Cattle and Their Diseases Part 10

There being a great difference in the quality as well as in the quant.i.ty of the milk of different cows, no dairyman should neglect to test the milk of each new addition to his dairy stock, whether it be an animal of his own raising or one brought from abroad. A lactometer--or instrument for testing the comparative richness of different species of milk--is very convenient for this purpose; but any one can set the milk of each cow separately at first, and give it a thorough trial, when the difference will be found to be great. Economy will dictate that the cows least to the purpose should be disposed of, and their places supplied with better ones.

THE RAISING OF CALVES.

It has been found in practice that calves properly bred and raised on the farm have a far greater intrinsic value for that farm, other things being equal, than any that can be procured elsewhere; while on the manner in which they are raised will depend much of their future usefulness and profit. These considerations should have their proper weight in deciding whether a promising calf from a good cow and bull shall be kept, or sold to the butcher. But, rather than raise a calf at hap-hazard, and simply because its dam was celebrated as a milker, the judicious farmer will prefer to judge of the peculiar characteristics of the animal itself. This will often save the great and useless outlay which has sometimes been incurred in raising calves for dairy purposes, which a more careful examination would have rejected as unpromising.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MATERNAL AFFECTION.]

The method of judging stock which has been recommended in the previous pages is of practical utility here, and it is safer to rely upon it to some extent, particularly when other appearances concur, than to go on blindly. The milk-mirror on the calf is, indeed, small, but no smaller in proportion to its size than that of the cow; while its shape and form can generally be distinctly seen, particularly at the end of ten or twelve weeks. The development of the udder, and other peculiarities, will give some indication of the future capacities of the animal, and these should be carefully studied. If we except the manure of young stock, the calf is the first product of the cow, and as such demands our attention, whether it is to be raised or hurried off to the shambles.

The practice adopted in raising calves differs widely in different sections of the country, being governed very much by local circ.u.mstances, as the vicinity of a milk-market, the value of milk for the dairy, the object of breeding, whether mainly for beef, for work, or for the dairy, etc.; but, in general, it may be said, that, within the range of thirty or forty miles of good veal-markets, which large towns furnish, comparatively few are raised at all. Most of them are fattened and sold at ages varying from three to eight or ten weeks; and in milk-dairies still nearer large towns and cities they are often hurried off at one or two days, or, at most, a week old. In both of these cases, as long as the calf is kept it is generally allowed to suck the cow, and, as the treatment is very simple, there is nothing which particularly calls for remark, unless it be to condemn the practice entirely, upon the ground that there is a more profitable way of fattening calves for the butcher, and to say that allowing the calf to suck the cow at all is objectionable on the score of economy, except in cases where it is rendered necessary by the hard and swollen condition of the udder.

If the calf is so soon to be taken away, it is better that the cow should not be suffered to become attached to it at all: since she is inclined to withhold her milk when it is removed, and thus a loss is sustained. The farmer will be governed by the question of profit, whatever course it is decided to adopt. In raising blood-stock, however, or in raising beef cattle, without any regard to economy of milk, the system of suckling the calves, or letting them run with the cow, may and will be adopted, since it is usually attended with somewhat less labor.

The other course, which is regarded as the best where the calf is to be raised for the dairy, is to bring it up by hand. This is almost universally done in all countries where the raising of dairy cows is best understood--in Switzerland, Holland, some parts of Germany, and England. It requires rather more care, on the whole; but it is decidedly preferable, since the calves cost less, as the food can be easily modified, and the growth is not checked, as is usually the case when the calf is taken off from the cow. Allusion is here made, of course, to sections where the milk of the cow is of some account for the dairy, and where it is too valuable to be devoted entirely to nourishing the calf.

