50 CATTLE-BREEDING. 



ity which has given them such a great reputa- 

 tion for crossing with the common native cattle 

 of many countries for the purpose of improving 

 them either as beef or milk producers or as the 

 general-purpose cow of the small farmer. So 

 great is this influence on other breeds that the 

 first cross often produces even from very in- 

 ferior cattle a beast scarcely inferior to the best 

 of the improved breeds. Indeed I have myself 

 known prize animals in the show-yard that 

 were by Short-horn bulls out of native or 

 "scrub' 7 cows. And when put to pure-bred 

 bulls this excellence is maintained without 

 perceptible alteration, and many of the most 

 successful show animals in Great Britain and 

 America have had very short pedigrees. 



While this "breed prepotency" is thus in an 

 eminent degree possessed by the Short-horns, 

 among them certain animals exhibit the indi- 

 vidual prepotent power in a high degree. Thus 

 the bull Favorite (252), which Mr. Colling bred 

 into his herd as deeply as possible, making as 

 many as three successive crosses with him, was 

 of great vigor and of great prepotency. Under 

 my own observation have come some very nota- 

 ble cases. Thus in the fifty-seven years since 

 the herd was founded at Grasmere in 1881 by 

 my father there have been twenty-seven sires 

 used upon it for a greater or less period. Out 

 of these thirteen were marked successes and 



