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Yi = Se = fe NN iy SN \ x =~ |; 0; U VCO ite Sol ~~ Plate 1, REFERENCES. A—Forehead. J—Hock, or gambril. S—Round bone. B—Face. K—Elbow. T—Buttock. C—Cheek. L—Brisket, or breast. U—tThigh, or gaskit. D—Muzzle. M—Shoulder. V—Flank. E—Neck. N—Crops. W— Pilates. F—Neck vein. O—Loin. X—Back, or chine. G—Shoulder point. P—Hip. Y—Throat. H—Ar Q—Crupper bone. Z—Chest. —Arm., I—Shank. R—Rump. 42 AMERICAN CATTLE. These points it is necessary that every cattle manager should understand, as they are the marks which, in their development, or absence, make up a great share of the value, or beauty, or ugliness of shape of the animal. The prominence of these points vary in the different breeds, or races. They also indi- cate, measurably, to what uses, and to what soils, the animals more strongly showing them, are best adapted, and a familiarity with the terms necessary to mark the criticisms which breeders or graziers may make on them. A rear view of the animal, which is hardly necessary to give, would develop another point which is omitted in the diagram, viz.: The “twist,” or junction of the thighs, the proper position of which, high or low, is quite important in adding to or sub- tracting from the value of the beast. The point is named here, as a reference may frequently be made to it hereafter. The true value of an animal for beef purposes, depends on its lightness of “offal” when slaughtered, in comparison with its flesh; therefore the less bone, and poor flesh, the better. A coarse and open bone, by which is meant an undue growth and protuberance of that portion of the carcass, carries with it less valuable flesh than a fine, compact bone; therefore no more bone is necessary than, in its proper position and development, will give the substance and breadth necessary to carry the amount of flesh required. Some cattle are so loosely, or sleazily put together that the ligaments necessary to connect the dif- ferent parts of their bodies are unnecessarily large, making tough meat, though ever so well fed; thus rough, coarse animals are unprofitable in every way, as they are large consumers of food, and weigh less at slaughtering than the more compact ones of less apparent size, while their flesh is of inferior quality. Coarse bone bears more offal (bone is offal,) in worthless flesh, in pro- portion to live weight, than fine bone does. Coarse bone gives more dewlap, and loose skin, than fine, and as the hide is usually ECONOMICAL POINTS. 43 of less value than flesh, an undue weight of hide is unprofitable. Coarse bone gives less tallow, too, a larger belly, more paunch, and less lungs, besides more “daylight” under the carcass—all bad points. In short, a coarse, rough boned beast is bad, all round, while a smooth, fine bone, properly placed, is a great. excellence, either in a bullock for slaughter, a working ox, or a milking cow; and this fineness should prevail throughout, from the muzzle to the tail, and the hoofs. As a rule, strength, activity, and good constitution accompany fine boned animals, while comparative weakness, sluggishness, and tendency to disease accompany large boned ones. Horn is offal; therefore an undue development of it is worthless—not only worthless, but a damage, and like bone, an utter loss in the weight of car- cass. Hide being of less value, no greater development of that material is needed than to answer its purpose of protection to the flesh and muscle beneath it; therefore a rough, thick, and heavy hide is a bad point; yet whatever the hide may be, it should be sufficiently loose and flexible to the touch to indicate an elastic flesh within it. The head—usually all offal—is in most instances a fair indication of the character of a beast. A coarse, bony head almost always accompanies a coarse boned body, and a comely, handsome head a fine boned one. So with the tail, coarse or fine, as the creature itself may be. Having given a diagram of a comely, well bred beast, we now refer to some decidedly bad ones. It might be considered hardly worth while to do so, when one can so readily find them out of doors, but for ready comparison we refer to the cut of Texan cattle in another place, and the analysis of points just given in the good beast, may be applied to them to mark the difference. In the Texan cattle, their deficiencies throughout are seen in striking contrast to the firm, even fleshed carcass of the other. The flat rtb, narrow chest, ragged dewlap, thin flank, long leg, 44 AMERICAN CATTLE. and the looseness of the anatomy generally, contrasted with the round springing rib, wide chest, clean neck, deep flank, short leg, and compact carcass of the other, shows the superi- ority of the latter in every way, so that the merest neophyte cannot mistake the difference; yet the spectator in our cattle markets will see many more bad specimens than good ones, and many of the bad rot much better than the Texans; or, if all their unnecessary offal, by extraordinary pains and feeding, be covered with a reasonable quantity of flesh, it is done at a great waste of good fodder. Men inured by long habit to a partiality for the common cattle, always contending that ‘the breed is in the mouth,” and blindly averse to all improvement, may insist on the equality of their rough beasts to the finer ones. But it is of no use. Measured by the scales, both animal and food, and the time it takes to bring the creature to the block—the only way to settle the matter—they must be unprofitable; and, compared with improved animals, the time, labor, and food bestowed on them by their owners, is measurably lost. Our beef eating population —and almost all are such—know the difference between the good and poor article. They will take the one at a good price, provided the article can be had at all, and reject the other at alower one. Our agriculture is now sufficiently. advanced to breed and rear good animals, while the poor should be discarded ; and it is a waste of both time and money to adhere to the poor, so long as the valuable ones can be procured. Nothing but sheer ignorance, or obstinacy, can be an apology for adhering to a bad practice in anything; and when only a common dili- gence and foresight is necessary to acquire the good, he who doggedly persists in the bad, deserves little sympathy, either for his want of success, or absolute losses. CHAPTER VI. IMPROVED BREEDS OF CATTLE—WHAT ARE THEY? Havine demonstrated—satisfactorily, we trust—the absence of a due utility in the common cattle of our country, and the need of something better, we arrive at the consideration of those distinct breeds, of fureign origin, which are to aid in exalting our herds to those points of excellence so eagerly desired by all who appreciate our singular advantages of soil and climate for the attainment of that object. It is no new thing to say that Great Britain in its insular position, its redundant population, its energetic enterprise, and the absolute necessity which has compelled the development of every resource at command to improve the condition of its agri- culture, stands in advance of all nations with which we are acquainted, in the excellence of its neat cattle. Its enlightened land holders and farmers have taken the different local breeds long familiar to their various districts, and by a wise selection, care in breeding, and the application of proper food and treat- ment, produced specimens of bovine excellence at once the admiration, and worthy the imitation ef all who aspire to equally high attainments in their stock. We say this in no fulsome laudation, but with a settled conviction of the fact. We have tested in our own country, the results of their efforts in the improvement of their various breeds of cattle, and finding them to answer our purposes equally well, it is wise in us to follow their example as it was discreet in them, for their own benefit, to become our models. Satisfied, therefore, that we 46 AMERICAN CATTLE. eannot resort to a better source for the purposes we seek, a description of several of their most approved breeds is necessary, that their application to our uses may be understood, and on due consideration, adopted. Great Britain is an old country. Hngland—all, probably, of it that was worth the conquest—was invaded and possessed by the Romans before the Christian Hra. It was held by them so long as they had the power, and until the unconquered spirit of the ancient Britons, after near four centuries of Roman rule, drove the more civilized invaders out and re-established their own authority. Barbarians, when the Romans invaded them, comparative barbarism still held sway over the people when the Romans went out. The adjoining and even less civilized people of Scotland, were hardly worth a conquest by the Romans, had they sought it. They held their own mountain fastnesses and barren islands, and only suffered by the occasional inroads of the neighboring continental invaders, who long afterwards rav- aged England. With the conquering Saxons, in the fifth cen- tury, came into England some better dawnings of civilization and progress in the arts of hfe; but with the invasion of the Normans in the eleventh century, under the first William, began the progress which has since advanced England, and afterward Scotland, to a higher civilization, and their agriculture to a more perfect condition than that of any other country in Kurope. Cattle, always numerous in England, furnished the people with food in their flesh, and partial clothing in their skins. They were exported to countries abroad, with various other articles of commerce, under the dominion of the Romans. While the Danes were ravaging England with varied success under the Saxon rule, cattle were brought in from the neighboring conti- nent, and also exported from the island. They were kept in such numbers as to be a considerable portion of the wealtn of the people, and oxen were much used for labor With the IMPROVED BREEDS. 47 dominion of the Normans, came the division of the land into the great estates given to the retainers of the Conqueror, and the gradual subdivision and settlement of these estates into farms, the establishment of a tenantry, and after a long time, an improvement in their agriculture. There was little intercourse among the people belonging to different localities. Roads were few and bad; for some centuries, the tenants mostly paid their rent in kind. Of the cattle reared on the farms, the surplus were chiefly driven away by dealers who purchased them of the farmer at his own door, or at the neighboring cattle fair. The home herds were thus localized, and became indigenous to the soils on which they were reared. Hence breeds were gradually established in different districts, or localities, although their pecu- liarities may have followed them from remote periods, or been introduced from abroad. So they descended, and we hear little of them, or their improvement, until a late period in the history of British agriculture. Harly after the year 1700, when Great Britain had become one of the first commercial nations, her commerce whitening every sea, and her foreign conquests and colonial settlements reaching various quarters of the globe, her manufactures become a source of great national wealth, and the enclosure of her waste lands and the highest improvement of her acres had become indispensable to the welfare of the people, we begin to hear of the improvement of her breeds of cattle. Many papers and books have been written about these breeds by various authors, some in the last century, and more in the present. Among all the authors, Youatt, the most elaborate, and discrimi- nating in races, and breeds, together with the compilations of their several histories—so far as he could find them—has been the chief. This author, a man of education and a Veterinary Surgeon, living in the vicinity of London, was employed by_ “The Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge” to com- * 48 AMERICAN CATTLE. pile a work on “British Cattle.” The book is chiefly compiled from various contributions sent to him by men of knowledge and experience on the subject, with accounts obtamed from other authors, and their publications, aided by personal observa- tions of his own. It is an excellent book, on the whole, and contains, probably, a more correct body of information im that line than can be drawn from any other individual source, though not altogether free from error, or prejudice. We have drawn a share of our information from Youatt, some from other well- known British writers of the last century, others in the present century, as well as some from American writers. We do not name all our authorities—very few, indeed—as many of them were authorities to Youatt, as well as to our own writers, and we find more or less of them quoted and repeated by all. It is sufficient to say, that we have examined and analyzed, with much care, these various authorities, preserving such as bore the semblance of truth and probability in their accounts, and reject- ing those only, not necessary to our purpose. British cattle, by general consent of these authors, appear to be subdivided into four distinct classes—the middle-horned, long horned, short-horned, and polled, or hornless. They all have, o1 until recently, had their own various localities and districts in the several parts of Hngland and Scotland, where they have existed from a remote period. Hach were favorites among the farmers and breeders of their homes, rarely taken out of their districts, except for market, and until after the middle of the last century, like the people who reared them, strangers to other parts of the kingdom, and migrating back and forth no farther than to the nearest market towns, or district fairs. Thus they became homogeneous, deeply interbred among their own tribes, and closely retaining their own distinctive qualities, uncontami- nated by the blood of other breeds, and transmitting their quali- ties and characteristics with a pertinacity and truth, of which IMPROVED BREEDS. 49 those giving the subject little study, can scarce realize. As such they have come to us, and only as such we know them. We commence a description of the different breeds, which our volume is intended to enumerate, with the middle-horned breeds of England; and first of these, take that one appa- rently most ancient in lineage. CHAPTER VIL. MIDDLE-HORNED CATTLE—THE DEVONS. Turs beautiful race has been considered, by some authors, aboriginal, and are claimed to have been known in England at the time of its invasion by the Romans. It is certain that their fineness of limb, uniformity of color, delicacy of proportion, and depth of breeding, give them claims to a distinction which no other race of English cattle exhibit; and be the fact of their remote origin as it may, there is no necessity of disputing it, or speculating on other probabilities. They are like no others, and by no intermixture of any other known breeds have they been, or can they be produced. In what degrees of excellence the Devons existed during past centuries, we are unable to say; but that they possessed valuable qualities which endeared them strongly to the people who bred them is certain. Great attention has been paid to their improve- ment during a century past, and probably not neglected for centuries before. Not a single infusion of the blood of other known cattle can be detected in them, and for their improve- ment, as Devons, none other can be devised. In the good judg- ment, sagacity, skill, care, and pains-taking of their breeders alone, must be sought the means by which they stand in their present condition of excellence and beauty. As no written description can convey to the unpracticed eye their exact appearance, we shall illustrate them by accurate portraits, taken from life, and as the portraits cannot show them m all their points, a more particular description is added. THE DEVONS. 5] The head—lean in flesh, is rather short, the forehead broad, the face slightly dishing, and tapering gracefully to a fine, clean, yellow muzzle. The eye—bright, prominent, and surrounded by a ring of orange colored, or yellow skin. The ‘horn—upright, SSS NN AN SS NY nS NING ah Ni NN ASN V3 A Wy Diu | o ah x AN GT saath ao a Ni cS ; his == NS . AY SS Plate 2. Devon Bull. and curving outward, cream colored, black at the tips, graceful in its setting, and rather long, for the size of the animal. The ear—well set, and lively m action. The neck—on a level (in the bull slightly arching) with the head and shoulders; full at its junction with the breast, clean, and without dewlap. The shoulders—fine, open, (somewhat slanting, like those of the horse, ) and on a level with the back. The neck-vein—full, and smooth. The arm—delicate, and the leg below the knee, small, terminating in a clean, dull brown, and somewhat striped hoof. The brisket—full, and projecting well forward. The crops— well filled, and even with the shoulders. The back—straight from the shoulders to the tail. The mbs—springing out roundly from the back, and running low down, to enclose a full chest. 52 AMERICAN CATTLE. and setting well back towards the hips, giving a snug, neat belly. The flanks—full, and low. The hips—wide, and level with the back. The loin—full, and level. The thigh—well fleshed and full, the lower part somewhat thin, and gracefully tapering to the hock; the leg below, small, flat, and sinewy. The twist—(the space between the thighs) well let down, and open. The tail—taper, like a drum stick, and terminating with a brush of white hair. The color—invariably a cherry red, sometimes showing a lighter, or deeper shade, and the skin, under the hair, a rich cream color. The bull, of course, will show the stronger, and masculine character of his sex, while the ox will develop the finer points of his condition, and the cow, all the delicacy and refinement belonging to her race. In the roundness, and fullness which accompany the proper development of the points named, the silky, wavy laying of the hair, and the elastic touch of the flesh as the finger is pressed upon it, every beholder will at once see, in appearance, a most bloodlike and graceful animal. In size, the Devon is medium, compared with our native cattle. A well grown ox, in good working condition, will range from 1,400 to 1,600 pounds live weight. The bull from 1,000 to 1,200, and the cow from 800 to 1,000 pounds. They sometimes exceed the heaviest of these weights, but such are the average. Fatted to a high degree, they will, of course, weigh heavier. In size, it is said, in England, that they are larger than they were a hundred years ago, before the attention of their breeders was thoroughly attracted to their improvement. From time immemorial they were chiefly bred in the northerly part of Devonshire, (and thus called North Devons,) one of the south- western counties, in a mild climate, abounding in good pasturage. They have since spread into the adjoiing counties, and many years ago, (within the present century,) were taken into the higher county of Norfolk, on the Eastern Coast, by the late Ear] THE DEVONS. 5S of Leicester, (then the noted Mr. Coke, of Holkham, a distin- guished farmer, and landed proprietor,) as he considered them eminently fitted for grazing on the hight sandy soil of his estates. They are now bred in many other counties of England, and are decided favorites on hilly soils, where their lighter weights and activity im movement are better adapted to grazing and labor than the more sluggish cattle of the heavier breeds. The most noted breeders of Devon cattle in England, for the past forty years, have been the Davy brothers, Messrs. Quartly, Merson, Childs, Turner, the Duke of Bedford, and some others in the west of Hngland, the Earl of Leicester, and Mr. Bloom- field, in Norfolk, and among the earliest of the improvers, the Lords Somerville, and Western. From the herds of all these breeders, noted prize animals have been drawn, and their fame has largely added to the popularity and dissemination of the breed. As an economical animal, the Devon may be classed under three distinct heads, viz.: for the dairy, the yoke and the shambles. AS A DAIRY COW, The Devon may be called mediwm, in the quantity of milk she yields, and in its quality, superior. The older, or unimproved race, were somewhat noted for the quantities of milk they pro- duced, as well as its good quality. A gallon of Devon. milk yielded more butter than that of almost any other breed, as it does now, except the Alderney. But their improvers, in the attamment of a finer form, and heavier substance in their ani- mals, perhaps sacrificed somewhat of the quantity of milk, for the more liberal development of flesh, well knowing that both flesh and milk could not thrive equally together in the same animal; although, when the milk ceased, the flesh came on with due rapidity, under generous feed. Yet, with an eye to breeding her solely for milk, she is well fitted for a dairy cow. Docile in temper, easy of keep, placable in disposition, she is 54 AMERICAN CATTLE readily managed. Her udder is soft, tidy in shape, with thin, silky hair upon it, clean, taper teats, easily drawn, and every way satisfactory to her keeper. We submit a portrait of a well bred cow, dry of her milk and fatted, in which will readily be seen the fully developed charac- teristics of her race. SAE ET GHA AN Tang i ut SLYeA Gif. f ‘ Y EDM Wee fH AN Kt tr ay it SS We oe f ne Mi RN ANY Se eG Dy 4) Ay Ta " Wy AV (NN 2 i ak Mi ES i} Vy : SSN ESSN 3S Ss 4. = SE S Plate 3. Devon Cow. As an evidence of the milking qualities of the Devons, very considerable dairies of them have long been kept in England. In Youatt, is an account by Mr. Conyers, of Epping, who, in the year 1788, kept a dairy of them. ‘He preferred the Devons on account of their large produce, whether in milk, butter, or by suckling. He thought that they held their milk longer than any other sort that he had tried; that they were hable to fewer disorders in their udders; and being of small size, they did not eat, more than half what larger cows consumed. He thus sums up his account of them: ‘Upon an average, ten cows gave me sixty pounds of butter per week, in summer, and twenty-four THE DEVONS. 55 pounds in the winter. A good North Devon cow fats two calves a year.’” Other favorable accounts are given, yet some are different. They speak of a less quantity of milk given by Devons, but the quality as remarkably rich. Count de Gourcy, an inteligent French agriculturist, and traveler in England, remarked that Mr. Bloomfield’s Devon cows, on the estate of Lord Leicester, in Norfolk, each averaged four pounds of butter per week, the year round. It is to be regretted that English published accounts of the dairy production of the Devons are so meager. We have fuller and more favorable accounts of them in America. Mr. George Patterson, of Maryland, who, for many years has owned the largest herd of pure bred Devons in the United States—some seventy or eighty in number—remarked to the writer, when at his farm in the year 1842, that his cows were better milkers, and yielded more butter on an average than any other breed. His stock is descended from some of the best animals of Mr. Bloomfield, the principal breeder of the superior herd of the Karl of Leicester, (both already noticed,) and since crossed by occasional imported bulls from the same herd. Mr. Patterson has always bred his cows with a special eye to their milking properties, and in them and their descendants, in different parts of the country, have been found many remarkable good milkers. Other accounts, entered in our memoranda at the time, were equally satisfactory. We have good authority of some of them yielding ten to twelve pounds of butter per week. Other breeders who have kept choice herds of Devons for several years, have repeatedly assured us that they were superior milkers. They have given 18, 20, and 22 quarts of milk per day, for months after calving, under steady milking. Our own experience has been something in this line. We have kept thorough bred Devons thirty-four years—sometimes as high as twenty-five or thirty (not all milk cows) in number. 56 AMERICAN CATTLE. Many of them have been excellent milkers, and some of them extraordinary, for their size. We once had two three year old heifers, with their first calves, which gave for some three months after calving, on pasture only, with steady milking, an average of eighteen quarts per day; and from cows which we have at different times sold to go to other States, the accounts of their milk have been equally good. It is but fair to say however, that after we commenced crossing our cows with bulls of later importations, some fifteen years after the commencement of the herd, the large milkers were not so numerous, although the cattle from these crosses were somewhat finer. The bulls we used were apparently bred from stocks highly improved, with an effort more to develop their feeding properties, than for the © dairy. After all, our Devons yielded, on an average, quite as much as any common cows we ever kept, with much less con- sumption of forage. With all her alleged deficiencies, the Devon possesses the inherent qualities of a good milker. Her dairy faculties may be bred out of her by neglect of that important item, and with a view to give her an earlier maturity, and more weight of flesh; but even under that system, she will occasionally persist, as we have known in various instances, in giving a large flow of milk, exceeding many common cows of equal size. On the whole, from the accumulated accounts we have received from time to time, coupled with our own experience, we pronounce the Devons, as a race, when bred with an eye to the development of the dairy quality, considering their size, and consumption of food, good dairy cows, both in the quantity of milk they give, and the butter it yields. AS A WORKING OX. In this valuable quality, no animal of the same size and weight equals the Devon—for the following reasons: They are, among cattle, what the ‘thorough bred” is among horses. According THE DEVONS. 517 to their size, they combine more fineness of bone, more muscular power, more intelligence, activity, and ‘‘bottom,” than any other breed. They have the slanting shoulder of the horse, better fitted to receive the yoke, and carry it easier to themselves than any others, except the Herefords. With all workers of oxen, the nearer a beast approaches m shape, appearance, and action to the Devon, the more valuable he is considered, according to weight. For ordinary farm labor, either at the plow, the wagon, or the cart, he is equal to all common duties, and on the road his speed and endurance is unrivalled. It is in these qualities that the New England oxen excel others of the country generally, and why the people of that section often call their red oxen ‘‘ Devonshires,” when they cannot, to a certainty, trace any, or but a small portion of that blood in them, only by a general appearance and somewhat like action. For active, handy labor on the farm, or highway, under the careful hand of one who likes and properly tends him, the Devon is every thing that is required of an ox, in docility, intel- ligence, and readiness, for any reasonable task demanded of him. Their uniformity in style, shape, and color, render them easily matched, and their activity in movement, particularly on rough and hilly grounds, give them, for farm labor, almost equal value to the horse, with easier keep, cheaper food, and less care. The presence of a well conditioned yoke of Devon cattle in the market place at once attests their value, and twenty-five to fifty dollars, and even more price over others of the common stock are freely given by the purchaser. The Devon, in his lack of great size, is not so strong a draught ox as some of the other breeds—the Herefords, for instance—or perhaps some of the larger of the common cattle; but, ‘for his inches,” no horned beast can outwork him. On light soils, and on hilly roads, none other equals him, although we intend to give 58 AMERICAN CATTLE. all their due share of merit. Our cut is that of a prize stall-fed steer, at four years old. It shows his flesh-taking qualities in high perfection. NN i‘ a ms . Ne “ yA, LASS Hy, x} yy} ai NN “ ts L, Wey iG Kis - _ gna A 1 7 ( ~ te oe i Att ‘ Hay co " Plate 4. Deven Ox. AS A BEEF ANIMAL, We must place the Devon in the first class, for fineness of flesh and delicacy of flavor. Its compact bone gives it the one, and its rapid and thorough development under good feeding gives it the other. In growth and size it matures early, equal to the short-horn, and its meat is finer graimed, juicy, and nicely marbled, (the lean and fat intermixed.) In the London markets, Devon beef bears the highest price of any, except the Highland Scot—usually a penny a pound over that of larger breeds, and our American butchers quickly pick the Devons from a drove, when they can find them, before most others. They feed well, take on flesh rapidly, and in the quality of their flesh, are all that can be desired. The following weights of Devons from the London, Smith- field markets, are given: ee THE DEVONS. 59 One 5 years 11 months old, dead net weight, 1,593 lbs.; one 3 years 7 months old, dead net weight, (rough tallow 160 lbs.) 1,316 lbs.; one 3 years 10 months old, dead net weight, (rough tallow 128 lbs.) 904 Ibs. The Harl of Leicester’s steers, at four years old, on his Holkham estates, gave dead net weights of 1,000, 1,200, and even 1,400 lbs. Those of the Duke of Nor- folk, near Bury, in Suffolk, made 900 to 1,000 pounds each. These were all highly fed, and possibly, some of them, prize beef. A 3 years 10 months old steer, in Genesee County, N. Y., gave, dead net weight, 1,200 lbs.—hide and rough tallow in- cluded—the latter being over 100 lbs. The late Mr. Lemuel Hurlburt, of Winchester, Connecticut, fed a pair three-fourths Devon cattle, having worked them till six years old, and fed them 15 months afterwards. Their weights were as follows: No. 1—Carcass, . ‘ «1,438 Ibs. Eidey gS : 117 lbs. Tallow, . ; é 175 lbs.—1,730 lbs. No. 2—Carcass, . ; oy gol bs: Hide, . : : 115 lbs. Tallow, . : : 213 lbs.—1,856 lbs. We have had slaughtered many of our own grass fed steers, three-fourths, to seven-eighths, and thorough bred Devon, at 372 years, which made 700 to 850 lbs. net weight of beef, hide, and tallow, and never fed anything but grass and hay, from calves. After all we have said of the Devon—and our praise is not too high—popular opinion in America has, to a considerable extent, classed him as too small in size for the most profitable uses—‘They haven’t growth enough.” But for their apparent size, and actual measurement, n0 animal of his race, not even a short-horn, will weigh a heavier carcass of the best meat, laid on in the choicest parts: With some, his want of size is an available objection, with others not. In the Southern States the Devon is often preferred to any other breed. They gather 60 AMERICAN CATTLE. their food with more ease, they bear the climate well, are more free from diseases than many others. On our high lands and mountain ranges, with short grasses, sometimes not easy of access to heavier cattle, they must prove profitable graziers, and as a beef producing animal will answer a valuable purpose where others would fail. DEVONS IN THE UNITED STATES. It is a subject of regret that our accounts of the earlier intro- duction of these cattle to this country are so meager. There is little doubt, from the appearance of many of the New England cattle in the last and present centuries, that some Devons, in their purity, were early brought into Massachusetts. Traditional tales of their neat limbed, sprightly, red, high-horned cattle, have existed, and that they sprung from a Devon cross is beyond a question. But we have no particular published records of these importations until the year 1817, when Messrs. Caton & Pat- terson, merchants of Baltimore, Maryland, received several of them from “Mr. Coke, of Holkham.” These, a few years afterwards, fell into the hands of Mr. Geo. Patterson, (already noticed, ) son of one of the importing partners, who retains their descendants to the present time. This stock has been largely multiplied, and spread through various parts of the country. A year later—1818—Rufus King, the distinguished statesman, of Jamaica, Long Island, N. Y., imported a few animals from Mr. Coke’s herd. Not long after the Caton & Patterson stock came over, Mr. Henry Thompson made an importation of a few Devons into Baltimore. There may have been some few other importations nto Boston, or other ports, about the same time, or a little later than these, but we have no varticular accounts of them. About the year 1835-6, an English farmer named Vernon, THE DEVONS. 61 brought a bull and cow into Genesee County, N. Y., from the herd of Mr. Davy, in England. In 184— the Massachusetts Agricultural Society made a con- siderable importation of Devons into that State, which were some time afterwards distributed in various parts of New Hngland. About the years 1852-3, Mr. L. G. Morris, of Westchester, N. Y., imported several Devons from the herds of Mr. Quartly, and others, in Devonshire. About the same years, Mr. Ambrose Stevens, of Batavia, N. Y., brought out a number from the herds of Messrs. Davy, Merson, and others. Concurrent with these two last, Mr. C. S. Wainright, of Rhinebeck, N. Y., made two or three different importations from the best and most popular breeds abroad. A few years later, the late Mr. Edward G. Faile, of West- chester, N. Y., imported several superior Devons from the choice herds of Devonshire. These comprise all that we now recollect, and were of the choicest selections—the cattle equal, probably, in style and quality, to any in England. All these herds have been carefully bred, and their produce widely disseminated. If preserved and bred as they should be, they will continue of great benefit in improving the lighter cattle stocks of our country. It may be well to remark that the race of which we have written, are called, in England, ‘‘ North” Devons, as distinguish- ing them from another called “South” Devons—a somewhat larger, coarser, and less esteemed variety, existing in South Dey- onshire, and the adjoming county of Sussex. CHAPTER VIII. THE HEREFORDS. AFTER giving so extended a chapter on the Devons—which we have partially done for convenient reference in remarking on some other breeds, to save frequent repetition—it will not be necessary to describe the Herefords so minutely. Although. comparatively little known in this country, they are a valuable | breed, and their origin dates far back in the history of English cattle. The principal counties in Hingland in which they are kept, are Hereford, Shropshire, Gloucester, and Oxford, and some counties adjoming Hereford, in Wales. They are also found in other counties, but those named are their principal homes. Hver since breeds of cattle have been discussed, in modern days, the Hereford has been named as of ancient descent. To what extent, concurrent with other breeds, they have been improved, it is not easy to say; but that they have received great attention within a century past, and no doubt been much improved, is certain, as we learn by English authorities. The Herefords of a hundred years ago, were deep red—almost brown —in color, with mottled faces; now, they are usually red, with shades sometimes running into light, or yellowish red, with white faces, throats, bellies, and sometimes backs, and occasion- ally a roan of red and white mixed, and more rarely, an almost clear white, with red ears, is found among them. From a “lecture” delivered by Mr. T. Duckham, on Hereford cattle, in the Royal Agricultural College, at Cirencester, Eng., we extract the following: THE HEREFORDS. 63 “Mr. Rowlandson, in his prize report on the ‘Farming of Herefordshire,’ published in the Journal of the Royal Agricul- tural Society of Hngland, Vol. 32, says, ‘the Herefords were originally brown, or reddish-brown.’ He also relates the fol- lowing story of the appearance of a white-faced bull in the herd of Mr. Tully, Huntington, near Hereford: ‘About the middle of the last century, (1750,) the cow-man came to the house, announcing as a remarkable fact, that the favorite cow had produced a white-faced bull calf. This had never been known to have occurred before, and as a curiosity, it was agreed that the animal should be kept and reared as a future sire;’ and adds, ‘that the progeny of this very bull became celebrated for white faces.’” “The same authority (Mr. Rowlandson) gives an interesting extract from history, showing that in the tenth century, (A. D. 900,) a celebrated breed of white. cattle, with red ears, prevailed in Wales, of which that part of the county of Hereford on the north side of the river Wye formed a portion. He tells us that a law of ‘Howell the Good’ fixed compensation to be paid for injuries done by one of the princes towards another, at one hundred white cows, with red ears, and a bull of the same color; and if the cattle were of a dark or black color, then one hundred and fifty in number instead of a hundred, and adds: ‘Speed records, that Maude de Brehos, in order to appease King John, who was highly incensed against her husband, made a present to the Queen, of four hundred cows and one bull from _ Brecknockshire, (in Wales,) all white, with red ears.’ These facts, he says, ‘are suggestive of the mode in which the white- faces have originated.’ ”’ This last transaction must have taken place soon after the year A. D. 1200, for John held the throne only seventeen years, having taken it in 1199, and dying in 1216—a long time for a white color in cattle to be held in abeyance, and then to crop out 64 AMERICAN CATTLE. five hundred years afterwards! This may all be possible, and the Hereford breed of cattle, if orzginal in Wales, may have existed time immemorial, for, as they say that certain Welsh families trace their pedigrees back anterior to Adam, we may give a pretty remote date to the origin of their cattle! Mr. Duckham further remarks: ‘An old and much respected friend of mine, the late Mr. Welles, also entertained the idea that they were originally self-colored (red) like the Devons, and ‘that the breed characterized as the mottle-faced, took its origin from a mixture of the old self-colored, with some accidentally possessing white marks.’ As regards the white cows with red ears, I think the light grey, or white Hereford, may fairly be considered to be descended from them; and there are red-with- white-face breeders, who advance that they can trace them as being the breed of their ancestors, for the past two hundred years.” Be all these facts, traditions, or surmises, as they may, these grey and white colors now appear in cattle bearing all other marks of true Herefords, and they must be admitted as indi- geneous to the breed. Some of the very best specimens of the tace have been of those lighter and mixed colors. In our researches among English authorities, we find less said of the Hereford, its history, and breeding, than almost any other well known breed. Youatt devotes but four pages to them, knowing little of them himself, and having not much information from others. What we have gleaned from English accounts, is chiefly in fugitive papers and magazines, by sundry writers and breeders; but more fortunately for the present purpose, we have had several years’ close and almost daily observation, in a herd of imported Herefords and their descendants, which were kept near us, as well as of occasional observation of other importa- tions, which have given us a more intimate knowledge of them than volumes of books, without such personal observation, could have done. THE HEREFORDS. 65 Perhaps we cannot convey a better description of the Here- ford, after giving accurate portraits of the sexes, than to say: give a Devon a quarter more size, somewhat more proportionate bone and horn, a trifle shorter leg, and longer body, a little coarser in every part, and you have a good Hereford, in all excepting color. Ain ane. = LS CO fee nes S Tat XY Si ‘ Ve SN \S 3 TASS NY RMN ‘N \ Ya Vat \) S \\ RY AEN VSS (AG Plate 5. Hereford Bull. Our plate is an accurate copy of one in the (Hnglish) Farmers’ Magazine, true to life, and amply just to the original, both in color, and proportion. We have seen one that might have stood equally well for the portrait. As useful cattle, the Herefords are a good breed. We are aware that their introduction into the United States has not been, in comparison with some other breeds, successful in popu- larity or extended distribution; but that fact decides nothing as to the positive merits of the stock itself. Partiality, prejudice on the part of our cattle breeders, or pre-occupation of the ground by other breeds which meet the general approbation, 66 AMERICAN CATTLE. may keep them for a time in the back-ground; but their actual merits once known, they may have a fair trial, and achieve a substantial success. Like the Devon, we place the Hereford under three distinct heads; and first, AS A DAIRY COW. In this virtue she has little reputation, either in Hngland or America. We have found no English authority, except a rare instance or two, which gives her much credit as a milker. Pos- sibly this may have arisen from the fact that the Hereford dis- tricts are grazing, and not dairy. The milk is rich, but too little of it—not much more than to rear her calf in good condition. She dries early. AN RNS RANT ALY AIAN AW ‘ AN MTAY) WN vi) ( i K \ Nin 1 \ N \\ i me SS ANY AN Y RN Al ee aie fe Plate 6. Hereford Cow. If she ever was a milker before her modern improvement began, the milking faculty has been sacrificed for a ready tend-. ency to flesh, which has been obtained in a high degree in her race. We have seen a dozen of them milked through three or THE HEREFORDS. 67 four successive seasons, and the yields were such as would be unsatisfactory to a modern dairyman. Now and then a fair milker turned up, but they were in a minority of numbers; taken together they were less than ordinary, for the season. We will not therefore discuss this question further, but pass to another quality as yielding greater pleasure in the relation. AS A WORKING OX, The Hereford is the peer of any other, and superior to most. Large, strong, muscular, well developed in form, noble, and stately in carriage, he suggests all that need be found in an honest, true worker. At full maturity—say six years old—he girts 7 to 774 feet behind the shoulders, in ordinary condition, to the Devon’s 6 to 6% feet, and is every way the more power- ful, if not quite so quick, or active. A team of two, three, or four yokes of Herefords, under the control of a good driver, for ‘“‘a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull altogether,” is the perfec- tion of bovine strength and majesty. The joints of the ox are well knit, his sinews strong, his shoulders slant well to the yoke, and he carries his load well, be it at the plow, the cart, or the wagon. He is kindly, intelligent, honest in his labor. We have seen them from half, to three-quarters blood, crossed from the common cow, and up to thorough bred, all of great excellence as draught beasts, well matched, and admirable in all their points. The Hereford blood is strong in marking its descent. From the bulls which were kept in our yeighborhood eighteen years ago, crossed upon cows which run on the adjacent commons, in their summer pasturage, we now, in their progeny, to later genera tions, frequently see cows and oxen but a quarter, an eighth, or sixteenth in blood—got by scrub bulls—that show strong Here- ford marks in form and color. We once reared an ox got by a Hereford bull, on a wretched little black cow, which proved to be a fine, stately ox, of a 68 AMERICAN CATTLE. brindle (black and red mixed) color, and a better worker we never knew. At eight years old we fed him off on grass, and a little corn meal only, and he gave us 1,200 pounds of beef, hide and tallow. Where hay and pasturage are cheap, and the farmer has a taste for the business, it must be a profitable invest- ment to obtain a thorough bred Hereford bull, cross him on well selected native red cows, and rear and break steers for the markets where good working oxen are in demand. The strong blood of the bull will give uniformity in shape, and color, so that the steers may be easily matched, and if not wanted for the yoke, they are equally valuable, as other cattle, for feeding, and the shambles. HY Bae oo Ni c = ne hin ~ iW A an \\ Nadi a o SNe A Hi SS \ Wh Plate 7. "Beretand ae AS A BEEF ANIMAL, The Hereford is superior. They feed kindly, are thrifty in growth, mature early—at three and four years old—and prove well on the butchers’ block. We are aware that they have not now a general popularity in the great cattle breeding regions of THE HEREFORDS 69 our Western States. Few of them have been introduced there, and those, perhaps, not in the right hands to push them to the best advantage. We could wish for them a fairer trial; but the prejudice against the cows as milkers, and the lack in their taking appearance as a highly distinctive race, in comparison with the more popular short-horns, have kept them back in public demand. ‘Their time has not yet come; and it may be, that in the right hands, and with a more critical observation among our cattle breeders and graziers, they may achieve a reputation as a grazing beast, equal to some now considered their superiors. In their native counties in England, they still hold a high rank, and at the prize shows in the London markets compete success- fully with other improved breeds. With all the deficiencies which the advocates of other breeds allege against them, the Herefords still retain their reputation among their English breeders, who hold on to them with a pertinacity which shows an unabated con- fidence in their merits and profit as a true grazier’s beast. We might show recorded tables of their trials, in Hngl@nd, with short-horns, and the relative profits of their feeding for market, f economy; but as the trials were not from birth to slaughter, in which the Herefords gained an advantage on the sc and the comparative early advantages of each breed were omitted in the account, a repetition of the tables here would not be conclusive. There has been much controversy in Hngland, and there might be some in America, were there Herefords enough here to raise the question, as to the manner in which they have been improved within the last eighty or ninety years. Their opponents allege that they have had a stealthy short-horn cross, and it is not cer- tain that in these controversies the Hereford breeders have always denied it. All the accounts that we have seen, show that the old Herefords were dark red, almost brown in color, 70 AMERICAN CATTLE. with mottled red and white faces, and little or no white on the throat, belly, or back. The ¢dmproved Herefords are of lighter red, with white faces usually, (although we have seen some of the old style of color,) and occasionally one will ‘crop out” with a lively short-horn roan all over. We once saw a purely white one in color, with no red, except the ears, her parents, bull and cow, being red, with white faces; and another, an imported cow, with drooping, half-length horns. These are certainly out of line with the true Herefords, and the short-horn advocates charge that such offshoots betray short-horn blood. Be the facts of their breeding as they may, the differences in color and horn, are palpable. That these appearances have not injured the animals themselves, is evident, for they were admira- ble Herefords in all their valuable points, as any among their congeners of the true colors, and upright spread of horns. We, at least, shall not take sides in the controversy. It is sufficient to note the facts as we have seen them. THE HEREFORDS IN AMERICA. At what date they were first imported into this country, we have no accurate account; but that some Herefords came out among the early importations, is evident, from the occasional marks of the breed among our native cattle where late importa- tious have not been known. In the year 1816 or ’17 the great Kentucky statesman, Henry Clay, imported two pairs of them into his State, and put them on his farm at Ashland. They were bred for a time with each other, and the bulls were crossed with other cows; but it is certain that they left no permanent impress on the herds of that vicinity, as Mr. Clay himself became a breeder of short-horns soon afterwards, and eventually discarded the blood from his herds, if he had for any length of time retained it. No trace of them is now seen in Kentucky. A few years later, Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin, of the English THE HEREFORDS. 71 Navy, a native of Massachusetts, sent out a Hereford bull, and possibly a cow or two, to some of his friends in that State. The bull was considerably used in crossing with the native cows, and thirty years ago or more, we saw several fine bullocks with strong marks of the breed, in the vicinity where he was kept. There may have been small importations made into other States during the next fifteen years, but of them we have no definite knowledge. The largest known importation of Herefords into the United States, was made about the year 1840, upwards of twenty in number, by an Hnglishman, into the city of New York, and taken into Jefferson county, of that State. A year or two afterwards the bulk of the herd were removed to the farm of Mr. Hrastus Corning, near Albany, N. Y., and some of them went into Vermont, where they were for some years bred, sold, and scattered. Of this herd, Mr. A. B. Allen, editor of the American Agriculturist in 1843, thus speaks: ‘‘ We had seen some specimens when in England, in 1840, but had no idea of the fine herd at Albany until we saw them last December. We were surprised at the superb show the Herefords made at the various Agricultural Society meetings we attended in England, and certainly one of the finest lots of cattle we ever saw, was a large herd of pure Hereford steers, grazing on the banks of the Thames, in the neighborhood of the grand old town of Oxford. As fat cattle, the Herefords have lately held a sharp rivalry with the short-horns, and their beef is in high favor in the London markets. They make no claim, as yet, to being milkers, * * * * We think the stock at Albany would compare favorably with the best we met of this breed in Eng- land. * * * * We found these cattle to excel particularly in the brisket, and loin, two very important points in all animals destined for the butcher, and especially necessary, if we maie ro AMERICAN CATTLE. them into beef for the English market; and being of great con- stitution and hardy, they make most excellent grazing cattle.” While the stock were at his farm, Mr. Corning, with his accus- tomed liberality and enterprise, sent their importer out again to England to purchase more animals, which safely arrived, and were added to the herd. They were then successfully bred for several years, many sales made into different and distant parts of the United States, and they acquired considerable popularity. The herd was subsequently divided, Mr. Corning retaining his share, and his partner taking his, some twenty or more in num- ber, on to a farm three or four miles from Buffalo, on the banks of the Niagara. Here they were bred, and several sales made, to go to different parts of the country, during the four or five years they remained; but the herd gradually waned, mainly from want of proper care and system in their keeping. With their owner they then migrated into the rich valley of the Genesee. near Geneseo. In that locality, if anywhere, they ought to have succeeded. But in two or three years further they went to Tioga county, near Owego, where they had another fitful stay | of a year or two, and then removed elsewhere, since which we have no record of them whatever,—‘“run out,” and sacrificed, in all probability, by: mismanagement. Mr. Corning retained his herd at his farm, where he has suc- cessfully bred, and made sales from them since, and in the hands of his son, Mr. EH. Corning, Jr., who is more an amateur than a professed cattle breeder, added to by occasional importations from Hngland, they remain fine specimens of their race. Mr. George Clark, at Springfield, Otsego county, N. Y., obtained several Herefords from this herd, and, we believe, made an importation or two from England. He bred them suecess- fully, distributed his bulls on to several of his farms, and bred, and still breeds many excellent grade Herefords from the com- THE HEREFORDS. te mon cows. His bullocks have, in past years, been highly approved in the New York Cattle Markets. About the year 1852-3, Messrs. Thomas Aston, and John Humphries, two English farmers in Elyria, Ohio, near Lake Erie, imported several fine Herefords. They bred them well, and successfully, as seen in the specimens we have several times met, but with what success in their sales we have no intimate knowledge. In the years 1860 and ’61, Mr. Frederick Wm. Stone, of Guelph, Canada West, made two importations of superior Here- fords from the herds of Lord Bateman, in Herefordshire, and the late Lord Berwick, in the adjoming county of Shropshire, Eng- land, numbering, together, two bulls, and eleven cows and heifers. These were remarkable for their high breeding, and generally, good points. From them, down to January, 1867, there were bred about sixty, and about half the number have been sold at satisfactory prices, and distributed, mostly into the United States. Some of the cows have proved excellent milkers, and _all, together with the crosses of the bulls on common cows, have proved profitable grazing animals. But as they have had to encounter a sharp competition in Canada, where the short-horns have for some years, previous to the introduction of the Here- fords, held dominion, as zmproved stock, and Mr. Stone himself a prominent short-horn breeder, the qualities of the Herefords have won their success, against such odds, solely by their own merits. Such a fact is no small testimonial to their excellence. Since the foregoing was written, and within the past five or six. years numerous importations of good Hereford Cattle have been made into both the United States and Canada, and scattered chiefly into the Western States and Territories for crossing on the native cows and rougher Texan ones for beef raising, as well as breeding in their pure blood. They command ready sales and good prices, are rapidly rising in public favor and 74 AMERICAN OATTLE. will add largely to the better qualities of beef-production. They have a Herd Book record of their own, and may be counted as having taken an established position in the broad grazing dis- tricts of the country. It is doubtful whether in early maturity for the shambles they will equal the Short-horns, now so universally prevalent, but as they are active in movement, may better suit some localities where the lymphatic temperament of the Short-horns will not so well enable them to range over wide distances to gather their forage. Taken altogether the Herefords are a good breed of cattle and will undoubtedly maintain a high position among our bovine varieties. CHA PTH De THE LONG-HORNS. Ir is still a disputed question in England, whether this some- what remarkable race of cattle originated in the north-western English counties of Lancashire, Westmoreland, and the adjoin- ing part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, or in Ireland, as from time immemorial they appear to have been natives of both countries, and probably were intermixed, more or less, by importations from one to the other. The characteristics of the cattle of each country are so identical, that they are acknowl- edged to be of the same primitive race, although it is contended by English authorities that the Insh long-horns were coarser and less cultivated in their breeding than the English. Youatt says: ‘In the district of Craven, a fertile corner of the West Riding of Yorkshire, bordering on Lancashire, and sepa- rated from Westmoreland chiefly by the western moorlands, there has been, from the earliest records of British Agriculture, a peculiar 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 horizontal 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 before the muzzle, and so also to prevent the beast from grazing; or immediately under the jaw, and so to lock the lower jaw; or the points presented themselves against the bones of the nose and face, threatening to perforate them. We have given a similar description of the Irish breed, In proportion as the breed became improved, the horns lengthened, and they are 76 AMERICAN CATTLE. characteristically distinguished by the name of ‘The Long- Horns.’ Cattle of a similar description were found in the dis- tricts of Lancashire, bordering on Craven, and also in the South- eastern parts of Westmoreland; but ¢radztion, in both of these districts, pointed to Craven as the original habitation of the long-horn breed. If there gradually arose any difference between them, it was that the Craven beasts were the broadest in the chine, the shortest, the handsomest, and the quickest feeders; the Lancashire ones were larger, longer in the quarters, but with a fall behind the shoulders, and not so level on the chine. Whence these cattle were derived, is still a disputed point.” The breed gradually spread into the adjommg more midland counties, and as the cows were good milkers, they became per- manently established in the dairies, where they have long been kept, and are to a considerable extent retained to the present day; and although, as a grazier’s beast they have been pushed aside by some of the more favorite breeds, there are still found’ some fine dairy herds, and others bred in high perfection for the shambles, for which purpose their breeders contend they are a highly profitable beast. YY Go AYYGES ee, i g of is Hh i if fae: ne ih : i ear i ¢ ay re . | ma i Wtdt iH sant NY oa vi it i Hr a N A aS an Long-horn Bull. S THE LONG-HORNS. 77 The preceding cut represents one of the best of the improved long-horn bulls of the present day. From all we can gather of their early history, they appear, before their improvement began, to have been of rather sleazy appearance, loose jointed, sway- backed, and coarse in the bone,—points yet not altogether bred out of them, and perhaps never can be bred out by the use of their own blood alone. Still, in the animal before us, we see a com- pact, rangy beast, with many excellent qualities. We have not introduced the long-horned cattle into this work because we recommend them, or expect them to be, to any extent, brought into the United States as rivals to other popular breeds which are already here to improve our native stock, although we confess there are some salient and taking points of character in them; but’ chiefly to record the career of a man, distinguished in his time as one of the greatest improvers of farm stock of which we have any account—Robert Bakewell—and of whom our American stock breeders should have some more distinct history than what floats about among the fugitive papers of the time. Our account of him is taken from Youatt, and his account from a paper in the “‘Gentleman’s Magazine,” a London publication of the last century. Robert Bakewell was a farmer and stock breeder by profes- slon—as were his father, and grandfather before him—and born at Dishley, in Leicestershire, England, about the year 1725. His father and grandfather, during their lives, had both resided on the same estate. In the course of his career, he bred the common cart-horse of England to high perfection, giving him greater size, weight, and more muscular form than he before possessed, together with more beauty of form. He also bred the coarse, long-wooled sheep into such marked improvement that they assumed in his hands, the new names of “ Dishley,” “‘ Bake- well,” or ‘‘Leicester,” by the latter of which names (since fur- ther improved, in other hands, by a cross of the “old Cotswolds” 78 AMERICAN CATTLE. and ‘“Lincolns,” noted ‘“long-wooled” varieties of the present day,) they are now known. His practice and experience were long, as he died at about seventy years of age. About the year 1720 the first known improvement of the — long-horns was attempted. A blacksmith and farrier, of Linton, in Derbyshire, on the borders of Leicestershire, who had rented a little farm, had the honor of being first on the list of improvers. His name was Welby. But a fatal disease broke out and took off his cows, of which he had several, and put a stop to his fur- ther progress. Soon after this, Mr. Webster, of Canley, near Coventry, distinguished himself as a breeder. His herd had come from Sir Thomas Gresley’s stock, from whom also the unfortunate blacksmith, Welby, had obtained his animals. Webster had also obtained bulls from Lancashire, and West- moreland. He bred them to a high degree of perfection, so that they were called the ‘‘Canley” breed, and from his herd were afterwards drawn the chief and most valuable progenitors of the “‘improved”’ race. Then came Bakewell on the stage, as 4 further improver of the long-horns, and it must be confessed, with a race of cattle already prepared to his hands on which to exercise his ingenuity and skill. His plan was to improve the stock from their own blood alone, and without imtermixture of any other. He pur- chased two heifers from Mr. Webster, and a choice bull from Westmoreland. He bred closely ‘‘in and in,” but was careful to have his crosses, although of the same family, sufficiently sepa- rate to avoid any defects which might be perpetuated in the direct descent, where they might exist, from parent to offspring by the intensity of their interbreeding with each other. ‘“‘Many years did not pass before his stock was_ unrivalled for the roundness 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 thetr THE LONG-HORNS. 79 qualities as milkers were considerably lessened. The grazter 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.” By what strange gift, or skill, Mr. Bakewell improved his cat- tle, he left no record. He was not a man of learning, science, or wide observation beyond his own line, but he studied his pur- suit with great attention. He used to dissect the slaughtered carcasses of his cattle, hang up and preserve their joints, bones and sinews, in his rooms, and put their flesh in pickle, and study them, as a surgeon studies his anatomical specimens of humanity. By this he was enabled to detect their faults and imperfections, and by comparison with living animals avoid the perpetuation of like imperfections in the young progeny. He was kind-hearted, and treated his cattle with great tenderness, never using anything heavier than a little switch to control the young things; thus he rendered them docile, and gentle in temper, a quality tending much to their thrift and rapid growth. In the course of years he probably raised the long-horns to the highest point of per- fection of which the race was capable. The upshot was, he had sacrificed the milking quality of his herd for the promotion of their flesh, and the symmetry of their forms; and after all, it may be questioned how valuable his improvements, in an econom- ical point of view, were to the common farmers, who kept and bred them. Youatt gives a long and particular description of many points in Bakewell’s practice, made up of inferences chiefly, some of which may be correct, but as they are matters of opinion, we do not care to follow them. He names a fact, however, which it is worth while to notice, viz.: After Bakewell’s death, and his stock went into other hands, they declined. His spirit, skill, sagacity, tact, experience and knowledge—for he possessed all these in an eminent degree—did not go with them, ‘“ Tradition,” 80 AMERICAN CATTLE. too, says that the long horns have never been so good since Bakewell’s time. ‘Tradition,” however, is not accepted in the present day as evidence in a court of justice, and many of her rumors and sayings may be apocryphal. We are inclined to believe, from accounts which we have occasionally seen, and up to a late date also, that there do now exist in England as good long-horns as Bakewell ever bred, although not in numerous herds, nor of wide-spread fame. A Mr. Fowler, of Rollwright, in Oxfordshire, bought some cattle of Bakewell, and bred them with great care. He had a sale in the year 1791, in which seven bulls and six cows were sold. The prices of his bulls ranged from $760 to $1,250, and his cows from $446 to $1,365 each, and his whole herd of fifty averaged $429 each, showing the high value put upon the breed at that day. But it is needless to pursue this branch of the subject further, as we have no definite interest in the breed, as yet, in this country. Indeed, we have only introduced this information here as a matter of collateral interest to our American cattle breeders, and to give an outline of one branch of Mr. Bakewell’s course, and success, AS A DAIRY COW, The ‘ old-fashioned” long-horn ranks high, and is extensively used in some of the dairy counties of England,—many, in their purity of blood, and more in their grades with other breeds and admixtures. Her milk is good, and the quantity given satisfac- tory to the dairyman; and without both these qualities, a people so systematic as they, and looking sharply to profits, would certainly discard her. Aside from the plate, which is that of a very fat cow, we give a more particular description. The head is long; the neck none too clean; the dewlap small; the shoulder fair; the rib tolerable ; the brisket good; the back a little swayed, or THE LONG-HORNS. 81 hollow ; the loin good; the hips wide; the rumps and tail high ; the thighs moderately round. The colors—red, red-roan, blue- roan, yellow-red, or inclining sometimes to fawn color; and sometimes white on the back and belly. The horns show for themselves—the most objectionable, uneconomical, and incon- venient feature altogether, although giving her a most picturesque and unique appearance. In size they are above medium, ranging in bulk and weight fully with the Hereford. The cow here represented was ten years old, kept some years as a milker, and then fed off for the shambles. She shows a wonderful develop- ment of flesh, indicating a high feeding quality. AS A WORKING OX. We do not see, in this connection, how the long-horn can be superior, or as good as the Devon, or Hereford, although he is somewhat used in England for that purpose, in the districts where he is bred. His horns are decidedly in the way, and his sway, or depressed back, must detract from his strength for a heavy pull. Although kind and tractable as other beasts in temper, the objections on other scores are sufficient to make him Ax 82 AMERICAN CATTLE. undesirable for labor when other oxen, as in this country, can be plentifully found. AS A BEEF ANIMAL, The long-horn is good. They feed well, and kindly. They prove well at the shambles, and the quality of the flesh is fair, but not superior to that of other approved breeds. Their advocates, of whom there are many in England, have exhibited some fine specimens at the Smithfield market, in London, and claim for them an equality with any other breed; but that claim is not generally admitted by the breeders and graziers of other estab lished breeds, N — HN y A Ha KS ee = Plate 10. Gipienarn Ox. In the specimen before us is seen a well-formed and full-fleshed animal, highly bred, and in his best condition—much better than anything within the range of “common” cattle. He is a good “handler,” with an elastic touch, good skin and hair, and his “proof,” in tallow, must be good ;—altogether a very creditable beast. His true profit, however, as an economical animal, must THE LONG-HORNS. 83 be tested by the amount of food he has consumed, in proportion to his dead weight at the shambles. THE LONG-HORNS IN AMERICA. On this item, our record must be short. Among the early importations of English cattle in the Northern States, and pos- sibly in the Middle, and Southern, that some long-horns came also there can be no doubt, for we well recollect, in our boyhood, cattle which had some of their distinctive marks, too obvious to be mistaken, as inherited from that race. The first definitely known introduction of them, was by a Mr. Smith, a merchant, we believe, of Lexington, Ky., who brought out a bull and cow, and took to that town about, or in, the year 1817. They Were there bred, but whether together, or with other cattle, we have no direct information. At all events, they were soon merged in the ‘ Patton” stock, and the ‘“Short-horns of Col. Sanders’ importation of 1817.” The blood of those cattle still exists in aremote degree in some of the grade Kentucky herds, as we have distinctly seen, not many years ago, in steers sent from there to the New York cattle markets. The long-horns were not received with much favor in Kentucky, as the merits of the short-horns soon overshadowed them. When a youngster, just emerging into the gristle and bone of manhood, durig a temporary residence in northern Ohio, we made a horseback journey, in the month of September, 1821, down into the Scioto valley, as far as Circleville, in the county of Pickaway. In the valley, below Columbus, were “the Vir- ginia military grants,” in which numerous settlers from that State and Pennsylvania had come at an early day—for that country, 1790 to 1800—who took up large tracts of its rich lands, and cleared and cultivated them into broad pastures and rich corn- fields. A mile or two north of the town, on the Columbus road, spying a dozen or so of strange looking cattle, in a rich blue 84 AMERICAN CATTLE. grass pasture, shaded with groups of grand old oaks and walnuts, we reined up to the fence, dismounted, hitched our horse, and went into the field. The cattle were just as Youatt and our pictures describe them, blue, and red roans, and white backs and bellies, with horns long, curving forward, and drooping under the jaws; their bodies were round and full, showing high marks of growth and thrift,—a bull, some cows, and calves. How they came there, or who they belonged to, we did not particu- larly inquire at the time, having then little curiosity, or interest in cattle. Not again going there until thirty years later, we heard nothing more of the cattle, and then, on inquiry of one or two of the oldest settlers in the vicinity, we could learn nothing of them, only, “that they recollected some man, rich, and a large landholder thereabouts, had driven some ‘imported’ cattle in there, but what became of them they did not know,.and no trace was left of them.” Thus ends our story of the long-horns in America. We trust that they may again be imported here, and have a fair trial. CHAPTER X. THE CATTLE OF SCOTLAND. Havine examined the two marked and best approved of the middle-horned races of England; and taken a sufficient notice of the long-horns, we proceed to examine three of the most approved breeds of Scotland, as now concentrated, and improved from original races there, and fashioned to the uses of the present day. Lying north of England, with a surface more or less moun- tainous in its northern territory, and a much severer climate, its cattle, from time immemorial, have been of a far different order, and applied to somewhat different purposes than those of Eng- land. Youatt describes the breeds, or varieties of the different sections of the country minutely, and with great interest. It is not necessary for the present purpose to follow him throughout, but we shall extract largely from him, both in text and opinion. His information is solely from Scottish authorities, and such an air of fidelity to truth runs through them that we may wisely adopt, so far as our purposes need, their conclusions. The reader may inquire, why, when Hngland contains all of improvement in her best breeds that an American demands, should we seek the inferior cattle of Scotland to multiply, and further mix up the already sufficient varieties of cattle on our soils? Our answer is, that the vast scope of climates, soils, and altitudes of the United States, and their territories, embrace those of both England and Scotland, as well as the tropics. No one, two, three, or even four different breeds are best suited to them 86 AMERICAN CATTLE. all, and when we find those already fitted to our hands, and applicable to the best economical uses for all the different parts of our broad country, it is the part of wisdom to adopt them, instead of striving, by a long course of unprofitable experiment, to change and acclimate those by nature unfitted to new locali- ties. Let us take advantage of the labors of others, and apply them immediately to our uses and demands. » Thus Youatt: ‘Scotland contains several distinct and valua- ble 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 that we possess of Scottish cattle.” It is well to remark, as a matter of geographical information, that the western coast of Scotland, north of Ireland, is skirted for a distance of two hundred miles by a cluster of islands greater or smaller in extent; and further west and north of these extends another cluster called the Hebrides, or Western Islands, all thickly inhabited with a population more or less agricultural in their pursuits, and having with them the aboriginal race of cattle mentioned by Youatt. Beyond these, and on the extreme north of Scotland proper, range another group of islands, called the Orkneys, and to the extreme north of them, another, called the Shetland Islands, famous for a hardy people, and producing a diminutive race of tough, rugged little cattle, and also those wild looking, diminutive horses called ‘‘Shelties,” or Shetland ponies, of late introduced among us. ‘These several groups range from 55/6° to 61° north latitude; and although their climates be not so severe as in hbvraaper tiie American latitudes, there are harsh, austere and boisterous. CATTLE OF SCOTLAND. 87 Leaving out the Orkneys, and Shetlands, whose cattle are too diminutive to attract our particular notice, these western groups of islands, together with the Highlands proper, of Scot- land, possess a hardy race of middle-horned cattle, long termed ‘“‘Kyloes,” so called, as Sir John Sinclair asserts, “from their crossing so many kyloes, or ferries, which abound in the west of Scotland.” ‘ Others,” says Youatt, ‘and with more propriety, one of whom is Mr. Macdonald, the author of the ‘ Agriculture of the Highlands,’ tell us, that it is a corruption of the Gaelic word which signifies highland, and is commonly pronounced as if spelled Kael.” These cattle, all, probably, of one generic origin, have been intermixed by various crosses, within them- selves, so as to become homogeneous in nature, habit, and appearance, and as Scottish agriculture in the islands and the -ighlands has progressed, the cattle have also been better culti- vated and cared for, and within a century past highly improved, so as now to assume a distinct name and character, as ‘“ West Highlands.” To these our attention will now be directed. THE WEST HIGHLAND CATTLE. There are no “ Highland” cattle in the United States. At least, we do not know of any. Our impression is that a few were imported some years ago into Upper Canada, but what has become of them, if such was the fact, we have never learned. We have immense ranges of land in our mountain districts, mm various parts of the older States, which when properly subdued, will become a pastoral country. The vast plains west and north of the Missouri, as well as the wide mountain ranges which traverse them, must mainly be occupied in breeding and grazing cattle, if anything. Those lands will be admirably adapted to a class of cattle like the “West High- lands.” No really superior class of our present cattle are, as yet, properly fitted for the wild and roving life of such a country 88 AMERICAN CATTLE. The subject is a new one in our agricultural economy. Vast spaces of these now wild lands, covered with a short and abundant herbage, fed with limited streams of water, and unfitted for profitable tillage crops, must be owned in large tracts, and sparsely populated. Their distance from a dense population will preclude the possibility of taking their surplus grains to market, at a profit, even if they could be profitably raised, and they can hardly be so profitably used as to stock them with cattle. They can breed, and graze while young, on the broad plains, and when fit for market, be driven far away down to the more fertile districts, and fattened, as the Scottish Highlanders drive theirs to the richer lowlands, and to England. Our herdsmen of the plains and mountains would be at a far greater distance from their markets then the graziers of Scotland, but that distance is not insurmountable, nor over expensive. This is looking somewhat into the future, we admit, and by some it may be thought chimerical; but when we have seen, within twenty years past, California discovered; a State made of it; two other States, and more organized territories, soon to become States with them, adjoining it; several traveled routes for vast caravans of emigrants, and merchandise, and stage coaches passing over them; a railroad under construction and to be completed within the next five years, across the continent ; telegraph lines, and the appendages of wealth and civilization introduced with an energy and rapidity hitherto unparalleled in the annals of human progress; it is not too much to assume that an enlightened agricultural interest will soon direct its efforts thitherward, and plant itself firmly and permanently beside the various mining and other enterprises which are already estab- lished, and becoming thicker and more substantial continually. In view of these possibilities—probabilities, rather—we need no further apology for the space we shall occupy in introducing this valuable foreign race of cattle to American study and attention. HIGHLAND CATTLE. 