336 HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE 



horses of to-day are with few exceptions the descendants 

 in the direct male line of the original breed described by 

 Arthur Young. 



Cattle 



What was the original breed of cattle in this island is 

 uncertain. The Report of the British Association for the 

 Advancement of Science in 1887 favours the view that the 

 herds of wild cattle, such as still exist at Chillingham, 

 represent the original breed of Great Britain. It states that 

 the ' urus ' was the only indigenous wild ox in this country, 

 and the source of all our domesticated breeds as well as of 

 the few wild ones that remain, such as the Chillingham breed, 

 which is small, white, with the inside of the ear red, and 

 a brownish muzzle. Some, however, assert they are merely 

 the descendants of a domesticated breed run wild, which have 

 reverted somewhat to the ancient type.^ 



According to Thorold Rogers, the cattle of the Middle 

 Ages were small rough animals like the mountain breeds of 

 to-day, and at the end of the sixteenth century we have 

 seen they had large horns, were low and heavy, and for 

 the most part black.^ The great variety of cattle in Great 

 Britain may be due to their being the descendants of several 

 species, or to difference of climate and soil, or to spontaneous 

 variation, but the chief cause is the diligent selection of 

 breeders. Marshall is quite positive ^ that the Hereford, 

 Devon, Sussex, and the black mountain breeds of Scotland 

 and Wales are all descended from the original native breed 

 of this island, that the Shorthorns came from the Continent, 

 and the Longhorns probably from Ireland. Bradley's division 

 of cattle into black, white, and red tells us little.* There 

 was very little attempt at improvement until the middle 

 of the eighteenth century, for peace was necessary for long 



^ Youatt, Complete Grazier (1900), p. 6. ^ See p. 167. 



^ Rural Economy of West of England, i. 235 ; cf. above, p. 235. 

 *,See above, p. 167. 



