THE BREEDING OF LIVE STOCK

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 11, 7 October 1927, Page 14

THE BREEDING OF LIVE STOCK

By

J. A. C.

(Special for The Dominion.) All Bights Be*erv«d. 11. The well-established iaets of geology leave no doubt on the minds of scientists that the age of this earth runs into many millions of years. Astronomers put it down at something like 500,000.000, !»ut tho geologists are content to figure it at about 250, (/00,000 years or less. The shorter period is more than ample for <N*r Durpose in answer-jag the ques-

tion put al: the conclusion of (tie first article. It gives more than ample time nnimnl from which the present day racehorse. tho Clydesdale, and the Shetland pony have descended) as an inhabitant those changes were brought about. At what precise stage of its existence organic life first appeared can only be guessed •ul; but it is clear that if we introduce tlic raleotherium magnum (tho three-toed for immense changes to have taken place in form ami structure of anything and evorvthing that composed the entire mass of the earth, or tho organisms that existed upon it, no matter how slowly of our globe, say, tive or ten millions of years ago, there is still sufficient time for (he complete changes that have taken place without in the least dogroe hurrying on the natural process of “incessant and minute change.” But how do we know that the Raleotherium did not make his appearance at a much later dato P The animal himself is dead, and can tell no tales about his birthday; still there remains tho most, reliable evidence of the important pnrtfi of his life history and the approximate date of his nativity, though ho in turn was descended from a four-toed and then a five-toed animal. All this is a well-established fact, for the paleontologists have taken careful note of tho stratum in which the remains have been found, and have fixed t lie date according to geological time, which fits in quite reasonably with all the requirements of the argument. For instance, the remains of the Paleotherium (which, ny the wav, had onlv three toes, but a long snout like a short elephant’s trunk) have not been discovered in more recent strata than the upper Eocene, and there is no evidence that man existed at that early period. It is Quite probable that the iinitnal referred to was never seen alive by any human being, and that the species in that form became extinct before the advent of man, because the earliest human remains yet discovered have not been found below the quarternary strata. The ancestors of rhe horse have therefore been traced back to a period many thousands of years earlier than those of any other domestic animal. All'that we know of the early history of cattle and sheep is of comparatively recent date geologically. Most people are conversant with the Biblical story that Pharaoh "presented sheep and cattle to Abraham." and while it would lie most interesting and instructive to know something of the typo and character of those animals, all records are silent upon the matter. It has been said of ancient Roman history ‘in every page loculus bos,” that is. in every page the ox speaks, and Pictor (one of the earliest Homan historians) described the ground on which the city now stands as “Pasena bobus erat, in other words, a pasture for cuttle, and in Ovid we find a similar reference,

viz., “Tantaque respencis pasena bobus erat.” So that within historic times wo have ample evidence of the antiquity of the sneeies, even if wo go no farther; but there is reliable authority for stating that cattle were domesticated in Turkestan and Central India nearly 8000 years B.C. Even at that ancient period there was more than one variety extant and possessing quite distinct characteristics; but it: is only witli one of those varieties that we are here concerned viz., the Bos urns, winch the evidence points to as file progenitor of our present stock, although Professor Ewart, of Edinburgh University, is credited witli the statement that "examination of Neolithic (new stone) and Bronze Age deposits prove that lor about 18,000 years there have been living in Europe three kinds of tame cattle, viz . polled cattle, cattle with short horns, and cattle with long horns," and that these were introduced into EtLXlil-

at n very early period and brought from Asia to Europe during the New Stone (or Neolithic) Ago. Clearly this statement has uo reference to the Bos urns, ages ago extinct, because Youatt described the Urus as “of immense size and of terrible ferocity." The fossil pjmains of this animal clearly show that ho stood quite Git. in height, with long sharply-pointed horns carried well forward, anil measuring 3ft. Gin. between tho tips. There is a skull of this animal in the Cambridge Museum, with (i ktuiie axe by which ho was killed embedded in the skull. < Now the most interesting thing about that fossil is that it bears a very marked resemblance to many individual members of our present-day so-called Shorthorns that have been bred in the semiwild state on some of the large cattle stations. The writer once had to deal with a seven-year-old wild steer that very nearly approximated the type and dimensions of the Urns, except in height and the sickle-shaped hind legs of the Urus as represented in tho restored picture now before us. Having regard to tho enormous distance of time between the existence of those two animals the similarity is particularly striking.

Yet that lapse of time, great as it is, serves to show how very slowly Nature progresses, and how little variation takes place when .i-fixed strain is not violently interfered with by admixture of dissimilar types. 't he fact that a human implement is embedded in the skull of that museum specimen enables us to say with reasonable certainty that the Bos urus (or, as he is now called, the Bos primogenius) existed in Britain not more than about 12,000 years ago, and as, as is authoritatively stated, he was the progenitor of the wild Chillingham cattle that exist in pure strain in some of tlie English jiarks to-day. wo have a valuable and reliable object-lesson in natural variation. The Chillingham cattle are all white witli black cars ami tip ot nose, and there is also an ancient domesticated breed of white Swedish polled cattle similarly marked, and known by the name of Fjall cattle. The almost identical colouring of those two distinct breeds vej-y strongly suggests 5 a very potent, though perhaps a very remote, relationship, and if it could bo shown that the Bos urus was also a white anima', and the progenitor of both, it would afford most material evidence on the still elusive question of heredity. Most probably such is the case, however, though there is nothing to show whether or not the Urus was white, red, or black. He may have been a black or a white, or both, and transmitted his dominant colour to both those breeds.

Quito recently, and to some extent up to the present' time, there existed a very strong prejudice among breeders against any indication of the sable ear or black snip in show animals ot the Shorthorn breed, and even the white colour was not favoured, jxissibly because of some fear of reversion to the original type; but that characteristic lias now almost entirely disappeared from modern herds, and where it does appear it affects only the. colour, and does not seem to have any influence upon the conformation of the animal bearing its mark.

The alxive is a typical animal of the beef-producing Shorthorn, which can hardly be excelled for shape, symmetry. and facial expression, which latter characteristic is, in the writer’s view, for breeding purposes the most important feature of her whole contour; but more of this anon. Some breeders, and judges, too, might discount her merits solely on account of her colour, so the question arises, “Has this animal reverted to the Chillingham breed?" True, she shows no semblance of the black snip or the sable ear, otherwise the colour all over is conspicuously like the stock from which she has so remotely descended. _ If she has reverted in colour she shows r.o semblance of reversion in type, and as colour is of but very secondary importance there is very little reason to discount her merits on that account. (To be continued.)