89 Again Youatt: ‘“We have been favored with the following excellent descrip- tion of the true Kyloe, or West Highland bull, by Malcolm M’Neill, Esq., of the Isle of Islay, the southernmost of the inner range of the Hebrides: ‘The Highland 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 color, 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 (brisket) wide, and projecting well before the legs. The shoulder broad at the top, and the chine so full as to leave but little hollow behind them, (that is, the crops are full.) 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 sink- ing low in the middle; yet, in the whole, not forming the round and barrel-lke carcass which some have described. The thigh tapermg to the hock-jomt; 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 offal is not greater than in the most improved larger breeds; that they will lay their flesh and fat equally on the best parts; and that, when fat, the beef is closed fine in the grain, highly flavored, and so well mixed or marbled, that it commands a superior price in every market. 90 AMERICAN CATTLE. “The different islands of the Hebrides contain about one hun: dred 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. * * * * Cattle, therefore, constitute the staple commodity of the Hebrides. Three thousand five hundred are annually exported from the island of Islay alone. ‘“Mr. Moorhouse, from Craven, in Yorkshire, in 1763, was the first Hnglishman 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. ‘‘Hrom 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 thou- sand cattle, at two guineas a head, to be delivered free of ex- pense at Falkirk. T'wo days before, he had bought six hundred from Mr. M’Leod, of Waterside. “Horty years ago, (from 1763, the time at which Mr. Moor- house dates back, say in 1723,) 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 milk cows, and 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-weed, heather, and rushes. One-fifth of the cattle, on an average, used to perish every winter from starvation. When the cold had been unusually 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. ee ee See HIGHLAND CATTLE. 91 “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 astonish- ing in these islands. A good pasture can scarcely be left a fortnight without growing high and rank; and even the unen- closed, and marshy and heathy grounds are comparatively luxu- riant. In consequence of this, the farmer fully stocked, or over- “*Mr. Garnet in his ‘ Tour through the Highlands,’ 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 morasses and heathy mountains, but in winter, when the ground is coy- ered with snow, and when the naked wilds afford them neither shelter nor subsis- tence, the few cows, small, lean, and ready to drop for want of pasture, are brought into the hut where the family reside, and frequently share with them their little stock of meal which has been purchased or raised for the family only; while the cattle thus sustained, are bled occasionally to afford nourishment for the children after the mingled oatmeal and blood has been boiled or made into cakes.’ 92 AMERICAN CATTLE. stocked, 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, succeeded 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. “Tt is contrived, as much as possible, that the calves shall be dropped from the first 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 dairy maid, for it is commonly supposed, that if the calf is allowed to draw all the milk he can, it will keep the dam in low condition, and prevent her bemg 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 their way to the central and southern counties of England. ‘““The calves are housed in the beginning of November, and are highly fed on hay and roots (for the 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 different ages are kept separate; while, by shifting the cattle, the pasture is kept HIGHLAND CATTLE. 93 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 pre- served 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 little or no variety of breeds of cattle in the Hebrides. They are pure West Highlanders. Indeed, it is the belief of the Hebridean farmer, that no other breed of cattle will thrive on these islands, and that the Kyloes could not possibly be improved by being crossed with any others. He appeals to his uniform experience, and most correctly so in the Hebrides, that attempts at crossing have only destroyed the symmetry of the Kyloes, and rendered them more delicate, and less suitable to the climate and the pasture. ‘By selection from the choicest of the stock, however, the West Highlander has been materially improved. The Islay, the Isle of Skye, and the Argyleshire beast, readily obtains a con- siderably higher price than any other cattle reared in the Highlands of Scotland. Mr. M’Neil has been eminently suc- cessful in his attempts to improve the native breed. He has often obtained 1007. ($500) for three and four-year-old bulls oui of his stock; and for one bull he received 2002. ($1,000.) 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 94 AMERICAN CATTLE. 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. “Tt 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 milk 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 exceedingly rich, and the butter procured from it is excellent. “The management of the dairy is exceedingly simple, and, from the very simplicity of it, other districts may learn a useful lesson. The cows are driven as slowly and quietly as possible to the fold; the wild character of the animals, as well as a regard to the quality of the milk, show the propriety of this. They are carefully drained to the last drop, not only on account of the superior richness of the latter portion of the milk, but because the retention of any part is apt to hasten, if it does not produce, that which is one of the principal objections to the Highland cows as milkers, the speedy drying up of their milk. The milk is carried to the house with as little disturbance as practicable, and put into vessels of not more than two or three inches in depth. The cream is supposed to rise more rapidly in these shallow vessels; and it is removed in the course of eighteen hours. A cow will not, on the average, yield more than 22 lbs. of butter (of 24 oz. each,) in the summer season; she will yield about 90 lbs. of cheese, which is much liked by some on account of the aromatic flavor 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. HIGHLAND CATTLE. 95 “We have stated that more than 20,000 of the Hebridean cattle are conveyed to the mainland, some of which find their way even to the southernmost 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 pastures of Dumbartonshire; and in the next summer, after grazing awhile on the lower grounds, they are driven farther south, where they are fed during the second winter on turnips and hay. In April they are in good condition, and prepared for the early grass, on which they are finished. “Many of these small cattle are permanently arrested in their journey, and kept on low farms to consume the coarse grass, which other breeds refuse to eat; these are finished off on turnips, which are given them in the field about the end of Autumn, and they are sold about Christmas.” AS A BEEF ANIMAL, The flesh of the West Highland ox, is considered of the best quality in the London markets, and usually worth ld., or two cents per pound more than that of the ordinary breeds. He is usually put upon high feed at three years old, and in good pas- ture in summer, and a full allowance of turnips and meal, with plenty of hay or straw in winter, is fitted for the shambles at about four years old. ‘Taken from their native ranges, and put upon the rich feed of the better lands, they. thrive and ripen wonderfully, and make flesh more rapidly than any other cattle. It is the habit of many English noblemen, as they visit, with their families and numerous retinue, their several estates and castles during the “country season,” to have a herd of Highland bullocks driven by their servants, to supply their table with beef—the small, compact size of these cattle, as well as the superiority of their flesh, eminently fitting them for the purpose. 96 AMERICAN CATTLE. The animal lays his flesh generously on the choice parts, and it is so interlarded with fat as to make it beautifully marbled,—a capital point in its feeding. The weight of a well fed bullock ranges from 600 to 800 POW ene hide, and tallow. =| 2 ( iy ie Hyg is Ks MG Hig Mei A i HH Mil “Wh We WH: j ca ba Hy YN Wa ARMA Ly fi ie Ht o a it if SSNS) SSF 1 ! ay as ih; : BEY Gh i i Me ot {i We ied f ny Yi Leos nih a Mi Hy | A i (| NN UAH At tg a —— —— SS SSS! SS SSn = ee ee ee ee SSE SS SSS Plate 11. West Highland Ox. After saying thus much, and at such length, of the Highland cattle, giving Youatt’s admirable account of them, we may sum up their qualities pretty much as follows: They are an original breed, bred for untold centuries in one of the roughest climates; of great hardihood and endurance; homogeneous in their natures and habits; strong in blood, with a tendency and power to transmit it upon anything with which they may be connected. The cows are not fitted for the dairy, nor is it necessary they should be for the purposes to which they are intended, yet giving milk enough to rear their progeny well. They mature early, and when matured are full in all their points. They feed their pastures closely, are active in movement, capable of ranging. over wide fields, gathering their subsistance without trouble, adapted to climates and soils where other cattle would glean a HIGHLAND CATTLE. 97 bare subsistence, and thus a valuable race to introduce into the regions of country which we have named. The manner of doing this would be simple. A cargo of them might be selected near Glasgow, Scotland, where the choicest of them may be purchased at an average not exceeding $150 each, and shipped to New York, or Boston; thence transported cheaply in return cattle trains westward, which usually go empty, and then distributed to their destinations. We know of no cat- tle enterprise, for the purposes we have named, conducted with proper intelligence and spirit, which can promise more fairly and profitably; and we hope to see it undertaken by men whose means and foresight are equal to the object. A cargo-of one hundred, about equally divided between bulls and cows, might come out by way of experiment. A single bull or two should be retained with the cows for thorough breeding, and the remain- der might be placed with small native cows, for the immediate propagation of grades. The progeny of these cows, continu- ously put to thorough bred bulls, would soon raise them to that degree of blood to satisfy the main object of their introduction, and in a comparatively few years, for all practical purposes, they would become an established race, with but a fraction of the American blood remaining in them; and finally—holding con- tinuously to the pure blooded bulls in propagation—become all that we need in that description of cattle. Thus, our far south- western grazing regions which now send us only the ragged and comparatively worthless Texan cattle, and the far north-western wilds which send us none at all, together with our intermediate mountain ranges, would ultimately—even shortly—furnish our interior rich lands with grazing material for the best of beef, and our markets would be supplied with the choicest of flesh for consumption. ‘ Our suggestions on this subject are not visionary—not even enthusiastic. We only open one of those sure fields of enter- 9) 98 AMERICAN CATTLE. prise, which, compared with every day ventures, even in the agricultural line, usually so common-place and probable, may lead to success and fortune. We hope yet to see the Highland cattle introduced into the country. Their introduction could be no bar to the progress of the other valuable breeds we have now among us, as these latter must always occupy our good soils, on which, if the Highland cattle were placed, they would soon lose their distinctive qualities and become mere common things. They are never bred on the good land of Scotland or England. ey Ae i" Wy as (i t — Xx AN OSS JARRE \ ce West Highland We give above, the portrait of a beautiful dun, or light mouse- colored Highland cow, in the possession of Captain Gunter, at Witherby, Yorkshire, England, drawn purposely for this work from life, last summer, by our artist, Mr. Page. A more per- fectly developed animal, in her flesh producing qualities, ean hardly be found of any breed in the bovine raee. CHAPTER XI. THE GALLOWAYS, ANGUS, OR POLLED ABERDEEN. THESE are a polled, or hornless, race, originating in the low- lands and extreme south-western part of Scotland, taking their name from the district where they have been mainly bred. We let Youatt speak of them: “The stewartry of Kirkcudbright and the shire of Wigton, with a part of Ayrshire and Dumfries, formed the ancient province or kingdom of Galloway. The two first counties possess much interest with us as the native district of a breed - of polled, or dodded, 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 one hundred and fifty years the surplus cattle of Galloway had been sent far into England, and principally to the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. The polled beasts were always favorites 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 ‘*** 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 humble cows, as we call a bee a humble bee that wants a sting.’ ”’ 100 AMERICAN CATTLE. objections to the Highland 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 tne derivation of the breed, a few of the Galloways would have diminutive horns, but these were of a very curious nature, for they were attached to the skin and not to the skull. “The agriculture of Galloway, like that of every part of Scotland, was in a sadly deplorable state until about 1786, when the Harl of Selkirk became desirous of effecting some improve- ment 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 difficulty, from the ignorance and prejudice of the ten- antry, 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 prosperity to these liberal and patriotic noblemen. “Tn addition to the Selkirk family, we may reckon among the most zealous and successful improvers of the breed of Galloway cattle, the Murrays of Broughton, the Herons of Kirrouchtrie, the Gordons of Greenlaw, the Maxwells of Munches, and the Maitlands in the valley of Tarff in Kirkcudbright; and in Wigton, the Harls 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 THE GALLOWAYS. 101 in that district, we are indebted to an old, and skillful, and well- known breeder, whose name we regret that we are enjoined to withhold; but he will accept our thanks, and at some future period, possibly, the public will know to whom we and they are much indebted. “The Galloway cattle 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 barrel, and fullness of ribs, they will compare with any breed, and also in the propor- tion which the loins bear to the hook bones, or protuberances of the ribs.) The Rev. Mr. Smith, the author of the Survey of Galloway, says that, ‘when viewed from above, the whole body appears beautifully rounded, like the longitudinal section of a roller.” They are long in the quarters and ribs, and deep 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 as possible lost in the flank. “The Galloway is short in the 1eg, and moderately fine in the shank bones,—the happy medium seems to be preserved in the leg, which secures hardihood 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, rongh, and full of long hairs on the inside. . 102 AMERICAN CATTLE. “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 Durham breed, but it handles soft and kindly. Hven 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. hay ASLO UNRN | va N WAVE 4 iN Ni i () KY on 4 ) hay Weanit Wy Ay _ ESSA AQ. —<$<$— “The prevailing and the fashionable color 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 color, perhaps acquired from a cross with the Suffolk breed of cattle. Dark colors are uniformly preferred, from the belief that they indicate hardness of constitution.* ‘** Mr. Culley, who is great authority in these cases, thus describes the Gallo- ways: ‘In most respects, except wanting horns, these cattle resemble the long- horns, both in color 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 short-horns; not so thick as the former, nor so thin as the latter; and, like the best feeding kind of long-horns, they lay their fat upon the most valuable parts, and their beef ig well marbled or mixed with fat. They are mostly bred upon the moors or THE GALLOWAYS. 103 “This cut represents the Galloway bullock, almost ready for the butcher. The beautifully level laymg on of the flesh and fat, will not escape the notice of the read er. Y, ; ) g ; J NANB ALL AS ak is i) ie ie | TAN Era gain an i eas Mere x Hy any f et A dh INE au Wyapy Plate 13. Galloway Ox. “The breeding of cattle has been, from time almost imme- morial, the principal 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 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 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 few or no cattle sell so high in Smithfield market, owing to their laying their fat on the most valuable parts; and it is no unusual thing to see one of these little bullocks outsell a coarse Lincolnshire bullock, although the latter is heavier by several stones.’”? ¢ ‘““Mr. Lawrence says, in his excellent treatise on cattle, that ‘the pure Galloway breed exists, perhaps, no where in original purity, except in the moors of Monigaff, and Glenlove, and that these cattle are thinner in the hind quarters, than such as have been crossed by other breeds.’ ”’ 104 AMERICAN CATTLE. and healthy, particularly in the 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 forming small fertile glens, and producing shelter for the cattle in the winter, and early vegeta- tion in the spring. In the low districts there is little frost and snow, but the climate is mild and rather moist; and thus a languid vegetation is supported during the winter, and the pas- tures constantly retain their verdure. ‘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 leng as she gives milk.* During the first four or five months they are 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. When the calf begins to graze a little, the milk is abridged, by allowing the calf to suck only a shorter time, and he is turned upon the best young grass on the farm. In winter, he is uniformly housed during the night, and fed upon hay, with a few turnips, or potatoes; for the breeder knows that, if he is ‘«* Mr. Culley gives a curious account of this: ‘ The calves, from the time they are dropped, until able to support themselves, are allowed to run with their dams, but are prevented from sucking by means of a small piece of leather, with sharp spikes of iron fixed upon the outside, tied upon the upper part of the calf’s nose, which, by pricking the cow every time the calf attempts to suck, prevents her from letting it, until the milk-maid comes, when she takes off the muzzle from the little animal’s nose, and while she strips two of the teats, the calf takes care to empty the other two. As soon as the maid has done, she fixes on the instrument again, but it is done in such a manner as not to hinder the calf from feeding upon the grass.’ This might have been the practice in Mr. Culley’s time, but little or nothing of it is seen now.” [Culley wrote in the latter part of the last century. L. F. A.] THE GALLOWAYS. 105 neglected or stinted in his food during the first fifteen menths, he does not attain his natural size, nor does he feed so well afterwards. “The practice of allowing the calf to suck its mother, is objected to by some, and is apparently slovenly, and not econom- ical; but the rearing of cattle is considered of more importance than the money that could be realized from the milk and butter saved by starving the calf. It is also imagined that the act of sucking produces a plentiful supply of saliva, which materially contributes to the digestion of the milk and the health of the calf. The Galloway farmer maintains that an evident difference may be perceived between the calf that sucks its dam, and another that is fed from the pail—the coat of the former is sleek and glossy, indicating health ; while the hide of the other is dry and hard, nor is the unthrifty appearance removed until some time after the animal has been weaned and fed wholly on grass. It is also said that a greater proportion of calves, fed from the pail die of stomach complaints, than of those that suck the cow. “Tt is desirable that the calves should be dropped in the latter part of winter or in the beginning of spring. A Galloway farmer attaches a great deal of importance to this, for he finds that nearly a year’s growth and profit is lost if the calf is born in the middle of the summer. “The regular Galloway breeders rarely sell any of their calves for veal;* that is obtained only from those who keep cows for ***Tt is an old proverb in Galloway, that a good farmer would rather kill his son than a calf. ‘The people of this country do very seldom, or rather not at all, kill or sell their calves, as they do in other places, so that it is a rare thing to see veal, except sometimes, and at some few gentlemen’s tables. They give two reasons for this: one is, because, they say, a cow will not give down her milk without her calf, and so, should they sell or kill the calfe, they should want the use of the cow; but this, I suppose, might be helped, would they but traine up the cow otherwise at her first calving. The other reason is of more weight, viz.: since a great part of their wealth consists in the product of their cattel, they think it very ill husbandry to sell that for a shilling, which, in time, would yeeld pounds.’—Symson’s ‘ Large Account of Galleway,’ 1682.” ye L06 AMERICAN CATTLE. supplying the villagers with milk, and from the few dairy farms where cows are kept for making cheese. “The best heifers are retained as breeders, in order to supply the place of those whose progeny is not valuable, or who are turned off on account of their age. The other female calves are spayed during the first year. The spayed heifers are usually smaller than the bullocks, but they arrive sooner at maturity ; they fatten readily ; their meat is considered more delicate, and in proportion to their size, they sell at higher prices than the bullocks. “Mr. Culley says, ‘In Galloway, they spay more heifers than perhaps in all the island besides, and in this too their method is different from any other part I am acquainted with, for they do not castrate them until they are about a year old, whereas in every other place I know, the heifer calves are spayed from one to three months old; and it is now generally admitted as the safest practice to castrate calves and lambs, male or female, while very young.’ They are now generally spayed much earlier than they used to be, but some of the breeders adhere to the old custom. “The young cattle are rarely housed after the first winter; they are on their pastures day and night, but in cold weather, they receive hay and straw in the fields, supporting themselves otherwise on the foggage left unconsumed after the summer grass. Many of the farmers are beginning to learn their true interest, and the pastures are not so much overstocked in summer as they used to be, and a portion of herbage is left for the cattle in the winter; therefore, although the beasts are not in high condition in the spring, they had materially increased in size, and are in a proper state to be transferred to the rich pastures of the lower district. “The following were the proportions of a fat heifer of this breed: Height of shoulder, 5ft. 2in.; length from nose to rump, 10ft. 4in.; width acress the hip, 2ft. 6in.; across the middle of the THE GALLOWAYS. 107 back, 3ft.; across the shoulders, 2ft. 4in.; girth of leg below knee, 8in.; distance of breast from the ground, lft. 3%m.; width between fore legs, 1ft. 5m. The live weight was 1520 pounds. She was exhibited at the Smithfield cattle show, and her portrait engraved under the sanction of the club, iN iN SNA WY ‘ WN — ——_ Plate 14. Galloway Cow, four years old. This cut is an accurate portrait of a beautiful young Galloway cow, in Canada West, as taken by our artist. ‘The Galloway cows are not good milkers; but although the quantity of the milk is not great, it is rich in quality, and yields a large proportion of butter. A cow that gives from twelve to sixteen quarts of milk per day, is considered a very superior milker, and that quantity produces more than a pound and a half of butter. The average milk, however, of a Galloway cow, cannot be reckoned at more than six or eight quarts per day, during the five summer months after feeding her calf. During the next four months she does not give more than half of that quantity, and for two or three months she is dry, 108 AMERICAN CATTLE. ‘A bullock well fattened, will weigh from 560 to 840 pounds, net, at three or three and a half years old, and some have been fed to more than 1400 pounds at five years old. “There is, perhaps, no breed of cattle which can be more truly said to be indigenous to the country, and incapable of improvement by any foreign cross, than the Galloways. The short-horns almost every where else have improved the cattle of the districts to which they have traveled. They have, at least, in the first cross, produced manifest improvement, although the advantage has not often been prolonged much beyond the second generation; but even in the first cross, the short-horns have done little good in Galloway, and, as a permanent mixture, the choicest southern bulls have manifestly failed. The intelli- gent Galloway breeder is now perfectly satisfied that his stock can only be improved by adherence to the pure breed, and by care in the selection. “The Galloway cattle are generally very docile. This is a most valuable point about them in every respect. It is rare to find even a bull furious or troublesome.” After this minute and excellent description by- Youatt, little further need be said of them at home, and we proceed to speak somewhat of THE GALLOWAYS IN AMERICA. Whether they were imported at an early day into this country, in their purity of blood, we have no knowledge; but as Youatt says: “So late as the middle of the last century, (1750,) the great part of the Galloways were horned,” (which we somewhat doubt,) the probabilities of their coming here are light. It is certain, however, that polled cattle came over with some of the early importations, as such have been known here for more than a century past. As they were red, spotted, and of all colors usual among our native cattle, they probably were picked up from the polled herds of Norfolk or Suffolk, in England, where THE GALLOWAYS. 109 they have abounded for centuries. In the year 1837, we saw a very fine, black, polled Galloway cow, at the General Hospital, in Philadelphia. How she came there, we could not ascertain. About the year 1850, some enterprising Scotch farmers made the first importations of Galloways into the vicinity of Toronto, in Canada West. They already had the short-horns there, of high quality, imported many years before, and some of them were kept and much liked by the.same farmers who brought out the Galloways. But the latter were the cattle of their native land, and their attachment to them there was too strong to be overlooked or forgotten in their new homes. The cattle pos- sessed certain qualities which they found here in no other race, and with a characteristic love of their native land, as they loved the poetry of Burns, and repeated his songs, they also longed for, and sought the cattle of their native hills and heather. There must have been several different importations, for in the year 1857, we saw upwards of forty of them exhibited by com- peting owners at a Provincial agricultural show, at Brantford, and have since met them in equal numbers at other shows in the Province. They were fine cattle—full, round, and comely in form; robust im appearance; showing a ready aptitude to take on flesh; elas- tic to the touch; a good skin, with long, thick, wavy hair; of placid look, and apparently kindly temper. In addition to these good qualities, some of their owners declared them to be ‘‘ good milkers.” But their indications in that line did not show it, although, in practice, there may have been exceptions to what we thought indicated an opposite tendency. Their colors were black, generally, although we found one or two dull reds, or duns, and a brindle (black and red mixed,) among them—which colors, according to Youatt, are admissible. Taken altogether, the cattle fully answered his description. 110 AMERICAN CATTLE. Within the last ten or twelve years several importations of the improved Galloway (now more usually called Angus, and Aberdeen Polled, as they have for many years been bred and improved in Aberdeenshire and other eastern counties of Scot- land) have been made into the United States. The first impor- tation of particular note was made by a Scottish gentleman, Mr. Grant, since deceased, into Kansas, who bred them with spirit and intelligence in considerable numbers, and where they still remain in the hands of his successors. Crossed on the native cows of that region they have achieved a deserved repu- tation as beef-producers and are extending in demand for the broad ranches of the Western Territories. Mr. Cochrane and others of the Canadian Province of Quebec, have made numer- ous importations of late, intended for their extensive land pos- sessions in the Northern Territories bordermg and beyond the Missouri River. Mr. Frank B. Redfield, of Batavia, N.Y., has also ventured a limited importation, and thus far successfully bred them with profitable sales of their produce. Their main excellence is in beef production. They are of full average size with our largest common cattle, mature as early as the Herefords, and in the absence of horns are by some pre- ferred as safer in transportation on the railroads to distant city markets. The bulls have a remarkable prepotency, like other distinct breeds, to impress their characteristics on the miscel- laneous bred native cows upon which they are used—a single cross making an individuality of appearance and quality every way favorable to their use. The cows do not excel as milk- producers, and will not be sought for dairy purposes. Their milk, however, is rich in cream, and according to the quantity yielded gives a satisfactory amount of butter and cheese. We consider that they have established a permanent reputation among the various breeds which will be maintained in our future beef production. CHAPTER XII. THE AYRSHIRES. Tue third, and with dairymen, the most important variety among the Scottish cattle, now comes under our notice. All the authorities respecting the origin and history of this noted breed, are condensed and fully treated in Youatt. We have read and studied several English and Scottish writers on them, and heard tales innumerable; but as they more or less quote Youatt, and his authorities, we conclude to make him responsible for them all, and add only such observations, as our own personal acquaintance of some twenty-five years with them has made us familiar. The increasing interest with which the Ayrshire is regarded in this country, will justify what we have thought proper to insert from that generally correct author: “The county of Ayrshire extends along the eastern coast of the Firth of Clyde, and the North Channel from Renfrew to Wigtonshire, by the former of which it is bordered on the north, and by the latter on the south, while it has Kircudbright, Dum- fries, and Lanark on the east. It is necessary to mention this, in order that the reader may better comprehend the rapid distri- bution of the Ayrshire cattle over all these districts. The chmate is moist but mild; and the soil, with its produce, is calculated to render it the finest dairy country in Scotland, and equal perhaps to any in Great Britain. “Mr. Aiton, in his ‘Treatise on the Dairy Breed of Cows,’ thus describes the Ayrshire cattle: ‘The shapes most approved of in the dairy breed, are as follows: LL? AMERICAN CATTLE. ““¢ 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, with no loose skin helow ; shoulders thin; fore-quarters light; hind-quarters large ; hack straight, broad behind, the joints rather loose and open; carcass deep, and pelvis capacious, and wide over the heaps, 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 distance 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. Aiton also informs us, that ‘the Ayrshire farmers prefer their dairy-bulls, according to the feminine aspect of their heads and necks; and wish them not round behind, but broad at the hook-bones and hips, and full in the flanks. “ \ " oe ARH SR i Mig Za Plate iB. cree shire Cow. ‘“‘The origin of the Ayrshire cow, is even at the present da g y ) iy . amatter of dispute; all that is certainly known about her, is, that a century ago, (1733,) there was no such breed in Cunning- ham, 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 unparalleled in the history of agriculture. The native breed may be ameliorated by carefui selection, its value may be incalculably increased; some good qualities—some of its best qualitiles—may be for the first time developed; but yet there will be some resemblance to the origi- nal 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. “Mr. Aiton gives the following description of the Ayrshire cattle, (1783,) fifty years ago: ‘The cows kept in the districts 114 AMERICAN CATTLE. of Kyle and Cunningham, were of a diminutive size, ill-fed, ill-shaped, and they yielded but a scanty return in milk; they were mostly of a black color, 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 cattle 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 hair was coarse and open, and few of them yielded more than six or eight quarts of milk per day, when in their best plight; or weighed, when fat, more than from 300 to 400 pounds avoirdupois, sinking offal.’ “He very naturally adds—‘It was impossible that these cattle, 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 straw, and what they could pick up in the fields, to which they were turned out almost every day, with a mash of a little corn with chaff daily, for a few weeks after calving, and their pasture in summer was of the very worst quality; and that coarse pasture was so overstocked, and eaten so bare, that the cattle were half-starved.’ ” “Tf Mr. Aiton’s description of the present improved Ayrshire is correct, the breed is very much changed, and yet there is so much indistinct resemblance, that a great deal of it must have been done by careful selection, from among the native cattle, and better feeding and treatment; but when we look closer into the matter, the shortness, or rather diminutiveness 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 prominence of all the bones—these are features which it would seem impossible for any selection from the native breed to give. While, therefore, the judge of cattle will trace the features of the old breed, he will suspect, what general tradition confirms, THE AYRSHIRES. 115 that it was a fortunate cross, or a succession of crosses with some foreign stock, and that, probably, it was the Holderness (an old variety of the short-horns—great milkers,) that helped to pro- duce the improved Cunningham cattle. We give a correct cut of a modern Ayrshire bull, of late importation, drawn from life, in which will be seen more round- ness and symmetry of style, than im the bulls of even twenty years ago. No tang oe — Oe Plate 16. Ayrshire Bull. “In many a district, the attempt to introduce the Teeswate breed, (short-horns,) or to establish a cross from it, had palpably failed, for the soil and the climate suited only the hardihood of the Highlander; but here was a mild climate—a dairy country; the Highlander was in a manner out of his place; he had degenerated, and the milking properties of the Holderness, and her capability of ultimately fattening, although slowly, and at considerable expense, happily amalgamated with his hardihood, and disposition 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. 116 AMERICAN CATTLE. “Mr. Robertson, in his ‘Rural Recollections,’ says: ‘Who introduced the present breed is not very precisely ascertained, but the late Colonel Fullarton, whose account of ‘The Husbandry of Ayrshire,’ which was published in 1793, and whose authority is of considerable weight in everything relating to it, states, that a gentleman of long experience, Mr. Bruce Campbell, asserts that this breed was introduced by the late Harl of Marchmont.’ The Earl of Marchmont, alluded to, must have been that Alexander Hume Campbell, who married Margaret Campbell, heiress of Assnoch, in the same parish, and who became Karl of Marchmont in 1724, and died in 1740. The introduction then, of this dairy stock, must have happened be- tween these two dates, and so far corresponds with the tradition- ary 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 eituer of the Holderness breed, or derived from it; judging from the varied color, or, from some- what better evidence, the small head and slender neck, in which they bear a striking resemblance to them.’* ‘““These cattle, from which, by crosses with the native breed, the present improved Ayrshire arose, were first introduced on ‘** 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 animals, to convince us that this supposition is altogether erroneous. ‘*In Rawlin’s * Complete Cow-doctor,’ published at Glasgow, in 1794, the follow- ing 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. Itis said to bea mixture, by bulls brought from the Island of Alderney, with their own cows. These are of asmall size. These are allowed to yield more milk daily than from any other kind of cattle, when a just comparison is made of their size and pasture. They are much leaner and thinner than any other of the Scotch or English breeds, when in the best grass. They are not deemed a race of handsome cattle, but rather the contrary, being shaped more like the (common) Dutch breed than any of the natives of Scotland. Theirhorns are small, and stand remark- ably awkward ; their color is generally pied, or of a sandy red, varying in this from all other races.’ ”’ - THE AYRSHIRES. ay, 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, im- ported some of the Dutch cattle, and their progeny was long afterwards distinguished by the name of the Dunlop cows. These were the first of the improved, or stranger breed, that reached the baillery of Cunningham. Mr. Orr, about the year 1767, brought to his estate of Grongar, near Kilmarnock, some fine milch cows of a larger size than any which had been on the farm. It was not, however, until about 1780, that this improved breed might be said to be duly estimated, or generally established in that part of Ayrshire, although they had begun to extend beyond the Irvine, into Kyle. About 1790, according to Mr. Aiton, Mr. Fulton from Blith, carried them first into Carrick, and Mr. Wilson, of Kilpatrick, was the first who took them to the southern parts of that district. So late as 1804, they were intro- duced on the estate of Penmore, on the Stonchar, and they are now the established cattle of Ayrshire; they are increasing in the neighboring counties, and have found their way to most parts of Britain, | ‘““'The breed has much improved since Mr. Aiton described it, and is short in the leg; the neck a little thicker at the shoulder, but finely shaped towards the 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 loms and haunches, Some, however, have suspected, and not without reason, that an attention to the shape and beauty, and an attempt to produce fat and sleeky cattle, which may be admired at the show, has a tendency to improve what is only their second point—their quality as grazing cattle—and that at the hazard or the certainty of diminishing their value as milkers 118 AMERICAN OATTLE. “We agree with Mr. Aiton, that the excellency of a dairy cow is estimated 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. “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 and a half avoirdupois, of butter. An Ayrshire cow may be reckoned to yield 257 English pounds of butter per 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 followimg will be the result : —twenty-eight gallons of milk, with the cream, will yield 24 pounds of sweet-milk cheese, or 514 pounds 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 ““* A Scotch pint is nearly two English quarts. An Ayrshire pound consists of 24 ounces, and sixteen of these pounds, or 24 pounds avoirdupois, make astone. Mr. Fullarton, in his ‘ Statistical Account of Dulry,’ in this county, states that in 1794, before the establishment of this improved Ayrshire cow, each cow would yield, on the average, in the course of the season, 18 stones, or 288 Ibs. of sweet-milk cheese.” ‘+ In some experiments conducted at the Earl of Chesterfield’s dairy, at Bradley- Hall farm, it appeared that, in the height of the season, the Holderness would yield 7 gallons and a quart; the long-horn and the Alderney, 4 gallons 3 quarts; and the Devon, 4 gallons 1 pint per day ; and when this was made into butter, the result was, from the Holderness, 3844 ounces; from the Devon, 28 ounces ; and from the Alderney, 25 ounces. The Ayrshire yields 5 gallons per day, and from that is pro- duced 34 ounces of butter.” THE AYRSHIRES. 119 “Mr. Aiton rates the profit of the Ayrshire cow at a high value. He says: ‘To sum up all in one sentence, I now repeat that, hundreds and thousands of the best Scotch dairy cows, when they are in their best condition and well fed, yield at the rate of 2000 Scotch pints of milk (1000 gallons) in one year; that, in general, from 772 to 8 pints (3% to 4 gallons) of their milk will yield a pound of butter, county weight (1/2 pounds avoirdupois) ; that 55 pints (27/6 gallons) of their milk will produce one stone and a half, imperial weight, of full milk-cheese. “Mr. Rankine, the author of an excellent report of a Kyle farm, and some of whose observations, with which we have been privately favored, we have embodied in our account of the Ayr- shire cattle, very justly, we think, maintains that Mr. Aiton’s statement is far too high, and his calculations not well founded. “¢T 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 years been the handsomest I ever saw, and his farm being close to a small town, he had every inducement to keep them in the highest condition that is requisite for giving the largest produce in milk. Hestates that, at the best of the season, the average milk from each is 9 Scots pints (472 gallons,) and in a year, 1300 Scots pints (650 gallons); that in the summer season, 64 pints (32 gallons) of entire milk will make an Ayrshire stone (24 pounds) of cheese ; and 96 pints (48 gallons) of skimmed milk will produce the same quantity; and that 180 pints (90 gallons) will make 24 pounds of butter. “Another farmer, in a different district of this county, and who keeps a stock of between thirty and forty very superior cows, and always in condition, states that the average produce of each is 1375 pints (687/¢ gallons). My belief, on the whole, is, that 120 AMERICAN CATTLE. although there may be Ayrshire cows capable of giving 900 gal- lons in the year, it would be difficult to bring half a score of them together; and that in stocks of the greater number, most care- fully selected, and liberally fed, from 650 to 700 gallons 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 550 gallons 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 Scot- land, and which may otherwise be implicitly relied on. “The fattening properties of the Ayrshire cattle we believe to be a little exaggerated. They will feed kindly and profitably, and their meat will be good. They will fatten on farms and in districts where others could not be made to thrive at all, except partly or principally supported by artificial food. They unite, perhaps, to a greater degree than any other breed, the supposed incompatible properties of yieldmg 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. In their own country, a cow of a fleshy make, and which seldom proves a good milker, may be easily raised from 560 to 700 pounds, and bullocks of three years old are brought to weigh from 700 to 840 pounds weight. 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 THE AYRSHIRES. |e - select the coarsest animals they can find, in order to avoid the con- sequence 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 neighbors, the Galloways, when put on a poor soil; and they will be left considerably behind their short-horn sires, when transplanted to luxuriant pasture. It will be long, perhaps, before they will be favorites with the butchers, for the fifth quarter will not 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 beautiful 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. “The advantage of feeding well in winter, and sending a cow to grass in good condition, is now generally understood; but the defect in practice is, that what can be afforded to the cow in this way, is given only while they are in milk, or when they calve. The return is, indeed, rendered more immediate, but it would be still more advantageous if a fair portion of the proper winter’s food were given to the dairy cows, after they were dry of milk. ‘Mr. Aiton gives a satisfactory account of the rearing of dairy stock. TZ'hey are selected from parents of the best quality, and few are brought up that are not of the fashionable color. 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. 6 h22 AMERICAN CATTLE. “Calves reared for dairy stock are not allowed to suck their dams, but are always fed by the hand from a dish. They are generally fed on milk, only for the first four, five or six weeks, and are then allowed from four to five quarts of new milk, twice in the twenty-four hours. (Mr. Rankine says ‘from 10 to 12 quarts.’) Some never give them any other food when young, except milk; and lessen the quantity when the calves begin to eat grass or other food, which they will generally do at about. five weeks old; the milk is totally withdrawn about the seventh or eighth week of the calf’s age. If, however, the calf is reared in the winter, or early in the spring before the grass rises, it must be longer supplied with milk, for it will not so soon learn to eat hay or straw. Some mix meal with the milk after the third or fourth week; others add new whey to the milk, which ~ has been first mixed with meal; and when the calf gets two months old they withdraw the milk, and feed it on whey and porridge. Hay-tea, broths of peas, or of pea straw, linseed beaten into powder, treacle, &c., have all been sometimes used to 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 stock, 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 THE AYRSHIRES. 123 they can eat during the night and morning, and, except in time of snow, are turned out to the fields durmg the day time. 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.” After these prolonged and exhaustive draughts from Youatt, and fAzs authorities, which we consider mainly an argument in favor of the Ayrshire—and have thought it a duty in a work of this character, to give for the benefit of the great and increasing dairy interest of our country—we have something to say on our own account about them. And not in a partizan spirit, either, but in that of a fair investigation of the breed and its merits. And first, as to their origin and history. The Ayrshires first began to be imported into the United States about the year 1831—thirty-six years ago. They were somewhat different in appearance from the later importations, being in color usually deep red, or brown, flecked with white, of rather plain look, and having, mostly, black noses. In recent importations, or those within the last fifteen years, many of them have assumed more the “‘short-horn” colors, the red in them being of a lighter shade, and less of it—white being the prevailing color in many—and some of them a lively patched roan, with yellow noses, and handsome, and more symmetrical forms, but alike bearing the marks of good milkers. These remarks may- appear inconsequent now, but their bearing will be found in fur- ther speaking of their history, and course of breeding. In the array of fact, tradition, and inference relating to their origin, as given by Youatt, a strange jumble is made of their history, and still, most of the relations given by the authorities may be admitted. The fact that the common Scotch, or Kyloe cow, previous to the year 1724, was a creature of but ordinary value for the dairy, is easily understood; and the “conjecture” of Mr. Robertson, that the Earl of Marchmont, in some of the 124 AMERICAN CATTLE. years between 1724 and 1740, brought “‘ Holderness” cattle, or “those derived from them,” on to his estates to improve the dairy qualities of his cows, is probable, as the old Holderness cattle were extraordinary milkers, and had the colors described in the early Ayrshires. It was on the Karl of Marchmont’s estate that the zmprovement in the Ayrshires first began. Some years afterwards, it appears that ‘Mr. Dunlop imported some Dutch cattle” and crossed on the Ayrshires, or their immediate progenitors. This “Dutch” importation we must be permitted to doubt, as by a long standing British order in Council, passed previous to, and continued many years after the sup- posed Dutch improvement happened, the importation of foreign cattle was prohibited. ‘Mr. Orr, about the year 1767, brought to his estate near Kilmarnock, (in Ayrshire,) some fine milk cows of a larger size than any which had been on his farm. It was not, however, till about 1780, that this improved breed might be said to be duly estimated, or generally established in that part of Ayrshire.” In 1790, and in 1804, the Ayrshires were further disseminated, and about the latter year, Mr. Aiton takes them up. Youatt also says, “the breed has been much improved since Mr. Aiton described it.” And now the grand question arises: what bulls were used to make that improve- ment? for it appears that up to Aiton’s time, the Ayrshires were a composition of different breeds, based mainly on the Kyloe. As Mr. Aiton is made the chief authority for this origin, and improvement, we wish that gentleman had been more particular in facts, and dates, for he leaves the matter altogether to infer- ence, and guess work, as to how the improvements were effected ; and in that dilemma we venture a guess. It could be from no other than a direct cross of small, compact short-horn bulls, descended from the best milking cows in the north-eastern coun- ties of England, on the cows descended from the ‘ Holderness” bulls of Lord Marchmont, and their crosses from the ‘“conjec- THE AYRSHIRES. 125 tured” Dutch bulls, brought in by Mr. Dunlop. From no other race of cattle, either Scotch, English, or Irish, could the improved Ayrshires get their shape, color, and milking qualities combined— color and shape resembling the short-horns more than any other, and the milking quality also possessed by them in an eminent degree. And although a persistence in such crosses has been kept out of sight, or not acknowledged, the further improvement of the Ayrshires shows still greater marks of a continued cross from the same quarter. The late Mr. Adam.Fergusson, a distinguished statesman, farmer, and stock breeder, of Upper Canada, a native, and fifty years a resident, and connected with agricultural interests in the Lowlands of Scotland, repeatedly informed us that the improve- ment of the Ayrshires was effected by the use of short-horn bulls, and the more intelligent of the Scottish agriculturists con- sidered them as simply grade short-horns. The Ayrshires resem- ble the short-horns more than they do any other cattle, and as they do not claim originality in breed, and have been made up mainly within the last hundred years, there need be no hesitancy in acknowledging both the facts and inferences concerning them. That they are a good breed of cattle, useful, and eminently qualified for the dairy, and capable of perpetuating among them- selves their good qualities, are facts now well established, both in Scotland and America; and thus we leave their ‘ history.” origin and THE AYRSHIRES IN AMERICA. Their thirty-six years’ trial here has been successful. They are hardy, healthy, well fitted to our climate, and pastures, and prove good milkers, both in the imported originals, and their progeny. Their flow of milk is good in quantity, and fair in quality; yet, we must be permitted to say, that in this country they do not yield so much in quantity, as is alleged they have produced in Scotland. The chief reason for this is obvious. 126 AMERICAN CATTLE. Ayrshire has a moist climate—an almost continuous drizzle of rains, or moisture pervading it—making fresh, green pastures; a cooler and more equable temperature in summer, and warmer in winter than ours. Our American climate is liable to extremes of cold in winter, heat in summer, and protracted droughts, for weeks, drying up our herbage. These differences alone account for a diminished quantity in the yield of milk from the Scotch, to the American Ayrshires. They have softer grasses for hay, and plenty of root feeding in winter, which latter we have not. This fact of a diminished yield in milk on this side of the Atlantic, is acknowledged by those most conversant with them in both countries. In the year 1837, we visited the Ayrshire herd of the late Mr. John P. Cushing, at Watertown, near Boston, Mass. They were of the choicest quality, imported by himself, on an order sent out to an experienced dealer in Ayrshire cattle, ‘ without regard to price, so they were of the best.” Two or three of the cows were “prize” milkers at home, and certificates, duly verified, were sent with them, of the quantities of milk they had made. ‘hey had then been a year or more at Mr. Cushing’s farm, and had the best of keep. We questioned the manager as to the quantities of milk the cows gave since their arrival, com- pared with the certificates. His answer was, ‘about one-third less, on an average. The best prize cow gave 33 quarts per day when at her maximum, in Ayrshire, and 22 quarts here, and the others in about like proportion; but they are all good milkers, and Mr. Cushing is well satisfied with them.” We simply note the fact of the declension in milk of the Ayrshires in this country, knowing the same to have occurred with cows of other breeds from England. AS A BEEF ANIMAL. Youatt says little of the Ayrshires in this particular. We get only this: “It will be long, perhaps, before they will be favorites THE AYRSHIRES. | ele with the butchers, for the fifth quarter will not 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 beautiful appearance to the meat, and should enhance its price to the con sumer.” We never saw an Ayrshire bullock, and can know little of them as beef. We see no good reason, however, why they should not make proper animals for slaughter, as their general appearance indicates good feeding qualities. Hitherto, attention has been drawn chiefly to their milk, and for that reason, proba- bly, less attention has been given to their fattening properties. That must remain a question for trial. After all, we have little doubt that the Ayrshires owe their chief qualities, both in milk, as well as in form and color, to their short-horn progenitors, on one side. We have no wish to under- rate them, and do not. But we have bred, and seen bred by others, cows which, if declared to be Ayrshires, would pass without suspicion, both in their looks, and milking properties, as good specimens of the breed; and these were simply the produce of good native milk cows, from compact, small, short-horn bulls, of good milking ancestry. The cuts which we give are accurate likenesses of a living bull and cow—hboth first prize animals— descended from a late importation from Ayrshire, which were said to be as good as existed in Scotland. A single glance will detect their resemblance to the small, compact short-horns, which we occasionally meet where they are kept more for their milk than for “prize” animals at the exhibitions. CHAPT HER, XH. THE ALDERNEY—JERSEY—GUERNSEY—OR CHANNEL ISLAND CATTLE. We regret that Y ouatt—so elaborate with some other breeds— has devoted less than two pages of text to this singular, unique, and truly valuable race. And from other English authorities we obtain but sketches in various unconnected accounts. Y ouatt calls them—to Hngland—a “foreign breed.” They are go, peing originally from Normandy, a Province in the north-western part of France, but they were long ago transplanted, and became the peculiar race: belonging to the “‘ British Channel Islands” of Jersey, Guernsey, and Alderney, lying off the coast of Nor- imandy, the latter, smallest of the three, producing only a few cattle. We glean some partial descriptions of them from foreign pub- lications; but as we have them here, probably in as high qualities - of breeding and excellence as in their native Islands, we describe them as we have seen. Beginning with the head—the most characteristic feature—the muzzle is fine, the nose either dark brown or black, and occasionally a yellowish shade, with a peculiar mealy, light-colored hair, running up the face into a smoky hue, when it gradully takes the general color of the body; the face is slightly dishing, clean of flesh, mild and gentle in expression; the eye clear and full, and encircled with a distinct ring of the color of the nose; the forehead bold; the horn short, curving inward, and waxy in color, with black tips; THE JERSEYS. 129 the ear sizable, thin, and quick in movement. The whole head is original, and blood-like in appearance—more so, than in almost any other of the cattle race—reminding one strongly of the head of our American Elk. The neck is somewhat depressed—would be called ‘‘ewe-necked,” by some—but clean in the throat, with moderate or little dewlap; the shoulders are thin and some- what ragged, with prominent points running down to a delicate arm, and slender legs beneath; the fore-quarters stand rather close together, with a thinnish, yet well developed brisket between; the ribs are flat, yet giving sufficient play for good lungs; the back depressed from a straight line; the belly deep and large; the hips tolerably wide; the rump and tail high; the loin and quarter medium in length, the thigh thin and deep; the twist wide, to accommodate a clean, good-sized udder; the flanks medium ; the hocks, or gambrel joints, crooked; the hind legs small; the udder capacious, square, set well forward, and cov- ered with soft, silky hair; the teats fine, standing well apart, and nicely tapering; the milk veins prominent. On the whole she is a homely, blood-like, gentle, useful little housekeeping body, with a most kindly temper, loving to be petted, and, like the “pony,” with the children, readily becomes .a great favorite with those who have her about them, either in pasture, paddock, or stable. The colors are usually light red, or fawn, occasion- ally smoky grey, and sometimes black, mixed or plashed more or less with white. Roan colors, and a more rounded form, are - now and then seen among them, but are not much fancied. The Guernsey cows are usually one-third larger, of similar shape to the Jerseys, and showing superior rotundity and symmetry, with an increased lacteal production. Our portraits of the sexes, taken from life, give a correct representation of the true Jerseys. They are excellent specimens. 6 130 AMERICAN CATTLE. She is simply a milking cow, and for nothing else should the race ever be bred. The bulls may be used in crossing on our common cows, to give the Jersey quality and color of milk in ‘ =) = = = =s ee |! Y Ht HH NH ath \ : 1} Wp )) = aN : SSS aS $e lS —= = Plate 17. Jersey Cow. the heifers thus descended from them; but by no infusion of any - other blood can the Jersey cow be improved in the rich yellow qualities for which her milk is esteemed. Along the coast of Hampshire, in England, she is frequently kept and bred, and many of them are scattered over other counties, but chiefly in individual, or small numbers for family use, to yield the milk and butter so highly prized by nce housekeepers. The distinguishing quality for which both the Jersey and Guernsey cows are prized is the marked richness, and deep yellow color of their milk, giving also that color to their butter. Yet the milk yielded by them is moderate in quantity, icreas- ing from eight to sixteen quarts per day in the best of their seasons, and remarkably rich in cream and butter. Experienced breeders and keepers of them for dairy uses have informed us aaa i tase THE JERSEYS AND GUERNSEYS. es that the grades descended from native dams and Jersey and Guernsey bulls are nearly or auite equal to the purely bred ones in the qualities of their butter, so strongly do these grades partake of the lacteal product. Jerseys were occasionally imported into America as early as sixty years ago, and in considerable numbers in succeeding years. The late Mr. John A. Taintor, of Hartford, Conn., was probably the largest importer, having brought in a good many about the year 1850, and later, from which he bred and sold many choice cows and bulls. Other importations have been made into New York, by the late Mr. Roswell L. Colt, of Pater- son, New Jersey, and by others into Boston, Mass., Connecti- cut and Philadelphia. The late Nicholas Biddle, of Philadelphia, fifty years ago imported several fine Guernsey cattle and placed them on his farm at Andalusia, near that city. Their blood was largely disseminated, and still remains in the fine butter dairies of that vicinity. They are now considerably kept in vari- ous parts of the New England States, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and a few of the States further south and west. ‘They are favorites where well known, are increasing in numbers, and bear good prices—from $150 to $300 each for cows, depending on appearance and quality. Natives of a milder climate than ours, they are more delicate in constitution, and require good shelter and food. ‘hey will not rough it so well as our common cows, or some of the English breeds; but they well repay all the care given them, and should not be neglected. John Lawrence, an English writer, quoted by Youatt, gives an account of a Jersey cow which made nine- teen bounds of butter each week, for three successive weeks, “Cand the fact was so extraordinary as to be thought worthy of a memorandum in the parish books.” Hxtraordinary, most truly, for a cow of any breed. Equally large yields have been made 132 AMERICAN CATTLE. by those of other breeds, but only under remarkable circumstances and conditions. Our portrait of the bull much resembles that of the cow, but showing an arched neck, and the more masculine appearance common to his sex. The chief foreign writer on Jersey cattle is Mr. Le Couteur, a native, and, if living, a resident of that island. They are the cattle of that Island; kept and bred with scrupulous care to i | La iwi AA i HL I 7 SSS AUT TT HD — SSS —!a their purity of blood, and the preservation of their distinctive qualities. The people of the islands have laws prohibiting the introduction of foreign cattle among them, and regulating their exportation abroad. It is estimated that upwards of four thousand cattle of the pure breed are annually exported from the Channel Islands. Until within the last eight or ten years the Guernsey and Jer- sey cattle were chiefly kept in limited numbers in the vicinities THE’ JERSEYS. ses of our larger Atlantic cities, and some of the interior towns not far away from them. But a late remarkable inclination for their possession has stimulated numerous importations from their native Islands to many hundreds in number—Jerseys much the most numerous—so that now they prevade to more or less extent almost every State of our Union. Herd books and Registers, rigidly exacting in their rules of record, have been established, and very much of “fancy” points in the animals have been ob- tained in the “solid” colors and other features (of little worth, however, in their dairy qualities). The vulgar adage, “A new broom sweeps clean,” has never been more fully verified than in the exhorbitant prices which have recently been obtained for individual animals of popular tribes $1,000 to even $3,000—a fancy, in our opinion, which time and experience will greatly modify. Under extraordinary stimulants of food and forcing, some cows are said to have produced enormous yields of butter—14 to 18 pounds in a single week—many of which may be taken with grains of allowance, and which cannot be kept up for extended periods of time. They may maintain an ascend- ~ ency in that item, but whether they will become a chief factor in the extended dairy production of our country is yet to be proved. ‘The larger size of the GUERNSEYS, with a superior tendency to flesh and equally good dairy quali- ties as the Jerseys, will keep them in due popularity and use by the side of the latter. They are rapidly increasing in our country, both by importation and native breeding, and equally esteemed by those who have adopted them for dairy purposes, In the Jersey or Guernsey cross on our common cows, an eminent improvement has been made in butter production, both in richness of color and excellence of flavor. CHAPTER XIV. THE SHORT-HORNS. WE now approach a race of cattle, which, within the present century, have received more of public attention, and acquired a wider popularity, both i England and America, than perhaps all the other races put together. It is due to this attention and popularity, that we give all the information regarding them (as, indeed, we have with the others,) which our reading and obser- vation will admit. Their history has been involved more or less in doubt and controversy, and from a study of some years of all the various authorities regarding them, unbiased by either partiality or prejudice, we shall strive to draw truthful conclu- sions, and place them in such light that all may understand both their early and present conditions. English agricultural history, (for the Short-Horns, in their present appearance, were known only in Hngland,) previous to dates down towards early in the last century—say one hundred and forty years ago—is silent respecting them. The farming interests of Britain had gradually awaked to the improvement of their condition, through the wants of a growing commerce and population. The necessity for increasmg the products and revenues of the land, and the consequent stocking them with better breeds of neat cattle than had previously occupied them, had become imperative. It was in the latter years of the last century, that the agricultural writers of the day began to give to | the public some notion of the existence and value of this now celebrated race. Among these writers were Culley, Marshall, Bailey, and Lawrence, who wrote upon short-horn cattle in Abbett. THE SHORT-HORNS. 135 those years, and Berry, Youatt, Martin, Bates, and some others, in a brief way, in the present. We shall use all these author- ities, without particular, or but partial mention of either, in relating their history and progress down to the present day. We must acknowledge, also, many facts derived from American writers and breeders of the race, whose information is of particu- lar value, touching their recent history, or breeding, which will be duly acknowledged; and wherever pretended history, either English or American, has been found in error, we shall strive to correct it. For a proper understanding of the matter, here at the thresh- old, we may as well assert (better-here than elsewhere, ) that the prevailing impressions of the history of the ¢mproved short- horns, (as they are called,) to some extent in England, and almost altogether in America, is a false one. With a charge of that character, an explanation is necessary. Youatt, already frequently mentioned, is given as the principal and most important English authority on “British” cattle. He compiled his work, as we have before stated, at the request of, and published it under the superintendence of, the “Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge,” a body then existing, and whose press was in London. He was competent to the task, and the chief parts of his work have been admitted to be correct. The various breeds of ‘ British cattle” received a due share of his attention. With well-established authorities for his accounts of most of the breeds which he noticed, he left the short-horns for the last; and with a strange infatuation, when he came to them—the most important in value of any other—instead of doing the work himself, he farmed it out, with the exception only of a few running notes of his own, to one who had been a breeder of them for a few years only, the ‘‘ Rev. Henry Berry.” A brief account of Mr. Berry, and his short-horn experience, must be given, 136 AMERICAN CATTLE. It appears that a few years previous to 1824, he commenced breeding, his stock being derived principally from the herd of Mr. Jonas Whittaker, a cotton manufacturer, near Otley, in Yorkshire. About that time a controversy had arisen as to the comparative merits of the short-horn and Hereford breeds of cattle, as a grazing and fattening animal, between their respective advocates, and Berry, as the champion of the short-horns, wrote a pamphlet on the subject, purporting to give a history of the ‘Improved Short-horns, derived from authentic sources; to which is added an enquiry as to their value for general purposes, placed in competition with the improved Herefords.” This pamphlet bears an imprint of the year 1824. In the year 1830, he printed a ‘second edition” of the same work. ~With this con- troversy, or the comparative merits of the two breeds, we have “nothing to do, as it does not appertain to our present subject. His facts respecting the short-horns, and their history, so far as derived from others, we let stand, and do not particularly dispute, as such facts have been equally accessible to us, as to him, and we are content to let them remain as authority. In this pamphlet he ascribes the chief merit, as the ‘“improver” of the short-horns, to Charles Colling, who commenced breeding them about the year 1780. The only other breeder he prominently mentions, is Mr. Whittaker, of whom he (Berry) purchased his own cattle. . But when, in 1834, Berry produced his “history” for Youatt, it was quite another affair. It is said that, in the meantime, between the “pamphlet,” and the “history” for Youatt, he had ceased his relations with Whittaker, and also obtained some of the “alloy” stock descended from one of Colling’s experimental crosses, (which will be hereafter noticed, ) and in his own hands, he had an object in writing them into credit, which explains this second history. The account in Youatt is much unlike the history in the pamphlet in other particulars, some being added THE SHORT-HORNS. ist and others left out. He retains Colling’s name in Youatt, but omits Whittaker’s altogether, and introduces facts in the course of Colling’s breeding, which he omitted in the pamphlet. The main point of falsity, however, (left out in the pamphlet and put into Youatt,) which we propose to detect, as the source of all the mischief about the ¢mprovement of the short-horns by Colling, is this: While Colling was successfully breeding short- horns from the best blood he had obtained of older and cotemporary breeders around him, a neighbor, ‘Col. O’Calla- ghan,” bought a couple of Galloway heifers, and brought them home to his farm. He arranged with Colling to put them to his short-horn bull “ Bolingbroke;” if the calves were heifers, he (O’Callaghan) was to retain them; if bulls, Colling was to have them. One of the heifers—a red one—dropped a bull calf, a half-bred short-horn, of course, which, by the arrangement, belonged to Colling. This bull calf being a good one—as a -mongrel—Colling brought him up to a yearling. He had a short-horn cow, Joanna, quite old, and not having bred a calf for two years, he put her to this yearling cross-bred calf, ‘Son of Bolingbroke.” She became pregnant, and in due course, in the year 1794, dropped a Lull calf—three-fourths short-horn and one-fourth Galloway—a grandson of Bolingbroke. He proved a-likely calf, also, and Colling kept him, as he had kept his sire, until he became a yearling. He had a very fine, aged cow, “Phoenix,” from which had sprung some of his best stock. She had produced a thorough bred short-horn calfin 1793 Although afterwards put to some of Colling’s thorough bred bulls, she continued barren, and in the winter of 1795-6, was put into the straw yard, and the young ‘Grandson of Bolingbroke,” then a yearling, turned in with her. To him, Phcenix became pregnant. Colling then disposed of this “Grandson of Bolingbroke.” In the autumn of 1796, Phcenix produced a hezfer calf, seven- eighths short-horn and one-eighth Galloway blood. Being a 138 AMERICAN CATTLE. good one, Colling called her ‘‘ Lady,” and raised her. When matured, he put this heifer Lady” successively to his best bulls, and reared several calves from her. Her first calf was a bull, which he called ‘‘ Washington,” and Colling bred him to two or three of his cows, but nothing came from him of any particular value. He also bred her daughters to his good bulls, but never bred one of the bull calves, of either Lady or her heifer descendants, except the bull Washington, to any thorough bred cows in his herd; nor is it known that he ever sold one of them, as a thorough bred. Hekept this ‘ Lady” family separate, and by way of distinction from his thorough-breds, called them the “Alloy.” They were good feeders, had good carcasses, and made a good appearance, but they were no milkers. At Colling’s great sale of his short-horns, in the year 1810, when he quit breeding, this “‘Lady”’ family were catalogued with his others, and sold, with their full pedigrees distinctly given, so there need be no deception as to their breeding. Of this ‘family ’”’ there were quite a number, and being in fine condition, and cattle of all kinds in demand, they brought good prices, but not near so much, individually, as the cattle of some of his other families. These “alloy” were bought by the young, or new short-horn breeders, and not by the older veteran breeders who attended the sale. Thus ‘‘Lady” had one-eighth Galloway blood, her daughters one-sixteenth, their descendants less, and so on. Now, Berry works up the story, and the prices the ‘alloy’ sold for, in his own way, leaving the impression that they were the favorite cattle at the sale, and stamps this Galloway cross as the root, foundation, and origin of the ‘‘¢mproved” short-horns! In giving an account of Colling’s sale, and the prices the cattle brought, we let Berry tell his own story: ‘It will probably be admitted that the prejudice against the cross (alluding to the ‘“alloy”) was at the highest at the time of Mr. Charles Col- ling’s sale. The blood had then been little, if at all, introduced THE SHORT-HORNS. 