ed; short on the legs. He should have a small well-put-on head,
prominent eye, a skin not too thick nor too thin; should be covered
with fine silky hair--to the touch like a lady's glove; should have a
good belly to hold his meat; should be straight-backed, well ribbed up,
and well ribbed home; his hook-bones should not be too wide apart. A
wide-hooked animal, especially a cow after calving, always has a
vacancy between the hook-bone and the tail, and a want of the most
valuable part of the carcass. I detest to see hooks too wide apart;
they should correspond with the other proportions of the body. A level
line should run from the hook to the tail. He should be well set in at
the tail, free of patchiness there and all over, with deep thighs, that
the butcher may get his second round and prominent brisket deep in the
fore-rib, with a good purse below him, which is always worth L1 to him
in the London market; well fleshed in the fore-breast, with equal
covering of fine flesh all over his carcass, so valuable to the
butcher. His outline ought to be such that if a tape is stretched from
the fore-shoulder to the thigh, and from the shoulder along the back to
the extremity there, the line should lie close, with no vacancies; and
without a void, the line should fill from the hook to the tail. From
the shoulder-blade to the head should be well filled up--as we say,
good in the neck vein. I am aware that the preceding remarks as to the
quality and proportions a beast should possess must be very
unsatisfactory to you, as they are to myself; scarcely any one animal
has possessed them all, and to look for the half of them in a good
commercial beast would be vain. I have consulted no writer upon the
subject; they are set down, and not in good order, just as they struck
me at the time. Thick legs, thick tails, sunken eyes, and deep necks,
with thick skin and bristly hair, always point to sluggish feeders.

In cold weather in the month of May, the old silky coat of the
strawyard bullock is of great advantage. If we could get the qualities
and proportions I have specified in animals, it would not be difficult
to make them fat. It would be difficult only to make them lean, when
once in condition. A high standing, want of ribbing-up and ribbing
home, with the tucked-up flank, always denote a worthless feeder. You
must all have observed how difficult it is to bring such cattle into a
state for killing. It will take a deal of cake and corn