382 THE OX. 



to communicate, and to have directed almost exclusive at- 

 tention to beauty and utility of form, and development of 

 the properties of early maturity and facility of fattening. 

 Having, by selection and the skilful conjunction of the best 

 individuals for breeding, become possessed of animals with 

 the properties sought for, he continued to breed from his 

 own stock, disregarding affinities of blood ; by which means 

 he gave to it the necessary permanence of characters, and 

 that delicacy of form which this system of breeding tends 

 to communicate. He adopted the practice of hiring out his 

 bulls, by which means he realized a competent fortune, and 

 extended the influence of his stock to the districts around 

 him. 



The information possessed by us regarding the early prac- 

 tice of Colling, in his course of improvement, is meagre and 

 obscure, since he himself manifested a great dislike to throw 

 any light on his views and practice. It is generally believed, 

 that the first radical improvement which he effected on his 

 stock, was through the medium of a young bull, which he 

 acquired by a kind of chance. This animal is said to have 

 been a calf belonging to a poor man who grazed his cow on 

 the sides of the highway. The calf was purchased from its 

 owner by Mr Waistel and Mr Robert Colling, and soon after- 

 wards transferred to Charles, whose sagacity led him to per- 

 ceive the value of the young animal. He seems, likewise, to 

 have acquired the cow, which, however, on being removed to 

 superior pastures, became so fat that she did not again breed. 

 The calf inherited the same property, and as he grew up be- 

 came so fat as to be useful as a bull only for a short time. 

 This bull was termed Hubback. He was below the ordinary 

 size of the Teeswater cattle, but his points and touch were 

 admirable, and he is generally regarded as the father of the 

 improved Short-horns. However this may be, Colling, from 

 this period, continued to produce many fine bulls, as Petrarch, 

 Bolingbroke, Favourite, Comet, and others whose names are 

 quoted in the pedigrees of the Short-horned Breed, in the 



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