139 to other stocks, and it was the interest, whatever might be the inclination of the many breeders who had it not, to assume high ground for the pure blood, and to depreciate the alloy. Under these circumstances, what said public opinion, unequivo- eally certified by the stroke of the auctioneer’s hammer?” And with this flourish of trumpet, he then proceeds (in Youatt,) to give an illustrated portrait of one of his own cows, a descendant of this celebrated ‘Lady!’ Youatt, in a quiet foot-note to Berry’s account, rather rebukingly says: “As the grandson of Bolingbroke is not known to have been the sire of any other remarkably good animal, it is most probable that the unquestion- able merit of Lady and her descendants, is to be attributed more to her dam than to her sire.” This must be so, as ‘‘ Phoenix,” the dam of Lady, was one of the best cows of her day, and the dam of ‘Favorite,’—(252) Coates’ Herd Book—perhaps the very best bull of his time. He was the sire of Comet, who brought at the sale, the unprecedented sum of 1,000 guineas— $5,000. (Cattle of all kinds were enormously high at that time in England,—war times—and at this sale of Colling’s, the short- horns sold at higher rates than ever known before or since, until Lord Ducie’s sale in 1853.) The names and pedigrees of those bulls, O’Callaghan’s “Son of Bolingbroke,” and “Grandson of Bolingbroke,” will be found in Coates’ English Herd Book, rol. 1. Now, this is the falsehood, plausibly told by Berry in Youatt’s history, and which has since been adopted as authority, both in England and America, and drawn upon by many subsequent writers in both countries, who did not know any better—and repeated a thousand times, until half the world believe it—that makes the ‘‘zmproved” modern race of short-horns originate from a bull of the “old Teeswater stock,” and a “Galloway cow!” when in truth, scarcely a particle of Galloway blood runs 140 AMERICAN CATTLE. in the veins of one in a hundred of the approved short-horns of the present day, in either country. We have made rather a long story in showing up this decep- tion; but the truth of short-horn history has demanded it; and if we shall have succeeded in putting this matter right, before the large interest concerned in pure short-horn breeding, our object will be accomplished. From the late Mr. Thomas Bates, a distinguished short-horn breeder, of Kirkleavington, Durham, Hng., a cotemporary of Charles Colling, and other corroborating testimony, the above account is given. Having disposed of this historical swindle, we proceed to give, from the best authorities at command, a correct account of the origin, rise, progress, and present condition of this breed of cattle. HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. For some centuries anterior to the conquest of England by the First William, (of Normandy,) the north-eastern counties of Kingland, Northumberland, Durham and York, (then called Northumbria, ) had been possessed, with occasional interruptions, by the Danes, and other Scandinavians of North-western Europe. They were a warlike people, not only. conquering, by their bold raids, the countries along the continental coast to the south of them, even into Holland, but pirates and ‘“‘sea kings” as well, carrying their devastations across the water into Northumbria, and some adjoining parts of Britain. While they held the fron- tier coast of England, they established trade in many articles of merchandise and agricultural products, and shipped them to and from both sides of the ocean channel. Among these were cattle in considerable numbers. Southern Denmark, Jutland, Holstein, and Utrecht, long held by the Danes, possessed a breed of cattle —short-horns essentially—having their general appearance, and peculiar colors, but coarse in form and flesh, yielding largely of © milk. It is supposed by the majority of the earlier English THE SHORT-HORNS. 14] writers on agriculture and cattle, who paid particular attention to these subjects, that it was from these foreign cattle, imported at that early day from the neighboring continent, that the present race of short-horns are descended, and that for some centuries they inhabited that part of England only. The earliest accounts we have seen, first found them there. Holderness, a district of Yorkshire, was said to number these cattle in considerable herds. They possessed a great aptitude to fatten, in addition to their milking qualities, yet their flesh was coarse, accompanied by a large amount of offal. That they possessed valuable character- istics in their high and broad carcasses, and contained within themselves the element of refinement, when brought within the conditions of shelter, good fare, and painstakmg, we may well conjecture. The people of those days were rude and unculti- vated, and the cattle must have been rude also. Oftentimes pinched with poverty and scant fare, subject to the storms and ' blasts of an inclement winter climate, unsheltered, probably, in all seasons, except as the woods or hollows of the land could protect them, the worst points of their anatomy took precedence in looks, and they were but a sorry spectacle to the eye of an accurate judge, or breeder. Following down to near the middle of the last century, we find that some of the authors named speak of these cattle, on the banks of the river Tees, (a stream dividing the counties of York and Durham,) existing in a high degree of improvement, and superior to almost any others which they had seen. As we have before remarked, it is not surprising that they were found in these counties only, as every district in England had its own local breeds to which their people were partial, and cattle were not interchanged as now, except for the purposes of feeding, and -going to London, or other large sea coast markets, for consump- tion. No doubt, in the agricultural progress of the country, these cattle had received considerable attention, and were much improved in their forms, flesh, and general appearance by their 142 AMERICAN CATTLE. breeders, until they arrived at a considerable degree of perfec tion. Here, then, we find them existing in several excellent herds, and bred with much care. Some pedigrees can be traced, more or less distinctly, back to the year 1740, or even earlier. The late Mr. Bates, in one of his accounts of these cattle, says, in 1784 the estates of the Earl of Northumberland had fine short- horns upon them, for two hundred years previous to that time. Let us see: Bailey, in his survey of Durham, written in the year 1808, says that ‘Seventy years since (1738,) the colors of the cattle of Mr. Milbank and Mr. Croft, were red and white, and white, with a little red about the neck, or roan,” as related to him by old men who knew them at the time. Culley also states the same fact. Milbank and Croft were both noted cattle breeders of that day, and into their herds many modern cattle trace their pedigrees. The Duke of Northumberland had good short-horns on his estate at Stanwick, in that county. The Aislabees, of Studley Park, and Sir William St. Quintin, of Scampston, also kept excellent short-horns; and the Stephen- sons, Maynards, Wetherells, and many others, too numerous to mention, were breeders. As a sample of what these early short- horns could do in the way of flesh, Mr. A. B. Allen mentions, in the American Agriculturist, Vol. 1, p. 162, that in 1740, Mr. Milbank, of Barningham,—for it is on record there—fed an ox five years old, which dressed 2,100 pounds in the four quarters, and had, besides, 224 pounds rough tallow; and a cow of the same stock, which weighed 1,540 pounds, equal to almost any- thing of the present day. Had we space, we could record the weight of many other short-horns in the last century, which approached these in excellence. As the merits of these cattle became more known, they’ rapidly increased among the local breeders and farmers of those counties, but they did not obtain anything like a general reputa- tion over the country, until Charles and Robert Colling came on THE SHORT-HORNS. 143 to the stage and commenced breeding them. They were young farmers, brothers, and their father had been a short-horn breeder before them. They established themselves as farmers and cattle- breeders about the year 1780, each having separate herds, but working more or less together, and interchanging the use of their bulls. Charles the younger, was the more enterprising, but not a better breeder than his brother. With great sagacity and good judgment, they picked up some of the best cows and bulls from the herds of the older breeders around them, and for many years bred them with success and profit. They early possessed themselves of a bull, afterwards called ‘“‘ Hubback,” claimed, by some, to be the great progenitor of the improved short-horns. He proved a most excellent stock-getter while in the hands of the Collings, as well as before they obtained him, and after he left them—perhaps one of the most valuable of his race. He was a pure short-horn, as his pedigree in the first volume of Coates’ Herd Book attests, although Berry, in his Youatt history, attempts, for purposes of his own, to throw a cloud upon his lineage. The possession of ‘Hubback” proved fortunate for the Collings, as some of their best cattle traced into his blood, which was more or less participated in by the breeders around them. The blood of this bull became so famous, indeed, that any goed and well bred beast which could trace its pomeree to him, was counted of rare value. We have said that Charles Colling was a sagacious man, his line. He knew, as well as the breeders around him, that the short-horns were a superior race of cattle, but their reputation, as yet, was a local one, and he determined to make them known in other counties of England, where they were strangers. For this object, Colling took a bull calf got by “ Favorite,” before mentioned, made him a steer, and fed him to a bullock, for the purpose of exhibiting him through the country. Berry says, “the ox was the produce of a common cow,” but, as he gives 144 AMERICAN CATTLE. no proof, it may be doubted,—unless the “common” cows of the neighborhood were all short-horns,—as his portrait shows the full points, ripeness and refinement of a thorough bred. Colling kept the steer till five years old, and called him the “Durham Ox.” In February, 1801, he sold him to a Mr. Bulmer, to be taken around the country for exhibition. At that time, his live weight was 3,024 pounds—his weight of beef, hide and tallow, if dressed, was computed to be 2,352 pounds; and this extraordinary weight did not proceed so much from his great size as from the exceeding ripeness of his points. Mr. Bulmer procured a carriage for his conveyance, and traveled with him only five weeks, when he sold him to Mr. John Day, of Rotherham, in May, 1801, for £250, ($1,250.) Mr. Day traveled with him nearly six years, through most of the counties of England and Scotland, when, in February, 1807, he dislocated a hip bone, and had to be slaughtered. Although he had lost much flesh, not being killed until April, his carcass weighed as follows : Four quarters, . ° “theo aes, Tallow, °\-. : : : 156 lbs. Bide, i : : : 2 142 lbs.—2,620 lbs. He was, at his death, eleven years old, and Mr. Day could at one time on his travels have taken £2,000 ($10,000) for him, so much was the ox admired. Colling afterwards fed a thorough bred heifer, also got by “Favorite,” and sent her out for exhibition. She was called “The White Heifer that traveled,” and, as her portrait (Fron- tispiece to Vol. 5, American Short-horn Herd Book, ) represents, a creature of wonderful ripeness of points. Her profitable weight, when slaughtered, was estimated at 1,820 pounds, and her live weight at 2,300 pounds. The exhibition of these wonderful cattle, aroused public atten tion to their merits, and raised Charles Colling, as their breeder, THE SHORT-HORNS. 145 to a high reputation, and, in the demand created for his stock, soon secured him a fortune. Meantime other breeders were not idle. The Collings, as before said, first got their best early stock from the older breeders around them, and while those older breeders kept on improving their herds to a quality perhaps equal to the Collings, the travels of the “ox” and “heifer,” known to be bred by him, had achieved a high reputation for Charles, and stamped him, in the minds of many, as the real “improver”’ of the race. There was, by the way, no Galloway, or “alloy” blood, in these traveled animals, nor did any breeder ever boast of having it, but whenever they did have it, bred zt out by the use of thorough bred bulls, as fast as possible. To show the style of the old short-horns in Colling’s time, we give a portrait of a cow, copied from the first volume of Coates’ Herd Book. She is only in moderate condition, but shows the strong and well-defined marks of an excellent animal. Ww \ y VINO S WN NN RAY WW When ————— eal {an ; en \ OM i, Yi 146 AMERICAN CATTLE. We might follow this subject to a much greater length, in discussing the further progress of the English short-horns down to a late day: but it would be of little interest to any but the breeders of pure short-horn blood, and as the subject is thoroughly canvassed in the several volumes of the American Short-horn Herd Book, to which they have access, a further pursuit of it is omitted. Suffice it to say, that the short-horns now stand in the front rank of all the bovine races in Great Britain, and on some portions of the continent adjacent, and in the Australian and Canadian Colonies, where the soil and climate is adapted to their support. Various breeds of English, Welsh, Scotch and Irish cattle are more or less crossed by them, and although many of these other breeds still hold a high reputation in their purity of blood and their several excellent qualities, the short-horns, in their purity, and much more in their crosses with other breeds, are continually gaining foothold and reputation. They are the heaviest beef cattle driven to the London markets, and are claimed to be ripe at an earlier age than others; while for dairy cows, as milkers, when bred for that purpose, they excel. These assertions may be taken with allowance, but their still advancing popularity must be supposed to add somewhat of proof to their general excellence. THE SHORT-HORNS IN AMERICA. It has been difficult to collect every account of the earlier introduction of short-horns into the United States. Such as we have been able to obtain we shall relate. Soon after the termination of the Revolutionary war with England, a few cattle, supposed to be pure short-horns, were brought into Virginia by a Mr. Miller. These were said to be well fleshed animals, and the cows remarkable for milk, giving as high as thirty-two quarts ina day. Some of the produce of these cattle, as early as 1797, were taken into Kentucky by a Mr. Patton, where, as little was known of ‘“ breeds,” they were THE SHORT-HORNS. 147 called, after the gentleman who brought them, the ‘Patton stock. They were well cared for, and made a decided improve- ment in the cattle of the “Blue grass country,” where they were first introduced. Some of this early Virginia stock also went out to the ‘‘south branch of the Potomac,” in that State, a fine grazing country, which, fifty years ago, was famous for its good cattle. In the year 1796, it is said that an Englishman, named Heaton, brought two or three short-horn cattle from the north of England to New York. They were taken to Westchester county, near by, and bred, but no results, in pwre blood, have been traced to them. In 1815-16, a Mr. Cox, an Englishman, imported a bull and two heifers into Rensselaer county, N. Y. These were followed, in 1822, by two bulls, imported by another Englishman named Wayne. Descendants from this Cox stock. were said to be bred pure, and afterwards crossed by Mr. Wayne’s bulls. The stock now exists in considerable numbers and of good quality, in that and adjoining counties. In 1817, Col. Lewis Sanders, of Lexington, Ky., made an importation of three bulls and three heifers from England. They were of good quality and blood, and laid the foundation of many excellent herds in that State, In 1818, Mr. Cornelius Cooledge, of Boston, Mass., imported a yearling heifer—‘‘ Flora”—and a bull—‘Cicero”—into that city, from the herd of Mr. Mason, of Chilton, in the county of Durham, England. These were carefully bred, and many of their descendants are now scattered throughout several States. About the same year, Mr. Samuel Williams, then a merchant in London, but a native of Massachusetts, sent out a bull— “Young Denton”—and some cows, bred by Mr. Wetherell, a noted short-horn breeder. The bull was much used to cows of the same and later importations, and their descendants are still numerous among well bred short-horns of the present day. 148 AMERICAN CATTLE. The same year, Mr. Gorham Parsons, of Bnghton, Mass., imported a short-horn bull—‘“ Fortunatus’—bred by Geo. Faulk- ner, of North Allerton, Yorkshire, England. He was used con- siderably on the native cows of his State, but we have never traced any thorough bred pedigrees to him. In 1820, Mr. Theodore Lyman, of Boston, Mass., imported a bull, which he sold to Israel Thorndike, of that city, and he sent him to his farm in Maine. Of his produce we hear nothing. About the year 1820, and during a few years succeeding, several spirited gentlemen of Boston, and its neighborhood, imported a number of cows and bulls from some of the best herds in England. They were Messrs. Derby, Williams, Lee, Prince, Monson, and perhaps others. These were all fine cattle, and of approved blood in the English short-horn districts. Their descendants are still numerous in New England, and some other States. About the year 1823, the late Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin, ot the British navy, a native of Massachusetts, sent out a cow— “‘ Annabella””—and a bull—‘‘ Admiral” —as a gift to the Massa- chusetts Agricultural Society. They were good animals, and bred with the other Massachusetts importations. Shortly previous to 1821, the late John S. Skinner, of Balti- more, Md., imported for Governor Lloy4, of that State, a bull —‘‘Champion”—and two heifers—‘‘ White Rose” and “Shep- herdess”—from the herd of Mr. Champion, a noted English breeder. From these, several good animals descended, some of which are now known. In 1823, Mr. Skinner also imported for the late Gen. Stephen Van Rensselaer, of Albany, N. Y., a bulli—‘‘ Washington ”— and two heifers—‘‘Conquest” and ‘‘Pansey "—from the same herd of Mr. Champion. Conquest did not breed; Pansey was a successful breeder, and many of her descendants are now scattered over the country. THE SHORT-HORNS. 149 _ During the years 1822 to 1830, the late Mr. Charles Henry Hall, of New York, imported several short-horn bulls and cows, from some of the best English herds. Several of these he sold to persons in the neighborhood of that city, soon after they arrived, and others he sent to his farm in Rensselaer county, near Albany, and there bred them. Their descendants are now scat- tered through several good herds. In 1824, the late Col. John Hare Powell, of Philadelphia, Pa., commenced importations, and for several years continued them with much spirit and judgment. His selections were principally from the herd of Jonas Whitaker, of Otley, in Yorkshire, England. He bred them assiduously at his fine estate at Powelton, near the city, and sold many to neighboring breeders, and to go into Ohio, and Kentucky, where many of their descendants still remain. About the year 1828, Mr. Francis Rotch, then of New Bedford, Mass., selected from the herd of Mr. Whitaker, and sent to Mr. Benj. Rodman, of New Bedford, a bull and three heifers. They were afterwards sold to other breeders, and their descendants are now found in several excellent herds. In the year 1833, the late Mr. Walter Dun, near Lexington, Ky., imported a bull and several valuable cows from choice herds in Yorkshire, England. He bred them with much care, and their descendants are now found in many good western herds. But the first enterprise in importing short-horns upon a grand scale, was commenced in 1834, by an association of cattle breeders of the Scioto Valley, and its adjoining counties, in Ohio. They formed a company, with an adequate capital, and sent out an agent, who purchased the best cattle to be found, without regard to price, and brought out nineteen animals in one ship, landed them at Philadelphia, and drove them to Ohio. Further importations were made by the same company, ‘in the years 1835 and 1836. The cattle were kept and bred together 150 AMERICAN CATTLE. in one locality, for upwards of two years, and then sold by auction. They brought large prices—$500 to $2,500 each— and were distributed chiefly among the stockholders, who were among the most extensive cattle breeders and graziers of the famous Scioto Valley. In 1837-8-9, importations were made into Kentucky, by Messrs. James Shelby and Henry Clay, Jr., and some other parties, of several well-selected short-horns, some of which were kept and bred by the importers, and the others sold in their vicinity. In 1837-8-9, Mr. Whitaker, above mentioned, sent out to Philadelphia, on his own account, upwards of a hundred short- horns, from his own and other herds, and put them on Col. Powell’s farm, where he sold them at auction. They were pur- chased at good prices, mostly by breeders from Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Kentucky, and distributed widely through those States. From 1835 up to 1843, several importations of fine stock were made by Mr. Weddle, an English emigrant, to Rochester, N. Y., and by American gentlemen, among whom were Messrs. HE. P. Prentice, of Albany, N. Y., Mr, Jas. Lenox, and Mr. J. I’. Sheaffe, of New York city, Messrs. Le Roy and Newbould, of Livingston county, the late Peter A. Remsen, of Genesee county, N. Y., and Mr. Whitney, of New Haven, Ct., Mr. Gibbons, of New Jersey, and some others, not now recollected, —all valuable animals. They were bred for some years by their owners, with much care. Mr. Prentice, for several years, had a large and excellent herd on his home farm. After some years, all these herds were sold and widely distributed. Their descend- ants still remain among our valuable herds. In the year 1849-50, Col. J. M. Sherwood, of Auburn, and Mr. Ambrose Stevens, of Batavia, N. Y., imported from the herd of Mr. Bates a bull, and from Mr. Jno. Stephenson, of Durham, England, three bulls and several heifers, all choice THE SHORT-HORNS. ES animals, and successfully bred them during several years, The stock became widely distributed, and well known. About the year 1839, Mr. George Vail, of Troy, N. Y., made an importation of a bull and heifer, purchased of Mr. Thomas Bates, of Kirkleavington, the first cattle from that particular herd which had been introduced into the State. A few years later, he purchased and imported several more cows from the herd of Mr. Bates, crosses of his ‘‘ Duchess” and other fami- lies. He bred them with success, and widely distributed their blood. Mr. Vail made a final sale of his herd in the year 1852, A period of some years now occurred, in which few more, if any, short-horns were imported. Cattle, as well as all kinds of agricultural produce, were exceedingly low; but as things grew better, the demand for “blood” cattle revived, and the spirit for their breeding was renewed. Mr. Thomas Bates, a distinguished short-horn breeder in England, died in 1849. His nerd, fully equal in quality to any in England, was sold in 1850. The choicest of them—of the ‘‘ Duchess,” and “Oxford” tribes—fell mostly into the hands of the late Lord Ducie, at Tortworth Park, already the owner of a noble herd, to which the Bates stock was added. He was a skillful breeder, and of most liberal spirit, and during the brief time he held them, the reputation of the Bates stock, if possible, increased. Within three years from the time of the sale of Mr. Bates’ herd, Lord Ducie died. In 1853, a peremp- tory sale of his stock was widely advertised. Allured by the reputation of his herd, several American gentlemen went over to witness it. The attendance of English breeders was large, and the sales averaged higher prices in individual animals than had been reached since the famous sale of Charles Colling, in 1810. Mr. Samuel Thorne, of Dutchess county, N. Y., bought several of the best and highest-priced animals, of the ‘“‘ Duchess” and ‘‘Oxford” tribes, and added to them several more choice ones, from different herds. Messrs, L. G. Morris, and the late 152 AMERICAN CATTLE. Noel J. Becar, of New York, bought othors of the “Duchess” and “Oxfords,” to which they added more from other choice herds. These were all brought over here, and bred. Mr. Ezra Cornell, of Ithaca, and Mr. James O. Sheldon, of Geneva, N. Y., - soon afterwards made some importations, and obtained some of the “Bates” blood also. The late Gen. James 8. Wadsworth, and other gentlemen of the Genesee Valley, N. Y., also made importations. These “Bates” importations have since been bred so successfully by their holders here, that several young bulls, and heifers, bred by Mr. Thorne and Mr. Sheldon, have been purchased by English breeders, and sent over to them at good prices, where they are highly valued. In 1852-3-4, several spirited companies were formed in Clinton, Madison, and other counties in Ohio, and in Bourbon, Fayette, and some other counties of Kentucky, and made importations of the best cattle to be found in the English herds, and after their arrival here, distributed among their stockholders, Mr. R. A. Alexander, of Kentucky, also, during those years, made extensive importations of choice blood for his own breed- ing, so that in the year 1856, it may be said that the United States possessed, according to their numbers, as valuable a selec- tion of short-horns as could be found in England itself. Keeping pace with the States, a number of enterprising Cana- dians, since the year 1835, among whom may be named the late Mr. Adam Fergusson, Mr. Howitt, Mr. Wade, the Millers, near Toronto, Mr. Frederick Wm. Stone, of Guelph, and Mr. David: Christie, of Brantford, in Canada West, and Mr. M. H. Cochrane and others, in Lower Canada, have made sundry importations of excellent cattle, and bred them with skill and spirit. Many cattle from these importations, and their descend- ants, have been interchanged between the United States and Canada, and all may now be classed, without distinction, as American Short-horns. THE SHORT-HORNS. 153 It will thus be seen that the American investment in this breed of cattle, is large, and many times greater in numbers, and extending over a wider range of country, than with all other foreign breeds collectively. Accurate records of their pedigrees are made, both in Britain and the United States, so that their lineage may at once be understood. The English Herd Book, now numbering sixteen volumes, commenced in the year 1822, contains the records of 23,252 bulls, and more than 30,000 cows; while the American Herd Book of eight volumes, commenc- ing in 1846, contains more than 7,400 bulls, and over 12,000 cows—items showing that the space we have given to the dis- cussion of their history and present condition, is not more than their importance has demanded. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SHORT-HORNS. They may be divided into two classes: as dairy, and flesh- producing animals; and first—for the dairy. The early importa- tions into the United States, say fifty years ago, were those chiefly of which the cows excelled as milkers. Remarkable yields of their milk and butter were recorded in many agricul tural publications of the day, as well as in the American Short, horn Herd Books since. : To show the style of these cattle, on the following page we give the portaits of a bull and cow, from a prominent English herd—Mr. Strickland’s—of thorough breds, the cows of which bore a high reputation for milk, forty years ago. We consider these as beautiful specimens of their kind, with fine bone, excellent pomts, and every way well developed for the dairy. The cow was a celebrated milker, and took several first prizes at different exhibitions, as a dairy cow. These portraits are coped from the third volume of Coates’ English Herd Book. f (a 154 AMERICAN CATTLE. | ~ YS | | | thy ee Woy t \ MY (] i AHS \ Sy") (| nN : AS re |. | UNGAR ASS i | Vy AS ~ hs } ' FYQQAW | us NS NUR os iN SS: NRT AR a} ay) SSS = j y | = =—— s = = = c= : a ——s Plate 20. Short-horn Bull, of Milk Stock. Z WY \ AWS LEN SS ZEZE ——— —— r= Sel \ hs Ss I]] iin = Plate 21. Short-horn Cow, of Milk Stock. THE SHORT-HORNS. 155 Second—for flesh. Yielding to their tendency to take on flesh, when not put to regular dairy use, many of the English breeders began to breed more for the flesh-producing property, both in bulls and heifers. This system required abundant food from early calfhood to full maturity. It gave them great rotundity of carcass, rapid growth, and early ripeness. So taking were these well fed animals to the eye, coupled with the early maturity which the bulls imparted to their stock, when erossed on the inferior cows of the country—as beef was a prom inent article of production in a great majority of the counties of _ England—that the-tendency to breed the best looking cattle, extended to the generality of short-horn breeders. Another thing, perhaps, encouraged this style of breeding—the increas- ing demand for their cattle from abroad. The earlier American importations had been mostly into the Atlantic States, where the milking qualities of their cows were more in demand than their flesh for the shambles. But when the Ohio Company sent to England, in the year 1834, for a herd of short-horns with which to improve the western herds, flesh was their chief object, and they sought such cattle as showed that tendency more than the other, although some of the cows which they brought out, and many of their descendants, as we have known from personal observation and experience, proved remarkable milkers, both in quantity and quality. From the Ohio importation of 1834, the successive importations have been mostly of that description— full fleshed, of rapid growth, great development, and early maturity—so much so that the modern style of short-horns appear widely different from the old style, as shown in plate 19, to which, in some importations of many years ago, we have seen almost exact resemblances. To ulustrate the modern style, which is now almost universally sought by the majority of short-horn breeders in our country— for out of the Atlantic States they appear to care less for milk 156 AMERICAN CATTLE. than flesh—we give a portrait of a well matured, thorough bred bull, at four years of age. i Plate 22, Shortnarn Bull. ; In the above portrait the wonderful fullness in every part of the carcass is illustrated, putting on choice flesh in places where the common cattle fail to give it, and making the animal valuable all over, with no more offal than in a creature of a third less size of an inferior breed. We consider this as showing in an eminent degree, the distinction between the beef-producing and the milk yielding tendency of the short-horn, in appearance. The one is that of exceeding fullness, the other of a tendency, in the cow, (plate 20,) to leanness, while giving much milk, although the latter may feed equally well when no longer used for the pail. In the following portrait, the same flesh-producing tendency is shown in the female, as is given i the bull. THE SHORT-HORNS. 157 We add the portrait of a heifer at two years, in which is seen the wonderful Loe aee of her race at that early age. : io ) i iN INNS \ SA Ny —— AN SAA y aN \\} == —— = PS Wo = = RSS Nites Plate 23. Short-horn Heifer. They cannot be classed with any other breed of cattle, and are not to be accurately judged by the same rules that apply to them. It has been said that the short-horn is an artzjicial breed. That is not so. That they have been greatly improved above their original condition, is true—more highly improved, perhaps, than any other breed—but that is a susceptibility of their nature. It is an evidence that they originally possessed the power of such improvement, within themselves, for we have seen, in their history, that there is no known race which has shown itself capa- ble of making them any better. Charles Colling tried a cross of the short-horn with the Galloway. He wnproved the Gallo- way, but not the short-horn, and abandoned another trial. Mr. Bates. a breeder for more than fifty years, tried it with the au 158 AMERICAN CATTLZ. Scotch Kytoe, or Highland breed, for two or three crosses, with the same result as Colling, and abandoned it also. Other stealthy crosses may have been made by other early breeders, but with no good results to the short-horns—that. they ever acknowl- edged. Their advocates claim that they—the short-horns-— improve every other breed with which they have been crossed, as an economical animal. That question, however, we shall not argue. A general deseription ot a first-class short-horn, may be as follows: Head—the muzzle fine and yellowish, orange or drab, or light nut-brown in color, not smoky* or black; the face slightly dishing, or concave; the cheeks lean of flesh; the eye full and bright; the forehead broad; the horns showing no black except at the tips, and standing wide, short and oval-shaped, at the base spreading gracefully out, and then curving in with a downward inclination, or turning upward with a still further spread (as either form is taken without prejudice to purity of blood in the animal) of a waxy or neutral color, and sometimes darker at the tips; the throat clean, without dewlap; the ear sizable, thin, and quickly moving; the neck full, setting well into the shoulders and breast, with a slight pendulous hanging of the skin (not a dewlap) just at the brisket; the shoulders nearly straight, full and wide at the tops; the shoulder-points, ee *It is supposed by many persons that a dark, or black nose, indicates impurity of blood. This is not always so. A black, or even a dark nose is not desirable in a breeding short-horn, because they are decidedly unfashionable, and to a breeder of choice animals they are unsaleable at almost any price. Yet many of the purely bred short-horns (so admitted) of a century ago, and even less, had some black noses among them. With all modern breeders, the dark-noses have been sedulously bred out of their herds, their repugnance to them often going so far as to slaughter- ing them in calfhood. Custom has obtained so far as to rule a black-nosed short- horn out of competition with the drab, cream-colored, or yellow-noses, as prize animals. A skin-colored, or white-nose is also objectionable, though not to the same extent, as indicative of a want of stamina in the animal, while a black, or dark nose indicates hardihood and good constitution. On the whole, although not con- clusive of bad, or mixed blood, black-noses are not, at the present day, admissible. THE SHORT-HORNS. 159 or neck-vein, wide and full; the brisket broad, low, and pro- jecting well forward, sometimes so much as to almost appear a deformity; the arm gracefully tapering to the knee, and below that a leg of fine bone, ending with a well-rounded foot; the ribs round and full (giving free play to vigorous lungs) and running back well toward the hips; the crops full; the chine and back straight from the shoulders to the tail; the hips wide, and level with the back and loin; the loins full and level; the rumps long and wide; the tail set on a level with the back, small and tapering; the thigh full and heavily fleshed; the twist wide; the flank low and full; the hock, or gambrel joint, stand- ing straight (as with the horse), or nearly so; the hind leg, like the fore one, clean and sinewy, and the foot small. Thus, it will be seen that the short-horn differs from most other breeds, in its fullness and rotundity of carcass, and in the small amount of waste flesh and bone, or offal that it carries, in proportion to the consumable flesh it may lay on. The true colors of well bred short-horns range from pure white to deep red; and between these colors, either of which frequently comprise the whole animal, their intermixtures in all variations of roan; as light roan, with the white predominating over the red; red roan, with the red prevailing over the white, as either may over the other in different degrees; red and white fleckea, or spotted in every possible way. The red may also vary in shade from light, or yellow-red, into the deepest mahogany. The old-fashioned short-horns sometimes showed a drab-dun, or fawn color, mixed with white, which we have in some instances geen crop out in one of later days. We have also seen a very few instances of dark brown roan—almost smoky in shade, among those of excellent quality, and unimpeachable pedigree. But the clear white, and full red colors, either by themselves, or intermixed in various beautiful and picturesque proportions, are the prevailing colors of our own time. Some of our breeders 160 AMERICAN CATTLE. have a prejudice against the purely white coating of a short- horn, as indicative of a less hardy constitution in the animal possessing it; but we see no good reason, other things being equal, why a white color—as it truly belongs to the breed, and descended, perhaps, from red or roan parents—should be a defect in the useful quality of the animal having it. It is simply yielding to a popular prejudice outsede of short-horn circles, The cow differs from the bull only in the feminine qualities of her sex, as our illustrations have shown. AS A DAIRY COW, Popular opinion, among those not particularly acquainted with their history or breeding, is widely at variance. They are the greatest milkers, in quantity, of any breed whatever—with the exception of the Dutch—as innumerable facts have shown; or they may be comparatively inferior, as education, keeping, or purpose may govern, as we have just related. These matters will be explained in a subsequent chapter, on breeding. We have numerous well authenticated instances of their giving six, seven, eight, and even nine gallons a day, on grass alone, in thé heighth of their season, and yielding fourteen to eighteen pounds of butter per week, and of holding out in their milk, m propor- tionate quantity, as well as other breeds of cows, through the year. Cows so much larger in size than of other breeds, should be expected to give more than smaller ones, that consume less food; and without asserting that they do give more, in propor- tion to their size, it is claimed that when educated and used for the dairy chiefly, they give quite as much as any others. That the inherent quality of abundant milking exists in the short- horns, no intelligent breeder of them need doubt. Our own observation in more than thirty years’ experience with hundreds of them, first and last, under our own eyes, is to ourself, evidence of the fact, both in thorough breds and grades. THE SHORT-HORNS. 