In this case, as soon as the calf is dropped the cow is allowed to lick off the slimy moisture till it is dry, which she will generally do from instinct, or, if not, a slight sprinkling of salt over the body of the calf will immediately tempt her. The calf is left to suck once or twice, which it will do as soon as it is able to stand. It should, in all cases, be permitted to have the first milk which comes from the cow, which is of a turbid, yellowish color, unfit for any of the purposes of the dairy, but somewhat purgative and medicinal, and admirably and wisely designed by Nature to free the bowels and intestines of the new-born animal from the mucous, excrement.i.tious matter always existing in it after birth. Too much of this new milk may, however, be hurtful even to the new-born calf, while it should never be given at all to older calves. The best course would seem to be--and such is in accordance with the experience of the most successful stock-raisers--to milk the cow dry immediately after the calf has sucked once, especially if the udder is painfully distended, which is often the case, and to leave the calf with the cow during one day, and after that to feed it by putting the fingers into its mouth, and gently bringing its muzzle down to the milk in a pail or trough when it will imbibe in sucking the fingers. No great difficulty will be experienced in teaching the calf to drink when taken so young, though some take to it much more readily than others. What the calf does not need should be given to the cow. Some, however, prefer to milk immediately after calving; and, if the udder is overloaded, this may be the best course, though the better practice appears to be, to leave the cow as quietly to herself as possible for a few hours. The less she is disturbed, as a general thing, the better.

The after-birth should be taken from her immediately after it is dropped. It is customary to give the cow, as soon as convenient after calving, some warm and stimulating drink--a little meal stirred into warm water, with a part of the first milk which comes from her, seasoned with a little salt.

In many cases the calf is taken from the cow immediately; and before she has seen it, to a warm, dry pen out of her sight, and there rubbed till it is thoroughly dry; and then, when able to stand, fed with the new milk from the cow, which it should have three or four times a day, regularly, for the first fortnight, whatever course it is proposed to adopt afterwards. It is of the greatest importance to give the young calf a thrifty start. The milk, unless coming directly from the cow, should be warmed.

Some object to removing the calf from the cow in this way, on the ground of its apparent cruelty. But the objection to letting the calf suck the cow for several days, as they do, or indeed of leaving it with the cow for any length of time, is, that she invariably becomes attached to it, and frets and withholds her milk when it is at last taken from her. She probably suffers much more, after this attachment is once formed, at the removal of the object of it, than she does at its being taken at first out of her sight. The cow's memory is far more retentive than many suppose; and the loss and injury sustained by removing the calf after it has been allowed to suck her for a longer or shorter period are never known exactly, because it is not usually known how much milk the calf takes; but it is, without doubt, very considerable. If the udder is all right, there seems to be no good reason for leaving the calf with the cow for two or three days, if it is then to be taken away.

The practice in Holland is to remove the calf from its mother even before it has been licked, and to take it into a corner of the barn, or into another building, out of the cow's sight and hearing, put it on soft, dry straw, and rub it dry with some hay or straw, when its tongue and gums are slightly rubbed with salt, and the mucus and saliva removed from the nostrils and lips. After this has been done, the calf is made to drink the milk first taken as it comes from the mother. It is slightly diluted with water, if taken last from the udder; but, if the first of the milking, it is given just as it is. The calf is taught to drink in the same manner as in this country, by putting the fingers in its mouth, and bringing it down to the milk, and it soon gets so as to drink unaided. It is fed, at first, from four to six times a day, or even oftener; but soon only three times, at regular intervals. Its food for two or three weeks is clear milk, as it comes warm and fresh from the cow. This is never omitted, as the milk during most of that time possesses certain qualities which are necessary to the calf, and which cannot be effectually supplied by any other food. In the third or fourth week the milk is skimmed, but warmed to the degree of fresh milk; though, as the calf grows a little older, the milk is given cold, while less care is taken to give it the milk of its own mother, that of other cows now answering equally well. In some places, calves are fed on b.u.t.termilk at the age of two weeks and after; but the change from new milk, fresh from the cow, is made gradually, some sweet skimmed milk and warm water being first added to it.

At three weeks old, or thereabouts, the calf will begin to eat a little sweet, fine hay, and potatoes cut fine, and it very soon becomes accustomed to this food. Many now begin to give linseed-meal mixed into hot water, to which is added some skim-milk or b.u.t.termilk; and others use a little bran cooked in hay-tea, made by chopping the hay fine and pouring on boiling-hot water, which is allowed to stand awhile on it. An egg is frequently broken into such a mixture. Others still take pains at this age to have fresh linseed-cake, broken into pieces of the size of a pigeon's egg; putting one of these into the mouth after the meal of milk has been finished, and when it is eager to suck at any thing in its way.

