SCOTLAND'S SEARCHING TEST. 555 



scheme of pedigree registration. Geo. Coates 

 and his saddlebags found no welcome at Lady- 

 kirk. Robertson held that the attempt to limit 

 the choice of cattle reared for practical farm 

 purposes to such as might chance to be bred 

 within herd-book Hues constituted an unrea- 

 sonable check upon freedom of individual judg- 

 ment and would -prove a bar to real progress. 

 Fortunately for the breed Jonas Whitaker and 

 others saw the wisdom of providing a founda- 

 tion for the future by recording the lineage of 

 the first of the " improved" Short-horns. Al- 

 though registration went steadily on in England 

 the Berwickshire breeder's patronage was stub- 

 bornly withheld. It transpires, therefore, that 

 the breeding of the Ladykirk cows, although 

 well known to their owner, was never put on 

 record and those who started from this essen- 

 tially sound and substantial stock of Short- 

 horns were unable to trace their pedigrees to 

 their actual English origin. That the herd was 

 well bred has never been questioned. That it 

 attained a high standard of excellence is borne 

 out by all the early chronicles of Tweedside 

 agriculture. That it furnished the foundation 

 for many a fine family of cattle in the North 

 is one of the primary propositions of Scotch 

 Short-horn history. 



Rennie of Phantassie. The colors of the 

 <; red, white and roan" were carried from 



