SHORT PEDIGREES. 235 



who issued it in the year 1846, in the same style and form, mainly, 

 as had been done by the Coateses. The work has since been con- 

 tinued at intervals by Mr. Strafford, down to the year 1871, until the 

 whole number amounts to nineteen volumes, containing 30,347 bulls, 

 with a much larger number of cows. A considerable number of 

 American pedigrees were entered in the successive volumes edited 

 by Mr. Strafford, until a few years ago, when they were no longer 

 admitted, except such as were necessary to give the lineage of British 

 Short-horns descended from American sires or dams, or were ex- 

 ported from America to England. The later volumes of the E. H. B. 

 also contain the pedigrees of most of the native Short-horns which 

 have since been imported from Great Britain into America. 



SHORT PEDIGREES IN THE ENGLISH HERD BOOKS. 



We here mention one item connected with the Strafford Herd Book, 

 particularly, which is necessary for the American breeder to under- 

 stand. No female pedigree, except in a few particular instances, is 

 admitted to record in its pages until she has become a breeder, and 

 then only two, three, or (seldom) four of her pedigree crosses are given, 

 with a further reference to the names of either herself or her dam in 

 some previous volume, so that in order to obtain her full pedigree 

 those volumes must be examined. The names of her "produce," 

 however, are placed in tabular form, with date of birth and name of 

 sire given, that the pedigrees of such produce can, with some extra 

 labor, usually be ascertained. 



We have given the above particular account of the origin and 

 history of the English Herd Book, as a part of the information with 

 which the American breeder should be familiar; but there is still 

 another history with which, in order to a thorough knowledge of the 

 origin and truth of pedigrees, he should be acquainted. 



WERE THE EARLY PEDIGREES IN THE ENGLISH HERD BOOK ALL 

 TRUE SHORT-HORNS? 



The question may here be pertinently asked: "What reliance 

 have we that the names, or the pedigrees recorded in the Coates Herd 

 Books were correct, or that they were true Short-horns ? " To this 

 we answer : Nothing, but the veracity of the breeders of the cattle 

 whose names and pedigrees they furnished, and the acceptance of 

 them by their contemporaries who were acquainted with their blood 

 and breeding. To several of those animals we have already alluded. 