It will very soon learn to eat linseed-meal. A little sweet clover is put in its way at the age of about three weeks, and it will soon begin to eat that also.

In this manner the feeding is continued from the fourth to the seventh week, the quant.i.ty of solid food being gradually increased. In the sixth or seventh week the milk is by degrees withheld, and water or b.u.t.termilk used instead; and soon after this, green food may be safely given, increasing it gradually with the hay to the age of ten or twelve weeks, when it will do to put them upon gra.s.s alone, if the season is favorable. A lot as near the house as possible, where they can be easily looked after and frequently visited, is the best. Calves should be gradually accustomed to all changes; and even after having been turned out to pasture, they ought to be put under shelter if the weather is not dry and warm. The want of care and attention relative to these little details will be apparent sooner or later; while, if the farmer gives his personal attention to these matters, he will be fully paid in the rapid growth of his calves. It is especially necessary to see that the troughs from which they are fed, if troughs are used, are kept clean and sweet.

But there are some--even among intelligent farmers--who make a practice of turning their calves out to pasture at the tender age of two or three weeks--and that, too, when they have sucked the cow up to that time--and allow them nothing in the shape of milk and tender care. This, certainly, is the poorest possible economy, to say nothing of the manifest cruelty of such treatment. The growth of the calf is checked, and the system receives a shock from so sudden a change, from which it cannot soon recover. The careful Dutch breeders bring the calves either skimmed milk or b.u.t.termilk to drink several times a day after they are turned to gra.s.s, which is not till the age of ten or twelve weeks; and, if the weather is chilly, the milk is warmed for them. They put a trough generally under a covering, to which the calves may come and drink at regular times. Thus, they are kept tame and docile.

In the raising of calves, through all stages of their growth, great care should be taken neither to starve nor to over-feed. A calf should never be surfeited, and never be fed so highly that it cannot be fed more highly as it advances. The most important part is to keep it growing thriftily without getting too fat, if it is to be raised for the dairy.

The calves in the dairy districts of Scotland are fed on the milk, with seldom any admixture; and they are not permitted to suck their dams, but are taught to drink milk by the hand from a dish. They are generally fed on milk only for the first four, five, or six weeks, and are then allowed from two to two and a half quarts of new milk each meal, twice in the twenty-four hours. Some never give them any other food when young except milk, lessening the quant.i.ty when the calf begins to eat gra.s.s or other food, which it generally does when about five weeks old, if gra.s.s can be had; and withdrawing it entirely about the seventh or eighth week of the calf's age. But, if the calf is reared in winter, or early in spring, before the gra.s.s rises, it must be supplied with at least some milk until it is eight or nine weeks old, as a calf will not so soon learn to eat hay or straw, nor fare so well on them alone as it will on pasture. Some feed their calves reared for stock partly with meal mixed in the milk after the third or fourth week. Others introduce gradually some new whey into the milk, first mixed with meal; and, when the calf gets older, they withdraw the milk, and feed it on whey and porridge.

Hay-tea, juices of peas and beans, or pea or bean-straw, linseed beaten into powder, treacle, etc., have all been sometimes used to advantage in feeding calves; but milk, when it can be spared, is, in the judgment of the Scotch breeders, by far their most natural food.

In Galloway, and other pastoral districts, where the calves are allowed to suck, the people are so much wedded to their own customs as to argue that suckling is much more nutritious to the calves than any other mode of feeding. That it induces a greater secretion of saliva, which, by promoting digestion, accelerates the growth and fattening of the young animal, cannot be doubted; but the secretion of that fluid may likewise be promoted by placing an artificial teat in the mouth of the calf, and giving it the milk slowly, and at the natural temperature. In the dairy districts of Scotland, the dairymaid puts one of her fingers into the mouth of the calf when it is fed, which serves the purpose of a teat, and will have nearly the same effect as the natural teat in inducing the secretion of saliva. If that, or an artificial teat of leather, be used, and the milk be given slowly before it is cold, the secretion of saliva may be promoted to all the extent that can be necessary; besides, secretion is not confined to the mere period of eating, but, as in the human body, the saliva is formed and part of it swallowed at all times.

