158 SHORTHORNS OR DURHAMS. 



were among the early noted breeders previous to 1750, but it was not 

 until the Colling Bros, began raising them for profit that the Shorthorns 

 obtained anything like general notice or favor. They established them- 

 selves about 1780 Chas. Colling at Ketton and his brother Robert at 

 Barmpton, both places near Darlington, on the river Tees. While 

 keeping their herds distinct, they worked more or less together, freely 

 interchanging the use of their bulls. The method pursued by them was 

 to select the best animals, male and female, that could be found among 

 neighboring and even quite distant breeders, breed them together, keep- 

 ing up the best conditions as to food and management, and carefully in- 

 breeding to fix the type. (By the term in-breeding, which we have fre- 

 quently used, is meant the breeding together of animals more or less 

 closely related ; the object being to perpetuate certain characteristics, 

 common to both parents, in the offspring. While very valuable if care- 

 fully used, the principle of in-breeding is dangerous if carried to ex- 

 tremes, and should be used lightly unless by the most skillful breeders.) 

 Early in their history (1786) Chas. Colling purchased, for #42, the 

 bull Hubback ; he proved a most excellent stock-getter, and now ranks 

 as one of the most celebrated bulls in Shorthorn history. In 1810, 

 Comet the direct offspring of Bolinbroke and Phoenix, and a lineal 

 descendant of Hubback was sold for $5,000, showing to what extent 

 these cattle had advanced both in merit and popular favor. After Col- 

 ling Bros., in point of time, came Thos. and Richard Booth and Thomas 

 Bates. These men secured their stock from Colling, but while Booth 

 Bros, persisted in breeding for beef, and the full, rounded points so much 

 admired for the butcher's block, Bates was carefully selecting and breed- 

 ing with main reference to milking qualities. Thus it happened that 

 Shorthorn improvement was started in two parallel but distinctly dif- 

 ferent lines. From these two main lines of improvement, the tastes 

 of different individuals have given rise to numberless "strains" or 

 "families" all having the same general characteristics, but differing in 

 color, beef and milk qualities, or other particulars. 



EARLY IMPORTATION INTO THE UNITED STATES. 



It is probable that importations were made very soon after the close 

 of the Revolutionary War with England, as cattle answering the descrip- 

 tion of Shorthorns were found in Virginia as early as 1790, and in 1797 

 some of these cattle were taken across the line to Kentucky by a Mr. 

 Patton, soon becoming quite well-known as the " Patton Stock." Au- 

 thentic importations were made direct from England by Mr. Cox in 1816 ; 

 by Col. Lewis Sanders and Brutus J. Clay, both of Kentucky, in 1817 ; 

 and from this time on importations on a small scale were quite frequent. 

 In 1834-5-6, Shorthorns were brought over in considerable numbers by 

 a company made up for this purpose among breeders in the Scioto Val- 



