ROAST BEEF OF OLD ENGLAND.

Mataura Ensign, Volume 6, Issue 344, 1 April 1884, Page 5

ROAST BEEF OF OLD ENGLAND.

'■■-•. .^Theloilowingincereating description J. P. Shelding, of the principal breeds of beef eattle in Engjl^n4 toearsin 'The Live Stock Jour- ; ?2#,i^manac' for the present year : — • ,'?' ' .BREEDS FOR BEEF. r ■ What excellent breeds of cattle we h&VQ to make i beef of, if only we had :^,pl^y with them? What land, and ..aiidr^hat markets! A country well / -fenced well watered, and well farmed -Ipr^he most part! Cattle which are f ihV^yy and emulation of the world, ■ and markets to which every country < bends what it can ! Our cattle are Ranted, perennially to improve and re- ; xnS^go^^e ihe breeds of many countries ! /iORe ; our what it may, it has '■producedi and will maintain, cattle ot :: iiie-- : highest excellence — cattle which ";.^e|l^fioratei|n climates elsewhere, which v . r;; a(n;8Lome; respects are supposed to be -than, our own. The Americans I fikye pur Tbreeds in abundance, and \lse^B;r had any worth the ,st)Rarne r :jwi!Lhput them, but they must con- ' j^'tSdualiy 1 import from us to keep up the 7 :i Stamp' and type and quality. Nor is ! '.^tU^&j'.inj^egotism, any degenerated ; ii^iti^otisn^ in saying this ; for it is : •/ i obvious .to .anyone, that travels about 1 '/' ither <c earthi , ; It is> fair ; t9 .. saj that nc ,'otlier country has produced, or even C "will produce^ unaided, a breed of cattle '; r / ;(^^alviii all respects to any of oui '/^ljf-dbzen Scotch' and English best ■";* ''■' \ jfoz&& Jies jWi© of oiur greatest nationa

privileges, and it seems fatuous to a degree that such a splendid advantage should be frittered away, at all events in part, in folly — id that grossest oi folly which, by fatuously admitting live cattle from infected countries, admits diseases j^hich destroy our own herds. SHORTHORNS. The Shorthorns, generally speaking, keep the lead in the estimation alike oi dairy farmers and of graziers. This is not because they are superior to all other breeds in milk and beef alike, but, rather because they are best all round cattle, and are more widely and numerously diffused about the country than any other breed. They hare completely, and within Bn almost incredibly shore peiiod displaced and dispossessed the wld Longhorn breed in the Midlands, and they are apparently doing tin , sa"'p with at least two of the old-world Welsh breeds, the Glamorgans and Pembrokes. They have not, however, disestablished any of the southern breeds, the Herefords, or Devons, or Sussex, or Norfolk Polls, but they have prevented in a great measure the expansion which must otherwise have taken place with the red skins and the white faces. No one claims, so far as I know, that Shorthorn beef is better than any other beef, but many consider it as good, while almost everybody will admit that it is good enough. The chief merit of the shorthorns is that they come early to maturity, that they don't linger too long in their 'teens, as one may say. They make good weights while still they are minors in point of months ; they have cosmopolitan constitutions, and the faculty of adapting themselves without delay to various countries and climates. What would Imerica do without them now ? HEREFORDS. The Herefords stand next, perhaps, in point of merit ; they almost certainly do in point of numbers, as also to the degree to which they are diffused about otjher countries of the world. They are the most picturesque of English cattle, Their beef is quite equal <"O tnatof the Shorthorns, yet they do not always make it so fast, and they are commonly light in the hind quarters. I speak now of the rank and file of them, and my remarks have no application to trie choicest tribes and families. The Herefords are established in many pkrts of the United Kingdom, as well as in Canada, the United States of America, and in Australia, not to mention other countries of less importance, and are found to answer well as beefmakers. , That they have a sorry repu-. tation as milkers is most true, buc this ~a : result of the long continued practice of letting their calves suck in* stead of hand-milking them—is their misfortune rather than their fault. Indeed, this statement holds good in respect of many families of pedigree Shorthorns who have been similarly neglected, and it would equally apply to other breeds if they -had not >beeh specially trained, and bred 4 tcTcopious milk-giving. Admirers of the Herefords, and among them Mr T. ;Duckham, M.P., claim that the iHerefprda would be good milkers if jbhey Were trained to, milk, and that as jbeef ; makers they yield a better return thanSn'othorns for the food they eat ; [while: not a fewpepple fancy that the .be^t cuts of .Hereford beet are second ;-on]y : /tQfthe best' puts of 'Ws'st Highj . far as juicy tenderness i^^^ftlPS^' y°&er : faeecL The^ * l^Mpiod^dy^if. -fpurid to \ be } . very fair [milkers ; when tteed and trained £0 milk, fand as they are hardy, handsome/ arid' ( otherwise excellent, they will certainly I spread much more than . they have j hitherto, done about the United Kingdom.. "•;- ' •' ,' .■ ' DEVONS. Next come the Devons, of course, the plump and beautiful Devons ! .with their cheerful countenances, and curly, cherry-colored coats. Smaller and more agile than any other pure Knglish breed, pretty to a degree, giving the richest of milk and excellent beef, they have won favor with many eminent persons. These are the North Devons, The South Devons are much of the same character, only larger, and somewhat less comely from an aesthetic point of view. The still larger Sussex catttft, wBo are supposed to have come of the Devons, are of the same color — a blood- red all over — and for the most part cognate in symmetry and outline. They are capable of making great weights, are excellent draught cattle, and are growing in popular favor. The South Hammers also, it is said, off-shoots of the Devons, are found in several of the southern counties, notably in Hamp shire ; but though they retain the color and build of the Devons in a fair measure, they are not equal to them in beauty or utility. All these tribes of red cattle, with horns, are special \y known as beef-makers, and they al fill an important position in the pas toral economy of the British Islands though, at present, they have no * won nearly the degree of favor whicl the Shorthorns, tn'c Hereford, th< Polled Aberdeens, and one or to othei British breeds have done, in foreigi countries. RED POLLED. There is yet another breed of cattl< , in England, hornless breed, which hai . more merit than has yet been generally ! awarded to them. It will be under j stood that I allude now to the NorfolJ Red Polls. To be without horns ap [ pears to me to be a good thing fo 1 cattle. It is one of Nature's omission 1 which merits our warm approval, as i seem to think. Some types of horn I may be regarded as ornamental, n< > doubt, but the best of them c mid wel - be spared. As it is, the Norfoll $ Polls, having no weapons to fight with i seldom want to fight! And, as i I consequence, they are docile in dis a position— a valuable quality in al t domesticated animals. It tends to j obesity or to milkiness, as the cas i maybe. Where the Red Polls hav e been bred and trained with any fai r measure^ care, as at Playford am •. Troston, we find they are excellei) \l l dair/ stock. They are. at the sam

