134 DOMESTIC ANIMALS, DAIRYING, ETC. 



In their dairy capacity they may also be said to practically dupli- 

 cate the milking Shorthorns, so that a separate description is unneces- 

 sary. The breed is not yet sufficiently strong in numbers and has not 

 been handled enough for dairy purposes to furnish milk records of 

 value for herds or single animals. In short, they have been from the 

 first, and continue to be, bred primarily for the development of feed- 

 ing quality for beef production as their dominant characteristic, and 

 their service as milk producers must be regarded as a secondary con- 

 sideration. It remains still to be determined to what extent this breed 

 will affect the interests of dairymen. At the Columbian Exposition 

 (1893) the Polled Durhams were entered as general-purpose cattle, 

 and in the sweepstakes rings for that class they received the highest 

 honor in competition with representatives of several other breeds of 

 similar character. Breeders of these animals organized in the year 

 1889 as the American Polled Durham Breeders' Association and at 

 once began the compilation of a herdbook. 



RED POLLS. 



Origin and History. This is another of the comparatively new 

 breeds, as its independence has only been recognized within the last 

 half of the nineteenth century, and it is another without horns. Red 

 Polled cattle resemble the Devons almost as closely as the Polled Dur- 

 hams resemble the Shorthorns. Yet the two red races are probably 

 not closely related ; the Devons are natives of the Dartmoor region in 

 the southwestern portion of England, and the Red Polls had their 

 origin on the eastern plain, north of the river Thames, and particu- 

 larly in the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. The progenitors of this 

 breed were the little, old, red, horned cattle of Norfolk and the dun, 

 or mouse, colored polled animals of Suffolk. According to very early 

 records the latter were superior milch cattle. Arthur Young, in his 

 Survey of Suffolk, published in 1794, mentions the hornless cattle of 

 that country and says : There is hardly a dairy of any consideration 

 in the district that does not contain cows which give, in the height of 

 the season, 8 gallons of milk a day, and 6 are common among many 

 for a large part of the season. For two or three months a whole dairy 

 will give 5 gallons a day on the average. And he adds: Many of 

 these beasts fatten remarkably well and have flesh of fine quality. 

 Low, writing in 1845, after giving the breed, under the name of 

 Polled Suffolks, a poor character in respect to almost everything ex- 

 cept milking powers, suggested the probability of its immediate ex- 

 tinction. But since that time much enterprise has been shown among 

 the cattlemen of that part of England. The early stock of Norfolk 

 and Suffolk has been merged (from about 1846), handled with skill, 

 the horns eliminated on the one side and all color but red upon the 

 other. The traces of an infusion of Scotch Galloway and West High- 

 land blood, doubtless once made, have been well covered, and the Red 

 Polled cattle have now recognition as a breed and come well to the 

 front. They have not made much headway in Great Britain, how- 

 ever, outside of the two counties named. 



Some of these hornless cattle, red and of other colors, were among 

 those brought to the early English colonies in America, and the so- 

 called muley cows among our natives are probably descendants, more 



