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Miction; and there is at times a pensiveness of tone a winning sadn^^^^^ n e serious compositions, which tells of a soul which ^^^ b^^ "hf^f f^on. the contemplation of lerrestrial things, to divine commumngs with beings ot a pa.er '''jOSEPHUS'S (FLAVIUS) WORKS. By the late William , Whiston, A. M. From the last London edition, complete in 2 vo»s 8vo. As a matter of course, every family in our country has a «°Py f j^/f f^;^ Bible-and as the presumption is, the greater portion often consult Us pa e^^^^^ we take the liberty of saying to all those that do, that the perusal of the ^^rlt inerA)/— Joseph Strutt, Esq. Edward Strutt, Esq., M.P. Devonjiort and Stonchouse — John Cole, Esq. — Norman, Esq. Lt.-Col. C. Hamilton Smith, F.R.S. Etruria — Jos. Wedgwood, Esq. £j:cter—J. Tyrrell, Esq. John Milford, Esq. (Coaner.) Glasgow — K. Finlay, Esq. Professor Mylne. Alexai'.der McGrigor, Esq. Charles Tennant, Esq. Jamgs Cowper, Esq. Glamorganshire— Dr. Malkin, Cow- briilge. W. Williams, Esq. Aberpergwm. Guernsey — F. C. Lukis, Esq. Hull— 3. C. Parker, Esq. Keighley, Yorkshire— Rev . T. Dury, M.A. Launccston — Rev. J. Barfitt. Leamington Spa — Dr. Loudon, BI.D. Lreds—S. Marshall, Esq. L:ivt3—i. AV. Woollgar, Esq. Liccrpvol Local .Association — W. W. Currie, Esq., Chairman. 3. Mulleneux, Esq., Treas. Rev. W. Shepherd. J. Aslitou Yates, Esq. LudloTo—r. A. Knight, Esq.,P.H.S. Maidenhead — R. Gooldeii, Esq., F.L.S. JWairfsturae— Clement T. Smyth, Esq. John Case, Esq. Malmcsbury — B. C. Thomas, Esq. Manchester Local .Association — G. W. Wood, Esq. Chairman. Benj. Hevwood, Esq., Treas. T. W. Winstanley, Esq., Hon. See. Sir G. Philips, Bart., M.P. Benj. Gott, Esq. Merthyr Tydvil^J. 3. Guest, Esq., M.P. Minchinhampton — John Ball, Esq. Monmouth — J. H. Moggridge, Esq. JVeath — John Rowland, Esti. JVewcastle — Rev. W. Turner. JVcwport, Isle of Wight — Abr. Clarke, Esq. T. Cooke, Jun., Esq. R. G. Kirkpatrick, Esq. JVewport Pagnell—3. Millar, Esq. 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Yeats, M.D. Wartcick — Dr. Conolly. The Rev. W. Field, {Learn.) PFato/orrf— Sir John Newport, Bart. Wolverhampton — J. Pearson, Esq. Worcester— Ur. Corbet, M.D. Dr. Hastings, M.D. C. H..Hebb, Esq. ^reaiAam— Thomas Edgworth, Esq. J. E. Bowman, Esq., F.L.S., Treasurer. Major William Lloyd. Yarmouth— C. E. Rumbold, Esq., M.P. Dawson Turner, Esq. Fori-Rev. J. Kenrick, A.M. THOMAS COATES, Esq., Secretary, 59, Lincoln's Inn Fields. PRfeFACE In preparing this volume on " Cattle," the author has often had reason to d'lgpjore 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 tiiOSe 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 or 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 of 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, Avho 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 estabhshmg. j'r.r^ir^K^^ ,• iv PREFACE. To many of the contributors to that valuable periodical, " The Veterina- rian," he is under considerable obligation, which has been duly and grate- fully 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 treated, he may have succeeded in laying down some principles which will guide 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 in- duced 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. Page Preface ,.,.....« iii Introduction .......••! Chapter I.— THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE OX. . 2 His Zoological character — domesticated before the Flood — fossil bones. Chapter II.— THE BRITISH OX. . . 4 No satisfactory description of cattle by early writers — The Lancashire and the Devon ox — The ox of central Africa — the backley of Southern Africa — the Scotch bull — the Swiss cows — Return to 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 tlie 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 Devons 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 — Gloucestershire cattle — the old Gloucesters — the present breed in the hilly district — in the vale of Berkeley — crosses — Gloucester cheese — single and double — SassEX cattle — description — comparison with Devons and Herefords — Sussex cow — crosses — West Sussex cattle — Kentish cattle — Wales — general character of the Welsh cattle — Pembrokes— Glamorgans — former character of them — present breed — late improvement — Mr. David's breed — Monmouthshire cattle — Carmarthens — Car- digans — Cattle of Brecknockshire and Radnorshire — Cattle of North Wales — Anglesey cattle — the passage of the Menai — c.';osses — improvements — Welsh tradi- tions — The Carnarvons — The cattle of Merioneth, Montgomery, Denbigh, Flint, Scotland — the West Highland cattle — the Hebrides — Description of the true Kyloe — early anecdotes — Mr. Moorhouse — Hebridean management — The outer Hebrides — the tacksman — Arran — the Duke of Hamilton's improvements — general management — Bute — Argyleshire — the cattle — rearing — Cantire — dairy-management — Inver- ness — the ferry of Kyle-Rhea — the shealings — overstocking — the trysts — North Highland cattle — the Shetlanders — description — management — the Holmes — the Orkneys — Caithness — Sir John Sinclair's valuable improvements — present ciiaracter of the cattle — diseases — strange superstitions — Sutherland — introduction of sheep husbandry — different breeds — management — superstitions — Ross and Cromarty — peculiarity of the cattle — Mr. Mackenzie's valuable account of Ross — Nairn, Moray, Banff — the Banffshire breed — Lord Findlater's improvements — Aberdeen — descrip- tion of the cattle — the Kintore ox — the polled cattle — the Buchan cows — Kincar- dineshire — the Mearns 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 — Stirling — 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 fifly years ago — present state — cattle — opinions of their origin — their value as dairy-cows — produce — profit — boyening — Dunlop cheese — fattening properties of the Ayrshires — management — calves — Lanark — the Strathaven veal — the Willow- Ti CONTENTS. bank dairy — West Lothian — tlic cattle— grazing — Mid-Lothian — tlie original and present cattle — the Caledonian dairy — East Lothian — Mr. Ronnie's cattle — Rox- burgh — Berwick — the cradle of Scottish agriculture — Mr. Pringlc, the first cultivator of turnips in drills — the progress of improvement — Selkirk — change in its character. Chapter IV.— POLLED CATTLE. . Page 154 Galloway — Description of the Galloways — Mr. Murc's breed — his Queen of the Scots — general excellence of the Galloways — Dumfries — the Galloways of a larger size here — Angus — the polled cattle — comparison between them and tlie Galloways — Mr. Watson's valuable breed — Norfolk — the original breed horned — source of the present breed — travels of the Galloway cattle — fairs — the Earl of Albemarle — Mr. Coke — Suffolk — description — extraordinary instances of produce — Devonsiiihe nats — York- shire polls. Chapter V.— THE IRISH CATTLE. . 179 The aboriginal breed middle-horns — the Kerry cow — the prevailing breed were pro- bably tlie Cravens — Improvement slower in Ireland than in England — I\Ir. Waller's improvements in Meath — Lord Masscrene — Lord Farnham — the Earl of Rosse — Sir H. V. Tempest — Mr. Conolly — 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 — Sir Thomas Gresley — Mr. Webster — Bloxedge — Robert Bakcwell — his principles — his success — anecdotes — errors of hi-s successors — Twopenny — Mr. Fowler — Shakspeare — Description of D — Mr. Fowler's sale — Mr. Prinscp — Mr. Mundy — Description of the improved Leicesters — strangely rapid deterioration and disappearance of them — Westmoreland — Lancashire — the native breed now rarely seen — crosses — introduction of short-horns — Mr. Kirk's long-horns — Derbyshire — description of cattle — Cheshire breed injured by the introduction of short-horns — management of the dairy — Cheshire cheese — Nottinghamshire — Leicestershire — Rutland — Huntingdon — Cambridge — Cambridge butter — Northampton — Bed- ford — experiments at Woburn — Buckinghamshire — Berkshire — Hampshiue — crosses — Isle of Wigiit — Wiltshire — the long-horns almost extinct — crosses of all kinds — cheese — Oxfordshire — Warwickshire — Worcestershire — Staffordshire — tlie old StafFords — the StafTords of the present day — introduction of the short-horns — SiiRca*- bhire — the old Shropshires— the present breed. Chapter VII.— THE SHORT-HORNS. . 22G . Description of the old breed— Sir W. Quentin — Mr. Milbank — 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 Althorp a successful breeder — the milking properties of the improved short-horn undervalued — not calculated for work — Lord Althorp's bull Firby — The improved Yorkshire cow — she unites the two qualities — 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 Badsvvorth — East Riding — liiNcoLNsiiiRE — the unimproved Lincolns — the Turnills — the present improved Lincolns — the Lincolnshire ox — Essex — the calf-feeding — the dairy — Epping butter — Epping sausages — Middlesex — Booth's establishment at Brent- ford — tlie number of cattle sold in Smithfield — how supplied — cruelties practised there — the number of cows kept in London — the milk-business — Laycock's dairy — Rhodcs's dairy — Surry. Chapter VIII.— THE FOREIGN BREEDS OF CATTLE. 266 The Aldcrncy — quantity and excellence of milk, flittcns readily — Najorc cattle — buSalo and Indian cattle. CONTENTS. Chu-ter 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 small head in the female — extent of frontal sinuses — inflammation of them — the horns — history of their growth — treatment of fracture of them — age as indicated by the horns — tricks — manuflicture of beautiful horns — the distinguishing character of the different breeds — influence of sex — horned Galloways — comparison between the iiorned 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 — wound? — tumours — The eyelids — eruption on them — enlargement of haw — inflammation of the eye — cataract — gutta sercna — cancer — Fracture of the skull — Hydatids in the brain — water in the head — apoplexy — inflammation of the brain — locked jaw — epilepsy — palsy — rheumatism — tail-slip — neurotomy — madness. Chvpter X.— THE ANATOMY, USES, AND DISEASES, OF THE NOSTRILS AND MOUTH. . , . 308 The msal 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 — tlie age indi- cated by them — tlie long tongue of the ox — the os hyoides — gloss-anthrax or blain^ thrush in the mouth — the glands and blood-vessels of the neck — the parotid gland — barbs or paps — the soft palate — the pharynx. Chapter XI.— ANATOMY AND DISEASES OF THE NECK AND CHEST. 338 The muscles of the 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 heart — the pulse — the capillary vessels — inflammation — Fever — inflammatory fever — quar- ter-evil — black quarter — typhus fever — the veins — 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 malignant epidemic — murrain — long account of the epidemics of different times — sore throat — inflammation of the pharynx — puncturing the pharynx — bronchitis — multitude of ■worms often found in the air-passages — bronchitis in Jamaica — inflammation of the lungs — acute pneumonia — epidemic ditto — pleurisy — chronic pleurisy — consumption — importance of recognizing the peculiar cough of consumption. Chapter XII.— THE STRUCTURE AND DISEASES OF THE GULLET AND STOMACH. ... 414 The peculiar structure of the gullet of ruminants — choking — the cssophagus-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 cesophagean 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 — tlie pellet formed — forced into the cesophagean canal — reascends the gullet — remasticatcd — returned — passes along the canal into the manyplus — the leaves of the manyplus — the fibrous parts of tlie food — indigestible substances in the paunch — con- cretions 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 nianyfolds — clew-bound — fardel-bound — malformation of manyplus — diseases of the fourth stomach — vomiting. Chapter XIIL— THE ANATOMY AND DISEASES OF THE SPLEEN, LIVER, AND PANCREAS. . . 457 Anatomy and function of the spleen — inflammation of it — enlargement — The liver — inflammation of it — hcemorrhage — jaundice or yellows — The pancreas. CONTENTS. Chapter XIV.— THE ANATOMY AND DISEASES OF THE INTESTINES. 460 The duodenum — jejunum — ileum — csecum — colon — rectum — enlargement of the mesenteric glands — inflammation of tlio bowels — wood evil — moor ill — diarrhoea — dysentery — inflammation of the duodenum — colic — strangulation — the cords or gut-tie — introsusception — inversion of the rectum — constipation — calculi — worms — dropsy — hernia or rupture. Chapter 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 Caesarean operation — embryotomy — inversion of tlie womb — rupture of ditto — protrusion of the bladder — retention of the foetus — attention after calving — the cleansing — flooding — dropping after calving — puerperal or milk fever — sore teats — garget. Chapter XVII.— THE DISEASES AND MANAGEMENT OF CALVES. 557 Navel ill — constipation — diarrhoea — hoove — castration — French method of castration. Chapter XVIII.— THE DISEASES OF THE MUSCULAR SYSTEM AND THE EXTREMITIES. . . 562 Rheumatism — swellings of the joints — ulcers about the joints — opened joints — sprains — 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 TREATMENT OF THE DISEASES OF CATTLE. . 577 iEthiop's mineral — aloes — alteratives — alum — ammonia — anodynes — antimonial pow- der — blue vitriol — butyr of antimony — antispasmodics — astringents — blisters — cala- mine — calombo — calomel — camphor — cantharides — carraways — castor oil — catechu — caustics — chalk — chamomile — charges — chloride of lime — clysters — cordials — corrosive sublimate — croton — diaplioretics — digitalis — diuretics — drinks — elder — emetic tartar — Epsom salts — fomentations — gentian — ginger — Glauber's salts — Goulard's extract — hellebore, black — iodine — i])ecacuanha — laudanum — linseed — linseed oil — lunar caustic — mashes — mercurial ointment — mint — myrrh — nitre — pitch — poultices — ergot of rye — common salt — sctons — spirit of nitrous etlier — spirit, rectified — sugar of lead — sul- phur — tar — tonics — turpentine, common — turpentine, spirit of— vinegar — white lead — white vitriol. CATTLE. INTRODUCTION. If this volume of ' The Farmers' Series' is devoted to the history, general management, and medical treatment of an animal less 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 than eight millions of catde, unrivalled in the world. One hundred and sixty thousand head of catde are annually sold in Smithfield alone, without including calves, or the dead-market — the car- cases 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 life of the ox 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, 36,000 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 2/. 10s. each, the pigs at 2/., 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. AUIiough much has been done by agricultural societies to improve the breed and the general treatment of these animals, and much valuable instruc- tion is to be found scattered in many a volume, no one has yet attempted 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 diarrhcea; and the country incurs a loss of nearly ten millions of pounds annually, the agriculturist knows not where to go for information on the nature and the cure of the maladies of which they die ; and is either driven to confide 2 T il. a CATTLE. in the boasted skill of the ignorant pretender, or make 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 difficult to say which is the worst, the ignorance and obstinacy of the servant and the cowleach, or the igno- rance 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 teach- ing ' 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 relating to cattle. A great deal has been written in different books respecting the peculiari- ties 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 suc- cessfully strive, to rescue a few of his oxen from that destruction of which he has been an almost passive spectator ; and to direct his attention — the attention of the little farmer, and the cottager, as well as 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 HISTORY OF THE OX. The Ox belongs to the class mammalia, animals having mammas, or teats; (see 'The Horse, p. 62,) the order ruminantia, ruminating, or chewing their food a second time ; the tribe bovidae, the ox kind ; the GENUS bos, the ox, the horns occupying the crest, projecting at first side- ways, and being porous or cellular within; and the sub-genus bos taunts, or the domestic ox. Distinguished according to their teeth, they have eight incisors, or cutting teeth, in the lower jaw, and none in the upper. They have no tusks, but they have 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 ^, molars -|-f . Total, 30 teeth. The native country of the ox, reckoning from the time of the flood, was THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE OX. 3 the plains of Ararat, and he was a domesticated animal when he issued 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 min 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 after the expulsion from Eden, the sheep had become the servant of man ; and the inference is not improbable, that the no less useful ox Avas subjugated at the same time. It is recorded, that Jubal, the son of Lamech, and who was probably born during the life-time of Adam, was the father of such as dwell intents, 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 after 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, Pharaoh 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 liave 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 de- gree 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 sufficiently prove the comparatively large size of some of the wild cat- tle of that day. We have reason, however, to believe that this referred more to individuals 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 diflTerence 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. * Gen, iv. 20, t Gen, xii. 16. 4 CATTLE. CHAPTER II. , THE BRITISH OX. In the earliest and most authentic account that we possess of the British Isles, the Commentaries of Caesar, 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 habits 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 fat. 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 become the slave of man, without ac- quiring the privilege of being his friend, or receiving instruction from him, instinct languishes, without being replaced by the semblance of reason. But when we press him into our immediate service — when he draws our cart and ploughs our land — he rapidly improves upon us ; he is, in fact, altogether a diflferent 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 affection. The Lancashire and the De- vonshire ox seem not to belong to the same genus. The one lias 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 stout- ness and honesty in work. He is as easily 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 of 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 the loops are distended by a piece of wood to form an THE BRITISH OX. 5 easier rest for the foot. While the animal's nose is still sore, it is mounted and put in training, and in a week or two is generally rendered sufficiently obedient to its rider. The facility and adroitness with which the Hotten- tots manage the ox has often 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 ease and expedition, walking three or four miles in an hour, trotting five, and gal- loping on an emergency seven or eight.' Major Denham, in his Travels into Central Africa, gives the following amusing 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 all 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 the daughter or the wife of a rich Shouaa will be mounted on her particular bullock, and precede the loaded animals, extravagantly adorned with amber, silver rings, coral, and all sorts of finery; her hair streaming with fat, a black rim of kohal, at least an inch wide, round each of her eyes, and I may say arrayed for conquest at the crowded market. Carpet or robes are then spread on her clumsy palfry — she sits jambe de ga, jambe de lei — and 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 ca- perings and curvetings.' It is, however, in the southern part of Africa that the triumph of the ox is complete. His intelligence seems to exceed any thing 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 CafTre, and assist him in attending his flocks, and guarding them against every invader. While the sheep are grazing, 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 backely flies round the field, obliges the herds of sheep that are stray- ing to keep within proper limits, and shows no mercy to robbers, who attempt to plunder, nor even to strangers ; but it is not the plunderers of the flock alone, but even the enemies of the nation, that these backelies 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, they overturn all before them ; they strike down with their horns, and trample with their feet, every one who attempts to oppose them, and thus often procure their masters an easy victory, before they have begun to strike a blow. ' An animal so serviceable is, as may be supposad, not without its re- ward. The backely lives in the same cottage with its master, and by long habit gains an affection for him ; 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 him, by a council of the old men of the village. The new backely is then joined with one of the veterans of his own kind, from whom he learns his art, 2* 6 CATTLE. 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 simi- lar, 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 fat and drowsy, and was often found asleep; he was, of course, chastised whenever the cattle trespassed. 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 transgression, 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 approached them. At length his honesty and vigilance became so obvious, that the boy was employed in weeding, and other business, without fear of their misbehaviour in his absence.' — Instinct Displayed, Letter 34. Captain Cochrane, in his Travels in Columbia, vol. ii. p. 251 , places them in another, and not uninteresting point of view : ' I was suddenly aroused by a most terrific noise, a mixture of loud roarings and deep moans, Avhich had the most appalling efllsct at so late an hour. I immediately 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 bellowed the most hideous chorus that can be imagined, and it was with the greatest difficulty they could be driven away hy nien and dogs. Since then, I have observed the same scene by daylight, and seen large tears rolling down 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 some 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 others. The account of the Swiss cows is not a little amusing, although we believe that it is somewhat exaggerated. ' In the Swiss Canton of Appensell, pasturage being the chief employ- 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 sufficient to guide and govern the whole herd, and there reigns a perfect cordiality 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 ranz des vaches. 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 of pasture, he dresses himself in all his finery, and proceeds along, THE BRITISH OX. 7 singing the ranz des vaches, followed 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 after 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 the 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 cf her vengeance, and is butted, and wounded, and per- secuted by her in the most furious manner, until she regains her bell, oris entirely removed from the herd.' — lUuslralions of Natural History , p. 72. Having thus somewhat vindicated the intellectual power and worth of the subject of our work, we return to the agricultural state of the country when the Romans invaded Britain. Caesar tells us, that 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 fixed property was secure ; and that alone was valuable, 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 agricultural pro- ductions were oftener cultivated, the reaping of which was sure after the labour of sowing had been expended. Catde 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 fifty years that any serious and successful efforts have been made materially to improve them. In the comparative roving and uncertain life which our earlier 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 degress 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 contracted, these animals were 8 CATTLE. seldomer seen, and at length almost disappeared. A few 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 latter place by Mr. Cully, 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, snuzzle 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 upAvards ; 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 thirty-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 ihey are put into by the curiosity of strangers, it is scarcely to be expected they should be very fat ; yet the six year old oxen are generally very good beef; from Avhence it may be fairly supposed, that in proper situa- tions 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 approach much nearer, probably within thirty yards, when they again make another stand, and then fly ofl"; this they do several times, shortening their dis- 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 be 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 marksman 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 hide their calves for a week or ten days in some sequestered situation, and go and suckle them 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 cumstance that happened to Mr. Bailey, of Chillingham, who found a hidden calf, two days old, very lean, and very weak ; on stroking its head it got np, 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 efforls; 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 res-t of the herd set on it and gore it to death.' The breeds of cattle, as they are now found in Great Britain, are almost as various as the soil of the different districts, or the fancies of the breeders. They have, however, been verj^ conveniendy classed according to the comparative size of the horns : the long horns, originally, so far as our country is concerned, from Lancashire, much improved by Mr. Bakewell, of Leicestershire, and established through the greater part of the midland counties ; the short horns, originally from East York, improved in Dur- ham, mosdy cultivated in the northern counties, and in Lincolnshire, and many of them found in every part of the kingdom where the farmer attends much to his dairy, or a large supply of milk is wanted ; and the middle horns, 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 diffeient character, the cattle of the Scottish and the Welsh mountains. The Alderney, with her crumpled horn, is found on the southern coast, and, in smaller numbers, in gendemen's parks and pleasure grounds every where ; while the polled, or hornless catde, prevail in Suffolk, and Norfolk, and in Galloway, whence they were first derived. These, however, have been intermingled in every possible way. They are found puie 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 sod and to the climate; and, among litde 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 catde. Much dispute has arisen as to the original breed of British catde. The batde 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 evidendy of foreign extraction, and the latter, although it 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 nations, and, oftener than them, although defended by the ocean on every side, she has been overrun and subjugated by ferocious invaders. As the natives retreated before the foe. 10 CATTLE. they carried with them some portion of the wreck of their property. We have stated that their property, in early times, consisted principally in cattle. They naturally drove along with diem 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 customs and manners, they were jealous of the strict preservation of that which prin- cipally 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 its 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 manner, 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, too, the cattle were preserved, unmixed and undegenerated. Thence it resulted, that in Devon, in Sussex, in Wales, and in Scot- land, the catde have been the same from time immemorial ; while in all the Eastern coast, and through every district of Britain, the breed of catde degenerated, or at least lost its original character; it consisted of a variety of animals, brought from every neighbouring and some remote districts, mingled in every possible variety, yet generally conlbrming itself to the soil and the climate. The slightest observation will convince us that the cattle in Devonshire, Sussex, Wales, and Scodand, 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 characters of the same breed, changed by soil and climate and time, yet litde 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 Scodand, and in some of the mountains of Wales, the milk of the red cow 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 catde with the Avild breed of Chatelherault park, or Chillingham casde, has been struck with the great resemblance in many points, notwithstanding the difference of colour, while they bear no like- ness at all to the catde 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. CHAPTER III. THE MIDDLE HORNS. The situation of Devonshire, at nearly the western extremity of the king- dom, and the undeniable fact, that one of the varieties of the middle horns is there found in a state of the greatest 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 found in a state of the greatest purity, extends from the river Taw west- ward, skirting along the Bristol Channel ; the breed becoming more mixed, and at length comparatively lost before we arrive at the Parrett. Inland it extends by Barnstaple, South Molton, and Chumleigh, as far as Tiverton, and thence to Wellington, where again the breed becomes unfre- quent, or it is mixed before we reach Taunton. More eastward the So- mersets 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 contami- nate the breed. The true and somewhat prejudiced Devonshire man con- fines them within a narrower district, and will scarcely allow them to be found with any degree of purity beyond the boundaries of his native coun- ty. 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 not 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 pardy 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 Somer- setshire graziers, who fatten them for the London market; so that a por- tion of the North Devon, and of the very finest of the breed", come from Somerset 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 tliey 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 judge of cattle, and who, from his residence in the county, may be supposed to be well acquainted with the excellences and defects of this breed, gives a long and very accu- rate and interesting account of them in the Annals of Agricvdture, to which we would refer the reader. 12 CATTLE. for some time, were not the most zealous when they were roused to exertion. They are indebted to the nature of their soil and cUmate 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 perfec- tion, that, take them for all in all, they would suffer from intermixture with any other 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 catde. 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, whicli 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 be lighter in the forehand, and more active ; but the grazier must have widdi 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 sliould 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 t-lie Avithers : for it diminishes the heaviness before, and the comparative bulk of the coarser parts of the anirnal, 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 shormess 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 friime, generally, should be small, but not too small — small enough for the well- THE NORTH DEVON CATTLE. 13 known 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, mel- low, 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; but this bird's-eye view may be useful. We return to the Devon- shire catde. [The Devon Bull.] The more perfect specimens of the North Devon breed are thus distin- guished. The horn of the bicll ought to be neither too low nor too high, tapering 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 Working Devon Ox.] 14 CATTLE. the white, and it ought to liave around it a circle of a variable colour, but usually a dark orange. The forehead should be flat, indented, and small; for by the smallness of the forehead, the purity of the breed is very much estimated. The cheek should be small, and the muzzle fine: the nose shoidd be of a clear yellow. A black muzzle is disliked, and even a mot- tled one is objected to by some who pretend to be judges of the true Devon. The nostril should be high and open: the hair curled about the head, and giving, at first appearance, an idea of coarseness which soon wears off. 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. West- ern,) father 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 neck 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 the 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, re- minding us not a little of the blood-horse, and essentially 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, particularly as contrasted with the fineness of the withers. The fore-legs are wide apart, looking like pillars that have to support a great weight. 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 running 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 working 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 horse of 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, however, counterbalances the appearance of heaviness here. The legs are straight, at least in tlie best breeds. If they are in-kneed, or crooked in the fore-legs, it argues a defieiency in blood, and comparative THE NORTH DEVON CATTLE. 15 incapacity for work; and not only for work, but for grazing too, for they will be hollow behind the withers, a point for which nothing can compen- sate, because it takes away so much from the place where good 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 want of strength; but this impression immediately ceases, for the smallness is only in front — it is only in the bo-ae: 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 triflhig fall behind the withers, but no hollowness, and the line of the back is straight from them to the setting on of the tail. If there is any seeming fault in tlw beast, it is that the sides are a little too flat. It will appear", however, that this does not interfere with feeding, while a deep, although somewhat flat chest is best adapted for speed. Not only is the breast broad and the chest deep, but the two last ribs are particularly bold and prominent, leavmg room for the stomachs and other parts concerned in digestion to be fully developed. The hips, or buckles, are high, and on a 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 rump, are particularly long, and well filled up — a point likewise of very conside- rable 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 sometimes not a little amusing to observe the seeming contrariety of opinion between excellent judges of cattle, and that on the very essential points of their confor- mation; and yet, when the matter is properly explained, the sliglit shade of difterence there is between them. We have now lying before us letters from two very skilful De- vonshire farmers. They have been so obliging as to give us their opinion as to the points of the Devonshire ox. One insists upon thut, on which we confess we should lay very great stress, and without which we should reckon any boast almost valueless, namely, 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-boned and lightest Herefords he could procure. The other has sound prin- ciples of breeding, but he is a man of the old school: he had been educated in tlie belief that what he calls the true Devons are unrivalled, and he would deem it a kind of sa- crilege to debase their blood by a cross with any otJier breed; yet experience has taught him, in spite of all his prejudices, and although he will not own it, that the old Devons have their f lults, and, among them, too much flatness of chest and general light, ness; he is, beside, a tillage farmer. He tells us that he does not like a fine neck, be- cause it is accompanied by too narrows aisd light a breast, and that he does like large bones, because they will carry more meat. Why, these gentlemen were, in a measure both right, but their observations referred to cattle, which, although Devons, were es- nentially different. 16 CATTLE. mellow and elastic. Graziers know that there is not a more important point than this. When the skin can be easily raised from the hips, it shows that there is room to set on fat below. The skin is thin rather than thick. Its appearance of thickness arises from the curly hair with which it is covered, and curly in proportion to the condition and health of the animal. Good judges of these cattle speak of these curls as running like little ripples of wind on a pond of water. Some of these cattle have the hair smooth, but then it should be fine and glossy. Those with curled hair are somewhat more hardy, and fatten more kindly. The favourite colour is a blood red. This is supposed to indicate purity of breed; but there are many good cattle approaching almost to a chestnut liue, or even a bay brown. If the eye is clear and good and the skin mellow, the paler 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 unprofitable feeder. Those, however, that are of a yellow colour, are said to be subject to steal (diarrlicea.) Some breeders object to the slightest intermixture of white — not even a star upon the forehead is allowed; yet a few good oxen have large distant patches of white; but if the colours run into each other, the beasts are con- demned 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 rap- idly 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 rarely uses them for the plough. THE NORTH DEVON CATTLE. 17 A selection from the most perfect animals of the true breed — the bone still small and the neck fine, but the brisket deep and wide, and down to the kflees, 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 improv- ed the strength and bulk of the North Devon ox, without impairing, in the slightest degree, his activity, his beauty, or his propensity to fatten.* ''t^^^^?^^f1l 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, altho\ig!i it may not be necessary to have a large bull, and especially as those of any extraordinary size are seldom handsome in all their pcints, 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, and the same colour prevailing on the inside skin of the 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 heie enabled to present our readers with the portrait of a cow, * In the ' Annals of Agriculture,' vol. xxx., p. 314, we have the opinion, in somewhat provincial terms, of a gt)od west-country grazier, respecting the best form oftlie Devon cittle. ' He buys at all times, from Christmas to May -day. North Devons, that are bred from Portlock to Biddeford, sucli as are five or six years old. He chooses such as are small-horned, and of a yellow-coloured horn rather than white — small bones, as such beasts thrive best — rib bones round, not flat — a thick hide bad — a very thin one objection- able — blade bones, chuck — very thick and heavy in the bosom, as much weight lies there — the heavier in the shoulder the better, but not to elbow out — very wide and square from the points down to the thighs — middling in the belly — not cow-bcllicd — not luck- ed up.' As a grazier he is right; but this is not the true working Devonshire ox. 3* 18 CATTLE. helonging to that indefatigable agriculturist, Mr. Western. She was rising four years old. With regard to size slie is a favourable specimen of the Devon cow. It will be seen at once how much more roomy and fit for breeding she is, than even her somewhat 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 milk. 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. Vancouver, 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, al- though 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 in- duced or forced to attempt. They are uniformly worked in yokes, and not in collars. Four oxen, or six giowing steers, are the usual team em- ployed 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 which 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 along almost from morning to night, while every now and then the ploughman, as he directs the movement of the team, puts in his lower notes, but in perfect concord. When the traveller stops in 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 plea- sure which this operation of husbandry could scarcely be supposed to be capable of affTording. This chanting is said to animate the oxen somewhat in the same way as the musical bells that are so prevalent in the same coun- ty. Certainly the oxen move along with an agility that would be scarcely expected from cattle; and the team may be watched a long while without one harsh word being heard, or the goad or the whip applied. The op- ponents 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 weather, they are sometimes trotted along with the empty waggons, at the rate 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 sel- dom used for the plough. The explanation, however, is plain enough. The demand for them among graziers is so great, that the breeders obtain a renumerating price for them at an earlier age than that at which they are generally broken in for the plough. THE NORTH DEVON CATTLE. 19 They are usually taken into work at about two years, or twenty-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 further trouble, they are fit for the market. If tlie grass land is good, no corn, or cake, or turnips, are required for the first winter; but, of course, for 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 Somerville states, that after 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 tlms 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 stature, unless he is natural- ly disposed to be of more than ordinary size, and then he continues to grow for another half-year. Their next quality is thejr 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 pleasing to the eye, and to the taste. Some very satisfactory 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 51. 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 on November 16, 1797, and fed until December 10, 1798, and the following was the result. First weight. Second weisht. Gained. Zoor oil cake. Turnips. Hay cwt. qrs. lbs. cwt. qrs. lbs. cwt. qrs. lbs. or stone. lbs. lbs. lbs. 1 Hereford 17 1 18 3 1 2 27 24.3 2700 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 45.4 438 2608 295 4 Do. 14 2 4 19 1 4 2 14 64.6 442 2056 442 5 Sussex 16 2 19 3 3 10 45.4 432 2655 392 6 Leicester 15 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 fattening properties of the Glamorgan with the Devon. They were fed from January 6, to December 1, 1804, and the following was the result. First weight. Second weight. Gain, cwt. qrs. lbs. cwt. qrs. lbs. cwt. qrs. lbs. or stone. 1 Devon 13 1 7 17 3 7 4 2 63 2 Do. 16 10 20 3 14 4 3 2 67 3 Glamorgan 13 3 16 14 3 3 18 54.6 We are aware that other experiments have been instituted, and with dif- ferent results. One was made about the same time at Petworth, by the Earl of Egremont. Nine oxen, consisting of three Herefords, three of the Sus- 20 CATTLE. sex breed, and three Devons, were put up to fat. They were allowed only sixteen weeks, ihey 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, although 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 lame.f 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 Devons even for the dairy. Mr. Conyers, of Copt Hall, near Eppinir, a district almost exclusively devoted to the purposes of the dairy, preferred the North Devons on ac- count ol' 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 con- sumed. 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 13/. 14s. per cow. Mr. Rogers, veterinary surgeon at Exeter, and to Avhom 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 best judges, we heve a remarkable instance in one of the most zealous patrons of the short horns in Worcestershire, who thus speaks of the Devonshire Cittle in the Farmer's Mag-azine, February, 1827. 'Of the late maturity of the Devons I had an opportunity to form a tolerably correct opinion at Bridgewater fur, wliere the best possible 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 carcass, but a want of beef in the roasting parts, low and poor loins, coarse shoulders, bad twist, and a general want oftlie indications of inside proof.' He saw one of these oxen atler it was killed and he says, 'I never beheld a worse animal under similar eircumstmces. The meat was actually running about the stall, being nothing more than a mixture of flabby masses, deficient of firmness of texture and quality.' t A writer in the ' Farmer's Magazine,' Mr. Herbert, thus describes the Devonshire ox: 'Nimble and 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, earlier to the yolte than steers of any other breed, lighter than the Sussex; but not so well horned, thin fleshed, light along the tops of his ribs, a sparkling cutter, and lean well intermixed with liit.' Of the cow, he says, 'Red, starred, or white faced, better horned than the ox, very quiet, the playmate of the cliildren, a k^ure brtedcr, a good milker, a quick fittener, fair grass-fed beef in three months. The ox firom 110 to 13 J stone, and has been fed to 170; and the cow, to 70 or 80.' THE NORTH DEVON CATTLE. SI to f\Uten is increased, rather than diminished; and its property as a milker could 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 Avas not satisfactory. We can account for that. Those points in which the Devons were deficient thirty years ago, are now fully suppHed, and we cordially agree with him, that all that is now wanting, is a judicious selection of the most perfect of the present breed, in order to pre- serve it in its state of greatest purity. Many of the breeders are as care- less as they ever were; but the spirit of emulation is excited in others. Mr. Davy, of North Mollon, lately sold a four-year old bull, for which the purchaser had determined to give one hundred guineas had it been asked; and Mr. Henwood of Crediton has now twenty-one cows, which, within a month from the period of losing their milk, w^ould average at least ten score per quarter. The Duke of Somerset is a zealous patron and impro- ver of the breed, and has some beautiful cattle; and, whatever may be the case at Woburn, the Duke of Bedford here gives almost exclusive prefer- ence to the Devons. When offering it as his opinion, that the Devonshire cattle are more than usually free from disease, Mr. Rogers gives a 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 respi- ratory system, to injudicious exposuie to cold and wet; and he asks whe- ther the height and thickness of the Devonshire fences, as affording a com- fortable shelter to the cattle, may not have much to do wdth this exemp- tion from disease? Mr. Roberts, veterinary surgeon at South Molton, informs us that the Nortii 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 gra- zier, that the iDreeders 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 32/, when she was thirteen years old. When this gentleman 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 addition- al 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 heifeis; butget 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 you 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 after- wards, are preferred to those that come in February, notwithstanding the additional trouble and expense during the winter. The calf is permitted to 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 mouths 22 CATTLE. afterwards it has plenty of warm scalded milk, mixed with a little finely- powdered linseed-rake. Its morning- and evening meals are then gradually 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 Hartlnnd 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 nre here uniformly preferred, which are longer suckled, and afterwards fed with milk and linseed-meal. Advancing more to the south, and towards tlw borders of Cornwall, a different breed presents itself, heavier and coarser. We have arrived now in the neiglibourhood of Devonport, where larger cattle are required for the service of the navy; but we must go a little more to the south, and en- ter on the tract of country which extends from Tavistock to Newton Ab- bott before we have the South Devons in full perfection. They are a mix- ture of the North Devons with the native breed of the country; and so adap- ted do they seem to be to the soil, that all attempts to improve them, so far as grazing and fattening go, have utterly filled. They are often 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 Herefords, and sometimes the colour and the horn and the white face are so much alike in both, that it is difficuU to distinguish between them, except that they are usually smaller than tlie 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 for- ward 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 look 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 acoiigenial 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 for the sale of the North Devon breed, is extracted from the Annuls of Agriculture: — ' Tliose who would seek this breed at fairs, will find ihem first at Ashbrittle, a bordering parish between the two counlius (Devonshire and Somerset), held for oxen on the 25tli of February; but this does not terminate as to prices. Bishops Lydiard, five n)iles to the west of Taunton, on the 25th of March, for oxen ako. At this and Wellinsfton, which are greater fairs than Ashbrittle, prices of stock are fully ascertained. Barnstaple, the Friday before the 21st of April. The great monthly markets of Taunton, Wivelis- comb, Tiverton, and Moulton, carry on the business till tlie fairs of Crcditon, the 11th of May. West Bagborough, tl)e 12th, and VVivcli>^eonib the 13th. North Moulton, first Wednesday alter tlie I2th of May. Banipton, Whit-Tuesday: and South Moulton, Wednesday before the 22d of June.' NORTH DEVON CATTLE. 23 The farmers in the neighbourhood of Dartmoor breed very kw cattle. Their calves are usually 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 miners. 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 Soniersetshire,or East Devon, or Dorset, by whom they are probably driven back to their native country, and prepared for the market of Bristol or London. A very curious pere- grination this, which great numbers of the west-country cattle experience. As we now travel eastward, we begin 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 South Devons, and some Alderneys; but the majority are mongrels of every description: many of them, however, are excellent cows, and such as are found scattered over Cornwall, West Devonshire, Somer- set, 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 oxen 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 principally seen. Some of these cows seem to unite the opposite qualities of fattening and milking. A South Devon has been known, 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 quan- tity of their 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 communi- cated to it. After 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 appears, 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 immediate- ly 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 strawberries 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 he obtained from a given quantity, where only four would be yielded by the ordinary meth- od; and that the butter is moie saleable, on account of the pleasant taste it has acquired, and which even its occasional slight smoky flavour scarcely impairs. 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 skim-milk cheese must, however, be abandoned, or if a little is made, it is exceed- ingly poor and tasteless. 24 CATTLE. CORNWALL. For much valuable information with regard to the breed and management of the the cattle of Cornwall, we are indebted to Mr. Karkeek, veterinary surgeon at Truro. This gentleman observes, tliat fish, tin, and copper have long been considered the staple commodities of the county of Corn- wall, while agriculture has been viewed as a secondary object of pursuit. There is no doubt that the pasturing of cattle, and the cultivation of the soil, constituted the principal employment of the early inhabitants; but their attention was not long confined to the vegetable productions 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) possess- ed great numbers of cattle, yet in a few centuries their pastures were ne- glected, 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 last century or two, materially improved in this extreme Avestern 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 boned, with large offals, and rarely weighing more than three or four hun- dred 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 Avell-formed head, and more upright horns, resembling, in the manner in which they are turned, those of the wild cattle of Chilingham Park. Their necks, like those of the Devons, are thin, rapidly narrowing from the breast towards the head. Their chests are deep, but ratlier nar- rov/, 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 thin 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 their native country will produce. Many spirited farmers go to Barnstaple, or South Library N. C. State College THE CORNWALL CATTLE. 25 Molton and buy up great numbers of one 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 can 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 sufficiently 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. II. 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; but in the principal towns, -ind 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 ap- pears to have succeeded well in a few grazing districts. A cross between the Devon cow and the Durham bull is an evident improvement, 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 appear to be better adapt- ed to the soil of this country than any other breed. There is no particular management of the dairy 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 Februa- ry to June for the home consumption of Devonport and Plymouth markets. Tlie Cornish land is not usually very rich, but the farmer is industrious, and manages well. In many places the sod is pared and burned for wheat; 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 vr'hich 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 gruel and milk is found to be better than scalded milk alone. Some give theif own family-broth, which is thought te be as good as, or better than, the gruel. The calves are fond of it, and thrive upon it; and the flavour of the salted provisions increases the appetite, and promotes digestion. One quart ofbroth 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. In some parts, the calves are, during the winter and after the two first months, reared solely on hay and turnips, the turnips being shced fbr that purpose. Many of the best breeders place two calves to one cow. 4 26 CATTLE. In the summer, many farmers feed the calves from the pail with scalded milk, for a couple of months, and then turn them to grass. Very little cheese is made in Cornwall, and that little is exceedingly bad. The butter, however, is excellent; and the Cornish housewives are as expert in making the delicious clouted cream as any of the Devonshire ones. The system of letting cows out to labourers or poor people is not uncommon in Cornwall. It is a great accommodation to the hirer, and affords a good remuneration to the owner. The price varies with the situation and keep; but it is usually from six to eight pounds, the calf being the property of the owner of the beast. A few years ago, oxen were employed in husbandry as frequently in Cornwall as in any part of Devonshire. Not only the North Devons, but the improved Cornish breed, were used for the purpose. Although small and light, they were active, docile, and hardy. The Cornish plough is almost as proverbial 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 both oxen and horses are best worked by themselves. Oxen are also employed in butts and wains, substitutes for a kind of rude cart or waggon, and well adapted for the beasts that are to draw them, and the roads they are to travel. They 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 by the pleasing chaunt of the ploughboy than by the goad. They are shod, and brakes are generally used for this purpose. Of late years, however, the use of oxen in husbandry is getting out of practice. The propriety and economy of this will be discussed in the proper place; but oxen are not now generally seen even in the plough, and 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 grazing counties. DORSETSHIRE. The ' old Dorset ox' — but whether it is the indigenous 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. However, a long-horned breed, a rough sort of catde, and far from handsome, has been so many years established in various parts of the county, that it is regarded by some as the original one. These have been crossed with the Devon bull, and evidently with advantage: they are hardy, good milkers, and fatten quickly. They are principally found in the eastern and northern divisions of the county. Towards the west, a mixture of the Devon and the Dorset prevails, and many farmers culti- vate the pure Devons. The climate, however, does not appear to suit the true Devons, for they do not here grow to any great size; and some have said that they are even worse milkers than in their native district, ai>d subject to various diseases, and particularly to diarrhoea. Mr. Nobbs, of Catstoke, is decidedly of this opinion. The mixture of the Devon and the Dorset is an improvement on both. Some have obtained a still better kind of cattle by crossing again with the Durham: and others are, with every probability of success, engrafting THE SOMERSETSHIRE CATTLE. 27 the Hereford on the Dorset stock. Three points of superiority are said to be gained over the Devon cross: — larger size, more hardiness, and a dis- position to yield a greater quantity of better milk. The use of oxen for husbandry-work, had been for many years declining in this country; but it has of late, and to a somewhat extraordinary degree, revived in some districts. The oxen are oftener worked in collars than in yokes. The cattle used for the plough or the team are principally the pure North Devons, Avhich 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; sometimes, however, a mix- ture of the Devon and Dorset is used for draught. In the northern part of the county we find crosses of almost every kind, including 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 that is regarded, and little or no attention is paid to the shape, or colour, or size. About a fifth part of Dorsetshire is occupied by the vale of Black- moor, a very rich pastoral country, and well adapted for the purposes 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 manu- factured from the skimmed milk alone, and which, when kept until it be- comes ' blue-vinney'd,' is very much approved; it is, however, more ce- lebrated in than out of the country. A great quantity of butter, both in its fresh and salted state, is sent to London. 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 demand, the butchers find it answer their purpose to forward much of it to the London market. Much of this concise account of Dorsetshire we owe to Mr. W. C. Spooner, veterinary surgeon at Blandford. SOMERSETSHIRE. The North Devon cattle prevail along that part of the county which bor- ders on Devon until we arrive in the neighbourhood of Wincaunton and Ilchester, where the pure breed is almost lost sight of. In the north of 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 fatten, their quickness and honesty at work; and they are said to be better milkers than in their native county. They are of a larger size, for the soil is better, and the pasturage more luxuriant. It is on this account 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 Devon- shire, 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 have already referred, and who is now resi- dent in the Vale of Taunton, informs us that the farmers in the south and south-west of Somerset are endeavouring to breed that sort of cattle that will answer for the pail, and the plough, and grazing — a very diflicult point, as he acknowledges, to hit; for those that are of the highest proof (exhibiting those points or conformations of particular parts which usually 28 CATTLE. 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 gi-azing one, or more so, the principal point with them is a good show 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 coun- ty, and where th-e Devons are liked I^est for husbandry and for grazing, experience 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 shoit horns, are very different from those that are seen any where else. They resemble neitlier 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 ac- count 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 was used for the supply of the shipping, and sent to Salisbury market, and thence forwarded to Portsmouth. 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 properties. 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 fail- ures 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 pe- culiarity 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 shorthorns, with some fine long horns from North Wilts. A heifer of three years 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, Irom the Mendip hills on the north, to Bridge water on the West, and Chard on the south (principally a grazing country,) he says that the business is divided into a summer and winter THE SOMERSETSHIRE CATTLE. 29 feed. For summer fattening, the Devons are principally bought in Februrary, either in the nothern part of Devon, or the lower part of Somerset. They are purchased in tolerable condition, and consume, between February and their turning out, ten or twelve hundred weight of inferior hay, the skimming of the summer leas. ^Vhen 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 Februrary. 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 desci-iption is as plentiful in the autumn as veal in the summer, 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; a7id which are stocked at 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 milk 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. The 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 linseed meal, make a good calf. The calves to be reared are thought to be well off, if like the pigs, they get whey. 4* 80 CATTLE. The celebrated Bridgewater cheese is made on the marshes between that town and Cross. Huntspill, South Brent, and East Brent, are the three prime cheese-parishes. The mail-road from Bridgewater to Cross passes through each of them. The land is rich and cool, and the pasturage not only old, but principally consisting of blade grasses, with kw 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 Hereford cross or spotted red and white, and that the latter are generally peferred as the best milkers. They spring from Durham blood on one side, and the farmers of this district are much indebted to the late Mr. Stone, of South Brent, who, at a considerable expense, introduced several bulls 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 131b. 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 cliiefly 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 left undisturbed for two hours. The curd is then broken; a portion 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. The 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-horned 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 graziers go into North Wilts and Hampshire to buy them. Some of the best of them are nearly equal to the Devons, but in general they are not so high in proof. Occasionally they are brought from Gloucestersliire, and even from Yorkshire, and are now and then sold in October at thirty-eight or forty score pounds each. Many Irish cattle are fattened in Somersetshire, on account of the cheap rate at which they are purchased when lean. THE HEREFORDSHIRE CATTLE. 31 HEREFORDSHIRE. The Herefordshire white-faced breed, with the exception of a very few Alderney and Durham cows, have almost exclusive possession of this county. The Hereford oxen are considerably 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 principally distinguished by their white faces, throats, and bellies. In a few the white extends 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 fifty or sixty 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 the beasts are more hardy. Compared with the Devons, they are shorter in the leg, and also in the carcass; higher, and broader, and heavier in 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 Bedford. Mr. Marshall gives the following account of them: it is tolerably correct, but does not sufficiently 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 tapering; 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; barrel round and roomy; the carcass 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; tliigh 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 mellow, supple, of a middle thick- ness, and loose on the neck and buckle; 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 fifty to seventy score. A tolerable cow will average from thirty-five to fifty score. A cow belonging to the Duke of Bedford weigl>ed 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, though 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 activity. The Herefordshire ox fattens speedily at a very early age, and it is there- fore 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, of Downton Castle, for some valuable observations on this and other subjects connected with the Herefordshire cattle, and breeding in general, of which we shall avail ourselves in the proper place. They are far worse milkers than the Devons. This is so generally acknowledged, that while there are many dairies of Devon cows in various 33 CATTLE. parts of the countiy, (none of which, however, are very profitable lo 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 to by some as being occasionally a little too large in ihe bone, and the forequarters 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 Highland 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. Culley, 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 evidendy 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- fordshire 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 of his cow, he does not value her or select her, or breed from her accord- ing to her milking qualities, or the price which the grazier would give for her, but in proportion as she possesses that general form which experience has taught him will render her likely to produce a good ox. Hence the Hereford cow is comparatively small and delicate, and some would call her ill-made. She is very light-fleshed when in common condition^ and beyond that, while she is breeding, she is not suffered to proceed; THE HEREFORDSHIRE CATTLE. 33 but when slie is actually put up for fattening, she spreads out, and accumulates fat at a most extraordinary rate. Our cut gives us the por- trait 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; and it not unfre- quently happens that she produces a bull-calf that grows to three times her own weight. [ The Herefordshire Cow'\ Kindly as the Hereford ox fatiens, 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 luxuri.int woods and rich alluvial soil upon the banks of its rivers. The pasture-grounds are generally poor, and the heibage is not nutritious, and 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, U CATTLE. however, be confessed that it is not sufficient to enable 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 to- gether in a straw-yard on the 20lh of December, 1827, and were fed in the open yard; at the rate of one bushel of turnips per beast per day, with straw only, until May 2d, 1828, when their weights v.ere taken, and they were sent to grass. No. Cwts- qrs. lbs. Cwts. qrs. lbs. 1. Hereford 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: — Cwts. qrs. lbs. Cwts.^qrs. lbs. No. I.Hereford 11 3 No. 1 . Short-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: — The Herefords The short-horns Turnips, lbs. Hay. Iba. 46,655 5065 59,430 6779 They then weighed — No. 1. Hereford 13 14 No. 1. Short-horn 14 2. " 12 2. " 14 3. " 12 3. " 14 being an increase of weight in favour of the Herefords of 13 and in favour of the Short-horns ... 17 2 3 2 2 2 14 14 14 and making a difference in favour of the Short-horns of 3 3 14 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 97/., and the lighter Herefords 96/., being an overplus of only 1/. 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 their progress. The Hereford increased in weight 3 cwt. 3 qrs., and the short- horn 4 cwt. 1 qr. * The Michaelmas cattle fair at Hereford is not exceeded by any show of beasts in good condition in the kingdom. They are usually sold to the graziers in the neighbour- hood of the metropolis, by whom they are prepared for the Smithfield market. Tliere is an entry in an account book kept by William Town, in the neighbourhood of Hereford, in the year 1694, of the price of fat oxen at that period. '25th August, 1694: — sold the nine oxenat52Z. ; tlie money to be paid into the Exchequer within a month.' The price of oxen is, at least, six times as great now. THE GLOUCESTERSHIRE BREED. GLOUCESTER. This county is taken next, because, bordering on Hereford, many of the cattle of that county are found here. Throughout the whole of Gloucester- shire the Herefords are preferred for working and for fattening. They are less active than the Devons, 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 evidendy of Welsh origin, mingled with the Hereford, and sometimes with the cattle f\irther inland. They were the Glamorgan chiefly, but upon a larger scale, and of a difierent 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 carcass 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 litde 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 does 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 might not have sufl[icient strength to endure the winter, and are speedily got rid of. The calves that are to be reared continue two or three days with the mother, sucking as they like, and taking the milk that is good for nothing else. They are then fed with skim-milk a litde warmed, being first taught with the finger; but they soon drink eagerly out of the pail. Linseed tea is after a little while mixed with the milk; afterwards the milk is laid aside, and oat or barley meal is stirred in with the tea; and so they are gradually brought to solid food, and weaned. When the grass begins to fail in November, they are fed in the field, where there is some tolerable shelter for them; and the yearlings are 36 CATTLE. also in the field, and fed with straw instead of hay. The pasture allotted to 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 taken 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 pardy 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 die loiver or vale part of the county, Avhere 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, altliough 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 iew Devons, some Sufiblks, some North AVilts, 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 modey assemblage of all sorts and kinds of cattle. We shall often have occasion to allude to this. This is a celebrated dairy 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 farms is fully described. The calves remain with the mothers about a week. They are then fed with skim-mdk, first, by means of the feeder's fingers introduced into the mouth, and which being suppHed with milk, are sucked by the calves; but they soon drink of themselves. Linseed lea is, after a litde 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 THE GLOUCESTERSHIRE BREED. 37 so they are kept until the grass is ready for them, on the earliest and best of which they are turned. From among the early ones, or those dropped 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 every 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 abun- dant. The cattle are much better 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 pall, they are frequently moved from pasture to pasture. This 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 every 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 dairywoman remarked that, if the farmer continued to enrich his land with dung, she must give up making cheese. The cows are early moved from the pasture-ground into the after- grasg. 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-shel- tered situations. It would be advantageous 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 re- formation 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 sta- ted 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 sufiiciently 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 curdled by the rennet. By this means, too, the milk may be set, before it is cooled below the proper temperature. 5 38 CATTLE. Every dairymaid knows well that the milk should be warm when it is set. She has rarely any thermometer to guide her. She needs it not, for she can tell with the accuracy of the best tliermometer 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 artificially heated to bring it to the proper standard. The colouring mat- ter and the rennet are then added, and particular care is taken that the ren- net is old, yet free from unpleasant smell.* The tub is now covered until the 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 over all, and a little hot water is poured over the cloth, to harden the outside of the cheese; the curd is then turned out into the cloth, and this being carefully folded round it, the clieese is returned once more into the vat. AH 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 hav- ing 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 substance of the cheese when it is fully made. The practice, however, is getting some- what into disuse; for it is very reasonably urged that this scalding and washing must extract a portion of the oleaginous part of the cheese; there- fore a great deal more care is taken in sufiiciently 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 of 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 Gloucester;! 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. Rudge 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 bay-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 in- cisions made into them, and two ounces of cloves and cinnamon, are then put into the liquor. + The ' Single Gloucester' is the skim-milk cheese, the ' Double Gloucester,' or • best making' cheese is manufactured from the pure or unskimmed milk; although 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 161bs. per cheese, or thick, averaging from 301bs. to 401bs. 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, and one part of pure or ' coward' milk. The inferior cheese, acknowledged to be the skim-cheese, is what its name imports it to be; and the dairymaid usually skims it of- ten enough before she converts it into curd. THE GLOUCESTERSHIRE BREED. 39 for a month. They are then scraped clean, and painted red or brown, or a mixture of both. After a few days the paint is rubbed off 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 is 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 the 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 bruis- ing 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 re- taining 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 litde before Michaelmas the cheese is submitted to the factor, who often 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 attribute it to the pasture. It is said to have been too luxuriant, or to have had too many early plants in it. The 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 too hot, and probably encourage this fermentation in the new-made cheese. They should be as cool and airy as possible. Some farmers prefer a stone Hoor 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 Au- gust. They remain there until the following spring, being occasionally supplied with hay, as the season may demand, and are then in good con- dition, and yield a fair 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, after 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 Smithfield market. 40 CATTLE. [ The Sussex Ox J 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 catde; 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 ac- quired a larger growth: the lighter breed bore about it unequivocal marks 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 whom the eastern pait 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 catde. There is more wideness and roundness on the withers — it is a slraighter line from the summit of the withers towards the back — there is no projecting point of the shoulder when the animal is THE SUSSEX BREED. 41 looked at from behind, but the whole of the fore-quarter is thickly- covered with flesh, giving too much weight to the coarser and less profit- able parts,* This is certainly a defect, but it is counterbalanced by many admirable points. If there 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 fedock. 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 done 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 of 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 heaviness 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 lov/er 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 intermediate 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 grr.ined 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 Herefords 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 Shsscx 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 Hereford 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 blood-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 comparatively much inferior to a good selection from the Lancashire, Hereford, or Shropshire breeds; and he says, ' I cannot help thinking them, on comparison with some other breeds, though a weighty, yet an uncouth and coarse animal.' On this the Rev. A. Young very properly remarks, ' There is no knowing what is meant by such expressions 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 removed from fact than such an assertion. Sussex oxen are as remarkable for the fine- ness of their hides as they are for the closeness and delicacy of their flesh. In his own Staffordshire long-horns, there does not exist any shadow of comparison for feeding, grazing, or working. In quality of flesh, thriving disposition, &c., both the Sussex and Devons exceed you, and Hereford leaves you far behind.' — Survey of Sussex. 5* 43 CATTLE. possibly remind us more of the original wild breed; a few of which, as we have remarked, remain at Chillingham, and which Vv'e 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 had 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 ox that profusion of soft and wavy, and, occasionally, long hair, which, although 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 con- tradiction 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 perliaps, in an equal degree to horses. In the weald of Sussex, they have the greater share of the labour; and on 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 hay is mixed with their straw. The coarser breed is always slow, and soon after six years old it can scarcely be worked at all with advantage. The lighter 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 Sussex ox ran four miles 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 understand 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 patchiness 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 a size, they im- prove more rapidly and profitably. THE SUSSEX BREED. 43 Although it is yet an undecided point at what age an ox that has been ■worked will fatten most speedily and kindly, 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 be 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 ihey 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- priety of it. The system of recruiting the team so frequently has many inconveniences. Mr. Young tells us that Lord Egremont 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 in the 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 Smithfield, and sold for eighty guineas. The oxen are usually drafted 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 watei, and the grass is abundant, there are many catde, 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 catde 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 comparat-ively 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. EUman, of Glynde (a skilful as well as zealous agri- culturist, 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 Smithfield is about 120 stones; but they have been slaughtered as high as 216 stones. One belonging to Mr. EUman, weighing 214 stones, measured from the crown of the head to the rump, 9 feet 6 inches. The girth before the shoulder was 9 feet 5 inches; behind the shoulder, 9 feet; round the middle, 10 feet; round the flank, 9 feet; and from the nostril to the tip of of the tail, was a distance of 14 feet 8 inches. Mr. Edsaw, of Fettleworth, who was partial to large cattle, has had them 6 feet high behind, and 5i feet before, andlO-^ feet girth over the heart. 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. \_The Sussex Cow.'] 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; carcass large; the tail should be level with the rump: a ridged back-bone, thin and hollow chines, are gi-eat 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 preference to her. A cross, however, has been attempted, and with some success, be- tween the Sussex and the SuflTolk, retaining to a very fair degree the fat- tenning properties of the one, and the disposition of the other to give 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 aflfiirms 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 cows, even in Sussex, is a sufficient proof that they are not so. There are some exceptions, however, to this. Lord Hampden, of Glynde, had a cow which, in the height of the season, yielded ten pounds of butter and twelve pounds of cheese every Aveek, and yet her quantity of THE SUSSEX BREED. 45 milk rarely exceeded 5 gallons per day. The next year the same cow gave 91 lbs. of butter per week for several weeks, and then for the rest of the summer 8lbs., or 8l lbs., per week: and until the hard frost set in, 7lbs., — and 41bs. 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 adds 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 season, five gallons per day, but no more than 5lbs. of butter were ever made from it.' This is accounted for in a singular way; for there is a common opinion (a prejudice, 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 there 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 they are often restless and dissatisfied, prowling about the hedge-rows, and endeavouring to break pasture, and especially if they are taken from the farm on which they were bied. They are principally kept as breeders, all the use being made of them 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 theirkindred, 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 must, however, be acknowledged that the Sussex cows are not per- fect, even as breeders; and that, unless a great deal of care is taken that the cow shall not be in too good condition at the time of calving, she is subject to puerperal fever, or ' dropping;' while 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 early fattening. The following is a fair specimen of the breeding and grazing department of an ordinary East Sussex farm. A farm is selected, on which eight cows, on the average, are kept; then it is supposed that there will generally be six calves, six yearlings, six two- year olds, four three-year-olds beginning to work, four four-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 general- ly 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. Du- ring the first winter they are fed with the best hay, and after that they have grass; and occasionally somestraw, 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 for work: — ' The calves are dropped from December to the end of February. They are weaned immediately, n-ever 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 ougkt to fall about December, and then they should be kept warm by housing, and thus they will be equally forward with calves dropped late 46 CATTLE. in the spring that run with the cow. With the skim-milk some oatmeal is given, but not until two months old, and then only because the number of calves is too great for the quantity of milk. Water and oatmeal are after- wards mixed with it. A heifer, however, with her first calf is supposed to suckle it the whole season, in order to make her a good milker; but with the second calf she is treated like the rest. In May they are turned to grass. During the first winter they are fed upon rouen. The follow- ing summer 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 have been tried on hay alone, but straw and grass do better. The following summer they are fed on grass, and are broken in at Christmas, 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, with the addition of a ton and a half of clover hay, given between the finishing of straw and going to 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 days in the week, and some of them every day. Mr. Young adds a remark which may deserve consideration; that Avhen 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 better, 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 stock to degene- rate. 