Youatt’s
book on cattle has two distinct parts, Breeding and Diseases, but he walks
along a lot of side tracks. The reason is that he has quite a number of
observations and anecdotes in store, and he likes to tell them. He has made
observations of the cattle market in London
and the local dairy industry there and where in his book should he give them a
place? He has chosen to put them in a chapter about the shorthorn breeds, in
the paragraphs dealing with the county
of Middlesex, which contains London.
Another
interesting description is that of the behaviour of the ox; Youatt put it in
part 2, The Anatomical Structure and Diseases of Cattle, the first chapter of
which is The Structure and Diseases of the Head of the Ox. Not a single detail
of the head is forgotten, ears, eyes, sinuses, skin and bones, all organs and
tissues play a role in his treatise. When he arrives at the brain he starts
with an introductory paragraph of the subject which he closes with the
following sentence: “Shall we somewhat enliven a dry part of our work by adding
one or two additional anecdotes to those already related?” (p.285).
Then
follows the paragraph “The intelligence of the oxen”, containing four anecdotes
and a conclusion. The anecdotes illustrate, respectively, maternal affections
of cows, two times the attachment of oxen to their keepers, and the reasoning
faculty in the ox. The latter subject is the story (from “a gentleman near
Laggan, in Scotland”) of a fat and drowsy boy who was kept to watch the cattle,
a bull grazing with cows in open unfenced meadows, to prevent them tresspassing
on the neighbouring fields and destroy the corn. The boy was often found
asleep, for which he was then punished. “Warned by this, he kept a long switch,
and revenged himself upon them [the cattle] with an unsparing hand, if they
exceeded their boundary”. Apparently the bull became conditioned by this
treatment because he used to strike the cows with his forehead (he had no
horns) whenever they crossed this boundary and place himself before the cows in
a threatening attitide if they approached it. “At length, his honesty and
vigilance became so obvious that the boy was employed in weeding and other
business, without fear of their misbehaviour in his absence”.
Youatt
finished the paragraph with a philosophical comparison between the relative
brain size and the intelligence of the ox, the horse and the dog, concluding
that the ox occupies an inferior rank. But “he occasionally displays the germ
of every social affection; and the knowledge of this should give us a kindlier
feeling towards him, and protect him from many an abuse”.
About which
Youatt has a lot to say elsewhere in his book
