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 which had begun in the south and which had acquired such vigour after Tull and Townshend discovered how to grow turnips about 1730, crept northwards, an outlet was made for the Shorthorns which they quickly made use of. Before the end of the eighteenth century they and their crosses were masters of the east of England and the eastern lowlands of Scotland from Lincolnshire to the Forth. And not only so, but some of them had already penetrated into Fifeshire to improve the cattle of that country, while from others which had found their way westwards across the mountains the modern Ayrshires were ere long to emerge. In the last quarter of the eighteenth century the great struggle for the possession of Ireland, in which the Longhorns were eventually to be driven from the field, was begun by the importation of Shorthorns from Holderness and Teeswater. Arthur Young (1776-78) reports having seen at least two lots of those first imported to Ireland at Armagh in the north and Doneraile in the south.

The West Country Dutch Shorthorn Cattle—the Herefords—had to wait many years till they found an outlet for their surplus population. They extended their original territory westwards; towards the end of the eighteenth century they made a descent upon Ireland, in the midland counties of which they have retained their hold