed as already recommended, and six grains of the 
 hydriodate given morning and night in a mash. On the first species 
 of tumour unconnected with rheumatism, the iodine has seldom had 
 decided effect. • 
 
 ULCERS ABOUT THE JOINTS 
 
 These tumours sometimes assume very miicfi the appearance of 
 farcy in the horse. They run in lines, they follow the apparent course 
 of the veins, but they belong to the absorbents. They frequently ulcer- 
 ate — the wounds are painful, deep, and spreading. They have already 
 been described (p. 313,) when the question of farcy in cattle was con- 
 sidered. 
 
 The dilute solution of the chloride of lime will form the best app'i- 
 cation, and will usually be successful ; especially if occasionally aided by 
 some caustic wash, as a solution of blue vitriol, or dilute nitric acid. 
 
 OPENED JOINTS. 
 
 These sometimes occur from the injudicious lancing of the first kind 
 of tumour, but oftener from accident. The principle of the treatment of 
 jpen joints is the same as was recommended in the "Treatise on the 
 Horse," p. 242, namely, to close the orifice as soon as possible, and 
 before the secretion of the joint oil is stopped, and the cartilages of the 
 opposing bones rub on each other, and the delicate membrane which 
 lines these cartilages becomes inflamed, and the animal suffers extreme 
 torture, and a degree of fever ensues by which he is speedily destroyed. 
 The wouud is best closed by means of the firing iron. For a description 
 of the operation the reader is referred to "the Horse," under'the title 
 " Broken Knees." 
 
 SPRAINS 
 
 Working oxen, and those that have been dri- en long journeys, are liabU 
 
FOUL IN THE FOOT. tfts 
 
 k> sprain, and particularly of the fetlock joint. The division of the lowei 
 part of the cannon or shank bone, in order that it may articulate with the 
 two pasterns into which the leg is divided renders this joint particularly 
 weak and susceptible of injury. The treatment is the same as in the Horse, 
 and consists of fomentation of the part, to which should succeed band- 
 ages very gradually increasing in tightness, cold lotions, and afterwards, if 
 the deep-seated inflammation cannot otherwise be subdued, stimulating 
 applications, blistering, or, as the last resource, firing. The inflammation 
 attending sprain of this joint is often very great, and enormous bony 
 enlargement and anchylosis are not unfrequently seen.' They embrace 
 the fetlock joint ;' they frequently include the pastern: but oftener, the 
 inflammation and bony enlargement extend up the leg, and particularly 
 the posterior part of it almost to the knee ; for the division of the flexor 
 tendons, in order to reach both toes, takes place considerably above the 
 fetlock (the precise place varying in different animals), and these, from 
 the oblique direction which they take, are peculiarly liable to strain, with 
 probability of serious injury. The firing iron must be severely applied 
 before the mischief has proceeded to this extent. 
 
 DISEASES OF THE FEET. 
 
 These are numerous and serious. The leg of the ox is divided at the 
 fetlock. There are two sets of pasterns, two coffin bones, and two hoofs 
 to each leg. The shank-bone is double in the foetus, but the cartila- 
 ginous substance between the two larger metacarpals is afterwards 
 absorbed, and they become one bone ; the lower bones, however, con- 
 tinue separate. Each division has its own ligaments and tendons, and 
 is covered by its own integument. This gives rise to various inflam- 
 mations and lamenesses, which have been confounded under the very 
 objectionable term of 
 
 FOUL IN THE FOOT. 
 
 Hard and irritating substances often insinuate themselves between 
 the claws, and becoming fixed there, and, wounding the claws on one 
 or both sides, become a source of great annoyance, pain, and inflam- 
 mation, and the beast suddenly becomes lame, and the pasterns are much 
 swelled. They should be carefully examined, the interposed substance 
 should be removed, the wound washed thoroughly clean, and a pledget 
 of tow dipped- in friar's-balsam, or covered with healing ointment, in- 
 troduced between the claws, and there confined by means of a roller. 
 Lameness from this cause will, in general, be readily removed. 
 
 The foot being thus divided, and the ox unexpectedly treading on an 
 uneven surface, or being compelled long to do so when ploughing a steep 
 field, the weight of the animal will be unequally distributed on the 
 pasterns, and severe sprain will be the result. This is indicated by the 
 sudden lameness which comes on, and by the swelling and heat and 
 tenderness being confined to one claw, and referrible to the fetleck or 
 pastern, or coffin joints. Rest and fomentation, or the application . o* 
 cold, with bleeding from the veins of the coronet will usually remove this 
 kind of lameness. The bleeding may be easily effected by means of a 
 small fleam or lancet, for the veins of the foot of the ox are larger and 
 more tortuous tuan those of the horse, and rise more distinctly above the 
 coronet, and climb up the pastern. It is the increased vascularity which 
 jften gives so serious a character to sprains of the coffin or pastern joints 
 in the ox, and disposes to anchylosis of these joints much oftener than in 
 the horse. 
 
°^ CATTLE. 
 
 The foot of the ox, or that part which is inclosed wituiii uie horny box, 
 is liable to the same injuries and diseases as that of the horse ; but thev 
 generally are not so difficult to treat, nor do they produce such destruct- 
 ive consequences, because the weight of the animal being divided 
 between the two claws, the first concussion or injury was not so great, 
 and the animal was able afterwards to spare the injured claw, by throw- 
 ing a considerable portion or the whole of the weight on the sound one. 
 Injuries of the feet arise from pricking in shoeing, wounds from nails or 
 glass, or fron. the sole being bruised, and sometimes the horn being worn 
 almost through, by travelling or working on hard roads. 
 
 It is generally believed that there is a constitutional tendency to dis- 
 eases of the foot in cattle, resembling the rot in sheep ; but this has never 
 been satisfactorily proved*, and the simplest explanation of the matter 
 is, that inflammation was produced by some external cause; that it ran 
 its usual course ; that suppuration followed, and matter was formed ; 
 that it burrowed in various parts of the foot, and broke out at the coro- 
 net ; that sinuses remained ; that the ulcer took on an unhealthy character; 
 fungus shooted up, in short there was the quittor or canker of the horse, 
 but on a smaller scale and more manageable. This is a simple view of 
 the case, and at once points out a mode of treatment, intelligible and 
 generally successful. 
 
 It is true that^^wZ in the foot is most prevalent in low marshy countries ; 
 but the hoof is there softened, macerated by its continual immersion in 
 moisture, and rendered unable to resist the accidents to which it is 
 occasionally exposed. It is there that canker and quittor are most pre- 
 valent in the horse, and most difficult to be treated. 
 
 When a beast becomes suddenly lame he should be taken up, and, if 
 necessary, secured. The lameness will generally be referrible to one 
 claw. The heat, and tenderness, and redness, and enlargement round 
 the coronet will prove this. The foot should be carefully examined — is 
 there any prick or wound about the sole? if so, let the horn be pared 
 away there — let the matter which is pent up within escape — let the horn 
 be removed as far as it has separated from the sensible parts beneath — 
 let a little butyr of antimony be applied over the denuded part — let a 
 pledget of soft dry tow be bound tightly upon the part, and let the animal 
 be placed in a dry yard or cow-house. 
 
 If there is no evident wound, let the foot of the beast, like that of 
 the horse, be tried round with the pincers ; and if he decidedly flinches 
 when pressed on a particular part, let the foot be opened there — let the 
 coronet be closely examined — is there any soft reddish shot upon it? if so, 
 freely plunge the lancet into it. 
 
 If the examiner is foiled in this attempt to discover the seat of mischief, 
 let him envelop the foot in a poultice ; that will soften the neighbouring 
 parts, and cause even the horn to be a little more yielding, and will abate 
 the inflammation ; if it should be pure inflammation without previous mecha- 
 nical injury, that will hasten the process of suppuration, and thie matter will 
 more quickly, and with less destruction to the neighbouring parts, find 
 its way to the coronet. As soon as it does so, the soft projecting red or 
 black spot should be opened, and a probe should be introduced into the 
 
 * M. Favre of Geneva, instituted numerous expenments, in order to ascertain whether 
 the foot-rot in sheep, and foul in the foot in cattle, were the same or similar diseases. 
 He inoculated sheep with the matter taken from between the claws, aud with some from 
 the denuded surface of the sole, and some also which he had taken from a sinus ruu- 
 ning deep into the foot in neither case did he produce anything analn;;uus to tha 
 fuot-rot.— Journal de Mid. Vet. et Compar£e, 1826 p. 319, 
 
FOUL m THE FOOT. 567 
 
 •pening and the sinuses carefully ascertained, tiid every portion of 
 detached horn removed from above them, and the healthy horn around 
 thinned and smoothed. It will always in these cases be prudent to admi 
 nister a dose of Epsom salt. 
 
 The character of the surface exposed should now be considered. If 
 the matter having been all evacuated, the wound or wounds have a 
 tolerably healthy appearance, a light application of the butyr of antimony, 
 and that repeated daily, will soon induce a secretion of new horn ; but if 
 there is a portion of the surface that looks black or spongy, or the edges 
 of which are separated from the parts around, here was, probably, the 
 original seat of injury — the life of that portion has been destroyed and it 
 must be removed — it must slough out. A poultice of linseed meal, with 
 a fourth part of common turpentine, must be put on, changed twice 
 in the day, and continued until the separation is complete. A light 
 appUcation of the butyr should then follow, or in favourable cases, a 
 pledg-et soaked in friafs balsam should be placed on the wound, bound 
 tightly down, and daily renewed ; the removal of every portion of detached 
 horn, dryness, firm, but equable pressure on the part, and moderate 
 stimulus of the exposed surface, are the principles which will carry the 
 practitioner successfully through every case of foul in the foot. 
 
 Nothing has been said of the fungous excrescence between the claws, in 
 order to remove which, as well as to stimulate the surface beneath and dis- 
 pose it to throw out healthy horn, the cart-rope or the horse-hair line used 
 to be introduced between the claws, and drawn backwards and forwards, 
 infliciing sad and unnecessary torture on the animal. This fungus will 
 rarely make its appearance, if the horn, which had lost its attachment to 
 the living surface beneath, yet still continue to press upon it, has been 
 carefully removed. If any fungus appears, it should be levelled by 
 means of a sharp-knife, and the caustic applied*. There can be no 
 doubt, that pure inflammation, without wound or mechanfcal injury, does 
 sometimes attack the feet of cattle, especially of those that are in high 
 condition. On one day the beast is perfectly free from lameness, or 
 illness of any kind ; on the following day probably the foot is swelled, the 
 claws stand apart from each other, they are unusually hot, and the animal 
 can scarcely rest any portion of his weight on one foot ; he is continually 
 shifting his posture, or he lies down and cannot be induced to rise. If 
 the beast is neglected, the inflammation and swelling increase until an 
 ulcer appears at the division of the claws, and which cannot be healed 
 until a considerable core has sloughed out. 
 
 A linseed-meal poultice should be applied to the part as soon as this 
 inflammation is observed, audit may be easily retained in its situation by 
 means of a cloth through which two holes have been cut to admit the 
 claws. This will either abate the inflammation or hasten the suppuration ; 
 and as soon as the swelling begins to point it should be opened. The 
 poultice must be continued until this sloughing process has taken place, or 
 the ulcer begins to have a healthy surface, a little common turpentine 
 
 • The following recipe is eOpied as a perfect unique in veterinary practice:— "My 
 father's method (of curing foul m the foot) was to cut up a sod where the diseased foot 
 had trodden, and either turn it over sward side downwards, or hang it on a hedge in thai 
 Dositiuu. I am unahle to account fur this cure ; to me it is incomprehensible ; hut iu 
 all the experiments 1 have tried, this remedy, so simple and cheap, has proved the best, 
 Thefirst year I was at Slane, we had many cattle troubled With this complaint; I 
 applied nothing else but What may be called a charm, and they all more readily 
 recovered than when I used severer applications ; therefore, in future, I mean never 
 to have recourse to any remedy bat the sod, though probably rest is the great reiiorathe.' 
 —Parkinson on Live Stock, vol. i. p. 245. 
 
5*8 CATTLE. 
 
 having been added to it Proud flesh must be subdued by the caustic . 
 equal parts of verdigris and sugar ol lead wul constitute the besl 
 application for this purpose. Foul and foetid discharge must be cor- 
 rected by the chloride of lime ; and when th? ulcer looks healthy, tlie 
 tincture of m\rrh or friar's balsam must be used. 
 
 By this mode of treatment the disease will readily be subdued, but the 
 application of corroding caustic substances in the early stage of it will 
 add fuel to fire; and the suffering the abscess to remain unopened until 
 the pus has burst its way through the thick skin of the leg will produce 
 sinuses that will run in every direction, remain open munth after month, 
 and leave permanent lameness behind. Some have imagined that this 
 variety of tbul in the foot is contagious. That is not quite' ascertained, 
 although there are some suspicious cases on record ; the farmer, therefore, 
 will act prudently who immediately separates the lame beast from the 
 herd. 
 
 In one respect, these diseases of the feet of cattle differ ma'terially from 
 quittor or canker in the horse. There is a laminated connexion between 
 the hoof of the ox and the sensible parts beneath as in the horse ; but the 
 horny plates of the hoof and the fleshy ones of the substance which covers 
 the coffin-bone are not so wide or so deep, and therefore the attachment 
 between the hoof and the foot is not so strong. Thence it happens that 
 the matter finds great difficulty in forcing a way for itself in the foot of 
 the horse, and deep sinuses are formed which reach to, and corrode the 
 bone, and there is sometimes core upon core to be detached, and portions 
 of bone to be thrown off, and whence results the cankered state of the 
 foot, and the difficulty of cure. In cattle less resistance to the progress 
 of the matter is experienced; the hoof is more easily separated from the 
 parts beneath, and that which would produce deep ulceration and caries 
 in the one, rarely to be perfectly repaired, leads to the casting of the hoot 
 in the other, while the foot has received comparatively little injury. 
 The form of the foot, in these cases, is much changed, and all its 
 functions impaired in the one ; in the other a new hoof speedily covers 
 a foot that has escaped all serious detriment, and the animal becomes as 
 useful as he ever was. Cases, however, do sometimes occur in which 
 the hoof is lengthened and curved, and twisted in a very curious way, 
 and the coffin bone takes on a similar distortion. 
 
 There is no frog in the foot of cattle, nor are there the provisions for 
 the expansion and elasticity of the foot which we admire in the horse 
 therefore there is not any disease that can be considered as correspond- 
 ing with the "thrush" in that animal, but there is occasionally something 
 not much unlike grease. A sore appears upon, the heel, not however so 
 much in the form of a crack as of a circular superficial ulcer. It has 
 a brown unhealthy hue ; fungus oflen springs from it*, and it causes con- 
 siderable lameness. It is best treated with the chloride of lime, or that 
 and a strong solution of alum may be alternately applied. A bandage 
 should' seldom be used because it can scarcely be put on without ex- 
 coriating the parts and increasing the evil, and because the ox is much 
 more impatient of the restraint of the bandage than is the most iidgetty or 
 vicious horse. 
 
 Cocstant pain seems to prey more speedily and injuriously on cattle 
 
 * Where the case has been neglected, projection of the fungus sometimes hardens 
 and acquires a resemblance to the grapes on the heels of greasy horses ; more frequently, 
 however, it becomes like a seedy wart, and i» very tender and troublesome, and bleedi 
 kfter the slightest touch. The chloride or butyr of antimony is the host remedy 
 brthia. 
 
SHOEING. 56t 
 
 tliai on the horse — ruminants have not the courage and endurance of 
 this noble animal, and therefore it is that these .diseases of the feet 
 soon begin very materially to interfere with the condition of the beast. 
 It has been remarked (p. 304), that " there is not a farmer that has not 
 had cows in his dairy th»t have lost for a time full half of tl^eir milli on 
 account of the pain which tender and diseased feet have occasioned ; the 
 grazier sometimeit loses the advantage of three or four months' feeding 
 fVom the same cause, and in London dairies, tender feet are often a most 
 serious ailment, and compel the milkman to part with some of his best 
 cows, and that in very indifferent condition." These things would indi- 
 cate the propriety of having recourse to the operation of neurotomy. It 
 is an operation which, resorted to in proper cases, will never be under- 
 \al'ied as it regards the horse ; and the time is not far distant, when vete- 
 rinary surgeons, better instructed in the anatomy and ailments of cattle, 
 will often practise it to relieve the torture, and to improve the condition 
 of ruminants. 
 
 SHOEING 
 
 This, as in the horse, is a necessary evil. A beast used for road work 
 would soon be crippled and ruined without shoes ; and the farmer would 
 find it his interest never to send an ox to plough unshod. He would 
 be well repaid for the expense of shoeing by the increased speed, the 
 greater capability of work, the endurance and the superior condition of his 
 cattle. Little skill is required in the smith in order to adapt the shoe to 
 the foot of the ox ; there is no weakness of particular parts, no corn, no 
 tenderness of frog, no disposition to contraction to be studied ; the 
 simple principle is to cover the sole effectually. Around the outer rim the 
 shoe should follow the line of the foot — it should somewhat project in- 
 wardly towards the toe, and be rounded towards the heel, with the pro- 
 jection likewise inward. It should be fastened by three nails on the outer 
 edge, the posterior nail being about the middle of that edge. The nails 
 should be thin, and flat-headed, so that when driven close they shall 
 occupy a considerable portion of the ground surface of the fore part of the 
 shoe. Both the ground and foot surfaces should be flat, and the shoes 
 made of good iron, but thin and light. The only difference between the 
 fore and the hind shoe is that the hind shoe is thinner and lighter, not 
 quite, so broad or so much curved, and, particularly, more pointed, and 
 more turned up at the toe. 
 
 A. The f;round-8urface of the fore-shoe. 
 
 B. Do. of the hind shoe. 
 
 Some farmers shoe the fore feet only, others take in the two outside ciaw* 
 i»(the hind feet; but it would be little additional trouble or expense to 
 »ho« them all round, and ^''en they would be safe. 
 
S70 CATTLE. 
 
