History and Traditions of Short Horn Cattle* 
154.0 lbs Another of same age, bred by 
Mr. Simpson, fed on hay and turnips alone, 
weighed 1890 lbs. 
A cow, from Mr. Hill’s stock, weighed 
1778 lbs. A Northumberland ox, bought by 
Mr. Waistell, yielded 364 lbs. of tallow. 
Mr. Coates slaughtered a heifer, fed on 
turnips and hay, which, at two years and two 
months old, weighed 952 lbs., while a seven 
months heifer of his came up to 476 lbs., and 
a steer, exactly three years old, 1330 lbs., 
and another, two months older, 1470 lbs. 
An ox, bred by Mr. Hill, six years old 
weighed 2124 lbs. 
Two Howick oxen, at seven years old, 
respectively, 2137 lbs., and 2136 lbs. of beef, 
with 231 and 224 lbs. tallow. 
Mr. Charge’s ox, of same age, 2362 lbs., 
with 192 lbs. of tallow. 
“ Thus much,” adds Berry, “ for the Tees- 
water cattle, the originals of the improved 
Short Horns, ripe in points, possessing fine 
symmetry, and light offal, their descendants 
are not a breed of yesterday, liable and likely 
to degenerate tomorrow ; but they possess the 
important ad vantage of being descended from 
a long line of animals, in which existed, in 
an eminent degree, the good points which 
are now admired in themselves.” 
In passing over the classic ground of this 
famous breed of cattle with Mr. Bates, our 
interest and enthusiasm in their early his¬ 
tory, seemed to awaken something of the 
same feeling in their veteran breeder, our 
excellent friend and fellow-traveller. His 
own superb tribe, descended, as he claims, 
from the most ancient of the ancients, had 
just carried off pretty much all the prizes of 
value at the Royal Agricultural show at 
Liverpool, and again at that of Yorkshire, 
at Hull, where, at a public dinner, he was 
toasted by an honorable member of parlia¬ 
ment, as the “ unconquerable Bates.” With 
all these blushing honors thick upon him, he 
was, of course, in excellent spirits, and, as 
we stopped at towns and rambled over beau¬ 
tiful estates, many were the curious details 
that he gave us respecting them , but a small 
part of which only, we regret to say, we 
have now the space to relate. His father 
was a breeder of some eminence before him, 
and he himself was the contemporary of the 
Messrs. Colling, occasionally domiciled at 
their hospitable mansion, watching and com¬ 
menting on their breeding, and now and 
then purchasing an animal for himself as he 
could obtain them, and they suited his pur¬ 
pose. 
The family of the Aislabies, the then resi- 
iea 
dents of Studley Park, had very fine cattle in 
the seventeenth century. Sir William St. 
Quint in drew some of his best blood from 
this source, and of course Hubback had it in 
his veins through the Snowden bull. The 
ancestors of the present Sir Edward Blackett, 
of Matfer, in Northumberland, then owners 
of Newby Hall, (now the residence of Earl 
de Gray, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland,) paid 
great attention to short horned cattle at the 
same time with the Aislabies. Portraits of 
these animals were occasionally take# and 
hung up to adorn the entrance of Norfolk 
Hall j but, when the noble residence passed 
out of their hands, those pictures were sold. 
We should hope that they existed yet in 
some “ old curiosity shop,” and, if so, and can 
be found, we shall then have a definite idea of 
what one family of ancient Short Horns were. 
But Mr. Bates’ proudest claim of antiquity 
rests upon the Duchess tribe, and these, he 
contends were good animals, bred by the 
Smithsons of Stanwix, (now Duke of North¬ 
umberland), two centuries ago.* 
The last Cow of the superior race of Short 
Horns, being on its way to London, to be 
sold in 1784, Mr. C. Colling heard of it and 
purchased her. This was the same year he 
bought Hubback ; to him she was bred. Her 
produce was put to Favorite, (252), and that 
to the Dairy bull (186),f and thus the blood 
was preserved, and by Mr. Bates’ purchases 
in 1804 and 1810 of Mr. Colling, has ever 
* About the time that George III. ascended the throne, 
the title of Duke of Northumberland became extinct by 
the death of the last male heir of the Percy family. Sir 
Hugh Smithson had married a daughter of the Duke of 
Somerset, descended from the Percy family by her 
mother, and having children by her, George III. raised 
him to the title of Duke of Northumberland. So fond was 
he of his Short Horns, that his peers quizingly dubbed him 
“ the Yorkshire grazier.” He was in the habit of weigh¬ 
ing his cattle, and the food they eat, so as to ascertain 
the improvement they made for the food consumed. The 
Earl Percy, who fought at Bunker’s Hill, was his son, and 
it was during his absence to America that the estate at 
Stanwix was grossly missmanaged, and its fine race of 
Short Horns all fatted for the butcher, or sold off. The 
Mr. Smithson, who left the large sum of half a million to 
the United States, as a fund for the promotion of na¬ 
tional science, was a natural son of the late Duke of 
Northumberland. It has been suggested that the Smithso¬ 
nian bequest be appropriated to thesupport of a model farm, 
and high school of agriculturej and, if this praiseworthy 
object could be carried into effect, it would be a curious 
coincidence, that a descendant of the greatest improver of 
Short Homs in Europe, shall bet he founder ofthe greatest 
improvement of agriculture in America. But we doubt 
whether anything so good will ever become of the legacy. 
We fear our politicians will yet spend twice the amount of 
the bequest in wrangling over its disposition, and then, 
perhaps, place it in a very different manner than was in¬ 
tended by the testator. Here is another regret, that the 
benevolent donor had not come over to America while 
living, and seen himself to the disposition of what he had 
to give. There would have been then an immediate ap« 
plication of it to some useful and benevolent purpose. 
f See Coates 5 Herb Book, vol. 1st. 
