IV PREFACE. 



To those not familiar with the early volumes of the English Herd Book, and who know 

 not its lack of completeness in extending to almost time immemorial its lineage of the 

 race, it may appear strange that so many short bull pedigrees are found in it ; also that 

 many hundreds of them contain but a single sire, or only a sire and grandsire, with no dam 

 or grandam by name, or further reference ; and that several hundred bulls are recorded by 

 name only, with no pedigree whatever, or reference to any other recorded animal. But it 

 must be remembered that the names of only a very few animals can be traced further back 

 than a hundred and twenty years, and even the names of their breeders to a not much earlier 

 date ; yet every bull at the time of his record was considered a Short-horn, both by his 

 breeder and the compiler of the Herd Book, unless otherwise noted, and by the Short-horn 

 public was accepted as such. Following that basis, the descendants of such bulls, through 

 Short-horn cows, have been admitted as belonging to the Short-horn family by the prevailing 

 opinion of breeders. Yet among the early bulls of the English Herd Book, are found some 

 even celebrated in their day (as some of their posterity are now), whose pedigrees trace into 

 cows and bulls of other than Short-horn blood. Among the bulls recorded in Vol. 4, E. H. 

 B., are two prominent ones early imported to the United States Embassador (3711), a Here- 

 ford, and Rising Sun (6386), a Long-horn and their descendants through Short-horn cows 

 were also admitted to record in that and succeeding volumes ; but being there admitted, 

 and their descendants so recognized, they are entitled to successive registry so long as the 

 English record is acknowledged authority. So remote, indeed, are those out-crosses, that 

 their descendants now contain but a discernible fraction of the foreign blood, and their line- 

 age will be criticised only by those whose standard of purity is of a transcendent order ; and 

 even to that class of critics, the experiment of tracing to their remotest sources some of the 

 various unchallenged pedigrees in this work, may raise serious doubts whether their own 

 most cherished ideas of perfection in pedigree may be altogether beyond cavil. 



Although the English Herd Book contains all the known pedigrees which at the time it 

 was thought necessary to record, it has only pedigrees, without any historical matter relating 

 to their origin, or the men who bred their ancestors. Such information must be sought in 

 other sources. No well authenticated history of the Short-horns has yet been written in 

 England, the land of their ancestry, where, to solve all doubts, it should have been done, 

 and that by indisputable authority. Failing in that country, an attempt at their history 

 was made and published a few years ago by the undersigned, the value of which has been 

 acknowledged by the best British authorities, and will be determined by those American 

 breeders who have already consulted, or may hereafter consult its pages. 



It may be also here stated that bulls and cows supposed on good authority to be Short- 

 horns, have been imported from England to America, which have no record in the English 

 Herd Book ; but in its pages many of their descendants may be found, and as these descend- 

 ants have been accepted as Short-horns by our own breeders, and also admitted as such in 

 the English Herd Books, it is now too late to dispute their title to record, or rule them out of 

 the Short-horn line. Their pedigrees must be taken at their estimated worth. Either the 

 record or non-record of a pedigree in the English Herd Book, is not a positive proof of what 

 the hypercritical call "purity" or "impurity" in blood. It is therefore sheer nonsense for 

 any Herd Book whatever, under whatever name, either in England or America, to pretend 

 to this so-called " purity " in its pedigrees : for, having adopted the Coates Herd Book as 

 authority, it cannot consistently exclude the descendants of animals recorded in that work, 

 even if they come under the ban of this " impurity." 



Something further is necessary for a perfect understanding of the pedigrees in this work. 

 Volumes one, two, three and four of the English Herd Book, in the last of which only bulls 

 are given, also Volume five, embracing only cows, were edited and compiled by Mr. George 

 Coates and his son, living at Carlton, near Pontefract, in the Valley of the Tees. The first 

 two volumes, it is understood, were edited by the elder Mr. Coates, alone, and he dying after 

 completing the second, the third, fourth and fifth volumes were completed by his son. 

 The first Volume was published in the year 1822, the second in 1829, the third in 1836, and 

 the fourth in 1843, the fifth, containing cows only, was published in the succeeding year 