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 temperature. Mr. Postlethwaite, of the same neighbourhood, describes the dairy cows as consisting of a strange mixture of short-horns, Devons, Sussex, and French. Mr. Henry Freeland, of Appledram, near Chichester, prefers a cross of the Sussex with the SuflTolk polls for the pail. In the western part, or the weald of Kent, the Sussex oxen are much used for the plough and for the road; but there, as in Sussex, the dairy catde are drawn from other counties. They are principally Welsh, or a strange and varying mixture of the Sussex, the Staff'ordshire, and the Welsh. Even in the Weald, the Sussex cattle are, with very few exceptions, kept only for the purpose of grazing. Their young cattle, of what- ever kind, are usually sent to Romney Marsh in the summer. The far- mer 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 food for his dairy. They are sent about 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 with hay in the field. On the other hand, the Romney Marsh graziers send the greater part of their lambs to the Weald for tlie 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 aflibrd. The hay of the old meadows is gene- rally reserved for tlie fattening of catde. Of those that are kept at home, the pastures are first stocked with milch cows, to take off the head-grass, and the leaner catde and the working oxen follow them; and thus several fields are fed down in succession during the summer. The practice of fattening catde 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 catde, however, are concerned, Kent can scarcely be said to be either a breeding or a dairy county. In the east of Kent especially, few cattle are bred. The polled Scots are bought for summer- grazing, or the Welsh are purchased at Canterbury, or other markets. The principal 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 fat in a few months, and weigh from 18 to 22 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 litde fresh butter for sale, is all that the best upland farms will yield. The native catde of Kent deserve more attention dian 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 loin 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; aud 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 catde in the tenth cen- 48 CATTLE. tury, as being ' white with red ears,' resembling the wild cattle of CTiil- lingham Castle. An early record speaks of a hundred white cows with red ears 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 Brecknockshire of 400 cows and a bull, all white and with red ears. AVhether this was the usual colour of the ancient breed of Welsh and British cattle, or 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 catde 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. ITht Pembroke Oar.] SOUTH WALES. PEMBROKESHIRE. Great 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 shorter legged than most of the Welsh breeds, but lon- ger than the Montgomeries, and have round and deep carcasses. They have a peculiarly lively look and good eye. The hair is rough, but short, and the hide is not thick. The bones, although not so small as in the THE GLAMORGANSHIRE BREED. 49 improved long horns, are far from large; and the Pembrokeshire cattle mingle to a considerable degree, and as far perhaps as they can be com- bined, the two opposite qualities, of being very fair milkers, with a pro- pensity 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 outstrip most others when they have plenty of good pasture. The Gla- morgans would probably 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 original catde 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 fattening as speedily as he does. He is not quite so tractable as the Glamorgan, but easily managed if no foolish violence is resorted to. Great numbers of them are brought to the I.ondon 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 occasionally a dark brown, or less frequently, a white face, or a white line along the back. Mr. Davies describes her 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 regard 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, a very fair milker, and will yield 5lbs. of butter per week during the dairy season. GLAMORGANSHIRE. The Glamorgans were once in high repute, and deservedly so. George TIL, 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 county could produce ; and the farm at Windsor is still frequently recruited from this district. For the most valu- able 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-board is loaded with the testimonies of the superiority of his cattle, we acknowledge peculiar obligation. We have 6 60 CATTLE. also extracted some useful matter from Davis's excellent ' Survey of South Wales,' a very rare book, and completely 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 accounted for by some of the chroniclers. A great part of Glamorgan was, in the twelfth century, seized by Robert Filzhamon and other Norman Knights. Their connexion with their native country did not im- mediately cease, and they introduced some of the Norman cattle into South Wales. The sweUing 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 lofty 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 grad- ually 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 eatde of a light red colour, and with while 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 catUe, and evinced much judgment in their breeding and selection. There was one principle from which they never deviated: — they admitted of no mixture 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 af a dark-brown colour, with white bellies, and a streak of white along the back from the shoulder to the tail. They had clean heads tapering 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 iatten 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 — frequently weighing more than twenty scores per quarter. The beef was beautifully veined and marbled, the inside of the THE GLAMORGANSHIRE BREED. 51 animal 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-beef 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 the 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 sought 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 of the breed we are giving our readers in a somewhat condensed form. The result of these attempts has been, that, in the recent exhibitions of stock at 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 face of hard times, and with little or no prospect of obtaining remunerating 53 CATTLE. prices. Therefore it 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, howe ver, to maintain fheir 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 gi-azier 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 apti- tude to fatten in a little time, and on spare keep, and the property of yield- ing 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 excellences; and therefore he, and the most scientific breeders of the county, began to be weary of this strict adherence to the Glamorgan- shire breed, and to consider whether it might not be possible, by judicious crossing with the cattle of other districts, to obtain an animal better suited to the present state of the country. [7%e Glamorganshire ox.'] The interests 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; disposed 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 gi-ew to so great a bulk as the mingled Hereford and Glamorgan, interfered too much \vith the present economy of Glamorganshire husbandry; and the produce of this cross did not 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 allude, was also here very apparent. The advantage of THE GLAMORGANSHIRE BREED. 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 in- fluence of soil and climate on the production, and the perpetuation of cer- tain breeds, is a circumstance that does not enter half so much into the con- sideration of the farmer as it ought to do, and will account for a great many of his disappointments and erroneous opinions. We shall seriously consi- der this subject when we come to treat of the principles of breeding. Breeders then began to take another view of the matter. They consi- 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 em- ployment 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 difiiculty, or scarcely at all, be reproduced, the attention of the farmer was gradually directed to the dairy. \_The Glamorganshire Cuw.'\ At first he was unwilling quite to sacrifice the old pride and boast of his native county, and he endeavoured once more to accomplish botU objects, and he had recourse to the short-horns. A very litde experience, however, convinced him that his labour would here be lost. He retained, indeed, 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 tlie nourishment which this county usually affords. In a happy hour he thought of the Ayrshire cow; and he brought her from her native district. Some farmers used her pure; others crossed her with the best Glamorgan cattle; and others with still moie 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 easi- ly fattened, and better suited to the coarse fare now generally afforded her by the Glamorganshire farmer. This, then, is the breed which is becom- ing, and profitably so, established in the populous districts of Glamorgan. Among the improvers of the Glamorgan catde Messrs. Bradley of Treguff must not be forgotten. Their beasts bear a close resemblance to the Herefords in figure, although inferior to them in size; they feed kindly — the flesh and fat are laid equally over them — the beef is beautiful- ly 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 with- out any artificial food. In the hilly districts many of the old Glamorgans remain, and attempts are made to restore the character of the pure Gla- morgan 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, but more attributable to some mismanagement in the manufacture, or the quan- tity 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 that 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 after 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 con- stitution, 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 su- perior animal at a year old, it should not be forgotten that he has probably consumed the whole year's produce of the cow, and that at weaning time he must be supported by the most nourishing food; so that when the bal- ance is struck, the profits of the respective breeders may not be very dif- ferent, 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 outweigh 3very objection which might be made to their flat sides, large offal, long THE MONMOUTHSHIRE BREED. 55 legs, coarse shoulders, and thin skin. In some parts of Glamorganshire 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 ganerally. The hilly, or rather the mountainous district, forms the greater, although 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 those in the vale. They are browner than those in the vale, well bodied, and 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 t)a/e-catde are wintered, and often badly enough in the straw- yard, the /uVZ-cattle 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, and they are much sought after in the Lon- don market. The Glamorganshire catde 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 hill 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 improve- ment in the Monmouthshire cattle arrested, but the hill-farmers were threatened with ruin, for they could scarcely 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 into 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 moun- tain pastures, 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 56 CATTLE. of the landlord and the tenant, although the present change is operating unfavourably on both. In the VALE DISTRICT of Monmouthshire the farmers w^ere formerly content with the Glamorgans, and the better kind 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 witli them their native cattle: and the Herefords, 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 Durhams into the lower part of the county, and with a prospect of considerable success. Some of his short-horns, and particularly those ex- hibited at his cattle-show in 1830, were, as the intelligent judge of the cat- tle appropriately called them, tremendously fat. At wliat expense they Avere 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 gra- zier 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 the levels, comprising all the flat land bordering on the Bristol channel. Nearly the whole of this is meadow land, and naturally of veiy 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 catde crossed this tract in the way to the interior, and too many of them loitered here and are becoming in a manner naturalized. CARMARTHENSHIRE. This 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 "tliey 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 far- mers want early calves, and their cows and heifers calve between the middle of Decem- ber and February, after living entirely on dry meat, and, therefore, by the time the grass comes, they are nearly or quite dry; but if tiie Hereford heiler calved for the first time at grass, and 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 experience,' he says, ' for I have had much to do with the Here- fords 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 confirm, the remarks of Mr. Walker deserve serious attention. THE BRECKNOCKSHIRE BREED. 57 Irish admixture. 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 indiflferent 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 benefitted 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 Bran 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 litde 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 5/. 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. CARDIGANSHIRE. 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 litde 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- putation seems to be the nearest to the truth. The butter is sent to Bris- tol, 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 its native origin. The middle-horn may be clearly traced with many of the excellences of that division of cattle. Much cannot be said of the Breck- 58 CATTLE. nock l)reecl as milkersi but they are useful and active at the plough, and deservedly valued by the grazier. Recourse has of late years been had to two of the varieties of the middle-horn, the Devon and the Hereford, and with evident advantage botli for work and grazing. The catUe on the side of Brecon tliat is nearest to Herefordshire are, in a particular manner, becoming very strongly mixed with the Herefords. RADNORSHIRE. 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, Avith commendable spirit and industry, the Radnorshire farmers have endeavoured, and successfully, materially to improve it. They have prin- cipally had recourse to the Herefords as a cross with their own catde, and, although tliey have thus produced a beast, too large, 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 catUe; 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 food 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 iive 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 soil being good, and the herbage sweet, and the stubbles being always pre- ferred to the rouen after harvest. NORTH WALES. Although we have placed 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 d^al of the cha- racter of ' the middle-Iiorns' 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 catde 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 to the second belong the counties of Denbigh, Flint, and Montgomery. THE ANGLESEY BREED. 59 ANGLESEY. The island of Anglesey, the Mona of ancient times, the peculiar seat of Driiidical superstition, and long the rallying point of British independence, is distinguished from the other divisions of North Wales by the absence of an irregular and mountainous surface. It is diversified only by numerous undulations, (they scarcely deserve the name of hills,) covered with grass, although not of a luxuriant nature, and on which a considerable number of cattle are reared. Roberts, who published his Map of Commerce nearly two hundred years ago, says that three thousand head of catde 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 aggregate value of which will be, at least, 50,000/. The iron bridge of Menai now atfords an easier and securer passage; yet the losses, when the cattle were compelled to swim across the strait, were surprisingly kw, although the current was rapid and the water \vas 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 until 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. Boggie, 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 hay morning and evening during the first winter. On the following year they fare the hardest of any part of the catde-slock, being turned on the poorest 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 belter pastured in the summer, being turned into the next 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 of Glamorgan, is somewhat deteriorated. The state of the case is, thart the attention of the Anglesey farmer was once strongly directed to the breeding of cattle; copper and catde were the 60 CATTLE. staple commodities in this island; but when the war that commenced with 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. Tlie 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 fiom 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 litde 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 accomplished. 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 hajdihood. IThe Anglesey Ox.] The Anglesey heifer has been crossed with the Lancashire bull, witli an evident increase of size, amounting to at least two scores per quarter when three years old, and even an increased propensity to fatten, and that on scanty food; but, generally speaking, the Angleseys have not improved by crossing, and least of all from the Irish cattle, which have been bought in great numbers by the f\irmers, on account of their being cheaper than their own country beasts. The breed is again improving; the best specimens have been carefully 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. Li point of 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 land and the dearth of 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 supe- rior price to that of the larger cattle. In Anglesey, and 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 fierce 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 pre- sents a striking contrast with the mild intelligence of the Devon, and the quiet submission of the Hereford. Early castration, however is now com- monly practised and the oxen are getting ligliter 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 re- quired, 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 would 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 circumstance, probably was influential in the formation of the Welsh 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 » Wotton's Leg. VVal., p. 284. The old Welsh acre consisted of 4320 square yards, beinor 520 less than the present statute one. The North Wales acre, as now calculated, consists of 3240 square yards, being not quite three-quarters of the statute acre. 7 62 CATTLE. make up a team, which was to plough an acre of land per day. The best acre 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 of 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. rr ■ c 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, however, 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 ot 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 litde 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 lileyn the surface is more level, and the breed re- sembles 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 midland 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 neglected. MERIONETHSHIRE. This county, chiefly devoted to breeding, is situated south-east of Car- narvon skirting St. George's Channel from Carnarvon to Cardiganshire; 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 attention were paid to the selection of the best of the native breed. It is, alter 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 ia 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. 63 The improved cattle have chiefly been obtained from Shropshire or Staf- fordshire, and have sometimes been crossed with the Galloway. East- ward 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 smoky 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 Vyrnwv, the pasturage is excellent, and the breed of cattle much superior. 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 Herefords, which are found to be suitable to the soil and 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 judgment and great experience,' who prefers the breed of this district, be- cause ' 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 litde more than waste land, and employed in the breeding and pasturing of sheep; on this account cattle are comparatively neglected; 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. Lying north of Merioneth and Montgomeryshire, is DENBIGHSHIRE. This is a great breeding county; but the cattle are generally, and in the hilly district particularly of an inferior kind, although resembling the Angleseys. The system of overstocking used to be carried to a ruinous 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 approach 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 lost their Welsh character. They most resemble their neighbours in Cheshire and in Shropshire, but with many variations. There cannot be said to be any distinct breed; for, from their near connexion with England, 64 CATTLE. fresh supplies are continually brought in of almost every kind. A great many calves are also sent here, from Shropsliire, 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 excel- lent milkers and quick feeders. The Rev. Mr. Davies gives some illustra- tions 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 183 days succes- sively.' 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 25/., 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 follow- ing, 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 manufticture of cheese, which is little if at all, inferior to the genuine Cheshire. Each cow is supposed to produce nearly three 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 Highlanders, 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 tliat 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 re- semblance to the West Highlander, but are of considerably larger size. The Fife Breed are almost as valuable for the dairy, as for the gra- zier, 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 Loivlands 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 — inci-eased in size with more striking resemblance to their kindred the Devons — with all their aptitude to fatten, and with a hardiness of constitution which the Devoris 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 are procured the pu- rest and the best specimens selected to preserve or to improve the High- land cattle in other districts. ( 65 ) THE HEBRIDES OR WESTERN ISLANDS. [ The West Highlaiid Bull.] Skirting the coast, from the promontory of Cantire to the northern ex- tremity of Scotland, is a range of islands appearing like 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 ; and 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 the Highlanders ; but were oftener exposed to the incursions of roving tribes from every quarter, and who successively mingled with, and were lost amono-, but 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 of 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., 115.3,) the Lords of the Hebridean islands, scarcely acknowledging even a nomi- nal allegiance either to the crown of Scotland or that of Norway, though claimed by both countries, began to give much annoyance to the Western coasts of Scotland, to which their light-armed galleys or birlins, and their habits of piracy gave great facilities.'! ' 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 homao-e which some of them had paid to Norway.':}: In 1263, all the Western islands were annexed to the Scottish crown under Alexander III.§ The occupation and character of the Hebudans does not appear to have * Macdonald's Scandena. t History of Scotland, (Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopedia,) toI. i. p. 34. t Ibid., p. 43. § Ibid., p. 47. 7* 66 CATTLE. been ameliorated by tliis change ; but the chiefs of the dilTerent islands, too far from the seat of government to be under much 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 ; r.nd, 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- faring 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;* the Hebudans for tlie first time became aware of this, and they bred them in greater numbers, and a few of the most intelligent 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 hundred miles from north to south, there will be considerable diflference in the character and value of the breed; but through the whole of them the striking peculiarities of the Highland cattle are sufficiently 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 weaiher, 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 where 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 and securely raised at the least expense ; and when removed to better provender, will thrive with a rapi- dity 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 Kyloes, 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 VVoodhill, expresses a similar opinion in his ingenious Essay on Crossing, contained in the First Number of the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture. ' I cannot but regard the West Highlanders, or, rather, Islanders, as more genuine than any other breed we possess in Scotland, ex- cepting, 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 stocked with the Boves Tauri, of fine form and healthy constitution ; and the little intercourse or commercial purposes with the mainland during many ages, gave a permanence to hair individuality not so easily secured elsewhsre . THE HEBRIDEAN BREED. 67 Gaelic word which signifies highland^ and is commonly pronounced as if 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 jange of the Hebrides: — ' The High- land bull should be black, the head not large, the ears thin, the muzzle fine, 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 drooping 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 the 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 barrell-like carcass which some have described. The thigh tapering to 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 legs short and straight. The whole carcass 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 oflal 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, that it commands a superior price in every market. The different islands of the Hebrides contain about one hundred and fifty thousand of these cattle, of which it is calculated that one-fifth are sent annually to the main land, principally through Jura, or across from the ferry of the Isle of Skye. If these average about 5/. per head, the amount will be 150,000/., or more than the rental of the whole of the islands, which Mr. Macdonald calculated at 106,720/., but which now produces a greater sum. Catde, therefore, constitute the staple commodity of the Hebrides. Three thousand five hundred are annually exported from ihe 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 the 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 catUe, 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 2/. 5s. 6rf. 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. With the exception of the milch cows, but not even of the calves, they were 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 thought to be well taken care of. The majority got little more than sea- 68 CATTLE. weeJ, heather, and rushes. One-fifth of the cattle, on an average, used to perish every winter from starvation. When the cold had been unusually severe, 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-condition, 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 this 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. From their natural aptitude to fatten they got into tolerable condition, 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.f The Hebrides, however, have partaken of that improvement in agricul- ture 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 whom 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 through the Higlilands,' gives a sadder account of the frequent joint occupancy of the same hut, by the peasant and his cattle, in the Island of Mull. He had been speaking of the privations of the peasant, he adds — 'Nor are his cattle in a better situation: in summer they pick up a scanty support among the moras- Bes and heathy mountains, but in winter, when the ground is covered with snow, and when the naked wilds afford 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, and frequently share with them their little stock of meal which had been pur- chased or raised for the family only; while the cattle thus sustained, are bled occasion- ally to afford nourishment for the children after the mingled oatmeal and blood has been boiled or made into cakes.' t 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 disproportion which must be exceedingly great, however low the rental may be. ' A farm in Kintail was found to have on it 40 milch cows, which with their young stock, from a calf to a four-year old, made about 120 head of cattle; besides 80 ewes and 40 goats, wliich, with their young, were about 250; and 10 horses. Yet this farm, with arable land sufficient to supply all the family, was rented only at twenty pounds a-year.' THE HEBRIDEAN BREED. 69 It is contrived, as much as possible, that the calves shall be dropped from the 1st of February to the middle of April. All the calves are reared; and for the first three or four months 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 milk, is taken away by the daiiy-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 driven as far as the Lowland districts, whence they gradually find iheir 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 raising 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 difl!erent 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 12th of August to the end of October. When these inclosures become bare, about the end of December, a little hay is taken into the field with 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 litde 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 eminendy successful in his attempts to improve the native breed. He has often obtained 100/. for three and four-year-old bulls out of his stock; and 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 picked cows. It is true that grazing has never been the principal object of the Hebri- dean farmer, or has scarcely been deemed worthy of his attention: there 70 CATTLE. are very few cattle fattened upon any of 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 Scodand, weigh more than forty Liiperial 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 interest- ing point of view. He selects the islands of North Uist and Tiree for the purpose of ilhistration, because the i.nproved system of husbandry is little adopted there, although the herbage is good. We will condense and a litde alter his calculation, agreeably to the different prices and management of the present time: — We will suppose that in October or NovemberQOO head of neat catde, well salted, and weighing 33 stones, Lnperial, are sold at Greenock or Liverpool at 4s, 6d. per stone.* This would amount to . ^66687 We will also suppose that the same cattle, sold in April or May to the drovers, would have fetched 41. 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 catde at 41. 15s. amounting to . . ^£4,750 The best grass is let at 12s. per head for these six months, making . . 600 The expense of looking after, at 2s. per head 100 Salt and casks, at 8s. each . . 360 Sending to market, 5s. each . . 225 Interest of 4,750/. for six months . 148 6 Total expenses . 6,183 6 Balance in favour of fattening . £503 14 Or more than 10 per cent; and this average is taken very low, for the catde 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 cows 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- ceedingly rich, and the butter procured from it is excellent. In Arran and Bute, in the Firth of Clyde, the Ayrshire cow was partially intioduced 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 some of the southern islands, and particularly in Collonsay and Islay, the pure native breed are frequently fattened to from 34 to 42 stones Imperial. Mr. Campbell, of Shawfield, had a heifer whicii, wlien 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 soutiiern islands than they are in Skyc, for the pas- ture is better, and they might be raised to a still greater size, were it not for the shame- ful system of overstocking, to which we shall have so often to allude. THE HEBRIDEAN BREED. 71 account of the goodness of the herbage, but pi-incipally because the cows yield milk for a longer 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 quieUy 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 piincipal 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 flavour which is given to it by the mixture of rose-leaves, cinnamon, mace, cloves, and lemon with the rennet.* Oxen are never used for the 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 which 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 permanendy 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 Christmas. 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 litde improvement in agriculture, although the 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 catde are small, but \Vell proportioned ; and on the tacksmen's farms (a tacksman is one who has a large tract of land, which he holds by * Martin, iu 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 increase of their neighbours' cows' milk to their own use : and that the milk so charmed does not pro- duce the ordinary quantity of butter, and the curds made of that milk are so tough that it cannot be made so firm 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 that part of the butter which hath not been charmed ; and if butter having these marks be found with a suspjcted 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 per- sons, and put it in an egg-shell full of milk, and when that from the charmer is mingled with it, it curdles, and n»t before.' 72 CATTLE. [The West Highland Cow.] lease) they are generally of good breed, and, although not heavy, very handsome. They are covered with a thick and long pile during winter and spring; and a good pile is considered one of the essential qualifica- tions of a cow. The most common colours are black, red, brown, or brandered, (that is, a mixture of red and brown in stripes — brindled.) A whitish dun colour is also pretty frequendy seen, not unlike that of the origmal 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 catde has been greatly improved of late years, by the importation of bulls and cows from various parts of the Highlands.' On the tacksmen's farms the catde are not housed in winter, 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 Uiat 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 sfre 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 catde are brought to the lower grounds, and the stirks are separated and housed at night. The latter are fed exclusively on hay and straw, portions of which are dis- tributed to the other catde during snow. The cattle of the small tenants are all housed at night during the winter, and fed upon straw, hay, and the refuse of the family meals. The habitations of these people are usually divided into three apartments. The first, which occupies half the hut, is the general entrance, and contains the agricultural implements, poultry, and catUe. The second, comprising a fourth of the hut, is that in which the family reside; and ihe inner one, of the same size, is the sleeping room and granary. There are no chimneys ; the smoke fills the whole hut, and escapes partly by a hole THE ARRAN BREED. 73 in the roof, partly by the door, and partly by orifices formed between the wall and the roof as substitutes for windows, and which, in stormy weather, are closed by a bundle of straw. The fire is placed in the middle of the floor. The soot accumulates on the roof, and, in rainy weather, is continually dropping, and for the purpose of obtaining 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 liad 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 canalicu- latus,) 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 BTJTE. These islands are separated from the other Hebrides by the promontory of Caiityre, and are situated in tiie 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 the 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 many 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 catde 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 litde 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. Each farm was strangely let to various tenants who occupied in common or in rimridge; 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 ap- portioned, and almost yearly changed.* No improvement could be eflected *One of the oldest 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 then divided into fields of various extent according to 8 74. CATTLE. under such a system. The ridges were cropped 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 i»^e/f/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 the head-dykes, 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, for generation after generation, had been taught to believe that his riches consisted in the number 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 ' lifting;' 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 Imndred acres. He brought much of the waste land into cultivation by the spade; he excavated drains to the extent of 120 miles in length; Ihe supposed nature of the soil; and again subdivided into parcels or ridges of equal size, corresponding with the number of the retainers: and one of the rigs or ridges was let or appropriated to each. It was thouglit 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 be dispersed over a dozen places. This system of occupation was denominated runrig or runridge. Besides this general practice of hav- ing the land in runrig, it was customary in some places for 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 wliole of the ridges. This was called cou^-r?^, or change-rig, A system more absurd or inconsistent witli good cultivation can scarcely be imagined. The division of arable lands into injield and outfield, was universal in Scotland, and is not yet obsolete. The ivjield, as stated in the text, got all Ike dung produced on the farm, and was kept under a constant rotation of crops. Lime and fallow and artificial grasses were unknown. The ovtjield 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 o«//ieZ(/ and gre^r too plentifully in the injield; and the owner of a little field which under improved cultivation, 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 grain for a single bushel of meal. He had straw for the winter feed of hia cattle, but his family might starve. — See Robertson's Rural Recollections, p. 263. THE ARRAN BREED. 75 he erected all necessary fences, and he built comfortable houses of various sizes. He then offered the farms at a moderate rent, but with these re- strictions, that the land should be managed in a different and better man- ner, 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; for he righdy judged that 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 expen- sive 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 for crossing the small catde 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 breed- ing 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 he excited. In consequence of this, several bulls of the Argyleshire sort were [)ur- chased by the duke in the summer of 1822, 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 difference between the Arran and Argyleshire beasts can scarcely be observed, and that difference is yearly decreasing. The Arran improved black cattle are gentle-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-off were sold in great numbers at ten pounds each after 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 dis- tricts the character of the breed is essentially changed, but no where has so much been done in a few years to ameliorate the stock, and better the con- dition of the tenantry. Twelve or fourteen years ago, the average weight of an aged Arran cow, when fed on grass, did not exceed eighteen or twen- ty stones: she would now be at least three or four stones heavier, and some of the oxen have reached forty-five or fifty stones. The calves, which are generally dropped in spring, are not suffered to suck the dara, but are fed on milk for about six weeks. Two meals only 76 CATTLE. are allowed them in the day, and two or three quarts of genuine milk are given at each meal. Some imagine that this quantity is not sufficient; 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 occasion- ally mixed with the milk, and particularly when the lime for turning out approaches: some of the farmers, however, object to this, as frequently dis- ordering 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 catde; but they are always housed at night, and none of them are sent to the hills during the first season. In winter a lit- tle boiled food is given to them, consisting of potatoes or greens, with chaff or straw, and chaff-fodder like the old catde. In summer the yearlings are sent to the hills, generally at no great dis- tance from the dwelling; and, for the most part, they remain out until the winter; tlien all die cattle, young and old, are housed during the 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 kail, which is cultivated in every small farmer's garden for this purpose. This practice, if not pe- culiar to Arran, is practised there to a greater extent than in most other districts. The catde calving in the winter, or early in the spring, are fed with kail, potatoes, and straw. Both the kail and potatoes are usually boiled, and sometimes the chaff, and the milch-cows almost always before calving, and sometimes for a litde while afterwards, get some oats or meal boiled with their other provender. Notwithstanding the addition of the kail, the Arran catUe are not too well fed in the winter, and Uie growth of the young beasts is often materially stinted by a false economy. When the weather is not stormy, the catde are driven out to pasture during the day — the young ones to the hills, and the older ones to the arable pas- tures 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 wliich nature provides as a protection against the searching blast, and it renders the beasts more liable to hoose and inflammation, when they must afterwards he exposed to no little cold while feeding on grass. The majority of the catde of Arran are sold in the autumn from two to three years old. They are transported to the mainland, and after- wards south, by die way of Dumfries, where they are fed on grass for another year, and thus generally well prepared for the butcher: a few sUrks 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 dro- vers in the spring. About 800 head of cattle are yearly sent to the main- land 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 BREED. 7T or clover during the night, and, having been milked again in the morning, are turned out for the day. The produce of milk has much increased with the improvement in general husbandry, and the consequent 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 months after calving; the average quantity, however, will not much exceed two gallons; but the milk is excellent. There are some farms in which the Ayrshire cows are estabhshed, and these cattle give in Arran as much milk as in their native country. The small farmers consume the milk and butter and cheese which their cows produce; others sell a little butter; and the larger 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 island because it is a splendid example of what may be effected, in a very fe\T years, b}^ 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 England, 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 part of 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 occu])ant that he should reap the fruits of his improvement, he began to set himself thoroughly 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 Gaehc, signifying ' a bold furious head,' "and so called from the rugged rocks on the southern extremity, while the island itself is comparatively flat, is higher up the Firth. It is about fifteen miles in length, and three in breadth, and contains 24,000 Scotch acres of ground. Rothsay gives the title of Duke 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. He had ocidar 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 every thing 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. The cattle were small. The farms were overstocked with them. There was little sown grass, and no green food for winter; and until the pasture* were better covered than formerly, all attempts materially to increase the value of the breed would necessarily fail. With the advancement of agri- culture generally the cattle have increased in value, although they are still of a motley character; and they are beginning to have considerably more of the Ayrshire breed in them than is to be found in Arran. 78 CATTLE. ARGYLESHIRE. The county of Argyle stretches along the western coast of Scotland fof 115 miles, but its average breadth is litde 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 of excellent feed for catde; therefore the catde differ materially in the northern and southern parts of the country. Among the mountains, 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 catUe 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 catUe are larger than the Hebrideans, and ai-e 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 Avill 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 pure, 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 ARGYLSHIRE BREED. 79 cated. The Highlander, however, must be reared for the grazier alone. Every attention to increase his weight, in order to make him capable of agricultural labour — every effort to qualify him for the dairy, will not 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 profita- bly 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 of liis stock, he makes little butter and cheese, 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 overstocking 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 favour- able 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 stot in Argyleshire: To milk to the calf while sucking, 1| Scotch pints per day, at 2d. per pint - - - - £2 5 6 To expense of keeping the calf housed and fed on straw and hay during the first winter, \2s. — but deducting 3s. for manure, there remains - - 9 To pasture next summer on hill grass - - 7 6 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 2i years old - - - - - 7 6 Deduct for risk of deaths - - - 15 Interest of money - - - - 5 £4 19 6 • Supposing that they then sell for five guineas at first hand — and the average price will not much exceed this — the profit will be but 5s. 6rf. This and the increased price of corn will sufliiciendy account for the gradu- al substitution of sheep for cattle on the greater part of the breeding coun- try of Scotland. The Argyleshire farmer is sometimes wrong in breeding from a favour- ite 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 ultimate- ly 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 samebuU 80 CATTLE. should not be used too long. The hardiness of some of the cattle has been thought to be materially affected by it. The bulls are generally disposed of at six years -old, when they are in full vigour, and valuable for some distant herd. [TheJrgyle Ox.} The native cattle in Cantire, or the south of Argyle, are of a thinner, lighter make, and not well haired; they are evidendy of Highland extraction, but they show much crossing with Irish blood. They are better adapted for the pasturage which they find, and are fair milkers; therefore the dairy was always more attended to than rearing in the dis- trict 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- land cattle are universally adopted foi grazing farms, and the Ayrshire 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 cheese. The manufacturer of the cheese is often more in fault than the milk or the pas- ture; 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 quite impoverished and becoming sour; curds of different ages are also mixed together, and which will not amalgamate and form one uniform mass. Some Galloways are found in Argyle, and 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 give in- crease of weight; but the experiment has not succeeded: they have neither fattened so quickly, nor so equably. THE INVERNESS BREED. 81 INVERNESS. This county will complete the Western Highlands, properly so called. Inverness stretches across the mainland from the little channel 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 outer Hebrides cross that ferry, not only in their way to Inverness and Argyle, 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 along 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 fiiults, the same. In the central parts of the county, however, the breed is mixed, and principally with the Galloway, or Fife, or Irish. On tlie 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. Smitn, 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 brought from the Highlands when young. The system of summer feeding, or ' sroing 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 shepherds, who live on them all the year.* Dr. Robertson, in his ' Survey of Inverness,' gives the following descrip- tion of ' the shealings:' — ' 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 the 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 describ- ed, that the number of cattle had considerably decreased in that district; 'people deeming it more profitable to reduce their stock ot black cattle, and increase their stock of sheep. But the cattle that remain are very much improved. Twenty years ago (1770) a High- land slot was not worth more than 20/. Scots, wliereas it will now sell for 31. or 4Z, eter- ling; and milch cows have risen in value from 3/. 10s. to 5/. or 6/.' Black cattle, how. ever, may still be considered as the staple riches of Inverness, and on which principally the farmers depend to enable them to pay their rents. 83 CATTLE. resided for a certain number of weeks, until the pasture became scarce. A trusty person was sent before them to drive away any wandering cattle that might have trespassed within 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 extefisive they have frequently more than one of these stations, which are called ree or aree,* in the language of the country, and sheallngs 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 aiuhority to poind (whence, pound,) and confine the stray cattle, and to demand the fine established by law for 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 sheallngs 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;! 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 sheallngs lasted from one to two months or more, and when the pasture was all consumed they returned to their home- steads.':}: The Rev. Mr. M'Lean, in an Appendix to this Survey, has some remarks on these shealitigs, the importance of which has been acknow- ledged bythe 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 tliat, '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 tlie 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 indiflerently 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 condition. An emulation of this kind would prove an incitement to the cultivation of turnips and sotvn grass, as without these, it is not easy * Ree is a Gaelic word, which signifies a deer-forest: these shealings, therefore, were tlie first encroachments made by the inhabitants and their cattle on the territories of the deer, after they had got full possession of the straths, or lower valleys. t 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 must go to the sununit of some steep cliff or mountain, where the feet of quadrupeds 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 from every species of fair)' agency.' t 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 and a few sticks, you find no other furniture than a few dishes for his milk, and a bowl for his meal: so true in fact, as well as in philosophy, is the maxim, " nature is content with a little." ' THE INVERNESS BREED. 83 to 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 without sending any part of it to the hill at any season of the year, and that the hill-grass should be ap- plied 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 di- minution 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 catde. Not only all those from Skye and the outer Hebrides are sent there for sale, and many come from Argyle to the trysts of Inver- ness, whence they travel south again, but it contains within itself more than 42000 head of catde. These trysts are not fairs or markets appoint- ed 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 Scodand, make their appearance in the Highlands, about the latter end of Aprd or the beginning of May, they give notice at the churches that, on a particular day, and at some central place in the dis- trict, they will be ready to purchase. The price is, like that of every thing else, regulated by the demand, and of this the farmers can cudy 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 mar- ket 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 catUe conditionally, bargaining that if the prices rise 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 litde 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 are ready fetch the best price, because they can be immediately put on the southern pastures. The practice of letting catde for hire is not unfrequent 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 of the cat- tle, 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 litde cordiality on either side, and there will often be great injustice on both. THE NORTH HIGHLAND CATTLE. These occupy the whole of Scodand north of Inverness, including the counties of Ross, Sudierland and Caithness, and the Orkney and Shedand islands. The catde were exceedingly different from those which we have described, more diminuUve 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 equably. This is easily explained by the consideration that the climate 84 CATTLE. is cold, the country is an arable one, the distance from the market is great, and, therefore, the breeding of cattle had not always been a con- sideration of much importance to the farmer. This defect and disgrace of tlie northern district was at length forced on the 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 will show. THE SHETLAND ISLANDS. IThe Shetland Bull.} We commence with the northernmost group of islands, situated nearly half-way between the coasts of Scotland and Norway. They consist of one chief island, nearly sixty miles in length, and ten or twelve in breadth, and a numerous group of diminutive ones scattered around, and particular- ly on the north. Jaimeson, 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 the midst of marshes, and pools, and shores, bounded by the wildest precipices.' There are, in fact, few or no artificial grasses 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 diminished 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, so far, indeed, as their shape can be ascertained through the long thick hair with which they are covered, and which forms an impenetrable defence against the snow and the sleet. They are rarely more than four feet high at the withers, and sometimes scarcely more than thirty-five or forty pounds a quarter. THE SHETLAND BREED. 85 The Shetland cattle contrive to live on their native moors and wastes, and some of them fatten there ; for a considerable and increasing quan- tity of beef is salted in Shedand and sent to the mainland, the quality of which is exceedingly good. When, however, the Shedanders are trans- ported to the comparatively richer pastures of the north of Scodand, they thrive with almost incredible rapidity, and their flesh and fat, being so newly 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 they 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 catde, and the result has not been satisfactory. The Shedand cows are housed every night, whether in winter or summer ; and not having straw for litter, the defect is supplied by heath and peat-dust. The dung used to be suffered to accumulate in a strange manner. Instead of being dady carried out, it was spread over the byre, until the cattle could no longer find entrance between the floor and the roof. Then only it was of necessity removed. They yield a very small portion of mdk, whether in their native country or elsewhere, but that which they do give is exceedingly rich. The Shedanders have a curious way of extracdng 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 complete, 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 Shedanders. 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, pardcularly 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 litde Shedand oxen are stiU occasionally worked in the plough. Horses and oxen were formerly yoked abreast to the same plough ; but the oxen are gradually getting into disuse : indeed a great part of the island is too rocky for the plough, and is dug with the spade ; and, sometimes, even at the present day, the spade husbandry is used where the plough might be profitably introduced. Some of the smaller islands called ' The Holmes,'' and which are nearly or quite uninhabited, yield more succulent pasture ; and the catde are occasionally sent there to prepare them for their migration to the south. They thrive rapidly on these litde solitudes. When a stadstical account of these islands was taken forty years ago, they contained 3000 cows, 1000 oxen, and 10,000 young catde. They have, however rapidly increased, for more than 44,000 now inhabit the Shetland and Orkney Islaiid?, it 86 CATTLE. is much to be regretted that so numerous and valuable a breed should be 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 propiietors, at least — have made them, and the inhabitants of the Orkneys, comparatively careless as to the productions of the soil. THE ORKNEY ISLANDS. The 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 tliere 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- mer 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 milch-cows, were turned out to the hills 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 says, ' 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.' — Eev. J. Malconi's Statistical Account of Stenness. The caitle are better milkers than the Shetlanders, and quite as good feeders. More oxen are used fot agricultural labour, and they aie deci- dedly better for this purpose than the Shedanders ; 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 short, 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 tlie 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 fiirrow 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 Lcith market: 700 milch cows are kept in the parish, besides oxen and young cattle. A great part of the land is let on Initter-rent. Good I2d. 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, 40d. is required from each family for services, (as- Bisting in the reaping, hay-making, and various agricultural labours,) if they arc not paid in kind ; and also a cock and a hen is demanded for every two merks of land.' These rslics, however, of feudal tenure are now growing into disuse. At that time a good ox was worth 361. {31. sterling) Scots ; and a fat cow sold for 2il. {21. sterling). The ox would weigh from 300 to 400 cwt., and the cow from 170 to 250 lbs. Mr. Morison says, that ' the situation of that parish, and of the Highlands generally, THE CAITHNESS BREED. 87 CAITHNESS. This is the northernmost county of Scotland, and the climate is cold and ungenial ; there is no highland 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 the 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 that, not fifty years ago, the Caithness breed of cattle, although hardy, was the worst in 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 the Highlands completed the evil*. Captain Henderson, 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. f' 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 ; 427 were lost in that parish. Oats rose to 45s. per boll. The most substantial farmers fared badly ; the poorer ones lived on welks, and limpets, and sucli other fish as the sea shore aiFord- ed.' — Sir John Sinclair's Statistical Account of Scotland. * The Rev. Mr. Cameron, in liis Stitistical 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 to have been, or 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 of 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? Because the commerce in that 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 animals, from an overwean- ing expectation, and the mistaken idea, tliat if they have plenty of calves they will be able to answer these 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 another plan, and kept an adequate number of cattle only, their families 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 reprobates 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 us, 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 been the practice here, for cattle of all kinds to travel and feed promiscuously, without distinction of property, from the day the last sheaf was put into the farm-yard til! the conclusion of the bean seed, in the end of May, or the beginning of June. The prejudice of this practice to land in general, and to arable land in particular, is suificiently evident. The active, enterprising farmer can never avail himself of all the advantages to be derived from his possession, unlesa 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 neighbors, as well as his own — are at frredom, for eight months nearly out of 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 maintained at the expense of his neighbour ; but men of this descrip- tion ought not to be supported at the expense of the willing, industrious farmers. Hi» 88 CATTLE. Caithness affords a splendid example of what one scientific and zealous 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 thoui^ht 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 tlie Gallowa)'. 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 willi 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 catde : they were better for the yoke, 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 o-.vn were so degenerated ; the inhabitants likewise of a cold and variable climate ; thriving there, and possessing also those admirable points in which the Caithness w^ere so deficient. The experiment suc- ceeded. On a loAvland 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 Avhen 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 country ; and very considerable improvement was effected with regard both to the breeding and the grazing of cattle. Tlie 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 tlie Skye, and more particularly from the Argyle breed, he got as quick, and honest, and hardy workers, and pro- fitable fatteners, 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, Avere 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 Avas added to this, the improvement of the cattle, and the profit of the farmer became greater ; for the beast w^hich had been turnip- fed in the winter, and got rye-grass in the spring, was ready for the spirited endeavours to provide for himself and serve the public, ought not to be rendered abortive merely to gratify the indolence of the sloven, who, rather than exert himself in constant acts of industry, is content to live in a hovel, to be clothed in rags, and to feed upon bread and water.' THE CAITHNESS BREED. 89 market a full year before he otherwise would have been. This improved mode of feeding was, however, in the hands of few, and the majority of the catde were straw-fed ia the winter, and had mere common pasturage in the summer; yet even they did well when not overstocked, and yielded 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 off 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 part 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 Highlander; but in the lower part of the coun^ the care of the dairy is added, or the land is principally cultivated for the dairy. Here a different breed of cows is necessary. It is nedless 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 crofj the native cattle Avith the Buchan Breed. These were the near'-'"' -^ they were excellent dairy cows in their own peculiar district. TO a c ^ extent they answered, but the quantity was not mcreased ho mucu as been expected, and the grazing qualities were a little impairtfd.^,,jjj^(j ^l^g He next tried the Dunlop or Ayrshire bull. The Caithness becaLv, 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 gradually 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 catde 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 5/.; 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 inferior to that in the southernmost counties of Scotland. Many of the Orkney cows are used by the small farmers, and for a cottager's cow there 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 dro- vers, 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 succeeds Cockhill on the 16th, and then Falkirk, Broughill, and Newcastle. The stots are usually three years and a half when first oifered 9* 90 '^'^^^ CATTLE. for sale, and then weigh about twenty stones : when fattened, they Avill 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 price of these slots varies with the demand, and the season, and the breed. The old Caithness will frequently not sell for more than 3/. ; the best Highlanders have brought 8/. or 91. per head. The journey from Caithness to Carlisle occupies from twenty-eight to thirty-two days ; they are usually taken in droves of about 250, and the expense is nearly 7s. Gel. 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 catde 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 btoken-in at three years' old ; at five they are 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 when 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 ^■"^le are subject to many distempers. The sudden variation of tem- l rature and of food, and the change from starvation to comparative '•-^ " .^^^hen vegetation does at length, and with strange rapidity, proceed ' ?'v^.Jil.'f^i- 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 name 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 M'as 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 of a need-fire. A circular booth was erected upon some small island in the nearest river, or burn ; and in the centre of 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 (1794), explains this : — ' The tenant's ploughs are generally drawn by four oxen or Jiorscs yoked abreast. That practice appears ridiculous to strangers, but a better acquaintance with the people's cir- cumstances would lead to a more favourable opinion. The cattle are very small and ill- fed, and hence their strength is not sufficient for drawing a plough, if they were yoked in any manner where part might have an opportunity of throwing the whole burden oc- casionally on the rest. TJiis practice, however, is attended with the inconvenience, that one of the cattle must walk on the ploughed ground; of this some are beginning to be sen- sible, and are substituting three cattle abreast, endeavouring to get those of a better quali- ty.' The ploughman used to walk backward, or with his face to the plough, because he could thus better observe whether the strength of the team was fairly 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 neighbours were then collected ; they carefully divested themselves of all metal — not even a button was left 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-Jire. Every fire in the farmer's house was immediately quenched, and others kindled from this need-Jire: 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 used 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 forcibly 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 resemblances 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 catde 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 not now more than two-thirds of that number. The statistical accounts of the numbers of horses, cattle, and sheep in Sutheiland, in 1798 and 1808, will afford a convincing proof of the decrease of horses, catde, and goats, and the wonderful increase of the sheep : — Horses. Cattle. Goats. Sheep. 1798 - - 7736 - - - 24,287 - - - 6227 - - 37,130 1808 - - 4291 - - - 17,3.33 - - - 1128 - - 94,570 Decrease 3445 Decrease 6954 Decrease 5099 Increase 57,440 If the value of each were the same at both times, we should find that 20,670/. less capital was employed in horses, 32,502/. less in cattle, 1532/. less in goats, and 34,806/. more in sheep. But the manifest improvement 92 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 tlie 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 the 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 uork 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 resort 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 his 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 romai.'jc 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 coivs and his calves. His growing cattle have nothing but the straw of his half-destroyed oat crop, on which they are to starve during the winter — and starve many of them literally do — while the rest are mere walking skeletons, and, for a while, compara- tively worthless. THE SUTHERLAND BREED. 93 What becomes of the rent? — why it is paid when the tenant can pay it. but 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? AVhy, 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 milch 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 shealings, 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 of 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 apon — 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 lowlands, 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 happier — 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 Sutherland is much smaller than that of Caithness, but far more valuable, and requiring only to be crossed by those from Argyle and Skye, to be equal to any that the northern Highlands can produce. It is much to be lamented that the Argyleshire cattle in the 9i CATTLE. possession of the Marquis of Slaflbrd, at Dunrobin, have not been more employed in improving the breed of the surrounding districts. The best cattle are to be found in the neighbourhood of Dunrobin and Skibo, on the eastern coast ; and most of them are the pure Argyle or Skj^es, 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 catde, 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 t-he 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 BanfTs and the improved Leicesters; but none of them have answered so well as the West Highlanders, or crosses between them and the natives. Some of the little islands on the coast aflTord very good winter-pasture 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 catde are fattened, but only got into good travelling condition for the drover. The four-year-old improved stots will probably weigh 36 or 40 stones ; the country catde not more than from 18 to 20 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 litde upland feed for the primitive pastoral life. In the winter most of the cattle are housed at night, avd 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 catUe are not subject to all the hardships Avhich 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 much 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 shores of Sutherland, in small lots of land, for the prosecution of the herring-fishmg. 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, puts them during smmmer, on his superabundance of deer-hair, transfers them in August, to certain coarse rushy loams, where coarse grass grows ; brings them to his court ines to eat straw in winter, and finishes them oft' for the road during the next summer in the inclosures above-mentioned. With some little assistance from the field appropriated to the horses the four fields summer, on an average, one beast and a half per acre. It is the THE ROSS AND CROMARTY BREED. 95 practice to fill up two fields with three cattle per acre, and to shift them once a fortnight.' The sales for the southern market take place in 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 Highla-nd 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 his ' 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 she comes nilling-willing 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 many of the farms in the interior; but they are getting somewhat out of use : they are never shod. ROSS AND CROMARTY. 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 permanent pasture. The eastern part of Ross and some portion of Cromarty contain excellent soil; and not only the wheat but the turnip husbandry is carried on extensively and successfully. The system is more connected with sheep-feeding than with either the 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 what 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- landers, but not so small as the common breed of cattle in the counties far- ther north, but there are more of the native catde, with various degrees of crossing ; and others have the Fife and the Moray, and crosses of every kind with them. The dairy, however, is not attended to for profit here ; 96 CATTLE. but the farmer must have milk and butter and cheese, and he must also have catde to eat down the grass where he does not dare to turn on his sheep. The Leicesters 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. per quarter. 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 catde. The cattle of KintaU, called, on this account, Kintail 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 Hiffhlander, 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 suffered to suck for four, five, or six months, according to the time at Avhich 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 to 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 catde 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 irsually 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 trysts and markets continue here until September, when the cows come into request. So much business, how- THE ROSS-SHIRE BREED. 97 ever, is not done at these public meetings as in some other counties; but the drovers go from farm to farm, and the sale is effected privately. Mr. Baigrie, who wrote the account of Ross-shire in No. is of the Farmer's Series, informs us that the first regular 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 cattle-markets held monthly at the latter place daring the season. The cattle from all these early markets proceed to Cockhill. The weight of the stock from three to five years old maybe 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 kw 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. After 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. Oa 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 har- nessed to the ploughs of the small fanner. 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 manag-ement, by Mr. Mackenzie of Milbgnk, near Dingwall. It strongly corroborates our main points; but at the same time giving a different illustration of a few particulars, wc deem it right to present it to our readers. 'Although it is difficult to trace the history or true pedigree of the old Ross-shire breed of cattle, the various accounts that are handed down regarding it show 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 compar- atively light in form, but the bone is fine, and the carcass is deep and lengthy, it is round in the barrel, straight in tiie 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 healthy constitutions. ; ' No description of cittle answers the soil and climate of Ross-shire so well as the origi- nal north Highlanders; but as a considerable part of the county is very highly cultivuttd, producing 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, a 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 made; but that is found advantageous only in situations where there is great pro- fusion of grass and turnips in their season; 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 breedersof the county, isa cross from the Argyleshirc Highlander, which is of greater weight and size than the cattle of the north: but in availing themselves of this cross, the Ross-shire breeders are always anxious to preserve as much as possible of their own stamp, because it is more hardy, more suited to their pastures generally, and in 10 98 CATTLE. THE NORTH-EASTERN DISTRICT. This district extends along the eastern coast from Murray Firth to the Firtli of Forth, and there is a general resemblance between the cattle in more general demand for driving to the south. There are a few graziers in Ross and Inverness-shirc who cross their cattle with superior bulls from the west Highlands of Perthshire, which is found to answer equally as well as, if not better than, any other yet introduced in that part of tiie country. ' The Ross-shire cattle, as already described, arc decidedly more adapted for the graz- ing than the dairy system. The cows, particularly those pastured on hilly grounds, out- field or meadow, are not famed for the quantity of their milk, although it is e.xlremely rich in quality; and as there are comparatively but few cattle-farms now in tlie county, dairy produce does not form an article of export, or of which money is made. The pro- duce of an ordinary country cow may be computed, during five months of the year, at from five to seven Scoteli 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 anywhere. 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 fari.iS cal- culated for breeding that have not advantages for rearing, and vice versa. A well-bred Ross-shire bullock of three or four years old, when fully fed, will weigh twenty-five stones, of twenty-one pounds Dutch; but though it rafely brings a remunerating price to the feeder at liome, the breed is reputed for quick feeding and for yielding more tallow in proportion to size than most others, while it is ascertained that when they arrive on the pastures 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 Lewis (from which three thousand are annually exported) are most sought after for the table, from the fineness of their quality. Though of less size, and less prepossessing in appearance, than most other cattle, their beef, which is always marbled, is esteemed as being very superior; and they are so hardy, that in driving even to the most southern jiarts 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 in- teresting, and a thorough knowledge of it, at the period when it wnp most extensively prastised 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 one-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 managemeut consist in particular attention to pedigree; in a careful disposal of the stock upon the farms; and in the various arrangements connected with tlieir food, whether in storing up the produce of the meadows, or in the approi)riation of tlie pasturage to the different seasons, scrupulously reserving the roughest grasses and more sheltered portions, for the fall of tlie year, when it is of great consequence to have the stock of Highland farms kept in condition. 'The establishment necessary for a breeding fold of cows is generallyxomposcd of an experienced 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 ' shcal 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, very superior stock is bred in this manner. The mode of rearing calves, under such management, is by suckling, and not by hand-feeding — that is, by allowing them to suck 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 otlier two; or else to allow the calf the use of the whole, at the discretion of the dairy-maid. 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 half-suckling prepares tliem like- wise for their winter-feeding; and the process of weaning generally takes place towards the end of October. Having been weaned, the stirks, as they are then called, are put up for the winter, generally loose, in large byres, and fed on the finest of the meadow hay; and as turnips are not frequently grown to any extent on the large pastoral farms of the High- THE NAIRN BREED. 99 every part of it. They evidently belong to the West Highlanders, but the difference of pasture has given them a larger form. We will commence at the north, and proceed downwards. 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 and with other varieties. Formerly the whole of the husbandry work in tliis county was performed by oxen, and then the object of the farmer was to obtain a stronger and heavier breed than the native one, or the West Highlanders. That object was, to a certain degree accomplished, but the beast became coarser, and did not fatten so kindly, and even its qualities as a milker were not mate- rially 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 qual- ities 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 fiiirs, in almost every village, succeed one another from the spring to the lands, a run or outgo during the day, 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 wlien the season is very severe, they are again brought near to the byre, fed from the barn, and treated with much care. The ivinter and spring being 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 supplying the place of the draft of aged cows annually made from the fold, while as many young bulls are kept as will afford a choice. •The breeding of cattle in Ross-shire, hov/ever, 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 commodity of tlie North Highlands, and tlie system is attended with less expense, and affords, pcriiaps, a more certain return than any other to the occupier of the land. But although the greater part of the pastoral districts of Ross-shire is best adapted for sheep, it is the opinionof 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 in Ross-shire, that the breeding oi Jine cattle is almost entirely confined to the amateur proprietor, and a few tenants, who still maintain opinions dif- fering from those of tlie shepherds, who have acquired by fiir the greatest part of the lands. Still the number 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 liave become diminutive, from there being but little reservation of hill grqund made in their favour, and from being consequently excluded from the pastures that produce most bone and constitution. The system of throwing several cattle-farms into one sheep- walk has limited the breeding of cattle generally to tenants of small holdings, in the least favoured situations, and to cottars placed either along the shores, or on the out- skirts of the larger tenements; and from wanting good bulls in such situations, joined to other disadvantages, the breed, though it retaine the original character, has greatly fall. en off. 'Upon the whole, therefore, there is at present a great decrease and a general deteri- oration in Ross-shire cattle; but many of a superior description are still bred in the county, while the greater number of the whole are of the original stamp.' 