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BEEF-PRODUCTION IN ENGLAND I

K . J. J. MACKENZIE

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CATTLE

AND

The Future of Beef-Production
in England

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

C. F. CLAY, Manager

LONDON : FETTER LANE, E. C. 4

NEW YORK : G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS

BOMBAY 1

CALCUTTA I MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD.
MADRAS j

TORONTO : J. M. DENT AND SONS, LTD.
TOItYO : MARUZEN-KABUSHIKI-KAISHA

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

CATTLE

AND

The Future of Beef-Production
in England

BY

K. J. J. MACKENZIE, M.A.

READER IN AGRICULTURE IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE,

LATE EDITOR OF THE JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL AGRICULTURAL

SOCIETY OF ENGLAND ; ; 1 > : J .,

WITH A PREFACE AND CHAPTER

BY

F. H. A. MARSHALL, Sc.D.

FELLOW AND TUTOR OF CHRIST'S COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY
LECTURER IN AGRICULTURAL PHYSIOLOGY, CAMBRIDGE

CAMBRIDGE

AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS

1919

UinVERSITY FARM

PREFACE

It is now more than thirteen years since Mr Walter Heape in
a work on '* The Breeding Industry" pleaded for *' the establish-
ment of a State Department of Animal Industry, organized and
controlled by a staff fitted by their training; first, systematically
to record the condition of the industry throughout the Kingdom ;
secondly, to deal with the many problems breeders from time
to time require solved ; and, thirdly, to present the result of such
work to breeders in a practical form." Opinions may differ as
to how such work may most profitably be carried out, but that
the need for it, at any rate as regards cattle-breeding and beef-
production, is as great as, or greater than, it ever was, must be
clear to anyone who reads the present work to which these
remarks are by way of preface.

It may be objected that the breeding of domestic animals is
an art and not a science, and that the great breeders of past
generations, like all successful judges of live-stock, were men
highly endowed with those special attributes of hand and eye
which together compose the peculiar faculty of selecting, for
the perpetuation of their kind, beasts of a type most serviceable
to man. There is much truth in this criticism. In choosing an
animal at a sale or judging it at a show, it is usually impracticable
to adopt methods of precision ; at any rate these are seldom or
never employed, for the judgment is arrived at after a survey
which though often hasty may nevertheless be wonderfully
correct. Yet it is obvious that the art of selection, valuable as
it is, would be of incomparably greater service if supplemented
by accurate anatomical knowledge and an appreciation of the
varying degrees of functional value possessed by the different
parts of the animal. As Mr Heape expressed it in the work
already quoted "the condition of the breeding industry now
is no whit better than was the art of sculpture before anatomy
became a science, and by the application of science the breeder

as

■ 4695UO

vi PREFACE

will gain no whit less than the sculptor gained by a knowledge
of anatomy."

The scientific breeder, however, requires something ver}'^
much more than a mere general knowledge of the form and
structure of an animal, and unfortunately for the progress of
this important branch of study, the necessary knowledge at
present hardly exists. It is, of course, true that the points or
characters which contribute towards making a good beef-beast
or a good milker and the points of all the more important breeds
of live-stock are definitely laid down in the text books or in
official works of reference. Yet of the anatomical and physio-
logical factors which go to constitute these points we know
little or nothing. And we do not know with any degree of
accuracy how many of these points have an inherent value in
virtue of possessing properties of direct economic importance,
as with a good shoulder, a good loin, or a well-developed leg
of mutton. We are still more ignorant concerning those points
which derive their value, whether real or imaginary, from being
associated with other characters which are of recognized import-
ance but are obscured to the superficial observer; the shape of
the head in the improved Shorthorn is an example of this kind.
And again there are almost certainly some points the value of
which is wholly fictitious, or at the best highly problematical;
these are the "fancy points" which depend simply upon caprice
or fashion, such as the white face of the Hereford cattle, or the
ruby-red coat colour of the Shorthorn, which for no palpable
reason is so often preferred by expert judges to the brick-red
colour. Where so little is known the field of investigation is
almost unUmited. For before scientific breeding can become
an assured success, it will be necessary, first, to determine
accurately the characters of live-stock which are of economic
importance (whether directly or by reason of their possessing
a high degree of correlation with other points which are of value) ,
and secondly, to investigate the relative degree of utility of
these characters. It will next be necessary to ascertain the
anatomical composition of these points, and their functional

PREFACE vii

or physiological relations, and not till this has been accomplished
will- it be possible to build on sure and firm foundations, and
to make a profitable study of the laws which govern the inherit-
ance of the various points both individually and in combination.
The truth of these propositions is abundantly illustrated in
the pages of this book, in which the author has set forth the
results of his long and varied experience as a practical farmer
and as an investigator and teacher of scientific agriculture.
The importance of Chemistry and Botany to agricultural
practice has long been recognized; the application of physio-
logical science, which hitherto has been almost wholly limited
to the domain of nutrition, is equally essential to a sound animal
husbandry. If this country is to maintain its present leading
position as a producer of high-class live-stock and at the same
time to keep up a due supply of meat and milk for national
consumption, it will be necessary to utilize every possible
advantage that can be derived from the study of biological
science.

F. H. A. MARSHALL,
March, 191 9

AUTHOR'S PREFACE

I AM aware that this book deals with subjects that are very
complicated, and that no one man can have an extensive know-
ledge, born of personal experience, of all of them. It is therefore
a matter of great regret to me to know that parts of the work
will cause consternation to many personal friends and acquaint-
ances, to whose help I owe the larger proportion of such know-
ledge as I possess. I know only too well that much of my text
will strike a blow at these practical men in that which, after
their honour, they cherish most — their prejudice. I have
therefore to ask my friends and others who are of the cattle
world to remember that I have not hurriedly taken up my pen
to write this, my first book. It is over thirty-six years since I
had my first lesson in the selection of stock from an experi-
enced, successful and enthusiastic breeder. During the past
twenty years of my life it has been my duty, as well as my
pleasure, to pick the brains of all the fraternity, from the drover
to the pedigree expert, whenever I have had the good fortune
to meet one kind enough to help me, knowingly or unknowingly,
in my search for knowledge. Further, I would ask all those
who feel aggrieved to realize that I have had to banish the same
prejudices from my own mind, which was once as full of them
as any British husbandman could wish it to be. I can only hope
that anyone whom I may unfortunately offend will try to
imagine the long and strenuous struggle which such a change
in my state of mind has cost, and so forgive, even if he cannot
approve, this record of the change in my opinions which a long
search after truth has brought about.

I have to thank my colleague, Mr R. H. Rastall, for reading
the slip-proofs of my book. I cannot, as they are so numerous,
thank by name all the practical men for the help I have just
alluded to, so I must ask them to take the will for the deed.
I must, however, express my deep sense of gratitude to my

X AUTHOR'S PREFACE

colleague, Dr F. H. A. Marshall.' He has read and revised the
proofs, and greatly added to the value of my first effort at book-
production by writing a preface and the chapter on Physiology.
Further, during the last ten years, the whole of which time we
have worked in unison, he has not thought it beneath his dignity
as a man of science to come to my aid when I was seeking
knowledge likely to be useful to the farmer, the butcher and
the rising generation of young agriculturists, as well as to the
consumer. For his large-minded readiness to investigate
subjects intimately connected with the pig-sty, the byre and
the slaughter house, I (and I venture to say all practical men)
owe him very many thanks. In trying to express my gratitude
to Dr Marshall I would like to add the hope that his example
will be followed in the future by many of those eminent scientists
who now regard the problems of animal husbandry as unworthy
of their notice. Even the great kindness Dr Marshall has
shown to my poor effort cannot be mis-spent if it leads to other
biologists taking up, and working out systematically, some of the
many problems now demanding solution in the life-history of
the animals that supply food and clothing for the human race.

K.J.J. M.
March J 191 9

CONTENTS

CHAP. , p^^

I. INTRODUCTION i

II. STORE CATTLE .

.... 9

III. GRASS BEEF 23

IV. WINTER BEEF . ..

34

V. BEEFLINGS . . .^

VI. DUAL-PURPOSE CATTLE . . .56

VII. PEDIGREE BREEDING .... 69

VIII. POSSIBILITIES OF THE FUTURE . 87

IX. PHYSIOLOGICAL ... .103

(By F. H. A. Marshall, Sc.D.)

X. BREEDS OF CATTLE . . . .124

THE SHORTHORN 126

LINCOLNSHIRE RED SHORTHORNS . 137

XL BREEDS {Continued)

THE HEREFORD 139

THE DEVON 142

THE SUSSEX 144

THE SOUTH DEVON .... 147

WELSH BLACK CATTLE ... 149

XII. POLLED BREEDS

THE ABERDEEN ANGUS . . . 151

THE GALLOWAY 153

THE RED POLL 156

XIII. BREEDS {Continued)

THE DUTCH OR BRITISH FRIESIAN . 159

INDEX 167

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Even before the war there were some who reahzed the differ-
ence between the process of "steaUng from the land" and the
operations of farming; and among this small minority there
were many who saw that land kept under permanent grass was
more suitable material for the thief than for the honest producer.

But since August, 1914, very many — perhaps the majority —
have come to realize that their comfort in life is, to a very great
extent, more dependent upon food than upon luxury ; and that,
without farming, the produce of this island-home of ours is not
sufficient to keep the inhabitants decently fed even for a fairly
large part of the year. So from both sides there has lately been
a clamour for the plough; it has been maintained, quite rightly,
that fields which are worked deeply, manured skilfully, and
seeded properly are likely to yield food in greater abundance
than land left to cover itself with a herbage whose quality varies
with the natural fertility of the soil and with the bountifulness
of our uncertain seasons. Further, some of the majority are now
inclined to join a small section of the minority who never tired
of insisting that, if the British farmer would but make an imaginar}^
journey across the Channel or the North Sea and emulate the
agriculturists of Eastern and Central Europe, many difficulties
of his situation would vanish.

That those who insisted upon the good that might come of
a study of the arable husbandry of Denmark, Holland, Belgium
and Germany had much reason upon their side is obvious to
all who have investigated the subject of food-production ; but
the fact that the conditions which favoured success on the conti-
nent were widely different from our own was not sufficiently
kept in view. Many enthusiasts, indeed, spoilt a good case by
exaggerating it, but their contentions, though somewhat ex-
travagant, were especially valuable when expressed in the worst

M. I

2 INTRODUCTION

period of public apathy, and deserved at least to be treated with
thoughtful criticism.

One of the subjects that seems to have been overlooked is that
of beef production, and it is the object of this work to show how
the continental practice must be very considerably varied if we
are to maintain our supply of the " Roast Beef of Old England."

I once happened to be waiting as an expert witness in court
when one of His Majesty's Justices gave a short dissertation on
the nomenclature of various articles of food. He explained that
to the expert there were differences of terminology which might
be of subtle of of emphatic degree: "For instance," said his
Lordship, "to the grocer there are new-laid eggs, fresh eggs,
and eggsV* Now, without presumption, I hope, I would follow
his Lordship's example, and point out that beef, to the English-
man, is quite different from that grown on the plough-lands of
the continent. We have to recognize this factor more fully
before we are in a position to reorganize our husbandry.

Let us for a moment review the cattle husbandry of the
continent. Obviously, to do this briefly, one must generalize.
To review the subject in detail would demand a very much
larger volume than the present, but we must at least attempt
to visualize our neighbours' conditions if we are to measure
home conditions by their standard.

Our neighbours use their cattle primarily with a view to the
making of butter and cheese, to supply the milk-salesmen, and
for draught purposes. Meat, though important, is quite second-
ary. Their cattle supply meat in the form of veal, cow-beef,
and ox-beef; and also, strange though it may seem, as pig-meat.
Whey and separated milk, the by-products of their most impor-
tant industry, the dairy, are the means of manufacturing very
large quantities of bacon and pork. During the war our farmers
were urged to graze their pigs on our permanent grass -land —
wise counsel for Englishmen no doubt at the moment, but a
measure that would be looked upon as the strangest extravagance
by continental farmers, who regard the pig as most valuable
when used to consume stuff that cannot be used more profitably
for anything else. When they keep land under permanent grass,

INTRODUCTION 3

which is not often the case, it is simply with a view to the cow
directly producing human food, such as butter, cheese, new
milk and veal ; waste material is, in their view, quite good enough
for the pig. Agricultural conditions which allow the products
^ the soil to be consumed by animals which, after a period of
slow growth, will appear upon the table as meat, hardly enter
into the continental view of farming. With us, on the other
hand, beef is a most important product, perhaps the most
important, as regards cattle, of all our grass-land products; and,
before the war, much more than 50 per cent, of our land was
permanently kept under grass. The only product of our cattle-
husbandry to be compared with beef was the new milk, required
by large residential districts; for our cheese-making industry,
whilst still important, was, and is, very small, and our butter-
making, except. as an adjunct to calf-rearing, had disappeared
in the majority even of the most rural districts. Certain parts
of Ireland must be excepted from this last statement, but even
in the case of Irish farmers, it is doubtful whether calf-rearing
or butter-making is the more important. Amongst English
farmers it is a common practice to devote about three acres of
medium quality grass-land to their cows; in return they get, per
annum, one well-reared calf and slightly increased bulk in the
cow. It is this kind of pastoral husbandry, forced upon us by
the econornic conditions prevailing since about 1875, that is in
people's minds when they urge pig-grazing upon the notice of
our grass-land farmers. The Dutch farmer might well be amazed
at the idea of using some of his magnificent Polder pastures for
pork production ; he only knows of this land as being used for
growing milk. An acre of his land will yield him approximately
300 gallons of milk, whereas our very best grass-land does well
if it produces 280 lb. of prime bullock, equivalent to 160 lb. of
meat. Though it may be possible to show that pigs fed upon
grass-land will produce more pork than the bullock will pro-
duce beef, it cannot be claimed that, under the most favourable
conditions, they will produce the same amount of human food
as the milch cow.

Here and there the foreigner does grow some prime beef;
it is not an unknown thing in his husbandry, but the process

4 INTRODUCTION

is so seldom favourable to intensive production of food from
the land that the practice is almost negligible. The beef which
the continental chef knows how to serve so well is practically
all cow-beef, with an occasional joint off a good young bull, or
meat from draught oxen, the oxen being fattened for slaughter
after a long life at the yoke. Mutton, as travellers know, is a
rare luxury on the table of any European country except our
own. Even with sheep the foreigner is not negligent of the dairy,
for much of the mutton he eats is the flesh of animals that have
been milked. Ewes' milk in our country is practically unknown
for any other purpose than the rearing of the lamb. It is quite
amusing to see the astonishment shown by some foreign agri-
culturists on hearing that we never milk sheep, and the corre-
sponding amazement displayed by our farmers on hearing of
such an anomaly.

But while the foreigner consents practically to abstain from
good steer beef, he is not a little careful that his cow and bull
beef is of uniform, and of fairly good, quality. The huge cow-
market at Leeuwarden in the Friesland province of Holland
is a wonderful example of this. At the great cow-market held
at this great agricultural centre are to be seen vast quantities of
fine cows ready for slaughter. What strikes the Englishman
about the market when he visits it for the first time, is the
wonderful uniformity of the stock; row upon row, each con-
taining several dozen specimens of the cows of the country, are
all more or less exactly turned to the same pattern. The cattle
are all of the same type, not particularly good (the best cows in
an English market are undoubtedly better), but there is prac-
tically never a bad one. The cows are all fairly young, being
from seven to nine years old; a wastefully fat animal is never
seen, and they are practically all in the same stage of ''finish,'^
— ^what would be called "just good meat" in our home markets.

The bulls are remarkable to us in one particular respect.
Practically all of them are about 30 months of age or a year
younger. An old bull is an exception, being just the odd one
who, by virtue of his breeding and appearance, has been selected
by one of the Associations for the Improvement of Cattle as
worth subsidizing; thus his services as a sire remain available

INTRODUCTION 5

for four or five or even more years, the less perfect bull being
slaughtered after one, or at most two, years* service.

On one visit to Leeuwarden, I remember seeing, at the abattoir
belonging to a large firm of exporters, no less than six hundred
"sides" from the carcases of young bulls that had been pur-
chased on the market that same morning for shipment to London
by one firm ; and yet that very morning I had searched in vain
for a veteran. For, of course, these old bulls are the choicest
specimens of their race, and I was anxious to inspect any that
happened to be on the market.

If one contrasts a market full of animals such as this with the
good and the bad, the old and the young, the lean and the ex- '
travagantly fat found in any of our large sale-yards, one does
not wonder at many of one's countrymen not knowing that cows
and bulls yield wholesome food. On one occasion a young
Englishman, of quite average intelligence and well-informed
in many matters, asked me if I was allowed by law to sell my
cows, once I had done milking them, for human food! I am
not at all sure that he believed me when I told him that 80 per
cent, of the beef he ate when travelling on the continent was
the flesh of such animals, and I fancy that most of our English
tourists are much in the same state of mind as my friend.

This class of meat must, however, be held to be inferior to
our prime joints, and though by good cooking the cow-beef of
the continent may be brought very much nearer to the prime
** Roast Beef of Old England," it will always be its inferior. To
imagine ourselves a nation of cooks is difficult, but it is easier
to do this than to imagine that our national standard of living
should fall to the level of cow-beef served from the kitchen of
the housewife who for the past generation has had nothing in
her larder but good English meat. For myself, I am content to
hope for the day when the average English cook will seldom, or
never, spoil the prime article which the profligate state of our
pre-war supplies had made super-abundant. If the continental
meat supply were to be forced on our people as an immediate
consequence of the war, their sufferings would be considerable,
for it would take a generation, at least, to train a class of cooks
that could be trusted to send it to table in a palatable form

6 INTRODUCTION

Even then one has to assume that the Englishwoman could be
persuaded, and trained, to take the infinite pains with the de-
tails of her household work that such cooking demands. One
is inclined to doubt whether she has the instinct and capacity
for such work.

In the absence of first-class cookery or prime meat, it is as
easy, as it is unpleasant, to foresee a general fall in our national
standard of life — at any rate as regards the food which serves
to prolong our lives. Nobody with any knowledge of the well-
paid labour class, will for a minute believe, if he has imagination
enough to realize what such a change in the national food would
mean, that our countrymen would tolerate such a condition of
affairs under any circumstances but those of dire necessity.
There is no doubt that, should the necessity unhappily arise,
such a change would have a very pernicious eflfect on the effi-
ciency of our race. The well-fed man is a contented man and
vice versa, and the more contented a man is, the more likely is
he to be the head of a useful family — and the State is but the
reflection of the family. Yet this change, with all its conse-
quences for evil, is the one that is urged upon our life by those
who would import continental methods of agriculture to replace
our own in toto.

These authorities are at one with all who are patriotic enough
to deplore a return to the state of affairs prevailing in August
1 9 14. The British public of those days dimly, if at all, realized
that agriculture was connected with the people's food. The
U-boats, it is true, have taught us how dangerous it is to be
dependent upon transport for food. The folly of relying upon
lands on the other side of an ocean, while a large part of our
own land was unproductive, has been demonstrated only too
well. The rationing forced upon us by U-boats has done more,
in a few months, to make people think of the fruits of their
own land than writing, platform oratory, or argument had done
in decades. Nevertheless, it is the height of folly to expect that
the public will altogether forgo the best type of food as a
result of such lessons. The ordinary man will get the best,
particularly when he has been brought up to expect it, from
overseas, if it cannot be produced for him at home. There

INTRODUCTION 7

is still plenty of land left on the earth's surface from which to
rob, and while this is so, our own good breeds of beef cattle,
exported in considerable numbers for the purpose, may be
relied on to convert the produce of the untilled plains into
prime meat. At a price, the carcases of the descendants of our
much-boasted pedigree stock will be returned to us in admirable
condition in the freezers of ocean-going ships. Though the
amount of soil awaiting the land-robber is limited, there is
enough of it left to last even until Europe has recovered from
this war. The dread of the next resort to arms will not be enough
to prevent our people from sending money across the ocean in
return for the produce of such lands for so long as the supply
lasts. A nation accustomed to prime meat is more than likely
to go on eating it while it can, even though it can be shown that
its place of origin is insecure. That the people will have their
meat in peace-time, whatever the cost, unless and until their
patriotism is awakened by their country's danger, seems to be
the only assumption upon which an agriculturalist who is making
plans for the future may work. This assumption demands that
any reform of farming practice must combine intensive farming
with the most economical production of prime beef.

The necessity of reform is obvious, if safety is to be con-
sidered worth attaining. The United Kingdom has, it will be
admitted, not made herself safe from the tyranny of evil-minded
and rival foreign countries in the past ; she has left the satisfying
of her people's hunger to others, she has had no care for the
produce of the land which has been entrusted to her. She was,
in August 1914, as vulnerable to starvation as any uncivilized
country ; she has to thank the indomitable spirit of her people
that her lack of foresight did not lead to her destruction for
want of the necessities of life. She ran the risk so that she might
boast of her food being cheap, so cheap that her people learnt
to waste that which they have at last learnt, after forty years of
profligacy, to value at something approaching its worth. That
she does not wish to return to the unhappy conditions prevailing
from 1875 to 1914 may be assumed; yet she has the right to
demand that her foodstuffs should be as far as possible produced
from her own soil, that the foundation of all life should be

8 INTRODUCTION

produced from the land of these islands with all the intensity and
reasonable economy that good brains, sound training and hard
work can supply. To do this involves some change in our cattle
husbandry, but it involves, further, a reformation in the whole
of our agricultural community.

The landlord must realize tliat to lead his own class intellect-
ually is his first duty, and that failure to do that work, whatever
may be his services to the rest of the community, leaves his
first and .greatest obligation undischarged. The landlord's
clients — the farmers — have to forget their prejudices and learn
that their profit alone is not all that is asked of them in their
work for the State. They have to realize that the unfortunate
past is to be forgotten, and that the future demands that they
combine production tvith profit. The farmer's colleagues — their
labourers — have still more to forget. They must learn that in
the future the State does not call for underpaid drudgery un-
willingly given, but means to have intelligent labour willingly
given for a living wage.

CSAFTEK n

CXTTLE

SsameaLtrEm

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iEKSTnur

san

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10 STORE CATTLE

additional thousand pounds of cereals might have been obtained
even' other year. This increase, even allowing for the yield of
straw, was not likely to be of enough value, nor was it desirable
that it should be so costly as to pay for the outlay on horse and
manual labour, manure and seed — to say nothing of the interest
upon the extra building accommodation usually wanted for such
cultivation. The very best of this land, which was supplied by
nature with watering places, yielded the primest beef, or, in
exceptional cases, mutton; acres not quite so perfect fed milk-
giving cows ; another class, generally because it was not watered,
supplied hay for the wintering of farm stock and also for the
large numbers of horses wanted for industrial purposes in our
large cities. Land of the highest natural fertility was, then, one
of the two classes of soil left unmoved by tillage implements.

Let us now consider the other class. This second class of
land was left uncultivated because it did not pay, even when
prices for agricultural produce were good, to move it with
implements of tillage. It might be that the land was inaccessible,
that it was not of such a nature as to yield plant food ; it might
be too dry or too wet — but, for one reason or another, it did not
pay to work it. Prices of produce, which must always fluctuate
to a greater or less extent, obviously make the degree of worth-
lessness, which constitutes uncultivable conditions, a changeable
factor.

Such land (and even the most worthless yields some produce),
since it would not return anything to the good farmer who
tilled it assiduously and with skill, was the justifiable prey of
the land-robber; and husbandmen, good or bad, will always
continue to steal from it.

Between these two classes of land, the best and the worst, lies
the greater part of our food-producing soil; the fields which
will yield abundantly when well worked and manured, but
lack the inherent fertility to produce largely when unculti-
vated. Even of this land there was always a certain proportion
under permanent grass; a small, but appreciable, proportion
of grass, of course varying in extent with circumstances, has
always been, and is always likely to be, found on most English
farms. Our climate is so changeable, the formation of our

STORE CATTLE ii

country is so crumpled and diverse, that more often than not
it is found wise not to have too many eggs in one basket; and
so it will nearly always be found that a good homeland husbandry
will justify a moderate proportion of permanent grass on the
farms in districts where the soil favours an arable holding —
even at times when cereals are selling at moderateh" high prices.
This is probably the explanation of such a large proportion of
grass being found in England in the da\'S before COTn-growing
became a ruinous undertaking on most of our farms.

Without wearying ourselves with the innumerable dates and
figures, it may be said that the store-stock trade became para-
mount in our agricultural economy for four reasons :

(i) TTie continuous fall in the prices of cereals which led
to the "stop the plough" polic\-^.

(2) The continuous downhill grade of values for mutton and
wool in the last quarter of the last century which led to a great
reduction in our flocks of sheep. TTie number of sheep in the
United Kingdom was 32,246,000 in 1872 but had fallen to
27,629,000 by 1913.

(3) The recurrence of outbreaks of contagious disease among
cattle, caused, as it was held, by imported store and other catde.
These animals of store-stock grade came to us from the vast
wild plains of the Xew Worlds overseas; their bodies were,
frankly, the produce of simple robbery of the herbage on virgin
soil. \\'hether these cattle did, or did not, import disease is a
matter of controversy, but the point need not be argued; for,
as long as they were freely imported, it was found impossible
to control disease, and so, after many temporary periods of
exclusion, they were finally excluded for good and all by the
Diseases of Animals Act of 1896.

(4) This exclusion led to the fourth and final reason for the
great development of the store-stock industry, though it is really
involved in the other three.

We have seen that the area under the plough had greatly

* The aiaUe area in England fdl from 13.800.000 acres in 1872 to
10,800,000 in 1913. But this does not exhanst the loss of bread-lowing
land; a smaller proportion of tfie aica still nnder tillage va£ used for ^tmins
wheat in 1913 than was the case in 1S72.

12 STORE CATTLE

decreased, and that the number of sheep to graze on the in-
creased area of grass had declined. Why was their place taken
by store cattle ? Chiefly because land could only be kept under
com when and where it was possible to produce very high yields
of cereals, or to combine corn-production with some more
remunerative crop like the potato. Such crops demand very
high manuring, and our farmers came to rely upon large doses
of rich farmyard manure with which to improve their land and
so make it produce enough to pay for ploughing, even when
wheat stood between 25^. and 305. per quarter of 504 lb. weight.
Lean or store cattle of age enough to stand very large rations
of concentrated food and big enough to tread underfoot great
quantities of litter while consuming incredible quantities of
roots, were an admirable means of making the richest possible
"dimg" in sufiicient bulk to satisfy the demands of the land.
While the store cattle from overseas were coming in large
numbers, the farmers could command a supply at reasonable
prices. That is to say, they could buy lean stock at a cost which
allowed of the cake, com, roots, and hay being paid for out of
the increase in price which the fat animal made when sold-for the
butcher ; the straw used as litter was usually thrown in as a pro-
duct that was useless for anything but farmyard manure-making.
When the supply of imported stores was stopped, the com
growers had to fall back upon the home-bred supply. Buying
on a market that was not an open one, the feeders of beef often
created a demand that was greater than the supply. Thus even
in the most unhappy days for farming, the growing of store
cattle was, to a certain extent, remunerative, while feeding
became a ver}^ extravagant process of manure-making. Fre-
quently the difference between the buying-in price of the lean
bullock and the selling-out price of the fat animal hardly paid
for the cake and com, which was only too often given to the
beef beast in inordinately large quantities; the hay and roots
were left uncashed; and the cost of their production absorbed
in the expenses of manure-making. This kind of farming, it
must be realized, involved two, or at most three, acres of com
carrying the charges on an acre of roots, as well as the expenses
of their own growing.

STORE CATTLE 13

I am not concerned to defend such a practice. On the
contrary, I agree with the many, though not the majority of,
agricultural authorities who have condemned this form of waste-
fulness. For over ten years I have spoken and written against
the useless extravagance of supplying plant-food through the
excreta of overfed bullocks, and I am thankful to know that I
have not worked altogether in vain, though the pernicious
system was still very prevalent when war broke out.

It must, how^ever, be remembered that there was much excuse
for this extravagance. It had behind it a very long tradition,
and tradition is always strong in the complicated business of
farming; experience, moreover, had shown rich farmyard
manure to be not only the best, but almost the sole, means of
supplying the land w4th a full amount of available plant-food.
This was indeed the case before the advent of the agricultural
chemist. "Good Horn Good Com" was the motto of every
practical man whose empirical knowledge had been handed
down to him through several generations of successful farmer-
ancestors.

At first the chemist did little to improve the ordinary plan;
and the process of learning nature's method of contriving the
marvellous food-manufacture in the soil is so complicated, that
it may almost be said that for some time the man of science did
much to confirm the practical man in the behef that " chemical "
manures could not replace the plant-food in real good "muck."

But Lawes and Gilbert through their research and field-trial
work at Rothamsted demonstrated that plant-food had many
other sources than that which came from rich cakes passed
through animals to the manure-heap. The great work of these
masters was, however, much handicapped by some of their
followers, who went beyond their teaching in unduly pressing
the claims of the stuffs' that could be carried about in a sack.
These early followers, in their enthusiasm for the valuable con-
.stituents of the concentrated fertilizers, were apt to forget the
value of humus contained in farmyard manure, and, further,
to overlook the prime necessity of using humus and implements
to obtain proper texture. They were liable, too, to omit from
their teaching the fact that weeds, when not mastered by good

14 STORE CATTLE

sound tillage, throve on the plant-food from artificials at the
expense of farm-crops. In spite of the fallacy of much of their
propaganda, these men did good work; but when others, profiting
by their mistakes, taught sound theory, the State was very slow
to supply means to demonstrate and spread their teaching.

This negligence, though it was as potent as it was lamentable,
was not the chief cause of many plough-land farmers continuing
to buy store cattle at too high a figure and to overfeed them
while fattening them. The most pernicious influence of all was,
in my view, the bad example set by those who ought to have
been the leaders in improvement. The shows held by Agri-
cultural Societies for live stock encouraged the exhibition of
extravagantly fat animals, and, in the case of breeding stock,
of disgustingly overfed creatures. The landlords were prominent
exhibitors at such gatherings. These breeding animals were not,
it is true, overfed for purposes of encouraging the tenant farmer,
but as a means of securing high prices which the foreigner
would pay when an animal, otherwise a perfect specimen, was
really "well up." The condition of being "well up" may, I
think, be exemplified by an account of a conversation I had
with one of the greatest veterinary pathologists in Europe.

" The condition of fatness'' he said to me, ''to which you get
your show cattle is undoubtedly pathological.'' This hideous state
of fatness, where breeding stock were on exhibition, was almost
greater than at our fat-stock shows. This may appear, at first
sight, incredible, but there is an explanation.

The butchers were so tired of all the dripping, tallow and
lard which the carcases of the exhibits carried, that they set
their faces against the prize-money being given to specimens
that were altogether too obese, and their influence has been
suflicient to moderate the excess to a certain extent. At the
breeding-stock show, on the other hand, the foreign buyer
seems only capable of judging a first-rate specimen when the
whole body is covered with an excessive coating of firm grease.

That the landlords of this country should have taken a leading
part in these contests was regrettable, but the harm done by
them as exhibitors did not end the trouble.

I know most of the fat-stock markets in England and many

STORE CATTLE 15

of those in Scotland, Ireland and Wales, and I have seldom been
at one without seeing overfed specimens straight from the
*' home-farm." As the war has once again proved that this over-
feeding is opposed to a really efficient national agriculture, it
may be assumed that these wasteful and extravagant customs
on the part of land-agents will be stopped, and that the land-
lords of the future, looking into matters themselves, will insist
upon a more scientific practice and one less in sympathy with
methods which involve wholesale theft from the land.

The rather uneconomic demand upon the supply of stores
from the arable farms re-acted upon the graziers who wanted
to use their rich grass-land to finish stores. It must be remem-
bered that this so-called " finishing " land became more plentiful
as bad times became worse.

Many farms had plough-land fields good enough for any
purpose. The owners, or tenants of such fields, were under
great temptation to lay them down permanently to grass. The
owner was assured of a higher rent if he did so, grass-land
property demanded less outlay upon buildings, and it was
easier to find good tenants for such land. The tenant had less
difficulty with labour, he was able to pay a better wage, he was
less dependent upon the vagaries of our uncertain climate, the .
heavy local taxation on buildings as they fell into disrepair and
were finally abandoned had not to be met, and, altogether,
grazing land was a less risky and much less troublesome business
than arable land farming. No one can complain of the trans-
action under the conditions which existed when the change was
brought about, but inasmuch as store-growing demanded to a
large extent a system of land-robbery, anything that increased
the profit of the venture was to be deprecated from the point of
view of the home production of food.

That the store-cattle industry, as generally carried on, was
robbery from the land, a study of the life-history of one or more
animals of any class will show, and examples will now be given.

Store-bullock reared on pasture.

We may begin by taking an animal bred for beef from non-
pedigree parents of one or other of our several large beef breeds,

1 6 , STORE CATTLE

and, without having been through any period of privation,
finished as prime meat on good Midland bullock pasture at the
age of three years and six months, or just when his dentition was
nearly complete. We will assume that this animal was born in
the month of May, that he found himself in the first moment
of active existence, say, at 48 hours old, running beside his
mother in a district of well-shaded and well-watered store-grass
land in a county of humid climate. He thus began life among
rural scenery remote from the cities of men, but as beautiful
as any in the world. Running by his mother's side his first six
months of life were happy; his food was plentiful and of the
sweetest, new milk and soft young grass in abundance being
his daily fare, and, for amusement, the constant companionship
of other youngsters of his own kind and age made life perfectly
happy except for the attention of his natural enemy, ''the fly."
This pest is important to all concerned in his welfare ; for much
of the energy of the little calf's food is wasted in his frantic, if
foolish, gallops to escape these tormentors. The insect pests
of the order of the Diptera play a very pernicious part in the
summer-time growth of the store throughout his life and greatly
reduce his profit-giving capacity. At the age of about six months
the calf was weaned, and, supposing he was destined not to
travel for another year, his first winter was spent in the open
yard and shed attached to the farm on which he had been born.
This, his second period of life, was likely to be less pleasant;
his food consisted of the grass he could pick up in open weather
and an ample, possibly wasteful, supply of hay of moderate
quality with cold water to drink. His first birthday found him
under happier conditions, for the supplies of young spring grass
reminded him of his first youth and provided him with nourish-
ment and pleased his palate till about his eighteenth month.
Being "six quarter" old he was sold, as we will suppose, by his
breeder, and for the first time knew the troubles of the young
bullock in the market-place, and felt the inconvenience of travel
in the cattle-truck.

For the sake of simplicity we will suppose that the young
beast is sent by rail to some county where it is possible to winter
him out on aftermath grass or on medium pasture that has not

STORE CATTLE

17

been too heavily stocked in the summer or early autumn months.
On this grass he is given enough hay to "keep him from going
back," which produces a slight increase in growth. Another
summer's pasturage is followed by a winter's keep similar to
the one last described, except that, being older, he is made to
depend more upon pickings off the land for his living ; his supply
of hay is probably the same ; the increased size of his frame uses
up more food for its sustenance and allows of a smaller residue
for growth ; consequently, such a store-bullock will put on very
little weight during this, the third, winter of his life. Being now
what is described as a "Six tooth" he is turned into a field of
finishing pasture to wax and grow fat and to furnish, after some
5 months' grazing, a prime carcase of grass beef.

