THOMAS BATES AND THE DUCHESSES. 69 



being reached at New York Mills, near Utica, 

 N. Y., in 1873, when the fabulous sum of 

 $40,600 was bid for a single specimen of that 

 family. 



"Duke" bulls for years held the balance of 

 power in the American Short-horn breeding 

 world, fashioning the type of cattle bred in hun- 

 dreds of herds. On account, therefore, of the 

 far-reaching influence exerted by them upon the 

 fortunes of the breed we must devote consider- 

 able space to the story of Thomas Bates and 

 how he conceived and carried out his pet plan 

 for the preservation of what he believed to 

 be the best of all the early Short-horn blood. 

 Injudicious in-and-in breeding, the retention 

 for breeding purposes of all animals dropped 

 within the charmed circle of the Kirklevington 

 tribes, regardless of individual character, and 

 the evil influence of certain reckless spec- 

 ulators, long since undermined the work of 

 Thomas Bates; but the main facts connected 

 with his career and the world-wide popularity 

 attained after his death by stock derived from 

 the Kirklevington herd must ever possess a fas- 

 cination for the student of Short-horn history. 

 Moreover, they are not without a lesson to pos- 

 terity. 



Early studies in cattle-breeding. Born at 

 Aydon Castle, Northumberland, in 1775, at the 

 age of twenty-five Bates leased the extensive 