100 CATTLE. autumn. The small farmers adopt the same system of overstocking and false economy which we have so often reprobated, and their cattle are sel- dom got into condition before the autumn, when they are disposed of in the same manner. Tiie dairy used to be sadly neglected in Nairn, and even now it is re- garded as an object of only secondary importance. The Rev. Mr. Leslie gives a curious illustration of the extent to which this neglect was carried: lie tells us that considerable quantities of butter and cheese are brought from Banlishire 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. ELGIN, OR MORAY. The Elgin breed of catde 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 an- swer 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 Highlanders are deficient — increase of weight, and earliness of ripen- ing. According to Mr. Deuchar, by Avhom we have been favoured with some valuable remarks, the Moray or Elgin cattle have more of the Aber- deen 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 old, 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-ves- sels from Aberdeen. Steam navigation will probably, ere long effect, a material alteration in the system of breeding and feeding in the maritime counties of the west and north-east of Scotland. The calves 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 turned 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 the same quantity of straw and turnips, is, in this district, thought to be preferable to stall-feeding. The cattle-dealers imagine that the beasts-stand the road better, and especially in case of bad THE BANFF BREED. 101 weather happening when driving south. The dealers also complain of the crosses with the Galloway and short-horn, the progeny not being suffi- ciently 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, net 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 I\Ioray to Smithfield. The Banffshire cattle are somewhat smaller, however, than the Aberdeens, and of finer sym- metry. 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. Tatt, 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 fine 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, supe- rior travellers, and at four years old will weigh from 50 to 60 stones.' '^I'he 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 for the Mearns and Aberdeen markets: most of them are sold half fat; but a few are finished off' with turnips and hay. Mr. Mill, tenant of Mill of Byndie, near Banff, feeds a considerable number of beasts full-fat, which he sends to Smithfield by the smack* 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 lit- tle beside the natural herbage, and that not often improved by manure. Banffshire is indebted to Lord Findlater for the greater part of the improve- ments 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 in- closure 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 lease was expired, he commenced the manage- ment of another of his farms; he raised better and constant food for the cat- * The old Banir plough used to be drawn by six, or eight, or ten oxen, or by oxen and cows intermingled, or by oxen and horses. The black cattle were usually bought in about Whitsuntide and sold again in the autumn. 10* 102 CATTLE. tie, he improved the breed by crosses from the best of his own stock and the neighbouring districts, and the agricuUure of Banffshire, about the low- land part of the country, is now equal to any in Scotland. The local Ag- ricultural Society has also been of great service in carrying on the work of improvement; and the facilities afforded by steam passage will, in Banff- shire, as in all the counties on the coast, give an additional stimulus to improvement, and effect a rapid change, both in the breeding and manage- ment 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 Banff- shire are of a medium size, between those of the native Highlands and the better fed ones of Kincardine.* Mr. M'Pherson, factor to the Duke of Gordon, informs us, that about thirty years ago the Galloway breed of cat- tle was introduced into this district, and has increased so much, 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 polled 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 Boyn- die, 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 Avas 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 every where 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 progeni- tors was lost. Among the most intelligent and successful breeders in Banffshire we may reckon Mr. Gordon of Laggan, Mr. Gauld of Edin- glassie, 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. Tlie number of * Mr. Ballingall, in his Statistical Account of Forglen, says, in 1795, that ' on the waterside, tiie cuttle, by the richness of the pasture, are of a large size. One tenant in Eastside had a plough of eight oxen, which would, in most seasons, iiave been good beef ffom tlie yoke, and would have weighed from fifty to seventy stones, at an average, and, if full-fed from seventy to ninety, and some seemed size enough to carry one hundred.' THE ABERDEENSHIRE BREED. lOS cattle in Aberdeenshire has been calculated at 110,000, of which more than 20,000 are either slaughtered, or sold to the graziers every year. The soil and climate are very different in the hilly country tovs^ards the "^outh-west, bordering on Forfar, Perth, and Inverness, and in the lowlands skirting the sea. There is better natural pasture on the hills than the Highlands usually afford, except upon the very ridges of the Grampians, wliile 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 Buchan, 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 dealers, weighing, probably, not more than 3^ cwt. ; 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 sufficient 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 105.) This beautiful animal was bred by Lord Kintore from an Aberdeenshire cow and a Teeswater bull. We are indebted to his lordship for the chief materials of our history of him. He was calved in April, 1827, 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 he 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 five 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 got a limited quantity of Aberdeen yellow turnips in the house, as Lord Kintore did not then intend to have him fed off. He went out almost daily for water and exercise until the 1st of April, 1830, when he was again put into the straw-yard until the middle of May, getting about six pounds and a half of oil-cake daily, with the usual quantity 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 da}^, 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 taken into the house during the day, wliere he got cut grass, and was turned out at night; and from that time until the 21st of September he was again tied up, getting hay and turnips until the 6th of October, when he left Keith Hall, aad was sent by the steamer to London. His weight might have been con- siderably increased had he been full fed from the tirst, but he was now 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. \^The Kintore Ox, when he was first sent to the South — a Cross between the Aber- deen 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 the 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 mang'^r, 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. 105 Tlie following cut, taken from a painting by the same artist, contains an accurate portrait of him just before he was sent to the Show. [The Kiniore Ox,futud.] He was supposed now to weigh more than 180 stones imperial weight, 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 gentle- man, however, was bid 75/. for him ; but as Lord Kintore had another beast at Keith Hall a year younger, and nearly as good, he determined to have him sent down to Scotland again, in order that he might exhibit them both at the next Highland Society Catde show at Aberdeen. Lord Kintore is a great advocate for one cross of the Tees water with the Aber- deen. This animal wr,s a sufficient proof of what may be effected by it; but they rapidly degenerate if the cross is further pursued. The conve- nience of carriage, now afforded by the introduction of steam, will proba- bly 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 home. The Fife, or Falkland breed, possessed enough of the old cattle to bid fair to mingle and be identified with the natives, while the bones were smaller, the limbs cleaner, and yet short ; the carcass 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 an- swered tlie expectation of the breeder as to be generally adopted, and to become the foundation or origin of what is now regarded as the Aberdeen- shire native breed. 106 CATTLE. The horns do not taper so finely, nor stand so much upwards as in the West Highlanders, and they are also whiter; the hair is shorter and thin- ner; the 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 carcass ; they give a larger quantity ef milk; but they do not attain matu- rity so early as the West Higldanders, nor is their ifesh quite so beauti- fully marbled : yet, at a proper age, they 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 fatteners 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 perfecdy docile, and sufficiendy hardy for 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, afer which they will weigh from 5 to 6 cwt. In the fertile districts of the low country, abounding with sum- mer pasture and winter food, they usually reach at their full growth from fifty to seventy stones Dutch ; and have been frequendy 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 Whitehaugh, and Mr. Camine of Auchery, very much contributed to the improvement of the Aberdeen- shire cattle. The breed of the former gentleman was remarkable, not only for their increased size, and the perfection o'i some of their points, but for being more than usually well horned ; the cows of Mr. Camine yielded from six to ten Scots pints of milk, instead of four pints, which were considered to be the average produce of a tolerable cow. [The Aberdeenshire Ux.'\ Beside these there is a breed of polled cattle, said by some to be diflTerent from the Galloways, and to have existed from time immemorial ; others, THE ABERDEENSHIRE BREED. 107 however, with greater reason, consider tliem as the Galloways introduced about thirty years ago, and somewhat changed by cha-nge of climate and soil. They are of a larger size than the horned, although not so handsome. Of late they have been much improved 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 breed, but the quality of their meat is said to be inferior. As they are in a measure occupying the situ- ation 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 Aberdeens of the hills, weighing from twenty to thirty stones, and contending with and gradually displacing the Highland breed. The Buchan cattle constitute a usehil variety of Aberdeenshire cattle with some peculiarities of form and properties. Mr. R. Gray thus describes them in the ' Quarterly Journal of Agriculture:' — ' The cattle in Buchan are chiefly of 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 thein, that do not begin to have the Ayrshire blood in them, are so still, and are of a dark or brown colour. The breed of cattle in Buchan is pecu- liar to that part of the country, and deservedly esteemed for 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 generally bought by dealers from the south when two, three, 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, they yield a considerable quantity of milk, from the cream of which butter is made to a greai extent, and of excellent quality.' Notwithstanding their small size, they will yield from 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 better than turnips, and vegetates strongly in April. By adopting this plan, the dreadful interval for the farmer between the winter and sum- mer 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 die 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 an- nual 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 may fairly con- clude that 150,000/. are brought into the county by the sale of black cattle alone.t * Mr. M'Pherson says, that ' a variety of the polled cattle is the principal breed in the Buchan district of Aberdeenshire.' The native, or Buchan cattle, were probably polled, and the horned ones are a mixed breed, between the natives and the Ayrshire: ihey are not so hardy as the common Aberdeenshire cattle, and do not fatten so speedily. t The value of those slaughtered for home consumption should be added; and which are about 10,000, at lOZ. per head, yielding 100,000Z.; so that the total value of Aberdeen- shire cattle annually sold or killed will be 250,000Z. Dr. Keith, in his ' Survey of Aber- deenshire,' has given a very laboured account of the value of the cattle stock, and which may be interesting to the reader, since some of the principal markets for the sale of cat- tle are in this county, and it contains nearly double the number of beasts that are to be 108 CATTLE. A fourth variety consists of all the 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 catUe 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, to whom we are indebted for many facilities in acquiring a knowledge of the Aberdeen cattle, has been foremost in the attempt to improve tlie breed of this district. His bulls and cows from Galloway, 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 cattle retain much of their original cha- racter, they have been considerably improved, while a spirit of emulation has been excited which cannot fail to be useful. found poses that there are 28,000 cows at 11. each value .... £196,000 22,000 calves are reared at 21. - - - - - 44,000 20,000 year-olds at 31. 15s. 75,000 19,000 two-yoar olds at 71. lOs. ..... 142,500 21,000 three-years and upwards, at 12/. 10s. - - .262,500 I any other county except Perth. His calculation was made in 1810. He sup. it there are 110,000 total number, and in value . . - ^£720,000 Totliis lie adds from the records of Aberdeen, 3680 beasts slaughtered in the city: Ofthatnumber there are .300 at £30 . - - £9000 COO at 25 . - . . 15,000 800 at 20 . . . - 16,000 800 at 16 - . - - 12,800 Of inferior cattle - 800 at 12 10s 10,000 Of cows . 380 at 10 . - - - 3,800 Calves - - 1621 worth at least . . - 3,400 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, and the value about 6/. each 30,000 Sold to dealers 12,000 at 121. 10s 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 curious 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 iiighest wages he ever obtained were 16s. Sd. in the half-year. In 1731 he agreed ivith a landed 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 board. By persevering in a course of honest industry and frugality, he found his stock in 1747, increased to 501. sterling, with which he purchased eight oxen, all under six years of age, three cows, three horses, four one-year old stots and queys, furnished his house, purchased ploughs, harrows, &c., paid tlie expense of his mariage, servants' wages, and other incidents, and at Lammas 1748, when he began to harvest his first crop, he was not due a penny to the world.' THE ABERDEENSHIRE BREED. 109 Anderson says that Mr. Farquharson, of Invercauld, 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 small 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 afford 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 off 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, while 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 country except in the district- of Buchan , the rest is consumed 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 20/. each, or . . . ^on oaa 2000 at 15/. each . . * on ooa 5000 at 10/. each ••."!". 50^00^ 10,000 farmers' cows at 8/. each • . ! * 80000 5000 of cottagers' or villagers' at 6/. each ! * 30,000 5000 small Highland cows at 41. each . [ * 20000 28,000 as already stated, and value of their produce £230,000i *Mr Gordon, in his answers to certain queries circulated by the Buard of AffricuL SS;. 'ont hr^l If- rl'"'f °^,f,^""'^i.on harvest. 24/. to 30/., and work-horses from 20/. to 11. thought a great price for a horse. 25/. each. Land rented at 6s. per acre, and only two I/and at 30s. and all enclosed with dykes small farms enclosed. and thorn hedges. No English cloth worn but by the mi- There arc few who do not wear English nister and a quaker. cloth, and several the best superfine. Men's stockings were what were called Cotton and thread stockings are worn by plaiding hose, made of woollen cloth. 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 pi j ids, 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 teakettles. 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 puncher whiskey toddy is drunk — then tea, were merry over it without any ceremony, then another bowl, then supper, and, atler that, the grace drink. Every person in the parish, if in health. Much lukewarmness prevails with regard attended divine worship on Sunday, which to religious irstruction, and a consequent was regularly and religiously observed. inattention and indifterence to woriship and ordinances. Few were guilty of any breach of the The third commandment seems to be third commandment. almost forgotten, and profane swearing IV greatly abounds. 114 CATTLE. have white spots on the foreliead, and white on the flanks 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 horned calUe are shorter in the leg, thicker in the shoulder, rounder in the carcase, straighter in the back, and carry the head better than the Aberdeens. The horns are smaller, better proportioned, curved upwards and forwards, and sharper at the points. They are evidently a ci'oss 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 same, being smaller and better proportioned than ihose of the Buchan district of Aberdeenshire, and more like tliose of the middle district. At three years old the horns of an Angusshire stot 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 catde have horns larger, more oval, and not so sharp at the point, as the gene- rality of the Angus cattle. ' The Kincardineshire cattle are rather smaller that the Angus, but the shapes are much the same. Those of Fifeshire are stronger, larger, and rougher-boned than the Angus catUe. ' The weight of the Angus 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, liaving 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 ungenial. In no county, however, is the character of the catde so uniform, and in few 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 catde. Dr. Thompson,* in his not altogether scientific or satisfac- *Tlie statistical account of Scotland, under the article Duniclien, gives us no favourable opinion of the Scoltisti cow-leecJies, when he describes the manner in which they were there, and prob.ibly in the greater part of Scotland installed in their office. ' Formerly one bl rcksniitii, who was also a farrier, was alone allowed to exercise his business on a barony or estate. He had the exclusive privilege of dicing all the hL;cksmith and farrier's work. For this he paid a small rent to tlie proprietor, and every tenant paid hitu a cer- tain quantity of corn. About thirty years ago a persc-n of this description had this sole right on the barony of Dunichen, for which he paid 1/. per annum yearly. FIFESHiRE. US tory '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 white or of a gray 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 j)eculiarity 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 of 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 a smaller number would be found worked with oxen. There is a very great difference in the size of the Fife oxen, and this is to be attributed to the difl^erence 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 after calving; while the cowls 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 ; but 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 compelled to set out on his journey to England without the time or the 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 sufficiendy 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 30,000 angel-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 father to the dowry. The progeny of these cattle received the name of Falklands, 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 came. Cambridge claims the honour, but probably without pretensions better founded than those of many other counties. There is no doubt, however, that at a considerable remote p^^riod, the Fife breed was materially improved by intermixture with some southern variety, and that the improvement commenced in the neighbourhood of Falkland. 116 CATTLE. Similar attempts have since been made in other parts of Scotland, but rarely 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 VH., and even that of James I. 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 ichole, by any foreign cross, and they conhne themselves to a judicious selection from their own.f The Fifes, however, have never established themselves in the south, nor penetrated towards the north beyond the counties immediately continguous. 'J'he 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 sufficiendy regarded by agriculturists, and to which we shall often refer, that there must be every where 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. sufhcient 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 2^, or three gallons of milk, or hay-tea, or gruel, mixed with tlie 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 milch 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 Agrieullure, No. 1,) after observing 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 stoeiis,' and acknowledging that 'the first fruits will, in general, tend to confirm this hope,' yet 'cautions the breeder 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 Ivylocs. He bred from tlie short-horn bull and Highland cow, and had con- tinued 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. tThe 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 nmch improved by crossing willi the Lanark and tlie Holderness, and by wint r-feeding on turnips. The first result is, as we have asserted in the text, contrary to the experience of every agriculturist : but of the truth of the latter assertion there can be no doubt, for there are few more profitable applications of turnips in a breeding country than to the support of the young stock. THE PERTHSHIRE BREED, 117 brought from the neighbouring counties, for grazing, is about 60,000 ; and the statistical account gives the same number.* Some, however, of the Fifeshlre 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 Teeswaler. 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. Tlie pure Durhams have been esta- blished in some parts of Fife, but not always without difRculty. Those that were imported have been injured by, or sunk under the greatest 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 ofhardihood. 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 he 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 tlie rearing ofcatUe, for his ground was good for nothing else untU the sheep husbandry was introduced.! 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 ttithe Earl of Devon may give agriculturists of other districts a more satisfactory notion ofthe pro- portions ofthe best Fife cattle : — Length ofthe 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. ofthe horn Distance from point to point of ditto Girth of tlie body at the shoulder Do. do before hough bones . Girth ofthe 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 tiie knee-joint — fore leg Breadth of the hough bones . t Dr. Roliortson, in his ' Survey of Perthshire,' gives an eloquent and unanswerable defenccof the system of sheep-husbandry introduced here, as well as in almost every part ofScotland, and materially diuiinishing the breed of cattle. We ought by no means to forget the improvement occasioned by the sheep. They enrich (he quality, and enlarge the quantity of grr.ss within their walk more than any other species of animals. They never deteriorate thesoil; they render it more and more productive ; and wherever their numbers are 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 this powerful top-dressing of our whole hills with sheep-dung and urine has been Feet. Inches. . 2 . 8 4 2 6* '. 1 01 1 10 . 7 fii . 7 Bh . n . H . 2 . 4 11 . 4 11 . 3 6 1 0^ . 2 2 and ur lansvve as in aj Imost 1 118 CATTLE. them, but it has been deteriorated by some southern mixture; or, at lesst, the two breeds have not mingled well together — for the beauty of form, and propensity to fatten of the Arsyle are diminished, and the milking properties of the southrons are not fully developed. - In many parts of Perthshire the breeds of the neighbouring counties are found unmixed. In the vicinity of Perth and the Bridge of Earn, and in the Carse of Govvrie, the Fifeshire, and Argus 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 Siirling 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. They are turned out on \hbfogS!;age, or pastures that have been mown, until the middle or end of December, according to the severity or mildness of the season. Then a Hide straw with bog-hay is carried to them, and in the May or June of the following year, they pursue their course south- ward, yielding to the farmer a profit of 30s. or 2/. per head. In respect to the number of cattle which the county contains it stands second; the statistical account assigns to it moie than 79,000. The catUe have, however, of late materially improved although they have not assumed any distinguishing character; and the dairy cattle, in the midland parts of the counties, have taken somewhat the start in the career of improve- ment. A kw 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 al)an- doned to the sheep : on the other hand, the management of cattle, both in the grazing or 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 doubt that the Grampians will be as verdant as the Ochils; while the Ochils had once us 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 cuttle stock in tliis quarter were very much neglected during winter, no provision of succulent food, nor indeed oS'any thing excepting straw, being made for them. In the spring this was particularly harid upon tlie cows in calf. They were sometimes so debilitated as to be nnable to bring fortli ; and frequently contracted diseases under which tiiey laboured for a long time, and of which they nt;ver recovered. 1 well remember the poor wives during the nipping north-east winds in May, provincially called tlie Cow^uu/ce, tending their cows, reduced to a skeleton and covered with a blanket, while they picked up any spring grass whicli had begun to rise in the kail-yard, or at the bottoms of walls or banks ; and to such extremities were they reduced at times, tliat I have heard of tiieir taking the half-rotten thatch from tlic roots of the houses, and giving it to the half-dead animal, as the means of prolongingtheir 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 alwaysthe end of the season before the heath, and sterile, hidebound leas on which they were depastured, brought them into such condition as would now be considered as but half-fat. THE STIRLINGSHIRE BREED. 119 or the farmers of the adjacent counties, who give them a few months' summer pasturage, and dispose of them for England, or the soutliern districts of Scotland. In the Carse of Govvrie is found some of the most, fertile soil, and also some of the most intelligent farmers in the kingdom ; 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 Govvrie,' published in the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture for June 1832, says, ' Although the nature of the district renders the rearing of cattle less profitahle 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 to a greater extent than at present, were the higher part of the ground inclosed and properly sheltered by slips of planting. STIRLINGSHIRE. This is far more a grazing than a breeding county: indeed, the attention of the farmers is confined 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 Stirlingshire, 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 Stilling 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 grazing, 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. In 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 * In the statistical account of Longforgan, in the county of Perth, a singular account is given of the manner of fattening calves. 'They are led in a box, which is made of very coarse boards, 4^ or 5 leet long, and 4 or 4^ high, and about 2 feet wide, in proportion to the breed to be fed. Tlie boards of which the box is made are to be put 8>i close to one another, as to let in sufficient air, but no more, as the exclusion of light is one essential part of the process. It stands upon lour feet, and is pLced a little slanting to drain off all wetness, and the bottom should be covered with straw or hay, and which should be changed twice a week. Tiie call is put into his box when newly dropped, or as soon afterwards as possible, and for the first week, milk is given to it cautiously, after wiiich tlie milk is given more freely, 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 hung in the box, which it occasionally licks. The bleeding is repeated once a week, and it becomes fine veal in ten weeks. If it is a bull call, it is cut at about a week old, otherwise the veal will neither be so good, nor so white. 120 CATTLE. beasts throve with a rapidity before unexampled. He is said to have sold one Highland stot, which yielded fifty-two stones (tron) of beef.* At another time 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. I'he breeding of catUe 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 osntral 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- sists of 16 lbs., at 22 oz. each, and, consequently, the weight of the beast was equivalent to 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 account of the cattle in that parish in 17!)3: — 'Milk cows 74!), which, within the last thirty years have increased coni^iderubly in bulk, hence they have a tendency to be in flesli 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 considcrd remarkable. From eiglit Scots pints nearly one pound of butter is produced, and the cheese is equal to that of Dunlop. Besides these there are cows and queys, 503 ; fat cows, and young beasts for the Falkirk market and the butcher, 917 ; and winterers, whicli are mostly grazed next summer for tiie butcher, 345. Tiie 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 graziers commonly begin to fodder, as they term it, about Christmas, (it is considered to be a severe winter when they are f jrced to begin before Christmas,) and continue till the beginning of April, when the cattle refuse it. There arc kv; cattle grazed but High- landers, and those from Argyleshire are preferred. North country cattle are rejected, being considered by the graziers sour, and difficult to feed.' Mr. Lap>lie 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 35s. or 40s. for a fat cow. In 1759, very decent fanners thought it necessary to have some part of a fat cow, or a few sheep, suited up for winter store; and in 1794, three hundred fat cows were killed annunlly about Martinmas time, for winter provision, beside the mutton, beef, and lamb, killed through the season ; and few of the tradesmen eit down to dinner without fresh meat on the table, and malt liquor to drink.' THE KINROSS-SHIRE BREED. 121 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 August, September, and October. All the catde from every part of Scot- land, 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 catde in thsse diminutive counties; they approach to the Perthshire or Fifeshire breeds, in proportion as they border on either district. A great number of catde used to be fattened in the distilleries of Clackmannan, and particularly in that of Kilbogie ; seven thousand have sometimes been fed at this disuUery in one year. The ordinary stock of Kinross is 5400, and that of Clackmannan nearly 1400, exclusive of those in the distillery. The catde husbandry of Kinross has been materially improved within the last fifty years. The soil of Clackmannan is more fertile, and the lew cattle of a superior description. THE SOUTH-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 Scodand, it contains full one-fourth of the inhabitants ; many catde are, therefore, wanted for die butcher and the dairy. The soil and the climate are 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 lield on a large common in the immediate vicinity of Falliirk, but which is now enclosed, and a field in the neighbourhood of Stenhousmuir has sinco been selected. It is about three miles from Falkirk, on the otlier 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 ibundry, and that being past, ti-Ks 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 of the hero Wallace. The field, or the toll at its entrance, is let to a taxman at 120^ yearly, and he de- mands 8(/. for every score of black cattle, 3rf. for every score of slieep, and \d. for every horse. There are, beside, several tents erected on the field at which refreshments may be procured, or where business is transacted, and money paid and received ; for the use of eacli of these the taxman receives i3s. At the last October tryst (1832) there were, on the lowest computation, more than 50,000 black cattle, 30,000 slieep, 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 fliil to derive the 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 with cattle and sheep, and the lierdsinen in their characteristic Scottish dresses, either stretched on their plaids and resting for a whilj their wearied limbs — but still watchful; or gather- ing into groups and relating the occurrences and bargains of the day; tiiis is a scene which the agriculturist will not soon forget, and to which no one can be insensible. The October is tlic 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 11. each, and of the sheep at 18s., and of the harses at lOZ., their gross value is nearly 650,000Z. 12 122 CATTLE. DUMBARTONSHIRE . In a great part of Dumbartonshire the introduction of sheep-husbandry 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 catde that have not been accus- tomed to any thing better ; and it is generally contrived that some part of it shall be a little sheltered from the blast. Many West-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 field, 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 sufiicient 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 at 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 which 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 counties of England, and so by degrees southward, enjoying * These wintering grounds are usually bog-meadows, which are formed by the filling up of lakes and deposits of water, in consequence of the gradual accumulation of vegetable matter, and whicli, 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, and tiic chief support of the cattle both in summer and winter. On the edges of most of the high sheep-pastures, there are slips and tracts of land on which the sheep will not feed, but on which 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 ; the catde 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 25s. 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 grounds 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 computed at less than 50s. per head. In a few parts of the country the North Highlanders have been tried, as 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 likewise 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 with the Fife, and afterwards with the Ayrshire cattle, but they did not perfecdy 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, they are more valu- able to the dairyman, for it is not often that a cow will thrive anywhere so well, or yield so much milk as in the country, and even on the farm in which she was bred: and, most certainly, in cases of disease the stranger cow is lost much oftener than the one that is breathing her native air. 124 CATTLE. In 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 catde 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 eflect 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 daUy. For the second . . .8 „ For the third ... 3 „ For the next six weeks . . Ijl : she is then dried ; having given, all the year round, more than 5i Scots pints, or nearly 3 gallons daily. 'I'he 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 ihe bowels in a proper state while under milk. Where there is other demand for the milk, bean or pease flour is gradually mixed with it or substituted for it. After the calves are weaned they are turned on good pasture, and during the first winter arc housed, and fed on oat-straw or meadow-hay, Avith, at least once in every day, some turnips cut and mixed with the dry food. During the second summer they should have better pasture than they usually get, or they will not be raised suflScienfly in size; and in the second winter they are generally, and always should be, housed: a (e\v agriculturists, who study their own interests, as well as the comfort of their cattle, allow ihem 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 THE RENFREWSHIRE BREED. 125 fetches imperial weight; the ox will average, at that age, from 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 6/. per head, the value of the cattle will be 54,720/. RENFREWSHIRE. Renfrewshire is on the Firth of Clycfe, 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 fe;v 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 ; b\it 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, but 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, Avith tlie exception, perhaps, of the Ayrshire cow, oftener than any other, he had, to a mucli 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 to present convenience and profit than to distant although not uncertain 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 name of the Dunlop cheese, but no great quantity of it has for some years past been made. The greater part of it is manu- * The Rev. Mr, Maxwell, in his Statistical Account of Kilbarchan (1799,) in tkis county, unknowingly proves that the Ayrshire cow was early introduced here when he says, ' The cows most esteemed here are those of a small mouth, head and neck long and small. With respect to colour, those spotted brown and white are preferred.' The Rev. Mr. M'Latchie, in his account of Mearns, in 1796, says, ' Most of the cows here are of a middle size, and of a brown and white colour. They give from ten to fifteen Scots pints of milk per day. 12* 126 CATTLE. factured in Ayrshire, as will be presently described. The population is far too dense for a cheese dairy, and the fanner can find a readier and more profitable sale for his milk. Sir Michael Stewart, to whom we owe some useful information, is of 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 butler 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 histoiy 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 the abbey of Paisley, were paid in stichs and cheese.'' The Renfrew dairymen manage their 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 of calving approaches, in order to prepare for an increased flow of milk, whicli, 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 for 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 catfle 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 mention this, in order that the reader may better comprehend the rapid distribution of the Ayrshire cattle over all these districts. The climate is moist but mild ; and the soil, with its produce, is calculated to render it the finest dairy country in Scodand, and equal perhaps to any in Great * A district society, consisting of the parishes of Kilmalcolm, Port Glasgow, Greenock, and 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 for the best cattle, horses, sheep, and swine : 89 Ayrshire cattle, 12 West Highlanders, 28 sheep, and 17 horses were exhibited — making a total of 166; and the number of com- petitors was 57. In 1831, 115 Ayrshire cattle, 18 West Highlanders, 86 sheep, and 40 horses were exhibited : — total 259 ; and 62 competitors. In 1832, 110 Ayrshire cattle were shown, 14 West Higlilanders, 160 sheep, and 33 horses : — total 317 ; and 63 competitors. For information respecting this branch society, we are indebted to Claud Marshall, Esq., of Greenock, a very active member ©f the parent one. THE AYRSHIRE BREED. 127 Britain. There is a great deal of permanent pasture on the sides and tops of the hills, which is covered by sheep ; but the greater part of the arable land is pasture and crop alternately. The pasture-ground is occupied by the beautiful dairy-stock, a very small portion of it being reserved for the fattening of cows too old to milk.* Ayrshire is divided into three districts ; — that lying on the south side of ihe 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 princi- pal claim to be the native country of the Ayrshire catde, and, indeed, they ■went by the name of the Cunningham cattle before these three Bailieries were united into one county under the name of Ayr. Mr. Alton, in his 'Treatise on the Dairy Breed of Cows,' (the most valuable work on the Dairy husbandry of the north, and on Dairy hus- bandry generally, that has yet been published,) thus describes the Ayr- shire cattle (p. 26) — ' 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 horns small, clear, crooked, and their roots at considerable distance from each other ; neck long and slender, tapering towards the head, withno loose skin below; shoulders x\\\x\; fore-quarters light; hind-quarters large; back straight, broad behind, the joints rather loose and open ; carcass deep, and joe/iu's capacious, and wide over the hips, with round fleshy buttocks^ Tail long and small ; legs small and short, with firm joints ; udder capacious, broad and square, stretching forward, and neither fleshy, low hung, nor loose ; the milk veins large and prominent; teats short, all pointing outwards, and at considerable dis- tance from each other; skin thin and loose; hair soft and woolly. The head, bones, horns, and all parts of least value, small; and the general figure compact and well proportioned.' Mr. Alton also informs us, that ' the Ayrshire farmers prefer their dairy-bulls, according 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. Colonel Fullerton, in his 'Survey of Ayrshire,' thus describes it: — 'There was scarcely a practicable road in the county ; — the farm-houses were mere hovels moated with clay, having the open hearth or fire-place in the middle, the dunghill at the door, the cattle starving, and the people wretched. The land was overrun witli 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 fallows — no green crop — no sown grasses — hardly a potatoe, 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 tlie 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 overrfin with thistles, until rest again enabled it to produce a scanty crop. No dung was ever spread on the out-field ; the starved cattle 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 few or no enclosures, the horses were either tethered during the summer months, or loose as well as the cattle, but under the tendency of a boy and a cur-dog, and the poor animals were kept in constant agitation, and impelled by starvation to fly from their bare legs. Thus the poor cattle, starved during the winter in the houses, and perpetually harassed dur- ing summer in the fields, were never in a fit condition for the market ; the finest lands were let for two or three shillings per acre ; and there was neither skill, capital, indus- try, nor credit to do away all this wretchedness.' t Mr. Rankine very properly remarks, that, ' compared with other improved breeds, the thighs, or what is called the twist of tlie Ayrshire cow, are thin. Siie is, charac- teristically, not Bi fleshy animal.' 138 CATTLE. wish them not round behind, but broad at the hook-bones and hips, and full in the flanks.' (p. 27.) Experience, and that 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-shaped 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. Alton 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 ef 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 afllirmed of the Ayrshire cattle, we are naturally anxious to know the origin, the progressive history, and the general management of this valuable animal. [The Ayrshire 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 Ayrshire cattle arise entirely from a careful selection of the best of the native breed? — if they did, it is a circumstance unparalled 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 the animal, the more clearly we can trace out the characteristic points of the ancestor, although every one of them improved. THE AYRSHIRE BREED. 129 Mr. Alton gives the following description of the Ayrshire cattle fifty years ago: — ' The cows kept in the districts of Kyle and Cunningham were of a diminutive size, ill-fed, ill-shaped, and they yielded but a scanty return in milk; they were mosdy 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 proof that the catde were but scantily 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 coarse and open; and few of them yielded more than three or four Scotcli pints of milk per day, when in their best plight; or weighed, when fat, more than from twelve or sixteen to twenty stones avoirdupois, sinking oflal.' — p. 19. He very naturally adds — ' It was impossible that these catde, fed as they then were, could be of great weight, well shaped, or yield much milk. Their only food in winter and spring was oat-str«w, and what they could pick up in the fields to which they were turned out almost every day, with a mash of a litde 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 cattle ■were half-starved.' [The Jli/rs/iire Bull.] If Mr. Alton's description of the present improved Ayrshire is correct* the breed is very mucli changed, and yet there is so much indistinct resemblance, that a great deal of it must have been done by careful selec- tion, from among the native catde, and belter 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 catde will trace the features of the old breed, he will suspect, what general tradition confirms, that it was a fortunate cross, or a succession of crosses with some foreign stock. 130 CATTLE. and that, probably, it was the Holderness that helped to produce the im- proved Cunningham 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, allliough slowly, and at con- siderable expense, happily amalgamated with his hardihood, and dispo- sition to fatten, and there resulted a breed, bearing about it the 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 FuUarton, whose account of" The Husbandry of Jiyrshire,'''' 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 March mont.' The Earl of Marchmont alluded to must have been that Alexander Hume Campbell, who manied 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 tradi- tionary 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 belter 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 Sornbergh 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 aftervv'ards 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 mdch 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 breeders, 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 tliis supposition is altogether erroneous. In Rawlin's ' Complete Cow-doctor,' published at Glasgow, in 1794, the following account is given of the Ayrshire cattle at that time — ' They have another breed called the Dunlop 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 smairlize, 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. Tlicy arc 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 remarkably awkward; their colour is generally pied or of a sandy red, varying in this from all other races.' — P. 66. THE AYRSHIRE BREED. ISl established in that that part of Ayrshire; although they had begun to extend beyond the Irvine into Kyle. About 1790, according to Mr. Alton, Mr. Fulton from BHih carried them first into Carrick, and Mr. Wilson of Kilpatrick was the first who took them to the southern parts of that dis- trict. So late as 1804 they were introduced on the estate of Penmore, on 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 Britain. The breed has much improved since Mr. Alton described it, and is short in the leg, the neck a little thicker at the shoulder, but finely shaped towards the head; the horns smaller than those of the Highlanders, but clear and smooth, pointing forwards, and turning upwards, and tapering to a point. They are deep in the carcass, but not round and ample, and especially not so in the loins and haunches. Some, however, have sus- pected, and not without reason, that an attention to the shape and beauty, and an attempt to produce fat and sleeky catde, 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 catde to Ayrshire, of which more than half are dairy-cows. The average will be one beast to every fifteen acres.* We agree with Mr. Alton, 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 presendy. 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 8c?. per gallon at the first liand, the produce of the cow will be 20/. 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. Three 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, Rxamined all the farms in Cunningham, found the number of milch cows to be 12,563, and that of yell 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 in at Dumbarton, or otlier Highland fairs for grazing in gen- tlemen'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 the stock. Of these a very considerable proportion are annually sold, and particularly of the etterlivs, 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 pro- duce of the dairy, is, perhaps, little less than the amount of all the land-rents.' 132 CATTLE. annum, or about five pounds per week all the year round, beside the 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 (24lbs.) of sweet-milk cheese, or 514 lbs. avoirdupois per annum, beside the whey and the calf.* This is certainly an extraordinary quantity of butter and cheese,, and fully establishes the reputation of the Ayrshire cow, so far as the dairy is concerned. t 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 boiving, 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 the manaifement and disposal of the butter, or milk, or cheese, or whey, as he chooses. The price varies from 8/. to 15/. In the neighbourhood of large towns it may be averaged at 15/.; and if to this be added the wages of a milkman or milkmaid for every eight cows, the whole expense of the cow will be 18/.; and the money received, at 10(/. per gallon, for 600 gal- lons, being but 26/., there will result only 7/. per annum profit on each cow; but this supposes that the milk of the cow is fairly disposed of without adulteration or trickery. + Mr. Aiton 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 liis 'Statistical Account of Dairy,' in this county, states that in 17i)4, before tlie establishment of tiiis improved Ayrsiiire cow, each cow would yield, on the average, in the course of the season, 18 stones, or 288 ibs. of sweet-milk cheese. t In some experiments conducted at the Earl of Chesterfield's dairy at Bradley-Hall farm, it appeared that, in the heiglit of the season, the Holderness would yield 7 gallons and a quart; the long horn and the Aldcrnc}', 4 gallons 3 quarts; and the Devon, 4 gal- lons 1 pint per day: and when this was made into butter, the result was, from the Hol- derness, 38^ ounces; from the Devon, 28 ounces; and from the Alderney, 25 ounces. The Ayrshire yields 5 gallons per day, and from that is produced 34 ounces of butter. t Mr. Robertson gives a curious extract from the farm-book of Mr. David Blair, *f Giffordland, in tliis county, dated 1743:— ' Mind that P. Lawson farmed 7 cows at 8 pounds each (13s. id. the Scots pound being equivalent to ls.8d.) She entered to the milk on the 21st of May, to the end of harvest. ' She made of sweet-milk cheese 9| stone, at 2/. Os. lOJ. - jE19 10 6|stone.of butter, at2/. 13s. 4d. 18 II5 stone, of common cheese, at \l. 6s. Sd. . - - - 15 6 8 Milk and cream to the house ...... 600 Scots jess 16 8 'She also sent ^ stone sweet-milk cheese to Glasgow, in a compliment. — Rur. Recol. lee, p. 62. The woman gained 21. 16s. 8d. Scots, or 4s. 8d. by her bargain, and the system of bowing or boyening was not again attempted during the period of thirty-six years, which this book 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 se;isoa; 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. It is a bad Ayrshire cow that does not now yield three times that quantity. The same book, extending from 1729 to 1765, also records the amount of wages: — "1729—1742. 1743—1759. 1760—1765. A ploughman, yearly - - £2 13 4 .. £3 6 8 .. £3 10 to iJS A maid servant „ - - - 16 8.. 1 10 .. 1 10 to 200 In more modern times, in that part of the country, the wages were as follows: — 1796. 1828. A ploughman, yearly - - .£12 to £16 :ei4 to jCIS A maid servant „-- 500 to 600 600 to 900 THE AYRSHIRE BREED. 133 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, fiom 7} to 8 pints (34 to 4 gallons) of their milk will yield a pound of butter, county Aveight (1|^ lb. 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 aa they have frequently been Avilhin the last fifteen years, milk will yield a profit in veal equal to 3}fZ or 4(1. 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 thinkj maintains that Mr. Alton'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 17/., which, taking 60 pints (half-gallons) to produce an Ayr- shire stone (24 lbs.) of cheese, and the price being lOs., 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 for4f/. a pint (half gallon)^ 900 pints would bring 15/. Where the whole of the milk could have been turned to such an account, such rents might have been paid ; but it is en'O- neous to calculate the quantity of milk given from the quantity of cheese required to enable a rent of 15/. 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 to believe that no stock of 20 cows ever averaged 1800 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 calving, 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 rai^ 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 husbandry. He keeps between twenty and thirty cows, and his stock has for many years been the handsomest I ever saw, and his faritt 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. t]\e average milk from each is 9 Scots pints (4i gallons,) and in a year 1300 Scots pints (650 gallons)^ that in the summer season 64 pints (32 gallons) of entire milk will malte 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 condition, 13 134 CATTLE. states that the average produce of each is 1375 pints (687| gallons). My belief, on the whale, 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 l400 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 7/. I3s. 6cl. per cow. We have 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 pardy 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 observes, 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, may 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 who purchase the Ayrshire cows generally select the coarsest animals they can find, in order to avoid the consequence of the change of climate and food. It is useless to exaggerate the qualities of any cattle, and it cannot 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 he long, perhaps, before they will be favourites with the butchers, for the fifth quarter will not THE AYRSHIRE BREED. 135 usually weigh well in them. Their fat is mingled with the flesh rather 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 Kirkum, 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 farms tliirty or forty young cows to keep up the slock and for sale. His cows are of the Ayrshire breed in its greatest perfection, and so well managed, that every milch cow on his farm yields him her own weight of the best cheese to be met with in Scodand, 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 afford 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 byre from six o'clock in the morning to six at night, and turns them out to pasture the other twelve hours. When rain comes, the house-feeding is discontinued. Whenever the pasture-grass begins to fail in harvest, the cows receive a supply 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 time. 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 part of 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 tine 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 spring, and that are continuing to give a co-nsiderable 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 they 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 136 CATTLE. effect as pea-meal, and will be profitably bestowed at the ordinary price of the grain, and though given in very moderate quantity.* Till the beginning of June they are seldom allowed lo lie in the field during the night; but tliough tliey are protected as much as possible from cold, their houses are at all seasons kept well aired and cool.' The advantage of feeding well in winter, and sending a cow lo grass in good condition, is now generally understood ; but the defect in practice is, that what can be alTorded 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 ponion 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 lo. It is in the winter food that 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 tlieir proper quantity of milk, or the milk is good for any thing. It is well for them 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 '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 slock that the rest might be saved.' Mr. Alton ('Dairy Husbandry,' p. 31) gives a satisfactory account of the rearing of dairy stock. They are selected from parents of the best quality, and few are brought up that are not of the fashionable colour. Those 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 lo 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 calfs 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 gels 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, bavins the tops nnd tails carefully taken off: add a sufficient quantity of water, and boil them tr jrethcr four or five hours. Add as much water ;is will &llo\v the liand to move easily through the mass. Sijucezc down the turnips, and add three pounds of pca-nieal. Give this to a cow in the morning, and the same in the evening, and as much sweet hay as she will e;;t up dean, 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 be detected, which is not likely, a small quantity of saltpetre put to the crcaui will take a off. THE AYRSHIRE BREED. 137 advantage in feeding calves ; but milk, when it can be spared, is the most natural food. The dairy calves are generally fed on the best pasture during the first summer, and have some preference over the other slock in food during 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. Rankine says 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 Dzmlop 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 Carrick for a cow, Cunningham for butter and cheese. And Galloway for 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 pecidiar 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. The skim-milk or common cheese, is made in Ayrshire, as every where else, of the milk from which the cream has been separated.! 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 early 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 number of the farmers in that or neighbouring parishes began to make full-milk cheese. (' Dairy Husbandry.') + For a very interesting comparison, and one rich in practical information, between the manufacture of the Cheshire and Dunlop cheese, we refer to Mr. Alton's invaluable •Treatise on Dairy Husbandry,' and also to the 'British Husbandry' of the 'Farmer's Series.' 13* 138 CATTLE. They are polled, yet they differ from the Gallowaj-s, and they differ as essentially from the Kyloes. An intelligent writer in the 'Farmer's Magazine' (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 liave 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, tlie 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 ot 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 their 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 cautioner, 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 deal 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 in grazing cows. They buy up those that are old, or which I'ail 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, 'i'hey 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 whole- some, 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 nciglibourhood oI'Largs. — The husbandry liorscs were hired during the wintcrandspring from tlie nclgliboariiig districts, and after the ploughing and sowing were over, they were returned iiome, oilen in a poor st.ite, to do the work of tlieir ill-judging musters. The saving of fodder, and the earning of a little money, were the alleged excuses, Mr. Lockarf ,in his statislicil accountof the p.rish ot'Lanark ,gives an interestingaccount of the commencement of tlie inclosure and pl.nting of Lanark-moor, which consisted of 1500 acres of land abandoned to heath and bent grass, in the neighbourhood of a populous THE LANARKSHIRE BREED. 133 A few of the native wild cattle are found in Androssan park belonging to the Earl of Eglintown, and in Aiichencruive park, the seat of Mr, Os- wald. They are, however, suspected not to be in a state of perfect puri- ty; they ate of a cream colour, with black muzzles, and black or brown, or red ears. Oxen are not worked, nor is there any creditable account of llieir ever having been worked, in Ayrsliire; 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. 'I'he 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 ex- cellent dairy-country, and which has been its character for nearly a cen- tury. 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 — the High- landers, with all their varieties and crosses, and the Ayrshires, 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. Alton (' Dairy Husbandry,' p. 27,) says that 'Lord Belhaven kept at Wlshaw-house lor 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 ch.est, deeper in the ribs nearer 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 60 decidedly and proverbially a dairy county; therefore this bull became and manufacturing town. Mr. Honeyman, advocate of Grcrmsay, was the first who ven- tured to ten, or tal?c on lease any great quantity of tiiis common land. Ileobtainrd a grant from tlic magistrates of nearly 3o0 acres. Purt of it. he inclosed for pasturage, and the rest he planted with Scots pine and lurch, and beech and asli; but lie was violently opposed b}' some of t)ic burgesses, who claimed an immemorial right of servitude upon this moor for the pusturagc of a certain number of cattle, and for fuel, seal and divot; and it was long before they could be induced to accept a more than equivalent for this right. He also states, that until i.flerthe middle of the last century, ' tiie lands of tlic out-pa- rish were generally let in sm^ll farms for nineteen years, the rents paid in victuals, and the labour per.brmcd by the tenant and his own faii.ily. A few acres adjoining to the house were kept in constant lill::gi; upon which ail the dung of tlie farm was Lid, and tlie out fields were kept alternately for three years in oats and three years in pasture.' Tliis is tlie wretched system of infield and outfield, to which we have before referred; but lie adds, when the victual rents were abolished, a sjnrit of industry and improve- ment began to diffuse itself over the parish. A regular system of inclosing commenced, and all the advantages connected with it. 140 CATTLE. deservedly a favourite, on account of his superior weight before, and hig being deep and level at the heart-place, which are points of essential im- portance 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 suf- ficient 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 Lanarkshire in the winter and the spring are sold to tliose who attend to this branch of dairy hus- bandry in Ayrshire and Strathaven. Mr. Alton ('Survey of Ayrshire,' p. 442) gives the following account of the management of this department of dairy husbandry: — ' 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 in- creased 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 forebroads, is given to the younger ones, and that which is last drawn, the afterings, 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 carcase they are perfectly innocent. He very properly adds, that it contains the whole mystery of calf-feed- ing: — ' The only art now used in feeding calves in the vicinity of Stratha- ven is to give them, after the first two or three weeks, abundance of milk, to keep plenty of dry litter under them, in a place that is ivell 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 litde 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 Inmp of chalk is usually placed within their reach, and with decided advantage. The practice of bleeding 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 ofial. An account is on record of one that weighed more than forty stones. After THE LANARKSHIRE BREED. 141 the animal is eight or ten years 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 belter use.* Two or three days before the calf is des- tined to be killed, he is somelimes 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 princi- pally 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 Ss., and raised on the milk of one cow to the price of 50s. or 60.s. by the time it is f)ur or five weeks old, and to 4/., 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 6'. or 7f. 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 12,^. or 16v. per week. There is one practice of too frequent recurrence in Slraihaven, 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 town to be slaughtered, do not in Scotland transport them 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 butclier 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 magistr.ites 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 race.f * Mr. Alton illustrates this in his • Dairy Husbandry,' p. 90. 'Tliomas Hamilton of Great Hill, near Strath.^vcn, fed, about the year 176;>, a cult" to such a degree, that he sold it at the price of 5Z. The price of veal was not liigher at that time tlian 2^/. per lb., which would make the elf more th;.n 34 stones imperii.1 weight.' ' In 181.5, Mr. Strang of Shawton, near Strathaven, fed a c.lf to the weight of 35 stones, and he was offered nearly 16/. for it; he refused to sell it at that price, and it soon atterwards sickened and died.' In 1819, Mr. William Granger of Dykehead fatted one to more than 38 stones im- perial weight. Mr. Alton properly remarks, that 'feeding to those weights proceeds, per- haps, more from ostentation than prudence. A calf will fed until it is from four to six weeks old, will (in the neighbourhood of Strathaven) if it is ordinarily thriving, and when the market is not very low, sell at from 4/. to 6/.; but when a calf is brought to that pitch, the milk may be turned to better account by feeding a young one, tiian by forcing one already sufficiently fed to a size and weight above nature.' + We extract from the same author (p. G.5) an account of the dairy established by Mr. Harley, at WiIlowbr.-nk, in the neiglibourhood of Glasgow, and from which tiiat city is principally supplied with milk. He |)reviously 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 tiiousand ; and as these cows arc the very best of the dairy-breed col- lected from all parts of the country, and are higiily fed, both to procure milk and to render them fat; and as they are always sold to the butcher whenever they are fatted, and are replaced by other cows that are lean and newly called, it nuy be reasonable to suppose that each cow will yit-ld, on the average, twelve Scotch pints (six gallons) of milk every day.' This seems to be an enormous quantity, and, allowing for occasional deficieiicy, amounting to about 2.K)0 g lions yearly from each cow. Then, afler telling us that ' the feeding is similar to that practised in other towns in Scotland, consisting of grains and 143 CATTLE. Butter-milk is used to a great extent by the labouring classes in all parts 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 froin the distilleries, the refuse of flour usually termed hen's meal, oats and beans ; that they have green clover and rye- grass in summer, willi tlie offal of gardens; and turnips and potatoes in the winter, both raw and boiled, with grain, ehaff, infusions of hay, &c., but no oil-cake ;' he pro- ceeds to describe the extensive dairy of Mr. Hurley: — ' liike many other useful establishments, Mr. Harley's dairy proceeded more from accident th;m 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 engaged in manufacturing cotton goods, and who still carries on tiiut 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 public use by supplying the city better than it had been before, but he erected cold and hot 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 these baths, having expressed a wish to be provided with warm milk after bathing, Mr. Harley procured a cow for 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 tliat which was sold there was of bad quality, he began at first to supply his friends, and afterwards tlie city, with milk entire as it was drawn from tJie cow, and in a state of cleanliness ibrmerly 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. ' TJie 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 arc 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 wliich 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 cliain, 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 pulleys like tlie 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 tlirown out of the stall to the passage. The grating, while it keeps the fodder from being thrown out of the crib, permits tire 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 can be rendered at all times as cool as the surrounding atmosphere. 'Tlie 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 are lain with hewn pavement, and are, with the gratings, division boards, &.C., carefully was.hed every day, and kept as clean as the lobby of a dwelling-house. The whole of the cows arc curried and brushed daily, and kept as clean as cavalry horses. ' The bottom of the grips declines a little towards the centre, to lead the water into 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 »Stc., 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 pouring a small quantity of water at the other end, THE LANARKSHIRE BREED. 143 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 hnen 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 \\ ilh what remains in the bag, and a litde 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 tine, and to whom some of this bog-hay is given when the storms of win- ter 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 immedi- ately betake themselves. These cattle are sold off in May, and are sup- posed to have increased 25s. or 30s. 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 imme- diately disposed of. THE SOUTHEAST 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 grain sand 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 tlirough 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 aggregate of the whole, is ascertained, and regularl)' 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 through 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 accountable; 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 in- troduce water, or any other liquid, by it. The milk-puils, 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, tliat they can be opened and cleaned in the in- side 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-cuttor, 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 which the work people term " the cows' tea-pot." ' lU CATTLE. pies some share of the attention 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 — wiih many more of the Ayrshire cattle; but with the small farmer, the native l)reed, still bearing about it much of the Highlander, is either preserved entire, or crossed in every^ possible way; and crossed with most advantage by the short-horn. Mr. Dawson, of Bonnylear, informs ns that ' the cow,' (i. e. the pre- vailing 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, wnth 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, tlie 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 consum- 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 disposed 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 Lothian ox is a fine animal, compared with the cow of that district. The difference 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 short. ' The grazing 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 coves-ed place to afTord them shelter; and they are supported during the winter on straw and watei, with the refuse of the grain. This is what is called watering, and it aflbrds a good sup- ply of dung for the farm. In the spring they are turned out to graze, and if they get into sufTicient condition, are sold in the autumn to the butcher, but in many instances they are finished ofT with turnips. ' Cattle that have been previously well grazed, are likewise bought at these trysts, to consume the belter sort of turnips. They are stall-fed from October to February, and are then usually ready for market. They weigh from about 35 to 50 lbs. Dutch, and an .acre of turnips will feed two oxen for four months.' * Mr. Robertson confirms this; he says, 'The farmers now do not even rear their own milch cows, but purchase tliem from lime to time as required; in some cases every season, so that their dairy is always in full milk, the new cows being purchased newly- calved, and those of tiic former year put to fatten as soon as they become yell, or dried up in milk, the ample store of succulent food enabling the husbandman so to do.' THE EDINBURGHSHIRE BREED, 145 The chief attenlion of the farmer 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 fiit 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 kin s, or about one to every nine acres. Horses have now quite super- seded oxen in husbandry work.* EDINBURGHSHIRE, OR MID LOTHIAX. 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 Pendand 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 cultivation. Not more than < ne-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 slock, 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, was generally of a black colour, or having a great proportion of black in its 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 stripe along the back, Tiiey 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 fat.f * Mr. Gray, in his statistical account of Livingstone, gives a curious description of the old Linlithgow plough. He writes in 1798, ' Not much more than 25 years ago, it was not uncommon to sec 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 cavalcade, was obliged to tra- verse at least three miles to their one, to prevent them from falling asleep. Now we sec 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 belter cjred for than that of the horses. They were peculiarly under the gudewife's management, who with her maid took care that the milch cows should not be neglected in their sodden meat, which consisted in a hotch-potch 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 out- house; as also, in separate masses the havings or rakings from the barn-floor, and the 14 146 CATTLE. The Ayrshire, however, wliich was scarcely introduced in 1820, has giadiially 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 Roxl)urgli cow has been much ui-ed in dairy establishments, on account both of the quantity and the qua- lily 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 Edinbuigh, 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 tlie present time, cost from 12/. to 16/., whereas an Ayrshire cow will cost from 9/. to 12/. The Teeswater cow, after standing long in the dairy, will occasionally fail in her feet, and she will then cease to leed, and become a total wreck, especially if she is old. The Ayrshire being smaller, is not so heavy on her ft-et, 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.'* shortest or best of the straw, togetlicr with the bladings of the greens in their raw state fmrn the kail-yard, and tlien (as alleged) rips of corn drawn liiddJing-wise from the Blacks in the barn-yard, especi.illy to the new-calvcd cows, or any stray stuff that bore a iicniblancc of going otherwise to unuse. The herd boy, too, was enjoinea 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 those times on almost every farm. Tliis anxiety in tlie gudewife for the welfare of her cows was generally connived at by the gudeman, 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 pur- pose of supplying the inhabitants of Edinburgh with pure milk. The grounds called Meadow-bank, situated about a mile from Edinburgh on the London road, and also some other property named Wheatfield, were purchased at the expense of 8tJ00Z.; and 14,000Z. more was expended in the erection of a noble building. In the front of the edifice is a semi-circular projection, in the oonlrc of which is the principal entrance, having a column on either side supporting a handsome pediment. Tlie interior of this projection con- tains a saloon corresponding with it in form, and through which the visiter passes into th(; Great Byre. This is a noble place, and is supported by two rows of cast-metal pil- lars. The stalls are divided by the same material, and are capable of containing 200 cows under one roof. It is 3U 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, tlie visiter has a jileasing 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 for the common drink of the animals. Arched vaults extend below, tlirough the whole length of the byre. 'I'he urine readily passes, and tiie dung is conveyed without difficulty into these vaults, whence they are removed through a tunnel that opens on the main road. Over the s.iloon 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, count- ing-liouse, milk-house, ciiurning-houso, engine-house to churn the milk, store-houses for potatoes, lofts for hay, a steaniing-house to prepare food lor 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 shrub- bery ; 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 con- cern was so pLinly a losing one, that it was abandoned by the company, and let to a epirited 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 also on many a subject connected with our work, we are indebted to our kind friend, Mr. Dick of Edinburgh. Mr. THE EDINBURGHSHIRE BREED. H7 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 E(Jinburgh, there are fewer milch cows kept in all the Lotluans, than there 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- ably in the vicinity of a great city. The Lothian farmers rarely breed their own dairy catde, 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 the-ir stock every year; those of the former year being put to fatten as soon 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 cow- keepers in the neighbourhood, or large dairies; two of which are esta- blished 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 sufficiently sheltered, where they may run (luring the winter, and on which sheep cannot safely be turned, 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 ns some valuable hints as to the management of these cows. He prefers tiic fresh draff or grains irom a strong ale brewery, to any other feeding ior the prod action of milli and of a good quulity. He gives tiicm two feeds of this (^half a bushel constituting a feed) twice every day, and also two feeds of grass or turnijts. When green beans, or peas, or tares, are to be obtained at a moderate price, they are preferred, as imparting a richer quality to the milk than the grass will do. A certain quantity of salt is giveji at every meal to promote the digestion of the food, and pie- serve 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 draft' from table beer or draught ale as of a very inferior quality, and producing a less quantity of milk and of a very in- ferior kind. The sproutings {cummins) of malt furnish a valuable article of drink. He puts two bushels into a large tul), and adds as much boiling 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 previously put in a very considerable quantity of salt. The tea from these two bushels will be as mucii as 70 or 80 cows will drink at one time, and he commonly gives it to them twice every day, before they arc fed with the draff. At the commencement of the turnip season, and when the turnips are juicy and green, he gives less of the cummins to drink, or has recourse to distillers' draft", 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 dratf". Steamed potatoes he seldom uses for the milch cows; they fatten well, but they do not produce so much milk as raw potatoes. Sometimes, wiien the turnips are fresh and juicy, lie gives one feed of them, and one of steamed potatoes, with the usual feeds of draff. Steamed potatoes, with wliich a little bruised or ground grain is mixed, have been very useful in preparing the dried cows for the butcher. * The Costorphine cream used to be in high repute in Edinburgh and the neighbour- ing country. The process, as extracted from the statistical account of the parish of Costorpbine, is very simple. ' They put the milk wlien first drawn into a barrel or wooden vessel, whicli is submitted to a certain degree of heat, generally by immersion in warm water ; this accelerates the separation of the oleaginous from the serous parts of the milk. The milk is tlien drawn off by a hole in the lower part of the vessel, what remains i? put into the plunge-churn, and, after being agitated some time, is sent to market as Costorphine cream.' 148 CATTLE. HADDINGTON, OR EAST LOTHIAN. This highly cultivated district lies partly on the Firtli of Forth, and partly on the North Sea. On the sea-coast the system of grazing is pur- sued, but not to a considerable extent; the central parts are mostly arable; and the hills of Lammermuir are devoted to slieep 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 liair, handsome and hardy, but not yielding much milk. A few of them aie stall bred, and more are grazed on the natural pastures of Lammermuir, where sheep would not be safe. East Lothian cannot be called a breeding country, and there arc few of the farmers who breed cattle as a regular branch of their husbandry. The great bulk of the catde are bought at Falkirk, in September and October, and selected not from any particular breed, but according to the fancy of the purchaser. They are mostly Aberdeens, Angus, or Fife cat- tle, with a few Highlanders, which are put into the yard immediately on getting home, and are fed in the beginning of winter on white 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 feet are in a better state to bear the journey to the market; and that the same number of cat- tle can rot a greater quantity of straw. Mr. Rennie, to whom we are in- debted 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 cows, until within a few years, were so various in their form and quality, that it v/as difficult to trace their ancestry with anything like precision; yet there were among them many very excellent milkers. Mr. George Rennie, of Fantassie, had a cow, tliat, during one week, yielded 22 Scotch pints (11 gallons daily), from which were produced 22 pounds 10 ounces avoirdupois of butter. They were chiefly a cross of the Holderness with the native breed, but they have yielded in a great measure to the Fifeshire and the Ayrshire breeds, which, with aii increasing number of tolerably pure short-horns, divide the county among them. Li 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 Avell, 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 wliich we make the following extract, con- firmatory of Mr. Brown's account, and which, injustice 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 Tecswaters, 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 l)est short-horns in the knigdom. I also liad tv.o or three bulls of the best blood from the county of Durham. I had three or four large sales of stock, which v/ere attended by some of the most celebrated breeders in England and Scodand. 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- horned, 01 Teeswater breed of the best and purest sort, was introduced THE ROXBURGHSHIRE BREED. 149 into the county principally from the stock of the late Mr. Rohertson, of Lady-kirlv, and which were descended in a direct line from those of Messrs. Colling, of Darlington. Others were likewise brought from some of the most celebrated stocks in the north of England. For this, he says, the county was indebted to Mr. John Rennie, son of Mr. George Rennio. 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, of Woodhall, received the second prize at the Smithfield Cattle Show, ia 1831. Mr. Rennie obtained many prizes from the Highland and his own dis- trict Society. He has had many beasts that weighed from 80 to 100 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 from 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 sliort-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 tine 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. ROXBURGHSHIRE. 