222 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 



CHAPTER XI. 



EXPORTATION OF AMERICAN SHORT-HORNS TO ENGLAND AND 



SCOTLAND. 



AFTER the long series of purchases by American breeders from 

 the British herds which have been enumerated, it is an interesting 

 item to record the progress of the back tidal wave of purchases from 

 our own American herds by English breeders, which have been taken 

 to the land of their origin to re-unite their possibly superior qualities 

 with the long-cherished blood of their ancestors, an event which has 

 been regarded among the British breeders as of novel and especial 

 interest. 



Fifty years ago, or more, a pungent writer of critiques in one of 

 the British Reviews opened his article upon an American author with 

 the sneering question : " Who reads an American book ? " But at 

 the present day American books have become a welcome commodity 

 in the British market, and receive an admiration and respect equal 

 to those of its own most favored authors. 



Forty years afterwards, although the Americans had long been 

 purchasers of English Short-horns, the question might have been as 

 contemptuously asked by the English breeders : " Who buys an 

 American Short-horn ? " For many years our American breeders had 

 visited Great Britain, and carefully selected and purchased many 

 choice animals from the most costly and fashionable herds, which 

 they transferred onto their own American farms, and bred with a 

 care and skill equal to any which had been bestowed upon them in 

 the land of their nativity. It was afterwards discovered that much 

 of the best blood of their cherished herds had crossed the Atlantic, 

 and not to be regained except by going to America to re-purchase 

 and import it back at much higher prices than those for which they 

 had originally sold them. But the blood they must have, whatever 

 might be the cost, and they wisely set about regaining it. 



In a letter to us of June 12, 1871, Mr. Samuel Thorne, of New 

 York, thus writes: "During a visit to England in the spring of 1861, 

 I was eagerly sought after for ' Duke ' and * Oxford ' bulls, and in 



