142 AMKBICAN CATTLE. 



breeders, until they arrived at a considerable degree of perfec- 

 tion. Here, then, we find them existing in several excellent 

 herds, and bred with much care. Some pedigrees can be traced, 

 more or less distinctly, back to the year 1740, or even earlier. 

 The late Mr. Bates, in one of his accounts of these cattle, says, in 

 1784 the estates of the Earl of Northumberland had fine short- 

 horns upon them, for two hundred years previous to that time. 



Let us see: Bailey, in his survey of Durham, written in the 

 year 1808, says that "Seventy years since (1738,) the colors of 

 the cattle of Mr. Milbank and Mr. Croft, were red and white, 

 and white, with a little red about the neck, or roan," as related 

 to him by old men who knew them at the time. Culley also 

 states the same fact. Milbank and Croft were both noted cattle 

 breeders of that day, and into their herds many modern cattle 

 trace their pedigrees. The Duke of Northumberland had good 

 short-horns on his estate at Stanwick, in that county. The 

 Aislabees, of Studley Park, and Sir William St. Quintin, of 

 Scampston, also kept excellent short-horns ; and the Stephen- 

 sons, Maynards, Wetherells, and many others, too numerous to 

 mention, were breeders. As a sample of what these early short- 

 horns could do in the way of flesh, Mr. A. B. Allen mentions, 

 in the American Agriculturist, Vol. 1, p. 162, that in 1740, Mr. 

 Milbank, of Barningham, for it is on record there fed an ox 

 five years old, which dressed 2,100 pounds in the four quarters, 

 and had, besides, 224 pounds rough tallow ; and a cow of the 

 same stock, which weighed 1,540 pounds, equal to almost any- 

 thing of the present day. Had we space, we could record the 

 weight of many other short-horns in the last century, which 

 approached these in excellence. 



As the merits of these cattle became more known, they 

 rapidly increased among the local breeders and farmers of those 

 counties, but they did not obtain anything like a general reputa- 

 tion over the country, until Charles and Robert Colling came on 



