1910.] Development of the Dairy Shorthorn. 



443 



without other food, she gave 28 quarts per day, yielding 

 42 oz. of butter. The cow Princess, by Favourite, the 

 property of Robert Colling, was an extraordinary milker, and 

 her descendants were long celebrated as dairy cattle. So 

 much so, in fact, that when, at a later period, Sir Charles 

 Knightley found that his herd had deteriorated in this re- 

 spect, he procured a bull of Princess descent, whose use at 

 once restored it. Mr. Sinclair, in his "History of Shorthorn 

 Cattle," says: — "Mr. Laken, of Powyke, Worcestershire, 

 who died about 1848, is stated to have been an exceedingly 

 careful observer, and a man recognised as an authority 

 amongst his neighbours. He reported that, after many 

 trials, he could find no cattle so profitable as milkers as the 

 pedigree Shorthorns. He published a return of the yield 

 of milk in his dairy taken over many years. From this it 

 appeared that a cow called Strawberry (which lived to be 

 twenty-seven years old, and is registered in Coates's Herd 

 Book) gave an average of 1,050 gallons a year for fifteen 

 consecutive years. Her daughter, Star, gave an average of 

 800 gallons for seven years, whilst Stella had a record of 

 980 gallons per annum for five years. Another prime cow 

 of Mr. Laken 's, named Novice, yielded 1,040 gallons a year 

 for five years." 



Many more examples might be given, from authenticated 

 history, of pedigree Shorthorn cows giving yields even larger 

 than the above, but these may be sufficient to show that the 

 Shorthorn breed, at the time it left the hands of the pioneers 

 of improvement, was renowned for its splendid milking 

 qualities. The ordinary, unregistered Shorthorn cows of 

 Yorkshire were also at that time of large frame with very 

 capacious udders, and many of them have remained so to 

 this day. There are, indeed, fine herds of these dual-purpose 

 cattle still in existence, which have maintained their dairy 

 character untouched by the subsequent adverse influences. 



Loss of Dairy Qualities. — How pedigree Shorthorns came 

 to lose their once famous dairy qualities has now become a 

 matter of ancient history. It was a gradual process, due to 

 two distinct causes, viz., breeding for beef points on the one 

 hand and line breeding on the other. The former was en- 

 couraged by the great development of the show system, the 



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