Cattle 1853 - Lewis Family Farm

214 CATTLE.
DESCRIPTION OF THE KECK.
The neck of the ox (see cut of skeleton, p.' 143,) is composed of
seven bones.
In cattle there is great shortness of the neck generally—shortness,
and yet magnitude of every bone—the avoidance of smooth surface,
and the springing out, above and below, and on one' side and the
and .there
other, of processes which are long, broad, and roughened ;
is not an elastic movement about the whole of this part of the animal,
and the neck is level. The intention of nature is plain enough in the
construction of the neck of the ox. All these widened, roughened,
tuberous- bones are for the attachmemt of muscles—the accumulation
of flesh. True, these are not the prime parts of the animal, but we
see the commencement of the principle. The animal was destined to
produce flesh and fat for our nourishment. ,
A little of the arched form of the neck may be traced in the Devon
ox, and is no detriment either to his appearance or his actual value ;
although common consent seems to have determined that the line
from the horns to the withers should scarcely deviate from that of
the back. Is this trait of the thorough bred horse, here appearing
in cattle, connected with that activity in work for which this breed
has ever been unrivaled ? The Sussex, and Hereford, and Pembroke,
and Welsh, generally, and all the Scots, horned or hornless, have, occa-
sionally at least, this rising of the forehand ; and we must be permitted
still to retain this form of the neck, as one of the characteristics,
and no defect, of the middle-hprns, who, in particular districts, and
for particular purposes, will still remain and be duly valued, when
the triumph of the short-horns is complete in their universal diffusion.
We must go even a \ttle further than this, and claim the rising
crest as an essential point in every good bull of every breed. It shall
be what, in the majority of cases, it perhaps is, nothing more than an
accumulation of fat about the ligament of the neck, and the splenius
and complexius muscles ; but it indicates that broad base of muscle
beneath—that bulk and strength of neck, so indicative of the true
masculine character. We refer to the Devon bull (p. ] 1), to whom,
indeed, it belongs, in virtue of his breed—and,we refer, also, to the
West Highland bull (p. 42), who has the same claim to it, and also,
•to the Old Craven bull (p. 82) ; to the New Leicester bull (p. 88),
and even to the short-horned bull (p 109).
The actual bulk of muscle, however, in any part of the ox is not so
much greater as the extended and roughened surfaces would lead us
to imagine. The head, or the insertion of the muscle, may be spread
over the whole surface of the bone ; but we have not proceeded far
in our examination of that muscle, before we find that its structure,
at least in the unworked *ox, is not compact muscle. A great deal