DEVELOPMENT OF THE IMPROVED TYPE. 38 



author of one of the latest English contribu- 

 tions to Short-horn literature* asserts that 

 in Duchess, Cherry, Daisy and Lady Maynard 

 Charles Colling was possessed of " the four best 

 short-horned cows in existence." Robert Col- 

 ling had bought with judgment from such good 

 herds as those of Messrs. Milbank, Hill, Watson, 

 Wright, Sir William St. Quintin and Best, all 

 of whom were known to possess fine cattle, and 

 in the case of the selection and use of the cele- 

 brated bull Hubback Robert seems to have 

 shown rather more discernment than Charles. 

 There is no gainsaying the far-reaching influ- 

 ence of the blood of this bull as a factor in the 

 improvement of the breed. Indeed some credit 

 him with being the one real fountain head of 

 modern Short-horn excellence. The testimony 

 of Thomas Bates (one of the most distinguished 

 of all those who followed Colling, and of whom 

 we shall speak more at length later on) was 

 particularly radical upon this proposition. He 

 said: 



" It was the opinion of all good judges in my early days that 

 had it not been for the bull Hubback and his descendants the old, 

 valuable breed of Short-horns would have been entirely lost, and 

 that where Hubback's blood was wanting they had no real merit, 

 and no stock ought to have been put in any herd book of Short- 

 horns which had not Hubback's blood in their veins. Had this 

 been done, then the Herd Book of Short-horns would have been a 

 valuable record ; as it is, it is undeserving of notice, and ought no 

 longer to be continued as a book of reference, as ninety-nine ani- 

 mals out of a hundred in Coates' Herd Book should never have 

 been entered there." 



Cadwallader John Bates of Langley Castle, Northumberland. 

 3 



