DEVELOPMENT OF THE IMPROVED TYPE. 39 



Favorite was a light roan, dropped in 1793, 

 and died in 1809. So nearly did he meet Mr. 

 Colling's views as to what a Short-horn bull 

 should be that he now began a most extraordi- 

 nary course of inbreeding. For years the bull 

 was used indiscriminately upon his own off- 

 spring, often to the third and in one or two 

 instances to the fifth and sixth generations. 

 His get were not only the most celebrated 

 Short-horns of their day, but his immediate 

 descendants constitute a large percentage of 

 the entire foundation stock upon which the 

 herd-book records stand. He was bred back to 

 his own dam, the produce being a heifer, Young 

 Phoenix. To still farther test the Bakewell 

 system this heifer was then bred to her own 

 sire, the issue of that doubly-incestuous union 

 being the bull Comet (155), the pride of his 

 time and the first Short-horn to sell for $5,000. 

 The first calf got by Favorite was dropped by 

 the Duchess cow, and the second was a bull 

 that was afterward steered and acquired celeb- 

 rity as 



"The Durham Ox." It must be borne in 

 mind that at this time the Short-horns were a 

 local breed .of cattle, confined chiefly to the 

 counties of ancient Northumbria, and the best 

 of them were to be found in and about the Val- 

 ley of the Tees. The Collings, in the exercise 

 of their usual foresight and sagacity, deter- 



