e go and get a parcel of mean scrubs of
cattle, or sheep, to graze it, surrounding his very door, and disgracing
him by their vulgar, plebeian looks, and yielding him no return, in
either milk, beef, mutton, or wool? Of course not, if he be a wise, or a
provident man, or one who has any true taste in such matters. He will
rather go and obtain the best stock he can get, of breeds suited to the
climate, and soil, which will give him a profitable return, either in
milk, or flesh, or their increase, for his outlay; and which will also
embellish his grounds, and create an interest in his family for their
care, and arrest the attention of those who visit him, or pass by his
grounds. Of the proper selection of this branch of his stock, we shall
now discourse.

[Illustration]

In cattle, if your grounds be rich, and your grass abundant, the
short-horns are the stock for them. They are "the head and front,"
in appearance, size, and combination of good qualities--the very
aristocracy of all neat cattle. A well-bred, and well developed
short-horn cow, full in the qualities which belong to her character,
is the very perfection of her kind. Her large, square form; fine orange,
russet, or nut-colored muzzle; bright, prominent, yet mild, expressive
eye; small, light horn; thin ears; clean neck; projecting brisket; deep,
and broad chest; level back, and loin; broad hips; large, and
well-spread udder, with its silky covering of hair, and clean, taper,
wide-standing teats, giving twenty to thirty quarts of rich milk in a
day; deep thigh, and twist; light tail; small, short legs; and, added to
this, her brilliant and ever-varying colors of all, and
every-intermingling shades of red, and white, or either of them alone;
such, singly, or in groups, standing quietly under the shade of trees,
grazing in the open field, or quietly resting upon the grass, are the
very perfection of a cattle picture, and give a grace and beauty to the
grounds which no living thing can equal. Here stands a short-horn cow,
in all the majesty of her style and character!

We add, also, a short-horn bull, which exhibits, in a high degree, the
vigor, stamina, and excellence of his kind.

Nor, in this laudation of the short-horns, are we at all mistaken.
Go into the luxuriant blue-grass pastures of Kentucky; the rich, and
wide-spread grazing regions of central, and lower Ohio; the prairies of
Indiana, and Illinois, just now beginning to receive them; the sweet,
a