As part of the saliva is sometimes seen dropping from the mouths of the calves, it might be advisable not only to give them an artificial teat when fed, but to place, as is frequently done, a lump of chalk before them to lick, thus leading them to swallow the saliva. The chalk would so far supply the want of salt, of which cattle are often so improperly deprived, and it would also promote the formation of saliva. Indeed, calves are very much disposed to lick and suck every thing which comes within their reach, which seems to be the way in which Nature teaches them to supply their stomachs with saliva.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FROLICKSOME.]

But though sucking their dams may be most advantageous in that respect, yet it has also some disadvantages. The cow is always more injured than the calf is benefited by that mode of feeding. She becomes so fond of the calf that she does not, for a long time after, yield her milk freely to the dairyman. The calf does not when young draw off the milk completely, and when it is taken off by the hand, the cow withholds a part of her milk, and, whenever a cow's udder is not completely emptied every time she is milked, the lactic secretion--as before stated--is thereby diminished.

Feeding of calves by hand is also, in various respects, advantageous.

Instead of depending on the uncertain, or perhaps precarious supply of the dam, which may be more at first than the young animal can consume or digest, and at other times too little for its supply, its food can, by hand-feeding, be regulated to suit the age, appet.i.te, and the purposes for which the calf is intended; other admixtures or subst.i.tutes can be introduced into the milk, and the quant.i.ty gradually increased or withdrawn at pleasure. This is highly necessary when the calves are reared for stock. The milk is in that case diminished, and other food introduced so gradually that the stomach of the young animal is not injured as it is when the food is too suddenly changed. And, in the case of feeding calves for the butcher, the quant.i.ty of milk is not limited to that of the dam--for no cow will allow a stranger-calf to suck her--but it can be increased, or the richest or poorest parts of the milk given at pleasure.

Such are, substantially, the views upon this subject which are entertained by the most judicious farmers in the first dairy districts of Scotland.

In those districts--where, probably, the feeding and management of calves are as well and as judiciously conducted as in any other part of Great Britain--the farmers' wives and daughters, or the female domestics, have the princ.i.p.al charge of young calves; and they are, doubtless, much better calculated for this duty than men, since they are more inclined to be gentle and patient. The utmost gentleness--as has been already remarked, in another connection--should always be observed in the treatment of all stock; but especially of milch cows, and calves designed for the dairy. Persevering kindness and patience, will, almost invariably, overcome the most obstinate natures; while rough and ungentle handling will be repaid in a quiet kind of way, perhaps, by withholding the milk, which will always have a tendency to dry up the cow; or, what is nearly as bad, by kicking and other modes of revenge, which often contribute to the personal discomfort of the milker. The disposition of the cow is greatly modified, if not, indeed, wholly formed, by her treatment while young; and therefore it is best to handle calves as much as possible, and make pets of them, lead them with a halter, and caress them in various ways. Calves managed in this way will always be docile, and suffer themselves to be approached and handled, both in the pasture and in the barn.

With respect to the use of hay-tea--often used in this country, but more common abroad, where greater care and attention are usually bestowed upon the details of breeding--Youatt says: "At the end of three or four days, or perhaps a week, or near a fortnight, after a calf has been dropped, and the first pa.s.sages have been cleansed by allowing it to drink as much of the cow's milk as it feels inclined for, let the quant.i.ty usually allotted for a meal be mixed, consisting, for the first week, of three parts of milk and one part of hay-tea. _The only nourishing infusion of hay is that which is made from the best and sweetest hay, cut by a chaff-cutter into pieces about two inches long_, and put into an earthen vessel; over this, boiling water should be poured, and the whole allowed to stand for two hours, during which time it ought to be kept carefully closed. After the first week, the proportions of milk and hay-tea may be equal; then composed of two-thirds of hay-tea and one of milk; and at length, one-fourth part of milk will be sufficient. This food should be given to the calf in a lukewarm state _at least three, if not four times a day, in quant.i.ties averaging three quarts at a meal_, but gradually increasing to four quarts as the calf grows older. Toward the end of the second month, beside the usual quant.i.ty given at each meal--composed of three parts of the infusion and one of milk--a small wisp or bundle of hay is to be laid before the calf, which will gradually come to eat it; but, if the weather is favorable, as in the month of May, the beast may be turned out to graze in a fine, sweet pasture, well sheltered from the wind and sun. This diet may be continued until toward the latter end of the third month, when, if the calf grazes heartily, each meal may be reduced to less than a quart of milk, with hay-water; or skimmed milk, or fresh b.u.t.termilk, may be subst.i.tuted for new milk. At the expiration of the third month, the animal will hardly require to be fed by hand; though, if this should still be necessary, one quart of the infusion given daily--which, during the summer, need not be warmed--will suffice." The hay-tea should be made fresh every two days, as it soon loses its nutritious quality.

