39 



cattle which bears his name. He did not attempt to grade up 

 cows of common breeding, but procured cattle, both bulls and 

 females, from the Collings ; and, being a man of means, and possess- 

 ing in addition the rare quality of instinctive judgment in breeding 

 cattle, he began under the most favourable auspices. 



The tribe by which his reputation was chiefly made was the 

 Duchess " the highest priced and most widely sought after tribe 

 known in Shorthorn history " which numbered only 64 females in 

 his possession, but for which he claimed the highest qualities, 

 including milking, that the Shorthorn breed possessed. Duchess 

 by Daisy-Bull (186), said to be the best Shorthorn cow of her 

 time bought in calf to Favourite from Charles Colling in 1804 

 for 100 guineas "gave, on grass alone without other food, in the 

 summer of 1807, fourteen quarts of milk twice a day. As each 

 quart yielded one-and-a-half oz. of butter, her total yield was 

 forty-two oz. a day." Bates was so thoroughly convinced of 

 the superiority of his Duchess cattle that he could find nothing 

 good enough to mate with them, and, thus, while he perfected their 

 symmetry, he ruined their powers of reproduction by intensive 

 in-and-in breeding, and up to 1831 had bred but 32 Duchesses in 

 as many years. In that year he bought Belvedere (1706) from 

 John Stephenson, of Wolviston, for 50, and used him very 

 successfully in the herd for six years. It was from this sire that 

 he obtained the Duke of Northumberland (1940), Bates' greatest 

 bull and champion of England in 1842. The temporary advantage 

 was, however, soon lost ; for consanguineous breeding followed, 

 with the result that of 58 Duchess cows old enough to breed, 

 which were in the herd at his death in 1849, 24 had never borne a 

 calf. Bates' cattle, in his own hands and in those of his successors, 

 were more closely bred than the cattle of either the Collings or the 

 Booths. 



The Oxford tribe was second to the Duchess in importance 

 among Bates cattle, and the two lines were closely related through 

 the frequent interchange of bulls. The name originated with the 

 Royal Agricultural Society's Show held at Oxford, where Bates 

 achieved the triumph of his life in the show ring by carrying off 

 four first prizes with the Duke of Northumberland and three cows, 

 one of which was afterwards named the Oxford Premium Cow. 



Other famous tribes of Bates' Shorthorns were : The Waterloo, 

 Wild Eyes, Cambridge (Eed) Rose, Foggathorpe, Blanche, and 

 Secret. 



The dispersal of the Kirklevington herd in 1850 marked an epoch 

 in the history of the Shorthorn, though the prices realized were 

 very low compared with those ruling afterwards 68 animals 

 averaged, 67 each. At the time, British agriculture was in a 

 very depressed condition and the worth of the Bates cattle had 

 not been fully realised. 



Milk has always been a matter of first importance in the breed- 

 ing of Bates cattle, and though few pure representatives of either 

 the Booth or the Bates strain are to be found, the remaining 

 Bates animals have been in great demand and have made high 

 prices during the last few years. 



