NEAT OR HORNED CATTLE. 279 



good beef with little offal. As a breed, they are excellent 

 milkers, though some families of the short horns surpass 

 others in this quality. They are inferior to the Devons, in 

 their value as working oxen and in the richness of their milk. 

 The Short Horns are assigned a high antiquity, by the oldest 

 breeders in the counties of Durham and Yorkshire, England, 

 the place of their origin, and for a long time, of their almost 

 exclusive breeding. From the marked and decided improve- 

 ment which they stamp upon other animals, they are evidently 

 an ancient breed, though much the juniors of the Devon and 

 Hereford. Their highly artificial style, form and character 

 are unquestionably the work of deeply studied and long con- 

 tinued art ; and to the same degree that they have been mould- 

 ed in unresisting compliance with the dictation of their breed- 

 ers, have they departed from that light and more agile form 

 of the Devon, which conclusively and beyond the possibility 

 of contradiction, mark the more primitive race. 



The importation of SJiort Horns into this country is claimed 

 to have been previous to 1783. They are the reputed ances- 

 tors of many choice animals existing in Virginia, in the latter 

 part of the last century, and which were known as the milk 

 breed; and some of these, with others termed the beef breed, 

 were taken into Kentucky by Mr. Patton, as early as 1797, 

 and their descendants, a valuable race of animals, were much 

 disseminated in the west, and known as the Patton stock. 

 The first authentic importations we have recorded, are those 

 of Mr. Heaton, into Westchester, N. Y., in 1791 and '96, 

 from the valuable herds of Messrs. Culley and Colling, which 

 consisted of several choice bulls and cows. These were for 

 many years bred pure, and their progeny was widely scat- 

 tered. (American Herd Book.) They were also imported 

 into New York, by Mr. Cox, in 1816 ; by Mr. Bullock, in 

 1822 ; by the late Hon. S. Van Rensselaer in 1823, and 

 immediately after by Mr Charles Henry Hall, of Harlaem. 

 Some small importations were made into Massachusetts be- 

 tween 1817 and '25, by several enterprising agriculturists, 

 Messrs. Coolidge, Williams, and others; into Connecticut 

 by Mr. Hall and others ; into Pennsylvania by Mr. Powell; 

 and into Ohio and some other states, by various individuals 

 early in the present century. Since the first importations, 

 larger accessions from the best English herds have been fre- 

 quently made, and with the nice regard for pedigrees which 

 the introduction of the herd book, and careful purity in 

 breeding has produced, the Short Horns have become the 