This and other preparations are given, not because they are better than milk,--than which nothing is better adapted to fatten a calf, or promote its growth,--but simply to economize by providing the simplest and cheapest subst.i.tutes. Experience shows that the first two or three calves are smaller than those which follow; and hence, unless they are pure-bred, and to be kept for the blood, they are not generally thought to be so desirable to raise for the dairy as the third or fourth, and those that come after, up to the age of nine or ten years. Opinions upon this point, however, differ.

According to the comparative experiments of a German agriculturist, cows which as calves had been allowed to suck their dams from two to four weeks, brought calves which weighed only from thirty-five to forty-eight pounds; while others, which as calves had been allowed to suck from five to eight weeks, brought calves which weighed from sixty to eighty pounds. It is difficult to see how there can be so great a difference, if, indeed, there be any; but it may be worthy of careful observation and experiment, and as such it is stated here. The increased size of the calf would be due to the increased size to which the cow would attain; and if as a calf she were allowed to run in the pasture with her dam for four or five months, taking all the milk she wanted, she would doubtless be kept growing on in a thriving condition. But taking a calf from the cow at four or even eight weeks must check its growth to some extent; and this may be avoided by feeding liberally, and bringing up by hand.

After the calf is fully weaned, there is nothing very peculiar in the general management. A young animal will require for the first few months--say up to the age of six months--an average of five or six pounds daily of good hay, or its equivalent. At the age of six months, it will require from four and a half to five pounds; and at the end of the year, from three and a half or four pounds of good hay, or its equivalent, for every one hundred pounds of its live weight; or, in other words, about three and a half or four per cent. of its live weight. At two years old, it will require three and a half, and some months later, three per cent. of its live weight daily in good hay, or its equivalent. Indian-corn fodder, either green or cured, forms an excellent and wholesome food at this age.

The heifer should not be pampered, nor yet poorly fed or half starved, so as to receive a check in her growth. An abundant supply of good healthy dairy food and milk will do all that is necessary up to the time of her having her first calf--which should not ordinarily be till the age of three years, though some choose to allow them to come in at two, or a little over, on the ground that it early stimulates the secretion of milk, and that this will increase the milking propensity through life. This is undoubtedly the case, as a general rule; but greater injury is at the same time done by checking the growth, unless the heifer has been fed up to large size and full development from the start--in which case she may perhaps take the bull at fifteen or eighteen months without injury. Even if a heifer comes in at two years, it is generally deemed desirable to let her run barren for the following year, which will promote her growth and more perfect development.

The feeding which young stock often get is not such as is calculated to make good-sized or valuable cattle of them. They are often fed on the poorest of hay or straw through the winter, not infrequently left exposed to cold, unprotected and unhoused, and thus stinted in their growth. This is, surely, the very worst economy, or rather it is no economy at all. Properly viewed, it is an extravagant wastefulness which no farmer can afford. No animal develops its good points under such treatment; and if the starving system is to be followed at all, it had better be after the age of two or three years, when the animal's const.i.tution has attained the strength and vigor which may, possibly, enable it to resist ill treatment.

To raise up first-rate milkers, it is absolutely necessary to feed on dairy food even when they are young. No matter how fine the breed is, if the calf is raised on poor, short feed, it will never be so good a milker as if raised on better keeping; and hence, in dairy districts, where calves are raised at all, they ought to be allowed the best pasture during the summer, and good, sweet and wholesome food during the winter.

POINTS OF FAT CATTLE.

