THE SENSATION OF SEVENTY-THREE. 455 



Sources of deterioration. England was 

 more fortunate than America in her Duchess 

 investments; or it may be nearer the truth 

 to say that in the hands of English herds- 

 men the cattle were handled with better judg- 

 ment. The English purchases were shipped 

 late in the autumn of 1873. Along with the 

 Campbell cattle went five Princesses, bought 

 for account of E. H. Cheney. The $35,000 10th 

 Duchess of Geneva produced in the hands of 

 Earl Bective the bull Duke of Underley (33745), 

 that became a sire of great renown. The Duch- 

 esses that remained in America failed to meet 

 the expectations of their buyers, and through 

 deaths and failures to breed the line became 

 extinct on this side the Atlantic within ten 

 years. That incestuous or long-continued close 

 breeding tends to impairment of vigor and in- 

 fertility does not admit of doubt. The Sheldon 

 Duchesses certainly had not proved, as a rule, 

 either fruitful or long-lived in Mr. Campbell's 

 hands. That fact is shown by the compara- 

 tively small number of females in the herd at 

 the time of the dispersion. Six of the twelve 

 bought in 1869 and 1870 had disappeared be- 



up and down the road during her distress "to make her calve aisyl" It is 

 also related that one of Mr. Alexander's purchases was driven to A. Ben- 

 ick'a by a colored hand on horseback, to be bred to the 4th Duke of Geneva. 

 At New York Mills the Duchess would have ridden and her attendant 

 walked. This cow arrived at Renick's overcome by the heat, was turned 

 cut in pasture, and a thunder-shower at nig-ht completed the job. Com- 

 menting 1 upon this incident and contrasting- it with the treatment given to 

 hia pets at, their York State home Gibson remarks: "The nigger lived." 



