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THE FARMER*S MAGAZINE. 



from cows belonging to their iircdecessors, that I 

 adopted this course. 



Though shorthorn breeders compute the pedigrees of 

 tlieir cuttle, as do the Arabs their horses, by their dams, 

 either animals are in fact as much descended from the 

 dams of their sires as from the dams of their dams ; and 

 thus in the pedigrees of shorthorns, containing such 

 names us Folj imbe, Bolingbroke, Favourite, Comet, 

 &c., those to whom such pedigrees belong are in fact 

 equally descended from Old Favourite, Young Straw- 

 berry, Miss Lax, &c., as thoic which trace their descent 

 from cow to cow. 



I proceed now to address myself, as I promised, to 

 the subject of " the alloy." It originated, as we have 

 seen, from what has been unceremoniously called 

 O'Callaghan's polled galloway. Now, this same O'Cal- 

 laghan was Colonel James O'Callaghan, of the noble 

 house of Lismore, and a great friend of the late Duke 

 of Cleveland, one of whose boroughs he represented for 

 many years in the House of Commons. The Duke, as 

 Lord Lieutenant, also made him Colonel of the Durham 

 militia. Having pitched his tent, in the decline of life, 

 at Heighington in that county, he there ended his days, 

 as he had lived, a very popular character. Having 

 bought a couple of polled galloway cows, he had no 

 difficulty in getting Mr. C. Collin?, his near neighbour, 

 to allow him to send one of them to his bull Boling- 

 broke. She produced a bull calf. It was a roan, in 

 due time had horns, and showed all the other 

 indicia of a true-bred shorthorn. Such was " Son of 

 Bolingbroke." Mr. C. Colling bought him and his 

 dam of Colonel O'Callaghan, and put his cow, old Jo- 

 hanna, to this son of Bolingbroke. She produced a red 

 and white bull calf, who, like his father, took in all 

 respects after the Shorthorns. He was yclept " Grand- 

 son of Bolingbroke (280)." To him Mr. C. Colling 

 put Pbogniv, daughter, as we have seen, of " Old 

 Favourite," and she produced " Lady," as she had 

 before done, by Bolingbroke, the bull " Favourite," the 

 father of Comet ; and also (by her own son. Favourite) 

 Young Phoenix, the mother of Comet. Lady was the 

 dam of Washington (674), Major (397), George (276), 

 and Mr. Wright's Sir Charles (592), and also of Coun- 

 tess and Laura. At Mr. C. CoUing's sale, in 1810, this 

 alloy slock sold at very high prices — Major for 200 

 guineas, George for 130 guineas. Lady herself, at 14 

 years old, for 206 guineas; Liura, her daughter, for 210 

 guineas ; Laura's daughter, Young Laura, at 2 years 

 old, for 101 guineas ; and Countess, the other daughter 

 of Lady, was bought of Major Rudd, of Marton,for 

 400 guineas. When we meet, therefore, with descen- 

 dants of " Grandson of Bolingbroke," or of Major, 

 George, or Sir Charles, such as " Western Comet" 

 (689), Frederick (267), Keswick (453 and 1266), or 

 of Countess or Laura, we encounter the alloy. But 

 what do we therein encounter that is base or injurious .' 

 What is the meaning of alloy .' Here we have a cross 

 with a breed of cattle of first-rate character and quality, 

 and polled Galloway breeders might equally say they 

 had been alloyed by the Shorthorn cross We are satis- 

 fied, however, that in fact " the alloy" never took— that 

 it was utterly and speedily thrown out — and that, as did 

 the son of the polled Galloway by Bolingbroke, so did 

 all his descendants adhere to the Shorthorn side of the 

 house. I have never heard that any of them were with- 

 out horns, or exhibited the least trait of the polled Gal- 

 loway, except, it may be, in the analogous good qualities 

 of that breed. I incline to think there is truth in the 

 theory that, in crossing distinct breeds, the offspring 

 does take exclusively at once, or very shortly, to one or 

 other side of the house. 