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 cattle peculiar to this county it cannot now be distinguish- ed. 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 principal part of its present motley stock.' — P. 144. Now, except with the small farmer, and it is the same with hiin 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 Avell knowa 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.' 'J'his nameless breed, w-hich 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 English portion of the south of the Tweed, have been finding their way in increased numbers across the bor- ders, and disputing the palm with the Ayrshire, and threatening to beat them out of the field. The last cattle-show at Kelso (1832) will complete the victory, for while thirty short-horned bulls competed for the prize, only two Ayrshire heifers were produced. The rich soil of a considerable part of Roxburghshire, and of tho 14* 150 CATTLE. south of Scotland generally, may support this large and excellent breeds but even in the southern counties there is no inconsiderable portion of in- ferior land, and in tlie northern counties there is a great deal of it, and it may be worth while to consider liow far it may be prudent so decidedly to encourage a race of cattle, that must be restricted to comparatively fa- voured districts and localities. With all their pre-eminent qualities, and Ave shall do them full justice in the proper place, they have already been tried in the middle and the north of Scodaud, 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 .ledburgh, 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 ^iO 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 Avinter. Dr. Douglas computes the turnip-fed catde at GOOO, and those that are grass-fed at the same number. Very few oxen are employed in husbandry. BERWICKSHIRE. This county has well been 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 of the south of Scotland. So late as the year 1772, one of the parishes was described as pos- sessing all the peculiarities of bad husbandry to which we have so often alluded in our sketch of the catde husbandry of Scotland. ' The coun- try was almost totally uninclosed, and let out into small farms; an incon- siderable part only of ea(di could be kept in condition for tillage. The croft part had all the litde manure, the out-field was partly cropped with oats, without any kind of manure, and pardy allowed to lie waste, pas- tured by some half-starved catUe. 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 Ber- wickshire; but now, by the introduction of turnip-husbandry, and a more scientific attention to the rearing and feeding of catde, 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 drouglit, which continued during the whole summer of 1766, two-thirds of the cattle at Lauder, in tliis county, were slaughtered at Martinmas, and sold at 2|(i. per pound. Many of those tliat remained died at the stall in the following spring, alter having consumed all the straw that remained. THE BERWICKSHIRE BREED. 151 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 followed, and many spirited improvers were soon found in the Merse, or lower part of the country. Tiie 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 catde 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 wliich 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 Avas 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 Recol- lections, p. 369) thus describees the progress which Mr. Hogarth had made: ' He had the finest hirsel of beautiful cattle, of his own rearing, 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 favourite 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 gieat size ; and a great many Highlanders are bought for winter-grazing, or to co)isume the straw and inferior turnips in winter, and be prepared for sale by grass in the spring and summer. Mr. Kerr, in his excellent Survey of this County, published in 1809, says, that ' there are few legular 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, or by purchase from different 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 each 152 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 litfle dairies an ob- ject of particular attention, and by tliem chiefly the few contiguous markets within their reach are supplied,'* — p. 327. The winter food diflTers with the difl'erent 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 and increase of size. Hay is rarely allowed to the cattle stock, except to early calving cows a little while before calving, or to other catfle when turnips fail before the spring-grass comes in. Oil cake is not much used, except for carrying on some favourite to a great size. Soiling cattle is getting more into practice. THE SOUTH-WESTERN LOWLANDS. These contain Selkirk, Dumfries, Kirkcudbright, and Wigtown. More than five-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. Aiton, in his ' Treatise on Dairy Husbandry,' p. 5, lias some valuable remarks on this too-neglected branch of agriculture. ' In a large store farm in the Lamniermuir, Annanddle, or in any otlier of tlie southern or eastern districts of Scotland, fifty, one hundred, perhaps several hundred, acres of land, much of it lying in a state of com- plcte waste, overrun vvith brambles, heath, and rushes, or burns, or streams of water at times running over and wasting the best of it, might, by proper industry, be converted into excellent duiry-ground, and rendered productive of mucii grain, roots, and hay, without doing great injury to the sheep walks. Part of it could be appropriated every winter to the feeding of tiie young or weak of the sheep flock; and, when the hill-pus- ture was buried under snow, tiie sheep would often find relief on the low and cultivated lands, or be supported on the hay, turnips, &.c. raised thereon, and stirred up for their use 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 their sheep 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 tor dairy-ground, but is nothing to be reckoned upon 10, 15, or 20 milch cows, and a considerable portion of good grain in early ordinary seasons.' THE SELKIRK BREED. 153 of the ' Statistics of Selkirkshire,' pubhshed in the 18tli 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 litde bothy or shieling there, the small round fold for the calves, the larger one for the cows, and the litde 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 laud was contained, spr(!ad in patches here and there over an immense surface; and within this fence the catde 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 tiie 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 catde, given by the pastoral society of Selkirkshire, are all for the short horned breed, snd therefore the principal farmers cherish that breed; but the catde 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 carcass, than any other breed or cross in Scodand.' Mr. Hogg deserves much praise for his zeal in improving the forest breed of catde! 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, how- ever, obtained a calf of his getting, which proved as fine an animal as his sire, the use of which he permitted to all his neiglibours, 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-horned breed, with horns white to the top, and the prevading colour white; but the breed is rather small, weighing when fat 60 or 70 stones. The quantity of milk they give is not large, but rich in butter.' Speaking of the management of catde in Selkirk, he says, that ' There is generally, over Selkirkshire, a boundary between the sheep and catde pastures, over which the cows are. not allowed to range. It is always an article in the Duke of Buccleagh's leases, that no cattle shall be allowed to graze on the sheep pasture: nevertheless, many farmers, both of his, and of all tlie other proprietors, graze young cattle, and Highland cattle on their mountain pastures, wherever the farms are rough, ooarse, 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 catde 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 catde 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 the whole of the winter.' 154 CATTLE. The calves are fed three times in the day, and get two quarts at each meal for three months; after that, the farmers' wives begin to ' take a stoiip 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 Avith 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 effects 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, commence a new chapter. CHAPTER IV. THE POLLED CATTLE. We have tinct breed already stated that there appear to be the remnants of two dis- tuict breeds of aboriginal catde in the parks of Chillingham in Northum- berland, and Chalelherault in Lanarkshire; the first are mitidle 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 hunilies, the Suffolks and the Norfolks. How far this may be correct will appear as we take a rapid survey of these districts. GALLOWAY. The stewartry of Kirkcudbright and the shire of AVigton, with a part of Ayrshire and Dumfries, formed the ancient province or kingdom of Cal- loway. The two first counties possess much interest with us as the native district of a breed of polled, or doddecl, or * humble 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-horns: but some of them were polled — they were either remnants of the native breed, 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 far into England, and principally to the counties of Norfolk and Suliblk.t * Dr. Johnson gives a curious derivation of the term humble. He says of their black cattle, (Journey to the Western Isles, p. 186.) ' Some are without horns, called by the Scots hiimlde cows, as we call a bee a humble bee that wants a sting.' + In 1663 the Rev. Andrew Symson was appointed minister of the parisli of Kirkinner, in the county of Wigton; and in J 682 he publislied a work, entitled 'A large Description of Galloway.' The manuscript was accidentally found in the Library of the Faculty of Advo- cates in Edinburgh, and was pubhshcd by a gentleman connected with Galloway. It is THE KIRKCUDBRIGHT BREED. 155 The polled beasts were ahva}'s 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- land 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 Scodand, was in a sadly deplorable state until about 1786, when the Earl of Selkirk be- came desirous of efljecting 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 Murrays now o t of print. The following extracts from it will be interesting-, as exhibiting the state of the breed and management of eattle in Galloway at that period. ' The north parts of the countrey are hilly and inoimtainous; the southern parts more level and con- taining 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 aeeonipanicd by violent frosts. The products are bestiall, small horses, sheep, wool, white wollen, bier (barley,) oats and hay; as for wheat, there is very little. The besti.iU are vented in England, the sheep at Edinburgh, the wool at Ayr and Glasgow and Stirling, and the horses and woolen cloatli at the fa ires. ' In this parish of Kirkinner, Sir David Dunbar of Baldone (a) hath a park, about two miles and an halfc in length, and a mile and an halfe in breadth, the greatest part whereof is rich and deep valley ground, and yeelds excellent grasa. This park can keep in winter and in summer about a thousand bestiall, part whereof he buys from the countrey and grazcth 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 lor the most part, which he keeps till August or September; so that yearly he either sells at home to drovers, or sends to St. Faiths, Satcli,and other faires in England, about eighteen or twcntie scores of the four year olds; those of his owne breed arc 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 filly of that sort were seized upon in England for Irish (b) caltell, and because the person to whom tliey were entrusted had not witnesses there ready at the time to swear that they were seen calved in Scotland, (altliough 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. L and some others, knocked on the head and killed: a very hard measure, and an act unworthy persons of that quality and station. ' I can say that the park of B.ildone is tlie chiefe, yea, I may say, the first, and, as it were, the mother of all the i-cst. Sir David Dunbar being the first man that brought parka to be in request in this countrey; but now many others, finding the great benefit there- of, have followed his example, as the Earl of Galloway, Sir William Maxwell, Sir God- frey M'Culloch, Sir James Dalrymple, and many others, who have now their parks and enclosed grounds.' (ff) The ancestor of the Earl of Selkirk's family. (6) At this period the importation of black cattle from Ireland was prohibited. 156 CATTLE. of Broiighlon, the Herons of Kirroiicbtrie, 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 indeljted. [_Lean Galloway Gx."} 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 Wood- ford Lees. The Galloway ciittle are straight and broad in the back, and nearly level from the head to the rump. 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 round- ed like the longitudinal section of a roller.' They are long in the quarters and ribs, and deep in 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 importance, for the advantage of length of carcass consists in the animal being well ribbed home, or as little space as possible lost in the flank. THE GALLOWAY BREED. 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.* \_The Galloiuay Ox in good condition.'] * Mr. Cullcy, who is great authority in these cases, thus describes the Galloways: • In most respects, except wanting horns, these cattle resemble the long-horns both in colour and shape, only they are shorter in their form, which probably makes them weigh less. Their hides seem to be a medium between the long and the shorthorns; 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 years old, when they are taken to the fairs in Norfolk and Suffolk previous to the turnip 158 CATTLE. This cut represents the Galloway bullock almost ready for the butcher. The beautifully level laying on of the flesh and fat will not escape the notice of the reader. The breeding of cattle has been, from time almost immemorial, the prin- cipal 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, nnd healthy, particularly in tlie lower districts, the substratum being either gravel or schistus rock. There are many large tracts 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 tlie 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. Tlie 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 corn crop i; 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 pasture grounds. The young cattle are chiefly bred and reared to a cer- tain age upon the higher 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 afibrd their young slock a liitle shelter from the driving blasts of winter. No inconsiderable num- ber of the Galloway farms are as low as 50/. per annum, and even lower; a greater number are from 300/. to 500/., while a few may reach nearly or quite 1000/.; but the average rent may be fairly computed at about 200/. 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 are « feeding season, whence the greater part of them are removed in the winter and spring (when fat) to supply the consumption of the capital, where they are readily sold and at high prices, for tew or no cattle sell so high in Smithfield market, owing lo their laying their fat on the most va'uablc parts; and it is no unusual thing to see one ot these little bul- locks 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 Glenlove, and that these cattle are thinner in the hinder quarters than such as have been crossed by other breeds.' — p. 79. * Mr. Culley gives a curious account of this — ' The calves, from the time they are THE GALLOWAY BREED. 159 allowed, morning and evening, a liberal supply; generally more than half 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. AVhen the calf begins to graze a little, the milk is abrid. 16* £. s. d. 12 1 3 6 3 4 18 3 6 174 CATTLE. on straw and rushy grass, which nothing- else would have eaten, until the month of May, when ihey were turned inio some Norfolk meadows, (worth aboLit ten shilling 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 about six pounds a piece. Supposing each occupied an acre of meadow, which (with town charges) reckon at . 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 ^ , , q meadow ground and aftermath ... 3 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 11/. 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 'rowens' 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. 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, rarel)' seen in Suflblk, 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 ^o//ff/, 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 Sudblk, 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 Suflblk Traveller,' published nearly a cen- tury ago, describes the Suffolk cow as having 'a clean throat, with little dewlap, a snake head,t thin and short legs, the ribs springing well from the centre of the back, the carcass 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, aud who had llieir fair share of 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 tliem. THE SUFFOLK BREED. 175 loose and creased when empty, the milkvehis remarkably large and rising in knotted pufis; and tliis so general, that I scarcely ever saw a famous milker that did not possess this point, a general habit of lameness, hip bones high and ill covered, and scarcely any part of the carcass so formed and covered as to please an eye that is accustomed to fat beasts of the finer 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 Sutlblks. 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 Sufiblk cow, but, nevertheless, she is not inferior to any other breed in the quantity of milk that she yields. In the height 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 heifer with her first calf. They were kept on three acre? only of grass, without any change of pasture until after 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 6S31bs. The Rev. Arthur Young, the Secretary to the Board of Agricul- ture, forty years ago, adds, that one Holderness cow would have consumed all tiie food of the three, without returning half of the produce. There are few short-horn cows, although far superior in size to the SufTolks, 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 I 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 from a long-horn of Mr. Toosey's breed were set in separate bowls for 36 hours. The milk of each was then skimmed, and tiic cream fromtlie milk of the SulTolk weighed 2^ ounces more than that from the horned cow. The cream was after that put into two bottles and churned, and one quarter part inure butler was extracted from the cream of the polled cow than from that of the horned one. A variety of experiments, however, must be made before this question can be settled, and particularly in summer, when the milk of both is so much more abundant. The time v.hich lius 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 ofa 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 makes amends for the diminution of quantity. The most extraordinary milkers are usually the very worst looking animals. t Mr. Cullcy extracts from Mr. Young's Survey of Suffolk, an estimate of the pro- duce of one of the cows: — £ g. d. Three firkins of butter, each weighing ^ cwt. at 32s. . . 4 16 ^ wey of cheese 1 4 A hog 10 A calf 10 Total ... 7 10 176 CATTLE. A little good cheese is made in Suffolk, but generally speaking, the milk is more profitably converted into butter, and the cheese manufactured from the skim milk is alone of very inferior quality. \_Suffulk Cow.'] The cattle are, by the majority of the farmers, much better attended to 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. Some- 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 tusnips 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 In his third edition Mr. Young calculating the butter and cheese at a higher price, makes the produce 8Z. 12s. 6rf. Mr. Parkinson, a very excellent writer on the breeds and general treatment of cattle but not to be depended upon when he speaks of their diseases has the following ver}' appropriate remarks on this, vol. i. p. 119, which we have somewhat condensed. ' When it is asserted that the best of the cows give 24 quarts of milk in one day, and that the profit of one of tliem for a year is only 11. 10s., tlie milk and the quantity of butter bear no sort of proportion to eaeli other. There must be an error in the one; for if tlic produce of this cow be only calculated at half a year, or 26 weeks, the butter would he 1841bs. which at Is. a pound, would give 9/. 4s.; the hog would be worth, in otlier butter and cheese counties 2Z.; and the calf about 15s. Skim-milk cheese fetches from 2/. 5s. to 2Z. 15s. in Dorsetshire and Somersetshire, which would make the produce amount to, \5l. 13s., a sum much nearer the truth than that stated by Mr. Young. * Forty years ago (1792) the practice of growing cabbages was almost universal among the dairy farmers; but the butter was sometimes bad when the cabbages began to be decayed and this vegetable did considerable damage to the succeeding crop. The cul- ture of tliis food for milch cows is therefore in a gieat measure superseded. THE SUFFOLK BREED. 177 them range at will; and that every kind of food went much farther. The farmers believed that they were more healthy and profitable when thus ex- posed to the weather; than if they had a roof over them, and that the warmth produced by their lying so close to each other, and by the screea 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 tlie 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 oflfers a temptation which the farmer cannot resist ; and the young ones are fattened and disposed of as soon as possible. The selec- tion 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. IS tiff oik Bull.] Another instance of mismanagement is not always avoided even at the present day. He says that ' the bulls are rarely sufierered back to the native Irish character, they never fully regained their hardihood, or their reputa- tion as milkers. It was likewise found that the pure Teeswater did not suit the ordinary management of catde 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 hud 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 eflect 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 hini into Ire- land, and the experiments were more systematically conducted. Mr. Conolly of Castletown, to whom we are indebted for some valuable infor- mation, efl'ected 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; but a half-bred stock was introduced, which improved the shape and increased the size of the Donegal cattJe, 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 theij evident value has produced more attention to the care and feeding of cattle genera'Uy, Mr. Walter tells us, that ' within the last ten years, the breed has been greatly improved by crossing with the Dutch, the Ayrshire, 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 inhabi- tants) 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 llie management of cattle in Wexford, Mr. Walker gives a faithful account of that which takes place over a great part of 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 * Tiie Rev. A. Ross, in his ' Survey of Lontlonderry,' published in 1814, thus speaks of the mode of letting-,,ind the cost of these summcrings: 'The grazing of cattle is paid by the summ, by wliich is lobe understood, tlic grazing of a tow when above three years 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 fiveftct; two colts arc equal to a horse; six sheep, or four ewes and four lambs, the same; 24 geese are a summ. Thus then, if 6s. be tlie price of a summ, a year old will be 2s., a two year THE IRISH BREED. 185 gentlemeii and large farmers are beginning to cultivate mangel-wurzel and turnips, and to use hay ; but the generality of the cattle are wintered on straw and potatoes, and many of them very imperfectly housed. They of course thrive better and aflbrd a larger profit, where care is taken of them; but they are so hardy in constitution, as to yield a fair return under the 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, tliere, as a low, broad, hardy breed, with thick heads and necks, and a thick hide. He says, that, ' the farmers run their cattle out nearly all the season, only taking 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 the grazier, 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 4i cwt.) — but they might be greatly improved, if 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 con- tinue, 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, constiiute the mode of feeding ; except that some of the graziers keep up part of their pasture for the fat catde, which they retain at the end of the season. These run out in all weathers, and have cribs fixed in the field to give them hay in a stormy ■ night, bi\t ihey have no shed over them. Lord Wicklow, who stall-feeds with turnips, mangel-wurzel, and pota- toes, 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-wurzel, 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 for feeding, for the dairy, for working, and also for hardness, or quality to bear bad wp.ather. 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 grazing properties of these cattle. He says, that ' they are often old 4s., a horse 10s., and so on. The charge for a summ in the mountains, from May to November, varies from Gs. to 16s., according to the goodness of the pasture. In the parks which are kept up for fattening, it is frum 21. to 21. 10s, *Mr. Rawson gives tlie following account of tlic strange privations to which the cat- tle are sometimes exposed. ' The droves of cattle when turned out are generally attend- ed by a solitary herdsman and his boy, who are obliged to keep boundaries. Hay is never dreamed of as necessary; and in case of deep snow of long continuance, the heal- ing bullocks have nothing to resort to but coar.se grass on undraincd and unimproved moors and wet lands, which have scarcely been trodden on during the previous summer. Turnips, rape, or even straw are never thought of ; nay, an extensive grazier would Lugh at what lie would call your folly,if you doubted the health of his bullocks on his coarse bogs. Houses or coverings of any kind are not thought of. Yet alter a.l these severe trials of thriltiness, when at four years old, they are put to fatten about the 1st of May, and in five months are made fit for slaugliter.' 17* 186 CATTLE. brought to be fat without stall-feeding ; and when upon good land, only require fodder with hay upon the ground for about three months, and with- out housing. They arc, however, frequently housed, and fed with turnips and potatoes with good success.' Mr. Moore O'FarrcU speaks also of the great improvement effected in the Irish cattle within the last twelve years, ])y 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 ,' hut he very properly adds, that ' the two first crosses are 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 the best short- horn breed, which succeed admirably in that district. Mr. M'Neil, of Larn, in Antrim, tried a Highland bull, but the breed Avas not improved, either for the dairy or the butcher. Perhaps there is no 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 Jive 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 value of 439,128/. From that period, the number seemed to be gradually di- minishing. In 1824, there were only 62,393 oxen and cows exported ; in 1825, there were 63,524, and of the value of about 350,000/. No later details can be given, for tlie tratlic between Britain and Ireland was then placed on the fooling of a coasting trade : the numbers, however, were not» until lately, fewer than they were in 1825, Before the estal^lishment of steam navigation, many inconveniences and difiiculties attended the transport of the Irish cattle. Many of thens 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 thev 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 caule 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 ar- rive in a prime state of fatness ; they have a long way to be driven, and are often badly supported on the road. In Ireland, they have had a capi- tal 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 them delivered and be cleared out in good time on the following day. In addition to this transport of cattle for the graziers in England, Ire- land 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. Cully 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- zier and the contractor was often transacted, we subjoin in a note a somewhat humorous account, extracted from Dutton's Survey of THE IRISH BREED. 187 the county of Clare:* we hope that the picture is not a hltle over- charged. The perfect establishment of steam navigation, while it affords facilities for the transport of live-stock, yields still greater ones for the carriage of the carcass; and cattle may now be slaughtered in the evening at any of the pons 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 have stated that the old breed of Irish cattle is most valued for 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 * When the merchants are combined, the o;raziers are completely at (heir mercy, and suffer, not only every kind of gross indignity of treatment fioni these great men, but serious 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 reads a letter from Cork or Limerick stating the rumours of a peace or the expected very low price, is obliged to drive his cattle to either of these markets. After driving them into either of those towns, he waits upon the great man, and with all humility, begs to know if hs wants any fat cattle; after, a good deal of pretended Imrry of business, and waiting for a repetition of the question, ' he believes he shall not want any thing 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 offal. He must set 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 attitude. 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 Iraud he has to suffer. First, they take Ibr their perquisites several pounds of his best beef; and if he has cows, unless they arc well paid, will cut away large quantities of the udder, which they call oifal, and which is the property of tlie mercliant, though he pays nothing for it. The mercha-nt also gets the tongues; and if, perhaps, the grazier wants a iew, 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 refused, because, truly, it s-hould be a few pounds less than the stipulated weight per beast. An sppcal is then 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 — 'Eeallj', Sii, I do not wish to take your cattk; the prices I receive in England are so low, 1 shall lose by my contract: suppose you would try if you could do better clsevvhere; but I will agree to take your beef, though below the weight, if you make the terms lower.' The griizier has now no redress, and must agree to any terms. Tlie business does not end here. Then he enquires what mode of payment; bills at ninety one days are the best terms he can get. He then applies to a chandler 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 arc 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 tiiem, perhaps, to their own benefit. The price depends nut only on the causes before-mentioned, but on the size of the beast — those of a large size bringing more per cwt. than those of a smaller one, which is a premium on large bone; and cows are always lower in price than oxen, though they arc sent to England in the same pack;iges; and, if fat, go as the best beef, called planter's mess. 188 CATTLE. yield from 84lbs. to 112lbs. of butter in the year; a very good cow will yield l|cwt. about half of which is consumed by the family, or in the country, and the remainder is exported to Enjrlaad. Carlow has the repu- tation of producing the best butter; but the firkins containing that wliich is manufactured in all the surrounding counties are often branded wiih the name of Carlow. It is highly esteemed in London and is often sold for Cambiidge 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, u-^ed to be sent to Boulogne. In Cork, the half Holderness breed is chiefly used for the dairy. The principal dairy counties are — Carlow, Cork, Fermanagh, Krery, Leitrim, Longford, Sligo, Waterford and Westmeath. Very little cheese is made in Ireland, and that is of an inferior quality. CHAPTER VI. THE LONG HORNS. In the district of Craven, a fertile corner of the West Riding of Yorkshire borderino- on Lancashi.s, and 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 distinguished 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 hoiizontally 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 ol ' The Long Horns.' The cut of the Irish catde in page 181, will give no unfaithful representation of their general appearance and form. Cattle of a similar description were found in the districts of Lancashire bordering on Craven, and also in the south-eastern parts of AVestmoreland; 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 (iilference 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 tlie 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 long horns seem to have first appeared in Craven, and gra- dually to have spread along the western coast, and to have occupied almost exclusively the midland counties. THE CRAVEN BREED. 189 There are, as in Ireland, two distinct breeds; the smaller Cravens inha- biting 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 in- ferior to that of short-horns of the present day. As either of tliese found their way to other districts, they mingled to a greater or less degree with tlie native cattle, or they felt the influence of change of climate and soil, and gradually adapted themselves to their new- situation; and each assumed a peculiarity of form which characterised it as belonging to a certain district, and rendered it valuable and almost per- fect 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 fit it for its situation, and the purposes for which it was bred. Having assumed a decided character, varying only with peculiar local circum- stances, the old long-horns, like the Devons, the Herefords, and the Scotch, continued nearly the same. There is no authentic detail of their distin- guishing points. Mr. Culley 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, coarse- ness of bone, thickness and yet mellowness of hide, and the rich quality although not abundant quantity of their milk. 10 Id Craven Bull.} 190 CATTLE. The foregoing cut contains the portrait of a Craven bull of the pre- sent day, but supposed to bear alxnit him many of the characters of the old breed. He was drawn by Mr. Harvey as he stood in Smilhiield market. Here were evident materials for some skilful breeder to work upon; a connexion of excellences and defects by no means inseparable, 'J'hat which was good might be rendered more valuable, and the alloy might be easily thrown ofi'. It was not, however, until about tlie year 1720 that any agriculturist seemed to possess sufficient science and spirit to attempt the work of improvement in good earnest. A blacksmith and farrier, of Linton, in Derbyshire, on the very borders of Leicestershire, who at tlie same time rented a little farm, has the honour of standing first on the list. His naine 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, al)out a mile from Burton. He prided himself much in them, and they deserved the 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 otf 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 admirers says that ' he possessed the best stock, es- pecially 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. Webster'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, Bloxedge, 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 discar- ded and sold to a person of the name of Bloxedge, (hence the name of the beast,) but turning out a remarkably good stock-geiter, INIr. Webster re-purchased him, and used him for several seasons. He was afterwards sold to Mr. Hanison, of Deakenedge, 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 Ri)bert Bakewell is a fugitive paper in the Gentlman's Magazine, from which every writer has borrowed, and his obligation to such a source none has condescended to acknowledge. It tells us that Robert Bakewell was born at Dishley, in Leicestersliire, about 1725. His father and grandfather had resided on the same estate. Havj ing remarked that domestic animals in general produced others possessing qualities nearly similar to their own, he conceived that he had only to THE CRAVEN BREED. 191 select from the most valuable breeds, such as promised to return the greatest possible emolument to the breeder, and that he should then be able, by careful attention to progressive improvement, to produce a breed Avhence he could derive a maximum 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 their kind; and his residence and his early habits disposed him to give the preference to the long-horn cattle. We have no account of the precise principles which 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 making ample observations on Mr. Bakewell's practice, and with liberal communications from him on all rural subjects,' gives us some clue. He tells us, however, that ' it is not his intention to deal out Mr. Bakewell's private opinions, or even to attempt a recital of his particular practice.' Mr. Marshall was doubdess influenced by an honourable motive in withholding so much that would have been higldy valuable ; and we can only regret 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 Bakewell, we shall not be very wrong in concluding that these were the principles by which that great agricultu- rist was influenced. • The most general 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 beautv 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 propoition of parts, or what may be called KtUity of form in distinction from beauty of form; thus the parts which are deemed offal, or which bear an inferior price at market, should be small in proportion to the better parts. ' A third principle of improvement is the texture of the muscular parts, or what is termedy7/'S7V, a quality of live stock which, familiar as it may long have been to the butcher and the consumer, had not been sufficiently attended to by breeders, whatever it might have been by graziers. This principle involved the fad 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 ^ro^^er's attention, is fatten- ing quality, or a natural propensity to acquire a state of fatness at an early age, and when in full keep, and in a short space of time ; a quality which is clearly found to be hereditary.' Therefore, in Bakewell's opinion, every thing depended on breed, and the beauty and utility of the form, the quality of the flesh and the propensity to fatness, were, in ihe 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, and might be occasionally found united in the same individual. Improvement had hitherto been attempted to be produced by selecting females from the native stock of the country, and crossing them with males of an alien breed. Mr. Bakewell's good sense led him to imagine 192 CATTLE. that the object might be better accomplished by uniting the superior branches of the same breed, than by any mixture of foreign ones. On this new and judicious principle he started. lie 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 elfectually 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 of of the same family. He could preserve all the excellences 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 smallness 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 towards 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 animal.t * In that pleasing and instructive work, ' Illustrations of Natural History,' we find the following ingenious, but too severe criticism, on Bakewell's system. ' It was his grand maxim, that the bones of an animal intended for food could not be too small, and that the fat being the most valuable part of the carcass, it should consequently not be too abundant. In pursuance of this leading theory, by inducing a preternatural smallness of bone, 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 tendency to fatten, produce too small a quantity of eatable meat, and that, too, necessarily of inferior flavour and quality. They are in general found defective in weight, propor- tionably to their bulk, and if not thoroughly fattened, their flesli is crude and with.iut 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 torget the very great waste that must ever attend the consumption of over-fattened meat. This great and sagacious improver, very justly digusted at the sight of those huge, gaunt, leggy, and misshapen animals with which his vicinity abounded, and which Bcarcely any length of time or quantity of food would thoroughly fatten, patriotically determined upon raising a more sightly and a more profitable breed; yet, ratiier unfor- tunately, his zeal impelled him to tlie opposite extreme. Having painfully, and a* jnuch cost, raised a variety of cattle, the chief merit of which is to make fat, he has apparently laid his disciples and successors under the necessity of substituting another that will make lean.' — p. 5 — 8. t The writer in the ' Gentleman's Magazine,' to whom we have before referred, say* tiiat ' the gentleness of the ditferent breeds of cattle could not escape the attention of any THE CRAVEN BREED. 193 Mr. Bakewell's celebrated bull Twopenny was the produce of the Westmoreland bull, out of old Comely, who has one of the two lieifers 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, slae 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 fornight, 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 skim-milk alone, or porridge made with milk, water, ground oats, &c., and sometimes oil-cake, until cheese-making commenced, if it was a dairy farm; after which, whey porridge, or sweet whey in the field, being careful to house them in the night until the warm weather was confirmed. Bull calves, and high-bred heifers, however, were suf- fered 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 pne 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 foaming or bellowing with rage and madness, old C, a bull, a son of the old parent Comolj', had all the gentleness 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 on his knees.' The same writer dcscri!)cs Mr. Bakewell's servants, one of whom had been with him 20 years, and another 32, and another 40 years. lie 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 oftnl. There were also skeletons of the different breeds, that they miglitbe compared with each other, and the compara- tive difference marked. Some joints 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 man- agement 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 drir ing them from one field to anotlier, 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 accus- tomed to this method from being calves. A lad, with a stick three feet long, and as big as his finger, v/ill 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 effect of management^ and the mischief often done by bulls is undoubtedly owing to practices very contrary, or else to a total neglect.' * Marshall's Midland Counties, toI. i. p. 358. 18 194 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 at the hips, which 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 fonvard, had been severed from the vertebrse 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 carcass, 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 stock would have been of a moderate quality; but being put to cows de- ficient 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 es- timate 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, al- though 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, 1791, the following prices were given for some of the favorite beasts. This a sufficient proof of the estimation in which the improved Leicesters were now beginning to be held. BULLS. £. s. d. 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 be true, according to the character of the short-horns at that time, but Shakspeare does not so strictly resemble them in their present improved state. 250 230 215 157 210 152 £. s, d. 273 120 136 126 141 194 4289 4 6 THE CRAVEN BREED. 195 COWS. Brindled Beauty, by Shakspeare Sister to Garrick Nell, by do. . . . Young Nell, by brother of do, Black Heifer Dam of Washington Fifty breed of cattle produced* 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 heiier of the Shakspeare blood could be recognized at first sight as a descendant of his.f 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 blot)d, 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 1789, Mr. Fowler had ten bull-calves, for which he refused 500 guineas. The practice of letting bulls originated in tliis dis- trict; and chiefly with Mr. Bakewcll, 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. Some 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 ' tlie breeders 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. t Mr. Parkinson says, ' One of the greatest excellences in Mr. Princep's cattle, is their length, with smallness in their shoulders, giving so many fine cuts along their upper parts. Mr. Princep'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- years old bull, and thirty (another account says fifty) guineas a cow for the use of his best bull to thirty cows, vol. i. p. 102. He was also offered 2000Z. for twenty dairy cows. A four year old steer of Mr. Princep's breed, weighed 248 stones of 141bs. to the stone, (424 stones Smithfield weight, or 3472 lbs.) In addition to this, there were 3501bs. of fat, and the hide weighed 1771bs. Anotlier of Mr. Princep's oxen was fed by the Marquis of Donegal in 1794. The four quarters weighed 1988 lbs., the tallow 200 lbs. and the hide 177 lbs. t Mr. Parkinson bears the following testimony to the superiority of the new cattle, even at this early period. He is speaking of Mr. Mundy. 'There was one thing which prejudiced my mind much in favour of Mr. Mundy's cattle, viz., it was in the month of September that I visited his farm, and his park lying very conveniently situated for tbe 196 CATTLE. be made of Mr. Astley, whose breed, larger than Mr. Mundy's, but seldom so heavy as Mr. Princep's, were much admired. And now we may inquire, a little more particularly, what was the result 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 Leicesters. [New Leicester Bull.'] 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 Dishley breed, and were the property of Mr. Honeybourn, Mr. Bakewell's nephew and successor. What is now become of this improved long-horn breed? Where is it to be found? It was a bold and a successful experiment. It seemed for a while 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 ditferent 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 tlie summer, they had had u 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 than any single cow could be found on some market days in Smithfield. I do not know,' he adds, ' that a better trial, as an experiment, could be made, to show the superior value of Mr. Mundy's cattle.' These cows could not be very deficient at the pail, for one of Mr. Mundy's gave fourteen pounds of butter in one week. THE CRAVEN BREED. 197 spirited 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 long-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 Staflbrdshire 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 every thing to the new Leicester cattle. A new stock, in fact, has arisen since the improved long-horns were grafted on the native Irisli stock. \_New Leicester Cow.l Mr. Marshall, to whom, for a reason that will presently be stated, we are tiompelled again to have recourse, thus describes the improved Ijcicesters 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 sliort, from fifteen inches to two feet; those 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 cows are, shoot forward at the points. 18* 198 CATTLE. ' The shoulders remarkably fine and thin, as to bone; but thickly- covered with flesh — not the smallest protuberance of bone discernible.* ' The girth small, compared with the short-horn and middle-horn breeds.t ' The chine remarkably full when fat, but hollow when low in con- dition.! ' 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. || ' The round-bones small, but the thighs in general fleshy; tapering, however, when in the best form toward llie gambrels. ' The legs small and clean, but comparatively long.^ The feet in general neat, and of the middle size. ' The carcass as nearly a cylinder, as the natural form of the animal will allow. The ribs standing out full from the spine. The belly small.** ' The Jlesh 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 stricUy attended to. The bone and oflfal are small, and the forend light; while the chine, the loin, the rump and the * The Dishley breed excelled in this point. Some of the heifers had shoulders as fine as racc-horscs. t Many of Mr. Fowler's breed, however, were very fairly let down in the girth. t This is considered by accurate judges to be a criterion of good mellow Hesh. Tha large hard ligaments, (ilic continualionof the ligaments of the neck, united with those of the vertcbrce ofthe spine itself,) which in some individuals, when in low condition, strelcb tightly along the chjne, 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 in 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 ofthe tuberosities ofthe bone. A full hii> may be of advantage, but scarcely a protuberant one. II The quarters of Shakspcare have been described. Tliose ofthe bull D. were not Ics* remarkable, his tail appearing to grow out ofthe top of his spine, instead of being a con- tinuation of the vertebra;; and tlie upper part ofthe tail fonning an arch, wliich rose some inches above the general level ofthe back. This, viewing liiin as a picture, has a good eifect; but as a point, is a very bad one for the grazier, as tending to hide the fatness of the rump. In this, and in many other points, the son and the sire areas dissimilar as if they had no consangninity. Mr. Parkinson relates an anecdote respecting the peculiar length of quarters, and length generally of these cattle. * On my observing to Mr. Princep the remarkable length of his cattle, he said he was one day showing them to a gentleman, who, as tb« men were turning the best bull out ofthe house, exclaimed in astonishment" When will 0II your bull be out?" ' — Parkinson on Live Stock, vol. i. p. 154. ^ This, however, is more owing to the gauntness ofthe carcass, than to the actual length ofthe legs. ** The improvers ofthe 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. ft A light-coloured beast always appears to bo larger than a dark-brown, or black ono of equal weight; llierefore, perhaps it is, that the lighter ones are preferred. There is a kind of optical deception in their favour; but, otherwise, if colour bus any thing to do with the value ofthe animal, we should give the preference to t. dark-coloured one, a* indicating 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 s* were some of the best of Mr. Fowler's. THE CRAVEN BREED. 199 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 in preparation for the butcher; and although, perhaps not weighing so heavy as they did before, the little dimimition 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; or 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, which not even his friend Mr. Marshall was disposed to raise. The principle on which he seemed to act, breeding so completely 'in and in' was a novel, a bold, and a successful one. Some of the cattle to which we have referred were very extraordinary 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 Hiaturity. Westmoreland was the mtive 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, Uiat 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 tlie 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 Leicester on the Dishley farm, and scarcely a half-horn. There are not a dozen pure Leicesters within a circuit of a dozen mile* of Dishley. It would seem as if some strange convulsion of nature, or 200 CATTLE. some murderous pestilence, had suddenly swept away the whole of this vahiable breed. Having tlius 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 neighbourhood 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 cattle 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 which neither the heavier improved long-horns, nor the short-horns interfere. Li 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 laige 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 tlie 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 litdc diminished in quantity, while it acquire* much of the peculiar richness of that which is given by the long-horn breed. Even for grazing, the native breed is rarely seen; but at the annual meetings of the Manchester Agricultural Society, the short horns bear mway the principal prizes, and in the centre of the county, although a premium was formerly offered for the best long-horn bull, not one has * Tlic average quantity of milk, yielded by a good Holdcrncss 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, wlio published a Survey of I^ancashire, in 1814 thus computes the expenses and returns of a milk farm, in tlie neighbourhood of Man- ehestcr. The farm to which he refers was under tiie management of Mr. Peter M'Niven,: it contained 115^ Lancashire acres. £ je Rent per annum 520 15 acres of oats at 15/. . 225 Taxes . 84 20 ditto at 20Z. . 400 Servants' wages . 234 40 cows' milk at \2l. . . 480 Profit . . . 2G7 1105 1105 THE LANCASHIRE BREED. 201 been shown for the last three or four years. We are much indebted to that society and particularly to its indefatigable secretary Mr. Thomas Ashworth, for some valuable information respecting the present state of cattle in this part of Lancashire. 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 benefitting the agricultural 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 for the use of their tenantry, will speedily effect a considerable and very desirable alteration. If the old long horn breed is, in a manner, gone here, something as valuable should be subsiituted; but as yet with the exception of the introduction of the Tees water 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 areyer/ are chiefly confined to gentlemen's parks, and are principally Scotch Highland bullocks. To the same gentlemen we are indebted for the following account of the supply of the Liverpool market. Weekly Average. ' 600 Irish beasts, average about 6 cv/t. of 120 lbs. ' 140 English do, do. 6i do. ' 60 Scotch do. do. Sj do. ' Of the cattle from Ireland, about 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 short 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 Slandish, is foremost amongst them, and his cattle bear otT the bell, even amongst the most successful cultivators of this breed. The Earl of AViUon 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 catde has commenced, and still goes on in this neighbourhood, the breed of the native long-horn has impercep- tibly declined, and it is now a very difficult point to find a good stock of long-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 catde in this neighbourhood are mosdy cross-bred — long and short-horn, short-horn and Scot, but the short-horn, with its varioua crosses, is that which has encroached most upon the long-horn, and seems to be rapidly superseding that breed. ' That the long-horn breed has deteriorated of late years is not to be wondered at, when a half-bred cow, or any other cross, will fetch a greater 202 CATTLE. price in any of our markets than the pure long-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; ratlier small ear; horns flat at the base, becoming rounder towards their apex, rather drooping from tlieir origin, and then ascending and curling in various directions. The neck and fore-quarters tbick and heavy, but line 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 (he 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 the short- horn — many of them are also roughish about the rump, from the bones in the centre of the liip (the sacral bones.) The thigh is generally rounder and larger, consequently aflbrding 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 liide is heavier, but it does not handle so loose and free. The colour varies; but a red roan with mottled or red legs, and a white streak down the back, is the prevail- ing colour. 'l^heir 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 2/. 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 long-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 Lancasliire, 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 isunwilhng THE LANCASHIRE BREED. 203 to abandon his native long-horns, relates two experiments which termina- ted unfavourably with regard to them. The late Mr. C4ibson, of Quern- 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 expira- tion of the time, the short-horns had given considerably more milk: the butler account was also in their favour; and they had improved considera- bly more in condition. Mr. Lamb, of Hay Carr, having to stock Ashton Park, a seat belonging to the Duke of Hamilton, wished to have done so with the long-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-breds fattened and were sold off a considerable time before the long- horns were fit for the market. Mr. Bolden of Kyning, and Mr. Jackson of Bowick Hall, are breeders of short-horn catde; 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 short-horn 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 ac- cept 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 na- tive district of the long-horns, and there, although a lew short and half horns are occasionally seen, these are the prevailing, or only distinct breed: yet even there they are not what they once were, and compara- tively 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 al- though, as it regards the quantity of milk, the long-horns must ultimately be superseded by one description of short-horn cattle, and in early matu- rity 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 2^ to 3 cwt. of cheese from each cow, in a strict cheese-dairy farm, the family being also provided with milk and a little butter. 20^ CATTLE. In the Survey of Lancashire, we find the following account of a dairy as usually conducted in this district. £ s. d. £ ' Cow-grass for 20 weeks 3 13 6 Cheese, 11 lbs. weekly for Winter keep in hay .400 20 weeks, at 6d. per Ih. 5 10 Green food .... 10 Butter, 61bs. weekly for 20 Attendance set against weeks at Is, per lb. 6 manure Calf . . . .1 Profit £ s. 3 13 4 10 d. 6 4 10 12 13 6 12 13 6 DERBYSHIRE. The Derbyshire cows were originally long-horns; 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 singu- lar 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 the hair long; even the bag was often overgrown and covered with liair-^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 litde belter than skin and bone; yet they were excellent dairy cows. [Derby Cow-I The above cut is a faithful portrait of one of the best of them. The horns 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 progenitois. THE CHESHIRE BREED. 205 Some partial attempts were also made to introduce a cross from the short-horns and the Devons, hut 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. {Derby BuU.^ 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 witli. The short-horns have taken possession of this portion of the territory of the long-horns also. The pre- judice 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 butler 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 benefitted the cheese dairy. The Cheshire was chiefly a long-horned breed, of very mingled origin, but which by degi-ees accommodated itself to tlw 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 sti-ange inter- mingling of the whole proceeded the Cheshire cow. She was a rather small, gaunt, and ill-shaped animal; yet she possessed a large tliin-skinned 19 206 CATTLE. bag, swelling milk-veins, shallow and light fore-quarter, M'ide loins, a thin thigh, a white horn, a long thin head, a brisk and lively eye, and a fineness and cleanness about the cliops aud throat. She has been crossed still more with the Durham. Slie 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 milli has not been materially increased, and 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 Heelings. Some give oatmeal gi-uel and butter milk, with a little skimmed-milk mixed. This is given twice in the day, until the calves are turned to grass, and once in the day for three or four weeks after that. During tlie first and second winters they are kept in a yard with an open shed, Avell 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 tliey calve early. The cows are taken up into the cow-houses as soon as the weather gets bad, and are perinitted 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 suflering them to stand shivering with cold in a field without 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-feeding for dairy cows, has materially altered the old system of management. The 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 ^xecw or succulent food. The milk is more abundant, and it may be continued a mouth longer. The ox-cabbage and the Swedish turnips are the kinds of green 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 consequence. THE NOTTINGHAMSHIRE BREED. 207 The peculiar art of the manufacture of the Cheshire cheese belongs to our work on ' British Husbandry,' generally. We have, at present, only to do 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 xYiton'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 catde has much to do with it, and the new breed has not yet identified itself with the soil. Mr. Fenna calculates tlie number of dairy cows kept in Cheshire at about 92,000; and averaging the quantity of cheese made annually from each cow at 2i cwt., it will appear that the amazing quantity of 11,500 tons of cheese are made every year in that county .t NOTTINGHAMSHIRE. This county, fifty years ago, contained few cattle except long-horns. It has already been stated, in page 189, that the females, from whom ulti- mately sprung the improved Leicester breed, were from Nottinghamshii'e. The earliest breed of which we have mention came from Drakelow, on the borders of the Trent. The cows which INIr. 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 forest, 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 county doth afford the best cheese for quantity and quality, and yet their cows are not, as in other shires, housed in the winter; so that it may seem strange that tlie hardiest kinc do make the tcndcrest 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, wherein is surely some occult excellency in 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 two connnoditics arc like stars of a different horizon, so that the elevation of the one to cmincncy is the depression of the other.' Dr. Leigh, in liis ' Natural History of Chesliire,' and Dr. Campbell, in his ' Political Survey,* attribute the peculiar flavour of the Cheshire cheese to tlie abundance of saline particles in the soil of this county, and tlic 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 exploded. The places and districts most celebrated for making the prime chesse — are the neigh- bourhood of Nantwich, tlie parisli of Over, the greater part of the banks of the river Weaver, and several farms near Congleton and Middlewich. + 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 tliey are indigenous. In hot weather, these cattle generally herd on the hills and high grounds; and in winter in the woody parts of the park. In severe weather they are fed with hay, for wliich, before the hollies with which the park abounded were cut down, holly -branches were substituted. Two of the cows are generally sliot yearly for beef. — Lyson's Magna Britanica, Chester, p. 729. 208 CATTLE. nate battle for supremacy would be fought between the long and the short-horns. What was the peculiar breed of Leicester before the time of Bakewell, it is now impossible to ascertain. Probably tliere was not any distinct one; at least we have no record of it, and it Avas 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 recognised 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 recol- lection of which will never be lost, notwithstanding the breed itself has so compfctely passed away. Although, however, the improved Leicester long-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; but they gradually yielded to the superior claims of a race of catde at that time scarcely known. Where a few of tiie long-horns do linger, the improved Leicesters are gone; they are the old breed of 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 tliem 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-horns, 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 could never make pretensions to a peculiar breed. Grazing was always the pi'incipal 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 someof the best of them, to keep them until after Christmas, Many of * The celebrated Stilton cheese was first made at VVimondham, in the Melton quarter of Leicestcrsliire. Mr. Marshall gives the followinfr account of it: — ' Mr. Paukt, uho resided at VVimondham, a relation of Cooper Thornhill, who formerly kept tlie Bell at Stilton, in Hunting-donshire, on the great north road fi-om 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 wliat country this cheese was maimfacturcd was not publicl}' 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 tlie neighbourhood. Dalby first took the lead, but it soon made its way in almost every village in tliat quarter of Leicestershire, as well as in the neighbouring villages of Rutlandshire. Many tons of it are made every year.' THE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE BREED. 209 the 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 ' 9245 head of catde, 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 the two is gradually disappearing, and the short-horns are taking undis- puted possession of the district. CAMBRIDGESHIRE. 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. ^Ir. 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 Suffolks have never extensively established themselves 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 collegians, 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 hay and grass in the winter, and finishing them off on grass. On the grazing grounds about the fens, many Devon catde 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, how- ever, been established in this county, and is conducted with much spirit; and in 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- son's Survey of Northamptonshire,' says, ' Very few cattle are reared in this county; 19* 210 CATTLE. Tlio soil of Northamptonshire varies from a cold clay to a red loam. The cattle are first grazed in the old pastures, and those that have not been made fat at grass are afterwards stall fed. In the red loamy soils ■which are adapted for turnips, stall-feeding on them, with an addition ot seed-hay, is generally adopted. No cattle are used in husbandry. It has been remarked to us by an eminent Northamptonshire breeder, thnt the quarter evil, or black leg (inflammatory fever) is rarely known among young cattle in this county. If this be true, it is an important 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 management of soil and produce of those districts, might lead to some useful conclusions as to the cause of so generally prevalent and fatal a disease. BEDFORDSHIRE. In Bedfordshire, also, the long-horns, the old cattle of the county, have 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 the cottager is here, as in so many other districts, the produce of the old long-honi and the Yorkshire, crossed in every possible way, and retaining the milking properties of the one, and the hardihood of the other, and tlierefore fitted to become the poor man's cow. With this exception, there is no distinguishing breed belonging to the county. A few gentlemen have the Devons — more prefer the Ilerefords. and still more the short-horns; the short-horns, indeed, are here, as every- where else, superseding the rest. Bedfordshire contributes much to the supply of the dairy cattle of the 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 arc detained longer; they are milked for one or two years, and then despatched to tlie metropolis. a few only in tlif! open field (Irrdships excepted,) and tliese are so crossed and mixed with tlie breeds of other counties, which arc often improperly chosen, and so stinted in their food, as to render them eoniparativcly of little value. ' In a tew instances where attention is paid to the breed of cattle on the inclosed farmiv the long-hums arc the kind most preferred, raid ai'C far superior to the original breed of the county, botli in size and sliapc, and cxtraordhiary disposition to fatten. ' The dairy farmers in the sonth-wcst part of the county, however, prefer the short- horn Yorkshire cows, from which county tiiey are principally supplied; and as they never rear any calves, tliey sell them when a lew days old to a set of meia who make a trade- of currying them to the markets of Buckingliam and other places, where they are pur- chased by dairy farmers from Essex, to be tatted for veal for the London markets. 'Soon after Lady-day, the farmer begins to purchase bullocks, and the breeds of Shropshire and Herefordshire are preferred. In the course of the summer, some Scotch and Welsh cattle arc bought in — he begins selling off in September, and by the begin- ning 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 ntraw, with their feet tied together; and if the journey occupied seven or eight days, they had rarely anything to eat but wheat-flour and gin mixed together, well known in that line of country by the name of gin-ball, and thus the calves were kept in a state of stupidity or intoxication during the whole of the time.' THE BEDFORDSHIRE BREED, 211 Very few short-horns are bred in Bedfordshire, and indeed, very few of any other breed, except by two or three spirited agricuhurists, at tlie head of whom stands the Duke of Bedford. Francis, Duke of Bedford, began to devote himself to agricuhural 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 of this patriotic nobleman in every department of agricultural science. I'here were few breeds of cattle whose relative qualities and value were not put fairly to the test at Woburn, and ofie 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 houses 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 well. A few North Devons are still kept for farm work, but they are not the true Bidcford breed, but of the some- what heavier, but still more useful variety, most prevalent on the borders of Somersetshire. The pasture at Woburn is somewhat inferior to that of Herefordshire generally, and the cattle selected, and having much in them in the blood or 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 been objected to in the Herefords, and they retain all the length of quarter, and much of the wideness and roundness of hip, and fullness of thigh, which have been esteemed the peculiar excellences of the Herefords. A few of them might in their fore-quarters be mistaken for Devonshires; but Avith a broadness of chine and weight behind which tlie Devons have rarely attained. There is litde that is unusual in tlie 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 is 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 boHght in in the summer and autumn, seventy or eighty * No polled cattle arc now grazed on the Woburn estate. After many trials, and sonic of tliem on a large scale, the Duke of Bedford gives a decided prelerencc 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 opinion, that they fed taster tlian the Galloways, and afforded meat equally as good. 212 CATTLE. are usually stall-fed every winter. A new range of cattle-sheds 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 structure of which neither expense nor ground has been spared, is to be found on the premises. Although the Herelbrds are now established at AVoburn, the spirited proprietor of the abbey has not discontinued the experiments Avhich 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 29th, at 16/. 5s. each, and four polled Galloway spayed heifers, bought December 22nd, 1818, at 11/. lis. each, in store order, but rather fresher than the above, having been wintei'ed on the farm with very refuse bad hay, were put to grass in the same field, and kept there until October 2l3t, being a period of five months. Ton. Cwt. qrs. The Pembrokes weighed on May 20 . . . 1 12 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 weight gained above that of the ,* r, ^ q Pembrokes of . . . . >U U d £. £. s. . £ s. The Pembrokes sold at 84 Cost. 65 Gained by grazing 19 The Scots . . 74 Cost 16 4 Gained . . 27 16 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 during the winter. ' Sixteen of each were sold at different times; March 24th, 1824 being the last sale. The Scots were ready first, and disposed of before the Devons. The Scots cost 11. 12s. lOfZ. each, amounting to 122Z. 5s. 4d.; they sold for £ s. d. 235Z. 18s. &d. Gain by grazing 113 13 2 The Devons cost 11. Gs. &d. each, amounting to 117/. 4s., and they sold for 250L; but not being ready, on the average, until between six and seven weeks after the Scots, and estimating tiieir keep at 3s. 6rf. per week each, amounting to 18Z. 14s. 6(/., and this being substractcd from 230/., there will remain as the sum actually obtained for them 211/. 5s. 6c/. Gain . . . . 94 1 6 Making a balance in favour of the Scots fl9 11 8 THE BEDFORDSHIRE BREED. 213 The remaining fonr of each breed were kept and stall-fed on turnips and hay. The Scots sold at 75/., and the Devons at 84/., the account of Avhich will be as follows: — £. s. d. Four Devons at 7/. 6s. Gd., cost 29/. 6s.; they sold for 84Z ; leaving gain by stall-fcedina 54 14 Four Scots at 11 12s. 10(7., cost 30Z. lis. -id.; they sold for 75Z.; leaving gain by stall-feeding 44 88 Making balance in favour of Devons 10 54 Or total balance in favour of Scots - - - -- - -964 This experiment seemed to establish the superiority of the Scots for grazing-, and the Devons for stall-feediug. But as 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 October, and sold at different times, but always an equal number of each at each time, the last sale taking place in March. The twenty Devons co-st 1S9Z. 9s.; they sold for 370Z. 17s. lOrf.; leaving £. s. d. for feeding - - - 181 8 10 The twenty Scots cost 212Z. .3s.: they sold for 374Z. 5s. Hd.; leaving for feeding ' - - 162 1 U Balance in favour of tho Devons .... - ^£19 g gj Two experiments, on tlie fattening properties of different kinds of food, will not be unacceptable to our readers. Six Scots, previously grazed togellier, in the same field, were taken up and stall-fed on the 6th of January, 1823, and the feeding was continued until the 14th of April. They were divided into pairs. To each of one and two were given daily, one bushel of mangel-wurzel, two quarts of bean and barley flour mixed, and as much hay as they would eat. Three and four had one busliel 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. £. s. d. £. s. d. One and two consumed 18 cwt. 1 qr. of hay at 3Z. amounting to 2Z. 14s. 9(Z.; l^qr of flour at 3s. IZ. 16s.; and 196 bushels of mangel-wurzel at 9 14 Comet. .206 < . Yorkshire ^ lingbroke 3 C J' • r^ .^ V S "^ rfu"^^*®' Kx- 1 ■ _ o t. ,.. 5 G. Parker, Esq., near Catheline.j ofthejam UVashington 8 Do. . . loO ^ Malton, Yorkshire. Laura .... Lady .... Favourite . . 4 Do. . . 210 Mr. Grant, Wyham. T 1 T-i • i^ . o nr J 1 .,n ^ Major Rudd, Lincoki- Lily Daisy Comet .... 3 Mayduke 410 < J ■ Dais, .... Old Daisy \ „*,|-J»» ( 6 Co„,et . . 140 ^K^S^f'- ^ r, ^ V ■. J T> .. I, 7n > G. Johnson, Esq., near Cora Countess . . lavounte . . . 4 Petrarch iO < Scarborouo-h Beauty . . ^ ^*|jf„t J^^^' I Marsh .... 4 Comet . . 120 C. Wright, Esq. Red Rose . . Eliza Comet 4 Mayduke 45 ^ ''\^:^ Doncaster^"^" Flora Do 3 Do. . . 70 Earl of Lonsdale. . . ev 1 ^ O. (Jascoigne, Esq., Miss Peggy > Asonotta- ^ 3 ^ ^ . . 60^ Parington, York- SSy ) vourite i ) ^,ji^^^ Magdalene) A heif. by ^ 3 Do. . . ._m | — SXt"' ^^'^•' 232 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. Names. Comet . . Age. Out of 6 Phoenix Yarborou2h Major Maydiike 3 Lady 3 Clicrry Petrarch 2 Old Venus 2 . . . , Northumberland Alfred Duke Alexander . . . . Oisian 1 Duchess 1 Cora . . 1 Majrdalcne Harold 1 Red Rose Got by Favourite Do. . . Comet . . Do. . . . Do. . . . Favourite Comet . . Do. . . . Do. . . . Favourite 1000 55 200 145 365 80 Bouglil by f Messrs. Wethcrill, Trotter, ^ Wright, and Charge, near I Darlington. X A. Gregson, Esq., Lowlinn, ^ Northumberland. Mr. Grant, Wyham. Smithson, Esq. Major Rudd. Mr. Buston, Coatham, Dur- ham. Mr. Robinson, Acklam, York- 105 63 70 50 2249 shire. A. Compton, Esq., Carham, Northumberland. Mr. Fenton. Earl of Lonsdale. I Sir C Loraine, Northumba"- land. BULL-CALVES, UNDER ONE YEAR OLD. Names. Out of Ketton Cherry . Young Favoiurite Countess Geerse Lady . Sir Dimple . . . Daisy . Narcissus .... Flora . Albion Beauty Cecil Peeress Got by Comet . Do.. . Do.. . Do. . . Do.. . Do.. . Do. . . Price. Os. 50 140 j 130 90 15 60 170 ' Bought by Major Bower. Skipworth, Esq., Ltncofo- shire. Walker, Esq., Rotherham. T. Lax, Esq., Ravensworth. Mr. Wright. T. Booth, Esq., Catterick. H. Strickland, Esq., Boynton, Yorksliire. HEIFERS. Names. Ase. Out of Phoebe 3 Dam by Favourite , Young Laura . . Young Countess Lucv Charlotte .... Got by Comet Young Duchess 2 Do Do. 183 2 Laura 2 Countess 2 Dam by Washington 1 Catheline Johanna 1 Johanna . Gs. Bought by 105 Sir H. Ibbetson. T. Bates, Esq., Halton Gas- tie, Northumberland. Do. 10 r Earl of Lonsdale. Do. 206 Sir H- Ibbetson. Do. 132 Mr. Wright. Do. 136 Mr. R. Colling. Do. 35 G. Johnson, Esq. 808 HEIFER-CALVES, UNDER ONE YEAR OLD. N.nm Lucilla Out of Laura . Calista Cora , White Rose •ny Got by Comet . Do.. . Yarbro' Do.. . Ruby Red Rose . Cowslip Comet Os. 106 50 75 50 25 306 Bought by Mr. Grant. Sir H.V. Tempest, Bart., Win- yard, Durham. Mr. Strickland. Major Bower. Earl of Lonsdale. THE SHORT-HORN BREED. 233 usual condition. She gives a moderate quantity of particularly rich milk. {Tte Rev. H. Berry's Cow.'\ It would answer no useful purpose, and would certainly be an objec- tionable course, to bring under particular notice any one or more of the highly 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 Mewton, near Darlington, and From the above it appears that 17 cows were sold for 11 bulls . 7 bull-calves . 7 heifers 5 heifer-calves In all 47 were sold for . . . . 7115 17 * Mr. Robert Colling's stock was not sold off until the 29th September 181S, when the following- great prices were obtained for some of his cattle, a sufficient proof of the esti- raation in which they were held: — One 2-year old cow . . sold for . . 331 guineas One 4-year old cow ..." ... 300 " One .5-year old cow ..." ... 370 " One 1-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 " £. 8. d. 2802 9 2361 9 687 15 942 18 321 6 » 61 head of cattle .... -• ... 7484 " Ten days afterwards. General Simson's stock of the same breed were sold at his seat 21* 234 CATTLE. Mr. Mason, of Chilton, in the county of Durham, were only second 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. Cliarge, who had long possessed a most valuable stock of Teeswater cattle, had at an early period crossed them with Mr. Colling's best bulls, and was one of the spirited purchasers of Comet, at a tiiousand 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 Coales. 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. Colling's; which, as others afterwards proved, would have been a most judicious proceeding. The consequence was, Mr. Colling'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 M'hose portraits accompany this account, the property of the noble President of the Smithfield 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, then 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, curly 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 prejudice. 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 short-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, Avhich were fed by Mr. Waistell, and when six years old weighed 130 stones each, 141b. to the stone; their inside fat being most extraordinary. A heifer, three years old, bred by Miss Allen (of Grange), fed on hay and grass alone, weighed 90 stones. at Pitcorthie, Fifeshire. As a proof of the established reputation of the short-horns, even so far north, and the degree to which they wouhl even then thrive, in a climate so diifc- rent from their native one, it may be stated that 12 cows, 5 two year old heifers 3 bull- calves, 7 bulls, 4 one-yeax old heifers, and 6 quey calves, 37 in all, sold for 1388 guineas, or nearly 40Z. per head. * For portraits of Lord Althorp's cow and heifer, sec pp. 236, 237, THE SHORT-HORN BREED. 235 Two three years'-okl steers, bred by the same lady, and similarly fed, weig^hed respectively 92 and 96 stones. Mr. Waistell's four years'-old ox, by the bull supposed to be the grand- sire of Hubback, weighed 110 stones. A four years'-old ox, bred by Mr. Simpson (of AyclifTe,) 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 cow 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, at four years old, within a few pounds, 110 stones each. A sister to Mr. G. Coates's Budsworth, having run with her dam, and fared as she did, without cake or corn, met with an accident, and died when seven mouths 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, bn^d by JMr. Hill (of Blackwell,) slaughtered at six years old, weighed 151 stones, lOlbs.; tallow, 11 stones. The Kowick red ox, seven years old, weighed 152 stones, 91b.; tallow, 16 stones, 71b. Mr. Charge's ox, seven years old, weighed 168 stones, lOlb,; tallow, 13 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 haifer, 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 AprU, 1808, a two years'-old steer for 22/.; 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 carcass, and sup- posed to be the fattest steer of his age ever seen. Butchers estimated him to weigh 75 stones. Neither of the last-mentioned were of large size, and would not have weighed above 40 stones had they been no fatter than those usually slaughtered. Mr. WetheriJl (of Field House) sold at the fair in Darlington, in March, 1810, two steers, under three years old, for 47/. lOs. each. The price of cattle at that fair, 10s. per stone.* * Mr. Bailey observes, that the common practice among the breeders of the improved sliort-horns, and whic-ii he first observed at ]\Ir. Wetherill's, was to put the year-old heifers to the ball the beginning of July, so as to ca-lve not later than the rnidale of May. The 236 CATTLE. Mr. Arrowsmith (of Ferryhill,) who fed off his short-horns at two years old, furnished the following particulars of the prices he obtained from the 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/. 10s. each. 1805, six for 17/. 10s. 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, M'ilh 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 pasture. In No- calves ran with and sucked their dams until August. The cows were then put upon foy, fed tUrougli the winter with turnips, and sold to the butchers in May or June following, for 251. on an average, which, with the value of the calf, could not be reckoned at less than 30Z. tor a tlirec year-old heifer. The following are portraits of a cow and heifer belonging to Lord Althorp:- [Lord Althorp's Cow The cow, marked in his lordship's herd- book by the figures 25, is particularly distin- guished by the excellence of her crop, plates, and loins. THE SHORT-HORN BREED. vember she was estimated to weigh 28 stones; when she was put to the ruta baga, and hay, and oil-cake, of which she ate 4cwt., with 2 bush, bean-meal, and 1 bush, barley. She went to grass again on tlie first of May, and from that period had neither cake nor corn. On the 23d of July, it was the unanimous opinion of the best judges that she weighed 58 or 60 stones; having 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 gentleinan; 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 4/. 10s. or 5/. 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 b)^ 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, Hlb.; tallow, 11 stones, 7lb.; hide, 8 stones. \_Lura .iilhorjj c Jricijcr.] The heifer, called Clarion — a daughter of the opposite — is equal to her dam in these points, and far superior in some others; particularly in her rump and hips. She is a very fine specimen of the short-horn heifer. — Edit. 238 CATTLE. Major Rudd (of Marion in Cleveland) obtained the premium offered by the Cleveland Agricultural Society in 1811, for the best steer, under three years old, and fed on vegetable food. The steer was sold to the butcher for 10s. per stone, and slaughtered when 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 exceptions, on vegetable food: — 1794. — An ox, four years, ten months old; four quarters, 145 stones, 31b.; tallow, 24 stones, 7lb. A steer, under four years old; four quarters, 106 stones; tallow 19 stones, 7lb. 1814. — A steer, three years, nine months old; four quarters, 101 stones; tallow, 15 stones. 