98 A HISTORY OF SHORT-HORN CATTLE. 



tion, and proves the genuine merit of the Bates 

 cattle of the early days. This cow, Duchess 

 34th, was the dam of 



Duke of Northumberland (1940). The pro- 

 duction of this famous bull has always been 

 considered the crowning triumph of Thomas 

 Bates' career as a cattle-breeder. He was 

 the acknowledged champion bull of Eng- 

 land in 1842. Bates, writing of him in 1839, 

 had said: "I can state from measurements I 

 took of the celebrated Comet (155) that The 

 Duke was nearly double his weight both at ten 

 months and at two years old," adding, in allu- 

 sion to his well-known affection for the Duch- 

 ess family: VI selected this tribe of Short- 

 horns as superior to all other cattle, not only 

 as small consumers of food but as great grow- 

 ers and quick grazers, with the finest quality of 

 beef, and also giving a great quantity of very 

 rich milk" The live weight of The Duke at 

 three years and eight months was 2,520 Ibs. 



Mr. Bates has left the following statement 

 concerning him and his family, which will be 

 of interest in this connection. It was ad- 

 dressed to a publishing house about to produce 

 portraits of "The Duke" and his dam: 



"I named this bull Duke of Northumberland to perpetuate the 

 commemoration that it is to the judgment and attention of the an- 

 cestors of the present Duke of Northumberland that this country 

 and the world are indebted for a tribe of cattle which Mr. Charles 

 Colling repeatedly assured me was the best he eyer had or ever 



