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Points Of Fat Cattle

Categories: History and Breeds

Whatever theoretical objections may be raised against over-fed cattle,

and great as may be the attempts to disparage the mountains of fat,--as

highly-fed cattle are sometimes designated,--there is no doubt of the

practical fact, that the best butcher cannot sell any thing but the best

fatted beef; and of whatever age, size, or shape a half-fatted ox may

be, he is never selected by judges as fit for human food. Hence, a

well-fatted animal always commands a better price per pound than one

imperfectly fed, and the parts selected as the primest beef are

precisely the parts which contain the largest deposits of fat. The rump,

the crop, and the sirloin, the very favorite cuts,--which always command

from twenty to twenty-five per cent. more than any other part of the

ox,--are just those parts on which the largest quantities of fat are

found; so that, instead of the taste and fashion of the age being

against the excessive fattening of animals, the fact is, practically,

exactly the reverse. Where there is the most fat, there is the best

lean; where there is the greatest amount of muscle, without its share of

fat, that part is accounted inferior, and is used for a different

purpose; in fact, so far from fat's being a disease, it is a condition

of muscle, necessary to its utility as food,--a source of luxury to the

rich, and of comfort to the poor, furnishing a nourishing and healthy

diet for their families.



Fattening is a secretive power which grazing animals possess, enabling

them to lay by a store of the superfluous food which they take for

seasons of cold or scarcity. It collects round the angular bones of the

animal, and gives the appearance of rotundity; hence the tendency to

deposit fat is indicated, as has been stated, by a roundness of form,

as opposed to the fatness of a milk-secreting animal. But its greatest

use is, that it is a store of heat-producing aliment, laid up for

seasons of scarcity and want. The food of animals, for the most part,

may be said to consist of a saccharine, an oleaginous, and an albuminous

principle. To the first belong all the starchy, saccharine, and gummy

parts of the plants, which undergo changes in the digestive organs

similar to fermentation before they can be assimilated in the system; by

them also animal heat is sustained. In indolent animals, the oily parts

of plants are deposited and laid up as fat; and, when vigor and strength

fail, this is taken up and also used in breathing to supply the place of

the consumed saccharine matter. The albuminous, or gelatinous principle

of plants is mainly useful in forming muscle; while the ashes of plants,

the unconsumable parts, are for the supply, mainly, of bone, hair, and

horn, but also of muscle and of blood, and to supply the waste which

continually goes on.



Now, there are several qualities which are essentially characteristic of

a disposition to fatten. There have not, as yet, been any book-rules

laid down, as in the case of M. Guenon's indications of milking-cows;

but there are, nevertheless, marks so definite and well understood, that

they are comprehended and acted upon by every grazier, although they are

by no means easy to describe. It is by skillful acumen that the grazier

acquires his knowledge, and not by theoretical rules; observation,

judgment, and experience, powerful perceptive faculties, and a keen and

minute comparison and discrimination, are essential to his success.






The first indication upon which he relies, is the touch. It is the

absolute criterion of quality, which is supposed to be the keystone of

perfection in all animals, whether for the pail or the butcher. The skin

is so intimately connected with the internal organs, in all animals,

that it is questionable whether even our schools of medicine might not

make more use of it in a diagnosis of disease. Of physiological

tendencies in cattle, however, it is of the last and most vital

importance. It must neither be thick, nor hard, nor adhere firmly to the

muscles. If it is so, the animal is a hard grazer, a difficult and

obstinate feeder--no skillful man will purchase it--such a creature must

go to a novice, and even to him at a price so low as to tempt him to

become a purchaser. On the other hand, the skin must not be thin, like

paper, nor flaccid, nor loose in the hand, nor flabby. This is the

opposite extreme, and is indicative of delicateness, bad, flabby flesh,

and, possibly, of inaptitude to retain the fat. It must be elastic and

velvety, soft and pliable, presenting to the touch a gentle resistance,

but so delicate as to give pleasure to the sensitive hand--a skin, in

short, which seems at first to give an indentation from the pressure of

the fingers, but which again rises to its place by a gentle elasticity.



The hair is of nearly as much importance as the skin. A hard skin will

have straight and stiff hair; it will not have a curl, but be thinly and

lankly distributed equally over the surface. A proper grazing animal

will have a mossy coat, not absolutely curled, but having a

disposition to a graceful curl, a semifold, which presents a waving

inequality; but as different from a close and straightly-laid coat, as

it is from one standing off the animal at right angles, a strong symptom

of disease. It will also, in a thriving animal, be licked here and there

with its tongue, a proof that the skin is duly performing its functions.



There must be, also, the full and goggle eye, bright and pressed

outward by the fatty bed below; because, as this is a part where Nature

always provides fat, an animal capable of developing it to any

considerable extent, will have its indications here, at least, when it

exists in excess.



So much for feeding qualities in the animal, and their conformations

indicative of this kindly disposition. Next come such formations of the

animal itself as are favorable to the growth of fat, other things being

equal. There must be size where large weights are expected. Christmas

beef, for instance, is expected to be large as well as fat. The symbol

of festivity should be capacious, as well as prime in quality. But it is

so much a matter of choice and circumstance with the grazier, that

profit alone will be his guide. The axiom will be, however, as a general

rule, that the better the grazing soil the larger the animal may be; the

poorer the soil, the smaller the animal. Small animals are,

unquestionably, much more easily fed, and they are well known by

experienced men to be best adapted to second-rate feeding pastures.



But, beyond this, there must be breadth of carcass. This is indicative

of fattening, perhaps, beyond all other qualifications. If rumps are

favorite joints and produce the best price, it is best to have the

animal which will grow the longest, the broadest, and the best rump; the

same of crop, and the same of sirloin; and not only so, but breadth is

essential to the consumption of that quantity of food which is necessary

to the development of a large amount of fat in the animal. Thus, a deep,

wide chest, favorable for the respiratory and circulating functions,

enables it to consume a large amount of food, to take up the sugary

matter, and to deposit the fatty matter,--as then useless for

respiration, but afterwards to be prized. A full level crop will be of

the same physiological utility; while a broad and open framework at the

hips will afford scope for the action of the liver and kidneys.



There are other points, also, of much importance; the head must be small

and fine; its special use is indicative of the quick fattening of the

animal so constructed, and it is also indicative of the bones being

small and the legs short. For constitutional powers, the beast should

have his ribs extended well towards the thigh-bones or hips, so as to

leave as little unprotected space as possible. There must be no

angular, or abrupt points; all must be round, and broad, and parallel.

Any depression in the lean animal will give a deficient deposit of flesh

and fat at that point, when sold to the butcher, and thus deteriorate

its value; and hence the animal must be round and full.



But either fancy, or accident, or skill--it is unnecessary to decide

which--has associated symmetry with quality and conformation, as a

point of great importance in animals calculated for fattening; and there

is no doubt that, to a certain extent, this is so. The beast must be a

system of mathematical lines. To the advocate of symmetry, the

setting-on of a tail will be a condemning fault; indeed the ridge of the

back, like a straight line, with the outline of the belly exactly

parallel, viewed from the side, and a depth and squareness when viewed

from behind,--which remind us of a geometrical cube, rather than a vital

economy,--may be said to be the indications of excellence in a fat ox.

The points of excellence in such an animal are outlined under the

subsequent head, as developed in the cutting up after slaughter.



Now, these qualities are inherent in some breeds; there may be cases and

instances in all the superior breeds, and in most there may be failures.



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