SHORT-HORNS. 117 



white color is very evident ; it came from the continent to England 

 with the short-horns themselves. Bailey, in his Survey of Durham, 

 (1810,) says that "about seventy years since, the colors of the cattle 

 of Mr. Milbank and Mr. Croft, were red and white, and white with 

 a little red about the neck, or roan. This information was commu- 

 cated by Mr. Thomas Corner, now near ninety years of age ; and 

 Mr. George Culley says that he has repeatedly heard his father 

 state the same particulars." This refers to the period prior to 1*740. 

 Now, at this period, 1740, there were no wild cattle except in Chil- 

 lingham Park, Northumberland, Craven Park, Yorkshire, and Cha- 

 telheraut Park, Lanarkshire, Scotland. Mr. Berry fixes the period 

 of 1*740 as the time at about which the improvements by supposed 

 crossing were made in the short-horns. Then the persons making 

 the cross must have gone to one of these parks for the means. What 

 is the character of these cattle? CuUey in 1785 described them 

 thus : — " Their color is invariably a creamy white, muzzle black, the 

 whole of the inside of the ear, and about one-third of the outside, 

 from the tips downward, red, horns white with black tips, very fine 

 and bent upward ; some of the bulls have a thin upright mane 

 about an inch and a half or two inches long." Such they are now, 

 and a personal inspection of them authorizes the statement, Mr. 

 Culley omitted to say that they have a dull ferocious eye, encircled by 

 a black ring. If this was the cross which gave the white color to 

 short-horns, it would as certainly have given the black nose, the black 

 tipped horn, and the dull ferocious eye with its black rim. Was a 

 short-horn of known purity, of vjhite color, with these characters, ever 

 seen ? The internal evidence is then against this cross having been 

 made. But the thought of this cross is of recent origin, not dating 

 back farther than thirty years ; and is only a supposition at best. 

 The white color then is original with the short-horns, and came not 

 from the white wild breed. 



3. It is not true that C. CoUing exclusively improved the short- 

 horns, or bred beiior ones than he originally obtained to breed from. 



Mr. Berry in both his histories gives no one credit for improvement 

 in the short-horns but to Charles Colling. Except with Mr. Berry, 

 it has always been conceded that his brother Robert Colling was 

 quite as good a breeder as Charles. They commenced their breed- 

 ing together, got cows from the same sources in several instances, 

 and interchanged bulls throughout their joint career. If a pre- 

 ference was given to either, it would seem to have been rather to 

 Robert than Charles. Three of their contemporaries, who were fa- 

 miliar with their cattle, and two of them their intimate personal 

 friends, and, from capacity and circumstances, the best of judges, are 

 quoted. 



Mr. Bailey, in his Survey of Durham, says, " Messrs. Collings' have 

 frequently sold cows and heifers for £100 ; and bull calves at £100. 



