THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



295 



SHORT-HORNS, THEIR PEDIGREES, AND 

 MILKING POWERS. 



In my last letter to you on the subject ol 

 short-horns,! mentioned that I had a cow in call 

 (o the Duke of Glo'eter (113S2.) On Saturday 

 last, the 9r,h of June, she produced a fine roan 

 calf, which, to my great satisfaction, proved to 

 be a bull. As the births of thorough-bred foals 

 are recorded as they occur, so it would not be 

 "uninteresting if the births of the highest bred 

 calves of the short-horn race were chronicled in 

 like manner. In modern times, the latter have 

 brought prices quite as high as the former, and 

 they "certainly are as well worth them, since 

 they conduce" in an equal degree to the improve 

 tnent of their race. In order to sustain the claim 

 of my calf to the honor of his name appearing 

 in your columns, I add the pedigree of his dam : 

 Ferret-Roan, of L849 (bred by Mr. G. Bell,) by 

 4th Duke of York (10367); dam, Fancy by 

 Duke of Northumberland (1940); grandam, 

 Fanny by Shorftail (2621); gr. g.-dam. Fletch- 

 er the 2d by Belvidere ( 1706) ; gr. gr. g.-dam, 

 by a son of Y oung Winyard (2859), descended 

 from Mr. J. Brown's oid Red Bull. 



It will be evident to any one conversant with 

 the pedigrees of Mr. Bates' herd, that there is 

 much very close breeding in that of my calf, 

 and yet he far exceeds any calf I have bred 

 this year in size and stoutness; in fact, his size 

 is considerably atfbve the average. This is 

 another confirmation of the truth of Mr. Bates' 

 view, that although to breed in and in from bad 

 stock was, to use his own expression, "ruin and 

 and devastation," yet that the practice may be 

 safely followed within certain limits where the 

 animals so related are descended from first-rate 

 parents, and are themselves of undeniable ex- 

 cellence. In this, as in every other point, suc- 

 cess orfailure depends upon the judgment of the 

 breeder. It is, ho.vever, so much more common 

 for men to over-estimate the merits of their own 

 stock, than to rate them too low, that it cannot 

 hut be useful to breeders carefully to guard 

 against this tendency in themselves. It is cer- 

 tain that he who keeps his eyes open to excel- 

 lence, wherever it exists, and avails himself of 

 it whenever it is within his reach, will in the end 

 have a better herd than he who, taking it for 

 granted that his stock is perfection, never trou- 

 bles himself to look beyond it. The history of 

 short-horn breeding affords abundant evidence 

 of the truth of this maxim, from the time when 

 Mr. C. Colling purchased Hubback, which 

 though of unknown pedigree, is an ancestor of 

 many of our best short-horns, down to the in- 

 troduction of Cleveland Lad by Mr. Bates into 

 his herd. 



1 think that Mr. Horsfall, in his interesting re- 

 cord of his dairy practice, does not stale whether 

 he adheres to any one breed of cows, or whe- 

 ther he purchases such as he conceives best 

 adapted for milking, irrespective of any other 

 consideration. It would be both useful and in- 

 teresting, however, if he and other agricultu- 

 ralists would state the results of their experience 

 of the milk-producing powers of the principal 



breeds of cattle in the kingdom. As regards 

 the short-horns, there is, I believe, a prevalent 

 notion that they are indifferent milkers. Al- 

 though facts may seem to lend a certain degree 

 of support to this opinion, it is nevertheless a 

 mistake which an impartial investigation (oust 

 dispel. In the first place, the principal ances- 

 tors of the improved short-horns — the old Hol- 

 derness cows — were, and are still, the deepest 

 milkers in the kingdom. Is it likely, that these 

 descendants should wholly have lost this valua- 

 ble property? It may, indeed, be alleged that 

 the celebrated cross with the Galloway cow re- 

 sorted to by Mr. C. Colling, may have produced 

 injurious consequences in this respect. I think 

 that the effects of this "alloy," whether for good 

 or the reverse, have been over estimated, inas- 

 much as the cow "Lady,"irom which this fami- 

 ly is descended, had only one-sixteenth of the 

 Galloway blood in her veins. As Favourite 

 (252) was quite unconnected with the "alloy, : ' 

 as were also several other celebrated originals 

 of the short-horns, it *is evident that the union of 

 them with the cow Lady would give one 

 thirty -second of that cross in the next genera- 

 tion. Except, therefore, in those herds where 

 the "alloy" has been purposely followed out, it 

 may be estimated that from one fortieth to one- 

 fiftieth of Galloway blood is the utmost propor- 

 tion which exists in modern short-horns, and it 

 is obviously insufficient to obliterate any well 

 established property belonging to the original 

 race. 



But leaving the domain of speculation to pass 

 to that of fact, are the improved short-ho'rns 

 good dairy cows or not? From a considerable 

 mass of evidence which I have collected to 

 prove the affirmative of this proposition, my li- 

 mits here only allow me to refer to the pamphlet 

 of the Rev. H. Berry, who gives a long list of 

 cows of the highest pedigree, with the meas- 

 ured quantity of milk given by each. Several 

 of these gave 24 quarts daily ; one 32, another 

 36, and one as much as 38 quarts. From this 

 authentic testimony as to the early character of 

 the breed, I must pass on to the valuable article 

 of Mr. Dickenson, (Journal of the Royal Agri- 

 cultural Society, vol. xi.) on the farming of 

 Cumberland, and the perusal of which I recom- 

 mend to all who are interested in this subject. 

 He mentions a high-bred cow called Kate, which 

 gave 13 quarts at a meal, and from this quantity 

 yielded at the end of a week 26 lbs. ol' butter. 

 About the fact itself there can be no doubt, rest- 

 ing as it does on the testimony of the owner, 

 Mr. Fisherson, of Harker Lodge. Another 

 cow mentioned by Mr. Dickenson produced in 

 32 weeks 373 lbs. of butter, being at the rate of 

 11 2 3 lbs. per week. 



My own experience on the subject is, that 

 while their milking powers are at least equal to 

 those of any olher breed, they possess over all 

 others the great advantage of keeping their 

 condition on food on which common cows would 

 starve. I am far from maintaining that all 

 short-horns are good milkers. Two causes have 

 contributed to injure them in this respect; 1st 

 that being a point to which many breeders are 



