CATTLE. The history of this wonderful breed of cattle, once as eminent for their combination of milk and flesh pro ducing qualities as they have in later years been made to excel as strictly beef producers, is very much mixed up, writers, both English and American, having endeavored to cast discredit upon certain strains of blood, either to subserve their own particular views, or to bring into repute the stocks of particular breeders. The following, from the work of Mr. Lewis T. Allen, editor American Short-Horn Herd Book, is undoubtedly as nearly correct as it can now be had. He says: For some centuries anterior to the conquest ot England by the First William, (of Normandy,) the northeastern counties of England, Northumberland, Durham and York, (then called Northumbria,) had been possessed, with occasional interruptions, by the Danes, and other Scandinavians of northwestern Europe. They were a warlike people, not only conquer ing, by their bold raids, the countries along the continental coast to the south of them, even into Holland, but pirates and sea kings as well, car rying their devastations across the water into Northumbria, and some adjoining parts of Britain. While they held the frontier coast of England they established trade in many articles or merchandise and agricultural products, and shipped them to and from both sides of' the ocea,n channel. Among these were cattle in considerable numbers. Southern Denmark, Jutland, Holstein, and Utrecht, long held by the Danes, possessed a breed of cattle—short-horns essentially—having their general appearance, and peculiar colors, but coarse in their form and flesh, yet yielding largely of milk. It is supposed by a majority of the earlier English writers on agriculture and cattle, who paid par ticular attention to these subjects, that it was from these foreign cattle, imported at that early day from the neighboring continent,. that the present race of short-horns are descended, and that for some centuries they inhabited that part of England only. The earliest accounts we have seen, first found them there. Holderness, a district of YorlKshire, was said to number these cattle in considerable herds. They possessed a great aptitude to fatten, in addition to their milk ing qualities, yet their flesh was coarse, accom panied by a large amount of offal. That they possessed valuable characteristics in their high and broad carcases, and contained within them selves the elements of refinement, when brought within the conditions of shelter, good fare, and painstaking, we may well conjecture. The peo ple of those days were rude and uncultivated, and the cattle must have been rude also. Often times pinched with poverty and scant fare, sub ject to the storms and blasts of an inclement winter clhuate, unsheltered, probably, in all sea sons, except as the woods or hollows of the land. could protect them, the worst points in their an atomy took precedence in their looks, and they were but a sorry spectacle to the eye of an accu rate judge, or breeder. Following down to near the middle of the last century, we find that some of the authors named speak of these cattle, mi the banks of the river Tees, (a stream dividing the counties of York and Durham.) existing in a
high degree of improvement, and superior to al most any others which they had seen. As we have before remarked, it is not surprising that they were found in these counties only, as every district in England had its own locat breeds to which their people were partial, and cattle were not interchanged as now, except for the purposes. of feeding, and going to London, or other large seacoast markets, for consumption. No doubt, in the agricultural progress of the country, these cattle had received considerable attention, and_ were much improved in their forms, flesh, and general appearance by their breeders, until they arrived at et considerable degree of perfection. Here, then, we find them existing in several ex cellent herds, and bred with much care. Some. pedigrees can be traced, more or less distinctly, back to the year 1740, or even earlier. The late Mr. Bates, in one of his accounts of these cattle, says, in 1784 the estates of the Earl of Northum berland had fine short-horns upon them, for two hundred years previous to that time. Let us see: Bailey, in his survey of Durham, written in the year 1808, says that, seventy years since (1738,), the colors of the cattle of Mr. Milbank and Mr. Croft, were red and white, and white, with a lit tle red about the neck, or roan, as related to. him by old men who knew them at the time. Cully also states the same fact. Milbank anti Croft were both noted cattle breeders of that day, and into their herds many modern cattle trace their pedigrees. The Duke of Northum berland had good short-horns on his estate at Stanwick, in that county. The Aislabees, of Studley Park, and Sir William St. Quintin, of Scampston, also kept excellent short-horns; and. the Stepliensons, Maynards, Wetherells, and. many others, too numerous to mention, were breeders. As the merits of these cattle became more known, they rapidly increased among the. local breeders and farmers of those counties, but they did not obtain anything like a general repu tation over the country, until Charles and Robert Colling came on to the stage and commenced breeding them. They were young farmers, brothers, and their father had been a short-horn breeder before them. They established them selves as farmers and cattle-breeders about the. year 1780, each having separate herds, but work ing more or less together, and interchanging the use of their bulls. Charles, the younger, was the more enterprising, but not a better breeder than his brother. With great sagacity and good judgment, they picked up some of the best cows and bulls from the herds of the older breeders around them, and for many years bred them with success and profit. They early possessed themselves of a bull, afterwards called Hubback, claimed, by some, to be the great progenitor of the improved short-horns. He proved a most excellent stock-getter while in the hands of the Collings, as well as before they obtained him, and after Ile left them. The possession of Hubback proved fortunate for the Collings, as.