A QUESTION OF LONGEVITY.
It has been claimed more than once that Ireland is a great country for the lengthening of life ; and this virtue seems to be extended to domestic animals as well as man. There is at this date an Angus cow in an Irish herd which is eighteen years old, has calved and is likely to calve again and is still a prodigy (among beef cattle) for the supply of milk. These beautiful little polled cattle, which are apt to win all the fat stock prizes, appear to live long as well as mature early, though it is a general biological law that the length of life is more or less proportionate to the period of growth. Is it, I wonder, true, as a writer in the always excellent Aberdeen Angus Review claims, that the breed excels in longevity ? May it be that length of life in cattle is correlated with absence of horns? The nearest parallel to this eighteen- year-old Angus that I know personally is a Suffolk Redpole. The general subject is perhaps worth statistical investigation. The oldest dog I have heard of is—of all breeds—a Peke. Ponies live longer than horses. May we then presume that littleness and longevity are correlated ?
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