Whatever theoretical objections may be raised against over-fed cattle, and great as may be the attempts to disparage the mountains of fat,--as highly-fed cattle are sometimes designated,--there is no doubt of the practical fact, that the best butcher cannot sell any thing but the best fatted beef; and of whatever age, size, or shape a half-fatted ox may be, he is never selected by judges as fit for human food. Hence, a well-fatted animal always commands a better price per pound than one imperfectly fed, and the parts selected as the primest beef are precisely the parts which contain the largest deposits of fat. The rump, the crop, and the sirloin, the very favorite cuts,--which always command from twenty to twenty-five per cent. more than any other part of the ox,--are just those parts on which the largest quant.i.ties of fat are found; so that, instead of the taste and fashion of the age being against the excessive fattening of animals, the fact is, practically, exactly the reverse. Where there is the most fat, there is the best lean; where there is the greatest amount of muscle, without its share of fat, that part is accounted inferior, and is used for a different purpose; in fact, so far from fat's being a disease, it is a condition of muscle, necessary to its utility as food,--a source of luxury to the rich, and of comfort to the poor, furnishing a nourishing and healthy diet for their families.

Fattening is a secretive power which grazing animals possess, enabling them to lay by a store of the superfluous food which they take for seasons of cold or scarcity. It collects round the angular bones of the animal, and gives the appearance of rotundity; hence the tendency to deposit fat is indicated, as has been stated, by a _roundness_ of form, as opposed to the _fatness_ of a milk-secreting animal. But its greatest use is, that it is a store of heat-producing aliment, laid up for seasons of scarcity and want. The food of animals, for the most part, may be said to consist of a saccharine, an oleaginous, and an alb.u.minous principle. To the first belong all the starchy, saccharine, and gummy parts of the plants, which undergo changes in the digestive organs similar to fermentation before they can be a.s.similated in the system; by them also animal heat is sustained. In indolent animals, the oily parts of plants are deposited and laid up as fat; and, when vigor and strength fail, this is taken up and also used in breathing to supply the place of the consumed saccharine matter. The alb.u.minous, or gelatinous principle of plants is mainly useful in forming muscle; while the ashes of plants, the unconsumable parts, are for the supply, mainly, of bone, hair, and horn, but also of muscle and of blood, and to supply the waste which continually goes on.

Now, there are several qualities which are essentially characteristic of a disposition to fatten. There have not, as yet, been any book-rules laid down, as in the case of M. Guenon's indications of milking-cows; but there are, nevertheless, marks so definite and well understood, that they are comprehended and acted upon by every grazier, although they are by no means easy to describe. It is by skillful ac.u.men that the grazier acquires his knowledge, and not by theoretical rules; observation, judgment, and experience, powerful perceptive faculties, and a keen and minute comparison and discrimination, are essential to his success.

[Ill.u.s.tration: POINTS OF CATTLE.]

The first indication upon which he relies, is the _touch_. It is the absolute criterion of _quality_, which is supposed to be the keystone of perfection in all animals, whether for the pail or the butcher. The skin is so intimately connected with the internal organs, in all animals, that it is questionable whether even our schools of medicine might not make more use of it in a diagnosis of disease. Of physiological tendencies in cattle, however, it is of the last and most vital importance. It must neither be thick, nor hard, nor adhere firmly to the muscles. If it is so, the animal is a hard grazer, a difficult and obstinate feeder--no skillful man will purchase it--such a creature must go to a novice, and even to him at a price so low as to tempt him to become a purchaser. On the other hand, the skin must not be thin, like paper, nor flaccid, nor loose in the hand, nor flabby. This is the opposite extreme, and is indicative of delicateness, bad, flabby flesh, and, possibly, of inapt.i.tude to retain the fat. It must be _elastic_ and velvety, soft and pliable, presenting to the touch a gentle resistance, but so delicate as to give pleasure to the sensitive hand--a skin, in short, which seems at first to give an indentation from the pressure of the fingers, but which again rises to its place by a gentle elasticity.

The _hair_ is of nearly as much importance as the skin. A hard skin will have straight and stiff hair; it will not have a curl, but be thinly and lankly distributed equally over the surface. A proper grazing animal will have a _mossy_ coat, not absolutely curled, but having a disposition to a graceful curl, a semifold, which presents a waving inequality; but as different from a close and straightly-laid coat, as it is from one standing off the animal at right angles, a strong symptom of disease. It will also, in a thriving animal, be licked here and there with its tongue, a proof that the skin is duly performing its functions.

