158 CATTLE ENGLISH RED POLLS 



The blood-red colour was introduced into the Suffolk 

 dairy district, near Eye, by Sir E. Kerrison, through bulls bred 

 at Eaton, and by Mosley, who carried a herd of the im- 

 proved Norfolks bodily into the south of the Suffolk dairy 

 district; but showyard competition between the animals 

 from the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk led to their 

 admixture on the common basis of the blood-red colour. At 

 the Royal Agricultural Society's Show in London in 1862, 

 the blend was first publicly recognised as " Norfolk and 

 Suffolk Red Polled." Twenty years later the name was 

 shortened for convenience to " Red Polled." 



In place of the common wedge shape for a milch cow, the 

 ideal which has prevailed with Red Polled breeders is the old 

 Norfolk form, in combination with high milking qualities and 

 the polled condition of the earlier Suffolk Dun cattle. In 

 this way an ideal type of dual-purpose cattle has been 

 established, with the origination of which the names of 

 B. Pond of Dunham, and Nicholas Powell of Snoring, are 

 justly associated. Another inheritance from the Suffolk " is 

 the remarkably large milk veins, rising in knotted puffs." 

 Arthur Young " scarcely ever saw a famous Suffolk Polled 

 milker that did not possess them." Similar knotted veins 

 are to be seen on the sides of the udders of a good many of 

 the cattle in the Island of Jersey. 



The Herd Book was begun privately, but with the 

 support of the breeders, by Henry F. Euren, working in con- 

 sultation with the Rev. George Gilbert, in his day (1827- 

 1893), one of the best informed and most brilliant writers on 

 live stock. It was started on progressive lines, which have 

 " enabled breeders to note rapidly and accurately which of 

 the families breed stock that will give the best results." To 

 this end there were introduced " group letters and numbers, 

 which tell at a glance from what foundation cow of a certain 

 herd or district every animal in the Herd Book has descended 

 on the dam's side." A self-acting process of selection was 

 thus created in 1874 with the appearance of the first vol. 

 of the Herd Book. After the second issue in 1877, animals 

 required to have "proof of twenty years' Red Polled inheritance, 

 or four generations of Red Polled blood." A section for 

 " Probationers " prevented the complete elimination of the 

 progeny of meritorious animals that could not comply with 

 these conditions, but it was closed in 1905. 



