154 A HISTORY OF SHORTHORNS IN KANSAS 



after the ancestry in each pedigree and, as it was 

 impossible to so designate the pedigrees of these 

 so-called American Woods Shorthorns, the pedi- 

 gree, immediately after the name of the last an- 

 cestor, ended in "etc." This designated that 

 they did not trace to an imported cow and they 

 were discriminated against until about 1890 and 

 long after all possible non-Shorthorn blood had 

 been bred out. The champions of these cattle 

 bred from a possible American grade foundation 

 call attention to the fact that the English herd 

 book placed on record animals with only five 

 recorded crosses to which the American purist 

 promptly responded that such Shorthorns, even 

 if bred in England, traced to the "English 

 Woods. " Thus it came about that in my youth- 

 ful days we heard as much about English Woods 

 and American Woods as we do now about equally 

 foolish or more foolish, though modern discrim- 

 inations. 



All Shorthorns originally came from the so- 

 called Shorthorn country in England. From 

 this cradle of the breed they found their way to 

 America, most of them being imported between 

 1817 and 1850. They were also taken to Scotland 

 and to Ireland. All kinds and lengths of pedi- 

 grees went with them ranging from nothing to 

 some almost as long as the moral law. The rank- 

 est kind of pedigree discrimination prevailed, 

 based on technicalities. which would now seem 



