56 A HISTORY OF SHORT-HORN CATTLE. 



sented a remarkable concentration of blood, 

 possessed a singular uniformity in general 

 characteristics and displayed remarkable pre- 

 potency when crossed upon cattle of mixed or 

 miscellaneous breeding. In the " craze " that 

 set in for stock of one or the other of these 

 two great rival types both naturally suffered 

 from the very popularity that gave them prom- 

 inence. Speculators, as distinguished from 

 constructive breeders, appeared upon the scene 

 and a traffic in " fashionable pedigrees " sprang 

 up which finally ended in disaster both to the 

 breed and to those who recklessly persisted in 

 their mad career of in-and-in or "line" breed- 

 ing, with its inevitable dangers intensified by 

 the retention for breeding purposes of all ani- 

 mals, good, bad and indifferent, that could trace 

 descent direct from Bates or Booth sources. 

 Particularly was this true of the Bates Short- 

 horns. The story of the rise and extension of 

 the Booth and Bates power forms one of the 

 most important parts of the Short-horn history 

 of the nineteenth century; and a knowledge 

 of the main facts connected therewith is as 

 essential as it may be useful to those who are 

 now engaged in the breeding of Short-horn 

 cattle. We therefore next take up the narra- 

 tive of the origin of these two dominant vari- 

 eties, with incidental references to the work of 

 other early breed-builders. 