 The principal ebjeclion to shoeing the os arises from the difficulty of 
 putting the shoes on. The beast will seldom submit quietly, and recourse 
 must be had to the trevis, or to casting him. The latter is dangerous, 
 and frequently accompanied by accident either to the ox or the smith. 
 The best trevis is that recommended by Bakewell, a description and en- 
 ijraving of which may be found in the " British Husbandry,'' p. 221. 
 Much of the unruliness of the beast, however, might be overcome by kind 
 treatment, and by oflen handling the steer, and lifting his feet, and strik 
 ing them gently with a hammer. Finding that no harm is done to him 
 he will permit this without fear, and he will be likely to submit to the 
 apparently similar process of shoeing. It is fear, and not natural indo- 
 cility, which causes the resistance of the beast. 
 
 Chapter XIX. 
 THE DISEASES OF THE SKIN. 
 
 The skin of the ox differs little from that of the horse, except that it ic 
 thicker, and apparently less sensible ; therefore for some observations on 
 the structure and functions of the skin, the reader is referred to the Trea- 
 tise on the Horse, p. 369 ; they apply equally to the greater part of our 
 domesticated animals. 
 
 The horseman properly attaches great importance to the state of the 
 skin in that animal. If it is hard and dry, and unyielding, he says that 
 the horse is out of condition ; and then he knows full well that although 
 the animal may have no decided disease about him, yet he is scarcely 
 capable of discharging his ordinary duty, and altogether unequal to any 
 extraordinary exertion. Graziers know as well that the beast whose skin is 
 not soft.'and mellow, and elastic, can never carry any profitable quantity 
 of flesh and fat; therefore they judge of the value of the animal even 
 more by the handling than they do by the conformation of parts. 
 
 The skin is filled with innumerable little glands which pour out an 
 oily fluid, that softens and supples it, so that we can easily take it between 
 the finger and thumb, and raise it from the parts beneath ; and while 
 we are doing this, we are sensible of its peculiar mellowness and elasticity. 
 At another time or in another animal, the skin seems to cling to the muscles 
 beneath, and feels harsh and rough when we handle it : but the skin is not 
 altered or diseased, it is this secretion of oily fluid that is suspended. 
 We attach the idea of health to the mellow skin, and of disease to the 
 harsh and immoveable one, because the experience of ourselves and of 
 everybody else has confirmed this connection ; and the principle is that 
 when one secretion is properiy discharged, the others will generally be so, 
 and when one is interrupted the harmony of the system is too mnch 
 disturbed for the animal to thrive or to be in vigour. 
 
 Then, as a symptom of a diseased state of the constitution generally, the 
 attention is first directed to 
 
 HIDE-BOUND. 
 
 The term is very expressive — the hide seems to be bound, or to cling 
 to the muscles and bones. Tt does not actually do so, but it has loet its 
 
HIDK-BOUND. 571 
 
 Boflness, and we can no longer raise it, or move it about. The secretion 
 of the oily fluid which supples the skin is disturbed ; this ar<!;ues dis- 
 turbance elsewhere, and the feeling of the skin usually indicates the degree 
 of tliat disturbance. 
 
 With hide-bound is connected a rough and staring coat. The surfncc 
 jf the skin is become hard and dry ; the ininuie scales with which it is 
 covered no longer yield to the hair, but separating themselves in every 
 direction, they turn it in various ways, and so give to it that irregular 
 and ragged appearance which ia one of the characteristics of want of 
 condition. 
 
 These two circumstances — hide-bound and a staring coat — are unerring 
 indications of evil. A cow may be somewhat off her feed — she may 
 hnnse a little — she may have various little ailments; they should not be 
 neglected; but while the skin is loose and the hair lies smooth the farmer 
 has not much to fear: if, however, the coat begins to stare, and the skin to 
 cling to the ribs, it behoves him to examine into the matter. What dis- 
 ease unobserved has been preying upon the constitution ? — has hoose been 
 degenerating into phthisis ? — has some chronic affection of the liver been 
 weakening the strength of the digestive organs? or what has been wrong 
 in the management of the beast? Has she been unnecessarily and 
 cruelly exposed to cold and wet — has she been fed on unwholesome pro- 
 vender, or has she been half starved ? 
 
 If the thrifty appearance cannot be traced to any evident cause, still 
 there can be no doubt that something is wrong. Hide-bound is rarely 
 a primary disease ; it is a symptom of disease, and oftener than of any other 
 disease of the digestive organs. A dose of physic should be given (eight 
 ounces of sulphur, with half an ounce of ginger), and a few mashes should 
 be allowed. After this medicines should be administered that have a ten- 
 dency to rouse the vessels of the skin to their due action, as sulphur, 
 nitre, and antimonial. powder, with a small quantity of ginger. No 
 direct tonic should be administered while the cause of this want of con- 
 dition is unknown, but warm purgatives and diaphoretic medicines will 
 often have a good effect. 
 
 MANQE. 
 
 This is the most serious among the diseases of the skin in cattle. The 
 first symptom is a constant itchiness. The cow eagerly rubs herself 
 against everything that she can get at. The hair comes quite off or geti 
 thin on various parts of the body. There are few scabs or sores ; but eithe; 
 in consequence of the rubbing, or as an effect of the disease, a thick scur- 
 finess appears, particularly along the back, and in patches on other places. 
 It is first seen about the tail, and thence it spreads in every direction. The 
 cow soon begins to lose condition, the ridge of her back becomes promi- 
 nent, and her milk decreases, and sometimes is deteriorated in quality. 
 
 The causes are various ; they are occasionally as opposite as it is pos- 
 sible for them to be. Too luxuriant food will produce it ; it will more 
 certainly follow star\ation. The skin sympathizes with the over-taxed 
 powers of digestion in' the one case, and with the general debility of the 
 frame in the other: and nothing is so certain of bringing on the worst' 
 kind of it as the sudden change from comparative starvation to luxuriant 
 food. Want of cleanliness, although highly censurable, has been oftener 
 accused as the cause of mange than it deserves ; but to nothing can H 
 more frequently be traced than to contagion. 
 
 The treatment is simple and effectual. The diseased cattle should b - 
 removed to some distant stable or shed where there can be no possib 
 
572 CATTLE. 
 
 communication with the others. The disease, however produced, mus 
 be considered and treated as a local one. The scurtiness of the skin mnsl 
 first be got off? hy means of a hard brush, or a curry-comb, somewhat 
 lightly applied. To this must follow the application of an ointment 
 which appears to have a specific effect on the mange, and which must be 
 well rubbed in with a soft brush, or, what is far better, with the hand, 
 morning and night : there is no danger of the disease being communicated 
 to the person so employed. That ointment must have sulphur as its basis, 
 aided by turpentine, which somewhat irritates the skin and disposes it tc 
 be acted upon by the sulphur ; and, to render it still more efhcacious, a 
 small portion of mercury must be added. The following will be a safe, and 
 very effectiiltl application — there are few cases which willresist its power. 
 " Take of flowers of sulphur a pound, common turpentine four ounces, 
 strong mercurial ointment two ounces, and linseed oil a pint. Warm the 
 oil and melt the turpentine in it ; when they begin to get cool add the 
 sulphur, and stir the ingredients well together, and afterwards incorporate 
 the blue ointment with the mass by rubbing them together on a marble 
 slab." 
 
 Vast numbers of cattle have been lost by the use of stronger and poi- 
 sonous applications. Corrosive sublimate, in the form of an almost 
 saturated solution of it, is a favourite lotion with many practitioners *. 
 Arsenic — ^hellebore — tobacco f have had their advocates, and have murdered 
 thousands of cattle. 
 
 The practit jner must not, however, confine himself to mere local treat- 
 ment, physic should always be administered. Sulphur, in doses of eight 
 ounces every third day, will materially assist in effecting a cure ; and 
 on the intermediate days nothing better can be given than the powder 
 recommended for hide-bound (p. 571). Mashes also should be allowed 
 every night. 
 
 LEPROSY. 
 
 Mange neglected Or improperly treated may degenerate into a worse 
 disease, but fortunately not one of frequent occurrence. The scurf will 
 be succeeded by scabs — there have been cases in which the scabs have 
 appeared from the beginning — and the skin becomes thickened and cor- 
 rugated, and covered with scales, and occasionally the scales peel off, and 
 corroding ulcers appear beneath. 
 
 * The author of this Treatise attended five cows belonging to a gentleman that wert 
 afflicted with had mange. He applied the ointment and the powders here recommended, 
 and the case was going on slowly but satisfactorily. He did not wish to make too much 
 haste in the business, for the disease had been of considerable standing, and the animals 
 had been much reduced by it. He was afraid of a worse evil if he repelled this con- 
 firmed and general cutaneous eruption too quickly. The gentleman, however, was im. 
 patient; the cowherd was more so, and the case was put under the hands of a farrier. 
 He brought a great bottle of some lotion ; he apphed it freely about them ; he used 
 ulmost the whole of it. In a little more than twelve hours one of them began to foam 
 at the mouth — she staggered, fell, and died. In less than twenty-four hours they were 
 all dead. The first practitioner was sent for in great haste, and arrived just in time to 
 witness the death of the last cow. He secured the bottle : it contained a strong solutioa 
 of corrosive subUmate mixed with some imknown vegetable decoction. 
 
 + A friend of the Editor was requested to see four cows that had been dressed for 
 mange. One of them was dead when he arrived; another died afterwards; the othertwo 
 recovered, and were found to be cured of the mange. Another friend who sometimes 
 uses a decoction of tobacco, says that he is sometimes thoroughly frightened by It— that 
 the animal breaks out into profuse perspiration, and falls and rolls, and there is great 
 prostration of strength; and that nothing should induce him to have recourse to thJl 
 mode cf treatment, except in his own stables, and uiidt- r his immediate insptctiun. 
 
LICE. s;3 
 
 The same ointment, but with double the quantity of mercury, must ba 
 nsed for this aggravated state of the disease, and a stronger alterative 
 powder, consisting of two drachms of Ethiop's Mineral, added to the one 
 already recommended. All this mercury, however, must be used with 
 caution, for it is not a drug that always agrees with the ruminant; and 
 salivation would, temporarily at least, and in most cases permanently 
 injure the beast, both for the dairy and the pasture. 
 
 In those sadly aggravated cases that come under the observation of the 
 practitioner, in which the whole of the skin is thickened and corrugated, 
 with deep chaps running down on either side, or uniting together in various 
 directions — when within the substance of the skin numerous tubercles can 
 be felt, varying from the size of a miilet-seed to that of a kidney-bean — 
 (vhen the eye-lids are swelled so that the animal can scarcely see, and a 
 great quantity of mucus is discharged from them — when the nostrils and 
 "iips are thickened, and dense and yellow mucus runs from the nose^ 
 ivhen, beginning from the knees, and reaching almost to the hoofs, the 
 intervals between the chaps are occupied by tuberculous grapes, of dif- 
 ferent sizes, and some of which discharge a serous fluid ; — in such cases 
 the surgeon may well be puzzled what to do. 
 
 The animal must be bled and physicked ; but his strength must be 
 supported by mashes and plenty of fresh-green meat : he must be fomented 
 all over many times every day, and he must be kept where he cannot com- 
 municate the infection If the inflammation does not begin to subside, he 
 must be bled again and again ; the physic must be repeated ; sulphur will 
 constitute the best j)hysic here, and he must be kept under its purgative 
 influence: and, at length, the skin beginning to supple — the cutaneous 
 inflammation having, to a considerable degree, subsided — the ointment 
 and the powder recommended for mange must be used. Should they 
 not have sufficient effect, recourse must be had to the stronger ones pre- 
 scribed for leprosy. Previous, however, to the use of either of the oint- 
 ments, and after the inflammation has abated, the solution of the chloride 
 of lime may be applied on two or three successive days with much advan- 
 tage*. 
 
 Connected with mange, the usual accompaniment, and probably the 
 occasional cause of it, is the appearance of vermin on the skin. It cannot 
 be supposed that they are originally produced by any disease or state of 
 the skin ; but the ova (eggs) of these animalculie, floating in the atmo- 
 - sphere, find in the skin of cattle, under certain circumstances, and under 
 those alone, a proper nidus, or place where they may be hatched into life. 
 A beast in good health and condition will not have one of those insects 
 upon him unless he mixes with lousy cattle ; but if he is turned out in the 
 straw-yard in winter, and is half-starved there, and his coat becomes 
 rough, and matted, and foul, they will soon swarm upon him. By the 
 constant irritation which they excite, they will predispose the skin to an 
 attack of mange from other causes, if they do not actually produce it. 
 
 He who had not personal observation of the fact, would hardly believe 
 how numerous they soon become. There are myriads of them on the hide 
 of the ill-fated beast. They keep him in a constatit state of torment, and 
 are, in a manner, devouring him before his time. It cannot be surprising 
 
 * For illustrations of this form of the disease, the reader is referred to a Memoir, h; 
 M. Santin, on Elephantiasis in cattle, and also to the Journal Pratique for 1829, p. 421 ; 
 and for 1831, p. 10. A useful paper will also be found in the R6c. de Med. S'it, 1830 
 
"'* CATTLE 
 
 Hiat they rapidly spread from one nnimal to another. The slighttst pon- 
 toct, the lyinfT on the same lair, or the feeding on the same pasture, is suf- 
 hcient to enable them to be communicated from the infected beast to all 
 the rest The animalcule thrives everywhere, although the ovum did not 
 tind a proper nidus on the skin of the healthy beast j and the vermin, 
 once established there, soon change the character of the skin, and cover it 
 WJth pcurf and mange 
 
 Various powders and lotions have been recommended for the destruc- 
 tion of these parasites. A powder can scarcely be brought into contact 
 with a thousandth part of them ; nor can a lotion, unless used in a quan- 
 tity sufficient to kill the beast as well as those that are feeding upon him. 
 An ointment is the most convenient application, and by dint of rubbing, a 
 little . if it may be made to go a great way. The common scab ointment 
 tor sheep (one part of strong mercurial ointment and five of lard) will be 
 effectual for this purpose; and if a little of it is well rubbed in, instead of 
 a great deal being smeared over the animal, there will be no danger of 
 salivation. 
 
 WARBLES. 
 
 Towards the latter part of the summer and the beginning of autumn, 
 and especially in fine and warm weather, cattle out at pasture are. fre- 
 quently annoyed by a fly of the Diptera order and the (Estrus genus, that 
 seems to sting them with great severity. The animal attacked runs bel- 
 lowing from his companions, with his head and neck stretched out, and 
 his tail extending straight from his body, and he seeks for refuge, if pos- 
 sible, in some pool or stream of water. (The fly seems to fear, or to 
 have an aversion to the water, and cattle are there exempt from its attack.:. 
 The whole herd, having previously been exposed to the same annoy 
 ance, are frightened, and scamper about in every direction, or, one and 
 all, rush into the stream. Under the excitation of the moment, they dis- 
 regard all control ; and even oxen at work in the fields will sometimes 
 betake themselves to flight with the plough at their heels, regardless of 
 their driver or of the incumbrance which they drag behind them. 
 
 The formidable enemy that causes this alarm, and seems to inflict so 
 muqh torture, is the (Estrus Bovis, the Breeze or Gad-fly, which at this 
 time is seeking a habitation for its future young, and selects the hides of 
 cattle for this purpose. It is said to choose the younger beasts, and those 
 that are in highest condition. There has evidently been considerable 
 exercise of selection, for a great many of the cattle in the same pasture 
 will have only a few warbles on their backs, while others will, in a man- 
 ner, be covered by them. 
 
 Naturalists and agriculturists are indebted to Mr. Bracy Clark for a 
 very accurate account of this fly ; and the author acknowledges his obli- 
 gations to this celebrated veterinarian, and more particularly to that excel- 
 lent French entomologist, M. Reaumur, for much of that which he is 
 enabled to offer respecting the history of this insect. 
 
 The cestrus bovis is the largest and most beautiful of this genus. Its 
 head is white, and covered with soft down — its thorax yellow anteriorly, 
 with four black longitudinal lines — the centre of the thorax is black, and 
 he posterior part of an ashen colour — the abdomen is also of an ashen 
 tolour, with a white black band in the centre, and covered posteriorly with 
 yellow hair. It does not leave its chrysalis state until late in the summer, 
 and is then eagerly employed in providing a habitation for its future pro- 
 geny. It selects the back of the ox, at r.o great distance from the spine 
 on either side, and alighting there it speedily pierces the integi'oient, 
 
WARBLES. S7» 
 
 deposits an egg in the cellular substance beneath it, and probably a small 
 quantity of some acid, which speedily produces a little tumour on the 
 part, and accounts for the apparent suffering of the animal *. 
 
 The egg seems to be hatched before the wound is closed, and the larva, 
 or maggot, occupies a small cyst or cell beneath it. The tail of the larva 
 projects into this opening, and the insect is thus supplied with air, the prin- 
 cipal air-vessels being placed posteriorly ; while with the mouth, deep at 
 the bottom of the abscess, it receives the pus, or other matter that is 
 'ecreted there. A fluid, resembling pus, can always be squeezed from the 
 jmour, and increasing in quantity as the animal approaches his change 
 of form. In its early stage of existence the larva is white,- like that of 
 most other flies ; but as it approaches its maturity, it becomes darker, and 
 at length almost black. These little tumours form the residence of the 
 larva, and are recognised by the name of warbles. ■ 
 
 The abscess having been once formed, appears to be of little or no in- 
 convenience to the beast on whose back it is found. It certainly does not 
 interfere with his. condition -j-, and the butcher regards the existence of 
 these warbles even as a proof of a disposition to thrive. The injury to the 
 skin, however, is another affair, and the tanner would probably tell a dif- 
 ferent story. The larva, if undisturbed, continues in this cyst, until the 
 month of June or July in the following year, and then forces itself through 
 the aperture already described, and the accomplishment of which occupies 
 two days. It is sofl when it first escapes, but it soon hardens ; and if it 
 is fortunate enough to escape the birds which are on the look-out for it, 
 or if it does not fall into the water, which the cattle seem now instinc- 
 tively to seek, as it were to destroy as many of their enemies as possible, it 
 conceals itself in the nearest hiding-place it can find, where it remains 
 motionless until it changes to a chrysalis, which is speedily effected ; it- 
 continues in its new form about six weeks, and then bursts froni its shell 
 a perfect fly. 
 
