63 



My own experience differs somewhat from the respectable author- 

 ity just given. I have had some of the full-blood and some of the 

 mixed breed ; and I am not able to say anything in favor of their 

 milking properties. I have seen some remarkably fine specimens of 

 early maturity and thrift among them ; and more beautiful models of 

 cattle than some specimens, which I have seen of them, I believe 

 are no where to be met with. 



Another public-spirited gentleman in Bradford imported some of 

 this fine stock for his farm. His expectations do not appear to have 

 been fully answered, though I was not able to obtain any exact in- 

 formation of their yield in milk or butter. From the letter of his 

 correspondent, whom he employed to procure these fine animals for 

 him without limit as to expense, I extract as follows. "I must ob- 

 serve that this breed of stock has not been held of late years in great 

 estimation for milking." He adds that " Short-Horns are only cal- 

 culated for the best and most powerful land ; on poor soils thev will 

 do nothing. The most improved plan of keeping them in winter is 

 to have them loose in open warm hovels, two or four together. The 

 bulls you will find it necessary to keep in altogether from one year 

 old. The Milch Cows are kept at the stake in enclosed houses ; 

 and turned out a short time in the day time — they bear the cold bad- 

 ly." 



There is another very strong testimony, that of Mr. Shiriff, who 

 travelled in this country for agricultural information in 1834 '5 ; and 

 who is pronounced by one of the most eminent breeders of the Dur- 

 ham Short-Horns in England, a farmer of the first rank. In his 

 journal he remarks, — " There was a fine short-horn bull, intended to 

 improve the dairy stock, which I did not see. I took the liberty 

 of advising the cross to be tried on a small scale, believing the Short 

 Horns the worst milking breed in Britain." 



I give these opposite authorities, in justice to the agricultural com- 

 munity. The subject deserves much farther inquiry, and the test 

 of actual experiment. On this account it were greatly to be de- 

 sired that the gentlemen, who own this fine stock, and from the most 

 public-spirited designs have introduced them into the country, would 

 give the public exact statements of their product. Some oxen in the 

 county descended from the Short-Horned Bull Admiral in the second 



