THE BEAUTY OF CATTLE.
AVISIT to the Cattle Show at the Agricultural Hall should reconcile the English mind to the Indian worship of the cow. Considered as a gathering of the most beautiful animals of their kind which the art of man can aid Nature to produce, it has only one drawback—the excess of flesh which a " fat-stock " show demands. But the richness and colour of the cattle, and the noble lines of heads, dark- eyed and massive-browed, with curling locks upon their fore- heads and shining crescent horns, make a study of form and colour which the most uninstructed sight-seer must admire. Our impression of the show, from the point of view of the animals' comfort or suffering, was, on the whole, favourable. The atmosphere was beautifully sweet and clean, with a plea- sant smell of hay and clover and clean straw,—scents that must suggest to the cattle's mind visions of a glorified rickyard. It is, perhaps, too hot for the comfort of the fatter beasts, some of whom pant and show signs of malaise. But others were tying down and chewing the cud placidly, or licking their own coats or those of their neighbours,—attentions to toilet which are a certain sign of contentment in cattle. The least tranquil was the splendid steer which had won the highest honours of the show. Size, shape, and colour would have qualified it for a place among the Oxen of the Sun. Almost as tall as an Indian bison, with a back as straight and level as a table, it had the charac- teristic colour and proportions of the finest domestic breed. The blue-roan mottling of its wavy coat gradually increased in closeness, until on its neck and head nothing but the dark tint, like " blued " steel, prevailed. Its eyes were large and black, its eyelashes long and curling, its muzzle fine and sensitive. But its whole aspect was melancholy, as it waved its head wearily from side to side. As we watched it, it lay down, for the first time since entering the show, and before long was no doubt reconciled to its surroundings. This steer weighed 1 ton, 1 cwt., and was barely three-and-a-half years old. But the weariness of the champion bull was by no means -shared by its fellows. A lovely bull from Norwich, next door, was dipping its nose alternately into its water-pail and supper- tray ; and a beautiful young blue-grey bull, from Lord Ellesmere's park near Newmarket, was angrily protesting at toeing kept waiting while his neighbours were fed. His groom, a bright Suffolk lad who had " known him ever since he was a baby," treated this young giant as if he were a Newfoundland dog. " Come, kiss me, then," he said, pulling the halter, as his pet was busy munching bran and turnips, and the animal actually raised its bran-covered muzzle from the tray to give the required salute. The cross-breds "—cattle produced from parents of first-class merit, but of different stocks—are always the most interesting class in the show. There is no saying what new beauties may be produced from the mating of the ifinest specimens of different pure-bred cattle. The champion of the show was the son of a short-horn bull and a Galloway cow ; in others of almost equal merit, the strain of Suffolk, or Devon, or Welsh blood was to be traced. Great variety of -colour results from this mixture of strains ; black, blue-roan, iron-grey, and deep chestnut-red being the favourite tints. These long-haired, richly tinted hides should make admirable rugs for halls. The Herefords are, perhaps, the most distinct in appearance of any breed, except the Highlanders. Their -coats are crisp and curly, their bodies a rich, deep red and the face pure white, with a white line up the nape of the neck- Very different to these easy-going English cattle are the wild Highlanders tethered opposite. Purity of blood only brings out their Celtic constitution in the greatest perfection. Their shaggy coats hang in mops and elf-locks over their eyes, and their eyes are restless and angry. Some have enormous horns bent like the bow of Ulysses; in others, one horn curls up and the other down, lending a disreputable jauntiness to their unkempt heads. Some are orange-yellow ; others the -colour of old dead wood or smoky glass. Others are tawny and shaggy like a water-spaniel. Even the railway journey and the show does not subdue their irascible Celtic minds ; and one rugged Highlander, after being hauled in by a dozen reluctant drovers, was, in order to secure peace, blindfolded with a sack, beneath which he sulked like a Skye- terrier in disgrace. No greater contrast could be imagined than that presented by these lineal descendants of the great Zak; urns of the Caledonian forest, and the placid, silky-coated -short-horns, the latest triumphs of domestication. The prize short-horn heifer was, perhaps, the ideal of a nice, good- tempered " cushy " cow. The white coat shone like ivory satin on her back ; her black eyes and eyelashes set off her shapely head; her ears just brushed her pink horns, and her forehead was starred with little velvet curls. The neat, white, cotton-plaited headstall which confined her did not prevent fier.pushing her muzzle into every extended hand to seek for
food, and she tossed her bead, when they were without a gift, in the keenest disappointment and mortification. Com- pared with her, the tiny black Kerry cows looked mere pigmies. Yet their form was equally perfect, and their quick vivacious movements proclaimed their race as clearly as their robbery of their neighbours' hay showed their hereditary capacity for taking care of themselves in good times or in bad. These small Kerry cows are perhaps the best cattle which can be kept in the grounds of a moderate country house. They are too small to damage fences, are capital milkers, and most affectionate and intelligent pets. They are naturally friendly creatures, and, like cows in general, have, perhaps, longer memories for people than any other animal. For the farm, the choice will naturally fall among the larger breeds. The diffi- culty must be, not to choose well where all are so good, but to make a choice at all. In addition to the specific breeds we have mentioned, there are towering black Welsh cattle, curly and horned ; and the deep-red steers of Sussex, small, and compact, with crescent horns ; black, polled Galloways, with coats shining like astrachan wool ; and lovely Devons, redder than their native marl, and matched in colour to a hair. These are the herds that have stocked the ranches of the Argentine and the runs of New South Wales, the hills of New Zealand and the plains of Uruguay. It is for their protection that the breeder demands a check on the importation of cattle diseases from abroad ; and the Cattle Show is the most convincing argument which his cause has yet produced.
