AMERICAN LIVE STOCK. 
455 
BKEEDvS OF CATTLE. 
Of improved cattle we now have several valuable and distinct 
varieties. A few remarks on each of them must suffice; and first 
in order, as they are by far the most numerous in attracting the at¬ 
tention of our farmers, breeders, and graziers, I name the 
Short-horns. — Soon after the revolutionary war, and previous to 
the year 1800, a few animals of this breed were imported by tw’o 
different Englishmen into the city of New York. The fact of their 
importation is the chief thing known about them, as only a few re¬ 
sults are now recognized from their breeding. One of the imported 
cows was taken back to England — “ the American Cow,” so called, 
of the English Herd-Book—from which, afterward, many noted 
and valuable animals descended. About the same years, also, two 
different importations of cattle, supposed to be Short-horns, were 
made from England into Baltimore, and taken to the valley of the 
south branch of the Potomac river, in Virginia, and from there, 
within a few years afterward, some of their descendants were driven 
to the blue-grass region of Kentucky, where they were carefully 
propagated, and in after years, crossed by bulls of still later im¬ 
portations, became an important item of the cactle wealth of that 
state. 
We hear of no further Short-horn importations until after the 
war with England, in 1812—15. Soon afterward, several importa¬ 
tions of them were made into New York, Massachusetts, Kentucky, 
Maryland and Pennsylvania. They were industriously bred by 
their enterprising owners, and the valuable qualities of their own 
distinct blood, and the improvement through their crosses upon the 
common cows of the country, for most useful purposes, soon gave 
them a popularity and dissemination attained by no other breed, 
and since followed by numerous importations into many of our 
states and the Canadas. They now stand largely in excess of num¬ 
bers over all other foreign breeds put together. The various merits 
of this breed it is not now necessary to discuss, as different opin¬ 
ions mav be entertained regarding them, but the fact may be stated 
that their recorded pedigrees, in the Herd-Book, now number 
more than 00,000 well bred animals, and at the present time they 
are increasing more rapidly than at any previous period in their 
history. 
Levons. — This is a strikingly distinct breed in form and quality, 
