72 CATTLE SHORTHORNS 



well-sprung ribs, wide bosom, snug shoulder, clean neck, light 

 feet, small head, prominent and bright but placid eyes, were 

 features of usefulness and beauty which distinguished this 

 herd in the very highest degree." 



The colours of Bates cattle were originally red, red and 

 white, and roan, but " the concentration of the blood of the 

 light-coloured Belvedere and of the white Matchem Cows' 

 sons the Cleveland Lads modified the original Duchess 

 colour," so that at the dispersal sale thirty-eight animals out 

 of sixty-eight were roan and five white. Twelve were red 

 and fifteen red and white. The Stanwick cow, which was 

 the mother of all the best of the Bates breed, was a yellowish- 

 red roan. Though good milking power has always been 

 considered a point of importance in Bates cattle, the fact that 

 the common non-pedigreed Shorthorns surpass them in this 

 particular quality, is probably an indication of the influence 

 of close-breeding on the alimentary section of the organs 

 involved in reproduction. 



In comparing latter-day Booth with Bates cattle, we 

 find that the Booth breed exhibited a greater number of 

 light-coloured specimens white, and light roan ; a thicker 

 and less silky skin ; a more substantial and massive frame, 

 more deeply covered with flesh ; the head and neck set on 

 lower, and the style and expression more sombre, than in the 

 case of its stately rival. The best specimens of the Bates bulls 

 possessed a wonderful presence, given by the arched crest and 

 stylish head. The breed was particularly liable to the defect 

 of a hollowness, or falling away, at the heart girth ; this was 

 made all the more apparent by the high neck and the fre- 

 quently perpendicular shoulders. These differences are now 

 mainly of historical interest, as very few pure specimens of 

 either line now exist. 



In America, in the early days, the prices paid for Bates 

 cattle were exceptionally high. 1 There, as in our Australian 

 colonies, Bates cattle were much preferred to Booth, but in 



1 In Canada in 1879, the Author saw in the possession of the Hon. 

 M. H. Cochrane, Compton, Prov. Quebec, the famous "Duchess" cow, 

 which at that time had (speaking from memory) bred stock that had sold 

 for ,27,500, and lived to add .2508 to that figure. At the New York Mills 

 Sale, in 1873, ninety-three cows and heifers averaged 791, 8s., and sixteen 

 bulls averaged 403, i6s., making a total of 80,061, 95. Fifteen speci- 

 mens of the Duchess tribe of T. Bates averaged 3679, i8s. 