The naturalist who is not too proud to know the history of the domesticated animals which are now as native to the soil as any of the ancient wild races, could name any district in which he found himself by a glance at the sheep upon the hills. Not even the cattle exhibit such marked differences as are to be found in the flocks which a century of careful selection has fitted to thrive best in the varied soils of England. The big Leicester sheep, with long grey wool and white faces, are as different from the " Cotswolds " as a Newfoundland from a white poodle. In the " Cotswolds "will be found the original of the 4. baa-lamb " of the nursery. These sheep are tall, with white wool in locks, and with tufts upon the head and forehead. The Lincolnshire sheep are more like those of Leicester, but heavier in the fleece, coarser, and more fitted for life in the marshes. They have, perhaps, the most intelligent faces of any sheep but the refined South Downs. We noticed a Lincoln ewe endeavouring to open a sack of cakes by putting her foot into the mouth, and drawing out the contents, as it lay on the ground in the next pen. Romney Marsh has its own breed of sheep, somewhat like the Lincoln. But of all the flocks of England, the South Downs must win the palm. Their short-clipped and delicate wool is felted together like moss. The hand sinks into it with difficulty. The form is beautiful and rounded, and though apparently so finely built, their weight is great. The close, yellow-grey fleece fits over the head like a cap, disclosing the face and nose, covered with short, grey hair—not wool. The features are extremely dainty, and the movements of the mouth, as the sheep nibbles its fragrant supper of trefoil and clover, resemble those of some delicate foreign rodent. Their heads are far prettier than those of deer,—almost as refined as that of the gazelle. These sheep undergo an elaborate toilet every morning. Clipping them is an art in which few excel. Their coats are trimmed, brushed, and damped, and pressed flat with a setting-board, and finally tinted for the day. The Hampshires, black-faced, and Roman-nosed, are also rouged.
It would be interesting to trace the development of these fine creatures from their primitive ancestors ; but even in the earliest instance the sheep seems not to have been in- digenous in England. Geologically speaking, it is a very modern animal. Oddly enough, the chief difference between the tame and the wild sheep seems to be in the length of its tail, which is short in all the wild breeds, and will grow long in domesticated sheep, though severely discouraged in this country. The wool in the tame sheep has also gained that power of " felting," on which its value mainly depends. The wild cattle of Chillingbam are this year not represented at the Show. The animal shown last year, which was the result of a cross with a pure-bred shorthorn, retained the characteristic colour and shape of the original herd, even in the horns and tip of the ear ; a proof of the strength of the wild blood, which
has been observed in several previous experiments. It took a good place among the best cross-breds exhibited, and made excellent beef when killed. Swine have probably made the widest departure from the wild state. A "bird's-eye view" of the piggery, taken from the top of a corn-bin, showed nothing but round and placid-breathing masses of animated pork, shapeless and unpleasing. Excellent, no doubt, for food ; but how unlike the old rusty-coloured, vivacious, sagacious English woodland pig ! Professor Flower says that the young of all wild kinds of pig present a uniform colouration, being dark brown with longitudinal stripes of a paler colour. This marking, according to our own observa- tion, is very rare in the domesticated pig, which seems to have lost with civilisation all distinguishing marks of its wild parentage. It would be a pity, however, if the poor piggies at Islington were made into "burnt pig," after the manner invented by Charles Lamb's Chinaman. That, however, may well be the case unless the rules against smoking in the Cattle Show are more strictly enforced. We saw one visitor knock the ashes off his cigar into a, pen. A fire so kindled might ran the length of the hall in ten minutes, and not leave a single beast surviving.
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