Having briefly sketched the young bullock's imaginary career
from the calving- box to the block, we may tabulate its stages
to show more precisely how the produce of the land was used
and what return was made to the country. It will be noticed
that in this example no food other than grass and hay, either
through the mother's milk or the animal's own mouth, has been
consumed. This is a class of beast much valued by the grass-
beef maker, for he dislikes^ those that have been pampered in
yards with cake, roots and other dainties. In the following
table the finishing process, which will be included in another
chapter, is omitted:

Life-history of a store-bullock bred and reared on pasture.

Situation

Age

Amount of
land required

Weight at
end of period

On a breeding farm
Medium "store-land"

On store rearing farm
Good "store-land"

Birth to
6 months
7-12 „
13-16 „
17-24 ..
24-30 „
31-36 „

2-5 acres^

•3

•60 „

•70 „

i-o

0-75 ,.

400 lb.
500 „
700 „
800 „
980 ,,
1050 .,

Result at 3 years from 5-85 acres of land: 9 cwt. i qr. i stone of beast.

1 Includes keep of cow for 12 months after deducting the amount,
about 15 %, that one might expect to be used up in causing the growth
of her own frame if she were managed with skill.

M.

iS

STORE CATTLE

£«

VBT low. A. nvB^-vezT-

' kr^ at £i6 ^ die

l3 •»£♦!"

Oto

InDdafac^peaf

Tke

»l

«r«»4-

STORE CATTLE

19

would probably be slaughtered at the age of 35 months. That
is to say, the steer or heifer would have been bought for fat-
tening when just two years and a half old.

To obtain a complete picture, many stores from the grass-
lands (going for the same purpose at the same age, but more
often having much more varied careers) would need to be
selected. The calf would have been dropped by a cow kept for
milking in mid-autumn, transferred immediately to some dis-
trict where butter was made, and the skim, or separated milk,
given to the young animal together with some artificial food to
replace the cream — some hay, a few roots, etc. A paddock
would find him nourishment as soon as spring grass was avail-
able, and his liberty would be curtailed through a long winter in
a straw-yard, during which time he would receive a very small
proportion of com. Grazing on grass of second quality in spring
and summer, and protection while feeding on straw and other
plough-land produce in the homestead in autumn and winter,
would continue to the end of the steer's store career.

The following statement attempts to give an account of how
such a steer uses up the area of land required to rear him and to
show what return may be expected for the enterprise. We wdll
suppose that the calf is bom early in September, and goes into
the feeding-courts in October, when just over two years old. To
make the example simpler we \vi\\ assume that only home-
grown corji is used ; as regards rough fodder we \^dll also assume
that the straw growTi with the corn is fed. A slight economy
might be shown in pounds, shillings and pence by using im-
ported feeding stuffs, and some linseed would make better
feeding. So the increase in weight shown will be as great as if
the best food, in proportional amounts, had been fed. For
instance, rather less linseed cake would give the same nourish-
ment and growth as the 2 lb. of oats allowed while the animal
is being reared on the pail. In the same way we will take hay,
equivalent in weight to oat straw, when a less palatable and
nourishing article of diet would suffice. As regards the increase
in weight, allowance is made for the many ills to which calves
reared on this system are liable. Such animals seldom recover
from their bad start in life without much additional and very

20

STORE CATTLE

costly cake-feeding. The following is an estimate only; but,
like the last example given, it represents what I have many
times seen in a fairly long experience.

Store reared on plough-land produce and on grass.

Foods fed

Age

Land required

Weights

Milk, 50 gals.

Separated milk, 100 gals.

Oats, 300 lb.

Oat straw, 400 lb. (for cow)

TT rfed to calf, 150 lb.

^ Ifor cow's milk, 500 lb.
Roots, 300 lb.

Birth
till

end of
5th
month

Acres 0-145 of oats
,, 0-2 of hay
,, 0-005 roots

300 lb. 1

0-350

Oats, 300 lb.
Hay, 400 lb.
Roots, 500 lb.

6th to
end of
8th
month

Acres 0-145 of oats
,, 0-123 of hay
,, 0-008 roots

400 lb.

0-276

At grass grazing, 150 days

9th to
end of
13th
month

Acres 0-500 of grass

500 lb.

Oats, 600 lb.
Oat straw, 800 lb.
Hay, 600 lb.
Roots, 2500 lb.

14th to
end of
20th
month

Acres 0-290 of oats
,, 0-200 of hay
,, 0-040 roots

700 lb.

O-530

At grass grazing, 150 days

2ist to
end of
25th
month

0.-750 acres

896 lb.

Result at 25 months from 2-40 acres of land, 8 cwt. gross (less calf
90 lb.), or 800 lb. net of beast.

It will be seen from the above statement that this steer leaves
a much better return per acre than in the pasture example,
i.e. over 300 instead of under 200 lb. per acre. The increased
production from the soil is explained in two ways. First, the
cow's keep for nearly the whole year is saved; secondly, for
over four-sevenths of the animal's life the food came off land
that had been worked and had received other expensive treat-

* Includes 90 lb. weight at birth.

. STORE CATTLE 21

ment in exchange for an increased output of vegetable produce.
There is probably a correction to be made when the yield of
carcase percentage is considered and the result taken as meat
produced per acre. Most unfortunately there is no direct evi-
dence; for it would appear that no attempt has been made to
obtain authentic data on this point. But calves brought up on
the pail always seem to suffer from what their owners describe
as "losing their calf flesh." An inquiry which was carried out
lately by Dr Marshall and myself for the Cambridge School
of Agriculture on behalf of the Board of Agriculture clearly
shows the chaotic state of knowledge about such matters ; but
nevertheless it may, I think, be assumed with confidence that
the ''hand-reared" stores would not yield as well as those
brought up in nature's way. If we surmise that the animal
starting as a "pail-fed" only yields 51 per cent, and compare
that with my assumption (in itself a deduction made from data
which are far too scanty to be reliable for anything more than
an estimate) we may make the following comparison : the store
from the continuous life on the hillside, aftermath pasturage
and other grass-land, has been estimated at 54 per cent, carcase
to yield 120 lb. of meat and meat equivalent, such as hide, etc.,
to the statutory acre. The beast whose career has last been
tabulated at 51 per cent, of carcase would give a total of 410 lb.
meat, plus 100 lb. equivalent, or 510 lb. from 2-4 acres, that is
to say just over 200 lb. per acre.

Much the worst side of this animal husbandry, as practised
before the war, was the underpaid labour, or rather drudgery,
which the care of the young stock in the yards in winter involved.
A cowman, rearing the calves, got more, but the feeder of the
"buds"i and yearlings could not profitably be paid more than
sixteen shillings a week, for which he was expected to feed on
the Sunday morning and evening as well as work long hours
throughout the week. But even on such wages it is difficult to
show a profit for anybody concerned — always excepting the
drover, the dealer, and the salesman. A 8 cwt. store of this class

1 Calves from seven to 14 months are often so described. In cattle work
as in all departments of husbandry the teacher or writer is much handi-
capped by the absence of any exact nomenclature.

22 STORE CATTLE

was well sold at £i6; I have bought them for as little as ,£13
per head.

Poor as these results seem, I have "mouthed" very many
** stores" on the big markets of England > as well as in Ireland,
that weighed less than 6 cwt. at 30 months old. On the other
hand, better bred animals that have been done well from early
life either on the pail (though this is very exceptional), or after
leaving their mothers, v/ill do 8 cwt. at 20 months; but these
are less common than the starvelings who go under 5 cwt. when
their first two broad teeth show them to be over 22 months old.

From the point of view of feeding ourselves in this country,
a great deal too much land is doing nothing but sustain the life
of young oxen. Some land, of course, being inaccessible or too
poor to work, cannot be used to better advantage. But, whilst
fully realizing this, one can but deplore that the economic con-
ditions of the past 40 years have forced many of our farmers
to an adventure as unscientific as it is unproductive. For every
day of an animal's life which sees no reasonable growth, is waste
of feeding material. The animal's body-heat and the working
of its internal organs absorb food to no purpose when there is
no increase in weight, and to little purpose if the increase is
slight. It will be shown later how this is done and further
demonstrated how the acreage employed in our two examples
can be made not only to grow the same amount of meat, but,
at the same time, a large amount of bread.

CHAPTER III

GRASS BEEF

In the previous chapter we dealt with land which, without deep
cultivation or other expensive operations, will produce a very
large output of plant life. It is on fields of this kind that our
famous grass beef is made prime. No other densely populated
European country dreams of grazing so large a proportion of
its surface in this way; it is doubtful, indeed, whether any have
the live-stock to produce the quality of meat which long ex-
perience has taught us to expect, and without conceit we may
congratulate ourselves that the Britisher and the Irishman have
special gifts for carrying on this class of work. For in very few
instances does the amateur deceive himself more than when he
assumes that anyone can manage a high-class grazing farm.
But we will first consider the soil, the fundamental part of the
whole subject.

The soil of almost all the ** finishing" land tracts has two
qualities that are, unfortunately, rarely given to us by nature
in combination ; it is fairly open in texture and at the same time
composed of material containing large store-houses of plant-
food. But unhappily many soils that are of good texture and
composition are very far from being good enough simply
because of their water content. Graziers — as these summer
beef-farmers are called— may often be heard, when describing
the beauties of their land, to say that such and such a field is
** cool-bottomed." There* is nothing mysterious about this
description ; it simply means that the water-table is near enough
to the surface for the soil-particles to lift a film in times of
drought, and yet sufficiently deep down to allow of the well-
textured soil freeing itself of excessive moisture in times of
heavy rain — in this latter capacity it can and, under some cir-
cumstances must, be helped artificially by land-drainage. These
qualities are very seldom found in combination, and such land,
being very scarce, naturally commands a high rent. Compared

24 GRASS BEEF

with store-land it would fetch loo per cent, more rent; com-
pared with average good plough-land, 200 per cent, more rent —
provided it were well watered, moderately shaded and sheltered,
and properly fenced. But even with all these, it can easily be
spoilt by bad management.

The surface of these pastures has to be supervised and worked
so as to keep them well covered with a carpet of grass that is
sweet, nutritious and continually growing from April to the
beginning of winter. Otherwise weeds will take the place of
useful grasses and clovers. Much skill is required of the grazier
in this respect; to keep down weeds requires constant care on
all land, even on that under permanent grass. The roller and
the harrow must be used at the right time of year so as to
improve conditions for the more delicate of the valuable plants ;
and when used with discretion the teeth of the harrow will
check, and even tear out, some of the obnoxious ones. Later
in the year the scythe will need to be used to cut back such
weeds as the nettle, which on good land grows with an as-
tonishing persistence. But, above all, judicious grazing must
keep a thick, level, and evenly growing carpet of herbage on the
land. It will only be thick when the small varieties — bottom-
grasses, as they are called — cover all the spaces on the surface
which the tall-growing top grasses leave vacant. To keep the
sward level the fields must be so fed that no one particular kind
of grass gets too high; on the other hand, it must not be eaten
down so close as to damage or uproot any of the small but
useful plants. A continuous yield can only be secured when
the general good management insures that different varieties
of plants with differing periods of growth are present, in their
correct proportions, among the flora composing the growing
pasturage. When all the management is good there will be a
regular rotation of growth; the early growing grasses will be
bitten off and succeeded by those that bloom later ; while these
are being eaten the later growing grasses will be mixing with
the second growth of the earlier kinds, and so on. This suc-
cession can be helped by skilful manuring ; a few of our practi-
tioners know this and take full advantage of their knowledge,
but too many are content, in their ignorance of the soil or of

GRASS BEEF 25

manures, or of practical botany, or of all three subjects, to go
on v/ithout the great help which scientific knowledge can give
the farmer.

The grazier must have some very considerable knowle.dge of
stock, as well as of land. He must be good judge enough to
buy those that suit his purpose; he must have observation
enough to tell almost at a glance how well or how ill his animals
are doing while feeding in his fields ; he must know, almost as by
instinct, how and when to move them from field to field, for the
animal's sake as well as for the good of the turf. The change of
grazing ground, by moving animals from field to field, is quite
important in the process of regular and rapid beef-making. He
must recognize by the attitude of an animal when it rises from
its resting place, from the carriage of its head or from the ap-
pearance of its hide that it is ailing and be able to give it the
immediate attention that will probably ward off a serious ill-
ness. Finally, he must know, though on this point many fail in
good judgment, when the time has come at which it is no longer
profitable to go on feeding an animal, the time for one to be
sent to the shambles, and another put in the field to clear up
all that the fat animal has left uneaten.

One of the great difficulties of such a farmer's career is in
obtaining a proper supply of raw material, or store cattle, to
grow till they make prime beef. The success, indeed, of the
enterprise is frequently endangered not only by the store-stock
being priced too high, when the seUing-out price of prime
bullocks is considered, but also by the inadequate number of
animals of good quality. The remedy for this will be discussed
later, but we may here refer to one improvement that is quite
practicable under conditions similar to those existing before the
outbreak of war, should this country unhappily return to them.
If improvement is to be made in the matter of increased pro-
duction, the change in practice here advocated will be necessary
for the sake of further guarding ourselves against danger due
to dependence upon oversea-supplies.

Graziers like old cattle best; they will not willingly buy
animals younger than 30 months, and they are better pleased
if the store shows the six broad teeth indicating that he is at

26 GRASS BEEF

least 3 years old. The ''full-mouthed," that is, animals of
3 J years or more, are valued most of all. Having given lo
years of close observation to this subject, I feel some confidence
in expressing judgment upon it.

Eleven years ago it became my business to study the practice
of the graziers in one of the best Midland counties, a famous
hunting shire specially endeared to the fox-hunter by its large,
level fields of richly-carpeted turf, a country with fine open
gallops and wonderful hedges to make jumping difficult. Only
soil naturally rich or fertile will grow hedges thickly enough to
test the prowess of the really good man, horse, and hound. I was
then told, as often before and since, that young oxen could not
be kept on this good land, that any beasts with less than four
broad teeth "went off" immediately they were turned on to it,
that younger animals even died, and so on. Now I might have
accepted this without evidence, as I have often accepted the
statements of other "practical" men, had it not been for one
strange anomaly with which I was familiar on this very type of
land — -namely the practice of farmers who bred high-class
pedigree beef-cattle. The breeders of these aristocratic cattle
turned out their yearling heifers, and even young bulls, on to
the very best pasture without any ill eflfect. In fact, while I have
never heard a pedigree-breeder complain of his land being too
good or his grass too strong for his grazing animals, I have often
heard complaints of the reverse. So, after careful observation
and experiment, I have formed the following opinion :

It is certainly safer to turn older cattle on to the best pasture,
for this may be done without elaborate precautions as to their
over-eating, or their being affected by the extremes of weather
in the early part of the year. With yearlings (and still more so
with " buds ") great care is necessary to prevent their " blowing "^
themselves with the young grass, scouring themsejves by eating
too much, and so on. In other words, the older animals are
easier to manage and cause comparatively little anxiety; the

^ This state, also commonly called " hoven," is known to the veterinarian
as tympanitis. It consists of the distension of the huge stomach, found in
the ox, with the gases generated by the fermenting young grass; in young
animals this disease frequently causes death if not attended to quite early
in the attack.

GRASS BEEF

27

youngsters give their grazier much trouble and a considerable
amount of anxiety. But if a large portion of store-land is to be
farrned, and not robbed, in the future, this care is essential and
the anxieties must be faced and overcome. By using younger
animals, more will be available from a reduced quantity of land.
Under our present system ten acres of store -land will often
carry two cows, one two-year-old, two yearlings and two calves.
This stocking enables one yearling and one two-year-old to be
sent out every year. Put a foster calf on to one of the two cows
to be reared with her own, and turn out three yearlings every
year, and the store population goes up at once. Rear two foster
calves, one to each cow, and turn out four yearlings every spring
and the store cattle population goes up still further.

Before going into the detail of this economy, I may say that
by personal experience I am familiar with the difficulties and
gangers of turning out a bunch of young yearlings about
15 months old on to rich pasture producing quick-growing,
succulent grass, especially in mid-spring when the nights are
still chilly and the ground is often covered with white frost at
dawn. If neglected they will " blow," they suffer from diarrhoea,
and above all, they are attacked by the small "lung worm^,"
which causes " hoose " ; and young cattle suffer very much more
from all these evils than older beasts. But experience has also
taught me that the difficulties can, with much care and trouble,
be overcome. The farmer grazing this very young kine must
first of all grow some hay ; he must, further, supply shelters in
each field. These need not be elaborate, but they must be
substantial enough to keep off the worst of the weather, and to
give a dry layer. Eacji shelter must be surrounded by a small
enclosure, or pound, in which the young animals must be shut
in at nights and receive a breakfast of hay every morning. If
the grass is causing them to scour, they must be given more
hay ; if the frost has been very heavy they may have to be kept
in later in the day. They will pay for some astringent food, such

1 The Strongylus micrurus and S. filavia inhabit the air passages, these
and possibly other minute worms cause the terrible cough and other dis-
tressing symptoms called "hoose" or "husk." Young animals constantly
lose health and even die through the mischief caused by the worms. Older
bullocks, though often much upset by them, seldom suffer very seriously.

28 GRASS BEEF

as cotton cake, though this is not necessary if the long fodder is
of good quahty. Old cattle can do without all this care: but
young animals will not thrive, some of them are likely to die,
if they do not receive this attention during the first five weeks,
or so, of the grazing season. Undoubtedly they are much more
trouble to their owners and, obviously, they require some extra
expenditure on labour to win the hay and to supervise them with
skill and care.

There is a further point that must be carefully considered.
Starvelings are no good for this work. The wretched little
beast that has been starved on an ill-filled pail and a badly
supplied manger in babyhood, has galloped about hot, burnt-up
pasture from the age of four to nine months, has then gone into
winter quarters in a wet yard with dry straw, a few turnips and
very little hay for food, and so is little more than 400 lb. weight
at 15 months old, is no use to anyone for feeding purposes. If
the grazier is to change his practice the rearer of these starvelings
must be completely reformed. This is one of the difficulties in
all agricultural practice: husbandry is so much of a jig-saw
puzzle that each member's work must be dovetailed together
if a success is to be achieved. The amount of money wasted by
the individual, to say nothing of the loss to the State and the
neglect of production caused by the vast droves of these miser-
able little bullocks, still often described as calves though about
15 months old, is at present a handicap to every progressive
feeder.

It may be explained how and why the extra expenditure on
labour may be not only recovered, but, as I hold, made a means
of adding further profit to the occupier of the grazing holding
— quite apart from the great object we have in view of getting
more human food from each acre of our Kingdom.

At the present time the conditions of all our farms of good
grazing land are somewhat as follows: it is seldom that the
land of any one farm is all finishing bullock-land, but, for sim-
plicity's sake we will assume that this is so. We will suppose that
the year begins with the coming of the grass, and similarly that
the farmer buys in his cattle gradually so as to be fully stocked by
the time the full flush of grass is on the land, say by the middle

GRASS BEEF 29

of May, the date varying with the geographical district, the aspect
of the land, the nature of the soil, season, and so on.

Each acre of land is expected to carry one large bullock, the
varieties chosen varying with proximity to certain markets, the
farmer's idiosyncrasy, and various other causes. The relative
numbers are, roughly, as follows: Shorthorns (more or less
thick-fleshed according to their breeding) are by far the most
numerous; next, Herefords, the famous "white-faces" beloved
of all grass-land men; after these, though a long way behind,
come the quaint black-polled Scots or their crosses, the famous
Blue Greys, the strong-boned Black Welsh and Lincoln Red,
and, in far smaller proportion, Devons, — tl;iough in some dis-
tricts they predominate — South Devons, much fancied on
account of their hardiness, though they are large feeders even
for their great size ; a very occasional group of the Sussex breed
(most level of all grazing cattle, for they eat everything as it
comes) ; West Highlanders, and crosses of all the breeds men-
tioned.

While the casual observer might say that Shorthorns out-
number all the other breeds put together by two to one, many
so-called Shorthorns are of mixed, or even of mongrel, origin.
Whatever the breed, they are all large stores, weighing alive and
imfasted about 1000 lb., i.e. 72 stone imperial or 9 cwt. on the
average. As far as possible, they are all in good health and just
in "fresh" condition, their frames, or skeletons, being well
covered with flesh, their muscle mixed with little fat, and their
digestive organs little, if at all, larded with suet and "fat^'*
It must be candidly admitted that the quality (i.e. their capacity
to thrive or put on weight) is a very varying factor. Probably
few are really good, and many, it is to be feared, are quite poor
specimens of their race. It is indeed a strange thing that this
country, the stud-farm of the world, should produce so large
a proportion of a grade low enough to assort with the most
primitive of their race. The large proportion are steers, though

1 Kidney suet goes with the carcase, "apron" or "caul" or "caul suet"
is the butcher's chief perquisite, the "gut-fat" is often of value as suet,
but sometimes goes with the "waste fat " to the soap-boiler and some other
fat is unfortunately absolutely waste material.

30 GRASS BEEF

heifers are rather preferred, 'especially where the grass-land is
not quite the best of its kind. Some graziers are very partial
to cow-stock, that is to say, they buy up dry cows to fatten
instead of steers.

The beasts, of whatever kind, are distributed over the fields
and are expected to feed for a period lasting about 20 weeks,
during which time each head, on the average, consumes the
bulk of the grass off an acre of land and, in so doing, increases
a little in size of skeleton and in weight of lean meat or muscle ;
this we must simply assume, for unfortunately little is known
on these two points. They also cover their bodies under the
hide with a thick layer of adipose tissue, they fill in the inter-
stices between the muscles with fat, the muscle tissue also
becomes infiltrated with fat, that is to say, the meat becomes
*' marbled," as it is called, and while all this is going on, the
abdominal cavity becomes very heavily larded. At the end of
these processes the store-bullock becomes a prime beef beast ^.

The gross increase in weight made by these grazing beasts
has been assumed to be 20 imperial stone live weight: on
the average there is, indded, some evidence in support of this
assumption in the weighings taken by Mr C. B. Fisher, of
Market Harborough, and published in the Royal Agricultural
Society's Journal for 1894^. It appears to me, however, from
many observations and deductions, that, if no cake is fed on the
grass, this assumption overstates the increase made by the
animals ; and that if a sufficient number of weighings of good,
bad, and indifferent animals were taken over several seasons,

1 The matter of the usefulness of this increase of fat for human con-
sumption is an important one. Dr F. H. A. Marshall and I carried out an
investigation on the subject for the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries
during 191 7. A brief risumi of this work was published in the Board's
Journal for September, 191 8, but the Government has not thought well
to publish the whole report. The numbers of animals we worked upon may
not have been great enough to establish the most reliable data upon which
to build knowledge, but our figures, if scanty, most certainly established
the need of reconsideration being given to the whole matter. We believe
that our figures show that the whole of popular belief about the matter
of fattening cattle is founded on a misconception as to what really takes
place.

2 Anomalies of the Grazing Season of 1894, p. 667 et seq.

GRASS BEEF 31

the results would show an average increase more like 16 than
20 stone. However, before the war, it was quite unusual for
a farmer to weigh his cattle either at the beginning or at the
end of the season, so it did not matter to him how much weight
they put on. The only way in which 99 per cent, of the owners
could calculate was by comparing prices of store-stock when
bought in and the prices made by the finished stock at the end
of the grazing season.

Before 1900 I was frequently told by friends who were ex-
perienced in the work or by those who were familiar with the
trade, that an increase of £5 per head was necessary for the
grazier to get a good living; and between the years 1890 and
1900 I believe that most men either did this, or failed altogether.
From that time onwards the cost of stores went up without
any corresponding rise in the prices of beef, and the rents, the
big item of expenditure after the store had been paid for, were
about as low as they could be squeezed. Thus, in 1908 and 1909,
as I learnt on good evidence, it was only the exceptionally good
man who got an increase in value of ^4 a head on the average
of the stores he fed, and of this sum fjz. 55. was rent. Over and
above the grazing season's grass, the land provided something
for the keep for the rest of the year ; some farmers would run
a ewe-flock very thinly spread over the land, others a few colts,
others a few store-cattle, others all three. But, even with this
help, the farmer's living could not be said to be a fat one^.

It is difficult to calculate with uncertain data, but the fol-
lowing account of the grazing of big three-year-olds and the
finishing of yearlings may be taken as accurate.

Five yearlings, weighing about 600 lb. each, could be kept
on the same area of grass as would keep three big bullocks of
9 cwt. in weight. By all the available evidence (which is to me
conclusive) each of the five young animals would make at least
the same gain in live weight as each of the three older bullocks
— provided that the precautions previously referred to are taken.
The cost of producing the young stores, though they involve

1 It is hard to foresee this season (1918), when stores cost well over 80s.
and feeders will have to sell at about 755. per cwt. live weight, how any
better financial return will be obtained.

32 GRASS BEEF

more trouble, is less in feeding stuff per unit of live weight than
is the case with the six-toothers ; further, as it has been shown
that more of them would be available, it should be possible for
the feeder to buy at a slightly lower rate and yet leave at least
the same profit for the rearer. As regards realizing the profit,
the relative price paid per cwt. for large and small varies con-
siderably. When large prime bullocks are scarce, they make as
much per stone, sometimes even more, than small young prime
animals; but usually the reverse is the case.

From the national point of view the estimate of the yield of
carcase is a fairly safe one, and other useful stuff may be
reckoned in the same proportion, except that the hide of the
large beast will no doubt be considerably more valuable. The
yearlings, decently brought up as suggested in a former chapter,
may be estimated to yield from 52 to 55 (say 53 per cent, on
the average), and the three-year-olds about 3 per cent. more.
If, as one hopes, the whole question is in the future submitted
to the proof of systematic research, this difference will probably
be found to be exaggerated. But, given this difference, the
result will be as follows :

If the three-year-olds yielding 53 per cent, (this low figure is
deliberate) raise themselves from 9 cwt. to a weight of 11-5 cwt.
at 56 per cent. — a total carcase receipt of 721 lb. (less 534 lb., the
carcase weight of the store) — we get a total yield of 561 lb. as
increase from three bullocks off three acres of land. With five
yearlings, assumed to raise themselves from 5-5 cwt. at 50 per
cent, carcase to 8 cwt. at 53 per cent., we find in the same way
a difference of 167 lb. per beast ; but five would be grazed instead
of three, and the amount off the same area of land would be 8351b.
There is a further correction to be made. Dr Marshall, working
on the inquir}^ already referred to^, obtained results which show
that these small animals will probably yield a larger proportion
of gristle and bone. Assuming his figures to hold good, the
difference is, however, under 3 per cent, and the increase shown
above would be only reduced by 25 lb. on the whole three acres
— leaving a surplus of 230 lb. on the five young animals.

The system advocated here has the further advantage of
^ See footnote i, p. 30.

GRASS BEEF 33

giving more employment on these tracts of rich grass-land.
The supervision of the young cattle in spring and the hay-
making in early summer, would ensure the employment of
extra permanent hands, for, as it is now, the number of agri-
cultural labourers employed is often negligible. I have known
the staff on 350 such acres to consist of one old man, while
even the farmer himself, though constantly working on the farm,
lived in a neighbouring town. A further advantage of having
more hands would be better surface-tillage, more weeds cut,
ditching, hedging, and draining improved ; for, during the last
25 years, all these have gone back on many holdings and so the
land has produced less. An increase in rural population must
always be the aim of anyone who wishes to benefit his country
through the land. If the adjacent lands of inferior quality — and
there are nearly always some such — were ploughed up, instead
of being, as they often are, left with a miserable covering of grass
or weeds, the conditions would be easier.

But to make things as perfect as may be, this splendid founda-
tion of an almost ideal agriculture should be combined with
some rural industry that would find winter employment.
England is a beautiful country and no one could wish that its
fine grazing areas should disappear; the authorities therefore
should make every eflFort to preserve their good qualities and
to secure improvements in them. Who are more suited to this
task than the owners themselves of the broad acres, noble
trees and rich pastures which are the finest of their kind in the
world ?

M.

CHAPTER IV

WINTER BEEF

It may be said without hesitation that no practice is more
typical of empirical British industry than that of winter beef-
production. Its produce, ''Roast Beef," is supremely typical qf
our home life, and yet, wheat-growing possibly excepted, few
items in our agricultural practice have brought more men to
financial ruin. I have, as it happens, known many who, being
in a very humble way of life, have told me of the glories of a
father or uncle who farmed in the good old style. Nearly all
these poor friends of mine — I use the adjective in its literal
sense — have told me, with obvious delight, when speaking of
the past, of the fat bullocks that were part of their family's pride :
very little inquiry led one to see how great a share these delusive,
if attractive, creatures had taken in the change in the family
fortunes.

In the whole vicious cycle which unsound economic con-
ditions have forced upon our farmers, there is nothing more
disastrous than the methods prevailing among many who pride
themselves on the quantity and excellence of their winter beef.
Among these there are many who pay no attention to the help
which science has to offer; and their conceit in their own
success prejudices them against a test, by proper account-
ancy, of the money wasted in this, and other branches of their
industry. But despite their belief in their efficiency as practical
men, they fail, most of all, in their unbusiness-like way of
marketing their goods. Close observation of the markets for
about 20 years brings the conviction that this class of beef
might have been made profitable to grow, had it not been for
the over-supply resulting from the carelessness and self-satisfied
ignorance of those who produced it regardless of cost.

The very best winter beef is skilfully fed with unstinted
amounts of " roots," a small amount of good straw and hay, and,
in some cases, most extravagant rations of cake and corn; in

WINTER BEEF 35

all cases the concentrated food must be ample. Animals, with
a certain age on them, fed in this way for some 20 weeks,
produce the very best joints that come to the block between
December and May (both months included). No other country
in the world produces this meat in any quantity. It is doubtful,
indeed, whether any country produces such perfection as regards
appearance, delicacy of texture, and flavour. In England such
beef, whenever possible, is called ''Norfolk," no matter in what
county it may have been finished ; in other parts of the kingdom
it is called " Scotch." The name depends on the side of the
border which had the opportunity^ of housing the bullock, but
both titles are a mark of distinction. The superiority of this beef
was such that it would always fetch a decent price, even before
the war when prices of ordinary food were low — low enough,
indeed, to lead to the waste which threatened our security as a
nation long after the war began. It was, in fact, a luxury of
which the supply might have been marketed at monopoly figures,
if the winter feeders had taken pains to regulate the demand, for
it had no overseas competitors. But the winter feeders despised
co-operation and our co-operative societies were, it is to be
feared, too much concerned in saving the commission of half-a-
crown on buying a ton of cake, to give any real attention to the
marketing of millions of pounds' worth of cattle. The whole
industry suffered from lack of business-like co-ordination of
interests — from the calf dropped in the west or north country
auction shed full of magnificent deep-milking cows to the long
lines of splendid, fat, three-year-old bullocks standing in the East
Anglian sale-yard. Some form of co-operation is a prominent
feature in the agriculture of our Continental neighbours, whose
husbandry is a vital part of their national life instead of being
generally regarded, as was ours, as an industry unworthy of a
good Britisher's enterprise. In the fat cattle trade there was one
great exception to this lack of business-like co-operation, not,
however, among the farmers, but among the Scots dealers ! The
business men of the North-East of Scotland had, before the
war, a very fine trading net- work for distributing their cattle
systematically to those markets where they were most likely to
sell profitably,

3—2

36 WINTER BEEF

This must not be regarded as disparagement of the salesman's
craft; on the contrary, it cannot be too strongly emphasized
that a good middleman well earns his place in the world. But
there were too many middlemen earning a living out of the
cattle trade before the war; many instances could be quoted
of too many small commissions being taken off each beast
between the producer and the consumer. Between the departure
of the animal from his homestead and the final transaction
between the retail butcher and his customer the producer paid
money to one man for selling, to another for buying, to another
for "leaving" a bullock — but it was partly the producer's own
fault.

Having for 20 years before the war had good opportunity
to study cattle-markets, a study which gave me much interest
and pleasure besides satisfying a legitimate professional curiosity,
I have some confidence in criticizing the many practices which,
it is hoped, may be improved in- the future. Over and over again
I have gone to markets to find the primest " Norfolks "^ supplied
in such large numbers as to force their price down to the level
almost of inferior, or of *' chilled," or of " port-killed " beef. Many
cooks and housewives have no real knowledge of the quality
of meat and so the number of customers willing to pay for the
best is strictly limited ; further, the large joints from these beasts
are not sizeable for small families, so that the real demand came
mainly from good restaurants; from county and railway hotels
with a reputation for good food, and from the tables of such
owners of big houses as had enough money and knowledge to
insist upon being served with first-quality joints from the
"sides" of large, prime bullocks. Such customers did not of
course pay more than they were obliged to pay for the goods
they required. When the supply of meat was greater than their
customers' demands, the butchers were too business-like to
give more than the price current for all classes of meat, good,

1 1 think there may be a double reason for the fine fat beasts being often
called Norfolk bullocks. In the first place that county sends them out in
great quantity and of superb quality; also, they are particularly the produce
from farms on which the "Norfolk" rotation is practised. This system of
farming imposes 25 per cent, of "root" crops on the land, and the greater
part of these is consumed by the large bullocks in winter.

WINTER BEEF 37

bad, or indifferent. At certain seasons the numbers of prime
bullocks sent to the markets were altogether excessive; conse-
quently the price realized for their carcases was for years not
only ruinously low, but was very little higher than the figure
quoted for inferior beef taken from cold storage.

On the other hand, one could very occasionally go to a market
where the supply of prime animals happened to be small enough
to make the connoisseur pay a proper price for what he wanted.
Then one realized the folly of flooding the market. No buyers
offered one another a trifle on each animal to "leave it alone";
there was no pre-arrangement of the destination of the various
lots ; no animals w ere allowed to go through the sale-ring unsold
so that the buyers might offer their own fixed price to the un-
happy feeder.

I vividly recollect such a scene during a period when the best
beef had been selling at a price between (yd. and 7^. per lb. for
several weeks. The market-stalls, quite accidentally, contained
only dozens of prime animals instead of the scores which had
been on offer for many weeks previously. The price, naturally,
went up to over 9^. per lb. and I heard the buyers say, as I have
many times heard them before and since, that they must have
some first-quality meat, whatever the price. On this particular
occasion, as on several others, I carefully noted the prices
generally prevailing on other big markets and there was no rise
from the general dead level of ruinous figures. How ruinous
this level was as regards profit on growing meat the following
figures show:

Cost of feeding — Winter heef.

Taking my evidence from some 200 bullocks fed in dif-
ferent parts of the country, I find that it takes on the average
16 weeks' fattening to make a moderately good store into meat,
that during a feeding period of this length one may rely on an
increase of 2 cwt. live weight, or an average increase of 2 lb.
a day.

