112 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 



to take a single cross, and then at once to return to the blood of their 

 own stock,) and the names of sundry prize animals of the herd, Mr. 

 Carr remarks : 



" It has been asserted by <?z><?r-zealous advocates of the system of 

 close interbreeding, that the crosses of Mussulman, Lord Lieutenant, 

 Match em, and others, introduced scarcely any fresh blood into the 

 Booth herds ; for inasmuch as no alien bulls were used but those 

 whose veins were surcharged with the blood of Favorite, the recourse 

 to them was nothing more than a recurrence to, or renewal of, the 

 old family strain ; but this is really only what is true of every well- 

 bred Short-horn of the period, and therefore proves nothing. Take 

 any one of them, and trace back the pedigree of each of its progeni- 

 tors (whose numbers of course increase each generation back in a 

 geometrical progression), and this bull Favorite will be found to recur 

 directly and indirectly a surprising number of times. The following 

 elaborate calculations, for which I am indebted to the Rev. J. Storer, 

 of Hellidon, may be quoted in illustration of this : Mussulman is 

 64 times descended from Favorite ; namely, through Magnum Bonum 

 30, through Pirate 22, through Houghton 9, through Marshal Blucher 

 3 ; total, 64 times. Lord Lieutenant was 106 times descended from 

 Favorite, and Matchem 52 times. Crown Prince is 1,055 times 

 descended from Favorite, and Red Rose by Harbinger 1,344 times. 

 So the produce of the two are descended from him 2,399 times. 

 But work out the Duchesses or any Short-horns of good blood, and 

 the result will be found very much the same. It will not do, there- 

 fore, to claim bulls as of kindred blood on this ground only. 

 Moreover, it must in candor be admitted by the advocates of in-and- 

 in breeding that a careful consideration of the above facts leads to 

 one unavoidable conclusion. Very strong in-and-in breeding is a 

 totally different thing in our case from what it was in the case of the 

 earlier breeders, the Collings and Mr. Thomas Booth so different 

 that there can be but little analogy between the two cases. They 

 bred in-and-in from animals which had little or no previous affinity. 

 We breed in-and-in from animals full of the same blood to begin 

 with. In our case the via media, and therefore the via salntis, would 

 seem to lie in the adoption of two apparently opposite principles 

 in-and-in breeding, and fresh blood. It is manifest, however, that this 

 latter principle should be acted upon with extreme caution, or to a 

 very limited extent, when it is desirable to preserve and perpetuate 

 the distinctive type of any particular tribe, especially when, as in the 

 Warlaby herd, there is no visible deterioration in symmetry, sub- 



