58 CATTLESHORTHORNS 



The " Alloy " strain, represented by thirteen animals of 

 good appearance which "sold at enormous prices" at the 

 retiring sale of Charles Colling, was descended from the 

 produce of a very fine Shorthorn cow, " Lady," by a bull 

 which was a second cross from a selected red Galloway cow. 

 The distinct Galloway characteristics rapidly disappeared in 

 the full flood of Shorthorn blood ; still the animals retained a 

 roundness of form, roughness of coat, heaviness and uniformity 

 of flesh, and deficiency in milking powers not usually found 

 in the Shorthorns of that time. 



The colours of the early Shorthorns were much like 

 those now prevailing. Among red varieties the yellowish- 

 red is waning before the deep or darker red colours, although 

 the latter are often hard to the touch. The first Duchess 

 was a " massive, short-legged animal of a beautiful yellow-red 

 flecked colour." This yellowish tint seems to have been more 

 or less correlated with good milking qualities possessed by 

 early Shorthorns, and to have disappeared with the increasing 

 tendency in the breed to produce fat, acquired at the expense 

 of their milking powers, as a result of the preference of 

 breeders for beef types and consanguineous breeding. The 

 fact that the light red non-pedigreed Shorthorn cow with a 

 slightly orange tinge is, as a rule, more highly appreciated by 

 dairymen than the dark red, goes to support this view. The 

 milking Shorthorns (not with recorded pedigree, though well 

 bred) necessary for the milk supply of Edinburgh and other 

 large centres of population in the north of the kingdom, are 

 largely drawn from Cumberland, Westmorland, Yorkshire, and 

 Lancashire. They are heavy milkers, and possess, in many 

 cases in a marked degree, the light red or yellowish-red which 

 is held to be associated with milking powers. The famous 

 breeding Princess bull "Belvedere" (1706), which Bates bought 

 to regenerate his Duchesses, was a yellow roan, and " soft as a 

 mole to the touch." Thornton's " Circular " says that in the 

 Lake district " the yellow roan and red were " (in the early 

 part of this century) " looked upon as the pure breed, the 

 dark red being held in no favour." The colour of l< Hubback," 

 the famous bull from which all the best Shorthorns have been 

 bred, was " yellow-red and white ; " and Carr, writing of the first 

 of the Strawberry tribe (bred from a cow bought by Thos. 

 Booth in the Darlington market about 1797), says they were 