The figures for some 80 beasts fed till they were "prime
Norfolks" show a period of 20 weeks to be necessary, during
which time thev did not increase quite as much as 2 lb. per

38 WINTER BEEF

head per diem, in spite of the following substantial average
daily ration:

Concentrated food (^ linseed, ^ cotton cake) 8 lb.
Cut fodder (^ straw, f hay) 8 lb.

Roots (partly swedes, partly mangold) 112 lb.

A very long experience of watching cattle fed on the above
rations leads me to believe that, besides this ration, a varying,
but very considerable, amount of the straw supplied as litter
is also eaten.

It is a very moot point as to how much of the increase in
live weight is carcase. It is an extremely important matter and
one which demands immediate and thorough investigation.
Lawes estimated that one might expect 80 per cent, of the total
increase in live weight to be returned as carcase. I myself
venture to predict that this percentage would, on investigation,
be found to be too high. Still, assuming that it is so and also
that the prime Norfolk gives an increase of 2 lb. a day (though
it will be found, in practice, that it fails to do so by a small
decimal), we get the following result: // takes 4 lb. of mixed
cakeSy 3 lb. of hay, i lb. of straw and 56 lb. of roots to make
12-8 oz. of prime beef. Besides the meat there would be a
considerable amount of fat in the offal. This offal fat, though
costing the farmer dear in feeding-stuffs, is looked upon by
the butcher as one of his perquisites.

The above figures and deductions appeared in my article in
the Journal of the Board of Agriculture (1908) entitled "The
Cost of Producing Winter-beef." Not only have these figures
and statements been passed without serious challenge, but they
received, by a strange coincidence, confirmation in the results
of an investigation^ carried out in Norfolk itself at the very time
when I was lecturing to Farmers* Clubs on the basis of notes
afterwards used for the article.

Under pre-war conditions the only means of making a profit
lay in the extra richness imparted to the farmyard manure. This
idea was developed by all concerned and by no one more than

^ See the article "The Cost of Winter Grazing in East Norfolk" by the
Rev. Maurice C. H, Bird in the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of
England (1909), page 82.

WINTER BEEF 39

the dealer in fat stock; during my lectures in the winters of
1907-08-09 I was constantly heckled on this point. But this
plea is about 50 years behind the times. It held good when
we had to rely solely upon farmyard manure to enrich our lands
under com, but not since we have begun to understand the
subject of fertilit}^ better. We want farmyard manure to im-
prove texture, and the humus it contains is often useful in
furthering the growth of beneficial micro-organisms in the soil ;
we want it, of course, to help prepare the land for the sowing
of the seed, or, in other words, to improve tilth ; the plant-food
it contains is also useful, but it is in no sense indispensable
when a supply of concentrated fertilizers is available. From
the farmer's point of view it is foolish in the extreme to put
plant-food into the land through the cake-bill when it can be
obtained much cheaper direct from the manure-merchant. The
intelligent and industrious farmer has in the past* aimed at
getting the largest possible amount of humus and plant-food
into the soil at the least cost. The extravagant feeder of prime
bullocks, on the other hand, simply aimed at getting both these
by means of *his beasts regardless of cost. When the com land
was very good, some personal profit was eventually secured
through heavy yields of grain ; when the soil was only of medium
or poor quality, the practice had to be discontinued or the man
working for a living went to the Bankmptcy Court. The only
exceptions were those who could afford to spend money on
farming, among whom there were, most unhappily for the
industry, many landed proprietors. It has been heart-breaking
during the last 20 years to see the bad example set in this
respect on the home-farms of very many to whom one might
have looked for improvement.

In the article quoted above the cost of hay was taken at £3
per ton, yet in my hearing the agent of a prominent landlord in
the Eastern counties boasted before a company of farmers that
although he could sell his hay at ^7 a ton, his fat bullocks were
hound to have all they could eat, at whatever cost. In the third
year of the war I heard the agent of another landlord in the
West country boast on the market that he had been feeding
500 lb. of best cake a day to fifty 80 stone Devons while grazing

4© WINTER BEEF

on the best valley grass! Such instances could be multiplied
ad nauseam ; and the great pity of it is that not only did the
employers of such agents allow these practices to continue, but
actually believed, in their ignorance, that the exhibition of these
wastefully fat brutes was doing good to agriculture.

Absolutely the reverse is the truth. Even if there were some
special value in the plant-food contained in rich, cake-fed farm-
yard manure, — which, with very few exceptions, there is not —
it is bound to be a very wasteful way of supplying such material
to the land. For the richer the feeding, the greater is the pro-
portion of plant-food that is found in the liquid which often
runs to waste. Our farm-buildings are very often structurally
deficient of means to collect the liquid manure, and as the
convenience of farm operations often makes it necessary to
store the stuff in the field, much of the liquid is lost and the
essence of what the rich cake-feeding gives to the manure simply
goes down the ditch to contaminate the horsepond. I have
known one of the most self-satisfied and extravagant winter-
feeding farmers cut a channel from the feeding-shed to the
nearest ditch, so that the overfed Jbullocks might "lie more
comfortable," thus losing the benefit of the rich fertilizing
material. Such deliberate waste is not uncommon, for many of
the practical men who feed heavy rations to bullocks refuse to
believe in the value of the liquid from the feeding-stall or court.

There is, indeed, great need for a series of demonstrations
all over the kingdom to show the value of the Hquid part of
farmyard manure. It is a matter of common knowledge to the
professional agriculturalist, but not to the practitioner. Such
demonstrations cannot be given without expense, and in the
past the British public, to say the least of it, has not taken a
wide view of spending money on agricultural propaganda. The
misfortunes of the past four years have, however, been so largely
caused by ignorance, that it is not too much to hope that it
may before long be thought worth while to spend money in
giving information which may prevent waste even of food-
producing material. Every penny spent on cake and other
feeding-stuff is waste if it is not returned through the animal
or the plant ; and it may be national waste of the most pernicious

WINTER BEEF 41

kind, since much of the concentrated feeding rations comes to
us from tropical countries in whose well-being we have Httle
concern. Thus we pay money to foreign countries for material
which through ignorance we partially forfeit without any return
— ^in fact, the lost material causes considerable pollution of our
country side.

To instruct a conununity that is inclined to cling to existing
practices' and carr\' conviction in the face of the national charac-
teristic of unbeUef in scientific research requires demonstration
work carried out at home. It is of Uttle use to explain the
methods of Germany or other countries; the public must be
prepared to spend money on many demonstrations carried out
at the very doors of our farm-houses. On the other hand, if the
pubUc pays the piper, it has a right to call the tune, and to insist
upon the best use being made of our agncultm^ land. This
cannot be said to be done so long as more feeding-stuff than is
necessary is used wholesale for the production of winter beef.

There wiH alwaj^ be special t^-pes of farming in which the
making of very rich farmyard manure may be justified ; to these
should be left the manufacture of the ver\- fine meat for which
there will alwaj^ be customers ready to pay a profitable figure.
If in the future the over-production of the past is avoided, our
Christmas beef will become an ornament, instead of an encum-
brance, to good EngUsh farming.

CHAPTER V

BEEFLINGS

Criticism of agricultural methods should be constructive as
well as destructive ; and I am convinced that the production of
" baby-beef" from beeflings might be made to play an important,
almost vital, part in the husbandry of the future.

It has everything to reconmiend it: it has, in the past, been
advocated by many of our leading authorities; at the present
moment some of our best practitioners produce it ; and it enables
us to take advantage of all the sound information that scientific
research has placed at the farmers' disposal. The objection to
it, however, has for the last 40 years been insuperable; for
it gave little, if any, opportunity for knd-robbery. Wliile it
did not pay, on the majority of holdings, to farm intensively,
since the extra produce cost more than it would fetch, average
land was only profitable when the least posnble labour was
expended upon its produce. The grass and winter beef, dis-
cussed in the last two chapters, coQCcmed "■■»**^ that had
lived a long life before coming to the fjtu—iwg period, during
which little except rent had been
It may be said, in fact, that dicj
duced from the land \vi^ the IcBt
obtained from beeilings die troiible of
over than the labour of the
ditliculty has been pointed out to
the 15 N^eaw in which I hiTe
when 1 have ur^i upon a tenor ^be
out to to JO ye*rlii^ eretr
year^oK). he W rtflied ilMt the
than »n th«^ rt^:it <\t^ the aBUDMl*^ file: aad
trur

Au Auu\a( t(Mi k^ tv> >telil «l 10 «r 15
trf \\\pikt t\x t\\ c\« w|> mtw»

oliacncase

^dfedfbr

and

BEEFLIXGS

learc dbeat tD Umd for

Butdhe

of Ik modKr cf ^he Mi
dKcnacfAe
IsktDl
lomiKdKpfodacKisnealtrdniwiMaitiikftjkMcr Hw,

44 BEEFLINGS

year. After that age there is Uttle recorded evidence to show
what happens, but from personal observation of cows and bulls,
it may be said with confidence that some little growth of frame
and muscle continues for at least two years after the animal has
a "full mouth." On the other hand, there is plenty of evidence
recorded to show that the rate of growth decreases very much
during the first three years of life ; the calf making more growth
than the yearling, the yearling than the two-year-old, and so on.
These facts are well known to physiologists ; the difficulties lie
in taking advantage of them in practice.

To obtain the best, or even reasonably good, results requires
much care, for the young animal has not the cast-iron digestive
system that the old cow or ox, judging by observation, seems
to have. The immature beast must be given suitable food or it
ceases to thrive, and that is fatal to good beefling meat pro-
duction. Again, care must be supplemented by skill in the
choice of feeding-stuffs, or the expenses will be so high that no
financial advantage will accrue to the farmer. This latter point,
however, may be said to be secondary, for the very best food
is often wasted through want of care. It is at the outset that
the problem of beefling production is most difficult, for after
the first three or four months, or after the weaning has taken
place, the difficulties are very much less, though care and skill
are, of course, required all through the animal's life.

The first consideration is that of milk. A calf running with
its mother will consume from 150 to 400 gallons; these figures
are only estimates, for little attempt has been made to record
how much milk is given by cows of the beef-breeds — and it is
with the beef-breeds that this class of rearing most often takes
place. It is, of course, admitted that sucking the mother is by
far the healthiest method of feeding for the young calf, but it
is apt to be altogether too extravagant a system. It has been
shown that to keep a cow a whole year for the sake of one weaned
steer calf may be a form of land-robbery that only the most
unhappy state of agriculture can justify as a general policy.
But the fact remains that a calf brought up on its mother, under
good conditions, till the age of four or five months has an ideal
start in any career concerned with beef production; heifers

BEEFLINGS 45

wanted for milk production are liable, by this method, to have
their milk-secreting glands overloaded with fat, to the detriment
of their profitableness in later life, but for growing meat it is
ideal. It has already been shown that, in our variable country,
locality may, to a limited extent, justify keeping one or more
cows to yield one weaned calf as the result of her year's keep ;
and it might be contended that farmers, whose land is situated
under such conditions, might do well to turn over the produce as
baby-beef rather than as store-stock. But we are now concerned
with producing meat from plough-land, and this entails a far
greater output of beef from each acre. In fact, the cow kept for
the breeding, and rearing, of one calf represents the very lowest
type of production from the land. It is my object to show that
beefling production can be carried on with the most intensive
production from each acre of land held. The Danish farmer
combines intensive arable land-farming with milk, veal, and
pig-meat production; in our future agricultural campaign we
should do well to add baby-beef to the list. To do this to
financial advantage we must decide what is the most economical
amount of milk to allow the calf.

Ii> considering the problem last stated there are two main
systems that merit careful examination : (i) the rearing of several
calves on one cow, (2) the rearing of all the calves, say from
birth- or at any rate from the fourth day, on the pail or, as it is
called, by hand.

The first has advantages. I have myself practised it very
successfully with good deep-milking cattle. With three cows
yielding an average of 800 gallons of milk, we reared 24 calves ;
three went for veal or were kept for bulls, 14 were brought
out as baby-beef, the rest — heifers — were kept as breeding
cattle. The management necessary to do this demands a Httle
intelligent care in getting the cows to take to the foster-
calves, and judgment in letting the different calves suck the
proper and economical amounts of milk. With such deep-
milking cows, directly the calving troubles are over, a second
calf should be introduced; then, after about three weeks, a
third. An appropriate method of management, which is known
from experience to be sound, is set out in the hypothetical

46

BEEFLINGS

calendar here reproduced as a guide to those who have never
practised the system:

V^eeks

after

calving

Own calf

1st

heifer

2nd calf

2nd

do.

steer 3rd calf

3rd

do.

do. bull

4th

do.

do. do.

5th

do.

do. do.

6th

do.

do. do.

7th

do.

do. do.

1

8th

- do.

do. do.

9th

do.

do, do.

loth

do.

do. do.

nth

do.

do. do.

1 2th

do.

do. do. .

13th

Weaned

do. do.

4th calf

14th

suckUng

do. do.

steer

5th calf

15th

13 weeks

Weaned do.

do.

heifer

1 6th

suckhng do.

do.

do.

17th

13 weeks do.

do.

do.

1 8th

do.

do.

do.

19th

do.

do.

do.

20th

do.

do.

do. 6th calf

2ist

Weaned

do.

do. steer

22nd

suckhng

do.

do. do.

23rd

19 weeks

do.

do. do.

7th calf

24th

do.

Weaned do.

steer

25th

Weaned

suckling do.

do.

26th

suckling

10 weeks do.

do.

27th

13 weeks

do.

do.

28th

do.

do.

29th

do.

do.

30th

do.

do.

31st

do.

do.

32nd

Weaned

do.

8th calf

33rd

suckling

do.

steer

34th

12 weeks

do.

do.

35th

Weaned

do.

36th

suckling

do.

37th

12 weeks

do.

38th

do.

39th

do.

40th

do.

41st

*

do.

42nd

do.

43rd

-

do.

do.
Weaned
suckling
12 weeks

The outstanding advantage of this system is that the calves
consume the milk in what is by far the most wholesome way;
they therefore derive more benefit from the food, run less risk

BEEFLINGS 47

of their digestions being upset and the danger of their becoming
infected by disease is reduced to a minimum. The domesticated
calf is very Uable to infection, of very serious import to digestion,
when gulping down milk from a pail, and the baneful microbes
seem to be very much better kept in check when the process
of suckling allows only small mouthfuls to be swallowed at a
time. On the other hand, the number of calves reared from the
cow is not altogether satisfactory. Even supposing that such a
cow was grazed through the summer five months and that she
reared five out of eight calves, while at grass, as has often been
my experience, an animal giving 800 gallons requires a large
quantity of nourishment. Supposing the cow to be housed
the whole year the produce oif 2-5 acres of plough-land at least
would be used in growing the eight calves from 4 to about
100 days old. It may safely be estimated that for the 13 weeks'
milk the calf would give an increase of 125 lb. When thriving,
the little beast would increase more than this — he ought to do
about 200 lb. in the time — but I have reckoned that the other
foods he ought to have would be used to create the 75 lb. that
diff"erentiates the two weights. Eight calves increasing in weight
125 lb. on 2-5 acres give a production of 400 lb. per acre; a
. return very different from the paltry one obtained from land
that is merely being used as a breeding-run as shown on page 18.
This method requires ample labour and almost the same
accommodation as where the cows are milked by hand. It is
well if each cow has a box to enter at " milking- time " in
which the calves live while their parent is out in summer or
while she is " yarded " in winter. The calves can be kept tied to
the wall all the time, and should be tied up for some little time
after feeding on the cow ; otherwise they soon learn to suck each
other. The man in charge must use some skill in making the
cows take to the foster-calves, in seeing that each calf gets
enough, but not more than enough, milk, and in supplementing
the milk by suitable food and water when the calf has passed
the age of about four weeks. The growth of calves, in my experi-
ence, is often retarded through their having too little to drink.
When their milk has been curtailed, the little animals do not
eat enough dry food to promote proper growth and their fluid

48 BEEFLINGS

allowance must be made up to two or three gallons a day ac-
cording to their size ; this at first should be given at a proper
temperature and as regularly and punctually as all other
nourishment. The foods are similar to those to be mentioned
later. Now and then a cow shows herself very troublesome in
taking to foster-calves. The attendant must then stand by and
restrain her, as far as possible, from kicking ; but when the cow
is tied by the head it is wonderful how skilful a calf becomes,
once it is a few days old, in avoiding her unkind attention
while feeding, and it is still more wonderful how little harm is
done by any kicks that may unfortunately get home. All this
is light work, requiring skill and attention rather than hard
labour, and the feeding, management, and watering form suit-
able employment for women; the cleaning of the boxes (and
calves should not be kept with the same accumulation of litter
under them as is allowable with older animals) is harder and
demands the services of a man. It is, of course, quite possible
to have the cows tied up in stalls in a cow-house and lead the
calves to them, but this, though it may save some little structural
accommodation, adds considerably to the labour bill. I have,
however, seen the system successfully carried on under almost
all conditions of housing.

The other method — pail-feeding — can be successfully prac-
tised with a much smaller allowance of milk. With skilful calf-
rearing I know, by experience, that even lo gallons of milk,
over and above the colostrum given by the mother during the
first three days after calving, will just give a start to a successful
beefling's career. But though this may be done by one specially
endowed with the qualities necessary for calf-rearing, such
people are exceptional. On the other hand, an allowance of
50 gallons of milk is sufficient to enable the average man to rear
calves which will make good carcases of baby-beef at the age
of 12 or 15 months. It is a fact, though the inexperienced may
doubt it, that very good calf -rearing is a special gift, akin to the
genius of the artist ! Though the food used may be the same
both in quality and in quantity, some will produce plump, sleek
and thriving animals while others will turn out a bag of bones
covered with a scurvy skin. But all, by a little attention to

BEEFLINGS 49

intelligent instruction, may learn a few simple rules that will
help them to rear good calves on moderate rations; and
50 gallons of milk is ample, if the following rules are observed:

(i) The milk should be fed before it gets too cold. If it has
to be warmed up or if it has to be diluted (and it is a good plan
to dilute it gradually till the calf gets accustomed, by degrees,
to drink chilled water in place of milk), on no account should it
be fed too warm. The milk drawn from the udder of the cow
by the calf is at a temperature of 100° F. It is wise to feed the
milk from the pail before it has fallen below 90° P., though no
harm will be done if it falls a little below this point. On the
other hand, a rise to an appreciable degree above 100 is very
harmful indeed. I have investigated this many times by fol-
lowing good and bad rearers about and unexpectedly testing
the porridge, or milk and water, or other fluid with a thermo-
meter. One of the most valuable gifts of the natural calf-rearer
is a sensitiveness of touch as regards temperature. But with the
help of a thermometer anyone of average intelligence will soon
learn to feel when the food is too warm.

(2) Cleanliness is at least as important as right temperature.
With a little care and a minimum knowledge of the fluid dealt
with, there should be no trouble about this when milk and water
only are given. For reasons of cleanliness alone, I am opposed
to any form of gruel for calves being reared by hand for purposes
of meat production. Such stuff as the average *'calf meal,"
or milk substitute, sticks to the pails, and experience shows that
so much labour is involved in washing and making them sani-
tary that they are '* not" worth the candle." In districts where
milk, at the rate of from 40 to 50 gallons per head, is too
expensive to be given to calves wanted eventually for beef,
rearing will not pay the owner unless he has a particularly good
feeder in his service. But this will be dealt with in another
chapter. As regards the use of milk, there are two common
causes of failure — neglect, or ignorance, or both. If the pails
are not rinsed with clean, warm water directly they have been
used, the dregs of milk are contaminated by disease-producing
germs which, in the warm atmosphere of the calf -house,
multiply greatly and are ready to invade the whole of the next

M. 4

so BEEFLINGS

meal of warm milk. Failure to rinse out the pails at all is as
frequent a source of mischief as it is inexcusable, but sheer
ignorance is often another cause of trouble. Boiling water
coagulates the milk; and, if the pails are "scalded" before being
rinsed with cool water, the cracks and joints in the vessel get
full of a jelly-like substance which in time becomes a hot-bed
of living organisms, often of a malignant kind. A thorough
cleansing of the pails once a day with boiling water is desirable,
but, before it is done, the utensils should always be rinsed with
warm or cold water. It is astonishing how ignorance in this
respect does mischief on the farm.

(3) Every one of the farm hands employed in the industry
would be more valuable to his employer, and more interested —
and therefore happier — in his work, if he were taught the first
principles on which his work is based. But the rural school
technical educationalist would seem to have confined his in-
struction, in the past, to gardening. Neither in their school
years nor afterwards has there been a systematic effort to awaken
an intelligent interest in children's minds in the structure and
function of the animal body; to give them a reasonable grasp
of the composition of foodstuffs ; or to train those who have to
work among them in the observation of the wonders of nature
which enable the earth to produce human food. Yet, without
this sort of knowledge one cannot hope to obtain a prosperous
agriculture. Without intelligent appreciation of the mysteries
going on around him, the worker on the farm is as great a drudge
as any in the city, and work in the country, without a realization
of its beauties, will always drive good men to seek the con-
solations provided for those who labour amidst brick, stone and
iron in the polluted atmosphere of our manufacturing districts.
An intelligent appreciation of what one is doing and of why it
is done must be brought into the art of calf-rearing if success is
to be achieved, and, unless some such education as is suggested
above is provided, there is little hope of improvement in cattle
husbandry — or in any other agricultural pursuit.

Having fed the 50 gallons of milk, together with other
suitable foods, we must consider what return may be expected
from the milk of an 800-gallon cow by this form of meat-pro-

BEEFLINGS 51

duction. From the exact figures of calves so reared I see that
each calf made a gain, by the help of the milk, of 70 lb. during
the period of ten weeks' pail-feeding; also that 65 lb. of the
gain may be credited to the milk, so that 16 calves would give
a total of 1040 lb. Allowing, as in the previous example, that
the cow supplying the milk uses the produce of 2J acres we
get rather more weight of calf — 416 lb. as against 400 lb. per
acre of plough-land.

This extra amount of produce is not, however, the main
advantage of this last system of calf-rearing, for it must be
remembered that on plough-land one of the objects in mind is
the making of farmyard manure, and from this point of view
it is desirable to raise the greatest possible number of good
beeflings per head of milch-cows available. The pail-fed calf
also needs less housing accommodation. Ten cows standing in
a cow-house to be milked, with the calves they rear kept in
boxes by themselves, take up less room than that required to
house each cow in a separate box, and so the capital needed
to work the farm is reduced ; though here again this is not a
very important consideration.

The choice between the two systems — and there is no reason
why they should not be carried on together — ^will probably be
decided by convenience or even by personal preference. In
some cases, the necessity of milking the mothers by hand is a
serious disadvantage of the second system; in others, buildings
will decide the choice, and so on. But that the return for food
consumed is greater with beeflings than with older cattle is evident
from the following figures taken from actual practice. The
animals described were the produce of cows, mated with good
Shorthorn bulls and kept in ordinary dairy herds where milk-
selling was the only object in view; the calves were removed
from the milk-producing farms to ordinary arable land when
only a few days old. The statement is published in the
certainty that under ordinary good management the results
can always be repeated with decently bred calves.

Allowing a beefling 50 gallons of milk, to be hand fed, the
animal can be marketed at about 52 weeks old weighing about
6 cwt. live weight. The percentage of carcase weight yielded

4—2

Sa BEEFLINGS

Will v-ary considerably, probably according to the quality of the
calf, but may be taken at 54 per cent. To produce each hundred-
weight of animal the following foods will be used :

Concentrate Feeding Stuff 182 lb.

Hay 3361b.

Good straw (partly as chaff) XX2 lb.

Roots or Green Fodder crop 896 lb.

While the animal is still young, linseed cake, bran and oats
will be the staple concentrated food wanted. After the first
four months these may be gradually replaced by less refined
and more concentrated foods. Skill in making up the ration
must be assumed or the above results will not be obtained.
If the calf is well littered it is likely to eat a lot of its bedding,
when it will be found that the above-mentioned straw may be
wholly or in part omitted from the food given.

One particular objection has always been raised against baby-
beef, namely the difficulty of providing fodder crops for the
young animals in the late spring and early summer months and
the cost of green-soiling, or cutting and carrying home the green
crop)S when grown. Now, these difficulties are exaggerated.
The management of any enterprise must be such as to allow
labour to be available for any profitable undertaking, and skilful
foresight can always supply the succulent vegetable food that
is a most desirable item in the dietary of young cattle being
forced out at an early age. But, as I know by experience, it is
perfectly easy to do with grazing instead of green-soiling, if
desired. Well-shaded paddocks are all that is necessary. I my-
self hkve always used grass-land under a permanent sward, but
there is no reason why young cattle should not graze any field
under a suitable seeding of rotation grasses. They must, how-
ever, be supplied with shade as a refuge from the flies and with
shelter against the extremes of heat and cold ; for the English
climate is apt to give us both between the beginning of May and
the end of September. After September the cattle under ten
nionths old should he housed, but older ones may be finished
quite successfully on aftermath with cake. One must, however,
if one is not specially favoured as regards soil and climate, be
prepared against a time of drought. This involves looking

BEEFLIXGS

S3

ahead, or. Mi

to inb^-i>c
totiiesm^
mnfor

r^iik

El

_

2l3L

3J3t

_

2 lb.

31IL

Caic

I Zr..

lib-

__

IG I'r

^ ~

._

jnul

-

—

55--

-

S4.-^5 - -

-

54 BEEFUNGS

It may be added this table was shown to, and dbcussed by,
hundreds of fami^ns \Tsiting the University Fami» Cambridge:
diese tarmeis were amazed at the figures, but the relatne
resuhs are onh* what anyone who has thoroug^h' investigated
the matter would expect : dKM^i neither group did particularly
well. The bullocks in baik gnmps were sold to a tirst-class
firm of butch^s, and the beef ga\-e every satisfaction. The
figures refer to tkf List two likmtks of the animals' Uves.

I have no experience of growing baby-beef with skim, or with
separated milk alone. I confess to being doubtful about its
. possibility, and I am very far from satisfied that it is necessaiy^
to rdy upon this food, which is very imperfect when the calf
is still very young. Our neighbours on the continent have in
die past supplied us with butter very cheaply, and separated
milk is the accompaniment of butter-making. I very much
doubt if it will ever be worth our while to try to compete with
them. Candidly, I would not wish to try to introduce the
cooditicms of life among our agricultural labourers that I have
seen prevdling among die peasantry as a result of whose labours
good butter was sold on our maiiets in England at I5. 4//. a
pound. But, even if butter-making were likely to be lucrative,
the fat off 50 galkms of milk would only represent about 20 lb.
of butter, and I fed sure the selling price of such butter would
be well spent, in nKist cases, in gi\"ing the beefling a good start.
If 50 gallons of milk were given whole, the "skim" from the
remainder of a cow's produce would be excellent food to supple-
ment ofl cakes, once the calf were old enough to digest that form
oi nourishment. They reach this stage at about the age of six
weeks : they begin to nibble food at about four weeks ; if they are
not taught, as they should be, to eat good food, they will nibble
all s(Hts of trash at that age ; at seven weeks they will eat suitable
foods in adequate quantity to allow of the whole milk being
gradually, if rapidly, discontinued. It is during the early days,
when their digestive apparatus cannot deal, properly with coarser
foods, that tbc whole milk proves itself so valuable. Holland,
windi takes a large portion of her produce off her well-farmed
and fotile s<m1 as batter or cheese, spares a proportion of whole
milk (and gwes motking hut ichole milk) to make veal. I suggest

BEEFLINGS

55

that, if ever it is profitable in this country to make butter, a
proportion of whole milk can well be spared to grow beef in
the most economical way.

In advocating the increase of production that I believe would
result from the growing of beeflings in great numbers, I am
bound to add that the industry cannot thrive on inferior calves.
That the supply ^of decently-bred calves is at present altogether
inadequate to ensure proper success is undeniable; so in the
next chapter I propose to deal with the matter at some length.

CHAPTER VI

DUAL-PURPOSE CATTLE

All cows give milk and all oxen yield flesh, but the interference
of domestication has led to certain varieties of cattle being suit-
able only for the dairyman and others only for the butcher.
England, it would seem, demands an animal perfect in both
respects — perhaps (even without reckoning draught, which
%other countries demand) we should say in three respects. For,
as well as yielding a good flow of milk and providing, after
feeding, a fine carcase for the butcher, a cow may also drop a
calf that will make a very useful carcase of veal; though, if the
same type of male ofi^spring be allowed to grow on as steers,
it does not follow that they make prime carcases of beef. If
fleshing of good quality is to be found on the ofl?^spring, it must
also be a feature of the parents, but many cows will themselves
feed decently, at the proper time, whose calves make good
veal, yet whose steers often fail in quality, or rapidity of
growth, or both.

So perhaps the term "Dual-purpose" is somewhat too
restricted. On the other hand it is doubtful whether it is possible
to breed what might be called a "general-utility*' animal. For
there is yet another important product. Some cows give a milk
so rich in fat as to be particularly well-suited for butter-making.
The average deep-milking cow will give a milk whose butter-fat
content is between 3 and 4 per cent, or, in some breeds, even less.
Other breeds will easily average between 4 and 5 per cent, of
butter-fat, if their milk is systematically analysed. Experience
shows that all breeds of cows whose milk is exceptionally rich
and plentiful seem to be of very poor meat-producing capacity.
It might be possible to establish a breed that would be perfect
for milk, butter, beef and veal, but for the moment we could be
satisfied with quantity of milk, beef and veal. Unfortunately the
animal that combines these good qualities (which for want of
a better name we call a "Dual-purpose" animal) is very much

DUAL-PURPOSE CATTLE 57

too rare; but it can, and should, become the common stock of
any country that aims at wheat and beef production.

It is especially necessary to any system of intensive production
from the land, that includes beef-growing, that all land good
enough to carry large or medium-sized cattle, should be well
stocked with dual-purpose cows. The . thin-fleshed cow that
produces butter-making milk is undesirable, for she is worth
very little herself as meat when her milking days are over. She
has cost as much, or almost as much, in produce from the land
to rear as has the better beef-animal, and yet when she comes
to be slaughtered she is altogether inferior. Her calves are poor
as veal-makers, and her male calves cannot be grown on and
made into beef without great loss. Some soils in this country
cannot grow well-meated cattle without the addition of excessive
artificial feeding, and on such, no doubt, the thin-fleshed animal
is very much more valuable than any other cow stock, and should
be bred so as to produce the richest possible milk. It is folly to
keep cows that are not good for some purpose or other — and
at present this is too often done. These purely dairy breeds
have their admirers, it is true, who advocate their being kept
on all classes of land and maintain that the loss on the carcase
of the thin-fleshed cow — and they do not dispute that the loss
is considerable — is compensated by the extra amount of dairy
produce obtained every year of the animal's life. This would
be partially true if we could rely upon a long life of continuous
milk-production. But the deep-milking cow, of any sort, is a
delicate machine worked under very high pressure, and, like
all other machines under similar circumstances, is very apt to
go wrong. Udder troubles, failure to breed, and diseases of all
sorts are only too often liable to end a career which is at best
none too long to secure a return for the food expended in
growing an exclusively dairy cow. A cow is not in a state to
yield full profit till she drops her third calf; if we could rely, say,
on seven periods of lactation during which she was at full profit,
it would be easy to calculate which of the two animals, the dairy
or the dual-purpose, was the better to keep. Unfortunately,
there is never certainty; and so, wherever the land is suitable,
it is always best not to trust solely to such delicate organisms

58 DUAL-PURPOSE CATTLE

as the highly-developed milk-yielder, but to have in reserve a
reliable source of profit in the form of a useful carcase.

Another disadvantage of the thin-fleshed but rich milk-
yielding cow is the fact that the public is not educated up to
paying more for milk rich in cream than for poorer stuff. Once
the prevailing ignorance about agricultural produce has been
dispelled (and that will take time) improvement in this respect
will depend on whether the extra butter-fat is valuable. There
is no doubt that for very young infants who unhappily cannot
have their own mother's milk, it is simpler, and in every way
easier, to imitate the human food with very rich, rather than
with moderately rich, milk. Even assuming that people gener-
ally understood the first principles of feeding very little children,
and were willing and able to pay for the best material, the
demand for suitable milk would still be very limited ; the great
bulk of the cows' liquid produce is wanted for ordinary house-
hold consumption. As to the value of milk particularly rich in
fat for the feeding of growing children (after they are weaned)
and for human adult consumption, it is hard to speak with
certainty. There is no evidence establishing a great superiority
in feeding value of the 4-5 per cent, over the 3-5 per cent,
article except for feeding babies who are not fed at the breast.
Many mothers do not realize the vital importance of breast-
feeding and accurate knowledge about milk, generally, is very
meagre. It has, however, been my business during the past
twenty years to find out all I could about the management
of large herds of deep-milking cows kept for supplying
milk to human beings; and in this time I have enquired
into the experience of hundreds of farmers carrying on this
industry. Yet I have only found two cases where the milk from
^cows known to be very rich milk-producers was sold to a
retailer for a better price than that from cows known to give
very moderate quality. I have known many cases where the
herd contained about 10 per cent., or less, of animals — such as
the Jersey — ^whose milk was known to be very rich. This was
done to avoid a summons to appear before the magistrates.
It is a legal offence to sell milk which fails to show an analysis
of 3 per cent, of butter-fat, and the milk-seller is assumed to

DUAL-PURPOSE CATTLE 59

be guilty of adulteration if his milk contains less than ''3 per
cent, of fatty solids " unless and until he can prove that it was
in that condition when it left the cow. It is common knowledge
that in our present state of cattle-breeding, the milk from herds
of ordinary commercial cows will sometimes fall below this
standard; it is a matter almost of everyday occurrence. This
frequently leads to an unfair accusation of fraud against the
owners of such stock. As it is very unpleasant to be charged
with such an offence, and as it is difficult and expensive to prove
a negative, some people keep a few little thin-fleshed, rich
milk yielders as an insurance against the average quality of their
milk falling below the legal standard. '

If it is easy to make out a case against the cow who in her
lifetime does nothing but supply rich milk and at her death
shows a carcase which is simply skin and bone, it is very
much easier to prove that the cow whose carcase is her only
asset is hopeless as an aid to high production. She is chiefly
useful as a means of stealing from the land without making any
very high return. The following statement shows plainly the
loss, from the point of view of winning human food from our
limited soil, that may occur on every area of land used solely
for breeding purposes. A breeding cow kept simply to produce
one weaned calf will consume the produce from 2-5 acres of
medium grass -land ; and in very many cases, where the land is
allowed to become weedy or is badly grazed or otherwise mis-
managed, three acres are employed for the purpose. The calf
coming oflF the 2-5 acres of pasture and meadow will, given fair
management, be quite an average one if it weighs 400 lb.
Figures before me establish the point beyond all question. Now
this same area of land is shown, in the following statement, to
yield the equivalent weight of calf as well as 15001b. of corn
for human consumption, and 1600 lb. of straw for the manu-
facture of four loads of farmyard manure.

