THE OX. 
53 
THE SHORT-HORNED BREED. 
the native breeds. It soon extended southward through Yorkshire, where it was cultivated on the largest scale. The district of 
Holderness, it has been said, early obtained cows from Holland, and became distinguished beyond any other part of England for 
the excellence of its dairy stock. Many cows of the Holderness variety are yet to he found, but generally they have been 
more or less mixed with the Durham blood. The effect has been to improve their form, hut to impair their milching proper¬ 
ties ; nevertheless, the modern Holderness still stand in the first rank of dairy-cows, and the great London dairies are chiefly 
supplied by them. The Durham Breed extended likewise across the Humber, and was largely mingled with the cattle of Lin¬ 
colnshire and the neighbouring districts. Individual animals are still to be found in the Fens, with the clumsy form, dark muzzle, 
and dingy skin of the former race; but, generally speaking, the blood of the improved Teeswaters has been more or less infused 
into all the cattle of this part of England. Further, the breed has extended westward through Leicestershire and most of the 
midland counties, where it is either cultivated in a state of purity, or has been so mingled with the former breed as to modify or 
efface the Long-horn characters. It has taken root in Lancashire, Westmoreland, and other parts where the Long-horned Breed 
had been the most firmly established, and it has been carried to the counties bordering on Wales, where the breeds allied to the 
Devon had been before cultivated. It has passed into the drier counties of the Chalk, though in smaller numbers than into the 
central and western counties. It has been transported to Ireland, and, in an incredibly short space of time, has effected a great 
change in the cattle of the breeding districts. Being made to cross the native Long-horns, the first progeny is always found 
to be good, and this effect naturally leads the breeders to resort again to the superior race, so that after a time the traces of the 
Long-horns become lost. This breed, so highly valued at home, has been carried to the Continent of Europe, to the United States 
of America, where it is cultivated with perfect success, and to the brilliant colonies of England, now rising to greatness in the 
Southern Ocean. 
The multiplication, in this country, of a breed so greatly improved by art, must he regarded as highly conducive to the im¬ 
provement of this branch of rural industry. A large part of all the cattle of England consists of a mixture of races, having no 
uniformity of characters, and generally defective in some important points. The possession of a breed which can always he re¬ 
sorted to for crossing these mixed and defective races, is a great mean of improvement, applicable to a class of animals that require 
it the most, causing the larger cattle of the country to approach to a better model, and assume a greater degree of uniformity. 
Further, the extension of the pure breed, and the multiplication of its numbers, are conducive in a high degree to its own 
permanence and improvement. When hut a few cultivators of it were to he found, the system of breeding from animals of the 
same family, and from the nearest affinities of blood, could scarcely he avoided by those who wished to preserve their stock from 
deterioration; but now so many fine animals are reared of the same race, that no one is laid under the necessity of breeding 
solely from a few individuals: and in the future cultivation of the breed, hardiness, soundness of constitution, and the milching 
properties of the females, may all receive their due share of attention. The external form has been already brought to all the 
perfection which art seems capable of communicating; and now those other properties remain to be attended to, without which no 
further refinement of breeding will avail for the purposes of profit to individuals and benefit to the country. 
