FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 231 



"I have had calls for very many more than I coukl spare, and at much 

 liigher prices than the sales I made. AVhile a friend of mine, a celebrated 

 Shorthorn breeder, tells me ho has not sold a calf this fall, although he has 

 offered first-class animals from the most fashionable families at $50 each." 



Mr. Wm. Hamilton of our own city, another Shorthorn breeder, I see by 

 Mr. Sotham's letter in LHohe, is about changing to llerefords, and advertises 

 a number of Shorthorn bull calves for sale very low. 



Mr. Thomas Foster, who has long been a breeder of Devons, and whose herd, 

 at our county fairs for years back, has been so much admired, becoming satis- 

 fied of the superiority of the llerefords over all other breeds, has commenced 

 breeding them, and has already a herd of six or eight pure bloods. He says 

 the Hereford grade steers are as good at tliree years as any other breed he 

 knows of at four. 



The same testimony comes to me from Indiana, from a Mr. Seabury, a 

 breeder of Shorthorns and Herefords. He lives at New Bedford, Mass. 



Mr. Crapo writes me January 7th, 1879 : " I have not been able to see Mr. 

 Seabnrv on account of his absence. I regret this, for while he cannot add 

 much to your knowledge of the Herefords, he would have expressed his unqual- 

 ified preference for them over the Shorthorns. His first purchase was a bull 

 calf from me. This yielded him such admirable grade steers, that he has since 

 purchased quite a herd of pure bloods. His pure blood bull calves sell readily 

 at $300.00, when taken from the cows." 



Keturning to our own experience, let ine give you some facts on these points, 

 and you will see how nearly they agree with those of other breeders. 



I have sold thousands of dollars worth of those fat cattle to Mr. Kline, and 

 they have been slaughtered and the meat sold by him in this city. He says, 

 "They are the best cattle I ever handled. They will dress more meat to the 

 gross, live weight, than any Shorthorns I ever killed." 



I sold Mr. Kline a three years old Hereford steer in 1875, stall-fed, pure 

 blood, live weight 1,900 lbs., that dressed 69 lbs. to the cwt., after being frozen 

 and hanging in his shop over two weeks. 



At Christmas, 1876, I sold him two Hereford cows, seven and eight years 

 old. Taken from the grass October 20th, and put in stalls. Live weight at 

 Christmas, 1,576 and 1,625, and dressed 70 lbs. to the 100, live weight. 



At the same time I sold him a thoroughbred Shorthorn cow, fed in kind, 

 like the Herefords, but in quantity, our man said, as much as the other two. 

 Live weight 1,789, but dressed only 56 lbs. to the 100. 



In June, 1877, I sold him twenty-five head of Hereford grade steers, that 

 had never been stabled. AVintered on hay, fed one pint of corn meal dry, 

 twice per day to each steer, from March 1st. They averaged nearly 1,500 lbs. 

 each, live weight, and dressed from 62 lbs. to 65 lbs. to the 100. 



Mr. Kline generally pays me from one to two cents per lb. more for our grade 

 Herefords, than for the ordinary fat cattle he buys of the farmers in this 

 county. 



Mr. Daily, a cattle drover of Detroit, to whom I have made large sales, says 

 they surpass any other cattle he ever handled, in the qualities of their meat, 

 and small amount of offal, compared with live weight. 



I am often asked "how are they for milk and butter, as a general purpose 

 cow?" "We have never kept a dairy, but we milk the grade cows in the fall 

 for six or eight weeks after weaning their calves. 



Mrs. Benham, who attends to the milk and making of butter, says she never 



