botsburn came in for the lion's share of 

 attention, as might have been expected. 

 Finally when through, in reply to the 

 question, "How active is he?" Forbes, 

 the herdsman, heading him down the 

 lane, took the strap he had been holding 

 him by and slapped him over the rump, 

 upon which he trotted off down the lane 

 with astonishing lightness and ease, a 

 surprise to all present. 



In commenting on the character of this 

 bull A. H. Sanders, one of the ablest 

 Shorthorn students living, wrote at the 

 time of Young Abbotsburn's death: "As 

 a feeder's type Young Abbotsburn has 

 probably had no peer in this generation. 

 Possessed of great scale, an iron consti- 

 tution, digestive and assimilative pow- 

 ers of the highest order, and traditional 

 Cruickshank depth of rib and shortness 

 of leg, he developed under skillful feed- 

 ing into the heaviest bull of his height 

 known to American Shorthorn records. 

 Other bulls have had as good backs, 

 other bulls have had ribs that sprung 

 with more perfect arch, and other bulls 

 have shown more perfect breeding char- 

 acter in their heads, but when it came to 

 depth and fullness at all the special 

 feeding points, the bulging neck veins, 

 the low, heavy flanks, the generous mid- 

 dle piece, the thick, wide twist, and the 

 Dlacid temperament, the old bull never 

 had nor does he now leave a rival. As 

 a feed lot pattern Young Abbotsburn 

 measured up to the highest standards set 

 by Mr. Cruickshank." 



In the summer of 1894, Colonel Mober- 

 ley, most unfortunate for Shorthorn in- 

 terests, was drowned at Virginia Beach, 

 Va., while nobly rescuing his daughter 

 from a watery grave. His death resulted 

 in the selling of the Forest Grove herd 

 at executor's pale on Oct. 23, 1895, when 

 Young Abbotsburn and four of his sons 

 and seventeen of his daughters were dis- 

 posed of with the rest of the herd. The 

 old bull was nurchased by T. J. Wallace 

 of Bunceton, Mo., for $475, in whose pos- 

 se=sion he remained until Feb. 4, 1898, 

 when he died. 



Young Abbotsburn had been something 

 of a disappointment as a breeder, yet he 

 sired a number of animals of much merit. 

 His daughter, Mary Abbotsburn 7th, in 

 the hands of Aaron Barber of New York, 

 proved to be one of the greatest show 

 cows of the latter part of the nineteenth 

 century. She made her first appearance in 



89 