 It is a very singular circumstance, that the escape of the larva from its 
 prison on the back of the ox always takes place in the morning, and 
 between six and eight o'clock. Is the mysterious principle of instinct 
 already at work ? Does the maggot know, that if it forced itself through 
 the hole in the warble at a later period, the heat of the sun would destroy 
 it; or that if it fell during the night, it would perish before it could 
 reach a place of refuge ? 
 
 Being also exposed to many dangers in its chrysaline state, it is thei; 
 covered with a scaly box of great strength, and from which it would seem 
 impossible for it ever to make its escape ; but when its change is com- 
 plete, and it begins to struggle within its prison, a valve at one end of its 
 narrow house, and fastened only by a slight filament, flies open, and the 
 insect wings its way, first to find its mate, .and then to deposit its eggs 
 on the cattle in the nearest pastures. 
 
 Some farmers are very careless about the existence of these warbles ; 
 others very properly endeavour to destroy the grub that inhabits them. 
 
 * The weapon by mesna of which the perForation ig effected is a very singular one. 
 It seems to be formed of three different pieces, inclosed the one within an other, lika 
 the divisions of a telescope, and from the farthest and smallest the true auger, or perfo- 
 lator, proceeds. 
 
 -I- In IS23 and 1824, however, the oesrri were so numerous m the department oi 
 Loiret, in France, and the tumours accumulated to that extent on the cattle, that they 
 occasioned fever, inflammation, and death. There was a disposition to inflammaiurj 
 fever prevailing at the same time amongst most species of domesticated animals. — Uup 
 port i U Soci£t£ Royale et Centrale d' Agriculture, 1826. 
 
57ft CATTLE. 
 
 fhis is effected in various ways — a little corrosive liquor is pouied int« 
 the hole, or a red-hot needle introdut-ed, or the larva is crushed or forced 
 out by pressure writh the finger and thumb. Although the existence ot 
 iho warble is a kind of proof of the health and condition of the animal, yet 
 there is no reason why the best beasts should be tormented by the gad- 
 fly, or the strongest and best hides be perforated, and, in a manner, 
 spoiled in their best parts. Although when the larva escapes or is 
 expelled, the tumour soon subsides, the holes made are scarcely filled up 
 during that season ; and even a twelvemonth afterwards, a weakness of 
 the hide, and disposition to crack, will show where the bot has been. 
 If all farmers could be induced to search for and destroy the insect 
 when a arva, the cattle of that district might be nearly or quite freed 
 from this pest. 
 
 ANGLE-BERRIES, OR VITARTS. 
 
 Cattle are subject to various excrescences growing from the cuticle at 
 first, but afterwards identified with the true skin. They assume many forms, 
 from that of scales of greater or less thickness, and accompanied some- 
 times by chaps and sores, to fungous growths, of ditferent size and 
 hardness, and bearing the character of warts. They are occasionally very 
 numerous and exceedingly troublesome ; and they are most numerous and 
 exceedingly troublesome about the teats. When they grow about the eye- 
 lids they are a sad nuisance to the beast. 
 
 When there are only exfoliations and scales of the cuticle, friction 
 with camphorated oil will occasionally remove them. It has been known 
 to disperse the warty excrescences. Mercurial preparations, whether blue 
 ointment, or corrosive sublimate and soap, are dangerous, but they will 
 usually get rid of the angle-berries. When they are numerous, and parti- 
 cularly about the udder, the practitioner will probably try to remove the 
 largest of them by means of a ligature passed round their roots. This, 
 however, will often be an almost endless affair, and recourse must 
 be had to the knife and the cautery. The cautery will stop the bleeding, 
 destroy the root of the wart, and thus prevent its springing again. When 
 they are small, this will be most successfully attacked by means of the 
 nitrate of silver, the warts being touched daily with it in a solid form, if 
 they are few and distinct ; or washed with a strong solution of it, if they 
 are more numerous and scattered over a large surface. They have been 
 attributed to various causes, as contusions, stings of insects, want of con- 
 dition, inflammation of the skin ; but in most cases the actual cause is 
 unknown. 
 
 A singular case of the periodical appearance of warts occurred in the 
 author's, practice. At uncertain intervals, from six to nine, or ten months, 
 a cow- suddenly lost flesh, her coat stared, she would scarcely eat, and at 
 length, rumination was entirely suspended ; then wo'jld appear, and nearly 
 all over her, and particularly about the udder and in the mouth, and on the 
 eyelids, a thick crop of warts, varying from the size of a millet-seed to twice 
 that bulk. She was well physicked, and mashes were given to her— 
 she recovered her appetite and spirits, the warts began to diminish, and in 
 a fortnight they were gone. 
 
 Mr. Starks of Westwoodside, Lanark, relates a somewhat similar case. 
 He had a cow mostly of a white colour with some black spots. She be- 
 came ill from being over heated as Mr. Starks supposed — her appetite 
 {ailed — she yielded no milk — she became exceedingly weak, and her eyes 
 sunk in their sockets^ — the pulse was sistj' — the skin warm — the extiemities 
 cold. She soon became hide-bound, and her skin was strangely hard 
 
MKDICINES DSED I^ THE TREATMENT OF CATTLE. 577 
 
 She was hied and purged, and sulphur was given daily as an alterative, 
 and she was well rubbed with oil in order to soften the skin. In a little 
 while the cuticle, or outer layer of the skin, began to separate from the 
 cutis or true skin beneath ; the hair separated along with it. until from the 
 mouth to the tad, and half-way down the legs, there was not a particle of 
 nair remaining, except where there had been a spot 0/ black, and on that 
 place It continued quite soR and healthy. From the moment of the falling 
 of the hair, the cow began to get better, and speedily recovered her appe- 
 tite, and yielded her usual quantity of milk ; the hair likewise, was bv 
 degrees reproduced on every part but the shoulders * 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 A LIST OF THE MEDICINES USED IN THE TREATMENT OF THE DISEASES OP 
 
 CATTLE. 
 
 In the present imperfect state of the knowledge of the diseases of cattle 
 and their remedial treatment, it may be supposed that many gross errors 
 are committed — many inert or injurious medicines administered — many 
 complaints aggravated, and thousands of animals lost. The phapmaco- 
 poeia of the cow-leech does not indeed contain a numerous list of drugs, 
 but a considerable proportion of them are either useless or dangerous, 
 or administered in ineflfectual or destructive doses. It is not, however, 
 the object of the editor of this work to draw up a catalogue of errors and 
 abuses in cattle-practice, although he might easily present one, ridiculous 
 and disgusting to an almost inconceivable degree ; but to describe the pro- 
 perties, and doses, and combinations of those medicines which the ex- 
 perience of rational practitioners in former times, and the inquiries of 
 scientific men in these later years of veterinary improvement, have sanc- 
 tioned. 
 
 Alcohol. — There are two circumstances which not only render the prac- 
 tice of giving stimulants to cattle far more excusable than in the horse, 
 but absolutely necessary : the first is the disposition which all the inflam- 
 matory diseases of cattle have to take on' a typhoid form, and assume a 
 malignant character; — and the second is, the construction of the stomachs 
 of these animals, in consequence of which a considerable portion of the 
 medicine falls into the comparatively insensible paunch. Hence, inflam- 
 mation having been subdued, the practitioner is always anxious to suppor* 
 the strength of the constitution ; and even while he is combating inflamma- 
 tion he cautiously adds a stimulant to the purgative,, in order that he may 
 dispose the tissues with which that purgative may come into contact to be 
 affected by it. Hence ginger forms an indispensable ingredient in every 
 aperient drink ; hence the recourse to wine in maay cases of low fever ; and 
 hence also the foundation of, and the excuse for, the custom of adding the 
 sound home-brewed ale to almost every purgative, and especially for youug 
 and weakly cattle, when evident inflammatory action does not forbid it 
 The fiery spices and the almost undiluted spirit administered by the 
 cow-leech can never be j.ustified ; yet, in cattle- practice, the beneficial Sffect 
 »t the aperient often depends fully as much on the carminative by which 
 . t is accompanied, as on the purgative power of the irag itself 
 
 • Vstermanan Feb. 1 83 J, p. 97 
 
 2 P 
 
■^3 CATTLIi, 
 
 Aloes. — lliis is tlie best, and almost the only jjurftative on which tie" 
 pendence can be placed in the treatment of the horse ; but it holds a secon- 
 dary rank, or might be almost dismissed from the list of cattle-aperients. 
 It is always uncertain in its effect, and sometimes appears to be absolutely 
 inert. Six ounces have been given without producing any appreciable 
 effect ; and, in another case, a similar dose was given, which was followed 
 by considerable irritation and fever, but it did not purge. The animal was 
 destroyed on the following day, in order to ascertain how far this apparent 
 inertness might be attributed to that state of the oesophagean canal in 
 which the greater part of the medicines administered enters the rumen, 
 and being detained there cannot possibly produce its destined effect 
 A very small quantity of the drug was found in that stomach. Still, how- 
 ever, as there is no case on record in which it has destroyed the ox by super- 
 purgation, as it too often has the horse, and as occasionally it does seem to 
 exert some purgative effect, it may be admitted in combination with, or 
 alternating with other purgatives when constipation is obstinate : few, 
 however, would think of resorting to it in the first instance. 
 
 The Barbadoes Aloes should be selected, for the horse ; and on ac- 
 count of the construction of the stomachs of ruminants, it must be always 
 administered in solution, for a ball would break through the floor of the 
 nesophagean canal and be lost in the rumen. Two ounces of aloes, and one 
 ounce of gum-arabic (in order to suspend the imperfectly-dissolved portion 
 of the aloes) should be put into a pint of boiling water, and the mixture 
 frequently stirred during the first day ; then two ounces of tincture of 
 tringer are to be added, not only to prevent the mixture from fermenting, 
 but because that aromatic seems to be so useful, and in a manner indispen- 
 .■-able in cattle purgatives. The dose should consist of from half-a-pint to 
 a pint of the solution, or from four to seven or eight drachms of the aloes. 
 Some persons boil the aloes in the water, but the purgative effect of the 
 drug is much lessened by this. 
 
 Aloes are very useful in the form of tincture. Eight ounces of pow- 
 dered aloes and one ounce of powdered myrrh should be put into two 
 quarts of rectified spirit, diluted with an equal quantity of water. The 
 mixture should be daily well shaken for a fortnight, when it will be fit for 
 u«e. It is one of the best applications for recent wounds ; and in old 
 wounds especially, accompanied by any foulness of them, or discharge of 
 foetid pus, nothing will be more serviceable than equal parts of this tincture 
 and a solution of the chloride of lime. 
 
 Alteratives. — These are medicines that are supposed to have a slow 
 yet beneficial effect in altering some diseased action of the vessels of the 
 skill or of the organs of circulation or digestion. To a cow with yellows, 
 or mange, or tliat cannot be made to acquire condition, or where the milk 
 is diminishing, small quantities of medicine are often administered under the 
 tempting, but deceptive, term of a/^erai/ues. They had much better be 
 let alone in the majority of cases. If a cow is really ill, let her be treated 
 accordingly ; let her be bled or physicked, or both ; but let her not be nau- 
 seated, or her constitution ruined, by continually dosing her with various 
 drugg. The want of condition and thriving in cattle is far more connected 
 uith a diseased state of their complicated stomachs, and particularly with 
 obstruction in the manyplus, than with any other cause ; the alteratives, 
 then, should be small quantities of purgatives, with aromatics, as Epsom 
 salt, or sulphur with ginger ; or, what would be still preferable, rock salt 
 in the manger for them to lick, or common salt mingled with their food. 
 There can, however, be no doubt that in many cutaneous affections, and 
 espocially where mange is suspected, alterative medicines will be very 
 
MEDICINES USED IN THE TREATMENT OF CATTLE. 679 
 
 beneficial. They should be composed of jEthiop's mineral, nitre, and 
 sulphur, in the proportions of om', two, and four, and in daily doses of 
 .from half an ounce to an ounce. 
 
 Alum. — This is a useful astringent in diarrhoea, and especially in the 
 purging of calves. It is best administered in the form of alum whey, 
 which is composed of two drachms of powdered alum, dissolved in a pint 
 of hot milk ; a drachm of ginger may be added ; and, if the purging is 
 violent, a scruple of opium. Alum is rarely used externally in the treat- 
 ment of cattle, unless for canker in the mouth, and as a useful wash after 
 the tongue has been lanced in blain ; and unless in the form just mentioned, 
 the less it is used internally the better. 
 
 Ammonia is not frequently used. In the form of hartshorn it enters 
 into the composition of some stimulating liniments, as in cases of palsy. 
 The carbonate of ammonia has been extolled as a specific for hoove. 
 The author always doubted this ; he put it to the test, and it failed. It 
 was administered on a chemical principle, it being supposed that the alkali 
 would neutralise the acid gas that was extricated from the fermenting 
 food ; but it has been proved that this gas consists chiefly either of car- 
 buretted or sulphuretted hydrogen : besides which there is another consi- 
 deration, that, except administered by means of Read's pump, not one 
 drop of the ammonia would find its way into the paunch. 
 
 Anodynes. — The only one used in cattle-practice is opium. The doses 
 in which it may be employed have already been pointed out when treat- 
 ing of the diseases in which it is indicated. 
 
 Antimony. — There are but three preparations of it that can be useful to 
 the practitioner on cattle. The first is 
 
 Emetic Tartar, which, in doses from half a drachm to a drachm, and 
 combined with nitre and digitalis, has great efficacy in lowering the circu- 
 lation of the blood in inflammation of the lungs and every catarrhal affec- 
 tion, and particularly in that species of pleurisy to which cattle are so sub- 
 ject. Emetic tartar, rubbed down with lard, constitutes a powerful and 
 very useful stimulant when applied to the skin. 
 
 Antimomal Powder — the powder of oxide of antimony with phos- 
 phate of lime. It is frequently sold in the shops under the name of 
 James's Powder, and possesses all the properties of that more expensive 
 drug. It is a useful febrifuge in cases where it may not be advisable to 
 nauseate the beast to too great a degree 
 
 Chloride (Botyr) of Antimony. — Where it is wished that a caustic 
 shall act only superficially, this is the most useful one that can be em- 
 ployed. It has a strong affinity for water, and therefore readily combines 
 with the fluids belonging to the part to which it is applied, and so 
 becomes diluted and comparatively powerless, and incapable of producing 
 any deep and corroding mischief. It has also the advantage,, that, by the 
 change of colour which it produces, it accurately marks the extent of 
 its action, and therefore lorms an unerring guide to the surgeon. For 
 warts, foul in the foot, cankered foot, and for some indolent and un- 
 liealthy wounds, it is a valuable caustic and stimulant. 
 
 Antispasmodics. — Opium, for its general power, and particularly for 
 its eflncacy in locked jaw," stands unrivalled. The spirits of turpentine and 
 nitrous ether are useful in cases of colic. 
 
 Astringents. — These are few in number, but they are powerful : alum, 
 catechu, opium (an astringent because it is a.i anodyne) and blue vitriol 
 comprise tlie list : the first u.sed both externally and internally; the two 
 next internally ; and the last internally, bat chiefly powerful as arrest- 
 iig nasal discbarge. 
 
 2 P 2 
 
^^ CATTL2. 
 
 Busters. — The thickness of the skin of cattle renders it somewhat diflR- 
 cult to produce any great degree of vesication. The part should be pre- 
 viously fomented with hot-water, then thoroughly dried, and the blistering 
 application well rubbed in. With these precautions the common blister 
 ointment will act very fairly ; the turpentine tincture of cantharides still 
 better; while an ointment composed by triturating one drachm of emetic 
 tartar with six of lard will produce more powerful and deeper irritation, 
 but not so much actual blistering. Sometimes boiling water, and in a 
 few cases, and especially in bony enlargements about the legs attended 
 by much lameness, the hot iron will be resorted to. 
 
 Calamine. — See Zinc. 
 
 Calombo. — A very useful tonic, and especially in those cases of debility 
 which accompany or follow dysentery. It should be given in doses of 
 from one to three drachms, combined with ginger. 
 
 Calomel. — See Mercury. 
 
 Camphor. — Used externally alone in cattle-practice. It is a component 
 part in the liniments for palsy and garget. 
 
 Cantharides, — the principal ingredient in all blistering ointments, 
 and to which they owe their power. Corrosive sublimate, sulphuric acid, 
 and euphorbium, may increase the torture of the animal, but they wil. 
 generally blemish, and often lay the foundation for deep and corroding 
 ulcers. The best blister ointment for cattle is composed of one part or 
 cantharides (Spanish flies) finely powdered, three of lard, and one of 
 yellow resin ; the lard and the resin should be melted together, and the 
 flies added wtien these ingredients begin to cool. 
 
 Carrawats. — The powder of these seeds may be used as an occasional 
 change for ginger ; yet it is not so stomachic as the ginger, and is deci- 
 dedly inferior to it, except in cases of flatulent colic. It may be given 
 in doses, from half an ounce to two ounces. 
 
 Castor Oil. — An efiectual and safe purgative for cattle in doses from 
 twelve ounces to a pint, and that will be properly employed when Epsom 
 salt or other aperient drugs have not produced their desired effect. It 
 is usually made into a kind of emulsion with the yolk of an egg. It is 
 however to be doubted whether it is much superior to a less expensive 
 jiurgative, the linseed-oil. 
 
 Catechu is an extract from the wood of one of the acacia trees. It is 
 much less expensive than the Gum Kino, and it is, when unadulterated, 
 more efiectual than that gum in subduing the diarrhoea of calves o^ 
 adult cattle. The quantity, and the drugs with which it should be com- 
 bined, have been stated in p. 476. 
 