1815. — A steer, three years, eleven months old; four quarters, 112 stones, 7lb,; tallow, 26 stones. A heifer, three years, eight months old; four quarters, 89 stones. 1817. — A steer, three years, two months old; four quarters, 95 stones, 101b.; tallow, 17 stones, 101b. 1822. — An ox, four years and a half 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 stones; tallow, 17 stones. A steer, three years, eight months old; four quarters, 112 stones; tallow not weighed. A steer, bred by Col. Cooke (of Ouston, near Doncaster,) fed on pota- toes and straw, was slaughtered when two years and twenty-two days old; his four quarters weiglied 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, 7lb.: also a steer, aged three years, six months, whose four quar- ters weighed 169 stones, 7lb.; 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, it 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 they 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, wliich was lately exhibited under the name of the Lin- colnshire Ox,' although fed in that county by Lord Yarborough, was a pure short, both on the side of the sire and the dam. He measured five feet six inches in height at the shoulders, eleven feet ten inches from the nose to the settmg on of the tail, eleven feet one inch in girth, and three feet three inches across the hips, shoulders, and middle of tlie back. His breast was only fourteen inches from the ground, and he stood one foot ten inches between the fore legs.— Edit, THE SHORT-HORN BREED. 239 It might have the appearance of an intention to depreciate other breeds of cattle, were an inquiry instituted how the very general inpression came to 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 yield 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 carcass of the short-horns has been so sur- prising, and so justly valued, that many persons have 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 breedmg, 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 habitual in the produce. But this illus- tration, by a selection, is supposing too much for the probable state of the case. The objections which exist among breeders for various and some cogent reasons, against crossing whh 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 wiiter considers to be the reasoning properly appUcable to the subject; which happily also admits of a satisfactory appeal to facts; and he is stricdy 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 has 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 let down 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 mUk night and morning; and it is certain that attention only is requisite, on the part of the breeder, to perpetuate this quality in any desirable 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 butter 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, and that the artificial change in the animal economy, which leads to an 240 CATTLE. excessive secretion of flesh and fal, should also be productive of other rich secretions. Within the last tliree 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 20lb. of butter per week. Wherever the improved short-liorns 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 on 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 Magizine, 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 difierent 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 derived from this system by several of my own personal friends. ' This heifer was the second cross, and was of a light gray colour. She weighed 35 scores and 81b.; rough Ait, 981b,; slie 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 17th of January, and killed the 10th of June. She sold for 19/. 3.s. &d. lbs. ' Her live weight, on the 8th of June, was . 1233 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 j 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 whicli 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, wbo hired out dairies, informed me tliat the dairymen gave him nearly 2/. per cow per year more for the half and three-quarter breeds than they would give for cows of other breeds. ' A friend of mine had about a dozen North Devon cows, small in size, but nice in quality, and from these he commenced, about twenty years since, breeding widi 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 THE SHORT-HORN BREED. 241 when I last saw them, about two years since, was a peculiar richness in their colour. He breeds about thirty annually, and generally sells his three years-old, in the autumn, at 17/. to 22/.; and I have known him. sell in-calf heifers to jobbers in fairs as high as 30 guineas each. All his stock are superior milkers. Here we have twenty years' experiment, and continued improvement. ' Within the last eight years I have sent many North Devon heifers to Ireland, to friends residing in different counties, and some of them occu- pying 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 I/, each. * Brynderry, near Mergavenny. C. H. Bolton. An opinion generally prevails that the short-horns are unfitted for work; and in some respects it is admitted they are so: but the correct reason has not been assigned, and the question may fairly come briefly under notice. That they are willing and able to woi'k, 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 cattle which, as the preceding account 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, to be placed in the yoke. No beast, in the present advanced state of breeding, ought to be put upon a system which arose out of the necessity of obtaining compensation by work for the loss attending a tardy maturity. But where it may be convenient, the short-horns, particularly the bulls, work admirably, as their great docility promises: 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, should require a sufficiency 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-Iiorns in 1818, when he purchased the bull Regent, at Mr. 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 Fiiby is good in almost every point. His flanks, loins, hips, and bosom are excellent. 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 using him six years, very few of his stock have inherited tliis imperfection.— £rfj7. 22 243 CATTLE. is a point in Avhich many sliort-horns are rather defective, and it is one of infinite importance. Add to this, that if, in many instances, the length of the carcass were abated, as well as that of the legs, a hardier animal, with equal size and on a more profitable scale, would be pro- duced. The facilities for making this improvement are sufliciently nu- merous, the short-horns being now more generally diffused. That wider difliusion 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 has conferred, and will perpetuate, the superiority of this breed of cattle. [Lord Alihorp's Bull.] The colours of the improved short-horns are red or white, or a mixture of 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 Avhenever 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 suld at prices below those of any other catde. These are frequently black, black and white, blue, and dun; but they have no further afhnity 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. They are great consumers of food, gutty, and particularly low and bad in the loins, with excessively heavy shoulder- blades. The owners of this stock, however, are crossing with the im- proved breed; but the dairy-farmers of Gloucestershire are so much alive THE SHORT-HORN BREED. 243 to the superiority of the short-horns, that they lay hold with avidity of any thing 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 JNIr. Berry, whose admirable account of the improved short- horn cattle our readers will duly estimate. There is no point which he 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. This 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, hut not at the same time: — ihey 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 his cheapest way was to sell her for what she would fetch, and that seldom exceeded 5/. By degrees, however, some of the more intelligent of 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 w^ere 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 dam, and the usual tendency to possess these qualities in the oflspring of the sire — they could at length obtain a breed that had lost little of the grazing properties of the new breed, and retained, almost undiminished, the excellences 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-horns 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 improved 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 5tli of July after 91 days' grazing, having made in that time nearly '2s. a-day. 244 CATTLE. [The Yorkshire Cow.] Tliis is a fair specimen of one of these covrs: the character of the Hol- derness and the Durham beautifully mingling^. 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-headeil cow will seldom fatten or yield much milk. The eye should be bright, yet with a pe- culiar placidness and quietness of expression; the chaps 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 befoi-e 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 carcass, and each should project farther than the preceding one to the very loins, giving, if after all the rnilch 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 tmd 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 part, but tapering below; and she should have a mel- low hide, and litUe coarse hair. Common consent has given to her large milk-veins; and although the subcutaneous or milk-vein has nothing to do with the udder, but conveys the blood from llie fore part of the chest THE SHORT-HORN BREED. 245 and sides to the inguinal vein, yet a large milk-vein certainly 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 we shall mention is the udder, 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 other 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 when they are too broad at the extremity, the orifice is often so large that the cow cannot retain her 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.* The 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 36 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 diffisrence 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, cind 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 follow- ing quantity of butter from a quart of the milk of each of them: — * There are some dog-gerel 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 them from 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.' 22* 246 CATTLE. - oz. dwts^ Xo. 1 3 6 2 6 3 13 4 10 5 14 6 6 10 8, which, divided by 6, leaves nearly loz. 14|dwts., or ahont ^ 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-hora, whicli, if not altogetlier unsuspected, was not sufficiently acted upon — that she improved as a dairy-cow as she got older. The cow, a quart of whose milk produced more than 3oz. of butter, was six years old, the other five were only two years old; at all events the experiments proved that her milk was richer at six years old, than it had been at two. This 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 cliange; 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 dairj'men, 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 was 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 size 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 average 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 occasional differences in the consumption of food by different animals, but these arise far oftener from constitution, or from some unknown 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 greatest quan- tity 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 a superior quality, and at four, five, or six 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, when we have done with her as a milker. It is on this principle that many of the London dairymen now act, when THE SHORT-HORN BREED. 247 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, 14, 14, 13, 12, 12, 13, 11, 12, 10, 10, 8, 10, 9, 10, 7, 7, 7. From this it appears that tliere 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 tlian 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 corn; 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 catde in the kingdom.' We may, perhaps, safely add, that we have that breed, and that it only requires a litde 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 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: 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 themselves there. They were first used to cross the native and Scotch breeds, and sometimes with considerable success. Mr. Bates, of Halton Casde, 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 used to imagine the short-horn was sadly deficient in, hardiness. He Q48 CATTLE. hoped likewise to reduce the great consumption of food by the sliort- 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 not be a better judge of cattle, and from whose stock descended some of the best short-horns of the nortli, hired a bull from Mr. Bates, to try what effect would be produced on some of his own pure breeding stock. That the short-horns could be materially improved by such an admixture could scracely 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 by none more so, or more successfully, than by Mr. Maynard. YORKSHIRE NORTH RIDING. 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 commei/cement 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-horn, 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 several 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 Hoi- . 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 catde, when first intro- duced. He says, that 'the Holderness breed were thin-quartered, too light behind, and too coarse before; large shoulders, coarse necks, and 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 bullocks were in estimation. The first variety of this species of cattle, which I can recollect, was a thick, large-boned, coarse, clumsy animal; remarkably large behind, with thick gummy thighs; always fleshy, but never fat, and the flesh being of a bad quality. This, however, was not the worst: 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 mon- sters were stigmatized by the epithet ' Dutch-buttocked,' and they were probably the 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^ improved breed is still 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. 249 unfounded 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 portion 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 thanks 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 stock. 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 that 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 2i 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 boded 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 or 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 fat and pointy as the others. Upon the clay-soil of Cleveland, and other parts of this district, the grass-land is principally 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 catde are principally sold in the neighbour- ing markets, and are forwarded to the possessors of extensive turnip- farms 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 in this Riding, Major Bower of VVelham, deserves honourable mention. His name appears 250 CATTLE. among the purchasers at Mr. Charles CoUing'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 kiudly feeders were obtained, tlie size was reduced a little, the leg shortened, the bone rendered tiner, the form improved, and the strength of the short-horn remained for drauglit with the activity 6f the Devon. Whatever might have been the case with the first cross, this supposed improved race has passed quite away. A cross between the short-horn bull and the Argyleshiie heifer was attempted, with greater prospect of success, JNIr. Bales had obtained some excellent cattle from a similar attempt, but they could not be fed to an equal weight in the same tune, and they were deficient in early ma- turity. WEST RIDING. 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 Ilolderness or with some crosses of the Durham, are chiefly found in the neighbourhood of large towns. More in the country, and where the fiirms are small, (as they are through a great part of this riding,) there are a variety of crosses with die long-horns, and with nondescripts of former days. They go under the characteristic name of 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 Fitzwilliani, satisfactorily accounts for this. He thus writes to us — ' the breed of caldein 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 difiiculty to identify. The farms are small, and the farmer has a kind of mixed em- ployment, pardy 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 to 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 genllemaa 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 catde in this district. His ' Old Bull,' known in the Herd Book by the name of ' Badswordi,' 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. 251 About the year 1805, the Worlley Farmers' Ckib was established, chiefly by Lord Wharncliffe (then Mr. Stuart Wordey,) and by the ope- rations of that society very considerable improvement was etrected in the breed of cattle, sheep, and pigs, round Wordey. 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. Cook, and Mr. Fullerton of Thrybergh Park, and otiier neighbouring gentlemen. This society still flourishes, 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 catde 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 consumption. 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 die 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 refevred 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 tlie north of Lincolnshire, a very useful society or club used to exist, and is still to be occasionally met with, called 'The Cow Club,' the principal rules of whicli 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/. shiill be placed at interest, in order to accumulate for the benefit of the club. No cow shall be admitted 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 farrier or veterinary surgeon, he shall receive no benefit; but for every cow dying of disease, and without the neglect of the owner, there sliall be paid five-sixths of her estimated value; 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 a cow slaughtered, the owner shall have the option of receiving the net value of her carcais, the expense of slaughtering being deducted, or five-sixths of her estimated value in the books. Every member not making payment on the day appointed, or within fourteen days afterwards, shall be excluded.' The five-sixths of the value will give the cottager an interest in her recovery or pre- servation, whereas if he was paid the whole value he might be careless. 252 CATTLE. each of the counties of Great Britani, we must enter a little more into the consideration of the character and claims of the Lincoln cattle. Many of the present unimproved 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 denomi- nates them Dutch cattle, and knows them much belter 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 appropriate remark respecting them, that they demand that Bakewellian improvement 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, of 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 carcass. The breed was properly 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 quan- tities; 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 thei-efore 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. ILincolnshire Ox.'] THE SHORT-HORN BREED. 253 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 Smilhfield. 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 catde 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 on 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 pounds 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, who 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 while, 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 have 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 great 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 de- cidedly 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 sug-. ,^,*-- gest, yet they are most of them good milkers. The Lincoln, although'j^*; better adapted for gr-azing than for the dairy, yield more milk, and of ai-*<|»'^^ richer quality, than some of the advocates for the old order of things are'a'*)!^ willing to allow. '^*-\% A great number of the Yorkshire cows, destined for the metropolitan^v^ dairies halt in Lincolnshire, and many cattle from the north, as well za^r^P- numerous herds of Irish beasts, are prepared for Smithfield market. ''' ''' There is no distinguishing breed in this county; but the chief agricultu- ral business, so far as cattle are concerned, consists in the suckling of calves and grazing in the marshes, with some attention 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.; Romford, Chelmsford, Maldon, Braintree, 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. 23 immmi 354 CATTLE. They are bought in at from a week to a fortnight old, and are generally 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 perlectly 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 themselves 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, i. 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 be- cause 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 the London retail dealers, wash the salt well out of the Cambridge butter, and, forming it into rolls, sell it for Epping butter; whde a few are more impudent, and sell almost any kind of butter as true Epping. Attached to the dairy is another business, to which we shall have occa- sion more part'cularly 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 re- tained 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 catUe 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 usually made fresh upon the marshes, and ' tbeo tied up to hay, turnips, mangel-wurzel, and oil-cake. THE SHORT-HORN BREED. 255 and would render the system of grazing a losing business. Some land, however, is necessarily devoted to the temporary keep of cattle, as they journey to and from Smithfield, or while they remain unsold from one market-day to another; and a great many cattle are prepared for the mar- ket 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 es- tablished, 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, to 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 Brentford. 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 columns. 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. ' The wash is kept in a cistern or tank, above the level of these man- gers, and in a different part of the premises; but pipes from this tank are conducted beneath the floor of the building, and communicate with these mangers by means of a distinct cock for each, so that, by turning, the cat- tle, 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 used 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 haj'^ is ever gi-yen. Oil-cake is seldom used, it being found that rough clover chaff, mixed with the grains and wash, will fatten to any extent. 256 CATTLE. The metropolis is the grand mart to which a considerable proportion of the fat cattle from every part of the kingdom is sent. In the 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 circuit of eight or ten miles, and occasional contracts for the navy. Besides this there is a great quantity of dead meat sent up from the country, generally speaking perfectly wholesome, and fairly and honestly slaughtered, althouglt 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 fairly set against the consumption of the places in the neighbour- hood of London, and also the irregular demands for the navy, so that the numbers just stated may be considered as fairly representing the consump- tion 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'Culloch's Dictionary of Conmierce.* 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 calde slaughtered have increased, in order The numbers of Cattle and Sheep sold in Smithfield in each year from 1732 to 1830: 1732 1733 1734 1735 1736 1737 1738 1739 1740 1741 1742 1743 1744 1745 1746 1747 1748 1749 1750 1751 1752 1753 1754 1755 1756 1757 1758 1759 1760 1761 1762 1763 1764 Cattle. 76,210 80,169 78,810 83,894 87,606 83,862 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 75,252 70,437 74,290 77,257 82,612 84,252 86,439 88,594 82,514 102,831 80,851 75,168 Sheep. 514,700 555,050 566,910 590,970 587,420 607,330 589,470 568,980 501,020 536,180 503,260 468,120 490,620 563,990 620,790 621,780 610,060 624,220 656,340 631,890 642,100 648,440 631,350 647,100 624,710 574,960 550,930 582,260 622,200 666,010 772,160 65.3,110 556,360 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 Cattle. 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. 107,470 122,986 125,073 134,546 126,389 117,551 113,019 125,043 120,250 134,326 144,042 137,600 132,155 125,012 133,859 137,770 135,071 124,948 120,439 129,888 138,047 135,226 132,933 129,125 142,043 149,552 163,615 156,985 14.3,460 138,363 148,698 158,313 159,907 Sheep. 753,010 834,400 842,210 760,560 743,470 787,430 903,940 912,410 858,570 924,030 1015,280 989,250 962,750 966,400 953,938 891,2 -^0 870,880 962,840 968,560 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 vakie 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 offal; 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'CuUoch pro- perly remarks, of nearer one-half than one-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 in- habitants 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: — Averag^e weight. No. of lbs. consu med 656 lbs. - - - 104,898,992 90 " - - - 115,836,300 96 " - - - 24,448,512 144 " ... 3,240,000 Cattle, - - 159,907 Sheep, &c. 1,287,070 Pigs, - . 254,672 Calves, - - 22,500 Number of pounds of meat consumed, 248,423,804 This, estimated at the average price of 6d., would be 6,210,595/. 2*. Orf. At 8(/. it would produce 8,268,293/. 9.s. 4f/., exclusive of bacon, hams, and all salted provisions brought from a distance, (the importation of Irish ba- con 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 by 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 Pro- testants; and when we remember that this includes the bones as well as the meat, half a pound a day is not too much to allow to each person. Cattle are sent from every part of the kingdom to Smithfield market, 23* 258 CATTLE. but many more from some districts than from others. A little before Christmas, 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 liincoln, Leicestershire and North- ampton, Sussex, the Western lAid Midland counties, and from the stall- yards more in the neighbourhood of the metropolis. Christmas having passed, the Norfolk 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 lying before us a calculation of the respective numbers from the different districts, at different seasons of the year. Li 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 JNLay, June, and July, the Norfolk cattle had in- creased to 17,800, and those from the north had risen from 600 to 3675. In 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 Nor- folk strangely decrease to 580. Some Leiccsters, however, soon become 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-feeding; 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, litde 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 from buying altogether, but we fear that law is sometimes evaded. He is acquainted 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 honoura- ble 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 parUy built over; and barely room was left for the accommodation of half the present number of cattle, and those of ordy 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 beast; and not only so, but the most barbarous expedients were resorted to THE CRUELTIES OF SMITHFIELD. 259 to pack the cattle in the circumscribed space which was now left to th?m, — 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 of every one connected 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 of abattoirs or slaughter-houses there. The extract is taken from ' The Voice of Humanity,' an excellent and cheap quarterly publication, that 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 sent there for sale ! The remainder are disposed of by being formed, in groups of about twenty in each, into "rings" or "ofF-droves," as such divisions are termed. About two o'clock in the morning the Smithfield barbarities are at the height, and the constables, being sent into the market in the daytime only, are consequently not in attendance. The drovers surround the unfortunate bullocks which cannot be tied up in the market, and commence by aiming with tlieir 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 tlie application of goads; whilst, if they venture to lift up the head, a dozen blud- geons are instantly hammering on it, until again lowered to the ground. This scene of 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 hammering with bludgeons on the head ; the thrusting the goads into the nostrils 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 purchased 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 inflicted, and of the consequent deterioration of the meat. The deterioration of the meat has been calculated at no less a sum than 100,OOOZ. 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 four- teen years in Smithfield," said a very intelligent witness, " and I find it perfectly impos- sible to sleep in the front of my house on the Sunday night. Tlie 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 up,) he will have them all with their heads in and their tails out; they form a ring; and in order to discipline them to stand in that manner, the drovers are obliged to goad them behuid 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 ;' so 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 disciplined, that, at breakfast-time, there shall be twenty or thirty ' rings ' of this kind standing in the middle of the market. If 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,' and drive the cattle away, they have a great deal of trouble, and the labour 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 hundred 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 cruelty, they will not be very delicate of the manner in which they use it afler a time I" * Another witness, who had been " a salesman about eight years," thus described the scene : — « " I have stood behind eight of these off-droves, and the cruelty which is necessarily exercised 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 bruises and the wildness of the different animals when passing through the streets. I 260 CATTLE. The dairies of the metropolis are objects of much interest to the stranger and to the agriculturist. In pursuit of the object of this work we travelled will describe simply the manner in which it arises. Perhaps more tlian an hour's violence has been exercised towards the cattle, to get them to stand about twenty in each circle, — and duriuir 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 tlie inhumanity described arises iVom 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 separately up." We subjoin, in connection with this, an account of an undertaking of an opulent and benevolent individual, Mr. Perkins, who, at the expense of 100,000Z., has erected a cattle- market, in the Lower Road at Islington, wliich will contain double the number of cattle usually exhibited in Smithfield, and render the cruelties there practised in tlie packing of them, no longer necessary. The 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 upon the Lower Road, Islington. The situation is airy and healthy, 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 principal 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 from the severity of tlie weather. Tliese sheds are subdivided into numerous compartments, with lairs enclosed by oak paling in front, to which the beasts may be 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 means of pipes passing under ground, from two immense tanks, which are kept filled by macliinery from capacious wells which have been sunk tor the purpose. The average length of the sheds is 830 feet, and they are capable of accommodating at least 4,000 beasts, and here they may remain from one market-day to another, or till such times as it may be convenient for the purchasers to remove them — an advantage wholly impracticable at Smithfield. 'I'ke open space in the centre is divided into four quadrangles, intersected by wide passages, and in tliese 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. Otiier pens are constructed for calves, pigs, and such animals as are usually brouglit 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, cither 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 appropriate- ness and unobjectionable character of the site, which, in point of extent, is four times larger than Smithfield. The piers and layers are all to be paved, if we may use the expression, with hard bricks ; and the drainage is so contrived as to ensure perfect clean- liness in tlie most unfavourable weather. ' Abattoirs. — Adjoining the market it is intended to erect abattoirs for slaughtering cattle of every description; in which persons may cither be accommodated with private slaughter-houses, or have the animals slaughtered under appointed inspectors at a certain fixed and moderate rate; so that all the expense, inconvenience, and mischief arising from the present mode of driving the cattle through the crowded streets on the market- day may be avoided. '"a market tavern, with stable-yard, stables, and sheds, capable of accommodating the horses of the frequenters of the market, is also to be erected, together with a range of shops for the" sale of such things as are calculated to meet the wants of the various classes THE LONDON DAIRIES. 261 over the greater part of the United Kingdom; and aUhough we often 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 our object, we will not say that the refusal to admit us was accompanied by rudeness, but the gate of the dairy remained closed. This was the case with our oiiergrown milk establishments. It was a species of illiberality 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 whispered 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 or 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 of 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 of milk that she returns. This, however, is not all, 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 tlie 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 ex- tent, 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 so- phisticated, is known only to these retail merchants. The proprietor of the large dairy is also a dealer in cream to a conside- rable 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 should be good, in order that he may turn the overplus to profita- ble 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 spot by their respective avocations. Every possible want has in fact been foreseen, and, as the place is now open for inspection, the public have an opportunity of judging of its utility by personal observation.' 262 CATTLE. milk becomes less than four quarts a day. They are rarely suffered to breed while in the dairyman's possession. The fact of their being so often changed is a proof that while the cow gives a remunerating quantity of milk 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 bull when in season. He always keeps some good short-horn bulls for this purpose. It sometimes happens that the cow will continue to give milk 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 nd 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 20/,, but the owners of the small dairies have no little trouble to get a good cow. The 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. Li ad- dition to his dairy, he has sheds that will contain five or six thousand beasts. A great proportion of them halt on his premises for a day or two before they are brought into the market. In addition to the shilling a night which he charges for their standing, he claims t!ie milk of the cows as his perquisite. The cows are milked by his people; he therefore knows beforehand the quantity of milk which each Avill yield, and he is thus enabled to cull the 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 ) ^sars 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 ano- ther, the average quantity obtained is rather more than nine quarts. When she begins to fail ill 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 soiuetimes he meets with an animal that seems to verify the old prejudice against cows in good condition. He bought her for her known milking properties, but 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 nine quarts per day, amounts to 39,420,000 quarts, or 27 quarts of genuine milk for each in- dividual. The retail dealers usually sell the milk for id. per quart, after the cream is separated from it, and then obtain 3s. per quart for the cream; beside this, a great deal of water is mixed with this skimmed milk : so that we far underrate the price when we calculate that the genuine milk sells at 6(/. 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 985,500 by 12,000/,, (the number of cows,) we shall have the strange and almost incredible sum of more than 82/, as the THE 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 of the departments of the concern. We acquit the wholesale dealers of any share in the roguery, nor do we believe that their profits are exorbitant. 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 door, this profit is not too great; but when they abstract the cream, and add tlie 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, and 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 trea'lise 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 surface on which the buildings are placed is a gentle slope of two or three acres, facing the east. The sheds run in a 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 trough 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 manger of the ordi- nary size of those used 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 cistern, which contains the water for drinking; each cistern serves two cows that are placed opposite to each other, but 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 dairy, consisting of three rooms, each about twelve feet square; the outer, or measuring-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 in cement, about six feet in diameter, and twelve feet deep. The milk 264 CATTLE. soon becomes sour there, but is then most nourishing to the hogs. Breed- ing 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 the dung is emptied. There is a stack-yard, sheds, and pits for roots, straw, and hay; a place for cutting chaff, 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 drink 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 water 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 months 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- rioration in the quality of the milk. We should like 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 of 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, lends to the greater developement of the saccharine and nutritive prin- ciple, arid 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 some have lain nine years, and been perfecdy good at the expiration of that period. The dairyman, however, must know liis brewer, and be able to depend on him. The grains from a large ale brewery are tlie 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 scarcely worth having. SURREY. 265 Each cow is allowed a portion of salt. In Rhodes's establishment it is given with the grains. Laycock salts his rick when it is first made; — a most excellent plan, for the hay is not only effectually 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 developement 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 given about three o'clock in the morning, and two o'clock in the afternoon, being a little before the usual mdking 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 can 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 the experiments made by the Duke of Bedford on the fat- tening quality 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. The wholesale dairymen usually agree with the retail dealers, that tliev (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-roj^ii, 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- ticieney is made up from the dairyman's vessel. The milk which is left on liand is put into shallow vessels, the cream is skimmed and made into butter, and the skimmed-milk thrown into the pit for 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 perons 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. This county, like Essex and Middlesex, cannot be said to have any distinguishing breed, 'i'he short-horns undoubtedly prevail; but in the parts bordering on Sussex, the valuable breed of that county is found in 24 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 be not so productive as it was once imagined to be, and has declined, particu- larly in the two latter places. CHAPTER VIII. THE FOREIGN BREEDS OF CATTLE. [77(6 Jlldtrnty ALDERNEY CATTLE. First among them — and a regular importation of which is kept up — we have the Normandy, or Alderney catde. 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 of 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 fashion- able that the view from the breakfast or drawing room of the house should present an Alderney cow or two grazing at a little distance. ALDERNEY CATTLE. 267 IThe Alderney Cow.'] John Lawrence describes them as ' light-red, yellow, dun or fawn- coloured; short, wild-horned, deer-necked, thin, and small boned, irregu- larly, 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 analyzed point by point; yet all these defects are so put together, as to make a not unpleasing whole. The Alderney, considering its voracious appetite — for it devours almost as much as a short-horn — yields very little milk. That milk, however, is of an extraordinary 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 Alderney cows. Some writers on agricultural subjects ha've, however denied it. The milk of the Alderney cow fits her for the situation in which she is usually placed, and where the excellence of the article is regarded, and not the expense: but it is not rich enough, yield- ing the small quantity tliat she does, to pay for what she costs.* On the coast of Hampshire, there is great facility m obtaining the Alderney 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 tliat an Alderney cow that had strayed on the premises of a friend of his and remained there tlirce weeks, made 191bs. of butter eacli week; and the fact was held so extraordinary, as to be thought worthy of a memorandum in the parish books. 26S CATTLE. have established themselves in that part of the country, and the various ways in which other breeds have been crossed by them. One excellence it must be acknowledged that the Alderneys possess Avhen they are dried; they fatten with a rapidity that would be scarcely thought possible from their gaunt appearance, and their want of almost every grazing point, while living. The Duke of Bedford exhibited a French ox at the Smithfield catde show, in 1802, whose four quarters weighed 95 stones 3 lbs., and the fat 17 stones 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. NAGORE 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 Nagore BulQ EAST INDIAN CATTLE. S69 of 1400 miles, in January, 1829, and were then something under six 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 Skinner 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 in that time, fresh ones are brought out to relieve their companions. They will travel, with a soldier on their back, 15 or 16 hours in the day, at tlie 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 was employed in a light cart, and various jobs about the farm: sometimes he goes fore-horse in the wagon-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 nov^ walks in 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 as long as they please. Mr. Perkins very properly observes, that the chief advantage of these Brahmin bulls would probably consist in their speed and strength, in both of which they surpass any of our breeds. The cow (lo) 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 catde for the pail is therefore unknown. Two calves have been bred from them, and a milch cow ie now in calf by the bull. Neither 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 passes over them, there may possibly be a peculiar taint in the meat. BUFFALO AND INDIAN CATTLE. Mr. C. Winn, of Nostal, near Wakefield, has some cattle, the progeny of a zebra bull and a Brahmin cow. They breed once in the year, and the calf is suffered 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 was killed, weighing more than 35 stones, imperial weight. The bone is 24* 270 CATTLE. exceedingly small, but the meat is not well- flavoured, and is comparatively- destitute of gravy. They have bred with the English cattle, but the offspring has never been reared. A calf from an Ayrshire cow, by one of these bulls, became so fat at one month old, that it weighed 25 lbs. per quarter, and was most delicious meat. The Duke of Nothumberland lias a fine breed of buffalo-cattle in his 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 ihe 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 spay 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 linely marbled, and well- flavoured. In Wentworth Park, the principal seat of Earl Fitzwilliam, there is a herd of beautiful Indian cattle. They were presented to Lord Rocking- ham, sixty or seventy years ago, by Mr. Verelst, 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 pleasant 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 on the open ground. No cross has been attempted between these and the cattle of the country, from an impression on the mind of the noble proprietor, that it would be more a matter of zoological curiosity than of practical utility. ( 271 ) THE ANATOMICAL STRUCTURE DISEASES OF CATTLE CHAPTER IX. THE STRUCTURE AND DISEASES OF THE HEAD OF THE OX. Having 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 ox, we are prepared to enter into the consideration of his structure. This will afford 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 varied with the caprice of individuals, or the fashion 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 scai-cely 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 fe\t 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 will admit, and consisting of that only which is peculiar to cattle. For the purpose of future reference, and in conformity with the treatise on ' the Horse,' we first introduce the skeleton of the ox. 272 CATTLE. ^Skeleton of the Ox.'\ The upper jaw-bone. The nasal bone, or bone of the nose. The lachrymal bone. The malar, or cheek-bone. The frontal bone, or bone of the fore- head. The horns, being processes or contin- uations of the frontal. The temporal bone. The parietal bone low in the temporal »', The occipital bone, deeply depressed below the crest or ridge of the head. _;, The lower jaw. Ar, The grinders. I, The nippers, found on the lower jaw alone. w, The ligament of the neck, and its attachments. n, The atlas. 0, The dentata. p. The orbit of the eye. J, The vertebrae, or bones of the neck. r, The bones of the back. s, The bones of the loins. t, The sacrum. M, The bones of the tail. » & ic, The haunch and pelvis. X, The eight true ribs. y. The false ribs; with their cartilages. z, The sternum. 1, The scapula, or shoulder-blade. 2, The humerus, or lower bone of the shoulder. 3, The radius, or principal bone of the arm. 4, The ulna, its upper part forming the elbow. 5, The small bones of the knee. 6, The large metacarpal or shank-bone. 7, The smaller or splint-bone. 8, The scssamoid 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. i 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 horse, into two parts — the skull and the face. The following cut represents a section ot both. STRUCTURE OF THE HEAD OF THE OX- 273 \_Section of the Head of the Ox.'] a. The horn, showing it to be a process of the frontal bone, and the manner in which it is hollowed. h. 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 chord passes from the skull. c. The cavity of the skull. /, The petrous portion of the temporal bone appearing in the cavity of the skull. g. The passage to the internal part of the car. h. The foramen laeerum 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. The anterior condyloid foramen. The posterior do. The basilar process of the occipital. , The sphenoid bone. The crista galli of the ethmoid bone. Tlie pterigoid bone. The perpendicular portion of the pa- latine bone. The nasal bone. The ethmoid bone. The superior turbinated bone. The inferior turbinated bone. The lower cell of the ethmoid, so large in the ox, as to be termed by some the middle turbinated bone. Tlie maxillary sinits. , l^he cells of the palatine bone. The superior maxillary bone — its pa- latine process. The grinders. 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, /«, p. 272; two temporals, g, p. 272, and/, p. 273 ; one occipital, z, p. 272; and d and /, p. 273; one ethmoid, n, and r, p. 273; and one sphenoid, in, 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 CATTLE. rietal bones; 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 the 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 ridge of the skull; presenting a flattened but irregular surface, and entirely bare of mus- cular or fleshy covering. In the festal calf, there are two distinct fron- tals, but the suture soon disappears, and one broad and lengthened bone remains. THE FRONTAL BOXES. Nature has given to most species of cattle a formidable weapon of offence, the horn. To be eflective, 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 continuation of the frontal, (see a, p. 273.) To the male animal this weapon seems to be 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 which alone he could maintain his power, or defend his sub- jects, the forehead of the 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 otily characteristic of dif- ference of sex, but it is regarded, and properly, as an essential poirit 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 Althorp's bull, whose full portrait was given in page 242. With the exception of somewhat too narrow a muzzle, it is a good illustration of the masculine character of a superior bull of the improved short-horn breed. With regard to some species of hornless cattle, this notion of the proper form of the frontal bone, is carried to a greater extent. The expanse of this bone not being wanted as a base for the hoi-n, is not found; on the contrary, the frontal bones begin to contract a little above the eyes, and terminate in a comparatively narrow ridge at the summit of the head. THE FRONTAL SINUSES. 275 This narrowness of the parietal ridge (is not the occipital ridge in cattle, for 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 the 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 form, and the smallnessof the bone everywhere. ■GILBCRT IHead of Fhhy— Lord Mthorp''s Bull.'] THE FRONTAL SINUSES. If this expanse of bone were solid, its weight would be enormous, and it would fatigue and weigh the animal down. To obviate this, as in the Horse (6, p. 68, ' Horse,') it is divided into two plates, separated by numerous vacuities or cells; but, unlike the horse, these extend through the whole of the bone — nay, they penetrate even through the parietal and occipital bones. Hence it happens that the frontal styluses (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 the horn (vide a and c, p. 273.) 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 the 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 to the tip of the horn, and from one muzzle to the other. INFLAMMATION OF THE FRONTAL SINUSES. The whole of this cavity is lined by a prolongation of the membrane of tlie nose, and when one part of it is inflamed, the whole is apt to be affected. 276 CATTLE. This accounts for the very serious character which nasal gleet, a discharge 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 tlie nose of an ox is examined into and properly treated the belter; 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 common cold, has extended along the cavity, .and is more intense in some 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 of the horns. The veterinary surgeon does one of two things; he either- opens the i-kidl at the root of the horn with a trephine, or he proceeds in a more summary and a better way — he cuts ofl" 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 r.\ occasionally suflers 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 sometimes 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 odier 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 brain. The weapons of offence in catfle 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, the roof of the skull cannot be covered and defended by the yielding but most effectual resistance which the temporal muscle affords to the horse; and although the frontal bone were so solid as almost to resist the very pos- sibility 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 the plates numerous little perpendicular walls, or rather scales of bone, (see c, 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 their 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. 277 injured; or if the external one is perforated by the horn, the inner one is rarely touched. Hence also it occurs that in the occasional encounters between these animals — and furious enough they sometimes are — the in- juries are inflicted on other parts, and the head is comparatively untouched. 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 structure 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 ves- sels 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 greater supply of blood; and, therefore, there are two foramina, one for the escape of the herve, and the other of the artery. Each of these, however, must be of considerable bulk, and they have to run over a flatter surface than in the horse, and a surface, passing over which, they are ex- posed 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 UNDER 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 zygomatic 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 off'ence; he may gore and trample upon his enemy, b*.t he does not bite him: and his food is more leisurely gathered 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 and the goneril shape of the head, exempt from the violence and injury to which in the horse it is exposed; and therefore the arch not only does not project like the other for the purpose of strength, and to give room for a mass of mus- cle that is not wanted, but the frontal bone does not enter into its composi- tion at all. (See g and e, p. 272.) THE HORNS. The greatest difllsrence between the frontals in the ox and the horse, consists in their prolongation in the former, under the name of the hornss. The foetus of three months old has no horn; during the fourth month it begins to appear, and maybe detected by a little irregiilarity of the frontal bone. This increases, and by 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; a.-d, continuing to grow, it detaches the cuticle or scarf skiu 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 the bone. Beneath tliis cuticle the horn soon begins to form; but it coft- 278 CATTLE. tirrnes covered until the animal is twelve or fifteen months old, giving td it a skinny roughness, which then peels off showing 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 or 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 ve^els 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, Avorm-eaten by innumerable vessels. It is on this account that when it is broken the haemorrhage is so great — there would scarcely be more profuse bleeding from the amputation of a limb. A veterinary friend of ours had to remove a large halt-bony tumour, which had grown on a broken horn. He sawed it off, 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 OF 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 fix 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 off. If the bone is not fractured it will be best to leave the process to nature. Young beasts are particu- larly subject to this loss of the covering of the bone, from their violent contests with each other. There will be a great deal of haemorrhage 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 perfecdy separated from «ach other. They must be brought in exact apposition with each other, bound carefully up, and confined with splents, or sufBciently 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 perfecdy separated. The bone will never be reproduced; although nature will often aUempt to do it, and a rude misshapen mass will be formed, half bony and half cartilaginous. To prevent this the horn must be sawed off level below the fracture, and the nearer the head the better, because it will be the sooner covered by a THE RINGS OF THE HORNS. fi79 prolongation of the cuticle. T^e hot iron must be frequently 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 ac- cess 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 OF 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 in the horn. It does not yield by calcination more than one three-hundredth part; in fact, every thing is excluded that can impart to it the slightest de- gree of brittleness. After long maceration the horn has been resolved into lamelloe 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 be carried on. The horn is exceedingly thin at its base, and appears as if 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 cutic-le and the covering of the bone of the horn are two distinct substances. As 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 secreted, so, in the ox, from a less distinct prolongation of the cuticle proceeds 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 close- ness 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 OF 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: at four-years-old two are seen, and so on, one being added on each succeed- ing 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 the cow only; in the ox 280 CATTLE. they do not appear until he is five years old, and they are often confused: in the hull they are either not seen until five, or they cannot be traced at all. 'I'hese rings are not always distinct even in the cow; the two or three first may be so, but then comes a succession of mere irregularities of surface that can scarcely be said to be rings and which it is impossible to count. Another circumstance must also be taken into the account, 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 or seven-years f)ld, these rings are so irregular in their appearance, and so little to be depended upon, that the age indicated by the two horns is not always the same. We have repeatedly seen a diff'erence of one year, and in some instances we could not make the horns agree by two years at least. Therefore, regniding this as a process of nature, it is far too irregular for any certain dependance to be placed upon it. It is a mere general rule, with fi^ir 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 humnn 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 gendy used, and a little dirt, with or without soot, is rubbed over the part, there is nothing to tell tales, ex- cept 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 un- charitable enough to suspect that it was oftener employed in the removal of a defect, than the heightening of a beauty. CatUe 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 catde, where no roguery can lead us astray. THE DEGREE OF FEVER ESTIMATED BY THE HORN. This thinness of the horn at the base will aflTord us an explanation of the custom of the farrier and the cow leech, when examining a sick beast, to feel, almost first of all, tlie root of the horn, and the tip 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 important 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 degree 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 and consequent tenderness of the bone beneath — brutal drovers often aim PECULIARITIES ABOUT THE HORNS. 281 their blows at the root of the horn. In the cruelties which they inflict, they are restricted by the butchers to the head, to the hocks and below 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, but the mere integument 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-rnarket of Smithfield. 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 yielding 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 beautiful 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 eflected in all the breeds of cattle, and particularly the introduction of the short-horns, which 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 confined 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 for this purpose ; and the horns of the young catfle were twisted into spiral curves and a variety of fantastic forms by means of heated irons. THE HORNS THE DISTINGUISHING CHARACTER OF 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 catfle 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 catfle, 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 littlp or no consequence ; we con- fess that we are not of that number. It sometimes tolls tales of crosses long gone by or forgotten, and totally unsuspected ; and we imagine it lo be possible that they will indicate certain peculiarities* excellences or 282 CATTLE. defects, reaching perhaps to no great extent, but yet wortliy 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 woidd require experience that rarely falls to one man's lot, and an unusual free- dom 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 catde, have horus 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 that ' the corneous external coat is very soft, distinctly fibrous, and at the base 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 feel 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 Ariiee buffaloes of Bengal, who pursued a sportsman to his elephant; and which, when killed, was more than six feet in height, three feet wide across the breast, and had horns five feet and a half long. Mr. Bruce gives a singidar account of enormous horns occasionally obtained from the Abyssinian cattle. 'The animal furnish- ing 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, he 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 i'l 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 become 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 make 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 exerted 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, diat is usually encumbered or adorned with branching honours; the castrated male loses his anders altogether, or wears a pair of diminutive size, tjmarkinghis degradation ; while the female is generally hornless. On the contrary, our bull is distinguished by a short, straight, comparatively insig- nificant 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 GALLOWAYS. The most singular variety of horn, is that which now and then hangs *Bruce's Travels, vol. vi. p. 50. THE USES OF THE HORNS. 283 Irora 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 any other bone of the head; but it grows from the skin, and hangs down on the side of the face. We have already discussed the question whether the polled catde were one of the original native breeds, or an accidental variety introduced at a very early period. This abortive horn gives much plausibility to the latter no- tion. There is an occasional attempt at breeding back even at this distant period. THE FRONTALS IN POLLED CATTLE. The 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 pureness 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 ihey extend beyond the frontals. This, however, varies much in the dif- ferent breeds of cattle. COMPARISON BETWEEN THE HORNED AND HORNLESS BREEDS. 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 thii^s, but that they were a serious evil; and one, whose name will ever rank high as a scientific surgeon, has scrupk'dnot 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 slock; each has its zealous advocates, and each is excellent. But it has been determined, that during the reign of the Bake- wellian 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 deter- mined, 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 adorned by them. They are at least ornamental; they cost the breeder nothing; they are useful for various purposes; and ihey 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 and more docile. But the ferocity of the horned beast is oftener the efiect of mismanagement than of natural disposition. THE USES OF THE HORNS OF CATTLE. We will conclude this account of the horns of cattle by an extract from Professor Babbage's excellent treatise on Manufactures; — ' Amongst the 284 CATTLE. causes which- tend to the cheap production of any article, may be men- tioned 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 which the horns of catde 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 homy case, and an inward conical-shaped substance, somewhat between hardened hair and bone. The first process consists in separating these two parts, by means of a blow agaii>st a block of wood. The horny outside is then cut into three portions, by means of a frame-saw. 1st. The lowest of these, next the root of the horn, after undergoing several processes by which it is rendered flat, is made into combs. 2d. The middle of the horn, after being flat- tened by heat, and its tran-sparency 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 the tops of whips, and for similar purposes. 4th. The interior, or cone of the horn, is boiled down in watcj:. A large quantity of fat rises to the sur- face, which is put aside, and sold to the makers of yellow soap. 5th. The liquid ixself is used as a kind of glue, and it is purchased by the cloth- dresser for stiffening. 6th. The bony substance which remains behind, is ground down, and sold to the farmers for manure. Besides these various purposes to which the diff'erent parts of the horn are applied, the chip- pings which arise in comb-making are sold to the farmer for manure, at about one shilling per bushel. In the first year after they are spread over the soil, they have comparativeVpr little effect, but during the next four or five years their efficiency is considerable. The shavings which form the refuse of the lantern-makers, are of a nmch 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; but the greater part of these shavings is sold for manure, which, from their extremely thin and divided form, produces its full efliect on the first crop.' THE OTHER BOXES OF THE SKULL. We shall be very brief in our account of the other bones of the skull, as litde of a practical nature is connected with tluem. The parietal bone. — We speak advisedly when we call it one bone; for even in the fcetal 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 (A, p. 272,) not the smallest portion of it appears on the superior part of the head; but it is found at the back of it, usurping the place of the occipital bone, giving attachment to the muscles of the neck, and particu- larly to its strong supporting ligament (m, p. 272.) It, however, spreads along the side below the horn, giving it some support; and it unites there, as in the horse, with the temporal bone, and contributes to the strength of the part. The Temporal hones. — These bones [g. p. 272 and 273,) have no stress upon them in catde; they are therefore small, deep in the temporal fossa, and destitute of the squamous suture. The most important difl!erence is the form of the supeificial cavity which receives the head of the lower jaw, and which is peculiarly adapted to the lateral grinding motion of ru- mination. The Occipital bone. — This bone is, in the ox, deprived of almost all its import nice. There is no crest, no tuberosity, and very small condyles, for attachment to the neck; and even its base, although a litde widened, is THE INTELLIGENCE OF OXEN. 28S: much curtailed in length. It, however, still contains the great foramen 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 pteriguid processes of' the former are much larger than in the horse (o, p. 273.) In the ethmoid bone (r, p. 273,) there is no such material or practical difference. THE BRAIN. 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 developed; the deficiency is in the cineritious part — that part which we ventured to consider as connected with the intellectual principle. The medullary sub- stance is that by which impressions made by surrounding objects are con- veyed 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 quickly, and has the sense of smelling in greater perfection; 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 intellectual portion of the brain, has deprived him of the power of much improvement. Yet the difference is in degree, and not in kind. We have endeavoured 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 enliven 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 w^as walking through a field, when a cow ran towards him, lowing 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 lowing. 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 farther end of the 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 and merchandise on the backs of buffaloes, were driving a loaded string of these animals from Palamow to Chittrah. When they w«re come within a few miles of the latter place, a tiger seized upon the man in the rear, 286 CATTLE. which was seen by a guallah (herdsman,) who was watching a herd of buffaloes grazing. 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 him. 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 suffer 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 per- fect 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 catde 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 whenever the cattle trespassed. Warned by this, he kept a long switch, and re- venged himself upon them with sn unsparing hand, if they exceeded their 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 mean time he set them a good example himself, never once entering upon the forbidden grounds, and placing himself be- fore the cows in a threatening attitude if they approached it. At length, his honesty 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 bwt 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 suffi- cient capacity to perform the duties we require of him. The difference between him and the rest — the (hfference 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 re- quired for this,) we have degraded him to a state in which Ivp has little concern with any thing beside his food, and the reproduction of die species. In a country like ours, and with better servants at our command, that is the 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; and the knowledge of this should give us a kindlier 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 knowledge' of the animal; but as 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 medvUa 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, and 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 catde 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 constandy and actively at work, in order to furnish the requisite quantity of milk when living, and the expected abundasce of flesh and fat when consigned 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 is nothing com- pared with that of the horse. At the termination of this medulla oblongata, (q, p. 68, ' Horse,') commences the spinal chord, whence proceed all the nerves connected with the voluntary motions of the body. Now although tho medulla oblongata is propoitionally larger in the ox than in the horse, for the reason we have just stated, the spinal chord 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 de- void of interest to any one who has been accustomed to the observation and study of the works of nature. THE EAR. Two of the senses, hearing and sight, have their residence in the head: of them, therefore, we shall next speak. In horned cattle, where the ears are often comparatively small, and, on account of their situation, limited in their motions, and can be seldom erect, they are litde 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 indicativg 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 long observe an ox, without admiring the adroit use he makes of 290 CATTLE. the approach of danger from every quarter. He is oftener the pursued than the pursuer, and therefore 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 magnitude 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 docile in her habits. THE EYELIDS AND THEIR DISEASES. The eye is supported and covered by the lids, which were designed to answer the same purpose as in the horse, viz., to close at the approach of danger, and so afford considerable protection to the eye ; to supply 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 each 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 yield 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 ^thiop'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 eye 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 ferward, and drives the haw before it over the eye. When the retractor 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 litde 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 lo the tears, take on inflammation fror» 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 protuded 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 gteers on one farm with the caruncle on the bulb of the haw thus pro- DISEASES OF THE EYELIDS. 291 truded, ulcerated, and much enlarged, in consequence of a fungous growth on it; and there has sometimes been caries of the cartilage. Every means should be adopted to save this part, for the removal of it will inconveni- ence and torment the animal as long as he lives. If the disease is connected with inflammation of the ej'e generally, all will 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 dili- gently used, (two grains of white vitriol dissolved in an ounce of water, and the vitriol gradually increased to four grains; the application of it con- fined 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 part, the beast must be 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 M'hich 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. If 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 neighboiiring parts; but they must be subdued by proper means. If fungus should sprout, it must be touched with the caustic; but there is little danger at- tending the operation. The ejelids are more subject to disease in the ox than in any other do- mestic animal. If any foreign body gets into the eye, and remains loner there, the eyelids never fail to partake of the irritation; they become hot and tender, and very much thickened. Sometimes the eyelid will con- tinue thickened after the inflammation of the eye has subsided. Fomenta- tions will be indicated here. Occasionally there is oedematous 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 absorption, but a depo- sit 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 at- tacked 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 said 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 catUe, a perforation has been made through the skin, a little pipe introduced, and a quantum sufl'. of air blown into the cellular substance, a portion of Avhich, 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 of cattle-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. 290 CATTLE. the approach of danger from every quarter. He is oftener the pursued than the pursuer, and therefore 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 magnitude 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 neillier the grazing nor the milking beast can have too placid a countenance, or be too quiet and docile in her habits. THE EYELIDS AND THEIR DISEASES. The eye is supported and covered by the lids, which were designed to answer the same purpose as in the horse, viz., to close at the approach of danger, and so afford considerable protection to the eye ; to supply it with that moisture which is necessary to preserve its transparency ; to defend it from the light when diseat^ed ; and to droop over it, and permit the animal to enjoy the repose which nature requires. At the edge of each 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 yield 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 jElhiop'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 eye from annoying substances. A flat piece of cartilage, of a semicirculat 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 ferward, and drives the haw before it over the eye. When the retractor 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 f.eshy body, placed at the corner of the eye to give a proper direction lo the tears, take on inflammation froro 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 protuded 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 gteers on one farm with the caruncle on the bulb of the haw thus pro- DISEASES OF THE EYELIDS. 291 truded, ulcerated, and much enlarged, in consequence of a fungous growth on it; and there has sometimes been caries of the cartilage. Every means should be adopted to save this part, for the removal of it will inconveni- ence and torment the animal as long as he lives. If the disease is connected with inflammation of the e-^e generally, all will 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 dili- gently used, (two grains of white vitriol dissolved in an ounce of water, and the vitriol gradually increased to four grains; the application of it con- fined 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. AVhen 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 part, the beast must be cast; an assistant must keep open tlie 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. If 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 caustic; but there is little danger at- tending 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 eye, and remains long there, the eyelids never fail to partake of the irritation; they become hot and tender, and very much thickened. Sometimes the eyelid will con- tinue thickened after the inflammation of the eye has subsided. Fomenta- tions 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 absorption, but a depo- sit 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 at- tacked by it soon afterwards. A curious appearance — we can scarcely call it a disease — has been ob- served hi the eyelids of fat bullocks. They have been emphysematous. A certain portion of gas has been infiltrated into the cellular tissue. It is said that in France this has, now and then, been the consequence of the rogueries of catfle-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 Uke these are attempted here; although we shall have to expose not a few of the dishonest and brutal practices of cattle-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. 292 CATTLE. The eye of the ox generally is larger and flatter than that of the horse, but the transparent cornea is more convex. The pupil is of a transverse oblong form; and the iris is dark, but somewhat varying with the colour of the animal. The inner construction is the same as that of the horse, and the diseases have too much athnity. It is on account of the cornea of the ox being so convex, and the lens also more than usually convex, that many cattle appear 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 particu- larly, wdl approach to a stranger, before they appear to have made a satis- factory 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 lias its natural termination — blindness. The cases of simple ophthalmia, however, proceeding from the introduction of fo- reign 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 tlie 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 lo- tions, as local applications; the opium during the acute stage, the lead re- sorted to as soon as the inflammation begins to subside, and the zinc as a tonic, when the inflammation is nearly subdued. The chief difference in the mode of treatment is the necessity of having recourse to the tonic lo- tion somewhat sooner for the ox than would be deemed prudent for the horse. The increased strength of the vascular system in the ox will ac- count for this: inflammatory diseases speedily run their course in these animals; and debility, whether general 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 catde 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-leach 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 indeed, of getting rid of something that offended the constitution; and that FRACTURE OF THE SKULL. 293 his wisest way would be to let her pretty nearly alone. The skilful prac- titioner foments 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 gende 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 periodi- cal ophthalmia is not so frequent in him as in the horse ; and as soon as the existence of that disease is ascertained, ihe animal is prepared for slaugh- ter; yet there are few herds in which there is not found a beast with cara- ract 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 recognised than the beast is destroyed. A blind horse may be use- ful for many purposes, a blind ox is good for nothing. Cancer of 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 symptoms of ophthalmia appear, as injection of the conjunc- tiva, dimness of the cornea, weeping, and swelling of the lids. These are properly attended to, but the inflammation increases; and, on very close examination, 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 immediately behind tlie cornea. Now it is at once evident that the only way to get rid of, or to destroy this worm, is to puncture the 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 disease appears about June, and is not seen after December. We con- fess 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 being found in almost every tissue. fracture of the skull. One class of the diseases of the head to which cattle are exposed will fall under 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 slighest 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 tlie divided plates of the frontal bones, together with the interposed elastic bony walls afllord, the horn of a vicious beast will sometimes do mischief. It had penetrated both plates in the head of a cow, but she was seen grazing as usual, with a greasy bloody fluid running 26* 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 days, 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 further on, when she commenced the same rotatory motion and in the same direction. She was immediately destroyed; the horn had pene- trated 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, incase of compression of the brain from fracture. In 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 dou- ble plate of the frontal, and the distance interposed between the two plates, renders it impossible to use such an instrument with success on the ox, and therefore the animal should always be consigned to slaughter. . ON HYDATIDS AND TUMOURS IN TME 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 animalcule, 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 de- gree of fever comes on — she perhaps scarcely eats — rumination is sus- pended — 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 fol- lowing day, the thing begins to speak for itself; she turns round and round, and always in the same direction: it is pressure upon the brain; and, remembering 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 evidendy 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? There may have been a somewhat too great determination of blood to the head, and some litde 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 slaugh- ter in that time. She should be bled again, and that copiously; and a stronger dose of physic should 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 phrensy, and that when they were examined, vesicular worms were found in the WATER IN THE HEAD. S95 brain. In Switzerland, attacks of the hydatid are said not to be unfrequent among cattle ; and as soon as the beasts begin their circular walk, they are caught and struck somewhat hardly on the head, and between the horns, with a hammer, and the operator judges of the situation of the hydatid by the shrinking of the animal, and the hoUowness 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 suspension 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 punctuated with an awl in the common way, or better got at with the trephine ; but for our own parts the chance of /;e?7na- 7ient cure is so slight in sheep, that we should be inclined to recommend that the young cattle thus aflfected should be immediately destroyed. WATER IN THE HEAD. There is another species of pressure on the brain, to which young an very young cattle are confessedly subject, and that sometimes even in the foetal 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 any thing. 