36 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 



in the year 1803, says: "The great obstacle to improvement was 

 that no Dull should be used to the same stock more than three years ; 

 if kept longer the breed would be too near akin, and produce tender, 

 diminutive stock, liable to disorders." Bakewell, however, had upset 

 all this nonsense by persistently breeding in-and-in his own cattle and 

 sheep through all possible degrees of consanguinity, and the Ceilings 

 adopting his theory at the outset, determined to put Bakewell's course 

 into practice. * 



Here, then, were the two young breeders Robert about the age 

 of thirty, living a bachelor, and Charles a year or two younger, and 

 married settled in their vocation in the very home of the Short- 

 horns, surrounded by a wide neighborhood of veteran breeders, life- 

 long engaged in the business, in which their capital, pride and ambition 

 were all enlisted. From the herds of those breeders the Collings 

 could select at pleasure, without a heavy drainage on their purses, for 

 prices in fine cattle had not yet taken a. fancy altitude in that locality. 

 The depression of agricultural values then caused by the late French 

 and American wars had reduced them to their minimum. A pleas- 

 ant time the young men must have had in ranging over the country, 

 examining the herds and selecting their stock, with ample means in 

 their pockets to command the best of them, and embark in a business 

 so full of interest, expectation and profit. Educated to the pursuit 

 by a shrewd, managing father, though possessing the same notions in 

 breeding as were held by his neighbors, the sons had the sagacity 

 to believe that improvement was within their reach, and their visits 

 to Bakewell had confirmed it. What were the earliest purchases 

 they made, who from, or the names of the cattle, history has given 

 no record. 



Robert and Charles were at first in partnership, but separated when 

 going to their separate farms at Barmpton and Ketton, which took 

 place some time about the year 1783. Still, they bred more or less in 

 conjunction, frequently using the same bulls, alternating as they either 

 chose, or agreed, but each having his own cows, and they drawn 

 from the different herds around them. 



HUBBACK. 



Having early begun their course of breeding by obtaining several 

 good cows, we now introduce another distinguished animal into the 

 Colling herds, whose blood, coursing through the descendants of 

 those cows and others in their hands, constituted an era in the Short- 

 horn breeding of that day. This was no less than the famous bull 



