THE HEREFORDS. 
51 
acter. Uniformity was wanting; the animals pos¬ 
sessed every grade of excellence and defect; some 
matchless ; some worthless. So hred, the herds of 
those gentlemen, when sold and dispersed, failed to 
realize any good in the hands of others save in one 
instance. The best herd in England at the time of 
the sale of Charles Colling, in 1810, and for many 
ears before, was that of Sir Henry Vane Tempest, 
ut unfortunately, by his death in 1813, his herd 
was dispersed and lost; and Robert Colling’s fol¬ 
lowed in 1818. In 1810 Mr. Bates bought, at C. 
Colling’s sale. Duchess I.; and prior to this he had 
bought Duchess by Daisy Bull (186), which cow 
he had bred to Favorite (252), and in 1810 possess¬ 
ed Ketton I. Duchess I. was bred to Ketton I., II. 
and III., all bulls of the same strain. Mr. Bates 
was determined to have uniformity in everything, 
color, excellence, and constitution. For twenty 
years, except once, he did not go out of the Duchess 
tribe for a bull, always using bulls got by a bull out 
of a cow of that tribe, except in the instance of 
Marske (a bull of the Princess tribe), and Second 
Hubback, a bull got by a bull of the Duchess tribe, 
out of a cow of Mr. R. Colling’s very fine Red Rose 
family. He only went once entirely from that 
family and then into one equally good, the Princess 
family, in the case of Marske. In twenty years, he 
bred but one roan animal in his Duchess tribe, and 
he (Duke II.) was got by a roan bull, Duke. Dur¬ 
ing all this period Mr. Bates’ stock possessed the 
reatest uniformity. It was his point to have, and 
e had (and still has, though his color is now red 
and white and roan, the latter coming from his cross 
with Belvedere, a Princess tribe bull), uniformity in 
everything, color and excellence. Up to the intro¬ 
duction of Belvedere to his herd, he had adhered to 
his Duchess blood entirely (except in the case of 
two or three cows put to Marske), and had produced 
a disposition to sterility. But for this he would not 
have used a bull of another family. It is true that 
he might have, without this as a cause, resorted to 
Belvedere with advantage, for he was in everything, 
family and individual excellence, equal to the 
Duchess tribe. When Belvedere was brought into 
the herd, the only change he made in a marked 
manner to the eye, was that some of his get were 
roan. In essentials the herd remained the same. 
There was only to be seen that improvement which 
arises from renovation. It may be, and I incline to 
the opinion, that this renovation by change was 
necessary, and did really give increased style. 
Since 1831, Mr. Bates has used that blood, a union 
of the Duchess and Princess tribes, mainly, and has 
only resorted to any other in one instance, viz. 
Cleveland Lad. He w r as got by Short-Tail (by Bel¬ 
vedere, dam, a Duchess cow), out of the celebrated 
Matchem cow, the dam of Mr. Bates’ Premium Ox¬ 
ford cow. 
T do not speak more of Sir Henry Vane Tempest’s 
stock, as it is little known in this country. 
I have given these particulars in the history of 
the herds of the two Collings and Mr. Bates, for 
the reason that, both in England and America, they 
are well known and deservedly celebrated. These 
particulars will be new to most of the breeders of 
cattle. I have selected the Short-Horns as thegreat 
ititd deservedly leading race of cattle, superior where 
they are good , to all others, as a standard well 
known, by which to make a comparison. There 
have been but two uniform herds (I do not mean 
families) of Short-Horns yet ever possessed together, 
viz. Mr. Bates’ and Sir H. V. Tempest’s. From the 
herds of the two Collings, the vast mass of Short- 
Horns have been derived. These herds had all 
kinds of cattle in point of excellence, good and bad. 
The different herds scattered all over England and 
America derived from the Collings indiscriminately, 
have now all the varying character which their 
originals had. I have never seen anywhere in our 
country an uniform herd of Short-Horns. Among 
them, and in the same herd, I have seen the best and 
worst cattle I have ever seen. This -might be ob¬ 
viated if it were not for the back breeding ; for then 
the good might be selected and the bad killed. It 
is the vones, good as individuals, with a bad ten¬ 
dency in the strain back, which breed the bad ones. 
Some very fine cows, when put to the best bulls, 
will never breed any but the poorest of bulls, which, 
when grown up, will be coarse and worthless. 
Men, on account of the blood of a particular family, 
will adhere to a bad animal, or a good one that 
breeds badly, and thus engraft on still deeper plant 
the tendency to badness. I know a small herd in 
which there are very superior cow r s and some worth¬ 
less ones. Of them I have two in my mind. They 
will represent the whole herd. The one is compact, 
fine, light in the offal, ripe in the prime points, with 
good style and constitution. The other is big (in 
one way), with large head, Roman nose, ewe neck, 
thin back, large bone, open ribs, staring coat, 
hard skin, and harder flesh. These two cows are 
bred in blood essentially alike. They are owned 
by a critical judge, but he loses his keenness when 
his own breeding is at stake. Fie would reject the 
bad cow in an instant if she were not his. But the 
same blood produced both, and he hopes that the 
blood will overtop the individual defect. But she 
was got by a good animal. It is her blood that has 
produced the defect, and she will transmit it in¬ 
creased in power. 
I have thus dwelt very fully on the principle of 
uniformity, for the reason that there is no certainty 
in breeding \vithout it. In doing so I have resorted 
to the best known herds to illustrate. If a herd of 
cattle can be found perfectly uniform in its excel¬ 
lences (whatever they may be), it must be superior, 
in that regard, to any one defective in this point. 
II. Cattle, as individuals, should possess certain 
conformations to make them excellent. It is easy 
to say that cattle should have full briskets, round 
chines, full crops, broad backs and loins, long, level 
and full rumps, round ribs well back, deep flanks, 
and fine thighs. Every breeder who fancies (and 
the most are mere fanciers and not possessors of 
knowledge) that he knows everything relative to 
cattle, will prate in this way. It has become the 
fashion, and each takes his role as the parrot does 
her oft repeated chatter. Yet ask one of them 
where the prime meat lies in a carcass, and he can¬ 
not tell you; send him to the matket, and he will 
in his ignorance suffer his butcher to sell him any 
piece at pleasure as prime meat. Go to his yard, 
and he will point you to his cattle, that are bad in 
brisket, chine, crop, back, loin, rump, rib, Sank, 
thigh, and claim your admiratio" If tie ha© a 
bull to show, he will exhibit him as a jockey does 
