New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1858-01-30
AGRICULTURAL
BREEDS OF DOMESTIC CATTLE. Il

Like many other animals which have been sub
ject to man so long that human history has no dis
tinct record of the time when they were not do
mesticated, the origin of the domestic OK is not
known, nor docs it now exist, nor any other spe-
ces of the family so closely allied to it Is to be
signable as its primal type, in q state of nature,
anywhere on the face of the globe
From this, however, mt t be excepted those
great herds of semi.feral cattle which are found on
the pampas Of South America, and those scattered
individuals encountered on the praries of North
America, which are the descendants, not the an
cestOrs of domestic CATTLE escaped or released
from civilization; as is also the case with all the
horses now known to exist in any region of the
world in feral condition.
The same is the case with the camel, the sheep
the dog, and the domestic poultry, which have
been jp state of subjugaton to mankind since the
very commencement, if not Of human language, at
least of recorded history; and of no one of which
does the precise representative exist wild at the
present hour, far as has been ascertained in any
region of the earth. Attempts have been made to
deduce the race of neat cattle, of which there is
properly but one Species known to naturalsts as
the Dos taurus, having, however, many subordinate
varieties, from the European bison; from the urus
of the Romans, aurochs Of the Teutons and Celts
which existed in the classic ages in all the great
forest tracts of Europe, north and east Of the
Danube and the Rhine, and in the British islands;
or from another extinct species, described as Dos
primigenius by naturalists, the fossil remains Of
which are discovered, together with those of the
aurochs, in the London clay in Essex and at Herne
Bay in the bed of the Avon and in the boys of Ire
land and of the Scottish Highlands.
Culver, indeed, has expressed an opinion that
the skulls of the species last named differ 80 little
from those of the present oxen, that there can be
" little doubt of their having belonged to the stock
q" from which the latter have all proceeded, these
" having, however, degenerated in size and varied
90 from them and from each other in minor points
owing to difference in climate food, and other
causes depending upon dOmesteation; their mag
nitude is at least onethird greater than that OF
the largest breed of modern oxen, AID their horns
" are much more massive"
To this opinion Professor Owen demurs, conceiv-
ing the Dos primige.ius to be distinct species
from the common OF, as it is from the bison or
surochs, in company with which it once rOamed the
savage solitudes of the great Caledonian Forest
and, in accordance with his weighty opinion, it
may be observed that, although domesticatiOn is
known and admitted to produce variety Of color,
and to multiply species, some of which will differ
from others in point of size in other respects, it
has not the effect Of materially decreasing, lift have
not that of enarging the standard of size. There
il. however, yet another fossil species, WHICH has
been discovered at great depths in bogs in Tyrone,
in Longford and Westmeath, in Ireland, and in Es-
sex, Middlesex and DevOnshire, in Great Britain
so recently as 1885, 1t is not only distinct from
all the other fossil species but differs little in its
size. and in the dimnutive horns which it exhibits
from the runts and kyloss of Kerry and the Scot.
fish Highlands; and these there is some reason for
supposing are the nearest existing varieties TO the
cattle which were already, according to Cesar, do
mesticated by the savage and painted Britons prior
to the Roman invasion. This fossil has been named
from the length Of its frontal BONE Dos iongirons
and Professor Owen seems to lean to the opinion
that these remains may be those not merely Of the
ancestors Of the domestcated oxen Of the early
Britons, but Of the subjugated animals themselves.
Yet another theory assumes that the semi-wd,
white or cream.colored cattle with red-tipped ears
and black horns and hoofs a few Of which are yet,
or were quite recently preserved in the parks OF
Chillingham and Chatel-heraut or CadzOw the
property of the Earls of Tankerville and Dukes OF
Hamilton, in the north of England and the south OF
Scotland, are the original stock of the British oxen
1t would appear, however that the fact of the In
trinsic wildness and ferocity of this quasi feral
breed of British cattle is itself questionable, and
may be merely the consequence of the breed hav'
ing been artifcally preserved, if not rendered wild
by the mode of its confinement IN seqaestered,
rocky and woody Businesses, and by its being occa-
sioI ally hunted with horses and firearms. IL Is
even asserted that it's invarable and uniform color,
the strongest argument in favor of its being an IN
mixed, aboriginal race, is itself artificial, all the
spotted calves being, it is alleged, destroyed as
soon 90 they are dropped, in order to prevent the
deterioration Of the apparent purity Of the race.
1t may seem ct first sight that Investigations Oh
this nature, however curious and interesting 10 the
naturalist and natural philosopher, are Of no ntiiv
to the practical man, to the farmer or the breeder