18 



CATTI 



CATTLE 



Hospitality' (1839), 'The Castle Chapel' (1840), 

 'The Assassination of the Regent Murray' (1843), 

 'Cellini defending the Castle of St Angelo' (1845), 

 and others of his best water-colours, examples of 

 which may be studied in the South Kensington 

 Museum. He retired from the society in 1850, and 

 turned his attention to oil-painting, exhibiting ' A 

 Terrible Secret,' a work in this medium, in, the 

 Royal Academy of 1863. He died at Clapham 

 Common, 24th July 1868. As an artist he was dis- 

 tinguished by great versatility, and by considerable 

 power of grouping and composition. He was learned 

 in costume, and his works show much dramatic 

 feeling. He gained a first-class gold medal at the 

 Paris Exposition of 1855, and was a member of the 

 Royal Academy at Amsterdam, and of the Belgian 

 Society of Water-colour Painters. 



Catti, or CHATTI, a German people, erroneously 

 included by Caesar under the name Suevi (q.v. ), 

 who inhabited a country pretty nearly correspond- 

 ing to the present Hesse. They took part in the 

 general rising of the Germans under Arminius ; 

 and during the reign of Marcus Aurelius, in the end 

 of the 2d century, they made incursions into Roman 

 Germany and Rhtetia. In the 3d century their name 

 began to give place to that of the Franks (q.v.). 



Cattle. In the United Kingdom there are 

 twelve native breeds of cattle. England claims 

 exactly one-half of these namely, the Shorthorn, 

 Hereford, Devon, Norfolk and Suffolk Red Polled, 

 Sussex, and Longhorn breeds. There are two or 

 three varieties of cattle in Wales, but for practical 

 purposes they may be reckoned as one breed. Four 

 distinct breeds have arisen in Scotland, these being 

 the Polled Aberdeen-Angus, Galloway, Ayrshire, 

 and West Highland breeds. The remaining one 

 is the native breed of Ireland, the hardy little 

 Kerry, regarded as one of the purest and truest 

 existing representatives of the ancient Bos longi- 

 frons. In addition to these twelve native races, 

 other two very useful breeds, the Jersey and 

 Guernsey, have become domiciled in the British 

 Isles, and there are also a few of the famous 

 Dutch milking cows scattered over the country. 

 These various races, with an almost endless 

 variety of crosses between two or more of them, 

 make up the entire cattle stock of the United 

 Kingdom, which, according to the official agricul- 

 tural returns, numbered 10,753,314 head in 1895. 



The Shorthorn is by far the most numerous and 

 most widely diffused. It has not inaptly been 

 titled the ' Cosmopolitan Shorthorn. ' It has found 

 a home in almost every county in the United King- 

 dom. The county of Durham is generally regarded 

 as the 'cradle' of shorthorns; indeed, they have 

 often been spoken of both at home and abroad as 

 the ' Durham breed. ' But the valuable race of 

 native cattle from which the improved shorthorn 



Kg. 1. Shorthorn Bull and Cow. 



was raised abounded freely in adjoining counties 

 as far back as reliable history enables us to trace 

 their career. Early in the 19th century they were 

 also known as 'Teeswater' cattle, the first famous 

 shorthorns having come from the valley of the Tees. 



The brothers Charles and Robert Colling were the- 

 first to begin the systematic improvement of the 

 breed. In those days the ' rank and file ' of short- 

 horn cattle were large, high-standing cattle, good 

 milkers, but rough in form and slow in fattening. 

 The Ceilings would seem to have at once directed 

 themselves to the improvement of the native cattle 

 where they were most defective, and they were 

 successful in establishing a stock of cattle of a 

 decidedly more profitable character wider in the 

 rib, more symmetrical in the frame, shorter in the 

 leg, slightly smaller in size, heavier in flesh, and 

 more speedy in maturing and fattening. It has 

 been said, but not established beyond contention, 

 that in effecting this improvement the Collings 

 made use of an infusion of blood from some of the 

 other smaller breeds. It is more likely that 

 they relied upon ' selection ' in breeding the 

 mating of animals of the shorthorn breed which 

 most nearly approached to their ideal character, 

 and fixing the type by pursuing what is desig- 

 nated as 'in-and-in' breeding i.e. mating animals 

 which are closely related to each other, a system 

 that is known to assist greatly in stamping or 

 fixing peculiar features and characteristics upon 

 races of stock. The success of the Collings was 

 speedy and complete, for the fame of their cattle 

 spread so rapidly that even earlier than 1810, the 

 year of the 'first great public sale of shorthorns,' 

 they had sold cows and bulls at 100 each, and 

 had hired bulls for use to other breeders at pre- 

 miums of from 50 to 100 a year. At Charles 

 Colling's historical sale at Ketton in 1810, 29 cows 

 and heifers realised an average of 140, 4s. 7d. ; 

 and 18 bulls 169, 8s. each. Eight years later, 

 at Robert Colling's sale at Barmpton, in a time 

 of great depression, an average of 128, 9s. lOd. 

 was obtained for 61 animals. The sensational 

 event of the memorable sale at Ketton was the 

 purchase of the celebrated bull 'Comet' at the- 

 fabulous price of 1000. guineas. 



The importance and interest attaching to the 

 operations of these two great pioneer breeders will at 

 once be understood when it is mentioned that there 

 is not at the present day a well-bred living short- 

 horn in whose pedigree Colling blood does not figure 

 prominently. Colling's successors were, on the 

 one hand, Thomas Bates ; on the other, the 

 Booth family, whose representatives then were 

 Thomas and John Booth. At the Ketton sale 

 (1810) Thomas Bates purchased the two-year- 

 old heifer ' Young Duchess ' for 183 guineas. 

 Thomas Booth bought the bull-calf ' Albion ' for 60- 

 guineas; and at the Barmpton sale (1818) his 

 brother, John Booth, secured the yearling bull 

 ' Pilot ' for 270 guineas. With these purchases the 

 shorthorn breed drifted into two great channels, 

 which by degrees absorbed the main current of the 

 race, so that for many years the terms ' Booth ' and 

 ' Bates ' shorthorns have been as applicable in 

 relation to the bovine world as Whig and Tory to 

 the political. These two strains of Bates and 

 Booth, as has been seen, had one common origin in 

 Colling's blood, but in course of time they developed 

 distinctive shapes and characteristics which in the 

 purer representatives are still well maintained. 

 Mr Robert Bruce, than whom there is no higher 

 authority, thus describes the characteristics of 

 ' Booth ' and ' Bates,' speaking in the first place of 

 ' Bates ' cattle : 'They are higher standing, better 

 milking, and perhaps gayer looking cattle than 

 the Booths. They have as a rule more upright 

 shoulders, flatter foreribs, opener sides, with long 

 hindquarters less fully packed with flesh than the 

 rival strain. As a rule their heads are clean cut 

 and pretty wide, while the bulls have long arched 

 muscular necks and keen tempers. The prevail- 

 ing colours in this strain of blood are, generally 



