THE QUALITIES OF PEDIGREES. 251 



years, in 1846, and under the same order and system of record the 

 successive volumes have continued at intervals of about two years 

 down to the nineteenth, issued in 1871. Yet the ^?-pedigreed 

 animals became fewer as time progressed ; but short pedigrees, with 

 only two, three, or four crosses have been continued down and even 

 into the last volume. A word as to why these short pedigrees have 

 been, and also may in future volumes be so continued. It is well 

 known in England, and ought to be as well known in America, that 

 many herds of well-bred Short-horns exist at the present day in 

 Britain, the owners of which have never kept written records of their 

 breeding, and whose pedigrees have never found their way into the 

 Herd Books. We give an instance : When Mr. John R. Page, the 

 well-known American cattle artist, was in England a few years ago, 

 looking over Mr. T. C. Booth's herd with him one day in their pas- 

 ture, he remarked somewhat on the short pedigrees to some of the 

 cattle which Mr. Booth, as well as other breeders of celebrity had 

 in their herds. "Look out on yonder field," said Mr. Booth, point- 

 ing to a broad pasture on a hill some half a mile distant where 

 were grazing a fine herd of Short-horns; "do you see those cattle?" 

 "I do," answered Mr. Page. "Well, sir, the owner of that herd 

 is an old dairyman and stock raiser. I have known him, his herd 

 and their history, from my boyhood. His father bred the progeni- 

 tors of that herd, which were good Short-horns in the days of my 

 grandfather, Thomas Booth, in the year 1780, and the cows have 

 been bred from that day to the present time to bulls belonging to 

 him, my own father, my uncle Richard, and myself. Why are they 

 not good Short-horns, although a pedigree beyond two or three 

 crosses cannot be traced among them ? " Mr. A. B. Allen, of New 

 York, related to us that when in England in the year 1841, he saw 

 several herds of good Short-horns, which had been long bred in the 

 same manner to noted bulls of other breeders. 



We do not give the above relations to excuse the neglect of 

 recording pedigrees, or to justify short pedigrees which cannot be 

 traced into thorough-bred Herd Book parents on both sides ; but as a 

 fact showing that there are men in England who are as careful in 

 the blood of their cattle bred only for economical uses as those who 

 rear their stock for the sale of pedigree animals alone ; but not breed- 

 ing for the latter purpose they pay no attention to recording their 

 cattle in the Herd Book. And this may account for many of the 

 short pedigrees of the present day in some English herds, together 

 with many which have been imported to the United States within 



