224 THE BREEDING OF ANIMALS 



ing 68.75 of the same blood, and she yielded valuable 

 offspring. Nevertheless Collings, who reared these ani- 

 mals, and was a strong advocate for close-breeding, once 

 crossed his stock with a Galloway, and the cows from 

 this cross realized the highest prices. Bates's herd was 

 esteemed the most celebrated in the world. For thirteen 

 years he bred most closely in-and-in; but during the 

 next seventeen years, though he had the most exalted 

 notion of the value of his own stock, he thrice infused 

 fresh blood into his herd : it is said that he did this, not 

 to improve the form of his animals, but on account of 

 their lessened fertility." 



The opinion of a great breeder who has practiced 

 very close in-breeding for eighty years and who has also 

 been noted for the general success of his breeding opera- 

 tions and the high quality of his cattle, so much so as to 

 have been called one of the founders of the breed, is of 

 great interest in this connection. Such a breeder was 

 Price of England. He says, 1 " My herd of cattle has, 

 therefore, been bred in-and-in, as it is termed, for upward 

 of eighty years, and by far the greater part of it in a direct 

 line, on both sides, from one cow now in calf for the twen- 

 tieth time. I have bred three calves from her, by two 

 of her sons, one of which is now the largest cow I have, 

 possessing also the best form and constitution ; the other 

 two were bulls, and proved of great value, thus showing 

 indisputably that it is not requisite to mix the blood of 

 the different kinds of the same race of animals, in order 

 to keep them from degenerating." 



209. The Chillingham cattle. The wild white cattle 

 of Great Britain are believed to be the only living pure 

 descendants of the original wild cattle of the British Is- 



1 Farmers' Magazine, 1841, vol. XIV, p. 50. 



