Report to the Council on the Cattle exhibited at Newcastle. 427 
made by Mr. Riley in Cheshire, tends to show the opinion which 
dairy farmers entertain of high-bred stock : — 
" As a feeder of beef, he did not mind bow nearly the cattle he purchased 
were related to ' Royal Dukes ' and 1 Duchesses,' or even to ' Royal Butterflies ;' 
the nearer the better, the first cost being equal ; but if he wanted milk and 
cheese, he would rather have his stock related to the short-legged, roomy- 
bodied, and rather thick-horned Cheshire cows of 1800, to the Ayrshire, or 
even the Welsh cow, and would prefer their being matched to the son of his 
neighbour's best milking cow than to a bull of Bates's or of Booth's." 
We may, indeed, go further, and ask how many of our high- 
bred cows can rear their own calves. Beautiful as were the 
classes of female shorthorns at Newcastle, there was not one 
amongst them that we could expect to fill a pail with milk. And 
yet if we turn to the early history of their race, we find Mr. Bates 
describing one of his early cows as yielding for some months, on 
grass alone, butter and milk to the value of 21. 2s. per week ; 
and of others he speaks as having the same property to a less 
extent. Mr. Carr, the enthusiastic historian of the Warlaby and 
Killerby herds, says of one of the cows, " Satin," that she was 
" all a dairyman could desire ; but she was never fit to make 
up for show." And of another, "Caroline:" "She was a pro- 
digious milker, and her daughter shows what she might have been 
but for her accident, and her excessive addiction to milk." 
PHrases like these make us almost fear that the Shorthorn 
breeder may look upon milking properties as a defect. But 
another ardent admirer of the Booth shorthorns, Mr. Storer, of 
Helliden, in a letter written and published whilst I was penning 
these remarks, says : — 
" If my letter should direct the attention of Shorthorn breeders to the 
desirableness of doing their best to retain those milking qualities in their 
cattle, for which (as well as for the tendency to produce flesh) the breed has 
long been celebrated, I shall be satisfied." 
I cannot therefore but think, that if our great breeders had 
applied their energy and skill to improving the families in which 
these good qualities were united, we might have had Shorthorns, 
not perhaps so perfect in symmetry, but of a more useful 
character, capable of producing plenty of milk and butter, and 
likewise of breeding calves — which would, in due time, fill the 
feeder's stall to his satisfaction. 
In the north we expected a good show of shorthorns, and 
were not disappointed. The whole of the classes were well 
filled, and in male animals the show was decidedly superior to 
many that have gone before it. Twenty-five aged bulls were 
brought into the ring for the first prize. Mr. Wiley, one of the 
judges, describes them "as a level, good class, of great size and 
substance, though not containing many animals of extraordinary 