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 the 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 flow from the wound — the animal refused to suck — tetanus supervened, and the calf died. We have sometimes, yet not often, seen hydrocephalus appear after 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 indi- cating weakness, and rapidly undermining the powers of the constitution, 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 the 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 lo describe, except that they are of a milder cha- racter, and the malady is slower in its progress — and the plexus choroides, or network of minute arteries and veins in the ventricles, are usually con siderably enlarged. 296 CATTLE. Cattle are very subject to sudden determination of blood to the head. They are naturally plethoric ; they are continually under the influence of a stimulating and forcing system ; and that Avilhout 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 willi 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 any thing, the beast should be bled, and as much blood should be taken away as can be got. A pound and a half of Epsom salts should next be given, and Avithout 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 every where, 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 PHRENSY or 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 intense, rapidly succeeds. The beast rushes at every thing 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 fury. * 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 of the conversational peculiarities and powers possessed by that great man. The story was 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 myself witnessed many years ago in Edinburgh. I was proceeding from the old to the now town, by tiie earthen mound, at the head of which I was led tor a few minutes to look at a bull that had got into an inclosure there, after the unmerciful butelier-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 it to its most desperate fury. Its eyes now glared madness ; there were handfuls of foam PHRENSY. 297 As, however, the previous oppression and stupidity were much less in 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 difficidt to distinguish between these two diseases in the ox than in the horse. In the early stage of phrenitis, although there may be lowness or oppression, there is nothing like apoplexy, or want of consciousness. Besides, with all his fury, there is more method in the madness of the rabid than the phrenitic ox. The latter will run at every thing which presents iis^lf, 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 great redundancy of blood; to which may generally be 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 a vein 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 as his taste is not now very exquisite, he may be cheated with water in which Epsom salts have been dissolved. If there is time to get down one hornful of drink, a scruple or half a drachm 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 adjoining houses, and it bellowed so as to make one quake. It was any thing but an agreeable sight, so I moved away homewards. But before I got to the foot of the mound, an alarming shout caused me to look back, when 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 tlie footpath, and to behold its future progress. ' I shudder to tliis hour when I think of what immediately 1 saw. Among the people that were near me and in jeopardy, was a young lady, and, as you have said, she wore a red mantle, which 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, vvhicli 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. As I liave said, directly towards the unprotected young lady the bull drove forward: with intentest eye he 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 accurately, that a horn smote the dead wall on either hand, thus embracing, but from their great length shielding, her person from even the slightest danger. Hut tlie staunch wall withstood the tremendous thrust, and sent back with rebounding force, to a great distance, the huge and terrible brute, throwing him prostrate, never to rise again; for numberless destructive weapons were plunged into him, ere he had time to recover from the recoil. 298 CATTLE. where he cannot do much harm to himself or to any one else. Some persons have recommended setons of black liellebore root, inserted in the dewlap, and when these begin to act, they generally do so to some effec- tual purpose; but the animal will usually have recovered, or be dead, be- fore the seton begins to discharge. The phrensy 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 be continued to a moderate degree, and the fever medicine should be given to abate the quickness of the circulation; and tlien, when the congested blood is got pretty well out of the system, and the flesh be- gins to look well, and has become healthy, the sooner he is disposed of the better. TETANUS, OR LOCKED JAW. The nerves proceeding from the spinal chord are of two kinds, those by Avhich the power of voluntary motion is conveyed to the limbs, and those by which the impression 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 frame, 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. Tetanus 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 be a 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 together. The linger 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 maybe pricked in shoeing; and because, after a hard day's work, and covered with per- spiration, they are sometimes turned out 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 drover is long ab- sent from his charge. The treatment of such a disease must be of the promptest character. The animal should be bled until the pulse falters, or rather until the patient blows, staggers, and threatens to fall. There is nothing so likely to relax spasm of every kind, and to have some effect even in this exces- sive and universal one, as bleeding almost to fainting. We have known TETANUS, OR LOCKED JAW. 299 twenty, and even twenty-four pounds, taken from the beast before the de- sired effect was produced, and these are the cases which oftenest do well, when the constitution resists the bleeding as long as it can, and then gives way. One effect, not always so lasting as we could wish, 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 administered, 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 purging is pro- duced. There is sometimes a great deal of difficulty in this. 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 effects on the bowels; or it may accumulate in the paunch, 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 this will be given in its proper place. The bowels must be 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 Epsom salts may be changed with advantage for common salt. Injec- tions should likewise be administered every third hour, and in sufficient quantity, (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 de- bility, a second bleeding must be resorted to, and carried on as before un- til the circulation is evidently affected. If the animal still remains constipated, it is clear enough that the phy- sic is accumulated in the paunch; and that that stomach is not disposed to act. Strong doses of aromatics and tonics must noAV 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 oesophagus-tube must be introduced into the gullet, and carried down into the rumen, and warm water must be pumped in un- til that stomach is filled and overflows; i?nd 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 wished-for purgative effect will follow. This instrument is invaluable to the proprietor of eatde; and on the small- est farm, would soon repay the expense of the purchase. Purging being established, an attempt must be made to allay the irrita- bility of the nervous system by means of sedatives; and the best drug that can be administered, we should perhaps be warranted in saying the only effectual one, is opium. The crude opium dissolved in warm water, 300 CATTLE. and suspended by means of mucilage of gum, or the yolk of an egg, will be the preferable form in which to give it. The dose sliould be a drachm three times every day, and increased to a drachm and a half on the third 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 sails, or common salt, or sulphur, and the proportions of the purgaiive 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- ease — and it often causes a great deal of inflammation and swelling. The 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 firs'i; a recurrence to it if tlie spasm becomes yet more violent, or fever appears; and the joint influence of the sedative and purging medicine. If the disease terminates successfully, the beast will be left sadly out of condition, and he will not thrive very rapidly. He must, however, be got into fair plight, as quickly as prudence will allow; and then sold; for he will rarely stand much more work afterwards, or carry any great quan- tity of flesh. CHOREA. Of this disease, so frequent m the dog, either after distemper, or con- nected with it, and an aflfection resembling which we sometimes recognise 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 result of very trifling indisposition. All 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 of 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 invokintarily. Sometimes these symptoms do not continue more than a few seconds; at other times the fit lasts several minutes, and then the convulsions become less violent — they gradually cease, and the beast gels up, looks about him, 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 heat PALSY. 301 of the weather. It is a species of vertigo, or staggers — a sudden deter- mination of blood to the head; and if the farmer does not take warning, mischief will result. A very serious part of this business is, that the habit 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 will comprise 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, niprshy situations, the cattle in which are notoriously subject to palsy. It is frequent every where during a cold, ungenial spring; and there are seasons in which it assumes the character of an epizootic. Old beasts, and those 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 cold night, 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 alid 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 wa!-3r. Old cows, whose milk has been dried and who cannot be made to carry much flesh, are very subject to this complaint. 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 Avay, 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. It is at first feebleness which increases to stiffness, 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 being 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 Edinburgli, 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 cowdeech believe that the mischief passes along the cow's tail to the back, and that 21 302 CATTLE. it is on account of somctliing wrong in llie tail that she loses the use of Iier legs; and then some set to work, and cut the cow's tail ofT: while others, less cruel, or more scientific, make an incision into the uuder sur- face, and allow the woiind 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 tlie 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 tlijee times round the cow's body, over her back, and under her belly, which (if it happens to be a strange cat, as is often the case from the necessity of tlie colour, being black) so em ages tlie animal, that she inew.s and scratches with all the fury to which she is so easily excited, until she escapes from the hands of the necromancers, leaving them convinced that the devil has gcit into the cat. Mr. Dick, with a kind consideration, for which he deserves much credit, condescends to reason the 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 (ail-slip. Beyond tliis again, a firm swelling cartilaginous portion is found, covered with hair to brush off the flies within its reach. Now why have we the long column of bones; the termination with a soft space of a few inches; this thickened, hard, cnrtilaginous part at the very extre- mity, and that extremity covered with hair, but with a view to form a M'hip to drive ofl;', and with the greatest possible eftect, the insects whicli wound and torment the animal? ' Here the column of bones forms the shaft 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 M'hip to drive away the flies, and so complete a one, that the coachman may borrow a lesson from its construction.' We trust, therefore, that our readers will never be found 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 cflectual accomplishment of this natural purpose. It may, however be asked — is not relief sometimes given by these operations on the tail? — Very probably. AVe do not know what would make a cow get up and use her limbs if the punishment of the knife, and the rubbing-in of tar and salt failed; 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 beasts of every kind, but particularly cows, too early to grass, after they have been NEUROTOMY. 303 housed during the winter and first part of the spring. AVe have known one-fourth of the stock completely chilled and palsied behind in the course of two or three nights. The general health has not been much affected, except that, perhaps, hoose has come on ; but the beasts have lain three or four weeks (we recollect one that lay three months) before they recovered the use of their limbs. The treatment of this disease would be half summed up in one word — comfort. The cattle should, if possible, be immediately removed 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 frequendy galled. If they 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 must be over- come; but witb the physic, a good dose of cordial medicine should always 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 inflammatory nature, or of 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 these 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 in 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 indiflerence to food. This is another reason for giving a little cordial with the physic. The beast should be coaxed to eat — the food which is in season should be offered to it, and frequendy changed. Two-drachm doses of antimonial powder has been recommended as a diaphoretic, but we have not much faith in the action of this drug on catde. Good hand-rubbing, and plenty of it, should he used two or three times every day about the loins ; a stimulating liniment may also be applied, con- sisting of equal parts of spirits of turpentine, camphorated spirit, and hartshorn. The chief dependence is on keeping the bowels open, and the animal comfortable; and then in a variable 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 ox, by the administration of nux vomica. We are not aware that it has been tried by any English veterinarian. The strychnine would be worth a trial where the purgative comfortable system fails ; but tliat suc- ceeds so often, that we should be loth to have recourse to any thing else in the first instance. The nux vomica effected a cure, but the doses were enormous, consisting of more than an ounce each. NEUROTOMY. Veterinary surgeons have lately adopted an admirable method of re- lieving the pain which the horse must otherwise endure from several diseases of the foot. They cut out a portion of the nerve of the leg. They cannot interfere with the motion of 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, below the di- vision, cannot be conveyed to the brain, and therefore the animal is to- 304 CATTLE. tally unconscious of ihem. Many a valuable animal is thus relieved from torture, and perhaps his services are retained for many a year. We know not why this should not be applied to catde. The working^ ox is subject to several diseases of the feet, the consequence of shoeing and hard labour, and which are as painfvd and as difilcull 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 of 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. Enlargements of the lower head of these bones are frequently found in the ox, that have no parallel in the disorganization 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. Besides 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 proiit 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' feeding 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 jolting and somewhat dangerous uncertainty of action would not be regarded, or at all observed here. The ox seldom v/ould be subject, 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 iuflammatiou^^' 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 ligature 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 its pulsation. Lying immediately inside the artery, towards the other leg, is the vein, and close to that the nerve; so that the nerve will be iound about one-sixth part of an inch within the artery. The artery, we repeat,, is recognized by its pulsation — the vein by its yielding to the pressure of the finger, and the nerve by its being a hard, unyielding body. The ope- rator then makes a cautious incision, an imch and a half in length upon the nerve, taking care merely to cut through the integument. The cel- 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-qnartei-s of 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. 305 or lint is placed over them, and upon tliat a bandage is drawn tolerably tiffht. The wound should not be examined for the first three days, after which it may be dressed with healing ointment, or the tincture of aloes. In about three weeks it will be quite healed, but the relief Avill be imme- diate, and the milk of the cow will return, and the grazing beast will be- gin 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 Foot of No. 1. 19. 1. The tendon of the extensor of the foot. 2. Capsular ligaments of the fetlock joint. 3. Capsular ligaments of the |)astcrn joint. 20. * 4. Tendon of the perforans muscle. 5. Lig-amentous portions. 6. Tendons of the perforans and pcrfora- 21. tus muscles. [phalangeus. 7. Division of the tendon of the carpo- 8. The lateral external artery of the canon, 22. or shank. 9. The mesian and posterior artery of tlie fetlock. 10. The lateral internal artery, [arteries. 1. 11. The posterior branches of the plantar 12. The lateral external veiuof tlie canon. 2. 13. The lateral internal vein of the canon. 3. 14. The lateral vein of the pastern. 4. 15 16, 17 A branch which is formed by the plan- tar veins, and the venous reservoir of the plantar. The vascular reservoir, covered in part by the coronet. The plantar nerve before its bifurcation. 18. Nervous branches, which after having parted from the preceding, take a direction, the one backward and downward to the lateral and external part of the fetlock, and the other downward to the internal partof the same joint. 27* the Ox. Tlie mesian division of the same 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 laminas of the cofBn bone, corresponding with the horny la- mince of the hoof. The usual horny excrescence at the posterior part of the fetlock. No. 2. The tendons of the extensor of the pas- tern below the 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 joints. A portion of Integument, which unites the 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 figures 2, 2; and the superficial plantar arteries and veins, still lower down. 306 CATFLE. vessels and nerves of those portions of leg, fetlock, and foot. Besides these there is only one superficial nerve accompanying the superficial vein down to the centre of the great metacarpal, or rather, in the young animal, the suture or union between the two bones, few or none of whose fibres extend below the fetlock, and which may be easily got at and divided in disease of that joint. The cut (No. 2) is introduced to show how few nervous branches ex- tend down 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 tliat 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. I. It will be seen from the foregoing cut, that there will be plenty of room for fanciful 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 tnmks for the operator to choose from; but as he who is wise, ivhen operating on a beast of draught or slow ae.fion, will always make sure of his case, and excise the nen^e above the fetlock in the horse, so the prudent man will operate on the ox sufficiendy 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, viz. Rabies. When a rabid or mad dog is wandering about, la- boring 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 mwh resistance he will set upon' the whole herd and bite as many of them as he can. Many nostrums have been celebrated 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 this. 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, he probably will be able to point out the limb that was most in dan- ger, 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, introduced 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 whh every part of the wound, it must be en- larged 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 wound, 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 state of uncertainty, therefore, the fanner must look out for the worst. If the disease is to appear at all, it will be about the expiration of the fifth week, although there will be no absolute security in less than double the number of months. Then the beast will appear dull, languid, feverish, scarcely grazing, and RABIES. 307 idly ruminating. These may be the precursors of many a different illness, and the previous circumstances alone could excite suspicion of what is about to follow. The eyes become anxious, protudcd, 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 to 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 frequenUy harmless through every stage of the complaint; so in the ox, the symptoms that we have mentioned are succeeded by frequent and pitiful lowings — a continual and painful attempt to evacuate the faeces. Staggering and weakness of the loins appear on the second or third day, and this is soon succeeded by palsy of the hinder extremities. The animal sits on its haunches, making ineffectual attempts to rise — looking woefully around it, and eagerly plung- ing its muzzle into the water, Avhen placed within its reach, but it makes no attempt to do mischief. At other times, the early symptoms are succeeded by a dreadful state of excitation. The animal is eager to do every kind of mischief; he stands across the path bellowing incessantly, and tearing up the ground with his horns. In a few cases, the quiet and melancholy mad- ness suddenly changes into that of a ferocious character. There is no cure now ; no nostrums will have avail here : and the animal should be destroyed as scon as possible. One circumstance also should be care- fuMy remembered. The poison in all rabid animals seems to reside in the saliva; and the saliva of an ox is as dangerous as that of a dog. We inoculated a 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 labid cow, and two months afterwards the fowl had a wild and strange appearance, and its eyes were blood-shot: it ran at the other fowls, and became gradually paralytic and died. The rabid ox may attempt to do more mischief with its horns than its teeth, but occasionally it will bite ; or, if it should not, yet it must not be meddled with too much. This dangerous foam is continually running fronj the mouth; it may fall on a sore place, and it is then as dangerous as if it had entered the circulation by means of a bite. The knowledge that the virus is confined to the saliva will settle an- iiother matter that has occasionally been the cause of considerable uneasi- ness. A cow has been observed to be somewhat alien for a day or two, but she has been milked as usual ; her milk has been mingled with the rest, and has been used for domestic purposes as heretofore. She is at length discovered to be rabid. Is the family safe? Can the milk of a rabid cow be drunk with impunity? Yes, perfectly so, for the poison is confined to the saliva. The livers of hundreds of rabid dogs have been eaten in days of ignorance, dressed in 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 catfle to the market, and it has been 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. 308 CATTLE. CHAPTER X. THE ANATOMY, 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 purpose of respiration. It is one of the com- mencements of that succession of passages by which the air is conveyed to and from the lungs ; but as the ox pardy bretithes 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 developement of the frontal bones, in order to form a secure basis for the horn, all the bones of the face are proportionately diminished, and pushed out of their situation; and therefore the nasal bones in the ox (b, 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- lals (c, p. 273 and b, p. 274.) with the lacrymals (c, p, 273,) with the superior maxillaries («, p. 273 and x, p. 274,) and witli the anterior maxillaries (z, p. 274.) They are pushed down quite out of their place, and not being so jnuch 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 destmed 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, t!ie nasal bones may be considered as actually en ling in three points instead of one, and occupying a considerably-extende^-i 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 iirmly, until it is partly cut and parUy torn by the pressure of the incisors of the lower jaw on the pad that will be presently described, and which occupies the place 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.) Tliis is an addition to the upper meatus or passage of the nose (seen in cut p. 68, Horse) above the upper turbinated bone, and which has nothing to do Avith 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 oi 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, and for other reasons that will be stated presently, the ox has an acuter sense of smell than the horse. THE SENSE OF SMELLING. 309 THE OTHER BONES OF THE NOSE. Compare together this meatus or bhnd passage above s, in p. 68, * Horse,' and above r in p. 274 of this treatise. The superior maxillary bone, although much smaller than in the horse, forms the greater part of the wall and iloor of the nasal cavity. It con- tains the upper 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 principal seems to be pursued — lightness ■where it could be obtained consistendy 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 /, 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 presendy. The palatine bone (p, p. 274) is larger in the ox than in the horse, and occupies a greater portion of the palate and the floor of the nose. CONTENTS OF THE NASAL 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 aethmoid bone, dividing the nose into two equal parts. In the horse, the division was perfect, there was no direct communication between the two nostrds, 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 half way 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 of smell, and which we will now describe. THE SENSE OF SMELLING. The olfacfory, or first pair of nerves, connected with tlic sense of smell- ing, is abundandy 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 diflers in size in diflerent 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 docs 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, (perforated like a cullender,) of the asthmoid 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. 274. The pulpy matter of the nerve is pressed through the holes of this bone, and spread over a portion of the membrane of the nose. It is the 310 CATTLE. 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 nerve is spread, is the acuteness of the smell. The ox partly breathing through the mouth, and the air passage being widened by the removal of a portion of the septum, provision can lie made for the more extensive diffusion of the nervous pulp. Nearest to the skull, and situated at the upper part of the nasal cavity, are the cells of the aethmoid bone, (r, p. 274,) and if these are compared with the cells of the same bone in the horse, {I, p. 68,) the superior development of them in the ox will be evident. The lower cell of the aethmoid labyrinth is so much lengthened in the ox, that it is sometimes described as a third turbi- nated bone. It is represented at k, p. 274, Below these are the two tur- binated bones, (s and t, p. 274,) both of them, and especially the lower one, considerably more developed than in the horse. Each of these bones is composed of a labyrinth of cells, divided from each other by wafer-like plates of bone, perforated like the cribriform plate of the rethmoid bone — lined by the Schneiderian membrane, with the nervous pulp spread over or identified with that membrane — and a thousand communications be- tween the membranes in every part, by means of the gauze-like perforated structure of the plates. This membrane is either covered with an unctuous fluid, or the air passages are so complicated that the pure atmospheric air alone is suffered to pass; the slightest odoriferous particle or solid substance of any kind is arrested. The contirmed snuff-taker will afford a sufficient illustration of this. However enormous may be his pincli, and with whatever force he may sniff" it up, not an atom finds its way to the lungs, or even into the larynx; the whole is arrested by some portion or other of the Schneiderian membrane. This is not only a wise provision for the per- fection of the sense of smelling — it not only secures the contact of every particle with the membrane of the nose, and its temporary lodgment there, but it protects the air passages from many a source of annoyance, danger, and death. Considering the numerous deleterious substances which, under one form or another, are floating in the air, it is scarcely possible to con- ceive how any animal could live an hour without some such protection to the lungs as this affords. Nature, then, has provided an acute sense of smell for the ox: it was wanted. It was necessary that the animal should detect the peculiar scent of every plant, as connected either with nutrition or destruction. Instinct perhaps teaches him much, but he is more indebted to the lessons of experience. In the spring of the year, when the scent of the infant plant is scarcely developed, cattle are often deceived with regard to the nature of the herbage; they are subject to peculiar complaints of indiges- tion; and they are sometimes poisoned. When the great Linnoeus visited Tornea, the inhabitants complained of a distemper that had killed many of their cattle, and especially when first turned out into the meadows 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, and 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 dam, and turned with little or no experience into the pasture, they eat indiscriminately of every herb that presents itself, and many of POLYPUS IN THE NOSE. 311 them are lost. Had they been suffered to browse a Utde while, or a little longer with the 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 minds. This is a point of agricultural economy not sufficiently attended to. BLEEDING FROM THE NOSE. AVorking oxen, and especially those that are in tolerably 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 a summer's day, nasal haemorrhage may occur; we, however, have been accustomed, whatever may be the excuse of the story of the servant, to trace the bleeding to blows inflicted on the nasals or on the muzzle by a bnUul drover or ploughman, far oftener than to any other cause. It is not often that any unpleasant consequences have ensued. The bleeding has gradually ceased, except in one case, when it returned again and again, and would have destroyed the beast had not the result of the case been somewhat anticipated. LEECHES IN THE NASAL CAVITY. We had often heard of leeches having fastened on the muzzle, and then crept into the nostril of the ox when drinking at a stagnant pool, and M'hich the ox is strangely fond of doing. One of these blood-suckers having once introduced himself into the cavity, will usually shift from place 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 hght, 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 from 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 Avill detach him- self; and, except he has crept up the superior nicatus, through which there is no air passage, he will be expelled by the sneezing of the ox. Only temporary inconvenience can result from this accident, for the bleeding will in due time slop, even from so vascular a membrane as that of the nose. POLYPUS IN THE NOSE. This is a lare disease in the horse, and still rarer in the ox. We have seen only one case of it; and that might have been said to be more polypus in the pharynx than in the nasal cavity, had not its pedicle been traced into that cavity, and seemingly attached to the upper part of the inferior turbinated bone. A cow was anxious to eat; and was otherwise in good health; but occasionally she was unable to swallow, and the pellet was returned with an effort resembling vomiting. This increased untd she was scarcely able to eat, and was rapidly losing flesh. The case indicated some disease of the back part of the mouth, or the commence- ment of the gullet; and we caused one of the pieces of wood through which the tube of the stomach-pump is passed into the mouth, to be made with an aperture sufficiently large for the hand to go through. The cow was secured and the mouth-piece fixed, and the hand passed into the fauces, when a round body, moveable and attached by a cord, was felt — an 312 CATTLE, evident polypus, the pedicle of which could be traced upwards and for- wards into the cavity of tlie nose, but the termination of wliich could not be reached. It was seized with a pair of strong forceps with deeply roughened blades, and attempted to be removed by tortion, 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 should 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. By this term is meant inflammation of, and defluction 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 with coryza, and is the natural consequence or progress of it; but simple coryza may and does occasionally exist in the ox. We are too often teased and frightened by a discharge from the nostrils, mucous, purulent, fcetid, and excoriating, and imaccompanied by coKgh. 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 of the road. The ox was not designed to be exposed like the horse to this last annoyance; and he ha? 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 boose. 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, Avill remain. When, however, the genial warmtli of spring returns, it sometimes graduaUy disappears. This, however, is one of the most favourable cases; fo^ it will occur that, from some improper management, hoose or cough lias gradually become connected with the nasal discharge. The farmer has not observed this connexion, nor is he alarmed allhougli 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 yields its full quantity of milk: when, however, the milk fails, and the cow begins to lose condi- 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 source 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 should 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 root of the horn, will best ascertain this last particular. If there is nothing of these, still we have inflammation, and of a cha- FARCY. 313 racter that soon connects itself with some or all of them; 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 iwo 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 intensity 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 termination to the Schneiderian membrane, and is very useful in pure inflammation, or ulceration of that membrane, or discharge from it. A very slight degree of hoose, however, 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 talien into consideration. GLANDERS. Of this dreadful disease of the membrane of the nose in the horse, we have never met with a case in catde. Some singular accounts are on record, hut they are of doubtful authority. We acknowledge that this is not a point fairly setded, and it deserves peculiar attention from the pro- prietors o^ cattle. 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, buds 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 fedock 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, scirrhous; 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 afterwards, however, the farcy-buttons and the corded absorbents were seen again, and the cough returned at the same time. The same means were adopted widi 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 catde that grazed in the same pasture. It should be observed that these cases diil not all appear at the same time, but a space of three years occurred between the first and the last. Was this farcy? — need the farmer entertain serious apprehension of this fatal disease breaking out in his herd? The practitioner to whom 28 314 CATTLE, they occurred related tliem as cases of farcy; but we confess that we are very rrmch of opinion that he was mistaken. We have seen many cases of this inflammation of the absorbents, where farcy couhl 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, and the little buttons on each of the valves. The foul in the foot, or the ulcerated joints, 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 formed by the superior maxilUtry, or upper jaw, seen at a, p. 273, and x, p. 274. This, like the other bones of the face, is materially diminished in size by the great development of the frontal bones. It articulates with the lacry- mal bone at r, p. 273, and the malar bone at d. The ridge which runs down from the malar bone, in the horse, for the attachment of the masse- ter muscle, and which may be seen below A", (p. 66, Horse,) is wanting; but the surface of the bone is roughened and tuberculated, 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, irregularly separated from each other; the outer forms the external, and the other the internal wall 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 ox there is a new set of cells, formed by a separation of the plates of the bone, between the roof of the mouth and the lloor of the nasal cavity. The palatine bone,/), p. 274, occupies considerably more of the roof of the mouth than it does in the horse. The anterior maxillary bone is, compared Avith 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 a,' and z, p. 274, which leave a somewhat extensive part of the roof of the mouth and floor of the nose occupied only by cellular 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 inferior maxillary, or 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 teetli 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, («, p. 63, Horse,) but goes back in a manner straight to the angle, where it THE LIPS. 315 turns to take an upper direction towards its joint with the temporal bone. The consequence of this is, that the muscles, both on the inside and the outside, are smaller and weaker. Power is not wanted; for the grinders are little if at all used in the first gathering and mastication of the food, and the act of rumination is generally very leisurely and lazily performed. This difference in the form of the jaw throws the submaxillary artery further back in cattle than in the horse. It is to be sought for a couple of inches nearer to the angle of the jaw, and sometimes it is scarcely to be discovered. Below 0-, p. 273, is seen the process of this bone, shorter than in the horse, round which the temporal muscle is wrapped, and by which this bone is moved; and a litde lower is the shallow cavity of the temporal bone, into which the proper head. of this bone is received, and with which it forms a joint. The ridges at either end of this cavity in the horse (see p. 136) are very materially lowered here, so as to allow more latitude of motion, and admit of the grinding action by which rumination is princi- pally characterised. The muscle, being inserted so near to the joint, acts with great mechanical disadvantage; but, although smaller than in the horse, it is sufficiently powerful for every purpose that is required. THE CHEEKS. The outer walls of the mouth are the ehseks and lips. The cheeks consist principally of muscle, (the masscter and the buccinator muscles.) They are covered externally by the common integument, or skin; and lined by the membrane of the mouth. There is likewise considerable glandular substance in their composition, and these glands have distinct openings into the mouth, and assist in supplying it with moisture. THE LIPS. The lips form the anterior opening of the mouth; they close it, and as- sist in gathering and retaining the food. They likewise consist of muscu- lar, glandular, and cellular texture; and of much, and in the upper lip especially, of condensed substance almost resembling cartilage. The muscles give them the power of motion, and particularly that of forcibly seizing and compressing the food. This is especially necessary in the ox, because there are no upper front teeth, and for this purpose also the car- tilaginous matter was added to them, and most of all to the upper lip. Simple muscular substance would be too yielding to retain the grass, when it was to be forcibly separated from the stalk or root. On account of this peculiar function of the upper lip of the ox, it is wider and flatter than that of the horse, in order that it may be brought better into contact with the herbage, and gathered in sufficient quantities. Being so much employed for this purpose, there is a Avant of feeling about the lips of catde very diflerent from the acute sensitiveness of those parts in the horse. The ox is seldom used for 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 they ride to market in all their finery, and contrive to torture their horned palfreys into something like caperings and curvetings, also effect their purpose by means of a leathern thong passed through the cartilage of the nose.* The ox is not * The Chili coachman, when he starts his sis-in-hand team, guides his oxen in the same manner, but he has a singular way of getting them along: — ' A thin pole, about five feet long, projected horizontally, is lashed to the roof of the cart, having at its extre- mity a grooved hole, through which the string passes: a goad is made of a hollow cane, 316 CATTLE. required to be alive, as it were, to the slightest motion of his driver or 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 substitutes for hands, and forming his opinion of the objects around him by the indi- cations 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, ami 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 m 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 stud- ded with glands, and a fluid can be seen pouring out (ivni lUem. 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 lieaith, is always wet; the insect cannot then fasten, and dirt CClTuiot accumulate; or if the one should adhere, or the other begin to col- lect, the long tongue of the beast is protruded, it passes over the moisten- ed 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. forty feet long-, the butt-end being about four inches in diameter, while the smaller rans tapering to a point. The front end is generally made of a piece of willow, secured to the end of the cane, and is armed at the tip with an iron point, neatly and curiously lashed on by strips of horse-hide. This goad is hung in a kind of inverted stirrup at- tached to the end of the before-mentioned string, by pulling of which the driver, as he sits in the cart, can elevate or depress at his pleasure the stirrup which serves as the fulcrum of his goad, and supports it nearly in equilibrio, as the thick butt-end counter- balances the lighter longer end tending forward: thus suspended, the point can easily be thrust forward or sideway, so as to goad the haunches of the forward yoke of oxen: about five feet from tlie 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, at the pleasure of the driver, upon the haunches of the second pair of oxen; a short lance held in his hand serves to goad forward the shaft- yoke.' — Muir's Travels in Chili and La Plata, vol. i. p. 244, THE PAD ON THE UPPER JAW-BONE. 317 THE EARS. These consist of a firm substance of a cartilaginous nature, adhering to the bones of the roof of the mouth, by numerous little cords, penetrating into these bones. They are thus hard and adherent, that the food may be rolled against the palate, and formed into proper masses for swallowing, 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 papillae of no little consis- tence 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 ox THE ANTERIOR MAXILLARY BONE. These bars are flatter, harder, and more irregular in the ox than in the horse, and these papilte 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 pterigoid muscles are the chief agents, the little roll of herbage is either lorn or cut ofl', 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 influence 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 torn up by the roots. If cattle are 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 mechanism. A portion of absorbent earth is found in every soil, sufficient not only to prevent the evil that would result from occasional decomposition, 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 muzzling 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 he occasionally ate a considerable quantity, and which operated as a gentle 28* 318 CATTLE. purgative. When decomposition commenced, 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 was relieved, and a purgative neutral salt was manufactured in the paunch. THE TEETH. The mouth likewise contains the principal agents in mastication, the teeth. The mouth of the ox when full contains thirty-two teeth; eight incisors in the lower jaw, and three molars in each jaw above, and below, and on either side. 'J'he incisor teeth are admirably adapted to perform their function. If there are no corresponding ones opposed, but merely 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 would 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 thickness 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 interposed, the grass on which the animal 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 teeth. 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 dung is more than half composed of vegetable fibres; the ox, on whose flesh we subsist, must extract every particle of matter which the food contains, and therefore not a fibre is seen in the faeces. The dung of the first is excellent for manure; that of the second, except it be a stall-fed beast, is comparatively of Uttle worth. THE AGE OF CATTLE AS INDICATED BY THE TEETH. When describing the horns of cattle (p. 279,) we spoke of the usual and incorrect method of estimating their age by the horns. Far surer marks are presented in the teeth, and where there can be little deception from the frauds of dealers; for their interest would generally lead them to give a more youthful appearance than nature has allowed. The mouth of the new-born calf presents an uncertain appearance, depending on the mother having exceeded or fallen short of the average period of utero-gestation. Sometimes there will no be vestige of teeth. THE TEETH. 319 but generally, either two central incisors will be protruding through the gums, or they wMU have arisen and attained considerable bulk. About the middle or close of the second week a tooth will be added on either side, making four incisors. Birth. Second week. At the expiration of the third week the animal will have six temporary incisors or front teeth. Third week. Month. At a month, the full number of the incisors will have appeared. These are the temporary or milk teeth. The enamel will be seen covering 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 wearhig down of these sharp edges, and the appearance of the bony substance of the tooth be- neath. The two corner teeth will be scarcely up before the centre teeth will be a litde worn. At two months, the edge of the four central teeth will be evidently worn; yet as the wearing is not across the top of the tooth, but a very litUe out of the line of its inner surface, the edge will remain nearly or quite as sharp as before. At three months the six cen- tral teeth, and at four months the whole set will be worn, and the central 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 surface 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 from the ap- pearance of a broad line to a triangular shape. The commencement ot this alternation 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 not 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 four 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 months. Eighteen months. THE TEETH. 321 The last cut presented us with the curious and diminutive appearance of all 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 and upwards, and are so often 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-rnouthed, 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 ; it 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 litde before, 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, or Two Years Three Years. CATTLE. cells for the teeth, may be exposed. The second pair of incisors have almost attained their proper size, but have not assumed their 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 absorj)tion will still be suspended with regard to the two outside pairs of milk teeth, but will be rapid with regard to the second pair, and a little before the commence uient 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 they show no disposition to give way, and at four-years old there will be six perma- nent incisors, and often apparently no milk teedi, but if the mouth is 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 permanent incisors and two milk teeth. Four Years. Five Years. At the commencement of the fifth year the eight permanent incisors will be up; but the corner ones will be small. This cut gives a five-year old mouth, or perliaps one a month or two after five years; so that the beast cannot be said to be fidl-movlhed, i. e., all the incisors fully up, until it is six years old. It will be seen, however, in this mouth of five years, that the two central pairs are beginning to be worn down at the edges, and that in a Hat direction, or somewhat 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 fiattened at the top; while on the two centre ones tliere begins to be a distinct darker line in the middle, bounded by a line of harder bone.* * We are perfectly aware against what authority we arc contendinjr wlien we thus compute tlie age of cattle by the appearance of the teeth. The pleasing author of the ' Illustrations of Natural History' gives the beast a full mouth at three years old, and so does Buffon and the editor of the Encyclopedia Metropolitana. Mr. Parkinson says that the mouth is full at four, altliough he acknowledges that the teeth are not perfectly up until the animal is six years old. We have no hesitation, however, in appealing to tiie experience of the breeders of cattle, for the general accuracy of our account. THE TEETH. 323 From this time the age can only be guessed at, and not decidedly- affirmed; and a great deal will de- pend upon the manner in which the animal is fed. The beast that is most out, and that is compelled most to use his incisor teeth, will have them worn farthest down. Perhaps, as a I general rule, but admitting of many an exception, it may be said that, at seven j'ears old, this line is becoming broadest and more irregular in all of the teeth; and that a second and broader, and more circular mark ap- pears within the centre of the former one, and most distinct in the central, or two central pairs — and which at eight years, has spread over the six central incisors. Six Years. A year afterwards, however, a change takes place which cannot be mis- taken. The process of absorption has again commenced, and precisely where it did when the animal was four months old, viz., in the central incisors; but it is slow in its progress, and it is never carried to the extent to which we observed it in the milk teeth. It is, however, sufficiently plain, and the two central teeth are evidently smaller than their neigh- bours. A considerable change has also taken place on the surface of the teeth; the two dark marks are rubbed into one in all but the corner teeth. At ten, the four central incisors are diminished in size, and the mark is becoming smaller and fainter. The ^.- r ' ''^^ cut represents the mouth at this age. y^J^:'', At eleven, the six central ones are ;^^^^ '"'"' '''^ smaller; and at twelve, all of them ^j^j^J are very considerably diminished; but 0^ Mjll^^^'" t not, as we have already observed, to «|ji m//';0 the same extent as in the young beast. ¥^\vi Wvl-'^M The mark is now also faint, or nearly ^s^nn^ W';i! Vm obliterated, except in the corner teetli, '^\ ^■lljlj}. Ii/iji and the inside edge is worn down to ^\ 'IJil "III/ the gum. The beast is now getting old; the teeth continue to diminish, and it is not often that the animal, after four- teen or sixteen years old, is able to maintain his full condition. He must then be taken up and partly fed in Ten Years, the house: yet there are many instances in which favourite bulls have been kept untd they were more than twenty years old; and we know a cow of the same age Avho pastures with the rest of the dairy, and gives a fair quantity of milk. Some writers have asserted, that a good cow will usually continue good until that age; but the dairyman would discover his error, both in the quantity and the quality of his milk, if he received it as a general rule, that a good cow will continue to breed and give milk until tw^enty years old. Mr. Watkinson, however, had a cow that for seventeen years gave him from ten to twenty quarts of milk every day; was in moderate condition when taken up; six months in fattening; and, being then twenty years old, S24 CATTLE. was sold for more than 18/. Mr. Jolin Holt, of Walton, In liancashire, had a healthy cow-calf presented to him, whose dam was in her 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. It 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 subject 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 fourth 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 not 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 hyoides, a singidar 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 gusta- tory 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 daring 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 \vhich 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 for his companion by nibbling him with his teeth, two cows will rub and rasp each other with their tongues 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 the muzzle from annoyances to which it is exposed by means of dirt or insects; and it likewise wipes from the nostril tlie filth that is discharged from it in various diseases of the membrane of the nose or the air passages, to which the ox is so subject. The mouth is shorter than that of the horiB: the tongue, as it lies in the mouth, is shorter, and yet it is TONGUE. 325 able to discharge all those functions, which are only imperfectly performed and some of them cannot be performed at all, by the tongue of the horse. The following cuts will explain this: — 1. The spur. 2. The basis, or greater cornu or horn. 3. The inferior lateral cornu. 4. The superior lateral cornu. 5. The epiglottis. 6. The arytasndid cartilage. 7. The thyroid cartilage. 8. The cricoid cartilage. 9. The Rings of the trachea. 10. The interposed ligamentous substance between the rings. 11. The Rimas glottidis. 1. The spur. 2. The basis, or greater cornu or horn. 3. The inferior lateral cornu. 3'. The middle cornu. 4- The superior lateral cornu. 5. The epiglottis. G. The arytffinOid cartilage. 7. The thyroid cartilage. 8. The cricoid cartilage. 9. Rings of the trachea. 10. The interposed ligamentous substance between the rings. 11. The Riniee glottidis, or entrance into the windpipe. Of the support which the os hyoides, resembling the Greek letter upsilon, gives to the larynx, and its connexion with all the motions of that autiful cartilaginous box in the common function of breathing, or in the 326 CATTLE. production of the voice, and also in the contractions of the pharynx, we shall treat hereafter. We have now to do with the tongue. The reader will remark the spur projecting from the centre of the body of this bone in the horse, Jig. 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 genio-hyo-glossi muscles, belonging to the chin, the hyoid bone and the tongue,) whose object is to draw down 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 any thing 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 teeth. 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 the trick of licking his manger. There is nothing about the ox which requires this confinement of the tongue; but, on the contrary, he has need of one possessing an extraordi- nary freedom of motion. Look at the os hyoides of the ox. Its spur (I. p. 325) is reduced to a mere tubercle. 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 cornu with thebody 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 its 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 physio- logist 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 particular 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 exceedingly foetid; GLOSS-ANTHRAX OR BLAIN. 327 the head and the neck begin to swell ; they become enormously en- larged ; the respiratory passages are obstructed ; the animal breathes with the greatest difficulty, and is, in some cases, literally suflbcated. 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 or bladders, red, livid, or purple, are found running along the side and base of the tongue, and particularly towards its anteiior part. These bladders are strangely rapid in their growth; they become of a great size; they quickly break; and they form deep ulcerations. Other vesicles immediately arise in their immediate neighbourhood, of a similar character, but of a still larger size Sometimes the animal dies i-n twenty-four hours from the first attack; but at other times fever rapidly succeeds of a typhoid or malignant kind. In a few cases these bladders have been found on the upper part of the tongue, and even nearer to the top of it than to the fraenum. 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 ju'oved 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 coscuni, 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 beasts 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 or winter. We have considerable doubt about this, for we have seen it at all 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, debilitatecl, and disposed to inflammatory complaints; and these assume a low and typhoid, and then a malignant, form, much oftener and much more speedily in catde than in other domesticated animals. Our friend, Mr. Sewell, of Brighton, speaking of this disease, and of the prostration of strength by which it is 328 CATTLE. frequently accompanied, says, that ' there appears to be a deficiency of courage and nervous energy in cattle, compared with the horse, and a consequent 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, about 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 predisposition was the result of the injudicious treatment 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, and 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 to the blacksmith, or the uneducated 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 not communicated by the breath; but there must be actual contact. The beast 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 is readily and too frequently communicated when animals graze in the same pasture. 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 autumn, 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 that the saliva or discharge from the mouth does not touch any sore place GLOSS-ANTHRAX OR BLAIN. 329 or 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, effectual in a great majority of cases. Blain is, at first, 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 bladder; perhaps pellucid at first, but becoming red or livid, as the disease advances; These vesicles must be freely lanced frotn 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 carefidly 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 of which is considered to be very dangerous. There is no necessity for this; it is quite suflicient if the vesicle is freely lanced. There will not be much immediate discharge; the bladder was distended by a substance imper- fectly organized, or of such a glairy 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- grenous appearance, it will usually eft'ect a perfect cure.* If the mouth is examined four-and-twenty hours afterwards, the only vestige of the disease will be an incision, not looking very healthy at first, but that will soon become so and heal. Some rub a little salt well into the incision as soon as it is made, and others apply a solution of alum. 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 begin 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 opened. 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 a breeder, and a judge of cattle, recommends the following injudicious and dangerous method. We should not allude to it, had we not reason to believe that, on the faith of his name, it has been too trequently 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, or stomach, of the animal; then take a piece of soft woollen cloth, or linen, but flannel is the best, put into it some tow, soft hay, 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 hold 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 remain 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. Repeat this three times, and the animal will he immediately relieved.' Now for the rationale of all this: the effect to be produced, and on an animal already scarcely able to breathe — distressed by the increased respiration produced by the slightest motion, and in fact threatened with absolute suffocation every jnoment. ' The immediate efficacy of the medicine, I apprehend, arises from thrusting the stick, or cane, down the throat, which breaks the bladders, and it is for that reason I prefer flannel to linen as more likely, in passing tlie root of the tongue, to have that effect; while the tar being nauseous, causes the animal to throw up a large quantity of thick saliva, coughing and snci 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 is plainly contrived for the purposes of strength; it opposes its curved form and its depth to the weight which it is destined to support, and the momentum, or force, wilh which that M'eight will sometimes be thrown on it in rapid motion. CATTLE. IThe 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. 2. 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 cliest, and, therefore, ensures a circular form for the chest, which the horse could never liuve. 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. 'J'he 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 of every function. The following cut of the breast of Firby, Lord Althorp's bull, will afford a practical illustration of these observations. THE CHEST. 369 [Lord Althorfs Bull.] Now comes another illustration of 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 although 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 bono at the base of the chest of the ox- secures 2. permanent 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 tiie 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 transverse pectorals. They form the grand prominences in front of the 370 CATTLE. chest, and extend from the anterior extremity of the sternum to the middle of the arm. The great pectoral (tig. 13, pp. 3.38, 339,) arising from the lateral and the posterior part of the sternum, may be considered more as a continu- ation of the muscles of the breast, extending laterally and backwards. THE BRISKET. This is a singular portion of the breast of the ox, and to which, and very properly, much importance has been universally attaclied, although, perhaps, on false grounds. It has been considered as a part of the anterior wall of the chest, and as a proof of its depth and capacity. This is altogether erroneous. It is a mere appendix to the chest. It is a projection of substance, partly muscular, but more cellular and fatly, from the anterior and moveable division or head of the sternum, extending sometimes from 12 to 20 inches in front of it, and dipping downwards 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 diflerent breeds, and in difl'erent 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 brisket 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 15^- inches from the ground. It is very probable that this may be carried too far. An enormously projecting brisket may evince a more than usual tendency to fatten; but not nnfrequentlv 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 considered 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 tlie capacity of the chest: it is a rather too sudden termination of the protuberance of the brisket, either from the accumulation of the the principal part of its substance too forward, or from a want of disposition in the 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 compare THE RIBS. 371 the different forms of the brisket in the different breeds of cattle. The bulls of Mr. Berry and Lord 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. Colliiig's Comet, to Avhose brisket, few, perhaps, could at first reconcile themselves so far as beauty or 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 recognise the use of the joint in the first, or supplementary, bone of the sternum of oxen. They 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 oLadditional 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 perm anient capacity of chest which the functions of the ox require. Therefore it is that in some breeds a little flat-sidedness (the less the better) may be forgiven, because the width of the sternum below, 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 fiat 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; 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 eighth true ribs is passed, but also the five false ones, the carcass 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 cuts of the Kyloe, Galloway, or New Leicester, or Short-horn cattle. In point of fact, however, the thorax is now passed, and the abdomen 373 CATTLE. presents itself; but the prinriple is the same: the ribs are spread out, not only to atTord room in the thorax for lungs considerably larger than those 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 SPINK. The principal diflerence between the spine of the ox and that of the horse consists in the greater size of the individual bones, the small quantity of elastic ligamentous 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 they 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 belter, and no decided hollow behind should point out the place Avhere 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 fat sliould 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 Avliich 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 at the top of the windpipe, we find a curiously constructed cartilaginous box called the larynx. It is the guard of the lungs, lest particles 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 3, p. 32.5.) Every portion of food, whether swallowed or returned 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- tUaginous structure, rises again by its inherent elasticity as soon as the l)ellet has been forced along, and permits the animal to breathe again. The whole of the larynx is composed of separate cartilages, to which muscles are attached, that regulate the size of the opening into the windpipe, as the voice or alteration in breathing from exertion or disease, may require. Fig. 11 gives a view of the rimx glottidis, 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, and there is rarely any hurried or distressed breathing. But although the opening into the windpipe is smaller, there is more danger of substances getting into it, for all the food passes thrice over it; THE WINDPIPE. 373 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 than that of the horse: it more than covers the opening into ihe windpipe. In the horse it merely fits it: and while care is taken that, under ordinary circum- stances, the air-passages shall be sufiiciendy guarded, equal or more care seems to be bestowed on the removal of every impediment to the breath- ing, and therefore the epiglottis of tlie horse (fig. 5, cut 1, p. 325,) with its sharp termination, was adjusted so as just to cover the rimae glottidis and no more. In the ox, the breathing is seldom hurried, and the food passes oftener 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 only passes one way; it is sim- ply swallowed: in the ox it is returned for a second mastication. The pro- vision made for the horse would be totally insuflicient, 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 com- posed is thinner, its rounded extremity is curled — turned back — so as to yield and be pressed doivn, 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 arytcEniiid 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 WINDPIPE. The trachea, or windpipe, of the catde 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. Tiie cartUaginous rings are narrower (fig. 9, cut 2, p. 325,) and although thicker, they are of less firm consistence. The interposed ligamentous substance is weaker (fig. 10, cut 1, p. 325.) It is also wider in the fresh subject although from its thinness and weakness, it quickly contracts as closely as i^ is represent- ed 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 oc- cupied about it, more freedom of motion, and a greater degree of extension is requisite. * Some persons have said, and indeed the author is very much incHned to believe it, and his old recollections and present experience confirm that belief, that many of the tongues wliich in large towns are pickled by the drysalter, and find their way to the tajbles 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 tlie pickled tongue; or if it is not, 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 which it once belonged. One inspection of fig. 5 in the cuts of tlie la- rynx 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 hyoid bone, and is short and thick. (See fig. I, in the cut of the larynx of the horse, cut 1, p. 325.) In the ox the spur is a mere tubercle (see cut 2, fig. ], ]>. 325,) and the tongue released from this curb is used to clean the whole of the muzzle, and can be insinuated even into the nostril. A short plump tongue, then, until the epiglot- tis is seen, is a suspicious affair; but a long, ugly looking tongue, with a rounded epi- glottis, may be eaten without fear. 33 374 CATTLE. 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. 159; they are simply brought into approximation with each other; and their oppos- ing edges project behind so tliat they are very loosely bound to the cervi- cal 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 trans- verse 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 additional plates of cartilage given to the horse for the same purpose are altogether 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 impracticable. In inflammation of the larynx, to which cattle are much exposed, the dis- tressing 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 tightened by the fin- ger 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 solicitude 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 nuisance, or even to be perceived. The lips of the wound should be kept open by threads passed through the edges and tied over the neck; until the pres- sure 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 af- fords. The beast that was struggling for breath, and seemed every mo- ment ready to expire, is in a moment himself. In cases of permanent obstruction, as tumour in the nostrils, or distor- tion of the larynx or trachea, the animal will generally be consigned to the butcher; 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 may 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 situation. A horse has worked two or three years wearing a tube of this THE BRONCHIAL TUBES. 375 kind, and a favourite cow or bull might be thus preserved, but extraordi- nary cases alone would justify such a proceeding. THE THYMUS GLAND, OR SWEETBREAD. Before the track of the windpipe is followed into the 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 considera- ble 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 dimi- nishes within the chest; but at length it disappears there too, and its situa- tion 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 fostal 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 pre- pare 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 two 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 de- monstrated; but we may safely imagine them to consist of very small cells in which the bronchial tubes terminate, and to which the air is conveyed; and that these cells are divided from each other by exceedingly delicate membranes. 376 CATTLE. THE ALTERATION OF THE BLOOD. The blood has already been described as pent from the riglit ventricle of the heart into the lung, and the blood-vessels dividing and subdividing un- til they have attained a state of extreme minuteness, and then ramifying over the delicate meml)rane 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, and for this purpose also the air has been conveyed to these cells by the bronchial tubes. Now the chemical, it may almost be said, the vital difference, between venous and arterial blood is, that the former is loaded with carbon, and de- ficient in oxygen. It here comes, if not in absolute contact with atmos- pheric air, yet so close as to be separated only by a gossamer membrane, which offers litde 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 formed by the union of the oxygen and the carbon, the presence of which in un- due quantities renders the air destructive to life. The other constituents of the blood have also an affinity for oxygen, and more of that gas is taken from the atmospheric air, and passes through the membrane of the air- cells, and 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 oxy- gen 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 was 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, be- cause the lungs of the ox afford the best illustration of the division of the bronchial tubes, and the separation of the substance of the lungs into dis- tinct lobuli, or litUe lobes, in which the bronchial tubes terminate, and the air-cells 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 of the first of the air-passages, that of the nose have as yet been consider- ed; 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 catde, 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 au- tumn, it is particularly prevalent. Young beasts, and cows after calving, are very subject to it. In a great many cases, however, it is the result of CATARRH OR HOOSE. 377 mismanagement. When cattle are crowded together they are seldom without 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 parti- cularly 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 depress- ing effects 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 of 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 him to listen to the dictates of humanity and of interest, the present trea- tise 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 seri- ously 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-nurs- ing. 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 hav- ing passed, and the cow continuing to hoose, it begins to be imperatively necessary for him to adopt the proper measures, while they may be ser- viceable. Let her be taken up and examined. Does she feed as well as ever? Does the dew ste endured. If this were the case, they were vesicles formed by the extra- vasated air in the process of decomposition, and not hydatids. Ulcers were found at the root of the tongue, and gangrene in the intestines. The third stomach always contained a hard, black, infectious mass, which ad- hered to the lining membrane, and could scarcely be separated from it. Lancisi says, that he found no medicine effectual against this com- plaint. Selons 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 a copious discharge of thick, purulent, and f(Etid 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 catde 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 liad not been buried deep enough, and clouds of hornets had burrowed 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 era- poisoned stings of these hornets. Some persons pretended to find the black stings of these winged insects in different parts of the animals. f 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 fearfsl degree ; for before the end of the year it had reached Brabant and Holland; in the latter of which at least two hundred thousand cattle perished; and it had crossed the channel to England, where it was as destructive as on the con- tinent: but of its history and specific character in Great Britain there is not any authentic record. The disease afterwards began to exhibit new symptoms. If it first * Vid. Rammazini, ct Lancisi in loc. t liurtrel d'Arboval (Typhus.) t Ibid. 34 386 CATTLE. attacked the membrane of the nose it sometimes confined its virulence io that and the neighbouring parts, and the malady assumed the precise form of malignant 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 the 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 a while 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 generally 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 con- tinued to eat and to drink, and to appear well, until the tongue fell piece- meal 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 Poplar 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 hides 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 neigh- bourhood 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 that number. In the fourth year of the plague they were destroyed at the rate of 7000 pei 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. Brocldesby 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 prevention, 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 Areteeus, 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 began to decrease ; it acquired an unpleasant taste ; it became yellow, and soon afterwards dried up. These were precursory symptoms. The real and serious attacks 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 diflS.- cult 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 suflfoca- tion. The tongue and internal part of the mouth were hot and slimy ; the head hung down ; the ears drooped ; there was an unusual listlessness and unwillingness to stir ; a choice of solitude ; a separation from the rest 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 appear within a few days after the shivering fit died. A considerable ftstid discharge proceeded in every case from the nos- trils, and, in 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 of 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 almost 388 CATTLE. suddenly; in others, inflammation of the brain seemed to come rapidly on, and tlie cattle became so furious and dangerous, that it was necessary 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 fcetid 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- twenty 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 grangrene ; but the liver, the spleen, and the kidneys were scarcely affected. The lungs exhibited traces of the intenses-t 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 previously thinned ; at other times, in places which 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 oflf 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; whde 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 vvay, 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 natur.al 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. 389 as possible; to destroy all the litter and forage which was left behind; to 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 any thing 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. It was also very proper to have the carcasses 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 de- sire, 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 re- covered, 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 in- fected 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 es- caped. Dr. Layard produces some 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 receiv- ed their breath and steam, without being in the least affected. The farm- ers were so assured of this, that they were always ready to give an ad- vanced 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 34* 390 CATTLE. immediatel)' buried. They were likewise charged with the institution of certain means of cure, and more particularly of prevention.* * As a matter of curiosity, we put upon record, the first legislative enactment on such a matter. First Commission, March 12th, 1745. His Majesty being desirous of doing all in his power to put a stop to the spreading of 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 the infection; for while means have been using to save the sick, tlie disease spread amongst the sound, and is increasing more and more, in proportion to the number seized with it,) to make and establish the rules and regulations following, which his Ma- jesty does, by this order of his priv}' council, requiring and commanding all his sub- jects, 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 cowkecpers, 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, with 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 hay, which such infected cattle have breathed upon, and all the hay, straw, or litter that they have touched or been near, to be forth- with 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 stood, to be cleared from all dung and filth, and wet gunpowder, pitch, tar, or brim- stone, to be burnt or fired in several parts of such buildings, at the same time keeping in the smoke as much as possible; and that the same be allerwards frequently washed with vinegar and warm water; and that no sound cattle be put therein for two nsonths at least. Fourthly. That they do not suffer any of their cattle that shall have recovered from the 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 hog, calf, lamb, or any other animal therewith; or drive, or cause to be drove, any such infected cattle to any fair or market, eitlier in or out of the county where the said cat- tle 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 cowkecpers, farmers, or other persons, they do immediately give notice thereof to the constable of the town or parish, and also to the churchwardens and overseers of the parish or place where such infected cattle shall be, of the appear- ance of such infection, or to any inspector to be appointed by the justices of the peace for the district where such parish or place shall be, pursuant to the directions hereinaf. ter given, to the end that the said officers may be the better enabled to do their duty, ac- cording to the directions hereinafler 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 re- spective districts, are infected, to go 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 as are not so, and to repeat those accounts weekly; and to see that the infected be shot. THE MALIGNANT EPIDEMIC— MURRAIN. 