There must be, also, the full and goggle _eye_, bright and pressed outward by the fatty bed below; because, as this is a part where Nature always provides fat, an animal capable of developing it to any considerable extent, will have its indications here, at least, when it exists in excess.

So much for feeding qualities in the animal, and their conformations indicative of this kindly disposition. Next come such formations of the animal itself as are favorable to the growth of fat, other things being equal. There must be _size_ where large weights are expected. Christmas beef, for instance, is expected to be large as well as fat. The symbol of festivity should be capacious, as well as prime in quality. But it is so much a matter of choice and circ.u.mstance with the grazier, that profit alone will be his guide. The axiom will be, however, as a general rule, that the better the grazing soil the larger the animal may be; the poorer the soil, the smaller the animal. Small animals are, unquestionably, much more easily fed, and they are well known by experienced men to be best adapted to second-rate feeding pastures.

But, beyond this, there must be _breadth_ of carca.s.s. This is indicative of fattening, perhaps, beyond all other qualifications. If rumps are favorite joints and produce the best price, it is best to have the animal which will grow the longest, the broadest, and the best rump; the same of crop, and the same of sirloin; and not only so, but breadth is essential to the consumption of that quant.i.ty of food which is necessary to the development of a large amount of fat in the animal. Thus, a deep, wide chest, favorable for the respiratory and circulating functions, enables it to consume a large amount of food, to take up the sugary matter, and to deposit the fatty matter,--as then useless for respiration, but afterwards to be prized. A full level crop will be of the same physiological utility; while a broad and open framework at the hips will afford scope for the action of the liver and kidneys.

There are other points, also, of much importance; the head must be small and fine; its special use is indicative of the quick fattening of the animal so constructed, and it is also indicative of the bones being small and the legs short. For const.i.tutional powers, the beast should have his ribs extended well towards the thigh-bones or hips, so as to leave as little unprotected s.p.a.ce as possible. There must be no angular, or abrupt points; all must be round, and broad, and parallel.

Any depression in the lean animal will give a deficient deposit of flesh and fat at that point, when sold to the butcher, and thus deteriorate its value; and hence the animal must be round and full.

But either fancy, or accident, or skill--it is unnecessary to decide which--has a.s.sociated _symmetry_ with quality and conformation, as a point of great importance in animals calculated for fattening; and there is no doubt that, to a certain extent, this is so. The beast must be a system of mathematical lines. To the advocate of symmetry, the setting-on of a tail will be a condemning fault; indeed the ridge of the back, like a straight line, with the outline of the belly exactly parallel, viewed from the side, and a depth and squareness when viewed from behind,--which remind us of a geometrical cube, rather than a vital economy,--may be said to be the indications of excellence in a fat ox.

The points of excellence in such an animal are outlined under the subsequent head, as developed in the cutting up after slaughter.

Now, these qualities are inherent in some breeds; there may be cases and instances in all the superior breeds, and in most there may be failures.

DRIVING AND SLAUGHTERING.

It is necessary that cattle which have been disposed of to the dealer or butcher, or which are intended to be driven to market, should undergo a preparation for the journey. If they were immediately put to the road to travel, from feeding on gra.s.s or turnips, when their bowels are full of undigested vegetable matter, a scouring might ensue which would render them unfit to pursue their journey; and this complaint is the more likely to be brought on from the strong propensity which cattle have to take violent exercise upon feeling themselves at liberty after a long confinement. They in fact, become light-headed whenever they leave the barn or enclosure, so much so that they actually "frisk and race and leap," and their antics would be highly amusing, were it not for the apprehension that they may hurt themselves against some opposing object, as they seem to regard nothing before them.

On being let out for the first time, cattle should be put for awhile into a larger court, or on a road well fenced with enclosures, and guarded by men, to romp about. Two or three such allowances of liberty will render them quiet; and, in the mean time, to lighten their weight of carca.s.s, they should have hay for a large proportion of their food.

These precautions are absolutely necessary for cattle which have been confined in barns; otherwise, accidents may befall them on the road, where they will at once break loose. Even at home serious accidents sometimes overtake them, such as the breaking down of a horn, casting off a hoof, spraining a tendon, bruising ribs, and heating the whole body violently; and, of course, when any such ill luck befalls, the animal affected must be left behind, and become a drawback upon the value of the rest, unless kept for some time longer.