116 BOARD OF AGRICULTUEE. 



great deal of interest, did not go back far enough in his 

 account of the improvement of stock in England. I think it 

 dates back more than one century, as it regards particularly 

 the Shorthorn branch of the cattle family. • Be this as it rhay, 

 however, the fact which I will give you, will show an animal 

 bred longer than the period named. 



Mr. Thomas Bates said of his branch of the improved 

 Shorthorn family : " Wherever they are fairly tried, their merits 

 will shine forth in producing a greater return for the food 

 consumed than any other breed of cattle that was ever known. 

 Charles Colling, of whom I got them, repeatedly assured me 

 that the first cow he bought of the Duchess breed was the best 

 cow he ever had or ever saw, and that this first cow was bet- 

 ter than any he could produce from her, though put to his 

 best bulls, which improved all his other cattle. These cattle 

 were in possession of Sir Hugh Smithson's family for two cen- 

 turies, and their celebrity was kept up by paying attention to 

 their breeding. Charles Colling," adds Mr. Bates, " bought 

 this tribe in 1784, and in 1804 I (Mr. Bates) purchased my 

 first Duchess cow of Charles Colling, my bull, 'Kelton,' by 

 ' Favorite,' then in her womb. This cow calved June 7, 1807, 

 and was kept on grass only, in a pasture with nineteen other 

 cows, and made, in butter and milk, for some months, above 

 two guineas per week. Duchess 34th (the dam of the four 

 Dukes of Northumberland bulls) consumed one-third less feed 

 than my first Duchess (purchased in 1804), and her milk 

 3'ielded one-third more butter for every quart of milk, and while 

 the consumption of feed was one-third less, and the milk 

 yielded one-third more butter ; there was also greater growth 

 of .carcase, with an increased aptitude to fatten. This cow in 

 her thirteenth year had had ten calves. If these be not proofs 

 of excellence, then let Shorthorn breeders say what are, and 

 where the like can be found." 



I think the farmers here will agree with me, as they will in 

 central New York, where my friend Lewis comes from, that 

 this Duchess family, to which allusion is here made by Mr. 

 Bates, has done more to improve the milking stock than any 

 other family of the cattle kind that has been introduced 

 into this country. I think 'that these facts touching excel- 

 lency of breeding are of interest ; and yet I think, as I 



