THOMAS BATES AND THE DUCHESSES. 85 



Earl, both Duchess bulls, and with 2d Hubback, 

 son of a Duchess bull, but had little luck with 

 sires tried from other sources. The tribe was 

 now very closely bred and he seemed at a loss 

 to know how to proceed. He had up to 1831 

 bred but thirty-two Duchess cows in as many 

 years. In brief the tribe had not been prolific, 

 and whenever cows passed over a year or two 

 he fed them off. He would not admit that 

 other contemporary bloods were worthy of 

 being crossed upon his Duchesses. He had 

 spoken his mind freely concerning the breed- 

 ing of nearly all the other herds of the district 

 and had awakened many antagonisms. He 

 would not use anything that carried the so- 

 called "alloy" blood. In short he was seri- 

 ously hampered in his search for sires by rea- 

 son of the fact that he had "blacklisted" nearly 

 all the available material. At the same time 

 he now required fresh blood. 



He had long held in respect the old Robert 

 Colling Princess strain. The original cow of 

 that name carried a double cross of Favorite 

 on top of Hubback. This was a combination 

 which in his radical opinion constituted a 

 prime source of Short-horn excellence. He 

 was not aware that any bull descending direct 

 from this base without admixture of (to him) 

 objectionable blood was at that late date ob- 

 tainable. By chance, however, he learned that 



