SECOND PERIOD OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 19 



yield to the theory that improvement from a defective organization 

 to almost perfection in the development of their qualities in nearly 

 all kinds of domestic animals, is measurably within the power of 

 an intelligent breeder, who, by a sort of intuition, or through a long 

 course of study and observation, is also a physiologist. Without 

 such admission that is to say the capability of improvement by 

 careful breeding, food and treatment of an inferior creature through 

 a course of successive generations in its offspring into a superior one, 

 all discussion of the subject is worthless. 



The reader will observe that our first field of observation, for a 

 time, will relate solely to the counties of England comprising the 

 ancient Northumbria, once ravaged and occupied by the Danes. 

 Let us start fair. We cannot, as we pass, well quote, in particular, 

 all the several authorities from which we draw our earlier Short-horn 

 history ; for many of them are so fragmentary in their accounts that 

 no continuous narrative in time or place can be made from either 

 one alone. The principal sources from which we date our several 

 items of history will be hereafter acknowledged. 



A hundred and forty years ago, or about the year 1730, there was 

 a tradition floating among the Short-horn breeders living in the coun- 

 ties of York and Durham, near the river Tees, that a breed of cattle 

 had, many centuries back, existed within their borders chiefly in 

 Holderness, a district of Yorkshire much resembling in size, shape 

 and color, many of the cattle of Denmark, Holstein and north- 

 western Europe, at that day. At what particular time they were first 

 found in England, or who imported them, was unknown. They 

 were of extraordinary size; had coarse heads, with short, stubbed 

 horns; heavy necks; high, coarse shoulders; flat sides, the chine 

 falling back of the shoulders ; the hips wide ; the rumps long ; the 

 thighs thick, and cloddy. Yet with all these undesirable points 

 which rendered them large feeders, and late to mature, they took on 

 flesh rapidly, and fattened into heavy carcasses. Their flesh, how- 

 ever, was coarse-grained, dark in color, and less savory to the taste 

 than that of smaller breeds. Their colors were light dun, or yellow 

 red, deep red, pure white, red and white in patches, roan mixed of 

 both red and white, and no uniformity in the laying on of either one 

 of those colors, or their admixtures, the colors prevailing, as acci- 

 dent might govern. The cows were large milkers, yielding quantities, 

 with generous feed, beyond any others yet known. There can be 

 little doubt that these animals were the direct descendants from the 

 cattle brought over from Denmark previous to the conquest. Some 



