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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



and learn somotliing of the licat-giving and flesh- 

 lb rming components; and thus comprehend why paiticu- 

 lar kind of foad liavc been nsed from time immemorial 

 by particnlar nations. The proportions of fat, gum, 

 sugar, and starch, and of mineral substances and fibre 

 in each, are here specially shown in their due propor- 

 tions in a given amount ; and are therefore more easily 

 understood and impressed on the mind by the eye than 

 through the mass ofper-centa'^e figures and symbolical 

 characters usually given in works on chemistry. 

 We have been able to give but a bare enumeration of 



the natue of the collection. This is as yet in an incom- 

 plete state, owing to the time required in obtaining 

 and arranging specimens, and analyzing products, as 

 well a? from the fittings not being yet complete. But 

 we bhall return to the subject when the collection is in a 

 more advanced state. The ideas, plans, and develop- 

 ment are highly creditable to Dr. Playfair's comprehen- 

 sive genius; and while these will prove of great public 

 importance in diffusing useful information, they will 

 also add to Iiis already wc'1-cstablished reputation as 

 an eminent chemist. 



ORIGIN OF THE DUCHESS FAMILY. 



Sir, — I believe I can supply some facts respecting 

 the originof the first cow recorded in the Duchess pedi- 

 gree, alluded to by your correspondent Dunelmensis, 

 in his interesting letter of the 19th, which not being 

 generally known, may interest your readers. Your 

 correspondent says : " We are not aware whether the 

 cow by Mr, .]. Brown's red bull was purchased or bred 

 by him. (I imagine from the context that your cor- 

 respondent here alludes to Mr. Coiling.) Assuming the 

 former to be the case, which we believe, she belongs 

 to the class of cows having pedigrees when he bought 

 her; though of whom he did so, we are also ignorant." 



I have in my possession a catalogue of a sale of short- 

 horns, belonging to Mr. George Vail, of Troy, U. S., 

 to which, in addition to the usual particulars, that gen- 

 tleman enters into details respecting the mode in which 

 he first acquired the originals which he imported from 

 England. These were Duke of Wellington, roan bull, 

 bred by F. Bates, Esq., by Short Tail (2621), dam 

 Oxford premium cow, &c. ; and Duche*s, white heifer, 

 also bred by Mr. Bates, got by Duke of Northumberland 

 (19-10), dam Nonsuch the L'econd, by Belvidere 

 (170G), &c. He then appends the following interest- 

 ing account of the origin of the Duchess family, which, 

 as will be seen, purports to be given by Mr. Bates him- 

 self. Mr. Bates bases the superiority of his shorthorn 

 cattle upon the merits of what he terms his "*Duchess 

 tribe," and in his communiL-iition to the publishers, of 

 his premium bull, Duke of Northumberland, he re- 

 marks, " The whole of this family of shorthorns are 

 alone in my possession, having purchased my original 

 cow of this tribe, of the late Charles Colling, 

 Esq., of Ketton, near Darlington, thirty-five 

 years ago. They had been in the possession of Mr. 

 Colling twenty years, who purchased his original 

 cow of the agent of the late Duke of Northumbeiland, 

 and called her Duchess (which is the reason I have 

 named the bull after that family), as they are justly en- 

 titled to be held in commemoration for having pos- 

 sessed a tribe of cattle which Mr. C. Colling repeatedly 

 assured me was the best he ever had, or ever saw and 

 that he never was able to improve upon her, although 

 put to his best bulls; and I have undoubted informa- 

 tion fi'om the best authority for saying that this tribe 

 of Shorthorns were in the possession of the ancestors of 



the present Duke for two centuries ; and that Sir Hugh 

 Smythson, the grandfather of the present Duke, kept 

 up the celebrity of this tribe of cattle by paying the 

 utmost attention to their breeding, and that he used 

 regularly to weigh his cattle, and the food they ate, so 

 as to ascertain the improvement they made in propor- 

 tion to the food they consumed." 



Respecting the authenticity of the foregoing, I need 

 only remark that the name of Mr. Vail, appended to 

 the entire document from whicli it is extracted, appears 

 to be a sufficient guarantee. The date of the handbill 

 is May 14th, 1849. • 



The Duchess family would thus appear to have been 

 bred with care at a period considerably antecedent to 

 that usually assigned as the origin of the improved 

 Shorthorns. More is known of its origin than is the 

 case with most others, even of the most celebrated 

 originals of the race. We also find that Mr. Colling 

 expressed a high opinion of this family at a period long 

 antecedent to that of their being crossed wiih Belvidere. 

 Indeed, the very considerable price which Mr. Bates 

 paid for the Duchess which he bought at Mr. Colling's 

 sale, affords a strong presumption that she can have 

 been no ordinary heifer. Of course, in speaking of 

 events which occurred long before my own recollection, 

 1 am dependent upon the evidence of others. Subject to 

 this proviso, then, I may state that I have it upon the 

 authority of one who well knew the Duchesses in 

 early days, that as a family they always possessed the 

 high quality which characterises them at the present 

 day. My informant, however, adds that the cross with 

 Belvidere appeared to impart to them a character of 

 majesty, strongly exemplified in the Duke of Northum- 

 berland, which now seems as peculiarly to distinguish 

 the bulls as refinement does the cows. At all events, 

 this, like every other important cross to which Mr. 

 Bates resorted, has been stamped with the approval of 

 the public, including the remarkable one with the blood 

 of the Matchem cow. Not only have both bulls and 

 cows of the Duchess family realized prizes, which taken 

 one with another may be termed unprecedented, but other 

 animals have by means of a few crosses of this blood, 

 in spite of short pedigrees, been sold for more money 

 than best blood of other families was apt to command 

 Thus, at Mr. Tanqueray's sale in 1855, three cows and 



