290 A HISTORY OF SHORT-HORN CATTLE. 



Grand Dukes and the Morris & Becar cattle, 

 had attracted very general attention to the 

 Bates-bred sorts. 



A new era dawns. By the time Mr. Alex- 

 ander brought the first Duchess blood to Wood- 

 burn the herds of Kentucky had attained a high 

 degree of excellence. Untrammeled by fash- 

 ion, prejudice, line breeding and other latter- 

 day problems the brothers James and Abram 

 Renick, the Vanmeters, Warfields, Bedfords, 

 Clays, Jere Duncan, Dr. Breckenridge, and 

 their contemporaries on both sides of the 

 Ohio River, had developed their cattle along 

 practical lines until they would bear favorable 

 comparison with the parent herds of York and 

 Durham. They had been free to follow the 

 dictates of their own individual judgment, re- 

 gardless of color, blood lines or aught else- 

 save the one paramount consideration of the 

 practical utility of their stock. They were sell- 

 ing breeding animals to go into Ohio, Virginia, 

 Indiana and Illinois, and with the creation of 

 the great herd at Woodburn the position of 

 Kentucky as the center of Short-horn breeding 

 activity in America was, for the time being, 

 well assured. 



With the advent of Mr. Alexander's Bates 

 Duchess bull imp. Duke of Airdrie (12730) a 

 new era may be said to have dawned in West- 

 ern Short-horn breeding. Notwithstanding the 



