156 CATTLE ENGLISH RED POLLS 



Red Polled Cattle have been formed into a general- 

 purpose breed of unsurpassed merit in this country by uniting 

 picked specimens of the old Norfolk horned breed of 

 superior grazing cattle with the equally meritorious milking 

 breed of polled " Suffolk Duns." 



Marshall, who spent from 1780 to 1782 in Norfolk, 

 describes the former breed belonging to the Norse and 

 Danish settlers : 



" The native cattle of Norfolk are a small, hardy, thriving 

 race ; fattening as freely and finishing as highly at three 

 years old as cattle in general do at four or five ; they are 

 small-boned, short-legged, round-barrelled, vvell-loined, thin- 

 thighed, clean-chapped ; the head in general fine, and the 

 horns clean, middle-sized, and bent upward ; the favourite 

 colour a blood-red, with a white or mottled face. The breed 

 of Norfolk is the Herefordshire breed in miniature, except 

 that the chine and the quarter of the Norfolk breed are more 

 frequently deficient. If the London butchers are judges of beef, 

 there are no better-fleshed beasts sent to London Market." 



At that time some Herefords were altogether red, and the 

 area of white markings in others was not so great or so well 

 defined as now. 



Arthur Young describes the " universally polled " Suffolk 

 dun cow of the Woodland Area " Dairy District," in north- 

 eastern Suffolk, which in 1792 "was spread over the 

 whole country," and had for more than half a century been 

 famous for its butter, "justly estimated the pleasantest and 

 best in England." The best milkers were " red, brindled, or 

 yellowish cream-coloured." This breed, according to Bede, 

 is believed to have been brought from Holland (Jutland) in 

 the fifth century by the Angles or English, who took with 

 them " their slaves, their cattle, and their live stock, leaving 

 no living thing behind them in their old homeland." 



Henry F. Euren, 1 the historian of the Red Polled breed, 

 believes that the original Suffolk Polled cattle were descended 

 from a Scythian stock. " Polled cattle are yet to be found in 

 Central Russia and in that part of Hungary adjacent to 

 Russia. That they were found in Norway and also in 



1 To whose article on "Red Polled Cattle," in the Journal of 'the Bath 

 and West of England Society, vol. x. (1899-1900), reprinted in Report 

 No. 83 of the Kansas State Board of Agriculture, September 1902, in- 

 debtedness is acknowledged. 



