DEVELOPMENT AND IMPROVEMENT OF BREEDS. 641 



have most valuable herds of these remarkable beef cattle. When not 

 bred from a mere fanciful standpoint of fineness, it must be confessed 

 that they are unexcelled in stoutness, early maturity and great develop- 

 ment of lesh. 



XVIII. Three Short-Horn Strains. 



Among the lessons learned from these changes, we have seen the 

 Short-Horns gradually lose their great milking qualities, but they have 

 gained in early maturity, and in disposition to take on flesh. They 

 may now be divided into three classes : 



First, are those combining good grazing qualities with fair milking 

 quahties, as may be seen in the descendants of the importation of 1817 

 into Kentucky, or the " Seventeens" as they are called. None are better 

 than these for the average farmer to breed from, and fortunately, when 

 found, they sell at prices comparative!}^ but little above those of the best 

 native cattle of mixed breeds. 



The second strain is the Booth blood, eminent for large frames, 

 covered with great masses of flesh, but of small account as milkers. 



The third principal strain is that of the Bates cattle, eminent for style 

 and early maturity, with sub-families, producing occasionally most 

 excellent milking cows. 



The young breeder may rest assured that by studying carefully the 

 precepts laid down in this chapter, and by familiarizing himself with the 

 characteristics of the several strains, and also by studying carefully the 

 pedigrees as given in the herd l)ooks, he will be qualified to select animals 

 for the nucleus of his herd, that will breed constant to type, if he pos- 

 sess the judgment properly to mate them. 



XrX. The Three Principal Types of Cattle. 



It remains to close this chapter with a recapitulation of the three prin- 

 cipal types of cattle. These are the Long-Horns, the Middle-Horns and 

 the Short-Horns. Of the Long-Horns, sub-breeds remain worthy of per- 

 petuation in competition with the Middle-Horns, as represented by the 

 Herefords or Devons, or the Short-Horns, as represented by the Dur- 

 uams. The milking breeds are the Jerseys and other Channel Island 

 cattle, and the Ayrs hires and the Holsteins. 



Among the traces of long-horned blood, characteristic of the old Shrop- 

 shire, with their horns dropping down forward and suddenly rising, the 

 Derby with their horns running sideways, and curving upwards and back- 

 wards, and the Cravens, with their "lopped horns," may all be found 

 occasionally in the ordinary mixed breeds of the country, showing how long 

 a time it takes to work out the blood from whence they originally cume. 



