40 



Early Exportation to America. From an early period in the 

 history of the breed numerous importations of good Shorthorns had 

 been made into America, and many prices rising into four figures in 

 dollars had been realised by the importers. The first attempt to 

 establish an American: pedigree registry or herd book was made by 

 L. F. Allan, of Black Eock, N.Y., in 1846. The second volume 

 appeared in 1855, but the publication remained a private enterprise 

 until purchased in 1883 by the American Shorthorn Breeders' 

 Association. 



Introduction of Shorthorn Cattle into Scotland. Shorthorn cattle 

 were introduced into the south of Scotland from the North-east of 

 England early in the 19th century by several breeders, who all 

 followed Booth's method of selecting superior cows of the Short- 

 horn type from the common cattle in the ordinary markets, and 

 mating them with bulls procured from the Collings and other 

 successful early breeders. The first Shorthorn bull to reach 

 Aberdeenshire came from Rennie of Phantassie, E. Lothian, but 

 soon afterwards Captain Barclay, of Ury, by judicious purchases 

 and skilful breeding, became possessed of a fine herd, 80 animals 

 of which were sold in 1838 realising 3,000. This widened the 

 basis of Shorthorn breeding in Scotland. At a second sale in 

 1847 the herd, numbering 91, sold for 2,825, and passed mainly 

 into the possession of Cruickshank of Sittyton, Campbell of 

 Kinellar, and other successful breeders, who were again stimulated 

 to greater efforts. 



The Cruickshan-k Shorthorns. The animals bred by Amos 

 Cruickshank (1808-95) who was largely financed by his brother 

 Anthony, were mainly instrumental in drawing attention to 

 the best Scotch-bred Shorthorns. He studied the qualities of 

 the dams and grand-dams of the bulls he used, and paid 

 special attention to massiveness of substance. He regarded a 

 good middle, braad full chest, wide back and deep ribs as 

 points indicative of high capacity for beef production, and of a 

 robust constitution. He had no preference for a Duchess, or a 

 l>east of any other favourite strain, without conspicuous individual 

 merit. For over 20 years he scrupulously avoided in-and-in 

 breeding, and the methods established of Bakewell, the Collings, 

 the Booths, and Bates. Ignoring also family line-breeding, on 

 which Bates laid so much stress, Cruickshank selected indis- 

 criminately from the blood of all the great breeders Colling, 

 Booth, and Bates and in mating his animals relied on his own 

 judgment, the result of personal experience and close study of the 

 results of others. Up to 1860 stock bulls were mostly purchased, 

 but the. unparalleled success of the home-bred bull Champion of 

 England (17526) led to a change of policy which gradually drew 

 Cruickshank, after a preliminary period of cautious line-breeding, 

 into the mistake, made by the Booths and Bates, of mating 

 animals too closely related to each other, and at his death it was 

 generally believed that he could not have long proceeded 

 successfully on the lines into which he had drifted. 



Shorthorn Families from the Sittyton Herd. The following are 

 some of the Shorthorn families latterly evolved from the Sittyton 