39t 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 years, 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 the communication between different districts were so frequendy 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 instances in which those who began to kill the sick as soon as the distemper appeared among their catde, 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 it 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 of 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, in the language of Dr. Davies, " the graziers found more recover when left to themselves, than when tampered with, and that nature was a better direc- tor than an ofiicious 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 infallibles. Nor were these remedies more efficacious: tar water, Bate- or otherwise killed, as aforesaid, removed, and buried, according to the before mention- ed rule; and that all that the other before mentioned 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 kereby 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 owner, and two of the sthe 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-in- formed men. The animal must be well purged if he is in a constipated state; or if there is already a discharge of glairy fascal 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, as there is either so much real costiveness — indisposition to be acted upon by purgative 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 of » Veterinarian, June, 1833, p. 299. RED- WATER. fill at least a pound of Epsom salts, and half a pound of sulphur, and this should be repeated in doses consisting of half the quantity of each, until the constipation is decidedly overcome. It is imperatively necessary that the practitioner should have made up his mind as to the real nature of the disease ; for although he might, in inflammation of the kidney, fear to weaken by active purgation an animal that was likely to be speedily debilitated by excessive loss of blood, (yet that fear would generally be destitute of all reasonable foundation,) and would be tempted to try whether the haemorrhage might not be arrested by astringents or stimulants, it would scarcely need a moment's reflection to convince him that he must check this excessive 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 other 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 fre- 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 generally 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 exist any debility, I add two drachms of the calumba powder, (gentian has belter effect,) and one drachm of ginger.'f * 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 killed him.' — Veterinarian, June, 1833, p. 299. + Veterinarian, May, 1833, p. 245. The Highland Society of Scotland offered in 1830 a gold medal, or ten sovereigns, for the best essay on the causes, prevention, and cure of red-water. There were seven competitors, 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 substance of these papers. At that period they were the only publications of the slightest value on this important subject, and some of them reflect a high degree of credit on the authors. One competitor was a farmer ; and although 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. Slaker, of Ardiffny, Aberdeenshire, states, that cows 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 tirom heat to cold, and dry stimulating food, and costiveness, the natural conse- quence of the latter, or otherwise produced, are the chief causes. Bj way of prevention, he recommends 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 cure, 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 necessary, at the expiration of twenty-four hours ; and, should the constipation be obstinate, clysters composed as follows should be frequently administered : — boil 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 considers that more animals die of the fever by which the disease is accompanied than by the loss of blood, and tliinks it of the utmost consequence 512 CATTLE. BLACK-WATER. This is only another and the conckiding stage of Red-water. When 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. Slakcr writes like a sensible man, and would beat many a veterinary surgeon out of the field, Mr. A. Hknderson, land surveyor, Edinburgh, was bred a farmer, and had afterwards most extensive opportunities of observing this disease, and of which he api)ears to have diligently 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 — tiie drink- ing of bad or staguant water — change of pasture, particularly from fine to coarse quality, yet oltcn observed on a liglit 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 any thing that may excite inflammation in the kidneys or neighbouring parts. When caftls were jour- neying, 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 prevalent, 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 w^as his opinion, that it was more an accidental disease, and brought on by ill treatment, than a constitutional or epidemical one ; yet some animals of the same breed and age were more subject to it tlian 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 rougii, coarse pas- ture 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 disease commences in a stock, a little blood being taken from all of them. Cure. — Removal to some moderately, warm, dry, and sheltered place; bleeding ; purg- ing 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. (!) In the still later stages the same drink, or occasionally a cordial one ; clysters, and a stimu- lating 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 tor 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 may be warned against so murderous a practice: •A liberal use of opium, with mercurials, alkalies, sulphuric acid, turpentine, ctlier, 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 hartshorn 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 altel^tion on the diseases of domestic animals. Dr. James Bayne, 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 mn'os — 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 never in winter and spring ; yet his mode of cure is simple, scientific, and eftectual. It forms a singular and pleasing contrast to that wliich was last mentioned. On the first appearance of the disease the animal is confined to the house or yard, and from half a pound to a pound and a half of Glauber salts administered ; and if there is much appearance of fever, about a quart (qy. four or five quarts?) of blood is taken from the neck; and if costiveness is present, frequent injections of warm water are administered. He has frequently injected a pail- ful at a time. During the continuance of the disease the animal should not bg allowed to go out to pasture, but small quantities of cut grass should be given, iftw BLACK-WATER. 513 unpleasant smell. It shows that the blood is not discharged so rapidly and forcibly as it was; and that it hangs about the mouths of the vessels, or is contained in the cavity of the kidney, or in the bladder sufficiently The three other competitors for the medal were veterinar)'^ surgeons. Mr. B. W. Laing, of Banchory Tcrnan, Aberdeenshire, states, that in his district red- water occurs most frequently in autumn, winter, and the early part of spring; and is produced by want of exercise, want of access to earth, every cause of costiveness, the use of barley, and chaff, and the sudden setting in of frosty weather. As preventives, he recommends as much liberty as possible during the winter — bleeding and physick- ing 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 balls, twelve drachms of Barbadoes aloes, three of calomel, and an ounce of Castile soap; twelve hours after the administration of which he administers two ounces each of Epsom 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 follow- ing drink, which is continued morning and evening until the water becomes clear: ace- tate of lead lialf a drachm, alum two drachms, and catechu two drachms, dissolved in boiling water, and given blood-warm. Immediately after this, two gills of vinegar, mixed with a bottle of cold water, are horned down. Surely, if the medicine is not de- prived 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. Peter Smith, of Ardgethan, Aberdeenshire, stands next on the list Although the reasoning on which it is founded may not be perfectly admissible, or, rather, it is too complicated to be easily 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 during those states of the constitution, and un- der those circumstances, and at those periods of the year when an attack of the disease is most to be dreaded. As a cure, he places his chief dependence on purgation. He begins with a pound and a half of Epsom 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 ac- complished 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. In bad cases, he inserts a blister in the dew-lap. When the animal is getting better, he gives half pn ounce of each of carra- way, aniseeds, and spirit of hartshorn. Mr. Smith remarks, that in his neighbourhood red-water occurs during the summer months to cattle out of pasture; that animals reared in the district are rareJy 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 purchas- ing cattle are careful to ascertain whether they are darn-bred, that is, whether they come from a district where darn prevails. The inhabitants attribute the disease to the wood anemone, {anemone vemorosa,) 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 symptoms, 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, co- lours 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; and he afterwards keeps them in a lax state by administering linseed oil. Diuretics and astringents combined can be only of service when the bowels are open; and even then, the improper administration of them often causes inflammation of the bowels and kidneys. If the bowels are kept open by laxatives, the disease will generally disappear without their use. 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, and that by Mr. Thomson comprises the substance of that treatment which is founded on principle, and will be attended by success where success can be obtained. The following extract from a leffor just received from Mr. Steel, V. S., of Biggar, N. B., is strongly confirmatory of the opinion the author has expressed of red-water, viz.: that it is far more a disease of the digestive tlian of the urinary system, and that the liver 514 CATTLE. 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 pu- rulent matter mingles with the black blood, it indicates the sad extent of the mischief that has been done. It is a proof of ulceration, if not of gan- grene, and shows that a degree 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 as- sumed an almost black character, it sliows either that the system is loaded with a superabundance of this empoisoned secretion, and of which it can- not 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 by it. Mr. Thompson well describes 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 per- fecdy exhausted.'* INFLAMMATION OF THE KIDNEYS. Catde are occasionally subject to inflammation of the kidneys bearing considerable resemblance 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 diflficulty of staling increases; blood is perceived to mingle Avith 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 fcetid; 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 paralyzed 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 commencement of the attack. This is especially a disease of the spring time of the year. It is the consequence of over-nourishment: there is a predisposition to inflamma- tion; and from some cause, more or less apparent, that inflammation is di- rected 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 's the organ principally afTected. He is describing a case of acute red-water. He says, — 'The uterus had spots of inflammation, the gall-bladder was filled witli a fluid re- sembling the urine which the cow was passing, the manyplus was rather hard and dry, and the kidneys had a relaxed bleaehed-like appearance. The blood, when it is drawn, very much resembles the urine; and there is sometimes no other difference, than that the blood coagulates, and the urine does not.' * Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, May, 1831, p. 12. THE KIDNEYS AND BLADDER. 515 doses of purgative meclicii>3, 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 diu- retic medicine be administered. THE KIDNEYS AND BLADDER. The urine secreted, or separated by the kidney, having first accumulated in the cavity in the centre of that organ, is conveyed through a duct called the ureter 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 larger; the internal membrane is stronger; the opening into the bladder is even nearer to the neck of that vessel than in the horse, and the ureters terminate much nearer to each other. Comparative anato- mists also know that there are not any renal capsides in the ox. These are small, elongated, irregularly formed bodies, placed opposite to the kid- neys, and between these organs and the spine. Their function is a sub- ject 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 in the horse, and consequently the force with which it con- tracts 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 de- fend 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 circu- lar muscle, whose natural state is that of contraction; so that the passage remains closed, and the urine retained, until, the bladder being stretclied 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 slightes-t pressure upon it by the hand introduced into the rectum will readily effect it. 516 CATTLE. ii.'f* "^H- Having passed the sphincter muscle, the urine flows through the urethra 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 suflers oftener 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 eifects 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 catfle 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 passages. The urethra has been described as smaller in cattle than in the horse, 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 oftener 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 excrementi- tious 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 neaily the same materials, and in proportions not often varying. They have chiefly yielded carbonate of lime, 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 accumlated around a central point. The form of the cal- culus 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 ac- quired 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 he STONE IN THE URETERS. 517 is not aware that any other is on record. It was supposed to be a case 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 sa- tisfactory relief. Great pain was always expressed while the urine was voided; at other times there appeared to be colicy spasms; there was ex- cessive tenderness on the loins, and some heat. The treatment continued five days; there was no amendment, and she began 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 formed 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 sufiiciently serious to interfere materially with the 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 vary- ing 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 com- mon loam, may be placed before the beast, or doses of caibonate 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 de- position in the bladder to which cattle are far more 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 in- creased in bulk, and calculi of a moderate size readily pass through them. The case is briefly and somewhat unsatisfactorily related by Hurlrel 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 cow, in the left ureter of which many calculi were found, that had pro- • Dictionnaric de Med. et Chirurg. V6t., Calcuu. 45 618 CATTLE. duced considerable dilatation of that canal, retention of urine above them, and all the symptoms that had preceded death. They were of a brilliant metallic bronze colour; they were polished, irregidar 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 tlirough 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 dan- gerous operation recommended by Chabert — he would cut through the rectum and the ureter, and extract the stone.* STONE IN THE BLADDER. It is with the calculus that has descended into the bladder and there in- creased 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 obscure. 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 dis- charge 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 introduce 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 should 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 Med. et Chirurg. V6t., Calcull. STONE IN THE URETHRA. 519 far as its curve into the pelvis, and to make his first and chief incision at once; but in the ox, on account of the 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 effected without much difficulty. The hair must be cut off immediately in front of the 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 forward 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 jointed, resembling that used for the stone operation on the horse by Mr. Taylor, of Nottingham.* The more 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 like- wise may it be bent round the bony arch beyond, and so diminish the length of the incision which must afterwards be made between the anus and the scrotum. The 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 of a 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 few days 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,/uppression 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 presence w-ill be immediately seen. The * Veterinarian, April, 1834, p. 201. 520 CATTLE. duty of 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 edges of the wound, which will speedily adhere. The operation is sim- ple, but the danger of neglect is great; and many a beast has been lost by the bladder being distended, and continuing so until violent inflammation 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 between 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 evidendy 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 of some fluid could be perceived. From this, M. Peyron con- cluded that the passage through the urethra was obstructed. He cut into the canal at the place where it proceeded from the ischium, and the urine immediately 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 andform afresh obstruction. The beast was kept during a month, and then sold advantageously, having fully re- tained 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 fear 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; while the fresh herbage gives ::n 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 BLADDER. This is the necessary consequence of over-distension of a vessel the coats of which are naturally weak; or it may be produced by a careless or bru- tal mode of casting the animal. It would not require any great shock in * Journal Pratique, 1827, p. 333. t An interesting account of the operation of lithotomy on the horse will be found in Perceval's Lectures, vol. iii. p. 45; another by Mr. Sewell, Assistant Professor at the Royal Veterinary College, in the "Veterinarian" for May, 1821), p. 172; 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, Peroeval (" Lectures," vol. iii. p. 47,) describes as singularly applicable in veterinary practice, not only in the female but in the male subject, could not possibly succeed in the ox. INVERSION OF THE BLADDER. 621 order to rupture the bladder, after suppression of urine had existed several days, and the coats of the bladder had begun to be weakened by inflamma- tion. M. Peyron examined a beast that had laboured under suppression of urine eight days: he was slaughtered, and the bladder was found to be ruptured. No mention is made of any eifect 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 another 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 exa- mination after death, the whole of the abdominal cavity was so discoloured by the urine that the meat could not be used. The circumstances which would most unerringly indicate a rupture of the bladder would be 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 animal 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 inex- perienced 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 en- gorgement 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 such 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, thereibre, of consequence to ascertain the state of these parts during the life of the animal, either that an opera- tion 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 recol- lected that the existence of these calculi betrays a constitutional tendency 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 ure- thra in the ox, it is in a manner impossible for calculi half so large to pass as those that easily traverse this canal in the horse; and that the walls of the bladder in the ox are so weak compared with those of the horse, it will become a matter for consideration, whether the beast, in good saleable con- dition, should not be destroyed as soon as this obstruction is clearly ascer- tained: 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- INVERSION OF THE BLADDER. This has occasionally taken place in the violent throws 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, trick- ling down her legs, would produce constant soreness and ulceration, she would ever be a nuisance to herself, and a disgusting object to those who had the care of her. 43* 622 CATTLE. The following case, which happened to a skilful practitioner, may per- haps be a warning to others: A cow had been three days in the act of calv- ing, 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 foetus. A round, fibrous, white tumour presented itself — it was evidently distended by some fluid, for the fluctuation was detected at the slightest touch. Not dreaming that it could be any thing beside the membranous bag which contained the natural uterine fluid, he punctured 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 dis- covered 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. BREEDING— PARTURITION. The characteristics of the different breeds of British cattle, the peculiar excellences and the peculiar defects of each, and their comparative value, as adapted to different climates and soil and pasture, have been already con- sidered: 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, or 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 Avorld, 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 was the principle to which England is indebted for the short-horns, that are ♦ ' The simple observation, that domestic animals possess a tendency to produce ani. mals of a quality similar to their own, was the ground-work of all Bakeweli's proceed, ings. It was equally obvious to others as to him, but by him first applied to the useful purpose to which it has since been rendered subservient. Having made this observation, he inferred that by bringing together males and females possessing the same valuable properties, he should insure their presence in their offspring, probably in an increased degree, they being inherited from both parents; and he concluded, that by persisting in breeding from animals the produce of such selections, always keeping in sight the pro- perties that constituted their value, he should at length establish a breed of catile of which those properties would form the distinguishing and necessary characteristic. 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 hlood came to be distinctively applied. When reference could be made to a number of ancestors of distinguished excellence, the terra blood was admitted.* The Rev. H. Berry's admirably Prize Essay on Breeding. BREEDING.—PARTURITION. 52J now establishing their superiority in every district of the kingdom. Every cow and heifer of the Shakspeare blood could be recognized at first sight as having descended from Mr. Fowler's stock; and the admirer of the short-horns can trace in the best cattle of the present day the undoubted lineaments of Favourite. This principle extends to form, constitution, quahties, 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 excel- lent qualities about them; but there is a defect which considerably deteri- orates from their value, and which he is anxious to remove. He remem- bers that ' like produces like,' and he looks about for a bull 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 cause 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 coun- terbalanced by the inheritance of his defects. Here is the secret of every failure — the grand principle of breeding. The new-comer, while he pos- sesses that which was a desideratum in the old stock, should likewise possess every good quahty that they had previously exhibited— then, and then alone, will there be improvement without alloy. What can a- far- mer 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 sys- tem of breeding, most importance, and that veryjustly, is attributed to the male. He is the more valuable animal, and principally more valuable on account of the more numerous progeny that is to proceed from him, and thus his greater general influence; and therefore superior care is bestowed on the first selection of him for rearing. The farmer studies the bull-calf closely, and assures himself that he possesses, in a more than usual degree, the characteristic excellences 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 that 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 over so dull a beast as the cow. Her progeny is often much affected by circum- stances that happen during the time of conception, or rather during the period she is in season. Mr. Boswell 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 home to the bull. The ox was white| with black spots, and horned. Mr. Mustard had not a horned beast in his possession! nor one with any white on it. Nevertheless, the produce of the following spring was a black and white calf with horns.'— Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, vol. i. Essays, p. 28. 524 CATTLE. will be made, as it were, a part and portion of his constitution, and he will acquire the power of more certainly, and to a greater extent, communicat- ing them to his offspring. In this way the influence of the sire may, in well-bred animals, be con- sidered 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 excellences are an hereditary and essential part of her, and more likely to be communicated to her 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 breeds 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 he should be solicitous to obtain. The man of wealth and patriotism may have more extensive views, and nobly look to the general improvement of 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, garget, 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 of beast which his land will bear — the kind of meat most in demand in his neigh- bourhood — the early maturity — the quickness of fattening at any age — the quality of the meat — the parts on which the flesh and fat are princi- pally laid — and, more than all, the hardihood and the adaptation of consti- tution 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 good qualities and certain bad ones, with an almost invariable peculiarity of shape and structure; and at length he will arrive at a clear conception, not so much of beauty of form (al- * Mr. Adam Ferguson, of Woodhill, to whom the Highland Society of Scotland, and the Scottish agriculturists generally, are so much indebted, has an amusing anec- dote on this point. ' I recollect, several years ago, at a distinguished breeder's in Northumberland, meeting with a shrewd Scottish borderer, (indeed, if report be true, the original and identical Dinmont,) who, after admiring with a considerable spice of national pique, a very short-horned bull, demanded anxiously to see the dam. The cow being accordingly produced, and, having undergone a regular survey, Dandy voci- ferated, with characteristic pith, " I think naething of your bull now, wi' sic a caumb." ' Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, vol. i. p. 34. BREEDING-PARTURITION. 525 though that is a pleasing object to contemplate) as of that outline and pro- portion of parts with which ulility is oftenest combined. Then carefully viewing his stock, he Avill consider where they approach to, and how far they wander from, this utility of form; and he will be anxious to preserve 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 number of these points; and he will unhesitatingly condemn every beast that betrays manifest deficiency in any one important point. He will not, however, too long confine himself to his own stock, unless it is a very nu- merous one. The breeding from close affinities — the breeding in and in — 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 source whence sprung the cattle and the sheep of Bakewell, and the superior cattle of Colling; and to it must also be traced the speedy de- generacy — the absolute disappearance of the new Leicester cattle, and, in the hands of many an agriculturist, the impairment of constitution and de- creased 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 conveniently efl^ected 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 qualifica- tions, a hardy constitution, 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 that these two essentials in this species of im- provement should always accompany each other; for without good re- sources 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 * 'Upon the principle that "like produces like," he (Bakewell) started, and the ad- vantages whicli crowned his exertions may be thus stated: an increased perfection of general symmetry, by which is to be understood not only a form attractive to the eye of taste, but one in which the judgment acknowledged a considerable preponderance of the valuable parts of the carcass over those of less value; an increased tendency to lay on flesh of a superior quality under all circumstances of feeding, and, of course, a superior article for the use of the consumer, produced by a decreased consumption of vegetable or other food. '|A person would often be puzzled: he would find different individuals possessing dif- ferent perfections in different degrees — one, good flesh, and a tendency to fatten, with a bad form — another, with fine form, but bad 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 effected ? — Utility. The truly good form \a 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 Prize Eesay, 536 CATTLE. stock will deteriorate if neglected and half-starved, and the improved breed will lose ground even more rapidly, and to a far greater extent. The full consideration, however, of the subject of breeding 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 BREEDING. 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 sutfered 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 of the keep for so long a time is a question that must be taken into serious consideration. The custom which at one period was beginning to be so 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 fcBtus, 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 attained 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 her 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 up 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 liis judg- ment, and decide what are indispensable or desirable qualities, and will cross with ani- mals 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 excellences, perliaps 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 indiscriminately with all his cows; and when by this proceeding, which ought to be persisted in, his stock has, with an occasional change of bull, become sufficiently stamped with desirable excellences, his selection of males should then be made, to eradicate defects which he thinks it de- sirable 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 assurance that they will transmit their own valuable proper- ties 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 constitu- tion is decidedly good, and there is no prominent defect, a little close breeding may be allowed — as the son with the mother, to whom he is only half blood — or the brother with the sister. But this must not be injudiciously adopted or carried too far, for al- though it may increase and confirm valuable properties, it will also increase and con- firm defects; and no breeder need be long in discovering tliat in an improved state ani- mals have a greater tendency to defect than to perfection. Close breeding, from affini- ties, impairs the constitution, and affects the procreative powers, and therefore a strong cross is occasionally necessary. t When heifers of this age will not stand their bulling, a couple doses of physic, or 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 have stated, deserves consideration: — ' I had three heifers, when I lived at Slane, ABORTION OR SLINKING. 527 early age there will often be clanger in calving from the heifer not having 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 your.g 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 sepa- rate him from them altogether. By watching the cows as they come into season, and keeping them back when the time of parturition would be in- convenient, 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 esta- blished in the mother.* That which has been said of the best age for beginning to breed in the cow 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 sea- son 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.f 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 belieTc, in consequence of their being reared in the open air at the haystacks, which caused them to be forwarder. I had not the least idea of this happening, or I should have prevented it, as I think it very injudicious. It is the opinion of some persons, that by suffering heifers to be three or four years old they make fine cattle, but I never found any material difference; while there is a loss of one year, besides the danger of not standing the bulling; and it adds very much to the pro- fit 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 will be fattening 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 store beast.' — Treatise on Live Stock, vol. i. p. 99. * Most of the various recipes to bring a cow into season arc 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 sea- son, 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 from the cows, enable him to arrange the periods of parturition almost at his pleasure. t M. Tessier, in a Memoir read to the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris, says, that in 1131 cows, which he had the opportunity of observing, the shortest period of gesta- tion was 240 days, and the longest 321 — difference 81 days; and counting from nine months, 51 days over, and 30 days under. 528 CATTLE. The cow is somewhat off her feed — rumination ceases — she is listless and dull — the milk diminishes or dries up — the motions of the fostus be- come more feeble, and at length cease altogether — 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 for a longer time motionless. As the abortion approaches, a yellow'or red glairy 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 evident- ly falling — she begins to moan — the pulse becomes small, wiry, and inter- mittent. At length labour comes on, and is often attended with much dif- ficulty 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 in- tense. The animal suddenly ceases to eat and to ruminate — she 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 contracted. 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 sniff at 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 preventing of removing her to a far distant pas- ture. 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 fed 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 i)ulled 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 of 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 tlirough the wall at the end of the. cowhouse, and opened a new door, in ABORTION, OR SLINKING. 529 order that there might not be the possibility that an elf-struck foetus had previously gone that way; but still 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 have 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 filled 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 coimsel. He sold every beast, and the plague was stayed.* This sympathetic influenceis one main cause of the slinkmg 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 covvs are sometimes kept. They are in a continual state of excitement; and Irom 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. Durin count 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- maphrodite; but in some cases, there not being this admixture of the or- gans of different sexes, or those of the female prevailing, 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, Avhich 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 1819. All these, except two at the first birth, were nursed by the mother.* THE C^SARIAN 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 de- livery 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 de- formity 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 fa- tigued and worn out, and the fcetus itself probably has not escaped injury, such an operation can scarcely be defended on any principle of science or 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 aware of any English veterinarian who has succeeded. There is an ac- count of one successful case by M. Chretien,! 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 half filled the cavity of the pelvis, and forbade the possibility of delivery. * Nouveau Bulletin des Sciences. t 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 he clouded by the reckless infliction of torture on any of our quadruped 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 get rid of any gas which it contains, and thus to bring the uterus better into view, and prevent as much as possil^le that pressure on it, and on the in- testines, 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 hind leg, be- ing detached from the hobbles, must be brought as far backwards as pos- sible, 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 fingers 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 foetus. An incision must be made through the uterus of sufficient length 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 placen- ta is now to be quickly yet gently detached, and taken away. The intes- tines are to be returned to their natural situation, the divided edges of the uterus brought together and retained by means of two er three sutures, the eff'used blood sponged out from the abdomen, and the muscular parietes likewise held together by sutures, and other sutures passed through the in- teguments. Dry soft lint is then to be placed over the incision, and re- tained on it by means of proper bandages, and the case treated as consist- ing of a serious wound. Some valuable observations on this operation will be found in the Dictionnaire de Med. Vet., Gastro-Hysterotomie. EMBRYOTOMY. In cases of malformation of the calf, or when, as now and then happens, the 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 litde more curved than those knives generally are, and that can be carried into the passage in the hollow of the hand with scarcely the possibility of wounding the cow. A case related by M. Thibeaudeau will best illustrate this operation.* ' I was consulted respecting a Breton cow twenty years old, which was unable to calve.- I soon discovered the obstacle to the delivery. The fore limbs presented themselves as usual, but the head and * Veterinarian, June, 1831, p, 346. INVERSION OF THE WOMB. 641 neck were turned backwards, and fixed on the left side of the chest, whiljp the foetus lay on its right side on the inferior portion of the uterus.' M. Thiboudeau then relates the ineffectual 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 ihe posiiion 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 ex- tent, 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 remaining fore-leg, to extract the foetus without much resistance, although the head and neck were still bent upon the chest. The afterbirth was re- moved immediately afterwards. More recendy I have employed the same instrument in operating upon a cow the neck of whose uterus was so con- stricted that the finger could scarcely be introduced; I divided the stricture, and saved both cow and calf.' INVERSION 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 hangs 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 doivnfall of the calf-bag.'' It 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 mortified; and this is rapidly increased by the injury whicli 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 lighdy yet freely scarified, and the bleeding encouraged by warm fomentations. While this is done, it should be carefully 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 dose of 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, wliile, if the placenta yet remains attached to it, a third person gendy separates it at every point. It would be useless to at- tempt to return the w^omb until the cleansing is taken away, for the labour pains would return as violently as before. The operator will carefully re- move t!ie little collections, or bundles of blood-vessels, wh.^ch belong to the foetal portion of the placenta, and which are implanted into tlie cotyledons, or fleshy excrescences, that, for some reason, never yet fully explained, grow upon the surface of the impregnated womb, and gradually disappear again after the birtli 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 on a level with the bearing; while the surgeon, standing behind, and having his hand and arm well oiled, and a little oil having beeuglikewise smeared over the womb generally, places his jri^ht hand, withjhe fingers bent or clenched, against the fundus or bottom — the very 47 ^ 642 CATTLE. inferior and farther part of that cornu or division of the uterus which con- tained the f(£tus, and forces it tlirough the passage, and as far as he can in- to the belly; and there he retains it, while, with the other hand, he en- deavours likewise to force up the smaller horn, and the mouth of the womb. He will find considerable difficulty in effecting this, for the strain- ings against him will often be immense, and sometimes when he thinks he lias attained his object the whole will again be suddenly and violently ex- pelled. A bleeding from the jugular, and the administration of a couple of drachms of opium, will materially lessen these spasmodic efforts. 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 situation, 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 tolera- bly clearly ascertained, yet it will be prudent to provide against a fresh ac- cess 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 ac- complish; and the cases are not unfrequent when these stitches are torn out, and considerable laceration and inilammation 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 bearing, and at- tached to the girth on the other side in the same manner. A knot on each side will constitute the simplest fastening, and this pressing firmly on the bearing will effectually prevent the womb from again protruding. 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 gruel 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; but it will not be prudent during the first day to give either those fever medicines, as nitre ?.nd digitalis, which may have a diuretic effect and excite the urinary organs, or to bring on the straining effect of purging, by administering 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 UTERUS. Another more serious evil sometimes accompanies inversions of the womb, namely, a laceration or rupture of that organ, eflected 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 presentation, or by the general concussion which accompanies the expul- RETENTION OF THE FOETUS. 543 sion of the womb. The laceration is sometimes a foot in length, and is 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, becawse 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 co\r should then be bled, and opiates administered. Nature will often do won- ders here — the mischief will be repaired — the uterus will become whole again, and that without a tenth part of the fever tiiat might be expected; and there are instances upon record in which the cow has suckled her calf, and produced another a twelvemonth afterwards.* Rupture of the uterus may occur without prolusion of the part, from the too powerful action of that organ. The symptoms are 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. PROTUSION OF THE BLADDER. 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 pain aud inconvenience the animal can never afterwards carry high condition, but will be a miserable and disgusting 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- tinuance 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 lit- tle, she should not be abandoned. Mr. King, sen., of Slanmore, relates an instructive case of this kind: — ' A 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 of 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, distuibed, I persuaded him to leave her to nature, watching her in case of assistance being required. He consented, » Veterinarian, October, 1828. Rec. de Med. Vet. 1828, p. 365, and 1833, p. 294. 644 CATTLE. and, by degrees, and in detatched portions, the greater part, or perhaps the whole of the calf (she was not confined) came away, and she did well, and became fat, and was sent to Smithfied market.'* The same gentleman relates a;iothei 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 CALVING. 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, ' increases 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 oflf.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 and 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 Thtre is an instance on record ofthe head of a calf (all tlie other parts having passed away unobserved) being retained in the womb eighteen months. Pains resembling those of parturition then came on. Tlie veterinary surgeon, on examination, detected a hard round body which he mistook for a calculus, and which was so firmly imbedded in the womb that he was compelled to have recourse to a bistoury in order to detach it. In a fortnight she seemed to be well. — Instruct. Veler. lom. iv. p. 2G5. A more singular case is rel ited by M. Coquet, in the same work, vol. ii. p. 317. A (armer in the neiglibonrhood of Neufchatel purciiased a cow that did not appear to be well; — her excrement was liquid, nnd she had excessive thirst; she gradually got worse, the appetite was lost, and the diarrhcea became more violent and offensive. 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 af- terwards. The colon, at its last curvature, was very much enlarged; its walls were thick- ened, black, and gangrenous; and it was perforated on the inferior and right side; it con- tained a considerable mass of bones, particularly a pelvis, which, unable to Ibllow tiie cur- vature ofthe intestine, iiad been imbedded there and had also nearly penetrated through the intestine. Tlie womb at tiiat place was liard and thickened, and engorged witli blood; the peritoneum was also inflamed, and there was considerable bloody and purulent effu- sion in the belly. It was evident that, on the death ofthe fcetus, whether by accident or in the process of parturition, inflammation ofthe womb and the intestine had followed; ad- hesion had taken place between them; suppuration, perforation, and the passage ofthe fcEtus from the one to the other — that portion of the intestine being placed under that cornu ofthe womb. The uterus, having got rid of that which it contained, closed and healed; but the bones ofthe foetus gradually separating, and passing along the nmcous coat ofthe intestine produced a constant state of irritation, and at length the pelvis be- coming imbedded there, a degree of inflammation was set up which speedily destroyed the animal. X Can any thing 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 drinking as much cold water as she will, but by no means warm water; tlie 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 i)astures, if there be water in the place, they are almost sure to calve near it. Nature has taught them what they want. By drinking much cold water their urine is increased, and the continual straining to void it causes them to force their cleansing.' — Parkinson's Treatise on Live Stock, vol. i. p. 1120. BLEEDING (FLOODING) FROM THE WOMB. 545 gently but carefully milked three or four times every day. The natural and the effectual preventive of this, however, is to let the calf suck her at east three times in the day if it is tied up in the cow-house, or to run with lier in tlie pasture, and take the teat when it pleases. The tendency to inflammation of the udder is much diminished by the calf frequently suck- ing; or should the cow be feverish, nothing soothes or quiets her so much as the presence of the little one. THE CLEANSING. .ftJ^t^P'T"^"' «^<''^''-*/'-^'*' or cleansing, should be discharged soon after the calving. It soon begins to act upon the uterus as a foreian body ?nl"""? irntation 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 state of the cow, or it may produce a certain degree of low fever that will interfere with her condition. Every cowleech, therefore, has his cleans ing drink ready to administer; but it is too often composed of stimular. and injurious drugs, and which lay the foundation for after disease. Th? aperient drink recommended to be given after calving, with the addition of o^t ti^:^thL^ru^iv:arv;r^ '- '-' --^ - ^^- - -^ *« 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, ai^^^bShthli-r-r^^ inconvenience or disease resulting from it that would justify a^mechankal a tempt to extract it. It is occasionally retained seven or e ght day w th out any dangerous consequence. ^ ^ BLEEDING (fLOODINg) FROM THE WOMB. This although rarely, may follow natural parturition. It is oftener seen when the uterus has been wounded in the forcible extraction of he calf and It still more frequently follows the long retention and melanical sepa- ration of the after-birth. The application Sf cold to the loins wTll be most serviceable in this case. A pound of nitre should be dissolved /n a ga Ion of 7uZ: I "f -^''"i! '"1 ''^'""^^ ^^ '^' ^'^^ ^'P' constantly by rneans of cloths dipped in the solution. If the season of the year will peim t he water yielded by the melting of pounded ice mixed vith sa may be used being colder, and therefore more effectual. The cow may now and lar^ d^ V"''"^ '7 """"T'^ '^'' ^^^ "-^ be inclinertJ take! and large doses of opium (two drachms every second hour) should be thttThniond ^' h" '" P^i^'^' l'^ ^^" ^h«"»^ be elevated, in order tn ,1H K , ""'"I ^' '"'"'"'^ ^" 'be womb, and coagulate there. She should be kept perlectly quiet, and the calf not permitted to su'-k. There are few hemorrhages from the womb, except those produced by ab olute rupture of it, which will not yield to this treatment. ^ retIiTe7in'theut'en^f/°" '° f" "method of proceeding when the after-birth is actually ^^^^T^;^i::S\£^'-^::^J;^^ ^'- co„,.onnotionof its pre.entinj 47* S46 CATTLE. MILK (puerperal) FEVER. DROPPING AFTER CALVING, Although parturition is a natural process, it is accompanied by a great deal of febrile excitement. The sudden transferiing of powerful and ac- cumulated 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, be- comes 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 inflamma- tion at first, but the system speedily sympathises, and puerperal fever 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, although the cow is deeply prick- ed in her hind limbs. There 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 to the animal, or his ignorance of tlie 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 symptom which he observes, or which the practitioner has generally the opportu- nity to observe, is the prostration of strength which violent fever always leaves behind it. The early deviations from health are unobserved by the agriculturist, and probably would not always attract the attention of the surgeon. This disease is primarily inflammation of the womb, or of the perito- neum, 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 simulus. Cows in high condition are most subject to an attack of puerperal fever. Their excess of condition or state of plethora disposes them to aflfections of an inflammatory character at all times, and more particularly when the constitution 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 ap- proach of this period, they have been moved from scanty to luxuriant pas- ture, or from low keep to high stall feeding.* * Mr. Hales very properly remarks, that, ' dropping after calving happens to cows that are very fresh and fat, and particularly to those that calve for on 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 are thus attacked in hot weather too generally die.' — Veteri- narian^ August, 1831. Mr. Storry of Pickering very justly observes in a letter with which he favoured tlie MILK (PUERPERAL) FEVER. HI A coAV is comparatively seldom attacked with milk fever at her first calving, because in the present system of breeding she has seldom attained her full growth, and therefore the additional nutriment 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 system. 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 litde addition to that will materially interfere with the se- cretion 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 pre- judice which existed against the Short Horns, when they were first intro- duced; yet the prisciple which has just been hinted at should never be for- gotten by the breeder of short-horned cattle, that in a disease the early and almost uniform system and the most dangerous part of which is the sup- pression of the secretion of milk, that danger must increase in proportion to the quantity of 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 consi- dered 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 irrita- ble; she butts at a stranger and sometimes even at the herdsman. Deliri- um follows; she grates her teeth, foams at the mouth, throws her head violently about, and, not unfrequently, breaks her horns. The udder be- comes 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 diflliculty. 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 be taken away, depending upon the age and size of the animal, editor, that it often arises from the ' very comfortable drink' which so many cowleeches absurdly administer, before or after calving. In three cases which had occurred a little while before he wrote, he traced it to the freely giving of bean-meal to the cows on the day of parturition. ♦ Veterinarian, Aug. 1831. 548 CATTLE. before the desired effect is produced. There is no malady which more satisfactorily illustrates the necessity of endeavouring to subdue as quickly as possible every inflammatory complaint of cattle by the free use of the lancet; for all of them run their course with a rapidity which a person un- accustomed to these animals, and wliich the human practitioner especially, would scarcely deem to be possible. To-day the cow is seen with the sym])loms just described — she is bled, and she is relieved; or she is ne- glected, antl the fever has sapped the strength of the constitution, and left a fearful debility behind. The small bleedings to which some have re- course are worse than inefficient, for they only increase the natural ten- dency of these maladies to take 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 arises from the occa- sional state of the rumen, and the passage leading to it, and that insensible stomach must be roused to action and excited to discharge its contents, in despite of the stimulating influence of the spice on the constitution gene- rally. The botcels must be opened, or the disease will run its course; and, purging once established in an early stage, the fever will, in the ma- jority 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 of cases, however, this all-important period will have passed away, and the practitioner will be called in to witness the fatal ■winding vp of the affair, and perhaps 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 state of fever comes on. The rumen ceases to discharge its food, and that be- ing retained, begins to ferment, and the paunch and the intestines are in- flated with fostid gas and the belly of the animal swells rapidly. Next, the nervous system is attacked — the cow begins to stagger. The weakness is principally referrible to the hinder quarters, and rapidly in- * The following testimony of Mr. Bainbrldge of Saffron-Walden to the general effi. cacy of this mode of treatment is too important to be omitted, although perhaps the ex- tent to which he carried the bleeding miglit not always be justifiable. 'The months of February and March, 1833, afforded me several cases of dropping after calving. I im- mediately bleed to the amount of two gallons, or, in some cases, more, and give a draught composed of Bpsom salts lb. i, spirits of nitre 3SS., and linseed oil lb. i, in plenty of thin gruel. I also order from four to six ounces of salts to be given in gruel every six hours afterwards; some ginger being always boiled with the gruel. If my patient is not relieved in twenty-four hours, and her state permits it, I bleed again, and repeat the salts, oil, &c. Out of six cases in the last two months five perfectly reco- vered.' — Veterinarian, February, 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 says, ' Epsom salts in large quantities, Croton seed and sulplmr are most to be depended upon. The salts act immediately on the abdomen and intestines, and are excellent pioneers for the (Pro- ton, whose action is more upon the other stom.iclis, and consequently very valuable. I dare not depend upon either alone; on the salts, because they are apt to pass the three first stomachs too quickly; or on tlie Croton, because it is so much slower in its opera- tion, and cannot be so immediately extended in its effects. In conjunction they will perform wonders. Common salt is an excellent medicine, but rather objectionable where milk is an object, it having a tendency to diminish the secretion of that fluid.' — Veteri- narian, June, 1833. MILK (PUERPERAL) FEVER. 549 creases. She reels about for a while, and then falls; she gets up, falls once more, and at leno'th is unable to rise; her head is bent back towards her side, and all her limbs are palsied; and now, when in too many cases no good can be done, the proprietor, for the first time, begins to be alarmed. This portion of the ' Farmer's Series' will not have been written in vain if it induces an earlier attention to the diseases of domesticated animals. The duration of this second stage 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 after 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 fever. 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 beat or two, and then weakly creeping on again? We must not bleed here. These are indica- tions 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 on the pulse, anxiously M'atching the effect produced, and stopping at the first falter 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 disgracefid dispute about the propriety or im- propriety of bleeding in dropping after calving. One practitioner affirms that he never bleeds, and another that he always bleeds in this disease. One thing, however, is certain, that when the proprietor, or attendant on the catUe, hazards a random or sweeping assertion in this case, either for or against bleeding, he stands in need of a great deal of infor- mation 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 impro- priety 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 dif- ferent 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 550 CATTLE. disease, stands pliysic. The bowels must be opened, otherwise the animal will perish; but the fever having been subdued by a judicious bleeding, and the bowels after that being excited to action, the recovery is in a man- ner assured. The medicine should be active, and in sufficient quantity; for there is no time for trifling here. A scruple of the farina of the Cro- ton-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 untd purgation is produced. The usual quantity of aromatic medicine should be added. Here, too, the constitution of the stomachs of catde should not be forgot- ten. 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 cuticular and comparatively insensible lining of this stomach strong stimulants must now be added to the purga- tive medicine, in order to induce it to contract upon and expel its con- tents. Two drachms each of ginger, gentian, and caraway powder, with half a pint of old ale, may, with advantage, 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 the 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 frequendy, 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 medi- cine to come more efl'ectually into contact with the coats of the stomach. The warm water would also stimulate the stomach to contract, and thus get rid of a portion of its contents, either by vomiting or purging. In the first case, there would be room for the exhibiUon of more purgative medicine; in the other, the effect most of all desired would have been ob- tained. 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 wdl 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 order to permit the carburetted 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 ac- tion. 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 following singular and ridiculous caution against the use of injections in dropping after calving: — 'Many are for giving clysters, and I have known tliem 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 lliese people call themselves cow-doctors. It is difficult enough to prevent her swelling, without giving her so many clysters as to cause her to swell.'— P. MILK (PUERPERAL) FEVER. 651 too often neglected. She should have been watched before she actually- dropped, and got as soon as possible into the house, and well and warmly littered up. If she drops in the field it will always be difficult to get her home; and if she continues out, and bad weather comes on, she will as- suredly 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 is 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, little more will be necessary than attention to diet and comfort. At all 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 lurk- ing tendency to the renewal of febrile action, and he will 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 doses of half an ounce of the first, and a quarter of an ounce of the second, and given in good sound ale; but the outrageous quantities of aromatics and bitters, and ardent spirits, 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 gene- rally 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 af- fection then remain, a sling must be contrived by which she may be sup- ported, and during the use of which she may be enabled gradually 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 altered. In this state she continues 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- e-ase. Experience likewise shows that if the secretion of milk can be * Veterinarian, August, 1831. 652 CATTLE. recalled, the restoration of the use of the limbs is not 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 etfectual one tlian many imagine. That milk-fever is sometimes epidemic there is every reason to suppose. The practitioner may, 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 this is a subject which well deserves further inquiry. That there is a constitutional tendency to this complaint 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. Agriculturists are perfectly aware of this; and if a cow recovers from puerperal fever, her milk is dried, and she is fattened and sold without much loss 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 con- dition, and has been fed on luxuriant pasture, it will be very proper, as has been already stated, to bleed her, and give her a dose of physic; and re- move 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 inflammation 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 tbese 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 have recourse to harsh treatment to compel her to submit to the infliction of pain in the act of milking, she will only become more vio- lent, and probably become a kicker for life; if by soothing and kind treat- ment she cannot be induced to stand, nothing else will efiect 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 portion of the hardened scab- biness about them, the continuance of which is the cause of the greatest pain in the act of milking; and after the milking, 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 begin to get cool, well rub in a quarter of an 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. Gelle describes as existing in La Vendee. 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 tliat there were hedgehogs which were the cause of her complaint, and wliich ought to have been taken away from her. If a cow in calf pastured, before the sun had risen, on any herb over which a hedgehog had passed, she would have a parcel of little hedgehogs in her womb with the calf. These wise men mistook the cotyledons found in the uterus of ruminants for little hedgehogs, and introduced the hand and tore them off without mercy as soon &a tlie cow dropped. — Journal Pratique, 1826, p. 477. GARGET. 553 Too often, however, the inflammation assumes another and worse cha- racter: it attacks the internal substance of the udder — one of the teats or the quarters becomes enlarged, hot, and tender — it soon begins to feel hard, it is knotty; it contains within it litde distinct hardened 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 efl'ectual 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 mofTier 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 off', at least twice in the day, and an ointment composed of the following ingredients, 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, hoAvever, 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 hydriodale of potash being well saturated with seven parts of lard,) one or two drachms of which should be rubbed into the diseased portion of the udder, every 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 frequenUy 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 difficult to heal, and sometimes ii>- volving the loss of more than one of the quarters. Whenever there is any appearance of suppuration having commenced, (a minute observa- tion wdl 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- charged. It is generally bad practice to cut off the teat; not only is it 48 554 CATTLE. afterwards missed in the milking, but the quantity of the milk is usually lessened to a greater or less degree. Should the tumour have been left to break, a deep and ragged 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 applica- tion here. The wound should be well cleaned with warm water, and then a dilute solution of the chloride freely applied to every part of it; not only will the unpleasant smell from the ulcer be immediately 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 advan- tageous 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 will 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 en- largement does not speedily subside, the hydriodate should also be given internally. Mr. Christian, of Canterbury, and the author's friend, Mr. May, of Maldon, relate two cases of chronic garget, in one of which the induration 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 ointment was used by Mr. Christian, in the form of the iodine itself tritu- rated 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 partu- rition, the neglect of physic or bleeding before calving, or suffering the cow to get into too high condition, are frequent causes. So powerful is the latter one, that instances are not unfrequentof cows, that have for some time been dried, and of heifers that have never yielded milk, having vio- lent inflammation of the udder.f 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 occasional 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 inflammation in the part. Connected with this last cause is the necessity of 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 than others, so much so, that on some marsh lands in the county of Lincoln, a cow cannot be fattened, nor even a heifer that lias never given milk: an ox has there been known to exhibit symptoms of garget. — Parkinson on Live Cattle, vol. i. p. 245. + Veterinarian, Jan. 1830, and May, 1833. THE COW-POX. 555 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 left, which are very sore, and sometimes diffi- cult 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 tlie cow to the milker if the hand is not quite sound, and from the milker to other cows. There is another kind of pustular eruption, of a more 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 larsrer, 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 feed well; sometimes she ceases to ruminate, and the secre- tion of milk is usually diminished. These pustules 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 unhealthy character, and generally far more difficult 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 difliculty 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 possibility of contact, directly or indirectly, with any other animal previously simi- larly affected. It was the opinion of Jenner, and is still the opinion of many medical men, that the cow-pox originated from infection by the mat- ter 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 pro- duced by the cows lying down in a meadow, where the affected horse had been pre- viously feeding, and her udder coming in contact with the discharge which had dropped on the grass and lodged there; and lie 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, comniunicated to roan directly or to him through the cow.' — p. 113, 556 CATTLE. neons. A pustular disease has been communicated by contact with tlie 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 by the matter of grease. Woodville, Simmons, Professor Coleman of the Veterinary Col- lege, Bartholini, and others, failed entirely in producing cow-pox in tliis 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 sick 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 sur- geon whose life is spent amidst these diseases, and who ought to be well acquainted with their nature, causes, and effects, who believes that grease is the origin of cow-pox, or that there is the slightest connexion between them.* The next interesting circumstance connected with this pustular eruption is, that the persons on whom it appeared were, for a considerable period, (it was once thought, during life,) protected from the small-pox. 'J'his was known among farmers from time immemorial, and that not only in England, and almost every part of the continent, but also in the New World. The majority of medical 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 ascertain, whether it might not be 'possible to propagate the affection by inoculation 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 he 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 communicated, 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 vaccination, and proved himself to be one of the greatest benefactors to the human race that ever lived.t 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 Dic- tionnaire de Med, et de Chirurgie Vet. par Hurtrel d'Arboval, Eaux aux Jambes. t The followijjg picture of what passed in his mind before he had quite accomplished his object cannot fail of 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 often so excessive, that in pursuing 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 al- ways ended in devout acknowledgment to that Being from whom this and all other blessings flow.' — Bacon's Life of Jenner. DISEASES AND MANAGEMENT OF CALVES. 557 whose general and medical treatment this work is devoted; and some prac- titioners of no little eminence have recommended (and perhaps it deserves more consideration than has been given to it) a return* to the primary fountain for a recruit of power and energy after the lapse of a certain pe- riod, and the prosecution of a certain number of successive experiments. CHAPTER XVIII. 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 general 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 faeces that had been accumulating in the intestines, during the latter months of the ftetal state might be carried off. The farmer acts wrongly when he throws away, as he is too much in the habit of doing, the beastings, or first milk of the cow. * Good's Studies of iMedicine, vol. iii. p. 55; Gregory's Report, April, 1821. It was the opinion of Jenner, and it is still the belief of some sportsmen, that the cow-pox is a preventive against the distemper in dogs. It might be observed, that there is not the slightest similarity between t!ie two diseases, but that, on the contrary, they affect per- fectly different textures; it might also be urged that the description given of tlie distem- per 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 \cry great caprice with regard to the contagiousness of distemper, whether depending on certain modifications of the disease; or a certain degree of predisposition of the \Vantof it in the animal exposed to the contagion; or on diffsirent states of atmos- pheric influ2nce. The reason of it has never been sufficiently explained, but the fact admits of no denial, that during two or tiiree successive years there may be isolated ca- ses 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 sooner does the distemper appear, than it rapidly spreads among the dogs, and carries off the majority of them There is also no fact butter known among sportsmen than that much of the susceptiblitv 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 probably at some of these periods of security, or the subjects of 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 on tlie disease in its most fearful character, that Dr. Valentin of Nancy lost from distemper two dogs out of three whicli he had previously inoculated with vaccine matter; and tliatGohier 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 aeitlier 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. Tlie accounts 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 oneof ttiose moments of' reverie' pardonable in a mind enthusiastically devoted to the pursuit of a benevolent and noble object, and when the ' wish is fatlier' to many a con- clusion, that it could be believed that the cow-pox would afford protection against ra- bies. — Diet de Med et de Chirurgie Vet, Vaccination. 48* 558 CATTLE. NAVEL-ILL. The calf being cleaned, and having begun to suck, the navel-string should be examined. Perhaps it may continue slowly to bleed. In this case a ligature 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 restored 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 redness 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 intelligent breeder at Barmoor 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 egg, will constitute the first treatment; but if, when the inflammation abates, extreme weak- ness 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 beastings 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 be got rid of. Castor oil is the safest and the most eff'ectual 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 cat- tle 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 — the 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 litUe one, or the calf has too early been fed with the common milk of the dairy. The only chance * British Farmer's Magazine. HOOSE. 659 of success in ibis disease lies in the frequent administration (by means of the stomach-pump, 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 doAvn 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, through 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 profitable thriving of the animal, and it can never long exist without inducing a degree of fever, al- ways 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. DIARRHCEA. The disease, however, to which calves are most liable, and which is most fatal to them, 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 faeces 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 foetid than in its natural slate, 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 of Epsom salt) should first be administered, to 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. A sufficiently alarming view has been given of this disease in adult cattle, but calves are even more subject to it: it takes on in them a more 660 CATTLE. dangerous cliaracter, and more speedily terminates in Avasting 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 cattle under the article Hoose, in p. 378 etseq., 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 to 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 month, 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 g2neral practice to grasp the scrotum in the hand, between the testicles and the belly, and to make an incision on one side of it, near the bottom, of sufficient depth to penetrate through 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 cord, 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 ofl', 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 ruptured, 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 animals, as pigs, or lambs, or rabbits; the vessels are small, and there is but little substance to be torn asunder: CASTRATION. 561 but even there the knife, somewhat bhmt, will be a more surgical and hu- mane substitute. This laceration should never be permitted in the castra- tion of the calf or the colt. The application of torsion, or the twisting of the arteries by means of a pair of forceps which will firmly grasp ihem, promises to supersede every other mode of castration, both in the larger and the smaller domes- ticated 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 lit- tle vessel arrested in the same way. Neither the application of the hot iron or of the wooden clams, whether with or without caustic, can be ne- cessary in the castration of the calf.* * In many parts of France the bull-calf is castrated by means of a curious species of torsion, termed histournuge. The animal is tlirown and secured; tlie operator places 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 tlie hpg itself; he then pushes up the left testicle as nearly as possible to tlie 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 tlie testicle, and grasping the bottom of the scrotum with his right hand, he turns the testicle, and pushes it forcibly up- wards, until he has reversed 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 obliterated as to be deprived of the power of secreting or conveying the seminal fluid. The testi- cle 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 in his left hand, and holding one end of a piece of cord, eighteen inches in 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 not so tightly as quite to stop the circulation of blood through the bag. This is taken away at the end of the second day, after which tlie testicles will remain fixed againstthe 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 tor- sion of the testicle is scarcely practicable. The 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 troublesome among the cows. — Diet, de Med. et Chirurg. Vet. Castration. 563 CATTLE. CHAPTER XVIII. DISEASES OF THE MUSCULAR SYSTEM AND OF THE EXTREMITIES. RHEUMATISM. Although some writers have been strangely averse to acknowledge the existence of this disease in the horse, no farmer has a doubt of its frequent occurrence in cattle. It is inflammation of the fascia, or cellular coat of the muscles, and also of the ligaments and synovial membranos of the joints. If a cow has been necessarily, or carelessly or cruelly, exposed to unusual cold and wet, particularly after calving, or too soon after reco- very from serious illness, she will often be perceived to droop. She be- comes listless, 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 almost entirely, to the spine; and she walks as if all the articu- lations 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 w^orse, it acquires the name oi joint fellon, and worse, unless care is taken, it speedily will become. Some of the joints swell: they are hot and ten- der; the animal can scarcely bend them; and he cannot move without dif- ficulty and evident pain. Who could doubt that the same causes which produce rheumatism in 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 vi- cissitude of heat and cold — in animals that have been debilitated by insuf- ficient 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 still 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 fe- ver; he will scarcely be able to move at all, or when he does, it extorts from him an expression of sufleriiig. Another seems to be gay and well, when the air is warm and dry; but as scon as the wind shifts, or immedi- ately before it changes, he is uneasy, and comparatively helpless. On some portions of a farm, nothing seems to ail the cattle; on others, lower, inoister, or more exposed, the cattle crawl about stiffly and in pain. In some extreme cases, the quantity of milk rapidly diminishes, and the cow wastes away and becomes a mere skeleton. The rheumatism in catde, 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 anlimonial 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. ( 563 ) SWELLINGS OF THE JOINTS. These are usually the consequence of rheumatism. Small tumours appear in the neighbourhood of the joints that were most affected. They seem at first to belong to the muscles; but they increase: they involve the 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, oftenesi of all, rheu- matism degenerates into palsy.* The superficial veins in the neighbourhood of the joints 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 eflfectual. 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 knee, and generally one knee at a time. A fluid collects in the tissue imme- diately beneath the skin, and which yields to the pressure of 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 sufiicienlly 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 tlie designation of ' Crochles.'' He says that the early symptoms are pains in the feet, and particularly the fore-feet, with enlargement of the joints; tlie hind quarters particularly becoming so weak and contracted that the animal can scEtrcely stand; and sometimes 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 some- times nearly destroyed. Mr. Tait has no faith in any medicine or external application; but he believes tliat 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 witli decided good effect. 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. Ou inquiring into the cause of the animal's apparent iielplessness, 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 cot- tar to remove her to a farm which the disease had never visited. The animal in a very short time began to move about, and would have become perfectly sound, had not 'the beggar' removed a part of the bones of her feet along with the worm. — Veterinarian, August, 1834. 664 CATTLE. iron is a more effectual remedy. If the tumour is pierced with it, a glairy fluid escapes, and the swelling subsides. A blister should then be applied, and the animal kept in the cow-house. The tumour does not often 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 ani- mal is very lame. These tumours are almost invariably confined to one knee. Here, neither frictions nor perforation with the budding-iron 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 with the substance beneath, 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 suddenly take on a dis- position to increase with great rapidity. These have been blistered with- out effect — setons have been passed through them with variable result, and occasionally recourse has been had 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; and in the great 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 much 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 ulcerate — the wounds are painful, deep, and spreading. They have already been de- scribed (p. 313,) when the question of farcy in cattle was considered. The dilute solution of the chloride of lime will form the best applica- tion, 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 open 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 be- fore the secretion of the joint oil is stopped, and the cartilages of the op- posing 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 wound 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 ' Bro- ken Knees.' SPRAINS. Working oxen, and those that have been driven long journeys, are liable FOUL IN THE FOOT. 565 to s/>mtn, and particularly of the fetlock joint. The division of the lower 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 fedock joint; they frequendy 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 fedock (the precise place varying in diff'erent 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 cofiin 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 IX 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 \vashed thoroughly clean, and a pledget of tow dipped in friar's-balsam, or covered with healing ointment, in- troduced between the claws, and diere 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 fetlock or pastern, or coffin joints. Rest and fomentation, or the application of cold, witli 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 than those of the horse, and rise more distincdy above the coronet, and climb up the pastern. It is the increased vascularity which often 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. 