We appear then to have, in the instance of the alloy, 

 an illustration of M. Malingie Nouel's ingenious theory 



of the difficulty of changing the type or characteristics 

 of a long-established breed, and that this difficulty is in 

 proportion to its purity of blood, or, in other words, to 

 its antiquity.* 



If this be true, the non-infection of Shorthorns by the 

 alloy affords an additional argument in favour of the 

 ancient and indigenous character of the breed. But had 

 the first offspring of this cross partaken equally of the 

 bloods of its different parents, in what proportion would 

 the Galloway blood exist in any modern Shorthorn ? 

 Seeing how early capability of procreation exists, and is 

 called into operation in that breed, and also how rapidly 

 generations of cattle pass away, I do not believe there is 

 an extant Shorthorn which has an appreciable particle of 

 the Galloway blood in its veins. I must say I think 

 this kind of crossing, or, perhaps, rather attempted 

 crossing, a mistake — a mere waste of time. 



Take the case, well-known to greyhound coursers, of 

 Mr. Goodlake's bull-dog cross. Considering the posi- 

 tion the dogs thus " alloyed" hold as to their " public 

 performance," does any one think this cross has been 

 injurious, or can any one from their appearance discern 

 it .' Yet we think it was a mistake. 



Being of opinion, then, that the alloy has done neither 

 good nor harm directly, I am not so sure that indirectly 

 it may not have done good. Those who had it in their 

 stock became less scrupulous on the score of pedigree, 

 and, unlike pedigree martinets, looked less to that 

 than to the good qualities of a bull. It may be thus, 

 perhaps, explained how it has come to pass that many 

 animals having in them this once dreaded bugbear, the 

 alloy, have taken the highest places in the show-yard. 

 1 do not allude more particularly to these animals, lest 

 I should revive against them this stupid prejudice of 

 "the alloy,'' and a more stupid prejudice, a more com- 

 plete phantom cannot exist. Breeders, however, will 

 understand my allusion. We maintain it then to have 

 been established by this narration that the Collings in 

 general, noiicithslanding what Mr. Chas. Colling did 

 in a particular instance, formed the improved short- 

 horns by careful selection from the local breed, 

 ivhich had already attained considerable perfection. 

 That such is the antiquity and indigenous character of 

 the old-fashioned shorthorns, such its native purity, 

 that even should any commixture of ingredients of 

 another kind have taken place, yet like an infusion of 

 the same sort with the waters of father Tees, it has been 

 speedily thrown off without affecting its perennial purity. 



The owners of our native shorthorns, therefore, may 

 snap their fingers at the ancient myths, as to " wild 

 cattle from Chillingham-park," and " Dutch or Ilolstein 

 cattle from across the Geriuan Ocean." Those who 

 have seen the wild cattle at Chillingham, will bear me 

 out in saying, there is not a single characttristic or 

 point of resemblance exhibited by them which is possessed 

 by the shorthorns, except that shorthorns are occasionally 

 tvhite, but they are also sometimes red, yet no one has 

 ever ventured on that score to point to the Devon or 

 Sussex breeds as their original. As to the Dutch or 

 Holstein importation, of which one used to hear so much, 

 the writer happened some years ago to stumble on a 

 fact, tending to turn the tables on the Holsteiners. It 

 seems, according to Anderson (in his treatise on Com- 

 merce), who quotes from Rymer's Federa, that Edward 

 IV. allowed a favourite sister, Margaret, Duchess 

 Dowager of Holstein, to export from this country 

 annually, and for many years into Holstein and the low 

 countries, great numbers of cattle and sheep, for the 

 purpose of improving the breeds of them in those 

 countries. Whence is it so likely they were exported, as 



* Se? Vol.xiv, p. 214, of the Agricultural Society's Jot/rnaZ. 



