Excerpt from Cattle Their History and Various Breeds, to Which Is Added the Dairy

Among the various orders of mammalia, from which man has reclaimed and domesticated certain species - species, the possession of which, in a state of subjection and dependence, contribute essentially to his welfare - that of the Ruminantia, or ruminating animals, affords him the greatest number, and those not of the lowest importance. To this order belong the camel, the llama and its allies, the different species of the ox, the sheep, and the goat. Since the remotest periods of history, the ox and the sheep have been regarded in the light of property, noris their intrinsic value less appreciated after a lapse of ages. Who does not know how intimately the wellbeing of a nation is connected with its agrarian produce, whether animal or vegetable, and how closely the interests of commerce and of agriculture are inter-blended together? It has been said by some one, that he who makes two stalks of corn grow where only one grew before, is a benefactor of his country, and by a parity of reasoning, he who improves the breeds of domestic cattle, feeds two on the land which before only supported one, and he who devises superior modes of management with regard to the extension of their utility, also serves the interests of the community. On topics like these, however, we need not insist, let us at once to our subject.

The Ox, then, is one among the ruminating order of quadrupeds.

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