| TABLE I. | |||||||||||||
| Description of Class of Sheep. | Live Weight of Six Wethers when Shorn, 26th Feburary, 1862. | Weight of Mutton when slaughtered. | Weight of Tallow. | Weight of Wool. | Weight of Pelts. | Weights gained during the time of Feeding from the 11th November, 1861, to 14th February, 1862. | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| In Live Weight. | In Mutton. | In Wool. | |||||||||||
| st. | lb. | st. | lb. | lb. | lb. | lb. | st. | lb. | st. | lb. | lb. | oz. | |
| Cross from the Teeswater | 85 | 3 | 53 | 1 | 106 | 43 | 85 | 13 | 7 | 8 | 6 | 14 | 5 |
| North Sheep | 83 | 12 | 53 | 12 | 96 | 43½ | 83 | 12 | 11 | 8 | 3 | 14 | 8 |
| Lincolns | 92 | 1 | 59 | 12 | 105 | 66 | 103 | 16 | 1 | 10 | 7 | 22 | 0 |
| South Downs | 71 | 0 | 47 | 7 | 97¼ | 28 | 65¾ | 11 | 13 | 8 | 0 | 9 | 5 |
| Shropshire Downs | 85 | 6 | 53 | 1 | 103 | 42½ | 91 | 15 | 11 | 9 | 12 | 14 | 3 |
| Leicesters | 80 | 9 | 53 | 4 | 90½ | 44 | 78½ | 14 | 10 | 9 | 10 | 14 | 11 |
| Cotswolds | 76 | 5 | 47 | 6 | 79 | 54 | 90 | 12 | 6 | 7 | 11 | 18 | 0 |
| TABLE II. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Description of Sheep. | Value of the preceding Mutton and Wool so gained. | Food consumed during time of feeding. | Value of the Food, Calculating Turnips at 6s. 8d., and Cake at £10 10s. per ton. | Value of the Mutton and Wool. | Value of Food deducted from Value of Mutton and Wool, showing real value of the different sheep. | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price of the Mutton. | Price of the Wool. | ||||||||||||||||||
| p. lb. | p. lb. | Swd. Tnp. | Lnd. Cke. | ||||||||||||||||
| d. | £ | s. | d. | d. | £ | s. | d. | st. | lb. | £ | s. | d. | £ | s. | d. | £ | s. | d. | |
| Teeswater, Cross | 6 | 2 | 19 | 0 | 18 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 978 | 300 | 3 | 8 | 10½ | 4 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 11 | 7 |
| North Shropshire | 6 | 2 | 17 | 6 | 17½ | 1 | 1 | 1¾ | 914 | 300 | 3 | 6 | 2½ | 3 | 18 | 7¾ | 0 | 12 | 5 |
| Lincolnshire[!--16--][16] | 5¾ | 3 | 10 | 5¼ | 18 | 1 | 13 | 0 | 936 | 363 | 3 | 13 | 0¼ | 5 | 3 | 5¼ | 1 | 10 | 5 |
| Southdowns | 6½ | 3 | 0 | 8 | 17 | 0 | 13 | 2½ | 684 | 300 | 2 | 16 | 7½ | 3 | 13 | 10½ | 0 | 17 | 3 |
| Shropshire | 6¼ | 3 | 11 | 10½ | 17½ | 1 | 0 | 7¾ | 924 | 300 | 3 | 6 | 7¾ | 4 | 12 | 6¼ | 1 | 5 | 10 |
| Leicester | 5¾ | 3 | 5 | 2 | 18 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 877 | 300 | 3 | 4 | 8 | 4 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 6 |
| Cotswolds | 6 | 2 | 14 | 6 | 18 | 1 | 7 | 0 | 926 | 300 | 3 | 6 | 8½ | 4 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 14 | 9½ |
These results, taken with the customary grain of salt, tell well for the improved Lincoln; they also clearly show the aptitude to fatten, without much loss in offal, of the Leicester;[!--17--][17] and they commend to the lover of good mutton the Shropshire and South-Downs.
