Wright : Bates' Duchess Cattle 



407 



bulls of Colling's improved stock, his 

 blood undoubtedly became more widely 

 distributed in the developing breed 

 tlian that of any other one animal. 

 Darwin^ cites his case as an illustration 

 of prepotency. As we shall see, Bates 

 maintained a coefficient of relationship 

 to Favourite of about 60 per cent in 

 his Duchess family for forty years 

 after Favourite's death (in 1809). 



At the dispersion sale of Charles 

 Colling's herd, in 1810, forty-seven 

 head, all by Favourite or his son Comet 

 cr their get, sold for £7,115, an un- 

 precedented amount. The record price, 

 1,000 guineas, was paid for Comet, a 

 son of Favourite, dam by Favourite 

 and out of Favourite's dam. This re- 

 markably inbred animal (F = 47.1 

 per cent) was declared by Mr. Colling 

 to be the best bull he ever bred or 

 saw. For years after, it seems to have 

 been the general opinion that no Short- 

 horn bull had ever been quite the equal 

 of Comet. Mr. Colling's stock are 

 described by a contemporary, as of 

 great size and substance, fine long hind 

 quarters, space from hip to rib long 

 and counteracted by a broad back and 

 high round ribs. 



The Duchesses 



One of the bidders at this dispersion 

 sale was a young breeder, Thomas 

 Bates, who had made a careful study 

 of cattle pedigrees. He purchased a 

 rather "shabby" cow called Young 

 Duchess, largely, it appears, on the 

 strength of her pedigree, her top sires 

 being Comet, Favourite, Daisy Bull (a 

 son of Favourite), Favourite again, 

 and Hubback. She was a descendent 

 in the straight female line of the cow 

 Duchess purchased by Charles Colling 

 in 1784. Following the custom of 

 naming families by the female line, 

 Bates developed a Duchess family 

 from this cow, which he renamed 

 Duchess I. Up to the time of his 

 death in 1849 he had bred sixty-three 

 cows in the family which he named 

 Duchess 2 to Duchess 64. Two other 

 females are recorded as having died. 

 Forty-five males are recorded as 



dropped by Duchess cows, twenty-nine 

 of which were named. The family 

 was not a prolific one. They won, 

 however, an extraordinary reputation. 

 The Duchess bull, Duke of Northum- 

 berland, which won first at the Oxford 

 Royal Show of 1839, was conceded 

 to be the best bull in England in his 

 time. Bates had other notable suc- 

 cesses in the show yard although an 

 opponent of the system of specially 

 fitting for the shows. 



This reputation extended to America 

 and Bates-bred cattle, especially bulls 

 of the Duchess family, played a notable 

 part in the improvement of American 

 Shorthorns. 



After Bates' death, a line of Duch- 

 esses was maintained without outcross- 

 ing. These became the aristocrats of 

 the cattle world. The family had never 

 been a prolific one and became increas- 

 ingly difficult to maintain as a pure 

 strain. This, however, does not seem 

 to have been held as a detriment but 

 rather the reverse, since it resulted in 

 enhanced values due to scarcity. The 

 climax came in a sale at New York 

 Mills, near Utica, N. Y., in 1873. The 

 "pure" line of Duchesses had become 

 extinct in England and all in America 

 had come into the hands of one man. 

 The sale at New York Mills developed 

 into an international competition for 

 the "pure" Duchesses. One cow sold 

 for $40,600. The average of the eleven 

 Duchess cows was $21,705, that for 

 three bulls was $7,866. 



While these prices were largely 

 speculative and the real merit of the 

 family was falling ofif, in the hands of 

 the speculators as the prices mounted 

 higher, the fact remains that as bred 

 by Bates, the Duchess cattle were a 

 most notable achievement of breeding ' 

 skill. Through crosses with other lines 

 they have had a conspicuous part in 

 the improvement of the Shorthorn 

 breed. 



Description of Tables 



The sixty-three Duchesses bred by 

 Bates, and their ancestors in the straight 

 female line are listed in Table II with 



