often been {118} quoted; yet Youatt
says[247] the breed "had acquired a delicacy of constitution
inconsistent with common management," and "the propagation of the
species was not always certain." But the Shorthorns offer the most
striking case of close interbreeding; for instance, the famous bull
Favourite (who was himself the offspring of a half-brother and sister
from Foljambe) was matched with his own daughter, granddaughter, and
great-granddaughter; so that the produce of this last union, or the
great-great-granddaughter, had 15-16ths, or 93.75 per cent. of the
blood of Favourite in her veins. This cow was matched with the bull
Wellington, having 62.5 per cent. of Favourite blood in his veins, and
produced Clarissa; Clarissa was matched with the bull Lancaster, having
68.75 of the same blood, and she yielded valuable offspring.[248]
Nevertheless Collings, who reared these animals, and was a strong
advocate for close breeding, once crossed his stock with a Galloway,
and the cows from this cross realised the highest prices. Bates's herd
was esteemed the most celebrated in the world. For thirteen years he
bred most closely in and in; but during the next seventeen years,
though he had the most exalted notion of the value of his own stock, he
thrice infused fresh blood into his herd: it is said that he did this,
not to improve the form of his animals, but on account of their
lessened fertility. Mr. Bates's own view, as given by a celebrated
breeder,[249] was, that "to breed in and in from a bad stock was ruin
and devastation; yet that the practice may be safely followed within
certain limits when the parents so related are descended from
first-rate animals." We thus see that there has been extremely close
interbreeding with Shorthorns; but Nathusius, after the most careful
study of their pedigrees, says that he can find no instance of a
breeder who has strictly followed this practice during his whole life.
From this study and his own experience, he concludes that close
interbreeding is necessary to ennoble the stock; but that in effecting
this the greatest care is necessary, on account of the tendency to
infertility and weakness. It may be added, that another high
authority[250] asserts that many more calves are born cripples from
Shorthorns than from other and less closely interbred races