CATTLE

Domesticated animals of the cow kind, which are found accompanying man in every civilized country, and in every climate. The native country of the type of British cattle is supposed by some to be Asia, and by others to be Africa; but in this case, as in all others wliere an animal or a plant has been long in a state of domestication, the origin of the species is involved in obscurity. When the tame cattle of any country are allowed to run wild and breed in that country, uncontrolled by man, the habits which belong to the animal in its savage state become, in the course of three or four generations, modified according to the natural supplies of food and the character of the climate. Hence, though cattle are not indigenous to Britain, South America, or the Sandwich Islands, we have in the former country a breed of wild cattle in one or two gentlemen's parks, as at Chillinghara in North umber land, which are quite different from the wild cattle of the fertile soils of South America, as these again are different from the wild cattle of the Sandwich Islands, though all undoubtedly the descendants of tame animals. Those in the Sandwich Islands, in particular, are known to be the offspring of the tame cattle that were left there by Vancouver, and which can now be only caught alive by entrapping them in disguised pits; into one of which the unfortunate botanist Douglas fell, and was gored to death by a bull who happened to be in it at the time. The domestic cattle of Britain may be divided into two races: those of large size adapted for the plains, and those of smaller size adapted for the mountains. Of each of these cla es there are several breeds; such as the Highland and the Welch cattle, among the latter; and the Lancashire, the Yorkshire, and the Here ford shire cattle, among the former. There is also an intermediate breed, adapted for moderately hilly countries; such as the Galloway and Fife breeds in Scotland, and the Alderney and Guernsey cattle in England. The best beef brought to the London market is that of cattle of the Highland breed fed in English pastures, or on turnips. The best milk cow for general purposes is the Ayrshire; the best for cream and butter, the Alderney; and the best for immense quantities of milk, the Lancashire. Hence the latter are generally employed in public dairies, the Ayrshire by farmers and cottagers, and the Alderney by the higher cla es. [s. 215]