364 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
Dec. 
PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 
[In our December number for last year, p. 374, 375, 
we published from the Journal of the Royal Agricultu¬ 
ral Society, a portion of an essay by John Wright, on 
the points which Short-Horn cattle should possess to 
render them in the greatest degree valuable. The 
other portions of the essay, relating chiefly to the 
breeding of stock, we could not at that time make 
room for, though they are of a very important charac¬ 
ter. Believing that the subject is interesting to our 
readers, at least to those of them who are engaged 
in stock-growing, we present the following abstract. 
We have appended, as will be seen, a few notes, to 
which, in connection with the remarks of Mr. Wright, 
attention is invited.— Eds.] 
It has been attempted to point out a difference be¬ 
tween the Durhams, Short-Horns, and Improved Short- 
Horns: these minute distinctions I will not attempt to 
define, nor will I stop to inquire how long the counties 
of Northumberland, Durham, Yorkshire, and Lincoln¬ 
shire have had a breed of Short-Horned cattle; but 
certain it is that great pains were taken by Mr. 
Charles Colling, of Ketton, in the county of Durham, 
to select animals possessing feeding properties in a 
high degree, and under his auspices a race of animals 
was presented to us which may justly be entitled to 
the appellation of 1 Improved Short-Horns;’ and it js 
of this breed of cattle I wish more particularly to speak. 
They have been called the Durham breed and the Ket¬ 
ton breed: this appears to have arisen from the cir¬ 
cumstance that there were two prints published of Mr. 
Charles Colling’s ox that travelled for show, in one of 
which he is called the Durham ox, and in the other the 
Ketton ox. It should be remembered that some of the 
most important selections to improve this breed, were 
made from herds on the Yorkshire side of the river Tees. 
Skeptical persons there are who lay great emphasis 
on the want of improvement in the Short-Horns of the 
present day: this may with some degree of truth be 
admitted, if taken in comparison with the “Ketton herd ; 
but surely there is a manifest improvement in the 
general breed of Short-Horns throughout the kingdom, 
and a vast increase in numbers. At Mr. C. Colling’s 
sale in 1810, few persons bought both male and female, 
so as to enable them to continue the same precise 
blood: consequently the purchaser of one animal only, 
had to put him or her to such stock as he previously 
possessed, thereby improving the progeny 6f his own, 
but deteriorating that of the purchase; so that the pro¬ 
duce was inferior to the original Ketton beast, and 
might require several judicious crosses to raise them 
to the original standard. It is a rare occurrence to 
find a healthy herd of pure and close descent from the 
Ketton breed. Assuming, then, that the Short-Horns 
have never equalled the perfection in which they were 
presented to us by Mr. C. Colling, it behooves us to as¬ 
certain the means he used to accomplish so desirable 
an object, and to apply ourselves assiduously to follow 
nis example, (a.) 
A brief account of the Ketton herd of Short-Horns 
may be acceptable to those who never had the oppor¬ 
tunity of seeing them. They were of great size and 
substance, with fine long hind quarters ; the space from 
the hip to the rib was long; but the evils attendant on 
an extreme length in this part were counteracted by a 
broad back and high round ribs; the shoulders of the 
males were upright, and the knuckles or shoulder- 
points were large and coarse, but that defect was not 
so apparent in the females; the general contour or side 
view was stately and imposing, but their great supe¬ 
riority consisted in their extraordinary inclination to 
fatten. On handling, the skin was very loose and 
pliant, and the feel under it was remarkably mellow 
and kind. Mr. C. Colling was distinguished above all 
other breeders of his day by a peculiarly fine discrimi¬ 
nating touch, which enabled him to judge of the quali¬ 
ty of the flesh and the tendency to fatten, to which, in 
connection with good judgment in other respects, his 
superiority and success as a breeder were mainly at¬ 
tributable. The color of the Ketton Short-Horn va¬ 
ried greatly—red, red and white, roan, and also white 
being found in the same kindred. 
In breeding Short-Horns, many persons whose opin¬ 
ions are entitled to great deference, tell us that we 
should breed from such only as in themselves are per¬ 
fect: this, however plausible in theory, will be found 
untenable in practice; for it may be asked, where do 
you find the first parents?' A perfect and uniform¬ 
shaped beast, that lays its fat on every point in equal 
proportions, is highly desirable, so as to have no ex¬ 
cess in one point to the disproportion of another; and 
in our endeavors to accomplish this desirable object 
we should first become'acquainted with the defective 
points in the female, and then select a male possessing 
those points in great perfection, and thereby iusure an 
improvement in their progeny: upon this principle hangs 
all the necessary knowledge for improving the shape 
of animals; but in all our selections we must never 
lose sight of inclination to fatten —the prominent fea¬ 
ture of the Short-Horns. 
In-and-in Breeding. —From the vast superiority 
of the Ketton Short-Horns, and the desire to perpetuate 
them with pure pedigrees, persons have been induced 
to breed from animals of close affinity of blood; being 
conscious they could not resort to other families with¬ 
out employing inferior animals, and thereby impairing 
the properties of their own herd. Various degrees of 
success have attended this course. There are several 
instances of superior animals bred in the closest affinity, 
whilst in the great majority of eases the failure has 
been extensive and lamentable. * * * The writer’s 
opposition to this principle of breeding in-and-in, pro¬ 
ceeds from having witnessed so many serious losses in 
herds so allied, which, previous to the affinity of blood, 
were .healthy and strong constitutioned. In the early 
Short-Horns no hoosing or cough, no delicacy of consti¬ 
tution was known; but as affinity of breeding pro¬ 
gressed, a delicacy of constitution accompanied it. It 
has often been exultingly said that Comet was the 
finest bull of his day, and at the same time had the 
greatest affinity of blood of any animal we had: this is 
a truth which cannot be denied, but it might be an ex¬ 
ception, and not the rule. It was notorious that the 
stock got. by him out of cows that were strangers in 
blood, was far superior to such as were more nearly 
akin. It will be remembered that Comet had a de¬ 
formed shoulder: who can say that this did not pro¬ 
ceed fromdose affinity in the parents? In the human 
frame, it is a very common thing to see deformed 
shoulders proceed from disordered lungs. 
In the Short-Horns of close affinity of blood, how 
many bulls do we find with lame shoulders, how 
many called cripples, and how many cripples in reality 
that never met the public eye ? We see no other race 
of animals with this defect, except those Short-Horns 
bred in-and-in. It has been said that this disease might 
