SHORT HORN CATTLE. 191 



known in later times that Dutch and Danish importations modified these cattle 

 of the east of England, and suggested the more recent and greater improve- 

 ments of Charles and Robert Colling, commencing about the era of our revo- 

 lution, and continued successfully since by Messrs. Bates, Booth, Townley, 

 and others in England, and Thorne, Alexander, and other breeders in this 

 country. 



While Bakewell was pursuing his experiments with the long horns of the 

 west, then regai'ded as superior to other breeds, and perfecting his Dishley 

 cattle, reducing their size, giving a full cylindrical body, softening the skin 

 and reducing the bone, very much in the manner of his improvement of the 

 Dishley or Leicester breed of sheep, it occurred to the Collings that the short 

 horns were more susceptible of improvement. The result has proved their su- 

 periority. The Dishleys are now only bred for the production of bulls to cross 

 upon common stock for early matin-ity. The story of the bull Hubback, the 

 founder of the modern short honi, has often been told. He was purchased in 

 1783 by Charles Colling of his brother and a Mr. Waistell for eight guineas, 

 and is said to have been from a cow grazed by a poor man on the highway. 

 It has long been a matter of controversy whether he was a pure-bred Tees- 

 water, the short horn of that day. He was somewhat below the usual size of 

 the Teeswaters, yellow, red, and white in color, of a fine, compact form, ad- 

 mirable touch, and so easily fattened that he early became useless as a bull. 

 The cow, also purchased by Colling, acquired fat very rapidly, and never 

 again bred. Either from mere curiosity or from a suspicion that he was im- 

 pairing the constitution of his animals by continuous breeding in too small a 

 circle. Colling attempted the experiment of infusing some of the Galloway 

 blood, which was confined, it is understood, to a single cross upon certain in- 

 dividuals of his herd. At the sale of Charles Colling, in 1810, forty-seven 

 animals produced 8,911 guineas. Robert Colling, not so renowned, but es- 

 teemed by many quite as judicious a breeder, sold sixty-one (but six of them 

 bulls) for 7,484 guineas. High prices have been maintained by later breed- 

 ers. Mr. Bates, in 1850, sold one family of Duchess stock, including calves, 

 at an average of $581. Lord Ducie's herd, in 1853, realized an average of 

 $760 for sixty-two animals. Individuals of superior excellence, from the day 

 when Ceiling's "Comet" sold for 1,000 guineas, have commanded fabulous 

 prices. Similar prices have been obtained in this country. 



There were at least five hundred herds of pure-bred short horns in Great 

 Britain ten years ago, and from six to seven thousand head are registered in 

 the herd-book every alternate year at that period, and these numbers are yearly 

 increasing in accelerating ratio. 



CHARACTERISTICS. 



Derived from a large breed, the improved short horn is heavy, less in height 

 than the originals of the Tees, rounder and deeper in the trunk, the limbs shorter, 

 diest and back broader, appearing less in bulk, while really greater in weight. 

 Ilie skin is light-colored, hair reddish brown or white or mixed, the muzzle 

 flesh-colored, the horns shorter and lighter-colored than in the former breed, 

 the skin soft to the touch, the form square, the shoidder upright, and the hind- 

 quarter large. The color cannot be characterized by a single term, varying 

 greatly from a pm-e white to a rich red, a mixture being the fashion, known as 

 roan or strawberry. The skin should be velvety and not too thin, while the 

 hair should be plentiful and of a mossy softness. The head of the female is 

 finer and more tapering than that of the male, the neck thinner and lighter, and 

 her shoulder inclining to narrow towards the chine. The short horn looks 

 smaller than he is. He excels all other stock in facility of fattening, making 

 good and heavy beef in thirty months, and even in two years. Henry Straf- 

 ford, an excellent judge, thus sums up his points : 



