1850. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
53 
were closely matted. The turnep-seed was sown broad¬ 
cast in this bed of turf-ashes ; a slight shower buried 
it, and gave sufficient moisture to bring up theturneps. 
The crop was never touched till harvested. There was 
not a weed in it—the whole surface was turneps as 
thick as they could stand, and many of the bulbs were 
so crowded out that nothing but the tap-root, not lar¬ 
ger than a goose-quill, connected them with the soil. 
Now what crop could be raised that would make as 
much beef, or mutton, or manure, with so little expense 
as turneps, produced in either of the ways here men¬ 
tioned. 
Imported. Cattle.—Bates’ Stock. 
The August number of the “ Cultivator,” for 1849, 
contains an article on the <f recent importation of short 
horns,” which does not entirely coincide with my views. 
The writer, referring to the bull, 3d Duke of Cambridge, 
which he had the honor of importing, says: “ Breeders, 
desiring the blood of Mr. Bates, can no where else in 
this country, procure it with such high characteristics 
of style , quality , symmetry, and substance .” 
Allow me here, before discussing this paragraph, to 
remark, that honorable competition in breeding domes¬ 
tic animals, cannot fail to be a fruitful source of im¬ 
provement, and should be countenanced and encouraged 
by every individual who desires to see the stock of our 
country raised to that high standard which its import¬ 
ance so justly merits and demands. The individual, 
however, who enters upon this enterprise with a desire 
and a determination to excell, will soon find himself 
surrounded with perplexities and prejudicies, which he 
little anticipated ; and, however desirous he may be to 
avoid controversy, circumstances may occur, where 
justice, both to himself and the public, demands that he 
should no longer remain silent. Experience will also 
sooner or later prove, that there is neither honor or 
profit to be acquired, by resorting to the frail support of 
either directly, or indirectly, assailing, or endeavouring 
to disparage the stock of others, by the assumption of 
high sounding pretensions, which cannot bear the test 
of truth and scrutiny. 
But to the point. We presume no one will deny, 
that any one animal from any herd, to possess the 
power of imparting to his produce, •• higher charac¬ 
teristics of style , quality, symmetry, and substance ,” 
than any other animal from the same herd, must possess 
more of the choicest blood of that particular herd. To 
doubt this, is at once questioning the efficacy of blood 
animals. The most natural inquiry, therefore, which 
would arise from a perusal of the paragraph quoted, 
would be—“ What is the particular strain of blood, 
in the late Mr. Bates’ herd, which is superior to all 
other, and which gave him such a deservedly wide 
spread fame and reputation as a breeder?” Now let 
this simple fact be clearly defined, and if 3d Duke of 
Cambridge possesses more of such blood, than any 
other animal in this country, then he may be fairly en¬ 
titled to his claimed position of superiority. This is 
a point of the greatest importance to breeders of Short¬ 
horns in this country, and particularly so, to “ all who 
wish to procure the blood of the late Mr. Bates’ 
herd.” 
In order, therefore, to prove to the public conclu¬ 
sively, and to place the matter beyond the possibility 
of a doubt, that the choicest blood of Mr. Bates’ herd 
consisted in his pure, unalloyed Duchess tribe, we 
quote his own opinion, from a communication addressed 
to the publishers of the print of his bull, Duke of 
Northumberland. After giving the pedigree of this 
bull, Mr. Bates says:— 
“ The whole of this family ” (Duchess family, S.P. C .) 
e( of Short-horns are alone in my possession, having pur¬ 
chased my original cow of this tribe of cattle of the late 
Charles Colling, Esq., of Ketton, near Darlington, 35 
years ago. They had been in the possession of Mr. C. 
Colling, 20 years, who purchased his original cow from, 
Stanwix, of the agent of the late Duke of Northumber¬ 
land, and called her Duchess, (which is the reason I have 
named the bull after that family,) as they are justly enti¬ 
tled to be held in commemoration for having possessed a 
tribe of cattle which Mr. C. Colling repeatedly assured me 
teas the best he ever had or ever saw, and that he was never 
able to improve upon her, although put to his best bulls. 
