Delineations of the Ox Tribe Part 17

GENERATIVE PRECOCITY.

A Mr. Gordon relates the following singular instance of fecundity and early maturity in the Aberdeen Cattle. "On the 25th of Sept., 1805, a calf of five months old, of the small Aberdeenshire breed, happening to be put into an enclosure among other Cattle, admitted a male that was only one year old. In the month of June following, at the age of fourteen months, she brought forth a very fine calf, and in the Summer of 1807, another equally good. The first calf, after working in the Winter, Spring, and Summer of 1809, was killed in January, 1810, and weighed 6 _cwt._ 3 _qrs._ 16 _lb._ The second was killed December 16, 1810, aged three years six months, and weighed exactly 7 _cwt._; and on Dec. 30, 1807, the mother, after having brought up these calves, was killed at the age of two years and eight months, and weighed 4 _cwt._ 1 _qr._ the four quarters, sinking the offal."

MILK.

Cows are usually milked three times a day over the greatest part of Scotland, from the time of calving till the milk begins to dry up during the Winter season, when the Cows are for the most part in calf; nor is it found that they suffer by that practice in any degree: and it is the general opinion of all who adopt it, that nearly one third more milk is thus obtained than if they were milked only twice.

A Cow, mentioned by Dr. Anderson in his 'Recreations,' (vol. v, p. 309,) was milked three times a day for ten years running, during the s.p.a.ce of nine months, at least, every year; and was never seen, during all that period, but in very excellent order, although she had no other feeding than was given to the rest of the Cows, some of which were very low every winter, when they gave no milk at all.

A farmer of the name of Watkinson had a Cow that, for seventeen years, gave him from ten to twenty quarts of milk every day; was in moderate condition when taken up, six months in fattening, and being then twenty years old, was sold for more than 18. Mr. John Holt, of Walton, in Lancashire, had a healthy Cow-calf presented to him, whose dam was in her thirty-second year, and could not be said to have been properly out of milk for the preceding fifteen years.

Yorkshire Cows, which are those chiefly used in the London Dairies, give a very great quant.i.ty of milk. It is by no means uncommon for them, in the beginning of the Summer, to yield thirty quarts a day; there are rare instances of giving thirty-six quarts; but the average measure may be estimated at twenty-two or twenty-four quarts.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Alderney Cow, after Howitt.]

b.u.t.tER.

The Alderney Cow, considering its voracious appet.i.te, yields very little milk; that milk, however, is of an extraordinary excellent quality, and gives more b.u.t.ter than can be obtained from the milk of any other cow.

John Lawrence states that an Alderney Cow that had strayed on the premises of a friend of his, and remained there three weeks, made 19 lbs. of b.u.t.ter each week; and the fact was held so extraordinary, as to be thought worthy of a memorandum in the parish books. The milk of the Alderney Cow fits her for the situation in which she is usually placed, and where the excellence of the article is regarded, and not the expense.

Lord Hampden, of Glynde, had a cow which in the height of the season yielded ten pounds of b.u.t.ter and twelve pounds of cheese every week, and yet her quant.i.ty of milk rarely exceeded five gallons per day. The next year the same cow gave nine pounds and a half of b.u.t.ter per week for several weeks, and then for the rest of the summer between eight and nine pounds per week; and until the hard frost set in, seven pounds; and four pounds per week during the frost. Yet as a proof of the quality of the milk, she at no time gave more than five gallons in the day. To this may be added that, "four or five years before, the same person had a fine black Suss.e.x Cow from Lord Gage, which also gave, in the height of the season, five gallons per day, but no more than five pounds of b.u.t.ter were ever made from it." This is accounted for in a singular way; for there is a common opinion in the east of Suss.e.x, that "the milk of a black cow never gives so much b.u.t.ter as that of a red one."

MR. YOUATT'S PHILOSOPHY OF RABIES, OR MADNESS.

In treating of Rabies, Youatt says:--"When a rabid or mad dog is wandering about, labouring under an irrepressible disposition to bite, he seeks out first of all his own species; but if his road lies by a herd of cattle, he will attack the nearest to him; and if he meet with much resistance, he will set upon the whole herd, and bite as many as he can.... If the disease is to appear at all, it will be about the expiration of the _fifth week_, although there will be no absolute security in less than the double number of months," After making these remarks, our author reasons himself into the sapient conclusion, that the poison in all rabid animals resides in the saliva, and does not affect any other secretion. "The knowledge that the virus is confined to the saliva," he opines, "will settle a matter that has been the cause of considerable uneasiness. A cow has been observed to be ailing for a day or two, but she has been milked as usual; her milk has been mingled with the rest, and has been used for domestic purposes, as heretofore. She is at length discovered to be rabid. Is the family safe? Can the milk of a rabid cow be drunk with impunity? Yes, perfectly so, for the poison is confined to the saliva. The livers of hundreds of rabid dogs have been eaten in days of ignorance, dressed in all manners of ways, but usually fried as nicely as possible, as a preventive against madness. Some miscreants have sent the flesh of rabid cattle to the market, and _it has been eaten without harm_; and so, although not very pleasant to think about, _the milk of the rabid cow may be drunk without the slightest danger_."

Is it, indeed, possible for any of the secretions of an animal to be in a healthy state, and fit for human food, after it has had the virus of a rabid dog circulating in its system for at least _five weeks_?

Furthermore, is it consistent in Mr. Youatt to call those _miscreants_ who send the flesh of rabid cattle to market, when he acknowledges, in the same breathy that it can be eaten without harm?

According to Mr. Youatt's philosophy, a cow in a rabid state is actually as good as a cow in a healthy state; for its milk may be drunk with impunity--the family is _perfectly safe_ who uses it for domestic purposes; and, moreover, _the flesh of rabid cattle may be eaten without harm_. What more can be predicated of cattle in the purest state of health?

STATISTICS.

The number of cattle in Great Britain was estimated by Youatt (1838) at upwards of eight millions. 160,000 head of cattle are annually sold in Smithfield alone, without including calves, or the _dead market_, i.e., the carcases, sent up from various parts of the country. 1,200,000 sheep, 36,000 pigs, and 18,000 calves, are also sent to Smithfield in the course of a year.

A tenth part of the sheep and lambs die annually of disease (more than 4,000,000 perished by the rot alone in the winter of 1829-30), and at least a fifteenth part of the neat cattle are destroyed by inflammatory fever and milk fever, red water, hoose, and diarrhoea.

If a t.i.the of the sheep and lambs, and a fifteenth of the neat cattle _die of disease_, what proportion are _slaughtered and sent to market in the earlier stages of disease_; and, in fact, in all the stages antecedent to those which are the immediate cause of death?

THE END.