 Caustics. — In the treatment of foul in the foot, these are indispen- 
 sable, and the chloride (butyr) of antimony has no rival in the certainty 
 with which it destroys the fungus or otherwise unhealthy surface to 
 which it is applied, and the equal certainty of its destructive power being 
 confined to the surface. For warts, angle-berries, &c., externally situated, 
 the nitrate of silver in substance, or in the form of a strong solution, will 
 be most effectual ; for canker in the mouth, barbs, and paps, a strong 
 solution of alum will be as useful as any thing; and in order to stimulate 
 indolent and unhealthy uleers, nothing can compare with the diluted nitric 
 acid. 
 
 Chalk. — See Lime. 
 
 Chamomile. — If it were necessary to add another tonic to the gentian 
 and calombo it would be the chamomile, and on the principle of not being 
 so powerful as either of the others, and therefore used in somewhat doubt- 
 ful eases, when, if the state of fever has not quite passed over, a strongei 
 stimulant might have been prejudicial. 
 
MEDICINES USED IN THE rilKATMENT OF CATTLE 881 
 
 Charges. — Tliese are thick adhesive plasters spread over parts that 
 have been strained or weakened, or that are affected with rhenmatisni, 
 End which, being applied warm, mingle so with the hair,' that they cannot 
 be separated for a long time afterwards. They give a ])ermanent sup- 
 port to the part, and likewise exert a gentle but constant stimulating 
 power. Old cows, weakened and rendered almost useless by a rheumatic 
 affection of the loins, which is degenerating into palsy, often derive much 
 benefit from the application of a charge. It is also useful when the 
 joints are the seat of rheumatic lameness. 
 
 Clusters. — The importaijce of the administration of injections haa 
 not yet been sufficiently acknowledged in cattle-practice. A recurrence 
 to the account which has been given of the lower or larger inteutines of 
 cattle, and which, although long, are not capacious compared with those of 
 the horse, and whose surface is not irregular and cellated as in that ani- 
 mal, but perfectly smooth, so that a fluid will readily pass along them 
 and to their full extent, will show the propriety of having frequent 
 recourse to this mode of administering medicine. A soothing and 
 emollient injection may be brought into contact with the inflamed and 
 irritable surface of these intestines ; or, on the other hand, that surface may 
 be extensively and beneficially stimulated by the direct application 
 of purgative medicine. The former is a most important consideration 
 in diarrhoea and dysentery; and the latter is not of less moment when 
 the comparative insensibility of the three first stomachs of cattle is 
 regarded. Much may be done by means of the bladder and pipe, but 
 the newly-invented stomach and enema-pump of Read enables the prac- 
 titioner to derive from injections all the advantages that can be connected 
 with their administration. 
 
 Copper. — ^There are but two compounds of this metal that have any 
 value in cattle-practice, and they ar« the Blue Vitriol, or sulphate 
 of copper, and Verdigris, or acetate of copper. The use of the first is 
 limited to the coryza, or inflammation of and 'defluxion from the nose 
 in cattle, accompanied by little or no cough or fever, and which is soire- 
 times in a manner epidemic. The manner of administering ii is de- 
 scribed in p. 313. As a caustic the blue vitriol, is altogether superseded 
 by those mentioned under that head. 
 
 Verdigris is employed externally only, in one of the varieties of foul 
 Ln the foot, in order to repress fungous growths. It is mixed with an 
 equal portion of the sugar of lead, reduced to a fine powder and sprinkled 
 on the diseased surface. 
 
 Cordials. — These are destructively abused by many cow-leeches, but, 
 as has been again and again stated, there is that in the structure and 
 constitution of cattle, which will excuse their administration much oftener 
 than in the horse. Except in extreme cases, and when their use is sanc- 
 tioned by the decision of a competent veterinary practitioner, they should 
 not extend beyond good home-brewed ale, and ginger and carrawajs, 
 or, perhaps, because the farmer will seldom believe that a drink for a 
 cow can be good for anything unless it stinks of aniseed, a few drops 
 of the oil .of those stcds may be allowed. The bay berries, and cardamom 
 H eds, and coriander seeds, and cumniin seeds, and diapente, and elfecam- 
 po.ie, and fennel seeds, and fenugreek seeds, and grains of paradise, 
 and juniper berries, and horse-spice, and pepper, and various other pungent 
 aromatics that encumber the shelves and load the drinks of him of the 
 old school, should be banished from the pharmacopoeia of the rational 
 cractitioner of cattle-medicine. 
 
 r'nniinsivip. Sublimate. — See Mercury. 
 
582 CATTLE. 
 
 Croton Seeds. — These can scarcely be admitted iiiti' practice o^ 
 ordinary occasions, or as a usual purgative ; but in cases of phrenitis 
 tetanus, inflammatory fever, and in those strange constipations which so 
 often puzzle and annoy, the croton seed, in doses of from ten to sixteen 
 grains, may be allowed. The bowels having been opened, the prac- 
 titioner will keep up the purgative action by means of a milder and safer 
 aperient. The seeds should be kept in a close bottle, and when wanted, 
 should be deprived of their shells, and pounded for use. The farina 
 soon loses its power, and the oil is shamefully adulterated. 
 
 Diaphoretics. — The thick hide of the ox forbids us to expect much 
 advantage from those drugs which are supposed to have their principa 
 influence determined to the skin, and thus to increase the sensible and 
 msensible perspiration; yet emetic tartar and sulphur are, to a con- 
 siderable extent, valuable in cases of fever — and the latter most certainly 
 in cutaneous eruption and mange, by opening the pores of the skin, or 
 exciting its vessels to healthy action. One, however, of the best diapho- 
 retics is that which has been comparatively lately introduced in the general 
 management of cattle, viz., friction applied to the skin. It needs but the 
 slightest observation to be convinced that the health of the stall-fed beast,: 
 and his thriving and getting into condition, are materially promoted 
 by the liberal use of the brush, and sometimes even of the curry-comb. 
 
 Digitalis (Foxglove). — The leaves of this plant, gathered abojt 
 the flowering season, dried, kept in the dark, and powdered when 
 wanted, are most valuable in diminishing the frequency of the pulse, 
 and the general irritability of the system in cattle. A reference to the 
 treatment of almost every febrile disease will illustrate this. The dose is 
 from half a drachm to a drachm, with emetic tartar, nitre and sulphur, 
 and administered twice or thrice in the day, according to the urgency of 
 the case. The practitioner must not be alarmed at the intermittent pulse 
 which is produced. It is by means of certain pauses and intermissions 
 in the action of the heart, that the rapidity of the circulation Is dimi- 
 nished when this drug is exhibited. The intermittent pulse is that 
 which the practitioner will be anxious to obtain, and which he will 
 generally regard as the harbinger of returning health. 
 
 Diuretics. — These fortunately are not so much used in catye-practice 
 as in that of the horse; they are, however, allowable and beneficial in 
 swelled legs, foul in the foot, and all dropsical affections, while they 
 advantageously alternate with other medicines in the treatment of mange, 
 and all cutaneous affections, and in cases of mild or chronic fever. Nitre 
 and liquid turpentine are the best diuretics, and almost the only ones on 
 which dependence can be placed. The doses have been already pointed 
 out. 
 
 Drinks. — It is needless again to explain the reason why all medicines 
 that cannot be concealed in the food must be administered to cattle in the 
 form of DRINK.S. If they are exhibited in a solid form, they will break 
 through the floor of the cesophagean canal, and enter the rumen. Far- 
 riers and cow-leeches, however, often give to their drinks the force and 
 momentum of a ball, by the large vessels from which they are poured all 
 at once down the throat. There are few things of more consequence than 
 attention to the manner in which a drink is administered. 
 
 Elder. — The leaf of this tree is used boiled in lard. It forms one ot 
 the most soothing and suppling ointments that can be applied. The prac- 
 titioner should make his own elder ointment, for he will often receive from 
 the druggist an irritating unguent formed of lard coloured with verdigris, 
 instead of the emollient one furnished by the elder. 
 Efsoiu Salt.— See Magne 
 
MEDICINKS USED IN THE TRKATMKNT OF CATTI4E saa 
 
 FoMKNTATioNS. — If, Owing to the greater thickness of the skin, these iire 
 »ot quite so etfectual in cattle as in the horse, yet, as opening the pores ol tne 
 bkin and promoting perspiration in the part, and thus abating local swenings, 
 and relieving pain, and lessening inflammation, they are often exceedingly 
 ■erviceable. The practitioner may use the decoction of what herbs he 
 pleases, but the chief virtue of the fomentation depends on the warmth of 
 the water. 
 
 Gentian. — An excellent stornachic and tonic, whether at the close of 
 illness, or as a remedy for chronic d*?bility. Its dose varies from one to 
 four drachms, and should be almost invariably combined with ginger. 
 
 Ginger. — The very best aromatic in the list of cordials for cattle, and 
 with the exception of ciirraways, superseding all the rest. The dose will 
 vary from half a drachm to tour drachms. 
 Goulaud's ExTKArT. — See LbAD, 
 
 Helleboiie, HlaCk. — The root of it fornas an excellent seton when 
 passed through the dew-lap; it produces plenty of swelling and dis- 
 charge, and rarely or never runs on to gangrene. 
 
 Iodine. — The use of this mineral is limited to a few cases, b\it there its 
 eflFeet is truly admirable. It will scarcely ever fail of dispersing enlarge- 
 ments of the glands, or hardened tumours, whether under or at the side of 
 the jaw, or round the joints. One part of hydriodate of potash must be 
 triturated with seven parts of lard, and the ointmenTdailv and well rubbed 
 on and round the part. Indurations of the udder seldom resist its power, 
 jntess the ulcerative process has already commeiited. 
 
 There is a still more important use to which this drug may be applied. 
 It possesses some power to arrest the growth of tubercles in the lungs, and 
 even to disperse them when recently formed. It is only since the former 
 part of this work was written that the attention of the author has been so 
 strongly directed to this property of iodine, and that he has had such exten- 
 sive opportunities of putting it to the test. He will not say that he has 
 discovered a specific for phthisis or consumption in cattle, but he has saved 
 some that would otherwise have perished, and, for awhile, prolonged the 
 existence and somewhat restored the condition of more. He would urge 
 the proprietor of cattle, and more especially his fellow-practitioners, to 
 study closely the symptoms of phthisis, as detailed in page 410 ; to make 
 themselves masters of the inward, feeble, painful, hoarse, gurgling cough 
 of consumption ; and as soon as they are assured that this termination, or 
 consequence of catarrh, or pneumonia, or pleurisy, begins to have exist- 
 ence — that tubercles have been formed, and, perhaps, have begun to 
 suppurate, let them have recourse to the iodine, in the form of the hydrio- 
 date of potash, given in a small mash in doses of three grains morning and 
 evening at the commencement of the treatment, and gradually increased 
 to six or eight grains. To' this should be added ])roper attention to com- 
 fort, yet not too much nursing ; and free access to succulent,' but not 
 stimulating, food ; and the medicine should be continued not only until 
 the general condition of the beast begins to improve, but nnlil the cha- 
 racter of the cough has been essentially changed. 
 
 Ipecacuanha. — This drug is used in the composition of lUe Dover s, oi 
 compound ipecacuanha powder, which has been reeonimended by some 
 practitioners in the treatment of dysentery. It is thus made — ' Take 
 ipecacuanha root powdered, and opium also in powder, of each a drachm, 
 and sulphate of potash an ounce. Rub them together to a fine powder.' 
 The dose is from two to four drachms. This, however, is not an ctiicient 
 medicine for such a disease. 
 
5«4 CATTLE. 
 
 Laudanum. — See Opium 
 
 Lead, Sugar op — (Superacbtate of Lead.) — This, mixed with the 
 subacetate of copper (verdigris, which see), forms a useful caustic for 
 the destruction of fungous growths. 
 
 Goulard's Extract — (Liquor Plumbi Superacetatis.) — When tlie 
 skin is unbroken, this preparation of lead is completely thrown away, 
 whether used either as a lotion to subdue inflammation, or to disperse 
 tumours or effusions. It is principally serviceable, applied in a very 
 dilute form, to abate inflammation of the eye. 
 
 White Lead (Subcarbonas Plumbi) is the basis of a cooling, drying 
 ointment, used chiefly for excoriations, or superficial wounds. 
 
 Lime. Carbonate of Lime, Chalk. — This is a useful ingredient in 
 all the drinks given in diarrhoea or dysentery. In every stage of these 
 diseases there is a tendency in the fourth stomach, and perhaps in the 
 intestines, to generate a considerable quantity of acid, than which a 
 greater source of irritation can scarcely be imagined. The chalk, or the 
 alkali of the chalk, will unite with this acid, and neutralize it, and 
 render it harmless. In the diarrhoea of the^ calf it is absolutely indispen- 
 sable, for there the acid principle is frequently developed to a great 
 degree. The dose will vary from a drachm to an ounce. 
 
 Chloride of Lime. — ^The list of medicines for cattle does not contain 
 anything more valuable than ' this. As a disinfectant, — if the walls, the 
 floor, and the furniture of the cow-house or stable, are twice or thrice 
 well washed with it, the sound cattle may return to the building with 
 perfect safety, however contagious may have been the disease of those that 
 had previously perished there. Applied to the pudenda of the cow that 
 has aborted, it destroys that peculiar smell which causes abortion in 
 others, more readily than any preparation of the most powerful oi nau- 
 seous ingredient. In blain, garget, foul in the foot, and sloughing ulcers 
 of every description, it removes the foetor; and, If the process of decom- 
 position has not proceeded too far, gives a healthy surface to the ulcers 
 which nothing else could bring about ; — and, administered internally in 
 blain, in the malignant epidemic, and in diarrhoea and dysentery, it is of 
 essential service. In the last disease it is particularly beneficial in chang- 
 ing the nature of the intestinal discharge, and depriving it of its putridity 
 and infection, and disposing the surface of the intestine to take on a more 
 healthy character. Half an ounce of the powder, dissolved in a gallon of 
 water, will give a solution of sufficient strength, both as a disinfectant 
 applied to the cow-house, and for external and internal use as it regards 
 the animal. 
 
 Linseed. — Nothing can" compare with the linseed meal as an emollient 
 poultice — if the ulcer is foul, a little of the chloride of lime should be 
 mixed with it. If the object of the poultice is to bring an ulcer into a 
 proper state of suppuration, a little common turpentine may be added ; 
 but the cruelly-torturing caustics of the cow-leech and the farrier should 
 never disgrace the regular practitioner. 
 
 An excellent mash in cases of catarrh or sore-throat, and as an emollient 
 in any intestinal affection, is made by adding bran to an infusion oi 
 linseed. 
 
 Linseed Oil. — This is little inferior to castor-oil as a purgative ; 
 it is much cheaper, and it is equally safe. Where the case seems to indi- 
 cate an oily purgative, and the first dose of castor-oil fails, it may be 
 followed up by smaller doses of liuseed-oil, until the desired effect is pro- 
 duced. 
 
 Magnesia, Sulphati of. Epsom Salt. — This may be regarded a? 
 
MEDICINES USED IN THE TREATMENT OF CATTLE. 581 
 
 ihe staple purgative of cattle. It is as safe as Glauber's salt ; it is -uore 
 certain, and h will dissolve in one-third of tiie quantity of water. The 
 first dose of physic should always consist of the Epsom salt, quickened in 
 its action, in extreme cases, by the farina of the croton-nut ; the purga- 
 tive etTect may be kept up by means of sulphur or Epsom salt, in doses 
 of six ounces of the former, or eight of the latter, as the state of the animal 
 may appear to require. The medium dose is about a pound, with a 
 quarter of an ounce of ginger, but a pound and a half may be given to a 
 large beast without the slightest danger. 
 
 Mashes are very useful in cattle-practice, not so much to prepare for 
 physic, or to get into condition, as to form a soothing and cooling substi- 
 tute, when the case requires a temporary abstinence from dry and stimu- 
 lating food. They may be composed, like those of the horse, of bran 
 only, with hot or cold water; or of bran with a decoction of linseed. In 
 cases of debility, steeped or ground oats may be mixed wit|} the bran, or 
 malt may be used as a substitute for the bran and oats. 
 
 Mercury. Mercurial Ointment. — ^The practitioner should be very 
 cautious in his use of this on cattle. Indeed, it is scarcely allowable 
 except in a very diluted state, and with the common sulphur ointment, in 
 bad cases of mange ; or a small quantity of it may be mixed with lard for 
 the destruction of vermin. 
 
 Sulphate op Mercury, ^thiop's Mineral. — A very useful altera- 
 tive combined with sulphur and nitre, where there is any cutaneous affec- 
 tion. The circumstances under which it may be administered, and the 
 doses, will be found in various pans of this work. 
 
 Proto-chloride of Mercury. Calomel. — ^This should rarely be 
 given to cattle, and never as a purgative. In chronic inflammation of the 
 liver, it often has a decidedly injurious effect: in jaundice, caused by a 
 gall-stone obstructing the biliary ducts, or in that of a more chronic 
 nature accompanied by debility and declining condition, the experience 
 of the writer will not warrant him in recommending the administration 
 of calomel : he would, on the contrary, be disposed to confine its use to 
 dysentery, in which, combined with and guarded by opium, irritation is 
 allayed, while the natural action of the bowels is promoted. 
 
 Bichloride of Mercury. Corrosive Sublimate. — This drug may 
 almost be dispensed with by the practitioner on cattle. It can never be 
 administered internally ; it is highly dangerous used externally in consi- 
 derable or efficient quantity for the cure of mange or any cutaneous erup- 
 tion, and as a caustic there are many as good. 
 
 Mint. — An infiision or decoction of this plant will be a useful vehicle in 
 which other medicines may be administered for the cure of diarrhoea or colic. 
 
 Mtrrh. — The tincture of myrrh is a useful application to wounds, and 
 is also applied to the cankered mouth ; but it contains nothing to render 
 it preferable to the tincture of aloes in the former case, or a solution of 
 alum in the latter. 
 
 Nitre. — See Potash a 
 
 Nitrous Ether, Spirit of. — A favourite medicine with many practi- 
 lioners in the advanced stages of fever. It is said to rouse, to a certam 
 degree, the exhausted powers of the animal, while it rarely brings back the 
 iiano-erous febrile action that was subsiding. It is not, however, a stimu- 
 lant to which the author has often dared to have recourse, except in the 
 advanced stages of epidemic catarrh, or the malignant epidemic. The dose 
 hould not exceed half an ounce. 
 
