THE KENTUCKY IMPORTATION OF 1817. 165 



long series of years been considered a valuable race, and their reputa- 

 tion, through the skill and perseverance of Bakewell, their distinguished 

 breeder, stood high, and many pure Short-horn crosses have since 

 been made upon the Kentucky Long-horns, little, if any, injury can 

 be imputed to animals now existing which may inherit the remote 

 fraction of Long-horn blood traced into their veins. 



To return to the Short-horns of the 1817 importation, and the 

 evidences, in absence of pedigrees to them, touching their purity of 

 blood, which has been challenged. In addition to the testimony of 

 Col. Sanders in the employment of his agent, Mr. Etches, the latter, 

 in a letter to Mr. Affleck, published in the Western Farmer and Gar- 

 dener, writes : " I have been a butcher twenty-eight years in Liver- 

 pool, and am a breeder of fine stock. I was the purchaser of the 

 Short-horn stock for Messrs. Buchanan, Smith & Co., which went to 

 America in 1817 six in number, three bulls and three heifers [eight 

 he ought to have said, as there were four of each sex, including the 

 two Holderness, which were also Short-horns, in fact]. Every animal 

 was pure of its kind" They were selected in Durham or Yorkshire 

 perhaps in both, near the river Tees, the ancient home of the race. 



Mr. Etches was afterwards the purchaser of Short-horns for other 

 American importers for Mr. Letton, of Kentucky, of the bull Loco- 

 motive, 92 and (4242), also for Mr. Vail, of Troy, N. Y., of the bull 

 Duke of Wellington, 55 and (5654), and the cow Duchess, page 172, 

 Vol. i, A. H. B., all three of them from the herd of Mr. Thomas 

 Bates. 



The late Gen. James Garrard, of Kentucky, whose word no one 

 would question, states that "when in England many years ago, he 

 saw Mr. Etches, who assured him4]aat the Short-horns which he pur- 

 chased for Col. Sanders were as gooo>of their kind as were then to 

 be had in England." 



Further, we now quote from the second volume of the American 

 Herd Book, edited in the year 1855 : 



"In 1848, Mr. Stevens, of New York, was in England. He thus 

 writes : * I saw Mr. J. C. Etches in York, and was introduced 

 to him by Mr. Thomas Bates, the noted Short-horn breeder. In 

 answer to my questions, Mr. Etches remarked: 'I purchased for Mr. 

 Sanders, of America, in 1817, some Short-horn cattle, of different 

 persons, near the river Tees. These cattle were thought by myself 

 and others to be very fine animals.' In answer to the question by 

 me if he knew the pedigrees of any of these cattle, Mr. Etches turned 

 to Mr. Bates, and said : ' Mr. Bates probably knows something about 



