Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1884-07-12
SOMETHING ABOUT THE SEVEN
TEENS"
| From Breeders Gazette. I

flease explain, thrOngh your Valua-
BILE paper, what is meant by "Seven-
teens" in short horn cattle, and why
they are not counted as good or as we'll
bread as other short-hurns. Give as
much information on these points as
time and space will permit, and oblige
a beginner who wants to breed the best
of shOrt-hOrns. j. w. s.
REPLY-Once year we expect to
answer this question, as it is one OH
which all new beginners naturally seek
information, and it is scarcely saIisfac-
tory to refer them to back volumes or
to books which they have not in pos
session. Well, the so-called "Seven-
teens" are the descendants of the cows
Mrs. Motto, the Durham Cow and the
Teeswater Cow, imported by Colonel
Lewis Sanders in the year 1917. They
take their peculiar name from the year
in which they were imported. They
came out without pedigrees, but the
period was before the publication OF
herd books, when the use and impOr-
tance of pedigrees in verifying the
purity of breeding was not generally
understood OF practiced. They were,
however, selected, according to all ac-
reference 10 their purity, and purchased
from those who had pure-bred herds.
So there seems no question about their
having been pure e-bred short-horns.
An effort was subsequently made to
hunt up Il pedigree for Mrs. Motto, and
very often, in the catalogues and on
the public records. pedigree is given
her, but it does not appear to have
given her descendants any greater value
than those of the other two short-horn
cows brought over at the same time.
AS to the other branch of the inquiry,
why they are not considered rs well
bred as other short-horns, we might
answer that breeders generally do not
regard them as not being as well bred
as other short horns; but this won d
be evading what our correspondent de-
sires to know. There is, among those
who have 10 Seventeen blood already
in their herds, a desire to avoid its in
troduction-this is Il fact, whether
based on wrong or right, or cause or
fancy-and our correspondent desires
to know the reason Of that. 1t is diff
ticult to give satisfactory answer. In
our last issue, in all article referring to
"tashions," Mr. Rust makes some
what extended reference TO this very
point, which, while everybody may not
agree with him, may Oe cited as one
reason why this preference for some
thing else than Seventeens is 50 gener-
al. When the Ohio importations came
out about 1884, il is likely that some OF
the gentlemen into whose hands these
cattle fell pointed to the twelve years
record in the English Herd Book pos
sessed by their cattle as an evidence OF
purity which the cattle Of the Sanders
importation could not show. And at
this time there was no American Herd
Book, by which the public could see
that i'll the seventeen years interval
since the Sanders importation these cat.
tie had been bred pure. And, in p lint
OF fact, it was well known that some
of them had not been kept pure, but
had been crossed with bulls of long
horn and mixed and uncertain
breeding; and, in the absence Of
a pub ic record, people generally
could not ascertain what individual.
We're pure, and what impure. And SO
at that early day, while there may have
been no prejudice against Seventeen
cattle, there may have grown up ,
preference for cattle of the later i'm
portations, which forms the basis o
the relative estimates in which the re
spective sorts are held to-day. Thi
kept the "Seventecns" generally in tn
hands Of the breeders of the least exper
ience, or in the hands of men VIII,
either cared little about crosses, or di'
not always have the means or oppor
tunity to secure such crosses as thei
: Judgment approved. As result, the
e have been bred in every way; bulls o
/ every short-horn blood and of ever
:. grade of quality have been crosse