16] If the breeder’s attention be turned solely to the dairy quality, he succeeds in obtaining, with few exceptions, good milkers. If he turn his attention, regardless of milk, to the grazing qualities of his stock, he can gradually breed out the tendency to milk in his cows, beyond a sufficiency to raise the calf to six or eight months old; and perhaps it is to be regretted that the tendency of too many breeders is to the latter. Breeding for the grazing quality solely, tends, indisputably, to give them more comely proportions, and greater size than when bred for the dairy. It is as the animal is bred, either way, that strikes the observer, whether the short-horn cow, as a race, is either a good or poor milker, without a proper experience to confirm his judgment; and therefore we say that she may be either good or inferior, in that quality, as the breeder chooses to have it. AS A WORKING OX, We cannot highly recommend the high bred short-horn for that purpose solely. From his massive frame, and inclination under full feed, to take on flesh, he is sluggish in movement. His shoulders are too upright for easy draft, unlike the Devon, or Hereford, or even our native ox. His natural step is slow. We have seen the thorough bred short-horn ox worked in the yoke. We have had, in the dull days of short-horns, several pairs in farm work, some years, and although they proved honest, stout, and obedient, we preferred others for quickness in movement. Crossed upon the native cow, or with the Hereford, or Devon, as half bloods, they prove excellent workers. Some breeders contend that the thorough bred short-horn ox is as good a worker as any other; but the weight of evidence does not confirm the assertion; still, they do work, and that quite tolerably, but they have neither the wind, speed, or bottom of the lighter and more active breeds. “AS A BEEF ANIMAL. We give an excellent portrait of a three years (past) prize ox, exhibited, some years ago, at the Smithfield market, in London, 162 AMERICAN CATTLE. Eng., copied from “The Farmers’ Magazine.” We have seen many equally good ones in the United States. Plate 24. Short-horn Ox. It is held, as a flesh-producing animal, that in early maturity, weight of meat, ripeness of points, and giving the most flesh in the best places, the great merit of the short-horn is found. We have spoken of the Devon, the Highland, and Galloway, as having flesh of finer grain, and tenderer quality, and bearing a better price in a fastidious market. But choice purchasers are few, compared with the mass, and he who feeds cattle for the general market, wants the animal which makes the quickest and most profitable returns for the capital invested, and the food con- sumed. The short-horn at three years, past, well fatted, is fit for slaughter, equally with the Devon or Hereford at the same age, or the Highland Scot or Galloway, at four years, or the “native” at five or six years. He is claimed by many to bea THE SHORT-HORNS. 163 less feeder for his weight. There may be truth in this, as he is less active, and more inclined to take his rest, than the lghter breeds, which are less sluggish in their habits. All these ques- tions are of great consideration with the breeder or grazier, who rears stock for market. A quick return for capital and food, is the object, and that animal which gives it in the shortest time, is always preferred. Hence one decided advantage of the short- horn. THE PROPER HOMES OF THE SHORT-HORNS. There is a question, however, with him who breeds or grazes the short-horn that must be considered, notwithstanding his apti- tude for early maturity. They must have abundant feed and good pasturage. Broken lands, with short grasses, do not so well suit them. Level, or gently undulating soils, with luxu- riant grasses upon them, suit them better. We have immense tracts of lean and hungry soils, with scanty herbage, where we would not recommend the short-horn to go, and where some of the smaller breeds, as the Devon, Highland, and Galloway, will thrive and prove profitable; and for such lands they should be preferred. Some have objected to the short-horns as unfitted for a cold climate. That objection has proved of little weight. Northern England, and the adjoining counties of southern Scotland, have produced, and improved them in their highest perfection, and the latitudes of America, from 4142 to 45° north, equally as well, under good winter protection, as the milder temperatures of Ohio, Illinois, or Kentucky. The soil and feeding does the work, not the climate, provided the latter be temperate, and proper shelter in the inclement seasons be afforded. For near fifty years, in the better sections of what are considered the compara- tive sterile and cold New England States, the short-horn has lived and flourished—more rapidly of late than ever—and been successfully introduced into the north-eastern British Prov- 164 AMERICAN CATTLE. inces, and both the Canadas. The severe winters of the North appear to be no bar to their success. How far South they may go, is yet to be tried. Wherever the proper herbage will grow —the blue grass, for instance—they may be successfully intro- duced; but somewhat of care they must have, or they will, unquestionably dwindle. For the improvement of our native cattle, either for the dairy or the shambles, no foreign breed has heen so much sought. They have spread all through the Northern and Middle States, all over the West, have been driven over the plains into Cali- fornia, and even to Oregon, in the valleys of the Williamette and the Columbia. They appear destined to go into every place where cattle are successfully bred, and good herbage abounds, as being the stock which, whatever may be the merits of others, in certain localities, must, in the majority, prevail. That in their native country, England, the short-horns are rapidly increasing, as well as extending into the more fertile lands of Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, Mr. A. B. Allen, of New York, who visited many of the chief agricultural counties there, in the year 1841, and again in the summer of 1867, in a recent letter remarks: ‘ When I was first in England, the short-horns were confined to a comparatively narrow territory, and those chiefly in the north-easterly and central counties. Now, they are seen, either thorough bred, or in their crosses, in almost every part of the United Kingdom where good grasses and the best agriculture prevail. Not only in the fields of the ordinary farm- ers, but in many of the finest parks of the nobility and gentry, their grand forms, and picturesque colors, show, in abounding numbers, grazing among the deer, or in occasional groups among the clustered woods, or in the open pleasure grounds. I found them even working on towards the Scottish Highlands, trench- ing into the homes of the Ayrshires, and Galloways, and cross- ing, more or less, into almost all the old local breeds. THE SHORT-HORNS. 165 “Whether it is because they have become the fashion, or are thus spreading on their own individual merits over the others, I did not so much inquire, but conciuded from the fact of their increasing propagation among farmers, where almost everything is made to pay, that they find them their most profitable neat stock. Still, they cannot profitably thrive everywhere, and wide ranges of land exist, both in Britain and America, where differ- ent breeds, better fitted to close pasturage and rougher soils, must be kept, as more suitable to the wants and purposes of the people who inhabit them.” It may be thought that in the foregoing extended account of the short-horns undue preference for them is given over any other breed of cattle for American cultivation. Such is the fact, so far as our beef and a portion of our dairy product 1s con- cerned. ‘The American Short-horn Herd Book for several years past has annually recorded an average of about ten thousand pedigrees in its volumes, chiefly of young animals, or others having no previous registry. Aside from the recorded ones several thousand bulls are yearly produced which never enter the Herd Book, being mainly used in herds of grade or native cows for breeding beef and dairy cattle. With some fluctuations in their sale values, as partialities for favorite strains of blood and pedigree, financial or other influences have prevailed, they have kept up an almost uniform value in prices of purchase and sale, which are not likely soon to abate in our bovine progress. CHAPTHE, 2V.. THE HOLSTEIN, OR DUTCH CATTLE, In a previous part of our work, we have mentioned this breed, as being early introduced into America by the Dutch emigrants at New York; but not as cattle of superior distinctive charac- ter, or “improvement,” as a race, yet varying from the early imported English cattle in some characteristics of color and form. We know nothing of the early Dutch cattle, an particulars, other than that they were considered valuable for milk, and labor. There is a class, or breed of cattle, now existing in North Holland, which have been greatly improved within the last century. That is eminently a dairy country, and the cows of the farmers and dairymen there, receive a care and attention beyond any other domestic animal used in the agriculture of the people. We get little account of these cattle from British authors, except incidentally, and that of so vague a kind as to lead to no accurate conclusions. In our history of the short-horns, we have alluded to the probability that they were, at a very early day, originally derived from the neighboring continent; and they may have descended from the same common ancestry to which the present improved breed of Holstein, and Holland, trace their lineage. Their forms, and general appearance, in all but THE HOLSTEINS. 167 color, indicate that they may have sprung from a common source; but there is a sufficient distinction between them to show that, for centuries past, they have been bred for somewhat dif- ferent uses, by different nationalities, and under a different system of agriculture. We need not go into the various past controversies, and sup- positions, touching upon the importation of Dutch cattle into England, for the purpose of improving the English short-horns, nor the counter importation of English short-horns into Hol- stem, or North Holland, to improve their own native stock. Of the facts relating to these controversies, little is positively known, and the traditions, and suppositions, connected with them, are of such uncertain authority, as to lead to no accurate result, if we should attempt their investigation. We are con- tent to let the matter rest on the one indisputable fact, that the improved ‘‘Dutch” cattle of the present day, in many of their characteristics, do possess so great a resemblance to the short- horns, that no wide stretch of imagination need be exercised to presume that the progenitors of each—many centuries ago— may have been traced to a common ancestry. Of the time, at which any very considerable zmprovement was attempted in the Holstein cattle, we have no definite knowl- edge. It must have been more than a century—perhaps two or three centuries—ago, as it is only by a continuous and fixed system of breeding, for a long time, that the wndeviating, consti- tutional characteristics of any breed of cattle can become so established as to transmit them with entire certaity to their progeny. These characteristics, the present improved Holstein cattle do obviously possess, in a sufficient degree to class them as a breed by themselves; and as such, we shall treat them. Their surpassing excellence appears to be in their milking qualities, coupled with large size, and a compact, massive frame, capable of making good beef; and in the oxen, strong, laboring 168 AMERICAN CATTLE. animals. They are almost invariably black and white in color, spotted, pied, or mottled in picturesque inequalities of propor- tion over the body. The horn is short, and the hair is short, fine and silky. The lacteal formations in the cows are wonder- ful, thus giving them their preéminence in the dairy. Our illustrations will show these prominent characteristics so plainly, that further description is unnecessary. It was but recently that this valuable breed of dairy cat: tle, in their now improved condition, except in a few casual importations, found their way to America. The late Mr. William Jarvis, of Wethersfield, Vt., one of the celebrated importers of Merino sheep, in the early part of the present century, brought out a bull and two cows, and put them on his farm, where he bred them successfully for some years. They were crossed with the common cattle of his vicinity, and after some years the pure blood became lost. People were careless of pure blood in cattle in those days, not much knowing or appreciating its value. The late Mr. Herman Le Roy, a distinguished merchant of New York, between the years 1820 and 1825, imported some improved Dutch cattle into that city, and kept them on a farm in its vicinity. Some of them were, about the years 1827—8-9, sent to the farm of his son, the late Edward -A. Le Roy, on the Genesee river, in that State. We saw them, and their produce there, in 1833. They were large, well-spread cattle, black and white in color, and remarkable for their uncommon yield of milk. The younger Mr. Le Roy soon after imported several short- horns from England, with which the Dutch cows were crossed —not because he disliked the Dutch, but more probably because the short-horns stood higher in popular favor, and more generally in request by the cattle breeding public. In the herds of both father and son, the pure breed was lost, as none but grades were found in the herds subsequent to the sale of the farms of these THE HOLSTEINS. 169 gentlemen, a few years afterwards. It is to be regretted that the blood of those importations, should have been so soon lost by a lack of interest in their propagation. They were of great value as dairy animals, as their qualities in that line were univer- sally acknowledged where they were known. In the year 1852, an importation, consisting of a single cow, was made into Boston, Mass., by Mr. Winthrop W. Chenery, of that city. Her extraordinary good qualities led him toa further importation of a bull and two cows, in 1857; and to the importation of four more cows, in 1859. Most unfortunately the ‘“‘cattle plague” broke out in this herd in the year 1859-60, and the originals, and all their thorough bred descendants, with the exception of a young bull, were destroyed under a law of the State, to prevent the spread of the disease. In the year 1861, Mr. Chenery made another importation of a bull and four cows, which came out in good condition. He placed them on his farm in the vicinity of Boston, where they have since been success- fully bred—the only herd of pure bred ‘Holstein, or Dutch cattle,” known in the country; except their descendants, which may be in some other hands. These animals were procured from the best dairy herds in the vicinity of Beemster and Purmurend, in the Province of North Holland, with a special care to their sanitary condition, and their possession of all the highly esteemed qualities of their race. As such, they were certified by the official authorities of the dis- trict where they were bred. As this breed are strangers to the masses of our cattle breeders and graziers, and may in time become important instruments in promoting the dairy interests of the country, a somewhat particular account may be given of some of them, by which to judge of the improvement they may give to our native herds. A four years old bull girts 7 feet 10 inches; his length is 8 feet 7 inches; height, 4 feet 11 inches; weight, 2465 pounds. 8 170 AMERICAN CATTLE. We give an accurate portrait of the bull, as taken by our artist in the month of February, of this year. i i J a a ee wi . oo } iy aM aa Wh Mth iti yt | . nd a a I "it\ pe} il i Mt he ae huh an Nj SN Mt ii “ AN HOWAN Na NAN Herd y WANS Plate 25. Holstein Bull. The colors of this bull, like all his race, are jet black and clear white. The four imported cows, each seven years old, have an average weight of 1325 pounds. The weight of a past two years old heifer is 1240 pounds. A past yearling heifer weighed 960 pounds; and the weight of six calves, at an average of eight months, reared in the usual way, without forcing, was an aver- age of 576 pounds each. The milking qualities of the breed may be judged by the fol- lowing memoranda: One of the imported cows, when six years old, dropped a calf on the 15th of May, weighing 101 pounds; and from the 26th of May, to the 27th of July, by a careful and THE HOLSTEINS. 171 exact record, gave 4018 pounds 14 ounces of milk. The largest yield in any one day, was 76 pounds 5 ounces, (35% quarts.) In ten days, she gave 744 pounds 12 ounces, or an average of 74 #5 pounds per day. She gave a good flow of milk during the season, continuing to the 24th of May following, and on the succeeding day dropped twin heifer calves, which weighed 155 pounds. The amount of cream produced from this cows milk, in a vessel specially prepared for measuring it, pro- duced 22 xo> per cent of the milk, as tested by an accurate examination. The nutritive qualities of the milk were also tested by a thorough chemical analysis, and found to be excellent. It was also rich in its caseine, or cheese making properties. Six _ days’ milk of this cow were set for cream, and the produce was 17 pounds 14 ounces of good butter—nearly 3 pounds per day; and it is claimed by her owner that she is not the very best cow of the herd. These results show not only the remarkable productions of the cow, but the accurate and pains-taking care of the proprietor of the herd, in testing their ability at the pail. Of what the food given to the cow was composed, we are not informed. We are to presume, however, it was of the best, as every cow should have, to test to the utmost, her lacteal faculties. FOR THE DAIRY, The qualities of the Holsteins must be acknowledged as remark- able. The short-horns, as in many instances of trial, have hitherto acknowledged no superior; yet they have now, in these new strangers to our soil, to say the least, found most formidable competitors, and an opportunity is here offered, by those who cultivate them for the dairy, to test their long acknowledged good qualities by comparison. The Holsteins have been long bred and cultivated with a view to develop their lacteal production to the utmost; and that they are quick feeders, and physiologically constituted to turn their food readily to milk. must be evident. 172 AMERICAN CATTLE. We give an accurate portrait of one of the cows, taken by our artist in February, 1867. She stands the model of a perfect milker, with all the mammary veins and udder glands in the highest state of development. % Zp g GAY") Gh. Ms (aa G, tag SF, Ziti Zee i yj ) ‘ Ny Ny; Lee Si yp Wi Yast <> OR ee Plate 26. Holstein Cow. We are gratified that this valuable importation has been made by its public spirited owner, for the benefit of our cattle and dairy interests, and trust that their merits will spread far and wide, beyond the limited territory where they have in such brief time, been so thoroughly tested. The grade heifers, by the Holstein bull, on other cows of different breeds, are said to inherit much of the good milking qualities of the Dutch blood. Within the last eight or ten years large importations of Hol- stein, or, as some now term them, Friesan cattle have been made into the United States, chiefly or altogether for milk production. Hundreds of them in herds, more or less in numbers, are kept in several of our Northern and Western States, with decided THE HOLDERNESS. 173 approval by their owners and propagators, as superior milk-pro- ducers. Although about equal to them in size, they lack the rotundity and fullness of the short-horn in shape, are coarser in the bone, less graceful in outline of anatomy, larger consumers of forage, yet no doubt compensating for this latter demand in the full flow of milk they yield. As a beef-producer the Holstein steers may be said to be yet on probation. It is doubtful whether they will rival the most approved flesh-making breeds which are bred and grazed on the broad stock farms of our country, in early maturity and profit in feeding. ‘Their entire structure and development tends solely to their lacteal products, in which they have proved a remarkable variety of their species. In this high quality they will no doubt prove a successful acquisition for the production of milk in our large city and town markets as well as to more or less extent in the dairies of our country. They have already acquired a firm position as an approved variety in our cattle culture. THE HOLDERNESS. This is an old breed, during the earlier years of the present century existing in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England. Some of them were imported fifty years ago into the vicinity of Boston, Mass., and probably since into the State of New York, but of the exact dates of their later importation we have no account. In anatomical formation they had the appearance of the unimproved short-horns of some centuries back. In color they were chiefly dark red, with lined or white backs and bellies, and were somewhat less in size than the true short-horns. The cows were excellent milkers and useful for the dairy. Although we were acquainted with a few of them in the year 1835, we had lost sight of them until recently, when they were brought to our 174 AMERICAN CATTLE. notice by the owner of a herd of about thirty in number, Mr. Truman A. Cole, at Solsville, Madison Co., N. Y. In the year 1855 Mr. Cole bought a cow from a Mr. Knox, living in Oneida Co., \. Y., who either imported her ances- tors, or bred her from. descendants of the original importa- tion. This cow was then in calf by a bull of the same breed. The succeeding spring, in 1856, she produced a bull calf, which Mr. Cole reared. She was then bred to a common bull and the succeeding calf was made into veal. The cow was next served by her Holderness bull calf, then a yearling of vigorous growth, and that produce was a heifer. When a year old she was bred to the same bull, her own sire, who was again bred to his mother. To cut the matter short, the increasing herd was so continuously bred, through the succeeding twenty-five years until now, 1882, to bulls of the same family descent—no outside cross intervening—some hundreds in number, many of which have been sold and dispersed in different counties of New York and other States, among dairymen. The result of this incestuous and close interbreeding has been altogether successful in keeping up the quality of the animals, both in flesh, perfect health, vigor of constitution, and milking quality of the cows to the character of the original dam, and, as Mr. Cole says, improved upon her. A remarkable change in the color of these cattle has taken place since in Mr. Cole’s possession. The original cow was deep red on her sides, with white line on her back and under the belly. Her first calves were so at their births, but grad- ually, as age increased, the red sides turned into a chocolate brown, and finally black within a year or two after birth. The lined backs and white bellies also disappeared, and the younger ones became brown and black, and white-spotted, like the Hol- steins, which color the calves now usually bear at birth, showing that their original ancestry may have been akin to that breed. Yet they are finer in bone, and somewhat smaller in size. The THE HOLDERNESS. 175 cows have capacious udders, sizable teats, large milk veins, and exhibit strong development as milkers. ; Inasmuch as this herd and their descendants have so strongly maintained their uniform characteristics of quality from that of any other distinctly recognized breed, they may well be con- sidered as such, and an excellent class of dairy cattle. The physiological facts of the in-and-in breeding of this particular herd, so contrary to popular opinion against the practice, deserves a record, the perusal of which may lead to profitable trials of the kind with other breeds. CHAPTER XVI. THE SPANISH, OR TEXAN CATTLE. WE should hardly speak of this strange race of animals, were it not that of late years they have found their way, to some extent, into our sea-board markets. They are the descendants of the early Spanish stock introduced into Mexico in the six- teenth century. What they were when first imported there, we have no knowledge, but presume them to be of the same race as those long kept by the Moors on the plains of Andalusia, and by their successors, the Castilians, for many centuries—of no great. excellence in Spain, and not at all improved in Mexico. In a recent letter from Mr. A. B. Allen, of New York, (received in July, 1867,) then traveling in Spain, between Gibral- tar and Granada, he thus describes the Spanish cattle of the present day, as he saw them there: ‘‘I have seen numerous Spanish herds. They are about the size of our old-fashioned common cattle. They have large, coarse, long and wide-spread horns, mostly with a half, or full twist to them, and set back, rather than forward, with the points outward. Their colors are black, dark brown, reddish-brown, light yellowish-red, with some - white on the throat and belly, and occasionally a black and white roan, or dark grey, The cows are nearly as large as the oxen, with the same style of horn. They do not appear to be good milkers. The heads are long, and rather fine. The herdsmen attend them in droves with dogs, like the short-haired Scotch Colleys.” THE TEXANS. Liz. In this brief description, may easily be detected the origin of the modern Texan cattle, run wild for many generations, while the Spanish are thoroughly domestic in their habits, and treated with care, as the density of population, and close husbandry of the Spanish people at home, compel them to be. Undoubtedly the originals are much better animals under the treatment they receive, than their half-savage cousins, at such a far distant removal. The Texans are, in fact, a semi wild race in America, the mild climate of the tropics, with its abundant perennial herbage, affording them all of food which their natures require. There they range, propagate and grow, with little care, congregating in large herds, and known by their owners only by the marks, or brands, they put upon them. They are annually gathered for identification, when the young calves are castrated, and those fit to sell, selected and driven to market. The cattle pay little attention to the widely scattered ranches of their owners, and rove for miles away, attracted by better pasturage, the scattered salt-licks, or in the indulgence of their own vagarious habits. We illustrate on the following page, a group of the bullocks, drawn by our artist as they stood in a cattle yard, on their arrival at market. These portraits are truthful, as we saw them in a herd of about forty in number, and know them to be correct. Their live weights, at the time—the animals ranging from five to seven years—averaged 1,008 pounds. - 2drachms, Powdered carraways, . - e ° ° 1 ounce, Warm ale, : : : ‘ ; : +, depint: Well mixed together. An infusion of camomile flowers, or ginger, 1s likewise a good stomachic in such cases; and it might probably be much im- proved by infusing the ingredients in hot ale instead of water. 480 AMERICAN CATTLE When cattle have experienced a severe attack of this disease, the stomach is usually much weakened by it; and, consequently great care is requisite to prevent a return of the complaint; they should be fed rather sparingly, or not be permitted to eat much at one time for some days after. One of the above drenches may be administered every morning and evening for three or four days. LOSS OF THE OUD. Causes.—Though this disease usually arises from over-feeding in rich, succulent pastures; it is, however, sometimes owing to the diseased state of the liver. Symptoms.—In the early stages of this complaint, the animal appears dull and languid, and generally has a tight skin, and a rough, unhealthy coat. As the disease advances, the appetite is diminished, and ultimately he ceases to chew the cud. The eyes and mouth usually appear yellow. Cure.—When the liver has become much affected, the disease commonly terminates fatally; a cure should, therefore, be at- tempted at an early period. If there be any appearance of cos- tiveness, the following warm laxative should be first given: Castile soap, . 5 : : “ f . 6drachms, Ginger, 5 ; 5 - : : 3 drachms, Barbadoes aloes, : : ee bas 5 . half an ounce, Cascarilla bark, . : > : : 2 drachms, Warm water, . : < - . =. /1spink Mixed. The towels, however, are generally in a loose state, and the dung has an unhealthy appearence. When this is the case, give the following tonic drench, morning and evening, and let the animal be kept warm: Carbonate of soda, . : F . A - 2drachms, Ginger, —. ° . 5 ° ° : 3 drachms, Cascarilla bark, : - : ; - . 38 drachms. _ To be given in a pint of ale. THE JAUNDICE, OR YELLOWS. Causes.—It generally arises from a debilitated state of the stomach, which, being distended with food, from slow and difficult digestion, particularly the manyfold, press upon the bile ducts, and prevent the bile flowing into the intestines. The bile being thus obstructed, is taken up by the lymphatic absorbents, and conveyed into the circulating mass of blood, and gets diffused DISEASES AND REMEDIES. 481 throughout the body. Milk cows are the most subject to it in the spring, and the latter end of the year, yet they are not exempt from it at any other time. The fluctuating state of the weather appears frequently to give rise to this complaint; when the weather is very changeable, and they appear not well, great care should be taken to place them within doors. Symptoms.—This disease is first apparent in the whites of the eyes, which appear of a yellow tint, and the whole skin becomes impregnated with the same yellow hue as the disease increases ; the eyes, ears, mouth and tail, are the parts where it is most con- spicuous to the sight. The animals have a weakness and con- siderable debility of the nervous system, a want of appetite, and an aversion to move, in every stage of this disease. When in the pasture, they are continually wandering about by the side of the hedges, in a dejected manner, by themselves. When a milk cow has this disease, the secretion of milk is lessened, the fore teeth sometimes loosen; and the bowels become costive. Cure.—lIn the early stages of this disorder, the warm laxative, directed in the preceding complaint, will generally effect a cure ; it may be repeated after an interval of five or six days, and in the interim, the following drink may be given every morning and evening: Venice turpentine, ° - : 3 - . half an ounce, Ginger, : : ° ; - ~ 3 drachms, Castile soap, - : 3 a half an ounce, Powdered gentian root, . ° é 1 ounce. The soap and turpentine may oe rabbed together in a mortar, till perfectly incorporated; after which a pint of water may be gradually added, and afterwards the gentian and ginger. The liver becomes generally much injured in the more advanced stages of this disorder, and a cure is then almost impossible. A recent author makes the following sensible observations on this subject: “In cattle, a vomit of emetic tartar may be tried at the first appearance of the disease, as the effort of vomiting may assist in promoting the passage of the gall stone. If, how- ever, the disease should arise in consequence of previous inflam- mation of the liver, vomits will be of no use, and the best rem- edies will be mercurial purgatives, with soap. The food should consist of succulent and watery substances, especially of fresh grass; as it is found that when cattle affected with this disease are sent to pasiate, they commonly soon recover. Warm mashes 1 482 AMERICAN CATTLE, of bran or malt should be given frequently, both to obviate cos- tiveness, and as being good articles of diet. If the disease should continue obstinate, and the use of mercurial medicines should be found necessary, the animal must be confined within doors during night and bad weather. It will be proper, when- ever the weather and other circumstances permit, to give the animal regular exercise in the open air; but if necessity obliges us to keep him within doors, the whole body, but especially the belly, should be well rubbed for a considerable time twice or thrice a day. This friction will be proper, even though regular exercise can be taken in the open air.” SNORKS. A gathering of thick clotted matter sometimes takes place within the nostrils, which very much impedes respiration when arrived at any height, and produces a snivelling noise when the air passes through the nostrils. This affection 1s termed the snores or snivels, and is almost peculiar to cattle. The swelling thus caused in the nostrils, usually proceeds to suppuration, and when it breaks the animal is relieved. It should, therefore, be hastened by the application of warm stimulating fomentations or liniments. It is usual to inject the oil of bays up into the nostrils; but probably the steam of warm water would answer, and it might be easily applied by placing a warm bran mash into a canvas hag, and tying it to the animal’s head; repeating it till the imposthume breaks. In the interim, the animal should be kept in the house, and fed on good nourishing diet COW-POX. In the publications issued by Dr. Jenner, who formerly prac- ticed at Berkeley, in Gloucestershire, where he had frequent opportunities of witnessing this disease amongst the cows, its symptoms and origin are ably described: “In this dairy country,” observes Dr. Jenner, ‘a great num- ber of cows are kept, and the office of milking is performed indis- crjminately by men and maid servants. One of the former hay- ing been appointed to apply dressings to the heels of a horse affected with the grease, and not paying due attention to clean- liness, incautiously bears his part in milking the cows, with some - particles of the infectious matter adhering to his fingers. When DISEASES AND REMEDIES, 483 this is the case it commonly happens that the disease is commuui- cated to the cows, and from the cows to the dairy-maids, which spreads through the farm, until most of the cattle and domestics feel its unpleasant consequences. ‘This disease has obtained the. name of the cow-pox. It appears on the nipples of the cows, in the form of irregular pustules. At their first appearance, they are commonly of a palish blue, or rather of a color somewhat’ approaching to livid, and are surrounded by an erysipelatous inflammation. These pustules, unless a timely remedy be applied, frequently degenerate into phagedenic ulcers, which prove ex- tremely troublesome. The animal becomes indisposed, and the secretion of milk is much lessened.” Another kind of eruption is sometimes apparent on the udder of the cow, which has some resemblance to the cow-pox, and may be easily mistaken for it. It consists of a number of white blisters on the nipples, and these blisters are filled with a whitish serous fluid. They are to be distinguished from the pustules that take place in the cow-pox, by their not having the bluish color of the latter, and by their never eating into the fleshy parts, being confined to the skin, and ending in scabs. This eruption is also considered infectious, though not in so high a degree as the real cow-pox. Dr. Jenner conceives that this spurious eruption is chiefly pro- duced by the transition which is made by the cow in the spring from a poor diet to one that is more nourishing, by which the udder, at this season, becomes more than usually vascular for the supply of milk. There is, however, another species of inflam- mation and pustules, which is not uncommon amongst the dairy counties of the west of England. A cow intended to be offered _ for sale, and possessing naturally only a small udder, is neither milked by the milker, nor is her calf suffered to have access to her for a day or two previous; thus the milk is preternaturally accumulated; and the udder and nipples becoming greatly ex- tended, inflammation and pustular eruption frequently ensue. THE SHOOTE. This is the most fatal disease to calves, which it in general attacks a few days after their birth. The usual symptoms are at first, a colic that is more or less violent, and is frequently very dangerous and severe, but more especially when it is contagious. The calf is relieved by a discharge from the bowels taking place, 484 AMERICAN CATTLE, when the colic is terminated; though this will sometimes prove ~ fatal before the shoote makes its appearance: and secondly, a refusal, and loathing of food, even prior to the discharge, and which will increase and decrease according to the violence and duration of the disease. When the shoote prevails, the cheapest, and probably the most efficacious medicine which has been in general administered by experienced breeders, is eggs and flour well mixed with oil, melted butter, and linseed, anise-seeds, cr other _ similar mucilaginous vegetables; or, as some recommend, milk well mulled with eggs, may be administered to the distempered animal. VENOMOUS BITES. There are but few venomous animals in this country, compared with those that are found in warmer climates, and where they often prove fatal both to man and beast. The adder, or viper, is most common in this country, and the bite of this reptile is fre- quently attended with very dangerous consequences. Neat cat- tle are much more lable to be stung by this reptile than any other of the domestic animals. Instances have been known to have proved fatal, when the tongue of the animal has been stung while grazing. Cattle are seldom attacked by adders, except they disturb them whilst grazing; and this is the main reason why so many are bitten about the head, and sometimes about the feet. The sting of the wasp, hornet, or bee, are fre- quently attended with considerable pain and inflammation, and require a similar treatment as the former. Cure.