I have made the following table as simple as possible, so that
anyone who wishes can pick holes in the detail. For instance,
the proportion of dry fodder is low. This defect can be got
over by growing lucerne or vetch hay on part of the "root"
breadth ,^ or in many other ways. Probably in practice, on a

DUAL-PURPOSE CATTLE

fum nm on tkese fiaes, k wotid be more oonvenient to replace
pan of tke €xm-^tadk mkh sliQq>; for diese ktter ccxisume a
Ijugu propoitMi of "roots" to dij fodder than horned-stock.
But DotwitfasHndfaig any ditidsm of detail, the table n^resents
a tiiiminte wfcjili, in practice, wiH be foimd to be fundamentally
trae, and I haw cstimaied the 3rieids quite low enough fot
safay.

Crop \ leld Used for

yjacsesj '^'Seeds'' 6 toas peea fodder loo days cxnr keep

-S « I Oats loooftuOocB || S63 dajs oov keep aad

-S » I B^Bdey xxasBiL

i

fauMKyMsA

naoliL COCK | Hrif for caw ke^ half

S „ I WkBSt lODOl

Totil x>5 acres g^iv keep for gov. jidfipg 400 Al of calf pfeK 1500 lb.

R- will be modi greater intibe case of the
win need more capital and employ
Umhv— civtai snpposii^ giass-
die ptoportiQo erf* labour wvNikl
be at least fire tintes as great. It is equally obvioos that
if tke racn wmiing the laod are to receive a decent wage, this
extra omlay cxmld not be pood for widi com at a nmiODS l^;are.
The dbange coold not be advocated with wheat at less than 6off .
attd faoiiej at ^or. a quarter, beef under is. a pound wholesale,
and llie men's wages fixed at 51. a day. It is no use pretendii^
that our mniinm-toid forms can be worked intensirely if the
OMn is fD be sold at prices that mcrefy i^cpaj operations which
•way wamA icscndble theft foam sttf-forbfiaed virgui soiL Even
with sock prices and sncb w^es it would fvobably be more
profitable to leave <Mie acre out of three under grass and graze
dbe herd of bfcodiBgooirsfor the greater part of die year, just
into Ae jards for the wmter to consume straw
all possMe litter into formyard

DUAL-PURPOSE CATTLE 6i

manure. The supplementing of this store-made dung with
suitable concentrated fertilizers would also be an extra charge
to be added to the cost of the increased production from the
plough-land.

Though the keeping of cattle for beef-production only on
arable land makes the nation a better return from its very
limited acreage, than does the practice of letting them pick up
a living off grass-land, there can be no defence of the purely
beef-cow under either system. The fact is that, owing to her
very low output, she fails fundamentally on economic principles.
A cow that gives 400 gallons of milk costs as much to main-
tain as one giving 800. That is to say, while in both cases a
large-framed animal must be kept alive and thriving, in the
one case there is a chance of a great surplus of milk, in the other
there is no such chance. The difference is well illustrated by
ascertaining what the gallon of milk costs in each case. It is
assumed that the 400-gallon cow is the one instanced in the
estimate on page 59 and that with her, as with the animal
giving double the quantity, calving takes place just at the advent
of the spring grass.

Cow yielding 400 gallons,

"Roots" 22,400 lb. -^400 =56-00 Ib.^

Com 1560 lb. -^-400= 3-90 lb. r Cost of i gallon of milk.

Dry Fodder^ 5620 lb. -^400 = 14-09 lb. J

Cow yielding 800 gallons.

"Roots" 22,400 lb. -^8oo =28 00 Ib.^

Com 3000 lb. ^800 = 3-75 lb. r Cost of i gallon of milk.

Dry Fodder 7300 lb. -^ 800= 9-1 lb. J

Or, putting the case in another way, it may be said that the
second 400 gallons of milk only costs 1440 lb. of com and
1680 lb. of dry fodder and no "roots." This is not strictly
accurate, for the good milker would not keep in the same^
condition; she would lose more flesh than the "beef" animal.
This, in practice, is not altogether an advantage to the farmer;
sometimes it is quite the reverse. Many cows, while suckling,

1 "Seeds" fodder reduced to hay. This cow's daily average ration will
therefore be: roots 60 lb., dry fodder 15 lb. and com 41b.

DUAL-FUMOSE CATTLE

DUAL-PURPOSE CATTLE 63

a "potted" paste, is there evidence to show that their milking
qualities in any way atone for all these failures ?

The experience of inspecting a very large numher of heids
of all sizes in many different localities, belonging to all sorts
and conditions of farmers and farms, and kept under evcrr
condition of climate and fertility of land, convinced me years
ago that deep-milking were as rare as decoitiy-fleshed cows,
and that many of the worst speciniens, as butchers' beasts,
were no better ior the pail than they were for the block. Of
recent years my ccmviction has been upheld bv milk records
taken systematically in different parts of the kingdom under
responsible su|>ervision. It is true that die number of sach
records taken under the Lnspectioii necessary to ensure accuracy
has hitherto been lamentably small, compared with what has
been done in other countries. Still, it has been suffidcnt to
enable a reliable judgment to be formed. Judging by my own
experience, as well as by evidence collected by reliable miTk
recorders, I can say without hesitation that among our com-
mercial cattle the number of better-class speconens of good
deepHmilking kine simply emphasizes the wordilessness of the
poor quality beasts and shows the folly of the innumerable
mediocre specimens being allowed to eat food that m^fat be
much more profitably consumed.

There is probably no better evidence ci die decadence to
which, owing to unfavourable economic conditions, Bcidsfa
husbandry has simk, than the perfection of the ammals bred
by good farmers holding specially good £uins, and the imper-
fection of the stock kqit by the ordinary practitioners, the
ordinary tenants of mediani land. These have had to face soch
unhappy conditions that only the men safisfird widi very poor
returns for their arduous labour, or diose owning afaandant
capital, have been able to avoid a vicious drde which coBdnDaQy
became worse as far as cattie-breeding was concerned. A con-
sideration of these pre-war oxiditions .witfa a view to future
improvement will not be superfluous; in fact, it k out of the
faulty practice of the past that- the improved husbandry of the
future must, in the ordinary course, be dcvek^)ed. In agri-
culture, which moves slowlv, a sodden and drastic chii^ that

64 DUAL-PURPOSE CATTLE

will instantly transform the evil of one year into the perfection
of the next is impossible ; for a decade, which represents rather
less than three generations of stock-rearing, is the least period
by which improvement in farm-stock can be measured.

Twenty-five years' observation of farming before the war
showed me that apart from robbing the land by running store-
stock upon it, there were, with certain exceptions, only two
ways of getting a decent living from the cattle industry.

The first was growing and selling milk (generally to those
living in towns) for consumption in its primitive form. The
conditions under which this could be carried on profitably were
by no means universal and not always continuous. To ensure
success it was essential for the farmer to be favourably situated
as regards transport, to have a special water-supply connected
with his holding, and to be able to secure milkers. These
conditions were by no means universal, but at a time when other
farming operations oflfered but little promise of a decent reward
for enterprise, they were common enough to encourage a supply
that was often at least as great as the demand. This led to a
frequent fall in the value of milk, which was practically the only
monopoly the British and Irish farmer could produce. The
price, indeed, often fell so low that only by rigid economy, not
to say parsimony, could it be produced with any hope of profit;
in fact, the prices prevailing in some years were such as to
make one marvel how the farmers who produced it kept going
at all. One very easy form of economy was to buy a very inferior
bull to mate with the cows. This was a very insidious form of
false economy, for many of the milk-selling farmers did no
rearing at all. The majority, in fact, sold off their calves at
from three to seven days old. They looked upon breeding as a
necessary evil; had they been able to keep the cows in profit
without the trouble of producing calves, it would have suited
them well. That the heifer calves had to grow on and make the
future milkers did not immediately concern them, and so they
were responsible for the gradual deterioration of a very large
proportion of the cow-stock of the country. This was a short-
sighted and disastrous policy, not only from the national point
of view, but from their own. For such a large proportion of all

DUAL-PURPOSE CATTLE 65

our cattle was — and still is — brought into existence in the herds
on the milk-selling farms, that the man who bred them and
sold them as babies was often obliged to buy them back when
they had reached maturity, and thus replace his own worn-out
milkers. In fact, so great had the proportion of ordinary and
inferior cows become, that all really good specimens made a
price which only those very favourably situated for selling milk
could pay. Thus a new evil arose, as many of the cow-keepers
who were able to buy the best milkers carrying good flesh did
not breed from them; it suited them better to milk through
one period of lactation and then sell them to the butcher, the
processes of feeding for milk and for fat meat going on concur-
rently. This system, called ''milking out fat," has the worst
possible effect on the quality of our cow-stock ; the only excuse
for it is that the milk-sellers who practise this are saved the
risk of disease — tuberculosis and contagious abortion — which
undoubtedly exist to a very alarming extent among our dairy
cows.

On the average farm the evil generally went on from bad to
worse. The calf resulting from the use of a bad bull on one
farm grew into an inferior cow on a distant holding, for it was
seldom economical to rear her on the milk-seller's farm; she
was then sold into some cow-shed adjacent to the railway or
residential district and was mated with another inferior bull.
The result was a calf of still poorer quality and so the vicious
process was continued. It is true, though no excuse can be made
for it, that our general want of method in distribution and
co-operative buying and selling gave some small justifica-
tion for such short-sighted policy on the part of those who kept
cows only to give milk. Dealers buying young calves paid the
same price — and that, of course, the lowest possible — for one
inheriting good milking and fleshing quaHties as for one sired
by a bull with no good qualities to transmit. Thus a farmer who
paid £25 for ^ ^^^^ bull to use in his herd instead of buying
something unspeakably bad for ^10 or ;£i2, got no immediate
return for his outlay ; the utmost, in fact, he was ever likely to
get was an occasional good animal which he kept to rear himself.
The number of those so kept, however, was often so small that

M. 5

66 DUAL-PURPOSE CATTLE

it made the cost of each one, owing to the amount spent on the
purchase of the sire, too expensive to be profitable. A bull
costing jTioo may be cheap to the breeder who rears, as he may
well do, a hundred of his offspring; but a bull costing 3^35 may
be a very poor investment, if not more than two or three heifers
of his getting are reared in each of the years during which he
stan<b at service among a lot of milch-cows whose offspring go
to market and make no more than the poorest mongrel calf.
The wealth lost to the nation through the failure to encourage
milk-sellers to breed good calves must be enormous ; but, great
as the amount must be, the loss on all youngsters sold on our
markets, due to our lack of method, has been even greater. The
question of improvement in this respect will be discussed in
another chapter.

The second profitable system of cow-keeping was cheese-
making, but this, too, required special conditions: suitable
grass-land not too highly rented, a good and permanent supply
of water, and, as before, a supply of milkers. But cheese, unlike
milk, had no monopoly protection, and so had less security
against the ruinous competition of dumped goods. It must be
admitted that this competition often came from farmers who,
by improved methods of manufacture and maiketing and by
breeding only suitable cattle, were able to under-sell our own
agriculturists. Even with their improved methods (and only
insular prejudice will deny the superiority of their general
management) it is doubtful whether the price at which their
cheese was sold was enough to secure the workmen of the
producers a Uving wage. Msits to the best cheese districts on
die continent revealed a manner of life among the labourers
which showed the conditions of our best-housed men in a very
favourable light (not that those prevailing in our own cheese-
making districts, though generally better than those in purely
corn-raising areas, were anything to boast of); for instance, it
was quite common for a cowman's personal accommodation
to be simply a sleeping-box in the wall of the cow-house!

The competition the cheese-makers had to face was not always
such as to make their industry unprofitable; it was only oc-
casionally diat an excessive supply of foreign or colonial produce

DUAL-PURPOSE CATTLE 67

ran prices down to a figure that brought the returns very close
to the cost of production, and it was only in very bad years that
prices actually fell below the cost of production. But the risk
of this happening produced a feeling of insecurity, which in
the long run must always tell against enterprise and large-
minded action. It was, no doubt, the prevalence of this feeling,
combined with other reasons, which prevented a systematic
improvement of cattle among the herds of the cheese-makers.
The sires used in the cheese-making herds were not such
terrible specimens as were, and are, commonly used by milk-
sellers, but there was, nevertheless, much room for improve-
ment. Here and there a breeder had the very finest stock the
world could produce, but, generally, the cheese-making farmer
was content with very 'mediocre cattle indeed. Nearly all those
occupied in this industry reared their own stock. Only a small
percentage of heifer calves, however, were kept to fill, in due
course, the gaps made by disease, accident, and old age in the
cow-houses ; the great majority of calves were eagerly sold soon
after they were dropped. The more careful farmers kept
heifers from what they believed to be their best milkers, but
as the milk given by individual cows was hardly ever recorded,
improvement in this respect was uncertain. But it was only the
exceptional man who made a practice of securing the services
of a sire known to be of deep-milking blood on the female side
of his ancestry, and showing the quality of begetting well-
fleshed descendants. As with the milk-selling farmer, so here
the evils of an unorganized calf-trade arise largely from the
unscientific, unpractical, and disadvantageous system of breed-
ing in vogue. A few days after birth, the great majority
of calves were bought by one man who dispatched them to
another in a different part of the country; thus, I have seen
shiploads on their way from Somersetshire to Ireland. They
were then sold to a rearer, who had no means of judging their
quality except by eye and, after a long journey, most calves look
poor things indeed. Even if a rearer happened to buy a specially
good "bunch" of calves, he had no means of finding out any-
thing about their origin, and so could not be sure of securing
another similar lot, however willing he might be to pay such

5—2

68 DUAL-PURPOSE CATTLE

a price as would repay the cheese-maker for laying out money
on a really good bull. But, usually, the calves by a good bull
were not sent about the country for promiscuous sale. The
careful and upright dealers would secure them for their own
regular customers, and so the great bulk of the British rearers
grew accustomed to mediocre stock.

It will easily be seen that a cow that will give 800 gallons of
milk yearly, or (allowing for the reduced flow after the first two
calvings) an average of 750 gallons throughout a milking life
of seven years, and is also quite a good beef producer, is superior
to what nature would produce unaided by skilful selection of
parentage. To populate a whole countryside with such animals
requires systematic effort and co-operation intelligently directed.
It is the absolute failure of comprehensive collective action to
secure for the home industry a supply of animals best suited to
their requirements that has led to our country being covered
with cattle very much below the standard just suggested. In
the absence of State aid, and of systematic assistance by those
who ought to have taken the lead during the bad farming period
between 1870 and 1900, nearly all the magnificent efforts of
our countrymen, born live-stock improvers as they are, were
concentrated on satisfying the demands of those overseas
customers who offered higher prices than were obtainable
from the much poorer English tenant-farmer. As the overseas
customer wanted cattle for purposes of stealing from the soil,
and as the home agriculturist was in many cases struggling
to farm in competition with those stolen goods, their interests,
so far from being always identical, were in fact more often
altogether antagonistic. In the next chapter the evils of these
conditions will be considered in some detail, for in them lies
the chief cause of our having so many inferior commercial herds
of cattle.

CHAPTER VII

PEDIGREE BREEDING

The expression ''Pedigree" as it is used in the cattle world has
come to include a great deal. It implies that an animal with a
pedigree has been bred from ancestors who for several genera-
tions have been selected as breeding-stock for special reasons,
and with certain definite objects in view, and that, consequently,
it has itself inherited and is capable of transmitting these
qualities to its offspring; further, it impHes that the animal's
name, together with those of a certain number of its forebears,
have been registered in a recognized record or official herd-book.
The early improvers of the modern breeds of British cattle died
without making any official register, and the methods of crea-
tion of our present breeds of cattle may be said to have begun
with the work of Robert Bakewell (1725-1795); but it was not
till 1822 that the first official register of cattle — the Coates's
Herd Book — ^was published. The careful mating of parents
and the selection of their offspring with a view to their imparting
certain valuable qualities had, however, been practised from
the first; this principle, it is generally believed y constituted the
whole essence of the practice of Bakewell in accomplishing his
wonderful improvement.

Caution is necessary in speaking of the methods of Bakewell
and the other pioneers, for we have little authoritative record
of how they carried on their important operations. The pro-
fessional historian has not deigned to spend much time in
collecting information for the mere enthusiast about such
humble creatures as cows, calves, and bulls. The fragments of
knowledge we possess have been picked up here and there, and
either gathered together by an agriculturalist untrained in
methods of historical research or, more frequently, left as
scattered allusions in the works of historians who cared little
about agriculture and still less about cattle. This is very strange,
for historians realize that the improvement in agricultural

70 PEDIGREE BREEDING

practice of the eighteenth century played a large part in the
success of the early nineteenth century, a success without which
this country might have fallen very low instead of rising to
eminence, as she did, at the opening of the twentieth century.
An exceptional instance of foresight on the part of a statesman^
supplied money in 1910 for special advanced training in agri-
culture and for research in all matters connected with it.
Nothing, however, has been spent on the subject, though it is
admitted that the breeding of improved cattle played a very
large part in the improved agriculture which helped us to fight
the Napoleonic wars 2. The authorities apparently decided that
practice was altogether unworthy of financial help and therefore
left the husbandman without any inducement to systematize
his knowledge. There is, however, no one in greater need of
systematic training in the practice of his profession than the
average farmer, and yet none of this money was made available
in the interests of work that might lead to empirical methods
becoming more accurate. Agricultural science, to which much
of the money granted since 1909 has been devoted, is bound to
be handicapped if it is not combined with a well thought-out
practice; for, after all, the teaching of chemistry, botany and the
like are of little use to the farmer if not superimposed upon good
husbandry. It seems to have been forgotten that it is practice,
the actual farming operations, that wins food from the land for
man. There was disappointment, discouragement, and morti-
fication amongst those who wished to hplp farmers and stock-
breeders by spreading knowledge of husbandry born of critical
and systematic research, at having no funds to meet the expenses
of the thorough and continuous investigations without which no
teaching can be really useful. Until a great and continuous
eflfort is made to systematize the work on farms, our husband-
men (like their cattle) will continue to have among them a few
of the best, and many of the worst, types of their profession.
If the history of the improvement of British breeds of cattle

1 The Right Hon. D. Lloyd George, the present Prime Minister, in his
famous Budget of 1909 put aside ;^2, 000,000 for the Development of
Agriculture.

2 Napoleonic Studies, by J. Holland Rose, G. Bell and Son, pp. 195, 196
(and footnote, p. 196).

PEDIGREE BREEDING 71

is very scanty, the knowledge of existing conditions is still less
diffused among our population. I once addressed about 180 men
and women who were teachers in our rural elementary schools.
The gathering expressed some dissent at certain remarks I made
about the teaching in our village schools being given with little
or no sympathy towards agriculture. When my turn came to
reply to the various criticisms that had been made, I asked a
question myself. It referred to their teaching of history,
I invited all those who had included anything about the work
of Robert Bakewell in their history lessons to hold up their
hands. Only three hands were held up! More than 175 out
of 180 rural teachers had to confess they had never mentioned
his name to their pupils. If this was the state of affairs, about
1 910, among the instructors of children about to spend their
lives among cattle and sheep, it is easy to imagine that the boys
and girls at our secondary and public schools had no better
enlightenment about rural history. It is probably true to say
that the vast majority of Englishmen of the last generation lived
and died without ever having heard of Bakewell, Townsend or
Tull, the three men who, between 1720 and 1780, made our
agriculture the best example to all husbandmen in the world,
and the first of whom has brought millions of money from
overseas into the national exchequer.

I lay great stress upon the unfortunate ignorance that has
prevailed among all classes about the work of these great men,
for this ignorance was largely responsible for the terrible state
of affairs prevailing in 19 14, that allowed our enemy to threaten
us with starvation while we were living amid fertile, but almost
uncultivated fields. The exceptions, the cultivated fields,
showed by their very excellence how much the strictly limited
amount of our national land might have been made to produce
by universally good farming. In times when we least wished
to let the enemy hamper our military effort, fighting material
was necessarily sacrificed so that the shameful neglect of the
past might be remedied with a slowness born of hurry. If
the educationalists of the past two generations had deemed
agriculture worthy of their attention, how much loss of blood
and treasure through U-boats might they not have saved ?

72 PEDIGREE BREEDING

Though Robert Bakewell was the pioneer in breeding opera-
tions among cattle, his great influence lives through his disciples
rather than through his cattle, or even his sheep. We know that
he worked with a breed known as the " Longhorn" and that in
spite of the improvement effected in that variety by his skill,
enterprise and pertinacity, it never became very widely dis-
tributed. The brothers Collings certainly under the indirect
influence of, and probably directly inspired by, Bakewell, fixed
upon other stock than his for improvement. It was the descend-
ants of these animals, now called by us the " Shorthorn," that
spread everywhere. There is good evidence to show that the
animals with which the Collings brothers worked had them-
selves been much improved by others before them. It appears
from existing records that there had always been good native
cattle belonging to the agriculturists who lived in the North-
Eastem counties of England, the home of the Collings family.
These native cattle had no doubt been crossed with good bulls
imported from neighbouring continental countries. It is pos-
sible that the breeding material upon which the Collings began
to work was itself better than that with which Bakewell started.
Moreover, the brothers had as collaborators a very fine body
of agriculturists working during their lifetime on the creation
of the same breed ; and it would appear that their success, over
other breeders, was as much due to their powers of self-
advertisement as to their skill as breeders and rearers. Great
as this skill was, their powers of advertisement brought their
names into much greater prominence than those of any of their
contemporaries. The history^ of their work is full of interest,
but here there is space only for an analysis of results, which, it
is hoped, may be of use in the immediate future.

Whatever were the qualities of the cattle with which Robert
and George Collings began their breeding operations, they were
at the end of their careers turning out beasts eminently suitable
for stocking the farms of the greater part of England, Scotland

^ History of Shorthorn Cattle, by James Sinclair, Vinton and Co., 1907.
In this work the author has collected from various sources a valuable
amount of information concerning the doings of the early improvers as well
as much other useful information which brings the story of the breed up ''
to date of publication.

PEDIGREE BREEDING 73

and Ireland — there is not as full a record of their going into
Wales. The customers whose requirements they had in view
were the yeoman and the tenant-farmer or his landlord. For,
in those days, the landlord and farmer were not thinking of
the foreigner's cheque ; the landlord kept and bred sires with
the sole object of improving the animals that were useful in
increasing the produce of his own land or that held by his
tenants.

It is now time to review the good qualities and the imper-
fections of this stock which has become universally recognized
for its great merit, at any rate wherever the English tongue is
spoken or the supply of beef for English markets is considered ;
even though the rearing-ground may be thousands of miles
from our shores.

The Shorthorns brought into being by the brothers CoUings
and their fellow-breeders had the following characteristics as
compared with the foundation stock-animals from which they
sprang. The bony frame, or skeletal structure, was reduced to
the smallest limits consistent with usefulness. All excess of
bone not needed to support the body weight, to admit of an
adequate covering of muscle and its attachments (sinews and
such tissue), or to protect the delicate internal organs was, by
careful selection of sires and dams, bred out of the cattle in
their herds. The shape of the frame was thus greatly improved.
The depth of carcase was much increased in proportion to the
total height of the animal, length, as well as weight, of limb not
being required for beasts that were not wanted for labour; the
width, too, of frame, or body, was wider in these "Improved
Shorthorns." This applied especially to the fore-end of the
animals, for there a wide-spreading conformation of the ribs
was combined with a great depth of frame to give ample room
for development of heart and lungs. These vital organs of
circulation and respiration, not being cramped for space, admit
of the development and full activity of the necessary bodily
functions (growth, digestion and so on) with greater profit to
man. Besides reduction in size, and improvement of the shape
of frame, a great development of meat, or of '' thick flesh'' as
it is called, was also effected. Not only was there an increase

74 PEDIGREE BREEDING

in the proportional amount of meat to bone and in the pro-
portion of valuable "cuts" to second- and third-class species
of ''joints," but all the edible parts, the lean meat, or muscle,
and fat were greatly improved in quality. This question of
''quality" will, on account of its economic importance, be
referred to again. To all these improvements the early breeders
of Shorthorns added another very valuable, and, as regards
their early-owned cattle, quite distinctive attribute of useful-
ness, namely, the faculty of rapid growth or early maturity.
Bakewell's development of this faculty in his Longhorn
cattle had seemed miraculous when compared with the normal
growth of oxen before his time; the Shorthorn-breeders were
not one degree behind the pioneer in this respect.

What happened to the milking capacities of the breed, while
this transformation in fleshing quality and early maturity was
going on, has never been quite clear to me. It seems certain
that the bulk of the Teeswater or Holderness herds, among the
individual members of which the improvers found their original
breeding material, were very famous for their milking qualities.
There are many testimonials, independent of any breeders*
influence and quite separate in their source, in the Annals of
Agriculture^ and other literature of the time giving evidence
of immense yields of milk from the " foundation" cattle, and it is
probable that their successors, the improved Shorthorn, did not
milk so well. On the other hand, there is no evidence whatever,
quite the contrary 2, that the milking qualities had almost dis-
appeared; and to suggest that they had vanished to the same
degree as was the case some hundred years after the Collings
brothers were breeding seems to me ridiculous. The fact
probably was that no Shorthorn-breeder paid very particular
attention to the amount of milk his cattle gave. He seemed,
however, to assume that his cows would, by virtue of their
inherited characteristic, give an average of about 800 gallons
a year without special attention being paid to the selection of
stock for their pail-filling qualities. It was in beef that his

1 Annals of Agriculture and other Useful Arts, 1790 to 1797, by Arthur
Young, Esq., F.R.S.

2 Sinclair, loc. cit.

PEDIGREE BREEDING 75

original stock failed. He wished to improve the quantity, the
quality, and the rate of production of meat among his deep-
milking cattle; to found, in other words, a dual-purpose breed,
and there is ample evidence that, although no particular care
was given to deep-milking qualities, this object was completely
attained. But, before developing this theme, it is interesting
to consider some other factors.

While all these "utility" points were being developed, an
equally important change was effected in some minor matters.
These details are sometimes scornfully spoken of as ''fancy
points," that is, points of colour, shape and carriage of head,
carriage and texture of horn, and even absence of black pig-
mentation in both horn and muzzle — all points which in them-
selves seem utterly worthless and have consequently been
ridiculed even by the most intelligent and broad-minded friends
of agriculture. Such critics held that the shape of head in no
way affected the value of a cow or bull. "What," they asked,
"is the value of width between the eyes, of delicate chiselling-
away of the bony outline of the profile, of the 'dished-face^,*
of the deep, well-turned jaw with no superfluous skin hiding
its conformation and musculature, or of the waxy, flat, cream-
coloured horn well placed on the head and showing no black
in the tip ? " The answer of the practical man in the past was
extremely vague. He would reply that such, points made his
animals sell, or that their absence brought the price down, or
that Mr So-and-So was, at any rate, of this opinion, and so on.
Occasionally he could give a more reasoned answer: he might
explain that such and such an imperfection denoted impurity
of blood, that it showed that the progenitor, belonging perhaps
to a remote generation, had been of another race, possibly of
an unimproved breed. But every answer indicated vagueness
and looseness of knowledge. One practitioner of repute would
declare that experience and observation had taught him to
value a particular point in an animal, while others, equally
reputable as "practical men," had made no such observation.

1 This feature, when combined with a fashionable pedigree and other
"breed points," added ;^iooo or more to the value of the animal about 50
years ago !

76 PEDIGREE BREEDING

The indefiniteness and inaccuracy of knowledge of present-day
breeders and exhibitors give no clue as to whether the early
improvers had good reason for their insistence upon such
detail, or whether the existence of such points was at first
merely accidental.

There seems, however, to be some hope that the scientific
work of the present day will throw light on such points. The
discovery, for instance, of certain laws relating to inheritance
by Mendel (i 822-1 884) gives great promise of enlightenment.
Mendel's successors have discovered that certain characters
are associated with others, which may lie dormant, or inactive,
or hidden in a living body, until the union of two parents, each
carrying the component factors, causes them to "couple" and
come into full view. The existence of these signs of hidden
qualities, or factors, carried, but not displayed, by creatures
themselves, but capable of being transmitted to offspring in
an active form, seems a reasonable explanation of the great stress
laid on points that may appear, at first sight, to be purely
fanciful. For instance, I have noticed that the dark or " smutty "
colour of the nose often seems to be associated with an un-
desirable texture of coat. But no '' Zootechnicien'' (to use a
French word in the absence of an English one) has at present
sufficient knowledge about the foundation of such points.
When Professor Biffen began his successful career as a plant-
breeder he had, as a botanist, a full acquaintance with the
structure, and many of the functions, of the body of the wheat-
organism, and he was able to obtain information of paramount
importance about the composition of grain from the chemist
and physicist. If the results of scientific investigation into the
breeding of farm-stock are to bear full fruit, the "Zootech-
nicien" must remedy his ignorance which at present must be
admitted to be abysmal. He must seek the assistance of the
physiologist, the anatomist, the zoologist, and engraft their
teaching on to the empirical knowledge of the breeder, feeder,
and butcher. Without a fundamental examination and study
of the structures and functions which go to build up a useful
type of ox, it is hopeless to try to do more than has been done
by the wonderfully successful " rule-of- thumb " practitioner in

PEDIGREE BREEDING ' 77

Great Britain, whose chief weapon in his great contest with
nature has been his wonderful, intuitive judgment guided by
experience. On the other hand, the practising farmer must
be convinced that his forebears obtained results despite, and
not because of^ the absence of scientific assistance.

To return to the work of the early Shorthorn improvers,
there was no point of detail in their stock on which they seem
to have set more value than that known as ''touch." This word
covers a great deal in connexion with the hide, the tissues lying
under it, and the coat covering it. The foundation stock are
reputed to have had thin and hard skins, inelastic and tightly
stretched over a mass of tissue which had no feeling of springi-
ness when examined by hand. The Collings brothers made a
special point of securing animals having a totally different
*' touch." The frames of the animals they sold or let at what were
then fabulous prices were covered with hides moderately thick,
very ample, and very elastic. The flesh under the frame was
required to be firm yet resilient, and ijo where to adhere closely
to the animal's frame. Under pressure from the fingers the hide
had to run freely and pleasantly over the whole frame, more
especially over those parts where the covering between it and
the bone was slightest. Failure in any of these "points" dis-
qualified the animal for use as a sife in the herd.

So much for the hide itself. Now as to the hair. The
authorities insisted that this should be very abundant and
very soft, and they seem to have preferred it to be specially
curly all over and to show a fine fringe on the ears, and a silky
tassel at the end of the tail. The type of hair required is
often described as "mossy," the very opposite of being harsh,
or wire-like, to the touch. This matter of quality of hair seems
to have excited the special ridicule of "systematic" workers,
and I have myself known scientific authorities raise a laugh at
the expense of the breeder who laid stress upon, and would
pay high prices for, breeding animals with mossy coats. Yet
some recent work on the effect of skin-temperatures^ by Professor

1 Professor Wood read a paper before the British Association at Sydney
in August, 1914, on this subject. The work unfortunately has had to be
discontinued on account of the war.

78 PEDIGREE BREEDING

T. B. Wood shows how important a matter the loss of heat
from the surface of an animal's body may be in relation to the
return made to the feeder for provender and other nourishment
supplied to it. If this is so, surely the instinct of the breeders
who insisted upon a certain type of coat to secure the best
result should not be ridiculed; and in the future intelligent
observation which leads to a conclusion, by experience in the
field, that some "point" is necessary should be deemed as
worthy of consideration as any work done within the walls of
the laboratory. It should not be beneath the dignity of the man
of science to analyse systematically the deductions and observa-
tions of the practical breeder. Granted that many "points"
will be found to be fanciful, many requirements to rest on
insufficient observation, many conclusions to be based on the
prejudice of ignorant, though strong-minded individuals, but
all this simply shows the necessity of systematic, thorough and
large-minded research — call it science or what you will. It is
indeed strange that England (the "Stud Farm of the World"),
which has in Rothamsted the world's pioneer experimental
station for the study of plants, manures and soils, should be
without any station whatever for the study of the reproduction,
structure and functions of farm live-stock in 191 8. Rothamsted
was founded by Lawes and Gilbert in 1843.

The breeding of pedigree Shorthorns was carried on through
the nineteenth century by innumerable enthusiasts in all parts
of the Old World and the New, but between 18 10 and 1885
there are three names that stand out more prominently than
others as having contributed towards the triumphant increase
and wide distribution of the" breed. These names are Bates,
Booth and Cruickshank. It is interesting, and very instructive,
to note that all these breeders looked upon the Shorthorn as
a dual-purpose animal. Bates seems to have paid more attention
than the others to good milking qualities, but neither Booth
nor Cruickshank^ ignored or neglected them. As regards the
ordinary stock of the country in 1908, according to the census
taken by the Board of Agriculture in that year, no less than
five-eighths of the cattle in England were of the Shorthorn type.

^ Sinclair, loc. cit., p. 102 et seq. and p. 738.

PEDIGREE BREEDING 79

Unfortunately for the tenant-farmers of Great Britain and
Ireland in particular and for the whole agriculture of the country
in general, a change came over the objects which the pedigree
breeders had in view during the last quarter of the past century.
This change was coincident with very bad farming days in
England, when miserable prices for all produce made it difficult
for farmers to find money to spare for the purchase of specially
good breeding stock; it was also coincident with the rise of a
great trade with foreign buyers of pedigree stock who came to
our shores with full purses and objects of their own. These
objects require very careful study, for they materially affect
the whole situation. First, they aimed at suppl5ang our own
markets with beef from cattle directly descended from our
own exported pedigree stock. Secondly, they wanted an animal
well fitted to take care of itself. They had practically unlimited
land in a suitable climate, the cost being so trifling that any
labour expended upon the care of their cattle was practically
their only annual expenditure, the interest and capital outlay
upon breeding stock not being included in the cost of rearing.
Consequently, so far from demanding, they even objected to
deep-milking cattle. So long as a cow could give her calf a good
start it suited their purpose that their breeding stock should not
transmit high milking-yield qualities. The udders of deep-
milking cows are always much more liable to mishap than those
of animals giving little. More especially is this the case with
cows that are suckling, for in the early days the very young calf
cannot consume all the contents of the gland, though as it grows
older it will consume more than it can properly digest. These
facts may lead to dire consequences both to mother and offspring,
and both, therefore, need constant supervision and restraint:
the cow may require hand-milking for a time and the calf may
have to be separated. This requires expenditure both on labour
and on the construction of enclosures and so working expenses
are increased without giving any additional return whatev^er
under the conditions of estancia cattle-keeping.

Spurred by these demands, our breeders made efforts, and
very successful efforts, to produce Shorthorns and other cattle
showing the finest qualities of beef-production and possessing

PEDIGREE SKEEDIXG

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PEDIGREE BREEDING 8i

£316 only was offered for pedigree dairy Shorthorns, the dual-
purpose breed.

A few words about the classes provided of late years for the
"Dairy-Shorthorns" may usefully be added. By about 1899
it became evident that the milking qualities of the breed were
in serious danger of being lost altogether among pedigree
animals. So in 1905 some breeders started the Dairy Shorthorn
(Coates's Herd Book) Association with the follo\'^ing object:
"The aim and object of this Association is to promote the
breeding of the pure-bred Dairy Shorthorn."

