James Wilson

“ Remembering that cattle were still valued for draught rather than for milk or beef, we cannot imagine that farmers would be ready to set aside their red or their black cattle for either the red-and-white or the white. ”

“ One fact must be borne in mind, namely, that, from the final settling down of the English till the junction of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries there was very little movement of cattle or other live stock, with the exception of horses. We may therefore assume that, if a race of cattle is found occupying any particular part of the country about the end of the seventeenth or early in the eighteenth century, it had occupied that same part for nearly a thousand years. ”

“ From these considerations we may say, without doubt, that the red race of cattle, whose representatives to-day are the Lincolns, the Norfolks and Suffolks, the Sussex, the Devons, and the Herefords, were in possession of the southern half of England till towards the close of the eighteenth century. If still further evidence were required, a very interesting statement of Leonard Mascal's might be quoted: "Also for Oxen to labour, the blacke Oxe and the redde Oxe are best, and the browne or greezled Oxe nexte: the white one is worst of all colours." ”