136 DOMESTIC ANIMALS, DAIRYING, ETC. 



hams. Wallace says they are descended from the old Northeast of 

 England breed, variously designated as Durham, Teeswater, York- 

 shire, and Holderness, and adds : The breed was probably originally 

 formed, though perhaps several centuries ago, by crossing the aborigi- 

 nal British cows with large-frame bulls imported from the Continent. 

 Early Shorthorns were good milkers, and it may be presumed they in 

 part inherited that quality along with the shortness of horn from 

 their Continental ancestors. Little is known of the breed except from 

 the uncertain authority of tradition down to the early part of the 

 eighteenth century, though it is only right to infer that long before 

 this time great care and even skill had been .bestowed upon it. The 

 earliest records show that purity of breed was fully appreciated, and 

 this important fact could not have been universal without previous 

 experience and attention. 



The great county of York, extending along the east coast of Eng- 

 land from the river Humber to the Tees, and westward almost to the 

 Irish Sea, has the honor of being the seat of the most noted examples 

 of improvement in British cattle. It was this country which fur- 

 nished the foundation stock upon which Gresley, in Staffordshire, 

 Webster in Warwickshire, and that greatest of all breeders, Robert 

 Bakewell, in Leicestershire, labored to create the breed of Longhorns, 

 which filled all the middle counties of England during the eighteenth 

 century, and was then regarded as the most valuable in the Kingdom. 

 And it was Yorkshire, helped somewhat by the smaller county of 

 Durham, adjoining on the north, which brought the famous Short- 

 horns to the front, following closely upon the best days of the Long- 

 horns. The former replaced and practically absorbed the latter, 

 spreading over all middle England and northward across the island 

 and well into the lowlands of Scotland. 



Inseparably connected with the development of the Shorthorn 

 breed are the names of Robert and Charles Colling, who brought 

 their favorites into a new era of fame and popularity during the last 

 decades of the eighteenth century and the first of the nineteenth. 

 The Collings were shrewd advertisers as well as good breeders. In 

 those days of slow communication and absence of fairs and shows 

 they adopted the clever plan of sending specimen animals of their 

 breeding on long tours about their own and adjoining counties. 

 Two of these animals became especially famous. The Durham Ox, 

 which had a live weight of 1% tons, and The White Heifer that 

 Traveled, weighing considerably over a ton, were driven about the 

 country for several years and extensively exhibited. Almost equally 

 valuable to this breed have been the later services of Bates and Booth 

 and Cruickshank. Under these leaders, and in the hands of a host of 

 able lieutenants and followers, this superb race of cattle has been 

 raised to the highest rank in the United Kingdom, carried to the 

 continent of Europe, and introduced into all British colonies. It 

 was the first pure breed to make an impress upon the cattle of the 

 United States. 



The Shorthorns in America. The Revolutionary war was 

 scarcely over before attention began to be given to improving the 



