EARLY HISTORY 57 



cloudiness. A white nose is indicative of delicacy, just 

 as black is considered to denote impurity, this, too, in 

 spite of the acknowledged fact that black or dark noses 

 existed in some of the best strains of blood mentioned in the 

 early records of the breed. " Foljambe," a descendant of the 

 famous bull " Hubback," l had, on the authority of Bates, a 

 dark nose ; and another good bull was designated the " black- 

 nosed." It is also further recorded by Allen that at one time 

 "farm stock was nearly all black-nosed." One of the 

 prominent results of the recent mingling of distinct types of 

 Shorthorn blood has been an increase of dark or smudged 

 noses, due to atavism. 



The characteristic horns are short and blunt, more or 

 less curved in a downward direction, of a waxy yellow 

 throughout (free from black tips), laterally flattened (or oval 

 in section), and set on wide apart. 



Shorthorns are descended from the old North- East of 

 England breed, variously designated the " Durham," " Tees- 

 water," " Yorkshire," or " Holderness." 2 It is reputed to have 

 been formed less than two centuries ago, by crossing British 

 cows of a superior stamp with large-framed bulls imported 

 from the Continent Holland and Denmark. 



Low says : " The breed formed by the mixture [of native 

 stock with very superior imported Continental cattle] became 

 familiarly known as the Dutch or Holstein breed, under which 

 name it extended northward through Northumberland and 

 became naturalised in the south of Scotland." 



The dark noses referred to were no doubt due to their 

 relationship with the ancient white cattle of the country. 

 Early Shorthorns were good milkers, and it may be presumed 

 they in part inherited that quality along with the shortness 

 of horn from their Continental ancestors. 



1 Twenty-five grand cattle (eleven Shorthorns, including " Hubback," 

 seven Aberdeen-Angus, six Herefords, and one Galloway), are in- 

 terestingly described by Chas. S. Plumb, Professor of Animal Husbandry 

 in the Ohio State University, in Little Sketches of Famous Beef Cattle^ 

 printed by the author, Columbus, Ohio, 1904. 



2 In 1744 Wm. Ellis wrote: "I think of all the cows in England 

 none comes up to the Holderness breed for their wide bags, short horns, 

 and large bodies, which render them, whether black or white, the most 

 profitable beasts for the dairyman, grazier, and butcher. Some of them 

 have yielded two or three gallons at a meal." 