 Nux Vomica. — This is not introduced from any experience which tha 
 ... ---,-' ..";,, .-"r.'v, ',i,:i. r.,.!!. iLu iTiivourable opinion which some 
 
386 CATTLE. 
 
 :ontinental veterinarians have expressed of it iii the cure ot palsj. The 
 doses which they gave consisted of more than an ounce. The author 
 has tried the nux vomica, and its essential principle, the strychnine, as a 
 cure for palsy in the dog, but never vviih success. 
 
 Opium, — As an anti-spasmodic, an allayer of irritation, and an astrin- 
 gent because it does allay irritation, opium stands unrivalled. It is that 
 on which the chief, or alrasst the only dependence is placed in locked jaw, 
 A cholic drink would, lose the greater part of its efficacy without it ; and if 
 it were left out of the medicines for diarrhoea and dysentery, almost every 
 other drug would be administered in vain. It is most conveniently given 
 in the form of powder, and held in suspension with other medicines iu 
 thick gruel. 
 
 The tincture of opium (laudanum) is useful in inflammation of the eyes ; 
 and a poultice of linseed meal made with a decoction of poppy-heads often 
 has admirable effect when applied to irritable ulcers, or to parts labouring 
 under much inflammation. 
 
 Pitch. — This is only useful as the principal ingredient in charges, so 
 useful in cases of palsy, or sprain, or chronic local debility. 
 
 Potash, Nitrate of, Nitre.^As useful to cattle as to the horse. It has 
 an iminediate effect in abating inflammation, and it is a mild diuretic. The 
 dose would vary from two to four drachms. When dissolved in water it 
 much lowers the temperature of that fluid, and therefore the solution, applied 
 immediately after it is made, forms an excellent application in cases of 
 sprains, or where there is much superficial inflammation without any lesion 
 of the skin. Combined with antimonial powder, or emetic tartar and digi- 
 talis, it forms an almost indispensable ingredient in every fever drink. 
 
 Sulphate of Potash. — An ingredient in the Dover's powder. 
 
 Poultices. — These are justly valued for abating inflammation, cleansing 
 (rounds, and disposing them to heal. In some cases of foul in the foot, 
 and especially in that most painful, and occasionally fatal variety whose 
 immediate seat is at the division of the pasterns, also in ulcers about the 
 throat or joints, and in garget, potiltices can scarcely be dispensed with. 
 The basis will generally be linseed meal, rendered even more soothing by 
 opium ; or to which activity may be given by the addition of common tur- 
 pentine or chloride of lirae. 
 
 Rye, Ergot of. — ^The spurred rye has lately, and with considerable 
 advantage, been introduced into veterinary practice in protracted or diffi- 
 cult parturition, in order to stimulate the uterus to renewed and increased 
 action, when the labour pains appeared to be subsiding. For the testi- 
 mony in favour of and against the ergot, the reader is referred to p. 535 of 
 this work. 
 
 Setons. — The use of setons m practice on the diseases of cattle is in a 
 manner limited to the passing of a piece of hair, rope, or of black hellebore 
 root through the dewlap ; and, as exciting inflammation in the neigh- 
 bourhood of the diseased part, and thus lessening the original one, and 
 causing a determination of blood to a greater or less extent to this 
 new seat of irritation, they are useful both in acute and chronic inflam- 
 mation of the respiratory organs. In young cattle rapidly thriving, and 
 placed in pasture perhaps a little too luxuriant, permanent setons are 
 highly bieneficial. They act as a salutary drain, and prevent that accu- 
 mulation of the circulating fluid, which is the usual cause of inflammatory 
 fever and other fatal complaints. 
 
 Sulphate of Soda, Glauber's Salt. — A very common purgative for 
 cattle, and a very good one, but inconvenient on account of it§ requiring 
 three times its weight of water in order to dissolve it, and also on account 
 
MEDICINES USED IN THE TREATMHiXT OF CATTLE, SHJ 
 
 of its so readily efflorescing when it is exposed to the atmosphere, and, in 
 its state of efflorescence or powder, becominn- more purgative than whe» 
 in its crystalline form. The practitioner sometimes finds it a little difficult 
 to calculate the amount of the dose which he should give, on account of 
 this variation in form and effect ; and this may explain the occasional 
 uncertainty of the Glauber's salt. The- Epsom salt, a very little dearer 
 dissolving in its own weight of water, and retaining the same form and the 
 same purgativs power under every state of the atmosphere or of exposure 
 to it, is now rapidly superseding the Glauber's. 
 
 Chloride op Sodium. Common Salt. — ^I'he experience of almost every 
 farmer will now confirm the benefit derived from the mixture of salt with 
 the food of cattle. It appears to be the natural and universal stimulus 
 to the digestive organs of animated beings. In this place, however, 
 its medicinal power alone is the subject of consideration. It is a purga- 
 tive, second only to the Epsom salt in the first instance ; and, whether 
 from the effect of the change of medicine, or of some chemical compo- 
 sition or decomposition which takes place, it is the surest aperient that 
 can be given when the Epsom salt has failed ; but the writer does once 
 more indignantly protest against the disgraceful, beastly menstruum in 
 which it is frequently administered. It is a tonic as well fis a purgative, and 
 therefore perhaps somewhat objectionable in the early stage of fever. It 
 frequently recalls the appetite more speedily than any stomachic. When 
 a dose of it is given to the animal recovering from acute disease, debili- 
 tated, listless, careless about or refusing its food, it sometimes has an 
 almost magical effect in creating a disposition to feed. It is a vermifuge 
 which, in cattle, seldom fails. 
 
 Silver, Nitrate of. Lunar Caustic. — Used for the destruction of 
 warts either in its solid state, or that oi a strong solution ; and, from the 
 full command which the operator has over it, and the firm eschar which 
 it forms, is the very best caustic that can be applied to a wound inflicted 
 by the bite of a rabid dog. 
 
 Sulphur. — A very good aperient when the object is merely to evacuate 
 the bowels, or when there is any cutaneous affection ; but not sufficiently' 
 powerful in cases of fever : yet even , there purgation, once established, 
 may be kept up by means of it. The dose varies from eight to twelve 
 ounces. As an alterative for hide-bound, mange, or a generally unthrifty 
 appearance, it is excellent combined with .(Ethiop's mineral and nitre ; and 
 it constitutes the basis of every ointment for the cure of mange. 
 
 Tonics. — These are indicated in cases of great, and especially of chronic 
 debility, but, administered injudiciously, they have destroyed thousands of 
 beasts. They have done so when they have been poured in while the 
 ' fever continued, or too soon after the subsidence of the fever, and when 
 too great a disposition to its reappearance prevailed. When disease has 
 been once removed, the powers of nature are usually sufficient to re- 
 establish health. Gentian, calombo, and cascarilla, are the best, and 
 almost the only safe tonics for cattle. 
 
 Turmeric, or coloured pea-flour, for it is seldom anything more, is 
 fit only to give that yellow colour to cattle-medicines, which long usage 
 has accustomed the cow-herd and the cow-leech to consider as indis- 
 pensable. 
 
 Turpentine. — Several of the products of the fir tree are more or less 
 useful in the medical treatment of cattle. 
 
 Tar, spread upon coarse cloth, is the best covering for broken liorns, 
 
 and excludes both the fly and the atmospheric air. It is useful for tli« 
 
 ■ ■ -f ...-^.-r,,)., r,.,nr.tiiriiio- the belly Or chrst. Alone, 
 
*=8 CATTLE. 
 
 or in combinatijn with some greasy matter, it is used to defend sore oi 
 diseased feet from becoming wet or bruised^ 
 
 Pitch is the ptfncipal ingredient in charges. 
 
 Common Liquid Turpentine is useful as a digestive, or lo produce a 
 healthy appearance or action in wounds, and dispose them to heal. Fui 
 this purpose it is added to the linseed poultice or to the simple ointment. 
 Some practitioners administer it as a diuretic, and with good effect. 
 
 Oil, or Spirit of Turpentine, is applied as an external irritant, either 
 alone, or in the form of a tincture of cantharides. It is adminislered 
 internally in coHc ; and some give it in red-water with a view to cause 
 the_ debilitated blood-vessels to contract, and thus arrest the passive 
 hemorrhage which they imagine is then taking place. From the rapidity 
 and great extent with which it is taken up by the absorbents, and carried 
 into the circulation, and the destructive effect which it is known to have 
 on intestinal worms when otherwise brought into contact with them, the 
 trial of its power would be justified in bronchitis, the too frequent and 
 fatal concomitant of which is the presence of thousands of worms in 
 the air-passages. 
 
 Resin is often used to give consistence to plasters, where the degree 
 of 'irritation which it might produce is not regarded, or would be be- 
 neficial. 
 
 ViNiiGAR. — This used to be considered almost a specific in distention 
 of the rumen with gas, but on what principle it would be difficult to 
 explain. It has also been given with manifest impropriety in cases of 
 fever. On the thick skin of the ox it can have little preference to hot 
 water as a fomentation, and may with no great loss be erased from the 
 list of medicines. 
 
 Wax. — its only use is to give consistence to ointments and plasters. 
 
 Zinc. Native Carbonate of Calamine. — This is the basis of an 
 ointment which, from its soothing, and, at the same time, drying qualities, 
 is termed, in various parts of this work, " the healing ointment. Tt.is 
 useful in superficial wounds, and in deeper ones when they have been 
 brought to a healthy character. 
 
 White Vitriol. — ^This is a useful tonic application to the eyes, when 
 the inflammation has been subdued, and debility of the vessels alone 
 remdns. It is particularly useful after inflammation of the haw of the 
 eye. Some administer it in red-water, and others in dysentery, very im 
 properly. As a general caustic it is superseded by many othen>. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 isBKOBENSHiHE Cattle, description of the, 
 103, 106 
 
 — , origin of the pre- 
 sent breed of, 105 
 
 polled cattle, account of 
 
 the, 106 
 
 Abomasum, the internal structure of, 423, 
 424, 426, 428 
 
 , diseases of the, 455 
 
 Abortion, the symptoms of, 527 
 
 , the usual causes of, 530 
 
 , precautions to pievent the recur- 
 rence of, 532 
 Abyssinian cattle, enormous length of the 
 
 horns of, 282 
 African ox, description of the, 4, 5 
 Age, the natural, of cattle, 323 
 
 , as indicated by the horns, 279 
 
 by the teeth, 318 
 
 , the proper, for breeding, 526 
 
 Alderney cattle, account of them, 267 
 AUiasott, Mr., ,his favourable opinion of 
 
 the action of ergot of rye, 535 
 Alihorp, Lord, description of his bull Fir- 
 by, 241, 368, 371 
 
 , cuts and description of his 
 
 cow and heifer, 236, 237 
 Aloes, not a good purgative for cattle, 677 
 Alteratives, their nature, and the best com- 
 position of them, 578 
 Alum, the medicinal properties of, 678 
 Ammonia, the medicinal properties of, 579 
 Anglesey may be considered as the native 
 country of the Welsh cattle, 59 
 
 cattle, description of, 61 
 
 , comparison between them 
 
 and the (Scotch, 61 
 Angus cattle, description of the horned 
 
 breed of, 113, 114 
 I farmers, a curious description of 
 
 them in 1760 and 1790, 113 
 
 polled cattle, 166 
 
 I difference between 
 
 them and the Galloways, 167, 169 
 
 -, Mr. Watson's breed, 
 
 a yevf superior one, 1 67 
 
 -, curious anecdote re- 
 
 specting them, 171 
 
 Antimony, the medicinal properties of, 579 
 
 Autrim, the principal improvers of the 
 breed of cattle in, 182 
 
 Apoplexy, symptoms and treatment of, 
 294,296 
 
 Appetite, voracious, in oxen, curiously ac- 
 counted for, 454 
 
 Aigyleshire sheep-husbandry, first intro- 
 duced by John Campbell, 78 
 
 , North, description of the 
 
 cattle and their management, 78, 79 
 
 . South, the cattle of, 80 
 
 -Alran, the great improvement effected 
 there by the Duke of Hamilton, 74 
 
 , description of the cattle, 75 
 
 Arteries, their structure and functions, 353 
 — — — , the smallness of, in the ox, com- 
 pared with the veins, 346 
 Assyut, the breed of cattle in, 94 
 Astringents, the best for cattle, 574 
 Aylesbury, vale of, the fertility of, 214 
 Ayrshire cow, Mr. Alton's description of 
 her, 127 
 
 , origin of, 128, 130 
 
 , the present, 131 
 
 ^ , compared with the Alder- 
 ney, Holderness, and Devon, 132 
 
 cow, the quantity of her milk, 
 
 and the quantity of butter, 131, 132 
 
 Baceley, the African, interesting descrip- 
 tion of, 5 
 Badsworth, Mr. Milton's old bull, deiicrip- 
 
 tionof, 250 
 Bagot, Lord, a patron of the Staffordshire 
 
 long-horns, 223 
 Bakewell, Mr., the great improver of the 
 long-homs, 190 
 
 -, his supposed principles, as 
 
 stated by Mr. Marshall, 191 
 
 , description of his cattle, 192 
 
 , his benevolent character, ib 
 
 , the practice of letting bulls 
 
 priginated with him, 195 
 Banff cows, the superiority of, 101 
 Barbs in the mouth, treatment of, 337 
 Bars of the taouth, description of, ib. 
 Bedford, Francis, Duke of, used to be a 
 zealous breeder of Devnn cattle, 21 
 
 , the Herefordshire cattle of the 
 
 present Dtdte of, 211 
 Bedfordshire, the breeds of cattle in, 210 
 Belfast, the present state of cattle, 186 
 Berkeley, the vale of, history of the manu 
 
 factory of cheese in, 37 
 Berkshire cattle, account of, 214 
 Berry, the Rev. H., his admirable arcotint 
 of the short-horns, 226 
 
 , extracts from his Prize 
 
 Essay on Breeding, 522, 325, 526 
 Berwickshire, the cradle of Scottish agri- 
 culture, 150 
 ^^^— ^— turnips, introduced there in 
 1755, 150 
 
 , the rapid progress of agri- 
 culture aftertbat, 151 
 Bile, the composition and uses of, 459, 469 
 Black quarter, the nature and treatment 
 
 of, 356 
 Blac^ water, the treatment ot, 512 
 Bladder, inversion of the, 521 
 iprotrusion of, treatment oi, a** 
 
S'JO 
 
 INDKX. 
 
 Bliidder, on rupture of the, 520 
 
 , stone in the, symptoms anil treat- 
 ment 01, 518 
 
 HUin. the symptoms and treatment of, 326 
 
 , coutuf^ious, 328 
 
 ■ , sometimes epidemic, 327 
 
 BU-e.ling, the rule by which it should be 
 guided, 348 
 
 places, the preferable, ib. 
 
 Blisters, the difiicidty of raising them in 
 cattle, 401 
 
 Blood, determination of to the brain, 294 
 
 blown — See " Hoove." 
 
 Bluxed|<e, the sire of the long-horns, an ac- 
 count of him, 190 
 
 Bulinbroke, an early short-horn bull, an 
 account of him, 230 
 
 Bone of the heart, description of the, 353 
 
 Booth's establishment for fattening cattle, 
 account of, 255 
 
 Biiyening, description of, 132 
 
 Jjriihmin cattle, an account of the, 269 
 
 Brain, description of the, 285 
 
 , determination of blood to, 294 
 
 , inflammation of the, 269 
 
 , hydatids in the, 294 
 
 Breast, the projecting and wide, advantage 
 of, 14, 368 
 
 bone, description of the, 369 
 
 Brecknockshire cattle, description of, 58 
 ■: Breeding, the principles of, 191, 522 
 
 , the grand principle of it, that 
 
 like produces like, 522 
 
 -, comjiarative influence of the sire 
 
 and dam in, 523 
 
 in and in, 525 
 
 , the value of good keep in, ib. 
 
 -, the proper age for, 526 
 
 Bridgewater cheese, account of, 30 
 
 Brisket, description of the, 370 
 
 . , remarkable deepness of, in some 
 
 cattle, ib. 
 British cattle, earliest history of, 4 
 , the original were probably 
 
 middle-horned, 9 
 Bronchitis, nature and treatment of, 397 
 —— , the air-passages filled with 
 
 worms in, 398 
 Buchan cattle, description of the, 107 
 , calculation of the value of 
 
 their produce, 109 
 Buckinghamshire cattle, description of, 214 
 Buffalo cattle, an account of, 269 
 Bute, description of the cattle of, and their 
 
 management, 77 
 Butter, experimentsto ascertain the various 
 
 quantities of, from diflerent breeds, 245 
 . , extraordinary quantity of, yielded 
 
 by a Sussex cow, 45 
 
 C^cuM, description of the, 467, 469 
 Caesarian operation, description of, and 
 
 when juEtiflable, 539 
 Caithness, description of the old cattle, 87 
 , the improvement effected there 
 
 by Sir John Sinclair, 88 
 - , present state of the cattle of, !>. 
 
 » ■ , markets and trysts of, 89 
 
 Calamine, .the basis of the best healing 
 
 ointment, 588 
 Calculi in the rumen of cattle, 435, 496 
 
 in the kidney, composition, symp 
 
 toms, and treatment of, 516 
 
 , urinary, ditto, ib. 
 
 Caledonian dairy, account of the, 146 
 
 Calombo, a useful tonic, 579 
 
 Calomel, the cases in which it should be 
 
 used, 5':j5 
 Calves, diseases and manage ment of, 557 
 Calving, the treatment of the cow before it, 
 533 
 
 , natural, the treatnaent of, 535 
 
 , the power of ergot of rye in ex- 
 citing the labour pains, ib. 
 , the management of unnatural pre- 
 sentations, 536 
 
 , when the calf should be cut away, 
 
 and description of the operation, 540 
 
 , on retention of the foetus, 543 
 
 , attention to the cow after it, 544 
 
 Cambridgeshir-e, the breeds of cattle in, 209 
 
 butter, account of, ib. 
 
