.ATER IMPROVEMENT IN THE SHORT-HORNS. 245 



time to time mentioned. As a consequence their cattle were less 

 refined in quality than those which had been more highly cultivated 

 and cherished. Yet, we may presume their herds had been enriched 

 by the use of bulls bought from the early popular breeders, and that 

 they had progressed to a degree of excellence much beyond what 

 they were in the days of their remote, or even immediate, ancestors. 

 The extending increase, by their rapidly growing demand, brought 

 into use many cows, and even bulls of but moderate quality, although 

 of good blood, and from them various herds were bred by their 

 enterprising owners with acceptable pedigrees, which found a record 

 in the Herd Book when once established. 



There were in those early days occasional animals of wonderful 

 quality, with whose history we have become familiar; but such 

 remarkable ones did not abound in every herd, nor were their excel- 

 lences so conspicuous as to give them wide notoriety in the annals of 

 their day. Some of the earlier American importations from England 

 were from the herds of the Collings, Mason, Wetherell, Maynard, and 

 other distinguished breeders of the best cattle of the time ; and also 

 from several other reputable breeders known to possess blood of ex- 

 cellent quality derived from the ancient well-bred stocks. A very im- 

 portant item, however, entered into these earlier importations : they 

 had to be obtained at prices within the limits which the buyers 

 dared venture on a race of cattle whose success was as yet but an ex- 

 periment in this country. As a consequence the costliest ones were 

 not purchased and brought to America, but useful, good animals 

 of approved blood and pedigrees, such as would stamp their better 

 qualities on the common classes of our native stock, and satisfac- 

 torily propagate their kind with each other. These animals were, 

 no doubt, a full average in quality to the stocks of the reputable 

 Short-horn breeders in England at the times they were imported. 

 Favorites, Comets, and their like, were then not common there. Nor 

 have bulls of the very highest distinction, been common there since ; 

 but we venture the assertion that there have been as good bulls bred 

 both in England and America since their day as was even Comet ; 

 yet Dukes of Northumberland and Commanders-in-Chief, in all their 

 striking perfections, may only crop out once in a series of years, 

 while many others equally meritorious in all essential qualities may 

 be, and are produced now-a-days, both in England and America 

 during every successive year. 



Although some excellent, even extraordinarily good Short-horns had 

 been imported from time to time into America from England among 



