SHORT-HORN 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 he had. He says: For some centuries anterior to the conquest of England First William, (of Normandy,) the northeastern counties or 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 hold 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 of merchandise and agricultural products, and shipped them to and from both sides of the ocean 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 Yorkshire, 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 climate, 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, on 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 local 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 a 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 and 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 Aislahees, of Studley Park, and Sir William St. Quintin, of Scampston, also kept excellent short-horns; and the Stephensons, Maynards, Wetherella, 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 replies tation over the country, until Charles and Robert Collins 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 he left them. The possession of Hubback proved fortunate for the Collings, as some of their best cattle traced into his blood, which was more or less participated in bythe breeders around them. The blood of this bull —Hubback—became so famous, indeed, that any- good and well bred beast which could trace its pedigree to him, was counted of rare value. This breed of cattle early attracted attention in America. Soon after the Revolutionary war, cat tle supposed to be pure Short-horns were imported into Virginia, cattle as remarkable for their milk ing qualities as for the flesh they carried since it reported that individual animals gave as high as thirty-two quarts of milk a day. As early as 1797 the produce or these cattle were taken to Ken tucky by a Mr. Patton, that soon became widely
disseminated over the West as the Patton breed. The editor of this work nearly forty years ago saw descendants of this stock in Illinois, having all the characteristices of the short-horns and they were known as the Patton breed. Among those having them may be mentioned the late Rev. Mr. Morrison, near Moinence, Ill. These cattle were still famous for their large size and milking qualities. Indeed those imported up to fifty years ago were remarkable for their milking qualities, and particular herds and strains of this stock still exist • excellent in this quality as well as in their flesh making aptitude. As to the further of the short-horns in America, Mr. Francis M. Botch, of New York, a gentle perfectly well qualified, in a report to time United States Government in 1861, says: The majestic size, proud carriage, and beautifully variegated colors of the Short-horn render him easily recognized by the merest tyro; but few who thus admire and recognize them are aware how many qualifications go to make up this ,splendid whole, or how carefully each point has been weighed and discussed, and its relative value decided; how the useful parts are divided from the ornamental and fashionable, and how systematically the whole has been carried out. The high caste short-horn should have a small head, a broad, flat forehead, with no projection of the frontal bones; the face should be well cut out below the eyes, tapering to a fine muzzle with open nostrils; the nose must be flesh or chocolate colored; any discoloration hinting towards black or blue is very objectionable, though occasionally seen in some of the highest bred families; the eye must be bright, promi nent, and yet placid; small, piggish or hollow eye, or one showing viciousness or nervousness, are alike to be avoided, the latter indicating a bad feeder almost invariably; the horn should be well set on, curving forward, not too heavy, and of a waxy, yellow color at the base; the body should be square, massive, and symmetri cal, set on short legs which should be straight and well under the animal; the fore legs should be small in the bone below the knee, whilst the forearm must be broad and tapering downwards, fitting level into the girth; the hind legs must be nearly straight; if the hocks are too much bent, turn inward, or not well under the body, it not only gives an awkward gait in but is generally a sign of weakness; the neck is mod erately long, clean in the throat, and running neatly into the shoulders, which should not be too prominent at the points, nor too wide at the top, else the crops will be certain to seem defec tive; they should mould nicely into the fore quarters, and be well covered with flesh on the outside; the neck vein should be well filled up with flesh, and form on smoothly to the shoulder points; the chest must be broad and deep, and full back of the elbows, which secures a good girth and consequent room for the most impor tant vital organs.; the brisket should be full and broad rather than narrow and projecting; it is of inferior quality as beef, yet, as a point of beauty and as indicating a propensity to fatten, must not be overlooked. We now come to the upper portion of the frame, carrying the best beef, and here we must have width and thick ness and length; the crops must fill up level with the shoulders and back; the must spring level and full from the back, and fill well up to the hips, (the short-horn is apt to be loosely ribbed up). The loin niust be broad and well carried forward into the crops, and covered with thick flesh moulding nicely on to the hips, which though wide must not be too prominent, hut slope away gradually to the rump or side bones at the tail; a quarter badly filled up between hips and rumps or scooped-out,• as it is termed, is very objectionable; the back must be level from neck to tail, with no drops babk of the shoulders, nor any rise where the tail is set on; the rumps must be well laid up but not too high, else when the animal is fat we shall have those large masses of fat aggregated about them so common among the breed some years since, but now deservedly stigmatized as bad; the twist should be well filled out in the-seam, wide and deep, the outside thigh full, the flank deep, and forming with the fore-flank and belly (the latter well supported by its plates) a parallel line with the animal's hack. The whole frame must be evenly covered with flesh, of a mellow elastic nature, readily yielding to the fingers, yet fol lowing them as the pressure is withdrawn; the skin must be of a moderate thickness, neither papery (too thin) nor thick enough to be stiff and hard; it must be covered with a coat of thick, soft, mossy hair. As regards color the latitude is very great, from deep blood-red through all the intermediate shades and mix tures to pure white, but any other colors, as brown, black, or dun, are never met with in thoroughbreds. Fashion has vindicated the rich red and purple roan as the most desirable colors, and after them red. White is sometimes objec ted to, under the impression that it is apt to spread through a herd and overpower the other colors; but this fear is more common in this country than in England, where white bulls are often used. Red and white, in blotches, with defined edges not running into roan, is disliked, and the term patchy is applied to it. This discrimination, however, as regards color, is entirely arbitrary, animals of equal excellence and breeding being found of all these colors. We may gather from the foregoing pages that the essential peculiarities of the improved short horns are, early maturity, a great disposition to fatten, a remarkable evenness on laying on their flesh, a gentle, quiet temper, and, in some tribes and families, a large secretion of milk. It has been claimed by some of their more zealous advocates in this country that they make good oxen, but we hardly think, however docile and powerful they may be, that they can compete in activity and speed with some of the other breeds. Taking into consideration these charac teristics, we see how admirably adapted they are for the larger portion of our country. Wher ever there is fair pasturage, good water, and shelter from the extremes of heat and cold, there the shoit-horn thrives. Over the broad prairies and blue grass pasture of the west, in the rich valleys of our great be roams and flourishes as though in his native vale, and readily adapts himself to the change of situation and climate. But it is to the crosses of the short-horn . that we must look for the most general adaptation and dissemination of the breed. The high value of the thoroughbreds for breeding purposes must for many years • prevent their universal adoption, and it is only by crossing them upon our so-called natives that we can reap immediate benefit from them.