234 HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE 



all-round cattle in the world, and to succeed where George 

 Culley had failed. The first bull of merit he possessed was 

 ' Hubback ^ ', described as a little yellow, red, and white five- 

 year-old, which was mated with cows afterwards to be famous, 

 named Duchess, Daisy, Cherry, and Lady Maynard. At 

 first Colling was against in-breeding, and not until 1793 ^i^ 

 he adopt it, more by accident than intention, but the experi- 

 ment being successful he became an enthusiast. The ex- 

 periment was the putting of Phoenix to Lord Bolingbroke, 

 who was both her half-brother and her nephew, and the result 

 was the famous Favourite. A young farmer who saw Favourite 

 and his sister at Darlington in 1799, was so struck by them 

 that he paid Colling the first 100 guineas ever given for 

 a Shorthorn cow.^ 



One of Hubback's daughters had in 1795, by Favourite, 

 a roan calf which grew to be the celebrated Durham Ox, 

 which at five and a half years weighed 3,024 lb., and was 

 sold for ^140. It was sold again for ;^25o, the second pur- 

 chaser refusing ;^2,ooo for it, and taking it round England 

 on show made a profitable business out of it, in one day 

 in London making ^97. A still more famous animal was the 

 bull Comet, born 1804, vvhich at the great sale in 18 10 fetched 

 1,000 guineas. This bull was the crowning triumph of 

 Colling's career and the result of very close breeding, being 

 described as the best bull ever seen, with a fine masculine 

 head, broad and deep chest, shoulders well laid back, loins 

 good, hind-quarters long, straight and well packed, thighs 

 thick, with nice straight hocks and hind legs. Perhaps Colling 

 thought he had pursued in-and-in breeding too far, at all 

 events in 1810 he dispersed his famous herd. The sale was 



^ R. A. S. E. Journal, 1899, p. 7. 



* Higher prices had been realized for the improved Longhorns ; in 1791, 

 at the sale of Mr. Fowler of Little Rollright, Sultan a two-year-old bull 

 fetched 210 guineas, and a cow 260 guineas; and at Mr. Paget's sale in 

 1793, a bull of the same breed sold for 400 guineas. — Culley on Live Stock, 

 p. 59. 