The name of the Association is a Httle misleading, for its
real object was to re-establish the dual-purpose capacity of the
breed. This the Dair\^ Shorthorn Association proved by its
instructions to the judges it nominated. There is plenty of
evidence to show that it was these qualities of the early Short-
horns that had made them invaluable to English husbandmen.
For instance, the average farmer would have nothing to do with
the bulls of the purely beef tj^e. At the pubUc auction-sales of
such cattle he would let tcholesale butchers buy truck-loads of
young bulls, sires that were not good enough for the foreign
market. The expenses of exportation were great, as insurance
was very high^, and so only first-rate animals, capable of be-
coming the sires of bulls, were exported. The colour factor,
again, led to a great number of bulls being available for the
home-market. Although the exporter was bu\ing sires to beget
the breeding stock that was to reproduce purely commercial
beef animals, he was most particular about the pigmentation
of the hair. I remember hearing a partner of the greatest
auctioneer of my time, in conversation at the Royal Show at
Park Royal, telling how his colleague had had the dressed skin
of a famous Shorthorn bull sent to him all the way from Chili
so that he might execute a commission to export animals of
exactly the same colour. It is common knowledge among Short-

^ This was due to the risk of rejection after failing to pass the tuberculin
test, for, as our ports were closed from i S96 against the entry of breeding
cattle, an animal failing to pass at the place of landing had to be slaughtered ;
it was not allowed to return to England. For some jears before this
date farm-stock were not allowed to land, except for immediate slaughter,
but in this year Parliament finally excluded cattle.

M. 6

82 PEDIGREE BREEDING

horn men that white legs might reduce the value of a bull by from
£50 to £200, or more, on account of the prejudice against such
markings existing in the minds of the South American buyers.
Again, these customers, were most fastidious about the pedi-
gree, particularly on the female side, of the animals they took
away. Thus there were, all told, many quite superior beasts
rejected by the foreigner for lack of colour, breeding, or quality,
and left behind for the farmer to buy. Yet he would seldom
have one of them even at the price of one half guinea more than,
the butcher was willing to pay for an animal to slaughter and
to sell wholesale as bull beef.

That the farmer did not believe in the purely beef animal is
shown, again, by the patriotic, but unenlightened, efforts of
some landed proprietors to improve the breeding stock of the
country on their own home-farms. Perhaps it is more accurate
to say that the effort was generally made by the land-agent — one
of many instances of the landlord's neglect of his own particular
business. Proprietors, through their agents, have often been
known to secure a very good beef Shorthorn sire for the service
of the cows belonging to their tenants ; but these animals were
as often almost entirely neglected by the men for whose special
benefit they were purchased, frequently at very considerable cost.

The subject might easily be made tedious if all the evidence
of the unsuitability of the beef Shorthorn for general farming
conditions were collected, but one last point may be mentioned,
namely that the belief became almost universal that the Short-
horn was a non-milking breed. I have heard this maintained
by agricultural authorities of all grades in this country ; I have
known it taught at first-class agricultural education institutes
on the continent.

For their successful efforts in dispelling false ideas about
the non-milk yielding qualities of all Shorthorns, the agri-
culturists of England owe the Dairy Shorthorn Association
a ver}^ deep debt of gratitude. The difficulties they had to face
are clearly shown by a study of the list given here of the number
of entries in the classes for Shorthorns of both descriptions of
stock at the shows of the Royal Agricultural Society of England
for the years 1906 to 19 10.

PEDIGREE BREEDING 83

Table of Exhibits of Shorthorns and Dairy Shorthorns
(Coates's Herd Book) at the R.A.S.E. Show for the years from

1906 to 1910.

Shorthorns

Dairy Shorthorns

Date

Cows and Heifers

Bulls

Cows and Heifers

Bulls

1906

107

139

16

0

1907

90

170

21

0

1908

114

159

21

0

1909

140

180

30

0

1910

99

141

46.

13^

In the work of restoring the Shorthorn to its high place
among dual-purpose cattle, another danger arose — a tendency
to look upon the value of the stock as solely determined by their
power as milking-machines, A bag of bones, or "a toast-rack
carrying an udder," giving a prodigious yield would, if some
breeders and judges had had their way, have been encouraged
by the award of prizes, whereas what was really needed was a
cow giving a profitable yield of milk together with an excellent
carcase for the shambles after her best milking days were done.
The thanks of all lovers of the rural industry are due to all
whose influence arrested this tendency. Of the men with a
large interest at stake in ''England's greatest industry" there
were lamentably few who took any interest in the foundation
of the Dairy Shorthorn Association ^ ; among those who both
took an interest in it and helped to guide its efforts for the
encouragement of dual-purpose cattle useful to English farming,
the numbers of landlords and agents are still smaller. But a tribute
is due to Mr C. R. W. Adeane^ and his agent Mr F. N. Webb,

^ In 19 10 for the first time prizes were given for bulls known to be
carrying dairy qualities through the milk-yielding capacity of their dams.

2 A study of the exhibitors' names in the classes from which my table
is compiled will confirm this.

3 Messrs Adeane and Webb were Cambridgeshire men, both natives of
a district not supposed to be famous for its dairy cows. Yet their efforts,
backed up by the work of the first Live-Stock Officer (Mr W. P. Crosland),
appointed in 1914 under the Development Scheme, have led to amazing
results which are to be seen in the first Register of Good Dairy Cows pub-
lished in 191 8 by the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries. Cambridgeshire
has a wonderful record, the largest proportion of cows of any county are on
the Register, and, in spite of its small area, it has the second largest total of
cows registered.

6—2

84 PEDIGREE BREEDING

who were both untiring and undaunted in the work; for
much of the very considerable improvement now prevailing —
extraordinary improvement when the years 1917 and 191 8 are
contrasted with 1907 and 1908 — is due to their efforts. A good
foundation has now been laid for the wide development of the
Shorthorn in the full usefulness of its original dual-purpose
capacity.

The work of the pedigree Shorthorn improver was gradually
taken up by the breeders of other varieties of beef and dual-
purpose cattle. The special qualifications of these will be
described, in other chapters, but there is one point of consider-
able interest to which attention may here be drawn.

A study of the markets of the last two decades will show that
for export the Shorthorn has generally been sold to foreign
buyers at much higher figures than any other breed. It is
probably safe to estimate that, if the best breeding stock of
other breeds has made an average price of ^fioo per head, the
same class of stud animal of the Shorthorns' Herd Book has
made £400. Not only were the prices higher, but the numbers
of Shorthorns exported were very much greater. With slight
variations this has gone on for many years. So great have
been the difference in price and the numbers exported, that
for many years I have wondered why purchasers from all parts
of the world who merely wanted to start herds for the repro-
duction of beef should have shown this marked preference.
Other breeds are as hardy, show as great power of rapid growth,
are equally good graziers of somewhat inferior pasture, make
equally saleable carcases of meat when fat or finished, yet the
preference for Shorthorns continued. Fashion, the want of
enterprise on the part of the breeders of other stock, the en-
couragement given by leading British Agricultural Societies
are all given as explanations of this very marked preference,
but they are not satisfactory. Apart from the fact that the
foreign commission agent is quite smart enough to see through
all such artificial factors for himself, there is another reason for
not accepting these explanations. The strange preference has
existed so long, so many specimens of other breeds have been
exported, and so much capital has been expended upon the

PEDIGREE BREEDING 85

industry that one is driven to the conclusion that the preference
is based upon some sound economic reason.

I have looked at the question from many points of view;
I have discussed it with nearly every class concerned in the
cattle industry, and I have had the good fortune to meet very
many successful commission agents, breeders, feeders, and meat
salesmen. I have, however, still to find proof of what constitutes
the excellence that gives the Shorthorn this great predominance
over all other breeds. I have formed a theory of my own, based
upon careful observation, but I have not hitherto had an oppor-
tunity of putting it to the test. Research which is to establish
a working certainty sound enough to be applied to scientific
breeding is a costly matter and demands a man's whole time.
Hitherto the money and therefore the time has been wanting.
Until some rich person, or body of persons, supplies the necessary
funds, research is impossible. It should, however, be obvious
that until such characteristics as those of the Shorthorn are
discovered and recognized, no advance in the practice of
breeding is likely to take place; for the scientific discoveries
relating to the laws which govern inheritance will not, until
then, be made available to the pedigree breeder.

The last considerations, though they greatly concern pedigree
cattle, are so general to the industry that they must be treated
in the next chapter. I would conclude this part of my subject
by an appeal to the breeders and those who influence the
breeders of pedigree cattle to give to the home-market the same
attention that they have paid to the overseas demand. No one
who has watched, as I have done, the overseas trade for a
quarter of a century can fail to appreciate the skill with which
the customers' demands have been met. No one with any love
of bur countryside could wish that that trade should be neglected
in the smallest degree. But it is wrong, as has so often been
done, to leave our tenant-farmers either to select the misfits
from the foreign market or to fall back upon mongrels that are
a disgrace to any country. So great an evil do I consider
this latter practice that I am distressed whenever I hear of
one of our home breeds of cattle being "taken up" by the
exporter. I am still Scotsman enough to realize the financial

86 PEDIGREE BREEDING

benefit such a demand brings to a considerable number of
those owning the particular variety that becomes fashionable
among foreign buyers. Yet the knowledge that the whole body
of breeders may turn their endeavour to producing stock suitable
for conditions across the water, though they be unsuitable for
the locality where the breed is doing useful work at home,
makes me wish that the overseas agent had stayed away. The
pity of it is that this state of affairs need not exist. Systematic
study of the conditions under which cattle are to be kept, and
research into the qualifications of the animals suitable for those
conditions would prove that there is plenty of room for the
breeder both for the foreign and the home-market. The latter
will, of course, have to be paid for the trouble, but here co-
operation among our tenant-farmers can and ought, in future,
to make the burden a reasonable one and the outlay highly
remunerative-

CHAPTER VIII

POSSIBILITIES OF THE FUTURE

There can be nothing more unsafe than to forecast what is to
happen in the future either to the industry which feeds us, or
to the agricultural community — the class to which we look for
an infusion of healthier blood into that section of the population
which has been enervated by the smoke and excitement of large
manufacturing towns. Innumerable articles in periodicals and
daily newspapers have brought forward every conceivable
reason why this country, taught by the experience of the last
four years, should maintain a prosperous agriculture in the
future, so that the home production of food may be sufficient
to protect us against the terrible risk of national hunger which
we ran during the war. Judging only by the good intentions,
the logic, and the earnestness of the great majority of writers
who lay down sound principles of agricultural policy, one
would have no doubts as to future prosperity. But, alas, one
has to remember that political exigencies have in the past
played a prominent part in the direction of public opinion on
questions of production; that politicians, while paying lip-
service to the principle that food-production is "England's
greatest industry," have in practice always supported urban,
at the expense of rural enterprise ; that the votes of the towns-
man must always be more numerous, and therefore more
powerful, than those of the countryman. While we may thank
God that the heroic efforts of our wonderful seamen have
prevented us from receiving in its full bitterness a lesson that
would have made us demand fair play for agriculture,we should
recognize that if the policy of the past 50 years is to be re-
sumed after the war, the efforts of agricultural reformers are
useless. Most of the farms where, before the war, intensive
production was profitable are not in need of searching reform ;
there are now, and are always likely to be, some men good
enough to carry on wherever circumstances allow of high

88 POSSIBILITIES OF THE FUTURE

fanning. As to those who may be forced to turn to the robbery
of the land as a means of getting a Hving, experience of the
25 years preceding the war tells us that they know how to
steal as well as may be.

One would like, however, to assume that the British public
has learnt the folly of relying on the produce of foreign soil
for its sustenance while the larger part of its own land is un-
cultivated or even derelict. I will suppose that my countr}^-
men demand that every acre of these islands shall produce the
greatest amount of human food consistent with reasonable
economy and that the populace engaged in agriculture shall be
enabled to earn sufficient reward for its labour and enterprise
to ensure a reasonable number of the best citizens devoting their
lives to the industry. Assuming that this happy state of affairs
is in prospect, we may consider how cattle breeding (and beef-
production) may best be used for the advancement of really
productive husbandry in Great Britain.

The first problem to be taken in hand is the systematic
sifting-out of all unprofitable stock, so as to secure for the British
farmer's service those animals which are most useful in the
successful working of his holding. The cattle wanted for export
are already well catered for, and the overseas market is a re-
munerative one; the prices obtained in the past show that the
breeders of this class of stock have been eminently successful,
and their work is quite likely to go on concurrently with a
grading-up of all the commercial herds wanted for home pro-
duction. To make a proper division between the useful and
the useless, we must have a clear idea of what is actually de-
manded. The almighty dollar has fixed this point for the export
trade. The buyer on this market is very emphatic as to his
requirements; if the pedigree, the shape, the colour, the hair
and the flesh he demands are not forthcoming, he refuses to
buy. In this country we have no such guidance from the English
buyer. In previous chapters an attempt has been made to show
how this state of aff"airs has come about, so we may here proceed
at once to show how a standard suitable for the home demand
could be set up.

The general husbandry of an intensively cultivated country

POSSIBILITIES OF THE FUTURE 89

in which the standard of living is high requires milk, beef,
cheese, butter and veal from its homed stock. Having general
farming in view, it is certainly economical and convenient to
obtain all these products from the same animals. The truth of
this is not impaired by the fact that there are always likely to
be special types of farms on which an animal is required as
being particularly useful for one or other of these purposes
only; such cases will probably always be in the minority and,
further, as they are more easily investigated, it is easier to set
up a standard for them. To fix the standard for the dual-
purpose beast, on the other hand, will require our highest efforts
and so we will tackle it here. The problem before us is how best
to search for the most economical producer of all these com-
modities among the cattle we now have, how best to eliminate
those that are less good than the others, and, while doing so,
to disturb as little as possible the smooth running of the agri-
cultural machine.

The yields from the milking stock of this country, as shown
by the published records already collected, vary to a much
greater extent than is compatible with high production. Milk-
recording has "caught on" to a considerable extent, and there
seems good ground to hope that, with an increase of State
guidance and encouragement in the movement, the farmers
will eliminate those cows from their breeding stock which do
not yield profitable quantities. The keeping of the records of
the cows in pedigree herds is most valuable in creating a supply
of bulls from which the owners of commercial cows may find
sires to mate with the best milkers in their commercial herds
and so make the breeding of good milkers more certain. It
would be well to ensure that the influence of deep-milking
females should not be lost and that bulls subsidized by any co-
operative body should be bred from mothers and grandmothers
of proved deep-milking capacity. There are now a few bulls re-
ceiving a subsidy, from funds supplied by the Agricultural De-
velopment Commissioners, but not only are their numbers small,
but also they are not by any means regularly selected with a
view to their breeding good milking stock. This is so sometimes
even when the members of the association receiving a grant

90 POSSIBILITIES OF THE FUTURE

from the Development Fund are the owners of cows used for
milk -production. There is room, then, for a great increase in
the numbers of these subsidized bulls, and it is of vital import-
ance to insist that, except under special conditions, all subsidized
bulls should be bred from dual-purpose stock.

A register of cows giving good yields of milk has wisely been
begun by the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries. In this
register are recorded, under a number tattooed in the cows*
ears, the names of all cows that have given a specified quantity
of milk. It is most desirable that this registration should be
extended in every possible way. Further, it is most important
that the heifer calves from these cows sired by bulls of good
milking ancestry should be identified. The reason for this is
clear when it is remembered that the calves dropped on the
milk-producing farms are often sold on the 'public market
when a few days old. These are frequently bought by dealers
who dispatch them to rearers living at very considerable dis-
tances from the milk-producing farms. As things are at the
present moment, the rearer has no sort of record of the breeding
of the calves he receives. He may be rearing the offspring of
good or of bad milking stock. If he chances on good ones he
cannot, not knowing the place of their origin, make sure
of securing their fellows at a future sale. Whereas if all calves
from registered cows sired by ^od bulls were marked or
branded systematically, they would carry with them the record
of their parents' good quality. In this way a demand would be
set up for reHable stock of known usefulness, and the breeders
would receive some financial reward for producing useful calves.
Until this is done, there is no encouragement for the man who
cannot rear his own stock to breed good commercial cattle. The
system, once started, would not involve very much trouble and
it might be made the basis of the levelling-up of every low-
grade herd in the country. Almost certainly co-operation
between breeder and rearer would follow in the course of a few
years and, abolish much of the jobbing which is the result of
marketing the unhappy little calves, often exposed for days to
hunger, cold, and rough treatment while travelling between the
place of their birth and the rearer's calf-house. The harm thus

POSSIBILITIES OF THE FUTURE , 91

done to young calves is one of the greatest difficulties that the
calf-rearer has to face, and every means must be sought to
lessen it.

Yield of milk, however, is not the only matter that demands
attention ; there is the question of the cost, in food, of producing
the article. Some cows require more food to produce a good
yield of milk than others. This point has received considerable
attention from workers at the South-Eastern Agricultural Col-
lege, and at the University College, Reading. They have investi-
gated the systems of management of herds belonging to different
owners, and their researches have given results which have been
most fruitful in making owners reconsider their methods of feed-
ing. But more than this seems to be required. The capabilities of
individual cows seem to promise useful information to the cow-
keeper who wants to produce the maximum from the food he
gives to his cattle. There is a minimum below which, as we
know, it is impossible to go without doing harm. That is to
say, if a cow is not supplied with a certain amount of food, ac-
cording to the quantity of milk she yields, she will either cease
to yield well or she will lose flesh to a dangerous extent, or she
may do both. But over and above the amount the animal
consumes for milk-production, there is a large amount of food
used for the maintenance of her body and for the performance
of the vital functions going on throughout her daily life. Some
cows appear to require more than others for maintenance and
for the proper activity of those bodily functions which are
responsible for the process by which rough farm foods are
eventually converted to the nutritive fluid we know as milk.
Cows giving the most milk may possibly be found to be less
profitable than those yielding smaller quantities, owing to the
consumption of a disproportionately larger amount of food.
From my own observations I am inclined to believe that this
would be found to be so among our own commercial cattle to
a- very much greater extent than is at present believed. It is
indeed possible that the two things are correlated. For instance,
any animal worthy of the name of milch-cow should give an
average of 600 to 800 gallons. over a period of years, others will
give from 800 to 1,000 gallons and so on. It may well be that

92 POSSIBILITIES OF THE FUTURE

the most profitable group will not be the one in which the indi-
vidual animals are the highest yielders. It is quite conceivable
that investigation might show that a type of cow yielding a
moderately large quantity of milk, when supplied with a
moderate amount of food, is more profitable than the very deep
milker requiring much more food. On the other hand the
reverse may be the truth. In short, there is so much dispute
on this point and other matters connected with it amongst those
experienced in the management of our English milking herds
that it seems certain that systematic and thorough research is
required to elucidate the truth.

Beef-production is second only to milk-yield as an essential
quality of the beast that is to be an important factor in the high
farming of the future; it is little, if any, exaggeration to say that
as regards dual-purpose cattle our exact knowledge in this
respect is nil. Some years ago I wrote an article on the subject^
and the trouble involved in collecting a few isolated facts showed
how complete was the neglect of systematic work on the subject.
It was only by gathering together at great pains the threads of
scattered information accidentally recorded that one could get
the evidence with which to show the sceptical what was a,
matter of common knowledge to some, namely the possibility
of combining the faculties of beef-production and of high milk-
yield in the same animal. As to the profitable combination of
the best beef-production and the highest milk-yield in the same
animal so as to obtain the highest return for food consumed, we
have no reliable evidence about British cattle at all. Yet there
can be few matters of greater importance connected with
extensive and economical human food-production; for on the
vast majority of our farms the fertility which enables bread and
other food to be won in great quantity from the land will always
be dependent upon a supply of farmyard manure. The cattle,
therefore, which will give the greatest return for their own food
will be invaluable in keeping up the production of the whole
farm by supplying cheaply the basis of all that fertility which
leads to increased production. So far, our agricultural com-

^ "Breeding Milch Cattle and the productio'n of Store-Stock," The
Journal of the R. A. S.E. 1908, p. 79.

POSSIBILITIES OF THE FUTURE 93

munity has been satisfied with some public exhibitions of very
fine fat stock among which were occasionally classes for fat
cows. These shows were undoubtedly useful, particularly when
the ages and weights of the animals were recorded : unfortun-
ately this was not often, if ever, done as regards the cows.
Educational Institutions and Authorities have done much good
spade-work in recording weights gained for given rations fed.
All such figures, useful as they have been, must be augmented.
The foods fed to the stock, the milk-yields of the parents, the
milk-yields of the cows themselves, and the returns obtained
must all be brought into account if progress is to be made. It
may be taken for granted that, for the present, the fat stock show
will be held on the old lines as soon as peace conditions permit
it, but gradually it will be found possible, I believe, to ensure
that the farmers who support these exhibitions will demand
more than the meagre information hitherto supplied. It must,
moreover, be made possible to get full and exact information
about commercial, as contrasted with exhibition, stock, if pro-
gress is to be expected. The registration of the cows already
begun may, as has been shown above, be extended to a record,
by means of branding, of the history of their heifer calves.
The systematic marking of their steered calves could be carried
on at the same time.

At many of the shows in the North of England and in Scotland
there are classes for store cattle. Useful as these are for demon-
stration purposes, they would be still more valuable if used to
prove fully what could be done by breeding being confined to
the most useful type of animal. If it was known how the store-
stock at these shows, as well as those at some public sales, were
bred and fed, their ages and their weights, we should be able
to get much valuable information at present unobtainable. Such
general information w^ould be a reliable check on results obtained
with small numbers of animals kept under trained observation
during feeding trials. The returns obtained as produce must
be the criterion of successful breeding and feeding operations,
and once the practising agriculturists fully realized that certain
brands of stock gave them better results than others, they
would buy them; thus better prices would reward those who

FOSSIBIUTIES OF THE FUTURE

in breeding die ptofitable cahnes, and the fbod-si^>plT
«f am coHftry uiould be incre»c(L Tbe present bck of sys-
ncscbod is v»y far from mcouijgii^ the cow>keeper
cahriss to rfie market dum his neighbour; for,
iIm^ pass thfoij^ def«nl bands in the cpuise of

tk. is lost. A fanner getting

a ledhr useful drove cH-^boadi'* of young cattle seldom

BO oteaBS of dibCUWuiBg, didr origin, and so

bestinl ia the worid, go and pay a good price

a sappty of dK sane ctes of catde, Ext^ision of

icseaich woik togHher wiih
tosQch a state of affidrs.
Gw-beef is aa ianpoctaHl item, even in the dietaiy of the
BdliA pdb&c tlMw^ to a lesser extent dam on the continent.
Yet KO s^stcsHiic iaqoiiy bas been made into the best method
of uwmliii^ ibe lean miTking-marhine into an edible carcase
of scflL Soane people nuIk tffl neariy all the &sh is off die

of feedbig or Ettteaiag. CMhexs feed v^y high latioos and so
iadooe flesbineK dicing tbe penod of lactation, so that die cow
is fit for ^be battbcB as soon as die is diy. A third syst^n is a

two metbods, feeding for bed^ being
dtt MMlkwig period and ending
a abort laBc alter tbe (xnr bas Hupped 3piiddiDg. Granting that
vnUl be (taiaMifaaii i^ as oadoabtedhr b now the
to decide wbicb of tbese tbcec aarthiwls is best on a
be asrfiri to aantaiii whidi method
B tbe most meat for a given outby in feeding-stuffs.
■ore, we cannot decide vbicb animal is the most
b wDnl we kaov haw naKb inAieaoe tbe previous
ftiaig rcoocd bas apon meat-pwwfaMtinn caioe lactation
Cbi ibese and many otbcr poials Luuwlcj^e is, to say
^be ieart, ^cij taiitrri Aocmnidation of exact data akme can
tbece is not room for very great improvement
of pnwbatinn through our mikh-cows

This qneatnai of beef requires aaadi deeper invcaligttKMi
leoonl of tbe live Ut.^|it of tbe smck produced.

POSSIBILITIES OF THE FUTURE 95

Different animals yield amounts of meat that differ very greatly
in proportion to their live weight. Under our present system
of marketing this point concerns the consumer more directly
than the farmer. One butcher's beast bred and treated in
exactly the same way as its neighbour may yield 54 per cent,
of carcase, while the other will yield 58 per cent. Under our
present system the farmer, as a rule, now gets the same price
for both animals, for they appear to be similar; but it cannot
be profitable to the country to go on paying the same price for
the beast of lower yield. We want to find out, also, what is the
most economic stage of the animal's life, or what is the most
profitable condition at which to slaughter. An inquiry^
which Dr F. H. A. Marshall and I carried out in 1917 shows
clearly that not only do animals differ in a very marked degree
from one another as regards the proportion of meat-yield to
total live weight, but also that the profitableness of the carcase,
as a means of supplying human food, is a very varying factor.
The inquiry further showed, beyond any possible doubt, that
even among the experienced, knowledge was nebulous and belief
constantly erroneous about this very important matter. The
subject is a difficult one about which to acquire accurate know-
ledge, and consequently will require skilled attention, time,
and money to secure clear guidance for consumers and stock-
breeders. In the past so Uttle attention has been given to the
subject (perhaps on account of the difficulties involved) that it
may almost be said that there lies an absolutely new field for
research ready to be worked by the expert in animal husbandry'
who wishes to select the best from among the cattle of this
country.

Investigation along these lines of meat and milk-production
might not only prove of great value in enabling us to choose
the most profitable animals for stocking and breeding, but
should also be very useful as a means of imparting better
technical education. In fact it may be said that unless the

1 Since the above was written a summan.- of the report on thi^ inquiry
was published in the Journal of the Board of Agricuiiure for September 1918 ;
it was therein announced that the full report would appear in due course;
subsequently, however, it was given out that the pubhcation of the full
report was postponed.

FOcSSIBILmES OF THE FUTURE

rfie vouDga: men* are made funiltir
doRD^ die wbiofe of its progress, the results may
^ Ooe of Ae greitest triiiniphs that systematic
ackkved in husbandry- has been in connexion
productioo. from die land obtained of late
In diese inTesdgatkxis the problems of
pfayed a very important part. The same
for k«BHite<%e sod the same educational effort must
Ik Gfeat Britain and Ireland if we are to produce
■akc us feel diat unnecessary* waste
SToided, or, at any rate, not going on
■nnner as immediately before the war.
be needed from which to obtain accurate
icsuits. If they wctc widespread, they would
educational vahie. If they were brou^t
t» Ac ¥aj doQB of oar ^rmers, they would not only eventually
leadl to mpcJi usefol iu£uciualk>n being acquired, but also to an

Bok among the agriculturists who

mtA Ac work- No one who has worked long

popoiatioo can fail to observe that the

cf auHf pEactkiaocfs is a narrow one, and every effort

t bcMMde to widen it, for it is on them that we depend to

food ham. Ae hod. Experience shows more and more

; to tt9 Ae avenge English farmer about the methods

useless. He is by nature too practical

different conditions of farming demand

:; aod his education and training in s}^stematic

too scaastj to enable him to borrow ideas from the

., mmA 2dstpt diem to a practical usefulness in his own

We mamt always bear in mind that while a small

cf €iar agricukurists are as good as any farmers are

Hkc%r to be, the great majority of our men are not accus-

o€ increased production ; for they have been

mtndt upon the one problem of how to get

tnr regard to the usefulness of their goods to

JO a whole. The older men may be too firmly set

idea to change, but it is not so with the younger ones.

of nearly 20 years shows that, greatly as a narrow

POSSIBIUTIES OF THE FUTURE

f7

vuf hmifirap bojv aMl
kmd, dieie is anong j1 riiMfi of
for the nliyjliimafat^
a wnrfioi

mdie

■B.I

little sofid fact on

passiBiunEs of the fitture

kinds of pc^^sible

, be a moR spiewiid field of

<if lifls conttliT titmi to use

for^keswiMvtof dttsWk. Sunijr

ID die kone-aniks oip

lor die advmceniciit

%^ MBHS of imtMLh, A mtiond

it lif^ dbe ImmMihiIk To the indiTidinl,

bemM

die ipe^^ungs. supenntcnd tlie

POSSIBILITIES OF THE FUTURE 99

very much in the dark. For instance, at the present moment
no one can say whether the powers of reproduction are hindered,
or not, by pushing the lactation functions too far. The irregu-
larities of breeding are constantly interfering in so many ways
with the profitableness of our live-stock, that an effort is urgently
needed to allow, and even to encourage, the man of science to
ascertain whether he can to a certain extent help the farmer in
the control of breeding. It surely ought not to be, as it is now,
a constant source of dispute as to what is the right age to breed
from a heifer. There are few districts in which practice does
not greatly differ in this respect, even when the animals are
all wanted for exactly the same purpose. If there is no benefit
to be derived from the practice, it is surely a bad thing that 50
per cent, of our female cattle are allowed, without any adequate
reaspn, to remain useless as milk-producers for six months
longer than the other half; yet no one familiar with prevailing
methods can deny that this is the case. It is of the utmost
importance that the regular supply of milk should be kept up
in the kingdom ; yet the factor of calf-production, which regu-
lates the supply, is so uncertain that cow-keepers often suffer
loss through being obliged to keep a surplus of breeding animals
to ensure that the supply of milk does not fall below a certain
minimum. There is a long list of questions concerning fertility
that require investigation. Recent research into the question of
fecundity in sheep ^ leads to the hope and belief that research
work dealing with such matters might lead to results of great
benefit to the stockman.

There remains another question, namely, whether we, as
breeders, have yet obtained the animal that most nearly ap-
proaches perfection in meeting our requirements. Mendel intro-
duced entirely new conceptions of the possibilities of breeding.
The science of genetics, as the study of the laws of inheritance
is now called, might be utilized to combine more good qualities
in the same body. This has been done by Biffen and others as
regards farm-crops; why, then, should we not hope for the

1 Marshall, "Fertility in Scottish Sheep," Transactions Highland and
Agricultural Society of Scotland. Vol. xx. 1908.

100 POSSIBILITIES OF THE FUTURE

same useful work in connexion with living animals ? But there
is much to be done in preparation for this final effort at improve-
ment. We have no very clear idea of why one animal is good,
and another bad, for a certain purpose. By selection of those
animals which seemed good for their requirements the breeders
of the past have made a very considerable advance towards
perfection. If we made it certain that all our husbandmen
produced only the best of what we already possess we should
have obtained a very great deal; it may be that this would be
the best standard to aim at in the immediate future. But, on
the other hand, there are so many imperfections in the dual-
purpose animal of the present day that it would seem folly
to neglect such future possibilities as might accrue from in-
vestigating the wonderful laws which Mendel first brought to
the notice of science. For instance, it is generally held tha{ the
carcase of meat obtained from an animal belonging to one of
the pure-beef breeds is more useful to the butcher than that
obtained from an animal of a variety that has been selected
through many generations for deep-milking qualities ; and this
notwithstanding that the breeders of deep -milking cattle had
sought by all means in their power to breed with a view to good
fleshing qualities as well. The new science of genetics might
help us to combine the best beef-production with the most
valuable yield of milk in the same animal ; but before this can
be done it would appear to be essential to know what are the
characteristics of a good carcase and what factors determine
them. For some years I have sought in vain for information
on this point. Empirical opinion seems to guide the trade into
certain channels along which a selection is made, but nothing
definite enough has been established to enable a research-
worker even to start a definite line of improvement. As to the
part the skeletal structure, the quality of bone, the development
of certain muscles the quality of muscle fibre, the proportion,
quality and manner of depositing fat, all play in providing a
good or bad carcase there is no information on which to work.
Apparently the very essence of the whole subject, the question
of what is good and what is not so good, has been simply a
matter of opinion, or even fancy, on the part of the individual,

POSSIBILITIES OF THE FUTURE;, i; ioii

or of a group of meat-salesmen or butchers. There are many
points, some of them perhaps very subtle, which must be worked
out before it is possible for the man of science systematically to
superimpose one good quality upon another.

In this connexion there is a further subject to be studied:
namely, to determine which features of the living animal denote
the characters we require. The plant-breeder can retain a large
number of seeds and easily study their properties through the
medium of the plants they produce after a short period of
growth. With calves the matter is very much more difficult
and the expense almost prohibitive. Of a hundred bull-calves
dropped no more than 5 per cent, are usually retained for
breeding purposes. To keep the whole hundred and investigate
their qualities as progenitors would be altogether too cumber-
some and would require too great an outlay to allow of much
hope of return. But if the touch, the eye, the weighbridge, or
measurement, or all these combined could tell us definitely a
few days after birth that a calf was the right sort to be kept as
a sire, systematic breeding would be brought within the range
of possibility. Our present knowledge, great as it undoubtedly
is, is not sufficient to form a basis for the accurate work which
science demands.

Many such problems could be quoted, for every one who has
given serious thought to the subject has some particular point
in mind as a subject of research which should lead to improve-
ment in the economic value even of animals now thought to be
good. The great object to be attained, however, is the elimina-
tion of all unprofitable animals, and the collection and use of
evidence to demonstrate the folly of breeding and keeping a
large proportion of the animals we now unfortunately possess.
Education must in the future carry conviction that the fully-
developed cow, yielding no more than 500 gallons of milk per
annum and at the same time being but an inferior animal for the
shambles, is unworthy of the husbandry of a civilized nation. A
great effort will be needed to teach a large proportion of our
farmers, long engaged in rearing cattle of this class, that their only
source of profit (and that unsatisfactory) has been robbery from
the land. The stock-breeding industry deserves a good reward.

;iQ3 POSSIBILITIES OF THE FUTURE

If, however, the British pubUc is prepared to pay, it is entitled
to "call the tune"; and the key-note to be struck is that no
profit can justly be allowed to be made from any class of stock
that does not adequately and economically help to fill the
national larder.

CHAPTER IX
PHYSIOLOGICAL!

The value of meat as an article of diet depends upon its con-
taining concentrated nourishment in a form which can be easily
dealt with by the organs of digestion, and so as to yield only
a minimal amount of faecal residue. With meat-eaters the
nutritive processes consist in a conversion of the flesh and blood
of herbivorous animals into the flesh and blood of those con-
suming them, the constituents of the tissues being approximately
the same in the two classes of animals. An elementary study
of the comparative physiology of Carnivora and Herbivora is
sufficient to convince one of the general truth of these statements.

In carnivorous animals, such as the dog and cat, the digestion
and absorption of the foodstuff^s are practically confined to the
stomach and small intestine. The caecum or "blind-gut" is
reduced to a mere vestige, and the colon (which together with
the caecum and rectum constitutes the large intestine of
mammals) is small and short and without any of the complica-
tions found in the horse and other Herbivora. In man the
caecum is likewise vestigial, consisting of little more than the
appendix vermiformis, so often removed surgically and without
any subsequent detriment to the powers of digestion.

