Vol. XXXVIII. No. 47. 
Whole No. 1556. 
NEW YORK, NOV. 22, 1879. 
(Price Five Cents. 
f $2.00 Per Year. 
[Entered according to Act of Congress, la the year 1879, by the Rural Publishing Company, in the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. — Entered at the Post-Office at New York City, N. Y., as second-class matter.] 
deep in the fore-quarters soft and mellow in 
the hair and "handling," possessing average 
milking qualities, but a remarkable aptitude 
for fatteniug, Their horns were somewhat 
longer than those of their descendants, and 
widened upwards. Their shoulder joints and 
hips, however, were unduly prominent; they 
lacked length in the bind-quarters, width in the 
chest and fullness before aud behind the shoul¬ 
der as well as on the shoulder itself. They 
were also unduly large-bellied, too long in the 
legs and deficient in substance, while their 
failure to take on llesb evenly aud firmly gave 
them an uneven appearance. Here and there 
an unusually large milker or an uncommonly 
flue beef animal, or a beast combining to an 
extraordinary degree both these properties, 
attracted especial attention, and the progeny 
of such animals would doubtless fetch a few 
shillings more than the offsprings of less noted 
beasts, but no successful attempt was made to 
perpetuate these qualities, iuasmuch as no 
effort was made to concentrate them by “ in- 
and-in" breeding. 
The genius of Robert Bakewell first discov¬ 
ered the paramount advantages of this system 
in transmitting the properties he wished to 
perpetuate, and his marvelous success with 
Leicester sheep, cart-horses and Loug-horn 
cattle attracted widespread attention. Among 
those whose interest in his results led them to 
visit Dishley, were two young men, Robert and 
Charles Colling, the sons of a substantial Tces- 
water farmer and breeder, who were about to 
start in business ou their own account. Dur¬ 
ing repeated visits they carefully examined 
his 6 tock, learnt all they could of his system, 
not from his willing lips, however, for he kept 
his principles a strict secret; but from his casual 
remarks aud their own close observation. On 
their return to the north they applied what 
they had learnt to the breeding of Short-horn 
cattle, being more fortunate in their selection 
of a breed to start with than was Bakewell 
with the Long-hornB. Commencing business 
jointly in 17S0, they amicably separated three 
years later, Robert, about 30 years old aud a 
confirmed bachelor, settling on a farm at Barmp- 
ton, and the more wide-awake, mterprisiug 
Charles, married though a couple of years 
younger, taking another farm at Ketton. The 
farms were not so far apart as to prevent the 
brothers from using the same bull in the same 
or alternate seasons, as might be most conven¬ 
ient, while each profited by the other’s exper¬ 
ience. Each, however, had his own cows care¬ 
fully selected from the surrounding Short-horn 
herds, the choice of every purchased animal be- 
iug always determined by its possession of some 
particular excellence which the purchaser 
wished to introduce among his own stock. 
Thus they labored, Charles for 30 years and 
Robert for 40, with such marked improvements 
in the herds they bred, that under their man¬ 
agement the Short-horn race attained au un- 
precedem J popularity which has continued 
to increase uulil to-day. 
The system they pursued was identical with 
that established by Bakewell, and the same, 
with a few slight modifications, as that by fol¬ 
lowing which the most celebrated subsequent 
breeders have accomplished their highest suc¬ 
cesses. It consisted in breeding "in-and in ’’ as 
closely as possible—often father to daughter 
and mother to sou—so long as constitution, 
vigor, quality, health and fecundity remained 
unimpaired by it. By this means they concen¬ 
trated in the members of one family all the 
virtues they sought to perpetuate, so firmly as 
to indue them with the faculty of transmitting 
their qualities to a greater extent than had 
ever before been found possible, or than could 
have been accomplished by any other system 
of breeding ; for it is the general opinion that 
uniformity of type and quality can be attained 
sooner and more certainly by this method than 
by any other. It has been found, however, 
that the system, if long persisted in, results 
more or less disastrously in weakened constitu¬ 
tions, liability to disease and frequent barren¬ 
ness. Later breeders, therefore, have often 
found it to their advantage to modify the sys¬ 
tem somewhat by the introduction into their 
herds of fresh blood from more or less closely 
collateral lines of descent. 
On the sale of the Ketton herd in 1810 and of 
the Barmpton herd, in two lots, in 1818 
and 1820, the choice results of the labors, 
skill and experience of the Coliings were scat¬ 
tered among a nuiuher of the best breeders of 
the day, who eagerly competed for the famous 
animals at uuprecedeutedly high figures. 