 Camphor, its medicinal properties, 580 
 Cancer of the eye, treatment of, 293 
 Cantharides, the basis of the best blister 
 
 application, 580 
 Capillary vessels, description of them, 353 
 Cardiganshire cattle, description of, 57 
 Carmarthenshire, the hill breed, an indif- 
 ferent kind of cattle, ib. 
 , description of the differ- 
 ent breeds of the vale districts, ib. 
 Carnarvonshire cattle, a smaller and in- 
 ferior variety of the Angleseys, 62 
 Carotid artery, description of the, 335, 345 
 Carraway, a useful aromatic, 580 
 Castor oil, the use of it as a medicine, ih. 
 Castration of calves, the various methods 
 of, 560 
 
 will often remove rupture in the 
 
 calf, 502 
 Cataract, treatment of, 293 
 Catarrh, nature and treatment of, 376 
 
 — I , the necessity of attention to it on 
 
 its first appearance, 377 
 
 , epidemic, symptoms of, ib. 
 
 Catechu, itsuselul astringent property s, 580 
 Cattle. British, the number slaughtered 
 yearly, 1 
 
 , the aggregate value of, ib. 
 
 ; , average mortality of, ib. 
 
 , the diseases "oti too much neglected 
 
 by all veterinary writers, ib. 
 
 , ditto, in the principal English 
 
 veterinary school, 394 
 
 ^ , the state of, in the middle ages, 7 
 
 , the average weight of, in 1710 
 
 and 1830, 237 
 
 , the proper points of, generally 13 
 
 , the intelligence of, 285 
 
 , wild, account of, 7 
 
 , dealing system of, in the south ol 
 
 Scotland, 138, 162 
 Caustics, those used in cattle practice, [i80 
 Cavan, the principal improvers of the 3reed 
 
 of cattle in, 182 
 
INIIEX. 
 
 f.91 
 
 Uhalk, ita utility in the treattjient of dy- 
 sentery end dian hoea, 485, 584 
 Chamomile, its tonic properties, bt<Q 
 Charge, Mr., an account of his fat seven- 
 
 ye<ir-uid ox, 235 
 Char{i;es, the use of, and the mathod of 
 
 applyinjr, 580 
 Cheese, Cheddar, an account of, 30 
 
 , Cheshire, account of, 207 
 
 I , Gloucester, history ol' the maim 
 
 facture of, 38 
 
 , single and double, the 
 
 difference ttetween, ib, 
 
 -, North Wiltshire, account of, 218 
 
 Cheshire cattle, account of the, 205 
 , the short-horns, uitroiluced 
 
 with doubtful advantage, 206 
 Chest, the advantage of a capacious one in 
 
 c^ittle, 12 
 
 , the proper form of, 367 
 
 Chloride of lime, tlie value of, 5S4, 443 
 Chlorine gas, might it destroy worms in the 
 
 briinchial tubes ? 399 
 Choking in cattle, treatment of, 415, 418 
 Chyle, Its nature and formation, 468 
 Clackmannan, account of the cattle of, 121 
 Clare, the princiiial improvers of the breed 
 
 of cattle in, 183 
 Cleansing. — See Placenta. 
 
 drink, the best, 545 
 
 lUeveland, character of the cattle in, 249 
 Clouted cream, descriptiou of, 23 
 Clue-bound, treatment of, 449, 451 
 Cly<lesdale. — See Lanarkshire. 
 Clysters, the benefit of, 580 
 Coates, Mr. G, the aiithor of the ' Short- 
 Horned Herd Book,' 234 
 Colic, flatulent, its symptoms, nature, and 
 
 treatment, 488 
 • , spasmodic, its symptoms, ria'ure, and 
 
 treatment, 489 
 , too often leads ou to 
 
 strangulation of the intestines, ib. 
 Colling, Mr. Charles, at the very head of 
 
 the improvers of the short-horns, 228 
 , supposed principally 
 
 to aim at their improvement by reducing 
 
 the size of the breed, ib. 
 
 , an account of the cross 
 
 of his cattle with the Galloway, 230 
 
 -, a, detailed account of 
 
 his sale of the improved short-horns, 231 
 -, Robert, a successful improver of 
 
 the short-homs, 233 
 
 -, the sale of his stock, ib. 
 
 Colon, description of the, 467, 470 
 Colours, the prevailing oneaof cattle. 242 
 Constipation, the treatment of. 495, 5'i8 
 Consumption, nature and treatment, 409 
 
 , the peculiar cough of, 411 
 
 , delusive character and jiro 
 
 gress of, 412 
 Copper, the compounds of, used in cattle 
 
 practice. 581 
 Cordials, the use and abuse of, ib. 
 Cords, tht nature and treatment of, 490 
 Cork-screw probang, description of the,4 19 
 Cornish cattle, description of the native, 24 
 
 Cornwall, ■ sketch of its agriculture and 
 commence. 24 
 
 , management of dairy cowsin, 25 
 
 — ^ , method of rearing calves in, ib. 
 
 Corrosive sublimae, it* use in cattle prac- 
 tice, 581 
 
 — ^^— , the treatment of poi- 
 
 joniug by, 448 
 Coryza, the nature and treatment of, 3 1 2 
 Corsiorphine cream, acccuntof the, 146 
 Cottar, the Scotch, desciiptiunof the, U2 
 Cows, Swiss, their vanity, 6 
 
 I poetical description of, 245 
 Cows' commons, description of the, 219 
 Cow-club, an account of the, 251 
 Cow-pox, distinction between the true anj 
 the false, 545 
 
 , history of its establishment as a 
 
 preventive against small pox. 555 
 
 has not its origin in the grease 
 
 of horses, ib. 
 ■ no preventive against the dis- 
 temper in dogs, 556 
 
 ■ ditto rabies, 557 
 
 Cuwquake, description of the, 118 
 Craven, the native country of the long- 
 horns, 188 
 Cravens, two distinct breeds of, the smaller 
 
 and larger, 189,251 
 Crochles in cattle, symptoms and treats 
 
 ment of, 563 
 Cromarty, general histoTy of, 95 
 Croton, a powerful purgative, 581 
 Cruelty to cattle in Smithfielil, 259 
 Cud, loss of the, treatment of. 445 
 Cumberland, the native breed uf, was long 
 - horned, 247 
 
 , history of the establishment 
 
 of the short-horns there, ib. 
 
 D, Mr. Bakewei.l's bull, account of, 193, 
 
 198 
 Dairy co":s, the number of, kept in Lou 
 
 don, 255 
 
 , the kind of, preferred, 261 
 
 -, the system of man-igemeut, ib., 205 
 
 Denbighshire, the cattle of, 63 
 Derbyshire cattle, account of, 204 
 
 ■■ , crosses with, ib., 224 
 
 Devonshire cattle, 23 
 
 , general experience is against 
 
 them for the dairy. 20 
 
 - ox, his activity his most va- 
 
 luable (luality, 1 8 
 
 -, his qua'lities for grazing, 19 
 
 , trial of his fattening |iro- 
 
 perties with difl'erent breeds, 19, 31, 41 
 Devon, South, the cattle of, 22, 23 
 
 __ , comparison betweenthera 
 
 and the'North Devons, 22 
 
 nats, account of the, 179 
 
 ttaphragm, ritpture of the, 503 
 Diarrhoea, acute, the nature and treat 
 
 ment of, 475 
 , distinction between it and dy- 
 sentery, ib. 
 
 . , chronic, the nature and treat 
 
 ment of. 476 
 
S92 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Diarrhsa, in calves, nat.'ae and treatment 
 
 of. 559 
 Digitalis, its medicinal properties, 582 
 Distention of the rumen by food, nature 
 
 and treatment of, 435 
 - — — — — — gas, nature 
 
 and treatment of, 438 
 Doncaster Agricultural Society, account of 
 
 the, 251 
 Donegal, the cattle of, 184 
 Dorset ox, description of the, 26 
 
 , crossed with the Devon and 
 
 Durham advantageously, ib. 
 Dropsy, general remarks on the causes 
 
 and treatment of, 497 
 Drying a cow, the proper period for, 534 
 Dumbartonshire, the cattle uf, 122 
 Dumfries, the Galloways, for grazing, and 
 
 the Ayrshires for the dairy there, 165 
 Dun, Mr. David, the Scottish Bakewell, ac- 
 count of, 119 
 Dung, the different qualities of that of 
 
 cattle and horses, 470 
 Dunlop cheese, account of the, 125, 137 
 Duodenum, description of the, 467 
 
 , inflammation of the, 487 
 Durham ox, an account of the, 229 
 Dysentery, causes and symptoms of, 477 
 
 , appearances of, after death, 478 
 ■ — • is inflammation of the mucous 
 
 membrane of the large intestines, 480 
 
 , treatment of it, 481 
 
 . the value of the chloride of lime 
 
 in the trtatmeut of it, 484 
 
 Ear, description of the, 287 
 
 , the form and shape of, connected with 
 
 the beauty of the animal, ib. 
 
 , the diseases of the, 288 
 
 Earth, the eating of it, prevents the fer- 
 mentation of the food, 3 1 7 
 
 , the quantity of, eaten daily by the 
 Kintore ox, 104 
 
 Kast Indian cattle, an account of the, 268 
 
 Lothian, the breeds of cattle of, 148 
 
 , the short horns introduced by 
 
 Mr. John Rennie, ib. 
 
 Edinburgh, the Veterinary School at, has 
 improved the treatment of cattle, 394 
 
 Edinburghshire. — See Mid Lothian. 
 
 Elgin, description of the cattle in, 100 
 
 Elder, the leaves of, make a good soothing 
 ointment, 582 
 
 Embryotomy, when justifiable, and a de- 
 scription of the operation, 540 
 
 Emetic, tartar, the use of, 579 
 
 Enteritis, symptoms of, 472 
 
 , appearances after death, 473 
 
 — ^ , causes and treatment of, 474 
 
 Epidemic catarrh.— See Catarrh. 
 
 Epidemics. — See Murrain. 
 
 Epiglottis, difference between that of the 
 horse and the ox, 373 
 
 Epilepsy, the treatment of, 300 
 
 Epping, the manufactory of butter at, 254 
 
 Kpsom salt, the best purgative, 585 
 Ergot of rye, its power in stimulating the 
 vomb to action, 535 
 
 Essays on led-water, !>t I 
 
 Essex has no distinguishing breed of cattle, 
 
 253 
 
 ■ , management of calves in, 254 
 
 marshes, the principal mode of feed 
 
 ing on, ih. 
 Exeter, description of the vale of, 23 
 Eye, general description of the, 288 
 , inflammation of the, the nature and 
 
 treatment of, 292 
 
 , worm in the, treatment of, 293 
 
 ^^, wounds of the, management of, 289 
 Eyelids, description of the, 290 
 , diseases of the, ib. 
 
 Farcy in cattle, supposed causes of, 313 
 
 Fardel-boond, description of it, 449 
 
 .—— — , several cases of, 451 
 
 Falkirk, account of the tryst at, 120 
 
 Feet, the, description of, 272 
 , diseases of the, 565 
 
 Ferrying cattle, the method of, from the 
 Scottish islands to the mainland, 8 1 
 
 Ferocity, occasional, in cattle, 296 
 
 Fever, intermittent, its symptoms andiraat* 
 ment, 355 
 
 , pure or idiopathic, does often exist in 
 
 cattle, 354 
 
 ■ , its symptoms and 
 
 treatment, ib, 
 
 , symptomatic, frequent and danger- 
 ous, 355 
 
 , inflammatory, its nature and treat- 
 ment, ib. 
 
 , typhus, its nature and treatment, 363 
 
 Fife cattle, description of the old breed, 
 115 
 
 — ^— — crossed with the short-homs, 116 
 
 — — , many of the Durhams have now ea- 
 tablished themselves there, 11? 
 
 bull, admeasurement of one, ih. 
 
 cattle, the mingling with the native 
 
 breed the origin of the Aberdeens, 105 
 
 Findlater, Lord, account of his improve- 
 ments in Banfi^ 101 
 
 Firhy, description of Lord Althorp's bull, 
 241, 368, 371 
 
 Firing, an aclvantageous mode of, for some 
 bony tumours, 289 
 
 Fits, the treatment of, 300 
 
 Fitzwilliam, Earl of, anaccoimt of his East 
 Indian cattle, 270 
 
 Flintshire cattle, description of the, 64 
 
 Flooding after calving, treatment of, 545 
 
 Fluke-worm, the, a cause of jaundice, 464 
 
 Foetus, retention of it for a long time with- 
 out injury, 543 
 
 Food, its changes in the stomachs, 429 
 , how conveyed into the reticulum, 43C 
 
 , the difference in the quantity of, very 
 
 trifling in animals of different sizes, but 
 of the same breed, 246 
 
 Forehead of a bull, the, should be slior* 
 and broad, 274 
 
 of Firhy, description of the, 274 
 
 the Devon, description of, 14 
 
 the North Highlanders, do., 9' 
 
 the old Banff, do.. 101 
 
INOKX. 
 
 593 
 
 Foul ia the foot, dmeriptioii of, 565 
 
 , most prevalent iu low, 
 
 marshy countries, 566 
 
 -, mode of treatment of, 566 
 
 , probable advantage of 
 
 neurotomy in, 568 
 
 Fowler, Mr., an improver of the long-horns, 
 193, 219 
 
 , account of the sale of his 
 
 stock, 194 
 
 Free martens usually barren, 538 
 
 , dissections of three, ib. 
 
 ■ , a few cases in which they 
 
 have bred, 539 
 
 French cattle, the chronic pleurisy to' which 
 they are subject, 407 
 
 Frontal sinuses, description of, 273, 274 
 
 , use of the, 275, 276 
 
 , inflammation of the, na- 
 ture and treatment of, 275 
 
 , worms in the, 276 
 
 Galla oxen, the enormous horns of, 282 
 Gall-bladder, the structure and use of, 459 
 Gall-stones, their composition, 462 
 
 , a frequent cause of jaun- 
 dice, 463 
 Galloway, the greater part of the cattle 
 were horned at the middle of the last 
 century, 154 
 
 — I , the present breed of, 15S 
 
 ■ bull, a perfect one seldom found. 
 
 161 
 
 cows not good milkers, ib. 
 
 occasionally have horns, 282 
 
 farmers, description of, 163 
 
 Galloways, Mr. Culley's description of, 157 
 Gangrenous inflammation of the lungs, 
 
 symptoms and treatment of, 402 
 Garget, the cause of, 552, 554 
 
 , the efficacy of iodine in, 553, 554 
 
 , the state of the veins of the udder 
 
 in, 367 
 Gas, the kind of, extricated in hoove, 443 
 Gavel-kind, its impediment to the improve- 
 ment of agriculture, 182 
 (rentian, the best tonic, 582 
 Ginger, the best aromatic, ib. 
 (jirth, the, of cattle, should be both deep 
 
 and wide, 12 
 Glamiirganshire cattle, early history of, 50 
 
 -^.^— — ^ , deteriorated wiien 
 
 they were neglected for the growth of 
 corn, 51 
 
 — , again gradually im- 
 
 proving, ib. 
 
 hill cattle, description of 
 
 them, 55 
 
 Glanders in cattle, on, 313 
 
 Glauber's sah, inferior to the Epsom, 586 
 
 oioss-authrax, the symptoms ami treat- 
 ment of, 326 
 
 Gloucestershire cattle, description of the 
 uiJ breed of, 35 
 
 . , history of the pre- 
 sent ori-ed in the hilly country, ib. 
 
 . cheese, the good quality of 
 
 Gloucestershire oheese, Miigle and doubCi, 
 
 the difiiirence between, 38 
 Grains, the best method of keeping them, 
 
 on a large scale, for dairy cows, 255, 264 
 Grainsick, the treatment of, 43d 
 , part of the food discharged by 
 
 vomiting, 437 
 Gutta Serena, cause and treatment of, 293 
 Gut-tie, the nature and treatment of, 490 
 
 Haddinoton. — See £ast Lothian. 
 
 Hair, cattle should be covered with a thick 
 
 pile of, 13 
 Hamilton, Duke of, the valuable improve- 
 ments he effected in Arran, 74 
 Hampshire, the breeds of cattle in, 2 1 5 
 Haunch, description of the, 272 
 Haw, description of the, 290 
 
 , inflammation of the, ib. 
 
 , method of extirpating the, 291 
 
 3aa«l, lection of the, 273 
 
 Sealing poirer in animals, illustrations of 
 
 the, 501 
 Meait, deacripHon of the, 349 
 i ii F , theoiy of Ma action 351 
 «>«~-,fliAiiiniw!nlaieoIiiir.~„s and tendinous 
 
 .;uias 01 It stranger in the ox than the 
 
 horse, 351 
 , a muscle running across the right 
 
 ventricle, peculiar to the ox, 352 
 
 , description of the bone of it, 353 
 
 Hebrides, history and description of the, 65 
 , the inner, the number and value 
 
 of the cattle, 67 
 
 , disgraceful manage' 
 
 ment of cattle formerly, ib. 
 
 accounts of the misery of the 
 
 cattle and the cottagers in the winter, 68 
 -, reasons of this strange misma- 
 
 nagement, ib. 
 
 -, present management, 69 
 
 -, no crosses with any other breed 
 
 has succeeded in these islands, ib. 
 
 management of the dairy in 
 
 them, 71 
 
 . 20,000 cattle annually expotte4 
 
 from them, ib. 
 
 -, the outer, description of the cattle 
 
 of, ib. 
 
 -, mode of treatment, 72 
 
 Hellebore, black, makes the best leton, 
 
 300, 583 
 Hemlock, the treatment of poisoning by, 
 
 446 
 Hemorrhage from the nose, on, 311 
 after parturition, the treatme 
 
 of, 545 
 Htrd-book, the short-horned, compiled by 
 
 Mr. G. Coates, 234 
 Herefordshire cattle, description of the, 31 
 __^^^_ , comparison between 
 
 them and the Devons, 19, 31, 32 
 
 — , theirpropensity to fat- 
 
 it deiiends more upon the pasture than 
 
 ten, 31 
 
 ! , comparison between 
 
 the old and new breed, ib. 
 
