Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1880-10-01

OAANh SANNA0s
GLOW odd they look without HORNS" is an
expression one often hears when persons UNI
accustomed 10 poled cattle are first shown q
herd of Galloways, Aberdeens Angus or Suf-
folks. Many people believe that well-turned
horn is great addition TO the beauty OF
fine COW or steer, but If the horn happens to
turn the wrong way-into ones own flesh, for
instance, or into the bowels of q fnvorite
horse or other animal-the beauty is not 80
readily dscernible. One polled COW in hord
of horned animals does sometimes look lit
tie lonesome. So does last years hat or
bonnet often look terribly out of fashion in
company with lot of recent make. Ones
admiration for horns on domesticated cattle is
much q matter of fashion
They are, however, needed no moro on the
heads of COWS than on horses, and we doubt
not the time will come when they will be
about as rarely seen on one as on the other
We have been surprised at the rapid change
in public sentiment in this regard during the
past few years. The change in methods OF
transportation, from driving over common
roads to shipping on cars and steamboats,, has
had no little to do with bringing about this
feeling against horns. They are nuisance
at all times but especially so when animals
are crowded closely in cars or on shipboard.
Mr.. j. II. Wallace, of Wallaces Monthly
lover Of animals always, came back from his
recent tour in Europe with greatly-increased
interest in hornless cattle, owing to his expe-
rence with cargo of fat cattle that were
taken over on the same steamship. Horns
are supposed TO be given Us weapons of self
defense, but even well-disposod cattle cannot
avoid iniuring each other with them when
they are crowded together Us is the custom by
modern methods of transportation. However
odd a single polled COW may appear to one
not accustomed to seeing them, yet we have
failed to find person who was not pleased on
seeing whole herd of them together. 1t
matters little how small the enclosure in which
they are turned loose, provided there is room
to squeeze by each other for, being weapon
less, they never learn either to injure or to
fear injury from their companions.
Whether the original condition of the COW
was with or without horns, it might be as diff
icult at this time to determine as il is just
how much no-horn blood is running in the
veins of the Short-horns or Jerseys. The
latter seem to have but slight power to hold
their horns in battles, and the former have
many of the points of the best polled cattle.
The greatest interest is directed at the
present time, towards removing horns from
animals raised for beef, and to be transported
across the continent and the ocean; and for
this purpose breeds of beefy shape are be-
ing imported for crossing on the native and
OtutI BLOCK Oh our WGhlGIu RIuLluk lhlNb.
But there is n growing demand for good
milking stock of the no-horned breeds foruse
in the dairy regions. We have numerous let
tiers from correspondents claiming that pure
bred polled bull will stamp the no-horn strain
very strongly in his progeny, and that the
get of such animals will generally be without
horns, or have them hanging loosely to the
skin, instead of being grown to the skull, ~
is the case with horned cattle. gentleman
at Plainfeld, N. j., writes, under date of July
%, that a black bull of the Galloway breed,
introduced into his Durham herd, removed
the horns at once, only two out of twelve
calves dropped the first season showing any
sign of horn, and these were blunt things
pendant from the skin"
Others have had like experience, and are
led to conclude that the horns may be bred off
from all our principle breeds of cattle by the
introduction of wisely selected polled bulls (;
and that, too, without very materially chang
ing the marked characteristics of the several
| breeds.
Since the success Of the exhibition of pollod
cattle at Paris, at which the highest prizes
were carried of by specimens of this class,
there has seemed possibility of an undue
excitement in this direction, and that polled
cattle for breeding purposes might reach ex-
travagant prices and there is, doubtless,
much inquiry for pure stock of these breeds,
especially in Europe. But the fancy for the
purest popular breeds is so firmly grounded
in the minds of their admirers that the pro-
| cess of removing the horns must necessarily
| be long one.
Polled cattle of no particular breed are moi
uncommon in Pennsylvania and other Middle
States, and there are several good herds OF
pure breds in Canada, from which a start
might be made.
There are also few herds in New England
that have been bred more or less carefully for
many years, some of them springing from a
single importation lhado by Capt. Il. b. Forbe'
of Norfolk county, Mass, more than thirty
years ago.-N z. Farmer.