AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
33 
PROPERTY OF F. M. ROTCH. 
CATTLE BREEDING. 
AN INTERESTING AND INSTRUCTIVE CHAPTER. 
In the recent Herd Book (vol. ii), sub- 
lished by Lewis F. Allen, of Black Rock, N. 
Y., we find the following valuable hints, 
which will interest many of our readers, who 
are not professionally cattle breeders ; 
This question, in the full extent of its 
meaning, might lead into a labored essay on 
the various topics included in the science of 
breeding; but such is not the intention. The 
critical observer of American Short Horns 
will readily detect a decided difference and 
improvement of style in the lest of the re¬ 
cently imported cattle, over those imported 
thirty, or even twenty years ago. He will 
see more fineness , a better handling quality, 
a straighter and more open shoulder, and 
more breadth below, developing a greater 
prominence and depth of the brisket, and a 
squarer form from the setting on of the neck, 
back to the rump. These improvements 
distinctly show the fact for which the Eng¬ 
lish breeders have always contended, viz: 
that the Short Horns possess within them¬ 
selves the elements of improvement to the 
highest degree of perfection. 
The improved Short Horns, as they now 
exist, may be called a highly cultivated vari¬ 
ety of cattle; not an artificial race or breed ; 
for in the improvement which they have re¬ 
ceived, in the long course of past years, they 
are indebted to their original blood alone, 
and in this, coupled with good management, 
which has produced it, lies their crowning 
merit. Many American cattle-writers, who 
are either too stingy, or too narrow-spirited 
and prejudiced to concede greater intrinsic 
excellence in anything which comes further 
or costs more than the inferior things which 
they themselves possess, or have been, life 
long, familiar with, have poured out quires of 
twaddle upon the wisdom of improving the 
breed of common stock, with which our 
country is filled, by selections and careful 
breeding among themselves , in preference‘to 
going abroad after costly animals for that 
purpose. When the first stage of permanent 
improvement is attained, in any such enter¬ 
prise, it is to be hoped the fortunate authors 
of such improvement will show it, as nothing 
of the kind has yet been discovered. But no 
more ink need be wasted on so barren a sub¬ 
ject. Some theorists, in treating of the im¬ 
provement which has been made in the dif¬ 
ferent varieties of domestic animals, have 
contended, that it was by crossing distinct 
breeds, or varieties of them, together, and 
then breeding that produce together by them¬ 
selves, which has developed the striking 
characteristics and excellencies now seen in 
certain favorite breeds, and that some sort of 
hidden charm, or skill, was exercised by 
their original breeders in such production, 
which they would never divulge ! Such has 
been asserted of Bakewell, of the last centu¬ 
ry, the distinguished breeder of the English 
cart horse, the long-horned cattle, and the 
New Liecester sheep. Such necromantic 
power has been claimed, too, for Charles 
Colling, upon whose famous exploits with 
the bull “ Hubback,” and his subsequent 
cross of a Short Horn with a Galloway, a 
few interested or ignorant men have rung the 
changes, until half the world has believed 
them. It is not necessary in this discussion 
to again inquire into the origin of the pres¬ 
ent race of Short Horn cattle. The subject 
has already been examined. 
The great skill displayed by the early 
breeders of England, in their best breeds of 
cattle, consisted in an intimate knowledge 
of the capabilities of the breed which they 
proposed to improve, and in the correct physi¬ 
ological application of those capabilities} 
aided by generous feed, and constant watch¬ 
ful care in breeding, to produce certain re¬ 
sults. There was no magic, no chance about 
it. It has been done by other breeders since; 
by Bates, and some of his cotemporaries; it 
is now done in England ; it may be done in 
America. There is no doubt a genius and a 
taste in cattle breeding, as there is genius and 
a taste in art of any kind, as in painting, 
sculpture, music. Every one is not pos¬ 
sessed of this faculty, it is certain. But in 
England may be found men now distinguished 
as cattle-breeders, whose ancestors, in an 
unbroken line for centuries back, almost 
upon the same farm, and quite in the same 
neighborhood, have been so distinguished; 
men of no great acquirements either, in other 
things; but this skill has been literally bred 
into their very being, in regular descent from 
sire to son, until they seem to have an al¬ 
most intuitive knowledge on the subject. No 
theory, as such, can perhaps be laid down, 
aside from the one that the breeder should 
have the animals actually before him to 
guide his action in the premises, and this 
action be dictated by a past course of close 
and accurate observation. Appropriate and 
sufficient food in regular quantities, and at 
proper times, a uniform condition of flesh, 
perfect health , good shelter, equable temper¬ 
ature, as the climate will admit, gentle 
treatment—all these have to do with cor¬ 
rect breeding, and without such aids, no one 
need hope to succeed to a high degree of ex¬ 
cellence in his stock. I have seen Short 
Horns, good in themselves, of unquestioned 
pedigree, so reduced in size and appearance 
by three or four generations of neglected 
breeding, imperfect shelter, and poor keep, 
that they scarce looked like Short Horns at 
all; yet their capabilities for improvement 
remained, and a removal of them into good 
grounds, with abundant food, warm shelter, 
and breeding them to better animals, brought, 
their offspring at once up to the usual points 