On the other hand in the Herbivora the digestive apparatus
is enormously developed. In the horse the caecum is so immense
as to occupy the greater part of the abdominal cavity, while its
length may be greater than that of the body. At the same time
the colon is a vast structure, five or six times as large as the
stomach, and double throughout part of its length. In the
rabbit and many other rodents also the large intestine is of
enormous dimensions relative to the size of the animal, and the
same may be said of the herbivorous marsupials.

In the ruminants, of which the ox, the sheep and goat are
examples, the large intestine relative to the size of the animals

1 By F. H. A. Marshall, So.D.

104 PHYSIOLOGICAL

is considerably bigger than in the Carnivora, though smaller
than in the horse. The enormously distended rumen or paunch
and the other alimentary compartments at the fore-end of the
gut, compensate in ruminants for the somewhat reduced large
intestine. Thus it may be said that the rumen in the ox is the
functional though not the anatomical equivalent of the caecum
and colon in the horse or rabbit.

An examination of the faecal or undigested residue evacuated
through the anus tells the same story. Bischoff and Voit^ pointed
out long ago that the faeces of the Carnivora when fed on lean
meat consist almost entirely of excretory products which are
got rid of through the wall of the gut, and are strictly comparable
to the organic matter of the urine. Only traces of undigested
food occur. '* Metabolic products " consisting of altered residues
of digestive fluids, mucus, etc., are evacuated in small quantities
even in a condition of abstinence when the gut is empty of food
— ^the so-called "fasting faeces," and according to Armsby^ "the
consumption of highly digestible food — e.g. lean meat — does
not seem materially to increase " even the fasting faeces, "though
when food containing indigestible matter is eaten it is believed
they increase in quantity." Moreover, unless the meat is given
too freely the faeces of the dog never contain undigested muscle
fibres. Dogs when fed on a diet of meat defaecate (i.e. empty
their bowels) at intervals of from two to four days, and as already
remarked the amount of residue ejected is extremely small, per-
haps 3 or 4 oz. Meade Smith ^ has calculated that a dog weigh-
ing 35 kilogrammes and fed on a half to two and a half kilos of
meat, evacuates from 27 to 40 grammes of faeces containing
only 9 to 21 grammes of solids. "Therefore, it may be said
that with a flesh diet, only one per cent, of the amount of solids
taken with the food escapes from the body in the form of faeces."
On the other hand in herbivorous animals defaecation takes
place at very frequent intervals, and large quantities are passed
per anum. Thus the horse evacuates every three or four hours,

^ Bischoff and Voit, Die Gesetze der Ernahrttng des Fleisch Gressers, i860.
2 Armsby, Principles of Animal Nutrition, New York, 1906.
® Meade Smith, The Physiology of the Domestic Animals, Philadelphia,
1889.

PHYSIOLOGICAL 105

and the daily average quantity of faeces is 30 lb., but may be
double as much. With cattle the amount is still greater, and
averages 75 lb. The sheep and pig discharge about 4 lb. of
faeces daily.

"Animals Hving on a mixed animal and vegetable diet, like
man, pass daily about 130 grammes of faeces, containing
34 grammes of solids, which will represent about 5 per cent,
of the solids taken as food. When the vegetable diet is in excess,
this may rise to 13 per cent., so that only seven-eighths of the
solids are finally absorbed. ... In a man fed on a milk and
meat diet only 2 J to 10 per cent, escapes in the faeces; with a
vegetable diet, rice, bread and potatoes, the loss may amount
to 30 per cent., though the carbohydrates are almost completely
absorbed, only i per cent, being lost, and only 5 per cent, of
fats escapes absorption."

An examination of the urine of different classes of animals
is in certain respects equally suggestive. Thus in man, indican
though often present is not a normal constituent of the urine,
but is regarded as evidence of '* indigestion" or incomplete
metabolism. But in the horse or ox indican is invariably to
be found in the urine and often in considerable quantity.

It is, of course, incontestable that the nutritive habits of
animals can be changed under artificial or unusual conditions,
that many Carnivora can be got to subsist on a purely vegetable
diet, and that herbivorous animals may be induced to feed upon
fish or even upon flesh, food-substances for which their denti-
tion is entirely unsuited. Moreover, by cooking the food and
thus rendering it softer and reducing it to a condition in which
the digestive fluids can play upon it more freely, and such that
the undigested residue can be more easily passed onwards by
the peristaltic movements of the gut wall, the disadvantages of
an abnormal diet may be reduced. Nevertheless, when animals
fed in an unusual way are given the chance of returning to their
natural food they almost invariably do so.

This is not the place, even if space permitted, for a general
treatment of the fundamental principles on which a rational
system of feeding must be based, but enough has been said to
show that the consideration of a dietary is not merely a matter

io6 PHYSIOLOGICAL

of calories; there are other factors of importance, both physio-
logical and psychological, which must be taken into account;
even the palatability of a food is not a matter to be dismissed
lightly, for palatabilit\* is an assistance to api>etite, and the
existence of appetite is functionally correlated with the secretion
of some at least of the digestive ferments. Thus the experi-
ments of the distinguished Russian physiologist Pavlov^ showed
that the sight, smell, and taste of food, acting reflexly through
the nervous system, are the exciting cause of the secretion of
the saliva and the gastric juices, and that the glands producing
these digestive fluids are brought into functional acti\-it}' under
the stimulating influence of appetite before the food is swallowed
or even before it enters the mouth.

Now of the food substances which enter into the diet of a
normal man in a temperate cUmate, meat is one of the most
imi>ortant. This may be partly the result of habit, for meat is
not an irreplaceable necessity (at any rate for many individuals)
as successful vegetarianism has proved. But although it is
probably true that in pre-war days the amount of meat consumed
by certain classes of society was wastefully excessive, it is in-
disputable that for the normal man a moderate allowance eaten
daily is an unqualified advantage, since its eflFect is to decrease
the labour of digestion and to reduce the faecal residue. The
desirabiht}' therefore of ensuring a sufficient supply of home-
grown meat is a matter of the greatest national importance from
the j>oint of \-iew of preserving the strength of the people and
maintaining in times of crisis and difficulty their morale in full
measure.

Meat, in the purely restricted sense of the term, consists of
muscular tissue, together with other tissues which are closely
associated with it, that is to say the connective tissues which
bind the muscle fibres together, the slight amoimt of fat which
is deposited in the connective tissue, the blood vessels which
supply nourishment and cany' away the waste products, and
the minute nerves which connect the muscles with the brain
or spinal cord, and provide a co-ordinating mechanism for the

1 Pavlov, The Work of the Digestive Glands, translation by W. H.
Thompson, London, 1902.

PHYSIOLOGICAL 107

movements of the living body. The muscular tissue itself,
which constitutes by far the greater part of the substance of
the meat, consists of striated fibres which taper at both ends.
Each of these fibres is a single cell provided like other cells with
a nucleus and enclosed by a membrane forming the wall of the
muscle fibre. The muscle fibres running parallel to one another
are united into bundles by connective tissue, and the bundles
themselves are further bound together to form the entire muscle.
The meat derives its red colour from the haemoglobin or red
pigment of the blood.

Butchers' meat in the more general sense consists of the
prepared carcases of oxen, sheep, and pigs, and of the young of
these animals, but in the present work we are restricted to the
consideration of beef-production. In the living animal, two
phenomena contribute to this object, growth and fattening. In
a general popular sense these terms are understood, but they
require exact definition or at any rate description. Both pro-
cesses involve the addition of new tissue, that is of living matter
or protoplasm, but whereas the term growth is usually confined
to that increase which is correlated with the development of
the individual from birth to maturity, fattening is a process
which may be reversed many times over at any period through-
out life, a fat animal becoming lean and a lean animal fat.
Strictly speaking the term fattening ought to be restricted to
the addition of adipose tissue, but it is often used much more
loosely so as to include the putting on of more muscle when that
process is accompanied by an increasing accumulation of fat.
In a similar way the term growth is sometimes employed to
express the development of muscular tissue (that is of meat)
even late in life when skeletal and developmental growth has
ceased. Such addition of muscular tissue, as is well known, is
the usual result of increased use or exercise which generally
implies also an increase in the food consumed.

In cattle the skeleton or bony frame gradually goes on growing
until a certain age, usually about five years, after which time it
remains the same. In oxen, as a result of castration, the limb
bones go on growing for a somewhat longer period, since one
of the effects of the removal of the generative organs is to

io8 PHYSIOLOGICAL

prevent the end parts or epiphyses of the long bones from
ossifying so rapidly ; the fact that these retain their cartilaginous
character for a longer period admits of the shafts of the bones
continuing to grow until prevented from so doing by hard,
dense, ossified structures at their ends.

Growth and fattening in actual practice proceed simul-
taneously, but at a certain stage developmental growth and
increase of protein tissues cease (excepting in cases where
further development of muscle is due to increased exercise)
and any subsequent addition is due exclusively to increase of
fat. Such a condition is sometimes spoken of as the "par"
condition^. An animal in "par" condition is in a state of
nitrogen equilibrium, the amount of waste nitrogenous material
eliminated through the kidneys being equal to the amount
absorbed in the digestive tract.

What it is that determines the precise stage at which the par
condition is arrived at is still an open question. It can only be
said here that it is apparently an hereditary characteristic varying
in different individuals and still more in different varieties and
species. All anirnals follow the same general laws of growth.
In the earliest stages development is very rapid, next there is
an enormous fall in the percentage of growth, then the decline
becomes gradual (varied only in entire animals by fluctuation
at about the period at which sexual maturity is acquired), till
finally developmental growth ceases altogether. The laws of
growth are believed by some to be related to cellular changes,
the nuclei becoming relatively smaller and gradually losing
their rejuvenating capacity. Hence their power of forming new
tissue is gradually reduced. For as stated already the deposition
of fat in the cells is not a case of true growth, but may partake
rather of degenerative change.

Fat is formed mainly in the connective tissue cells, that is,
in those tissues which bind together the various organs of the
body and hold them in position, filling up interstices and
forming a net-work which tends to cover or pervade the more
highly differentiated tissues. The fat is produced by a process
of absorption from the blood vessels, the protoplasmic contents

^ Murray, "Meat Production," Science Progress, April 1918.

PHYSIOLOGICAL 109

of the cells becoming gradually displaced while the nucleus is
pushed to one side, coming to lie against the cell membrane.
The fat cell formed in this way grows to be very much bigger
than the original protoplasmic cell, and the large collections of
fat cells become packed closely together, being only separated
by very thin membranes and forming adipose tissue which may
be many cells in depth. This is what occurs in the ^normal
process of fattening. In other case§ where the fat formation
has been carried to excess the cells of other kinds of tissue
such as muscle become the repositories of fat which interfere
with the discharge of the normal functional activities. Such is
the condition occurring in fatty degeneration which when it
affects the tissues forming the wall of the heart is a source of
danger to the life of the animal.

Apart from definite degenerative change which does not usually
occur until comparatively late in life, the adipose tissue formed
in a fattening bullock may be considered under three heads.

Firstly, there is the fat laid on in and beneath the dermis or
deeper layer of skin and upon the underlying muscles. Thus
if we take a rib of beef as cut in a butcher's shop we find that
the two principal outside muscles which are seen in cross-
section in the ''joint," the trapezius which lies dorsally (i.e.
towards the spine of the vertebra) and the latissimus dorsi
which lies ventrally beginning where the trapezius ends, are
covered by layers of fat which vary in thickness, and are a rough
index of the condition of the animal. We note also that the fat
covering the trapezius muscle is invariably thinner than that
on the outside of the latissimus dorsi, and that in lean stores
the trapezius, especially in its u^per or dorsal part, is hardly
covered at all. We note also that the other muscles (e.g. the
ilio-spinalis or the muscle forming what butchers sometimes
call tiie "eye" of the joint), which go to make up the meat,
are separated from one another by fascia and connective tissue
together with fat which like the superficial fat varies in amount
according to the beast's condition. This fat, together with that
referred to above as covering the outside of the joint, we speak
of as the "gross fat."

Secondly, we generally see a certain amount of fatty tissue

IIO

KrrSIOLOGIC\L

«?«

DC OBocnKQ win tlic

A.piliHiid to muf peticfUiblc extent,

iIk ^imbHng'' of the

B a ijiiMiij wMcm aaas greatly to the Trfae of

m tke older znsiali wkere die nmsde fibres

i less SMCcuknt, snd k iLadus die

ID GDTe. Meat, dmcfiove. wladi is well

aUiaulAve than
bf te m das wMjy but in

on aoconoel o£ die greater tenderness

€m dcfclafwr bt rf these three

breeds, tjpes, ages and conditiops
ai a recent iniiest^nkm bj Mr Mac-
my^eiP. That there is aani

f what Hiig^ be cipcclfd, bat die citranidmafilT
of raiininn in the ptopottion of '^groos" £zt to

afl when die
<if a laq^ flnadier of beasts is taken. Tl^re are,

be briefiy recorded here
be drawn firom them.

^jt^ic^rBLT%

(Afartnct), Jl ofBomi

112 PHYSIOLOGia\L

breed, or age, or food, for some
wiacb baw been bted in die same way and treated
vary conskkrabiy in th«r respective propcHtkos of
fit. Apart, however, finxn this individual
hz¥e sfaoirn that 2igc and breed are definite
m die UMA Alien between die £tt added cm the outside
of fht ■■■des (the gross jEit) aid that put on amid the bundles
of iiMiiili fibres (die maibled £tt).

Tins with Shortham tw<fliiigs (with no broad teeth) the
of maiMed £zt (as found in the iHo-spioalis
i) was i8 perxent. in the Ttfa rib and 13-4 per cent, in
tbc last or 13th rib (ix. the wing rib) as cc«ipared with 33 per
q£ grav het in the 7th rib. AH these anioants were excep-
laige sDid were the result ci ^wcially good feeding.
Simrthom bollocks widi six or e^^ brood teeth upon the other
tbe fpiknnBg analyses:

YieU Percemtage.
GoHB No.o£taraad Mazbfed iat in ibOikdUt iu

Tat Teetk 7^ ifl> 15^ nb

26-8 6 30-8 22-7

27-3 ^ 26-3 ' 15-7

27-2 6 32-2 22-0

30-9 8 27-8 20-9

33-7 8 23-3 17-2

The analyses above recorded point to anotha- conclusion of
mmcly, tint in older bullocks dkougli die gross fat may
tbe aoioimt ai marWii^ does not increase ; as a matter
€i fact m tlie two e^^-tooth bollocks (the only two analysed)
dbe awccage jmniint of ambled £tt was considerably below that
fuMif in tbe six-toodli bollocks, ahbongh the gross fat had
jm-icjifd In view of die importance attadied to marbling by
the bofecber Ais ofcae^fatioD is noteworthy.

The uMnhiiiiiii tbat after a ccrtaia sts^ of fattening marbled
hti does aot ifir jwr so toiS^ as grass £tt has been arrived at
Mk 2mo(ditr way. As a result oi an analysis of the 7th and 13th
riba m some 90 bcas& id daSercat ages, breeds, types, per*
■id mmiitinns, and after dividing them into four
aooonfing to dieir 3ridd percentage, the following results
aieieacfaed:

PHYSIOIjOGICAL

Iti

grow(53-54Pef
group, but thai ia piniing' to
there is a pfonoancaed rise of
groiq> in wliidi die jidd
59 or 60, die dse in die
less dnn in pawing finom die
be
dieavei^!es,die
able.

Time is lordicr
radal chancfiaisdc, as die
fordbnnocksof

die dtg^ve of

31-3

These nay be
Redbaflods:

Grass
fat

^T9

wididie

of two

Spelling gcncn%,
analysed is hardly
being auivcd at

(tf selccd^ bieecfiqg. It siwcdd not be
typKOl saams ot came m vmcn tne
maiMe is abowge die aiiiagL^and o«

to
of de^

ii:^ PHYSIOLOGICAL

be only a matter of a few generations to obtain something
so closely approaching fixity as to be of permanent practical
value. Such work could best be carried out at a joint Institute
for Animal Breeding and Animal Nutrition, where this and
many kindred problems could be effectively studied, and we
know of no way by which anyone who has the will and the
means to benefit our national live-stock industry could do so
with a better assurance of success than by providing an endow-
ment for such a scheme.

Before we leave the subject of marbling there is another point
of both physiological and practical interest which is worthy of
our attention. The analyses of the ilio-spinalis muscle in some-
thing over 80 beasts have consistently shown that the amount
of intermuscular fat diminishes in passing backwards from the
anterior ribs to the posterior ones, and that the proportion
present in the wing rib and first cut of loin is invariably con-
siderably smaller than in the middle rib. In view of the
importance attached to marbled meat this result might seem
surprising, since the loin and prime ribs are universally regarded
as the best joints in the carcase. But it has been pointed out
above that the fat occurring in marbled meat is not deposited
within the fibres but in the connective tissue which surrounds
and binds together the bundles. Moreover, the meat which
is near or in immediate anatomical connexion with skeletal
structures contains more connective tissue than that which is
further away. This connective tissue when well developed is
one of the factors (but only one of them) in making meat tough.
Here at once we have the explanation as to why the joints cut
from the posterior ribs and loin are apt to be more tender, and
jsit the same time less marbled than the joints taken from the
anterior ribs or elsewhere, since the muscles composing the
meat of the hind ribs and loin for the most part have their
insertions and attachments at the fore end and hind end of
the animal. But it must be clearly understood that although
marbling appears to depend upon the existence of connective
tissue, the converse of this does not follow, for, as we have seen
above, the transformation of fibrous or elastic into adipose
tissue is dependent upon "condition,*' besides being probably

PHYSIOLOGICAL 115

a racial or at any rate an individual characteristic. Apart from
the degree of development of connective tissue, "toughness"
and "tenderness" in meat are due largely, as is well known, to
the denseness of the muscle fibres and the thickness of their
cell walls, characteristics which are developed by use, that is,
by muscular exercise.

The muscular development necessary for remunerative beef-
production must depend further upon the shape of the skeletal
framework, that is to say, it is an anatomical characteristic of
particular breeds (see Chap. X), Moreover, beef and milk-
production may be usefully combined in the same breed or
strain, and of this fact the living proof exists in the "dual-
purpose" Shorthorn and Lincoln Red cattle, and to a less
extent in certain other breeds. But to what degree a good beef
carcase can be united in the same race with a deep-milking
propensity is still an open question. It cannot be definitely said
that the two characteristics are physiologically incompatible,
though it is probably quite correct that for reasons of nutrition
they cannot easily co-exist in the same individual. On the
alternation between the growth of dermal fat and the secretion
of milk we find Sheldon writing as follows : " On animals that are
well adapted for both milk and beef, there will always be soft,
velvety skin, which will feel mellow to the touch as if it rested
on a second underskin like a cushion. This 'underskin' con-
sists of a network of cells, called 'cellular tissue,' and when a
cow is not in milk fat soon accumulates in it, and forms the
* quality ' or ' handling ' which indicates the extent to which she
may be considered fit for the butcher. If the cow is in milk
this fatty accumulation in the cellular tissue goes instead to
form cream in the milk^." These statements are crudely and
inaccurately expressed, since there are reasons for believing
that the fat contained in milk is manufactured in the cells of
the mammary gland, and not carried thence from elsewhere,
but nevertheless the general contention impHed (namely, that
the increased nutriment required for an organ in a state of
functional activity involves a depletion of tissue elsewhere) is
not without a solid substratum of truth.

1 Sheldon, Dairy Farming. London.

8—2

ii6 PHYSIOLOGICAL

A study of the correlated changes which characterize the
oestrous or sexual cycle in female animals supplies evidence
of the truth of the same principle. It has been observed that
in the early stages of pregnancy when the foetus is still small
and the developing mammary tissue inconsiderable, there is
often a tendency to put on fat. This tendency is associated with
the cessation of the "heat" periods, a cessation which implies
the arrest of ovulation (i.e. the discharge of eggs from the
ovary) and those other characteristic phenomena of oestrus
which manifest themselves externally in the display of sexual
feeling, and involve a considerable expenditure of vital energy.
Subsequently, however, when the need for nourishing the
rapidly growing calf involves a serious drain upon the mother,
and when the developing mammary tissue is in a state of
great activity preparatory to parturition, the tendency to fatten
induced by the "settled" condition of early pregnancy ceases,
for the functional activities of the mother as pregnancy proceeds
tend more and more to become subservient to the needs of the
offspring.

The changes which occur periodically in the ovary are clearly
intended (to speak teleologically) to secure this end-, that is to
say, in the normal condition they are regulated with a view to
fecundity, and to co-ordinating the activities of the generative
organs and mammary glands so as to produce a minimal amount
of waste in the energy expended upon these processes.

The two ovaries (which are placed symmetrically on the right
and left sides of the body cavity) are the essential reproductive
organs of the female, just as the testicles are the essential male
organs. The other female organs (the oviducts, the uterus,
womb or "bed," the vagina or common uro-genital passage, etc.,
and the mammary glands) are to be regarded as accessory, and
the periodic changes which take place in them are dependent
upon the varying activities of the ovaries. The ovary is like the
mainspring of a watch, it governs all the sexual functions and
controls the oestrous rhythm, and if it be removed the cycle
ceases, and sooner or later atrophy sets in among the accessory
organs. Just as the rhythmic movements of the hands of a
watch or clock, both the short and long hands and the

PHYSIOLOGICAL

117

second hand, and, if there be one, the partially detached mechan-
ism of the striking apparatus, are dependent upon the main-
spring, so the sexual cycle, both the complete annual cycle and
recurrence of the three- weekly periods, and also, though in a
more remote and complex way, the recurrent changes which
take place in the mammary glands and the growth of the
uterus in pregnancy, are controlled and periodically influenced
by the dominating activities of the ovary.

The primary function of the ovaries is to produce the ova or
eggs. These are enclosed in little bags or sacs called follicles,
which begin by being very small and then gradually increase
in size as they approach maturity, and in the last stages of
ripening come to protrude visibly from the surface of the organ.
When the cow is "on heat" or "in use" one (rarely two or
more) of these follicles ruptures and discharges the ripe egg
along with the liquid contents of the follicle into the body cavity.
This act, namely the rupture of the follicle and the discharge
of the ovum, is known as ovulation. The ova are microscopic
in size or only just large enough to be detected with difficulty
by the naked eye. Each ovum shed from the ovary in the way
described is normally caught up in the trumpet-shaped end
of the oviduct, which is a fine, somewhat coiled tube leading
on each side of the body cavity from a position close to the
ovary to the corresponding horn of the uterus or womb. The
two horns of the uterus unite together further back to form
the body of the uterus; the latter communicates posteriorly
through a narrowed neck with the much larger passage, the
vagina, through which the calf is carried in the act of parturition,
and through a portion of which the urine also passes after being
evacuated by the bladder.

After ovulation, which as we have seen takes place when the
cow is "on heat" (i.e. during oestrus), the ripe egg passes down
the oviduct. If the cow has been served the uterus and oviduct
will as a rule contain very numerous spermatozoa or reproduc-
tive cells coming from the testicles of the male ; nevertheless in
the fertilization of one ovum only one spermatozoon participates,
the rest of the spermatozoa dying in the female passages, their
cell substance becoming disintegrated and eventually absorbed

ii8 PHYSIOLOGICAL

or got rid of. Similarly if the ovum be not fertilized it also dies
and the substance of which it is formed breaks up and becomes
lost. The union of the ovum and the spermatozoon is the really
essential act in the reproductive process, the ovum becoming
thereby endowed with a new vitality whereby it is rendered
capable of undergoing those wonderful developmental processes
which culminate in the full formation of a completely formed
individual similar to those from which the ovum and spermato-
zoon were derived.

But as already mentioned, the ovary, in addition to the primary
function of producing the female reproductive cells or eggs,
has the further function of controlling the oestrous or sexual
cycle. This it does by means of certain chemical substances
or internal secretions which the ovary elaborates and which are
passed into the circulating blood and carried to all parts of the
body. These internal secretions which vary in quantity and
in composition at the successive stages of the cycle act upon
the mammary glands, the uterus and other sexual organs and
excite or call into operation the periodic growth and activity
which these organs from time to time display. The ovary is
continually engaged in manufacturing these secretions; if the
animal be spayed before sexual maturity the accessory organs
(uterus, mammary glands, etc.) fail to develop; if the ovaries
be removed after maturity the uterus and other organs cease
to function and undergo atrophy.

For some time prior to oestrus the ovaries show an increased
activity ; this is manifested partly in the growth of the vesicles
which contain the ova, but there is every evidence that the
internal secretions of the ovaries are also produced in greater
quantity. Thus the uterus undergoes growth, and eventually
passes through a period of congestion which characterizes
the period of ''heat." During the latter part of this period
ovulation takes place, and then the ovary undergoes a remark-
able change. The vesicle from which the egg was discharged
instead of merely shrivelling up as one might reasonably expect
to happen, becomes transformed into a large yellow body which
is highly congested, and comes to protrude from the surface
of the ovary in much the same kind of way as the original follicle

PHYSIOLOGICAL 119

did before ovulation. But the yellow body instead of containing
fluid is filled with tissue. The fate of this yellow body (which
is called technically the corpus luteum) depends upon whether
or not the cow has become pregnant. The presence of the
foetus in ^he uterus reacts upon the corpus luteum and causes
it to persist probably throughout the whole of pregnancy, and
possibly for some time beyond. If the cow does not become
pregnant the corpus luteum only lasts for two or three weeks,
and is in a state of degeneration before the return of oestrus.
These statements, however, are based rather upon an analogy
with other animals than upon direct observations upon cattle,
for which animals the records are all too scanty and very in-
sufficiently worked out.

Recent research in all those animals which have been in-
vestigated has proved beyond doubt that the corpus luteum is a
very important organ, for not only is its period of duration
closely connected with the sexual rhythm, but the growth of
l^he milk tissue, and consequently the mammary function, is
dependent upon it. There is clear evidence that the corpus
luteum, apart from the rest of the ovarian tissue, elaborates an
internal secretion which passing into the blood reaches the cells
of the mammary glands, and directly stimulates these cells to
undergo growth and multiplication. Moreover the presence of
a fully developed corpus luteum in one or both of the ovaries
is correlated with an inhibition on the part of these organs to
produce ripe eggs. And so long as a functionally active corpus
luteum is existent in either ovary, oestrus cannot normally be
experienced, and ovulation cannot occur. It is clear, therefore,
that the period of duration of the corpus luteum is one of the
main factors in the recurrence of the short cycle which in the
cow is normally about three weeks.

The period of persistence of the corpus luteum is known to
vary widely in different species of animals. It also varies in
different individuals, and, according to Williams ^ the well-known
American veterinarian, an hypertrophied or persistent corpus
luteum may be a cause of long continued sterility. Why the
corpus luteum should persist is not clear, but Williams states

1 Williams, Veterinary Obstetrics, New York, igog.

finSlOlJOGiCAL

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e tHBBe m no s^nfit amouat. 111

FUYSHMjOGICAL

XXI

PHrSIOLOGIC\L

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PHYSIOLOGICAL 123

to come in use in the winter months and so produce calves and
subsequently lactate at a season when under present conditions
parturition is infrequent. It must be remembered, however,
that the heat periods of the late autumn are sometimes very
transient and hard to recognize in cattle, that it is often only by
close and constant observation and trial that it can be discovered
that a cow or heifer is in a condition to take the bull, and conse-
quently a "cowman" may let a "period" pass, and perhaps
lose the chance of getting the cow in calf for that season, through
failing to detect any vaginal discharge or other sign of oestrus.

In this chapter reference has been confined to certain problems
in "agricultural physiology" of which the writer has had direct
cognisance or practical experience. In the preface to this Ixx^
attention has been directed to the need for investigation upon
heredity and the way in w hich this can best be done with the
view of obtaining practical results. The other branches of
animal physiology contain fields of inquir\' of equal importance,
both for the agriculturist and for the man of piu-e science, and
innumerable instances might be given. But enough has been
said to indicate the nature of the work, the high interest which
the subject possesses, and the need for applying scientific
method to the live-stock industry-, not only for the benefit of
those directly concerned with it, but on behalf of the nation as
a whole.

CHAPTER X

BREEDS OF CATTLE

So much has already been written by authoritative writers
about our British breeds of horned stock, that this chapter is
bound to cover a certain amount of old ground. To omit it
entirely, however, would be to miss the opportunity of recording
the result of 20 years' study and observation of the possibilities
of improvement in our national herds. The information on
which conclusions have been based was not always exact;
instructors were frequently prejudiced in their views by affec-
tion for some particular breed ; many, alas, of those who supplied
information had only their own profit in view when discussing
the merits of a particular variety. Yet in spite of these and many
other disadvantages one may still hope that the information
collected may be of some use in directing future work. Know-
ledge would be much more accessible to the student if it were
more extensively standardized. At the present moment such
things as weight, early maturity, constitutional vitality, milk-
yield, quality of flesh, horn, skin, "type," even description of
colour, have no precise meaning to the majority of cattle-owners,
even among those who have a considerable part of their capital
invested in such stock. Nomenclature is so vague that one often
has difficulty in understanding its exact meaning, and a fortiori
in conveying it to others. Hence it is difficult to write about
pedigree cattle; but as they are for many years to come likely
to be our only means of grading up non-pedigree animals, the
attempt must be made.

Perhaps a few rough definitions will help to introduce some
sort of order into the descriptions of the different herds, to
make the meaning clearer, and to avoid tedious repetition.

As regards size, it rtiay be said that, when ''large" animals
are referred to, the following approximate weights are meant:
cows at 5 years or more in good breeding condition will
weigh about 1,400 lb., when moderately fat some 200 lb. more;

BREEDS OF CATTLE 125

bulls 4 years old and over in good store condition will weigh
quite a ton, when fat 2,400 lb. "Small" animals in the same
condition and of the same age would mean females weighing
1,000 lb. and males 1,500 lb. "Very large" exceed the former
and "very small" fall short of the latter figures. Between these
weights cattle will be found described as "medium sized."
Obviously, weight is not the only factor which determines size,
and frequently some qualifying adjective must be added.

"Strong bone" denotes an animal well furnished with
weighty limbs and implies that the proportion of bone in the
skeleton generally is great compared with the flesh it carries.
An animal is said to be "coarse" not only when it is strong-
boned, but also when the excess of bone prevails at those parts
where it is least desirable. It is said to be "deep" when the
depth through the body is great compared with the length of
limb ; in the same way it is said to be " leggy " when the reverse
is the case. The expression "bony," on the other hand, should
be used to denote absence of an adequate supply of muscle and
other tissue wherewith to cover the frame; a "bony" animal
need not be "strong-boned." The reverse of "bony" is
"thick-fleshed"; an animal may be strong-boned and thick-
fleshed; if it is strong-boned and "thin-fleshed" or fine-boned
and "thin-fleshed," it will in both cases be rightly described as
"bony." "Quality," used without any qualifying adjective,
generally means a fine-boned animal showing no coarseness,
and, when applied to specimens of any one beef breed, further
denotes that its covering of muscle and other tissue is ample,
that is to say, it is "thick-fleshed." The word "neat" is used
to denote that an animal is symmetrical and well put together.
It implies that the various parts of the body are well propor-
tioned in length, that the bone is the reverse of strong (generally
fine in fact), and that the absence of all angular projections is a
marked feature in its appearance. If a beef animal is "neat,"
it is largely due to a thick, regular covering of flesh on a well-
sculptured frame; in a milch-cow or one of a purely dairy
breed (that is to say, useful for butter or cheese-making purposes)
the feature is due to particularly fine bone being draped with
a soft, pliable hide.

126 BREEDS OF CATTLE

In referring to the characteristics or qualities looked for in
any particular breed, the word "type" is often used, coupled
with "breed," to denote the possession of such qualities ;" cha-
racter" is very frequently used as synonymous with "breed-
type."

"Touch" is another expression that requires defining. It is
largely dependent upon the skin. A good skin is elastic and of
the proper thickness ; the good beef animal is generally supposed
to carry a moderately thick, the dairy cow a moderately thin,
skin. Experience leads me to think that the various thicknesses
of hide are among those characters which indicate the two
purposes, i.e. meat and milk; good skin, however, is only part
of the perfection; for under it one expects to handle springy
tissue ; further, the hide should glide easily over the underlying
substance. If the animal is being felt over by the hand for
its beef-yielding quality, the "touch" should denote a thick
covering of firm yet resilient substance in the space between
all parts of the skeleton and the skin; in dairy stock one does
not look for the same thick fining but, on the other hand, the
dairy cow has not a good "touch" if one feels nothing but hard
bone under her skin.

The Shorthorn.

This breed may be said to be spread wherever the English
tongue is spoken. In colour it is red, white, red and white, or
roan; the last-named tint has many variations — ^from a deep
red just flecked with white to a white skin just darkened at the
head, neck, and other extremities; indeed, some very beautiful
roans also show a tinge of blue. Though perhaps not so variable
as colour, other characteristics of the breed diflFer very con-
siderably. Breed-type or "Shorthorn character" seems, how-
ever, to have been so definitely kept in view by all breeders that
large or medium sized, red or white, thick-fleshed or lean, these
cattle may be recognized by anyone with a claim to knowledge
of stock.

I take the following description of this celebrated breed from
authorities quoted by Sinclair :

"The breed is distinguished by its symmetrical proportions,

BREEDS OF CATTLE 127

and by its great bulk on a comparatively small frame ; the offal
being very light, and the limbs small and fine. The head is
expressive; being rather broad across the forehead, tapering
gracefully below the eyes to an open nostril and fine flesh
coloured muzzle. The eyes are bright, prominent, and of a
particularly placid, sweet expression; the whole countenance
being remarkably gentle. The horns (whence comes the name)
are, by comparison with earlier breeds, unusually short. They
should spring well from the head, with a graceful downward
curl, and are of a creamy white or yellowish colour; the ears
being fine, erect, and hairy. The neck should be moderately
thick (muscular in the male), and set straight and well into the
shoulders. These, when viewed in front, are wide, showing
thickness through the heart; the breast coming well forward,
and the fore legs standing short and wide apart. The back,
among the higher bred animals, is remarkably broad and flat;
the ribs, barrel-like, spring well out of it, and with little space
between them and the hip bones, which should be soft and well
covered. The hind-quarters are long and well filled in, the
tail being set square upon them; the thighs meet low down,
forming the full and deep twist; the flank should be deep, so as
partially to cover the udder, which should not be too large, but
placed forward, the teats being well-formed and square-set,
and of a medium size ; the hind legs should be very short and
stand wide and quite straight to the ground. The general ap-
pearance should show even outlines. The whole body is covered
with long, soft hair, there frequently being a fine undercoat;
and this hair is of the most pleasing variety of colour, from a
soft creamy white to a full deep red. Occasionally the animal
is red and white; the white being found principally on the
forehead, underneath the belly, and a few spots on the hind-
quarters and legs; in another group the body is nearly white,
with the neck and head partially covered with roan; whilst
in a third type the entire body is most beautifully variegated,
of a rich deep purple or plum-coloured hue. On touching the
beef points, the skin is found to be soft and mellow, as if lying
on a soft cushion. In animals thin in condition a kind of inner
skin is feh, which is the 'quality' or 'handling' indicative of

of Ae^ce,

UtEEDS OF CATTLE

for wftadi die bfted is so

revered Mr John

V bf- las descf^ptiofi,

beef dm lor die pail.

m dctanl kter in this

k ahn^ oonsadered (^

paitKwhiii' die case widi die

Thai point diat I hare

ShordKxn we bcgm widi die
that index to breed and character — the
l^rpe cf liead die fvre shortish, broad
fatrhraii, generally a Httle hollow in die
md drckicdiy so between die eyes, finely
in wood or stone, down the face
:; tbe noBtrils large and open. Che^s not
c^ca Dog^ bm plsKad, horns wide set, and some-
loota, gmwiug oulwaid at first, and as the animal
age forming gende curves which should not be
lywaid. — The horns and the muzzle should be
and dear, the muzzle a palish buflF without
sftHiofMack...''

