ISABELLA 



The Booth family began its career in 

 breeding Shorthorns with Thomas Booth 

 at Killerby, Yorkshire, England, about 

 1790. He had two sons, Richard and 

 John, who inherited the family estate 

 and established separate herds of their 

 own. In 1814 Richard left Killerby and 

 took the Studley farm at Ripon, where 

 he continued breeding until 1834, when 

 the herd was dispersed. 



Within a year after locating at Studley 

 Mr. Booth bought in Darlington market 

 a roan cow. She was sired by Mr. Bur- 

 rell's bull Burdon (1768). Bred to 

 Agamemnon (9), this roan cow produced 

 a heifer which is known as the "white 

 cow." At that period' there were two 

 bulls in the herd of Thomas Booth at 

 Killerby, viz., Albion (14) and Pilot 

 (496). Both of these proved animals of 

 great breeding character. In fact, Al- 

 bion was regarded as the greatest of. the 

 Booth bulls of early days. The "while-; 

 cow" was bred to Pilot, from which 

 union came the heifer Isabella, the sub- 

 ject of this sketch. This "white cow" 

 was also the dam of Own Sister to Isa- 

 bella and Lady Sarah. The former was 

 dam of Blossom, and she was dam of 

 Medora, "one of the neatest cows Mr. 

 Booth ever bred." 



History records many famous breed- 

 ing beef matrons, but for general excel- 

 lence and extended usefulness Isabella 

 may be classed among the very first. 

 She was not only an animal of great 

 individual merit, being termed the 

 "matchless Isabella," but she proved her- 

 self to be a breeder of the first class, and 

 from her came the Isabella tribe, one of 

 the very best of Booth breeding. To il- 

 lustrate the superior qualifications of 

 Isabella as a show cow. the following- is 

 pertinent: Sir Charles Morgan in 1823 

 proposed a trial of merit between Short- 

 born and Hereford cattle. The Rev. 

 Henry Berry, a Shorthorn advocate of 

 note, wished to bring this competition 

 about and proposed that such a contest 

 take place on the following Christmas. 

 He offered to place t-w-o Shorthorn fe- 

 males against any two Herefords in 

 England of similar age and fecundity. 

 One of these two was Isabella, then 3 



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