CHAPTER LVII. CATTLE. BY FINLAY DUN, F.R.C.V.S., Member of The Royal Agricultural Society of England, and The Highland Agricultural Society, Scotland; Author of "American Farming and Food," "Landlords and Tenants in Ireland," "6 Veterinary Medicines, their Actions and Uses." THE cattle of the United Kingdom represent the largest amount of capital invested in any one department of the farm. During the last fifty years, notwithstanding the prevalence of contagious disorders, and the restrictions needful to hold them in check, and the greatly augmented importations of foreign live stock and dead meat, the home herds have steadily increased. Their rearing and feeding have generally paid better than corn growing, notably since 1850. The statistical returns for 1891 present the following bovine enumeration: The importance of these herds, alike to the farmer and the community, may be more fully realised by indicating the annual amount and value of the chief products obtained from them, based upon an estimate of farm produce prepared in 1888 by the late James Howard of Bedford. One-fourth of the total cattle of this country, including 2,835,921 hides, at 175. ... 600,000,000 gallons milk, at 7d. per gallon £42,538,815 2,400,532 17,500,000 II,200,000 6,533,333 £80,172,680 This is a handsome annual return from the cattle department of British farming. It constitutes about sevenelevenths of the total annual farm receipts. It is several millions sterling in excess of the totals realised from all the grain and green crops with the produce of hay, hops, orchards and market gardens thrown in. Sheep and pigs together annually contribute about forty-five million pounds sterling to the receipts. The animals which yield this revenue are of a very diversified character. Judicious selection of native and imported varieties have produced types of cattle specially suitable for feeding on pasture, and in the house, for dairying under different conditions, and yielding full returns whether of milk, butter or cheese. Youatt and other chroniclers describe the cattle found in earlier times in various districts of this country. A notable semiferal variety, creamy white, with black muzzle and rather large spreading horns, has been preserved for several hundred years at Chillingham Castle, Northumberland, and at Chatelherault Park, Hamilton. The blood-red Devons for several centuries occupied Devonshire and the adjacent counties. In West-Somerset were red cattle, sheeted with white, some of which still survive. Wales had several distinct varieties-black, red, or brindled-and the Glamorganshire, to which the Farmer King, George III. was partial, were distributed over most of the western. and mid-western counties, were subsequently crossed with Longhorns, and, more recently, generally and persistently with Shorthorns. Leicestershire, Derbyshire, and Yorkshire, with their more abundant pasturage, grazed larger beasts, many of them useful in the dairy. The dun-coloured Suffolks were also prized for milk. The chestnut-red Sussex were serviceable for draught purposes, and after many years of comparative neglect, by judicious selection and infusion, apparently of Devon and Hereford strains, have, during forty years, taken a good position both in the summer and winter show yards. The Longhorns early last century were recorded to be robust, big of frame, the oxen powerful for draught, the cows good at the pail. They were greatly improved by Bakewell of Dishley, and Fowler of Rollright, Oxfordshire, who, a hundred years ago, sold bulls at prices ranging from fifty pounds to two hundred and fifty pounds sterling, and at his sale in 1791 sold six females at an average of one hundred and sixty-five pounds sterling, his herd of fifty producing four thousand two hundred and eighty-nine pounds sterling. Another breeder, Mr. Princeps, is stated to have been offered two thousand pounds for twenty Longhorned cows, and had an ox slaughtered at four years old which is recorded to have weighed three thousand four hundred and seventy-two pounds, exclusive of three hundred and fifty pounds of tallow and a hide of one hundred and seventy-seven pounds. A few Longhorned herds are still preserved in Warwickshire and Staffordshire. The Devons, one of the oldest of English breeds, have maintained, and indeed increased their reputation. Their symmetry, quality and early maturity were improved by such breeders as Quartley and Davy, and inore recently by Mr. George Turner and Mr. Walter Farthing. Her Majesty has raised them successfully at the Flemish Farm, Windsor. The small smart North Devons are reputed the purest; they well deserve the designation of multum in parvo, but they render good account of food, and time, and well-grazed or house-fed, the three-year old steers scale one thousand five hundred or one thousand six hundred pounds live weight, and readily yield sixty per cent. of prime beef. Picked specimens have been champions both at Bingley Hall and Smithfield, and the Devon three-year old prize ox was in this proud position at the Islington show in December, 1891. Many of the cows of the larger breed in the southern parts of the country are good milkers, and yield an annual average profit of £10 to £12. Herefordshire, from records dated 1627, appears to have had a breed of "well conditioned cattle," which are stated to have been further improved by crosses with the Flemish, whence it is believed have been derived the characteristic white face and markings which have distinguished Herefords for a hundred and fifty years. Reds predominate, the dark reds are preferred, but grays and whites occasionally occur. The "white faces" have. always been remarkable for size and substance. Like other breeds during the last fifty years they have acquired compactness and style, their meat is more evenly distributed, they mature earlier. The first prize bull at the Oxford Royal, in 1839, weighed thirty-five hundredweights. For fifty-three years from the foundation of the Smithfield Club until 1851, Herefords had gained two hundred and seven bullock prizes, while the Shorthorns only had one hundred and seventy-four. Like their rivals they have been bought at handsome figures for America and the Colonies. In Wyoming, United States America, I have seen a herd of upwards of a hundred pedigree Herefords imported and native, as good as could be collected in the calf land of the breed. America produced in 1880 her "Hereford Record," based upon the English Hereford Herd Book, started in 1846. The Teeswater and other Durham breeds had acquired more than a local celebrity a hundred years ago, and from there the Stephensons, Brothers Collings, the Maynards and other breeders made careful selection and impressed the type they sought by in breeding. These Durham cattle presently became known as Shorthorns, in contradistinction to the Longhorns which they have since displaced. Thomas Bates, the Brothers Booth, and other good judges, have further fixed and improved the type, symmetry, style, early maturity and aptitude to fatten, while some strains have also had their dairy capabilities cultivated. Coates' Shorthorn Herd Book was published in 1822; for a time was issued every second year, and since 1874 has appeared annually. The thirty-seventh volume, published September, 1891, brings the recorded number of bulls to sixty-two thousand and sixty-two; of these eight thousand four hundred and thirty-four are entered in this volume with three thousand nine hundred and twenty cows and their produce. The Shorthorn Society, founded in 1872, now numbers one thousand one hundred and thirty members. Since the Royal Agricultural Society's first show at Oxford in 1839, the breed has been numerously and successfully exhibited not only at |