Tbe fcamkable tiaag about the Shorthorn breed is the eager,
aHHlaat,and uniweiial donand that has continued for over half
a ccatmy for nrcs of this variety as improvers of herds wanted
I fm hitf'productwn. This is all the more astonishing when one
leflecti that the breed was crcsLted to be of dual-purpose capacity,
dbat h » cagMc of producing meat and milk for its owner at
tbe present 6aj (prcfvidtd that care has been taken to select

^GlSKr^ Brttii enui Management, by William Hotisman, 1900/ Live
Stodk TTiisiilwuiini, Xo, 4, Vinton aiid Co.

* It mffito wm tba^ tueithex d the above quoted aathorities refers
t» Out Janr, Thas afaoold be deep from eye to "angle of ihe jaw/'
fer OeaOf dekmd (ie, sot loit m loo&t icjlds oi skin) and be weU
9mA te^ftmA ivildl fcn imwrW iSbaX should stand ont well. Many
JSl>grilk< le<9fc flfna 1iri» point as ti^ry important-, and, considering the
«tftct I9«at mairticaitBon ham upon the food, they may be right.

BREEDS OF CATTLE 129

breeding stock with both qualifications), and that other breeds
selected for very many generations with the sole object of beef-
production have never been serious rivals for the bids of those
wanting to breed large numbers for the shambles. These
reflections cannot but win our respect for the originator of the
** Improved Shorthomed Breed"; they make us consider with
some anxiety the possibility of systematic or scientific effort in
the twentieth century doing anything to improve the empirical
methods of the eighteenth.

Many explanations occur to one's mind of the phenomenal
success of the Shorthorn in securing the custom of so many of
the buyers from overseas.

Without doubt one of the most valuable characteristics of
the breed is its adaptability. It will thrive under many variations
of climate, soil, and other conditions. After a few^ generations
of selection it will direct the metabolism of its system towards
beef-production at the expense of milk-production. The original
red colour of its coat, we are told, was a pale red inclined to
yellow. Following the fashion of overseas customers, a deep
blood-red colour is now conmion. To suit pasturage that is
very productive a large beast can be secured ; on the other hand,
mediimi, or even small, cattle can always be produced from
Shorthorns when required. In a harsh climate the breed can
be rehed upon to grow an abundance of soft, warm, weather-
defying coat; in more favoured climates this faculty is not
brought into play. Given plent}' of food to force growth, well-
bred stock may be relied upon for very early maturity ; on the
other hand, when " done " only moderately well, the animal will
gradually and slowly mature. No other breed can show such
adaptabihty.

It also has a very great reputation for " prepotency " as a sire.
Breeders believe that it has the faculty, developed to a very
high degree, of impressing certain good qualities upon its oflF-
spring. The possibility of any race of animals ha\-ing this pro-
perty developed to a greater extent than another has been
questioned of late years. It is, however, very firmly believed
by many of the most experienced that the Shorthorn has it to
a very marked degree; I, personally, am very much inclined to

¥

130 BREEDS OF CATTLE

believe that the view is correct. It is quite certain that the first
crosses from a Shorthorn bull mated with nondescript females
show to a marked extent the good qualities of their sire. If the
cross is repeated through a few generations, the good qualities
are reproduced regularly, or, as it is described, the stock breeds
true. The transformation is specially marked when the founda-
tion female stock are thin-fleshed, coarse, or slow-growing, or
have these bad qualities in combination. It is to be noted care-
fully that we are dealing here with fleshing qualities. The
power of imparting deep-milking has not been so carefully
recorded and observed in the breed as to warrant the expression
of any very definite opinion.

The single characteristic to which I am most inclined to
attribute its pre-eminence in demand as a sire of beef-cattle is
one to which my attention was drawn many years ago. This
peculiarity has no name, but it is easy to explain. A Shorthorn,
or an animal in which the Shorthorn blood prevails, is fit for
slaughter with little preparation. That is to say, oxen of this
breed furnish useful carcases for the butcher without as much
special feeding as is required by animals of many other varieties.
This is an attribute of which the value cannot be over-estimated
from the point of view of many foreign buyers. A breeder own-
ing a very large herd, or a great number of herds in a climate
liable to long periods of drought, would be very much handi-
capped were he forced to keep all his saleable stock till they
were prime. If the breed being grazed had all to be held over
till they were quite finished, he would run the risk, in years of
drought, of finding the whole of his capital tied up without
bringing in any income at all. Shorthorns, on the other hand, are
quite fit for the butcher once they are at that stage which is called
*'meat," as contrasted with the condition known as "flesh and
bone," and need not be kept till they are "prime." Through
this idiosyncrasy of the breed an owner of vast numbers may
always rely upon having a certain proportion of his stock in a
condition that enables him to cash them, and so upon having
money available for current expenses.

The origins of this characteristic are well worth scientific
investigation. It occurred to me several years ago that the

^ BREEDS OF CATTLE 131

reason why two-and-a-half year oldi Shorthorns were fit for
slaughter at a leaner stage than most other animals was due to
the fact that their flesh was "marbled" at an earUer stage in the
feeding period; I have been greatly strengthened in this belief
by the rough observations I have been able to make during
several years past. At the same time, the matter is so much
open to doubt and the results, whatever the cause, are so
important that it is a clear case for systematic research.

For reasons already suggested, it is difficult to do more than
quote such a description of the characteristics of the Shorthorn
as has already been given. It will be well, however, to refer to
some economic characters ; and these must be treated under two
heads, namely those of the beef, and the dual-purpose, members
of the breed respectively.

The purely beef animal is the product of the demand from
overseas. It is a breed that has been evolved out of the tribes
founded by the late Amos Cruickshank, and to a lesser extent
by his brother, both Scotsmen from Aberdeenshire. It was my
good fortune to be told once by their greatest English disciple,
a man who had had the advantage of frequent interviews with
Amos, what was the belief of this celebrated man. "Amos
Cruickshank told me," said this great breeder, "that the great
thing to look for in a Shorthorn was constitution.^^ I gathered
that by the word constitution was meant an animal with a
particularly deep body, with wide well-sprung ribs, those at
its fore-end or "over the heart" being specially well arched,
with a very capacious abdomen, the muscles of whose walls
were strong enough to contain it in such a way as to avoid any
appearance even of looseness or "paunchiness," and, finally,
with a skin well coated with abundant, soft, yet weather-defy-
ing hair 2. These points have been well maintained^-without

1 1 am not by any means convinced that the faculty is more pro-
nounced in very young Shorthorns than in baby-beef animals of other
descriptions.

2 I think it may be of interest to record that I submitted what I have
here written to the celebrated breeder I refer to. This gentleman— Mr J.
Deane WilUs of Babton Manor, Wilts.— writes (6. i. 19) : "You are welcome
to say I agree about constitution. It was after I bought all his yearUng
heifers in 1889 that I used to go up and see him [Amos Cruickshank]."

9—2

/^

132 BREEDS OF CATTLE

flattery one may say that they have been developed — by present-
day breeders. Amos Cruickshank's ideas did not^y however,
involve the total neglect of milking quality in his stock; this
has been referred to earlier in this work, and so the neglect of
later years need not be emphasized here.

The present money-value of the best beef Shorthorns is
influenced by colour to a surprising extent. A deep rich whole-
coloured red, or a very evenly distributed dark roan, is saleable
at quite a different figure from a yellow-red, or a red and white
pied. A whole white, on the other hand, will sometimes sell
for a very high price to mate with bad coloured reds and red
and whites, for white animals when so mated have a reputation
for breeding good roans. White legs on any coloured specimen
are altogether anathema. One would imagine that these pecu-
liarities about colour are merely foibles of the show-ring, but
it is not so, for the fashion for certain colours is set up by
customers who are buying for commercial purposes. It cannot
be easily believed that a red and white sire will get any worse
breeding stock than a dark rich roan, and yet the man who
wants to breed bulls to turn in among a thousand cows used
for nothing but beef -production will pay a far higher price for
the animal showing the latter colour. On the other hand, it is
not altogether wise to attribute the preference to prejudice alone.
For instance, there is a great prejudice among the members of
the cattle industry in England against white colour. This may
be pure prejudice ; yet you will find veterinarians of experience
talking of *' white-heifer disease," a rare derangement of the
reproductive organs which, these practitioners will tell you, is
nearly always found among white, or very light-coloured roans.
Certainly, cattle of particular colours have the appearance of
being better furnished with flesh than animals of other hues.
Whites are always said to look larger than they really are —
I myself think dark rich roans look well-fleshed — but ideas of
this sort would hardly be important enough to create a demand,
making a great difference, often amounting to hundreds of

^ Two writers of the present day, Sinclair and Robert Bruce, uphold
. this. See also article by W. Housman in the Royal Agricultural Society's
Journal for 1880, p. 384.

BREEDS OF CATTLE 133

pounds, in the value of one stock bull. 'In Shorthorns, I per-
sonally have noticed that the widespread belief that a ' * yellow-
red" is a better colour, as an indicator of milk, than a ''blood-
red " has a considerable foundation in truth.

As a breed, Shorthorns generally may be classed as large
animals. In the beef classes size on the whole is in request.
That is to say, of two animals having much the same type and
showing approximately the same good beef qualities the larger
would win, and it may be said that the market in this respect
emphatically follows the show-ring. A medium-sized animal
of great merit would, however, always be graded above a very
much larger specimen showing bad points by anyone fit to be
a judge of Shorthorns.

No impartial critic can claim perfection for the Shorthorn
as a beef-breed. His greatest fault in conformation (especially
in the class often misnamed "Scotch") is at the quarters — that
part of the carcase from which the butcher cuts the "rump-
steak." Here the Shorthorn is apt to fail, relatively to his other
good points ; either the meat is not thick enough or there is too
large a proportion of fat to lean, or the animal is apt to be coarse.
More especially is the excess of bone liable to be shown at the
tail-head. Probably his worst feature as a beef-beast is his
propensity to carry too large a proportion of soft fat, his flesh
being often the reverse of firm under hand all over the body,
and, further, he often carries a lot of superfluous or "patchy"
fat more suited to the tallow-tub than the carving-dish. The
foreigner demands that the stock he buys should be "well up " ;
in other words he likes stock suffering from an excess of obesity
which is positively pathological. The show- world has responded
so faithfully and so long to this demand that every possible
encouragement has been given to the breeding of animals that
have a tendency to grow too much fat. It is common to hear,
or even to read, the remark that a certain animal has "stood
training well"; this means, in plain English, that it has stood
over-feeding for a long time without becoming "patchy" or
actually falling away through ill-health.

Both types of Shorthorns are very good as economic con-
sumers of feeding-stufls. For their size (and it will be remem-

. 134 BREEDS OF CATTLE

bered that they vary very greatly in this respect), I have always
looked upon them as easily satisfied as regards quantities of
bulky foods. One is forced, however, to admit that there is no
reliable evidence to support this. It is one of those matters
which require to be tested by carefully-conducted and extended
feeding trials. On the other hand, I think it must be admitted
that Shorthorns require more consideration as regards quality
of bulky fodder than several other breeds. I have seen many
instances of other cattle apparently doing better than Shorthorns
on a diet of straw and rough coarse hay, or, again, when grazing
on weedy, rank pastures. They do not, particularly when in
very high condition, stand temporary shortage of pasture
especially well; and though they can, as a breed, adapt them-
selves to living on moderately short commons, other breeds have
a reputation for doing so better. While they will thrive in very
many climates, it seems that they suffer more than the very
hardy breeds when exposed to extreme wet and cold; it must
not, however, be deduced from this that the breed is in any
way delicate. Large numbers of the variety undoubtedly are
found to suffer from tuberculosis when submitted to the tuber-
culin test. This I believe to be due to their being so often kept
under insanitary conditions, and of course it may be that the
number which react is not relatively large; but the fact that
many react, while apparently few suffer signs of real ill-health
from the disease, has always appeared to me to show that among
their other good qualities they have considerable constitutional
vitality with which successfully to combat the evil.

Turning now to the dual-purpose Shorthorn, we may say at
once they are not so massive, or blocky, as their purely beef-
bred fellows. The lines on which they are built are finer, their
ribs, especially over their hearts, are not so well sprung, their
thighs do not carry so much flesh and look "better bent," they
are lighter and look longer in the neck, and their heads are
decidedly longer from eye to nostril. They should, however,
be quite as deep in the body, their ribs next to the loin should
be as well sprung and wide, and there should be as great width
between the eyes. Their skin should be thinner, but not
"parchment-like" — in fact to be what is well called "papery"

BREEDS OF CATTLE 135

is the very antithesis of the true Shorthorn type. The Short-
horn that belongs to a deep-milking family is not expected to
be as thick-fleshed as those belonging to the other branch of
' the breed ; she is apt to be somewhat too fine and may in fact,
if care is not Ascreetly employed to avoid it, become as bony
as one of the breeds famous for butter-making purposes without
giving anything like the same amount of cream in her milk as
such animals do. Further, if care is not taken in mating these
*' skeleton milkers" one may breed cows having the bone and
thin flesh of one grandparent combined with the absence of
milk-yielding power belonging to another ancestor.

The udder in this breed, for many of its number are known
to be failures at the pail, is of particular importance. It should
be carried well up and back between the hind legs, and should
be large in size but not too pendulous. I have not found,
personally, that a "globe-shaped" bag, equidistant teats, and
other fancy show-points are special indications of high milk-
yield. I have seen so many splendid milkers with bags absolutely
wanting in a number of the attributes demanded by the show-
ring that I am inclined to believe that systematic investigation
would prove that these attributes have no great intrinsic value.
Ample size and great quality of touch are the vital matters.
The importance of touch cannot be over-estimated. The skin
of the udder should be moderately thick only, there should be
plenty of it, and it should be elastic. If a fold of the skin be
taken between the finger and thumb, the two halves of the
plait should glide over one another in a manner pleasing to the
hand, the hair should be silky, or at any rate not thick and
harsh, and one likes to see a net- work of small veins under the
hair when the udder is distended. The gland under the skin
should touch firm, but elastic, having no sort of tendency to
feel doughy or soft and fat. What is known as a "fleshy" bag
is often large, but yields little milk.

Besides the udder itself the veins which run along the lower
parts of the abdomen should be specially noticed; these vessels,
when the cow is in profit, should be large enough to stand out
and be easily seen; they should handle firm, they cannot, it is
said, be too contorted, and the holes through which they

136 BREEDS OF CATTLE

traverse the bony walls of the under part of the body cavity
should be large. These holes, which are often called "wells," are
a valuable help when examining a dry cow.

As regards amount of yield, no cow of this breed should be
looked upon as good if she does not average 700 gallons a year
for several periods of lactation succeeding the dropping of her
third calf. With careful breeding a herd may, without great
difficulty, be got together in which the cows will average
700 gallons for the first six years following the first calving. It
must always, however, be borne in mind that this cannot be
expected unless a very careful milk- record is kept. This is of
great importance in all breeds, but with the Shorthorns it is
imperative, for it is quite easy to find specimens of the breed
very thin-fleshed indeed, yet giving no more milk than those
whose flesh-forming capacity has been developed to the greatest
possible degree. It is no exaggeration to say that it is easy to
breed these specimens among the best strains; their common
occurrence in our herds may be noted by any unprejudiced
observer.

The milking qualities of the cattle can easily be kept up to
standard if high records to the credit of all dams used for repro-
duction are resolutely insisted upon; it need not again be
emphasized that this is even more important in the case of a
bull's female progenitors than of a cow's.

The problem of systematically maintaining the inheritance
of beef-production on the part of the milch-cows and their
calves has still to be solved. In the past, selection for this
capacity has been left entirely to the judgment of the owner.
That this judgment has been remarkably good in the case of
individual breeders cannot be held to be evidence in favour
of continuing such rule-of- thumb methods ; for typical examples
of Shorthorn misfits bear witness in almost every market-place
to the folly of unsystematic breeding.

The improvement of meat-production qualities among all
milking Shorthorns can and ought to be immediately taken in
hand, so that the fine specimens which are now unfortunately
the exceptions may become the rule. The weight for age,
the measurement necessary to secure quality, can be taken at

BREEDS OF CATTLE

137

once as a basis for the establishment of a beef standard. This
beef standard should then be made a further qualification which,
besides a milk- record pedigree, should be added to the certifi-
cate of any animal used to reproduce its kind. Possibly, nay
probably, such work done in the interests of a beef standard
would enlighten us on many points now obscure, and might give
us indications, other than weight for age and measurement, that
ought to be included in the standard. An obvious danger is that
of excessive feeding to obtain weight for age. It seems very
probable, indeed, that very high development of adipose tissue
may, in the case of young heifers, interfere, by infiltration or
by otherwise inhibiting the development of mammary tissue,
with the power of lactation in later life. Even with young bulls
this condition may be harmful. I know of one young Shorthorn
bull, with a pedigree exceptionally rich in milk-yielding females,
who proved sterile, and whose reproductive organs were found
on post-mortem examination to have degenerated through excess
of fat among the tissues of the testicles. But this and other
similar difficulties that may occur will not be found insuperable,
if only the breeders will lend their present intuitive skill to help
scientific work in the future.

That such help given by the experienced Shorthorn breeder
would be of the highest value to the country, I firmly believe ;
for, if increased fruitfulness of our land is to be effected con-
currently with prime beef-production, the one benefiting the
other, there is no variety likely to be so sure a foundation on
which to build improvement as the famous "Red, White and
Roan" cattle which the disciples of Bakewell created in the
latter half of the eighteenth century.

Lincolnshire Red Shorthorns.

The Shorthorn, when registered, has his pedigree inscribed
in Coates's Herd Book, founded in 1822. The Lincolnshire
breeders of cattle much the same in character, have for the
last 23 years started a herd book of their own.

There is, however, a more material distinction than mere
registration between the Lincoln Red and the Coates's Herd
Book cattle. The Shorthorn, the old variety, is large, but the

138 BREEDS OF CATTLE

Lincoln Red is larger; it is stronger boned, and perhaps rather
less well sprung in the rib. Red, as the name implies, is the only
recognized colour; though animals with some little white
markings and even roans appear from time to time among stock
that have been registered for several generations in the Lincoln
book. The type is also rather different and not so specific in
character. Lincoln Red breeders require a character in the bulls
which I have heard them describe as "sour," whereas the
"Shorthorn man" would be shocked and pained at his stock
being so described. The "sour" animals are less fine about the
head, of which the lines are less finely chiselled; there is slightly
more skin at the throat and the whole of this part of the body
has a more massive appearance. Such a head coupled with a
body carrying more bone especially above the hock and below
the knee, all belonging to a very large animal, briefly constitute
the ideal of the breeder who is not frankly trying to reproduce
the Coates's Herd Book type.

The Lincoln Red can also be divided into two groups — beef
and dual-purpose cattle. Among the latter are to be found some
very deep -milkers indeed. They have the reputation of being
very hardy cattle and of thriving on coarse fodder and pasture.
In my own experience of the breed I have always thought that
they were cattle requiring a great deal of food, but that their
digestions and appetites enabled them to be less particular than
some others as regards quality of provender. They are, when
forced, quite up to the average among breeds celebrated for
early maturity ; on the other hand, if not exceptionally well done,
they lack quality, and so are seldom slaughtered as baby-beef.
Some graziers and winter feeders proclaim the Lincoln Red
to be the best bullock for the farmer^ though the evidence to
uphold this claim has hitherto escaped my notice. The butcher's
objection to their excess of bone has, on the other hand, seemed
to me very clear in the case of many specimens I have observed
being sold on public markets.

CHAPTER XI

BREEDS (continued)
The Hereford.

This breed is very generally supposed to belong to the group
of beef-producing, and nothing but beef-producing, animals.
It is certain that a great many of the cows have little to spare
after nursing one calf; some fail, to a certain extent, even in
this. Among animals known to be pure-bred some look much
more likely to milk than others, but I have never seen a speci-
men with a really high milk record to her credit; but, as is so
often the case with beef-breeds, records are hardly ever taken.
Indeed, some owners of pedigree herds are said to object to a
cow that shows anything approaching a fine, big, productive-
looking udder after calving! It is therefore in relation to its
reputed single capacity of beef -production that we must con-
sider it here.

A large animal, red, with a white face and fine massive pale-
coloured horns, it is always a pleasing feature both in the county
from which it is named and in the beautiful Severn country
generally. An expert on breed-points alone can prescribe the
right tint of red, the proper white body-markings, and other
indications of good Hereford character ; but animals of the breed
will bear analysis as fine specimens of the beef-beast without
details of this kind. It is often looked upon as the perfect animal
for what the stock-breeder calls "meeting you well." The fore-
end of a beef -beast should show quality to the greatest possible
extent, the skin of the neck should cover a short, thick wedge
of solid meat, and there should be great width at the breast,
i.e. from one point of the shoulder to the other. This width
is not obtained through the largeness of the bones of the
"shoulder-points." Width gained by large bony "points"
constitutes coarseness, which is the reverse of what the good
Hereford shows at this part of his body. He is wide below the
breast right away down to the floor of his chest, and the "dew-
lap," as the whole of the anterior of the sternum, or breast-bone

140 . BREEDS

and its covering, is called, projects well beyond the line of his
well-muscled, or "meated," forearm. All this gives the beast
the massive and weighty appearance when viewed obliquely
from the front which is summed up in saying that he "meets
you well." The rest of his body in front of his hip-bones is
good, but behind these (called "hooks" in the trade) he is apt
to be less perfect than in his middle or at his fore-end.

The fault at the hind-quarters, often found in Hereford cattle,
is two-fold. The part of the body, between the ilium and ischium
bones, that carries the meaty mass from which the butcher
carves the rumpsteak, is sometimes cut away owing to the
anterior portion of the spinal column dropping between the
line of the hocks and the tail-end. This conformation must
undoubtedly reduce to some extent the proportion that the
rumpsteak piece bears to the whole carcase, and so rob the meat-
salesman of some of this super-quality meat. Below the part
from which this is cut and anterior to it is found the first quality
joint known as the "round " ; this, again, is not as well developed
as is desirable owing to the meat not being carried down as.
close to the hock as it might be. Among show Herefords,
especially the prize- winning bulls, these faults have largely dis-
appeared of late years, but to a certain extent they are still
common among those sold for feeding. Perhaps the word
"fault" is too strong; "imperfection" is probably a better
word to be applied to these well-shaped cattle, as compared
with average cattle of other beef-breeds.

For grazing, in the restricted sense of grass-feeding, the
Hereford has a very high reputation; some authorities claim
that on an ordinary first-class pasture it will give better returns
than any other breed. Here, again, there is no direct evidence
either to support or to refute the claim. My own observation
leads me to believe that Herefords will fatten rather more
quickly on ordinary good grass than other breeds, but I should
be surprised to find that the advantage was very appreciable;
certainly I would not expect the superiority to be anything
like as high as is claimed by some enthusiasts. The question
of whether on the very best finishing land the Hereford would
do any better than other good beef-breeds, is more difficult to

BREEDS

141

answer. The faculty of doing very well upon grass just below
the best is, to my mind, the greatest economic asset of the breed.
The meat from grass-fed Hereford bullocks is as good in
quality as that from average first-class beasts of other breeds ;
many authorities would call it superior to any other, and I know
of no evidence to controvert such a view. To get fat on after-
math when allowed a moderate ration of concentrated food is,
in my experience, a good quality peculiar to this breed for
which the ''white-faced" cattle do not receive adequate praise.
Few, however, will admit that the Hereford fed in the winter
on cake and roots and other plough-land food supplies the best
quality meat. Many years ago my attention was drawn to severe
criticism of the breed from this point of view, and there were,
in particular, many complaints that the amount of "kidney-
fat," highly valued in November and December on so-called
Christmas bullocks, failed badly. Being much interested in the
breed, I have watched for this fault very persistently, and have
come to the conclusion that there is no ground for the complaint.
I strongly suspect, however, that if on this yard-feeding a
Hereford is produced ripe enough to carry an adequate mass
of kidney-suet wanted for plum-pudding making, he will be
found to be excessively fat all over the rest of his carcase. This
fault is very much in evidence when the "beast is handled alive,
for many Herefords are apt to be soft to the touch.

Butchers have another complaint to make against him,
namely, that he always looks bigger than he is. This is not a
characteristic for which the farmer or grazier should find fault
with the breed ; but the trade has been known to speak of the
Hereford as the "white-faced robber"! Our bad system of
marketing and not the breed, ought in justice to be blamed for
the irritation which produces this unjust complaint. There is
evidence (slight, but nevertheless emphatic) to show that those
accustomed to buy other cattle hy eye, will, when they get the
carcase on to the shop scales, be so much dismayed at their
lack^of skill in judging both live and dead-weight that they
will admit, for once, that purchase by weight has some points
in its favour.

The Hereford hide is particularly thick and yet very elastic

142 BREEDS

to handle, and is often covered with a beautiful coat. The tanner
shows the particular value he sets upon it, for not only is it very
heavy, as one would expect from its thickness, but a special and
higher quotation is always offered on the hide-markets for
*'Herefords."

As regards future beef-production in Great Britain (for the
foreign demand is likely to keep* up an active production in
high-class herds bred for that trade) the breed promises to be
useful along two distinct lines. In the first place, Herefords are
admirable cattle in districts where ^ owing to difficulty of access
with tillage-implements, the countryside may economically be
left under permanent grass, even though the pasture is only
second class. But there is a second purpose for which Hereford
bulls are particularly suitable, but in many parts of England
are not sufficiently used, namely, for crossing with the number-
less cows, which, being thin-fleshed, are not good enough
milkers to be used as progenitors of future milch-cows. Young
cattle so bred make excellent stores for any class of feeding,
including the production of baby-beef. Some rearers of store-
stock are now wise enough to place a good bull at the service
of the owners of large herds of such cows and to take their
calves at a contract price ; it would be well if such co-operation
of interests could be systematically extended. Another good
plan, at present only very occasionally adopted, is to mate a
Hereford bull with all the heifers on a farm; these can all be
tested for milk-yielding quality by the recording sheet and those
proving deep -milkers can be subsequently mated with a bull
of known milking blood. This, again, could be more widely
and economically carried on, if co-operative methods were more
prevalent.

The Devon.

This small ruby-red animal is famous for its wonderfully
symmetrical and deep -fleshed carcase. It is seldom used for
beef-production alone, for in nearly all commercial herds the
cows, besides rearing the calves, yield a considerable, if not
very large, quantity of milk from which comes the famous
Devonshire clotted cream, the blue Dorset skim-milk cheese.

BREEDS 143

and sometimes even new milk for sale in the towns. It remained,
however, for Messrs A. and T. Loram, of Rosamundford near
Exeter, to show the cattle-world that high-bred Devons could
give a thousand gallons of milk in the year. There would seem
to be little doubt that, with care, deep milk-yield could be added
to the splendid fleshing properties of the breed. I specially
examined Messrs Loram 's stock from this point of view and
could find no evidence of their falling-off as good beef-pro-
ducers.

As a beef animal, it is hard to find fault with the North Devon.
Here it must be explained that the breed is still divided into
different types. The '* North Devon" type is smaller, is of a
richer red colour, appears to be thicker-fleshed and is better
put together. The other type, which is somewhat larger and
more sand-coloured than true red, is sometimes spoken of as
the ''Somerset Devon"; it must not be confused with the
"South Devon" from which it is entirely different. Of late
years there has been a tendency to get both types of Devons
larger, and one is inclined to wonder whether this is not a great
mistake. There is a very marked demand in our thickly-popu-
lated country for small joints of high-class meat. Now of the
Devon's many good qualities as a butcher's beast the fulfilment
of this particular demand always seems to me the greatest. For,
having regard to the size of the joints, I know of no beef
that shows such depth or thickness of lean meat as that
cut from the carcase of the Devon. Beyond this I have little
more to say of the Devon; he is good all over rather than
at any particular point. Animals of the breed are reputed
to be small eaters even after allowance is made for their being
little cattle. I have never seen "beeflings" of this race, and in-
deed have heard that early maturity is not among their leading
characteristics.

In the interests of the future the best qualities of this breed
should be sifted out from their imperfections, for they undoubt-
edly are cattle worthy of all that research can do. There is not,
to my knowledge, any breed in England that so completely
keeps the Shorthorn out of the chief markets of the district from
which it originates as the Devon.

144 BREEDS

«

The Sussex.

To-day the Sussex is essentially a beef-breed; one hundred
years ago it was essentially the draught beast of the heavy
Weald Clay in the county from which the name of the variety
is derived. The transformation is one of which the Sussex
breeders may be proud. For the working ox, of which the
eighteenth century "Sussex" was a very typical specimen, was
leggy, strong-boned and coarse, not particularly well sprung
in the rib, slow-growing, and carrying hard, stringy meat. The
Sussex to-day is quite as quick-growing as any of the beef-breeds,
is deep, and, when thoroughly well finished, the carcase carries
a very fine quality of meat. It is, moreover, famous for its
hardiness, more especially as regards the breeding stock. Not
only will the herd of cows stand exposure on cold clay lands
located in exposed situations that might well be expected to
kill cattle of ordinary constitution, but they will thrive under
these trying circumstances on food that would be considered
altogether inadequate for stock by those accustomed to other
breeds. I have known a breeder leave the thistles on his farm
uncut so that the Sussex cows might feed on them in time of
drought. I have seen the herd of cows belonging to this farmer
grazing the thistles, two feet high, with great gusto and thriving
on the weed almost as well as if they had been browsing decent
pasture-grasses.

It cannot, on the other hand, be denied that the Sussex
inherits some of the faults of the draught-cattle from which he
springs. He has not the symmetry of many breeds ; he is very
liable to be coarse ; and the hard muscle of his progenitors has
left undesirable traces of its presence in the animal economy
of some stock of the present day. Admittedly the Sussex bullock
has to be thoroughly fattened before he is a really good butcher's
animal. If the beast is slaughtered before he is thoroughly
finished the meat is tough, unpalatable, and of a bad colour.
It is only when the bullocks are thoroughly prime that they
yield carcases of the firm meat that attracts the butcher's
customers.

The great hardiness of constitution, upon which all who

BREEDS

145

know the breed are agreed, is so valuable an attribute that it
is worthy of investigation. No one, as far as I know, has ever
investigated the factors which allow the Sussex to thrive under
privations which might be fatal to cows of other breeds.

This strength of constitution, however, has not of itself
sufficed to win the breed any general popularity. Those who
keep Sussex cattle are enthusiastic in their praise, but they are
few. In Sussex and the surrounding counties other breeds are
much more numerous. Neglect of the breed would be in-
telligible if it were ignored because of its want of milking
-power, but this is not so. There is a vast area of good grazing
land on Pevensey Marsh that was till 19 14 almost entirely
devoted to summer grazing for beef; but the stock to be found
on it were not of the Sussex, or local, breed; yet the adjacent
Romney Marsh, devoted to sheep, was populated almost ex-
clusively by flocks of the native variety. The absence of Sussex
cattle is all the more inexplicable when it is remembered that
there are a great number of farms on other geological formations
in that neighbourhood which before the war were under per-
manent grass only good enough for breeding store-stock. The
exposed position and damp nature of the land of these farms
would, one would have expected, have made them specially suit-
able for producing the local breed. Yet with Pevensey at their
doors the farmers who bred Sussex were the rare exception and
the store cattle on the rich pastures came as far afield as from
Herefordshire, Wales, and other equally distant places. When
one did see the exceptional sight of a bunch of Sussex on these
rich grass tracts they seemed to be doing quite as well as their
neighbours ; I never heard a complaint of them frorri those who
had tried them, and the whole position is still a mystery.

The Sussex in one respect are especially good graziers.
Amongst most cattle, turned out to get fat on pasture, the keen
observer may see a good deal of picking and choosing. The
beasts will frequently lift their heads and move on till they find
a portion of the grass that particularly pleases their palate. If
considerable care is not taken, the field will soon become rough
and irregular in surface through patches of the coarse grasses
being left untouched and the shorter and sweeter herbage being
M. * 10

146 BREEDS

bitten off too close.* The Sussex cattle, on the other hand, feed
straight across the field, eating the pasture as it comes ; slightly
less land should therefore be needed to fatten them, and a better
covering of grass can be kept on the pasture they are grazing.
Of the commercial value of this peculiarity I have no idea. The
general statement "one acre of finishing land ought to do a
bullock" is apparently considered to be sufficient information
for the present-day husbandman. It is approximately true that
the average best pasture will graze an average large bullock,
say, weighing 1,000 lb., and that in the grazing season of 20
weeks one may expect, taking the average of seasons, that each
acre of land will supply food enough to the animal to allow of
its becoming fat, and that while grazing for this length of time
on such land its weight will increase (again on the average taken
over a great number of animals) by 20 imperial stone, or
2^ cwt. It is true that there are many difficulties in the way of
obtaining more definite information. The greatest of these
difficulties is that of expense. Up till now it has not been found
worth while to spend money upon such research. But there is so
much variatidti among individual bullocks that it seems foolish
in the extreme not to obtain more exact figures. In the very
limited data I have been able to compile in respect of animals
receiving the same ration, I have found a truly wonderful
difference. One is therefore justified in stating that it would
be worth while to find out whether or no the Sussex is a morie
economical grazier than an animal of other breeds.

Great credit is claimed for the Sussex bull as a begetter of
good beef animals from thin-fleshed milking cows^. I have
certainly seen very many specimens which, judged by the eye,
gave much support to this contention; but, on the other hand,
the demand for the services of these bulls is very restricted,
and during my 20 years of observation the breed has not
seemed to be on the increase. The extraordinary hardiness of
these cattle seems to me to be the factor of greatest potential
worth to the future. Improvement of beef-production, coupled
with increased corn-growing on cold clay land farms in exposed
situations, should, however, be a very important and valuable
1 See "Sussex Cattle" by H. Rigden, R.A.S.E. Journal for 1908.

BREEDS 147

national asset to our future agriculture; for no one can deny-
that now there are many districts where little meat is produced
and no corn at all. And it is to be remembered that it is fre-
quently under these very circumstances that cattle can, by means
of the farmyard manure they manufacture, make it possible to
grow profitable crops of corn. Further, it is quite conceivable
that, with more knowledge of the science and practice of
breeding, the constitution of the Sussex might be combined
with some good qualities he does not now possess. I have seen
some particularly good beeflings of this breed but always
among those which had been forced with very high feeding;
I have great doubts about their being made good enough on
mere commercial rations.

