Cattle

Originally the term included all domestic animals; but is now limited to the domesticated members of the genus Bos. Within the past 200 years intelligent selection and feeding have greatly improved the character of all domestic animals, and none more so than neat cattle. This has given origin to numerous breeds, and since cattle are kept for two main purposes, the dairy and beef, the breeds are of two main types; the former angular and wedge-shaped from before backward, the latter smooth in outline and squarely built. The adult male is a bull, the adult female a cow, the young a calf. The castrated male is a steer, or, when trained to work, an ox; the female, before producing young, is a heifer. In cheese-making districts, calves slaughtered when three days old for the skin and rennet are called deacons. In all parts of the U. S. the cattle industry is one of the most important branches of agriculture. In the e. and central portions most attention is given to the dairy. In the w. and s. w. beef is the almost exclusive object for which cattle are kept; though for the last two decades the dairy industry has rapidly extended westward, until now Wis. and Iowa may be reckoned among the important dairy states. According to the estimates of the Department of Agriculture there were in 1893 in the U. S. 16,424,087 milch cows and 35,954,196 oxen and other cattle, in all 52,378,283. In cows N. Y. led with 1,556,874, followed by Iowa with 1,291,142 and Ill. with 1,093,812. In oxen and other cattle Texas led with 6,462,536, followed by Iowa with 2,704,342 and Kansas with 1,958,735. The following are the more important breeds of cattle raised in the U. S.