THE BREEDING AND CARE OF SHORTHORNS. 



AN ADDKESS DELIVEEED BY HON. WM. BALL BEFORE THE MACOMB 

 COUNTY SHORTHOEN BEEEDEES' ASSOCIATION. 



Me. President, and Gentlemen, — The subject assigned me, namely, 

 "Breeding and Care of Shorthorns," embraces so much, and at the same 

 time requires so much practical and theoretical konwledge in order to be 

 treated in a manner that shall be of interest and instructive to the listener, as 

 well as a credit to the writer, that I almost shrink from attempting to deal 

 with a matter upon which so many differences of opinions prevail, with any 

 degree of confidence. A great deal has been written upon this subject (much 

 of it theoretical), and very much has been said also; but writers and talkers 

 in this, as on most matters, differ so greatly that one is confused and bewil- 

 dered oftentimes, rather than enlightened or benefited. There are several 

 classes of theorists, each claiming prominence for their methods of breeding, 

 each trying to prove to the world that their practices and theories are the true 

 ones and should be followed if sure success would be secured. 



The theory of in-and-in breeding has many followers. The same may be 

 said of type or line breeding. Others advocate the selection of animals of 

 different families of the same breed of cattle when seeming to be well mated 

 for copulation. Good results have undoubtedly followed all these different 

 methods of practice, and also bad results have followed. To know how to 

 combine the best blood of the best animals in a manner that shall produce 

 the best results, to know how to make selection of good animals that shall 

 nick well with each other, should be the careful study of every breeder of 

 Shorthorns. Some grand results were achieved in the days of the Ceilings, 

 Masons, Booths, and Bates, by concentrating the blood of the cattle of that 

 period by what is called incestuous or in-breeding, and by many those results 

 are brought as an argument for still continuing the practice. It does not fol- 

 low, however, that because good or even extra cattle in those days were pro- 

 duced by in-breeding that the practice is good for the breeders of to-day. 

 Take, for instance, the herds of cows of Charles and Robert Colling. These 

 brothers both followed the system of in-breeding from about 1780 until the 

 close of their breeding career in 1810 and 1818. It is said that about the 

 time that Charles Colling commenced his course of successful in-breeding he 

 had as a basis of his herd Lady Maynard, Young Strawberry, and other cows 

 selected in his neighborhood, differing widely in their breeding. To prove 

 this I quote from "Allen's history of Shortiiorns : " ''Let it be borne in 



