The sale referred to, and those of R. Colling’s herd, in 1818, and that of Lord Spencer, in 1846, as well as that of the Kirkleavington herd, in 1850, and especially that of the herd of Lord Ducie, two years later, are marked eras in the history of improved short-horns; and through these sales, and the universal enthusiasm awakened by them, the short-horns have become more widely spread ever Great Britain, and more generally fashionable, than any other breed. They have also been largely introduced into France by the government, for the improvement of the various French breeds by crossing, and into nearly every quarter of the civilized world.
Fig. 6. Short-horn Bull “Double Duke,” (14511⁄2 Am. H. Book,)
Owned by Harvest Club, Springfield.
Importations have been frequent and extensive into the United States within the last few years, and this famous breed is now pretty generally diffused over the country.
The use of the early-imported short-horn bulls and native cows led to the formation of many families of grades, some of them bred back to the sire, and others crossed high up, which have attained a very considerable local reputation in many sections. As instances of this, may be mentioned the Creampot stock, obtained by Col. Jaques from a short-horn bull, Cœlebs, and a superior native cow. A family of fine milkers still exists in Massachusetts, known by the name of the “Sukey breed,” supposed to have been derived from “Denton,” a very superior animal imported by Mr. Williams, of Northboro’, some forty years ago. Many of the best milkers of that section can be traced back to him. The Patton stock, originally imported into Maryland and Virginia, in 1783, and thence to Kentucky, may be classed in the same category. A part of these were at first known as the “milk breed,” and others as the “beef breed:” the first short-horns, at that time good milkers, and the latter long-horns, of large size and coarse in the bone. In Kentucky they were all known as the Patton stock.
The high-bred short-horn is easily prepared for a show, and, as fat will cover faults, the temptation is often too great to be resisted; and hence it is common to see the finest animals rendered unfit for breeding purposes by over-feeding. The race is susceptible of breeding for the production of milk, as several families show, and great milkers have often been known among pure-bred animals; but it is more common to find it bred mainly for the butcher, and kept accordingly. It is, however, a well-known fact that the dairies of London are stocked chiefly with short-horns and Yorkshires, or high grades between them, which, after being milked as long as profitable, feed equal, or nearly so, to pure-bred short-horns.
It has been said, by very high authority, that “the short-horns improve every breed they cross with.”
The desirable characteristics of the short-horn bull may be summed up, according to the judgment of the best breeders, as follows: He should have a short but fine head, very broad across the eyes, tapering to the nose, with a nostril full and prominent; the nose itself should be of a rich flesh-color; eyes bright and mild; ears somewhat large and thin; horns slightly curved and rather flat, well set on a long, broad, muscular neck; chest wide, deep, and projecting; shoulders fine, oblique, well formed into the chine; fore legs short, with upper arm large and powerful; barrel round, deep, well ribbed home; hips wide and level; back straight from the withers to the setting on of the tail, but short from hip to chine; skin soft and velvety to the touch; moderately thick hair, plentiful, soft, and mossy. The cow has the same points in the main, but her head is finer, longer, and more tapering, neck thinner and lighter, and shoulders more narrow across the chine.
The astonishing precocity of the short-horns, their remarkable aptitude to fatten, the perfection of their forms, and the fineness of their bony structure, give them an advantage over most other races when the object of breeding is for the shambles. No animal of any other breed can so rapidly transform the stock of any section around him as the improved short-horn bull.
But it does not follow that the high-bred short-horns are unexceptionable even for beef. The very exaggeration, so to speak, of the qualities which make them so valuable for the improvement of other and less perfect races, may become a fault when wanted for the table. The very rapidity with which they increase in size is thought by some to prevent their meat from ripening up sufficiently before being hurried off to the butcher. The disproportion of the fatty to the muscular flesh, found in this to a greater extent than in races coming slower to maturity, makes the meat of the thorough-bred short-horn, in the estimation of some, both less agreeable to the taste and less profitable to the consumer, since the nitrogenous compounds, true sources of nutriment, are found in less quantity than in the meat of animals not so highly bred.