 -, have been crossed wit& 
 
 advantage by the Devons, 32 
 2 Q 
 
994 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Hei e£ jidshir^ cattle, Mr. Culley 's erroneous 
 
 opicioD of, ib. 
 coTf, inferior in shape to tba 
 
 ox, ib. 
 .^— ^-^— — ^ not good for the dairy, 
 
 Hernia^ the natnre and treatment of, 500 
 
 , in calves, management of, 501 
 
 Hide of cattle,- should be thin, melluw, and 
 not too lean, 13 
 
 Hide-bound, thij treatment uf, 570 
 
 £li{^hlanders, comparison between them 
 and the Welsh cattle, 6 1 
 
 Hips, the, of cattle should ' be large and 
 rouiid, 12 
 
 Hiring husbandry-horses, the old system of, 
 in Ayrshire, 138 
 
 Hock, description of the, 272 
 
 Holderness cattle, the old, 248 
 
 7— , their improvement, ib. 
 
 Holmes, the, among the Shetland islands, 
 
 : description of the, 85 
 
 Hoiiier, his account of murrain, 581 
 
 Honeycomb. — See Reticulum. 
 
 Hooped form of the barrel, in cattle, im- 
 portance of, 12 
 
 Horns, description of the, 272 
 
 7- are elongations of, and hollowed 
 
 like, the frontal bones, 278 
 
 the different breeds of cattle dis- 
 
 tinguished by, 9, 281 
 
 description of, in foreign cattle, 
 
 282 
 
 , beautiful ones, manufactured, 281 
 
 , the influence of sex on the, 282 
 
 , as connected with the age of the 
 
 beast, 279 
 
 , the uses of, 283 
 
 -I, the danger of cutting them, 276 
 
 — , fracture of them, how treated, 278 
 -, the degree of fever, how estimated 
 
 by means of them, 280 
 
 , tenderness of the roots accounted 
 
 for, ib. 
 Horned and hornless breeds, comparison 
 
 between them, 283 
 Horny covering, composition and growth 
 
 of the, 279 
 Hoose. — See Catarrh. 
 
 i , in calves, the treatment of, 559, 
 
 Hoove, the cause of, 438 
 
 - — ■ — , symptoms and treatment of, 438 
 
 , medicines administered in, do not 
 
 enter the stomach, 440 
 . , objections to puncturing the rumen 
 
 in, ib. 
 
 , danger of a large incision, 44 1 
 
 ■ , when the rumen is punctured, it 
 
 should be with a trocar and canula, ib. 
 — — ^, the use of the probnng, or stomach- 
 pump, recommended, 442 
 
 -, the nature of the gas which is extri- 
 
 cated in, 443 
 
 -, the treatment of, when the gas has 
 
 , escaped, 444 
 
 . , a singular case of, ib. 
 
 Hcwell the Good, his laws 
 ctiile, 61 
 
 H'jwick red ox, an account of, 235 
 Hubback, the;father of the improved thort 
 
 horns, account of him, 229 
 Hiimble-cuws, Dr. Johnson's curiuuf deil 
 
 viition of the word, 150 
 Ilnctingdonsbire, breeds of cattle in, 209 
 Hyd.itids in the brain, symptoms and treats 
 
 ment of, 294 
 , numerous, found in the liver of 
 
 a cow, 460 
 Hydrocephalus, treaiment of, 295 
 
 Ileum, description of the, 407, 467 
 In-and-in, the principle of breeding adopted 
 
 by Bakewell, 192 
 
 , the question considered, 525 
 
 Indian cattle, an account of the, 270 
 Inflammation, the nature and general 
 
 treatment of. 355 
 Inflammatory fever, causes, symptoms, and 
 
 preventions of, 356 
 
 ■ ^— , treatment of, 357, 359 
 
 Intelligence of <cattle, the comparative de- 
 , gree of, 286 
 Intestines, description of the, 467 
 
 — ■■ , the diseases of the, 471 
 
 — — — — , inflammation of the external 
 
 coat of the..^See Enteritis. 
 —. mucous coat 
 
 of. — See Diarrhoea and Dysentery. 
 Inverness, description of the cattle of, 81 
 Jurersion of the rectum, 494 
 
 womb, 544 
 
 Iodine, the admirable use of, 583 
 Ireland, the establishment of the short- 
 horns in, 183 
 Irish butter, account of, 188 
 cattle, the middle horns an aboriginal 
 
 breed, 179 
 , long-horns, probably derived 
 
 from Lancashire, 182 
 
 , two different kinds. 
 
 of, 183 
 
 -, numbers of, imported into Eng- 
 
 land, 186 
 
 Islay, island of, superiority of the cattle 
 there, 66 ---^ 
 
 Jaundice, causes of, symptoms and treat- 
 ment, 462 
 
 Jejunum, description of the, 467, 469 
 
 Jenner, Dr., his discovery of the preventive 
 power of the cow-pox, 556 
 
 Joint murrain, its treatment, 356 
 
 Joints opened, the treatment of, 564 
 
 , swellings of them, the causes and 
 treatment of, 562 
 
 Journeys of the Scotch cattle to the south, 
 description of the, 122 
 
 Jugular vein, description of the, 333 
 
 Kent, description of the various breeds 
 
 in, 46 
 Kerry, the cow of, description of, 179 
 Kiilneys, anatoniical structure of the, 503 
 inflammation of the, causes. 
 
 symptoms, and treatment of, 514 
 
 respecting — ; calculi in, symptoms and «rea*- 
 
 uient of, 516 
 
INDEX. 
 
 I9S 
 
 Kincardineshiie. — See Mearns^ 
 KiorosB, account of the cattle of, 121 
 Kiatail, account of the cattle in, 96 
 Kintoie pz, desciiption of the, 103 
 Knee, description of the, 272 
 Kyle Rhea, description of the ferry of, 81 
 Kyloe, origin of the term 66 
 
 Lanarkshhub cattle, account of the breeds 
 of, 139 
 
 Lancashire, the various breeds of, 200 
 
 , many short-horn breeders in 
 
 the central districts, 201 
 
 : ,the loQg:-hom breed has gra- 
 dually declined in value there, ib. 
 
 , fruitless experiments to restore 
 
 them, 203 
 Laryngites, the treatment of, 395 
 Laycock, Mr., an account of )us dairy, 
 
 262, 263 
 Lead, the usual preparations of, 583 
 Legs, the, of cattle should be short, 1 2 
 Leicestershire, account of the cattle in, 208 
 Leicester new breed, inquiry into the value 
 
 of, 196 
 , improved the whole 
 
 breed of long-horns, 198 
 
 -, superseded by the short- 
 
 Loog-horns, the, history of the improve- 
 ment of, 190 
 Loss of cud, nature and treatuient of, 445 
 
 , more a symptom of dist^ase 
 
 than a separate disease , ib« 
 Lungs, the, their structure, 375, 400 
 
 , inflammation of, symptoms and 
 
 treatment of, 400 
 
 ^ , acute and epidemic; 
 
 its occasional devastations, 401, 403 
 
 Madness, causes and treatment of,'3d6 
 Mandana ox, account of its docility, i, 
 
 315 
 Mange, the nature and treatment of, 571 
 Manyplus, internal construction of the, 423, 
 
 424, 426, 428, 449 
 — — — , the manner in which it reduces 
 
 the food to a pulpy mass, 433 
 
 , the diseases of, 449, 451 
 
 -, the occasional strangely hat • 
 
 horns, 199 
 
 Leprosy, the nature and treatment of, 572 
 
 Letting bulls, the system originated with 
 Mr. Bakewell, 195 
 
 , the advantages and disad- 
 vantages of the system, ib. 
 
 Lice, how produced, and the method of 
 destroying themj 573 
 
 Like produces like, the grand principle of 
 breeding, 522 
 
 Lime, the chloride of, an excellent disen- 
 I fectant, 361 
 
 Lincolnshire cattle, description of, 242, 251 
 
 .1 , an account of the Turnhill 
 
 , cattle, 252 
 
 Linlithgowshire. — See West Lothian. 
 
 Linseed, experiments on its fattening pro- 
 perties, 213 
 
 -— ^ meal, excellent for poultices, 584 
 
 _^^_ oil, a good purgative, ib. 
 
 Lip, upper, the use of the numerous glands 
 in, 316 
 
 Lips, description and use of, 315 
 
 Liqiuds, the circumstances under which 
 they enter the rumen, 432 
 
 Liver, the structure and functions of, 458 
 
 , on inflammation of the, 459 
 
 , a case of enormous enlargement and 
 
 disease of, 460 
 
 , the difficulty of detecting chronic 
 
 * inflammation of, 461 
 
 __, on hemorrhage from it, 461 
 
 , a case of abscess in, 460 
 
 Lochabar, description of the cattle of, 81 
 
 Long-horns, the, appear to have originated 
 in Craven, 188 
 
 _^_^ J two distinct breeds of, the 
 
 smaller and the larger, 189 
 
 _ Mr. CuUey's accou'"*. of the 
 old, 189 
 
 dened state of its contents, 450 
 Mawbound, the symptoms and treatment 
 
 of, 435 
 Mearns cattle, description of the, 110 
 Meat, the average quantity of, annually 
 
 consumed in London, 257 
 Meath, the improvement of Irish cattle 
 
 commenced in, 182 
 Mercury, the different preparations of it 
 
 used, 585 
 Merionethshire, an inferior variety of the 
 Angleseys in the hill district, 62 
 
 I , description of the better 
 
 breeds of the vale, 61 
 Mesenteric glands, their structure and use, 
 471 
 
 , enlargement of them, ib. 
 
 Mesentery, description of the, 467, 468 
 Middle-horns, the, were probably the ori- 
 ginal cattle, 10 
 Mid-Lothian, description of the cattle of, 
 
 145 
 Milch-cow, the cottar's, interesting descrip- 
 tion of the, 112 
 Milki the average quantity of, yielded by 
 the Yorkshire cow, 245 
 
 . fever, its nature and treatmen^, 546 
 
 , the importance of purgmg in, 
 
 548, 550 
 ___ trade, the, in London, 261 
 
 vein, description of the, 340 
 
 , importance of a large one, 244 
 
 Montgomery cattle, small in the hill dis- 
 trict, 63 
 
 ^—. ■, in the lower country, 
 
 fair milkers and good feeders, 63 
 Moor-ill, the nature and treatment of, 474 
 Morgan, Sir Charles, introduced the short- 
 horns into Monmouthshire, 56 
 Motor organic nerves, account of the, 335 
 Mouth, account of the bones of the, 314 
 Murrain, the nature, symptoms, and treat 
 ment of, 379, 380 
 
 , accounts of its early appearance 
 
 in Europe, 383 
 
 , spreads in England, 386 
 
 , contagious ai wellas epidemiea 381 
 
 2QS 
 
196 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Munidii, eXpetiments on teocnlotion irith 
 
 its virus, 389 
 -" , its devastations led to the foonda- 
 
 tioD of veterinarv schools, 393 
 
 NaiHn, description of the cattle of, 99 
 Nagore cattle, an account of, 269 
 Navel-ill, the nature and treatment of, 557 
 Neck of cattle, description of, 332, 338, 
 
 340, 343, 345 
 , comparison between it 
 
 and that of the horse, 343 
 Nerves of the leg, cuts Ofj 305 
 Net or knot, the nature and treatment of, 
 
 489 
 Neurotomy might be practised on cattle, 
 
 303 
 I ■■ .- . f , the probable advantage of it >□ 
 
 foul in the foot, 568 
 
 ' , description of the Operation, 304 
 ■ ■ — , Cuts illustrative Of, 305 
 Nitre, its value in cattle practice, 586 
 Nitrous ether, spirit of it, when useful, 585 
 Norfolk, the native cattle of, 171 
 ——^— polled cattle, their orig^, ib. 
 ' Galloway Scuts, principally grated 
 
 there, 172 
 
 its supply of fat cattle for the 
 
 Smithfield market, 258 
 Northamptonshire, breeds of cattle in, 209 
 , its supply of fat cattle 
 
 for the Smithfield market, ib. 
 North Uist, the islttnd of, compatissh of 
 
 breedibg dnd grazing there, 70 
 Nose, bleeding frodl the, 311 
 
 - •■ ' i leeehes itt the, ibi 
 
 , polypus in the, ib. 
 
 - '■", its meaifoaaej inflammation of, 312 
 
 CEsoPtiAGEAN canal, cuts Of it, 423, 424 
 CEsophagus, the structure of, 414,426 
 
 ', obstruction in the, treatment 
 
 of, 415 
 
 I the manner oi^ opening in 
 
 choking, 420 
 
 ■»- -^-, rupture of the, 421 
 
 -, stricture of the, ib. 
 
 G^strUs botis, the history of its several 
 
 states, 574 
 Opened joints, the treatment of, 564 
 0|ihthalmia, its nature and treatment, 292 
 Opium, the best anodyne, antispasmodic 
 
 and astringent, 585 
 Orkney Islands, the cattle of, and their 
 
 treatment, 86 
 Ox, zoological description of, 2 
 —, the, degree of intelligence which he 
 
 possesses, 4 
 •^— , British, early history of, ib. 
 - — , African, docility of, i, 5 
 Oifordshite, description of the cattle lif, 
 
 214 
 
 Pij> on the upper Jai^j description and use 
 
 of the, 317 
 Palsy, causes and treatinent Of, 301, 303 
 Pancreas, the ettttctUrC, iianctionB, and 
 
 d4aaM*of,46« 
 
 Pantas, the nature and treatinent ot 474 
 Papills of the rumen, description of then 
 
 and of their uses, 430 
 Paps in the mouth, treatment of, 337 
 Parotid glands, inflammatiOit of the, if tap 
 
 toms and treatment of, 339 
 Parturition.— See Calving. 
 Paunch. — See Rumen. 
 Pembrokeshire cattle, description of, 48 
 Pericardium, inflammation of the, 350 
 — • , the, often penetrated by sharp 
 
 BUbstances that have been taken into 
 
 the rumen, ib. 
 Perthshire, an account of the various breeds 
 
 of cattle in, 118 
 Pharyngites, the symptoms and treatme ' 
 
 of, 394, 395 
 Pharynst, description of the, 337 
 
 -, inflammation of the, 394, 395 
 
 ., the mo4e of puncturing it ili ab- 
 scess situated there, 396 
 
 Phrenzy, Symptoms and treatment of, 296 
 
 Phthisisi'i^'See Consumption. 
 
 Placenta, the retention of it, in abortion, 
 532 
 
 — -, the, shotild be discharged soon 
 
 after calving, 545 
 
 — •■ , method Of separating it from-the 
 
 7omb, ib. 
 
 Pleurisy, its symptoms and treatment, 05 
 
 -— ', cbronict symptoms and treatment 
 
 of, 407 
 
 Pleiiro-pneumonia, interesting account of 
 it, ib. 
 
 Pnnmonia, the symptoms and treatment 
 of, 400 
 
 •, acute and epidemic, 401 
 
 Points of cattle, a description it the prin- 
 cipal, 12 
 
 Poisons, a list of the various, and the mode 
 of treating them, 449 
 
 Polled cattle, an account of the, 154 
 
 and horned cattle, a comparison be- 
 tween them, 283 
 
 Polypus in the nose, on, 31 1 
 
 Poultices, when useful, 586 
 
 Probang, the use of, in hoove, recom- 
 mended, 442 
 
 Pregnancy, the usual period of, 527 
 
 symptoms of, 533 
 
 Presentation, natural, the management oi, 
 534 
 
 , unnatural, do., 536 
 
 Puck, the disease so called, 362 
 
 Puncturing the rumen in hoove, objec- . 
 tions.to, 441 
 
 Puerperal fever. — See Milk Fever. 
 
 Pulse, cause of the, 353 
 
 , importance of attention to the, ib» ' 
 
 Purgatives, the usual beastly method si 
 administering them, 330 
 
 Purging cattle, the occasional difficulty ot, 
 accounted for, 431, 496 
 
 , the method of proceeding 
 
 when this occurs, ib. 
 
 Qi;art&k8, importitnee of their being long 
 and full, 15 
 
INDEX. 
 
 a« 
 
 Quaiter-evil, its nature and ti«atment, 356 
 , a peculiar kind of, in the 
 
 North Riding of Yorkshiie, 362 
 Queen uf Scots, Mr. Mure'H beautiful 
 
 heifer, a deaoription of her, 166 
 
 Rabies, the causes and symptons of, 306 
 Kadnonhire cattle, much crossed with the 
 
 Heret'ords, and a valuable breed, %9 
 Rectum, description of the, 467, 470 
 
 , the treatment of inversion of, 494 
 
 Red-water, the nature and causes of, 504 
 -^^^— ^ has more to do with the diges- 
 
 tive ort;ans and the food than any other 
 
 came, 505 
 IS most fcequent in low marshy 
 
 woody couniries, ib. 
 , acute, the nature and treatment 
 
 of, 506, 507 
 , the importance of bleeding and 
 
 purging in, ib,, 510 
 , chronic, the nature and treat- 
 ment of, 508, 509 
 I , the prize essays on it in the 
 
 ' Quarterly Journal of Agriculture,' 5 1 1 
 Renfrewshire, the old breed there super- 
 seded by the Ayrshire, 125 
 Retieulutti, the iuterior construction ofi^it, 
 
 424, 426, 427 
 ——^ , the action of it in the return of 
 the food to the stomach, 424, 430 
 -, the diseases of the, 448 
 
 Rheumatism, the cause and treatment of, 
 
 561 
 Rhodes, Messrs., an account of their dairy, 
 
 262, 263 
 Ribs, the number and proper form of, 367 
 Ribbed 'homej the importance of being,_ 12 
 Riding uxen in Mandara, an account' of 
 
 the, 5, 315 
 Rini;s, the, on the horn, as indicating the 
 
 age, 279 
 — — , uncer> 
 
 tainty of, 80 
 Ross, description of the cattle in, 96, 97 
 
 , the different crosses of cattle in, 97 
 
 the cattle generally more adapted for 
 
 grazing than the dairy, 98 
 
 , average produce of the cows, 98 
 
 Rottenness.— See Dysentry. 
 
