BREEDS OF DAIRY CATTLE 137 



cattle in America. Virginia led in the work with several small im- 

 portations between 1783 and 1800, and from these pioneer animals 

 the first pure-bred Durhams were taken to Kentucky. In 1817 there 

 was a special importation for Kentucky use, from which the descend- 

 ants can be fully traced to the present time. This stock was popu- 

 larly called the "milk breed," but they were improved Shorthorns, 

 some of them from the Collings herd. Also in 1817 some of like 

 breeding reached New r York and Massachusetts. A few years later 

 they obtained a foothold in Pennsylvania. Several importations 

 followed prior to 1835, but up to this time the breed did not seem to 

 do well east of the Alleghenies. In Kentucky and Ohio, on the con- 

 trary, great progress was made. Twenty years of special activity 

 then followed in the development of American Shorthorns. During 

 this time the famous herd Thorndale, New York, was built up, 

 and the Alexander herd at Woodburn, Kentucky. A quiet period 

 of fifteen years was followed by another Shorthorn boom, beginning 

 after the civil war, and the climax came in September, 1873, when 

 the celebrated New York Mills sale occurred. One hundred and 

 nine head of Shorthorns were then sold at auction in three hours 

 for $380,000. Eight cows averaged $14,000 each, and six others 

 averaged $24.000; one sold for $35,000 and another for $40,600. 

 British breeders acknowledged that the United States possessed bet- 

 ter Shorthorns than could be found in England, and sent over agents 

 to take back some of them at any price. During the last hundred 

 years the Shorthorn blood has been more generally distributed 

 through the United States than that of any other cattle, and it has 

 proved most acceptable as the basis of improvement for the com- 

 mon, or native, stock, both for beef production and dairy purposes. 



The aim of nearly all the improvers of Shorthorns has been to 

 secure early maturity, size, form, and beef-producing qualities. All 

 is useless that is not beef was the motto of an eminent breeder, and 

 he has had many followers. Thomas Bates is the most noted of the 

 few who have seemed anxious to retain good milking capacity. The 

 Shorthorns are a beef breed and have been so for generations. They 

 are classed among the beef breeds at all the great exhibitions, and, 

 as a breed, do not even pretend to be general-purpose animals. But 

 there have always been good dairy cows among them, and in Eng- 

 land, especially, strains and families have been kept somewhat dis- 

 tinct and known as milking Shorthorns. A few breeders in the 

 United States have followed this example, and enough were found 

 in 1893 to make up a herd which entered the famous dairy-cow tost 

 at the Columbian Exposition and there made a most creditable 

 record. This alone entitles the Shorthorns to a place in these pages, 

 although their best friends would hardly claim them to belong to 

 the class of special dairy breeds. 



Characteristics. In point of size the Shorthorns are probably 

 the largest among pure breeds of cattle. In their modern form they 

 are not so tall and have not so large a frame as some of their English 

 ancestors, but the lower, blockier, fuller form maintains the maxi- 



