HISTORICAL TESTIMONY. 149 



Bakewell theory was accepted and applied in 

 its fullness in some cases in an extraordinary 

 degree. The chosen stock was small. The in- 

 terbreeding of the more successful results was 

 necessary to maintain the excellence already 

 gained. But it must be confessed that the Coil- 

 ings went farther than was demanded by this 

 necessity, so much so that it seems clear that 

 it was under a belief that close in-and-in breed- 

 ing was in itself desirable. This idea was in 

 some cases pressed to a great point, showing 

 that while there was a conviction of the truth 

 of the method embodied in it there was also a 

 spirit of experiment closely connected with it, 

 and a desire to see how far the course could be 

 pursued with advantage and safety. 



As far as can be gleaned from the rather 

 meager accounts preserved to us Favorite was 

 a bull of little above the ordinary merit, cer- 

 tainly not of phenomenal personal excellence. 

 It was as a breeder that he was facile princeps 

 among all the bulls of his day and generation. 

 To him trace in one line or another almost 

 every Short-horn family of any ancientness of 

 lineage ; indeed, there are few Short-horns 

 which do not show in some line a cross to this 

 old bull. He lived long and was used widely, 

 but it was the depth of concentration to which 

 his blood was carried that puts him in so nota- 

 ble a place. His great vigor and remarkable 