In the sixteenth volume of the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, Mr. Lawes gives some valuable information relative to the comparative fattening qualities of different breeds of sheep. The following table, on this author's authority, shows the average food consumed in producing 100 lbs. increase in live weight:—
| Breed. | Oil Cake. | Clover. | Swedes. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sussex | 297¼ | 285½ | 3·835¾ |
| Hampshire | 291½ | 261¼ | 3·966¾ |
| Cross-bred Wethers | 264½ | 251¾ | 3·725¼ |
| Do. Ewes | 263½ | 250¼ | 3·671 |
| Leicesters | 263¾ | 251¼ | 3·761 |
| Cotswolds | 253½ | 216¾ | 3·557½ |
Some breeds are profitably kept in certain localities, where other kinds would not pay so well: for example, the Devons, according to Mr. Smith, are better adapted than larger breeds for "converting the produce of cold and hilly pastures into meat." It is remarkable that nearly all the best existing breeds of oxen and sheep are crosses. Major Rudd states that the dam of Hubback, the famous founder of pure improved Shorthorns, owed her propensity to fatten to an admixture of Kyloe blood, and also that the sire of Hubback had a stain of Alderney, or Normandy blood. Although the Rudd account of the ancestry of Hubback is not accepted by all the historians of this splendid breed of cattle, there is no doubt but that the breed owes its origin as much to judicious crossing as to careful selection of sires and dams. It must not, however, be imagined that there are no good pure races of stock. There is a perfectly pure, but now scarce, tribe of Kerry oxen, admirably adapted to poor uplands. The excellent Southdown sheep, though in every respect immensely superior to their ancestors in the last century, have not attained to their present superior state by crossing. The high value placed by breeders upon good sires and dams in the approved breeds of stock is shown by the large sums which they frequently realise at sales, or when the former are let out for service. Bakewell received in one season for the use of a ram 400 guineas each from two breeders, and they did not retain the animal during the whole season. Several hundred guineas have lately been more than once paid for a celebrated tup. Colonel Towneley's Shorthorn bull, Master Butterfly, was, not long since, disposed of to an Australian buyer for £1,260. At the sale of Mr. Bates's stock in 1850, a stock of Shorthorns, including calves, brought on the average £116 5s. per head. At the Earl Ducie's sale in 1852, a three year old cow—Duchess—realised 700 guineas.
The color of an animal is, to some extent, a criterion of the purity of its breed. Roan is a favourite hue with the breeders of Shorthorns. There have been celebrated sires and dams of that breed perfectly white; but that color, or rather absence of color, is now somewhat unpopular, partly from the idea that it is a sign of weakness of constitution—a notion for which there appears to me to be no foundation in fact. The slightest spot of black, or even a very dark shade, is regarded to be a blemish of the most serious kind when observed on the pelt of a Shorthorn. The Herefords are partly white, partly red; the Devon possesses in general a deep red hue; the Suffolks are usually of a dun or faint reddish tint; the Ayrshires are commonly spotted white and red; and the Kerrys are seen in every shade between a jet black and a deep red. Uniformity in color would be most desirable in the case of each variety, and this object could easily be attained if breeders devoted some attention to it.
