Chapter XLI. 



POLLED DURHAMS. 



The Polled Durham breed is of recent origin ; indeed it is only 

 within the last three years that it could at all lay claim to the title. 

 Since, however, the blood lines have become so fixed, and the features 

 sought to be perpetuated are therefore transmitted with a great degree 

 of certainty, their breeders have banded together and propose to place 

 before the world the merits of their favorites on a blood parity with 

 other breeds. In November, 1889, the American Polled Durham 

 Breeders' Association was organized and the Herd Book started. The 

 association now has a membership of between forty and fifty, and there 

 are registered in the Herd Book something over 200 animals. Mr. 

 Wm. W. Crane, Tippecanoe City, Ohio, is president, and Mr. A. E. 

 Burleigh, Mazon, 111., secretary. 



As the name of the breed indicates, its basal blood is drawn from 

 Shorthorn or " Durham " ancestry. The best " muley " or polled cows 

 were selected from among the common or native herds in the central- 

 western and Mississippi Valley portions of the United States, and these 

 cows were bred to registered, selected Shorthorn bulls. Only the best 

 hornless heifers were selected from the calves thus bred, and these 

 were in time returned to registered Shorthorn bulls. This plan was 

 persistently followed by several conscientious and thoroughly reliable 

 breeders independently of each other, and, indeed, each without the 

 other's knowledge, until after several generations of selective breeding, 

 the Shorthorn outline, and especially the best beef or feeding character- 

 istics of that old and popular breed, were firmly fixed in combination 

 with the potent hornless feature of the "muley" cows, and the modern 

 breed of Polled Durhams was established. 



Of the breeders who, in this quiet way, have worked so faithfully 

 to bring about what now has been so worthily attained, we can only 

 mention those most prominent, whose names must live in Polled Dur- 

 ham history as do the names of Booth and Bates in that of their Short- 

 horn ancestry. Dr. Wm. W. Crane, Tippecanoe City, Ohio, now pres- 

 ident of the association ; Salem R. Clawson, Clawson, Ohio ; Peter 

 Shafor, also of Ohio; J. L. Burleigh, Mazon, 111., now secretary ; and 

 T. Dunham, of Iowa. 



Among the later breeders we may mention Mr. J. H. Miller, 



