g6 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 



improvement of his stock ; John was also a good Short-horn breeder. 

 Like the brothers Colling, they interchanged, and bred mainly from 

 the same sources of blood. 



Passing from the stage, a valuable portion of the herds of the 

 brothers fell into possession of the present Thomas C. Booth, of 

 Warlaby, son of John, and nephew to Richard. He is the Booth of 

 the present day, although his brother John and his son J. C. Booth, 

 of Killerby, are also Short-horn breeders to some extent, and chiefly 

 in the stocks of the family tribe. 



With these preliminaries, necessary to the future narration of their 

 herds, we are fortunately favored with " The History of the Rise and 

 Progress of the Killerby, Studley, and Warlaby herds of Short-horns, 

 by William Carr," published in London in 1867. This work, although 

 highly laudatory, and written apparently with a view of giving a 

 special prominence to the "Booth blood," is valuable in the many 

 facts it contains touching the career of the earlier Booths, and their 

 course of breeding, as also- for its many hints and suggestions profita- 

 ble to breeders of the present day, and the information it conveys of 

 the dissemination of their animals. The book itself is scholarly in 

 style, graphic in narration, and if a poetic or imaginative tint is now 

 and then detected in its pages, they may be imputed only to the 

 enthusiasm of the author, and not to a disposition to mislead the 

 reader into a false estimate of the noble animals he so partially exalts. 



We can do no better, perhaps, than to quote literally from the 

 work in question, with occasional explanatory notes of our own, in 

 order to give the reader a true history, so far as may be necessary for 

 our purpose, of the Booth Short-horns : 



" Mr. Thomas Booth was no servile imitator. He was a contem- 

 porary of the Ceilings, and began his career quite independently of 

 them, as an improver of the cattle of the same district, and he com- 

 menced it nearly at the same time. Mr. Booth had been a breeder 

 of Short-horns many years when the celebrated Durham Ox, bred by 

 Mr. Charles Colling, was first exhibited throughout the kingdom, and 

 drew universal attention to the Short-horns. He afterwards did what 

 wisdom dictated, availed himself of the Collings' best blood, and 

 incorporated it with his own ; while his sons and grandsons at Killerby, 

 at Studley, and at Warlaby, have continued the same herd down to 

 the present time, and given it a world-wide fame. 



" Previously to the year 1790 Mr. Thomas Booth, who was then the 

 owner of the Warlaby and Killerby estates, and farmed them both, 

 commenced at Killerby the breeding of Short-horns. * * * He 