49 566 CATTLE. Tlie foot of the ox, or that part which is inclosed within the horny box, is liable to the same injuries and diseases as that of the horse; bnt they generally are not so difficult to treat, nor do they produce such destruc- tive 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 from 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; functus 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/oi// 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 necessarj^ 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 fiir 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 tliat 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 povdtice; 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 meeiia- nical injury, that will hasten the process of suppuration, and the 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 experiments, in order to ascertain whether tlie foot-rot in sheep, and foul in tiie foot in cattle, were the same or similar diseases. He inoculated sheep with the matter taken from between the claws, and witli some from the denuded surface of the sole, and some also which he had taken from a sinus run- ning deep into the foot: in neither case did he produce any thing analogous to tlic fool-rot. — Journal de Med. Vet. et Comparec, 1826, p. 319. FOUL IN THE FOOT. 567 opening and the sinuses carefully ascertained, and 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 application of the butyr should then follow, or in favourable cases, a pledget soaked in friar's balsam should be placed on the wound, bound tighdy 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 wuU 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 w^iich, as well as to stimulate the surface beneath and dis- pose it to throw out healthy horn, the cart-rope or the horse-hairline used to be introduced between the claws, and drawn backwards and forwards, inflicting 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 mechanical 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 untU 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, and it may be easily retained in its situation by means of a cloth through which two holes have been cut to admit die 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 tlie ulcer begins to have a healthy surface, a litde common turpentine * Tlic following recipe is copied as a perfect unique in veterinary practice ; — ' My father's method (of curing; foul in the foot) was to cut up a sod where the diseased foot had trodden, and either turn it over sward side downwards, of hang it on a hedge in that position. I am unable to account for this cure; to me it is incompreliensible ; but in all the experiments I have tried, this remedy, so simple and cheap, has proved the best. The first 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 but the sod, tiiough probably rest is tlie great restorative.' — Parkinson on Live Stock, vol. i. p. 245. 568 CATTLE. having been added to it. Proud flesh must be subdued, by the caustic ; equal parts of verdigris and sugar of lead will constitute the best application for this purpose. Foul and fretid discharge must be cor- rected by the chloride of lime ; and when the ulcer looks healthy, the tincture of myrrh 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 month after month, and leave permanent lameness behind. Some have imagined that this variety of foul in the foot is contagious. That is not quite ascertained, although there are some suspicious cases on record ; the f;\rmer, therefore, will act prudently, who immediately separates the lame beast from the herd. In one respect, these diseases of the feet of cattle differ materially 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 coflin-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 difliculty 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 portion? of bone to be thrown ofi', 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 hoof 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 carious way, and the coffin bone takes on a similar distortion. There is no frog in the foot of catde, 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 ' thrusli' 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 often 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 whhout 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 fidgetty or vicious horse. Constant 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 is very tender and troublesome, and bleeds after the slightest touch. The chloride or butyr of antimony is tlie best remedy for this. SHOEING. 569 than on the horse — ruminants have not the courage and endurance ot 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 that have lost for a time full half of their milk on account of the pain which tender and diseased feet have occasioned; the grazier sometimes loses the advantage of three or four months' feeding from 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- valued as it regards the horse; and the time is not far distant, when vete- rinary surgeons, better instructed in the anatomy and ailments of catUe, will often practise it to relieve the torture, and to improve the condition of ruminants. This, as in the horse, is anecessary evil. A beast used for road work would soon be crippled and ruined wilhout 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 capabUity of work, the endurance and the superior condition of his catde. 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 jtenderness 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, Avith 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 ground-surface of the fore-shoe B. Do. of the hind shoe. Some farmers shoe the fore feet only, others take in the two outside claws of the hind feet; but it would be litde additional trouble or expense to shoe them all round, and then they would be safe. 49* 670 CATTLE. The principal objection to shoeing the ox 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- graving of Avhich 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 often 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 tliis without fear, and he will be likely to submit to the apparently similar process of shoeing. It is fear, and not natural indo- cility, Avhich 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 ii is thicker, and apparently less sensible; therefore for some observations on the structure and functions of the skin, the reader is refenred 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, a.id 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 supplies 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 every body else has confirmed this connection, and the principle is that when one secretion is properly discharged, the others will generally be so, and when one is interrupted the harmony of the system is too much 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. It does not actually do so, but it has lost its HIDE-BOUND. 571 softness, and we can no longer raise it, or move it about. The secretion of the oily fluid which supplies the skin is disturbed; this argues dis- turbance elsewhere, and the feeling of the skin usually indicates the degree of that disturbance. With hide-bound is connected a rough and staring coat. The surface of the skin is become hard and dry; the minute scales wdth 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 is 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 hoose a little — she may have various litde 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 aflection 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 provender, or has she been half starved ? If the thrifty appearance cannot be traced to any evident cause, still there can he no doubt that something is wrong. Ilide-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 pov/der, with a small quantity of ginger. No direct tonic should be administered while the cause of this want of condition is unknown, but warm purgatives and diaphoretic medicines will often have a good efl'ect. This is the most serious among the diseases of the skhi in catde. The first symptom is a constant itchiness. The cow eagerly rubs herself against every thing that she can get at. The hair comes quite oft' or gets thin on various parts of the body. There are few scabs or sores; but either 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 starvation. 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 it more frequently be traced than to contagion. The treatment is simple and efl^ectual. The diseased cattle should be removed to some distant stable or shed where there can be no possible 572 CATTLE. communication with the others. The disease, however produced, must be considered and treated as a local one. The scurfiness of the skin must first be got olT, by 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 nibbed 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. The ointment must have sulphur as its basis, aided by turpentine, whicli somewhat irritates the skin and disposes it to be acted upon by the sulphur; and, to render it still more efficacious, a small portion of mercury must be added. The following will be a safe, and very effectual application — there are few cases which will resist 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 sulpliur, 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! have had their advocates, and have murdered thousands of cattle. The practitioner 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. 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 were afflicted witli bad mange. lie applied the ointment and the powders here recommended, and the ease was going on slowly but satisfactorily. He did not wish to make too much Jiaste in tlic 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 applied it freely about them; lie used almost tlic whole of it. In a little more that twelve hours one of them began to foam at tlic 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 solution of corrosive sublimate mixed with some unknown vegetable decoction. t A friend of the Editor was requested to see four cows that had been dressed for mange. One of tiiem was dead when he arrrivcd; another died afterwards; the other two 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 this mode of treatment, except in his own stables, and under his immediate inspection. LICE. 573 The same ointment but with double the quantity of mercury, must be used for this aggravated state of the disease, and a stronger aUerative 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 millet-seed to that of a kidney-bean — when 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 lips are thickened, and dense and yellow mucus runs from the nose — when, 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 physic 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 eflect, 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- 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 animalcule, 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 Avill 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 constant 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, by 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 Rec. de Med. Vet-, 1830, P. 42. 674 CATTLE, that they rapidly spread from one animal to another. The slightest con- tact, the lying on the same lair, or the feeding on the same pasture, is suf- ficient to enable them to be communicated from the infected beast to all the rest. The animalcule thrives every where, although the ovum did not find a proper nidus on the skin of the healthv beast; and the vermin, once established there, soon change the character of the skin, and cover it with scurf 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 apphcation, and by dint of rubbing, a little of it may be made to go a great way. The common scab ointment for 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. 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 Diplera 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 straiglit 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 much torture, is the (Eslnis 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 pastures 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 tliat excel- lent French entomologist, M. Reaumur, for much of that which he is enabled to offer respecting the history of this insect. The oestrus bovis iH \he \&\'gesi 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 the posterior part of an ashen colour — the abdomen is also of an ashen eolour, wi'th 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 habhation for its future pro- geny. It selects the back of the ox, at no great distance from the spine on either side, and alighting there it speedily pierces the integument, WARBLES. 675 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 secreted there. A fluid, resembling pus, can always be squeezed from the tumour, 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 icarbles. 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,! 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 tne tanner would probably tell a dif- ferent story. The larva, if undisturbed, continues in his 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 soft 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 from 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 then covered with a scaly box of great strength, and from which it would seem impossible lor 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 (listened only by a slight filament, Hies 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. * Tiie weapon by means of wliicli the pcrnoration is effected is a very singular one. It seeni.5 to lie Ibrined of three ditierent pieces, inclosed the one witliin another, like the divisions of a telescope, and from tlie farthest and smallest the true auger, or perfo- rator, proceeds. t In 18:23 and 1824, however, tlie ajstri were so numerous in the department of Loiret, in France, and the tumours accumulated to that extent on the cattle, that they occasioned fever, inBammalion, and death. There was a disposition to inflammatory fever prevailing at the same time amongst most species of domesticated animals. — Rap- port a la Societe Royale et Centrale d' Agriculture, 1826. 6r8 Cattle. This is effected in various ways — a little corrosive liquor is poured into the hole, or a red-hot needle introduced, or the larva is crushed or forced out by pressure with the finger and thumb. Although the existence of the 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 Avhere the bot has been. If all the farmers could be induced to search for and destroy the insect when a larva, the cattle of that district might be nearly or quite freed from this pest. AXGLE-BERRIES, OR WARTS. 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 sometimes by chaps and sores, to fungous growth, of different size and hardness, and bearing the character of warts. They are occasionally very numerous and exceedingly troublesome; and they are most numerous and exceedingly ti-oublesome about the teats. When they grow about the eye- lids they are a sad nuisance to the beast. When they 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 Avill 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 Avarts being touched daily with it in a solid form, if they are few and distinct; or washed with a strong solfltion 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 occun-ed 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 would 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 Avell 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 failed — she yielded no milk — she became exceedingly weak, and her eyes sunk in their sockets — the pulse was sixty — the skin warm — the extremi- ties cold. She soon became hide-bound, and her skin was strangely hard MEDICINES USED IN THE TREATMENT OF CATTLE. 577 She was bled 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 lo separate from the cutis or true skin beneath; the hair separated along with it, until from the mouth to the tail, and half-way down the legs, there was not a particle of hair remaining, except where there had been a spot of black, and on that place it continued quite soft 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 by de- grees reproduced on every part but the shoulders.* CHAPTER XX. A LIST OF THE MEDICINES USED IN THE TREATMENT OP THE DISEASES OF 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 pharmacopoeia 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 ad- ministered in ineffectual or destructive doses. It is not, however, the ob- ject of the editor of this work to draw up a catalogue of errors and abuses in catde-practice, although he might easily present one, ridiculous and dis- gusting to an almost inconceivable degree; but to describe the properties, and doses, and combinations of those medicines which the experience of rational practitioners in former times, and the inquiries of scientific men in these later years of veterinary improvement, have sanctioned. 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 inflammatory 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, inflammation hav- ing been subdued, the practitioner is always anxious to support the strength of the constitution; and even while he is combating inflammation he cau- tiously 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 many 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 young 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 justified; yet, in cattle-practice, the beneficial effect of the aperient often depends fully as much on the carminative by which it is ac- companied, as on the purgative power of the drug itself. * Veterinarian, April, 1834, p. 97. 50 578 CATTLE. Aloes. — This is the best, and almost the only purgative on which de- 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 ef- fect; and, in another case, a snnilar 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 oesopha-gean 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, however, as there is no case on record in which it has destroyed the ox by superpurgation, 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 account of the construction of the stomachs of ruminants, it must be always ad- ministered in solution, for a ball would break through the floor of the cesophagean canal and be lost in the rumen. Two ounces of aloes, and one ounce of gum-arabic (in order to suspend the imperfectly dissolved por- tion of the aloes) should be put into a pint of boiling water, and the mix- ture frequendy stirred during the first day; then two ounces of tincture of ginger 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- sable 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 tmcture. Eight ounces of powdered 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 use. It is one of the best applications for recent wounds; and in old wounds espe- cially, accompanied by any foulness of them, or discharge of fiEtid pus, no- thing will be more serviceable than equal parts of this tincture and a solu- tion 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 skin or of the organs of circulation or digestion. To a cow with yellows, or mange, or that 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 alteratives. 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 drugs. The want of condition and thriving in cattle is far more connected with a diseased state of their comphcated 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 especially where mange is suspected, alterative medicines will be verj- MEDICINES USED IN THE TREATMENT OF CATTLE. 579 beneficial. They should be composed of iEthiop's mineral, nitre, and sulphur, in thf proportions of one, 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 vio- lent, a scruple of opium. Alum is rarely used externally in the treatment of catde, 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 frequendy used. In the form of hartshorn it enters in- to 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 ad- ministered as a chemical principle, it being supposed that the alkali would neutralize the acid gas that was extricated from the fermenting food; but it has been proved that this gas consists chiefly either of carburetled or sulphuretted hydrogen: besides which there is another consideration, that, except administered by means of Reed's pump, not one drop of the am- monia 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 catde. 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. Antimonial Powder — the powder of oxide of antimony with phosphate of lime. It is frequendy 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 ta nauseate the beast to too great a degree. Chloride (Butyr) of Antimony. — Where it is wished that a caustic shall act only superficially, this is the most useful one that can be employ- ed. 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 di- luted 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 forms an unerring guide to the surgeon. For warts, foul in the foot, cankered foot, and for some indolent and unhealthy wounds, it is a valuable caustic and stimulant. Antispasmodics. — Opium, for its general power, and particularly for its efficacy 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 an anodyne) and blue vitriol comprise the list: the first used both externally and iniernally; the two next internally; and the last internally, but chiefly powerful as arresting nasal discharge. 580 CATTLE. Blisters. — The thickness of the skin of cattle renders it somewhat dif- ficult 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 oiiitiuent will act very fairly; the turpentine tincture of cantharides still belter; while an ointment composed by triturating one drachm of eme- tic 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 debili- ty 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 catde-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 will gene- rally blemish, and often lay the foundation for deep and corroding ulcers. The best blister ointment for cattle is composed of one part of cantharides (Spanish flies) finely powdered, three of lard, and one of yellow resin; the lard and the resin should be melted together, and the Hies added when these ingredients begin to cool. Carraways. — The powder of these seeds may be used as an occasion- al change for ginger; yet it is not so stomachic as the ginger, and is de- cidedly 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 effectual 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 how- ever to be doubted whether it is much superior to a less expensive purga- tive, 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 eflfectual than that gum in subduing the diarrhoea of calves or adult catde. The quantity, and the drugs with which it should be combined, have been stated in p. 476. Caustics. — In the treatment of foul in the foot, these are indispensable, 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 surf^ace. For warts, angle-berries, &c., externally situated, the nitrate of silver in substance, or in the form of a strong solution, will be most ef- fectual; 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 ulcers, 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^jowerful as either of the others, and therefore used in somewhat doubt- ful cases, when, if the state of fever has not quite passed over a stronger stimulant might have been prejudicial. MEDICINES USED IN THE TREATMENT OF CATTLE. 581 Charges. — These are thick adhesive plasters spread over parts that have been strained or weakened, or that are affected with rheumatism, and which, being applied warm, mingle so with the hair, that they cannot be separated for a long time afterwards. They give a permanent 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 ciiarge. It is also useful when the joints are the seat of rheumatic lameness. Clysters. — The importance of the administration of injections has not yet been sufficiently acknowledged in cattle practice. A recurrence to the account which has been given of the lower or larger intestines 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 surf\\ce 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 catde 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 are the Blue Vitriol, or sulpliate 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 catde, accompanied by little or no cough or fever, and which is some- times in a manner epidemic. The manner of administering it 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 in 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 catde, which will excuse their administration much ofiener 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 carraways; 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 seeds may be allowed. The bay berries, and cardamom seeds, and coriander seeds, and cumin seeds, and diapente, and elecam- pane, and fennel seeds, and fenugreek seeds, and grains of paradise, and juniper berries, and horse-spice, and pepper, and various other pungent aromalics that encumber the shelves and loads the drinks of him of the old school, should be banished from the pharmacopreia of the rational practitioner of cattle-medicine. Corrosive Sublimate. — See Mercury. 50* 583 CATTLE. Croton Seeds. — These can scarcely be admitted into practice on 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 i'rom 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 principal influence determined to the skin, and tluis to increase the sensible and insensible 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 about 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 lo 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 cattle-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 Math other medicines in the treatment of mange, and all cutaneous afl'ections, and in cases of mild or chronic fever. Nitre and liquid turpentine are the best diuretics; and almost the only ones on winch 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 DRINKS. If they are exhibited in a solid form, they will break through the floor of the oesophagean canal, and enter the rumen. Far- riers and cow-leeches, however, often give to their drinks the force arid 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 of 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. Epsom Salt. — See Magnesia. MEDICINES USED IN THE TREATMENT OF CATTLE. 583 Fomentations. — If, owing to the greater thickness of the skin, these are not quite so effectual in cattle as in tlie horse, yet, as opening the pores of the skin and promoting perspiration in the part, and thus abating local swellings, and relieving pain, and lessening inflammation, they are often exceedingly serviceable. 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 stomachic and tonic, whether at the close of illness, or as a remedy for chronic debility. Its dose varies from one to four drachnis,' and should be almost invariably combined with ginger. Ginger. — The very best aromatic in the list of cordials for cattle, and with tlie exception of carraways, superseding all the rest. The dose will vary from half a drachm to four drachms. Goulard's Extract. — See Lead. Hellebore, Black. — The root of it forms an excellent seton when passed through the dew-lap; it produces plenty of swelling and discharge, and rarely or never runs on to gangrene. Iodine. — The use of this mineral is limited to a few cases, but there its effect 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 ointment daily and well rubbed on and round the part. Indurations of the udder seldom resist its power, unless the ulcerative process has already commenced. 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 w'.en 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 ex- tensive opportunities of putting it to the test. He will not say that he has discovered a specific for phthisis or consumption in catde, but he has saved some that would otherwise have perished, and, for a while, 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 sup- purate, let them have recourse to the iodine, in the form of the hydriodate 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 proper attention to comfort; 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 con- dition of the beast begins to improve, but until the character of the cough has been essentially changed. Ipecacuanha. — This drug is used in the composition of the Dover's, or compound ipecacuanha powder, which has been recommended 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 efficient medicine for such a disease. Lard. — This is the principal basis of all ointments. 681 CATTLE. Laudanum. — See Opium, Lead, Sugar of — (Superacetate 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 Supebacetatis.) — When the skin is unbroken, this preparation of lead is completely thrown away, whether used either as a lotion to subdue inflammation, or to disperse tu- mours 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 diarrhcEa or dysentery. In every stage of these diseases there is a tendency in the fourth stomach, and perhaps in the in- testines, 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 harm- less. In the diarrhosa of the calf it is absolutely indispensable, for there the acid principle is frequendy 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 any thing more valuable than this. As a disinfectant — if the walls, the floor, and the furniture of the cow-honse or stable, are twice or thrice well washed with it, the souiid cattle may return to the building with per- fect 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 or nauseous in- gredient, in blain, garget, foul in the foot, and sloughing ulcers of every description, it removes the foe tor; and, if the process of decomposition 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 changing 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 ap- plied 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 litUe 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 Hide common turpentine may be added; but the cruelly-torturing caustics of the cow-leech and the farrier should never disgrace the regular pracutioner. An excellent mash in cases of catarrh or sore-throat, and as an emollient in any intestinal aflection, is made by adding bran to an infusion of lin- seed. 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 in- dicate an oily purgative, and the first dose of castor-oil fads, it may be followed up by smaller doses of linseed oU, until the desired effect is produced. Magnesia, Sulphate of. Epsom Salt. — This may be regarded as MEDICINES USED IN THE TREATMENT OF CATTLE. 585 the staple purgative of cattle. It is as safe as Glauber's salt; it is more certain, and it will dissolve in one-third of the 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 purgative effect 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 substitute, when the case requires a temporary abstinence from dry and stimulating 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 de- bility, steeped or ground oats may be mixed with 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 ex- cept in a very diluted slate, 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 of Mercury, ^thiop's Mineral. — A very useful alterative combined with sulphur and nitre, where there is any cutaneous affection. The circumstances under which it may be administered, and the doses, will be found in various parts of this work. Proto-chloride of Mercury. Calomel. — This should rarely be given to calde, 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 accompa- nied 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 na- tural action of the bowels is promoted. Bichloride or 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 conside- rable or efficient quantity for the cure of mange or any cutaneous erup- tion, and as a caustic there are many as good. Mint. — An infusion or decoction of this plant will be a useful vehicle in which other medicines may be administered for the cure of diarrhoea or colic. Myrrh. — 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. Nitrous Ether, Spirit of. — A favourite medicine with may practition- ers in the advanced stages of fever. It is said to rouse, to a certain degree, the exhausted powers of the animal, while it rarely brings back the dan- gerous febrile action that was subsiding. It is not, however, a stimulant to which the author has often dared to have recourse, except in the advanced stages of epidemic catarrh, or the malignant epidemic. The dose should not exceed half an ounce. Nux Vomica. — This is not introduced from any experience which the author has had of its efficacy, but from the favourable opmion which some 586 CATTLE. continental veterinarians have expressed of it in the cure of palsy. 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 with 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 almost the only dependence is placed in locked jaw, A colic 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 in 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-hends often has an admirable effect when applied to iriitable 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 immediate 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, ap- plied immediately after it is made, forms an excellent application in cases of sprains, or where there is much superficial inflammation without any le- sion of the skin. Combined with antimonial powder, or emetic tartar and digitalis, 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 wounds, 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, poultices 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 lime. Rye, Ergot of. — The spurred rye has lately, and with considerable advantage, been introduced into veterinary practice in protracted or difficult parturition, in order to stimulate the uterus to renewed and increased ac- tion, when the labour pains appeared to be subsiding. For the testimony in favour of and against the ergot, the reader is referred to p. 535 of this work. Setons. — The use of setons in 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 neighbour- hood 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 irri- tation, they are useful both in acute and chronic inflammation of the respi- ratory organs. In young cattle rapidly thriving, and placed in pasture perhaps a litUe too luxuriant, permanent setons are highly beneficial. They act as a salutary drain, and prevent that accumulation of the circulating fluid, which is the usual cause of inflammatory fever and other fatal com- plaints. Sulphate of Soda, Glauber's Salt. — A very common purgative for cattle; and a very good one, but inconvenient on account of its requiring tliree times it^ weight of water in order to dissolve it, and also on account MEDICINES USED IN THE TREATMENT OF CATTLE. 587 of its so readily efflorescing when it is exposed to the atmosphere, and, in its state of efflorescence or powder, becoming more purgative than wlien in its crystalhne 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 litde dearer, dissolving in its own weight of water, and retaining the same form and the same purgative power under every state of the atmosphere or of expo- sure to it, is now rapidly superseding the Glauber's. Chloride of Sodium. Common Salt. — The 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, whetfier from the effect of the change of medicine, or of some chemical composi- tion 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 as 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, debilita- ted, listless, careless about or refusing its food, it sometime^ 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 of 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 generally untiirifty appearance, it is excellent combmed with ^thiop'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-esta- blish health. Gentian, calombo, and cascarilla, are the best, and almost the only safe tonics for catde. Turmeric, or coloured pea-flour, for it is seldom any thing 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 indispen- sable. Turpentine. — Several of the products of the fir tree are more or less useful in the medical treatment of catUe. Tar, spread upon coarse cloth, is the best covering for broken horns, and excludes both the fly and the atmospheric air. It is useful for the same purpose in cases of wounds puncturing the belly or chest. Alone, 588 CATTLE. or in combination with some greasy matter, is used to defend sore or diseased feet from becoming wet or bruised. Pitch is the principal ingredient in charges. Common Liquid Turpentine is useful as a digestive, or to produce a heahiiy appearance or action in wounds, and dispose them to heal. For this purpose it is added to the linseed poultice or to the simple ointment. Some practitioners administer it as a diuretic, and with good eflect. Oil, or Spirit of Turpentine, is applied as an external irritant, either alone, or in the form of a tincture of cantharides. It is administered in- ternally in colic; 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 cir- culation, 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 concomi- tant of which is the presence of thousands of worms in the air-passages. Reskn" is often used to give consistence to plasters, where the degree of irritation which it might produce is not regarded, or would be benefi- cial. Vinegar. — This used to be considered almost a specific in distention of the rumen with gas, but on what principle it would be diflficult to ex- plain. 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 medi- cines. 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.' It 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 re- mains. It is particularly useful after inflammation of the haw of the eye. Some administer it in red-water, and others in dysentery, very improperly. As a general canstic it is superseded by many others. Li'brary N. C. State College INDEX Aberdeenshire cattle, description of the, 103, 106. Aberdeenshire cattle, origin of the present breed of, 105. Aberdeenshire polled cattle, account of the, 106. Abomasum, the internal structure of, 423. 424, 426, 428. Abomasum, diseases of the, 455. Abortion, the symptoms of, 527. Abortion, the usual causes of, 530. Abortion, precautions to prevent 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. Age, as indicated by the horns, 279. Age as indicated by the teeth, 318. Age, the proper, for breeding, 526. Alderney cattle, account of them, 267. Allinson, Mr., his favourable opinion of the action of ergot of rye, 535. Althorp, Lord, description of his bull Firby, 241, 368, 371. Althorp, Lord, cuts and description of his cow and heifer, 236, 237. Aloes, not a good purgative for cattle, 578. Alteratives, their nature, and the best com- position of them, 578. Alum, the medicinal properties of, 579. Ammonia, the medicinal properties of, 579. Anglesey may be considered as the native country of the Welsh cattle, 59. Anglesey cattle, description of, 61. Anglesey cattle, comparison between them and the Scotch, 61. Angus cattle, ^description of the horned breed of, 113, 114. Angus farmers, a curious description of them in 1760 and 1790—113. Angus polled cattle, 166. Angus polled cattle, difference between them and the Galloways, 167, 169. Angus polled cattle, Mr. Watson's breed, a very superior one, 167. Angus polled cattle, curious anecdote re- specting them, 171. Antimony, the medicinal properties of, 579. Antrim, 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. Argyleshire sheep-husbandry, first intro- duced by John Campbell, 78. Argyleshire, North, description of the cat- tle, and their management, 78, 79. Argyleshire, South, the cattle of, 80. 51 Arran, the great improvement effected there by the Duke of Hamilton, 74, Arran, description of the cattle, 75. Arteries, their structure and functions, 353. Arteries, the smallness of, in the ox, com- pared with the veins, 346. Assynt, 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. Ayrshire cow, origin of, 128, 130. Ayrshire cow, the present, 131. Ayrshire cow, compared with the Alder- nej', Holderness, and Devon, 132. Ayrshire cow, the quantity of her milk, and the quantity of butter, 131, 132. Backlev, tlie African, interesting descrip- tion of, 5. Badsworth, Mr. Milton's old bull, descrip- tion of, 250 Bagot, Lord, a patron of the Staffordshire long horns, 223. Bakewell, Mr., the great improver of the long horns, 190. Bakewell, Mr., his supposed principles, as stated by Mr. Marshall, 191. Bakewell, Mr., description of his cattle, 192. Bakewell, Mr., his benevolent cliaracter, ib. Bakewell, Mr., the practice of letting bulle originated with him, 195. Banff cows, the superiority of, 101. Barbs in the moutli, treatment of, 337. Bars of the mouth, description of, ih. Bedford, Francis, Duke of, used to be a zealous breeder of Devon cattle, 21. Bedford, the Herefordshire cattle of the pre- sent Duke of, 211. Bedfordshire, the breeds of cattle in, 210. Belfast, tlie present state of cattle, 186. Berkeley, the vale of, history of the manu- factory of cheese in, 37. Berkshire cattle, account of, 214. Berr}', the Rev. H., his admirable account of the short horns, 226. Berry, the Rev. H., extracts from his Prize Essay on Breeding, 522, 525, 526. Berwickshire, the cradle of Scottish agri- culture, 150. Berwickshire, turnips introduced there in 1755, 150. Berwickshire, the rapid progress of agri- culture after that, 151. Bile, the composition and uses of, 459, 469. Black water, the nature and treatment of, 356. Black wafer, the treatment of, 512. Bladder, inversion of the, 521. Bladder, protrusion of, treatment of, 543. 590 INDEX. Bladder, on rupture of the, 520. Bladder, stone in the, symptoms and treat- ment of, 518. Bliiin.the symptoms and treatment of, 326. Blain, contag^ious, 328. Blain, sometimes epidemic, 327. Bleeding-, tlie rule by which it should be guided, 348. Bleeding, places, the preferable, ib. Blisters, the difficulty of raising them in cattle, 401. Blood, determination of to the brain, 294. Blown — See 'Hoove.' Bloxedgc, the sire of the long-horns, an account of him, 190. Bolinbroke, 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. Boj-ening, description of, 132. Brahmin cattle, an account of the, 269. Brain, description of the, 285. Brain, determination of blood to, 294. Brain, inflammation of the, 269. Brain, hydatids in the, 294. Breast, the projecting and wide, advantage of, 14, 368. Breast bone, description of the, 369. Brecknockshire cattle, description of, 58. Breeding, the principles of, 191, 522. Breeding, the grand principle of it, that like produces like, 522. Breeding, comparative influence of the sire and dam in, 523. Breeding in and in, 525. Breeding, the value of good keep in, ib. Breeding, tiie proper age for, 526. Bridgewater cheese, account of, 30. Brisket, description of the, 370. Brisket, remarkable deepness of, in some cattle, ib. British cattle, early history of, 4. British cattle, the original were probably middle-horned, 9. Bronchitis, nature and treatment of, 397. Bronchitis, the air-passages tilled with worms in, 398. Buchan cattle, description of the, 107. Buelian cattle, calculation of the value of their produce, 109. Buckinghamshire cattle, description of 214. Buff'alo cattle, an account of, 269. Bute, description of the cattle of, and their management, 77. Butter, experiments to ascertain the various quantities of, from different breeds, 245. Butter, extraordinary quantity of, yielded by a Sussex cow, 45. Cecum, description of the, 467, 469. Caesarian operation, description of, and when justifiable, 539. Caithness, description of the old cattle, 87. Caitlmess, the improvement effected there by Sir John Sinclair, 88. Caitlmess, present state of the cattle of, ib. Caithness, markets and trysts of, 89. Calamine, the basis of the best healing ointnjcnt, 588. Calculi in the rumen of cattle, 435, 496. Calculi in the kidney, composition, symp- toms, and treatment of, 516. Calculi, urinar}% ditto, ib.^ Caledonian dairy, account of the, 146. Calombo, a useful tonic, 579. Calomel, the cases in which it should be used, 585. Calves, diseases and management of, 557. Calving, the treatment of the cow before it, 533. Calving, natural, the treatment of, 535. Calving, the power of ergot of rye in ex- citing the labour pains, ib. Calving, the man-igement of unnatural pre- sentations, 536. Calving, when the calf should be cut away, and description of the operation, 540. Calving, on retention of the foetus, 543. Calving, attention to the cow after it, 544. Cambridgeshire, the breeds of cattle in, 209. Cambridgeshire, butter, account of, ib. Camphor, its medicinal properties, 580. Cancer of the eye, treatment of, 293. Cantharidcs, 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, ih. Carmarthenshire, description of the differ- ent breeds of the vale districts, ib. Carnarvonshire cattle, a smaller and infe- rior variety of the Angleseys, 62. Carotid artery, description of the, 335, 346. Carraway, a useful aromatic, 580. Castor oil, the use of it as a medicine, ib. Castration of calves, the various methods of, 560. Castration will often remove rupture in the calf; 502. Cataract, treatment of, 293. Catarrh, nature and treatment of, 376. Catarrh, the necessity of attention to it on its first appearance, 377. Catarrh, epidemic, symptoms of, ib. Catechu, its useful astringent properties, 580 Cattle, British, the number slaughtered yearly, 1. Cattle, British, the aggregate value of, ib. Cattle, British, average mortality of, ib. Cattle, the diseases of, too much neglected by all veterinary v.'riters, ib. Cattle, ditto, in tlie principal English vete- rinary school, 394. Cattle, the state of in the middle ages, 7. Cattle, the average weight of, in 1710 and 1830, 257. Cattle, the proper points of, generally, 12, Cattle, the intelligence of, 285. Cattle, wild, account of, 7. Cattle, dealing system of, in the South of Scotland, 138, 162. Caustics, those used in cattle practice, 580. Cavan, the principal improvers of the breed of cattle in, 182. INDEX. 591 Chalk, its utility in the treatment of dy- sentery and diarrhoea, 485, 584. Chamomile, its tonic properties, 580. Charge, Mr., an account of his fat seven- year-old ox, 235. CJiarges, the use of, and the method of ap- plying, 580. Cheese, Cheddar, an account of, 30. Cheese, Cheshire, an account of, 207. Cheese, Gloucester, history of the manu- facture of, 38. Cheese, Gloucester, single and double, the ditference between, ib. Cheese, North Wiltshire, account of, 218. Cheshire cattle, account of the, 205. Cheshire cattle, the short-horns, introduced with doubtful advantage, 2i)6. Chest, the advantage of a capacious one in cattle, 12. Chest, the proper form of, 367. Chloride of lime, the value of, 584, 443. Chlorine gas, might it destroy worms in the bronchial tubes ? 39!). Choking in cuttle, treatment of, 415, 418. Chyle, its nature and formation, 4G8. Clackmannan, account of the cattle of, 121. Clare, the principal improvers of the breed of cattle in, 183. Cleansing. — See Placenta. Cleansing drink, the best, 545. Cleveland, character of the cattle in, 249. Clouted cream, description of, 23. Clue-bound, treatment of, 441), 451. Clydesdale. — See Lanarkshire. Clysters, the benefit of, 580. Coates, Mr. G., the author of the ' Short- Horned Herd Book,' 234. Colic, flatulent, its symptoms, nature, and treatment, 488. Colic, spasmodic, its symptoms, nature, and treatment, 48U. Colic, spasmodic, too often leads on to strangulation of the intestines, ib. Colling, .Mr. Charles, at the very head of the improvers of the short-horns, 228. Colling, Mr. Charles, supposed principally to aim at their improvement by reducing the size of the breed, ib. Colling, Mr. Charles, an account of the cross of his cattle with the Galloway, 230. Colling, Mr. Charles, a detailed account of his sale of the improved short-horns, 231. Colling, Robert, a successful improver of the short-horns, 233. Colling, Robert, the sale of his stock, ib. Colon, description of the, 467, 470. Colours, the prevailing ones of cattle, 242. Constipation, the treatment of, 495, 558. Consumption, nature and treatment, 409. Consumption, the peculiar cough of, 411. Consumption, delusive character and pro- gress of, 412. Copper, the compounds of, used in cattle practice, 581. Cordials, the use and abuse of, ib. Cords, the nature and treatment of, 490. Cork-screw probang, description of the, 419. Cornish cattle, description of the native, 24. Cornwall, a sketch of its agriculture and commerce, 24. Cornwall, management of dairy cows in, 25. Cornwall, method of rearing calves in, ib. Corrosive sublimate, its use in cattle prac- tice, 581. Corrosive sublimate, the treatment of poi- soning by, 448. Coryza, the nature and treatment of, 312. Corstorphine cream, account of the, 146. Cottar, the Scotch, descriptiou of the, 112. Cows, Swiss, their vanity, 6. Cows, poetical description of, 245. Cows' commons, description of the, 219. Cow-club, an account of the, 251. Cow-pox, distinction between the true and the false, 545. Cow-pox, history of its establishment as a preventive against small-pox, 555. Cow-pox has not its origin in the grease of horses, ib. Cow-pox no preventive against the distem- per in dogs, 556. Cow-pox no preventive against rabies, 557. Cow-quake, 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 treat- ment of, 563. Cromarty, general history of, 95, Croton, a powerful purgative, 581. Cruelty to cattle in Smithfield, 259. Cud, loss of the, treatment of, 445. Cumberland, the native breed of, was long- horned, 247. Cumberland, history of the establishment of the short-horns there, ib. D, Mr. Bakewell's bull, account of, 193, 198. Dairy cows, the number of, kept in Lon- don, 255. Dairy cows, the kind of, preferred, 261. Dairy, the system of management, ffe., 265. Denbighshire, the cattle of, 03. Derbyshire cattle, account of, 204. Derbyshire cattle, crosses with, ib., 224. Devonshire cattle, 23. Devonshire cattle, general experience is against them for the dairy, 20. Devonshire ox, his activity his most valu- able quality, 18. Devonshire ox, his qualities for .-razing, 19. Devonshire ox, trial of his fattening pro- perties with different breeds, 19, 31, 41. Devon, South, the cattle of, 22, 23. Devon, South, comparison between them and the North Devons, 22. Devon nats, account of the, 179. Diaphragm, rupture of the, 503, Diarrhoea, acute, the nature and treatment of, 475. Diarrhoea, distinction between it and dy scntery, ib. Diarrhoea, chronic, the nature and treat- ment of, 476, 592 INDEX, Diarrljoea in calves, nature and treatment of, 559 Digitalis, its mcdieinal properties, 582. Distention of the rumen by food, nature and treatment of, 435, Distention of the rumen by gas, nature and treatment of, 438. Doncastcr Agricultural Society, account of the, 251. Donegal, tlie cattle of, 184. Dorset ox, description of the, 2(5. Dorset ox, crossed with the Devon and Durham advantageously, ih. Dropsy, general remarks on the causes and treatment of, 497. Drying a cow, the proper period for, 534. Dumbartonshire, tlie cattle of, 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. Duodenum, inflammation of the, 487. Durham ox, an account of the, 229. Dysentery, causes and symptoms of, 477. Dysentery, appearances of, alter death, 478. Dysentery is inflammation of the mucous membrane of tlie large intestines, 480. Dysentery, treatment of it, 481. Dysentery, the value of the chloride of lime in the treatment of it, 484. Ear, description of the, 287. Ear, the form and shape of, connected with the beauty of the animal, ib. Ear, the diseases of the, 288. Earth, the eating of it, prevents .the fer- mentation of the food, 317. Earth, the quantity of, eaten daily by the Kintore ox, 104. East Indian cattle, an account of the, 268. East Lotliian, the breeds of cattle of^ 148. East Lothian, the short-horns introduced by Mr. .John Rennic, ih. 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- scriptior. of the operation, 540. Emetic, tartar, the use of, 579. Enteritis, symptoms of, 472. Enteritis, appearances after death, 473, Enteritis, 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. Epsom salt, the best purgative, 585. Ergot of rye, its power in stimulating the womb to action, 535. Essays on red-water, 511. Essex has no distinguishing breed of cat- tle, 253. Essex, management of calves in, 254. Essex marshes, the principal mode of feed- ing on, ib, Exeter, description of the vale of, 23. Eye, general description of the, 288. Eye, inflammation of the, the nature and treatment of, 292. Eye, worm in the, treatment of, 293. Eye, wounds of the, management of, 289. Eyelids, description of the, 290. Eyelids, diseases of the, ib. Farcy in cattle, supposed causes o^ 313. Fardel-bound, description of it, 449. Fardel-bound, several cases of, 451. Falkirk, account of the tryst at, 120. Feet, the, descri])tion of, 272. Feet, diseases of tlic, 565. Ferrying cattle, the method of, from the Scottish islands to the mainland, 81. Ferocity, occasional, in cattle, 296. Fever, intermittent, its symptoms and treat- ment, 355. Fever, pure or idiopathic, does often e.xist in cattle, 354. Fever, pure or idiopathic, its symptoms and treatment, ih. Fever, symptomatic, frequent and danger- ous, 355. Fever, inflammatory, its nature and treat- ment, ih. Fever, typhus, its nature and treatment, 363. Fife cattle, description of the old breed, 115. Fi fe cattle crossed with the short-horns, 116. Fife, many of the Durlianis have now es- tablished tlicmselves there, 117. Fife bull, admeasurement of one, i6. Fife cattle, the mingling with the native breed the origin of the Abcrdeens, 105. Findlater, Lord, account of his improve- ments in Banff, 101. Firby, description of Lord Althorp's bull, 241, 368, 371. Firing, an advantageous mode of, for some bony tumours, 289. Fits, tiic treatment of, 300. Fitzvvilliam, Earl of, an account 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 clianges in the stomachs, 429. Food, how conveyed into the reticulum, 430. Food, the diflfercnce in the quantity of, very trifling in animals of diftcrent sizes, but of the same breed, 246. Forehead of a bull, the, should be short and broad, 274. Forehead of Firby, description of the, ib. J'orelieadof the Devon, description of, 14. Forehead of the Nortii Highlanders, do., 97. Forehead of tiie old Banft; do., lOL INDEX. 593 Foul In the foot, description of, 565. Foul in the foot, most prevalent in low, marshy countries, 5Gi). Foul in the foot, mode of treatment of, ib. Foul in the foot, probable advantages of neurotomy in, 568. Fowler, Mr., an improver of the long-horns, 193,219. Fowler, Mr., account of the sale of his stock, 194. Free martens, usually barren, 538. Free martens, dissection of three, ib. Free martens, 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. Frontal sinuses, use of the, 275, 276. Frontal sinuses, intlanimation of the, na- ture and treatment of, 275. Frontal sinuses, worms in the, 276. Galla oxen, the enormous horns of, 382. Gall-bladder, the structure and use of, 459. Gall-stones, their composition, 462. Gall-stones, frequent cause of jaundice, 463. Galloway, the greater part of the cattle were horned at the middle of the last century, 154. Galloway, the present breed of, 156. Galloway bull, a perfect one seldom found, 161. Galloway cows not good milkers, ib. Galloway cows occasionally have horns, 282. Galloway farmers, description of, 163. Galloways, Mr. CuUey's description of, 157. Gangrenous inflammation of the lungs, symptoms and treatment of, 402. Garget, t!ie cause of, 552. Garget, the efficacy of iodine in, 553, 55"!. Garget, the state of the veins of the udder in, 367. Gas, tlie kind of, extricated in hoove, 443. Gavcl-kind, its impediment to the improve- ment of agriculture, 162. Gentian, the best tonic, 582. Ginger, the best aromatic, ib. Girth, the, of cattle, should be both deep and wide, 12. Glamorganshire cattle, early history of, 50. Glamorganshire cattle, deteriorated when they were neglected for the growth of corn, 51. Glamorganshire cattle, again gradually improving, ib. Glamorganshire hill cattle, description of them, 55. Glanders in cattle on, 313. Glauber's salt, inferior to the Epsom, 586. Gloss-anthrax, the symptoms and treatment of, 326. Gloucestershire cattle, description of the old breed of, 35. Gloucestershire cattle, history of the pre- sent breed in the hilly country, ib. Gloucestershire cheese, the good quality of it depends more upon the pasture than the breed of cows, 38. Gloucestershire cheese, single and doub'.?, the ditference between, 38. Grains, the best method of keeping them, on a large scale, for dairy cows, 255, 264. Grainsick, the treatment of, 435. Grainsick, part of the food discharged by vomiting, 437. Gutta Serena, cause and treatment of, 293. Gut-tie, the nature and treatment of, 490. Haddington. — See East 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, 215. Haunch, description of the, 272. Haw, description of the, 290. Haw, inflammation of the, ib. Haw, method of extirpating the, 291. Head, section of the, 273. Healing power in animals, illustrations of the, 501. Heart, description of the, 349. Heart, theory of its action, 351. Heart, the muscular columns and tendi- nous cords of it stronger in the ox than the horse, 351. Heart, a muscle running across the right ventricle, peculiar to the ox, 352. Heart, description of the bone of it, 353. Hebrides, history and description of the, 65. Hebrides, the inner, the number and value of the cattle, 67. Hebrides history, disgraceful management of cattle formerly, ib. Hebrides, accoun.ls of the misery of the cattle and the cottagers in the winter, 68. Hebrides, reasons of this strange misma- nagement, ib. Hebrides, present management, 69. Hebrides, no crosses with any other breed has succeeded in these islands, ib. Hebrides, management of the dairy in them, 71. Hebrides, 20,000 cattle annually exported from them, ib. Hebrides, the outer, description of the cat- tle of, ib. Hebrides, mode of treatment, 72. Hellebore, black, makes the best scton, 300, 583. Hemlock, the treatment of poisoning by, 446. Hemorrhage from the nose, on, 311. Ilemorriiage after parturition, the treat- ment of, 545. Herd-book, the short-horned, compiled by Mr. a. Coates, 234. Herefordshire cattle, description of the, 31. Herefordshire cattle, comparison between them and the Devons, 19, 31, 32. Herefordshire cattle, their propensity to fatten, 31. Herefordshire cattle, comparison between the old and new breed, ib. Herefordshire cattle, have been crossed with advantage by the Devons, 32. 594 INDEX. Herefordshire cattle, Mr. CuUey's errone- ous opinion of, ib. Herefordshire cow, inferior in shape to the ox, ib. Herefordshire cow, not good for the dairy, 35. Hernia, the nature and treatment of, 500. Hernia in calves, management of, 501. Hide of cattle, should be thin, mellow, and not too lean, 13. Hidebound, the treatment of, 570. Higjilanders, comparison between thera and the Welsh cattle, 61. Hips, the, of cattle should be large and round, 12. Hiring husbandry-horses, the old system of, in Ayrshire, 138. Hock, description of the, 272. Holderness cattle, the old, 248. Holderness cattle, their improvement, ib. Holmes, the, among the Shetland islands, description of the, 85. Homer, his account of murrain, 581. Honeycomb. — See Reticulum. Hooped form of the barrel, in cattle, im- portance of, 12. Horns, description of the, 272. Horns are elongations of, and hollowed like, the frontal bones, 278. Horns, the different breeds of cattle dis- tinguished by, 9, 281. Horns, description of, in foreign cattle, 282. Horns, beautiful ones, manufactured, 281. Horns, the influence of sex on the, 282. Horns, as connected with the age of the beast, 279. Horns, the uses of, 283. Horns, the danger of cutting them, 276. Horns, fracture of tlicm, how treated, 278. Horns, the degree of fever, how estimated by means of tliem, 280. Horns, 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. Hoose, in calves, the treatment of, 559. Hoove, the cause of, 436. Hoove, symptoms and treatment. of, 438. Hoove, medicines administered in, do not enter the stomach, 440. Hoove, objections to puncturing the rumen in, ib. Hoove, danger of a large incision, 441. Hoove, when the rumen is punctured, it sliould be with a trocar and canula, ib. Hoove, the use of the probang, or stomach- pump, recommended, 442. Hoove, the nature of the gas which is ex- tricated in, 443. Hoove, the treatment of when the gas has escaped, 444. Hoove, a singular case of, ib. Howell the Good, his laws respecting cat- tle, 61. Howick red ox, an account of, 535. Hubback, the iiither of the improved short* horns, account of iiim, 229. Humblc-covvs, Dr. Johnson's curious deri« vation of the word, 150. Huntingdonsiiirc, breeds of cattle in, 209. Hydatids in the brain, symptoms and treat- ment of, 294. Hydatids, numerous, found in the liver of a cow, 460. Hydrocephalus, treatment of, 295. Ileum, description of the, 407, 4G7. In-and-in, the principle of breeding adopted by Bakewell, 192. In-and-in, 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. Inflammatory fever, treatment of, 357, 359. Intelligence of cattle, the comparative de- gree of, 286. Intestines, description of the, 467. Intestines, the diseases of the, 471. Intestines, inflammation of the external coat of the. — See Enteritis. Intestines, inflammation of the mucous coat of. — See Diarrhoea and Dysentery. Inverness, description of the cattle of, 81. Inversion of the rectum; 494. Inversion of the womb, 544. Iodine, the admirable use of, 583. Ireland, the establishment of the short- horns in, 183. Irish butter, account of, 188. Irish cattle, the middle horns an aboriginal breed, 179. Irish cattle, long-horns, probably derived from Lancashire, 182. Irish cattle, long-horns, two diSerent kinds of, 183. Irish cattle, numbers of, imported into England, 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 tlie cow-pox, 556. Joint murrain, its treatment, 356. Joints opened, the treatment of, 564. Joints, 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, 335. Kent, description of the various breeds in, 46. Kerry, the cow of, description of, 179. Kidneys, anatomical structure of the, 503. Kidneys, inflammation of the, causes, symptoms, and treatment of, 514. Kidneys, calculi in, symptoms and treat- ment of, 516. INDEX. 595 Kincardineshire. — Sec Mcarns. Kinross, account of the cattle of, 121. Kintail, account of the cattle in, 96. Kintore o.x, description of the, 103. Knee, description of the, 272. Kyle Rhea, description of the ferry of, 81. Kyloe, origin of the term, 66. Lanarkshire cattle, account of the breeds of, 13y. Lancashire, the various breeds of, 200. Lancashire, many short-horn breeders in the central districts, 201. Lancashire, the long-horn breed has gra- ' dually declined in value there, ib. Lancashire, fruitless experiments to restore them, 203. Laryngites, the treatment of, 395. Lay cock, Mr., an account of his dairy, 262, 263. Lead, the usual preparations of, 583. Legs, tlie, of cattle should be short, 12. Leicestershire, account of the cattle in, 208. Leicester new breed, inquiry into the value of, 196. Leicester new breed, improved the whole breed of long-horns, 198. liciccstcr new breed, superseded by the short-horns, 199. Leprosy, the nature and treatment of, 572. Letting bulls, the system originated with Mr. Bakewell, 195. Letting bulls, the advantages and disad- vantages of the system, ib. Lice, how produced, and the method of destroying them, 573. Like produces like, the grand principle of breeding, 522. Lime, the chloride of, an excellent disin- fectant, 361. Lincolnshire cattle, description of, 242, 251. Lincolnshire, an account of the Turnhill cattle, 252. Linlithgov/shire. — See West Lothian. Linseed, experiments on its fattening pro- perties, 213. Linseed meal, excellent for poultices, 584, Linseed oil, a good purgative, ib. Lip, upper, the use of the numerous glands in, 316. Lips, description and use of, 315. Liquids, the circumstances under which they enter the rumen, 432. Liver, the structure and functions of, 458. Liver, on inflammation of the, 459. Liver, a case of enormous enlargement and of disease, 460. Liver, tiie difficulty of detecting chronic inflammation of, 461. Liver, on hemorrhage from it, 461. Liver, a case of abscess in, 460. Lochabar, description of the cattle of, 81. Long-horns, the, appear to have originated in Craven, 188. Long-horns, two distinct breeds of, the smaller and the larger, 189. Long-horns, Mr. Culley's account of the old, 189. Long-horns, the, history of the improve- ment of, 190. Loss of cud, nature and treatment of, 445. Loss of cud, more a symptom of disease than a separate disease, ib. Lungs, the, their structure, 375, 400. Lungs, inflammation of, symptoms and treatment of, 400. Lungs, inflammation of, acute and epide- mic, its occasional devastations, 401, 403. Madness, causes and treatment of, 306. Mandana ox, account of its docility, 5, ► 315. Mange, the nature and treatment of, 571. Manyplus, internal construction of the, 423, 424, 426, 428, 449. Manyplus, the manner in which it reduces the food to a pulpy mass, 433. Manyplus, the diseases of, 449, 451. Manyplus, the occasional strangely hard- ened 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, 535. Merionethshire, an inferior variety of the Angleseys in the hill district, 62. Merionethshire, description of the better breeds of the vale, 61. Mesenteric glands, their structure and use, 471. Mesenteric glands, 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. Milk, the average quantity of, yielded by the Yorkshire cow, 245. Milk fever, its nature and treatment, 546. Milk fever, the importance of purffing in, 548,550. P S g . Milk trade, the, in London, 261. Milk vein, description of the, 340, Milk vein, importance of a large one, 244. Montgomery cattle, small in the hill dis- trict, 63. Montgomery cattle, 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. Murrain, accounts of its early appearance in Europe, 383. Murrain, spreads in England, 386. Murrain.contagious as well as epideraic,388. 596 INDEX. Murrain, experiments on inoculation with its virus, 38D. Murrain, its devastations led to the founda- tion of veterinary scliools, 393. Nairn, description of the cattle of, 99. Nagore cattle, an account of, 269. Navel-ill, tlie nature and treatment of, 5.57. Neck of cattle, description of, 332, 338, 340, 343, 345. Neck of cattle, comparison between it and that of the horse, 343. Nerves of the leg-, cuts of, 305. Net or knot, the nature and treatment of,* 4S9. Neurotomy might be practised on cattle, 303. Neurotomy, the probable advantage of it in foul in the foot, 568. Neurotomy, description ofthe operation,304. Neurotomy, cuts illustrative of, 305. Nitre, its value in cattle practice, 586. Nitrous etlicr, spirit of it, when useful, 585. Norfolk, the native cattle of, 171. Norfolk polled cattle, their origin, ib. Norfolk Galloway Scots, principally grazed there, 172. Norfolk, its supply of fat cattle for the Smithfield market, 258. Northamptonshire, breeds of cattle in, 209. Northamptonshire, its supply of fat cattle for the Smithfield market, ib. North Uist, the island of, comparison of breeding and grazing there, 70. Nose, bleeding from the, 311. Nose, leeches in the, ib. Nose, polypus in the, ib. Nose, its membrane, inflammation of, 312. CEsoPHAGEAN Canal, cuts of it, 423, 424. (Esophagus, the structure of, 414, 426. Oesophagus, obstruction in the, treatment of, 415. CEsophagus, the manner of opening in choking, 420. ffisophagus, rupture of the, 421. ffisophagus, stricture ofthe, ib. (Estrus bovis, the history of its several states, 574. Opened joints, the treatment of, 561. Ophthalmia, its nature and treatment, 292. Opium, the best anodyne, antispasmodic and astringent, 585. Orkney Islands, the cattle of, and tlieir treatment, 86. Ox, zoological description of, 2. Ox, the degree of intelligence which he Ox, British, early history of, ib. Ox, African, docility of, 4, 5. Oxfordshire, description of the cattle of, 214. Pad on the upper jaw, description and use ofthe, 317. Palsy, causes and treatment of, 301, 303. Pancreas, the structure, functions, and diseases of, 466. Pantas, the nature and treatment of, 474. Papillas ofthe rumen, description of them, and of their uses, 430. Paps in the mouth, treatment of, 337. Parotid glands, inflammation ofthe, symp- toms and treatment of, 335. Parturition. — See Calving. Paunch. — See Rumen. Pembrokeshire cattle, description of, 48. Pericardium, inflammation ofthe, 350. Pericardium, the, often penetrated by sharp substances that have been taken into the rumen, ib. Perthshire, an account ofthe various breeds of cattle in, 118. Pharyno-itcs, the symptoms and treatment of, 3J4, 395. Pharynx, description of the, 337. Pharynx, inflammation of the, 394, 395. Pharynx, the mode of puncturing it in ab- scess situated there, 396. Phrenzy, symptoms and treatment of, 296. Phthisis. — See Consumption. Placenta, the retention of it, in abortion, 532. Placenta, the, should be discharged soon after calving, 545. Placenta, method of separating it from the womb, ib. Pleurisy, its symptoms and treatment, 405. Pleurisy, chronic, symptoms and treatment of, 407. Pleuro-pneumonia, interesting account of it, ib. Pneumonia, the symptoms and treatment of, 400. Pneumonia, acute and ep'idemic, 401. Points of cattle, a description of the prin- cipal, 12. Poisons, a list ofthe various, and the mode of treating them, 445. Polled cattle, an account ofthe, 154. Polled and horned cattle, a comparison be- tween them, 283. Polypus in the nose, on, 311. Poultices, when useful, 586. Probang, the use of, in hoove, recom- mended, 442. Pregnancy, the usual period of, 527. Pregnancy, symptoms of, 533. Presentation, natural, the management o£, 534. Presentation, 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 ofthe, 353. Pulse, importance of attention to the, ib. Purgatives, the usual beastly method of administering them, 330. Purging cattle, the occasional difficulty of, accounted for, 431, 496. Purging cattle, the method of proceeding when this occurs, ib. Quarters, importance of their being long and full, 15. INDEX. 597 Quarter-evil, its nature and treatment, 356. Quarter-evil, a peculiar kind of, iu the North Riding of Yorksiiirc, 3G2. Queen of Scots, Mr. Mure's beautiful heifer, a description of her, 166. Rabies, the causes and symptoms of, 306. Radnorshire cattle, much crossed with the Hereford^, and a valuable breed, 58. Rectum, description of the, 467, 470. Rectum, the treatment of inversion of, 494. Red-water, the nature and causes of, 504. Red-water has more to do with the diges- tive organs and the food than any other cause, 505. Red-water is most frequent in low marshy woody countries, ib. Red-water, acute, the nature and treatment of, 506, 507. Red-water, tlie importance of bleeding and purging in, ib., 510. Red-water, clironic, the nature and treat- ment of, 508, 509. Red-water, the prize essays on it in the ' Quarterly Journal of Agriculture,' 511. Renfrewshire, the old breed there super- seded by the Ayrshire, 125. Reticulum, the interior construction of it, 4-24, 426, 427. Reticulum, the action of it in the return of the food to the stomach, 424, 430. Reticulum, the diseases of the, 448. • Rheumatism, the cause and treatment of, 561. Rliodes, Messrs., an account of their dairy, 262, 263. Ribs, the number and proper form of, 367. Ribbed home, the importance of being, 12. Riding oxen in Mandara, an account of the, 5, 315. Rings, the, on the horn, as indicating the age, 279. Rings, the, on the horn, as indicating the age, uncertiiinty of, 80- Ross, description of the cattle in, 96, 97.' Ross, the different crosses of cattle in, 97. Ross, the cattle generally more adapted for grazing than the dairy, 98. Ross, average produce of the cows, ib. Rottenness. — See Dysentery. Rumen, the, viewed externally, 422, 423. Rumen, the, viewed internally, 424, 426. Rumen, general description of it, 425, 427. Rumen, description of its papillae, and their uses, 429. Rumen, the fluid swallowed sometimes enters it, 431, 496. Rumen, this accounts for the occasional difficulty of purging cattle, ib. Rumen, an account of the diseases of it, 433. Rumen, the strange substances often found in it, ib. Rumen, calculi in the, symptoms of, 434. Rumen, calculi in, tlie effect of, 435. Rumen, distention of it by food, the symp- toms, and treatment of, 435, 436. Rumen, distention of it by gas, 438. Rmncn, inflammation of the, 436. Rumination, description of it, 432. Rupture of the parietes of the abdomen. — See Hernia. Rupture of the bladder, symptoms of, 520. Rupture of the oesophagus, treatment of, 421. Rupture of the womb, treatment of, 542. Rutlandshire has no peculiar breed, 208. Rye, ergot of, its use in parturition, 586. Salivary glands, description of the, 332. Salt, its use in food as a medicine, 556. Sapped. — See Constipation. Saplicna vein, the, when it should be' opened, 348. Scotch cattle, description of their journey to tlie south, 122. Scott, Sir Robert, first introduced turnips into Kincardineshire, 112. Selkirkshire, the original breed of cattle in, 153. Septum, the nasal, why not perfect in the ox, 309. Setons, their occasional use, 586. Shealings, description of the, 72, 81. Shcalings, Mr. M'Lean's admirable re- marks on them, 82. Sheep imsbandry compared with that of cattle, unanswerable defence of, 117. Sheeted ox, description of it, 28. Shetland Islands, general description of them, 84. Shetland Islands, description of the cattle there, 85. Shetland Islands, 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-horns, the, liistory of, 226. Short-horns supposed to be originally im- ported from the Continent, ib. Short-horns, description of the old unim- proved ones, 227. Short-horns, the commencement of their improvement, ib. Short-horns, the mode in which their im- provement was effected, 228. Short-horns, tlieir excellence consists in a combination of qualities before believed to be incompatible, 226. Short-horns, the question of their capacity for work, 241. Sliort-horns, their early maturity should preclude their being put to work, ib. Sliort-Iiorns, the prevailing colours of, 242. Sliort-horned bulls, the advantage of cross- ing different breeds with them, 240. Short-horned cow, her milking qualities much improved latelj^, 246. Short-horned, an account of the cross be- tween it and the Kyloe, 247. Short-sigiited, many cattle appear to be, 392. Shoulders, a slanting direction of them, the importance of, 14. Shropshire cattle, the old, 225. 598 INDEX. Shropsliire cattle, the cross between them and tlic Holdcrness, 225. Shropshire, the Ilcrefords prevail througli the whole of the county, ih. Silver, nitrate of, its use as a caustic, 587. Sinclair, Sir John, the great improver of cattle in Caithness, 88.- Skelcton of the ox, cut of the, 272. 3kibo, descrii)tion of the small breed of catlle go called, 94. Skin, the cause and importance of its soft mellow feelingf, 570. Skin, diseases of the, ib. Skull, cavity of the, cut of, 273. Skull, fracture of the, treatment of, 293. Skull, fracture of, almost invariably fatal, ib. Slinking. — See Abortion. Smelling, on the sense of, 309. Smithfield, the average number of cattle and sheep annually sold there, 256. Smithfield, the yearly numbers of cattle sold tiiere from 1732 to 183U, ib. Smithfield, parts of the kingdom by which it is supplied at different periods of the year, 258. Smithfield, the mode of sale there, ib. Smithfield, cruelties practised there, ib. Snajte, a, in the gullet of a cow, the cause of hoove, 444. Soft palate, description of the, 337. Somerset, Mid., description of the cattle, 28. Somerset, North, ditto, ib. Somerset, West, ditto, ib. Somerset, principally devoted to grazing, 29. Sore teats, treatment of, 552. Sore 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. Spleen, hemorrhage from the, 458. Sprain in the leg and foot, symptoms and treatment of, 564, 565. Staffordshire, the old cattle of, 222. Staffordshire, history of the improvement of the cattle, ib. Staffordshire, description of the present long-horns, 223. Staffordshire, a cross between them and the Derbyshire cattle, 224. Staking, several cases of, 451. Sternum, description of the, 367. Sternum, the width of the, sometimes com- pensates for flatness of the sides, 371. Stimulants, the propriety of administering, when it is difficult to i)urge 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. Stone in the kidneys, ditto and ditto, 516. Stone in the ureters, ditto and ditto, 51 7. Stone in the urethra, ditto and ditto, 519. St. Pancras, the establishment of a veteri- nary school at, 394. Strangulation of the intestines, symptoms and treatment of, 489. Strangullion, description of it, 336. Strathaven, the management of calves there, 140. Strathaven, the cruelty sometimes practised, 141. Strathaven, 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. Subcutaneous abdominal vein, the anatomy of it, 349. Sublingual glands, description of the, 337. Submaxillary vein, description of the, 335. Submaxillary artery, ditto, ib. Suffolk cattle, were originally duns, 174. Suffolk cattle, description of the, ib. Suffolk cattle, milking properties of, 175. Suffolk cattle, 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. Sussex oxen, resemblance and difference between them and the Devons, ib. Sussex oxen, ditto, Hcrefords, 41. Sussex oxen, their working qualities con- sidered, 42. Sussex oxen, curious instance of the speed of one, 43. Sussex oxen, average weight of, ib. Sussex cow, description of her, 44. Sussex cow, not good for the dairy, ib. Sussex cow, extraordinary quantity of milk and butter yielded by one, 45. Sussex, a breed of Idack cattle in, 46. Sussex, West, no distinguishing breed in, ib. Sutherland, general description of, 91. Sutherland, decrease of the breed of cattle in, ib. Sutherland, strange increase in the number of sheep in, ib. Sutherland, comparison between the former state of cattle husbandry and the present state of sheep husbandry, 92. Sutherland, tile manner in which the change was effected, 93. Sutherland, its happy effects, ib. Sutherland, description of the breed of cat- tle in, 93. Sweetbread, description of the, 375. Swelling of the joints, the causes and treat- ment of, 562. Swiss cattle, illustrations of vanity in, 6, INDEX. 599 Swiss cattle, curious account of, as con- nected with consuin])tioii, 413. Switzerland, the disposition of cows to abor- tion at the setting in of hoar frost, 533. Tail, descriptfSn of the bones of the, 272. Tail, should be level with the bones of the back, 1.5. Tail, description of it generally, 302. Tail-slip, ridiculous notions of it, 301. Tankcrville, Lord, account of the wild cat- tle in his park, 8. Tape-worm, an account of the, 497. Tapping in drops}', a description of the operation, 498. Tar, its use in cattle practice, .'587. Taunton, the vale of, dcscrijition of the cattle in, 27. Tavistock, the South Devons purest about, 22. Teeth, the form and structure of them, in ruminants, 318. Teeth, regarded as indicating the age, ih. Teeth, cuts of them, at different ages, 319, &c. Teeth, curious process of diminution of, commencing at three months, 319. Teeth, when the mouth can be said to be full of, 322. Teeth, the grinders, the age imperfectly estimated by, 324. Tempest, Sir H. Vane, first introduced the short-horns into Ireland, 184. Tom poral artery, description ol the, 335,337. Temporal bone, description of the, 372, 374, 384,315. Temporal vein, description of the, 335. l^ctanus, symptoms and treatment of, 298. Thighs, they should be full, long, and close together when viewed from behind, 12, 15. Tiiigh-bone, description of 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. Tipperar}', description of the cattle in, 185. Tongue, description of it and its uses, 324. Tongue of the horse, reason of its being tied down by the spur of the os-hyoides, 326. Tongue of the ox, reason of its not being tied down, 326. Tongue, method of distinguishing between that of the horse and ox, 373. Tonics, when admissible in the treatment of distemper, 486, 587. Torsion, the method of castration by, 560. Trachea, description of the, 373. Tracheotomy, description of the operation of, 374. Tracheotomy, 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, manage- ment of, 289. Tumours, bony, about the eye, an advan- tageous way of firing, 289. Turnhill cattle, description of the, 252. Turnips, history of the first introduction of them into tlie Mearns, 112. Turnips introduced into Berwickshire in 1755, 150. Turpentine, liquid, its uses as a digestive and a diuretic, 587. Turpentine, oil of, its medicinal use, 587. Turpentine, oil of, might possibly destroy the worms in the bronchial tubes, 399. Typhus lever, nature of the, 363. Typluis fever frequently follows inflamma- tory fever, 364. Typhus fever, symptoms of, ih. Typjius fever, treatment of, 365. Typhus fever, the kind of cattle most sub- ject to it, ib. Typhus fever, prevention of, ib. Tyree, the island of, comparison between the profits of breeding and grazing there, 70. Two[)enn3% Mr. Bakewell's bull, account of, 193. Udder, description of the, 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, Ureters, larger than in the horse, ih. Ureters, stone in the, symptoms and treat- ment of, 517. Urethra, description of its curve, ib. Urethra, stone in the, symptoms and treat- ment of, 519. Urinar;^ calculi, symptoms of their pre- sence, 516, 517. Urinary calculi, 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. Veins, description of the, 366. Veins, varicose, the nature and treatment of,t6. Verdigris, its use in cattle practice, 584. Vertebrse of the spine, description of, 272. Veterinary schools, their origin, 2, 393. Veterinary schools, their establishment put an end to the epidemics which devastated Europe, 393. Veterinary schools, establishment of that at Edinburgh, 394. Veterinary schools, establishment of that at St. Pancras, ib. Veterinary sciiools, establishment of that at the University of London, ib. Vinegar, of little use in cuttle practice, 588. Virgil, his beautiful description of the mur- rain, 381. Vitriol, white, the use of, 588. 600 INDEX. , ' Voice of Humanity,' the, recommended, 259. Vomiting, how far it may be produced, 456. Vomiting-, true, rare and attended vvilli danger, ih. Vomiting, a case of, 457. Waistell, Mr., the original proprietor of Hubbucii, 22'J. Waistell, Mr., account of his fat four-year- old ox, 235. Waller, Messrs., the first improvers of Irish cattle, 182. Warbles, how produced, 574. Warbles, history of the fly and its several states, ib. Warts, their nature and treatment, 576. Warwickshire, the cattle of, 220. Warwickshire, the long-horns still preva- lent there, ib. Water in the head, symptoms and treat- ment of, 295. Water-drop-wort, the treatment of poison- ing 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 cattle, the, were some of them white with red ears, 48. Western counties, their supply of fat cattle for the Smithfield market, 258. West Highland cattle, the points in ivhich they arc valuable, 67. West Highland cattle, the secret of profit- ably breeding and grazing them, 79. West Lothian, description of the cattle, 144. West Lothian, management of them, ib. Westmorland cattle, account of the, 200. Wexford, management of cattle in, 184. Wicklow, description of cattle in, 34, 185. Wight, Isle of, description of the cattle, 215. Wild cattle, account of, 7. Willowbank, account of the dairy at, 141. Willoughby, Sir C, first introduced the short-horns into Oxfordshire, 219. Wiltshire, North, description of the cattle there, 215. Wiltshire, North, until lately occupied by the long-horns, 217. Wiltshire, North, value of the present cross-breed, ib, Wiltshire, North, method of rearing in, 217. Wiltshire, North, cheese equal to the Gloucester, 218. Wiltshire, South, description of the cattle of, ib. Wind-pipe, description of the, 373. Wintering grounds of Dumbartonshire, de- scription of, 122. Withers, hollowncss behind Ihcm, disad- vantage of, 15. Womb, inversion of the, treatment of, 541. Womb, rupture of the, ditto, 542. Wood-evil, nature and treatment of, 474. Worcestershire, description of the cattle of, 22J. Worcestershire contains some of the best Herefords, ib. Worcestershire, the Herefords and Dur- hams struggling for superiority on the grazing lands, ib. Worms in the frontal sinuses of cattle, 27G. Worms in the eye, treatment of, 293. Worms, an account of the various intesti- nal ones, 496. Wortley farmers' club, an account of the, 251. Wounds of the eye, management of, 289. Yellows, the (see Jaundice,) 462. Yew, the treatment of poisoning by, 446. Yew, eaten with impunity by the cattle in Hanover and Hesse, 447. Yew mixed with other food may be eaten without danger, ib. Yorkshire cow, tlie history of the establish- ment of the present one, 243. Yorkshire cow, description of her, 244. Yorkshire cow, average quantity of milk yielded by her, 245, 261. Yorkshire cow, the question of the average quantity of butter, 245. Yorkshire, East Riding, an account of the cattle of; 251. Yorkshire, North Riding, description of the cattle of, 248. Yorkshire, North Riding, the native cattle of, were long-horns, ib. Yorkshire, North Riding, account of the first Holderness established there, ib. Yorkshire, North Riding, history of their improvement, ib. Yorkshire, North Riding, general manage- ment of, 249. Yorkshire, North Riding, the cows princi. pally supply the metropolitan dairies, ib. Yorkshire, West Riding, description of the cattle of, 250. Yorkshire, West Riding, the prevalence of the half horns accounted for, ib. Young calves, the danger of taking them 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. Zygomaticus muscle, description of the, 338. i