CHAPTER XIV. 



THE SHORT-HOHNS. 



"We now approach a race of cattle, which, within the present 

 century, have received more of pubhc attention, and acquired a 

 wider popularity, both in England and America, than perhaps 

 all the other races put together. It is due to this attention and 

 popularity, that we give all the information regarding them (as, 

 indeed, we have with the others,) which our reading and obser- 

 vation will admit. Their history has been involved more or 

 less in doubt and controversy, and from a study of some years 

 of all the various authorities regarding them, unbiased by either 

 partiality or prejudice, we shall strive to draw truthful conclu- 

 sions, and place them in such light that all may understand 

 both their early and present conditions. 



English agricultural history, (for the Short-Horns, in their 

 present appearance, were known only in England,) previous to 

 dates down towards early in the last century — say one hundred 

 and forty years ago — is silent respecting them. The farming 

 interests of Britain had gradually awaked to the improvement 

 of their condition, through the wants of a growing commerce 

 and population. The necessity for increasing the products and 

 revenues of the land, and the consequent stocking them with 

 better breeds of neat cattle than had previously occupied them, 

 had become imperative. It was in the latter years of the last 

 century, that the agricultural writers of the day began to give to 

 the public some notion of the existence and value of this now- 

 celebrated race. Among these writers were Culley, Marshall, 

 Bailey, and Lawrence, who wrote upon short-horn cattle in 