The Form of Animals.—The functions of an animal are arranged by Bichat, an eminent physiologist, into two classes—those relating to its nutrition, and those exhibited by its muscular and mental systems. The first class of functions comprise the vegetative, or organic life of the animal, and the second class constitute its relative life. Adopting this arrangement, we may say, then, that those animals in which the vegetative life is far more energetic than the relative life are best suited for the purposes of the feeder. In tigers, wolves, and dogs the relative life predominates over the vegetative; the muscles are almost constantly in a high degree of tension, and the processes of nutrition are in constant requisition to supply the waste of muscle. On the other hand, in oxen, sheep, and pigs, at least when in a state of domesticity, the muscles are not highly developed; they do not largely tax the vegetative processes, and, consequently, the substances elaborated under the influence of the vegetative life rapidly increase. The form of an animal is therefore mainly determined by the activity of its relative life. In a greyhound, the nervous power of which is highly developed, the muscles are large and well-knit, the stomach, intended for the reception of concentrated nutriment only, is small, and the lungs are exceedingly capacious. In such an animal the arrangements for the rapid expenditure of nervous power must be perfect. It is not merely necessary that its muscles should be large and powerful, its lungs must also admit of deep inspirations of oxygen, whereby the motive power wielded by these muscles may be rapidly generated. Now, an animal exactly opposite in organisation to the greyhound would, according to theory, be just the kind to select for the production of meat. The greyhound and the horse expend all their food in the production of motive power; the ox and the sheep, being endowed with but a feeble muscular organisation, use a smaller proportion of their food for carrying on the functions of their relative life, consequently, the weight of their bodies is augmented by the surplus nutriment. It is clear, then, that an animal of a lymphatic temperament, an indolent disposition, a low degree of nervous power, and a tendency to rapid growth, is the beau ideal of a "meat-manufacturing machine." Now, as the larger the lungs of an animal are, the greater is its capacity for "burning," or consuming its tissues, one might suppose that small lungs would be a desideratum in an ox, or other animal destined for the shambles. This appears to be Liebig's opinion, for in one of his books he states that "a narrow chest (small lungs) is considered by experienced agriculturists a sure sign, in pigs, for example, of easy fattening; and the same remark applies to cows, in reference to the produce of milk—that is, of butter." On this subject Professor Tanner makes the following remarks, in his excellent Essay on Breeding and Rearing Cattle:[!--18--][18]—"In our high-bred animals we find a small liver and a small lung, accompanied with a gentle and peaceful disposition. Now, these conditions, which are so desirable for producing fat, are equally favorable for yielding butter. The diminished organs economise the consumption of the carbonaceous matters in the blood, hence, more remains for conversion into fat, but equally prepared for yielding cream, if the tendency of the animal is equally favorable to the same." One would imagine, from the foregoing passage, that Mr. Tanner and Baron Liebig coincided in believing small lungs necessary to rapid fattening; but in another part of his essay, Tanner thus describes one of the points indicative of a tendency to fatten early:—"The chest should be bold and prominent, wide and deep, furnished with a deep but not coarse dewlap." On comparing the two passages which I have quoted from Tanner's essay, a contradiction is apparent. Mr. Bowly, Major Rudd, and other eminent breeders and feeders, appear to regard a capacious chest as the best sign of a fattening property which an animal could show. Lawes and Gilbert have recorded the weights of the viscera of a number of animals which, though supplied with equal quantities of the same kind of food, attained to different degrees of fatness. On carefully scrutinising these records, I failed to perceive any constant relation between the weight of their lungs and their tendency to fatten rapidly. Some animals with large lungs converted a larger proportion of their food into meat than others with smaller respiratory organs, and vice versâ. In a state of nature, there is no doubt but that the lungs of the ox and of the sheep are moderately large; and it is evident that in their case, as well as in that of man, over-feeding and confinement tend to diminish their muscular energy, and, of course, to decrease the capacity of the lungs. That such a practice does not tend to the improvement of the health of an animal is perfectly evident, but then the perfect ox of nature is very different from the perfect ox of man. The latter is a wide departure from the original type of its species: any marked development of its nervous system is undesirable; and it is valuable in proportion as its purely vegetative functions are most strongly manifested. A young bullock, therefore, of this kind would, no doubt, be the most economical kind to rear, provided that it was perfectly healthy, and capable of assimilating the liberal amount of food supplied to it. But it rarely happens that a young animal with a weakly chest turns out other than a scrofulous or otherwise diseased adult. On the whole, then, I am disposed to believe that whilst naturally small-lunged species may be more prone to fatten than large-chested ones, it is not the case that small-chested individuals fatten more rapidly than larger lunged individuals of the same kind.