i time capital beefers, as our Yankee ; friends would say, and they are comely ! and picturesque withai. A demand ! ; for them fs g'rbwi ttg iir y "America, arid, i as in the case : wfth many of our other i breeds, some of the best of them have crossed the Atlantic. '"■ BLACK POLLS. : Two other Polled, breeds, black in ' color, hardy in constitution, and capital i beefers, have won a very considerate reputatiojf."' 1 Tike Galloways and the Polled Aberdeens, have so much in common, that it. is uncertain whether or not they should be called distinct fro m each p; her, as much so as from the "Redpolls, yet are they so called by those who love them. People seek to distinguish that which they 'ike. ■Respectively these two breeds represent the south" and the north of Scotland, and they have won much credit to their native country. They are rapidly growing in reputation in Canada and the States, not only because of their superior merit as beefers, but because their hornlessness renders them most suitable for shipping purposes. It is probable that in the future the Polled breeds will become very numerous in the great translanti continent, and that we in England shall consume hornless beef that was raised in the " foot hills " of the Rocky Mountains, in the blue-grass region of Kentucky, in the valleys of j Colorado, and in the rolling ranches of Texas (or in the rich grassy vales and plains of New Zealand. — Ed. Ensign. THE WEST HIGHLANDER. I reserve the prince of cattle to the last — the noble shaggy-coated West Highlander ! — the grand old Viking of the North ! He is well in harmony with the wild and magnificent grandeur of his native habitat, and he has the proud air of a king who knows bis ancient lineage. But alas ! he too has to supply the dinner-tables of Celt and >*axon, of Teuton and of Gaul, and no longer may he roam in splendid freedom among the mountains £of the N;orth. Unfortunate for him is it tHat he makes the kingliest beef in the world. He is the hardiest of the Bovine race, and will lay on flesh out of doors, on the hills or anywhere, and with the coarset fare, during the biting blasts of winter. He laughs at the storms, and despises the effeminate habits of other breeds. I should like to see a wild herd of him among the canons of California ! Pregnant of interest is the reflection —how much do certain other countries owe to the Roast Beef of Old England to the cattle who make it, and to the men who eat it? Not only have Englishmen been a civilising force in India, America and Australia, and elsewhere,but also the quadrupeds they take with them, the greatest of whom is the bovine quadruped. In the equine world our own supplies in part have been withdrawn from the Continent and from Asia, but from no other country have we needed bovine stock to improve our own. In our roast , beef, then, we may ( fairly glory, for it is our own originally, ;and no i- other land can claim to have had a hand in the moulding of our breeds of cattle 3 nor have we ever any reason , to establish in our midst the breeds of any pther country.. We know the influence '■. jaf man on cattle, but- the' effect of Jcattle on man 'is .a^ quantity nofc' so ,;easily determined. s Cattle, however (■ pl»y v an important part in the economy '* MJ£l&^L? r .l^i^^ ,s&+s&^ Beef^r* ; Ito 1 ihis.country ,. for roast' beef somehow . ,'irf a different and an' inferior thing elsewhere — even in America — fornow- ; where else has -it the same flavor and . juicy mellowness. There may be a smack of partiality in saying this, but I am not singular in my opinion ; and, "even if I were, , the singularity would perhaps be pardonable. ' Prosperity, then, and permanence, say I, to the i Roast Beef of Old England.