THE WARLABY HERD. 113 



stance, or stamina, or any want of fertility traceable to in-and-in 

 breeding. Yet even in such cases it is doubtless advisable to have 

 occasional recourse to remote alliances, taking care to have as many 

 removes as possible between members of the same family ; or, where 

 using bulls nearly related to the cows, giving preference to such as 

 have been subjected to different conditions of life, it being a well- 

 known physiological fact that a change of soil and climate effects 

 perhaps almost as great a change in the constitution as would result 

 from an infusion of other blood."* 



These remarks would, perhaps, be more in place when on the sub- 

 ject of breeding, but finding them here in connection with the Booth 

 system, now under discussion, they will be duly considered by the 

 reader. 



In July, 1852, the Killerby herd was sold at auction. The sale 

 was largely attended by breeders from all parts of the kingdom. At 

 that time there was an unusual depression in all agricultural values ; 

 the prices at which the cattle sold were comparatively low, and did 

 not realize at all what their several merits and celebrity demanded. 

 Some of them afterwards changed hands and sold for thrice the 

 prices they brought at the Booth sale. 



Mr. J. Booth retained a few choice cows from the general sale, 

 which Mr. Carr says were of "distinguished lineage, and if more 

 recent in their origin, have given rise to other families proved to 

 trace that origin to the herds of the Booths, and the quiet meadows 

 of Killerby." Mr. J. Booth continued at Killerby until his death, in 

 1857, when his sons, Thomas C. and John, came into possession of 

 his herd. 



THE WARLABY HERD. 



" It is now necessary to take a retrospect of the herd at Warlaby, 

 commencing with the year 1835, when Mr. Richard Booth, inheriting 

 the estate, went to reside there. Mr. Booth's residence at Warlaby 

 is a modest, unassuming, country house. It stands environed by 

 well-timbered paddocks, in a rich meadowy tract of country, bounded 

 by distant hills, and known as the Vale of the Wiske. It is one mile 

 from the village of Ainderby, of which it is a hamlet, and about 

 three from Northallerton, the central town of the North-Riding, in 

 Yorkshire. The farm, as occupied by Mr. Booth, consisted of 310 

 acres, about half in pasture ; other farms then let off, have since his 



* Sound physiological principle that should be heeded by all careful breeders. L. F. A. 



