CHILLINGHAM CATTLE.
In all the so-called wild cattle of Great Britain the forehead is flat or slightly concave, the head is small, the back is straight, and the legs are short.
It is now almost universally agreed that domestic cattle are descended from two or three species of the genus Bos, which existed in late geologic or prehistoric times, the remains being found in Switzerland, Ireland, and other parts of Europe. The Zebu, Yak, Gayal, and Arni, to be referred to immediately, have also been domesticated.
Cattle have been so distributed and mixed in breeding that any precise arrangement of the breeds according to their ancestral affinities can scarcely be tabulated. Most important of the heavy breeds are the well-known Shorthorns of the north of England, so carefully and successfully developed by Charles and Robert Colling between 1780 and 1818, at Ketton and Barmpton, close to Darlington, in Durham, by a process of in-and-in breeding—“Hubback,” the “Duchess,” “Lady Maynard,” “Young Strawberry,” “Foljambe,” and “Comet,” the last bull of which, at Charles Colling’s sale in 1810, fetched a thousand guineas.
HUNGARIAN BULL.
Following close upon the Collings came the Booths—Richard, Thomas, and J. Booth—between 1814 and 1864, at Studley, Killerby, and Warlaby, where “Isabella,” the twin sisters “Necklace” and “Bracelet,” were parents of goodly herds, “Commander-in-Chief” being one of the latest gems. On one occasion, it is stated, Mr. Richard Booth, of Warlaby, refused the unique offer of fifteen hundred guineas for a cow named “Queen of the May.”
In 1810 Thomas Bates, of Ridley Hall, and afterwards of Kirkleavington, then a well-known breeder of cattle, purchased at Charles Colling’s sale “Young Duchess,” daughter of “Comet,” a granddaughter of “Duchess” by “Daisy” bull, and she became the founder of the famous “Duchess” tribe. In 1831, with the accession of the bull “Belvidere,” a descendant of Robert Colling’s “Princess” tribe, the “Duchess” breed produced “Short Tail” and the renowned “Duke of Northumberland.” The “Matchem” cow, purchased at the same date, did much to improve the stock. Mr. Bates died in 1849.
Several enterprising American breeders have, since 1817, introduced Shorthorns into the United States and Canada, Colonel Lewis Sanders, of Kentucky, being the first who did so on anything like thorough principles. Others followed his example with success, especially about the year 1852, when a fresh impulse was given to their production because of the rise of price in meat, as well as the foreign demand for it. The Booth and Bates bloods predominate in these animals, and form the basis of much of the beef now re-shipped to England.