THE TURN OF THE TIDE. 543 



of the Bates-bred tribes and the sturdy sub- 

 stance and deep flesh of the Warlaby stock. 

 Undoubted merit lay at the foundation of the 

 fashions that ruled the sale-rings of both conti- 

 nents for so many years, as detailed in the 

 foregoing pages. Unfortunately not all of 

 those who made investments during this pe- 

 riod were actuated by a desire to promote the 

 interests of the breed. Indeed, as the great 

 "boom" progressed it drew to itself many who 

 simply improved the opportunity to indulge 

 their speculative instincts without any special 

 reference to the effect of their operations upon 

 the general welfare. Many of the Duchesses, 

 Princesses, Rose of Sharons and other favorites 

 were bought at enormous prices not because 

 they were better than the average well-bred 

 Short-horn of their time, but in the hope that 

 some other eager investor would be willing to 

 pay a like price for the progeny. It will be 

 observed from a perusal of the preceding chap- 

 ters that only such tribes were systematically 

 "promoted" as were comparatively scarce and 

 in few hands. It would have been idle for any 

 man or group of men to attempt to maintain 

 such figures for any of the more prolific or 

 widely-distributed sorts. 



Injudicious breeding. In some instances 

 these high-priced cattle fell into the hands of 

 careful men who handled them with a decent 