Among these breeders the most celebrated are 
Thomas Booth,founder of the Booth Short-horn 
herd, and Thomas Bates, founder of the Bates 
herd. The former was a neighbor and rival of 
the Coliings, having begun breeding in 1777, on 
a farm near Sudley Park, although the legiti¬ 
mate foundation of his herd was laid in 1790 at 
his Klllerby aud Warlaby estates, near Darling¬ 
ton, Yorkshire, at no great distance from 
Barmpton and Ketton. His two sons, Richard 
and John, afterwards joined him in breeding 
Short-horns, and at his death, in 1835, suc¬ 
ceeded him, the former at Warlaby aud the 
latter at Killerby. 
On the death of the genial bachelor, Richard, 
in 1864, his nephew. T, C. Booth, whose un¬ 
timely end was mourned by the Short-horn 
world a few months ago, inherited bis estate of 
310 acres at Warlaby, and also the Short-horn 
herd the improvement of whieh had been his 
chief occupation since he settled at that place 
in 1835. The new owner possessed all the 
skill in breeding, which should rightly belong 
to him through his father. John, his grand- 
SHORT-HORNS 
Among English-speaking people no breed 
of cattle is more highly prized than the Sh ort- 
horn, nor Is any more widely diffused. In Efig- 
land, Ireland, Wales and Scotland their influ¬ 
ence is almost everywhere; in Canada and the 
United States they have found a congenial 
home, and are rapidly improving the native 
and grade cattle; in Australia aud New Zea¬ 
land they are prized as highly as in their 
native island. Nor are their praises unsounded 
in foreign tongues. They are raising the stan¬ 
dard of the vast herds of Russia; the best 
German breeders profit by their prepotency ; 
France does not prize her. own choice strains 
so highly as to think that her herds cannot be 
bettered by an admixure of Short-horn blood ; 
even Japan has become Europeanized in its 
appreciation of Short-horns as well as in other 
respects. 
Yet world-wide as extends the fame of this 
breed to-day, until just about a century ago 
what reputation the}' 
had, was confined to 
Durham, York, West¬ 
moreland and North¬ 
umberland, the two 
first-named counties, 
on either side of the 
river Tees, having 
been for a couple of 
centuries especially 
appreciative of tbeir 
beef and milking qual¬ 
ities, whether known 
as Teeswater or Dur¬ 
ham cattle. 
It matters little, ex¬ 
cept to the curious 
trifler, whether their 
characteristics of 
yield, torrn and color, 
were due to local de¬ 
velopment, natural or 
artificial, or to a just 
possible admixture in 
remote times of native 
blood from the Chil- 
lingliain, or of alien 
blood from Scandina¬ 
vian cattle; what does 
matter considerably to 
the iutelligeut stock- 
owner, as a proof of 
what can be done by 
careful breeding, is an 
idea of what-like the 
old-fashioned Durham 
cattle were before 
the modern system of 
breeding developed 
their present merits. 
According to the best 
accounts, then, a hun¬ 
dred years ago, or so, 
the best specimens of 
Short-horns were gen¬ 
erally wide-backed, 
well-formed animals, 
CHOICE SPECIMENS OF SHORT-HORNS.—Suggested hy a Colored Plate in Professor Sheldon's (London) New Work. 
father, Thomas, and 
his deceased uncle, 
Richard, all of whom 
were among the fore¬ 
most breeders of their 
time, and under his 
management the War¬ 
laby herd, surpassing 
those of Killerby and 
Studley at their best, 
grew to be the finest 
representatives of the 
"Booth blood.” To 
this blood belong 
some of the most fa¬ 
mous tribes of Short¬ 
horns, whose names 
are known in Short¬ 
horn circles every 
where. What lover 
of this fine breed has 
■not heard of the Fair- 
holme or Blossom 
tribe, the Bright Eyes, 
the Halnaby or Straw¬ 
berry tribe, the Brace¬ 
let, Isabella, Farewell, 
Boughtou, Dairymaid 
or Mos6 Rose, tribes, 
all of which, whether 
belonging to the Kil¬ 
lerby. Studley or War¬ 
laby contingent, have 
spread the virtues and 
fame of the "Booth 
blood ’’ far and wide. 
A worthy rival of 
the Booths was Thom¬ 
as Bates, crotchety, 
kind-hearted, acrimo¬ 
nious, and oh! so 
skillful a breeder. 
Having started Short¬ 
horn breeding in 1800, 
at the age of 25, he 
devoted an ample for¬ 
tune, no mean abilities 
