i 3 2 BREEDS OF CATTLE 



flattery one may say that they have been developed by present- 

 day breeders. Amos Cruickshank's ideas did not 1 , however, 

 involve the total neglect of milking quality in his stock; this 

 has been referred to earlier in this work, and so the neglect of 

 later years need not be emphasized here. 



The present money-value of the best beef Shorthorns is 

 influenced by colour to a surprising extent. A deep rich whole- 

 coloured red, or a very evenly distributed dark roan, is saleable 

 at quite a different figure from a yellow- red, or a red and white 

 pied. A whole white, on the other hand, will sometimes sell 

 for a very high price to mate with bad coloured reds and red 

 and whites, for white animals when so mated have a reputation 

 for breeding good roans. White legs on any coloured specimen 

 are altogether anathema. One would imagine that these pecu- 

 liarities about colour are merely foibles of the show-ring, but 

 it is not so, for the fashion for certain colours is set up by 

 customers who are buying for commercial purposes. It cannot 

 be easily believed that a red and white sire will get any worse 

 breeding stock than a dark rich roan, and yet the man who 

 wants to breed bulls to turn in among a thousand cows used 

 for nothing but beef-production will pay a far higher price for 

 the animal showing the latter colour. On the other hand, it is 

 not altogether wise to attribute the preference to prejudice alone. 

 For instance, there is a great prejudice among the members of 

 the cattle industry in England against white colour. This may 

 be pure prejudice ; yet you will find veterinarians of experience 

 talking of " white-heifer disease," a rare derangement of the 

 reproductive organs which, these practitioners will tell you, is 

 nearly always found among white, or very light-coloured roans. 

 Certainly, cattle of particular colours have the appearance of 

 being better furnished with flesh than animals of other hues. 

 Whites are always said to look larger than they really are 

 I myself think dark rich roans look well-fleshed but ideas of 

 this sort would hardly be important enough to create a demand, 

 making a great difference, often amounting to hundreds of 



1 Two writers of the present day, Sinclair and Robert Bruce, uphold 

 this. See also article by W. Housman in the Royal Agricultural Society's 

 Journal for 1880, p. 384. 



