CATTLE OF THE PAST

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1028, 19 July 1930, Page 27

CATTLE OF THE PAST

WHEN WEIGHT COUNTED OXEN WORTH £2,000 Gone for ever are the days of the Durham ox and oeher old-time heavyweight cattle. Charles Colling’s Durham ox was calved in 1790, and got by his owner’s celebrated bull Favourite 252, out of a common black-and-white cow, bought for Charles Colling at Durham Fair for £l4. His firm and nico handling indicated every disposition to fatten at an early age, and at live years old his whole carcase was loaded with thick fat. Being thought so wonderful an animal, and far exceeding what had been seen before, he was purchased to bo exhibited by Bulmer, of Ilarmby, in February, 1801, for £l4O, his live weight being 3,0241 b. Bulmer had a carriage made to convey him, and after travelling for five weeks, sold the van and the ox at Rotherham to John Day for £250. On July 8 Day refused £2,000 for the purchase, and he travelled through the principal parts of England and Scotland. In London £97 \Vas taken in one day. At Oxford, in February, 1807, the ox dislocated his hip bone, and was killed on April 14; weight as follows: The four quarters, 165st 121 b; tallow, list 121 b; hide, lOst 21b. Day stated that the live weight of the ox at 10 years old was 34cwt. His measurement at 'five years old was: Length from horns to rump, Sft 4in; height at loin, sft sin; girth, 10ft 2in; and breadth over tho hips, 2SL't Tin. From many measurements of fat beasts it appears that the Howick mottled ox at seven y*ars old was the largest, as his length was 9ft Sin: height, sft 9*in; girth, 10ft lOin; and breadth, 2ft llin. Tho exhibition of tho Durham ox throughout tho country attracted great notice to Mr. Charles Colling’s herd, and brought many buyers to Ivetton. The Blackwell ox, killed in 1779, scaled 163st 101 b (of 141 b to the stone), and its beef, sold at Is a lb round Darlington. realised the sum of £lO9 11s Cd. Then Lord Darlington’s famous red ox, slaughtered at Newcastle in 1789, had a carcase weight of I69st (of 141 b), but alivo scaled one and a-half tons, and was worked until within a few months of slaughter.