The South Devon.

It is a great pity that the old local name of "South Hams"
has not been adopted by modern breeders, for this very large,
strong-boned, pale-red, dual-purpose animal. We have, as has
previously been observed, a subdivision already existing among
the small neat Devons. My owm journeys to study the South
Hams have led me at least as much into Cornwall as into Devon-
shire! No two breeds could be more dissimilar; nevertheless,
following the tradition by which the nomenclature of farming
has been persistently confused, the Herd Book Society deter-
mined, some 30 years ago, that "South Devon" should be the
name of the cattle which they formed themselves into a
corporation to improve.

There are several interesting points about this huge, and it
must be admitted, ungainly beast. Its size is very great; its
skeletal development is enormous; among the cows are to be
found very deep-milkers indeed, though they vary very much
in this respect, and they have, as one might expect, tremendous
appetites. The milk they give has locally the reputation of
being specially fine for purposes of making clotted cream, and
the beautiful butter that originates from the local production.
This is what the outside world knows as "Devonshire Cream,"
but west of Plymouth such a description will be very emphatic-
ally corrected by the assertion that Cornish cream is better,

10—2

148 BREEDS

but without any explanation as to the difference between the
Cornish and the Devonshire article. The reason why this
strong-boned, flat-sided cow's milk should be held to be so
good for clotted cream seems to be rather a matter of colour,
as the South Devon's milk is particularly rich-looking. There
may be other reasons, but so far they are unexplained. Aged
steers of the breed are much sought after to graze the rankest
of the best pasture fields in the Midlands, and there is a very
successful public sale at Totnes every year for the distribution
of the bulls which are by no means purchased only by local
farmers.

The astonishing thing is that meat-salesmen do not object
to South Devons ; by a certain class of butchers they are very
highly valued. Though the well-bred bullock cannot be accused
of being coarse, there is such development of bone that one
would expect this seriously to interfere with his popularity on
the block; moreover, for his size, the proportion of first-quality
joints always appears to be small both to the eye and under the
hand, and the "roastings" seem to be thin-fleshed; generally,
to the uninitiated, the South Devon seems very unlikely to
attract the butchers' favour. I have often been told, by those
experienced in the trade, the cause of this unexpected popularity.
The beast is found to be particularly thick-fleshed at those parts
of the carcase which carry the second-class cuts. These are
parts which are often difficult to sell. The tradesman who has
to supply, often under contract, large joints off the first-quality
parts of the carcase, often finds himself with a quantity of meat
which is cut from other places that cannot easily be dispose'd of.
My informants are convinced that the second-quality cuts from
the South Devon are so particularly good that ij is compara-
tively easy to find customers who will pay a profitable price for
them. Certainly, I have noticed that these steers when on the
hoof seem to handle particularly well at the brisket, which is one
of the largest, and a very important, joint of second quality.
It would be interesting to know whether the South* Devon is
exceptionally well covered with meat at such points or whether
he is merely better covered there than might be expected from
his general conformation. For, if these cattle should prove to

BREEDS 149

have a superiority over all others in this respect, they might,
with their possibilities for milk-production, be of use in future
breeding for general improvement.

Welsh Black Cattle.

Some 20 years ago there were jtwo distinct types of black
cattle in Wales; the North Welsh and the South Welsh, each
with its own Herd Book. For some reason the Breed Societies
of the two varieties amalgamated in 1904, and we now have but
one Herd Book.

The marked difference of the two sorts is still to be seen in
the markets, the Southern type being stronger in the bone, less
well sprung in the rib, and longer in the leg. The horn of this
type is often very dark indeed, and this was frequently looked
upon as a danger-signal when buying store cattle to grow on
into beef. The South Welsh cow Avas regarded as the better
milker and was held in high respfect for the constitution which
enabled her to fill a moderate-sized pail under most adverse
conditions of climate and keep; but when it came to buying
the steers to which she had given birth, admiration ceased.
Slow-growing and thin-fleshed, these steers would live on
barley-straw in the open throughout a hard winter, and finish
on moderate grass in the spring or summer at the ag6 of three
or four years ; it was very ungrateful work trying to force them
to better things on superior food. They had a strong objection
to any kind of close confinement in the winter, and did better
in a large, open yard with a little hay and plenty of straw than
when confined in a stall on the most abundant and nourishing
ration. Their chief virtue was their ability to stand the most
trying conditions of climate combined with the privations of
rough forage.

The North Wales cattle, though the cows were not considered
to milk as well, bred the famous store cattle known as Runts.
These were held in very high esteem by all graziers feeding
stock for beef on good pasture ; and especially by those wanting
cattle to graze the fertile but exposed marsh pasture-land on the
east coast qf England. The Runt was a moderately well-shaped
butcher's beast, a Httle coarse at the rumps, not particularly

150 , BREEDS

well sprung on the rib and, except in the best bred specimens,
just a little long on the leg. On the other hand, butchers testified
to the abundance of lean meat which they carried. They had,
further, the reputation of yielding a very high percentage of
carcase to live- weight, and though I have never seen any
beeflings of this breecj, the Black Welsh cattle at the Smithfield
Shows gave quite good weights for age.

The Agricultural Commissioner for Wales, writing^ of the
cattle of the Principality, says, ''There are breeds that grow
and feed more rapidly than the Welsh; there are breeds that
are better known for their milk; but there is none which
combines general utility with the hardiness necessary to thrive
under very unfavourable conditions to a greater extent than
this breed.'* If the South Wales steers such as I tried to winter-
feed in my youth are excepted, and if the milking qualities of
the dams of the Runts are shown by their records to be good,
no one can say that this claim is unfounded. If, on the other
hand, national ardour has led to some bad-doing steers and
some few doubtful milkers being overlooked, there can still be
no doubt that the systematic or scientific breeder has in the
Black Welsh cattle very promising material for work in the
future. The contour of the land in many of the beautiful
districts of Wales is such as to ensure its being used rather for
pastoral, than for arable, husbandry. Thus the improvement
of an already hardy and useful breed should be full of interest
and promises a rich reward.

1 See The Standard Encyclopedia of Modern Agriculture, vol. 12, page
125. The Gresham Publishing Co. Ltd.

CHAPTER XII

POLLED BREEDS

The Aberdeen Angus.

As the name indicates, these cattle originated in the herds
on the farms of the north-east of Scotland. They are normally
polled, though very occasionally horned animals appear among
them; small, immature weapons of defence, called scurs are,
however, fairly common. The prevailing colour is a jet black;
occasionally white markings appear and whole reds are by no
means unknown, but the vast majority of breeders aim at pro-
ducing stock of the first-named colour only. When thoroughly
finished the breed is, as a butcher's beast, very near perfection.
As it is all to the good for domesticated cattle to be without
horns, it is surprising that the breed does not spread itself over
the whole of the world's surface where cattle are required to
range and grow fat.

The general appearance of the high-bred bullock is blocky,
square, and very deep; the whole animal exemplifies quality,
and is especially good at all the first-quality joints. Along his
back the ribs and loin are very wide and carry a large amount
of well-marbled meat ; I have even heard butchers complain of
their being too good at the "roastings," as these parts are
called by the trade ; the reason given for this strange complaint
was that customers, being usually obliged to rely on cuts from
other stock, were spoilt when "Aberdeen Angus joints" were
supplied for a short time!

Furthermore, the beast is very level-fleshed; that is to say,
there is an absence of all that patchiness about the body which
denotes excess of soft fat ; he is also a wonderful handler, being
firm and springy all over. "A niass of firm meat" is a frequent
comment after a manual examination, and well describes the
quality of the animal.

The fleshers contend that not only are the "roastings" and
other first-quality joints excellent, but also that the flavour

152 POLLED BREEDS

and texture of all the meat are especially fine. During his first
year the Aberdeen Angus is perhaps not very fast-growing,
but later he fully makes up any deficiency in size; he is not a
particularly large feeder, but is credited with great powers
of digesting coarse or inferior fodder. On the famous north-
country turnips and oat-straw cattle of this breed are reputed
to thrive and grow amazingly. When mated with good speci-
mens of almost any other beef-breeds, superb beef-making
cross-breds are the result.

Yet with all these points to their credit, Aberdeen Angus
bulls do not monopolize the market when buyers want sires
to improve, or to maintain, the beefing qualities of great herds
of cows ; this is especially the case when the troops of females
are inferior, or unimproved, stock. What makes this the more
surprising is that specimens of the breed have carried off the
Championship at innumerable public exhibitions all over the
world in competition against animals of other breeds. Perhaps
the explanation of the Aberdeen Angus bull not being in greater
demand is that he has not the power of stamping quality and
quick growth on his offspring when mated with cattle inclined
to be thin-fleshed and slow-growing. This conjecture is sup-
ported by the evidence, frequently to be seen, of bunches of
very inferior store cattle evidently begotten by bulls of the
breed. Such evidence, however, is liable to be misleading for
the following reasons: the best first-cross stores are so much
appreciated that they very frequently pass from one owner to
another by private sale, and the absence of such rarities of
the trade from the public markets may make the misfits all
the more prominent to the eye. The strange thing about this
failing, if there be such a failing, is that the breed itself has
a very great propensity for piling on fat. Aberdeen Angus cows
or heifers more often fail to breed through getting excessively
fat than any other breed I know; at any rate this is the cause
given for their failure, and certainly appearances often confirm
such a view. That there are good milkers among cows of the
breed is undoubted, and on the whole one is driven to the con-
clusion ^at the factors which go to make up this wonderful
breed ought to be thoroughly investigated with a view to making

POLLED BREEDS

153

the Aberdeen Angus of more general use to the tenant-farmers
of England.

The cattle traders of Scotland who specialize in the very
high-class meat that the breed undoubtedly produces have a
very fine system of marketing. Either on hoof, or as carcase,
the cattle are distributed methodically so as to prevent an excess
of supply over demand lowering the value of the best quality.
The auctioneers in pre-war days, at markets on the east coast
of England, would receive just enough to satisfy the wants of
the best tradesmen in the seaside-resorts; large consignments
would go to large centres of consumption; small ones all over
England where wanted ; even Paris received its proper amount of
the famous Aberdonian "Roast-Beef." It is most earnestly
to be wished that such systematic marketing may soon
become universal in Great Britain; if the producer and con-
sumer are to have a greater share in the produce of the soil,
there is indeed great need for such co-operation.

The Galloway.

This breed, like the last, is polled and most frequently black
in colour, and for these reasons the two varieties are often
mistaken for one another. It is true that underbred specimens
of each variety are apt to be very much alike, for they lose the
breed type of both ; but, apart from this, it may be said that the
two breeds differ as much as the south-west of Scotland —
the place of origin of the Galloway — and the home of the
Aberdeen Angus in the north-east of that country. As they
give a good opportunity to the student to exercise his judgment,
it may be useful to describe the differences.

The head of the Aberdeen Angus is shorter, especially from
eye to muzzle; the lower jaw is deeper, better sprung and
cleaner cut, and firm at the muzzle. The width between the
eyes is great in both breeds. The short, wide head with well-
sprung, deep, clean-cut jaw is often looked upon as typical of
good meat-production quality. It is certainly true that this is
the shape of the head of the Aberdeen. Angus, and it may be
admitted that that breed is second to none as a good beef-
producing animal; but it is quite conceivable that the head of

154 POLLED BREEDS

the good beef animals that are not Aberdeen Angus may be of
other conformation. It may well be, indeed, that the Aberdeen's
head is the origin of the popular belief that a certain shape
denotes beef-producing qualities.

The poll of the Galloway is flat, that of the Aberdeen Angus
is pointed, and the ear of the former is larger and less well-
rolled, or more open than that of the latter. The hide of the
Galloway is much the thicker, and very highly valued by the
tanner ; its coat is longer and more hairy. The greatest difference
however, is in the shape and build of the whole body. The
Aberdeen, well sprung in the rib, thick in the flesh, fine in the
bone, and well put together, is well described as *' block-like";
the Galloway on the other hand is quite strong-boned, has
rather flat sides, looks longer, and is what a horseman would
describe as "loosely coupled." Thus the two breeds are quite
different in shape.

The colour of the Galloway often shows a red tinge ; black
and whites, duns and reds are also frequently found. The
breed has a great reputation for hardiness against which must
be set the charge, made by those who know the breed, that they
do not grow quickly or mature early; it is, as beef-breeds go,
a good milker, but does not generally give a high enough yield
to claim dual-purpose capacity. It is sometimes claimed for
it, and perhaps with some justice, that a joint from its carcase
will give a deeper layer of lean meat, in proportion to its size,
than that from any other British ox.

It is, however, the power of the cow, when mated with a
"white" Shorthorn, to drop the wonderful "Blue-grey"
calves which make the highly valued stores, that renders the
breed most interesting. Bulls of the desired colour have been
bred for this purpose in the "Border Country" for genera-
tions by many farmers who make a speciality of supplying the
demand for these sires. I have wondered whether these bulls
are truly described as white; to me they have always appeared
to be cream colour. It is a point of some interest, having regard
to the constant discussion of the inheritance of colour according
to the laws of Mendel. The cross is altogether an admirable
one as regards beef-production. The quality and early maturity

POLLED BREEDS 155

of the Shorthorn parent prevail, and to this is added the firm
fleshing and, according to some authorities, the abundance of
lean meat from the Galloway dam. Blue-greys are said to be
more hardy than Shorthorns, but I have no experience in this,
and probably the point is only rarely put to the test, for, after
weaning, the calves are well cared for ; it is the cows that -are
expected to stand a great deal of exposure in the altitudes of
the rigorous climate in which they live. Nor have I ever been
able to find reliable evidence that Blue-greys "do" particularly
well; this term, implying a profitable return for food consumed,
is, however, frequently applied to them by men of experience.
One is compelled to distrust popular beliefs founded upon
appearances. When neither the animals nor the rations are
weighed, obviously the eye is the only guide. How often the eye
is misleading only those who have experience of recording
weights and amounts of food consumed can thoroughly realize.
The beautiful Blue-grey always shows to advantage ; it is very
seldom that a beast of this colour looks otherwise than thriving,
and so it is quite possible that, when judging by appearances
rather than by ascertained fact, this colour creates a prejudice.
The belief is so widely held and the knowing feeders pay such
* high prices for the stores, that it is important to learn the truth.
Until we know the truth, it is difficult to dogmatize about Blue-
greys. The value of first-cross bred animals is held to be very
great. Many practitioners will assert freely that the first-cross
produce of two breeds is better than either of the parents. The
origin of this belief can very frequently be traced to the alleged
superiority of the Blue-grey; and to accept the whole theory
on this assumed superiority seems most unwise. The import-
ance, then, of testing the belief by proper trial is clear.

In plant-breeding there appears to be greatly increased vigour
in the ''hybrid" off^spring of two different varieties crossed
together. Many observers working on Mendelian lines have
noted this. It may be that the Blue-grey is an instance of what
Mendel's disciples call an Fj, showing the same increased
vitality as is believed to be seen in the plant. On the other hand,
it is permissible to doubt whether the factors governing utility
characters are fixed to the same extent in the different breeds

156 POLLED BREEDS

of cattle as they are in different varieties of plants. It has often
seemed to me that, as regards utility points or characters or
aptitudes, F^ animals are apt to occur within the same breed.
This possibility might, with care, be tested while ascertaining
the relative qualities of the Galloway, the Shorthorn and their
cross-bred offspring — the Blue-grey.

The Red Poll.

The only remaining polled breed that is bred in sufficient
numbers to be looked upon as commercial stock is included in
this chapter because of its hornless condition, and not because it
has any resemblance to the two polled breeds of Scotland. Nor is
it intended to countenance the vague speculations on the polled
condition now found in the East Anglian breed — a breed which
to-day differs in many important respects from the Northern
cattle. Indeed, even this remote and ancient connexion which
is held to have had such important results as regards the carrying
of horns is not admitted by all authorities, and it is therefore
safer to say that the red cattle of Suffolk and Norfolk simply
resemble the Aberdeen Angus and the Galloway in being horn-
less and that there the resemblance begins and ends.

Some years ago, not many generations, as cattle lineage goes, it
would have been true to say that the Red Poll was par excellence a
dual-purpose breed. That one cannot say so now about all the
tribes or families composing the breed is due to certain dis-
tinguished breeders having determined to select their bulls and
cows with a view to beef-production to the neglect of milking
qualities. It is very difficult to understand what gain was to
be expected from this policy. There are surely many breeds as
good for the shambles as any Red Polls that have ever been
produced ; there is no evidence that the best specimens of Red
Polls were more economical in any way as beef-makers than
the general run, say, of the Aberdeen Angus or the Devons ; and
the former have never rivalled the outstanding stock from the
herds of the many recognized single-purpose beef varieties. On
the other hand, the dual-purpose animal is much less common,
is much more useful in intensive husbandry, such as ought to
be commonly practised in a thickly-populated country, and the

POLLED BREEDS 157

double faculty of meat and milk production is very easy indeed
to lose. The Red Poll breeders may well be reminded how easy
it is to lose milking qualities without necessarily improving the
fleshing capability of their stock. The Shorthorn breeders'
experience ought, it is suggested, to act as a wholesome warning
to the owners who still are fortunate enough to own herds of
dual-purpose Red Polls. It was a common experience fifteen
years ago, it is still unfortunately far from rare, to breed a
Shorthorn that gives the smallest possible amount of milk and
yet cannot be classed higher than as a second-class beef-pro-
ducer. The live-stock literature of the seventies is full of the
surest evidence that certain Shorthorn families were then ex-
cellent milkers. Unfortunately these families were in some
cases mated, through several generations, with sires that had
been bred solely for beef, and so the cows of the tribes which
in the seventies had been famous for the dairy had lost class
as milkers in the nineties. At the beginning of this century, or
thereabouts, when a determined and successful effort was made
to re-estabhsh the dual-purpose Shorthorn in all her glory, the
folly of the previous method of breeding became only too
apparent.

Within the last ten years I have bought for grazing, in a good
midland farming district, a truck-load of pedigree heifers at less
cost per head than I could have bought non-pedigree steer
stores from Ireland. There was not a heifer in the whole bunch
whose pedigree was not good. The volumes of the Live Stock
Journal and Fancier's Gazette for the years 1875 to 1880 bear
testimony again and again to the good dual-purpose quality
of cows that were the progenitors of these heifers which,
through the use of pure beef bulls, had lost all aptitude to milk
and had not thereby gained one scrap of flesh. This was no
uncommon experience. There are to-day very few Dairy Short-
horn herds in which, after years of careful selection, an occasional
specimen, such as I have just described, does not appear. The
Red Poll breeders will, therefore, be well advised to preserve
the dual-purpose character of their stock with the greatest
possible care and to guard against using bulls, however blocky
and full of flesh they may be, whose female progenitors are not

CHAPTER XIII

BREEDS {continued)

The Dutch or British Friesian.

The black and white cattle of Holland have acquired great
notoriety during the last four years owing to the truly amazing
prices made by them in the auction ring. These fabulous
prices culminated in no less than 4,500 guineas being given in
the sununer of 191 8 for a specimen of the breed. Less than
ten years ago I spent a fortnight in Holland buying these cattle,
and throughout my stay met many prominent breeders who
frequently alluded with pride, as well as with evident surprise,
to the fact of the champion bull being sold for £400. It is true
that £6,000 has in the past been paid for a pedigree Shorthorn
cow and that high four-figure bids were constantly made for
specimens of the breed in the early seventies of last century.
But this period of what has been called the Bates and Booth
mania occurred no less than 60 years after the whole agricul-
tural world was set talking about the i ,000 guineas paid by a
combine of breeders for the bull Comet at Mr C. Collings's sale
in 1 8 10. Further, since the era just alluded to, £3,000 is knowTi
to have been paid for a champion at our leading Uve-stock show,
and over £1 ,000 has not infrequently been given for outstanding
winners in Shorthorn classes and prize-taking cattle of other
breeds. In the prices recently paid for Dutch cattle, however,
not only has the rise been extraordinarily rapid, but also the
curve has mounted out of all proportion during the last two
years, during which there have been no exhibitions to enable
the stock to intoxicate the bidders by their triumphs in the
show-ring. The facts are so astounding that they require some
examination.

There can be no doubt that considerable prestige was given
to the breed when, in the sunmier of 19 14, the Government
permitted some of the stock to be imported from Holland, not-
withstanding the statute which excludes all cattle, except those

BREEDS i6i

kept in Britain during that time. 'I'he indigenous cattle of
Holland were wanted to milk; with this object in view, careful
and well-authenticated records of performances at the pail
were kept, so that all cows giving small yields could be
eliminated — and this was done ruthlessly. Furthermore, the
milk was more often than not sold at rates which rose or fell
according to its richness in butter-fat. This was necessary
because this produce was wanted for cheese and butter-making,
and also because it was found that the unimproved breed
naturally gave milk of low quality. By carrying on a system of
milk-testing for quality while recording the quantities, the
breeders of Dutch Cattle, in the course of years, threw out from
their breeding stock all parents likely to reproduce bad milkers,
either in the sense of giving little or of yielding stuff of low fat
percentage. In this way the Province of Friesland and the
greater part of the rest of Holland obtained, after many years
of good Work, cows that could be relied upon to give great
weights of milk of moderately rich quality. More than this
cannot be said; for the average quality of the best herds in
Holland is not high in butter-fat.

Now in England no effort was systematically made under
supervision, as was the case in Holland, to get rid of bad milkers
up to the year 1914; the result is that, whenever it has been
tested, the milk varies very much from moderate to poor in
quality. In fact, the fluid is often so poor as to contain less than
the 3 per cent, of butter-fat which is the limit fixed by Govern-
ment as a standard below which milk may not be sold ; or rather,
the authorities say that if milk is sold below standard it is, as has
been said before , held to be adulterated until the contrary is proved.
With all deep-milking breeds, untoward circumstances will'oc-
casionally bring the quality down to a percentage much below
normal For instance, if the average quality of the mixed milk of
20 cows is 3-7 per cent., one may reasonably expect that it will
nearly always pass the standard ; the exceptions, in other words,
will be sp few as to make the chances of a summons for assumed
adulteration uncommon. But the unimproved Friesland cows,
that is to say, animals that have not been bred through several
generations from animals selected as breeding stock because

1 62 BREEDS

their produce has been found to be relatively rich, may only
give milk averaging from 3 to 3-2 per cent., and this quality is
fairly certain, in the course of time, to bring the owner more
than once before the magistrates. Thus, besides frequently
supplying the public with inferior goods, the owner of unim-
proved Dutch cattle is likely to find his legal expenditure robbing
him of much profit, even when he has a deep-milking herd.

This last-mentioned characteristic cannot be assumed to
belong to all the cows now spoken of as "British Friesland"
when the magic word "imported" is not prefixed to their name.
On the contrary, the Black and White Dutch Cattle bred in
England for several generations without any admixture of im-
ported blood — an impossibility between 1894 ^^^ ^9^i — ^^^
without any controlled or systematic selection of breeding
stock, are apt to vary just as much as any lot of milk-like looking
cows, whether registered pedigree or mongrel stock. They are
found to give, when in full profit, anything from 550 to 1,000
gallons of milk in the 10 months following the third and subse-
quent calvings.

The difficulties of establishing good milking qualities among
these cattle are not so great as to deter our breeders from the
attempt. Only an ignorant person could believe that the English-
men who have won the admiration of the whole world as ex-
hibition live-stock producers are likely to fail if they turn their
attention to the production of good milkers. It may be safely
asserted that the British breeders will, if they so wish, in the
course of a few generations place their own Friesian cattle in
the highest possible class for quality and quantity of milk; and
we know that in regard to milk-production the stock belonging
to the best Dutch breeders is capable of giving very high yields
of moderate quality. In this respect our home breeders have
a very severe task in front of them, and they know it; but they
may be trusted to be large-minded enough to profit by the
wisdom of others and to use the same scientific methods which
their competitors have used for some 30 years with such suc-
cessful results.

Granted that the necessary skill can undoubtedly be found to
accomplish all this, one is still bound to wonder whether this

BREEDS - 163

breed is suitable for our own husbandry. It is much to be
regretted that our Government did not estabUsh this fact before
encouraging, by allowing an exceptional privilege to the breeders
of these cattle, the reproduction of the race. There can be no
doubt that a craze (one can use no other term) has set in for
the British Friesland which may possibly be detrimental to the
future production of beef in our home country.

The whole question turns upon whether or no the cows can
breed beef steers. They are exceptional milkers as regards
quantity. They are far behind Guernseys as regards quality
of milk, and the Guernsey could easily be selected to compete
with the Friesland in regard to quantity if size were taken into
consideration; thus there is no reason, from the milk-yielding
point of view, why we should find the former breed selling for
hundreds while people tumble over one another to bid thousands
for good Friesians. The Dutch cow, if slaughtered young,
yields a carcase of good cow-beef, but no better than is to be
obtained from any good non-pedigree deep-milking Shorthorn.
Of these latter it may be objected that they vary very much,
but in the districts of South Holland — a locality from which
the best dual-purpose cattle of Holland are to be obtained —
I have never seen cows anything like as good as the best Short-
horns sent out regularly every month by the dairymen who
supply the North Country cities of our own land with warm
milk. The latter have a just grievance against the breeders
of the worst cattle they have to house and fatten for the
butcher; they have a right to ask that the English breeder
should emulate the wonderful uniformity of the Dutch breeders'
stock ; but they have , always among their herds some deep-
milking cows that for beef-production are quite unequalled by
any dual-purpose cattle in the world. The Friesian drops a
very wonderful calf, considered from the point of view of feeding
for veal. Though I have no means of judging other than by
observation, nevertheless, I feel convinced that no breed pro-
duces a calf that is born so fat as the Friesian ; the importance
of this factor can only be realized by those who have been
obliged, to their misfortune, to get veal from calves which,
at birth, were mere skin and bone. But the whole problem

1 64 BREEDS

before us is to maintain our reputation as prime beef-producers
and, while doing so, to make a reputation in the future for
farming intensively the whole of our land, not merely the more
favoured areas, thus winning abundant food for the nation,
besides profit for the individual. For this purpose cattle that
are good milkers, even though they drop calves that make good
veal, cannot be said to be suitable if they do not breed steers
suitable for beef making.

I am in considerable doubt as to whether the Friesian has
this latter quality. For many years I have made observations
on this point. In the Netherlands I have never seen one good
steer of the desired kind. It is true that one does not see many,
but all I have seen have been inferior. In this country, every
now and then, one hears of good Dutch beef -beasts, though far
more frequently one hears complaints about them. I have never
seen one, that I knew to be pure bred, of better quality than
those I have seen either in Holland or those brought from that
country to the rich cattle pastures of Flanders. The good
bullocks shown to me on more than one occasion were, obviously,
merely Dutch in colour and markings, and many times I have
been able to establish the history of cross-breeding. Black and
White animals, with the typical Friesian admixture of the colours,
are very persistent in cross-bred cattle that carry any Dutch
blood in their ancestry. It is such cattle as these, I am inclined
to suspect, that are the source of the rumours one constantly
hears of the good fleshing qualities of so-called Dutch beef-
beasts.

In the preface that Dr F. H. A. Marshall has kindly written
for this book, he speaks emphatically (see p. vi) of the com-
plicated anatomical characters that go to make a good beef-beast.
There is a possibility that the Dutch steer may fail in one or
more of these characters ^ and it is most important that this matter
should be speedily put to the test of thorough and impartial in-
vestigation. In the interests of the breed itself it is desirable ;
for there have been so few real specimens available for empirical
observation that it may be found to be quite wrong to denv
good beef-making qualities to the breed. On the other hand,
claims are being put forward that the high prices paid at

BREEDS 165

public sales for specimens of the breed are justified on account
of the animals possessing dual-purpose capacity. If by dual-
purpose capacity it is meant to imply the power of breeding
steers fit for the feeder and butcher, it can only be replied that
the claim is made without any sound evidence to support it.

It was rumoured at the time of the famous sale of imported
stock in 1 9 14 that the Government had made this most excep-
tional concession in favour of the breeders of this variety for
the sake of the cattle export trade ; if this was so, well and good.
I happened to be in South Holland, North Holland and Fries-
land at the same time as commissioners from America, Russia,
Japan and South Africa who were buying these cattle, and I
never heard the dual capacity of the breed mentioned. All
reference to the animal's merits was confined to the records of
milk-yield and butter-fat tests held by various females in their
pedigree. I am, therefore, not a little apprehensive that the
merits of the breed as beef-producers have been urged with a
view to securing the custom of our home tenant-farmers. If this
apprehension is well founded, it is very deplorable; for, if we
are to avoid the evils of the past, the home husbandry should be
our first claim.

No one will question the value of the export trade. But if
our future husbandry is to be as productive as possible, the
subordination of the tenant-farmer's interests to the demands
of the overseas trade must be carefully avoided. The greatest
possible credit is due to the body of pedigree-breeders who have
captured and held the export business, for the animals they have
sent all over the world have deservedly won unstinted admira-
tion ; but the demand they have thus supplied is not necessarily
the same as that which should come from their neighbours. In
the past, the home supply of suitable stock has been inadequate,
while the customers from overseas have been fully and admir-
ably satisfied. There is no need whatever to curtail the efforts
of those who wish to continue the overseas trade; there is, in
fact, every reason to encourage them, but the home supply
must, if we are to maintain ourselves in the forefront of nations,
be for, the future the first consideration of those responsible for
the advancement and improvement of our breeds of cattle.

1 66 BREEDS

Till it is established, one way or the other, that the Friesian
is suitable for the home requirements of our farmers, no public
authority should advance the interests of the breed against those
that are found to be useful. Until the question of beef-pro-
duction among the steers is decided, it may well be that the
enthusiasm for the breed which is being encouraged by many
well-wishers tOvBritish farming, is but another case of failure to
obtain the greatest possible amount of home-grown produce
from our land. Here again is seen the great need for more of
that knowledge which can only be acquired through scientific
research and systematic trial, tested by practice on the farms of
our native land.

INDEX

Aberdeen Angus 97, 151 ff.

Abortion, Contagious 65

Adeane, C. R. W. 83

Africa, South 165

Agricultural Development Com-
missioners 89

Agricultural Society, Royal 82, 83;
Journal 30, 92 n., 146

Agriculture, Board of 21, 30 n., 38,
78, 83 n., 90, 95 n. ; Journal 95 n.

America 165

Argentine 80

Armsby 104 n.

Bakewell, Robert 69 ff., 137

Bates 78

Beef, Grass 23 ff. ; "Norfolk "35, 36;

Scotch 35; Winter 36 fi.
Beeflings 42 ff., 112
Beef-production, Effect of age on

cost of 53
Belgium i

Biffen, Prof. R. H. 76
Bird, Rev. M. C. H. 38 n.
Bischoff 104
Blue Grevs 29, 1 54 if.
Booth 78

Breeding. Pedigree 69 ff.
Breeds 124 ff. and 159 ff.; Polled

150 ff.
Bruce, R. 132 n.
Byfleet 160 n.

Calves, Feeding of 45 ff.

Cambridge School of Agriculture 21

Cambridgeshire 83 n.

Cattle, Dual-purpose 56 ff.

Cheese 2, 54, 66, 67

Chili 81

Coates's Herd Book 69, 81, 137, 138

Collings. C. 159

Collings, Robert and George 72 ff.

Comet (bull) 159

Continent, Cattle husbandry of the

2 ff., 35, 66. 98
Co-operation 35, 65, 142
Cornell University 120
Cornevin 122
Corpus luteum 119
Cow-beef 4 ff., 94
Crosland, W. P. 83
Cruickshank, Amos 78, 131, 132

Dairy Shorthorns 81 ff., 157

Denmark i, 96

Devons 29, 39, 142 ff.; North 143;
South 29, 143, 147 ff.; "Somer-
set" 143

Devonshire Cream 147

Diseases of Animals Act 11, 81 n.

Dual-purpose cattle 56 ff.

Dutch Cattle, Black and White 162

England, North of 93
Estancia cattle-keeping 79
Europe, Eastern and Central i

Faeces 104, 5

Fancier's Gazette 157 .

Farmer and Stockbreeder 160

Fat 108

Fat stock 14

Feeding 105 ff.; cost of 37ff. ; of

calves 45 ff.
Fisher, C. B. 30
Friesian, Dutch or British 159
Friesland 4, 161, 165

Galloways 153 ff.

Germanv i, 41

Gilbert '13, 78

Grass, Store reared on 18 ff.

Grass beef 23 ff.

Guernseys 163

Herd Book Society 147
Herefords 29, 139 ff. ,
Highlanders, West 29
Holderness herds 74
Holland i, 3 ff., 54, 159 ff.
Holstein-Friesian Cattle Society,

British 160
"Hoose" 27
Housman, W. 128, 132

Ipswich 158
Ireland 3

Japan 165

Lawes 13, 38, 78, 11 1

Leeu warden 4, 5

Lincoln Reds 29, 115, 137, 138

Live Stock Journal 157

Lloyd George, Rt Hon. D. 70 n.

1 68

INDEX

Longhorns 74
Loram, A. and T. 143
" Lung worm " 27

Manure 10, 12 ff.

Marbling no ff.

Marshall, Dr F. H. A. 21, 30 n., 32,

95, 99 n., 103, 164
Mendel 76. 99, 100, 155
Milk 44 ff., 56 ff., 89 ff., 161
"Milking out fat"* 65
Murray 108 n.

New York State Veterinary College

120
Norfolk 35, 36, 38, 156

Oestrus 116 ff.
Ovulation ii6ff.

Pasture, Store-bullock raised on

15 «.
Pavlov 106

Pedigree breeding 69 fif,
Pevensey Marsh 141
Physiology 103 ff.
Pigs 2, 3, 96

Plough-land, Store reared on 18 ff.
"Points" 73 ff.
Polder pastures 3
Prepotency 129

"Quality" 125

Reading University College 91
Red Polls 156 ff.
Rigden, H. 146
Romney Marsh 145
Rose, Dr J. Holland 70 n.
Rothamsted 13, 78
Runt 149
Russia 165

Scotland 35, 93

Scots cattle 29

Scurs 151

Sheep 4, II

Sheldon 115

Shorthorns 29, 72 ff., 112, 115,

126 ff., 154 ff.; Herd Book 84
Sinclair, James 72 n., 74, 126
Size of cattle 124, 5
Skin-temperatures 77
Smith. Meade 104
South-Eastern Agricultural College

91
Store-bullock 15 ff.
Store cattle 0 ff., 93
Suet 29
Suffolk 156
Sussex cattle 29, 144 ff.

Teeswater herds 74
Thornton, J. 128
Totnes 148
"Touch" 77, 126
Townsend 71
Tuberculosis 65
TuU, Jethro 71
Tympanitis 26 n.

U-boats 6, 71

Urine 105

UtiUty points 74 ff.

Voit 104

Wales, North 149
Webb, F. N. 83
Welsh, Black 29, 149 ff.
Williams 119
Willis, J. Deane 131 n.
Winter beef. 34 ff.
Wood, Prof. T. B. 77, 78

Young, Arthur 72

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