-—The following liniment will be found a powerful remedy in checking the progress of the poison, and destroying it in the part affected: Spirits of turpentine, . < 5 - 2 . 4ounces, Olive oil, : dj 5 half a pint, Strong spirits of har tshorn, < . 4 ounces. Let them be put into a bottle together, ai well shaken every time before using. The part affected must be well rubbed with a sufficient quan- tity of this hniment two or three times,a day, until the inflam- mation and swelling abate. WOUNDS. Wounds are most commonly produced by cattle goring each other with their horns, or by breaking through fences; and when deep or extensive, considerable inflammation usually proceeds. DISEASES AND REMEDIES. 485 The proper treatment of wounds depends on the part where they are inflicted, and the instrument that caused them. A clean cut made in the muscular parts is soon healed by the early appli- cation of slips of sticking plaster, in order that the edges of the wound may be kept close together ; or, if plaster cannot be speedily applied, a stitch or two may be taken through the edges of the wound, and the strings tied gently together. When the edges perfectly adhere, the strings must be cut away, and the holes caused by them will soon fill up. It is particularly necessary that all wounds should be perfectly cleaned before any attempt is made to heal them. It will occasionally happen that the wound is so situated as not to admit of its being sewed up; but when this occurs, silver or steel pins may generally he passed from the edges, about an inch apart from each other, and a thread twisted crosswise from one to the other, thus forming what is called the twzsted suture. In every case where it is necessary to use sutures, a sticking plaster should be applied over the edges of the wound. But this mode of treatment can only be adopted in those superficial wounds where a flap of the skin is separated; and, when this occurs, it is not requisite to apply any stimulating fluid, as some writers advise. When there is any dirt or other matter collected about the wound, it may be washed off with warm water. Where the wound is considerable, and important parts are affected, the most decisive means should be speedily employed to keep down inflammation. Immediately after which, a purga- tive, or relaxative drink, should be given, and the parts be fomented with a decoction of mallows, hemlock, or elder, until the inflammation, if any, subsides. Keep zt always washed clean, and, if warm weather, the flies away. After the inflammation caused by the wound has subsided, it should be examined with a probe, in order to ascertain if any matter be confined; as it is sometimes necessary to give it vent by enlarging the original wound, or make an opening in another more depending situation, that it may run off freely. It may be requisite to apply at this period, the following ointment: Common turpentine, - : : 5 5 . 6 ounces. Hog’s lard, - A : : 2 - : 8 ounces. Beeswax, . s : - : ° - - 1 ounce, Melted together. 486 AMERICAN CATTLE. When taken from the fire, one ounce of powdered verdigris may be added; and the mixture must be constantly stirred until it is cold. Should a lotion be preferred, the following stimulating solution will be found useful: Sublimate, . : ‘ 4 : 5 . 12 grains, Tincture of my rrh, 4 ' - is a 2 ounces. Mixed. One pint of oil of turpentine, to two quarts of sweet oil with good digestive. In deep wounds, or when the parts are much divided, sewing is not advisable. Wounds of the belly, through which the bow- els pass out, are very dangerous, and require the most delicate management As soon as an accident of this description hap- pens, the bowel should be put back into the belly as tenderly as possible: and if any dirt, hair, or other matter, be observed upon the gut, it must be carefully washed off with warm water. When the bowel has been replaced, the wound must be stitched up by means of a crooked needle and threads doubled, or small twine well waxed (with beeswax): a roller, or bandage should then be applied. The animal must be kept at rest, on an opening diet, of grass or bran; and, if costive, a dose of castor oil should be administered. The treatment of the wound is of little conse- quence; the principal object being to keep the bowel in its proper situation. A considerable quantity of air will occasion- ally get into the gut, after it has escaped from the belly, by which it is so distended, as to render it very difficult, if not impracticable, to replace it through the original wound. Should this, on examination, be found to occur, the wound must be enlarged, in order to allow the gut to be replaced, which must be done in the most cautious manner, the knife being properly guarded by the forefinger. Should it be thought necessary to stop the bleeding from the wound, the most effectual method of doing it, next to that of tying the blood vessel, is by placing bolsters of tow or sponge to the bleeding part, and supporting it firmly with bandages. If the new flesh should rise above the surface, and appear to be produced too luxuriantly during the progress of the wound, it may. easily be checked by sprinkling on the part a little pow- dered blue vitriol. DISEASES AND REMEDIES. 487 STRAINS AND BRUISES. Bleeding 1s most advisable whenever these accidents occur in a considerable degree, or an important part is injured; fomenta- tions are at first the most proper applications, in consequence of inflammation being the common effect of these injuries: but when the inflammation has subsided, the liniment recommended in a preceding article, on the swelling of the udder, may be rubbed on the part twice or thrice a day. When any part of the limbs is so strained as to occasion lameness, and it continues after the above application, a blister should be used. In bruises that occur from the pressure of the yoke, or other slight causes, the lotion prescribed below will be found of service: Goulard’s extract, . : “ - : . half anounce, Vinegar, . - 3 ~ : : 4 ounces, Water, . . - 2 F 5 : y iepint, Mixed. TO DRY A COW OF HER MILK. Mr. Clater observes that this is a subject with which every ~ gentleman grazier should be well acquainted. It is frequently found necessary to dry cows of their milk at all times of the year, in order that they may the better be fed for the shambles. Some cows are more difficult to dry than others, by reason of © their giving too large a quantity of milk, and the gross habits of body peculiar to some beasts. — - Without great care and management, these will be liable to the downfall, either in the udder or foot; or otherwise it may terminate in some inflammatory disease. Cows that are apt to milk themselves, are difficult to dry; they should, therefore, be dried early in the spring, while on dry food. Others may be dried either in the pasture or in any other place. Such cows as are in the pasture, give a considerable quantity of milk, and are in good condition, ought to be brought into a foldyard over night, and from three to four quarts of blood taken from them, and the next morning the following drink administered : Bole armenic, powdered, . 2 ounces, Roach alumn, powdered, (if a large beast, 8 ounces,) ‘ 6 ounces. Mix and put them in a pitcher, then pour a pint and a half of boiling ale upon the ingredients. Afterwards add one pint of good vinegar, and give when new milk warm, 488 AMERICAN CATTLE, The cow must be milked clean at the time the above drink is given, and two hours after may be turned into her pasture. About four days after, if her udder appears hard and full, let her be brought out of the pasture, milked clean, and the drink be repeated as before. This 1s generally sufficient to dry any cow of her milk; but as some cows give so much that it renders them very difficult to dry, it is therefore frequently found necessary to repeat the drink and milking every fourth day, for three or four times, before they can be completely dried. MURRAIN, OR PUTRID FEVER.* Murrain, or pests, are undoubtedly the most serious epidemic fevers that ever have appeared among domestic animals, owing to their violence and fatality ; they have occasionally raged, from the earliest historical accounts. From the several statements that have been made concerning the disorder, it seems to have varied in its symptoms and effects, according to the countries in which it appeared, the various seasons in which its ravages were commenced, and some other circumstances not perfectly ascer- tained. It is evident that this disease was infectious, since it was easily propagated among the species of animals which it attacked; but it is not certain that it has the power of spreading to other species; as men, horses, sheep and dogs, that live in the neighborhood of the cattle infected by it, evinced no signs of having received the contagion. Nineteen out of twenty cattle attacked by this disease are said, by Mr. Savage, to have died. Causes.—The causes and nature of this disorder have not been precisely ascertained. Some have imagined it to be con- nected with a peculiar state of the atmosphere, and that it did not originate in contagion. Many consider the principal cause of the disease to be previous hard winters, obstructed perspiration, worms in the liver, and corrupted food. * This disease is, no doubt, analogous to, or the same as, the Pleuro-pneumoria, or, possibly, Rinderpest, hereafter noticed. The disease had not, probably, ap- peared of late in England when he wrote, as it has, in a few years since, with such fatal violence. It is evident that, personally, Mr. Lowson had little or no experi- ence in its treatment. We give his notice of it, however, as valuable in contribut- ing somewhat of knowledge concerning it.—L. F. A. DISEASES AND REMEDIES. 489 Symptoms.—The following account of this disease is given by Dr. Brocklesby. For ten days or a fortnight the cattle were troubled with a dry cough, which is indeed not an uncommon symptom among cattle at the close of a severe winter, and there- fore Dr. Brocklesby did not consider it belonging to the present disease ; their eyes looked heavy, and, when the principal disorder appeared, they refused fodder, but had an insatiable thirst for a time. The milk cows decreased in their milk, which remained -to a certain quantity, sometimes, for two days, before it changed color, but at length often dried up. On ceasing to chew the cud, a shivering seized them all over, and a high fever immediately came on; the milk, if any remained at that time, curdled over the fire, but did not in the first of the disorder. At first the belly was costive, but for the most part a looseness succeeded within forty-eight hours after the shivering fit. The stools were first green and watery, and of a stinking smell; their consist- ence, however, altered afterwards to a viscid, slimy matter; the purging continued till about the seventh day, and about that time the excrements became thicker in such as recovered; and these soon chewed their cud again, and tasted the fodder, which they had before absolutely refused through the whole disease. All that had not the looseness before the third day died. The urine was very high colored, and in smaller quantities. The degree of fever was observed very high; upon the third day, the pulse beat nearly a hundred times in a minute, whereas the ingenious Dr. Hales found a sound ox’s artery not to exceed thirty-eight pulses in the same time. At different intervals, after the attack, they all labored under a prodigious difficulty, and panting for breath; some suffered these after the first day, others not before the third. But this disorder suffered remissions, and seemed augmented towards evening and at night. Several beasts dis- charged, towards the fourth or fifth day, when ill, a very great _ quantity of frothy liquor from the mouth and eyes; others ran actually purulent matter from the nostrils. As the disorder advanced, the eyes sunk more in their orbits, and some were observed to be quite blind. ‘Towards the conclusion, the fore parts of the body, and particularly the glands about the head were prodigiously swelled ; and several beasts had a universal emphysema, or crackling of air beneath their skin; those that were not blooded equally with such as were. Frequently one 490 AMERICAN CATTLE. might observe pustules break out, on the fifth or sixth days, all oven the neck and fore parts. Some cattle were raging mad on the first day; such were necessarily killed: some dropped down suddenly ; others died on the third ; most on the sixth or seventh ; very few alive on the fourteenth day. Before death, the horns and dugs grew remarkably cold. Cure-—The method of treating the cattle, recommended by Dr. Brocklesby, is as follows: Before the cattle are seized, he advises two setons or pegs to be put deep in the dewlap, and into the under part of the neck; and, immediately upon refusing fodder, the beasts should have three quarts of blood taken away ; and after twelve hours, two quarts more; after the next twelve hours, about three pints may be let out; and, after the following twelve hours, diminish a pint of blood from the quantity taken away at the preceding blood-letting; lastly, about a single pint should be taken away in less than twelve hours after the former bleeding, so that when the beast has been bled five times, in the manner. here proposed, the worst symptoms will, it is hoped, abate; but if the difficulty and panting for breath continue very great, ‘he sees no reason against repeated bleeding; or at least against taking away the fifth time, instead of a single pint, twice — that quantity. In the meantime, the setons or pegs shoud be daily promoted to suppuration by moving the cord; and the cattle should have as much bran water as they chose to drink lukewarm. This should be made a little tart or sourish, either with common vine- gar or spirit of vitriol: and immediately after the first bleeding, they should have the following drench :* Nitre, . : = 3 ; ; . 1 ounce anda half, Honey, : s 3 : 3 2 ounces, Camphor, ; : ‘ F . 1 drachm and a half, Water gruel, : ; 3 < : 1 quart. It is rather surprising that this same treatment, with a trifling variation in the internal medicine, is also recommended by Mr. Feron, as the result of his own experience, in what he terms the general inflammation of cattle. * When the disease has once settled itself in the system, all ‘‘ drenches,”’ or other medicaments are useless—most of all, this everlasting ‘‘ bleeding,’’ which, if under- taken at all by the above directions, had better not stop until the suffering beast is relieved—by death.—L. F. A. DISEASES AND REMEDIES. 491 MALIGNANT EPIDEMICS—MURRAIN, PLEURO-PNEUMONIA, RINDERPEST. We should hardly mention these terrible diseases, had not our attention been recently called to them, by the late devastations in the herds of British cattle, within the last two or three years, to such extent, that the Congress of the United States, some two years ago, by a solemn enactment, prohibited the importa- tion of foreign cattle into our country, altogether. That law is still in force, and possibly to the salvation of our own domestic herds, which might otherwise have been endangered by impor- tations, which, of late years, have been frequent. This disease, or diseases—for they are all malignant epidem- ics—perhaps taking a more extreme type as circumstances may govern, but all attended with a terrible fatality, has existed on the Eastern Continent, at various times, for some thousands of years. Youatt gives an elaborate description of the disease. The first we hear of it is in the Bible, (Exodus ix. 3-6,) when the cattle of Egypt were smote with murrain as a punishment for retaining the children of Israel in bondage. Profane writers, as Homer, Hippocrates, Plutarch, Virgil, and others before Christ, make mention of it, and it has existed in various coun- tries of Asia and Europe, down to the present day—not con- tinuously, but at different periods—and been attended with devastating fatality, sweeping, at times, the countries which it ravaged, of almost all their herds. The lights of science and investigation have failed to give the cause or origin of these epidemics; but that they have been con- tagious is certain, and the immediate extinction of the herds affected with it has proved as yet its only certain cure. We have not space to recount its ravages, even in England of late, and can only allude to it in connection with what we have lately known of it in our own country. “ Murrain,” as we understand it in America, is only a casual disease, deadly enough when it 492, AMERICAN CATTLE, breaks out, but mitigated in its virulence from the deadly mur- rain of scriptural times, which was of malignant type. Pleuro- pneumonia is worse and more deadly than any domestic mur- rain, and has prevailed, at sundry times, to more or less fatal extent in America; but the still more deadly and fatal Rinder pest has visited us but once, and that recently. These may be called kindred diseases, as the forms they take may rage with less or greater violence and fatality, or yield to, or resist medical treatment. A brief history of the Rinderpest in America, may be important for our information. We find it on the “Fourteenth Annual Report of the Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Agriculture, for the year 1865,” as a report of a Commission appointed by the State Legislature to investigate the disease. It is there given as the Pleuro- pneumonia: ‘“We may reasonably entertain the hope, that after a long series of well-meant and well-directed efforts, that contagious disease among cattle, known as pleuro-pneumonia, has been erad- icated ; while the sad experience of Great Britain in combating a somewhat analogous disease, the rinderpest or cattle plague, which has carried off more than two hundred thousand of the finest animals, has become sufficiently well known to confirm the wisdom and sound judgment of our own State authorities in the course adopted to prevent the introduction and spread of con- tagious diseases among our stock “Tt is possible that in the early stages of our efforts to arrest the progress of the pleuro-pneumonia, when the disease was less understood than it is now, a somewhat larger number of cattle were destroyed than was absolutely necessary to secure the object in view; but no one can be so short-sighted as not to admit that it was better to err on the side of safety than to run the risk of incurring the losses which would inevitably have followed neglect; for we know now that every conceivable expedient was DISEASES AND REMEDIES. 493 adopted by the Hnglish government to avoid the harsh necessity of a resort to the ‘stamping-out process,’ and that it was com- pelled to come to it at last, and to admit that it was the only effectual means of avoiding a far more terrible disaster, the losses in two years being about twenty millions of dollars. “By a reference to the following report of the Massachusetts Commissioners on Contagious Diseases among Cattle, it will be seen that the aggregate cost to the State of extirpating the dis- ease from our herds has been less than seventy thousand dollars, an amount which must appear triflmg when compared with the results attained, and the exemption secured, by the efficient efforts of the State Board of Agriculture, and the too little appreciated labors of the Cattle Commissioners. ‘““The Commissioners on Contagious Diseases among Cattle, in submitting their report, congratulate the people of the Com- monwealth upon the probable extinction of the disease, (no case having come to their knowledge since October, 1865,) which but a few years since threatened to be of so serious a character, viz.: pleuro-pneumonia. ‘The Commissioners have been called to several towns during ° the past year, to examine diseased animals, yet not a case of contagious pleuro-pneumonia has been found. ‘“A concise history of the disease, from its first appearance in Mr. Chenery’s herd in Belmont, to the present time, is deemed of sufficient importance to warrant its insertion in this report. “In the latter part of May, 1859, four cattle arrived from Holland and were taken to the farm of Mr. Chenery.* Two of them were sick, and in a few days died. Another soon after sickened and died. At the time of the death of the third, three calves were sold to go to North Brvuokfield, one of which was taken to the herd of a dealer for treatment, being sick. The *See notice of Mr. Chenery’s importation of Holstein cattle, page 169.—L. F. A, 494 AMERICAN CATTLE. dealer, trading in cattle, as usual, soon spread the disease far and wide. “In the following April, an act was passed ‘to provide for the extirpation of the disease called pleuro-pneumonia among cattle,’ which gave the Commissioners power to cause to be killed all cattle in herds where the disease was known or suspected to exist. The disease had, at the time of the passage of the act, . been extensively scattered, and in a short time the appropriation ($10,000) was absorbed. A larger number of cattle having been exposed than was at first estimated, an extra session of the legislature was called to revise the law, and to provide the means of executing it. A new law was enacted, and received the sanction of the Executive on the 12th of June. . ‘‘No new outbreak of the disease occurred during that year, norin that locality, as far as is known, to the present time. The number of cattle killed was nine hundred and thirty-two. ‘For more than a year nothing was heard of pleuro-pneumonia. In fact, those most directly interested were confident that the disease was extirpated. Early in the following winter, however, “it was reported that it existed in Milton, Dorchester, and Quincy. | ‘‘ A Board of Commissioners was appointed, who, upon investi- gation, found the report to be true. A pair of cattle was purchased — at Brighton, which were taken to Quincy, and both died. No further history of them could be learned, as it was impossible to identify them; but the spread of the disease could in every instance be traced to contact with the animals in the herd in which they were at the time of their death, as shown in the report of that year. The number killed during the year, was one hundred and fifty-four. “ For several months the Commissioners felt confident that the disease was eradicated. In February, 1863, the Commissioners were called to examine sick cattle in the north part of Waltham DISEASES AND REMEDIES. 495 r —also in Lexington. It proved to be pleuro-pneumonia, and its origin was directly traced to a dealer, and from the sale of cattle by him, to eight different herds. The appropriation ($1,000) was soon exhausted, consequently the Commissioners resigned. “The selectmen of several towns were called upon to execute the law, which they (some of them at least) reluctantly did, yet the disease still prevailed. Accordingly the present board of Commissioners was appointed in April, 1864 “Tt was found that several herds were affected, and that the origin of the disease was in Lexington, or that immediate vicinity. Seventy-four cattle were killed during the year. ‘“‘In 1865, but three herds were found affected with the disease, from which four animals were killed. “The Legislature in its last session, in a proviso to the resolve, allowing the sum of twenty thousand dollars to the use of the Commissioners, require them to make ee and report upon the curability of the disease. “No cases of the disease having come before the voard the past year, they were of course unable to comply with the request, and can only refer, for information on this subject, to the report of last year, on the experiments made by the Commissioners during the years of 1864 and 1865. “The uniform course of the present board has been to isolate all herds they have found affected with the disease, and such other cattle as had in any way been exposed to diseased herds, to kill such as they were satisfied had the disease to that extent, as to make them useless to the owners, and, in but few instances, only such. The result of our action contrasts favorably with that of Great Britain, in the management heretofore of contagious diseases among cattle. ‘“‘In Great Britain, during the past two years, public attention has been diverted from plewro-pneumonza, to the more terrible disease, r7nderpest, 496 - AMERICAN CATTLE. ‘““ We here quote from Prof. McCall’s introductory lecture before the class of veterinary students, November 6th, of the present year, at Glasgow, Scotland, to show that plewro-pneumonza is still making its ravages among the cattle of that country: ‘‘¢ Hor upwards of twenty years this country has annually lost thousands of cattle from one contagious disease alone, viz.: pleuro- pneumonia, and at the present moment it is busy among our herds. One gentleman present has lost twenty-two out of a herd of thirty-five; and a few weeks ago I was consulted by a farmer who had lost twelve out of twenty, and now the disease has appeard among his young stock. The number of deaths in these instances are appalling, and the loss, directly or indirectly, cannot be estimated at less than £900 or £1,000—($5,000.) “ 502 AMERICAN CATTLE. “(f.) The more highly bred are your animals, the more care- ful should you be to keep them from exposure, as experience shows that thorough-bred animals are more likely to take the disease than common cattle.” It will thus be seen that, had the disease appeared, the New York Commissioners, being armed with the power, had occasion required its use, would have as effectually ‘stamped out” the plague by immediate slaughter, as did their predecessors in Mas- sachusetts. Happily such occasion passed, and we trust there may be no future necessity of any action. The commission was renewed in the year 1867, to continue three years. A modified pleuro-pneumonia has occasionally broken out in some of the eastern counties of New York, and Pennsylvania, alarming to some extent, at first, but prompt attention prevented its spreading, if it did not yield to treatment. Although we hope the disease may never occur with us, we have thought that a somewhat extended notice of it would not be unprofitable, but indeed serviceable to our American farmers. We conclude the subject of rinderpest, with an extract from a report by Mr. X. A. Willard, on his recent return from an agri- cultural tour in England, to the N. Y. Agricultural pe and published in Transactions for the year 1866: ‘The southern counties of England through which I passed, have suffered but little from this disease, but in some of the northern counties, especially Cheshire, the plague has been most terrible im its ravages. The immense dairy herds of Cheshire have been swept away almost entire, and a great gloom prevails among the people. ‘The cheese product in Cheshire, Lancashire, Shropshire, and Derbyshire, has fallen off this year more than forty millions of pounds. The Cheshire farmers have now no faith in medicine or remedial agents for rinderpest. One farmer, who had lost eighty head, and had tried various remedies advised by veterina- DISEASES AND REMEDIES. 503 rians, said he preferred homeopathic treatment, but the cures, like the medicines, were infinitesimal. ‘Professor Gamgee, whom I met in London, said, ‘our gov- ernment ought at once to take the proper steps for crushing out the disease, in the event of its reaching our shores. On its first appearance in a herd, every animal should be immediately slaugh-- - tered, premises purified, and every precaution taken that it spread no further. We must not dilly-dally with the disease, but employ prompt action and energetic measures. The men employed to do this work should be stern and inflexible in their decisions, and not be swayed by any sympathy for losses sustained by those owning the herds. They should look upon it as a terrible calamity, threatening the nation, which must be walled in and crushed at all hazards, in its incipient stages. Take warning, said he, by England’s dilatory action, and you, in America, will be spared one of the greatest calamities that ever befell any country.’ ” We trust that the rinderpest in Western Europe, as well as in its brief appearance a few years since on our own side of the Atlantic, has passed into history, not again to disturb our fears with its anticipated ravages. ABORTION, OR SLINKING. This dangerous disorder has, of late, become rife in some of our important dairy districts, to such an extent as to become alarming; and no cause has yet been satisfactorily accounted for it. It has been seldom, in past years, that cows have aborted throughout the country generally. In our own cow keeping of | many years, chiefly in the best common way of farmers, with hun- dreds of them, we have never had, to exceed, in all, half a dozen cases. Abortion has, however, within a few years past, become alarm- ingly prevalent in a portion of the dairy districts of the State of 504 AMERICAN CATTLE. New York. In the Transactions of the New York State Agri- cultural Society for the year 1866, it is stated that ‘the farmers in the counties of Herkimer, Oneida, Lewis, and Otsego, have been for some years, and are now suffering great loss and dam- age from the abortion of their cows. The abortions occur in almost every month of gestation; but more particularly from the sixth to the ninth month. ‘In a few cases, the cows die in consequence of abortion; in others, they remain several months in a feeble and_ sickly con- dition, during which they cannot be fattened; in others, they continue to give milk, but the flow is poor in quality, and small in quantity. In some cases, and those appear to be in the majority, from the reports we have received, the farmer loses the use of the cow for a whole year. “The disease began to manifest itself about twelve years ago, and has been gradually increasing ever since. It was greatly intensified in the year 1865, and continued to increase in 1866. In the year 1866, from the best information we can obtain, twenty-five per cent. of the cows in the county of Herkimer aborted; in Oneida, twenty-five per cent.; in Otsego, fifteen per cent.; in Lewis, twelve per cent. In the other dairy districts, the disease exists, but we are unable to obtain the measure of loss. “The farmers’ clubs, of those counties, have labored zealously, and have expended a great deal of money to ascertain the cause of the disorder, but hitherto without success. ‘On high lands and low lands, on old pastures and on new, in high, and low bred stock, in cows that were purchased, and those which were bred on the farm, in those that were high fed, and those that were fed sparingly, in those that were kept in underground stables, and in those that were kept above ground, in large and small herds, on pastures that had been plastered, (with gypsum,) and those which were unplastered, the same hability to abortion appears. DISEASES AND REMEDIES. 505 “The following are the only circumstances which seem to be common to all reports: “Tn all cases, the meadows and pastures contained much June grass ( poa-pratensis.) In nearly all cases the bulls ran with the cows,* and in most of them they drank hard water. In every case the appearance of the calf was unnatural and unhealthy, and the lochial discharges were unwholesome. “The number of milk cows in this State, (New York,) is 1,123,000. In Herkimer, there are 41,566; in Oneida, 48,510; in Lewis, 26,373; in Otsego, 36,847. These counties, with St. Lawrence, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Chenango, Delaware, Jef- ferson, and Orange, have 465,586 cows. “The cows of the State produce 103,097,280 pounds of but- ter, 48,548,289 pounds of cheese, and about 21,000,000 gallons of milk, to be sold in cities and manufacturing villages. The value of these dairy products could not have been less than $48,000,000. If we assume the loss from abortion to be ten per cent., the money value of the loss is $4,800,000 annually.” This is a most sorry story of abortion; and when it is known, as is the fact, that the above mentioned counties are chiefly high, rolling land, abounding in the choicest grasses, and pure springs and streams of water, eminently healthful to man and animals generally, there must be some hidden cause for this calamity. And yet no remedy -has been discovered to prevent it. Much has been written on the subject, within the last two or three years, in our agricultural papers, but without settling the question of its causes, or its prevention. Among our own cows, we do not recollect a single instance where the cow, after a few * When wél/ people learn to keep their bulls up—confined, away from their cows, either in stables, or yards? That, of itself, may be one great cause of abortion, the cows being continually run after and teazed by the too officious brute. In previous pages we have said quite enough on that very important item of cattle manage. ment As June, or blue grass, prevails almost everywhere in the pastures and cat: tle regions of North America, we cannot imagine that food has anything to do with abortion.—L. F. A. a 2 _ 506 AMERICAN CATTLE, weeks, or months, did not return to regular breeding, without a repetition of the misfortune, so that we have had little eaperv- mental knowledge of the malady. Some thirty years ago, a gentleman in the eastern part of this State had a valuable herd of short-horns.. The cows had bred successfully, until one summer, while in their usual pastures, a large majority of them, one after another, slipped their calves. The fact was so extraordinary and continuous in the herd, that their owner at once resolved to send them away to a distance for keeping. They were driven out to a fine grass farm about a hundred and fifty miles distant. Arriving there, no further abor- tions took place, and they were not returned to their old home for some months, until the pasturing season had transpired. Meantime, the proprietor of the herd began to examine into the cause of this strange malady, and soon recollected that he had, early in the spring, some time before the abortions commenced, spread over his grounds a large quantity of fur clippings and trimmings, the refuse of a manufactory where caps and other fur clothing were extensively made. He found these clippings of skin and fur in various stages of offensive decomposition in his pastures, and the cause of the difficulty, in his own mind, was readily solved. By the end of the season the clippings had become entirely decomposed, and absorbed, or amalgamated into the soil. By the next spring, all but their fertilizing power had disappeared, and no further ill effects were produced. It is hard- ly necessary to say that the experiment was not repeated, and the cows were thereafter healthy, and free from further abortions. This subject should be well understood. It is so admirably and fully treated in Youatt, that in the absence of any mention of it by Mr. Lowson, from whom we have so freely quoted, we give, at length, Mr. Youatt’s remarks on the disease, if disease it may be called: ‘The cow is more than any other animal subject to abortion. This takes place at different periods of pregnancy, from half of DISEASES AND REMEDIES. 507 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 cowherd, lest he should be accused of -neglect or improper treatment. ‘The cow is somewhat off her feed—rumination ceases—she is listless and dull—the milk diminishes or dries up—the motions of the foetus become 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 rotun- the pulse becomes small, wiry and intermittent. At length labor comes on, and is often attended with much difficulty and danger. dity, and has been evidently falling—she begins to moan ‘Tf 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 unskillfully castrated oxen, the symptoms are more intense. 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 dis- tressingly violent, and they continue until the womb is ruptured. Should not all these circumstances be observed, yet the labor is protracted’and dangerous. ‘Abortion is sometimes singularly frequent in particular dis- tricts, or on particular farms. It seems to assume an epizootic or epidemic form. This has been accounted for in various ways. 508 : AMERICAN CATTLE. 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 pla- centa 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 sin- cularly 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 num- ber of those that had pastured together likewise abort. Hence arises the rapidity with which the fcetus 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 pasture. “Chabert, in his ‘ Veterinary Instructions,’ relates a singular case of this—a kind of pest or plague in the dairy of a farmer at Toury. For thirty years his cows had been subject to abor- tion. His cowhouse was large and airy; his cows were appar- ently in good health; they were fed like others in the village; they drank from the same pond; there was nothing different in the pasture; his servants were not accustomed to ill-use the cat- tle, and he had changed these servants many times in the thirty years. He had changed his bull many a time; he had pulled down his cowhouse, and he had built another in a different situa- tion, with a different aspect, and on a different plan; he had even (agreeably to the superstition of the neighborhood) 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 DISEASES AND REMEDIES. ~ 509 ‘same threshold; nay, to make all sure, he had broken through the wall at the end of the cowhouse, and opened a new door, in 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 suffered an abortion, and others had speedily followed her example; and the cow that had once slunk her calf was hable to do the same in the following year, and so the destructive habit had been perpetuated among his beasts. ‘“‘ Several of the cows had died in the act of abortion, and he had replaced them by others; more of those that had aborted once or twice, or oftener, had been sold, and the vacancies filled up. M. Chabert advised him to make a thorough change. This had never occurred to the farmer, but he at once saw the pro- priety of the counsel. He sold every beast, and the plague was stayed. This sympathetic influence is one main cause of the slinking of the calves. There is no contagion, but the result is as fatal as the direst contagion could have made it. ‘¢ Another cause of abortion is the extravagantly high condition in which cows are sometimes kept. They are in a continual state of excitement; and from the slightest cause, inflammation is set up in the uterus, rendered more susceptible by the state of preg- nancy, and abortion is the frequent consequence of that inflam- mation. “M. Cruzel has given an instructive account of abortion thus produced. He was consulted by a farmer who had ten breed- ing cows, that occasionally worked at the plough; as is often the case in France. During the first year three of them aborted. They recovered, and were soon again in calf. Two of them slunk their calves a second time, between the fifth and sixth months of pregnancy ; the third went her full time and produced a weakly calf, that died on the second day. In the following ye 1 AMERICAN CATTLE. year a fourth aborted, and M. Cruzel was sent for. He was im- mediately struck with the unnecessarily high condition in which all the cows and their calves were. He carefully inquired, but could discover no other probable cause for these repeated acci- dents, and he at once attributed them to the state of plethora in which the beasts were kept. He ordered their quantity of food to be materially reduced; he bled every one of them; the farmer- took care that nutriment should not afterwards be so danger- ously wasted upon them, and abortion ceased to appear on the farm. ‘Mr. Wedge, in his ‘Survey of Cheshire,’ confirms this. He says that ‘slinking happens generally in wet seasons, or when the cattle are in very high condition, and generally continues for two or three years together. In several parts of North Wales, where the cattle through necessity are kept in lower condition, instances of the kind very rarely happen.’ “The pastures on which the blood or inflammatory fever is most prevalent, are those on which the cows oftenest slink their calves. Whatever can become a source of general excitation and fever, is likely, during pregnancy, to produce inflammation of the womb: or whatever would, under other circumstances, excite inflammation of almost any organ, has at that time its injurious effect determined to this particular one. “There are some curious illustrations of this, It is well known that cattle of all kinds are sometimes seriously injured by feeding in the autumn on grass thickly covered with hoar-frost. Inflammation of the bowels of a dangerous character, and some- times palsy of the rumen, have been thus produced. In Switz- erland, the commencement of the hoar-frost is the signal for the appearance of abortion. It is occasionally seen at other times in all the cantons, but now its victims are multiplied tenfold. M. Barruel, V. 8S., of. Chartres, speaks of sixteen cows that aborted at different periods of pregnancy, from this cause, and most of which died, DISEASES AND REMEDIES. ET «acrid plants are often prejudicial to cattle. ‘There is no farmer who is not aware of the injurious effect of the coarse, rank herbage of low, marshy, and woody countries, and he regards these districts as the chosen residence of red water;’ it may be added, that these districts are also the chosen residence of abortion. “Hard and mineral waters are justly considered as laying the foundation for many diseases in cattle, and for this among the rest. A writer, in a German periodical, gives the following account: ‘in 1822, twelve of his in-calf heifers cast their calves, and in the following year the like accident happened to twelve others, the whole of which used to drink from ponds, the water of which was strongly impregnated with iron. In 1824, ten cows that were watered at other places all calved safely, while a single cow that was allowed to drink of the ferruginous water cast her calf. The same occurred in two following years.’ ‘‘Cows that have been long afflicted with hoose, and that degenerating into consumption, are exceedingly subject to abor- tion. They are continually at heat; they rarely become preg- nant, or if they do, a great proportion of them cast their calves. When consumption is established, and the cow is much wasted away, she will rarely retain her calf during the natural period of pregnancy. ‘An in-calf beast will scarcely have hoose to any considera- ble extent without afterwards aborting. The pressure of the distended rumen seems to injure or destroy the fetus. Even where the distension of the stomach does not wear a serious character, abortion often follows the sudden change from poor to luxuriant food. Cows that have been out and half starved in the winter, and incautiously turned on rich pasture in the spring, are too apt to cast their calves from the undue general or local excitation that is set up; and, as has been already remarked, a sudden change from rich pasture to a state of comparative star- Sy We AMERICAN CATTLE. vation will produce the same effect, but from an opposite cause. Hence it is that when this disposition to abort first appears in a dairy, it is usually in a cow that has been lately purchased. Fright, from whatever cause, may produce abortion. ‘There are singular cases on record of whole herds of cows slinking their calves after being terrified by an unusually violent thunder- storm.* Commerce with the bull, soon after conception, is a frequent cause of abortion. The casting of the calf has already been attributed to the sympathetic influence of the effluvia from the decomposing placenta: there are plenty of instances in which other putrid smells have produced the same effect, and therefore the inmates of crowded cowhouses are not unfrequently subject to this mishap. ‘The consequences of premature calving, are frequently of a very serious nature. It has been stated that there is often con- siderable spasmodic closure of the mouth of the uterus, and that the calf is produced with much difficulty and pain, and espec- ially if a few days have elapsed after the death of the young one. When this is the case the mother frequently dies, or her recovery is much slower than after natural parturition. The coat continues rough and staring for a long time; the skin clings to the ribs; the appetite does not return, and the milk is dried up. Some internal chronic complaint now takes its rise, and the foundation is laid for consumption and death. ‘““When the case is more favorable, the results are, neverthe- less, often annoying. The cow very soon goes again to heat, but in a great many cases she fails to become pregnant; she almost certainly does so if she is put to the bull during the first * ‘¢Tnstructions Veterinaries, vol. 6, p. 154. Dr. Rudge, in his ‘Survey of Glouces- tershire,’ says, that there was an enclosure near Arlingham, close to which was a dog-kennel. Eight heifers and cows out of twenty aborted, in consequence, as it was supposed by the farmer, of the frequent exposure of flesh, and the skinning of dead horses before them. The remainder were removed to a distant pasture and did well.”’ DISEASES AND REMEDIES. 513 heat after abortion. The heat again and again returns, but she does not stand to the bulling; and so the season is wasted, while she becomes a perfect nuisance by continually worrying the other cattle. “If she should come in calf again during that season, it is very probable that about the same period of utero-gestation, or a little later, she will again abort; or that when she becomes in calf in the following year, the same fatality will attend her. Some say that this disposition to cast her young one, gradually ceases; that if she does miscarry, it is at a later and still later period of pregnancy; and that in about three or four years, she may be depended upon as a tolerably safe breeder; he, however, would be exceedingly inattentive to his interest, who kept a profitless beast so long. “The calf very rarely lives, and in the majority of cases it is born dead or putrid. If there should appear to be any chance of saving it, it should be washed with warm water, carefully dried, and fed frequently with small quantities of new milk, mixed, according to the apparent weakness of the animal, either with raw eggs or good gruel; while the bowels should, if occasion requires, be opened by means of small doses of castor oil. If any considerable period has to elapse before the natural term of pregnancy would have expired, it will usually be necessary to bring up the little animal entirely by the hand. * ‘The treatment of abortion will differ little from that of par- turition. If the farmer has once been tormented by this pest in his dairy, he should carefully watch the approaching symptoms of casting the calf, and as soon as he perceives them, should remove the cow from pasture to a comfortable cowhouse or shed. If the discharge 1s glairy, but not offensive, he may hope that the calf is not dead; he will be assured of this by the motion of the foetus, and then it is possible that the abortion may yet be avoided. He should hasten to bleed her, and that copiously, in 22* 514 AMERICAN CATTLE. proportion to her age, size, condition, and state of excitation in which he may find her; and he should give a dose of physic immediately after bleeding. The physic beginning to operate, he should administer half a drachm of opium, and half an ounce , of sweet spirits of nitre. Unless she is in a state of great debility, he should avoid, above all things, the comfortable drink, which some persons so strangely recommend; and which the cow-leech will be almost sure to administer. He should allow nothing but gruel, and he should keep his patient as quiet as he can. By these means, he may occasionally allay the general or local irrita- tion that precedes or causes the abortion, and the cow may yet go to her full time. “Should, however, the discharge be fcetid, the natural con- clusion will be that the foetus is dead, and must be got nid of, and that as speedily as possible. Bleeding may even then be requisite, if much fever exists; or, perchance, the aforesaid com- fortable drink may not be out of place. In other respects, the animal must be treated as if her usual time of pregnancy had been accomplished. ‘“‘Much may be done in the way of preventing the formation of this habit of abortion among the cows. The fetus must be got rid of immediately. It should be buried deep, and far from the cow pasture. Proper means should be taken to hasten the expulsion of the placenta. A dose of physic should be given; the ergot of rye should be administered; the hand should be introduced, and an effort made, cautiously and gently, to detach the placenta: all violence, however, should be carefully avoided, for considerable and fatal hemorrhage may be speedily produced. The parts of the cow should be well washed with a solution of the chloride of lime, and this should be injected up the vagina, and also given internally. In the meantime, and especially after the expulsion of the placenta, the cow-house should be well washed with the same solution, in the manner that was recom- DISEASES AND REMEDIES. 515 mended when the treatment of the malignant epidemic was under consideration. “The cow, when beginning to recover, should be fattened and sold. This is the first, and the grand step towards the preven- tion of abortion, and he is unwise who does not immediately adopt it. All other means are comparatively inefficient and worthless. It was the charm, by means of which Chabert arrested the plague, which, for thirty successive years, had devas- tated the farm at Toury. Should the owner be reluctant to part with her, two months at least should pass before she is permitted to return to her companions. Prudence would probably dictate that she should never return to them; but be kept, if possible, on some distant part of the farm. ‘“ Abortion having once occurred on the farm, the breeding cows should be carefully watched. Although well fed, they should not be suffered to get into too high condition. If the pest continues to re-appear, the owner should most carefully examine how far any of the causes of abortion that have been detected may exist on his farm, and exert himself in carefully removing them.” Having at much length in the foregoing pages given elaborate English authority on diseases and remedies, and somewhat of sound American practice, able as we consider the English treatise, it may not be altogether applicable in treatment in our American climates, with their different soils, foods, and the manner in which our cattle are generally managed. To that class of stock breed- ers, who have been educated in European habits of cattle keeping, the Lawson treatise may be thought the most appropriate. To the native American herdsman a different process in the remedies of diseases may be more acceptable. or the latter’s use we know of no authority so good as “Tue American (artis Doctor,” by Geo. H. Dadd, a veteran author of many years’ practice in the United States, and highly approved by intelligent stock breeders wherever his book is known CHAPTER XXXIIL CASTRATION, AND SUNDRY MATTERS NOT BEFORE ENUMERATED, T'urs operation should always be done before the calf is six months old; from one to three months is the better time, as it gives less pain, and is sooner healed. When done, the calf should be in perfect health, and growing condition. The process is so well understood, by cattle breeders generally, that particular directions are scarcely necessary. But, it is often- times so cruelly and bunglingly performed, as to cause great incon- venience and suffering to the animal; therefore, some directions, as to the best mode, are necessary. This may be as follows: First, grasp the scrotum in the left hand, and bring the testi- cles down to the foot of the bag; then, with the other hand, and a sharp, small knife—a sharp-pointed jack-knife is as good as any—cut a perpendicular slit in the back or rear side of each testicle, close to the bottom, and long enough for the released tes- ticle to pass through; then cut through the skin, and the inner case enclosing it; push out the testicle, and gently draw the cord attached to it out, one or two inches, and cut, or scrape it off, and the work is done. Serve the other in the same way. Then put in a little salted soft grease, and push it upwards towards the belly with the finger. If the weather be hot, a few drops of spirits of turpentine, mixed with water, may be washed just with- in and around the outside cut of the scrotum, to keep off the flies, and the calf may be set at liberty. If the operation be done in rainy, or cold weather, the calf should be housed, if pos- sible, for a few days, until the healing process is well under way. If the scrotum becomes afterwards inflamed. and swells, and CASTRATION. r 517 matter gathers inside, the calf should be caught, the incision gently opened at the bottom to let it flow out—even pressed out, if it refuses to flow of itself—which it will almost always do, if the cut be made large enough, which is the object of it. Ina few days the cut will be healed, and your calf be capering about the lot, yard, or stable, as if nothing had happened to him. All twisting, turning, or cording methods, are cruel and. brutal, and neither so good, nor safe as the simple cutting we have described. © The castration of bulls, after arriving at virility, either younger or older, may be done in the same way; but the castration of bulls, after three years old, is sometimes hazardous, and if they are to be fattened for slaughter, the better way is to feed them - as bulls. They feed quite as well, and the beef is as good as if they were made into stags. Few persons can tell the difference. SPAYING CALVES, HEIFERS, OR COWS. This is an admirable way of converting them into ripe and delicate beef. We know of no finer beef than a three or four- year-old spayed heifer. The process is a delicate and skillful one, and should never be attempted but by a steady hand. There is no way of describing it, so that one not actually seeing, and practicing it, may sufficiently understand, so as to successfully perform the operation. Therefore, we do not undertake it. _ In stock-growing districts there are usually more or less ex- perts in the business, and only they should be employed to do it. Where a surplus of heifers exist, and beef cattle are numer- ously reared, the practice may be resorted to, as both necessary and profitable. Spayed heifers feed remarkably well—generally better than steers, and when good, are equally sought by all butchers who want to furnish choice cuts for their customers. FREE-MARTINS. Heifers, twinned with a bull, are usually called free-martins, and, as a rule, do not breed. Some instances have been known 518 AMERICAN CATTLE. of their doing so, but it is against general experience. Bulls, twinned with them, almost always are productive, and no objec: tion need be urged against them, on that score. Heifers, so bred, usually grow up with a steer-like look, and we have known them broken and worked with the steers they were twinned with, making serviceable work animals, though they hardly ever grew to the size of the steer. The cause of their barrenness is found in the want of development, or expan- sion in their maternal organs. They seldom ever come in heat, or desire copulation. We have had many instances of the kind in our own herds, and the heifers always proved barren. Such heifers had, therefore, better be treated as steers, and fed for slaughter at the proper age. Youatt details some processes of examination into the breeding organs of free-martins, but only to show the utter impossibility of their power of conception. Twin heifers are as productive as single ones, but we do not know that they are more likely to produce twin calves than they. Indeed, one good calf is quite enough for a cow to produce at a time, and with it, the breeder should strive to be content. DRINKING WATER. We have often spoken of pure water for cattle. As a rule, their drinking water should be so. Yet there are certain medici- nal, mineral, or impure waters, of which they are remarkably fond, as springs slightly saline, sulphury, or tinctured with iron, such being the most common of the mineral water. Sometimes, cattle incline to partake of stagnant and filthy waters, and will, if opportunity offers, gorge themselves almost to bursting witl. them, even to the neglect of the purest springs, or streams to which they have daily access. Why this apparently vitiated taste exists, we do not always know, for healthy cattle most generally indulge it, nor do we DRINKING WATER. 519 know that its use affects them adversely, when only occasionally drank by them. There is certainly something in the taste of the water that they like, but we would not indulge them in its use, to any extent—dairy cows, especially. A constant use of it must affect their milk, in taste, and quality. It may act upon them medicinally for a time or two, but its constant use with cat- tle, for any purpose, we think disadvantageous to their general health and welfare. Therefore, we say that clean, and pure, and running water, should always be furnished them, if possible. We are aware that there are wide districts of country, where natural springs and streams are not abundant, and water must be supplied by wells, cisterns, or artificial ponds; and even in such localities, the cattle are healthy, if they only get enough of it. It is only necessary, in such instances, that the water be furnished and kept in as pure a state as possible. BLOODY MILK—CURDLED MILK. It sometimes occurs that a cow will give bloody, and again, curdled milk from one or more teats, but not as a continuous habit. Bloody milk, generally comes from an injury to the udder, or teat, by inflammation, a bruise, ur wound, and some. times from disorder in the interior part of the udder. The curdly milk shows itself in small lumps, or pellets, or stringy issues when milking, while the milk from the other teats will be per- fectly good. Such diseased milk should never enter the pail but be drawn on the ground, or stable floor. When either of these difficulties occur, the affected teat and udder should be bathed with some soft emollient, as in garget or puerperal fever; an ounce or two of saltpetre, dissolved in water, may be given asa dose. When the curdled pellets, or stringy flows occur, stopping the passage, a smooth, blunt-pointed wire, not larger than a wheat straw, may be gently forced through the orifice of the teat, up into the udder, to remove the impedi- ment, back into the udder where it may be dissolved. 520 AMERICAN CATTLE. Such difficulties, however, seldom occur, and are usually over- come without difficulty in a few days, by careful usage. Should the udder persist in yielding such disordered milk for any con- siderable length of time, and through a majority of the teats, it must be a question of profit with the dairyman whether to dry her off for the shambles, or still retain her in the dairy, or for breeding, in hopes of a better prospect in another year. “HANDLING.” This is a technical term which we have frequently used in treating of the quality of cattle, and not, perhaps, sufficiently explained at the time of first using it. It applies, in the man- ner we have so used it, simply to the skin, and layer of flesh immediately under it, as denoting the condition of the beast for taking on flesh, and its quality, as consumable beef. A “hard handler,” is one with a tight, close skin, with little or no yield- ing of the flesh beneath. A “soft,” or ‘good handler,” denotes an elastic or springy touch, both skin and flesh yielding like a small hollow India-rubber ball, to the pressure of the fingers, and the skin easy of movement over the flesh—not flabby, as is sometimes the case with a very thin-skinned, and sleazily made up animal. A “hard handler,” denotes a bad and slow feeder, and tough meat. A “soft” or “good handler” denotes tender, juicy meat, and a quick, profitable feeder. These different kinds of hand- ling, therefore, are a pretty certain indication of the value of animals, either as feeders, or in the quality of their flesh. The flabby handlers, although perhaps preferable to the really hara handlers, are not desirable, lacking compactness in meat, and “running about,” as the English butchers say, on the block when cutting up. The term has been but little used, or even understood, in this country, until within the last twenty-five or thirty years, or since the ‘improved ” foreign breeds have been introduced among us, HANDLING. ra | Years ago, we have attended sundry cattle shows, and seen various prizes awarded to breeding and fatted cattle, without their being touched by the viewing committees, they being unconscious of the great difference in handling, or in the value of that quality, and judging only by the appearance and gen- eral ‘‘make-up” of the animals; while a thoroughly educated English grazier, or butcher, would go blindfolded into the rings, and apply his hand, rather than his eyes, if he were confined to either one sense, or the other, to judge of their quality. But we have fast learned better. Now, we are happy to say, that the touch, as well as the sight, is considered important in judging of the true quality of the beast. ‘‘ Handling,” there- fore, is an important item, and good handling has become indis- pensable in marking the best quality; and since it has so become, an evident improvement in that particular is found in the majority ot all our improved breeds of cattle. The brisket, neck-vein, crops, ribs, back, loin, ramp, and thighs, are the important points in determining the quality of either descriptions of handling. _ The same remarks will equally apply to dairy, and breeding cows, the best handlers being always the most desirable for both purposes. Our own experience has been conclusive on this point, with animals for any purposes, and we would prefer good handlers, with some strongly defective anatomical points, to oth- ers “hard” in their “ handling,” yet with a more perfect contour of shape and appearance. Good handling, therefore, is a great point of excellence. “PROOF.” This is another technical term which we have occasionally used in speaking of beef cattle. Inthe English, or foreign sense, it denotes tallow, well ‘‘marbled”’ flesh, or the intermixture of fat with the lean in suitable proportion when the beef is exposed. after slaughter. There is much difference in cattle in this par ticular. Good handlers almost always prove well, laying on their 522, AMERICAN CATTLE. fat in good places, and being equally distributed, both inside, as well as next to the skin. A hard handler seldom proves well. He is apt to be “lumpy,” or “patchy ” on the surface, when highly fed, putting the fat in undesirable places, with an absence of it in the parts where most wanted. Thus good handling, and proof, are apt to go together; one in the living beast, the other after slaughter, on the hooks, or the butcher’s block. LARGE, OR OVERGROWN CATTLE. There is a great propensity with some people for large cattle. Whatever the breed, great size they count a great excellence. This is altogether a mistake. Extraordinary size is apt to be accompanied with heavy bone, and coarseness. Coarse cattle are always large consumers, and, generally, slow feeders. They mature tardily. Their quality of flesh is coarse, and the beast, taken altogether, is undesirable both to the feeder, the butcher, and consumer. The most profitable of all cattle to the breeder, and grazier, are those of medium size, compact form, low on the leg, and what may be called—chunky ; yet they should have good length. Still they should have good size for the breed; as much size as is consistent with fineness, which means, small bone, and well fleshed. We frequently read accounts in the papers of enormously large calves, steers, and bullocks—oxen which weigh 3,000 pounds, live weight, and upwards. Whenever we hear of such, we immediately couple them with coarseness. It cannot be oth- erwise, because such size is unnatural to the ordinary nature of the beast. When fully fatted—and they hardly ever do get thoroughly fat until five or six years old—they are patchy, or lumpy, which is bad in beef cattle. Therefore, we say, do not aim at extraordinary size in your stock. If of good breed, the OVERGROWN CATTLE. 52a feed will regulate the size, and abundant food will give size enough. : We have seen, it is true, some very large cattle that were really fine; but such are exceptions to the common rule, and we would not seek for them as bulls for stock getters, or cows for breeding, at corresponding prices; that is to say, extraordi- nary prices for extraordinary size, for it is not the rule that such animals will produce their own sizes in their offspring, or beyond the usual growth of the breed to which they belong. They are simply, acczdents. Nor would we choose wudersized animals. A fair medium is always the safest, and best, in all stock cattle. Good size, fine- ness of bone, and full points, ad/ over, is the rule which we would recommend in the selection of all neat onttle, according to their breed, ANALYTICAL INDEX. Abortion or slinking, 503; in the dairies of New York, 504; treatment of by Youatt, 506. Ages of cattle—Marks indicating, 419. Alderney cattle—Origin and history, 128; description, 128, 129; cow, 130; intro- duction to the United States, 131; won- derful yield of milk and butter, 131; bull, 182; feeding in Channel Islands, 132; as a working ox, 133; as a beef animal, 133. Allen, A. B.—Cattle in the London Mark- ets, 286-288 ; on the increase of Short- horns in Great Britain, 164, 165. Amalgamation of the different breeds in America, 34-39. America favorable to cattle production, 23. Anatomical points of cattle, 41. Ayrshire cattle, 111; description, 112- 117; cow, 113; bull, 115; their origin and history, 116-118; milk production, 118-120; beef qualities, 120; manner of rearing calves, 122; introduction to the United States, 123 ; review of their his- tory, 123-125; in America, 125, 126; as a beef animal, 126, 127; cows, Mr. Bir- nie’s, 359. Bakewell, Robt.—Improver of the Long- horns, 77-80. Barns for stock, 306. Barrenness in cows, 240-250. Beauty in cattle, 189, 190. Beef—Value of annual consumption in United States estimated, 15. Beef cattle—Differences in breed, 276. Birnie, William—Cooking food, 357-359. SN Black water, 451. Bladder—Inflammation of, 447. Bloody milk, 519. Bowels—Inflammation of, 442. Brain—Inflammation of, 448. Breachy animals, 431. Breeding, 192; in-and-in, 200; grade cat- tle for grazing, 254; dairy cows, 255. Breeding cows—Their treatment, 219; strange influences on them, 220; re. markable effects of cross-breeding, 222. Breeds—Which are the best, 181-186. British cattle—Whence derived and their improvement, 45-49, Bruises, 439. Bulls—Rearing and treatment, 262; in- stances of remarkable usefulness, 264. Butter—Annual production and value in United States, 16, 17. Cesarian operation, 467. Calves—Stock, their rearing and treat- ment, 267-270; for veal, 270; in Lon- don market, 290. Calving, 462. Care of neat stock in winter, 303. Castration, 516. Catarrh, 457. Cattle—In London markets, 286; orna- ments of parks, 412; love of fine, 413; in the \\ estern States, 412; in the Mid- dle and Eastern States, 413. Cattle yards—Railway, 291. Chaps, 468, Cheese—Annualproductionand value, 17. Choking, 461. Cold, 457. Colic, 469. 526 Cooking food, 336-359 ; results, 351-356. Corn—Best kind for soiling, 313. Cows—Fall feeding, 330 ; winter feeding, 330-332 ; dairy value, 408; dairy treat- ment, 415; treatment in calving, 417- 419, 462, 463-467; sucking themselves, 432; hooking and quarreling, 482. Cow-pox, 482. Crops for soiling, 313. Cross-breeding—Remarkable effects of, 222. Cud—Loss of, 480. Curdled milk, 519. Cutting fodder, 387; what is gained by it, 340. Dairy lands, 409; dairy women, 410; dairy factories, 410. Dairy cows—Their treatment, 415. Devon cattle—Description and history, 50; English breeders of, 53; as a dairy cow, 538-56 ; as a working ox, 56, 57; as a beef animal, 58,59; in the United States, 60, 61; in the London market, 288. Diseases—Treatment and cures, 427; pre- venting, 427-430; quack doctors, 429; proper, 433; water treatment, 434; gar- get, 436; puerperal or milk fever, 487, 472: wounds, bruises,sprains,439; Low- son’s treatise on, 440; inflammation of bowels, 442; inflammation of lungs, 443; inflammation of stomach, 414; inflam- mation of kidneys, 446; inflammation of liver, 447; inflammation of bladder, 447; inflammation of womb, 449; in- flammatory fever, 450; red water and black water, 451; scouring rot, 453- 457; catarrh, or cold, 457; mange, 459; dysentery, 461; the fouls, 461; cows previous to calving, 462; Csesarian op- eration, 467; swelling of the udder, 467 ; chaps, or sore teats, 468; gripes, or colic, 469; choking, 471; the gad-fly, 474; lice, 476; fog sickness, 476; loss of the cud, 480; the jaundice, or yel- lows, 480; snores, 482; cow-pox, 482: the shoote, 483; venomous bites, 484; wounds, 484 , strains and bruises, 487. Doctors—Quack, 429. ANALYTICAL INDEX. Drinking water, 518. Dutch Cattle—See Holsteins, 166. Drying cow of her milk, 487. Dysentery, 461. Economical points of cattle, 41. Experiments in soiling, 315-326. Fat ox—Shape illustrated, 285. Feeding, 278; stall, 280. Fences—Saving in pastures by soiling, 319. Fever—Inflammatory, 450. Fog sickness, 476. Food—The grasses, 297-299; cooking, 336; mixing different kinds, 338. Fouls, 461. Free-martins, 517. Gad-fly, 474. Galloway cattle, 99; their history, 99; 100; description, 101; bull, 102; ox, 103; manner of rearing in Scotland, 104-106 ; cow, 107; in America, 108 ; in the London market, 289. Gripes, 469. Guenon’s theory—Milk marks in cows, 391; illustrated, 392; Mr. Magne’s ex- planation and estimate, 393-3897; Mr. Haxton’s explanation and estimate, 398; disproved, 398, 399. Handling, 520, 521; young animals, 271- 274. Heifers— When to be bred for the dairy, 259 ; rearing thorough-bred, 272. Hereford cattle—Description and _his- tory, 62-74; English breeders of, 64; as a dairy cow, 66; as a working ox, 67; asa beef animal, 68; in the United States and Canadas, 70-73; bull 65; cow, 66; in the London market, 288. History of neat cattle, 25; in the Bible, in India, Egypt, Europe, 25-28; Ameri- can cattle, 29; middle-horns—Devons, 50-61; Hereford cattle, 62-74. Holstein, or Dutch cattle—History, 166, 167; introduction into America, 168 ; Mr. Chenery’s importation, 169; de- scription, 170; milking qualities, 170, 171; bull, 170; cow. 172. Holderness Cattle, 173. Hooking, 482. ANALYTICAL INDEX. Horns—Marks indicating age, 419. Mlustrations--The anatomical and eco- nomical points of cattle, 41; Devon bull, 51; Devon cow, 54; Devon ox, 58; Hereford bull, 65; Hereford cow, 66; Hereford ox, 68; Long-horned bull, 76; Long-horned cow, 81; Long-horned ox, 82; West Highland ox, 96; West ‘Highland cow, 98; Galloway bull, 102; Galloway ox, 103; Galloway cow, 107; Ayrshire cow, 113; Ayrshire bull, 115; Jersey cow, 130; Jersey bull, 132; old style Short-horn cow, 145; Short- horn bull and cow of milking qualities, _154; Short-horn bull of flesh quality, 156; Short-horn heifer, 157; Short- horn fat ox, 162; Holstein bull, 170; Holstein cow, 172; Texan steers, 178; shape of fat ox, 285; milk cow with scutcheon (Guenon’s theory), 392; milk cow, horned, 399; milk cow, polled, 400; teeth and marks of age, 420, 421, 422, 423, 424, 425. Improved breeds of cattled, 45. In-and-in breeding, 200; Price, the Here- ford breeder, 207; Robert and Charles Colling, 207; Mr. Bates, 208; the Booth brothers, 208; Mr. Humrickhouse, 210; Sir John Sebright, 212; Mr. Bake- well, 214; Mr. Jones, 216. Jaundice, 480. Kicking cows, 430; oxen, 431. Lice, 476. Liver—Inflammation of, 447, Long-horned cattle—History and de- scription, 75, 76; ball, 76; cow, 81; ox, 82; as a beef animal, 82; introduction to and extinction in America, 83, 84. London markets—Cattle in, 286-288. Lower Canada—Cattle first introduced into, 32. Lungs—Inflammation of, 443. Malignant epidemic, 491. Mange, 459. Marks indicating ages, 419. Massachusetts Bay Colony—When cattle were first intnoduced into, 30. Maternity—As it approaches, 416. 527 Mexico—When cattle were first intro- duced into, 29. Middle-horned cattle, 50. Milk—Value annually sold, 18; produced and consumed in households, 18; dai- ries, 333; value sold in New York, 333; value sold in the United States, 333; swill or distillery, 334; fever, 487, 472; drying the cow of, 487. Milk cows—Their selection, 365-401; general marks, 366-385; shape, 369-386; general appearance, 371-388; hygienic condition, 372; local marks, 374; selec- tion for breeding, 882; skin, hair and color, 388 ; illustrated, 392, 399, 400; the common way of obtaining, 402-404; their treatment, 415. Milking—How done, how to do, 404-407. _Murrain, 488-491. Native cattle—How bred and mixed from divers breeds, 381. Nature—Her laws, 195. Neatness in milking, 405, 406. New Hampshire—When cattle were first introduced into, 30. New York—When cattle were first intro- duced into, 30. Number of cattle in United States, 11. Overgrown cattle, 522. Pastures—Water in, 300; shade in 300, 301; change of, 301-803. Pedigree—Necessity of, 197. Perfection of form, 190-195. Pleuro-pneumonia, 491. Points of cattle—Good and bad, 41-44. Pregnancy—Feeding in advanced stages of, 250-252; duration of, 252. Preparing food for steaming, 347. Principles of breeding, 192. Profits of breeding native cattle, 39. Proof, 521, 522. Puerperal fever, 437, 472. Putrid fever, 488. Quack doctors, 429, 440, 441. Quality of our native cattle, 34. Quebec—When cattle were first intro- duced there, 82. Railway cattle yards, 291. 528 Red water, 451. Rinderpest, 491; in America, 492; in England, 495; law in New York, 498; symptoms, 499; treatment, 500; pre- cautions, 501. Rot—Scouring, 453-457. Sale milk dairies, 333. Scotland—Its cattle, 85, 86. Sex of calyes—Influencing, 274, 275. Shape of fat cattle, 284-286 Sheds for cattle, 306. Shelter to young animals, 271. Shoote, 483. Short-horns, 134; English writers on them, 134, 1385; Berry’s pretended his- tory of them, 135-140; Youatt’s his- tory, 136-139; true history, 140-145; the ‘‘Durham ox,” 144; the ‘‘ White Heifer that travelled,” 144; cow of the old style, 145; introduction to America, 146-152; herd books, 153; character- istics, 153-160 ; bulland cow of milking tribes, 154; as fiesh producers, 155; bull, 156; heifer, 157; description and colors, 158-160; as a dairy cow, 160; as a working ox, 161; as a beef animal, 161-163; fat ox, 162; their proper homes, 163, their increasing popularity and distribution, 164, 165; in the London market, 286-288. Size—Extremes should not be crossed, 198. Snores, 482. Soiling stock, 311-330; condition of ani- mals, 317; effect of on milk, 318; saving in fences, 319; saving in manure, 321; saving in land, 321; crops, 322; method of feeding, 323, 324; arrangement of animals, 324. Sore teats, 468. Spanish cattle—See Texans, 176 Spaying heifers and cows, 517. Sprains, 4389. Stall feeding, 280-284. Steam apparatus for cooking food, 346; a cheap one, 348. ANALYTICAL INDEX. Stewart, E. W.—On soiling, 315-329; on cooking food, 336. Stock calves—Their rearing and treat- ment, 267-270 ; running with the cows, 270. Stomach—Inflammation of, 444. Strains and bruises, 487. Straw cutters, 341. Summer food for dairy cows, 309-313. Swill, or distillery milk, 334-857. Teats—Sore, 468. Teeth—Indications of age, 420-427. Texan cattle—Descended from the Span- ish cattle, 176; description, 177-180; mode of rearing them, 177; portrait of a group, 178; comparative value, 179. Transportation of stock to market, 291. Tricks of cattle, 480. Udder—Swelling of, 467. Value of cattle in the United States, 13, 14; different kinds of cattle food com- pared, 344-346. Veal—Estimated annual consumption and vulue, 15. Venomous bites, 484. Virginia—When cattle were first intro- duced into, 30. Water—Treatment of diseases, 4384; drinking, 519. West Highland cattle—Their history, 87- 89; their management, 94, 95; asa beef- animal, 95, 96; ox, 96; proposed intro- duction to America, 97 ; cow, 98; in the London market, 289. What constitutes a good animal, 187-189; a bad animal, 187, 188. Winter forage, 303; winter feeding, 305- 308. Womb—Inflammation of, 449. Working oxen, 293; rearing, matching and training, 294-296. Wounds, 439, 484. Yellows, 480. eu tek 1 iy och ried Whar iH ey ] q es Oi dang hay Beker et Chg ead eee oe w hey ” Mey