THE BOOTH HERDS, 97 



obtained his rudimentary stock from some of the best specimens of 

 these Teeswater Short-horns. He appears to have proceeded on the 

 principle that whilst the general similitude and mingled qualities of 

 both parents descend to the offspring, the external conformation 

 subject, of course, to some modification by the other parent is 

 mainly imparted by the male, and the vital and nutritive organs by 

 the female. Acting on this hypothesis, he was careful to select such 

 well-framed cows only as evinced, by an ample capacity of chest, a 

 robust constitution and a predisposition to fatten, and such moderate 

 sized males as possessed in the highest degree then attainable the 

 particular external points and proportions he deemed desirable to 

 impress upon his herd. A dairy farmer under Lord Harewood, a 

 Mr. Broader,* of Fairholme, in the parish of Ainderby, appears to 

 have possessed some cows having the qualifications required. Tradi- 

 tion speaks of them as unusually fine cattle for that period ; good 

 dairy cows, and great grajzers when dry; somewhat incompact in 

 frame, and steerish in appearance,f but of very robust constitution. 

 Previously to the year 1790, Mr. Thomas Booth had bought some 

 calves from these cows. Strawberry Fairholme, Hazel (/. e. flecked 

 roan) Fairholme, and Eight-and-twenty-shilling Fairholme, purchased 

 from Mr. Broader's farm, have the honor of being the ancestresses of 

 several illustrious families of Short-horns. 



" I have said that Mr. Thomas Booth selected moderate-sized males. 

 His observant eye had recognized, as indispensable to any improve- 

 ment in the symmetry of these Teeswater animals, the necessity of 

 reducing in size and stature their large, loosely-knit frames. With 

 this view he decided on selecting his bulls from the stock of his 

 contemporaries, Messrs. Robert and Charles Colling, who had them- 

 selves, to some extent, effected this reduction of size,| and improve- 

 ment of form and fattening capacity in their stock, chiefly through 

 the use of Hubback, a small, short-legged bull. Twin Brother to 

 Ben (660), bred by the Collings, and Booth's Son of Twin Brother to 

 Ben (88), were the first bulls used by Mr. Thomas Booth to these 

 Fairholme heifers. These bulls had the short legs, the long and level 

 hind quarters, the firm backs and good twists, to which Mr. Thomas 



* Mr. Broader's cattle do not appear among the early records of the English Herd Book. He 

 probably kept nothing but notes of his herd, if he kept pedigrees at all. L. F. A. 



t That " steerish " appearance, in the heads, particularly, still appertains to many of the purely 

 bred Booth cows of the present day. L. F. A. 



% It might be a reduction in size, but it was an actual increase of weight which the Collings 

 effected by breeding smaller boned, more compact and massive animals, than their progenitors. 

 L. F. A. 



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