Live Stock Breeders* Association. 227 



went on for centuries, and was no doubt somewhat similar to what 

 we are doing today. It went on until gradually these characteristics 

 that were desired came to be almost fixed in the animals, and this 

 thing we call "prepotency" became impressed in this breed of cat- 

 tle as in no other. No other cattle, no other tribe of domestic animals 

 has it to such a wonderful extent as the *'roan." About the end 

 of the eighteenth century, however, they began to preserve what 

 we call pedigrees instead of mere tradition, as that a certain ani- 

 mal was from F. Brown's red bull or J, Dixon's bull. Those are the 

 only sires, as you know, at the bottom of shorthorn pedigrees today. 



Charles and Robert Colling deserve, more than any other two 

 men, credit for bringing all this scattered material into one sys- 

 tematic compact whole, and they did it by introducing novel ideas 

 in regard to breeding. About that time Mr. Blackwell, in the 

 southern part of England, had achieved considerable success in 

 improving the long horn cattle of that day. He had also wonder- 

 fully improved the Leceister sheep of that day. Charles Colling 

 was an enterprising young man who had just taken the beautiful 

 farm of Quentin, which I viewed with a great deal of interest, as it 

 is today just as he left it. He spent a week with Mr. Blackwell, 

 and finally that gentleman explained the mystery of his operations 

 and success, which was simply a scientific application of the prin- 

 ciples of in-breeding. It was the beginning of his breed, but Mr. 

 Blackwell found that by breeding sire to daughter and brother to 

 sister for generation after generation, he absolutely fixed the type 

 he desired to hand down. 



Charles Colling went home with that idea. He had been suc- 

 cessful, as you know, in finding a wonderful red bull called "Hub- 

 bard," but he was recognized as a pure short horn bull. His dam 

 was a cow recognized as possessed of wonderfully mellow skin, 

 beautifully developed form and symmetry, and it was known that 

 he was out of a beautiful short-horn bull. Mr. Colling took this 

 bull "Hubbard" and used him freely. He did not continue to breed 

 him as long as he should have done, but parted with him. How- 

 ever, he found that the descendants of Hubbard were remarkably 

 fine and similar specimens, and, as you know, when he obtained 

 "Favorite," a direct descendant of Hubbard, he actually used 

 three crosses in succession of Favorite upon his own offspring. 

 The result was the bull "Comet," the most wonderful animal that 

 had been seen up to that time. And when Mr. Colling, because of 

 failing health, retired from the business, he sold Comet for six 

 thousand pounds. The introduction of Comet was a nepot in short- 



