THE SHORT-HORNED BREED. 389 



and other parts, where the Long-horned Breed had been the 

 most firmly established, and it has been carried to the coun- 

 ties bordering on "Wales, where the breeds allied to the 

 Devon have been before cultivated. It has passed into the 

 drier counties of the Chalk, though in smaller numbers, than 

 into the central and western counties. It has been trans- 

 ported to Ireland, and, in an incredibly short space of time, 

 has effected a great change in the cattle of the breeding dis- 

 tricts. Being made to cross the native Long-horns, the first 

 progeny is always found to be good, and this effect naturally 

 leads the breeders to resort again to the superior race, so 

 that after a time the traces of the Long-horns become lost. 

 This breed, so highly valued at home, has been carried to 

 the Continent of Europe, to the United States of America, 

 where it is cultivated with perfect success, and to the brilliant 

 colonies of England, now rising to greatness in the Southern 

 Ocean. 



The multiplication, in this country, of a breed so greatly 

 improved by art, must be regarded as highly conducive to 

 the improvement of this branch of rural industry. A large 

 part of all the cattle of England consists of a mixture of 

 races, having no uniformity of characters, and generally de- 

 fective in some important points. The possession of a breed 

 which can always be resorted to for crossing these mixed 

 and defective races, is a great mean of improvement, appli- 

 cable to a class of animals that require it the most, causing 

 the larger cattle of the country to approach to a better model, 

 and assume a greater degree of uniformity. 



Further, the extension of the pure breed, and the mul- 

 tiplication of its numbers, are conducive in a high degree to 

 its own permanence and improvement. When but a few 

 cultivators of it were to be found, the system of breeding 

 from animals of the same family, and from the nearest affi- 

 nities of blood, could scarcely be avoided by those who wished 

 to preserve their stock from deterioration ; but now so many 

 fine animals are reared of the same race, that no one is laid 



