PEDIGREE BREEDING 73 



and Ireland there is not as full a record of their going into 

 Wales. The customers whose requirements they had in view 

 were the yeoman and the tenant-farmer or his landlord. For, 

 in those days, the landlord and farmer were not thinking of 

 the foreigner's cheque; the landlord kept and bred sires with 

 the sole object of improving the animals that were useful in 

 increasing the produce of his own land or that held by his 

 tenants. 



It is now time to review the good qualities and the imper- 

 fections of this stock which has become universally recognized 

 for its great merit, at any rate wherever the English tongue is 

 spoken or the supply of beef for English markets is considered ; 

 even though the rearing-ground may be thousands of miles 

 from our shores. 



The Shorthorns brought into being by the brothers Collings 

 and their fellow-breeders had the following characteristics as 

 compared with the foundation stock-animals from which they 

 sprang. The bony frame, or skeletal structure, was reduced to 

 the smallest limits consistent with usefulness. All excess of 

 bone not needed to support the body weight, to admit of an 

 adequate covering of muscle and its attachments (sinews and 

 such tissue), or to protect the delicate internal organs was, by 

 careful selection of sires and dams, bred out of the cattle in 

 their herds. The shape of the frame was thus greatly improved. 

 The depth of carcase was much increased in proportion to the 

 total height of the animal, length, as well as weight, of limb not 

 being required for beasts that were not wanted for labour; the 

 width, too, of frame, or body, was wider in these " Improved 

 Shorthorns/' This applied especially to the fore-end of die 

 animals, for there a wide-spreading conformation of the ribs 

 was combined with a great depth of frame to give ample room 

 for development of heart and lungs. These vital organs of 

 circulation and respiration, not being cramped for space, admit 

 of the development and full activity of the necessary bodily 

 functions (growth, digestion and so on) with greater profit to 

 man. Besides reduction in size, and improvement of the shape 

 of frame, a great development of meat, or of "thick flesh" as 

 it is called, was also effected. Not only was there an increase 