And I have undoubted information from the best author¬ 
ity for saying that this tribe of Short-horns, were in the 
possession of the ancestors of the present duke, for two 
centuries; and that Sir Hugh Smythson, the grandfather 
of the present duke, kept up the celebrity of this tribe 
of cattle by paying the utmost attention to their breed¬ 
ing; and that he used regularly to weigh his cattle and 
the food they ate, to ascertain the improvement made in 
proportion to the food consumed ; a system I adopted nearly 
fifty years ago, not knowing that it had been previously 
done; and from a minute and close attention to this sub¬ 
ject, I obtained that knowledge of cattle, which enabled 
me to judge of their real merits by their external charac¬ 
ters—and which I have never found to fail in my expe¬ 
rience for above forty years as a breeder. From that 
knowledge, thus acquired, I selected this tribe of Short¬ 
horns as superior to all other cattle, not only as small con¬ 
sumers of food, but as great growers and quick graziers, 
with the finest quality of beef, and also giving a great- 
quantity of very rich milk. The cow I bought of Mr. C. 
Colling, in 1804, calved at Halton Castle, in Northum¬ 
berland, June 7th, 1807; she was kept on grass only, in 
a pasture with nineteen other cows, and made in butter 
and milk for some months, above two guineas per week, 
or forty-two shillings in English money.” 
We have in this entract, the opinion of Mr. Bates 
himself, in regard to the Duchess blood, as being su¬ 
perior to all other —also confirmed by the opinion of Mr. 
Charles Colling, who repeatedly said, it was the best 
he ever had or ever saw. 
Now, whether this 3d Duke of Cambridge possesses 
more of such blood, or, if you please, has the blood 
of Mr. Bates’ herd, with “higher characteristics of 
style, quality, symmetry and substance,” than any other 
bull in this country, a brief reference to pedigrees 
will show. 
tc Pedigree of the 3d Duke of Cambridge, (5942.) Roan, 
calved September 14th, 1841, bred by Thomas Bates, 
property, &c. Got by Duke of Northumberland (1940) ; 
dam Waterloo II., by Belvidere (1706) ; grand dam by- 
Waterloo, (2816); g. g. dam by Waterloo, (2816).” 
[Coates’Herd Book, 4 vol., page 614.] 
By this pedigree it will be seen that 3d Duke of 
Cambridge possesses only one quarter of Duchess 
blood—’his sire, Duke of Northumberland, being a 
half Duchess bull, and his dam Waterloo II, having 
no Duchess blood in her. 
Among the individuals who have imported stock to 
this country from the late Mr. Bates’ herd, we be¬ 
lieve the importations of Mr. George Tail, of Troy, 
N. Y., have been the most extensive. In 1839 
or 40, this gentleman imported direct from Mr. Bates, 
a bull calf. Duke of Wellington, and a heifer, Duch¬ 
ess. For the purpose of comparison, we insert the 
pedigree of Duke of Wellington. 55, [3654] as given 
by Mr. Bates : 
“ Roan, bred by Mr. Bates, &c. Calved Oct. 24th> 
1839; got by Short-tail, (2621) ; dam Oxford, (having 
obtained the first prize for the best Short-horned cow, 
open to all England, in July, 1839, given by the Royal 
English Agricultural Society,) by Duke of Cleaveland, 
(1937) ; g. d. Matchem cow, by Matchem, (2281) ; g. g. 
dam by Young Wynyard, (2859) sometimes called Young 
Wellington.” 
By this pedigree it will be seen that Wellington’s 
sire, Short-tail, was also a half Duchess bull. So 
far then his equality with Cambridge, as to Duchess 
blood, is established. But if we examine a little farther 
into this pedigree, we shall find that Wellington’s 
dam. Oxford Cow, was also got by a half Duchess 
