DOMINION OF CANADA. 547 



THE CATTLE OF ONTARIO, 



REPORT LY CONSUL HOWARD, OF TORONTO. 

 HOW ONTARIO BECAME POSSESSED OF BLOODED CATTLE. 



The province of Ontario was largely settled by sturdy well-to-do farm- 

 ers from England and Scotland, who brought with them to their new 

 home not only their native, social, and political peculiarities, but also 

 the agricultural axioms and tenets of their fatherland. So that shortly 

 there appeared in Canada a farm, here ? that was a transcript, as far as 

 the new locality and the changed conditions would permit, of the Scot- 

 tish farm and surroundings; a farm there that was, as far as possible, 

 a copy of the one that had been left in England. And in time cattle 

 familiar to the eye of the settler, and of the sort that had been in a 

 generous sense his friend "at home,' 7 came to be seen in the new fields 

 and gave evidence not only of their owners' prosperity, but of that in- 

 herent sentiment that cherishes old associations that delightful con- 

 servatism that clings to old friends. So the stately Durhams soon dig- 

 nified the fields of the English emigrant and gladdened his eyes with 

 their magnificent proportions, while the Ayrshire cow filled 'the Scotch 

 farmer's heart with gladness and his pail with milk. And at one time 

 the character of the herd whether Durham or Ayrshire, Galloway or 

 Devon might almost have been determined by the name of the owner. 

 This natural method of selection, if it may be called such, has not been 

 without its lasting benefit. Through it there has been introduced into 

 Canada a much wider variety of cattle than would otherwise have been 

 the case none of them adapted to all uses, of course, but each race ex- 

 celling in some desirable quality. In later years national sentiments 

 have ceased to govern cattle-breeding in so large a measure, and to-day 

 cattle are bred for certain known and admitted excellencies, and the 

 breeder selects his herd in accordance with the object in view as stall 

 feeding, grazing, the dairy, or family use. 



THE CANADIAN SHORTHORN. 



Of all the different breeds in Canada the one first deserving of notice? 

 both by its superiority in numbers as well as its early introduction into 

 the country, is the Durham, or Shorthorn, as it is much oftener called at 

 the present day. The superiority of this breed of cattle for beef pur- 

 poses was for many years unquestioned, and might, perhaps, be so still 

 had not the art of Shorthorn breeding been turned from its legitimate 

 line into unscientific and fatal courses. A kind of bucolic dilettanteism 

 sprang up among breeders of this race of cattle, and in the development 

 of family lines the general improvement of the race as a whole was al- 

 most entirely lost sight of. Starting undoubtedly with an honest desire 

 on the part of the most skillful of the English breeders to perfect the 

 Shorthorn race of cattle, their very success founded a royal family of 

 Shorthorns so powerful in its influence that it may well be doubted if 

 the Duchess family, as a family, have not done Shorthorn breeding more 

 harm than good. The whole result of breeding in the years that fol- 

 lowed the death of Mr. Bates, that most conscientious and intelligent 

 of English breeders, was simply to produce and perpetuate a pedigree. 

 Very soon the natural result of such a vicious system was seen in iin- 