 Rnmen, the, viewed externally, 422, 423 
 
 internally, 424, 426 
 
 , general description of it, 425. 427 
 
 , description of its papil1se,and their 
 
 uses, 429 
 
 the fluid swallowed sometimes 
 
 enters it, 431, 496 
 
 -, this accounts for the occasional 
 
 dieSculty of purging catile, 431, 496 
 -, an account of the diseases of it, 433 
 -, the strange substances often found 
 
 in it, ib. 
 
 calculi in the, symptoms of, 434 
 
 -, the eff'ect of, 435 
 
 , distention pf it by food, the symp- 
 toms, and treatment of, 435, 436 
 gas, 438 
 
 Rutnlnatidtt, deaciriptidn of it, 432 
 Rupture of the parietes of the nbdotnen.— 
 
 See Hernia. 
 of the bladder, symptoms of, 520 
 
 ■ ' ■■ ' ■ 11 1 . . .. . i I oesophagus, treatment of 
 421 
 
 womb, treatment of, 542 
 Rutlandshire has no peculiar breed, 208 
 Rye, ergot of, its use in parturition, 586 
 
 Sauvaky glands, description of the, 333 
 Salt, its use in food as a medicine, 556 
 Sapped. — See Constipation. 
 Saphena vein, the, when it should be 
 
 opened, 348 
 Scotch cattle, description of their journey 
 
 to the south, 122 
 Scott, Sir Robert, first introduced turnips 
 
 into Kincardineshire, 1 1 2 
 Selkirkshire, the original breed of cattle 
 
 in, 153 
 Septum, the nasal, why not perfect in the 
 
 OK, 309 
 Setons, their occasional use, 586 
 Shealings, description of the, 72, 81 
 ^— , Mr. M'Lean's admirable re- 
 marks on them, 82 
 Sheep husbandry compared with that o( 
 
 cattle, unanswerable defence of, 117 
 Sheeted ox, description of it, 28 
 Shetland Islands, general description of 
 
 them, 84 
 
 -, description of the cattle 
 
 there, 85 
 
 -, treatment of the cattle, 
 
 ib. 
 Shewt of blood, its nature and treatment, 
 
 356 
 Shoe of the ox, description of it, 569 
 Shooting. — See Dysentery. 
 Short-hums, the« history of, 226 
 i i -i supposed tu be originally im 
 
 ported from the Continent, ib. 
 
 -, description of the old unim- 
 
 proved ones, 227 
 
 -, the commencement of their 
 
 improvement, ib. 
 
 -, the mode in which their im- 
 
 provement was effected, 228 
 
 -, their excellence consists in a 
 
 eombination of qualities before believed 
 to be incompatible, 226 
 
 -, the question of their capacity 
 
 for work, 241 
 
 -, their early maturity should 
 
 preclude their being put to work, ib 
 
 , the prevailing colours of, U1 
 
 Short-horned bulls, the advantage of cross- 
 ing different breeds with them, 240 
 
 - cow, her milking qualities 
 much improved lately, 246 
 
 , an account of the cross be- 
 
 _ .__. inflammation of the, 436 
 
 tween it and the Kyloe, 247 
 Short-sighted, many cattle appear to be, 
 
 392 
 Shoulders, a slanting direction ol them, the 
 
 importance of, 14 
 Shropshire cattle, the old, 225 
 
S93 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 ShropsUre e&tfle, the cross between them 
 
 and the Holdemess, 225 
 ■ , the Herefords prevail through 
 
 the whole of the county, ib. 
 Silver, nitrate of, its use as a caustic, 587 
 Sinclair, Sir John, the great improver of 
 
 cattle in Caithness, 88 
 Skeleton of the ox, cut of the, 272 
 Bkibo, description of the small breed of 
 
 cattle so called, 94 
 Skin; the cause and importance of its soft 
 
 mellow feeling, 570 
 
 , diseases of the, ib. 
 
 ' Skull, cavity of the, cut of, 273 
 
 ) fracture of the, treatment of, 293 
 , almost invariably fatal, 
 
 ib. 
 Slinking. — See Abortion. 
 Stnelling, on the sense of, 309 
 Sinithfield, the average number of cattle 
 
 and sheep annually sold there, 256 
 ,the vearly numbers of cattle sold 
 
 there from 1732 to 1830, ib. 
 
 , parts of the kingdom by which 
 
 it is supplied at different periods of the 
 
 year, 258 
 
 , the mode of sale there, it). 
 
 — , cruelties practised there, ib. 
 
 Snake, a, in the gullet of a cuw, the cause 
 
 of hoove, 444 
 Soft palate, description of the, 337 
 Somerset, Mid., description of the cattle, 
 
 28 
 
 , North, ditto, ib. 
 
 ■ , West, ditto, ib. 
 
 , principally devoted to graring, 
 
 29 
 Sore teats, treatment of, 552 
 throat, the symptoms and treatment 
 
 of, 395 
 Speed, the disease so called, 362 
 Spinal cord, the comparative smallness of, 
 
 accounted for, 287 
 Spine, comparison between it in the ox and 
 
 horse, 372 
 ' Spleen, structure and function of the, 457 
 
 , hemorrhage from the, 458 
 ' Sprain in the leg and foot, symptoms and 
 
 treatment of, 564, 565 
 Staffordshire, the old cattle of, 222 
 
 , history of the improvement of 
 
 the cattle, 222 
 
 , description of the present 
 
 long-horns, 223 
 
 I a cross between them and the 
 
 Derbyshire cattle, 224 
 
 Staking, several cases of, 451 
 
 Sternum, description of the, 367 
 
 , the width of the, sometimes com- 
 pensates for flatness of the sides, 371 
 
 Stimulants, the propriety of administering, 
 when it is di£Scult to purge cattle, 431 
 
 Stirlingshire, the general management of 
 cattle in, 119 
 
 Stomachs of cattle, cuts of them, 422, 
 423, 424, 426 
 
 Stomach-pump, the use of it in hoove re- 
 commended, ib. 
 
 Stone in the bladder, symptoms and treat, 
 ment of, 518 
 
 ■ in the kidneys, ditto and ditto, 516 
 
 ureters, ditto and ditto, 517 
 
 urethra, ditto and ditto, 519 
 
 St. Pancras, the establishment of a veteri ' 
 
 nary school at, 394 
 Strangulation of the intestines, symptona 
 
 and treatment of, 489 
 StranguUion. description of it, 336 
 Strathaven, the management of calvea 
 there, 140 
 
 , the cruelty sometimes practised 
 
 141 
 
 , account of extraordinary calves 
 
 reared there, ib. 
 Stricture of the oesophagus, treatment of, 
 
 421 
 Subcutaneous abdominal vein, the question 
 
 when it should be bled from, 348 
 , the ana- 
 tomy of it, 349 
 Subhngual glands, description of the, 337 
 Submaxillary vein, description of the, 335 
 
 artery, ditto, 335 
 
 Suffolk cattle, were originally duns, 174 
 
 , description of the, ib. 
 
 ■ , milking properties of, 175 
 
 — — , the bull cast off far too early, 
 
 177 
 Sulphur, an excellent purgative and altera- 
 tive, 587 
 Summerings of cattle in Wexford, descrip- 
 tion of them, 184 
 Surrey has no distinguishing breed, 265 
 Sussex oxen, description of the, 40 
 — , resemblance and difference 
 
 between them and the Devons, ib. 
 
 , ditto, Herefords, 41 
 
 ■, their working qualities consi- 
 dered, 42 
 
 of one, 43 
 
 curious instance of the speed 
 
 -, average weight of, ib. 
 ■ cow, description of her, 44 
 
 , not good for the dairy, ib. 
 
 , extraordinary quantity of milk 
 
 and butter yielded by one, 45 
 
 , a breed of black cattle in, 46 
 
 , W^est, no distinguishing breed in, 
 
 ib. 
 Sutherland, general description of, 91 
 , decrease of the breed of cattle 
 
 in, ib. 
 , strange increase in the number 
 
 of sheep in, ib. 
 
 , comparison between the formet 
 
 state of cattle husbandry and the present 
 
 state of sheep husbandry, 92 
 , the manner in which the change 
 
 was effected, 93 
 
 , its happy effects, ib, 
 
 , description of the breed ofcattll 
 
 in, 93 
 
 Sweetbread, description ot the 375 
 Swelling of the joints, the causes and tieat 
 
 ment of, 562 
 Swish cattie, illustrations ot vanity in, 6 
 
INDEX. 
 
 «99 
 
 tiwiss cattle, icuribus account 6f,'a8 con- 
 
 nectfcd with consumption, 413 
 'Swiiserliind, the disposition of cowsto aboi- 
 
 tion at the setting in of boat frost, 533 
 
 Taii, description of the bones of the, 272 
 , should be level with the bones of the 
 
 back, 15 
 
 , description of it generally, 302 
 
 ' slip, ridiculous notions of it, 301 
 
 Tankerville, Lord, account of the wild cattle 
 
 in his park, 8 
 Tape-worm, an account of the, 497 
 Tappin)^ in dropsy, a descriptii)n of the 
 
 operation, 498 
 Tar, its usiB in cattle practice, 587 
 Taunton, the vale of, :dt!scripiion of the 
 
 cattle iu, 27 
 T.iVistock, the South Devons purest about, 
 
 22 
 Teeth, the form and t^tructure of them, in 
 
 ruminauts, 318 
 
 ' , regarded as indicating the age, ib. 
 
 , cuts of them,'. at different ages, 319, 
 
 &c. 
 
 , curious process of diminution of, com- 
 mencing at three mouths, 319 
 , when the mouth can be said to be 
 
 full of, 322 
 -, thfi grinders, the age imperfectly 
 
 estimated by, 324 
 tempest, S^r H. Vane, first introduced the 
 
 short-horns into Ireland, 184 
 •Temporal artery, description of the, 335, 337 
 - bone, description of the, 372, 374, 
 
 384, 315 
 vein. 
 
 description of the, 335 
 
 ^Tetanus, symptoms and treatment of, 298 
 Thighs, they should be lull, long, and close 
 together when viewed from behind, 12, 
 .15 
 .Thigh-bone, descriptionof the, 272 
 Thrush in the mouth, symptoms and treat- 
 ment of, 331 
 Thymus gland, description of the, 365 
 Tibia, or leg-bone, description of the, 272 
 Tipperaiy, description of the cattle in, 185 
 Tongue, description of it and its uses, 324 
 ■ of the horse, reason of its being 
 
 tied down by the spur of the os-hyoides, 
 326 
 
 ■ ox, reason of its not being 
 
 tied down, 326 
 , method of distinguishing between 
 
 that of the horse and ox, 373 
 Tonics, when admissible in the treatmeutof 
 
 distemper, 486, 587 
 Torsion, the method of castration by, 560 
 Trachea, description of the, 373 
 Tracheotomy, description of the operation 
 
 of. 374 
 . -, cases in which it should be 
 
 performed, ib. 
 Trysts, the, of Inverness and the North, de- 
 scription of them, 83 
 Tumours, bony, about the eye, management 
 
 of, 289 - 
 
 .Tlimotirs, bony, about the eye,' an ad'vatf- 
 
 tageous way of firing, 289 
 ■TurnliiU cattle, description of the, 252 ,' 
 Turnips, history of the first introduction o( 
 them into the Mearns, 112 
 
 , introduced into Berwickshire iu 
 
 1755, 150 
 Turpentine, li^iud, its uses as a digestiva 
 and a diuretic, 587 
 
 , oil flf, its medicinal use, 587 . 
 
 might possibly destroy the 
 
 ' worms in the bronchial tubes, 399 
 Typhus fever, nature of the, 363 
 , frequently follows inflam- 
 matory fever, 364 
 
 ^-^~ , symptnms of, lb. 
 
 ■ , treatment ot, 363 
 
 -, the kind of cattle most sub 
 
 ject to, ib. 
 
 — , prevention.of, ib. 
 
 Tyree, the island of, cuifiparison between 
 
 the profits of breeding anij grazing there. 
 
 Twopenny, Mr. Bakewell's bull, account 
 of, 193 
 
 Uddeb, descriptiiin ofthe,.245 
 
 Ulcers, foetid, use of chloride of lime for, 
 361 . 
 
 University of London, the establishment 
 of a veterinary school at the, 394 
 
 Upper jaw-bone, description of the, 272, 
 309, 314 
 
 Ureters, description of the, 515 
 
 , larger than in the horse, ib. 
 
 r, stone in the, symptoms and treat- 
 ment of, 517 
 
 Urethra, description of its curve, ib. 
 
 ■ , stone in the, symptoms and treat- 
 ment of, 519 
 
 Urinary calculi, symptoms of their pre 
 sence, 516, 517 
 
 „composition of, 516 
 
 Urus, account of the ancient, 3 
 
 Vanity, illustrations of, in cattle, 6 ' 
 Veins, the largeness of, in the ox, compared 
 
 with the arteries, 374 
 , description of the, 366 
 — . — , varicose, the nature and treatment of, 
 
 ib. 
 Verdigris, its use in cattle practice, 584 
 Vertebrae of the spine, description of, 272 
 Veterinary schools, their origin, 2, 393 
 . , their establishment put 
 
 an end to the epidemics which devastated 
 
 Europe, 393 
 
 -, establishment of that 
 
 at Edinburgh, 394 
 
 -, St. Pan- 
 
 eras, ib. 
 
 — the Uni- 
 versity of London, ib. 
 Vinegar, of little use in cattle practice, 588 
 Virgil, his beautiful description of the row 
 rain, 381 
 .JCitriol, white, the use. of, 5J88 
 
(00 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 " Voice of Humaniivi'' the, recommended, 
 
 259 
 Vomiting, how fat it may be produced, 456 
 true, rare and attended with 
 
 danger, ib. 
 . , a case of, 457 
 
 Waistell, Mr., the original proprietor of 
 Hubbuck, 229 
 
 -, account of his fat four- 
 year-old ox, 235 
 
 Waller, Messrs., the first improvers of Irish 
 cattle, 182 
 
 Warbles, how produced, 574 
 
 , history of the fly and its several 
 
 states, ib. 
 
 Waits, their nature and treatment, 576 , 
 
 Warwickshire, the cattle of, 220 
 
 . , the long-horns still pre- 
 valent there, ib. 
 
 Water in the head, symptoms and treat- 
 ment of, 295 
 
 drop-wort, the treatment of poisoning 
 
 by, 446 
 
 Webster, Mr., of Canley, an improver of the 
 long-horns, 190, 220 
 
 Wilby, a farrier, stands first among the 
 improvers of the long-horns, 190 
 
 Welsh catKii the, were some of them white 
 with red i ,s, 48 
 
 Western couiities, their supply of fat cattle 
 for the Smithfield market, 258 
 
 West Highland cattle, the points in which 
 they are valuable, 67 
 
 . , the secret of profit' 
 
 ably breeding and grazing them, 79 
 
 West Lothian, description of the cattle, 144 
 
 , management of them, 144 
 
 Westmorland cattle, account of the, 200 
 
 Wexford, management of cattle in, 184 
 
 Wicklow, description of cattle in, 34, 185 
 
 Wight,l8le of, description ofthe cattle, 215 
 
 Wild cattle, account of, 7 
 
 Willowbank, account ofthe dairy at, 141 
 
 Willoughby, Sir C, first introduced the 
 short-horns into Oxfordshire, 219 
 
 Wiltshire, North, description of the cattle 
 there, 215 
 
 • , until lately occupied by 
 
 the long-horns, 217 
 
 ■, value of the present 
 
 cross-breed, ib. 
 
 217 
 
 -, method of rearing in, 
 
 , cheese equal to the 
 
 Gloucester, 218 
 
 , South, description of the cattle 
 
 of, ib. 
 
 Wind-pipe, description ofthe, 373 
 
 A'mtering grounds of Dumbartonshire, de- 
 scription of, 122 
 
 Withers, hoUowness behind them, disaA 
 
 vantage of, 15 
 Womb, inversion of the, treatment of, 54 1 
 
 , rupture of the, ditto, 542 
 
 Wood evil, nature and treatment of, 474 
 Worcestershire, description of the cattle of, 
 
 221 
 ^-^^—^-^— contains some of the best 
 
 Hetefords, 221 
 
 -, the Herefords and Dur- 
 
 ham! struggling for superiority ou the 
 grazing lands, 221 
 Worms in the frontal sinuses of cattle, 276 
 — ^— in the eye, treatment of, 293 
 — — , an account of the various intesti- 
 nal ones, 496 
 Wortley farmers' club, an account of the, 
 
 251 
 Wounds of the eye, management of, 289 
 
 Ybllows, the (see Jaundice), 462 
 
 Yew, the treatment of poisoning by, 446 
 
 ^■^ eaten with impunity by the cattle io 
 Hanover and Hesse, 447 
 
 mixed with other food may be eaten 
 
 without danger, ib. 
 
 Yorkshire cow, the history of the establish- 
 ment of the present one, 243 
 
 , description of her, 244 
 
 , average quantity of milk 
 yielded by her, 245, 261 
 
 — I , the question of the average 
 
 quantity of butter, 245 
 
 ■ — , East Riding, an account of the 
 
 cattle of, 251 
 
 , North Riding, description of the 
 
 cattle of, 248 
 
 of, were long-horns, ib. 
 
 -, the native cattle 
 
 account of the 
 first Holderness established there, ib. 
 
 a history of theit 
 
 improvement, ib. 
 
 ment of, 249 
 
 -, general manage* 
 -, the cows princi- 
 
 pally supply the metropolitan dairies, ib, 
 -, West Riding, description of the 
 
 -, the prevalence of 
 
 cattle of, 250 
 
 the half-horns accounted for, ib. 
 Young calves, the danger of taking thvm 
 too soon from their dams, 310 
 
 Zinc, the preparations of it which are used 
 
 medicinally, 338 
 Zygomatic arch, the peculiar construction 
 
 of it in the ox, 277 
 2[ygomaticus muscle, description of tlie, 
 
 33? 
 
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