392 A HISTORY OF SHORT-HORN CATTLE. 



h"ve done with Ayrshires? Remember, I will play second to 

 none.' My reply was: 'You can't unless you can persuade Mr. 

 Sheldon to sell his herd, which I feel sure he will not do. But 

 you can do this: go on the opposition tack and buy Booths and 

 beat him in the ring wherever he shows.' " 



Gibson* was quite familiar with the extraordi- 

 nary show-yard career of Booth Short-horns in 

 England and had not failed to notice the sensa- 

 tion created on this side the water by Mr. Coch- 

 rane's importation of Baron Booth of Lancas- 

 ter and Rosedale. He accordingly had a long 

 conversation with Mr. Campbell, explaining 

 that there were then practically no Booth 

 Short-horns in America, and it was decided 

 that Gibson should go to England at once and 

 make purchases of cattle of that blood. This 

 was in 1869 ; and the events that followed may 

 best be understood by a brief digression at this 

 point. 



First Hillhurst importations. Hon. M. H. 

 Cochrane of Hillhurst Farm, Quebec, Can., was 

 prominent among those enterprising men who 



* Mr. Gibson was born in England in 1840, almost beneath the shadow 

 of Belvoir Castle, the seat of the Duke of Rutland. Educated at the gram- 

 mar schools of Derby and Lincoln he entered a grain merchant's office for 

 a period of two years, after which he studied closely for four years the 

 farming methods of his father, who had gained various prizes for the best 

 cultivated farm in Derbyshire. Speaking of his early life Mr. Gibson says : 

 "My father always kept a pure-bred bull. The first I remember was a son 

 of Eavl of Dublin, the white Princess bull used by Sir C. Knightley ; and the 

 first noted bull I recollect was the same Earl of Dublin. The farm reeked 

 of Short-horns, as it was occupied by Mr. Smith, a purchaser at Ceilings' 

 sale, and a member of the Dishley Club. The old men talked of Lancaster 

 and Comet, and the yarns when shearing sheep, etc., fell on ears whose 

 sensitive organism was receptive to the quaint language and enthusiasm 

 of the illiterate but observant herdsman." One of a family of fourteen chil- 

 dren and the eldest of eight sons he determined upon arriving afcthe age of 



